TSF: The Science of Shadows
On one reset, Wilson finds what he does not yet know is the Shadow Suit next to the portal, with a flirtatious note from Charlie left with it. As Wilson has a huge crush on Charlie and has expressed this before, he’s all too thrilled to wear it, despite the others telling him it’s a bad idea.
However, the suit was a ploy--Charlie is attempting to manipulate him, and as time goes on and Wilson refuses to take off the suit, the shadows linked to its makeup begin corrupting his mind and turning him into his alternate-universe shadow self. He begins trying to talk to Charlie at nights, irritating the others (especially Wes) a great deal. He and Charlie seem to come up with a plan to free her from the throne.
A while back, Wilson and Maxwell had spoken, and it had been revealed to Wilson that at some point or other just before activating the first Maxwell’s Door, Wilson had found himself unable to handle the ultimate, forbidden knowledge Maxwell had given him--including knowledge of the fourth wall and that he was not technically real. He’d repressed the knowledge via hypnosis, leaving a “trigger” phrase somewhere that would restore it. Now, Wilson believes that this forbidden knowledge will hold the key to releasing Charlie, and frantically searches for where he could’ve hidden the phrase, eventually finding it written on his own leg.
Upon retrieving the forbidden knowledge, Wilson once again finds himself broken by it--though this time, it’s much more dangerous. He tries to create alcohol to be able to dull the pain of it, leaving his mind weakened and the others frantic enough to drug him with a mandrake. (Somehow, his consciousness is sent to an alternate plane with five other versions of himself, one of whom he gets advice from.)
The shadows take the opportunity to descend on him, and Charlie appears in person at the survivors’ camp to collect him and convert him completely. The others try to fight her, but all end up dying one after the other--Wes dying due to Charlie’s rage when he sets the camp on fire to try and send her away, Maxwell after running himself through. Only Woodie remains by the end of the night, snapping Wilson’s neck and killing him to try and stop the conversion. He pleads with Charlie on Wilson’s behalf, but she doesn’t listen, taking Wilson, finishing converting him, and restoring him to life with her powers. She then leaves Woodie alone to vow for vengeance for his ‘friend’.
Away from the others, Wilson and Charlie make a pact. Out of worry and care for her, Wilson decides to try and extricate Charlie’s Grue side from her and take on all of her powers for himself.
At the start of another new world, the survivors are shocked when Charlie, in her human form, arrives among them. She seems to have no memory of anything that happened after the final act, leaving William (slowly becoming Maxwell again for reasons unknown) in internal conflict over trying to apologize and wanting to keep what she’d done from her.
The others, especially Woodie and Wes, immediately take a dislike to her that she doesn’t understand. But a brush with total darkness allows Wilson to help restore her memory to her. Distraught and guilty, Charlie tries to stay away from the others, knowing they hate her for what she’s done, with only Maxwell as her ally. She also finds that the Grue hasn’t completely been taken from her, giving her strength as night falls, and leaving her struggling to control her anger and its power, not wanting it to escape and hurt anyone else.
Unluckily for her, two new arrivals came in this time--the spider-child Webber and the strongman Wolfgang, both of whom immediately took a shine to her. As well, the valkyrie returned, but didn’t seem to care all that much about Charlie’s presence.
Charlie and Webber especially began to become close, as Charlie had always wanted someone to take care of. But on the nightmare throne with the powers of the world at his fingertips, Wilson starts testing his limits and abusing his powers. He even appears to them once, Woodie begging him to come back and Maxwel insulting him. Wilson becomes angered and sends thirty hounds after their camp in a show of power. It’s also revealed that he and Charlie cannot be on the island’s plane at the same time--Charlie seems to be transported to the Nightmare Throneroom when this happens.
Wilson begins messing with the world generation, leaving the survivors to spawn in the middle of a dreary spring. After inevitably dying during it, Maxwell disappears and Wilson leaves a note saying that Maxwell is in “a world of trouble.” It turns out that Wilson has brought Maxwell into a world of his own with everything set to ‘more’ in order to torment the magician and show off his powers, but when Maxwell doesn’t die as expected and continues insulting Wilson, Wilson becomes unhinged and starts torturing Maxwell, killing him several times in one night and screaming at him to apologize. Eventually Wilson comes back to his senses, horrified at what he’d done and beginning to wonder if he can really handle the throne.
Meanwhile in the other world, Lucy, angry at Charlie for Woodie’s sake, reveals Charlie’s secret in front of the others, causing Webber to feel betrayed and leave to make his own camp, and making Charlie extremely distraught. Maxwell comes back on the next reset and they try to go off on their own after the others find that Wilson set up a base camp for them.
The magician and assistant manage to find a much smaller camp already set up for them, and Wes follows them there seemingly out of friendship. But it turns out that Wes nad spoken to the throned Wilson on his own, and had been commissioned to mess with or “grief” at Maxwell. He locks Charlie in the campsite and kills her, causing Maxwell to go berserk and kill him several times while Charlie tries to defuse the situation. The others arrive one by one as well to watch the commotion, and Maxwell eventually storms off in anger, just before the camp is set on fire.
Charlie and Maxwell are forced to integrate with the larger camp, as is Webber whose camp also was destroyed. Charlie confronts Maxwell in private, finding out what Wilson did to him. She then explains everything to Webber in one on one conversation, eventually reaching an understanding between them.
The survivors are still on edge with each other, though, and Charlie is concerned that she’s a time bomb waiting to blow--to kill the others if she lets her Grue side escape. She vows to take back the throne by any means necessary, if only so the others don’t have to take her place. Wilson’s messing around is already breaking the fabric of the earth--they have to free him before he ruins the world entirely...
