hello gang. it’s me kiwi. i don’t have any plans to write the sol plot in its entirety because the main story is so good it already speaks for itself but that doesn’t mean i don’t have my own interpretations! here’s a nice little orderly list/timeline of canon divergences/changes and route-specific choices my protags have made. 

canon-divergent points will be marked as CD and route-specific will be marked as RS. points i want to write in full are marked with a *, and points i (or peony) have written already are marked with **. non-marked points are either headcanons or bits of story i added on that are, to the extent of my knowledge, canon-compliant.

i’m not completely done with all the game routes yet, but this is what i have at this point. cheers!

Post-WoL

• (CD) ~ 1900’s: Beanslinging isn’t affected by the 5700hz whistle. Noah gets hired to be a tenured Chef-Magi professor because of his Beanslinging skills.
• (CD) Mumflr Fumperdink isn’t the protagonist of WoL, but he is still responsible for the spittoon legacy.

Pre-SoL Game Events

• (CD?) ~1917: Margaret was the comptroller before her family barn exploded (what’s said in the game contradicts itself, but I’m going with this one because it works better).
  • During Margaret’s time as the comptroller, Bea climbed the Ocean City government ranks to be her closest assistant.
  • * Bea was the one who convinced Margaret to double down on her control and rise to presidency after the death of her family.
• Margaret hired Noël after reading about how she turned a classmate into a Crimbo gnome and hired Bruise after going to a military training center and seeking out the meanest rudest one there. Poindexter was just her accountant from before.
• ~ 1922: Bea provided her cursed locket to Henry for him to help spread shadows for their cause.
  • Henry used this locket to curse Betty and inflicted her with traumatic shadow visions.
• 1926: Jenny and Phil formed the Sh.I.T.
• 1927: During her third year in college, Leah’s parents made her manage her own finances. She ended up becoming involved with the mob while taking out a loan.
• **~ A month before SoL: Murray and Ivy were found and captured by Bea.
• ~ Two weeks before SoL: Austin begins his search for Ivy after hearing the news from Rudy.
  
  • Austin and Leah also start getting strange dreams and seeing visions of their nemeses.

Prologue

• (RS) Tam has a checkered past.
• (RS) Austin has a big heart.
• (RS) Leah is on a voyage of self-discovery.
  • These two don’t play the prologue, but those are the perks they have.
• (RS) Tam kills the two fishmen at the news office. Austin has (reluctantly) fought fishmen during his travels. However, Leah has not killed any fishmen!

Chapter 1: Welcome to Ocean City

• (RS) Tam just beats up the fridge goons.
• (CD) The ones to confront Oliver Guck at the Fridge Factory are all of the nemeses + Bea.
• (RS) Tam renames Oliver’s Place to “wrong and co. yaoi.” She doesn’t know what it means. She just had a prophetic vision come over her for a second.

Chapter 2: The Spooky Forest

• (RS) Tam tells Don Toberlone to fuck off when he shows up in her room.
• Tam meets Austin after arriving at Crystaldream Lake.
• ** (RS) Tam activates the time-loop curse.
  • Later: She returns to break the curse and unlocks An Unremarkable Location. She gives the gun to Austin, who holds onto it for Ivy.
• (RS) Austin is the one who saves Sandwich. He told Tam, “My old roommate was studying law.”
• (CD) Bruise is the one who’s overseeing dam construction, but the other nemeses are involved in its construction as well.

Chapter 3: Back to School

• (RS) Tam chooses Botany, Geology, and Culinary Science as her courses.
• (RS) Austin chooses Robotechtronics, Meta-Acoustics, and Phys Ed. as his courses.
  • Leah’s main courses are Robotechtronics and Culinary Science, but she has also taken Astronomy, Botany, and Chemistry in the past.
  • (CD) Later: She has to return to the Chemistry classroom to retrieve her letter of recommendation from Professor Gilbert, which leads to the gang freeing Professor Adams from his copper cryogenics and letting him join as a companion.
    • This is, of course, because Tam and Austin play with chemicals as Leah talks to Gilbert. They make a bunch of deranged concoctions that might actually be useful for later.
• ** (CD) The two first choose to explore before setting off for their classes. They find Rufus’s lab in the basement, where they learn that Ivy has gone missing recently. Austin and Rufus already know each other.
  • Later: Leah is the one who manages to convince the Fishmother to give her pearl.
• Tam and Austin first separate to complete their minors and electives. This is where Tam meets Leah.
  • (CD) After helping out Josie in Geology, Josie mentions an adventurer who helped her out in the past, as usual. Tam knows she’s talking about Ivy and asks her if she knows anything, but Josie doesn’t. She had told Rufus the same when he asked.
• Then, they complete Robotechtronics first, because Leah knows how to help.
  • (CD) Simone joins regardless of the extra credit, since she and Leah are already friends.
• They all go to complete Botany. Tam is the one who does the plant fights, since it was her major of choice.
  • (RS) Austin, having had pets before, is very good with dogs. Barker adores him. Tam is slightly concerned about Barker’s state but chooses not to question it.
• (RS) When confronting Dean Wormwood, Leah recognizes him. She’s read about the old news of the Black Fire and questions why he’s still alive and what he’s doing. Wormwood reveals the truth and lets them take the book without a fight. He also gives them his incantation for later use. 
• Leah goes to her dorm in the Hilbert House to retrieve some belongings, but she finds that weird bread monsters have wrecked her room after she left out a cooking project by accident. She sadly has to remain in her chef uniform for the time being.
• ** When returning home, the mob attacks the trio due to Tam’s resistance. Leah choses to fight back against the mob.
  • (CD) After hearing about Leah’s resistance, Molly becomes impressed with her boldness. She also leaves the mob’s control to commit crimes of her own volition and joins the trio as a companion.
• ** The gang stuff isn’t over. The Tin Lizzies try to fight the group, but Becky recognizes Austin helps them avoid a fight.
  • (RS) Becky convinces Big Liz to make a non-aggression pact with her friends.
  • Becky and Austin have a cousin-to-cousin catchup session. Austin learns about the involvement of shadows in his sister’s current condition.

Chapter 4: Swamped

• The gang splits up to find Charles, planning to reconvene at the bus stop at a set time. They meet their respective nemeses while alone. And, naturally, they get distracted with some side quests along the way.
  • (RS) Tam is the one who follows the right path to Charles.
    • She also helps the Haim Quarry, Moonshiners, the Leather Brothers, and Will.
    • (RS) Because she ate one shadow hot dog, Tam meets Alphonse Gator. Not sure if she actually recruits him though, since his path is more of a shadow-taint one.
  • (RS) Leah solves the Largemouth Bass & Sons problem. She helps the kids escape by defeating Occams Gator.
    • She also helps Ramussen with Becky and co.
  • (RS) Austin gets through Mudhenge and finds the wreck of the Longerfellow.
    • **He tries to save the passengers in the past, but they don't listen to him.
    • He helps out the cryptid kids with Becky, accidentally fights the moss man (he has to get Becky and co. convince moss man to join the hobo camp), and recruits the boxcar hobo.
    • (CD) Molly spots the Mob Submarine in the distance and remembers something about a jug of booze being stored there. Austin also uses one of his deranged chemical experiments to retrieve a cool looking necklace.
• * During the dream sequence, Bea can be seen in a completely new cutscene, advising Margaret to embrace the shadows.

Chapter 5: Heartland of Darkness

• (RS) The trio reads the logs at Păpuşășcu homestead and learns of the strange date.
  • Combined with Austin checking Barker’s strange new dog collar, they search up the “Dooley” name at the S.I.T. library. 
• (CD) During the Ford Compound quest, Austin calls Noah for help on dispersing the stray beans. Noah quickly teaches Leah a Beanslinging technique to control loose beans over the phone.
• Rufus now has all the parts he needs for his device!
• * When returning to Ocean City, they run into Spence, who is gathering intel on the increased shadow attacks. Austin recognizes him, and they catch up. Here, they learn more about Ivy’s disappearance. Spence takes them to visit the Sh.I.T. and inform them about the intel they’ve gathered this far.
  • They learn that Ivy was last seen going to Government Valley to be disguised as an employee.
• During the dream sequence, Bea appears first on the track. She says not to “get in their way.”

Chapter 6: Sinister Enough to Finish Government Work

• (RS) Tam receives a draft letter on her room door.
• (RS) Austin gets delivered an IRS notice from the front desk of the inn he’s staying at.
• (RS) Leah gets a call from her dorm receptionist about being summoned to the DMV.
  • All of them gather at the antique store to bitch about it and head to Government Valley together.
  • (CD) Not before getting a call from Rufus, though. For some reason, his tracking device is showing that Ivy is somewhere in the lower part of Government Valley, though there seems to be something blocking an exact location. Since they’re going there already, the trio offers to check it out for him. This is suspiciously in-line with what the Sh.I.T. told them,
• (CD) They follow Tam to the Army Recruitment Office first to send her off, but Bruise ends up arresting all of them and throwing them in prison.
  • The three break out, now fully knowing it’s a trap. They agree to go face their respective summons and return to the prison to reconvene after they’re done. 
• (RS) Tam remains in the prison for her section.
  • (RS) Tam defeats Bruise in an arm-wrestling match but asks to see his second form.
    • (CD) She doesn’t kill Bruise, instead kicking his ass and throwing him into the cell she was put in. Though first, she asks about Ivy. He lets it slip that she’s also been caught and is at prison. Tam finds Ivy in the solitary confinement cell and frees her.
• (RS) Austin goes through paperwork hell at the IRS. Fortunately, he figures out all the ways to cheese it and speeds through it in a few minutes.
  • (RS) He defeats Poindexter in a game of wits and fists.
    • ** (CD) Instead of fighting Poindexter’s second form or banishing him, Austin drags him all the way to the federal prison. With Tam’s help, Poindexter is also thrown into the same cell Bruise is in.
    • It takes an hour for Bruise to be able to transform back. Cue hell for Poindexter.
• (RS) Leah gets through the line at the DMV without fighting those poor blokes who have also been waiting.
  • (RS) She defeats Noël in a classic wizard battle.
    • (CD) Like Austin, Leah drags Noël back to the prison and adds her to the cell of goons.
• * There’s a cool meeting moment with Ivy where Austin gets a proper reunion, and the girls get to meet their hero.
  • (CD) Now that tracking her won’t do anything anymore, Ivy also calls the Sh.I.T. to tell them about her findings. She promises to report back to them after it’s all over.
• (CD) The Black House gate is guarded with three keys, each from the three nemeses.
• After they open the lock and free Murray, they go to destroy the three pillars.
  • (RS) Because nobody has mob connections anymore, Tam punches a pillar and breaks her knuckles. Fortunately, Leah heals her.
    • (CD) Astaflor helps out by summoning her futuristic tech to break it down instead.
  • (RS) The rest of the pillars are destroyed with the help of hoboes and Rufus.
  • (CD) Rufus and Ivy have a brief but heartfelt reunion over the phone before he destroys the pillar.
• Before the final fight, they go back to round up all the allies they have. Better safe than sorry!
• * (CD) When they finally confront the President, it’s quite urgent. There’s no time to check back for side quests or unsolved mysteries. (Fortunately, they solved most of them.) The Vice President is also there to stop them from interfering with the president. She advises Margaret not to “let those fools just wander around,” but Margaret really can’t be assed to care about what the trio is doing.
  • (RS) While searching around for more clues or ways to stop Margaret, Tam finds the poetry book. She realizes that it must’ve been from Margaret’s grandfather. 
• (CD) After Murray informs them about the consequences of the bomb and his emergency retrieval device, he asks Ivy to return to the antique shop and be their fail-safe to retrieve them after three hours have elapsed.
  • Austin tries to give Ivy Rudy’s old hat and Cory’s punching gun for safekeeping, just in case. She turns it down, saying his parents would want him to keep the good luck. However, she does accept the gun Tam found.

Resolution

All the main story points past here are canon divergent. 

• * In the shadow dimension, Tam convinces Margaret to step down with the help of Barker and her knowledge of the accident. Seeing everything together, Margaret realizes that she has gone far off course and vows to make things right.
• There is no green button for plot convenience, but they do have the Dean’s spell! Leah begins to chant the spell to break the portal, but she’s interrupted suddenly…
• Betrayed by Margaret stepping down, Bea uses her own shadow taint to initiate a fight with the Shadowcaster against the group.
  • Halfway through the fight, Bea absorbs the Shadowcaster to gain more power for herself.
  • Of course, she gets her ass thoroughly kicked after a difficult fight. 

Epilogue + Post-Game

• * While sitting in the void for the remainder of the three hours, the main trio chats with Margaret and inspires her to do something else with her life. She decides to reopen that shitty burger chain in Gray County under her own name. They also convince her to employ her three minions there.
  • Later: Poindexter gets put on cashier duty, as per Austin’s recommendation. Noël gets to cook. Bruise runs the kitchen like a military officer.
• Ivy retrieves them three hours later, and the entire group falls onto the floor of Murray’s antiques.
• ** The next day, the trio accompanies Austin to visit Betty in the psych ward.
  • Betty is released a day after that, and they go to beat the shit out of Henry.
• It’s all wrapped up YIPPEE !!!!