#keygarde

[gemstoneslesbian]

aai2 spoilers

   Simon Keyes acts like a damsel in distress, and Matt Engarde acts like a heroic himbo. What I’m trying to say is that I’d love to see a fic where Simon acts like Matt’s princess, Matt acts like Simon’s prince, and when their true motivations become clear they’re both like

[nebulousartist]

When you get in an argument with your cellmate-slash-boyfriend and he’s a major drama queen

[shartlord420]

Souta and Matt for the ship meme

When I started shipping it if I did:

Hmm... probably about the same time you did! I had read a bit of them in one particular Souta and Blackquill fanfiction, but I didn't give that particular pairing much thought until you did. So... a couple months back now or so?

My thoughts:

They're both lowkey disasters of human beings, but they have really nice potential if they're able to appropriately handle their individual baggage and move forward in a healthy and productive way together. If they aren't, though, they do have potential to hurt eachother immensely due to their own struggles and tendencies. So, either they'd work out beautifully, or it'd be an absolute mess. But I like to dwell on the positive! And it's fiction so we can do whatever we want, so, I vote giving them the right circumstances for them to reach their full potential.

What makes me happy about them:

I love character growth and redemption, love characters with immense flaws and who struggle to get close to others being able to overcome that and discovering the kindness and love in the world and becoming a part of that. Thinking of them in that way is a very lovely thought, and certainly brings me joy.

What makes me sad about them:

The fact that it could be so easy for things to fall apart for them with how self protective and distrusting they tend to be. Even all the love in the world can't inherently overcome that obstacle, and it wouldn't be hard for these two to find their way to an unfavorable outcome.

Things done in fanfic that annoys me:

Hm. Not much fanfic of them, so I suppose killing Matt off in that singular one? Well, besides the one you wrote, which you refuse to allow me to read.

Things I look for in fanfic:

Good characterization and understanding of the characters, and the ability to flesh out the unspoken and conceptualize realistic explanations for certain things and giving an appropriate amount of thought as to character motivations and their inner workings. And of course, fics that share my own personal headcanons.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: 

Simon Blackquill, for the both of them.

My happily ever after for them:

Them both getting therapy and actually becoming genuinely better people, inspiring one another to be better, and ending up helping with the prison system and the legal system, helping bring in the new Light Age Of The Law.

Who is the big spoon/little spoon:

They switch, but Souta is generally the little spoon, unless Matt is being particularly needy.

What is their favorite non-sexual activity:

Video games, especially extremely low quality ones that they can laugh at together.

[gemstoneslesbian]

For that recent ship ask meme, could you do the whole thing for Matt x Souta? Thanks! ^^

(Im cRYING Omg ty 💞💞 I love them so much)

❤: who is more affectionate in public? in private?

Souta is more affectionate in public because he likes the entertainment value of it, and likes to tease and play around.

He’s also more affectionate in private, but only because Matt is too guarded to allow himself to show a lot of outward affection without Souta making the first move. (Also because Souta very much wants his space at times, so Matt relies on him to make it clear when he’s up for physical contact or cutesy behavior.)

♡: who is the bigger romantic openly? secretly?

Matt for both– not that he tries to show it, but it comes through in little ways.

Souta can partake in romantic behavior, but when it comes to actually being genuine about emotions like that, he’s shut off for a good while.

❥: who is more likely to plan something big for valentine’s day?

They’d both do something little for each other before officially dating.

After they start officially dating, they’d both do something bigger– Matt likes both giving and receiving grand acts of affection, and Souta is well aware of this.

ღ: who is more likely to initiate hand-holding in public?

Souta pre-dating, and Matt post-dating

Souta’s affection tends to be more teasing and playful, while he saves his more real and tender feelings for rare private moments. Meanwhile, once Matt lets his guards down, he eagerly spills out genuine affection whenever he can.

💕: who is more likely to make huge declarations of love in front of other people?

Matt! When it comes to Actual Declarations, that is, as opposed to acting out an improv scene for their own entertainment.

💘: who developed a crush on the other first?

Matt again; he and Souta started as casual fwb without the dating aspect, and Matt caught feelings.

For a good few years, Souta was… way too closed off from romance / love / etc to even broach the subject. The last person he was in love with is dead because of him, and he had a lot of unprocessed grief about that for a long time.

💝: who spends more time (possibly overthinking) what presents to get the other?

Matt is the overthinker, while Souta’s just like, hey this would be a cool thing to get my bf so I’m gonna get that

💓: who initiates most physical contact?

Souta! Matt craves comfort / reassurance / closeness in the form of physical affection a lot, but Souta’s the braver one and doesn’t have any issues being the one who initiates it.

💌: who is more likely to send cutesy texts to the other?

Souta would send texts so over-the-top cutesy that they’d make Matt laugh

💟: who spends time reading their zodiac compatibilities?

Definitely Matt

He’d get so involved in it that Souta would eventually have to be like “…babe, you’re not taking these seriously are you”

💙: who is more protective?

Souta is the more protective one at first, and his protective-ness doesn’t go down, but Matt’s gets stronger the longer they’re together

Matt isn’t over-the-top protective, but will definitely throw fists at someone if need be

💚: who tends to get sick more often? who is better at taking care of the other?

Souta probably gets sick more often, judging from his smaller frame and the sheer amount of stress packed inside of him (and the fact that he spent a long time without like… proper heath care or physical safety)

Souta doesn’t like being fussed over if he feels there’s actual vulnerability involved, but of course he’ll encourage it on a more surface level.

Matt’s well aware of this fact, so he ends up erring on the side of caution so he doesn’t cross boundaries or put himself out there only to be quickly shut out. He’ll help him out, but won’t make a huge deal of it.

Matt, however, is very genuinely whiny and complainy (and also more likely to panic, considering the De Killer situation) when he’s sick, and very much wants to be coddled.

And since Souta doesn’t have any problems with looking after him, and in general is more atune to people’s needs and good at prompting certain emotional responses, he’d be the one who’s better at caretaking.

💜: who said “i love you” first? or, if neither has said it yet, who is more likely to say it first?

Okay so.

Souta has a secret stash of alcohol that was supplied to him. He doesn’t use it very often, but he’s bad at talking about how he actually feels and he doesn’t trust other people (and definitely didn’t trust Matt at first), and someone is less able to keep their guards up and properly lie when they’re drunk.

Long story short, Souta got real anxious and decided that they should get drunk (both of them, so that Matt wouldn’t be the only vulnerable one– Souta’s goal was to open communication and hopefully increase trust, and being manipulative and in control was not the way to go about that) (like, alcohol was mayhaps not the best option here, but. Souta’s trying.)

Souta made it clear that he was unhappy with Matt due to his worries about Matt’s intentions (thinking that he was only friends with Souta for his own benefit, thinking that Matt was going to hurt their mutual friend, etc.)

Matt ended up making it clear that he cares for the both of them a lot and is scared shitless of vulnerability, and drunkenly mumbled “I love you” to him.

It takes Souta a good long while (like, many months at least) to say it back.

💛: who believes in soulmates?

Neither of them believe in soulmates (unless they’re in the soulmate au which I am currently writing-)

(source)

[gemstoneslesbian]

The Salt and Pepper Diner skit for Matt and Souta

[gemstoneslesbian]

Matt Engarde / Souta Sarushiro (aka Simon Keyes)

So, while writing my longfic that takes place in the prison, these two unintentionally became a thing. I figured I may as well make a post compiling my various headcanons about them.

After going to prison, Matt spent the first half year screaming his head off, seeing a shadow or a guard or whatever momentarily convinced him it was Shelly. It didn’t happen every night, and got less frequent as time went on, but the other prisoners certainly didn’t enjoy being woken up by it on the regular.

Another half year passes, and Matt gets a cellmate! A pretty guy named Souta Sarushiro whom he’s wary of at first, but...

Souta is under the protection of that scary assassin dude with the dog who’s in the cell next door. Nobody messes with Dogen, and by extension, nobody messes with Souta. Being friends with him is like having a security blanket.

Once they get to becoming friends and feeling relatively comfortable around each other, they end up kinda being sparks of light in the prison. Two dramatic performance-y boys? Yeah, the other inmates have a certain appreciation for their antics. Makes things less dull around there.

Okay now for random bullet points

Souta has the top bunk

They sometimes sing together, loudly and in front of everyone. Usually musical numbers.

They also sometimes stage big dramatic scenes between them (such as a loud tearful “break-up” in the cafeteria that all of the older prisoners know is completely fake)

Neither really likes showing vulnerability, but it shows in different ways--Souta tends to hide his struggles and prefers to deal with them on his own, and Matt actively seeks out attention and will usually accept comfort but is uneasy and avoidant of discussing his emotions or showing too much tenderness

They joke around a lot, and tend to prefer handling unpleasant emotions / situations in a light-hearted way (most of the time)

Souta occasionally wakes Matt up in the middle of the night (or keeps him awake) with ridiculous topics of conversation because he likes being annoying (that’s not the reason, but Matt thinks it is)

They probably keep score on various absurd things in a friendly competition kind of way

Matt lost all of his power when he was sent to prison, he could die any day, and on top of that, Souta keeps him in line simply by existing. Souta won’t put up with any of his genuine assholery, and wouldn’t hesitate to take care of things appropriately if Matt tries to pull anything. So Matt’s fairly well-behaved in prison, because being anything else would only cause negative consequences for himself. So maybe it’s time for hot shot celebrity boy to slowly learn to genuinely make connections with other people and not be so selfish all the time.

Souta enjoys Matt’s company. He doesn’t trust him, but he’s usually fun to be friends with, and he knows that Matt wouldn’t dare hurt him. As always, he keeps his emotions guarded so he’s perfectly prepared for if he has to disconnect from him (and is prepared for if Matt is suddenly murdered), but he does care about his well-being.

Matt is guarded with his emotions too, but in a different way. Souta is a big comfort to him, and if he’s honest with himself, he’s probably in love with Souta. Or at least, wants to be in love with him. Hard to quite reach that point when you don’t trust anybody, and neither does the person you have feelings for. He cares about Souta’s well-being, but it takes a while to actually wise up and prioritize that above his own selfishness and defensive fears.

They aren’t officially dating, at least for a long while, but they are intimate in other ways.