My simplified portfolio. For more of me follow @terrible-eel

A few thoughts on the dreams:

I like to think that in Ogata's subconscious, winter never stopped after the war. The cold and snow is embedded in the ptsd and feels like an inextricable part of who he is just as much as all his other unresolved issues. Sugimoto, on the other hand, has started healing since meeting Asirpa, and there are living things in his dreams including the plants. He's more connected to the world and society than Ogata ever was, and that understanding of things outside of himself reflects in his dreams. However, they were both deeply affected by the same battlefield, so that's where their nightmares overlap and they're both seen as they perceive themselves.

I imagine they were both very isolated by their places in the battles, in kinda opposite ways. Sugimoto was often the sole survivor in the thick of it, and earned this legendary status that othered him from his comrades, not to mention the survivor's guilt of going through the same shit as everyone around him but not dying like they did. Meanwhile, Ogata specialized in sniping at a point in Japanese history where sniping wasn't an established tactic yet, so he was the only one doing it, which meant he was always in the background doing his own thing while everyone around him fought and died or came back scarred by combat that never touched him. Combined with the way everyone couldn't stand him as a person anyway, it was like he was in a completely different battle from everyone else and never acknowledged as part of the group (who probably developed pretty strong trauma bonds with each other). The result being that both felt alone in that battle and never had the community support to come back from it, so some part of their subconscious is still stuck there in isolation, as something not quite human the way everyone else is. I like the idea of those dreams creating a kind of shared isolation where they can pull each other out of nightmares. Maybe it's not comfort, but it's change, and it's company, and even if they're not the same they at least aren't alone in their differences. Right?

I dunno how well it came through, but I've been kinda thinking of Yuusaku's happy disconnect from the surroundings that Ogata is in as a representation in Ogata's subconscious of the feeling that his brother always seemed to be operating in a different world than what he was able to participate in, where the rules were different and things were kinder. Now it's like his spirit is dwelling in a paradise that Ogata is locked out of.

I really wasn't expecting to enjoy writing the Yuusaku dreams this much, but they've turned out to be some of my favorite so far. I haven't actually gotten to the point in the story where he starts haunting Ogata full force, so I don't know what the vibe is supposed to be like beyond fan art I've stumbled upon, so I've just been having fun playing with the sense of eeriness and dread. Hopefully it's working.