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monimccoythings · 9 hours

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The Beast Within

Sooo I was trying to write a feral!Logan but this oneshot crossed my mind and I just went along with it. I'll write the feral!logan I want to write when I finish the Wolverine's 1988 run. I think I remember mentioning back in my Retired!Logan headcanons that shall danger come for his family he would be ready and waiting. I wanted to dwell on that.

Summary: You awake only to find yourself and your daughters tied up by some unknown men that wnat to roleplay their wildest and scariest fantasies. Your only hope to survive lies on your husband; a man that gang would soon know they shouldn't have messed with.

Word count: 3087

tags: slight feral!logan, a bit of horror, gn!reader, happy ending, Logan loves his family and will kill for them. A bit ooc Wolverine.

tw: blood, death, attempted rape, non-con elements, kidnapping, swear words.

It had all happened so quickly. One moment you were entering your home with your daughters in tow, and the next, you were being knocked out by some masked men.

When you opened your eyes, you found yourself unable to move, having been tied to a chair, the cords against your wrists and ankles cutting into your blood flow. Yet you didn't fear for your life.

Desperately you looked around for Laura and your youngest child. Silently praying those assholes hadn't reached them. You nearly bursted into tears when you saw Laura tied to the couch, still knocked out like a light, but fine nevertheless; but that relief was short lived when you saw one of the men holding your youngest in his arms.

"Well, look who's finally up! I'm so glad you could join us."

You mentally counted them, There were about five burly men. All masked, to conceal their identities. A shiver ran down your spine when you saw they were all armed.

"Why are you doing this? What do you want?" Your mind went overdrive with the amount of possibilities. Where they from an anti mutant group? Have you been found out?? Logan had made sure your tracks were covered so nobody would know who and what he and the children were. Where they robbers, then?

"Hmm why would people do what they do?" The supposed leader of the group dramatically pondered. "Us humans always worry about norms, etiquette, social behavior, we repress ourselves..." you let the man rant about how our real animal natures were suppressed by society, you didn't care too much for that, too busy finding different ways to free yourself and save your kids.

"So, to answer your question. We do this for fun. Because we can. Because we aren't afraid to show who we really are." You felt the blood in your veins freeze when you felt the disgusting hand come near your crotch. These people were insane. If they were just robbers, you could just let them take whatever they wanted and wait until they left. Material things could be replaced, but his words implied something much much worse for you.

"Please, just take what you want and leave!" You knew you had to do something, anything just to keep those men away from your babies, just buy enough time for Logan to-

Logan! Yes, he would sense something was wrong, and come for you all! You just-

The man licked a long streak from your collarbone to your cheek, his hungry depraved eyes mirroring those of his accomplices.

"Oh, we are going to take it indeed." He licked his lips in anticipation, his fingers lazily undoing the buttons of your shirt. You felt the cold air in your exposed skin.

"Listen. My husband will come soon. You need to leave now that you can-"

He forcefully grabbed your chin, forcing you to look into his empty cold eyes. You didn't find any source of empathy or humanity there. His free hand started to unbutton your jeans.

"Then, he can watch."

The lights went out after that, startling the man and his crew. Some let out a few curses.

"Shut the fuck up! It's just the fucking lights!" The man bellowed towards the rest of the group. He signaled with his head towards the most dimwitted looking member. "Beta! Go check the fuse box!"

The man obediently complied with his orders. The fact that you could barely see, didn't do well for your nerves. They could strike any moment.

Minutes passed and the dude nicknamed 'Beta' hadn't returned. Which was weird, because the fusebox was in a small broom closet at the other end of the cabin, and the cabin wasn't really Charles Xavier's Mansion. You could tell that the man giving the orders was already starting to lose his patience.

"Dumb fuck, can't do shit by himself..." He mumbled. "Gamma! Go tell that stupid bitch to hurry the fuck up!" He turned towards you a terrifying smile on his face "I just can't wait to see the look in your eyes when we break you and the kids."

That was enough for you to lunge towards him, parental instincts activating like crazy. Unfortunately there was little you could do with your limited mobility. He grabbed a fistful of your hair and pulled painfully, you felt tears burning at the corner of your eyes but you refused to give him the pleasure of watching you cry.

"Listen here you little slut. Only I get to bite, only I get to kick, and when I'm done with you l, you'll be-"

"Alpha, he ain't here!" 'Gamma''s voice could be heard from the hall. That only fueled 'Alpha's' impatience.

"I ask him a simple task and he fucking gets lost! Look better or none of you are having a piece of this whore!!"

His eyes turned back to yours. A hungry, wicked look crossed them. His mouth went towards your neck, as much as you tried to resist you couldn't pull away from his strong hold in your hair. You let out a scream when he bit you, praying that he hadn't bitten hard enough to draw blood, but that only seemed to encourage him, just as his tongues was lapping at the bruising bitemark you heard someone scream from the end of the hall.

"OH FUCKING SHIT!!"

*bang*

And then nothing. That seemed to alert the group, the leader, Alpha, immediately pulling away and releasing you from his vice grip.

"The fuck was that!?" He commanded "Beta! Gamma! Answer now!"

No answer.

With your heart in your throat you quickly took deep breaths, trying to recover a sense of calmness and normalcy that you knew was long lost. But you had to. Your kids were still unconscious you needed to protect them.

"Sigma. Get out and secure the perimeter."

'Sigma' didn't look very convinced but as long as he released your little baby girl everything would be fine. You could practically feel the hesitation in him as he lowered your daughter onto the nearest armchair and quietly exited the living room, gun in hand.

"Whatever the fuck is trying to screw with us, is going to learn this 'pack' doesn't go down easily."

Minutes passed of eery silence, each minute felt like agonizing hours. You thought it would never end until you heard a blood curling scream followed by the sound of glass breaking and something splattering against the walls.

That's when you heard it. An animalistic snarl. It was faint, but it was definitely there and filled your heart with hope like no other. This time you were surely going to cry from joy.

He had arrived.

You were saved.

Tears fell freely down your cheeks, you couldn't help the broad smile that formed in your features.

"Oh God he's here. He's here..." You repeated over and over like a mantra, as if you couldn't quite believe it.

"The fuck is this bitch talking about??" He backhanded you so roughly that you thought you saw stars, the sharp pain in your cheek was nothing compared to the huge relief you were feeling.

'Alpha' turned towards the last remaining member of his 'pack'. "What are you waiting for, dumbass?? Lock the fucking doors!"

The other guy didn't move for a few seconds, obviously scared at this dramatic turn of events. The tension between him and the leader was so thick you could cut it with a knife. You were sure he was wondering why he should risk his life for a plan that was going awry with each passing second. Maybe he was also considering shooting down 'Alpha' and be done with it.

Before he has time to live up that fantasy, he found himself looking straight at the end of 'Alpha's' Magnum. This was no longer a fun game for them. It had stopped being a game when 'Beta' hadn't returned.

"Lock. The fucking. Doors." 'Alpha's' voice was unusually quiet and full of promises of a world of pain if he disobeyed his orders. There was no other choice but to follow his lead, as always.

With trembling hands, the poor guy put the safety lock as best as he could. Once done, he breathed a sigh of relief, believing him safe.

Until a massive arm, broke through the glass of the door and grabbed him by the neck, lifting him a couple of inches off the ground. The man kicked and struggled, trying in vain to reach for his gun. When the hand released him, he hurriedly went for it before he was grabbed again but was stopped by three metal claws piercing through his skull, killing him instantly. The man fell to the ground like a ragdoll.

"Shit." 'Alpha' whispered, feeling for the first time that night true fear. "Shitshitshitshitshit!" His panic grew as he saw the killer of his 'packmate' kick the doors open as if it was nothing.

You couldn't see him, but you knew he was pissed like he had never been before.

*BANG*

'Alpha' fired bullet after bullet towards him. A single shot would have taken down a grown man. But this wasn't a normal man. Oh no, they had just gone after the family of one of the most dangerous men to ever live.

Logan slowly stepped into the moonlight and your breath caught in your throat. From his beard, to his clothes, blood was dripping, but not from the gunshotwounds, those were already healed. His sharp teeth, bared in a feral snarl were stained with blood, having used them to tear through flesh and bone. The icing on the cake were his eyes, those eyes that looked at you with so much tenderness and lust, that crinkled with happiness when they saw his little ones run towards him; they were just empty, void of any rational thought.

You shuddered at his primal display.

The man known just as 'Alpha' took a step back. For all his talk about how he didn't repress from his animal urges and how he was an alpha male, he found himself small and insignificant in the presence of a real animal. Every adamantium coated bone in Logan's body exuded dominance, power, strength; it was overwhelming. 'Alpha' knew if he didn't play his cards well he would end up like the rest of his 'pack' or worse.

Cold sweat formed on your forehead when the gun pointed towards you.

"One more step, and I'll shoot." His voice was deadly quiet, but you could hear the fear hidden behind all that bravado.

Logan stopped, a low growl building up in his throat. His eyes quickly darted towards yours and returned towards his enemy. You knew you had little time, as long as the 'Alpha' kept his eyes locked on Logan's; he wouldn't dare shoot you unless he wanted to have the slowest and most painful death there was, he just needed to think for a better plan of action, which gave you a wonderful opportunity to ponder about how you were going to get out safely, you had to act fast enough to give Logan some margin.

As quiet as you could muster, you started balancing yourself from side to side. Each second that passed increased your chances of ending up with a hole in your chest. A couple of swings more and-

"AAAAAAAAARRRGGGGHHH"

'Alpha' roared in pain when Laura out of nowhere, sunk her teeth and bone claws on his leg. Unfortunately, as a reflex, he accidentally pressed the trigger.

You would never be sure about how you got so lucky that night, as you fell sideways with the chair, the bullet barely grazed your shoulder. You had evaded death miraculously and there was a new hole in the wall.

Logan didn't waste his opportunity. Before 'Alpha' had the chance to kick Laura off his leg, he freed his claws and with a swift motion slashed his yugular vein with two clean cuts.

The blood splattered on his chest and face like a fountain. Alpha's body went limp and fell lifeless to the side. You let out a sigh in relief, as tears ran again freely down your cheeks.

The nightmare was over.

But not for Logan.

For a couple of seconds, he just stood there, breathing heavily, and coated in blood. Laura stood at his feet, looking at him apprehensively, as if sensing there was something wrong.

"Logan." You called for him reassuringly, but he didn't even look at you. You doubted he had heard you. His fists were clenching and unclenching, his knuckles were turning white. The veins in his arms bulged against the swollen muscles. His breaths came out in short puffs of air. Whatever he was feeling right now, you needed to pull him out of it.

His head turned sharply when he heard your youngest stirring. He looked at his bloodied hands and finally looked at you with a mixture of panic and dread. He didn't know what to do.

"Laura. Laura, sweetheart, untie me." She snapped out from her stupor and quickly tore through the cords, freeing you at last. You massaged your wrists, hoping to return your bloodflow back to normal. As much as you'd have loved to rest there was no time to lose.

You understood Logan's fear. It was already painful enough for him to have Laura watching him when he was like that, he didn't want the other one to go through the same trauma.

You quickly rushed towads him and he flinched back, still in shock. "It is okay, Logan. We're safe. You saved us. I'm going to take the girls to her room okay? He barely nodded, his eyes unfocused. You would deal with him later, now the kids were a top priority.

You would heal together, later.

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He had scrubbed the floors clean until he thought he was going to pass out from the chemicals. He had hidden the bodies or whatever remained of them in a place where he knew nobody would ever look for them. Not that they'd be missed, he supposed.

It scared him how good he was at this. He should have gotten used to it by now, after all, he was the best at what he did, and what he did wasn't very nice.

It had been to good to be true. A sweet dream before waking up and facing reality. He had gotten sloppy and his family had paid the price. He didn't even know what those had wanted, nor did he care. One single look through the window and all sense of rationality had left his brain leaving only the animal that deep down he knew he was.

What would you think of him now? Did you regret marrying him? Knowing what he did was one thing, but actually witnessing it was another. What had transpired tonight would surely define your relationship for the rest of your lives

And Laura? He had worked so hard to erase the violence and trauma of her earlier years, to give her a normal childhood with a family. And he had just pulled her back.

He buried his face in his hands, grabbing chunks of his hair. He was a monster, an animal, a mindless-

He jumped and turned around with a snarl on his face and his claws ready when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Logan's tense muscles visibly relaxed when he saw it was just you, but he was still restless.

"Logan, it's okay. It's just me" You knew exactly was was crossing his mind. After years of knowing each other, you knew that the legendary Wolverine, the man that would take his secrets to his grave, could be easily read like an open book if you got close enough.

"Honey, this is not your fault. You came and saved us. We're here because of you." You couldn't bear the thought of him punishing himself over something that wasn't even his fault to begin with.

"I should have been there with you. I should have arrived sooner, then you wouldn't have to go through-" His gruff voice sounded so broken, so terrified, there was nothing you wanted more than to cradle him in your arms. "I'm a monster." He quietly whispered.

"You are not a monster. You. Are. Not. Not a monster, neither an animal." You cupped his face in your hands, looking into his eyes sternly.

"I-I lost control. I saw you there tied up and I lost it. Laura saw it, and our little-"

"Shhhh... They are alright. They are okay in their bedroom. Laura knew you were protecting us, she has always known." You ran your fingers through his wild hair, marvelling at how his tufts stayed up no matter the situation.

You gently guide him back into the house. You don't look at the toppled chair, or the hole in the wall, or the mountain of cleaning products. Neither of you wanted to think about that. When you reached the bedroom, you undressed each other, taking your time, memorizing every string of clothing. Your discarded attires formed a dirty and bloody pile in the corner.

Tenderly, like treating a very vulnerable creature, you cleaned his face, chest and hands with a towel. You could feel the raw power stored in that massive torso and hands, you knew what he could do with those. But you also knew how careful and soft he was around you and the girls.

You put on your comfiest pijamas and got ready for bed, leaving the mess of that night for the next day. Before he climbed in with you, Logan stopped and takes a step back.

"What's wrong?" You asked.

"Wait here." He hurriedly exited your bedroom, leaving you alone, baffled at his behavior. The last thing you wanted was to be left alone after that night.

Your initial confusion gave way to tenderness when you saw him return holding a daugther on each of his thick arms. Laura blinked groggily at you, annoyed at having been woken up from her slumber. You quickly craddled her in your arms, kissing her forehead.

Holding your youngest baby girl to his chest he got in bed, his free arm pulling you and Laura closer, trapping you in an embrace. He kissed your head, his soft breaths along with those of your daughters were enough to lull you to sleep.

You were safe.

Nobody was going to get you.

He would make sure of that.

#wolverine x reader #logan howlett x reader #james logan howlett x reader #wolverine #logan howlett #x men x reader

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1moreff-creator · 6 days

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EP 13 Revision: Trying to Solve the DRDT CH2 Murder

Back in my bullshit I go! So, episode 13, what a chapter! Really made my old murder theory seem unlikely, so let’s see if there are any convincing alternatives, shall we? As a heads up, most of my theory actually remains the same, a lot of this is just me going over some other possible alternatives. Although I’m also going to talk about what happened to Ace as well, and that theory has changed quite a bit.

Spoilers up to CH2 EP13. CW Murder, hanging, strangulation, asphyxiation, Eden!Culprit, Ace!Culprit, Nico!AceAttacker, blood, mention of Xander losing his eye.

You don't exactly need to know what my previous theory was to understand this post past the “Murder Method” title, but it might help, so here's Levi!Accomplice anyways. Speaking of:

How Dead We Talking?

Levi: In that case, we should be suspicious of those who *do* have an alibi in the evening but not in the morning.

Levi: Then, did the killer perhaps use some sort of mechanism to hang Arei?

These lines in particular, especially combined with some other dubious lines in the past, make me very doubtful Levi!Accomplice is the right answer. An obvious presumption of this theory is that Levi would want Eden to win the trial; if he didn’t, he’d just call her out and explain everything. Even if he just gave her the fish, I think he’d have said that by now. But these lines have Levi actively pointing people towards the right culprit (if it’s Eden) or the right method. You could read this as him choosing to betray Eden after Hu’s speech, yet still hesitant to fully reveal his involvement. However, given he willingly admitted to his secret because he considers honesty good and wants to be a good person, it seems weird that he’d keep being disingenuous and hiding evidence from the cast.

There’s also this statement:

Levi: But it is a “good” thing to make sure someone else doesn’t die, even if I personally do not care about the outcome.

Of course, you could read this as him wanting to save the life of the person he considers the “most good,” that being Eden, but the problem is he also admitted to seeing other participants (such as David) as good. I’m not fully opposed to stretching dialogue to fit certain theories (I still believe venus-is-thinking’s explanation of Eden’s breakdown after the Arturo story in the trial works well enough not to disqualify Eden as a potential culprit, for example), but I have my limits. A lot of what Levi said in his speech and beyond reads a bit too strangely for me to really consider Levi!Accomplice as likely as I once did.

Is it 100% dead? No. There is the ticking clock motif in the background, and some of Eden’s reactions to Levi’s speech could be read as pointing towards this, but I feel like that might just be a “foils” thing? Like, the person with quote unquote “bad” thoughts that does good things, contrasted with the person with quote unquote “good” thoughts that does a pretty bad thing (if Eden killed Arei).

(Disclaimer: there’s no such thing as “good” and “bad” thoughts and feelings, it’s your actions that determine whether you’re good or not, Levi’s a good person even if he has low empathy, you know this)

In any case, while there’s a world out there where Levi!Accomplice is still the right answer, just in case, let me throw out a few more theories on how this could work. Unfortunately, I can’t come up with any answer that solves every mystery of the case as well as Levi!Accomplice does, which is why I still consider it possible, but I’ll do my best.

Murder Method - Hey, I Wasn't That Wrong!

The things discussed in this chapter halfway confirmed a lot of what I speculated about the method itself (assuming Teruko isn’t wrong, but I feel the trial would flow a bit weird if she presents one relatively good theory and then backtracks). The killer used the spinny thing as a pulley to pull Arei up to the ceiling, using the rafters and the seesaw (yo the seesaw WAS important, Korekiyo fans winning!) to set up the mechanism. After Arei was high enough, they tied the rope to one of the handlebars so it would tense before Arei hit the ground, and let go. To make sure her neck would break instantly, they also attached water jugs to her in order to increase her effective weight. To avoid the rope sliding off the handlebars, they used tape with a sandpaper-y texture that makes it easier to grip. In other words, the tape from the gym. It is also implied the killer splashed Arei with water, either accidentally or to hide her body temperature.

I got… most of this right. I didn't catch the seesaw thing, nor the splashing with water thing, and I didn't fully realize the purpose of the tape, plus I thought the killer would have used a second piece of rope attached to the swing set as a "stopper" instead of tying one long piece of rope… but the main pieces are there!

The last few details haven't been discussed yet, but I still think they're solid. To get the rope over the rafters, they tied one end to something like the ball of clothes (or any equivalent) and threw it over the said rafters. On the way, they accidentally hit the lights, displacing them and causing it to break and start flickering.

(How many posts can I fit this image into? Watch it be wrong, too)

The rest is simple. Arei's wrists (and possibly feet) were bound by the tape after something happened to scuff the floor. That's actually a sticking point of the old theory: figuring out exactly how those specific scuff marks would form.

I've always just taken them as evidence of some kind of struggle, but how do they form? Well, they look like either tire tracks (which I'm gonna assume are impossible) or, perhaps, clawing at the floor.

Since the old "struggle" no longer applies, I'm going to take a shot in the complete dark and speculate, with practically no evidence, that the struggle is: The killer managed to tackle Arei to the ground from behind, Arei falling stomach first, and either strangled her with the rope or smothered her with the ball of clothes (because evidently I just like to throw this thing at any unsolved mysteries I can, sometimes literally) until she lost consciousness, but no more. Arei clawed at the floor while this was happening, generating the scuff marks.

(I am assuming the rope is long enough to do this even with the mechanism already set up, which it should be)

Now, you might be thinking that there’s a method I’m leaving out, that being the turpentine. Since DRDT’s turpentine can apparently knock people out, isn’t it possible she was knocked out with it?

Well, actually. If the method Teruko describe is accurate (which for the purposes of this post, I’ll assume it is), Arei cannot have been knocked out with turpentine.

Why? Because of the marks on her wrists. The ones that imply they were bound by tape at some point.

Why is this a problem? Simply put, turpentine’s too good to need the tape around Arei’s wrists. In the Ace case, Ace was unconscious for quite a while; however long it took to set up the murder mechanism, and a little after Eden and Teruko entered the room. Translated to Arei, if the killer knocked her out with turpentine in the playground, they would easily be able to put the noose around her neck and do the pulley trick before she woke up, making the tape redundant.

This leaves us with three options if Arei was knocked out with turpentine. Either Arei was knocked out outside the playground, at which point you’d need a different explanation for the scuff marks on the floor; the killer didn’t know how long turpentine induced unconsciousness lasted; or the killer was extra cautious for some reason. Notably, those last two would imply the killer is different from the Ace attacker, since Ace’s wrists were never bound as far as we can tell, and at that point you need to explain how they got the turpentine in the first place.

Compare that to unconsciousness induced by asphyxiation. Although it could take up to two minutes to knock Arei unconscious, consciousness is regained around ten seconds after pressure is relieved in cases of asphyxiation. That’s too quick for comfort, since if Arei regains consciousness before the rope takes her off the floor, she would easily be able to slide the noose out of her neck.

That means the killer would need to tie her hands to make sure they could pull off the pulley trick without issues, which explains the marks on the wrists.

A note on the asphyxiation thing; I think even a weaker person could realistically pull this off if they caught Arei by surprise. From what I understand, it’s difficult to meaningfully resist against strangulation from behind, so even if Arei is stronger than her killer, it’s a plausible method. However, I could be wrong about this. It might shock you to know this, but I'm not very well versed in the logistics of murdering people.

Also, you might say that that's insane. Why do all the mechanism stuff if they had already asphyxiated her unconscious? And while that is a very fair question, there is no way to eliminate it. Keep in mind Arei's wrists were bound at some point, but the mechanism was still used. No matter how the tape got around Arei's wrists, there will always be a time when the killer could have killed her in a very simple manner (eg stabbing her, strangling her, bludgeoning), and still chose to complicate the method.

There are a few reasons that could be, but I currently believe this is related to what Teruko brings up at the end of EP 13. The mechanism is similar to the one used to try to kill Ace. This way, the killer could point to the superficial similarities as a way to pin the blame on Nico. Or the killer straight up is Nico and they're just obsessed with this method for some reason lol.

Oh, also, Arei’s missing a glove. I assume the killer removed it to better apply the tape on the wrists and just… have it in their pocket, I guess. I really don’t know what to make of this thing.

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Side Note: The Ace Case

I said in my first reaction to EP13 that I would review the Ace case method. Since I don’t feel like making a separate post, I’ll tackle it here. We basically got one piece of evidence regarding this: Teruko believes there was either a hanging or a pulley involved.

Now, you might know this case is actually lot harder to figure out than the Arei one. The first time I tried to come up with a method, alongside venus-is-thinking, accirax and thebadjoe, we went kinda insane. There's a lot of really weird evidence in the short investigation we got, which led us to creating gym-wide wire circuits, crucifying Ace, giving Eden the turpentine, hypothesising about wire yo-yos and on-off switches for the fans, and who knows what else. As fun as that was, there was surprisingly little hanging and pulleying in that thread, and now that Teruko's implied the Arei method is somewhat similar to the Ace method, we might be looking at not-great answers.

And because this method is so difficult, I’m not very confident in the answer I’m about to give. I think it’s better than what I had before, but there’s still a few questions. I’m not too bothered by this though, since we’ll get answers in a few days anyways.

First thing to clear up: I firmly believe Nico did everything by themselves. The killer needed the turpentine to knock out Ace; Nico never denied taking the turpentine when accused, and straight up admitted they “made a serious attempt on Ace’s life.”

Rose: They even lied to and stole from me to commit murder. Out of everyone here, they’re the least innocent.

Nico: I—! I didn’t kill Arei! I swear!

Charles: But did you not intentionally try to make a serious attempt on Ace’s life? Answer honestly.

Nico: Y… Yes…

Then, when speaking about what they did, they always speak in first person singular, never giving any indication there was anyone else involved.

Nico: I didn’t… think about [the trial after the Ace thing]… I… I never should have… done that…

Not to mention they were in the gym, alone, with their cloak off, and they had the most motive for killing Ace. They’re the only person we know for sure had the opportunity to grab the turpentine, they said they were going to kill Ace before this happened, etc. You can certainly twist all of this in some way to make Nico not the sole culprit, and I respect those theories, but for me, the most compelling explanation is the one that makes the least amount of assumptions. That the guy that admitted to trying to kill Ace and implied they did it on their own, tried to kill Ace on their own. Occam’s Razor, and all that.

Plus, if there’s anyone else to blame, most people point to Hu. But…

Hu: It is not and never will be your decision as to what happens with our lives.

Note: The next part has been slightly edited, as I feel my original wording was poor

I don’t see Hu as the Ace attacker. There’s too many lines that (in my opinion) you have to really stretch to make it plausible, and while I’m not entirely opposed to doing such things (spoilers, I still believe Eden!Culprit), I’m only fond of doing them when there’s physical evidence to back up the claim. The dialogue can be interpreted in different ways, but I just do not see any real evidence Hu was involved in either crime this chapter.

Edit over

Yes, Hu’s wire is there, but Nico already stole one custom weapon from a friend, why wouldn’t they steal/borrow a second one? Even if they didn’t straight up ask for the wire, Hu claims she and Nico ate breakfast in Nico’s room, so it’s not difficult to assume Nico could have gone into Hu’s room at some point and gotten the wire that way. It’s also true Hu never calls them out on this, but that’s because she never saw the crime scene; even if she knows Nico had the wire, she probably wouldn’t immediately assume it was used in the murder.

Again, theories where Nico isn’t the sole culprit are perfectly valid, but I personally don’t believe them. I may get proven wrong by the end of the week, but oh well.

Aside from that, let’s make a quick recap of the evidence we have. Ace’s body and wounds; bloodstain on the wall; lone wire; fan wire; broken fan; moved benches; stool (brought from storage?); broom (pulled right out of Ace’s ass-); fallen weight rack; isolated weights; non-functioning fan; clean pull-up bar; Rose’s and Teruko’s account (Nico took the turpentine and used it to knock out Ace); banging noise; Nico’s missing cloak.

(Btw; I talk about the lone wire and the fan-wire as two completely separate things, since it makes things easier. Just assume Nico broke the wire before the murder attempt)

The first thing to note is that hanging Ace actually solves a particular point of contention from the first thread; Ace’s wounds. Because of the way Ace always grabs the front of his neck in the sprites after waking, some of us thought there were only injuries on the front. Meanwhile, others posited there were wounds all around Ace’s neck, based on the sprite and the blood on the wall.

But hanging offers an interesting middle ground. The wire tensing around Ace’s neck could cause injuries on both sides, but if Ace was slumped over, the injuries on the front would be deeper because gravity. I think? I’m no expert on hanging, might need Whit to confirm that one for me. But it’s conceivable, so I’ll go with it.

But we can’t just hang him simply. If you check the first thread, you’ll remember that by far the weirdest piece of evidence is the blood pattern on the wires. It stops and starts in weird places, as seen below:

This is difficult because it means the wire wasn’t continuously wrapped around Ace’s neck as you might expect. However, you might also remember one of the only explanations I have for the lone wire’s blood pattern; a noose pattern.

If the lone wire is tied in a way where Ace’s neck bleeds over the know but not the noose, the pattern is explained.

But how do we work a noose into the hanging? Well, a yo-yo. I’m kidding, but only kinda; you can put the noose around the isolated weights to weigh down Ace, making the hanging… more fatal? Look, I don’t know why Nico did half this shit, okay?

The big thing that’s left are the actual logistics of hanging Ace. It’s a lot harder than you might assume, and while I’m probably vastly overcomplicating it, I wanted to put the broom somewhere and this might be the bests place for it. So, taking inspiration from badjoe’s idea of using the broom to stabilize Ace, my own yo-yo theory, and venus-accirax’s general idea of crucifixion, I present to you:

A brand new murder diagram!

(Btw, didn’t mention it, but the fan can’t be spinning for this to work. Either there’s an off switch or Nico just broke it with the broom and then put it back more or less)

As you can see, the main trick is putting the broom across Ace’s jacket, going from one sleeve to the other stick-first, and then using the wires to lift it up (first the one on the pull up bar, then the one on the fan), wrapping them around Ace’s neck in the process. This allows Nico to keep Ace upright and with his neck as close to the ceiling as possible while putting the wires where they need to be. The lone wire is attached to the pull-up bar. Not pictured is the stool, which Nico probably needed to pull this off, btw.

After setting this up, it’s just a matter of pushing the broom out of Ace’s jacket. This would cause Ace to fall, tensing the wires (I’m hoping the pull-up bar is higher on the wall than it looks :v) and toppling the bench he was on. Sort of. The exact location of these things escapes me a bit.

After that… it’s possible Ace falling immediately caused the fan to fall, or the fan held for a moment, and this moment is when Nico got their cloak out of the gym. Maybe?

In any case, the fan collapses, the lone wire rips the tape out of the pull-up bar as it flies off, and Ace falls backwards. I’m hoping he’d be close enough to the wall to fall in a way that makes the back of his neck stain the wall with his blood.

When that happens, Nico starts to panic, grabbing the lone wire, putting the weights off to the side (I don’t know how they got there), and looking at Ace’s body just as Teruko and Eden enter the gym.

That’s more or less it. There’s obviously a few problems with this, and it’s probably significantly more complicated than the real answer, but it’s solid enough that some of it might be right. I just want to explain the blood on the wires, man.

One question is why the left fan isn’t spinning. This depends on how turpentine works in DRDT. If it emits fumes that you have to inhale for a while before passing out, Nico turning off the left fan (be it with an off switch or by breaking it with the broom) could be a way for them to make sure the fumes don’t dissipate. When Ace enters the gym, the turpentine could be open and hidden, in a way that after a while, Ace inhales all the fumes necessary.

However, it’s also possible turpentine works more like how chloroform is usually depicted. In that case, it’s possible Nico used their cloak as a rag to apply the turpentine, then took it out of the gym to avoid inhaling any fumes themselves.

Because i’m case you haven’t noticed, Nico’s cloak is sorta like Arei’s glove, in that I have no idea where they went, and thus can’t really imagine how they fit into everything.

What is with DRDT characters and mysteriously losing their clothes during murders?

It’s also physically dubious; not enough that I really think it’s 100% impossible, but still. And I have no idea what happened to the weight rack beyond “there might have been a struggle” (which only kinda works, those things are heavy), or why Nico put the weights there…

And I don’t know why Nico did any of this. My pal, please, just fucking stab him next time.

Is this right? Probably not, but I think the general idea is plausible. We’ll find out in a few days just how wrong I was about this, anyways.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alright, so for the big question.

Whodunnit?

There are a few important things to consider when it comes to a culprit theory. I’ll outline them here so you can judge your own picks for culprit based on my criteria, though obviously it might be different from yours. Personally, I believe any genuine theory on the culprit must account for the following things:

-Time of Body Manipulation: Because of the swinging and the marks on the wrists, which should fade quickly, Arei’s body must have been hung shortly before it was discovered. Since she’s assumed to have died at around 7:30 AM (yes, there are theories to the contrary, but I can’t address every single possibility here, so I’m just going to take the 7:30 AM time of murder as accurate since it’s what I believe), it’s assumed that’s the time the body was hung. The culprit should probably be someone without an alibi at the time, potentially clearing David, Veronika, J, Hu and Nico.

Potential Workarounds:

+Fake Alibi: Applicable mainly to Hu and Nico. But would either of them be willing to die for the other? Also, Nico agreed with Teruko that David was acting suspicious at the end of EP11. If they’re the culprit, casting doubt on David is a bad move. If they’re an accomplice and want the culprit to win, it’s a bad move. If they’re an accomplice and don’t want the culprit to win, they’d just say who the culprit is. There’s probably other examples like this, but that’s just off the top of my head.

I really don’t think Hu or Nico did this, in case you can’t tell :v

+Third Party: A third party could have hung the body after the murder. But given this third party can’t be David or Veronika (again assuming 7:30 AM as the time of death), and I genuinely don’t know who else would do this, I don’t find this likely.

-Time of Fish Disappearance: Nico claimed none of the fish were missing the last time they fed them, after having dinner the afternoon before the murder. At face value, and assuming Nico ate around the same time Hu and Eden did, the fish would have disappeared between 7 and 10 PM, as the relax room was closed between 10PM and 8AM. And judging from how Teruko talked about the situation at the start of the trial, it seems unlikely that the fish were taken after 8AM. This would mean Eden, Hu, Charles and Whit cannot have taken the fish without some workaround. J, Veronika, Teruko and Arturo have alibis starting at least at 7:30 PM, so maybe they could have taken them, maybe not.

Possible Workarounds:

+Early Nico Dinner: We don’t know when Nico ate dinner, and according to a quick Google search, Americans are fucking insane and, on average, eat dinner around 6:00~6:30 PM.

Genuinely what. I eat dinner at 9:00 PM usually and that’s on the low end of the spectrum for my country. When I’m with family, I eat at like 10:00~10:30 PM. Are you US dwellers good? Deeply unserious country, I tell you.

With that aside, you get the idea. If Nico ate dinner at that time, practically every alibi given goes out the window, except Charles and Whit I believe. This would mean Nico didn’t eat with Hu and Eden, but neither mentioned them in the original alibis, so take that as you will.

+Fake Alibis/Nico!Accomplice: A lot of these alibis are just two people. It’s not outright impossible Charles and Whit, Hu and Eden, or Arturo and J are working together for a fake alibi. Well, maybe not the last one :v Alternatively, getting Nico to lie about the amount of fish they fed would work; the fish could have gone missing before Nico claims they did. I don’t find this particularly plausible, but it’s an option.

+Third Party/Arei: Someone other than the killer brought the fish to the playground, be it Arei or a third party. Arei could be plausible if the note is fake in some way, as the killer could have invited Arei in person and asked for the fish that way, but I find that somewhat unlikely because why give the time if the letter’s fake?

+Fake Fish: The fish in the playground (or maybe the pond, but likely the playground) are fake, either artificial or maybe taken from the kitchen… if that even has minnows as food. Don’t know how this one would work frankly.

+Early Catch: The killer planned to use the fish to hide time of death since the moment they heard the relax room would be closed during nighttime, and put the fish in the jugs before Nico got a chance to count them. If Nico didn’t count them as soon as they saw them in EP2, but rather later, when they first fed them, this gives plenty of time for anyone to pull this off. The killer doesn’t need to have everything planned from the start, just the fish trick.

I wonder if the amount of workarounds I found for this reveals some kind of bias… Who knows.

-BDA Rule: Rule 10; “The BDA will play when three or more people who did not witness the murder discover the body.” This could potentially clear Teruko, Whit and Eden.

Possible Workarounds:

+Third (Fourth?) Party: Someone who did not witness the murder, other than the BDA trio, saw the body before Teruko opened the door to the playground. At this point in the trial, and with David and Veronika having alibis for the time between the murder and the discovery, I doubt this is the case. Do you see why I originally landed on accomplice theory btw, it literally offers a workaround for every potential problem.

+”See No Evil”: If the killer turned their backs after letting go of the spinny thing, and didn’t see the moment Arei’s neck snapped, they may not be considered a “witness.” This could have been intentional, with the killer taking advantage of Teruko’s idea to search in a group of three (and her bad luck of picking just the wrong person) to try and clear themselves; or unintentionally. The killer may have decided to look away just because they didn’t want to see the death. This is especially plausible if the killer felt genuinely bad about what they were doing, which is the most common interpretation of Eden!Culprit.

-Handwriting: The handwriting on the letter doesn’t match Charles’ (custom weapon list), Teruko’s (abomination she calls a list of revealed secrets), Whit’s (he dots the ‘i’s with hearts), or Eden’s (sample in the trial).

Possible Workarounds:

+Fake Handwriting: The handwriting on the note could be fake; Whit wouldn’t dot the ‘i’s with hearts, Charles would write differently. And notably, the sample Eden gives in the trial is in print, while the handwriting in the note is in cursive, so it wouldn’t take any effort for her to fake it.

-Purpose of the method: If the killer really emulated Nico’s method to frame them, they have to know what that method was in the first place. Maybe not figure it out 100%, but they at least need to see the gym to get a basic impression of what the method may have looked like. This would implicate Ace, Teruko, Eden, and possibly the Ace attacker if they’re not Nico. Nico themselves might have also repeated method… Because. Alternatively, the method could have been used for the “See No Evil” BDA workaround, possibly implicating Whit or Eden again.

Possible Workarounds:

+Doesn’t Matter: There is no purpose to the method. The killer chose a pulley system because. I doubt anyone genuinely likes this possibility :v

+Something I haven’t Thought About: What it says in the tin.

-The gym tape: The gym’s tape was still on the floor when Nico left the night of Ace’s attack. At this point, only Teruko, Eden and Ace were on the room. MonoTV then locks down the gym, meaning no one can come in. We see MonoTV open the gym the next morning, and Rose and Teruko are the first to enter. The tape was gone. That, combined with the tape’s sprite disappearing from the background around the time Ace gets up, would heavily imply the tape was taken by either Ace, Teruko or Eden. Since the tape later appears to have been used in the murder, this heavily implicates them.

Possible Workarounds:

+Eden the Unwitting Accomplice: The killer asked Eden to get the tape for them. However, this would mean that Eden would immediately know who the killer is the moment the tape gets identified. It doesn’t work to frame Eden, either, because at that point it’s her word (“[killer] asked me to get it for them!”) vs yours (“nuh uh”). And I don’t care who you are, people will trust Eden’s words over yours. It’s much safer to just get the tape yourself, and everyone has access to the gym. This is a pretty outlandish idea, in my opinion, unless you can come up with some other reason the killer would give Eden (or Ace) for picking up the tape.

+Eden or Ace took it for no reason and returned it later: No evidence of this.

+MonoTV Put it in Storage: Doesn’t explain the sprite disappearance, but even if you ignore that, there is no indication it did that.

+Rose Took it With Sleight of Hand: Why would she mention it to Teruko then. Just grab it, pocket it and shut up. I don’t think this works.

+It’s Not the Gym’s Tape on the Spinny Thing: Then, narratively, why would Rose bring attention to it when she goes to the gym with Teruko?

Alright, I believe that’s all the major things.

Probability Ranking

Zero Chance:

-MonoTV, Arei: There are rules against this.

-Xander, Min: Xander’s dead, Min’s in Mexico (/j).

-Teruko: Protag privilege. Also her handwriting sucks too much for her to fake the note.

-Charles: His necrophobia would prevent him from manipulating the body after killing Arei, which is necessary to string her up on the swing set.

First Assumption: The Murder Happened at 7:30 AM the Day of Body Discovery

Although this isn’t technically 100% confirmed yet, I personally find it really hard to believe that the time of death is different from this. This eliminates:

-David, Veronika, J: Alibis. They have no reason to cover for each other, so they’re out.

-Hu, Nico: I believe Hu is currently the most popular pick for blackened, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. Yes, she could be lying about the alibi, but if Nico calls her out, it’s curtains. Is Nico really willing to die for Hu? Is Hu willing to kill everyone, including Nico, to escape? Conversely, if Nico’s the blackened, is Hu aware of what she’s doing by faking an alibi? I doubt it given EP12, so she’d be lying because she has faith in Nico. But, at present, I have no reason to believe that. “It’s plausible” isn’t evidence. Sorry, but I cannot for the life of me see Hu or even Nico as culprits anymore.

Second Assumption: MonoTV Didn’t Take the Tape from the Gym

Though technically an assumption, since there is zero evidence it did this, I’ll say it’s an assumption regardless. It leads to:

Third Assumption: The Killer Took The Tape

As stated, if it wasn’t MonoTV, it kinda has to be either Ace or Eden. If the killer didn’t take the tape, that means either they asked Ace/Eden for the tape beforehand (insane, it’s much safer to take the tape yourself) or Eden/Ace took the tape for some undisclosed reason, then someone else asked them for it. But since we don’t know what Eden or Ace would want the tape for other than murder, this also seems unlikely. Thus, assumption number three is assumed, and eliminates…

-Levi, Rose, Arturo, Whit, and all the prior characters (minus Teruko ig). Yes, I believe the tape works as a smoking gun in the same way that the building map worked as a smoking gun against Min.

Notably, all the new characters here also fail to explain why the method was unnecessarily complicated, since none of them know about the Ace murder method. The exception is Whit, where the purpose could be the “See No Evil” technicality, but that comes with a lot of assumptions itself, and there’s other problems with Whit!Culprit (namely, fish).

And Then There Were Two

Ace and Eden are, in my opinion, far and above the likeliest candidates for blackened in this case. Both of them have their issues as theories, but both have things going for them. Let’s compare and contrast!

Point for Eden: Starch on Clothes

One point that’s Eden specific is an idea originated from thebadjoe’s mind. Since starch can be used as fertilizer, it’s possible the starch holding the ball of clothes together came from the enriched formula used in the relax room. If this is the case, the clothes must have been left there in either the first or second night of the second chapter, as putting them there during the third night would make them inaccessible before the murder. And Eden was seen acting suspicious in the dressing room, where clothes are, on the second night.

Eden: W-Who’s there? I know you’ve been following me!

[…]

Eden: Oh, it’s just you, Teruko. What are you doing here?

Like, why’s she so paranoid?

This isn’t disqualifying for Ace, however, as he could have done this the very first night. Alternatively, it’s possible Teruko misidentified the starch. There’s just no evidence for it, as opposed to Eden doing the thing, where there is evidence for it.

Workaround Needed (Eden): “See No Evil”

Eden is part of the BDA crew, meaning there needs to be a workaround for Rule 10. If Levi’s not there to accomplice it up, then “See No Evil” is the only acceptable workaround in my eyes.

Now, I fully believe that, no matter what, Eden probably would turn her back the moment Arei’s neck snapped. She didn’t want to look at Xander’s eye wound, so it’s plausible she would just not want to look when Arei actually died. Which means we just need the “See No Evil” technicality to work from a rules standpoint.

And while it may be a sticking point for some people, I personally think that a combination of MonoTV’s incompetence and Teruko’s bad luck could cause this technicality to exist. Especially given:

Eden [Right before the BDA]: Teruko, wait—

This reaction is best justified by Eden!Culprit imo. If Eden’s the culprit, I don’t think she realized the “See No Evil” technicality. She couldn’t refuse to search with Teruko, obviously, that would make her too suspicious, but she still didn’t want Teruko to open the door because she thought the BDA wouldn’t play, as she would think she’d be counted as a witness. But who knows.

Point Against Eden: Eden’s Strength

By far the biggest sticking point against Eden!Solo under my murder method. She is canonically the weakest in the cast, and yet, she still needs to pull off four important feats of strength; throwing the ball of clothes, subduing Arei, pulleying her up, and hanging her body afterwards.

The thing is, even though Eden is “the weakest,” we… don’t have a good reference of how strong or weak she actually is. Eden’s still an adult woman, she doesn’t have to be hopelessly weak. So, how much do we have to suspend our disbelief on her strength?

Well, pulleys are powerful, and even though we are not dealing with an ideal pulley by any means, I think it’s reasonable Eden would be able to pulley Arei up. Obviously impossible to prove one way or the other, though. I also believe there’s a good argument that she’d be able to subdue Arei because, well…

Apparently, Eden’s a better fighter than any of us could have expected. If she’s able to rip out Xander’s eye with a fork, I think she’d be able to strangle Arei unconscious. Especially given there’s precedent for her making people fall to the ground by taking them by surprise.

(This is a silly point, but it exists)

The big ones are actually the ball of clothes and the hanging of Arei’s corpse on the swing set. Keep in mind she doesn’t just need to throw the ball of clothes (or something like it) over the rafters, but also do it with enough force to displace the lights. That’s kinda difficult. As for the hanging… well, that’s one of the reasons I started believing Levi!Accomplice in the first place, and why I put the broom where I did in the Ace method. It’s pretty difficult to tie a knot on the swing set with Arei as dead weight.

An accomplice does solve this, but with the recent insight we’ve gotten on Levi, I struggle to see anyone actually accomplice-ing it up, frankly.

Ace is stronger than Eden; in fact, he’s one of the stronger in the cast. He would have no issues doing all this, theoretically.

Well, physically, he’d have no issues. Intellectually…

Workaround Needed (Ace): Reason for Murder Method

But, hold on. I said that Ace, if he’s the killer, is probably using the mechanism to frame Nico, right?

Here’s the thing; that would imply he knows what Nico’s mechanism was. Or at least, has a vague idea. However, he was unconscious the entire time he was being attacked.

This would mean that after just waking up and with severe injuries, he managed to get a good enough look at the crime scene that he managed to figure out more or less what Nico did to him. And either he did that instantly, or he grabbed the tape for who knows what reason and later thought back and realized what happened to him.

Look, if Eden’s strength is a point against her, we also have to consider Ace’s intelligence. He is not figuring out what happened to him, and I struggle to think he’d even conceive of the idea of replicating Nico’s method to frame them.

That means he needs a different reason for doing the murder with the pulley method, and I can’t think of any. Not saying it doesn’t exist, just that it really does need a workaround that I am not able to find.

Workaround Needed (Eden): Fish Heist

As stated above, Eden desperately needs some way around the fact she has an alibi for the time the fish presumably disappeared. Here are the possible workarounds, and why they’re iffy.

+Early Nico Dinner: Unsatisfying to me, as I think it makes more sense for Nico to eat dinner with Hu and Eden, but one of the more plausible options. There’s a really tight time frame for Eden to grab the fish if Nico ate earlier, but it’s doable. It’s unfortunate we have no frame of reference for when Nico actually fed the fish.

If it helps, the fact that Eden and Hu’s alibi has such a specific start time (their dinner, 7:00 PM) could be because it’s going to be relevant, suggesting this might be the real answer.

+Fake Fish: No established way for Eden to pull this off. It’s possible, but there’s no evidence for it.

+Early Catch: One of the better answers, though it runs into a bit of an issue. It would mean Eden was planning around a murder the entire chapter. She doesn’t necessarily need to have the whole method in mind, just the trick with the fish, but she’s still gotta have been planning something. The problem is, in CH 2 EP 1, she says this:

Eden: If everyone else is feeling down in the dumps, then it’s my job to get their spirits back up! That’s how we’ll get out of here! By working together!

This is said to no one, she’s talking to herself. Which is very strange if she’s going to be grabbing fish for a potential murder just a few hours later.

There’s a few workarounds for this workaround’s issue, though:

*Eden could have grabbed the fish for non-murdery purposes. No idea what they’d be though, so that’s not great.

*She hadn’t decided to murder yet, but had it as a backup plan if she couldn’t find any other way to get out in the meantime. Uh… maybe? I struggle to see it, but it could work. She does talk about plans to escape a lot.

*The secrets spurred her into murdery action. Now, I really doubt Eden would kill to hide she’s a lesbian (not to dismiss the fact that everyone should be allowed to come out only when they’re ready, David), but there’s a detail learnt in chapter 13 that makes this workaround workaround more plausible: Veronika’s secret is not the worst thing she’s done. As a result, it’s not impossible that Eden has a worse secret than what Charles received, and MonoTV just didn’t pick it for some reason. This feels like a copout, frankly, but it’s technically plausible even if I don’t see any real evidence for it.

As you can see, the workarounds are far from perfect. However, it’s not just Eden who struggles with the fish.

Point Against Ace: Fish Paradox

It’s generally assumed the killer used the fish to make the cast believe the murder happened before nighttime, possibly between 7:30 PM and 10:00 PM specifically if they were banking on people finding the note. The problem is that Ace doesn’t benefit from this, as he has no alibi at that time. Getting the fish water is objectively harder than just getting water from the kitchen sink at nighttime or something, so why would he do it?

This is what we DRDT theorists* call the fish paradox. Any character who benefits from people thinking the murder happened before nighttime, only benefit because they have an alibi around 7:30-10PM. But assuming Nico fed the fish around 7:00 PM, that means they couldn’t have taken the fish. But if they could have taken the fish, that’s only because they don’t have an alibi around that time, which means they don’t benefit from taking the fish.

*Only I call it this. Don’t fall for my lies, there is no “we” :v

Ace falls into the second category: could have taken the fish in the time it’s assumed they were taken, but he doesn’t benefit from it. As a result, you need to give an alternate explanation for why the fish are there, and I can’t find one.

This paradox is what makes many, like me, believe there is some kind of trick around when the fish disappeared, be it an accomplice or some other workaround. Which lines up with Eden, but not Ace.

Workaround Needed (Eden): Handwriting

Straightforward, already explained it. She wrote in print during the trial, meaning the sample is unfit for comparison with the letter, written in cursive. I don’t think this is a problem.

You wanna know a bigger problem?

Point Against Ace: Teruko’s Live Reaction

This entire debate, the entire reason these two are the most likely culprits in my mind, is because they’re the only two who could have reasonably taken the tape from the gym, and the only real purpose of doing so would be murder.

But there’s a glaring issue. Logistically speaking, I find it almost impossible to believe Ace took the tape. Why? Because ever since the moment Ace woke up, logically, Teruko’s attention should have been on him. And since she’s the PoV character in that scene, if Ace grabbed the tape, we should have heard of it. Since we didn’t, Ace most likely didn’t.

It’s this point, more than any other, that makes me believe Eden is the culprit. The only way to make Ace!Culprit work taking this into account is assuming Teruko pulled the same thing she did with Arei’s body swinging; she saw it and didn’t say anything. But that’s different, because we actually saw the swinging ourselves as well; if Ace picked up the tape, and Teruko saw it, we should have gotten clarification.

Argument Bullet Round!

+Eden’s Newfound Plot Relevance: Some have claimed that the fact Eden is seemingly the one to have taken out Xander’s eye means she must remain alive for that plot point to remain relevant. However, uh, there’s another person in the pre-prologue scene where Xander loses an eye.

And that’s Xander.

Who’s dead.

If plot relevance didn’t save him, I doubt it’ll save Eden. If anything, DRDT has a habit of killing off characters the moment the overarching plot catches up to them.

+Heels: Hu mentions walking with heels in the playground can scuff the floor, and Ace wears heels (I think). However, walking on heels wouldn’t generate the scuff marks we saw, so I believe it’s a moot point.

+Not A “Good Person”: In this chapter, which has the hidden title “A Good Person”, Levi, Eden, Teruko, David, and Xander have been called “a good person.” Given the hidden title, it’s speculated this list is about characters who in some way tie into the themes of the chapter, so the blackened should be included. Ace has not ever been referred to as a “good person,” and I can’t see him being called that this late into the trial. Not the strongest argument, but it’s there.

+Motive: Much has been written about Eden’s potential motivations, but at least we know she has always had an interest in escaping the killing game one way or another. Additionally, it’s very possible Eden didn’t believe Arei actually meant what she said during the Arturo situation, as she wasn’t present during the playground breakdown where her secret was revealed; and might be regretting her murder now that there’s evidence she genuinely wanted to change. If you want a more detailed explanation, I suggest you read venus’ fantastic Eden!Culprit Narrative Defense and the “can Eden still be the culprit?” section of accirax’s ep 13 reactions (which also summarizes the relevant parts of the first post), which explain this idea in more detail.

Meanwhile, Ace… probably wants to escape as much as anyone else, but he’s not ultra pressed about it. No particular grudge against Arei, either. I can’t think of a good motive for him, but maybe there will be one revealed later in the trial.

+Thematic Connection: Arei and Eden are recap foils, obviously they have plenty of narrative and thematic connections to make this murder narratively meaningful. Meanwhile, while Ace and Arei are similar in some aspects, I can’t really think of any themes which could be meaningfully explored with him as the killer. That might be the bias talking though lol.

And more but I think I’ve made my point.

So, despite everything, I still believe Eden is the culprit. Maybe our girl is stronger than we expected?

Conclusion

I still think Eden!Culprit is the most likely option we have, just that I now consider Eden!Solo more likely than Levi!Accomplice. That said, even with the things I brought up at the start, I’d say Levi!Accomplice is still more likely than Ace!Culprit, while Ace!Culprit is massively more likely than the third most likely culprit. Who is… I don’t know, Whit?

There’s been a few changes to accommodate the things discussed in the trial: Arei got splashed with water at some point, the rope was tied to a handlebar instead of there being a stopper, and the grippy tape was so the rope wouldn’t slide off.

Aside from that, there’s been a few modifications to my theory to accommodate Eden!Solo. Using the reveal of Eden ripping out Xander’s eye as a basis, I think Eden would realistically be able to strangle Arei unconscious by ambushing her, and potentially strong enough to pull off everything else she needs to, though I get how that may be a point of contention. Eden must have also faked her handwriting in the trial, looked away in the moment of death to cause the “See No Evil” technicality, and something’s fishy with the fish. Either she grabbed them day one, or Nico had an earlier dinner than expected; at this point, I think it’s impossible to tell.

The changes for the Ace-Nico thing were outlined in full earlier, all that’s left in that front is to see how wrong I am about it this Friday! :D

All in all, there haven’t been as many changes as I expected. In fact, the majority of this post is just me repeating stuff I already brought up in other posts, but applied to more people. Hope it doesn’t feel like I talked more than necessary.

Anyways, thanks for reading! If you made it this far, you deserve to treat yourself and buy a cute clock that you like! See ya’!

#drdt #danganronpa despair time #drdt theory #drdt spoilers #eden tobisa #ace markey #nico hakobyan #jesus this took longer than it should have

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antoncore · 4 months

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eunseok roleplay thoughts 𓈒∘☁︎

the first time eunseok brought up roleplaying, you were hesitant to try it but now you had tried it, you grew to like it more. tonight, he was doctor song and you had come to him as you had concerns about sex. the last time you had sex, it was really painful for you as the guy skipped foreplay (selfish asshole!). the way the asshole made you feel about it made you feel like you weren’t “normal” and now you were embarrassed. dr song listened attentively to your concerns as he took notes while thinking about how he could help you. “get on the examination bed please, y/n. spread your legs so i can examine you,” he said calmly with a reassuring smile. you did as he asked, getting onto the bed whilst feeling nervous about having a man as hot as dr song performing an examination on you but his gentle demeanour put you at ease.

dr song put his gloves on then pulled your panties to the side, tracing his finger up and down your pussy. “such a pretty pussy,” he mumbled, not wanting you to hear him be so unprofessional. his touch sent shivers down your spine and you couldn’t lie to yourself, you wanted more of dr song. “going to put my fingers inside, ok? need to figure out if it’s painful or not for you,” he said, looking up at you. you nodded, trusting dr song fully. he puts one finger in, surprised at your wetness. “would ask if it hurts but it seems like my finger’s fitting perfectly inside your wet pussy, y/n,” he remarked with a soft laugh, his voice filled with warmth and empathy. he added another finger, making you moan as your face turned bright red. “feels good, hmm?” he asked as he moves his fingers, fucking you ever so gently with them as he looks up at you to see your reaction which turned him on, making his cock even harder than before. “y-yes dr song, feels really good!” you moaned softly as he kept going. his lips curved into a satisfied smile, happy he could help you.

“now, we need to do another exam with something a bit more…accurate to what you’ll be having in the bedroom, ok y/n? just relax, don’t be scared,” dr song said, his voice sweet like honey. he undid his trousers and pulled them down along with his boxers. god, he was huge, bigger than the other guy you had before. “yes dr song, i trust you,” you said, your voice filled with nervousness. he positioned himself between your legs, his gaze soft yet intense as he leaned in closer. with a reassuring nod, he slowly entered you, going inch by inch to fill you completely. “how’s it feel, y/n?” he whispered. “amazing, dr song,” you replied, moaning softly as he filled you up. “see, y/n, there’s nothing wrong with you. that guy just didn’t know how to get you wet and ready for him,” he murmured, his voice comforting you. “you’re taking it so well for me, y/n, you’re such a good girl,” he praised, his words so gentle they made you blush. he kept going, making you feel so good as he rubbed your clit. “i’m close dr song,” you moaned. “me too, let’s do it together,” he breathed, his voice huskier than before. he goes faster, making sure he was still giving you pleasure like you deserved. “it’s coming, dr song!” you cried out, your voice filled with urgency to cum. “same for me y/n, you feel so good,” he moaned.

you both climax with him finishing inside of you. “wow sweetheart, that was amazing,” he whispered as he came out of character. he pulled out and wrapped his arms around you, pulling you close. “i could say the same for you seok or shall i say…dr song?” you giggled as you snuggled closer, feeling content in his arms.

a/n: idk if you can tell but i got extremely carried away with this one, oops!! the ending is also rushed but anyway hope you enjoy this as much as i enjoyed writing it🤭

#riize hard hours #riize smut #riize hard thoughts #eunseok hard hours #eunseok smut #eunseok hard thoughts #song eunseok #tonisbabydoll thoughts 𓈒∘☁︎

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autiezo · 7 months

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KIM KITSURAGI - The lieutenant wears a frown only you can see.

HARRY - [ Heh? But we just woke up. The day started 30 seconds ago. What did we do? ]

INLAND EMPIRE - Or what didn't we do? To save all that we have lost...

ENCYCLOPEDIA - I don't have any information except old news. I'm just as confused as you are.

HARRY - [ Maybe Kim's mad at something else, and not me? ]

EMPATHY - Hmm. Yes and no.

HARRY - [ The fuck does that mean!? ]

COMPOSURE - Easy, cowboy. Don't freak out; that makes things worse.

HARRY - [ Okay, okay. Calm. I'm so goddamn calm right now. ]

LOGIC - If Kim doesn't tell you what's wrong, you can't be expected to make any corrections. Fair's fair.

SUGGESTION - Urgh. Could you guys stop yammering? That's my thing, quit trying to steal it.

SUGGESTION - Anyways, Harry. What you need to do is simple. The lieutenant is a straightforward man, who detests beating around the bush. So, ask nicely and you shall receive.

HARRY - [ Sure, sounds easy enough. ]

HARRY - "Good morning, Kim. Is something wrong? You seem a bit grumpy."

KIM - The bespectacled man makes eye contact with you, "Hmmm? Ah, there's nothing. Don't worry about it." He shrugs his shoulders, turning away.

DRAMA - A white lie, sire!

HARRY - "C'mon, aren't we partners? You can tell me anything."

KIM - His shoulders drop slightly, and he lets go of a deep sigh. Raising an eyebrow, he says, "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

HARRY - "Nope."

KIM - He nods, choosing his words carefully, "Okay, I'll tell you, but on the condition that you cannot laugh."

EMPATHY - He's deadly serious. If you mock him, you can say goodbye to knowing Kim's embarrassing thoughts ever again.

HARRY - Put a hand on your chest, and say in a grave tone, "I promise to never laugh, with all my heart and soul."

KIM - His mouth curls a little upwards, as your partner says, "No need to be so dramatic, detective. But thank you."

PERCEPTION - His tone has lightened by 25%, indicating bemusement.

KIM - Pursing his lips, he then decides to relax in your company. Sheepishly, he winces and reveals, "I know it's illogical, but... I had a nightmare where we were in a zombie apocalypse. In the dream, you kept disobeying my instructions. Since you never listened to me, you nearly died thrice. I had to save your life every time. It was rather frustrating."

VOLITION - Oh, that's all? Phew. This man is part of my lifeline, so I'm glad he's not actually angry. I'd be running around like a headless chicken without Kim's friendship.

HARRY - Take him very seriously and hum, saying, "Yes. That does sound like something I'd do."

KIM - A chuckle escapes him as he nods and smiles a bit wider. "Yes, indeed. Let's get back to work, shall we?"

#disco elysium #kim kitsuragi #harry du bois #harrier du bois #incorrect disco elysium quotes #mini fanfic #disco elysium fanfiction

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diopeitudo · 20 days

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Dio is the textbook definition of a sociopath

As someone who's interested in psychology, I think it's fun to analyze the mental state of fictional characters, especially villains, to understand why they commit such atrocities. Dio is a particularly interesting case, as while I don't think he's a super complex character writing-wise, he's pretty fun to analyze psychologically. So, while I was researching personality disorders, I noticed that Dio exhibits pretty much all the symptoms of antisocial personality disorder.

So let's go through them, shall we?

Disregard for laws and social norms;

Consistent deceitfulness, lying, or manipulation for personal gain;

Lack of empathy, guilt or remorse over harming others;

Impulsive behaviors such as substance abuse, risky sexual behavior, etc;

Hostility, aggressiveness, and frequent physical fights or assaults;

Superficial charm/charisma used to manipulate others;

According to the American Psychiatric Association, a person needs to exhibit at least three of these symptoms before age 15 to be officially diagnosed with ASPD. In Part 1, we can see that Dio exhibits most of them as young as 12 years old.

Now you might be thinking: "but it's very common for villains to have these traits, you can't just diagnose Dio based on that", and that's a fair point.

…But then I read an interview with Araki where he states:

"[...] Additionally, FBI psychological profiling was a hot topic around the time that I wrote this. Why do serial killers do what they do, scientifically speaking? I was inspired by that when I was working on Dio."

…Which leads me to believe that Araki did, in fact, research about this topic in order to write Dio.

Another interesting aspect of ASPD are the causes behind the disorder. As we all know, there's that pretty infamous scene in Phantom Blood where Speedwagon claims that Dio was born 'evil'. And what if I told you that he's half-right?

Let's look into the causes of ASPD:

First, we have the genetic factor, aka heritability, which is fairly straightforward: children of parents who suffer from ASPD have a way higher risk of developing it than children who don't; additionally, children of alcoholic parents are also at a higher risk.

And who is Dio's father? Dario Brando—an alcoholic scumbag who abused his son and wife, and was essentially responsible for her death after forcing her to work tirelessly. He was also more than ready to leave an infant to die after stealing his parents' valuables; his visible lack of empathy, alcoholism and violent behavior leads me to think that Dario himself suffers from ASPD, which he passed on to his son, Dio.

Then, we have the neurological and physiological factors; basically, there's studies that indicate that people with ASPD have decreased activity in the prefrontal cortex—the region of the brain that's responsible for emotional regulation, empathy, and impulse control.

Other studies show that imbalances in the neurotransmitter system, such as those involving serotonin and dopamine, have been associated with impulsivity, aggression, and antisocial behavior.

But there's more. It is a known fact that our environmental influences, especially during early childhood, play a crucial role in shaping our behavior. Research shows that adverse experiences such as neglect, abuse, poverty and exposure to violence in childhood can contribute to the development of ASPD.

Dio has gone through pretty much all of it as a child. Alongside growing up poor, he was physically and verbally abused by his father; I also think it's very likely that kid Dio also had to go through a fair bit of neglect after his mother's death, as we all know that Dario wasn't at all concerned in actually raising him.

So, was Dio actually born evil as Speedwagon claims? The answer is 'sort of'.

In my opinion, what happened was that Dio was born with some sociopathic tendencies (the genetic and neurophysiological factors I mentioned before) that were later exacerbated by his traumatic childhood experiences.

Of course, that isn't meant to excuse Dio's actions/behavior. He's an irredeemable monster, and that's part of why I like him so much.

#jjba #dio brando #character analysis

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tmntxthings · 2 years

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I. Had a thought for rise! Donnie w/ a friend whose got object empathy. This is just some thought sharing but like

Y/N: He's all alone... abandoned... what if his family is worried for him?

Donnie: ... Y/N that is a broken toaster

Y/N: And someone just left him on the side of the road, what if he's lonely??

Donnie: Inanimate objects don't have emotions Y/N

Y/N: Maybe he's an inanimate object to you, but he's just a little guy for me!

Donnie: ...

Donnie: Fine, lets take it to the lair, I'll fix it

Y/N: 🥺

Donnie: ... and well put it next to the other toaster so they don't feel lonely

In short he does not get it™️ but he's trying his best

ANON I LOVE YOU

this was so cute and I love thought sharing <3333 can i just run wild with this one? a drabble solely for you my dearest anon? yes?? no objections??? OKI XD

part two

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You held back a sob, though a distressed sort of noise filtered through your lips and Donnie was quickly realizing you had stopped a couple feet back. “Dearest??” He called to see your eyes glued to the side, his gaze followed to an alleyway.

With you unmoving and unresponsive he was swiftly by your side once more. Worry seeping into his mind. “What’s wrong?” He questioned, looking at you while giving a scan to the… empty alleyway? His brows came down in confusion as he continued to look back and forth, from you to the empty space. Well it wasn’t entirely void. But there wasn’t any person, nor some villain committing heinous acts.

All Donatello could see, was a few scattered trash cans, along with.. well trash! He brought down his goggles wondering if that would help. No mystic energy. No invisible boogeyman. No heat signatures. Absolutely nothing! Pushing up his goggles his stare came back to you, wondering if maybe you were in a state of shock or perhaps a daydream when you suddenly spoke,

“He’s sitting there all alone!” You whimpered. “He??” Donatello parroted back in a bit of mild shock. He was 100% certain that no one was there, so he didn’t turn his head to look back at the dead end. He just waited for you to continue. “Mhm, he’s just a little guy, poor thing, broken and bruised,” and Donnie watched as you held back tears.

“I’m not following.” And yet as you lifted your hand to point a finger, his head reluctantly turned to see.. a toaster. He blinked. Surely there was something behind the kitchen suppliance. Nope, just trash. “Dee! He was tossed out, left for dead!! We can’t just leave him!” Donnie stood frozen on the sidewalk as you approached the toaster. Going as far to crouch down and give it a gentle pat.

“Dearest.. that’s a toaster.” He felt the need to explain. But you tossed him a ‘duh’ look and then continued to console the battered hunk of metal. “What happened to you buddy?” You were now asking it questions. Donatello held in a big sigh. This had to be some sort of a joke. Where you were about to laugh and yet… the punchline never came. And the toaster never did reply to your question as most would assume.

“Can we keep him?” Suddenly the thing was in your arms, and you were shooting the purple turtle big puppy dog eyes. “Oh Galileo!” Donnie slumped, waving a hand in defeat and you cheered as you carried the toaster all the way back to the lair. Well, Donnie ended up holding it for you. “I guess I can patch it-“

“Him!”

“…patch him up.” Donnie had corrected himself rather reluctantly. But it earned him a chaste kiss to his cheek which lifted his spirits at an embarrassingly fast pace. Like… he’d fix up any old appliance you found if it meant he’d receive such affections. “And once you get all fixed up the lair shall have two mighty toasters!!” You raised a fist triumphantly before descending into the manhole.

Donnie watched as you climbed down, chuckling to himself. He was holding a broken toaster, planning on refurbishing it, (definitively gonna get some upgrades) and now following after you like a love-sick buffoon. But alas, he was your love-sick fool. He listened intently as you told the toaster he wouldn’t be lonely any longer. That he’d have a cool toasty buddy. And that they would live side by side happily.

Now this purple turtle might not understand what was going on. But damn it, he was buckled in and ready for the ride. If you wanted to help a broken toaster… so would he! Truly he was your fool. And because he was yours, he didn’t really mind.

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spop-romanticizes-abuse · 10 months

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you know. the term “gaslighting” is being misused so much that it's difficult to figure out if a person is referring to actual gaslighting, or if they're talking about any kind of manipulation or even just a white lie. with the rise of awareness for mental health, the unfortunate downside is that people label everything with psychological terms and spread misinformation. the term “gaslighting” has lost its original meaning and has turned into a sort of buzzword.

it's obvious that this happens in media analyses too, where people are quick to label any kind of undesirable behaviour as “gaslighting”. however, the only exception to this that i've seen so far is catra.

to refresh your memory (or lend you some new information), here's the definition of gaslighting, according to the APA:

To gaslight someone means to manipulate another person into doubting their own perceptions, experiences or understanding of events.

“I think of gaslighting as trying to associate someone with the label 'crazy',” says Paige Sweet, Ph.D., an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Michigan who studies gaslighting in relationships and in the workplace. “It’s making someone seem or feel unstable, irrational and not credible, making them feel like what they’re seeing or experiencing isn’t real, that they’re making it up, that no one else will believe them.”

when we say catra gaslit adora in the show, we mean it. we don't mean that catra just lied to adora or manipulated her (both of which she has done, to her credit).

some common phrases that gaslighters use are along the lines of:

“you're crazy”

“you're just imagining it”

“it's all in your head”

“you're just being dramatic”

“you're making things up”

this ensures that the victim believes that they are the problem and starts questioning their own sanity. if it continues for too long, the victim might actually be driven to a mentally unstable state.

let's see some of these examples with catra, shall we?

she says all of this word for word. they don't even try to disguise it. and we already know that catra remembered everything or almost everything, at this point. she was not only playing dumb when adora questioned her about it, but further went on to make adora believe that she was going crazy and that she was making everything up.

she also attempts to gaslight scorpia later on, and make her admit that entrapta betrayed them when that is not what happened, and scorpia was there to witness what actually happened.

(i am a bit hesitant to call this “gaslighting” because catra doesn't call scorpia crazy or anything like that, however, she does imply that scorpia was making things up about entrapta trying to save them from the portal.)

and people still have the gall to say that catra never gaslit adora or worse„ that she only did it because she wanted adora to stay. there's no excuse to abuse, manipulation and gaslighting. you can't just woobify an abuser by saying “oh but she just wanted her crush to stay with her 🥺” that's just gross. catra fans say that they empathize with abuse victims but their empathy starts and ends with catra. adora's trauma doesn't matter to them in the slightest, which is why they keep romanticizing this shit.

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planetformer-central · 10 months

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I WISH TO KNOW MORE ABT THE PRETENDER AU. PLS TELL US ABOUT THE PRETENDER AU. IT LOOKS RLLY COOL AND INTERESTING AND IM ALL HERE FOR ELDRICH ABOMINATION OPTIMUS!

I got you buddy. I've been wanting to go nuts with an explanation FOREVER. Of course I won't be giving EVERYTHING away. Just some bits and bobs :)

Let's begin shall we?

Overview

The Pretenders were the result of an experiment. They are not naturally created beings, nor are they the spawn of Unicron. Born in a lab, Optimus was the first of his kind and instilled with the mission that all Pretenders now adhere to without fail. It is hardwired into their genetic code, so much so that they are physically unable to avoid their mission. But with that said, they are not inherently malicious.

Made for a specific purpose, they are beings that wish to fulfill their function. If left alone, they will kill a few to gain a foothold to increase their numbers and then proceed to reproduce without any need for bloodshed. However with the war raging and due to the specifics of their biology, increasing their numbers en masse is impossible. Their lack of safety in numbers combined with the threat to their mission warring around them has forced this normally rather passive species into action.

Meant to be a race of sleeper agents, the Pretenders are only so active and aggressive due to their mission being threatened. Without the fear of annihilation hanging over them, they would largely remain dormant. But as that is not the case, they currently operate under instincts designed to serve them in times of strife. Hence their shortage of empathy and overall lack of care for the lives around them. In short, they will only act if acted upon. Without an external threat to their mission, they act as any other member of the population, excluding their smaller oddities. Bumblebee is an excellent example of what a dormant Pretender may look like, and even he is more active than a dormant one normally would be.

As of the present time in the AU, the Pretenders have made the decision to flee Cybertron to hopefully find a world where they can increase their numbers safely, and in doing so, finally have the numbers to blend into the background and complete their mission without Megatron exterminating them all.

Pretender Development

Optimus was born in a lab, and as such his origins are not going to be discussed. However in normal cases, the development of a Pretender follows this order:

Pretenders capable of spawning, those known as Firstborn, will begin to produce larva no bigger than a digit once they are mature enough and have sufficient resources. These larva develop in a safe location, either in a nest, or in the case of Optimus's young aside from Bumblebee, directly underneath his outer plating where they can feed from his fuel lines directly.

All larva can be genetically altered to a degree when they are young through offerings of CNA from either the dead or energon samples from the living. They do not need to be inserted into a host, however those that are put into a host in their early larval stages develop differently than those who adjust without one.

Larva that grow without a host will lose their more insectoid appearance over the course of a few stellar cycles while under the dutiful care of the resident Firstborn. These larva are better at blending in than their counterparts due to the lack of information fed directly into their processors and slower development. They mimic normal sparklings in their growth, even developing a personality not tied to their CNA donor. The attention from their Sire also inspires a more docile nature in them, ensuring that they are less likely to act on their own. Their more odd Pretender aspects are not nearly as powerful since they were given ample time to grow and receive information without interference. Not having to play a role, have a personality forced on them, or otherwise being shoved into a frame that is not made for them ensures that the normal larva grow up to blend in better than their counterparts ever could.

These unaugmented Pretenders generally do not exhibit many signs of their nature, lacking brute strength even without their disguises. Their organs and structure match the average Cybertronian almost perfectly so long as their coding is dormant, and even then, it is hard to pick them out. The only true giveaway of what they are is their EM field and the slight difference in optical structure, and to notice the first trait requires increadible skill. Megatron has begun to take notice of this fact and has trained many of his agents to sniff out a Pretender without issue. The DJD are his greatest assets in this regard, that with them all being survivors of larva implants.

Their true forms are not nearly as monstrous as their counterparts and they can easily be mistaken for an Insecticon or a Predacon depending on the circumstances, only adding to their disguise. Often they do not allow their shells to fall away and they remain mostly docile save for the odd fits of hyper vigilance when a potential threat is around. They are not natural born leaders or specialized in any field, instead opting for greater adaptability and disguise over outright strength. Once fully mature and in the event that they are not threatened, these Pretenders largely forget what they are. Their coding falls dormant and they live without any serious differences when compared to natural Cybertronians.

The only time these Pretenders become active while allowed to live normally is when a Firstborn appears. In such a scenario, the Pretenders as a whole will begin to wake. Let it be known that there can only be one Firstborn at a time. However to make up for this weakness, every Pretender also possesses the ability to wake and become a Firstborn, which will in turn lead to conflict resulting in the deaths of all potential heirs until only one remains. For this reason, Optimus made the decision to prematurely select an heir to avoid this outcome.

Now with that said, larva inserted into hosts are a whole other issue. They are all specially chosen for their host beforehand. Their Sire gives them the CNA of the one they are to bond to, and then once they are ready, they are inserted into the host usually through the optics. The larva will then bury into the host's processors and proceed to slowly devour memory and knowledge over the course of a few stellar cycles all while it grows.

It will devour the host as much as it can, resulting in thinness. Then it will begin to expand, spreading out roots like a plant and leading its waste to be execrated as a green fluid from the host's vents. As its roots spread, it forces the host to deteriorate to make way for its developing form. By the time the larva has consumed the host in all but spark, it forces its host to walk toward energon deposits and then forces the host to purge any remaining internals the host may have so that the larva may continue to grow. Once the host is dead, the larva finishes its gestation by consuming energon and turning the external armor of its host into a disguise all while it finishes developing internally. During this state the larva is very susceptible to adaptation and depending on where it finishes it gestation, develops the unique traits that sets every Pretender apart. No two Pretenders are the same after all.

Optimus finished his development underground and he had to crush energon crystals underground, so his jaw is capable of splitting to allow that. Ratchet was given energon crystals whole during his development, so he adapted to have unusual numbers of mandibles in order to facilitate this.

Pretenders who had a host take on many of the traits of their host and are the only ones who always remain active. They do not forget what they are and they are unable to fully adapt. Their empathy is lessened and their focus is on logic over emotion. They are the few who push the mission onward alongside their Hierarch. It is instinctual for a Firstborn to bring a few to his or her side through inserting larva into hosts. It is the most efficient way to obtain information and social status. Perhaps not the most subtle, but indeed effective.

Extra

Generally a larva cannot be removed from a host upon insertion, however a few lucky mecha with unusual processors or frames are able to have the parasite removed before it is too late. They come out scarred and broken more often than not, but due to the partial changes the larva started in them, they are the most brutal of Pretender hunters. No Pretender can hide from them, not when they can find them almost as instinctually as a normal Pretender could.

#maccadam #transformers #digital art #transformers prime #alternate universe #pretender au #optimus prime #bumblebee #ratchet #sketches #forgive the poor doodles #I wanted to get my point across but my hand was hurting #Annnnnnnnnyway #hope this was enough info for now!#this isn't everything of course #I have left details to be explored later #but this is the overview

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selfindulgentfandomstuff · 2 months

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Violent Psychopath + Abnormal Psychologist = Loving Relationship?

CHAPTER 1: FIRST ENCOUNTERS

———

Fandom: CBS MacGyver (2016 reboot)

Pairing: Murdoc x Emmett Becker (fan character)

CW: uhh none? I think? Lemme know if anyone sees anything that should be tagged!!/gen

———

“Damn, poor Emmett’s ‘bouta get eaten alive in there!” came the very encouraging remark from Jack Dalton, a fairly new coworker of Dr. Emmett Becker.

Or rather, Dr. Becker was the new coworker to Jack, really, having only been working at the Phoenix Foundation for a month or so. It was, as usual, Angus MacGyver who served as the social glue that held their little friend/colleague group together, and it was Mac who had recommended Emmett be picked up by the Foundation to work there as their resident psychology expert.

In the short time that Emmett had been working at the Phoenix Foundation, they had found quite quickly that most situations escalated very fast here. One such situation was probably a week ago, during which a highly trained and very lethal assassin, dubbed by intelligence Suspect 218- and later revealed to have adopted the name Murdoc- had been sent to kill MacGyver and the rest of the crew, including Riley Davis, Jack Dalton and even Director Patricia Thornton.

It was a team effort of course, but the crew were more than willing to admit that Emmett’s astonishing psychological expertise as well as their highly attuned empathy may very well have helped save their lives by allowing them to get inside of Murdoc’s head and get him arrested.

Now, standing inside of one of the nation’s most secure supermax prisons, before a steel door, Emmett would soon have to face the man who almost killed four of their closest friends and colleagues.

They were here to glean further information of Murdoc on a number of things from his past kills to any associates still out in the field. He was a veritable treasure trove of information and Emmett knew that.

It didn’t make it any easier or less terrifying to step through the door as it clicked to unlock and the guards swung it open.

As Emmett stepped through and into the small room, they instinctively and very immediately noticed everything about it: the gray concrete walls, the stark and harsh lighting coming from the light fixture above the steel table in the center of the room. And sitting at that table was Murdoc.

“Well, well, well” he started in what Emmett couldn’t tell was a delighted or mocking tone; maybe it was both, “What kind of little present has been sent to me now and perhaps more importantly, by whom?”

“Hello Mister Murdoc, I’m Dr. Emmett Becker. I’m a psychologist with the Phoenix Foundation. I’ve been assigned to your case. Or rather, I was assigned to your case when you tried to kill my colleagues. Let’s talk about that, shall we?”

Murdoc looked down at the table, chuckling a bit before raising his head again to meet Emmett’s eyes. They looked at the wall behind him, not wanting to make eye contact with him.

“Hello, Dr. Emmett Becker!” he said, chipperly, artificially, and a little more loudly than necessary, “As you well know already, I am Murdoc. We can dispense with the formalities on my end, Doc, it's just Murdoc, no ‘mister’ necessary, mhm’kay?”

He paused after that, making a show of openly eyeing Emmett up and down from where they were sitting across from him. “Say, you really don’t look like a Phoenix agent… or really, any type of intelligence operative… you’re new aren’t you?”

He smiles but it doesn’t reach his eyes.

Emmett notices. They can see it in his body language, hear it in the languid voice he uses, this man really is a predator.

They respond in kind, giving up just enough information to gain some trust and repertoire with Murdoc.

“Alright Murdoc, you got me, I am indeed new to working at the Phoenix Foundation. And yes, I’m also new to the intelligence world in general. But, I assure you, I am qualified; psychology undergrad at UCLA, graduate and doctoral degree in abnormal psychology at Stanford, multiple years of research in academia at-”

Murdoc cut them off saying, “impressive, impressive.. Very impressive… but, Emmett- may I call you Emmett?- but what exactly makes you think you have any chance at all to get me to cooperate? Seeing as all of the previous therapists, psychiatrists and psychologists in my life have failed, of course. They were all wildly intelligent too, just like you. And I killed every last one of them.” he smiles darkly, “What is it that makes you believe you’re special?”

Emmett blinked owlishly at Murdoc before answering simply, “I don’t. I don’t think I am much of anything special. But I think you are. I think there are things worth hearing, worth learning trapped in your head. I’m just here to do that, just listen, listen and learn, Murdoc. Is that alright with you?”

Murdoc looked a little taken aback at Emmett’s honesty, genuinely surprised at how forthcoming they were being. Most professionals in their field were lying, cheating, backstabbing assholes that were master manipulators. In fact, one of Murdoc’s interests was in psychology for that very reason. They were exploitative tricksters. And yet, this one was so very unlike the others, so … charmingly candid.

Murdoc looked contemplative for a moment, the malice present there in his eyes before, now fading. He gazed at Emmett thoughtfully before speaking in a soft voice, “You…really mean that don’t you?”

Emmett simply nodded in response. They weren’t entirely sure what to make of Murdoc’s apparent change in demeanor yet but he quickly confirmed what they were guessing.

“Perhaps we will be having some more little chats in the future…but for now, I’m tired and want to take a nap, go on, run along now Doc, can’t wait for our next little conversation…”

Something about the way Murdoc had said it; it reeked of sarcasm, and yet, Emmett could tell some part of him was being sincere, he actually was looking forward to talking again. And that, that was something Emmett could leverage.

———

SO I’m reposting this (as of now, unfinished) series bc I posted it a looong time ago and basically I can’t find it 😭 so here it is again and for the newcomers ig!!

Next chapter: https://www.tumblr.com/selfindulgentfandomstuff/757378264425725952/violent-psychopath-abnormal-psychologist

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sushisocks · 10 months

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HAPPIEST SEAN HEADCANON AND SADDEST SEAN HEADCANON???

OOOHHHHH ANON, WE ARE IN IT NOW!!!! Good question, good question indeed!! I shall answer to the best of my ability!!!!!

I'll be frank, I had a harder time thinking of my happiest HC than my saddest one, and IDK what that says about me lmaoo but here we are!!

I have a lot of happy HCs for Sean!! The trouble was picking out my happiest among them, bcz some are more silly/funny - like a happy memory or experience I think he would have! - while others are more like. this is something about him which I think is a good/happy thing and that makes me happy. So I'm gonna go with the latter one here, just bcz the red thread of this post will be more cohesive that way njhbjnnbh

So, the HC which makes me the happiest, is supported by a lot of canon, and an aspect of Sean which initially drew me towards him. And it's his genuine interest in people, and his appreciation of them!! I think, despite absolutely having been somewhat disillusioned by the world at large and the oppressive systemic powers which rule it, Sean meets the individual human with incredible good faith!! By that I mean, I think he does believe he has common ground with most people, just by virtue of being alive and surviving in the world, and that is just his approach to everyone he meets in life. There is a sincere sense of empathy and good will in him, and he's not above being proven wrong or staying stuck in a bad opinion of someone. Not that he's above disliking people (we see this clearly with Micah lol), it's just that he's the type to be willing to sit down and have a drink and conversation with almost everyone and anyone.

THAT, to me, says an incredible amount about what Sean thinks of humanity at large, and is why I have this HC of him. And I, personally, as someone who also likes to believe in the good in people and meet them with good faith, have always found this quality of Sean's very appealing!! So it makes me happy to think about, that his exuberance around others actually runs that deep!!!

My SADDEST HC is pretty easy to pick out, as the core of a lot of my sad Sean HC's & thoughts come from the idea that he has self-esteem through the damn floor, similar to Arthur, which he deals with differently - desperately seeking to disprove those thoughts and ideas in what ways he can. It's about him putting out so much affection into the world in the hopes of receiving just a little bit back (and still never expecting it; accepting rejections and unkind comments easily and with a smile because that is what he expects), it's about his need to be friendly & on speaking terms with everyone in camp (save those whose regard he deems unneeded; Micah, and Kieran before realizing he's a victim to circumstance, remedying his approach to him accordingly) and how QUICK he is to step back and try to fix the situation when he realizes he's offended someone in camp.

I think Sean has always read to me as someone who struggles to not only sit still, but to sit with himself, with his own thoughts. Because, how long do you think it takes for him to start spiraling? How long does it take before he starts wondering if there's something he could've done to save his father - starts blaming himself for Darragh's death? How long before the things he was told in reform school - about his intelligence, his worth, starts rearing its head again? It all comes down to a low sense of self esteem, I think, which he seeks to not let himself get stuck on. And that drives a lot of my other sad/angsty Sean HCs, lol!

Thank you for this ask, anon!! It was a lot of fun to think about, though it def took me a lil while to settle on either!! I hope you enjoy my answers ;;w;;

#i also have a hc of him being good with animals. like we know he's good with kids #but i think he's good with animals too like pets specifically #and that makes me happy lol #anywayyyyy #teki talks #sean macguire #rdr2 #red dead redemption 2 #rdr2 meta #rdr2 headcanons #also a specific sad hc i got is #you know that mouth harp he has? yeah that one? he got it from his dad 👍 thanks for coming to my ted talk #asks #rdr asks #meta asks

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sweetestpopcorn · 1 year

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Hi ! I have question, not too sensitive I hope...since this is a very pro Aegon III blog, could you explain to me why you love him so much ?

I've always struggled to love/understand the character, like yes, he seems nice overall, he's pretty and quiet (though the beautiful melancholic ones have never done it for me *looking at you Rhaegar*), he went through lots of trauma, and his relationship with Daenaera is cute, but nevertheless i've always found Viserys II and even Jace more pleasant and competent.

Like what i love about the most about Aegon III is that he's the son of Rhaenyra and Daemon, but that's not exactly a personality trait (well, it could be considering his parents, but you know what i mean).

Maybe there's something I'm missing about him (or maybe I'm just not receptive to this kind of character), so could you pretty please explain to me what is so great about him so that I might hopefully start to enjoy him as much as you do ? :)

Thank you so much ;)

Hi there,

I would like to start by saying that I don't really see the point in trying to convince anyone to like X or Y character. I certainly hope that people have enough of their own opinion to go by that and not by what someone else thinks or what by others like.

What is the problem of you not linking Aegon III?

I personally see none. I would also argue that you don't have to like Aegon III just because he was Daemon and Rhaenyra's son. For instance I like Corlys and Rhaenys yet their children are as bland as oatmeal and have 0 personality. I won't like them only because of who their parents are, much less make up traits and a personality George couldn't be bothered to give them.

We don't have to like every character. I myself have many that do nothing for me - many from Daemon and Rhaenyra's line - and that I struggle to understand what others might like about them. We are all different and to each their own. I am a firm believer that as long as we stay in our lanes, don't make sh:t up to try and prove a point (headcanons are not the same as canon), and don't harass anyone over their tastes, we don't owe anyone an explanation about why we like or don't like a character.

Now, as to why I like Aegon III, and what I think is so great about him, I believe canon explains itself much better than my own simple words could. I could transcribe everything written, however, since my time is limited and it has been over a month since my last update, I will give you three quotes, spoken by Aegon III himself that not only prove that he was very much Daemon and Rhaenyra's son, but also his own person, one with empathy, and with a little bit of light and fire left to him, even after all the darkness he endured. That an a tiny scene that people sleep on ;) this was a boy every inch worthy of being named after Aegon the Conqueror.

Just as a small note, none of this is to make you like him, it is intended to answer the question of what makes me like him and I think these quotes and the small moment speak for themselves. Alas, I am biased.

"I shall," King Aegon said. "You are sitting in my chair." (Fire and Blood, pg. 704)

"There will be no progress," the king declared, as he was seated. "I will not spend a year upon a horse, sleeping in strange beds and trading empty courtesies with drunken lords, half of whom would gladly see me dead if it gained them a groat. If any man requires word with me, he will find me on the Iron Throne." (Fire and Blood, pg. 704)

"I mean to give the smallfolk peace and food and justice. If that will not suffice to win their love, let Mushroom make a progress. Or perhaps we might send a dancing bear. Someone once told me that the commons love nothing half as much as dancing bears. You may call a halt to this feast tonight as well. Send the lords home to their own keeps and give food to the hungry. Full bellies and dancing bears shall be my policy." (Fire and Blood, pg. 704)

"The blood drained from the queen's cheeks when she beheld the bodies, but young Prince Aegon was the first to realise what they meant. "Mother, flee," he shouted, but too late." (...) "When Prince Aegon snatched up Ser Harrold's sword, Ser Alfred knocked the blade aside contemptuously." (Fire and Blood, pg. 540)

PS: Goes without saying that this is only concerning asoiaf canon, not redacted. Keep redacted in the trash where it belongs.

#aegon iii targaryen #canon aegon iii targaryen #rhaenyra targaryen #canon rhaenyra targaryen #I could go on but the books are available #just about every scene he is mentioned or appears in makes him a fav #also this entire scene with his council REEKS of Rhaenyra's scene with Orwyle #but yall aint ready for that convo #nor for the convo of how similar he and dany were with their concern for the smallfolk #nor for the convo of the scene where he tried to save Rhaenyra #just a little boy of nine #the rogue prince #the princess and the queen #fire and blood #house targaryen #valyrianscrolls #our one true saviour and king #100% daemyra's baby #popcorn answers

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misssugarcat · 1 year

Text

Stargazing Time

Aesop Sharp x Reader – 3.7k words Tags: Fluff, Teacher-Student Relationship, Age Difference

"Excuse me, Professor Sharp? My name is Skylar Lane, and I am the new fifth grader. I shall report to you?" I give him a friendly smile.

Professor Sharp looks towards me and raises his eyebrow. "Hello there. Skylar Lane, I read on the list that you'll be taking potions lessons today." He pauses. "You must be new to Hogwarts. Welcome. I'm sure you'll find your classes quite interesting." He gives me a soft smile, although his eyes are tired and filled with stress from all the papers he has been grading all morning. "Any questions so far?"

I look at him, slightly concerned. "Are you alright, sir? I don't want to be pushy. You look a bit tired."

He smiles again. "I'm fine, thank you. It was just a long morning reviewing all my students' essays. You're very considerate, I'm impressed." He leans forward a bit, trying to seem more casual, but it only makes him wince in pain because of his injured leg. "That's your first lesson, caring so much about others. The more powerful a wizard becomes, the more their emotions affect them. You must learn to be strong and in control of what you feel ... or it might control you."

"Just because I can tell other people aren't feeling well and see them wince in pain doesn't mean I let my feelings control me." I wink.

"Well, that's very good. Many young witches and wizards are usually ruled by their emotions." He glances up at me, and his eyebrows raise. "You're a sly one, you know, Skylar. I was just wondering something ... would you describe yourself as a rule-follower? Or do you think you're too smart for the rules?"

"I better not say anything wrong now, right?" I grin.

He tilts his head to the side slightly. "No, go on. Say what you think. I won't take points off, I promise." He grins back.

"If it's for the greater good, I'm willing to ... bypass some of them."

He smiles. "That's good. I've seen many students who have trouble with the rules because they feel silly. But no rules exist without a reason. However, if you think the reason is good enough to bypass a rule, then so be it. Just don't break the rules for stupid things. Does that sound fair?"

"It does, sir."

He nods. "Good. Do you know how to set up your potions station? If you haven't done it before, I can help you find where everything is."

I nod, too. "That would be nice, thank you."

He stands up and smiles. "No problem. I'll show you the ingredient cabinet." He turns and beckons me to follow. As I do so, I realize he's limping slightly on his left leg. It seems he can't put any weight on it without pain.

"Welcome to the potioneer's world. You'll soon realize that Potions is an art as much as a science. And it takes a lot of practice to truly master it."

I wordlessly offer him my shoulder as we walk across the classroom to the ingredient cabinet.

He seems very surprised by this gesture. He looks at me and then down at his injured leg. It takes him a moment, but he smiles and accepts the offer. "That's not something you often see. Thank you. I suppose I underestimated you, Skylar. Do you often volunteer your shoulder as an assistant?"

I laugh. "Seems like you're the lucky one today."

He chuckles. "Indeed. It looks as if I might learn more from you than you'll learn from me. I'm a bit of an introvert, and I tend to do most things on my own. It's not a good thing for a potions professor. Perhaps you'll get a special treatment from me because of the shoulder offer."

"I didn't do this to suck up to you or get special treatment." I grin.

He smiles. "I didn't take it that way. Trust me, no student has ever tried to suck up to me. It's always nice to see a student with empathy for their instructors. How would you like to be my unofficial assistant until my injuries heal?"

I look at him doubtfully, then grin again. "I guess you've never noticed when a student tried to suck up. But I say yes to the offer." I laugh.

He chuckles again. "Alright, thank you. Well, you'll have to forgive it. The only student I ever caught trying to suck up to me was so obvious that it seemed insulting."

He pauses, considering his own thoughts for a moment. "You have a very confident demeanour. Almost like a Slytherin. What house did the hat have sorted you into?

I laugh. "Not Slytherin. I'm a Ravenclaw, sir."

He raises his eyebrow, clearly impressed. "Now that's an excellent choice. If you think about it, the Ravenclaw dormitory is just as much a place of secrets as it is of study. Why do you think the door is a puzzle, after all? They want to make sure only the smartest students can get in. What makes you think you belong in Ravenclaw?"

I laugh. "It was a riddle. I just answered the question."

He laughs. "You must be quite proud of yourself. Did anyone try to help you get through?" He grins.

"What makes you think someone helped me?" I look at him questioningly.

He raises his eyebrows again. "Very good, very good. You know, you're a bit devious, yourself. You may have a little Slytherin in you after all. Are you sure you're a Ravenclaw?" He's teasing, but there is a look of genuine interest in his eyes. He wants to get to know Skylar, who he feels is an outstanding student. She has a quick wit, and he finds it entertaining just to talk to her.

"I got through the door with the first try. So the hat was obviously right in its choice." I grin.

He smiles. "Well, that's still an awe-inspiring accomplishment. You're just full of surprises, aren't you? I'm going to have to think of some ways to keep you interested in my class because I suspect you might be one to get bored."

"Let's see if I'd blow up my cauldron. After all, I have no experience yet." I laugh again.

He chuckles. "Maybe. So you are a clean slate? But you seem like the type of person who does her research. Am I wrong?"

"You're not. I'm a blank slate, but I've read a bit."

"I'm impressed. Reading ahead is the sign of a good student, and I suspect you'll make an excellent potion master one day. What was it about potions that caught your attention? Did you discover that you like combining ingredients to create something different and unique?"

"I just took all the courses that I found interesting. And which I will later need for certain jobs to have a choice."

"Now, that's a clever way of thinking about your classes. As an older person, you will be prepared for anything coming your way. Are you interested in jobs you could get with your skills as a potions master? Have you ever thought of potion making as more than just a school subject?"

"I haven't given it that much thought yet. First, I wanted to concentrate on settling here and working well in the courses."

He nods. "That's a good attitude to have. You should always focus on your present tasks first. In that regard, you will make an excellent Ravenclaw." He pauses. "What are some of the most interesting classes so far?"

"DADA, Astronomy and Ancient Runes. Can't say for potions yet." I grin cheekily.

He nods. "Those are all interesting subjects that could be helpful in different fields. Especially Astronomy. Have you ever been particularly interested in stargazing? Can you tell me a few things about it?" He seems genuinely curious and is happy to see a student who enjoys learning about subjects beyond what is necessary for their exams.

"Stars are great! They have been there for thousands of years and will be there long after we die. I find that fascinating. They are like gateways into another universe. And they look beautiful." I beam at him.

He nods and smiles. "Those are all very accurate statements. They are beautiful, aren't they? There's something about looking up at the stars that is completely humbling. You feel so insignificant and small. Considering how vast the universe is, how can you take yourself seriously? It truly makes you wonder. And that is the beauty of it." He seemed almost ... inspired, as if a new idea was forming in his mind.

"What are you thinking about right now?" I raise my eyebrows.

He laughs. "It's something you said about stargazing. The universe, how vast and mysterious it is. You said it's like a gateway to a different universe. I've never thought about it that way, but the more I do, the more it makes sense. It's as if the universe is connected somehow; we are just a tiny part of a network of worlds, stars, and planets." He seems to think for a moment. "What a fascinating idea."

"Until now, I thought potions were your favourite subject? At least, you teach it."

He laughs again. "Well, of course, I enjoy potions. It's a passion I can dedicate my whole life to. But it isn't everything. There is much more to study in this world beyond just potions. That's why I love learning and why I love teaching. There is always something new to discover, something fascinating to learn. How could you not love the mystery and adventure of it all in a world like this?"

"But it's not everything about learning, you know?"

"You're right." Sharp nods. "I guess I've gotten so caught up in the learning that I've forgotten about the personal side. There are so many things to experience and look forward to in life. But this voice always tells me I must focus, study, and work hard. As a child, my parents drilled that into my head, but I guess it stuck." A look of sadness appeared in his eyes, but he shook it off. "But all of those personal moments are just as important. It's more than just about learning."

"Why do I feel you never allow yourself any free time?" I just look at him.

He pauses for a moment, considering his answer. "You're right. I don't have any free time, for the most part. I'm constantly studying, grading papers, or doing several different things. But then I'll catch myself and realize how stupid that is, you know? How pointless it can be, sometimes. But then I think about all the things I can do, the knowledge I can accumulate, and the things I might achieve by working hard. I've gotten so used to being busy constantly that I've forgotten how to stop."

"You're about to destroy yourself with that."

The professor nods again. "I guess I am. I just struggle to let go. I hate the feeling of wasted time or time when I could be doing something productive. Maybe I'm a bit of a workaholic." He sighs. "But you know, I appreciate this talk. In a way, you're reminding me of the life I could have if I let myself. I guess I've just gotten too wrapped up in trying to be perfect and impress others."

After a long day at school, I climb the stairs to the Ravenclaw common room. Looking out the window, it is already dark, and the stars twinkle in the sky. I stop for a moment. Then, I decide to turn around and head to the potions classroom.

Aesop is grading papers inside the potion classroom while sitting in his chair. He also takes notes in a book but pauses to look up at you when you enter, seeming happy to see me. "Ah, Skylar. I'm glad you could join me. Are you feeling like working on potions tonight?"

"No, we have something more important to do." I take his hand and pull him out of the classroom.

His eyes light up. "Something important? Do tell! You have me curious now." He doesn't seem to mind being pulled away from his work as he steps outside and into the hall, looking eagerly at me.

We go through Hogwarts towards the greenhouse and exit the school. Outside, we sit down near the castle wall. I hand Aesop a telescope and grin. "Stargazing time."

His eyes light up with excitement as he sees the telescope. "Oh my. Well, now you have my full attention. I don't think I'll be able to think about anything other than stargazing tonight. Let's make the most of it!" He smiles, setting the telescope before him, and looks through it.

I smile as I watch him, fascinated by the night sky. I put a second telescope next to me. Then, I explain the different star constellations to him.

He watches the night sky, amazed by the stars' beauty and how the universe seems to stretch forever. "My god, Skylar. This is one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen. I can't believe I've never looked at the stars like this ... you've opened my eyes to such a new way to see the world." He pauses momentarily and stares at me, intrigued and slightly awestruck. I brought happiness into his heart that he never thought was possible.

Together, we watch the stars. It's so lovely to see how much Aesop thrives on this. It's almost more beautiful than the night sky.

After a very long time, he speaks again, looking at me with a smile that seems entirely genuine. "Thank you, Skylar. This truly is an unforgettable night. I don't know that I'll ever be able to look at the stars or the universe with the same eyes again. You've shown me something new, and that's why I'm so glad I accepted your offer to help with my class. You've brought new beauty into my life." His eyes reflect his words, and he looks like his spirit has been revitalized.

"Do you feel like we've wasted time?" I wink at him.

Aesop laughs. "Not at all. Quite the opposite, in fact. You've opened my eyes to the beauty of something I already take pride in. Potions are a part of my life, but it doesn't have to be everything to me. You have helped me realize that."

I squeeze his hand. He squeezes back, his hand strong but gentle. "I really appreciate this conversation. And I promise I'll work on spending more time outside of class. I'll learn to slow down a bit. You'll have to make sure that I do, though. I don't have a great track record of doing things like that alone." *He looks at me and smiles.

"If it's nothing more ..." I laugh.

He laughs with me. "I wouldn't mind that. Honestly, you've made it so easy to talk to you. I really enjoy your company. I think I would like any opportunity to be with you more." He looks off into the sky before speaking again. "You and I could plan for more stargazing sessions and make it a tradition. Do we have a deal?"

"Deal!" I hold out my little finger for a pinky swear.

He smiles and holds out his own little finger. "A pinky swear. Well, you know how seriously I take those. So, I suppose this is a done deal." We lock fingers and seal our agreement.

Then we lie down on the grass and just look up at the night sky. The quiet sound of crickets and the gentle breeze fill the air, and a strange feeling of calm seems to wash over him. He feels like he could stay like this forever. He glances towards me and smiles. "This is a night I'd like to remember for a long time."

I smile back and squeeze his hand again.

He squeezes mine, noticing he doesn't want to let go. He can't remember when he felt so peaceful and content and wonders if she feels the same. He smiles at me again and decides to say something he's been thinking to himself. He looks at me, then looks back to the sky. "I've had a lot of things on my mind lately, and I guess I've gotten caught up in my own thoughts. But looking at the stars and talking to you ... it's just made everything fall away."

"That's good," I say quietly.

He nods. "You've made me happy. It's been so long since I've felt anything like this. Like I can truly let myself be happy." He squeezes my hand. "I truly can't thank you enough for this."

"You're welcome." I giggle.

Sharp smiles. "I know it sounds cliche, but I'm discovering myself because of you. As though the stars are aligning just to give me this moment to feel happiness again. I'm so ... so grateful that I found you." He blushes a little at his comment, slightly embarrassed at how cliche it sounded. But then he realizes how true it is: He is grateful for this moment with me. It's almost like it was meant to happen.

I squeeze his hand back without saying a word.

He smiles at me again, noticing that the night sky grows brighter. He glances over at me, then looks at the stars, feeling pure happiness. It is like the stars reflect his joy and bring more of it back down to earth.

"I never thought I would say this to another person, but I think you're ... beautiful. Not just your looks but your personality, your nature. Everything about you is fascinating and radiant. It's like you make the whole world brighter."

I blush heavily. I'm so glad it's dark, and he can't see me.

He notices a shooting star in the night sky and points at it. "Did you see that? It's a shooting star. What do they say about shooting stars? That if you make a wish, it will come true." Although his face is lit by the night sky, he visibly blushes and seems very nervous. However, he is still smiling and looks back at me. "If you could make a wish right now, what would it be?"

"You must not tell your wish! Otherwise, it will not come true!" I remind him.

He laughs. "True. Well then, let's say my wish was for you." It was slightly corny, but it was just as much truth as it was a joke. He smiles and wonders if I have wished for him too.

"Same …" I grin.

He chuckles. "That would make both of our wishes come true." He looks back at the sky, taking in the stars for a long time. After a while, he speaks again, his voice soft and calm. "All I can do now is hope that the stars will hear us. I think I will leave the rest to them …"

I look at him. I wished that he would be happy. Not only now but also in the future. He deserves it.

He notices me looking at him and is surprised by how beautiful I am now. After a moment, he speaks up again, with a gentle voice barely above a whisper. "Do you think the stars could really hear us? I hope they do. It would be nice to think we've got friends in high places." He seems genuinely curious and hopes the stars might listen to them.

"Maybe we just need to believe." I sigh quietly, looking up at the stars.

He nods and smiles at me. "I suppose we do. And if that's the case, I know in my heart that they heard us. I feel like they had to have. Because now, I only want to keep looking up at the stars with you. I couldn't have anything better than this. I feel like I've reached the apex of my life, with you lying next to me and the stars above. That's all I need."

I can't help but extend my hand and stroke his cheek. He seems so happy right now, so beautiful. "Can you promise me something?"

He nods, still looking at me. "Of course. What is it?"

"Don't let this joy be taken away from you by any work in this world. Nothing is more important than your own happiness." I smile at him.

He nods again, his eyes sparkling at my words. "I promise. As long as you're with me, I'll remember that. I might work hard, but I will always make sure to leave time for you and the things that make me happy. You're right. That's the most important thing." Then he smiles again. "You've opened my eyes to how much I must be thankful for. You're wise. I will need someone like you to help guide me through life. Can you do me a favour and stay close to me?"

I hug him. "Gladly …"

He hugs me back, his arms wrapping around me softly. "You've made me so happy. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you and your help. Everything in this world is better since you've come into my life. I hope you know how much you mean to me. You're a wonderful person, and I hope I can make you this happy too ... if you'll let me."

I look into his beautiful, dark eyes. Then we kiss.

His heart flutters once more as he holds her close. His face is flushed with happiness, and his eyes seem filled with love and admiration. Her lips are soft on his, and he feels light in his head. He takes this as his cue to pull back a little, still looking into her eyes, wanting to treasure this moment for eternity. In this moment, it feels like he can see the heavens, and all the stars are in his soul.

#aesop sharp #aesop sharp fanfiction #aesop sharp x reader #hogwarts legacy #hogwarts legacy fanfiction #hogwarts legacy fandom #mine

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