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Update 11: The Running Girl Lilly just barely edged Shizune out in the vote so we’ll take her side in an upcoming scene. It won’t change much in the long run, just the shape of the next few updates.WARNING: This update contains Kenji and fig leaf. (Silence)   The sound of an alarm pulls me out of a fitful slumber and into the unpleasant state of wakefulness. I linger under the blanket for a few minutes, gathering energy to rise up while making excuses as for why I already haven't. Honestly, I wouldn't mind staying here for all day. School is surprisingly exhausting after a long pause, and the culture shock still has not faded, I think. Still, despite getting an impression that skipping class is easy here, I don't think they are going to let me get away that easily. And the nurse is bound to keep breathing down my neck with the talk of exercising as well. So eventually I do rise up, swallow the morning medications and put on my old soccer clothing. Thanks to my condition, I was exempted from taking part in gym classes at Yamaku, so I didn't get issued with a gym outfit. I'd order some to cover such a contingency, but wearing my old soccer clothes is kind of nostalgic. I can't use them for that any more, so maybe they can get a new life this way. A bit like me. After all, if I'm going to start taking care of myself, I can't afford to slack around. I'll start from the basics. Basics which include keeping the rest of my body in shape along with what little I can do to strengthen my heart. Maybe then I can go back to something approaching a normal life; or at least something where I'm less likely to fall over dead at any minute. If you didn’t commit to working out earlier, you still head out in the morning, but you’re kind of  about the whole thing. (Running Sound Effect)  I'm surprised to discover that I'm not the only one present at the track. Not just that, but it's a face I've seen before. The prosthetic-legged girl who bowled me over in the hallway yesterday is running on the track lithely, like a half-mechanical gazelle. What was her name again? It was a short one, but I can't remember. She seems to be running laps at a somewhat easy lope, her prosthetic legs clacking rhythmically on the hard track surface. I wonder what reason she has for running this early in the morning. Maybe it's something akin to mine, and the nurse is oppressing the poor girl to jog just like he is oppressing me. I certainly wouldn't be here if it weren't for my health, and his prompting me to do so. And even with things being like they are, it's only because I wanted to get it out of the way early. The fact that I would be less likely to encounter someone who would witness my pitiful attempts to get in shape was merely a happy accident. I'd leave, but it seems that my former assailant noticed me on her last lap. She waves at me cheerfully and jogs over. Katawa Shoujo OST - Standing Tall (Emi's Theme)   EMI: "Good morning! Your name is Hisao, right?" She grins, seemingly pleased that she'd remembered my name. EMI: "You may not remember me. Emi? I knocked you over in the hall yesterday."  EMI: "'Miss Ibarazaki?'" She imitates Misha 'imitating' Shizune, failing to get the same kind of subdued lilt into her high-pitched voice.  HISAO: "How could I forget such a er, blunt introduction?" Emi has the decency to look vaguely apologetic for a moment before giggling. EMI: "Yeah, sorry about that. Again." HISAO: "Hmm, well, so long as you don't make a habit of it, I suppose I'll be fine." EMI: "Great!" I'm not sure she realized I was joking. HISAO: "So the “spy-consultant” the nurse was talking about... is that actually you?" EMI: "That's right!" HISAO: "Oh. I was expecting someone from the nursing staff, to be honest." EMI: "What, are you saying I don't look like I could be a spy?" HISAO: "No, this is more like a relief. I was afraid he would have someone to watch my every move. Unless you are here to do exactly that." EMI: "No, I'm here for my own reasons, the nurse just asked me if I had seen 'a messy-haired transfer student who looks like he's kinda lost' around the track." HISAO: "So why are you down here?" Emi strikes a dramatic pose. EMI: "Training!" HISAO: "For what?" EMI: "Track!" HISAO: "Ah, I see. You're on the track team, then?" Emi nods enthusiastically. EMI: "Yep! I'm one of the better runners, too!" And modest about it, too. EMI: "Hey, you should join up! It's good exercise, you know." I think that much activity is probably out of the question for me. HISAO: "Nah, I'm not even sure that I really like running all that much. Plus I'm just not into organized sports, you know?" It's true. I never even really got that much into soccer. I mean I'd run around with my friends and all, but that was really the only reason I ever played. It wasn't for the glory to be found on the field, that's for sure. Emi seems to understand my meaning. EMI: "I see, I see. Not that into the whole organization thing. But now that you're here, I guess we're going to run together, huh?" HISAO: "What? Er, sure, I guess." Emi seems pleased. EMI: "Are you going to warm up?" HISAO: "Real men don't warm up."  EMI: "Oh no, you always should warm up! Bad Hisao!" She scolds me enthusiastically, but then smiles and leans closer. EMI: "I hate warming up too." She laughs suddenly.  EMI: "Heck, and I don't even have to stretch my legs!"   As if to confirm her statement she bounces up and down a couple of times, giving a passing impression of standing on a pair of springs. Her legblades seem to be quite elastic. I’m not sure how clear it is in the images, but her sprite really does bounce up and down, complete with flexing sound effect. EMI: "Let's go!" (Silence)  Note the blur effect. So we both take off around the track, and I can immediately see that she wasn't lying about being good at running. Emi moves fluidly, throwing herself into the run with a sort of wild abandon. I find myself concentrating more on running properly. Hands spread, right? And something about hitting on the balls of your feet, rather than the heels... I try to match my stride to Emi's, but it's pretty difficult. Apparently I'm not very good at it. Maybe Emi could help me with that sometime. I'm really not feeling up to more than a couple of laps today, and slow to a walk pretty quickly.  Goodbye, blur effect. Emi keeps running, and doesn't seem to notice I've stopped until she passes me a second time. She quickly skids to a halt, breathing steadily in contrast to my own somewhat gasping demeanor. If you chose not to promise to keep yourself healthy earlier, you peter out here without even bothering trying to run properly. Katawa Shoujo OST - Standing Tall (Emi's Theme) EMI: "Finished already?" I hang my head ruefully. HISAO: "Heh, yeah. I'm not in very good shape right now." Emi nods, and then grins at me again. She seems to do a lot of smiling. EMI: "Well, the important thing is you started, right? Next time, you just have to try to hold out longer, and then longer, and longer, and eventually you'll be great!" HISAO: "I'll keep that in mind. But I think right now I'm going to go get ready for class. Shouldn't you?" Emi shrugs unconcernedly. EMI: "Nah, I've got plenty of time." I notice that she's not wearing a watch. HISAO: "Are you sure?" Another careless shrug. EMI: "Not really... but I've got to finish my routine!”  EMI: “See you later, Hisao!" HISAO: "Er, yeah. See ya." (Silence) I'm not sure whether this morning's experiment was a success or a failure, but I'll admit that I do feel slightly good about getting out there this morning. And like Emi said, I just need to keep at it in order to get better, right? Practice makes perfect, or something like that. It's nice at least to feel like I've taken some semblance of control over my own health. I'll have to try to keep this up. If you didn’t commit earlier, you conclude it was definitely a failure. I head back to the dorms to wash and change into my uniform, trying to resist the urge to take a really long and hot shower. I'm tired from all the running, so I just want to unwind, but I don't want to break my slowly building routine of getting to school before the morning rush. After taking a long shower anyway, I dry myself off and get out of the stall to put on my clothes.  Out of nowhere, a shadow appears within the mist, looming and radiating malicious intent. It bursts through the fog. Katawa Shoujo OST - Out of the Loop (Kenji's Theme)   KENJI: "Sup?" HISAO: "What are you doing here? What the hell, you scared me! What's your problem?!" KENJI: "I should be asking you that. I've been looking for you all over the place, man." HISAO: "What do you mean “all over the place”?" I want to ask if he's been looking for me like that, stark naked, but hold my tongue back. I finally realize I'm still naked too and quickly hold up my shirt in front of me, but Kenji doesn't seem to notice a thing. His glasses are fogged up. But then, why doesn't he wipe them off? Is his vision so bad it's like he's perpetually seeing through fog? KENJI: "You know, your room, and... Yeah, that's it. Hey, I mean, I still had to get up, though. Whatever. It's not important. Can I borrow some money?" He puts on an innocent face and looks away, trying very hard to look very casual. It doesn't work; he's as transparent as his windowpane-sized glasses. Talking neutrally like this, wearing nothing, feels awkward. Actually, somehow it's even more awkward to be naked in front of someone when they can't see me being naked. To say nothing of the fact that he's naked as well. I try to brush the feeling off, with little success. HISAO: "Money? Sure." KENJI: "Awesome." HISAO: "Wait, why do you need it?" KENJI: "Ehhhh... Can't you just give it to me because I had the good will not to run through your pockets while you were in the shower? I could have, but I exercised restraint. And in the end, isn't it the thought that counts? Come on, be a pal." This makes no sense. If it's the thought that counts, I should withhold payment, since his thoughts were so clearly impure and his intentions are probably even more sinister since he can't tell me what they are. I say as much to him. KENJI: "I'm offended man, but if that is your game, then fine, I guess I have no choice. I want to order a pizza, and I already have most of the cost of the pizza. I need your help for the rest." HISAO: "I get some of that pizza too, right?" KENJI: "No." HISAO: "Are you serious?" KENJI: "Yeah. I would give you some, but you have class, you don't have time to eat a pizza." HISAO: "What about you?!" KENJI: "I'm not going to class, I have to wait for the pizza and pay the guy. And then eat it. It's not easy. You have to obtain the pizza stealthily. If you don't, everyone will see you. And the pizza. And they will ask for a slice. It's a hard world out there. Everyone wants a piece. Then you're left pizzaless in an unforgiving world. It's happened before, that's how I know. Every day, I plan my vengeance, so that when the people who wronged me order a pizza, I will be there. Ever vigilant!" Kenji strikes a dramatic pose, completely without irony. KENJI: "But yeah, I only need like 400 yen. Please! You're my only hope! I can't go outside and buy my own pizza, it's too far! I try not to go out unless it's absolutely necessary. Let me tell you what happened the last time I went out without carefully planning it out in advance. I was outside. I can't remember what I was doing. Something. Standing? Maybe wondering how I got there. And then, out of nowhere, it happened. Like a flash of lightning, splitting the sky, like how you split a sandwich into two equal pieces to make it more manageable to hold and eat, a bird crapped on my head. It was the second most shocking moment of my life." HISAO: "What was the first?" He ignores me and keeps going. I want to grab him and shake him. Is he just trying to keep momentum? I'll go with that, even if it's more likely he just didn't hear me. KENJI: "It was like in the openings to some kind of anime show, you know how there is always a part where the main dude is fighting his rival, and they fly at each other and clash swords and there's like, big dramatic colored auras and zoom?”  KENJI: “It was like that, but with poo." HISAO: "Okay." KENJI: "So yeah, I need some money. Please? Don't leave me hanging, man. I only need like 1000 yen." HISAO: "I thought it was 400." KENJI: "Okay." HISAO: "What?" KENJI: "I'll pay you back, I swear." HISAO: "You better, that's what it means to borrow stuff." KENJI: "I don't know when I'll be able to pay you back." HISAO: "You have one week." KENJI: "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhggggggggggghhhhhhhh......" Kenji winces and makes a noise like a dying cow, a particularly disturbing fact given that his baton is conducting freely. KENJI: "You're not supposed to be so tight assed about money between brothers in arms, man. Men have it bad enough as it is. Did you know that male porn stars only make about half of what female porn stars make?" HISAO: "That doesn't mean anything unless you're a porn star." KENJI: "So maybe I am a porn star, on the side, struggling to make ends meet as I fight the feminist agenda, and you can't even spot me your crumbs, you bastard. Nobody understands. Nobody." Wouldn't feminists be against pornography in the first place? HISAO: "This feminist agenda stuff again?" KENJI: "This stuff is important. I can see that you don't give a poo poo, but this is serious, here. Feminists... are a dangerous enemy, make no mistake. You take them lightly, and you'll wake up in the morning with a knife in your back, bam! Out of nowhere!" HISAO: "How do you wake up in the morning if someone stabbed you in your sleep?" KENJI: "Women are terrible at stabbing things." HISAO: "I thought you just said don't take them lightly." KENJI: "Well, I mean don't take them lightly for the big things. Individually they're not a threat, but if there was some kind of war, like a big war, with men on one side, and the feminist forces on the other side, it would be pretty ugly. And that day will come, when the feminists come out of their central top secret worldwide feminist headquarters, and say “It's on now, motherfuckers!”" HISAO: "You're being ridiculous, there's no big worldwide feminist headquarters building, where would they even hide that? I mean, it'd have to be massive, you couldn't hide that on Earth, someone would notice a big fortress with women only in it." KENJI: "Who said it was on Earth?" I turn away from Kenji and start practicing frowning faces in a mirror so that I can figure out what kind of frown will best express my emotions. He can't see me from this distance anyway. Which, unfortunately, means that he just keeps on ranting without any regard to sense or sensibility. KENJI: "Yeah, there is a war going on. A war not many know about, but it's a great one that will one day boil over, and encompass all of the known world. Then, we will have to pick sides. We will have to make a stand. In fact, it's happening right now. Imagine it, the bloody battlefield. A vicious conflict without end. I almost gave up, when I thought this cause was silly... When I grew tired of the bleakness of our fight... When I mistook the time the power went out for a feminist raid and thought the end was near... But then I realized that if I gave up, it would all be over, and I was like, “whoa” and knew I had to get serious. Because I am the last sane man in an insane world. It's about duty."  HISAO: "Must be a pretty crappy movement if it all hinges on one naked guy, ranting in a bathroom at another naked guy." KENJI: "So can I have the money?" He's blocking the way out, it's getting cold because I'm still naked, and I want to go to class, so I agree to spot him the money. KENJI: "Awesome. Thanks, dude. We should go bowling later on." HISAO: "Bowling?" KENJI: "Yeah, it's the ultimate sport. There are almost no women bowlers either, making it also the manliest sport. Should I wear my pink bowling shirt with matching shoes or the pastel green with flower accents?" HISAO: "There are bowling clothes?" KENJI: "Maybe." HISAO: "Anyway, you had better pay me back." KENJI: "I can pay you back in stuff, right?" I don't have the time to ask him to elaborate on what that means. HISAO: "I don't know. I have to get to class, you're kind of in the way." KENJI: "Oh. Sorry. Yeah, I don't want to hold you up, and I have some stuff to do myself. The time has come." HISAO: "The time for what?" KENJI: "I just like saying that. Okay, now the time has really come." HISAO: "For what?" KENJI: "I have to use the bathroom. Get out of it." HISAO: "I was just going to! And what does that mean? It's a big bathroom. " KENJI: "So? I have to be alone or I can't go. The pressure..." HISAO: "Okay. What if someone else comes in?" KENJI: "...I'll think of something." I give him my practiced frown and it looks kind of silly reflected in his glasses. He either doesn't notice or doesn't see, anyway, so I get dressed and run back to my room, feeling as though an eternity has passed since I woke up. (Silence)  That is time I will never get back. I'll get him for this somehow. But right now, I have to get to class. Falconier111 fucked around with this message at 19:32 on Aug 19, 2021 |
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Jun 4, 2021 20:42
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I didn't want to interrupt the conversation earlier, but: Nidoking, Haifisch, Psycho Lawnmower, and EclecticTastes, you've all posted things I'd like to throw into the OP. Permission? Also, taking requests for the next Disability Corner. I'll do IQ bullshit next, I think, but it's time I covered something on the physical disabilities side of things. After all, that is what this game focuses on 
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Jun 4, 2021 20:50
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Social construction of physical disability? I usually just point out stuff like stairs and non-level boarding for trains but I'd be interested in more depth. Also, jeeze Kenji. I can only imagine that rant was less ominous a decade or so ago. Though Hisao does accurately capture the tone of "Uhhhh I just wanna get out of this conversation with as little friction as possible."
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Jun 4, 2021 21:09
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So are we supposed to hate Kenji? Because he's honestly a huge piece of poo poo.
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Jun 4, 2021 21:10
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Hey OP, are you actually just screenshotting the game? Have you tried recording the game instead? That way you could show gifs of the animations, if you are up for some light video editing...
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Jun 4, 2021 21:34
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Kenji is the worst, and the first place I think you can really feel the 4chan fingerprints on this. Whether or not it's the intent, I get the impression the game is trying to portray him as a harmless goofball (which tracks with the attitude I'd expect people who frequent 4chan to have toward someone like him), and it's incredibly jarring. He's pretty convincingly written, but that doesn't make him appropriate for what this game is otherwise trying to do? (Also, I'm pretty uncomfortable with the "feminists have a base off-planet" thing, that's sounding very close to a lot of real-world antisemitic conspiracy theories like the "lizard people" thing. Please tell me he never mentions Jews.)
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Jun 4, 2021 21:58
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I think the best thing about Kenji is the fact that his presence causes Hisao to shift into full on Kyon from haruhi mode.
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Jun 4, 2021 22:03
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Kenji acts kind of like you'd expect a brain rotted 4channer to act. I suppose it's appropriate, though I probably would have punched him for that stunt.
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Jun 4, 2021 22:10
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Kenji is probably the worst part of this game, and I say that as someone who's weirdly fond of the little freak. I will say that he does have some redeeming qualities, and a few of his rants can actually be pretty funny, but yeah he's meant to be grating and generally unpleasant to interact with. Also keep in mind that this was written when people like him were widely perceived as a fringe group of mostly harmless nutjobs that you'd occasionally run into online, instead of the very real problem they're known to be today. This isn't really a defense, because frankly Kenji doesn't warrant much defending, but I find it helps to remember he's a product of the time this game was made.
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Jun 4, 2021 22:30
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Falconier111 posted:I didn't want to interrupt the conversation earlier, but: Nidoking, Haifisch, Psycho Lawnmower, and EclecticTastes, you've all posted things I'd like to throw into the OP. Permission? Sounds good to me.
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Jun 4, 2021 22:52
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Falconier111 posted:I didn't want to interrupt the conversation earlier, but: Nidoking, Haifisch, Psycho Lawnmower, and EclecticTastes, you've all posted things I'd like to throw into the OP. Permission? Go for it, and you can just add any of my posts going forward to the OP when/if you consider them worth adding. If I didn't want people reading them, I wouldn't post them. Falconier111 posted:Wouldn't feminists be against pornography in the first place? Also, just as an aside, there are actually a lot of different schools (or "waves") of feminist thought, each with a different answer to this question, and it generally comes down to a matter of agency and control over the production process, and whether women are being exploited by it. Assuming that feminists would automatically be opposed to pornography is itself something of a Kenji idea, and another detail that shows the game was written over a decade ago.
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Jun 4, 2021 23:32
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Falconier111 posted:I didn't want to interrupt the conversation earlier, but: Nidoking, Haifisch, Psycho Lawnmower, and EclecticTastes, you've all posted things I'd like to throw into the OP. Permission?
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Jun 4, 2021 23:50
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Dance Officer posted:Kenji acts kind of like you'd expect a brain rotted 4channer to act. I suppose it's appropriate, though I probably would have punched him for that stunt. Not sure if it is healthy for Hisao to exert himself that much.
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Jun 5, 2021 00:05
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It’s exercise. Doctor’s orders.
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Jun 5, 2021 08:59
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Kenji... Was a lot funnier at the time. At least to us at a time when it was not common knowledge what "dogwhistles" were, or just how nasty those beliefs could get. Before incels, before Trump, before Gamergate, before this kind of person became a lot more serious. Nobody was equipped to properly understand where views like that came from or what they really meant. He was just to be this awful little gremlin boy, annoying but ultimately harmless. We were very wrong. At first we'd joke that we predicted the alt-right, but that became a lot less funny before long. And I really want to reiterate that most of us didn't use 4chan.
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Jun 5, 2021 15:43
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Falconier111 posted:
I'll be the one to point out that they're running in the wrong direction, I guess: when you run track, you go around counter-clockwise, so from your perspective the track curves to the left, not to the right as in this picture. (True, sometimes you do switch it up and run clockwise, because especially if you're a pro athlete curving in the same direction every time can be bad for you. But still.)
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Jun 5, 2021 16:24
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renessia posted:Kenji... Was a lot funnier at the time. At least to us at a time when it was not common knowledge what "dogwhistles" were, or just how nasty those beliefs could get. Before incels, before Trump, before Gamergate, before this kind of person became a lot more serious. Nobody was equipped to properly understand where views like that came from or what they really meant. He was just to be this awful little gremlin boy, annoying but ultimately harmless. We were very wrong. ...Yeah, this deserves to be in the OP too, if you would. E: Actually, if you could elaborate on transition from 4channers to the final team, that would shed some light on the issue. EclecticTastes posted:Go for it, and you can just add any of my posts going forward to the OP when/if you consider them worth adding. If I didn't want people reading them, I wouldn't post them. I know, you've said it before . To some extent that section is an oral history, and I learned the ethics of taking oral histories in grad school: you always get permission before including someone's testimony. I should be giving you a 1-page contract laying out how I can quote you, what you can and can't request I take down, rights to proceeds if applicable, etc. to make it legit (even if it is complete overkill), but since Something Awful is a forum with anonymous users asking permission for specific information is the best I can do I'd forgotten how much I adore putting together oral histories. I love that poo poo  Space Kablooey posted:Hey OP, are you actually just screenshotting the game? Have you tried recording the game instead? That way you could show gifs of the animations, if you are up for some light video editing... Can't do it for both technical and health reasons. Tech-wise, KS only runs in 800x600 and I refuse to use my computer like that unless I'm actually playing the game, so I'm leery about experimenting with new software when constant alt-tabbing already screws with things. Health-wise, I'm already pushing my arms as it is, so learning to use a new program well enough to extract gifs from it would put even more stress on my tendons 
Falconier111 fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Jun 5, 2021 |
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Jun 5, 2021 16:49
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renessia posted:Kenji... Was a lot funnier at the time. At least to us at a time when it was not common knowledge what "dogwhistles" were, or just how nasty those beliefs could get. Before incels, before Trump, before Gamergate, before this kind of person became a lot more serious. Nobody was equipped to properly understand where views like that came from or what they really meant. He was just to be this awful little gremlin boy, annoying but ultimately harmless. We were very wrong. Adding to that, as a white person, I didn't really know all that much about systemic racism, feminism and microaggressions until I was an adult in college when Gamergate blew up. A character like Kenji would have flown over my head back then. (I don't think Kenji is racist in game, but he would definitely be the type of person to shout the n-word at black people)
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Jun 5, 2021 17:03
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renessia posted:Kenji... Was a lot funnier at the time. At least to us at a time when it was not common knowledge what "dogwhistles" were, or just how nasty those beliefs could get. Before incels, before Trump, before Gamergate, before this kind of person became a lot more serious. Nobody was equipped to properly understand where views like that came from or what they really meant. He was just to be this awful little gremlin boy, annoying but ultimately harmless. We were very wrong. The operative word here is "common knowledge" because that all depends on who you are, where you live, etc. because Kenji was never funny to me. There have been atrocious things that have happened before Kenji and this game.
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Jun 5, 2021 17:42
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Hi hello, I am a long-time sufferer of a whole host of maladies, and I also love talking about them! Let's start with my big one: Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome It sucks when you have to explain what the problem is to your doctor because they've never heard of it, and I have a bunch of mental impairments that aren't very conducive to remembering the medical nitty-gritty - but the gist is my collagen is weakened and/or defective. That's bad cause collagen is in your everything; from bones, to muscle, to blood vessels, and organs. And when it's defective, it doesn't work right, or grow back as fast, and also it puts you in constant pain and aches in your joints and limbs for the rest of your life as everything is slowly ground to dust slowly and painfully. With no cure!!! Lots of muscle pain, scars don't heal right or just reopen sometimes, lots of dislocations and subluxations because poo poo just doesn't sit right, and it tends to comorbid with depression (gee I wonder why!!). - - - - - - You already looked at autism so the next one is Narcolepsy! Specifically: Narcolepsy with Cataplexy Media gets it wrong. It's not, oh you're fine then suddenly -blam- face into soup passed out. No you'll never be "fine", because narcolepsy means you will never have a good night's sleep ever in your life. You will wake up just as tired as you went to bed, for the rest of your life, and always at the precipice of passing out from exhaustion. Yes I can pass out instantly, I've down it standing up, sitting down, while riding my loving bike to work, no it doesn't help. Cataplexy only affects some people with narcolepsy, not all narcoleptics have it, but all cataplexy victims have narcolepsy. Cataplexy is a sudden loss of muscle tone, due to an unexpected change in emotion. Getting upset, frightened, or even finding a joke unexpectedly hilarious will cause my legs to buckle and send me to the loving floor. And it sucks! You can't really prevent it from happening! Aside from sitting forever or being in bed, which is what I've done to accommodate my problems!! None of these are curable, there are medicines to treat the symptoms but they're lifelong companions and will ruin your loving day if you dont consider them in everything you do. They're also invisible illnesses and nobody will care and you'll be expected to be able to do as much as a nonsuffering person because you can't really prove any of them without extensive medical visits and testing, long wait times and during all that you need to go to school and get a job and live your life!! I use a cane, and it got brought up in the game with the same comment I heard constantly (you're too young to need a cane) because EDS and cataplexy are a motherfucker together and murder on my legs and if my condition gets any worse, I'll need a wheelchair which sucks because the whole fuckin world is inaccessible as hell!!
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Jun 5, 2021 20:59
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Flair posted:There are counter movements called Linguistic reappropriation where the subjected group may reclaim the negative term as an empowering term for themselves. Obviously, this raises some questions and concerns, and they have a wide range of efficacy. Nevertheless, the perpetual cycle of humanity's issues continues. This happened with Deafness to an extent, by the way. The original term was deaf and dumb. Nowaday culturally Deaf people refer to themselves as being Deaf. Hearing impaired was definitely not something that Deaf people coined. That's something the Hearing people came up with, I assume, to sound less harsh. But I won't look harshly on anyone who feels more comfortable using that term, since a lot of people become deaf over time as they become older and they don't really become culturally Deaf. Marluxia fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Jun 6, 2021 |
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Jun 6, 2021 01:51
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Marluxia posted:This happened with Deafness to an extent, by the way. The original term was deaf and dumb. Nowaday culturally Deaf people refer to themselves as being Deaf. By “culturally deaf”, I assume you mean “part of the deaf community“? Can you talk a bit about that?
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Jun 6, 2021 17:32
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Falconier111 posted:By “culturally deaf”, I assume you mean “part of the deaf community“? Can you talk a bit about that? I’m glad this came up because it gives me a chance to talk about an adjacent thing that’s tremendously impactful, but non-disabled folks would never know about or see it at all. Deaf culture is 100% a thing, but I’m not deaf and can’t speak to its specifics. What I can speak to is blind culture, which is also very much a thing. Blind folks have one of the highest unemployment rates among disabled people. I don’t know the current figure, but it tends to hover between 70 and 80%. In the United States specifically, so much of one’s identity is tied up in one’s work, and being excluded from the world of work very frequently—without some great degree of personal effort—will exclude folks from society at large. Think about the first question you’re often asked when meeting someone new. “What do you do?” That inocuous question, so ingrained in US/capitalist society, does more damage than you’d realize. We haven’t even gotten to discriminatory hiring yet. If you couple that high rate of unemployment with social isolation, and add a dash of specialized school much like the one in the LP, you’ve created a perfect storm for an insular and sometimes adversarial culture to develop. There’s also a lot of internalized ableism in parenting, too, but that’s a can of worms I wouldn’t even try to touch in this post, because it’s both thorny and very particular from family to family. Anyway, the overarching and constant messages of rejection that grow out of a society at large forces people to develop cultures of their own. Blind folks tend to stick together. So much so that I can’t hang out with another blind person without making gauche jokes about it like, “Oh look out! They travel in packs.” I mean people are unlikely to see one blind person, let alone two, let alone fifteen. Ask me about getting wasted with a huge cavalcade of blind people at an awful tex mex joint sometime. Nothing good about it. Trust me. So there’s an oppositional mindset that can develop in these communities. People without disabilities often arrogantly believe their common notion of normal should be the standard. And they do so with so much fervor that it begins to feel like a bland, matter-of-fact denial of your lived existence as a blind person. I think deaf people deal with this too. Implants, for instance, are a hot button issue in the deaf community. The story goes, if you reject who I am and feel you are the arbiter of what constitutes normal, I will exist in very direct opposition to that idea. It can get militant. For instance, blind people specifically have a very large org here in the US, the NFB, which is known for being both rigid in their conception of how to exist as a blind person, and also quite militant about their beliefs. Many NFB members believe that if you use a dog guide, you are not truly independent. Most of us, those who made an effort to both integrate and not put up with ableist poo poo, kind of shrug off the greater culture, because, and this is just my personal belief, living your life in opposition only creates misery. You start to speak in a language, there are common tools, common solutions, common ableist interactions, common frustrations. And I think blindness and deafness, more than other disabilities, cut you off from the world in a way that non-disabled people just can’t grasp. So a culture will definitely rise out of that. Hope it’s cool that I busted in like that. Entrenched disabled culture is a very interesting topic to me, both for its ability to unite, and also in the ways it can be kinda destructive. unattended spaghetti fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Jun 6, 2021 |
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Jun 6, 2021 18:40
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Not exactly the same but similar; the stigma of the wheelchair. Most ableds see the wheelchair as a last resort, like if you're in one it's because you have like no other choice. They get upset if you use it as a sometimes mobility aid like I would a cane. Walking loving hurts a lot and I'd love a chair that moves but gently caress you if you wanna use one while having a job. Hell, I'm afraid to use the mobility ridey carts at the grocery store because "I don't look old or handicapped" or whatever and some upright-walking smug motherfucker wants to mouth off. Ain't worth the hassle, so I just creep along with my pain cane - or better yet I just fuckin instacart groceries nowadays. Covid has forced a lot of accessible options that weren't readily available before to be considered and I'm glad cuz life's exhausting enough without having to walk to the store and back (Narcolepsy means I'm not qualified to have a license!!)
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Jun 6, 2021 19:02
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No, I'm glad you chimed in. I didn't want to have to type all of that myself. A lot of it is the same, unemployment rate, specialized language, our language is a literal language, though! A big thing shared around the community was a skit from that ABC show, "What would you do?" They worked with a Deaf school to create a skit where a Deaf person was applying for a job in the kitchen and the employer was clearly being very audist. You got the usual people who stood up for the Deaf job seeker, of course, but they did show three separate person, who all claimed to work in HR and recruiting, and they were giving the employer actual tips on how not to hire the Deaf person, "I agree with you, but don't say it like that, you can't say that, you have to find a reason unrelated to their deafness" etc. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqI1d4rLWSM And the language is sort of a barrier relating to education/employment too. So there are many signing language, but the main one in North America is ASL, American Sign Language. My parents chose to raise me through SEE, "Signing Exact English" because they were concerned about my prospects, and SEE isn't an actual language, just trying to sign english the way you would speak it. It was helpful for school, growing up. Even today, my partner, who took ASL courses in post secondary school is able to understand the texts from a Deaf friend I grew up with more than me, because their texts are very very strongly ASL grammarized. ASL has its own structure and grammar, which can make speaking to non-deaf people harder because the way they talk will look very jumbled. As you can imagine, this makes communication harder. You mentioned the gauche joke, and yeah, if you own a restaurant or cafe or whatever, and agreed to host Deaf people, uh oh, hope you're prepared for them to spend hours there just chatting, and they're so busy chatting, they're probably not gonna spend much on your products. There's even a term for that, DST, "Deaf Standard Time". The community is huge but that does come with its own issues. Because it's so big, it tends to overcome any other identity you might have, like queer, black, transgender, and so on. You're a Deaf person first and foremost. I have friends trying to work on that, teaching intersectionality, but it's tough. And it can feel like a small world at times too. Gossip gets around a lot and fast, I met an old Deaf man at a sporting event(non Deaf), and I got the feeling that he had some unresolved issues with the community as a whole, relating to his partner. I didn't dig because I was going through a bit of that myself too. The community is a good thing, but it's not for everyone. A lot of it is militant and very insular. If you're not in, you're out. And the reason isn't always related to your level of hearing ability. And yeah cochlear implant is a big issue. Even hearing aids are touchy. There's a lot of mixed opinion about it, but a lot of it is extremely negative, mostly toward the implants. (Deaf is capitalized if you're talking about culturally Deaf, and you might have seen the word audist, audism used, it's like sexism, racism, except relating to hearing.)
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Jun 6, 2021 19:54
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Deaf culture seems generally similar to me to non-vernacular speaking first generation immigrant communities, likely for similar reasons. If there's a limited group of people you can easily talk with + shared life experiences, you get similar kinds of group dynamics. Cochlear implant/hearing aids are like concerns about children not learning their parent's language, except with extra ethics worms since not doing them is a much more effective forcing function.
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Jun 6, 2021 21:02
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Marluxia posted:And yeah cochlear implant is a big issue. Even hearing aids are touchy. There's a lot of mixed opinion about it, but a lot of it is extremely negative, mostly toward the implants. I'd love to hear more about this. As someone in the med device industry who has studied these extensively, it's the kind of thing that I'd want to create to help people. It's interesting to me that there'd be pushback against them. Granted, cochlear implants are hugely limited (and that limitation is pretty closely related to how nerves work, how electromagnetic waves work, and just general limitations of physics and biology), and it is very obvious that you're talking to someone with a cochlear implant instead of someone whose hearing is not impaired. As much as I'm not (and hopefully never will be) patient facing in any capacity, it's still really helpful to gain insight on how people with disabilities view devices that are meant to mitigate some of the downsides that those disabilities have.
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Jun 6, 2021 23:25
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From what I've read about hearing children of Deaf adults, the comparison to first generation immigrants makes even more sense. Both the cultural alienation/establishing identity aspect and having your parents depend heavily on you from a very young age. I forgot where I read it, but generally there are three approaches to disability in society: eugenics, normalization/assimilation, and identity. Deaf culture is obviously an example of the third, but empirically speaking, eugenics (the modern incarnation of this with respect to hearing is usually cochlear implants/genetic screening) has been overwhelmingly dominant for millennia. It helps to keep that trilemma in mind when thinking about disability advocacy. BurningBeard posted:Many NFB members believe that if you use a dog guide, you are not truly independent. I'd love to hear more about the controversy around guide dogs! How does that express itself in the community?
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Jun 6, 2021 23:26
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There’s not much to say really. NFB is pretty oldschool/conservative/run by old timers with a decidedly human-centric notion of independence. Essentially they don’t really give blind people any flex. The thought goes that to rely on anything that you don’t control means you didn’t do it right. It’s a stupid, regressive belief. Where I think it comes from is that any form of reliance is kind of anathema. Like, you have a cane, there are codified techniques for using that cane. Most blind folks I know think it’s dumb. And I agree. Flexibility and fluidity in your approach to living is pretty much the greatest skill you can develop as a blind person. That, and having a very thick skin. And I think judging people for opting for one adaptive methodology over another is .. well … kind of a good way to demonstrate your own internalized ableism. Put another way, NFB folks are like gamers, the cane is Dark Souls, and guide dogs are for filthy casuals. You know, just some meritocracy nonsense. I’ve never hung out with someone who’s particularly strident about these beliefs, because I don’t like hanging out with assholes. Though, there is a pretty wild subcommunity of blind people that believe they can train their own guide dogs. They can’t. It always ends in tears.
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Jun 7, 2021 02:44
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Foxfire_ posted:From a few pages back, someone said that Actual Japan diverts disabled kids into separate schools sort of like the game school. Do they do that for things that don't actually require much/any accommodation? It would be up to the student's parent(s)/guardian(s) then (technically it always is, but in many cases it's not much of a choice). In my (limited) experience, when kids who didn't need academic accommodations or health monitoring enrolled in the special-needs school, it was often because they had been bullied or generally struggled socially at mainstream schools. To speculate about something it seems the LP won't get to for a while, it seems likely that Hanako's situation is something like this, where she could have handled a mainstream school academically but not socially. Emi seems more well-adjusted, but as her disability is very visible, it could be a factor for her too. But it's also possible that she does need support that other schools couldn't provide and we just don't know enough about her situation yet. Quick edit: The regular schools I worked at were not at all accessible for people with mobility issues - lots of stairs, no ramps, no elevators - and from what I've seen in media, at least, that seems to be pretty standard. So if there are ever times when she can't use/needs a break from her prosthetics, that could be an issue. Ghost Car fucked around with this message at 03:33 on Jun 7, 2021 |
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Jun 7, 2021 03:25
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I'd guess that the desire for self-sufficiency comes from either not wanting to be pitied or from not having (or being able to trust) one's support network. Pity is as toxic in its own way as contempt. Is there a divide between people who are born disabled and those who become disabled later?
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Jun 7, 2021 11:15
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Cobalt-60 posted:Is there a divide between people who are born disabled and those who become disabled later? Wasn't there a South Park episode that... uh... explored that space?
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Jun 7, 2021 13:02
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Cobalt-60 posted:I'd guess that the desire for self-sufficiency comes from either not wanting to be pitied or from not having (or being able to trust) one's support network. Pity is as toxic in its own way as contempt. Speaking as person who was born disabled I guess there is. Those who became still have memories of being abled.
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Jun 7, 2021 16:44
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Update 12: Cold War Katawa Shoujo OST - School Days  I'm the first person in class today, although I think I'm a little too early. Then again, sitting alone here for twenty minutes sure beats having to suffer that time with Kenji. The combination of fatigue, frustration, and boredom starts making me feel very tired. I black out for a second, waking up when my head hits the surface of my desk. Rubbing my forehead, I realize this is as good a reason as any to stay up for now and stop coming to class so early later. Eventually, I hear a tapping noise outside in the hallway, and Lilly's tall figure appears in the doorway. She's not in this class, so she must have some other business. Maybe she's looking for Hanako. Lilly stops at the door, looking hesitant as if she was a vampire who can't come in unless invited. I consider doing so because she looks rather lonesome standing there. She steps in on her own accord though, after straightening her skirt and shirt collar as if it was of importance to look prim when entering our classroom.   LILLY: "Excuse me." She calls into the quiet classroom with a probing, delicate voice. I realize the silence might unnerve her because of her blindness so I break it. HISAO: "Good morning, Lilly." LILLY: "Hisao? Good morning. I didn't hear you come in." I wonder if she thinks it's suspicious I didn't say anything to her before. It's likely. If I were to tell too big a lie now, it would sink me. HISAO: "Well, I was already here, just asleep until now." LILLY: "Oh. Have you seen Hanako today, by any chance?" HISAO: "No, she seems to come in only just before the bells ring... or after that. Do you want me to tell her something for you?" LILLY: "No, it's fine. It's strange, but I think we're the only two people in the school right now. I didn't hear anyone else on my way here." HISAO: "I shouldn't have gotten up so early today, I guess." LILLY: "You're chastising yourself for doing something that other people should? Punctuality is a good thing. I think so, anyway. It's a very busy morning today. The festival is coming up soon, and today is the deadline for event registration, budget reports, and any other official paperwork. It could be that everyone is trying to complete the necessary forms at the last minute. Maybe that is why it's so quiet today."  MISHA: "Hi ~ Hi ~!"  Misha pops into the room with Shizune as if on cue, shouting with a loudness that makes Lilly visibly flinch. MISHA: "Hi, Hicchan~! Hi."  SHIZUNE: "..." MISHA: "Look, it's the class representative~! Hello~!" Lilly smiles, probably amused by Misha's - or Shizune's - use of the word “look. LILLY: "Good morning." SHIZUNE: "..." MISHA: "Of course, you're not the representative of this class, right, right~?" LILLY: "I'm not." Lilly seems a little more guarded in her answers to Shizune than she was with me the other day. I guess they really don't get along at all. Then I realize that Lilly might actually not know Shizune is present and she's trying to detect whether or not she is, to know who she is talking to. For all she knows, she's talking to Misha, but knowing that she and Shizune are practically inseparable, she might expect Shizune being the one that actually “talks.” drat, how complicated. I decide to help Lilly out, for my own peace of mind more than anything else. HISAO: "You're here early, Shizune." SHIZUNE: "..." MISHA: "You were here even earlier than us!" Misha puffs out her cheeks angrily. Why is she getting angry? Does she feel emotions on Shizune's behalf, too? It's not that weird, though, that Shizune didn't like my little comment. It's true, I was here earlier than them, so me saying something like that could definitely be misinterpreted as anything. Especially to Shizune, who doesn't have the benefit of hearing tone to gauge intent. Before I can start weighing whether or not I should apologize, Shizune has already moved on. SHIZUNE: "..."  MISHA: "Class rep~! It's a good thing you're here~! We have to talk." SHIZUNE: "..." MISHA: "The festival is coming up in three days, right? Every other class has already handed in their projected budget reports for their events! Even the first-years! Except you~! Wahaha~!" LILLY: "There is still time to hand it in, isn't there?" (Silence) SHIZUNE: "..."  MISHA: "Today! The deadline is today! You're certainly taking your time, aren't you? If I had it my way, I'd have had all of the necessary paperwork days ago, but someone~! had to say “the deadline, please extend it~!”"  LILLY: "Yes, that was me. Planning something on this scale is not a small task, and a week is too small a time frame to expect a whole class to work out such a complex issue completely." SHIZUNE: "..."  MISHA: "Do you want to know what's harder than distributing the funds for one class' event? Handling the same matter for every class in the school and then some~! The one who does that is me!" Misha puts her hands on her hips and stands up straight. Wow, she is really getting into the role. Lilly doesn't look like she's very amused, though. HISAO: "Hey, Shizune, aren't you being a little too hard on her? There's still a whole day left." LILLY: "Please, Hisao. It's all right." Lilly seems happy I'm taking her side, but a bit conflicted that I might not think she can take care of herself. LILLY: "If this is about the budget, then I'm disappointed you think I have forgotten about it. I understand how important it is." SHIZUNE: "..." MISHA: "Then~! Can I have it, please?" HISAO: "Shizune, she might not have it on her at this exact second." LILLY: "It's not here right now. I asked two students to take care of it for me. Students from my class." She emphasizes the last sentence much to my surprise. She knows about Shizune and Misha's efforts to rope me into the Student Council? I guess word must've gotten around, so now she's using me as ammo against Shizune. This just gets better and better... SHIZUNE: "..." MISHA: "It was your responsibility~! A budget report isn't something you should just be delegating away; as class rep, it's your job to be on top of things! This kind of disregard for proper procedure is really just terrible~!" LILLY: "They completed it, being capable of doing so, but the students have been sick recently, so they could not come to school and give it back to me. If you want, I will apologize on their behalf for getting sick." MISHA: "Okay~!" Although Misha misses Lilly's little jab entirely, Shizune doesn't, and she seems torn between being offended by Lilly's daring and jumping for joy at the prospect of a challenge. SHIZUNE: "..." MISHA: "Lilly, don't they live here at the school? That's a five minute walk, you know~. What could they possibly have that prevents them from taking five minutes out of their busy lives... to drop off something that will affect the enjoyment of their entire class?" Lilly opens her mouth to say something, but Shizune closes the gap between them and starts signing furiously, waving her hands around like an orchestra conductor. Misha tries her best to convey the same passion, but can't seem to lose her normal cheerful tone. The result is interesting and somewhat surreal." SHIZUNE: "..." MISHA: "And what's with that attitude~? I said that it's not something you should be delegating away; are you the class representative or aren't you? Tell me the names of those two students, they should have your job if you can't even handle something this simple yourself." LILLY: "One form isn't the full extent of what I am supposed to take care of." Lilly's tone is growing slightly impatient, but she is doing a good job of not letting Shizune see how unsettled she is becoming. She's playing her cards close to her chest. Shizune, on the other hand, wraps her fingers cheerfully along the edge of her glasses, knowing Lilly can neither hear nor see how excited she is. SHIZUNE: "..." MISHA: "Of course, you do so much, class rep~! It must be so difficult being you~!" Lilly tightens her lips at Misha's words, clearly understanding the intent behind them even though Misha delivers them without even a hint of the sarcasm which they were meant to have. Shizune and Lilly don't like each other, that much is clear, but this seems a little much. It seems like Lilly has had enough and is ready to push back. Katawa Shoujo OST - Track 19 (High Tension) HQ (Sword Unsheathing)  LILLY: "I was actually just discussing the budget report before you came by. You must be very talented to have finished all your student council duties so quickly that you can track me down to make sure I don't forget my own." (Swords Clashing)  MISHA: "Are you accusing me of slacking off? It seems like you're confusing me with yourself~!" The next few lines flip from one portrait to the other, each switch accompanied by another clang. LILLY: "I don't think so. That would be a very difficult thing for me to do; comparing myself to you." MISHA: "You're right, the difference between us is like heaven and hell." LILLY: "And it's not hard to guess which one you might represent." (Lightning Strike)  They had to work that panty shot in there somewhere, didn’t they  The air between them ripples with the heat of their enmity. Well, not really. They can't disguise it any more, though. Even Misha looks like she's beginning to understand the real nature of this conversation. (Silence) SHIZUNE: "..."  MISHA: "Hicchan~! Don't you slack off either~!" HISAO: "What are you talking about?" SHIZUNE: "..." MISHA: "Aren't you taking part in the festival, Hicchan? You are, aren't you? Then~! I hope you're going to do a lot more to make sure it goes smoothly than this person~!"  I don't understand why Shizune is suddenly getting mad at me. >"Don't drag me into this! I've done my part!" >"Hey, come on. Cut me and Lilly some slack..." Probably the second most important choice in the game. Remember that time when we fled into a book instead of socializing? That was step one in unlocking either Shizune’s or Lilly and Hanako’s routes. This is step two. If you side WITH whoever you met up with earlier, you end up soft-locked into their route(s). Is that the right word? I’m trying to say you’ve entered the part of the scene structure that leads directly to their route, but you still have the occasional offramp (most of which lead into the Bad Ending, which I’ll touch on without showing it) before you enter the route proper. I THINK that’s the right term. I’m not exactly an expert at visual novel terminology  . If you side AGAINST them, you lock yourself out of all three routes for good, just as if you hadn’t met up with anyone earlier, and have to content yourself/rejoice in Emi or Rin’s route or the Bad End. =>"Hey, come on. Cut me and Lilly some slack..." Lilly won the poll earlier by a hair, so we’re siding with her this time. It doesn’t really matter, since both routes are locked off anyway. It does, however, determine the content of the next several scenes we get bounced through. HISAO: "Hey, I'm the new guy, remember? It's not like I could've done much, even if I wanted." LILLY: "That's right, you shouldn't expect a transfer student to jump right into it on his first week." Lilly taking my side feels oddly comforting so I decide to back her up too. HISAO: "Yeah you're being unreasonable with us both." SHIZUNE: "..." MISHA: "Excuses, excuses. Miss Class Rep has had plenty of time to deal with her report. And we repeatedly offered you a position to help with the student council work, but you refused to commit yourself to making the festival a success." HISAO: "Yeah, but as I said back then, I'm not sure if..." I don't have time for this right now; no matter what I do, it will mean being drawn into a confrontation with Shizune, and that is what she wants. HISAO: "Whatever. Forget it." Hanako doesn't come to the morning class at all, leaving her seat looking empty and lonely in the back of the classroom. I have to tell her that Lilly was looking for her if I see her later. After the events of this morning, class is pretty boring in comparison. I turn the pages of my textbook lazily. I have a bit of catching up to do, despite trying to keep up with my studies at the hospital, but I'm not feeling that enthusiastic about it. The clock at the front of the room sounds unbearably loud. The teacher hasn't said anything in over seven minutes, instead opting to cover the board in rows and rows of equations taken directly from the book. The rhythmic clashing of chalk on blackboard seems to synchronize perfectly with the ticking of the clock. I start to copy down the equations just to pass the time, even though they are right there in the text book. Katawa Shoujo OST – Afternoon  When the bell rings, I'm not in a hurry because I have nothing to do, so I stay for a while, reviewing what we covered in class today. I prefer to leave last anyway, so I don't have to deal with crowding in the hallways. I notice Shizune and Misha have also stayed behind, talking to someone from another class. Shizune's signing so fast that her hands make noises like swords cutting through the air. Maybe there is pent up anger in there. Misha is trying desperately to keep up, but it's clear she can barely manage to even understand her. I put my head down. Whatever they're discussing, it looks like serious business. Shizune signs to the point where her wrists crackle, and Misha struggles to spit it out in word form. Sometimes she trips over herself like she's dealing with tongue twisters. And then on top of that, she has to sign back anything the other girl says. Seems like a rough job. Misha looks tired, like she's about to faint. Luckily for her, their business is soon finished and the girls sit down on their seats again. MISHA: "Uwaaah! I'm so tired!" She's hanging her head limply on her desk, looking exhausted. I'll use the opportunity to reconcile with Shizune a bit, without getting roped into the student council thing again, though I suspect that door is now closed for me. HISAO: "Festival preparations must be tough for you." Indeed, the people in this school seem to be taking the festival very seriously. Whenever I see people idling around before and after classes they're always talking about their plans for it. It's kind of neat to see everyone being so enthusiastic about it. I'm probably the only one who doesn't have something to do.  Shizune scoffs at me first, as if trying to decide whether to ignore or sneer at me, but in the end she starts signing without doing either. Misha perks up, looking at her hands with slightly unfocused eyes. SHIZUNE: "..." She signs with harsh, heavy, dramatic strokes. Misha translates her signing into speech for me. She does it so well it's almost like Shizune is actually speaking, transmitting her thoughts directly through Misha. She must've practiced it vigorously. MISHA: "Well of course, we're in the Student Council, you know, so we're pretty busy." SHIZUNE: "..." MISHA: "It's an important duty of ours, to ensure the success of the festival with all our strength." SHIZUNE: "..." MISHA: "We would shame ourselves in front of the past student council generations if the festival were to fail." SHIZUNE: "..." MISHA: "That's why there must be no flaws, no... errr I think that was “incumbrances,” no nothing that might make the festival short of perfect." Shizune's passionate speech and Misha's enacting are really oddly fitting of them. MISHA: "Oh? Hello~!" Katawa Shoujo OST – Stride  I look over my shoulder and see Hanako peering timidly into the classroom, most of her body hidden behind the door. MISHA: "Hey! Playing delinquent again?" Hanako blushes hard at Misha's straightforward jab, even if it was only in jest. SHIZUNE: "..."  Shizune stares at her probingly, causing Hanako to look down and start backing away to the point where only her fingers can be seen wrapped nervously around the edge of the door. Maybe she is showing her dislike of Hanako by association of her dislike of Lilly. It appears so, and Hanako probably knows it as well. HISAO: "What is it, Hanako?"  HANAKO: "H... has Lilly been here?" MISHA: "Sorry, haven't seen Satou. She, eh, came by in the morning though." Hanako keeps looking uneasily at Shizune, who stares back at her with her usual studying gaze. What is she trying to do? Of course Shizune isn't going to look away, and she is intimidating enough as it is, so I can only imagine how terrified Hanako would be. It is a little uncomfortable, watching Hanako's reaction to Shizune's normal behavior. This is what happens when two people of two different extremes meet, it seems. HANAKO: "Do... do you know where she is?" SHIZUNE: "..." MISHA: "She might be slacking off somewhere, just like Hicchan~! Wahaha~!" drat, what is it with Shizune and her need to point out stuff like this? Hanako nods quickly and retreats with haste. (Silence) MISHA: "What were we talking about? Oh yeah, we are really working hard to make the festival happen." And driving other people insane along the way. HISAO: "Well, good luck with that." I stand up to leave, making my exit before either of them manages to berate me any more for slacking off. Falconier111 fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Aug 19, 2021 |
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Jun 7, 2021 20:06
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Man, I... really don't like Shizune at this point.
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Jun 7, 2021 20:56
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Quackles posted:Man, I... really don't like Shizune at this point. Yeah, she and Misha don't come off well in this scene at all.
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Jun 7, 2021 21:22
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So I've never heard of this game, but after reading the thread title and first few posts I went from "That sounds like a train wreck" to "Huh, I should look at this sometime". A few days later I'm sat at 94% complete. I've also noticed that thoughts like "I should go for a walk sometime" went from "but that sounds like effort" to "well why not now?" It's harder to justify doing nothing where it would have been automatic to waste time like watching YouTube 8 - 12 hours in a day. I'm really interested in the extra context and discussion that this thread brings, and it's also made me... I don't want to say less discriminatory, as everyone believes themselves the hero of their own story anyway, but more aware of how potential biases. Whether any of this lasts more than a week remains to be seen, but it's more than I've got out of any other VN. So thanks for bringing my attention to this game, and I'll be sticking around until the LP finishes.
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Jun 7, 2021 22:17
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Apologies to anybody who has any actual aptitude with Japanese but I decided to check something on the fan wiki. I'm about to embark on some severe abuse of name logic - when you hear the name "Haroldson" you just think "long last name" you don't think "Son of the Warlord," and that's the kind of poo poo I'm going to do propelled by one observation. It sounded familiar so I looked and Shizune's given name is a pun (静音 is "quiet sound;" weebs may recognize "shizukani" as more or less "shut up" or "be quiet"). Surname is less clear 羽加道, I guess I'd say something like "bird granting road" but if there's a pun in there it's over my head. "Satou" is kind of confusing, since phonetically that is both 砂糖 "sugar" and the most common last name in Japanese (佐藤"help wisteria" or "help lavender", but also don't literally translate last names as a rule I'm hunting for puns), but Lilly spells it 砂藤, so same second character with floral themes but different first character that means "sand" (and you may notice is the first character in 'sugar' above). Misha is 御門椎名. I'm mildly thrown here because 椎名 "Shiina" is a common surname without any particular meaning but it's ordered as if its her given name; afaik it doesn't really mean anything other than being a surname (similar to "Satou" above), but if I were to try to force it, something like "hammer name." 御門 by contrast is straightforward: "Mikado" means "Emperor." Emi is 茨崎 笑美, 茨崎 could I suppose be translated as "the peninsula of thorns" or "the cape of suffering." 笑美 is two characters that get used in pop culture a lot, "laugh" and "beautiful." Hm not sure what to make of that. Hisao Nakai is 中井 久夫. "Nakai" is easy enough, a common last name that is basically "Central Well," effectively a common toponym. "Hisao" is, phonetically, multiple different common male names, this one coming out to something like "long man" or "duration man." I'm going to stop there because this is kind of silly and while Shizune's name seems like a pretty deliberate pun, any other meanings are a lot less intended or just inscrutable to me.
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Jun 8, 2021 00:10
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Tulip posted:I'm going to stop there because this is kind of silly and while Shizune's name seems like a pretty deliberate pun, any other meanings are a lot less intended or just inscrutable to me. I believe I recall they just came up with names first and then figured kanji to match...which makes Iwanako's name extremely awkward because it's not a usual name at all.
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Jun 8, 2021 00:57
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| # ? Jun 11, 2024 09:31 |
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Tulip posted:Apologies to anybody who has any actual aptitude with Japanese but I decided to check something on the fan wiki. I'm about to embark on some severe abuse of name logic - when you hear the name "Haroldson" you just think "long last name" you don't think "Son of the Warlord," and that's the kind of poo poo I'm going to do propelled by one observation. Okay, so, this kinda circles back to how I originally found out KS existed. See, back around the late 2000s, I would often use TVTropes as a way to find new freeware games to try out, due to their obsessive cataloging of anything anyone made ever (this was at the tail end of the RPG Maker freeware "renaissance" and there were a ton of interesting titles out there). Anyway, KS was on their list of freeware. What makes this relevant is on their list of "things that exist in this work", they included breakdowns of every character's name and meanings that can be inferred. I'll just include a link to the page for anyone curious. Just ctrl-F "meaningful name" after clicking a character's folder if you want to avoid accidental spoilers (though they have spoiler tags for anything major). Of note is that Rin's family name is made of the kanji for "hand" and "mound", so, not exactly overflowing with sensitivity (though it's also, as I'm sure at least some of the thread is aware, shared with Osamu Tezuka, the famous manga artist and reputed creator of manga/anime as a distinct form of art and animation).
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Jun 8, 2021 01:06
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