#biggering sure but still weirdly nice? and the whole serious question thing is so interesting | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

myglogic · 3 years

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Priceless | Bang Chan | 04

Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Pairing: rich kid! Bang Chan (Stray Kids) x female reader

Genre: Crime, enemies to friends to lovers, angst, fluff

Word Count: 3,4k

Summary: Chan knows. He knows who you are.

DISCLAIMER: Everything in this fanfic is fiction - that includes Chan’s fictional father who of course does not represent Chan’s real father! ♥

There he was, sitting in his chair while staring at you. One of the biggest and most successful journalists of Seoul Times and also your new boss. He was wearing a nice suit, probably Gucci or something. His hair was slicked back and he looked like he walked straight out of a magazine.

Before he could say anything you politely bowed. “Hello, Mr. Lee! My name is Y/N and Hana asked me to work next to you as your assistant. I hope that we can do a great job together.”, you said as politely as possible. Your hands were sweaty and you just hoped that you didn’t embarrass yourself.

Then you heard a laugh. “Why are you so formal? Okay, I get it, I’m your boss. But you look around my age. Please, call me Minho. Nice to meet you, Y/N.”, he got up and shook your hand.

You looked at him in shock. “Oh. I’m sorry. It’s just… you are such a big name around here. I wanted to be polite.”

He gave you a smile. “It’s okay, really! Oh, and I don’t usually wear this kind of attire. I just had an interview where they took pictures of me. Expect me to come here with my beloved sweatpants.”

You looked at him weirdly. Well, if you had such a high position you could do whatever you want. But he was a little too laidback. Not that it was bad but it was just unusual. “Okay. What should I do? Research? Edit articles?”

Minho sat back down and put his feet on his desk with his hands behind his head. “Is that what you have been doing the whole time? Editing?”

You nodded as you put your own stuff on your desk. “Yeah. So much for a journalistic degree, huh?”

Minho smirked. “Well, you aren’t here to do that. What is your dream? Tell me. You must have come here with something on your mind.”

You took a sip out of your water bottle as you thought about his question. “I guess writing the frontpage article? I actually asked Mr. Park and had a proposition but he didn’t see me as experienced enough.”

Minho played with his bracelet and then looked at you. “As you can see, we don’t have much of an age difference. Persistence is the key and a little help from someone who has experience. That would be me in this case. When I started here 4 years ago, I was doing the exact same thing as you but I convinced my supervisor that I was capable of doing more.”

“Are you saying that you want to help me?”, you asked in surprise.

He nodded confidently. “Yes! What do you want to write about?”

You hesitated for a second. Could you trust him? At the same time, this was your chance to finally do more than just editing. “Kevin Bang, how shitty of a person he is and all of his wrongdoings.”, you said in a serious tone.

Minho’s eyes widened a little at the mention of his name. “What? Kevin Bang? You do know that he has a lot of power over the media, don’t you?”

“There was this girl who exposed him at the gala, so there is already a lot of negative press. I have been doing a lot of research about him. I have more proof than any other reporter in this city.”, you said confidently.

Minho’s expression faltered. “What kind of proof?”

“I won’t show you that. If you help me with Mr. Park, I will write the article and when it’s finished, you can read over it. Is that alright with you? Because I’m still not done with my research.”, you told him, waiting for his response. You needed to make sure that you could trust him.

Then he looked at you with the same amount of confidence as you. “Okay. Just write your article and if it’s frontpage-worthy I will tell Mr. Park about it.”

You smiled brightly at him. “Thank you, Mr. L-, I mean Minho.” You were excited and would have hugged him immediately if he wasn’t your boss. Hana was right, you could learn from him and see it as an opportunity to gain more experience.

Your first workday with Minho was more than okay. You got to know each other and it turned at that he was a really nice guy. It helped that he was your age too. He must have been a super genius to graduate so early and get so many promotions at that age. He was impressive, you had to give him that.

Maybe Minho was your ladder to success.

♥.

Three weeks passed and Chan was still driving you to work and home. You were still helping him with university work. Every time Chan drove you home, he insisted on eating something together before dropping you off home. Your relationship developed more into a friendship. Chan made you laugh and you had to admit that you had a great time with him whenever he was with you. He always asked you if you were fine and if you didn’t, he would make sure that you would feel good again. It felt nice for change.

This time you met Chan at a place of your choice. It was actually a small tteobokki stand in your neighborhood. Chan was a little confused at first.

“You brought me here for tteobokki?”, he asked, not really happy about your choice.

“Look, to understand Shakespeare, you need to have a full stomach and the best ttebokki in town!”, you said and fed him with one rice cake. “Nice, right?”

Chan was chewing but his expression changed quickly into a happy one. You smiled at him knowingly. You couldn’t figure out how he could be so sweet but his father was not? “Okay, I need more of this!”, Chan said while eating one more, happily.

“I noticed that you were a little down today, so I thought I would take you to my favorite spot in my neighborhood.”, you smiled at him, genuinely. Of course, you wanted to know if it had something to do with his father but something deep inside of you was curious and cared about Chan’s own feelings and thoughts. But you were totally denying that.

This was the thing. You were starting to see Chan in a completely different light. Very different from his father. You still didn’t trust him because, after all, he still is a Bang. But he was gentle and caring. Whenever he noticed that you had a bad day, he would bring you chocolate after picking you up from work. It was the small things that made you think differently of him.

“Really? Thank you.”, he smiled as he continued to eat the delicious rice cakes.

“So, spill. What’s bothering you?”

Chan stopped eating and sighed. “Maybe not here.”

You looked at him, confused. “Where else?”

“Follow me.”

Before you knew it, you were back in Chan’s car, heading to an area in Seoul that you have never been to before. It was a very posh and rich area, which didn’t surprise you. But what surprised you wasn’t the villa that Chan parked his car in front of. No, in fact, it was the treehouse that was behind the villa which seemed to carry a lot of memories for Chan.

The treehouse however was at least 4 meters up and it looked huge. Perks of being a rich kid.

“You want me to climb up there?!”, you said, your eyes widening. You would probably break a bone. Hell, you would break ten.

“Don’t worry, Y/N. It’s safe, I promise!”, Chan assured you as he climbed up. You had to admit, the treehouse looked bigger than your apartment. Well, your apartment wasn’t that big either.

“If I break something, you have to buy me a new car!”, you said, jokingly, climbing the wobbly ladder. “Okay, I shouldn’t look down. Oh my god. Okay I looked down and that was the worst decision of my life!”

Chan smiled down at you as he watched you from the treehouse. “Are you afraid of heights?”

“A little.” That was the understatement of the century. You hated it. The background behind that was a kid that pushed you from the diving board when you were 6.

You were pretty far up and saw Chan’s face getting closer and closer. “Here, take my hand.”, he said as he reached out to you. You quickly grabbed his hand. You weren’t sure what kind of workout Chan did, but he pulled you up effortlessly but lost his balance and somehow you landed on top of him, your faces just a few centimeters apart.

“Thank you…”, you said, blushing furiously. What the hell? You shouldn’t be blushing, get your act together!

Chan cleared his throat as he looked at you. “Yeah, no problem.”

You quickly got up and looked around in the treehouse. It was decorated with tiny furniture. There was a rug where Chan sat down on. On the walls were pictures of his family, pictures which were probably drawn by Chan himself as a kid and a big teddy bear.

One picture piqued your interest. “Is this your mother?”

Chan stood up and stood next to you to inspect said picture. On the picture Chan looked around the age of 4 with his mother lifting him up in the air. Both of them looked happy. As if that was the happiest day of their lives.

Chan sighed a little. “Yeah. It was a year before she died.”

You have always wondered what really happened with his mother. The media never really spoke about Chan’s mother, probably because his father didn’t want it. “I’m sorry. What was the reason…? You don’t have to answer me though! Only if you are comfortable.”

Chan sat down on the rug again with you sitting closely next to him. “Oh, don’t worry. It was cancer but they found it in a very late stage. She had no chance of survival.”, he said, a hint of sadness in his voice.

Chan’s hand was right next to yours and you slowly put your hand on top his hand. “Everything happens for a reason. Even sad things like this.”

The young boy turned his head towards you. “Yeah. You’re right.”, he said as he took your hand and squeezed it. “The reason I took you here to talk is because I always come back here when I have a bad day. This house still belongs to dad and we used to live here when my mom was still alive. I think it’s the last memory I have left from her and coming back here feels like I’m getting motherly advice. I know it sounds stupid.”

You felt your heartbeat quicken, feeling his hand in yours. “No, it doesn’t. Everyone deals differently with their problems. I get it. No one will search for you here. I can see why you would come here.”

Chan completely turned to you. “I have a feeling that my dad doesn’t really trust me with his business. He is like a stranger sometimes. I feel like I only have a real father if I go to events with him. He is acting so strange when it comes to his job. I don’t know.”, he confessed.

The first thing that came to your mind was not “what is his father hiding?”, as it should have. No, you thought about Chan, who was telling you about his feelings and thoughts. You just wanted to hug him. “Is that what’s bothering you?”

He nodded. “Yeah. My problems sound like a luxury to you, right?”

You thought about it for a second. “No, not really. I may struggle with money but I am truly happy when it comes to my family. You know… My father struggled a lot in the past. We lost everything because of some things and people in the past. But he never gave up on us. And not having a proper family sounds horrible to me. So, no. Your problems aren’t a luxury.”

“This is the first time that someone listened. I mean, really listened. Thank you, Y/N.”

Chan’s eyes never left yours. The air somehow thickened. You could have cut the tension with a knife. Before you knew it, both of you were inching closer to each other slowly. You didn’t know what was happening. It was as if your body was reacting on its own.

Before anything could happen, your phone rang and you quickly sprang apart. You then came back to your senses. You couldn’t fall for him. Never. You were planning on destroying his father. This was the last thing you should do!

“Uh… I should take this. I’ll go down… And then you can drive me home.”

Chan just nodded, not able to say anything after that weird situation.

♥.

You decided to not bring that almost kiss thing up again. Chan didn’t bring it up either. You were both talking about your feelings that day and you were emotional. Things like that can happen, right? Maybe. Maybe not.

You didn’t want to think about that moment because it made you feel weird. You felt flustered, your hands felt sweaty, so no. This was not the right feeling towards someone whose last name is Bang.

However, you couldn’t risk losing him because you still needed him for your article. This time, you invited him over to your little apartment because he was about to write his exam about Shakespeare and you wanted to study with him in a cozy environment. And nothing screamed more cozy than your apartment. You had told Jisung to go out so that he wouldn’t see Chan. He assumed that it was for a date and still teased you about it.

You were a little nervous for Chan to come to your apartment. Not only because of the whole treehouse incident but more because of the fact that you were hiding the true reason why you were spending time with him.

To make him feel more welcome, you decided to bake some cookies. They were in the oven and waited to be eaten. Then you heard the bell and you quickly let Chan in. “You look cold!”, you said and ushered him in.

“It is cold.”, he said and looked around in your apartment. “Looks cozy.”

You nodded. “I know, right?”

Chan then sat down on the couch of your living room and looked at you. “So, I brought my Shakespeare stuff. I hope I will pass the test without any problems.”, he said and smiled. “But with you as my teacher, I will pass for sure.”

You blushed a little. “No! You are a good student. Don’t pin this on me!”, you smiled at him and sat down next to him.

Chan sighed happily. “Isn’t it weird to sit here? You didn’t really like me and your car doesn’t work because of me. And yet, we’re here and you help me with Shakespeare.”

You felt a pang of guilt hit you because of the boy sitting right next to you. “Yeah. I guess my love for Shakespeare saved you, huh?”

He chuckled. “Thank god for Shakespeare.”, then Chan stopped and sniffed. “Uh… It smells like something is burning?”

Then your eyes widened. “Fuck! My cookies!”, you quickly ran to the kitchen to find very black cookies that looked inedible now. You immediately turned the oven off and were met with black smoke.

Chan opened the window of your kitchen. “Why did you make cookies?”, he said and laughed hysterically at your baking fail.

“I just wanted to make something sweet. It helps while studying.”, you pouted. “Damn it.”

Chan walked up to you and took your face in his hands, making your heartbeat quicken. He squished your cheeks together so you had to pout more. “Don’t be sad. Let’s make another batch and then we can eat them, alright?”

You put your hands on top of his and pushed them down. “Yes, sir.”, you said while trying to hide your embarrassment. “Okay, I bet you never baked before.”

Chan looked offended and dramatically put his hand on his chest. “Why would you say that? I could be a great baker!”

You gave him a deadpanned look. “You are rich, Chan.”, you said while your facial expression literally said: “Of course, you never baked.”

He sighed. “Okay, I don’t cook or bake often. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t have a secret talent?”, he then laughed.

You grinned at him. “Yeah, sure. Let me take out the ingredients and then we’ll start.”

Before you knew it, you were baking with Bang Chan. He helped you measure all the ingredients and for a moment you felt like you were in a relationship. As if he was your boyfriend and everything was fine. You quickly gave yourself a reality check. You were here with him for your own selfish reasons.

“Hey, Y/N.”, Chan said while you were stirring the batter.

“Huh?”, you looked up at the boy who was eating some chocolate chips. “Don’t eat that!”

“Stop nagging. You have something on your face.”, he then said with a sly grin on his face.

“What? What is it?”, you said in panic, wiping your whole face. “Where is it? Is it gone?”

Chan stepped closer to you. “It’s right… here!”, Chan smeared some flour on your face.

“Oh no. You did not do that!”, you squeaked and giggled as you threw some flour at Chan’s face. It was way more than what Chan threw.

Chan stopped for a second. “Oh, it’s on!”

After that short sentence a flour war broke out. Chan was hiding behind the little kitchen island and then you were running around, making everything dirty. Suddenly, you slipped on the flour, right on top of Chan who held you but slipped due to the same reasons.

You were laughing hysterically on the floor. Once again, everything seemed so simple and natural between the two of you. You couldn’t believe that he was the son of the man who destroyed your parents’ lives. “Who is going to clean this up?”, Chan asked, still laughing.

You just looked in his eyes, not daring to look away. “I don’t know. The kitchen fairies?”, you said, still lying on top of him.

“Yeah. I don’t think so.”, Chan said, also looking at you. The look he gave you made you feel weak in your knees. What the hell was happening?

You then slowly got up and tried to clean the flour in the kitchen and on yourselves. “Just because we wanted to bake some stupid cookies.”, you said but with a smile on your face.

“Well at least now they are in oven and hopefully will not burn!”

“I should probably take a quick shower. Don’t be shy to take anything you want. Feel at home, Chan.”, you assured him as you went to the bathroom.

Chan then was left alone in your apartment. He sat down on your couch for a few minutes, thinking about what happened in the kitchen just now. He thought about how much he enjoyed your company. It was weird but he didn’t mind the feeling that come when he sees you.

He didn’t know why but he somehow felt drawn to your bedroom and you did say that he can feel at home. Curiosity got the best of him and he went into your bedroom, just to have a look. Because a bedroom says a lot about you as a person.

He entered the room and was greeted with pastel colors. Your room was clean but your desk was a mess. Must have been from work, Chan thought. But then, something caught his eye. On your desk, he found a folder with the name Kevin Bang on it. Chan took the folder and while going through it he found a lot of information on his father. But not only that, there were more scandals and bad publicity than anything positive. Chan didn’t know what to think of this.

He then turned around to see something red that caught his eye poking out of your closet. As he walked closer to it, he saw that it was a dress, with a mask hanging from the clothing hanger. Chan’s eyes widened as he connected the dots. The information on his father and then this dress?

Chan would recognize that dress anywhere. The dress that destroyed his father’s reputation. The dress the woman who danced with him wore. The dress that shouldn't be here. Chan started shaking from anger and disappointment. What the hell was he doing here? His heartbeat quickened and his palms were sweaty. He started shaking a little bit because of the feeling of frustration. The boy was trying to stay calm as he took deep breaths.

Chan didn’t hear you coming in with wet hair and some loose clothes, trying to dry your hair with a towel. But as soon as you saw him staring at the dress, you dropped the towel in shock.

He turned to you with an expression that was unreadable.

You started shaking in fear. “I can explain.”, you said, breathing shakily.

Chan just stared at you, waiting for an answer.

Shit.

♥.

Author’s Note: Chapter 4 is here and Chan finally found out. What do you think his reaction will be? I hope you like it!

59 notes · View notes

sweetladymoon · 4 years

Note

okay prompt for jiara if you’re interested??? so when kie and john b get in the little arguement at the Craine house and slap each other you can hear Pope and JJ in the background making little comments. After John B slaps Kie, JJ sounds like hella protective. Idk maybe something about JJ being protective over Kie and her asking why??? leading to them talking about their feels

Yes, hi! I’m very much interested. This was such a cool idea that I immediately went on writing it. This turned out a bit longer than I originally planned, but oh well. Thank you so much for sending in that prompt, I had a lot of fun writing this. I hope you enjoy the outcome!

I also posted this on AO3

______

“You know, we had a good thing going. And then you decide to rope in Barbie, and now the trail’s gone dry. Coincidence? Probably not.”

She sounds bitter even to her own ears, but she knows someone has to say it. JJ and Pope share meaningful looks every time Sarah is mentioned but they never dare to point out the obvious. Maybe, because they just don’t know Sarah Cameron like she does.

She knows how easy it is to fall into the Kook princess’s trap. How she gets under your skin and weaves herself into your heart. But Kiara also knows what it feels like to be let down by that very same girl. One day you’re her number one and the next she barely acknowledges you. Sarah was her best friend once and if things had turned out differently, she maybe even could have been more and Kiara knows how much it hurts being replaced by the girl from one second to the other.

So, when she tries to talk some sense into John B, tries to warn him about Sarah, she doesn’t do it out of jealousy or her grudge against the girl but out of genuine concern. John B might say that it’s not like that between them but she had always been able to read him like an open book. And really, it isn’t that hard considering that he always wears his heart on his sleeve. She knows the look on his face when he talks about Sarah, has worn it herself at one time probably, and she won’t allow the Kook princess to cause any more harm to them.

She had gotten over it, over Sarah, after some time. She had figured that maybe that was just what Kooks did, or maybe what this particular Kook did and swore to never get involved with them ever again. JJ, Pope and John B always had her back and so she was easily distracted and moved on quicker than one might guess. But seeing her again now, seeing her try to play her games with her best friend brings some of the hurt, the betrayal back and she won’t let Sarah get away with it for a second time.

Because John B isn’t like her. He’s too trusting, too nice for his own good and she doesn’t know if he could handle the betrayal when Sarah eventually decides that she has enough of slumming it with them.

Besides, having John B fall for Outer Banks’ very own Sarah Cameron would have been bad on a regular day, but now there are bigger things at stake. They are being chased by guys with guns for crying out loud. Kiara knows that this shit, this little treasure hunt was turning into something far more dangerous than any of them had expected. And getting someone they don’t trust a hundred percent involved in all of this, doesn’t only seem reckless but plain stupid.

“This is exactly why I didn’t want to tell you about Sarah,” John B replies and she is already annoyed by his lecturing tone, “What the hell’s the deal with you two?”

She hates how much he makes it sound like she’s the problem here. As if she’s the one risking not only their plan but their lives.

“Nothing,” she replies because she doesn’t want to go into detail about what happened between her and Sarah. It’s none of his business and she doubts he would even understand. Not being invited to a birthday party really doesn’t seem like that big of a deal anymore compared to what they were facing at the moment but it had hurt nevertheless and she wouldn’t forgive the other girl any time soon.

“Nothing?” he repeats, “Is it because I kissed you? Is that the problem?”

He wears a painfully condescending smirk on his face, one that feels so wrong, so foreign on his face. It doesn’t suit him to act so patronizing. It’s not him, she knows out of all of them he’s probably the one who’s the least petty and seeing him act like that really makes her want to slap him. So, she does.

It’s not with a lot of force or malice behind it, she just wants to remind him who he’s talking to. The sound is louder, more deafening than the action. Her hand barely stings and his cheek hasn’t even gotten a red tinge to it.

She hears the boys behind her exclaim slightly amused sounds of awe and JJ adds “That echoed, dude!”. She’s dimly aware of the fact that they’re still beneath Mrs. Crain’s house, an axe murderer if JJ is to be believed, and that they should really try to be silent. After all, she doesn’t really plan to get arrested for breaking and entering but she still feels anger bubbling at the pit of her stomach and she blurts out the words before she can stop herself.

“Stop treating me like I’m some girl that’s obsessed with you instead of your best friend who’s actually trying to look out for you.”

“Did you hit me?” asks John B, completely ignoring her previous words. The disbelief in his voice almost makes her regret her actions. Almost.

Instead of apologizing or going on with their argument she simply lifts her right hand, displaying the tiny insect she caught with her slap and answers, “Skeeter”.

“Skeeter?” he asks obviously not believing her stated intentions and before she has any chance to react, his hand suddenly lands on her cheek. His slap mirrors hers. It’s weak, without any actual intention of hurting the other behind it but it still echoes loudly.

If they didn’t have the attention of the other’s before, they sure as hell have it now. JJ’s “Hey, alright, no” is far more serious and insistent than she expected. Any note of amusement that had previously inhabited his voice is gone. It’s unusual for him to sound so serious and she is almost surprised that this kind of behavior appears now. After all, it’s just her and John B. They wouldn’t actually hurt each other.

She has already forgiven John B his actions when he presents his own hand and says “Skeeter”. She can see the mischief in his eyes, the laughter and knows she must wear a similar look. It’s like a silent agreement between them to let things be for the moment and focus on the situation they currently found themselves in. She hits him lightly on the chest and he slaps her arm in return all under the pretense of getting rid of mosquitos. It’s playful and she finds herself giggling along to their actions, yet she still feels JJ’s eyes burning on her.

“All right, can we leave this? Because this is getting-“ JJ starts to stay, still with an unknown tension in his voice. Pope interrupts him before he can finish his sentence though and they quickly scramble together to help him reveal the well. She immediately forgets about her little squabble with John B but JJ’s eyes never seem to leave her frame and she sees a question in them she’s not quite sure how to answer.

It isn’t until later when they all find themselves at the chateau that JJ approaches her. She’s outside, sitting near the water, still trying to calm down after seeing Sarah again earlier that day, when he approaches her. In true JJ fashion he plops down next to her but when she looks over she isn’t greeted by his usual lopsided grin. He still wears that weirdly concerned look on his face and she almost wants to reach out to him to make the worried crease between his eyebrows disappear.

“You alright?” he asks and she allows herself a small smile over his worry.

“I’m fine.”

“You sure? It was a weird day. No one would blame you for feeling a bit out of it. You know, with Sarah and the whole slapping the shit out of each other with John B.”

She huffs in amusement, “We didn’t slap the shit out of each other. It barely hurt. Don’t be such a drama queen.”

JJ doesn’t join in on what would usually turn into their regular banter. He still has that upset look in his eyes and she’s not entirely sure how to get rid of it. She doesn’t like seeing him like this. One of the reason she enjoys being around JJ so much is that no matter how dire a situation seems he can always lighten up the mood. He always finds a way to make her laugh.

“He shouldn’t have done that.”

“Why? Because I’m a girl?”

He rolls his eyes and slowly reaches out and caresses her cheek, the same spot that John B’s palm had met only hours ago. His thumb lightly brushes over her skin and he says “No, because you’re you, Kie and I don’t see why anyone would ever want to hurt you.”

It suddenly feels like the air around them has changed. JJ’s concerned gaze has been replaced with something she can’t quite name. Kiara feels a wave of nervousness come over her, something she is unfamiliar with in the presence of JJ. She has always been comfortable, at ease with him but this, this isn’t the JJ she is used to. It’s not bad though, this more serious, caring side of him she realizes while still being fully aware of his hand on her face. Her skin is tingling where his fingertips press softly into her cheek and she has to visibly suppress a shudder.

She breathes in deeply and lets herself press into the warmth his hand offers. They simply look at each other, neither of them daring to break the silence. Slowly his hand slides down her face, towards her shoulder and then further down until his hand reaches her wrist. She looks down at their hands, strong fingers delicately encircling her small wrist and in one swift motion she interlocks their fingers.

Holding hands with your friend shouldn’t be weird and it isn’t, but the fluttering feeling in her stomach that only increases when JJ starts drawing tiny circles with his thumb, tells her that something about this is different. There is more to this than friends providing each other comfort.

Slowly she lets her eyes draw away from their intertwined hands and looks him in the eyes. She feels the smile that traces her lips before she can stop it and no more than murmurs “You’re a real charmer, aren’t you?”

“Well, I’ve had enough practice.” Kiara huffs in amusement. She feels like she is doing that a lot around JJ.

“I know,” she answers, “I’ve had first row seats to watching you make most of your conquests.”

“Think about where you could have been if you’d only given into my advances.”

“Yeah,” she laughs, “I think I can imagine.”

“I’m not sure you can, Kie. I might have to prove how good we’d be together eventually.”

“Oh yeah?” she asks already feeling a giggle trying to break through the surface. It’s easy to fall into their routine of banter and teasing and she already feels the weight of the day being lifted off her shoulders.

“Yeah. I mean c’mon, it only makes sense. I’m gorgeous. You’re gorgeous. We’re bound to happen.”

If she were a different girl she might have blushed but instead Kiara laughs, freely and full of joy. She quickly squeezes his hand and then she says “Well, why wait for some other time if you can prove it to me now?”

She makes it sound teasing, challenging but she wonders if he catches the hint of seriousness behind it. Apparently he does because the smile that had inhabited his face only moments ago is gone in an instant and in its stead she can see the look of genuine surprise appear in his eyes. He blinks several times, almost looing shocked at her statement and she guesses she can’t really blame him.

Normally she accepts his flirting but eventually shuts it down with a gentle but persistent “Shut up, JJ” or “Fuck off”. Never before has she suggested actually turning their flirting into more.

Something in the back of her brain already screams at her to reel back, put a stop to it before they go too far. Before she has a chance to ruin her friendship with JJ. That her rule of no Pogue on Pogue macking exists for a reason, but she wills that voice to shut up. Because all she knows is that she has never felt happier than in this moment, with JJ’s hand in her hers and his nervous eyes on her face.

“You don’t mean that,” he says eventually but his voice is unsure.

“Why not?” her tone is bolder than she feels.

“Don’t play with me, Kie. We all know how you feel about John B.” That takes her by genuine surprise and it must show on her face if JJ’s questioning look is any indication to go by. “I mean, you kissed him after all,” he adds and she really wants to roll her eyes.

“He kissed me,” she corrects, “and I’m pretty sure I shot him down.”

“But I thought-“ he starts but interrupts himself soon afterwards. She gives him a moment to try and process the information he just received and squeezes his hand again. She doesn’t even try to hide the smile that creeps on her lips while watching JJ’s perplexed face.

“You can be really dense, you know that?” she asks and before the logical part of her brain can stop her. And before she even has the chance to overthink her action, she already leans over and presses her lips softly against his.

For a moment JJ doesn’t react but then she feels his lips move beneath hers and all at once the kiss becomes more urgent, more desperate. His free hand finds the back of her head and proceeds to softly pull her hair. The action makes a soft moan escape her lips and she can feel him grin in response.

They stay like that for minutes, maybe hours and only pull away from each other when they both have to take in a desperate breath of air. JJ brushes back a strand of hair that had fallen in her eyes and his signature grin finds its way back onto his face once again. “Told you I’d prove to you how good we are together eventually,” he says and Kiara only shakes her head in amusement, not being able to stop grinning herself.

#outer banks #jiara #kiara carrera #jj maybank #jj x Kiara #fanfiction #fanfic #s1 rewrite #tumblr prompt #ask #why is that continue reading shit not working??

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zetalial · 4 years

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I can’t stand Ling

Random rant about how much I dislike Ling Yao. Sorry if you like Ling, I just can’t. Feel free to argue with me if you like - this ended up way, way longer and more detailed than it needed to be. I try not to dwell on characters I dislike so don’t expect a dozen more spite posts - this is a one off. I decided I’d feel better by writing it out.

But I really do dislike him. He annoyed me from the first moment he appeared in episode 15 of BH where he behaves absolutely obnoxiously throughout the entire episode and continued to annoy right up until he got consumed with Greed. And his ending annoyed me.

Part 1 - First appearance

First impression are everything, right? I’m willing to change my mind if a character has hidden depths of course but if their character is plain irritating, that impression tends to last.

Okay, so he’s passed out in a random alley and Ed and Al find him - which is by the way a huge plot contrivance. They’re in Rush Valley in the South and Ling will explicitly tell them that he travelled to Amestris via the Xerxes ruins which are the North-East. And he seems to be heading to Central, there’s no reason for him to be in Rush valley let alone in a random alley alone so Ed and Al can help him. (This is a minor point though, I can deal with a couple of contrivances.)

After Ed and Al help him out, giving him food, he asks about the Philosopher’s stone and Ed tells them they don’t know anything - and the Philosopher’s stone is evil by the way, seeking power from the stone is dangerous - will Ling ever have to question his desire for the Stone and the source of its power? Ha, no.

So Ling decides to sic his ninja bodyguards on Ed and Al! They said they didn’t know anything! Given how rare information on the stone is, that’s completely reasonable but oh Ling just knows that they’re hiding something about it? And thinks attacking two kids he knows nothing about is a great idea?

Lan Fan and Fuu do not hold back either, they use explosives and knives and cause loads of damage in their fight when Ed and Al haven’t even done anything! It’s a cool fight but the circumstances make me hate it! We get a shot of Ling casually eating a big meal while this is all going on to show how little he cares. Oh and he makes Ed pay the bill for it.

When Ed and Al do manage to win, Ling is completely unapologetic and allows Ed to get all the blame for the damages he caused when he sent his people to attack Ed and Al. When Ed comes back to see Winry, she is furious at him for damaging his automail again and Ling’s just there again, casually breaking in to Ed’s place, insisting on tagging along even though Ed tells him not to. Ling doesn’t face a single consequence for any of this by the way. Ling does explain his status here explaining that he wants the Stone to become emperor of Xing which is... yeah still quite a selfish goal.

And then there’s the conversation at the end of the episode where Fuu asks Ling why he’s putting up with Ed and Al, who are beneath him. Eh? This is Ling being nice? Ed and Al have been fairly nice, helping him in that alley, listening to his story and their anger was entirely justified at how obnoxious Ling has been this entire episode. But oh Ling is supposedly bowing his head to someone so far beneath him? Ling realises there’s bigger things than a little humility when his clan’s fate is in the balance? What do appearances matter then?

So you’re telling me that being the most obnoxious and annoying person ever was deliberate? All he achieved was making Ed and Al and me absolutely hate him! I’m going to ignore this conversation about Ling seeming wise and having a bigger plan because it doesn’t match up with anything else in the entire episode.

Now, I don’t mind flawed characters - but Ling never gets called out on any of his behaviour and never gets asked to change. Lan Fan is ridiculously devoted to him right from the beginning and the only way we see it as a flaw is that she’s so defensive she loses her cool just from hearing Ling get insulted. Quite why she is so loyal is never explored and I know she’s only a side character but you know I could really use a legitimate reason to like Ling.

Part 2 - Ling’s leadership?

Okay, his first appearance was just a comedy episode so I’ll just be kind and dismiss it. What’s Ling like when the plot gets a bit more serious then? In Central, Ed and Al hatch a plan to catch a homunculus by getting Scar to attempt to kill them and Ling volunteers to help fight the homunculi while Ed and Al deal with Scar.

So Ling and Lan Fan get into a fight with Wrath and Gluttony and Ling reveals that he’s also a superb fighter too because why not? Like, Lan Fan takes a nasty injury from Wrath but Ling manages to hold him off and runs away while carrying Lan Fan. That’s downright crazy alone - that Ling is such a competent fighter he can hold off Wrath while carrying Lan Fan! Isn’t Lan Fan meant to be the trained bodyguard?

Okay so his fighting skills are ridiculous, fine it’s a shonen anime, everyone can fight, whatever. It’s the conversation with Wrath that really gets to me though.

Wrath tells him that if he let go of Lan Fan, he might have a have a chance of escaping. Ling interprets this weirdly and goes on about how a true ruler cares about his subjects and so would never abandon his people and says that Bradley is no true King.

Shut up Ling. Bradley isn’t hiding behind others here, he’s fighting you one-on-one, not sacrificing minions. And you aren’t Amestrian so you have no reason to know about Bradley’s other decisions as a leader so how can you so confidently criticise him? (Bradley is an interesting character who totally shines when being challenged by the heroes but I hate Ling doing it here.) I mean, isn’t Ling the one who orders his minions to fight while he eats breakfast and lets someone else pay for the consequences?

Okay, so I shouldn’t take that fight seriously because it’s not meant to be serious. How about the current one? Ling volunteered to help with Ed’s plan and that lead to Lan Fan risking her life for him! Sure, Lan Fan agreed because she’s stupidly loyal but this was Ling’s plan and she got hurt! Her injuries are as much his fault as anyone’s.

Ling choosing not to abandon her is nice, sure. But given she got hurt following him, I’d call it being a decent human being, rather than a true paragon of leadership! And that’s if I’m to accept that any of this makes one particularly good for being a leader anyway. Ling is kind of extremely reckless. Did I mention the part where he disappeared on his bodyguards just because, leading them to worry as he was passed out on the street in the middle of Central? And then got arrested? Gosh he’s irresponsible. He is so lucky that worked out so easily.

Bradley doesn’t refute Ling’s words, just saying something about how there are no true kings in this world while Ling attempts to escape, still carrying Lan Fan. And there’s another annoying plot hole here where Lan Fan lets off a flashbomb and Ling takes the chance to escape but Wrath reveals his other eye under the eyepatch, preventing Ling’s escape. And then it cuts to the next scene and... Ling has escaped the room!

He’s still running away from Wrath while carrying Lan Fan and despite how fast Wrath is, Ling manages to get pretty far away somehow. Far enough that Lan Fan successfully cuts off her arm, then they tie it to a dog, and escape through the sewers all before Wrath catches up to him. This whole sequence was all off-screen!

In case we haven’t got enough of Ling being awesome, our next scene of him has him jumping out of the sewers with his shirt off where he proceeds to capture Gluttony. Heh, I guess there’s nothing wrong with that but I can’t help but feel like I’m really supposed to like Ling here and love the badass moments and I cannot. I’m upset that the scene where Ling is forced tie her arm to a dog while Lan Fan is bleeding out beside him was cut as that’s the kind of scene that would get me to actually like him. Not scenes of him being an awesome fighter.

Part 3 - The part I don’t hate

Ling is a character with flaws and room for growth, which is something I can appreciate. But these earlier flaws are presented as just comic relief. That’s what annoys me - I usually like characters who can be obnoxious jerks so long as their flaws aren’t just blatantly laughed off as a joke.

In the next few episode we do get to see a more serious and conflicted Ling. This is Ling at his most interesting. He feels guilty about what Lan Fan’s done for him when he was too weak to do so himself and is determined that her sacrifice has meaning. So he’s got the hero flaw of caring too much.

This leads to an interesting conflict where Ling, Roy and Ed all fight over Gluttony and his philosopher's stone. Ed wants it for Alphonse and points out it was his plan. Roy wants it to heal Havoc. Ling wants it to become emperor and argues about what Lan Fan’s sacrificed so that they could catch the homunculus. Sadly, Gluttony breaks free then so this argument isn’t explored any further here.

At the end of the series we see how they’ve changed in this regard. Ling finally has a stone and even though he’s just lost Greed to another sacrifice, he freely offers the stone to Edward to save Al. Ed refuses. So this stuff is all interesting and I really do wish the conflict and resolution wasn’t so brief (and that Roy wasn’t just given a stone to cure his blindness but I digress.)

Next, Ling gets swallowed by Gluttony and there’s more comedy which is still a touch irritating but not nearly so bad as his first few appearances. Ling collapses again with no energy and this should be serious but it’s still presented as comic again. I can’t take Ling’s fainting spells seriously as it’s played for comedy every. Single. Time. That aside, Ling is at his most tolerable here and it’s interesting how determined he is against Envy in contrast to Ed’s horror at Envy’s true form slowing him down. When they’re out, Ling distrust of Father is also good.

And finally we get to Ling accepting Greed into his body. Again he’s being super-reckless and he’s sort of being called out on this as Ed urges him to fight but Ling decides not to. Again we get this characterisation of Ling as someone willing to surrender and lose face to get what he wants. As he said to Fuu when he first met Ed, appearances don’t matter in the long run. He can bow his head when the situation requires. Fighting Greed here would be pointless.

(This is in contrast to Ed who is prideful and can never accept defeat. In Gluttony’s stomach we see him marching relentlessly onward even though its futile. Later, we see Ed’s growth where he agrees to be Greed’s minion, letting go of his useless pride as he realises he can gain something by humbling himself.)

I wish this was explored a bit more too though. It feels more like Ling’s recklessly jumping at the chance to gain immortality despite having been told repeatedly that its a bad idea and, though it seems like he faces consequences in getting consumed by Greed, it eventually works out quite well for him. (Okay that’s a bit harsh, I love Greed’s struggle.) And it seems like its more like luck than any cleverness on his part, which is kinda irksome with how lucky Ling is generally.

So yeah, I like where he’s serious and gets challenged but I feel like it rarely happens. Ling’s other flaws just feel like they’re all comedy where the joke is that he’s rude and obnoxious and pushy and gets away with it. None of his other appearances stop his personality from grating on me. At the beginning of the series, he thinks he’s going to find the secret to immortality and be a great leader and apparently he’s completely correct. Not that I want him to fail, I just don’t like his initial character when I feel like I’m supposed to and most of the character development with Greedling feels like its solely for Greed. Eh I’ve rambled on enough now.

I actually love Greed’s character, he’s really interesting and I adore his development. My hatred is purely directed at Ling.

#fma #fmab #fullmetal alchemist #Wow this turned out long #heh sorry I ramble #but yeah it's cool if you're a fan of Ling #I just seriously overread into characters sometimes #and my sense of humour isn't suited to fmab #fmab crit #meta #myposts #but sometimes a sour first impression can leave a lasting impact

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texanredrose · 6 years

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Did You Know?

-Today, 0317- (214) 13-170-9: Did you know that "hamburger" is two words combined, but it's not "ham" and "burger", but "hamburg" and "er"? No idea what "er" means, though. Or “Hamburg” really. English is weird. You: Who are you and how did you get this number? (214) 13-170-9: Shit, is this not Blake? You: No. I am not Blake. (214) 13-170-9: Ah fuck, sorry, must've fat fingered the number! You: It's four in the morning here. (214) 13-170-9: Oh, cool, same timezone. Still, sorry about that. You: It's fine. You: And, for the record, -er is an Atlesian suffix that roughly means "from" and Hamburg is a city in Atlas. "Hamburger" means, quite literally, "from Hamburg". You: I grew up not too far from there. (214) 13-170-9: Oh, that's so cool! My name's Yang! You: Noted. Now, may I return to slumber or do you have any other useless trivia to impart upon me? (214) 13-170-9: Right, sorry! Again! (214) 13-170-9: Night! Sweet dreams!

-Today, 1034- You: Now that it’s a somewhat respectable hour, I’d like to apologize for being curt last night. (214) 13-170-9: Hey, I get it! I’d be a little cranky if someone woke me up, too. (214) 13-170-9: Really, no harm, no foul. (214) 13-170-9: But if you’re ever in need of useless trivia, I’m here! You: That was... harsh of me. (214) 13-170-9: I mean, you’re not exactly wrong. Most of this stuff isn’t really that useful. But it can be food for thought or even a little funny! Like, did you know the electric chair was invented by a dentist? Sounds weirdly appropriate, doesn’t it? (214) 13-170-9: Guess he got his patients confused with chickens; THOSE are the ones where you pull out all the white things and THEN fry ‘em. You: That was dark. You: I’ll admit it made me laugh out loud, but still dark. (214) 13-170-9: Okay, look, I work with what material’s available to me, and that was the first one that popped into my head. (214) 13-170-9: Also, did you really type out ‘laugh out loud’? lol, really? You: What do you have against properly spelling out words? (214) 13-170-9: Okay, you know what, in hindsight, you’re right. It just caught me off guard. Most people use abbreviations. (214) 13-170-9: Or emojis. You: I honestly hate the sight of that stupid word. You: Also, I spend all day trapped in an alphabet soup hell. I don’t need more abbreviations, thank you. (214) 13-170-9: But they make things so much quicker! btw, ofc I could spell it all out, but rn I’m using one hand, other’s occupied. (214) 13-170-9: I swear that’s not as dirty as it sounds. You: At EOD, I meet with my POC for a SITREP, then CM to the DFAC. (214) 13-170-9: I respectfully withdraw my argument, have a good day.

-Today, 1425- (214) 13-170-9: Um. I might be overstepping here and maybe you’re busy but either way I hope I didn’t upset you or insult you earlier. You: You said “have a good day”; I assumed that was the end of the conversation. (214) 13-170-9: Do you even meme?! You: I realize I implied and now am outright stating that English isn’t my primary language but you don’t have to make up words. (214) 13-170-9: Oml have you never seen a meme before? Hold on. (214) 13-170-9: [MyHairIsABird.jpeg][open][save] You: What.The. Fuck. (214) 13-170-9: You’ve never seen that before? You: I have and am now wondering why I allowed myself to be teleported back a decade. You: At least. It’s probably closer to two at this point. (214) 13-170-9: That’s a meme. It’s short for mimetic mutation I think? Where a joke gets so far removed from the source that it loses all connection but it’s still somehow funny? You: No. (214) 13-170-9: Look, I’ve never had to explain a meme before! You: I’m not saying “no” to your explanation; I’m saying “no” to that meme, as you call it. (214) 13-170-9: That’s what it’s called! You: Of course it is. (214) 13-170-9: Okay, fine, how about this one? (214) 13-170-9: [loss.jpeg][open][save] You: Now you’re tormenting me. You: Wait. I recognize this format. You: This is the stupid joke the idiots I call my subordinates are giggling about like school children? You: It’s not even a joke. This is a serious matter. (214) 13-170-9: I mean, I agree, I’m not sure how it became a joke but it did? (214) 13-170-9: I swear I’m not as dark as I’ve been sounding. (214) 13-170-9: Like, this whole conversation is kinda atypical for me, I swear. You: You’re putting in a lot of effort to convince a stranger that you’re not exactly as you’ve been acting. (214) 13-170-9: Well, you got me there. Sorry.

-Today, 1832- You: You’ve gone quiet. I suppose both of your hands were required? (214) 13-170-9: I just figured you probably had a point and I should just stop digging a bigger hole for myself. You: You don’t have any more trivia? (214) 13-170-9: Did you know a shark’s top speed is 96 km/h? You: Which species? (214) 13-170-9: Uh, Mako shark, I think. You: You are correct. I have a certain affinity for sharks. You: They aren’t as terrible as people make them out to be, you know. Yang: Actually, more people die from being struck on the head with a coconut than from shark attacks every year. They’re mostly fine if you leave them alone. Unprovoked attacks aren’t as common as people think, I mean. It’s mostly just one species responsible for them, too, but people lump all sharks together. You: They do. Sharks are dangerous, yes, but most creatures are. Sharks just get a bad reputation for essentially no reason. Yang: Actually, the movie Jaws spawned a lot of the social stigma around sharks. Yang: Do you have a favorite shark? You: The catshark. There’s several species all over Remnant; they’re deep sea creatures, living below what most people fish at, but they’re occasionally spotted by research vessels. They have beautiful skins with wonderful patterns but very little is known about them, and each subspecies is unique in its own way. You: They’re truly fascinating creatures. Yang: They sound really cool! You: I have a question for you. Yang: Shoot. You: You’ve given me your name yet you haven’t ask me mine. Why? Yang: Well, let’s start from the top. Yang: I messaged you in the middle of the night on accident, which you weren’t very happy about. Then when you apologized, I made a bad joke and you took it literally. THEN, I apologized again, and we talked about memes, and that entire discussion didn’t go anywhere good, I think we’re on the same page on that one. Yang: So, from my perspective, I really don’t have any right to ask your name. I gave you mine so you’d know who to specifically curse if you’re religiously inclined. Yang: Or, like, you just want the satisfaction of specifically cursing me, because like, mood. You: How thoughtful. You: It’s Winter. Yang: I’m pretty sure it’s spring? You: You boob. My name is Winter. Yang: OH Yang: IT’S A GOOD NAME You: ... really? Yang: Absolutely! It’s a beautiful name! You: That wasn’t me looking for reassurance; that was me being... surprised by your response. Yang: It makes me think of Atlas, kinda, cause it’s so cold up there. Yang: Oh. Yang: I am just a series of “open mouth, insert foot” examples today. You: Are you on something? Alcohol? Weed? Nicotine? Yang: NO! You: Admittedly, that last one wouldn’t lead to such a lapse in judgement as you’ve currently displayed. You: Are you lying to me? Yang: FUCKING NO, I’M NOT ON ANYTHING! Yang: I just haven’t been sleeping well recently and my head’s a little fuzzy. That’s all. You: That would explain the middle-of-the-night trivia session. Yang: I said I was sorry about that. You: I believe you but I also believe that a good night’s rest in fundamentally important. You: Tonight, you’re going to sleep at a reasonable hour. Yang: You can’t just command me to go to sleep! You: I just did. Yang: Wait a minute, the acronyms, the orders, “subordinates”- you’re military, aren’t you? You: Yes. Yang: That’s awesome! I’m just a mechanic. I like working on engines. You: Riveting, truly, but those are topics for tomorrow. Tonight, you sleep. Yang: lmao, nice pun! You: I didn’t make a pun. Yang: I said I’m a mechanic, you said “riveting”, how was that not a pun? You: You’re deflecting. Yang: My shields are up. You: I’m not engaging in a pun war when you should be going to bed. Yang: I’m not going to bed, so I guess we’re at a stalemate. You: Fine. Here’s the deal. Make me a promise. Yang: Wow, we’re hardly on first name basis and now we’re making promises? You move fast. You: Promise me you’ll text me whatever piece of trivia comes to mind whenever you’re having trouble sleeping. Yang: I don’t get it. I’d be waking you up at all hours. You: Exactly. You seem like the sort of person to care very much about others so I doubt you’d compromise my sleep intentionally. Now that you have a clear purpose of going to sleep to help someone else sleep, you’ll have an easier time accomplishing the task. Yang: What are you, some kinda quack psychologist? Yang: You’re playing dirty. You: I’m military. What did you honestly expect? Yang: Touche. Yang: Fine. I’ll try to sleep tonight. But just know! I have a whole bunch of factoids for ya! Get ready cause neither of us is sleeping tonight! You: Usually, I’d insist someone buy me dinner first. Yang: Now you’re flirting. You: I’m merely stating fact. You: How about one more “factoid” before bed? Yang: Did you know a shark’s teeth are literally hard as steel? You: Playing to my interests, I see. Yang: I have my moments of brilliance. You: Indeed you do. Now, good night, Yang. Get some sleep. Yang: Good night Winter. Sweet dreams. You: And to you the same.

-Today, 0947- Yang: I hate you. You: Care to elaborate? Yang: Somehow, it worked, and I just woke up from the sleep of the dead. My body feels like mush sloshing around a hollow lead cylinder. You: What you’re feeling is the side effects of your body getting both too little and too much rest at the same time. If you establish a better sleep schedule, you’ll avoid this feeling in the future. Yang: Thank you, Doctor Winter. Do I get a lollipop? You: Continue being this cheeky; I assure you it’s doing nothing but improving my perception of you. Yang: Harsh. You: That was teasing. Yang: Oh. You really should add, like, an lol or something when you're joking. I'm not awake enough to find context clues. You: Aside from the lethargy, how are you feeling? Yang: Hungry. I finally dragged myself out of bed to cook breakfast and it turns out my sister already made me some. I’ve taught her well. You: Older or younger? Yang: I’m older by two years. Sometimes, it feels longer than that, though; I practically raised her. You: Interesting. I’m glad she made some food for you. Yang: Yeah. Now that I think about it, probably worried her pretty bad the last few weeks. You: Is that how long you’ve been having trouble sleeping?” Yang: About that. Yang: These pancakes taste fucking delicious btw. Yang: Did you know that, for most people, their right lung takes in more air than their left? You: We need to have a talk about priorities because I highly doubt you’ve inhaled your food that quickly. Yang: Sorry, my sis had to leave, so it’s a quiet breakfast over here. You: I don’t see that as something that needs to be corrected. You: However, I find myself wondering if you know the reason behind the lung trivia. Yang: I do! It’s because, for most people, your heart is just to the left of the center of your chest. So, since the heart takes up space, there’s only two sacs in your left lung, as opposed to three in your right. Yang: *sacks? Idek You: Idek? Yang: I Don’t Even Know- not sure what the difference between “sacs” and “sacks” is. You: This is why acronyms and abbreviations are more trouble than they’re worth. Yang: Okay, so basically, a sac is biological and a sack is manufactured. Like, sacs are things naturally occurring that fill with air or liquid, either in the body or outside it. Sacks are made for carrying things like groceries. Yang: Meanwhile, “sack” as a verb means either getting hit or getting laid off. Or maybe both, I guess, depending on your job. You: You went and looked it up? Yang: What, you think I was born with all these random things preprogrammed? Yang: I have a really good retention rate and I'm curious a lot. Yang: Google is my friend. You: Obviously. I suppose the appropriate follow-up question would be: you kept highlighting “most people”. Why? Yang: Well, there are a lot of medical reasons that makes it not applicable to everyone. Dextrocardia, for instance, in its mildest form causes the heart to face the opposite way, so the lungs usually fill differently because of that. More severe cases mean that more visceral organs are mirrored, too. You: Okay, so, language, sharks, the electric chair, and now medical trivia. The breadth of your subjects of interest is impressive. Yang: Thanks! Yang: Did you know that the cracking sound made by a whip is caused by the tip breaking the sound barrier? Yang: I’m pretty sure this counts as physics. You: I’ll add physics to the list. You: Now finish your breakfast and do something small. Take a nap in a few hours or whenever you feel tired. Yang: Do you have any siblings? Yang: You don't have to answer right away! Yang: Or at all. Yang: Guess you're busy? Eating breakfast maybe?

-Today, 1036- You: Actually, I was in formation. It's usually at 0930 but there were... complications this morning, so they pushed it back half an hour. Yang: Huh. For some reason, I always thought the military would be, like, SUPER punctual. You: And I have a younger sister and a younger brother, in that order. You: I'm going to tell you a secret: the military is always late. We just never admit it. Yang: So, you're like a bunch of cats? You: Given what constitutes my workday, yes, I would say that's accurate. "Herding cats" is the most accurate description of my job title. Yang: lmao, that's wild. Your siblings here in Vale too? Or back home in Atlas? You: My sister is here; she moved here to study at Beacon and then decided to stay. I suspect her girlfriend might factor into that decision but she's remaining tight lipped about it. My brother is at home, in Atlas. You: Now explain “lmao”. Yang: Laughing My As Off Yang: You really don’t know any chat abbreviations? You: Has it occurred to you that abbreviations is a very long word to describe the shortening of words and is, in itself, evidence that it’s all very silly? Yang: I know this is going to sound very grade school but you’re kinda cute when you’re annoyed. You: You’re right; that does sound very grade school. You: And you only say that because you can’t see me. Yang: Oh, so you don’t go all broody, kinda constipated, pursed lips when you’re annoyed by something? You: I understand those words individually but, combined, I’m lost. What would that even look like? Yang: Here. Yang: [photo][open][save] You: First, I want to assure you that you’re a very beautiful individual. You: Next, you look absolutely ridiculous. Yang: Hey, that’s how I think you look when you’re annoyed! You: I do not. Yang: Okay, I’ll take your word for it! You: [photo][open][save] Yang: Oh Yang: Wow You: That is what I look like when annoyed. You: And, not to wound your ego, but that annoyance isn’t inspired by you. A subordinate just asked me for fucking grid squares. You: At this point, one would think that joke’s too tired to work, but one would be wrong. Yang: Did you know that the winter of 392 was so cold, all of Beacon Falls froze over? You: Back to trivia? Yang: It’s my default response when higher brain function shuts down. You: I’ll admit, this is the first time in a long while I’ve felt flattery to be entirely sincere. Yang: This isn’t flattery; this is cold, hard facts. You: I see. Yang: Hey, I, uh, just realized the time, I gotta get to work. Yang: See if I still have a job, at any rate. You: I understand. Good luck. Yang: Thanks! Hope your work day gets better!

-Today, 1236- You: I assume the radio silence to be a good sign.

-Today, 1428- Yang: Yeah! Turns out, the shop kept a spot for me. My boss is being really understanding. Yang: Kinda... babying me, too, but... I’m getting used to it. Yang: At least he fired the idiot that started this whole mess. You: Am I permitted to inquire as to what happened? Yang: I don’t wanna go into details. You: That’s understandable. You: I’m glad they kept a spot for you. Are you going to return to work full time or ease into it? Yang: Give me a minute. You: Very well.

-Today, 1513- Yang: A few months ago, there was an accident at the shop. We do body work too and this guy tried using a machine he had no business using. Freaked out, caused a scene, I tried going over to help, ended up with my right arm caught in the damn thing. Mangled it pretty bad. So bad the docs had to take it. I got fitted for a prosthetic and I��m just trying to find normal again. Yang: I know I said I didn’t wanna go into the details but I’m actually shit at lying. Yang: Except in, like, weirdly specific circumstances. You: Thank you. Yang: Ok. Gotta admit. Not the response I expected. You: It must be very difficult to discuss and think about the accident. You didn’t have to go into it, yet you did, and I thank you for trusting me with that. You: That being said, is this a contributing factor to your insomnia? Yang: It’s not insomnia. I’m just not sleeping well. Yang: But yeah, idk, maybe it’s related. I liked sleeping on my right side and I can’t anymore. Anchor digs into my ribs. You: Establishing a new routine can be tricky at first. Everything is just a painful reminder of the incident. Yang: Sounds like you have experience with this. You: A bit. A superior of mine whom I respect greatly lost most of his body a few years back. He speaks very frankly about the challenges he faced when returning to the line. Yang: Wait, you mean General Ironwood? You: You know him? Yang: Who in Remnant doesn’t? He’s basically a celebrity. I mean, not just for the prosthetic body thing; he’s also the youngest commanding General of the Atlesian military. Yang: Which... tbh, is kinda weird. Isn’t he pushing fifty? You: Age takes on a whole new concept in the military. Yang: I’d say. Yang: They talked about him when I started my physical therapy. Supposed to inspire me, I guess. You: For what it’s worth, he actually dislikes when people do that. He says that each individual case is a war all unto itself. Comparisons are detrimental to the individual’s recovery. Yang: I like him better already. I’ve been over here trying to just “suck it up” I mean, not like I lost anything more than an arm, what do I have to complain about? You: Hold that thought. Yang: Okay?

-Today, 1558- You: Miss Yang? This is General Ironwood. Yang: Look, I’m all for practical jokes, but this isn’t a good one. You: [photo][open][save] Yang: This is not a joke. You: No, it is not. You: Miss Yang, I’d like to extend my deepest, sincerest sympathies to you for your loss. Having your life upended in such a way can be extremely disorienting. However, the measure of your strength does not come from what you can or can’t do in comparison to before. It comes from your desire to continue fighting, to find a new balance to your life. Asymmetry is a measure of beauty, strength, and courage in its own right. Yang: Thank you, sir. Yang: *Sir. You: I’d like to extend an invitation to a support group I host. It’s mostly military members from all over Remnant but, if you don’t mind a bit of morbidly crass humor- a habit I’m attempting to break the lot of them from, with limited results- we’d be honored with your presence. Yang: No offense, but I doubt a bunch of soldiers would be “honored” by a mechanic. You: The first thing I teach is to see similarities instead of differences. You saw something dangerous and, rather than run away, you ran towards it. All of us share that experience. You: Except Carl. Yang: What happened to him? You: I apologize; it’s a military specific meme. Winter mentioned you’re rather fond of memes. Yang: Oh, so you know what a meme is, but she doesn’t? You: Don’t tell her I said so- she’s a very good soldier- but she’s always had a stick up her ass. She could use more memes in her life. Yang: Should I take that as an order? You: Absolutely. Yang: Can do. And, uh, sure. About the support group. You: Excellent! I’ll give Winter the details so she can pass them onto you. It was wonderful taking to you, Miss Yang. Yang: Yeah, you too, Sir. You: It’s Winter again. I hope that helped. Yang: Did you literally walk into the office of the commanding General of Atlas’ military, just to hand him your scroll and say ‘talk to this bitch’? You: I didn’t use those words; I told him I had a friend who recently attended physical therapy post amputation and I thought some words of encouragement from him would be a good idea. You: Wait, did he literally say I have a stick up my ass? Yang: WOOOW, meme savvy he might be, but apparently he doesn’t know how to delete a text message. You: I can’t believe he’d say that. You: I most certainly do not have a stick lodged in my posterior, figurative or otherwise. Yang: I’d offer to check but that’s a bit too fast too soon, so I’ll just say you seem alright to me. You: Thank you, Yang. Yang: Cranky when I wake you up at the asscrack of dawn, though. That might be when ass and stick are firm friends. You: Do not make me take it back. Yang: I’m just kidding! Yang: Seriously, though, thanks. You didn’t have to do that. You: You’re welcome.

-Today, 0233- Yang: Did you know it takes the average person seven minutes to fall asleep? You: I sincerely thought you’d be asleep by now. Yang: I did. Woke up. Yang: Sorry. You: Do you know what a contact truck is? Yang: Uh, no, no idea. You: It’s the military vehicle utilized by mechanics, outfitted with tools, so they can drive out and repair other vehicles. Do you know why it’s called that? Yang: Hit me with it. You: That was an actual question. Yang: Huh? You: I’ve been asking for as long as I’ve been in. Not even General Ironwood knows why it’s called that. It just is. Yang: omg that’s hilarious You: It’s that, too. Also incredibly vexing. You: I just want to know why it’s called that. Yang: Heh. If I find out, I’ll let you know. You: Go back to sleep, Yang. Yang: I’ll try. Night. You: And sweet dream. Yang: lol, same to you.

#TRR writes #Elderburn #Texting AU

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murasaki-murasame · 7 years

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Danganronpa V3 Liveblog Part 12 [Chapter 4 - Daily Life]

If you die in the game, you die in real life the other, bigger game called Danganronpa V3.

Thoughts under the cut.

Well this sure got weird. I expected the Neo World Program to come up soon enough, but not THAT soon, and I didn’t expect it to literally be the Neo World Program, even though the virtual world itself is obviously different to the one in DR2.

On that note, they sure are making a lot of references to DR2 in this chapter in particular. I’m even pretty sure that ‘Miral Falls’ was the name of the resort in DR2.

Anyway, in terms of the death that happened at the very end, I honestly wasn’t expecting it to be Miu. I genuinely thought that she was going to survive this one, and follow the tradition set by Asahina and Akane, of the fanservice-y girls surviving to the end. Huh. If she can die, though, maybe Gonta can break the curse of bara characters always dying.

Seriously though, I was genuinely unspoiled on this, and I didn’t see it coming at all. I guess it was pretty obvious in the final moments leading up to it, but Kaito’s mysterious disappearance also made me wonder if he’d gotten killed off instead. I’ll talk about him later, though.

Even though this whole part is basically one huge DR2 reference, the scenario within the virtual world itself felt very Banshee’s Last Cry-esque. But with how the murder actually played out, the comparison isn’t very strong.

Before I talk about anything else, I should comment on the start of the chapter in case I forget. That sure was one big plot tease with that video from Rantarou. I assume that it was a video he recorded for himself from before the killing game began, though the fact that we got a title card saying ‘a few days ago’ before it played was suspicious, since it’s been much longer than a few days since he died.

Anyway, they obviously cut off parts of it to avoid spoiling us too much, but from what they showed, I can gather that Rantarou was a part of a previous killing game that he survived through, and that he apparently wanted this current game to happen, and to win it. Welp, guess that plan of his immediately failed, since he was the first to die. It does make me even more curious about what his deal is, and how we’ll even find out about it at this point.

I think we already got a hint at him having done a killing game before [just in terms of the characters commenting that he sounded like he’d done this sort of thing before, I think], but getting more confirmation of it’s now making me wonder if maybe the Monokubs might somehow be related to other people that might have survived alongside him. DR1 had six survivors in the end, so maybe a similar thing happened with Rantarou’s group. I’m not sure. There’s not much to go on. But on this note, I’ve been meaning to say for a while that the Monokubs are suspicious as fuck, and sometimes it feels like they vaguely allude to a previous killing game that happened. Like that one time one of them talked about someone dying on a battlefield, and in this part we saw Monotaro mention someone called Kaoru [which may have been a reference to something I’m not aware of, though]. I’m not sure what to make of them, but they seem like they’ll probably play a big part in the overall story.

Given that Rantarou clearly made this tape in advance for him to watch during the killing game, I wonder if he got a chance to watch it before he died. I wouldn’t be surprised if he did, since he seemed to know a bit more than he let on. I wonder if we’ll find this tape if we ever find his lab.

Also, him referencing the idea that the killing game will end when two people are left makes me wonder if the game might actually go in that direction. I feel like the game’s been bringing that rule up a lot more than in the previous games, at least, so maybe this time we’ll get a scenario where the killing game actually winds down to it’s natural conclusion, instead of it being stopped partway through. I’ve always wanted to see what a three-person trial would be like.

I’m hesitant to assume this will happen, though, since it’d require six whole murder mysteries to happen, which is more than the previous games had. But if we get one more case of three people dying over the course of one chapter, then theoretically the chapter six case would then be a three-person trial, and we’d be left with two people left after the execution. So it could happen. We’ll see.

I still don’t have a clue about that tile in the courtyard. It kinda looks like there’s one word per line, and the first ones seem to be ‘the world is mine to’, but I can’t guess at the rest. And some of that guess might already be wrong. It sounds kinda . . . foreboding. I’m not sure what to make of it.

Oh, and I forgot to mention it last time, but I’m really suspicious about the ‘voice in Keebo’s head’. It sounds really important, but I’m not sure what it might be, specifically. Probably some sort of program that was installed in him ages ago. The question is if the voice is helpful or malicious, especially if Keebo really does whatever it tells him to do.

I’ll talk about the overall murder soon, so for now I’ll just talk about characters for a while.

Kokichi flips back and forth between being kinda endearing and incredibly fucking evil and irritating. Also he somehow managed to one-up himself in creepiness with that one expression he made during his scene with Monokuma. Good god. I just knew he’d fuck things up and do something to set up a murder, even if he probably didn’t kill Miu directly. I wonder what he found with that key card, and how it lead to him [presumably] messing with the virtual reality program somehow.

Also I’m not super happy about the prospect that he might be into Shuichi in a really yandere sort of way. I wasn’t sure if he was just teasing him before, but that whole ominous ‘I do everything I can to make the person I like notice me’ thing makes it seem pretty serious. But, like, on the one hand, I guess the basic fact of one of the dudes being not straight is nice, but on the OTHER hand, of all the dudes??? The one who I hate the most??? Oh well. At least now I’m starting to get a clearer idea of why people seem to ship him and Shuichi. Right now it just seems like an awful, toxic version of Komaeda/Hinata, so I can’t get behind it at all. At least Komaeda was able to feel genuine love and admiration and respect for those around him. Also him being really misogynistic toward Miu is kinda even more groan-worthy now. OH WELL. I just know this dude’s gonna survive so I guess I’ll have to deal with him until the very end. That’s not a spoiler, though. I have no idea if he’ll survive. It’s just that he seems like the sort of character who’ll survive.

I’m really starting to warm up to Himiko as a character now, although the fact that Tenko had to die a more or less pointless death to set this up is still hard to swallow. Thankfully Himiko is taking her message to heart, and is trying to move forward, even if she’s getting ahead of herself a little. I’m glad I did that training scene with her and Gonta. That was adorable. And on that note, Gonta continues to be a precious cinnamon roll who is too pure, too good for this sinful earth, but maybe he’ll break the Bara Curse [tm] and survive.

Tsumugi and Keebo are still weirdly . . . empty characters to me, but I like them well enough. Tsumugi in particular seems to have some interesting things going on in her backstory, with the occasional references to her having dealt with debt in the past, and having had to do some presumably seedy jobs to pay them off. The bar scene in her lab was clearly meant to be sexy, but the implications of it kinda depressed me a little. I probably won’t ever bother doing her free time events before the game ends, though, so for now I have to just take what I get given with her.

Keebo is also still weird to me, for reasons I’ve gone over before. I imagine he’ll be important later on, but for now he’s just . . . odd. I still can’t help but get hung up on how weird it is that his ‘persecution complex’ is played as a joke, when he spends the entire game dealing with people making genuinely rude and demeaning comments to him, again and again. It just makes me kinda uncomfortable. It’s at least kinda bizarrely lacking in self-awareness for a game like this to be like ‘hahaha look at this dude getting worked up over nothing’ while simultaneously indulging in jokes about people being shitty toward him all the time.

I was never the biggest fan of Miu, but I’m sad to see her die. She was at least over-the-top enough that I couldn’t help but find her funny. And even if she was a genuinely rude and obnoxious person sometimes, she was still obviously trying to help everyone find an escape from the killing game.

This chapter is going even further to cement my undying love for the Shuichi-Kaito-Maki trio. They’re so wonderful. I love that we’re actually getting to see the step by step process of them becoming friends, in a way that feels really realistic and believable. I love seeing them all be mutually supportive but incredibly awkward at it. The nightly training sessions in general are a really nice way to show how they’ve been getting closer. They also really illustrate how different they are. I love the running gag of Shuichi trying and sucking at doing exercises, while Maki’s doing them really fast, and Kaito’s just laying on the ground being like ‘do you ever, like, just contemplate the vastness of the universe?’. I fucking adore these kids. I did not at all think I’d love them this much before I started playing the game.

The more we learn about Maki’s backstory, the more I like her. She’s great. I really like that a lot of the backstory she gave us originally is actually true. It’s just a neat detail, that she was actually for the most part telling the truth to everyone at the start, even if she was lying about the major thing she needed to hide.

I can’t help but feel terrible for her, though, with everything that she got put through. Seeing her going down the bumpy road toward normality and redemption is pretty heart-wrenching. I just want her to be happy.

Kaito is basically my heart, my soul, my beloved purple space boy, and it kills me inside that he’s being set up as the obvious culprit for this chapter. Am I going to spend a third chapter suspecting him? Probably. Do I feel guilty about it? Yes. And even if he isn’t the killer, there’s the fact that he clearly has a terminal illness of some kind that he’ll probably die from.

I also managed to marathon through the rest of his free-time events in this chapter because I figured he might actually die in this chapter so I should get his events done just in case. I was going to try and talk to Kokichi in the one session where Kaito wasn’t around to talk to, but he kinda blew me off.

I did not expect how Kaito’s free time events would go, but they were hilarious. I wasn’t expecting a multi-part story about how Kaito conquered the sea and the lands as a kid before deciding to treat the entirety of space as his final conquest. He’s amazing.

Also the end of the fourth free time event makes it pretty obvious that Shuichi is gay as fuck and has a massive crush on him. I’d rather not get into any sort of a discussion that’d involve words like ‘ambiguity’ or ‘canon’ because uuuuugh I’m so tired about that, and I’d prefer to allow myself the experience of relating to a fictional character rather than tell myself I’m interpreting things wrong, so I’ll just go down the path that makes my experience with this silly anime murder game the most fun, and say that, again, Shuichi is gay as fuck and has a massive crush on him. I already felt before that all of Shuichi’s monologues about how Kaito completes him, how he can be truly happy around him like he’s never been before, how they balance each other out, how he’d never met anyone like Kaito before, etc etc, were pretty damn gay, but then Shuichi himself went and found himself acknowledging how gay he sounds. I mean, at least the game in general acknowledged that Shuichi’s feelings and thoughts toward Kaito are, y’know, exactly how you act toward someone you have a crush on, to the point that even Shuichi was like ‘I-I shouldn’t be talking about another boy like that’.

But, again, even though I kinda doubt he’s actually intended to be gay, I’m just gonna choose to interpret it as him being in denial about his sexuality. Especially since I prefer that interpretation much more than seeing it as the game trying to genuinely say that it’s wrong for a boy to feel that way about another boy. [Also even if DR3 kinda fell into the pit of the Bury Your Gays trope, it at least still portrayed Juzo’s feelings as being genuine, and Junko’s homophobia as being an act of villainy, so it’d be a bit depressing if Kodaka went from that to being unironically homophobic]. It didn’t really come up again by the end of the series of free time events, but even so, this is how I’m seeing it.

This is also part of why it’s going to literally destroy me if Kaito dies, especially if he becomes a killer who Shuichi has to prosecute, because on top of how I already love Kaito a whole lot, I’d also be stuck imagining how horrible Shuichi would feel about it. I feel like having to go through an experience like that might honestly break him inside, and make him unable to trust anyone again.

Anyway that ended up being a bit of a long rant even though I said I didn’t want to do one, but oh well, I can’t help myself. I’m so used to talking about this sort of thing that it just kinda happened, lol.

[Also just as a precaution, this rant isn’t an invitation for people to send me any kind of spoiler about this topic, or any other topic. Trust me when I say that I really don’t need to know.]

But anyway I love these three kids and I know that they’re going to go through even more traumatic shit before the game ends, so that sucks.

I guess I should finally comment on the actual murder itself, lol. I didn’t really expect it to take this long to get to this point.

I’m honestly kinda surprised that the murder seems to have happened in the real world. With how much time they put into explaining the mechanics of how the virtual world worked, it’s odd that it looks sorta like someone just strangled Miu in her chair. But the fact that there’s so many specific mechanics to how the game world works makes me think that it probably IS relevant to the case, and we just don’t know how yet.

To address the elephant in the room, they’re really setting Kaito up as the obvious suspect. He just mysteriously vanished right when Miu died, as if he logged out in order to kill her outside of the game. I stopped playing immediately after the Deadly Life title screen, so I’m not sure what he’s up to at the moment or what he has to say about all this.

The fact that they’re making him seem like the obvious suspect, and the fact that we got that ominous scene at the end of chapter three that definitely implied that he was desperate to leave the school, makes me think he’s probably not the killer, since that’d be too easy. But I can’t help but worry that it really might be that simple, and maybe this chapter will just be difficult in the sense of it being emotionally difficult for us to suspect Kaito. Which, I mean, is definitely true, but still, it’d feel a bit . . . lame.

Though then again, Kiyo was signaled pretty early on as chapter three’s culprit, but that also had a lot of complicating factors that made it hard to pin all the blame on him until the entire mystery came to light. But you get what I mean. The game might not be above making the culprit kinda obvious.

I feel like a big question here will be whether Miu was killed inside or outside the game, because that really does influence how I would go about guessing at a culprit. If she died in the real world, then someone could have just logged off, walked over, and strangled her or something, in which case the rules of the virtual world seem largely pointless, aside from the fact that after Miu kicked down the bridge, only Shuichi, Kaito, Tsumugi, Gonta, and Kokichi would have been able to access the log-out phone, unless someone in the chapel group found an alternate way across. But limiting it to those five people isn’t saying much when Kaito is the obvious suspect right now, since the bridge being down wouldn’t have impacted his ability to log out and kill Miu.

Similarly, if Miu died in the game, somehow, then the bridge thing means that the suspect list would instead consist of the other group, of Keebo, Himiko, and Maki, if we ignore Miu for obvious reasons. But I’d be surprised if any of those three killed Miu in the game itself, since I thought all of them would have been in the chapel at the same time, thus making a murder there seem pretty unlikely.

Part of the issue is that I just can’t guess how someone could have gotten across the bridge without the signboard. Well, specifically, it feels like everyone would have had the same lack of ability. Theoretically someone could have picked up the signboard from downstream, went across it, killed Miu, and knocked it back down the river on their return trip, but that still doesn’t narrow it down much. I guess only the mansion group would have had a chance to do that because of where the signboard ended up, but that . . . doesn’t really change the suspect list at all. Especially since everyone has the same level of physical strength, so even that doesn’t work as something to differentiate the characters.

For the most part I just feel kinda skeptical about the idea that Miu was actually killed outside the game. At least directly. It definitely looked like she’d been strangled, but in hindsight I don’t think I saw anything that actually looked like a strangulation tool aside from her normal chokers, so maybe her body was just reflexively responding to the sensation of strangulation, and not actually trying to tear off something specific that had been used to physically strangle her.

But the idea that she died in the game itself certainly complicates things, with how it was set up. Aside from what I’ve already discussed, two weird things that stick out to me are that Miu was seen walking outside, and Shuichi heard Keebo scream. I forget if it was Keebo or someone in the mansion group who said they saw Miu outside, but if she was seen outside the mansion then that’d seem really weird, since she was the one who knocked over the only bridge to the mansion area, and she probably wouldn’t have been able to retrieve it. I also can’t imagine why she would have gone over there after knocking over the bridge. In general her whole attitude in this whole part seemed kinda off, like she was hiding something.

It confuses me even more, though, that Shuichi would have heard Keebo screaming. The game already explained that neither sight nor sound travels through the world loading screen thing, so Shuichi shouldn’t have been able to hear Keebo’s voice from the other map. I can’t quite remember all the exact details, but I remember being immediately confused about it all.

I’m also, uh, not entirely sure what the toilet-paper was there for, but I guess it’s probably a clue of some kind.

Anyway, I feel like until I do the investigation part, there’s no real clues pointing to any of the other three people from the chapel group, other than the weird detail of Keebo’s scream, so I’ll focus my preliminary guesses on the mansion group.

Obviously Shuichi isn’t the culprit, unless he pulled some sort of a Kaede trick on us and did stuff off-screen during the time-skip that happened while he was investigating the kitchen. Either way I’m ruling him out for now.

Tsumugi also seems unlikely as a suspect. I guess technically Shuichi might have been able to not notice her leaving the dining room while he was busy in the kitchen, but still. I kinda doubt it. I might be wrong about my memory of how it happened, but even if Miu was apparently seen near the mansion, I doubt it was Tsumugi cosplaying as her. Although that makes me wonder, like how Kaito’s avatar seemed to not have whatever illness he has in real life, maybe Tsumugi doesn’t suffer from cospox in her avatar form. So maybe she could have cosplayed as her. I have no idea why she’d do that, though, other than to maybe confuse people. I’m also wondering if she might have been able to somehow mimic Keebo’s voice, which would explain how Shuichi could have heard it, but I don’t think that’s something she could do, even ignoring her cospox issue.

Kokichi seems waaaaay too suspicious in this chapter in particular to be the culprit. We literally saw him talk about how he’d be down with becoming the new blackened, and we saw him talk to Monokuma about his plans to set a new murder in motion. So it’d be weird if he did it, but I guess he was somewhat unaccounted for, although Gonta should be able to verify his alibi.

And on that note, I also doubt Gonta did it. He seems too genuine in his desire to not kill anyone. But who knows.

So that basically just leaves us with Kaito, who’s obviously super suspicious because he apparently logged out before anyone else and could have killed Miu in real life afterward. Of course, anyone else in the mansion group, even Tsumugi, could have just logged out and then back in before everyone got alerted about what happened to Miu. So in that sense, he’s not the only possible suspect. But he’s still suspicious. Especially since I feel like the toilet paper was probably dropped from the ceiling, which makes that a piece of evidence that, uh, technically points in his direction, I guess, even if I have no idea what it could mean. I imagine it’s also pretty important that since he was on the roof he would have had access to the binoculars, so he could have seen stuff that was going on. Although he wouldn’t have been able to see into the chapel zone.

The whole detail of the world loading screen seems way too important not to be relevant, which is why I’d be a bit surprised if the murder happened in a way that involved not even doing anything with it. In general that’s how I feel about a lot of the details in this case. I imagine that a majority of the evidence will be based around the mechanics of the virtual world, including the way that the headset and it’s plugs work, which Miu also described in too much detail not to be a relevant detail, so logically it should more or less all be relevant. So the idea of Kaito just logging off and strangling Miu in her chair feels too simple, and too separated from all of the mechanics and rules this chapter spent time setting up.

But I still can’t really begin to guess just yet how else Miu could have died, and how all these rules could be relevant to the case. Hopefully it’ll feel a bit more clear once I do the investigation part.

If the case is indeed more complicated than it seems to be, then I hope that it means Kaito isn’t actually the killer. That’d be nice. I’ll probably still suspect him for the entire trial, though, like always.

As I said above, I feel like I have far too little info on the chapel group to go on in terms of suspecting them, so my suspect list at the moment is basically just Kaito, with Tsumugi as a fairly distant second place, and Gonta as an even more distant third place. The only person who I even vaguely want to point any fingers at in the chapel group is Keebo, but it’s hard for me to put him on my suspect list.

So with that in mind, I feel like I’m setting myself up for another chapter two-esque scenario where I focus intently on Kaito and get surprised by the real culprit. The way that I can’t even really begin to imagine how anyone other than Kaito could have done it in a way that makes use of the rules set up about the virtual world is making me nervous.

And on the note of the rules about the virtual world, I feel like the set-up with the two coloured plugs in the headsets will probably come into play, but I’m not sure how. They raised the question of what would have happened if someone installed it wrong, but even she didn’t know what it’d do. So it’s hard to speculate about it.

I’m also very suspicious of the fact that Kokichi probably tampered with things somehow with the key card he had, and whatever that gave him access to, but that’s also one huge question mark in this equation.

Also, just as a final note, I’ve basically been saying that I suspected Kaito starting with chapter two, but I guess I technically suspected him in chapter one as well, though not very intently. I think back then my suspect list for that case was Shuichi, Tsumugi, and then Kaito and Tenko tied for a more distant third place. But still, I guess that technically means I’ve been suspecting Kaito to some degree or another for the entire game, which is a bit depressing considering how much I like him and don’t want him to be a killer.

Anyway that’s about it for now. I’ll probably play the entire rest of this chapter tomorrow. I’m going to be bracing myself for some intense sadness, on the off chance that Kaito really is the killer.

#murasaki rambles #danganronpa #danganronpa v3 #danganronpa v3 spoilers #I know that joke doesn't even entirely fit here but I couldn't help myself #I feel like this post got kinda longer than normal lol

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