Telariel: Us judges are entertaining ourselves by keeping count of how many times Ozriel mentions his students from Cradle and betting on them .
Telariel: so far Zak is going to get a new couch with the amount of times he’s accidentally called them his kids. I’m getting a new gaming setup for the amount of anecdotes about them, Makiel isn’t allowed to play and claims that he “doesn’t want to” and Suriel is going to have all of our worldly belonging with the amount of times he’s pulled out random items and sighed sadly.
So Ive been thinking thoughts about Fate and Ego lately. Well I've been thinking thoughts about Fate ever since Makiel had his first full scene.
It honestly seems that the ability to read Fate, nearly without fail, accompanies an overinflated ego. Suriel and the Oracle Sage are really the only people with any degree of talent at reading fate that couldn't be considered massive assholes.
I think about the nature of the Mantle of Makiel and what an individual must do to embody the literaly universal concept of being in everyone's business and deciding what happens.
Like, we know that Icons and nearly certainly Mantles have an effect on the mindset of the person who holds them. I don't think its literally possible for a person to be Makiel without facing their own form of corruption.
The first executor program failed because by cutting the executors loose from the Eldari Pact, and, by extension Fate, freaked the hell out of the Judges, particularly Makiel, because they were so reliant on their ability to read fate that they couldn't handle having a blind spot.
But they also couldn't deal with it in a healthy way, they just cast the executors free and then proceeded to put them under ever tightening scrutiny and control rather than support.
We know Makiel turned down Ozriel's suggestion of a Reaper Division time and time again not because it was a bad idea, but because he couldn't prove it would work by viewing fate and Makiel could not except anything else. The only one allowed to make decisions outside of Fate is Makiel, and he didn't like Oz and that was enough.
We also know that despite Fate Reading being inexact and flawed, most people don't treat it that way. Its something Lindon is warned of when he learns how to do it and he is still caught off guard every time it happens, the same way every Monarch is.
My biggest point is that the flaw is known. Oz failed to predict or account for the possibility of Makiel creating an imitation Scythe because he felt it was a low probability in Fate and he had contempt for Makiel. Despite centuries of Makiel wanting to get rid of Oz and just have the Scythe for himself. Despite the obvious idea that if Makiel was to do such a thing, he would attempt to hide it in fate such that it looked impossibly unlikely.
Makiel himself couldn't read the possible outcome of the fight between Suriel, Oz, and The Mad King, because he was too biased against Oz, he was running off of incomplete information regarding how Eithan had changed because he just didn't think he could. Because of a personal grudge.
Anyway. I don't really have a conclusion other than fuck Makiel and reading Fate is a trap, especially the better you are at it.
My new headcanon is that the real reason Makiel doesn’t look eternally youthful and physically flawless like the other Judges do is because he knows that, by appearing as the same stern DILF with a vague air of perpetual disapproval that he was when he first ascended all those centuries ago while the rest of the Court of Seven all look like ethereally gorgeous twentysomethings, it’ll make everyone instinctively assume that he must be the oldest and wisest of the group.
And therefore in charge.
Ozriel, who is at least a solid couple millennia older than him and just as much of a stubborn control freak, finds this completely infuriating- but not enough that he’s going to let himself look even a fraction less hot. Death first.
To continue my Cradle-posting, I want to talk about sex. Specifically, judge sex. More specifically Ozriel and Makiel’s fascinating dynamic in the bedroom.
“Wait!” I hear you shouting, ignorant ape that you are, “those two hate each other! They wouldn’t fuck!”
1: When has hatred ever stopped two men from fucking?
2: Of course they aren’t fucking you ignoramus, they’re fucking everyone else to prove a point!
They are two of the greatest seers in existence. They have both (assumedly) mastered countless magic systems. I can only imagine the feats of sexual prowess they are each capable of.
They both think the other is useless and and have egos that out-mass entire iterations. Sex for them is a contest. Whether they’re tag-teaming Telariel or just making intense eye contact across the fuck-pit, they are each trying to prove that they are the better lay.
I cannot emphasize enough how much these men DO NOT want to fuck each other. And yet they both spend every sexual encounter thinking about the other guy.
It would be tragic if it wasn’t so blatantly self-inflicted.
Ozriel: "Ugh, l-look, I'm not gonna-"
Makiel: "Do it!"
Ozriel: I'm Oz and I was wrong
I'm singing the Oz wrong song
I shouldn't have taken that chance
Now here's my remorseful dance."
Makiel: "Do the kicks! Jazzier!"
