#HAVE I NEVER POSTED THE IZURU SALTINE LORE BEFORE???? HAS THIS JUST BEEN AN UNEXPLAINED MEME BETWEEN ME AND MY SISTER FOR YEARS???

[gontagokuhara]

uhhh got any cursed camp facts? (pranks that went wrong, cryptic izuru, nagito dealing with the kids?)

hi anon! you sent me this ask in september 2019. this is me answering now in february 2024. oops! and well, not actually — everything below the cut was written also in 2019. why did i not post it? im actually not sure because when i refound it today it made me giggle. so i’m leaving it untouched as i left it because 1) it still bangs, and 2) it’s all still fun pointy objects lore that i think illustrates how deeply i’ve thought about the silliest aspects of this fic…….and for how long.

so here we go. KRAKEN RELEASED!!!

YESSSS OMG I LOVE THIS ASK!!!!! theres so many im thinking wont have a place actually in the fic so getting to expand on them is :D

a few months before kaito ends up at camp (~a year before shuuichi shows up at camp) the full year kids are tasked by a weary nagito and hajime to find a group project to work on together so theyll get along and stay out of the counselors hair. someone jokingly suggests making a documentary about life at camp, and the two counselors tell them to do whatever they want, and get them a camera to use.

of course, kokichi decides to ignore the thing about staying out of their hair, and thus ‘nagitoe toemaeda: the curse of camp hopes peak’ is born.

clownery of the highest degree ensues. they harass nagito with the camera, not telling him what it is theyre filming; when izuru happens to stumble in while theyre filming, they spend a whole day getting footage of him that they can later on mess with; it’s a fucking shit show and the finished product is 70 minutes of pure garbage but none of them can think about it too hard or theyll die laughing

the feature runs as a found-footage and interview based horror movie; people descibing the fearsome toemaeda, intercut with creeper shots of nagito just doing camp business, intercut with footage of izuru picking fights with nagito and being ‘killed’, intercut with bad dubbing by kokichi over clips of nagito speaking. even hajime ends up in the film, reading a script from somewhere just out of frame and commenting intermittenly about how dumb this whole thing is

the watching party is a massive success. everyone is rolling from how stupid and hilarious the whole thing is. nagito doesnt leave his office for three days afterwards, traumatized by the yells of “here comes toemaeda!” whenever he shows his face.

+

kaede first meets izuru when she is twelve, several months into living at camp. she has had no prior knowledge on him because nagito does his very best to keep him away from the campers, but he cant be everywhere at once, and kaede finds him in the kitchen one day while looking for a snack

she doesn’t quite know how to react, so she just goes about her business, thinking maybe he’s somebody’s weird parent, or something. but when nagito shows up out of nowhere, and the situation turns tense, she becomes frightened.

as it turns out.....nagito and izuru aren’t real big fans of each other. an uncomfortable staring contest turns into an argument that turns into an all out fight, and kaede, only knowing nagito as a pseudo-weird-parent-figure who she cares about pretty much more than anybody in the world, starts crying and trying to get izuru away from him

thinking in 12 year old girl terms, she starts throwing things. the first thing to actually hit izuru is a box of saltines. he goes very, very still after he’s hit, and kaede thinks he’s going to hurt her.

he stoops down, picks up the box, and rummages around. pulls out a saltine. eats it, slowly, nagito breathing heavily a few feet away. eats another one. looks between nagito, and kaede, and nagito again, before slowly stealing out of the room, box in hand.

kaede has found a way to placate him. nagito always makes sure to stock up on saltines after that.