#i have an entire script which i've been told is absolute perfection

[upperranktwo]

Good night everyone 💞 need to make sure i'm well rested for tomorrow! I am absolutely terrified, but I've gotta remember that in about 14 hours, my entire speech will be over with, and I can rest after 6 weeks of hard work and practicing! Just hope I don't fuck up and have a panic attack 😭

[saintsenara]

Seeing as all this excellent ink is being spilled on the concept of Snape and Tonks bonding through grief (and queerness), how about Snape and Tonks the elder, Andromeda? It must be lonely sometimes for Andromeda after the estrangement from her family, however necessary the break was and however impossible a reconciliation would be, with nobody in her new life who she can plausibly befriend having any understanding of her sisters beyond them being evil and hot. But Snape is fond of Narcissa and gets Bellatrix. Added bonus of Snape despising Dromeda’s son in law and rightly believing her daughter could do much much better!

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

and this is a pairing which has occurred to me too... so much so, that there's a little something in the wips folder on this very topic...

as i've said as part of the stonks manifesto, the interesting thing in fics in which snape survives is how authors approach the fact that he has been following a script which has now ended, and how he deals with - for the first time in his life - having no master and having the freedom to live on his own terms.

and i think it’s particularly interesting to mash this into andromeda’s own finished script - the fact that her war has ended so devastatingly, with her husband, daughter, and son-in-law all dead; that she has gone from being a grandmother to teddy’s primary caregiver [and the resentments that brings up - i’m wedded to the idea that she isn’t thrilled that harry is teddy’s godfather]; and, most thorny of all, that her sister is dead and there is now absolutely no chance of bellatrix seeing the error of her ways and trying to make amends [which, while i loathe the common trope that andromeda and her sisters would reconcile easily, is something i believe it’s entirely reasonable for her to have hoped could be possible.]

snape’s post-war relationship with the malfoys - presumably absolutely torpedoed by the reveal that he was a spy - also has parallels with andromeda’s post-war reckoning with narcissa.

would you like a snippet?

[from the very end, because i always write the endings of things first.]

And she looks up at the house, and - although it’s narrow - it’s straight and tall, and it stretches up to a clear sky. And she thinks about Ted, about what Ted used to say about things having good bones, and she knows that he’d chide her for defaulting so quickly to chucking the whole thing in the dustbin. A bit of repointing for the mortar, Dromeda, he’d say, and a new coat of paint, and this’ll be a cracker.

And she can picture the cant of his sandy head, and his wry smile, and his wink, as Snape shuffles down from the kitchen, holding a cup of tea out to her in a thin, cautious hand. The mug is chipped - a big chip right out of the rim, right over the place you’d put your mouth to take a sip - but the tea is perfect, like Snape has watched her carefully over the course of endless cups she’s made them both in her grief-filled living room in order to learn how she takes it. Good bones there, too, Dromeda.

Good bones. Good, marrow-filled bones holding him up, despite all the scar tissue. A thing worth restoring, worth maintaining.

She looks out across the little yard, with its high walls and the gate hanging on by its hinges. Someone has started to hammer through the concrete - Snape couldn’t have done it himself, surely? Snape has asked someone into his space, into his weakness, to do it - and to lay topsoil. She sips her tea and she breathes in and she can smell it, how it smells of earth, and she remembers what Snape told her about fertilisers, about how even the ground benefits from good bones.

He stands beside her, drinking his tea in solemn silence. He doesn’t have his stick - he couldn’t carry two mugs with it - and she can see the pain starting to stiffen him, the blood starting to drain from his face.

She conjures him a chair, settles him in it, and, for once, he doesn't complain. She lays a hand upon his shoulder which he doesn’t shrug off, feels him take it in his own, feels the touch of his lips against her fingers. The kiss is feather-light, but the bump of his nose against the back of her hand is emphatic. And that’s Snape, isn’t it? For all his subtlety, he’s an immovable object.

He’s got a nice nose, she thinks. She likes it, even though this would sound absurd to the person she was twelve months ago. It’s got good… well, cartilage, she supposes.

And perhaps it’s all futile. Perhaps Snape is past repair. Perhaps, if she stays, they will destroy each other, wearing each other thin with constant relitigation of the past, never letting the ghosts in the walls drift away.

Perhaps.

But she can picture Snape sitting in this chair again - the sunshine on his face, warming his paleness away and making the silver threading his temples glitter - chatting to her in a voice which has grown stronger while she potters around the garden.

While things grow.

[freaoscanlin]

Hi, I don’t know if I’m too late but the for the fic meme thing - Chapter 01.docx- was really intriguing to me. I mean also the friendship calculator.

Definitely not too late! The friendship calculator was a Stardew Valley thing because I was tooling around with some challenge runs (Get the statue of perfection as fast as I can was that particular one). As for Chapter 01.docx, I just opened it and it turns out it's a restart of a story I've been tooling with on and off for years but have never posted publicly. And I've been writing on it for so long that attitudes in Hollywood (where the story takes place) have majorly shifted about queer actors. So the story doesn't entirely work anymore, but it was a hell of a lot of fun to kick around. Going to change some names and post a bit of it under the cut.

“They’re replacing you with a goddamn nobody.”

“I hear she’s cute. And I’m not being replaced.”

Greg gave her a quit-the-bullshit look. “You took a cut to take this role, they should be pandering to you—”

“Nobody says ‘don’t you know who I am’ anymore,” Marisa told him. “It’s not a good look.”

“That’s beside the point.”

Marisa gave the script a look that contained absolutely nothing of what she felt inside. With most actors and their managers, the dynamic would have been reversed. Greg by all rights should have to break the news gently to her that things were not going her way. With another one of his clients, he would have had to sit them down and explain that this industry was fickle, and fast-paced, and could instantly change.

But Marisa had been in the tabloids before she had even articulated her first words. She would have been, even without her chosen career path. She’d inherited her first name from her very famous sitcom-star-turned-pop-singer, and her jawline from her football superstar father. Luckily, on her it had softened somewhat, giving her a good structure and cheekbones that makeup artists regularly cooed over. The ice blue eyes came from her mother, but the poise—that had been earned over a long lifetime surviving in an arena where it took beauty, connections, and luck to make it through every perilous day.

Which was why she gave Greg a small smile. “I saw this coming weeks ago.”

“Of course you did.” But he didn’t sound surprised as he dug into his breakfast burrito.

“I also don’t want to break my contract,” she said.

“Of course you don’t. Most people would be demoralized, but you—you just shrug.”

Marisa ate another bite of omelet. She had to be at the studio in an hour, and her driver would be there soon to collect her, no doubt. And it had been sweet of her manager to invite her to breakfast before what was guaranteed to be a long day of filming. Even if he thought she should be more disgruntled about what was soon to happen.

She was getting replaced.

Oh, not physically. Her contract on the show Sci-Fi Super Show stipulated exactly where her name fell in the cast sheet order, and that wouldn’t change. But after months of every entertainment journalist taking potshots at the forced romance between her character and the show’s lead. Trent Gomez, whose blue eyes smoldered in every promo still, regularly hit all the Top 100 lists. So did Marisa herself. Together they had, as one particularly puzzling review had put it, the chemistry of a wet paper towel.

Marisa had seen that writing for weeks: the romance would need to be retooled or one of them tossed. And since the show was literally named after Trent’s character, she doubted it would be him.

“Let’s look at it this way,” she said. “Fewer kissing scenes.”

“There’s a fucking silver lining,” Greg said with a snort.

It really was, and not for the way he thought. Marisa gave him a light smile. “My writing’ll get better now that I’m not the potential girlfriend. Bet you twenty bucks.”

“I stopped betting against you when you were thirteen, you all-knowing heathen.” Greg snorted and finished his burrito.

[avanatural]

Hi there! I want to compliment you on You Deserve The World. (I didn't mean to write an essay, so apologize for how long this got.) I'm sure we've all read fics about body image issues but I don't think I've ever read one where it's not the reader who's self conscious.

For me, since I can relate, it kind of makes it easier to see myself in the Y/N role, but it's cool and interesting to flip the script and show that guys get self conscious of their bodies too. But it was heartbreaking to read what Dean thinks of himself, and worrying that his younger girlfriend will think he's old. (I mean, Jensen is 18 years older than me but if I saw him on the street and he was interested in me I would not hesitate to seize that opportunity 😉)

In addition to everything you wrote about his physical attributes, I would also like to submit for consideration that those eye crinkles Dean is so put off by are super attractive. I'm not entirely sure why, at least on Jensen, but on Dean... it's a sign of aging, sure, and as he and Sam have both said several times, not many hunters live long enough to reach old age. So those eye crinkles are a visual reminder of how far he's made it.

And I have to agree with other certain physical traits because his shoulders and scruff drive me insane and half the time his eyes don't even look real. I mean I've never seen eyes that gorgeous anywhere else. Is brrathtaking too strong a word? 🤔

And of course his heart. John may have been the one who told him to look out for Sammy but he continued to put him first long after Sam could take care of himself. And Dean absolutely seems the type to help old ladies in the grocery store, whether it's reaching something on a high shelf or carrying the bags to her car.

I felt a lot of things reading how Dean sees himself but seeing how the Reader reassured him of how she sees him, that he's not old, that he's perfect, that he's so good to her and everyone around him, I could not agree more.

I'm sorry this got so long but I needed you to know what an excellent job you did with this fic 🙂

Hi! First of all, there's no need to apologize at all ❤ The fact that you took the time not only to read my story, but also to write such a kind message makes me beyond happy and grateful! 🙏💕

I wanted to emphasize that everybody has insecurities. I think we all experience body image issues at some point, even gorgeous men like Dean. I'm really glad that you enjoyed it and found it interesting! 😊

About the eye crinkles, I absolutely agree, I love them on him! His eyes really shine when he smiles, and the crinkles are a beautiful addition 💕 I love what you said about those wrinkles being a reminder of how far Dean has made it, that is so true! It's heartbreaking to think that Sam and Dean couldn't ever give another thought to growing old, let alone growing old happily, because what they do is so dangerous.

Ugh, yes! The shoulders and scruff just drive me crazy! I think breathtaking is 100% the correct word to describe his eyes! 😍 The color, the shape, they truly are breathtaking! 💚

And Dean's heart has got to be one of my favorite things about him! He has that nurturing side to him and that willingness to help others, which I really love!

Thank you for your lovely comment, it made my day! 💖 I loved to read your thoughts, I appreciate that you shared them with me! I really enjoyed your essay 😉😘

I hope you're having a wonderful day! 🙌

[undeservedfavor]

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The Bucketlist

Mini-Series of Short Stories

St. Valentines Day [EN]: Chapter 2

Gisela almost jumped and screamed at the sight.

"Who are you?! What are you doing in my room, here in my bed?! What did you do to me?! Why can't I remember anything?!" She held her head due to headache.

"Don't scream, they might think that I'm doing something to you." He said.

"To a loser you shouldn't give a damn about... Yes, you already did something!" She tried to sit up but she did not succeed with her attempt.

She winced because of the pain she felt down there, tingling on her sensitive part.

He held her close and rubbed her back.

Like he's trying to calm her as she breathes in and out.

"Shh... That's it. Breathe. Tsk. Don't move so harshly, does it still hurt?" He asked.

She almost cried nodding to him.

"Can you stop breathing on my neck?! God. What a mess. So much for the freedom that I asked for." She uttered.

"We all search for freedom. Why do you look so sad? Tss, sorry, don't mind my question. I don't wanna intrude. By the way, nice place you got here. I haven't found a place yet, so I think I wanna stay here, even just for two or three weeks. You wouldn't mind, right? Since misery loves company, oh my bad, it's misery meets misery. Why do I get the feeling that we've met before?" The guy said.

"I don't even know you, you don't know me and what I'm going through! If you're gonna stay here, we have to set the boundaries and the rules." She reiterated.

"Shoot." He said.

"One, since I just bought this house and I'm struggling to survive the rest of my days on earth due to financial instability, you have to pay me rent. Two, no opening up or asking about 'too' personal details. Three, no more sexual activities with the landlady, last night was enough..." She stated.

"I think I can do number one and two, but I doubt that we both can resist number three, for we're still cuddling until now." He said and she moved away from him and covered her nudeness with the white blanket.

The man laughed a bit, which she found weirdly sexy.

When Gisela did not feel any pain anymore, she stood and wore her robe.

The man's smirking as he lit up a cigarette from the pocket of his jacket while his eyes are feasting on her features and curves.

She was about to enter the bathroom to clean herself up from the dried 'juices' stuck on her skin but she heard the doorbell rang from downstairs.

She walked downstairs and opened the door, she saw the old lady, Olivia...

"We're leaving for almost a month. I'm taking Larry to the city hospital which is really far from here, as the old man will prepare for his heart operation. We're taking our grandson with us, which means I will be leaving this beach to you. We're not locking it up unless it's night-time but... Can you look after it for us until we get back?" Old Olivia asked.

Gisela nodded.

"Yes, I'll pray for his speedy recovery. In this world, prayers are our sword for battle." She said and the old woman gave her the keys.

She went upstairs and she broke the news to the man who got her first.

"Who was that?" He was curious.

"The lady who sold me this house. Her entire family's going to tne city for almost a month. Which means, it's just you and me in this isolated island and damn life." She said.

"Which is good right, if you're in charge, we can do more public se-... S-sessions of swimming." The guy changed what he was about to say when the woman glared at him.

"You don't wanna be stuck with me in a place for a long time. No one does. I'm boring and worthless as hell." She said.

"I don't know, I find you exciting as hell. With that bod? There's no way that anyone doesn't wanna be stuck with you, I'd even probably prefer to be stuck in a manhole with you than not at all." She just rolled her eyes at his comment.

Then, she continued talking about the rules she thought just right about now.

Adding some things to it.

"As I was saying... Number four, you'll sleep on the couch downstairs and I sleep on my bed, here in my room. Don't dare to barge in here. This is not porn. Last and final rule, we don't have to know who we are." She said.

"I love the porn part but I was a bit confused on the last rule." She rolled her eyes at the hot naked guy on her bed.

"No names. We're gonna go separate ways anyway. You can call me Piggy and I can call you-...?" She said.

"Dinosaur. Don't look at me like that, isn't it obvious why based from what you just saw?" She glared at him.

"Kidding. I collect dinosaur figures back in the city. I'm a fan of Godzilla and Jurassic Park." She just nodded.

"Let's make it more exciting, if we found out each others' names, we part ways without a word. That's how pro one-night-standers do it." He said.

She shook her head smiling a little to him and entered the bathroom to shower.

Dorian followed her and she was shocked when he kissed her and lifted her to the bathtub...

Dorian opened the tap to fill it with water, he then poured soap in it and joined Gisela in a bubble bath as they do what they wanna finish doing...

They started living together.

The no sex rule was always being disobeyed by the male and the female was just letting him, like she had no choice for she also loved the relaxed feeling after the unexplainable and tiring skinship.

There was a time that when Dorian turned on the radio...

He heard his song played...

~I remember we were living like Kings and Queens

In the little tiny castle made of hopes and dreams

It was destiny

It was meant to be

We were so complete

The perfect team...

I always think about her (Aye)

Try to not overthink about her (Yeah)

I always dream about her (Uh, Uh)

Try not to dream about her (Oou)

I'm feeling so lost without her I try to come home

And it's so hard being out on my own

It breaks my heart to leave you alone

And that's all I get from you but I give my all to you

And that's all I hear from you

All dressed up nowhere to go

So I'm Dancing (Dancing)

On My Own

I've been waiting way too long (I don't want you dancing alone)

Dancing (Uh-huh)

On My Own

Play one more song (Play one more song)

Song (I'll be home)

Song But you're not coming (Yeah)

Song Song Song But you're not coming home

I told you I'll be home

I told you I'll be back (Play one more song 'til you g-...~

The song almost come to an end but Dorian turned it off when Gisela came out of the bathroom, because if Gisela, recognized his voice and knew who he was, it will be the end for them...

"Why have you turned it off? I was listening to the song... It's good..." She said.

"You know, you should re-think your taste when it comes to music." Dorian commented.

Gisela just shook her head, smiling.

They are getting to know each other more day by day but they still have not talked about why they ended up on the island...

On day, preparing brunch on the beach side, Piggy was sitting on the hammock while writing something on her notebook as Dinosaur is grilling fish for their meal.

Piggy was shocked as she heard a familiar voice alarmed.

"Ahhh!!!" Dinosaur winced in pain as he grabbed the neck of the snake who bit him and threw it on a far away bush.

He may not be showing it, but he's panicking.

Piggy ripped her skirt to get a piece of cloth and she tied a tight knot on the Dinosaur's ankle.

Piggy ran to the house and quickly came back with an alchohol, a clean knife, a roll of bandage and a cotton on her hands.

"I thought Dinosaurs are tougher than Pigs and Snakes. Then, why are you screaming like a girl? This is gonna hurt a bit but..." Piggy pierced the swollen wound.

Blurry liquid came out of his leg.

"Ahhh!!! Sh*t! Can you be more gentler as I was with you in bed?! Ouch!" He said shouting.

"Even your leg is filled with lust. It's wet and cumming. We're hopeless. You'll die in five minutes. Like me, alone, miserable and lonely." He glared at her for the comment.

"Kidding. Let the goner go, will you?" The woman said.

Dinosaur's eyes almost fell from it's sockets when Piggy put her mouth over the wound and sipped it thoroughly.

He almost drool over the sight.

Everytime her mouth is filled by the poison, she spits it out on the side.

When it was done, she cleaned the wound and replaced the cloth with a bandage.

"Where have you learned that?" The man asked.

"I was a nurse. A shitty one." She answered.

"Was. Why did you quit?" He asked.

"Can you stop being so nosy? Let the personal details go." The woman said she sat back on the hammock and continued to write on her notebook.

"What's that? I'm starting to get jealous with that notebook." He said.

She walked toward Dinosaur to ask for his opinion.

"Tell me what you think for a woman who's busy isolating and distancing herself from society?" She showed her writings to him.

"Without even reading this, I can say we're explicitly productive." The woman just glared at him for what he said.

Then, he read the book seriously.

"Writing strory scripts eh? This is good and intense but... I think it will suffice for the readers. Try to write about us next time. Is this why you quit? For the so called "Absolute Dream'?!" He overreacted his expression on the last sentence with his arm streched out high pointing at the sky.

"You talk a lot. How about you go back to the house and I'll bring the fish to you. And I thought I saw a Spiderwisp plant near our house's front yard. I'll go get some to treat the snakebite. Don't look at me like that... Unlike other things, just be thankful that it can be treated." She ordered the man.

Even if it's against his will, he just followed what she said...

[oumakokichi]

I've been reading your metas and I want to say that they're really well thought and impressively intensive! Got a question that I'm not sure if you've answered however: if Ouma was meant to be a "pawn of the mastermind" and had despair imbued into his talent, do you think his amazing intellect might have come from actually having the SHSL Analyst talent along with his Leader talent?

I think it’s a distinct possibility! Ouma’s despair role isinteresting, because clearly it’s something he himself wasn’t the most awareof. Or rather, while he suspected himself of having been the intendedfigurehead for the real mastermind, and he knew he clearly had things abouthimself that were fitting for an “evil Supreme Leader,” etc., he didn’t knowabout hope vs. despair terminology, because those things weren’t something thatTsumugi actually busted out as her trump card until Chapter 5.

So while Ouma definitely seems to have been someone Tsumugiwanted to manipulate and use as a pawn the entire way through, I don’t think heactually was supposed to know or think of himself as SHSL Despair until thevery end. Had everything gone according to Tsumugi’s plans (meaning if Oumahadn’t been nearly as big of a pain in her ass as he was), she probably plannedto corner Ouma with a remember light specifically designed and entailed forhim, to make him “remember” about how he was “the successor of Junko Enoshima”and encourage him to go full Remants of Despair Leader, claim credit foreverything, and ultimately be “defeated and talked down by students of Hope’sPeak Academy,” only to kill himself in a fit of despair just like Junko did.

I’d bet that that’s quite literally how the script waswritten, if you will, not least of all because Tsumugi and the other charactersmake plenty of allusions to expecting “Ouma” (meaning Momota in the Exisal) tokill himself just like Junko at the end of their discussion.

Of course, it’s doubtful that the brainwashing ever workedon Ouma in the first place the same as it did among his classmates, precisely because he was twisted so far from hisoriginal character and the original state of things. As someone whose “evil organization”was actually ten kids running around, with a motto like “we don’t kill people,”pulling “laughable crimes” that got nobody hurt, it’s clear that trying toactually turn him into a sadistic, horrible mastermind character was mostlikely intended as some kind of message, or punishment.

Ouma’s clothing and treatment, the location of his lab, andthe entire role planned for him in the game went above and beyond what wasplanned for or expected of any of the other characters. As smart as he is, hewas bound to notice the discrepancy between his real memories and the things he“remembered” only because the remember lights told him they were real. So evenif Tsumugi had actually gotten this far, it’s an interesting question ofwhether it would’ve worked or not. Either way, that was clearly just her idealscenario, because she felt Ouma would have played the role of Junko-likevillain so perfectly.

And if he actually had been given some kind of SHSL Analysttalent or something very similar as a “surefire way” to try and make himdespair, because that’s exactly what happened to characters like Junko andKamukura…well, that would explain a lotactually. If the innate ability to see ahead and predict things and knoweverything leads to boredom, and boredom inevitably leads to despair, then thatwould perhaps have been Ouma’s “given talent.” I could see him having been apretty smart and perceptive kid even pre-game, but this kind of talent woulddefinitely take things to the next level, and explain why he’s able to predictjust as much as he is, to the point that it’s actually a little terrifying.

It wouldn’t be the first time ndrv3 had a lot of imagerywith “dual talents,” either. Ryouma quite literally has two talents at once,and two labs to embody them. As the survivor of a previous killing game show,Amami is speculated to have been “given” the SHSL Adventure title his firsttime around, and he earned “SHSL Survivor” as his talent for entry into thesecond one. Kiibo is clearly meant to have been “a SHSL Robot” by virtue of hisexistence, which is perhaps the closest thing to Naegi’s uncontrollable andun-asked for SHSL Good Luck, and he was supposed to become SHSL Hope later onin the game the way Tsumugi planned for Ouma to be SHSL Despair.

Ouma having “two talents,” or at least the fact that hisfirst talent was more of a cover for something else we can’t quite know about,seems like it wouldn’t be very far from the mark at all. After all, Junko, whowas known as a SHSL Gyaru, and who actually introduces herself as SHSL Despair,honestly does trace all the way back to being a SHSL Analyst, and that itselfis the cause of her despair.

There seem to be quite a lot of hints too that while Ouma iscertainly good at leading, and can and will do so from the shadows ratheraggressively, his SHSL Supreme Leader title is blatantly a lie of some sort.Kaede questions as much within his first two FTEs, and I believe even in thedemo and in his introduction, Naegi mentioned that the only information he hadaccess to about Ouma was just what were on the entry-level files available toall students. Saihara also brings up not being able to find any clues orinformation on Ouma being a real-life “evil Supreme Leader” of anything—and ifthe detective can’t find clues to the mystery, it likely means they don’t exist,because clues have to be presented.

Even in additional bonus content meant mostly for humor, Komaeda of all people can’t find asingle thing on Ouma being a Supreme Leader, or on any kind of actual secret,evil organization. The interaction between Komaeda and Ouma was likely meantfor comic relief, to some degree, but I think it was a valuable hint that therereally is no way Ouma could be leading any kind of actual crime organization orbe any kind of Supreme Leader in real life, because if there were anyinformation at all, Komaeda would be able to find it. Komaeda’s luck works insuch a way that he finds absolutely anything and everything he wants, as longas it exists to be found. So the logical conclusion is…it doesn’t exist.

All of this tells us that him having an actual hidden talentis extremely likely, and that this talent itself was likely how he was “imbuedwith despair” and meant to be turned into Tsumugi’s “pawn.” SHSL Analyst is alikely one, although given that Ouma is still considerably nerfed down comparedto Junko and Kamukura, I’d like to think perhaps he was given a slightvariation of this.

Which is how I present to you my own theory, which of courseis tentative, but I think it would fit: SHSL Chessmaster.

Where Junko’s analysis (and Kamukura’s) works largely bybeing able to take in absolutely every single bit of information in the hereand now, and being constantly, continuously aware of what almost every singleperson is planning and thinking and doing and therefore “knowing” what’s goingto happen to them as a result, Ouma works much more with hypotheticals. Hesticks to chessboard theory, treats everything around him as a game to be won,and predicts according to future “moves,” always having to look at hisclassmates as though they are pieces to be moved around or avoided depending ontheir most likely set of actions.

This means that sometimes he’s looking so far ahead at the “nextmoves” that he actually gets a little distracted in the here and now. Helegitimately just gets way too far ahead of himself and has to remind himselfconstantly that the other characters aren’t quite following him, and thenbacktracks and tries to bait them into realizing something or other (usuallyvery impatiently).

A perfect example of this was in Chapter 4, when it wasalready so obvious to him that he couldn’t have murdered Miu right from thestart of the trial that he seems legitimately just caught off guard and blankfor a second when Himiko reminds him that of course he has reason to lie tothem about it, because he’s a suspect. He pauses quite a long time in thatmoment before kind of forcing himself to rewind and come down to their levelfor a bit, because he was so far off in his own plans that it’s hard to go atwhat must seem like such a slower pace.

SHSL Chessmaster would make perfect sense in my own opinion,considering his black and white imagery, the checkered scarf looking like agameboard, and the fact that his name references two chess pieces, the King andthe Knight. The part of him that is extremely cold and calculating existsprecisely because this kind of cold, hard logic is what he excels at—and in themeantime, the fact that he can only really excel when he’s playing things “as agame” would explain why he tries so hard to counteract the boredom by spicingthings up and making everything fun, because lighthearted pranks are so essential to his character.

If Ouma were a chessmaster, and I personally think he was,he was a fascinating one, because despite how easy it would have been to “winthe game” from the perspective of Tsumugi’s and the usual killing game rules,he wanted to play by his own rules. He snatched control of Tsumugi’s game farbeyond what he was supposed to do, tried to grind the game to a halt, andultimately refused to play the part of any pawn. And when he had everyopportunity to “remove pieces” that might have made his life easier, like Maki,he stopped, because he had done that kind of thing before with Gonta and Miu,and was no longer finding the game worth playing. Resorting to those kinds oftactics was unforgivable to him, and he couldn’t bring himself to do it again,and that’s why he took his own piece off the chessboard at the very endinstead.

Anyway, I’m getting super long with this so I’ll go aheadand stop, but this was so much fun to write about, and I really enjoyed it! Ifeel like SHSL Chessmaster is very, very close to what Kodaka at least intendedfor players to get out of Ouma, or at least understand that it’s a talent thatis supposed to be “like Junko’s but different,” because Ouma went so far offthe rails of what any other character in DR has done before, and intentionallytried to fight the killing game and the mastermind every step of the wayinstead of just doing what they wanted him to do. Thank you so much for givingme a chance to write about this, anon!