#kril act

He eventually runs into an old business partner named Strait. Strait is OC I made specifically for this and he’s very much meant to be a reflection of Firth if Firth was more self aware of just how selfish he was and knew how awful everything was for anyone who wasn’t actively in charge of stuff on some level and just…didn’t care and actively leaned into it.

And Strait, seeing how dire Firth’s situation is decides to take advantage of this. He offers Firth a job that he knows he doesn’t really have any choice but to take, and knows he won’t be able to leave as well with how injured he is and seeing as Firth never really mentions any family or close friends, and to be honest is probably someone who has a hard time asking for help and likely had a pull yourself up by you bootstraps mentality won’t have any help to get out of it. He knows Firth is desperate and a desperate worker is a hard worker and Firth already sees him as a friend so he can also spin this as Firth doing a favor for his friend. Strait sees the power vacuum that Roland left after he disappeared and is gunning to take it over and he’s going to need a lot of people to help him take that place, which in his eyes means to screw a lot of people over, and his old “friend” Firth unfortunately just so happens to be in a very convenient place for him to do so.

Firth begins working for Strait, very much under the impression his friend is actively trying to help him, completely unaware that he’s in no better of a position than everyone who ever worked for Roland was. Every time he sees someone get injured or gunked and he himself gets injured he goes to complain to Strait. Strait who always says he’s going to fix it, but that never happens. Firth waits and waits, watches as more and more people get Gunked and injured, including him when Strait starts sending him to kill the gunked crabs. Crabs that he had gotten to know usually and was sometimes friends with.

Firth’s mental health spirals further and further down until he’s eventually forced to acknowledge that this is just what happens to the people who aren’t on top, this is how you run a financially successful business that doesn’t stop growing. You oil its machinery with blood and cruelty and you can never stop. He doesn’t want do that to other people, doesn’t want others to die and get injured just so he can make money. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone, but that had been pretty much all he’d done before he’d wound up here. From trying to kill Kril to dumping trash on New Carcinia and getting just about everyone in the city sick. His world view is finally beginning to completely destabilize.

Enter Kril and Chitan, who post canon have become an adventuring bestie duo and are surviving and thriving despite the horrors. Protecting people from the gunked crabs. Kicking the asses of people who are screwing everyone over like Magista and Roland, which is how they hear about Strait.

The decide “Yeah, this guy probably needs his ass kicked, let’s make him regret every single decision that lead him here!” And off they go to storm Strait’s company!

Which is how they finally run into Firth again!

Strait sent Firth to go confront Kril, having already been using him as a sort of living shield up to this point. And Firth is rightfully fucking terrified when he realizes who Strait sent him to try and scare off considering the fact Kril kicked his ass even when had god powers and Kril seems to have gotten only stronger since then. The second Kril lays eyes on him and realizes that Firth survived, he knows he’s screwed beyond belief.

And Kril is pissed to see Firth. That’s not just Firth’s new found fear of him talking. He sees Firth looking to start another fight and jumps in without thinking twice about it.

And Firth is still fucking terrified but he also realizes he’s angry at Kril too. Kril who ruined his whole plan, Kril who broke the Whorl so neither of them could even fix what happened, Kril who who didn’t even have the shucking guts to finish the job and kill him and now he had now choice but to work for Strait with no way out that he could possible see.

What had begun as physical fight that Firth was terrified off descends into a yelling match with Firth blaming Kril for all this because he still refuses to take responsibility for his actions and there consequences and Kril calling him out on every single thing he knows Firth has done. From all the shit he pulled and said on the treasure hunt. To how he stole a magic glowing shell he knew nothing about and dumped trash on everything he’s even known and now the fact he’s blaming Kril for his own stupid and selfish actions. Tells Firth how he’s glad he failed to kill him because it’s only fair that he gets to live through the consequences of said actions along with everyone else.

And this is what finally completely shatters Firths world view. He knows Kril is right, has been thinking how Kril was right about him being selfish since not long after he got to Straits. How he very well could have been the one hurting other people like Strait’s been hurting him and all the other workers here in slightly different circumstances.

Firth finally just crumbles. Like full on sobbing crumbles as all the guilt, stress, grief, fear and anger and accepts the fact Kril is probably finally going to kill him here, thinks he deserves it even, he knew Kril would make it quick. That Kril was still merciful.

And that’s when Kril finally stops looking through his lenses of anger and finally takes a good look at Firth. Realizes just how beaten down and broken he looks. He’s injured, looks like he’s barely been getting anything to eat and Kril swears he sees the early signs of a gunk infection on him.

As much as he’s still upset with Firth he just feels like sort of a bully now. Firth is in no better of a position than all the other crabs here. Kril is stronger and in better shape than him by a long shot and Kril still decided to beat him up. Whether or not he still thought Firth was a complete jerk he didn’t think he deserved this.

So Kril tells Firth to wait right there and that he would be right back.

He goes off to find Chitan who had went ahead to go see if she could get a hold of Strait only to be told that Strait had escaped.

He tells Chitan he wants to help Firth. Chitan is far from enthusiastic seeing as Firth almost let her die because he stole the Whorl and then poisoned the entire city. She kind of wants to just kill Firth and be done with it but she sees Kril is trying to help someone and is willing to help him with that with the caveat that if Firth fucks up too bad and becomes a threat they do away with him.

They begin deciding where they want to take Firth because they don’t know of any family he has and they saw how his last friend went.

And then Kril lands on Moonsnail! Kril knows Moonsnail won’t hurt Firth, y’know probably.

They bring Firth to Moonsnail, not realizing they are about to put Firth with someone who is he is going to hate between Moonsnail narrating his own and everyone else’s actions and the fact Firth is now pretty scared of Umami Magic thanks to the Whorl.

Kril very briefly thinks this might be a bad idea before deciding they don’t have any better ones and there’s a Moonsnail shell right there so he can just come check on them every now and then. Chitan thinks the thought of both Firth and Moonsnail tormenting eachother is entertaining so she isn’t about to start thinking about anything other options either.

Cue the one of the stupidest situations Firth has ever been in. Moonsnail narrates whatever Firth does half the time because he finds it amusing. Firth is still scared of magic but his irritation with Moonsnail far outweighs any fear of him. And he can’t even bring himself to be mad at Kril for this. Kril didn’t have to help him with any of this, especially after all the shit he’s pulled, but he still did and even came by to check on him on a regular basis. Every time he mentally curses Kril for bringing him here he feels bad about it 5 seconds later. Kril still cared about him despite the fact he’d been a complete jerk so he wants to at least try and make him happy rather than do nothing besides complain about his new roommate.

Kril comes by to visit every couple of days, both to talk and check in on them, and honestly he does sort of just find Moonsnail’s and Firth’s interactions funny at this point.

Moonsnail eventually says that he senses some Umami abilities in Firth, gives him the magic awakening zap and tells Firth to try out some combat magic, Firth immediately hates it because it just reminds him of when he had the Whorl. So now he has new abilities he doesn’t even want.

And then one day Kril comes to visit them with a injury that’s a bit to concerning for Firth to just shrug off, because he does care about Kril quite a bit at this point if he’s being honest.

So rather than combat magic Moonsnail tells him to try healing magic instead. And what do you know he has a knack for it.

This is what I have outlined out for the most part. There’s a good chance this is going to get shippy with Kril and Firth and because they make a great enemies to lovers ship and I love something that’s one sided pining before it gets to be two sided and theybalso work really well for that, but they might also just become close friends we’ll see what I’m vibing with more.

After thinking about it, it just genuinely sounded funny to me and could provide a good bit of tension with how their personalities would clash. And the fact I’m giving Firth healing magic that I need a way to introduce to him, and some trauma with Umami because just from his dialogue after Kril knocks the Whorl off of him I do genuinely think it fucked with his head a little even if that greed to rule the ocean was 100% him.

I’m still in the process of getting all the upgraders dialogue, including Moonsnail so I can attempt to make sure they stay in character but overall between Moonsnail’s tendency to narrate himself and others in third person, seems to use Umami pretty casually, the fact Moonsnail is pretty hippieish, Firth being Firth and still having some capitalist brain rot to work through even after working under Strait, and overall being a recovering finance bro sounded like a fun roommate dynamic.

I briefly thought about placing Firth with Nemma or Torpoda as well. However I think Nemma would have some pretty hefty lingering resentment towards Firth for ultimately being at fault for the trash island fall and even before that she seemed to be only able to handle Firth is very limited doses. Seeing as Kril is the one trying to find Firth a place to stay in this AU he’s aware that Nemma already has enough on her plate worrying about her kids, taking care of her restaurant and helping New Carcinia recover where she can. Kril thought she probably didn’t need to be worrying about taking care of someone who obviously got on her nerves on top of all that.

The city is still pretty trashed at the moment and considering Firth is showing symptoms of a minor gunk infection it’s not really in any way of a ideal place for him to start recovering with all the other crabs going Gunked on a daily basis there and Kril doesn’t want Nemma potentially mauled if Firth does go completely Gunked and take her by surprise.

Torpoda on the other hand while a better option, being more likely to be able to handle a Gunked crab if taken by surprise, especially one so much smaller than him, in a cleaner space than the city and in a similar calm solitary environment situation as Moonsnail was more of Chitan saying no and convincing Kril it would be a bad idea. In the post game cutscene it shows that Torpoda starts taking on students other than Kril. Chitan and Nemma’s kids included as some of his new students. Chitan is honestly still pretty pissed about Firth stealing the Whorl and all that ensued afterwards and is much less forgiving than Kril about it. That and with how energetic Topoda seems to be compared to Moonsnail and the fact he’d have quite a few more people in the Grove pretty often with his classes, Kril decided wouldn’t make a great place for Firth to recover. Considering I’m making Chitan and Kril post canon besties here he honestly doesn’t want Firth and Chitan to have to deal with eachother, mostly for Chitan’s sake.

So all that was left was Moonsnail. They don’t seem to have nearly the amount of Gunked running around close by as Torpoda did considering they were a bit further away from the nearest large population center, and definitely doesn’t have to worry about it remotely as much as Nemma. The Moonsnail cave is also fairly isolated so Firth wouldn’t really have to worry any other people intruding on him nor any Gunked crabs after Kril cleared out any of them left in the caves. Moonsnail also seemed like the more in character option to get Firth on track with healing magic over Topoda or Kril himself and probably knows some healing magic themself so they can help Firth recover and monitor him.

Moonsnail doesn’t really mind Firth tbh, thinks he’s kind of funny honestly when he’s not getting on their nerves.

Firth is trying to appreciate the fact Moonsnail is letting him stay with them, he doesn’t want to just constantly complain about his roommate considering Kril didn’t have to set any of this up for him. But if he’s being honest Moonsnail makes him anxious as hell with the casual use and talk of Umami. Firth knows Moonsnail most likely isn’t going to hurt him, but between the Whorl, Strait and the gunk infection he’s developed quite a bit of anxiety so he tends to seclude himself out of stress so he can calm down. It’s a good thing Kril cleared out the caves of gunked crabs before bringing Firth here. Moonsnail can still keep an eye on him though considering they knew Kril was there before he even set foot inside of the caves.