yabashiri

[yabashiri]

The Emperor's New World

Summary: When the feeling's gone, and you can't go on,

It's *******

When the morning cries, and you don't know why,

It's hard to bear--

For DR WLWeek 2024: Prompt Five: The Tragedy.

Also for @yabashiri, who prompted Enonami for something else but is getting this one, too. :)

Fic Rating: M because this is the Tragedy and there's some gruesome imagery.

AO3

The great Tragedy of the world is how easily it falls apart.

The stitching is imperfect, the fabrics mismatched, the pieces laid incorrectly together.  Its sleeves are two different lengths, the seat of its pants is missing, its beanie has a hole at the top so large that it might as well be an old school monk’s haircut.  The collar is too small for anyone to poke their head through, the buttons don’t match its holes, the zipper is stuck.  Junko doesn’t even need to take scissors to it; she could rip the flimsy thing apart with her bare hands.  She doesn’t need a stitch ripper either when the seams are so loosely done that she can unthread them with her fingernails.  Admittedly, her fingernails have been molded into a sharp point – into bear claws – which makes all of that easier, but that’s not the point.

The point is that the world at large needs a better tailor, and who better to try her hands at it than the Ultimate Fashionista herself?

Even if all she does is tear the current fit to shreds.

Look, sometimes you have to rip the old shit off before you put the emperor in his new clothes, got it?

(Build the suit and leave it for them to find later.  She’ll be dead before they put it on.  Doesn’t mean it’s not still her design.)

~

Junko sits on a rooftop far from Hope’s Peak Academy and lets her legs dangle over the edge.

Across from her, a cathedral burns.

Fire swirls, illuminating the sharp shattered glass from within and sending a kaleidoscope of colors along the street, along each person fighting, attacking, defending, murdering.  It’s an odd spot of beauty among everything else, those sharp pinks and blues and golds, even if it clashes horribly with the blood red sky overhead.

No matter what Junko does, she can’t escape that color.  She was born drenched in it, reflecting it in her eyes, as though it is the only thing she could ever be.  Her destiny: blood, blood, and more blood.  She tastes it rusty on her lips.

Disgusting.

Across the street, a girl grabs a shard of stained glass from the concrete and wields it like a knife.

Beautiful.

Poetry in motion.

Of course, this does not save her.  Who brings a knife to a gun fight?  She throws it like a star, and the sparkling pink glare hits Junko’s eyes.  When she can see again, the girl has already fallen to the ground, the light gone from her eyes.  It sucks – to miss that moment.  Maybe she wouldn’t have been able to see it from this far away anyway, but she would have liked to see the despair overwhelming that girl the way it overwhelmed her once, so long ago.

Maybe it’ll taste better to her.

Junko hears her shoes shuffling across the rooftop towards her before she even sees her, and she doesn’t ask how she found her here.  She could find her anywhere.  Will find her anywhere.  Junko looks up as she sits next to her.  “It’s been a while.”

“It hasn’t been that long, I think.”

Chiaki doesn’t look up from the gaming device in her hands as she kicks her heels against the brick wall beneath her.  She never looks up at Junko anymore; she always has her Game Girl with her, and she’s always looking at it.

Junko scoots over to her, just brushing against her arm, and leans over her shoulder.  Familiar.  Warm.  “Did I do it?” she asks, glancing at the game on her screen.  “Did I make it right?”

The story Junko tells – The Emperor’s New World – unravels on Chiaki’s screen.  Doom and gloom and a villain wrapped in a fantastic, iconic look.  Not that anyone knows what the true villain looks like, not yet.  (And even then, they won’t.  Junko makes herself a villain because it’s easier to fight one that has a physical form than it is to fight theories and philosophies and ideas.)

Right now, the only thing anyone knows is the bear – half black and half white with that singular blazing red eye torn into his skull and half a smile, like he’s always excited and always ready to rip someone’s throat out.  (Yours, if you aren’t careful.)  He looks just as cool as a character framed in 8-bit as he does in real life, although Junko’s sure he’s not nearly as cuddly in the game as the version Kaz and Gundham created for her.  The video game version doesn’t have real fur, after all.

(The plushies won’t either, but no one really cares about that.  It’s all marketing.)

“Will it have a good ending?”

Junko doesn’t say anything.  She goes through every possible scenario again and again and again, and she doesn’t say anything.  It will have a fitting ending, one handcrafted specifically for this story.  One that fits like a second skin.

In the silence, Chiaki continues.  “It’s okay if there’s a lot of suffering, I think.”

“It’s okay if people die?”

Because people are dying.  So many people are dying.  And it’s Junko’s fault.

It doesn’t matter that she knows they would have died anyway, that more people would have died if she didn’t act; it doesn’t matter, because they’re dying now and it’s still her fault, and it hurts.

Of course, the way she is now, that pain and despair only fuels her, only brings her joy.

(It still hurts.)

“I died, Ryo-chan.”  Chiaki still doesn’t look up.  The silence between them fills with screams and thunder and above all of that the background music of Chiaki’s game, the beeps and boops of each button she clicks (and the clacking of them, too).  The cathedral in front of them quivers, and another stained glass window explodes outward, its shards staining the ground.  Finally, into the silence, she asks, “Did you give it a happy ending?”

Ryoko nods, solemn.  “The happiest ending I could, Chicharin.  The happiest ending I could.”

“Then that’s okay, I think.”  Chiaki glances over to her; eyes the shade of Junko’s hair meet hers and frown.  “Hey, hey,” she says, reaching up and brushing her fingers along Junko’s cheek, bringing their tips away wet.  “What’s wrong?”

“You know,” Ryoko says, with a shake of her head.  “Why are you asking when you already know?”

Chiaki smiles and leans up just enough to kiss her cheek.  “You’ll see me soon.” When she fades into nothing, Ryoko thinks she can imagine what the press of Chiaki’s lips on her skin might have felt like.  Unfortunately, she’ll never know.  Then she stretches her lips into Junko’s horrible, terrific grin and beams down on the world below her, propping her hands on her hips as the cathedral glass stains blood pink.

[yabashiri]

Art Commission for @aparticularbandit

A fanart for a crossover ship written by them!

✩･ Commission Me ･ Ko-fi ･ ✩

[yabashiri]

[yabashiri]

[yabashiri]

*opens word doc covered in blood* it doesn’t have to be good. it just has to be done.

[yabashiri]

adult jeckole as the butch pizza delivery girl and lipstick lesbian with no money for the pizza

[yabashiri]

It's been 7 seconds was probably the best thing to come out of the flipside because it's so accurate to how a phrase just spreads like wildfire in high school

[yabashiri]

TW: self harm

I have scars everywhere. Literally everywhere. Arms, hands, legs, chest, feet. I regret it so much by now. There's nothing I regret more than sh. I hope I can hide everything with tattoos one day. Starting sh was the worst decision of my life.

[yabashiri]

CO09 THE FLIPSIDE BINGO

Somebody remind me of this

[yabashiri]

class of 09 girls + their aesthetics bc i’m tired of people not getting them.

(minor tw for sh & ed):

jecka: she’s literally a preppy, trendy 2000s teen. she wears lacoste/abercrombie polo shirts, hollister skinny jeans, american eagle, bebe jackets, and juicy couture. a lot of her clothes come from her mom’s job, as apparently her mom gets them for free.

she is a “pharma-princess” and openly idolizes paris hilton. she smokes cigarettes and casually abuses painkillers. she may be a little trashy, but she dresses like any other fashionable girl from that era.

nicole: for starters, shes lower middle class. her mom buys the cheapest internet and cable packages, as well as having nicole on the assisted lunch plan. with that being said, she’s not buying a ton of miss me jeans, bb belts, or affliction shirts. shes a hot topic/spencers fiend bc she can steal it. her outfits are usually a hoodie, tank top, or t-shirt with ripped skinny jeans- which is to say they aren’t very complicated. i think people get confused and try and dress her in the modern “y2k” fashion, but it doesn’t really work for her.

shes severely depressed and winning the idagf war, which is shown in her makeup and nails. i think her makeup routine is very messy and smudged, but thats lowkey the look.

emily: shes rich, but she doesn’t care or acknowledge it. she can buy whatever she wants, but chooses to go for the grungey/emo look. even though she’s the most “scene” character, she still follows a few trends- ex: the lifeguard hoodie. her hair is definitely damaged by the box bleach she uses and the excessive use of her straightener. i also think she 100% has raccoon eyes (in the avril lavigne-way.)

she parties with her sketchy boyfriends, day drinks, and does almost any drug she can get her hands on. she’s suicidal and highkey crazy, which results in her tattoos and scars. (the excessive SH-culture is completely on brand for the 2000s.)

ari: borderline manic pixie dream girl going through a sexuality crisis. she’s almost emo, but not quite. she wears winged eyeliner and red lipgloss. her wardrobe consists of mostly graphic tee shirts and skinny + bootcut jeans. she dyes her hair because “no one understands her,” but she still has a decent relationship with her parents.

she used to be a girl scout, so she definitely cuts her own hair and thinks it’s rebellious. i think her favorite shoe would be black high top converse.

kelly: is the definition of a trendy, trashy, 2000s girl. kelly is also rich (as stated by jecka.) she’s popular with the boys because she’s pretty, has big boobs, and dtf. she wears a lot of hollister, wet seal, juicy couture, and victoria secret. i think she would wear a full face of makeup to school. her hair is dyed blonde but she keeps the roots grown out just a little.

megan: 2000s THEATRE KID!! she’s ARTSY, not EMO. she’s apparently pretty, but not pretty enough to be constantly hit on. she wears a lot of media/pop culture clothing and jeans. her hair color is her natural hair color and her nail polish is always chipped.

jecka & hunter say she’s a christian girlie, so most of her outfits are more modest and toned down compared to some of the other girls. she probably wears minimal makeup unless she’s doing a show.

karen: she’s dorky and nerdy to the extreme. she looks very mousy and homely. she likes twilight and harry potter + she works at a library (and is strict about the rules.) karen likes and is good at school. she probably only wears mascara and medicated chapstick, as well as her glasses. she has a messy bob that she never styles.

she’s also insecure about her body, as jecka and nicole make her relapse on her ED, so she wears baggier clothing than any of the other characters.

i think she would wear sketchers and jeggings.

anywho, i like this game and im also super into the genuine 2000s fashion, so a part of me dies whenever i see someone say “nicole listens to ayesha erotica!!” or “jecka wears affliction and bb belts!” girl bffr.

[yabashiri]

yearbook full of some of the craziest people ever

[yabashiri]

good to know there class of 09 fans on tumblr..... here yall go

[yabashiri]

だなーーーー

[yabashiri]

matching couples t shirts

[yabashiri]

I forgot how good revisions feel. Drafting is always so demoralizing to me, but in revision I can see myself making something good.

[yabashiri]

"When I was five, Mukuro was building sandcastles on the beach after the untimely death of her teddy bear. I was jealous of her, naturally, 'cuz I was clumsy. I saw a Godzilla movie the other day and destroyed her sandcastles. She cried ugly and built them again..."

(Project Fiction. Epilogue of Junko)

⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆

[yabashiri]

Yep, I happen to have a fic that cancels Hope's Peak basically. Saying someone's 'talented' used to be a praise, now it's a slur. If you have Hope's Peak anywhere on your resume, you don't get a job. Fashion magazines put their latest prints out of sale because they have interviews with Enoshima Junko. The only reason government doesn't rename Enoshima island in the end is because conservative old folks are against it, and they are the better half of Japan's population.

So yeah, read PF ^^'

do u ever think abt things post-despair society would find offensive/unacceptable. little things like putting your daughter's hair up in pigtails, dressing in monochrome. do u ever think about all the other girls named junko out there who changed their names or went by something else to avoid association with her. do u ever think about blondes dying their hair other colors, women all over choosing different clothes and styles, the entire gyaru subculture suddenly put in the limelight for all the wrong reasons. do u ever stop and imagine what it would be like to live in this world and see someone with their hair in pigtails and have your first thought be that they supported Armageddon.