#talking ships

[ohwell-itsme-but-danganronpa]

A realization I shared with The Pit back in March, last year. Heavy on the salt/kinda in character-hate territory

last night I realized Kokichi's and Kaito's deaths also parallel each other's like many other things about them. and I am so mad.

there was never a moment when I was close to forgiving him for brushing off Kokichi's last words as another lie to recover his own face because someone pointed out he sounded almost fond or something like that, they were this close to changing their minds about Kokichi and he had to ruin it, but it's even worse.

Because at the end, Kokichi allowed himself to be vulnerable and honest, alone with a guy who never liked him, dying Kokichi said his truth. Kaito is surrounded by friends, he gets a love confession and he doesn't respond to it, he doesn't have anything other than his usual hero speech to say, because he's never vulnerable with them, he'd never admit he changed his mind about Kokichi, just like he never admitted to anything that wasn't very heroic (in his skewed idea of what a hero is like) of him regardless of whether others could tell,

he's so full of shit, I am not buying into the myth of an idiot with good intentions, that guy is smart and very much capable of emotional manipulation, he's put all his points in charisma and he's using them, easily laying down his biases to his peers, getting away with heaps of hypocrisy, getting people to do things his way even when they know it's stupid/dangerous/both (usually it's both with his ideas),

his bias against Kokichi had to be a combo of unwillingness to admit he was wrong on first impression/ closed-minded refusal to look past first impression/ possibly self-recognition through another (derogatory)/ hypocrisy coming to him that easily, because he clearly convinced himself that he's always right and he's doing the right thing when he hides everything he isn't proud of from people, probably protecting them, unlike other people who only lie because they're evil

[this is the end of the "realization" message, but I will include my side of the group ranting that followed, not including others, they were sharing their opinions in a safe space, actively spreading anti-Kaito agenda is just a me-thing]

he's super toxic and. The fact that so many people took him at face value was my true downfall face-first into joker arc

they're like "Kokichi did x too" disregarding the fact that Kokichi got shit for it from the entire cast and was doing it in his efforts against the killing game while Kaito did it to make himself look good, got praised and didn't take his own advice (x usually stands for forcing people into a situation, referring to Meet and Greet)

He said he's helping Shuichi and Maki so he helped them. No, I need them to get a restraining order on him and go to therapy to recover from the shit he put in their heads.

Maki reasonably tried avoiding attachment, knowing it could be used against her, but Kaito knows what's better for her than she ever could, obviously. And so he made her unstable and a threat

Guy who doesn't take no for an answer, he gave her no choice or didn't even explain before they got there, I was uncomfy with him from that one convo with Kaede early on when he tries to take credit for her idea and asks something of her that throws her off (I think he was asking for a hug?), but he kept outdoing himself in crossing people's boundaries for a while

The whole. Punishing Shuichi and making him apologize for not following Kaito blindly into getting everyone killed in ch4, that's also up there

He wants to be good, but his idea of good is messed up.

also while I'm at it, some screenshots from the times I talked about him in The Saiou Lounge (finally gathering all I wanted to screenshot from that dead server is what motivated this wave of posting again)

Adding another rant to the post, just compiling atp because I don't want to make multiple negative posts: I just think that. people forget Kaito was about to lead everyone into a battle against monokuma with a choice of weapons that he thought looked cool (with Maki just going along with that, not commenting on how most of them wouldn't know how to use those weapons or how unlikely they're to be able to use close-range stuff on monokuma) and Kokichi stepped in with the electrohammers and the idea of re-trying the death road of despair just before they could get themselves killed, while I'm uncertain about ch4, at this point he definitely wasn't on board with everyone dying, and Kaito's illness was The Motive of ch5, while he wouldn't kill anyone directly he was obviously desperate and making everyone else restless because of his Extreme Unexplained Charisma, plan A was isolating Kaito from the group asap, announce the game is over, plan B mastermind made their move, confirming their existence, it's time to act, try to convince Kaito to do the unsolvable murder with him, appealing to his hero complex, as much as I'd like him to have expected Maki, he was surprised, and thought her reason for showing up was "You really love murder that much?"(paraphrasing), and tbh, if I was anyone other than Shuichi or Tsumugi in-game, I don't think I'd expect Maki to feel anything other than annoyance about Kaito, we see cliches & Shuichi third-wheeling, they saw a guy harassing her as she insults him and pouts about it

Me:the transphobic bit comes from the slur he uses when Kiyo reveals to be wearing lipstick in the 3rd trial, it's a word that has been partially reclaimed by drag queens in more urban parts of Japan, but Kaito is a rural boy (or at least that's how I saw it explained) that's still present in eng, sexism is like, THE core trait of Kaito, it's defining to all his relationships/opinions on people Ves: the line about how women shouldn't handle weapons Haunts me his concern about maki frequently seems to be that she's Not A Housewife and not. THE TORTURE it's sad that she's an assassin because women shouldn't be violent :( not that she's much Better lmao. responding to everything by being uwu tsundere by hitting him and deliberately digging at all his worst insecurities Me: YEAH! HE'S LIKE: YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE A SWEET DELICATE GIRL, I KNOW YOU'RE A SWEET DELICATE GIRL UNDER YOUR COLD EXTERIOR, I WILL TRAIN YOU TO BECOME THAT GIRL, SIDEKICK Ves: the funniest part is that the narrative treats him as Right she is a sweet delicate girl turns out Me: I got bad vibes from him the moment he was talking with Kaede before they were about to try death road of despair for the first time and he just kept getting worse, like from the moment he punched Shuichi it was just discovering new levels of hatred and violent urges in me everytime he says or does something Ves: the "give me a hug!!' "no." scene makes me laugh so hard im sorry Chee: tbh I felt like he had a bit of a crush on her? or it would be funny if he did Me: pretty sure he did, tbh, Kaede is a lot more his type than Maki, his sidekicks are just charity projects to boost his ego and have allies that make him feel safer in the kg, but in his LHS he wants someone he sees as equal, which he called Kaede (in a way that was disrespectful to her, cause he was trying to leech of credit for her ideas but, he did say that) Chee: I just remember how,, Positive his interactions w Kaede were (on his side at least) Me: it was almost like watching Kaz interact with Sonia again except somehow worse, he's got so much of Kaz, but the narrative assigning him being Right & having unreal charisma ruins all that, he could have been a wet dog of a comic relief character, but he's the representation of every man who ever made me feel uncomfortable or unsafe or enraged, and all of those feelings become deeply ingrained into my image of him the "actually everything he says he is" Kaito that's genuinely a supportive friend that has his sidekicks best interest in mind Spin on his character some fans have pisses me off, double points if they make him queer he can try to be good but he has to be getting things wrong, he has to be a little stuck on some points when he's in the wrong, his traditional upbringing has to get a bit in the way I can tolerate him having a bit of deeply repressed bicuriosity, maybe turing out to be bi, but it has to be a long ass arc and he cannot have anything genderwise, I am drawing the line, no way in hell

[ohwell-itsme-but-danganronpa]

for the ask game shuichi and kaede 🌹

how do each character react to finding out the other(s) has a crush on someone outside their friend group? do they have different approaches to acting as a "wingman" for their buddy, or do they worry about becoming a third wheel?

oh boy, Kaede is all excited to wingman, Shuichi's biggest worry is probably that she'll accidentally confess his feelings for him, or otherwise put him in a situation he's not ready for because he likes to take his sweet, sweet time with processing his feelings, meanwhile Kaede is a firm believer in pushing him outside his comfort zone. Even if she's... unsure of his taste, she might interrogate this person in order to make sure they'll be good for him, or try to give a shovel talk if they do get together, but she wingmans nonetheless, that is her duty as a bestie and she takes it seriously.

Being a third wheel is just Shuichi's fate, he knew it to be so before Kaede even really caught feelings for anyone, just from the way she would try to flirt with every girl they'd come across when they hang out, and some guys that she could call pretty all the same, he's been on the receiving end of her compliments before, it's hard to tell when she's being friendly and when she's interested in someone. She flirts for the fun of the game, has a habit of stopping to talk to people and not hesitating to invite them to tag along regardless of the company she's already in (or maybe she does ask, but Shuichi never says no), anything Kaede does is an open invitation group activity, maybe it's just that she loves everyone a little bit and everybody loves her. But once she falls for realsies, it's s e r i o u s, it's an emergency. She is dragging her moral support anxious wet dog bestie around to "casually" walk into them, and hang out together, and she makes schemes to get closer to them that she just needs Shuichi's help with (Kaede, why are all of these group activities? Kae-please, wouldn't it be for the best if you spend some time alone with them? -Nuh Uh, it'll be fun and we'll strengthen our bonds, it's a perfect plan, Shuichi!), and it's unfair that he won't "investigate" (it's called stalking, Kaede) to find out what they would like so she can win them over with that.

Bonus: If they crush on the same person [I rub my hands evilly] Shuichi tries to hide his feelings and help Kaede with her schemes anyway, but since those require him to be so involved... she notices the chemistry and creates a new scheme without telling him and on the next hang-out she switches from walking in the middle to the third person being between them and starts asking them unsubtle questions like "Don't you agree Shuichi is looking great in that jacket?" or even straight up "What do you think about polyamory?" and Shuichi probably spits out his drink as she does. She's just like, so my bestie likes the same person as I do... that's great! If we both date them then instead of cutting into our time to hang out, it'll increase it. Stonks B)

[ohwell-itsme-but-danganronpa]

Merman & a Siren AU (saiouma)

In this au they aren't considered mythical or anything, people know of them and live alongside mermaids

It's not unusual for mermaids to get in relationships with humans, work in either entertainment or where swimming is a needed skill, Shuichi's parents are still famous in that world

Sirens however get all the bad rep, they're seen as primitive predators, kinda like sharks except extremely often also sexualized at the same time, people are scared of them, mermaids hate them and do nothing to clear those misconceptions about sirens being less civilized

more world building: sirens are intersex and don't have the concept of gender, that's related to the plot because that's one of the two aspects of how mermaids and sirens started to hate each other. The first and main one was that mermaids wanted to live in a merged society with humans, they were interested in leading human-like lifestyles, sirens were strongly opposed like I already said, but mermaids contacted people anyway and were faced with all the ideas people had about them and explaining why sirens aren't a part of that conversation so they went along with pushing anything negative people thought on "Oh, that's sirens, we don't do that" and that's where it becomes important, the timeline is - people hunted sea creatures from ancient times to late middle ages with even further delay in some places - mermaids contacted people in the early 1800s because of the romanticism era, people seemed more open to mythical/paranormal stuff so they took their chances, but we're speaking of Europe so it was still a very Christian world so people had concerns about myths where they get lured into the sea by those beautiful half naked ladies and mermaids were like "they're not even ladies but they do lure their food in with singing" and the church was like "that's worse" - since then mermaids adopted some of the human believes and a lot of their culture so they became a lot more prudish to fit in with people and yes, they have capitalism. So they view the fact that sirens don't label themselves as deviant, they feel the same way about them living in packs rather than nuclear families.

For sirens clothes and jewelry are just decorative things they have no need for, but for mermaids clothes are a necessity and jewelry is a sign of status

Sirens aren't allowed in mermaid cities and usually don't try to get close to them, they perceive mermaids as shallow and are off-put (if not to say outraged and disgusted) by their choice to live in harmony with humans who used to hunt them and still have all those gross stereotypes about sirens

since it's been 200 years of separation the younger generations are losing the idea of what the other community is like or that they used to mix at all, for example Ouma's tail is atypically vibrant in color for a siren because he has some mermaid ancestors he doesn't even know about

On how closely they're related: if different types of mermaids were different breeds of dogs then sirens would be wolves (but they have variety too)

Shuichi is a merman, while both his parents are celebrities with typical bright shiny looks mermaids estabilished as their beauty standard, he dislikes standing out and refuses to wear jewelery like they do, his tail is also kinda dark and again - not shiny, maybe a bit when near surface

Kokichi is a siren who really wishes he was a mermaid, not that they're better but he doesn't want to be a predator, he just eats fish and would never harm a human but he's still upset, also he loves shiny stuff but it's so much harder for sirens to get anything when mermaids occupy coral reefs and people aren't selling anything to them, he can either wait for luck finding something or try to steal from the mermaids, he's been sneaking near the places where mermaids live, he's lucky his tail is on the more vibrant side of purple and well, if he's been doing absolutely everything possible to make it shiny and pass as a merman then that's his business

So when the two first meet it's on the outskirts of mermaids city, Shuichi wanted to get some alone time outside of the bustling city, Kokichi was treasure hunting, neither of them should be there - on the dangerous border zone

It's assumed to be dangerous because of the possibility of a meeting like this, but the funny thing is, despite having known of this, being warned all their lives, both of them assume that the other is the same type of creature based on minimal differences and lack of hostility from the other

They only realize after deciding to go back when they start to swim in different directions, at that point they've already talked for hours and were developing at the very least a friendly relation if not flirty

if there were flirty vibes then Ouma would be the oblivious one because merman flirting is far more subtle and for a siren who grew up in a big pack gestures like touching a shoulder and small compliments are neutral nice behaviours

the plan was to keep talking on the way back and arrange ways to keep in contact but then they turn in opposite directions and just. Freeze. At the realization

and Saihara really doesn't know much about sirens other than the scary stories so he thinks Ouma will try to eat him now that they know the truth about each other so he swims away really fast

of course they meet again, even closer to the mermaid's city because Saihara is still a loner but doesn't want to risk swimming so far out after that meeting, ironically that does not save him from his fate, that's what I decide, Ouma's also there

it's a popular date location out of the city on a day when it's unlikely to be used because it's the middle of the week during Fall, it's a good place for Ouma's treasure search, he actually finds some necklace this time

it was meant to be a gift once, not too long ago, probably at the end of summer vacation, it's still in great condition and now it's his, to celebrate he starts humming and it attracts some small fishes, those pretty colorful ones that live in the reef with mermaids

that's when Saihara sees him and it's such a disney princess moment, looking so happy, humming a tune, surrounded by a flock and then he reaches for one of them and eats it just like that

Saihara doesn't quite muffle his sound of utter horror and that notifies Ouma of his presence and they have a funny moment where Shuichi panics, says something like "Please don't eat me" and Kokichi just gives him a deadpan look, points at their height difference and says "You think I could do that?"

The thing that devours Saihara instead is his curiosity, having realised that he's been mislead he becomes fascinated with finding out the truth. Turns out there's a lot of ugly history he was never going to hear about in school.

In pursuit of answers he follows the siren he just met into a world unknown to the rest of the merfolk

[ohwell-itsme-but-danganronpa]

Afterlife Assistance AU (saiouma)

inspo^

Saihara is the psychic therapist and Kokichi is the physical therapist, they both work with ghosts and live in one city so eventually they hear about each other from their clients, it becomes a frequent occurrence actually.

Saihara finds out there's this one specific physical therapist who's been hindering the progress he's been making with his clients because his methods encourage the destructive tendencies so he goes to confront him

but when he meets Ouma it doesn't go smoothly. They argue about how ghosts should be handled, because turns out it was not just an unintentional harm to his business but a huge difference in stances on how afterlife should be spent

that makes them rivals, who often communicate through their shared clients, doing their best to sway ghosts to choose their services but mostly just trying to prove a point to the other

the problem with that is - a lot of ghosts require both of their services and no matter how much they loathe it both make valid points that might in truth just be applicable in different situations rather than contradictory so they reach the relaculant cooperation stage after a few months

they start spending time together, trying to understand each other better (for the sake of their patients obviously, it's research, trust me, they're totally going to stay on topic of their jobs)

they stay focused on the topic so well that one day the tension just snaps and they make out, giving a heated argument a new meaning (they do not stop arguing, no)

Shuichi's focus has always been getting ghosts to move on quickly, freshly departed are confused, going through existential crisises, working through regrets - it needs to be smoothed out asap

Kokichi's focus was on letting them get the full ghost experience, have fun with it, do some things they didn't get to do while they were alive no matter how unimportant they might be, actually - leave the big regrets for last, moving on can wait, starting afterlife can be fun instead. So yeah, he's a physical therapist because he helps the ghosts function in & interact with the world, getting them to leave is Shuichi's job

even years later, after getting married and having merged their business they don't agree on everything and have clients choose between paths they're suggesting for their therapy program, holding the results over each other's heads but they keep it at work and out of their home life

Also: their clients have no idea that they're a couple, they're keeping up their professional rivalry and people are convinced that they have legit beef with each other