MASKCURSED. independent, private, and selective SIDEBLOG for daigo from epic games' fortnite. no knowledge or interest in the game required for interaction. crossover friendly. written by kylie/sushi. 30+ years old, female. dash only.
exclusive with @lcstwarricr ( kendo ) and @cursedguardian ( jade ) but otherwise does not practice exclusivity.
FOLLOWS FROM @namedhope - i would heavily appreciate you following that blog, as well, so i can keep up with mutuals even if you're only interested in daigo. just let me know if you have no plans to interact with hope so i know not to throw her at you!
blog graphics done by @honorforged !!!
ABOUT & VERSES.
rules below cut.
PLEASE REMEMBER THIS IS A SIDEBLOG :D
( these rules are pretty much the same as what's on hope's blog )
my speed is highly sporadic. i can be on top of things or i'm running off the queue and barely seen. i work a full time job and participate in multiple sports, my schedule and activity levels fluctuate heavily. i also ( somewhat ) balance three other blogs alongside this one.
i will rarely ( if ever ) follow first. fortnite is shit on too much and so many people aren't willing to give it the time of day. i want this blog to be taken seriously and be respected. i want people who genuinely are interested and will give daigo a chance. this isn't meant to be high and mighty, i just know my source material's state in the world lol. you don't need to know/like the game, pretend he's an oc, respect him, and lets have fun! but yeah, i'm gunna let people be real with me on if they're interested - and this even includes friends.
let me know if my formatting is too much. i just like to do it and it's habit now, but i won't die on this hill at all.
i do not fill out interest checkers. if i follow you, i am willing to extend the desire to learn about your muses and interact with anyone we deem to be exciting to meet. i'm not here to be picky, i'm here to explore all manner of muses and possibilities.
i don't plan to have a rl fc, but i have absolutely zero concerns with mixing fc types or just going iconless!
i do not write smut. and this doesn't matter with daigo anyways because he's asexual and aromantic and will not be doing any of that lol. so no romantic shipping on this blog, sorry. however, i'm intrigued to develop familial and friendly relationships with him given his complexity.
other more sensitive topics i am usually open to. while i won't write things like r.ape or p.edophilia, i can handle it being referenced/mentioned for backstories or the like, and i don't have issue with blood, gore, trauma, etc. will do my best to tag all things that are appropriate.
standard rp etiquette. So no straight up godmodding/power play. there are some cases where it can be tolerated, such as our characters getting from point a to point b, but do not ever control thoughts or major actions.
being that i'm over thirty, i generally prefer my partners be twenty one plus. but eighteen plus can be allowed. i cuss a fair amount in text on occasion and refer to drinking, adulthood, etc. so it's just more of a comfort thing.
other blogs: @streetslost @starsweepers @bloodcrave and then obviously @namedhope
this song gives me such vibes for daigo when he and his siblings discover magic is back ( i also tbh feel like it fits kendo in a few lines, but i'm not gunna put words in amber's mouth about that! ). he has such a contrast to jade and kendo when it comes to magic. jade sees hope and adventure and light and a return to what the island was. kendo sees it positively for the most part, but he also carries the most caution of the siblings, recognizing that magic's return also brings great dangers and literal demons.
daigo sees it as power. he's a morally gray man in the long run. he would and does questionable things in exchange for power and knowledge... he does it with the intention of protecting his siblings and the island, but he still... does shit. and magic is a huge driving force for that. he sees jade's enthusiasm and kendo's caution and heeds both. his enthusiasm comes from the idea of harnessing magic and his caution is to use that magic for protection. and his connection to this return of magic is... dark. he is the opposite of jade, her balance. but he refuses to make her serve that purpose and seeks out other ways to strengthen himself and balance the darkness so he can craft masks of power that don't re-ignite another war. ...he fails, obviously.
when magic touches him, he feels the stirrings and knows life isn't going to be the same. a few of the lyrics just generally hit home for me:
i wanna live like i know i'm dying
take up my cross, not be afraid.
literally to bear the burden of power to protect his family and the island. he sees it as his destiny and what he needs to do, though he also knows his darkness is... not healthy.
there's a section i won't spiel the whole lyrics but it feels a lot like him seeking power against authority, wanting to carve his own way from the ancient past, and just generally rebuking the fact he can't handle it.
wait, it's just about to break
it's more than i can take
everything's about to change
i feel it in my veins
it's not going away
everything's about to change
literally him having that connection with magic and just. realizing he's not going to be the same. life as the island knows it is about to get upheaved, and he can feel it. his magic, the impact.
there's a war going on inside of me tonight
don't be afraid
those are the major callouts. i could ramble more about a few other spots and how the second verse ( or bridge? i'm not musically inclined lol ) makes me think of kendo as well as a bit of daigo but. yeah. the chorus and those two parts are what really hit me.
also completely random otherwise but the second singer's voice has such a daigo vibe to me.
“you know what I always say? a boba a day keeps the nightmares away... so uh, I recommend...?” — from helsie @koichas
"I DON'T GET NIGHTMARES." a lie that slipped out with ease. though he might have been familiar with helsie due to the other's presence around jade when they were younger; he wasn't about to be honest over such a detail he considered personal. though to anyone who paid half a bit of mind, it was APPARENT that he was afflicted by nightly torments. the dark rims beneath his eyes, the gaunt and hollow expression to his features. he struggled to sleep, even with oninoshima's healing.
still, he kept to himself, he didn't voice his turmoil. his sister might have had the power to pry it out of him, but he wouldn't allow that same consideration for a n y o n e else. not so openly. kendo got the half baked effort, but the two were still learning how to reconnect. life had stopped being simple long ago.
attention pulled from lingering musings that tore his mind apart to try and remind himself to proceed with the conversation. if only to try and keep the bobarista from pushing the topic further. his armor was still cracked, eldest brother couldn't afford to let the remnants shatter before he could mend it all. "are you just trying to get me to buy something?"
An emotionally constipated, repressing all his grief daigo is really how it is. that when it finally hits, and he feels broken down to it — it hits hard and he doesn’t know what to do or where to start (when it to comes to all his unprocessed grief and sadness.)
Yeah. All your writing pieces about daigo and his sadness, guilt or grief — speak to me and I agree with your viewpoint. I love your writing and take on the character very much. This is just a random appreciation drop for your wonderful writing. I’d share more of my thoughts but I’m way too shy.
The idea of him being grateful for his siblings, especially even more after the loss of his parents and all he went through is… very real.
aw, thank you so much, nonnie! i really appreciate the kind words about how i capture daigo. as someone who is quite his opposite, he is sometimes a challenge to write, but i like to approach his situation with a serious mindset even if i often tease and be silly about him, as well. it's fun and interesting to explore the complexities about him and his relationships - a morally grey but ultimately trying to do his best. always a fascinating sort of character.
as an aside, i hope you are doing okay <333 there is no pressure ofc, but you're always welcome in my inbox here if you need to give a little chat or want a silly or anything! sending you all the love, thank you again for your kind words, no need to be shy but stay comfy out there!
i am terminally A Sucker for characters who have a towering and generally earned ego about their own ability and absolutely no self-worth about themselves as a person at all. intoxicating combo.
randomly thinking about how daigo is probably at his most broken when he finally allows himself the chance to mourn his parents. he never got to, he had to grow up and take responsibilities so fucking fast that he probably couldn't even cry at their funeral because the weight he had to take was so heavy that if he let himself be sad, he might not recover. he's broken after mask maker, but the only time jade and kendo will have ever seen him break down is the day he sits in front of their parents' grave and begs for forgiveness and how much he misses them because he struggled a lot growing up, but they were his everything. they were why jade and kendo are now his everything.
I just knew you’d mention your lack of sleep, smh. You just can’t take a compliment. 😔
"I CAN TAKE A COMPLIMENT," he noted, brows raised. "my intellect, my power, my skillset, even the masks... but my looks? i woke up like this, there was no effort or time put into such a trivial aspect. what compliment is there to TAKE? i prefer to accept regards when they honor things that i actually strove for. my appearance is merely superficial though i understand why some take pride or value in it."
it simply wasn't of i m p o r t a n c e to him. thus, instead of a simple amount of gratitude, he couldn't help but to have rebuked it into something akin to a joke. daigo wasn't unhappy with receiving such words of praise, but they held little worth in his mind. there was so much else in his life that he had had to put labor upon. those were the things that he wanted recognition for.
At Daigo's abrupt rise, Jade starts slightly where she sat, straightening her posture as she stares at him; waiting. A part of her worried he was about to distance himself here, and everything she wanted to go over would be put on hold again. There was a struggle inside himself she could only witness — in the way his magic seeped at the ground. It broke her heart to hear his admittance of fear. The Dark Presence was still a threat; the onimorphs were invading their home. With the two struggling with themselves, it made them more susceptible for worry to worm inside and fester.
If she had a sprite with her, she would be able to heal that damage immediately; to show him how they could work together. Yet the sprites were currently hidden away, and her imbalance left her weaker and pained (still left unconfessed). It tore at Jade that she wasn't at her most wonderful to support her brother, but that didn't mean she wasn't about to try her best.
Standing up with a light shake of her head, Jade fights the urge to reach out for him once again as she holds eye contact. ❝... we can't know what the future will hold. Like, my own magic... I can't do much of anything right now. But even though I can barely feel it, I can still sense all of Oninoshima— breathing with me. Yet, what worth is a guardian... if she had been the one to cause all of this?❞
Gaze is cast downward now. This would be the start of the younger sibling admitting her own faults, and doing so filled her heart with a pounding regret. Was it the wrong time? Would it make things worse? She only followed her gut here, which told her neither of them would be able to move on without being fully open.
❝I also need to do better, but none of us will magically have the answers on how to do it. All we can do is try our best together. You, me, Kendo. I think... in time, we'll find our balance. We first must believe in each other, and ourselves.❞
CAUSE ALL THIS? brows with knit, puzzled at the statement, having never once considered placing any of the blame on jade. there was a number of events that could have been stopped to prevent what had come to be, but the core of them all had trailed back to THE DARK PRESENCE. to daigo. he made conscious decisions that led to the outcomes, but jade's only mistake was trying to do what was right. no impairment of judgement, simply falling prey to what the demon had laid out as a trap.
not once had she embraced the lies fed to her mind like he had. her heart, her magic... always o p p o s e d to what had tainted their home. being cursed, being trapped had never been steps of her own making, but deceit that had made the bricks of her path. her decisions alone hadn't taken her to the endpoint.
not like his own. he had willingly listened to the darkness in his mind, let his own ego coil around his heart. working with the baron, trying to do everything alone. looking back, it was all the calculations of a f o o l and not the intelligent person he paraded himself as. heh, intelligence really wasn't always wisdom.
"your only role in this was being used. being tricked. your conscious efforts didn't lead to this path - the demon took advantage of you. my decisions were the downfall. don't blame yourself for what i could have easily stopped if i had used my head instead of my EGO." low rumble, magic ceasing its play and drawing his hands in.
not one for physical affection, but his eyes did contain a softness very rarely carried. apathy was his general state, but in that moment, he offered affection. or... as close as he could get with the display to his features. jade had always been one of his few weakpoints. while he knew she could handle herself well enough, he had never wanted to thrust such expectations upon her shoulders. a free spirit...
he had been harsh upon kendo. he knew now that perhaps his expectations had been unfair, but that was a different bridge to cross. despite being humbled, his attitude still went too mighty. "and you... always listening to your heart-" not said with any sort of NEGATIVITY tied to his tone, merely thoughtful, trailing, "kendo being one of both worlds. the balance will come. the belief... well, i guess the two of us have work to do. little brother's at least got that figured out finally."
You were Jade's biggest mentor when it came to mastering the typhoon blade. How was that all like?
THERE WOULD COME A BOUNCE of his shoulders, a half hearted response. why were people so nosy? especially about such... trivial things. despite admiring his own intelligence, he didn't seek CELEBRITY appealing. he didn't need interviews, he hardly withstood basic interactions. face soured a grimace, though recollecting training jade really wasn't filled with much dread; an opposite experience from attempting to mentor kendo.
"jade was... is... s p i r i t e d-" to put it in kinder terminology. all over the place could have been another description. "and difficult to keep attention of on occasion. however, the typhoon blade was perfect for her. it fit the archetype of her fighting style, so she adapted to it swiftly even despite her rambunctious activities. we're similar in that way, i would suppose."
the two of them were natural when it came to working together. perhaps luck, perhaps coincidence... but daigo knew that it had taken work. the relationship he had with jade... it had been nurtured. tended to and l e a r n e d. their parents had guided them into it, pushed the appropriate steps before their passing. both children had had to understand, and that hadn't come right away. the years had tied them closer, and having the right stepping stones had been everything.
the same couldn't have been said of his dynamic with kendo. a misfortune he now couldn't go back and adjust. too busy, too stressed, too a n g r y... he held regrets, but his pride wouldn't let him apologize. kendo had had to meet him on his grounds, too, but their stubbornness had only put them on different ends. they still were...
the eldest feared it was too late to mend, but still he couldn't break away from his habits, his ideals. he had never been easy to work with on the personality front. he was... different. only jade knew that.
"she respects me. listens. so between the natural affinity she had, and her willingness to work with me... it worked out. that's really all there is to it..."
