#cold femme fatale

[pyonpyonpyon]

↕ — a memory that may or may not have happened - Otome!

memory meme.

The interior of the casino is loud and foreign, and Otome takes a moment to take it all in. Immediately, she knows: if she did not have business here, she would not have considered stepping foot in one. As it is, observing the inner workings of one is a must. Here, within these structures of greed operating outside the bounds of the law, control must be seized so her goals could be furthered.

As her gaze, hidden behind the veil of her disguise, travels from card tables to slot machines, her breath stops at the sight of familiar blue and her heart stutters as she hears---

"Hell yes! Jackpot!"

Though Otome has not heard her dear son's voice in years, the similarity of it to Mikado's is staggering. To think, the child that she had missed, who had run away from the Arisugawa family and was never heard of again, was right here.

She takes a half-step in his direction, desire overwhelming logic in that singular moment, wishing for nothing more than to talk to him and get him to return to the Arisugawa family, where he'll be safe.

Dice moves, just enough for her to see his expression, and Otome stops.

In all of the photos of Dice that the Arisugawa sent her, there has always been a certain similarity between them. A flat expression and an empty dullness in his eyes. It was a necessary sacrifice for his safety, because Otome knew at the time that if he stayed with her, sooner or later he would be targeted because of her. And she could not even consider that risk no matter what, because she couldn't bear the possibility of losing the light of her life to the harshness of the world.

(The phone call she received from the Arisugawa family years later, informing her of her son's disappearance, was perhaps the closest she ever felt to breaking apart.)

Here though, under the lighting of the casino, she can see a smile rivaling her memories of his three year old self and a gleam in his eyes that was always absent in those photos.

Otome watches, thoughts reaching its conclusion in the blink of an eye, and turns away before her staring can be noticed. The goings-on of underground casinos could be something she turns a blind eye to, she supposes. There are far more important things that require her attention.

Without looking back, she exits the source of her son's joy.

[pyonpyonpyon]

▼ || For any muse of your choice C:

Munday Asks!

▼ : Are there popular head canons for your character that you disagree with? Why?

All of a sudden I can't remember ANY popular hcs of my canon muses even tho I'm on twt a lot...

The only one I do remember is about Otome (Hypmic) not liking her son or something... I completely ignore that hc lmao I think Otome loves her son so so much and that didn't change even after her son ran away from the family she sent him to. She's a "the ends justify the means" kinda milf tho so like yeah. Rip to her son but it be like that. She loves him tho and he proved that Ramuda wasn't worthless so my other hc is that post 2nd drb she refers to Ramuda as a person instead of as an object.

[pyonpyonpyon]

Do you ever think about the fact that even if Otome and Dice would never see eye to eye, even if they're as distant as possible because Otome prioritized safety at the expense of freedom and a proper relationship with Dice and Dice prioritized freedom and fun at the expense of the safe but lonely situation that Otome put him in, Otome still loves Dice enough to have a picture of his teen self on her desk. And the only reason she put his picture face down on her desk is because Rei, notorious for being a Totally Good Parent, commented on it? Which implies that before then she might have had it on her desk ever since she took over the government.

When she asked Mikado to turn himself in for his crimes she didn't ask him to do it for her sake. It's for Dice's sake. Their son, who she at one point wholly believed that his birth had been the whole purpose of her life. She said that to Mikado, who even though they had an arranged marriage they seemed to genuinely love each other before Otome's dad ruined things. If she didn't send Dice away for his safety, that would have been literally her only positive relationship in her life which is so so sad. Chuuoku's walls barring out men is both Chuuoku and her own tbh.

[pyonpyonpyon]

Sometimes I think about the fact that Otome has a framed picture of Dice smiling on her desk. Face down after Rei commented on it but. Framed picture.

[pyonpyonpyon]

Tag drop!