#kwko info post

[kawaakari-orchestra]

Today's update: Shimizu Kairi's room! 🐚

🌻: oh, this has been a journey to create. I'm not a builder in Sims 4 (and I actually usually hate build mode with a passion), but this little project actually brought me so much joy. You can definitely see a lot of rough spots and dubious creative decisions, but I'm still quite happy with how it's turned out! And most importantly, I think it tells a good story about Kairi's lifestyle and personality, so overall I'm very satisfied.

Some notes to self:

Total build time: 5 hours

New things I've learnt: cluttering!

What to consider next time: maybe do more diverse color palette

[ cc used:

Sonata Sheet music by Soloriya

Sonata Metronome by Soloriya

Kid's Industry Trophy by BuffSumm

Low Table Set by Illogical Sims]

[shiraishi--kanade]

;; i wanna hear about some of your 30+ proseka ocs!! if you wanna talk about them 👀

I'm hesitant, because I barely have any accurate artwork of them (and what I do have isn't drawn by me, actually), but it would be kind of hypocritical and silly for me to shy away from the question after that post, so...

In total I have about 30 proseka ocs and they keep on multiplying, but here's my focus for the time being.

[ yeah, I don't have a fancy logo or anything like this. I'm not at all a visual artist, unfortunately ]

Kawaakari Orchestra, or KWKO for stort, is a unit of 6 classical musicians that participate in chamber music/classical music competition on a national level in Japan; however, there's a twist - the competition is specifically designed to modernize and revolutionise the approach to how classical music is presented to the general public, so there's a lot of non-traditional elements both during performances and in between them.

In short, this is not what they signed up for (with some of the members even being picked up somewhat involuntarily), and the competition is fierce and nobody is having fun on the journey to victory - but also self-exploration, healing and mending their relationship with their lives and each other.

More info under the cut!

Their sekai is Conservatory Sekai, which is similar to Leo/need's school set up but instead of empty classrooms there are empty lecture halls and practice rooms; one main practice room which is very spacious and open and several smaller, more private ones. All the Virtual Singers are the same as in canon and all play the same instruments the cast does.

There are also two new schools for all OCs to attend because I wanted more creative freedom over that!

Meeting the sillies!

[surname - name. Keep in mind that picrew designs can be inaccurate to various degrees. All follow proseka wiki template!]

Unit leader/2nd Violin: Saitsu Maki

Gender: Female

Birthday: June 1st (♊)

School: Miyaji Girls Academy (1-A)

Committee: Library

Club: Undecided

Part-time job: None

Hobbies: Travelling, Meeting new People, Reading

Speciality: Photographic memory; English

Favourite food: Soba noodles

Least favourite food: Anything spicy

Dislikes: Insects

1st Violin: Kozaki Karin

Gender: Female

Birthday: August 4th (♌)

School: Miyaji Girls Academy (1-A)

Committee: Class Representative

Club: Go

Part-time job: Bookshop

Hobbies: Strategy games

Speciality: Time management

Favourite food: Shiitake fried rice

Least favourite food: Eggs

Dislikes: Idleness

Piano: Shimizu Kairi

Gender: Male

Birthday: March 11 (♓)

School: Hakkei High School (1-C)

Committee: Disciplinary

Club: Chamber Music

Part-time job: None

Hobbies: Collecting Stationery, Journaling

Speciality: Aesthetic Notetaking

Favourite food: White tayaki

Least favourite food: Prawns

Dislikes: Crowded places

Cello: Ekuro Suzuka

Gender: Female

Birthday: November 21 (♏)

School: Miyaji Girls Academy (1-B)

Committee: Health

Club: Photography

Part-time job: Freelance photographer

Hobbies: Arts & Crafts; Baking

Speciality: First Aid & Nursing

Favourite food: Panna cotta, Blueberry sauce

Least favourite food: Salads

Dislikes: Hospitals

[sorry for the very bad quality for the next two ones, I can't afford making a neka.cc account right now. Maybe Someday!]

Viola: Kaedehara Akari

Gender: Female

Birthday: September 30 (♎)

School: Hakkei High School (2-D)

Committee: Greening

Club: Gardening

Part-time job: None

Hobbies: Going on morning walks, Tending to her potted plants

Speciality: Flower language

Favourite food: Pizza

Least favourite food: Tomatoes

Dislikes: Viola

Flute: Fujisaki Reishi

Gender: Male

Birthday: December 28 (♑)

School: Hakkei High School (2-A)

Committee: Beauticarion

Club: None

Part-time job: None

Hobbies: Composing music, Shopping

Speciality: Music theory; Calligraphy

Favourite food: French fries, Instant noodles

Least favourite food: Pickled foods

Dislikes: Criticism

picrews/neka cc used: 1-2, 3, 4, 5, 6

~~~

Some very important infographics to understand the dynamics of the group (4koma cutouts courtesy of @the-one-that-weeps):

They have a lot stuff going on, and so far I've planned a series for the that goes over from the main story up to their World Link event; but a lot of this is still Subject To Change and WIP, of course. So this is all I'm going to say so far in order to keep things interesting if I do happen to write about them at some point.

Hope you all like them, even if they're surface level, they mean the world to me. If you have proseka fan oc, this is the cue for you to talk about them as well. Let's re-populate the tag. Cringe culture is dead. Fan Units is where it's at.

[kawaakari-orchestra]

Who's getting the Sanrio Collab though 👀

I've tried really hard to do no repeats with the main cast but had to give up about that because... There's 30 characters taken and some of them fit too well. Unfortunate! Anyway, here's the lineup.

Ekuro Suzuka [feat. Chococat] 4* - Cool

Saitsu Maki [feat. Keroppi] 2* - Happy

Kozaki Karin [feat. Aggretsuko] - 2* - Cute

Shimizu Kairi [feat. Tuxedosam] - 2* - Pure

Kaedehara Akari [feat. Moppu] - 2* - Cute

Fujisaki Reishi [feat. Garnet] - 2* - Mysterious

[kawaakari-orchestra]

KWKO accouchement: is this a hiatus yet or are we just on break?~ ✨

Hi! Jay here. If you follow my main or received that information by means unknown to me, then you already know the last batch of area conversations was the last one... For now.

With a whopping 57 dialogues and not a sign of a coherent plot in sight, we've reached the point where it's impossible to write more area conversations or answer around 90% of the questions currently in the askbox without going into spoiler territory - something I would rather avoid. In other words, it's about time for me to start working on something I've been putting off for very, very long time - writing KWKO Main Story.

After much creative deliberation I have decided to opt for a different format than just writing it out like a novel - that being imitation of pjsk event reader websites like pjsk wiki and sekai.best. There are absolutely drawbacks to this, with some of them being quite substantial; lack of live2d will not do dialogue justice like visual novels do.

With that said, there are also a lot of benefits, most prominently, being able to switch POV at any time and keeping closer to pjsk's spirit, as well as very significantly cutting down my own workload.

At some point (unclear as of now) I will also be adapting the main story, and probably most if not all of the events, into fanfic format as well, but for now I want to focus on actually finishing it and presenting it in a readable condition before the end of August. That won't be happening unless I fully focus on doing just that, so all of the other activities will be temporarily put on hold.

Askbox is considered closed; I may or may not answer the ones I already have on my own discretion. The function itself will remain active for the sake of fanart or otherwise fan-content submissions as well as the opportunity to contact me directly. Please do not use it for the other purposes.

Fanart and other types of content will be reblogged as normal if the original posters wishes so (just tag me!)

I will also finish, and will at some point post the rest of the cast's rooms, but that is probably all this blog will post until a later notice.

What after?

Well, after I'm done with the writing part, I'll probably have to code an entire website to actually post the thing. I've no experience with coding, but I have curiosity and a lot of stubbornness, so we'll see what comes out of it. It's going to be a journey for sure.

Regardless, the story will be made public chapter by chapter after that; roughly once in 2-3 days.

After the prologue, this blog will host a vote for character 1★ side-stories, and those will be posted accordingly (e.g whoever comes in first will get their first side-story posted first, then second and third etc until we get to the last place, then the same cycle repeats with second side-stories). The same process will repeat after chapter 20 with characters' 2★ stories and eventually with initial 3★, but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

More area conversations will be added after the entire story will be made public; I'm not sure about total number but should be around 10-15 of those.

Other than that... We'll wait and see!

I am once again extemely grateful for all the attention and love these kids are getting, and I couldn't have possibly expected that; I never thought we'll get as far as we do, but this is exactly why more thorough writing is sorely needed.

I'll be at @shiraishi--kanade as usual; you can sometimes catch me talking about these guys by #jay rambles about ocs.txt tag, mainly about the writing/planning process of it. Beware of spoilers though!

Until we meet again!

—🌻

[ post dividers by @/cafekitsune! ]

[kawaakari-orchestra]

oh!! would it be too spoilery to ask for info on kwko’s virtual singers’ personalities? at least the introductory ones, if anything ^^

Sure!

KWKO introductory Virtual Singers are Miku, Len and Rin, so I'll start with them and then add the rest of the team sometimes later!

🎼 KWKO Miku has a mature, collected air around her. She sees herself as responsible for both KWKO and her ensemble's well-being and appears to care deeply for them, which gives her a bit of a responsible, older sister-like personality.

However, a lot of these traits are intentionally played up by Miku herself. In reality, she is much more air-headed and childish than she lets on, and due to her lack of experience of actually taking care of anyone she can sometimes come off as naive or insensitive if she lets it slip. This is why she is often on her guard and is usually quite anxious about interacting with others, though she tries her hardest to not let it show.

🎶 KWKO Len and Rin are inseparable to the point where it's hard to talk about them without mentioning each other. They're very close and usually do everything together; however, they're also known to have fights often, usually due to their different opinions on music, and even more often about who gets to sit first chair.

🎵 In terms of personalities, Rin is much more hot-headed and stubborn than Len; she is also the more clingy of the two. Rin likes to be the center of attention and receiving praise, but she also struggles with taking criticism or advice too closely. She feels like her skills are inferior to Len's, but she is too proud to ask any other VS for guidance or advice; this often leads to her idolising KWKO members and acting like their student instead of rival or supporter. This causes to her and Miku being rather snappy with each other, as Miku doesn't find that kind of relationship appropriate.

🎵 Unlike Rin, Len is more calm and laid-back. While he's still occasionally known to behave as immaturely as Rin, especially during their fights, he's the first to cool down and take responsibility for his behaviour. He is much less competitive, but still exceptionally hard-working and persistent. Though he sometimes appears aloof, he is deeply fond of his teammates, and often teases them in a friendly manner. He generally doesn't consider himself as someone who can offer any type of advice to anyone, but he thinks he is a good listener. He is very observant of others, and can read people very easily, but he rarely uses that skill for his own gain. Like Miku, Len also likes taking care of KWKO, although be is much less forceful and much more subtle about it.

🎶 He also dislikes being looked down on, especially regarding his violin skills, seeing as he's often compromising with Rin and lets her have more creative freedom at his own expense, making him feel underappreciated and leading to his relationship with Rin and Miku, who allows this to keep happening "for the sake of peace in the group", to be quite strained.

[kawaakari-orchestra]

Today's update: Kozaki Karin's room! 🦊

🌻: A rather simplistic and gloomy interior, isn't it? How unexpected from our virtuoso~

Total build time: 3 hours

New things I've learnt: stacking boxes on top of each other!

What to consider next time: desperately need more cc for books and study things, so maybe look into that!

[ cc used:

Sonata Sheet music by Soloriya

Violin Case by iyaS

Music sheet stand by Sandy/Around the Sims 4 ]

[kawaakari-orchestra]

Do you have any thoughts on kwko body types and heights? Are they fat or skinny, tall or short? Any other things about physical appearance that aren't visible on the picrews? :0

For the sake of creativity (and also because like... aphantasia) I didn't plan for their body types! I love seeing people's thoughts about them. While I do have personal headcanons, I heavily prefer to leave these kind of things up for interpretation!

The only one to hade a canon body type is Reishi. He is stated to be underweight.

But we do have an official height chart!

Some other canon things of note:

- Maki has a part of her hair shaved. Kind of like this! Because she has very thick and opague straight hair that curls inwards around chin-lenght, you will literally never notice unless she trusts you enough to show it herself. (Or... Gets caught under the rain, for example).

- Karin has freckles! Both on her face and shoulders. They're more prominent in the summers; she usually covers them up with make-up, thought. She also has earrings!

- Reishi wears an eyeliner. Like Karin, he also has his ears pierced.

- Akari has dark circles under her eyes. The cause of it is unknown at the moment, but they don't seem to get better with sleep. She usually covers them up with make-up during perfomaces as well.

- Suzuka is referenced to have well-toned arms. She is also physically the strongest out of the group when it comes to lifting heavy items and overall stamina. Make of that what you will.

Other than that, have fun!

[kawaakari-orchestra]

hi hello!!! do any of them have favorite songs (to perform or listen to)?

Hi!

Maki: Vivaldi's Winter to listen to, and Bruch Violin Concerto to perform. Bruch was the first "serious" concerto Maki has learned, and it's her most polished piece of repertoire.

Karin: Mendelssohn violin concerto to listen to, and Ysaÿe Violin Sonata №3 to perform. The Ysaÿe is just her showing off, honestly.

Kairi: Chopin's "Torrent" etude to listen to, and La Campanella to perform (also showing off). He has set his aim high and he'll follow through.

Suzuka: Saint-Saëns Cello Concerto №2 to perform. No strong opinions on the listening part, she'll listen to most anything.

Akari: Playing God by Polyphia to listen to; no strong opinions on the performance part!

Reishi: Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto to listen to, Prokofiev Flute Sonata in D major to perform. He's just vibing.

[kawaakari-orchestra]

Who do they each trust the most?

I'm answering this OOC, because if you ask them direction half of them would crumble and evade the answer and what's the fun in that? Also, for the purposes of this ask, I'm not including anyone's relationships with important npcs in their lives as well.

Maki: Reishi, no questions asked. He was the first person Maki would genuinely consider her friend in KWKO.

Karin: Maki. Their relationship is strange from time to time, but Karin considers Maki utterly guileless and earnest - enough that she can put some trust in her.

Kairi: Suzuka. He likes her cut to the chase, no-nonsense, straightforward attitude both in art and life in general, and doesn't see her as someone who would mislead or harm others.

Suzuka: Karin, ironically enough. Suzuka thinks Karin is simply too impatient and egotistical to spend time on plotting something behind someone's back or spend her time on stupid grudges and rumors. That makes her trustworthy.

Akari: Maki. She's open and honest in a way that's a little off-putting and puts Akari herself on the spot, but because of it Maki is really easy to rely on.

Reishi: Kairi. Based on Reishi's observations, Kairi really isn't the type of person to go out of his way to hurt someone, and dependable enough to not let anyone down skill-wise. I guess good priorities make people trustworthy in Reishi's eyes!

[kawaakari-orchestra]

What music do they listen to (besides classical)?

Maki listens to a lot of different genres! She considers herself kind of new to music in general, so she's very set on broadening her horizons as far as that does. She'll always pick something new from the record store, usually based on the cover.

Karin doesn't listen to anything other than classical, but she might have some interesting tastes in music she would discover if she gave other genres a chance...

Kairi doesn't listen to anything other than classical with much attention, but he's fond of jazz. He also appreciates lo-fi music.

Suzuka likes j-pop and k-pop songs, as much as she tries not to admit it. The kind of upbeat, hopeful songs idols produce make her feel a little bit better about herself.

Akari is surprisingly interested in the local rock scene. She's rarely, if at all, present at lives or live houses, but she definitely knows more about it than she lets on.

Reishi is shamelessly fascinated by musicals and game OSTs. He finds both to be an inspiration and an exercise in musical storytelling from a composer's perspective.

Additionally, all become more interested in Vocaloid music after they discover their Sekai.

[kawaakari-orchestra]

KWKO Sekai area items

Saitsu Maki: Maki's travel journal (charm type: Cute)

Kozaki Karin: 1/16 sized violin (charm type: Cool)

Shimizu Kairi: Kairi's pen case (charm type: Happy)

Ekuro Suzuka: A basket of yarn (charm type: Pure)

Kaedehara Akari: Miniature bonsai tree (charm type: Pure)

Fujisaki Reishi: Unfinished composition notes (charm type: Mysterious)

Additional info under the cut!

Hatsune Miku: Conductor's baton (charm type: Cool)

Kagamine Rin: Violin rosin (charm type: Cute)

Kagamine Len: Music theory textbook (charm type: Cool)

All Unit Boost

Six music stands (charm type: Happy)

Metronome (charm type: Mysterious)

All VS Boost

Music speakers (charm type: Cool)

[kawaakari-orchestra]

hii :3 i have become anon!~

who takes the best care of their instruments?

who would be most likely to flunk out of any activity?

who is the most / least proficient in sports activities (or anything involving physical strength)?

Hi! Thanks for the ask! :D

Who takes the best care of their instruments?

Karin, no questions asked. That is her baby. If anything, she'd probably treat her actual child with less care. She is extremely careful with her violin and bow both, and makes a point out of frequent visits to the luthier just to check up. You will literally never see her being reckless or careless with it. Aside from string change, I think - Karin mostly does those herself and relatively frequently, so... Things have gone wrong before. But other than that? Absolute saint-like patience with her instrument.

Who would be most likely to flunk out of any activity?

Suzuka and Reishi, just about equally. They usually don't care enough for any activities behind rehearsals.

Who is the most/least proficient in sports activities?

Reishi is, once again, the least proficient! Aside from having large lung capacity, he's not an athletic person and isn't particularly interested in it - he'd probably hate most contact sports.

Suzuka is the most athletic person of the group, having been on her school's track team and multiple other sport clubs before.

[kawaakari-orchestra]

KWKO announcement: story progress, voting, birthday announcements and more!

Hi! Jay here.

I'm happy to say that, despite the recent lack of activity (as well as a bad flare up on my side and subsequent burn-out, but, you know, what happens, happens) I'm still working on writing the story! Mid-August deadline might be pushing it at this point because of all the difficulties, but hey, baby steps.

However...

Here's a topic to discuss: formatting. Yes, again.

Originally my idea was hosting everything as a literature for Toyhouse; however, I somewhat overestimated my prowess with HTML language (which is none, by the way). As a result the pages... Work, for the most part, but they're somewhat wonky depending on your screen resolution, and might not look exactly aesthetically pleasing if you're unlucky.

In addition, nothing works on the mobile yet. While I have some confidence I'm able to make the text, if for nothing else, readable at the cost of aesthetics, due to Toyhouse-specific code issues, I probably wouldn't be able to make it pleasant to read.

I'm predominantly a mobile user due to my disability and I consider everything being accessible from mobile to be an issue of accessibility. I was originally planning to bypass the issue with either a mobile accessible page (proven to be harder than I expected) or visual images gallery accessible from google drive (not accessible from screen readers). Now with Toyhouse being as unwieldy as it is, I'm wondering if just google drive is the way to go.

I'm still caught in the dilemma, but I also want to hear what other people have to say! This might just help me sort out my priorities. No results option. You fall for what you stand for. If you don't care, feel free to choose whatever.

Here's a list for pros and cons, if you're curious:

Toyhouse

• Easier navigation;

• Eventual character pages up and accessible from, ideally, all literature pieces;

• Will likely be google-able;

• Able to select and copy text, if that's your thing;

• Easier for me to fix typos and issues;

• More aesthetic and orderly in general;

- Likely not mobile accessible;

- Likely to break visually on some devices; majorly an issue of spacing;

- I'm just so bad at it to be honest.

Google docs

• Uniform format for everyone;

• More visual standardisation;

• More reliable as far as third-party storage goes;

• Downloadable to read offline!

- Very hard to navigate, if possible at all;

- Much harder for me personally to maintain;

- Not as private or anonymous for reading;

- No copying the text directly as those are just images fixed in place.

You don't need an account to use either of those, as far as I'm aware. What it'll be? (A pain for me to deal with, in any case. Why am I doing this to myself?)

Happy birthday, Kozaki Karin!

That's right! Today, on August 4th (in some timezones still), Kozaki Karin celebrates her birthday! 🎉

Let's wish her a good one!

We've received a shocking amount of fanart; I'll be reblogging it on here shortly after releasing the birthday menu lines! Thank you everyone!

Our next birthday party will occur on September 30th, this time for Kaedehara Akari! I'll make my priority to make information like this public ahead of time; I've learned my lesson.

Until next time!

- 🌻

[kawaakari-orchestra]

Actually if its not a spoiler question, can I ask why each of the members chose to play the instrument they did?

This is partially a spoiler but as there's actually multiple factors as to why everyone chose why they did, I can answer parts that are non-spoilery and then put a ✨ to say "this isn't all there is to it though". Let's see!

For Maki, the violin just seemed like an obvious choice. It was a bit of an impulsive decision and she didn't really think about it beyond surface-level, and the violin is usually what comes to mind when one considers learning an instrument that isn't the guitar or the piano. She really wasn't into classical music at all at the time she decided to start learning.

Karin just plays her instrument because it's what her family told her she should do. It simply stuck with her through the years. Plus, she likes the virtuosity and the "show-off" vibe of the violin, which isn't as obvious in other instruments. ✨

For Kairi, piano was pretty much the only available choice at the time. ✨

Suzuka likes the deeper tone of the cello and personally found the violin too screechy and the viola too unyielding. When she tried cello, it just kind of made sense to her. ✨

Akari didn't really choose her instrument. ✨

Reishi liked the idea of the elegance and that kind of dreaminess that came with playing the flute. Like with Suzuka, it just seemed right for him to pick it. That said, he doesn't really have anything against other instruments, and is particularly fond of strings; he could have picked violin just as well if flute didn't feel much more natural for him.

[kawaakari-orchestra]

Do any of them have pets?

Maki used to have a parrot! The guy's still alive, just rehomed for his own sake - moving as much as Maki's family does didn't do his health any favours, so they sadly had to say goodbye.

Reishi's family used to have a dog.

Kairi and Akari don't have pets on their own, but are close with others's cats.

[kawaakari-orchestra]

How would kwko react during a horror movie?

Maki pretends to be unfazed but is actually very, very fazed. She dislikes horror in general and some especially scary scenes might stick with her for days, making her anxious and uneasy. Will probably try to be stoic during the movie itself and then fumble afterwards. Would just not go watch a horror movie at all if she had a choice.

Karin is probably enjoying it, but she likes watching for other's reaction more than watching it herself. Will probably comment how it was a giant waste of time afterwards and she should have been practising instead. Oh well.

With Kairi and Suzuka, depends on which kind of horror we're talking about. Anything that is scary on the surface, like apocalypse movies or slashers, will probably leave them simply unimpressed; but psychological horror, especially dealing with the topic of mental disorders, can be pretty disturbing for both. Both of them will simply walk out the moment they decide to prioritise their comfort.

Akari's attention span is short enough that she'll probably not be able to focus on the plot anyway. She's fine as long as there's no jump scares involved.

Reishi can be fascinated by some genres of horror, namely body horror and supernatural, as well as in some cases psychological, yet completely bored out of his mind by others, like murder mysteries and survival movies. He dislikes portrayal of murder and violence on screen and finds it primitive, but likes horror that challenge his worldview and morals. So again, really depends!