Genuine friend heizou would be so nice in that situation. He can gather the information needed from you, your friends, and anyone else to help you out! That's what friends are for!!
But at the same time, yan!heizou that now from the information he gathered about your past relationship, which knows what to do and what not to do. He promises to keep you safe, you don't ever have to worry about kuni ever again! DW he will always be there to help you out, that's what lovers friends are for!! :)))
Heizou is so refreshing and normal compared to Kuni. At least that’s how he seems on the surface. He’ll wrap his arms around you and Kuni, putting his weight on both of you, and call the two of you his little lovebirds, much to your displeasure and Kuni’s pride. He’ll tell the scariest campfire stories when the lot of you are in the forest, passing drinks and snacks around happily. But he always explains the twists and motivations at the very end, even though no one’s really listening when they’re either drunk or high (or both). He likes to work out the logistics of horror and to comprehend the steps that were taken to pull off the crimes detailed in these stories, some he’s made up and others cases he’s studied in class.
Heizou is always observing things around him. He likes to keep an activity record of the people he finds interesting. Because of this, he has pages and pages dedicated to his friends and their relationships, everything outlined with the occasional correction as he learns more. All of these relationships have one thing in common: you’re connected to them. Your relationship with Kazuha, your relationship with Tighnari, your relationship with Venti, your relationship with him—he keeps track of everything. What he hasn’t been able to work out lately is your relationship with Kuni. You seemed so opposed to him in the beginning, even if you tried (and failed) to hide your obvious apprehension. Heizou and his detective’s brain can sense one thing: there must be more to this than what he’s currently seeing.
And he’s proven correct when he pulls you aside one day after noticing the distress that has worn your youthful features into something tired and anxious. When you spill the truth and he listens intently, nodding and humming along, a part of him is overwhelmed with morbid satisfaction. He was right; he knew something was off between you and Kuni, but he could never quite put his finger on it. And oh isn’t this something! Heizou has read up on stories of crazy, vindictive ex-partners, but he’s never encountered one in real life. To think that the sweet Kuni could hide a side so dark, but then the best criminals cloak themselves in sheep’s clothing.
Like the good friend he is, he offers to help you gather and compile evidence so that when you do involve the authorities they won’t turn you away on account of a lack of solid evidence. Heizou really does want to help you. He’s completely genuine in his approach, but there is the side of him that’s happy to know you’re so vulnerable and easy to manipulate. Which makes him sound like such a terrible person! Really, he’s a sweetheart. You have to trust his handsome face! Heizou is just…conflicted. He’s liked you for a while now—nearly a year if he’s counting properly—and the fact that your history with Kuni and Kuni’s most recent actions are tainting your view of romance… It makes it harder for him to charm you. If you’re constantly guarded, how can he possibly slip through the cracks in your heart? Kuni’s ruining everything for him.
But Heizou has a plan. He’ll be your supportive net—the one to hold you up when you can’t stand—and he’ll work effortlessly to unravel Kuni’s terrible plot so that he can be permanently removed from your life. And once he’s gone, there won’t be anymore roadblocks and Heizou will finally get to have you for himself. He’ll show you that good guys exist—that he’s one of them! After all, he’ll know exactly how to act and what not to say or do because he has an extensive record of all Kuni’s done, both according to your retelling of events and his observations. You’ve just given him the cheat code to your heart, and he’s determined to use it to show you every good side he has to offer. Anything that isn’t so savory will be hidden under layers of sweetness. Heizou’s good at keeping secrets and even better at comprehending the complexities of the human mind. He knows just how to paint a friendly, disarming image of himself.
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Thinking about my ec-4o babies again and I like. I feel like I need to flesh out Reaper some more... like, I'm going one character at a time, but many of them already have basic motivation or plot beats they overcome. Reaper has that... but not enough
Okay, so I got thinking about Dust (technically a Main Character alongside Blue) and then Geno (a side character with a LOT of plot relevance). And I subscribe to DustedAfterDeath for this au, so next my mind went to Reaper. But like. Reaper never naturally got much extra depth from my working on the story...
Reaper's jist is that he was raised in a long, long line of folks who lived alternatively from the rest of society. He was raised to believe that society without tech would be better. That everything from convenient vending machines to life-saving medical technology, everyone would be better off without it. That Technology was choking out the natural and magical worlds it relied on.
And... the mindset wasn't entirely wrong.
Only, they weaponized that into an irrational fear they set upon their communities, and isolated them from the outside world. They doomsday prepped, for decades, abd when the war finally came, they were too well prepared. They largely survived.
Reaper, a fit man who could leave and not be swayed by others, ventured out onto the wasteland. He was armed with rudimentary tech which allowed him to over-load and disable any tech he came in contact with. He was cleaning up any loose ends. Killing bots, and anyone who dared to have modified their own body with Tech in any way.
So, off he went. He worked mercenary jobs for free, killing bots and semis that bothered organic civilizations. He gained a reputation. "Death". He stumbled upon Geno, and unable to kill him, it starts a whole journey of renouncing his beliefs and turning over a new leaf.
Quick Note: Geno's soul absorbed a lot of electrical energy, so while the war ended, he was one of the few power sources left in the world. Reaper couldn't disable the tech *or* kill Geno because of this overwhelming magic that would drag him back together DT style.
I never thought beyond that. The biggest factor here, his renouncing his old life, has very little prompting in the og tale. I'm going to try abd fix that here thru brainstorming lmao.
So, Reaper, as he lives, has a *very* strict moral system, as well as a loyalty system. As he sees it, there are personal grudges, and there are betrayals of his faith. The latter is what gets people killed. He also has a strict rule with trust. Certain people he registers in his mind as 'ally' and when they make that list, the only way they'll be harmed by him is if they go against his core beliefs.
Geno, aside from being unkillable, manages to *redeem* himself in Reaper's eyes. When he frustratedly explains that he was the one who ended the war and temporarily destroyed all the tech. This information is vital to Reaper. He thinks he can get a secret from Geno, a way to make his life's goal cone true. And so he allows Geno to live. In fact, Geno swears to him that when he finishes this last task of his, he'll tell Reaper what he did to make the EMP.
Of course, this is a beneficial meeting of two with completely opposing beliefs. Geno loves ectos, at least he loves some of them, and programming/tech have been his whole life. He lets Reaper join him willingly, because Reaper is obnoxiously good at being a bodyguard and warding off threats which Geno physically can't (chronic pain). Also, the secret he'll tell Reaper won't endanger anyone, because the only way Geno made an EMP that big was because he sabotaged the main power source. Now a lot of electricity was magic-infused and didn't abide by the same rules at back then. It'd be too late for Reaper to do anything.
Meanwhile, Reaper, of course, thinks he's getting a free way to destroy all tech if he follows this half-dead science guy. And, ontop of that, Geno is a useful beacon to discover wandering bots and semis. So of course he follows him. He's civil at Blue's when they finally arrive, because he's biding his time to simply slaughter them all later.
But. Geno and Reaper don't get along. The prejudice they hold for eachother gets in the way of most meaningful conversation, and they end up bickering. Geno once told Reaper he was no better than the bots after he slaughtered a group of Semis, abd after that neither of them could get a glance at the other without a hostile 'what?' Or a slur or jab. By the time they arrive at Blue's, Geno is so sick and tired of Reaper, and Reaper really, really wishes he knew how to kill him.
Then there's Dust. Dust was on Reaper's 'ally' list. Reaper taught him how to properly fight, and how to use manual guns, years ago during the war. Seeing Dust again was a treat. Seeing him harboring ectos and semis and a Techie was less than charming. Dust himself didn't break any of his morals, though, so they remained on shockingly good terms. Reaper was their ticket inside, and he was *only* amicable to Dust, and occasionally Horror when he came by. He often joked about short-circuitinh the bots or would fry one of Blue's or Geno's work stations. It happened so often that Dust had to chew him out for it.
And honestly, he wasn't giving up. Geno nor Dust could change his mind, and even the revelry around the base did nothing to persuade him to loosen up.
Until he met Saejun.
Saejun was an ecto made for farming and tending to plants, years ago before the war. He was never upgraded or installed with the virus, and Rust had found him out half-buried along a dirt road. When he was fixed up, Saejun insisted he could bring some life back to the desert waste they were stuck in.
He did just that. He tended to plants across the property, encouraged magical abd non-magical creatures to habitate the place (mostly bugs + small nature spirits) and he would grow green life again. Hydroponics lined the sides of the warehouse, and during Reaper's stay they just kept growing. It was once when he'd been out looking for Dust that he noticed Saejun tending to the garden and playing with little nature spirits. He'd approached, doubtful, but upon inspection found that the magic in the area really was thriving. So close to walls of machinery, amd running along the body of tech itself.
It was his first proof in his whole life that the two things *could* and *did* co-exist. That it was Tech which was now bringing it back. He wasn't even programmed for anything beyond basic crops, Saejun just had a passion for plants.
*that* is Reaper's turning point. Where he finally starts looking at everyone differently. Asking Blue about why he builds and repairs bots. Why the bots stuck around, their purpose, what they do now. And, eventually, he asks Geno to explain coding to him. Just a bit. <- This last bit is met with hostility from Geno, which perpetuates this social barrier between them. Meanwhile Reaper really did want to reconcile.
It takes Dust, seeing this change and noticing the effort, for him to force the two of them to sit down and talk things out.
And after that, Reaper understands a lot more about hinself, and the world, abd everything he's done. He doesn't really regret it, but he doesn't let himself forget to change his ways.
Also it's still that Reaper talking things out with Geno makes them both really vulnerable by the end. This weakness displayed breaks them past eachother's shells and manages to get them to hang out more often, talk about eachothers interests, be normal guys.
And then Geno and Reaper fall in love (Not a quick turn-around, I prommy), and after time amd discussion, Dust is pulled in (because he and Reaper have history and mutual Crushing, and Geno and Dust have an obnoxious amount in common). The three of them all get along.
But, yeah, finally fleshed out Reaper some more. His past was so isolating that all he needed was the little push to see that not everything was bad and horrible and evil <3
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