hii hiii is it alright if I request something with kotoko and haruka?(platonic ofc) their character foils drive me insane with all the weak stuff authngghn icant be normal about them
Oooh thank you so much for the request! I realized that these two actually have one of the smallest windows to talk easily, given Haruka's nervousness and Kotoko's T2 changes. They have such interesting approaches to strength/weakness, and I hope I could capture it a bit here! This takes place immediately following Kotoko's bday timeline after Harrow's release:
“I’ll accept those birthday wishes…” Kotoko gave him a wave over her shoulder as she returned to making her bed.
She shook her head in awe. It was rather impressive how quickly the boy had changed after his verdict. The others had more subtle differences, but he was someone entirely new. She could rest easy, at least, knowing that her verdict wouldn’t change her much. For as long as she could remember, she’d been like this. She knew where she stood, and neither guilty nor innocent verdict would affect that. This verdict was really only an indicator on whether the warden could be trusted or not.
Her body tensed up when she turned back around, startled by Haruka lingering silently in the doorway. She decided against chastising him for scaring her half to death. Still, she couldn’t keep the bite from her voice as she asked, “did you need something else?”
“Ah… I just…” He twisted his hands together. “I had a question.”
He fell silent, but Kotoko could tell he was chewing on his next words. She waited.
“H-how do you do it? All the time? You’re older and stronger and braver and I-I just don’t know how.”
“Give yourself some credit. I’m not that much older, or stronger. I only have, what -- two, three years on you? And you did very well in the arm wrestling tournament the other day.”
She wasn’t being patronizing. For someone so sheltered, Haruka could do some damage. He stood a few inches taller than her. The others had taken the arm wrestling as a little game, but Kotoko had used the event to measure up her fellow prisoners. After his close match with Mikoto, she had made a mental note to take him seriously.
“No…” his expression twitched, getting frustrated with the misunderstanding. “Not muscles. I mean… you don’t have someone like Muu. You don’t need someone next to you all the time. But you still talk with everyone… and it looks easy. All the time. You always know what to say, and what to do. You never look scared. You never cry.”
Kotoko’s smile softened. She wasn’t the prideful type, but his words gave her a wave of accomplishment. She certainly was scared. She did cry. But she wasn’t about to show a single crack in her resolve in front of anyone here. Haruka had given her the greatest of compliments by confirming her success.
“Ah, you mean strength of spirit. Well, that doesn’t just appear out of nowhere. It comes with my purpose, with my virtues.”
“Virtues…?”
“I see the injustice around me, and want to protect the innocent. When I see how awful the world can be, when I see the monsters that are hurting those who are weak, I can’t help myself.” She clenched her fist. “The power to do so just comes to me.”
“Oh…” Haruka looked down at his palms.
Her heart sank, realizing he didn’t quite understand. It was a shame that not all of humanity could be as righteous as her. That heroic drive had always come so naturally to her; she wasn’t sure she could put it into words to explain to others.
Haruka’s open hands were trembling. “Um. Is there any other way?”
“Hm?”
“All my life… I only cause pain to everyone.” His worry gradually turned to desperation.” I hurt everyone who gets close to me. Especially things that are small and weak. My whole life, I’ve been nothing but a… a curse. So… is there another way? Please. I want to be better. I want to be strong! I want to be like you! Tell me!”
He stepped forward, pleading. Kotoko stepped back.
His blue eyes widened at her sudden shift into defense. “Ah! I. I’m sorry. I’m-I’m sorry. It’s your birthday. You should be… Have a g-good day.”
“Wait.” Kotoko stopped him before he could flee. She was aware of the massive gap between them, the vastly different backgrounds they came from. Still, she offered the same advice that had helped her in her toughest of days.
“Don’t worry so much about others’ strength. The quickest way to burn yourself out is getting overwhelmed with the power that’s all around you. Once you start putting all your focus toward honing your own skills and strengths, you’ll realize how much you’re truly capable of. You don’t need anyone else. You’ll realize that you are enough.”
“I… am enough…?”
She placed a hand firmly on his shoulder.
“So, no need to get all worked up now, okay?”
“O-okay. I’ll do my best.” He stiffened, trying to appear worthy of her words.
She let out a bitter laugh. “I told the others not to do anything for my birthday, but I don’t think they paid me any mind.” Kotoko still couldn’t fathom how they were so friendly with each other given the situation. “Let’s go see if there’s some cake or something.”
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yknow as much as the (deserved) inazuma backlash has clearly changed hoyos writing for the better i do think there v much is one completely wrong lesson theyve taken from it and thats incorporating story quests into the AQ sequence (and specifically how theyve never attempted it again)
the concept itself was Never inherently bad. in fact it unironically has a ton of potential bc you could lessen the need for sudden character specific exposition in the AQ AND pull off way more high-stakes and timeline-specific plotlines in the SQs by ensuring players will experience it at the intended place and time.
the issue was that they introduced a bleak depressing inazuma in the middle of a fucking civil war and then went omg AQ on pause!!! lets go to a festival with ayaka and u will be her first friend ever OwO yoimiyas is at least vastly better written and actually involves the VH and sakoku decrees so its always been a favorite of mine but even then im sure theres things worth criticism in there its just been 2 years so i cant analyze it off the top of my head. but the greatest offender has always been the way ayakas comes with such a complete tonal dissonance it just takes you out of the atmosphere they spent the entire act I building up.
and it rly makes me sad bc i Know hoyo took the backlash about interrupted pacing and disjointed tone as "ok story quests bad as AQ requirements" when its like. no the one you wrote just sucked
AQ incorporated story quests need to have a damn good reason to be mandatory at that specific point and while its far from perfect i DO think yoimiyas fulfills that! but ayakas doesnt! at all! and like im realizing the issue is also in how genshins made it a standard that a character must receive a story quest Instantly on release. so i guess ayakas had to be in between acts I and II for plot reasons but like. that being the case then the story quest itself shouldve focused on a completely different theme as opposed to her very predictable tropey personal problems that werent even explored properly imo. like im sure plenty of depth and nuance in her characterization was lost in translation but i almost cry laughed the first time the restaurant vendor went "oh ayaka is lonely because she is so perfect that no one sees her as a friend but instead an aspiration" like what in the 3rd grader writing mary sue self insert fic tarnation 💀 you couldve worded that exact same concept in 12 different ways to make it actually sound poignant and you did That SHAHSKSJSKDLJH
(and a quick addition before i get accused of being a blind hater hater lmao. here goes: "the burdens of miss ayakas position as the public face of the kamisato make it difficult for her to shed the mask of practiced perfection. i think people struggle to see her as a person whod enjoy simple things in life like friendship just like everyone else when theyre so used to viewing her as an unreachable figurehead." there. now its way more clearly nuanced. this took me 3 minutes and is far from any fluid writing yet. the difference is staggering)
but like. as a result this ambiguous timeline limbo most story quests end up falling into is genuinely a shame bc i do think theres potential in attempting the ayaka n yoi thing again but with characters for whom it makes sense and actually enhances the AQ experience by necessitating it. and yeah yeah ik genshin wants to be casual friendly so they dont want to force ppl to do quests they dont like for AQ so its unrealistic to expect them to ever try it out again but man
as long as they pick the right place and time and characters for it they could massively alleviate the issue of some story quests contents ending up feeling like somewhat empty fluff bc they cant assume what point a player will be in the main plot could be so they lack actually impactful lore and or character beats.
obviously im not a writer at hoyo and idk how much backlash the ayaya/yoi situation got them but like. idk. taking the lesson "never do anything like inazuma again" isnt rly what id consider the full picture. inazuma does suck and has clunky moments throughout but like in 2.0 people were still hype! inazuma had good ideas and concepts and attempted sth that couldve been great the issue isnt inazuma bad on all levels its that they never delivered its potential and 2.1 was an incredible letdown.
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its just that stede gets run through while everyone is watching, smack dab in the middle of like The most public common space on deck, and he still gets left pinned there overnight
and it’s like okay yeah stede is not a good communicator! stede has to work on that, yes even after his big s1 finale epiphany about being in love! but this scenario here, this one, it’s kind of a whole other metaphor!!
bc somehow even when literally everyone watches him get hurt and knows that it’s painful and the evidence is very blatantly right there in the open, and he’s pinned there in it unable to get himself out! somehow the onus ends up on stede to drop a big hint before anyone thinks to offer that help to him!
and at the end of the day im like if he couldnt get practical straightforward help in this one situation where he absolutely should NOT have had to ask or hint to get that help, idk that it’s so shocking that he didn’t really get any better at openly talking through his own emotional issues tbqh
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hi nia, i hope u r doing good! i just wanted to drop by and lyk that to me u r The Keiji Expert, like u know him so well!!! and have such a good grasp on his character and everything i love it !!!!!!
pls drop any and all of ur thoughts for him, i live for them
GUH?! guys every time i write him i'm like wowww... this is kind of ass.. LOL it's the same thing w aki.. don't trust myself... agh. anyway. THANK U VERY MUCH!!! 🙆🏻♀️🙆🏻♀️ this + bkak + being nice silly and fun are all i need to be known for so i've basically succeeded in Tumblr atp. yeagh. AKAASHI!
when it comes to merch and decor,, he's more likely to focus on walls + figures.. he doesn't know where to put a bunch of plushies BSHSJDJS i don't think he'd get Big figures, except maybe a couple for his absolute favourites.. twas an investment. that shit is expensive. < girl who wanted this aki figure ☹️
^ picture of u on the wall that's always visible while he works. Always.
even if his background isn't a photo of you guys, he'd do photo widgets on his phone !! ^____^
i don't think he does anything with phone contacts... it's just their name and a lot of the time he doesn't put an icon or anything 😭 he'd add a heart emoji next to ur name and of course have a photo for u though!! 🥹
his bag has a dedicated sort of trash pocket that's just a mess a lot of the time BSHSJDJ he throws sticky notes, wrappers, etc. in there if there isn't a garbage can nearby 😭
Cosplayer Keiji 🤯🤯 GELLOOO my god. he could be hirotaka just by putting on a suit tbh. and then i'd explode obviously. but like... cosplayer keiji.... if anypony has ideas for who/what he could cosplay Pls let me know. HAAGHHHH
couple cosplays 😂🤣😂🤣😵 MY LEG. i just keeled over HOWL AND SOPHIE mmmgmynhgsieonHAJAOAN🤯🤯🤯
whatveer. idont even care
tucking him in 🙂↕️🙂↕️ you do it as a joke but of course he goes with it and lets you wrap him up and take off his glasses and kiss his head and he's smiling the Entire Time ohlymgocxnomymekdjn
going with jokes. yeah. he just goes with your shit a lot of the time because he trusts you LOL. you try couple trends and pranks and he gives you suspicious looks but does what you ask anyway.
^ the lipstick trend ☹️☹️☹️ WHYYY MYGODD WHYYY . YOU. 🫵🫵 Reader. take a breath and imagine him with a baggy t-shirt and messy hair and glasses and lipstick stains all over him and his hands on your waist while you kiss him and him going "another one?" with a breathy laugh WJYYY MY MISERABELLFIEEJEID😭😭😭😭😭
hhahh... Haggghhhhhh......... my chest iscaving ijn
Ok. you know the "his gaze softened" thing. yeah. well. for keiji it's not like. mean cold broody guy who gets soft. it's the quiet but nice guy who evidently feels out of place and is anxiously looking around who relaxes and smiles when he sees you enter the room WHO'S WITH ME!
He likes I Will by Mitski. he's a Mitski Enjoyer. Because I Say So. he's my beautiful boyfailure prince angel loser cat who fell into a bowl of water of course he likes mitski guysplels keiji i thinkzYou'd love a loving feeling and the frost and real men and humpty and pink in the night and nobody and should've been me And
occasional punk/metal enjoyer keiji .? walk with me. someone take my hand. ptv slipknot soad korn orbit culture somebody needs to walk with me here
doesn't have a huge appetite... if he's at hot pot he can probably finish but 1) he's full and 2) he planned what he'd get based on past failures to finish his food. like i love boyfriends who can finish your meal if you can't (< girl who gets full) but i think things may end up a team effort 🫡🫡
just lies on the floor and listens to music sometimes. if you walk in on him he doesn't move but will welcome you to join him with open arms ! 🫂
oh 🥹 keiji working super hard on gifts for you... coloured paper and youtube videos so he can figure out how to make a paper flower bouquet 🥹 he starts getting paper crafts/origami skills because of this fr fr
you get it.
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