WA canon explanation, and pimpin'.
WILD ADAPTER CANON STUFF.
...Because. You know. I haven't rambled about THIS canon much.
And also.
... Yeah.
BOTH CANONS EVEN.
...Let's start with the one I didn't app from.
Araiso Private High School Student Counsel Executive Committee (AKA Shiritsu Araiso Koutou Gakkou Seitoukai Shikkoubu. AKA "Araiso". AKA "Executive Committee". AKA EC. You see why people want to shorten the name? I know I never want to type the full title again)
I'm putting Araiso first, despite not having apped from it, for a few reasons. See, Araiso and Wild Adapter both appeared in Chara Comics, they're AUs (Alternate Universes; ie, they can't take place in the same timeline) of each other, and Araiso appeared first. I've heard a lot of reasons given for this; the biggest rumour I've heard (Note: I call it a rumour only because I haven't personally seen confirmation) is that, for whatever reason, Minekura told her editor at Chara that she wanted to do Wild Adapter, and they told her to do Araiso first. ALL the rumours imply that she had W.A. on her mind, and Araiso was some sort of exploration of the characters/art in a harmless comedy environment first. Whether it was so she could get used to the characters, so her readers could, or whatever, I certainly don't know. But the order seems to be:
1) Wild Adapter Conceptualized
2) Araiso produced in Chara, ending up a two-volume manga.
3) Wild Adapter produced in Chara, ongoing at five volumes.
Araiso follows the lives of Perfectly Ordinary High School Students, Tokitoh Minoru and Kubota Makoto (both age 17) through the wackiness of being on the student counsel's elite "Executive Committee".
Now. Executive Committee sounds like they make important student body decisions. They don't. They're the student counsel's hitmen, basically.
No, no, bear with me!
With any schools, you have juveniles who'll cause trouble, right? And Araiso's had some recent changes in the system -- it used to be an all boys' school (giving lots of excuses for homoerotica) but has recently changed over to a mixed school. Which doesn't mean it's MORE delinquent, of course, but any change in a system results in need for control, right?
Basically, Kubota and Tokitoh rove the halls and beat up people who are bullying others, smoking in the wrong places, skipping class, etc. That's about the entire premise of the manga. XD In volume 1, every chapter is a short story about their wacky adventures in school (getting another EC member, helping out the crossdressing school nurse with some harrassment troubles, etc). Volume 2 is one extended story, but much the same premise.
The Characters in Araiso
There's quite a large cast of characters, from Kubota and Tokitoh to the other EC members (of whom there are several) to the student counsel itself, to their rivals... but other than to mention that Katsuragi rocks, I'm just going to go over Kubota and Tokitoh, since they're the only ones who appear in both series.
Tokitoh:
Tokitoh is brash, violent, given to sulky jealousy over Everyone Loving Kubota, honest to a fault, a good guy who really likes to punch a bitch. He's beautifully egotistical -- he's one of those guys who refers to himself as "ore-sama". He introduces himself as THE BEAUTY TOKITOH, and constantly refers to himself as a world-class bishounen. He brags about his skills, but the thing is, whatever he brags about? He generally can actually do. If he says he can beat your ass down in any sport ever? Don't meet him on the basketball court. He's got a lot of energy, a stated dream to impress all the ladies of the world which would be a lot more believable if he didn't totally crush on Kubota constantly, and pretty much, what you see with him is what you get.
Similarities with Wild Adapter: Both Tokitohs are brash, young, energetic, honest, and violent. Weirdly, Tokitoh in Araiso also wears the glove, and there's at least one illustration of him with the inhuman hand; what the connection's supposed to be there, I'm not sure.
Differences from Wild Adapter: W.A, Tokitoh has an additional innocence that you don't see here as much. This one's more brash and unconcerned and he's much, much more independant. His base personality's mostly similar. His mysterious past is apparently entirely wiped away for Araiso, and if he DOES have the hand, it doesn't hurt him. Essentially, the major worry, angst, concerns in his life are wiped away for Araiso so we get a much more sharp-edged egotistical character.
Kubota:
Kubota is... disassociative ha ha ha. No, really; it's hard to make an accurate description of Kubota because he's so mild and unconcerned about everything. The closest you see to him getting mad is when he gets a small smile on his face and his glasses obscure his eyes. But you know, he gets that exact same expression when he feels other emotions too. Like amusement. Or enjoyment. I'll leave that here, because Araiso deliberately gives him a mysterious background with the student counsel president and never actually explains it, so I can't comment on the reasonings for his behaviour/emotional-not-ness.
Similarities with Wild Adapter: Both Kubotas are basically disassociative freaks. In both series, he has an almost preternatural ability to guess what's going on, dodge attacks by just happening to not be in the way at the time, etc. Everything he does in both series has an air of unconcerned coincidence about it. As in Wild Adapter, Kubota lacks what I'd call a basic moral standard, but he follows the rules.
Differences from Wild Adapter: This Kubota is a lot more mild, APPARENTLY limiting his behaviour to kicking people now and then, and only when they actually break the rules. He's got no sense of 'looking for something to be attached to'; he's pretty easy-going and just doing what comes to mind. He's a lot less reliant on Tokitoh than he is in W.A. Of the two characters, I'd say Kubota's more different in subtle background ways, while Tokitoh's more different in open ways.
Both still flirt outrageously -- more in Araiso than in W.A., and more deliberately fakely. (Imagine Kubota backing Tokitoh to the wall and begging him to just this once give in, just this once... lend him his history notes.). Both are still totally best friends forever. There's just a lot less of an undercurrent of dependence and need, probably because of the comic tone of the manga compared to W.A..
OKAY ENOUGH OF THAT. Onto the canon I ACTUALLY APPED FROM.
Wild Adapter (AKA W.A.)
Wild Adapter is the story of two young men whose lives are being dredged up from the lowest places they could get, and drugs.
... Yeah.
Wild Adapter is set in Yokohama, 1995-1996. When the manga opens, one young man, age 16, is playing professional mahjong in a yakuza run parlour because only when he plays against other living people does he feel at all alive. Another young man, also (presumably) age 16 has just escaped from some sort of imprisonment he can't remember the details of and is being hunted as the key to 'W.A', and is slowly starving in Yokohama back alleys.
Our young gambler is Kubota Makoto. He is soon invited upstairs to the office of the local yakuza boss, Sanada. Sanada has kept an eye on Kubota (for a number of reasons, if you take my meaning) and his attitude at the table, his ability to cheat the players and the house casually even in a yakuza-run parlour has caught his attention. The opening of youth leader has just opened up, Sanada tells him, gesturing in a pair of thugs carrying a bound and gagged man between them. Does he want the job?
"I'm not interested in this sort of thing," Kubota tells him mildly.
No matter; Sanada puts out two guns on his desk. One, he explains, is a normal gun, loaded, will fire normally. The other is wired to explode when the trigger's pulled. And, he points out, Kubota is a gambler, isn't he?
That's the sort of thing Kubota really can't resist with his need to prove himself alive, so he sighs, comments that it'll be bad if he loses his arm, since he needs it to play mahjong, picks a gun up, and shoots the old youth leader in the head.
"Wow," Kubota says, mildly, picking at one ear with his pinky, blood spattered across his cheek. "That sound really reverberated in my bones."
...And that is really the first introduction we the readers get to Kubota.
The first volume essentially follows Kubota's life in the yakuza. Sanada wants him both because he is a frighteningly competent killer with his lack of concern for human life, and very good at the tables -- and also a very attractive young man. (When Sanada kisses him, Kubota thinks: "I'd been wanting something new." and about the taste of cigarettes on Sanada's breath.) Kubota doesn't really follow proper yakuza etiquette at most times; he once gets several rumours spread that he's planning to leave, because he hasn't shown up for days.
...And then of course he kicks the door in with a bag that contains a video game console and several games. He explains that new games he'd wanted had come out and he'd been at home playing for days before he realized he should probably check in. Who wants to play against him? he asks, and then proceeds to pwn.
"This sort of thing is easy", he explains to his second of command, Komiya, when Komiya asks. Because it has a human opponent. "However, at pachinko and the like without human opponents, I'm unskilled. If I'm not facing a human opponent... myself, how can I come to know that I'm also living? Something like that," he adds, and kicks his shoe off to try some fortune-telling with the weather. (Komiya: This murdering man, with a carefree expression, talks about tomorrow's weather.)
Most of manga one follows the developing friendship between Komiya and Kubota. Komiya is... very taken with Kubota, to say the least. He's fascinated with Kubota and gathers the following information (or lack thereof) on him:
"Kubota Makoto"
Born: 8/24/79
Virgo, Type O
Nationality: Japanese (Probably)
Currently a student in high school (but when he goes, nobody knows)
Unknown if he has a lover
Birthplace: Unknown
Family composition: Unknown
Residence: Someplace in Yokohama (probably)
Answers questions lightly.
Hobbies are gambling (especially mahjong)
Has a weakness for sweet things like daifuku or parfaits habitually, but eats his beef bowls with shichimi
Personality: "Unknown".
Throughout the first manga, as Komiya and he go around to "shops" (whorehouses), play games, etc, Komiya and Kubota find out about each other in equal amounts. Komiya discovers Kubota to be desperately seeking something to be attached to, because right now he's got the sort of personality that he describes as "order and chaos mixing to produce 'nothing at all'." He finds out that Kubota's family ignored him all through childhood -- quite literally, in that he was allowed to live there but neither of his parents ever spoke a single word to him, and the family servants turned their heads away when he passed. (It turns out, though Komiya doesn't discover this, Kubota was from an upper-class family, but born to the head of the household's illicit mistress. So he was allowed the run of the household but not welcome there in any way.) Komiya finds out that one of Kubota's relatives, an uncle who actually cares for him, is a corrupt member of the Japanese police (who doesn't criticize him for joining the yakuza, but warns him that Sanada is dangerous). Komiya also finds out that Kubota is dangerously unstable and more than capable of casually breaking a youth's arm when he bumps into him on the subway and doesn't apologize. ("Even to me, who'd been in this business for a while, that was troubling.") He finds out that, when one of the yakuza group (Izumokai)'s members got hurt by a member of a rival group, Kubota hunted that person down, broke all his cervical vertibrae, tore out his fingernails, and rendered him incapable of speech. (...You don't mess with Kubo-chan's people.) He also helped Kubota bury a maggotty cat who they found dead under a tree.
I'm going to tangent into that, because the cat is really important to Kubota's psyche. We get probably our longest mental monologue from Kubota during that chapter, and I'll just copy it out word for word, because SO MANY of his mental issues and so forth tie back into the event he talks about. I also totally riffed it in my app. Anyway:
"My cat died.
I was around middle school age.
Really, it wasn't that I was keeping him; he was probably a stray cat.
Frankly speaking, I don't really remember his body shape.
The feeling of his soft warm body and his supple hair...
...Truly, that was all.
He wasn't named.
I found its corpse on my homeward journey as the sun was setting.
It was probably done by a stray dog. The flowing blood and intestines that shined with a dull black luster seemed to block the sidewalk.
In the black holes where he lost his eyeballs, a deep and thorough eternity of darkness extended.
If it was tomorrow and this trash was collected, no traces of his death would remain.
Gripping him in my thin and narrowed arms, I lifted him.
His dangling body one soul lighter, without the suppleness of life, it was distortedly rigid.
He probably had been born to die in this way.
I had a hunch, even if I wasn't a prophet, and suddenly a laugh welled up.
"Someday, I too will die with my guts scattered."
"Yep, for example, in this manner."
So. He and Komiya find a dead cat, and Kubota insists they bury it, because "I wasn't able to, that time." Komiya doesn't ask what 'that time' means and helps him dig, never mind that two yakuza men digging in a park would look suspicious. And this gets pointed out and they laugh and Komiya's heart gets very, very tight.
...Komiya fell pretty hard for Kubota, combining all the horror and the weird protecitveness. He'd talk about Kubota to his girl while having sex with her. And then interrupt sex to go run off and hang out with him in mahjong parlours. At one point, Kubota falls asleep on his lap.
Kubota, meanwhile, finds out that Komiya's mother is a crack whore, and he basically had joined the Izumokai to provide her with drugs from a reliable source, instead of risking more dangerous ones from unknown sources. He meets Komiya's mom at one of the shops (she hits on him). And, when Komiya gets a panicked phonecall from his mom that "He'll kill me!" Kubota follows him out. There's a crazed man in her love hotel room, and she's locked herself into the bathroom to keep safe. Komiya cuts the guy's throat in a fight, then dashes in to help his mother; the guy's able to get back up again. But, well, Kubota muffles his gun and shoots the guy in the head. Which is when they both notice that the man's not fully human any more; he's growing coarse fur and has gnarled, extended fingernails.
Enter the "W.A." drug plot.
But it doesn't have time to take fruition yet, because not long after this the Toujou group, the Izumokai's rival group, kills Komiya. With his last words, he begs Kubota to leave, because "this sort of death isn't for you."
Kubota agrees, very quietly, and goes to Sanada and asks to leave the group. Usually, of course, there's ways, cutting off a finger and so on. Kubota, however, asks for the data on the Toujou group, who killed Komiya.
And he goes and kills an upper-level boss and tweleve clerks singlehandedly, then disappears from the yakuza world.
And, not long after, he finds a teenager unconscious in an alleyway. A teenager with one inhuman, furred, clawed hand.
"I picked up a cat. A splendidly large stray cat. It seemed like it'd be considerable trouble... Its life force seemed surprisingly strong...
This time for sure I felt the first one to die would be me.
... It was a little heavy."
Enter Tokitoh.
One year later, Tokitoh and Kubota are still living together in a casually pleasant roommate environment (though, although it's never confirmed, I feel I should note there's only one bedroom with one bed). Tokitoh has no memories of his past whatsoever, and pressures to remember cause him violent fits (which can be quite dangerous to those around him). Even so much as his given name, "Minoru", make him have such fits. Occasionally, his hand -- which he has no memories of how it got that way, and it scares him a bit -- hurts incredibly badly, something he doesn't tell anyone (though it's clear Kubota knows) because he knows it'll just worry them when they can't help.
All that's pretty angsty, but Tokitoh's not actually an angsty character. Although the fits are pretty nasty, he's not given to emo or angst, at least not often. Instead he's determined. He's still brash, egotistical, loud, and brutally honest -- Kubota describes him like so: "This one's mouth is unable to speak anything but the truth." He can fight well, and while he prefers to avoid a fight if he can, he'll still rip a signpost out of the ground and slap someone around with it if he needs to. (His right hand, which he hides behind a glove, has INCREDIBLE power and strength). He's remarkably innocent in certain ways of the world (possibly due to his lack of memory or the implication he was locked up for quite a long time: For example, he knows what pregnancy is, how it happens, but not how long it takes), while totally aware in others (to trick some yakuza once he loudly pretends to have sex with Kubota). The mixture of innocense and experience, often lends him a childlike air, though he's actually quite intelligent in his own way, or maybe I should say wise -- when a woman's having issues about being abandoned by strangers who should help her 'because she's in need', he just turns and yells at her if she's ever been by anyone else's side when they needed her? He's not tactful, but he's not stupid either. He's just got huge gaps in his learning.
Another side of his determination is that he refuses to just put up with having a hand like that and a lack of a past: He's investigating to find out what happened to him, even if he might not want to find out to judge from the psychotic fits (And Kubota's helping him, though Kubota's quietly acknowledged that he doesn't really want Tokitoh to find out. But Tokitoh wants to, and that's all that matters). The main lead they're following up is the drug lead I described: "W.A." is a drug that after a certain number of hits will make the user supernaturally strong, but also insane, grow hair, claws, etc -- and their body can't take the strain of this, because shortly after transformation their organs rupture violently. (Violently enough that the bodies tend to be found kind of torn up). It's not really a yakuza drug (Because, after all, a drug that kills the customer won't keep them coming back) but we know the Toujou middle leader is somewhat interested in it because of the power one could have if they controlled the source.
So. The rest of the manga so far has basically followed them tracking down W.A. leads and interacting with people in various ways. Volume 2 deals with a young pregnant girl whose gangster boyfriend was a W.A. user and died, and the connections the yakuza thinks she might have to it: it sets Kubota and Tokitoh in opposition with the yakuza again. Volume 3 deals with a cult that's basically worshipping the animal in the human and which they think sounds like a likely lead for W.A. Volume 4 follows a false thread where a whore who was using W.A. was murdered by a serial killer, and the blame got placed on Kubota (who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and can't use his part time job as an alibi, since he was, um, delivering illegal weaponry. His part-time job is occasionally delivering people guns. I mean, you know, the papers say that it's cooking impliments, but that's one hell of a semi-automatic wok there).
...And so forth.
I don't want to spoil the rest; I feel almost like I've gone too far with volume 1. But volume 1 is really the introduction and, yeah. Now, to tangent! Kubota and Tokitoh.
I mentioned their basic personalities in the Araiso section, but to summarize again: Kubota is extremly disassociative, looking for something to be attached to, and he finds it in Tokitoh. He is incredibly, incredibly dependent on Tokitoh, something other people notice when they're around him for extended periods. And he's totally fine with being dependent on Tokitoh. In fact, he's sort of likely to challenge you if YOU have issue with it! It's in question whether or not Tokitoh's ever noticed Kubota's dependence, but if he HAS, he's definitely pretending he hasn't, but it's there. So we get exchanges like the following (vol 3):
Tokitoh: [eating a chocolate bar] ...And why's he keep going on about God? There's no God. Who needs one?
Kubota: Well, that ... is because you're strong yourself.
Tokitoh: What's that supposed to mean? [pause, then leans over Kubota on the bed] So tell me. What God do you have?
Kubota: [reaches up, smudges some chocolate from Tokitoh's lips, licks his thumb] ...I wonder.
And then he changes the subject to something obscene and yaoi-manga-esque to lighten the mood and Tokitoh lets him drop it.
There's some hints, at least in the backstory, that Kubota knows it's not good for people to be this emotionally reliant on others; heaven knows Kasai tries to drill it into him, but he doesn't want to change, now he's found something to be attached to. Even if he's scared that Tokitoh'll die on him too, he's clinging, limpet-like, to Tokitoh. And... Tokitoh doesn't mind. (Although he's annoyed, to say the least, by the implication he'll probably die. XD) But the fact remains, he's like that for Tokitoh: When he's forced to separate from Tokitoh in volume 4, he's able to fake being normal, but he sort of breaks down a little when Tokitoh and he are back together: "I was cold all this time. I just realized it." (Idly, this is how I'm playing him right now in CFUD, without Tokitoh around: Faking being okay, and often having to force himself to continue a comment because he realizes it's coming out strangely. XD)
As for Tokitoh... He may pretend not to notice Kubota's need for him, but things like noticing that Kubota doesn't think he's strong and asking who is God is, things like just letting Kubota lean on him after they were separated. And it's Tokitoh who does things like tell Kubota, flat out, he's not leaving. And... you know? I think Tokitoh knows. He'd just be embarrassed to openly acknowledge it.
Which brings us to the relationship issue. ARE THEY IN A RELATIONSHIP, HARU?
To quote Kubota, "Saa."*
(* A generic phrase he uses constantly, meaning something between "Well", "Hmm" "I don't know what you're talking about", "Maybe", "Who knows" ... It's essentially a non-committal comment that's an obvious avoidance of a direct answer.)
I'm thinking PROBABLY YES, HONESTLY, because of the way the apartment's laid out, certain aspects of things that happen in volume 2 (turning down the girl and then immediately vanishing into the bedroom together after practically affirming there's only one bed), the casual indirect kiss with the chocolate. Holding hands as Tokitoh sleeps. NAKED CUDDLING KAY. And then there's the fact that all their duets and image songs are, pretty much, love songs. And, you know, Tokitoh's giant phone-breaking jealousy fit when he thinks Kubota might be off seeing his first woman.
At the same time, of course, there's the fact that the fake sex and jokes about being lovers implies they might not be. Add to the weirdness with their touching (they're always touching, pretty much, but really not embracing, from what I've seen and DAMN I AM WAITING SO HARD FOR SCANS OF THE END OF VOL 4 WHUT XD ... because that's where Kubota has his breakdown and the drama image is just Kubota leaning his head on Tokitoh's shoulder while Tokitoh stands there like a lump, but I want to see the page, because after that moment, Tokitoh realizes Kubota might be cold, and I want to know what he does anyway tangenting).
Either way they are, um, really obviously in love. Or at least, that they love each other. Whether or not they're having sex, they are absolutes in each others lives, and pretty miserable when separated.
My take on it: Yes, they are. However, they aren't likely to talk about it. If asked directly, Kubota would probaly "saa" and just... change the subject. If asked directly -- I mean, obviously I'm not playing him, but I imagine Tokitoh would loudly deny it. Maybe feel awkward about it later if Kubota got weird (which he wouldn't), but I imagine he'd just be like "WHUT NO". WHich doesn't mean they aren't; I just think it fits the patterns of W.A., which is HEAVILY IMPLIED SEX N' ROMANCE while playing up the "He's my roommate" thing publically.
TANGENT TO A PLACE I WANTED TO GET TO ANYWAY: About Kubota's 'saa'!
...You may notice when I interact with you in RP that Kubota talks a bit weirdly. He tends to trail off, rearrange sentences a bit (In my app "It's just that they're cute, catboys are"), agree with people over weird things, and use a lot of .... incredibly non-committal comments. I SWEAR, NINETY PERCENT OF HIS VOCABULARY IS "Saa" (See above), "Maa" ("Well, I guess so" "Maybe yes", "Even if that's so..."), "Yes, that's true", "That's true too", "Un" ("Yeah"), "Aa" ("Yeah"), "Hai" ("Yeah" ... they're all three different ways of saying it, different levels of formality, mild different connotations, and he uses 'em all constantly.). And then, take all the above, and turn them into questions. "Who are you, anyway?" is answered with "Saa?". Lots of "Yeah?" responses. He's just... that's how he talks.
Sure, he says other things too. He's known occasionally to quietly explain himself unprompted. Comment on things he likes, clarify himself. If he ends up in a situation where it's called for, he can talk for PAGES. (Volume 3's Expositional Moment is almost all Kubota talking. XD). It's not that he avoids talking. It's just that, overall, his conversation is incredibly non-committal.
Now, in the manga, this is easy to handle because the same mangaka's writing everyone and can just have people continue the convo. In RP, it's harder. So, I just want to say here and now: Don't think I, THE PLAYER, am trying to avoid conversing with you! Or even that Kubota is. If he's going "Yeah?" "Is that so?" or "Wow", he's not trying to dodge the convo; it's just how he does it. I know some people are familiar with the series (Ie, Calanthe-mun), and knowing that it's just Kubota and how he talks led to a wonderfully rewarding convo, IMHO. So, just in case people are worried that I as the player am making non-committal comments to avoid a convo: I'm not! Please, continue to chat! I love it; having conversations with Kubota and people is a lot of fun to me. :)
Also, a bunch of dramas are going up on a savefile project along with some songs and stuff, and if you're curious about the incredibly detatched, weird, unemotional way Kubota talks, I recommend checking out a track or two. 'Cuz I'm not sure I can explain it at all but I love it very much. (Also, the Araiso OAV, he talks the same way, AND it has the advantage of him smashing people in the face with basketballs. That's over here, on BitTorrent.)
TANGENT OVER ANYWAY.
So, what's Kubota doing in camp?
Looking for W.A., of course. The catboy/changing into animals comments initially aroused his curiousity and interests, and when Cher casually inquired about drug sniffing dogs, he went to investigate that outlet.
Of course, he's since found out that the animal virus is described as something very different from the effects of W.A., and so far no W.A. itself hasn't turned up, but hey, if your character has some sort of drug... thing... feel free to tantalize Kubo-chan if you want to!
At this point, Kubota doesn't really think this place is much of a W.A. lead, but he's still going to quietly investigate. If nothing else, it keeps him from thinking too hard.
And I seem to have rambled myself to a cliff edge, so before I go over:
BOTH ARAISO MANGA 1, AND WILD ADAPTER VOLS 1-2 (AND PART OF 3, ONGOING) can be found here, beautifully scanlated. For your READING PLEASURE.
The WA/EC savefile project: here. Currently containing character songs and the Wild Adapter animated trailer. (Wherein people walk, smoke, have money fall around them, and Tokitoh macks on Kubota's sexy bloody finger.) Soon to contain drama tracks. Translations of the songs on the file project can be found here. ("...SO THEY'RE TOTALLY FUCKING EH?" "NO WAI 8D".)
TOTALLY UNRELATED PIMPING: Stigma, another manga by Kazuya Minekura, this one a short 11-chapter one-volume full-colour one. scanlated! I'm very fond of it, and I might as well pimp it while I'm pimping other Minekura stuff right?
ANYWAY ENJOY IT'S FUN I liked writing all this annnnd. So. If you have any questions about W.A., Araiso, how I'm playing Kubota, Kubota's favourite hobbies, things he does when he thinks he's alone, etc etc, feel free to do it here? I mean, I already posted the question meme elsewhere, but I did it without actually posting a canon writeup/pimp post like this.
...So how come I can't write 5000-word essays for SCHOOL in TWO HOURS, but I can for FANDOM? Bah.
...Because. You know. I haven't rambled about THIS canon much.
And also.
... Yeah.
BOTH CANONS EVEN.
...Let's start with the one I didn't app from.
Araiso Private High School Student Counsel Executive Committee (AKA Shiritsu Araiso Koutou Gakkou Seitoukai Shikkoubu. AKA "Araiso". AKA "Executive Committee". AKA EC. You see why people want to shorten the name? I know I never want to type the full title again)
I'm putting Araiso first, despite not having apped from it, for a few reasons. See, Araiso and Wild Adapter both appeared in Chara Comics, they're AUs (Alternate Universes; ie, they can't take place in the same timeline) of each other, and Araiso appeared first. I've heard a lot of reasons given for this; the biggest rumour I've heard (Note: I call it a rumour only because I haven't personally seen confirmation) is that, for whatever reason, Minekura told her editor at Chara that she wanted to do Wild Adapter, and they told her to do Araiso first. ALL the rumours imply that she had W.A. on her mind, and Araiso was some sort of exploration of the characters/art in a harmless comedy environment first. Whether it was so she could get used to the characters, so her readers could, or whatever, I certainly don't know. But the order seems to be:
1) Wild Adapter Conceptualized
2) Araiso produced in Chara, ending up a two-volume manga.
3) Wild Adapter produced in Chara, ongoing at five volumes.
Araiso follows the lives of Perfectly Ordinary High School Students, Tokitoh Minoru and Kubota Makoto (both age 17) through the wackiness of being on the student counsel's elite "Executive Committee".
Now. Executive Committee sounds like they make important student body decisions. They don't. They're the student counsel's hitmen, basically.
No, no, bear with me!
With any schools, you have juveniles who'll cause trouble, right? And Araiso's had some recent changes in the system -- it used to be an all boys' school (giving lots of excuses for homoerotica) but has recently changed over to a mixed school. Which doesn't mean it's MORE delinquent, of course, but any change in a system results in need for control, right?
Basically, Kubota and Tokitoh rove the halls and beat up people who are bullying others, smoking in the wrong places, skipping class, etc. That's about the entire premise of the manga. XD In volume 1, every chapter is a short story about their wacky adventures in school (getting another EC member, helping out the crossdressing school nurse with some harrassment troubles, etc). Volume 2 is one extended story, but much the same premise.
The Characters in Araiso
There's quite a large cast of characters, from Kubota and Tokitoh to the other EC members (of whom there are several) to the student counsel itself, to their rivals... but other than to mention that Katsuragi rocks, I'm just going to go over Kubota and Tokitoh, since they're the only ones who appear in both series.
Tokitoh:
Tokitoh is brash, violent, given to sulky jealousy over Everyone Loving Kubota, honest to a fault, a good guy who really likes to punch a bitch. He's beautifully egotistical -- he's one of those guys who refers to himself as "ore-sama". He introduces himself as THE BEAUTY TOKITOH, and constantly refers to himself as a world-class bishounen. He brags about his skills, but the thing is, whatever he brags about? He generally can actually do. If he says he can beat your ass down in any sport ever? Don't meet him on the basketball court. He's got a lot of energy, a stated dream to impress all the ladies of the world which would be a lot more believable if he didn't totally crush on Kubota constantly, and pretty much, what you see with him is what you get.
Similarities with Wild Adapter: Both Tokitohs are brash, young, energetic, honest, and violent. Weirdly, Tokitoh in Araiso also wears the glove, and there's at least one illustration of him with the inhuman hand; what the connection's supposed to be there, I'm not sure.
Differences from Wild Adapter: W.A, Tokitoh has an additional innocence that you don't see here as much. This one's more brash and unconcerned and he's much, much more independant. His base personality's mostly similar. His mysterious past is apparently entirely wiped away for Araiso, and if he DOES have the hand, it doesn't hurt him. Essentially, the major worry, angst, concerns in his life are wiped away for Araiso so we get a much more sharp-edged egotistical character.
Kubota:
Kubota is... disassociative ha ha ha. No, really; it's hard to make an accurate description of Kubota because he's so mild and unconcerned about everything. The closest you see to him getting mad is when he gets a small smile on his face and his glasses obscure his eyes. But you know, he gets that exact same expression when he feels other emotions too. Like amusement. Or enjoyment. I'll leave that here, because Araiso deliberately gives him a mysterious background with the student counsel president and never actually explains it, so I can't comment on the reasonings for his behaviour/emotional-not-ness.
Similarities with Wild Adapter: Both Kubotas are basically disassociative freaks. In both series, he has an almost preternatural ability to guess what's going on, dodge attacks by just happening to not be in the way at the time, etc. Everything he does in both series has an air of unconcerned coincidence about it. As in Wild Adapter, Kubota lacks what I'd call a basic moral standard, but he follows the rules.
Differences from Wild Adapter: This Kubota is a lot more mild, APPARENTLY limiting his behaviour to kicking people now and then, and only when they actually break the rules. He's got no sense of 'looking for something to be attached to'; he's pretty easy-going and just doing what comes to mind. He's a lot less reliant on Tokitoh than he is in W.A. Of the two characters, I'd say Kubota's more different in subtle background ways, while Tokitoh's more different in open ways.
Both still flirt outrageously -- more in Araiso than in W.A., and more deliberately fakely. (Imagine Kubota backing Tokitoh to the wall and begging him to just this once give in, just this once... lend him his history notes.). Both are still totally best friends forever. There's just a lot less of an undercurrent of dependence and need, probably because of the comic tone of the manga compared to W.A..
OKAY ENOUGH OF THAT. Onto the canon I ACTUALLY APPED FROM.
Wild Adapter (AKA W.A.)
Wild Adapter is the story of two young men whose lives are being dredged up from the lowest places they could get, and drugs.
... Yeah.
Wild Adapter is set in Yokohama, 1995-1996. When the manga opens, one young man, age 16, is playing professional mahjong in a yakuza run parlour because only when he plays against other living people does he feel at all alive. Another young man, also (presumably) age 16 has just escaped from some sort of imprisonment he can't remember the details of and is being hunted as the key to 'W.A', and is slowly starving in Yokohama back alleys.
Our young gambler is Kubota Makoto. He is soon invited upstairs to the office of the local yakuza boss, Sanada. Sanada has kept an eye on Kubota (for a number of reasons, if you take my meaning) and his attitude at the table, his ability to cheat the players and the house casually even in a yakuza-run parlour has caught his attention. The opening of youth leader has just opened up, Sanada tells him, gesturing in a pair of thugs carrying a bound and gagged man between them. Does he want the job?
"I'm not interested in this sort of thing," Kubota tells him mildly.
No matter; Sanada puts out two guns on his desk. One, he explains, is a normal gun, loaded, will fire normally. The other is wired to explode when the trigger's pulled. And, he points out, Kubota is a gambler, isn't he?
That's the sort of thing Kubota really can't resist with his need to prove himself alive, so he sighs, comments that it'll be bad if he loses his arm, since he needs it to play mahjong, picks a gun up, and shoots the old youth leader in the head.
"Wow," Kubota says, mildly, picking at one ear with his pinky, blood spattered across his cheek. "That sound really reverberated in my bones."
...And that is really the first introduction we the readers get to Kubota.
The first volume essentially follows Kubota's life in the yakuza. Sanada wants him both because he is a frighteningly competent killer with his lack of concern for human life, and very good at the tables -- and also a very attractive young man. (When Sanada kisses him, Kubota thinks: "I'd been wanting something new." and about the taste of cigarettes on Sanada's breath.) Kubota doesn't really follow proper yakuza etiquette at most times; he once gets several rumours spread that he's planning to leave, because he hasn't shown up for days.
...And then of course he kicks the door in with a bag that contains a video game console and several games. He explains that new games he'd wanted had come out and he'd been at home playing for days before he realized he should probably check in. Who wants to play against him? he asks, and then proceeds to pwn.
"This sort of thing is easy", he explains to his second of command, Komiya, when Komiya asks. Because it has a human opponent. "However, at pachinko and the like without human opponents, I'm unskilled. If I'm not facing a human opponent... myself, how can I come to know that I'm also living? Something like that," he adds, and kicks his shoe off to try some fortune-telling with the weather. (Komiya: This murdering man, with a carefree expression, talks about tomorrow's weather.)
Most of manga one follows the developing friendship between Komiya and Kubota. Komiya is... very taken with Kubota, to say the least. He's fascinated with Kubota and gathers the following information (or lack thereof) on him:
"Kubota Makoto"
Born: 8/24/79
Virgo, Type O
Nationality: Japanese (Probably)
Currently a student in high school (but when he goes, nobody knows)
Unknown if he has a lover
Birthplace: Unknown
Family composition: Unknown
Residence: Someplace in Yokohama (probably)
Answers questions lightly.
Hobbies are gambling (especially mahjong)
Has a weakness for sweet things like daifuku or parfaits habitually, but eats his beef bowls with shichimi
Personality: "Unknown".
Throughout the first manga, as Komiya and he go around to "shops" (whorehouses), play games, etc, Komiya and Kubota find out about each other in equal amounts. Komiya discovers Kubota to be desperately seeking something to be attached to, because right now he's got the sort of personality that he describes as "order and chaos mixing to produce 'nothing at all'." He finds out that Kubota's family ignored him all through childhood -- quite literally, in that he was allowed to live there but neither of his parents ever spoke a single word to him, and the family servants turned their heads away when he passed. (It turns out, though Komiya doesn't discover this, Kubota was from an upper-class family, but born to the head of the household's illicit mistress. So he was allowed the run of the household but not welcome there in any way.) Komiya finds out that one of Kubota's relatives, an uncle who actually cares for him, is a corrupt member of the Japanese police (who doesn't criticize him for joining the yakuza, but warns him that Sanada is dangerous). Komiya also finds out that Kubota is dangerously unstable and more than capable of casually breaking a youth's arm when he bumps into him on the subway and doesn't apologize. ("Even to me, who'd been in this business for a while, that was troubling.") He finds out that, when one of the yakuza group (Izumokai)'s members got hurt by a member of a rival group, Kubota hunted that person down, broke all his cervical vertibrae, tore out his fingernails, and rendered him incapable of speech. (...You don't mess with Kubo-chan's people.) He also helped Kubota bury a maggotty cat who they found dead under a tree.
I'm going to tangent into that, because the cat is really important to Kubota's psyche. We get probably our longest mental monologue from Kubota during that chapter, and I'll just copy it out word for word, because SO MANY of his mental issues and so forth tie back into the event he talks about. I also totally riffed it in my app. Anyway:
"My cat died.
I was around middle school age.
Really, it wasn't that I was keeping him; he was probably a stray cat.
Frankly speaking, I don't really remember his body shape.
The feeling of his soft warm body and his supple hair...
...Truly, that was all.
He wasn't named.
I found its corpse on my homeward journey as the sun was setting.
It was probably done by a stray dog. The flowing blood and intestines that shined with a dull black luster seemed to block the sidewalk.
In the black holes where he lost his eyeballs, a deep and thorough eternity of darkness extended.
If it was tomorrow and this trash was collected, no traces of his death would remain.
Gripping him in my thin and narrowed arms, I lifted him.
His dangling body one soul lighter, without the suppleness of life, it was distortedly rigid.
He probably had been born to die in this way.
I had a hunch, even if I wasn't a prophet, and suddenly a laugh welled up.
"Someday, I too will die with my guts scattered."
"Yep, for example, in this manner."
So. He and Komiya find a dead cat, and Kubota insists they bury it, because "I wasn't able to, that time." Komiya doesn't ask what 'that time' means and helps him dig, never mind that two yakuza men digging in a park would look suspicious. And this gets pointed out and they laugh and Komiya's heart gets very, very tight.
...Komiya fell pretty hard for Kubota, combining all the horror and the weird protecitveness. He'd talk about Kubota to his girl while having sex with her. And then interrupt sex to go run off and hang out with him in mahjong parlours. At one point, Kubota falls asleep on his lap.
Kubota, meanwhile, finds out that Komiya's mother is a crack whore, and he basically had joined the Izumokai to provide her with drugs from a reliable source, instead of risking more dangerous ones from unknown sources. He meets Komiya's mom at one of the shops (she hits on him). And, when Komiya gets a panicked phonecall from his mom that "He'll kill me!" Kubota follows him out. There's a crazed man in her love hotel room, and she's locked herself into the bathroom to keep safe. Komiya cuts the guy's throat in a fight, then dashes in to help his mother; the guy's able to get back up again. But, well, Kubota muffles his gun and shoots the guy in the head. Which is when they both notice that the man's not fully human any more; he's growing coarse fur and has gnarled, extended fingernails.
Enter the "W.A." drug plot.
But it doesn't have time to take fruition yet, because not long after this the Toujou group, the Izumokai's rival group, kills Komiya. With his last words, he begs Kubota to leave, because "this sort of death isn't for you."
Kubota agrees, very quietly, and goes to Sanada and asks to leave the group. Usually, of course, there's ways, cutting off a finger and so on. Kubota, however, asks for the data on the Toujou group, who killed Komiya.
And he goes and kills an upper-level boss and tweleve clerks singlehandedly, then disappears from the yakuza world.
And, not long after, he finds a teenager unconscious in an alleyway. A teenager with one inhuman, furred, clawed hand.
"I picked up a cat. A splendidly large stray cat. It seemed like it'd be considerable trouble... Its life force seemed surprisingly strong...
This time for sure I felt the first one to die would be me.
... It was a little heavy."
Enter Tokitoh.
One year later, Tokitoh and Kubota are still living together in a casually pleasant roommate environment (though, although it's never confirmed, I feel I should note there's only one bedroom with one bed). Tokitoh has no memories of his past whatsoever, and pressures to remember cause him violent fits (which can be quite dangerous to those around him). Even so much as his given name, "Minoru", make him have such fits. Occasionally, his hand -- which he has no memories of how it got that way, and it scares him a bit -- hurts incredibly badly, something he doesn't tell anyone (though it's clear Kubota knows) because he knows it'll just worry them when they can't help.
All that's pretty angsty, but Tokitoh's not actually an angsty character. Although the fits are pretty nasty, he's not given to emo or angst, at least not often. Instead he's determined. He's still brash, egotistical, loud, and brutally honest -- Kubota describes him like so: "This one's mouth is unable to speak anything but the truth." He can fight well, and while he prefers to avoid a fight if he can, he'll still rip a signpost out of the ground and slap someone around with it if he needs to. (His right hand, which he hides behind a glove, has INCREDIBLE power and strength). He's remarkably innocent in certain ways of the world (possibly due to his lack of memory or the implication he was locked up for quite a long time: For example, he knows what pregnancy is, how it happens, but not how long it takes), while totally aware in others (to trick some yakuza once he loudly pretends to have sex with Kubota). The mixture of innocense and experience, often lends him a childlike air, though he's actually quite intelligent in his own way, or maybe I should say wise -- when a woman's having issues about being abandoned by strangers who should help her 'because she's in need', he just turns and yells at her if she's ever been by anyone else's side when they needed her? He's not tactful, but he's not stupid either. He's just got huge gaps in his learning.
Another side of his determination is that he refuses to just put up with having a hand like that and a lack of a past: He's investigating to find out what happened to him, even if he might not want to find out to judge from the psychotic fits (And Kubota's helping him, though Kubota's quietly acknowledged that he doesn't really want Tokitoh to find out. But Tokitoh wants to, and that's all that matters). The main lead they're following up is the drug lead I described: "W.A." is a drug that after a certain number of hits will make the user supernaturally strong, but also insane, grow hair, claws, etc -- and their body can't take the strain of this, because shortly after transformation their organs rupture violently. (Violently enough that the bodies tend to be found kind of torn up). It's not really a yakuza drug (Because, after all, a drug that kills the customer won't keep them coming back) but we know the Toujou middle leader is somewhat interested in it because of the power one could have if they controlled the source.
So. The rest of the manga so far has basically followed them tracking down W.A. leads and interacting with people in various ways. Volume 2 deals with a young pregnant girl whose gangster boyfriend was a W.A. user and died, and the connections the yakuza thinks she might have to it: it sets Kubota and Tokitoh in opposition with the yakuza again. Volume 3 deals with a cult that's basically worshipping the animal in the human and which they think sounds like a likely lead for W.A. Volume 4 follows a false thread where a whore who was using W.A. was murdered by a serial killer, and the blame got placed on Kubota (who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and can't use his part time job as an alibi, since he was, um, delivering illegal weaponry. His part-time job is occasionally delivering people guns. I mean, you know, the papers say that it's cooking impliments, but that's one hell of a semi-automatic wok there).
...And so forth.
I don't want to spoil the rest; I feel almost like I've gone too far with volume 1. But volume 1 is really the introduction and, yeah. Now, to tangent! Kubota and Tokitoh.
I mentioned their basic personalities in the Araiso section, but to summarize again: Kubota is extremly disassociative, looking for something to be attached to, and he finds it in Tokitoh. He is incredibly, incredibly dependent on Tokitoh, something other people notice when they're around him for extended periods. And he's totally fine with being dependent on Tokitoh. In fact, he's sort of likely to challenge you if YOU have issue with it! It's in question whether or not Tokitoh's ever noticed Kubota's dependence, but if he HAS, he's definitely pretending he hasn't, but it's there. So we get exchanges like the following (vol 3):
Tokitoh: [eating a chocolate bar] ...And why's he keep going on about God? There's no God. Who needs one?
Kubota: Well, that ... is because you're strong yourself.
Tokitoh: What's that supposed to mean? [pause, then leans over Kubota on the bed] So tell me. What God do you have?
Kubota: [reaches up, smudges some chocolate from Tokitoh's lips, licks his thumb] ...I wonder.
And then he changes the subject to something obscene and yaoi-manga-esque to lighten the mood and Tokitoh lets him drop it.
There's some hints, at least in the backstory, that Kubota knows it's not good for people to be this emotionally reliant on others; heaven knows Kasai tries to drill it into him, but he doesn't want to change, now he's found something to be attached to. Even if he's scared that Tokitoh'll die on him too, he's clinging, limpet-like, to Tokitoh. And... Tokitoh doesn't mind. (Although he's annoyed, to say the least, by the implication he'll probably die. XD) But the fact remains, he's like that for Tokitoh: When he's forced to separate from Tokitoh in volume 4, he's able to fake being normal, but he sort of breaks down a little when Tokitoh and he are back together: "I was cold all this time. I just realized it." (Idly, this is how I'm playing him right now in CFUD, without Tokitoh around: Faking being okay, and often having to force himself to continue a comment because he realizes it's coming out strangely. XD)
As for Tokitoh... He may pretend not to notice Kubota's need for him, but things like noticing that Kubota doesn't think he's strong and asking who is God is, things like just letting Kubota lean on him after they were separated. And it's Tokitoh who does things like tell Kubota, flat out, he's not leaving. And... you know? I think Tokitoh knows. He'd just be embarrassed to openly acknowledge it.
Which brings us to the relationship issue. ARE THEY IN A RELATIONSHIP, HARU?
To quote Kubota, "Saa."*
(* A generic phrase he uses constantly, meaning something between "Well", "Hmm" "I don't know what you're talking about", "Maybe", "Who knows" ... It's essentially a non-committal comment that's an obvious avoidance of a direct answer.)
I'm thinking PROBABLY YES, HONESTLY, because of the way the apartment's laid out, certain aspects of things that happen in volume 2 (turning down the girl and then immediately vanishing into the bedroom together after practically affirming there's only one bed), the casual indirect kiss with the chocolate. Holding hands as Tokitoh sleeps. NAKED CUDDLING KAY. And then there's the fact that all their duets and image songs are, pretty much, love songs. And, you know, Tokitoh's giant phone-breaking jealousy fit when he thinks Kubota might be off seeing his first woman.
At the same time, of course, there's the fact that the fake sex and jokes about being lovers implies they might not be. Add to the weirdness with their touching (they're always touching, pretty much, but really not embracing, from what I've seen and DAMN I AM WAITING SO HARD FOR SCANS OF THE END OF VOL 4 WHUT XD ... because that's where Kubota has his breakdown and the drama image is just Kubota leaning his head on Tokitoh's shoulder while Tokitoh stands there like a lump, but I want to see the page, because after that moment, Tokitoh realizes Kubota might be cold, and I want to know what he does anyway tangenting).
Either way they are, um, really obviously in love. Or at least, that they love each other. Whether or not they're having sex, they are absolutes in each others lives, and pretty miserable when separated.
My take on it: Yes, they are. However, they aren't likely to talk about it. If asked directly, Kubota would probaly "saa" and just... change the subject. If asked directly -- I mean, obviously I'm not playing him, but I imagine Tokitoh would loudly deny it. Maybe feel awkward about it later if Kubota got weird (which he wouldn't), but I imagine he'd just be like "WHUT NO". WHich doesn't mean they aren't; I just think it fits the patterns of W.A., which is HEAVILY IMPLIED SEX N' ROMANCE while playing up the "He's my roommate" thing publically.
TANGENT TO A PLACE I WANTED TO GET TO ANYWAY: About Kubota's 'saa'!
...You may notice when I interact with you in RP that Kubota talks a bit weirdly. He tends to trail off, rearrange sentences a bit (In my app "It's just that they're cute, catboys are"), agree with people over weird things, and use a lot of .... incredibly non-committal comments. I SWEAR, NINETY PERCENT OF HIS VOCABULARY IS "Saa" (See above), "Maa" ("Well, I guess so" "Maybe yes", "Even if that's so..."), "Yes, that's true", "That's true too", "Un" ("Yeah"), "Aa" ("Yeah"), "Hai" ("Yeah" ... they're all three different ways of saying it, different levels of formality, mild different connotations, and he uses 'em all constantly.). And then, take all the above, and turn them into questions. "Who are you, anyway?" is answered with "Saa?". Lots of "Yeah?" responses. He's just... that's how he talks.
Sure, he says other things too. He's known occasionally to quietly explain himself unprompted. Comment on things he likes, clarify himself. If he ends up in a situation where it's called for, he can talk for PAGES. (Volume 3's Expositional Moment is almost all Kubota talking. XD). It's not that he avoids talking. It's just that, overall, his conversation is incredibly non-committal.
Now, in the manga, this is easy to handle because the same mangaka's writing everyone and can just have people continue the convo. In RP, it's harder. So, I just want to say here and now: Don't think I, THE PLAYER, am trying to avoid conversing with you! Or even that Kubota is. If he's going "Yeah?" "Is that so?" or "Wow", he's not trying to dodge the convo; it's just how he does it. I know some people are familiar with the series (Ie, Calanthe-mun), and knowing that it's just Kubota and how he talks led to a wonderfully rewarding convo, IMHO. So, just in case people are worried that I as the player am making non-committal comments to avoid a convo: I'm not! Please, continue to chat! I love it; having conversations with Kubota and people is a lot of fun to me. :)
Also, a bunch of dramas are going up on a savefile project along with some songs and stuff, and if you're curious about the incredibly detatched, weird, unemotional way Kubota talks, I recommend checking out a track or two. 'Cuz I'm not sure I can explain it at all but I love it very much. (Also, the Araiso OAV, he talks the same way, AND it has the advantage of him smashing people in the face with basketballs. That's over here, on BitTorrent.)
TANGENT OVER ANYWAY.
So, what's Kubota doing in camp?
Looking for W.A., of course. The catboy/changing into animals comments initially aroused his curiousity and interests, and when Cher casually inquired about drug sniffing dogs, he went to investigate that outlet.
Of course, he's since found out that the animal virus is described as something very different from the effects of W.A., and so far no W.A. itself hasn't turned up, but hey, if your character has some sort of drug... thing... feel free to tantalize Kubo-chan if you want to!
At this point, Kubota doesn't really think this place is much of a W.A. lead, but he's still going to quietly investigate. If nothing else, it keeps him from thinking too hard.
And I seem to have rambled myself to a cliff edge, so before I go over:
BOTH ARAISO MANGA 1, AND WILD ADAPTER VOLS 1-2 (AND PART OF 3, ONGOING) can be found here, beautifully scanlated. For your READING PLEASURE.
The WA/EC savefile project: here. Currently containing character songs and the Wild Adapter animated trailer. (Wherein people walk, smoke, have money fall around them, and Tokitoh macks on Kubota's sexy bloody finger.) Soon to contain drama tracks. Translations of the songs on the file project can be found here. ("...SO THEY'RE TOTALLY FUCKING EH?" "NO WAI 8D".)
TOTALLY UNRELATED PIMPING: Stigma, another manga by Kazuya Minekura, this one a short 11-chapter one-volume full-colour one. scanlated! I'm very fond of it, and I might as well pimp it while I'm pimping other Minekura stuff right?
ANYWAY ENJOY IT'S FUN I liked writing all this annnnd. So. If you have any questions about W.A., Araiso, how I'm playing Kubota, Kubota's favourite hobbies, things he does when he thinks he's alone, etc etc, feel free to do it here? I mean, I already posted the question meme elsewhere, but I did it without actually posting a canon writeup/pimp post like this.
...So how come I can't write 5000-word essays for SCHOOL in TWO HOURS, but I can for FANDOM? Bah.