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Sensitive Hearts In Parallel Play

Chapter 1: Zoey’s Guide to Making Friends: Part 25

Part 1: go here

Part 24: go here

Trigger Warnings for: reckless suicidal character, intrusive thoughts

Swimming and other surprises happen as an unexpected guest crashes the party.

Chihiro Fujisaki, the 18th student, who was hidden somewhere until now, the one they call ***** ***...has arrived.

Chihiro, like the other closeted/egg trans characters in this story, gets unintentionally misgendered. This story portrays her as a trans girl. Chiaki didn't know. I don't wanna give too many details away right now, but I figured that I should be upfront about that aspect of this story.

This part got packed! I know this is a lot of info to cover, but I'm also really excited! Hope you're all enjoying the story.

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Whoa! 27 followers, and it's the same number as the posts (which I'm about to ruin now with this post as #28). Thanks everyone!!

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Sensitive Hearts In Parallel Play

Chapter 1: Zoey’s Guide to Making Friends: Part 24

Part 1: go here

Part 23: go here

The glitches on the island continue to make things unsettling. Luckily for everyone, Usami has a special present.

Warning: Before you click the read-more, this part goes on for 30 images.

A/N:

Oof, this scene was even sadder actually watching the kids throw them on the ground.

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Chapter 1: Zoey’s Guide to Making Friends: Part 23

Part 1: go here

Part 22: go here

The class gathers at the beach for Usami's surprise. The glitches on the island continue to make things unsettling.

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What is this?

This is a Danganronpa, self-ship fanfic and retelling of SDR2: Goodbye Despair written by @my-gf-is-kazuichi-soda.

Full Title: Sensitive Hearts in Parallel Play

Quick summary: Autistic/Adhd queer kids form a friendship and eventual wlw romance despite being in a killing game. Non-despair au, mutual pining slowburn romance, humor, hurt/comfort, eventual OC x (trans girl) Kazuichi Soda

---- I made a new version of this summary post because I decided Kazuichi changes her name to Kazumi, and also changed my own name/pronouns (Maxwell, bigender girl-boy, it/he/maybe she pronouns) while writing this story.

Long version of the summary, and long notes/reoccurring themes/potential triggers for this story at the bottom (I will also mention any triggers in the story at the top of posts for every time of relevance, so it’s okay to skip this post as long as you heed the trigger warnings on the top of each part of the story)

Maxwell Parker (who starts off as “Zoey”), the Ultimate Cartoonist with a superhero complex, wakes up with the rest of its class on a deserted island and is told to make friends with everybody. He realizes quickly that his autism and adhd might make this difficult, so it decides to enlist the help of a neurotypical student who can be a guide to help it make all the friends, navigate confusing social situations, and understand what is happening around it. For this guide, it chooses none other than…Kazuichi Soda.

Despite the Ultimate Mechanic not exactly being the expert in normal socializing (or perhaps because of this) the two end up forming the start of a friendship: right on time for Monokuma to show up and turn the “heart-throbbing school trip” into his signature killing game!

…Though, Monokuma is forced to skirt around an annoying new rule that he can’t punish the Blackened with violence or death. But Monokuma insists that the killing game is still on! He continues to torment the students, specifically two promising Blackeneds-in-the-making: Mahiru Koizumi and Max Parker, who both have big secrets, their lives on the line, and a potential to kill.

But Max fights to keep itself alive as he clings onto his friendship (and budding crush) on his new best friend.

Meanwhile, Kazuichi’s friendship with Maxwell leads to some realizations about…herself. Not quite ready to come out as a trans girl, Kazumi constantly flip-flops between her newfound queer identity she can express with her also-queer friend Max, and the tough guy act that she puts on for everyone else. And she’s not sure where her obsession with Sonia Nevermind is supposed to fit in with all of this. Because she obviously has a crush on Sonia Nevermind (she thinks?), but, she also might have a crush on Max? Why does everything have to be confusing?

—

Other Important Notes in the story, this has some plot details but I think it’s relevant for triggers and knowing what the fanfic gets into:

The fanfic is mostly humor (a lot of cringe comedy), but there are some reoccurring themes that get heavy…

Maxwell is depressed/has intrusive thoughts/is suicidal (I will always give bold warnings on the top of the posts where this is relevant to the scenes and make relevant tags, you will not be thrown into anything triggering without warning, I promise.)

(Self-harm mention!) While Max doesn’t cut himself, he does things like neglect his needs (e.g. letting himself get too hungry) and sometimes act recklessly knowing something could kill him, and that can be disturbing. I’ll always give warnings for this stuff being in posts as well.

This oc is my self-insert. I was depressed/suicidal as a teenager, but I am no longer depressed/suicidal and my intrusive thoughts are fewer and more manageable. You don’t have to worry about me bc of this fanfic. I chose to process the feelings (not based on real events, but just feelings of loneliness and trouble making friends as a neurodivergent teen) through this fanfic.

No family drama in this fic: not that it didn’t exist, more like I don’t wanna write about it, so it may get mentioned if relevant but no flashbacks/long stories about it and it’s mostly irrelevant to the fanfic. This goes for both Kazumi’s and Max’s families. I don’t even want to see Kazumi’s dad, let alone draw him.

Kazumi is in the closet for most of this fanfic (and Kazumi doesn’t know she can be a girl in the beginning) so expect a lot of he/him pronouns/misgenderings bc she’s still in the closet. The same might apply to Max too but not sure yet. I’ll give warnings for any transphobia, though I don’t have any plans for characters being transphobic. Most of them are either accepting or Fuyuhiko (hella confused but too awkward to make a confrontation about it, but he comes around).

This fic does have a lot of internalized transphobia though, for both Kazumi and Max.

Max and Kazumi character growth and long conversations and just hanging out together fluff.

Teruteru is a recurring character and I write him as sort of a bastard (/affectionate). Actually writing him as a “lovable pervert” compelled me. So he is kind of a mom friend and a sexual harasser at the same time. The characters are put off by him but I find him funny.

Mahiru is sort of an antagonist because when I first played the game I found her annoying and sexist. Still, I try to write her in-character, and I’ve come to like her better through writing this fic and forcing her to confront the past, so I believe in character growth for her (and Nagito too!) To be fair, Max also has his annoying moments here, and most of them are around its (sometimes ridiculous) conflicts with Mahiru. For one thing, Maxwell thinks Mahiru taught Hiyoko to be a bully. This is how Maxwell misunderstands the situation but is still a character calling Mahiru out on some stuff other characters let her get away with.

Mahiru and Nagito friendship.

Lot of “will they or won’t they” with Max and Kazumi even though it is obvious as hell where it’s all going. It’s like they are eternally in a contest to see who can be more obvious about their crush and who can be more oblivious to the other’s crush. They’re both winning (which means losing) for like half the fanfic, maybe more than half?

Boob focus in the humor and the gender dysphoria (Max has a character development arc about his chest. You can laugh, it’s meant to be funny, though keep in mind the author actually does have chest dysphoria).

I like writing “cringe comedy”, ridiculous conversations/scenarios, characters (and their conversations) leading the plot, and foreshadowing.

This fanfic gets fucking bonkers and please let me know what moments made you go “Wait, what the fuck?!”

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Sensitive Hearts In Parallel Play

Chapter 1: Zoey's Guide to Making Friends: Part 22

Part 1: go here

Part 21: go here

The class gathers at the beach for Usami's surprise. They discuss the islands that they've been brought to, gathering the information that they know.

Heads up! This part is very long!!

Author's notes:

Chapter 1 Hajime was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It feels weird writing him like that while Kazuichi is acting all calm, but we're still in the stage where no one seems to be in immediate danger.

I didn't initially plan on changing Jabberwock Island's name, but this dialogue of referring to both the island and the series of islands with the same word "island" started to bug me. Most of the time I'll just have the characters call it Jabberwock rather than Jabberwock Archipelago.

I think I gave almost everyone lines here, except Gundham :( (sorry Gundham!) Maybe half of the lines here were lifted from the actual prologue, and I was surprised at how little Nekomaru said anything.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments!

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Sensitive Hearts In Parallel Play

Chapter 1: Zoey's Guide to Making Friends: Part 21

Part 1: go here

Part 20: go here

part 22: go here

The class gathers at the beach for Usami's surprise. The tablets continue to act unusual.

(Note: Mikan and Hiyoko only appear in the first panel.)

Monokuma's baaack! For a second.

Next part!

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Chapter 1: Zoey's Guide to Making Friends: Part 20

Part 1: go here

Part 19: go here

The class gets told to go to the beach for Usami's surprise, but were all of the Hope Fragments truly found? And Zoey's tablet is acting unusual.

(Zoey has some self-hating thoughts in this one).

Note: The characters tagged in this post only appear in 1 to 3 panels, except for Kazuichi and Zoey.

Next part

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Sensitive Hearts In Parallel Play

Chapter 1: Zoey's Guide to Making Friends: Part 19

Long post!

Warning: A watermelon knife makes an appearance, and Teruteru makes suggestive statements (what else is new?).

It seems that the introductions are finished and the Hope Fragments have finally been collected...or have they?

Part 1: go here

Part 18: go here

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Next part: go here

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Author notes:

I used to work in the produce department at a grocery store. I'm not usually a fan of knives, but I can confirm that watermelon knives are fun to wield.

I drew that panel with Zoey and Kazuichi as cats back in May 29th, 2023! I want you all to know, that's how long this specific scene has been sitting in my head. And if you saw that art in the past, now you know the context!

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Sensitive Hearts In Parallel Play

Chapter 1: Zoey's Guide to Making Friends: Part 18

Kazuichi returns to help Zoey to meet the remaining students. Zoey and Mikan have a cute moment. Zoey and Kazuichi sneak around in the kitchen.

This part has I think 26 images.

Heads up! Akane and Nekomaru only appear in one panel.

Part 1: go here

Part 17: go here

Jabberwock Island has a kitchen in the Hotel's Old Building, but I also think it would make sense to have a kitchen next to the Hotel Restaurant, even if we didn't see one in the game.

bonus! Teruteru haircombing draft before Kazuichi's hand got in the way:

Next part: Click here!

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Sensitive Hearts In Parallel Play

Chapter 1: Zoey's Guide to Making Friends: Part 17

This part is long!

Zoey continues to meet new people.

Some self-depreciating thoughts and some bullying (Hiyoko shows up :P).

Mikan in my comic is 6ft tall, taller than her canon height. I pictured her as being tall when I was playing the game, and I think she should be tall.

Part 1: go here

Part 16: go here

Next part: click here

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Sensitive Hearts In Parallel Play

Chapter 1: Zoey's Guide to Making Friends: Part 16

Zoey and Kazuichi talk to more people, but Zoey struggles to remember who she's already met. Heads up: this part is very long! 29 images I think.

For cataloguing purposes, the following characters do appear in this post (and thus are tagged) but they only in one or two group panels: Mikan Tsumiki, Hiyoko Saionji, Gundham Tanaka, and Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu. I will never spam the tags. If any characters are in the tags but do not appear in the post, this was an accident and please let me know so I can remove them. Also, in this story, the Ultimate Imposter is Maya Fey.

Part 1: go here

Part 15: go her

Part 17: Go here

Believe it or not, I spent a few days being stuck trying to figure out how Maya would explain being a spirit medium, because Ace Attorney doesn't give much of a verbal explanation (not that they needed to, seeing it in action was easier to comprehend.) I looked through the wikia and watched a few cutscenes from four different games to see if Maya or Phoenix offered an explanation that would be easier to understand if you didn't know the words "medium" or "channel" in this context. They did not. I then skipped an explanation and went for dialogue showing that Maya/Imposter wouldn't see a need to use this ability here anyway.

Mikan makes a guinea pig noise.

It took me a while to understand smartphones irl, and they were around when I was a teenager, they just overwhelmed and intimidated me. I didn't willingly get one until I was in college. I feel like a boomer saying that. Please tell me I'm not alone here.

Yes, that Nekomaru scene was inspired by the one in the anime.

Next part: go here

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Sensitive Hearts In Parallel Play

Chapter 1: Zoey's Guide to Making Friends: Part 15

Part 1: go here

Part 14: go here

Note: Gundham is tagged but only appears in handbook form in panel 3.

Kazuichi was being kind of an ass here but both of these kids are trying their best.

Peko's earlier statement is proven true, and Zoey and Kazuichi survive their first argument.

Part 16: go here

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Sensitive Hearts In Parallel Play

Chapter 1: Zoey's Guide to Making Friends: Part 14

Kazuichi helps Zoey meet everybody, starting at Hotel Mirai.

Just fyi: Chiaki, Ibuki, Peko, Maya, and Fuyuhiko don't have much of a role here. They are tagged because they are in the background. Peko's pretty hidden, but she's in the first panel.

--

Part 1: go here

Part 13: go here

It pained me to write that the devas are "guinea pigs" lol.

Somebody stop Nagito from making awkward straight jokes please 🙄.

Next part: go here

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Sensitive Hearts In Parallel Play

Chapter 1: Zoey's Guide to Making Friends: Part 13

Part 1: go here

Part 12: go here

And off they go!

Whew! I feel like there's going to be like 10 more parts to this chapter. These scenes go by in my head way faster than I can write them. But it's satisfying to bring them to something I can see in front of me.

Next part: go here

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Sensitive Hearts In Parallel Play

Chapter 1: Zoey's Guide to Making Friends: Part 12

Part 1: go here

Part 11: go here

--Part 10 is the start of the convo with Mahiru and Fuyuhiko: here

Zoey is still unintentionally holding Kazuichi hostage and talking about earlier that day, when she first met Mahiru...

Peko Peko is maintaining a balancing act in her head, trying to keep her secrets while processing everything going on. Zoey, of course, doesn't know about Peko's agenda here and is mostly learning that it's dangerous to pick fights with people she doesn't know.

Um, my mom quoted "Not the Mama" from Dinosaurs at me throughout my whole childhood, so that found its way into the story.

Up next, we get back to Kazuichi's cabin where Zoey finishes this flashback, and we get to learn another meaning of this chapter's title.

Next part

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Sensitive Hearts In Parallel Play

Chapter 1: Zoey's Guide to Making Friends: Part 11

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Warning: This chapter has implied past child abuse and the character having a trigger response from it.

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Part 1: go here

Part 10: go here

It is still the first day of the "Heart-Throbbing School Trip." Zoey continues to tell Kazuichi about what happened when she first met Mahiru.

Also, I was previously under the impression that the image limit is 20, but I learned that it's actually 30, so this update is longer than past ones.

Zoey and Mahiru show that they have disagreements about gender roles, and that they're both going to be stubborn little shits, while Fuyuhiko is just standing around awkwardly like "wtf is wrong with these girls??" Sure he could just, leave, but...there's kind of a trainwreck happening right in front of him.

Meanwhile, Zoey realizes she scared Kazuichi and has to reassure that she doesn't make violent threats to everybody she meets. But we'll see why she's telling Kazuichi this story in the next part.

Part 11; go here