Another weird random set of headcanons because I've had punishments on the brain. Odd smattering of characters; we've got John, Dirk, Dave, and Jade here. In the future I'll probably write more of these, but they were getting very long (2.8k words across these 4 characters, wow) so I didn't want to post them all at once.
TW: Sexual assault, rape, physical violence, verbal abuse.
Yandere Homestuck x Reader Punishment Headcanons (Part 1)
John Egbert:
-He punishes you very harshly for someone who claims to not enjoy it. He's not truly lying when he says he doesn't like to, but he dislikes seeing how distressed you look after more than he dislikes the act of punishing you.
-His punishments are largely based on what you've done, which at least makes them predictable. If you hit him, he'll do something to your arm, and the rest of you will likely be fine. The severity of them is not as predictable though. The same thing that got you a light backhand to the mouth a few days ago might get him to punch your teeth out if he's in a less patient mood.
-He is heavily delusional though. Sometimes you can get away without punishment if you lie about what you were doing in a way that feeds his delusions. He thinks you were trying the door because you wanted to get out? No no you would never; the lock was just catching the light weirdly and you wanted to make sure that he didn't accidentally leave you unsecured. You wouldn't want to escape. He thinks you bit him because you were trying to inflict enough pain that he would let you run? No of course not; that was supposed to be a love bite and you're really sorry it hurt him but you were just so overcome by how much you adore him. Even fully trying to injure him enough to incapacitate him could be played off as just cuteness aggression if you're good enough at lying to him.
-Sometimes this can backfire, but ultimately it's better to take the chance. Receiving a few very passionate love bites is a lot better than getting a broken jaw. Having him wrestle you to the mattress and nearly choke you out because he thinks it's just cute play with you is better than having him break your arm for punching him.
-When he does punish you though, he gets really affectionate after. He does apologize, but he always blames you for needing to be punished in the same breath. If it was a bad enough punishment though, it might get his delusion to crack for a little. He probably still won't let you go, but he really would feel guilty for doing that to you, for making you bleed and cry, for being the reason you won't love him. He'll mope and apologize and lie there with you for a few hours, but by the next day he'll be more or less back to normal.
-You might be able to get the captivity to break if you keep acting out and "needing" to be punished. His delusion can only go so far, and if he keeps having those smaller breaks in his delusion, it might let up. The hardest part of that would be surviving all of the punishments in one piece. Getting out won't feel as triumphant if you've lost a limb to him or if you die a few weeks later from sepsis. And, a break in delusion wouldn't necessarily mean he'd stop obsessing, but it might make him depressed enough that he wouldn't have the energy to keep holding onto you. Either he would let you go, or you would be stuck to rot in his home with him until his delusion comes back or his depression kills you both.
Dirk Strider:
-He does not seek to punish you. Most behaviors you do will go unpunished; he really does try to give you a lot of grace. He understands you don't want to be with him, so even if he catches you in the middle of an escape attempt, if you just act nice while he restraints you again he won't punish you for it. Hell he won't even consider most escape attempts to be escape attempts unless they get somewhere. You can test your restraints or try the lock on the front door and so long as you stop when he tells you to cut it out(usually after a minute or two of watching you try), that's fine by him. He blames himself for almost everything you do(if you escape, that's his fault for not tying your restraints better; if you try to kill him, that's his fault for not making you comfortable and happy enough that you don't want to do that; etc), so the only thing that would lead to punishment is if you are still acting out while he's trying to gently stop your behavior. His ideal would be that you learn that if you cooperate(even if you've already done something "bad") that you won't be punished.
-He's the yandere who would adapt his punishment style the most based on his individual darling. He would use whatever method works "best", where working "best" means that it stops the behavior while being as minimally distressing for you as possible.
-Could he treat every misbehavior, no matter how slight, by straddling your waist and wrapping his hands around your throat until you start using every gasp of air to apologize and beg him to stop? Sure. You would learn very quickly that you shouldn't even try to misbehave, you would be so obedient so quickly. But that wouldn't be worth it to him. He wouldn't want to have you dissociating through most days and flinching away from him whenever you're lucid enough to recognize him.
-If you ever get hurt while trying to hurt him or escape, Dirk would consider that punishment enough. If you wrench your arm out of its socket while trying to get out of his arms, you essentially have a free pass to punch and kick and bite Dirk as much as you physically can without him even considering punishing you for misbehavior. His mindset on it is that you already got hurt far beyond how much he would ever hurt you as a punishment, so he just needs to focus on getting you stable and healing what happened.
-He would rather take some time to figure out what gets you to stop without upsetting you too badly. He wants to use as little force as possible, and his default would be making captivity uncomfortable. He doesn't have to give you warm showers, he could make you take cold showers for a few days without feeling awful about it. He doesn't have to go out of his way to get you foods that you like, you could survive eating microwave rice and canned beans for a few days. He would never go for rape as a punishment, but he could undress you for a few hours and go about captivity like normal (he wouldn't ogle or touch you inappropriately, but having to lie naked with him, even if the two of you are just watching TV, would be uncomfortable enough for him to consider it adequate punishment for whatever you did). He doesn't want you to build any resentment though, so if changing your environment makes you seem afraid of scarcity(through food hoarding, taking longer hot showers, etc) Dirk would stop using environmental control as a punishment.
-He might go for threats instead if those work better on you. If threatening to hurt you gets you to stop but makes you panic and cower instead, he won't threaten to hurt you again. If threatening to rape you gets you to stop but makes you dissociate, he won't threaten that again.
-If threats seem to work but leave you on edge like you're waiting for the other shoe to drop whenever you upset him, Dirk will move into light physical punishments. I think his go-to physical punishment would be spanking. He can easily control how much it hurts, it's got an obvious start and end where *he* is the one deciding when it's finished(unlike choking, where he would have to stop before you pass out), and it won't leave serious marks or scars. He would hope that all of that combined would make you feel like the other shoe *has* already dropped, and it was only 3 light taps. He just doesn't want any sort of fear lingering over your head that your punishment isn't over yet.
-If the threats work without leaving you scared of when you'll get the "real" punishment, Dirk won't have to lay a hand on you. If you start off being scared of the other shoe dropping, he might slowly wean you off of the punishments (3 taps goes down to 2, then down to 1, then just putting you in the position without actually hitting you, then just telling you that you're in the clear without doing anything to you) until he can just tell you that you're not in trouble and you'll believe him. Is he functionally training you to stop being scared when he tells you that you can stop being scared? Yes. He wouldn't even bother denying it if you asked. He wouldn't really abuse that though, and he would never tell you that you're in the clear when you aren't. It's a matter of trust in his eyes; he wants you to know that you can relax and be at ease around him, that he isn't constantly watching you for things that he can punish. He knows that he's the only real threat that you're seeing in captivity, and he wants to minimize how much of a threat he seems to be.
Dave Strider:
-I think his punishments would be some of the most erratic overall, mainly because he can't be consistent with them. It'll be obvious what you did to get the punishment, he's not the sort of yandere who would punish you for just anything. So long as he can convince himself that you didn't really mean it, your punishment will be minimal if it happens at all.
-If he finds you trying to slip your restraints, he'll be willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that your skin under them must have just been itchy or something so long as you stop trying to get out when he enters the room. If he gets into the room and you're already untied though, there is no doubt for him to give you the benefit of. At that point, you can fight back and get punished, you can apologize and help get yourself back into the restraints, you can try to convince him that you missed him and wanted to find him (which, if he believes you or is willing to go along with what you're saying, will likely lead to you getting sexually assaulted or a night of you having to watch him sulk on the couch about being led on. If he doesn't believe you, you'll be punished in a more intimate matter, whether that is rape, sexual assault, or just being wrestled down on the bed and forced to cuddle with him.).
-He is absolutely capable of getting upset at you though. His anger may not come out in the most standard way, but over time you will be able to tell when you've pissed him off. He would mostly get angry at you if he caught you in the middle of an escape attempt or if you were being especially non-cooperative. He's willing to tolerate a lot of rebellion from you, but there would be a point where he gets fed up with you dodging all of his touch and never talking to him. It's not frequent at all; it does depend on your behavior as a captive, but unless you are really trying to escape non-stop and actively trying to ignore him and piss him off, he won't get too upset. He doesn't tend to extrapolate rejection either. Even though it really stings for him, you turning your face once when he wants a kiss won't make him punish you; he'd only do that if you turn your face away every single time he wants a kiss.
-He would attempt to do harsh punishments in the heat of the moment. No matter how angry or desperate he is, it would be very difficult to get him to lay a hand on you. But it is very easy to turn off the lights in the bedroom and let you know that he won't be coming back to see you for a day or two before he locks the door. It is very easy to crank the AC up and take off your blankets and maybe even clothes and tell you that he won't be changing that for a week. It is very easy to tell you that you'll be going the next few days without food.
-Luckily they are just decisions made in the heat of the moment. He can never follow through on any of them, even if he sounds scarily dedicated to the idea when he starts. He'll leave you alone in the dark for a few hours before he comes back in to apologize and fix what he's done and practically grovel for forgiveness. He is another yandere who is very clingy after punishments; he needs to comfort himself after what he's done, and he finds the best way to do that is to curl up with you on the bed. You don't even have to do anything for him then, he knows he doesn't deserve it.
Jade Harley:
-She doesn't "punish" in the standard sense. Her punishments are more like her getting upset and that boiling over and her taking it out on you. They don't happen too often, but when they do happen they are at fairly unpredictable things. She might get huffy at you when she catches you in the middle of an escape attempt, and then fully start tearing into you if you try to ask to watch a different movie one night. Even when you track the pattern that they happen when you seem to not appreciate things she's doing for you(picking a movie she knows is your favorite, picking a food you enjoy, etc.), they still happen sporadically enough within that pattern that it's hard to predict.
-She would go for verbal punishments more often than physical punishments. She'll shout at you and degrade you and try to make you feel lesser. It's not really conscious; she's not thinking out what she's saying or really how badly it'll make you feel. All of her frustration and anger is just slipping out sideways and hitting you.
-If her verbal punishments do not land, if you keep acting on the offensive when she gets angry at you, she might snap a little harder and hit you. It's not controlled, it's not even like she means to. She always looks more surprised than you feel when it happens, like she can't believe she actually hurt you like that. It would almost be better if she was doing it to be cruel, instead you have to look at her shocked expression through the reflexive tears that formed when she slapped your face.
-The only benefit to her snapping enough to hit you is that she won't do it again until the marks fade. She won't even yell at you. Every time she gets worked up and angry enough that she would yell, she'll have to look at the handprint on your face or your black eye or the way your nose is not quite as straight as it was when she kidnapped you. It makes her feel distraught and guilty enough that she can't even stay angry at you, no matter what you've done. If there's any time to really make an escape attempt, it's the day or two after she hits you hard.
-She will always feel bad when you seem scared or upset by what she's done, and she will often apologize for it, especially if it's obviously pushed you away.
-She'll feel most guilty for lashing out at you if you've been acting good overall, and just happened to do something she wasn't a fan of. It'll feel like a huge backslide to her, and she'll know it was her own fault even if she doesn't know how to fix it once it's happened. She always feels like her behavior is the only thing in the way between her and having a healthy relationship with you.
-She is also very clingy after she's punished you; it goes hand in hand with the guilt. It's a weird sort of clinginess. It really feels like she's trying to make herself smaller, like if she curls up on the bed with you without saying anything, you won't think she's as much of a danger. Like if she can hide her teeth for long enough, you'll forget they're there, and she'll forget they're there, and the two of you can be happy together.
