MIDORIJIMA ACTORS AU BACKSTORIES
o	MIZUKI [SERAGAKI?] | No. 0
o	Yeah im totally debating making mizuki a seragaki in this au (he’s the “ayano”. what are you gonna do about it.)
o	I’ll fill this in later when I can think more about it but PLEASE IMAGINE MIZUKI BEING AOBA AND SEI’S ADOPTIVE BROTHER BYE

o	SEI SERAGAKI | “USUI” / “IKI” | No. 1 / No. 5
o	4th-gen medusa/human mix, twin brother of Aoba; they appear to age 1 year for every 5 years lived, so by the main timeline they are actually 80 years old despite looking and (mostly) acting like 16-18 year olds
o	as a 4th-gen medusa, possesses the Staring Eyes ability, although only weakly (he can only freeze people in place temporarily; with extreme effort he could probably turn one person to stone, but it would certainly harm if not outright kill him)
o	grew up isolated with Aoba for much of his life following the death of their 3rd gen medusa father, until they were discovered by a family of researchers led by Tae Seragaki, who were looking into the legends surrounding their forest. The Seragakis adopted the two medusae 10 years before the main timeline, both to keep them safe from others (cough cough toue and vitri) who would exploit them and because of their connection to the Heat Haze phenomenon
o	“childhood” friends with Koujaku; both Sei and Aoba have known him since they were adopted by the Seragakis, although there was a period of separation before Koujaku returned to them  at 15 years of age as an orphan possessing the Deceiving Eyes
o	Mizuki is a Seragaki in this AU? (the “Ayano”)
o	was homeschooled/kept out of regular schooling for a while for fear of arousing suspicion about the twins’ lack of aging, until both twins pleaded to be allowed to go to a normal school (this was after Sei’s health started to decline); since it was getting a little easier to pass off their strange aging patterns by the time they looked old enough to go to high school, Tae agreed (Mizuki was also a factor in getting this to happen)
o	due to making heavy use of his Staring Eyes ability to protect Aoba while they were growing up, Sei’s health was starting to decline by the time they were adopted by the Seragakis; the tipping point happened a short while beforehand, when Sei pushed himself far enough to turn someone to stone. The initial strain left him weak and injured for some time afterwards, but even after he recovered from that, his health has been steadily getting worse and worse, and as a result he’s quite weak by the time he’s accepted into high school; the only reason he’s still alive is due to Tae’s care and expertise.
o	Due to Sei’s weak body and life-threatening condition, he’s placed in a special class with a boy who refers to himself as Noiz, who in spite of being a year younger and thus by all rights a middle school student was smart enough to pass the high school entrance exam and be bumped up a year (see Noiz’s section for more details); he’s placed into the special class due to his own pain disorder and anti-social tendencies. Despite this, the two develop a friendship, and extend this friendship group to Aoba and a boy in Noiz’s year called [Clear]. Due to their conditions (and in Noiz’s case, his parents), the two spend a lot of their time playing video games together for lack of anything else to do (although [Clear] and Aoba join in sometimes) and their friendship becomes surprisingly strong.
o	Sometime during his second year of high school, Sei stumbled onto some files that detailed some of (the big bad)’s notes/knowledge about medusa and the heat haze, including their plans for Aoba, Sei, Noiz, Koujaku, and kids like them (Clear, Mizuki, Mink, and Tae are also in the files); horrified at the implications this held for his brothers and friends, he turned to Noiz and his hacking expertise for help, not wanting to involve Aoba (Mizuki somehow gets involved as well by discovering them at it?). however, Sei succumbed to his illness on August 15th before he could do anything with his knowledge and confront (the bad guy), transporting him to the Daze.
o	In the Daze, Sei is granted Opening Eyes; although he was weary of life before he died, he doesn’t want to leave Aoba unprotected and wants to thwart (the bad guy)’s plans, leading him to accept the gift with the determination of building a cyberbody he can use to ensure his friends’ safety.
o	Sei eventually finds his way to Noiz’s phone/computer; despite him trying to mask his identity, Noiz figures him out pretty quickly due to how much time they spent together/how much they gamed/hacked together. Sei spills the beans but begs Noiz not to tell Aoba (he wants to figure out how to tell him himself), which Noiz reluctantly agrees to. Sei rejoins the Dan under the name “Iki”.

o	AOBA SERAGAKI | No. 2
o	4th-gen medusa/human mix, twin brother of Sei; they appear to age 1 year for every 5 years lived, so by the main timeline they are actually 80 years old despite looking and (mostly) acting like 16-18 year olds
o	had a near-death experience on August 15th as a baby that resulted in his going to the Daze and being given the [ Stealing/Favouring ] Eyes; unknown to him, part of his consciousness (Ren) split off and remained in the Daze, which is what allowed him to return
o	as a 4th-gen medusa, possesses the Staring Eyes ability, although only weakly (he can only freeze people in place temporarily; with extreme effort he could probably turn one person to stone, but it would certainly harm if not outright kill him)
o	grew up isolated with Sei for much of his life following the death of their 3rd gen medusa father, until they were discovered by a family of researchers led by Tae Seragaki, who were looking into the legends surrounding their forest. The Seragakis adopted the two medusae 10 years before the main timeline, both to keep them safe from others (cough cough toue and vitri) who would exploit them and because of their connection to the Heat Haze phenomenon
o	“childhood” friends with Koujaku; both Sei and Aoba have known him since they were adopted by the Seragakis, although there was a period of separation before Koujaku returned to them  at 15 years of age as an orphan possessing the Deceiving Eyes
o	Mizuki is a Seragaki in this AU? (the “Ayano”)
o	was homeschooled/kept out of regular schooling for a while for fear of arousing suspicion about the twins’ lack of aging, until both twins pleaded to be allowed to go to a normal school (this was after Sei’s health started to decline); since it was getting a little easier to pass off their strange aging patterns by the time they looked old enough to go to high school, Tae agreed (Mizuki was also a factor in getting this to happen)
o	in school, befriended two students from the year below him, Noiz and [Clear]; together with Sei, the four became a fast friendship group (of giant misfits hurrr)
o	Sei became strangely withdrawn and distant from Aoba during the year leading up to his eventual death; he succumbed to his illness on August 15th during the summer of the twins’ second year of high school – the same day that [Clear] was involved in a mysterious accident that also resulted in his death, [ and Mizuki jumped off the school roof? ]
o	Their deaths hit Aoba hard to the point that he dropped out of school completely and went off the rails for a while; Noiz followed him and managed to convince him to carry on the “gang” that Aoba and his siblings had formed during childhood, only with their purpose being to discover the reason behind why they (and Koujaku) had eye powers in the first place

o	KOUJAKU AKIYAMA | No. 3
o	I’ll expand on this one later too but I’M FAIRLY SURE THE EVIL TATTOO STILL EXISTS and is the direct reason behind koujaku’s trip the daze why
o	So yeah koujaku’s known Mizuki since forever and the seragaki twins since tae adopted them and also the person who died in the daze with him was his mum everything is suffering. Koujaku leaves the daze with Deceiving Eyes and he uses them to hide his tattoos. Par for the course, once sei and aoba bring noiz into the dan when they meet him in high school koujaku and noiz are destined to butt heads about everything FOREVER.

o	NIKOLAUS HOCH | “NOIZ” | No. 4
o	A German boy whose parents moved to/bought a house in Midorijima when he was young to take advantage of the growing business there and expand their business empire; they often fly between Germany and Japan and leave him to his own devices  with their staff in Midorijima.
o	Was born with Congenital Insensitivity to Pain Disorder (or something similar) leaving him unable to feel pain or any kind of sensation well except for in his tongue; this made him a handful as a kid and left him unable to connect to others. Much like in canon, his parents couldn’t deal with it and withdrew him from school and isolated him as much as possible except for hospital visits and tests to try and cure his condition.
o	When Noiz was quite young (around six or seven-ish), he and his younger brother were involved in an accident on August 15th that should have resulted in the death of both boys; instead, they were transported to the Daze where they spent a seemingly endless time looping and dying over and over until Noiz got out – but not his brother. Due to his desire to disappear/die, Noiz left the Daze with Concealing Eyes.
o	His parents blamed him for his brothers disappearance/death which caused the further breakdown of any relationship he had with them and his further isolation; this wasn’t helped by the appearance of his eye ability, which he couldn’t control and which left him even further isolated, desperate to be noticed and to have human contact.
o	Much like in canon, Noiz grows into a cold person who has difficulty trusting others or thinking of them beyond their usefulness to him and only really has contact via the internet, where he becomes a gaming legend, even eventually taking the national champion title in a certain game. His eye ability also lends itself to his already formidable hacking skills by allowing him to hide himself, and by the time he’s a young teenager, he’s already hacked into several things he should not be hacking into, never getting caught because of his ability.
o	When Noiz is about 14/15, the headmaster from a local school (Toue) in Midorijima contacts his parents and offers him a place there after having him take a placement test which he passes with flying colours. Toue assures Noiz’s parents that they can provide for Noiz’s condition and that it would benefit all parties to let him attend the school; Noiz is forced to go, being put into the special class with Sei. (Toue has ulterior motives with this ofc; he’s picked up on Noiz being a snake carrier and wants him close to keep an eye on him/get him closer to the potential Queens).
o	Despite their differences in personality, Noiz and Sei develop a friendship, and extend this friendship group to Aoba and a boy in Noiz’s year called [Clear]. Due to their conditions (and in Noiz’s case, his parents), the two spend a lot of their time playing video games together for lack of anything else to do (although [Clear] and Aoba join in sometimes) and their friendship becomes surprisingly strong.
o	Sei and Aoba find out about Noiz’s eye power and welcome him into the “gang” that the Seragakis and Koujaku formed as “children”
o	During his second year at the school Sei came to Noiz pleading for help in investigating a terrible secret he’d found out – something regarding the Daze and a plan that would hurt everyone involved with it, particularly Aoba and [Clear]. (Mizuki somehow gets involved as well by discovering them at it?). however, Sei succumbed to his illness on August 15th before he could do anything with his knowledge and confront (the bad guy), transporting him to the Daze and leaving Noiz and Aoba crushed by the deaths of Sei and [Clear] – Noiz was particularly cut up about it because he felt like he’d failed again and let another person who he’d actually cared about and who had actually cared for him die without doing anything yay past trauma
o	He was able to hold himself together for Aoba’s sake, though, knowing that he was still in danger from what he and Sei and Mizuki had been investigating, and since Sei had also made him promise to protect Aoba if anything happened, Noiz took this incredibly seriously, taking over leadership of the gang in Mizuki’s absence (though he and Koujaku regularly fight over who’s actually the leader) to get to the bottom of the Daze once and for all (and thwart Toue).
o	A few months after Sei’s apparent death, Noiz found an AI emailed to his computer that downloaded itself spontaneously; it turned out to be Sei, who was trying to conceal his identity but ended up unable to due to Noiz’s familiarity with him and his online presence. After spilling the beans, Sei begs Noiz not to tell Aoba (he wants to figure out how to tell him himself), which Noiz reluctantly agrees to. Sei rejoins the Dan under the name “Iki”.

o	AKIRA SUZUKI | “CLEAR” | No.
o	An orphan adopted by an old research friend of Tae’s. Becomes a classmate of Aoba/Sei/Noiz and firm friends with them in high school. His adopted grandfather dies the year before he joins the high school (leaving him as a “scholarship” accepted by Toue for secret use as a research subject in Toue’s research into the Daze, both due to his connection with Tae and due to his twice-orphaned status).
o	Dies in a suspicious “accident” arranged by Toue on the same August 15th that Sei and Mizuki bite it. is given the Awakening Eyes ability (he wished for the strength to protect his friends, having some inkling of the fact that they were struggling with something huge that he wasn’t a part of), leaving him as a robot with no memory of his former friends, only able to remember his desire to protect someone(s) important, and the name “Clear” (Akira’s old online handle/character name in his games with his friends).
o	Immediately imprints on Aoba as his Master the first time he sees him after his return from the Daze, a small buried bit of forgotten memory telling him that this person is Important (it’s also partially his snake recognizing Aoba as a potential carrier of the Queen).
o	Is possessed by the Snake of Clearing Eyes during most of the Outer Science scenarios.
o	I neeeed to expand on this too ha ha ha…

o	REN | No.
o	A part of Aoba’s consciousness which fractured from him during his near-death experience as a baby and remained in the Daze.
o	He is able to return to the real world as a separate being from Aoba when [ Mizuki throws himself off the roof on August 15th? ]
o	He is given the ability of Retaining Eyes by one of the Queens during one of the timeline resets.