#so i figure he'd be the same with despair cannibalism

[windcarvedlyre]

Sorry if this is half incoherent, it's almost 4am.

To be fair, assuming we're talking about non-despair Komaeda, I don't think he necessarily actually likes people being sacrificed for hope? Or at minimum actions that don't directly bring about hope like those taken by Despairs, even if hope could arise from the victim(s) overcoming them*. In the NWP he was really negative about Tsumiki and didn't consider siding with her like he did other murderers. We also saw him have a limit on what he would let an Ultimate do to others in the prologue; he threatened to stop Teruteru with force if he continued to be predatory to Sonia even though that could deprive her of opportunities to assert herself and grow from it.

It's hard for me to pin down his exact views on this, though, since he's trapped in a zero-sum situation where- until late chapter 4- outside of himself only Ultimates' lives are being wasted. I need to go over his lines again for a post but it's implied more than once that he didn't like Togami dying at all even if he justified the death as a sacrifice for hope at the time. I just don't know how he'd handle the same happening to a non-Ultimate.

*Notably I think that he did fully believe this as Servant, becoming willing to become despair itself if it would bring about more hope in the end. But when he isn't a despair I kind of get the impression he claims he believes that to cope- to himself and others- but may not fully, truly adhere to it? He shows hypocrisy/cognitive dissonance around his other beliefs anyway: still caring about Hinata once he knows he's Reserve Course, casting himself in a passive support role but actually being really proactive and clearly wanting to be important, desiring love and trying to socialise with the group even though he's probably not supposed to 'deserve' that, etc. That's just a tentative personal view that could evolve with more scrutiny of his lines, though.

reblog for more votes...perhcance

[blorboindulgence]

I'm nervous about drawing and sharing my au shuichi that I've been thinking about and modifying for like 5 years now.

this post became a ramble so I'm adding read more.

There's both very little plot and a lot of plot, which changes a lot depending on whether the magic system gets added. I'm very indecisive about the endings so really what happens depends on the song I'm actively daydreaming to. thh stays the same, sdr2 stays the same, udg may change a smidge or not at all, ndrv3 sort of almost happens (no deathgame, actually in space because of udg apocalypse, no tsumugi or shuichi present).

also since it's been like 5 years and I'm bad at rechecking source material so it might contradict canon stuff I forgot or don't know about in the whole danganronpa series. Also it's so shuichi centric that I have handwaved about 7 months to 7 years of time that the rest of the ndrv3 cast spends because he's not with them until the ends of the story (magic system changes the time). this whole thing needs like a chart to explain what happens in it.

to sum too much into one sentence: shuichi gets adopted by a wild clan of kids during the tragedy

cw: short mentions or body horror, injury, cannibalism

being brief as possible for the core of the story, the tragedy officially starts a little differently with a monokuka invasion (udg ones) while shuichi was lowkey disguised to talk to an informant for an investigation he was working on during his second year at hopes peak after the school council killing game (which the school was successful in temporarily keeping quiet). The bears were programed to attack on sight with exceptions for ultimate students but since shuichi was disguised, he wasn't protected from them and was clawed in the face when he was running away and lost an eye (his right). he's eventually rescued and taken to the ER along with others who were injured. Hospital contacts his uncle, there's surgery, the tragedy worsens, ect. The state of things becomes more similar to udg but the public don't quite know about despair ultimates role in it yet. shuichi and his uncle lay low on their identities while staying with a larger group of non-despair driven people. eventually tsumugi, who worked with junko before even being brainwashed herself, finds and joins them acting like she was also a refugee of the tragedy. After a long time enough to trust her, she kills shuichi's uncle while he's sleeping and then wakes shuichi to brainwash him into despair with a memory light (which is rly just that one brainwash video but on a portable device) that doesn't work on him because he has one eye (logic built off of idea of subconcious effects of diverging/converging eyes together for brainwashing, think of those 3d puzzles you need to squint at). she ended up doing an evil monologue before using the video so now he knows things he shouldn't if he's to live without being a despair ultimate. Shuichi sees his uncle dead and tsumugi is about to attack him so he points his uncle's gun at her. she doesn't think he'd actually shoot and he doesn't either, but his hands are shakey and he jolts when she lunges towards him and he shoots her. She dies* and shuichi grabs their things and runs away in a daze, the group they were hanging with don't try to stop him out of their own safety. Shuichi investigates her things, short time skip, he gets back to the school to try and figure out what's going on/help the rest of the non despair students/find his friends. he gets caught by despair ultimates, they try and fail to brainwash him, they send him to the medical despair center (context: I think it would be cool if there were scattered centers for despaired ultimates (and their brainwashed assistants) to use their similar talents together, there's a mechanical center, food center, music center, ect.) Since he's 17, a minor, he's sent to the youth wing where rebellious kids usually go. (kids are given special monokuma helmets like in udg and are less effectively brainwashed and are more chill than brainwashed adults, i vaguely remember the adults vs kids thing in udg). unethical experiments happen, different projects for different patients, trauma heavy and shuichi ends up trying to comfort the kids there because it's what his friends would have wanted him to do (and his only other option was ignoring them). shuichi has one of the worst projects done on him, his skin is slowly replaced over time with translucent grafts and a few muscles turned clear (with chemicals/genetic expression modifications idk) to make him into a living anatomy mannequin from the neck down. He also has small lights and machinery to support the lights installed in him. After around 10 months, before they could change his face in any way, a wild clan of kids (anti-despair and untrusting of adults) break into the hospital for medical supplies and shuichi and his remaining group (people die over those 10 months) escape with them. having become codependent with the only people who were there to comfort him and mostly be comforted, he sticks with them and the vouch for his inclusion in the clan despite nearly being a legal adult. he gets his own customized hacked monokuma helmet as does the rest of the kids, his is shaped like a cat head with a screen for a face.

brainwashed kids are cool but mostly uncaring towards wild kids. shuichi is very useful to the clan for his ability to find resources and spot threats due to his talent. all kids get new names and since the group from the medical center's leader (not shuichi) was given horns, they become the unicorn family (there's only 5 of then including shuichi), a very childish name. all wild kids choose new names (most of which end up childish and some warrior cat like). Shuichi ends up being named Echo Unicorn slightly against his will. narratively he's an echo of his class, using what he remember's from his friends to help himself and his clan out. he takes on a wise elder role and tries his best to guide or simply keep the kids alive through it all, he's never allowed to tell them what to do though. over time he manages to convince them to help him look for his friends because they could help him, they find out his friends were sent to space to wait out the apocalypse* and shuichi ends up forced to only focus on keeping the clan safe until possibly one day seeing his friends again. years time skip, a scavenging mission from the clan including shuichi gets captured by some despair people and sent to a food despair center, minor dismemberment and forced cannibalism happens, they're rescued and everyone is missing some body part. shuichi lost his left entire arm and connected shoulder. more years pass before and ending occurs.

* tsumugi gets revived if magic is real * ndrv3 are dead and living in a 1/12 time spirit world deeply involved with magical hope/despair forces if magic is real.

there is definitely more to it but it would take longer to explain all there is. this is both intense horror angst whump and fluffy whacky silly times because it takes place over years and there's good days and bad days. shuichi learns to tolerate very annoying behavior and kokichi is devastated he no longer has the same effect on shuichi whenever the class reunites with him. shuichi's helmet is slowly upgraded over time with more cameras for wider perspectives and after the food despair center event he gets a thermal camera installed as well. he has 1 eye so almost zero depth perception, the kids are driving vehicles he has to ride in occasionally to his horror.