Hey there, my name is Redline! Or āRedā if you donāt have much time. Iām the cool (kinda) person who runs this blog. I write about the fictional characters that live in my head rent free to varying degrees of quality and maybe the occasional very rare meme. Itās your bog standard self-insert type of thing. I started this blog because my blorbos are dying of starvation in the tags and I guess thatās motivation enough to air out the brain worms, right? So, I hope you enjoy.
What I WILL do:
Most things, really. I am a horror fan so Iāve got tolerance!
What I WONāT do:
18+ content about underage characters.
Animals. Literally anything concerning animals.
Things I find gross.
By the power invested in me, the holder of this mantle, I shall not only reserve the right to, but will delete things that I donāt jive with from my inbox with not a peep indicating that it happened.
About Requests:
Closed. 100% closed. Fort Knox has nothing on how closed this is. I want to settle in before I take on the rather daunting task of doing that kind of stuff, so please bear with me for the time being.
About The Inbox:
Requests may be closed, but simple conversation isnāt. Feel free to ask me about things, FGO related or not. Just be aware that the rules still apply.
Final Word:
Yup, thatās my opener. I hope you find something good here. āTil next time.
āRedline, over and out!
Masterlist:
āGeneral Headcanons: Constantine XIā
āRomance Headcanons: Constantine XIā
āGeneral Headcanons: Mehmed IIā
What It Means to Protect You (Constantine Fic)
āGHC: Constantine XIā 1st Addendum
āConfession Headcanons: Constantine XIā
āGeneral Headcanons: Yamanami Keisukeā
Special Tag Meanings:
#Redline CAN draw?! = The good old personal art tag for the stuff I occasionally draw. Itās more of a meme than anything.
#All About Redline = For posts that mostly concern yours truly.
#re-re-reblog = Exactly as it appears, the reblog tag.
#Asking Redline = For the Asks that come in.
#Pre-view = For the exceptionally rare occasions I may be compelled to post a preview of something Iām working on.
#Headcanon Addendum = These are the headcanon lists that are short āsequelsā for lack of a better word to an original set but are not long enough to warrant the designation of a sequel. Hence the word Addendum. Theyāre mostly for stuff I missed in the original list or cut out for length reasons.
I have finally been liberated of my shackles! ā¦Until summer ends. But! I will be making the most of this time I now have to actually get to my to-do list and to finish what Iāve been working on. Speaking of, Iām in the processing of rewriting Constantineās section because, reading back through it, itās way too depressing for celebratory purposes. Almost to the point of making me cringe when I was editing a month later after I had finished. Currently debating if I should post the OG onto Ao3 for archival purposes.
In other Redline news, thanks to Class Score coming out and the boons that came with it, I finally maxed out Rikyuās command cards AND 2kād her along with Yamanami. Constantine just needs his quick card maxed out and heāll be done. Hajime-chan is Bond 13. Also, Iām not sure if Iāve already mentioned it, but Rikyu and Sannan are bond 10 along with my favorite bench warmer, Nobukatsu. Constantine clutched the Kijyo Koyo AQ when Komahime and Percival folded too early in the comp (Constantineās a great servant when you donāt have a bitch in your ear telling you he sucks.) I somehow got NP4 Duryodhana via 2 10 pulls, so heāll make a fine substitute for Rikyu/Komahime when theyāre both suffering the Quick Curse, I just need to get him grailed (the Nagakura funds are going swimmingly, btw). Oh, and I hate farming for phoenix feathers now.
Hm. Maybe I should make a few pieces about my LB7 experience back when that came out (havenāt finished Paper Moon yet), some of those fights were a bit too close.
Now for the part youāve been waiting for. Iām going to get into what this post is actually about, May 29th.
This is basically Constantine having a nightmare about his final moments and being woken up to then pretend like heās fine. Thatās what I was going for.
I wanted it to look as desolate as it probably was for him at the time, so I avoided having much ālightā in the sense of levity in the piece, with the light source being blinding and harsh. I also wanted to show how utterly exhausted Constantine was at the time, so I drew a close up of his eye and thought: āhey, wouldnāt it be sick if I animated this so I can show that better?ā And thatās exactly what I did.
I have to say, not bad for my first time animating! The trembling effect really makes it for me, in my opinion.
Now. I wanted to have him blink. But, I quickly realized that I was going to have to redraw the same eye at least 42 times, and thatās if I reused frames. I was already losing my sanity at the 14th frame, 2 hours into animating and 4 hours accumulative. Hence I cut it up into three gifs.
Now, as for that bright white picture. That is none other than a young Constantine andā¦ George! Micheal convinced George to draw on a wall and George chose to draw the ocean, though it wasnāt nearly as vivid as the image may suggest, of course. It is just a dying gentās last thought. ā¦Wonder what that says about Constantineā¦
Oh! And hereās the cleared up image to get a better look at them both without the effects.
Boom.
I blame Duvet (boa) being on repeat for the reason why this one looks this way.
I got the āfade into white effectā by adding 1% of Bloom and duplicating it until the whole piece faded into white. Sounds simple, was tedious. I tried doing different effects to make this gif look cooler but nothing stuck for me at all and just looked way too lame. One of my attempt at distortion was using Liquify a bit for every frame but it wasā¦ ugh. Thank goodness I scrapped that idea.
Hmmā¦ I think thatās all I have to say on this. So, Iāll leave you all with one question if youāve read this far.
Why do you think the 1st picture is the only depiction of Constantine in my blog that has brown eyes?
Anywho, I hope you all have a great night. Iāll be typing away in the meantime, but donāt hesitate to ask questions or chat me up!
Foreword: Hey, hey! Look here! Itās a normal set of HCs. On April First.
So go onā¦ Take a look.
Iāve made everything particularly color-ful this time.
Something is wrong, surely wrong. You can feel it. [The word association test for guilt.]. ā¦But you canāt put [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] name [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] what ā[The word association test for guilt.]ā is. Thatās the unfortunate curse of being far [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] used [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] spontaneous crises. And this has left you, the resolver of most incidents, pacing about in vain in [The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.] of the quieter areas in Chaldea. If only you had some kind of hint as [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] what this whole thing is going [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] be about, then maybe you couldā¦ Huh?
[Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] soft object falls onto your head without warning and thanks [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] your quick reflexes, you manage [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] catch the thing. And what you seeā¦shocks you. With cuteness that is. [The word association test for guilt.] [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] plushie! But not just any plushieā¦ [The word association test for guilt.] is [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] fumo standing at approximately 20 inches tall of your good friend and secret crush, Constantine! An odd object [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] be falling out of the skyāer, ceiling, but youāve seen weirder things happen before. Maybe this is some kind of signā¦
Either way, you inspect the plushie and find that [The word association test for guilt.] is somewhat odd. The size was already strange upon further consideration as fumos are usually smaller but closer examination reveals other oddities. For [The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.], the clothes werenāt sewn or glued on. You were able [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] remove not only the blazer, but also the gloves, earrings and even unbutton the red waistcoat and put them all back just as easy. You could probably go further if you wantedā¦ But not right now. For [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.], this plushie was rather accurate. All the colors were exactly as you recall them on Constantine, the emblem on his waistcoat was the exact same, his hair was not only the exact shape but [The word association test for guilt.] even had shading on [The word association test for guilt.] [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.]. Odd considering fumos usually have simple blocks of color, but this could purely be [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] stylistic choice. [The word association test for guilt.] honestly looked [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] you as though someone looked at his Saint Graph and copied [The word association test for guilt.] exactly onto [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] plushie. You suppose [The word association test for guilt.] wouldnāt be THAT hard [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] do for his first ascension compared [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] his second and third, but [The word association test for guilt.] was still strange. There was also the fact that [The word association test for guilt.] was cold [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] the touch, but maybe that was the temperature of the room at play.
Even stranger, though, was your apparent ability [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] appraise [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] plushieās accuracy. The realization made your face heat up at the fact and you immediately sought [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] defend yourself fromā¦yourself. [The word association test for guilt.] notā [The word association test for guilt.] not weird. You just spend [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] lot of time with Micheal and during all that time you just happen [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] notice things! [The word association test for guilt.] not like you spend time looking at the way the sunlight hits his hair in the afternoon, or how his waistcoat creases when [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] sits down or just looking at his Saint Graph periodicallyā¦ Yeah! You definitely donāt do that. So [The word association test for guilt.] not weird. Totally.
You rush out of the room. Not because you feel embarrassed or anything, you just need [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] get your cardio in for the day. Mhm. You almost make [The word association test for guilt.] [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] your destination, your room, when you bump into something hard. [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] pair of hands steadies you and you crane your head upwards [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] seeā¦ [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] trio who usually are accompanying Constantine but are alone this time. Theyāre the nameless phantoms that [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] summons temporarily in battle. Due [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] them being just representations of Constantineās men who stuck with him until the dire end, created for the sole purpose of aiding their emperor in battle, they lack not only names or identities but the ability [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] communicate with anyone who isnāt Constantine. At least verbally, anyway. They can write just fine and their sign language is also quite good from what youāve heard. This wouldnāt necessarily be an issue for the average cold and uncaring mage whoās only concerned with [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] servantās offensive abilities, but for you [The word association test for guilt.] kinda sad. You wish they were more developedā¦ But thatās besides the point. From left [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] right thereās: the [The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.] with black hair, the [The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.] with brown hair, and the [The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.] with white hair. And the brunet was the [The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.] you bumped into. Seeing them here without their leader was already strange, but the worried expressions on their faces was raising alarm bells.
You asked them whatās bothering them and where Constantine is only for the [The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.] on the left [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] snap his fingers right after. Ah, so thatās the problem. Getting [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] understand what happened is going [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] be [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] tad difficult as you were limited [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] yes/no questions due [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] your lack of knowledge on sign language, but you werenāt about [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] give up just yet!
After [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] lot of questions and some charades, you deduced that these three, Constantine, Vlad (Berserker), and Miss Crane were all originally hanging out for some tea in the simulator. Sometime into the get-together, someoneāwho the trio vehemently believe is [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] Casterācast some sort of spell and hit Constantine which then had him disappear in [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] puff of smoke. They were unable [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] find the culprit and are currently shaking down Chaldea with Vlad and Miss Crane [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] find Constantine. Heheā¦ Not bad! Your deduction abilities are getting better by the incident.
You told the trio that you havenāt seen Micheal all dayāor at all recentlyāand the closest you have gotten [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] seeing him was the plushie in your arms. After wincing at the reminder of how long [The word association test for guilt.] had been since you and Constantine had spoken, the [The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.] on the right looked [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] the [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] on his left. The leftmost [The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.] nodded and placed his hand over his chin followed by the [The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.] in the middle shrugging and shaking his. You asked what was up but you unfortunately would be left waiting as they huddled together, presumably arguing aboutā¦something. You sigh and walk past them, bidding the trio goodbye. [The word association test for guilt.] probably nothing.
You finally make [The word association test for guilt.] [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] your room, plushie held securely in your arms. If this stuffed imitation were [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] personāwhich [The word association test for guilt.] isnāt, obviouslyābut if [The word association test for guilt.] wasā¦ Then Constantine would surely be on the verge of spontaneously combusting. After all, the closest his face had ever been [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] your body was resting on your shoulder for [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] hug. But right here and right now, his face was smushed against your soft chest and there was nothing [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] could do about [The word association test for guilt.]. [The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.] half of him was despairing at the fact that [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] knows [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] not only doesnāt deserve [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] be held in your arms like [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] prized possession but that youāll surely meet an untimely end if [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] allows you [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] get any closer [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] his heart him. You just donāt know [The word association test for guilt.] yet. But the other half, the [The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.] [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] been suppressing for months, is absolutely reveling in this.
How long has [The word association test for guilt.] been since [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] was held so tightly like this? Or even held at all? Not hugged, held. Much [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] long. Constantine had forgotten what [The word association test for guilt.] was like [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] be on the receiving end of these sorts of things. [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] was usually the [The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.] [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] make people feel safe and secure, giving them comfort when they needed [The word association test for guilt.]. But here [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] was, cradled in the arms of the person [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] loves serves, and [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] never felt more secure in his second life [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] date. And the warmth [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.]ā¦ You were always warm, warm enough [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] remind him of how cold [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] is. But feeling your body heat as much as [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] is and all around him at that is muddling his ability [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] think properly, almost [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] the point where [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] questioned if [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] was in some kind of drunken stupor and simply seeing what [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] wanted [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] see. Odd premise for [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] hallucination, but alcohol isnāt known for making sense and Constantine is only half complaining anyways.
Thereās also the rather heady experience of having your attention on him so strongly as well. His heart was pounding in his chest at being inspected as thoroughly as [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] was by you but the revelation that [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] received from hearing you mumble [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] yourself would have been enough [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] stop his heart completely if [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] wasnāt [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] plushie in your hands right now. You looked at him. You really took the time [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] look at him and note things about him [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] yourself. [The word association test for guilt.] was flattering [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] say the least as [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] did put in quite [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] bit of effort into looking good, so [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] see [The word association test for guilt.] appreciated was making him blush. ā¦That is [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] say if this plushie was actually [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] person. Which [The word association test for guilt.] isnāt. Because why would [The word association test for guilt.] be?
Shortly after arriving [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] your room, you took off your shoes and flopped into bed, tucking yourself in. You knew you had [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] maximize your time with this mysterious plushie as you were no thief and you were sure that someone was missing [The word association test for guilt.] greatly. So you took [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] indulging in [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] bit of self comfort and held [The word association test for guilt.] quite close [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] you, the head of [The word association test for guilt.] tucked nicely under the crook of your neck. You sigh and the silence of the room gave the invitation your mind needed [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] resume yesterdayās deliberation on [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] certain someone and your chances of winning his love and affection.
One would think that gaining the heart of such [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] kind and stable soul wouldāwhile not easyābe less difficult than this. But in hindsight you really should have known better than [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] believe such. Servants almost always carry baggage from their histories, and some find theirs heavier than others. And Constantine XI is certainly [The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.] of those with his biggest failure being inextricably tied [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] his very Saint Graph. You canāt have the Rider you know and love without [The word association test for guilt.], unfortunately. Forgetting that and accepting what you now theorize [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] be [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] well intentioned facade was [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] mistake, surely. But that canāt have gunked up your chances with him, right? After all, his issues must stem from [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] strong sense of self loathing coming from not being able [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] fend off the Ottomans. That has nothing [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] do with romance. There is no romantic failing of any kind [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] get hung up on. So why does [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] avoid you? Why does [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] ignore your very obvious attempts [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] romance him? [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] show him that you care for him as more than [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] friend? [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] not dense. You know that. ā¦So why? Whyā¦?
[Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] familiar stinging sensation is felt in your eyelids. No, youāre not crying. Just because saltwater is leaking from your eyes does not mean that youāre crying. Especially not over some guy either. Youāre notā¦ Youāre not that weak. Certainly not. Youāre probably justā¦ on the verge of getting [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] cold. Yeahā¦ [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] cold.
You hold the plushie tighter [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] your chest as youā¦ convulse from shivers, hiccuping from drinking [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] much water [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.]. As [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] person does. Curling inward into [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] shape that is not the fetal position, you press your lips onto the felt imitation of the man whose stolen your heart. Perhaps if you close your eyesā¦ and ignore the texture under your lipsā¦ Perhaps you could pretend that you were cradling his head in your arms instead and kissing his hair. How sweet. You let yourself fall in and kiss him some more, slowly moving from the top of his head [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] his forehead and then [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] his nose. You imagine Constantine [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] be chuckling at the bombardment of affection, his hands gently rubbing your back as [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] comforts you. Telling you that [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] does love you as much as you love him and that there is no reason [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] cry. [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] right here, after all, isnāt [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.]?
You press [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] chaste kiss [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] his lips andā¦ smoke fills the air? You canāt help but cough at the unexpected intrusion, pulling back instinctively. As the cloud dissipates, you note that your bed feels as though [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] new weight has been added. And thatās when you see [The word association test for guilt.]. The blushing face of the man you were fantasizing about. [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] looked just as shocked as you were for [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] moment before his expression changes [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] something more akin [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] his usual small and genial smile, but this time you could see just how nervous [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] was. Almost as if [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] was waiting for something terrible [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] happen while desperately hoping [The word association test for guilt.] doesnāt. Just what on earth is [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] thinking?
[Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] long, long period of silence fills the air, neither person brave enough [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] break the ice. That made sense. This was the first time youād seen him in months. The awkwardness of you staring into his gaze and him staring into yours was suffocating and you were almost going [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] blurt out something stupid like: āSo, you come here often?ā whenā¦
[Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] familiar trio bursts into the room. Heads of black, brown and white hair made themselves known as they do and Constantine immediately rolls off of the bed in order [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] placate them. The [The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.] with black hair was elbowing the brunet in the ribs with [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] big grin on his face while the poor sap just rolled his eyes. If [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] could speak, [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] would most certainly be grumbling out excuses. The gentleman with the white hair was the only [The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.] of the trio actually listening [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] their leaderās explanation and was, presumably, checking on him [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] see if [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] was fine. Which [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] was. ā¦On the outside at least. From what you could gather from what Constantine was saying, [The word association test for guilt.] seemed as though the mental connection between the trio and him was severed leaving them with no way [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] sense or communicate with him. That was all well and good. The incident was resolved and Constantine was back [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] normal and reunited with his phantoms. All hunky dory this wasā¦ Surely.
Constantine gave an almost hasty goodbye, not stopping [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] hear you speak and left. From the way [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] was acting now, [The word association test for guilt.] was almost as if the whole incident had never occurred. His phantoms, on the other hand were just as shocked as you were. They all looked at each other in confusion before awkwardly shuffling away. The [The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.] with the white hair turned [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] look at you [The reader must have equal opportunity with the detective for solving the mystery. All clues must be plainly stated and described.] final time, [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] strained smile on his lips, and stiffly waved goodbye.
Silence falls once more, but this time [The word association test for guilt.] different. That awkward moment in your bedā¦ [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] was visibly flustered and [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] didnāt immediately recoil in disgust after his form was restored. That must mean something, right? Plus [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] looked rather nervous [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.]ā¦ So maybe this isnāt [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] case where [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] doesnāt like you that wayā¦ but something else. Either way, this was more than enough [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] restore your spirit. You just have [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] keep trying. Try, try, and try again until either [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] flat out rejects you or you win his heart. [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] clearly seems [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] shy [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] pursue you himself if [The commission of the murder in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.] likes you [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.], so [The word association test for guilt.] may just be up [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] you [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] get the ball rolling. Heheā¦ this is certainly shaping up [All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.] be like [Determining the identity of the culprit by comparing the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the crime with the brand smoked by a suspect.] romance novella, isnāt [The word association test for guilt.]?
Endnote: All jokes aside, guess whoās not dead AND currently on Spring Break? Me! Iāll be using the rest of this week to make headway on the real deal since I finally have the uninterrupted time for it now, but I do want you all to know that I have Constantineās whole part done. I just posted one half of it for the sake of making this joke and keeping theāin my opinionāgood part in the back so it doesnāt get spoiled by the [OMITTED WORDS], you know? Speaking of whichā¦
I have 3 whole rules for the placement of all of these colored brackets. There was originally going to be aboutā¦ oh I dunnoā¦ NINE rules in total originally. I was absolutely going to gunk the hell out of this post and it would practically maybe be unreadable? Yeah those rules would have made this all way too hard to read. Maybe Iāll implement this in the future for something, who knows. But regardless, this IS readable. So you can either spend the time decoding my really unfunny greatest joke so farā¦ or you can wait for the full release when it happens.
I should also askā¦ Now that youāve seen 6,000 words, I really have to askā¦ Do I just make this a Five Part Series? One individual post per character? Because it hit me a while ago that the full 20k+ post is probably going to lag like hell like WIMTPY did when I posted that and I do want to avoid that. But ultimately it IS up to you all.
Do I make this a Five Part Series?
Yes. Post Michealās Already Since Itās Done.
No. I Like My Posts C H U N K Y .
Voting ended onApr 3, 2025
I really wish that I could make polls about 2 or 3 days long. One week is WAY too much for something as small as this.
Anywho, Iāve been gone due to school strangling me and the surprise appearance of twoāyes, TWOāof my old interests punching me in the teeth. You look at one post and suddenly you get sucked in all over again, such is the vicious cycleā¦ But do not fear! I have not left and I will not leave! I just need to make it to summertime and I finally have the time to work and rest unabatedā¦
But Iāve wasted everyoneās time enough. Depending on how this poll goes, Iāll probably tell you all about how my accountās been going since I last spoke on it in the next post, so Iāll hold off for now.
Thank you all for being patient and indulging in my inner troll. Have a nice night, everyone!
I suppose that goes to show that between fluff and absolute misery, the good times will win out in the end! ā¦But much like most singularities, it was won by the skin of the teeth so to speak.
I watched the poll tie about three times and I was like: āwoah, my option needs to square up or itāll be a tie after I subtract one from the count and Iāll have to consult The Peopleā¢ for their random numbers.ā Thankfully I didnāt have to do that as Plushie Gang had their sweep. So that DOES make my life easier.
Now. As for the other optionsā¦ God AU (working on the name) Gang, weāre going to have to wait a while before I can bring this out from the slightly formed outline I had into reality. We fought hard, but it just wasnāt our season. Same thing with DoppelgƤnger Gang. Now, as for the Major Plot Twist Gangā¦ Iām honestly considering canning the idea since the more I thought about it I was like: āManā¦ how am I going to cram all that into a smaller headcanon format?!ā Yeahā¦ I think that one may have to die in the documentā¦ Iāll think on it more.
Speaking of thinkingā¦ This is my second L in the polls Iāve run. Iām two for two in losses but this time I didnāt have to break the tie myself by subtracting one vote! Maybe I should recalibrate my tasteā¦
Anywho, thank you all for not only voting but the higher voter turnout as well! We obtained 11 more people this time which was probably due to the fact that we have significantly more variety this time around.
But thatās all from me. Have a good day everyone, and Iāll hop right to it with the Plushie HCs.
Foreword: This was supposed to be a sketch, I swear. But on another note, I am alive! Just slowly working up to writing after a few hectic weeks. But the train is moving, just very slowly which I imagine is nothing new. One thing I HAVE been getting up to is my painting of portraits of my blorbos for their birthdays. I suck at drawing anything festive, so I hope the quality of the piece makes up for it, heheā¦ I have Constantineās done and I am extremely proud of it.
Buuut thatās in February, so letās get into my explanation and thoughts on this hypothetical of my boi! Starting off withā¦why he looks like this.
(I would also like to note that I havenāt ran this through TTS yet so there probably is some grammatical errors and for that I will apologize in advance, I will iron them out soon.)
On the Subject of Appearance:
Alright, obvious and iconic Alter color palette aside, whatās up with the vast amounts of white? Becauseā¦ Our guy wears black mostly in his first ascension and then dies it down in his second by adding a LOT of red, so itād make sense his alternative would be set apart by having him wear and have the color white. Plus it illustrates just how DIFFERENT he is compared to Micheal, how opposite or perhapsā¦opposing he is. But more on that later. (Also I was planning on this being just a sketch so I wasnāt really thinking of coloring anything until his second ascension when I realized I would have to in order to communicate how different he is from Constantine and it kinda snowballed from there. Oopsā¦)
Nowā¦about the, uh, cracks on his skin. THAT is marble. Sections of Alterās body are petrified marble with a few dry cracks in the skin. Why? Because of the legend circulating after his death of him being a marble statue. Itās like how Hans has mermaid scales and how Okita will forever have tuberculosis, Alterās body along with several other things were affected by how people saw him. Iāll get into it more later.
But! There are some cool things, or not cool rather, to note about the marble patches on his body. Like how a lot of pain heād feel is nullified by it thanks to lack of, yāknow, nerves. This also goes for sensations in general as he wouldnāt know if you were tapping him on the shoulder or were pouring boiling water on that spot. So yeah, sections of his body cannot feel but can still move just fine. It doesnāt impede his movement at all! It justā¦cracks a lot.
If you ever see him stretch and pop his spine, you will not only hear the snapping of bones but also stone splitting. Donāt worry, itāll fix itself so you donāt have to worry about him sustaining major damage from just moving around. Itāll just take some getting used to.
Now. You may have noticed that the marble patches grow more the further into his ascensions he is, to the point where his armor receives patches of marble on it too. Now this wouldnāt even be something to mention if not for the fact that Iād like to think that anything new he wears in his 2nd and 3rd ascension starts petrifying slowly over time. Not all the way but enough to the point where it gets to be a chore doing laundry.
But yeah, thatās all I got for his design so far. On to the next!
On The Subject of Class and Gameplay:
If you play JP or have Clairvoyance then you already know why its not the obvious choice. Because his legend mentions specifically that the angel who wakes him up will give him the sword he used on his final day. So itād make sense that his class would change to Saber.
Now. In this hypothetical where Iām the one designing him as a unit. Iād imagine his gameplay to be like so:
2 Buster Cards with 5 hits, 2 Arts Cards with 4 hits, and 1 Quick card with 3 hits. Same card numbers but different hits.
His NP would be an Offensive Buster NP that does the following: Increase Buster Card Effectiveness for 3 Turns, Increase ATK for 1 Turn, Inflict Curse, Deal Major defense ignoring damage to one/all enemies, Restore HP by 2,000 (effect increases with Overcharge), Apply Resistance to Death by 5000% for 1 time (non-stackable) and Apply a stackable Guts for 5 turns that restores half of Constantine XI Alter (Saber)ās HP upon Death.
That is one hell of an NP that not only hits hard but also provides major survivability which is what Constantine is all about. Now, I could quite decide if he should be a Single Target or an AOE but I do imagine his gameplay to be your awesome clutch soloist unit for CQās, Advanced Quests or boss fights. Is this really cool hypothetical NP is a showing of my massive bias? ā¦Maybe. But thatās not important, onto the skills!
Skill 1: The Ends Justify The Means (A) [Cooldown at LV.10 is 6 Turns]
Increase Buster Card Effectiveness for 3 Turns, Increase ATK for 3 turns for All Party Members and Apply Target Focus to All Party Members Excluding Constantine XI Alter (Saber) for 3 Turns.
Skill 2: Demise Privilege (Alternative) (C) [Cooldown at LV.10 is 7 Turns]
Increase NP Gauge for Self by 50%, Gain crit.stars per turn for 3 turns, Remove 2,000 HP from all Non-Roman Party Members and Restore HP by 3,000 to self, Apply Guts to self for 3 Turns.
Skill 3: Legend of The Marble Emperor (EX) [Cooldown at LV.10 is 6 Turns]
Apply a State Where Upon Hitting an Enemy, Inflict Curse (1,000 DMG) and Disastrous Curse for 3 Turns, Apply Special ATK to enemies with Curse.
As you can see, Alter is a very selfish DPS that drains HP from his non-Roman allies to keep himself alive along with inflicting curse stacks for damage over time. Heās be a nice pair up with Van Gogh for that last thing. And much like his NP, he really wants to live and itās going to be difficult to kill him. So yes! Soloist in the form of a Saber.
Is his kit too cracked? ā¦Maybe. Maybe not. Iāll let you all tell me whatās what.
On the Subject of Composition:
Constantine XI Alter is a Saber class servant comprised of three parts.
The first and the largest portionāthe base, if you willāis Constantineās ideal self, dreamed up during his final years of life in the late 1400s. As we are aware, Constantine utterly despises how weak he thinks he is. He hates the fact that he feels like he wants to breakdown and cry so much, he hates the fact that heās terrified of dying, and most of all he hates that he isnāt strong enough to take the current crisis in stride like he believed his idols would have. Thus, Constantine saw his ideal self as a man who would not feel fear in times of crisis, would not cry when he was losing, and would not break under pressure. A truly stoic and strong leader that can handle any sort of disaster, that is to say: an emperor who wins and survives.
The second part that makes up this servant are the wishes of the people of Constantinople. After Constantine death, a rumor floated around that the emperor had not died. He was rescued by an angel at the brink of death and turned into a statue. He would then sleep in a hidden cave underneath the Golden Gate of Constantinople awaiting the call of an angel who would restore his form and give him the sword he used in the final battle. It was a lovely thing to hope for and believe in, thus that rumor turned into a legend backed by the hopes and dreams of the people. It is this that would have completed this variation of Constantine had it not been forā¦
The third and final part is less of a āpartā per se and more of a distortion of what already existed. A wild, vengeful anger and grief corrupted what would have been the lovely culmination of the ideal self of Constantine plus the peopleās hopes and dreams and twisted it into a cold automaton hellbent on continuing the existence of Rome as he knew it no matter the cost. These intense negative emotions came from the one and only Constantinople herself. When our favorite emperor perished and the Ottomans took over, there was no one as throughly stricken by griefāif we ignore George and Constantineās remaining familyāas Constantinople. It was pure agony to watch her people be murdered, enslaved and violated for days with the subsequent rebuild and installation of new buildings hurting too. But the most painful thing of all was watching her subjects slowly disappear one by one: people she watched grow up and live life for centuries on end vanishing never to return until all that was left was a large group of strangers who now occupied that space. It was maddening to say the least. The result was a lot of time passing and the events of Constantineās interlude (yes, I read a summary of it and it could not come sooner for me.) While Constantinople WAS forced into slumber through the battle, much like the emperor she is so deeply connected with, Constantinople made a final last ditch effort to have her and Constantineās wish come true. Thus creation of an Alter of Constantine XI as well as a new singularity set shortly after the death of the real Constantine came to be.
On The Subject of Personality:
Alter is barely like the man we are familiar with, he would be practically unrecognizable if his face and voice were different. The most glaring difference is the lack of any expression on this manās face. The muscles on his face only move for three reasons: heās speaking, blinking, or the boiling rage underneath his skin has erupted upon the mention or appearance of the Ottomans. He just carries that same deadpan expression no matter what happens, good or bad. This is due to Constantineās wishes to be a truly stoic man down to his core. Though, thanks to the distortion caused by Constantinople, most of his other emotions have been muted to make room for the, and I quote: āBoiling Rageā¢ that is 100% necessary and important to the restoration and maintenance of the Byzantine Empire. Yup, totally required. Why? Because screw you thatās why!āā Constantinople, circa Right Now. I jest, I jest. But really. Alter is either having tiny tinges of emotion flittering around in his skull sometimesāyou know like the alleged to exist fruity taste of La Croixāor pure and absolute anger, no in between. Thankfully, for masters, the percentages of the anger is incredibly low unless for some odd reason you have Ottoman Turks that keep appearing left and right in your area.
Unlike our friend Micheal, or any sapient being really, Alter doesnāt reallyā¦have opinions. Heās just neutral about most things in the world and mostly shrugs at whatever heās interacting with. Good weather? Okay. Great food? Okay. Amazing friends? Okay. The milk went bad and the storeās closed right now? Okay. You stepped on the corner of five different Lego blocks on your way to the bathroom? Okay. Your pillow is scorching hot and you canāt sleep? Okay. Several hundred people just died in utter agony? Oāyou get the point. Iām sure you know the one exception that Alter has, but allow me to provide you with one and weāll get into another in the next section. The red earrings on his ears, cracked beyond belief yet still hanging just fineā¦ Yes, Alter likes those. Thatās why he hasnāt taken them off or removed them. Why? Wellā¦ He vaguely recalls someone important to him gifting him these. That man, after helping Constantine put his on, took out another similar pair and placed them on his own ears. He then said: āNow we match! Plus, Iāll be able to pick you out in even the most dense of crowds, my lord, as these earrings are one of a kind.ā
(Yes, I headcanon that George gifted Constantine his iconic red earrings and has a matching blue pair for himself so that they both kinda match but hold their individuality all the same. A nice little thought that warms my heart.)
On The Subject of Speech:
The way this man talks is so dry and bland that one would think that Alter is bored out his skull by simply existing. His voice is so flat and borderline monotone, no effort to emphasize anything or even to make digesting the info easier. And to make matters perhaps worse he doesnāt talk much and tends to make what little he does say compact. Itās a flavorless way of communication that only changes when, you know, the Boiling Rage surfaces.
You know how in Constantineās Bond Profile #1 it states that he āsometimes speaks more roughly in times of duress?ā (Or āa more crude toneā if weāre reading the fan translation.) Yeah, well thatās no longer a sometimes. He still doesnāt talk much but man is he swearing and being rude as hell when he is pissed. The imperial decorum that our Micheal lives by has gone out of the window and will not be seen again until Alter calms down. No, he wonāt apologize to anyone. Donāt bother, itās a fruitless endeavor.
On the Subject of His Knowledge:
Alright, what does Alter know about himself? He knows that he was crafted by Constantine to be the ideal version of him. He knows about the legend surrounding his death and that being the reason for the petrification on his body. And he knows about Constantinople messing with his Spirit Origin and his current reason for existing and the objective that comes with it. ā¦Thatās it. That is all he knows.
Nothing about his personal life or his family or his best friend who had his back throughout it all, nothing. In its place are vague and fuzzy vignettes of familiar people he canāt put a name or face to that appear in his mindās eye from time to time.
Now, as for his opinions on what he knowsā¦ Uh, Iāll just get the one with the least words on it out of the way first. The petrification thing? Yeah, he could not care less. The patches of marble on his body donāt limit his mobility any and yeah, the petrifying of his clothes is kind of annoying but itās slow enough to where itās not that big of a deal. Itās whatever.
Now. As for his creationāthat being Constantinople messing with him and him being Constantineās ideal selfāhe has aā¦not very good opinion on the two. And by that I mean he absolutely hates them.
He hates Constantinople for twisting his already good spirit origin into what it is now and placing within him an undying anger. He also hates her for basically using him as a tool to get what she wants all because the ārealā Constantine rejected her wishes, essentially using him as a replacement. Not good.
He hates Constantine for cursing him with the ridiculous traits of being stoic down to his core as well being the āperfectā emperor for his people. Because of that, not only does he not FEEL anything at all but he also has this immense pressure in his very soul that he MUST have Rome survive at all costs and that he must solely devote himself to that cause with every fiber of his being. Yes, the severity of those traits were caused by Constantinopleās anger and grief distorting him but the base traits were all on Constantine.
Now, in Constantineās defense (because I am a Constantine defender), he had no idea that this would happen let alone that an Alter of himself based on what he saw as his ideal self, the emperor his people deserved and would suit them best, even existed in the first place. It was a dream to him. A dream of a man who was much better than he was, doing way better than he is and winning all at once. That is all that Alter was to him then and what he was to Constantine before the singularity.
Endnote: Whewā¦ That was a lot! But I think that was Iāve got on Alter. As you can see, Iād been doinā a big think on him and he was a very fun character to design both artistically and in writing. I h Endnote:
Whewā¦ That was a lot! But I think that was Iāve got on Alter. As you can see, Iād been doinā a big think on him and he was a very fun character to design both artistically and in writing. I hope you donāt mind the crumminess in the piece, if you can even call it that. I wasnāt joking when I said it was supposed to be a sketch hence the noticeable climb in effort across the ascensions.
In other more exciting newsā¦ I have 10 followers! Ten whole people! Thatās enough to get one of those long tables at the fancy restaurants with!
Itās quite the milestone, one I was not expecting. So, to celebrate, Iām going to bypass the order of things I WANTED to get through with before I did this sort of thingāsince I didnāt think Iād get 10 followers, honestly. But, I will be dropping a poll sometime soonābefore the dayās end Nope, way too sleepy right now.āof a few headcanons you guys can choose from for me to do next! And not JUST for Constantine, Mehmed, or Sannanāno, no. I will also be tacking on my two other blorbos that I have neglected to mention, them being Hajime-chan (my strongest Saber) and Izou (my strongest Assassin.) So itāll be Multi-Core Headcanons (haha), five people in one list. And donāt you worry, it wonāt be like, one paragraph long or anything half-assed. That shit will be long, like 4k minimum per person which wouldāif I strictly hang around that numberāwould be a 20k long HC list.
So case in point! Itāll be a celebration and I implore you to vote.
But yeah. Thatās all for this post. Iāll also be posting something else shortly after that is NOT the poll but a nice occurrence for lilā olā me. If you have questions, comments, a desire for elaboration or a keyboard smash of your thoughts, let me know! And Iād like to thank you all for indulging my delusions today and before today and I hope you all have a great day.
Saber: āUnnecessary. I already know and I donāt care.ā
Rider: āā¦ā¦ā¦ā
As you can see, Alter just cuts Constantine off anytime he speaks directly to him. He wants to hear nothing from him and is 99% sure he knows exactly what his creator is going to say next, and funnily enough? Heās actually right on the money most of the time.
Now, the contents of what he does say to Constantine vary depending on whose in the room with the two of them. Heās not going to say anything particularly inflammatory or cut deep with his insults if anyone else is aroundāMaster especiallyābecause he knows that someoneās going to jump to Constantineās defense and that could start a fight. Hence he keeps it on the down low in public.
But in private? Oh, heās not holding back. Alter constantly tells Constantine to off himself because, thanks to Alter now being here, Constantine is no longer needed in Chaldea.
Think about it. Alter is the ideal that Constantine made up of himself, he is THE BEST Constantine there is purely because of the fact that Micheal sees him that way (or saw due to Constantinopleās interference making it not so anymore.) So why would Master need someone like Constantine (Rider) when Constantine (Saber) now exists, hm? And if thatās not convincing then compare kits. Alter actually does damage and can survive way longer than Constantine can and ever will. And thatās all that matters to Master, right? Damage and survivability.
You see the picture Iām painting here? Alter constantly attacks Constantineās insecurities when they both happen to be alone because he absolutely hates Constantine for giving Constantinople the material she needed to create him the way he is now.
And all poor Constantine can do is just stand there and take it because he knows Alterās right about most of what he said. The one thing that Constantine will never ever concede to Alter is the fact that he is needed. Master NEEDS him and he knows that. His predecessors and the Holy Progenitor need him. His friends: Don Quixote & Sancho, both Vlads, Johanna, and so, so many more need him. He knows for a fact that there will be a Constantine shaped hole that cannot be filled if he were to end himself like Alter wants him to. And Micheal could never hurt the people he loves like that ever. ā¦Unless he were giving his life for them, of course.
But yeah, Alter is not shy about showing his contempt. He just dials it down when other people are present to keep the peace. Though you can tell that heās slowly getting angrier by the second when his sword starts emitting that ghastly cursed red aura from it. It starts off dim but gets to be an almost crackling and bright flame on his sword when heās at his limit, itās that apparent.
Thankfully for everyone, Alter doesnāt start on his own so the two can awkwardly sit in silence in a room together and nothing will happen. The two will just be sitting in envy of each other until one leaves.
Constantine is envious of Alterās stoicism and ability to shake things off. He always tried to be that person when he was alive but just couldnāt hold himself together because of the immense pressure and stress he was under during those four years of his reign. He wanted to be the man his people deserved but could never truly fulfill that lofty standard he set for himself and that only led to his strong self loathing after death.
Alter is envious (as much as he can be) of Constantineās ability to feel as well as his having memories of his family and friends in life. Alter wants to cry, to be afraid of dying and to feel weak or inadequateāhe wants to feel all of the negative crap that Constantine loathes because thatās what completes a person. He also very much wants to feel joy and contentment like Constantine does. Maybe then when he finally gets his emotions back, heāll understand why his chest tightens slightly every time he sees a family having fun. Maybe heāll understand why he canāt bring himself to get new earrings, or why the person who gave them to him is so important to him. Maybe heāll understand why he feels the ever so slight need to watch over Master like a hawk when they get sick. Maybe heāll understand whyā¦
See, the two of them envy what the other has not realizing that it actually sucks more than they think it does. They both simultaneously understand each other the most and the least out of everyone and itās justā¦ UGH! Itās both riveting and infuriating to watch these two interact for that reason. Ughā¦ These two need to reconcile so bad. Youād probably need to use a Command Spell to get Alter to not cut off Constantine mid-sentence and actually listen to him. You also would probably need to give Micheal a big pep talk so he can have the courage he needs to actually say what heās really feeling. Itāll be messy but it is possible!
Endnote: I hope I answered your question! Alterās pretty difficult to write dialogue wise because of how utterly dry he is, but that only adds to the tragedy of his existence. He could be more in that department but he just isnāt because he canāt be anything more. But you could definitely see on his face that the contempt runs so, so deep. Hence why he solely stabs at Michealās insecurities whenever they get to talk alone. A precise set of strikes that tells Constantine all he needs to know about what Alter thinks of him.
Alter would probably explode in angerāand yelling at the top of his lungs and grabbing Constantine by the collar and shaking him kind of angerāif they werenāt in Chaldea. The walls are thinner than they look and Alter, yet again doesnāt want to start anything with anyone else to keep the peace. Thatās Alter at his most animated, otherwise heāll be snarling and fuming at his creator. Shooting him dirty looks when he thinks no oneās looking and what not.
But thatās all I got for now. Thank you for your kind words and sharing your thoughts! I loved answering.
Foreword: This was supposed to be a sketch, I swear. But on another note, I am alive! Just slowly working up to writing after a few hectic weeks. But the train is moving, just very slowly which I imagine is nothing new. One thing I HAVE been getting up to is my painting of portraits of my blorbos for their birthdays. I suck at drawing anything festive, so I hope the quality of the piece makes up for it, heheā¦ I have Constantineās done and I am extremely proud of it.
Buuut thatās in February, so letās get into my explanation and thoughts on this hypothetical of my boi! Starting off withā¦why he looks like this.
(I would also like to note that I havenāt ran this through TTS yet so there probably is some grammatical errors and for that I will apologize in advance, I will iron them out soon.)
On the Subject of Appearance:
Alright, obvious and iconic Alter color palette aside, whatās up with the vast amounts of white? Becauseā¦ Our guy wears black mostly in his first ascension and then dies it down in his second by adding a LOT of red, so itād make sense his alternative would be set apart by having him wear and have the color white. Plus it illustrates just how DIFFERENT he is compared to Micheal, how opposite or perhapsā¦opposing he is. But more on that later. (Also I was planning on this being just a sketch so I wasnāt really thinking of coloring anything until his second ascension when I realized I would have to in order to communicate how different he is from Constantine and it kinda snowballed from there. Oopsā¦)
Nowā¦about the, uh, cracks on his skin. THAT is marble. Sections of Alterās body are petrified marble with a few dry cracks in the skin. Why? Because of the legend circulating after his death of him being a marble statue. Itās like how Hans has mermaid scales and how Okita will forever have tuberculosis, Alterās body along with several other things were affected by how people saw him. Iāll get into it more later.
But! There are some cool things, or not cool rather, to note about the marble patches on his body. Like how a lot of pain heād feel is nullified by it thanks to lack of, yāknow, nerves. This also goes for sensations in general as he wouldnāt know if you were tapping him on the shoulder or were pouring boiling water on that spot. So yeah, sections of his body cannot feel but can still move just fine. It doesnāt impede his movement at all! It justā¦cracks a lot.
If you ever see him stretch and pop his spine, you will not only hear the snapping of bones but also stone splitting. Donāt worry, itāll fix itself so you donāt have to worry about him sustaining major damage from just moving around. Itāll just take some getting used to.
Now. You may have noticed that the marble patches grow more the further into his ascensions he is, to the point where his armor receives patches of marble on it too. Now this wouldnāt even be something to mention if not for the fact that Iād like to think that anything new he wears in his 2nd and 3rd ascension starts petrifying slowly over time. Not all the way but enough to the point where it gets to be a chore doing laundry.
But yeah, thatās all I got for his design so far. On to the next!
On The Subject of Class and Gameplay:
If you play JP or have Clairvoyance then you already know why its not the obvious choice. Because his legend mentions specifically that the angel who wakes him up will give him the sword he used on his final day. So itād make sense that his class would change to Saber.
Now. In this hypothetical where Iām the one designing him as a unit. Iād imagine his gameplay to be like so:
2 Buster Cards with 5 hits, 2 Arts Cards with 4 hits, and 1 Quick card with 3 hits. Same card numbers but different hits.
His NP would be an Offensive Buster NP that does the following: Increase Buster Card Effectiveness for 3 Turns, Increase ATK for 1 Turn, Inflict Curse, Deal Major defense ignoring damage to one/all enemies, Restore HP by 2,000 (effect increases with Overcharge), Apply Resistance to Death by 5000% for 1 time (non-stackable) and Apply a stackable Guts for 5 turns that restores half of Constantine XI Alter (Saber)ās HP upon Death.
That is one hell of an NP that not only hits hard but also provides major survivability which is what Constantine is all about. Now, I could quite decide if he should be a Single Target or an AOE but I do imagine his gameplay to be your awesome clutch soloist unit for CQās, Advanced Quests or boss fights. Is this really cool hypothetical NP is a showing of my massive bias? ā¦Maybe. But thatās not important, onto the skills!
Skill 1: The Ends Justify The Means (A) [Cooldown at LV.10 is 6 Turns]
Increase Buster Card Effectiveness for 3 Turns, Increase ATK for 3 turns for All Party Members and Apply Target Focus to All Party Members Excluding Constantine XI Alter (Saber) for 3 Turns.
Skill 2: Demise Privilege (Alternative) (C) [Cooldown at LV.10 is 7 Turns]
Increase NP Gauge for Self by 50%, Gain crit.stars per turn for 3 turns, Remove 2,000 HP from all Non-Roman Party Members and Restore HP by 3,000 to self, Apply Guts to self for 3 Turns.
Skill 3: Legend of The Marble Emperor (EX) [Cooldown at LV.10 is 6 Turns]
Apply a State Where Upon Hitting an Enemy, Inflict Curse (1,000 DMG) and Disastrous Curse for 3 Turns, Apply Special ATK to enemies with Curse.
As you can see, Alter is a very selfish DPS that drains HP from his non-Roman allies to keep himself alive along with inflicting curse stacks for damage over time. Heās be a nice pair up with Van Gogh for that last thing. And much like his NP, he really wants to live and itās going to be difficult to kill him. So yes! Soloist in the form of a Saber.
Is his kit too cracked? ā¦Maybe. Maybe not. Iāll let you all tell me whatās what.
On the Subject of Composition:
Constantine XI Alter is a Saber class servant comprised of three parts.
The first and the largest portionāthe base, if you willāis Constantineās ideal self, dreamed up during his final years of life in the late 1400s. As we are aware, Constantine utterly despises how weak he thinks he is. He hates the fact that he feels like he wants to breakdown and cry so much, he hates the fact that heās terrified of dying, and most of all he hates that he isnāt strong enough to take the current crisis in stride like he believed his idols would have. Thus, Constantine saw his ideal self as a man who would not feel fear in times of crisis, would not cry when he was losing, and would not break under pressure. A truly stoic and strong leader that can handle any sort of disaster, that is to say: an emperor who wins and survives.
The second part that makes up this servant are the wishes of the people of Constantinople. After Constantine death, a rumor floated around that the emperor had not died. He was rescued by an angel at the brink of death and turned into a statue. He would then sleep in a hidden cave underneath the Golden Gate of Constantinople awaiting the call of an angel who would restore his form and give him the sword he used in the final battle. It was a lovely thing to hope for and believe in, thus that rumor turned into a legend backed by the hopes and dreams of the people. It is this that would have completed this variation of Constantine had it not been forā¦
The third and final part is less of a āpartā per se and more of a distortion of what already existed. A wild, vengeful anger and grief corrupted what would have been the lovely culmination of the ideal self of Constantine plus the peopleās hopes and dreams and twisted it into a cold automaton hellbent on continuing the existence of Rome as he knew it no matter the cost. These intense negative emotions came from the one and only Constantinople herself. When our favorite emperor perished and the Ottomans took over, there was no one as throughly stricken by griefāif we ignore George and Constantineās remaining familyāas Constantinople. It was pure agony to watch her people be murdered, enslaved and violated for days with the subsequent rebuild and installation of new buildings hurting too. But the most painful thing of all was watching her subjects slowly disappear one by one: people she watched grow up and live life for centuries on end vanishing never to return until all that was left was a large group of strangers who now occupied that space. It was maddening to say the least. The result was a lot of time passing and the events of Constantineās interlude (yes, I read a summary of it and it could not come sooner for me.) While Constantinople WAS forced into slumber through the battle, much like the emperor she is so deeply connected with, Constantinople made a final last ditch effort to have her and Constantineās wish come true. Thus creation of an Alter of Constantine XI as well as a new singularity set shortly after the death of the real Constantine came to be.
On The Subject of Personality:
Alter is barely like the man we are familiar with, he would be practically unrecognizable if his face and voice were different. The most glaring difference is the lack of any expression on this manās face. The muscles on his face only move for three reasons: heās speaking, blinking, or the boiling rage underneath his skin has erupted upon the mention or appearance of the Ottomans. He just carries that same deadpan expression no matter what happens, good or bad. This is due to Constantineās wishes to be a truly stoic man down to his core. Though, thanks to the distortion caused by Constantinople, most of his other emotions have been muted to make room for the, and I quote: āBoiling Rageā¢ that is 100% necessary and important to the restoration and maintenance of the Byzantine Empire. Yup, totally required. Why? Because screw you thatās why!āā Constantinople, circa Right Now. I jest, I jest. But really. Alter is either having tiny tinges of emotion flittering around in his skull sometimesāyou know like the alleged to exist fruity taste of La Croixāor pure and absolute anger, no in between. Thankfully, for masters, the percentages of the anger is incredibly low unless for some odd reason you have Ottoman Turks that keep appearing left and right in your area.
Unlike our friend Micheal, or any sapient being really, Alter doesnāt reallyā¦have opinions. Heās just neutral about most things in the world and mostly shrugs at whatever heās interacting with. Good weather? Okay. Great food? Okay. Amazing friends? Okay. The milk went bad and the storeās closed right now? Okay. You stepped on the corner of five different Lego blocks on your way to the bathroom? Okay. Your pillow is scorching hot and you canāt sleep? Okay. Several hundred people just died in utter agony? Oāyou get the point. Iām sure you know the one exception that Alter has, but allow me to provide you with one and weāll get into another in the next section. The red earrings on his ears, cracked beyond belief yet still hanging just fineā¦ Yes, Alter likes those. Thatās why he hasnāt taken them off or removed them. Why? Wellā¦ He vaguely recalls someone important to him gifting him these. That man, after helping Constantine put his on, took out another similar pair and placed them on his own ears. He then said: āNow we match! Plus, Iāll be able to pick you out in even the most dense of crowds, my lord, as these earrings are one of a kind.ā
(Yes, I headcanon that George gifted Constantine his iconic red earrings and has a matching blue pair for himself so that they both kinda match but hold their individuality all the same. A nice little thought that warms my heart.)
On The Subject of Speech:
The way this man talks is so dry and bland that one would think that Alter is bored out his skull by simply existing. His voice is so flat and borderline monotone, no effort to emphasize anything or even to make digesting the info easier. And to make matters perhaps worse he doesnāt talk much and tends to make what little he does say compact. Itās a flavorless way of communication that only changes when, you know, the Boiling Rage surfaces.
You know how in Constantineās Bond Profile #1 it states that he āsometimes speaks more roughly in times of duress?ā (Or āa more crude toneā if weāre reading the fan translation.) Yeah, well thatās no longer a sometimes. He still doesnāt talk much but man is he swearing and being rude as hell when he is pissed. The imperial decorum that our Micheal lives by has gone out of the window and will not be seen again until Alter calms down. No, he wonāt apologize to anyone. Donāt bother, itās a fruitless endeavor.
On the Subject of His Knowledge:
Alright, what does Alter know about himself? He knows that he was crafted by Constantine to be the ideal version of him. He knows about the legend surrounding his death and that being the reason for the petrification on his body. And he knows about Constantinople messing with his Spirit Origin and his current reason for existing and the objective that comes with it. ā¦Thatās it. That is all he knows.
Nothing about his personal life or his family or his best friend who had his back throughout it all, nothing. In its place are vague and fuzzy vignettes of familiar people he canāt put a name or face to that appear in his mindās eye from time to time.
Now, as for his opinions on what he knowsā¦ Uh, Iāll just get the one with the least words on it out of the way first. The petrification thing? Yeah, he could not care less. The patches of marble on his body donāt limit his mobility any and yeah, the petrifying of his clothes is kind of annoying but itās slow enough to where itās not that big of a deal. Itās whatever.
Now. As for his creationāthat being Constantinople messing with him and him being Constantineās ideal selfāhe has aā¦not very good opinion on the two. And by that I mean he absolutely hates them.
He hates Constantinople for twisting his already good spirit origin into what it is now and placing within him an undying anger. He also hates her for basically using him as a tool to get what she wants all because the ārealā Constantine rejected her wishes, essentially using him as a replacement. Not good.
He hates Constantine for cursing him with the ridiculous traits of being stoic down to his core as well being the āperfectā emperor for his people. Because of that, not only does he not FEEL anything at all but he also has this immense pressure in his very soul that he MUST have Rome survive at all costs and that he must solely devote himself to that cause with every fiber of his being. Yes, the severity of those traits were caused by Constantinopleās anger and grief distorting him but the base traits were all on Constantine.
Now, in Constantineās defense (because I am a Constantine defender), he had no idea that this would happen let alone that an Alter of himself based on what he saw as his ideal self, the emperor his people deserved and would suit them best, even existed in the first place. It was a dream to him. A dream of a man who was much better than he was, doing way better than he is and winning all at once. That is all that Alter was to him then and what he was to Constantine before the singularity.
Endnote: Whewā¦ That was a lot! But I think that was Iāve got on Alter. As you can see, Iād been doinā a big think on him and he was a very fun character to design both artistically and in writing. I h Endnote:
Whewā¦ That was a lot! But I think that was Iāve got on Alter. As you can see, Iād been doinā a big think on him and he was a very fun character to design both artistically and in writing. I hope you donāt mind the crumminess in the piece, if you can even call it that. I wasnāt joking when I said it was supposed to be a sketch hence the noticeable climb in effort across the ascensions.
In other more exciting newsā¦ I have 10 followers! Ten whole people! Thatās enough to get one of those long tables at the fancy restaurants with!
Itās quite the milestone, one I was not expecting. So, to celebrate, Iām going to bypass the order of things I WANTED to get through with before I did this sort of thingāsince I didnāt think Iād get 10 followers, honestly. But, I will be dropping a poll sometime soonābefore the dayās end Nope, way too sleepy right now.āof a few headcanons you guys can choose from for me to do next! And not JUST for Constantine, Mehmed, or Sannanāno, no. I will also be tacking on my two other blorbos that I have neglected to mention, them being Hajime-chan (my strongest Saber) and Izou (my strongest Assassin.) So itāll be Multi-Core Headcanons (haha), five people in one list. And donāt you worry, it wonāt be like, one paragraph long or anything half-assed. That shit will be long, like 4k minimum per person which wouldāif I strictly hang around that numberāwould be a 20k long HC list.
So case in point! Itāll be a celebration and I implore you to vote.
But yeah. Thatās all for this post. Iāll also be posting something else shortly after that is NOT the poll but a nice occurrence for lilā olā me. If you have questions, comments, a desire for elaboration or a keyboard smash of your thoughts, let me know! And Iād like to thank you all for indulging my delusions today and before today and I hope you all have a great day.
Characters Included: Constantine XI, Mehmed II, Yamanami Keisuke, Saito Hajime, Okada Izou.
Which HC List Should I Pursue?
You/They Get Turned Into a Plushie
Them Coming to Terms With The Fact That Youāve Been Dead This Whole Time
You Become A God, Madoka Magica Style & How They Deal W/ That
DoppelgƤnger is Attempting to Replace You/Them
Voting ended onJan 8, 2025
Propaganda Under The Read More
You/They Get turned into a plushie:
Something I recall from my days lurking in other fandoms.
Standard cute and fluffy headcanons about what you would do with a Fumo of them or what theyād do with a Fumo of you, nothing too spectacular. I will say itās a deviation from the usual Angst in my HCs which CAN make things more appealing to you if you prefer such.
And yes, the solution to the plushie issue is a smooch. Anything else would be heresy. (:
Coming to Terms With The Fact That Youāve Been Dead The Whole Time & The Person in Front of Them is an Incomplete Artificial Copy of You + Mash (I Couldnāt Fit This Title In, My Apologies.)
Basically, it goes like this. You, as a rayshift candidate, had a hunch that this Chaldea place wasnāt going to just be a one and done summer job that you could just coast and lurk through. Thus you began creating a copy of yourself thatāll take your place after you die to live your life for you. Due to personal life getting in the way, you donāt actually finish the automaton by the time you get to Orientation Day and well, youāre forced to carry the poor thing in a guitar case on your back to hide the thing as you travel to Antarctica, hoping to finish it before your supposed demise. After that, same old, same old. The Command Room gets blown up and the events proceed exactly as they do with one deviation. You get split up from Mash and Olga Marie, then youāre toast. But! Thankfully, you unzip the guitar case on your back, wake up the automaton and command them to cut both of your hands off and swap them. You die and the automaton takes your place for the remainder of the journey, guitar case slung over their shoulder.
Weāll be starting waaay after that, when the peeps find out that āyouā are not you thanks to your head getting lobbed off during a botched rayshift and you just casually putting it back on. Thatās when āyouā explain things and then it all makes sense. Why youāre so weird when interacting with other people and why you have no clue about so many of the things around you, why you never seem to feel hungry or need to sleepāit all makes sense now.
Oh yeah, and bonus: your skeleton is in the guitar case the automaton is carrying on their back because they A. couldnāt find a proper place to bury you and B. couldnāt let the one familiar thing to them go.
I will admit, this kinda sounds more like a premise for a multi-chapter fic now that Iāve put it into words, but ultimately I am not the one who will decide the winner.
You Become a God, Madoka Magica Style & How They Deal With That:
Major spoilers for the anime inbound.
This is exactly what you think it is. Following in line with the people youāve grown to love and cherish over this beautiful journey, them being: Mash, Romani, Da Vinci, and Holmes, you sacrifice yourself to save the world. But not by dying. No, thatād be too kind.
Youāre forced to give up everything, not just the atoms making up your physical form but anything and everything that proves that you existed in the first placeāall to gain the power to drive back whateverās ending the world at this phase. This results in nothing and nobody recalling you in any form. Not even the Throne, Gaia, or Alaya remember that you exist, thatās how deep this runs. And with that power, you succeed and restore things back to the way they were before this whole shebang happened. ā¦With a few differences.
All of your servants are now regular people living their normal lives, doing normal stuff, working a normal job, and hanging out normally with their friends and family. They all get a nice happy ending with the only cost being that they donāt recall who you are or what a āChaldeaā is. Great stuff, right?
Wrong. There are two people who are not doing okay. You as youāre basically chilling in space watching over earth as basically an alien now, never to return home because that can and will cause some kind of issue and you KNOW it. The other being the folks in these headcanons: Constantine XI, Mehmed II, Sannan, Hajime-chan, and Izou. They all have their own individual sections but there will be a scenario where they all remember and how they jive that way.
DoppelgƤnger is Attempting to Replace You/Them:
Exactly what it sounds like on the tin. Two scenarios with a doppelgƤnger in them per person. Iāll go into how the doppelgƤnger acts, how they try and appeal to either you or them to keep them alive instead of the real one, how much time itād take for the servants in question to figure out that something isnāt kosher with you and how they go about handling that. Itās pretty straightforward if you ask me.
Endnote: And there it is. If, for some reason, we get a tie, I will go onto aā¦ different medium and ask the people to chose even or odd numbers to decide, most chosen breaks the tie. I will be voting myself on my personal on which one Iād like to do since I wouldnāt much like to lose votes to the See Results button. But donāt worry, I will subtract 1 (one) from that option when the poll ends.
That all being said, if you have any suggestions, comments, or questions of your own then I implore you to let me know.
Now, thank you all for participating, Happy New Year and have a great day everyone.
Foreword: This was supposed to be a sketch, I swear. But on another note, I am alive! Just slowly working up to writing after a few hectic weeks. But the train is moving, just very slowly which I imagine is nothing new. One thing I HAVE been getting up to is my painting of portraits of my blorbos for their birthdays. I suck at drawing anything festive, so I hope the quality of the piece makes up for it, heheā¦ I have Constantineās done and I am extremely proud of it.
Buuut thatās in February, so letās get into my explanation and thoughts on this hypothetical of my boi! Starting off withā¦why he looks like this.
(I would also like to note that I havenāt ran this through TTS yet so there probably is some grammatical errors and for that I will apologize in advance, I will iron them out soon.)
Fixed it! And I added a few more lines just to explain things further.
On the Subject of Appearance:
Alright, obvious and iconic Alter color palette aside, whatās up with the vast amounts of white? Thatās becauseā¦ Our guy wears black mostly in his first ascension and then dies it down in his second by adding a LOT of red, so itād make sense that his alternative would be set apart by having him wear and have the color white. Plus it illustrates just how DIFFERENT he is compared to Micheal, how opposite or perhaps opposing he is. But more on that later.
I also tried making his hair look significantly messier than Constantineās to set him apart and make him look more scary with his wild hair, especially in his third ascension. I looked at a panel of Yhwach from Bleach to see how I could do that since his hair looks so COOL but I couldnāt quite get it to how I wanted it thanks to the pencil I was using admittedly not being the best for that sort of thing. Now if I had used monoline instead then maybe it couldāve came out betterā¦
(Also I was planning on this being just a sketch so I wasnāt really thinking of coloring anything until his second ascension when I realized I would have to in order to communicate how different he is from Constantine and it kinda snowballed from there. Oopsā¦ You might be able to tell, but I was looking at Saber Alterās sprite from Stay Night for ideas on how to color him. Now. I just noticed that I forgot his crown for 3rd ascension and I did try adding one recently but it looked kinda badā¦ So weāll just leave him without it for now. I could justify its absence by saying that it broke when he was altered and it basically signals his now ironically unholy nature, but I had to speak truthfully first.)
Now, about the cracks on his skin. THAT is marble. Sections of Alterās body are petrified marble with a few dry cracks in the skin. Why? Because of the legend circulating after his death of him being a marble statue. Itās like how Hans has mermaid scales and how Okita will forever have tuberculosis, Alterās body along with several other things were affected by how people saw him. Iāll get into it more later.
But! There are some cool things, or not cool rather, to note about the marble patches on his body. Like how a lot of pain heād feel is nullified by it thanks to lack of, yāknow, nerves. This also goes for sensations in general as he wouldnāt know if you were tapping him on the shoulder or were pouring boiling water on that spot. Sections of his body cannot feel but can still move just fine. It doesnāt impede his movement at all. It justā¦cracks a lot.
If you ever see him stretch and pop his spine, you will not only hear the snapping of bones but also stone splitting. Donāt worry, itāll fix itself so you donāt have to worry about him sustaining major damage from just moving around. Itāll just take some getting used to on your end.
Now. You may have noticed that the marble patches grow more the further into his ascensions he is, to the point where his armor receives patches of marble on it too. Now this wouldnāt even be something to mention if not for the fact that Iād like to think that anything new he wears in his 2nd and 3rd ascension starts petrifying slowly over time. Not all the way but enough to the point where it gets to be a chore doing laundry. Just a neat addition to what is already there.
But yeah, thatās all I got for his design so far. On to the next!
On The Subject of Class and Gameplay:
If you play JP or have Clairvoyance then you already know why its not the obvious choice. Because his legend mentions specifically that the angel who wakes him up will give him the sword he used on his final day. So itād make sense that his class would change to Saber.
Now. In this hypothetical where Iām the one designing him as a unit. Iād imagine his gameplay to be like so:
2 Buster Cards with 5 hits, 2 Arts Cards with 4 hits, and 1 Quick card with 3 hits. Five hit Extra Attack because heās cool like that. Same card numbers but different hits on most.
His NP would be an Offensive Buster NP whose description looks something like this:
Legend of The Marble Emperor (EX):
Increase Buster Card Effectiveness for 3 Turns, Increase ATK for 1 Turn, Inflict Curse, Deal Major defense ignoring damage to one/all enemies, Restore HP by 2,000 (effect increases with Overcharge), Apply Resistance to Death by 5000% for 1 time (non-stackable) and Apply a stackable Guts for 5 turns that restores half of Constantine XI Alter (Saber)ās HP upon Death.
That is one hell of an NP that not only hits hard but also provides major survivability which is what Constantine is all about. Now, I could quite decide if he should be a Single Target or an AOE but I do imagine his gameplay to be your awesome clutch soloist unit for CQās, Advanced Quests or boss fights. Is this really cool hypothetical NP a showing of my massive bias? ā¦Maybe. But thatās not important, onto the skills!
Skill 1: The Ends Justify The Means (A) [Cooldown at LV.10 is 6 Turns]
Increase Buster Card Effectiveness for 3 Turns, Increase ATK for 3 turns for All Party Members and Apply Target Focus to All Party Members Excluding Constantine XI Alter (Saber) for 3 Turns.
Skill 2: Demise Privilege (Alternative) (C) [Cooldown at LV.10 is 7 Turns]
Increase NP Gauge for Self by 50%, Gain crit.stars per turn for 3 turns, Remove 2,000 HP from all Non-Roman Party Members and Restore HP by 3,000 to self, Apply Guts to self for 3 Turns.
Skill 3: The Peopleās Wish (Alternative) (EX) [Cooldown at LV.10 is 6 Turns]
Apply a State Where Upon Hitting an Enemy, Inflict Curse (1,000 DMG) and Disastrous Curse for 3 Turns, Apply Special ATK to enemies with Curse.
As you can see, Alter is a very selfish DPS that drains HP from his non-Roman allies to keep himself alive along with inflicting curse stacks for damage over time. Heās be a nice pair up with Van Gogh for that last thing. And much like his NP, he really wants to live and itās going to be difficult to kill him. So yes! Soloist in the form of a Saber.
Is his kit too cracked? ā¦Maybe. Maybe not. Iāll let you all tell me whatās what.
On the Subject of Composition:
Constantine XI Alter is a Saber class servant comprised of three parts.
The first and the largest portionāthe base, if you willāis Constantineās ideal self, dreamed up during his final years of life in the late 1400s. As we are aware, Constantine utterly despises how weak he thinks he is. He hates the fact that he feels like he wants to breakdown and cry so much, he hates the fact that heās terrified of dying, and most of all he hates that he isnāt strong enough to take the current crisis in stride like he believed his idols would have. Thus, Constantine saw his ideal self as a man who would not feel fear in times of crisis, would not cry when he was losing, and would not break under pressure. A truly stoic and strong leader that can handle any sort of disaster, that is to say: an emperor who wins for his people and survives.
The second part that makes up this servant are the wishes of the people of Constantinople. After Constantineās death, a rumor floated around that the emperor had not died. He was rescued by an angel at the brink of death and turned into a statue. He would then sleep in a hidden cave underneath the Golden Gate of Constantinople awaiting the call of an angel who would restore his form and give him the sword he used in the final battle. It was a lovely thing to hope for and believe in, thus that rumor turned into a legend backed by the hopes and dreams of the people. It is this that would have completed this variation of Constantine had it not been forā¦
The third and final part is less of a āpartā per se and more of a distortion of what already existed. A wild, vengeful anger and grief corrupted what would have been the lovely culmination of the ideal self of Constantine plus the peopleās hopes and dreams and twisted it into a cold automaton hellbent on continuing the existence of Rome as he knew it no matter the cost. These intense negative emotions came from the one and only Constantinople herself. When our favorite emperor perished and the Ottomans took over, there was no one as thoroughly stricken by griefāif we ignore George and Constantineās remaining familyāas Constantinople. It was pure agony to watch her people be murdered, enslaved and violated for days with the subsequent rebuild and installation of new buildings hurting too. But the most painful thing of all was watching her subjects slowly disappear one by one: people she watched grow up and live life for centuries on end vanishing never to return until all that was left was a large group of strangers who now occupied that space. It was maddening to say the least. The result was a lot of time passing and the events of Constantineās interlude (yes, I read a summary of it and it could not come sooner for me.) While Constantinople WAS forced into slumber through the battle, much like the emperor she is so deeply connected with, Constantinople made a final last ditch effort to have her and Constantineās wish come true. Thus the creation of an Alter of Constantine XI as well as a new singularity set shortly after the death of the real Constantine came to be.
On The Subject of Personality:
Alter is barely like the man we are familiar with, he would be practically unrecognizable if his face and voice were different. The most glaring difference is the lack of any expression on this manās face. The muscles on his face only move for three reasons: heās speaking, blinking, or the boiling rage underneath his skin has erupted upon the mention or appearance of the Ottomans. He just carries that same deadpan expression no matter what happens, good or bad. This is due to Constantineās wishes to be a truly stoic man down to his core. Though, thanks to the distortion caused by Constantinople, most of his other emotions have been muted to make room for the, and I quote: āBoiling Rageā¢ that is 100% necessary and important to the restoration and maintenance of the Byzantine Empire. Yup, totally required. Why? Because screw you thatās why!āā Constantinople, circa Right Now. I kid, I kid. But really. Alter is either having tiny tinges of emotion flittering around in his skull sometimesāyou know like the alleged to exist fruity taste of La Croixāor pure and absolute anger, no in between. Thankfully, for masters, the percentages of the anger are incredibly low unless for some odd reason you have Ottoman Turks appearing left and right in your area.
Unlike our friend Micheal, or any sapient being really, Alter doesnāt reallyā¦have opinions. Heās just neutral about most things in the world and mostly shrugs at whatever heās interacting with. Good weather? Okay. Great food? Okay. Amazing friends? Okay. The milk went bad and the storeās closed right now? Okay. You stepped on the corner of five different Lego blocks on your way to the bathroom? Okay. Your pillow is scorching hot and you canāt sleep? Okay. Several hundred people just died in utter agony? Oāyou get the point. Iām sure you know one exception that Alter has, but allow me to provide you with one more and weāll get into another in the next section.
The red earrings on his ears, cracked beyond belief yet still hanging just fineā¦ Yes, Alter likes those. Thatās why he hasnāt taken them off or let them shatter. Why? Wellā¦ He vaguely recalls someone important to him gifting him these. That man, after helping Constantine put his on, took out another similar pair and placed them on his own ears. He then said: āNow we match! Plus, Iāll be able to pick you out in even the most dense of crowds, my lord, as these earrings are one of a kind.ā
(Yes, I headcanon that George gifted Constantine his iconic red earrings and has a matching blue pair for himself so that they both kinda match but hold their individuality all the same. A nice little thought that warms my heart.)
On The Subject of Speech:
The way this man talks is so dry and bland that one would think that Alter is bored out of his skull by simply existing. His voice is so flat and borderline monotone, no effort to emphasize anything or even to make digesting the info any easier. And to make matters perhaps worse he doesnāt talk much and tends to make what little he does say compact. Itās a flavorless way of communication that only changes when, you know, the Boiling Rageā¢ surfaces.
You know how in Constantineās Bond Profile #1 it states that he āsometimes speaks more roughly in times of duress?ā (Or āa more crude toneā if weāre reading the fan translation.) Yeah, well thatās no longer a sometimes. He still doesnāt talk much but man is he swearing and being rude as hell when he is pissed. The imperial decorum that our Micheal lives by has gone out of the window and will not be seen again until Alter calms down. No, he wonāt apologize to anyone. Donāt bother, itās a fruitless endeavor.
On the Subject of His Knowledge:
Alright, what does Alter know about himself? He knows that he was crafted by Constantine to be the ideal version of him. He knows about the legend surrounding his death and that being the reason for the petrification on his body. And he knows about Constantinople messing with his Spirit Origin and his current reason for existing and the objective that comes with it. ā¦Thatās it. That is all he knows.
Nothing about his personal life or his family or his best friend who had his back throughout it all, nothing. In its place are vague and fuzzy vignettes of familiar people he canāt put a name or face to that appear in his mindās eye from time to time.
Now, as for his opinions on what he knowsā¦ Uh, Iāll just get the one with the least words on it out of the way first. The petrification thing? Yeah, he could not care less. The patches of marble on his body donāt limit his mobility any and yeah, the petrifying of his clothes is kind of annoying but itās slow enough to where itās not that big of a deal. Itās whatever for him.
Now. As for his creationāthat being Constantinople messing with him and him being Constantineās ideal selfāhe has aā¦not very good opinion on the two. And by that I mean he absolutely hates them both.
He hates Constantinople for twisting his already good spirit origin into what it is now and placing within him an undying anger. He also hates her for basically using him as a tool to get what she wants all because the ārealā Constantine rejected her wishes, essentially using him as a replacement. A simple means to an endā¦ Yeah, even someone as dry as Alter isnāt happy with her one bit and immediately rebelled against her the moment she turned her back on him.
He hates Constantine for cursing him with the ridiculous traits of being stoic down to his core as well being the āperfectā emperor for his people, the one who wins and survives. Because of that, not only does he not FEEL anything at all but he also has this immense pressure in his very soul that he MUST have Rome survive at all costs and that he must solely devote himself to that cause with every fiber of his being. Yes, the severity of those traits were caused by Constantinopleās anger and grief distorting him but the base traits were all on Constantine.
Now, in Constantineās defense (because I am a Constantine defender), he had no idea that this would happen let alone that an Alter of himself based on what he saw as his ideal self, the emperor his people deserved and would suit them best, even existed in the first place. It was a dream to him. A dream of a man who was much better than he was, doing way better than he is and winning all at once. That is all that Alter was to him then and what he was to Constantine before the singularity. And upon seeing the cursed man before him, he could not feel worse about himself if he tried.
Endnote: Whewā¦ That was a lot! But I think that was Iāve got on Alter. As you can see, Iād been doinā a big think on him and he was a very fun character to design both artistically and in writing.
Whewā¦ That was a lot! But I think that was Iāve got on Alter. As you can see, Iād been doinā a big think on him and he was a very fun character to design both artistically and in writing. I hope you donāt mind the crumminess in the piece, if you can even call it that. I wasnāt joking when I said it was supposed to be a sketch hence the noticeable climb in effort across the ascensions.
In other more exciting newsā¦ I have 10 followers! Ten whole people! Thatās enough to get one of those long tables at the fancy restaurants with!
Itās quite the milestone, one I was not expecting. So, to celebrate, Iām going to bypass the order of things I WANTED to get through with before I did this sort of thingāsince I didnāt think Iād get 10 followers, honestly. But, I will be dropping a poll sometime soonābefore the dayās end Nope, way too sleepy right now.āof a few headcanons you guys can choose from for me to do next! And not JUST for Constantine, Mehmed, or Sannanāno, no. I will also be tacking on my two other blorbos that I have neglected to mention, them being Hajime-chan (my strongest Saber) and Izou (my strongest Assassin.) So itāll be Multi-Core Headcanons (haha), five people in one list. And donāt you worry, it wonāt be like, one paragraph long or anything half-assed. That shit will be long, like 4k minimum per person which wouldāif I strictly hang around that numberāwould be a 20k long HC list.
So case in point! Itāll be a celebration and I implore you to vote.
But yeah. Thatās all for this post. Iāll also be posting something else shortly after that is NOT the poll but a nice occurrence for lilā olā me. If you have questions, comments, a desire for elaboration or a keyboard smash of your thoughts, let me know! And Iād like to thank you all for indulging my delusions today and before today and I hope you all have a great day.
>>Chapter One: The One Where He Dies and You Meet Him a Century Later<<
Series Summary: At one point in time in a distant place, there is a group of folks sitting in a dojo discussing how theyād all make history and bring peace. These people would go on to be lifelong friends and the next few years would be ones filled with all kinds of dramatics. The kind that would be spoken of for decades to come. One such person, while dropping out early in the groupās tale of legend, was perhaps the earliest sign that things werenāt quite right with those people.
At another point in time, someone goes back to right a wrong. Things have gotten out of hand and itās time to apologize. But words arenāt enough. There is nothing that can be said to alleviate anything. Instead, what is needed is action. Cold hard and clinical action. Thatās the only way to make things right.
And finally, in the āpresentā some goober is tossing pop rocks at a circle in hopes of reeling in yet another one of their favorite peacekeepers.
Warnings: Sannan dies at the very start but itās not described in detail, one singular mention of beheading, a floor is punched. No beta we die like Sannan.
Foreword: Hey, hey! Some of you might recognize this, and props if you do because this was my first fanfic ever. BUT! For those of you who have read that pile of cringe on my Ao3 (itās RedliningFrequency, by the way) then you will be happy to know that this is actually a remaster. Yes, I am redoing this and I have taken quite a bit of time planning this out and, AND I have gotten better as a writer. Honestly, I should have started writing headcanons first instead of trying to go for a slow burn, but fuck it we ball. The original is not gone and it will never be gone since itās my history and it shows how much better Iāve gotten. So go read that if you want, but I donāt recommend it.
Anywho, this is the first chapter remaster of WLBML. Please enjoy.
Date: 2nd year of Genji (1865), March 20th.
Location: Maekawa Estate, Mibu Village in Kyoto.
Time: Early morning.
āAhā¦ A fine morning today, too.ā
Please picture, if you will, two evenly spaced horizontal lines within a rectangle. Now picture a single vertical line just right of the middle of the shape. The gaps between make up what little of the world a certain gentleman can see in this small room.
The view from the lattice is quite picturesque. Itās the kind youād see a painting of at your local museum, drawn by someone youāll never have the chance of meeting. It had that rosy pink to a golden yellow to a deep blue gradient, with the remaining stars holding out as the sun slowly rises over the horizon. The canopies of several trees and bushes alike rustle softly to an unheard rhythm, with birdsong and distant chatter harmonizing as the lead. All flowers, weeds too, were dotted with a tearās worth of dew. Their glistening paired nicely with the shimmering of the pond nearby. In agreement with the gentlemen, let it be said once more: this is a fine spring morning.
That in mind, the world outside is of little import as the person viewing this scene is the subject of observation today. Just who is this man and what is he doing here?
Locked within a room in the Maekawa Estate stands a gentleman admiring nature as he always does, but todayās feel is different this time. Such a thing can be credited to the current circumstances, but thatās for later.
From the Sendai Domain of the Mutsu Province, born on February the 5th of 1833, is a one Yamanami Keisuke, the Secretary General of the Shinsengumi. Heās 169 centimeters tallāor 5 feet and 6 inchesāand underneath those layers is a lean and toned form that even the straightest of lines can say is appealing. But above ground, his round edges and soft smile, along with those lavender colored eyes made for a rather disarming appearance compared to his contemporaries in the Shinsengumi. He looks like the person many would refer you to when you need someone to listen to and take advice from. Itās an impression lacking judgement yet carrying the same amount of wisdom a person who presides over trials would have. A mien of kindness and understanding, if you will.
To many it sounds too good to be true, and no one would fault you for thinking that way. Even the man himself doesnāt blame you for it either, not with the company he keeps. But unlike those who covet such a way of being for their deceptions, Yamanami Keisuke is almost exactly as he looks. Itās how he is, always has been and always will be. This sincere and good natured character is known and beloved among children and adults alike in Mibu for this reason.
With a rap sheet like thisāor lack thereof ratherāone has to wonder what a gentle man like him is doing locked in this small room. The answer is not pretty. He committed a crime, a crime only punishable by committing seppuku. The crime of desertion.
It started a few days ago, when he left to go somewhere without permission and without telling anyone. His lack of intention to return to his post made clear by the note he graciously left behind, the only indication as to his departure aside from his absence. The response from his senior comrades was to send one singular person to pursue him, his dear friend. After a small chat in the place he was resting at, he went quietly back to the Maekawa Estate and went quietly still to this small room after he was sentenced. He had even changed to the proper ritual attire beforehand to make sure that no one couldnāt say he wasnāt serious about this. Thatās the how of this situation, but not the why. Yamanami never did tell anyone such when he was asked, he just stated that he deserted and thatās the end of it. His full and complete reasoning is something that will remain a mystery to his contemporaries and further still in historical record.
But right here, right now is a gentleman enjoying nature as much as he can before his time comes. A bird lands on one of the lines of the lattice, itās feathers shimmering a deep shade of blue. He greets his guest warmly like he does any person, even striking a conversation. Silly as it may sound, the blue birdās company was more welcome than the uninvited guests that came late yesterday, as the bird now perched on his finger isnāt attempting to persuade him to flee.
Speaking of guests, what happens next may or may not have occurred, but it should be mentioned.
Somewhere, not too far from this specific lattice window, is a young lady running as fast as her feet can carry her. Not a single thought was put to where her shoes landed, only the action of moving at all was on her mind. This caused her to trip and stumble several times, staining her clothes with mud, grass, and dew. The poor girl had even fallen into a duck pond at some point, rendering her soaking wet and cold. Not that she cared, of course. There was something much more important than tomorrowās illness, and it was right behind that specific lattice window.
The blue bird, sensing the young ladyās incoming presence, took its leave and what followed was a familiar face. Her appearance was a complete mess to say the least, something that a lady of her profession would never be caught dead with. Even then, even with the mud, grass and dew, the loose unbrushed hair, and the tear stains on her cheeksāeven then to Yamanami she looked beautiful. How couldnāt she be? This is Akesato, his beloved, and that hasnāt changed.
Gripping the lattice, Akesato tries her hardest to understand the situation and implores Yamanami to tell her, only to find no answers. He simply reaches through the gaps and cups her cheek, brushing away the salt and bits of dirt. She leans into his warm touch and what comfort the action may have provided was overshadowed by the knowledge that she may never receive this gentle affection from him ever again. More tears fall and Yamanami could only stand there and watch as the woman he loves pours her heart out to him unfiltered. He could do the same, tell her his deep love for her and how sorry he is that he has to leave her like thisā¦ But that would only hurt the poor girl more. There is nothing he can say to make this any better and he knows it. He brought this upon himself and this moment at the window with his beloved must be fate showing him the consequences of his selfish actions. Thus, in an act that could only seem uncharacteristically cruel, Yamanami retracts his hand slowlyā¦ And shuts the shoji in front of the window.
A young ladyās sobs can be heard clearly from the other side, but with enough focus they fade away. He had already hurt her by going through with it, the least he can do is to end it now with a paper screen instead of letting Akesato watch him leave. Itās for the best, he thinks.
If such an event did occur with a woman named Akesato, thereās dubious evidence of such.
He lies down on the floor and the first thing that comes to mind is that place, one he finds himself struggling to recall yet yearns for. Yamanami tries his best to reach into the dusty corners of his mind for any threads to grasp, anything that can put his train of thought to remembering that special place. But he comes up empty handed. What does come to mind is a dojo that never saw a moment of peace, a group of friends discussing their heroes and how theyād go about emulating them, drinking after a long day of teaching swordplay, smelly takuan in the summer, a leader boisterously regaling his favorite war stories whenever anyone askedā¦ Those memories came up instead.
Yamanami couldnāt help but feel his stomach turn. Two years. Two whole years of being away and he had already lost his grip on that place. Streets and homes turned into a blur, the layout changing the harder he thinks on it, the foliage not quite right but also not wrong either. Itās as though his memories of that place were behind thick frosted glass. Colors and shapes melting together into something familiar yet unrecognizable.
The gentleman turns to lay on his side, curling into himself just enough to provide self comfort but not enough to look weak. He crosses his arms in a pseudo self hug and he suppresses a shiver threatening to crawl up his spine. Despite the room being empty save for himself and the window being covered, the feeling of being watchedābeing judged sat firmly in a spiky mass behind his sternum. Yamanami shuts his eyes in an attempt to will that feeling away.
How amazing it was, in a completely disturbing sense, how a pair of years can carve themselves a place in your skull. How two years can be remembered with such clarity at the cost of much before it. What was lost cannot be returned or amended, and he has no one but himself and his friends to blame for that. Himself for falling into something so idealistic, and his friends for a whole laundry list of reasons that he doesnāt want to think about now. If there were an opportunity to change things, go back and right wrongs then Yamanami would certainly take it. He has one of the larger shares of responsibility, after all. Heād be a worse man if he didnāt try, at the very least.
If everyone had their heads so firmly lodged into the clouds so as to ignore his pleas, then so be it. Those are their sins on their backs, itās up to them to salvage the situation and change paths. Assuming they even have an iota of the guilt he carries, of course. Knowing them, theyāll probably run themselves into the ground and somehow take every poor person in the area with them. On accident, of course. Bad outcomes are never caused by anyone specifically, theyāre just a thing that happens without warning. Such a way of thinking a symptom of an inflated ego and excellent acoustics. Deaf ears and twitching fingers, itching to point at another to save their ownā
A sharp pain shoots up his right arm. Yamanami had been digging his fingernails into the white sleeves of his clothes in bitter resentment, much to his own surprise. He sighs and lays on his back, gently rubbing the spot where that tender scar would be under the fabric. Resentment wasnāt something Yamanami considered himself to be capable of until recently, and despite knowing that those kinds of feelings resided in his chest, he still disbelieved their existence. This made it harder to reconcile with the fact that he was well on his way to mentally cussing out the people he called friends. That bitterness was an odd feeling paired with a subsequent melancholy, how did things end up this way? How did he go from learning swordplay and teaching it to laying on the floor of this cell, awaiting his death? What happened?
Yamanami isnāt given any time to contemplate such questions as the sliding door opens swiftly, a small gust of cold wind dispersing into the small space. In the doorway was an unmistakable head of strawberry blonde hair tied up into a ponytail. Her expression was flat and unreadable. Much like the shapes of clouds, itās anyoneās guess as to what the First Unit Captain of the Shinsengumi is feeling at this moment in time. Okita doesnāt say a word, simply choosing to nod her head to the side as a silent command for Yamanami to get up.
āā¦Good morning to you as well, Okita-kun.ā
He wastes no time getting up, there isnāt a point to try to run away now or push this back. These are the consequences to his actions and unlike his contemporaries, heāll take them with poise. Someone has to, and he hopes that there will be something to learn from this.
Yamanami follows Okita for what seemed like an eternity, the length of time almost had him suspicious but that feeling was nulled after she had slid open a door to a room that was empty save for a plate hosting a blade on a white mat in the middle of the room. ā¦Plus a few familiar faces, of course. She turns to face him and pauses for a moment before once again nodding her head in the direction of the doorway. The gentleman steps in and walks to the mat, kneeling to the floor and straightening his posture. Okita followed him in and quietly shut the door. Instead of standing behind him to get this over with like he thought she would, Okita sat down in front of him.
And for the first time since they had set off from Otsu back to Mibu, she spoke.
āā¦Kondo-san told me about your request. Are you sure you want to do this, Yamanami-san?ā
The way Okita spoke would be unnerving to anyone who wasnāt acquainted with her beforehand. Her voice was entirely devoid of any feeling but sharper than a knife. No specific cadence, no slurring of words or stutters: just a flat pair of sentences that cut straight to the point. Even her question sounded like it had a period at the end. But Yamanami had known this woman for long enough to be used to that neutral tone, so it doesnāt scare him like it does everyone else.
ā¦Okita doesnāt scare him like she does everyone else.
The man smiled and responded lightly, as if this were just another morning for the two.
āIām sure. Iām just sorry to put this onto your shoulders, Okita-kun. Hahaā¦ I guess Iāve been making trouble for you all a while now, havenāt I?ā
āā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā
Okita didnāt say anything or move at all. But Yamanami could swear that those steel eyes of hers darkened for a split second. While not the most perceptive when it came to the feelings of others, Okita Souji wasnāt dense and he knew that. She probably had already figured out that he was forcing his smile and laughter. But what did it matter? These are his final moments. He can spend them acting however he pleases.
Okita breaks the uncomfortable silence herself with that same cold tone.
āWhy didnāt you just run away back then, Yamanami-san?ā
There it was, one of the many questions surrounding him. Why didnāt he take off when she entered the room he was staying in? Why didnāt Yamanami Keisuke run for his life upon seeing that it was Okita Souji pursuing him? Why?
His response would give nothing away. Itās an answer to the question presented, but one that doesnāt necessarily satisfy curiosity. Heād take the truth of his feelings to the grave and leave this mystery hanging overhead like a cloud of miasma. A small parting gift left behind from an old friend, or perhaps more accurately a teaching moment. But that then begs the question as to what that lesson even is. To find that out, they would have to look back critically and look inward with that same scrutiny.
Which would never happen, obviously.
āHahaha, you know as well as I do that there was no way I could ever escape from you. Iām a slow runner, and my meager sword skills canāt even hope to compare to a genius like you.ā
Had it not been for his mild mannered personality, the underlying bitterness could have seeped through in a more apparent way. But Yamanami Keisuke isnāt one to express these things in such an obvious manner, it had to be subtle or heād lose his temper and with that the argument.
It was petty to level these kinds of shots at the person who was going to put him out of his misery and he knew that, but Yamanami just couldnāt help it. These emotions had been boiling under the surface for what he felt was over a decade, kept firmly under lock and key to not upset the already shaky balance of everything around him. But such expectations werenāt fair. Not for him nor for anyone else.
Okitaās jaw clenched, the only visible sign this whole conversation that she felt some kind of way about anything. It was a small comfort to know that she was, in fact, listening to him, even if it was just surface level.
āI have to say, it was downright cruel of Hijikata-san and Kondo-kun to send you after me.ā
It took less than half of a second after he finished for Okita to slam her hand down on the floor, her fist trembling from either pain or anger.
āYou didnāt have to stay! I told you it was okay to run! Hijikata-san, Kondo-sanāeveryone wouldāve been fine with it!ā
It seems that her neutrality throughout these past few days was just a cover up for what lied beneath the surface, pain. She had never wanted to bring him back to Mibu, never wanted to chase him all the way to Otsu in the first place. If she could, if Kondo and Hijikata let her, then she would have never gone in the first place. If Yamanami hadnāt insisted on following her when she turned to leave his room after discovering him, then she would have walked back to Mibu alone and lied to the Commander and Vice Commander about the Secretary Generalās whereabouts, leaving it at that. But thatās not what happened.
Okita Souji didnāt want to do any of this. For all of her frigid actions, all of her tone deaf and borderline insane remarks, Okita has a heart. A big enough heart to play with the temple children, big enough to see him whenever she could these days, big enough to smile for everyoneās sake and big enough to accept his request for her to be his kaishakunin. And Yamanami felt horrible for forgetting that.
Okita didnāt deserve to be on the receiving end of his passive aggression. He just couldnāt stay mad at her regardless of him knowing just how inhuman she can be sometimes. And with that thought, most of the bitter taste in his mouth had left him. ā¦At least when he looked at her, the other people in the room on the other handā¦not so much. After all, Okita was the only person who spoke to him. Everyone else was just sitting in silence, almost as if they all had placed their hope in the First Unit Captain to persuade Yamanami to call this off. If she couldnāt do it, then no one can, so why bother trying yourself?
Yamanami could feel his fingers twitch as he maintained that casual and soft veneer.
āThatās why I didnāt try to run. Iāve no doubt Hijikata-san had already taken all that into consideration.ā
With the same intensity as before, Okita jumped in.
āBut I wouldāve let you go! All you had to do was run away!ā
Yamanami sighs, the smile he had pinned to his face finally falls off and his lips relax into a line. His expression wasnāt angry or even sad, just exhausted. He zeroes in on the woman in front of him and, for her sake only, decides to pull the curtain aside just a little.
Only a little.
ā...Maybe you're right. Maybe I could have made it back to Edo if I'd just kept running.ā
āā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā
āI don't know how else to explain it. All I can say isā¦ I just didn't know anymore.ā
āā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā
What ever propelled Okita to speak her mind with such intensity had sank down back to the crevice it was stored in beforehand, thus giving Yamanami time to think about how he wanted to clarify what he had meant. Ultimately, he settles for dropping off one piece of the puzzle. It wasnāt nearly enough to encapsulate the special kind of hell he had gone through, but maybe it was enough to at least give his friend some closure. She deserves that much for putting up with him all this time.
āEver since I left Edo for the capital and helped form the Shinsengumi, Iāve been running around frantically under Kondoās command.ā
āā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā
āRunning here, running there, back and forth and near and farā¦ā
āā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā
āThen one dayā¦ I stopped and looked back.ā
āYamanami-sanā¦ā
The words of a young woman with tied up black hair and jade colored attire come to his mind. It was those words, those few words that were said not knowing just how utterly profound they were that pulled him out of the pit Yamanami himself and seemingly the world had dug him. It gave him the motivation to do something, anything to change and he couldnāt thank Akesato enough for it. ā¦Even though it was what led to this outcome.
He continues.
āThat was when my fate was sealed. From then on, all I could think about was my old life in the hometown I left behind. And before I knew what I was doing, Iād already left the base.ā
That special place he had longed to return to, his home, was hidden behind a solid pane of frosted glass. Yet he yearned to go back. To go back to a time when he was just a kenjutsu instructorās son and nothing more. To go back to a time when he was learning Hokushin Itto-ryu under Chiba-sensei. To go back to a simpler time where he could take a walk outside whenever he felt like it. That was what he yearned for the moment Akesato had flippantly told him her sage wisdom.
ā¦But that was simply one piece of a larger puzzle. There are many other reasons why heās sitting here on his knees. Reasons he patently refuses to speak of, let alone allude to the existence of. He wasnāt going to give neither Okita nor anyone else in the room any further insight on what was on his mind.
Yamanami tugs a small but genuine smile onto his lips, his lavender gaze softening significantly. He speaks once more.
āNowā¦ Go on. Itās time for me to go.ā
What happened next need not be recounted here, just know that Yamanamiās seppuku was flawless and Okita had struck his neck correctly, allowing his head to fall into his hands as it should. An honorable death for an honorable man, completely shrouded in mystery until this very day.
But this moment in time would not be the last the world would see of Yamanami Keisuke. Itās just the ending of the first book in an infinite series of volumes spanning across time and space, such is the nature of servants as you know.
One such volume takes place on an earth as white as snow and in an island with an undefined location, The Wandering Sea. Humanityās remnants, known best as the stargazers of Chaldea, thrive in their new home and fight constantly to stay afloat in this paper colored nightmare. The most notableāor perhaps notorious may be the better wordāindividual has awakened at the crack of dawn for a very special reason.
Why donāt we look at whatās going on in Novum Chaldea at this humble hour?
Date: Unknown, Sometime in 2019.
Location: Summoning Room, Novum Chaldea.
Time: Dawn.
ā600 SQā¦ 1 card with several important signatures andā¦ Duh, duh, duhā¦ 8 pages of Chinese poetry that Jing Ke recommended and helped me copyā¦ An imitation talisman based off ones that the temple he was buried at madeā¦ A poem he wroteā¦ Annnndā¦ Cherry dango.ā
You clapped your hands with a strong feeling of accomplishment. Getting these catalysts and the SQ, while not the worst experience, wasnāt an easy task. Especially learning scuffed calligraphy with Jing Ke. Over five hours of careful movement and it STILL looked awful. Thankfully your assassin friend had done 3 pages herself thus making this set not completely terrible.
Regardless, you had awakened just before sunrise to set into motion the final phase of your ritual for bringing into this plane a new servant for your roster. He was a gentleman you had your eye on for sometime now, not because he was a game changer or anything of the sort, but because he was a part of a promise that you had made to one of your closest friends. This meant that you had to go all in and put your heart into this summoning, lest you fail to keep your promise. And failing to keep promises is one of the Cardinal Atrocities for a hero, making this stuff really serious!
āMhm, mhm. Everythingās all here. Now I just need to set everything into place.ā
You began by drawing a diamond around the summoning circle with chalk, then a square. It wasnāt the best but itāll do. You drew circles on the corners of the shapes and erased the excess lines within. This, in theory, made an extension to the summoning circle already in place and allowed you to add the poetry as a catalyst to the ritual. But that wasnāt all that you brought. You then drew four vertical lines onto where the chalk line of the diamond was closest to the circle.
You took a few steps back to gaze upon your work and decide what should go where. The pages were already accounted for but what of the dango, talisman, card and his poem?
You placed your hand on your chin and thought back to the previous times you had pulled out all the stops like this in the past and found that the items that were closest to the door were the ones that were likeliest to be consumed for a successful summon. That made sense since the servant would be more likely to pick up the presence of an item in front of them and not behind. So to increase the chances of this working out, youād have to place the important catalysts on the two lines closest to the door. This begs the question, which of these four catalysts are the most important and most likely to pull this guy in?
The card was the first one that came to mind as it was the one that undeniably had the most love put into it. The idea came to you after a regrettably long drought of ideas and you had decided to settle for a folded page of card stock with the signatures of everyone who wanted him to join Chaldea. There were, as expected, several signatures from the GudaGuda Gang (or the Boiler Room Besties if youāve spent too much time with Suzuka and Nagiko) and surprisingly the Round Table as well. Arthur and Artoria were happy to hear that you were summoning another Shinsengumi member since it would be an assured addition to the ranks of the Chaldea Police Department. The two had also felt it was right to pitch in themselves since it was the Shinsengumi who had started the CPD in the first place. Thus the Round Table Knights all added their signatures to the card in hopes of bringing in that certain someone.
After all of that, you had gone through and looked at the signatures, noticing that one person was missing from the count. Okita hadnāt given hers yet and she was one of the closest people to him. ā¦If the history books are correct, of course. You had gone to her and Okita stated that she was just waiting to see how much space was left for her to write a little something in addition to her signature. Unfortunately, there wasnāt much left for even her name, but you were nothing if not a problem solver. You gave Okita a sheet of printer paper and told her to write as much as she wanted and that youāll fold the paper and tape it to the inside of the card when sheās finished. Okita gladly snatched it from you and took off to write her piece which would end up covering the entire page in what you believed to be heartfelt words of beckoning. Upon receiving it, you immediately folded it and went to go tape it in.
With all that, it made sense that itās position was to be in the front. But that now left the question as to the other space. Rattling your skull for answers, you found yourself leaning towards the dango. Hajime had told you a while ago that Okita had always dragged the person in question to go get sweets whenever they went on patrol together. And when you asked Okita yourself, she stated that anytime that she did get sweets with him was purely coincidence and āthat Shabbysengumiā was āclearly lying.ā And Hijikata stated that he just likes them. With all that in mind, you suspected that the connection with Okita might make this one the better pick.
āYeahā¦ Those two are directly related to her, so theyāve gotta be in the front. And the back twoās positions donāt really matter, so I can put both wherever.ā
Now that you had all of the positions for each of the catalysts mapped out, it was time to set the stage for real. Pages on each of the smaller circles, card and dango on the frontmost lines with the other two being put in the back. Once they were all in place, you retrieved the saint quartz you needed for this first 10 pull and set them down in a row in front of you. The second you laid the 30th quartz on the floor, the summoning circle came to life.
The scraggly chalk lines straightened immediately, forming a perfect diamond and square, the catalysts presented accepted into the mix as seen by the writing forming along the perimeter of the chalk. You run to stand before the circle and change your stance to one that you were sure looked pretty cool and raised your dominant hand to the ceiling, index finger pointing to the sky and began uttering the words that will finalize the ritual, thus bringing this man into your reality.
āFrom the vast oceans interspersed between planes of endless white, I cast my hand into the voidā¦ā
The catalysts fizzle out into shimmers of light to form the spheres that would circle into three bands of pure brightness. This was a good start but the results were not set in stone just yet. You raise your voice, hoping that someone was listening.
āI know not if any would hear my pleas, but my hope will manifest the desired answer!ā
Flaxen sparks begin to fly, and the lights of the summoning circle shift to a bright gold. This could be it, your will may very well have brought you fortune. ā¦But itās still not over yet! You begin shouting.
āCome to me! Come from your place in the unknown and stand by my side!ā
Every light in the room converges into a singular point, dying all corners a perfect shade of black and blinding you with every color on the spectrum. The sight, no matter how many times you saw it, was utterly sublime, and it filled your heart with equal parts hope and equal parts fear. You instinctively shut your eyes and drop to the floor, crouching to gingerly touch the chalk line. Your head lowered and gaze cast to the ground.
You call out one last time, but softly.
āā¦Saber.ā
From that point in space, a gold card materialized and swiftly floated to your hand. The ornate design of a Saber peeled back to revealā¦
āShinsengumiās Secretary General, Yamanami Keisuke. I have come in answer to your summons.ā
You whip your head to look up at the gentleman, only to find him crouching to meet you at eye level. A pair of lavender irises gaze at you softly through brown frames, his lips forming a small smile.
āAs inept as I may be, I shall serve you with all the strength and spirit I have.ā
Where to even begin with his appearance? His hair tied up in that indescribable and neat style, those glasses, his outfit and the color palette, that glove on his right handā¦ Agh, no matter where you look it seemed like every part of him deserved a great amount of attention. It was an equilibrium bordering on splendid yet it was more down to earth than anything. It was a paradox of sorts that you were all too happy to gaze into.
ā¦A little too happy since you seemed to be missing the fact that Yamanami was speaking.
āI ask that you take good care of me.ā
Maybe it was the dimness of the room, maybe it was the euphoria of your silly ritual actually working for onceā¦ But the only thing that you could think of wasā
āā¦Just as beautiful as the day I lost you. Maybe even more.ā
Yamanami blinked in shock, his face quickly reddening. He takes a moment presumably to recalibrate and he sputters at an almost inaudible volume.
āCould youā¦ Could you repeat that, please?ā
With that, you snapped back to reality. First impressions were always the most important, as you know, and right now your āfirst impressionā is warranting an HR complaint. Thus, using your famed quick decision making, you spring up to your feet and do what comes naturally to a hero like yourself.
You strike an entirely unnecessary pose and talk at an elevated volume.
āAha! Welcome, welcome, welcome! Welcome to Chaldea! Er, Novum Chaldea. More on that later. But welcome.ā
You place a hand to your chest as Yamanami stands up.
āIām your master, as well as pretty much every other servantās too. I look forward to getting along with you, Yamanami-san!ā
You stick out your hand for a handshake but it seems he had already taken to bowing. This prompted you to switch gears to do the same. ā¦Only to find that he had the same thought and stuck his hand out to meet yours. ā¦Which wasnāt there.
In an effort to will away the embarrassment, you managed to utter in a comically strained voice:
āBoth?ā
Yamanami gave what you assumed to be a lighthearted chuckle.
āSure. Both.ā
You both took each otherās hand, gave it a shake and bowed at the same time for a compromise. Not your best introduction, but itāll do. At least heās not asking about what you said earlierā¦
You thought back to what the Shinsengumi had told you about Yamanami during your last meeting together. Heās a really smart guy whoās quick on the uptake and can, for the most part, handle his own pretty well: both in and out of battle. Hijikata told you to not sugarcoat things if you can help it, as itāll āpiss him off for some reason.ā Hajime said that heās pretty fierce when he needs to be and to ānot get on his bad side.ā Oki, on the other hand, reassured you that heāll warm up to you real quick. Why? Wellā¦
āDonāt listen to Hijikata-san and Saito-san. Yamanami-san is the nicest guy you will ever meet! Besides, even if he somehow wasnātā¦ Well, youād still get along with him just fine. Youāre you, and heāll warm up to you fast because of that. ā¦Just trust me on this.ā
You knew him to be kind from the first Yamataikoku incident and you two did get along well then. Plus heās the same guy, so that helps. Really, there wasnāt anything to be worried about. Okita knew him best, soā¦ Better get straight to the point.
You sigh and let down the proverbial shutter a smidge.
āAlrightā¦ Now that weāve introduced ourselves, I think youād like it best if I just cut straight to the point. Yamanami-sanā¦ How much do you know about the current state of affairs in the world?ā
His expression turned serious and he spoke without hesitation.
āNot very much aside from the fact that the world has essentially ended.ā
You nod.
āEh, yeah thatās what I figured. Youād think the Throne would be better about these kinds of thingsā¦ā
You take a step aside and a few steps away towards the door, stopping to gesture for him to step off the circle.
āBut this room is waaaay too stuffy for that kind of recap, so here. Follow me and weāll take this somewhere less dark.ā
āAs you wish, Master-san.ā
Yamanami steps off the summoning circle, making his way over to you and the moment his other sandal touches the floor, the summoning circle starts back up again. Turns out you completely forgot that this was a ten pull.
āShoot!ā
You sprint past your new friend andāin your attempt to be the professional baseball player you arenātāslide to the circle and punch the floor on your way down. Congrats, you stole second base AND your dominant hand really hurts! To commemorate your excellent move, the bands of light stopped in their tracks and a bunch of cards shot out from the mess of photons. As you lay on the floor attempting to not show that the consequences of your actions are affecting you, the cards fall to your hand and you can get a good look at what your first ten pull net you.
āAh! Master-san, are you alright?ā
Or that would have been the case if you were alone. Before you knew it Yamanami had crouched down again to meet you at your level, his gloved and gloveless hand holding yours. All 10 cards disappear into the ether, leaving their contents a mystery. But the temporary loss of knowledge didnāt phase you, let alone register in your mind as the feeling of this manās hands on yours was slowing down your processing power. The softness of his hands on yours was surprising since you thought that itād be more rough considering his profession, but very welcome too as the warmth almost made the pain go away.
Hm, maybe you should punch floors more oftenā¦
āWhy on earth did you do that? Master-san, you could have broken your hand!ā
You blinked your way out of the fuzzy feeling enveloping you and gave the most sensible response you could give.
āOh, that? That was a secret magus technique designed to accelerate the summoning process by 300%! ā¦As well as ensure our safety.ā
Yamanami furrowed his brows and tilted his head in confusion. ā¦Which was exactly the reaction you needed.
You rise to your feet and extend your other not-hurting hand to help him up, and you promptly elaborate on the well placed cliffhanger.
āYou seeā¦ The ground you walk on is much, MUCH more dangerous than you think! Iām sure youāve heard from the Throne, but mimics arenāt just chests or pianos, you know.ā
You cross your arms and chuckle.
āThey can also appear as a section of the floor! And in a room like this one, where magical energy tends to spike, a mimic could materialize here and be lying in wait! Thus it is especially important to occasionally punch the floor to smoke them out.ā
You hold out a hand to completeā¦whatever it is you think youāre doing.
āSee? There is a perfectly reasonable reason why I punched the floor. Heheā¦ My genius knows no bounds!ā
Yamanami gazed at you for but a moment, his purple eyes looking at you with what you assumed to be healthy skepticism. You donāt blame him since the whole mimic thing was absurd from the word go, but you were at least thankful that he didnāt shoot you down immediately after you stopped talking.
That small gap in time gave way to a chuckle on his end, which made you sigh in relief on the inside. You were by no means the most proficient liar, but you were bar none the best comedian when it came to disguising your shortcomings. It was a skill that you found yourself both blessed and cursed to have.
But right nowā¦ Well, you were just happy he was laughing at how much of a dingus you are instead of the alternative.
āMaster-san, youāre going to have to try harder than that to get me to believe such nonsense. But your paltry attempt asideā¦ā
Yamanami reaches for your still hurting hand and holds it in front of you, your heart slowing down when you feel his fingers interlock with yours. He takes his free hand and points his index finger at your hand.
āYou should be more careful with your hands, Master-san. Theyāre one of the most important things a person can have and if you donāt take care with them, you will lose them. So please, donāt punch any more floorsāor anything else for that matter. Okay?ā
He releases your hand and your state of being returns to its equilibrium. Youād say that it was like coming up for air after being submerged for a minute or two, but thatād be implying that the submersion in this scenario was a bad thing. Though it was for the best, after all. You canāt get down to business if youāre swimming in an ocean of warmth and fluffy feelings.
āRight, right. Iāll be careful, Yamanami-san. Nightingale would have my head if she found out I wasnāt taking my health seriously enough to get my hand destroyed anyways. So Iāll be sure to at least make sure I lose it for a reeeeeeally good and entirely unavoidable reason. Like saving my friends!ā
The topic at hand is way too serious for that, yāknow with the world ending and all. Even your goofy, chuuni way of being knew to take the backseat when that stuff would be brought up. Hence why you gave a small smile and shrugged.
āBut thatās enough humor from me. Iāve delayed your orientation for long enough, and I bet youāre deadly curious as to how things really are, apocalypse notwithstanding.ā
He nods and you continue.
āā¦Right, then. Youāre not the first person Iāve had this conversation with, and you certainly wonāt be the last. That being said, due to recent eventsā¦ Iāve found it easier to talk about this kind of stuff in the garden. Sci-fi aesthetics canāt beat nature when it comes to comfort, yāknow?ā
Yamanami noticeably lit up the moment you mentioned the garden. You could tell that he was holding back a sort of excitement from the way he tried to recover from showing his interest by suddenly looking away and playing it cool after his eyes widened and jaw dropped a little. Maybe he was an avid gardener back in the day or maybe he really likes nature. Whatever the case, you were happy that he was happy.
Because it was going to make this next conversation so much easier.
You gesture with your hand for him to follow you and you both head to the door. You had reached for the handle but your hand bumped into something on the way there. You looked to the side to see him somewhat sheepishly staring at you, before you could theorize as to why, he spoke softly.
āAh, Master-sanā¦ Allow me.ā
You stepped aside and Yamanami opened the door and gestured for you to go first. Which you took him up on. Standing outside the door, you decided to clarify where exactly it was you were going.
āSoā¦ Itās not that far. We just have to cut through the Command Room, head to the eastern lobby, and itāll be the first right turn in the hall. Donāt let the lack of distance fool you, itās not your typical backyard greenhouseāthatās a separate room, actuallyābut itās way bigger. Much bigger than what most people think.ā
You both start walking side by side. To illustrate your point, you positioned your hands to be a moderate distance parallel to each other.
āSee, if this space between my hands represents what youāre imaginingā¦ā
You then increase the distance by spreading your arms out, the position forcing you to essentially strafe as you conversed.
āThen this is what it actually looks like. Itās what you think timesā¦ Um, a kajillion basically. Itās so big that there isnāt really a way to quantify that off the top of my head. Iām sure Sion could tell you the actual square-footage of the room herself andāoh! Sion is from the Atlas Academy. Theyāre the folks hosting us afterā¦ Well, Iāll get to that later. But the point is, the gardenās awesome and I really think youāll like it!ā
You rotated yourself back into a more normal way of walking and put your hands into your pockets, Yamanami shaking his head with a small smile.
āWell, considering what you attempted to dupe me into believing, I think Iāll reserve my judgement until we get there.ā
You scoff indignantly.
āāDupe?ā I didnāt attempt to ādupeā anything. I was being 100% serious! 300 mages a year get harmed physically and emotionally by floor mimics. Itās a very serious phenomenoāH-Hey quit laughing!ā
Yamanami had his hand over his mouth and you could see his shoulders trembling, in essence he was very clearly trying to hide the fact that he was getting a kick out of this.
āMaster-san. Itās okay to admit that you punched the floor for no reason. You donāt have to make up such tall tales to hide it. Itās quite fine, I wonāt think less of you for it!ā
He says as he struggles to hold back laughter, presumably stemming from the fact that he just realized that his master is a nutcase who punches floors. Stillā¦ Not as bad as it could be. Introductions have gone worse in the past and you can only thank your lucky stars that they found you somehow endearing enough to stick around back then.
Youāre not the right person for this job. You never have been and you donāt think you ever will be. But that doesnāt necessarily mean that you have to give up and let the world end. It just meant that you had to rise to the occasion and change a few things. You knowā¦ Like a hero does in their titular Heroās Journey. Change from zero is what itās all about, right? Otherwise the journey wouldnāt be nearly as satisfying.
You shake your head free from reminiscing about what you used to be. Thatās in the past now, and the only thing youāve got to be worrying about now is the present. And that present is walking down a few blanche halls to reach your destination, a garden. You keep your head up high and continue the fight to preserve your already lost honor, trying hard to not paint your daydreams on the blanks around you.
This isnāt your first conversation, and it wonāt be your last. And judging by what your favorite group of peacekeepers said, it wonāt be that bad.
So relax, youāll do fine.
Endnote: Happy anniversary to my very first fanfiction! *Insert Confetti and Noisemakers Here* I had this planned for a while now but I uhā¦ I fumbled the date. I thought this was on December 20th not today so that was what I alluded to in my response to last ask. So, umā¦Whoops? Another thing is that I had planned to get Chapter 2 out so that we can all be caught up but school has been kicking my ass, so no dice. But! I have a good portion of it done, so weāre not completely toasted yet!
And thanks to what I mentioned previously, Iām probably going to be MIA until my classes end next month and Iāll finally get free time. But please know that I am not dead and I will not abandon ye. I have three blorbos and at least 30 people to feed (one being me) so I will not back down yet!
In Redline news, I can safely say that my suffering Has Ended, I have Castoria now and I got her with 10 tickets and 2 10 pulls. So now I can start really saving for Johanna and Takagsugi before saving again for Nagakura and trying my hand at Draco before him. Thanks to the lotto that Iāve thankfully gotten done with a while ago in terms of apples, I got enough proofs to max out Sannanās skills so yaaayā¦ Iām in QP hell though thanks to spending it all on maxing out my Hajime-chanās command cards with just his quick card left. I just need some more QP and heāll be done in terms of stats. Oh, I got him to level 114 thanks to the influx of Hellfires recently.
But thatās just me. Iām really tired, so Iāll be signing off. Have a good night everyone and see you later!
HI IM STUPID I DIDNT READ THE ENTIRE THING CORRECTLY SKDHDK please ignore my yamanami request I'm so sorry!
No, no, youāre good! I may not be taking requests right but that mostly means that Iām just cryogenically freezing any asks that I DO receive and saving them for later. So I will be answering that once I get my to-do list cleared out and school stops kicking my ass. Your ask is very much appreciated and much like an object of obsession, itās stored in the basement~ I was already planning on writing Yandere-nami Keisuke in the future and I do have a very firm idea of what that looks like, so it is definitely happening, donāt you worry.
But yeah, I appreciate the request and I am glad that your on my wavelength because Sannan is a really interesting dude who has a lot of potential, I just need to write to get everyone to see the vision. Him and Micheal gouge my heart out, lemme tell ya.
Anywho, I hope you have a great day and please wait warmly. Until next time!
Hereās a KÅnstantĆ®nos XI and Johanna as Suga and Shiori from The Forest of Drizzling Rain! ā¦That I completely forgot the circumstances of drawing. Nonetheless, I hope you all have a great Halloween!
Foreword: Soā¦ The Romance Headcanons are fighting me along with a Big Thing I want to write concerning Mehmed, so thatās Greatā¢. Plus my inspiration is waning, Even Betterā¢. Soā¦do forgive me for going a biiiiiit out of order and adding an addendum to Mehmed IIās GHC while I sort those three things out.
One may think that Mehmed II would be more than happy to try and conquer another planet, but in actuality he couldnāt care less about whatās beyond the stratosphere. Not to say he doesnāt find space interesting or anything, but everything he dreamed of having in life was right here on earth. You canāt conquer Europe on Mars because there is nothing like Europe on Mars. No history, no human civilization, no culture, no nothingājust flat land for miles and miles, waiting for someone to live there. It doesnāt feel the same and it doesnāt feel earned either. So what if he just landed on another planet and stuck a flag in the ground and called it his? Thatās not conquering. Thatās claiming and itās lame! Now conquering Europe on the other handā¦ Thatās awesome. The strife of fighting country after country as well as keeping his own together and thriving is some tough shit to manage, which to his credit he did pull off in his lifetime, but on a scale bigger than that? Tough doesnāt even begin to describe it, but if and when he does pull it off in this hypothetical, then heād feel like he was on top of the world. And rightfully so! The amount of work that had to go into just conquering Europe wouldāve been insane and this achievement would, if I am not mistaken, pretty much outshine his predecessors and successors achievements. But then you look at planets like Mars and, well, heād just say āehā to that. Really, the only scenario where Mehmed II would go and āconquerā a planet would be if he really needed to.
Masters who arenāt exactlyā¦the most forceful in imposing their will or lack the strength to keep their servants under control will find the sultan to be a big help. Heās got plenty of experience getting people together under his banner to get shit done and he can be pretty terrifying when he needs to be to keep people in line. And if that doesnāt workā¦ Well, Mehmed has never been afraid to get his hands dirty nor was he the type to hide such a thing anyways. This is all cool and good on paper, but there is something youād need to be wary of. Mehmed II has always been an opportunist and that hasnāt changed one bit since he died. Which is why I strongly advise that you make sure you learn to put your foot down sometime and you find some way to keep him in check. Lest he take your role from you and start calling the shots on his own without your input while framing himself as your mouthpiece still. Some servants will be fooled and some wonāt, but the fact of the matter is that itās generally a better idea to not let this happen in the first place. Vlad III, Constantine XI, Martha and Astraea are good servants to make sure he doesnāt pull anything, but the best solution is to improve yourself since the Mehmed does enjoy self improvement a teeny tiny bit more than power. Just a tiny bit though.
Mehmed IIās music taste is indescribable. Not because the genres are so obscure and experimental that they donāt even have names yet, he just listens to everything from everywhere. Putting his library on shuffle is definitely an Experienceā¢ because you never know what the next song is going to be like. You could start off with a 50s swing classic like Istanbul (Not Constantinople) by The Four Lads and the next song could be a Finnish Rockabilly song like Vaeltaja by PƤƤestiintyjƤt with next being a Russian Phonk song like Dead Inside by Š°Š“Š»ŠøŠ½ and by the end of it, youāll somehow end up finding at least five new songs that were way outside of your music taste that you could get behind. Thatās just how big and varied it is, so there isnāt much out there that he can say he doesnāt like. Justā¦ keep some of Sabbatonās songs and the like off the stereo and you wonāt end up with it mysteriously breaking when youāre not looking.
If you are the kind of master who is afraid or grossed out by insects and need assistance in removing them from your area to feel peaceā¦ Then Mehmed is one of the very last people you should think of calling for aid. Donāt get me wrong, he will provide you succor when you ask. But the way he does it is fucking awful. He will pick the thing up with his bare hands and quickly close the distance between the two of you to show you why thereās nothing to be afraid of. The thingās thrashing about between his fingers, potentially screaming too, and heās attempting to hand it over to you whilst rattling off about how itās virtually harmless. Heāll eventually set you and the bug free by placing the damn thing outside or murdering it and throwing it away if he canāt, but do be prepared for this same song and dance the next time you ask. Why? One: itās for your own good and growth as a person, two: he finds your terrified expression to be very interesting and kinda funny at the same time. The only way you could get him to stop is if you faint, thatās when heāll wise up to the fact that youāre definitely not messing around and heāll apologize.
Speaking of fears, while Mehmed would rather die than admit that heās afraid of something, he does have two fears. Vlad III andā¦flying. It makes sense that the only other thing heād be afraid of in his second life would be something that heād never have the chance of experiencing the first time around. He can look over a cliff just fine and not feel anything, he can walk on a tightrope high off the ground without breaking a sweat, but being in an airplane? Thatās where he draws the line. Thereās something incredibly unnerving to him about not being connected to the ground in any way shape or form and the more he thinks on it, the more terrifying it becomes for him. He canāt seem to logic his way out of being afraid and he absolutely hates it. Hence while on an aircraft youāll find that heās not chatting your ear off like usual, heās just sitting there reading. A keen eyed master will note that heās white knuckling the book in his hands and isnāt turning the page as often as usual. While he would never outwardly clue anyone in onto how heās doing, if you are closer to him than most then heāll reach for your hand to hold as he reads. Thatās the most youāll get in terms of a signal that heās scared, so be sure not to take that lightly when it happens. He wouldnāt forgive you for teasing him on this.
If you somehow manage to summon his older self from during the late stage of his life (he died at 49) then you will find yourself regretting it immediately. They will not stop bickering and they will drag you into their arguments to settle it for them since neither will back down. A whole twenty year gap is a lot of time to change and grow as a person, which leaves both Mehmeds cringing very hard at the other. The younger one thinks that the older one has given up on living for himself and has resigned himself to being trapped in his duties to never find joy outside of it ever again. While the older one thinks that his younger self is being too selfish and that there is no greater honor nor joy than serving the people and nurturing the empire. Needless to say, youāll be hearing a lot of āyou sound just like our fatherā and āyou know nothing about what it means to have responsibility of this magnitude.ā They both think that theyāre the superior one and that you should desummon the other. The only thing theyāll work together on is getting Chaldea to make more rules and enforce them accordingly since his straitlaced mindset towards crime hasnāt changed a bit across his lifetime. Speaking ofā¦
If a master lacks any proper judges like Gramps or Astraea, then the sultan will not only be a decent pick, but heāll be more than happy to do it. Heāll be glad that youāre taking steps to improve the system and heāll promise to do his utmost with the position that heās been given. And he does just that, and really well too! ā¦Too well, actually. Heās a decent pick because he gets the job done, but the way he goes about it is the problem. See, Mehmed believes that a crime must be punished accordingly no matter the motive. Now, the word accordingly can have different meanings in this regard, but Mehmed tends to lean towards the more ruthless end of the spectrum. Meaning that, while random incidents involving stolen grails and general disturbances have decreased significantly, the atmosphere in Chaldea has become much darker as a result. So, really, itās recommended that you only go through with this idea if things are getting out of your control. ā¦And if you donāt mind some people going missing, of course.
Endnote: And thatās that! Addendums are nice because I can make them short without feeling too bad, hehe.
Whew. My plans are to get his RHCs done and work on the Big Thing Iāve been planning for him for a while now. Anyone whoās been on this blog long enough may already have an idea as to what that is, but Iām keeping it under wraps for now. If the writing process for the latter gets to be troublesome, I might put that on the back burner and tie up a loose end for Constantine. That beingā¦ The multiple endings of āWhat It Means to Protect You.ā Ah, thought I forgot, didnāt you? I have not! I have an outline for it, but I need to write down the baseline context before writing the endings themselves plus I suck ass at writing the beginnings to things. Maybe I should take Featherineās advice and write the whole thing backwardsā¦ But those are my plans! Once I get Mehmed sorted out, then Iāll get Sannan the love he deserves and then I can finally declare that my portfolio is finished and I can confidently open my requests. Speaking ofā¦
To the person who sent me a request in my inbox, I regret to inform you that requests are not open. So youāre going to have to wait until I finish with all that schtuff first. Itās a good request, but the rules are the rules. But do not worry! I have it safely stowed away and cryogenically frozen until the day comes.
Anywho, in Redline news, I got Romulus! I had to fight tooth and nail to get him, speedrunning rank ups and interludes to claw my way to him with a singular pull. It was awful, but worth it. I even got NP2 Caenis out of my endeavors as well as well. So now I can have two Roma supports (Nero Bride and Constantine) and have Romulus blow everything up to high hell and back! Before that I had incurred a bit of gacha salt with being unable to get Odysseus, but I will be awaiting spooks with open arms and potentially using that 5 star ticket JP got recently if need be when it rolls around. But for now, Iāll be saving for Johanna and if I survive that, then Takasugi next. I donāt think Iāll be able to save enough for any of Lostbelt 7ās servants, much to my chagrin. But theyāll come around again after that.
But thatās all from me, I hope you enjoyed and Iāll be seeing you all later.
Foreword: Soooā¦ This may seem a tad bit jarring. However! I implore anyone who is unsure to please give this a chance. Think of this as just adding a new texture to the cube weāre rotating in our minds. Itāll be a solid thought exercise and itāll add a new dimension to Constantineās character. Why do I say this? Well. This list of headcanons isnāt framed as though Micheal just up and went yandere one day or that this is a brand new universe where he just is one. Nope. I shall describe how Constantine becomes a monster and then weāll branch off into a moreā¦guide-esque list of things to know, like the Romance Headcanons. I think thatād be much more interesting than the alternatives.
Hehe, if the RHCs were the guide to getting his route and the CHCs being the true ending, then this is definitely the bad ending. Perhaps the worst ending, even.
Convinced? Iād hope so! But I should mention, that since these are yandere headcanonsā¦ Gore, drugging, kidnapping, abuse, references to suicide, and obsessive behavior are on the ticket in terms of warnings. So if you are not comfortable, please exit and perhaps peruse my other headcanons if you feel so inclined. I have made a lilā masterlist in my pinned post for my other written works for the sake of convenience.
I would also like to state that I do not condone any of this behavior and this is purely for entertainment and fanfiction reasons.
That being said, I hope you all enjoy.
How The Hell Did This Happen?
There is a specific kind of master who would drive our friend here off the deep end simply by following their heart. That very specific kind of master would be none other thanā¦a hero of justice. The type of individual who values the lives of others more than their own and will stop at nothing to save everybody, that is the master who would end up with this version of Constantine unintentionally.
Constantine, after losing everything a very long time ago, has but only one thing to live for and that is none other than you. You are the most important person in his life right now, not only because he needs you to stay materialized, but because of what you represent. You are one of the last humans on earth, you are the one whoās going to save the world and humanityās future. You are, in no uncertain terms, proof that there is hope in this paper white nightmare. If Constantine can help you achieve your goal, then maybeā¦just maybe his people, his familyāGod even, can forgive him for what he did all those centuries ago. Itās a selfish reason to put in his a-game and he knows it, but you donāt have to know that. You donāt have to know that heās using his newfound contract with you to obtain forgiveness for his sins. But fear not. As time moves forward and he gets to know you, he realizes that his initial reasoning has been outshined by a fondness for his master and a desire to see you wellāto see you happy, and such affections are what twist the knife when it comes to your way of being.
Your heroic personality, while coming from a good place, is something that often leads to you getting injured. Almost to the brink of death at times. And try as he may to prevent it, you just canāt help yourself but tackle one of your servants out of the way when the āneedā arises. Heās been on the receiving end of one of your rushes more times than he can count and he feels just as terrible and confused as the first time it happened. He just doesnāt get it. Why is someone as normal and weak as you on the frontlines putting in their everything when you have such powerful servants to fight for you? Why are you trying so hard to protect them when itās you whoās liable to die if the wind so much as blows the wrong way? Why are you denying him his purposeāhis chance at forgiveness and throwing it right back in his face by letting yourself get hurt like this? He doesnāt understand it. Fuck, the more time he spends with you on the field the less he thinks he understands you as a person.
Eventually, heāll get so sick of having to practically carry your limp form to the infirmary all the time that heāll grip you by the shoulders one day before you go out and sternly tell you to stay behind him or there will be consequences. This is the most bold and stern heās ever been with you since his summoning, so you bet your ass that heās not playing around this time. Now knowing āyou,ā youāre probably going to at least give the idea the good old college try before saying fuck it and reverting back to your old ways. We wouldnāt be able to continue otherwise.
This is the starting incident, this is what you can point to later on and say āAh, so thatās where it all went wrong.ā Granted, this is not the point of no return. You still have time to get out and back onto the right track. Just know that Constantine wonāt be letting you pull this kind of shit as freely as you used to and so long as you genuinely try to get better, then this scenario will not come to pass.
But getting better is not what weāre here for, so letās talk about what happens after this incident. After youāre taken care of, Micheal heads back to his room to ruminate on things. He starts asking himself the real questions like: āWhy are you like this? What happened to you to make you think that this is okay? Is he the problem? Is he not doing enough? Do you not think he or anyone else is capable of protecting you?ā So on and so forth until he gets tired and decides to sleep on it.
The next day is when he pulls you aside to have a serious conversation addressing three of those questions. Depending on the master, the answers could be any number of things. You could be someone who lost their loved ones and are coping with the survivorās guilt by throwing yourself in front of anybody you can find to assuage your guilt. You could be someone who never had a family or friends to begin with and found that love here at Chaldea which prompted you to hold every last person here as close to your chest as you can in fear of losing that warmth. Maybe you were raised by someone with such values and this is the only way you know how to do things, leaving you unable to fathom the idea of being saved. Or maybeā¦ Maybe youāre using this āhero of justiceā thing to obfuscate your true intentions. Maybe you just want to die but donāt have the heart to do it yourself or be held responsible for it, so you play up the guise of a self sacrificing hero to accomplish that goal without taking any of the blame. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
Whether you disclose your reasoning or not is, ultimately, irrelevant for this scenario. Itād be heartwarming for you both to have a moment here and for him to allude to his own struggles to help you feel like youāre not alone. To tell you that you have him at your side and while he may not either know or completely understand what youāre going through, heās here for you and heās struggling alongside you all the same. Heās here when you need him, in any capacity that you need him. That would be such a nice ending, wouldnāt it? Dare I say itād make for an excellent longfic. ā¦But thatās not what weāre here for. So, letās take whatever moment you did or did not have and forget it because it doesnāt matter. Youāre not going to change, and thatās what pulls us forward.
Time passes and Constantine can only find himself helplessly watching you slowly whittle yourself away. After the inciting conversation, he had tried several times after to talk to you and to get you to see his everyone elseās perspective. He tries telling you about how much it hurts him others to watch you get hurt like this all the time. How he everyone is constantly worried about you and heās theyāre terrified of the day that youāll crumble in on yourself. Notice how he never directly tells you about his own feelings, he frames all of his statements as coming from everyone else with the barest implication that he feels the same. This isnāt the Confession Headcanons scenario where he wants to be a more honest person, Micheal still has his head up his ass and refuses to let you see the true extent of how much youāre hurting him. The man himself doesnāt see anything wrong with this, but you with your lacking knowledge of the manās inner workings donāt see the why behind it. Instead it comes off as him being self-righteous and lecturing you about something he seemingly doesnāt care for considering how he never references himself. It looks like heās talking out of his ass about shit he knows nothing about and is nagging you for the sake of nagging you. A more keen eyed master would call him out for being a hypocrite since he does the same thing that you do but for some reason believes himself to be in the right since heās a servant and that this is his job. With such harsh words and misunderstandings, the friendship between you two is beginning to strain. But with Constantineās attachment to you as a person and his original ulterior motive, he isnāt giving up on you just yet.
If he canāt get you to change of your own volition, then heāll just have to change you himself. This is where the yandere part begins coming to fruition, though it should be noted that this all started with good intentions. The plan was to get you to realize that itās not a bad thing to rely on others by forcing you to accept his assistance. Once heās gotten you to realize that itās not only okay to allow it but that it can also feel good to have that weight lifted off your shoulders itāll, in turn, warm you up to letting your servants and himself protect you, thus minimizing the amount of injuries you receive on sorties. Like I said, good intentions.
But the proverbial snowball has already started rolling downhill, gaining mass and speed. While this is not the point of no return, if things donāt change substantially on your end then you can kiss the true ending goodbye. That being said, letās continue as though such improvements never happened.
His plan starts off small. He waits for you outside your room in the morning one day and walks with you to the cafeteria to eat breakfast. You grab your tray and he grabs his, the two of you walking over to get your respective meals. Normally you two would've split off, but today is different. Constantine walks with you to wherever youāre going and just when youāre about to reach for what you want, Micheal beats you to the punch and puts it on your plate. He does this for every item and upon questioning, he simply smiles and tells you that he just felt like it.
Slowly but surely, Constantine starts doing things for you. He was already helping you out before with small things like holding the door for you or helping you carry things, but itās never been thisā¦invasive. Thanks to the time you two have spent together, Micheal has a decent grip on being able to predict your next move or what youād want. Heās not nearly as observant or looking nearly as hard at you as a certain sultan does, but itās enough for his little plan to function in the beginning.
But as time goes on and you remain unchanged, still tactlessly throwing yourself to the wolves, Constantine ups his game a bit more. He slowly starts encroaching into your routine, popping up out of the blue to assist you with things you never once asked for help for. Thus you see him much more often than ever before and he learns more about you, your strained friendship seemingly starting to heal in your eyes with how kind Constantine is being. What you donāt realize is that youāre slowly being boiled like the frog youāve heard so much about in that one analogy. This isnāt healing, this is something twisted and itās slowly encircling you.
On Constantineās end, heās surprisingly having a great time. While he didnāt think that itād be a chore to pull this off, he also didnāt think that heād be enjoying himself as much as he is either. Thereās something about getting you food everyday, helping you fold and hang up your clothes, and walking you to places that stirs something within his heart. It makes him feel warm and fulfilled but try as he might, he just canāt put a name to it. But I can, and the word heās purposefully ignoringābecause that would mean admitting that he has a problemāis domesticity. Thereās an inherent domestic quality to those actions and it scratches the itch heās had for decades, his desire for a family. If he doesnāt see you as the spouse he misses dearly, then heāll see you as the child he never got to have.
His chance at being a husband and a father were ripped from him twice over, and to add salt onto the wound his best friend got his own family with none of the agony that Constantine had to go through. Heād sit there burying his fingernails into his palms in envy as George would talk on and on in glee about his wife and his kids, unknowingly rubbing Constantineās loss in his face. But donāt get it twisted, Constantine did feel happy for George and was all around thankful that his best friend didnāt have to lose anything, hell, he was even the godfather to Georgeās kids and pitched in to take care of them when he could. But there was an underlying envy all the same and now that heās getting the domesticity heās been dreaming of, Constantine canāt help but want more.
So he takes it.
The word encroaching no longer suits his actions as heās practically inserting himself into your routine so thoroughly to the point where every part of your schedule involves him in some capacity. At this point, youāve probably already gotten used to Constantine constantly being around you, so you barely notice his increased presence. This is no longer about helping you learn to accept aid from others, this is now an attack on your independence. The sweet allure of having, in an entirely roundabout way, the life he could only dream of has made him selfish. Constantineās new objective is to make you dependent on him for nearly everything. This way heāll always have a place by your side and heāll never be pushed aside in favor of something or someone else. Heāll take care of you, just like any husband or father would do and youāll always be loved by him. Youāll never want for anything ever again because youāll have Constantine and thatāll be all youāll need, plus heās sure that youāre all he needs too. So youāll never have to worry about being replaced. This is his twisted idea of a domestic life that no one can take from him, a domestic life thatās for him and him alone. A nice āhappy endingā that was long overdue, but was achieved through forcing you to be dependent on him for everything and suffocating you with his presence. How sad what Constantine has become and what heās turned you into.
What Kind of Yandere is He?
What I would first like to reiterate and clearly state for the people in the back is that Yandere!Constantine is entirely preventable. This is not the inevitable conclusion to his character in relation to you but rather a direct result of your actions or lack thereof. The consequencesāthe quencies even, to your actions if you will.
That being said, Constantine XI as a yandere is not one of the worst to have but definitely not the best. Youād live pretty comfortablyā¦to an extent. Your personal freedom, independence and free time have all been commandeered by Micheal but at least youāre not locked in the basement or dealing with broken bones. On the bright side, at least you donāt have to put much effort into anything thanks to Constantineās suffocating presence. So lazy masters can rejoice at only having to put only half of the work into things. Plus, with the way he goes about changing your life, you might not even notice it in the first place! So, uh, take those wins where you can get them.
As for what he is as a yandereā¦ Well, for the sake of having a direction, Iāll state the archetype heād fit under and elaborate further. Heās the overprotective-possessive type of yandere who starts off not that bad but has the potential to get so, so much worse. Letās start with the first half of that statement.
Constantine before this scenario was already a protective man, itās practically baked into his Spirit Origin for crying out loud, but itās cranked up to an eleven here. The way that he sees things and other people has been twisted by his decline in sanity thanks to none other than you. He hurts so bad when you push him out of the way to take a hit that was meant for him and the repetition of this happening along with the fact that heās consistently failing to protect you is what got the ball rolling in the first place. So. In an effort to prevent that scenario from happening, Constantine has gotten much more brutal in battle. He always had an air of class and elegance in his fighting style that befit his title of Roman Emperor, but now? Now heās fighting like heās going to die in five minutes and is trying to take as many people as he can down with him. He also talks significantly less as a result of this change, only breaking his silence to bark orders or check to see if everyoneās okay. If anyone comes up to him after the dust settles and asks whatās up with him than heāll āsheepishlyā apologize and state that heās just taking things more seriously now, so donāt take it too personal, ākay? ā¦This shift, as time goes on, will also apply outside of battle but not in the way that youād think.
Let me give an example to illustrate. Say Constantine was heading to your room to get you something you forgot and in there he findsā¦oh, I dunno, Kiyohime? Really, any person whoās in your room when theyāre not supposed to be works... But anyways, he finds her and in the event that she doesnāt leave when he asks her toā¦ Well thatās when things get ugly. Instead of gently dragging her out or calling for aid like heād normally do, Constantine immediately engages her. And the resulting fight is a mess with Micheal not holding anything back and Kiyohime presumably doing the same. The battle will only end if Kiyohime flees, Constantine gets his ass beat, or a third party ends it for them. If an outsider were to watch the scene unfold, theyād think Constantine was really trying to kill her.
His brutality on the battlefield has leaked into his time off it with the way he treats everyone in relation to you. Bad influences, dangerous people, nosy and peeping tomsāthey all get the axe equally, which would make one question if he really sees his fellow servants as allies or not. ā¦Which they arenāt, of course. Theyāre either problems he has to ācorrectā on a daily basis or your subordinates who he fights with occasionally. They pale in comparison to you, the unfortunate subject of his obsession with the life he never got to have. This dehumanization is something that comes slowly and the man himself doesnāt quite realize how heās drifted off from his friends and acquaintances. But thatās fine. He has you and he only needs you, likewise that you have him and need only him, right?
Sooner or later, Constantineās usual paranoia regarding the fact that you might die soon will have morphed into a general distrust for anyone that isnāt himself or you, and that manifests in several different ways but namelyā¦
Possessiveness. There are quite a few servants who boldly proclaim their undying love for you and it makes him sick with jealousy. How dare these people who barely know you act like theyāre a better fit for you than him? Heās your protector, your wall and the one you cling onto at all times when youāre in distress. The only person who is allowed to have you is him because he earned it and you prefer him over everyone else anyways, right? ā¦Right?
While anyone could be the source of the green in his eyes, there is one servant who he constantly curses because they are for you what he is not. And that servant is none other than your kouhai, Mash. She is your first servant, your closest friend and has been with you since the very beginning. Your tight bond with Mash and the implicit trust that comes with it far outshines what he had with you in the beginning and has with you now. Even if everyone else in your life despises you or you despise everyone else (which heād like very much), there will always be a spot for Mash. Mash will always be there for you and the profound impact sheās had on you cannot be understated. Bad as that is, he also envies her for her class and what that class represents.
Shielder. The physical embodiment of protection, the ultimate bulwark and the class that specializes solely in defense. That class should be his and yet here Constantine is as a Rider. His final years on earth were devoted solely to saving Rome and he put his everythingāblood, sweat, and tears into it. Yes, he did fail in the end but that shouldnāt disqualify him from being one! ā¦Itās not fair. Itās not fair that Mash was handed this class on a silver platter (not true) for doing nothing (very not true) while heās stuck as a Rider for doing everything he could and failing!
Needless to say that Constantine, despite knowing deep down that itās not possible, will be trying to drive a wedge in between you two and his deep envy for Mash is making him less subtle about it. Heās visibly stiff and passive aggressive around her, not even sparing your kouhai a glance. The tension in the room could only be cut with a saw due to the difference in how softly he treats you versus Mash. Itās awkward for everyone involved and Micheal hopes that this awkwardness is enough to get you to give up on her. He is all the protection you could ever need, just look at his Noble Phantasm. How many servants do you know who can break through it? Not that many.
There is also something to be said about how his usual denial is doing in this scenario. See, not once did the thought that Constantine may be hurting you or making you worse ever cross his mind. Constantineās actions come from a genuine place of love and care, a desire to see you happy and well. That has not changed and will never ever change. Seriously. He loves you to an extremely unhealthy degree and cannot imagine being without you or hurting you. ā¦That being said, he doesnāt think himself to be the bad guy in this scenario. Heās so deeply entrenched in the euphoria of having a spouse again or a child that his morality and conscience were eroded in record time. This ādomesticityā has made his denial so bad that nothing he does to you is a bad thing and is beneficial for you in his mind. Constantine is a good man, always has been and always will be. Forgiveness? For what, he canāt quite recall. Though that word does invoke a rather strong sense of melancholy for reasons that our friend here doesnāt care enough to look further into. He has you, and thatās better than any forgiveness he could receive from anybody.
What is Expected?
Since there is a section ahead specifically addressing the romantic aspects of this scenario, Iāll be focusing on the more general ones here since Constantine as a yandere can be platonic.
Letās start off by listing what we do know so far. Heās virtually glued to your hip, heās coddling you to high hell and back with how heās barely letting you do anything yourself, heās low-key menacing people away from you, and heās mauling anything that even remotely threatens your safety or his bond with you. Thatāsā¦well, it could be worse. No basement and all that, but again itās not that good either.
The more time that passes, the more Constantineās stuff ends up in your room. Like, heāll give you a blanket, youāll take it back to your room and when you give it back heāll just tell you to keep it so you wonāt be cold. Then heāll be chilling in your room another day playing chess with you and when you pack up the board and hand it to him, heāll just tell you to keep it there since youāre his chess partner and itāll be more convenient in the future. Constantine frames this as him helping you, which he does truly believe, but really itās just his subtle way of telling anyone entering your room that heās the one with the privileges and his spot is right next to you and there is nothing they can do about it. You and him are really, really close is the message that he wants to send.
Itāll get to a point where your room consists of 50% or more of Constantineās stuff. An outsider could easily mistake you two for roommates because of how natural it looks. Not only that, heāll also start being in there more than in his own room and the sleeping bag on the floor proves it.
Now, while I have been saying that Micheal is with you all the time, he does have the inherent decency to respect your personal space and wishes as long as they donāt involve him being too far away from you. You could ask him to face away from you and not look at you, heāll comply. You could ask him to hide under the bed to at least give you the illusion that youāre alone and heāll comply. You could hide in the closet or the bathroom and so long as he knows youāre in there, he wonāt bother you. ā¦At least until you need to eat or do stuff and even then he wonāt be sour about it.
The sleeping bag also proves that he respects your space because, while he never asked to sleep in your room, he never laid on your bed or even considered sleeping in it in the first place. He just assumed that you wouldnāt want him there. Now, if you offer it to him and say that youāll sleep on the floor instead, heāll deny you immediately. He says that heās accustomed to sleeping on hard surfaces, as any military official should, and that the bed is better for you. Now, if your bed isnāt bolted to the floor, then he wouldnāt mind getting a bunkbed if youāre really feeling guilty about him on the floor. Justā¦donāt call dibs on the bottom bunk. He doesnāt feel comfortable being so close to the ceiling.
In terms of being coddled, independent masters are going to be in hell. He feeds you your food, he helps you put your coat on in the morning, heāll cut you off when youāre halfway through writing a report and tells you to say what you were going to write next so he can write it for you, he insists on being the one to push the crosswalk button and heāll hold your hand as you both cross the streetāhell, this is a living hell for the self-sufficient because you are almost always going to be helped with something whether you like it or not. The first time you decline him, well heāll just think youāre being cute and heāll insist. The second is when he tells you that you donāt have to be shy, heās happy to help. The third is when he tells you that thereās no shame in accepting helpāugh, so on and so forth. Heāll just keep gently poking and prodding you to give in and accept his help, not a grain of anger in sight. Itās so unintentionally patronizing that youād almost want him to actually lash out at you so you donāt have to hear any more of his self-righteous cooing. And the worst part is that he genuinely believes that youāre just being super cute and shy about it. This isnāt an act, heās being sincere and heās loving every single second of this. This invasive and suffocating form of doting and care comes from a twisted mix of his Acts of Service love language and his desire for the domestic life that was stolen from him. After all, whatās more domestic than a father or a husband taking care of their loved one?
Iāve already gone into it in the previous section, but Iād like to add that Micheal is fully capable of murdering any of your servants and depending on whoās in your roster, heād probably get away with it. This is, of course, a last resort. For all his madness, Constantine is still himself. He takes no joy in harming others and it brings him pain. But, you and his continued bond with you is worth the lives of an innumerable amount of people in his eyes. So if there really is a substantial threat to that, then he isnāt going to hesitate in removing that person from the mortal plane. Easiest decision heās made, the weight of which will be lifted when he returns to your side once more.
Itād be comical how he destroys any slight threat to you if he wasnāt so utterly cold and ruthless about it. There is barely anything left of whatever tried to attack you, just a pool of blood and some chunks to indicate that there was, in fact, a pile of meat there. Itās a far cry from how he normally fights things and his usual āscaring away the hoesā vibe that normally goes unnoticed in Chaldea has intensified to a degree thatās on par with the atmospheric shift in the second section of āWhat it Means to Protect You.ā Itās THAT bad. To make things more unnerving, the moment he turns to look at you when the dust settles, heās back to his āusualā self and that aura has disappeared completely. Heās giving Okita a run for her money with how effortlessly he swaps from being Emperor Constantine XI back to your friend Micheal.
Now, if he detects that youāre starting to become afraid of him (and after seeing that who wouldnāt), then heāll tone it down as best as he can. The denial is strong, but not strong enough for him to not be aware of the fact that he might be scaring you. In that event, heāll gently grab you by the shoulders and swear to you that heāll never ever hurt you like that. Itās just for your enemies and your enemies alone. ā¦Whether this is a true statement or not ultimately depends on what the future holds.
How Do You Deal With Him?
This is surprisingly very easy. Just go along with it. You donāt have to love him back, you donāt have to coddle him in return, you just have to play along with his fantasy and youāll be fine. Erā¦ By you, I mean to say the people around you. See, Constantine will never attribute the fault to you and especially not to himself. Itās always something or someone elseās fault that anything bad happens. So. If youāre constantly acting out and trying to avoid him, itās 100% someone sabotaging him and manipulating you. And when he finds this person, theyāll either be afraid of interacting with you in any capacity beyond work or theyāll be dead by the end of the month. The worst part is that the āculpritā may not even exist and he just picks whoever has been pissing him off the most recently and applies the crime to them instead to have an excuse to get them out of his way. While denying that heās murdering someone for petty reasons, of course. Does it make sense? Absolutely not. Is is supposed to? Absolutely not. Weāre too far into the bad end route to be applying rationale to Michealās actions, heās not sane and his composure is an illusion to hide how volatile he really is. Thatās just the reality of this scenario.
So, as a general piece of advice, try not to hang out with the people you like the most because theyāll be one of the first on the chopping block when that scenario happens. Just roll with it and nobody has to get hurt or die. ā¦From your direct actions, at least. And a bit of rebellion isnāt that bad anyways since itās incredibly hard to piss him off for real. Like, youād have to know some incredibly deep cuts on Micheal to actually pierce through that thick rose tinted pane covering his eyes to make him angry. But even then itād just lead to him sulking in the corner for an hour before the denial kicks in and he just blocks out the memory of what you said to him. So you canāt even have that for yourself either.
What is the Best Case Scenario?
The best case scenario is just the two of you living out your lives together. Somehow, youāve managed to balance keeping your loved ones close enough to be in your life still but not too close as to warrant Constantine icing them while youāre sleeping. If you know Constantineās tells then you can ping when heās starting to feel jealous and pivot away from your pals in time to make the save. Our friend here will notice this and, while not directly expressing it, heās glad that youāre being considerate about his feelings. So do expect him to be softer afterwards, which before this one probably wouldnāt have thought it possible for him to get any softer than he is.
What is the Worst Case Scenario?
Oh-ho-ho-hoh! You canāt see me right now, but I am rubbing my hands sinisterly. I have been waiting for this and I hope to be able to properly convey just how terrible things can get with our boi.
Iāve stated from the very beginning that this is all your fault. You brought this onto yourself and you are now lying on the bed youāve made, absolutely none of this had to come into fruition. A 100% bonafide preventable tragedy. Howeverā¦ The one thing that ISNāT a direct result of your actions is the Worst Case Scenario. This Worst Case Scenario is caused by none other than the world around you and once it happens, there is no going back to the way things were. Youāll have well and truly lost the path to a better ending as you have reached the logical conclusion to Constantineās line of thinking.
The game has acknowledgedāto my knowledgeāvery subtly that time has a potential to be fucked. For example, Oberon has a summoning line for before LB6 is cleared, Qin Shi Huang has a line for before LB3 is cleared and so does Koyanskaya of Light for Tunguska Sanctuary. Now, why am I pointing this out? Well, in truth, the Worst Case Scenario doesnāt have to occur in Part 2. This could be reached as early as the 7th Singularity if heās there. So really, it could be anytime when it happens and thatās the scary part about this scenario. You have no idea when itās going to happen or how or why, itās just going to happen and there is nothing you can do to prevent it. So for the sake of putting you in the shoes of this poor soul, allow me to simply show a watered down play-by-play of an example and Iāll add my commentary after.
Yet another close victory for humanity with the fall of the sixth Lostbelt, but fate is nothing if not impatient. The alarm sounds and the next target is in Tunguska, Russia. Everyone, staff and servants alike, rush to the Command Room for answers. Before Da Vinci and Sion can brief everyone on the situation, they notice that someone is not among them. Usually, this person is one of the first to get here in times like these but for reasons unknown, they arenāt. Upon closer inspection, another person is also not among them as well.
Mash and a few others split off to go find them but they come up empty handed. The entire base is turned upside down, but no sign of either person is found anywhere, itās as though they both had vanished out of thin air. What they do find is in the room with the Klein Coffins, which before today was taped off for maintenance in accordance with renovations.
Itās a complete mess. Every control panel and screen was smashed into pieces with several Klein Coffins in an even worse condition than both. ā¦Save for two, of course. The light on the inside told everyone what they needed to know.
Two people ravaged the room and two people somehow rayshifted despite the systems being down for maintenance. No one quite wanted to believe it since it was soā¦out of character for either person. They wouldnāt just run off like this, would they?
Thus, in an effort to manifest a different answer, the loudspeaker rings out in the halls:
āāāāāāāā and KÅnstantĆ®nos XI report to the Command Room immediately. āāāāāāā and KÅnstantĆ®nos XI report to the Command Room immediately.ā
ā¦But no one arrives.
To find out where you and Constantine went, one need only look back several hours into the past.
You were in your room, going over what materials you were going to farm tomorrow for the new arrivals you had summoned. After finishing writing down that list, you walked over to the door to set out for a late-night snack. Upon opening it you see a familiar, yet surprised face.
āAh! Thank goodness youāre here. I was worried you were already asleep.ā
It was your close friend Constantine and he was looking out of breath. He was in his second ascension and carrying with him a satchel that reminded you of Nightingale. The look on his face wasā¦well, it was normal on him usually but something about it tonight was off. The small smile on his lips was something you saw often and felt comfort from, but now? Right here and right now, it was disconcerting. You brush it off and greet him as you usually did before attempting to move past him. He unexpectedly grips your forearm, not enough to hurt but enough to tell you to stay put.
āAhā¦ Master, Iām sorry to cut into your plans but miss Kyrielight has called a meeting in the Command Room for a mandatory training exercise. Apparently sheās worried sick about our performance concerning the previous campaign. Follow me.ā
He moves his grip from your forearm to your hand and starts speedily walking in that direction, dragging you with him. You didnāt question the sudden exercise, the way he practically had to spit out your kouhaiās name, or how pushy he was being. This was Constantine, after all. Heās one of the most trustable people in Chaldea, right up there with Mash.
Thanks to the time of day, that being the wee hours of the night, neither of you bumped into anyone and you both reached the Command Room and the adjacent room with the coffins.
He grabbed the handle and pulled the door back, taking several steps aside to do so. He gestures with his hand for you to enter first, like he always does.
The room would have been pitch black had it not been for the lights of the coffins and various pieces of technology dimly shining in the dark. This lack of light did well to obscure the yellow tape and sign on the floor that was removed only a few minutes before Constantine had met up with you, and you were none the wiser to the truth of the situation. The Rider behind you being the reason why your internal alarm bells have rusted over.
You walked in, expecting Mash to be hiding in here somewhere only to findā¦a sharp pain on the back of your head. Your knees buckle from the shock and pain of receiving such a blow, your limp body being caught mere moments after by a strong arm. You feel a pinch in your neck and just before your consciousness fades to black, you hear a familiar voice whisper.
āSleep well, Master. Iāll be here when you wake.ā
There it is! He did the thingāthe yandere thing! He actually fucking kidnapped you. Hehe, my excitement aside, letās get into what happened.
So. As weāre all aware, LB6 was the biggest shitshow to date. Thus, after having been put through the wringer himself, watching you run around like a chicken with its head missing after being separated from Mash and then getting put through the wringer yourself, Constantine had officially reached his limit with Chaldea.
In hindsight, heās not sure why he didnāt remove you from that horrible place earlier. Sure, it was basically your home and it had everyone you cared about, but is that really worth everything youāve had to go through? Is that really worth your life? Obviously not. Constantine knew that but decided to let you be anyways and heās drawing a blank as to why. What his tunnel vision is obscuring from him is that he had friends there too and he stayed there for them. Vlad III, his predecessors, Don Quixote and Sancho, Saint Martha, Jeanne, Saint George, Charlotte Cordayāall of the new friends heās made compelled him previously to stay.
ā¦But that changed upon the realization that the family he yearned to have was right in front of him the whole time. Slowly, people faded into the background and became as colorless and indistinct as the landscape outside. His time with his friends lessened and lessened until the only person heād seek out willingly was you. Everyone else was either a set piece, a necessary evil or just in the way of his time with you. Friends? What are you talking about? George isnāt here, Constantine has no friends. But he does have a family and that consists of youāas either his spouse or childāand himself. There is no one else present, theyāve been dead for centuries. But thatās okay! A family can be two people. He just has to make it work. Dedication is all it takes, after all.
So. You wake up a little bit woozy and the first thing you notice is that your dominant hand feels lighter than usual. Not a good start. When you lift that hand to inspect it, you are greeted with the horror that your dominant hand is missing and all thatās left is a bandaged stump. Now, missing hand aside, the key take away is that your Command Spells are now gone. Fan-fucking-tastic.
Before you could start panicking at the fact that youāre missing a hand, Constantine andā¦ Constantine? enter the room. The former practically bursting in and rushing to your side with the latter tagging along behind him in slight confusion. The former pulls you into a hug and tries to calm you down while the latter looks at you from his spot at the foot of the bed with an unreadable expression.
When you do calm down, your vision clears and you get a better understanding of whatās going on. The man thatās holding you has short black hair and that red armor youāre familiar with, plus heās talking to you in a very familiar manner and calling you āMasterā so you can deduce that heās your Constantine. The man at the foot of your bed has longer hair and is dressed in more comfortable yet regal clothes, he hasnāt spoken a word since he entered, so heās probably past Constantine. So. If there are two Constantineās in front of you, then that means that youāre in the 1400s. Judging by the fact that these two look exactly the same, save for the length of their hair, means that the year is somewhere close to the end of Constantineās life since the other one doesnāt look younger than your Constantine.
Thatās all the deduction you can get before your Constantine starts explaining things.
Whyās your hand missing? Your dominant hand was developing necrosis due to overuse of your Command Spells and Constantine had to amputate it to prevent you losing your whole arm.
Where are you? In Constantinople in 1449. He was told by Da Vinci and Sion to rayshift you as far away from Chaldea as he could get you because they were fending off a raid from the last Crypter, Daybit Sem Void.
Whoās that over there? His living self. He managed to convince him of his identity by answering some very personal questions and enlightening him about the future. Heās agreed to let the both of you chill here as long as Constantine pitches in with his knowledge of the future to send the Ottomans away.
Anyone whoās been paying attention will immediately know that Constantine told the truth in the first half of his second answer before lying through his teeth in the second half about why youāre here. His first answer has a grain of truth lodged in their with the poor condition of your hand but the necrosis part was a lie. The third answer is the whole and complete truth.
What really happened to your hand wasāand The man himself is too far gone to admit this to himself, let alone register that this was the real reasonāMicheal cut it off because he didnāt want you using Command Spells to boss him around or force him to kill himself in the event you realize that heās been lying to you. Thatās why, right after you were hit on the back of your head, Constantine pulled a syringe from that satchel he had with him and plunged it into your neck. That was anesthesia to null the pain for when heād amputate your hand. And for anyone whoās wondering, no, he didnāt saw it off. He had one of his phantoms (the ones you see in some of his attacks) hold your hand up and he took his sword to cut it off in a single strike. Cmonā he may be off the deep end, but Constantine at least has the decency to make it quick.
Anywaysā¦youāre basically trapped in the Great Palace of Constantinople with your servant, Constantine and his living counterpart. For the sake of clarity, our Rider friend will be lovingly referred to as Micheal until this section ends. Basicallyā¦not much has changed aside from the fact that youāre now on an indefinite vacation and your dominant hand is missing.
Constantine, when he has the time, summons you to his side and tries to get to know you. When Micheal first got here and had convinced his past self of his identity, he told Constantine that you are very, very important to him. Now, depending on how he sees you, Micheal will either refer to you as his spouse or his adopted child which intrigues Constantine. He basically wants to see whatās got his future self so enamored and after he spends a few months with you, he does see what Michealās getting at and is feeling similar but not nearly as twisted feelings. While not nearly as bad as his servant counterpart, Constantine is very protective of you. He did lose Caterina (his 2nd wife) and his unborn child seven years ago, so while the wound isnāt fresh, it still hurts. He also dotes on you in his own way which may seem like not much but itās the most he can do without attracting rumors.
Your room is the comfiest and least damaged, the servants and staff are ordered to treat you with the same amount of respect and attentiveness they would a foreign ambassador because of the fact that you are with Constantineās ābody doubleā Micheal, gifts with no name attached end up in your room at random times and a prosthetic for your missing hand is in the works. Not bad. While he does have to maintain a heavy amount of imperial decorum, Constantine does care a lot about you and makes sure to let you know that in the rare times he gets alone with you.
Now, you might be asking: āHey, wait a minute. Isnāt Micheal going to get jealous of Constantine like he does with everyone else?ā And the answer is surprisingly no. Micheal isnāt jealous of himself and Constantine likewise, theyāre both the same dude so in their minds thereās nothing to be worried about. Plus itās much more beneficial to have two rather than one.
So, in summaryā¦ Chaldea is in shambles trying to repair the other Klein Coffins to find you in time before Koyanskaya does her thing, Micheal kidnapped you to 1449 Constantinople and cut off your hand while you were out, you have two Constantineās doting on you with the living one being more stable and normal about you than the other, and finally Micheal and Constantine are working together to rewrite the future and save Constantinople from the Ottomans.
ā¦Welp, I hope you werenāt too attached to the modern era because your goose has a very high likelihood of being cooked. Have fun living in the 15th century! ā¦At least you wonāt have to read Tunguska.
Another iteration of the Worst Case Scenario, Worst Case Scenario B, could occur in the middle of a rayshift. Since Iāve already dropped the fact that he kidnaps you, there isnāt a need for a dramatic buildup this time. So Iāll make it quick.
Essentially, while you and the gang are camping out for the night, Micheal would wake you up late. Heād tell you that he found something and that you should check it out. Itās his shift for night watch, so thereās no one awake to see the two of you slip out and away from camp. Once you two get far away enough, thatās when he clocks you in the back of the head with the hilt of his sword and plunges the syringe in your neck. Truth be told, Micheal had been planning this for a while now but had put it off for reasons heā¦canāt quite recall. But whatever events have recently occurred flipped the switch in his head that Chaldea is not a safe place for you and the people there are going to get you killed. Hence the kidnapping.
You wake up and same shit: you find out that your hand is missing, Micheal rushes to comfort you and he lies to you. The big difference this time is that youāre not trapped in 15th century Byzantium, youāre trapped in his Noble Phantasm. Walls arenāt just for keeping people out, theyāre also for keeping people in. Buddy, youāre never leaving. Not on your own at least.
Thanks to the fact that his NP is basically a part of himself, Micheal has an acute awareness of where anything is inside of the walls. Meaning, that no matter where you are, you canāt hide from him. Thatās the only reason heās not glued to your side now, because now you two are completely alone and he knows exactly where you are. But hey, look on the bright side. In this iteration of the Worst Case Scenario, you have a much higher likelihood of being saved. So itās not all bad.
What Are The Warning Signs?
To reorient ourselves back into a less depressing scene, letās discuss how one can tell heās going yandere. Assuming that you arenāt a mind reader and Constantine hasnāt opened up to you at all, here are the warning signs for this route from āshallow end where you can bail quickā to āone foot in the basementā type signs.
Heās not completely there/is spacing out often:
This is before the inciting incident with him having a serious conversation with you and itās mainly him trying to troubleshoot whatās wrong with his actions in battle or your team comps.
Heās constantly lecturing you about not getting hurt and how much āeveryone elseā hates to see it:
Post-inciting incident, itās just him begging you in an unclear roundabout way to stop. Donāt mistake it for self righteous nagging, heās just being stupid about not communicating his feelings. Typical Micheal.
Heās much more brutal in battle/doesnāt talk much in battle:
Already gone over this, but you should know that fights are ending much faster thanks to Constantineās shift. Although, this has the unintended side effect of your other servants and himself getting hurt more often which may lead you to do more of those self sacrificial plays. That will, in turn, cause Constantine to be more ruthless in battle to compensate and the cycle will feed itself. Somebodyās gotta stop and itās not going to be Micheal.
Heās around you a lot, lot more than usual:
Ya boi puts a lot of weight and has a great respect for alone time but heās sacrificing that by being around you more and more. First is to enact his plan to make you as codependent on him as he is you make you accept help for once and because he genuinely enjoys being around you. Thereās an almost euphoric glint in his brown eyes that hint at something far deeper at play when heās around you.
He starts doing things for you more than usual:
Already have gone over this, but heās basically coddling you to make you useless. His invasive care for you is a way that heās showing his twisted love and youāre going to accept it whether you like it or not.
He gives you his stuff to keep in your room:
His jacket, his blanket, the case with his chess and checker setājust stuff thatās easy to get you to take in the beginning. Thatāll warm you up slowly to the idea of living with him forā¦ future endeavors.
He talks shit (in a fashion befitting a Roman Emperor) about the people around you frequently:
Constantine has nothing but subtle insults for the people you hang out with or choose to deploy for battle. Youād have squeeze even the smallest of compliments out of him and even then itās backhanded with a side of passive aggression. He nitpicks the hell out of people in an effort to get you to see them the way he does, as unreliable and untrustworthy. Heāll ācounselā you on better choices and that really just means that youāre benching the people whoāve been making him jealous recently.
He completely tunes out when you talk about Mash/is passive aggressive towards Mash:
For reasons already stated, Micheal wants nothing to do with your kouhai. You can see in real time when his eyes gloss over the second he pings that youāre talking about Mash. Not a single word of any worth will come out his mouth as he just nods his head and waits for you to finish. He doesnāt ever tell you to not talk about her because he knows that you wouldnāt be happy with him and that thought just pisses him off more.
Mash will come up to you, in the rare occasion that Constantine ISNāT at your side, and will ask you if you know if she slighted him in some way. Apparently heās been super cold and curt with her as of late. Hmmā¦ Wonder why.
Frequent musing to you about how youād fit right in with his family and what life wouldāve been like if you were around when he was alive:
It sounds innocent on the surface, doesnāt it? You two are such close pals that heās talking to you about his family and how much theyād like you. How you, him, and George would be getting into all sorts of shenanigans and stuff. But the frequency he brings it up almost gives the impression that heās testing the waters forā¦something. Well, it doesnāt matter what your opinion is, itās probably going to happen anyways.
Freudian slips referring to you either as his spouse or his child:
Exactly as it is on the tin. There are times when heās talking about you or referring to you in conversation that heāll slip and call you either his spouse or his child. Not much else to say here.
Him practically sharing your room with you:
Listen. If you havenāt seen any red flags until now then your goose is already locked in the oven, man. Itās over for you. Like, I have doubts that youāll be able to make the turn around necessary to get out of this because ya boi has probably coddled you into a predictable and helpless creature. Heāll immediately ping when youāre starting to get suspicious of him and heāll just dote on you more to get you to forget about it. And at this late in the game, itāll probably work! So, if you havenāt even noticed this, then youāre toast.
How to Avoid This Shit-uation in the First Place.
The answer is so, so simple. Donāt be an idiot and try and get yourself killed. Thatās what started this shitshow in the first place. If you take care of yourself and demonstrate that your self preservation instincts are functioning, then thisāll never happen. Youāll be on the normal route and you can move to get the true ending.
For the heroic master I described way back in the beginning, this is like asking to turn a plastic glove into hot sauce. Seemingly impossible, but is actually so with the right amount of effort and dedication.
It almost seems too easy, but it really isnāt. Itās just that simple.
How External Factors Come Into Play.
Up until this point, Iāve been writing this in a vacuum. Now, in this section, letās get into the person who is most likely going to be your savior.
Mehmed II:
Just like in the Romance Headcanons, the Father of Conquest is your greatest ally. Heāll be the first person to ping that Constantine isnāt well thanks to how observant he is of people. The only issue is that Mehmed canāt quite confront Constantine on anything since Micheal hates him and wouldnāt listen to a word he says. Thus, our favorite sultan goes to you and asks you if you know whatās up with him. If you answer that you are aware of whatās up with Micheal, then Mehmed will leave you to your own devices since, much to his disappointment, itās ultimately none of his beeswax. This is a decision he will come to regret.
If you answer that you donāt, then the sultan will consider stepping in but ultimately wonāt actually make a move until Constantineās plan is well under way. If there ever had to be a person devoted to personal freedom, then it would be Mehmed II. His entire life from childhood to death was put into being the sultan, and while he doesnāt necessarily regret putting his everything into it, he does regret not spending time doing what he wanted to do. So, when Mehmed sees the beginnings of a cage slowly forming around you, that is when he decides to act. Remember, he sees you as a reflection of himself, so the last thing Mehmed wants for you is to be trapped in the same gilded birdcage he was in since birth.
Ya boiās aid pretty much amounts to getting you away from Constantine as much as he can. He canāt confront Micheal directly because of previously established reasons and because it might turn you away from him and potentially push you towards Constantine. By forcing you to have space away from Micheal, Mehmed provides you the opportunity to consider the previously mentioned red flags and the support youād need to get to the bottom of this. You are not alone and Mehmed will do whatever he can to make sure that youāre free to do shit yourself.
In all honesty, heās absolutely disgusted with Micheal in this scenario. Thereās nothing our favorite sultan values more than personal freedom and anything that threatens that is high up on Mehmedās hit list. He just canāt fathom what possessed Constantine to do something so utterly cruel to an innocent person like you and heās finding himself to be disillusioned with Micheal as a result. Now, when Mehmed does hear Constantineās motives for doing this during the Worst Case Scenario, either by the man himself being forced to admit it or Mehmed figuring it out, heās more sympathetic but heād ultimately without hesitation cosign killing Constantine off for your safety. Hell, heād even do it himself.
Sure, losing your family, your wives and your unborn children, your best friend, and your empire would mess a person up to a high degree, but in Mehmedās mind that is not an excuse to use you as a vehicle to fulfill such selfish desires. Heās a guy with a strong sense of justice and believes in following the law and rules to a T. It doesnāt matter whoās committing a crime or why, someone has to answer for this and when Mehmed finds them they will be spared no quarter. In this case, heād be the first to propose executing Constantine XI for treason and would also add that if no one else wanted to, then heād do it himself. Thatās the kind of person he is, as ruthless as that may sound.
Now, if everyone believes that Micheal should be given a chance to redeem himself and get better, thenā¦ First would be complete and utter shock, what kind of crack were these people smoking to think that this a good idea? Constantine could be using his second chance to bide his time and wait for the perfect moment to kidnap you again for all they know. Second would be pure fury, Mehmed would be beyond furious that theyād let Constantine live after he very clearly demonstrated that he has little to no regard (in Mehmedās mind) for you. He kidnapped you and cut off your hand, they should all be thanking whatever god they believe in that Micheal didnāt up and decide to amputate your legs too, or your own head for that matter. Heās also up in arms about the fact that, in his eyes, Constantine is getting off scot free for committing a crime of the highest order. That man should be dead, not just because itās what he deserves for everything he did to you but also to serve as an example to anyone else who has similar plans as Micheal. Mehmed already has issues with the fact that Chaldea seemingly has barely any rules and no accountability, hence his shenanigans and subsequent run-ins with Astraea, but this is beyond ridiculous. What will it take then for someone to actually get what they deserve? Chaldea getting raided again? Obviously not considering the continued existence of a certain someone with a head of fluffy white hair. Will it take your death? He hopes not and he will continue to fight tooth and nail for Michael to be punished for his crimes, even going so far as to assassinate the man himself.
All in all, Mehmed is the first person to espy Constantineās mental decline, heāll aid you in getting away from Micheal, and if worse comes to worse then heāll kill him for hurting you.
On another note, in the Worst Case scenario, you may be wondering what will happen when Chaldea fixes the Klein Coffins or notices that you and Constantine are missing from camp. And I shall answer.
If Chaldea manages to fix the Klein Coffins in time, figures out when and where the two of you went, and rayshifts to 1449 Constantinople, then itās pretty much over for Constantine. Itāll essentially be a Hydrogen Bomb v. Coughing Baby type of situation since the only powerful person on Constantineās side that could fight a servant is the man himself and Chaldea would be throwing down their top Gās to find you and that comp includes none other than Mehmed II. The only thing Micheal has going for him is that heād maybe be able to hide you but thatās if and only if he knows that theyāve arrived. Otherwise Chaldea has the drop on him and with a guy who knows these streets like the back of his hand, itās not going to take them long to find you. So hooray, youāre saved! Micheal will get his ass beat and depending on how the fight goes and your intervention, he could die right there. But ultimately, the incident will have reached its conclusion with you and your missing dominant hand going back to Chaldea either with or without Constantine.
Now in the alternative, depending on whoās in your singularity or Lostbelt party this may be a more difficult situation to handle on Chaldeaās end. Constantineās NP is really, really strong and there arenāt many who can break through it. Charlemagne and Mehmed II are the obvious choices due to their connection with Byzantium, but Johanna may be able to force the gate open using her mojo or Odysseus with his āwooden horseā can probably pull it off too. I may be blanking on others but you get the idea, one does not simply break through the Theodosian walls. It takes exceptional people to do so, hence any 3-star teams or regular folks are going to have to get creative.
Itās not like thereāsāto my knowledge anywayāan invisible wall preventing one from scaling the walls or flying over them. So. Servants with exceptional agility like Medusa or Ushiwakamaru can scale the walls or Tomoe Gozen could throw someone over them (youāve seen her NP, she could throw you to the moon), or Paul Bunyan and Protea could drop people in thanks to their size or dare I say it: Arash Airlines 2 or Sky High Rider Buster Justice Bomb 2. The only issue is dealing with Constantine once they get over as he will be ready for them. Depending on how things roll, he could very well drop his NP, grab you and run. But considering the names Iāve dropped so far, I doubt heāll be going very far. So if he hasnāt killed any servants yet, you may just be saved.
But if there isnāt anyone who can do any of that then worry not, there still an opening. NPs consume mana, Constantineās very existence consumes mana, thus when manaās running low, Micheal will drop his NP and saddle you onto his horse with him to run off in a random direction. This is where the opening lies. Any servants who have a horse or are a horse themselves can catch up. Servants like Georgios, Mandricardo, Red Hare or Alexander will clutch this for you. So if you have no one else, then I hope you have them.
Otherwise you might just be on the run forever.
About the Romantic Side of Thingsā¦
Alrighty~ Weāve already seen the platonic side of things, so letās discuss what your new captor husband is like!
For starters, heās a lot more upfront and bold with his affections behind closed doors, almost always touching you in some fashion. It could be as small as locking pinkies or him resting his head on your shoulder, but he HAS to be touching you. He was already aware of the fact that he craved affection of some kind, but his mental decline and the ārealizationā that he can have that domestic life with you as your husband has made him deathly aware of just how much he needs it. This leads to him clinging onto you as much as he can, whenever he can. You are the eucalyptus tree to his koala. (Koala-stantine? Eh, not good enough.) But if you donāt straight up tell him, then heās going to be holding you and cuddling you constantly when you two are alone. And that shit goes double for the Worst Case Scenario. If heās got you rayshifted into 1449 Constantinople, then you get Micheal AND Constantine being on you with the latter only on the rare occasions he gets alone with you. If youāre trapped in his NP, then heāll just be hugging you, holding you, resting on top of you and all other manners of just being on you for nearly all hours of the day. So do let him know if you donāt like being touched that much so he can tone it down. ā¦At least when youāre awake, that is. While youāre sleeping is fair game for him to spoon you (in his mind) to make up for all the time he canāt touch you while youāre conscious. And if youāre a light sleeper, heāll find a way and if you wake up early and sleep late thenā¦ well, he still has several leftover syringes of anesthesia and a few bottles of hard alcohol to put you out with if he feels like he needs more time. He was really preparing for you to wake up mid-kidnapping or during the moment he amputated your hand, hence the copious amount of āsleeping tools.ā The alcohol was also taken if you ever felt residual or phantom pain from losing your hand, so thatās mighty considerate of him.
Heās also more verbally direct about his feelings. The positive ones, I mean. Heād still rather die than admit heās feeling bad about anything. His filter is almost gone and heās not afraid to tell you how he feels about you. He tells you that he loves you and that heād move mountains for you if itād mean that youād smile. That heād protect you from anything and all things: liars, traitors, madmen, gods, friends, familyānothing could ever get to you with Constantine by your side. And while the sentiment isā¦nice if you ignore the blatant threat to your loved ones, the fact of the matter is that he isnāt as reserved as he normally would be. And that lets a bit of the madness peek through some of the time when he muses to you about his family and how heād LOVE for you to meet them! How youād be an excellent monarch at his side and how heād show you all of the ropes, get you his old tutors from when he was a kid, and how youād look so beautiful in regal clothing from his era andā you get the point. Like I said previously, the way he talks about these things is so frequent that one may suspect that heās cooking something and the manic glint in his eye definitely isnāt making it any better.
On another note, returning his affections will pull him deeper and deeper into his delusions. He gets almost giddy when you hug him back or let him rest his head on your lap and card your fingers through his hair. As far gone as he is, he does have a level of shame left in him that prevents him from acting like a love-drunk fool in public and a level of shame that prevents him from acting too much like the codependent fool he really is in front of you. Just a baseline level of composure and elegance to fool you and himself into thinking heās still the well adjusted and reliable Roman emperor he thinks he is.
Now, if you were to go out of your way to show affectionāand do note that you donāt have toābut if you do, then oh boy. Letās sayā¦hm. Letās say in Chaldea, before the Worst Case Scenario happens but youāre in deep enough to where heās sleeping in your room, letās say you roll out of bed one night and you lie next to him on the floor. Heād be surprised by your sudden action and would ask why youāre down there. You then move in to wordlessly hug him, pulling his sleeping bag closer to you and resting your head on his chest. Micheal will be shaken. He doesnāt know why, not consciously anyways, but heās really surprised that youāre holding him like this. And when you stay like that for longer, thatās when you hearā¦sniffling? You move your head to look at Constantineās face only to see his hand covering his eyes and and his teeth clenched. His shoulders begin trembling and you can just barely see a glint of something rolling down his cheek. Isā¦ Is Constantine crying?
You move your hand to his face to wipe away the tear stains and thatās when Micheal completely breaks down and starts sobbing. He immediately pulls you into his arms and squeezes the life out of you, shaking and weeping into your hair. He rubs your back and you can barely make out what heās mumbling to himself.
āFinallyā¦ Finallyā¦ Finally, Iā¦ I finally have itā¦! Ahhhhā¦ Iām so happyā¦ Iām so glad that youāreā¦ ahhhā¦ā
The rest is incoherent and a jumbled mess of words, so you canāt quite tell what heās on about. But what you do know is that these tears are definitely not ones of sadness.
ā¦It should be noted that this scene can also occur in a platonic scenario.
What Micheal breaking down in front of you means is that heās so overwhelmed by the fact that you have just soft confirmed that you love him too (even if thatās not what you meant) and that basically puts whatever tiny piece of rationality he has left to rest because you clearly (uh-huh) want this too. Buried under layers and layers of denial, grief, and a starvation for affection and a family is Constantineās self awareness. Very deep down he knows what heās doing is morally reprehensible and is harming you, but itās been shoved so deep down thanks to the euphoria of getting what heās wanted and now that youāveāin his mindāconfirmed that youāre okay with this, that self awareness has died. Itās not coming back and youāve basically locked Constantine into his delusion by proving to him that you love him too. And the consequences of this action are accelerating the path to the Worst Case Scenario: the logical conclusion to his line of thinking and Constantine being more liable to harm others to protect you and your relationship with him. If youāre not careful then people are going to start dropping like flies under āmysterious circumstancesā so you better tread lightly because any small indication that someone likes you ātoo muchā or that you like someone else is going to get them killed. You knowā¦ ācause theyāre clearly trying to hurt you and are manipulating you. Donāt question it, Micheal knows best, obviously.
Does He Sober Up or Not?
Yes and no. If by āsober upā you mean that he realizes the error of his ways and seeks to right his wrongs, then allow me to bluntly tell you that itās impossible for him on his own. The euphoria that he receives from caring for you and coddling you and loving you (plus any affection you may give to him) has his vision dyed in a rose tint. The tiny rationale and self awareness he does have is buried deep in him and isnāt going to come out in any meaningful way ever. Your actions at the very beginning of this (remember?) have pushed him off the deep end and his sanity is at a low value, this is the bad ending route and depending on where you are in the timeline and what you do, then you probably canāt salvage this either. If you want to get him to sober up, the youāll have to change your ways early on and avoid this route altogether.
Now. If by āsober upā you mean that he has occasional moments of clarity then, yes. Yes he does have occasional moments of clarity. And those, unfortunately, only come out in Worst Case Scenario B when heās all alone with you in his NP. With things asā¦not good as they are and you not having shown him any affection of your own volition, you get to wake up to something special sometimes.
With no warning, you may wake up to the sounds of loud sobbing, arms and legs squeezing the life out of you, and a very wet shirt. Constantine is crying into your chest and frantically apologizing to you. Heās sorry. Heās so, so sorry for trapping you here, heās sorry for your hand, heās sorry for hurting you, heās sorry for taking your friends away, heās sorry. Donāt bother trying to talk to him because in this state heās inconsolable and hysterical. Heās not listening to a word you say and no matter how many times you tell him that you forgive him, heāll continue to apologize. Kicking him or pulling his hair isnāt going to do anything either so donāt bother. All you can do is try and go back to sleep or wait until he exhausts himself and falls asleep. When you wake up, the only sign that he was like this are the tear stains on his cheeks and your moist shirt. He wonāt ārecallā any of what youāre talking about andāll just liken the moisture on your shirt to him drooling, which heāll apologize for. The tear stains are something heāll refuse to acknowledge no matter what you say or do, so donāt bother with that either.
Youāre okay and heās okay. Thatās all there is to it.
Endnote: And weāre back! This is the result of me recovering my sanity bit by bit from having to write an essay for a topic I had no interest in. So hopefully after my midterm thingsāll die down a bit in that class. Anywho, letās get into the behind the scenes!
I would first like to inform you all that I had to cut a few of planned sections for this. I was originally planning on writing a section at the end for the type of master who would get this routeāthis ending on purpose. However, as I started writing things, the word count got higher and higher, high enough to where I was sure that itād break 13k and maybe hit 21k if I were to write it. Sooo it was scrapped for the sake of not lagging on anyoneās devices and being too long for a headcanons list. There was also a section dedicated to discussing if escaping Yandere!Constantine was possible but as I was writing the Worst Case Scenario, I realized by the end that I was giving tips on escaping as well as the answer somewhat being obvious and not that interesting. The answer I COULD give plus an answer as to what would happen after your failed escape attempts would make for a good section of the Yandere Headcanons Addendum. The last planned section that was cut was the section answering the question: āWhat if you died?ā And I realized as the word count went up that the answer would not only be long, but best served for a post dedicated to answering the question how Constantine would react to you dying. From him being your coworker, your friend, your best friend, romantic partner and husband to the object of his obsession, thereās a lot of ways you could answer it and Thatāll be something to tag on my already really long to-do list. In essence, most things were cut out for word count reasons. The count in question is 12,980. Yeahā¦ I was really close to breaking the ceiling and having this set be a new record holder. But hey, if you think that there is no such thing as ātoo longā for headcanon lists, do let me know! Iām really only holding back for everyone elseās sakeā¦
In the Worst Case Scenario section, I really felt like I had written like, the summary or prologue to a fic with that. And I am pondering ideas for what a longfic with him could look like because Iāve had a few cracked and barely thought out ideas in the past like: āModern AU with Micheal being so entrenched in grief over losing his wives that he hallucinates Reader to sooth his loneliness and Reader tries to help him get betterā and there would be like endings where either heād live with you forever and not get better, kill himself out of grief, or get with the lovely church organist, Modern Au!Johanna and live happily ever after with an epilogue scene of him talking to Johanna about āsomeone who helped him in his darkest timeā (Reader) and him being thankful for your help. Itās a really cracked and cliche (I think) idea that came to me when I was listening to āLittle Talksā by Of Monsters and Men a while ago and that blurbās all I got. I have no idea where to go from there, so if anyone wants to brainstorm with me if that sounds interesting, then donāt hesitate, I am always here to share the brainrot.
Constantine as a yandere is such a sad thing to see because he could get better, he really could! He doesnāt HAVE to do any of this to get the family he wants, the Romance and Confession Headcanons (in my interpretation, anyways) prove it! None of this had to happen. However, through āyourā (the loosely defined you) actions you have given him cause to take what he wants from you and people are going to get hurt, including you. I cannot stress enough just how much this version of Micheal is the direct result of āyourā actions, intentional or not. This is NOT his logical conclusion and the very nature of his character prevents him from doing this to himself. āYouāveā created a monster and youāre getting everything you deserve from it for disregarding the feelings and effects on the people around you. A master whoās doing this on purpose is also getting what they deserve from it too. So every party in this ending suffers equally.
Now, someone may be silently asking: āBut what about seggs?ā And to that I sayā¦ Iām working on it. Iāve been writing an Nsfw Alphabet in my spare time and with that being my first foray into NSFW, Iām not sure if anyone wants to see it! I am genuinely thinking I should leave it as practice to never see the light of day for the inevitable NSFW Headcanons. Because I am struggling to write it because Iām worried that itās notā¦NSFW enough. As I write more, because thatās what it takes to get better, Iāll figure it out. But yeah, if anyone was wondering then now ya know.
In other Redline news, Iām going to try and catch up on those sprite posts and another thing from the Yamatai event since I was being mauled by schoolwork. So hereās to hoping my professors donāt increase the difficulty any time soon.
But thatās all I can think of for the Endnote. If you have any questions, desire for elaboration, criticisms, or compliments, donāt hesitate to let me know and Iāll be seeing you all soon!
Would Constantine notice Michealās off behavior?
Yes and no. Normal!Micheal, the one weāre all familiar with from before this route happens, is already Not Okayā¢ and has been masking the fact that he has unresolved issues for ages. Almost no one at Chaldea has even an inkling of how deep his issues run because Micheal has been acting Okayā¢ for a very long time, way before his death. After all, emperors and despots are not weak, and neither is Constantine Palaiologos XI.
Thus, while Yandere!Michealās sanity has been ground down into a fine powder as a result of āyourā actions, heās still got his imperial composure on glued. Thereās just a few small cracks in his facade now that heās obsessing over and loving you.
Said cracks are: Micheal generally being disinterested in other people (excluding his family and George) to the point of forgetting names and faces, him perking up immediately when you come up in a conversation, how he has nothing nice to say about anyone that isnāt you (excluding his family and George), and his overprotectiveness of you.
What Constantine, living and breathing Constantine, sees of Micheal is the mild mannered intellectual that weāre accustomed to whoās been through a lot. He views the differences between himself and his servant self simply as change. Micheal is four years older than Constantine and a lot can happen in four whole years. Thus, Constantine views Yandere!Michealās off moments and general oddities as either natural change or him still reeling from recent events.
In essence, Constantine DOES notice but thereās a more logical and simple explanation in his mind with the information that heās given from hearing from Micheal and observing him, that he doesnāt pick up on the truth of Michealās composition.Ā
ā¦Not that the man is going to give him any hints to begin with.
The Ottoman shit-uation outside his front door is also doing an excellent job of stressing Constantine out and smoke screening Michealās rare slips and whatever his attendants are saying about him. So Constantine doesnāt even have much time to really marinate on what his new friend is like anyways.
Did Micheal tell Constantine the same lies he told you to explain why you both are there?
Yep. Micheal has his story straight and thought this whole thing out to the point where he can answer all of Constantineās questions with either a full blown lie or a half truth and not have it conflict with what you know. He explains stuff about the Crypters and the bleached earth as āyou escaping a war or conflict happening in your country and being pursued by a secret group of assassins known as The Crypters for your magical abilities.ā Interesting tidbit is that, for masters from the Americas, heāll either attribute your home country (since the New World wasnāt discovered until 1492 if Iām not mistaken) to England, France, Spain or Portugal. Whichever one fits your native language best and whichever one you hate the least.
Micheal explains his servant abilitiesāthe phantoms he summons, the rave party thatās going on sometimes in his attacks, the catapult (or trebuchet?)āas him receiving blessings from god and magic from you. Micheal makes sure to let you know about how he explains your āsituationā to Constantine, so you arenāt left in the dark.
Now you may be asking: āWhy doesnāt Micheal just tell it like it is?ā And to that I say, he would if he could. Unfortunately, there isnāt enough wacky mystical shit happening in the world right now because this isnāt a singularity or a Lostbelt, itās Proper Human History. Shitās mostly normal and operating under non-mystical circumstances. Hence why Micheal canāt admit that heās a servant, the world has ended, thereās a Foreign God claiming to be the President of the Earth, and Chaldeaās existence. Because thatād be insane.
As for how you two time travelled, and Micheal made sure youāre aware of this too, god had seen what became of Constantinople after the Ottomans captured it and sent Micheal and you back in time to save it while you were passed out from the pain of a rotting hand being amputated.
Thatās basically how it rolls. Micheal lies to Constantine and passes some truths about his lies onto you and makes you an accomplice in upholding those lies.
How complicit is Constantine in Michealās plan?
Oh poor Constantine. Heās Michealās unwitting accomplice in keeping you trapped with him forever. He genuinely thinks heās doing the right thing by hosting the both of you here and he couldnāt be happier with the help heās receiving from his future self, Micheal, concerning the Ottomans. And thatās just in the beginning.
As Constantine spends time with you, he starts seeing what Micheal was on about with just how adorable and great you are. This compels him further to keep you safe and well here, especially from those damn assassins trying to kill you! Heās a bit sad that he canāt be open with his affections, lest a scandal come to be, but he can make do with loving you from a distance and he knows that Micheal is more than making up for his share.
Heāll fight tooth and nail, believing the lies that Micheal told him, for you and to keep you safe here with the two of them. After all, youāre a part of his family and be it spouse or adopted child, heād die a thousand times over if it meant that he could get even a slice of that domesticity that was ripped from him twice over.
How would Constantine react to finding out the truth?
There are two ways we can go about this.
Scenario A, you and Constantine espy Michealās true intentions:
This scenario within a scenario within a bad ending route, largely depends on you. Constantine is unaware of Michealās true nature and intentions, so itās up to you to get the gears turning in his head by pointing out the stuff you find weird about Micheal.Ā
Meeting up with, being around, and talking with Constantine is a pretty sobering experience when it comes to Micheal as a whole since, well, it reminds you of who this man used to be. It reminds you of the Micheal you met in CBC and later summoned to your Chaldea. Of the respectfully distant, always helpful and kind man who got along great with everyone and took care of you as best he could.
Thus with that refresher, itās easier to see that Micheal is not well when you compare him to his younger self. When you bring it up to Constantine, heās not quite sure what youāre talking about. Michealās a stable man with a good head on his shoulders, a kind one too. He was even pretty composed when he brought you to him with that bloody stump for a handāah.
While your words donāt immediately set off alarm bells, Constantine will think about it and the more he doesā¦ The more that the man with the shorter hair and the same red earrings looks like someone else. Not only that, but he finally sees what his attendants are getting at when they mention that āone of them hasnāt been seen in a whileā and asking him to ācheckā with Micheal.
The realization hits him like a ton of bricks all at once. The servants that have gone missing were ones that had the job of tending to you and supposedly they had good relations with you too, those who were still around seemed rather stiff when Micheal was in the room and avoided looking at him or you in any capacity, one even flinched when Constantine pat them on the shoulder for a job well done.
Constantine really, really doesnāt want to believe it and he chooses to put the revelation away in the back of his head in favor of work. Those are justā¦coincidences. Yes, just coincidences. Correlation doesnāt equal causation and all that. But you arenāt going to let Constantine run away from the truth and you keep pressing him on it when you can. This leads to our emperor friend here caving by saying that he will conduct a test to see whether your theory is correct or not.Ā
One night, Constantine distracts Micheal while his best friend and wingman George goes to your room and tells you to pack some stuff to go stay with him and his family for a few days as a break from being cooped up in the palace. All without telling Micheal. What ensues the next day is a sight that made Constantine want to crawl into a hole and die.
Micheal was panicking. Visibly panicking. In public no less. Emperor Constantine Palaiologos XI does not panic, he gets worried sometimes, but he never panics. Ever. His imperial pride and the weight of having to be the unshakable and stalwart leader his nation needs in these troubling times would never allow Constantine to show that kind of weakness in front of other people.
Apparently, Micheal had been shaking the whole palace down to find you, even disturbing piles of rubble to see if you were there, to find you. Not a single person had been able to talk to him since heād already be halfway across the room when they had opened their mouth to speak.
Upon seeing Constantine, Micheal had beelined to him and shakily asked him if he knew where you were and the way he spoke of you sent chills down Constantineās spine.
He spoke of you as though you were more important than anything in the world, life itself even. Nothing could ever amount to you and he needed you like a human needs air. Michealās current state was very clearly implying that heād only get worse the more time he spent without you which places Constantine in a very precarious position.
You were right, absolutely right and with the way Micheal was behaving and his recent revelation told Constantine that you would not be safe with Micheal. But, if he wanted his future selfās help with fending off the Ottomans, then itād do him well to tell Micheal where you are and let him go to you since, should Micheal find out about Constantineās test, he could withdraw his support and let fate do its thing.
Ultimately unable to choose between endangering you or risking his country, Constantine plays dumb and tells Micheal that he has no idea what happened but will aid in the search. When he gets time alone, he calls for a messenger to be sent with a red colored paper folded into a boat to Georgeās home.
If he plays his cards right, then Constantine could keep you safe and away fromā¦himself and he could save his empire while heās at it.
The results of his plan have yet to be seen.
Scenario B, Chaldea shows Constantine the truth:
This is the alternative where you donāt do anything. You could be suspicious of Micheal or perhaps know everything already, but simply choose not to tell Constantine possibly for fear of him alerting Micheal. Or maybe you believe Michealās lies and youāve just been chilling in the 1400s under the impression that Chaldea is either dead or is coming for you once they fend off Daybit. Either way, this facade ends now.
The whole thing comes crashing down once Constantine sees and hears the situation unfurl before him. Micheal holding you back from a group of people he had never seen before, both arguing fiercely. It eventually comes to light that none of what Micheal had said was true, and that the man had done something terrible. No, he did many terrible things and worse yet he has the audacity to claim that it was all for you. Your missing hand, the bump that was on your head, your arrival hereā¦ All of those terrible things were for you.Ā
The scene was utterly surreal and Constantine couldnāt quite believe that Micheal and him were the same person. He couldnāt fathom that the two of them had the same roots, came from the same family, lived the same life, endured the same losses and ended up loving the same person. He just couldnāt grasp it.Ā
Who is he, the man with the short hair and the red armor? Who is he, the man who speaks so familiarly to you and calls you āMaster?ā Who is he? Not Constantine XI, surely not. Because Constantine would never hurt the people he loves. He would protect them from any and all things as best he could, even from themselves if need be. That man isnāt Constantine. ā¦Heās something else. He has to be.
The emperor does nothing about the situation and says nothing so long as no one addresses him, he simply watches things unfold because he hasnāt the energy to do much else. Not that heād know what to do anyways. So, when the time comes for you to leaveāwith or without thatā¦thingāConstantine quietly stops you before you go by blocking your path.
The emperor, with a shaking hand and flat expression, reaches gingerly for yours and limply holds it. He then sinks down onto one knee and speaks in a voice that almost belied his inner turmoil.
āMy good and dear friend, from a time and place I know not. There are no words in any language, past or present, that can properly convey the shame and regret I harbor in my body and soul. And there is nothing I can say to give you or myself any peace. ā¦But if Iāif I have done you any good, brought you any comfort or joy, then pleaseā¦ I beg you. Please find it in your heart to forgive me and forgive the man I will become. Pleaseā¦ Forgive me. I havenāt the heart to forgive myself for my sins anymore.ā
How would Constantine react to the realization that he is capable of turning into Micheal?
Constantine is scared shitless about the possibility that he could become Micheal and that he is capable of doing such things to a person that he loves and cares for without even a shred of guilt after the fact.Ā
Itās so viscerally disturbing to him how Micheal just brushed off the fact that he cut off your hand and the nonsensical reasons he uses to justify that action as being beneficial for you. How Micheal had seen himself as righteous enough or with the authority to remove a person from their home and drag them to wherever he saw fit for his own selfish desires. How he had taken to removing anyone who had given you even a modicum of joy for no other reason than feeling threatened. It makes him want to throw up just imagining that man with his face doing these thingsāthinking and believing these things.
After you leave, Constantine finds that itās even harder for him to sleep than usual. He just canāt stop thinking about that guy, Micheal. If he truly is himself from four years into the future, then what happened to him? What happened from the years of 1449 to 1453 to make Micheal into the man he is? What kind of unspeakable, horrific events could have made his personality, his morals and principals take such a dive? And what does that mean for Constantine? Who or what is he going to lose in these next four years?
Any number of answers crop up and they only serve to make him feel worse. Heās already lost Theodora and Caterina with the last year taking his little brother Theodore and his oldest brother John, his father has been gone for a while tooā¦ Is his mother next? How about his two sisters? George? Will he find someone new and they will be taken from him too? Is that why Micheal turned out that way?
These thoughts follow him and they tire him out, almost to the point where he canāt keep up that imperial facade of strength. Almost. George, his best friend and wingman, notices. Of course he does. Theyāve been friends since childhood and there wasnāt a thing that one didnāt know about the other, mostly. George could see the incident with Micheal and you weighing his lordās mind and he sits down to have a talk with him.
The conversation mostly consists of Constantine venting about how heās terrified of hurting his loved ones, terrified of losing himself to temptation and selfishly smothering them to death with his desires, terrified of becoming a different man. George, after seeing Constantine out of breath from finally airing out his concerns, slings his arm over his lordās shoulder and pulls him in for a side hug before giving him his take on what happened.
āMy lordā¦ That man, his actions were wretched and unbefitting of his station. There is no denying it. But one cannot ignore the place from which his motives were derived, that being love. He loved that person dearly and wanted to see them well, and wanted them to be loved to the fullest extent. He did not wish for any evil of any kind to befall that poor soul and he had taken arms to ensure that they may sleep soundly knowing that not even the devil could touch them when he was near. But what he failed to account for was himself. He had placed all of the worldās sins and evils unto the people around him, but forgot that he too is capable of such deeds and that was what led him down that dark path.ā
āā¦ā¦ā¦ā
āMy lord. Your fortitude and your stoicism in the face of adversity, whilst a most splendid display of Romeās strength, are not you in your entirety. You are a good man, twice as good as the best of us, blessed with a soft heart that is filled with love. That will never change no matter how many years pass and how many losses you bear. What does change is how you see the world and her people, how you see fit to deal with them. These coming years may very well show you the worst of what humanity is, but you must remember no matter what happens that it is not evil and you are not pure. Forget thatā¦ And you will surely fall into the same trap as that man.ā
āā¦ā¦ā¦ā
āBut we all make mistakes, I know that. Which is why, so long as I breathe, I will pick you up should you fall. No matter how deep you are plunged into such delusions, I will hoist you upwards and I will not let you drown in grief, my lord. Even if I must beat your wits back into you.ā
George pat Constantine on the shoulder and nodded his head upwards.
āSo raise your head high, my lord. You are Rome. You have always been Rome, you will continue to be long after your passing. And Rome is good, as you know. So long as you not forget yourself and I draw breath, that future shall not come to pass.ā
George retracts his arm and stands up from his seat, taking a few steps towards the door before looking back at Constantine.
āNow, come. I know you havenāt been eating as well as you should and that you have not been sleeping well. Thus, I have cleared your schedule for tomorrow and I have made your meals much larger to compensate.ā
Constantine blinked in shock before sputtering his response.
āG-George, that isnāt necessary. Your counsel has put a great many things to rest for me and I am feeling much better. There isnāt a need toā!ā
āMy lord will not be the first emperor of Rome to die of exhaustion and malnutrition! Besides, my cousins have worked very hard in cooking some of the recipes that person had gifted them and the results, so far, have been quite amazing. The butter cake specifically is my favorite.ā
āOh? Thatās something I hadnāt heard of.ā
āThat person said it was a recipe from the days of Babylon and they had learned it from a friend. But that isnāt the point! Iāll tell you more when you come down to eat!ā
And thus, with a lighter heart, Constantine had followed after his friend. Things may not be great and the future may look bleak, but with his wingman at his sideā¦ Then everything will be okay. That heās sure of.
Endnote: Did that answer your questions? I hope so! You gave me quite a bit to think about and that manifested in the lovely word count of this response, so I hope that itās not too much of a slog to read through.
Itās quite the interesting subject to study how Michealās actions have affected Constantine and how Constantine views himself afterwards long after Micheal and āyouā have departed. For starters, I think it would be dreadfully intriguing and angsty to watch Constantine try his absolute hardest to not end up like Micheal only to end up being him at the end. His terror and stress concerning the Ottomans would plunge him further into despair and paranoia regarding his loved ones and heād lose himself along the way of trying to keep them safe. While heād be too afraid of becoming Micheal to amputate anyoneās limbs, not being able to go outside or speak to any pre-approved people is definitely not good either.
That is how things WOULD end upā¦ If Byzantiumās best wingman, George Sphrantzes, were not around. Which he thankfully is.
I have been writing Constantine with the assumption that George is not in Chaldea. Not because I donāt like him or anything, but because George is Constantineās confidant and best friend. They have known each other since childhood, and our emperor was even Georgeās best man for his wedding and was the godfather to two of his kids. They are really, really close. Thus, if I were to write George into the mix, Iād find myself in the precarious position of having barely anything to write about.
George is what kept Constantine sane throughout everything, without George he very well may have speedran his own bad ending route and maybe even killed himself too. Heās the one that Constantine talks to about his issues and no one else, not even a confessional receives the full picture when it comes to the misery of Constantine XI. An emperor must be strong, he must be stalwart and fortuitous, he must unflinching and he must take all things in stride. Hence that Constantine buries his problems into himself and speaks to no one of them, especially not the Last Master of Humanity for reasons I have mentioned long ago in my writings.
So, George is basically the one single thing that you can count on to prevent Constantine from going mad. If George were in Chaldea, Constantine would be much healthier mentally and heād okay for the most part. Buuuuut George isnāt here so Constantine is unfortunately going to have to deal with his issues (by that I mean avoid them entirely) on his own and youād have to help him too.
Hehe, but thatās for now. Thank you for our kind words and thank you so, so much for sharing your thoughts and asking me questions! I loved answering.
Foreword: Soooā¦ This may seem a tad bit jarring. However! I implore anyone who is unsure to please give this a chance. Think of this as just adding a new texture to the cube weāre rotating in our minds. Itāll be a solid thought exercise and itāll add a new dimension to Constantineās character. Why do I say this? Well. This list of headcanons isnāt framed as though Micheal just up and went yandere one day or that this is a brand new universe where he just is one. Nope. I shall describe how Constantine becomes a monster and then weāll branch off into a moreā¦guide-esque list of things to know, like the Romance Headcanons. I think thatād be much more interesting than the alternatives.
Hehe, if the RHCs were the guide to getting his route and the CHCs being the true ending, then this is definitely the bad ending. Perhaps the worst ending, even.
Convinced? Iād hope so! But I should mention, that since these are yandere headcanonsā¦ Gore, drugging, kidnapping, abuse, references to suicide, and obsessive behavior are on the ticket in terms of warnings. So if you are not comfortable, please exit and perhaps peruse my other headcanons if you feel so inclined. I have made a lilā masterlist in my pinned post for my other written works for the sake of convenience.
I would also like to state that I do not condone any of this behavior and this is purely for entertainment and fanfiction reasons.
That being said, I hope you all enjoy.
How The Hell Did This Happen?
There is a specific kind of master who would drive our friend here off the deep end simply by following their heart. That very specific kind of master would be none other thanā¦a hero of justice. The type of individual who values the lives of others more than their own and will stop at nothing to save everybody, that is the master who would end up with this version of Constantine unintentionally.
Constantine, after losing everything a very long time ago, has but only one thing to live for and that is none other than you. You are the most important person in his life right now, not only because he needs you to stay materialized, but because of what you represent. You are one of the last humans on earth, you are the one whoās going to save the world and humanityās future. You are, in no uncertain terms, proof that there is hope in this paper white nightmare. If Constantine can help you achieve your goal, then maybeā¦just maybe his people, his familyāGod even, can forgive him for what he did all those centuries ago. Itās a selfish reason to put in his a-game and he knows it, but you donāt have to know that. You donāt have to know that heās using his newfound contract with you to obtain forgiveness for his sins. But fear not. As time moves forward and he gets to know you, he realizes that his initial reasoning has been outshined by a fondness for his master and a desire to see you wellāto see you happy, and such affections are what twist the knife when it comes to your way of being.
Your heroic personality, while coming from a good place, is something that often leads to you getting injured. Almost to the brink of death at times. And try as he may to prevent it, you just canāt help yourself but tackle one of your servants out of the way when the āneedā arises. Heās been on the receiving end of one of your rushes more times than he can count and he feels just as terrible and confused as the first time it happened. He just doesnāt get it. Why is someone as normal and weak as you on the frontlines putting in their everything when you have such powerful servants to fight for you? Why are you trying so hard to protect them when itās you whoās liable to die if the wind so much as blows the wrong way? Why are you denying him his purposeāhis chance at forgiveness and throwing it right back in his face by letting yourself get hurt like this? He doesnāt understand it. Fuck, the more time he spends with you on the field the less he thinks he understands you as a person.
Eventually, heāll get so sick of having to practically carry your limp form to the infirmary all the time that heāll grip you by the shoulders one day before you go out and sternly tell you to stay behind him or there will be consequences. This is the most bold and stern heās ever been with you since his summoning, so you bet your ass that heās not playing around this time. Now knowing āyou,ā youāre probably going to at least give the idea the good old college try before saying fuck it and reverting back to your old ways. We wouldnāt be able to continue otherwise.
This is the starting incident, this is what you can point to later on and say āAh, so thatās where it all went wrong.ā Granted, this is not the point of no return. You still have time to get out and back onto the right track. Just know that Constantine wonāt be letting you pull this kind of shit as freely as you used to and so long as you genuinely try to get better, then this scenario will not come to pass.
But getting better is not what weāre here for, so letās talk about what happens after this incident. After youāre taken care of, Micheal heads back to his room to ruminate on things. He starts asking himself the real questions like: āWhy are you like this? What happened to you to make you think that this is okay? Is he the problem? Is he not doing enough? Do you not think he or anyone else is capable of protecting you?ā So on and so forth until he gets tired and decides to sleep on it.
The next day is when he pulls you aside to have a serious conversation addressing three of those questions. Depending on the master, the answers could be any number of things. You could be someone who lost their loved ones and are coping with the survivorās guilt by throwing yourself in front of anybody you can find to assuage your guilt. You could be someone who never had a family or friends to begin with and found that love here at Chaldea which prompted you to hold every last person here as close to your chest as you can in fear of losing that warmth. Maybe you were raised by someone with such values and this is the only way you know how to do things, leaving you unable to fathom the idea of being saved. Or maybeā¦ Maybe youāre using this āhero of justiceā thing to obfuscate your true intentions. Maybe you just want to die but donāt have the heart to do it yourself or be held responsible for it, so you play up the guise of a self sacrificing hero to accomplish that goal without taking any of the blame. Maybe, maybe, maybe.
Whether you disclose your reasoning or not is, ultimately, irrelevant for this scenario. Itād be heartwarming for you both to have a moment here and for him to allude to his own struggles to help you feel like youāre not alone. To tell you that you have him at your side and while he may not either know or completely understand what youāre going through, heās here for you and heās struggling alongside you all the same. Heās here when you need him, in any capacity that you need him. That would be such a nice ending, wouldnāt it? Dare I say itād make for an excellent longfic. ā¦But thatās not what weāre here for. So, letās take whatever moment you did or did not have and forget it because it doesnāt matter. Youāre not going to change, and thatās what pulls us forward.
Time passes and Constantine can only find himself helplessly watching you slowly whittle yourself away. After the inciting conversation, he had tried several times after to talk to you and to get you to see his everyone elseās perspective. He tries telling you about how much it hurts him others to watch you get hurt like this all the time. How he everyone is constantly worried about you and heās theyāre terrified of the day that youāll crumble in on yourself. Notice how he never directly tells you about his own feelings, he frames all of his statements as coming from everyone else with the barest implication that he feels the same. This isnāt the Confession Headcanons scenario where he wants to be a more honest person, Micheal still has his head up his ass and refuses to let you see the true extent of how much youāre hurting him. The man himself doesnāt see anything wrong with this, but you with your lacking knowledge of the manās inner workings donāt see the why behind it. Instead it comes off as him being self-righteous and lecturing you about something he seemingly doesnāt care for considering how he never references himself. It looks like heās talking out of his ass about shit he knows nothing about and is nagging you for the sake of nagging you. A more keen eyed master would call him out for being a hypocrite since he does the same thing that you do but for some reason believes himself to be in the right since heās a servant and that this is his job. With such harsh words and misunderstandings, the friendship between you two is beginning to strain. But with Constantineās attachment to you as a person and his original ulterior motive, he isnāt giving up on you just yet.
If he canāt get you to change of your own volition, then heāll just have to change you himself. This is where the yandere part begins coming to fruition, though it should be noted that this all started with good intentions. The plan was to get you to realize that itās not a bad thing to rely on others by forcing you to accept his assistance. Once heās gotten you to realize that itās not only okay to allow it but that it can also feel good to have that weight lifted off your shoulders itāll, in turn, warm you up to letting your servants and himself protect you, thus minimizing the amount of injuries you receive on sorties. Like I said, good intentions.
But the proverbial snowball has already started rolling downhill, gaining mass and speed. While this is not the point of no return, if things donāt change substantially on your end then you can kiss the true ending goodbye. That being said, letās continue as though such improvements never happened.
His plan starts off small. He waits for you outside your room in the morning one day and walks with you to the cafeteria to eat breakfast. You grab your tray and he grabs his, the two of you walking over to get your respective meals. Normally you two would've split off, but today is different. Constantine walks with you to wherever youāre going and just when youāre about to reach for what you want, Micheal beats you to the punch and puts it on your plate. He does this for every item and upon questioning, he simply smiles and tells you that he just felt like it.
Slowly but surely, Constantine starts doing things for you. He was already helping you out before with small things like holding the door for you or helping you carry things, but itās never been thisā¦invasive. Thanks to the time you two have spent together, Micheal has a decent grip on being able to predict your next move or what youād want. Heās not nearly as observant or looking nearly as hard at you as a certain sultan does, but itās enough for his little plan to function in the beginning.
But as time goes on and you remain unchanged, still tactlessly throwing yourself to the wolves, Constantine ups his game a bit more. He slowly starts encroaching into your routine, popping up out of the blue to assist you with things you never once asked for help for. Thus you see him much more often than ever before and he learns more about you, your strained friendship seemingly starting to heal in your eyes with how kind Constantine is being. What you donāt realize is that youāre slowly being boiled like the frog youāve heard so much about in that one analogy. This isnāt healing, this is something twisted and itās slowly encircling you.
On Constantineās end, heās surprisingly having a great time. While he didnāt think that itād be a chore to pull this off, he also didnāt think that heād be enjoying himself as much as he is either. Thereās something about getting you food everyday, helping you fold and hang up your clothes, and walking you to places that stirs something within his heart. It makes him feel warm and fulfilled but try as he might, he just canāt put a name to it. But I can, and the word heās purposefully ignoringābecause that would mean admitting that he has a problemāis domesticity. Thereās an inherent domestic quality to those actions and it scratches the itch heās had for decades, his desire for a family. If he doesnāt see you as the spouse he misses dearly, then heāll see you as the child he never got to have.
His chance at being a husband and a father were ripped from him twice over, and to add salt onto the wound his best friend got his own family with none of the agony that Constantine had to go through. Heād sit there burying his fingernails into his palms in envy as George would talk on and on in glee about his wife and his kids, unknowingly rubbing Constantineās loss in his face. But donāt get it twisted, Constantine did feel happy for George and was all around thankful that his best friend didnāt have to lose anything, hell, he was even the godfather to Georgeās kids and pitched in to take care of them when he could. But there was an underlying envy all the same and now that heās getting the domesticity heās been dreaming of, Constantine canāt help but want more.
So he takes it.
The word encroaching no longer suits his actions as heās practically inserting himself into your routine so thoroughly to the point where every part of your schedule involves him in some capacity. At this point, youāve probably already gotten used to Constantine constantly being around you, so you barely notice his increased presence. This is no longer about helping you learn to accept aid from others, this is now an attack on your independence. The sweet allure of having, in an entirely roundabout way, the life he could only dream of has made him selfish. Constantineās new objective is to make you dependent on him for nearly everything. This way heāll always have a place by your side and heāll never be pushed aside in favor of something or someone else. Heāll take care of you, just like any husband or father would do and youāll always be loved by him. Youāll never want for anything ever again because youāll have Constantine and thatāll be all youāll need, plus heās sure that youāre all he needs too. So youāll never have to worry about being replaced. This is his twisted idea of a domestic life that no one can take from him, a domestic life thatās for him and him alone. A nice āhappy endingā that was long overdue, but was achieved through forcing you to be dependent on him for everything and suffocating you with his presence. How sad what Constantine has become and what heās turned you into.
What Kind of Yandere is He?
What I would first like to reiterate and clearly state for the people in the back is that Yandere!Constantine is entirely preventable. This is not the inevitable conclusion to his character in relation to you but rather a direct result of your actions or lack thereof. The consequencesāthe quencies even, to your actions if you will.
That being said, Constantine XI as a yandere is not one of the worst to have but definitely not the best. Youād live pretty comfortablyā¦to an extent. Your personal freedom, independence and free time have all been commandeered by Micheal but at least youāre not locked in the basement or dealing with broken bones. On the bright side, at least you donāt have to put much effort into anything thanks to Constantineās suffocating presence. So lazy masters can rejoice at only having to put only half of the work into things. Plus, with the way he goes about changing your life, you might not even notice it in the first place! So, uh, take those wins where you can get them.
As for what he is as a yandereā¦ Well, for the sake of having a direction, Iāll state the archetype heād fit under and elaborate further. Heās the overprotective-possessive type of yandere who starts off not that bad but has the potential to get so, so much worse. Letās start with the first half of that statement.
Constantine before this scenario was already a protective man, itās practically baked into his Spirit Origin for crying out loud, but itās cranked up to an eleven here. The way that he sees things and other people has been twisted by his decline in sanity thanks to none other than you. He hurts so bad when you push him out of the way to take a hit that was meant for him and the repetition of this happening along with the fact that heās consistently failing to protect you is what got the ball rolling in the first place. So. In an effort to prevent that scenario from happening, Constantine has gotten much more brutal in battle. He always had an air of class and elegance in his fighting style that befit his title of Roman Emperor, but now? Now heās fighting like heās going to die in five minutes and is trying to take as many people as he can down with him. He also talks significantly less as a result of this change, only breaking his silence to bark orders or check to see if everyoneās okay. If anyone comes up to him after the dust settles and asks whatās up with him than heāll āsheepishlyā apologize and state that heās just taking things more seriously now, so donāt take it too personal, ākay? ā¦This shift, as time goes on, will also apply outside of battle but not in the way that youād think.
Let me give an example to illustrate. Say Constantine was heading to your room to get you something you forgot and in there he findsā¦oh, I dunno, Kiyohime? Really, any person whoās in your room when theyāre not supposed to be works... But anyways, he finds her and in the event that she doesnāt leave when he asks her toā¦ Well thatās when things get ugly. Instead of gently dragging her out or calling for aid like heād normally do, Constantine immediately engages her. And the resulting fight is a mess with Micheal not holding anything back and Kiyohime presumably doing the same. The battle will only end if Kiyohime flees, Constantine gets his ass beat, or a third party ends it for them. If an outsider were to watch the scene unfold, theyād think Constantine was really trying to kill her.
His brutality on the battlefield has leaked into his time off it with the way he treats everyone in relation to you. Bad influences, dangerous people, nosy and peeping tomsāthey all get the axe equally, which would make one question if he really sees his fellow servants as allies or not. ā¦Which they arenāt, of course. Theyāre either problems he has to ācorrectā on a daily basis or your subordinates who he fights with occasionally. They pale in comparison to you, the unfortunate subject of his obsession with the life he never got to have. This dehumanization is something that comes slowly and the man himself doesnāt quite realize how heās drifted off from his friends and acquaintances. But thatās fine. He has you and he only needs you, likewise that you have him and need only him, right?
Sooner or later, Constantineās usual paranoia regarding the fact that you might die soon will have morphed into a general distrust for anyone that isnāt himself or you, and that manifests in several different ways but namelyā¦
Possessiveness. There are quite a few servants who boldly proclaim their undying love for you and it makes him sick with jealousy. How dare these people who barely know you act like theyāre a better fit for you than him? Heās your protector, your wall and the one you cling onto at all times when youāre in distress. The only person who is allowed to have you is him because he earned it and you prefer him over everyone else anyways, right? ā¦Right?
While anyone could be the source of the green in his eyes, there is one servant who he constantly curses because they are for you what he is not. And that servant is none other than your kouhai, Mash. She is your first servant, your closest friend and has been with you since the very beginning. Your tight bond with Mash and the implicit trust that comes with it far outshines what he had with you in the beginning and has with you now. Even if everyone else in your life despises you or you despise everyone else (which heād like very much), there will always be a spot for Mash. Mash will always be there for you and the profound impact sheās had on you cannot be understated. Bad as that is, he also envies her for her class and what that class represents.
Shielder. The physical embodiment of protection, the ultimate bulwark and the class that specializes solely in defense. That class should be his and yet here Constantine is as a Rider. His final years on earth were devoted solely to saving Rome and he put his everythingāblood, sweat, and tears into it. Yes, he did fail in the end but that shouldnāt disqualify him from being one! ā¦Itās not fair. Itās not fair that Mash was handed this class on a silver platter (not true) for doing nothing (very not true) while heās stuck as a Rider for doing everything he could and failing!
Needless to say that Constantine, despite knowing deep down that itās not possible, will be trying to drive a wedge in between you two and his deep envy for Mash is making him less subtle about it. Heās visibly stiff and passive aggressive around her, not even sparing your kouhai a glance. The tension in the room could only be cut with a saw due to the difference in how softly he treats you versus Mash. Itās awkward for everyone involved and Micheal hopes that this awkwardness is enough to get you to give up on her. He is all the protection you could ever need, just look at his Noble Phantasm. How many servants do you know who can break through it? Not that many.
There is also something to be said about how his usual denial is doing in this scenario. See, not once did the thought that Constantine may be hurting you or making you worse ever cross his mind. Constantineās actions come from a genuine place of love and care, a desire to see you happy and well. That has not changed and will never ever change. Seriously. He loves you to an extremely unhealthy degree and cannot imagine being without you or hurting you. ā¦That being said, he doesnāt think himself to be the bad guy in this scenario. Heās so deeply entrenched in the euphoria of having a spouse again or a child that his morality and conscience were eroded in record time. This ādomesticityā has made his denial so bad that nothing he does to you is a bad thing and is beneficial for you in his mind. Constantine is a good man, always has been and always will be. Forgiveness? For what, he canāt quite recall. Though that word does invoke a rather strong sense of melancholy for reasons that our friend here doesnāt care enough to look further into. He has you, and thatās better than any forgiveness he could receive from anybody.
What is Expected?
Since there is a section ahead specifically addressing the romantic aspects of this scenario, Iāll be focusing on the more general ones here since Constantine as a yandere can be platonic.
Letās start off by listing what we do know so far. Heās virtually glued to your hip, heās coddling you to high hell and back with how heās barely letting you do anything yourself, heās low-key menacing people away from you, and heās mauling anything that even remotely threatens your safety or his bond with you. Thatāsā¦well, it could be worse. No basement and all that, but again itās not that good either.
The more time that passes, the more Constantineās stuff ends up in your room. Like, heāll give you a blanket, youāll take it back to your room and when you give it back heāll just tell you to keep it so you wonāt be cold. Then heāll be chilling in your room another day playing chess with you and when you pack up the board and hand it to him, heāll just tell you to keep it there since youāre his chess partner and itāll be more convenient in the future. Constantine frames this as him helping you, which he does truly believe, but really itās just his subtle way of telling anyone entering your room that heās the one with the privileges and his spot is right next to you and there is nothing they can do about it. You and him are really, really close is the message that he wants to send.
Itāll get to a point where your room consists of 50% or more of Constantineās stuff. An outsider could easily mistake you two for roommates because of how natural it looks. Not only that, heāll also start being in there more than in his own room and the sleeping bag on the floor proves it.
Now, while I have been saying that Micheal is with you all the time, he does have the inherent decency to respect your personal space and wishes as long as they donāt involve him being too far away from you. You could ask him to face away from you and not look at you, heāll comply. You could ask him to hide under the bed to at least give you the illusion that youāre alone and heāll comply. You could hide in the closet or the bathroom and so long as he knows youāre in there, he wonāt bother you. ā¦At least until you need to eat or do stuff and even then he wonāt be sour about it.
The sleeping bag also proves that he respects your space because, while he never asked to sleep in your room, he never laid on your bed or even considered sleeping in it in the first place. He just assumed that you wouldnāt want him there. Now, if you offer it to him and say that youāll sleep on the floor instead, heāll deny you immediately. He says that heās accustomed to sleeping on hard surfaces, as any military official should, and that the bed is better for you. Now, if your bed isnāt bolted to the floor, then he wouldnāt mind getting a bunkbed if youāre really feeling guilty about him on the floor. Justā¦donāt call dibs on the bottom bunk. He doesnāt feel comfortable being so close to the ceiling.
In terms of being coddled, independent masters are going to be in hell. He feeds you your food, he helps you put your coat on in the morning, heāll cut you off when youāre halfway through writing a report and tells you to say what you were going to write next so he can write it for you, he insists on being the one to push the crosswalk button and heāll hold your hand as you both cross the streetāhell, this is a living hell for the self-sufficient because you are almost always going to be helped with something whether you like it or not. The first time you decline him, well heāll just think youāre being cute and heāll insist. The second is when he tells you that you donāt have to be shy, heās happy to help. The third is when he tells you that thereās no shame in accepting helpāugh, so on and so forth. Heāll just keep gently poking and prodding you to give in and accept his help, not a grain of anger in sight. Itās so unintentionally patronizing that youād almost want him to actually lash out at you so you donāt have to hear any more of his self-righteous cooing. And the worst part is that he genuinely believes that youāre just being super cute and shy about it. This isnāt an act, heās being sincere and heās loving every single second of this. This invasive and suffocating form of doting and care comes from a twisted mix of his Acts of Service love language and his desire for the domestic life that was stolen from him. After all, whatās more domestic than a father or a husband taking care of their loved one?
Iāve already gone into it in the previous section, but Iād like to add that Micheal is fully capable of murdering any of your servants and depending on whoās in your roster, heād probably get away with it. This is, of course, a last resort. For all his madness, Constantine is still himself. He takes no joy in harming others and it brings him pain. But, you and his continued bond with you is worth the lives of an innumerable amount of people in his eyes. So if there really is a substantial threat to that, then he isnāt going to hesitate in removing that person from the mortal plane. Easiest decision heās made, the weight of which will be lifted when he returns to your side once more.
Itād be comical how he destroys any slight threat to you if he wasnāt so utterly cold and ruthless about it. There is barely anything left of whatever tried to attack you, just a pool of blood and some chunks to indicate that there was, in fact, a pile of meat there. Itās a far cry from how he normally fights things and his usual āscaring away the hoesā vibe that normally goes unnoticed in Chaldea has intensified to a degree thatās on par with the atmospheric shift in the second section of āWhat it Means to Protect You.ā Itās THAT bad. To make things more unnerving, the moment he turns to look at you when the dust settles, heās back to his āusualā self and that aura has disappeared completely. Heās giving Okita a run for her money with how effortlessly he swaps from being Emperor Constantine XI back to your friend Micheal.
Now, if he detects that youāre starting to become afraid of him (and after seeing that who wouldnāt), then heāll tone it down as best as he can. The denial is strong, but not strong enough for him to not be aware of the fact that he might be scaring you. In that event, heāll gently grab you by the shoulders and swear to you that heāll never ever hurt you like that. Itās just for your enemies and your enemies alone. ā¦Whether this is a true statement or not ultimately depends on what the future holds.
How Do You Deal With Him?
This is surprisingly very easy. Just go along with it. You donāt have to love him back, you donāt have to coddle him in return, you just have to play along with his fantasy and youāll be fine. Erā¦ By you, I mean to say the people around you. See, Constantine will never attribute the fault to you and especially not to himself. Itās always something or someone elseās fault that anything bad happens. So. If youāre constantly acting out and trying to avoid him, itās 100% someone sabotaging him and manipulating you. And when he finds this person, theyāll either be afraid of interacting with you in any capacity beyond work or theyāll be dead by the end of the month. The worst part is that the āculpritā may not even exist and he just picks whoever has been pissing him off the most recently and applies the crime to them instead to have an excuse to get them out of his way. While denying that heās murdering someone for petty reasons, of course. Does it make sense? Absolutely not. Is is supposed to? Absolutely not. Weāre too far into the bad end route to be applying rationale to Michealās actions, heās not sane and his composure is an illusion to hide how volatile he really is. Thatās just the reality of this scenario.
So, as a general piece of advice, try not to hang out with the people you like the most because theyāll be one of the first on the chopping block when that scenario happens. Just roll with it and nobody has to get hurt or die. ā¦From your direct actions, at least. And a bit of rebellion isnāt that bad anyways since itās incredibly hard to piss him off for real. Like, youād have to know some incredibly deep cuts on Micheal to actually pierce through that thick rose tinted pane covering his eyes to make him angry. But even then itād just lead to him sulking in the corner for an hour before the denial kicks in and he just blocks out the memory of what you said to him. So you canāt even have that for yourself either.
What is the Best Case Scenario?
The best case scenario is just the two of you living out your lives together. Somehow, youāve managed to balance keeping your loved ones close enough to be in your life still but not too close as to warrant Constantine icing them while youāre sleeping. If you know Constantineās tells then you can ping when heās starting to feel jealous and pivot away from your pals in time to make the save. Our friend here will notice this and, while not directly expressing it, heās glad that youāre being considerate about his feelings. So do expect him to be softer afterwards, which before this one probably wouldnāt have thought it possible for him to get any softer than he is.
What is the Worst Case Scenario?
Oh-ho-ho-hoh! You canāt see me right now, but I am rubbing my hands sinisterly. I have been waiting for this and I hope to be able to properly convey just how terrible things can get with our boi.
Iāve stated from the very beginning that this is all your fault. You brought this onto yourself and you are now lying on the bed youāve made, absolutely none of this had to come into fruition. A 100% bonafide preventable tragedy. Howeverā¦ The one thing that ISNāT a direct result of your actions is the Worst Case Scenario. This Worst Case Scenario is caused by none other than the world around you and once it happens, there is no going back to the way things were. Youāll have well and truly lost the path to a better ending as you have reached the logical conclusion to Constantineās line of thinking.
The game has acknowledgedāto my knowledgeāvery subtly that time has a potential to be fucked. For example, Oberon has a summoning line for before LB6 is cleared, Qin Shi Huang has a line for before LB3 is cleared and so does Koyanskaya of Light for Tunguska Sanctuary. Now, why am I pointing this out? Well, in truth, the Worst Case Scenario doesnāt have to occur in Part 2. This could be reached as early as the 7th Singularity if heās there. So really, it could be anytime when it happens and thatās the scary part about this scenario. You have no idea when itās going to happen or how or why, itās just going to happen and there is nothing you can do to prevent it. So for the sake of putting you in the shoes of this poor soul, allow me to simply show a watered down play-by-play of an example and Iāll add my commentary after.
Yet another close victory for humanity with the fall of the sixth Lostbelt, but fate is nothing if not impatient. The alarm sounds and the next target is in Tunguska, Russia. Everyone, staff and servants alike, rush to the Command Room for answers. Before Da Vinci and Sion can brief everyone on the situation, they notice that someone is not among them. Usually, this person is one of the first to get here in times like these but for reasons unknown, they arenāt. Upon closer inspection, another person is also not among them as well.
Mash and a few others split off to go find them but they come up empty handed. The entire base is turned upside down, but no sign of either person is found anywhere, itās as though they both had vanished out of thin air. What they do find is in the room with the Klein Coffins, which before today was taped off for maintenance in accordance with renovations.
Itās a complete mess. Every control panel and screen was smashed into pieces with several Klein Coffins in an even worse condition than both. ā¦Save for two, of course. The light on the inside told everyone what they needed to know.
Two people ravaged the room and two people somehow rayshifted despite the systems being down for maintenance. No one quite wanted to believe it since it was soā¦out of character for either person. They wouldnāt just run off like this, would they?
Thus, in an effort to manifest a different answer, the loudspeaker rings out in the halls:
āāāāāāāā and KÅnstantĆ®nos XI report to the Command Room immediately. āāāāāāā and KÅnstantĆ®nos XI report to the Command Room immediately.ā
ā¦But no one arrives.
To find out where you and Constantine went, one need only look back several hours into the past.
You were in your room, going over what materials you were going to farm tomorrow for the new arrivals you had summoned. After finishing writing down that list, you walked over to the door to set out for a late-night snack. Upon opening it you see a familiar, yet surprised face.
āAh! Thank goodness youāre here. I was worried you were already asleep.ā
It was your close friend Constantine and he was looking out of breath. He was in his second ascension and carrying with him a satchel that reminded you of Nightingale. The look on his face wasā¦well, it was normal on him usually but something about it tonight was off. The small smile on his lips was something you saw often and felt comfort from, but now? Right here and right now, it was disconcerting. You brush it off and greet him as you usually did before attempting to move past him. He unexpectedly grips your forearm, not enough to hurt but enough to tell you to stay put.
āAhā¦ Master, Iām sorry to cut into your plans but miss Kyrielight has called a meeting in the Command Room for a mandatory training exercise. Apparently sheās worried sick about our performance concerning the previous campaign. Follow me.ā
He moves his grip from your forearm to your hand and starts speedily walking in that direction, dragging you with him. You didnāt question the sudden exercise, the way he practically had to spit out your kouhaiās name, or how pushy he was being. This was Constantine, after all. Heās one of the most trustable people in Chaldea, right up there with Mash.
Thanks to the time of day, that being the wee hours of the night, neither of you bumped into anyone and you both reached the Command Room and the adjacent room with the coffins.
He grabbed the handle and pulled the door back, taking several steps aside to do so. He gestures with his hand for you to enter first, like he always does.
The room would have been pitch black had it not been for the lights of the coffins and various pieces of technology dimly shining in the dark. This lack of light did well to obscure the yellow tape and sign on the floor that was removed only a few minutes before Constantine had met up with you, and you were none the wiser to the truth of the situation. The Rider behind you being the reason why your internal alarm bells have rusted over.
You walked in, expecting Mash to be hiding in here somewhere only to findā¦a sharp pain on the back of your head. Your knees buckle from the shock and pain of receiving such a blow, your limp body being caught mere moments after by a strong arm. You feel a pinch in your neck and just before your consciousness fades to black, you hear a familiar voice whisper.
āSleep well, Master. Iāll be here when you wake.ā
There it is! He did the thingāthe yandere thing! He actually fucking kidnapped you. Hehe, my excitement aside, letās get into what happened.
So. As weāre all aware, LB6 was the biggest shitshow to date. Thus, after having been put through the wringer himself, watching you run around like a chicken with its head missing after being separated from Mash and then getting put through the wringer yourself, Constantine had officially reached his limit with Chaldea.
In hindsight, heās not sure why he didnāt remove you from that horrible place earlier. Sure, it was basically your home and it had everyone you cared about, but is that really worth everything youāve had to go through? Is that really worth your life? Obviously not. Constantine knew that but decided to let you be anyways and heās drawing a blank as to why. What his tunnel vision is obscuring from him is that he had friends there too and he stayed there for them. Vlad III, his predecessors, Don Quixote and Sancho, Saint Martha, Jeanne, Saint George, Charlotte Corday, Johannaāall of the new friends heās made compelled him previously to stay.
ā¦But that changed upon the realization that the family he yearned to have was right in front of him the whole time. Slowly, people faded into the background and became as colorless and indistinct as the landscape outside. His time with his friends lessened and lessened until the only person heād seek out willingly was you. Everyone else was either a set piece, a necessary evil or just in the way of his time with you. Friends? What are you talking about? George isnāt here, Constantine has no friends. But he does have a family and that consists of youāas either his spouse or childāand himself. There is no one else present, theyāve been dead for centuries. But thatās okay! A family can be two people. He just has to make it work. Dedication is all it takes, after all.
So. You wake up a little bit woozy and the first thing you notice is that your dominant hand feels lighter than usual. Not a good start. When you lift that hand to inspect it, you are greeted with the horror that your dominant hand is missing and all thatās left is a bandaged stump. Now, missing hand aside, the key take away is that your Command Spells are now gone. Fan-fucking-tastic.
Before you could start panicking at the fact that youāre missing a hand, Constantine andā¦ Constantine? enter the room. The former practically bursting in and rushing to your side with the latter tagging along behind him in slight confusion. The former pulls you into a hug and tries to calm you down while the latter looks at you from his spot at the foot of the bed with an unreadable expression.
When you do calm down, your vision clears and you get a better understanding of whatās going on. The man thatās holding you has short black hair and that red armor youāre familiar with, plus heās talking to you in a very familiar manner and calling you āMasterā so you can deduce that heās your Constantine. The man at the foot of your bed has longer hair and is dressed in more comfortable yet regal clothes, he hasnāt spoken a word since he entered, so heās probably past Constantine. So. If there are two Constantineās in front of you, then that means that youāre in the 1400s. Judging by the fact that these two look exactly the same, save for the length of their hair, means that the year is somewhere close to the end of Constantineās life since the other one doesnāt look younger than your Constantine.
Thatās all the deduction you can get before your Constantine starts explaining things.
Whyās your hand missing? Your dominant hand was developing necrosis due to overuse of your Command Spells and Constantine had to amputate it to prevent you losing your whole arm.
Where are you? In Constantinople in 1449. He was told by Da Vinci and Sion to rayshift you as far away from Chaldea as he could get you because they were fending off a raid from the last Crypter, Daybit Sem Void.
Whoās that over there? His living self. He managed to convince him of his identity by answering some very personal questions and enlightening him about the future. Heās agreed to let the both of you chill here as long as Constantine pitches in with his knowledge of the future to send the Ottomans away.
Anyone whoās been paying attention will immediately know that Constantine told the truth in the first half of his second answer before lying through his teeth in the second half about why youāre here. His first answer has a grain of truth lodged in their with the poor condition of your hand but the necrosis part was a lie. The third answer is the whole and complete truth.
What really happened to your hand wasāand The man himself is too far gone to admit this to himself, let alone register that this was the real reasonāMicheal cut it off because he didnāt want you using Command Spells to boss him around or force him to kill himself in the event you realize that heās been lying to you. Thatās why, right after you were hit on the back of your head, Constantine pulled a syringe from that satchel he had with him and plunged it into your neck. That was anesthesia to null the pain for when heād amputate your hand. And for anyone whoās wondering, no, he didnāt saw it off. He had one of his phantoms (the ones you see in some of his attacks) hold your hand up and he took his sword to cut it off in a single strike. Cmonā he may be off the deep end, but Constantine at least has the decency to make it quick.
Anywaysā¦youāre basically trapped in the Great Palace of Constantinople with your servant, Constantine and his living counterpart. For the sake of clarity, our Rider friend will be lovingly referred to as Micheal until this section ends. Basicallyā¦not much has changed aside from the fact that youāre now on an indefinite vacation and your dominant hand is missing.
Constantine, when he has the time, summons you to his side and tries to get to know you. When Micheal first got here and had convinced his past self of his identity, he told Constantine that you are very, very important to him. Now, depending on how he sees you, Micheal will either refer to you as his spouse or his adopted child which intrigues Constantine. He basically wants to see whatās got his future self so enamored and after he spends a few months with you, he does see what Michealās getting at and is feeling similar but not nearly as twisted feelings. While not nearly as bad as his servant counterpart, Constantine is very protective of you. He did lose Caterina (his 2nd wife) and his unborn child seven years ago, so while the wound isnāt fresh, it still hurts. He also dotes on you in his own way which may seem like not much but itās the most he can do without attracting rumors.
Your room is the comfiest and least damaged, the servants and staff are ordered to treat you with the same amount of respect and attentiveness they would a foreign ambassador because of the fact that you are with Constantineās ābody doubleā Micheal, gifts with no name attached end up in your room at random times and a prosthetic for your missing hand is in the works. Not bad. While he does have to maintain a heavy amount of imperial decorum, Constantine does care a lot about you and makes sure to let you know that in the rare times he gets alone with you.
Now, you might be asking: āHey, wait a minute. Isnāt Micheal going to get jealous of Constantine like he does with everyone else?ā And the answer is surprisingly no. Micheal isnāt jealous of himself and Constantine likewise, theyāre both the same dude so in their minds thereās nothing to be worried about. Plus itās much more beneficial to have two rather than one.
So, in summaryā¦ Chaldea is in shambles trying to repair the other Klein Coffins to find you in time before Koyanskaya does her thing, Micheal kidnapped you to 1449 Constantinople and cut off your hand while you were out, you have two Constantineās doting on you with the living one being more stable and normal about you than the other, and finally Micheal and Constantine are working together to rewrite the future and save Constantinople from the Ottomans.
ā¦Welp, I hope you werenāt too attached to the modern era because your goose has a very high likelihood of being cooked. Have fun living in the 15th century! ā¦At least you wonāt have to read Tunguska.
Another iteration of the Worst Case Scenario, Worst Case Scenario B, could occur in the middle of a rayshift. Since Iāve already dropped the fact that he kidnaps you, there isnāt a need for a dramatic buildup this time. So Iāll make it quick.
Essentially, while you and the gang are camping out for the night, Micheal would wake you up late. Heād tell you that he found something and that you should check it out. Itās his shift for night watch, so thereās no one awake to see the two of you slip out and away from camp. Once you two get far away enough, thatās when he clocks you in the back of the head with the hilt of his sword and plunges the syringe in your neck. Truth be told, Micheal had been planning this for a while now but had put it off for reasons heā¦canāt quite recall. But whatever events have recently occurred flipped the switch in his head that Chaldea is not a safe place for you and the people there are going to get you killed. Hence the kidnapping.
You wake up and same shit: you find out that your hand is missing, Micheal rushes to comfort you and he lies to you. The big difference this time is that youāre not trapped in 15th century Byzantium, youāre trapped in his Noble Phantasm. Walls arenāt just for keeping people out, theyāre also for keeping people in. Buddy, youāre never leaving. Not on your own at least.
Thanks to the fact that his NP is basically a part of himself, Micheal has an acute awareness of where anything is inside of the walls. Meaning, that no matter where you are, you canāt hide from him. Thatās the only reason heās not glued to your side now, because now you two are completely alone and he knows exactly where you are. But hey, look on the bright side. In this iteration of the Worst Case Scenario, you have a much higher likelihood of being saved. So itās not all bad.
What Are The Warning Signs?
To reorient ourselves back into a less depressing scene, letās discuss how one can tell heās going yandere. Assuming that you arenāt a mind reader and Constantine hasnāt opened up to you at all, here are the warning signs for this route from āshallow end where you can bail quickā to āone foot in the basementā type signs.
Heās not completely there/is spacing out often:
This is before the inciting incident with him having a serious conversation with you and itās mainly him trying to troubleshoot whatās wrong with his actions in battle or your team comps.
Heās constantly lecturing you about not getting hurt and how much āeveryone elseā hates to see it:
Post-inciting incident, itās just him begging you in an unclear roundabout way to stop. Donāt mistake it for self righteous nagging, heās just being stupid about not communicating his feelings. Typical Micheal.
Heās much more brutal in battle/doesnāt talk much in battle:
Already gone over this, but you should know that fights are ending much faster thanks to Constantineās shift. Although, this has the unintended side effect of your other servants and himself getting hurt more often which may lead you to do more of those self sacrificial plays. That will, in turn, cause Constantine to be more ruthless in battle to compensate and the cycle will feed itself. Somebodyās gotta stop and itās not going to be Micheal.
Heās around you a lot, lot more than usual:
Ya boi puts a lot of weight and has a great respect for alone time but heās sacrificing that by being around you more and more. First is to enact his plan to make you as codependent on him as he is you make you accept help for once and because he genuinely enjoys being around you. Thereās an almost euphoric glint in his brown eyes that hint at something far deeper at play when heās around you.
He starts doing things for you more than usual:
Already have gone over this, but heās basically coddling you to make you useless. His invasive care for you is a way that heās showing his twisted love and youāre going to accept it whether you like it or not.
He gives you his stuff to keep in your room:
His jacket, his blanket, the case with his chess and checker setājust stuff thatās easy to get you to take in the beginning. Thatāll warm you up slowly to the idea of living with him forā¦ future endeavors.
He talks shit (in a fashion befitting a Roman Emperor) about the people around you frequently:
Constantine has nothing but subtle insults for the people you hang out with or choose to deploy for battle. Youād have squeeze even the smallest of compliments out of him and even then itās backhanded with a side of passive aggression. He nitpicks the hell out of people in an effort to get you to see them the way he does, as unreliable and untrustworthy. Heāll ācounselā you on better choices and that really just means that youāre benching the people whoāve been making him jealous recently.
He completely tunes out when you talk about Mash/is passive aggressive towards Mash:
For reasons already stated, Micheal wants nothing to do with your kouhai. You can see in real time when his eyes gloss over the second he pings that youāre talking about Mash. Not a single word of any worth will come out his mouth as he just nods his head and waits for you to finish. He doesnāt ever tell you to not talk about her because he knows that you wouldnāt be happy with him and that thought just pisses him off more.
Mash will come up to you, in the rare occasion that Constantine ISNāT at your side, and will ask you if you know if she slighted him in some way. Apparently heās been super cold and curt with her as of late. Hmmā¦ Wonder why.
Frequent musing to you about how youād fit right in with his family and what life wouldāve been like if you were around when he was alive:
It sounds innocent on the surface, doesnāt it? You two are such close pals that heās talking to you about his family and how much theyād like you. How you, him, and George would be getting into all sorts of shenanigans and stuff. But the frequency he brings it up almost gives the impression that heās testing the waters forā¦something. Well, it doesnāt matter what your opinion is, itās probably going to happen anyways.
Freudian slips referring to you either as his spouse or his child:
Exactly as it is on the tin. There are times when heās talking about you or referring to you in conversation that heāll slip and call you either his spouse or his child depending on if this is platonic or not. Not much else to say here.
Him practically sharing your room with you:
Listen. If you havenāt seen any red flags until now then your goose is already locked in the oven, man. Itās over for you. Like, I have doubts that youāll be able to make the turn around necessary to get out of this because ya boi has probably coddled you into a predictable and helpless creature. Heāll immediately ping when youāre starting to get suspicious of him and heāll just dote on you more to get you to forget about it. And at this late in the game, itāll probably work! So, if you havenāt even noticed this, then youāre toast.
How to Avoid This Shit-uation in the First Place.
The answer is so, so simple. Donāt be an idiot and try and get yourself killed. Thatās what started this shitshow in the first place. If you take care of yourself and demonstrate that your self preservation instincts are functioning, then thisāll never happen. Youāll be on the normal route and you can move to get the true ending.
For the heroic master I described way back in the beginning, this is like asking to turn a plastic glove into hot sauce. Seemingly impossible, but is actually so with the right amount of effort and dedication.
It almost seems too easy, but it really isnāt. Itās just that simple.
How External Factors Come Into Play.
Up until this point, Iāve been writing this in a vacuum. Now, in this section, letās get into the person who is most likely going to be your savior.
Mehmed II:
Just like in the Romance Headcanons, the Father of Conquest is your greatest ally. Heāll be the first person to ping that Constantine isnāt well thanks to how observant he is of people. The only issue is that Mehmed canāt quite confront Constantine on anything since Micheal hates him and wouldnāt listen to a word he says. Thus, our favorite sultan goes to you and asks you if you know whatās up with him. If you answer that you are aware of whatās up with Micheal, then Mehmed will leave you to your own devices since, much to his disappointment, itās ultimately none of his beeswax. This is a decision he will come to regret.
If you answer that you donāt, then the sultan will consider stepping in but ultimately wonāt actually make a move until Constantineās plan is well under way. If there ever had to be a person devoted to personal freedom, then it would be Mehmed II. His entire life from childhood to death was put into being the sultan, and while he doesnāt necessarily regret putting his everything into it, he does regret not spending time doing what he wanted to do. So, when Mehmed sees the beginnings of a cage slowly forming around you, that is when he decides to act. Remember, he sees you as a reflection of himself, so the last thing Mehmed wants for you is to be trapped in the same gilded birdcage he was in since birth.
Ya boiās aid pretty much amounts to getting you away from Constantine as much as he can. He canāt confront Micheal directly because of previously established reasons and because it might turn you away from him and potentially push you towards Constantine. By forcing you to have space away from Micheal, Mehmed provides you the opportunity to consider the previously mentioned red flags and the support youād need to get to the bottom of this. You are not alone and Mehmed will do whatever he can to make sure that youāre free to do shit yourself.
In all honesty, heās absolutely disgusted with Micheal in this scenario. Thereās nothing our favorite sultan values more than personal freedom and anything that threatens that is high up on Mehmedās hit list. He just canāt fathom what possessed Constantine to do something so utterly cruel to an innocent person like you and heās finding himself to be disillusioned with Micheal as a result. Now, when Mehmed does hear Constantineās motives for doing this during the Worst Case Scenario, either by the man himself being forced to admit it or Mehmed figuring it out, heās more sympathetic but heād ultimately without hesitation cosign killing Constantine off for your safety. Hell, heād even do it himself.
Sure, losing your family, your wives and your unborn children, your best friend, and your empire would mess a person up to a high degree, but in Mehmedās mind that is not an excuse to use you as a vehicle to fulfill such selfish desires. Heās a guy with a strong sense of justice and believes in following the law and rules to a T. It doesnāt matter whoās committing a crime or why, someone has to answer for this and when Mehmed finds them they will be spared no quarter. In this case, heād be the first to propose executing Constantine XI for treason and would also add that if no one else wanted to, then heād do it himself. Thatās the kind of person he is, as ruthless as that may sound.
Now, if everyone believes that Micheal should be given a chance to redeem himself and get better, thenā¦ First would be complete and utter shock, what kind of crack were these people smoking to think that this a good idea? Constantine could be using his second chance to bide his time and wait for the perfect moment to kidnap you again for all they know. Second would be pure fury, Mehmed would be beyond furious that theyād let Constantine live after he very clearly demonstrated that he has little to no regard (in Mehmedās mind) for you. He kidnapped you and cut off your hand, they should all be thanking whatever god they believe in that Micheal didnāt up and decide to amputate your legs too, or your own head for that matter. Heās also up in arms about the fact that, in his eyes, Constantine is getting off scot free for committing a crime of the highest order. That man should be dead, not just because itās what he deserves for everything he did to you but also to serve as an example to anyone else who has similar plans as Micheal. Mehmed already has issues with the fact that Chaldea seemingly has barely any rules and no accountability, hence his shenanigans and subsequent run-ins with Astraea, but this is beyond ridiculous. What will it take then for someone to actually get what they deserve? Chaldea getting raided again? Obviously not considering the continued existence of a certain someone with a head of fluffy white hair. Will it take your death? He hopes not and he will continue to fight tooth and nail for Michael to be punished for his crimes, even going so far as to assassinate the man himself.
All in all, Mehmed is the first person to espy Constantineās mental decline, heāll aid you in getting away from Micheal, and if worse comes to worse then heāll kill him for hurting you.
On another note, in the Worst Case scenario, you may be wondering what will happen when Chaldea fixes the Klein Coffins or notices that you and Constantine are missing from camp. And I shall answer.
If Chaldea manages to fix the Klein Coffins in time, figures out when and where the two of you went, and rayshifts to 1449 Constantinople, then itās pretty much over for Constantine. Itāll essentially be a Hydrogen Bomb v. Coughing Baby type of situation since the only powerful person on Constantineās side that could fight a servant is the man himself and Chaldea would be throwing down their top Gās to find you and that comp includes none other than Mehmed II. The only thing Micheal has going for him is that heād maybe be able to hide you but thatās if and only if he knows that theyāve arrived. Otherwise Chaldea has the drop on him and with a guy who knows these streets like the back of his hand, itās not going to take them long to find you. So hooray, youāre saved! Micheal will get his ass beat and depending on how the fight goes and your intervention, he could die right there. But ultimately, the incident will have reached its conclusion with you and your missing dominant hand going back to Chaldea either with or without Constantine.
Now in the alternative, depending on whoās in your singularity or Lostbelt party this may be a more difficult situation to handle on Chaldeaās end. Constantineās NP is really, really strong and there arenāt many who can break through it. Charlemagne and Mehmed II are the obvious choices due to their connection with Byzantium, but Johanna may be able to force the gate open using her mojo or Odysseus with his āwooden horseā can probably pull it off too. I may be blanking on others but you get the idea, one does not simply break through the Theodosian walls. It takes exceptional people to do so, hence any 3-star teams or regular folks are going to have to get creative.
Itās not like thereāsāto my knowledge anywayāan invisible wall preventing one from scaling the walls or flying over them. So. Servants with exceptional agility like Medusa or Ushiwakamaru can scale the walls or Tomoe Gozen could throw someone over them (youāve seen her NP, she could throw you to the moon), or Paul Bunyan and Protea could drop people in thanks to their size or dare I say it: Arash Airlines 2 or Sky High Rider Buster Justice Bomb 2. The only issue is dealing with Constantine once they get over as he will be ready for them. Depending on how things roll, he could very well drop his NP, grab you and run. But considering the names Iāve dropped so far, I doubt heāll be going very far. So if he hasnāt killed any servants yet, you may just be saved.
But if there isnāt anyone who can do any of that then worry not, there still an opening. NPs consume mana, Constantineās very existence consumes mana, thus when manaās running low, Micheal will drop his NP and saddle you onto his horse with him to run off in a random direction. This is where the opening lies. Any servants who have a horse or are a horse themselves can catch up. Servants like Georgios, Mandricardo, Red Hare or Alexander will clutch this for you. So if you have no one else, then I hope you have them.
Otherwise you might just be on the run forever.
About the Romantic Side of Thingsā¦
Alrighty~ Weāve already seen the platonic side of things, so letās discuss what your new captor husband is like!
For starters, heās a lot more upfront and bold with his affections behind closed doors, almost always touching you in some fashion. It could be as small as locking pinkies or him resting his head on your shoulder, but he HAS to be touching you. He was already aware of the fact that he craved affection of some kind, but his mental decline and the ārealizationā that he can have that domestic life with you as your husband has made him deathly aware of just how much he needs it. This leads to him clinging onto you as much as he can, whenever he can. You are the eucalyptus tree to his koala. (Koala-stantine? Eh, not good enough.) But if you donāt straight up tell him, then heās going to be holding you and cuddling you constantly when you two are alone. And that shit goes double for the Worst Case Scenario. If heās got you rayshifted into 1449 Constantinople, then you get Micheal AND Constantine being on you with the latter only on the rare occasions he gets alone with you. If youāre trapped in his NP, then heāll just be hugging you, holding you, resting on top of you and all other manners of just being on you for nearly all hours of the day. So do let him know if you donāt like being touched that much so he can tone it down. ā¦At least when youāre awake, that is. While youāre sleeping is fair game for him to spoon you (in his mind) to make up for all the time he canāt touch you while youāre conscious. And if youāre a light sleeper, heāll find a way and if you wake up early and sleep late thenā¦ well, he still has several leftover syringes of anesthesia and a few bottles of hard alcohol to put you out with if he feels like he needs more time. He was really preparing for you to wake up mid-kidnapping or during the moment he amputated your hand, hence the copious amount of āsleeping tools.ā The alcohol was also taken if you ever felt residual or phantom pain from losing your hand, so thatās mighty considerate of him.
Heās also more verbally direct about his feelings. The positive ones, I mean. Heād still rather die than admit heās feeling bad about anything. His filter is almost gone and heās not afraid to tell you how he feels about you. He tells you that he loves you and that heād move mountains for you if itād mean that youād smile. That heād protect you from anything and all things: liars, traitors, madmen, gods, friends, familyānothing could ever get to you with Constantine by your side. And while the sentiment isā¦nice if you ignore the blatant threat to your loved ones, the fact of the matter is that he isnāt as reserved as he normally would be. And that lets a bit of the madness peek through some of the time when he muses to you about his family and how heād LOVE for you to meet them! How youād be an excellent monarch at his side and how heād show you all of the ropes, get you his old tutors from when he was a kid, and how youād look so beautiful in regal clothing from his era andā you get the point. Like I said previously, the way he talks about these things is so frequent that one may suspect that heās cooking something and the manic glint in his eye definitely isnāt making it any better.
On another note, returning his affections will pull him deeper and deeper into his delusions. He gets almost giddy when you hug him back or let him rest his head on your lap and card your fingers through his hair. As far gone as he is, he does have a level of shame left in him that prevents him from acting like a love-drunk fool in public and a level of shame that prevents him from acting too much like the codependent fool he really is in front of you. Just a baseline level of composure and elegance to fool you and himself into thinking heās still the well adjusted and reliable Roman emperor he thinks he is.
Now, if you were to go out of your way to show affectionāand do note that you donāt have toābut if you do, then oh boy. Letās sayā¦hm. Letās say in Chaldea, before the Worst Case Scenario happens but youāre in deep enough to where heās sleeping in your room, letās say you roll out of bed one night and you lie next to him on the floor. Heād be surprised by your sudden action and would ask why youāre down there. You then move in to wordlessly hug him, pulling his sleeping bag closer to you and resting your head on his chest. Micheal will be shaken. He doesnāt know why, not consciously anyways, but heās really surprised that youāre holding him like this. And when you stay like that for longer, thatās when you hearā¦sniffling? You move your head to look at Constantineās face only to see his hand covering his eyes and and his teeth clenched. His shoulders begin trembling and you can just barely see a glint of something rolling down his cheek. Isā¦ Is Constantine crying?
You move your hand to his face to wipe away the tear stains and thatās when Micheal completely breaks down and starts sobbing. He immediately pulls you into his arms and squeezes the life out of you, shaking and weeping into your hair. He rubs your back and you can barely make out what heās mumbling to himself.
āFinallyā¦ Finallyā¦ Finally, Iā¦ I finally haveā¦! Ahhhhā¦ Iām so happyā¦ Iām so glad that youāreā¦ ahhhā¦ā
The rest is incoherent and a jumbled mess of words, so you canāt quite tell what heās on about. But what you do know is that these tears are definitely not ones of sadness.
ā¦It should be noted that this scene can also occur in a platonic scenario.
What Micheal breaking down in front of you means is that heās so overwhelmed by the fact that you have just soft confirmed that you love him too (even if thatās not what you meant) and that basically puts whatever tiny piece of rationality he has left to rest because you clearly (uh-huh) want this too. Buried under layers and layers of denial, grief, and a starvation for affection and a family is Constantineās self awareness. Very deep down he knows what heās doing is morally reprehensible and is harming you, but itās been shoved so deep down thanks to the euphoria of getting what heās wanted and now that youāveāin his mindāconfirmed that youāre okay with this, that self awareness has died. Itās not coming back and youāve basically locked Constantine into his delusion by proving to him that you love him too. And the consequences of this action are accelerating the path to the Worst Case Scenario: the logical conclusion to his line of thinking and Constantine being more liable to harm others to protect you and your relationship with him. If youāre not careful then people are going to start dropping like flies under āmysterious circumstancesā so you better tread lightly because any small indication that someone likes you ātoo muchā or that you like someone else is going to get them killed. You knowā¦ ācause theyāre clearly trying to hurt you and are manipulating you. Donāt question it, Micheal knows best, obviously.
Does He Sober Up or Not?
Yes and no. If by āsober upā you mean that he realizes the error of his ways and seeks to right his wrongs, then allow me to bluntly tell you that itās impossible for him on his own. The euphoria that he receives from caring for you and coddling you and loving you (plus any affection you may give to him) has his vision dyed in a rose tint. The tiny rationale and self awareness he does have is buried deep in him and isnāt going to come out in any meaningful way ever. Your actions at the very beginning of this (remember?) have pushed him off the deep end and his sanity is at a low value, this is the bad ending route and depending on where you are in the timeline and what you do, then you probably canāt salvage this either. If you want to get him to sober up, the youāll have to change your ways early on and avoid this route altogether.
Now. If by āsober upā you mean that he has occasional moments of clarity then, yes. Yes he does have occasional moments of clarity. And those, unfortunately, only come out in Worst Case Scenario B when heās all alone with you in his NP. With things asā¦not good as they are and you not having shown him any affection of your own volition, you get to wake up to something special sometimes.
With no warning, you may wake up to the sounds of loud sobbing, arms and legs squeezing the life out of you, and a very wet shirt. Constantine is crying into your chest and frantically apologizing to you. Heās sorry. Heās so, so sorry for trapping you here, heās sorry for your hand, heās sorry for hurting you, heās sorry for taking your friends away, heās sorry. Donāt bother trying to talk to him because in this state heās inconsolable and hysterical. Heās not listening to a word you say and no matter how many times you tell him that you forgive him, heāll continue to apologize. Kicking him or pulling his hair isnāt going to do anything either so donāt bother. All you can do is try and go back to sleep or wait until he exhausts himself and falls asleep. When you wake up, the only sign that he was like this are the tear stains on his cheeks and your moist shirt. He wonāt ārecallā any of what youāre talking about andāll just liken the moisture on your shirt to him drooling, which heāll apologize for. The tear stains are something heāll refuse to acknowledge no matter what you say or do, so donāt bother with that either.
Youāre okay and heās okay. Thatās all there is to it.
Endnote: And weāre back! This is the result of me recovering my sanity bit by bit from having to write an essay for a topic I had no interest in. So hopefully after my midterm thingsāll die down a bit in that class. Anywho, letās get into the behind the scenes!
I would first like to inform you all that I had to cut a few of planned sections for this. I was originally planning on writing a section at the end for the type of master who would get this routeāthis ending on purpose. However, as I started writing things, the word count got higher and higher, high enough to where I was sure that itād break 13k and maybe hit 21k if I were to write it. Sooo it was scrapped for the sake of not lagging on anyoneās devices and being too long for a headcanons list. There was also a section dedicated to discussing if escaping Yandere!Constantine was possible but as I was writing the Worst Case Scenario, I realized by the end that I was giving tips on escaping as well as the answer somewhat being obvious and not that interesting. The answer I COULD give plus an answer as to what would happen after your failed escape attempts would make for a good section of the Yandere Headcanons Addendum. The last planned section that was cut was the section answering the question: āWhat if you died?ā And I realized as the word count went up that the answer would not only be long, but best served for a post dedicated to answering the question how Constantine would react to you dying. From him being your coworker, your friend, your best friend, romantic partner and husband to the object of his obsession, thereās a lot of ways you could answer it and Thatāll be something to tag on my already really long to-do list. In essence, most things were cut out for word count reasons. The count in question is 12,980. Yeahā¦ I was really close to breaking the ceiling and having this set be a new record holder. But hey, if you think that there is no such thing as ātoo longā for headcanon lists, do let me know! Iām really only holding back for everyone elseās sakeā¦
In the Worst Case Scenario section, I really felt like I had written like, the summary or prologue to a fic with that. And I am pondering ideas for what a longfic with him could look like because Iāve had a few cracked and barely thought out ideas in the past like: āModern AU with Micheal being so entrenched in grief over losing his wives that he hallucinates Reader to sooth his loneliness and Reader tries to help him get betterā and there would be like endings where either heād live with you forever and not get better, kill himself out of grief, or get with the lovely church organist, Modern Au!Johanna and live happily ever after with an epilogue scene of him talking to Johanna about āsomeone who helped him in his darkest timeā (Reader) and him being thankful for your help. Itās a really cracked and cliche (I think) idea that came to me when I was listening to āLittle Talksā by Of Monsters and Men a while ago and that blurbās all I got. I have no idea where to go from there, so if anyone wants to brainstorm with me if that sounds interesting, then donāt hesitate, I am always here to share the brainrot.
Constantine as a yandere is such a sad thing to see because he could get better, he really could! He doesnāt HAVE to do any of this to get the family he wants, the Romance and Confession Headcanons (in my interpretation, anyways) prove it! None of this had to happen. However, through āyourā (the loosely defined you) actions you have given him cause to take what he wants from you and people are going to get hurt, including you. I cannot stress enough just how much this version of Micheal is the direct result of āyourā actions, intentional or not. This is NOT his logical conclusion and the very nature of his character prevents him from doing this to himself. āYouāveā created a monster and youāre getting everything you deserve from it for disregarding the feelings and effects on the people around you. A master whoās doing this on purpose is also getting what they deserve from it too. So every party in this ending suffers equally.
Now on a different topic, someone may be silently asking: āBut what about seggs? Are you going to do seggs?ā And to that I sayā¦ Iām working on it. Iāve been writing an Nsfw Alphabet in my spare time and with that being my first foray into NSFW, Iām not sure if anyone wants to see it! I am genuinely thinking I should leave it as practice to never see the light of day for the inevitable NSFW Headcanons. Because I am struggling to write it because Iām worried that itās notā¦NSFW enough. As I write more, because thatās what it takes to get better, Iāll figure it out. But yeah, if anyone was wondering then now ya know.
In other Redline news, Iām going to try and catch up on those sprite posts and another thing from the Yamatai event since I was being mauled by schoolwork. So hereās to hoping my professors donāt increase the difficulty any time soon.
But thatās all I can think of for the Endnote. If you have any questions, desire for elaboration, criticisms, or compliments, donāt hesitate to let me know and Iāll be seeing you all soon!
