#this still reflects on how I feel about Makoto and Yuma

[mayashesfly]

Honestly, I really love how poetry and wordplay is such an integral part of Yuma and Makoto's character. How they use such words to reflect on themselves and the world around them.

It truly shows that despite their logical side, despite being dubbed as the "greastest mind of the world", they're still human in essence. Because they can still view the world through colored lenses and the ambiguity of imagination. Of emotions and ideals that are not actually completely rooted in hard cold logic.

The clash of the ideals Yuma and Makoto shares and the creed forced upon them by the WDO meld into a fascinating multi-faceted character. Whose multiple sides we can see and share due to their odd coexistence via strange circumstances. It also somewhat makes it hard to talk about one of them without mentioning the other when they're so interwined together.

I really do love it.

[rararazaquato]

chapter 2 is coming. here's makoto and kurumi.

a lot of design notes under the cut, both about these guys and the nda detectives

yuma was specifically given a little facial hair because, in the canon of the fic, he's been too busy to actually shave. however, the out-of-canon reason is that my art style is so chibi cutesit that it makes everyone look a bajillion years younger than they actually are. yuma's design is already a little young-looking despite most evidence in-canon pointing to him being an adult, so i wanted to give him that extra signifier of being a grown ass man.

the longer hair is also there for the same reasons - he hasn't gotten it cut for a while, and the bowl cut made him look childish.

because i have chronic same-face-syndrome, i put yuma and makoto in the same pose to emphasize that they are, genetically, the same person.

honestly, makoto's design versus yuma's in-game really makes it clear just how much a haircut and outfit change can make a character look older. with makoto wearing a suit and having hair that isn't in the perfect shape of a bowling ball, he looks a lot more like a young adult with a babyface. because i feel like he doesn't need the extra age signifiers (and because i feel like he'd want to differentiate himself from yuma more), i didn't give him the facial hair.

the "looking less like yuma" angle is also why he still bleaches and grows out his hair.

i like to think makoto starts taking better care of himself postgame, so i made his hair a bit fluffier and softer-looking to show he's actually been brushing and washing it. i mean, come on. canon makoto ily but you look like a greased-up yorkshire terrier.

i also gave makoto curtain bangs because girl... you have a forehead the size of the moon. i'm also a member of large forehead gang so i understand you pain but still.

makoto's outfit is actually loosely based on an outfit i own irl! i have a hawaiian shirt with similar colors (albeit a different pattern) and blue swim trunks with red lobsters on them.

makoto probably sunburns really easily, both as a result of being pale as fuck (yuma also has this issue) and being a homunculus (he won't die in the sun, but it does result in a mild allergy). so just imagine he's always lathered in sunscreen.\

mentally, makoto is the same age as yuma (so 20 when this fic takes place) and kurumi is 19 (i headcanon she's only a year younger than yuma). chronologically, they are both about four years old. #justhomunculusthings

i changed kurumi's hairstyle because her canon one is stupid. like why does she have two skinny ass braids hidden in her coat. give her those long luscious locks.

she's wearing disposable gloves to protect her hands, and almost all of her clothing is specifically designed to reflect uv rays.

you'll notice the inside of kurumi's mouth is actually a different color than any of the master detectives. that's the homunculus baby!!!

i gave her an ahoge because i hope she gets the protag treatment for the next game. also i hope she and shinigami become girlbesties and also that shinigami gets the fuck over herself. um ok now time for design notes abt the other people. artwork here if u didn't see the og one.

desuhiko actually does turn 20 in the timeframe of the fic. his birthday party is a future chapter.

he gets knockoff heelys in the upcoming chapter bcuz i think he'd enjoy them. but he got them flippy floppys in the meantime.

fubuki got a new hairstyle because i think she would be a bit more loose and silly as she starts going on more adventures.

her and vivia actually have two birthdays between the time i headcanon raincode to take place (march 2XXX) and the fic (july 2XXX+1). so while yuma is 19 in mdarc and 20 in usf, fubuki is 21 in mdarc and 23 in usf (and vivia is 25-27)

yes, that is ibuki mioda on her shirt.

i'm actually scared of needles so halara's earrings get a redesign. they get new ones in the upcoming chapter as well.

their outfit might be mostly long sleeves, but the jacket is lightweight and breezy and the jeans have wide legs, so it's actually nice and cool.

just realized this outfit is primarily yellow with some red and blue acccents. i can't believe i reinvented sollux homestuck. i'm sorry halara baby i didn't mean to compare you to an ugly bitch like that (this is a joke i actually like sollux)

vivia's outfit is inspired by the stupid shit i would make in the sims before i discovered custom content. i feel like he'd be a sims girly.

your guess for why yuma got facial hair due to never shaving while vivia, who is infamously too executive-dysfunction-riddled to leave the fireplace much less shave, has the skin of a newborn baby is up to you to interpret. possible options include (un)fortunate genetics on either/both of them, he is trans and hasn't started/doesn't intend to start t, or he just pays halara to do it for him.

actually i do think he pays halara to help him out with things when the chronic fatigue/executive dysfunction gets too much to deal with. fubuki will do it for free but also she is kind of bad at being helpful as a result of being fubuki.

aaand time for the general headcanons section

every single one of these characters is some flavor of neurodivergent. halara and kurumi are autistic, desuhiko has adhd, and yuma, makoto, fubuki, and vivia have both. i'm sure some of them also have other neurodivergencies but those are the two i'm most familiar with so those are the two that worm their way into my headcanons.

not a single one of these characters doesn't have ptsd. like i'm sorry but you cannot live through chapters 4 and 5 of rain code and not be mentally ill afterwards. most of em also have a few other mental illnesses because i love projecting on fictional characters <3

vivia's also got some sort of chronic physical illness (my personal headcanon is pots), and makoto sometimes uses a cane. yuma should sometimes use a cane but he has the bodily awareness of a fucking peanut and thinks it hurts everyone to walk.

yuma's gonna realize he's any pronouns nonbinary someday, but that won't be for a hot minute. makoto is the same, but he's a lot closer to that realization than yuma is. both are also bi, as is kurumi.

desuhiko is the resident kodakaverse problematic bicon. there's always one of em!

fubuki is a lesbian. "oh but she confesses to yuma in her final gumshoe gab!" well as i said before yuma isn't a man. it's a bit confusing to her because she doesn't know that yet but turns out she's just got that Sense where she can tell that yuma isn't exactly cis.

halara is nonbinary (obviously, that's basically canon) and pan

vivia is somewhere on the aroace spectrum (both out of general lack of interest and because sex and romance are physically/mentally straining) but he's generally gay-aligned.

[tobiasdrake]

The very last bauble. The very last hangout. As we move towards the conclusion to it all, we've heard from Vivia about what he wants us to bear in mind. Now it's time to hear what guidance Yakou has to offer us.

Oh, okay, we're gonna give him a pep talk. Disappointing to the very end, aren't you?

Really. We're really going to spend the last hangout yet again shilling the OTP that remains mired in the exact same place it was in way back in the Chapter 2 rooftop epilogue?

The answer, Yakou, is that it's not. Things are not going. There's been lots of blushing and lots of awkward pauses but nobody has said or done a single thing yet because writers despise romance despite how hard they try to inject it into their stories.

Ooh, Yuma doesn't know but that is a painful question.

*spit take* NOT SOMETHING TO BRAG ABOUT, FUCKING HELL.

God fucking dammit man. Even if you're making it up, "I was so great at cheating, you wouldn't even BELIEVE" is a terrible thing to make up. It doesn't need to be true to reflect poorly on your values.

I'm going straight back to the homunculus testing site so I can push you dipshit ass off a cliff.

This is the worst final hango--

Why was that Fubuki's final conversation topic!? Ew ew ew ew DX

This is the second-worst final hangout!

...wait.

Hold up.

Is he talking about actual kittens?

Or that, I suppose. Still, the way he chose to play this up has caused my opinion of him to nonetheless sink lower. It's not about whether he did or did not "three- or four-time". It's about the fact that he considers the image he tried to sell to be an admirable presentation of masculinity in the first place.

"LOL It's so cute how they'd get jealous whenever they'd find out about my other girlfriends!" This kind of casual misogyny is exactly the kind of behavior that makes me loathe "guy talk". Men will take one look at you, see a kindred bro, and then proceed to say the grossest shit to you with absolutely no filter whatsoever.

Too late, damage already done. There is no salvaging your reputation from here.

Now we're getting to the meat of it. I expected Yakou to give a counterargument to Vivia, but they seem to be on the same page.

Vivia asks, "Is it always right to reveal a cruel truth?"

Yakou says, "You need to put Kurumi's wellbeing first."

These both feel like things that are going to be important for Yuma to carry with him in the final confrontation with Makoto. Which is why the two baubles were put here.

It's not, and I hate that you think that. This exact mindset, that men only exist for women and nothing else, is a major contributing factor to toxic masculinity.

This conversation must be, like, right before Chapter 5. Yakou's getting ready to carry out Huesca's murder. That's why he's trying to connect with Yuma like this.

Yakou Furiou. I didn't think very highly of him when I met him. But then I got to know him and see new sides to his personality. And through that journey, I was able to learn that I was overestimating him and adjust my opinion even lower.

I don't like Yakou on a personal level. I don't hold his drinking or his grief against him. He's a damaged man who's been through some trauma. But he's also a frequent obstacle who has gross opinions and mostly gets in the way.

Nonetheless, I still stand behind him 100% in the murder of Dr. Huesca. Like I said before, I'm not fond of Yakou the Detective but I adore Yakou the Murderer. That we were all able to pull together and carry off the Crime of the Century to avenge Yakou's wife and assassinate the most well-guarded man in Kanai Ward?

Yeah. I'm proud of that. We did it. Huesca isn't Yakou's victim. He's our victim. We made this happen for Yakou and I have no regrets about it. I'd kill Huesca again if Yuma would let me. Shove him over that railing and let him be a malfunctioning immortal in a pit at the bottom of the secret lab.

Yakou isn't someone I would want to hang out with for an evening. But I'm glad he found his closure, even if this was the only way he could.

[justiisms]

"Ah. Looks like it's going to rain soon. Again." *there's a sigh in yakou's voice as he stares at his reflection in his phone, pouting a little as his hair is more puffed up than usual*

"I guess it is spring, but still. Feels like I'm back in Kanai Ward with how often it's been raining lately..."

"Ah, yeah... the weather app on my phone is telling me the same thing, too.." Yuta says, giving a small chortle at his chief'y even fluffier looking hair before also looking at his phone, and then gazing towards the window, seeing gray clouds slowly form...

"Yeah; and with it about to be April, I think we'd better prepare for a lot more rainy weather days in general, too. Ahaha, true... when there's a lot of rainy days in a row, it really does remind me of Kanai Ward, too. Man....how long has it been, since we've last been there, Chief...? I know you've gone back a couple of times on your own, but for me, it feels like it's been forever. Maybe, one day...we could both visit it again, together? And bring Yuma with us, too, if he'd want to! Being able to actually enjoy the city without any worry of cases or peacekeepers, would be very nice... Maybe see how well Makoto and Kurumi are doing, too.... And I know the other detectives aren't there, anymore, but maybe there's a small chance we'll bump into at least one of them, if they're visiting..maybe! Ah-"

Looking back towards him, he bashfully rubs the back of his head. "S-Sorry, didn't mean to ramble on like that, heh heh... But yeah, I just think that would be nice to do together, sometime! I-If you'd like!"