scaramouche wasn't necessarily a bad person. he was just... troubled. surrounded in constant misery and misfortune his whole life made him feel numb to the pain - numb to being hurt, and numb to being abandoned, etc.

but ever since his defeat in chinvat ravine, scaramouche has become a lot less cynical. even in a mech suit, altered to be omnipotent like that of an archon's, was defeated eventually by you. like the embarrassment that he was, scaramouche failed once more to do the very thing he had tasked himself to do - take over sumeru and finally feel alive, and not like the puppet that he was.

...looking back on the plan, it was stupid. his chances of succeeding were actually pretty large, but now the thought of hurting nahida like that again hurt him. ever since she had taken him under her wing and allowed him to study in the akademiya as a high-abled scholar, he's grown an almost mother-son bond with her. something that he had always been missing in his life.

something else that he had been missing was just connections in general, not just familial. hence why whenever you came to visit sumeru, beneath scaramouche's mask of neutrality and aloofness, he was beyond relieved to see you.

he was anticipating your arrival, as nahida had been acting overly cheerful lately. so scaramouche didn't even flinch when he suddenly felt two hands covering his eyes, to which he just blinked and sat still in his chair in the bustling akademiya library. he knew it was your hands - he recognized each callous, each little imperfection.

"you're back," he started off, as aloof as always. "that's why nahida has been so excited recently. i knew she was hiding something."