AEREIS

Oc belongs to @federationyaoi

I finally drew him, even though I was feeling lazy.

If anyone has their own original characters based on "the freak circus,"

you can send them to me in the comments or messages, and I'll draw them. I need to force myself to improve my drawing skills.

If I'm not too lazy, I'll draw this funny guy again.

Or I don’t know, but in case the others fell in love with MC, how do you think each character would give MC a ring with that meaning? In the hypothetical case that they saw that MC would be very happy with something like that.

Other than Dead Leaves, I'm not sure where else I had Harlequin 'give' MC a ring. And even in that fic you never see him give it to MC--it's just that they had it when they were married.

That being said, here's how each would propose to MC:

Pierrot: First things first, you need to indicate that you WANT to be married. Pierrot is fine with just having you by his side, but he isn't the type to just 'propose' out of nowhere--he needs to know you want this. Plus, his life has been so hard and lonely that he never even dared entertain the idea of marriage in his deepest fantasies. As for the actual proposal--he would make all your favorite foods, a candle light dinner--pamper you til the sun comes up, and ask you <33 with either a rose in hand or a ring (that he may or may not have stolen from a fool's belongings omg).

Harlequin: At first he thinks the idea is silly--what good is a ring any way? You two already know you're meant for each other, so why bother? That is, until you mention it to him once or twice--and he notices the gray in your hair, first one strand, then two, three, etc. Harlequin puts the puzzle pieces together, realizes that you both only have a short time with one another, and immediately begins looking up online (and asking everyone) how he should go about this. In typical Harelquin fashion, he'll follow about half of the advice he's given and take you on a long walk. You both will crash a few parties, dance at a festival, and maybe even steal some tako yaki. All at the end, where he picks you up and takes you to the top of a building to watch the fireworks. Eventually, he just nudges a small black box, not even looking at you and asks: "I won't ask you.....but whatever you do....make sure that it's what you want....I won't stand in your way."

Doctor: All the monsters are dense, you really do have to spell it out for him IF you want to be married at all. Doctor likely will have a ton of questions for you, maybe even scoff a little at the more dramatic ideas you have in mind for a possible 'wedding'. You two end up talking about marriage more and more as you work. Exchanging flower arranging ideas while swapping someone's organs, filling test tubes and testing out vows at the same time. It's not until months later when Doctor sets a date you realize that you two have been engaged this whole time--the wedding will be in the fall, near halloween.

TicketTaker: He's been dreading the day you'd bring up this subject, he's a monster and you're a human--it's such a ludicrous idea. An abomination to some. Yet, he sees how much you want this and his mind begins racing. What would it be like....to be married to you? Would he like this? Does he want this? TicketTaker then realizes he needs to go over some terms with you---he'll basically draw up a bunch of papers and fake legal documents--something more intense than any pre-nup he could have you sign. Just as he hands you the quill, you ask him: "Is this a proposal?" and he freezes.....TicketTaker got so caught up in the legality of it all that he forgot to actually ASK you....and get a ring....You smile, gently holding his hand--he then mentions you two will go ring shopping tomorrow where you two can have a proper engagement.

I can tell you right now that Destiny does not think that Jester is cruel nor heartless— and she wouldn’t bully you for asking a question like that! But at the same time I can understand where you might feel nervous, especially because there’s a *lot* of people who misunderstand or make judgements about him as a character based off of assumptions or lack of nuanced exploration with the source material.

Jester is a very complex character who has a lot of nuance that can be hard to grasp if you’re looking at him solely as ‘sexy character in yandere visual novel’— its one of the reasons that me and the rest of the TFC team try to emphasize that TFC is NOT an otome and that these characters each have their own personality, likes, dislikes, traumas, priorities and things that they're worried about or proud of. All of those building blocks are what makes a character feel organic and real!

So, for just a few moments, follow me in what I'm about to describe to try and help us see the world from Jester's perspective. I will preface that this does contain some of my own bias and flavors of headcanon, but they're ultimately pulled from the source material of the game and AMAs:

You're young. You're alone. You had a family once, possibly a very loving family, but now you're alone and surrounded by a world of people who are not like you and who want to do you harm (humans). You can try to ignore this, but there's no ignoring the pain and the fear that you might be discovered, treated and maybe killed like a violent animal.

That's what they keep calling people like you. Monsters.

You're scared. You're alone.

Maybe you think you can trust them or connect with them, but it's extremely difficult because you also have to eat them or risk starvation and death— human flesh is the only kind of meat that your body must consume to survive. You don't know why that is, you don't control that you have to eat humans, and it's not like humans are going to listen to you when they already are such violent creatures to begin with. Selfish things. Maybe humans are the reason you don't have a family anymore.

You're alone.

But actually, you're not alone anymore. You've found some people— people like you, people that humans call monsters. They're also scared, they've also been through so much before meeting you. You're one of the youngest of them all, but they're more scared than you feel now, and they've become your family. You want to protect this family. You need to protect this family. The humans can't take this one too.

You've met one human. He made promises to you, very powerful promises of food and shelter and warmth when for a long time you and your family had known hunger and cold and fear. Maybe you're desperate. Maybe you're not as smart as you thought you were— you take this deal with this human.

The human betrays you. You're scared again. Hungry again. Your family needs help, needs to be free. You have to make a decision. A painful decision. You have to watch your family be tortured and traumatized, watch others of your kind be treated like animals to be hunted.

You have to make a decision. You can't be scared anymore.

... the decision is made. The man is dead. Your family is safe now, even if the blood stains never really wash away. Even if the memories never fade. Even if the fear and the pain and the nightmares never go away— the people you love are safe now, and you will do anything to keep them safe.

So you build a circus with the resources, skills and circumstantial convenience from the man who had tricked and imprisoned you in the first place. It's not the most luxurious form of living, but its reliable and safe, you are able to keep your family safe. You don't feel as scared anymore— no, instead of fear, you have caution in its place. Humans can't be trusted, after all the things you've seen and felt. Some of your family may feel differently, but you're the one responsible for them all now. Responsible for their safety, their health, their source of food that still very much has to be handled with care. Humans are violent, discriminatory things, and they won't listen to pleas of mercy or understanding from a creature they deem a 'monster'.

So it doesn't matter. You don't care what others think about you. You don't care if people see you as a monster. You ARE a monster. You ARE an angry, cautious, scared, traumatized monster, and you're proud of it.