Ryuugamine Mikado (Shark) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
digitalemperor) wrote2012-12-04 12:07 am
digitalemperor) wrote2012-12-04 12:07 am
Heart Game Write up part 1
HEART GAME I have never done a write up so here we got:
Start
This area is pretty featureless but also important. It’s also the most stable area of the heart and impossible to affect (well maybe people could have but I have no idea how). It’s the balance between Up (moekado) and Down (bosskado) and the reset point for everything. The reflective motif of the whole heart starts here, and in this place, both water and mirrors are the only way to get anywhere. Stay too long and you’re docked health for being passive and not doing things
(boredom).
Also up through the mirror (facades) and down through the water (water metaphors) have meaning blah blah. In most of the heart, mirrors (whether a mirror, a pool or water, a TV screen or other reflective surface) are facades and A BAD THING. Here though, the mirror is just a way into his surface facade/moekado area.
I gave people cell phones here because they needed a way to find the password and I found I really liked them all texting Mikado and each other so I will probably do something similar in every heart. At least with him and maybe Sion.
Also the only people to get docked for not picking up or down were Mikage and Lloyd.
Originally “down” only led to “sinking” and the room with Aoba and bosskado and up only led to the school and Coral. Typing the password in the phone was the way to reach the computer room, and the memories were in Coral. I added a lot of things last minute. So let’s map! Starting with the lower levels.
Sinking
This area is also small and simple. You can die by drowning or shark attack. The mirror takes you to the lower rooms. Water and mirror symbolism!! Water here is sinking into, well, the darker aspects of Mikado. The mirror as a portal is fairly consistent in the heart and so! You needed a way to get from drowning and a shark to elsewhere. The shark represents Mikado’s desire to protect others from this part of himself.
Most people did the smart thing and ignored the shark. KAZUKI AND MIKAGE THOUGH YOU GUYS. Mikage managed to ride it out of this area, thus depriving this small barrier between the upper levels and the lower ones of a guardian. And also killed and ate the shark so. There was no more shark guard in one of the lower rooms. Mikage. Kazuki and Mikage lost health here.
Three Doors Down (I’m not sorry for that)
Simple choice area.
Chess Piece - Black King - Password locked. Izaya symbolism coupled with bosskado symbolism. NOT A GOOD PLACE.
Blue Square - Obviously blue squares room. ALSO NOT A GOOD PLACE.
Shadow Scythe - Celty symbol, your personal rooms, pretty damn safe unless you touch the mirrors.
I’d like to note that the girls get the blade symbols and those are, if not the safest areas, some of the nicest. Oh Durarara!! symbols...
There’s also a shark skeleton in this room, as well as Bosskado’s last known location. Oops...
Black King Door
You start behind a waterfall and have to navigate a treacherous path to shore. There’s no actual exit from this room except Celty or restarting. You can fall in the water from the path and it was supposed to be really unsafe and filled with sharks and corpses but then Mikage ate the symbolic shark so the water was unguarded. In the water is a black chest chained and sunk, containing every repressed negative emotion Mikado has been ignoring for over two months, in his memories and in Aather. Izaya wants boosts because he represents bad decisions and a darker turn.
So MIKAGE ate the shark that would have been guarding the chest. So when Kit listened to Izaya there was nothing to stop him as would have. Been the original plan. I mean it was still grabbable but there would have been sharks and ANYWAY Kit grabbed the chest and picked the lock. I wish I had been more awake here as I would have described the insanity feelings better but oh well. Lloyd and Kazuki were also present and got a faceful of Shark’s repression.
Guys it’s a lot of repression. The rage, yeah, but also so much helpless frustration, sadness, pain, fear, insecurity--EVERYTHING NEGATIVE HE NEVER TALKS ABOUT OR LETS OUT and then it was unleashed in his heart pretty fast. This was okay at this point, it would have resulted in a lot of crazy but probably have been manageable if it had just been this--but I have to note that people were also boosting his love for things in other places, closing off outlets for these feelings by making him super dere even for the Personae, and so on. And also there was a thing done later that killed his ability to express himself. BUT MORE ON THAT IN SECTION TWO, THE UPPER AREA.
But yeah I can’t stress enough how chaotic these emotions are or how intense. These are MONTHS worth of negative repressed issues and they ALL CAME OUT AT ONCE. Not like, in a slow trickle that could be managed healthily, not in little pieces or larger pieces this is. All of them. At the same time. With nowhere to go.
Sakura also got here later in her exploration, and talked to Izaya who almost told her how to reach the True Heart at just about the same time that Kazuki blocked the way to it. Sakura was actually poised to do cool stuff if she’d wanted or tried, since she had Celty with her.
Blue Square
[The concrete floor is littered with old, rusted machinery and equipment. A thin layer of water covers the floor, just enough to splash a little when you walk, your footsteps sending ripples over the reflective surface. Metal drums are stacked and overturned haphazardly. A young boy sits on one of them, smiling. Behind him is a giant aquarium. It seems out of place.]
[There is a throne in the aquarium, bolted to the floor. Shark sits on the throne, a crown on his head, a scepter in one hand and a scythe in the other. He stares at nothing. Water is slowly filling the tank he's seated in. His arms and legs are shackled to the throne with what looks like zip ties.]
Originally Aoba was supposed to talk to you about Dollars and gangs and distract you while the water slowly rose and drowned either you or Bosskado. But then they released bad feelings and by the time Kit and Lloyd got in here this became a death trap timed quick event. Aoba represents things Shark is wary of about himself and his choices, things he thinks are bad about them but maybe necessary. Bosskado is one aspect of Shark and actually no less valid then the Moekado everyone seems to like. That Bosskado was mostly unconscious is important, it’s an indication of the awake state of this part of Mikado--he was mostly slumbering, and yes, rescuing him is a good thing, however, it does mean bringing this part of Mikado more to the surface, and making it more active.
Kit and Lloyd were so going to die you guys. I WAS GOING TO GET TO KILL THEM but then they had Firebird feathers. Cheaters. No, so, they saved the day like big damn heroes and got Bosskado out and this was actually a major positive and a major negative. The saved Bosskado. Super good! They woke him up and boosted him. Dubious....... Maybe good, maybe bad, it does mean this part of him is more aware and more in control. I could essay on Mikado’s duality and contradictory nature forever, but suffice it to say this is a thing.
The Scythe rooms are going to be their own post, so let’s go up.
Three Doors Up
Yellow Flag - Memory Room
Blue Crown - Password locked. Heart room, and by that I mean a major area of emotional control.
Red Katana - School and Coral
Memory Room
This was a last minute addition. For a long time I wasn’t sure what to put in Kida’s room but I wanted a balance up and down and the trio was the obvious choice for up. I finally decided to take the memories from Coral cabin and put them in a room with Kida, because Kida is a very nostalgia kind of guy, and it would make sense for him to both guard Mikado’s memories and be forced to help others watch them. Sucks to be Kida. There wasn’t much symbolism in the room. Kida, the memory DVDs, the screen which would have acted the same as a mirror if someone touched it (every room but the two choice/door rooms should have had a reflective surface somewhere, so here as well).
EVERYONE VISITED KIDA MAN. Most everyone. He got to flirt with Rin, and he got to call Polka and Hizumi lovebirds and get Polka to wonder what porn was and basically he had fun with all the Corals. HE LIKED THE CORALS even funny Hikaru. And Thorn. Thorn gave him a boost which UPPED HIS ABILITY TO ACT IN THE REST OF THE HEART--this came in handy later when Lloyd needed a hand, twice. He liked Thorn pretty well and teased him and Hikaru with telling them where the porn stash (racy memories) were hidden. He did the same with Lizard who gave the memories a boost. LIZARD!!!!1!!!@!!
Nezumi pissed Kida off by viewing some yan memories of Shark’s on accident (poor Nezumi) and Lloyd was the only other one to view a memory here which Kida actually showed him. Lloyd and Kida talked for a long time meta-wise about Shark after some things got messed up.
Boosts in here: 2, one to Kida (ability to act and protectiveness but also increased impulsiveness) and one to Shark’s libido thanks Lizard.
School
There were two school areas, the entrance and inside. Touching things would have resulted in feelings, but no one did. Mirrors would have brought you to the colorless world. There was a mundanity trap: helping students with some random pointless task. It seems harmless but because this is Mikado boredom is kind of deadly. Originally Kida and Anri were in the classroom but I moved Kida and replaced him with Kit (someone Shark would trust enough to keep Anri safe/views as a brother.)
Only Kira and Nezumi came here. Kira came and triggered the boredom trap then met Anri and gained a heart from Anri (for the record had Kira been in danger Anri would have rescued her.) Nezumi came later when Anri was off saving Real Kit and met Aoba who’d abandoned the lower levels. THAT AOBA HAD ACCESS UP HERE IS A VERY BAD THING. Despite Aoba memories being in school for Shark so far there’s a sense of unease about him the puts him in the lower levels for a reason. So when things started being fucked up... The fact that Aoba was in the classroom, where safe NPCs should have been, is another indication of WRONG.
Boosts: 1 on Anri from Kira.
Coral
The outside is Three’s sunflower fields and Cub drawing and this is a nice place to hang. Cub is equal parts Coral feelings and UMINEKO DELUSIONS. Drawing with Cub is safe and every picture you add, adds that to Shark’s heart and love. This is a place of family and safety. Inside, the pictures on the walls show Shark’s close CR and the pies restore a heart or give you a new one. CHUCK’S PIES ARE MAGICAL AND ALL HELPFUL. The personae phone charms give various effects and feelings, and using them on your phone will give you powers and upgrades. The mirror on the wall takes you to the shadow world.
EVERYONE CAME HERE and I fucking lost track of how many people put a boost in this area. Two at least on Cub himself, two or three on the drawings?! One on the pies, one on the charms..........
Guys you have no idea how much he will kill people for Coral or his close CR now. It just. It just kept. Adding. Up. And Cub is a full grown Lion and g-gao and oh my god it is both sweet and terrifying how much love he has for everyone. EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!! Including the Personae. This is really. Probably extremely unhealthy. A few boosts wouldn’t have been bad but. YEAH THIS IS UNBALANCED LEVELS OF OBSESSIVE LOVE/FAMILY/PROTECTIVENESS. I CAN’T EVEN YOU GUYS.
Some people found things like their plush toys and Sakura went to the shadow area. Nezumi figured out how to use the cell charms and Nezumi, Sakura and Thorn figured the pie out. Thorn also figured out its status effect removal. Nezumi gained heart cheating GPS in here just as things were really going south. Apple also took the Jabberwock charm and chucked it away somewhere because THAT IS A GOOD THING APPLE WHY.
Computer Room (Blue Door)
Originally this was not connected to the moekado level and because I was sick I forgot there was a symbolic reason for that when I stuck it in the moekado level on my redesign on Friday. UM. So the concept of this room is his heart/emotions and technically it should be neutral, like start, in between moekado and bosskado. The True Heart is connected to this room and is also in between the two dual sides, so... I messed up symbolically in placing this (originally this room was Start actually so. Teach me to fuck around with my symbolically constructed heart last minute)
ANYWAY the room itself is Mikado’s emotions and this place is fucking delicate. The pictures, the photo album, the things in the closet, everything in here but the baseball bat corresponds to deep emotions and any change to it is a major change. Fucking around on the computer could also change shit if you found the right programs! The windows have meaning, the wall of mirror was the way into the True Heart but you had to smash it and it was originally going to be hard. Several intense hits with the bat to get through because the mirror was reinforced with Kit memories and Mikado’s stepfording. The wall mirror was the biggest facade in the heart and the one huge barrier to the true heart.
SO MANY THINGS HAPPENED IN HERE I CAN’T EVEN YOU GUYS. I will probably miss shit in this writeup feel free to point it out. ANYWAY. Originally Apple came in here and figured out IMing Mikado and looked around trying to find a way to the true heart and gave up. Others joined her. I think Dragonfly stopped her from throwing the computer later I don’t even remember. Kira spent a lot of time in here. She boosted the computer which turned IM to video/voice chat and that was hilarious because it distracted everyone else away from the rest of the room into trying to figure the computer out as a key. Which it wasn’t it was just an interesting side way to really mess with Mikado’s emotions. But there was a lot of chatting!
Kazuki did a thing. And by a thing I mean he boosted the mirror. Remember when I said the mirror was going to be a little hard to break? That made it. Impossible. He basically closed Mikado’s true heart. REMEMBER EVERYTHING ELSE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN DOING--INCREASING MIKADO’S LOVE AND DERE AND ALSO RELEASING EVERY. SINGLE. NEGATIVE. REPRESSED. EMOTION. HE. HAS. Okay and now that facade is unbreakable. Kazuki then tried to break it but. Too late.
So a thing about the mirror--right now it’s manifesting as just smiles but that’s not all it is. Mikado will eventually be able to express other things but the key issue here is this is. Him not being able to be his true self at anyone. He can be honest, he can communicate, but he he basically is stuck unable to let people into him. Absolutely unable to open up. It’s impossible for him right now. He can’t do it even though he wants to. And because he can’t open up, even if he’s honest he’s not honest about things he himself needs to express. He has an unbreakable barrier between himself and everyone else right now.
Max boosting the bat would have broken the room. Throwing the computer would have broken the room. But none of that can break the mirror.
Anyway other stuff. A minor good thing Apple did was leave the window to adventure and excitement open. That is a small boost of good feelings in a shitstorm of everything else Mikado is experiencing. Kira boosted his communication of emotions, the computer, which, whenever his facade is fixed, will be a bigger good thing, but for now lets him still. Interact on a shallow emotional level or a level that can interact with other people’s emotions, just not his own.
Kazuki almost tore apart Mikado’s feelings for him in here too. Good call on not doing that. Any damage to a photo in here is a permanent irreparable (without heart fixing or just making new CR) damage to those emotions. The same goes for changes, such as boosting, drawing smily faces or leaving stickers.
Lloyd and Kazuki messed around on the computer and got copies of themselves made in Mikado’s weird heart computer. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS DOES YET. I was just rolling with making shit up by then. SO I THINK. Maybe he has some kind of identity issues with them or something who knows. But Kazuki did start and antivirus so that may clear up on it’s own. (Because I don’t want to imagine Mikado wandering around trying to act like LLOYD IRVING!!! now and then omg)
OTHER THING: Lloyd brought Kida in. And Kida kicked everyone out because HE MAD BRO. YOU BROKE THIS HEART. But not before Dragonfly drew a door on the mirror that opened to a room that I am still figuring out what it is. But because it was FRIENDSHIP AND LOVE AND SHARK WITH LOVE YOU in the door drawing, the heart decided to try to make SOMETHING for everyone?!
Other
The World Without Color
This bad place is a lot of symbolism for Shark’s “black emotions” as they’re called in canon. And the grayscale way most people are represented in DRRR as being insignificant, colorless... COLOR IS A BIG DEAL. This is. I need to write more about the specifics of this because there is a lot of symbolism here but I will leave it and NPC babble for the Scythe Room write up I think.
QUESTIONS. COMMENTS. DID YOU ENJOY THE GAME? HOW ARE YOUR CHARACTERS DOING? LEMME KNOW.
Start
This area is pretty featureless but also important. It’s also the most stable area of the heart and impossible to affect (well maybe people could have but I have no idea how). It’s the balance between Up (moekado) and Down (bosskado) and the reset point for everything. The reflective motif of the whole heart starts here, and in this place, both water and mirrors are the only way to get anywhere. Stay too long and you’re docked health for being passive and not doing things
(boredom).
Also up through the mirror (facades) and down through the water (water metaphors) have meaning blah blah. In most of the heart, mirrors (whether a mirror, a pool or water, a TV screen or other reflective surface) are facades and A BAD THING. Here though, the mirror is just a way into his surface facade/moekado area.
I gave people cell phones here because they needed a way to find the password and I found I really liked them all texting Mikado and each other so I will probably do something similar in every heart. At least with him and maybe Sion.
Also the only people to get docked for not picking up or down were Mikage and Lloyd.
Originally “down” only led to “sinking” and the room with Aoba and bosskado and up only led to the school and Coral. Typing the password in the phone was the way to reach the computer room, and the memories were in Coral. I added a lot of things last minute. So let’s map! Starting with the lower levels.
Sinking
This area is also small and simple. You can die by drowning or shark attack. The mirror takes you to the lower rooms. Water and mirror symbolism!! Water here is sinking into, well, the darker aspects of Mikado. The mirror as a portal is fairly consistent in the heart and so! You needed a way to get from drowning and a shark to elsewhere. The shark represents Mikado’s desire to protect others from this part of himself.
Most people did the smart thing and ignored the shark. KAZUKI AND MIKAGE THOUGH YOU GUYS. Mikage managed to ride it out of this area, thus depriving this small barrier between the upper levels and the lower ones of a guardian. And also killed and ate the shark so. There was no more shark guard in one of the lower rooms. Mikage. Kazuki and Mikage lost health here.
Three Doors Down (I’m not sorry for that)
Simple choice area.
Chess Piece - Black King - Password locked. Izaya symbolism coupled with bosskado symbolism. NOT A GOOD PLACE.
Blue Square - Obviously blue squares room. ALSO NOT A GOOD PLACE.
Shadow Scythe - Celty symbol, your personal rooms, pretty damn safe unless you touch the mirrors.
I’d like to note that the girls get the blade symbols and those are, if not the safest areas, some of the nicest. Oh Durarara!! symbols...
There’s also a shark skeleton in this room, as well as Bosskado’s last known location. Oops...
Black King Door
You start behind a waterfall and have to navigate a treacherous path to shore. There’s no actual exit from this room except Celty or restarting. You can fall in the water from the path and it was supposed to be really unsafe and filled with sharks and corpses but then Mikage ate the symbolic shark so the water was unguarded. In the water is a black chest chained and sunk, containing every repressed negative emotion Mikado has been ignoring for over two months, in his memories and in Aather. Izaya wants boosts because he represents bad decisions and a darker turn.
So MIKAGE ate the shark that would have been guarding the chest. So when Kit listened to Izaya there was nothing to stop him as would have. Been the original plan. I mean it was still grabbable but there would have been sharks and ANYWAY Kit grabbed the chest and picked the lock. I wish I had been more awake here as I would have described the insanity feelings better but oh well. Lloyd and Kazuki were also present and got a faceful of Shark’s repression.
Guys it’s a lot of repression. The rage, yeah, but also so much helpless frustration, sadness, pain, fear, insecurity--EVERYTHING NEGATIVE HE NEVER TALKS ABOUT OR LETS OUT and then it was unleashed in his heart pretty fast. This was okay at this point, it would have resulted in a lot of crazy but probably have been manageable if it had just been this--but I have to note that people were also boosting his love for things in other places, closing off outlets for these feelings by making him super dere even for the Personae, and so on. And also there was a thing done later that killed his ability to express himself. BUT MORE ON THAT IN SECTION TWO, THE UPPER AREA.
But yeah I can’t stress enough how chaotic these emotions are or how intense. These are MONTHS worth of negative repressed issues and they ALL CAME OUT AT ONCE. Not like, in a slow trickle that could be managed healthily, not in little pieces or larger pieces this is. All of them. At the same time. With nowhere to go.
Sakura also got here later in her exploration, and talked to Izaya who almost told her how to reach the True Heart at just about the same time that Kazuki blocked the way to it. Sakura was actually poised to do cool stuff if she’d wanted or tried, since she had Celty with her.
Blue Square
[The concrete floor is littered with old, rusted machinery and equipment. A thin layer of water covers the floor, just enough to splash a little when you walk, your footsteps sending ripples over the reflective surface. Metal drums are stacked and overturned haphazardly. A young boy sits on one of them, smiling. Behind him is a giant aquarium. It seems out of place.]
[There is a throne in the aquarium, bolted to the floor. Shark sits on the throne, a crown on his head, a scepter in one hand and a scythe in the other. He stares at nothing. Water is slowly filling the tank he's seated in. His arms and legs are shackled to the throne with what looks like zip ties.]
Originally Aoba was supposed to talk to you about Dollars and gangs and distract you while the water slowly rose and drowned either you or Bosskado. But then they released bad feelings and by the time Kit and Lloyd got in here this became a death trap timed quick event. Aoba represents things Shark is wary of about himself and his choices, things he thinks are bad about them but maybe necessary. Bosskado is one aspect of Shark and actually no less valid then the Moekado everyone seems to like. That Bosskado was mostly unconscious is important, it’s an indication of the awake state of this part of Mikado--he was mostly slumbering, and yes, rescuing him is a good thing, however, it does mean bringing this part of Mikado more to the surface, and making it more active.
Kit and Lloyd were so going to die you guys. I WAS GOING TO GET TO KILL THEM but then they had Firebird feathers. Cheaters. No, so, they saved the day like big damn heroes and got Bosskado out and this was actually a major positive and a major negative. The saved Bosskado. Super good! They woke him up and boosted him. Dubious....... Maybe good, maybe bad, it does mean this part of him is more aware and more in control. I could essay on Mikado’s duality and contradictory nature forever, but suffice it to say this is a thing.
The Scythe rooms are going to be their own post, so let’s go up.
Three Doors Up
Yellow Flag - Memory Room
Blue Crown - Password locked. Heart room, and by that I mean a major area of emotional control.
Red Katana - School and Coral
Memory Room
This was a last minute addition. For a long time I wasn’t sure what to put in Kida’s room but I wanted a balance up and down and the trio was the obvious choice for up. I finally decided to take the memories from Coral cabin and put them in a room with Kida, because Kida is a very nostalgia kind of guy, and it would make sense for him to both guard Mikado’s memories and be forced to help others watch them. Sucks to be Kida. There wasn’t much symbolism in the room. Kida, the memory DVDs, the screen which would have acted the same as a mirror if someone touched it (every room but the two choice/door rooms should have had a reflective surface somewhere, so here as well).
EVERYONE VISITED KIDA MAN. Most everyone. He got to flirt with Rin, and he got to call Polka and Hizumi lovebirds and get Polka to wonder what porn was and basically he had fun with all the Corals. HE LIKED THE CORALS even funny Hikaru. And Thorn. Thorn gave him a boost which UPPED HIS ABILITY TO ACT IN THE REST OF THE HEART--this came in handy later when Lloyd needed a hand, twice. He liked Thorn pretty well and teased him and Hikaru with telling them where the porn stash (racy memories) were hidden. He did the same with Lizard who gave the memories a boost. LIZARD!!!!1!!!@!!
Nezumi pissed Kida off by viewing some yan memories of Shark’s on accident (poor Nezumi) and Lloyd was the only other one to view a memory here which Kida actually showed him. Lloyd and Kida talked for a long time meta-wise about Shark after some things got messed up.
Boosts in here: 2, one to Kida (ability to act and protectiveness but also increased impulsiveness) and one to Shark’s libido thanks Lizard.
School
There were two school areas, the entrance and inside. Touching things would have resulted in feelings, but no one did. Mirrors would have brought you to the colorless world. There was a mundanity trap: helping students with some random pointless task. It seems harmless but because this is Mikado boredom is kind of deadly. Originally Kida and Anri were in the classroom but I moved Kida and replaced him with Kit (someone Shark would trust enough to keep Anri safe/views as a brother.)
Only Kira and Nezumi came here. Kira came and triggered the boredom trap then met Anri and gained a heart from Anri (for the record had Kira been in danger Anri would have rescued her.) Nezumi came later when Anri was off saving Real Kit and met Aoba who’d abandoned the lower levels. THAT AOBA HAD ACCESS UP HERE IS A VERY BAD THING. Despite Aoba memories being in school for Shark so far there’s a sense of unease about him the puts him in the lower levels for a reason. So when things started being fucked up... The fact that Aoba was in the classroom, where safe NPCs should have been, is another indication of WRONG.
Boosts: 1 on Anri from Kira.
Coral
The outside is Three’s sunflower fields and Cub drawing and this is a nice place to hang. Cub is equal parts Coral feelings and UMINEKO DELUSIONS. Drawing with Cub is safe and every picture you add, adds that to Shark’s heart and love. This is a place of family and safety. Inside, the pictures on the walls show Shark’s close CR and the pies restore a heart or give you a new one. CHUCK’S PIES ARE MAGICAL AND ALL HELPFUL. The personae phone charms give various effects and feelings, and using them on your phone will give you powers and upgrades. The mirror on the wall takes you to the shadow world.
EVERYONE CAME HERE and I fucking lost track of how many people put a boost in this area. Two at least on Cub himself, two or three on the drawings?! One on the pies, one on the charms..........
Guys you have no idea how much he will kill people for Coral or his close CR now. It just. It just kept. Adding. Up. And Cub is a full grown Lion and g-gao and oh my god it is both sweet and terrifying how much love he has for everyone. EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!! Including the Personae. This is really. Probably extremely unhealthy. A few boosts wouldn’t have been bad but. YEAH THIS IS UNBALANCED LEVELS OF OBSESSIVE LOVE/FAMILY/PROTECTIVENESS. I CAN’T EVEN YOU GUYS.
Some people found things like their plush toys and Sakura went to the shadow area. Nezumi figured out how to use the cell charms and Nezumi, Sakura and Thorn figured the pie out. Thorn also figured out its status effect removal. Nezumi gained heart cheating GPS in here just as things were really going south. Apple also took the Jabberwock charm and chucked it away somewhere because THAT IS A GOOD THING APPLE WHY.
Computer Room (Blue Door)
Originally this was not connected to the moekado level and because I was sick I forgot there was a symbolic reason for that when I stuck it in the moekado level on my redesign on Friday. UM. So the concept of this room is his heart/emotions and technically it should be neutral, like start, in between moekado and bosskado. The True Heart is connected to this room and is also in between the two dual sides, so... I messed up symbolically in placing this (originally this room was Start actually so. Teach me to fuck around with my symbolically constructed heart last minute)
ANYWAY the room itself is Mikado’s emotions and this place is fucking delicate. The pictures, the photo album, the things in the closet, everything in here but the baseball bat corresponds to deep emotions and any change to it is a major change. Fucking around on the computer could also change shit if you found the right programs! The windows have meaning, the wall of mirror was the way into the True Heart but you had to smash it and it was originally going to be hard. Several intense hits with the bat to get through because the mirror was reinforced with Kit memories and Mikado’s stepfording. The wall mirror was the biggest facade in the heart and the one huge barrier to the true heart.
SO MANY THINGS HAPPENED IN HERE I CAN’T EVEN YOU GUYS. I will probably miss shit in this writeup feel free to point it out. ANYWAY. Originally Apple came in here and figured out IMing Mikado and looked around trying to find a way to the true heart and gave up. Others joined her. I think Dragonfly stopped her from throwing the computer later I don’t even remember. Kira spent a lot of time in here. She boosted the computer which turned IM to video/voice chat and that was hilarious because it distracted everyone else away from the rest of the room into trying to figure the computer out as a key. Which it wasn’t it was just an interesting side way to really mess with Mikado’s emotions. But there was a lot of chatting!
Kazuki did a thing. And by a thing I mean he boosted the mirror. Remember when I said the mirror was going to be a little hard to break? That made it. Impossible. He basically closed Mikado’s true heart. REMEMBER EVERYTHING ELSE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN DOING--INCREASING MIKADO’S LOVE AND DERE AND ALSO RELEASING EVERY. SINGLE. NEGATIVE. REPRESSED. EMOTION. HE. HAS. Okay and now that facade is unbreakable. Kazuki then tried to break it but. Too late.
So a thing about the mirror--right now it’s manifesting as just smiles but that’s not all it is. Mikado will eventually be able to express other things but the key issue here is this is. Him not being able to be his true self at anyone. He can be honest, he can communicate, but he he basically is stuck unable to let people into him. Absolutely unable to open up. It’s impossible for him right now. He can’t do it even though he wants to. And because he can’t open up, even if he’s honest he’s not honest about things he himself needs to express. He has an unbreakable barrier between himself and everyone else right now.
Max boosting the bat would have broken the room. Throwing the computer would have broken the room. But none of that can break the mirror.
Anyway other stuff. A minor good thing Apple did was leave the window to adventure and excitement open. That is a small boost of good feelings in a shitstorm of everything else Mikado is experiencing. Kira boosted his communication of emotions, the computer, which, whenever his facade is fixed, will be a bigger good thing, but for now lets him still. Interact on a shallow emotional level or a level that can interact with other people’s emotions, just not his own.
Kazuki almost tore apart Mikado’s feelings for him in here too. Good call on not doing that. Any damage to a photo in here is a permanent irreparable (without heart fixing or just making new CR) damage to those emotions. The same goes for changes, such as boosting, drawing smily faces or leaving stickers.
Lloyd and Kazuki messed around on the computer and got copies of themselves made in Mikado’s weird heart computer. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THIS DOES YET. I was just rolling with making shit up by then. SO I THINK. Maybe he has some kind of identity issues with them or something who knows. But Kazuki did start and antivirus so that may clear up on it’s own. (Because I don’t want to imagine Mikado wandering around trying to act like LLOYD IRVING!!! now and then omg)
OTHER THING: Lloyd brought Kida in. And Kida kicked everyone out because HE MAD BRO. YOU BROKE THIS HEART. But not before Dragonfly drew a door on the mirror that opened to a room that I am still figuring out what it is. But because it was FRIENDSHIP AND LOVE AND SHARK WITH LOVE YOU in the door drawing, the heart decided to try to make SOMETHING for everyone?!
Other
The World Without Color
This bad place is a lot of symbolism for Shark’s “black emotions” as they’re called in canon. And the grayscale way most people are represented in DRRR as being insignificant, colorless... COLOR IS A BIG DEAL. This is. I need to write more about the specifics of this because there is a lot of symbolism here but I will leave it and NPC babble for the Scythe Room write up I think.
QUESTIONS. COMMENTS. DID YOU ENJOY THE GAME? HOW ARE YOUR CHARACTERS DOING? LEMME KNOW.