#midori blah

[oldmidori]

why did no one tell me that having a fat man body is actually the best thing in the whole world

[turkey-sandwich]

What are you two talking about

[dailymidori]

shins like the moon cuz he can’t exist without the sun and blah blah blah corny ass shit here midori is the sun cuz he’s HOT AS FUCK

[the-faramir]

Extinction Curse Session 2024/06/26 (part 2)

The Siege of Willowside

Day 4 (Part 2)

Following the Redeemer, who rode on his pet velociraptor, the heroes once again entered the sea caves.

Rounding a corner, Midori caught sight of the tangled metal wreck that used to be Buffy. Her panels had been bitten clean through and torn off. Her potion stores had been shattered, and their contents spilled onto the ground.

"BUFFY," Midori lamented, "NOOOO!"

Looking at her suspiciously, the Redeemer asked, "You...know this vending machine?"

"Guys, guys," Midori entreated her fellow adventurers, "let's pour one out for Buffy."

"Pour what out?" Lysander asked. "All of her potions are already poured out onto the ground!"

Midori stood up straight and put her hand on her heart. "Buffy was a veritable gift from the gods. A Machina ex Deus, if you will!" The heroes bowed their heads for a moment of silence.

The group moved onward up the stairs to the library. The Redeemer examined the circle on the floor. "That circle definitely looks like a trap to me. The outline is faint enough that it might be hard for people to see in this light. They could step over the boundary and inadvertently activate it. Fortunately, this is the type that only summons a creature for a limited time. Perhaps ten minutes or so."

Lysander asked, "Can we disable it?"

The Redeemer responded, "Oh, certainly. For any competent, skilled individual, it shouldn't be too difficult." The party shot annoyed looks at Lysander who just shrugged and grinned. Well, maybe he grinned. It's hard to tell because he's a skeleton. "But probably easier to just avoid it altogether."

Lysander changed the subject. "All right, let's search through the books."

Zookdar suggested, "Maybe there's a recipe for coffee cake."

Midori's ears perked up. "Coffee cake? I'm on it!" She started to rummage through the shelves. "Hmm, no recipe, but here's information. 'Old ones.' 'Bokrug.' 'Eternal slumber.'"

Lysander shouted out, "Yeah, I got something on Bokrug here. Big lizardy thing. Oh, a water lizard, like in all of the decor down here. THE Water Lizard. Tentacles on its throat. Spiky tail. See the picture?" He held up his book for the others to see.

"Oh, yeah," Midori called out, "that's the monster from my nightmare I saw in that other book yesterday."

Zookdar read from his book. "Something here about Bokrug: 'Iä! Iä! Bokrug fhtagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nfah Bokrug Willowside wgah'nagl fhtagn!'"

Horrified, Midori exclaimed, "What in the H. P. Lovecraft does that mean? And why are you speaking those words out loud?"

Lysander continued, "Says here in my book that if Bokrug is awakened, he will destroy everything in his path except for his followers. Hmm. It seems that the fine folk of Willowside once worshipped Bokrug."

"Maybe we can become followers of Bokrug and be safe, then point him at the xulgaths and dinosaurs," Zookdar suggested. "Are there any downsides to following him?"

Lysander thumbed through his book. "Mmmm, nope! We should be good."

Midori's face fell. "Are we in a cult, now?"

Zookdar noted that, since the team appeared to have found all of the relevant information in the books, they should move on. He led the party to the watery cavern in the northwest. This particular room had only a few inches of water covering the floor with a deep, dark pool in the center, surrounded by a few small benches. Carvings of scales and teeth, similar to the other rooms but with many more teeth, covered the walls.

Midori read some of the writing on the wall. "'Blah, blah, blah, blessed be the Water Lizard, who gives us the oceans. Blessed be the vengeance giver, who helps us smite our enemies.' All right, maybe you were on to something, Zookdar. Whatever. That seems like our best plan to defend Willowside. Oh, and it looks like there's another secret passageway in the wall to the northeast. We should check it out."

As the party splashed through the shallow water toward the secret passage, a churning sound came from the deep pool in the center of the cavern. The top of a giant azure worm emerged.

Zookdar alerted the heroes, "An enemy!" He let out a war cry to demoralize their new foe.

Midori followed up with a verse to inspire courage in her allies:

🎶🎶🎶 Rally your courage, let it take flight Strike the cave worm with all of your might Be the early bird to slay this worm Unleash your attacks and make it squirm! 🎶🎶🎶

Before she could continue, though, The Redeemer interrupted. "Wait! Perhaps it is merely hungry. You could try to feed it—"

Midori finished, "Yeah, I'll feed it all right! Feed it some rocks! HYAHH!" She telekinetically launched a sharp rock at the monster which ripped at its thick skin. Turning toward the noisy one who hit it, the worm stretched out of its hole and grabbed Midori in its toothy maw. Midori shrieked in surprise and terror, kicking her legs to no avail, as the worm lifted her up into the air, straightened up, and swallowed her whole.

The Redeemer nodded. "Yes, it appears that it was just hungry."

Lysander cast Rip the Spirit at the worm to no effect. Zookdar followed up with a strike from his gnome flickmace, but missed. The Redeemer ran toward the base of the giant worm, pulled out some mechanical components and assembled them into something, then shouted, "Fall back!"

From her position inside the worm, the party heard Midori sing:

🎶🎶🎶 In the belly of the beast, a place dark as night The worm tries to digest me, but I will still fight With a flick of my tails and a glint in my eye I will shout out, "I'm not ready to die!" 🎶🎶🎶

She followed up with a strike from her rapier, which somehow missed.

Its first snack swallowed, the giant worm reached out to bite Lysander. Zookdar reacted with a retributive strike, saving Lysander from getting swallowed. As the worm reeled from the hit, Midori found an opening and struck true with her rapier. Reeling in pain, the worm shifted, setting off The Reedemer's kobold snare. The sharp teeth of the mechanism pierced the worm's thick hide.

Lysander threw more spells at the enemy and Zookdar struck it with enough force to knock its upper body to the floor. The Redeemer and his velociraptor moved in to attack.

Midori sang:

🎶🎶🎶 Digest me, O worm, if you dare But you'll find I'm more than a snack, I swear! I'm a ringmaster of legend, of myth, of lore And I'll slash my way out just like before! 🎶🎶🎶

She followed up with a telekinetic projectile, spinning and slashing its way through the worm's belly. She slid through the gash to freedom, shouting, "How do ya like me now, bitch?" As she squelched into a puddle of worm fluids mixing with seawater on the cavern floor, she lamented, "Ugh. Now I'm covered in entrails. I've just been down the gullet of a giant cave worm. That's one of a hundred memories I don't want."

Behind Midori, the worm reared its head up once more, shrieking, and lashed at the kitsune to take a bite, prompting her to respond, "AAAAAAH! That thing's still alive?" Zookdar responded with another retributive strike on the worm, allowing Midori a chance to counterstrike. She missed, however. The Redeemer's sickle attack on the worm did find its mark, but it was not enough to finish it off. The worm bit Midori once more, knocking her out and poisoning her.

The worm's jostling triggered the kobold's snare once more, clamping another set of spikes into the worm and killing it.

After Lysander had revived Midori and everybody had a chance to catch their breath, Midori ran to The Redeemer and picked him up into the air out of gratitude. "Thank you so much for all of your help, The Redeemer!"

Confounded, The Redeemer could only manage to shout, "Unhand me, young lady!"

Midori tended to the heroes' wounds, and then they searched the cavern for treasure. Finding nothing of value, Zookdar pulled out some of the worm's teeth. "Fizzarolli will appreciate these as a souvenir. Where did he end up going, anyhow? We haven't seen him in a couple of days."

"Well," Midori slapped her thighs and moved toward the northeast, "let me take a look at that secret passage an' check for traps." She walked up to the passageway, pressed on the wall to open a door, and stuck her face into the secret tunnel. The sound of a dozen zips and thuds echoed through the cavern. Midori emerged from the doorway to look at the rest of the party, her face full of needles. "Hey guys, I found a trap."

Lysander pointed at her, saying, "Hey, you got needles on your face."

Midori brushed the needles off and led the team into the next room: a large cavern with an enormous statue of a lizard with tentacles on its neck and a three-pronged tail. The statue's eyes seemed to be looking everywhere at once, and even its very presence unnerved the heroes somewhat.

Midori pointed to the three humans in the room who were examining the statue. "The Vengaboys!"

"The Banyan Boys!" Leodrick, the leader of the band of enforcers, responded, turning toward the team. "Did the mayor send you down to help us with the statue?"

A conversation ensued in which Leodrick explained that he was trying to bring the statue to life to defend the town. Years ago, the townsfolk of Willowside had worshipped Bokrug as their god. Leodrick was certain that Bokrug would help once more. His brothers, Tashlock and Stirvyn, only shrugged and nodded in acquiescence.

"Wait, wait," Lysander held out his hands in question, "how did you guys get this far into the sea caves without getting attacked by all those monsters or getting caught in the traps?"

Stirvyn held up a large piece of parchment. "We have this map! It showed us where to go to avoid trouble. It was our great-great-great grandmother’s or something. It says Banyan on it."

"At any rate," The Redeemer jumped in, "the townsfolk are really worried about you. The mayor sent us to make sure you were not injured or worse! With the town under siege, you should return to the surface and help with the defense effort."

"Has it really been that long?" Stirvyn mused, "I suppose we lost track of time. We can go, but it would be nice to figure out how to make the statue work first. We did come down here to find anything that might help the town, after all."

Tashlock, who had continued to fiddle with the statue, sighed and added, "Maybe we'll just go back to town with you. I can't figure this statue out."

"Yeah, we can take ya back up to the surface an' we'll go talk to the mayor," Midori offered.

Leodrick looked from Tashlock's face to Stirvyn's and back again. An inscrutable look crossed his face. He turned to the heroes and agreed, "So we'll just go up with the furry one and talk to the townsfolk."

Midori arched an eyebrow. "Furry one? Why are you referrin' to me like that? You know who I am!"

Zookdar nodded, "Well, you are the furriest of all of us."

Midori replied, "Yes, but why not 'the beautiful one'? 'the charming one'?" She threw the back of her hand dramatically over her forehead. "Or even 'the smart one'? Ugh, fine. I'll take them up. By myself. Don't go gettin' into any trouble, you guys."

The kitsune began to lead the Banyan Boys back to the surface. On passing by the cavern with the bookshelves, Leodrick held up a hand. "We should bring the books of Bokrug back to the townsfolk. It would really help us make our case for activating the statue to defend the town."

Midori sighed and agreed, "I guess that'll be all right. Let's just be quick about it." Leodrick took the lead into the library with his brothers in tow and Midori following behind. "Hey, guys," she warned, "be careful. The floor's trapped." The Banyans walked straight toward the summoning circle, ignoring her.

"Guys, keep to the walls of the room. Avoid the center! Hey, don't go near that circle. Watch the circle. WATCH THE CIRCLE! DON'T STEP FOOT IN THERE! NO! STOP!"

With an unnoticed smirk, Ledorick stumbled into the circle. The mukradi reappeared.

Midori shouted, "DAMN IT!"

(Text in blue belongs to Paizo.)

[logicroute]

☠♦★ shin

toby my friend okay bet ☠ ANGER/VIOLENT

god, shin is totally a like, anger crier. even when he tries to seem, anger in the scary sense, he just starts tearing up. a lot of sniffies and hicks ya know like, he is a pretty emotional person outside of the death game, but inside golly gee. he lets anger build up to seem more of a threat, but whoops sometimes it cracks lol! violent wise... he just, tends to push that onto him roughly messing with scarf/beanie.. hope this makes any sense at all

the rest are under the cut

♦ QUIRK/HOBBY

i have said this b4 i think but shin likes to crochet !! he finds it like, calming and a somewhat break of typing 4 so long pfft..

i also feel like in a non-death game sense, he picked up gardening.. (guess cuz of who) he is shit at it but he is trying <3

he also plays a lot of rhythm games.. i like to think he is good at them :) focused on it so much...

he has the habit of just.. messing with clothing items a lot (have it be messing with fabric and such... sometimes chewing on hoodie strings..)

★ SAD

god okay so

i think that shin is still like, xtremely attached to hiyori/midori ya know. its pretty obvi in game but!! i have my own thoughts :3

oh no! im also explaining my shin homelife hc! somewhat!

shin grew up in a rich (i like to think his mom is like.. a lawyer or smthing..) but like, pretty lonely home !! which blah blah lead to him to get attached the only person who was nice to him in his life!! good old silly head sou hiyori (full name)

despite hiyori being nice to shin, hiyori still was like a, pretty shitty person to him!! and and woah wow! some silly transguy (alice) 'kills' hiyori! leaving shin to his lonesome! and shin didnt know how to feel! at the point, shin was still good buddy pals with hiyori at that time, so he was prob still attached in a way.

but hey! he can grow right?

this isnt much of a hc now that i think abt it LMAO....

actual sad hc tho

shin prob has issues with self idenity after the death game... dude acted like hiyori for like, days im guessing, and god, that can prob mess up a guy. a

nd my own personal self projection gives him idenity issues <3

[transboykirito]

(Im so sorry for all my asks spamming ur inbox esp the long ones btw)

WOOO HAPPY T SHOT DAY!!

I don’t remember if I shared these but I just wanted to share my hcs as a celebration 🫶

kirito: bisexual, poly, trans demiboy, but like, any gender he dates it’s just inherently a queer relationship even if it’s w a girl and the girl is straight it’s never fully straight it’s just. Queer.

asuna: bisexual, poly, she could be cis or trans tbh I love it either way, same queerness as kiritos thing though either way

suguha: bisexual (do not worry, it has nothing to do w her weird arc I completely rewrote it inside my head and in a google docs and I pretend it does not exist and the feelings were just jealousy bc replacement and abandonment issues 🫂) but it’s just the vibes ok she- maybe I’m projecting and biased, I know your hc her as lesbian and that’s so cool too honestly I love queer sugu <3

Liz: lesbian

Sinon: non binary, bisexual ¿

silica: is my favorite lesbian I love her so much and I like to think her and liz talk abt stuff a lot and liz helps her w identity stuff alot I love their friendship AND HERS AND SUGUS TOO I lvoe them all

Alice: bisexual but closeted and in denial and thinks she hates asuna but in reality she is inlove w her

eugeo: bisexual, poly, either cis or non binary with a masc leaning identity

agil: straight and this makes me mildly sad

Klein: KLEIN IS LIKE. HES STRAIGHT BUT HES LIKE. DANGEROUSLY CLOSE TO NOT BEING STRAIGHT BUT HE WONT ADMIT IT. similar to my friends sexuality where he’s like mostly “straight” but there’s a specific type of boys who they’re like. yes. and they’re typically more feminine ones. so i guess heteroflexible? Is that the word?

I feel like I’m missing someone from the main gang but djejfj

also,, I feel like quite a few of them have some issues w their sexuality and religion¿ which might full well be me projecting, especially asuna because her family seems the type to be religious and blah blah blah sexuality and religion tend to not go well but ofc not everything/everyone would be like that

kiritos family is 10000000000% accepting tho, maybe his grandparents are a lil like

“don’t understand but like i love u but I don’t support this but I love u a lot” and it’s complicated (projecting projecting projecting projecting pro——)

agil is straight but he's trans!!!!!!!! and trish is bi!!!!!!!! its andrew coming in with the bi wife energy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

same hat kirito same hat <3

i feel like midori's parents are definitely "i have no clue what that means but i support you" like kazuto comes out as trans and theyre like "oh so she wants to be a boy?? thats okay youll always be our granddaughter baby :)" but they mean well and he corrects them and they get there in the end

also yui is nonbinary i dont care she just is

[theothervonkarmagirl]

Clara, Nina, Midori: *having a chat* Franziska: What are you all talking about in here? Clara: Nothing! Franziska: Nothing? Well in that case I am also saying nothing. Blah blah blah. Midori: Clara met this boy and-- Franziska: Boy? *dramatic eyeroll* You should be talking about battle. You should be talking about journalism. What are your five-year plans?

[meowlware]

Intersecting／Motor Show 3 star & 4 star trans pride edits! for youuu <3

[ID: the aforementioned 3 star and 4 star cards from the Ensemble Stars Intersecting / Motor Show event, all edited with the trans pride flag colors on their shirts, belts, gloves, and other various accessories. the 4 stars are full CG views while the rest are still in card format. /ID END]

[gingus-doon]

i still haven't done my homework and i just spent like a solid 30 min at least answering otp prompt questions that nobody prompted me to answer

[oldmidori]

boss sorry i cant come to work today, Terra harmonizes with himself in Yume no Kuni de and i got shrimp emotions

[midorichan10]

My friend and I went to the Sweets Paradise collaboration for Last Game. We are so fat now...

[blissfulscreamss]

shin!!

Ah yes Shin, We love shin <3

He actually has a playlist! So that makes it easier for me! (sorry in advance for spelling or grammar mistakes as I am far to lazy to spell check this.)

Little pistol - Mother Mother

I think this song fits for a multitude of reasons. It states feeling scared, and afraid. Also the parts talking about brimstones and Roses reminds me of Kanna’s death! Also Gun terminology with Shin just feels right to me; considering the scene in the blue room where he asks for the gun, is a very important part of his character.

My Alcoholic Friends - The Dresden Dolls

This song I feel really reflects his relationship with the real Sou Hiyori/Midori, specifically the ending. “Should I choose a noble occupation? If I did i’d only show up late and sick.” He’s self employed. “And they would stare at me with hatred” He constantly assumes the other participants hate him. “Plus my only natural talents wasted on my alcoholic friends” His only natural talent being, well hacking. He wasted lots of time hacking with Sou.

The Stand - Mother Mother

I see this as conversations he’s had with Kanna. Just, the calmer ones. The way the reactions are fit him really well, kinda fast but explaining his thoughts fairly well. (Not much to say about this one really)

Be Nice To Me - The Front Bottoms

Another song that I associate with him & Sou! “But your a killer, and I’m your best friend” feels perfect. As Sou is a killer and Shin did see him as a best friend. Most of the song is about how the singer feels as though he gave everything to his friend to get very little in return. “Can we talk about this later, your voice is driving me insane” is a lyric thats used multiple times and that just fits how Shin feels about Sou really well I feel.

But yeah! Theres a few Shin songs! (I really like mother mother if you can’t tell.) Heres the rest of my songs from shin’s playlist listed that I didn’t fully explain just for fun! (anything with shin & kanna is platonic, soushin shippers also aren’t welcome here.)

Nobody - Mitski

Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing - Set It Off

Anti-Hero - SEKAI NO OWARI

1997 - Saint Motel (Shin & Sou)

Ship in a Bottle - fin

Problems - Mother Mother (Shin & Kanna)

Animal - Sir Chloe

Two Birds - Regina Spector (Shin & Kanna)

Washing Machine Heart - Mitski (Shin & Kanna)

Life itself - Glass Animals

Blah Blah Blah - The Oozes (Shin & Sou)

Rhinestone Eyes - Gorillaz (Shin & Sou)

Dog Days are Over - Florence + the machine

[sixthwater]

🏵️Synastry and: the Friends V🏵️

Exploring more platonic synastry~! Oh my gosh I don't know what to put here and I don't like faking enthusiasm oh my goodneeessss ok let's go

Note: This is using and based off of personal experience, I will be using specific people and referencing them throughout the post

Me & 🌸's placements

☉: Cancer / Cancer ☽: Taurus / Pisces ☿: Cancer / Cancer ♀: Cancer / Leo ♂: Virgo / Taurus

We're the iconic kyoani duo and then this friendship (gif) hits you from your blindside (as well as whatever the hell you call bokuto and kuroo)

See it's funny because that gif actually happened

🌺 Overlays

Me: Sun & Mercury in 9th / 🌸: Sun & Mercury in 5th

Learning to better mingle with their family meets destroying the other in video games. These overlays play out a lot more straight-forward than the previous ones. We tend to delve into deep long topics and get lost within them because we get side tracked Very easily, but they are usually under the broad umbrella of psychology and human empathy and junk like that. Our last conversation was about how we've been affected by certain personal situations within our lives and how 'it's so weird how certain things from our childhood snowball into us being thrust into this caretaker role' and that was a like a 40 minute conversation that took place after we were talking about Dominos Pizza on a bus to New York, and then we immediately changed the topic to bubble tea. On the other hand, I want to better communicate with some of her family members so I wanted to take it upon myself to learn their language. For the 5th house: video games. She kicks my Ass in about nearly all of them, but I still enjoy playing them with her all the time. Besides that, I like going on trips to Aquariums, Museums, etc--because I know we'll have fun no matter where we end up.

Me: Moon in 7th / 🌸: Moon in 1st

Honestly, I have to talk about these two as if they're a combined overlay. This combination is a crutch for the fact that my moon is rarely aspected by her (and if it is she struggling). This is attributing to the fact that we constantly see ourselves in kyoani pairs in particular I believe--because while my previous friend has a red/blue dynamic and we can find ourselves in multiple places, we usually only find ourselves here. It has a lovers feel to it because the 7th creates this rosy feeling that you feel like you can be a little giddy and you've found someone that understands and appreciates you for your 'hidden' qualities (since the dsc has to be uncovered or worked for), whilst the 1st overlay is always in awe of the qualities of whatever planet is there, and said planet will encourage that native to not be so shy or embarrassed of themselves and bring them out more. Examples (🌸 & Me) would be: Kumiko & Reina (Hibike! Euphonium), Tamako & Midori (Tamako's Market), extra note for Bubblegum & Marceline. Bottom line is that this energy gives off couple/honeymoon lover vibes.

Me: Mars in 11th / 🌸: Mars in 3rd

Remember when I said we talk for just like 40 minutes in the weirdest spots about random junk. Yeah. This can send a lot of stimulation and energy towards hobbies and we can energize each other at times. We also share a lot of hobbies, and if we don't we don't mind watching the other person enjoy themselves (for the most part).

**We have an overlay with my venus in her 9th and her venus in my 7th, but it just sort of repeats the energy of having fun and enjoying each other's company and the rose colored glasses blah blah blah

💐 Aspects

Alright so!

My Moon Square 🌸's Venus

Multiple Squares between My Mars & 🌸's Personal Planets

This can lead to some slight tension. I can be too emotionally sensitive and respond too volatile or aggressively, and sometimes my words can stab 🌸 where it hurts. This is a guess however, because we've never had a full blown argument or even really had a tit-for-tat. If anything, we've only gotten under each other's skin by slightly annoying each other by things we've said or just. Generally being annoying. If anything, with my Mars being the one squaring everything, I'm the one more likely to actively respond and the source of that will be because I've felt slighted, and it will be because 🌸 said something hurtful without realizing it.

Besides that our synastry chart is pretty normal. She is heavily water influenced and more emotional whereas I have things to balance it out a little bit more, but my responses to things are a lot more delayed so it looks like I'm blowing up for nothing while she let's herself feel things more healthily (aspects granted).

[logicroute]

MIDORI

i. dont think abt that man so hm realistic - actually takes care of himself a good bit, blah blah brushes hair 100 times on each side or whatever.

while it may not be realistic it is hilarious - he. he trips down stairs all of the fucking time.

heart-crushing and awful, but fun to inflict on friends - the red scarf was hand made ! :) think abt that for me okay?

unrealistic, but I will disregard canon about it because I reject canon reality and substitute my own. - he actually died and the dg didnt happen at all okay?

ask game

[strawberryjamsara]

Keiji and Sara’s relationship throughout yttd

In which I analyze the found family dynamic between Sara and Keiji then nobody reads it. But jokes aside, I realized back when that anon asked me for my thoughts on Sara that I had enough thoughts on the relationship between these two alone for its own meta so here goes. What Sara and Keiji’s relationship means in the grand scheme of yttd.

ALSO THIS IS NOT SHIPPING SHIPPERS GET THE FUCK AWAY

Sara when she meets Keiji is distrustful of him. And how can she not be? The guy has some creepy bags under his eyes, doesn’t seem to care about the situation, and for no reason is gravitating towards her. And his response when she asks why the hell he keeps putting a random stranger in charge? “Because you’re cute.” Yeah. I’d stay within 50 feet of this guy too Sara. Especially when he’s not spilling a word about himself.

Alright we might as well get the gross part out of the way. To clear things up. In the Japanese version, the word he uses “Kawai” can be seen as a more fatherly word to use with a kid. But the comments about going on dates from himself and from Shin? Those are still there. And I still think they’re really uncomfortable and wish they weren’t in the game period but we can get thematic significance out of them.

We still don’t know Keijis reasons in game for being attached to Sara. My theory? She’s his handicap. He was told to get close to the higher scorer who could easily backstab him, and he’d be stuck with her. It just kinda makes sense to me. But since that’s just a theory I won’t lean to heavily on it for support. But let’s talk about his comments.

Keiji… well, it’s shown at many points in the game that Keiji just thinks of himself as doomed to be a bad person. It can be seen during his day two negotiations when he calls himself a killer and explains he can’t even trust himself so Sara shouldn’t really bother and more explicitly so is the classroom scene between him and Ranmaru where he says he isn’t fit to protect Sara because of his sins. The flirting is both a way to distract people, and to put distance between himself and Sara. He’s not really “protecting” her.

Okay gross bit nobody wants to talk about is over I promise we won’t talk about it again. Let’s talk about Russian Roulette. In this scene, Keiji once again tries to make Sara the leader with no explanation, but then, Sara yells at him, something he didn’t expect. And through this he actually reveals something huge. The source of his trauma. His shooting. For Keiji to have actually revealed something that big, I think that this is the first moment he began to see Sara past whatever reason he first started making her a leader. This is the beginning of their bond.

This bond gets solidified over chapter 1-2s investigation. Keiji is still putting her in charge because his handicap said to build her up for whatever reason, but they’re able to have chats, and she keeps picking at his armor. He reveals his dark sense of humor to her, and she, suspicious just sort of keeps him at arms length. Also she rides his shoulders to screw in a light and he complains which is funny. The scene post Nao also helps the two of them sharpen investigative skills together, as they discuss the mystery of Miley, and Mishimas head.

Then another significant scene. The white room. I call this scene significant because, instead of letting Sara investigate the gruesome scene of the first trial, Keiji for the first time, allows Sara to walk out. Something that will become relevant later but until then, Keiji has begun to put Sara’s well-being above serving whatever purpose he had by building her up. So keep that in your pocket while we go over the main game.

There’s only two points for the main game I want to cover. While Keiji and Sara do put their heads together a few times, Sara still doesn’t fully trust him, so I will only go over 1. When Shin brings up Kai’s emails. Keiji has been fully logical this whole time, questioning everyone’s alibis including Nao’s who he saw the emotional plea from, but when Sou brings up potentially damning evidence of Sara, he just asks if he read the emails wrong. 2. When Sara is panicking over being chosen for the final round, Keiji loudly shouts “GET A GRIP SARA!” With a serious expression. Before quickly backtracking and going back to a devil may care expression. This shows he is both already emotionally attached to Sara, but unwilling to stake himself towards giving himself to a new cause.

Anyways, he stops her from pressing the button blah blah blah, onto chapter 2! I’ve made a post about this before but it seems as early as here, Keiji is trying to talk Sara down from pushing herself further. But at this point, Sara has already dedicated herself to the role because her best friend died due to her priority to protect everyone. Keiji sees the problem and he tries to get her to rest up, but he still doesn’t spend the time to have a serious talk about it because as he says in the classroom. He isn’t fit to protect her. He doesn’t think of himself as a good person who can help her. He thinks of himself as a murderer and he doesn’t allow himself to recover from the trauma.

Sara however is starting to rely more on Keiji. He’s been willing to comfort her in her times of grief and furthermore, she has something to relate to him on. They both have deaths of important people in their lives they feel responsibility for.

There’s also the fact that Keiji sees a lot of his old self in Sara. An idealistic person, being beaten down, and worrying over the idea they might be becoming a bad person. He feels the same as her.

Not to mention… Keiji follows through on his promises. He actually tells Sara about the person he respected like he said he would which establishes a further sense of trust.

However, something that tears that sense of trust apart is the tokens scene. When Keiji doesn’t even let Sara hold 50 tokens, it raises suspicion. Sara already knows he shot a person- what more could he have to hide? That scares her away. The negotiation event is an attempt for Keiji to win back her trust. But it slowly turns into Keiji’s self-loathing session. And his declaration maybe Sara shouldn’t trust him.

However, time passes enough (and Keiji supports Sara enough in the final attraction) for them to get together and investigate in 2-2. And there’s a lot of moments I can talk about there so I’ll be just doing a few rapidfire things. So first, Sara is in peak weird girl mode and Keiji can hardly control her chaos. Second, Keiji makes a full on decision at one point to go against Sara when she’s putting herself in danger of getting caught for their search so they can hide. Third, his response to “I don’t intend to die” when he asks “will you die with me” is that’s a good answer.

And fourth… a moment I really wanna touch on… Keiji watches something that could easily incriminate Sara. It’s not just some word of mouth thing like with Shin who lied about things several times before this point. But in that moment, he still relies on Sara and says he wouldn’t feel bad betting his life on her. The message is clear. Keiji supports Sara unconditionally.

Now let’s talk about Keiji totally dropping Sara’s ass with the card trades.

The way Keiji makes his trades is very telling. He first, steals a keymaster card from either Sou or Kanna to give to Sara. This is supporting Sara, but it’s doing it in a way that supports his view of himself. That he’s a scumbag who would steal someone’s immunity just to give it to someone he likes more. And would a shithead like that be “worthy” of sacrificing themselves and taking the card for Sara? (And he knew she had it. Qtaro had to tell him for their plan to happen) no. Instead he essentially opts for a revenge plot. A plan to ensnare Shin and kill him for pawning off the sacrifice to Sara. Basically, he wanted to fuck up Shin like how he fucked up Megumi. Nice going Keiji. This is… kind of his low point in the story.

But 3-1….. man this chapter hits in all the right ways. I don’t remember 3A that much, (although I do know that Keiji shows a lot of concern over Sara potentially being triggered by Joe memorabilia) and also if you fail the Keiji Midori fight you can have Sara attempt to tag Keiji and he rejects. And how can we forget… the mr policeman flashback. As Sara says, this is Keiji’s first time opening up on his own.

And then… coffin saga. Sara through everything is not willing to let Keiji die. Although she’s had her ups and downs with him, leaving him to die is inconceivable to her with everything they’ve been through together. So she opts to sign the contract both times she is offered it.

Keiji clearly is somebody important to Sara. Important enough that Ranmaru bringing him up is enough to snap her out of her murderous trance. Enough that she throws logic out the window when she has a sign he’s okay.

Likewise, the scene in the classroom for Keiji is… a huge step. When he’s alone with Ranmaru, who is unstable, in that classroom, his priority is Sara. He turns his back to the threat to hold Sara and try and make sure she’s okay- dumb move, but it shows how far he’s come.

And again, I want to reiterate- Keiji is Sara’s anchor. At the banquet when Sara is about to give up, she imagines Keiji talking to her which brings her back in the game. Much like Joe did back in chapter 2. The message is palpable. Keiji is Sara’s new Joe. And when Keiji comes back to comfort her? He’s now fully willing to sacrifice himself. It winds up not being needed seeing as Qtaro is the one that died. But in that moment, we see Keiji has made a huge leap from chapter 2. He almost sacrificed himself for Gin. And he would’ve used his final moments to comfort Sara. He’s embraced that he’s a father figure. He allows himself to be a good person.

Anyways I don’t know how to conclude this and I’ve been writing for hours. Bababooey.

[burnt-toast-life]

What exactly will the dolls be doing in ch 3? I ask as someone planning to be a doll in ch 3 so I get an idea of what to expect

Okay so!!

> I will also be taking Midori’s role, so you will appear on my cue (like. After my intro n stuff y’know.)

> I will DM you your victim videos + your one secret/fact before chapter 3 begins

> you will be paired up with one of the survivors, blah blah… after that it’s classic YTTD stuff y’know