And if you'd like to talk for hours, just go ahead now

[preybeforemeals]

Character Relationships Meme!



1. Leave a comment listing who you play.

2. Reply to one another, asking for details on CR/what their characters think of yours!

3. tl;dr at will!

Holy crap, it's so easy a Weedle can do it. It's not Magikarp-tier simplicity, but that's just because nothing is Magikarp-tier simplicity.

Have at and enjoy!

Comments

PART ONE OF WHO KNOWS

[doitrockapella]

Kirigiri on Ishimaru

You know, what's kind of interesting in terms of the whole "we're never going to be friends but that's probably okay" concept is the fact that Kirigiri actually just said that to Celes recently, and it occurred to me as she was gearing up to say it that she probably never would have gotten to the point of being capable of articulating that to someone like Celes at the moment she was, had it not been for her CR with Ishimaru paving the way for it. It was more something along the lines of a larger group-level "we don't have to be friends or even like each other but regardless we're all interconnected in a given way that holds us together as a group, despite the character and transgressions of some of the people in that group", but still, it was a kind of really odd moment of understanding and clarity that she wouldn't have had without Ishimaru.

I think the thing that tends to trip Kirigiri up the most about Ishimaru is the fact that she forgets he doesn't tend to follow her cryptic way of speaking very well; with Naegi she's kind of used to the conversational model of referencing something and he'll just sort of fill in the end of the thought for her (thanks, game mechanics), but with Ishimaru you can't really...do implications, so as we have seen time and again a lot of their difficulties come from the fact that Kirigiri doesn't always know how to talk to Ishimaru (which is...not surprising considering I don't think she really knows how to talk to a lot of people period), and then Ishimaru in return has a tendency to hit some of the points and mannerisms that make Kirigiri get bristly.

That said, it's really fun to watch them in those rare times when they manage to both be on the same wavelength, which is usually the same point in which there is Shit That Needs Be Done; I've noticed that those tend to be the times when cooperating tends to reap Kirigiri the most appreciable benefits. I believe the alignment that I ultimately came to for her is Neutral Good as opposed to Ishimaru's Lawful Good; she's more focused on the thing needing to get done and less on how it gets done, which is where her occasional "the rules apply to everyone but me" perspective stems from. But when it becomes obvious that it's more productive to cooperate as opposed to going off on her own, then the two of them manage to work beneficially and actually Get Shit Done.

I also say, every time this meme comes up, that Kirigiri honestly does appreciate the role that Ishimaru fills in their class dynamic, even if she doesn't always appreciate him applying it to her specifically. It's very likely that the order he instituted helped to keep them all from spiraling downward into despair and murderous chaos from the get-go, and moreover she's spent a lot of time lately contemplating his general plan of "we need to bring all our classmates here and this will be our new safe home" — particularly because "all of us having a new safe home" was quite obviously something her dad wanted for them, too, and regardless of her feelings on her dad, that's kind of food for thought in terms of the lengths the guy went to in order to try to keep them all safe.

I think it's proooooobably likely that she'll continue to lightly tease him in the future? Not often, but I think she's sufficiently loosened up enough that it'll happen with slightly more regularity, if for no other reason than that maybe he'll be able to pick out a tell for "Kirigiri-kun is teasing me" and that'll be one small way they've become a little better at communicating.

...And she was actually completely honest when she said that she didn't so much care about the particular honorific as the thought behind it, though she might've misread his intention on that one a little — she took it as a slightly more personalized "I'm willing to treat you with the respect of an equal now as opposed to insisting on this vaguely passive-aggressive 'you are subordinate to me' remark", and since it was her birthday and all that was kind of a "oh what a thoughtful gift, Ishimaru-kun".

So basically if that wasn't his logic we should...maybe...not tell her otherwise...yeah. :|b