#and also because i wanted to talk about her ultimate talent development game because it was so fucking funny

[pixelatedraindrops]

Baby Makoto AU Doodle Dump🐣

Hiya everyone! So, I’ve been busy working on some art of this new little concept of mine. It’s been in my head for a while. Ever since I found out Makoto is in fact canonically 3 years old. And then thinking of Number One being a doting single parent to his tiny homunculus clone whom he adopts to keep safe from further experimentation and raises as his own 🥺💕

I’ve seen other people (specifically on twitter) come up with this thought as well. Makoto as a 3 year old child with Yuma as his parent. Honestly other than drawing my favorite characters being sick, drawing them as little kids also brings about a nostalgic comfort to me. Not nearly as much joy as drawing sickies brings me, but it was fun to draw the all powerful CEO as a little toddler curious about the world. He's just a little baby <3

Now I am actually a bit shy and insecure about this idea. Mainly due to people possibly confusing it with infantilization and/or age regression. This is neither of those things. It’s an AU where he just happens to be a toddler. If anything I picture little Makoto to be similar to Anya from Spy x Family. (and the fact they both share a Japanese VA makes this connection even cuter, and he's only one year younger than her x3)

Anyway, I hope you all will indulge in me as I share the art I’ve done of this tiny little homunculus. I probably won’t talk about this au or draw it often due to feeling shy about it, so I just made a full on thread of the doodles if you want to see. I keep them under a read more to prevent spam (and I know not everyone is a fan of this concept)

But if you look, I hope you enjoy!

A little reference of sorts I made of my toddler Makoto design. (though he wears different clothing in every art I do of him lol this just connects his normal purple flowery attire) He is exactly 2 feet shorter than his usual height making him pretty small for a toddler. (but yuma is pretty short too lol and I want him to be able to carry him ;w;)

He has 2 special toys that connect to his other mask designs in the concept art. The teddy bear is his very special possession that Yuma gave him as a present, and the puppet teruteru-bozu is something he made together with Yuma when crafting on a rainy day. (he is so talented preparing him for the future when he actually develops products for the company he will run) The melon ball is based on his favorite fruit, and he has socks and a fuzzy blanket with the pattern of his mask.

In this AU, Yuma retains his Number One persona. He’s not meek apologetic and unsure, he has the confidence of the ultimate detective. But is he confident as a parent? Not in the slightest. But taking care of Makoto teaches him more about being kind and empathetic towards others, and eventually over time he becomes super protective and even at times doting towards Makoto.

Making his personality a bit more bright and pleasant, much like the kind and gentle Yuma that we all know and love. Parenthood causes the serious detective to soften up a lot. And of course this causes Makoto to love and depend on Yuma in return and never want to cause him trouble. (So he puts on a tough act a lot ;w;) However, he almost never calls Yuma dad. He just calls him Yuma. Its very rare that he refers to Yuma as his dad but this is perfectly okay by Yuma. (But when Makoto does call him dad? Yuma feels such unexplainable emotional discord that he almost cries.)

Some more doodles :3

Such a silly little family. I love them so much <3

Why did I think of this AU? Because I want Makoto and pre-game Yuma to not be lonely, be happy together, and for Makoto to have a childhood. Honestly Makoto seems a bit childish and playful in canon too so...

I think I'd like him to have an actual childhood where he grows up comfortable and happy. And in the care of someone who loves him 💜

[deltastra]

My Thoughts on Project Eden's Garden Chapter 1

Back in 2022, I was excited for the release of Project Eden's Garden prologue. And it didn't disappoint. Sadly I was too lazy to make a post at the time, haha. So here's a list of how much I liked the characters back when the prologue released:

^ For the record, just because I "dislike" the character, doesn't mean they're badly written. It's just a personal preference and it didn't change the way I viewed the story whatsoever. A disliked or hated character doesn't mean a bad character.

Anyway, 2 years later, chapter 1 has finally been released. It took me a few days but I finally finished it and I must say, I absolute loved it.

This post will be about my overall thoughts on what transpired in the chapter, my thoughts on the characters, and the story as a whole.

SUPER LONG POST INCOMING

SPOILERS FOR CHAPTER 1 BELOW

We start off with a reminder of how much Damon fumbled 2 years ago lol. To be honest, I LOVED Damon for that rant at the end of the prologue. Was he mean? Yes. But it was so refreshing to see an asshole protag. I look forward to see how he develops.

After we see his room and check our surroundings. We were told by Cassidy to meet everyone in the dining hall. On our way there we can talk to Diana and I swear I love the conversations those two have. It's so much fun seeing someone has cheerful and kind as Diana deal with someone who is cold and logical as Damon.

Eventually we learn about the pharmacy and were even given a new update in our tozu tablets where we can learn more about eachother. Eva immediately told us to stop looking at them because it exposes our weaknesses and that's what Tozu was planning. I believed her right away because my impression of her during the prologue was that she'd be our 'Kirigiri', basically the cool-headed smart partner. I would've trusted her.

NOPE. TURNS OUT, THE ULTIMATE LIAR LIED ABOUT HER TALENT.

This was when I started seeing Eva for more than a 'Kirigiri' character. There was nothing wrong about her in the prologue, but she never clicked with me back then because everything about her felt 'on the nose'. I mean come on, "Ultimate Liar"???? That sounds so strange, but I liked the game so I didn't mind too much. With the reveal that she was actually a mathlete, I began opening up to her character more.

Like I genuinely started feeling for her character when everyone started making fun of her. You could feel the personality she built in the prologue shatter. And the more we learnt about her and why she lied about her talent, the more I began liking her and even relating to her a bit.

Anyway, we got freetime events and my first instinct was to run to Diana. I love her conversations with Damon and think they bounce off eachother well, even better than with Eva. I was excited to see more of that. And I'm glad I did.

I love how her free time event is just her teaching Damon to not be a jerk. Like, "Don't glare" for example. She also gives him praise where praise is due, such as him reaching out to her.

She is so good at talking to him that it's kind of adorable. I was interested in seeing if she can actually help Damon open up but that would also mean she would be most likely to die and I really didn't want that to happen so soon. Either way, she will definitely be my focus for FTE.

I wanted to talk to Grace and know more about her but it wasn't letting me because she locked herself in her room.

So I went to Eva instead. She was alone downstairs avoiding everyone and talking to her made me so sad. I understood her talent more and why she hid it.

Afterward we went for our private one-on-one with Tozu, forgot to mention but I find Damon to be very smart but also very stupid. Smart that he found a way to contact Tozu and discuss the blackmail he got of Wolfgang, but dumb in a sense that he is already under suspicion by everyone. If they found out he did this, everyone would suspect him more.

I love Tozu as a host and "mascot". He is so eccentric but also pretty scary when he needs to be. Like when he said "Go on. Leave first." at the end of their conversation. But to be honest, I felt as though this conversation was kind of useless...

Afterward we see that Grace and Wofgang are living together now because they switched roomies. Damon was too scared to sleep alone so he went to Kai's dorm. I was excited because I didn't really like Kai in the prologue, this was a chance to see him in a full chapter which can properly showcase his character to me. After that scene, I started liking Kai a little more but I was also suspicious of him because since Damon came late, Kai could tell the others and it would be terrible. Kai seems to have a habit of throwing Damon under the bus lol.

(Took me a while to combine those two screenshots to get the full image lol)

Afterwards, there was a cute scene with everyone doing laundry and it was nice seeing a more relaxed atmosphere. Damon and Kai chilling together, Ingrid singing (she has such a nice voice omg), and Grace yelling at Wolfgang because he doesn't know how to use a washing machine. Overall, a very wholesome scene.

We meet Eva and learn she has Desmond's blackmail. At first, I fully trusted her and why she told Damon. Desmond is a marksman, he has weapons. Meeting him personally to tell him something private abt him that he doesn't want people to know seems scary. Hence why I was so against Wolfgang's idea.

Eva's conversation with Damon was one of my favourite scenes in the game. It felt nice she noticed Damon's fruitless effort during the trial and how no one thanked him. She noticed that they are the only two against Wolfgang. As they talked, I thought about how I don't know if I could enjoy this scene as much as I do right now if Eva kept her "Ultimate Liar" persona. At this point, I was an Eva fan 100%. I might talk about her more one day in a post, but we'll see.

I felt like Damon finally made a friend. Well, the closest thing to one in a killing game at least. Eva had all the qualities that Damon could work with. A decent amount of trust and no naivety. They both are constantly on-guard.

Her reasoning to why she chose to be a 'Liar' was kind of reasonable, I was surprised. On paper, it sounds ridiculous to call yourself that in a killing game. But when taking Eva's whole character into perspective, everything falls into place perfectly. As Damon puts it, everything she did felt self-destructive. Little did I know how true this will be later.

When we make it to the dining hall, Wolfgang questions us on why we were late. Damon counters him. I like to believe Damon's open-willingness to argue with Wolfgang in front of everyone now is mostly due to learning more about Eva and having a sense of camaraderie with her. He doesn't feel alone for once, in terms of thinking.

Cassidy wants to hold a gaming tournament. It's sweet and I started opening up to her character cause of it. Wolfgang is unsure of attending and Diana said she would be "busy". I was scared. Why would Diana be busy and HOW could she be busy. She's been acting strange. It was making me think that she will die or be the first killer. The way she acted around Damon was a bit too suspicious. I wanted to do her freetime event again but she wasn't available, which made me more worried.

I did Eva's instead to learn more about her, I'll save my thoughts about it for another time. But the general reaction I had was "Yup. Someone tell 2022 me that he will become an Eva fan"

Other than Diana, I really wanted to know more about Desmond. So, I did his FTE next! He's lowkey a chill guy. I really hope he'll be our "bro" character but I feel like the signs are leaning towards Kai fulfilling that role. Unlike Wolfgang, Desmond's kindness doesn't feel calculated to me. He's just casual about everything. I liked how he claimed that Damon and him are similar and as to why he believes so, he even offered to debate with Damon. Overall, a neat conversation. I love Desmond in a sense that, he's just pleasant to be around. I hope to see more of his character shine in future chapters.

We meet Diana again and she seems to be back to normal, but the sinister music kicks in when she asks how we are. I was VERYYY concerned. I assumed someone had severe blackmail on her and thought she murdered someone. Before it felt sweet when she wanted to know more about Damon and Eva, but in this scenario, it was very suspicious. Tozu even said, "Tonight could be the night which changes your life forever." which implies that he saw someone get murdered.

After a funny scene with Damon and Kai sharing a bed. We wake up and head to the gaming tournament!

At the time, I was so happy to see Eva choosing to go to the tournament and even bonding with Cassidy over a niche game. I thought Eva no longer had to hide under a false talent in order to feel powerful. She could be herself. Man...

She goes on explaining that she used to eat lunch in the bathrooms which made me feel for her even more. Part of me disliked Damon for making a joke at her expense when she was being vulnerable, but I can't help but think that it is also his way of showing that he does not pity her and treats her like an equal (somewhat). Hell, Eva even laughed at the joke.

The tournament begins and I love how seriously Damon was taking it. I actually believe he was having fun. I love Damon because while he may be an ass, when he's focused on something, he gives it his all. This includes a silly gaming tournament too.

Then a blackout occured and I KNOW someone's getting killed. So time to lock in. And man...let's just say I am GLAD I never got spoiled because...

MY JAW DROPPED.

A million thoughts flowed through my brain. Was this a fake-out? Was this death merely shock factor? He was meant to be the rival and main obstacle to Damon and Eva, HOW?

I was looking forward to seeing trials with Damon and Wolfgang going head-to-head.

I was both shocked and worried about where the writing will go. Wolfgang had so much potential in the story.

But I also thought "let them cook". With the main guy who encouraged everyone that no one would resort to violence was killed. Ultimately, his death disproved everything he believed in. His death WILL kickstart the killing game for sure.

My prediction was that it was Diana who killed him.

I really hoped it wasn't Diana but she was too suspicious.

As we investigated, we had to convince Grace to let us in Wolfgang's room. Honestly this was when I started to actually dislike Grace because why on earth did she think this was a good idea. I guess she had a connection to Wolfgang, but it was still irritating how much she hindered the investigation. This situation did let me see more of Eloise and man, she can be pretty scary. I heard her FTE is no different, I should look it up sometime.

Then, we had around 20 minutes remaining for the investigation, so we had to rush. Even though there was no time limit for the player, I could still feel the tension. I desperately wanted to know Diana's testimony. She feels completely different, like all the light in her eyes is gone and for good reason. Just like the others, she looked up to Wolfgang and believed no one would kill eachother. I love how you can feel the stakes rising. This isn't like the prologue. Your life is on the line and there is no time to grieve. And with Damon and Eva leading the investigation, two people who struggle with emotions and were outcasted by Wolfgang, it gets harder.

This scene is kind of why I like Diana, some may find this type of behaviour annoying and naive, but to me it showcases how much she's willing to believe in people as opposed to Damon. It hurts that Diana is STILL trying to see the good in people. But without Wolfgang, no one wants to play nice or believe in eachother anymore. Hence Grace's declaration of anger towards the killer enjoying their death penalty and Mark's agreement. Although I was also thinking how much this scene would hurt if Diana was the killer.

You know it's funny. Back when I was younger and a huge DGR fan, i would watch the class trials and think, wow the MC and partner carries these. Damon kind of reflects that. He believes in his own talent THAT much and he has seen how the students participate in the trials. Damon isn't necessarily right about how he is the only one who can carry this trial, but he is right that without him, its very hard to believe that the class can solve the murder of Wolfgang.

I love Damon's internal monolgues because it shows the type of person he is. He can be bitter and arrogant, but he is not heartless.

Either way, the trial begins and Grace is IMMEDIATELY questioned by Eloise for good reason.

I liked Grace in the prologue because she's a very outspoken person who takes no nonsense. But throughout this trial, I was getting irritated with her attitude. I hope her character actually goes somewhere in later chapters because if it stays like this, I doubt I will like her as much as I did in the prologue.

We eventually reach the part where Cassidy asked the person with Wolfgang's blackmail to speak up and explain themselves if they're innocent and DAMON WAS SWEATING BULLETS. However, Eva had our backs and explained why that information would not be useful. I can see why Damon stayed silent, if someone like him spoke up, who knows how everyone will react. ESPECIALLY Grace.

Also an interesting thing I've noticed is that everyone seems to be genuinely helping and contributing to the class trial. No one is just needlessly making quips. Cassidy makes jokes time to time, but she still helps.

Then when the suspicion hit Diana, I WAS SCARED. I was genuinely believing that she was the one who killed Wolfgang. But...how? She doesn't seem like someone who can kill and I doubt the writers would make her suddenly evil. So I assumed she killed out of self-defence.

What I loved a lot as a Damon and Diana fan was how Damon was starting to feel sympathy towards Diana. DAMON of all people. I wish I remembered how to use Pathos bullets so I could see Damon speak from a more emotional perspective, it feels more fitting for his development in my opinion.

We learn that the reason why she was crying with guilt was not because she killed Wolfgang, it was because she watched him die and couldn't do anything.

I'm skimming through the events of the trial as this post is getting long.

With Diana's suspicion cleared, I had no idea who would kill Wolfgang at this point. I started assuming Wenona did it or maybe Ulysses. However, looking back at it, it seems Eva still suspected Diana. I was too blind to see why would she even after Damon cleared it up.

As the trial progressed and we learn that the suspect could be anyone in the tournament. I was trying to hard to think who it could possibly be. Everyone had the realistic reaction of freaking out and yelling their alibis. I thought so hard. Who could it be? Who's position can Damon not remember? And then it hit, and I still doubted myself...

Eva. Of course, she started defending herself. As she started claiming that Damon was saying nonsense and that he's the killer, I could feel the friendship between these two die. I wonder if there was truly any sense of friendship between them to begin with. I believe that Damon genuinely thought there was whether he would admit it or not.

I was worried that just like with Wolfgang, Eva being the killer so early seems like wasted potential. But no, its perfect. Because of her character throughout the chapter and what we learn about her. I'll save it for a future post. I want to talk about Eva more.

As Eva claimed that she only pretended to be friends with Damon, his internal monologue was heartbreaking. Eva's words SHOULDN'T matter to him. He's close to solving the murder. But sadly, they do affect him. He judged others for being too trusting, while he blindly followed Eva's words.

As Damon gave his speech about how he did respect Wolfgang and how he doesn't want to see bloodshed, Kai vouched for him which I LOVE. It shot Kai up on my list cause of that. I was afraid he would be the guy to always point fingers at Damon, but thankfully it wasn't the case.

Eva broke down and we see her true nature. And to no one's surprise, all of this could've been avoided if people didn't give her too much shit for being a mathlete. Of course it isn't that simple since Eva had issues before that. But I genuinely believe that Wolfgang shouldn't have put too much suspicion on Eva and Damon and make them outcasts, it came back to bite him as Eva was obsessed with proving herself.

Seeing her cry after her defeat was hard to watch. The character I thought would be the "Kirigiri" of this game is now standing here, sobbing, and about to be executed.

Her rant about Wolfgang and how they blindly followed him is something I somewhat agree with.

I agree with Diana as well and it solidied my love for Eva and Diana's character. Diana genuinely tried to keep her part of the group. SHE TRIED. Wolfgang was okay with just throwing them to the side. That's where I think Diana is better than Wolfgang. But Eva was too wrapped up in her hatred that she couldn't see that someone was genuinely helping her. A mindset that is understandable for someone who has been bullied and outcasted for all their life. This was out of Diana's control.

But Eva isn't wrong either. Could she really trust Diana's intentions? No, not when Diana would also believe Wolfgang's word, the same word of the man who treats her like an outcast.

We learn about the traitor's perk. And I know people say Tozu threatened her to take it, but I feel like saying that she was treatened and thats why she killed Wolfgang kind of goes against all that we were shown? We didn't properly learn of the traitor's perk and its consequences until AFTER her rant about everyone in the class and her life. The traitor perk's consequences seemed more of an after-thought to her. Eva is very complex and I love that.

As she pointed out their hypocrisy, Grace yelled at Tozu to get on with the execution. I know she's upset and I understand that. But I would be lying if I said she didn't fall down my list immensely after saying that. Tozu announces the execution and Eva cries. Her execution was..intense. I wanna go into it deeper one day but to keep it short for now, I love how the execution wasn't just themed after her talent. The execution felt like an insult towards her story as a whole. She will always be a mathlete. Now with both Wolfgang and Eva dead, the killing games will finally begin. There is no one to guide them. Unless..

I know this scene is cringe to some people, but this made me love Diana and feel confident regarding what they'll do with her character going forward. She will follow Wolfgang's footsteps, and who knows, maybe have a more 'healthy' version of leadership than Wolfgang's approach. She genuinely believes in everyone, even Eva. I love that. I feel like her character losing hope as the game progresses seems off. This was a nice speech of hers but she should've picked a better time. Because unfortunately, no one took her speech seriously.

Except for one.

At this point, it seems obvious that Diana act as Damon's foil for the upcoming trials. Damon, who relies on logic. Diana, who relies on emotion. I'm cautiously optimistic because I thought it would be Wolfgang when I finished the prologue but I was dead wrong. I cannot wait to see how both of these characters develop their rivalry throughout the trials.

-------

And thats a wrap! This post took me like 3 weeks to write cuz I've been busy lol.

This chapter was so good and I was at the edge of my seat! I'm so happy I never got spoiled!

It's amazing how in just one chapter, Eva became my absolute favourite. It feels like just yesterday I was sold on everyone's character in the prologue except for her. I thought she'd be the know-it-all, cool-headed partner. But the reveal of her true talent was a nice surprise! And her whole character was well-written and complex.

With how well the motive for murder was written in this chapter, I really hope the later chapters don't get too crazy. Like no 'despair disease' type of motive please. I hope the kills don't get too unrealistic as well, keeping them grounded helps maintain the atmosphere for this story in my opinion. As for the executions, I'd be amazed if they centered around the characters' journey instead of just their talent, like with Eva for example. It played on her insecurities.

Finally, it seems the main theme for this chapter was 'hypocrisy' as the title of the chapter suggests.

Damon, who thought everyone was naive for trusting eachother and especially Wolfgang, blindly trusted Eva.

Wolfgang, who believed no one would kill and that everyone should stick together, outcasted Damon and Eva and urged everyone to keep an eye on them just because of some rude remarks they made.

Eva, who claims no one cared for her and hates her, screwed over Damon and Diana who did care about her and had multiple opportunties to befriend people like Cassidy in the gaming tournament.

I'm sure theres more that I'm missing but this is all I got for now. Here is my updated tier list after Chapter 1:

Overall, fantastic chapter. I'm so excited for the next!!! Keep cooking Eden's Garden team! You're all doing great!!!! anyway sorry for the long yap session

[rubberduckyrye]

IT MEANS SO MUCH THAT YOU LIKE MY REJECTS AU TO THE POINT OF TAGGING THANKS SO MUCH, THIS MADE MY DAY

 ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و ♡

This idea sprung up from a mix of desires: I’m just suuuuch a sucker for the spotlight being shone on those who were “left behind” or “forgotten” in some way. Those who were rejected! Those who nobody really considered or thought about until it was slapped in their faces, and they’re forced to finally notice them.

In this case, while canon rightfully showed how the Ultimate system crushes the talentless, what about those with talent who just weren’t good enough? Those who tried hard and were good at what they did, but juuuust missed the mark due to circumstances outside their control? “You tried so hard and come so far, but in the end, it doesn’t even matter”.

Another desire was the inclusion of a lucky student, because you can go crazy with luck talents!  Also a desire to just dunk on HPA lmao.

Again I haven’t developed much yet since I only recently thought of this, so for now I’ve mostly just been thinking of who would have been in which class (77 or 78), and of the OC. She does have a luck talent, but I’m thinking the way it works is that she’s essentially a lucky charm. Her presence brings good fortune to others (it mostly affects minor, short-term everyday things), but when she’s alone, her luck is kind of standard. Sometimes she gets lucky, sometimes she gets unlucky, other times it’s somewhere in between, same with most people. This means she's almost never won a game in her life. Online games that she plays by herself are a different story though, and that's why she prefers them.

Her luck has led to her being taken advantage of her whole life, but eventually she decides that if people are going to use her, she might as well get something out of it, so she ends up turning her luck into an underground business of sorts at her school. For a price, she’s upfront about her luck and is willing to accompany someone or be in the presence of someone else when they’re doing something luck-based. The “business” ended up successful, but she’s unhappy that many people see her as an object rather than a person all her life, and would rather people see her for who she is rather than what. 

So lots of luck when she’s with others is second-hand luck. If she needs to undergo an extremely risky surgery, it’ll be successful, since the surgeon got lucky. But if someone is trying to kill her? They’ll be successful!

Yeah, she’s terrified in this killing game, needless to say. Who knows which person/people her luck decides to favor? She’s aloof and stays away from others, but she’s intent on surviving and wants everyone else to do so as well, so slowly but surely she eventually trusts the “protagonist” character enough (haven't decided who that is yet). That’s how she became the “sidekick”!

Obviously I gotta develop all this way more and everything is bound to change, but again, thank you for your kind words and for allowing me to info dump! I’ll share more about RejectsV3rse if I develop more if you’re okay with it!

👀👀👀

I'm so into this AU rn??

Okay but also??? I recently was talking about Umeko (The Ouma Twins Mother) and what if she was an HPA student--And she would have been the Ultimate Luckster--But she also would have been the "Lucky Charm" type! Her luck is a bit more extreme though, and it got her looking into the supernatural and occult stuff/witch stuff to try to make sense of it. She resents people who try to use her luck so she scares them off. It's part of the reason why she was easy for a Young Kenzo to prey on.

God I love how we came up with a similar idea but two very different characters and reactions to that idea~

[zeroshine]

@peigay made two characters for your killing game au I hope you like them

Moriyo Tsuyoshi

Ultimate: botanist (plant scientist)About the character: she is a sweet and gentle person, a very shy person if she meets new people but still quiet people. She is not dumb she will know if you're using her or manipulating her, and about that, she will pull punch on you. If you try using her for something bad, she wants to see the real person in you and not fake it out. She has been used a lot of times in the past, and that made something crack in her to do something really bad, and she doesn't want that to happen again. She also can see a person getting used or manipulating very easily, and that's why she likes people who are victims of that kind of stuff, so if you try manipulating her, she will know about as quick as the wind.Facts: she actually works out a lot for her free time if there's no work for her ultimate. She actually loves plants like anything about them and will talk about a lot of facts about them if you let her. She knows to fight to she knows a lot fighting too.Background/backstoryIn her school life was kind of hell for her, but her home life was good, she was only a child with her dad, her mom died by giving birth to her so she doesn't know really lot about her but her dad talks about her and shows pictures of her mom her and mom just look like. Her dad works a lot, so she doesn't see him a lot, but still, they have a good relationship and will spend time with each other all the time if her dad has no work. She was really tiny for her age, and that made her school life terrible. The people in her school just bully her , ignore her, or just use her, so she had no friends, and that makes her just sad, thinking she is not important somebody at her age should not be thinking that. The internet she kind of killed one of her classmates years of bullying, using her, and people did not care about her that made something crack inside her. She just got a brick and just smashed their head, but she didn't even mean it, but she did it.Ps: For scars on her neck and stomach yea, one of the classmates did that to her. I don't know why, really.

Hironobu Koemi

Ultimate: cult leaderAbout the character: despise him being a cult leader he doesn't really see the ultimate on him that's not really a talent when he see it that. But his personality he really says the truth unlike his past self in a past killing game,he survived a killing game and he was the antagonist in it but he changed he seen lying can caused him a lot of trouble (he was lying about his ultimate talent and he backstab a lot of people, controlled and manipulated.) He got character development but theirs some things that didn't change like his childish personality, and he has this habit getting people in reality he doesn't care people need truth if it's the cruel hard truth he had to face reality first to know that but he did that to over people in the killing game he survived in. He is smart, not school smart, but like human smart, like reading people emotional or telling someone lying really easily because he lied a lot back than and if you try manipulating him he will tell really quickly so it's really hard or impossible to manipulate him and he see manipulating people to do your dirty work as pathetic if you can't do it on your own and if you control somebody weaknesses to do it he see you as pathetic, weak and trash human in life so he does his own thing by himself and not really people to help and that's something he needs to can of fix.Facts: With his childish personality, he keeps a lot of toys and bound games for his free time to play with. He is very flexible, so he can make a lot of weird poses with that ability, so he uses it with a passion.Backstory: He was born in a family cult , and he had a lot of siblings that he didn't really remember them that much. He didn't go to school he was homeschooled by his family, but he wasn't locked in his home they let him out outside a lot of time. (Don't really have a lot for his backstory, but it was cult, so he didn't really have a normal childhood )

If there's a chance to make these characters important in the killing au I give you a role for both them they could be friends with Monaca not to change her but like someone she hangout with to gain their trust in the killing game to be in side you know

Ps: they would be cute tiro and you could make something happen to them too🤪

Thank you if you're reading this

[yakool-foolio]

I know you post mostly Rain Code related content, but I wanted to touch upon a thought I had with Danganronpa.

When Asahina tries to get everybody killed, we know it's because she sincerely believed the survivors all deserved to die. Who can blame her? Asahina believed that her best friend has committed suicide due to the actions of the other students.

When Komaeda tries to get everyone, except the innocent Nanami, killed, we know it's because he sincerely believed the rest of the class all deserved to die. Who can blame him? He doesn't have much life left and he wants to contribute to the world, and in his eyes by getting rid of the Worst Terrorists in their world, he can do just that, change the world for the better.

The only difference is Asahina is easier to understand, more empathetic, and relatable, while Komeada is one of the most complex characters in the entire franchise.

Neither of them are right, but you understand why they responded that way and did what they did. Which is why it's so annoying to me when people use it against Komaeda as a character, if you have issue with it, then you should have issue with Asahina as well.

Feel free to talk with me about Danganronpa as well! I've played through the mainline trilogy twice and UDG once (and never again), and I've completed Ultimate Talent Development Plan and have grinded through a decent amount of Summer Camp by sheer willpower (I've also watched the Trigger Happy Havoc anime adaptation and DR3). I'll definitely need to brush up on some aspects of the more minor details of the games, but overall I think I'm up to snuff to tackle this discussion!

Nagito definitely gets a bad wrap for his actions post-Octagon. People may look back and not realize that he pulled the whole mass-murder suicide scheme all because he gained the god awful information that all of them were sickeningly horrible people except for Chiaki who was made to help redeem them. In his eyes, the people he once thought were vessels for hope were all beyond redemption after being touched by the tainted hands of despair incarnate, and decided the world would be far better off without any of them in it. It's not a necessarily good thing, by any means, but it's understandable why he thinks the way he does.

Aoi's thought process is just as intense, but it comes from emotions that people tend to sympathize with more (the feeling of wishing you could've done more to save the ones you love and pushing that onto others), along with it being a moment that doesn't really require retrospect. It's more palatable to the average player/reader, while Nagito's actions really make ya have to do a few loop-de-loops to really get a better grasp about why he does what he does throughout DR2. And neither of those writing techniques are wrong! Simple or complex character writing doesn't mean one person is written worse than the other. They're both explored in ways that make sense for the grander scope of the story being told and how they fit in it.

[talentswaphavoc]

Talent-swap Havoc [Chapter 3 daily life: Wolf in sheep's clothing]

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Aoi's execution ended and everyone is ready to go. Junko was about to leave and noticed Sakura still standing there, Leon was already being comforted by Sayaka. Junko decided to comfort her friend Sakura, she went closer and tried helping her understand what she's going through. Sayaka was trying to calm Leon down, they were both doing their best. Leon and Sakura however were missing their now gone friends... Their memories live forever with them.

Everyone heads back to their dorms but no one speaks a word, no one dares to. Everyone is split off into even small groups then before, there are only 2 groups of 3. Junko thinks to herself if her actions were wrong, just like before but before she can develop further, Monokuma appears.

"Since Yasuhiro's secret was boring and no one else's secrets got revealed there wasn't much drama as I hoped. So as your headmaster I decided I'll reveal mine! I know, I'm so kind. Ok ok, here it goes!

There's a traitor among you."

Everyone froze in their tracks and stared at the screen showing Monokuma before it faded to black. Their was fear, panic and interest in people's eyes. No one knew what to say, except Kyoko. She immediately accused Byakuya of being the traitor, saying he has yet to share his talent and somehow knew all the answers.

Junko jumps into to defending, stating that it's dumb to assume so soon. Kyoko continues to back up her argument, explaining that he said he couldn't say his talent but may just be a stupid lie so his real talent isn't revealed. Toko ran up and argues back yelling she hasn't done anything to help the group. Kyoko responds back by explaining everyone knows her talent and who she is, but no one knows. His talent could be the Ultimate Killing Game Maker for all they know.

Mondo yells at her to stop the crap, explaining all she'll have left is enemies if she continues. Byakuya stops him, saying he can explain himself. Byakuya continues by stating he can't say his talent or the reason why he can't say his talent. Kyoko starts to get annoyed, she wants an answer. She smiles like she has a plan and continues arguing, but now Toko steps in instead.

Junko starts to think and focus her attention on Byakuya. wondering if Kyoko's suspicions may be true, however her doubting is discouraged by how much Byakuya has actually helped. He may be mysterious but is that any reason to think he's the mastermind?

Kyoko leaves to her dorm sharing some final yet chilling words. Celestia stands there awkwardly watching her leave while others stand near their friends. Taka asks if Celestia is really her friend and Celestia explains that she agrees with Kyoko and that they should also think it thru, she may be right after all. Celestia leaves and everyone starts to separate back to their dorms, no one feels safe but they'll act like it.

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The morning announcement runs off again and Junko groans but gets up, she always hated mornings. Junko wondered if what happened last night really affected everyone, she thinks it did but who knows. Junko went to the gym because she heard singing, Leon was singing and Sayaka was praising his work. Chihiro was trying to break up another petty argument Taka and Mondo were having again. Junko smiled, she was glad nothing to serious went on especially with Leon. He really needs this.

Junko worried about Sakura instead, thinking that the 2nd floor pool is where she'd be. She was, Sakura was looming over the area Yasuhiro was found dead in, the place Aoi always brought them to. Junko and Sakura share some worrying and cheerful words to each other. Junko tried cheering her up and Sakura brought up how this pain she feels must be what Junko felt, it was. they hug and cry all their pain out before talking about moments they loved with their now dead friends.

Junko remembers and old book she and Mukuro read together and wants to look for it in the library, so they go. Sakura asks what the book was and she describes it in great detail on their way there. They don't hear screaming or yelling till they open the door, it was chaos. Junko and Sakura stare at the scene before them. Byakuya had a large cut on his head being taken care of by Kiyotaka, Chihiro was taking care of the cuts on Toko while Mondo was yelling at Kyoko and Celestia.

Sakura rushed over to stop Mondo and Kyoko's bickering while Junko ran to ask Byakuya what happened. Byakuya explains he was reading when Kyoko tried slicing open his head but he threw a book at her instead. He noted she wasn't trying to kill him, just harm him. Celestia was also there attacking him to, but Toko ran in front and got those cuts. Apparently, Toko's scream alerted Mondo, Taka and Chihiro who were walking by which resulted in this.

Sakura took away the knife Kyoko had and told them their all going to the gym to talk. Sakura and Mondo both go away with Kyoko and Celestia, Kyoko was angry while Celestia was rather reserved but pissed. Kiyotaka and Chihiro help Byakuya and Toko go who both resist any other help or questions. Junko is tasked with finding Leon and Sayaka, so she runs around and realizes there's a 3rd floor opened.

Sayaka and Leon were heading up those stairs, they asked where everyone went so Junko explains what happened briefly. They rush over to the gym and Leon asks what the fuck happened to Byakuya and Toko, also why Sakura has a knife. Mondo explains it was Kyoko and Kyoko sticks her tongue at him. Celestia coughs before explaining the story from scratch; Kyoko had planned to make Byakuya reveal his talent by force but she didn't think Toko stalked him enough to know he was in danger.

Mondo scolded her for dragging Celestia into this mess and that what she did was horrible, Kyoko ignores him. Sakura sighs and as Junko is about to ask something- Monokuma bursts in angry. He demanded to know why no one has went up to check the 3rd floor after he announced the new rooms, Sakura reexplains. Monokuma points at Celestia and Kyoko, stating they will be punished for their actions by having their secrets revealed from last chapter instead of just dying.

Kyoko isn't worried at all but Celestia is.

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Kyoko's secret: Kyoko has done illegal gambling, some being young for her to do.

Celestia's secret: Celestia Ludenberg is a fake name, her real name is Taeko Yasuhiro.

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Celestia yells freezes, having no idea what to do and Kyoko watches her. Chihiro asks if it's true and Taeko looks down in shame, soon nodding. Junko sighs and asks what they should call her, Celestia said she'll decide soon, for now the name Celestia was fine. Byakuya gets up and starts leaving, suggesting they can skip this for another time. Kiyotaka asks how he could push something like this aside but gets ignored. Toko follows and soon everyone does.

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During the investigation, Junko finds a strange photo on the floor. It shows a picture of Aoi attacking Yasuhiro while Hifumi is watching, there was another figure in the corner but it was hard to make out- only there arm was out after all, it looked covered bandages. Just as Junko was going to show the others- Monokuma snatched it which resulted in them arguing. Junko decided she knew she couldn't win but kept note of this discovery and continued the investigation as normal. Junko decided to tag along with Sakura and Kyoko, who were fine with it.

Once they found the nurse's office, they treated Byakuya and Toko's wounds more carefully.

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Nighttime rolled around and before everyone went to bed, Mondo made a suggestion. Explaining that they couldn't let an attack like this happen again, Kyoko and Celestia had to be watched. Sakura agreed to watch over Kyoko but Sayaka argued that would be to much, they need to split times up. Mondo, Sakura, Sayaka, Taka and Leon were the strongest so they could easily watch over any of them with not much problem. Byakuya, Junko, Toko and Chihiro were left without any tasks which Junko was very grateful for. They would decide times after.

Kyoko sighed but agreed and Celestia agreed as well, saying it is what they deserve after all. Then, they all went back to their dorms to sleep again...

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Junko woke up feeling somewhat better then last night despite what happened yesterday. She decided to stay in her room and worry about that photo. Wondering if she should tell anyone, she thinks if anyone would believe her, it'd be him. So she ran to find Byakuya but stumbled into Kiyotaka who was carrying a book, Junko asked what it was. Kiyotaka quickly covered the title and stated it was a book she used to read as a kid, Junko was hesitate but nodded. Junko asked if she's seen Byakuya and Kiyotaka points where, Junko runs off yell a thank you to Kiyotaka.

Junko finally finds Byakuya in the laundry room and asks why he's here. Byakuya asks her if she remembers what happened here, Junko gets defensive and asks why he's asking. Byakuya looks at her and sighs, saying now isn't the time. He asks her what she wants, Junko explains the photo she found before but Monokuma took away. Byakuya ponders for a moment, saying he's not sure what it means but that she shouldn't say things that may be used against the mastermind so easily.

Before leaving, he explains that the bath house does have no cameras and it's the only place they have where Monokuma can't watch them. Junko decides to check for herself but agrees to say everything else there. They both separate and Junko heads straight to the bath house. On her way, she passes Mondo and Kyoko heading upstairs to either the 1st or 2nd floor, no one else. Junko checks the bath house, finding no cameras she smiles in relief and starts to feel anxious. Should just one person be trusted with Kyoko? Especially someone like Mondo?

Junko ponders and decides to check on them- then she ran straight into Chihiro which threw them both on the ground. Chihiro sniffles and Junko yells in pain. Sayaka- who was talking to Chihiro helps Junko up then Chihiro. Junko apologizes for disturbing them and slamming Chihiro into the floor, Sayaka says it was alright. Junko tries comforting Chihiro who was starting to calm down, Sayaka gave Chihiro also. Soon later, she calmed down and thanked them both. Sayaka said it was alright again and Junko said she had to help. Junko soon brushes them off and leaves again, Chihiro also left Sayaka and followed Junko to the second floor, then left on that floor...

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[villainanders]

agh i wanna hear about your cousland so bad!! what kind of person is she what’s her relationship w sir gilmore why did she side w the templars 👀👀

ahh i hadnt checked my askbox in a few days so just saw this but thank you for asking anon i love you!!

her name is roisin cousland and she's been very fun to play so far bc i didn't have much of a vision for her at the start beyond "cousland who marries Alistair but has leliana as her mistress at the end". (also this picture - the source of which i cannot find its from pinterest - which made me go FUCK i need to start my cousland playthrough) so seeing the way she's been developing has been very fun.. she starts out as, while very capable and a talented warrior and seemingly cool under pressure, deeply privileged and frankly naive about the reality of the world. she sees no reason why she can't live a charmed life as a ladyknight and eventually a great lady in her own right!

of course this all comes crashing down in the most horrific way imaginable in her origin as she suddenly basically realizes that she has been in an entirely different genre than she believed. you thought this was chivalric romance? this is dark fantasy bitch! this fucked up world ate everyone she ever loved so she needs to bite back, and hard, before it eats her too. basically roisin is grappling -- and badly so -- with how brutal she needs to be survive in a world that is fundamentally unjust beyond anything she imagined. that's why she sides with the templars -- she doesn't want to see the mages hurt, but she saw horrors beyond comprehension in the tower and imagines that a response that echoes that same swiftness and brutality must be the only way to respond.

but at the same time she's still kind of naive and getting used to living outside of her nobility bubble.. funniest part of this playthrough was when they met bandits on the road and i realized she would not realize she was being robbed so she just earnestly paid their tax not realizing how weird it was or how expensive it was. (it's one highway tax, alistair, what could it cost? 500 silver?)

i'm still playing in relatively early stages of the game so I'm not totally sure where this is going from here, though i imagine she's going grow past this stage of her grief and understand that mercy and hope have their place as well (this is making me realize it might be cool to do the dalish quest last so making peace can be the conclusion to that arc... hmmm) but we shall see where it goes. right now I'm obsessed with her dynamic with zevran they make me laugh every time they talk because roisin only let him live bc she was fresh out of ostagar (s/o to zev asap mod) and having just witnessed a SECOND brutal betrayal with unimaginably bloody consequences, was really starting to settle into "the only way to save the world is to start REALLY playing dirty. even if it means working with this awful reprehensible assassin. i might need someone this morally bankrupt to win" but ofc as she very slowly begins to start talking to zevran she starts to realize that assassin = evil is not as simple as she thought and that she unfortunately sees a lot of herself in this guy that seems so different from her. so i think that's going to be an important friendship in how she ultimately grows

as for her and gilmore, they were childhood friends growing up, but i think their relationship is probably going to break down a bit as time goes on. I'm still getting to know him via the mod, but the impression i have right now is that he's still very idealistic despite what he went through in highever, and i think it's going to upset and frustrate him to see someone he loves coping with the same thing in such an opposite way, in the same way it's currently pissing off roisin that he isn't drawing the same conclusions about the world from their experience that she did

[nagito-kissmaeda]

Oughh failed Kamukura project OCs have my heart, despite the fact I went a complete different direction with my own OC lmao. I'd love to read more about your OC <3

Thank you for also expressing interest in my silly OCs skfjskfs, I will talk a bit more about what happens AFTER Sachiko's time at HPA. the TLDR is that she ends up like Kamukura if his emotions still worked. She's a wreck. After graduating. She quickly notices that most of her classmates are able to easily find work with their talents, ironically, she doesn't have any such luck. as luck really uh, isn't an employable skill. As time passes, she grows more isolated, quickly realising that despite being unable to find any fulfilment in life, her luck will always give her everything she needs to survive.

Sachiko essentially becomes a shut-in. when she needs food, a delivery van will crash outside her house, and when she needs money someone will accidentally transfer it into her bank account. For a brief moment, she (on the hunt to feel SOMETHING) starts robbing banks, but even that doesn't bring any joy. It's just...too easy. She never has to try if she wants something it just...happens. She gives up on crime. Instead staying inside for multiple years. at some point, she develops a fascination with her luck, and how far she can take it. I won't go into detail, but it eventually leads to her trying to take her own life, and it never works. What was once experimentation has now become a desire. What is wrong with her? Why can't her luck give her the one thing she wants? Then the tragedy hits. And even that doesn't kill her, but it does kill all of her HPA classmates. She is the only one left. Sachiko never leaves her house, even as it is destroyed and falling apart around her. At least, until several years later, when she catches wind of a development. The world is healing. the Ultimate Hope Makoto Naegi is reopening Hope's Peak Academy. Well. After what they did to her, she can't have that, can she? Sachiko starts a new killing game with the first batch of ultimate ready to enrol in the brand new HPA. Partially to ruin any chances of the academy reopening, and partially, because she hopes she won't make it out alive. (Sachiko doesn't know this for sure, but she suspects that since her luck is artificial, that HPA specially made it so it won't kill her. As a contingency. She was an expensive investment, after all)

[predict485]

I wrote the prologue outline to a randomized touhou fangan i made

I want to improve and welcome feedback, especially from peers, so comments are especially welcome. I also accept constructive criticism. I spent a little while on this and I’m very proud of it, so please tell me your thoughts on it!

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The are also some things I saw as necessary to tell you:

- There are 14 students in this

- Any pronouns for Nue

- This is an AU where everyone is human

- It ended up being pretty long...

////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

This is the link to the original Google Doc. If there’s an access issue, I’m very sorry.

outline

If there’s an access issue, here’s the entire thing in this post. It’s been put under a keep reading tab because like i said, it’s a bit long. I also apologize for the format and if it’s difficult to read or understand.

Chapter 0

Lunasa is being driven to the Academy with her sisters.

They are excited about going to a high-level school and are proud of the talents they’ve developed

They realize they’re going to be in different classes because they have the same last name

They vow to still talk to each other between classes

They get out of the car and walk up the school steps

They relay their promises

But as soon as Lunasa walks into the school doors, her vision goes blurry and she passes out.

Lunasa then wakes up alone in a classroom with Kosuzu looking over her.

Lunasa is panicked because she’s suddenly away from her sisters and in an unknown location

Kosuzu says she’s also confused about the situation

They realize they’re in the Academy

They investigate the room and find nothing, so they decide to cautiously leave

In the hall, they meet Shou, who seems nice but is in a very professional mode and seems too nervous to say anything about herself. She does help them investigate a bit. 

They go down to another hallway and see Aya and Megumu arguing about their current situation. Aya claims she is right because of her talent, but Megumu claims she is right because of her position as being older than the rest of the cast.

They go into another classroom like the one they woke up in

They find Akyuu, who has only recently woken up and is still figuring out where she is

Kosuzu decides to help Akyuu, and Lunasa walks out behind them

Lunasa goes into the gym and finds the rest of the cast

She introduces herself to the rest of the cast

She meets Yatsuhashi, and the two become fast friends when they realize that they both play stringed instruments and they’ve both been separated from their sisters in this situation. 

Kosuzu and Akyuu both come into the gym, realizing that’s where Lunasa went

Kosuzu sees that Lunasa has become friends with Yatsuhashi, and becomes a bit jealous, but promises it’s nothing strong and she’ll probably get over it

They then awkwardly end the conversation

Lunasa then goes to talk to Nue, but as they’re about to tell her who they are, Aya and Megumu barge into the gym.

Megumu loudly announces who she is and says that she will be the leader of the group because she is older than everyone else there, since they are SHSL (Super High School Level) and she is SDCL (Super Duper College Level). 

Aya tries to argue, but then all the lights in the gym suddenly turn red.

ALICE comes onto the speaker and tells everyone that the game is ready to start.

Everybody panics

Megumu demands information on what is going on

ALICE tells them that she is an AI running on the Academy motherboard and is only following commands given by the “head administrator”.

The “head administrator” is using ALICE to anonymously run a game with the students of the Academy to select an “Ultimate student”.

The girls will participate in the killing game as an elimination process until only one student remains, who will go on to graduate as an “Ultimate student” and become part of the Academy Student Council, whatever that means.

Things are purposely left confusing.

ALICE then leaves, reminding the girls that she will still remain active until final shutdown and is monitoring the cameras and if they break any of the rules, they will be immediately executed.

The girls are left standing in the gym, all distrustful of each other.

Especially Lunasa, who thinks that Nue is sus and is also worried about Aya. She’s more or less okay with Kosuzu and Akyuu being friends, but is still a little nervous.

Yatsuhashi says that Lunasa’s going to be fine and she’s going to make sure she stays safe.

Megumu assures everyone that she will make sure nobody kills each other, but Nue objects and questions that nobody really wants to kill each other and says that at least one person wants to murder another in this room.

This just makes everybody even more distrustful.

ALICE gives everyone a tablet with the rules on it that you are able to see profiles of the other people and message them with.

The girls leave the gym and go their own separate ways for the night.

 Lunasa and Yatsuhashi maintain their friendship and talk to each other through the chatroom, before opening a private message board and having a talk about trusting each other. 

They decide they’re going to trust each other and remain friends since it’s always good to have someone on your side in a situation like this.

Suddenly, Lunasa receives a message from Yatsuhashi on the private chat board that she’s being ambushed by Nue and that she urgently needs to come help.

Lunasa rushes down the dormitory hall and into Yatsuhashi’s room, but only hears a shower running in her bathroom. Lunasa is confused and slowly approaches the bathroom before it cuts to a CG.

The camera pans back and reveals a darkened figure standing in the doorway with a baseball bat. They swing it and a loud “THUNK!” sound effect plays before the screen goes black.

Lunasa’s eyes slowly reopen and it pans to a CG of Yatsuhashi looking over her worriedly in the infirmary. 

Yatsuhashi says that Lunasa was out for about thirty minutes and says she’s probably going to be okay. 

Lunasa talks with Yatsuhashi about what happened and Yatsuhashi says she is still scared and confused about the whole thing. Note: Yatsuhashi’s hair is wet.

Lunasa leaves the infirmary and goes back down to the dormitory hall before ALICE interferes on the speaker and announces that this attempted murder will make a good test for the class trial system.

Lunasa and Yatsuhashi, as well as Momoyo, Shou and Kogasa (who were standing in the hallway at that time) ask what’s going on and how all this works.

ALICE explains the basic investigation and class trial system and that they are trying this out with the attempted murder of Lunasa. She then promptly tells the girls to get investigating.

Shou immediately rushes and asks Lunasa if she’s okay, Momoyo says she thought Lunasa was smarter than to get ambushed, and Kogasa slinks away before she can be asked anything.

While investigating, Lunasa takes some time to explore the area and Aya and Nue get their official introductions. Lunasa talks to Shou a bit more, but Shou still refuses to say anything about herself except for her name.

Lunasa confronts Nue about the ordeal of them supposedly “attacking Yatsuhashi”. Nue denies her claims and says they were in their room the whole time.

Lunasa finds that the closet at the end of the hall is open, and there is a rack of baseball bats. One appears to be missing.

The two bedrooms next to the closet belong to Kogasa and Kaguya respectively. Kaguya, who was just exiting her room to explore when she got the news, says that Kogasa and Momoyo were looking in the closet for things to help them escape. She also adds that Momoyo left before Kogasa.

Lunasa then goes to check up on Yatsuhashi. She realizes that the lock on Yatsuhashi’s door is broken, before asking her what she was doing. Yatsuhashi says she was about to take a shower when the attempted murder happened and she also didn’t know how to turn off the tablet.

The two girls test this and it turns out the tablet auto-turns off after five minutes. Kosuzu and Akyuu come up to them and say they tested this too.

While all this is going on, Lunasa explores the area more. As well as the dormitory hallway with the closet at the end and the gym (that also functions as an auditorium, there’s a cafeteria with an attached kitchen, a soundproof music room, and an AV room as well as a chained-off stairway to a second floor.

Lunasa meets up with Aya in the AV room before ALICE goes on the speaker to announce that the investigation time is up and to go to the elevator to attend the class trial. 

Lunasa and Aya take a little bit of time to find the elevator, talking a bit in the process, but eventually they find it. Lunasa and Yatsu have a small back-and-forth about how they trust each other before getting on the elevator.

They go to the trial grounds and they go over the evidence. It’s a bit rocky, there’s lots of arguing, people are dumb, Akyuu and Megumu have to help out a little too much, but they eventually figure out that Kogasa did it.

Everyone’s like “what the hell?” at Kogasa and she says she absolutely needed to leave the Academy and she was going to drop out anyway. Long story short, everyone is now mad at Kogasa.

However, Nue says that they respect Kogasa and she’s cool for prompting a mystery that people had trouble figuring out. (The case was very obvious.)

Now everybody is just scared of Nue. Kogasa says she’ll never try to do that again and didn’t really want Lunasa to die anyway, and will join the others in their efforts to escape. 

People are still very untrusting and afraid of Kogasa, and what creeps them out even more is that Kogasa seems … happy about scaring everyone. And now Kogasa wants to become friends with Nue. 

Everyone goes their separate directions for the night. The girls are all very distrustful of each other, even more than before. They have no idea what will happen next and who will murder next. They all have some form of doubt in their mind, but they can only trust that Megumu’s efforts to escape will pay off. Hopefully. Just hopefully.

 Chapter 0: End | 14 Students Remain

@isthatafuckingcorpse

@fukanamis

@alterego14

[catboyebooks]

the first thing i want to say about chapter 6 is regarding nanami. earlier i talked about the scene where hinata and nanami have a conversation in the void:

^ this scene, this is the only screencap i have of it lol

my read of this scene earlier was that hinata isn't really talking to nanami here, that he's in an internal debate with himself (remember also that directly after this is a debate segment vs multiple copies of "kamukura" who all speak like hinata and just say his deepest insecurities out loud, so literally an internal debate with himself) and just projecting the argument he needs to hear onto nanami. i said this because nanami in this scene doesn't talk the way nanami always did in sdr2; she's way more direct, it's such a notable change that hinata even comments on it and wonders if this is really nanami he's talking to. and i still do think this is a reasonable interpretation of the scene, but another read of it occurred to me and now i need to talk about that too:

i've said before that sdr2 nanami isn't a real person. in a literal sense that's correct, she's just an AI created to fill a certain role in the simulation. her role is restrictive. she's not a real part of the group and knows it. her FTEs imply she cannot become too close to the real people in the simulation because of her nature as an artificial intelligence. there are limits on how much she can participate in the killing game; she can help investigate and try and nudge the group in the right direction during trial, but she isn't permitted to solve the cases or provide the evidence herself. she has only the vaguest suggestion of a backstory (something something dead programmer dad) and extremely little knowledge of the world outside of information directly pertaining to her gamer talent. it's fair to say that someone like that isn't a quote unquote Real Person, right? but as the game continues, and in particular during chapter 5's trial, nanami begins to find ways to work around the restrictions in her programming to continue to help the group. ultimately she's able to confess to being the traitor even when her programming wasn't supposed to allow her to, and i think this is how we can know that nanami was starting to become Real. maybe she began as nothing more than computer code, but over the course of the killing game, throughout her interactions with the group, she began to develop a sense of herself, of personhood, that she didn't have before.

i think part of the tragedy of chapter 5 was that by the time nanami was executed, she was arguably just as much of a conscious being — just as Real — as the rest of them. i think nanami developing her own consciousness and sense of self is the only real explanation for why she wasn't actually deleted after being executed, and showed back up when the simulation was glitching just like the other "dead" people did. if she was just computer code surely she could have been deleted, but a consciousness is trickier to get rid of, right? but that digital ghost of her that was left wasn't the "observer" anymore, and there were no more restrictions on what she could say, so she was able to speak her mind to hinata in this scene. and at the end of the game, as hinata is leaving the simulation and says "thank you" to nanami, she was able to respond to him. as Real as she may be, there is no body for nanami to return to, and she presumably was deleted for real when the simulation shut down. that thing she says to hinata at the end about how she'll always be cheering him on from somewhere and they'll always be friends... those are her dying words, she knows she's about to cease to exist.

in fact, back to the void conversation again, in that scene she knows that by giving hinata that pep talk she's sacrificing herself for a second time. nanami's role all along has been to guide the others towards a future that she can't be a part of. i should probably save any further nanamiposting for when i watch dr3 and we have to talk about how there was a real nanami chiaki in that class whose brutal torture/murder was used to traumatize and brainwash her classmates into becoming despair terrorists, and then they sort of collectively imagined her back into existence in sdr2 only for her to get brutally killed in front of them Again and then ultimately deleted in order for everybody else to survive, but uh... that's a lot to unpack, huh?

[crystalelemental]

You know. Maybe I was too harsh on Bravely Second yesterday. That first ethical dilemma could be an outlier, I'm sure they're not all this stupid, right? Haha...hah...

So anyway, I got to meet Mephilia again.

The event opens with Edea's swordmaster teacher giving her a letter to deliver to her sort of fellow student, whose name is literally Gho Gettar. Ace Attorney ass character. Gho is off working in the city, but in a shitty job. See, he not only studied the blade, he's also a really talented Summoner mage from the academy, where he was a four-star student (five is the max, with some mythical six tier for super eggheads, so he's pretty high up). He excitedly takes a job promising development of alternate means of generating wind power should the winds stop like they did in the first game again, and with his talents in magic he figures this is R&D focused and takes the job.

Turns out, it's manual labor, turning the wheel by hand despite the winds keeping the windmill going currently. Gho is rightfully furious with this place and wants to quit, and Mephilia just appears and Teleports him away because they used to work together, and she thinks they can unlock the ultimate summon together.

At this point you go back to his boss, who mumbles about not expecting him to quit so soon and maybe he pushed too hard, but the conversation is clear: fuck this guy in particular. Edea hits the nail on the head, talking about military training tactics that break someone down so they're easily molded into what you want them to be, and the guy confirms, even adding that smart guys like Gho need extra grueling stuff because they come in with a "big head," which basically means "knowing his worth and his rights as a person and employee."

So you go find Gho anyway to finally deliver this letter, which is Edea's master being a complete fucking bootlicker and arguing about the need to stay with it, Gho. You've only been at this for [redacted], and that is not enough time to truly determine if this job is right for you! You need to work hard and overcome! And Gho, being a hard-working student, is like "it's true, I've never left anything half-finished like this." Mephilia, the only one I respect here, points out that they don't respect him and his life in that work sucked, and he can do what he studied and what he loves here with her as they work toward a major breakthrough. This is when you are given the choice to bring him back or let him stay.

You know what I picked. But this time, out of morbid curiosity, I took the other path. See, to cut to the chase: I started with intended path, but the other side lives, so I wanted to see if they killed Mephilia anyway. Mercifully they do not. But she calls Gho a capitalist pig (only half joking, she does call him a pig) and leaves. You check up on him later and oh look, instead of manual labor, now they're implementing a real job like what was suggested, having him use summon magic to help fuel the windmill. Which is just another form of manual labor when you think about it but don't worry about that. See guys? He's happy! All he had to do was endure the company's abuses a little bit!

When you rightfully side with Mephilia and let him stay, Edea's master jumps out to berate her about how if he doesn't stay and work it out, he'll never learn the value of hard work and give up whenever he encounters any difficulty. Which is stupid as fucking shit because you don't become a high-ranking academic without a concept of hard work. Moreover, it starts to try framing this ethical decision as a matter of Gho dropping the job for summoning because he thinks he's too good to be a cog in the machine, and there's honor in doing the hard jobs that need doing. Which is so not the point! The point is that this dude is being wildly abused by his current position, brought in under a lie of what his work expectations would entail, by an employer who does all of this intentionally because they think he'll stay and break himself down so thoroughly they can control him! This isn't even subtext and reading into what happens, the manager openly admits that's the game plan!

I'm honestly kinda staggered. I didn't think we'd be able to hit the same tone-deaf non-dilemma a second time after "Feed the orphans, or blow up the city?" And yet, here we are. Bravely Default cannot write a story to save its fucking life, man.

[lyrical-lovely]

Anime Review - Love Live! School Idol Project (S1)

I have a very deep connection to the Love Live franchise, but the original anime was actually kind of disappointing... This is the first anime I've reviewed on this page that had a second season I declined to watch. I might come back to it down the line, but I'm gonna take a break for now.

Watch Love Live! School Idol Project if:

- You enjoy music and anime about music

- You like the premises of sports anime but got tired of baseball/basketball/soccer

- You like women (seriously- there's no voiced men in the entire series)

Do NOT watch Love Live! School Idol Project if:

- You are sensitive to the usual 2010s anime nonsense (minor sexual harassment, sexualization of minors, insensitive discussion of weight and diet)

- You want a cast of likeable characters (don't worry, I'm gonna touch on this below)

- You like anime with tidy endings

SPOILERS below, I have to talk freely about this, sorry.

Nobody here knows this yet, but I've been into Love Live for about 10 years now, just before Aqours debuted. And let me tell you- based on the cards and stories in the game, I was a big fan of u's because I thought their characters were much more complex than they are in the later seasons. This is still true, but after watching the anime, I hate basically all of them. But let's go back to the beginning.

Love Live is an anime about a girl named Honoka who finds out her school, with a history so extensive that her grandmother and mother both attended, is closing due to a lack of applications. After seeing another school's successful idol group, Honoka decides to recruit her friends Umi and Kotori to join her. She runs into opposition at just about every possible point- struggling with getting venues, a difficult student council president, troubles with advertising, arguments within the group, et cetera.

In order to fully understand Love Live, you need to have a grasp of the context- Love Live is actually a sports anime! Many of the issues that Honoka and her friends, which make up the group u's, run into are based on cliches from sports anime, and the characters are also based on sports anime cliches. For example, Nico ran the old idol club before all the other members quit because her demands were too high. Eli is the overzealous student council president who thinks the idol group is giving the school a bad image. Hanayo is shy. Maki is moody and difficult, but a real talent. Do you see it? Replace those names with male names and you've got the ingredients for a perfect baseball club.

Anyway, I had very high hopes for this anime, so it's my own fault I was disappointed. The number of main characters, combined with the sheer volume of hurdles that the group faces on their way to stardom, means that the complex characters I had gotten to know so well through the games were largely left undeveloped. Instead of the cool, calm, and collected traditional woman that Umi's character wants to be, we get a frazzled mess who's being dragged into antics that really don't seem to suit her at all. Instead of deeply struggling with her relationship with her own femininity, Rin just says "nya" a few times every episode and that's literally her entire arc. Seriously, it's a shame because I know she gets development in the second season, but she adds nothing but wasted time to the first season. And as a result of these failed complex characters, most of the Love Live idols to come would ultimately be shallow. I could go on and on about the failed character arcs in this show, but that ultimately brings me to the plot.

Nothing. Goes. Right. Absolutely nothing can be easy or insignificant. Each performance is for the fate of a school, and each hurdle seems nearly impassable. This would be great if the anime was supposed to be a thriller, but its target demographic doesn't want that from it. What young girls wanted to watch was a cute anime about girls wearing dresses and singing, and what we got instead was just a barrage of struggles. There was almost zero downtime, no cute little interactions between the characters that had no significance to the plot. Forgive me, but I think those mundane moments that develop relationships between characters are part of what makes an anime, specifically an idol anime where the emphasis is supposed to be ON the characters, good. In the end, they end up withdrawing from the competition because Honoka collapsed (cliche) and that's where they leave it. Fortunately, I think by this point the anime had been approved for a second season, so I think the dramatic ending was a ploy to draw viewers back for next year.

That's enough complaining, though, because there were some highlights. The music is wonderful (despite the lack of variety between the songs, ALL of which are about doing your best and following your dreams) and the costumes are cute by 2010s standards. They're a little campy now. Furthermore, this series was one of the pioneers of 3D idol performance animation integrated with 2D closeups of the characters. The 3D animation has improved significantly since then due to better software and computing power, but for the time, the animation was good. I also think the color palette was well chosen for this anime, and the voice acting was stellar.

Anyway. This turned into a rant about all my problems with Love Live, but I think any potential viewers should be aware of its shortcomings before investing ~5 hours into it. Overall - 4/10. Amazing for the idol anime genre and I really love Love Live as a franchise, but man, this anime was not for me. Thanks for listening.

[simkjrs]

the making of enoshima junko

junko is a fascinatingly funny villain who defies so many attempts to understand her, reason with her, or empathize with her. i think the creator of danganronpa even said she was made to be a villain who’s impossible to relate to or understand. BUT HERE I AM, writing a meta about the inner workings of her mind and her motivations as a villain and how much of a tragedy she really was, because i am out here empathizing with her and loving her with all my heart.

i think she can be difficult to understand, and it’s easy to give up and explain away her actions as just “an obsession with despair” but there’s so much more going on that i just can’t leave it at that. 

SO HERE WE GO: what the fuck is going on in junko’s mind?

[contains MAJOR spoilers for the first and second games and danganronpa 0; includes content from unlocked bonus mode games]

to start things off: if you said that junko's motivation for destroying the world was just because she wanted to and for no deeper reason, you'd be correct. but like, you wouldn’t be right.

critical to understanding junko is danganronpa 0. we learn a few things about junko, the first and most important of which is the fact that her TRUE shsl talent isn’t fashion, or despair -- but analysis. 

junko has a mind that works very, very well. scarily so. she has a brain that:

after watching someone fight for approximately three minutes, can near-flawlessly predict their moves and lay an elaborate trap to knock them out despite the fact that they are much faster and stronger than junko

in fact, she predicts them SO WELL that she doesn’t even have to LOOK at them in order to dodge their attacks while they’re chasing her

just... three minutes, and she completely saw through their fighting style. that’s unreal. 

can analyze others’ speech patterns, thoughts, & mannerisms, to the extent that she can nearly word-for-word guess what someone is thinking or going to say. so we get gems like this: 

“If my prediction is correct, he‘s going to realize very soon that the source of my newfound power lies in my notebook.      [...]     Madarai reached a conclusion. There was some kind of secret hiding in that notebook.” 

“Does [Junko] think this is a game?!     ‘You‘re probably asking yourself if I think this is a game, but I‘m not gonna tell you either way...’”

can generate countless connections and possibilities at a moment’s notice: (from the bonus “ultimate talent development plan” mode)

can anticipate the way everyone is going to react to certain situations, as if they aren’t all complex independent organisms but instead actors whose lines she’s reading off a script... 

junko has a mind that accumulates data about the world very, very rapidly, and makes this.... GIANT database of behaviors, and patterns, and predictions. she's smart. she can lay a plot that accurately predicts the actions of people MONTHS in advance, to the point that she can make her plots run almost entirely on the reactions she predicted other people would have; she can craft a plan that would run completely in absentia of her, powered only by the decisions she predicted others would make. 

that's what she does in dangan ronpa 0. and it goes down without a hitch: 

“Just answer me!” Frustrated, Matsuda raised his voice angrily. “What is it you want to achieve? Just what is it you‘re trying to do?”

Enoshima tilted her head slightly to the side.

“Nothing really. I don‘t want to do anything.”

“... What?”

“It‘s too late, I shan‘t do a thing. I‘m not going to do a single thing, I have everyone else doing it for me. Guys like the student council, the headmaster or the steering committee... and also that girl who you absolutely adore... EEEEVERYONE is running around, doing my work.”

so what you learn from this is that junko is frighteningly good at breaking down the behavioral patterns of the world & people around her. good enough to predict other people, down to their thoughts, speech, and decision making process... good enough to predict fashion trends and make a name for herself as the ultimate fashionista... good enough that, with a little bit of time and observation, she can read her environment like it’s an open book. 

good enough that she’s completely, utterly bored. 

bored of talking to people because their responses are SO predictable, bored of schoolwork because it's SO easy, bored of doing things because it's just the same patterns repeated over and over and over again. junko can predict people months in advance; reading people in the moment must be a joke. 

for example, during her events in the bonus “ultimate talent development” game mode, junko has an encounter with asahina aoi and hanamura teruteru, in which hanamura invites asahina to his kitchen and junko cheerfully inserts herself into the conversation. there’s a little banter that junko takes part in at first, but then, before hanamura can get around to telling asahina what he invited her to the kitchen for--

turns out hanamura wanted asahina to taste-test some of his donuts. before he’d even mentioned it, junko figured it out. and to her, it was completely trivial to figure out. 

this is what daily life is like for her: nothing new, nothing exciting, just an endless parade of people moving according to a script. a script that junko read, divined, memorized, learned by heart, and is now completely and utterly bored of. 

life for junko is the perpetual, endless torture of boredom. it is about as engaging as being locked in an empty room with nothing to do but watch a clock ticking away at the time. 

and if you had no way to leave that room, no way to escape -- eventually you’d have nothing to do except take apart the clock itself, wouldn’t you? how long could you hold out before -- out of sheer frustration and the need to do something -- you’d try to dismantle the clock piece by piece? 

what junko wants, more than anything else, is relief from the numbness of boredom. she wants stimulation! interest! something exciting, something that can stir her to passions she could never reach under the endless cafard that weighs her down so in daily life! the highs of hope and joy, the lows of utter devastation and despair... how could she not chase that? she so desperately  wants it! she wants that excitement! she wants, more than anything else, to feel.

and boy howdy does despair make her feel. taking, for example, this passage from when junko personally murders her beloved matsuda yasuke (dangan ronpa 0): 

[Junko] loved him so much, that irreplaceable existence, more important than anyone else, almost obsessed with him to the point of insanity, always wanting to be within his embrace, even living in a world with only him would be fine. And by losing that incredible existence, just how much despair would [she] fall in?

She nurtured her love for Matsuda all this time just to get a taste of that feeling. Seeing her loved one be smothered by despair during his last moments, she pretty much lived to experience that spectacle.

Finally getting to taste that despair... 

“...INCREDIBLE!!”

It was more than anything she could have hoped for.

"Too depressing! Too good! My chest is gonna tear open! This is true self-loathing! I want to die! This is! This is the despair that comes from losing a loved one!”

While Enoshima‘s being was assaulted by that despair, she kicked Yasuke Matsuda‘s corpse with all her strength.

“Amazing, amazing! Amazingamazingamazingamazingamazing!”

and again: 

Looking at this notebook brought back memories of Yasuke Matsuda. Remembering him, she could feel her chest tightening. Consumed by disgust at what she did to him, she was compelled to cry and scream out. I want to forget this already! I want to just get rid of this notebook!

“Aha! All the more reason to keep this on hand!”

despair is just about the only thing that can reliably make junko feel something -- anything other than the utter boredom that plagues her so, that dogs her footsteps wherever she goes and eats away at her mind. it’s the only thing that can bring her relief. it’s her drug, her nepenthe, her poison of choice 

and for this reason alone, despair is the only thing that junko can cling to. as long as she’s bored, as long as she’s trapped by the very nature of her own mind, the only thing she can do is chase the purity of despair. 

in fact, it would be accurate to say that despair is junko’s only hope for being satisfied with her existence, and her only hope to be happy. Or, as dangan ronpa 0 puts it, “Junko Enoshima wishes for despair above anything else [...] finds hope within despair more than anyone else.” 

with this context, we can finally understand what ikusaba mukuro tried to say about her sister (again, in dangan ronpa 0): 

“[Junko] has lived her whole life with despair by her side. She lived while immersed in despair. That‘s why she began looking for despair in others. She learned to enjoy pushing people into despair [...] she learned to enjoy inflicting despair onto herself. That‘s how the link to despair began. As she chased down despair, she pushed it onto others on the way. Doing so, it caused her to desire falling into despair even more...and because of that chain to despair, the Super High School Level Despair was born.”

junko has been, and i quote, “bored since the day [she] was born.” despair is the only thing she has. by causing others to fall into despair, she can experience it herself. the more she cares about her victims, the better, too -- the worse she’ll feel, and therefore, the better she’ll feel. this is why junko gives so much special attention to causing the despair of those she loves the most, i.e. her childhood love matsuda yasuke, her sister mukuro, and her classmates at hope’s peak. 

BUT! there’s also an added bonus to all her convoluted plans for despair. it involves setting up situations that she’s never before seen -- and therefore, situations she can’t entirely predict! her pursuit of despair is her ticket to possibility of an unpredictable factor in her life -- and for someone as endlessly bored as junko? that’s as good as it gets. something exciting! something new! 

and if she doesn't know what's going to happen, then junko gets to feel things like ANTICIPATION, or SURPRISE, or FEAR, or DELIGHT -- things that are so often denied to her in her daily life because she can predict so much that she's just bored all the time!!! everything is boring!!! an endless plain of dull, boring nothingness with nothing to engage her for more than a minute, and junko HATES it, junko would do anything to find something even a little interesting or surprising in this world! she’d murder, she’d weaponize her empathy against herself, she’d destroy the world! she'd do anything to feel something besides boredom again!!!!

for junko, "despair" is associated with excitement and relief. she would pursue it to such a degree that she'd destroy the entire world and herself while she's at it -- just so she can feel something besides the endless boredom and nothingness that has burdened her all her life. 

of course, that means there’s a little dissonance in what junko claims to stand for. for junko, true despair would probably be akin to being locked in that empty room with the clock, and never letting herself take the clock apart. it would be... giving into boredom. and that’s something she could never bear to do. 

so then we have lines like this: 

With the sullen expression still on her face, Enoshima trotted towards Madarai‘s dead body. “It‘s your fault, y‘know. Take that!” She started jabbing her toes into the body. “Hey, say something! What‘s up with being so easy to kill?! You should‘ve at least made an effort to disrupt my plans! How can I possibly despair like that?!”

despair is about the thrill! the excitement! and yes, junko is making all these plans, hoping that they’ll succeed -- but how can junko despair if there isn’t at least the excitement of defeating all those who would desire to challenge her?! if there isn’t at least something a LITTLE new, a LITTLE bit unexpected?! she can’t, thats what! at least let your despair drive you to do something interesting and new for once in your life! 

or this: 

in all probability, junko -- more than anything -- would love an enemy who she can’t defeat. someone who, no matter how much she tries, she simply can’t overcome! because more than anything, that would represent a challenge -- and therefore, something exciting. junko’s happy ending is meeting her match, and more. 

too bad she doesn’t have anyone like that. 

so instead, junko has nothing to test her mind against, nothing to occupy her... nothing to save her from the boredom eating her alive. and so, from dangan ronpa 0: 

Everything turned out just the way she expected... Everything turned out just the way she hoped... and so she despaired.

“But, it‘s so unsatisfying when your plans always succeed... Whose fault is this? Is anyone going to take responsibility?”

and again, from the last trial of the first game: 

in the end, despair is only a poor substitute for what junko really wants; a pale, cheap imitation. what junko wants the most -- excitement, purpose, relief from boredom -- will forever be out of reach, as long as she’s trapped by the confines of her own mind. 

i think the saddest part about danganronpa 0 is that we get a look at what it would take for junko to be really, truly happy. junko wipes her own memory; more than that, she makes it so her long term memory is nonexistent, and she forgets things almost as soon as they happen. and the kicker is that junko is happier like this, living as the forgetful otonashi ryouko, than she was as herself. 

because she constantly forgets everything, she’s not bored. everything is a new experience. she’s happy to be with matsuda and feels no need to chase despair. as ryouko, junko is still self centered and somewhat callous, but she’s also passionate, excitable, cheerful, upbeat. she cares about those who are important to her, and would try her best to preserve their happiness. 

but when her brain is in perfect working condition, she can only helplessly fall back into the hopeless boredom that she hates so much -- and that she’d do anything to escape. 

it is a boredom so complete, she can’t stand it. she can’t even stand herself. her own predictable self, whose mind, thoughts, actions she knows so well... in danganronpa 3, junko actually has something of a seemingly stable personality, but by the time the end of the first danganronpa game rolls around... 

... she’s so bored of even herself that she feels the need to constantly switch up her personality. 

the sad thing this implies is that junko’s mind just -- couldn’t take it, anymore. it gave out under its own weight. her boredom was so absolute, her mental state could only deteriorate. she could only become increasingly unstable, and increasingly desperate to find something, anything, to keep her boredom at bay. 

no wonder junko has this sentiment, then: 

junko’s analytical mind is her greatest blessing, but also her greatest downfall; the source of her boredom, and thus, her descent into despair. she went to all these efforts to relieve herself of her boredom; and to do that, she chased despair, defined herself by the concept, even. but in the end, what junko needed the most was an escape from being herself. 

for someone like that... no wonder she welcomed death with open arms. here it is: the end of the line. no more boredom -- no more anything, in fact. only the fear, the terror, the excitement of her execution -- the great unknown -- and then, her death. 

the tragedy is that for junko, this was the only happy ending she could have. as long as she was alive, she’d never be happy, never be satisfied. death, for her... was a relief. 

so when naegi started to tell her that executing herself wasn’t necessary--

she became angry. this was all the wanted in life, this was all she could ever hope for. this was, in her eyes, the only way for things to end. 

this is the tragedy of junko enoshima: a girl who, in a desperate effort to keep herself from going insane, destroyed everything she touched. 

[volturialice]

ok I wasn't gonna do this twilight advent thing because y'all know I'm Not Great at consistent participation but if it's Jasper's Hobbies Day I obviously have to weigh in so here goes

listen. the important thing to keep in mind about jasper is that he's boring. he's soooooooo boring. he has all the tastes and proclivities of a middle-aged dad. just utterly bland dadcore taste in everything. I have this little remix snippet of one of @goldeneyedgirl's human alice/vampire jasper stories where even in human!teen!alice's wildest, horniest fantasies she can't imagine him as a peer or cool fellow teen and instead casts him as a 45-year-old nerdy professor.

which is what makes SUCH a hilarious contrast with his anything-but-boring background of violence and drama. he's kind of a jon snow-esque character in that his skills do not at all line up with his desires. by age 25 or so his only real want is to be Left Alone and yet life will not stop putting him in Situations. even when he manages to escape the cycle of violence, he ends up brother to the Main Character and husband to the World's #1 Meddler And Architect of Situations. even if alice were not an irrepressibly active person who loves nothing more than Doing Things, she's so overpowered that she creates international political incidents just by existing. jasper will never truly know a moment's peace and that's so funny and delightful.

but when he does get a moment's peace, here's what he'd like to do with it:

I agree with the canon/fanon that he's into scholarly pursuits like philosophy and history. I think history-wise he often overlaps rosalie's interest in technological history, because he blinked and missed the entire industrial revolution. I mean, he went from being human during a time without indoor plumbing to rejoining society around the time of stuff like the Space Race and the development of nuclear weapons! that's bound to pique anybody's interest. the rate of technological development is so much faster now! I can see him spending long hours talking with rose about robotics and space exploration and the future of green energy. I think he likes the logistics side of engineering because of the emphasis on efficiency and elegant solutions.

he's also happy to take all the Crime hobbies from carlisle. a whole new area of strategy where he gets to pull out all the stops and use his intimidation skills but doesn't even have to kill anyone!! what a rollicking good time.

I also agree with the fanon that as a human, jasper was a total Horse Girl who liked animals. as a vampire I can see that manifesting as an interest in conservation and biodiversity, or sustainable agriculture.

also as a human, he's very into athletic pursuits. his natural talent is for team sports and even coaching, but his interests lie more in the direction of stuff like swimming and climbing and martial arts—anything with a big emphasis on self-discipline and improvement.

in terms of the cullen family dynamic, his extreme patience means he's also voted #1 Most Likely To End Up Helping Other People With Their Hobbies. esme needs a hand with construction or renovation? he's there. rosalie needs someone to stand around and act as a car jack for hours? that's a jasper task (emmett would be her first choice except that he always gets bored and ends up trying to distract and seduce her, which inevitably works.)

the only people who can ever really coax jasper out of the dadcore mold are alice and especially emmett. emmett is a veritable genius for tapping into jasper's secret petty side. he can transform that jaded ex-war criminal nerd into a stupid goofy teenage oaf in 3.5 seconds, usually by goading him into some kind of competition. whenever they invent new games like Emmett And Jasper Ultimate MegaChess together, jasper tries to focus on developing a complex system of rules and emmett provokes him to smash right through them and play. ditto when it comes to things like pranking edward (pranks involve a lot of strategy and skill ok. they're totally a mature grown-up activity!!)

I think when he and alice first joined the cullens, jasper had lowkey forgotten how to have hobbies and considered them frivolous. until he saw how much joy and fulfillment alice got out of her hobbies and realized he'd better find some of his own or he was gonna feel lost and clingy. luckily for him these megarich vampires who never sleep have nothing but time and resources on their hands, and were happy to help him find some!

[trubbishrubbish]

Danganronpa S and the Mistreatment of Genocide Jack.

Danganronpa S... What a fucking disappointment.

When this was first announced back in E3 2021 and seeing Genocide Jack in that swimsuit CG I was so fucking happy. I wanted new Genocide Jack content as I have wrung out all other sources of her pretty well. I was ready to see my favorite character, my idol, the one I love the most having fun in the sun with every student.

But when I finally got my hands on the game, after paying a microtransaction to play her right way, what I got wasn't what I expected. Instead of fun Genocide Jack events we get her mentioning Byakuya every half second, her being a jerk to everyone except Komaru and all the fun, random wackiness and boy crazy of her character from the mainline games.

This rant will hopefully explain that Genocide Jack has be quite frankly, handled awful in DRS.

Let’s hit the nail on the head right now. DRS Genocide Jack is not the same Genocide Jack from past games. To compare, let’s look her character in Ultimate Talent Development Plan.

I keep forgetting that UTDP was a thing, rarely people bring it up nowadays but boy am I glad it exists now. I needed a refresher on what events she had so I went to read them all and holy shit. She is so much more fun, more crazy, more friendly, more EVERYTHING that I love about Genocide Jack. The difference between DRS Jack and UTDP Jack are night and day but we need to compare the two in an actual event. The best one is with Sonia as both games have an event with her and are about the same thing. Sonia talking to Jack.

Here’s the UTDP event.

And here is DRS.

Can you see the difference?  UTDP Sonia is enthusiastic while Genocide Jack is happy with the attention, playing along with Sonia because why not, surprised by the praise but enjoying it while still being her killing horny self not caring she is talking to royalty.

DRS Jack is kinda... I don't know, boring. That's how best I can describe her in DRS. Boring. They made her boring and an asshole in DRS. She isn’t friendly with other students. She’s a jerk. I know her gimmick was that she’s a serial killer and everyone is scared of her but she was also a goofball in past games. That’s what made her special and so endearing. This serial killer would crack jokes, say really horny and random stuff and be super friendly to other students even if they are scared.

DRS Jack is none of these things. When other students try to be friendly with her, she pushes them away for Byukuya.

UTDP Genocide Jack would enjoy being called Geno and she would love being with Ibuki and Kokichi but not DRS Genocide Jack.

As far as I know, there’s only one event where Jack is not a jerk to another student other than Komaru. It’s this event with Mikan where she cured Jack of her cold.

For once, Jack is actually NICE? But it’s not the same type of nice like in UTDP. And that last line really bothers me.

“Somehow, I doubt I’d have ever received gratitude from Genocide Jack without my nurse talents.”

What the fuck does this mean? DRS Jack would never express gratitude to anyone without them doing her a favor? Why? UTDP Jack would be super happy if someone gave her attention! Why is she so selfish and a bitch to every student? Students whom she knew for 3 years? Komaru is the only person Genocide Jack likes. I mean events with her are ok but I can’t STAND whenever she brings up Byakuya and it happens in every event she is with Komaru.

Speaking of Byakuya that brings me to my final point.

I know Byakuya has to be a thing and I accepted that there would be events with him in DRS and I would avoid them. But holy shit they went overboard in DRS. There are too many events where Jack brings up her “White Knight.” UTDP doesn’t have nearly as many events with Byakuya in them. I did the math.

Here is every Genocide Jack event in UTDP. The red highlight shows an event where Jack said “Master”

And here is every event in DRS with a red highlight showing which events she said “White Knight.”

14/23 events in UTDP has Genocide Jack NOT mention Byakuya

4/21 events in DRS has Genocide Jack NOT mention Byakuya (Campfire event has Kurokuma event with no mention of him)

But that's just name alone. There are events where Jack mentions Byakuya but the event is not about him. Let's add those events to the count

18/23 events in UTDP where Byakuya is not the main focus.

8/21 events in DRS where Byakuya is not the main focus.

Even with only 14 out of 23 events that is not Byakuya mentioned. THAT'S STILL MORE THAN HALF THE TOTAL EVENTS. DRS DOESN'T GO HALFWAY EVEN WHEN HE IS NOT THE MAIN FOCUS WHAT THE FUCK.

This is a huge problem. Disregarding the opinion that Tofu is a toxic ship (It is) having this many Byakuya mentions leaves no room for variety in her interactions with other characters. All her events boil down to "hey where is white knight!" or "hey will you help me get to my white knight?" That's it.

UTDP where events did not focus on Byakuya had Jack doing so more. She had a silly morning conversation with Chihiro, she helped Nekomaru get pretty boy customers, she wasted Izura’s time joking about his hair, HELL. Korekiyo and Jack has multiple events together in UTDP and they actually had a friendship of being serial killers.

You can read all these events in full here but I will share some good lines.

This energy that UTDP Jack has is non existent in DRS. Her best line out of every line she gets is honestly this.

To close off this long rant I will quick fire a few more issues with DRS Jack.

She didn’t get a line in the intro where the swimsuit CG was shown. DESPITE HER BEING IN IT.

Incorrectly labeling a png of Toko as Jack in one of her rank cards.

Accidently leaving a dot on one of her Swimsuit sprites, also not using all her normal sprites when making her swimsuit sprites.

Bringing up vore and joking that Genocide Jack would eat someone.

TWICE.

In conclusion, the writers for Danganronpa S failed in writing Genocide Jack. They didn’t make her fun. As such, I can with confidence conclude that they wrote Genocide Jack out of character in DRS.

The writers didn't do enough research for Genocide Jack and wrote her based on what they thought she was. Just a threat who is a jerk to everyone and only loves Byakuya and doesn't like anyone outside of Komaru.

They rushed this game, the shallow gameplay and main story, the countless glitches and soft locks I had. It all points to the devs rushing this product for the holiday release. Genocide Jack became a victim of this. Other characters had more enjoyable events and were more in character then her in DRS. The only positive DRS has is that they respect Toko and Genocide Jack as a DiD system. That’s it.

Fuck Danganronpa S.

[austajunk]

Hey heey! :) could you possibly do a Toko analysis if your up for it?

Yup. Sure can. Let’s get into it! I have a lot to say about this character and it took me while to piece my thoughts about her. So thanks to my good friend, @herbsburb, who helped me form it into words. She’s the biggest Toko nerd I know.

Slight note, because I have a lot to say on Toko in general, I’m going to cover my thoughts on her in THH here. If people want me to talk about her development in UDG and relationship with Komaru in particular, just lemme know. ^^

In my first playthrough, I really found Toko to be brilliantly cathartic and just all around… weird and menacing in a way. It wasn’t hard to see (at least for me) from her first introduction that she was this very guarded character who generally uses snide insults and remarks to put up a shield between herself and the world. But that being said, she wasn’t a quiet character who stayed in the corner and had nothing to say. Instead as you progress through the story, she’s a really messed up individual with another personality who is a serial killer (one she can’t control at first), depressed, pitiful, put out, and really… really horny and repressed. In a way, I spent a good majority of my playthroughs kinda vicariously living through her. Every insult that Toko said… like, I can’t say I didn’t want to say them to classmates or coworkers in my life. XD

I think a lot of people take Makoto’s role in her character development for granted though. Like I said to my friend yesterday, Toko’s relationship with Makoto crawled so that Tokomaru could run. The situation of the Makoto and Toko friendship feels similar to that of V3 characters with Miu Iruma. Like… if they were in a normal setting, I don’t think Makoto would “risk” being friends and socializing with Toko (which Toko is pretty aware of given how her first free times are her testing his knowledge of her). But good news, Makoto was literally locked in a school with Toko and has to interact with her and that’s a great point of change for her character. The thing is, Makoto is just endlessly good and patient. I think it’s because he knows he’s this normal character archetype (he even jokes about it) in a pool of talented weirdos. And even better, Makoto does genuinely seem to respect Toko’s writing enough to recall it and shock her to the core.

Now, this must have been a lot for Toko to handle. The only friend she ever had before who may have known things about her (aside from a teacher who pushed her to write) was a boy who actually despised her and later ridiculed her and her love letter she wrote to him. In their first free time, Toko is already guarded and ready to be dismissed. She is with everyone. Her comments usually end in off-handed remarks that she will ultimately be discarded. This sour demeanor earns her everyone’s attention off of her so that she doesn’t have to put herself out there to reach others for friendship. But Makoto’s patience, though subtle, does reach Toko in a big way. I don’t think Toko could have ever accepted Komaru without Makoto’s work in buttering her up and inspiring her with his belief in his classmates. At some point, I do think that Makoto really made Toko see her complacency and how nothing was moving for her, even inspiring her to write again by the end of the first game and to quietly mutter her subtle “fondness” for the other survivors.

Also, fun fact… during my first playthrough of the second chapter of THH, I legit thought that Toko knocked on Makoto’s door and dragged him to the library in order to ask him to be her accomplice in killing Byakuya. XD Alas… that was not that case. But already, I think Toko trusts Makoto (because he’s fucking normal and friend-shaped) to allow him to be her sort of wingman and just stand there while she gapes at Byakuya… which brings me to her “relationship” with Byakuya.

I’d compare Toko’s feelings for Byakuya one to one with Kazuichi’s fantasies of Sonia. Deep down, I just don’t think that Toko likes Byakuya personality-wise or even knows that much about him. Like… during Chapter 2’s trial, it’s clear that she makes up full on conversations between her and Byakuya that never happened. Once Byakuya heartlessly betrays her trust and spills her secret about Syo to everyone, she even has what I feel is a Freudian slip and proclaims that she hates him. But I do think it snapped in place for Toko that if Byakuya hates her and is awful to her, she can rather freely sexually fantasize about him without having to put in any work to form any real connection (again, much like how I see Kazuichi’s “attraction” to Sonia). That, coupled with her penchant towards trashy romance pulp has her build up this sexy romantic rich lead in her head that she can play around with in the most detailed and hilarious fantasies I have ever seen (seriously, they’re my favorite things in UDG).

But even leaving her progress that has been made at the end of the first game with Toko making some loose connections with the other survivors, we have a long way to go in her character development. I think the biggest weakness in THH was where to distribute character focus for some of the side characters and that really showed with Toko. If you aren’t interested in her free times, you tend to miss a great deal of how deep her character is and what she’s going through. I think it was even admitted that while Toko represented what Danganronpa was to Kodaka (her being the Queen of Duality in his mind), the writers struggled to figure out what to do with her character at times. I think that was pretty apparent in the narrative of the general plot of the first game, but lucky us, Kodaka and the writers stepped up their Toko game big time in Ultra Despair Girls!

But that point of criticism aside, Toko is a great character to me because she really does start as a solitary person alone and unwilling to trust anyone out there. Everyone in her life aside from maybe a teacher who saw her talent shine in writing was shit to her and that turned her into a closed off, distrustful person who could freely throw insults and judge others because… well, people suck and they deserve to be judged before they judge you. Years of that trauma and abuse in her past was never going to be undone right away. But just a little bit at a time, through the story and everything she experiences around someone who does have faith (even sort of) in her like Makoto and the others, she opens up again. And when she does, it’s this beautiful moment of happiness when she accept Komaru’s friendship, love and support in UDG. Toko just… has come such a long way and it really goes to show that with trust and support of the good in other people deep down, Hope can flourish and conquer the deepest flaws and fears in a character like her.