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the paladin and the sorcerer

for @andiwriteordie’s birthday!!

Ajaw is jealous...

Honestly Xiao / Traveler works but I prefer Aether because of his characterization as the softer twin.

Lumine, from what I've seen and what the fandom seems to agree on, is a bit colder and more no nonsense of the two. She does the commissions for a paycheck and rolls her eyes when people randomly approach her with more. She makes her discomfort known but does it anyway because she is a good person who wants to help.

Aether is more of a chronic people pleaser. He'll grin and bear it, saving his snark for whenever he and Paimon are alone because he wasn't other people to see him as anything less than helpful and cooperative.

Enter Xiao. He shows up and doesn't want anything from the Traveler. He's self-sufficient and instead wants to help the Traveler, telling them to speak his name when they're in trouble. The Traveler refuses to take advantage of his offer and instead only calls him for cute, easy tasks (taste testing food).

The Traveler refuses to be a burden; Xiao already suffered enough. So the Traveler is kind, offering small gifts of food and quiet companionship because they care. Xiao never asked for anything but the Traveler gives and gives because that's what they know.

Xiao is easily overwhelmed by this shower of kindness, but they can't stop it. What they can do is attempt to offer kindness in return. Crystalflies to decorate their hair. Answering their call and letting himself be included in whatever the Traveler is up to now. Taste testing food.

But never once does he push. Xiao never asks for anything more than attempts at companionship, but even that is mostly in response to the Traveler always asking if Xiao would like to do something (Teapot lines). Xiao is unobtrusive, quiet. He expects nothing but is so grateful for chances to be around the Traveler after they've broken down their walls bit by bit.

The chasm quest highlights this. Xiao is fine being separated from the others, wanting to keep them at arms length because he himself is a danger with his karmic debt. But the Traveler is there. They are there and hurt. The Traveler that he KNOWS is a self sacrificial fool willing to do anything to save everyone else, but no one will save them.

So Xiao comes, to ensure the safety of the Traveler, the one person who had been nothing but patient and kind to him but that no one else seems to fret over.

And why would they? This is the famous gold haired traveler who had fought dragons and gods alike. They're a legend, unrivaled, peerless. A friend to the archons. A master swordsman. They see the Traveler as untouchable.

Just like the Yaksha.

Xiao understands what it's like to bear the burdens of this world. He understands what it feels like to be ordered around to solve problems. So he comes and offers himself as the sacrifice in his stead. He isn't asked to. No one wants him to. But if not Xiao, it would have been the Traveler. Xiao does it because he won't ask someone else to bear the burden.

To me, that's what it all boils down to. Both of them just want to help the other, but there are no expectations. No commissions or fights that they ask the other to join. No requests. Just two people who both shoulder a heavy burden finding solace in someone else who understands and asks for nothing.

They aren't the gold haired traveler and the Yaksha.

This is when Mike realised he liked Will

This is when he was suppressing it

And this is him realising he doesn't want to suppress it anymore

yeah yeah Asagiri said Chuuya probably thought Dazai was dead after he left the PM and before they learned he was working at the ADA, but I'm more interested in Asagiri confirming that Dazai didn't know Chuuya was faking being a vampire in Meursault, it wasn't planned, he just never believed Chuuya could have been defeated and turned into one. And then he was right.

transcript of the question and answer under the cut

10 years already... time flies by, and as someone who heavily self-inserted as Frisk when I was 12, I can't help but feel like they must have been growing alongside me. I'm already 22, I can no longer wear stripes...

Lots of close-ups below (WITHOUT the pages), because there are A LOT of details to seek

or rather, it is not an accurate one.

because instead of himself he is now, tall and dark Red Hood with a spike of white strand, embodied by scars, Jason drew a fifteen-year-old boy, who once was Robin.

Jason’s so overworked. he has to deal with his strained relationship with the bats; Bruce and him arguing every time they see each other, Damian knocking on his door every time there’s something about his new life that he doesn’t understand/wants to complain about, Tim sneaking into his fucking apartment to demand they ‘bond’ and Dick getting weepy and nostalgic everytime he even sees Jason’s face. On top of that, taking care of the alley, and running an entire organisation of subordinates, by the time he gets to a point in his life where he realises ‘fffffuck. thats a goddamn demon and i’m the most equipped person in the city to deal with it.’ he’s honestly so over the whole thing.

he’s so bitter that he has to do this, because not only is this new side-gig tiring but it’s also fucking insane. killing rapists and overseeing drug shipments never involved travelling into nephilim lairs and learning about ancient rituals that end with him crawling out of the sewers at 9am covered in blue goo that smells acidic; the closest would be back when he was Robin during the golden era when shit was just wacko, and by the gods he does not have any interest in returning to that kind of work-load, so why he’s HERE is anybody’s fucking guess.

eventually Dick, desperate to bond with the younger brother that he can feel slipping away again, starts tailing him to figure out why he’s never around- and instantly decides to join. Jason is honestly just relieved there’s somebody lightening the supernatural workload- Dick was also Robin during the golden era, he might not have Jason’s skills and amassed knowledge but he’s not as useless as the others.

Bruce: hey Alfred have you seen my-

*comes into kitchen to see Alfred calmly preparing dinner while Jason Todd, Killer Red Hood, silently does paperwork while sat on the corner of the kitchen counter*

Bruce:

Bruce: uh-

Tim, doing homework at the table: don't mention it. if you acknowledge him he'll leave. he just likes being around people sometimes.

the bats have to start treating him like a stray cat, letting him go to them and acting completely unbothered by his presence because if they even make eye contact with Jason he'll jump out the window and they 1. won't see him for a month and 2. will start to see a lot more murders cropping up around gotham.

eventually it gets to the point where Dick will come to dinner to see the rest of the family wordlessly ignoring the brick shithouse of a man who is just sat on the floor of the dining area reading a book and he has to just. take a breath and pretend Jason isn't there. calmly stepping around him without acknowledging him. Alfred will silently place a plate of food by the guys elbow while speaking to Damian about school. When they decide to move from the table to the tv room for a movie night none of them can even look around when they hear him eventually follow just to sit in the corner of this room instead.

Bruce: I'm concerned, this is abnormal for Jason. what if he's been drugged with something? or he's trying to gain sensitive information?

Damian: actually he used to do this a lot after he came out of the Lazarus pit. he liked to sit in and watch me train, and occasionally we'd find him sat by grandfathers feet while he ran meetings. Mother says it's important to let him settle, because it's likely that he's simply craving human intimacy on his own terms for once.

Bruce, crying: oh

Jason still refuses to say a word to any of them unless it's in costume, and even then it's the same old 'i'm not your son! i'm not one of you! fuck off!' shtick like normal. they just have to accept him sneaking into the house every now and then too.

one time Tim needs Red Hoods info on a case he's working and since Jason's been sat on the floor against the wall of the bat cave for the past 45 minutes just. staring into space and vibing. he risks sliding the file across the floor towards him before pointedly turning back to the batcomputer, the info he needs marked clearly. five minutes later it's wordlessly slid back, info filled out and Jason refusing to acknowledge Tim's existence again. it's the only way he'll communicate with them.

after a while it gets to the point where Jason will straight up go to bludhaven and break into Dicks apartment just to silently sit in the corner of the room and Be Around A Familiar Person. Tim comes back from his lunch brake at WE to find him sat on the edge of his desk, working through a case. They work in silence for the rest of the day and when Tim leaves Jason just follows. They get a batburger together but the second Tim slips up and asks how his day was he's off like a shot. Damian regularly eats lunch at school on the roof while Jason plays mario kart on a DSI next to him. Batman will be 4 hours into a solo stake out when civilian Jason will silently slide up next to him with a crossword. they never talk. Jason still makes it clear that he's pissed at Bruce. Bruce doesn't know what else to do but let him be and hope eventually, with enough time, things will progress even further.

Dick, whispering so Jason won't pick up on the fact that he's being perceived: are you sure this is normal

Damian: is anything about any of us normal

Tim: he's got a point. at least we know Jason's watching us. I did this shit all the time before I was Robin, and none of you ever noticed me.

Dick:

Tim: sometimes its comforting to be in the same room as people you're familiar with, even if you can't handle interacting with them.