bakerstreet | Protected/Protector

PROTECTOR/PROTECTED
shipping meme

There’s no real push to your actions; you do them as if they were second nature. Perhaps, initially, you were assigned this role, as protector and guardian of this person. Maybe you took it on because there was no one else. A natural guardian or not, good or evil, you caught a shining to them and felt…something. Something hard to explain, but you want to keep them safe and happy - or at the very least, content. No one is as dedicated to them as you. You want them to reach their goals; to help them achieve them, you'll do what you must, even if it means being their gofer or their right hand.

But most of all, you don't want them to end up like you. They're worth more than that.

Yet somehow, along the line, you became more to them, more than just their protector. You protect them anew and you've found a different way to make them happy. It's selfish, too, because you love them in your way and you want them more than anything. You may feel guilty, of course. They don't, though, and that's what matters.

Comment with your character, preferences, and what you'd prefer to play: protector or protected.
Remember, you don't have to be so rigid. A traditionally weak character can "protect" a traditionally strong one in emotional ways.
Reply to others.

Promise ✖ You told them you would take care of their lover, no matter what. You intend to follow through with that.
Close ✖ What are friends for if not taking care of unfinished business?
Debt Owed ✖ Kindness or favor has to be repaid, even if it's an investment in someone else.
Atonement ✖ Whether or not you particularly cared for the person who's gone is irrelevant. You just need to make up for past sins.
No Good ✖ You're taking care of the one left behind, but not out of good intentions. There may be ulterior motives here - no, there are definitely ulterior motives here. Or maybe this is the one good thing you've done in your life.
Guilt ✖ It's your fault that you're here and their significant other isn't. It's a paltry repayment.
Bearer of Bad News ✖ You can't blame them for wanting to shoot the messenger. You are telling them their lover is dead.
Related ✖ In days past, the living partner would be cared for by their dead partner's family. As a sibling or cousin of the deceased, you want to continue that tradition and take care of "family."
Wo/man Up ✖ Actually, their lover isn't dead, they're just dead to you, unable or unwilling to take care of business. You're stepping up.
Friends ✖ You were all friends before, so it's only natural for you to want to look out for them now.
Derisive ✖ ...this is the person they loved so much? This is who you're supposed to protect? Pathetic.
Resentful ✖ You can never forgive them. They're the reason your lover is dead, no matter how they treat you.
What They Saw in You ✖ You're beginning to see why someone would love them, how they'd want to give up their old ways and change. It's almost...nice.
Warming Up ✖ If you didn't get along at first, the claws are being put away now. It's better to at least be civil, isn't it?
Still in Danger ✖ Whatever killed one half of the pair is still out there, and the other half is in danger themselves.
Other Complications ✖ Not only did your mutual acquaintance leave behind a lover, but also children. You find yourself getting closer and closer to them, too, even if they aren't yours.
Compromised ✖ You can't look after them with a level head. You love them.
Can't Love Again ✖ You've lost before. You can't risk losing again, can you?
Out of the Dark ✖ One or both of you find yourselves in a hole. You can barely eat, hardly sleep, and depression has taken hold of you. Together, though, you may find the light and a way out of despair.
First Time ✖ Simply what it says. You two have taken your relationship to the next level.
Changed ✖ Before, you were bitter. Hard. Jaded. Now, helping someone - specifically, helping this person - has brought a new kind of joy into your life. You could get used to it. Easily and dangerously used to it, to be brutally honest. You shouldn't allow it.
Living Together ✖ You can take care of them more throughly if you're in the same place as they are, obviously.
Hidden Jealousy ✖ When their lover was alive, you were jealous of everything they had - including the fact that they had the person you're looking after now. Admitting this may make you feel like the most awful person in the world.
Secrets Revealed ✖ Eventually, your involvement with the death of their beloved will come out, and they will never be able to look at you the same way.
Dependent ✖ Replacing one unhealthy habit with another, you've become utterly dependent on your relationship with your caretaker, your guardian, your lover.
Won't Be a Replacement ✖ You can't help but feel as if you're merely serving as a stand in for what they've lost. It's understandable, yet you still can't allow yourself to be that and only that.
Not Really Gone ✖ What is dead should stay dead, but what if who you thought was gone isn't really out of the picture? Will they be happy with finding someone else so cozy and in love with their special someone?
The Same Mistakes ✖ You're falling into the same patterns that lead to their death. Will you meet the same fate?
Who's Helping Who ✖ You think you're taking care of them and helping them through their loss. Is that the case? But who's never been this happy before in their life?
Move On ✖ It's time to put ghosts to rest and let old demons go. You can't let your life become a graveyard.
Tragedy ✖ The ending is unhappy or even deadly for both of you.
Happy Ending ✖ In contrast to the above, you're both able to live as together as happily as you possibly can, whatever can be allowed.
WILDCARD

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

(Most likely the protector)

(Open to either role)

Edited 2020-08-17 14:46 (UTC)

Edited 2020-08-17 14:45 (UTC)

[ooc: Either role.]

[ooc: either role.]

[ Either role, both roles, whatever. ]

[Would give a lot for a Mara Jade. Especially as then there'd be an argument about who was protecting who. But for everyone else, have the Luke who didn't run away from the galaxy and hide.]

[ Most likely the protector, but happy to flip it around if that strikes your fancy! ]

[ could possibly be in either position. ]

[The idea of washing was lost on Dimitri at this point. Once near prideful over his appearance as the Golden Prince of Faerghus, Dimitri was a shadow of his former self. His blond hair was matted, longer than it had ever been. It had been so long since he'd taken off his armor it was physically painful to remove certain panels of it. Beneath his soft clothes were ruined, nothing but tattered mottled cloth hanging on his emaciated frame.]

[Despite his size and his musculature, Dimitri looked rough. He hadn't been eating the way a crown prince should, his skin was sore and raw, he was covered in marks... He had scars on his back and arms and legs, across his chest... Bruises raised on his skin where arrows had dented his armor, dotting him with purple and red. Dimitri winced every time metal clanged on the tiled floor of the monastery's old bathing hall. At least the water still ran, and ran clear after enough time. Dimitri wasn't the first to use the baths but now in the late hours of the evening it was only them, and he could manage being sociable with one person.]

[Well, with Dedue specifically. He was the only ghost in his head who had stepped back in front of him, whole and healthy and alive. Dimitri couldn't stop gazing at him as his clothes were removed from his body, his one eye darting from his hair to his jaw to his neck, all over him, taking in every similarity and difference. Trying to find the sign it was all a farce and he was being deluded into thinking Dedue was here with him. That he had not been slaughtered by his enemies. Dimitri knew, in the depths of his mind, that Dedue was nothing but a ghost in front of him.]

[But this ghost touched him and gently guided him, as Dedue had always done. Nothing about Dedue was different, save the scars on his face and the maturity of age. Dimitri sniffed derisively as he was finally bared completely to his manservant, his shoulders broader than they had been five years prior, his waist still slim... Well, he'd nearly bared all to Dedue. He still wouldn't allow anyone to touch the patch over his eye; not Byleth, not Mercedes, not even Dedue... but it was damp and stuck to his skin, the skin around it red and hot with infection. It would need dealt with, but it was easier for Dimitri to shake his head away from Dedue's hand like an animal and get into the hot bath instead.]

[It was... achingly familiar, and even nice. Dimitri could admit to that at least, as the hot water soaked into his sore body, already starting to loosen the dirt practically grafted to his skin. He itched at his matted hair, peering down into the water below him with his lone eye, watching steam rise up into his face. Everything hurt, the insides of his head hurt... Not even in the normal, maddening way with voices and screaming and such. No, it itched and ached, like his brain was filling with water, slogging all around between his ears. It... hurt. But he wouldn't let Mercedes tend to him, no matter how she tried. So the responsibility had fallen to Dedue.]

[Really, he was the only man for the job.]

If I watch you for too long... will you blur at the edges as well?

[Dimitri's voice was hoarse, deeper than five years ago. Broken.]

Will I blink, and watch you disappear?

[Voicetesting, prose or brackets okay]

((The protector))

[Probably both roles tbh.]

[ooc: either role, I suppose? but mostly protected.]

[probably the protector, unless someone wants to protect him from his own terrible decisions?]

[ fallible protector ]

[Protector. It's his Thing. A lot of 27 in his canon but flexible for most options.]

[ooc: Open to either role as well as Au/cross-canon.]

[ either role would be fine, he has extensive exp in the protector role! ]

[To say it pained him to sere Dimitri like this was a severe understatement. 'Pain' could not begin to encompass the heavy weight he felt now pressed against his soul- it broke his own heart into pieces. If he had been here, if it had not taken him five long years to reunite with his lord- surely this would have been avoided.

The feeling of failure was stuck to his bones, and the dagger had only been further twisted after Mercedes had informed him of just how far Dimitri had fallen. He hadn't apologized, couldn't apologize, for he did not believe it was something he could be forgiven for. All he could do now was stay by his aside, assist however, whenever he could. Helping him bathe was the least of it.

Every movement as he undressed him was slow and careful, as though afraid to startle Dimitri with anything too quick. Dedue let him shake his head away when he reached for the eyepatch- one thing at a time. While he maintained a neutral, even gentle, expression as he helped Dimitri ease down into the water, he took note of every wound, each dropping a another rock of guilt in his stomach. ]

I'm not going anywhere. [ He assures him quietly, pausing to roll up his sleeves, before reaching for a soft cloth and pressing it to Dimitri's back. He hopes the feeling will help reinforce that he's there, he's real. ] Please, try and relax.

[ Though he knows that may be impossible. ]

[ Either, but would love to explore the protector side, literal or figurative. Also happy to include gen/platonic versions. ]

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Protected/Protector

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