Oma Kokichi (王馬 小吉) | Danganronpa (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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deercountry2022-03-31 04:46 am
violetlies) wrote in deercountry2022-03-31 04:46 am
Entry tags:
Moderation isn't in my vocabulary
Who: Kokichi Oma + OPEN! Closed starters available by request.
What: Catch-all log for April! Includes TDM and Event prompts.
When: Throughout the month of April
Where: Depends on prompt
Content Warnings: All warnings for the TDM prompt will apply. Specific instances will be warned for depending on prompt, but there will be a big focus on disassociative/unreality-based themes.
Wild card prompts are available by request via plotting on Discord, messaging at![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
osomatsuniisan, or PM. ♥
What: Catch-all log for April! Includes TDM and Event prompts.
When: Throughout the month of April
Where: Depends on prompt
Content Warnings: All warnings for the TDM prompt will apply. Specific instances will be warned for depending on prompt, but there will be a big focus on disassociative/unreality-based themes.
Wild card prompts are available by request via plotting on Discord, messaging at
(open) ▼ you're blinded by sweet juices but you gotta put these silly jokes behind
[This time, you find yourself in a bustling city. There's a beautiful night sky above, and the buildings are all lit up with activity. You're left in the middle of a bustling crowd, which doesn't seem very distinct in itself. The people around you seem to be unremarkable, and almost shadow-y. Then, just as you seem to get your bearings, one of the screens on the side of a building - a display screen - stutters and shakes, then with the sound of static displays a logo.
The voice then shifts away to display a boy standing in front of the night sky with stars lit up behind him. He's wearing a mask over his face - a clown mask - and his voice is distorted.]
Greetings, beloved [the name seems incomprehensible to you, but it's a name, and it seems to get the attention of all the shadow-people] City. Too long have you been plagued with sin: corruption. Greed. Ambivalence to those less fortunate. Gluttony to any pleasure you may seek, and too much pride to toss it away for even one moment. No longer. We...are DICE. And we shall be performing our greatest heist tonight.
We will be taking exactly half of the money of every rich CEO, entrepreneur, politician, and tycoon and distributing it amongst those less fortunate. At the stroke of midnight, we'll have all these funds redistributed, and...we will have taken this city's finest treasure as our own.
If you wish to stop our plans, the police will be no match for us. I suggest you find your greatest detective and ensure their cooperation quickly. We're already on the move, and personally, I'd prefer a nice chase instead of something slow and boring.
Thus are the words of DICE leader, Phantom Thief Pierrot!
[The screen shuts off. Immediately, the only passage available to you appears to be a city streetway. Maybe if you look down, you're holding one of those clown masks, too. Or maybe you just feel the inclination to investigate.
Still...you're certain if you want to get out of here, you're going to have to worry about this so-called phantom thief. That might be an issue.]
no subject
Really, Sayo would be content to watch this game unfold. Critique the mastermind on their craft and, who knows, maybe end up giving a few pointers. But she has a life that she's managed to find a Fragment of happiness in to return to... and she's half-sick of shadows anyways.
So, unfortunately for this wannabe mastermind, it's time for Sayo to hunt her own kind.]
My, my. I suppose some role reversal is fun every once in a while. [A smile teases at Sayo's lips. It's been too long since she's been on this side of the gameboard.] How did Will say it went again...
Right.
[She snaps her fingers.]
I am the detective.
[To most people, the information that floods in when the proclamation settles into place would cause a migraine at the very least. To Sayo, who wrote and edited more than half a million words over the span of several weeks (and has sampled the wonders of spice), all it takes is some effort to sift through the rolling waves of information, that 1% added to her extant 99%.
Well, more like 10% added to 90%, if Sayo wasn't flattering herself. A genius-level chemist with a photographic memory, she is not. It's still enough to bridge the gap... and to follow where her new instincts lead her.
The theft of this fake city's fake oligarchs' money is of no concern to her. If the mastermind, who she was inclined to think was the one whose strings were being both woven into this world and pulled to act as its principle character, proclaimed themself a phantom thief, whatever "precious object" was to be stolen would inevitably be where they'd be found and hopefully convinced to leave... if she found them.
Where the site of the heist is isn't even a question. After all, the detective must have ready access to the crime scene.]
no subject
He's gotten into the security office of the museum, and he's hacked into the camera system.]
Sluttytits! Gonna need a report on the right side. [He's talking over a comm system to his subordinates, which are no doubt based on his deceased classmates. In Kokichi's ideal world, ideal future, they're all okay. They're all part of DICE, and they're all okay.
There's a coarse female voice chiming in over the comm system. "I told me not to call you that, you little shit!"]
Well, I'm not calling you by your REAL name. Your fault for not picking a codename, Sluttytits.
[On one of the cameras, a tall voluptuous blonde in a white uniform akin to Kokichi's, wearing a winking clown mask over her face, throws up her arms. "Fuckin'...whatever. Yes! Kiib--"]
AAH-CHA-CHA. CODENAMES.
["...In all fairness, your original codenames were rankings of our attractiveness, Pierrot." That comment comes from a white-haired boy with an awkwardly-fitting uniform over his strange body. This is because he's a robot.]
Dickless Wonder, I'm gonna need you to give me a detective check, how much time we got?
[The white haired boy seemed to glare at the camera, but the most straight pointing up bit of his hair - an antennae, in actuality - twitches. "Not long. She's coming soon."]
Then get your asses moving! You know we've trapped these rooms for reasons. Stick to the PLAN.
[A variety of DICE members on the other cameras seem to have seized some items, and have scattered. There's one treasure at the center of the museum, but there's several ways to get there...the most direct route is blocked by a metal gate. When Sayo arrives, she's greeted with an announcement over the PA...]
Good evening to you, Miss Detective! We're just now wrapping up here. So if you wanna let us get away with everything, that'd be so much more of an ease of my mind, y'know? You investigative-types are soooooo tedious sometimes.
[Not that he knows this one. That's what he's waiting to suss out. Will this girl interest him? There's two obvious routes to take, left or right.]
no subject
Buuuuut, [her face splits into a witchy grin,] that doesn't mean it's all work and no play. I have a wager, if you're interested.
[Now to set the bait.] If I don't catch you and expose your trick in the next, hmmm, [she checks her wrist for a watch that isn't there,] fifteen minutes, let's say? I will simply give up and let you go free. No strings attached.
How! Ev! Er! If I win, whether or not you eventually escape my grasp, you owe me one favor. Nothing more, nothing less.
And either way, before you go... you have listen to what I have to say, and listen well.
How does that sound, oh esteemed Clown Prince of DICE?
no subject
That grin and the words she says next make his face split into a grin almost as witchlike as Sayo's own. Even if she can only hear Kokichi's voice, it's obvious.]
Ohooooooooo~? A waaaaager? You're really one to keep things interesting, huh~? ...Let's have fun with this! I accept! Far be it from Clown Prince Pierrot to deny such an interesting gamble! Neeeheeeheeheeeee!!
[A voice over Kokichi's comm system: "Oma. Aren't you afraid this is a trap?" Rough. Coarse. Kaito's voice. "Something about this is fishy. Even I can tell that." Kokichi rolls his eyes as he turns the PA system off briefly--]
Obviously it's a trap. Don't you have faith in me, dearest 'presently doing that'?
["That's not my goddamn name!!!" Nonetheless. He anticipates to see where the detective will go, pulling up a timer on his phone. 15 minutes exactly. He broadcasts over the comm system...]
Alright! DICE! We are out of here in 15 minutes! Spade team, your focus is to get our thieved goods out. Clover team, stay near the primary target and I'll tell you when to go. Diamond team, you're going to make sure no other law enforcement gets involved. This is a game between Detective-chan and I. Heart team...your focus is to stop the detective at any cost. Protect your king! I want you all on HIGH ALERT!
["Sir, yes sir!" No matter how they'd normally respond in real life, this is Kokichi's ideal world. They listen to him like a proper leader. He's quiet for a moment, before adding:]
...Momota-chan. Amami-chan. Dickless Wonder. You three in particular...stay safe, alright? There's no telling what will happen from this point on, but listen to me and we'll all be okay.
["Of course, Pierrot." Amami's response comes clean and princely, just like Kokichi envisioned. He bows briefly to the camera in the room he's stationed in, and Kokichi smiles. Kiibo hesitates for a moment, but he visibly nods. There's silence from Kaito.]
Momota-chan...?
["You know I'd give the entire universe to protect you, Pierrot. So don't let me down, neither."
Of course. It's Kokichi's ideal world. He smiles sweetly to himself.]
Never, beloved.
[And now to see where she goes...]
no subject
Which means that for the kind of person to send advance notice of a heist, the best bait for a larger, much more complex trap was the illusion of a clumsier, simple one. Kokichi had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker; Sayo just needed to make sure the rest of the mechanism fell into place.
As much as she hated to admit it, this wasn't about winning this little game of chance. She needed to draw Kokichi into a conversation, prod at the edges of this dream, unravel it from the inside out...]
Detective-chan? My, I'm hurt! I have a name, you know. If you've really done your research for this heist, you should've done some research to see what kind of detectives were prowling around the edges of this city that might take one whiff of the crime you set up here and get salivating like me. Why were you so convinced that only one person would come? [The first step was to break the progression of the game. Beatrice's foremost tactic was convincing Battler that there were only walls in his blindspots, and she needed to break through those illusory barriers to shake up the foundations of the gameboard.]
Hm... here's the thing.
It would be absolutely HYSTERICAL if you let in a cavalcade of law enforcement at the climax of your heist, lured them in deeper and deeper, and then shut the gate behind them while using a passage to waltz out the front door.
Which means... that there should be some kind of hidden door around here, to allow for easy and fast transport beyond the inevitable traps you've put into place as those would slow you down.
[There must be no secret passages that the detective cannot find the clues to, after all.
Move into the back rank. Threaten the bishop. What had really been your plan, Kokichi? Did you know what you were doing besides having fun with friends?]
no subject
He scoffs.]
I just have an expectation. Saihara-chan is the Ultimate Detective, after all. There is no other Ultimate Detective. [Which was decidedly not a statement that could be repeated in red. There were, even if he was very unaware of it.] There are others. Such as yourself. Why don't you save me the trouble, rookie upstart, mmm~?
[But what she proposes next is enough to make him snicker.]
Neeheehee. It sure would be, wouldn't it? Seeing a group of helpless officers be able to do nothing apart from watch us leave...do you think that's my plan, truly and honestly~?
Awfully bold to commit to one idea on the dot. What if I'm not so merciful this time? What if my plan is not only a heist, but a massacre? I have numbers, you know. This could easily be the one where I just decide that enough is enough, and the city truly belongs to the one who deserves it most.
["Is that an order, sir?" Another voice across comms, this one flat and to the point. Maki. Kokichi's expression flattens as he turns the PA off again for a brief moment--]
Stay your goddamn hand, Lilith. Don't you dare do anything stupid.
[That was a decidedly harsher tone than he'd taken with any of the other DICE members, and the less than flattering codename was one borne from pettiness. Kokichi paused for a moment, and then a smirk appeared on his face. The PA turned back on--]
Just because you've got a crossbow doesn't mean you have to use it...right away. She hasn't even figured out the combination yet.
[There was no combination. There was, however, a secret passageway in the middle of the first room, leading to two adjacent hallways hidden in the main parameter around the primary target of the heist...so long as Sayo could notice the faint slit in the middle between the walls right in front of her - it could be opened wider, but how? Kokichi turned off the PA system.]
Get your asses MOVING! I'm going to keep buying time, but she's quick. And do NOT try to kill her, Lilith. Or harm her. We don't actually use violence.
[He'd planned things out...to a degree. The main point of it, of course, was to indulge in a fantasy. One with his friends, who were all okay, spared of misery and pain...
But now it was interrupted, and he was, however, good at thinking on his feet.]
If she moves forward, execute plan Solitaire. If not, Blackjack.
no subject
No, no, no. Hmmm, what would be a fitting title... [She taps on her chin, then splits her face with a grin.] The Ultimate Mastermind. How does that sound? I'm not an expert in taking these plans apart... but I have the perspective of someone who's put them together endless times. Which is really good as, don't you think?
[A brief lull in her persona.]
...I do apologize for taking the place of your detective, though. I know well enough how much that absence can ache. You must miss him.
[Then the witch is back.]
And it's simple enough. I know a killer when I hear one.
Oh, I'm not saying you aren't the type to commit murder. [Sayo scoffs, aiming a shot into the dark; a risky proposition for a human, sure enough, but darkness was a witch's ally.] Far from it, actually.
It's just that in this world, you won't do anything to taint the memories of your friends.
[That's what Sayo would do if she was in the same situation, at any rate. And DICE's announcement, the flare with which they conducted their heist, the tenderness in the leader's voice when he called out to a few of his subordinates... it all reminded Sayo of Beatrice just enough to be confident in her blind fire.
Sayo indeed spots the slit between the walls; the detective's authority is one hell of a drug. Now the question is how to get it open. The primary question was whether this museum adhered to a consistent internal logic or if it simply existed for the sake of this heist, bending itself into the perfect shape for it.
A slit. The motifs—card games and suites, based on what she caught from the leader before he turned the PA system off. So...
Acting on a gamble, Sayo looks through her pocket for the necessary materials, for if she was right the detective had to have whatever they needed to complete the puzzle. And if a deck of cards is in there, she'll slip the King of Spades right into that slit, since that's the mechanism itself.]
no subject
I suppose it would be.
[His persona shatters a bit as well at her sincere apology - it's like something burst through his fog.]
It's...fine. He's busy. He usually is.
[Then he, too, falls back into his persona.]
[In truth, he doesn't want to commit murder. He's seen the terror of taking lives, he's said he hates murderers, but he's well aware he's a corrupt individual who would kill if he were backed into a corner. In fact, that's exactly what he--no. No, don't THINK on that.
She has him at a loss, anyway. 'You won't do anything to taint the memories of your friends'. He scoffs.]
They're my underlings. They wouldn't have a choice, anyway. But go ahead with your assumptions.
[Assumptions. She's right and he's lying. He watches as she fiddles through her pocket, and finds--a deck of cards. She inserts the King of Spades into the slot, and there's a whrrrrrrrr--CLANK. The room inside is entirely dark, but there's a podium inside, which is the only thing lit.
However, as Sayo steps inside...there's the sound of the door closing behind her. She's trapped in. The walls also seem to move--there's bugs. Bugs all along the walls. Some of them are around the podium as well, but it feels like there's a straight shot, conveniently so, where she wouldn't step on any of them.
There's the sound, however, of voices--overlapping each other. It sounds like a group of people, talking - one voice, amongst others, a gentle sounding voice that trails off into seeming....apologies through tears - until it goes dead silent when Sayo reaches the podium. There's the faint sound of a cicada chirping.
The podium contains one device that looks somewhat like an electronic tablet, but the outside of it is blotchy and colorful. Still, it displays a message in big, bulky lettering.
To the left of the queen, are one or two jacks. To the right of the jack, are one or two jacks. To the right of the club, are one or two diamonds. To the left of the diamond, are one or two diamonds. Place three cards face down.
The message disappears, and three rectangular spots are displayed.
In the meantime, it seems like everything else has become irrelevant. Kokichi is silently watching the others--their activity seems a blur, since he's focused down on Sayo.]
no subject
Sayo is, of course, expecting a trap when she walks in. It's only common sense in a dream like this that she wouldn't entirely manage to avoid playing the ringleader's games. (Nor would she want to. The man behind the screens was achingly familiar in both mindset and psyche, and Sayo hasn't gotten the opportunity to play a game with a true equal in Trench before now.)
What she was not expecting was bugs. So many of them, too. She can't hide her flinch, and she huffs before breaking into a small chuckle.]
Okay, you got me with this one.
[She says that, but Sayo can feel some kind of deeper significance in this room. Metaphors have a weight to them; she should know as someone who was a true witch just an inch above her own "reality."]
Cicadas, hm...?
They don't hold much nostalgia for me, I'm afraid. That season just meant a particularly miserable couple of very hot weeks in a very damp environment.
[Get him bantering, get him focusing on something, someone real. But also... let's see, if Sayo were to put a hackneyed dreamscape metaphor into a scenario like this, what would she represent with...]
I imagine many people are quite fond of them, though. Insects aren't that interesting to me, but I imagine I'll have enough time to learn how to appreciate them when I'm rotting in the earth and they're burrowing into my flesh.
[A single, neat flick of the wrist. Jack of Clubs, Jack of Diamonds, Queen of Diamonds.]
[cw: insect grossness, gore, heavy DRV3 spoilers]
[Of course, he's a natural banter-er, so this isn't hard. The insects in the room seem to move in unison to some kind of unknown rhythm. It's like some kind of dance filled with all sorts - if you were to name them all by type, you'd be here all day.]
Entomology was never a preferred subject of mine, either. Why would you wanna look at these things, much less study them? They're necessary to an ecosystem, but anyone who looks at something like a cockroach and lets it go free is a freak in my opinion.
[There's a small metallic, hollow ring in the back of his mind. It's the same ring you'd imagine from a metal pipe if you struck it. Jarring. Incredibly jarring. Sayo can't hear it, but it's like something in Kokichi's mind was jolted loose.]
One time I was trapped in a room like that. Someone...wanted to educate me. That person was one of the dumbest people I ever met.
[The video screen on the tablet lights up when Sayo puts the cards in. Correct! The tablet seems to almost make the cards float away - like they were never there to begin with. There's a notable immediate silence when she mentions them burrowing into her flesh, and though Kokichi doesn't say a word, the room does it for him. The voices - previously quiet - grow louder.
And then the tablet projects outwards. An image of a pixelated snowscape, with what could be seen as a mountain lodge.
Immediately, Kokichi's eyes widen where he is, and he freezes. But he's a liar. He knows how to keep his cool.]
Huh. Guess my Inventor must've put in an extra feature.
[The room gets colder, as almost to match the display. And it cuts to an image of a small, cute, pixel Kokichi next to someone else inside the lodge. This person next to him could roughly be described as Herculean in size, able to tower over Kokichi easily. He has long hair that appears to be brushed to try to look dignified, but clearly by untrained hands, and he wears glasses on his face. He's dressed in a suit, much like some rich heir would be, but what throws that off, too, is the lack of shoes.]
Ah...
[The image jitters and jumps. Now the display looks realistic, more like recorded footage in an actual landscape. This unknown person is the one who speaks up first.
"You needed to show Gonta something, Kokichi?"
It's an innocent voice. Kokichi - to someone who could catch subtle cracks in someone's persona, like Sayo - looks conflicted for the briefest of moments, before he smiles. It's a smile that stretches across his face. A smile that gives way no no real emotion, but hides a fair bit. To most, this smile may be considered malicious.
To the rarest few, this smile may instead mean I'm about to do something I'll regret, and I know it.
"Gonta," Kokichi begins, bouncing on his feet. "How much do you know about the world at large?" Gonta looks as though he's about to answer, but Kokichi raises a hand as if to order him to stop, and then he glances at his nails, as if this conversation never interested him to begin with. "Don't answer that. I know it's not much. Between you learning to be a gentleman, your hopes and dreams for your 'forest family', and your kindness for other people...you miss a fair few things, I'm afraid."
"Um....what does Kokichi mean by this?"
"Just as I said. You miss things because you're a big, empathetic idiot. Try to keep up. What if I told you what you're missing? Hm? What if I told you?" He glanced up from his nails, and pressed a finger to his chin, looking childishly thoughtful, his big purple eyes seemingly almost growing wider. "What if I told you the truth of the outside world?"
"The...truth...?" With every word, Gonta looked more and more uncertain. But not fearful. It was innocent curiosity. As soon as Gonta said these words, however, Kokichi's face shifted. It went from that innocent expression...to one that was mocking. An unnatural smile. Forced. Some would call it horrific.
"I know what's outside. They didn't want me to know. I~ know~ anyway~!" He clapped his hands. "Isn't that amazing?" He drew his arms close to his chest. Gonta, too, brightened.
"Kokichi is amazing!! Um...but what does this have to do with Gonta?"
"Gonta, you've been here to support me. No matter what. Even when I didn't understand bugs, you taught me! And now I love them! Even when no one else would talk to me, you would. You're the nicest guy here. And. You're a true gentleman." A trap. That was what these words could be described as. A trap that Gonta easily stumbled into.
"You really believe so? ...Gonta is so happy!"
"Mmmm. And now, as a reward for being so nice to me..." Kokichi put his finger to his lips. "I'll tell you what I know."
The image shuddered and shook. The bugs around the room seemed to all cry at once.
"This--this isn't--" Gonta's voice. Distressed and distorted.
"Does it SCARE you? Is this HORRIBLE?! Welcome to REALITY, GONTA! THIS IS WHAT THE WORLD IS! THIS IS WHAT LIES OUTSIDE! Neeeeheeheeheee...AHAHAHAHA! Are you SCARED?! There's nothing WORTH going BACK TO! IT'S TERRIBLE! IT'S A NIGHTMARE! I'M SCARED! SCARED, SCARED, SCARED!"
"W--What do we do?! I--I--"
"...An alliance. Together, Gonta. We can be the Killing Game Busters. We can save everyone from this terrible fate. From the 'outside world'. It's best they don't see it. You wouldn't want anyone else to be frightened, would you? ...The game can't go on like this. We can't go on like this. So. Work with me on this, and we'll all be safe."
The picture returns. Gonta no longer looks alive - no. He's dead. He looks like he's a walking corpse. Through his midsection, there's a gigantic hole with blood trickling out of it. His face is covered in bugbites and swollen. And worst of all, his body is slowly growing blacker and blacker, as if burning in the middle of the snow. But he's still standing there. Insects begin crawling out of the midsection hole.
"Gonta...wants to help everyone. Gonta wants to keep them safe."
Kokichi - the Kokichi on the video - appears not to notice. He's still smiling - the twisted smile. It looks particularly forced now.
There's no going back.
"Then we'll do my plan. Together, you and I will kill our enemy in this liminal space. We'll end the killing game. And we'll all go down together.
Because we're friends."
The scene is abruptly interrupted with another question -
Which hand is the hand you hold your chopsticks in? Left or Right?
The room is silent.]
no subject
She'd thought she'd seen some similarities between the two of them. Glimpses of a witch hiding behind the pierrot's mask. But how deep the mirror's faultlines ran almost disgusted her.
Sayo is almost tempted to rail against Kokichi, to blame him for all her own faults and failings and everything she had done wrong to lead to this miserable encounter in the first place, how she'd returned to make things right in what was just an illusion.
But what she'd seen had fatigued her too much to do so much as let a single self-flagellating barb slip to pierce Kokichi's heart. If Sayo knows him as well as she thinks she does, he would've barely felt it against all the stakes he's already pounded in himself.
Finally, she breaks the silence.]
...you know by now that this is a fantasy of freedom. Just as much as that cabin on the mountainside was. [Easy enough to piece that much together from the confession she just witnessed.] Let illusions fall to illusions, Kokichi.
Let them rest. They've earned it.
...don't make the same mistake "I" did.
[cw: suicidal ideation]
Onto a person that normally was so gentle, he'd literally never hurt a fly, he'd only aspired to be a 'gentleman'....he'd convinced him that the best option for their entire class as a whole was mass suicide via failed trial. And it didn't even stick. Because...
The question fades away.
There's one simple sentence remaining:
It's right, unless you're an idiot.
Of a missed connection. Gonta had forgotten. Kokichi, himself, had sold him out, because he was afraid of death. He didn't want to die. It was cowardly when he'd committed the plan, but he was a coward.
The next room opens on its own with no fanfare. Kokichi is still silent. The detective tells him to let them rest, they've earned it. Don't make the same mistakes. And this almost makes him want to double down angrily.]
...You don't know. I don't even know you.
[It doesn't come out angry. It comes out quiet. Frightened. He doesn't want to let go. But even on his camera feeds, he can see it happening. Something in him knows he has to. Rantaro disappears. Then Kaede. Ryoma. Kirumi. Angie. Tenko. Korekiyo. Miu. Gonta.
The one remaining is...
And then he hears a cough over his personal comms system - a violent one, and his expression just turns to blankness.
His breathing is unsteady.
He, who made lies reality, was watching the truth fade in. Kiibo, Himiko, Maki, and Tsumugi had remained frozen in place.
The only one moving was Kaito. And he was starting to look sick. Of course he was, he was sick, he had that disease constantly attacking him, and he wasn't going to be alive. Not for much longer.
The room, whatever it was before, distorts. And suddenly, in front of Sayo, is a gigantic hangar. There's a thump. Over and over again, mechanically, there's a thump. Inside, if she looks in, is a linoleum press. The base of it is coated with blood. Everywhere except a jacket, clearly visible within.
Kokichi stands beside it, and he takes the jacket into his arms.]
They didn't earn anything. They were all taken away by some sick, twisted, shitty fucking game that I. Couldn't. Win.
They could've done so much. And now they can't, and now I'm alive again and they're not, because...of no rhyme or reason, I just AM!
What do you even mean...?
no subject
It's all familiar to Sayo, too familiar. How often had she performed this song in the theater of her own mind, back when Shannon was rotely doing the steps to its accompaniment in the Clockhouse? It makes her sick. It makes her want to slam her knuckles into Kokichi's nose until the mirror is broken, again.
So instead she hangs her head and quietly says,]
Because I've seen what happens when you escape into fantasy. Even if you don't believe your own lies... wrapping yourself up in them like they're a moldering blanket won't just suffocate you.
It'll choke the people who are outside the beautiful fantasy but who keep reaching for you anyways.
can't wait for kaito's inevitable terrifying witch shovel talk
His voice is frail.]
There are none of those left. They're dead. They're all...
[He hugs onto that coat, and starts crying. It's not a pretty sight. It's not pretty tears. It's messy, and icky, and it's like he's been pressing all that back for so long that he just broke, and now he's crying for every time he made some kind of smartass remark before. Every time he shoved another death back into the recesses of his mind to be something he dealt with later, if ever. Every time he refused to let go.
This is where it all ended. This is where it will end again.
"...Kokichi?" The voice is faint over his earpiece, bogged down by illness. It's just what Kokichi wants to hear, and he knows it, but he wants to be selfish, this one last time. He doesn't respond. "...Don't cry, alright? This won't be the last time. I know it. ...You're probably tempted to say something like 'you can't promise that, idiot. Quit lying to me.' But you know me by now. If I can still hope to reach the stars, even now...it's like I always said: the impossible is possible. All you have to do is make it so. I'll find you!"
I'll come back for you one day on a white horse and take you away.
It's not those exact words, but it's probably harrowing all the same. Kokichi cries louder - harder - because he knows that's what he wants to hear. He knows he's lying to himself. So he takes the ear piece out, and he crushes it in one hand once he can remotely collect himself. He looks to Sayo, the witchlike persona he put on having shattered.
It's just them, now. The realistic, tortured, 'lesser', 'ugly' selves of two people engulfed in fantasy.]
...Sorry.
I wish I could've made a better game. But I got bogged down.
Don't tell anyone, okay?
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[Sayo's best attempt at a kind smile isn't as wholehearted, or tender, or sweet as many of Kokichi's dead friends... but it's an attempt, an earnest hand—both literal and metaphorical—being extended.
She can feel it, the pain in his heart. The earthly paradise shattered once more, all hopes gone to the winds... but if hope is a fickle lie, then that means some kind of meaningful truth must exist outside it.]
And I know there are other people who would care if you disappeared here, too. There are for me too, after all, as unlikely as it still seems.
...you can't cling onto a promise like the one he made, hoping he'll come back forever. You'll have to find something to live for here, now. Otherwise you'll make the same mistakes I did.
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[He sniffles a bit, shaking his head.] I don't know. I got here not too long ago, so I don't know if there are yet. But...I'd like to think so. Or at least that there could be.
I... [He remembers faintly the promise he and Alvin made, the entire motivation they were there for.] ...I want to stop lying to people. Stop hurting them. Even if Kaito somehow showed up...it wouldn't guarantee that. I'd still be the same person. I...can't hope they'll all be saved. Because I don't know.
[And it'll hurt him, the longer he clings on. Eventually, he'll have to do what Shuichi did - toss that hat away. Take charge and find the truths hidden within problems that seemed unsolvable, not for anyone else's sake, but...for everyone else's sake. Namely, those he didn't know yet.]
...
Do you want to be friends? You know my name, but I don't know yours.
I'd like to play again sometime.
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[The smile Sayo gives Kokichi is full of pain as the full weight of exactly how similar the two of them are crashes into her, but what she says is genuine. If she can't offer a hand up to Kokichi, she could never climb out of her own abyss.]
Sayo Yasuda. It's a pleasure, Kokichi-san. Despite... everything.