#I've been playing this game non-stop and I have so much to infodump about this AU especially the SSC trio's dynamic

[greenysoliatre]

Okay so this is for my Legend Arceus Playthrough which is for my Mages in Hisui AU and I can't seem to choose either Irida or Adaman. 👉👈 So currently Schezo, Sig and Carmen are having a debate over this. They're currently banished and need to go to the lakes, kind of frustrated since Kamado made it clear the two clans can't help them or otherwise a war will happen but since Adaman and Irida are taking a risk to help them secretly, they have to take what they can get.

[the-kuzusouda-hideyhole]

Who Would Confess First? – a very long and rambly infodump

So. Love confessions. They're one of my favourite things to think, read and write about when it comes to my ships, and Kuzusouda is no exception. Lately I've been thinking about who'd be more likely to make the first move, and I've come to the conclusion that it'd probably depend on which point of the canon we're at. I feel like pre-despair (or non-despair if we're going the AU route; this includes things like Danganronpa S and the Talent Development Plan), mid-killing game and post-canon are all very different points in time, thus all the SDR2 characters would have noticeably different worldviews, experiences and priorities in each time period. And this can even inform things like confessing your feelings to your crush.

Let's go into that in more detail.

Pre-Despair/Non-Despair

I think Fuyuhiko would confess first.

Now hear me out – I know there's that whole thing with the yakuza and him needing to continue the bloodline and all that. I do think that he'd sit on his feelings for a good while before making any moves, both to see if they'd go away on their own and because he just doesn't like having to talk about his feelings if he can help it. That being said, if his feelings persist long enough and/or grow too intense, he'd rather just get them out there before they eat him out from the inside or ruin his friendship with Kazuichi. Assuming that he and Kazuichi have grown close enough to be able to talk about anything with each other – which they likely would've for Fuyuhiko to catch feelings for him in the first place – I figure that Fuyuhiko would feel pretty awful about hiding something like this from him. He'd confess not because he wants or expects Kazuichi to feel the same way or begin a relationship with him, but rather to get it out there so that he can begin to move on and really focus on what matters most to him. This confession could also double as a queer coming-out, and to Fuyuhiko, that could be the real test on whether Kazuichi is really a friend worth keeping around.

Now, it's not impossible for Kazuichi to be the one confessing in this time period, but I do find it unlikely because of his past experiences with losing friends. Kazuichi would probably be kinda clingy with Fuyuhiko, and very, very careful not to do anything that could damage their friendship. Kazuichi doesn't know how Fuyuhiko might respond to a love confession from him, and he likely doesn't even know how Fuyuhiko feels about LGBT+ people. To him, the best way to deal with his crush is to fake it until he makes it, basically. This might include playing up his infatuation with Sonia long after those feelings for her have vanished – if they'd ever existed in the first place.

During the Killing Game

Compared to a pre-despair or non-despair setting, the dynamics between Fuyuhiko and Kazuichi are a little different. They have good reason to distrust each other now, especially early on, and the progression of their friendship would be faster (keep in mind that the KG lasts a couple of weeks in-universe) but a little rockier. Keep in mind that they don't remember anything about their time at Hope's Peak, so whatever might've happened back then doesn't really matter for the most part.

With this change in dynamics and circumstances in mind, I actually think Kazuichi would be more likely to break the ice.

A major part of Kazuichi's character in SDR2 is his crush on Sonia. Indeed, being trapped in a killing game and fearing for his life every single day doesn't stop him from not only getting attached to Sonia, but being very open about his crush to the point of making her uncomfortable. While this crush was very much present pre-despair as well, you could argue that here, it is, in part, a coping mechanism and an attempt to distract himself from the reality of his and his classmates' situation.

If Kazuichi were to then develop feelings for Fuyuhiko – genuine feelings for someone he actually knows beyond a surface level – then he might eventually confess to Fuyuhiko in the hopes that they can get into a relationship and he can have something to distract himself from all the death and despair. It's not a good or healthy reason to ask someone out, but 1. Kazuichi is a hormonal teenage boy, 2. he's literally stuck in a life or death situation and 3. he's already not one to think things through very well and the killing game is likely making that worse. I figure that he'd still be kind of clingy to Fuyuhiko and anxious about how his crush would affect their friendship, but since their friendship here wouldn't have been as much of a "slow burn" as it was pre-despair, and there's a very real chance Fuyuhiko will die anyway... well, it's not really as much of an issue here.

Fuyuhiko would be the opposite. I think he'd swallow down his feelings no matter what because he's in a killing game and he knows that his #1 priority is to get out of there before anyone else dies. I feel like he'd find it pretty silly to focus so much on high school romance drama in such a dire situation. Besides, the dude's just lost two of the most important people in his life. He's gonna be sore about that for awhile no matter how much he tries to move on and be strong for them.

Post-Canon

I always like to say that a post-canon setting is actually the best place for Kuzusouda to succeed long-term, because by that point they've known each other for a good while, they've been through a lot together, and, provided that a lot of time has passed and they're both in a healthier headspace, there's nothing stopping them from being together. It's for this reason that I believe that, in this setting, both are equally likely to make the first move.

Inevitably, the former Remnants of Despair will have to start thinking about romantic relationships at some point. Problem is, given that they're to be isolated from the outside world for the rest of their lives, their dating pool is... not very big, to say the least. On the flip side, Fuyuhiko and Kazuichi are now in a position where, if they were to ask the other out, they wouldn't have anything to lose.

Possibly the biggest hindrance to Kuzusouda succeeding in a non-despair setting is the Kuzuryuu Clan. Fuyuhiko needs to continue the bloodline as the up-and-coming heir, and he can't do that when he's with a man. He's spent his entire life working up to this point, too; he's not gonna throw all that away for Kazuichi so easily. Here, the Kuzuryuu Clan is long gone, and Fuyuhiko's future is nothing like how he'd envisioned it. His entire life has changed in a very drastic way, and, again, he needs a lot of time to come to terms with that, just like everyone else. Once he does, however, he'd realise that now, he has the freedom to love whomever his heart desires. In time, he'd come to accept a relationship with Kazuichi as part of his happy future on Jabberwock Island.

As for Kazuichi, I figure he'd go through a lot more character development here than he ever really did in the game proper. If he sought comfort and escape during the killing game, then this is the point where he'd have no choice but to face reality. Nothing about his life is normal anymore, and he has an immense amount of trauma to work through. As the saying goes, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and although Kazuichi would probably have a harder time overcoming his hardships than most of his companions, he'd likely come out of the other side as a much more mature person. He'd confess to Fuyuhiko if Fuyuhiko doesn't confess to him first, not to distract himself or satisfy his hormones, but out of genuine love and care for Fuyuhiko, because he wants a future where Fuyuhiko will always be at his side.

What About Island Mode?

Island Mode is more of a canon divergence than a full-fledged non-despair AU, given that the only thing that's really changed is that there's no killing game. We, the audience, know full well that these characters are the Remnants of Despair and that they're in a simulation designed to rehabilitate them, but as far as the characters are concerned, they're meeting each other for the first time on a fun school trip. The Kazuichi and Fuyuhiko we see here are pretty much the same Kazuichi and Fuyuhiko we see pre-despair or in a proper non-despair AU, so my headcanons for those settings would apply here as well.

That's All, Folks!

Thank you for reading this long-ass infodump, I hope you enjoyed it 🩷💛

[hyperactivetransdrone]

You say you’re a nerd in your bio, but what are you a nerd about? Feel free to infodump.

I more Nerd off on my general account bc if I see like a single horny thing I get distracted lol

Anyways I'll start with the thing I've poured the most time into: Pokemon. I almost never make fakémon but I've made 2 so far: a Paradox pokemon Iron Queen and a legendary pokemon that's based on horror as a genre, other than that I have a pokedex list that even at font size 7 on Google docs (any smaller and it's illedgeable) it's like 14 pages, and at that size Google starts to lag, I've also done a full pokedex with stats and everything (not individual stats but base stat total) in a Google sheets and i had to split it into 2 sheets because over 500 pokemon pokemon spread over 4 mini sheets lags Google as well so I split it between 2 sheets with generations 1-4 on the first on and 5-9 on the second sheet.

This is a screenshot of the first generation from mobile, copy and paste most of that information for each form of each pokemon (at least ones with stat/type changes so for example partner Pikachu counts as a different form but not spiky eared pichu) and yeahhh it overwhelms Google a lot, I also have several boxes full of my favorite pokemon as well in pokemon ultra moon as well as maxed out the time in pokemon y, I don't yet have a Nintendo switch so I can't transfer those pokemon yet so that's a little sad but they just means I can still poke-amie them 🥰

I also play a lot of minecraft but there isn't much to talk about with that, same with batman Arkham, video games with little creativity and are very straight lined stories are difficult to really hyperfixate about because what are you going to say? And experience that everyone else has had? Now minecraft is not included in this but when you play alone there isn't much you can really talk about that excites you besides what projects you've done/are planning. I also enjoy mega man and am on summit c-side in celeste (with every other stage up to then beaten all a-sides beaten, all b-sides beaten, all but summit and core c-sides beaten and have not beaten where capitalism has not corrupted... THE MOOOON (I understand that's not the meme but that's the level)

Now in terms of non digital media (excluding music we'll get to that) i like to play magic thr gathering, i don't like their current moto of "power creep so "people will keep buying" even tho people still buy our product and since Commander is popular we'll make all of our products for that" so I just make theoretical decks online, mostly ones that are themed because it's fun making pirate themed decks and things like that. Another game I'm really obsessed with is Exploding Kittens it's really fun and I've gotten every expansion up to this point and yahh I just really enjoy that game. Otherwise if I know people irl I try to play rpgs as I have a BUNCH of dnd minis I've painted, he'll I got a big dragon for Christmas a few years back and here's what he looks like:

He looks REALLY COOL and I realize I did the fire wrong but, Oh well, Too late it's fine. I'm also making a Kirby rpg and a Mario party board game but I REALLY need to get to work on it as I haven't been working on them. I also love writing stories and am currently writing a book, I'm studies character development from YouTube videos to ensure I don't accidently write static characters as the main characters but I LOVE the concepts I made for it I also used to like reading but my mother kept mocking me for "reading erotica" books when 1 it was before the author started making them kinky 2 I didn't fucking KNOW they were erotic so I stopped reading because she kept making fun of me and pretty much just telling me (indirectly) that it was gross that I was reading that stuff even though I didnt know that's what it was

In terms of music I love dragonforce and will go off on how cool some of their music is and also like... ok there's too many that I enjoy to list off but just know I like metal rock and pop (some pop modern pop is veerrrryyy generic and bad) and hell there are stupid like rap Chord thing that i hear CONSTANTLY and I just hate that stupid Mario ds mini game instructions sounding music that fucking everyone is listening to because now even MUSIC has gotten 'safe' these days and i really hate it

Other than all of that what I'm needing about may change from day to day or week to week depending on what I've been doing

Oh one last note: I do also enjoy hypnosis and dronification as non kinks as well has dronification is just... SO helpful i can't focus for the life of me which is why I still don't have my damned drivers license or even past the first page of my book yet and dronification pretty much FORCING you to focus on things would be a LIFE SAVER and hypnosis for a similar reason I have a really difficult time truly relaxing due to my living situation so hypnosis helps me relax more, hell I have some trust issues too thanks to being overly cautious in my childhood so it really helps with a lot of things although my biggest trust problem is I either don't trust you at all or I trust you too much lol

[silverslipstream]

video games

I love it when people are rigidly fixated on and are primarily known for playing one type of game, and when they try other games from other genres it blows their mind. I was the guy who played pretty much nothing but racing games, Kerbal Space Program and a little bit of Minecraft (because everyone loves a bit of Minecraft) until I played Halo 3 and that shit was awesome. It made my friend so happy as well, because he was a huge Halo nerd and now he could infodump all about his favourite games to me.

I've been playing SOMA with a friend recently, going in totally blind, and it has genuinely been one of the most rewarding gaming experiences I've ever had. Being unused to most first-person horror/puzzle games, there are often times where I don't know what the hell I'm doing and I have to use pattern recognition and intuition to find out what I'm meant to do. It also means I can relate a lot more to the character of Simon - unlike a seasoned player, I'm just as confused as the character I'm meant to be playing as, and this combination has genuinely elicited so much awe and wonder from me.

I think my next foray into the non-racing genre will be Cyberpunk 2077 - I'm a big fan of sci-fi, cyberpunk dystopia and futuristic narratives. My only hang-up is that I fucking suck donkey balls at first-person shooters, so if the combat segments are mainly FPS oriented, I might nope out.

Anyway, I'm gonna stop yapping about the epiphany I had about video games and go back to thinking about astronauts having a swordfight on the Moon, because why wouldn't I be thinking about astronauts swordfighting on the moon?