[Endgame: rise or DROWN]

[warpweft]

[How long have you been exploring Nessa's palace now? You've met her family, viewed her memories, learned how to fight as a witch and tried to find the source of her power and the Treasure of her palace: the Voidheart. And along the way, you've tired your best, with mixed success, to avoid the incarnation of her eldest cousin and the representation of her trauma and fear, the Nightmare of Esmau.]

[Wherever you are in the Palace right now, you feel the ground briefly shake under your feet. Little shakes here and there haven't been out of the ordinary - Esmau is trying to blow the place down to the studs, after all. But that felt different. That felt....worse.]

[Your phone beeps as you receive a message.]

Comments

[cosplayed_out]

...

[Tsumugi is making extra sure she can keep in character by holding her hand over her face to hide any potential sadness from leaking through.

...but it's hard. So hard.]

[warpweft]

....

Tsumugi.

You may hate it. But you understand "hope", right?

[cosplayed_out]

You're joking, right?

[okay, she'll finally take off the cosplay.]

I don't hate hope at all. Hope makes great stories-- that was the entire point of the killing game. Setting up hope to win. Giving people the happy ending.

[a soft sigh]

Though, I guess I can see how you'd get plain confused when I cosplay a character like Junko Enoshima so easily...

/2

[warpweft]

It is a little hard to tell sometimes.

[warpweft]

...

...

Why did she try to fight Esmau?

Was it "hope" that made her do it?

[cosplayed_out]

You mean, Junko and Mukuro?

They're both fictional characters, Nessa. ...My cosplay is just me. It's just a fun little thing I do for entertainment. For myself and others. --Sure, I do things the characters do and role play it out, but that's just how I personally approach the hobby.

Maybe Junko fighting so hard against Esmau wasn't one-hundred percent faithful to the source material in how she'd handle that situation. Maybe I had to bend the interpretation of Junko's characterization and motivation... but... it's fine.

Esmau pissed me off.

[warpweft]

From what I've seen of her, Junko Enoshima and Esmau would've been great pals. Which makes me dislike her even more than I already do.

...I mean her.

[She points at the unmoving teenage Nessa.]

[cosplayed_out]

...Hm... I could show you the games and anime...

[warpweft]

I dunno.

Any cute girls that write books?

[cosplayed_out]

In the whole cast of characters?

[warpweft]

What. Is that too specific?

[cosplayed_out]

There is an Ultimate Writing Prodigy! --But the jury's out on if she's cute. She specifically is described as a mousy girl with greasy hair who smells because she doesn't bathe. She is a glasses character though. I can say personally that she is interesting personality-wise!

I'll cosplay her sometime.

[warpweft]

Eh.

I could fix her.

[cosplayed_out]

Oh! Fix-fic! That'd be really interesting! --You'd have to deal with her canon almost-girlfriend, but details!

...wait, as much as I love talking about my faves, is now the best time?