madimpossibledreamer

Like, okay, can we talk for a minute about Constantine and Yashiki? They’re kind of opposites in terms of personality (though Yashiki’s inner voice—Kujou?—can snark with the best of them) but so much about their background is really really similar (it’s the outfit that got me thinking about this, so much later because they wear it so differently).
*the outfit. Loose tie, white shirt, tan trenchcoat, messy hair, the stubble. Yashiki has glasses & dark hair, but looks-wise they’re pretty similar.
*she’s not really mentioned in the NBC series, but in the comics John’s sister was pretty much one of the only things keeping him sane, protected, and out of trouble growing up. Same with Saya & Masaharu.
*Otherwise, it being a really terrible/abusive environment. Yeah, probably.
*Cursed. The Laughing Magician & the Kujou family have the same ‘Lone Wolf’ kind of curse—they’ll probably make it through just fine, but anyone that gets in contact with them for more than five minutes is in serious danger. Unlike Lone Wolf, there’s a definite danger where if they mess up they seriously might die.
*Loner. Because of this both of them try often, even in situations where it doesn’t make sense, to try to do it on their own. Which often ends up with themselves wounded & the ones that love them kind of annoyed. Even though how they go about this and how much they show other people they care is very different.
*Self-loathing. They cover it up differently. Yashiki is endlessly polite, inoffensive, and humble. Constantine is much more ‘in your face’ (like Mashita), keeping people at arm’s length by being rude, smoking in their faces, getting punched in the face. Both of them simultaneously have good survival instincts and no sense of self-preservation, trying to outrun their past and regrets while being chained to them.
*Magpie of magic. Yashiki almost literally is. They’ve both got high spiritual senses, but Yashiki’s directly involves having the sense of what junk will be useful. As befits a street magician Constantine can also do magic from random stuff he’s picked off the street, but in his case it tends to be a little more metaphorical, referring to his magic rather than his trinkets.
*Belief in humanity. Despite everything that they’ve seen and experienced, both have this unshakeable belief in humanity as a whole, if not individuals. (And though Yashiki tends to give everyone a little more benefit of the doubt, he’s still seen absolutely horrible people enough to at least be slightly careful about it—but it doesn’t break his faith, either.)

I do think a lot of the issues with Death Mark 2 would be helped by a chapter with Sakamoto with her acting as sort of a Saya stand-in. They kind of allude to it with the conversation about the rabbits, and IIRC she seems to have a slight moment of understanding when he….uses past tense to say she liked rabbits, or more directly said she passed, so I think she’s recently had family tragedy too. (I don’t know that Yashiki knows how to interact with people if they haven’t dealt with tragedy.) I don’t know how they would lead that to the true end/good end, unless they hand that stuff to the headmaster instead and have this as an extra NG+ chapter. (I also kind of wish they did more with Abe, though I don’t think he could stand too well on his own—possibly he’s also a playable character in the chapter? Though he might just hang out in the infirmary. Also, I suspect his mentor is Yasuoka. It felt like that’s what they were setting up for, and she did appear the chapter he said his mentor was coming, but they never confirmed it.)
^this would be the thought that turned into Sympathy From the Living

this is just a Fatal Frame ceremony that backfires horribly, as usual. Ooooof.

I know I’m a slight hypocrite here given Broken Hero, but I’m mostly setting it after, and Jun scolding Tatsuya was so satisfying to write.

Yasuoka is also the Avdol.

I’m not mad at Yashiki, per se. I think the spirits are basically influencing him to go be a loner, plus the bullying, plus his natural inclinations. But replacement is one of the things that rubs me the wrong way.

I might write another chapter along these lines, but if not, know that this is a conversation that happens: Student council president being jealous “on behalf of her friend”, but immediately calming down when he explains she’s like a sister.

Okay. Hiroo being greedy is...less cool, but still. He needed the slap in the face from these 3.

….wait. Michiho joked about ‘the karate kid’ being the target.

...no side effects of doing shrooms?