Thomas

- as I said, romeo does still get got by arelecchino in this au. this idea started off as being Very canon compliant where p is sent back just far enough where you can do a buddy take down system on the zoo like you do with lea on the run up to the rose estate, with romeo also having various lines about thinking p’s fighting style is familiar (especially when they’re fighting back to back). for one reason or another p and romeo split off and you hear horrible metallic clashing and screaming coming from the savanna experience center, which now has the doors barred from the inside. you do not get to romeo in time

- still follows overture roughly the same, it’s now just flipped where lea is the one trailing p who’s trailing arlecchino (she did not wait for romeo to lose contact at the zoo, she was already stumbling her way out of bed the second she read his letter saying he was doing this mission on his own). arlecchino is also leaving various messages implying there’s not just one puppet after lea’s precious apprentice. lea is ready to rip p’s head off when she catches up to him

- ghibli howl’s moving castle rules here with the time travel and romeo knowing p in base game but p not knowing romeo, and I’m inserting this art here into something that maybe happens. p knows he’s being pulled back the present and he cannot stay. find us in the future !!!!!!!

- base game changes in some small ways too because romeo already knows that this puppet is not carlo, and part of his motivation for agreeing to geppetto’s deal is that he wants to see p again in a purely ‘you are not someone I know but I would like to’ kind of way. the realization for both romeo and lea on who p is clicks when they see nameless puppet, and romeo’s new goal is to try and at least keep carlo’s soul - which he now knows is in p - safe from geppetto, since neither he nor lea could keep carlo’s body safe. for both carlo’s sake and the person who grew from his ergo who romeo only got to know for a little bit

- when romeo finally sees p in the opera house years later for him, he knows something is wrong because of p’s short, dark hair. dialogue in the opera house still being some variation of “you sure made me wait” and “we have to stop the alchemists, the zoo experiments were just the beginning”

- p’s final words to romeo in overture being “I’ll bring you back” right before being sent back to the present and romeo not knowing what that means until p is about to kill him in the opera house. romeo’s final line now being some variation of “I’ll see you again soon”

- p introduces himself to romeo as “p” in the past. romeo’s message in base game is now addressed to p. p does not know why this name feels so right.

- the message is now asking directly for p’s help, to help keep krat safe like they tried to do years before. p has no idea what the fuck /that means and honestly kind of just slides that under the mental door of ‘weird but okay moving on’

- p is having a Bad Time when overture kicks in and he suddenly realizes exactly what that message from the king of puppets meant. and now romeo doesn’t know him!! come on!!!!!!

- p is very very frantic to bring romeo back because everything has finally clicked. it’s been years for romeo since that week at the zoo, and only hours for p. they are pulling this move on the workbench when romeo wakes up

- they get this one also

- p apologizing for making romeo wait so long. romeo saying “there you are” when he wakes up and sees p as he remembers first meeting him all those years ago in the snow. romeo saying p’s hair looks like starlight etc etc

- very important to me that there’s no romance in the past, just seeing someone you want to help in the future any way you can

(close ups)