I can do my best to give the flyover view!! ><!

Ponderings...

On the surface, Kiki reads to me as the type of boy who has little to no self-awareness of his own feelings, more liable to fester in an abstract indirect representation than confront anything, even internally, about his insecurities. I don't think he has words for what he feels or why, in the practical sense. The Oni myth & running into the mountain repeatedly as a kid, to me, are the wayward impulse of something like runaway urges, and at times maybe even suicidal ones! Or if you will, nonspecific self-destructive pangs. Just, not in a way he's conscious of, or looking at directly. I like that Kiki, a quiet shy whisp of a boy, connects to a supposed monster that is rumored to have attacked the whole village. It's a red flag so to speak. Running towards it and believing somehow they could connect, understand each other, says something about him.

The actual mountain area Kiki apparently scampered off to as a kid, is ludicrously dangerous looking, absolute nightmare to imagine being an even younger child in the terrain, or even simply the lower mountain areas of Mossui... I think we can logically understand why Carmine has become overbaring & protective of Kiki, constantly standing in front of him. She was having to track him down and drag him home from precarious cliffs and gorges filled with wild pokemon, water to drown in, goodness gracious...

Kiki is someone who dilapidates into self-depreciation at the drop of a hat, so I'm sure being able to, at any moment, slip out & then be surreptitiously saved by his older sister searching doggedly for him, soothed (but did not heal) some insecure corners of his poor mind. Oddball balm. Something reliable. And a fantastical dream to redirect whatever emotions he has, into. Focusing on the Oni, means not focusing on himself. I think he's the sort of unstable where actually looking in the face of what is upsetting him (like his sister becoming annoyed or bored with him, or abandoning him) would render him like, catatonic, so, it's necessary to divert.

I find it cute that Carmine attempted to wingman Kiki into having a single friend. Her otouto she does absolutely everything for at school, who is always hiding behind her...

its cute how quickly Kiki goes from "fine with this" to "excited by this", going so far as secretly informing M/C of how hard Carmine attempted to find a mask for M/C to wear at the festival, kinda welcoming him into the fold, to immediately concluding you two are making fun of him behind his back. Hardly anything has to happen for Kiki to feel like a third wheel, and like nobody likes him over each other...

If we imagine the Oni myth is just this obsessive coping mechanism to divert like, 1,000 complexes into in lieue of having to emotionally confront more difficult & impossible things (more impossible than finding bigfoot and being her friend, yes), ouuuugh having it simply usurped by M/C, urrr you understand how he gets unreasonable & crazy & loses all of his mooring. I just don't think he can even handle having to address or understand what's underneath all of this...

MEANWHILE, on first playthrough I simply saw Carmine as so flop at handling her unstable otouto, BUT, on reflection, I can see her side of things... she was wingmanning Kiki for HIS sake, and somehow, after it all going so well (slay, win for Nee-chan), it suddenly goes worse than she has ever seen or is even familiar with from Kiki (flop, fail for Nee-chan). As much as its highs/lows for Kiki, it's such for Carmine, too... going from helping her otouto & seeing him so happy, to seeing him MISERABLE.

Carmine bringing up puberty, & the fact she was kind of waiting for a behavioral change in Kiki, is so ............ intriguing to me. I like that Carmine is the kind of nee-chan who is only only doting of her otouto, but trying to get out ahead of & anticipate the 'next step's and plan what she'll do, or be ready for them... didn't wanna be surprised by Kiki changing, surely she wanted to mooove like waaaater and simply be gracious & adapt to whateverrrr puberty might change of her clingy, sweets-loving, storybook-fixated otouto... but uhm, it's very funny then how mad & frustrated she is with him instantly, in practice. Despite the desire to be chill........................ I think she can't control how much its like, UGHHH I DID THIS FOR YOU!!! KIKI!!!! He's such an ungrateful brat suddenlyyyyyyy, no recognition or appreciation of her efforts,, she is not gracious about it. UGH!!! What-EVER!! Being unable to even UNDERSTAND what's up with Kiki, puts HER suddenly in a very scary situation, one where she can't reach Kiki at all. The Mossui siblings seem to simultaneously make eachother feel rejected & unimportant... unfamiliar. They both just snap about it all.

NOW... the, Champion Kiki era, augh it did immediately make me forgive nee-chan haha. She looks so helpless. Puberty has come to roost upon her Kiki and he has become violently unfamiliar to her ... she wants to be again, patient or, gracious, wait this out, but, it others & isolates her from him. Suddenly she can't even communicate with him. If she can't coddle or soothe Kiki ... how does she coddle & soothe herself? There's no balm for Carmine in all of this, and she might be more cognizant of how important the gestures of repeatedly servicing Kiki were to her own self-worth. Carmine is a very arrogant & confidant girl, she knows she's beautiful & skillful, but... that doesn't seem to keep her together while Kiki is defecting.

Again Kiki just has like 0 emotional self-awareness and funnels his complicated emotions into something very physical and literal; running up the mountain in the night is replaced with uhhhhh running around the terrarium, doing reps, training. Not sleeping not eating. But this time, Carmine can't come find him cowering in a cave, drag him home & feed him sweets from her fanny pack... rejecting the comfort!!!!!!

I like that even his nervous gestures & speech changes, which makes this all seem like such a concentrated, tense, willfull effort to become 'different'. Killing the Kiki from before, replacing him--!!! With something else!! This time it's just entirely about control ... which is much closer to the root of Kiki's complexes, than event he Oni was. As a result this is much more volatile & self-destructive. He's edging closer and closer to the fire inside his heart! Burning hot...

I-- think there's something intoxicating for him about the sense of control & change, something in his grasp, the power to alter something. But I think previously, this control wasn't entirely passive... making your sister come chase you up and down the mountain, drag you back in the night... was surely an act of control, forcing Carmine into being more & more attentive, diligent, observant...

I wouldn't say Kiki is entirely and only self-hating, because he was obsessed with the Oni and found it very 'cool', and also related it to himself. It's that paradoxical ego & entitlement finds in... the BPD ♥♥♥♥ isn't it so cute...

But I dunno the universe kind of validates Kiki in a way, he does instantly rise to Champion, he is in my opinion an objectively better competitor than his sister (his battles are always more difficult...), he is composed of a crazed passion the likes of which Does Not exist in other's hearts. It burns him from the inside out but, it burns brightly, big engulfing flame, swallows up others, steals all the oxygen from the room. I like this for him........................ he's not exactly wrong to be so egotistical.

I would like to think he's always aware of his sad-faced sister haunting him at the academy, in his periphery as he trains & battles... I'mmmm sure that's kind of like a perpetual sensation of being chased up the mountain. Again, I can see why it's addictive & why he wants to sustain it just like it is. He can create a situation his sister is constantly worried, constantly thinking about him, constantly trying to 'bring him back home', but he can stay at a distance, keep her on the edge of getting what she wants from him (any comfort, any appreciation, any recognition, any love). Honestly that frame of mind, should make him at least half-hard ambiently. I think of Champion Kiki as, suddenly getting rock-hard in his dorm, intoxicating sensation of keeping his sister dangling on a string, no longer feeling passive at all, usurping control over her in a much more meaningful way. Her entire mood, is his. She's not recovering from this, she has no relief, she has no comfort. I don't think he can jerk off or even 'see' this machination so directly (perhaps I could describe it as a hot fog in his skull), but it can make the endless tasks of ranking up rewarding, feel '''''goood''''' and like he's on the right track, closer to satisfaction. Really really think doing this to Carmine is leaps & bounds above anything he's done before. & he can maintain the illusion that he's doing nothing to her at all, save his dignity or fear of rejection. Appear aloof to her, like he doesn't care. The ultimate scenario for someone desperate...

I reaaally could have been convinced Kiki's complex was more about M/C if only it were not for that final confrontation over terrapagos... ahhh for one, I love that being isolated around Carmine, away from the school, for like, minutes, immediately starts working on him, revert to old gestures & delight & childishness... oouuu your sister is moe isn't she. NO!! no. Aloof...

As he's finallyyy cresting his frustrations head-on, Carmine attempting to praise him for how much he's done, how much he's accomplished, is FIIINALLYYYYY what makes him snap directly AT her, SHUT UP!!! And he suddenly is talking about how she "warmed up to" M/C so "quickly"????? It made me go OOHHHHHHHHH oh no... haha.

Kiki!!! It's too simple... seeing his sister liking somebody, is such a dramatic 'change' in what he 'knows', to Kiki, it's not about his own change at all... Carmine is the one who changed on him, became unfamiliar, frightening! Made him feel isolated, left behind...! Unwanted....!

IT'S JUST SO UNREASONABLE THOUGH KIIKIIIIIIIII--!!! He takes his delusional perspective-- this dramatic sensation of something being taken from him, his sister-- and reverses it, creates for her the dramatic sensation of being taken from her, unfamiliar, unreachable, different... ! To Kiki, it must feel like 'getting even' to rob Carmine of her familiar Otouto... because she took his familiar nee-chan away, first!!! SHE STARTED IT!!!! She didn't want him first--!!

It's so moe... Kiki~~!! That's not what happened at all... but that's his perception, so that's his reality, and he's only doing what seems reasonable in retaliation. It's deserved!

Anyhoo... I think all that coming out is all the Mossui sibs needed.

Shoutout to Kiki, he literally gets exactly what he wanted out of all of this tantruming....we love to see an irrational king winning... I was gobsmacked at Carmine seemingly taking a gap year with him in Mossui (I have no actual sense of time in these games, but it's the festival from the beginning of the games again in the final DLC leg??). He threw such a fit he sent them both back to their hometown to reassure their bond with absolutely nobody else between them. What a beautiful conclusion, I feel like Kiki didn't even actually have to learn a lesson. If anything it feels as if Carmine had to learn something. Do Not get distracted ... making 1 close friend is dangerous. Kiki won't like that.

And to say, some words on Carmine, she is a funny funny girl. She is objectively gorgeous, but also of course, as much of a social reject as Kiki... her, demeanor, turns people off, the Mossui siblings are definitely both repellant to others, respectively... weird, offputting. She has 0 self-awareness in her own way, parallel to Kiki, doesn't perceive her isolation or lack of friends as any sort of failure or even something to be self-conscious about. I don't think Carmine even feels loneliness though, or wishes she had friends at all.... nobody is interesting, or good enough for her. If people run away from her, its definitely because they are intimidated by her, she thinks... because she's so beautiful and impressive. I-I like that she just kind of says this sort of thing, and I guess Kiki growing up just has to be like, nod.

But by the end of the DLC I got a chill down my spine, when Carmine is being Carmine, and Kiki says, "sorry about her..."........... WHAT ARE YOU, HER KEEPER????? YABAIIIII, DON'T BECOME AWARE YOUR SISTER IS SOCIALLY REPELLANT AND WEIRD--!!! He's way too powerful, what--!!! I knooow the whole bit is that Carmine used to say like, "sorry about him" when Kiki was acting up, but oh my god... YOU'RE SUDDENLY THIS CONFIDENT?? THAT'S TOO MUCH OF A CHANGE--!! you're AWARE your sister is flop and fail, just like you, now?? The vacation was a little TOO reassuring, Kiki is becoming cocky...???? You understand your sister is like, unimpressive,, I'm worried Kiki is too aware of his own power & capabilities & her attachment to him... CARMINE!!!! I'M WORRIED FOR YOU!!!! Your otouto has realized you're, what, not out of his league...? NO--!!

going where no otouto should ever go....

Oh yeah, it's really funny the final stupid DLC garbage pecharunt stuff, Kiki only reaches out to you to make you Scooby Doo Gang his problems... it feels like M/C has suddenly become just a useful asset to call upon. He's no longer insecure about your ability to accomplish shit mad effectively. Please catch the legendary, idgaf. Could not care less about all of this. Insecurity not whatsoever tied to this. Spent a gap year alone with my sister, I'm calm as the river. A little too calm some might say. All the proof one needs that his problem never had anything to do with a meaningful fixation on M/C, or the Oni. His problem was sense of control, over his life, more specifically with his sister.

That he hasn't bothered to contact M/C seemingly at all before this is. funny and telling... too Busy alone in out in the country with my big sister who I've deprived of love and affection for months just prior. Reaping what I had sewn in my fevered delirium.

On the whole.... there are a lot of intriguing places in the timeline, to play with the Mossui siblings. Kiki is... such a frantic character, so unstable, one can go in any direction. It's very easy to imagine him raping Carmine, with modest tweaks to the timeline. He's so unaware of his own feelings, while also being terribly led by the ghost of them; that makes him dangerous & impulsive. He's not actually practiced in repression at all, because he's not even addressing the urges. I don't think he has much wherewithal to resist temptations once they finally crystallize... this is a boy whos fannypack is canonically filled with candy. For a lot of his life, I think his sister has mostly handed him the attention and services he cries for, only occasionally reluctantly. There's entitlement and obligation dripping from that kind of dynamic. And I don't personally feel Carmine has much power to resist him, because she's only familiar with the pathetic Kiki tugging at her shirt.

But I like romantical & slowburning routes too. Coming upon the realization he's in love with his sister, could be a slow, dawning thing for Kiki, when they return to Mossui. At first, everything is all comfort, familiarity, reassurance... but things are different. He became familiar with a capable, violent side of himself, & Carmine no longer sees him the same way, either. He's more aware of her attachment to him, and just how much she will still love him through. He saw her helpless, wanting for him. I don't think Kiki would have any prior experience in just lazing around, thinking about his feelings, walking through his mind... finally doing so, just observing his own emotions, could become interesting. There's less fear of what's in there, paradoxically... because, his sister proved how unconditional her love for him is.

For Carmine's end... she does comment with self-awareness of being overprotective of Kiki, so she's come out of this with a little more power of reflection. I think it always felt like second nature to her, to dote on her otouto, especially with their lack of parents. She formed her habits around Kiki's neediness, meeting him there. Not exactly a 'choice' but just 'how it is'... now, it's er, in a way, a more willful choice...? I imagine she'd have more anxiety than before, & unfortunately, Kiki can observe that flitting about under her expressions, when he responds more distractedly, or his voice drops. Interesting. Sister really is in her own way, helplessly attached. The fantasy for control, was plainly achieved. Kiki can pull her strings, can see where the threads attach...

Er, no matter what, whether it's something violent pressed upon Carmine, or something Kiki gently eases against her, I feel Kiki alone holds the power to alter their dynamic, make it romantic, sexual. Carmine, I see as focused on the status quo, acting in service to a familiar, comforting closeness between them... and, I feel this is kind of childish of her. Oddly, when Carmine comments on Kiki's puberty, she also muses that hers wasn't like this, that she never acted out. I believe her. But, I think that's as weird of her as Kiki's journey is to him, in the opposite direction. I ............. don't see Carmine as someone who even thinks hard about sexuality, or future relationships .............. really, guys are typically repulsive or annoying, whether it be a Drayton or a Crispin it's all a wash. I think Amarys has a crush on her & Carmine cannot see it whatsoever & it would only be a strange inconvenience if she did.

Carmine being essentially a TA at Blueberry and very busy with Ms. Briar's tasks, gives me an image of a girl who is just trying to secure a stable, reliable future for herself and her otouto (who needs a lot of caretaking). She's said to not even have time to become Champion, even though she holds the skill to do so. The accolades & clout is just not as tempting for her as the credit of a teacher's recommendation, which could lead her directly into a favorable job position. . I don't imagine she indulges many hobbies or any clubs. Her priorities seem to be just taking care of things. I do Not think she thinks about her virginity or fucking around ........................

Which, you know. Even Kiki could finally become aware of.... he got so scared, because, his sister just Liking someone was so alien, so bizarre, it threw him into histrionics. The very roof of the meltdown is the unrealistic stability nee-chan previously offered, which he didn't think twice about until it was threatened. Now, thinking of her getting a boyfriend, would be, terrible, uncomfortable, to internally address,, but I think he could weather the concept inside of his own mind, and dwell on what he feels... and what to do about it. I would like to think his repression & refusal to see his own feelings, to divert into the Oni and then into Championship, would indicate he's never, ever crossed into this thought before. It would have melted his face off before he got to it, before...

still hot, painful, burning his palms, now, but... he has the power effect change! Now... daaangerous, why did we teach Kiki this??? And now he's gotten just what he wants, all alone with his sister back in Mossui ??!?!!!!??! it's such a terrible inevitability, Kiki is definitely going to have sex with his sister... she has no say in the matter. Good luck, nee-chan!!!! I'm worried about Kiki's indominable spirit and ability to get Very Good at things he's determined towards...

[pausing] anyway thats what we've been up to (RPing). I feel like at worst Kiki rapes his sister and at best he coerces her-- ??!?!? i-it can end sweetly though, I promise...