For the problem ask, I have two:
1 - Who can’t stand to wear certain articles of clothing to the point where they dread particular seasons/weather because they KNOW they’ll always be super badly dressed for it but would rather be uncomfortable because of the elements than wearing the thing that makes them want to tear their skin off?
2 - Who has bad hearing, not necessarily enough to be considered HOH but enough that they can’t hear shit in a crowded room unless they REALLY focus on one conversation and get accused of not paying attention all the time?
(idk if these are too specifics or not but they’re the ones I instinctively thought of)
i was sooo close to going "yeah taro has autism and kazuo has adhd" BECAUSE I MEANSKDJFHKJSNDFSDF
but BUT u deserve some elaboration <3 so!
taro will never not ever ever ever EVER wear short sleeves. this isnt even a see that nasty thang situation (his methods of selfharm are like weirdly esoteric and don't leave outward marks) (see: he will trigger flashbacks to his own accidental near-death by drowning. and by accidental i mean, most likely an active suicide attempt he played off as clumsiness after the fact)(so...) but BACK TO THE POINT. the only time i can ever envision him in short sleeves is chapter 2 of the fangan, where they're all having a pool party. that is the literal only time i can ever envision him in short sleeves, and its likely because wet long sleeves makes him want to tear his hair out. ironically, despite being always dressed for the cold and FROM NORWAY, taro doesn't like cold weather due to the competition taking place in december. so he hates winter because it's so cold, and hates summer because its hot and muggy and he cant wear short sleeves because he hates that SOME of his arms feel one way (the part with the sleeve) and SOME of his arm feels a DIFFERENT WAY and he can FEEL THE SUN AND THE BREEZE BUT ONLY ON SOME PART OF HIM AND IT DIVES HIM FUCKING INSANE BECAUSE ITS NOT. UNIFORM!
so he just says he runs cold and leaves it at that. because this^ explanation will make him sound insane, and taro is very well aware that people see him as A Little Bit Odd and just look the other way because hes the togami heir and you cant insult him like that publicly. but he knows what they're thinking. He Knows
and for bad hearing, kazuo is very scatterbrained and can get lost in thought and not hear much of a conversation, or CAN hear a lot of it but like... ok its weird. if you prattle off a long convo at him, chances are he will remember the information after the fact but in the moment not be able to really formulate a response to you. this, among other things like his dialect and his inability to read certain kanji, has led to a lott of people writing him off as stupid. which, he's not, and he also resents that "inability to do a certain thing" is correlated to "stupidity," and he Also hates being typecast as stupid, and he ALSO ALSO hates that it's societally acceptable to mock and talk down to stupid people, because like.... wouldnt they need the most help? isnt it inhumane to just laugh at people who are genuinely struggling?
I ALSO FEEL BAD FOR SAYING EITHER TARO OR KAZUO FOR ALL OF THESE BECAUSE THE WHOLE POINT OF THE ASK GAME IS TO INTRODUCE THE REST OF THE ROSTER SO. I ACTUALLY HAVE ALTERNATE ANSWERS FOR BOTH!!!
for the clothes: minamu! it's the drummer for kazuo's band, and it exclusively wears long, loose sleeves and long skirts. this is somewhat a reaction to its past, and somewhat a disability accommodation as it really does run cold a lot of the time-- however japan is very humid in the summer, and its apartment doesnt have the best AC, so there is in fact another limiting factor besides temperature. but its something it just has to live with, because it hates short anything for a myriad of reasons. i cant go too much into detail because, unlike taro, a lot of them correlate to its backstory, which i don't want to spoil here! i want to yap about it so so so bad but I!!! CANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(also minamu would use it/its if it knew what those were, but alas.... 1972. it would start using them in the internet age tho, bet. tho im not sure how to do its pronouns in the game... maybe its one of those characters that uses its own name as a pronoun? that could work for it.... if the game ever gets a jp translation [i have a friend who might do it, but since there are so many nuances to the translation i DO want to pay him so idk if/when it can happen] i bet it would use some really uncommon personal pronoun that no one fucking uses. but alas the original release Will have to be in chud ass english)
for the hearing: meijiro ~amami,~ who also has a tendency to "huh? what? you kinda lost me...." in conversation, which has earned him a reputation not for being stupid, but for being boorish and disrespectful. he's already a pretty crass guy, talking in a very glib way and just. using. so many slurs. hes not even really that hateful, he just doesnt give a shit about the impact of anything he says or does. saying this offhand feels like i'm typecasting him as Oh Well That;s Why He's Such A Jackass, but.... aspd runs in his family and affluent circles seem to even ENCOURAGE his aspd traits, which meiji himself doesnt even like? like. he can see the other affluents be unempathetic, but also that they can turn it off and have connections within each other. like. he cant verbalize this, but he can tell that their lack of empathy comes from an intentional dehumanization of an underclass, while meiji is just incapable of feeling the emotion altogether, to the point where it makes it legitimately REALLY difficult for him to connect with anyone, and he hates that no one really Cares because Well It Makes Him A Good Businessman. he wants to be a good businessman, but he also. like. wants friends. and a girlfriend that he doesn't inevitably drive away. but hes fucked because even in the year of our lord 2026 we are only slowly approaching the radical idea of, "sociopaths are people too and probably shouldnt be treated as ontological evil? maybe?" and well. meiji is from the 70s. he's fucked man. maybe his son will fare better idfk
that had nothing to do with hearing. but apparently aspd and adhd have a bit of a correlation sometimes? especially wrt situations of child abuse, and oh. Oh Boy. meiji himself isn't the best father to rantaro, but at least he's TRYING. his efforts kind of suck but its very much a situation of "im trying to be better than my own father, but my own father was so awful that even being better than him is not a high bar to clear, so i'm still abusive to you. but like. less than my own father was." and BECAUSE meiji has trouble with empathy and no one around him atp cares enough or has the ability to show him, he has nooo idea why rantaro hates him so much, bc from his pov he's doing good! its sad all around
but anyway. um. meiji. is very scatterbrained and is bad at focusing on things and very much looks extremely careless and shitty. and because he's kind of an asshole overall, he himself probably believes it. like, its hard for him to even realize that he's struggling. he's aware of some of it, but not all of it. and of course, leaning into the persona of "lolll i dont care im just a jackass who doesnt care" that everyone expect of him is just making it all worse
i can yap about meiji a lot bc on the surface he seems very simple, like. he's the kazuichi kinda, the Funny Pervert Friend Of The Main Character but he is deeply tragic if you get to know him. like. its another instance of "the time period you were born in fucked you over so hard." and i HAVE NOT even told you the worst of it because thats ANOTHER FUCKING SPOILER!!!
