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Gotham's Dead End Bar - Companion Piece #1
🕑 Added 2025-02-22 16:57:05 +0000 UTC[AN: Alright. This isn’t the first return chapter of The Dead End. More like… side content. A ‘companion piece’, as the post’s title says. Omakes, but only a few. Three, I think. That’s what I have tentatively planned, at least. They’ll all be from Sean’s lives that we already know about. And mostly (I expect), they’ll focus on his death in those lives. This one (Life 68), Sean’s Cultivation World endgame, and 40k.
I’m about halfway through my reread of the whole story, but I pumped this out decently quickly in the meantime. I also already know how I’m starting the first real return chapter. We’ll be getting right back into Dead End Storytime goodness. Then, I also already have ideas for two of the ‘road trip/Sean & Didi Date’ world hops. I think I’m about back in the swing of the story already, so hopefully, things will start to really chug along here shortly. Anyway, that’s all I have for now. Enjoy :]
IIIII
— Didi —
In her free time, Didi liked to look through the veil of Sean’s extensive past. Through time and space and dimensions galore, she peeked into the lives he’d lived. Mostly, she caught slices of them. Mere tastes of everything he’d been through. It still made for a most fascinating, most entertaining pastime.
The first of Sean’s lives she saw was number 68. It was so close at hand and yet so far away at the same time. It was the life that led to the one Sean now shared with her, the death that first brought him into her Endless domain.
Sean hadn’t mentioned it in any of his stories. But that just meant Didi got to experience its novelty for herself. 68 couldn’t compare to 69. Didi took solace in that. Sean said none of his lives compared to the lucky 69. Namely, because of Didi herself, he claimed.
His reassurance sent Didi’s whole Endless Soul fluttering with happiness. He was hers. She was his. Neither of them would have it any other way.
From the moment he drifted across her lap, Didi knew he would never leave her side again. At once, it had been a new meeting and an old reunion. Now, with her atemporal, interdimensional stalking of Sean’s past lives, Didi bore witness to all of the previous times her concept had touched her beloved, her ‘hubby’ (as Desire named him), her dear, dear Sean…
Sean’s 68th life was a simple place to start. Almost mundane. Or at least, ‘mundane’ as far as Sean knew the concept. It took place in a world straight out of one of Dream’s ‘new fantasy cliches’. A world of Kings and Demon Lords, of Systems and Magic, of Heroes and Sean who bucked that trend.
There, Didi watched — felt — Sean’s conception. She followed him from afar as he was brought into that newest world and grinned as he bore the indignities of infancy as only a man who’d experienced and remembered it could.
Throughout his childhood, she was beside him and so far away. She witnessed his growth, his stumbles, his first words, and so much more as he accustomed himself to his 68th go around at Life.
Silver-haired, stormy-eyed, and precious — the child Didi watched grow was both the Sean she knew and not. Most certainly, it was his Soul and his True Name, his Heart and Mind, and steadily he made the newly familiar Body his own.
But… Sean 68 lacked the true Mark of Death. That iteration lacked the brand and claim that Didi herself had imparted on him when he first laid his head on her thighs. He also lacked the sheer scope of power Didi knew from Sean — the efforts of concurrent millennia and life upon life — for all of that power was only truly returned to him with Didi’s Mark.
The Mark’s echo was there. All of Sean, across all of his existences, bore that echo. With the first kiss she’d given him, Didi had burned her Mark right beside his True Name. A gentle touch, a loving claim, a heavy anchor, and a harsh branding all in one kiss…
In some ways, it transcended continuity. In others, Sean’s continuity was all leading up to it. Always there and not yet present, not yet real. No matter where Sean could’ve ended up through all of his lives, he’d crossed Didi’s lap. No matter what he was, had been, and could’ve become — he’d been claimed and chosen by her for good in that perfect, synchronous moment.
Didi’s Mark would always be left on Sean’s Soul, but for the lives he’d already lived, it was a posthumous thing. All of Sean’s iterations knew Death. But only the final one knew Didi.
That was fine. Didi almost preferred it that way. Sean had lived many lives, but only in the end — on the final, lasting leg of his Life and Death journey — was he graced by Didi’s claim upon him. All of him.
Her Sean was every Sean. But not every Sean was her Sean. They were the long, long prelude. They were the foundation Didi’s Sean was built upon. And perhaps they’d touched other versions of Death. But Didi was the Death who truly won his recurring, reincarnating Soul and True Name and the Legend he’d left across all of his lives.
So Sean 68 was not her Sean. And in the beginning of that 68th Life, he was — rather strangely — powerless. A child in that world — with an extensive history that it would never know. A young Body with an old Soul, and his childhood there reflected that. Didi had never seen her Sean ‘powerless’. It was a precious sight to her. But not one that could last for long.
A System was woven into the fabric of that world. Divinely imparted or simply always there, its origins didn’t particularly matter. The System visited every individual, be they Human, Beastkin, Elf, Dwarf, Demon, or any other. There, it was both the great equalizer and the great distinguisher, for through the System, the native Souls tasted strength. Power. Magic.
That world lived and breathed through its System. Yet, Sean 68 was different. The System was not all he’d ever known as it was to the natives. So, while they lived with it as they always had, Sean 68 exploited it.
Didi couldn’t stop giggling to herself as she watched him find ‘bugs’ and ‘glitches’ in the fabric of that reality. Item duplication here. A ‘negative-stat’ buff there. A ‘Skill’ that broke a ‘Stat’ that turned a meaningless spell into the greatest of Magicks. Sean found his power in that life through impossible, natively-unthinkable (and likely heretical) exploits.
As a child, Sean found many an exploit in the ‘infallible’ System. Didi’s favorite was when he would ‘clip’ himself out of the bounds of reality. He removed himself half a dimension from the world, and Didi watched him glide through physical barriers as if they weren’t real. It was a wonderfully amusing sight that allowed Sean access to places that never should’ve been.
‘Oh…’ Sean 68 muttered during one of his ‘no-clipping’ adventures. ‘Yeah, that’s a dev room if I’ve ever seen one. That has… implications. Overlord-Lite? Huh. Did I get reborn as an NPC this time? If so, they really should’ve play-tested this world more thoroughly.’
The ‘implications’ were lost on Didi as she watched. But even Sean didn’t pay them too much mind. He discovered whatever it was he’d discovered about his newest life and then simply shrugged and moved on. His 68th life was a life only he could live, and Sean didn’t let ‘implications’ stop him from experiencing and exploiting it to its fullest.
Both curious and content, he steadily entered adulthood. Yet, while the children around him aspired to follow their parents’ trades and professions or dreamed of becoming powerful heroes, Sean 68 didn’t bother. He took his impossible exploits… and used them for his enjoyment and entertainment first and foremost.
He didn’t try to become the greatest hero or villain that his new world had ever seen. He didn’t aim to slay and usurp a king — Demon, Human, or any in between. He didn’t look to godhood above any of the world’s divines. No, Sean just lived his 68th life as he would enjoy it most.
Didi couldn’t help but find the whole thing terribly charming. Just… so ‘Sean’. She knew by that point in his reincarnating journey, her beloved hubby had seen more ‘adventure’ than most anyone could comprehend. So he left the seeking of glory, fame, and power to those who desired it most. The ‘players’ Sean called them.
All the while, he was content to play a fool’s role as his newly native kingdom’s court jester. A jester who just so happened to be leagues more powerful than the kingdom’s greatest knights, the Demon King, and likely even the divines…
In that deceptive role, Sean had as many adventures as the world’s greatest heroes. All played for humor, not glory. He mocked and pranked his liege as if he was born to do it. And more often than not, he used his ‘exploits’ to do so.
Once, the King was shocked by the size of a great bird presented to him at a feast. It was certainly an impressive thing. As heavy as two men and physically larger by three. It’d been given to the King on a platter, already plucked and prepared for the oven. A raw ‘Jubbly’ of massive proportions.
When he first laid eyes on it, the King was rendered speechless. And so, Sean ensured that wasn’t the last the royal palace saw of the impressive meal-in-the-making. Before it could be cooked for the feast later that night, Sean stole into the kitchens and ‘duplicated’ the raw Jubbly.
The feast went off without a hitch. A grand occasion. The hunter who presented the massive Jubbly was celebrated. The King went to sleep that night, fully sated and satisfied. When he woke, Sean’s duplicated Jubbly was waiting for him in the royal bath.
‘A sign from the divines,’ Some within the court said.
‘A restless ghost,’ Others whispered.
‘Breakfast fit for a king!’ Sean had declared.
None ever guessed the jester amongst them was responsible for the ghostly Jubbly. Not even when it continued to reappear in the strangest of places.
One time, the royal herald unwittingly announced a new visitor to the court, only for the doors to open to that massive plucked bird. Another time, it magically took the place of a man sentenced to be executed, while the (likely innocent, knowing Sean) man was spirited away to parts unknown. Yet a third time, the King found the Jubbly in his bed after a long day and was so tired that he simply fell asleep beside it. Come morning, the Jubbly was gone again like a ghost in the wind.
The King and his court thought themselves haunted. Stalked by a long-dead, long-inanimate ‘chicken’. And nothing they thought to do had any effect on the curse. Sean, amongst them, kept up his ‘duplicated Jubbly’ reign of terror for years. And removed from it all, Didi just about laughed herself to tears.
That was just one of Sean’s jests in that life. He played more pranks than Didi cared to count, caused more mischief than that kingdom had ever seen, and mocked more serious situations than even the loathable Joker ever had. She just sat back and enjoyed the show Sean 68 was unknowingly putting on for her as he lived his life exactly how he wished to.
In another of his jests, Sean stole deep into the Demonlands bordering the kingdom. Just for curiosity’s sake, as far as Didi could tell. But once there, he found pitiable situations and sought to rectify them.
In that world, Demons and Humans were two sides of the same coin. Likely even the same species originally, by Didi’s reckoning. But history, culture, grudges lost to time, and perhaps a little push by divines on both sides pitted them ever-against each other.
Sean paid the animosity no mind. He came across a young, orphaned Demon girl from a noble family. Only the girl’s uncle remained when Sean found her, and the older Demon plotted to marry his helpless niece to steal her inheritance. Then, one morning, the uncle awoke to a terrible sickness. ‘Out of nowhere’, he began coughing confetti and expired only a few days later. In the chaos that followed, Sean ‘adopted’ (read: ‘Demonapped’) the young girl to a better life with him.
The Demonapping repeated across the Demonlands. The son of a Succubus whore who’s mother was beaten to death by a powerful client. Another son, orphaned by the eternal war on the borders. A daughter in an abusive home with dreams of singing and dancing freely. A ‘sickly’ young prince who was simply unlucky enough to be born into the danger that a line of feudal succession and inheritance brought.
Sean adopted them all, and Didi’s eyes didn’t dry for a moment in the following years she watched. He spirited them away from their unfortunate and dangerous homes. Under their new father’s care, the young Demons thrived. He showed them true, unconditional love and brought light and humor to their dark lives, and they loved him for it.
Sean taught the Son of the Succubus to harness his seductive heritage. He taught the War Orphan how to wield a bow and sword. He taught the Abused Daughter to sing and dance and let her. He taught the ‘Sickly’ Prince to live without the poison from his brothers and uncles coursing through his veins.
And for all of them, Sean taught his adopted children to exploit the System just as he did. He taught them power greater than any ‘player’ and ensured they were able to defend themselves from any comers. Even in the court of their eternal Human enemies, Sean kept them safe and free. The children grew strong and happy and loved. Didi watched from afar, celebrating as much as she lamented. If given the chance, she would’ve eagerly claimed them as her children as well.
In his court jester role, Sean pushed and pushed until something eventually broke. Simply because he could. Simply because he wanted to. Simply because it brought him joy and laughter.
He slapped the King on the ass… and lived to tell the joke that followed, ‘Sorry, My Liege! I thought you were the Queen!’
He caused diplomatic incident after diplomatic incident… and talked his way out of the consequences, ‘It’s a good thing, truly, My Liege. The visiting Queen thinks you to be her soulmate! Might I suggest a Royal Threesome?’
It was only after he captured the Princess’ romantic heart… and the Queen’s… and the Queen Dowager’s… that the drawn line in the sand became clear, ‘Alas! What would your father think, Sweetling? Your husband, Dear? Your son… Mommy? Truly, ours is a love doomed from the start. I shall never leave your side, but mine place is the butt of every joke!’
When the King discovered the affair(s. Plural), he was wroth. Naturally. Finally, Sean was declared a threat to the kingdom’s security and an insult to the King that could not be borne any longer. Calls for Sean’s execution went out, and Sean went easily.
He was old (though he didn’t look a day over 28) and satisfied by that point. And Didi suspected, eager to move on to the next life that awaited him. His adopted children were grown and likely the strongest beings in that world thanks to Sean’s ‘exploits’. His legacy there would live on through them. He was content to call Life 68 a job well done.
He comforted them before taking the executioner’s block, ‘Don’t go crying, kids. Mourn me, miss me, remember me, but don’t go shedding unnecessary tears for your old man. I’ve lived a life of laughter, ya know? Tears just don’t fit my vibe.
‘Keep on. Carry on. Let your old man go with style into his goodnight. I’ve given you all the tools you need to transcend the System, so we’ll meet again someday, I’m sure. A little thing like death never stopped me before.
‘I love you, all of you. And I’m so, so proud. No matter what you end up doing, no matter how great you become, you’ll always be my little Demons. So when I’m gone… live. For yourself, for your brothers and sisters, for my memory, live exactly how I showed you to.
‘We don’t take shit. We cause it. And we give the players and their System the bloody runs while we’re at it!’
Sean walked to the waiting block under his own power. Resting his head upon it, he looked up at his fate with a smile. The King’s expression was complex — wrathful yet full of regret and a touch of fondness. He didn’t truly wish to execute his jester, but Sean had pushed him too far. He allowed the fool his last words…
Only to immediately regret doing so when Sean opened his mouth, ‘Hear ye, hear ye! Your king is a cuckold by three! His daughter calls me ‘Daddy’! His mother calls me ‘Darling’! And his wife calls me ‘the Best Damn Dick at Court’! Hark and witness the impotent jealousy of the man who rules you-!’
The King hastily signaled for the executioner to swing his axe, but it was already too late. Sean’s head rolled free. His reincarnating Soul moved on — landing in Didi’s lap soon after — but the legacy he left on his 68th life lingered. And his former king’s dynasty would forever be plagued by scorn, mockery, and unrest. The ‘players’ who came after would know that kingdom as one of anarchy on the borders of the Demonlands.
Far away and forever by Sean’s side, Didi fondly rolled her eyes, “Truly, Sean. You can’t help but be a menace to the very end.”
Sean rolled over in bed next to her, humming sleepily, “Hmm~…~?”
“Nothing, dear. Just getting to know your past better.”
“Mm-alright… I keep no secrets from you, My Death. If you feel up to it, give my love to those I’ve left behind…”
Didi bit her lip to muffle an honest moan. That pet name… So macabre, so fond and lovely… It was just entirely unfair, “Gladly. Now, go back to sleep, Sean, and leave me to stalk your past lives in peace.”
“Mm~As you wish, My Death…”
IIIII
Comments
HiCierra
Also I know its not but I saw jubbly and immediately thought of RuneScape cause the Jubbly cooking quest line is seared into my mind from not being able to find the arrow shot across the sea…
HiCierra
Really excited, after your last Kyber punk chapter I wound up rereading dead end over the course of two days which was probably a poor decision as I fell behind on other things xD
Hiram
Generic System World sounds like something I would be really down to read, with a MC complaining about the cliches and also when cliches don't happen. What do you mean there's no observe?
placid
I'm prepared for those kids to cause batman an anyeruism when they casually break into his batcave by walking out of reality. This will be so fun!
Kasikan
I'd like to see a chapter of all his old lovers and kids getting to come to the bar. Maybe not all at once, but be fun to see his entire extended family decide to move there. Imagine hundreds of kids and lovers all there with Didi laughing at the insanity they cause in that world.
dryskies_btb
It really is just Generic System World #IDK. The closest I got to actually pinning anything down was making it sorta like Overlord (anime) with the 'implications' that the whole world is a video game/inspired by a video game in the same was that world is. Likewise, Arifureta is a good similarity, but I didn't necessarily make it any one world. It doesn't really need to be. If you know Arifureta, it can be Arifureta. If you know Overlord, it can be Overlord. Really, it's just Generic System World™
Kz3838
Thank you for the great chapter, love how you wrote this Sean is truly a menace to every society in the best kind of way. Stay safe out there and keep up the good work!
Thereader
im curious as well. my first guess was skyrim because its famous for the glitches but it didnt match. mabye oblivion ( never played the game so i have no idea if im right)
Thereader
i missed this story great work i missed sean so much.
jp9901
No matter what the reality, Sean will always be a menace to society
CkLance
Sean was a true menace in #68 😂🤌
CkLance
Arifureta comes to mind with the mentioned 'system', but the whole 'Human heroes vs Demon Lord(s)' is generic enough for it to be a number of worlds.
Delltree100
the return of Sean and Didi yay.
Hiram
What was the world? I didn't quite get the reference.
ExodiaTheForbiddenOne
Fantastic work dry loved the insight into didi’s hobbies
ExodiaTheForbiddenOne
WE ARE SO BACK it’s like it never stopped
dryskies_btb
Sauce Bonus 1: ravengrim 2: matsexorcism 3: Amanda Nicole 4: Tasha Young 5: LydiaFawn 6: xdivinedoll 7: nixxdee 8: sleebunn
