oh sure, but it's not a very refined one tbh! i just kinda casually think shes trans and not really out to herself-- i think a lot of midoris insecurities abt her height and therefore not being cute reads like dysphoria to me especially with the overlap with self-hatred she seems to experience.

it's also kind of based of that one part in ring a bell where she specifically says she doesnt want to wear a dress because it wouldnt look cute on her (bc of her height) rather than like yknow anything abt not Wanting to wear one which is flimsy but ill take it.

i also kind of like it as a ryst junior constellation with trans guy tetora & nonbinary shinobu. theyve got it all!

HI god sorry this took me a long time to get to due to being Busy:tm: with the last handful of days of my boyfriend visiting me

i'm honestly not that good with like 100% complete preferences. so i'm just gonna list some thoughts. i do really like the idea of yuzuru liking romance... i think he'd think of it as something like a guilty pleasure maybe? but i do also believe he would be EXTREMELY particular about what he enjoys and doesn't LMAO

i feel like tori must at least have some preferences in terms of manga he likes and out of the four of them i think he's the one who enjoys "softer" genres the most, both in terms of being stuff that is aimed at younger audiences in general but also like. him being the one who would be most open about enjoying romance as a genre for one? i think he could also really enjoy like a political drama or thriller, which i think he could get into as "research" since they can be VERY dramatic in a way that he would find appealing i think

wataru is the one i would personally have the hardest time pinning down tbh... i think they don't discriminate a whole lot when it comes to genre!! i'm thinking abt them getting movies from the rental store in alphabetical order and watching as much as they can of it (both alone and then later w/ friends & specifically as a theater club activity) very fondly. i think if fine did movie nights theyd be the one picking the movie more often than not because they're most knowledgable about the subject and also most aware of everyone elses tastes. i think they have a tendency and preference towards more Theatrical stuff?

yuzuru has seen a lot of the same movies tori has, obviously, and i think out of those his personal preference is also towards the more political stuff. i think he has a difficult time with Favorites, in part because while i think he prefers more "serious" or like "darker" subject matter i think he's particular about fictional violence. honestly i could see him getting into horror but again being REALLY particular about it. i think it could be good for him.

eichi i would also really jot down as someone very likely to be into like political thrillers, horror, drama, strong preference for "realism" and "dark subject matters" and stuff that leans more towards a cynical worldview. youd have to sell him on optimistic stuff. hes edgy like that. i think he could get really into saw. i think he also enjoys media with religious imagery and themes.

all of this is to say that i think fine could do a movie night with conclave (2024) and they'd all enjoy it <3

okay there may be some repeats in here because i think overall theres gonna be a theme of pride and envy once again. whos out here sending me homework??

rei: [guy who thinks about crossroads a normal amount] envy, potentially. part of me is like "not sloth but like diligence but bad" since rei's "downfall" as an eccentric was ultimately him being overworked and burning out, but alas, burnout is not a sin according to the christian establishment

shu: pride was shu's downfall in a lot of ways, but i think envy is what made her treat nazuna the way she did so whos to say.

natsume: pride? maybe wrath? he doesnt feel like someone who has anger issues but he does lash out at others pretty frequently so ehhhhh. he seems prideful as a person but natsume im struggling with the most

wataru: i will keep as envy. if we go with an earlier/younger version of wataru, perhaps greed. i think their disconnectedness in second year in some ways could be sloth?

kanata: idolatry

UMMMMMM this is hard.

eichi, is actually not hard bc i wanna say gluttony. i think greed could be the "obvious" one but eichi personally likes to characterize himself as someone who devours (dreams) and emperors unhealthy appetite is one of my favorite eichi cards, so thats the one i would assign him. you could assign him so many others tho <3 bc theres so much wrong with him <33333

tori, i wanna say sloth specifically as his sin early in es1 that hes overcome! i think a lot of the way hes characterized now is like... hard-working and diligent but thats somewhere he had to get through character development and ig i like the idea of how its smth that goes against.... the way he was raised to be ig?

yuzuru i could see either as pride (dont ask me why) or envy kinda? i like pride as the thing he clings to to himself. pride in his position as a butler and the things that affords him, the skill hes acquired to do his job well etc. its a coping mechanism.

wataru ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm im gonna be brave and bold and say envy and not elaborate. "humans yearn after all".

i think overall as a unit they could all embody pride specifically really well. or greed if you wanna be basic abt it while assigning enstars units one of the sins but i think pride fits them collectively the best?

the team depends on the gen but since i was talking specifically abt scarvio, ill put the team i put together as an img in the replies but:

• meowscarada: obvious, shares both rose & mask imagery, for ME PERSONALLY as a PLAYER i also just like cats :)
• tinkaton, to represent tori
• hatterene, i cant rlly explain this one and ig its the most "exchangable" in the team but the like magic theming with the wizard hat on hatterene
• altaria, obvious, literally the bluebird of happiness and all that
• polteageist, eichi reference
• indeedee, yuzuru reference

its not the most balanced team (actually looking its doing pretty okay which is good! :D) but i was just going based on fun and vibes :> i dont think ill ever be able to top the person who gave wataru like two normal pokemon and then four pigeons, so.

i think my favorite gen may be sun/moon tbh? its the first one id played in a while when it came out and the last pokemon game i actually managed to complete (ive only completed three), i LOVE the regional variant gimmick and like. the qol of the game showing you when moves are/arent effective (im not good at remembering this because im a casual pkmn player at BEST)

other than that im biased towards the other two games ive finished which are red (as a baby. somehow.) and platinum and i also spent a lot of time fucking around w my little brothers copy of crystal so like in terms of fondness i think id rank them... 2nd gen > 4th gen > 1st gen. not out of hate for 1st gen but i think the games after that were More Fun To Play. 2nd gen sweeps there bc of hgss (never finished them, but,)

OMG!!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH THATS SO COOL!!!

thank you so much!! its been a good day :>

thank you missy!!!! good to hear from you again, i hope your days also awesome

LMAO its okay it was just a little joke

YEAH its something where i feel like i have a decent handle of reis mindset, especially since i tend to write him around wataru and eichi where he tends to be in a specific one (somewhere between "annoyed" and "going along with it" plus the complicated emotions he has abt both of them) it really is just abt character voice and making him sound Real that way

i think the time i had the best grasp on watarus voice was after id just seen several shakespeare plays .. i try to make the way they talk kinda stilted and impersonal but their voice is smth i like to have fun with... im more confident in how much i Know about wataru so i feel more confident deviating from that?

im glad you enjoy how i write them <33

THANK YOU!!!

yknow i could not be getting any of them!!! maybe im not getting any cat plushes!!!!

its wataru, eichi & mama .

OKAY SO generally i would suggest if a specific merch item releases to check the mentions of enstarsgoods on twitter to see if anyone is doing a group order for it! thats how ive gotten merch in the past (and in this case im getting them via an american GO)

the person i used to do GOs through has started their own like business which still has preorders for the cat plushes open but they close TODAY: https://tsukihoney.com/en/produit/moe-moe-plush-dolls-ensemble-stars/ my experiences with them have mostly been positive (theres been a single case of them forgetting to order a specific plush i wanted but i was compensated & got some extra freebies thrown in), just for transparencies sake but yeah

aww thank you i'm glad you liked it :)

i forgot where i found butch 4 butch and why it's on there. i think its the rat and bug infested pianos line. "the music we make is unnatural but it sounds just like falling in love", i used to be really into that idea for wataei specifically, that this isn't necessarily a conventional relationship, or a conventional way to feel or express their feelings but it's like. close enough to love. it sounds like it, it looks like it. yknow.

i get that re: niigo drawing you back in. maybe one day ill find it in me to get deeper but its also very honestly i dont super want to get invested in another piece of gacha media. idk maybe if i end up replacing my tablet someday to one with space for several rhythm games LMAO

i definitely see jackpot sad girl yeaaaah. and i guess mafuyu as a character in general!! she was one of my favorites as i tried to get into it, i think her whole thing of putting on a perfect face etc is sooo. argh. i have feelings about it.

i honestly couldnt name individual songs. rn the only two songs i can name that i know ive enjoyed were like. jackpot sad girl. and becoming potatoes. ive been obsessed with becoming potatoes for a while, and im SURE its mostly just that the name is that. and also yknow. gestures. wataruP. proseka not rlly having a character who fills my niche for what i enjoy with wataru is another thing keeping me from it i think...

oh this is really easy bc its rei. he's got a really hard to nail down cadence in how he speaks (imo an element of sounding both old and young at the same time and/or to different extents?) that is translated very differently depending on the translator, which means there's no way to rely on like verbal tics or like tendencies in how they speak to convey the character voice, it's all got to be in What he says and hoping that the phrasing comes across right. makes me very aware that english isn't my first language so a lot of the subtleties needed to communicate that are just stuff i don't Know, but i also know he's consistently considered p difficult to write.

which is funny considering hes still the most popular character on enstars ao3 iirc? (checked and yes he is)

hii no worries! it is what it is, were all going through it rn

part of me wants to assign shu like symphonic metal as a genre bc my phase of being rlly into that overlapped with the time at which i found the like aesthetic valkyrie has extremely appealing. like the early teen goth phase ig?

ill post the watareichi playlist in the replies on twt/bsky as a screenshot!

and i kinda already dropped prsk (for now) bc its kind of a huge app that doesnt do well on my tablet.

I WAITED TO REPLY SO I COULD LISTEN TO THE SONGS YOU SENT ME ive been listening to niigo music specifically on-and-off for a lot while i was moving the last few weeks and especially taking care of my last apartment so ive definitely heard it before but yeaaah i can see what you mean with those songs.... ill integrate that into my belief system.

tbh my original comment was less about watarus precise relationship to the theater program and much more the like History Of The Theater Club (as a club)!

Performance imo gives the impression that the theater club has existed for a while (like other clubs) and only has three members because Wataru as a theater club member is a lot to deal with. iirc theres mentions of previous members leaving with those three being the like last ones standing, and the rewriting of the romeo & juliet play as a bit of a "tradition"

generally speaking i agree that like the way wataru talks abt the theater program in performance can be read that way, iirc the specifics of the performance we as readers end up seeing is also that like "theyre busy rn and theyll come to help later", it definitely doesnt really track with watarus whole thing leading up to this point that they WOULD just have Friends there.

id still call it a bit of a retcon bc i think the lack of theater program students at the time of writing was for reasons of "these are not characters who actually exist, but they would help (even if wataru is maybe overstating their relationship to them)" whereas i think atlantis implies it was just fully a lie. but idk thats like my personal interpretation.

i could also never fully make piece with how wataru talks about having friends etc in the theater program so that not being entirely the truth fully tracks to me.

it took me a moment tk remember what this was about dbdjdhdhdh im sure i could think of rei or shu songs if i go into my library and see what resonates...

shu is hard for me because i feel like songs that suit her wouldnt really be in the music i enjoy listening to...

for rei the firsr thing that came to mind is a better son/daughter by rilo kiley but i cant substantiate this. i DO have a playlist i made abt the watareichi situation back when i wrote the first part and in the context of THAT specifically i put good wife by mika. maybe also class of 2013 by mitski? if i look at the songs ive liked im leaning towards assigning the ones to rei that are abt being forced to grow up too fast & not living up to that image in a way.. my brain is also saying big god by florence and the machine but i wouldnt be able to justify that its just sort of vibes-based.

oh i wonder who this could be!!!! thank you im putting them away. into my playlist (current) (growing)

oop, checking in a bit late, i didnt see this. i have made playlists!! usually theyre for writing stuff so theyre generally just music i throw together from my own tunes that fit the mood/put me in the right headspace tbh

thank you..... i mean at this point theyre going to start to have to show up soon-ish i guess. i guess theres maybe like 6 months to the cross scouts left but please. pleaseeeeee

OH its just the anon i kept exchanging watayuzu essays with stopped responding so i assumed they like. passed out (fell asleep) at the time. bc last/this week i was talking to two anons specifically

the only hc i can think of atm is their "food pact" which is that they make an effort (and generally succeed) to have a meal with each other at least once a day. usually this ends up being dinner when both of them are done with work and it serves three purposes: setting up and enforcing either a specific break time without "work", ensuring both of them have at least one full meal per day. and of course so they have time together thats just between the two of them <33

YEAH it's interesting!! they clearly pick one nickname per person and then stick with it no matter what, though i feel like watarus nicknames have been slowly phased out/are becoming a much more inconsistent character quirk.

but of course koga is puppy forever.

less of a wisdom and more of a headcanon but sanctuary kind of implies wataru wasnt raised in japan (other stories also imply this, in summer vacation wataru brings up already having acted overseas as a child) and its rlly interesting because thanks to i7 we know how eguchi voice acts an english accent and that thats not wataru has, wataru is just doing... theater-y overenunciating

so imo they were raised bilingual (or more) in japanese and the main language of wherever they grew up. and i just wanna raise the possibility of wataru being french canadian again.