#to be raised by despair

[lockpickingliar]

You Are What You Eat

CW: mentions of cannibalism, manipulation and despair toward a young child (Kokichi is three here)

It had been two hours. Kokichi stared at the bowl in front of him—a creamy white soup, with a handful of meatballs floating in it. It was probably cold by now. He poked a meatball with his spoon, his stomach lurching as it bobbed. He swallowed thickly, glancing across the kitchen at the grownup stirring a pot at the stove.

At the severed arm tossed on a cutting board on the counter beside him.

"I don' wan' it," he tried again.

"Aw, that's enough'a that, boy!" Teru-onii-chan turned from the soup to pointedly brandish his spoon at the boy. "There's no way you ain't hungry. You're still growin', ya know? And after I even ground it up nice 'n' fine so ya couldn't tell the difference. The others don't get half as much kindness outta me!"

"B-but—"

"Not like you can taste it, anyhow. You wouldn't know human from pork from beef," he huffed. "Such a waste of my Talents, I swear."

And yet Teru-onii-chan always did seem to go above and beyond for Kokichi's meals specifically. So much effort, so much seasoning, all for the most boring textures. The small boy always wondered why that was. This happened every time. He didn't want it. He never wanted it. It was bland and boring and always had meat. He whimpered, looking back down at his soup. He wondered who it was, floating around inside it. If it was a mommy or a daddy, or...

Maybe a little kid just like him.

The image of a person roasting over a fire wasn't nearly as funny in real life as cartoons always made it out to be.

"I swear, Kokichi, if ya don't eat somethin' soon, you're gonna get sick," Teru-onii-chan tutted. "I'll hafta get your sister—"

Kokichi's blood turned to ice.

"N-no!" he cried, frantic tears springing to his eyes. "Not Nee-nee! Not the tube!"

It went down his nose and felt cold and weird when Nee-nee fed the slurry into it. He swore he could feel it as he hiccuped out panicked little breaths. It felt like he was choking on it.

Teru-onii-chan's expression softened, and he set his spoon aside to approach Kokichi at the table and give him a little pat on the head.

"Ya need ta eat, sugar," he insisted. "You know your Nee-nee only does it 'cause she cares. She'd be awful sad ta know you ain't eatin' again. It'd fill her with so much Despair..."

That word again. Despair. Nee-nee and her friends talked about it a lot, ever since the bad things started and they brought him down here. Kokichi didn't really understand what it meant. They were always so mean to each other on purpose. It almost sounded like Teru-onii-chan wanted him to refuse just to make his Nee-nee sad.

He looked down at the soup again, sloppily wiping his nose on his sleeve. The meat stood out clearly in the white broth, bobbing there like the most normal thing in the world. Teru-onii-chan could give him any other meat, and it'd taste the same, feel the same, may as well be the same. It didn't matter if he couldn't taste it. It didn't matter if he couldn't tell. It made his stomach churn just knowing what it was.

But... Kokichi didn't want to make his Nee-nee sad...

"T-Teru-onii-chan...?"

"Hm?"

"Can... make it hot again...?"

"Sure thing, Pumpkin."

This time he'd do it. This time for sure.

For Nee-nee.

[valtsv]

honestly i never really understand the impulse to make doppelgangers/doubles/mirrors of people different to their counterparts, even subtly, at least in terms of appearance (personality is another beast entirely). for me, the horror of the doppelganger isn't that it's a monstrous, twisted thing with malevolent intent wearing a creepy imitation of you or your loved ones' faces, but that it makes you question what could possibly be deficient in you that makes you something less than "good enough" and coming up empty - because whatever it is, it's beyond your capacity to even conceive of. you are the architect of your own annihilation. your greatest obstacle has always been yourself. this other version of you, or someone whose existence affirms yours, is fundamentally no different - they're just not you, and therein lies the answer. your jealousy and self-loathing will ruin you without the imposter having to ever do a thing.

[wheels-of-despair]

Me Without You Pairing: Eddie Munson x You Summary: Eddie's got another weird question for Evil Woman. Contains: A random question, a non-answer, a little panic, fluff. Words: 600ish

"What would you do if I died?"

"Avenge you," you answer, flipping a page in your magazine. You're lying on your stomach on Eddie's bed, and he's playing guitar in his chair. Just another average Wednesday evening. Alone. Unsupervised. In various states of undress. Doing different things on opposite sides of the room. Just happy to be near each other.

"No, seriously."

You look up to see that Eddie, half-lying in his chair with his bare feet propped up on the mess he calls a desk, is staring at you and waiting for his answer. He's not even looking at his guitar anymore, but he doesn't miss a note in a song that sounds vaguely Iron Maiden-y.

You think about the question for half a second before responding: "Pass."

"You can't pass," he argues, finally setting his other sweetheart aside. "Answer me."

"Nope," you make sure to pop the P as you turn to another glossy page of the magazine you're not really reading anymore.

"I wanna know!"

"Too bad."

"What would you do if I died, dammit?"

You toss the magazine aside, no longer able to focus on whatever the hell it was you found fascinating a few minutes ago.

"Why, are you planning on doing something stupid?"

"No."

"You already have a backup picked out and you want me to justify your choice of skank?"

"No."

"Then why are you obsessing over something so sad?"

"I'm just curious," he shrugs.

"Then you can keep on being curious," you sigh, crossing your arms on the bed and resting your cheek on them. You close your eyes. "Because I refuse to acknowledge a world without you in it."

Silence.

You hear the chair creak as he gets up. You freeze. Why do you feel tense all of a sudden? Your heart feels like it's beating faster and slower at the same time. You feel him approach. The mattress moves. He's put a knee on the bed beside your hip. And then the other. He's going to crawl over you.

No, he's going to lie on top of you.

He eases himself down a little bit at a time. You stay still, welcoming his body heat and oddly comforting weight.

"You can't just say shit like that to me," he mumbles, his lips grazing your ear.

"Why not?" you argue. "It's true."

Eddie kisses your neck, sighs, and rolls to the side. He lands beside you. You turn your head toward him. Your faces are just inches apart.

"You'd be fine without me," he says.

"I wouldn't be me without you," you whisper.

Something sad flashes through Eddie's eyes, and you feel it tug at your heart. He reaches for your hand, then brings it to his lips for a kiss.

"I'm not going anywhere," he whispers.

"You better not," you breathe. "If you die, I die."

Your words hang in the air, heavy between you. You stare at each other in silence. It feels as though the world has stopped entirely. And then Eddie leans forward. His lips meet yours for a kiss so soft, it barely feels real. When he pulls back, your brain screams at you to chase his touch. You can't let him go. Not yet.

"Then we get to haunt the shit out of people, right?" he asks, his eyes twinkling with mischief.

You laugh quietly, relief flooding through you. The spell has been broken, the air has been cleared, the world has started to spin again. You've got him. He's got you. Things are just the way they should be.

"We don't have to wait 'til we're dead for that," you grin. "Wanna know what I've been doing to Gareth every night for the last week?"

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 198

Now Bruce was not expecting to reincarnate upon his death. At least he thinks he died, he’s pretty sure he did. There wasn’t any other reason for him to be a well, literal baby. Around two he thinks, which fits well with the fact that it’s around that time that babies start forming memory recall, if he, well, remembered correctly. 

But while he knew about reincarnation thanks to Shayera and Carter, he’d never exactly given it much thought towards himself. Because seriously, what were the chances of such a thing as him being given another chance? 

So he was quite surprised at his situation, experimentally opening and closing pudgy hands that looked well, just a tiny bit off. He’d never been that pale before, he thinks, even back when he never went outside like, ever. 

He turned his gaze towards the mobile above him with a sort of idle curiosity- a mixture of bats (ha) and other trinkets he wasn’t familiar with. It also caused him to get his first good look at his parent, asleep on a rocking chair right next to the crib. 

Huh. They had the same pale skin he did, albeit in the light it looked like it was slightly tinted blue, and while their hair was white they didn’t exactly look old. They looked surprisingly well rested for raising a toddler too, unless they had a nanny or something similar… He rolled over, managing to very shakily push himself to his feet with the help of the crib. 

Why was standing so hard as a toddler? And why did he have his memories of everything except how he had died anyway? 

His head whipped up from where they were staring at his feet when he heard a snort, finding his parent awake and standing. Somehow silently enough that he hadn’t noticed- or he was that easily distracted by the unfamiliar giddiness bursting in his chest. 

“Morning little bat,” his parent easily picked him up and held him while he inwardly sighed at the nickname. Of course his bat motif would follow him into this life. A low rumbling almost caused him to jump, his body relaxing before he could fully register the sound. The… purring? 

Oh. 

He wasn’t human this time around. 

[the-sol-eater]

as someone who has multiple failed attempts at making fangans under their belt, I think people underestimate just how obscenely hard it is to write a cast of sixteen characters and have them all be equally fleshed out, colorful, nuanced, and intriguing. In both canon Danganronpa and in a majority of Fangans I've consumed, there's always at least one character out of the bunch that feels like they are lacking in comparison to the rest because of the large cast number. So it is absolutely insane to me how DT-Dev managed to cook up sixteen lovable characters with the same amount of depth, nuance, and love put into them, enough for every character to have their own fanbase dedicated solely to them. And there's something so amazing about that to me

[samble-movedd]

"homura is an evil abuser who wants to control madoka and hates their friends" tired trope, canonically untrue, congrats on falling for the facade put up by a middle schooler.

"homura sees herself as inherently evil and abusive due to her upbringing, past actions, and status as a witch, which is still ongoing even at the end of rebellion" fresh, new, actually closer to canon, doesn't demonize a child for being mentally ill.

[fondwand]

has Aaron ever mentioned Seb to John or talked about raising him? I keep wondering what John actually knows about Aaron and Robert's life together. Does he know about the entire affair timeline? Katie's death? the two weddings? Aaron's time in prison for Roberts shooting? Robert saving Aaron from the quarry? (Robert already having done the one thing John would kill to do. Not because he needs to be the hero but because he loves Aaron enough to almost die saving him.) speaking of SSW16, does John know that Robert and Aaron have kidnapped multiple people together?

Does he know? does Aaron talk about anything at all with him? can he even bear to speak those memories aloud?

[canisalbus]

Did Machete ever feel guilty when he raised his voice to Vasco? (I don't know if this has already been asked)

Absolutely. To be fair, Machete barely ever raises his voice (he's more of a quiet, grudgeful, seething type), and he has more patience for Vasco than everyone else combined.

But when he does, he instantly spirals into despair and self-loathing and is usually the first to apologize, profusely.

[gladosluver]

grandma beaky is missing

dr3 character sprite cred

[lockpickingliar]

To Be Raised By Despair - Intro

The beginning of a collection of vignettes where Kokichi is Mikan’s baby brother, and was kept and raised by the Remnants of Despair during the Tragedy.

When the world finally ended and everything began to crumble, little Kokichi didn’t think much of it.

Barely three years old, he didn’t understand. How could he? He didn’t question his Nee-nee when she conveniently appeared and scooped him up from the fire and ash of their house. Didn’t wonder when she parted the horrors like the Red Sea as she brought him back to where she went to school, passing countless bodies along the way. Didn’t worry as he was brought down into the depths of her and her classmates’ “secret base.”

She said she was going to keep him safe, after all. Who was he to question his Nee-nee?

[birdiedoesdc]

6 for crime matriarch!

HIHI and thank you so much for the ask <3<3!!

(questions for fic writers!!)

6. What’s one fact about the universe of crime matriarch that you didn’t get a chance to mention in the fic itself?

as a whole, the cmad universe is a pretty straightforward, serious take on how these deeply complex relationship dynamics would actually take shape. however. one fun fact is that sometimes jason and tim bond by doing science experiments together, and by science experiments i mean tim finds new and exciting ways to blow jason up. the first time he mostly did it as a form of catharsis for all those times jason beat him up or whatever but now he does it out of pure scientific curiosity. jason thinks it's kind of fun to see what tim will come up with next. dick thinks he was better off as an only child

[fatherfigurefusion]

I actually view XanVid (especially with the newest episode) like a more twisted version of Saimatsu.

Two people who look up to each other and they each believe the other party is the cooler and more capable one. The more cheerful positive party (and the true hero) ends up dying, trying to kill the mastermind, and the replacement hero promises to carry on their dead partner’s wishes.

[fluffypotatey]

y’all help i’ve got two hangster x twister aus haunting my brain and one is mostly silly and fun while the other is angsty Bradley character study

[vv-ispy]

chapter 4 is kinda the "ah there he goes Komaeda is now mean to everyone" chapter but its focus characters are basically the perfect counter to Komaeda's approach to life and death and therefore extremely fitting setup for Komaeda's death the next chapter.

Nidai is, like Komaeda, someone who has a terminal health condition that severely limits what he can achieve compared to most people. But he chooses to live the life he has to the fullest, doing what he can in its duration by being himself to support others. Tanaka is, like Komaeda, someone who is aware of the unfairness of life, that for instance in the wild certain animals must die so others can live. But he knows that even those which die as prey fight as hard as they can before their demise. All three of these characters are aware of how unfair life is and that it may be cut sort at any moment before it comes to fruition. But unlike Komaeda, both Tanaka and Nidai respect the life they're given. Being fated to a stepping stone for another's life, like a mice that gets eaten by a hawk, doesn't mean the mice gives up on its own life; the mice will still fight as hard as it can to live, and will have lived until its death. A human life is no different, it's meant to be lived.

So fitting that it is this chapter in which Komaeda learns the truth and rejects living, his life and everyone elses too, and spends the trial looking down on the class while they internalize Tanaka's message of always walking forward. This is the chapter that could have given him food for thought as to his own situation, but instead because he learns the awful truth he preemptively dismisses everything and rejects the moral of the chapter by rejecting the idea of living and moving forward, leading to him not only throwing away his life but now attempting to kill everyone else too in the next chapter

[shsl-steppingstone]

Each time I’m told that I have a welcoming resting face, it feels like I’m betraying whoever is “informing” me of this fact. Apologies, but it’s all a farce! Not a conscious one, of course, but still a farce. It’s truly unfortunate for trash like me to be given such a kind looking expression, while people as Hinata-kun have such scary resting expressions.

I have a natural smile because it's just so wonderful for me to be alive like this. With my illness and all, I’m overjoyed to get to live another day, to witness all the talent in the world with my two worthless eyes! How could I manage to frown when this is my reality? I'm still human, so I frown from time to time, but I do my best to keep hope in my heart when I feel despair beginning to capture me. If only Hinata could see how hopeful this life is.

[volkoss]

It was only earlier today that I was hoping my icon and handle makes it obvious for my new followers I'm 95% a Meredith Stannard shitposting account, and now the Meresino chat is brainstorming Meredith/Emmrich plotbunnies and we're eating good tonight—

My contribution is a DA2 ending AU wherein First Enchanter Orsino, known forbidden necromancy enjoyer, has been in regular correspondence with Johanna Hezenkoss (CEO of validation and shenanigans) and they end up responding to Meredith's invocation of the Rite of Annulment by raising an army of superpowered undead, because there's a lot of available corpses in Kirkwall and the Fade in the vicinity is already fucky, perfect for mages who might be motivated to push the limitations of magic. Meredith's full descent into paranoia is halted because it turns out she was right, there was mage scheming afoot, and the Mourn Watch is forced to actually investigate once it's plainly obvious someone is leaking Order secrets. And who better to send than Emmrich Volkarin, who knows Johanna/her research better than anyone? 🤔 Mind you, I don't know if I'd ever actually write this, because I only have so hours in the day and it's less a story than it is several thematic elements in a trenchcoat, but God, the parallels would be so much fun to explore. (And also that sending Emmrich to Kirkwall feels like a cruel and unusual punishment he did nothing to deserve.)