(back to aus)

i played night in the woods over the course of november 2020. it was one of those pieces of art that cut right into this gordian knot of thoughts and feelings i had been grappling with since the start of quarantine and left my desires sitting bare upon a spotlit table, telling me it was not a sin to want.

the next semester, i dropped out of university and moved back in with my parents.

[…]

anyway! so obviously this pitch will get into the plot of nitw! it probably has spoilers (idk idc abt those things), so if you care abt those sorts of things, go play it or watch a let's play or something right now and i'll see you in the 40 hours it takes to fully absorb the story of night in the woods.

otherwise, let me recap the general premise of nitw anyway, just to refresh people's memories and ensure that we're all on the same page:

mae is a recent college dropout who returns to her tiny, rural hometown of Possum Springs after two years out of contact with anyone there. she is sharp of wit, poor of impulse, and kind of mentally ill, keeping a notebook of drawings related to her thoughts and feelings upon her return by recommendation of her psychiatrist.

feeling out-of-place upon her return, she spends her days wandering the town, reconnecting with her old friends: gregg, her chaotic high school bestie who is now living with his boyfriend angus as they save up to move to the city harbor come spring; and bea, her semi-estranged childhood best friend who, despite being class valedictorian, remained in possum springs and took over her father's tool shop after graduation instead of attending college.

however, there is someone from her past who is missing— a high school friend named casey, who has disappeared without a trace, and although vaguely concerned, most people tend to leave casey's disappearance as but a vague unease in the backs of their minds at most.

despite this, mae does her best to keep her reasons for leaving town and dropping out of college out of mind by hanging out with her friends every day and looking forward to the town's fall festival, harvfest. but, when harvfest arrives and mae witnesses a kidnapping in the dead of night, she and her friends find themselves entangled in a rather eldritch mystery.

as they investigate, mae is forced confront all the ways she and her life have been crumbling since she was in high school, and although it is painful, the genuine connections she forms with others through it are what eventually pulls her through the autumn and its darkness.

all right so we all got the gist of the plot and perhaps even the Themes and Vibe of nitw (you should still totally play it if you haven't, though!!) so let's keep going with the pitching of this au:

so here are the tags i think would probably be applied to the fic, with the ones in brackets being more uncertain:

Rating: Teen

Category: M/M

Warnings: Author Chose Not To Archive Warnings

Warnings: Author Chose Not To Archive Warnings

Relationships: venti/xiao | alatus (genshin impact), aether/albedo (genshin impact)

Characters: venti, xiao, aether, albedo, zhongli, jean, lisa, diluc

Freeform: appearances from other mond cast members, side pairing: albether, side pairing: jeanlisa, featuring semi-closeted trans woman jean, night in the woods (video game) au, the questionably graphic gore and violence that comes with writing a nitw au, mental illness, that's like the best way i can describe it chief lol this is nitw, lumine is haunting the narrative, slight exploration of homophobia

idk if you guys were expecting the "possible gore" tag if you haven't seen or played nitw before, but there is, like, a dismembered arm that the cast stumbles across early in the game that i may or may not include depending on how into the cult subplot i want to get.

anyway, the plot and casting!

so for starters, venti in the role of mae returns to his rusting hometown in either springvale or stone gate after dropping out of college in the city because his father/uncle/guardian/whatever really decarabian has died under mysterious circumstances. unable to bear the weight of bad memories that would come with returning to his childhood home, he puts off going through his inheritance and selling the old house, opting to live with friends instead.

which friends specifically, i've never really decided— they've ranged from jean and lisa to diluc (forever alone)— but whoever get picked would play the role of mae's parents in the original story. not in the sense that they would parent venti (that's. not something i want to do to any of these characters ), but rather, they provide a safe place for him to return to, give him the space and freedom he needs to adjust to life in town again, while still being strict in the way that friends who care about you, but also know you're not in a good place at the moment, can and sometimes need to be.

jean and lisa are probably the pick more similar to mae's parents. like mae's mother, jean would work/volunteer at the local church, which venti would likely have a somewhat complicated relationship with (perhaps istaroth had been his mother and a prominent church leader when he was growing up?), while lisa works at their tiny, struggling library to help make ends meet.

lisa would be there in the morning to chat with venti before he goes about his day, to ask him if he's ready to talk abt why he never called or reached out to anyone back home when he was off in college (which he always avoids answering), while jean would be there in the evening, exhausted from a day's work, but always willing to make the time for the both of them to talk and catch up a little, maybe pass advice back and forth.

diluc i mostly think would make for an interesting pick in how it would allow jean to assume the role of mae's aunt molly, who is a cop and mostly tries to keep mae out of trouble, though if i'm remembering correctly, she's also the first person contacted when shit hits the fan in nitw. i do also think he'd speak more directly with venti, but i don't think he'd interfere all that much w/venti's choices in the end.

(also, venti can snipe diluc's alcohol if he's living with diluc lol. but i think for the sake of consistency, i'll continue to describe this pitch assuming he's living w/jeanlisa.)

anyway, one of the first things venti does the morning after he returns is to track down the traveler twins, since lumine was his partner-in-crime back in the day, and aether was pretty cool, too. however, lisa only tells him where to find aether (working at the new megacorp corner store at the edge of town!), something he quickly comes to understand when he learns that lumine has gone missing in the past year.

still, aether invites venti to hang out with him at band practice, because yes, they've continued with all that. it wasn't the same w/o venti's piano and vocals, but albedo got a synthesizer going to support aether's singing.

however, before aether can explain how they've been managing w/o lumine, their bass player, they arrive at the practice garage, and venti finds himself face to face with xiao, his childhood crush friend, who is here to… play bass in aether's band?? since when did xiao know how to play bass???

(since the incident they entered high school, when venti started to distance himself from the people from his childhood, and xiao found himself missing the comfort of venti's music )

anyway, so venti obviously rejoins the band as if no time had passed at all (even though the whole dynamic is obviously very different), much to the awkwardness of xiao (in love w/venti since forever), though he also doesn't stop venti (who is oblivious to xiao's feelings, probably at least in part bc he doesn't know how to feel about the idea of reconnecting w/xiao again and is experiencing a lot of awkward­ness as a result!), and then they all go out to dinner.

immediately after they finish dinner, they all walk out to find a dismembered arm on the sidewalk.

and it's, like, weird and off-putting, and they do call the authorities about it, but they also don't think it means anything.

and now, for a naruto demonstration to shift the writing style of this pitch so that i can feel a bit more comfortable being messy about its presentation. since i've more or less laid out all the major role assignments, we can now split this au page up into a few subpages that can be read in any order you wish~