I'm really enjoying reading through all your musings on Oberon-Vortigern. A penny for your thoughts, what do you think Oberon would be feeling if when he was summoned post LB6, he ended up summoned Chaldea during Arc 1 during Goetia shenanigans? Any headcanons for potential things he might get up to or do you think he'd take a back seat on purpose?
the main point i'm honed in on with oberon showing up to chaldea during part 1 is that his pre-lb6 summoning line has him very clearly pretend to be the cheerful oberon, but even so his actual myroom lines are notably more rude than he is while acting as oberon in lb6 itself. his line for shakespeare stands out most but it also shows in how sarcastic he is about medb, or the way he keeps guda at a distance in his later bond lines. the reason oberon decides to come to chaldea is because, even if he can't admit it to himself, the people here have proven themselves "capable of loving the twisted oberon" and he wants to continue to be a part of that. even though he won't let guda know about vortigern until they find out themselves, he still feels comfortable enough around them to be a little more lax with his fairy king persona, probably without even realizing it.
there's a lot about the singularities that would hit pretty personal for oberon. by definition they're fabricated pieces of history, and until babylon we're told that nothing that happens in them will have any lasting effects on true history. once a singularity is resolved it will fade without a trace, like the meaningless midsummer dreams oberon represents. but guda and mash refuse to let them disappear without meaning. even if there's no consequences to leaving people to suffer or die, and no reward for struggling to help them, they will struggle to help them. even if the dream fades its meaning remains, even if all of it will be undone it will still have mattered. oberon already saw this mentality in action in lb6, but here is where he sees them develop it in the first place. guda and mash don't believe there is meaning because they're naive to the cruelty of the world. they believe there is meaning because time and time again they will reject the cruelty of the world. they're proven right in this when it turns out in babylon that the lives they saved indeed mattered after all.
within the confines of the role of "the fairy king who has come to help chaldea" oberon doesn't have much choice but to enthusiastically lend his aid in restoring the human order, but i don't think he'd be particularly annoyed about that. he already fulfilled his purpose in destroying fairy britain so he doesn't have any reason to want to sabotage chaldea, and as doomsday device he's probably particularly well suited to the destruction of singularities. more importantly, this is a lie of being a genuine hero convincing enough as to almost become real. i imagine that while trekking through singularities the mask will never come off, but guda is perceptive and will be able to tell that it is there. the closest it comes to slipping would be... not camelot, though i think the situation there would still have him riled up enough to approach breaking character. but the combination of meeting kingu and dodging around merlin in babylon is what's going to actually trip him up enough to show vortigern's personality exactly once.
oberon has fairy eyes, so he will be able to tell roman's secret at a glance. most servants can instinctively tell roman has something to do with the situation somehow and are needlessly hostile to him for that reason, so i think the juiciest way to handle this would be to have oberon be the only person besides da vinci who vouches for roman's trustworthiness. a favor from one liar to another. holmes has eyes that see the truth in a different way, so the encounter in the atlas institute would be juicy as fuck too.
during part 1.5, while chaldea is doing cleanup and preparing to decommission its servants, fairy king oberon holds a tea party for his master. he says, if you ever run into me on a mission, i'll definitely help you out. but I'm a troublesome guy, so don't put too much faith in me, okay? and guda responds with no, i'm sure you'll be my ally until the end.
