#Dice please buy yourself a braincell so we can discuss it please

[icharchivist]

So i was musing when I took a walk, so the manga kinda confirmed that the solo songs are canon in universe by having Ramuda’s song blasting from the speakers. (and it explains why both Ramuda and Hifumi remains a lot on their public persona instead of touching their... numberous.... issues.... they are the two most concerned about hiding their issues after all.) 

So first I’m kinda wondering how they kinda had to prop up to everyone “hey make a solo song it’ll blast on the radio” and how the companions have reacted to that. Obviously i think more about FP and MTR than the others bc... i’m just... that obsessed.... (but also i feel like the BB would be ready for it to please Ichi-nii and i don’t see MTC as the kind to care more than this. Although I can see Jiro teases Saburo on how “personal and cute” his song was and Saburo just planning more seriously to destroy Jiro’s kneecaps.) 

MTR remains funny to me bc I can see Jakurai gently prompting it and Hifumi freaking out and. refusing to record anything as long as he doesn’t have his suit on which immediatly gets Doppo to sigh out of desperation (also that would explain a lot of Doppo’s verse going “i have no fucking clue why i’m holding that mic” and i can see Hifumi teasing Doppo once it’s on radio because “even while singing you must talk about sleeping”)

But FP of course interests me the most because i’m a FP stan first and a person second,  they are the strangers, they are those who didn’t know anything about each other before being reunited by Ramuda, so their personal songs really served to lay out too the public who they were, but also to their teammates. 

Dice’s song is just... so Dice. So much focusing on the present that it feels like he’s playing as he’s singing (especially with the  “seven seven.... cherry” that really feels like he’s playing and losing lmao). Dice doesn’t talk about himself at all but in the end that emcompass very well how much it’s this thrill that is keeping him “himself” and as simple of a song, that fits him so well.

And considering that in the live we see Ramuda cheer for him while Gentaro... i hear him ask a question in a teasing way, i’m assuming that he’s teasing Dice over his habit but yeah, both actors really at least play into the idea that they are amused with this side of Dice and all. Besides Gentaro had expressed his fascination with how Dice justdoesn’t think too much forward for things and let himself stay as much as possible in the present, and how much Dice risks everything for his addiction. 

*takes a deep breath* it’s obviously Gentaro’s song that makes me go into musing since after seeing how in Live the Posse reacts to the song, i need to know how they reacted In Universe hearing it because fuck.  Like in the Live it feels like Ramuda has a face of “it doesn’t add up” to some elements of the song while Dice stiffen when Gentaro gets more personal. 

Gentaro... uses his lies to protect himself a lot. And a few of his lies had happened to turn into truth at some point and with the whole fuckery over his identity lately and the fact we know he does have a friend in the hospital, it is very likely his lies are just... disguised truth, just distorded enough (like him saying he’s born in Winter while he’s born in April-) that saying “that was a lie” make it feel like the whole thing is a lie and therefore it hides the truth far more than if Gentaro had just been completely lying. (this is also what made Stella this compeeling, as removed from reality as it was, it ended up looking far more honest on the core of the characters than they had been prior to that point - Ramuda being the most obvious one and leading to drive the same conclusion about the other two)

But how much are people aware of that?  I can see the general public just hearing his last “[this whole song] was just a lie” and just think, just like Gentaro would have wanted, that none of it is true. From Gentaro’s introduction to Ramuda it seems him being an “untrustworthy liar” would be something people /know/ about after all, so there would be no questioning being played by the famous author.  But we know Ramuda (and even the BB to some extends) kNOW that Gentaro has a friend locked in a hospital that Gentaro comes to visit regularly. So they know Gentaro isn’t lying there. 

And of course i’m thinking about Dice because... I can see Dice originally hearing the song and grow concerned for his friend, until being frustrated by this “that was a lie” because damnit he ran right into Gentaro’s lies again and he’s never trusting him again- 

but then things start adding up? Like Gentaro’s reaction to Hifumi attacking him line up with how he would react if he truly had been bullied (by the by that’s also why i would feel Dice would be concerned about this part, more than just the actor’s playing it as such in the live - with the whole “if i let you trashtalk my friend i ain’t even human” when he attacks Hifumi back- specifically for “bringing out the skelletons from the closet” which is also kinda what the bullies in Gentaro’s song used to do.).  And by the by, Dice specifically says there that he can see that Gentaro is different than usual, so Dice can pick up those disturbances in Gentaro’s way to express himself and Dice is willing to believe and give a shot to anything Gentaro says.

Gentaro’s intro rap to the Posse was about “how to bring a smile to someone who had forgotten how to do it?” and “using his pen to pierce the veil of reality”. Dice was touched by those lyrics, he explicitly states so - and they completely align with the Childhood friend story Gentaro tells in his song. And hell likewise Gentaro’s rap in Shibuya Marble Texture align with that very story, even if he says it was a lie - he keeps reusing the same story as if just saying “that was a lie” will make people forget that somehow this is important to him.

And hell, Gentaro going on in his song about what a terrible person he thought he was adds up with his portrayal of himself in Stella too. Or him saying that “I don’t want any friends - that was my second lie” when then Gentaro tells in great details to Dice a story about how would the Posse disband Gentaro would reach out for them because even if there are no path ahead of them he wants to make one with his friends there, and he’s not ready to let go? Like Dice knows the details of Gentaro’s fantasy about their friendships and it would add up with how lonely he expresses having been in his song.

The thing is that I can see Ramuda knowing what Gentaro is lying about or not - Ramuda has background information on Gentaro. But Dice? Who never asks about the past? He has information in his hands that no others characters have and he had reacted to those information outside of Gentaro’s personal song. So would he just take Gentaro’s “that was a lie” at face value or would he challenge it? I could see both really, him originally thinking “i got fucking played again” and then realizing “... or not” the more things add up. 

And it makes me pounder, do the bands make some sort of concerts in their Divisions from time to time? If Ohayo Ikebukuro is anything to go by and the fact they are treated like idols and all, and the manga showing the Posse having fans and casual rap battles in the Divisions, it would be very likely that they have to entertain this public image and that would line up with them playing their personal songs to a crowd as well, a lot like they do in the lives.

And I wonder if... the more they would do it, the more Gentaro’s song specifically can leave people to wonder a “what if”. Especially Dice who would have had the time to see Gentaro’s others more truthfull reactions otherwise. 

....... I think i need a fic about Dice really poundering over Gentaro’s song now..............