Doesn't Sound Too Bad To Bet My Life On That.

[rionaleonhart]

The Keiji/Sara ship for Your Turn to Die is serving me so well. All the fanfiction is weird and dark and tense and 'shit, I don't know if I can trust this guy, maybe I should have thought about that before I let him put his fingers in me.' I love it.

I've come across exactly one fic for it that was fluffy to any extent, and it went like this:

Fic: Here's some dark stuff! But there are also flashforwards to Keiji and Sara living a fluffy, domestic life—
Riona: Booooooo.
Fic: —because he forcibly erased her memories.
Riona: Holy shit, this is the best ship.

(I'm not opposed to fluff; it's just not what I tend to be in the mood to read!)

The Keiji/Sara shippers are an extremely lovely, enthusiastic bunch who get a lot of undeserved stick, which makes me want to write more fanfiction for them. Astonishingly, it seems the efforts of the faction going 'YOU CAN'T SHIP THAT, IT'S MORALLY WRONG' may have backfired! (To be honest, it's hard to get morally outraged over the thought of a fictional seventeen-year-old fictionally making out with a fictional twenty-something when I, an actual living human, could legally have banged as many buff policemen as I wanted at the age of seventeen.)

None of my fic ideas are clicking, though, which is a little frustrating. It's difficult to write Keiji when he keeps his past and his motivations so close to his muscular chest. One of my ideas is, inevitably, 'Sara wakes up in her normal life with memories of the Death Game, and it's hard for her to process these traumatic experiences that didn't actually happen', but I'd have no idea how to write Keiji outside the context of the game.

A part of me insists on interpreting Keiji as what happens when Carlos of Zero Escape goes through traumatic experiences and ends up kind of dead inside, but Carlos is remarkably psychologically resilient; given the traumatic experiences he's already been through prior to Zero Time Dilemma, he seems pretty open and well-adjusted. Could he really become this screwed-up, secretive, manipulative, dead-eyed man?

It's possible I just went 'I love both of these ripped blond guys who were abducted and thrown into a murder game; maybe that means they're the same guy?' No, Riona. There's room for more than one ripped blond murder game guy in your heart.

Comments

[wolfy_writing]

Ooh, that sounds awesomely disturbing!

When it comes to age of consent different countries, I think that, beyond a certain point, it really does make a difference what other freedoms the younger person has. Like a seventeen-year-old who’s only going to school if they want to, who can get a job, and who can access medical care without having to ask their parents is in a much better place to get involve with an adult than a seventeen-year-old who can be dragged back home or back to school by the actual police (due to laws on runaways and truancy), can’t legally hold a job or sign a contract, and is dependent on their parents for contraceptives or STD treatment.

But these days, insisting that birthdays aren’t literally magic gets you called a pedo.

Now I’m wondering, how would Carlos and Keiji react if they met?

[rionaleonhart]

That age-of-consent thing makes a lot of sense. I also think there's a difference between someone who's grown up with the expectation that they'll reach the age of consent at sixteen, and someone who's grown up expecting it to be slightly older; I think being of the age of consent in itself makes a seventeen-year-old who grew up in the UK psychologically (as well as legally) more able to consent than a seventeen-year-old who grew up in California, if that makes sense.

For clarity, in case any passers-by are wondering (I know you personally know my stance on this), I'm talking about the real world and not making any sort of statement on what should or shouldn't be written about in fiction.

('dependent on their parents for contraceptives' is slightly mindblowing - over here, contraceptive services are free and confidential, even if you're under sixteen, on the grounds 'teenagers are going to have sex, whatever the law, so it's best to do whatever can be done to prevent teen pregnancy and STDs'.)

Now I’m wondering, how would Carlos and Keiji react if they met?

Hmm! Keiji's extremely shifty and can be frustrating, but Carlos is extremely good at liking people. Carlos is straightforward and open. I think they might actually get along pretty well, despite their differences. They'd work together well to try to uncover exactly what's going on and whether it's possible to get out of their situation. And then they'd make out, I hope. Keiji would initiate it and Carlos would be slightly confused.

[wolfy_writing]

That makes sense about the age of consent being in of itself a factor. Part of what being psychologically prepared to deal with sex with adults involves is having the awareness that you’re going to, at a certain age, have to deal with adults being legally free to have sex with you if you consent, and that if you don’t want to, you’re going to need to learn to say no.

It’s not a law requiring parental consent, and in places where there’s a funded public health program to give out contraception they actually do maintain confidentiality. But with the need to pay for it, and health care costs in the U.S. being what they are, it’s sometimes a de facto barrier. (And some people are pushing to make it a legal requirement.)

Ooh, Carlos and Keiji sound fun together! (And should definitely make out.)

[(Anonymous)]

I would read that crossover. Keiji could totally be Carlos from the canon VLR timeline, where Akane goes welp, this went terribly, I'm gonna erase Junpei's memory and get involved in a decades long plot to change the past. And you have a nice life or something, Carlos, knowing most of the human race'll be wiped out very shortly. That would give anyone a dose of cynicism. Maybe that's why he trusts Sara so much - he knows exactly how accurate those victory percentages are, because he's experienced 'em all. :P

You know I'm not much of a shipper for anything, but can't see why people would spend all their time moaning about Keiji/Sara, which is commented on by the game (all the "you're cute [so stop asking me questions]!" excuses, along with Keiji's story to Gashu when the pair of you are wandering about being that you're on a date, does he mind?) when the rest of the fandom all seems to ship Sou instead. When exactly is Sou supposed to have time in the time frame to be shipped with anyone anyway unless you're writing an AU? (Unless it's with Kanna, and given that she's a few years younger than Sara, I can't imagine those same people liking that one either. Especially as she acts younger than she is, too.)

(I may or may not be considering writing a small fic... but it's difficult to write characters, as you say, without having a full picture of the plot or other character's experiences.)

[rionaleonhart]

Keiji could totally be Carlos from the canon VLR timeline, where Akane goes welp, this went terribly, I'm gonna erase Junpei's memory and get involved in a decades long plot to change the past.

Oh, wow, this makes perfect sense. That timeline was so upsetting. Carlos going 'HEY, I MISSED THE OPPORTUNITY TO SAVE THE WORLD JUST SO I COULD MEET YOU GUYS' and Akane going 'what the fuck, are you serious, goodbye forever' and Carlos going 'but... but I love you.'

I haven't seen anyone actually shipping Sou/Kanna, but I have seen a bunch of people going 'fuck Sou/Kanna shippers'. Usually in the same breath as 'fuck Keiji/Sara shippers', because apparently there are no distinctions to be drawn between shipping fourteen-year-olds with adults and shipping seventeen-year-olds with adults. You can't ship anyone who's under eighteen with an adult or you're a monster, it seems, and that applies equally regardless of whether the character in question is a week or four years from being eighteen. But, yes, now that I think about it, I don't even know whether Sou/Kanna shippers exist; it's possible the antis just dreamt them up and then got furious about these hypothetical people.

when the rest of the fandom all seems to ship Sou instead.

I've seen people go 'WHY SHIP KEIJI/SARA WHEN YOU CAN SHIP KEIJI/SOU INSTEAD' and the answer is '...because... they have... entirely different dynamics?' If I find-and-replace Sara's name with Sou in my fanfiction, I feel the readers are probably going to suspect that something's amiss.

all the "you're cute [so stop asking me questions]!" excuses

Ha, yes! The game does seem to be implying that Keiji could potentially have some level of romantic interest in Sara. I'll laugh very hard if Keiji/Sara becomes canon and the fandom catches fire.

(If you do write a fic, I'd love to read it! Do you have a concept in mind?)

[(Anonymous)]

Obviously the solution is just to ship Sara/Joe. Only monsters kiss on first dates - but we held hands!! Surely there are no problems there. (That's probably about the level of shipfic I could write, too - ANY ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIP WILL JUST BE KINDA VAGUELY IMPLIED.)

(Concerning the game but not particularly concerning this post (and being vague so not as to blindside anyone with spoilers): I've been thinking about which characters have been totally unable to die so far in the game, and therefore you'd assume will be carrying some reasonable chunk of plot in the last chapter - although some of them have already had lots of focus. I'm very curious what the first trial was for the person in that number whose first trial isn't accounted for yet.)

Only vaguely. While fandom are having their shipwars, I want to look down the bad end of chapter 2, shall we call it? And look at the concept of forgetting traumatic memories, but those memories not wanting to be forgotten. If I write it, it'll probably be confusingly metaphysical.

[rionaleonhart]

Sara/Joe does seem to be Morally Permitted, according to the would-be fandom regulators!

I'm very curious what the first trial was for the person in that number whose first trial isn't accounted for yet.

I was going 'wait, I thought they were all accounted for?' and then realised I'd completely forgotten the character you were thinking of, which is odd; they've had a lot of screentime and I like them!

And look at the concept of forgetting traumatic memories, but those memories not wanting to be forgotten.

This is very up my street and I enthusiastically encourage/am slightly tempted to steal this idea.

[graveexcitement]

No, Riona. There's room for more than one ripped blond murder game guy in your heart.

there absolutely is! though i hadn’t been comparing carlos and keiji til now, probably because of their differing personalities. but when you put it that way.. ahahaha.

oh no, i just had darkfic idea and i don’t want it >.< basically just... a fic going into detail on the Memorandum, going on the assumption that it’s based on one of the AI simulations, and how that turns out for Keiji & Sara. nope too sad

[rionaleonhart]

I enthusiastically encourage your darkfic idea, even though it would be devastating. (I was very, very worried about the Memorandum and was extremely relieved that things didn't play out in the way it described.)

[graveexcitement]

yep, Memorandum worried me too. i prob won’t write it tho cause i don’t really write darkfic :p (tho if there was some way to make it more hopeful, like being only one loop in a timeloop...)

huh. i know there’s already a fic with Sara and Sou timelooping, but one with Keiji as the looper could be interesting. could be a hypothetical reason why Keiji trusts Sara from the get-go...

[rionaleonhart]

one with Keiji as the looper could be interesting. could be a hypothetical reason why Keiji trusts Sara from the get-go...

Oh, wow, this is a fascinating idea. I suppose this fandom lends itself to time loops, given the 'it's all been done repeatedly with AIs' concept.

[graveexcitement]

yep — though frankly i would’ve expected someone to do timeloop fic in any case, because 1) people like timeloops, and 2) lots of overlap with Danganronpa fandom, which has a few very popular timeloop fics. (Reaching updated again just a month or so ago! i’m so so happy omg.) but the AI sim thing def lends itself to the concept very easily.

[dracothelizard]

One of my ideas is, inevitably, 'Sara wakes up in her normal life with memories of the Death Game, and it's hard for her to process these traumatic experiences that didn't actually happen

I am only surprised that your inevitable idea isn't a Silent Hill crossover.

(My main opinion after the first chapter is SOU YOU DICK also JOE YOU DUMBASS)

[rionaleonhart]

I definitely have had 'could I make a Silent Hill crossover work?' cross my mind.

(Sou is a huge dick. Joe's a good kid, though, dumbass or not.)

[dracothelizard]

Joe tried! Sou...also tried, but mostly he tried to be a dick.