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takamagahara2017-06-01 06:30 pm
godsoffortune) wrote in takamagahara2017-06-01 06:30 pm
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TEST DRIVE # 17
Whether you're trying to figure out how your character would fare in this setting, trying to get some samples together, or just dipping your toes in the water, you've come to the right place! The Test Drive is here to make your life easy by letting you see what the game is like without actually joining it first. So here is how it works:
1: Post a starter with your character, including whether they are a god or shinki in the subject line.
2: Act like your character is established enough in the setting to allow your thread to go places.
3: Take on any god/shinki of your choosing, as long as they're not already in the game!
4: Comment around to the other people on the meme.
5: Have lots of fun!
Courtly Cadavers
Several dead bodies have very suddenly returned to life. Not only that, but they seem to be possessed by very courteous and polite spirits. So there are reports of half-rotten beings bowing down to young ladies and kissing their hands or holding open doors for other passersby. It's really nice, sure, but also really disturbing.
In the middle of the night, there is a spirit that keeps turning off all of the street lamps. Fortunately, there aren't many cars on the roads at this time. Unfortunately, the spirit is also putting out all of the cars' headlights as well. And no cell phone lights or flashlights work during that time either and it's starting to cause a lot of accidents.
There are eight blocks in downtown Tokyo that have taken to repeating endlessly. As you reach the end of the eight block, you find yourself stepping onto the first block again. No amount of turning or redirecting yourself will allow you to leave the eight blocks - until you stop by a cafe with a couple of bunny girls out front and make a purchase, that is.
Many in Tokyo want nothing more than to be on the cutting edge of technology! And there are some wealthy people who want to be even further ahead than everyone else. That's why they've sent out a general call for new types of technology to be brought to them. And if what you bring is impressive enough, you might get yourself a nice reward~
Several farms on the outskirts of the city have reported a very sudden and tremendous growth in their goats. That's right, there are two-story tall goats hanging out with the other farm animals. Other than being very large, they seem mostly the same. But since goats will eat anything, well... Let's just say a couple of farmers are going to need new barns soon.
If you're uncertain about anything, feel free to check out the Premise, Rules, and FAQ posts. And don't hesitate to ask any questions you might have on the FAQ!
When and if you're ready to join the game, check out the Taken Characters before throwing in a Reserve and starting on your Application
Have fun!
no subject
[Although thinking of Mikan right now...he kind of wishes he hadn't. Knowing what he knows about himself, about Ultimate Despair, about what Mikan was when she'd said the words, puts it all in context and lays bare the motives...but the words still echo in his head, even if he knows their agenda. You don't understand? Is it because you don't have anyone to love? Is it because you're also someone who isn't accepted by anyone?
Mikan knew. She had her memories - of Junko, of their all being Ultimate Despair together, of Komaeda's psychological weaknesses and his distance from their classmates. She knew that he'd been Ultimate Despair once, and could become so again. Maybe she hadn't had Junko's crushing, persuasive despair to back her words, but she'd still been trying to remind him of his own despair - and play off of his desire to be accepted and valued the way Mikan apparently was by her beloved.
Knowing all that, though...it's perfectly obvious to Komaeda, now, who Mikan's beloved was. And what Junko is doing now - it's far more sophisticated and persuasive than Mikan's tactics, but it's to the exact same end. You're my favorite. Junko accepts him, likes him, actually favors trash such as himself. If she doesn't know about Jabberwock Island, then she accepts him even though he's never done anything worthwhile, even though he's a walking disaster in every possible sense. If she does know - because already the doubt is creeping in, the doubt that he could possibly have any position of superiority over her - then she accepts him even though he's attempted to undo her work and kill her followers.
Oh, yes, Mikan's obsession makes so much sense when one mentally slots Junko into the picture.
Still, Komaeda knows what he's dealing with right now. He remembers his disgust, his hatred for the very idea of Ultimate Despair, for everyone who'd call themselves that. That feeling hasn't actually gone anywhere, even if it's having a hard time reconciling himself with his excitement at such a magnificent Ultimate skill, combined with being acknowledged favorably by them. But that doesn't mean he wants to be Ultimate Despair again. He doesn't want to be part of them. He doesn't remember precisely what turned him into Ultimate Despair the first time - he'd read the details, certainly, but reading isn't the same as experiencing, and his real memories haven't returned. So he's not Ultimate Despair as he stands now, and he wants to keep it that way.
He can imagine some of his logic for it, however. He is, after all, still himself. He knows that nothing but the Ultimate Despair could create the Ultimate Hope, and being able to see that hope would be enough to justify his entire worthless existence. If he could help create it, that would be even more incredible; he'd happily give his life for that. Helping Ultimate Despair could be interpreted as contributing to the rise of Ultimate Hope...which is a decently compelling argument, even now. But Komaeda's still not sure why he'd joined - so long as Ultimate Despair exists, they'd bring about Ultimate Hope on their own. He doesn't need to contribute - in fact, he's not even sure why his contributions would be valued or necessary.
All he can assume is that he'd just been...that full of despair himself. That he'd been that achingly, hopelessly desperate to give meaning to his existence by helping to bring about the Ultimate Hope that would rise to destroy them all. Chiaki's death had apparently been the push he'd needed to give in to that. And it's not too hard to imagine that for himself. How much different is it, really, from his suicide in the name of trying to eliminate the members of Ultimate Despair? Had that been hope, or had it been despair? Especially considering he's still not sure if he wants his plan to have succeeded, or for his friends to have foiled it?
It's beginning to dawn on Komaeda, dimly, just how little persuasion he'd need to give into despair, even if it was in the name of pursuing hope. He's honestly not sure where the line between aiding despair and chasing hope is anymore, or what side of it he's standing on.
What an overwhelming talent Ultimate Despair is. Junko's ripping his mind apart from the inside out and he's fully aware that she's barely even trying. There's a feverish quality to Komaeda's smile as he looks down at her.]
I don't remember anything, either. The things I know, I only know because of the Future Foundation file Monokuma gave me. I don't actually have the memories, though.
[Komaeda toys with the possibility of killing Junko. It would be nice to imagine that killing her would resolve the conflict in him. But he's not quite that delusional. And, besides that, she's obviously a god like he is. Even if they were both human, he's weak and sickly and worthless, hardly someone who could successfully kill an Ultimate whose skills are as all-encompassing as Junko's. An Ultimate who's also a goddess...he couldn't even if he wanted to. And it wouldn't help anything.
Honestly, if someone like him could kill someone like Junko...that couldn't even be called Ultimate Hope. He'd just catch her Ultimate Despair from her, at having destroyed something so incredible as someone so unworthy.
He idly wonders just how much of the chaos inside his head Junko can see, and how much she's enjoying the view. His (her? It's confusing) hand squeezes hers back, and he's not sure if he consciously dictated that or if her hand attached to his arm is just happy to be reunited with its proper owner.]
no subject
[As if being brought into the fold of Ultimate Despair needed to be fixed. She stole the technology from Matsuda and Mitarai worked beautifully for how she planned and needed them. It was a work of art. Despairingly so. The fact that it was used against her beloved senpai was something she saw coming from ten steps ahead.
It's why she had her virus in place. It's why she turned Yukizome-sensei. It's why she had Monoka and her little discarded Warriors. It's why she had all these plans. And if Nagito is here telling her that they worked, to a point, her despair is complete.
And it feels her with more Despair.
She laughs, high and menacing, squeezing her joined hands and placing her hand around his slender throat. She doesn't need to know that he thinks that his Hope will win. Everything is Despair. Despair is everything. She will always win. He's just too damn stupid to get it.
Even in death, even in defeat, even if Naegi and his cronies and Munakata and his cronies... even if it all goes how she thinks it will, how she's sure it will, she still wins.
Her laugh turns into a familiar, high pitched voice that she knows he'll recognize.]
You don't need them, Komaeda. You've got me.
no subject
[But this is interesting, because now Komaeda has a fixed point in his understanding of what Junko knows and doesn't know. She's correctly predicted what Naegi did, according to the file - but it's no more than that. A prediction. A guess. However accurate a guess it is, however clear it is that she saw ten moves ahead of even her own death...the fact is that she doesn't know. She doesn't know, and Komaeda does.
There's a certain arch satisfaction to be taken in that.
Before he can take too much breathless pleasure in feeling superior to such an Ultimate, of course, her slim hand is on his throat, nails scratching his skin. The word for the gesture that should come to mind first is 'threatening', so why do Komaeda's thoughts first supply the word 'intimate'? No; perhaps 'divine'. Divine in the sense of something so awe-inspiring, so breathtakingly beyond human comprehension, that it could strike a man dead. Not all that is divine is necessarily good.
And Junko's a goddess. It doesn't even occur to Komaeda to bother wondering what of. What else would she be a goddess of?
That sweet promise, that offer for the acceptance he craves from someone so incredible, is far too tempting given everything he knows on an intellectual level. But any amount of weight, they say, can be shifted if a lever is inserted in the right place. He's beginning to realize, in his feeble attempts at resistance, just how vulnerable he actually is to despair, that he can know so much and hate so much and still, somehow, want to fall to his knees before her.
But an attempt is made. A rather desperate and clumsy attempt, he feels it as such before he even gets the words out, but anything to jam her gears and stop her momentum before she rolls right over him.]
They're dead. I killed all the ones left alive.
[He doesn't know this for sure, and he doubts he was able to hide all his tells to that effect - well enough to pass for a normal person, but to fool someone like Junko? Borderline impossible. But it could be true, and he tries to hold onto that. He's still not sure whether or not he wants all his friends to be dead, Ultimate Despair notwithstanding...but believing he could have ended them, that he may very well have, is important. An act of open resistance against Ultimate Despair, his choosing - his having the strength - to turn his back on Junko, on his friends, on anything and everything wearing the aspect of despair. It's a battle cry against Junko, and a reminder to him of his resolve. Hope is much more important than trash like him, or any selfish desires for affirmation that trash might have.]
no subject
Who do you think gave Naegi the idea to erase memories in the first place? [Her eyes take on a maniac shine and her hand on his throat tightens as her smile turns to almost orgasmic levels of pleasure tinged with the darkest, deepest vestiges of despair.] He hasn't had an original idea since the day he decided to leave his mother's womb.
[As her pleasure rises at the thought of her plans coming together on her world, her powers leak and spill over onto anyone sick enough to still be around the little spectacle that she and Komaeda make. So, anyone angry already? Ten times, a hundred times so. Anyone excited? Nearly manically so. Anyone happy? Laughing uncontrollably.]
Thank you, Nagito. Thank you. [She leans up and kisses him full on the lips as she strangles him.
They're dead and now they're hers forever. Forever.
They are her.]
no subject
He doesn't know what it means. He's not sure anyone but Junko could possibly tell. She might be delighted because something's gone right for her, or she might be delighted because something's gone horrifically wrong with her and she loves the despair that brings. They're both equally likely possibilities, he feels; he knows all about greeting horrific events with cheer, if not outright excitement and anticipation.
That said, while he doesn't know which it is...a shudder runs through his entire body. It's a feeling so overwhelming that it can't even be defined as something as one-faceted as pleasure or fear. It's raw sensation itself, running along his spine, similar to what he'd felt when he'd first heard Junko's voice.
But whatever his spine is doing, his gut is having a reaction of its own. A sinking feeling. A bad feeling. Something's wrong. He doesn't know what it is yet, but...he has a sense for his luck, the tides of fate that have dictated his whole life. And right now, that intuition is telling him that even if he doesn't know how yet...his luck has backfired hideously on him, and the consequences are hurtling toward him.
Compared to that, Junko's grip on his throat barely even registers. Sure, it's getting hard to breathe and even harder to speak, but why would he care about that?
He almost asks if she wanted them to kill each other, but then pauses. Of course she did. She arranged the original killing game, and the source of Monokuma in the Neo World Program was easy to trace through the blatant similarities to it, so she was responsible for that, too. But only now, being thanked by her, does it occur to him to think beyond his kneejerk revulsion and self-loathing of their roles as Ultimate Despair.
That Junko wouldn't want them dead because they were Ultimate Despair isn't even a complication, nor does Komaeda consider it one for any length of time. Everything he's read about Ultimate Despair had told him not to expect any kind of coherent logic, compassion, or even any sense of self-preservation from them. But in the original killing incident, she'd gone to such lengths because the murders were meant to serve a greater purpose. She was broadcasting them to the world, to spread her despair more completely. Every death...had been for the purposes of creating further despair for the world to be drowned in.
His eyes widen slightly as he stares past her, over her.
Even if the people he'd tried to kill had been Ultimate Despair...if Junko served some despair-filled agenda with their deaths, would the destruction of despair still be synonymous with the creation of hope?]
...what was your goal for the killing game on the island? [His voice is hoarse for more reasons than just his throat being compressed. Junko will see that he's already starting to put the clues together. Komaeda's actually exceedingly intelligent, and quick to put together complex scenarios from relatively few clues - but he has a number of blind spots. Primary among them are self-esteem, hope, and despair. Junko's ensured that he fell victim to all three at once, catastrophically.
Komaeda's smart, but he's not on Junko's level. But then, few people are, and no amount of aspirations on Komaeda's part can take him that far. Especially when his weaknesses lie so easily within reach inside Junko's wheelhouse.]