THE MASTERMIND AU MEME

[milliondollarpipes]

THE MASTERMIND AU
AMBIDEX EDITION

With Round 3 now over, it's about time we had the mastermind meme!

To those who aren't familiar, this is essentially an AU where your character is the one responsible for Round 3's Mutual Killing Game, and all of the carnage that came with it, from the kidnapping to the motives to the trials to the executions! And now, they have chosen to reveal themselves before the remaining members of their class at the final trial!

As such, you are free to play around with this as much as you would like; did your character make a contract with Kyuubey, or did your character put everyone in the Killing Game for a different reason? What is your character's motivation for bringing despair? What do they intend to get out of this seemingly senseless killing? And what does the rest of the class have to do to stop the madness and go home?

There's probably going to be quite a bit of AUing from your character's original canon happening here to make them into the best harbingers of despair they can be, so feel free to go as nuts with it as you want to! And, of course, feel free to tag others with your character's reaction to their classmate's big reveal; it doesn't matter whether or not your character made it to endgame, have fun and mix up the survivor pool as much as you'd like!

Oh, and feel free to describe your character's sweet new Monobear-themed duds, too!!

Original meme text borrowed and modified from loveisanopendoor!

Comments

[occultigen]

It's all right. I've got you; it's all right.

[It's not. He's dying, and there's nothing she can do to make that all right, but she's here and that at least makes it a tiny bit better than it could've been.

There's a dead girl here. Someone he loves, that he's fought and now will die trying to save. She's gone now, too, and once — once the thought of it would've made her sad, and bitter, and heartbroken, but somehow the only thoughts she has for Dave's friend Jade in that moment are You loved him, too, didn't you, and I'm glad you did, too.

She holds him tight, shifts him in her arms to make it a little easier, and reaches for his glasses the same way she once did outside of Tucker's room, moving them away to see his eyes one last time.]

It's all right. You made a difference. You mattered.

[callbacks]

[He has no strength to resist, and while the sunglasses are a comfort, a gift from his best friend, the girl is holding him, and that's. That's better. That's warmer, and with his shades out of the way, she seems that much brighter. With the lights going out all around him, her hair seems like a halo, soft and golden.]

Oh. Really...

[He has no idea who she is, but he doesn't mind her face being the last thing he sees, he thinks. It makes the concept of death--of being really gone forever--a little less terrible, if he can remember something like this in the dream bubbles.]

That's...really fucking...nice of you to say...

[He can't really breathe. The white one--she got him right through the breastbone, he can't do anything. But while his eyelids flicker, he manages to whisper one last thing.]

Hey. I don't...know you, but. Can you do me a thing...

[occultigen]

I know. I know you don't. But I'm someone who loves you.

[Just a few more seconds. Please.

She wants to beg for that, but she's afraid to take her eyes off of him, even for a second, lest he slip away while she's not looking.]

Anything. Anything you want.

[Don't die before you tell me.]

[callbacks]

[His eyes round when she says that, and his mouth opens a bit to retrace the letters: 'love.' He doesn't say it, doesn't return it, but his eyes are fixed on her even as the rest of him slowly fails.]

Say...say that again. But...

[He can't lift his arms to touch her face. His fingers twitch weakly. That's as much as he can manage, and it sucks, but.]

...Smile...? So...I remember...

[occultigen]

[It's hard, of course, to find a smile amid all this. After everything this day has been, everything she's seen and borne witness to — but she can't bear to give him one that isn't genuine, no matter how difficult it is to produce. Not when it's likely to be the last thing he sees.

And so she reaches for his hand and catches it for him, bringing it up to her cheek with the strength that he lacks, a reversed mirror image of a touch that once made him turn red weeks and weeks ago. She holds his hand there and thinks of dinosaur suits and chrysanthemums, of the last song of the night and another moment she'd wanted desperately to make last just a little bit longer.]

I love you, Dave Strider.

[Five words that prove enough to push her over into smiling, the way she's been trying to.]

Once upon a time...you became my knight. My friend. My family. The person...who saved me. And I'll be yours, the one who loves you, forever and ever.

1/2

[callbacks]

[Hearing that, his eyes widen one more time, then crinkle in the last smile he'll ever offer, gentle and grateful and wondering. Then they close at last, and he's still.

Dave Strider dies in the Land of Frost and Frogs knowing, for the first time, a measure of peace. The last thing he saw was a smile. The last words he heard told him that he was loved.

He won't give that up to the Furthest Ring. Not for anything.

Congratulations, Meridiana Everett. You done broke the timeline.]

I don't think this is Golden Ending Meridiana what the hell did you do

[callbacks]

[Or, well, not exactly. Her timeline folds in on itself, doomed from the start, without a stable loop to sustain it. The timeline her love brought her to collapses, too, when John Egbert, Heir of Breath, decides, no. This is not the end.

Time is a resilient thing, and, like water or air, it finds its own course.

In this timeline, the ghost of Dave Strider never traded power to the night terrors, never enabled the Hotel Monofornia to be. But everything that happens still happens, and those gathered to this world by the Elder Gods remain within their embrace, protected in the memories that they meant to use as bait, but now guard with jealous, knightly zeal in the darkest reaches of space, ensure their safety and togetherness. Time passes, or perhaps not, but Meridiana, Silver, Maya, Tucker, Allie, Wash, Kureha, Ryoji, Ryuunosuke, Tsukiyama, Duster, Harvey, Isabelle, Futo, Wario, Haruka, Kayneth, Ulysses--Rufioh, who's spent an eternity here before, who knows enough to show them how to live after death--they are together, if they want to be. They still grow and learn, as they choose, as they visit one another's pasts and learn to make a present of their lives. A future, of sorts.

But if Meridiana remembers a stone tower, the near-blue of a distant forest, the aurora borealis in the sky, she might one day find a boy waiting for her in his red and black, biding time as he watches the stars.]

There you are.

[He smiles, tucking his shades into the front of his shirt, and if his eyes are the dead white of every ghost's, his expression is genuine. Warm.

Death isn't the end.]

Hey. I remember you.

[It's just the beginning.]

[occultigen]

[In the dream bubbles, she doesn't grow tired of climbing anymore.

Once upon a time, in a vastly different sequence of events in an entirely different course of time, Silver had taught her the value of the notion that ghosts don't have rules. It's not quite the same thing here; there are still things that can hurt her, and still reasons she might someday find to be afraid. This isn't one of them; there's no hesitation as she climbs the steps, no memories to drag her down into nervousness and trepidation.

There is, however, a memory lingering there when she reaches the top.

There you are. Hey. I remember you.]

I do, too.

[The corners of her mouth hurt from being pulled far to either side, and that's how she realizes she's started smiling without even thinking.]

I'm sorry I kept you waiting.

[And I don't know why I can't keep my eyes off of you.]