Danganronpa 1/2/3
Speech = "…..."
Thoughts = […..]
º
º
What matters in this world?
What can be considered when someone has made a contribution to the world they came in...?
What made their efforts worth the pain and sweat they went through to achieve their dreams?
What…. makes someone special?
It sounds at first like some sort of inane question, doesn't? Who goes by in their life pestering others or themselves with such weird questions when there are better things to do with their lives..? It not like knowing will change your life for the better or make the world change in the opposite direction.
That would make for good yet somehow cheap plot-point in a two time manga from a store down the street.
Still, there are certain individuals... like so many others who still can't help themselves thinking about it, more often than not you end up finding strange things down the way, like a small crack in the floor that you can not help but carve into only to find that it leads to a hidden rabbit hole! It really blows one's mind when they slowly come to realize that what we consider special has changed so many times through out history just as much as the context around it.
The first thought the common man comes across as they ponder such query is a look of both bafflement and amusement
"Of course we are all special"
"Who told you otherwise..?"
However as they speak out those words they don't explain why.
Perhaps it has to do with the fact we may be the only intelligent life in the universe? Or that we have thoughts and wishes and so we are set apart from the animals of our world…? However... most would consider such beliefs appear since the very moment we draw our first breath, where our parents shower us with love and kindness,
Whispering time and time again how "special" we are.
We don't understand the meaning of that word, and yet it makes us puff our chest with pride and giggle with happiness as they held us high.
And it happens again and again...
When the sound of their very first words
The sound of their unstable first steps on the floor
Even when they did wrong through the most silly of things us children they drew the attention and warmth of those around them.
Its like the entire world circled around their choices.
However as people grow, those perspectives tend to shift as-well, under the eyes of those around us we are no longer as "special" as they used to be, even though their words come as reassurance that such notion is a product of their imagination, however, deep down they are aware that something has changed...and so they look more outwards instead of inside and in doing so we take notice of the world around them.
Or perhaps more specifically those things that they are different from us.
They are tall...so they are better at playing basketball.
They are more muscular, so they can fight or move things with more ease.
They are more intelligent, so they are better at academics.
Things or attributes that they were either born with or had a pendant to from the start, a particular skill or gift or ability that was slowly gained and made bright through effort, time and dedication rather than a mythical boundary that set people apart. An aspect that both society and the school system seemed to not only approve, but encourage given the amount of praise and encouragement people are given to better themselves.
That only through dedication we can achieve our dreams, no matter what they may be:
Getting better jobs
Making society a better place
Better prospects for a long and steady future
Having an easier life
The usual staff we tell the young generations to turn into stepping stones for their journey through life. To make them know that once they reach those things they will be "special". And while there were some problems with that strategy given the fact that people behave differently around one another, but it made it no less truer. In fact, in the past things were even more simple
However, there were times were upon reaching such heights. Almost….as if reaching the top feels...lacking.
Wasn't this meant to make one be special..?
That we mattered as individuals..?
Was something missing..?
More often than not such questions do not give the answers that are sought, but instead create more questions that nag at one's own conscience. It makes us wonder, and so... we look back into the distant figures of a shrew politician who said the right thing in the right moment could become elevated from the rest of his peers, or like the heroes of old...by either killing the monster or tyrant of the time they became "special" in the eyes of the world.
They had mattered
Their deeds remembered
Because they were special….
For better or for worse, deeds and effort have been the very line the word special has been attached to for as long as men could remember it….because only through work could one's inner gift be able to flourish.
A particular aspect that any person in this world shared.
In a peculiar sense, that made all of the human race special.
Sadly, nowadays such notions have been recycled and dump into the nearest garbage can as Talent..and not effort were lauded by society as the pinnacle that all living beings should strive for.
The ghost of a scowl warped around her lips at that particular thought that had once been a source of mild discomfort to a down right thorn in her side
How it happened no one really knew.
It just did...
From one day to the other it felt as if the entire world had decided to switch gears and go in the opposite direction, as instead of nurturing talent...they hunted for it. Focusing more in searching for those individuals that shone brighter than others for one reason or another instead of raising everyone equally to find that very light through their respective paths.
True, talent had never been overlook before...but what happened felt like a gross over-correction.
She sighed aloud, slowly tilting her head back and allowing her scalp to lean softly against the cool, flat wall behind her, her clothes shifting under the way she switched her balance if ever so slightly, her silvery hair hanging low and wild over her shoulders like a cascade of starlight.
She had never been a seer, but surely such outlandish change of pace would cause an uproar of some kind. After all, "talent" was not what defined a person, it was just one of the many quirks that made one who they were.
She rose her arm up, guiding her hand towards her lips as she took in another breath from her cumbersome made cigarette, before blowing a faint trail of smoke out.
She was wrong
Like some sort of carnival coming to town, Talent became the only thing people seemed to focus on.
The schools offered sponsors to only Talented individuals. Agencies and governments showered these people with both money and offers that others less fortunate would have killed for. Even the common Joe started showering them with attention like an endless ocean of rag tag fans.
She pinched the bridge of her nose, feeling the migraine slowly rear its ugly head, a gesture that repeated each and every time she found herself stuck on trying to understand how such nonsense had come to be.
In the most weird of ways, mankind had managed to create another way to divide and seclude themselves.
The Talented vs the untalented
It did not matter if you had spent years of your life working and gaining experience over a certain topic that could change the world. Now a child from who knows where could not just steal your thunder, but downright eclipse your very existence because they had a bloody label to their name.
It wasn't fair..
It bloody wasn't…
Even her who cared little about what money graving schemes were played at a large scale and with even less to her name could tell that it was a stupid idea from the get go. People were more than their talents, they were human beings with their own flaws and drives...not some kind of messiahs that could do no wrong or mistake in their fields.
For gods sake, most of those kids had not hit puberty!
..
But who cared about the opinions of "normal" people..?
She took another breath of her smoke, feeling its rough familiar taste linger in her mouth before she let it slid out from her lips.
No one
That was the point
And so...the term Ultimate was born, with all its glimmer and all the fanfare that would follow it close by.
Scams from services pretending to offer families the chance at a life of prestige.
Case after case of abusive parents trying to make their children talented by the worlds new standards
News of kidnapping cases of children because they were rumored to be ultimate's.
The problems of the world had not changed.
They had just adapted.
A mirthless chuckle slipped past her lips, truly mankind was the only creature to stumble on the same rock, more out of hollow pride than actual stupidity in this case though
"The signs were there, but no one paid heed to it…."
She grumbled as she finally put the cigarette down to her side against the floor, the still burning embers floating in the air for a brief moment before they too were consumed, washing away with the wind.
Pride
Greed
Lunacy
Those were some of the things that had started popping up more and more.
Slowly, almost lazily she opened her eyes, yet still saw nothing...not even the flames licking at the edge of her smoke could elate a tidbit of light in the room, still the darkness around her was an old friend by now.
With another tired sigh she felt her hands shiver even though she felt no cold, with a shake of her head she clenched tightly with both of her hands the cold frame of the cross hanging from her neck, feeling the way the metal bit into her palms.
Finding no small amount of relief in the act as she did.
Now if only the other students could find such light in the darkness around them….if only for a moment things would not have gone the way they had.
"Lord….please forgive them for they don't know what they are doing" She whispered softly, more to herself than anything else.
Now if only she had known better from accepting that letter.