#riseai

locked TF in for international lesbian day!!!!!!!!

rise became an idol because she was lonely and thought taking on a mask and becoming popular would help her stop feeling empty and she would finally be happy by changing herself. and then she found nothing changed, because people only cared about risette, who she couldn’t consider her real self no matter how hard she pushed it, because she could never be so shallow, so fake… it was tiring, playing a character all the time. but along the way, she couldn’t remember any self except this mask she’d taken, and it hurt; it hurt to still feel so lacking when everyone was cheering, to know their applause and admiration was for someone she could never be. only, she really was her the whole time- risette did actually exist inside of her, but in the form of a girl who wants to make others happy through her efforts, not in the plastic girl who sang to find love.

now switch gears: ai ebihara was a lonely, bullied kid, who was forced to believe the only thing that should matter was her appearance, that she should look pretty and act bitchy and spend money and then she’d be popular and she’d find the love and acceptance she craved. despite transforming into what she believed was the perfect girl, she still couldn’t obtain what she really wanted, because now she was held back by shallow and domineering ways. she eventually manages to prove to herself that she is more than who loves her- she is her love for her friends, her romantic optimism. she is her own person, and denying that will get her no where. (and frankly, she’s definitely a lesbian dealing with compulsory heterosexuality- playing pretty for boys because she feels like it’s the only way she’s worth anything, intense crush on a boy she eventually finds she wouldn’t actually date and just loves the idea of love, dating souji for the sake of validation rather than actually harboring feelings for him… she’s a lesbian)

now throw these two together in the middle.

rise, desperately searching for herself and forgoing her idol side in the process; ai, desperately avoiding herself and glamming up like a prima donna. rise, loving deeply, but hating seemingly empty attention; ai, loving shallowly and grasping for any attention she can get.

ai is pretty. rise is pretty. so the local world fights, who’s better?

ai fights, because if she isn’t the prettiest, if she doesn’t have love, what does she have? rise fights, because she’s more than her pretty face and figure, and if she’s lost herself so badly, no one else will ever come close to understanding her. and ai wonders, how is this girl, this incredibly raw and honest girl, so loved? and rise thinks, how sad, how lonely- was i like that?

and rise extends her hand.

and ai takes it.