#definitely read this as ‘someday I’ll believe you’

[luderailing]

Lat 🖋️

[sarellathesphinx]

Both square enix and other players can take the idea that Cait has his own personality and sense of will separate from Reeve from my mummified hands

[destinyisastar]

Lost in your Love pt 4

Read Part: 1 2 3

Summary: After the day's events Alastor decides to go visit his beloved friend to see if she has any answers.

Vox x Reader, (Alastor x Reader)

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Alastor runs his hands over the panel, fiddling with the switches, his head pulsing. He needs time to think, needs his questions answered. Anyone will do! Of all the thoughts to pass through his mind an idea is finally presented in his head.

Rosie!

Why hadn’t he thought of that before?!

With smile on his face Alastor makes his way to the wonderful cannibal town.

The emporium is full as always, the line is out the door, children sinners press their faces on the windows drooling, the women gossip while eating pinky fingers, men are chatting about nothing too interesting.

There among the crowd of people hovering over her was the delightful Rosie.

Alastor made his presence known by letting out a few static sounds.

Roise perks up her head, “Alastor? Oh, Alastor is that you?! My, my where have you been?!” Rosie stands up from her seat making her way over to him, arms ready to hug him. “Have you been eating?! You’re looking more flimsy than usual dear!” she giggles.

“I’m doing just fine my friend! I’ve just been busy with a new project!”

“Why that’s good to hear! Come sit, sit I’m sure you have much to discuss!” She brings him over to a table.

“I’m afraid I won’t be able to stay to long, I just have some questions, and I was wondering if you may be able to answer them.”

“I’ll doing anything I can my friend!” She sits in her chair, sipping her teacup.

Alastor takes a breath while he sits down, “Have you heard from my wife lately?”

Rosie spits out her tea, she begins to cough rapidly, punching her chest, “I’m sorry, but what do you mean your wife?”

“Yes, my wife, Y/n, have you spoken to her?”

“Wife? Y/n?” Rosie looks confused.

“Rosie, please do not play any games with me, I’ve brought Y/n to your emporium many times, you two always swapped books.”

“I know a Y/n, but that Y/n isn’t your wife, why I believe I would be the first to know if you had a wife!”

“Then who’s the Y/n you know?”

“Vox’s wife of course!”

Everything is still.

Still and silent.

Rosie is still talking, but Alastor hears nothing. His hands begin to claw the table. His eyes begin to turn into dials.

“Alastor?”

Vox.

Y/n.

Y/n is Vox’s wife.

Vox is Y/n’s husband.

“Alastor!!”

Alastor jolts up, “I’m sorry my dear, I’m just a bit surprised, that Y/n is married to vox...” He grits his teeth.

“Of course they’re married! They were married in life, might as well be married in hell! Oh, and they’re so cute together, you can definitely tell that Vox loves her.”

He feels like his teeth are about to break with how much he’s smiling.

Married in life?

Alastor and Y/n WERE married in life. Not Vox and Y/n.

“My dear Rosie, Y/n simply cannot be his wife… you know most of all that she is my wife.”

Rosie tilts her head, “No, she couldn’t be your wife, I would remember an such an important detail! Alastor... did you have a bit of crush on Y/n? Its understandable but you can’t go after a married woman! That wouldn’t be very gentlemanly!”

Alastor runs a hand through his hair, slightly pulling it.

He knew that Vox had feelings for his wife, he just never thought he’d have the guts to take her from him.

But that doesn’t explain why Roise doesn’t remember Y/n being his wife.

“Thank you for answering my questions my dear! Unfortunately, I must be going now!”

“Oh, Alastor I’m sorry if that wasn’t what you wanted to hear! I’m sure you’ll find someone someday!” She yells out to him as Alastor leaves the emporium.

Just what in the hell is going on?

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In your bed you lay awake thinking of the day’s events. The Radio Demon held your hand so gently. Why? Why would the demon look at you with such care? He must be scheming. Your eyes grow tired, and you feel yourself being pulled into a dream.

 A sweet tune of jazz is playing as you dance with your husband, your eyes are shut placing your head on his chest. He’s swaying you slowly as the tune comes to an end.

“I love you dearest.”

You raise your head to meet his gaze.

“I love you too Alastor.”

You immediately awaken.  You sit up in your bed, you raise your hand to your face, breathing heavily, feeling sweaty.

Alastor.

Why were you thinking of Alastor so lovingly? He’s not your husband.

You place your hand to the other side of the bed to find Vox still sleeping. You reach your hand closer to his screen, gently caressing his face. This man….is your husband.

Yes… that’s right.

Vox is your husband.

That Radio Demon must have put those ideas into your head. Holding you so lovingly, tenderly. It was just a dream… did you want to have those feelings for him? No, of course not. You loved your husband.

But the dream…. it felt so right.

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destinyisastar 2024

Hi everyone!! Uni has been kicking my butt but I'm getting through it, (I just procrastinate a lot, I'm working on it) Also some exciting news Alastor's pilot VA is coming to my local convention, and I might meet him!

Stay tuned for part 5!

wordcount: 855

Taglist: @songbirdpond @diffidentphantom @vxllys @sirens-and-moonflowers @bethanythehazbinfan @martinys-world @quinceylikesanime @sweetsaladpainterranch @killer-nightmare0 @ginny-higgins

[astonmartingf]

MAKE BELIEVE ; LH44

— people assuming you’re a couple is a common misconception whenever you’re out together, most of the time you shrug it off but every now and then lewis acts along making you feel some type of way you’ve never felt before

masterlist

The first time it happened you were both teenagers, Lewis was home after competing in the British Formula 3, you two on your way to some gasoline station for snacks. You could barely remember what exactly happened yet the memory seemed to linger in your head whenever you think about it.

On your way to pay for the food, Lewis stopped you- “I’ll pay for these.”

You frowned, pushing him lightly away from the counter. “No. This is my celebration for you, there’s no way you’re paying.” You smile at the lady, placing the tub of ice cream and chips on the counter.

Lewis on the other hand was not having it, “Okay if it’s my celebration it’s only fair I pay for half of it.”

Raising your brows you shake your head disagreeing with his statement, “That’s not how it works Lew- just let me have it. We barely see each other, let me buy you a bag of chips and ice cream.”

Shaking his head Lewis contemplates before leaving towards the back of the store. A sigh left your lips before facing the clerk, listening in your conversation. “Are you two in a long distance relationship?”

You gawk as your arms scramble into a wave, head shaking, repeatedly saying “No, no, no… We’re just friends. It’s been a while since we met since he’s busy racing all over Europe, someday he’ll be a Formula 1 driver!”

Your excitement over the moon, at the thought of Lewis getting into the big tracks all over the world. “That’s exciting, what about you sweetheart?”

You shrug, nose scrunching, unable to answer the question, “Nothing special, just studying.”

The lady nods as she puts the items in a bag, “Well, I’m sure it’s not nothing. He must be lucky to have a supportive friend like you.”

You smile as the conversation turns back to Lewis, somehow it’s easy to talk about him, you could go on and on praising and telling the whole world about him. You smile, taking the change from her hands.

From the corner, Lewis comes back with two bottles of drink in his hands. “If you’re buying the food, let me pay for the drinks.”

Rolling your eyes you reluctantly agree letting him buy drinks for you two. On the way out he grabs the bag from your hand, carrying it as he lets you lead the way to the local park in the area.

The second time it happened was on your birthday dinner, during one of his free days, he asked you out for a celebratory dinner. “Just the two of us, like the old times.” Lewis raised his glass as you tip yours to his.

“It’s definitely been a while since we sat and talked, how is Formula 1 treating you?” Lewis blew raspberries, shaking his head.

“This is your day, we’re not talking about racing. How are you? Is university treating you well?”

You sense his deflection from the topic, during breaks you find yourself checking updates on Lewis’ race. Many articles are written about him, rumors and hearsay about him, but you’re not one to believe what’s written, rather listen to what he has to say.

“This is us catching up, I’m supposed to ask you questions as well.”

Lewis nods his head, “Answer my question first then I’ll tell you what’s up.”

Knowing you’ll never win against him, you humor him with stories from university, all the drama and chaos that is happening in your internship program.

Lewis tilts his head, grimacing at the details of your professor Andy and his unconventional methods of teaching, which led to two students fighting during class. Laughing, Lewis takes a sip of his drink, “Aren’t I glad I skipped out on college drama.”

This time it was you who laughed at his statement, “Yeah, because racing drama is way much better, and on a bigger scale.” you whisper as Lewis gives you a pointed look.

“You read some stuff, now tell me what it is that you’re so desperate to know?”

You shake in excitement as you tread your thoughts on the questions you prepared to ask him, the top of your head, the rumors of him dating a certain Pussycat Dolls singer. But as you opened your mouth, you were cut off by a string of waiters bringing in cake in the direction of your table, singing “Happy Birthday” catching you off-guard.

“What is this Lewis?” You hiss under your breath, staring at him in bewilderment before smiling politely at the waiters clapping along to them singing.

After their song, they placed a chocolate cake slice in front of you with a lit candle. Staring expectedly at you, “Hey, this only happens once a year. Now go make a wish and blow your candle.”

You laugh at Lewis who gestured towards the cake in front of you. You laugh, shaking your head as you blow the candles. Hearing the cheers of the waiters and Lewis, thanking him with a side hug.

“Do you want us to take a photo of you and your boyfriend to commemorate this moment?” One of the waiters spoke, holding a digital camera in his hand.

“We’re not-” You glance over at Lewis who was already posing, clearly brushing off the comment, “yes you can.”

The waiter nods his head gesturing you to move closer together, looking straight at the camera with a small smile on your face. After a few more pictures the waiters left, leaving you alone with Lewis.

“So what was it that you wanted to ask?”

You shake your head, “Now I forgot about it, maybe next time.”

Lewis smiles before taking a bite of your cake, “Happy Birthday YN, Cheers to us and here’s to more memories with you.”

A small smile breaks the line of your lips, as you take in a small bite of the cake.

Other times it just happens as you go out on walks together. The amount of times you’ve been stopped by elderly women telling how “you look so good together” or been asked, “how long have you two been dating each other?”

Which often leads to the both of you laughing, you more awkwardly, as you shake your heads and deny.

There were awkward moments especially back when Lewis was still dating, the efforts you made as to not be seen with him out of respect and only coming when there are many people invited.

Now in the present, it’s obviously easier to smile and shake off their statements. You’ve gotten used to being asked and it’s almost automatic, the response, your hands waving, head shaking and saying “No.”

It’s been so long, surely you would’ve gotten used to it, especially when Lewis was keen to play along as a couple after you’ve gotten stopped a couple of times. One thing which you’re always against doing, and Lewis respects that.

You never thought about it more than a harmless prank, knowing that people don’t have to know your real relationship- because it was clear to both of you that you are friends. Then and now, but in the eyes of the others it may seem that you’re a couple.

One which you don’t understand, can’t people be friends these days? But it’s not like you can see the honey-dripping off of Lewis’ eyes when he looks at you, prioritizing you when you’re out in public, and doing polite gestures to you. It was normal for you- his actions, you grew up with him, and you certainly watched Lewis grow up to be a fine man.

And you can’t deny how that affected you as the people around you seem to wonder if you haven’t felt that way towards Lewis. And as much as you hate to admit, there are times where he has made your heart flutter.

Once in the Mercedes garage, you were on your way to pick up Roscoe volunteering to look after him. It wasn’t your first time there, but it wasn’t like you were the closest with everyone. You knew a few people, enough to ask for help when you’re lost during the bustling race days. Entering the hospitality, Roscoe must’ve sensed you as he ran over to greet you, patting him on the head, “You missed didn’t you? Where is your father, why are you alone?”

Your eyes wander looking around the hospitality for Lewis. “Excuse me, do you have a pass to be in here?” Raising your head you notice a male staff in front of you. “Oh, I do have it in my bag if you want to check, I’m just waiting for someone.”

Turning around you looked for your pass, but before you could show it to the male staff he disregarded your presence asking you to leave. “Excuse me?”

“I asked you to leave the vicinity please. This is exclusive for VIP and guests, fans can wait outside.”

You stand frozen, bewildered even. Pressing your lips in a thin line you contemplate on what or how to react. Usually you’d rather keep your peace and leave quietly, but it’s not like you don’t have a pass. You are a guest of Lewis.

Sighing, you stare at the male staff, looking him in his eyes showing him your pass. “I am a guest of Lewis Hamilton, I think I can wait right here.”

Despite showing your pass the staff seemed suspicious continuing to ask you questions about your relationship with Lewis, as if the pass wasn’t enough proof. “So, are you like dating him or something?”

You scoff at his statement, rolling your eyes, you take a deep breath going over the response you’ve formulated in your head to shut him off. “My relationship-”

“Yes, she’s with me. Thank you for showing your hospitality.” Lewis appeared from behind, his snarky comment didn’t go unnoticed by you as you snorted by the side.

“I missed you sweetheart, I see that Roscoe came running towards you. I completely lost him inside.” Pulling you into a hug, Lewis gave you a small peck on the cheek ignoring the presence of the staff with us.

“Thank you, I had that handled but somehow you always appear at the right time.”

“I know you can handle it, but there’s no need for you to explain to anyone why you’re here. And I don’t care if it’s about formality or whatever, next time just call me and I’ll come pick you up, or I can ask one of the people from my team to get you.”

You laughed, shaking your head, “You don’t have to do that, I barely go on races, it's fine. I’m just here to pick Roscoe up like I promised.”

Lewis nodded his head, grabbing the bag on the sofa with Roscoe’s name embroidered in the handle. “I’ll walk you to the garage?”

You shake your head, “No need, I actually came from the back like you asked so my car is right outside.” Lewis smiled before handing you Roscoe’s leash.

“I’ll walk you to your car then, I’ll help you bring Roscoe’s stuff.”

Inside your car you settle Roscoe at the back seat, turning on the ignition you hear the soft rumble of the car. From your car mirror, you watch Lewis wave you and Roscoe goodbye.

Outside the circuit, you think back on the situation that had transpired, “Your dad is a sweetheart isn’t he Roscoe? Got me feeling some type of way… Lewis… I’m glad we’re friends.” talking to yourself knowing fully there’s no way you’d admit that to Lewis himself, instead you open up to his dog.

Opening the app on his phone, Lewis watches you drive away safely through the lens inside Roscoe’s leash. There had been many moments he saw between you and Roscoe, including your conversation with the male staff.

It was something he checked every now and then, especially when he’s away from Roscoe. Rest assured, he feels safe knowing he’s left in your hands. Ensuring you two are safe, Lewis swiped to exit the app but not before he heard your voice through the speaker.

“Your dad is a sweetheart isn’t he Roscoe? Got me feeling some type of way… Lewis… I’m glad we’re friends.”

Lewis let out a breathy laugh,leaning back into his seat, the corners of his mouth pulling up into a big smile. Pressing his hands into his face, he feels the rush of heat into his face laughing to himself. “If only you knew sweetheart… Got me feeling some type of way as well…”

At least now Lewis knows, his feelings won’t lead him astray.

[artsymeeshee]

Hello! I just found your laundry list of art last week, and I have to say…I LOVE IT! Love the instinct comics, Ford being cool never ceases to make me giggle, and I loved the autumn drawing. I’ll admit, that one had me in tears…made be believe in the what-if’s of my own family. What they…could be like someday. Or what I wish they were. Thanks for the tears, they were much needed.

 Anyway! This is what I came to message you about! Although,…I am extremely sorry for the late message. I tend to check back into tumblr at…weird hours of the night. Heck, it’s almost the next day as I type this. I seriously need to sleep more. So! I had a few thoughts on Stan and Ford relationship, and I wanted to hear your thoughts on it. Just a disclaimer, I’m kinda basing this off my actual life as I find these characters mirror personal events very closely! I am also a writer and soon to be author! Might post some archive of our own content about these two soon. Also, and this is the most important, I have NOT read book of Bill yet. So plz…no spoilers. Anyway, long introduction aside, let’s begin!

In my personal head cannon of these two, which I don’t imagine is “too” different than how anyone else could see them, Stan and Ford have an extremely awkward and emotional conversation after Weirdmagedon. Why? B/c they’re both, to some degree, emotionally numb. In my opinion, why wouldn’t they? They haven’t spoken to each other in 40 years, properly, and they have repressed a ton of their emotions since then. It’s hard to bring that back up. (Speaking off of experience) I’d say even harder for Ford. Stan, thanks to the twins, has learned to loosen the locks on his heart while Ford kept running away from those emotions to defeat Bill. Just like his ambitions, that was the main priority, and everything else later. To me, this would explain why Ford never bothered to talk to Stan properly since coming back during the show. He wouldn’t know how to. If they were to talk, and this is where the writer in me comes out, I’d write Ford as the one that needs it most. He’s been traveling dimension for decades, running from the past that held him back…but he has no anchor now. Stan becomes that anchor, paralleling what he wasn’t when Ford was lost. And Ford…he just breaks. Like, completely breaks. And Stan is there with him, breaking like he is, but still there for him brother. Finally back after all those years apart. And as someone who has been on the side of neglect from one’s own brother…nothing would be me happier if we went to connect. Just like Stanley and Ford. And eventually, soon to be sailing on the seas to connect even more.

Phew…that was a lot. Sorry for the rambling. Told you I had some ideas! So, what do you think? Do you see Ford acting like this? If not…why? Genuinely, I’d like to know. Anyway, thanks for taking your time to read this. Again, sorry for the ramblings. Oh! One more thing, I know you aren’t taking art request right now, but would you be open to take them in the future? Say in 2 months time? Anyway, bye!

Well first off, thank you! I appreciate it! :D

And to answer your headcanon, I agree on it. Stan is definitely more open to talking, especially thanks to the kids. I mean there's still moments where it's hard and awkward for sure. And Ford would for sure have a harder time opening up, especially with the constant guilt and mistakes that replay over and over. And there's always that lingering feeling of "well, Stan has to hate me for what I've done" and it's always so surprising when Stan tells him differently and he never once hated Ford. Sure, was angry but never hated him. He had too much self-hatred to feel that way with Ford. And as many times as it needs to be said or repeated, it really makes all the difference when they tell each other how much they love and care for each other. As Alex said, "they're both so damaged, they desperately need each other."

As for the requests thing, most likely not. Only because I'm entering the busiest time of year for my work so it's gonna be a miracle if I even have enough energy or motivation for drawing if I'm not completely burnt out.

[accirax]

Danganronpa: Despair Time Mastermind Ranking (Least to Most)

Yeah, I should’ve known that I needed to get around to this someday.

You see, the reason why I hadn’t made a theory about the identity of the Despair Time mastermind is that… I'm not totally convinced on any one person being the mastermind. Like, look at these clowns! They’re all so weird! I love them all for it, obviously, but none of their personality quirks or roles in the story stand out to me as particularly mastermind-y. There are a lot of characters that I believe could be the mastermind, but it’s also pretty easy to convince me out of it for one reason or another.

However, it’s not like I had any idea about who the P:EG mastermind would be, either! At least with two chapters under its belt, I can feel more comfortable that I’m not just fully mischaracterizing the Despair Time cast. And I definitely have things to say about various DRDT masterminds, just… in a way that’s kinda hard to rank.

But, that’s no reason for me to be cowardly! I’m sure that seriously scrutinizing all of the characters’ mastermind potentials and ultimately coming up with who I think the most likely candidate is will be super fun. It’s just… going to be really long, so, buckle in. And maybe prepare to take breaks in the middle.

(Spoilers for all three main canon games and DRDT.)

Why is it going to be so long? Well, it’s because, when it comes to DRDT, I think that my predictions will be at least partially based on how long I think each character will make it into the story. If I have a particularly strong inclination that a character is going to die in Chapter 3.456, no matter how unfounded, it might make me feel worse about their prospects of being the mastermind. That’s not to say that a mastermind can’t appear to die (or actually die) before Chapter 6 rolls around, of course. However, it is an uncommon additional hurdle to the story that would require some justification and a little suspension of disbelief if I’m trying to call it years before it transpires.

So, if we’re going to talk about the mastermind, I need to share my current feelings about where each character might place in the death order. Should I update the title…?

Danganronpa: Despair Time Mastermind Ranking (Least to Most) AND ALSO Death Order Predictions

These are my mastermind rankings, so my opinions on where the characters might be headed will obviously be used as the baseline. Naturally, you don’t need to believe in anything I'm about to throw out here. I’m just trying to explain my thought process so that nothing I say later on will come as a total surprise.

Also, since it’s kind of long, here’s the top of the death order section. I think it’ll provide some important context, but if you want to skip it, look for the other green, bold text.

Some of my thoughts were inspired by anderscim’s death predictions theory, as I read that pretty soon after I joined the fandom. I encourage you to go read their work as well!

The tiers are mostly pretty self explanatory– 3-4 means I think they’re at risk of dying sooner and 4-5 means I think they’re at risk of dying later. But, I’ll give everyone what I hope to be a quick rundown on each character just to explain my thinking. 

Xander: Xander canonically died as the Chapter 1 victim.

Min: Min canonically died as the Chapter 1 blackened.

Arei: While I respect the concept, I personally don’t believe in the “J and Arei swapped places and Arei is actually still alive” theory, and I will be writing the rest of this post accordingly. So, to me, Arei canonically died as the Chapter 2 victim.

Eden: Pretty much anyone who’s seen my DRDT theories at this point shouldn't be surprised that I’m listing Eden as the Chapter 2 killer. The logic behind this belief has been explained by my lovely mutuals here and here.

Levi: Alright, on to the ones I don’t have any concrete evidence to support! (There is concrete evidence behind the ch2 murder, even if you believe it points elsewhere.) Levi has had a decent amount of focus already in his trainwreck of a relationship with Ace and discussions of morality with Eden and Teruko. If he does serve as an accomplice to the Chapter 2 killer (see the first link in Eden’s section), then I feel like his clock will really be ticking. He’d be trapped with the branding of a bad person, his greatest fear, and left without any relationships to lean on. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone targeted him as a victim they “believed deserved to die after what happened,” or even if Levi decided that he was doomed to be a villain from the start and decided to kill. Alternatively, he could try to redeem himself as a classic Chapter 4 buff curse sacrifice in some way. In either case (or even in the case of him just being the Chapter 2 killer), I have my doubts that he’ll be making it too much later into the game.

Arturo: To me, Arturo doesn’t feel like a character set up for incredible longevity. That doesn’t mean I’m pigeonholing him as a one-dimensional villain or pure comedic relief, just that Arturo seems like a character who might be set up to have his ideology lead to his downfall. I don’t think he’s dying in Chapter 2, as I believe the narrative would want to see how he reacts to J burning the bridges between them, but I could definitely see the story only needing one more round of daily life (or possibly a trial as well) to resolve wherever his character is going.

Charles: Look, it’s not only because he’s already been pronounced dead at 3. As I elaborated upon in Charles’ section of this post (The Jerk), Charles feels like he’s speeding towards the end of his character arc far ahead of schedule. It could just be that he needed to learn to make friends quickly before Whit makes an early exit, sending him on a secondary arc where he learns to process his current grief and fears as a parallel to regaining memories about Elliot. However, I find it much more likely that the Inevitable CharWhit Doom Scenario plays out in the opposite direction. He makes a lot of sense as a Chapter 3 victim to me.

Nico: Similar to Arei and J, I am writing all of my theories with the assumption that it really was Nico who attempted to murder Ace in Chapter 2, because I think it makes the most narrative sense. (I could keep typing out a “well, unless” every time, but I don’t really want to eat up my time writing or your time reading all of that.) Through that lens, the fact that Nico has already murdered someone and “gotten away with it,” more or less, puts them in a really weird situation. I don’t really see them killing again, as it feels like we’ve already explored the emotional and narrative implications of that happening through Chapter 2. Although, I can’t deny that it would be interesting to see the fallout of Ace being proven totally right and Hu 100% wrong. Still, if they were to be a survivor after doing something so severe so early into the game, it seems like they would have to undergo some sort of redemption for the audience to accept them as a face of hope in the end. I don’t currently see any great paths to that happening, although there’s obviously still plenty of story time for something to open up. For now, though, I feel more confident in placing them as a early/mid-game victim, likely as a consequence of choosing to harm someone else.

Hu: Given her overall lack of focus in the story thus far, I find it likely that Hu will be one of the focal characters of the Chapter 3 daily life. That could be bad news, considering how Xander and Arei fared after being focused upon in their respective daily lives, but… I dunno, I just feel like Hu would survive it, somehow? Wouldn’t be too surprised if she didn’t, but my gut instinct is that she would. I kind of see her character exiting the story in Chapter 4, no preference on killer vs victim.

Veronika: Veronika is a very weird character (an “oddball,” I’ll call it), and thus, my predictions for her are strongly based on the patterns that oddball characters normally follow. I’ll be using canon characters only, because I believe that those are the only killing games that I have the right to assume every DRDT fan has seen. But, you can apply these same kinds of patterns to many fangan characters. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for fangans breaking from typical Danganronpa norms and following their own paths. But, in the case of how oddballs are treated, I think these characters generally tend to follow these patterns because they’re sensible writing practices. I’ll try to explain why each of these conventions makes sense in the following bullet points.

Oddballs tend not to die in Chapters 1 or 2. This is because oddball characters are generally created to supply a very niche kind of comedic relief– examples from DRDT could include Arturo’s commentary on ugly people or Ace’s bizarre remarks of cowardice. Any character deemed worthy of being included in a fangan occupies one of 16 highly contested slots. So, if you include a character for the purpose of making jokes with them, you'll want to get your bang for your buck! It’s hard to fit every joke you have in mind into only a chapter or two. The best example I could come up with for a (canon) oddball who dies early is Teruteru. In his case, the writers likely anticipated that his hyper-flirtatious nature would get tiring if it continued on for too long, and thus, exhausted all of the jokes they wanted to make in Chapter 1 before his exit. An oddball who dies this early has a limited shelf life, and is likely accompanied by other oddballs who can pick up the comedic slack.

Many have pointed out that silly oddballs often die in Chapter 3 (Hifumi, Ibuki, Tenko) as a way to signify the death of fun and innocence. You also have a chance to get rid of some of the more sinister oddballs (Celeste, Kiyo) at a point where it seems unfeasible for them to have stuck around this long without… well, killing someone. In either case, it’s because Chapter 3 is a great balance of letting a character stay in a story for long enough that they achieve whatever strange effects you wanted from them, while also clearing them off the stage before you get into the really serious business. Silly oddballs especially may not be equipped to handle the often turbulent natures of Chapter 4 without breaking the serious tone too much, so it’s best to axe them at the midpoint.

Endearing oddballs (Gundham, Gonta) have a hard time making it past Chapter 4. If Chapter 4 is serious, Chapters 5 and 6 are even more so, and the Chapter 4 killer slot in particular is a viable dumping ground for characters who don’t really have a place in the finale. Their deaths are meant to pull at your heartstrings and prove how a killing game can make literally anyone– yes, even that guy– a killer. (Miu is an outlier; more like an extended Chapter 3. Unlike THH, which has its tonal shift at the end-of-Ch3-Sakura Traitor Reveal, and SDR2, which has its tonal shift at Mikan’s insanity and death, v3’s tonal shift comes at Kokichi's accusation and Kaito and Shuichi's argument, or possibly even Miu's death itself. The Chapter 4 Daily Life isn’t all that serious in and of itself. Thus, Miu dying as a Ch4 victim functions more like killing off a silly oddball before she has to deal with all the betrayal and scheming that occurs later on.)

Oddballs really only die in Chapter 5 to the extent that you can count major antagonists like Nagito and Kokichi as Weird Dudes. As the precursor to the big, showstopping, mind-bending Chapter 5 Trial, the mood is typically pretty… straightforward. Depending on the overall plot’s arc, Chapter 5 is either the point where most of the surviving students are concluding their character arcs and learning how potent a weapon teamwork is (THH, SDR2), or a “dark night of the soul” type moment where all of the slowly growing inter-character conflicts are finally coming to a head (v3). It can also be Version A for some characters and Version B for others, but, either way, hijinks are not ensuing, basically. Plot relevant things happen here, and as such, plot relevant characters are the ones who are dying. It can be hard for an oddball to find a place in the narrative relevant enough to serve as one of its final, poignant deaths without also being a major antagonist.

Despite everything I’ve said about oddballs dying, it is definitely possible for oddballs to survive. Danganronpa is, at its core, a dark comedy, and as such killing off all of your funny joke characters before the ending is probably a bad move. Hiro, Toko, Kazuichi, and Himiko are all characters I’d call oddballs that survive until the very end. The difference in their case is that part of their oddball nature is being… kind of pathetic? I think it helps them fade into the background more. It's also probably easier to give them a character arc than some others... like Veronika.

I’m sure that you can find exceptions to these “rules” I’ve laid out, especially amongst casts that have a high percentage of oddballs (which you could certainly argue fits DRDT). However, pattern recognition brain go brrrr. I don’t think that Veronika fits the description of a Chapter 1-2, Chapter 4, or survivor oddball particularly well. That leaves Chapter 3 (sinister) and Chapter 5 (bewildering antagonist). I don’t know if it’s that Veronika doesn't seem to have much of a reason to kill at this point in time or all of Veronika’s weird mastermind coding that makes me think DRDTdev might have greater plans for her. Either way, I’m leaning Chapter 5, probably victim. Jeez, that was a long section for one character. Favoritism, I guess?

J: J gets her own category because, honestly, I have no idea what to do with her. Could J make it to the end? Sure! Could J die in a Chapter 3 scheme? Sure! Could J be the Chapter 2 killer? Well, I personally believe the evidence points elsewhere, but in terms of narrative? Sure! The only real inclination I have is that I think it’s more likely that she would be a killer than a victim, mostly because Ultimate Effects Artist is a talent that could lend itself to some really creative and fun murder setups. Given that I have more characters pegged as early game deaths right now, I lean towards J late game, but… man, I don’t know!

Teruko: Teruko is the protagonist, and also is a Lucky Student who allegedly “can’t die.” Especially after she made that claim, it would be silly if she died before the ending– it’d just kinda make her look like a fool. I’m not averse to theories where Teruko is no longer the protagonist by the end, whether by her death or someone else taking up the role for whatever reason, but in the sense that “Survivor” = “Chapter 6,” I think Teruko will survive. I’m not here to predict crazy last-minute Kiibo-blowing-himself-up twists.

Rose: I think that Rose has a really nice arc of overcoming her fears and becoming less passive set up in front of her. We spent enough time establishing her relationship with Teruko that I could see her being a good potential friend/support character to Teruko in the endgame if relationships with people like Eden or Charles fall through. (And, at this point, you know what I think about Eden and Charles…) She’s also good at delivering low-key jokes that can provide some levity without totally ruining the tone. We already saw some of that in this scene. The main things that I think could be standing in her way are her photographic memory and history of debt. The photographic memory could be too annoying of an obstacle to write around for the entire game, and instead be an ongoing effect set to expire in in Chapter 3. Additionally, a money motive paralleling THH’s in Chapter 3 could be too tempting for Rose to pass up. Really, what I’m saying is, if Rose can make it through Chapter 3, I think she’s golden. We’ll just have to see how that Chapter pans out in the future.

David: Oh, David. Currently serving as Teruko’s largest antagonist, I can see why people would think that he would die in Chapter 5. However, I’m not going to beat around the bush and pretend that I’m the only person who thinks David might survive, either. As an inspirational speaker, David is established early on as a character who should be a beacon of hope, before revealing that he’s more of a hope-sucking black hole. It would make sense if, alongside Teruko, he learns to find more of a balance between blithe optimism and cynical depression and heal as a person. He has a lot of very obvious depth that I think a lot of people want to see explored, and whose exploration would be very on-brand for the themes of a typical killing game story. Plus, if Teruko ever does stop being the protagonist, David probably needs to be alive at that point to pick up the slack.

Ace: Similar to Nico, it seems like we’ve already gotten a taste of what Ace being a victim would be like, in a way where I don’t think we’re going to see it again. He could still be a killer, but would the cowardly Ace even want to attempt killing someone and throwing himself into the scrutiny of a Class Trial? Well, it is true that Ace believes that “[neither] dying young or living a long, shitty life of suffering… are as bad as this” (the killing game?). So, he could simply grow fed up with the killing game and decide that risking a Class Trial is worth it, even if he does wind up dying young. However, if that were to occur, Chapter 2 seems like the narratively best time to do it, as it’s when his emotions are most potent and probably when others would least expect him to do it due to his weakened state. Like Rose, I feel the period Ace has most to worry about is this upcoming Chapter 2 killer slot, but if he makes it through, his arc of learning to escape his fear by bravely rising above it instead of lashing out to try to knock everyone down feels very viable.

Whit: The pro of the Inevitable CharWhit Doom Scenario is that, hopefully, one of the two would manage to make it as a survivor after the other one dies. And, I’m Team Whit Surviving! Not just based on which of the two I like better (they’re my first and second favorite characters, so I’m taking a massive L either way), but because I think it makes more sense for it to be Whit that lives further on. Unlike Charles, who feels like he’s already in the final lap of the character arc race, Whit has barely left the starting line. The laundry scene in Chapter 1 and Whit’s secret in Chapter 2 have both been used to establish that Whit focuses on his and others’ bliss in hopes of remaining ignorant of everything that stresses him. The main offender, of course, being that Whit lies about his mom being alive to presumably stave off his grief. The easiest way to give him a character arc that resolves that issue is to give him something to grieve– namely, Charles– and soon. If Whit’s main character struggle is pretending that people dying doesn’t bother him, he might need an entire Chapter or more to stubbornly show off his central flaw. Now, it is possible that, if Whit can’t overcome this flaw, he could die soon after Charles and meet a tragic fate. But, those just… aren’t the vibes, to me? A post-character arc Whit who knows how to grieve fiercely but healthily might come in handy if Teruko finds herself handling her own emotions about Xander, Min, and/or anyone else at the end of the game.

And here’s the bottom of the death order section!

Finally finished writing something that nobody asked of me at all. Well, I still think it was important, and I hope you feel the same.

Now that we’ve laid all that out, I think it’s finally time to actually see who I think the Danganronpa: Despair Time mastermind might be! Although, please keep in mind that, despite the large preamble full of story predictions, I’m still pretty uncertain on who I think the mastermind is. So, my points might not be the best supported, and I might change my mind again pretty soon after I post this theory. I expect to be far better at disproving why everyone is the mastermind rather than proving why anyone would be, because that’s generally how I feel… but, onwards we go!

#17: Arei Nageishi

(Forgive me for reusing art here, I’ve drawn these bastards ENOUGH /j)

If I were writing this after Despair Time’s prologue, like I did with P:EG, there’s a pretty good chance that Arei, at the very least, wouldn’t have placed dead last. But, well, now Arei is dead. And also last.

Obviously, there are other dead characters too. But still, Arei is the one who I most struggle to see as the mastermind. Given that Arei died as a victim whose body was thoroughly investigated by several parties, it’s pretty hard for me to believe that anyone could have missed any signs of life. I don’t get the sense that DRDT is in some kind of simulation where everyone can magically be alive again at the end either, so I think Arei is, sadly, well and truly dead.

On top of all that, we know a lot about her backstory from her Chapter 2 breakdown, and none of it seems to point her towards masterminding a killing game specifically. She doesn’t have any particular ties to any big organizations that would have helped her accomplish it, either. While she is NOT just a temporary weather spell whose absence will be celebrated and then forgotten, David… I have a hard time believing that the audience would find her character relevant enough(?) to be a good twist mastermind come Chapter 6 several years down the line.

I don’t think I really need to keep elaborating on this. Arei isn’t the mastermind.

#16: Charles Cuevas

I know it’s a bit of a bold move to put a character who’s currently alive below characters who have already died, but… man, I really just don’t see how Charles could pull this off.

And it’s not (just) because I think he’s going to die in Chapter 3 as part of Whit’s character arc, or that I want to believe that he’s a good person. Really, it’s mostly because of his phobias. How is a guy who started gagging at the sight of blood splattered on the floor supposed to be the one who orchestrated an entire death game? Could he get through the process of creating a brutal execution like Min’s without freezing up and freaking out? Even if he could do it, why would he? Sure, he didn’t seem to remember the fact that he had necrophobia until Xander died, but that might be even more of a problem. Wouldn’t the mastermind, who’s certainly had to consider the others’ deaths before, remember that they were afraid of death? He would almost certainly have to be lying about at least the scale of his reaction, although that’s probably a given if he is the mastermind.

Of course, there are mastermind subcategories that could better benefit Charles. If DRDT is actually a simulation, especially one in which the participants don’t actually die, that would definitely make it easier for him to be the one behind it. We’re also meant to believe that Charles has childhood amnesia, so he could have amnesia in other areas as well and be a mastermind who forgot they were one.

However, as I said before, I don’t particularly believe that DRDT is going to be a computer simulation or that Charles is an amnesiac mastermind. I just… don’t see this one in general.

#15: Xander Matthews

Let me preface this by saying that I’m not trying to argue that Xander is actually still alive. The concept that he would be able to fool not only Min, making her believe that she dealt him a fatal blow, but also everyone else as they identified his body, seems outlandish to me. However, just because Xander is dead doesn’t mean that he couldn’t have entered this game as the mastermind.

We know for a fact that Xander wanted to kill Teruko due to his dialogue regarding the note he received, which lines up well with the popular theory that Xander is the individual speaking in the first scene with the papers and the blood. If we assume he is that guy, then it may seem a little counterintuitive to think that the person who says “I have to end the killing game” would be the one behind the killing game. However, he also says, “Even if I can’t do that… I have to kill Teruko Tawaki,” implying that killing Teruko is of a higher priority than ending “the killing game.” Thus, if, for some reason, Xander thought that orchestrating the killing game was the only way to kill Teruko, it’s possible that he would be willing to let the death game roll for as long as it takes to eliminate his bigger target.

However, I can’t deny that the Xander mastermind theory has some massive flaws to it. For one, Xander is dead. I don’t think we’ve technically seen any evidence that the mastermind has to still be alive as of Chapter 2, but a mastermind-less Chapter 6 would be… an interesting challenge to write, to say the least. Also, while Xander betraying Teruko and the others was a great surprising hook the first time, if it happened again, it would be kind of… underwhelming, in my opinion. It’s the same kind of concept I brought up in my Eden’s Garden ranking:

Then, in Chapter 6, we’d be faced with the revelation that, wow, the mildly antagonistic character was actually a really antagonistic character all along! It just doesn’t seem like enough of a dramatic hook to me, I guess?

“Wow, the guy who betrayed Teruko and became a killer actually betrayed Teruko and was the mastermind all along! And now, he’s not even around to reap the social or karmic consequences of it!” You see.

And then, there is the literal interpretation of the text that Xander (if he is bloody hands man) obviously stands against the killing games. He’s also the Ultimate Rebel, someone who stands against corrupt institutions in general.

If Xander is revealed to be evil later down the line, it would make much more sense if it was as a traitor type. As for being the one and only mastermind, I think the odds are pretty low.

#14: Ace Markey

Hey, it’s another character that’s alive! And, this one doesn’t even have a crippling fear of death. However, he is a massive coward, and that’s the main thing that’s dragging him down for me.

Similar to Charles, what would Ace stand to gain from hosting a killing game such as this? Ace doesn’t seem to have any interest in notoriety, money, the destruction of society, despair, or any other things that I can think of that would motivate a typical mastermind. We’ve seen time and time again that Ace cares most about having control over both his life and how other people see him, even though he often fails on both fronts. I guess both of those things could be solved by hosting a killing game, but… Come on, there have gotta be easier ways to do that which don’t threaten your precious life.

Furthermore, what exactly would Ace being the mastermind have to say about the story as a whole? Jockey has to be in the running for “talents that are least relevant to a potential killing game host.” How about the idea that the mastermind nearly died in Chapter 2, only to go off the rails threatening and blaming his assailant? I… always knew that Nico was… fully in the right for doing that, because it would have killed the big bad early??? Ace Mastermind is the preferred ending for those who believe that Nico can do absolutely no wrong, lol.

I can’t remember where I saw it, but I once saw a theory of writing that said that there are two major kinds of character arcs. One is the typical character arc, where the narrative pushes a character's traits to change over the course of the story for better of for worse. The other, this theory posited, was an arc on the part of the viewer, where they learn that a character that they thought was flawed was actually not as flawed as they thought all along. You could potentially apply this kind of thing to Eden: in the first chapter, some people may have seen her as a dim-witted positive girl, but in Chapter 2, we firmly establish that her kindness is not stupidity and learn how her optimism is a strength.

So, you could say that the character arc DRDTdev is going for with Ace is something more like that, where we spend the entire game learning to treat him more seriously just in time for him to be a real threat as the mastermind? It still feels like a bit of a stretch, though– I don’t know exactly what Ace would do to make us take him more seriously that wouldn’t either send him on a growth arc not super befitting of a mastermind or wind up with him being a blackened. Ace as the mastermind certainly isn’t impossible, but I obviously found it unlikely enough that I placed him below one character who is currently (presumed) dead.

#13: Arturo Giles

Arturo’s role in the story so far is not very mastermind-ish, in my mind. In the prologue, we establish him as a cold and judgmental person who puts his own opinions of how the world works over everything else, especially how other people feel. This already feels like how a mastermind would act, so if he turned out to be the mastermind, it would be more of the same.

Then, in Chapter 2, we establish that he’s a massive simp for celebrities, to the point of transforming into something adjacent to comedic relief. We’re meant to think that his over-the-top sprites and refusal to actually listen to anything J is saying is hilariously pathetic. Other characters are constantly dunking on him, such as Teruko calling him a “bigoted” “crazy person,” and even the narrative gets in on the action when highlighting how he cares less about the fact that J’s life was at risk than that she didn’t come out of it with drip. Narratively, we’ve already seen these characters get the better of Arturo. If we the audience interpret that as confirmation that the surviving cast could easily beat Arturo should he ever come to stand in their way, it could diminish the stakes upon his mastermind reveal.

However, for all of his negatives, there are some definite positives to Arturo being the mastermind, too. Despite his comedic effects, we have seen through his threats to Eden that Arturo is very capable of being very scary in a way that I don’t think we have with Ace. The horror factor of a plastic surgeon as the mastermind could be a really fun and creepy design theme to explore. And, Arturo is obviously super obsessed with celebrities. If hosting a deadly TV show is what he thought it would take to get him in with the Hollywood celebrity scene, he might be willing to go for it.

I don’t really know why he would have made his secret what it is if he was going to get that upset about it, though. I guess if there just weren’t any better options that wouldn’t tip his hand…? Also, Arturo would blend in terribly as a survivor. If you’re heading into Chapter 6 and you have to pick the evil character out of (let me spin a wheel real quick...) Teruko, Eden, Rose, Charles, and Arturo, Arturo is definitely the evil one. (Okay, that was actually a terrible randomized draw for Arturo on the innocence front, but I hope you can imagine how he would oddly stick out of most groups.) Like I said in his death predictions, I find it hard to imagine a character arc for Arturo, which is why I find it hard to believe that he would make it as far as Chapter 6.

#12: Min Jeung

Honestly, if Min weren’t (most likely) dead, she might be pretty high on my list of mastermind choices. While not as suspicious as the Spurlings, XF-Ture Tech is pretty suspicious, even more so with the introduction of that one altDRDT character. Min is related to XF-Ture Tech, so if that company has anything to do with the operation of the killing game, she could have been the one behind it. Min is also very smart, and her talent has obvious applications for how it could have been used to set up/influence the killing game. The fact that her talent is so similar to Teruko’s, Ultimate Student versus Ultimate Lucky Student, could have also set them up for some great parallels and duality down the line.

However… Min’s role as the Chapter 1 killer throws a pretty big wrench in her chances. Beyond the dying part, Min’s role as the blackened was incredibly evitable. It’s not like she was thrown into a situation where she had to kill or be killed, or even one where a motive was particularly difficult for her. If she wanted to be the mastermind and survive until the end, all she had to do was walk away from Xander stabbing Teruko and pretend she never saw it. However, if Min’s goal was the inverse of ol’ Bloody Hands (keep the killing game running, but most importantly, keep Teruko alive), her actions could line up. And then, perhaps Min could have falsified her own execution early to draw suspicion off of her, much like Junko did by killing Mukuro.

Beyond her death, though, it’s really Min’s reaction to being the blackened that makes me think she can’t be the mastermind. The stellar voice acting in Min’s breakdown scenes makes me really believe both that this was the first time she had ever hurt anyone as gravely as she did to Xander, and that she fully believed that she was about to die. Those are two things that a mastermind, especially one headed into a fake execution, would not be feeling. Maybe Min memorized how to be a great actress too amongst all those textbooks, but I doubt it. I can still see several reasons why Min would have been a good mastermind, but her actual death and her reaction to being told she was dying knock her down several pegs in my mind.

#11: Hu Jing

Hu is a bit more suspicious to me than some others just because I think she has something to hide. Between her refusal to share whose secret she received or had herself, mysterious “I want to pay for what I’ve done” hidden quote, and intense desire to be relied upon, there’s definitely something about Hu as a person that the narrative has yet to uncover. Could that something be “Hu is the mastermind”? I dunno, maybe.

Hu also has a tendency to react to things with her temper. That could be a sort of foreshadowing to how she would act as the mastermind, much like how David’s brief spell of apathy during the prologue hinted at the way he would act further down the line. Hu’s defense of Nico could act much the same way. Our overall impression of Hu at this point is that, while she is a flawed person, she’s one of the nicest and morally best people in the game, who’s always looking out for others. Defending Nico to the point of babying them might cross the line a little, but she’s only trying to help everyone…! Hu could make it to the end as a believably heroic survivor and then reveal that all of her presumed poor decisions were actually active malice, and I think she could pull that off.

All that being said… I don’t, like, actually think that’s going to happen. In fact, I’m probably overexaggerating the extent to which people think that Hu is nice and morally good. I’ve seen several people discuss the unjust amounts of hate Hu gets in this fandom, which implies that a lot of people hate her, even if I haven’t particularly seen much of it myself. At the very least, I definitely over exaggerated the extent to which people believe Hu could survive! As implied in the death order predictions, I do personally think Hu is going to die, possibly as a consequence of getting too invested in everyone else’s business when they don’t want her to be and/or wearing herself too thin. There are paths which I believe could lead to Hu being the mastermind, but they seem to be the roads less likely traveled.

#10: David Chiem

While I have no doubts that David has the fame, charisma, and worldview to pull off a killing game… I’d have to wonder about how he would see himself playing into all of it. As we saw in Chapter 2, David knows that his career has a lot of value, possibly to himself but definitely to other people, and therefore, he doesn’t want to jeopardize it. In fact, the reveal of his manipulative secret was the inciting incident behind his massive change in characterization. So, if he were the mastermind of a televised killing game… How would he think that would play out to his viewers?

Now, to be fair, there’s a lot we don’t know about the worldbuilding of DRDT. MonoTV claims that the TV show will be broadcast to a widespread audience. Perhaps that indicates that, in the world of DRDT, publicly broadcasting talented young peoples’ violent deaths is normal, or even sought after. Maybe the cast of DRDT forgot about it.

However, David seems to think that people learning that he sees everyone as manipulable would do damage to his reputation, so it’s a bit of a contradiction either way. If the world has been wracked with despair and craves intense violence on TV, then David’s reaction to his secret is either an elaborate lie or the result of the mastermind erasing his own memories regarding the situation. (Or, I guess the public could see death as fine and dandy but manipulation as a cancellable offense, which is… one of the interpretations ever.) Otherwise, in the scenario that the DRDT world is a normal one, David wouldn’t care about being revealed as a manipulator if he’d already committed to the mastermind bit. If his career was already preemptively ruined by agreeing to commit literal murder, why get so worked up about the thought that people might abandon ship over you not being 100% honest?

And then, there’s also the whole “surprise factor” thing that I keep bringing up. Admittedly, it’s been a longer hiatus between the start of Chapter 2 and the end of Chapter 2 than DRDTdev might have been hoping for, but that doesn’t change the fact that this part of David’s characterization happened in Chapter 2. DRDT fans far and wide have written thousands of words gushing over “the David reveal” or “evil David.” If David were unveiled as the mastermind, we’d have to start writing stuff about “the first David reveal” or “when David showed his true colors again.” You see how it kind of takes the hype away from such major plot points? That’s the sort of concept I’ve been trying to get across with some of my other choices too, but a bit more clear cut.

I don’t know why I sound so much like a hater in this section (in my opinion) when I’m literally putting David at #10, above seven other characters. I guess it’s because I can see why his theatricality and traits foiling Teruko could make him a good mastermind, but also have some major issues with the logistics of him getting there. A lot of good points versus a lot of bad points settle out to him winding up someone in the middle.

#9: Levi Fontana

With our first single digit number, we’ve also reached our midway point of mastermind candidates: Levi!

Levi would be a really interesting mastermind choice because of how his character centers around grappling with his morality. I think it would be really intriguing to have a mastermind outwardly struggling with their attempts and failures to be a good person throughout the entire game, only for the player and the characters to receive the full context of the debacle at the very end. I guess in this situation, it would be pretty likely that Levi would be redeemed at the end? That’s not necessarily a problem. (Honestly, I don’t know if I think the DRDT mastermind could be redeemed or not based on the fangan’s themes… that’s a post for another day, perhaps.)

Anyways, I think that what we know of Levi’s backstory could work well with him being the mastermind. If he does have the “murderer without remorse” secret, that would be in line with orchestrating a killing game. We also know that he’s “been disowned” and that he and his family were “all bad influences on each other.” We’re meant to assume that Levi was fortunate enough to escape a bad/abusive situation (and in all likelihood this IS what actually happened!!!!), but we are hearing about the situation from his point of view alone. There is a small possibility that, if Levi is actually a despair enjoyer, his family cut him out because they thought he was a danger to their lives.

I will reiterate again, though, that I don’t think this is the case. Levi seems like he’s a chill guy, or at least that he’s trying very hard to be one despite how he’s been told to react all his life. The whole “mastermind wanting to become a good person” lens also makes less sense given how channeled Levi’s development is through Ace. Like, I would imagine that, if this were the angle DRDTdev was going for, Levi would be making an effort to get along with everyone as part of his atonement. The mastermind randomly choosing to focus on just one person out of the crowd seems kind of strange, especially when that person is someone as disagreeable as Ace. That kind of plot would have big “the mafia CEO vampire prince fell head over heels in love with me, the random average girl” vibes. Repenting mastermind Levi is the preferred ending for pining lovers to enemies to lovers AceVi shippers, lol.

And then there’s the part where I think he’s going to die. I don’t think Levi is the worst mastermind choice, but I think there are better out there.

#8: Nico Hakobyan

Yay, we finally got to one of the characters that Anon thought was suspicious! It only took… 7k+ words. Oh boy.

I definitely think that the cat coding is the strongest thing that Nico has going for them. It would be pretty funny if the extent to which “Ultimate Pet Therapist” is relevant to the plot is the climactic reveal that “yeah Nico has been talking to a (robotic) animal the whole time.” That’s a joke, as Ultimate Pet Therapist is already quite relevant to Nico’s characterization as someone who prefers communicating with animals over people, but it would be funny as hell from a character designing perspective.

There are less silly reasons to believe that Nico is the mastermind too, though. While it seems like, similar to David, pulling the trigger on Nico’s change in behavior in Chapter 2 would be a bit early, I don’t think it’s as destructive to mastermind Nico as it is to mastermind David. There’s a lot more doubt in people’s minds that Nico even did anything to Ace, to the extent that a decent number of people (in the story and out of it) think that it was someone else trying to kill Ace entirely. Nico also has a stalwart defender in Hu, which adds an extra level of intrigue to the situation. Instead of confirming that everyone was right to be suspicious of David, at least some amount of focus could be placed onto Hu being wrong for trusting Nico and failing to see someone’s true colors again, which could be interesting for her characterization if she was alive at that point.

On the other hand, the biggest reason that I think Nico isn’t the mastermind is also because of the attempted Ace murder. Why would Nico, as the mastermind, try to kill Ace at this time? If Nico wins the Class Trial, then the killing game is over, which is probably counter to the mastermind’s goals. If Nico loses the Class Trial, well, we’ll say that the possibility of Nico dying isn’t an issue, as they could just fake their own death or deny entering the execution. But still, why?

It could be that Nico was trying to remove themselves from the killing game on purpose, but I don’t see why it would be necessary. No one was particularly suspicious of Nico being the mastermind, and if they were worried about their gender identity getting out, they could have simply made their secret something else. A mastermind could kill to avoid the killing game falling into a standstill, but tensions were really high at the time that Ace almost died! With a full day left to go before the motive secrets were revealed, such drastic action wasn’t yet forced. I guess the best option would be that Nico was just really angered by what Ace said, and wanted to retaliate as part of their vicious mastermind nature. Is that worth taking yourself out of the killing game and risking the show’s termination, though…?

There is also the possibility that Nico is the mastermind, but didn’t try to kill Ace. In that case, suspicion of Nico would be such a huge in-universe coincidence that I’m doubtful DRDTdev would have included it as a major plot point.

Speaking of “show’s termination,” I also don’t know why Nico would have any involvement in creating a TV show, both from a backstory/talent perspective and a personality one. Nico doesn’t like interacting with people. Therefore, I don’t know what would possess them to want to create and join a TV show for which the major draw is a big stressful discussion between a bunch of people.

I guess I had fewer reasons why I thought Nico would be the mastermind than I thought. I would love to hear more details about why you suspect Nico though, Anon! I’m definitely willing to believe that they could be the mastermind.

#7: Eden Tobisa

Make no mistake, I still think that Eden is the Chapter 2 killer. However, in the case that she isn’t… mastermind isn’t a terrible choice for her.

The biggest draw of Eden being the mastermind would definitely be the shock value. The seemingly nicest character suddenly being revealed as the mastermind would create a huge hurdle for the surviving characters to overcome. Teruko especially, given that she probably would have grown at least a tad closer to Eden if they survived five chapters together. It would be a little mean to give Teruko a trustworthy friend just to rip it away from her again, but I could see the opportunity being used to highlight Teruko’s growth. When Xander and Min betrayed Teruko, she panicked and shut everyone out, but when Eden betrays Teruko at the very end, she’s able to remain strong and rely on the other friends who she continues to trust. Or DRDT could have an unconventional feel-bad ending, I suppose.

If some kind of time loop is at play within DRDT, then Eden’s talent would obviously be thematically and perhaps practically relevant as well. I could see a lot of comparisons being made regarding a killing game being run “like clockwork.” Her secret quote “you can’t go back, no matter how hard you try” is... actually kind of anti-time loop, but at least the concept of going back in time is somewhat related…? Speaking of secret quotes, her Mai quote, “she kept calling the number, even though no one picked it up” is also really weird. That suspicious hidden evidence could point to her being the mastermind.

However, Eden’s personality is a pretty major issue when it comes to her being the mastermind. Shock value is great in the moment, but it can ring hollow in retrospect if people find that the twist doesn’t make any sense. Masterminds aren’t typically known for their kindness or optimism. So, if Eden is the mastermind, it seems like her whole “even if this world is cruel, I’ll still make the choice to be kind” speech is a complete lie. And, that would be a shame! I don’t think that having an unexpected mastermind at the end of the game is worth the cost of completely demolishing a character that we’ve come to know and love over the course of six chapters and several years. (I’m not saying that complete demolition has to be the case if Eden is the mastermind, but I think it’s a reasonable worry that many people have.)

And, I know that all this talk about how wonderful Eden is might sound rich coming from someone who strongly believes that she just killed someone who wanted to be her best friend. But, that’s kind of the point, isn’t it? As someone who thinks that Eden is the killer, I know very well how a lot of people have a really hard time believing that Eden could do something as terrible as killing Arei. I can only imagine how hard it would be to accept that Eden was the one who put Arei, Min, Teruko, and everyone else in danger, and the one pulling the strings behind every execution.

Eden as the mastermind, to me, is more tempting in concept than it would be viable in execution. And also, I don’t even think she’s going to live to see the light of Chapter 3 day. However, there’s also some definite emotional power behind the accusation that makes me see how shooting for this ambitious choice could be worth it in the long run.

#6: Whit Young

Alright, it’s finally time to talk about Whit. I know that he’s a really popular mastermind choice, but… I just don’t see it, personally. Even though I put him at 6th place. (I do not enjoy putting him in 6th place.) Is that just because he’s my favorite and I’m attached to my interpretation of the character? Perhaps. But, I’d still like to explore some points that I find faulty.

Perhaps the biggest reason behind suspicion of Whit that I’ve seen is the way that he breaks the fourth wall. People connect his asking people to pause for the evidence list to MonoTV invoking similar mechanics, and lines such as “do you really think she’d be hanging out in the playground” to him knowing more than he’s letting on. However, there are a couple of ways that this accusation can be depowered, in my opinion.

Firstly, Whit isn’t the only person who says stuff like this. Veronika alludes to the killing game before it begins, Teruko also breaks the fourth wall to tell the viewer to pause (albeit only in her thoughts, not out loud), and Arei makes the same kind of “hanging” wordplay in Eden’s flashback that Whit did. I won’t say that characters addressing the fourth wall can’t be important at all, because I believe there are some moments where the other characters commentate on how weird it is that MonoTV is talking to no one. However, I also think that breaking the fourth wall may simply be part of DRDTdev’s humor, as exemplified by that “make sure to like and subscribe so that Teruko has enough mental strength to carry on” joke. Whit is a funny guy, so it just makes sense that if DRDTdev’s brain generates funny meta jokes, Whit would get some of them. Everything that Whit says reminds me more of Mia AceAttorney saying “hit tab to open the Court Record” than some sort of groundbreaking DDLC-Undertale direct communication with the viewer. However, I can see why others would think otherwise.

The second is that I think some of Whit’s comments (more so the “dead at 3” and “hanging in the playground” than the pause) are just meant to showcase his intuition. And, yeah, it could be that DRDTdev has been leaving crumbs of Whit’s intuition behind so that in Chapter 6, he can use it to exploit everyone’s insecurities and greatest despair. To me, though, Whit’s intuition has always reminded me of the myth of Cassandra.

For those who don’t know, Cassandra is a figure in Greek mythology who was blessed/cursed to receive prophecies, but for no one to ever believe them. By my interpretation, Whit is a really smart and perceptive guy who has strikingly accurate gut feelings about how things will play out down the road, even when he doesn’t realize it himself. However, the curse of his own coping mechanism– choosing to act like an eternally cheerful goofball– leads the majority of the other students, and perhaps some of the viewers, to never take his point of view seriously. He can only realize the accuracy behind what he said after the bad things have already happened, leading him to blame himself more and more for not being able to speak up and help when times were tough.

This kind of behavior would line up with two different themes we’ve seen from Whit before. The first, that when he jokes around without thinking, he can accidentally say hurtful things that he later reprimands himself for. We saw that when Charles blew up at him at the end of their shared FTE. The second is Whit’s major theme of good things hiding a darker undercurrent. Being the Ultimate Matchmaker is great until you’ve never had a successful relationship yourself. Having an awesome mom is great until the truth comes out that she’s actually dead, and you’ve been covering it up. Growing super close to someone is great until he dies. Having an amazing intuition and understanding of everyone is great until you can never actually use it to help those you care about. Joking around is great until it's all you can do. Pretending everything is fine is great until it’s not.

Like I said, very specific interpretation. I promise I was not citing classical literature to make my argument sound smarter than it actually is. I am aware that my interpretation of Whit is no less or more valid than everyone else’s. However, it’s one that I hold very close to my heart, and thus, I personally have a hard time seeing around it.

However, I’ve also seen a lot of people argue some valid points for Whit, so I can at least acknowledge that he deserves to be in the upper echelon of choices. There’s a lot of weird stuff regarding him in Literature Girl Insane, and he’s certainly an option of someone who felt so much grief that they became totally empty inside as shown in that one hidden quote. I would be appropriately surprised and heartbroken if Whit revealed himself as the mastermind in Chapter 6, so he checks the box in that regard. There isn’t anything from his backstory that opposes the notion that he set up the killing game, and, to quote what I said about our other Ultimate Matchmaker, Toshiko…

While Ultimate Matchmaker might seem like a silly talent to give the mastermind, it could also be a ruse to distract us from the fact that [Whit] has a talent that allows [him] to read people well and make choices that will impact their lives dramatically.

I don’t like it, but I can see the argument… kind of. To me, most mastermind Whit interpretations feel like mischaracterization, but as a theorist, I always try to keep in mind that I’m the one who could be twisting the text to my whims as well. In this my-opinions-based list, though, he’s not getting any higher than 6th.

#5: Veronika Grebenshchikova

Ooh, what spooky art for a spooky mastermind. Let’s be real, though, Veronika is way too obvious of a mastermind candidate to actually be the mastermind. Unless… she’s so obvious that she loops back around to not being obvious, and thus, is the perfect mastermind candidate?!

Veronika is in a really weird place. I obviously have no doubts that she would have any moral qualms about hosting a killing game, because she’s told us herself that she doesn’t. She knows what Monokuma is in immense detail, but claims to have no idea what a killing game is. She’s dressed really similarly to Junko, though. Is that just a coincidence? Are giant pigtails also a symbol of fear in the DRDTverse? I need ANSWERS, LADY!!!

The biggest problem I see with Veronika is the potential for obviousness. Similar to Arturo, if she actually made it to Chapter 6, I feel like it would be pretty obvious what’s going on. An oddball like Veronika is not the typical survivor type (although she could break the mold). Because Teruko’s character arc is all about trusting people, it would make sense if the reveal of the mastermind was someone who challenged her trust to some degree. With Veronika being obviously unhinged the whole time, I don’t think that Teruko would have any particular difficulties with kicking her to the curb.

However, Veronika clearly has the motive to start a killing game, and potentially to spread despair. DRDT has taken inspiration from Trigger Happy Havoc in the past, so it could make sense if DRDT’s mastermind was also inspired by THH’s. Having a so-obvious-it’s-not-obvious mastermind could also be another way to mess with theorists like me, as DRDTdev did with the comments section portion of Literature Girl Insane. “bro Veronika being the mastermind would be WAY too obvious” sounds EXACTLY like “I just hope XXXXXX doesn’t go crazy and kill in chapter 3. That would be way too predictable” or “XXXXX will obviously die in ch5”. If part of the point of DRDT is to make know-it-all analysts rethink the rules they believe to be set in stone, I could see Veronika as a subversive choice.

Veronika definitely seems to be building up to something, but I don’t know if being the mastermind is exactly it. I think that Veronika could make it pretty late into the game, but I still struggle to see her making it all the way to Chapter 6. I would absolutely love to see what DRDTdev does with her writing if that is the case, though. 

#4: Mai Akasaki

(Well, now I feel bad that I’ve never made a colored portrait of Mai.)

As you may have noticed back at our first entry, Arei, I started the countdown off at seventeen, not sixteen. (If you didn’t remember that, I don’t blame you– it was a WHILE ago.) That’s because I thought it was only fair to include DRDT’s best kept(?) secret, the lovely Unnamed Student herself, Mai Akasaki, as an option! Because, man, is she mysterious in some suspicious ways.

“But, didn’t MonoTV tell the students that the mastermind was one of them? Mai isn’t one of the students in the killing game (unless prosopagnosia is REALLY going crazy), so she can’t be the mastermind, right?” Well, yes and no. The scene where MonoTV confirms the existence of the mastermind is SUPER weird. Let’s take a look at it.

On one hand, MonoTV is still in the Movie Screening Room, where it was JUST talking to the student body, so it would only stand to reason that it’s a continuation of the scene we just saw. However, the setting also seems to be doing everything in its power to tell us that this is NOT the same scene we just saw. The lights have been turned off, even though they were on in the scene just before this. They return to being on in the first scene of Chapter 1, which the students treat as being directly after the scene during which the lights were on before. The widget denoting the time, chapter, and episode has completely disappeared, placing this at an even more unknown time than “Time Unknown.” The text indicating that the speaker is MonoTV has even disappeared! I mean, I assume that MonoTV is still the one saying it, considering that it’s on screen and the speech bubble is pointing right at it, but we don’t even know that for sure!

Additionally, MonoTV refers to the viewers directly (“dear viewers”) two speech bubbles after this one, which makes it seem more like MonoTV is talking to us the audience rather than the students in the room. But then, if the mastermind is “one of you,” and MonoTV is talking to us, wouldn’t that mean the mastermind is someone in the audience? That could lead in to some really meta interpretations of the text (i.e. “DRDTdev is the mastermind of DRDT because he’s the one who created the killing game”) or it could indicate that I’ve gone fully off the rails. 

A midpoint between those two ideas is that the mastermind is part of the in-universe audience watching the killing game, as in, a fictional character who is watching the real-to-them TV show that is Danganronpa: Despair Time. That could include Mai, a very notable character who is not one of the sixteen participants in the killing game.

Side note, I’ve seen some people fight back against the concept that Mai could be the mastermind with the idea that making the mysterious character the mastermind would be too obvious. While I sort of agree, I feel like we’re somewhat overestimating the extent to which Mai is obvious. It’s not like no casual viewers would know who she is, because her image was shown pretty obviously in Chapter 1. However, the name “Mai Akasaki” is only accessible by finding the hidden quotes on the optional associated website’s character profiles. To learn anything about her beyond that, you have to have the thought to type the name into the website URL, and then solve another puzzle just to see the bare bones of what’s there.

I’m not trying to assert any sort of dominance or superiority over DRDT fans on YouTube, Twitter, TikTok, or anything else, but from what I’ve gathered, Tumblr is the place you want to go for deep analysis and theories on DRDT (possibly because of Tumblr’s longer word count). Therefore, anything about DRDT that may seem like common knowledge on Tumblr may only be common knowledge to the fans who specifically bothered to come to the deep lore and crack theories website to find deep lore and crack theories. Essentially, this:

Sort of similar to what Gravity Falls did with the reveal of Bill Cipher back in 2012 (at least I think, I wasn’t actually in the Gravity Falls fandom at that time), I think it would be reasonable to plant clues about an overarching villain that people who want to analyze can analyze ahead of time, such that the villain’s arrival can come as a victory to the puzzle solvers and an exciting new development to the more casual viewers.

However, while I believe that Mai has an awesome setup that she could use to become the mastermind, whether she would actually fit the role is another question entirely. As I alluded to back in the first Mai paragraph, I’m rolling with the widely held (among theorizers) belief that the Unnamed Student in Xander and Min’s bonus episodes is supposed to be Mai. In those episodes, Mai seems to be incredibly caring, peppy, and sweet. She knows a ton of little heartwarming details about Min and Xander, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the same is shown to be true with Arei and whoever else’s bonus episodes in the future. Those hidden quotes on Mai’s profile also give off the impression that everyone in the cast really loves Mai– one could call them a “portrait of a person dearly loved,” perhaps.

While it’s possible that these scenes are supposed to highlight Mai’s social prowess and how much she can get people to fall in love with her, they… don’t really seem to be giving off those vibes. We see her thoughts in those bonus videos, and she really does seem to be dedicated to helping Min and Xander out. Mai’s change from someone who wanted nothing more than to help out her friends to someone who was willing to throw all of them into the killing game is something that would have to be explained, and it could be difficult to communicate that shift within the confines of bonus material, if Mai’s content is mostly kept there. There is the concept that Mai could have put her friends into a killing game to protect them somehow, which could be a way to avoid Mai’s character seemingly doing a total 180, but that rationale would need a lot of explanation too.

Otherwise, there’s also the problem that Mai is almost certainly dead. I won’t get super into it myself, because the amazing @1moreff-creator has already done a great job explaining why here (starts in the XI. God is Dead section). I don’t think I need to elaborate on why Mai being dead potentially before the killing game even began would be detrimental to the idea of her being the mastermind.

To be honest, I don’t know how much this idea actually makes sense. I think I’m personally more inclined to believe that Mai could be the mastermind just because I really don’t get mastermind vibes from pretty much anybody in the cast. If the mastermind simply wasn’t one of the members of the main cast, that could solve that issue, right…? Mai is very likely involved in the inception of the killing game somehow, so extending that role to one of being the mastermind isn’t the biggest stretch. However, her personality and living status do throw in some pretty big question marks, so I don’t think she should go any higher.

#3: Teruko Tawaki

Teruko was definitely the first character who I believed could be the mastermind after I watched the series for the first time. However, over time, I’ve sort of fallen off of the idea that she would be. Is that because I’m forgetting key details of the plot, or because I’m drifting closer to the truth…? Honestly, I have no idea.

Let’s start with the strongest “evidence” we have against Teruko, her motive secret: “How could I even select which secret to make your motive? Just about everything you’ve done in your life is worth killing for. The killing game is all your fault.” Although “the killing game [being] all [Teruko’s] fault” sounds pretty damning, there’s the obvious counterargument to be made that this isn’t even Teruko’s motive. In fact, the board currently shows it assigned to Xander. However, the majority of people (including myself) seem to believe that David was lying, and this secret is Teruko’s. So, let’s analyze under that assumption.

Teruko did admit to Veronika that she doesn’t know what secret could be used as her motive because there were so many. Even if that motive secret isn’t hers, that still means that Teruko has done a lot of shady stuff. Teruko’s decision to live on set forever could line up with the mastermind's goal of wanting to keep the cameras rolling as well. The very first scene of DRDT shows that someone who wants the killing game to end also wants Teruko dead, which implies that Teruko and the killing games are on the same side.

Teruko also has a prior history of concealing things about herself from us, the viewing audience. We knew basically nothing about her past or trust issues before Xander stabbed her, causing her sudden change in attitude to come as a blindside. Teruko apparently has a “risky” killing game-ending plan in mind for the end of the second Class Trial that she’s told us absolutely nothing about. And, most notably, Teruko clearly knows things about Mai that she’s decided not to share with viewers at home. (I do believe that Teruko genuinely can’t remember Mai’s name, but she does remember that Mai is similar to Xander and wanted to help, which is more than anything we would have known from the main text on our own).

Point is, DRDT is written in a way where we don’t hear a ton of Teruko’s thoughts. That would make it much easier for her to scheme something behind the scenes, as opposed to someone who we get a lot of emotional reactions or logical theorizing from. It’s actually kind of similar to the difference between Kaede and Shuichi’s styles of narration, as pointed out by ShortOneGaming in their impeccable v3 playthrough! I recommend watching their entire letsplay if you're in the mood for v3, but I found one time where they talked about this concept here. I’ll transcribe it for anyone who doesn’t want to open YouTube right now:

Gina: I do want to call– as my final sort of note– what’s interesting is that you called out immediately that Kaede’s narration was weird. That, it was always, like– dictation? Allison: Yes! Gina: It’s always, like, speaking directly to a person– Allison: Yes! Yes, I did say– It never really felt like actual internal monologue. Like, she never was expressing her thoughts or anything to us. I mean, yes, she was, but then there were those weird moments where she was, like… y’know, hiding it from the player, and… probably from herself, too, to some extent. Like, she was just like, “and then I had to go do this thing.” Um, and like, “we won’t really address how I’m feeling about this.” Gina: Yep. Allison: And at the same time, it hides it from the– the player. And that was very clever. Really good. I mean, her– yeah, her narration was always kind of weird. But, she did have moments where she had internal reflection.

Hopefully, you can see the comparison. By putting a greater emphasis on actions as opposed to what Teruko is feeling (“I kneeled down and touched his neck” after finding Ace’s presumed-dead body; “Everyone else started filtering in” when people walk into the Playground and find Arei’s corpse), it becomes much easier to have Teruko hide exactly what she knows or exactly how she feels about certain events. It’s actually the opposite of the kind of narration that Damon had (“I’m trapped in a killing game… with people who despise me. How… how did this happen? I just wanted to help… I wanted to make sure we didn’t trust each other too easily… and now I’m being treated like the bad guy” after the 0th Class Trial) that made me believe he wasn’t the mastermind!

So, do I think that Teruko would be a mastermind who remembers, or a mastermind who forgot? Well, I could kind of see it either way. Personally, I think that Teruko being a mastermind whose memories are intact is the more interesting version, and I do believe it’s possible. I also don’t understand why someone with as many trust issues as Teruko has would want to remove her own memories if it weren’t necessary. Then again, Teruko being an amnesiac mastermind could make up for some of the… issues that arise with her as a mastermind candidate.

What? She’s in third place, not first. Despite how long I’ve already talked about Teruko, there’s still more to say!

First, the problems if Teruko did retain her memories: why would she ask MonoTV about the mastermind’s identity when the two were alone? Why would she be creating a plan to end the killing game? Why would she pretend to not know who Mariabella Rosales was even though everyone else clearly knew?

And then, the problems that persist even if Teruko did lose her memories: where would Teruko have gotten the resources to plan a killing game of this caliber? Even if she had them, why would she use it on this? Assuming that secret is hers, why would she write that about herself in a plausibly public place (beyond the swapping, Arei looked over Whit’s shoulder)?

Oh yeah, back to that secret. Just because “the killing game is all [Teruko’s] fault” doesn’t mean that she’s the one who planned it. In fact, the wording sounds very accusatory and hostile for something that Teruko would have theoretically written to herself. From the first scene, we already know that there is a person or group of people somewhere who are out to get Teruko. It could make more sense if that entity is the mastermind, and wrote the secret to blame Teruko for whatever she did that got her on their bad side.

There’s probably more to be said, but hopefully you can see why I have so many mixed feelings about Teruko. I definitely think she’s one of the more likely mastermind candidates out there, but I still don’t know exactly how likely that is, y’know?

#2: Rose Lacroix

Once upon a time, a wise and powerful theory alchemist known only by the epithet @1moreff-creator postulated that Rose could be the mastermind of Despair Time, and then never elaborated on the idea at all. For centuries (a couple of weeks) the townsfolk (me) were baffled by these dark and mysterious ramblings. However, as seasons passed by, as travelers came and went, as the tide advanced to kiss the land before slinking back to its home once more– the idea… started making more and more sense?

Rose is a really smart character who has already shown her proficiency in Class Trials. In the first, she utilized her ability to perfectly capture the scene and her knowledge of chromatography. Although her talents haven’t been as useful so far in the second, she’s still managed to keep up with the conversation despite never looking at the scene of the crime. Thus, I can see why, from a writing perspective, DRDTdev would choose to make his mastermind the Ultimate Art Forger.

There’s also the angle that Rose is a criminal, and therefore could be willing to do illegal or immoral things. However, she does seem to be pretty remorseful about it, and she’s already been caught for her criminal behavior before. Unfortunately for her, her relationship with her saviors the Spurlings only makes her all the more suspicious. Even if Rose didn’t want to be the mastermind of a killing game, if the Spurlings forced her to do it, she might have not had a choice. (Xander is very against the Spurlings… Xander is bloody hands guy → stop the killing game → stop the Spurlings?)

I also like the angle of “the Spurlings forced her to do it” because of what I talked about back in Mai’s section– the concept of the mastermind not being among the students. In Rose’s case, you can get the best of both worlds. The entity behind the killing game, the Spurling Foundation, would be a group outside of the killing game for MonoTV to contact, but there would still be a student among the cast’s ranks to suspect and accuse come Chapter 6.

What’s the argument against Rose? Well, I would ask why Rose would want to put herself in this kind of situation, but if it was the Spurlings’ choice, then that explains that. You could say Rose has been too helpful to be a bad guy, but everything she’s done so far has been to help the students win a Class Trial. That keeps the killing game running, which keeps the show on. The biggest problem I’m thinking of at the moment is the notion that the Spurling Foundation would have chosen to make Rose’s secret about how her backstory led her into their clutches. However, the secret doesn’t actually acknowledge the Spurlings by name, and it also frames Rose’s crimes in a way that makes her look like a good person– the opposite of what someone would think of as a mastermind. The secret was also only intended for Rose’s eyes, so it could have functioned as more of a low-key threat to remind her why she needs to stay in line.

Shouldn’t all of this talk of Rose lacking agency make her a bad mastermind candidate, though? If a villain doesn’t even believe in their villainous motivations, the story could end on a really flat note, with the good guys steamrolling an evildoer who doesn’t really care. How are we supposed to reach a satisfying conclusion if the mastermind hardly has anything to be held accountable for?

Those are normally things I would argue, but as many have pointed out, Teruko isn’t a normal protagonist. Actually, I think that this kind of mastermind setup for Rose could be a great way to end Teruko’s arc about learning to trust other people. Rose is the mastermind, somebody who shouldn’t be trusted…! It would be so easy for Teruko to just crush this person who betrayed her into dust– Rose isn’t even putting up much of a fight. But in the end, Teruko will choose to be patient, and see that Rose never wanted to betray Teruko. Even if her actions wound up hurting Teruko and many others, she still deserves a second chance, or at least a second evaluation.

As you saw in the death predictions, I obviously believe that Rose has the potential to make a late game run, whether as a survivor or something else. Writing all of this out, I can see even more clearly why Rose just might be the DRDT mastermind. However, despite all that I wrote, the idea still feels kinda more like a fun AU than the actual truth to me…? So, I still think there’s one person whose chances I like slightly better.

#1: J Rosales

Whaddya know, J’s personal ??? tier catapulted her into the lead. It is probably true that my uncertainty about where she might land is contributing to me deeming her the mastermind– it’s a really weird space in the kill order, as someone who survives long enough to theoretically have a positive character arc while sometimes not being counted among the survivors at the end.

Part of why I put J this high is that I really like the theory of J being the mastermind along with her brother, Ryan. Sadly, I cannot find any of the original theories that postulated this idea to link to, so I’ll try my best to explain what I remember myself. Basically, some people found the scene in c1e4 where Rose doesn’t remember who J is suspicious. They combined this scene with J’s younger brother, Ryan, and J’s talent, the Ultimate Effects Artist, to suggest that J could be using her FX talents to disguise Ryan as herself and have them occasionally trade places. From this Q&A, one of the few things we know about Ryan is that he enjoys crossdressing, which furthers the idea that he could enjoy pretending to be J. Ryan is also (to my memory) the only DRDT character’s sibling whose name we have seen in the main text, which could indicate that he’s more important than Arei’s sisters, Levi’s brothers, or other potential siblings.

I think it’s a really fun idea that I would at the very least want to see come to fruition, regardless of how likely it is. If J was working with Ryan, you can once again repeat the argument that there’s both a mastermind for MonoTV to talk to outside the game and one to be accused within the game. The biggest issue with it is that I don’t know how Arturo wouldn’t see the differences between the two, even if Rose may have. Maybe if J and Ryan haven’t swapped since the Rosales secret got out, and won’t swap again until Arturo dies…? I don’t know, I’m getting ahead of myself.

The thing is, other than just being a unique and interesting concept, I’m not really sure what the point of having J and Ryan swap would be, in universe or out of it. (This is why I wish I could’ve found a link to the original theorist... :,( ) My best argument for in universe would be that there are some things that only J has the skill to do, her being the Ultimate Effects Artist while Ryan is not. However, they couldn’t just have Ryan be the one in the killing game full-time, because he’s too young and therefore wouldn’t have been part of the original Hope’s Peak class. Thus, there are some points in time where J needs to be working behind the scenes (like on the executions or something), and during those intervals, Ryan subs in. Metatextually, I guess it could show how every person in the entertainment industry can be cutthroat, or that every child of a celebrity is bound to get messed up about it somehow…?

Regardless, even if Ryan isn’t involved at all, there are plenty of reasons to suspect J on her own. Ultimate Effects Artist is a highly suspicious talent when it comes to the deception of a killing game (just check out how many people think J already used it to kill Arei), and in connecting her to Hollywood. J may claim to specialize in theater as opposed to television, but 1) she could have been lying, or 2) that could be true, but she’s making an exception this time. Even if she normally works in live theater, if you were a TV executive approached by the daughter of Mariabella Rosales who is also a Hope’s Peak Ultimate student in her own right, would you really turn her away…?

J’s custom weapon is also pretty suspicious. Even if it doesn’t seem to be able to trigger traps like the one used on Levi (though that could be another lie), I could still see it being pretty helpful for subtly operating MonoTV, turning on a monitor, starting an execution, or stuff like that. Charles essentially confirms that the custom weapons were in the students’ rooms since they all woke up, which means that J could have had this remote on her the entire time.

J’s relationships also seem potentially mastermind-y. Thus far, the two characters with which she’s been associated most are Arei and Arturo. Those two (at least, prior to Arei’s change of heart) have been so clearly villainous and hateful that J would obviously look like a nice person in comparison. Why is this helpful? It means that J can get away with doing more objectionable things without raising any huge red flags. If J is the mastermind, we can look back on her demolition of Arturo in the Chapter 2 Trial as a brief early glimpse into how cruel she can really be. But, for the moment, although it’s definitely memorable, many people (including myself) can react to it with a, “yeah, but based on what Arturo was doing to her, it’s kinda justified…” (Not saying it isn’t somewhat justified either way, just that it could also be something more.)

J could also have a range of motivations related to her hatred for her mom. Maybe she’s trying to turn people against the Rosales name to ruin Mariabella’s reputation. Maybe this killing game is a plan to finally have a big artistic success all on her own (or with Ryan) to prove her mom wrong. Maybe she thinks that a world so enamored with fame and glamor deserves to rot in a pit of despair. I don’t know which of these options would be the most likely, but I could see how any of them could be possible explanations for how J got to this point.

I think my biggest argument against J once again comes back to the “why”. I think that J has a lot of potential to be a good mastermind, but I don’t know if that carries over to being a good mastermind for Teruko. Unlike with Rose, I don’t have a good sense of how J being the mastermind would tie into a satisfying ending to Teruko’s trust arc.

@venus-is-thinking and I sometimes like to run randomized killing games as a fun writing exercise (randomize the cast, motives, and mastermind; see where it takes you), and we’ve generally found that the most compelling protagonist-mastermind duos either have the protagonist sharing the same worldview with the mastermind, or being the only person who believes the opposite.

If the protagonist starts with the same beliefs as the mastermind, then defeating the mastermind is a showcase of the protagonist’s development. Hajime and Izuru work as protagonist and mastermind because Izuru is the manifestation of Hajime’s belief that only talented people are important and can make an impact on the world. By renouncing Izuru, Hajime proves that he’s learned that anyone has the chance to change their future if they put in the effort. 

If the protagonist has the opposite opinions from the mastermind, then it proves how crucial the protagonist is to the narrative because they are the only one who could deliver the critical message. A great example of this is Shuichi and Tsumugi. When Tsumugi tries to set up the conflict of “hope good, despair bad” that will keep the killing games going, all of the other surviving students fall for it. Shuichi being the only character who has spent the entire game learning the importance of balancing two extremes makes his callout of Tsumugi incredibly satisfying, and justifies the protagonist swap by proving that Shuichi is the only hero who could have saved this day.

That’s why I think that J would be a great mastermind for a protagonist who has issues with family or stardom, but might not be the best choice for a story with Teruko at the helm. Those are only my observations, though, so I’d understand if DRDTdev planned things differently.

And that is finally the end! Here’s the final tierlist I wound up working off of, which I fiddled with a TON while writing:

(It’s based off of Ocean Unknown’s tierlist!)

Since this has already gone on so long, I’ll try to keep the conclusion brief. Please take all of this with a grain of salt, as I wound up making a lot of claims about writing that don’t necessarily have the strongest foundation. I didn’t write anything that I think is blatantly false, obviously, but whether it’s good advice or not doesn’t necessarily mean that DRDTdev considered it. We may have different priorities in telling a compelling story. And, we’re less than two chapters in! Even the end of the Chapter 2 trial could throw a positive or negative wrench in any of these profiles.

Thank you so much for reading through this whole thing, and if you got through it and still have anything you want me to elaborate on further (a specific character, a specific theory, a specific aspect of fangan writing, etc), I would be happy to do so. I, uh, really hope that this answered the question that Anon asked, haha. Until next time… stay wary. There could be masterminds lurking about...!

[dozing-marshmallow]

i absolutely loved how you wrote my previous request! (them headcanons had me giggling and swinging my feet) soooooooo im back with another request! (if thats alright w chu of course) how about some jealous chris headcanons? maybe with a reader that points out attractive people a lot, like "oh damn he's kind of hot" "she's really pretty" (i realized i do this a lot so thought it might be a fun request)

Awwww I replied to your comment on that post, thank you so much for your kind words❤️!! I’m so happy I was able to provide headcanons that you loved and thoroughly enjoyed! I hope you feel the same with this one!  :]

And not a problem! I can definitely assure you this was a fun request to write for!

JEALOUS CHRIS MCLEAN HEADCANONS

Chris Chris Chris.

What he wouldn’t give to be the sun of your life.

It depends on who you interact with and what you’re talking about, but most of the time he’ll tighten the grip he has on your hand or shift so close, his stubble would rub on you.

“(Y/N)... You still love me, right?” He’d ask, voice muffled from his face down on his bed.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

He lifts his head up, looking straight at the wall,“I...just have this aching feeling.” clutching a pillow to his chest, his doubt oozing from his lips,“Every time I see you talking to other people, I always feel like eventually you might think they’re much cooler...than me...and leave me...and I’ll be alone...”

“Aww Chris.” You came over to kiss him,“I would never do that to you. You know there’s no one else like you, and you’re cool the way you are.”

He wants to believe you, but his doubt worsens when you both get invited to the Oscars as guests where you’re in a room of nothing, but other superstars.

“Hey Chris... Who’s that over that?”

He sees you’re interested. So, for obvious reasons, he’s remains completely vague,“That’s the lead star for that upcoming movie.”

“No way! Savannah Michael in Nightly Guitar?” So much for that,“I never realised how attractive she was!”

“Yeaah... Not more attractive than me though, right?” He’d plaster a smile at first. You’ll kiss him and tell him of course and he’d have nothing to worry about!

But you don’t. Instead, you ignored him and dug deeper,“Wow...she has that sparkle in her eyes.”

“Sparkle...? I have that in mine too...” he gently pulls his eyes down, somehow thinking you’d see whatever there was to see better that way. What was the point when you weren’t looking at him?

Instead, you were listening to her answering an interviewer with a sugarsweet answer of gratitude,“The way she cares for her fans is so sweet! I wanna be like her someday.”

That was the final straw. This time he doesn’t try to top it off- he grumbles and pulls you away,“Alright, that’s enough of her.”

“Woah, Chris! I still wanted to see her!”

“No! You’re supposed to be with me! I’m supposed to be your boyfriend.”

You sighed,“Chris, can’t I admire someone without liking them? Not everything is about you.”

You appeared to read his jealousy as simple annoyance that you weren’t glorifying him twenty four seven...which might have been the case too.

So Chris decided to show you he can be as sweet, in case some mutant hunk tries seducing you with flattery and care, you would already be used to it from him. No receiving the prickly end of his treatment for you!

But then, you’re gone. He looks around: you were at the other side of the room.

What were you doing over there? He makes his way to you,“Heyy (Y/N)!”

“Oh, Chris, hi! Whatcha doing?” You chirp.

From where he found you from, he didn’t get the full picture that you were in the middle of talking to someone. That someone? Daniel McNally.

He shuddered...similar last name? No biggie...

“I was just about to ask! How come you didn’t tell me you were going to speak to the uh, awesome Daniel?” He queried through sucking teeth,“He’s not bothering you, is he?”

“Oh, no! I knew he was going to be here tonight so I wanted to ask about some of his movies! I did tell you, but I must’ve said it as I was going over to him. Was there something you needed?”

Dang it,“I see... Well, now that I’m here, I’d love to hear more about it, and maybe try contribute to this civilised conversation.” He glares at Daniel in the eyes, but kept his tone the same,“That alright with you, (Y/N)?”

You kiss him on the cheek,“You’re always welcome!”

He saw the annoyance flash in Daniel’s eyes, and winked in response.

Well. He grew increasingly bored with the conversation- saying that though would lose his reason to be close to you, so he stuck to nodding.

“Woaah, getting a bit too close there, buddy. Be careful, it’s not guy code to go after someone else’s partner.”

“Chris?” That caught you off guard. He wasn’t even standing close! You grab his hand and pull him away into a space empty enough for a private talk,“Alright, what’s the matter with you? Why did you assume he’s trying to move to me?”

“Assume? No no no. I know he is. I see the way he’s looking at you, how he’s trying to impress you. And I don’t appreciate it.”

You don’t believe him,“Chris, you talk and boost to your admirers every chance you get and you don’t hear me complaining.”

“That’s different!”

“How?”

“I’m making it clear that we’re exclusive.”

“Yeah and clearly he knew that, before you came...” you fold your arms, slightly unhappy,“This is sounding more like you don’t trust me enough to have a civilised conversation.” 

By reusing his words, you cause his focus to shift away,“Chris.”

“You can’t blame me, okay? A cold hearted guy like me doesn’t deserve the warmth of a reincarnated sunflower... I guess I wanted some reassurance that you still love me the way I do you is all.”

“Is that seriously what this has been about?” You shake your head in dubiety. You don’t know what to say. Out of all the days to be jealous.

“Do you think...we could leave early? Pleaaaase?” He tightened his arm around you.

Shameless man. You sigh. That seems to be the only thing that’d make him feel better so you comply. You mainly came for the food anyway.

Bonus:

Looking back at it, for someone like Chris to be so worked up about securing his place in someone’s heart, was...adorable. Everything he did that night was just him displaying how proud he was to have you as his significant other, and subsequently how paranoid he was in losing you.

But he did steal one of the only chances you’d get to talk with your idols.

So you decide to do a little payback by pulling that joke on him where people would make a PowerPoint about who they would replace their loved ones with.

He was frowning when you set your laptop in front of him,“(Y/N)...” he must have read the title Guys I would leave my boyfriend for 

The corner of your lip curves upwards, pressing forward to the next slide saying “No one.” 

“See Chris. I wouldn’t replace you with anyone.”

He breathes out in relief, and starts smiling,“Whoo! That feels good to-“

“Yeah!” You interrupt him to get the punchline in i.e the next slide. Daniel McNally,“Uh...” you dramatise your expression as though you didn’t know how he got there.

The smile Chris had withered away into a quivering mouth,“I knew it...” Oh dear.

Turns out he didn’t know that this was a trend.

Either way, this wasn’t what was meant to happen!,“Chris, no! I-I don’t actually like him nor would ever leave you for him! It’s a prank people are doing! I’m not being serious, you know I would never do that to you!” You started shouting whatever came to your panicked mind, praying that one of those things would have him cured from his tears.

“So...you won’t leave me for him... What about...”

“Nooo, no one!” You pull him into your arms, his sobs wetting your shirt,“I’m sorrrry, it was a joke, I swear! I would never ditch you for another celebrity!”

Ah it feels great to have you hold him this way. :).

[mysteryanimator]

I love your animations, but I'm still struggling to view them without thinking about their last canon interaction. Can you tell me what you envision their makeup would be like?

(Lol I’m so sorry to all the ppl who work on Nocturne reading this 💀 and just generally everyone)

Thank you so much that means a lot! But now, you’ve unveiled my trap card and given me an excuse to write my thoughts on Mizrak and Olrox, so this will get pretty long. Also, this may end up being very subjective/personal taste in some parts so I hope everyone doesn’t mind (and hope you don't mind the funky grammar!) This is an open discussion too, I’d like to hear everyone’s thoughts! 

Now with that out of the way here we go!

(This is old unfinished storyboards for a previous iteration of their makeup scene I did back in jan, never finished them due to uni/another project, I'd like to someday tho because guh the themes.)

Now first of all, I’d like to think that a proper makeup/conversation wouldn’t happen for a bit and would be drawn out because they’re both still hurt, angry, sad, and confused at not only each other but themselves. They’re not the type to get into loud verbal arguments for this, definitely some verbal jabs at each other though. Mean petty comments, oh absolutely. I’d like to personally believe they’d still yearn for each other, perhaps even more so after Olrox indirectly confessed and Mizrak practically turned it down. 

Now, there are soooo many different ways that they’d even see each other again, many different ways it could come to that initial point where they’ve made up. Though I’ll go with one of my personal idea (which people keep egging me on to animate WHICH… I dunno I don’t have free time rn so I’m just blurting it out into written format while I can 😭 I want to though, maybe later in the year for fun if season 2 doesn’t beat me to it). 

Have to establish my vision, but I’d think that Richter, Maria, Annette, Alucard and Mizrak are hopping from abandoned town to abandoned town due to the inability to return to Macheoul for the time being. While Olrox has been on his own (doing what, I’m not even sure my personal headcanon for this.) I think Alucard and Mizrak have a conversation about Alucard’s past in a group setting and it strikes a chord with the monk- since after all, Alucard’s dad is THE Dracula, and his mother (bless her, I miss her) is human. You know how that whole backstory goes, and it parallels Olrox a lot. Also Mizrak and Annette will absolutely have a deep conversation too. Just solely from the comment that was made: 

“We’re all descended from gods, we just have to learn how to draw their power.” Nocturne s1 ep 2

Annette clearly having powers from Haitian gods, absolutely challenging how Mizrak was only certain of one God. Yes, Mizrak is extremely stubborn and it will take him a bit, but he’s different from the Abott in the sense that he will not let religion blind his path to good. He ‘uses his head’ as said before, not god, not the church- his head. Mizrak’s idea of the church and his faith is now a mess and it’s up to him on how he interprets it and rewrites it knowing what he knows now (this is important I swear when it comes to the makeup scene).

Now we’re at the actual scene at hand: Olrox and Mizrak making up.

Side note: oh god I’m practically writing this whole thing as if its going to be played out for an episode, but that’s how it works in my brain LOL but you asked so you shall receive. I am so sorry HAHA

There’s been a lot of build up from this point where they have been meeting up here and there by themselves, but you can clearly tell whenever they do they both hurt and yearn- which would lead to their proper makeup scene. I’m just inserting this for fun, but I’d imagine this would take place in an abandoned church in the town they’re camping in for the night. For a lot of symbolic reasons; devotion, sacrifice, forgiveness, gathering. This along with the simple fact, Mizrak’s relationship to the church has changed completely from here. I’d like to think that even when he’s trying to rekindle that connection with God, it leaves that icky overcoat on his skin. 

“Faith is a company in the hardest of times, when the world abandons you.” Nocturne ep 3

The church indeed had saved him from whatever terrible horrific thing happened to him in the past, however whatever saved him can still be horrible and terrible too. It is infallible.  It is cruel in an attempt to gather community and peace. So, yes- faith can be company when the world abandoned him, but his faith is no longer with the church. He’s taking it back and finding some place else to rest it. (Olrox, it’s Olrox, probably ooc but I’m making it Olrox). 

In this church, the conversation between them will initially start as a discussion about religion, faith and that whole sort of deal. It’ll open up about Mizrak exact struggles from his mouth and how he particularly feels about it, then we get more insight onto Olrox’s thoughts, his perception of the church and perhaps even a deep dive into Aztec history again. Maybe even talk about Olrox’s Quetzalcoatl form, though really this is self indulgent. It’s an aspect I’d absolutely love to be explored and I think it being discussed in revere in a Catholic Church,  with Mizrak actually being open to it due to his new perspective? Oh my god, sign me up. Regardless, it would hold similar energy to episode 6: Gulity Men to be Judged. There’s a weight to it. 

Then it gets heavier when the conversation pivots.  

Mizrak’s attachment in the church was due to him caring about people and, hypothetically, to save him from whatever detriment came for him in the past. The last canon interaction, their falling out they had in season 1 was because he cared about others. To a fault. Now, here he is, standing in front of someone he cares about. It’s going to open a conversation between what’s happening between them and finally properly discuss what happened from their last canon interaction in nocturne season 1. 

A lot of finger and hand brushing from Olrox, which at first I’d think gets no reaction as an attempt for restraint before Mizrak warms up to it and even reciprocates by doing the same thing. All of this is very gentle in my opinion. It’s slow, tender, and most importantly vulnerable. It has the physical contact reminiscent of their first fast rough and tug in the courtyard and piggybacks off the vulnerability they both have when they both stand next to the window in episode 6. They probably also just physically get closer to each other at the moment. Just gradually though. The distance gets closer and closer until their foreheads are practically touching without them realizing it. They’re comfortable though, they don’t want to leave. 

They absolutely get to a point where they both admit to saying “I love you” without straight up saying “I love you” because that’s just a very them thing. Or maybe they do straight up state because Olrox does admit he was in love (with his partner) and doesn’t shy from that fact. It’s a nice conversion of the trope and great to hear from a mlm couple to say I love you… but man do I do love when characters get all poetic-y when their profess their devotion to each other by literally talking in prose, so maybe with good writing both can be done and still be quite powerful but still be gentle. 

In my interpretation YEAH I’LL MAKE THEM KISS AFTER THIS, this is my vision after all. Also, yeah they’re gonna fuck. In the church? Perhaps. Is it a tad OOC, maybe. HOWEVER, consider imagery and symbolism. I just think the image of it would be great, even if it was censored to hell and back, it can be so artistically done. Just imagine the implication alone with me for a second. I think the whole concept of doing it in a church is an interesting build upon the quotes from the show;

“God is not here. This church is an empty box.” From the first Castlevania series.

“House of God? This place is just a heap of bricks and stone.” From Nocturne said by Maria. 

The church is a husk, especially having it abandoned- it’s rather what you do with that box that makes all the difference. The people inside are the driving force, so I think it’s both poetic and funny to have Mizrak and Olrox fucking in an abandoned church. Surface level: fuck you god I’m fucking my hot vampire boyfriend in your house. Deeper level: I could write a whole thing on this but I’ll refrain. You can get the gist of breaking free of restraint, and devotion and letting himself be human, rather than a soldier (which he already slowly does). 

Though also this sex scene isn’t necessary, I just like exploring explicit content in artistic ways, especially if I can throw in religious symbols and heighten that hunger/devotion to a person- but the “I love you” in the church is pretty powerful already.  

Then after all of this they take it at their own pace. However, they only live life once and continue together like that- they both know this concept very well because of the very nature of who they are, so they spend it in each other’s company. 

Now you also get the squad’s reactions, well namely because I do not think this would be an easily hidden thing. Like absolutely could get away with it in season 1, but everyone will know something is up for sure in my iteration. The 'hypothetical' Mystery Animator season 2 iteration. As subtle as their longing stares and quiet hand touches may be reserved for just them- those little interactions are loud.

Richter would absolutely be in shambles over Olrox, the killer of his mother, and Mizrak being a thing. Both in a “this is the most horrible thing that’s happened in my life” and also a he’s going to be an absolute shithead to Mizrak and make fun of him, lightheartedly of course. Alucard would absolutely have an interesting perspective because again, his parents. Maria already has disdain for the church plus the “vampires are evil… and evil has to be fought.” However, in the presence of Alucard, I think a lot will change because he’s half-vampire. Annette, I’m unsure of what her reaction would be, because I’m very sure she’d be receptive to Alucard being a vampire and then would appreciate Olrox’s mindset and values. However, gonna keep hammering, Olrox killed Julia Belmont which I feel will be comedically hammered in if Olrox decides to hang around the squad occasionally. 

And with that, we’re done! (I think)

Thank you for reading 🫶 this probably will not happen in cv s2 but it’s fun blurting out my hc. I’m really excited to see what they do, and even perhaps even go in the opposite direction due to episode limitations… maybe a season 3 👀 who knows.

[starsval]

"I'll be happy with you"

Regulus Black x f!reader

Sumary: you start fake dating Regulus so you don't have to marry some random boy.

Word count: 2k

Warnings: kissing, fake dating, mentions of arranged marriage, your mom wants you to get married(? idk), reader wears a dress once, some barty x reader?, reader is pureblood

A/N: idek if I like this but thanks to @myriadmoons for giving me inspiration to finish this <3 Also, ignore the shitty name, i didn't know what to write

You never liked those parties. Your mom was constantly telling you to act nice so someone wants to marry you –but only someone who's pureblood, of course– And those parents introducing you to his sons, like it would matter if you knew each other. If they wanted to, they could plan your wedding and tell you the day before. 

That's why you always do the same, find some pureblood guy, sneak out with him, making sure your mom sees you. Then talk to him about how you're in love with him so he freaks out and then leaves. And finally find some room where you can be alone. 

Although that last part of the plan changed some months ago, when you met Regulus. He was actually doing the same as you, sneaking out, so you started talking and helping each other. You already knew him from Hogwarts but you didn't share any classes so you never talked to him. 

That leads to your situation right now. Trying not to trip with your dress, walking to the room where Regulus is waiting for you. 

When you enter, you find him with his legs over the armrest of a chair, reading some book. 

"Hi" You say, laying down on the bed that was in the middle of the room. 

"What took you so long?" He asks, leaving the book in the chair as he lays next to you. 

"I, um, got entertained" You look away, sighting. 

"What happened?" He looks at you, the corners of his lips curving up.

"Well, I confessed, right? Then he told me he felt the same and tried to kiss me" You definitely didn't expect that. 

"What?" He isn't smiling anymore. "Did you kiss him?"

"No, I told him I was saving myself for marriage" You laugh and you see him smiling. Both of you knowing that's not true, you've kissed and made out with a lot of people in Hogwarts. "So know I'll probably have to find some excuse to tell my mom so she turns down the offer"

"Let's get married" He suddenly says. 

"What?"

"I mean, not immediately, but we can tell our parents we're dating and that we'll get married someday" He seems nervous now. 

"It's a good idea, but I don't think they'll believe us, do they even know we're friends?"

Then he suddenly gets up and drags you out of the room by your wrist. 

"What are you doing?" You say as he leads you to the dance floor.

"Make them believe it" And now you’re dancing with him, in the middle of the dance floor.

“I don’t think I’ve ever danced with someone on my own in any of these parties” You tell him, occasionally looking at your feet so you don’t trip or step on him.

“Then your mom will likely believe you, right?” He looks at you.

“Why are you doing this Regulus?” You look back at him.

“I don’t want you to marry someone just because they tell you to, I want you to be happy” You smile.

“Thank you, but will you be happy?”

“I’ll always be happy as long as I'm with you” You can’t help it but smile, before you notice your mom walking next to you.

“Who’s this lovely boy, Y/n” She asks, smiling at him.

“I’m Y/n’s boyfriend, Mrs L/n” He introduces himself to your mom.

🕸   ⊹    ⋆  

“Are you sure you’re okay with this? We could just ‘break up’, you don’t have to do that everytime someone asks you out” Regulus tells you, after painfully watching you as you tried to turn down a boy’s offer to take you on a date. You even had to resort to your last excuse; ‘Sorry, I have a boyfriend’. 

“I’m okay with this Reg, don’t worry about it. It’s not like I care that people know that we’re dating, why would I care? You’re literally you” You say half jokingly, looking up and down at him. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He asks you, fighting the blush to not show in his face.

“I actually didn’t want to go on a date with him” You ignore his question, holding his hand as you lead him to your usual place at the Slytherin table. 

“What was that supposed to mean?” He asks again, oblivious to the look Sirius is giving both of you from the door. Watching as you stop Regulus from throwing a fork at you, while he keeps repeating the question as you ignore him. Sirius watches him smile like he’d never do in a while, with your hands on top of his, trying to not laugh as he keeps insisting.

He had heard something about it, but he didn’t believe it. Not until now, not until seeing his smile, his laugh, the way he looked at you. 

“He did it, Moony. He actually got the girl” Sirius whispers as he looks back at his brother, letting Remus drag him at his house table.

🕸   ⊹    ⋆  

Sirius waits for the perfect moment to approach Regulus. In the middle of a hallway, when he has no escape. 

"I'm so proud of you" He says as he hugs him, after they stare at each other in silence for at least a minute. 

"For being the better looking brother?" Regulus asks him, sarcastically, he doesn’t return the hug, but he doesn't move. 

"What? You're definitely not the- I'm not talking about that! You're finally dating her!" He says, breaking the hug, but shaking him as he talks, with his hands on his brother's shoulders. 

"Oh, that, it's not like that" He admits, looking at the floor. "It's just so, we don't have to marry anyone else, she didn't want to marry some random boy so-" 

"What? But you like her! And she likes you!" Sirius frowns. 

"I don't- She doesn't-" 

“You do like her! Since second year! You just kept talking about her. You would get so red, I actually thought you had a fever once. And just because she called you Reg” Sirius fights the laugh as Regulus looks away.

“And all you said was ‘Damn, you're really all over her’.” Regulus talks, sighing as Sirius stops fighting his laugh and just laughs at him right in his face.

"And she likes you! We're not a hundred percent sure about that but you definitely like her. Remember when you came running to me the first time she touched your hair? Or your hand? I had to call Remus because I thought you'd faint!" Regulus rolls his eyes at the comment. 

"Thanks for helping me get over her" Regulus says, walking away to his next class.

"Hey, you're already dating, you just have to do it, for real, you know" Sirius follows him, smiling.

🕸   ⊹    ⋆  

“Hi, I know you’re fake dating my brother, wouldn’t you like to really date another Black?” Sirius says, sitting next to you at the Slytherin table, where you were waiting for your boyfriend.

“Narcisa? She’s really pretty actually-” You act clueless, smiling innocently at him.

“Now I understand why you get so along with Regulus…” He sighs, leaning closer into you. “Anyway, I was obviously talking about me, the better looking brother”

“I mean, no offense, you’re definitely good looking, but the better one…?” You ask, not moving closer to him, but neither moving away.

“So, definitely… I can work with that” He smiles, leaning even closer when he sees his brother approaching you.

“That's all you’re gonna get from that sentence?” You ask him, moving a bit when Reg sits next to you.

“It’s all that matters” He looks at his brother, smiling even more. “Your girlfriend here thinks I’m definitely good looking” He informs, winking when he looks at you. 

When you see Regulus' tightened jaw, and look back at Sirius, you get what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to prove a point, that Regulus may like you(you already had your suspicions, because, who agrees to marry his best friend that easily? apart from someone who’s in love with them –aka, you–). And you don’t know how to react, because, well, you get flustered just from the thought of it.

“Do you?” Regulus asks you, taking you back to reality. 

“I mean, yes-” He suddenly gets up, trying to walk away. “But I also said that you look better than him” You mutter the last part, looking away. Which helps Regulus, since he doesn’t have to try to hide his flush anymore. 

Regulus stares at his brother, possibly planning his murder. But before he can try, Remus appears to save you.

“We have prefect duties” He says, and you get up as soon as you can, leaving the lovely brothers behind.

🕸   ⊹    ⋆  

You were honestly too flustered to talk to Regulus after. Because fake dating him was a thing, but telling him he’s hot? You couldn’t deal with his face right now. You wanted to stop thinking about it, about the fact that you might have to break up, so things don’t get uncomfortable. You wanted to get distracted.

And that leads you to your situation right now. Dancing in the middle of a party, this time, alone, in the Gryffindor common room. 

You were dancing next to Pandora, ignoring the looks Barty –he’s one of the few who knew about the fake relationship– was giving you, until you got tired and decided to go get a drink. Once you got to the table, Barty was next to you

“Hi” He says.

“Hi” You don’t look at him, instead, you focus on the party in front of you.

“Do you want to smoke outside?” He asks, leaning on your ear.

“Okay” Then he grabs your hand and leads you to one of the balconies of the castle. You stay there, passing the cigarette between the two of you, talking about the school and gossiping. You were looking at the woods, with your forearms on the railing, and Barty was backwards to the woods, with his back on the railing. 

"You know, you're really beautiful" He suddenly says as he looks at you. 

"Thanks" You look back at him and smile, getting closer to him. 

Your lips are almost touching his when the door opens, you pull apart from Barty and look at Regulus, who's looking at him. 

Barty clears his throat and walks to the door. 

"I'll see you later" He smiles at you and walks away. 

You wave at him and look at Regulus, annoyed. 

"What was that for?" You ask, copying Barty's earlier position. 

"You were going to kiss him" He gets closer to you. 

"I know, that was the point" 

"Why?" He stands in front of you. 

"I don't know what you want me to say" You suddenly get nervous, I mean, you hadn’t talked since Sirius had approached you, and he has never been this close while you two were alone.

"What makes you want to kiss people?" He touches your check with his fingers. 

"Well- normally when I'm attracted to them… " You feel your face heat up by the touch of his hand. 

"I want to kiss you" He confesses, grabbing your face.

"Then do it" 

He grabs your face and puts his lips on yours. You grab the railing with one hand as the other one goes to the back of his neck. He gets closer to you and his hands go to your waist. 

He kisses you in a desperate way, and you know that he's been waiting to do this since he met you. He grabs your waist strongly, afraid that you're suddenly going to disappear.

When you're both gasping for air, you pull apart, but your hands don't leave his neck. 

“What do I do when I like someone?” He asks, his hands not leaving your waist.

“You ask them out” You say, smiling.

“What if we’re already dating?” He also smiles, before kissing you again. “I couldn't stand it, I'm sorry. I know we're dating in front of our families, but I like you for real. And everyone's here trying to date you, and it felt good knowing that you were with me in a way, but I want to be with you in every way, in front of everyone, I want to be your real boyfriend" He says. 

"At least you asked this time" You smile and give him a quick kiss. "I'd love to be your real girlfriend too"

[darsynia]

Don't Read the Last Page (Tony Stark/Engineer!Reader multichapter)

Summary: Your friend Nat claims her plan to distract Tony Stark with her sex appeal isn't working, so she wants you to do it with your brain--and a sexy red dress. Things start out completely over your head and get more complicated when SHIELD becomes involved.

Length/Warnings: 3,500 | none (future smut!)

Masterlist | MCU Masterlist | Tony Stark Masterlist | Next

Excerpt:

“Put on a persona, if you have to. The one I chose, okay, yes, sex kitten, but-- and don’t laugh,” Nat sighs. “I’ve been playing it so straight, Cat. I thought sure he’d break, but it’s almost like he can tell that I know it’s innuendo? And by now it’s a game of chicken, and the man is too stubborn to lose. He’ll never back down.”

You can’t help the little smile of pride in the idea that the man you’ve been crushing on for so long can hold up against an onslaught like that, even though you haven’t ever met Tony Stark. Natasha is painfully gorgeous.

“So, what? You need me to be the Cat to your kitten?” you tease.

“Actually, yes.”

Chapter One: Alice In Wonderland

“Nat, you cannot be serious,” you say, holding your cell phone to your ear with your shoulder as you frown at the computer screen in front of you. The water temperature calculations in the unit you’re designing are all wrong, and you’d hoped to finish the associated code by tonight.

“You said you’d freelance for me, and I need you. Believe me, I’m as surprised as you are.” Natasha’s voice is every bit as dry as it always is, but today there’s a strong undercurrent of irritation that you hardly ever hear. “I can tell he’s interested, but I actually think the sex kitten thing is somehow overboard. I don’t think he’s going to go for me, but I can read him like a book. He definitely wants a connection, and I can’t risk him ending up with someone else. Bottom line: I need you.”

“I can’t believe you’re using drunken confidences against me right now! I have shit to do!” You were whining a little, but when your friend had joked that she might someday ask you to do some favors for the shadowy governmental agency she works for, you thought it was going to be related to computers, not the billionaire tech genius you’ve secretly crushed on for years.

“I think the hard to get thing might really work. Look, what we need is a sexy delaying tactic. You’re not going to have to sleep with him. You just need to catch his eye and keep him from doing anything really stupid with a woman at this birthday party. He’s feeling his mortality, Cat. We don’t want him to FIND it.”

“I still can’t believe that you, Miss Manipulation, have failed at doing it yourself,” you tease, saving your work and standing up.

“I overcompensated. It would have worked with the man in the file, but he’s not that guy anymore. Can I pick you up at 7?”

You pause in the act of shutting the light off in your office. “Woah, hold on. That was ‘wrapping up the conversation’ language. I have no idea what to wear, how to behave, where--”

“Shy sexy engineer, shy sexy engineer, Tony Stark’s Malibu mansion. I’ll pick you up.”

“Nat!” you protest, but the line has gone dead. The mirror you’ve hung on the other side of the reception desk helpfully reminds you that you’ll need to wear some extra concealer under your eyes, tonight. You’ve been pulling some late nights with this project. Productive ones, sure, but late. 

The concept is one of the most ambitious that your small design firm has taken on so far, but you’re passionate about it. The group of investors’ idea was simple: create a kiosk that can help eliminate the waste of single-use water bottles on college campuses. Students sign up and receive a BPA-free reusable water bottle that fits into any of the multiple stations placed around the campus, based on population and traffic patterns. In exchange for watching a few ads for a minute, their bottle is sanitized and filled with clean, cold, purified water for free. Companies can buy the ad space, and hopefully, if the project takes off, all that will be needed is the initial capital and a few fees for maintenance and water, paid for by the college itself. 

In theory, your small company made up of five friends with various engineering degrees definitely has the expertise to bring the concept into reality. In practice, it’s a lot bigger of a project than you had initially thought, especially now that a few schools in the area have been contacted by the investors to see if they’d be interested in being the pilot school. 

It’s far more coding than you’d anticipated, for one thing, and you’re the only one with the expertise to write it. You’ve got to finish this up, commit it, and then see if it actually works on the prototype in the back room, ideally before noon tomorrow. In a very real way, it’s your reputation, your name on the line if the company can’t deliver, for all that you’re not the face of the company. You’ve got Alan for that part. The stress has been bad enough that you stopped going by your business name in public completely, reverting back to the fanciful name you’d given yourself when you daydreamed about having a secret royal history.

You’ve shortened it to ‘Cat’ nowadays, since you’re not royal, though you are secretive. 

Even though you’re not really one for parties, you are curious about what a Stark party would be like. He’s ramped back his playboy lifestyle since miraculously returning from three months in that cave. Not all the way, though, you recall, because there was something in Monaco not that long ago, but you weren’t interested in Stark for that stuff anyway. You crush on his brain, really, though the rest of the package isn’t tough on the eyes.

If you’re honest, you’d been kind of glad that he’d gotten more serious and less reckless lately, so hearing Nat talk about him ‘feeling his mortality’ makes you worried, in a strange way. Ever since you were in high school, coming up on ten years ago, he’s been your celebrity crush, the person you kept an eye on, looked for references in all the magazines. You’re not really a celebrity watcher, but for the most part, Stark is different from an actor or sports guy. In your opinion, for a man with such innovative intelligence, his playboy lifestyle is as much of a waste of his talents as designing weapons. He’s done with the latter, but seems to be having trouble dropping the former.

Checking your watch, you sigh. It’s already five, and you need a shower. As you turn toward the stairs that lead up to the door to your apartment, you catch another glimpse of yourself in the mirror. God, you need a haircut.

“The only thing Tony Stark is going to do when he sees you is wonder who let in the mousy wallflower,” you groan. You never were a flashy, ‘draw all eyes when you walk in the door’ kind of girl, even though you do have a flair for picking clothes that accentuate your build. Still, the mirror is telling some home truths that you don’t appreciate right now, so you flip it off, holding your hand in that position as you walk up the stairs and tap out your code for the door.

An hour and a half later, and you’re in a push-up bra, matching panties, and a complete freak-out spiral. You have three dresses to choose from, and none of them are right, and you don’t have time to do anything else than pick one. You’re about to do the thing where you hang them in three different places in your room and spin around with your eyes shut till you stop with your finger pointed out, when you hear the front door opening.

It can only be one person, but you still grab your oversized white bathrobe and pull it on before you call out to her.

“Help, I am a damsel in serious distress. De-stress me, Natasha!”

“You need more friends if I’m who you would turn to for that,” Natasha says. She’s wearing a tight gray dress that, while stunning, doesn’t look like a party frock at all.

“Wait, is there a party? Because that is NOT what you of all people would wear to one. This is not a ‘you’ party dress. Particularly not if you’re… what did you call it? Trying to ‘sex kitten’ Tony Stark!” you protest, crossing your arms against the thick terry cloth of your robe.

“Settle,” Natasha says, but her lips curl up into a kind of a secret smile. “The party’s later, and I have to go in early. My boss wanted to talk to you a little bit beforehand.”

You back up and fall back onto your bed. “No, no, no, you’ve told me about your boss. He’s badass and terrifying.” Your tone turns whiny, then resolute. “I have stuff to do, Nat! I am reneging, right here, right now.”

Even as you say the words, your inner fangirl screams at you. No way do you want to miss the chance to be in the same room as Tony Stark, even if it means you have to withstand being glared at by Nat’s one-eyed scary spy boss.

“No, you’re not. Because I need you, and you will never forgive yourself.” Natasha is, as always, completely self-assured in the face of your frantic protestations. You’ll never forget the crazy way the two of you met, when she’d ducked into your store and frowned, confused, when she’d seen the empty racks for what had used to be a clothing store. After taking in her tight pleather fighting outfit, you’d thought fast, taking off your white hooded sweatshirt and tossing it to her. Natasha had put it on right away and you’d sat on the receptionist’s desk you were setting up, pulling open a folder and leaning over as if to present a proposal to a person sitting at the desk. She’d vaulted over the desk in a truly spectacular move, seating herself and zipping up the sweatshirt just in time.

The door had opened seconds later, revealing a tall, burly, terrifying-looking man in tradesmen’s clothing. “We’re closed!” you’d called out, and he’d grunted, looking around a few seconds before leaving.

“What about this one?” Nat says, from deep inside your closet. She emerges with a red dress that you’d bought once on a deep discount and then hidden in the closet, too embarrassed to picture yourself ever actually wearing it in public. It’s skin-tight, and the neckline/straps make up a bold X that crosses your chest in a brighter red than the rest of the fabric. Under the X is a second stylized X that stretches up to make a diamond gap between the two. The cut-out gives a daring glimpse of the lower curves of your breasts before the second X continues down to hug your hips. The damned thing continues its ‘high fashion’ nonsense in an angled cut just below your knees, except for where it slices up into a slit on your left leg, making a third, smaller X.

“I can’t wear a bra with that, Nat!” you hiss, even as you take the hanger and look at it. “Not to mention the fact that it’s literally a triple-X dress!”

“Just tell your inner self you’re living the dream?”

“I can’t believe I ever told you about having a crush on him. You know I’ll never trust you with anything ever again?” you gripe.

“Put on the dress, I don’t want to be late.”

It’s Stark’s favorite color, and actually fits perfectly. After you touch up your makeup to make it a bit more aggressive, with red lipstick that matches the dress (the one concession you’d made to someday choosing to wear it. The color’s been taunting you in your makeup bag since you’d come home with the damned thing), you’re actually feeling like a confident, capable person.

“That’s right,” Natasha says, coming up behind you and making eye contact with you in the mirror. “Put on a persona, if you have to. The one I chose, okay, yes, sex kitten, but-- and don’t laugh,” she sighs. “I’ve been playing it so straight, Cat. I thought sure he’d break, but it’s almost like he can tell that I know it’s innuendo? And by now it’s a game of chicken, and the man is too stubborn to lose. He’ll never back down.”

You can’t help the little smile of pride in the idea that the man you’ve been crushing on for so long can hold up against an onslaught like that, even though you haven’t ever met Tony Stark. Natasha is painfully gorgeous.

“So, what? You need me to be the Cat to your kitten?” you tease.

“Actually, yes.”

“Okay, I’ll wear this, but I’m not comfortable with the message the top… everything this dress is sending, so...” you say, and head over to the closet. On the way, you notice how you’re walking with more sway to your hips, like you can’t help yourself. You definitely feel like someone else, someone more bold, maybe? It’ll crumble completely if you were faced with the man himself, not that you probably will. Even with your assets on display like this, you’re still you, shy but tenacious, a ‘watch and learn’ kind of girl. Basically the opposite of his type. After years of spending time with every kind of woman, all of whom are begging for his attention, Stark will probably look past you like you’re not even there.

In the closet you find the long rectangular gold scarf/shawl your aunt had given you for Christmas what feels like fifty years ago. It’s still new in its rolled up package, and when you pull it out, you realize that its crinkled texture hides the folds perfectly. With the shawl wrapped around your shoulders in just the right way, the dress doesn’t look anywhere near as indecent as it did without. You look at yourself in the mirror one last time as you slip on your shoes, and the whole ‘sexy dress, demure shawl’ thing almost seems like a metaphor for the ‘hidden depths’ your family always joked that you have.

They wouldn’t appreciate these particular ‘depths,’ though. The only thing keeping you going is the fact that you look very different from your normal self. If everything crashes and burns, you can just pretend it wasn’t you, right?

“Okay, I’m convinced. Give him one glimpse of what’s under there and he’ll definitely be distracted,” Natasha says with a smirk.

“I bet he won’t even look in my direction,” you tell her as the two of you walk down the stairs and onto the store floor. It is, of course, devoid of the clothes racks that had been there when Natasha had barged into her accidentally unlocked door, that day. Now, eighteen months later, there’s hardly any customer-facing space at all, with double-high cube shelving separating the small lobby area from her colleagues’ workspaces. It’s cozy, but your company does decent business, and you’re proud of how far it’s come since then.

“I’ll take that bet,” Natasha says, pushing the door open with her ass and smiling a secret, knowing smile. “If he talks to you within the first half hour, you owe me my favorite take-out.” 

The place in question is basically impossible to park at, meaning if you lose, you’ll have to park fifteen minutes away to pick up the food. However, you picture the kinds of parties you’ve seen in magazines, with beautiful people all crammed together in a darkened room, and can’t help but feel confident. You don’t have the money, the attitude, or the clout to draw the attention of someone like Tony Stark.

“You’re on.”

When you get to a nondescript office building and park, Nat assures you that there’ll be a car coming to pick you up and waves you into the building. Once you’re inside, you see a man standing with his back to you, his long black trench coat doing all the work for him. 

“Nice to finally meet you, Catriona,” he says, still faced away. “Or should I call you Cat?”

“Feeling more like the mouse today,” you say, disconcerted that he knows your 'secret identity.'

“Don’t worry, you’re not prey. Not for me, anyway. Natasha tells me you were up to do her a favor,” he says, finally turning. He’s wearing an actual eye patch, and the front of him is every bit as badass-intimidating as the back of his black boots and coat had implied.

“You know technically, she owes me,” you point out. “And, is this a safe house? Wait-- don’t tell me anything top secret. I like my life. I don’t want to be in the witness protection program.”

You’re babbling, which is the other side of your extreme lock-up, ‘freeze and hope no one notices you’ coping mechanism.

“Nothing we’re asking you to do is at witness protection level. Just be beautiful, enigmatic, and smart.”

You can feel a blush rising on your face. “Uh, maybe I have the wrong building?”

“You think I’d let you in here if I didn’t know everything there is to know about you?”

Your stomach drops. “Can we start over? We can do the introduction part, and then I can find the floor I’m actually supposed to be on, and we can forget this ever--”

“Cat…” the man says, adding more gravitas to the name than you have in the decade-plus you’ve used it. “--did you know for the first few months, I thought you were an actual feline? You’ve been good for Natasha. Grounded her in the real world. She made me promise not to scare the shit out of you, and I think I’ve failed,” the man says. “My name is Nick Fury. I run an organization called SHIELD. We’ve had our eye on Stark for a while, mostly because we’d like to make sure he doesn’t implode and take half of the security of the country with him. We’re coming up on a delicate time, and I need to know I can count on you.”

You are starting to feel a little woozy. Fury can tell, you think, because he walks over, passes you to head into an alcove by the door, and comes out with a small chair. Even though you’re standing in what amounts to a darkened lobby, he places it right in the middle and gestures. You sit, because the alternative is to try to run out of here in heels, and if you did that, Natasha would make fun of you until the end of time. It’s really unfair of her, honestly.

“The bottom line, young lady, is that Stark’s a ladies' man, but his tastes are changing. Time was, he would have gone all in on someone like the character Natasha’s currently playing, but now, who knows?” Fury sighs. “Making his PA the CEO was actually one of the most brilliant ideas the man’s had since Afghanistan. But not if they’re going to be involved. That was what Natasha was supposed to deflect him from.”

“Wait,” you say, straightening up in the chair. “I’m just going to a party. I get to look pretty and be ignored by my celebrity crush. That’s it.” You’re shaking. Everything has escalated far more quickly than you ever could have expected, and you don’t even think taxis know about the building you’re currently freaking out in. You feel trapped, even though your faith in Natasha is strong enough that you don’t feel in any physical danger.

“Of course,” Fury says expansively. “I’m just letting you know what’s at stake.”

He’s trying to use your innate sense of responsibility to influence you, and while you’re offended, you’re also kind of impressed.

“I see why you’re the boss, anyway,” you mutter. Then, louder, you add, “But you’re not my boss. I’m self-employed. And not in the ‘boss babe’ kind of way.”

“I can respect that,” Fury says. He spins around to start pacing, heading away from you, before turning around and coming halfway back to stop and look at you. “I am not asking you to do anything you wouldn’t already feel comfortable doing.”

“That is such a line,” you blurt out, twisting your hands in your lap. “What if I tell you I’m not comfortable holding this conversation, or knowing the things you’ve already told me?”

“That is manifestly obvious. It’s also what makes you perfect for the thing I’m asking you to do.”

“What are you asking me to do?” you demand, the words coming out in a choked gasp. You’re so out of your element you can barely breathe, and the worst part is, Fury’s instincts are spot on. You feel a sense of responsibility, not just to Natasha, but to Stark. He's the sort of person who shows up in the news as often for a dazzling tech breakthrough as for a catastrophic break-up... or a kidnapping.

“Be yourself. In the process, give Tony Stark someone intriguing to focus on. Someone who isn’t his CEO. Think of it as helping him diversify.”

“If I called you a pimp right now, would you throw me out?” you ask, standing up and squaring your shoulders. You’ve always lashed out when cornered.

Fury laughs. “Stop trying to chew off your own leg and learn to adapt to the shackle. For all we know, this could just be for tonight.”

Until that moment, it hadn’t even occurred to you that it wouldn’t just be for tonight. You watch as Nick Fury casually checks his watch.

“Guests are starting to arrive. I’ve ordered a driver for you. The make and model of the car along with your attire should be enough to get you admitted, and if not, Agent Romanoff will. It’s been a pleasure.”

He holds his hand out to shake yours for the first time that night, and when you take it, your own is shaking.

“Chill. It’s not an assassination,” Fury tells you, squeezing your hand before letting go.

“Like you’d tell me it was at Employee Orientation anyway,” you grumble.

His laughter follows you out the door, where you find a sleek black car that’s probably worth just about as much as your salary for a year.

“Out of the frying pan and down the rabbit hole, I guess,” you sigh, opening the door and climbing inside.

To be continued...

Cat is kind of egged on out of her comfort zone in this chapter, thanks to Natasha's influence and her sense of duty-- but she can't keep up that intensity forever!

[letters-from-dekarios]

(Dreuer is a middle aged tiefling durge warlock. He’s a gentle old soul, and from act 1 has always looked to Gale as a source of information and reassurance.

Their relationship is one of deep affection and sharp academic rivalry.

Post game, while largely living and working together, sometimes Dreuer’s research into Bhaal and Bhaalspawn takes him away from Waterdeep. On one of his adventures, he writes Home. This blog is absolutely delightful I hope you are having a lot of fun with it.)

Gale;

As expected, there is a wealth of information in Candlekeep, more so that I was able to find in Waterdeep. The Blackstaff should consider expanding.

This however is not the reason for my letter.

You explicitly stated you had not removed my dagger from my pack and yet it isn’t here.

Did it walk off on its own or did you once again go through my things looking for a letter opener?

It is not a letter opener.

Gale.

NOT a letter opener.

It would be beneficial for you to visit the athenaeum here when you are able to tear yourself away from the Academy. You might learn something.

Let it be known I also met a very kindly dog. His name was Arnold.

I do hope my correspondence hasn’t left you feeling too envious.

Yours always,

Dreuer.

Ps. I found the dagger, it was under my socks. But you are still on thin ice, love.

My treasured Dreuer,

I am glad to hear your adventure is serving your mind well. I’ll bring the consideration up to the Academy once I have a moment to review your findings when you return. You know I must go in prepared before their grimy hands can go about devouring any new information.

While I love you deeply, it is disheartening to hear you believe me to be a thief. I would never remove such a crucial piece of your pack from you, especially not with the journey to Candledeep.

I’m not sure whether to be more offended at the accusation or the insinuation that I do not know the difference between a letter opener and a dagger. That mistake only happened once! Yet you lord it over my head as if I would ever repeat it.

On an unrelated note, we do need to begin labeling our medicine bottles. They look far too similar to the dyes we have stored away and I will not elaborate any further.

Perhaps I may visit someday soon, but the ink wasted in writing your accusation could have served you some groundbreaking study time. Save your pages for the books you’ve yet to read, dear.

Give plenty of pets to Arnold from me, if you happen across him again.

I’m actually having quite a lovely time in Waterdeep with the pure silence surrounded by the hundreds of books I’ve already read. There’s not a lick of envy to be found within my heart, swear on my mother.

Eternally yours,

𝑮𝒂𝒍𝒆 𝑫𝒆𝒌𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒔

P.S. I wonder how it got there! I may be talented, but my spells can’t reach far enough to move it. Maybe it was Arnold.

text reads: gale dekarios

writing this had me giggling so hard while imagining gale’s tone of voice. i can hear the sass as he writes it, repeating the words on dreuer’s letter in a mocking tone. like “yOu mIgHt lEaRN soMeThiNg” and then he goes and cries because he misses him and is definitely 100% jealous. ~kore

[wardencallings]

I was inspired by Harding's unsent letter to her mother to write one I think she'd pen after getting together with Rook and just before the fight with Ghilan'nain. Enjoy!

Ma,

It’s almost time. We have only weeks until Ghilan’nain and Elgar’nan perform their ritual and try to end the world. I won’t lie to you, I’m scared. Rook says we’re ready, and we have so many allies now, but Ma, it still seems impossible. Although, I would’ve said the same about a dwarf having magic, and look at me now. Moving rocks with my mind and lyrium in my blood!

Your letter has kept my spirits up. I read it all the time, and I’m always wondering if I’m making you proud out here. I’m really trying, Ma. I’ve been helping the dwarves of Kal-Sharok learn more about the Stone. Neve and I have been tending to the people in Dock Town in Mintrathous, and I’m even helping Davrin train Assan so that the griffon can become a great Warden someday. 

I’ve been keeping Taash company since their mom died. It’s made me think about you a lot. I hope you’re safe in Ferelden. Rook let me read the letters from the Inquisitor about the south and Maker, Ma, I can’t believe things have gotten so bad since I left. Do you know if the farm is okay? What about our neighbors? Have you heard from any of my friends? I’m just grateful that the Inquisitor got you to safety. I owe her so much. Hopefully saving the world will be enough to repay her.

I keep thinking about my time in the Inquisition. I think it was easier being one of the little people who existed in the background of the Inquisitor’s inner circle. I liked it there. I felt like I was a part of something, but I wasn’t in charge of anything but scouting and sometimes Leliana's ravens. Now, I have all these responsibilities, and I’m always close to the action. Almost too close. Speaking of close…

There’s something I have to tell you before whatever comes next. I’m seeing someone. I definitely wasn’t expecting it, and I don’t think he was either, but Rook and I are together. It just happened. For months I thought he was just being nice. It wouldn’t be the first time I misread someone’s kindness as something more. How embarrassing would it have been to assume there were feelings involved and be wrong? Things would’ve been so awkward! Then I started having nightmares and he offered to stay by my side and then I kissed him and almost killed him and he still wanted to be with me! 

I don’t know what will happen when we take on the gods, and honestly, I don’t really want to guess. All I know is Rook promised me that he’ll be by my side no matter what. He takes care of me, Ma. It’s almost like he knows what I need before I need it. Just the other day he showed up with a pot of my favorite stew, just the way you make it. He’d remembered me telling him about it weeks ago and asked Lucanis for help putting it together. And I caught him a couple of days ago waiting for me in my room, whispering to my plants about how much he likes me. I’d told him that talking to them makes them grow stronger, and telling them happy things keeps them healthy, so he chose to talk about me! 

I promise when this is over I’ll introduce you to him. Just maybe avoid showing him the baby portraits of me? And please don’t tell him that story about me falling off my horse? Or actually, don’t tell him any of your stories. He thinks I’m cool, Ma. Let’s not ruin that yet.

Love,

Lace

[maybeijustwanttobeme]

Chapter 1: At the Sound of their Roar

Pairing: Aemond Targaryen x Lannister!Female!Reader

Warning: swearing, violence and spoilers.

Summary: What happened when a dragon and a lion fall in love.

Notes: English is not my first language.

-What titles did Aegon, the Conqueror, give to the Lannister family? 

-Lords Paramount of the Westerlands and Wardens of the West.- Y/N asked. She was tired of her daily lessons.- Are we done?

-For the moment, yes. We will continue later.- the lion cub smiled and almost ran out of her apartments at the Red Keep. 

She started looking for him. 

All the Red Keep knew of the cub’s tendency to engage in a conversation despite only being 10 years old. She expected, almost demanded, an answer to each of her questions. All the Ladies, Lords, servants, and even the King hag grew fond of their little conversations or interrogations. 

Her parents, Lord Jason Lannister of Casterly Rock and Lady Johanna Westerling, had sent her to court with her uncle Tyland. In the beginning, Jason refused to send her only daughter to the Capital; however, his lady wife insisted. She argued her daughter would learn how to navigate her duty as a highborn lady there than in Casterly Rock. 

Jason was satisfied with his heirs, but there was no doubt that his daughter was the apple of his eye. With a broken heart, he let his daughter travel to the Red Keep with Tyland. 

The little cub passed near where Princess Rhaynera was giving birth to her third child. She was curious about what the baby would be like. 

On her way, she caught sight of Harwin Strong with a worried face. He felt her look and smiled back. He is a good person, she thought. She still did not understand the consequences of his actions. 

She found the person she was looking for: Aemond. He was sitting at the foot of the Iron Throne practicing his High Valyrian. 

-I thought you’d be at the Dragon Pit by now. 

-Not yet. My nephews are waiting for their new brother to give him his egg.- he replied. He was still focused on his book. 

-I prefer lions.- she sat beside him. Aemond stopped reading his book to see her with a face of disbelief. 

-Why? Lions are weak compared to dragons. 

-First, I’m a proud Lannister and second, their mane should be soft. I want one. 

-I’m sure if you asked Lord Jason for one, he’d send it to you so we could have it here. 

-I know, but I don’t want your brother and your nephews to want to feed their dragons with my lion. 

-Wise girl. 

-I’d like my father to give me a dragon... or even a lion. 

-He loves you, but he is ill.- she tried to encourage him.  

-No, he loves Rhaenrya. Helaena, Daeron and I do not exist. And Aegon less and less each day. I could die tomorrow, and he would not notice. 

-But your mother would. 

-Yes, she’d definitely notice.- both chuckled. 

-I would notice it. And don’t worry, you will one day have your dragon as I will have my lion.- she said so sure that for a few seconds, Aemond believed he would have a dragon. 

-You are really that sure? 

-Yes! - she stood and saw the Iron Throne.- As well as someday a Lannister will sit on the Iron Throne. 

-That could be considered great treason.- he stood beside her watching the throne. 

-If Lannister marries a Targaryen and they have a son, that baby could sit on the throne. 

-It would be a Targaryen. 

-It would be a Lannister.- both laughed. 

-Targaryen-Lannister.- Aemond repeated it in his mind- sounds... 

-Powerful. 

***

Curiosity won over the cub. She was looking for the Queen when she saw that the princess had returned to her apartment with her husband. 

The Guards announced her arrival. She did not find the Queen alone; she did her courtesy towards the King and the Queen. 

-Lady Lannister- the King greeted. 

-Your Grace.- the cub saw the opportunity to talk about Aemond to the King.- I was with Aemond. He is advancing very well with his High Valyrian.- before she could continue, the King interrupted. 

-I’ll summon him soon. - the cub didn’t want to give up, but the Queen squeezed her shoulders slightly to stop her. 

Y/N didn’t understand why the King didn’t want to see Aemond. She knew the princess and wasn’t as intelligent as Aemond. She understood why he didn’t want to see Aegon. 

-I am very grateful for your support to Aemond.- the Queen knew that the little Lannister had a special connection with Aemond. In addition to just being a year younger, the lioness’s infinite curiosity and determination for his son created a special bond between them. 

Y/N loved the Queen almost like her own mother. The Queen Alicent filled the emptiness she had when she missed her mother. 

-Is the baby cute? 

-Yes, like all babies.- the Queen answered sincerely.  

-A girl?

-No, a boy

-A strong boy? 

-Yes, strong and healthy. His name is Joffrey.- not a Targaryen name, she thought. 

-I hope your egg doesn’t hatch.- she confessed. 

-We should not wish for that. He is just a baby.- the Queen scold her gently. 

-Jace, Luke, and Aegon bother Aemond a lot for not having a dragon. Maybe if it was one of his brothers does not have a dragon, they could stop bothering Aemond. - The Queen hugged the girl. 

-How excited are you to spend some time at Casterly Rock?- the excited girl told the Queen everything she wanted to do when she got home.

They both had a pleasant time. It was hard for Alicent not to compare Y/N to her daughter. Healena was hard to connect with. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t understand her daughter’s fascination with bugs, while Y/N could talk about anything a 10-year-old girl did. Lord Jason would not marry his daughter so young, and the Queen would support this. She didn’t want the girl’s glow to fade if she had to get married as young as she did. Somehow, the Queen was reliving part of her childhood with her. It reminded her of when she was with Johana and Rhaenyra at her age; before facing the cruel reality. 

The Queen rose hastily to see her son when the guards arrived with Aemond.

***

Her uncle, Tyland, had announced to her that before going to Casterly Rock, they would go to the funeral of Lady Leana as representatives of the House Lannister. He warned her about her behaviour. 

-Go and give Lady Leana’s daughters some comforting words. They’ll need a friend.- her uncle said kindly. 

-Should I see Jace and Luke too?- the news about the death of Harwin Strong and his father had arrived. The cub did not have sympathy for the King's grandchildren after the joke about the pig. 

-That would be treason.- he warned her.  

-Telling the truth should not be treason.- Tyland pressed his cheek and pointed him to go with the girls. 

Aemond approached to fire pit with Jace. He couldn’t tell him how sorry he was for Harwin's death. He would remember him with affection, always giving away sweets incognito. Although he knew it was for the Velaryon children, they all enjoyed extra sweets. 

Aemond’s attempted smile and Jace’s disgusted look were not what they wanted to say. 

The lioness could only smile at the girls because her grandmother had arrived with them. Rhaenys did not want anyone to join them. 

She approached Aemond. They were in silence. None of the children knew what they had to do or to feel, but they could perfectly sense the tension of the adults. 

Aemond needed a few minutes alone with Y/N to tell her the plan. He decided he was claiming Vhagar. If anything happened to him, he needed someone to know and that someone was Y/N. 

-I will claim Vhagar. I can finally have my dragon and the greatest of Westeros.- he paused for a brief moment.- or I may not return. 

-You will return with the biggest dragon of Westeros. I will be waiting for you at the entrance.- she supported him. He deserved a dragon as fierce as him. 

Y/N took Aemond’s hand to give him confidence. He wanted to kiss her. He had never kissed anyone, and Aegon had told him it was time to kiss women. 

-Go get your dragon.- she kissed him sweetly on the cheek. 

***

Y/N was nervous about Aemond coming back. He has to come back, she thought. 

Minutes passed, but she could only hear the torches. More minutes passed, and Y/N turned around to go after the guards, but a powerful growl caught her attention. 

-He claimed it!- she smiled.

Her smile faded when she heard steps and voices.

-What are you doing here? - Y/N asked the Targaryen girls and the Velaryon boys. 

-We heard Vhagar. What are you doing here?- the elder girl asked angrily. 

-I don’t have to give you explanations.  

-We’re Velaryon; we’re in Driftmark, and you’re...- Jace was interrupted.

- A Lannister. I don’t have to give you any explanation. 

-It’s him.- Baela pointed Aemond out. 

-It’s me.- Aemond took off his cloak. 

-Vhagar is my mother’s dragon. 

-Your mother is dead, and Vhagar has a new rider.- he stated.  The other four children were angry. Y/N almost ran to Aemond's side. 

-She was mine to claim!- Aemond got in front of Y/N. 

-Then you should’ve claimed her! Maybe your cousins can find you a pig to ride. It would suit you.- Y/N took Aemond by the shoulder to leave, but Baela walked to wrestle with Aemond, he pushed her to the ground, and Rhaena hit him. Aemond returned the punch. Y/N stopped Rhaena before she could punch Aemond back, but the Targaryen girl managed to punch her in the face. 

-Come at us again, and I’ll feed you to my dragon! - Aemond tried to help Y/N, but Jace started throwing punches, Aemond managed to defend himself with a kick, but the four children attacked him. 

Y/N tried to pull Jace, but he punched her Y/N. She screamed. 

Aemond alerted by the scream managed to kick Jace and then his cousins. Luke attacked again, but Aemond was faster and grabbed him by the neck. He takes a raised rock threatening him. He saw Y/N running out and screaming for the guards. 

-You will die screaming in flames just as your father did! Bastards. 

-My father is still alive.- Luke whined. Aemond lowered the rock. 

-He doesn’t know, does he, Lord Strong? - Jace pulled out a blade.  

He begins to threaten Aemond. He continues with the stone in his hand. Luke with a scream cuts his eye. Aemond falls to the ground as he screams and covers his eye. 

- Aemond! -Y/N ran to see how Luke took the blade but failed to get help.

The Guards were too late. 

***

-Aemond will have the truth of what happened. Now! - the King shouted at his son.

-What else is there to hear? Our child has been mutilated. Your grandchild is responsible.- the Queen was furious. Not even his father had seen this side of Alicent.  

-It was a regrettable accident. 

-Accident? Prince Lucerys brought a sword into the ambush. He wanted to kill my son.

-It was my children who were attacked and forced to defend themselves. Vile insults went against them.- Rhaenyera defended her children.  

-What insults? - the King asked. 

-The legitimacy of my children’s birth was called into question. 

-He called us bastards.-Jace muttered. 

-My children are in the line to inherit the Iron Throne, Your Grace. This is the highest betrayal. Prince Aemond must be strongly questioned, so we can know where he heard such slanders. - Aemond turned to see his half-sister and bastards. He just lost an eye, and he has to endure being questioned. 

-For an insult? My son has lost an eye. - the Queen was perplexed.

The lioness knew that no justice would be done for Aemond’s eye. The King decided to give more importance to an insult than his son’s eye. 

The King demanded apologies, but those were never heard. 

***

-Your parents would have a word with the Queen for this.- in the ambush, Jace broked Y/N's nose.

-There is debt to be paid- she repeated the words of the Queen. 

- A Lannister always pays his debts.- His uncle replied. She smiled. 

Her nose would be avenged, and somehow the Lannisters would help avenge Aemond’s eye, as the King had strayed by a few insults. 

-You’ll have new and more guards.

-What are you going to do to the others? 

-Your father will decide. Now, go to say goodbye. I still have some business with the Hand. Try not to get into trouble.- he warned. 

-I’ll try.

She had a headache. The Maesters had told her it was normal. If a broken nose could hurt, she could not imagine the pain of losing an eye. 

The little cub went to see Aemond.

The Queen was leaving Aemond's room. She explained that Aemond was sleeping due to the milk of the poppy for the pain. 

Upon returning to the room, she encountered the four attackers in the hall. They were calm as if nothing had happened the night before. With her new guards she approached the bastards and their cousins. 

-You haven’t apologized.- she faced them.  

-What for? - Jace asked. 

-He stole Vhagar- Rhaena attacked. 

-And you are the Targaryens?- the cub mocked them.- You should know that a person can’t steal a dragon. He claimed Vhagar fairly. 

-He called us bastards! 

-If a person had to lose a part of their body every time they insulted someone, no one could survive. Not even you! It’s an insult to tell the Prince that he should ride a pig.- the boys were getting nervous.- What should you lose? 

-Are you threatening us? - Jace asked, startled to see the lioness’s cold gaze and her four guards behind.  

-There is debt to be paid, and a Lannister always pays his debts. 

Otto saw everything and knew that cub would grow up to be a great lioness. A lioness who hunts dragons. A lioness who will support his little dragons. 

-The King said he will have the tongue of anyone who spreads those accusations, Lady Lannister.- Daemon said, appearing from one of the corners. The dragon thought that the lioness will bow, but she didn’t. 

-Then remove my tongue. I am sure you have a blade with you, Prince Daemon.- The Rogue Prince was surprised. The little cub had more blood than some of the Targaryen.- Guard, give me your blade.- her guards did not give her one until Y/N demanded it. 

She threw it at the Prince’s feet. 

The echo of the blade was the only sound heard at Driftmark for a moment. Daemon slowly approached the blade. The guards took on the handle of their swords, preparing to face the Prince. 

-This is madness even for you Daemon.- the Hand of the King intervened. 

-You heard my brother. He was very clear, and Lady Lannister insists on serving her punishment. 

-She is a child! 

-She knows what bastards mean. She knows the penalty, and you know that I like to enforce the laws.

-Then do it.- the guards drew their swords, and Daemon slowly approached to see if the puppy approached her guards, but out of her heavier breath, her position did not change.

-I just hope you're ready for a war with the Lannisters.-

Daemon stopped watching Otto as if he’d just ruined his hunt. 

-The Lannisters are a great family that honours the laws. They will understand that their daughter broke the law.- Daemonwas close enough to attack at any time. 

-Be prepared for war.- Otto repeated.- Not a single person will support you on this, not even your brother. 

Daemon knew Otto was right, but he couldn’t let a girl win. The Lannsiter had insulted his daughters. She had made his blood look like weak cravens. 

-Lady Lannister should apologize.- Daemon wanted at least to humiliate the proud lion. 

-No.- she roared. 

Otto agreed with the lioness. She wasn’t a cub anymore. Not after facing Daemon Targaryen. 

-Then your tongue is it.- the chaos broke out

-Dameon! Guards! - shouted Otto pushed Y/N behind his back. 

-What’s the meaning of this?! - before a tragedy, Tyland stopped the madness. 

-I told the bastards that they should apologize for what happened last night.- she explained while leaving the Hand's back.- Prince Dameon wants justice as the King demanded because I broke the law by calling them bastards. He demands my tongue, uncle. I even gave him the blade.- Tyland knew Y/N was impulsive, but she never thought she could do anything stupid like this. 

-You’re not going to touch my niece. She’s not going to apologize, she didn’t insult you last night or did she? - the kids denied.- Jace Velaryon broke her nose, and clearly, she justice or at least an apology. 

Daemon threw the blade back at Y/N. 

-You can have hit, Prince. The handle has gold. I think you may need the gold ,or for your cowardly nephews to remember that there is a debt to pay, and the Lannister always pays their debts. 

Daemon saw them all leave. His daughters and nephews behind him were scared. The Lannister girl was right; four dragons had been cornered by a small lioness. 

Daemon picked up the blade. The handle had a golden lion. 

The Rogue Prince had to admit he was impressed of the fiercer of the lioness. 

There was a debt to be paid. 

She wanted an eye, and he wanted a tongue. 

[ontheroad-again]

💥 What is one canon thing that you wish you could change?

🐇 Do you write for yourself, for others, or both?

🌻 How often do you read your own fics?

📗 Do you want to write something outside of fanfiction? If so, what about?

💥 What is one canon thing that you wish you could change?

MSec: Less Henry and Elizabeth and the kids and more perspectives from the staff!!! Nadine especially (obviously), but all of them, really. I think one of the (many, many) things The West Wing got right was giving every senior staff character enough screen time to be fully fleshed out from day one, and MSec really didn’t do enough of that. There’s a reason why people love The Seventh Floor and a couple other more staff-centered episodes so much–those felt like watching the gears turning in the State Department instead of “Perfect Married Couple Agonize Over Problem Child of the Day.” I think that’s part of why I write so much Nadine, Blake, and Jay—everything outside of H/E seems to be lacking in quantity both in canon and fandom writings. 

Also, the obvious: Have Nadine stay through the end. The show was really a shell of itself within a season of her exit and I don’t think they ever really made up for that. 

Cheers: Lilith’s exit from Cheers. I understand the need to write her out because Bebe was leaving, but a) there were so many other ways to do that and b) the eventual divorce would still have been believable without Lilith having an affair. And if nothing else, I find it completely out of character that she would leave Frederick to do so.

🐇 Do you write for yourself, for others, or both?

50/50. I am guilty of pouring all of my own issues and feelings onto characters in order to process them, so in that regard, I largely write for myself. In fact, I had written a significant amount of MSec fics (and West Wing fics, actually) for four years before I decided to post anything—I really just love the writing process, plus it was like a strange form of journaling for me 🤣 But I’m glad I started posting fics, because it has been very fun to write for others as well and hear people’s thoughts about my writing and what they enjoy in stories. (Yay for external validation 🤣) And having an audience, no matter how small, definitely makes it much easier to motivate myself to keep chipping away at a story chapter/topic that is proving difficult for me to get past for whatever reason.

🌻 How often do you read your own fics? 

Fairly regularly. I feel as though when I write multichapters I sometimes lose the style, cadence, rhythm, etc. that I work very hard at getting right in my one-chapter character study/theme-based pieces. So I’ll often return to fics like Lua, March, Doomsday (usually the slightly longer one-chapter ones) and reread them to reset my brain back to focusing on rhythm and the natural crescendo of whatever piece I’m currently writing. 

📗 Do you want to write something outside of fanfiction? If so, what about?

Yes!!! I want a career that involves writing in some form—no idea what that will be yet, but that is the goal! I write songs and prose-poem type things in my free time already, and I have a couple of partially finished book drafts lying around, especially one that is on hold currently because I am about to have zero free time for the next two months. And I love essay-type writing too–it’s almost always my favorite part of school and I would not at all mind getting to write essays or formal papers for part of work someday. 

Thank you for the ask! :)

[bbc2pastmidnight]

So obsessed with the variability of valid readings of Edgeworth’s relationship with sex / sexuality. This is slightly long so I’ll put it under the cut.

He’s a virgin; he’s a whore. He’s trans (both ways, depending who you ask or what mood they’re in); he’s the most unbearable rich cis gay man to ever walk the earth (you know the type). He’s aromantic; he falls in love with anyone who’s nice to him, even if he knows that outward “niceness” is just their personality. He can’t love anyone whom he can’t respect, so he likes to be put in his place (roughly); he finds comfort in his own projection of superiority, and feels his best standing and gloating over someone he’s defeated (in any sense). He revels in the simplicity of taking a physical beating; he just wants to be held. He can’t stand to give up control, and will do anything to anyone to maintain it; having control entirely seized from him is the best thing he can imagine. He’s a sadist, he’s a masochist, or he’s too tired, so tired of perfectly fulfilling every role in his life already. He just wants a hand to squeeze quietly under the table, to have a reason to learn how to cook; domesticity repels and terrifies him, who grew up in a cold house and expects to die in the familiar comfort of a frigid one (where the spotless kitchen is never used and the cushions are always arranged just-so, where he can let his guard down, focus on work till the wee hours of the morning and shuffle to a cool, silent bedroom: numb, but not painful).

He’s a top; he’s a bottom. He typically finds sex repulsive and awkward and alarming; or he doesn’t view it as anything personal at all, the same as going out for a drink after work to try and unwind. He’s dying to submit to something; he’ll fight tooth and claw before someone sees him so vulnerable. He knows he’s handsome and how to use this to get what he wants (and has done since an alarmingly young age); he’s so buttoned-up and stiff that the impropriety of attempting such a thing is unthinkable.

I honestly feel that there’s text to support one, both, or a mixture of any of these readings, and seeing other peoples’ interpretations rarely feels entirely wrong because he’s such a self-contradictory character. He often seems to know what he wants, and he sometimes seems to know what’s good for him, yet he rarely seems to desire what would be good for him at all. Even as his character develops and grows older and seems to accept himself more and grow back into the person he always seems to have been at his core, there’s still this stubborn sense of self-loathing that’s been hammered into him for so long. It’s nowhere near as bad as when he was young, like in the first game or in flashback cases, and he’s clearly doing better and is a lot more comfortable, but even if he’s attained some level of not-hurting, it doesn’t mean that he’s good, you know ? And this seems to hold him back from…something. I think from what depends on your reading of him, ultimately. But some young, vindictive part of him still doesn’t want to lose, somehow, I think. And this presents as very contradictory actions and reactions over time. This can be said of his whole character, not just his sexuality, obviously, but I think that since there is so much writing and speculation about his (and other characters’s) sexual preferences among fans etc, it is a useful vessel for communicating this important aspect of his character, this push and pull of his own psyche.

I’ll definitely cringe to look back on this someday and I haven’t even proofread it now, but I do have brain worms that I wanted to release into the ether. Now that they have seen the open air (the worms, I mean) I will retreat back into the hole from whence i came.

PS. I can’t believe this is the pink guy from gay lawyer game

[flowersandbirdsflyingfree]

Ultimis’ Favorite Things! (What Makes Them Happy)

Tank Dempsey

A big chunk is revealed in his World at War bio. “Hand him a loaded weapon, a good woman, and something it shoot at and he’s happy.” Dempsey appreciates the simpler things in life. Anything that includes ass-kicking and a lovely lady by his side is enough to keep him grounded. A nice, cold beer would be nice as well!

Cats! He's a total softie about them. Tank actually owned several in his lifetime. As a kid, he had a calico cat named Sadie. She had a cat sibling named Mason, who’s fur was black and white. And then there is his orange tabby back home named Rocket. Rocket finds himself into a lot of mischief easily. Having zoomies around the house and stealing socks (and once munched on Tank’s $20 bill), he eventually calms down and Tank feels at ease having him purr on his lap.

Believe it or not, Tank does have appreciation for the great outdoors. He has a lot of fond memories about his Dad. A big majority of those memories take place camping in late summer. He finds it easier to ground himself when on a long hiking trail, birdwatching, making a campfire and canoeing. No fishing though, he will fistfight a mackerel.

Takeo Masaki

Peace and quiet. Complete solitude. He’s very introverted, perhaps to the point it’s been concerned that he’s a hikkikomori. But that won’t stop Takeo from finding a place with gentle atmosphere. A bonus if he can have a cup of tea as well, lemon ginger with a spoonful of honey to be exact.

His hobbies give his mind distraction. He enjoys tending to his small garden of flowers and a small bamboo plant. If he had to choose, he would say African daisies are his favorite flower. Takeo also loves Lily of the Valley, but knows they can be poisonous so he doesn’t have them. Other hobbies include meditation, reading, working on his memoir, keeping sharp on his combat training and his new interest in woodworking.

Takeo will light up if you have his specific type of witty humor. He isn’t always thrilled by crass comments. But there have been a few times he let it slide by for the sake of making light of a situation. The best I can describe it is that it tends to be a little snarky with some situational humor. It’s what helps him connect a bit better with Dempsey.

Edward Richtofen

I think it goes without question that he is a huge bookworm. But his taste is not what you’d expect. Aside from nonfiction involving scientific topics, he also enjoys romance novels. But he’d never confess that to anyone! One of his all time favorites is a theory written about the concept of time and quantum gravity research.

Edward has always dreamt of traveling. Technically, he is with the teleporter. But it’s not the same as having a getaway vacation like a train ride to the Swiss Alps or exploring a bustling city like New York. He recalls a few times where he tried to make a vacation out of traveling abroad for Group 935 and illuminati related purposes. And his family had visited Italy a few times in past summers as a child. Perhaps someday, he’ll be able to make this dream of his a reality.

Success, of course! Isn’t it obvious? When you’ve had so many colleagues und oppressors order you around, it’s enough of a drive to finally take control in your hands and to do things YOUR way! He’s a highly ambitious doctor. There is always a plan accompanied with a goal or purpose in the long run. The smoother things go, the more gleeful he behaves. Is that why he was so happy at Camp Edward?

I’m mad because knowing him, there is definitely one way to relieve his stress that we will NOT speak of. Ach, primitive simpelton! Instead, I’ll add that he has a soft spot for jazz music and stuffed animals (both real and the teddy bear kind)

Nikolai Belinski

There’s more depth to him than just your standard vodka answer. But we’ll kick things off and say yes he does enjoy a good drink. His favorite besides vodka is Țuică. But it’s SO strong he saves it for special occasions. And he has to drink it at home because he got kicked out at one of the bars he used to go to because of it.

Believe it or not, he’s an excellent cook! He can win the hearts of many with a warm meal. Nikolai enjoys making comforting stews to pelmeni to even bread baking every now and then. It was more frequent when he was sober but he still gives it a shot every now and then. Just as long as he’s regular drunk and not super drunk. Super drunk makes everything a bit disastrous.

Nikolai loves stories. He has many good ones to tell. But he also loves hearing from others about their lives. Nikolai also enjoys card games like blackjack or war. He’s an incredibly skilled player so if he asks you to play, know you have a real challenge on your hands