shslgymnastnerd-blog

[shslgymnastnerd-blog]

Journal Entry 8

[Time Period: The day after the fourth trial]

[CW: Suicidal ideation in second-to-last paragraph; overall entry may be difficult to read due to lack of capitalization in many sentences.]

[The handwriting is messy, and the page is crinkled in a few spots from dried tears.]

- - -

ukiyo-maemi killed two people.

more than two, really – we’ve known about her parents for a while. But that was as much the arm’s responsibility as hers, maybe more. and i wanted to believe that she really did feel remorse, that she really could understand why we were so horrified and why i kept trying to reach out to her. I really believed in her.

and then she killed law n oda and nonoka kadoya.

i didn’t know oda-san very well. i was always afraid of her. she dismissed me and sided with my coaches, and i was always afraid she meant it and wouldn’t have changed her mind even if she knew what they really did to me. maybe she meant it, and maybe she was right all along to criticize us all. we’ll never know now I guess.

but she wasn’t targeting her. She was trying to kill nonoka-san and give her a “quick death” and somehow caving her face in was supposed to be a mercy instead of just breaking her shoulder and letting her bleed out.

that was her only regret. That oda-san tried to stop her and was killed that way instead. And even then she blamed it all on her and had no remorse for trying to kill nonoka-san in the first place.

am i wrong, wanting to believe the best in people? Wanting to be friends even when we’re supposed to kill each other?

was i wrong to have chosen not to kill ukiyo-maemi?

i want to ask someone. I want someone to give all the answers to me. i’m good at that. Just listening. Just agreeing. I want someone to do all the hard thinking for me and give an answer and tell me how to feel. But i’m still scared of what they’ll say. i’m scared that if I ask someone they’ll tell me that yes I should have killed her and taken the chance to escape, one life lost is better than three, and at least everyone else could be happy. i’m scared they’re angry with me because I failed to save those two just like i’ve failed everyone else.

neo-kun’s sleeping right now and i’m scared he’s angry with me too because I could have saved her. they’d started dating just the other day. They hadn’t even been together a day. Does he blame me, too? I don’t know what I can do to help him anymore. If he doesn’t blame me then the others surely do, junshu-san or akira-kun or suido-san.

we tried to rebel against the robots. Spin the votes against them instead of ukiyo-maemi. Not because we wanted to save her (but maybe I did want to save her, I hated her and I hate her and I didn’t want her to die) but because we’re sick of killing each other and we just wanted to take back control even for just a moment. But of course we can’t. The robots just vetoed us and killed her instead.

i’m so tired of being here. i want to leave and i don’t want to be here anymore and sometimes i just want to go to sleep and maybe never wake up. But then what’s going to happen? what’s neo-kun going to do if i’m gone? what are my parents going to do if they have to endure another dead child? I can’t die. They all need me.

i can’t die yet. i have to atone for failing everyone.

[shslgymnastnerd-blog]

Journal Entry 7

[Time Period (First Section): After the motive and Alotte’s death] [Time Period (Second and Third Section): After the inventory swaps]

[Technically, these are separate short entries, but for organization’s sake I’m merging them into one post. The handwriting is messy at times, and there are spots of wrinkles where fallen tears dried on the pages.]

[CW: Meal skipping, brief suicidal ideation, sections with low readability (no punctuation or capitalization, stream-of-consciousness)]

they killed someone

she was right next to me

they could have shot right through her and hit the people behind her

they could have shot me

i don’t understand

why did i live?

why am i still alive?? why am i alive when kozakura and nishu are dead when neo and nonoka are going to die when everyone else is suffering worse than i am

everyone else has been through worse

so why am i the lucky one

- - -

Alotte Ness-san is dead. She was killed to send a message about the robots’ current demand: They’ve assigned everyone a target and told them to kill that person (or robot, apparently they themselves are valid targets, and also valid killers, and that’s the excuse they gave for shooting her). If someone kills their target they’re supposedly allowed to leave without there even being a trial. I don’t believe that. Why should I believe anything the three of them tell us? Bringing back WellnessBot was a mistake because they’re just as complicit as the other two. I made a mistake bringing them back.

We’re not supposed to reveal our targets, but then FrogBot revealed half the assignments anyway, including mine. They want me to kill Ukiyo-maemi-san. I don’t want to hurt her. I can’t understand her and I don’t know if I can ever forgive what she did (not that it’s for me to forgive). But I don’t want to hurt her. After all this time she still trusts me and she outright said she’d be fine if I killed her and how am I supposed to feel about that? About her putting so much faith in me that she’d put her life in my hands and accept whatever happens? What am I supposed to do?

The robots didn’t reveal who’s after me. I don’t know who I can put my faith in.

They took away our belongings today and swapped them around, and of course they won’t let us freely discuss what we’ve lost. We managed to get the most important items back to their original owners, I think. (I got a keycard back, as well as a couple gifts Akira-kun gave me.) But now even more keycards have somehow gone missing. This would’ve killed the buddy system if Junshu-san hadn’t already dissolved it yesterday.

I’m scared of her, honestly.

She was more than happy to let me go back to the Avocado dorm and leave Ukiyo-maemi-san all alone. She doesn’t have anyone looking out for her anymore, and I think Junshu-san is hoping that she’ll die alone.

It turns out Kiyuu lied to us about the bullets (long story), and she was completely furious. He wouldn’t give up his keycards to her and she said that he was no longer a part of us and he was now our enemy and I think she wishes he’d end up dead too

I don’t want to be next. I don’t want to say the wrong thing because she’ll come after me next, or she’ll go after Ishihara-san because she told me or she’ll go after Akira-kun because she stands up to her or

I just can’t keep doing this.

I don’t under why I’m still here

I don’t want to go back to any dorm, lettuce or avocado. I don’t want to go back to nonoka-san and neo-kun or to ukiyo-maemi-san and let any of them see me. I don’t want them realizing that i haven’t eaten properly lately or slept properly lately. I can’t sleep. every time i try to sleep i see ness-san bleeding out or i jump awake because i hear gunfire and yelling and i feel like someone’s holding me under and hoping i never come back up

i don’t have a choice. if i keep avoiding the dorms and staying in unlocked rooms someone will kill me because i know that they all know i’m an easy target. maybe it would be easier.

it would be easier.

- - -

No.

I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to keep living here.

But I don’t want to die.

[shslgymnastnerd-blog]

Journal Entry 6

[Time Period: Several hours after secrets are revealed]

I’m taking a break right now, trying to collect my thoughts and hoping my roommate doesn’t ask what I’m writing. Roommate, singular. Don’t worry, Nonoka-san and Neo-kun are alright for now. We’ve just all been separated.

Junshu-san’s plan was a buddy system, with everyone split into pairs (and one trio). We have to be with our partners at all times, day and night. And that meant having to rearrange the dorm assignments so that everyone can sleep in the same room as their partner. Because of how many keycards have gone missing, and how the Avocado dorm was the only place who hadn’t lost anyone yet… Well. As a result, Nonoka-san and I have been moved into different dorms. It’s difficult, not being able to see my old roommates every night, but I’ll live.

I was put into the Lettuce dorm with Ukiyo-maemi-san. She seems to like my presence, even though we’ve had a rough patch earlier (and I will not write about that). And I like being with her too, and out of all the roommates I could have she’s near the top of my list. I don’t know if she’d call me a friend, but I wouldn’t mind if she did. Yeah, I like to think of her as one.

The problem comes with what the robots did today.

They do know everything about us. I could have explained some of it away as them making a guess based on public information, things about schools and sports. But no. They know people’s intimate secrets. Ones about illness and death.

I don’t feel comfortable writing down all the details, least of all because the robots gave little context for what they said. Ukiyo-maemi-san’s past worries me, though. And I’m worried about her. She didn’t sound remorseful when it came up, but the other things that were discussed – was it really her, or did someone else do it and set her up to think it was her doing? I want to believe in the best. I want to believe in her.

And then there was what they said about Neo-kun and Nonoka-san. The two of them refused to speak about it in detail in front of everyone, and Nonoka-san kept denying it altogether, but…

I feel like an asshole, for being mad at them both. I don’t want anyone knowing my medical history either, so I know that feeling. Just because I used to be their roommate doesn’t mean I’m entitled to know their history. But I still think about what they both said, about their future plans. And I get upset that I was so hopeful about leaving this place with them and being their friend five, ten, twenty years in the future, even though they won’t be they might not ever we might not even escape

I want to hear everyone speak for themselves. I have a meeting soon to help Ishihara-san with something – apparently I ended up with a badge that might belong to her. After that, some of us are meeting up to talk about what the robots said. I think that we just want to take back the control the bots took from us, and be able to say what we want on our own terms. I tried to do that during the “trivia game” itself by DMing my friends some of my history, but in the end I don’t think that empowered me at all.

Maybe things will be better tomorrow.

[shslgymnastnerd-blog]

Journal Entry 5

[Time Period: A few hours after Kosuke’s execution]

[Several paragraphs have been redacted due to sensitive information. The handwriting is very shaky.]

[CW: Breathing trouble, mention of torture, allusion to drowning]

I took a nap and I feel even worse waking up, like somehow that made me even more exhausted. I didn’t rest at all. It feels like I’ve been held underwater and my body’s so fatigued from fighting it that it doesn’t even hurt anymore. I woke up gasping for air, and my head feels raw and runny. How long was I crying earlier? I think I dreamed about something terrible like boiling oceans and violent predator animals but I can’t remember it now.

███ ███████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████ ████ █████. ███████ ████ ██ █’█ ███ ████████, ████ █████ ██ ██ ████ ████ ███ ███████ █ █████ █████ ███ ██████. ███ ████ ██████? █████████? ██ ████ ████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ██? ████ ███████ ████ ███ █████ ██ – ████ ███████ ██ █████ █████████ ██ ██ ███████ ██ ██████ ██. ██ █████ █████████ ████ ███’█ ████, █████ ███████ ████? █████████ ████ ██████ ██ ██ ███ ██? ██ ████████, ████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ █ ███ ██ ████.

██ ███ ████████, ███ █ ██████. █ ████’█ ██████ ████████████, ███ █ ███ █ ███ ███████ █████ ██. ████ ████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ███████████ ██ █████████ ███ ████ ███████ ████. █ ████’█ ████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ██████████. ███████, █ ███’█ ██████ ████ ████████ █ ███’█ █████ ████ ███████ ████.

███ ████ ██ ███████. ████ █████ ████ ███████ ██████████. █████.

Apparently the robots have been waterboarding Nakamura-san. Why? Was it to punish him? To force him to obey them? Just pure fun and sadism? It has to be the latter two. They must have been trying to force someone to act. They must have been trying to screw up his head, make him paranoid that everyone here could hurt him.

He shot

Sayuri Nishu-san is dead. They’re both dead. It hasn’t just been them, either: We lost Kozakura-san and Naniko-san, too.

I keep blaming myself for those last two. Yasu Kozakura-san, because I should have known someone would go after them after the incident with the fish(?), and because I heard something happening in the gym. Did they feel like we abandoned them? I wanted to talk to them. It’s for silly selfish reasons, really – because they were the only other NB classmate here that I know of. And when I realized I was the only one left… I felt very vulnerable and very alone.

And then there’s Naniko-san. Mia Matsumoto-san. I helped put suspicion on her, knowing what would happen. I refused to vote for her despite that. And she praised me for abstaining, like I was the only good person left in this vessel. I don’t feel proud of that at all. How am I supposed to feel proud when a killer someone who’s done something terrible insists that she and I are the only good people here?

Nishu-san insisted that I shouldn’t dwell on all this or blame myself. She tried to reassure me that the best course of action was to keep moving forward. And now she’s gone.

I keep feeling like this is my fault too, like I should have tried to protect Nakamura-san. Like I should have been keeping an eye on him and made sure no one was hurting him. Like I should have protected Nishu-san and started seriously working on those ideas we had to arrange a party. A party. It sounds so disrespectful in this context but all we really wanted was to ease the tension between everyone. And instead she is dead and he is dead and everyone is angry with each other and they must be angry with me and

and I never got to say goodbye, to either of them.

I don’t remember Kosuke Nakamura-san’s execution at all. There’s a whole chunk of my memory where I know something happened but I was more concerned with myself than anything around me, and I’ve forgotten all the details. I’m not even sure how I made it back to my room like that.

People are writing in the chatroom right now. Apparently Junshu-san wants to lay down rules for everyone. I don’t want to get up. But it’s important for me to be there and know what’s going on. Neo-kun and Nonoka-san are already gone, so I should go meet everyone too.

[shslgymnastnerd-blog]

Journal Entry 4

Update: There is now water everywhere. I’m still not sure what actually happened. Supposedly there was some kind of incident involving a classmate observing the sealife outside the windows and the “fish” (whale?) colliding with the glass?

Even without the precedent that the poisoning and its fallout had caused, this is going to force someone’s hand. It’s unavoidable: Either we find a permanent fix ourselves, or a few people die, or everyone dies. There isn’t much time to consider our options, either, not at the rate the water floods in.

I don’t want to die here. Most people wouldn’t, I hope. What would my parents do if I never returned? If they never even got to have the closure of finding a body? What are the late students’ parents going to do, the families who’ve already lost a child and don’t even know it yet? What are we supposed to say to them if when when WHEN we finally emerge from the sea and they can’t find their children anywhere and they ask us what happened?

Are we supposed to lie about what happened? Let them think that they were murdered directly by the robots, and that their deaths had been quick and almost painless? I think we should lie. We should lie and let them all believe that their children didn’t stain their hands or suffer long. But I don’t think everyone would be on-board with that idea. I don’t think

I don’t think rescue’s coming. That’s not poison making me think that, either.

I don’t think reading this pamphlet was a good idea.

Maybe it’s time to think about finding a sealed container, before the glass fails entirely. I have to waterproof this journal, and maybe a few belongings. Isn’t it silly, worrying about what’s going to happen to my games down here? It’s just, you know, I started thinking about how I spent nearly a decade on these, building up collections and achievements, and now at any moment all of that can be erased with just a bit of saltwater?

Isn’t it ridiculous, thinking about that of all things when I could die down here? Aren’t I ridiculous?

—Matsuba

[shslgymnastnerd-blog]

Journal Entry 3

I’m trying to get back into something resembling a normal routine. I know I’m just pretending. But if I can make it a habit, it might be enough to trick me, at least long enough to keep me moving every day.

If this journal really does end up being a record of what happened here, for other people to read later, then I suppose I should back up and explain the past several days, right? A while ago, quite a few of us were tricked into eating poisoned food that caused, among other symptoms, hallucinations and paranoia. We would only be given the antidote after someone was murdered died.

In the end, Rio Hachimitsu-san and Minnie Minami-san both died. Adding in Evander Kenton Mccrae-san, and that’s three so far.

As horrible as it may sound, I’m hoping that I get at least a bit used to being here.

I don’t want to get used to the violence, of course. I don’t want to ever start thinking that impalement and stabbings and forced injections are normal. Nor do I want to start thinking it’s perfectly normal to still be so paranoid of the cafeteria even without the poisons altering my mindset.

But I don’t want to feel disrupted anymore. I don’t want any more sleepless nights or long mornings in. I can only hope my roommates or my workout partner don’t notice how tired and pale I look when I’m not sleeping well.

That’s right, I have a workout partner now. Nakamura-san has been kind and patient with me while we’ve been here, and I hope that we can stick to this routine. It’s easiest to commit a workout to habit if you’ve got someone waiting there, expecting you to be there. Perhaps it would be worth extending the offer to the others? I’ve seen other people in the gym, so maybe they’d be interested in regular exercise, too.

Plus, we can all keep an eye on each other if

I’m a little worried about whether or not everyone has enough tokens to buy their way into the cafeteria for every meal. I’ve gotten quite a few extras, so I’m wondering if there’s anyone I need to give them to. Although I think some people might get the wrong idea and think I’m pitying them. What if I just left coins “hidden” in an obvious spot?

I’m going to try again to rest. It’s a weird time to do so, but I want to pretend I’m just catching up on lost sleep.

—Matsuba

[shslgymnastnerd-blog]

OOC - Summary of Moonlight Mist

Overview:

Moonlight Mist is a manga project that Koji Matsuba (Shinobu’s father) started a year after marrying Kotoha Marukichi, though he had been writing notes privately as a hobby since he was in high school.

The story begins with a class of middle schoolers taking a field trip into the nearby Forest of Mystery. While the trip is only supposed to last a day, five students wander away from the class and end up becoming lost in the woods: Aki Akakawa, Yukito Aotani, Haruka Midoriyama, Seitaro Kishima, and Mirabelle Champrose. As night falls, they make camp near a river and hope for rescue to come soon. However, a dense fog descends upon them as they sleep uneasily.

They awaken having been somehow transported to the Myst Continent, a world seemingly taken right out of their fantasies of dragons, elves, and magic. They learn that the land has been in turmoil for centuries. There had been a great war between various powers both mortal and divine, and in the dying breaths of a god the land was cursed. Time now stands still: Day and night never change, leaving different regions in perpetual light or darkness. The seasons have been frozen as well, wreaking havoc on the climate of the continent.

The populace has had centuries to adapt, but tensions still run high as factions fight over resources and territory. The lost students find themselves struggling to stay safe in an unfamiliar land riddled with both overt dangers like bandits and invaders, and more subtle political threats like a king’s iron rule.

But they have one defense against it all: An oracle declares them all the Divine Children foretold in a prophecy by the dying god. In legends passed on through the populace of Myst, it’s believe that heroes born from another world will appear in their land, ushering in an era of justice and mercy. Of course, interpretation of these legends can vary greatly. Some people take the “divine” and “justice” parts very seriously and believe they are demigods smiting the wicked, and some people resent the idea of foreigners upsetting the centuries-long status quo…

The lost children, ambushed by lowly soldiers of the corrupt King Albinus, are protected by the oracle who gives her life up for them. From this sacrifice materializes five jewel-empowered trinkets that awaken the students to magic powers of their own. They transform themselves into the heroes of legend, styling themselves after the heroes in their own stories back home, and fight off the attackers.

The adventure sees the students grappling with the duties that have been thrust upon them so suddenly, while also searching for a way back home. Their morals are often challenged throughout the journey: Is Yukito right when he says that their priority should be getting back to their world safely, or is Aki right in saying they should take long detours on errands and missions? Can Mirabelle give up a life of luxury living among dragons, do the right thing, and go back to save her classmates? Is there a way to make everyone happy when addressing centuries of multilayered strife between different people? And is everyone truly bound by the destiny assigned to them?

Several arcs in, there have been some major shake-ups in the story. First, Aki, Haruka, and their companion guide Kuromura manage to find a way back to Earth after a grand battle, but are separated from the rest of the party, with Yukito forced to take up leadership of the other group. Worse still, they find out that the fantastic creatures and people of Myst have also found their way to Earth and show every indication of wanting to conquer this land, too. Magic and mundane are now in war with each other, and the students find themselves fighting to be the saviors of two worlds.

After everyone is reunited, they learn of a royal commander who is actually a human girl from their world. In fact, she is the long-lost cousin of one of their own. Kikyo finds herself owing a life debt to Seitaro after he rescues her during a disaster, and this begins her own arc as her loyalties slowly begin changing. Ultimately, Kikyo joins the heroes as their sixth party member, and they stand united against her former king.

Currently, the story is in the middle of an arc that examines the heavy weight laying upon child heroes. They face scorn from people who see them as mere foolish children, or who hold them to the same responsibilities as hardened adult veterans. They’ve been so far away from their normal support networks that they don’t know what to do as normal teenage problems begin creeping up on them. And there are hints of strife between the students themselves: Kikyo has not been fully forgiven by everyone for the crimes she committed under the king’s orders, and Yukito is asserting himself as a more capable leader than Aki.

With the king now personally invested in seeing their entire group eradicated thanks to Kikyo’s betrayal, what will it take for these lost children to endure the trials ahead…?

- - -

Characters:

Aki Akakawa: The primary protagonist of the story. Like many shounen hero, he’s impulsive, hotheaded, and stubborn, yet ultimately brave even in the face of the highest odds. He is gifted a ruby pendant infused with a magical power that lets him become The Hero Crimson, who is designed after the typical warrior class in RPGs.

Yukito Aotani: A cold and aloof classmate that Aki has formed a sort of rivalry with. While in school it began as somewhat friendly competition over test scores (Yukito always won in everything except sports), the dire threats of their adventure brings their personality conflicts to the forefront, putting their friendship on the edge. With his sapphire bracelet, he becomes The Archer Indigo, filling out the ranger archetype, right down to having animal companions he seems to like better than people.

Haruka Midoriyama: Aki’s childhood friend. They used to be inseparable, but middle school saw them being sorted into different homerooms; Haruka’s time off was further devoted into her track team, and as a result they’ve started drifting apart. She is just as boisterous as Aki, but it comes tempered with her attempts to nurture her peers – whether they want her help or not. Her emerald ring lets her transform into The Thief Verdant, a dashing and nimble rogue. And, yes, her name is a reference to the Midoriyama of Sasuke fame, though this isn’t directly acknowledged in-universe.

Seitaro Kishima: One of Haruka’s classmates from her homeroom, who is a shy nerd with a lot of anxiety about being outside or in the middle of crowds. With his topaz brooch he becomes The Wizard Gold, keeping a safe distance from danger as he used mage powers to rain havoc upon foes. In recent issues, Seitaro has begun the reasons behind his anxieties, from the tragic disappearances of his relatives to his growing discomfort with the changes adolescence brings.

Mirabelle Champrose: An exchange student that’s quite popular in Aki’s year… among anyone that isn’t Aki himself. Or Yukito or Haruka or Seitaro. Mirabelle’s charming elegance goes hand-in-hand with a fussiness and an unwillingness to do physical labor, something that becomes a frequent problem during their adventure. Despite it all, she truly cares about the people around her and slowly learns how to get along with them, and as The Priestess Rose she dutifully heals their wounds, even when they’re feuding. She still fawns over the garnet earrings that empower her, though – girl’s gotta have her jewelry!

Kuromura: A fox-like creature that the oracle cared for as a stray animal. Despite that, Kuromura is very much sapient and can talk out loud, serving as a guide, a mentor, and a voice of reason as the students try to find their way through this unfamiliar world. Curiously, Kuromura has a black opal set into their head, but they cannot remember ever being able to cast magic…

Albinus Frost IV: The king of the Frostbitten Crown who continues his family’s bid to expand influence over all the land. Safely entrenched in the bitter-cold mountains to the north, he sends armies out to conquer their neighbors, steadily taking over town after town. Though he claims to be doing this all for the good of the citizens, refugees fleeing from the towns he takes say that he imposes strict control on them all, keeping villages under martial law as his guard closely monitor financial spending, food rations, and communications with other towns. Woe betide those who are vocal about their displeasure; reports suggest many dissidents have disappeared without a trace.

The Diva: First seen clad in full armor, the Diva is a commander of Albinus’s armies, using her music to enchant soldiers with strength and bravery. In time she is revealed to actually be a young human girl, and even later her true identity is revealed to be Kikyo Shimori, a cousin of Seitaro’s who went missing with her family eleven years ago during a hiking trip. In reality they accidentally wandered into the mist world, and Kikyo was somehow separated from her parents (who she assumes are dead) and raised instead as a bard-slash-spy for the Frostbitten Crown. After an arc in which Kikyo’s loyalties are called into question, she finally defects from Albinus and puts herself at great risk saving Seitaro’s life from his generals, resulting in the amethyst circlet materializing before her. With this, Kikyo awakens to her power as the Diva Violet, and thus proves herself a true ally of the team.

- - -

Trivia:

The most popular ships in the fandom are Aki x Haruka, Aki x Yukito, Yukito x Mirabelle, and Yukito x Kikyo. There is also significant support for Aki x Kikyo, Haruka x Mirabelle, and Seitaro x Mirabelle.

Shinobu happens to have a few advance spoilers in regards to canon ships: Aki x Yukito is endgame! The original intention was to make Aki x Haruka canon, but over the years both the in-character dynamics and Koji’s own feelings about his work have changed.

Shinobu also knows that future issues will, over time, make it clear that Seitaro is definitely not cis and is likely nonbinary. Koji started writing this arc as a way to try and connect with Shinobu, especially during some of the rockier month of their relationship when Shinobu was questioning if his parents even cared about what he wanted in life. At times he acts as a sort of consultant, helping his father understand what Seitaro might be feeling right now.

Haruka is another character based closely off Shinobu. At the beginning of the story she symbolized Shinobu the ace athlete: Always determined, always energetic, always ready to give 100% in any situation. As the reality of Shinobu’s life became clear to Koji, he’s since taken a more nuanced writing with Haruka, acknowledging the constant pressure that she faces as both and athlete and as the caretaker of the group. Much of her arc now is her and her teammates learning to accept that just because she’s their emotional pillar doesn’t mean that she’s invincible, and that’s okay.

An anime adaptation of the manga is in progress, and is currently in the earliest arcs, before the temporary group split.

[shslgymnastnerd-blog]

Journal Entry 2

[CW: Food avoidance, emetophobia, (unfounded suspicion of) mold, and… themes I don’t have a concise word for. This entry includes a lot of questioning of one’s own perception of the world around them, and denial of things are known OOC to be fact (to the point of assuming other characters are lying or have ulterior motives).]

[In short, Shinobu’s paranoia from the motive effects has had a profound effect, compounded with other symptoms. Or even imagined symptoms.]

---

[The handwriting is uneven, as if Shinobu’s hand was trembling.]

Sleep has been bad the past few days, but I keep putting off writing about it until it’s too late and I’ve forgotten the details. Usually I’m either too tired and go back to sleep, or I’m too sick and have to deal with that first. Time is starting to blend together and I just can’t keep track. I want to sleep, I want to walk around, and above all else I want to stay far away from everyone.

They must not realize I can feel their eyes staring right through my back every time I walk by. Or maybe they do realize it and just don’t care. But I know what they’re all really thinking. Matsuba is so meek and fragile. Can’t even stand up for himself. Who can trust him? Who would miss him?

I’ve already made so many enemies. It was a mistake to speak up in the chatroom, because now I’m certain that Ishihara will poison me if given the chance. I’m not getting along with others, either. I’ve been called suspicious. I’ve been told I was wrong to keep asking about people’s histories or wrong to question how Coach treated me. Even before the poisons, I kept giving them all reasons to hate me, and now it’s coming back to bite me and someone wants me dead.

I don’t get along with people – I can’t even trust my roommates. Enjou tried to bring me food earlier and I don’t understand why. Did Ishihara or Kiyuu send him? Or is he taking initiative on his own? Of course I haven’t touched anything he’s brought me. If sealed pudding cups can be so easily tampered with, then so can an open bowl of rice.

How could anyone trust food in this place now, after everything? Oda says she isn’t affected and the cafeteria meals haven’t been poisoned, but she’s lying. I feel sick just smelling the food here. I can barely keep it down, and I can’t even finish my plate. I can’t keep I don’t want to I am only eating what I absolutely need to, to survive. Because I know myself and I know this will only end badly. But maybe that’s better than letting someone poison me again. If the alternative is being killed, then maybe staying far away is for the best.

I keep flipping between wanting to lock myself in the cellar and never coming back out, and staying far away from it and anything that’s ever been down there. It’s dusty, it smells strange, and – it’s mold, isn’t it? An old room underwater that smells musty. How can it be anything but? I’m a fool for staying down there at all, and now all I’ve done is spread contamination everywhere.

Is the air system down here safe from contamination? What even are the life support systems on this vessel? Who’s maintaining them? What happens if something starts malfunctioning and no one can fix it?

I don’t think anyone will ever find us down here.

[The entry abruptly ends there.]

[shslgymnastnerd-blog]

Journal Entry 1

[ CW: Mentions of blood, impalement, and death, told through a detached and dreamlike manner. ]

[The first few paragraphs are written in messy handwriting, and the words are somewhat incoherent – a sign that Shinobu had just woken up when they started writing.]

Dream. I think I was in the gym talking to teammates? But they weren’t people I recognized. I think some of them were game characters actually. But I acted like we’ve been teammates all along. Link is my classmate actually.

I jumped into the pool and started my laps, even though I was still in my uniform. I went around and around until I found the ladder out, but as I climbed up I wasn’t in the gym anymore, I was scaling the side of a ship. The chlorine on my face tasted more like salt and vinegar. And like copper? (Blood?)

I kept getting this feeling I was going to see blood and when I reached the deck I saw his body. I couldn’t even remember his name or his face in the dream but I knew it was him. He was more of a vague shape of a person than an actual identity, but I know what the body was supposed to represent. Water was dripping onto the deck and diluting the blood into pink (?) and all I could see was him covered in red and pink.

And he moved. And I stood there. He moved and I stood there frozen not helping him, even though I knew he was dying. I couldn’t move or talk. I blinked, and the next thing I knew spears had burst up out of the deck, piercing him through.

I forced myself to yell at the attacker to stop. And that woke me up.

- - -

[Shinobu writes another portion two hours later when they’re fully awake and lucid, but continues as if they’re the same entry.]

I think that was the first dream I had since we got here. Or maybe it’s just the first dream I remembered. Yesterday I woke up with a sense of dread, but if there were any dreams associated with it I forgot about them by the time I got out of bed. I’m going to keep this journal close by so that there’s less of a chance of me forgetting in the time it takes for me to start writing. It’s ridiculous to even be thinking about keeping dream journals at a time like this. It helps me get my feelings in order, though. It’s a good routine to get into.

If anyone finds this later and I’m dead not here, my name is Shinobu Matsuba. I’m a student of Hope’s Peak Academy, and my class is currently being held captive by an unknown party that uses robots as proxies. They’ve already killed one person, and they are threatening to kill others. They even say that they want us to do the dirty work for them and kill each other.

I want to trust the rest of my classmates to not even entertain the possibility, but a few have said worrying things. (One girl “joked” about having poisoned someone who hurt her. She acts like she doesn’t understand why most of us were horrified that she used antifreeze.) (I hope she’s lying. But that wouldn’t make it any better.)

My roommates seem to be good people, at least. I don’t know if Nonoka Kadoya likes me much, and I can’t understand what she’s saying most of the time. She talks like a fantasy novel, and she hasn’t broken character the entire time we’ve been here. (I wonder if we’ve read the same things?) Tsuneo Enjou tends to be our mediator and translates her words into something I can understand. I suppose playing along is better than arguing. I want us to get along if we’re going to be stuck here together.

The panic’s finally worn away and all that’s left is fatigue. I want to just sleep and conserve energy until rescue comes, but that would only make me feel even worse. I’m going to go look around later and see if there’s something I can busy my time with.

—Matsuba

[shslgymnastnerd-blog]

Pregame Prompt 1 - Life at HPA

When his phone alarm wakes him up, the first thing Shinobu does is open up his journal and write. He squints to read the words without any lenses, and the sleepiness still blurring his vision and slowing his motions doesn’t help matters. He’s pretty sure the words meander, both in sentence structure and in literal placement on the page.

Oh well. Hopefully at least some of the details from the dream made it through. He’s already forgetting the dream as seconds pass by – an adventure on a train? RPG-style textboxes and fight scenes? He’s pretty sure this dream started as a mundane trip to the convenience store, though...

The rest of his morning follows like clockwork. Shower, dry, dress. Double-check what day it is and decide if it’s going to be a contacts day today. It almost always is, because if he’s not on the gym floor then he’s out doing light jogging or swimming for his break day. He takes his glasses as backup anyway so he can rest when he’s not at the gym.

Gather up the assignments and books he’ll need for classes today. Try not to have an anxious breakdown over the unanswered questions at the end of one paper, and resolve to fill them in before that class begins.

Of course, if Shinobu wanted to, he could skip classes entirely and sleep in until lunch, then go straight to the gym. Hope’s Peak made it clear to all students that their occupations and talents came first, and their general education did not have strict attendance or exam requirements. In theory this was only supposed to cater to students who took their education seriously but struggled to fit classes and careers in the same schedule.

In practice, this meant people skipped their core classes. A lot. He’d even heard legends of one gymnast from a previous year who did nothing but parkour up the walls and onto the roof, only coming back down for lunchtime and practical exams.

Shinobu was tempted to exploit the rules that way, just so he wouldn’t have to worry about classwork so much. But then what would he do with all his extra hours? The general classes offer structure and familiarity. Hope’s Peak offers an optional schedule, but to Shinobu this is the pillar he’ll need to cling on to if he has any hope of making it through his years.

Besides, gymnasts aren’t usually known for staying at their peak for long. Athletes are always just one bad fall away from having to resort to a backup plan for the rest of their lives.

It’s clockwork, day by day and hour by hour. Wake up at the same time to the same alarm, write in the journal unless he can’t remember a thing. Shower, dry, dress. Pack his schoolbag with books and papers and lenses. Grab a light breakfast at the cafeteria, even just a soup, and get to his homeroom in time for the first lessons of the day. Lunchtime. More classes. Spend the afternoon in the gym or the pool, depending on what day it is. Spend his free time wherever, but be back in his room at least two hours before curfew so he can study and go to bed.

And repeat. And repeat.

One might call this monotonous, but to Shinobu it is a comfort that he’s chosen for himself.

[shslgymnastnerd-blog]

Pregame Prompt 8 - Hobbies

During the years spent away from the limelight, Shinobu retreats into fiction, fantasy, and indulgence. He’s got all the time in the world to do nothing but read manga and play video games.

He gets familiar with online multiplayer games. He gets familiar with crappy online multiplayer games, mostly of the free-to-play pay-to-win model. The one thing that stops him from slipping deep into the spiral that is gachapon is that his first few free rolls are so horrendous that he’s discouraged from even playing that specific game again.

Shinobu’s interests are especially fickle around this time; he’ll fixate on one franchise for weeks, just to quickly forget about it as soon as something else catches his eye. He builds up a backlog of games and manga and anime that he promised himself he’d get around to viewing but never does. Most of it is old stuff made in previous decades, from series that ended many years ago to ongoing series with dozens upon dozens of entries. The sheer size of the backlogs is in itself a deterrent from actually trying to pick it apart, and thus the cycle continues into eternity.

(It dimly occurs to Shinobu that this complete and utter lack of focus might be a symptom of other problems. He proceeds to not think about that too hard, either.)

Despite it all, Shinobu genuinely enjoys these hobbies. It’s escapism for him. He lives vicariously through characters that never give up. Characters that always triumph over the wrongs of the world. Characters that are brave enough to keep fighting even when it hurts. And, well, he also vicariously through characters who swing around massive swords or cast elaborate magic spells. Sometimes a kid just wants to look cool for the sake of being cool!

There is, however, one manga he finds himself going back to again and again over the years.

He has grown up alongside his father’s work. Slow as the developments have been, he’s watched each arc unfold, flowing from one plot point to another. The characters, too, have grown up with them. Yes, they are still young students who’ve only aged fourteen months in the fourteen years since the first volume was published. But they have changed. The leader is accepting his actions have consequences, the rival is accepting that they are a team and not just begrudging allies, and the others…

Shinobu doesn’t know what to think when rich, prissy Mirabelle opens up to having given up on ballet as a child because of the extreme stress it put on her physically and psychologically. He really doesn’t know what to think when Haruka confides that she sometimes wanted to quit on track for the same reasons.

During some parts of the hiatus, Shinobu avoids his parents as much as he can. They say this is all for his own good, but if it was, then why does he resent them so much? Why does he feel like all this is a punishment for not meeting up to expectations?

And why does he lay awake at night wallowing in guilt, not knowing if it’d be better or worse if he’s wrong?

Some months, the only prolonged communication he has with his father is reading the newest developments in the manga. These days, Koji Matsuba writes as if he wants to speak to the audience. As if he’s sharing his own feelings and fears, and he’s inviting the readers to engage in that discussion even if their words won’t reach him.

Haruka’s parents express regret at overlooking her difficulties in juggling her athletic life, her academic life, and her social life. Mirabelle’s father tries to atone for the damage he caused always pushing her into the same achievements her mother once held. Seitaro’s parents don’t quite know what to do when he tells them he hates looking at mirror or when their long-lost orphaned niece Kikyo suddenly shows up at their doorstep, but they love the children all the same and vow to protect them both.

Is this Koji’s way of trying to talk to his estranged child?

…

Shinobu decides to stop thinking about things like that for tonight, and instead he hides in the shiny distractions that a new game offers him. And in time, he’ll forget all about that too and throw it onto the long list of things that he has fun engaging with but never quite finds the drive to return to. But for some comforting reason, he keeps coming back to one particular manga, wanting to see what dialogue is opened up next.

[shslgymnastnerd-blog]

Pregame Prompt 11 - Pokemon AU

In hindsight, Shinobu could have definitely picked more appropriate names for their Pokemon. It was like they had all been thrown into a hat and scrambled around, assigned entirely at random by a child. Which was essentially what actually happened.

Their first Pokemon was a tiny Eevee bought in Celadon City, back when the Matsubas lived there. By that time, Shinobu’s father had gotten his manga off the ground. Shinobu knew even then which character was theirs, which character was supposed to be just like them and just like everything they should aspire to be. It was Haruka Midoriyama, the Thief Verdant, the track star of her middle school, the childhood friend whose great energy for fun and competition was matched only by her love for everyone around her.

It was only natural that Haruka became Shinobu’s favorite character, and it was only natural that they would name their Eevee after their favorite character. It was perfectly fine that it was a male Eevee – even back then Shinobu didn’t really understand why some names were considered off-limits to a whole gender, and Haruka was just neutral enough that not too many people would ask questions.

(In hindsight, this explained a lot about Shinobu themself.)

They also didn’t mind that Haruka the Eevee was not green like Haruka the character, but surely that wouldn’t matter, right? They knew sometimes Eevees grew up to be green and verdant. Shinobu even tried to do research into forests, hoping to learn which forests grew the mutagen moss that Eevees reacted to. There was a big Super Contest championship happening in Sinnoh soon, and maybe while Shinobu was there they could take a trip into Eterna Forest to search for mossy rocks. The plan was foolproof.

As if just to prove them wrong, two days before they left for Sinnoh, on a springtime afternoon, Haruka evolved into a very pink Sylveon.

Shinobu would continue the trend of naming their Pokemon after characters (by this point a Cubone and a Comfey had also joined the family) but decided that trying to match the color themes was an exercise in futility.

It didn’t matter, anyway. Haruka the Sylveon was much milder and calmer, but no les nurturing than Haruka the character – and more importantly, he was more than just an extension of his namesake. Haruka the Sylveon held Shinobu’s hands with his feelers after The Incident during a Super Contest meet, saving them from the anxiety attack that paralyzed his whole body.

Haruka was a lifesaver. Haruka was Haruka. And Shinobu adored him for himself and not for whatever his namesake was meant to symbolize.

- - -

The naming trend did indeed continue over the years, though a more mature Shinobu no longer burdened them with expectations to : Haruka the Sylveon. Mirabelle the Comfey. Seitaro the Marowak (Alolan, to everyone’s surprise; the shelter they had adopted the former tray from had no idea!). Aki the Dedenne and Yukito the Ambipom.

The last addition was, appropriately enough, Kikyo, the former enemy siren turned ally bard. Or in the real Kikyo’s case, a Passimian that Shinobu met shortly after moving to Olivine City in Johto. (Thanks, Wonder Trade!) Shinobu felt intimidated by this tall, powerful, rowdy creature who was often overturning everything in her path, but… when they saw that spending time with other Pokemon curbed her destructive tendencies, they realized that she was only acting out because she was so lonely without the large troops Passimian instinctively yearned for. Kikyo really just wanted a team to belong to.

And fortunately for her, Shinobu was looking for a Pokeathlon team. No more commuting all the way to Hoenn or Sinnoh for Contests, no. Shinobu’s new goal would be to take the Pokeathlon by storm and sweep every category.

...Just as soon as they figured out how not to make Aprijuice that was either completely tasteless or unbearably spicy.

- - -

Haruka (Sylveon ♂) - Gentle, somewhat stubborn

Seitaro (Marowak ♂) - Serious, alert to sounds

Mirabelle (Comfey ♀) - Impish, somewhat vain

Aki (Dedenne ♂) - Hardy, loves to eat

Yukito (Ambipom ♂) - Sassy, thoroughly cunning

Kikyo (Passimian ♀) - Lonely, likes to trash about

[shslgymnastnerd-blog]

Pregame Prompt 7 - Argument Armament

Shinobu’s passive people-pleaser nature makes him unlikely to start an Argument Armament, unless the stars align in just the wrong way and he fights to protect someone else. The theme of his argument would be one of performance, taking place center stage in a sports stadium. Crowds roar from the audience seat, and the atmosphere is dense with electric excitement and suffocating tension.

"How could you be so horrible to Itou-kun? It's like you only care about your grudges!"

He guards himself with as many layers as possible: His shields are abstracted and stylized objects like stars and ribbons, and his weapons are sturdy hoops and clubs taken straight from his routines. Shinobu is even flanked by faceless teammates, trying unsuccessfully to blend in with them; the figures are the first distractions to be destroyed, in fact. His friends, his shields, his weapons – everything has to be cut down to finally convince him of the truth.

"She says she never left the dining hall. No one ever saw her leave! So why are you doing this!?"

His athletic uniform is a black tank top and matching pants, with simple patterns of green and white spirals breaking up the monotony. More eye-catching is the long cloak that glitters in ways reminiscent of the uniforms used in elite rhythmic gymnastics: Careful use of vivid oranges and yellows contrasted against sheer fabric creates the illusion of fire flowing off his shoulders, and intricate beadwork emphasizes each swirl of color.

“You don’t care about justice! You don’t care about finding the killer! You’re only accusing Itou-kun because you never liked her!”

This is not the quiet Shinobu who never wants to make waves. This is not the meek Shinobu who stays out of arguments because he’s so afraid of being rejected. This is the Shinobu who fights alongside his friends, fights for his friends. This is the Shinobu who gets out onto the stage and clears his mind of everything except for motion. If this is a performance, a show, a farce, then he has no choice but to dance along to the rhythm until he comes out the victor.

"We haven't exhausted every option! Someone else could have been in the garden! Tell me why it can only be her!"

With a final, damning response from the class (“She was the only one with gravel in her shoes.”), his cloak lights up suddenly and burns out just as quickly, embers scattering into the air and fading away. Shinobu no longer has any flashy bravado to hide behind. He's seen for what he truly is: A scared youth, searching for alternatives and excuses where there truly are none.

Forced to confront the truth that he put his own life and reputation on the line for a dear friend he was already too late to save, all he can do is collapse to his knees, curling up tightly in physical and emotional agony. The crowd quiets, the lights dim, and the show ends.

[shslgymnastnerd-blog]

Pregame Prompt 2 - HP AU

[ I probably won’t be able to do all prompts, but I’ll do what I can! ]

Hufflepuff had the unfortunate reputation for being the “miscellaneous” house. Shinobu could remember the year that the Sorting Hat sung of Helga scooping up the leftovers, after the other founders picked out the children they deemed worthy of their attention. The Hat spent many, many other years singing about how loyal, how resilient, how principled, how fair the Hufflepuffs were, but minds latched on to the negative words much easier. The miscellaneous, the leftovers, the others. Not smart enough or brave enough or ambitious enough.

Shinobu wanted to believe they were plenty ambitious. Their mother had been a Slytherin, and all their Quidditch teachers before Hogwarts had been Slytherins. They knew what it was like to want, to scrape out every bit of time and energy and resourcefulness just to be worthy of praise. And wasn’t that ambition?

But toiling to the bone was a Hufflepuff trait, too.

Shinobu had taken many years to accept this and get over it. It took them five years to finally understand that it was never about settling on the scraps the other houses left behind. It was about giving everyone a chance to find their own way in life, free of expectations like glorious heroics or academic perfection or familial prestige. It was about getting back up, no matter how many times the world took them down.

So Shinobu would keep getting up and going to Divination, even as more and more of their peers dropped the class each year. They would keep diving into Astronomy, scheduling life on stars the way they scheduled it on clocks. They would continue sneaking spearmint and peonies to a rich Slytherin ice queen, and in return she would teach them how to safely brew potions made with the offal of bulls. They would face off against the other houses again and again on the Quidditch Pitch, rising to the position of Seeker not out of a thirst for fame but because their agility let them fill the niche perfectly.

Shinobu counted callouses on their hands, bruises on their legs, entries in their Divination journals. Each new word and new mark symbolized time and structure and progress, and that would be enough. That would have to be enough.

Besides, it was kind of nice, collecting stories to tell their Muggle father as inspiration on how to include merpeople and kappa and fae in his manga. Even if Shinobu did have to tell him to dial it back a bit once an unfounded rumor spread that the Ministry wanted to use memory charms on Koji because they thought his “mangos” and “annie-mays” were a threat to secrecy.

(...Shinobu wondered if they could dare again to be ambitious by aiming to reform the Ministry from the inside out. Maybe that was a bit too risky.)

[shslgymnastnerd-blog]

Introduction

Intro

Hello hello! I'm Asia! She/her, and about to have a birthday in a month. I've been in and out of the DROC RP community for several years. Currently I play Miyu Suzuki (SHSL "Oil Painter" / Art Forger) at M.A.H.O.U. Project, and my past characters include Izumi "Mei" Meiki (SHSL Roller-Skate Waitress) at Semester of Desolation 2 and several characters throughout Doubt Academy.

Please tag for IRL/realistic visual depictions of the following!: Cockroaches/roaches, bird death/abuse/illness, and trypophobia. The last one has very specific circumstances, but to make it easier on everyone a general #trypophobia tag will be enough for me to make an informed decision.

Shinobu is demimale and uses both he/him and they/them pronouns: He usually doesn't have a preference for one or the other, and I don't either! (If it's a question of readability then I tend to stick to one, such as if I'm having a long discussion about multiple characters or if I’m making a post, but again both are perfectly fine unless specifically requested otherwise!)

IC Stuff

If your OC follows sports, they probably know quite a bit about Shinobu and/or their mother, Kotoha Matsuba (better known by her maiden name Kotoha Marukichi), due to the very public nature of their career paths! Failing that, they might also know their father Koji, a famous mangaka.

Kotoha:

Skilled gymnast who performed in national and international competitions. In her Olympic debut, she won gold in artistic gymnastics.

Unfortunately, she had to retire a couple of years later, citing health problems that rest and surgery failed to improve.

Since then she's been an active supporter of athletes both old and new, and an advocates for healthier changes in diet and exercise. She's backed off from this in recent years for reasons unclear, though.

Her mother is an actress and her father is a CEO, so those are other ways one might know of her. I forgot to actually flesh out her parents’ lives a bit though, rip

Koji:

Started as an assistant to senior artists in the industry

His career was truly launched after his marriage to Kotoha, which brought just enough attention on him to pitch his own original series: Moonlight Mist

Moonlight Mist is a shounen henshin series that takes inspiration from fantasy RPGs; the main characters' transformed states resemble common RPG job archetypes

Since then, MM has gone on to become a famous serial manga, with many volumes and a recently-started anime adaptation.

MM is also famous for taking a critical look at certain fictional cliches usually taken for granted, such as the "chosen one" and "child hero" plots.

I'll probably make a post about this once I remember where I put my my worldbuilding notes

Shinobu:

By the time Shinobu was born, his parents had settled down in Tokyo, though they would move around within the metropolis to meet the demands of work and education.

Shinobu began their own gymnastics career at an even younger age than Kotoha did, though they gravitated towards rhythmic gymnastics instead.

Because Shinobu became deeply involved in sports before his transition, it is public knowledge that he was AFAB and was raised as such.

Shinobu was under the tutelage of many famous coaches and former gymnasts, chief among them Hiroki Katsumori, who's considered part of the old guard and an expert teacher with a tough love strategy. Even in present day, Hiroki continues to send one student after another into championship gold.

As Shinobu grew older he became more and more prolific in junior competitions, with the gymnastics world waiting to see if he would try for international competitions just like his mother...

Instead, he abruptly disappeared from the sport at thirteen. Little is known about exactly what happened: Just that he had a mediocre showing at a qualifier, and then his parents withdrew him from all his classes, citing health reasons. Many rumors swirled, but none seemed to have a solid answer.

Shinobu lived in obscurity until last year, now living in the Aomori prefecture. They had appeared along their high school’s men's rhythmic gymnastics team, in the process making their transition known to the world.

Men's RG does not have official worldwide recognition; Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique only represents women's rhythmic gymnastics, despite supporting different divisions for other gymnastic disciplines. Efforts have been made to convince the FIG to recognize it, but it’s unclear if or when they will add it as an official discipline.

There is a lot that can be said about the problems with gendered athletics (especially given certain rulings made in the first half of 2019), but that would take a long time to cover. Sticking just to the state of rhythmic gymnastics: Japan is the frontrunner in treating men's RG seriously, having hosted and won several international competitions. Most significantly, a team from Aomori University gave a performance at the 2016 Summer Olympics closing ceremony.

Men’s RG is very similar to women’s RG, though there are some differences that do not make them perfect mirrors of each other. (For example, men’s RG does not use the ribbon apparatus, but does use a single baton as a stick apparatus.)

It didn't take long after that for speculation to whirl about a potential HPA invite, rumors that eventually came true.

OOC Stuff

Shipping is allowed, with caveats! Keep in mind that Shinobu is 17 and is unlikely to be shipped with anyone more than a year older/younger than him. More importantly, I am significantly older than many players and will be conscious about maintaining boundaries. This will affect how likely I am to agree to a romantic ship, regardless of IC chemistry.

Platonic ships / found family / etc are all still very much welcome! And on a note related to the above paragraph, Shinobu's romantic orientation is currently undetermined, but he does know he’s at least into guys.

Art of Shinobu is always welcome! Basic rules of etiquette and good taste apply: No suggestive/NSFW at all, and ask permission for violent/gory stuff, please. (Art for canonical death scenes are automatically given permission!)

[shslgymnastnerd-blog]

Congratulations!

Dear students of HPA,

The raffle winners for the one-of-a-kind, once-in-a-lifetime Posidonias Atlantica voyage have been chosen, and if you are reading this email, then you are one of the lucky, lucky winners! Congratulations to the following:

Keep reading