“…Whatever. It doesn’t matter anymore. At the very least, I’ll do what I can for Murdoch, alright? If that means anything to you.”
(somebody needs to free the redheads like man)
Alright!
By and large, Minoru was- and kind of still is- a bit of an enigma to Natsuya. He doesn’t know anything about what he’s done or his side of things, and he’s pretty aware of that? So, for the most part, he’s tried to reserve too much judgement on him.
He noticed him before, and wondered, but the first time he became truly aware of Minoru was at P.K.’s trial. From what he got from there, Minoru was someone who was clearly intelligent, and had a lot of expertise on certain subjects, but Natsuya was also kind of…unsure about him? There wasn’t any particularly strong reason why, but he had an odd mix of curiosity and wariness about the marine biologist. He wasn’t sure what to make of him as a person, really, and was kind of interested in learning more? He honestly wondered about Minoru, but felt wary of approaching him due to Natsuya’s own bad mental state at the time. (For a really, really brief time he was kind of? Suspicious of Minoru for no real reason? Who knows what happened there.)
Amidst his strife for his own general distress, Natsuya found himself occasionally thinking about Minoru now and again, just for being one of those people who was a bit of a mystery to him. What’s a Minoru Fukui and what does it do. He also wondered who he was hanging around with, since part of Natsuya’s observations of other people is learning who they gravitate towards. (I’m not sure if he ever figured out that Minoru and Sunny were close before the eighth trial— I’ll probably figure out for sure once Raph and I get back to our week 7 private thread— but I think he hazarded a guess that Minoru and Remi were on friendly terms at the second trial? He never knew for sure, however.)
He didn’t get much of a solid opinion of Minoru until the sixth trial! Boy.
In a few ways, he agreed with what the other boy said, but mostly? Natsuya felt irritated with Minoru afterwards, for a few different reasons. Mostly because he was having a terrible time of things, but because of others, as well. Due to the nature of certain fears of his and how he acts, Natsuya’s view of the world is constantly changing, so he isn’t really consistently optimistic or cynical. Natsuya was trying to compare his view to Tsumiko’s because he wanted to try and understand how she thought and see if he could compare it to his point of view. He was already doing badly as it was, but he was truly, genuinely upset when she just ignored him completely? And he felt frustrated that Minoru seemed to have misunderstood his intentions— and he also felt that Minoru didn’t have a right to look down on him or condescend to him (that’s what Natsuya construed his words as being) for his view of the world, when he knew nothing about the kind of things he’d had to deal with— although the exact same could be said in that Natsuya didn’t know anything about Minoru’s life, either. He was also annoyed about Minoru calling him by his first name without an honorific— while Minoru probably didn’t intend it to mean anything in particular, Natsuya took it as being a sign of rudeness, condescension, and disrespect, since he’s uncomfortable with being called by his first name by people who aren’t family, especially without honorifics.
Still, though? Natsuya still felt that Minoru was definitely a better person than he was, just by being able to stick to his own values easier than he was able to. I think that if Natsuya had actually known about how Minoru was making the effort to remember the dead kids, he definitely would have cut him a bit more slack— but he didn’t, and so he remained a little pissed off for the remainder of time. Nevertheless, he consistently thought of Minoru as “a far better person than I’ll ever be” after that.
Natsuya never really knew about the whole thing with Yue You, either, so he was…confused when she seemed to react rather violently to him in the seventh trial? If he had known about it, he’d have been…pretty conflicted, really, although he didn’t really think Minoru deserved that kind of treatment, even if he did kind of annoy him. (Given the events of the final trial, though, unfortunately, he’s more on Yue You’s side, here, because he just doesn’t know about the situation, and couldn’t have gotten a worse impression of Mr. Marine Biologist.)
And then, there was the eighth trial! Ah.
Cerys was someone Natsuya thought of as an ally (and friend) of his, to an extent, and worried for her frequently, so he didn’t think he was going to look on whoever murdered her too kindly, as it was. He was honestly just tired, the entire time, and was just getting frequently impatient with murderers in trials trying to evade questions. Also, the Iori thing— it just made Natsuya violently uncomfortable. His English is fairly wonky, so he only got so much, but considering Yue’s and Iori’s reactions and how everything panned out, and considering his own weird feelings about his own gender, his reaction was just “dear god shut up fukui can we please stop talking about this, i am burning”.
In the end, however? Natsuya noticed that Sunny was the only one who didn’t vote for Minoru, and by and large he considers her a friend, as well. He doesn’t know who else she has, or even for sure whether or not Minoru actually does have anything to do with her, but he knows that regardless, he wants to stick by her side if she needs anyone— and if she wants it, he’ll do what he can for her. He can also understand why Minoru might’ve killed for the motive, even if he doesn’t exactly sympathise, given that he himself is a very sick person and was terrified by the motive, and the fact that Sunny was one of the first people affected by it, and that he doesn’t doubt that Cerys would’ve willingly cooperate with her own murder, possibly. Minoru’s on his bad side, but he isn’t going to badmouth him much, mostly because he’s concerned about Sunny and wouldn’t want to upset her.
By the end of things, he…isn’t fond of Minoru, definitely, and would probably mentally label him as “kind of a dick”. But at the same time, he’s very well aware that he knows nothing about Minoru Fukui and his life, and to an extent, he’s kind of…grateful, for his existence? He’s glad that Sunny had someone who cared for her during the entire stay of the lodge, because he largely lost contact with her for a few weeks and didn’t know who else she had, and was afraid she’d be targeted because of her strength and general demeanour, and he’s just glad she had someone by her side. While Minoru may be far from his favourite person, ultimately, Natsuya truly does wish Cerys and Minoru didn’t have to die for things in Pars Venatic to finally end.
Predespair? Probably [natsuya voice] “hey fukui wanna watch shitty movies about WHALES”
there is actually a way to stop that. youre more likely to get that if you sleep on your back so maybe try sleeping on your side??
aa yeah i heard about that but the strange thing is i never sleep on my back??? so we're thinking it has to do w/ my narcolepsy aa,,
although this time it probably has less to do w/ my narcolepsy and more to do w/ the fact that so far i've slept for a total of ten hours this week...
What We Find Together from DJ OMiY on 8tracks Radio.
This is my Secret Doubt Santa gift for shslwhapow!! ... And it didn't end up being a drabble like I planned! OOPS.
So, since my drabble plans went terribly terribly wrong, I decided to instead go for a fanmix~! And character/shippy fanmixes are the best! So I went ahead to do a fusion Sunny/Minoru/Sunoru playlist!! Warning: my music tastes are eclectic and varied!
#the odyssey
#art
#ao3
#star wars
