The Heart of the Cards knows only One Master

Hi, I'm Kosuke Aozora. I do professional, personal, and freelance tarot readings for those who ask for them. We're all hurtling through our lives together, so I seek enlightenment for myself and others through the cards in front of me. Associated with PROJECT INNOCENCE

[projectinnocence-blog]

Shows up Twenty Million Years late with Starbucks | Kosuke | Trial Post 1-01

Kosuke hadn’t been having a good time, to be honest.

The death of Charger. That had rattled him immensely.

The death of Mana. Who could’ve done such a thing?

Being the amazingly rational coward that he was, once the deaths had begun, Kosuke hid himself almost exclusively in his room, refusing to make contact with anyone and sending away any people that tried to make contact with him. Had he not feared for his life so greatly, Mono-oni may have had to pull him from his room kicking and screaming following the trial announcement.

However, he was more rational than that. He knew what not attending would mean.

So, there he was, joints stiff as a board and every bit of his body taut as a wire. Well Kosuke, it was time to make yourself useful without having any evidence.

"Ahh… m-my name is Kosuke Aozora. I am a-a… a Tarot Enthusiast. I apologize for not being of m-much help during the search…"

But, you still had a brain. Just because you didn’t find any evidence didn’t mean that you couldn’t build off of what others had brought forward already.

"I-If at all possible… I would like to call attention to what Rallis-san said earlier, as well as reiterated by Hera-san. The c-culprit has evidence on them that would implicate them… but not an injury or an item. T… Traces of splinters from the wooden p-plank may satisfy that category, but we m-may want to perform searches to eradicate a-any question.”

And boy, there were a lot of questions.

"I shall s… submit m-myself to any checks if necessary. Also, my alibi is a-anything b… b-but solid so I won’t bother w-with that."

[projectinnocence-blog]

Corpse Hootenanny / Mattie / Kosuke

[mattiecaroll-blog]

Mattie stood in the doorway watching Kosuke look around the room, She was staring at the ground and trying to get a little mumble of something out.

"c-can i come in…"

it seems even in a situation like this she still feels odd about entering someones room uninvited

[shsl-tarotguy]

Kosuke was a little surprised to hear the question from behind him. But, as soon as the words processed in his mind, he mentally chided himself for being so rude.

"Of course! Oh, my apologies. Please, do come in! No need to stand awkwardly in the doorway."

Kosuke stepped to the side and bowed with a tiny flourish, encouraging the other to enter the room.

[projectinnocence-blog]

Corpse Hootenanny / Mattie / Kosuke

[mattiecaroll-blog]

"we…we’re really staying here…"

That really pounded it in for her that this is real.

"aa..a! sorry! we should go see yours first!"

[shsl-tarotguy]

Leading the other into the right wing, Kosuke carefully stepped through the decrepit halls, checking his name tag and finding his door down at the very end of the hallway. Well, this was... this was where he would be living for a short period of time.

Damn... what had he gotten himself into? Ghosts, strangers, weird schools, living in a haunted location? This was just... it was a little too much to take in at once. So he did what he did best, try to put on a facade for those around him. The door seemed to unlock when he used his nametag, so Kosuke pushed it slowly open and stepped in side.

He coughed a little as the dust lingered in the air. The room was... well it existed. It was dingy and small, but appeared to have been cared for with no small amount of love at one point. It felt... juvenile? The bed was obviously going to be too small for him and was covered in a quilt that seemed more at home in a child's room than a high school dormitory. Just where were they?

"Hmm, well... I guess it's... homely? Perhaps?"

The tarot reader began meandering carefully around the room, not checking to see if Mattie had followed him.

[projectinnocence-blog]

Corpse Hootenanny / Mattie / Kosuke

[mattiecaroll-blog]

"a corpse…"

Mattie started picking at the threads in her sweater and spaced out. 

Her heart beat got even more rapid and she tried to lighten the pressure of panic on her ribs by taking deeper slower breaths.

This entire situation left her at a loss for words.

"…i"

Mattie actually had in fact scene 1 or 2 dead bodies before however, they weren’t exactly something she handled calmly.

"i-i i i don’t wanna see it"

The nametags that’s right she did take a glance at it when dorms were mentioned, this is real right?we’re staying here?

[shsl-tarotguy]

Kosuke winced a little -- yeah, he probably could've tried a little harder to soften that blow. At least, enough that Mattie wouldn't be too bothered by it. Well, he made his decision, and now it was time to clean up his mistakes. Time for more distractions.

"Well... there appear to be dormitories for each of us; it doesn't appear as if we will be having roommates. Shall we go investigate?"

Internally, Kosuke was shaking, screaming for a way to get out of here. But, outside, he tried to exude a front of calm and grace. If he remained calm, at least externally, perhaps the other students would be calmed as well. He could start there at least.

"Let us go look at where it appears we will be staying... at least for the time being. I do not intend to spend any longer in this frightful building than I have to. But... best to get comfortable for now, yes?"

Kosuke took out his name tag and began looking at the maps, determining that Mattie and himself had dormitories on opposite sides of the building.

"It appears we are in two different wings. Shall we head to yours first? Or mine?"

[projectinnocence-blog]

Corpse Hootenanny / Mattie / Kosuke

[mattiecaroll-blog]

"a..aa!"

More Embarassment. aaaaaaah this wouldn’t have happened if i watched where i was going!!!

"…"

Mattie sat there looking up for like 3 seconds before realizing she should probably interact with him.

"aa! im sorry!"

Mattie awkwardly took his hand, people here were very hands on… Physical Contact is not her specialty.

"umm…my name is mattie caroll…uh…um nice to meet you…"

Mattie started to fiddle with her hair with her free hand suddenly realizing that Now would be a good time to realize she’d been standing up for a moment. im still holding his hand

"sorry!…again…"

Why does your every interaction with everyone have to be this way

"d-do you know…what happened…?"

Yes. Finally. You got out what you wanted to ask

[shsl-tarotguy]

Kosuke was happy to see the girl coming around, which was a major relief after the shocking sight in the other room. Well, he'd try to keep the explanation brief for the time being; he didn't want to shock her too much.

"It is... well, it is not exactly a pleasant sight. There appears to be a... corpse."

Well, maybe he wasn't being as gentle as he could have been but, how exactly do you soften that blow? Might as well be fair about it.

"It's rather gruesome... I wouldn't recommend looking if you don't have reason to."

Kosuke was nervous -- he was surrounded by all of these new, unfamiliar people. What exactly was the purpose of being here? What was planned for them? In any case, he had helped her stand. That was a good start. Time to deflect the subject.

"Did you look through your nametag yet? THere's some interesting information on there."

[projectinnocence-blog]

Corpse Hootenanny / Mattie / Kosuke

"haa!!…"

Mattie gasped and stopped in her tracks at the sound of a scream. Oh gosh… Situations like this are never fun. In her mind she imagined thousands of scenarios which would result in a scream like that in a place like this.

>Go check it out

*Seek safety in numbers

*Hide

Although the idea of what she might face by heading toward the sound of the scream was scary, she wouldn’t be able to let someone get hurt or worse because she was too nervous to do anything. The idea of trying to hide seemed appealing to an extent but fruitless over all,you can’t just hide in a place like this forever.

So many possibilities…She sort of lost her focus on how someone might be dying or hurt by getting lost in thought of all the different frightening visceral images of what grisly end a person would meet in places like this and spaced out.

Seeking safety in numbers would be the smart way to go… but at the same time wouldn’t it also be a bad choice as well? I don’t know any of these people…I’m scared…

AND THEN THERE CAME A RANDOM CRACK IN THE FLOOR CAUSING MATTIE TO LOOSE HER FOOTING AND FLY THROUGH THE AIR DOING A FLYING TRIPLE BACKFLIP

and land face first on the dirty floor.

"uwa…….."

Mattie lay there on the floor for a second thinking about how thinking about things got her into this situation until she noticed the presence of someone.

[shsl-tarotguy]

Kosuke had spent most of his time in this strange environment in silence, slowly working through his mental resources and trying to rationalize out what exactly him and the other students had gotten themselves into.

As of yet, he hadn't come up with a good answer.

However, a scream got his attention and he sprung into action. Kosuke found himself at the threshold of the room where a grisly sight met his eyes. He squeezed them shut and quickly ducked away, not wanting to look at it any longer than he had too. Besides, there was no sense in forcing himself to subject his vision to such atrocities, right?

However, stumbling back into the hallway, Kosuke noticed someone having a bit of a rough time on the floor. He extended a shaky hand to the prone figure.

"E-excuse me, would you like some help? My name is... Kosuke Aozora. I am a tarot enthusiast. My I ask your name?"

He hoped he hadn't been too forward. She did seem like she was in a bad way.

[projectinnocence-blog]

I Didn't Foresee This | Kosuke | Prologue

When Kosuke came around, he was lying in a circle, composed of himself and other students. He lifted his head and immediately started when he saw the glowing blue figure in the center of all of them. That was… that was different.

"…!"

This felt — wrong. Something was fundamentally wrong about this whole situation. The blue girl spoke, coughing occasionally, and Kosuke winced at the painful injuries that seemed to encroach across her face. Then she was… dead? Were they dead? Was this hell?

He took a moment to clutch his head and shake it back and forth a few times. No, no they were fine. Everyone else seemed to be up and about well enough so they were fi— who the fuck was that.

The tarot reader’s eyes fell fearfully on the figure the girl (Momoko, was it?) pointed out to the group. The tarot reader instinctively recoiled a tiny amount from the silent, imposing figure. Again, there was that feeling of wrongness that permeated his entire being.

"This is… beyond abnormal…"

Yes, ‘beyond abnormal’. As eloquent as ever, Aozora. He began fiddling with his name tag, hoping it would provide some answers.

[shsl-tarotguy]

BLOG UPDATE

So I probably should have done this a long time ago but HEY HEY looks like this blog is getting repurposed for Project Innocence!! I'll be going through and making a few changes but this blog is no longer associated with Doubt and now exclusively the new game!!

[shsl-tarotguy]

Where did the cards lead him...?

So what happened to Kosuke during the long three month period of cloning and then after the fact? Well, here is my current list of canons to the poor little survivor tarot boy's life.

DURING THE TIMESKIP:

Kosuke kept to himself for much of the first few weeks. He was still grieving over Shun's death, and did not imagine that many people would want to be with him during that time period.

Since Chiemi spent time in Tartarus, and Saori was likely still upset with him for staying in the first place, the list of people he was close with dwindled fast.

His only major interactions with others was during meal times as he served the food, and the time he spent in the Kitchen with Gei

He spends most of his time in Shun's room writing letters to people he knew, either dead, alive, or in the outside world.

As such, he was a bit of a wreck by the time the first month ends.

He resents the Collective and Doctrina Artifice equally, but has no one to take out his frustration on; thus, his bitterness towards Yasuda.

During the worst of the first month, he begins suffering from nightmares that only serve to worsen his mental state.

He goes into Tartarus once, and nearly immediately leaves. He feels like he could barely face those who died after he nearly left them behind.

As the second and third month roll by, he becomes more adjusted, although he's more hollow than actually emotionally healed.

POSTGAME:

Regardless of opinion or standing, Kosuke tries to get as much contact information as possible from every student. If anything, he knows how resourceful they can all be. And, he's willing to forgive.

He's still bitter about Yuuto, although he finally comes around and forgives him after being able to talk with him one on one.

He goes into Tokyo with Shun and Kikuyo to see if they can get in touch with their families.

Kosuke's older brother, Ryutaro, and his (now) wife, Mio, are alive and well in Tokyo. Ryutaro has been kept busy working as an emergency doctor in the aftermath of the riots.

Kosuke's parents are missing, but not confirmed dead. Ryutaro tells Kosuke that he suspects they fled Tokyo at the first sign of the riots breaking out, and either have not been able to or simply have not gotten in contact with him.

Now that he has some human companionship, Kosuke starts having less nightmares, although it takes a while for them to fade; even long after leaving Gaia, he still has one from time to time.

Shun and Kosuke remain basically inseparable for a long period of time. Now that they are outside of the game, they want to start their relationship off in a way that is healthy and mutual.

Assume somewhere along this path Kosuke finally loses his virginity.

After they have gotten themselves back on their feet, they decide it best to leave Tokyo and head elsewhere, first to another corner of Japan, and then perhaps overseas should the country become too dangerous to stay in.

This list is non-exhaustive, but it's what I have now, at the time~!

[shsl-doubtepsilon-deactivated20]

DA3 : THE PHOENIX

sprites gathered from each player

video editing by drea !

THANK YOU FOR A WONDERFUL DA3, EVERYONE!

(The pictures at the end of the video will be posted in photosets soon, along with other great drawings that we weren’t able to add in time!)

[arcanemysteries]

What Tarot Is And What It’s Not.

[shsl-tarotguy]

So I found out about this at like 4AM last night, or how I learned to stop worrying and accidentally predict endgame

I was going through a lot of my old reading posts since the game is over and, well, hindsight's 20/20 right? So I peeked at all of my saved readings and decided to look at them from the perspective of the game being over and done with.

And one stood out to me in particular.

This was a reading Kosuke gave to Lee Badens during the pre-Week 10 extended normdays. She did not provide him with a question, so he used a simple spread to hopefully give her advice about the future.

At the time, Kosuke (and I, to be honest) were a little perturbed by the fact that the spread was overwhelmingly positive. There was not a negative card to be found, and he found it hard to believe these were the cards that were resonating with the situation. So, at the time, Kosuke told Lee that the cards foretold of good things, although he couldn't understand why or how.

Now, when I look back on it, I realize that the spread was detailing a rough outline of endgame.

The four of wands is a time of relaxation and celebration, one that sat in the back of the minds of everyone in the game. It's what they wanted, the game to be over. While true endgame was not a celebration, I imagine, the collective release of pent up energy upon the conclusion of the game suffices in a similar manner. Stable energy. The Four of Wands.

The Magician I believe I (and Kosuke) placed correctly the first time around. The Magician is "a person who has honed their craft to the point of perfection; any action they take in their field is one of ease and little effort due to their high skill. This skill was hard-earned, often through years of thorough study or practice" (from the earlier reading). So, something involving the student body -- the Super High School Levels.

Finally, we hit the Ten of Cups. Now, the Ten of Cups has sometimes been described as a reunion card, or one of a happy family finally reaching stability and joy in a happy resolution. It's one of the most positive cards in the deck, and I could not for the life of me wrap my head around how it applied to the game. And then the choice came, and the entire student body was revived. For one of the first times in Dangan Ronpa history, everyone was walking out alive. All 52.

And that -- that is the ten of cups. That is a joyful resolution.

[shsl-tarotguy]

☆? I feel like my first one didn't go though

★☆☆☆☆ 1/5

"You... how could you betray my trust...?"

Kosuke cannot stand people deceiving others, and Yuuto, to Kosuke, felt like the ultimate deception. Kosuke grieved heavily for the EMT's death in the first trial. He made stalwart promises to him in Tartarus to uncover the mastermind. He barely let a day pass without the guilt of letting Yuuto's execution occur haunt his every hour.

And when he found out it all could have been a lie? He broke a little.

It felt like his emotions were being cast roughly back into his face (and the callous robo-version did not help either). When this game ends, Kosuke is not likely to acknowledge Yuuto, regardless of any attempts the latter may make to get his attention. Any bond that was there is now broken. Perhaps there was no bond to begin with.

[shsl-tarotguy]

☆ HI DAD

★★★★★ 5/5

"I was... so s-scared when I l-lost you!"

Kikuyo was someone that felt like a daughter to Kosuke. They bonded over the silliest things, looked out for each other, and were able to share several tender moments.

And then Kikuyo murdered Nanoka.

It never crossed naive Kosuke's mind that one of his closest friends would become a killer. When week 7 shattered that preconception, he felt very lost, and losing Kikuyo sent him into a short slump that lasted for nearly two weeks.

And yet, he got to see her smile. To him, that meant the whole world.

[shsl-tarotguy]

☆ eyyyyy

★★★☆☆ 3/5

"Soft Grunge-kun... I hope you are happy."

Kosuke never talked to Naoki outside of trials, and even within them, they did not interact much. Yet, Kosuke sees some of himself in Naoki, in the way that Aqua and Naoki became a close, loving couple. In some way, he's jealous of the way that they stayed with each other.

In this way, he wishes the best for Naoki. Even if Kosuke's own relationship is unstable at times, he sees that what Naoki and Aqua have is real and genuine. He would not wish ill on either of them for that.

[shsl-tarotguy]

☆ B)

★★★★★ 5/5

"I love you, for all of your mistakes. And mine."

(tw: suicide mention)

Kosuke's and Shun's relationship was rocky from the get go. Kosuke did not understand how to express his emotions, and Shun wasn't sure how to deal with a significant other so inexperienced in doing so. This made for a rough beginning. But, as time went on, they found ways to reach common ground and their relationship grew.

THEN WEEK 4 HAPPENED.

After their third mistrial in nearly as many weeks, Kosuke was despairing like no other. They were trapped in a game of mutual killing and could barely even play by the rules set forward by Monobear. Everything was falling apart and Kosuke had lost all hope of making it out alive. Thus, he decided that if Shun killed him and was able to escape, he would have done something to help someone.

Although Shun initially agreed to the idea, he couldn't go through with the act, leaving Kosuke alive, but marred by bruises on his neck.

They were different after then; both received new perspectives after their brush with death. After some time apart, they grew closer once more. The missteps and misunderstandings continued. Culminating in week 10 and Shun's execution.

Kosuke initially found it hard to forgive Shun, but even harder to be alone in the weeks that followed his death.

Who knows? Maybe they can actually make it work after the game has ended.

[shsl-tarotguy]

☆ 8]

★★☆☆☆ 2/5

"You trusted me when I could barely trust myself. There is... something to be said for that, at least."

Gorou and Kosuke had a bit of a rocky start in week 6, following the execution of Kikuyo. The false waiter's line with the juice was incredibly unnecessary, and nearly made Kosuke write him off entirely as one that he would not be speaking with again.

And then, out of nowhere, during the week 10 investigation, Gorou approaches Kosuke and wants to share mastermind information with him, because he knows that people listen to what Kosuke has to say. Then he gave him a shotgun too. That was pretty rad.

Kosuke was not expected to be trusted by him, and even if they didn't get along or see eye to eye, they were able to work towards a common goal.