#author's note

I think it's very important to be out front on things like this, especially when writing for a game that's grown a large fanbase. Critique and criticism are taken in, but when you make a piece of art you're expecting to hear that from all forms of viewers and not just the fans. When you write, you need to write a story you want to make and not one that'll just make the fans happy.

Especially in a series like this where for the messages at the end to truly work, it has to actually be mean and cruel to the player so they can feel the despair but soldier on! We can complain about character development cut short and suddenly, but that's kinda the point. It's a killing game. You can say you don't want to kill and that you'll get out together as friends all you want, but the right person in the right moment needs just the right push and... bam, a body has been discovered.

Directly saying 'I know the characters better than the fans do' is so important because. Yeah! It's true! Kodaka knows these characters he created and wrote more than our gay little fanfic writings asses have, he's the guy that SHOULD know more. Are there character moments that suck and feel wrong? Yes. DR3 Side Despair. Who? IDK All of Em. But that confidence and knowing is what any writer should have. It's YOUR story, you know these characters!

So, how does this relate to Junkan and my own writing. Well, it's simple. I know I don't probably fully understand and know these characters on the level of the official source, but god I try my hardest to make them feel like themselves and be fully fleshed out.

The biggest different between DRIF:RR and DR cannon (you know aside from all the open transgender lesbians all wanting to smooch and get in bed with each other) is that I write Junko's feelings for Mikan being reciprocal. She's open in her love for Tsumiki, she loves her back! In DR proper it's like a real 'ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh' on if Junko had feelings for Mikan. She was lewd to her in DR3 that's enough fuel and her viewing Mikan as iimportant means she's on the level of Matsuda to me. Slayhem prove me right.

I know these characters aren't my own and I'm making them do things that they'd never do in cannon, but I also write and treat them as actual characters. I write them to feel authentic like their game counter parts while also still writing them my way. I write the two and their relationships and feelings like fully fleshed characters, not just cut outs of their popular traits. I think they'd have a good relationship together so I write and explore it to show that!

As a fanfic writer, I know my writing of these characters is going to be influenced by wanting to see my favorite disaster despair women kissing and smooching and cuddling and getting naughty with it. I know they're not actually 1 to 1 with their game counter parts who I fell in love with. But, I still love these characters, and I want this story ot be an actual story, so I write them to the best of my ability while also doing my own thing.

When writing, I don't think you should strain to just be one to one with the source and still do your own thing but like, still write these characters like you know them. Make it feel like them at least to SOME degreee, right? I mean you're showing why you love the characters after all! I'm excited for 2x2. There's a confidence to it that the feeling like it's going to be a cruel bastard, and that's what I love. Kodaka and team aren't making a game just to fuel our fantasies (though I do want a Junkan CG please please please), and are writing it as an actual new scenario and story. I do the same for my writing, treating this exploration of Junkan, trans woman Mikan, Mikane and more as an actual story, and I think it's the way to go, even when writing fanfic. Much like you should read and take from actual art and writing and movies to learn from and improve your own works. Anyways this has been going long enough... what to end on.

"Mikan, this random rambling has me bored as hell. Do you wanna have some intense, passionate, transgender lesbian sex?"

"Why yes, beloved! I'd love to make raw, intense, passionate love to you as a transgender lesbian myself! We should also be sure to involve our other girlfriend Akane in our hot, sweaty, long and driven transgender lesbian love making!"