Curate, connect, and discover
Metabox - Blog Posts
briefly rewatched a blood key room to remind myself of the tone and framing of the flashback (relevant to @contacthigh520's time travel posting)
age diagnosing points:
Olivine refers to Agnus as a senior classmate. most likely just as in older classmate and not in the American sense of the term, since nuca's translators are based in Taiwan. since ST seems to be a university equivalent it could be a mixed age class, and it could be that Agnus is on the older end of the typical age range or he's been a student longer or just that he's older than Olivine specifically
no one's particularly concerned on the angle of "you're openly admitting to knowingly letting a kid watch you fuck?" which may point to Olivine being not that young here, or it could be that people are so caught up on "Olivine simply would not" that the fridge horror doesn't occur to them
also, the defenses are focused on Olivine specifically being too good for it, as something that makes him special. so he's at minimum an age where someone of his age would be expected to have sexual interests, making him exceptional for supposedly not having sexual interests
so based on this scene I would ballpark Olivine as 16+, I think. maybe 14+ if we consider the possibility of Klein being more blase about minors and sex
dante kiss data
how were kisses counted? kisses are counted by animation (when the lips meet and part). text is also counted (ie, the text says someone kissed the another). this is specifically because in icy equilibrium room 5, eiden kisses dante but the camera pans away because they didnt make an animation for eiden leaning up. (which is fair enough. this (probably) contributes to why dante is always kissing eiden.)
this also means entire conversations can occur during one ‘kiss’; a kiss operates on the same rules of a blowjob in nu carnival. even if an individual has their mouth full of cock or tongue, they're still pretty articulate.
it's funny that after dante got his first kiss, he immediately went for one million smooches. (this is partially bc icy r5 is pretty focused on kissing but still.) the reason i ended up noting all this down is because i was rewatching his H-rooms and noticed there was a lot more kissing than I remembered. (i usually press-and-hold through the H-rooms so i tend to miss stuff in them;;)
it should be said that i don't really know how if this is a lot of kissing relative to the clan? im not super aware of the kiss rates in other clan member's rooms. so if anyone else has kiss rate knowledge, hit me up... i want to compare our tongue tango data and also catch up on other clan member intimacy stories.
other fun reoccurring bits (h-rooms tend to focus on one kink/situation so whatever repeats is extra noteworthy. (i might have missed some)):
dante playing with eiden’s nipples (blazing coliseum r5, icy r2, infernal r2, circus r5)
biting (blazing colesium r5, eternal hanabi r5)
dante’s cock growing bigger/harder mid-sex (sometimes multiple times) (multi-phase boss type of penis) (eternal hanabi r2, eternal hanabi r5, sunburst r2, cowboy r2)
dante telling eiden not to give him orders or not to move (Story H-Room, SR H-room, OG SSR r5, eternal hanabi r2, eternal hanabi r5, icy equilibrium r2, icy equilibrium r5, sunburst r5, cowboy r2)
other dante takeaways
he fucks pretty hard lmao… eiden’s shoulders/hips/back tend to take the brunt of his thrusts. dante also has a tendency to thrust as much of himself into eiden at once (as opposed to easing into it)
given the chance and the right mood, he seems to enjoy marathon sex (eternal hanabi r2, cowboy r5, circus r5)
he’s quite sensitive to being touched (<— touchstarved), overtly sexual or not (SSR r2, eternal hanabi r1+2, icy r5, cowboy r1)
other notes (that are also about mostly dante)
for the some of the rooms w/o kissing, some of them i attribute to positioning. blowjob dante (beach r2) was unlikely to get a kissing animation with eiden for a number of reasons. same with circus spanking eiden (circus r2). still!! there was kissing even outside of h-rooms which surprised me. icy r4 wasn't surprising since that's The EnEi Kiss (ie, Dante's first kiss). but scorching sun surprised me and so did cowboy dante! i kinda thought they'd limit all the kissing to being animated. i appreciate the text kisses. an arc that i wasn't sure how to quantify is dante's control arc? we kind of see it in the number of times dante tells eiden not to order him or not to move. it's very common for dante to also try to order eiden around or express general frustration with eiden doing confusing, sexy things that wrest his body's control from him. he's most comfortable when he's controlling the movement and positioning (like eternal hanabi r5 or icy equilibrium r2). this is probably part of why he doesn't get his cock out in a lot of rooms. (this is most notable to me because they always mention that his cock is hard in the rooms. it's just that... it stays packed away for a rainy day.) he seems into overwhelming eiden (which probably started in eternal hanabi r2 where he got all flustered about eiden moaning after dante tried to 'push him to his limits'). we get to seem him get most flustered when eiden is 'in control' (like in OG SSR r2 or maid r2). this is why eiden has to basically ask him for control when he rides him in beach r5 (u may have seen it mentioned around). its a switch up in their dynamic! the fact that dante lets eiden control the pace (for a little) shows his trust in him. another motif that i didn't quantify is how their sex is usually framed! frequently, it's framed as an exchange of some kind: reward, punishment/retribution, competition, trade, etc. they're usually having sex for a reason (rather than having sex for fun). this makes sense because dante doesn't really believe in fooling around or having fun for the fun of it. there are a few exceptions to this of course such as beach r5 and scorching sun r2. he's really warmed up to eiden so he's probably more amenable to casual sex than him or eiden realize. dante has hardcore fallen for eiden. and eiden has also really warmed up to dante! but, as to be expected with how tsundere dante is, there are a few missed signals. for example, eiden tends to assume dante doesn't want to play when dante is ready to have fun (kleinmas r3, cowboy r4) or eiden missing when dante's supermoon sized crush on him is showing (the threelegged race in the beach event + the small story after). after the circus event, i'm very excited to see their relationship develop. they're at a funny stage where they try to one-up and fluster the other. sex IS something you win
curious about how people think dante and kuya’s eyes are constructed. their eyes are where their gems are located, but ??? is it all gem or is it only the iris? what’s the deal with the eye whites?
also, thoughts on whether their gem eyes can dilate/contract or not?
underrated olivine trait is that he's actually incredibly cagey. spent his entire life learning to lie and keep secrets. we don't realize it because he's so desperate for eiden to hear him out and validate him, but then you get events like chimes of darkness or blood key, or hell, the scene in idol fest where he sneaks off alone to read his parents' letter. this bitch got secrets! he's only this open with eiden because he trusts eiden down to the marrow.
as much as i feel for rin given his terrible isolated cave life, i dont really blame huey at all. from huey’s perspective, rin and eiden are another iteration of him, same as how he is an iteration of the huey before him.
if its all him, then he has the… autonomy to [looks at my notes] send himself on a fantasy vacation (aka isekai himself aka set himself up with a different life) at all costs.
he just decided to do something he wanted. to fulfill his dream and allow his future iteration a life in a different world, he had to strip his future iteration of his initial wish and his magical knowledge. so he did that and then he fulfilled his wish and entered his Epic Coma Moment
sometimes, people abandon parts of themselves or get rid of parts to accomplish their goals. it feels a little cold, but it happens. i suppose huey could have killed the half of his future iteration cursed with a wish it would never fulfill, but it’s hard to picture him empathizing about a future iteration of his half-soul being lonely or longing. maybe if he thought of himself as a person, it would be different
the differences are also so..... [grips my fist]. au dante is the heir of the kingdom; his parents aren't dead. if they were dead, he'd be the king of the samsama kingdom, not a prince. generally, he's a happier guy. he's not from a place that he has to fight tooth and nail to support. people respect where he's from. au dante is a generous person open to peace. he's chill. he shows his hand first, he emphasizes the importance of "working together in good faith", he agrees to "watch over" eiden despite just having met him, he lets a gaggle of strangers ride in his carriage. this is a world where he could always afford kindness and his parents could always afford to be kind because the place they rule is wealthy and powerful. you can see a vague outline of how canon dante's parents might've ruled. there are some parallels with eiden's meeting with au dante and eiden's meeting with canon dante. rather than eiden coming to dante, au dante comes to eiden. he asks to buy eiden for a great deal of money (which turns out to be puffballs, but we can assume it would've be a lot of money (ᵕ—ᗜ—)) in chapter 9, eiden comes to canon dante and tries to ask for help. lowkey, he is asking to 'buy' dante in a similar way au dante was asking to buy eiden. au dante and chapter 9 eiden both want a fair partnership where they help each other out. ch.9 eiden specifically wanted dante's help with the fire altar and the way he was attempting to 'buy' dante was invoking dante's status as a clan member and his stewardship of the land around the fire altar instead of money. and this went...... super poorly. like... kind of poorly as it couldve there are a lot of reasons for why their meeting went poorly, but one of them is that canon dante has a very 'eh' history with contracts. his gem contract is functionally bust. when he was a child, he never had any access to the power of huey's essence. and then, when he became Sun Lord, the contract simply meant a stranger, the Grand Sorcerer, might one day arrive and force him into some kind of alliance. (this is one of the reasons early dante calls eiden his 'master' so sarcastically and why it's such a novelty for eiden to be his butler. the grand sorcerer has been hanging over him pretty much his entire life and it's pretty great (for dante) that it turns out the grand sorcerer is some weak guy who can't force him or solaria to do anything.) his contract with the elemental spirits of fire is... good! it's pretty beneficial for both parties. it got dante on his feet. it only took several gruelling trials to prove that he was worthy his contract, his deal with barbubble, worked! but... whatever happened there was later used to almost blackmail Solaria to great effect. eiden coming to dante in chapter 9 was kind of him asking to make a new partnership, a new contract. and dante was obviously unimpressed. canon dante doesn't believe in good faith, really. it comes down to this: au dante has always had resources. canon dante has had to fight for what he has. au dante is a dealmaker. he offers because he can; he can control the terms. he trusts that he and his partner will be fair. he has wealth and he comes from power and people are impressed by it. canon dante, for most of his life, has been the signee. he takes because he needs. he knows everyone has an ulterior motive. he knows he can only have what he protects and he must flex the glory of Solaria or no one will respect it.
alternate universe dante from journey to a nu world is really fun because you get to see that he is just like that. bro was born cocky. thats nature baby
using the astral duo event and the rainy season event, we can approximate topper's age.
tl;dr, topper is an old man. ദ്ദി૮ • ﻌ • ა ---
to start: in astral duo, we learn that double eclipses occur "once every fifty-four years and one month." [1] later, eiden goes back in time to a period that quincy estimates is "[a]t least... two double eclipses ago". [2] so, that's at least a century ago from the present of the astral duo event. during that time, we see quincy's best friend zaro (love u zaro) and quincy during a past eclipse. then, in the rainy season event, eiden has to go fetch rei and quincy from a memory stream using father and topper's connection to them respectively. [3] it turns out this means eiden entering father and topper's memories of rei and quincy to find them. [4] [5] when eiden enters topper's memory of quincy, there's a funeral going on. after quincy gives a vague answer about who the funeral is for, eiden concludes, "(He must be talking about his friend from the tribe all those years ago...)". [5] the friend is, of course, zaro, because that's the only tribe friend eiden knows about.
topper isn't with young quincy in astral duo, which makes me think he didn't know quincy back then*, but he does seem familiar with quincy by the time of zaro's funeral in rainy season. so that gives us a rough timeline (from oldest event to most recent): >= 108~ years ago: young quincy and zaro do chores during the double eclipse. (they seem like they could be anywhere between their 20s and 30s with the conversation where quincy grouses about being old and preferring a younger tribe member calling him 'big brother' rather than 'uncle'. [2]) ??? years ago: quincy caught topper in a trap and decided to keep him. quincy has his sr sprite here instead of his r sprite (which is used to depict his younger self), so it seems some time has passed. [6] ??? years ago: zaro dies and quincy stands outside the funeral in the rain. topper brings him an umbrella. [5] 0~ years ago: the astral duo event given quincy's general angst and zaro's vibe, we can assume zaro is what you call 'a normal human guy' with a normal human lifespan. (well, actually, based on quincy's 4th astral duo room, he may have been relatively long lived for a human since he outlived everyone else in the tribe quincy was close to.) so, let's say zaro lived to be about 100 years old. that means the timeline looks like this: >= 108~ years ago: young quincy and zaro pal around during the double eclipse. (zaro: 20s or 30s) ??? years ago: quincy and topper meet >= 28-38~ years ago: zaro dies at 100~ years old and quincy attends his funeral. topper gives him an umbrella. 0~ years ago: the astral duo event
we also know topper met quincy after all of topper's siblings died? [7] that doesn't really mean anything because we don't know if all his siblings died when he was a baby, but it does give him the vibe of having 'outlived' his siblings? that seems to suggest that he'd been alive for a while. he definitely seems to be an adult by the time he gets captured by quincy. still, without knowing how his species ages, it's kind of impossible to know how old he was when he met quincy. 28-38 years old is already way longer than a irl stoat lives so.... the real world equivalent isn't very helpful when trying to gauge what age topper became an adult topper.... for the sake of adding some time for 'before he joined quincy' and accounting for toppers existing social life pre-quincy, i'll just say he was like. 5 years old when he met quincy. using all this information, we can (very roughly) gauge that topper is about ~35-45 years old, at least. did we need to know this? no, not really. ╭( ´꒳` )╯♫⋆｡♪ we do know that father is older than topper tho! [7.2] so, this gives us some kind of measuring stick there. this also lets us approximate that quincy is somewhere around ~130-140 years old, which is younger than i thought. (let me know if i'm forgetting some key lore;;;) from there we can determine minimum and maximum ages for the yokai and familiars using the program booklet, which states, "The age of the yokais, familiars are arranged in order: Kuya > Quincy > Rei > Aster > Morvay > Yakumo > Garu." [7.3] of course, this all depends on quincy's approximation during the astral duo event that he and eiden timetravelled back to "[a]t least... two double eclipses ago". [2] so all the ages given here are more like minimums.
sources: 1. astral duo - forest alterations 2. astral duo - time fossil 3. rainy season - without a trace 4. rainy season - to their memories 5. rainy season - parting words 6. rainy season quincy - room 3 7. neon carnival (2nd anniversary) program booklet: 1, 2, 3
also quincy's 4th astral duo room, which i didnt give a number lol *I know Topper isn't always with Quincy, like during the flashback (in Razor's Edge - Just What Is This Place?) when Huey was still alive and Zaro was dead. Topper and Quincy definitely knew each other by that point, but Quincy probably didn't bring Topper because like... it wasn't the vibe. So, there is the distinct possibility that Topper and Quincy did know each other during the period of the Astral Duo event flashback. However, I don't think that's super likely because, in Rainy Season Quincy's room 3, the Quincy who catches Topper uses the SR sprite instead of the R and he talks like our Quincy, i.e. depressed, instead of happy, shounen vibes flashback Quincy.
I feel insane. God's vessel sundered himself to break free of his lonely eternal vigil, intending for half of him to never return and thus doom the world to ruin. that half returned in spite of his purpose for existing, crossing universes to do so, and eventually freed and comforted one of God's servants who, in his lonely despair, conspired to destroy his temple.
God's vessel and servant alike were trapped by the path set before them by God. Huey could not find freedom in this world and had to break himself to find it in another world. Olivine could, but not alone - and he was saved by a fragment of God's will. Eiden's very existence is a validation of Olivine's pain - no one could endure that restrictive life. not a vessel of God made for the very purpose, and certainly not a mortal born to live.
for all that Olivine struggled with his role, for all that he has strayed from the role enforced on him... a fragment of God loves him. personally, intimately. he is loved for his struggle and his straying. he is loved because he finds his own sense of self and embraces his own selfish desires, something the original vessel could not do. Olivine questions God's will and he is loved by God's fragment because of it.
I'm shaking you. do you understand me. do you understand
ok ive been thinking about this since like chapter 12 and chapter 16 is just around the corner so:
here’s my theory about how clan member contracts work + the contract powerscale 📝
so huey signs a contract with someone and they each have to fulfill it. simple enough. in return for fulfilling the contract, huey gives them a fraction of his essence (which culminates in a gemstone on their body) and they go on a roadtrip to fix the altars every once in a while
each original clan member signed their contract for a reason. we have pretty good guesses for some of them quincy: to protect the tribe/tribe’s land (pretty much confirmed as of razor’s edge) olivine’s ancestor: to assist(?) the church dante’s ancestor: to protect the solaria yakumo’s ancestor: to protect his loved ones (see: misty vale) what happens when someone doesn’t fulfill their contract? based on rei’s flashback in ch. 12, i’m guessing that the body part their gemstone is connected to + their essence begins to go haywire. rei mentions he ‘never chose to enter any damn contract’ while his gem huey also mentions that rei must learn to ‘harness the power’ he was given. it seems like part of that ‘harnessing’ is using huey’s power in service to the original contract.
rei, it seems, was not doing that. this is in contrast to someone like quincy who spends a great deal of time protecting and aiding the forest tribe and, likewise, possesses an incredible amount of power.
i think olivine is in a similar position (though he doesn’t know it). he’s got a lot of control and power and, unlike yakumo and edmond, his gem wasn’t cloudy when eiden met him (although, his sr also covers his gem with a decorative gem so?) (at any rate, iirc, eiden doesn't notice anything wrong with his gem). (EDIT: i have been informed that eiden does comment on olivine's gem in his h-story room when he sees his real gem and he says it’s clear (healthy gem = good essence health). OLIVINE WIN.) olivine's ancestor (likely) asked for power to care for/protect the church and olivine has been doing that (monster semen not withstanding. we’ll get to that.📌) + regulating with the altar. the more a clan member ‘fulfills the purpose of their contract’, the more power they reap from it. it’s hard to say this definitively because some of the original contracts are very ambiguous.
this puts quincy + olivine + kuya(?) in the upper tiers edmond + yakumo + g/karu(?) are in mid tier
the familiars + blade are N/A (never signed a contract)
and then bottom tier are rei and dante. who also happen to be the only main clan members who have been conspicuously sick as part of their character rei, we know spent an ample amount of time doing something outside of klein (i.e. not fulfilling his ancestor’s contract). so, we know where his dysregulation came from and it likely didn’t occur while he was a kid based on the few childhood flashbacks we get from him. his problem was mostly getting megabullied 😔✊ but what about dante? how did he fail his contract as infant, straight from the womb??? (assuming that was the cause of his sickness)
well. when he was born, solaria wasn’t doing very well. and, honestly, his parents weren’t doing a great job running the show. it also probably didn’t help that he was stopped from doing anything that could help solaria since he was isolated to palace grounds.
that is until the night of the riot when he ran and sought out the elemental spirit of fire's trial.
we don’t know exactly when dante ‘stopped being sick’ but i’d hazard a guess that it was after his trial with the elemental spirit of fire. the essence + power he gained from the contract with the elemental spirit of fire (i.e. his agreement to protect the fire territory) stabilized his essence and thus, his health. his newfound health (plus a lot of training) gave him the strength to improve solaria and become what he is today. (as an aside, similar to how kuya provides a lot of insight on huey, dante provides a lot of insight on contracts and communication with the elemental spirits. his contract is directly compared to the contract scrolls used by huey (by blade in chapter 10 part 1). in that chapter we learn that failure to fulfill his contract will result in his death. otherwise, we see that he gains power and favor from the spirits.)
even though solaria has improved a lot, i think dante's essence from huey might be permanently effected given that in sunburst fever, he can’t use magic w/o the elemental spirits. in general, he seems to struggle with outputting essence compared to other clan members.
tl;dr: huey’s contracts make you more powerful if you do what you said you’d do (or your ancestor said that they’d do) and, if you don’t, wuh oh… 📌 so olivine and the monster semen. yes, he did try to sabotage the church, so why didn’t he face some kind of huge consequence for breaking the contract? well… he also protected the church and, despite trying to harm it, he did his best to maintain it. so, what might seem like a huge breach of contract, is actually alright. the church didn’t face any major harm and it was protected. bada-bing-badaboom also, a possible question might be ‘so what about the mid-tier guys?’. so, yakumo and edmond don’t appear(?) to be actively fulfilling their contracts (though yakumo is well on his way).
what’s important is that they aren’t violating their contract. from when we meet them, it seems like ‘neglect of a contract’ does lead to degradation of one’s gem (cloudiness of the gem, poor condition in general) and would eventually lead to illness (like rei), but it’s a much slower process. it’s a good thing eiden regulated with them when he did.
oooooh! that could definitely be a possibility considering the amount of essence yokai carry themselves? it could have an interesting mix with huey’s essence. (we kind of see this in the contrast between how dire edmond’s situation is (where eiden has to dubcon him) vs yakumo where his gem seems… less likely to kill him despite both clan members rejecting their gem.)
i don’t think yakumo trying to remove his gem would violate his ancestor’s contract. it would definitely hurt him if he managed to remove it. he would’ve probably lost his ear or even died from essence fluctuations. but, it wouldn’t have violated the contract, really, because his precious loved ones were still unharmed after his attempt. its kind of similar to olivine’s situation.
basically, the contract seems to function on a ‘no harm, no foul’ system
(also of note, although rei is in rough shape, he seems to have chipped off parts of his gem without a great change to his state? of course, rei isn’t exactly known for self-preservation, so who knows what the side effects might’ve been)
as for g/karu, theyre def an interesting case. eiden still feels ‘something’ when he finds them, so that indicates that huey’s essence is still inside them. but we don’t know if we’ve ever seen g/karu use an essence attack or something 🤔. (i’m def not an expert on the pups tho.) whenever he does tricks, he seems to employ yokai athlectism while someone else provides the special effects (specifically, i’m thinking about the yokai banquet and the current circus event).
it could be similar to dante’s situation where they can use their other sources of essence (the elemental spirits of fire and being a yokai, respectively), but they can’t/have a hard time using huey’s essence due a disconnect.
ok ive been thinking about this since like chapter 12 and chapter 16 is just around the corner so:
here’s my theory about how clan member contracts work + the contract powerscale 📝
so huey signs a contract with someone and they each have to fulfill it. simple enough. in return for fulfilling the contract, huey gives them a fraction of his essence (which culminates in a gemstone on their body) and they go on a roadtrip to fix the altars every once in a while
each original clan member signed their contract for a reason. we have pretty good guesses for some of them quincy: to protect the tribe/tribe’s land (pretty much confirmed as of razor’s edge) olivine’s ancestor: to assist(?) the church dante’s ancestor: to protect the solaria yakumo’s ancestor: to protect his loved ones (see: misty vale) what happens when someone doesn’t fulfill their contract? based on rei’s flashback in ch. 12, i’m guessing that the body part their gemstone is connected to + their essence begins to go haywire. rei mentions he ‘never chose to enter any damn contract’ while his gem huey also mentions that rei must learn to ‘harness the power’ he was given. it seems like part of that ‘harnessing’ is using huey’s power in service to the original contract.
rei, it seems, was not doing that. this is in contrast to someone like quincy who spends a great deal of time protecting and aiding the forest tribe and, likewise, possesses an incredible amount of power.
i think olivine is in a similar position (though he doesn’t know it). he’s got a lot of control and power and, unlike yakumo and edmond, his gem wasn’t cloudy when eiden met him (although, his sr also covers his gem with a decorative gem so?) (at any rate, iirc, eiden doesn't notice anything wrong with his gem). (EDIT: i have been informed that eiden does comment on olivine's gem in his h-story room when he sees his real gem and he says it’s clear (healthy gem = good essence health). OLIVINE WIN.) olivine's ancestor (likely) asked for power to care for/protect the church and olivine has been doing that (monster semen not withstanding. we’ll get to that.📌) + regulating with the altar. the more a clan member ‘fulfills the purpose of their contract’, the more power they reap from it. it’s hard to say this definitively because some of the original contracts are very ambiguous.
this puts quincy + olivine + kuya(?) in the upper tiers edmond + yakumo + g/karu(?) are in mid tier
the familiars + blade are N/A (never signed a contract)
and then bottom tier are rei and dante. who also happen to be the only main clan members who have been conspicuously sick as part of their character rei, we know spent an ample amount of time doing something outside of klein (i.e. not fulfilling his ancestor’s contract). so, we know where his dysregulation came from and it likely didn’t occur while he was a kid based on the few childhood flashbacks we get from him. his problem was mostly getting megabullied 😔✊ but what about dante? how did he fail his contract as infant, straight from the womb??? (assuming that was the cause of his sickness)
well. when he was born, solaria wasn’t doing very well. and, honestly, his parents weren’t doing a great job running the show. it also probably didn’t help that he was stopped from doing anything that could help solaria since he was isolated to palace grounds.
that is until the night of the riot when he ran and sought out the elemental spirit of fire's trial.
we don’t know exactly when dante ‘stopped being sick’ but i’d hazard a guess that it was after his trial with the elemental spirit of fire. the essence + power he gained from the contract with the elemental spirit of fire (i.e. his agreement to protect the fire territory) stabilized his essence and thus, his health. his newfound health (plus a lot of training) gave him the strength to improve solaria and become what he is today. (as an aside, similar to how kuya provides a lot of insight on huey, dante provides a lot of insight on contracts and communication with the elemental spirits. his contract is directly compared to the contract scrolls used by huey (by blade in chapter 10 part 1). in that chapter we learn that failure to fulfill his contract will result in his death. otherwise, we see that he gains power and favor from the spirits.)
even though solaria has improved a lot, i think dante's essence from huey might be permanently effected given that in sunburst fever, he can’t use magic w/o the elemental spirits. in general, he seems to struggle with outputting essence compared to other clan members.
tl;dr: huey’s contracts make you more powerful if you do what you said you’d do (or your ancestor said that they’d do) and, if you don’t, wuh oh… 📌 so olivine and the monster semen. yes, he did try to sabotage the church, so why didn’t he face some kind of huge consequence for breaking the contract? well… he also protected the church and, despite trying to harm it, he did his best to maintain it. so, what might seem like a huge breach of contract, is actually alright. the church didn’t face any major harm and it was protected. bada-bing-badaboom also, a possible question might be ‘so what about the mid-tier guys?’. so, yakumo and edmond don’t appear(?) to be actively fulfilling their contracts (though yakumo is well on his way).
what’s important is that they aren’t violating their contract. from when we meet them, it seems like ‘neglect of a contract’ does lead to degradation of one’s gem (cloudiness of the gem, poor condition in general) and would eventually lead to illness (like rei), but it’s a much slower process. it’s a good thing eiden regulated with them when he did.
(tags from @toptop-fuwafuwa-star) ooooo!! yeah that's v fitting for garukaru... and it def works considering their relative good health! it seems like his original pack is doing well in misty vale, so he'd be pretty much off the hook! plus, he did protect gramps/cashel to the best of his ability until the very end. to my knowledge, everyone who has a gemstone and wasn't an original clan member was born with it. yakumo was born with his, for example. so i lean pretty heavily towards the idea that the gemstone can only be transferred once the previous gemholder has died and 'transferred' the contract via bloodline. going in that direction, it was probably his grandpa (or other relative) who died before he was born that passed his gem onto him.
ok ive been thinking about this since like chapter 12 and chapter 16 is just around the corner so:
here’s my theory about how clan member contracts work + the contract powerscale 📝
so huey signs a contract with someone and they each have to fulfill it. simple enough. in return for fulfilling the contract, huey gives them a fraction of his essence (which culminates in a gemstone on their body) and they go on a roadtrip to fix the altars every once in a while
each original clan member signed their contract for a reason. we have pretty good guesses for some of them quincy: to protect the tribe/tribe’s land (pretty much confirmed as of razor’s edge) olivine’s ancestor: to assist(?) the church dante’s ancestor: to protect the solaria yakumo’s ancestor: to protect his loved ones (see: misty vale) what happens when someone doesn’t fulfill their contract? based on rei’s flashback in ch. 12, i’m guessing that the body part their gemstone is connected to + their essence begins to go haywire. rei mentions he ‘never chose to enter any damn contract’ while his gem huey also mentions that rei must learn to ‘harness the power’ he was given. it seems like part of that ‘harnessing’ is using huey’s power in service to the original contract.
rei, it seems, was not doing that. this is in contrast to someone like quincy who spends a great deal of time protecting and aiding the forest tribe and, likewise, possesses an incredible amount of power.
i think olivine is in a similar position (though he doesn’t know it). he’s got a lot of control and power and, unlike yakumo and edmond, his gem wasn’t cloudy when eiden met him (although, his sr also covers his gem with a decorative gem so?) (at any rate, iirc, eiden doesn't notice anything wrong with his gem). (EDIT: i have been informed that eiden does comment on olivine's gem in his h-story room when he sees his real gem. so olivine was also Not Doing so Hot.) olivine's ancestor (likely) asked for power to care for/protect the church and olivine has been doing that (monster semen not withstanding. we’ll get to that.📌) + regulating with the altar. the more a clan member ‘fulfills the purpose of their contract’, the more power they reap from it. it’s hard to say this definitively because some of the original contracts are very ambiguous.
this puts quincy + olivine + kuya(?) in the upper tiers edmond + yakumo + g/karu(?) are in mid tier
the familiars + blade are N/A (never signed a contract)
and then bottom tier are rei and dante. who also happen to be the only main clan members who have been conspicuously sick as part of their character rei, we know spent an ample amount of time doing something outside of klein (i.e. not fulfilling his ancestor’s contract). so, we know where his dysregulation came from and it likely didn’t occur based on the few childhood flashbacks we get from him. but what about dante? how did he fail his contract as infant, straight from the womb??? (assuming that was the cause of his sickness)
well. when he was born, solaria wasn’t doing very well. and, honestly, his parents weren’t doing a great job running the show. it also probably didn’t help that he was stopped from doing anything that could help solaria since he was isolated to palace grounds.
that is until the night of the riot when he ran and sought out the elemental spirit of fire's trial.
we don’t know exactly when dante ‘stopped being sick’ but i’d hazard a guess that it was after his trial with the elemental spirit of fire. the essence + power he gained from the contract with the elemental spirit of fire (i.e. his agreement to protect the fire territory) stabilized his essence and thus, his health. his newfound health (plus a lot of training) gave him the strength to improve solaria and become what he is today. (as an aside, similar to how kuya provides a lot of insight on huey, dante provides a lot of insight on contracts and communication with the elemental spirits. his contract is directly compared to the contract scrolls used by huey (by blade in chapter 10 part 1). in that chapter we learn that failure to fulfill his contract will result in his death. otherwise, we see that he gains power and favor from the spirits.)
even though solaria has improved a lot, i think dante's essence from huey might be permanently effected given that in sunburst fever, he can’t use magic w/o the elemental spirits. in general, he seems to struggle with outputting essence compared to other clan members.
tl;dr: huey’s contracts make you more powerful if you do what you said you’d do (or your ancestor said that they’d do) and, if you don’t, wuh oh… 📌 so olivine and the monster semen. yes, he did try to sabotage the church, so why didn’t he face a huge backlash? well… he also protected the church and, despite trying to harm it, he did his best to maintain it as well. so, what might seem like a huge breach of contract, is actually alright. the church didn’t face any major harm and it was protected. bada-bing-badaboom also, a possible question might be ‘so what about the mid-tier guys?’. so, yakumo and edmond don’t appear(?) to be actively fulfilling their contracts (though yakumo is well on his way).
what’s important is that they aren’t violating their contract. from when we meet them, it seems like ‘neglect of a contract’ does lead to degradation of one’s gem (cloudiness of the gem, poor condition in general) and would eventually lead to illness (like rei), but it’s a much slower process. it’s a good thing eiden regulated with them when he did.
ok ive been thinking about this since like chapter 12 and chapter 16 is just around the corner so:
here’s my theory about how clan member contracts work + the contract powerscale 📝
so huey signs a contract with someone and they each have to fulfill it. simple enough. in return for fulfilling the contract, huey gives them a fraction of his essence (which culminates in a gemstone on their body) and they go on a roadtrip to fix the altars every once in a while
each original clan member signed their contract for a reason. we have pretty good guesses for some of them quincy: to protect the tribe/tribe’s land (pretty much confirmed as of razor’s edge) olivine’s ancestor: to assist(?) the church dante’s ancestor: to protect the solaria yakumo’s ancestor: to protect his loved ones (see: misty vale) what happens when someone doesn’t fulfill their contract? based on rei’s flashback in ch. 12, i’m guessing that the body part their gemstone is connected to + their essence begins to go haywire. rei mentions he ‘never chose to enter any damn contract’ while his gem huey also mentions that rei must learn to ‘harness the power’ he was given. it seems like part of that ‘harnessing’ is using huey’s power in service to the original contract.
rei, it seems, was not doing that. this is in contrast to someone like quincy who spends a great deal of time protecting and aiding the forest tribe and, likewise, possesses an incredible amount of power.
i think olivine is in a similar position (though he doesn’t know it). he’s got a lot of control and power and, unlike yakumo and edmond, his gem wasn’t cloudy when eiden met him (although, his sr also covers his gem with a decorative gem so?) (at any rate, iirc, eiden doesn't notice anything wrong with his gem). (EDIT: i have been informed that eiden does comment on olivine's gem in his h-story room when he sees his real gem and he says it’s clear (healthy gem = good essence health). OLIVINE WIN.) olivine's ancestor (likely) asked for power to care for/protect the church and olivine has been doing that (monster semen not withstanding. we’ll get to that.📌) + regulating with the altar. the more a clan member ‘fulfills the purpose of their contract’, the more power they reap from it. it’s hard to say this definitively because some of the original contracts are very ambiguous.
this puts quincy + olivine + kuya(?) in the upper tiers edmond + yakumo + g/karu(?) are in mid tier
the familiars + blade are N/A (never signed a contract)
and then bottom tier are rei and dante. who also happen to be the only main clan members who have been conspicuously sick as part of their character rei, we know spent an ample amount of time doing something outside of klein (i.e. not fulfilling his ancestor’s contract). so, we know where his dysregulation came from and it likely didn’t occur while he was a kid based on the few childhood flashbacks we get from him. his problem was mostly getting megabullied 😔✊ but what about dante? how did he fail his contract as infant, straight from the womb??? (assuming that was the cause of his sickness)
well. when he was born, solaria wasn’t doing very well. and, honestly, his parents weren’t doing a great job running the show. it also probably didn’t help that he was stopped from doing anything that could help solaria since he was isolated to palace grounds.
that is until the night of the riot when he ran and sought out the elemental spirit of fire's trial.
we don’t know exactly when dante ‘stopped being sick’ but i’d hazard a guess that it was after his trial with the elemental spirit of fire. the essence + power he gained from the contract with the elemental spirit of fire (i.e. his agreement to protect the fire territory) stabilized his essence and thus, his health. his newfound health (plus a lot of training) gave him the strength to improve solaria and become what he is today. (as an aside, similar to how kuya provides a lot of insight on huey, dante provides a lot of insight on contracts and communication with the elemental spirits. his contract is directly compared to the contract scrolls used by huey (by blade in chapter 10 part 1). in that chapter we learn that failure to fulfill his contract will result in his death. otherwise, we see that he gains power and favor from the spirits.)
even though solaria has improved a lot, i think dante's essence from huey might be permanently effected given that in sunburst fever, he can’t use magic w/o the elemental spirits. in general, he seems to struggle with outputting essence compared to other clan members.
tl;dr: huey’s contracts make you more powerful if you do what you said you’d do (or your ancestor said that they’d do) and, if you don’t, wuh oh… 📌 so olivine and the monster semen. yes, he did try to sabotage the church, so why didn’t he face some kind of huge consequence for breaking the contract? well… he also protected the church and, despite trying to harm it, he did his best to maintain it. so, what might seem like a huge breach of contract, is actually alright. the church didn’t face any major harm and it was protected. bada-bing-badaboom also, a possible question might be ‘so what about the mid-tier guys?’. so, yakumo and edmond don’t appear(?) to be actively fulfilling their contracts (though yakumo is well on his way).
what’s important is that they aren’t violating their contract. from when we meet them, it seems like ‘neglect of a contract’ does lead to degradation of one’s gem (cloudiness of the gem, poor condition in general) and would eventually lead to illness (like rei), but it’s a much slower process. it’s a good thing eiden regulated with them when he did.
yeah!!! after reading the event, im even more excited about them as a duo. they have such fun chemistry! dante's a pretty difficult guy to get along with, but garu's the perfect dog for the job of being his friend ദ്ദി(ᵔᗜᵔ)
after this event, dante and garu are an adventure duo, right? this is the second intense crime(?) they'll have dealt with. lowkey, they've got the perfect groundwork for an adventure serial first adventure like: first adventure (solaria history) --> beach episode --> second adventure (yokai circus)
they really fit the mold of a hardboiled guy and his bright eyed companion. plus, out of all of the clan members, dante actually likes garu and respects his skills. garu can keep up with dante's rigorous standards and he's a cute puppy. perfect synergy. (technically, they're an adventure trio with eiden, but eiden is kind of a given lmao)
after this event, dante and garu are an adventure duo, right? this is the second intense crime(?) they'll have dealt with. lowkey, they've got the perfect groundwork for an adventure serial first adventure like: first adventure (solaria history) --> beach episode --> second adventure (yokai circus)
they really fit the mold of a hardboiled guy and his bright eyed companion. plus, out of all of the clan members, dante actually likes garu and respects his skills. garu can keep up with dante's rigorous standards and he's a cute puppy. perfect synergy. (technically, they're an adventure trio with eiden, but eiden is kind of a given lmao)
the digger......
rabbits are burrowers so please imagine baby bunnyvine digging random holes in the backyard
