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waywardrose-archive · 4 years ago

Text

BOMBING OUT

kylux | rating: mature(ish) | 1.5k

canon compliant, cannoli kylux, gambling, strip sabacc, alcohol consumption, afterlife, mutual pining, arguing

note: Based on @autumnleaves1991-blog's Writer Wednesday prompt and this tweet from Lydia B. Slade:

Thank you both so much for the inspiration!

He didn't know why he was playing sabacc. He didn't like card games. There was hardly any strategy. No planning. Everything was left to chance. It was messy. And the gambling. He didn't mind risk, of course, but one had to match their opponents' bets. Which meant the opponent had too much control.

It was idiotic.

About as idiotic as his opponent, Ben Solo—

Who had literally lost his shirt last round.

Hux refused to disrobe. He bet his chips. Only his chips. He pointedly ignored the way Solo watched him from across the table, his bewitching eyes flashing amber in the afternoon sunlight. He also ignored the way Solo's muscles flexed under that pretty, unblemished skin. He huffed at Solo's teases, taking a sip of beer from the can.

The whole situation was so ridiculous.

He didn't even like beer, though he was on his second. He couldn't fathom how Solo had talked him into this.

Yet here he was: sitting under at an umbrella-ed patio table, his cards closing in on twenty-three, the sabacc pot brimming with chips, and Solo offering his trousers to the hand pot.

The corner of Solo's mouth quirked as he pulled another card from the stack. He must've been bluffing.

"Fifty," Solo said and tossed five ten-count chips in the pot.

He countered, "I call," pulled the next card without looking, "—and raise you another ten," and placed three twenties.

Solo whistled and matched him. "Very bold of you, Hux."

Hux glanced at his cards and internally blanched. He'd exceeded twenty-three. He'd bombed out.

The wind rustled in the trees surrounding the manicured lawn beyond the patio. His loose hair fluttered into his eyes, and he swatted it off his forehead. He didn't know where they were or how they'd gotten there. He wouldn't be caught dead in such a decadent location. They were obviously on a Core world.

"What's wrong, Hux?" Solo wolfishly grinned. "You scared to show a little skin."

One of Solo's pecs tightened. Hux pretended not to notice.

He gave Solo a flat look. "Hardly, Supreme Leader."

He was in prime condition, excelling in the physical-conditioning portion of his post as general. He had nothing to be embarrassed about. He just didn't see the point in swaggering around like some people.

Without missing a beat, Solo wryly said, "Haven't been that in awhile."

"What are you talking about? The— The First Order..."

No, that wasn't right. The First Order was now the Final Order. Kylo Ren—Supreme Leader Ren—Ben Solo—was conspiring with the late Palpatine. He indulged in Force nonsense at every turn. Ren had chosen Pryde to be his allegiant general. All of Hux's plans had gone awry, and he'd colluded with—

No. He wouldn't think of it.

He stared into Ben Solo's eyes, now noting the missing diagonal scar on his handsome face.

"Play your hand, Armitage," Solo murmured, silky and warm.

He shivered. "I fold."

"You know what that means..."

"I never bet my clothes."

"You have to lose something."

He bit out: "Isn't my dignity enough?"

Stars, look at him. He wore a horridly patterned shirt and shorts while playing some wretched card game with the worst person in his acquaintance. This must've been some cosmic joke—and he was the butt of it.

He stood, nearly hitting his head on the umbrella's stretcher. He snatched his cold beer from the table to hide his flinch and turned away from Solo. He didn't recognize the home before him, but there had to be a comm-unit inside. He would call for transport to the closest space-port and get the hell off this cursed rock.

Thick arms wrapped around his middle in an iron hold before he took his fifth step. He almost threw his beer over his shoulder to get away, but gentle lips at his nape stopped him.

"Supreme—"

Solo cut him off, saying, "It's Ben. Just Ben."

"Ben," he mouthed, testing the feel of it.

Ben's bare chest was hot against his clothed back. He told himself he hated this. The sun heated the top of his now-exposed hair. Ben held him too tight, his chest was too warm. Hux was getting mussed, shirt sticking uncomfortably. He couldn't remember anything beyond limping behind Pryde on the Steadfast's bridge.

"You're infuriating," Hux said.

"I know."

"Did you use your wizardry to get me here?"

"Not exactly."

Hux squawked, "Not exactly?!"

He tried to wiggle away, yet Ben didn't yield. He didn't know why he expected any less.

Ben said, "I found you and brought you here."

"Found me where?"

"In the Force."

He snorted. "The Force."

"Armitage—"

"It's Hux."

"Hux, you already know. You can say it."

"Know what?!" He slapped Ben's forearms. "Unhand me, you pfassking idiot!"

As if he'd done nothing, Ben said, "We ended on a sour note after the Supremacy."

"And Crait."

"I regret that."

"Good."

I hate you.

"Do you? Hate me?"

He hissed, "Yes," putting every ounce of venom in the single word.

"No," Ben replied.

Ben's hands snaked under his shirt, palms burning his skin. His stomach tightened and back arched like it was second nature. His body remembered Ben's touch. He remembered fisting that dark, lush hair, kissing those full lips, sliding his cock along that hot tongue.

He jolted as the aforementioned tongue traced up his neck. Saliva cooled on his skin.

"Disgusting."

Ben hummed before leaving an open-mouthed kiss just behind his ear. He shivered as his nipples peaked and cock grew heavier.

"We're free," Ben whispered. "It's all dead."

Softly, he finished, "We're dead."

Pryde had shot him in the chest. It had been a searing punch to the breastbone. Then nothing. Then sabacc. On a shaded residential patio, sun shining, where everything was easy and good. He'd never step foot on a star destroyer again.

"You betrayed the First Order," Hux said.

"You betrayed the First Order," Ben returned.

"You went to the light."

"You tipped off the Resistance. Repeatedly."

"You should've come to me."

"How could I when you hate me?"

Automatically, contrarily, Hux opened his mouth to argue he didn't hate Ben. But he did hate Ben.

Ben had ruined everything.

Ben added, "I didn't want to be dead without you."

Damn him.

"You couldn't think of anyone else to exasperate in the afterlife, hm?" he asked. "Not even that Jedi?"

"She's not dead."

"Pity."

Ben sighed, sounding so much like Kylo in that moment. Hux supposed they were one and the same. Ben kissed Hux's neck again as his hands slid to the waistband of Hux's shorts.

"If you go any lower, I'll pour this on you," he said and flourished the half-full can.

"That's a waste of beer."

"I don't care for this beer."

"Liar." Ben pulled him back by the hips, his erection fitting between the globes of Hux's ass. "Let's go inside."

"I haven't finished my beer yet."

"You said you didn't care for it."

Hux turned in Ben's embrace as he said, "Perhaps it's the vessel."

Ben studied him with fathomless brown eyes. Hux trailed the cool corner of the beer can over the ridge of Ben's collarbone. With the other hand, he guided Ben to lean away. Hux had always liked the big slabs of Ben's pecs. He'd scratched and sucked bruises on them at every opportunity. He'd called them 'tits' just to watch Kylo's face turn pink.

He poured a thin stream of beer over one of Ben's pecs and ducked to lick it up. It trickled down the center of Ben's chest. Hux followed it all the way up and beyond until he had to nose under the heavy fall of Ben's hair. His shirt soaked up the missed beer, but he didn't care as he sucked on the lobe of Ben's ear. He didn't like the shirt, anyway.

Ben shuddered and held onto his hips.

He tasted the same, felt the same. Even his hair smelled the same.

Hux purred, "It's indeed the vessel."

Ben gripped his hair and brought him in for a kiss. Ben's nose dug into his cheek as those pillowy lips glided over his. He sucked at Ben's bottom lip, earning a sharp intake of breath. He coaxed Ben's mouth open to taste him with tongue and lips.

After heady minutes, Ben caught his lip with those perfectly crooked teeth and nipped hard. His gut tightened, his cock throbbed.

Again, Ben said, "Let's go inside."

"Fine, if you insist."

He threw the beer can towards the lawn as Ben scooped him off his feet. He wrapped his arms behind Ben's neck and kissed him again. They'd clean up later.

Or never.

#kylux #benarmie #kylo ren #ben solo #armitage hux #star wars #waywardrose writes

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clanwarrior-tumbly · 4 years ago

Note

Hi! Could I request the V3 boys reactions to their s/o becoming the blackened because they were trying to save them.

Yesssss more angst! These were fun to write!

TWs: Blood, Death, Suicide Mentions, and Major DRV3 Spoilers

..............

Ryoma

No..it couldn’t be true..could it?

Ryoma couldn’t believe you’d actually kill someone, though your reason came as a shock: It was to save his life.

Kirumi was plotting to murder him after the second motive came out. And she obviously panicked when you showed up instead of him, so she tried attacking you.

But you retaliated, leaving her body in the bathroom and altering the crime scene to make it look like she slipped while cleaning it.

You didn’t want to kill anyone, but you were terrified she might target him some other time if you didn’t stop her.

Yet Ryoma vehemently denied you did anything, arguing with Shuichi up until he pointed out incriminating evidence.

He was crushed, knowing he’s going to lose another loved one.

He can’t understand why a criminal like him was worth saving.

But the deed was done. And as your final wish before being executed, you plead for him to survive and see that life’s worth it.

While he’s never been good with promises, he’ll try to keep this last one...for your sake.

Shuichi

He learned the truth earlier than anyone else.

Someone knew he was too smart, always leading the trials and making the swift deductions.

So they believed eliminating him would guarantee them escape from the academy, as everyone would arrive to wrong conclusions without him.

However you put a stop to their plot, accidentally killing them with their own weapon they prepared.

Shuichi didn’t want it to be you--not you, of all people--so he’s far more reluctant to accuse you of murder.

He’s pretty much mute throughout the trial, but you take notice fast and see him slipping back into that cowardly detective persona.

“Shuichi, don’t you dare go back into hiding. Don’t you dare look away from the truth again.”

“..but...”

He just absolutely refuses to. He can’t....not this time.

So instead, you reveal the truth about your crime. Every last detail--from when the motive came out to how you disposed of the evidence.

By the end of your explanation, he’s in tears--realizing you saved his life..in exchange for your own.

Every night since then, he cries as he hugs the Helping Yacchi plush you gave him the day before the body was discovered.

It hurt so much to condemn you, someone he truly loved.

Kokichi

You learned very quickly that Miu was plotting to kill Kokichi, after noticing her put a bottle of poison in his seat before returning to hers and logging in.

That made you livid. But more scared than anything else.

So you formulated a plan after learning everything (or almost everything) about the virtual world.

You overheard Miu and Kokichi planning to meet on the mansion rooftop, and you didn’t like that idea one bit.

Little did you know, he and Gonta were conspiring to murder her, too, but you beat them to the punch.

Obviously he was pissed someone foiled his plans....but imagine his shock when it turned out to be you.

The two were suspects for a long time as they explained the “Killing Game Busters” scheme.

But since Miu died by your hands--their names were cleared.

Kokichi was in frustrated tears, yelling at you for not telling him sooner.

But he ultimately breaks down when your punishment was announced.

He clings to you, crying and begging you not to leave him--he even pleads with Monokuma to let him die with you.

This time it’s not an act.

He feels genuine sorrow and heartache for a long time after the trial.

Gonta

It’d be impossible to think anyone would try to kill him.

But someone tried taking advantage of his gullibility. And you happened to be there at the exact same time, attacking the assailant while your entomologist boyfriend ran off in fear.

You cleaned as much evidence as you could before finding and consoling him, lying that you just talked to them.

He believes you and is relieved---until the body discovery announcement plays later on.

Even though you lied, he doesn’t blame you. Not even during the trial where you made up an alibi.

But when Gonta himself is questioned...he clams up, knowing exactly what happened and being too scared to say the truth.

He doesn’t want to condemn you! Gentlemen don’t-

You reassure him it’s okay. Shuichi has you in a corner and there’s no point in letting the trial drag on.

So he eventually admits what he saw, and he can only cry as he votes you as the Blackened.

You two share one last hug, and he says he’ll never ever call you a killer, thanking you for protecting him even if he failed to protect you.

Korekiyo

It doesn’t come as a surprise that someone would try murdering him. He could see the hatred in their eyes whenever he looked at them.

His menacing appearance seems to be more than enough of a reason to target him.

However, after finding their body and signs of a struggle surrounding the crime scene, he arrives to the conclusion that the culprit knew he was in danger and killed to protect him.

Ah...how beautiful that realization was.

Or so he thought.

When it’s revealed you carried out that deed, using his golden sword to swiftly kill the victim, his heart is completely shattered.

‘No..no, no, no, no, no!!’

He feels anger, sorrow, confusion, and..so many other unpleasant things at once as you confess to the crime.

Not even Sister calms him down. He becomes belligerent, trying to steer everyone away from the truth and claim he killed the victim in self-defense.

You have to step off your podium to console him, as he was screaming his head off and scaring everyone.

When the trial is over, he just holds you close, begging Monokuma not to take you--his one true love--away from him.

But alas, it’s all for nothing as you’re sentenced to your execution.

Though you remind Korekiyo of what he’s taught you about death, as you didn’t fear it, and you promise you’ll watch over him in the afterlife.

Kaito

He’s incredibly outraged when everyone suspects you as the culprit in spite of the evidence that piles up.

“Shuichi, you're not actually gonna believe their crap, right?! Stop screwing around--!”

“He’s not, Kaito. It's the truth."

Stunned, he looks at you. Since your podium was conveniently next to his, he didn’t have to look far to see the guilt in your eyes.

Learning your motivation, however, is what ultimately crushed him.

You killed...to protect him?

No..

That couldn’t be right! He was suppose to protect you! Didn’t he always tell you how killing was wrong and-?!

But the truth was you did try talking some sense into the victim...but they attacked you instead, and you retaliated in self-defense. So it was purely accidental.

Kaito is pissed when Monokuma jests that “murder is murder” no matter what and he actually tries fighting the Exisals.

You insist he doesn’t interfere, and plead for him to use that strength to help protect everyone else instead.

His spirit is broken for a while, but...he’ll recover and keep fighting on. For your sake.

K1B0

Something in you snapped when you overheard Kokichi taunt your robot boyfriend for the last time, actually hurting him physically as well as emotionally.

K1B0 went to you in tears, not understanding why he hated him so much.

After comforting him, you’ve finally had enough. You were sick of him being harassed nonstop.

So you sent him to see Miu while you met with Kokichi to “talk”.

While the Ultimate Supreme Leader seemed suspicious, he let his guard down...sealing his fate as you strangled him with his own scarf.

Then you inflicted numerous wounds on his corpse to disguise the true cause of death.

But when the truth was revealed, K1B0 was in total shock at your motive.

He couldn’t believe you’d do something so barbaric.

Even if Kokichi bullied him relentlessly, there’s no reason you had to go as far as murder him!

However he understands anger can be a powerful emotion--one that throws any and all sense of logic out the window.

Still..it hurt to watch you get executed. He went into shutdown for the rest of the day/night.

And here he was, thinking you two had finally torn down the wall of “forbidden love” between human and robot for good.

Rantaro

You managed to kill Tsumugi before she had a chance to murder Rantaro and Kaede’s final part of her plan went into motion.

The shot put ball’s sudden appearance startled him into forgetting about the hidden room and running out of the library..

And up the stairs as the obnoxious music stops and one of the girls yelled for everyone to come into the bathroom--where Tsumugi’s body was.

At that point, the game should’ve ended since you actually killed the mastermind.

But of course, Team Danganronpa had backup plans and thus the game kept going.

You had rearranged the crime scene to make it look like a suicide, leading everyone to assume the time limit’s pressures are what killed the cosplayer.

But eventually your crime was unraveled and Rantaro was utterly devastated.

You’re the first Blackened in yet another killing game he was forced to participate in.

You only killed Tsumugi because you found it suspicious she suddenly ran off on her own near the time limit’s end.

In doing so you unknowingly saved Rantaro’s life in exchange for your own.

He was upset you did something so rash when he clearly told everyone not to, but...at the same time he’s grateful to be alive because of you.

He swears your death won’t be in vain. He’s gonna escape this game with everyone else.

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whereflowersbloom · 4 years ago

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I liked you first

Part 4

Fuck. She was getting closer, he could hear the echo of her footsteps walking across the hall. He was positive she was on her way to his table. This had to be a fucking joke. Damian looked around and tried to convince himself it was his mind playing tricks on him. Perhaps it was the wine. Definitely he’d blame the wine. However he knew it wasn’t possible. He had only had one glass. Furthermore he developed a high tolerance for alcohol. There was no way he was drunk. At all. Damian has met beautiful women the past years. Attending Galas, charity events, and suchlike, as a Wayne. He did what was expected of him. Some were dates, others one night stands to satisfy his carnal needs as any other man. Every single one meaningless. Yet, they were nothing compared to this dazzling beauty before his sharp eyes. Pure and innocent as beautiful. Delicate as porcelain. This couldn’t be Rachel Kent. Jonathan’s sister. His date tonight. The simple idea seemed inconceivable.

He felt a warmth rising from within, a low gentle burn starting at his core, and stretching out into his limbs. He doesn’t recognize it, or possibly his logical mind refused to acknowledge it. He tenses, the sound around him mutes.

Rachel was too nervous to interpret the expression on his handsome face. She took a few deep breaths to slow down her racing heart. The unsettling feeling that's been building up in her since she entered the restaurant takes on new edges. An uncomfortable awareness of something she can’t quite put words to gnawing at the back of her mind. His penetrating gaze probably. There she was, standing in front of him. The man that stole her heart when she was a timid, troubled child, covering her affection with indifference. She longed to run her fingers through his dark hair. It looked so silky. His lips seemed to beckon to her to be kissed. Oh the dream of her teenage years.

“Damian.” She breathed torn between joy and agitation at seeing him for the first time in over ten years.

Fucking Richard Grayson. Damian swears in his head. She’s there. She’s right in front of him and he’s paralyzed, stunned. She was moving her rosy lips. God, he’d beg for a taste, those full lips were made for his. To be kissed properly. He found himself unable to hear a sound. His surroundings, her voice, nothing. His attention and thoughts too focused on those electric blue eyes. How intense and beautiful they are. All of her. She embodied the essence of everything that was supremely, exquisitely, unbelievably stunning. Becoming a beauty incarnate. Say something he commanded his body. It didn’t respond. Her expression showed concern, confusion, she must think he was ignoring her. Fuck.

“Oh.” Was all he managed to mutter. Seven hells. Is that all he can come up with? What in the world was happening to him? Facing a gorgeous woman and suddenly he was speechless, behaving like an inexperienced teenager. It was unacceptable.

He tried to focus again. Damn it. She folded her arms, her forehead shifting. It became immediately obvious to Damian that his staring wasn’t as subtle as he’d been hoping and he gave her the impression he was giving her the cold shoulder. How wrong she was. “Damian?” His hearing was finally back. He snapped out of it.

He cleared his throat, he was a complete mess. “Rachel?” He asked in disbelief. He wasn’t himself. All kind of thoughts swirling around his head. She nodded, smiling at him. He took a deep breath. It had to be a joke. He had to be sure it wasn’t an hallucination. “Rachel Kent?” He asked again, blinking incredulous. What was that in his voice? Was he stumbling over his words?

“Well, unless you were expecting another Rachel Kent.” She raised her eyebrows, blue eyes twinkling with humor, mildly puzzled by his actions.

She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear innocently and stretched her hand, offering it to him. It took him a whole minute to process what was happening and react. He shook his head and hesitantly took her tiny, pale hand. Damian was acutely aware of the exact moment their hands touched. He tried not to get caught up in the way her palm, her skin was so soft. He was touching her, even if it went in the places he wished to. Then he felt annoyed at himself for noticing it. The little jolt warming his skin beneath their joined hands. It was just a handshake. Nothing, Something he did on daily basis with dozens a of people.

“So, mind if I sit down now?” She gestured the chair, asking shyly. A smile tugs at her lips.

He wanted to punch himself. Where were his manners. Alfred would be utterly disappointed and tell him he should be ashamed of his behavior. He attempted to stand up but his feet failed him and lost balance at the last minute. He avoided the fall, grabbing the edge of the table. Thanks to his quick reflexes. He was terribly embarrassed and furious. He cursed in his mind again. A waiter approached him and asked him if he was alright or needed anything. He dismissed him cordially, saying he was fine and it wasn’t necessary. He regained composure and helped his date sit in her chair. Tsk. He was infinitely grateful his siblings weren’t there to witness it.

He sat down again, shifting in his chair, trying to find a comfortable position. He was angry at himself, his ridiculous actions, lack of self-control. It infuriates him.

Rachel covered her mouth with her hand, suppressing a giggle. It was the first time in a long time she’s seen Damian Wayne being clumsy. Even when they were kids, he was a natural leader, a prodigy, genius. Always doing everything flawlessly, mastering every activity or task. Growing up she couldn’t help but feel inadequate. She was eager to see new sides of him. He appeared to be so perfect, it pained her at times. This was so human. Was he okay though?

Rachel was looking at him worried. “Are you alright?” She reaches out to touch his hand, it was her first instinct, but he instantly moved his arm away, avoiding her touch. It was a reflex. He didn’t mean to. Their eyes lock, hers full of emotion, was that disappointment, sadness in those shinning eyes? He loses himself in those clear, deep blue wells.a part of him wants to look away, hide his embarrassed at his reaction to her touch. But there it was this foreign feeling. It was killing him, annihilating his sanity, slowly. Without mercy.

“I’m sorry.” He exhaled. Guilt. He felt guilt. He was trying to regain control of his actions and emotions.

“No apology necessary.” She sighed, did her best to smile sincerely. But anyone could see the truth through her eyes. Those weren’t the words she'd been hoping he'd say, but she it was her mistake for assuming she could touch him. This was better than fighting. And she had promised herself she wouldn't hold him to her selfish expectations? It was nobody’s fault Damian didn’t want her. Wasn't even his, if she was being honest with herself. Just because she harbors romantic feelings for him...it didn't mean he was obligated to reciprocate those feelings.

Damian’s senses were reeling. He tried to speak but found words has scattered from his mind. Never in his life had the sight of a woman affected him to this point. Not even remotely. He was so taken taken aback by her unadorned beauty, that he was undeniably drunk in her loveliness. This strange, sick feeling was making him lose his cool, his control.

Words bubbles up in his throat, he swallowed them down, gulping air like fish out of the water. For the very first time in his life he felt like a fish out of water. He didn’t know what words to pronounce, dominate his emotions or actions. He was Damian Wayne, he wasn’t supposed to feel this way. He was raised to achieve success and excellence. One look at her and he loses it. Shit. His head was throbbing.

“I know it’s been a long time.” She says quietly, looking down, avoiding eye contact with him.

This encounter had fractured his composure, and with the floodgates broken, Damian was struggling not to drown in his emotions. There she was again, avoiding him, like when they were children. It was irritating, not knowing the reason she despise him, or what in the seven hells did he do? He let out a pained snarl, struggling to overpower a foreign sensation clawing up his chest that was making it difficult to breathe.

“Why? Why did you agree to this date with me?” He asked coldly, frustrated, agitated. He needed answers now.

This caught her attention, getting back to reality. Rachel’s eyes open wide. “I thought it was an opportunity to get to know each other.” She said in a quiet tone, almost in a whisper. She was biting her lower lip.

“Oh really? Because 10 years ago if I recall correctly you didn’t seem interested. You hated me.” He bit out, eyes narrowed falling on her figure. Hurt battling with anger, but anger was easier to cling to. He was releasing all his frustration but he didn’t care at the moment. He started clenching and unclenching his left fist. He needed to hit something. Or better yet, someone.

“I never hated you, Damian. It’s complicated, if you let me explain.” She panicked, tried to come up with an explanation, make him understand. She was a immature and naive child back then. If only he knew how she truly felt about him. He interrupted her

“What game are you playing, Rachel? I’m not a fucking toy or chess piece?” He snarled loudly. They weren’t kids anymore. She couldn’t treat him this way. He wouldn’t allow it. He was breathing heavily. He lost his temper in a public place. Oh no.

“You don’t have to be an asshole. If you didn’t want to come, you should’ve said it.” She countered. She felt broken, shaken, hurt, she held her gaze with his own hard, furious eyes. The pain nearly ripped her heart out. This was obviously a mistake. She gaved a whine of anger and frustration, eyes growing glassy.she couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. She stamped her foot, more tears falling.

“Damn you, Damian Wayne!” With those last words she rose from her sit, and walked away from him. She couldn’t look at him. Wiping her eyes as she retreated, leaving behind Damian and that disaster.

Fuck. He did it this time. He wants to slam his fist down on to the table. Realization of what he had caused. She was right. He didn’t comprehend why he had been an asshole. There had to be other ways to keep her at arms length. It wasn’t fair to her to behave like this. He could be nice to her, considerate and it didn’t have to mean anything. Except it did.

It hurts so bad to want a woman so much. To have her right in front of you, her alluring eyes, full cheeks, delicate features, this glorious creature, and they were so far away. In mind, personality, perspective. In every possible way he could think of. And he was disrespectful, rude, nasty. Because he didn’t understand his own feelings.

It was desire. He wanted Rachel, had wanted her the moment he laid his eyes on her as he’d listened to his newly-revived heart pounding hot blood into his ears, he didn’t know how to deal with the need to have her, mind, body, and soul. It was all new to him. But he wanted her. Dick could kick his ass after all. He deserved it. Except he had to fix this. He had to apologize, plead for another opportunity.

“Rachel! Rachel wait!” Abruptly, his feet started obeying, rushing off to chase after his date. His heart pounding, as he ran across the hall. He could catch up to her still. He had to. He regretted his words before. This date meant everything. Fucking Richard Grayson. If he managed to get Rachel to forgive him. He’d have to genuinely thank him.

Notes: don’t worry it’s the first part of the date 😂😂😂🥺🥺🙈🙈🙈😭😭❤️❤️

#im sorry not sorry #blind date au #i liked yiu first #damirae #demon birds #damian x raven #damian wayne #raven is a kent #raven roth #dick grayson #alfred pennyworth #jon kent #clark kent #eventual smut #writing #dc universe #dc fandom #teen titans

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komahinasecretexchange · 4 years ago

Text

Title: School Unity Club

Author: @thatsrightdollface

For: @bebexox4

Pairings/Characters: Hajime Hinata/Nagito Komaeda, with appearances by both Chiaki Nanami and Kokichi Oma. Others mentioned.

Rating/Warnings: T. Some mention of self-deprecating thought might be a relevant warning. There is also occasional swearing.

Prompt: Non despair hopes peak au with Enemies-Friends-Lovers komahina

Author’s notes: Hi there!!! Happy Komahina Secret Exchange, and I hope you enjoy your gifts!!! :D This is prompt one of two you can expect this time around. This was really fun to work on hehehe. Thank you!!!

1. Okay, Why Are We Starting a School Unity Club Again?

The first time Hope’s Peak Academy tried to recruit Nagito Komaeda, of course he turned them down: he was unworthy, he insisted, trying to laugh at himself, trying to raise his metaphorical palms in obvious surrender. I mean, come on. Hope’s Peak… haha, that was for genuinely amazing people. For the Ultimate Students, glimmering irrefutable beacons of hope to everybody else. They were — no. Nagito couldn’t go to school with people like that. Practically superheroes, so hardworking and disciplined and just everything Nagito knew he didn’t deserve to be. What would he even say? How would he know where to sit, or when to participate in class discussions, or how to tactfully say no when they felt obligated to invite him along places?

But, in the end, Hope’s Peak Academy hadn’t so much wanted Nagito as a student, he gathered, as they’d wanted to study his luck. Nagito’d always had unreasonable, relentless, mythically impossible luck. Amazing things happened to him, and then… like clockwork, like the gears of the universe churning away… equally devastating things inevitably followed. The Ultimate Lucky Student. That’s right. After years of fallen-apart loved ones and distant extended family members and snakes slithering out of his bathtub drain the second he realized “You know, I think this might be my favorite brand of shampoo,” Nagito Komaeda’s absurd luck was finally going to help somebody. Hope’s Peak could learn from his luck, and that was worth humiliating himself daily, stumbling around Ultimate Students, rambling and awestruck. That was worth knowing he’d never belong, because he hadn’t worked for his Talent. It wasn’t really a Talent at all.

When Nagito was happy, he knew he was sure to feel tears burning against the back of his eyes very soon. He was happy about the chance to attend Hope’s Peak, despite everything, despite knowing he should have turned the invitation down again, whether his luck could be useful or no… and so, of course, bad things followed. Bad things he hadn’t talked to his classmates about, yet, and probably never would. Because it wasn’t like Nagito had come to such a prestigious institution expecting anybody to actually care about him. It wasn’t like he would have clawed his way in without being invited. Right?

Nagito liked to think that was right, anyway, just the way he liked to think he didn’t actually want any of his fancy, impossible new classmates to contradict him when he described himself as worthless, a faceless background character in their lives. Why should they tell him he was more than a bystander? Nagito would hold the camera when his classmates wanted a group photo. That should be more than enough. If he wanted to get something done for their sake, he could lean on his Ultimate Luck. If he drew a lottery number, it would always win. If a car was careening out of control through the school grounds, it would be sure to hit him before it clobbered anyone else. A weird system — a horrible system, from some points of view — but it was the least Nagito could do. It was his so-called “Talent,” after all.

Maybe that was why the Reserve Course had never made a lot of sense, to Nagito. See, some people could pay a hell of a lot of extra tuition money and buy their way into Hope’s Peak… but not as Ultimates. It felt like a flashlight demanding to be called the sun, to Nagito. Like a puddle on the street insisting it was the ocean. If Ultimates really were “hope,” then how dare anybody scramble around to grab their spotlight away, right? Reserve Course attendants would probably be easier to get along with than the Ultimate Students, given that Nagito was more or less “one of them”… a nobody, a stranger, an intruder here in this place for gods. But he didn’t go looking for friends among the Reserve Course, either. Why should he want to be buddy-buddy with arrogant pretenders? It wasn’t like Nagito had ever felt especially good at talking to people, anyway. He’d probably say something wrong; he’d probably mess something up; he’d probably just get furious. Wouldn’t you want to turn off the flashlight that thought it was the sun?

Better not to delude yourself, even if the truth was ugly, full of shaky, simpering smiles and resignation. Happiness led to pain. Good luck led to misery. On and on and on, and Nagito had been fairly sure he’d graduate from Hope’s Peak without any of his classmates having memorized his full name. You know, if he lived that long.

That’s why it was all the more surprising when Chiaki Nanami… the Ultimate Gamer… kept insisting on talking to him. Of course, Chiaki was kind to their whole class. She had no reason to sit silently and play phone games with Nagito until his phone caught fire in his hands — she had no reason to chat about his favorite super-indie horror titles during breaks in schoolwork, coming over to stand by his desk on purpose. Chiaki wanted to understand everybody: she told Nagito as much, honestly. Chiaki wanted their whole class to be a team, and so when she asked Nagito to show up for movie nights he did. He knew he’d suffer the bad luck for it later, but he picked up the phone when Chiaki called him every time.

If she wanted to be friends with everyone, Chiaki shouldn’t have to work for the Ultimate Lucky Student’s friendship, obviously. He should be a shoe-in. And it wasn’t really that Nagito was having fun that kept him sticking around, probably. It wasn’t really that he was starting to banter with the Ultimate Mechanic and the Ultimate Gangster, as if they were actually… uh… friendly acquaintances, or something, either. Chiaki told him he was reliable, even if he still wouldn’t admit he belonged with the rest of them. Even if he said hurtful things sometimes and didn’t seem to realize it.

“What?!” Nagito had balked, then. “Have I insulted you? Oh, no. No, that’s unacceptable. For someone like me to speak badly of an Ultimate Student, even without meaning to —”

“That’s exactly what I’m talking about,” Chiaki had answered. She reminded Nagito of a cat, pretty consistently… heavy-lidded eyes, and a voice like a tail swishing slowly back and forth. She didn’t look up from the game system in her hands as she drawled at him. “You say horrible things about yourself, and about how you can’t understand why I’d want anything to do with you… makes me feel like you don’t think I can pick my own friends. I say I think you’re okay, and you spend the next half an hour telling me why that’s a stupid thing to think. Kazuichi says he’s glad you stopped by to help him work on that robot project he’s building, and you have to make him apologize for thinking ‘trash like you’ deserves to hang out with the Ultimate Mechanic at all.”

Nagito wasn’t sure how to respond to any of that. He’d cleared his throat.

“Your friends will hurt when they see you hurt, Nagito. I always heard people in games saying that, and now I know it’s true. Okay?”

“Hm. Okay… if you’re sure, as an Ultimate Student.”

“I’m sure as your friend Chiaki.”

“Interesting. I mean… yeah, I’ll do my best not to hurt you?”

Nagito had been watching the way he talked about himself around Chiaki Nanami for about a week before she came to him with a plan she’d been working on with the Ultimate Supreme Leader. Kokichi Oma was a couple years behind them, but he was always scheming like the “Spawn of Loki” the Ultimate Animal Breeder declared him to be — his latest plan involved trying to unite the two branches of their school, the Main Course and the Reserve Course, coming together for some sort of mysterious club. Chiaki was all for it, apparently, and Nagito had wanted to say a lot of things. He’d wanted to say it sounded like reassuring the puddle that ships could drown in it after all, and coral reefs were sure to grow. It felt false, and wrong. But a lot of things Kokichi Oma said felt “false and wrong,” and Nagito wanted to be Chiaki’s real, worthy friend so badly. He agreed to help, however he could.

“It’s so generous of the Ultimates to share their Talents with everybody!” Nagito said. That was a fair enough rationalization, wasn’t it? “You really are a commendable person, Ultimate Supreme Leader. Even if practically everything you say is a shameless lie!”

And, “Hey now, most of my nefarious criminal organization members wouldn’t be called ‘Ultimate,’ and they’ve got more talents to share around than this whole stuck-up school,” Kokichi answered, voice light and airy, like he wasn’t actually invested in the conversation… though his eyes said he really was, unless that expression was just another lie from him? Lies upon lies upon lies. People told Nagito he was confusing to talk to, but surely he couldn’t have anything on Kokichi Oma. Was that okay for him to think? “A lot of these titles we got assigned feel pretty arbitrary, if you ask me. And it’s ridiculous we’ve never actually met so many of our classmates!”

Nagito raised his eyebrows. “Classmates?”

Kokichi stared him down, smile practically painted on. “Classmates. Yeah. Just think of how many possible recruits for my organization might be waiting in the Reserve Course… ya think any of ‘em are interested in a life of evil?”

“Most of the people who made the games we play aren’t Ultimates, either,” Chiaki murmured, at Kokichi’s side. She was muted and dusky pink, with a tender, hesitant smile — Kokichi was so glaringly bright and loud next to her. They made a strange team, but of course no stranger than Nagito and anyone in the world. “Please, Nagito. The School Unity Club is going to try and form real friendships… I think it’s a chance for us to do something good, and to learn what it’s like to be in the Reserve Course.“

As if Nagito wanted to understand something like that! Haha! Oh, Chiaki. No.

But that’s what led Nagito here, to the first official School Unity Club meeting. He filled out the Getting to Know Everybody Questionnaire Kokichi and Chiaki passed out, and he hung around in the back of the room, hands folded in his pockets, face perfectly neutral, until a spiky haired Reserve Course guy came storming up to him. What could have possibly gotten this uppity loser so mad? Chiaki had decorated this classroom herself, specifically for trash like the both of them. They should be so grateful. There were streamers and everything.

“Are you Nagito Komaeda?” Mr. Pointy-Hair spat.

“I am. Nice to meet —”

“So you’re the one who wrote that people who joined the Reserve Course have ‘no good reason to be here’ on the questionnaire. Knowing we’d all read it — knowing how much we want to attend Hope’s Peak Academy —”

Nagito nodded, letting himself smile. Ah, okay. This was making a little sense now. “Excuse me, I think you misunderstand something,” he tried to clarify. “I don’t believe I have a good reason to be here, either… really, we’re almost the same, you and me. I probably have more to say to someone like you than my whole class!” Nagito paused. Glanced over at the Ultimate Gamer. “Except for Chiaki. Maybe. If she still thinks so.”

Mr. Pointy-Hair didn’t look reassured by Nagito’s explanation. If anything, his cheeks were flushed red, the fury creeping up to the tips of his ears, and his hands were clenched into fists at his sides. He was a little shorter than Nagito, but he was standing as tall as he possibly could. “Someone like me?” he asked. It was a question, somehow, but what exactly did he expect Nagito to say? Mr. Pointy-Hair’s teeth were ground together, but there was something honest and wholesome about his mossy green eyes. Nagito might have wanted to ask his name, if he didn’t feel sure he was about to get yelled at. Why weren’t they understanding each other, exactly, here?

“You’re not an Ultimate,” Nagito said, explaining something painfully simple. “This is a school for extraordinary people, and you and I are both unworthy of it. You see? But that shouldn’t be news to you…”

Mr. Pointy-Hair was spitting mad. Was he going to punch Nagito, next? Or simply tell him how awful he was? Nagito was bracing himself either way, but he shouldn’t have bothered. That was when Kokichi Oma’s spotlight found them, after all. That was when the Ultimate Supreme Leader — sauntering around on a stage made of pushed-together desks and using a super-chipper ringmaster voice — declared, “Oh! And what’s this? Mr. Komaeda and Mr. Hinata are already picking a fight! I think we just found some volunteers for a club project, guys!”

There was a scattering of polite, confused applause, and this Mr. Pointy-Hair Hinata spun around on his heel and threw himself out of the room. The door slammed, and his footsteps thudded away down the hall.

Nagito took a stumbling half-step after him. He didn’t mean to. This was the sort of pretender who thought he deserved to be an Ultimate without earning it, after all. There was no reason to wonder what their club project would be together, or if he’d ever learn Hinata’s first name. There was no reason to ask what the Ultimate Supreme Leader had in store for them to work on — there was probably no reason to assume he and Hinata would ever see each other again, or get another chance to try and have an actual conversation.

Nagito asked Kokichi what their assignment was, anyway.

1½. Talking to You’s Like Trying to Paint in the Rain

Hajime Hinata figured if he just never attended a School Unity Club meeting again, he could simmer for a while and then amble on like this never happened. Like he’d never met Nagito Komaeda, with his hazy dark eyes and drifting, shaky-yet-infuriatingly-resolute voice. If he never joined up with the club again, then he couldn’t be assigned any weird-ass “club projects,” could he? And since Nagito was part of the Main Course… an Ultimate, even if he’d tried to convince Hajime they were “the same,” or whatever… their paths wouldn’t necessarily cross, otherwise. They even had passing periods at different times, and if Hajime saw Nagito’s fluffy, flyaway white hair from across the hallway he just stopped in his tracks and stalked away.

But, I mean… that isn’t the end of the story, obviously. Hajime underestimated the Ultimate Supreme Leader, and also how ridiculous things could get at Hope’s Peak Academy. Sometimes, the place barely even felt real.

Hajime received the instructions for his and Nagito Komaeda’s club project midway through math class. The guy in front of him — who he’d known the whole year, mind you, and was definitely just some guy who liked comic books and was often a little late to class — turned around in his seat and stage-whispered, “Hey, Hinata, you wouldn’t happen to know the answer to question thirteen, would you?”

“There is no question thirteen,” Hajime answered. “The worksheet only goes to ten —” and then he actually looked up, to raise his eyebrows at his classmate and/or see if they had different worksheets for some reason. And well. Hm. Wouldn’t you know it, this wasn’t his classmate at all. This was very obviously Kokichi Oma from the Main Course in a wig. The Ultimate Supreme Leader was wearing a Reserve Course uniform with the tie knotted all sloppily, and he grinned like the damn Cheshire Cat as he handed over a big envelope with the words “This is not your School Unity Club project assignment!” scribbled on it.

“Oh! Nice eye,” Kokichi grinned. “Aren’t you a smart one.”

“I don’t want to work with Nagito Komaeda,” Hajime hissed. “And Kokichi, this isn’t your class.”

“Are you sure I’m not enrolled in the Reserve Course, too?”

“Ugh. Yes? And you’re two years behind me.”

Kokichi scratched at his forehead. Hajime thought maybe he was taunting him, intentionally fiddling with his wig so that a little of his flippy purple hair snuck out. “Nagito’s stubborn, isn’t he? Kind of like you.”

“We’re nothing alike,” Hajime said, but even as he spat those words he knew they weren’t completely true. Honestly, Hajime felt sick with guilt for getting his family to pay this ridiculous Hope’s Peak Reserve Course tuition — he’d tried to change his own mind, convincing himself it didn’t matter whether the world called him Special. The Ultimate Students were just people, he told himself. So what if nobody thought he was good enough to be one of them? He could still live a happy, normal life… he could still pour attention into the hobbies he loved, and spend time with the people he cared about, and maybe it was kind of a pain to have your face on convenience store magazines anyway.

Hajime told himself stuff like that over and over again, but it wasn’t like it stuck, you know? It didn’t change the tide of his thoughts. It felt like the minute he painted a nice, encouraging picture of an alternative to Hope’s Peak Academy for himself, it got washed away. Staring into Nagito’s serene, self-righteously knowing eyes had felt a little like that, too. Hajime got the feeling that he could talk to him and talk to him, but it was almost impossible to change this guy’s mind until he changed it himself.

It was infuriating, wasn’t it, talking to people like that?

“If you want to prove you’re really different than Nagito — you’re really not super-stubborn and impossible to reach — you can always just do the project,” the Ultimate Supreme Leader grinned. “Up to you. I told him to meet you by those big fountains after school, and I think he’s actually gonna do it. He asked what your first name was, too… I told him it was ‘Daisuke.’”

“But it isn’t.”

“Oops, my bad. So tell him yourself.”

Hajime read the crayon-drawing assignment sheets waiting for him in that envelope during a break, sitting slumped over at a table with a bunch of students he didn’t really know. Apparently, Kokichi and the Ultimate Gamer wanted Hajime and Nagito to make a short documentary film showing everybody what life was like in the Hope’s Peak Reserve Course. They were supposed to interview students and get some funny stories; they were supposed to go over some of the things people were studying, and rate whether the desks were comfy. Just… get a portrait of the Reserve Course as people, basically, the instructions said. And be sure to let the Ultimate Supreme Leader know if anyone seemed open to helping with this prank he had in the works. Get them to sign a short, totally-harmless liability form. It’ll be fun.

Hajime crumpled the envelope and all its assignment sheets up, one by one, preparing to toss them away with the rest of his trash. But then he unfolded them, running a hand through his sticky-uppy hair.

You know what?

Why not.

Maybe it would do Nagito Komaeda some good, to get to know the people he was insulting. To see the school from a different point of view. Maybe it would be satisfying to see him feel like a jerk, fumbling around, trying oh-so-messily to explain himself to anybody a little less forgiving than Hajime. Anyway, it was sort of annoying the guy thought his name was something random Kokichi Oma had pulled out of a hat, too.

So Hajime went to meet Nagito by the fountains. For a moment, before they actually started working on the project, it had felt sort of right. Nagito had stood up from where he’d been bent over some homework; he’d smoothed down his vest, and smiled awkwardly, self-consciously. Hopefully. It had looked like maybe he would apologize. Maybe he’d thought over what he said, and Hajime didn’t need to spend any time convincing him he was an asshole. In that case, maybe Nagito was the kind of willowy handsome that Hajime liked in drama actors, if you got past the funny way he held himself. In that case, maybe his voice was sort of soft and lyrical, and if they were talking about something else… almost anything else… Hajime wouldn’t really mind listening to him.

But then, uh. Hajime got close enough for Nagito to wave, and call, “Do you understand what I meant, now, then? It’s nice to meet you properly, Daisuke!” And it only went downhill from there.

It didn’t help that the minute Hajime handed Nagito the school-owned camera Kokichi had finagled for them to use, it got carried out of his hands by an actual hawk. What the hell? “Ultimate Luck,” Nagito clarified, but what did that even mean? So then they were gonna record the thing on Hajime’s phone, except that they couldn’t decide where to start. Who to talk to. They got into a half-shouting match in front of a few of Hajime’s friendlier classmates, who excused themselves as quickly as possible. They tried to film the gymnasium, but it was closed for emergency fumigation and they ended up gagging, hunched over outside the doors for about five minutes. They tried to film in the dorms, but Hajime’s entrance pass cracked in two when they attempted to use it. Those were expensive! Augh! Why was Nagito laughing?!

Whatever Hajime tried to do, it felt like Nagito came sliding over to step on his toes. They were getting nowhere. This project was getting nowhere. They had to delete the one decent interview they managed to get because Hajime himself accidentally had his thumb over the camera. He had literally no idea how he could’ve missed something like that.

“Ultimate Luck,” Nagito said, again, for about the millionth time that evening. “See? It’s really not always much of a talent!”

That was the last straw. Hajime was done. Nagito was still obsessed with this concept of “talent”; Nagito was the last person who should be making a video trying to show what life was really like for Reserve Course students. The Ultimate Supreme Leader was probably just messing with them, just being a little shit like people said he tended to be. School Unity? What could Nagito Komaeda do to work towards School Unity? He was probably the sort of person who would want to trap a lizard that thought it was a dragon, just to show the poor little guy how small he really was. Hajime didn’t have time for this.

And so he told Nagito as much, and he gathered up his things. He deleted all the footage they’d recorded for their project, and went back home. That could’ve been the end of it. If Kokichi turned up in any of his classes again, Hajime would just tune him out. If the Ultimate Gamer asked him why he didn’t come around anymore, yeah, okay, he’d apologize, but that was it.

Hajime didn’t hear anything from the School Unity Club for about a month. “Good riddance,” he thought. He imagined himself slamming a book closed. And then possibly kicking said book under the bed, or something.

When he got a text from Kokichi Oma — wait, how had the Ultimate Supreme Leader gotten his phone number?! — Hajime almost didn’t open it. But morbid curiosity won out in the end, as it so often did. Morbid curiosity, and that claustrophobic, helplessly-stricken pull to the Ultimate Students Hajime still felt, even now. He had wanted to be valuable, to be seen; he had wanted to be a revelation. Every breath he took on this earth could have been game-changing, if only he’d been born someone else.

“Nice work on your video,” Kokichi said. “Turned out really insightful. I think it’ll help the Reserve Course students feel seen, too.”

Alright. Hold on.

What?

***

2. The Light

When Nagito Komaeda asked the Ultimate Supreme Leader whether it had been difficult, convincing Hajime to come watch his documentary about the Hope’s Peak Academy Reserve Course together, Kokichi said, “You just better not mess this up, kid,” with a big, sloppy wink. Nevermind that he really hadn’t answered the question, actually, when Nagito thought back on it – nevermind that Kokichi was… again… younger than him. Maybe it meant Hajime had struggled against the idea of ever actually talking to Nagito again, and Kokichi’d had to bribe him with glittery promises like, “If you give the video a chance, I’ll delete your phone number from my contacts list!” Or maybe it meant Nagito should feel lucky – lucky in a good way, mind you – because Hajime hadn’t needed a lot of nagging at all. Maybe Mr. Pointy-Hair was genuinely curious. Maybe he’d be willing to forgive how badly things had gone, and try, Nagito didn’t know, “hanging out” again, sometime.

“Why did you lie about Hajime’s name, to me?” Nagito asked. “I looked… inconsiderate.”

“Who knows?” Kokichi said. “I do stuff like that, you know.”

It would’ve been way too easy, if Kokichi Oma had been willing to answer a simple question for once. But all the same, Nagito ended up sitting alone in a dark, lonely classroom after club activities were over for the night; all the same, Nagito had finished up the Reserve Course documentary film on his own. He’d purchased four separate video cameras, and lost them all to his ruthless luck. He’d interviewed people from Hajime’s classes, asking the questions Hajime had scrawled out on the back of Kokichi’s crumpled-up assignment envelope that time they tried working together. “What brought you to the Reserve Course?” “What’s your most precious goal, and how do you hope the Reserve Course will help you get there?” “Do you like going to school here?” “What do you think Hope’s Peak could do differently, to show that it values all its students?” Some of the answers he’d gotten were genuinely shocking – one of them made him cry, actually, and try to shake the girl’s hand afterwards. (She took his hand, yes, but then asked why there was so much mud on it. Oh, crap. Nagito’d forgotten that happened… he’d been swallowed up by a surprise swamp on the way across campus that day.) All of the answers were… human? Maybe sometimes it was easy to get so wrapped up in this business of hope and despair, talent and luck, that Nagito forgot how learning a person’s abilities just barely scraped the surface of what it would be like getting to know them. He didn’t talk much at all, giving his interviews – aside from asking questions, of course. He laughed at jokes, sometimes, but he tried to laugh quietly, without wobbling the camera too much.

Nagito had expected the interviews would enrage him – would make him think these people were ungrateful, were building themselves homemade trophies to take away from the Ultimate Talents the Main Course actually earned. And sometimes, yeah, sometimes he did want to argue back. Put them in their places, back in the dirt with him; click off the flashlight that thought it was the sun. But he listened, for a while, anyway. Maybe it was because Hajime would’ve wanted him to, at first – maybe it was because Hajime might have said he couldn’t do it. But in the end, Nagito found himself with a lot of footage of people telling him their truths, and so many of those stories tasted familiar. That longing, that hurt, that want, that hunger. It had been written all over Hajime’s face when they first met, but Nagito’d never asked his story, had he?

Ah, well. Nagito had tried making the documentary into something Hajime wouldn’t hate, you know? He’d gone to one of the Reserve Course’s basketball games and recorded the crowds cheering, recorded the players’ teamwork and struggle. None of the players were the Ultimate Basketball Star or anything, but it still mattered when they won, didn’t it? Maybe not as much, existentially, or for the hope of the world as Nagito understood it, but – but it could still be emotional watching them come together and ruffle each other’s hair, afterwards, reminiscing about the game. Nagito had attempted to go to a Reserve Course swimming team competition too, but of course the pool flooded the second he stepped in the building… and like, really flooded, in that most of the bleachers were still underwater and they hadn’t been able to drain the dressing rooms, yet. Some sort of weird, constant flow in from ocean?! Nagito wasn’t sure on the specifics. Point being, he’d stopped attending sports events for a while, but he had asked Chiaki to record the Reserve Course’s musical production of Les Misérables so he could splice some of it into the documentary.

Nagito didn’t ask specific questions about Hajime Hinata while conducting his interviews, but he’d heard some stuff about him all the same. He was a good classmate, people said – a hard worker, soft-spoken, but he didn’t just sit back and take kindly to bullies. He was smart, but his handwriting was terrible, and he and Nagito seemed to like the same type of video games. Hajime’s classmates mentioned him in passing, see, discussing him among themselves… or they said, “Oh, no, Nagito’s probably okay. He was with Hajime a couple days ago, remember? Hey, Nagito, are you two friends?”

Um.

In that moment, Nagito had wanted very badly to say yes, yes they were friends. He would’ve been proud to have Hajime like him, as a person, the way Chiaki seemed to. But he just sort of smiled and shook his head. “We were working on a project together,” he offered. “School Unity Club.” It was probably fair to leave it at that, right?

But now the documentary was finished, and Hajime had been persuaded… somehow… to come to some empty classroom after School Unity Club let out and watch it at Nagito’s side. Nagito hadn’t really felt like he should be going to School Unity Club meetings lately: it was surreal to be back here again, inviting Hajime into the ruins of a game tournament. There was a scribbly, multi-color scoreboard, and bits of the floor were duct-taped off into what looked like a beanbag chair/slime vat obstacle course. The janitors at Hope’s Peak must have hated Kokichi Oma. Or who knows, really? Maybe he was planning to slink back in and clean all this up himself, after Nagito and Hajime finished with their video. Nagito showed Hajime over to some chairs he’d set up in front of his cracked-apart personal laptop. He pulled out Hajime’s chair a little bit, like they were someplace fancy, and Hajime scoffed. He sat down, though. And then he gestured to Nagito’s chair, like, “Well?”

They watched the documentary in silence. Sometimes Hajime shifted, or scratched at his neck. Sometimes he gasped, or shot Nagito careful, considering eyes. Nagito… for his part… tried his best to keep his expression neutral, the same as he’d done at that first School Unity Club meeting. The last interview was with himself, after all, and he thought he’d made his own points pretty clear. He didn’t understand what the Reserve Course meant, in connection to the Main Course here at Hope’s Peak Academy… on one hand he still thought it defied the point of the whole place, but on the other it was a class full of creativity and excitement and hope for the future, too. He’d learned a lot from the Reserve Course students, and it had been fun spending time with them. The interview questions had been written by Hajime Hinata, but they’d honestly become Nagito’s questions too, by the end. He thanked the viewer for watching, and the interviewees for talking to him, and the swimming team for their forgiveness when he tried to explain that it was his weird luck that ruined their tournament.

It wasn’t perfect. Nagito stumbled over his words, sometimes, and he contradicted himself, and he went on a short monologue about how it was possible hope came in innumerable different forms. He hinted at one of his most embarrassing thoughts, too – that maybe… just maybe, possibly, against all odds… it might’ve been more merciful to have a world without the worship of talent, a world where all people could just live as themselves and know that was enough. He had almost edited that part out. In another life, he probably wouldn’t have wanted anyone in the world to hear it. It flew in the face of everything he was supposed to honor, after all. It was skeptical of the very concept of the Ultimate Talents themselves.

Nagito might not have been able to explain exactly why he kept that part of his own interview in the documentary. Maybe he wanted Hajime to get him, if they ever spoke again. Maybe so many strangers had been utterly, vulnerably honest with him, he felt like it was sort of his turn. Either way, he winced, taking in the frustrated surrender on his own recorded face. He kept his arms folded over his chest and gritted his teeth. Hajime was watching him imagine a world where all that mattered was the light, whether it came from a flashlight or the sun. For all Nagito knew, he sounded ridiculous.

“That wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be,” Hajime said, slowly, after the credits rolled – Chiaki was thanked for most things Nagito hadn’t attributed to either himself or the conspicuously-absent Hajime Hinata. “Thanks, Nagito. You… are you going to the next club meeting?”

“What? Am I…?”

“I mean the School Unity Club. If you go to the next meeting, I’ll come too.”

Nagito swallowed, fidgeting. He brushed a little messy white hair behind his ear. “Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.” He decided to push his luck, just a little, then, seeing Hajime smile: he decided to try and make this raw, beautiful person that hated him laugh. “Maybe Kokichi’ll stop pestering me if I finally participate.”

Hajime snorted. He relaxed, just the littlest bit, and Nagito felt his insides twist. That was an unfamiliar feeling.

“Probably not,” Hajime said.

“No… probably not.”

That couldn’t have been part of the Ultimate Supreme Leader’s secret conniving plan, though, right? To get them to bond over mutual frustration… to pester them both until they started commiserating about it…

Right?

But then, maybe Nagito shouldn’t put it past him. Kokichi’d earned his Ultimate Student-status somehow. Maybe he and Chiaki hadn’t been completely wrong about a School Unity Club, either.

Well, now… they’d just played right into the Ultimate Supreme Leader’s hands, hadn’t they?

That didn’t matter too much, somehow, when Hajime was taking Nagito out to arcades with his other friends, and on hikes in the forest, and to read quietly on a bench in the park. Sun on their skin, wind in their hair, ruffling the pages of their books just the littlest bit… or else grabbing Nagito’s book away and hurtling it out horrifyingly fast into oncoming traffic. Or maybe it was the first book Hajime got him as a gift that would get stolen by a randomly-appearing hawk, this time? At least now Hajime knew Nagito usually laughed that desperate, rattling sort of cackle when he was upset. Nervous. Panicking. At least now Hajime would rub his back, a little, and tell him they were fine. Hey, hey. Nagito, look at me. Your luck isn’t your fault. Just breathe.

Breathe.

No, falling for the Ultimate Supreme Leader’s machinations barely mattered at all, this time.

2 ½. So Glad I was Wrong About You

The first time Hajime Hinata kissed Nagito Komaeda, he hadn’t been expecting to do it, himself, if you’d asked him just five minutes before. They were doing homework together, and the year was almost over – Nagito had asked Hajime to come to the Main Course Graduation Ball with him, as friends, of course, and high school was winding down to an end for both of them. Hajime had just worked weekend shifts at a thrift store to buy himself a set of four-leaf clover cufflinks to wear with his suit, small and gold and hopefully not the sort of thing Nagito would think was tacky. They were… Hajime hadn’t known what they were, exactly, until he found himself watching the way Nagito talked with his hands, staring off into the distance, swept away in what they were discussing. He remembered something their mutual friend Chiaki Nanami, the Ultimate Gamer, had said a few weeks before:

“I don’t think Nagito’s gonna ask you to go to the ball as his date-date. But if he does, be nice.”

Hajime hadn’t pressed Chiaki on that, for some reason. He’d been a little distracted by how she was completely annihilating him in the game they were playing. Why hadn’t he… dammit, why hadn’t he really heard her, then? If Nagito asked him out, like… as a boyfriend… Hajime was supposed to treat him gently. Maybe Chiaki thought Hajime would’ve wanted to say no, to an invitation like that? It was hard to say. Her expression had been all dusty lavender, vague and soft, watching her character defeat Hajime’s so, so mercilessly. The game had been reflected in her eyes, neon and flickering and fast.

But maybe… maybe what Chiaki said had meant more than just some run-of-the-mill politeness advice. It could have meant Nagito’d told Chiaki he was interested in taking Hajime as his date-date, but had backed away squirming from the idea because he was still getting over the concept that he was somehow fundamentally broken. Maybe he didn’t realize Hajime had bought those four-leaf clover cufflinks like a promise, because he didn’t want this Graduation Ball to be the last chance he got to wear them. To be fair, Hajime had only just realized that, himself. Who else was he gonna wear four-leaf clovers for, if not the Ultimate Lucky Student? He��d gotten to know Nagito’s luck extremely well, over the last year together; he knew which scars he tended to keep hidden, because he hated explaining their backstories, and he had watched Nagito’s closing monologue from that Reserve Course documentary over and over in the dead of night. Trying to understand it. Trying to understand this impossible, contrary guy who had just helped him edit his last Japanese Literature essay of the semester.

Hajime had kept telling himself he was done with Nagito Komaeda – for weeks, he’d told himself that. It felt like such a waste, now. They were both growing beyond Hope’s Peak Academy, in their ways, even though obviously there had been a time when Hajime would’ve told you that was impossible. He hadn’t thought he could imagine himself a meaningful future without some link to Ultimate Talent, without this school, whatever exactly it was, but the possibilities had started painting themselves to life without him really noticing it. The change crept in so sweetly, somewhere between the Ultimate Supreme Leader dragging the whole School Unity Club into participating in the next academy-wide musical and that time they’d all gotten lost in the mountains and Hajime found himself spreading his coat out over Nagito while he slept. Living had changed things, brought meaning where none had been assigned by fancy academy board members. When Hajime learned about the Izuru Kamukura Project – a study that had apparently endowed some random Reserve Course student with all the Ultimate Talents under the sun – he was jealous, yeah, but not the way he felt he should have been.

Hajime leaned across the desk and took Nagito’s face in his hands; he kissed him fast and hard, before he could change his mind. Kissed him like he’d yelled his actual first name in his face. Kissed him like truth, and the revelation he’d always thought maybe he could be, if only, if only, if only. He felt Nagito tense and then soften; he felt Nagito try to speak, and then close his eyes, pale lashes brushing against his skin. Hajime ran his hand down Nagito’s neck, and tangled it just a little in his unbrushed hair. Nagito made a wondering, helpless sound, and Hajime held him closer. Pulled back. Kissed his forehead.

“I’m sorry,” Nagito said. Hajime didn’t think he knew what for. Maybe he was still sorry for saying he didn’t think Hajime had any reason to come to this school and that whole tangled-up, confusing introduction they’d had; maybe he was just worried he’d turned out to be a disappointing kisser. Somewhere out in the hallway, Kokichi Oma was laughing, calling, “You’ll never take me alive!” to someone chasing him with a mysteriously bedazzled mop. Somewhere out in the hallway, Izuru Kamukura – Reserve Course student-turned living god – was staring out at the world and realizing it was all immeasurably, heartbreakingly boring, when all the talent possible was limp in his hands.

“Why?” Hajime asked.

“Um,” Nagito said. There were so many words churning inside him, but he was holding Hajime’s hand really tightly, now. He cleared his throat. “I mean, we can try that again, if you want. If I did it wrong.”

Hajime and Nagito were both strong believers in second chances, by that point. They went to the Main Course Graduation Ball with Nagito holding Hajime’s hand just as tight, and no, that absolutely wasn’t the last chance Hajime had to wear those four-leaf clover cufflinks.

#komahina #komahina secret exchange #fanfiction

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comradelionheart · 3 years ago

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This is where I feel safest.

In the blueness of this site, held in comfort as if under my blanket of soft fur.

No one here will ever know who I am or the people I speak of. No one can find me here. I have a questionable habit of running off to avoid being witnessed when I fail or am in pain, and this is where I run to. It is luckily not a boy this time. Well, it’s sort of that too, but not predominantly.

I haven’t shut G out this time. When I thought I’d lost my shot at the job I deleted my WhatsApp and all other social media, and refused to surface until I was willing to face people again. This isn’t unlike when I graduated college uncertain of what to do with life next and just... vanished. I’d a pretty promising presence on Facebook that could potentially have introduced him and I sooner, but I guess life unravels at its own pace and nothing can force it to go sooner or slower. I’ve grown rather accepting of failures because I have unfortunately grown accustomed to them. It’s almost like I expect to meet with resistance or failure each time something nearly works out and in this case I can’t say I willed it upon myself. I literally tested positive for TB. Which is amusing since those are my ex’s initials, and is yet another TB which seems to be hampering my progress.

Dry humour is what I’m best at if I’m being my authentic self. I must unfortunately smile and wave because I’m a woman and need to be likeable to get anywhere in my line of work. That isn’t to say I’m a sociopath or hate people. I just wish I didn’t have to pretend to be interested in their lives and feign amusement at their not so novel ideas. Pretty sure I’ve not so novel ideas too, but I don’t need to be indulged for the sake of my (not) fragile ego. Anyhow.

I applied for this job early in the year and didn't expect to hear from them (because the first few years of my work life had me flailing and coping with depression instead of steering my career, and I know I shouldn’t grudge her for this but I do). But I did hear from them. And everything went through. Including 3 rounds of aptitude tests and a personal interview (which I thought I bombed but didn't somehow). Until I tested positive on a skin patch test for TB. Why do these stupid standard sets of tests get prescribed world over? Honestly, if I’m ever supreme leader of anywhere I will ban standardised tests. Not in the way that I say medicine is a sham, not at all, but in the way that WE LIVE IN THE THIRD WORLD AND WILL OF COURSE HAVE TAKEN THE BCG OR HAVE BEEN EXPOSED TO THE BACTERIA AT SOME POINT BUT IT’S NOT NECESSARILY EVER GOING TO BE ACTIVE SO USE A BETTER AND MORE CONTEXT SPECIFIC TEST INSTEAD OF GIVING ME ANXIETY AND EXISTENTIAL CRISES LIKE THESE, JFC. 😭😭😭

But I’ve taken the other test and that’s also got the drawback of being unable to differentiate between inert and active TB. So I took an HRCT scan. I’m so sick of running around hospitals, there’s a literal virus in the air. But Monday is when I’ll know the medical verdict. And then there’s the whole security check process. I hate when this happens but I’ve lost so much time to grief, I simply cannot sit around moping any longer.

Earlier this year I interviewed with the **. I was given a verbal confirmation and had a text message implying an offer was made to me, because I received an acknowledgement to my acceptance of an offer. If I was the person I was in 2014, I’d have kicked up a fuss and made sure that offer was honoured, but 2021 me knows that working with bosses who go back on their word slyly and cave to nepotism usually need their cocks sucked. And I’m not only incapable of that, but have also dealt with enough workplace harassment elsewhere to be adamant about a brand at the risk of my mental health. But really, he can go suck it because I have confirmation from staff that he is EVERYTHING I read him to be. I’m not intuitive or anything, I just read people very well because I was hurt so bad by them (repeatedly since childhood) that reading people became a thing I did for survival. My sharp instincts serve me well, but are a trauma response. I am very self aware too, yes.

I then interviewed and got through an NGO that was willing to pay me 24L. I turned it down because the founders were running around like headless chicken with their inability to distinguish PR from Marketing Comms (me) from Marketing for business development. I know I was being paid a lot of money, but I will not kill myself performing all three functions while being acknowledged for just the one on my offer letter. I’ve learned to value my labour capacity and assert myself in the economic and political spheres.

Personally though? I sometimes still think I’m a romantic pushover.

But this is about work because I need to weep a little before being calm about how this year has treated me. Especially since I’m maintaining a cool demeanour in public and literally hate sharing things I’m burdened with. Idk man, it makes me feel vulnerable and I don’t like feeling like I’ll get a knife twisted in the spot that's most sore. I AM SCREAMING BECAUSE I HAVE LET G WITNESS ME IN PAIN THIS TIME INSTEAD OF RUNNING AWAY and will someday file copyright over An Enduring Romantic because that’s very honestly me. But ofc it isn’t going to be the legal Copyright, just the sham notice like the one I’d sent him to up his Instagram game. Or he could just operate my Twitter and I’ll run his gram. It’ll even feel natural.

Sometime around May an environmental journal asked me to come on board. Work from the office at the height of the pandemic with no travel compensation and very little money. I turned them down. Then came II**. Which I again turned down because they wouldn’t pay market rate for skills I’ve perfected in 4 years just because they wanted 8 years experience on paper for my quotation. I will do a lot for causes I love, but I also really enjoy being paid fairly and acknowledged for the value I bring to the table.

Then came the start up in Del. Which I turned down because the uncle running it in his wife’s name expected 24*7 labour availability for 12L with no health insurance.

The latest in my list of things I’ve turned down is the ** Gov. Which I can obviously go back to since my reason for turning it down was another job, but 14 days of leave all year? 7 day work week if needed? Hell no. I enjoy having labour rights. But also when I told the dude I’d be reporting to if I accepted that I cant accept due to covid concerns his reaction was “sure, send me an email so we can start looking for someone else immediately.” Like.... we just had a second wave, what if something was wrong? I wouldn’t risk losing my job because they expect work even if I were hypothetically coughing up blood. So best not to touch with a bargepole. Now I’m less sad, but also really hope the TB results are negative. This job I want and have said yes to ticks off all of the boxes in my head and I will truly be disappointed if I lose it to disease paranoia despite being completely suited and picked for the role 😞

Just to be on the safer side, I have taken one last shot at achieving my goal of ‘learn how political systems work so you know what you’re talking about first hand in that PhD.’ I hope my Plan A works out instead, though.

Since I’ve brought him up in this, it will be interesting to note that a year ago I did the erstwhile unthinkable act of cutting a friend of for attempting to steal a man I love. A year ago to the date, literally. Funny how this year is more calm, but I was maxed out on endorphins from him last year. Until this March even, if I’m being truthful. I don’t regret cutting her off.She crossed a vvvv red line. ALL my other friends are celebrating. They detested her.

Another thing that happened last year was me letting him know that I only get hotter with time, but along with this work drama I have also had a run in with intense grief which I thought was a mood disorder (because it was intense, I mentioned?), cholesterol, thyroid, sugar addiction and now, le TB (PLEASE BE A FALSE POSITIVE YESU KRISTU HALP). So needless to say, I haven’t been most fabulous and undergone my physical transformation and these mental health struggles (are getting better now) strapped me to my couch along with the pandemic and its many lockdowns. I have also not studied for the GRE because I’m stimulus seeking via social media and fear of sucking at math has kept me locked in place. I still have a lot to work through on this front and would really like to make his cover right too, but my creativity isn't working and I keep fucking it up. I am not as spectacular as I was last year. The separation has also weathered my dazzle out a little and while I’m living with it, I still have small waves of sadness that show up once in a while.

I might have also accidentally flirted with someone into falling for me. It was all fun and games and for my pride, but now I’ve to gently let them down since I’ve cold feet and am chicken. Because I’m as emotionally unavailable as a streetlamp. Is this why they call me a Gurgaoni fuckboi?

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truth-and-lies-drv3-imagines · 5 years ago

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- A Royal Reunion

⤷How about Ouma, Kirumi, Miu, Angie and Shuichi with a s/o who's secretly a royalty, but ran away to escape their asshole fiance and parents, and one day they just show up at the s/o's door demanding they return?

⤷Contents: A narcissistic fiancé, royalty, mentions of running away, a good bit of cursing/swearing, degrading names, fluff and angst if you squint I think?

⤷Summary: S/O runs away from royalty after her narcissistic fiancé makes her life a complete and utter hell, they settle down with their current significant other but when the doorbell rings one day, the person behind the door wasn’t who S/O wanted to see.

⤷Word Count: 3.9K words.

⤷a/n: Hey! It’s been a long time since the blog’s been active and I’ve seen this request half-finished in the drafts and decided to get it finished! I enjoyed this request so much and is definitely one of my favorites.

Blog Masterlist (It’s NOT completely finished yet, but will be soon!)

Kokichi Ouma

-Kokichi was downstairs playing video games while also screaming at the top of his lungs at the other players, he was playing online, while you were upstairs in your room just looking outside with your earplugs plugged in to protect your dear eardrums from the extreme and bothersome screams.

-While you were looking outside of your window, you saw a very familiar vehicle driving by the street the two of you lived in, nothing came to mind immediately when you saw it until it parked right outside of your home.

-You were utterly confused, so you raised an eyebrow you show your uncertainty, you keenly watched until someone came out of the car, they looked extremely familiar but at the same time, you couldn’t exactly wrap your head around on who it was.

-That was until the driver opened the back door of the car and someone who you were certain you didn’t want to see ever again, gracefully stepped out of the car. You almost felt as if your heart skipped a beat, your window was closed so you could only make out a bit of what they were saying.

-”Why would Y/N live in such a pig-stack? Honestly, their standards are so low.” All of a sudden you got up from your casual sitting position and started putting both of your hands on the window and your ear to the window. The glass felt cold, so were you–getting up all of a sudden like that in the speed of light when you were sitting in the same position for what felt like hours, so it felt a little shivery.

-That figure had the same aura around them, the same narcissistic vibes around them, it wasn’t a pleasant one either. You swore that you really didn’t want to be in his presence at all after you left, you found someone much better.

-The young price rung the doorbell, you felt completely mortified and you knew that this wouldn’t end well if your current significant other, Kokichi, answered the door, so you got up and dashed downstairs, having a small glimpse of hope that Kokichi wasn’t at the door.

-It was far too late though, once you finally finished running down the stairs you already heard two voices speaking to each other.

-“So? Who are you? Please don’t tell me you are y/n’s current partner, if you are, what on earth happened to their standards?” Their voice was the same as ever, it sounded posh, sassy and bothersome, every time they opened their mouth you just didn’t want to imagine the words that’d come out of their mouth.

-”Well, if they left you for that reason I guess you are the definition of someone with low standards, besides if they went for someone like me then they have some damn high standards!” Judging by the sentence Kokichi spoke, you’re ex-fiance must’ve already dropped some information of your escape.

-You chuckled a bit at Kokichi’s statement, mostly it’s because it’s something that you’ve always desired to tell your ex-fiance but never got the chance to, or the courage as you’d definitely have a screaming match with your parents even if that was considered as a type of behavior that’s not welcomed by royalty.

- After some time of witnessing this interesting conversation with your current significant other and your ex, Kokichi formed a smirk across his face, feeling accomplished yet relieved he was finally gone, he was happy that you decided to take action to give him a piece of your mind.

- The man left, the area felt much more peaceful, more lively, the cold and narcissistic vibes were gone, that guy seriously have you a difficult time for years.

- “Well, now I think I need to take a shower because his weird germs must’ve flown from his disgusting mouth when he was saying dumb shit and you know that I must be clean because as the Supreme Leader, I must show a good example to my gang.”

- You simply nodded to his words, you gave a small warm smile to also indicate that you were listening to what he was saying. You were just happy that you were living a free, happy and enjoyable life with a person who you truly care about.

Kirumi Tojo

- It was a rainy afternoon, Kirumi offered to do some extra cleaning and promised that she’d spend more time with you after she finished. You had to admit, there was so much guilt sinking into you whenever she did some work, and no matter how many times you offered a hand she always turned it down.

-“This is my job s/o, as a maid I must fulfill my duties” was something she’d always reply with, which meant that you were forced do other things instead as no matter how many times you offered help, she’d always deny it as she wouldn’t want you to sacrifice your precious time into helping her. So you ended up sitting on the living room couch and waited.

-While Kirumi did say that it wouldn’t take long it felt like it, you heard the clock ticking and ticking for what felt like ages, something broke the silence, the ticking wasn’t the only thing that you heard anymore. You checked the peephole to see who it was, the person behind the door was the last thing you’d expect.

- “Seriously?” You thought, it really couldn’t be right? How did they find out where you were living? You decided to slowly and quietly tiptoe upstairs, hoping that he wouldn’t hear your attempts to escape. While you were creeping up Kirumi didn’t hesitate to go answer the door. “Ah, Kirumi you really don’t have to open the-”

- She didn’t pay attention to the words flying out of your mouth and opened the door, she was confused and dumbfounded when he started to speak. “ May I ask if young Y/F/N S/N is here?”

- She was baffled, she never remembered you telling her about this person, ever, actually, this was the last thing she expected. “I will call them here for you” Kirumi turned her head to look back, straightened her hands and called for you. “S/O! Someone is here for you!”

- You just wanted to bash your head into a couple of bricks, not because Kirumi answered, it was because the person who you didn’t want to see ever again was here, outside of your home looking for you.

- “Coming, in a minute!” You slowly went downstairs, trying to calm yourself and trying to find the words to say to them, honest? Confused? Forgetful? Oblivious? Pretend that they got the wrong home? You didn’t know and you found yourself in front of them.

- “ What are you doing here? There is an entire kingdom waiting for you and you just leave? I am an incredible person so why did you?” Their words left you disgusted and you just wished that a lying detector was under their hands so you could show Kirumi how much of a manipulative narcissist they were.

- You opened your mouth, ready to give them a huge rant on why you did but Kirumi stopped you before you did. “Well, Madam/Sir, it seems that s/o seems a bit startled you see here, for the sake of our comfort, I will politely ask you to leave.

- “Me? Leave? Do you have any idea who you’re talking to? I am the future king/queen of the kingdom that y/n and I were supposed to rule, I will not leave until y/n returns with me!”

- Same person, same looks, same personality, same attitude, same beliefs, literally everything about them was the exact same. You weren’t too surprised by their answer though, somehow, you saw this coming.

- “Please do or else I’ll have to call proper authorities for this,” Kirumi coldly stated, they obviously looked disgusted with her answer, feeling defeated and controlled already, even if it wasn’t much.

- “Well fine, just saying, y/n is missing out on someone amazing, are you their slave or significant other?” They smirked a bit, eagerly waiting for her response, Kirumi closed her eyes and took a long deep breath. You decided to get involved with the speaking, you were absolutely dying to ever since they started to open their mouths to create a hectic and chaotic mess.

- “She is both, she works as a maid is my significant other, if you have a problem with that then just leave, I love and appreciate her and that’s all there is to it in a relationship. Relationships end when one is giving too much love and the other doesn’t. Appreciating each other and being loyal to one other are two key points to a relationship and you shouldn’t judge their work ethic.”

- Kirumi was stunned, your ex was disgusted but really, is that even surprising at this point? “Fine then, I’ll leave, mostly because I don’t wanna be around you pig-stacks, I’ll probably find someone much, much better anyways.”

-There they went, their maids put umbrellas above them to provide safety and security for their dear future leader. Kirumi was baffled and relieved that it was all over, “ I guess you have a big story to tell me, s/o” she the laughed and looked back at you, “what a day, let's just sit down and have a conversation, do you want anything?”

Miu Iruma

- You and Miu were just sitting down on the couch, cuddled up together watching a film, it was an animated one and Miu was literally dying for you two to watch it for some time now and you couldn’t just coldly say no, so you agreed and here you are now.

- After some time, the voices from the film and the sound of the doorbell joined together, you pulled the remote and paused the film, “Hey, can’t we just leave them? The movie is gettin’ real good”

- “Come on Miu, we can’t just leave them hanging like that, it might be important. Why don’t you get it and I’ll go fill up the popcorn” Miu hesitantly agreed and the two of you got up to do your assigned tasks. You filled up the popcorn rather quickly but you didn’t hear Miu closing the door, so you thought it might’ve just been a friend. The kitchen was a little far from the main door, so you only heard muffled sounds, with a mixture of loud cursing so you assumed it was a friend as you wouldn’t just casually say such words in front of someone you weren’t close to.

-You came back holding the popcorn filled up in a container while also walking over to your partner talking, “hey! Miu! I finished filling up the popcorn, you said the movie’s getting goo-” you cut off your own sentence when you saw who was behind the door.

-”Hey, s/o do you know who the f*ck this person is?” You gulped, unable to say a single thing as Miu’s confusion only grew, you were just stunned and shocked, you stood right on the spot and couldn’t find the words to speak, it’s like you were completely glued to the floor, and to add to that, you had no words.

-” They’re saying some weird bullsh*t saying that they were your fiance or some sh*t and honestly it feels like they’ve been reading too many fairytales and watched way too many movies are they on something?”

- You took a deep breath and walked over to the door, you were now facing someone you swore you didn’t want to see again. “What’s the story with this y/n? What on earth are you wearing? Where on earth are you living? Who the hell is this whore?”

- Miu froze at the insult, even if she seems to be the type to throw insults at anyone she gets a chance to, she can’t take any herself which baffled you at times and you tried to be understanding about that fact.

- “Well, I’m living in a home where I’m enjoying myself, I don’t want to wear a fancy thing all the time when I’m just watching a movie, and I’m with someone I care about too.”

-You could clearly see that your s/o was a little surprised at your words, “exactly! Now, please leave before I’m kicking your fat ass outta here.”

- They were completely and utterly bewildered, Miu’s words were vulgar and yours were just brutally honest, at this point you were pretty sure that they were definitely offended and both statements, you expected some sort of huge eruption right after the statements, but surprisingly they just let out a rough sigh.

- “You most definitely don’t know what you’re missing out on, I’m pretty sure that another person would die to marry me.” Which was obviously not true, nobody would love someone who never cared about the fact that there was more than one person in the marriage, if there was someone in the world who was able to deal with such a bothersome and toxic personality you’d definitely give them a recommendation.

-Miu slammed the door and folded her arms, “I have a much more entertaining thing to do instead of sitting through that person’s fairytale bullsh*t, let's just continue watching the movie, s/o.”

Angie Yonaga

- It was late into the night, there were almost no cars on the streets, almost nobody was outside. The only sounds that made up the bedroom that you and Angie shared, were the birds quietly chirping and dogs vociferously barking, but those noises slowly faded away. It was another night where the bed felt cold and empty, Angie insisted to finish off a piece she had been working on. But at this hour? You tried your best to convince her to sleep, but her obstinacy got in the way of your reasoning, so you just left it as it was.

- You lay back on the bed, unable to fall asleep, you tossed and turned for what felt like ages, you just weren’t in the right mind to fall asleep just yet. Dreamland was waiting for you but you just couldn’t find yourself in a state where you could fall asleep.

- So you did what many others would do in a similar situation. Engulf yourself in the world of digital media and blue lights. This definitely isn’t a healthy way to bring yourself to fall asleep, but temptation is an unbearable feeling to deal with, 5 minutes became 10 minutes, 1 more minute, you told yourself, just one more, but you kept feeding yourself these lies and you ended up spending much more than just 5 minutes on your phone.

- The whole room was completely silent, not a sound came from anything, you didn’t hear any paint-brushes brush against the white canvas, you didn’t hear her speak, the only sounds that you could hear were the light and soundless taps you created when using your phone. But your taps were now not the only thing that you could hear. It was the doorbell. Who on earth would be ringing the doorbell at this ungodly hour? You assumed that it was just a group of teenage knick-knackers who had nothing else to do and just ring people’s doors without any announcement. It was quite bothersome but to them, it was a source of entertainment.

- You quickly heard footsteps that followed the ring from the doorbell, it was definitely Angie rushing off to open the door, you would’ve told her to not bother with it and just leave it. But you were far too lazy to get up so you just let her do her own thing. Surprisingly, she didn’t close the door immediately, which was something you’d do if a knick-knacker rolled around. You could’ve sworn you heard a conversation, even if the voices were muffled you could hear another voice that sounded so incredibly recognizable but you just couldn’t decipher whatever it was.

- Curiosity is an interesting emotion, so it forced you to go join Angie by the door, you lazily got up and started going downstairs. You were near enough for Angie to hear you. “Ahh! S/O, this person is looking for you, I don’t know who they are though.”

- That was strange. That wasn’t something you were expecting to hear. It was 3AM, an hour stereotyped by the rest of the world to be scary and eery, and when you saw who was at the door you could see why everybody said that and why this hour was heavily stereotyped.

- “Y/N, are you insane? You just ran off without a trace and it took us so long to actually find you, do you not realize that our people are waiting back at our kingdom? Are you out of your mind?! There are thousands of men/women head over heels in love with me, I could’ve chosen any one of them but I was forced to marry you, I honestly can’t believe you. You’re so ungrateful!”

- You just gave a ‘really?’ face while you witnessed poor Angie being so bewildered by this person’s nonsense. Honestly, if it weren’t for their charismatic personality who severely abused their charms to get your parents to agree to an arranged marriage, you would probably be back at your birthplace living the luxurious life and enjoying royalty, without having to deal with a narcissistic royal figure.

- “Oh come on, don’t make-up stories, S/O isn’t ungrateful! They must’ve seriously hated living with you, God gave me S/O, I’m so thankful for what he has given me and how they were able to run away from your evil clutches. Please leave or else a curse will be put upon you.”

- Your ex seemed to have been taken aback by Angie’s words, curses seemed to have overwhelmed them so they took a step back to process everything that was just said. “Ugh, I’m done! I’m done! I’m sure my parents have somebody else in store for me, someone who can appreciate everything I do for them, they are going to be so incredibly lucky to be with me.”

-They turned their back, their luxurious car was just a few meters away from you, once they had finally gone into their car there was a sense of peace in the area, everything that just happened felt like something that came out of a cliche soap-opera.

- “ I guess you have a ton to think about, don’t you S/O?”

She definitely wasn’t wrong on that.

Shuichi Saihara

- It was a peaceful and quiet evening, it has been quite some time since you and Shuichi got to just sit down and have meaningful conversations and a harmonious moment where it was just the two of you.

- The two of you sat on an extravagant looking couch, it was black-ish and in front of you was a glass table which looked satisfactory to both of you. There were mugs filled with warm coffee, which gave off a warm feeling to the room as well as tranquility.

- In the middle of one of your long conversations, a knock on the door interrupted the detective’s sentence, you were a little disappointed as you were completely attentive to what he was saying and you had an interest in what he was saying.

- “ Ahh, I should go check who it is, you just sit here for now, alright? I’m sure it won’t take long.” You nodded as a response and he then got up to answer whoever was behind the door. He checked through a peep-hole and was unconditionally filled with confusion, your significant other shakingly placed his hand on the doorknob. It was quite obvious that he was hesitant, whoever was behind the door didn’t please him.

- As soon as the door flung open, you heard a voice that made you freeze right on the spot, you practically looked like a statue because of your still figure. You barely paid attention to what they were saying, you just heard it but never actually eavesdropped. His loud, booming voice echoed throughout the main room, which demolished the once amicable setting.

- “Umm, S/O? Could you come over here for a minute? This person is claiming to know you.” The last thing that you wanted was to be facing someone that made your life completely miserable. It took you a couple seconds for you to make up your mind to get up from your comfortable and warm seating. You groggily got up and had a shivering sensation that traveled to your spine.

- Now, Shuichi had another person beside him to listen to this person’s absurdity. Your poor lover just stood there and looked completely perplexed and was clearly uncomfortable by their words.

- “Are you actually kidding me here Y/N? You just left all of the sudden and we had to search for you for absolute ages! Do you not know how many people are waiting for you? Not only did you run away, but you also ran away from me. The future king/queen of a whole kingdom, a respectable and provocative individual like me should be respected, you are lucky to even be speaking to me!”

- Everything sounded so odd to you, this kind of behavior was the exact reason why you ran off, you may have stayed if your parents were more supportive about your decision to contradict the marriage agreement. But no, they were just as egotistical and self-centered as your ex.

- “Um, I’m not too exactly sure if you’re telling the truth at all, but the both of us are clearly confused about what you’re saying, so for the sake of our comfort please-” you cut off Shuichi’s sentence and wanted to give a bit of your own mind.

- “ The only reason I left was because of how you were so incredibly egocentric and bothersome, I have had thoughts about how you’re doing now and if you’ve changed at all. But seeing how you’re acting now, you didn’t change and it’s quite disappointing. Please leave or else I will just call proper authorities to handle this instead because I don’t see you leaving. Besides, I’m happy enough with my current partner”

- Shuichi looked back at you, a little astonished by your response as he assumed that your ex was just some sort of trickster who wanted to waste your time. But, judging by your response, it seemed like everything was true.

- “Even getting a chance to marry me is a great gift, and you chose this fragile-looking man? You’re a joke, y/n. I’m leaving, someone else there is worthy of my time and attention.”

- There, they were finally gone, the fancy-looking car that they had driven off, hopefully, to never be seen again. There was some sort of confusion that still lingered in your mind, were they that desperate to come over to your home and try to convince you to come back?

- “Damn, S/O, I’m really interested to know what happened, you have a lot to tell me because I’m curious.”

- You looked back at him and smiled, “let’s go back inside, I have a lot to tell you.”

Blog Masterlist (It’s NOT completely finished yet, but will be soon!)

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blackjack-15 · 5 years ago

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The Force of Nature and the Cackling Madman: What Hux Should Be (and What ROS Won’t Be)

Warning: two mentions of the leaked/newish pictures. They will have spoiler warnings bracketing it, along with the appropriate tags connected to the post. You’ve been warned.

INTRODUCTION

With RoS mere months away, this meta really can’t be delayed any longer before it becomes moot, so here we go!

TLJ was a lot of things — some good, some bad — but what it wasn’t was surprising (unless you count just how shockingly bad 90% of Finn’s storyline was). This is generally a good thing in movies nowadays, where surprises come not from clever writing, but from enormous missteps in the writing or the desire to feel clever by putting in a twist that isn’t foreshadowed, or even just by breaking the rules of your universe.

Ignoring all but the main storyline — which is about Rey and Kylo Ren and their obstacles/conflicts — TLJ didn’t bring any surprises, but instead followed on the lines that TFA set up. As this is obviously the storyline that’s been hashed out from the start and is the point they’re building to, it’s thus safe to say that RoS is simply going to do the same, and follow the lines that TLJ set up.

SPOILER WARNING BEGINS

(Side note: this is why, when the absurdly stupid tuning-fork-lightsaber of Rey’s showed up in the first looks at RoS, it was immediately obvious that she was going to be able to “break” off half of it to give to Kylo when his saber is ultimately gone/self-destructs. Not only does the spoiler picture all but confirm this, but it’s also the obvious trajectory from the two fighting over a lightsaber in TLJ and breaking it in half.)

SPOILER WARNING ENDS

Anyway, with this framework in mind, and with the knowledge that every Star Wars media since the OG trilogy is in some way an adaptation of the OG trilogy, let’s examine what this means for the villain.

TERROR AND STAR WARS VILLAINS

There’s really no getting around the fact that one of the weakest facets of any Star Wars movie — yes, the OG trilogy is included here — is the villains that accompany them. A few SW video games fare a bit better in this, but most follow the movies’ path. This isn’t shocking — Star Wars is a Hero’s Journey, and in a Hero’s Journey it’s the presence of a villain, not the nature of the villain itself, that’s the important part — but it is crucial to understand.

Darth Vader is by far the most iconic and scariest villain that Star Wars movies can boast of, and for those born after 4/5/6 came out, he’s not really that scary, because those viewers go in knowing who Vader is and that he’s (at least partially) redeemed through his sacrifice. The greatest contribution that Rogue One made to that viewership is the scene with Vader at the end, where he is legitimately an object of terror as he was when 4/5/6 were first out.

This leads to a discussion of Palpatine-as-villain in RotJ, where the best that can be said for his status as terror-inducing villain is that at least he has Vader to do most of the heavy lifting for him. As a villain, Palpatine is just not scary. Maybe it’s the makeup, maybe it’s the fact that he gets thrown out like a sack of garbage to his death, maybe it’s the cold ham delivery he gives to what should be properly menacing lines.

Darth Maul’s visuals in TPM alone are scarier than all of Palpatine in RotJ, and, before it’s brought up, Palpatine is even less scary than that in the prequels, so I’m not even considering that part.

The thing that most Star Wars villains have in common (aside from Tarkin, who is my person favorite movie-verse villain) is that they’re forces of nature; they have the force and/or use lightsabers, they’re larger than life and beings of immense power and reputation, and they’re there to sort of loom over movie, causing overwhelming-yet-non-specifc terror to motivate the plot in a “avoid the bad guys” sort of way.

This is especially obvious in the prequel movies, where Darth Maul (ignoring his awesome visual effect), General Grievous, and Count Dooku are all basically meant to Stand There And Look Menacing, rather than having anything about them that’s actually interesting.

And here’s where the interesting things in the sequel trilogy begin.

WHY SMOKE SNOKE?

There was never any way that Snoke was going to live past TLJ, just like there was no way that Hux wasn’t going to survive TLJ. Remembering that the sequel trilogy is in a lot of ways an adaptation of the OG trilogy (as all Star Wars movies are), TFA was trying to get you to think of Snoke as Palpatine — an overlord that survives until the last bit of the last movie and Hux as Tarkin — the non-Force user who is Evil and all but dies b/c he’s too smug and petty.

But neither one of those things were actually true. Because that would position Kylo Ren as the Vader analogue, and all of TFA is dedicated to showing just how wrong that assumption is.

Because Kylo’s not Vader, Hux isn’t Tarkin, and Snoke isn’t Palpatine. Thus, Snoke has to die, because we can’t go into the last third of the trilogy with competing big bads (and no, Kylo and Hux don’t count there, either — Kylo isn’t a big bad at all, unless you think that the Big Bad Villain’s job is to fall for a British honeypot with a lightsaber).

I’ll admit, I was a bit smug when Snoke died and left only Hux alive and kicking out of the Three Bad Guys (as Kylo/Ben isn’t even pretending to be a bad guy anymore), because that’s what I had predicted — a fake-out with a Palpatine-style, force-of-nature villain only to reveal that the real Big Bad was with us all along — a mortal; a cackling madman: General Hux.

PLOTTING WITH PALPATINE

When spoilers first indicated that Palpatine would instead make yet another appearance in a Star Wars film, I was optimistic. Optimistic not in the “hey the Rebels will totally win” sort of way; no, optimistic in the “these kind Jedi will definitely free the slaves and not just take the kid because They Must Deal Kindly With Illegal Slavers”. AKA misplaced optimism rather than genre-savvy faith in the heroes to prevail.

Because actually bringing back Palpatine would be a stupid move all the way around, I tried to figure out why they’d advertise it and not try to hide the bad idea in a Secret Twist.

So here’s where we get the interplay between the Force of Nature and the Cackling Madman.

In a world where the Force exists, it’s easy to imagine that those without it feel rather powerless — or at least overshadowed — when near those who do wield it. Certainly, that’s true for most of Tarkin’s council, and true of Hux.

Over and over again in TFA and TLJ, we see Hux trying to prove that he’s every inch Kylo’s Equal. Even after Snoke’s death, he uses no deference to the new Supreme Leader and repeats his commands so he can believe that the First Order soldiers are following him.

Hux’s scene in TFA where he’s commanding the troops shows Hux at his finest (and most evil); apart from any Jedi/Sith/Force influence, he is himself to a glorious extreme: the Cackling Madman.

THE CACKLING MADMAN

I don’t use this title to say that Hux is insane (though he’s clearly a bit off) but rather to show the difference between a villain like Hux and a villain like Palpatine. Unlike the Force of Nature villain, a Cackling Madman is usually present over the entire story, seen as a person rather than as a shadowy figure, and is allowed to fail and succeed at multiple times during the trajectory of the story, rather than only failing at the very end when the heroes triumph.

In short, Star Wars has never had, in the movie-verse, a Cackling Madman as the main villain. The prequels play at it for about .5 seconds with Senator Palpatine, but he’s still the Force of Nature, ultimately, just pretending to be a Good Guy.

As the sequel trilogy, is, once again, and like any other SW media, an adaptation of the OG trilogy, I was really excited for this shift in formula — it would play on audience expectation that Snoke would just be Palpatine 2.0, only to reveal — with the proper set up, as shown in TFA and TLJ — that the true villain was there all along, just unnoticed for what he was.

THE FACADE OF THE FORCE

So where would the intervention of Palpatine go in this shift from the formula?

Hux as the ultimate Big Bad would know that he would need the support of a powerful force user — or, at least, the appearance of support of a powerful force user.

And, in the Star Wars universe, you could do worse than to claim the support of (in the EU) the eternally clone-happy Emperor. Hux’s only problem is that the Emperor is dead, and thus not really up to supporting a ginger with dreams of Ultimate Power.

So any support would have to be a facade. And how is Star Wars uniquely equipped to handle facades?

We’re talking holograms, baby.

Holograms of a weakened yet still powerful Emperor — maybe missing a hand or something, a few attacks “directed” by the Emperor meeting wild success, manipulation of the Holograms to say Hux’s name and offer support of him as his Preeminent General or whatever, and Hux has the galaxy at his feet.

IMAGINE MY DISAPPOINTMENT (SPOILERS HERE AGAIN)

And then the spoiler pictures of Palpatine came out and — disappointment was prevalent, but I wasn’t surprised.

The big problem with the Sequel Trilogy is that it has one well-plotted plot line — the main plot line with Rey and Kylo/Ben — and then every other plot line is pretty much left up to the whims of the moment. It’s especially evident in Finn’s TLJ plot line, but it’s present to some extent in every other plot line throughout the two movies currently out.

What Hux should be is the danger lurking in plain sight; the villain seen but not understood, and the evil present but not accounted for. That alone would add a dimension to the Sequel Trilogy that it’s lacking right now — and lacking even more with the advent of Palpatine’s return. Not only would it acknowledge its freedom as an adaptation to play with audience expectation, but it would demonstrate something that both it and the Prequel Trilogy lack: trust in its audience.

THE ULTIMATE CONCLUSION

What RoS should be is a movie that delivers something new but still authentic to the Star Wars universe. Ultimately, that’s all it would take to please the majority of its audience, because those who are watching the ST without having seen any other Star Wars media are few and far between.

The shame is that what RoS will be is a movie that (wrongly) doesn’t trust its audience to consume nuanced media, and instead tries to placate them with false advertising (trying to give off the air that RoS will be a trio movie with Finn, Rey, and Poe when everyone knows it won’t be) and with the return of old characters and the descendants of old characters. It’s like adding blue flashing lights to an old snow globe and declaring that you’re recaptured lightning in a bottle.

#star wars #star wars spoilers #rise of skywalker #SWROS #SWTLJ #SWTFA #star wars meta #my meta

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randomnameless · 2 years ago

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Okay, of course Roy argues for the coexistence of dragons and humanity, that all is true and correct given what Elibe as a continent brought to FE's lore, but his legendary alt did bring some meme talk about him being racist against dragons back when it was first announced because of how his prf specifically excluded dragons/beasts, so in some twisted backwards manner IntSys opened the way with that for the FEH fanbase to make Edel's really blatant "Nabatean Extermination" shtick all the more apparent to people who hadn't touched either game. I was not aware that people tried arguing that she wasn't racist from that though; instead I thought it would be more of an uphill battle trying to prove Roy wasn't instead.

It was a traditional bad faith low hanging fruit defence from, let's say, devoted fans on redshit.

If people say Supreme Leader's racist because her legendary alt allows her to whack subhumans, then Marth and Roy, who have a prf effective against lizards, are racists too ! It's absurd so it's wrong, r8?

Then some people pointed out how the weapon being effective against people wouldn't obviously show what the people wielding them think, else Silas really hates all armors - Supreme Leader's skill doesn't make her weapon super effective against subhumans, but it allows her to double them.

(and it is hilarious how she needs to be alone to unleash her full... dedication to whack subhumans, mirroring FE16 where they deliberately avoid having Supreme Leader show her most vicious self against subhumans when she's not exclusively with Hubert or Byleth (or subhumans themselves)).

Of course this completely flew over their head, and they used L!Roy's prf skill, Human Virtue which is, again, the very same thing that I explained regarding his Duo!Skill.

Roy thinks humans are worth fighting for, FE6 starts with a madman who thinks humans are trash and cannot coexist with anything, dragons less themselves, so it'd be better if they died.

Roy's story is about trying to show to that man he's wrong, because for one Desmond out there you have one Echidna, and humans aren't inherently bad or evil. That's why, his prf skill, mirrors his belief in Humanity.

Obviously, Roy would oppose someone wanting to get rid of lizards to make a world exclusively for humans - he wants everyone to get along, something our Supreme Leader cannot fathom.

#anon #replies #FE Elibe #FE heroes #redshit woes #fe6 played with the reverse racism card #this time we have to show humans are not completely iredeemable #at least until jahn's story comes out #from then it's a more traditional 'we can all get along'#Roy meeting Supreme Leader would be afraid it would give new ammo to Zephiel lol

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commentaryvorg · 6 years ago

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Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 1.1

Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.

Last time, Kaede and Shuichi went around meeting everyone else, giving me a chance to summarise how much and in what way each character is likely to be a feature of this commentary, the most noteworthy points of which are that Kokichi is fairly interesting but not at all selfless, and that Kaito is like half the reason this commentary exists and I will never have enough things to say about him. Then the killing game officially began. With all that necessary introductory stuff out of the way, we can finally start having an actual story unfold.

My Class Trial, Our Class Trial

Hee! This title means so much when you know what’s going to happen. I was going to say that I like it more than the Japanese title, “Me and My Class Trial”, until I learned that that’s a very literal translation of the Japanese title that doesn’t properly get across its point. It’s actually using two different words for “me” – the feminine version that Kaede uses, and the more masculine version that Shuichi uses. So it’s both Kaede and Shuichi’s class trial. In some ways that’s better than the English version, since it’s more clear that it’s referring to Shuichi rather than just everyone, but the localisers still did a good job of getting across the meaning given that it couldn’t translate directly.

The chapter starts where the prologue left off, with Monokuma having left the gym after announcing the killing game. Everyone’s reading the rules that just showed up on their Monopads.

“The killing game and class trials will continue until only two surviving students remain.”

This rule is very arbitrary and I never quite understood the point of it. I get that you can’t have a class trial with only two people so that’s the minimum number they should stop at instead of going down to only one, but why is it also the maximum? We learn in chapter 6 that even if someone manages to uncover the mastermind and reach “endgame” mode before there’s only two people left, they’re still only allowed to have two people survive. And that’s really arbitrary, since the actual practical reason for the two-survivors rule doesn’t apply at that point. What if Shuichi and Kaede had figured out that Tsumugi was the mastermind during chapter 1? Would she still have insisted they abide by that rule and that fourteen of them must be punished for a random two people to escape? That’s bullshit!

“Your Monopads are very important items. Please do not damage them.”

This is the only other rule that’s significantly different from any of the previous games. There were sometimes rules about not destroying school property, but never only about the e-Handbooks. So it’s a little odd that the out-universe writers would bother to put this rule in here unless it had a specific narrative purpose – and in fact it has a single, solitary one, which it is about to serve right now.

Kaito: “Q-Quit screwing around… Killing game… School Regulations… To hell with all that crap! Who’d go along with something like that!?”

(Kaito raised his Monopad as if to smash it on the ground.)

That purpose being: here’s Kaito very nearly getting himself killed barely half a minute after the killing game has officially started. This is such a brief moment, yet it is literally the only out-universe reason the Monopad rule exists, so really the out-universe writers put more thought into this than it might seem.

Because this is why Kaede becomes the leader and not Kaito. Kaito has just as much desire to encourage everyone to work together as Kaede, and while Kaede mostly ends up rallying everyone together without really meaning to, Kaito is the kind of person who would actively want to. The existence of the Monopad rule suggests that the out-universe writers absolutely knew this and put active thought into giving a reason why Kaito didn’t just immediately take charge, since the point of this chapter is to have that be Kaede’s role. Kaito’s problem is that he has much more of a tendency than Kaede to be reactionary and get riled up. He’s just as scared as everyone else at suddenly finding himself in a killing game, but he can’t admit that to himself or to anyone else and has to cover it up by lashing out in anger without thinking about the consequences.

…then Miu calls him a dumbass and naturally he has to react to that too, giving the more level-headed Kaede the opportunity to be the one to yell at everyone to stop fighting already.

Kaede: “We shouldn’t be fighting amongst ourselves. Right now, we *need* to work together. Honestly… I’d probably be more inspiring if I played a song than gave a speech…”

There goes Kaede not realising just how inspiring and encouraging she is again. Simply being the first one to say they should work together is already making a big difference and snapping everyone else out of their individual panic.

Kaede: “Whoever trapped us here wants us to fight each other… So let’s show ‘em that we’re not gonna let that happen! We’re *not* gonna fight each other! We’re gonna work together! Okay!?”

Look at her go. She’s really good at this.

Kaito: “Heh… I was gonna say the same thing, but you beat me to it… You’re exactly right! We can’t give up so easily!”

See, Kaito really would have said the same thing. He just needed a minute to calm down and stop lashing out with reactionary anger. He’s not saying this just to try and make himself look good, no matter how much it might seem like that on a first time through when you haven’t seen enough of Kaito to know what he’s really like.

(Well, probably on some level he is saying this to save face because he’s embarrassed that he wasn’t as level-headed as Kaede and so she ended up encouraging everyone first, but.)

Rantaro: “Seems like everyone looks up to you.”

Kaede: “L-Looks up to me? C’mon, that’s ridiculous. I… just spoke from the heart, is all.”

Rantaro: “So it just comes naturally to you, then. That’s even more cool.”

It is really great that this is just how Kaede naturally is and she’s not even consciously thinking about getting people to look up to her. There’s a difference between her and Kaito, ha.

Rantaro: “They’re going to come for you, Kaede. With everything they’ve got. I’m a little worried about you. You’re just so… straightforward.”

Well that sure is ominously foreshadowy of you, Rantaro. I wonder if something similar happened to someone similar in his previous game and it’s subconsciously making him feel this way about Kaede.

Shuichi: “Being strong-willed could get you into a lot of trouble around here…”

Kaede: “…”

Shuichi: “Ah, s-sorry… I didn’t mean to sound so negative at a time like this.”

Aww, look at Shuichi worrying and overthinking things, even this early on. (He’s not precisely wrong, though, since this kind of is what gets Kaede killed.)

So they all head to the manhole that Gonta spotted and find the totally-not-suspicious secret tunnel marked “Exit”.

Kaede: “No need to worry! It looks a bit dangerous, but we’re all Ultimates here! As long as we work together, everything will work out just fine!”

They’re going to call back to this speech when we’re here again in chapter 5 and I love it. And guess who’ll be the one to give the equivalent speech in that chapter?

Kaito: “That’s exactly what I was gonna say! We’re really on the same wavelength, Kaede!”

Again, he’s not just saying this to make himself look good, he really means it!

…And then he asks her for a hug, which, yes, comes across as kind of sketchy. But I really don’t think he means anything sketchy by it. He’s just actually a big awkward goof when it comes to interacting with people on a normal, down-to-earth level.

Kaito: “Hey, you don’t gotta hold back! We’re two of a kind, you know!”

He seems really excited to have met someone else as optimistic and inspiring as he is – he’s obviously very quickly noticed their similarity himself – and doesn’t know how to express it in a way that doesn’t come across as offputtingly forward. And, of course, it seems even more forward and awkward because as of right now Kaito hasn’t actually done anything to prove that he’s the same way as Kaede and isn’t just saying this with ulterior motives.

Shuichi: “Ah, if we all… work together… it’ll be okay. I’m sure of it.”

Aww, Shuichi’s nervous but also agrees that working together is good!

Kokichi: “Nee-heehee… I am *the* master of hide-and-seek. As the supreme leader of an evil organisation, I’m always on the run from the law…”

Yes, totally, that is definitely why your organisation has made you good at hide-and-seek. Not because you and your members like to play hide-and-seek with each other because you’re all basically kids or anything.

Ryoma: “Even if this is a trap… all we need to do is fight and struggle our way out of it.”

Ryoma really is very optimistic for a man with no reason to live. Despite having given up on himself, he still cares about everyone else trying their best to survive.

Kaede: (There’ll be an exit at the end of this… And once we reach it, it’ll al be over… I just know it!)

Kaede is trying really hard to cling to that thought so she can stay optimistic. You know, it’s probably for the best that they never managed to reach the end, heh.

(Or, actually, they’d have reached it but been unable to do anything about the control panel without an Electrohammer anyway.)

It’s pretty vague what’s really happening to them when they get eliminated in the minigame. I guess they get knocked out, but then how do they end up back at the beginning? And also, Kaede should refuse to continue once any one person gets eliminated, since she would never want to reach the exit without everyone there.

Monokuma: “Puhuhu. And if at first you don’t succeed… try, try again. Try as many times as you want until you accept reality!”

Monokuma and his cubs are definitely encouraging everyone to keep trying so that they can all thoroughly lose hope in this idea. And in Kaede.

Himiko: “But… isn’t getting out of here impossible?”

Kaede: “No, it’s not. It may take one more try or a lot more tries, but it’s not impossible.”

Kaede: also a strong believer that the impossible is possible and you just have to make it so!

Kaede: “And once we get out of here and make it to the outside world… Why don’t we all stay friends?”

Guhhhhh Kaede why are you so pure and lovely. I wonder if she hasn’t actually had many real friends before because everyone was too dismissive of her piano obsession.

Kaede: “I mean, it’s not every day you get to meet other Ultimates…”

Again, it seems like she’s hoping other people equally obsessed with something won’t be as dismissive of her.

Ryoma: “Hmph… that might not be bad.”

Even Ryoma agrees with being friends when they escape! Ryoma! That’s a reason for you to live!

Kaito: “Anyway, it doesn’t matter if Monokuma says it’s impossible! We’ll show him what we can do!”

Naturally, Kaito agrees that it is not impossible, hee.

Kokichi: “Yeah, let’s work together! We messed up last time, but I’m sure it’ll go well this time!”

Meanwhile Kokichi doesn’t believe this at all and is just acting this way to try and make everyone see how ridiculous and empty this kind of talk sounds once they fail.

(Man, this minigame is so hilariously stacked against the player. Totally deliberate.)

Kokichi: “Not yet! We’re just getting started!”

Again with the insincere bullshit that’s just there to make everyone else’s current comments seem hollow once they all give up.

Gonta: “Gonta gonna escape. Become friends with everyone. Gentlemen… never give up!”

Okay but consider: Gonta has probably never had human friends before. He must be so desperate to do this so they can all be friends!

Kaede: (With every attempt, we repeated the words ‘this time’ over and over again…)

This is probably part of why everyone’s about to lose faith in Kaede. This isn’t a realistic way to approach this. Assuming what they’re going through is as ridiculously stacked against them as the minigame we play is, then pretending they’re definitely going to make it all the way through “this time” is way too likely to be wrong and just discourage everyone further. What she should be saying is just “this time we’ll get a little bit further than we did before”, so that they realise they’re making progress and will get there eventually if they keep trying. Presenting it as an all-or-nothing like she’s doing isn’t helpful.

Kokichi: “You’re free to keep trying on your own, but forcing us to join you is basically torture.”

Kaede: “T-Torture?”

Kokichi: “You know what really hurts? Being denied the right to give up in an impossible situation… You won’t let us give up and no matter what we say, you have the moral high ground… That… doesn’t sound like torture to you? When you say we can’t give up, you’re not inspiring us, you’re strong-arming us!”

This is… probably reasonably sincere, by Kokichi’s standards. He’s certainly enough of a coward to not want to keep going with something so exhausting that has such a slim chance of success.

Because, despite that he has something of a point, this is still cowardice. If the tunnel really is the only way out, which is what they currently believe, then no matter how gruelling it is, it is indisputably better to continue to try at this than to give in and play the killing game. Maybe not right now when everyone’s exhausted, but they shouldn’t just write it off as not worth it any more. But thanks to Kokichi’s words, they’re going to.

In short, everyone gave up on their only (apparent) route of escape because Kokichi was, A, a coward, and B, selfish enough to voice that cowardice and try to make everyone else feel the same way when half the group were still trying to be brave.

{Later addendum edit: Of course, Kokichi totally doesn’t have any experience at all with trying to give himself the moral high ground so that nobody can question what he says. That’s definitely not a thing he ever does all the freaking time and certainly not exactly what he’s doing right now.

Like, literally, he’s twisted things around so that if Kaede tries to make the perfectly reasonable point of “but we can’t just give up on getting out of here”, Kokichi can turn around and go “but you were torturing us, you horrible person, so you don’t get a say”. All so that he doesn’t have to confront the fact that he's being a coward by giving in so easily.

So to add on to the reasons of why everyone gave up on their only apparent escape route, it’s also because, C, Kokichi is so selfish that he doesn’t even want to look or feel like a coward, to the point of twisting it to sound like he has the moral high ground instead. If it hadn’t been for this last part, others could have protested, “okay, but you’re being a coward, we don’t want to listen to that kind of talk, we shouldn’t just give up here.” But as it is, several of the others agree with Kokichi’s point without ever realising this is cowardice.}

Granted, Kaede could also have gone about this better. No-one was going to be able to manage the tunnel while exhausted and emotionally drained. To stand a chance, they’d need to take breaks and attempt it only a few goes at a time and accept the fact that it’s going to take many, many tries for them to get good enough at dodging the traps. Kaede got so wrapped up in her determination to escape right now that she failed to notice what it was doing to everyone until it was too late.

Keebo: “Given the circumstance… the most logical course of action would be to give up…”

I’m surprised Keebo’s inner voice isn’t telling him to keep clinging to hope. Then again, that inner voice does actually want the killing game to happen, so.

Maki: “I knew this was impossible from the start.”

It’s telling how Maki, despite being one of the more emotionally resilient people there, is part of the group who’ve given up. She’s used to resigning herself to an inescapable awful situation.

(She will learn a thing or two about the impossible, though, in time.)

Meanwhile, by elimination, the people who haven’t given up are: Kaede, Kaito, Gonta, Tenko, Rantaro, Kirumi, Shuichi, and Ryoma. Most of those are very naturally determined people, but I like that Shuichi is there despite his anxiety and nervousness because he believes in Kaede, and also that Ryoma is, despite his lack of a reason to live!

(Also it’s neat that they’re split exactly eight-to-eight. Can we get a Debate Scrum over this?)

Kaede: “I’m sorry… this is my fault. I’m so sorry…”

Shuichi: “No, Kaede…”

Kaito: “I-Idiot! What’re *you* apologising for!? It’s not your fault at all!”

Kaito is so good. This and the conversation he has with Kaede after everyone leaves firmly establishes how he feels about the concept of apologising, which will be important multiple times later on.

Kokichi: “Since the dining hall opens at 8.a.m., how about we meet there at that time?”

It’s surprising to me that Kokichi of all people is the one to suggest meeting in the dining hall in the morning. But given, well, literally everything else he does, I find it difficult to believe he does this with the genuine intent of helping everyone co-operate. He probably feels safer with people keeping an eye on each other than if everyone is off on their own doing who knows what shady backstabby things.

Kaito: “Hey, why did you apologise before? You didn’t do anything wrong, y’know?”

Kaede: “Well… when we tried to escape, I felt like we were united behind a common goal. But after I put everyone’s lives at risk, that unity is gone now.”

Kaito: “Shut up! That’s just the stupid end result! It’s not like you wanted it to go that way! Listen up. Don’t apologise for something that’s not your fault! It’ll just make you feel bad!”

It’s not that Kaito thinks you shouldn’t apologise ever. He believes you shouldn’t apologise if you didn’t do anything wrong. Even if it didn’t work out as well as you’d hoped, even if other people try to make you feel bad for it, if you still believe that the choice you made was the right choice to make in that situation given the information you had, then you shouldn’t apologise. Doing so would just be wallowing in your failure and making yourself feel bad. Since Kaito’s all about encouraging people to try and stay positive and determined no matter what, of course he’d be against something that would make people feel bad for no good reason!

Kaede: (Thank you, Kaito.)

And Kaede appreciates Kaito supporting her, aww.

Also of note is the fact that both Kaito and Shuichi stay behind to have an extra conversation with Kaede here (the above being Kaito’s one), and you can talk to them in either order, with each of them leaving after finishing what they have to say. There’s nothing that indicates which order is the canonical order that Kaede talked to them in and therefore which of Kaito or Shuichi was still there to overhear what the other said. Still, since it was less that Kaede started a conversation with them and more that they both had something to say to Kaede, just going by their personalities it was most likely Kaito who spoke to her first, while Shuichi was also there. I’m mentioning this because it will be somewhat relevant, way, way later on in the story that Shuichi should have overheard Kaito’s views on apologising here, so, uh… try to keep this in the back of your mind?

Shuichi: “You weren’t pressuring us. At least, I don’t think so.”

It’s nice that Shuichi thinks this, despite him not being one of the naturally-determined people here. He wouldn’t have had the strength to attempt the tunnel so many times without her encouragement, so she definitely influenced him, but he doesn’t see it as her influencing him in a bad way, because he wanted to be able to be stronger than he is. Makes me wonder how many of the group who’d given up would ever actually have voiced their complaints if Kokichi hadn’t set them off. Surely they must have all wanted to believe they could escape that way. Except Kokichi, apparently.

Kaede: (I thought we would achieve our goal as long as we didn’t give up. That had always been my mentality whenever I practiced the piano… But… maybe playing piano is easier… because I’m blessed… with that talent.)

No, Kaede! You’re so talented at the piano precisely because you never gave up and kept practicing so hard! Of course escaping isn’t necessarily something that you can do in a single day just so long as you don’t give up – it took you your whole life to get this good at piano! Don’t give up on this just because it didn’t happen as quickly as you wanted it to!

Oh, Monokuma Theater. I’m only going to talk about it when I think it’s saying something actually meaningful and interesting, which is… not often, and not today.

Next morning, everyone gathers at the dining hall.

Kokichi: “By the way… are you okay, Kaede?”

Kaede: “Huh? What do you mean?”

Kokichi: “Well… you looked really bummed out after everyone started blaming you yesterday.”

Tsumugi: “H-Hey… what are you doing all of—”

Kokichi: “Seriously, you guys are so mean. Poor girl… She tried her best to encourage everyone, and you sore losers got mad at her anyway.”

What a hypocritical, insincere dick. He was the one who blamed her first yesterday, and now here he is acting like it is remotely believable that he actually thinks blaming her was the wrong thing to do. At least Tenko calls out his hypocrisy, and most everyone else doesn’t seem to have time for his bullshit either, but Keebo was letting it get to him a little. I guess Keebo is pretty easily manipulated, with his inner voice and all.

Kaito: “But it’s true. Everyone blamed Kaede without taking any responsibility themselves.”

Kaito, on the other hand, has every right to say this because he wasn’t saying the complete opposite yesterday. It’s also very like him to put the focus on taking responsibility – even if Kaede was the one encouraging them, they still all made their own decision to keep going into that tunnel. Kokichi steered them all into running away from their own responsibility for their suffering by blaming it entirely on Kaede.

Kaede: “It’s just… I should’ve been more considerate of everyone’s feelings. I was too focused on the tunnel. So, I’m sorry…”

Kaito: “… Alright, well… If you’re okay with it, then so am I.”

However, Kaede has accepted what her actual mistake was – not the decision to go into the tunnel in the first place, but getting so fixated on it that she overlooked how everyone was feeling – and apologises for that. And seeing that Kaede has accepted and apologised for an actual mistake, Kaito accepts things too and drops it.

Keebo: “But you did blame her first, didn’t you?”

Kokichi: Well, that was a lie. Y’know, one of those lies to make us more united or whatever.”

Like hell it was. Whether it was sincere or not, there’s no conceivable way in which him blaming Kaede like he did in front of the tunnel last night was an attempt to unite everyone – all that was ever going to do was split them apart.

Kokichi: “Did you know half my lies are actually told with good intentions?”

Nope, don’t believe you. And even if that were true, it’d still mean the other half are told with bad intentions, so you’d still be at least 50% a dick.

Monokuma shows up as soon as Kaede starts steering the topic towards ways to escape again. He really is about to give the First Blood Perk motive specifically to try and throw a wrench in Kaede uniting everyone.

Maki: “…Motivation to kill?”

Interesting how Maki’s the first one to question the idea of being given a motive.

Monokuma’s taking a pretty big risk with this motive. The class trials are what everyone watching this really wants to see, but if the First Blood Perk actually gets taken then they’ll lose two characters without even doing one! He is clearly getting desperate already.

Miu: “Huh? That’s all? We just gotta kill someone to get outta here!?”

It’s also interesting to see Miu being the most visibly tempted by this motive, given that she does eventually end up attempting murder solely to escape and not because of any additional motive. Having that escape be even easier by removing the class trial would be ideal for someone who just wants to get the hell out of here and doesn’t care about anyone else.

Kaede: “Do you really think I’d kill someone just to get out? In your dreams!”

Of course she wouldn’t! Not merely for her own escape and survival, not ever! This is such wonderful foreshadowing.

Kaito: “Why you… bastard!”

Hee, Kaito has already realised that this motive makes it much more likely that someone will forego their co-operation to commit murder – it’s so much easier to do so if there’s no danger to you and you’ll only be killing one person instead of indirectly fifteen – and he’s scared, and therefore covering it up with anger.

Rantaro talks about how Monokuma just made this into a non-co-operative game, and he’s right, but it already was one in the first place. Monokuma just made the “betray” option a lot more appealing by taking away most of its drawbacks.

Kaito: “His objective doesn’t matter! I’m through letting him have his way! I’ve had enough!!!”

(Kaito lunged towards Monokuma to grab him, but…)

All this continuing conversation about how much more likely it is that people will stop co-operating and start killing each other now has clearly scared Kaito enough that he’s lost control and stopped being sensible. So here he goes, almost getting himself killed for the second time in twenty-four hours.

Kaede: (At that moment, we heard menacing mechanical noises. The Exisals charged…)

[the whole screen turns bright red]

*smash!*

With the way this scene is presented, it really does seem like Kaito has actually died for a moment there. I’m pretty sure that this is deliberate and that, regardless of what the in-universe writers are planning, the out-universe writers want you to feel like Kaito is very expendable.

(oh hey look it’s Kaito’s friend the red Exisal again)

I mention the in-universe writers’ plans because there’s a lot going on with the fact that Kaito doesn’t die and Monokuma ends up getting “killed” instead.

On my first time through I thought Monokuma’s supposed death was obviously deliberately staged for some specific purpose and was frustrated when none of the characters even considered this possibility. Knowing the full story, this still makes sense, given the conclusions Shuichi comes to when a spare Monokuma shows up and the fact that that’s exactly what the mastermind wanted him to do. We’ll get into that next time.

Plus, the gamemakers shouldn’t want to kill Kaito here if they can avoid it. The aim of this game is to tell an entertaining story, and it really would have been a huge waste of the potential Kaito’s character had if he’d just died here due to being too reckless. The in-universe writers intend for Kaito’s role to be to support Shuichi through his character development, so they shouldn’t want to kill him off before he’s even started doing that. But they also wouldn’t want to make it obvious that they’re actually kind of reluctant to kill people off, so presenting Kaito’s survival as a lucky accident seems like a logical way to go about it.

Yet it’s still kind of hard to believe that it really turned out this way on purpose, because the Monokubs really are just that incompetent and genuinely do seem to think Monokuma is permanently dead. If there had been some kind of plan to deliberately “kill” Monokuma, they’d probably have ended up blabbing about it. That said, it could be possible that Monokuma subtly put himself in the way of the Exisal’s foot, and none of the students noticed it because they were too focused on Kaito.

There’s also the fact that they shouldn’t have actually had the right to kill Kaito, whether they wanted to or not. He was about to assault Monokuma, but he didn’t get that far, and so he hadn’t broken the rule. At least going by what’s established in DR2’s killing game, simply saying you’re going to break the rules isn’t breaking the rules. Based on the Monokubs’ lines when they jump in, it seems they got a bit overenthusiastic about protecting their daddy and getting to use the Exisals to kill someone. Possibly Monokuma put himself in the way (if he did that) because he’d rather do that than have to awkwardly explain to his kids that they’d be breaking the rules if they killed Kaito before he did anything wrong.

Rantaro: “Monokuma’s just a robot. There has to be someone controlling him.”

Rantaro, at least, knows this isn’t over. And I mean, he literally knows; he’s not just guessing or being subconsciously influenced by his erased memories here.

Kokichi: “Ah-ha, don’t be such a worrywart! Everything’s definitely over now! With the mastermind gone, continuing the game is pretty much impossible. Which means… we win!”

The way Kokichi says this makes me pretty convinced that he also doesn’t think anything is over. And yet, by being the one to say this, he’s also the one to manipulate some of the others into assuming that it really is over and start celebrating.

While most characters are celebrating that everything’s supposedly over, Kaito, who you’d think would be the first one to be joining them, is unusually quiet. I’m betting he’s a lot more shaken up by his close brush with death than he’d want to let on.

Kaede: “W-Wait a minute! We don’t know that yet—”

Kokichi: “Kaede, quit being such a buzzkill! Everyone’s still annoyed about what you did yesterday!”

Despite how much she wants everyone to escape, Kaede also doesn’t think they’d be let off this easily. But apparently Kokichi can’t have everyone actually listening to Kaede, even though he (probably?) agrees with her that it’s not over. So instead he’s manipulating everyone into turning against her and continuing to blame her about the tunnel, and it actually works on a few people. Because we couldn’t possibly let everyone co-operate to figure out what’s going on with Monokuma’s unexpected demise, that would be far too much in everyone’s best interests. I’m not really sure what Kokichi’s actual goal is by doing this, if he even has one other than just being a dick, but there is no conceivable way to me in which he could genuinely think that he’s doing this for everyone’s sake.

---

[Next post]

#danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #drv3 #ndrv3 #chapter 1 #daily life #commentary

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thermopylod · 6 years ago

Note

Yutaba + 46

Futaba x Yusuke, “I’m in love…shit.”(~1900 words)

Futaba and Akira were 3 hours and 2 plates into their afternoon of retro gaming and curry-eating, and Futaba had been trouncing him well and good at Power Intuition and Punch Ouch. That must have been why he suddenly decided to use dirty distraction techniques to try to win a match.

“So, when are you going to ask Yusuke out?”

Yutaba jumped so high she knocked over the chair she was sitting on and fell down, prompting Akira to rush over to make sure she was ok. She shoved his well-meaning hands off, blushing a deep scarlet.

“Why would I do that?!”

Wasn’t Akira supposed to be super perceptive? He must be off his game if he thought Futaba had any interest in Yusuke. Which part of him was supposed to be attractive to her? The beanpole physique? The propensity for drinking paint water? The continuous flow of supremely boring art discussions? The horrible dietary habits? (Not that Futaba had much room to talk, but at least she ate, which was more than some people could say.) She stood up, brushing herself off, and glared at Akira. If he wanted to play matchmaker, he could go do that with Ann, or Haru, or hell, even Makoto would be a better target for his unnecessary meddling than Futaba.

“Because you’re into him?” he asked like it was some sort of obvious fact while he picked the chair up, proving that for all his interpersonal skills he really could be quite dense.

“No I’m not,” Futaba replied as she dropped onto the couch, assuming the conversation would end there. She’d had quite enough of fighting games for now; maybe it was time for round three of the curry…

“Coulda fooled me.”

Her head snapped up. So he wasn’t going to drop it. She sighed; Akira could be so persistent when he thought he was right, and she really had better things to do with her evening than explain to him why Yusuke wasn’t remotely attractive to her. Things like… cut her toenails. Or trim her split ends. Or maybe even color-code her closet. Anything had to be better.

She could feel her face still flooded with heat; she hated that that was her automatic reaction to awkward situations, and now Akira was going to read it as a sign or something, and had he gotten into Ryuji’s weird romantic manga stash again?

“I mean, you two hang out together all the time,” he continued.

Well, of course they did; Yusuke spent a large amount of his free time at Leblanc’s, and so did Futaba. He said it was for the atmosphere which “inspired the creative mind,” but she was pretty sure it was mostly because Sojiro always ended up feeding him when his stomach growled too loudly.

As for Futaba, since she didn’t go to school, it was either the cafe or her empty house, and since her change of heart she found that she appreciated being around other people sometimes. Not all the time, of course — she was still an introvert, nothing would change that, and closing the door onto her silent, quiet, empty bedroom was as relaxing as a hot bath after an excessively long day in the Metaverse. But sometimes, it was nice, having a few living, breathing people around to reminder her she wasn’t alone anymore.

And of course she often ended up talking with Yusuke; he was usually the only person under thirty in the cafe, and even his endless explanations of art movements couldn’t be as bad as discussing politics with the close-minded old regulars. If she got him on the right subject he could even be rather entertaining. He had a way of making scathing, offhand remarks without even appearing to realise it; sometimes it was like reading an oblivious snark blog and it took all she had not to laugh out loud, which inevitably broke the spell as he asked, completely confused, what was funny about the fiscally irresponsible choices of his classmate.

So clearly that didn’t mean anything. She opened her mouth to tell Akira as much, but he spoke first.

“Didn’t you even take him out to dinner the other day?”

She frowned. Take him out to… oh, right. She’d noticed he looked even paler than usual, with greenish undertones to his skin that he usually didn’t have unless he’d accidentally gotten paint on his face — not that she was paying any specific attention to his usually porcelain tone or perfectly blemish-free appearance. When she’d asked whether he was sick he’d told her to “please, not worry on his behalf,” which was the best way to make anyone worry.

(Futaba had read about reverse psychology, and decided that she was immune to that sort of mind manipulation trick. Therefore, the fact that she often felt the need to do the opposite of what she was told was simply her asserting her right to make her own decisions, and had nothing to do with any sort of psychology, reverse or otherwise.)

“When was the last time you ate something else than curry?” she’d asked him.

“Hmm… oh, yes, I had some bean sprouts on Monday. They were quite refreshing.”

“That… that was three days ago, Inari.”

“Well, I do have to wait for them to grow back. If I eat them too quickly, then there will be none left.”

Futaba had stared at him. It was a miracle he didn’t have scurvy at this point, really, and even if he was obnoxious and exasperating he was also a key member of the team. His ice skills were unmatched, so it would be a problem if he ended up in the hospital or on bed rest because he got less vitamins than a pirate from the 1700s. Figuring she could do something helpful for the team for once, she’d dragged him out to the closest restaurant that served salads and forced him to eat at least 3 different veggies, and also made him get a smoothie at the station on the way home too. He’d been excessively grateful, thanking her over and over, but he always acted like that around food. It hadn’t been a date or anything, just a smart tactical decision for the team.

“Then there’s the way you always hold his hand when we’re outside.”

Futaba blushed. That one was weird, she had to give Akira that. She’d just about fainted from embarrassment the first time Yusuke’d grabbed her wrist to drag her along in a crowd, but it had been a very efficient way to get through it quickly without getting lost — he had such long legs, she often had trouble keeping up. From then on, she’d started grabbing his hand anytime they were in a crowded area, and maybe when they weren’t too. It wasn’t some sort of romantic thing; she just felt safer that way. His warm hand in hers reminded her that she wasn’t alone, like a physical memento of the whole team’s support, and made it easier to deal with the slew of fears she still had. And if she’d started interlacing their fingers, that was only because their grip felt more secure that way. It had nothing to do with how soft his fingertips were against the back of her hand.

“And when we’re in the Metaverse, you always cast your support spells on him first.”

Now Futaba was getting annoyed. Had Akira been studying her or something? This was starting to sound like an interrogation, and he wasn’t letting her get a word in edgewise. He was wrong, and that was that. Did she boost or heal Yusuke first? Well, he was taller, so he probably just attracted her skill to him automatically; after all, she was casting them from above, so that would make sense. Or maybe he was the most injured, which meant he needed her help the most, and was she supposed to ignore that just because Akira would get weird notions if she didn’t? Clearly it wasn’t like she was doing it on purpose.

“But the main reason I asked, is that lately you’ve only made time to hang out with me when he’s not available.”

“How do you know when he’s available?”

“I am the leader, of this team, you know. I have all your calendars memorized so I can choose the best days to take us into the Metaverse,” he replied, ruffling her hair. “For example, I know Fridays are bad because that’s when your favorite anime airs and you’ll be distracted the whole time over missing it.”

“I am not — anyway, that’s not true, I don’t pick him over you!”

“Really? So you could have seen Yusuke tonight, but you came here?”

“Well, no, he’s at an art show, but that’s not the point! Anyway, I know you’re only here because Ryuji’s busy with his mom today, so you’re one to talk!” She stuck her tongue out at him, proud of her retort.

“Ah, but I have no issue admitting I love Ryuji,” he replied with a smug smile.

Futaba froze, and all her thoughts from the last fifteen minutes suddenly caught up with her. She spent all her time with him. She found him entertaining to listen to even though he was, objectively, really boring. She was familiar enough with his appearance to notice a slight change and worried about his health to the point of buying him dinner. She liked to hold his hand, felt safe in public when he was around, unconsciously prioritized him for support spells if Akira was to be believed, and would always choose hanging out with him over anyone else.

She slid limply off the couch into a pile on the ground, hiding her head against her knees.

“I’m in love… Shit!”

She heard Akira come to sit down next to her, and lifted her head to look at him when he laid a hand on her shoulder.

“Why him? Why me? Why? I never asked for this!”

Akira shrugged. “If you find out, let me know. I still can’t understand why I fell for my dorky best friend with the terrible fashion sense instead of one of the many gorgeous girls who throw themselves at me daily,” he said, trademark flirty smile on his lips as he posed with a hand beneath his chin.

She swatted at him and rolled her eyes. “You absolute narcissist.”

“I can’t help that I was born beautiful,” he said with a silly, over exaggerated pout, before smirking in a dangerously playful way. “So, back to my original question. When are you going to ask him out?”

“Never, oh my god, Akira!” Not in a million damn years. There was no change of heart strong enough to give her the courage for that, and obviously Yusuke didn’t like her back, so there was no point, and —

Akira was pulling his phone out, and she jumped at him. “Don’t you dare tell him! Or anyone else!”

He pushed himself away from her with his hands up, one holding his phone with the screen towards her. “I wasn’t going to, I just got a message!”

She looked at the screen suspiciously. There did seem to be a notification from the Phantom Thieves chat dating back just a few seconds. Still…

“If you tell anyone, I’ll send your full chat history with Ryuji to the group chat,” she threatened.

His gasp, entirely genuine, made her wonder if she ought to check it, then just as quickly realise the last thing she wanted to do was check it. “You wouldn’t!”

“Try me.”

#persona 5 #yutaba #fic prompt #I'm in love...shit.#yusuke kitagawa #futaba sakura #editing what's editing #thanks for sending the ask!#will post to ao3...at some point :P

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ryouverua · 6 years ago

Text

Foreplay

Mm yes sassy!Shuichi is good for the soul

So Miu literally went to everyone to bring them together, huh? I, uh, honestly didn’t expect to have a big group meet-up the night before the ‘big day’.

Oh hey, look who finally decided to show his face again! I’ve been wondering what you were up to!

want to share with the class, Kaito

also please don’t tease me with a Kokichi & Kaito friendship and not deliver

Miu is totally trumping up what she made I DON’T BELIEVE YOU THIS IS JUST ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF ESCAPISM

except instead of Atua we have gone in the opposite direction

with technology

BUT FINE PLAY COY SEE IF I CARE it’s not like the cast itself has the benefit of SDR2 behind them - though with that said tsumugi totally referenced the first case last chapter trial by accident. Honestly, it makes me wonder how far back the events of other games are? I mean, Monokuma is around, and they recognized him in the prologue, so is it possible that the events of the previous games have become part of historical lore or something?

Anyway, that’s stuff to think about another time. Kinda getting distracted...

Someone is on a power trip.

YEAH UH THAT’S A REALLY GOOD QUESTION ACTUALLY...

HEY EXCUSE YOU MIU you can’t call us masochistic if we’re not doing this consensually!!!

it’s time to flip the chessboard

Oh, yikes, damn. This is that side of Kokichi that I haven’t liked. Not him acting like an evil supreme leader - he did a bit of that in the FTEs I’ve done so far - but there’s always something... I don’t know, a lot crueller and more vicious in how he talks to Miu? I mean, not that she’s the perfect person herself, but she doesn’t deserve this. And yeah yeah, I know there are probably arguments about the weird sado-masochistic thing they both seem to have going on but... no, I don’t think that’s ever going to sit well with me. Miu’s got some serious problems going on, and Kokichi’s not playing into them, he’s actively using them against her. And again, I don’t mind him doing antagonistic things, not at all! But everything, outside of this, has seemed so much cleverer.

Then again, after the display from the night before I guess I should start expecting outright cruel and scary things from him. 8′D

HOLY ART STYLE CHANGE WOW THIS IS REALLY GOOD

despite all the epic Clamp-esque ‘long leg’ syndrome going on I... really like how everyone looks in this...

Ah, I’m annoyed that I don’t recognize the style though. This is definitely a reference that most people would immediately get if they were on the other side of the ocean.

WOW K1-b0 that’s cold considering you may be the closest person to her!!! I think I’m starting to let my ship!feelings cloud my observations, yikes...

Aaaw, Tsumugi. 8′\ What would Gonta and the others do without your sporadic support, honestly.

Aaaaw sad mushrooms :( is this a new sprite? also doesn’t junko have one like this too

OKAY KOKICHI ENOUGH GEEZ

Man, something went terribly, terribly wrong in your past, huh.

YUP I KNEW IT

Zoolander references? In my Danganronpa?

THE FILES ARE INSIDE THE COMPUTER

Tsumugi seriously how old are you?????

Wait we’re seriously doing this right now??? W.... We aren’t, are we? I thought this would end up like the others (watching everyone’s videos/Necronomicon) - big build-up, and then a last-minute detour! I even came up with the name ‘Motives, interrupted’ and everything...

DAMN that was fast. But hey, more energetic Himiko!

Uh.... what? She told Kokichi of all people? I... didn’t think they talked outside of trials/them insulting each other...

Aren’t you literally the one who was complaining about how heavy the Dog Statue was last chapter.............

Well, I mean, I guess having more intel was worth it to him, maybe? I’m guessing he had gotten wind of it before actually moving the chairs, because they weren’t there earlier and the Monokuma scene happened the night before - and he clearly knew some of what she was working on. So has he been spying on her then, or just talking more than I realized?

Poor Gonta, getting used as the audience surrogate. 8′D I guess I shouldn’t be surprised computers aren’t your strong suit, huh...

WHELP... THAT’S..... WORRYING......

Yeah!!! I mean, they’re literally going to be all defenceless! All it takes is for someone to fake logging in and boom, another body!

I DON’T KNOW MIU, ARE YOU? YOU WERE KINDA FREAKING ME OUT AFTER THAT FLASHBACK LIGHT BUT ALSO IN AN INCREDIBLY OBVIOUS WAY...

omg it totally is based on the NeoWorld program, isn’t it

...???? What are you thinking about. Does it have to do with you specifically, or is it related to why you guys are all here. VR in VR??? Maybe???

I know I should be against Gonta’s ‘wild man/fish out of water’ stereotype being played up but it’s a relief to see him not worrying about everyone/beating himself up for once this chapter, so... :(

SAY THE NAME YOU COWARD

MIU IF MONOKUMA IS LETTING YOU FUCK AROUND WITH HIS PROGRAM WITH THE NAME ‘KILLING GAME SIMULATOR’ WHY WOULD YOU THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA FOR EVEN A MINUTE

YEAH NO FUCKING KIDDING

Man, I do feel bad for her in moments like this though. She really, really wants that validation from everyone, but just doesn’t seem to understand how to get it in a way that doesn’t piss everyone off and/or objectify herself, or -

.......................................... yeah

Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answer to 8/

B-But what if people improvise and use a non-traditional method, or just do something that doesn’t require weapons? Or just kill them in the real world while they’re ‘asleep’? D: There are way too many ways for this to go wrong sdlkfj I mean it’s obviously just because we’re close to the deadline that I’m worried (and watch the game let things proceed without anything happening only for someone to wind up dead after their initial foray into the VR world) but still...

Shuichi’s getting bolder :D

omfg Monokuma can you at least try to be subtle about working with Kokichi - he’s at least trying to.... a bit.... like, barely passably...

And that’s all it took to win him over 8/ Seriously, it’s kind of scary how easily Kokichi can manipulate him.

TSUMUGI IS ME, SCREAMING AT EVERYONE TO NOT GO INTO THE 99% OBVIOUS DEATH TRAP

There’s that talk about the inner voice again... we’re definitely going to hear about that in the future. Programming? But based on what? That’s the real question. I’m still toying with that whole ‘Nanami’ role potential and his talk of hope last chapter...

damn it Kaito stop following your man’s curiosity and start looking into a woman’s sober second thought

MAKI. THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE YOU. YOU ARE THE SOBER SECOND THOUGHT.

I know you’re on that slow path of falling for Kaito but why??? Why can’t you be the voice of reason??? Are you only going there to support him???

I mean, that’s a better reason than we got from Maki but walking into an obvious trap just to find out how it springs is still not the smartest choice, Sweetcheeks!!!

still me

and also make you the prime suspect for whatever murder inevitably happens

Man, poor Tsumugi. I feel like she knows where this is going and just does not have the charisma outside of cosplay to keep it from happening. Better luck next time, girl 8′\

Ugh, the lies like this ^ are so obviously transparent and it makes Kokichi so much fun to have around and watch. I feel like he’s making a subtle dig at Kaito’s shounen!protagonist attitude - oh hey, and for that matter, it could be a reference to him punching Shuichi way back in chapter 2 and how Shuichi’s developed since then.

Can you imagine him saying that with the face he showed the night he was talking to Monokuma because the thought is cracking me up tbh.

There is no way this isn’t going to come into play later. 8′\ I guess the question is how? Man, what if it screws with someone’s head ala Mikan...

OH MAN ARE WE GOING TO GET A BODYSWAP THAT WOULD BE AMAZING

I really didn’t need keep this part but god do I find nervous!Himiko incredibly adorable... she’s trying so hard, guys. 8′/ She’s trying so hard to keep it together. And she’s doing it by herself, this time!

DAMN IT STOP BULLYING GONTA I’M LIKE, 99% SURE HE’S GOING TO DIE HE DOESN’T DESERVE ANY OF THIS

Whelp. Um. I didn’t think we were actually going to go through this. Man, are we going to end up back on the island then? Is Usami going to be there? Nanami? Komaeda???? omfg wouldn’t that be a disaster he and Kokichi together would be terrifying

......

TERUTERU AND MIU WOULD BE TERRIFYING yikES

#Ryou plays drv3 #Kaito Momota #Miu Iruma #Himiko Yumeno #Shuichi Saihara #Keebo #K1-b0 #Maki Harukawa #Gonta Gokuhara #Kokichi Ouma #Kokichi Oma #best thing about miu-centric stuff is that I get to make innuendo titles #spoilers #drv3 spoilers

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mdwatchestv · 7 years ago

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Westworld 2x02: I Am Never Learning Character Names

Wow I don’t know about you, but I was surprised by how many of my questions from episode one were addressed! Kind of refreshing how forthcoming this season is with explanation and backstory, I have a clear picture of what to expect from this show moving forward!

Jk lol I have no idea what the fuck is going on. Not only do we have zero answers, but we have at least one (possibly two) additional timelines to contend with. I don’t know if it was intensely noticeable but most of my show recaps I just wing from memory, if I don’t remember it, might as well not have happened. Not so here my friends! I have written detailed notes. God this show is so impenetrable, maybe if I just make this whole blog an introduction no one will notice.

Okay so this episode starts with Dolores breaching the Westworld control center immediately (?) after the massacre that ended last season. Westworld workers don’t believe a panicked guest that they are under attack, causing one to yell out towards the commotion in the hall “Hey, is there some kind of trouble out there?” Out of all the things that have happened on Westword, that line of dialogue was honestly the most egregious. I can’t let it go. Anyway there is trouble out there, and it’s Dolores coming to kill everyone. With her is poor Teddy who is finally seeing behind the curtain and he is SHOOK UP. Teddy is not ready for this jelly, for any jelly (more on this later). Dolores tells the guest who questions her ability to take over the “real”, world that she is more than suited to lay waste to “our” world because she remembers it, she’s seen it before. Or has she?

Cue another timeline. In this flashback, we see Arnold (human Arnold) talking to Dolores in an ultra modern Hong Kong-ish city. Have you ever seen anything so full of splendor? Arnold argues with a much younger Ford that Dolores isn’t ready for something (we will soon see what that is). Arnold then takes Dolores across the city to see the foundations of a home he is intending to build for his family to be “closer to work”. Later in this same timeline, or at least this same world, we see our old friends Ben Barnes and Jimmi Simpson pre their own Westworld experience. Ben Barnes, son of the head of Delos, is being courted by the Argos Initiative (another corporate name to learn) whose representatives are Zahn McClarnon (from Fargo! and pretty obviously a host) and Talulah Riley (known host).

I’d like to pause my recap here to call out my absolute favorite thing about Westworld, and that is its music. To me nothing better encapsulates the thematic soul of the show than Ramin Djawadi’s beautiful re-workings of pop songs. They are both familiar, and strange, both closely nostalgic and tantalizingly out of reach. What a purely delightful moment to realize season one’s bank heist was set to a swelling orchestral Paint It Black. What better way to underscore a series about a world like our own, but not quite; people who are like us, but not really. This is all to say that when that first high C note rang out during this scene it was immediately transporting, like an audible firework. The artist of that particular piece is not having the best time saying... ideas at the moment.... but this instrumental cover of Runaway was absolutely gorgeous and I loved it! It’s on Spotify if you want to relive in your car.

Okay back to Ben Barnes. Zahn and Talulah take Ben to a room filled with guests, telling him this is his private demonstration of their tech, and his job is to spot the “robot” in the group. As we’ve already guessed, there is not one host, but rather everyone in the room, including Talulah and Zahn, are hosts. We noticeably see the ill-fated Clementine at the piano, and Jonathan Tucker (!!) amongst the crowd. Ben Barnes is floored, and Delos’ interest in the business is fatefully sealed. The deal is christened by Ben Barnes sleeping with Talulah (and others), and we see what it really was Arnold was protecting Dolores from.

Theory alert: This timeline is presented to us as being in the ‘real’ world, we see a glittering city, and presumably this is what current-day Dolores is referring to when she says that she has seen “our” world. My theory is that this is NOT actually “our” world but rather another park, or discreet Argos Initiative bunker/illusion/subspace. For one thing the city, although massive, has no recognizable landmarks, and is clearly not meant to be recognized. For another we know that Jimmi Simpson and Ben Barnes were explicitly invited for a demonstration, whether that was to the club they were hanging out at, or a larger space is not made clear. Argos has also brought a great number of their highly-profitable and (up until that part) confidential tech to this space, which would be risky to transport. Arnold also describes the city as eventually not looking like anything, which feels very close to the wording “it doesn’t look like anything to me.” The explanation he has of building his house “closer to work” also felt a bit cryptic. Also later in the episode when we see the palm tree laden Delos estate, there is a very similar looking city across a body water. Feels suspish!

ALTERNATIVELY the city also feels a bit futuristic, and the fact that it’s unidentifiable could mean that Westworld is taking place in a future time period OR a radically different “real” world than ours. Ben Barnes comments that “we aren’t here yet” with tech, which feels like he is living in a world similar to ours. But we haven’t had any experience with the world outside Westworld and of course assumed it was like ours, but what if it’s not????

Also while we are wiggling around in the past let’s hit up the throwback scene where Jimmi Simpson (now jaded and on his way to blackhatdom) pitches Westworld to his father-in-law, the supremely enjoyable Peter Mullan. Jimmi Simpson claims that Westorld is more than just a diversion, but rather a way to delve people’s darkest desires, to see what it is they really want. This scene raises the question - what is it that Delos wants? Is there interest in the park purely for market research, or is there something more nefarious? There are all sorts of ways that learning about wealthy people’s secrets could be profitable after all. The question of what it is that Delos wants is also amplified by the fact that we know in present day they are after the Westworld park code, so is there an even larger design at work? We are also treated to a flashback to Peter Mullan’s retirement slash Jimmi Simpson’s ascension party. There a piano-playing Dolores runs into a sloshed Ben Barnes, who is horrified and disgusted by whatever it is that Delos has planned for Westworld. If we know anything about our friend Mr. Barnes from his time in the park, his morals are more than a little loose- so to see his contempt for whatever it is that’s happening should be more than a little alarming.

Back in our more present day with BAMF Dolores, she learns from torturing an employee that Delos has sent an army of people after her and the other host rebels. So what does Dolores need? A bigger army. She sets off into the park to recruit hosts where she runs into Maeve and co on their own mission. Dolores tries to recruit Maeve, but Maeve says revenge is just another construct (which is weird because I thought she said all she wanted was revenge literally in the last episode but whatever) and thinks that Dolores’ bloody quest is worthless. This was in an interesting interaction and illustrated how these two hosts are responding differently to their “independence” (if either of them is really even acting independently). Dolores is seeking revenge and retribution against perceived wrong doing, while Maeve is using her consciousness to pursue her own desires. Which is the expression of true freedom, which is the more righteous path? These are the questions of Westworld.

The army Dolores has in mind are the Confederados of Westworld who are led by none other than our very own Jonathan Tucker! Dolores proves her might by shooting them all to death and then reviving their leader (Jonathan Tucker). By pulling back the veil of their perceived reality she proves herself to be the real deal and gains their allegiance. Teddy continues to be shooketh. In this episode especially we see that Teddy is really not Getting With The Program, which could be even more reason why Dolores perceives him as not able to go on to take over the “real” world aka drown-worthy. Dolores wants to take her army to a weapon she knows about at the edge the park (again the valley beyond). How does she know about the weapon? Because once again a man woke her up to monologue to her. Guys, you have GOT to stop doing this. This time the man was Jimmi Simpson, who I think mostly just wanted to see her naked, and also drop some exposition.

Speaking of Jimmi Simpson, his older iteration Ed Harris (The Man in Black) reunites with his lackey Clifton Collins, Jr. in the “present”, or sometime in the post-massacre park. He too is looking to recruit an army, and goes in search of El Lazo’s band of criminals (keep in mind Clifton Collins, Jr in some storylines was also El Lazo). There we are surprised to see the leader of this crew (the new El Lazo) is none other than Giancarlo Esposito! Giancarlo refuses to aid The Man in Black, instead he delivers a monologue about elephants. This little speech is about questioning ones own reality, but whether this is an instruction for The Man in Black (who is in a prison of his own making), or a warning about the hosts in the park (who have now pulled up their stakes) remains to be seen. He then tells The Man in Black this is a game he must play on his own, before he and all his men commit suicide. Chilling! This is all part of the game Ford has left for the Man in Black, clearly part of the end game is forcing The Man in Black to confront something solo. The Man in Black, like Dolores, is also seeking the thing he created years ago, something he says he never should have done, at the edge of the park So what is it?? Dolores thinks its a weapon, but I don’t think it’s quite so literal, maybe it’s more of an insurance policy? Could it be the a dam or water reserve that winds up flooding the park and killing most of the hosts? My brain is tired.

Questions:

What is it that Jimmi Simpson made and left in the park?

What are Delos’ true intentions with Westworld?

What or where is the city that we saw?

What is the geography of the parks? Are they all close together, or perhaps world over? Can one hop to the next?

What is Ford’s game for The Man in Black?

Did Dolores kill Teddy (i say yes)?

Are Maeve and Dolores really operating under their own free will? Or are they still playing out a narrative?

When will will this blog be over?

I can answer the last one, it’s now!

XO MD

#martha writes #westworld #westworld gifs #westworld spoilers #westworld recap #westworld theories #tv recaps #tv writing #tv reviews

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kroneeeee · 7 years ago

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OUMA’S DEFENCE LAWYER PART2A

Yes. There’s more. Here’s part 1:

http://kroneeeee.tumblr.com/post/166569354474/oumas-defence-lawyer-here

WARNING: this argument is super. super. long.

OOoookay, now that we’ve established that his nature isn’t to be an evil asshole, now comes his intentions. Why did he make Gonta the killer? Why did he come up with such a plan involving his death? Why did he try to be the mastermind? Well, this is my interpretation on it-

I’ll start it off with discussing Chapter 4.

Again, let’s establish facts before diving in:

Ouma was the first to know about the outside world. The outside world is supposed to be the worst thing ever, where no one was alive, and there was absolutely no hope left for any of the survivors. It was used as a motive to bring people to despair and thus kill people.

Ouma did manipulate Gonta throughout their time in the VR world after Gonta himself volunteered to watch over Ouma.

Ouma used Gonta to kill Miu to save his own ass.

He’s smart enough to figure out that she wanted to kill him beforehand.

Throughout the trial in Chapter 4, he’s been manipulating everyone and using his lies to bring Shuichi to the truth.

Ouma did not know of Gonta’s memory loss/error. Nor the fact that his avatar had some paralysis setting on him.

Yeah, Ouma did keep pressuring Gonta at some point about him being ridiculously dumb.

He was really angry at both Gonta and Kaito for stalling the killing game by not accepting the facts.

He had a genuine breakdown and wanted to die with Gonta before his execution.

In the end, after the execution, he suddenly had a change in character and became very antagonistic. Hm, how fitting for an “Ultimate Supreme Leader”.

Anyways, facts over. Time to explain why. Why he did such things. Why he did those asshole moves. Why he chose Gonta. Why he broke down. Why he tried to act like the mastermind. Those 10 facts are gonna be my truth bullets this time. C’mon, let’s treat this like a class trial.

First off, why did Ouma choose to manipulate Gonta for his murder towards Iruma?

Honestly, you’d think it could be a number of reasons- Maybe because Gonta was strong- NOPE. Sorry, but Iruma gave everyone equal strength ability in the VR world. That won’t explain why he chose Gonta over anyone else.

Because he’s the most manipulative? Plausible. Even though, as seen in the 4th class trial, he’s able to manipulate everyone, he chose Gonta because of his gullible personality- WRONG AGAIN. This isn’t possible. If you look again when they entered the VR world, Ouma never once hinted on Gonta to join him. In fact, look at the 2nd fact:

Ouma did manipulate Gonta throughout their time in the VR world after Gonta himself volunteered to watch over Ouma.

It’s true. Although when Kaito said something like “Geez, he really knows how to manipulate people.” He thought, along with influencing all the players, that Ouma manipulated Gonta into being his bodygaurd, which is false. Fact is, Gonta volunteered to help which motioned Ouma into manipulating him and thus using him to commit a murder he didn’t do. Ouma didn’t specifically choose, he was just given the chance. And he took it. Although he didn’t know about his paralysis setting until the investigation, Ouma stated that he knew that Iruma must’ve already thought of a way to prevent him from fighting back, which was why he needed someone to do the dirty work.

In conclusion, Gonta being his murder buddy was just. a. coincidence. He only took action after Gonta volunteered to be his bodyguard.

OKAY, SO IS THIS QUESTION SOLVED? GOOD.

Moving on, why did Ouma manipulate Gonta the entire time to kill Iruma?

TO SAVE HIS ASS GODDAMNIT. HE DIDN’T WANT TO DIE. I mean, look at the third and eight fact.

Ouma used Gonta to kill Miu to save his own ass.

He was really angry at both Gonta and Kaito for stalling the killing game by not accepting the facts.

Dude, the lil’ supreme leader just wants to stay alive. He’ll sacrifice whatever he has to to do so.

NEXT.

Uh, thirdly, why did he turn into such an asshole towards Gonta after exposing that he’s the culprit?

We already know that he was such a huge dick for orchestrating Gonta’s exposure as the culprit by just... bluntly saying it. However, he became even more of a dick when he started condemning Gonta for being a stupid idiot. Looking back, was he not trying to imply to Gonta to just fess’ up? Didn’t Ouma give that kind of vibe when condemning Gonta? Especially when he said “If you aren’t the culprit, then you gotta prove that you aren’t!”

And when Gonta kept insisting that he doesn’t know anything-

He became especially angry. But why? Why was he so sick and tired of hearing Gonta refusing to back himself u-

Hey.

Hey, wait.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

I think we’ve got it all wrong.

I think this trial made us interpret this scene wrongly.

Because I don’t think he said that to force Gonta to fess’ up.

But rather, to get him to defend himself.

....

Wouldn’t that look more plausible?

ALRIGHT, TIME TO DISCUSS THIS SHIT.

I’m assuming we all know that Ouma didn’t see Gonta only as his pawn, seeing from his reactions and narration after the Voting Time. He found Gonta as someone with more value than a simple bodyguard, a simple pawn. I won’t clarify exactly how he saw Gonta, but it’s clear to say that Gonta’s life held some importance to Ouma after some point in the game.

^That’s a fact. The 11th fact.

So using this fact, and also taking into mind of how ridiculously smart Ouma is (e.g. planning his entire murder with script lines for Kaito to say and trying to beat the game itself all under a short period of time), wouldn’t it also be possible for Ouma to give Gonta some sort of plan on how to escape this, making the killing game more fun?

Wouldn’t that also explain why he was so angry that Gonta wasn’t trying to back himself up? Because he thought Gonta would follow through with his plan? I’ve never seen Ouma literally lose his shit over someone not giving something he wants.

Something. He. Wants.

He wanted Gonta to talk back, to give arguements. But Gonta couldn’t because he forgot everything. But Ouma didn’t know that. So he thought Gonta was being really stubborn, and if you were Ouma, you’d probably think Gonta would be an idiot too. Which could be why he was so upset that Gonta wasn’t saying anything.

^Okay, but giving Gonta a plan to defend himself is just speculation. In other words, my opinion.

However, Ouma losing his shit because he didn’t get what he wanted from Gonta is a fact. And Ouma not knowing is a fact too. Look back at the screenshots. If Ouma knew he forgot his memories, would he really, truly, lose his shit like that? “Cut it out already!” “I’m sick of you saying I don’t know!”

Wouldn’t he have just teased Gonta with his stupidity by saying “Heh, so he’s really this dumb after all! Not remembering his own murder.” (Which he did say something similar like this by the way, only after he found out about Gonta’s error.) So can you see the difference in his actions before and after learning about the error? He literally had a 180 change of attitude.

So let’s leave this question with the conclusion that Ouma was terribly upset because Gonta wasn’t being an obedient boy.

Alright, next problem. Why did Ouma break down after the Voting Time?

This is a common problem people ask each other all the time. Well, here’s how I see it:

Like I mentioned in the part1 post of this, Ouma is a kid who strictly followed a “no kill” policy So obviously this killing game has impacted him so much. All in the worst way possible. You know, like, actually committing a murder? Although Ouma didn’t stain his hands with blood, he still indirectly killed Iruma and Gonta. And I’m pretty sure, for a kid like him, it would be pretty fucking traumatising and loaded with guilt. Which is exactly why he’s seen breaking down.

Other than the fact that he held Gonta’s life with some importance, it’s highly likely that Ouma has guilt all over him. Which is why he tried to “fix” things by offering Monokuma to kill him instead. Because, well, like they all say-

“Those who break rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scums.” Well said, Obito.

He broke the “no kill” rule. He hurt many people. He led the poor Gonta, who has no memory of the killing, to his death.

Isn’t that just sooooooooo despair-like?

Something that’ll reeeeaaaaaaaalllyyyy devastate Ouma?

People say the crying was just part of his lying act. Well then do enlighten me. What reason would he have for breaking down, assuming it’s a lie, instead of rubbing it in Gonta’s face some indirect way or another. Instead of saying something witty or saying that he’s such a fool? What other reason could he have for breaking down in front of everyone in the room, other than actually crying because of guilt and sadness?

Please. Enlighten me.

Oh? You’re gonna use the “but he’s the mastermind and felt no remorse” excuse at my face? Gosh, I at least hoped your argument would be entertaining. Sighs.

Well then, let’s move on to the next question-

We already know he wasn’t the mastermind, but why did he act like one?

Well, remember this?

Did we ever actually see Ouma fulfill that promise? I mean, did he even try to fulfill it?

The answer is yes, tumblr.

You must remember that Ouma is a liar. And he shows his concern (e.g. shuichi) through his lies (idk go do his free time event you’ll see). With all his good intentions in his heart, it’ll always come forth through a lie, with a lie, by a lie. He always used his lies and confusing words to bring forth the truth in class trials, though he lets Shuichi hog the glory. Though, the fact remains that he does help the class trial with his lies. He grows bonds through his lies. He helps people through his lies.

I’ll let you figure out how that happens if he’s lying all the time. Now, remember the last fact?

In the end, after the execution, he suddenly had a change in character and became very antagonistic. Hm, how fitting for an “Ultimate Supreme Leader”.

Why? Why did he suddenly change to become so antagonistic? Yes, maybe he showed himself to be more of a dick than usual, but we already know why. So then in that case, why the bloody fuck did he suddenly pretend to be the mastermind?

Why did he lie to be the mastermind if he’s not?

To answer that, remember what I just said? With all his good intentions in his heart, it’ll always come forth through a lie, with a lie, by a lie.

Doesn’t that make his mastermind role-play the biggest lie he’s ever told to them? (Stfu about “but he lied about his talent. he’s not the leader of a 10,000 member secret organization isn’t that big” bullshit. We already established in part1 why he did so)

And wouldn’t his promise to Gonta be the only promise, yet hardest, to accomplish? I mean Gonta asked Kokichi Ouma, the most dickhead of them all, to make sure “everyone forgive each other and be friends”.

But Ouma can only lie. He can only tell the truth through his lies. He can only help through his lies. He can only guide people through his lies.

I’m sure you know what I’m trying to get at.

BUT JUST IN CASE YOU’RE THAT BLIND TO SEE, YES, HE PRETENDED TO BE THE MASTERMIND TO FULFIL HIS PROMISE TO GONTA. BECAUSE THAT’S THE ONLY WAY HE KNOWS HOW TO DO IT. HE CAN’T POSSIBLY “Okay guys! We need to team up and bring this mf Monokuma down!” BECAUSE IT’S NOT HIS CHARACTERISTIC TO DO SO.

So by playing the mastermind, didn’t he bring everyone more together by making everyone target him? What better way to give hope to people than to get them to unite through a similar feeling. Sadly, that similar feeling would be their hatred towards Ouma. But if that’s how Ouma accomplishes Gonta’s wish, so be it.

However, if Gonta were still alive, he’d probably tell Ouma he’s just as idiotic as Gonta. Because “Gonta want Kokichi to also be friends with everyone. Kokichi cannot be left out!” or something.

So, yeah, that’s just Ouma’s way of fulfilling his promise.

SO IN CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER4,

No one said anything about Kokichi Ouma being forgiven for his action. Even Kokichi Ouma doesn’t want to be forgiven. For fuck’s sake, he wanted to kill himself after that class trial. No one said Kokichi Ouma should be forgiven. All I’ve explained was why he did those things. Do you see me justifying his murder? Do you see me justifying why it was right for him to do so? All my arguments may have been leaning in favour of Ouma, but come on look at the title of this post....

With that being said, this is part2A. Yes, there’s a part2B which is my final closing argument of Kokichi Ouma. I’ll cover up Chapter5 and ending off my analysis of Kokichi Ouma.

#danganronpa #team danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #kokichi ouma #kokichi #oma #saihara #shuichi #saihara shuichi #miu iruma #iruma miu #gonta gokuhara #killing game #monokuma #monokubs #class trial #spike chunsoft

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kyloswarstars · 7 years ago

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Incognito for Beginners

Star Wars, Oneshot

Summary: Supreme Leader Snoke sent out Kylo Ren and Reader on a mission. They arrive on Dantooine and get into a fight. In more ways than just one.

Pairing: Kylo Ren x Reader

Warning: ehm, murder? (+ second english fanfiction)

Words: 3.6K

A/N: I don’t know, this just came out of me. Any similarities to other writers’ work are not intended. All ideas used in a fanfiction I post are made up in my brain (as long as it is not a request).

/////

Everything had started with an old Bith playing his Kloo horn in the streets of Coruscant’s underworld. He played as long as you made him stop. Using whatever it was, that made you do these things, and breaking his instrument in two pieces, from your window three stories above him.

He had woken you up with his amateurish playing.

Whenever you thought about that day you realised that you had been an unbearable child with lacking respect for others and an aggression problem.

‚Hey you‘, a figure in a dark cloak had shouted up to you. Instantly you rolled your wrist and moved your fingers in a circle to make them go away but they didn’t. Instead they prevented you from ducking into your room and closing the window.

From then on your memories went blurry. You remembered that the cloaked figure made you come with them. And you remembered that you left Coruscant. But nothing else. You were around five at that time.

Even when you were happy that this day had turned your life around and was decisive for you to transform into the person you were now – it had still been a disturbing experience. Especially after you had got old enough to understand that you had been kidnapped, to be raised under one of the darkest people in the galaxy.

Hearing the sound of a Kloo horn again made you shiver. You had tried enough times to bring back the memories from that day. Something kept them locked up behind a barricade you couldn’t destroy. Right now you felt them moving behind this wall – you simply couldn’t grab them.

And you weren’t sure if you still wanted to know what exactly had happened.

„Control yourself, Y/N. He is not part of the mission.“ You had nearly ripped that stupid horn out of the ‚musicians‘ hands, but stopped when you heard the voice, that sound strange without a filter.

Kylo looked bored. But he wasn’t bored, he was pissed.

Because your Supreme Leader had sent you two off onto a mission, to get high quality information from one of the First Order’s spies. Word about what had happened with the map to Skywalker. The spy said he knew where he was. But because he didn’t want to risk losing his fake identity within the resistance, he insisted on a meeting in Dantoo Town on Dantooine.

For you this was routine. For Kylo? Not so. You wore some shabby clothes that smugglers would wear, a short coat on top of it to hide your lightsaber. Kylo looked like he wanted to get recognised by everyone.

He probably thought it would be enough if he left behind his helmet and cape.

„You never went incognito before, did you?“

„I never had to. I’m too important to do this kind of work.“ Sure, he was, you thought.

„Obviously, Supreme Leader Snoke thinks different about that.“ You took out your holopad to bring up the map of Dantoo Town. „Or maybe he wants to give you a lesson.“

Kylo followed close behind you. „Seems like it.“

„You want to know what he told me?“ You loved getting on Kylo’s nerves.

„What?“ His voice was on cut-to-the-chase level.

„He told me to come along to keep an eye on you. To assist you so you wouldn’t fail like the last time when you went out to get this map and brought back a scavenger.“ You heard his hard breath behind you. You two knew each other for a long time, still there wasn’t truce in sight. „And by ‚assist you‘ he meant ‚lead the mission and show him how it’s done‘.“

Kylo didn’t answer because deep down he knew that he had failed. And he knew you would more capable of a lot of things that were in his charge.

Over many years you had learned to have respect for people you were supposed to have respect for. But in situations like that, where Snoke put Kylo and you on same eye level again, only apprentices, you didn’t have that much respect for him.

Because you thought you were better in many belongings than Kylo. You were too sure of yourself for your own good sometimes.

For a few years you were Snoke’s only apprentice. The only force user that claimed his attention. And then this intruder showed up and stole your spotlight. For sure you didn’t treat him the way everyone else did. The only reason why Kylo got chosen over you was because he had B vitamins – he was the grandson of Darth Vader. He was expected to continue the legacy. Not you. You had only been kidnapped from level 1312 on Coruscant. You remembered that because your mother, a simple woman not a legend, made sure you remembered the level in case you got lost one day. And she probably had thought about other levels you could get lost on. Not being kidnapped and getting lost for real.

„Hurry up, Y/N. We’re running late.“

„Yeah, I know.“ You took small alleys, turned a lot of corners, avoided gatherings of people and focused on the map.

Even if Kylo thought he had better things to do than playing this incognito game, he felt relieved to escape the First Order for some time. The recent events had drained him and he couldn’t concentrate anymore because he hadn’t enough time for meditating.

Whenever he was with you he felt uncommonly calm. How you dealt with him didn’t bother him that much as he pretended it would. He was a commander and people were not allowed to act like that towards him. But you simply didn’t care about his rank or him struggling with living up to the expectations that he needed to fulfil. For you Kylo was just ‚the other apprentice‘ Snoke trained. Something that felt liberating from time to time. He could fool himself into thinking he was actually an apprentice again. Only good enough for stuff like going incognito, like you. And Kylo was fascinated how you had arranged yourself with doing the dirty work for Snoke. He could sense you wanted more than this but still got your job done with precision and determination. Something he wouldn’t be able if he were you. He could never hold himself back from wanting more.

Despite all of that, it didn’t mean you couldn’t be a pain in the ass. Because you were.

It took you a while to get to the agreed location where you should meet the spy. Everywhere had been people, that forced you to take detours.

When you arrived at the little point, blinking on your holopad, you were irritated. Was this the right location? You normally met spies in dark alleys or long abandoned houses without doors nor windows. But this was an open space with a lot of daylight.

Before you could see them, Kylo shouted your name. It was that kind of name-shouting that got you alarmed. Instantly you pulled out your lightsaber and pushed the ignition. Kylo doing the same simultaneously.

Suddenly five man were circling you. Everyone had blasters, some of them had also sticks, all were ready to attack. One man, that followed behind those five, caught your eye. He had a resistance patch on his shoulder.

„Traitor“, Kylo hissed.

The spy started screaming exasperatedly to his men. „Capture him and kill her! What are you waiting for!“ His men spread out and started firing at Kylo and you.

Without words you two acted after your combat rule. You blocked blaster shots and distracted them, so Kylo could kill them from behind. But a fight never goes the way your combat rule wants it to, you both did the killing today.

First, one the men with a stick approached you. He was wielding it completely wrong, you thought, trying to ram it into your body but you easily stopped the stick. Apparently it was made out of Beskar or something similar because you couldn’t slice it in two.

This wasn’t even a real fight. These were some wannabes that never had a proper fighting lesson before.

You blocked exact two attacks of that douchebag before you pierced your lightsaber through his chest. Red lighting up his face while life ran out of it.

„Y/N“, Kylo fought against two at the same time but still had the breath to make small talk. „Because you are so much better in things like this, why did we not see this trap?“

Blaster shots were frequently fired towards you – this felt like some of your first training sessions with a lightsaber. Slowly this got boring. „Because they planed this thing – the only reasonable explanation, idiot.“

You had enough of that unsatisfying game and stormed off, blocking shots, jumping and cutting the man’s head off in one smooth movement. You had finished off two, Kylo the same amount.

„You know, I’m tired of your constant remarks. I’m fucking commander and you’re nobody in comparison.“ Every time Kylo saw you fighting he was remembered of his platonic crush on you. You fought like a true warrior, had a lot more combat experience on the battlefield than he had. In his eyes you were born to wield a lightsaber. Your nonchalance while you were chopping someones head of was simply admirable.

The only way to get back control over himself was to say the exact opposite of what he was thinking.

„Right! Because you took everything away and claimed it as your own!“ Not a lot had changed since you were a kid. You were still rude, you still had an aggression problem.

Your conversation had nothing to do with the situation. Those were two different things you managed at the same time. You fought with words against each other, but with your bodies together against the last man standing. Physically you acted as one person, not two. Kylo and you rushing after the man in synch and defeating him together.

„I’m sorry for showing up and destroying your life.“

Five were dead. You still had the spy, you didn’t forget about him. Kylo and you were just taking a moment to be berserk.

„Don’t get sarcastic, Kylo!“ You pointed your lightsaber at him. He totally understood the sign and nodded the slightest.

„I can’t help myself, Y/N.“ He stretched out his arm abrupt and grabbed the spy through the force. You walked towards the traitor, your lightsaber not activated but still in your hand. One moment you looked at him with pure disgust, the next moment you hit him in the guts with your lightsaber’s hilt.

„Who gave you the order to attack Commander Ren and me?“

„No one.“ He smiled like he was a real genius. Some people just weren’t aware that they were finished, even when they saw all their men fall.

„I assume you don’t have information regarding the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker?“

„For sure not.“ Kylo, who stood behind you, made him speak through the force. „I wanted to use Commander Ren to demand ransom from the First Order. And you weren’t supposed to survive.“

„Ah, you thought you could get some extra money, I see.“ You turned around to Kylo who still had his arm up. „Do you want to or should I?“

Kylo’s lips nearly curled up into a small grin. „You can if you want to.“ You shrugged, ignited your lightsaber and finished him off. Kylo let his lifeless body fall to the ground.

No truce between Kylo and you didn’t mean you couldn’t fight like a dream team together. Probably because you two were the only ones that could use the force equally.

„So, we don’t get informations here.“ Kylo stated. As it wasn’t obvious, you rolled your eyes.

„Nope.“ You grabbed the dead traitor under his arms and started dragging him to one of the nearby dumpsters. „What? You’re not gonna help me with this mess?“ Kylo eyed you in a strange way. „We are still incognito and should stay that way till we left this planet. Hurry up, we can’t leave this bodies lying around.“ He wasn’t used to get orders. Nor to clean up the mess he had made during a fight. But he followed your words and helped you getting the dead men off the street.

You didn’t need the map for the way back to the spaceport. Once you walked a route you could remember it. Instead of heading directly to your stolen freighter, you went to the entrance of a nearby cantina.

„What about staying incognito?“ Kylo wouldn’t mind a drink. But under given circumstances?

You sighed. „Wait, here.“ Looking around you found a victim, sitting at the corner of a betting shop. „Give me your poncho.“ Influencing him through the force, he took of his poncho and handed it to you.

„Put that on, Kylo.“ You threw the piece of cloth to him and he caught it out of reflex. „I’m not going back without the drink I deserve.“ Not waiting on him you walked into the cantina and ordered your drink.

„Same for me.“ Never would you have imagined Kylo Ren ordering a drink in some shabby cantina. But there he was. Sitting next to you in a dark corner, where nobody could hear you.

„Kylo, what happened to you?“

„What do you mean?“

„Well, you didn’t lose it once since we headed off.“

„Must be your presence.“ Speaking the full truth.

„I told you not to be sarcastic.“ Ordering some new drinks with a wave to the bartender, you eyed Kylo suspicious. You really wanted to know what was going on with him. You didn’t knew that he could be a suitable companion. That little verbal fight was below average, normally you were solving arguments through sparring. Not that you had a lot of arguments anymore. You had a lot back during training. Before he became Commander Ren. Since then you had only seen him a few times. And you had replaced his image through the man who had stolen your place in the First Order. Leaving you behind as a puppet to do the dirty work for them without getting any credit.

Finishing the second drinks, you threw some credits onto the table and headed to the freighter.

Kylo hadn’t said any more words and maneuvered the ship out of the spaceport in silence. After entering the hyperspace you left the cockpit to find some place to sleep. But you couldn’t sleep. He had called you a ‚nobody‘. One thing was to think it yourself. But how could he say that, when he was the reason why you turned into a nobody?

With stomping feet you returned to the cockpit, Kylo instantly turning in his chair when he heard the door slide open.

„You only became the one you are because of Vader. I hope you remember that the next time you call me a nobody.“ Not hiding your anger you crossed your arms.

„You’ll be shocked, Y/N, but lately I’m thinking the same.“ He was right, you were shocked. Agreement from Kylo? Something rare. You should write that down. „But I am going to change that.“

„What? What do you mean?“

He sighed, rubbing his temples. „Forget it. It’s none of your business.“

„Alright, Commander Ren.“ Using his title was not out of respect. In your case it was the complete opposite.

When you had left the cockpit again, Kylo sunk into his chair. On this mission he had spent more time with you than in the years since he became commander all together. Back when he was only Snoke’s apprentice, you two had been rivals but also some kind of friends, he liked to think. You had been in the same position and trained together. Even meditated together. Where had this connection disappeared to?

Actually he could understand why you were feeling mistreated. If he had been the kid that was raised by Snoke and suddenly someone showed up and got all the attention plus the job, he would call it injustice too.

Kylo was sorry for you. Mainly sorry for your wasted talent, that no one saw when you were always kept under radar. And because he was the reason why you couldn’t shine in the light of triumph amongst the First Order. He wanted to fix this. He should tell you. After all he could need an ally with what was ahead of him.

When you arrived back on the Supremacy the two of you headed straight to Supreme Leader Snoke’s throne room. Giving your report, he released Kylo instantly. It was you who he asked to stay.

„What can you report about Kylo Ren?“

„Nothing. Coming back without informations wasn’t his fault. It was a trap, you’ve been told that already.“

„That is good to hear. Return to training until I send word about a new mission.“

You bowed your head and left. It took you by surprise when you saw Kylo waiting outside the throne room. „What are you still doing here? Don’t you have a star destroyer to command?“ Not stopping, you continued to walk, heading to your quarters.

„I want to talk to you, Y/N.“ He followed you.

„Alright, about what? Lightsabers, ships, alcohol, ponchos?“

„About something I can’t say out here.“

You stopped and turned. Kylo looked sincere. His eyes were not as cold as usual. Something inside of you moved. Your skin was suddenly burning under his intense stare.

When the door of your quarters slid shut behind the two of you, Kylo stayed silent. He looked around and remembered a lot of things he saw before. There on the wall behind your bed hung a piece of paper. He couldn’t believe you kept this stupid poem for all these years. Once after you got heavily injured he wanted to tell you how impressed he was by your bravery, so he had written it. Kylo wasn’t sure if you knew that it was his because he pushed it through under your door. But still, you kept it, so it probably meant something to you.

„Would you turn around and start speaking already?“ You started taking your dirty clothes off when he had turned.

„I… have a plan.“ Could he really trust you? He looked over his shoulder, seeing your naked back.

„What plan? How to take over the First Order or what?“ You threw on a clean top and stepped out of your pants.

Kylo’s eyes grew even wider seeing your bare legs. Your body was in shape. In a hot shape, he needed to admit. He swallowed but because of your question. You were joking, he could tell by your tone. „One that will change everything for me.“ You bent forward to get into some new pants and he couldn’t keep looking even if he wanted to so badly. Your ass was too much. He wanted to talk to you. „It could also change everything for you.“

„What exactly do you mean by everything?“ You rearranged your belt and put the lightsaber back on.

„I would make sure that you are no longer a nobody.“

„How?“ You stepped in front of Kylo. What did he mean with all that cryptic stuff?

He shrugged and nodded. „By taking over the First Order.“

„What?“ That meant. THAT MEANT. That meant… „You want to overthrow Snoke?“, you whispered as quite as you could. Excitement builting up inside of you. Finally someone wanted to do what you were dreaming about for so long. Not that you weren’t thankful. You couldn’t be more thankful that he had guided you to the dark side, for the training. But he was an old man that didn’t bring the Order forward. Or you in particular. Thinking about everything it was actually Snoke to blame. He had replaced you with Kylo. Not Kylo himself. Because he wanted to use Darth Vader’s grandson to bring fear and anxiety over the galaxy.

„Will you follow me?“ Kylo’s words spread through your whole body, leaving warmth and anticipation.

„You won’t let me down like Snoke did?“

„I won’t. I promise.“

You started smiling. Everything was better than being under Snoke’s commando.

Now it made sense to Kylo why he wanted you to be his ally so quickly. His crush on you wasn’t platonic. It was for real. It was the most anti-platonic crush ever. Not only because he saw you nearly naked. More because your smile made him believe that his plan could actually work out.

„Alright, tell me more about this plan.“ You sat on your bed and fell into the pillows. Kylo took off this itchy poncho and sat on the edge. While you listened to him, only whispering because otherwise someone could hear him from outside the door, your brain stayed concentrated. At least most of the time.

You didn’t knew how long you had talked. All you knew the next morning was: Kylo Ren had slept on your floor, wrapped up in a blanket and smiling in his sleep. Beside him a paper with random words on it because obviously – your memories came back and made you flush – you begged him to write something, no matter what, because you liked his handwriting from the poem so much, he had given you years ago.

Well, this will be interesting, you thought, standing up, making yourself coffee and watching Kylo how he slowly woke up from his sleep.

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jewell-chan · 7 years ago

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Why I ship Kaitouma/Oumota

I decided to copy/paste a few of my more popular and personal amino blogs here. Starting with this one, please keep in mind I wrote this before NISA’s translation so it may have some lines in the Japanese that were removed in NISA’s version such as instead of Kaito calling Ouma pure, he calls him naive. Spoilers under the cut:

Source: https://www.pixiv.net/member_illust.php?mode=medium&illust_id=61976368

Hiyo once again, it’s no surprise that I absolutely adore the ship Kaitouma/Oumota. I constantly praise it on my blogs, state that I love Kaito and Ouma as characters individually and I often refer to it as the best and cutest ship.

I noticed that confuses a lot of people, particularly people who haven’t seen proper translations or mostly Momoharu and Oumasai shippers. Or just those people that hate Kaito or Ouma as characters to the point of refusing to ship them with anybody. And that’s perfectly fine, although people should keep in mind that there are good ships out there, even for characters I dislike.

The ship in general is incredibly misunderstood or dumbed down because the two characters strongly hate each other, even to the end and if you didn’t already know, it’s a killer/victim ship which I’ll get to. I saw twitter and instagram in particular don’t like it, even a recent confession claiming it was a toxic ship in the comments.

So with my constant ship posts recently and that recent confession getting a lot of flak, I guess it’s time to explore exactly why I love this ship so much. A little note: This is NOT a post to convince you to like the ship. There are dislikable aspects to this pairing such as just disliking rivalry pairings as a whole and Ouma needing someone who can figure him out step by step which Kaito refuses to do. It’s a post on why I personally ship it and not a persuasive post. You are perfectly fine with having your own opinion.

If you couldn’t already tell, a major spoiler warning for the game, all the way up to Chapter 5 which is each Danganronpa game’s climax. Also, some adult themes and coarse language may come up so be wary of that too if you’re sensitive. Now it’s time to get into C O M P L E X territory and get started. This is why i ship Kaitouma/Oumota… And yes, I don’t know where to begin.

Overall dynamic

Kaito and Ouma are rivals, dare I say the main rivalry in the whole game. A misinterpretation is that Ouma and Saihara are rivals which is clearly not a case and an attempt to compare Oumasai with Komahina again. Ouma doesn’t even antagonize Saihara outside out of the scrum debates and even obeys him judging from how Saihara scolding Ouma at the end of Chapter 4 got him to calm down.

Oumasai rant aside since I’ve done not one, two, but three posts on that, Kaito and Ouma heavily dislike each other to say the least. Ouma’s always screwing around with Kaito specifically to rile him up and very well succeeds in doing so. It’s kind of like an annoying little shit of a brother and a short tempered older brother. I guess you could consider Saihara the one normal middle child and Maki the stuck up sister that spends time in her room 24/7.

I personally love the dynamic between Kaito and Ouma. Even with Ouma screwing around with Kaito, what he says isn’t necessarily false. Kaito’s ideals really are simple-minded and telling the truth is harsh which Kaito needs to accept but he refuses to do so. Due to this, they’re constantly bickering throughout the trials and possibly even have the most interactions in the game. Even in the demo, Weeby News picked up on their interactions.

Interactions

I briefed over their dynamic since there’s a lot more to explore with said dynamic. One of those things are the specific interactions between the two during the killing game. And while I won’t go all over all of them, we’d be here all day, there are a few example ones I could mention which summarises how they interact throughout the whole game.

Back in Chapter 1, Kaito goes on his usual rant on how he’ll reach space and live there but Ouma jokingly says “Isn’t that how you’ll die?” which references Kaito dying in space in Chapter 5. Ouma obviously didn’t know Kaito was actually going to die in space but it’s a funny bit of foreshadowing. More Chapter 5 foreshadowing in Chapter 1 is Ouma’s reflection after Kaede’s execution has Monokuma compliment Ouma and predict he’ll last long in the killing game. Kaito then reflects himself and Monokuma treats him like an idiot, predicting Kaito will die quickly. This is incredibly ironic when Kaito ends up killing Ouma.

They have quite a few key interactions in Chapter 4 as well. Not once, but twice does Ouma twist Kaito’s speeches into making him say a sentence that resembles saying he likes Ouma in some way which gets Kaito worked up easily. When Saihara runs into Ouma, he says that Kaito ran into him and started lecturing him.

One of my favorite moments was during the trial, the two are constantly going back in forth like animals which results in a funny cross back argument where Kaito calls Maki Harumaki and Ouma responds in calling Saihara shumai, a joke on how Harumaki is a type of food in Japan in which Kaito responds in “Who the fuck is Shumai?”

During Chapter 3, when the revival book was handed out, Kaito was afraid of the idea of ghosts being around them, in which Ouma took advantage of and occasionally but quickly teased him over which got big reactions out of him. He plays with his dislike of the occult several times throughout the game and in other chapters too.

Their interactions go throughout the entire game like this, and when their rivalry is taken to a more serious level, there’s a lot more depth behind it than one may think.

How similar they really are

Despite their constant bickering and different methods of going about it, the two of them really are quite similar in both their ideals and their morals. The same could be said for Maki.

Kaito and Ouma both have a strong bias against killing, and think of the best way to avoid it. The difference is that Ouma prioritises his own life above most things which results in him being a coward and Kaito is self sacrificial and selfless.

In Chapter 2, Kaito suggests to Saihara that they should have shared the motive videos and he was thinking about doing so for awhile, in which Saihara points out that’s exactly what Ouma wanted to do but failed. Kaito is surprised but then says the two of them can’t talk to Ouma about it because he’ll likely brush it off with his supreme ruler talk again.

In the same chapter, when Kirumi claims Ryoma let her kill him, both Kaito and Ouma can see through her lie and while admit she’s noble, she’s still heavily at fault for her actions. They also called her out on trying to emotionally manipulate the cast into letting everyone die for her, which they also called out.

Their views on Kaede’s actions are also very similar, with the main difference is how much Kaito looked up to Kaede and saw her as a leader and Ouma, who thought Kaede was too naive and saw through her ideals to be a leader. At the end of Chapter 1, Ouma did admit he sympathized with Kaede but also said she was in the wrong for participating in the killing game in the first place, her ultimate cause of death. When Saihara is thinking about how he could have saved Kaede, Kaito reassures that’s not true and it was Kaede’s choice to participate in the killing game.

This shows an example that their ideas and ideologies are rather similar and their endgame goals are almost identical. However, they both do and don’t realize it which results in their actual approaches being different which also results in more bickering. In a way, they loath and respect each other.

Why Kaito dislikes Ouma

At first, Kaito hates Ouma for fairly obvious reasons. He’s a little shit who screams about enjoying the group’s suffering. For the first few chapters, he can tell he’s not serious or just doesn’t know any better but it’s obnoxious nonetheless. Especially for someone as short tempered as Kaito.

However, as the game goes on, it becomes the same reason Maki hates Ouma: Relatability. Kaito doesn’t act like Maki in which she uses her and Ouma’s similarities to project her self loathing onto him but he does show in Chapter 4 he has a huge bias against Ouma to the point of risking his and Saihara’s friendship over Saihara listening to Ouma.

By the time Kaito punched Ouma(since Ouma was claiming to enjoy the group’s suffering to an almost psychotic level) the two were constantly antagonising each other, and Kaito seemed to demonize almost everything Ouma did. He wants to go find the remembering light? Clearly, that’s awful(technically, it was but he didn’t know the story behind that.) Ouma says Gonta is the killer and all evidence adds up? Clearly, he’s lying.

Well, that last part was Kaito’s bias against Ouma and his jealousy of Saihara, but you understand the point. It’s like if Kaito doesn’t want to relate to someone like Ouma, or if he demonizes him to avoid relatability. And who can blame him?

Why Ouma dislikes Kaito

Ouma has an interesting reason to dislike Kaito like he does. He constantly criticizes how simple minded his way of thinking is and practically throws a temper tantrum against him in Chapter 4. Granted, Kaito was antagonising him but so was Tsumugi, whom Ouma paid no attention to.

However, the reason of this isn’t pure hatred but pure envy. Kaito, even with his stupidity compared to Ouma’s intelligence, is the person that Ouma strives to be. That is exactly why they’re so similar. Ouma wants to be selfless, Ouma wants to be a group leader, Ouma wants to socialize and connect with others.

However, Ouma is merely a coward. His trust issues causing him to shut away prevents him from being the figure he wants to be, and like Saihara tells him, it results in him being forever alone. As a result, Ouma watches Kaito accomplishing everything he wants, but fails too, and how confident he is about it despite how he’s not even the sharpest tool in the shed. It creates envy, which also makes them even more similar in a way.

Kaito feels jealousy for Saihara while Ouma feels jealousy for Kaito. It’s in different ways, but the two do feel envy and jealousy towards people that they want to be. Couple that with all of their other similarities and it’s what sets up this rivalry so well.

Ouma exposing Kaito in Chapter 4

At the end of Chapter 4, Kaito is understandably pissed at Ouma, but he temporarily ignores his behaviour in the trial. Ouma exposes Kaito harshly, but effectively. He punches him in the gut and teases him about it with a sadistic grin on his face until Saihara finally confronts Ouma who leaves.

When Maki and Kiibo come to help Kaito, it turns out the punch made him cough up blood, exposing the disease he’s been hiding the entire time from everyone. His lie he hid was fully exposed to the people who Kaito trusted the most, and he was left unable to explain things properly and similar to Ouma, ran off by himself. Maki following after him.

This moment is what caused Kaito to regret his behaviour in Chapter 4, with his attitude in Chapter 5 and giving Saihara the silent treatment being part of his reflection. When Ouma returns after a few days, Kaito chose to convince the group to trust his idea to try the death road again despite everything between the two.

When Kaito tries to fight Ouma despite how he practically had control of the whole area at the time, Ouma comments on how Kaito never seems to learn his lesson before knocking him unconscious with the exisal. When Saihara approaches Kaito in his “cell” he apologises to Saihara on his treatment of him, and admits it was all out of jealousy towards Saihara.

Kaito and Ouma’s plan in Chapter 5

There’s no way I can talk about this ship without referring to this. This was the exact time that Kaito and Ouma reconciled and set aside their rivalry to reach the ultimate goal that both of them wanted, and even fail with their initial plan, only succeeding afterwards through coincidence and the suicide notes.

Kaito obviously wants out of the chamber, so he asks Yumeno to retrieve a crossbow for him to try and restrain Ouma, in which she does. Ouma does come in the “cell” again, presumably to feed him, and Kaito confronts him with the crossbow. Judging from the CI and Kaito’s traits in general, it seems he used the crossbow to try and scare Ouma and make him back down, but when that failed, he decided to shoot Ouma in a non-vital area as a warning shot, his arm.

Ouma still resists and makes a break for the exisal remote which causes Kaito to go after him, and the two get into a tackle fight. Their fight is interrupted by Maki, who shoots Ouma and injects him with the torture serum(it’s referred to as torture serum more times than it is poison, so I’ll be calling it that) when he tries to run for the exisal remote once more.

After failed interrogation, Maki tries to kill Ouma in which Kaito jumps in the way and gets shot and injected to save the two of them. Maki freaks out and tries to get the antidote, and Kaito and Ouma are left alone for a bit while injected. Ouma used Kaito’s shoulder to get to his feet and close the exisal hanger, so Maki can’t get inside.

The usual happens where Ouma pretends to drink the antidote so Maki can fuck off, and then actually feeds it to Kaito. Something to note is that Ouma could have let Kaito and Maki die for his plan, but refused to. Despite how Maki and Kaito treated him, he still viewed them as friends, even if it was one-sided. He says such after Maki chokes him, heavily implied that he’s not lying.

As a result, he chose to let himself die instead of the two of them, even though Kaito was dying anyway and both Maki and Ouma don’t have the best relationship. Although, he does imply in this and the flashbacks that he’s willing to forgive Maki for everything since he’s grown to understand both her and how similar the two of them are.

When Kaito asks why someone like Ouma would save him like that, Ouma doesn’t seem to give a proper answer since Kaito doesn’t explain why other than his plan. Now onto the plan: With Maki screwing up his plan, he went for his backup plan. To create an unsolvable murder and have Monokuma break a rule, making the killing game a lie and the audience watching abandon the killing game.

Of course, Ouma doesn’t know what type of audience he’s up against, nor the truth about Amami and Kaede, but it’s a solid plan nonetheless. So solid that Kaito seems to really like it, which I’ll get to. When Kaito refuses to commit murder, Ouma reminds him that Maki had shot him and the serum was killing him as they speak, in which you get another “Ha ha ha I’m so evil” moment from Ouma before his laugh is interrupted by heavy coughing and asking Kaito to get this over with. Kek.

Of course, there’s Ouma’s infamous breakdown. When Kaito asks Ouma why he’d want to end a killing game when he enjoys it, Ouma starts stuttering and claims he was lying with his despair sprite. He then breaks into more tears and stuttering(presumably from both tears and the serum)about how he hates the killing game and all the suffering it brings. Kaito is understandably surprised by this reaction.

When Kaito is exposed in the trial, he doesn’t give any further flashbacks of that between then and Ouma’s death meaning you can headcanon anything you want happened between them during then… I headcanon Kaito pet his head or hugged him out of pity.

In the trial, Kaito starts to go on for a while for how much he liked Ouma’s plan and commented on how interesting it is. Kiibo even comments on this, saying it’s like if he and Ouma were close in a way in which Kaito responds to Kiibo saying he hates Ouma.

Despite everything, Kaito still told the group about Ouma’s breakdown, and then suggested he was lying to get sympathy from him. However, Kiibo said it would be more shocking if he was lying since he was on his deathbed, in which Yumeno denied and Saihara was unsure. Then they moved on.

Even if Kaito couldn’t figure out Ouma entirely, if he really was a paranoid kid with trust issues or just someone to who wanted to beat the mastermind at his own game not caring for anything else, he was leaning towards the former, which is why he told the group in the first place about Ouma’s breakdown. The two may have not come to like each other, but they did come to understand and respect each other enough to reconcile and meet the one goal the two of them both wanted from the moment the killing game begun.

Subtlety

Despite Kaito hating Ouma so much, there’s a lot of subtlety that shows he does care for him to some extent and that Ouma also cares about Kaito in ways, linking to the killing bias they both show.

In the bonus event between them, Ouma says that he feels Kaito and he will meet again in which Kaito says he dreads it, and when Ouma implies Kaito may care about him, Kaito is quick to deny it.

In the main game, Kaito saves Ouma from being killed by Maki several times. From choking him both times, to shooting him. He doesn’t want anyone to be killed. He also says in Chapter 3 that just because Ouma’s a little shit doesn’t mean he deserves to die, connecting to Chapter 4’s trial where Kaito says he refuses to let someone like Ouma make it out of the killing game alive.

Even in Chapter 5, despite Kaito being so sure Ouma was the mastermind, he refused to actually let him get killed. He didn’t do the deed himself until the obvious happened, and he still saved Maki and Ouma despite the belief of the students that the killing game ends once the mastermind dies. Ouma’s words to Maki could have made Kaito figure things out, but he seems pretty surprised in the flashback when Ouma says he wasn’t the mastermind.

And with that previous mention of Ouma saying Kaito was lecturing him in the halls before his FTEs also show that Kaito did want to try and convince Ouma to change his ways, showing that he does see humanity in Ouma and doesn’t 100% fall for his act.

A huge example of Kaito and Ouma having a subtle care for one another is Chapter 3. Kaito ends up calling Ouma pure, much to Ouma’s shock which puts him in a monotone state. If you look closely at said screenshot, the face Ouma has is a subtle smile. He then says that’s the first time someone has said that to a liar like him.

In Chapter 4, when Kaito punches Ouma, his fail turns down completely, showing Ouma in full despair. This is what links back to that scene in Chapter 3, someone who called him something like that punched him out of anger of his behaviour. While Kaito was 100% justified for punching him, Ouma did feel the impact of his behaviour due to this. Something he needed at this point.

Also, Kaito is a massive tsundere in some aspects. He starts going on about how great Ouma’s plan was in Chapter 5 and when Kiibo points out how much he liked it, Kaito reassures he hates Ouma before talking about the plan some more. When he tells the group about Ouma’s breakdown, he’s says it’s probably a lie to get sympathy, but if that were the case, why tell them in the first place?

The fanartists and fandom

A bit of a stretch, but the fandom for this pairing is amazing. It’s no secret that I’m an analyzer, and I don’t care for how much fanservice the game gives me(by fanservice, I don’t mean perverted fanservice, but genuinely things that pander towards the fanbase like cinnamon roll stuff and a female protagonist)like a lot of other people do.

A good majority of people who ship Oumota/Kaitouma also happen to be this case, and like to analyse the relationship between the two. This way, there’s no bias between them and they can regularly discuss things about the relationship the two share without getting personal. This results in massive praise of how Kodaka wrote the two of them.

The fandom is also small, so unlike Oumasai, Tenmiko or Saihamatsu, it doesn’t seem to bug any other sides of the fandom with their popularity and overemphasis from the fandom. I could say the same for Momoharu and Oumaki shippers, but not as much to an extent. I’ve seen a lot of bias for the former and the latter isn’t well liked.

Not only that, but the Japanese fanartists for this pairing are some of the best. Most Chapter 5 fanart is great anyway, but the Kaitouma artists really capture the pairing well, or just look great in general with distinct art styles. Personal favorites of mine are @_urcs and @zitsuhaudon on twitter.

Enemies to Friends to Lovers type of pairing

This is the exact definition of this pairing. This also relates into the fandom a little, since while the fanfictions on AO3 for this pairing are limited, they’re really well done and fit this theme perfectly.

I’ve always liked Enemies to Friends to Loves type of pairings, and I’m glad this ship managed to make quite a number of them on AO3. My favorite one in particular is the recent one of Kaito and Ouma in the afterlife, the name slipped my mind but it should be easy to find through the tag.

Overall

The best and cutest ship, and my favorite relationship in the entire series. Kaito and Ouma’s rivalry is one of the most complex and well written parts of entirety of NDRV3, and I will forever stand by that for the above reasons. It’s severely underrated by the English fandom and I will forever love their dynamic.

This could have been longer, but recently, both Comun and Shiro.Tru(who is a recent member, but I highly recommend her V3 blogs since they are amazingly written so far)did amazing overviews of Kaito and Ouma’s rivalry which I’ll link here. Both I highly recommend giving a read to:

http://kaibutsushidousha.tumblr.com/post/164506869694/what-compels-you-about-ouma-and-momotas

http://aminoapps.com/page/danganronpa/4630123/my-favorite-relationship-in-danganronpa-v3-spoilers

They’re both similar and different in many ways, have amusing interactions, a lot of depth between both their relationship and as individual characters and their relationship develops throughout the whole game until they decide to reconcile to meet their one true goal. It’s a perfectly written dynamic and I will forever give Kodaka praise for it.

Once again, this is not to force you to like this ship. Hell, this might just get you to appreciate the relationship itself but dislike the pairing. This is just my two cents on why I love this ship so much, and I don’t like how snubbed this ship gets in the west because of it being a killer/victim pairing or the two hating each other. Thankfully, I think this ship has gotten some appreciation on amino recently which makes me happy.

What else can I say? I love this relationship, I love Ouma, I love Kaito and I love blogging. I hope you enjoyed, and if you like this ship, I hope I managed to briefly do it justice for you.

#danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #kaito momota #ouma kokichi #kokichi ouma #momota kaito #kaitouma #oumota #ndrv3 #ndrv3 spoilers

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