TL;CR MEME

[gatonina]

1. Comment with your character.
2. Receive comments from others.
3. Reply to their comments with long ballads and explanations of your characters' relationship throughout the game.
4. Suffer as we have suffered over your CR.

Comments

[wisterin]

you PROMISED, jae

[swordflash]

I never promised quality, though—

I called her Camp Grandma, because she did fill Jigoro’s shoes as Zenitsu’s mentor in camp for a good long while. She was kind and patient, but wouldn’t let him off easily if he started squirming his way out of a discussion. The biggest difference was that she never got physical with him. If Giyu made him want to do better in the competition as a team player, Shinobu made him want to be better as a person for himself.

The thing about Shinobu was that she seldom said that which he could refute, making it less likely for her to hit a brick wall when conversing with him about self-improvement. She was relentless. Zenitsu is complaisant, but he has the terrible habit of becoming complacent after the slightest inconvenience. A lot of their conversations circled back to her asking him to do his best and to keep on trying, and I think the repetition was important to stop him from backsliding.

Once he learned about alternate realities, he felt somewhat distanced from Shinobu in that she might’ve been treating him like the version of him that she knows. That reservation fell to the wayside in the face of her unwavering faith, though—she didn’t even make much of a fuss when she caught him on talking about that future as opposed to his own. With Shinobu, it truly felt like she was invested in his ability to close the gap she was seeing.

Shinobu’s was a success story in demon slaying. When he saw her memories, he was inspired to revisit his original ambition of becoming a Pillar himself. At the same time, he felt how much she struggled and from then on became more mindful of people’s smiles.

There were many people he didn’t want to disappoint in camp. Shinobu and Giyu were the top two names on this list, partly because of their shared background in demon slaying. He was drawn to and respected them for all the time they spent on getting him to shape up—not to mention their public contributions, which cemented their ability as Pillars in more than just slaying. When they perished in the same week, he was inconsolable in that he felt lonelier than ever, even if they weren’t terribly close. He wasn’t really anyone’s priority, but Shinobu had helped him feel important with that big heart of hers in her little body.

When he died, he thought he spat on Shinobu the most. He was really afraid that she would be disappointed in him for dying and failing to help out in the end. But she didn’t blame him, even after he begged her forgiveness for his incompetence. In the end he was left with his shame, because he had at least wanted to do better for her, and he was kind of embarrassed to be around her for the duration of the graveyard.

That bombshell about Yu did hurt. Yu was kind to him and his passing was just another reminder of how closely death was looming around the corner. I think, though, that Shinobu’s confession helped put some things into perspective for Zenitsu. He didn’t know about kill roles, but he could get the feeling that there was no joy involved in killing, whether or not it was intentional. Everyone, he realized, was having a pretty bad time.

All in all, Shinobu had a pretty significant impact in how he looked at other campers. She showed him via memories and her actions that there was usually something more beneath the surface. He always knew that, intellectually, but all her pent-up rage startled him with the sheer force of her emotion.

He didn't tell her about his feelings for Asch, largely because he had no intention of telling anyone lest he complicate matters, but he also knew that Shinobu didn't have an all-too good opinion of Asch. At the very least, he didn't want to trouble her with this much. She was something of a grounding presence during that encounter: She was there; she was understanding; and he wasn't alone to stew in that feeling of being utterly unlovable. Her hands were tender despite her sharp words and she prevented him from sinking further.

She was very important to him. When he was with her, he felt cared for.