#monomaid

[nonbinary-kaede]

Okay I am behind a day on posting these things (they have been completely written for a while now, just didn’t have time to properly post it yesterday) because of me spraining my ankle- so you get a double feature post today!

acid reflux:

“Mother figures and I have never gotten along.”

[Danganronpa Zero Month Day Twenty-Four: Family.]

&

never-ending fantasy:

Oh no! Witch Ryouko Otonashi has been cursed with forgetfulness! Thankfully, she has her trusty familiar looking out for her!

[Danganronpa Zero Month Day Twenty-Five: Fantasy AU.]

Day 24 and 25 of @dr0-month !!!! First one is about Ryouko/Junko and their relationship with Chisa and Yasuke’s mom as mother figures in their life, and second one is Ryouko/MonoMaid in a fantasy au.

[aparticularbandit]

Firsts

Summary: MonoMaid reminisces on her beginnings in Ultimate Despair.

For @dr0-month: Firsts.

Rating: T.

AO3

She had a name once.

They all did – and still do, if asked – but they haven’t needed them in a while now.

Not here.  Not in this space.

Her parents never ask her where she’s going anymore.  She told them it was some sort of after school get-together for other members of the Reserve Course, and strictly speaking, that’s true, although not in the manner they think.  She’s certain they imagine friends and studying and the building of bonds that their daughter thinks will never be broken, but honestly, how many people keep in contact with their high school friends?  Not very many these days, even though everyone thinks they’ll be different.  They’ll matter.

Well, she knows she won’t matter, in the grand scheme of things, but the upcoming revolution WILL.

They won’t remember her name – they won’t remember her – but when all is said and done, they’ll remember her mark on history.

Their mark on history.

The Tragedy looms, borne aloft by the building Parade and its very vocal unrest.

~

She remembers the first time she put on the maid outfit.

At the time, their leader had no name, no face, but she had a pleasant voice.  Firm.  Decisive.  Alluring.  Seductive.  But most of all, she’d commiserated with her.  She understood the unspoken anxieties, the bubbling rage that she hadn’t even known she had – so much under the surface that had always been there, that she just needed to let out.

And, most of all, the despair.

That was all-consuming.

But it was easier, after she gave in.  How could she be anxious of failing if she accepted that she already had?  How could she be angry if that’s just the way the world treats people?  Treats everyone?  If the only way to make a so-called Ultimate Hope is to tear apart everyone else, then—

Isn’t the world just a wonderfully despairful place to be?

She’d found the maid outfit in her locker the next day with a note pinned to it:

Thought this would be just your type! Let’s party as we bring about the greatest Tragedy the world has ever seen!

It was a little tight, but that was how maid outfits were supposed to be, right?  A little tight?  So that they can properly show off, well, everything?  She’d never worn one before, not even as a fun costume, but when she put that one on and looked at herself in the mirror, she’d looked…beautiful.

Not that it mattered.

Beauty is fleeting, and no one would want someone so desperate to attach Hope Peak’s name to her resume that they’d pay to join their Reserve Course.  She was just a bootlicker.  Even if she wanted to stop, her parents wouldn’t let her, so they were forcing her to be a bootlicker, too.

She put her hair into two high ponytails – just like Enoshima Junko’s, since she was everyone’s it girl – and flashed herself a smile and a peace sign.  In the mirror, she looked sad.  Tired.

But at least the maid outfit made her look fun.

~

The mask came later.

The first time she saw it, she ran her fingers along the shape – the bear nose, the two halves of its smile, the sharp teeth, the red slash of an eye that reminded her strongly of Hope’s Peak’s logo.  She’d seen the bear before – Monokuma, their mascot, because everything needs a mascot, even the upcoming Tragedy – but she’d never thought….

By then, she didn’t need to think about it.  Her finger traced the inner rim, and she smiled.  Then she put the mask on.

It felt…right.  Just like she hadn’t had to think to put the mask on, she didn’t need to think at all now.  She could just wear the mask and the uniform and do as she was told, just like she’d been doing all her life, only this time knowing that was all she was good for.  Following orders.  Tearing the world apart.

Better, in her opinion, to wear the mask of Monokuma and be something than to be nothing at all.

~

When she pulls herself out of her memories and stares at herself in the mirror one last time, she doesn’t smile.  What would be the point?

But Monokuma smiles at her.

That’s all right, then.

That’s all right.

[shockersalvage]

Salvage Showcase - Monokuma Maid

Back to Danganronpa Zero - the first light novel of this franchise. Last time on this Showcase saga we got a look into the eight in one Naruto case that was Madarai. So for this time, I chose someone who, while not as well known as others in her class, serves the theme of Danganronpa Zero pretty well and gives sight into another underrated aspect of the series.

...Well, that and I also want to talk about the only other prominent original female in that light novel. Look at her! Can you blame me? Presenting Zero’s representation in the Mono department: Monokuma Maid!

Summary

Not much is known about this girl’s past prior to joining the Reserve Course, but she must come from a decently well off family, since she could afford to pay the Course tuition to attend the Academy.

Things changed for her after the Tragedy of Hope’s Peak Academy – where the Student Council were forced to kill each other. Junko would send out a mass email that put the blame on Izuru Kamukura the school’s Ultimate Hope. This would anger the Reserve Course who started to riot. One for their mistreatment and the other for the funds they spent being used to, apparently, make a mass murderer. Junko would then use the footage of the massacre and edited with the knowledge of Ryota Mitarai’s brainwashing methods. Creating the Despair Video, this girl would fall prey to it and be driven insane with despair. Like with the rest of the Reserve Course, she became an underling to the Ultimate Despair.

During the events of Zero, Ryoko would wake up to find herself in the Reserve Course’s secret society and be welcomed by the girl, this time wearing her maid dress and Monokuma mask. Monokuma Maid would guide Ryoko about the base, assuming that Ryoko was testing her, and delve into the Reserve Course’s goal of getting their hands on Izuru. Notably, her own blatant insanity, creepyed Ryoko out so much that she used the excuse of needing to use the restroom to quickly leave her. But, in doing so, Ryoko would learn more about the society’s secrets as well. From how they watched the DV on repeat for thousands of times, to even holding two of the Steering Committee hostage (albeit, one dead and the other tortured before eventually being killed as well).

When Junko finally regained command in the finale, the reason the girl became Monokuma Maid was because Junko was just trying out mascot ideas, but decided that people in costumes wasn’t going to work for her next killing game.

Eventually, like with the rest of the Reserve Course that hadn’t died yet in DR3 or became Izuru, Monokuma Maid would meet her on end on the day the Reserve Course invaded the Main Course side, slaughtering every student that wasn’t in Class 78 or apart of the Ultimate Despair. The RC students would commit suicide after Junko would send them Monokuma’s Gloomy Sunday, otherwise known as the Suicide Video. Be it jumping out of the Main Course building or running into its burning wreckage, Monomaid would have killed herself. The Reserve Course mass suicide would go onto the catalyst for the Tragedy that would end the world.

While polite, quirky and eager to please at first, Monokuma Maid is a girl that’s utterly insane, being prone to violent ranting  and cursing over her plight as a Resrve Course student. She is bitter and disdainful to the school she’s affiliated with it, being utterly disillusioned with it. She holds fierce loyalty to Junko, but laments that she feels that she isn’t capable of truly being Monokuma.

Rundown

I mentioned that Danganronpa Zero’s theme is one of ‘identity’ or, rather, a ‘lack of identity’. Yuto’s whole thing is that he lacks so much presence that people don’t notice him, the Madarai are octuplets that make an effort to be completely indistinguishable from each other to the point people could mistake them as being one person. Monokuma Maid serves this theme from the get-go by way of her own design and name...or lack of it. She is only known as the Monokuma Maid, with her real name being unknown. Her face is complete obscured by her Monokuma mask and her own identity as a maid hammers in the point that she is but a servant. Someone that lives to assist someone else’s life instead of their own. Monomaid’s status compared to the other Reserve Course (that aren’t the Trio most are aware of) is also something to take note of. Sure, while her identity that we know of is literally just a Monokuma Maid, it still marks her as unique compared to the other members of the Reserve Course who get no names, nothing to make them stand out and, in the anime, are depicted as being transparent, near faceless, nobodies. She is unique from the metaphorical faceless crowd solely because she took up a mask to become a literal faceless henchman.

Monokuma Maid easiest point of comparison would be to Mukuro Ikusaba herself. Similarity wise, both are devoted followers of Junko that done disguises or other forms on behalf of their boss. They are also more than willing to go about illegal or immoral actions for the sake of Junko’s plans being completed, with an eagerness to serve her. Though, how they differ, is in their motivations which, strangely enough, Monomaid is more of the autonomous of the two (despite, you know, being brainwashed).

Mukuro’s whole life desire is to serve Junko and make her happy, no matter what, even if it costs the world. Her entire identity is wrapped up in that one desire. Monokuma Maid on the other hand, while essentially being nameless and apart of the masses of underlings involved with Junko, her desire (and by extension the Reserve Courses’s main desire) is to get their hand on the Ultimate Hope and ‘crush him’ as payback, which is why they’re rioting and working with Junko (with video shenanigans for good measure). It's a nice reminder that, despite probably being the least regarded people both in and out of universe in Danganronpa, the Reserve Course’s goal prior to their mass suicide did come from a genuine independent grudge beyond Junko and persists even as they became her underlings.

Personal Thoughts

I really loved Monokuma Maid in terms of design and what aspect she brought to the prequel to the original game. The idea that concept of Monokuma needing to go through stages before becoming the bear that we all knows and, probably, love is a great addition to the world.

Monokuma Maid also serves as a great gateway to a rather undertalked about aspect of Danganronpa, that being the Reserve Course. It’s easy to dismiss them as just ‘Junko’s brainwashed puppets’ ( + three named others of varying importance) and call it a day (DR3 certainly chalks it up to just that), but Zero’s inclusion of Monomaid, and really the other RC students that get depicted in it, really helps flesh out that aspect of them.

Monomaid isn’t a bluefaced nobody that Junko can chuck at a repressed boxer, she’s a perky, unstable, girl with a clear chip on her shoulder in face of an actual injustice. She’s passionate about taking down Hope’s Peak and (while Junko wasn’t herself), this maid actually had the gall to go right up in Junko’s face to yell at her about her grievances. Sure, her being so crazy is due to watching the video, but its an exaggeration of her very real issue with the system.The same goes for the other minor students that got some page time. One of the talking Monohead students (in a very depressed and bitter state) is able to wax philosophical about the mutual killing that transpired in Zero and, when Ryoko runs to the old school building, one of the students disguised as a guard, smirks at her and let’s her in.

They’re proof that even the ‘talentless’ crowd had personality and charm to them just as much as the Ultimates that we all love. Even with the knowledge of them being brainwashed in Zero, you get the feeling these aren’t just zombies Junko can order about and treat willy-nilly, but thinking people that you have to take into consideration. Heck, even Junko and Mukuro talk about them in the end as if they were your regular minions that one needs to work with and around if you want stuff done (which makes DR3′s usage of the DV more annoying but that’s neither here nor there at the moment) It’s characters like the Monokuma Maid that really helps make the DR world message and themes come alive, and why I do wish she got remembered more. Kind of makes me sad that, despite being the sole survivor of the original DR0 cast, DR2 just has the Reserve Course kill themselves without any utilization of her. Makes me sort of wish she took the place of AI!Junko in a way, but what can you do.

With that, DR0 is down once more! Next up is back to the detective side of things with Danganronpa: Kirigiri!

[nonbinary-kaede]

A MonoMaid Playlist.

Tracklist:

1. The Bomb

I've blown apart my life for you / And bodies hit the floor for you / And break me, shake me, devastate me / Come here, baby, tell me that I'm wrong / I don't love you, I just love the bomb

2. My Lover Cindy

If I was a liar, I would call you my friend / Let's hope the feeling's mutual in the end / Symbiosis, can we keep it how it was? / Now the levee's broken, I want more / Cause I'm a greedy pig / I'm gonna get my fill / I'm gonna keep my eyes on the prize / And I'll suck you dry, I will / I'm no pariah but I'll try to pretend / And hope you keep your distance now and then

3. Collapsing Stars

When we hid out behind the risers at the high school / Working bitter calculations with a slide rule / The grim particulars of poisoning the swimming pool / The way you looked me in the eye, ready to die / We were becoming what we are / Collapsing stars

4. Hermit The Frog

They call him Hermit the Frog / He's looking for a dog / Did you find your bitch in me? / Oh, you're abominable socially / You're just a little bit too much like me!

5. From A Mountain In The Middle Of The Cabins

Go spin circles for me / Wound relentlessly around the words we used to sling / Oh, such torturous things / Always chewing up the only ones I ever mean / If you're going, then go / Go, go, go

6. Empty

There was no way out / The only way out was to give in / When there's no way out / The only way out is to give in / How I love to / How I love to / How I love to give in

7. mErcy (translation by asheinglee)

Show me the haunting corruption of the darkness / Teach me the ways of the forbidden fruit / The infection of this awful light wont leave me / So hold me in your arms and show me the path to the Abyss / Show No mErcy! / Starting Corruption / Kill pUrity! / Burn it from existence / Show no mErcy! / Give into the darkness / Leave sAnIty! / It's your worst nightmare / Show me No mErcy!

8. Shame

It feels so good, it feels so good / And right outside the door, nobody knows / They're right outside the door and they don't know / How it feels so good, it feels so good

9. Southwood Plantation Road

I am not gonna lose you / We are gonna stay married / In this house like a Louisiana graveyard / Where nothing stays buried / On Southwood Plantation Road / Where the dead will walk again / Put on their Sunday best / And mingle with unsuspecting Christian men

10. New God

I stood at the altar, and worshiped a stranger / Baptized in the water, and absolved of my pain / I thought you were holy, I thought you could save me / I gave you my future, and you don’t know my name

11. Bird Balloons (Remastered)

I'm a ghost and you all know it / I'm singing songs and I ain't slowing / It was a fragile thing and I goddamn dropped it / I picked the pieces up and put them in my pocket

12. Dear Arkansas Daughter

You with the dark curls, you with the watercolor eyes / You who bares all your teeth in every smile / Says "I can always hear you sing, I wanna hear you speak to me" / While a stranger braids my hair back out on the street / And in your dreams we are shooting at snakes / And while you were asleep, I was surely awake

13. Fire

It seemed like everyone I knew was dying / I looked in the mirror and I was on fire / Somebody yelled out "Hey, stop, drop, and roll!" / I said "That might save my skin, but it won't save my soul" / That might save my skin, but it won't save my soul / You swallow hard and you bottle it up / Try to pretend you're a half full cup / Believe what they're feeding, you're eating it up / While I'm reading books about how they're corrupt / I'm reading books about how they're corrupt / He says he's protecting us but he's a liar / I know deep down that it's down to the wire / My heart will stop if I put out the fire

14. Violet Clementine

You build a nest of yellow yarn / You hope to God the yellowed yarn / Is soft enough to break your fall / Should you fall, should you fall

15. Townie

And I want a love that falls as fast / As a body from the balcony, and / I want a kiss like my heart is chasing it down / I'm holding my breath with a baseball bat / Though I don't know what I'm waiting for / I am not gonna be what my daddy wants me to be

16. Drunk Walk Home

I'm starting to learn I may never be free / But though I may never be free / Fuck you and your money / I'm tired of your money / And I sit on the curb cause it's the prettiest night / With no one else in sight / You know I wore this dress for you / These killer heels for you

17. Using You

I don't care if I don't live to see another day / I love you in the worst way / I love you and I hate you and I'm losing my mind / And you tell me all the time that this will pass and that I'm gonna be fine / We're such a mess together, you make me lose my temper / You're the only one who's making me come / To my sinful senses / I'll never love anyone the same / I'll never feel ashamed of using you for pleasure

18. Girl Anachronism

You can tell from the glass on the floor / And the strings that are breaking / And I keep on breaking more / And it looks like I am shaking / But it's just the temperature / Then again, if it were any colder I could disengage / If I were any older I would act my age / But I don't think that you'd believe me / It's not the way I'm meant to be / It's just the way the operation made me

19. Remember My Name

Cause I need somebody to remember my name / After all that I can do for them is done / I need someone to remember me / I need something bigger then the sky / Hold it in my arms and know its mine / Just how many stars will I need to hang around me / To finally call it heaven?

20. Achilles Come Down

You want the acclaim, the mother of mothers (it's not worth it, Achilles) / More poignant than fame or the taste of another (don't listen, Achilles) / But be real and just jump, you dense motherfucker (you're worth more, Achilles) / You will not be more than a rat in the gutter (so much more than a rat) / You want my opinion, my opinion you've got (no one asked your opinion) / You asked for my counsel, I gave you my thoughts (no one asked for your thoughts) / Be done with this now and jump off the roof (be done with this now and get off the roof) / Can you hear me, Achilles? I'm talking to you

21. You Are The Apple

Had we crashed into the ocean / Had we perished in the sea / Had the mountain held us captive in his jacket, well God forbid / I'd have been fine with that / Cause it would have saved me, yes it would have saved me / It would have saved me, yes it would have saved me / It would have saved me, yes it would have saved me / It would have saved me from the look that you gave / When you left

22. God-ish (will stetson cover)

That's God-ish baby, face it / Yeah it's God-ish either way / I want you, want you / IQ falling, pouring down the drain / So evil-hearted baby / Well I'm evil anyway / I hate you, hate you, get out of the way

23. Mary

Mary is the girl who leaves you to rot / she says "I am real and you are not"

24. Abnormality Dancing Girl (cover by trickle)

Come look at my face, come and give me your praise / Erase my old name and throw it all away / Metamorphosis takes just a couple of days / I'll take off everything and be your one and only / Look at me on the stage, and see how I sway / How I step to the beat, tapping one, two, three / And no, I'm not on a string, I'm dancing so free / I'm, I'm, I'm breaking!

25. I Am Animal Cannibal

How do I meet the strangest girls? / They always seem to find me / Remember that time, way back when I kissed a girl who ate her male friends? / Now only dogs follow me / I bite at the hand that feeds me / Scratch at the face that eats me / Some kind of animal cannibal / Made an impression of me

26. Brutal

All I did was try my best / This the kind of thanks I get? / Unrelentlessly upset / They say these are the golden years / But I wish I could disappear / Ego crush is so severe / God, it's brutal out here

27. It Will Come Back

You know better, babe, you know better, babe / Than to look at it, look at it like that / You know better, babe, you know better, babe / Than to talk to it, talk to it like that / Don't give it a hand, offer it a soul / Honey, make this easy / Leave it to the land, this is what it knows / Honey, that's how it sleeps / Don't let it in with no intention to keep it / Jesus Christ, don't be kind to it / Honey, don't feed it, it will come back

28. Burn It Down

I'll set fire to the whole place / I don't even care about our house / It's not the same in here since he left anyways / Burn it down, burn it down, burn it down, burn it down / Always said I was a good kid / Always said I had a way with words / Never knew I could be speechless / Don't know how I'll ever break this curse / Now the world is only white noise / Frequencies that I can't understand / I can't be bothered with the teachers / Always trying to shape the way I act

29. Already Dead

Do any of you know what it's like to walk through the fire? / Know how to fight the crushing desire? / Go with a knife to do what's required? / I'm already dead since you got in my head!

30. Arsonist

Arsonist burning down the world to feel it's heat / The arsonist doesn't feel the embers on his feet / And arsonist, your humans starter kit came incomplete / My apologies, arsonist, you loved me

31. Paper Dolls

And every time I cry, it's about you / And every time I laugh, it's for you, too / So do your little dance around my room / I know I'm gonna join you soon

32. Forgiveness

I'm the same as you, I have nothing / I am empty too in the right way / We don't care that no one will miss us / We don't need their blame or forgiveness

33. My Body's Made Of Crushed Little Stars

I better ace that interview / I better ace that interview / I should tell them that I'm not afraid to die / I better ace that interview / I work better under a deadline / I work better under a deadline / I pick an age when I'm gonna disappear / Until then, I can try again / Until then, I can try again / Kill me, Jerusalem / Kill me, Jerusalem / Kill me, Jerusalem / Go and kill me

34. Barricade

Oh, how could anyone not love the terrible things you do? / Oh, how could anyone not want to try and help you? / In Bermondsey in Burberry, you held me at the barricade / The pigs arrived with tear gas / And I wept at the mistakes we made / We stalked the streets like animals / And danced as windows shattered / For the island, for the thrill of it, for everything that mattered / Oh, how could anyone not want to rip it all apart? / Oh, how could anyone not love your cold, black heart?

35. Caroline, Please Kill Me

Caroline, I love you more than I ever wanted / I don't want you, I don't want you to go away / Caroline, your eyes are dead like outer space / And I know that I am boring, I can read it in your face / Caroline, please, kill me.

A playlist for my beloved Monokuma Maid from Danganronpa Zero! Inspired by @danggirlronpa 's Ryoko/MonoMaid playlist and made for @dr0-month (to listen to when I wrote my MonoMaid entries). Let's just chalk this up as a bonus for day 7 ("monokuma"), lol— a playlist for my dearest MonoMaid, with hints of Ryouko/MonoMaid and Junko/MonoMaid 💕 and vague illusions to both Chiaki and Hajime/Izuru cause I really can't help myself 😔 this is a general playlist so it's not specifically tied to any fic, but I like to think re: Achilles Come Down, the positive voice urging MonoMaid to not jump is the memory of Chiaki, and the one telling her to jump is the memory of Junko.... in general I also really like Chiaki/MonoMaid so there's some even vaguer hints of that ship in here. If you squint really hard. The hints of Izuru/Hajime I feel come out with songs like Fire, where someone else is feeding into/buying into HPA's lie — it's vague enough it could also be about Sato or Natsumi, but for a lot of those I was definitely envoking the idea of Hajime/Izuru in my head lol.

Art for the playlist comes from @princescar (if you are not cool with your art being used for this just tell me and I'll switch it to something else!!) which you can fine here.

I ❤️ MonoMaid

[nonbinary-kaede]

love/hate:

Monokuma Maid. The girl without a name. Only known for being Junko’s. [Danganronpa Zero Month Day Seven: Monokuma.]

Day 7 of @dr0-month !! Some MonoMaid for you 💕

Playlist for MonoMaid -> post is here!

[nonbinary-kaede]

how the most dangerous thing is to love:

Chiaki Nanami and a girl without a name; an ending.

[Danganronpa Zero Month Day Twenty-Eight: Free Day.]

MonoMaid and Chiaki for the second to last Day of @dr0-month !!

[nonbinary-kaede]

superimposition:

”If I take off my helmet,” she asks her, “Will you be disappointed if I don’t look like Sato?”

[Danganronpa Zero Month Day Twenty: Maid.]

MonoMaid/Mahiru for day twenty of @dr0-month !!!

[unusedarbiter]

I’m so tempted to just say fucking and start writing fan fiction with no experience so that I can force others to experience my monomaid AU, and just see a world that avoided the tragedy though the power of love. Is very self indulgent but honestly what’s the point in fan fiction if not to make yourself happy and show the world and the inevitable other people that would enjoy it