#schellisocs

Schellis / Mechanized Mantis: Originally from Hallownest and captured & brought to pharloom by the citadel, she was made into an automata when she was close to death for the citadel to preserve their "unique specimen". She used to be friends with Samuel & Charles before being kidbugnapped, and she is forced to stay within the area of the Citadel and fight with the automata's orders.

Samuel & Charles: Close friends originally from Hallownest who have decided to adventure throughout the lands searching for a place to settle down. - Charles is a bee who accidentally wandered too far from the Hive and got his connection to the hivemind severed, so he's independent now :]

STORY/PLOT INVOLVEMENT, During game & post-game Due to my worldbuild of Universe Alpha fitting pretty well into the world of Hi-Fi Rush, I've brought a bit of her backstory from her original universe into this one. Brief explanations will be present in the "Background" tab, so that's what mentions of "Zenith" refer to.

PLOT/STORY INVOLVEMENT: Thyme is technically introduced into the story towards the end of Track 4 as the gang gets into Zanzo's office to get information on SPECTRA (Technically Chai and the group don't know about her until Track 12, when she Actually shows up). She's originally sent to Vandelay Island during the Project Armstrong festival to blend in with the new recruits and figure out what SPECTRA is and if it could affect Zenith's cybernetics. Purely information gathering, no direct involvement.

That is, if things went to plan. After deciding to secretly follow Chai and the others through R&D as they had a better idea of where to go, she gets caught by Kale and Korsica right before they enter Zanzo's office, during the second-to-last cutscene in Track 4.

After being interrogated by the two bosses, she willingly gives the general notes of why she was sent here by Zenith and offers a deal, given that they're dealing with a bit of a Defect problem. In exchange for her assistance- especially with her knowledge and skill around fighting and getting people to disappear quietly- Vandelay would overlook the trespassing transgression. After a bit of time being stuck in the security cell, the Deal is made after Chai successfully gets through the Security Department and Korsica gets Fired.

She shows up in the plot proper either during Track 11 or 12. Two options occur, where I'm leaning towards the second.

OPTION 2: [ADDITION TO KALE'S FIGHT] - As Kale calls for the platform to rise, she enters the stage and jumps on, basically making the fight a 2v1 in some respect. This would make the fight harder in its entirety, but there is a noticable dissonance between the two. I think friendly fire would be really funny (speedrun strat. get the two of them constantly getting in each others way) - When Kale summons lightning to enter the Beserk/Overcharged state, she gets hit and is flung to the side of the arena and is out of the fight early. Back to a 1v1 like the actual game. - Hey that lightning actually did a lil something. She's in her Overcharged state now, and once the platform hits the bottom of the tower again, right before Chai calls upon the other three to join the fight in the final set of QTE's, she crashes to the bottom, ready for a last stand, trying to both defeat Chai and divert attention from Kale. You don't actually fight her fully in the Phase 3 / Overcharged state during this portion, where her main actions are to block any attacks aimed at Kale and direct Chai towards the opposite side of the arena, away from the SPECTRA terminal. - Doesn't quite work out in the end considering Chai is fated to win, but both bosses are defeated after the final QTE's. Yay yippie!

Thyme can't be fully fought within main game, but Chai can fight her through all three phases as an extra stage in the "Power Up, Tower Up" arcade mode challenge, where she is an unlockable optional Stage 26 after going through a post-game cutscene where she's formally introduced to the rest of the group during a meeting in Roxanne's office.

POST GAME After her deal with Kale fell through with his defeat and the shutdown of SPECTRA, she created a new deal/contract with Roxanne- with the involvement of Oliver Faulkner (CEO of Zenith)- to provide her services to the Vandelays as a replacement to her part of the original contract, becoming a contractor from the Erinyes Division of Zenith. With Kale out of a position of power, he can't fulfill his end of the deal, and while Thyme could continue her end, the deal is considered void. However, she still needs to avoid her mistakes causing a bad relationship between two tech giants. Thus, the new deal works out for both parties, as well as creating a more positive relationship between the two companies. That's always pretty good.

> [Also working with the idea that none of the Vandelay bosses die after being defeated, just put in the hospital or something. I like them enough to not want them to die and I didn't see any blood or dead bodies so they're just Not Dead. For sure. /lh]

In the meantime, she works as Roxanne's personal bodyguard (as Peppermint most likely would rather be doing her own thing without someone watching so close) until Kale recovers, where she'll be transferred over to guarding him, especially as the shifts in power in the hierarchy of Vandelay Industries caused a pretty big stir after the ending of the game. During overall post-game story, she's mainly around Roxanne or Kale, and occasionally looking out over campus at the top of the SPECTRA tower.

While he's recovering, she's been visiting occasionally, finding that he's not bad to talk to after getting more acquainted. Once he's recovered and she's been transferred to guarding him, she's found herself a place within his inner circle despite seemingly not aligning with his goals initially. (Personally I feel like Kale needs people that he can talk to that don't either idolize him or play nice in order to get something out of him, so I'm throwing Thyme in there to make post-game developments. Get him some actual friends /lh.)