[CALL | Video | un: monokuma ]

[disjunct]

[ A stuffed animal sits center of the screen.

The room he's in harbors just a chair, and looks isolated enough to be an interrogation room, if not for the dusty slats above him pouring in some light. It's a basement somewhere remote, but nonetheless, he seems to wave at the camera. However, his motor functions seem limited. ]

Hello! Good evening! Good morning! Whichever one you're feeling right now.

[ A slight, curious cock of the head. Once again, the mechanics seem off... and the voice doesn't seem to be coming from the stuffed animal. Someone is speaking for him behind the camera. ]

I think the best way to get to know everybody is to toss out a fun little icebreaker! Lesser-known facts! No one likes being the shut-in at a party. So...

[ "He" clears his throat. ]

Do you know what they did in Paris in the 19th century?
Oh, they definitely painted a lot of paintings and baked a lot of bread. But I mean... for fun?
Back in those days, 'fun' would count a lot on how much money you had. But resourceful Parisians could find it in other ways. For free. There was a once-of-a-lifetime opportunity that anyone in the city could get a ticket punched into! To be the star, or the audience. That's right! I'm talking about...

[ A brief pause. ]


... The morgue!

You see, life was so boring back then that people would line up to walk through the morgue just to see who croaked last night! The more grisly the victim, the more people came to visit!
People were excited to try and recognize the victims! Of course, this was originally just so people had access to claim the deceased, but it was a theater attraction of its own!
Upupupu...! Can you imagine if you didn't have the things you had today, what you'd resort to for fun?
The gawking joy that it brought people... but still, we slow down for car crashes today, don't we?

Hmm...


Do you think humans are really different from back then? From the public executions, to the public display of bodies, to the now?

I wonder about it a lot. I can't say I know for sure, because I am a bear. Would anyone like to try and guess?

Comments

[disjunct]

Good question! Class participation is important!

[ Despite his rather confined motor skills, Monokuma does its part in looking like a confused, certainly copyrighted yellow bear from another franchise. After tapping his head a few times, as if in thought or as if to jog his processors, he continues. ]

What good would it do, judging humans for violence? Have you seen SneakLeak.com? Bear attacks are vicious when they happen! I'd be a hypocrite to call humans 'petty' for it!

But I would say humans gravitate towards violence-- whether they get it in the form of a booster shot of fiction, or distance, or whether they prefer to go hands-on.

well, I'm comforted!

[shootaro]

You're awfully bossy, aren't you?

Fine. Teacher, may I...

[Wait, let him come up with a cover-up question.]

Ask what we'll be graduating from?

1/2

[disjunct]

... Hm. Hm hm hm! That's a good question! I suppose as long as I'm doing an online course, it'll have to have an appropriate name! Ahhh, but I always loved it when they were in person... you really got to connect with the students as they went about their youth-filled school days...

But it can't be helped! I'm on summer vacation! Paid leave! So I'm going to say...

[disjunct]

You're now a proud classmate of...

✨ Monokuma's Extra Exclusive Extracurricular Extravaganza! ✨

[ A very small confetti popper shoots forward streamers from behind the camera. It's FESTIVE. ]

In my class, we'll be teaching a myriad of real-world skills for your day-to-day student! No age limit! My class will be as FAMILY FRIENDLY as a CERO-Z title! Now we're in business!

[fivenareff]

And would you place those humans who work to prevent violence-- either by trying to help people who were hurt, or prevent it in the first place-- in the same category?

[disjunct]

Careful, you're going to tread dangerous territory! Let's say we have a model cop on our hands. Real stand up guy! Does everything by the books, never gets yelled at by his chief, awarded a medal for valor or something equally dumb. But... a guy in that position can still enjoy it, you know?

[ He giggles his weird 'upupupu' giggle, both paws to his mouth. ]

He can still get his rush pointing a gun at someone. He can still get excited at a crime scene. He can even feel an adrenal thrill punting a bad guy into their cell! No one's gonna yell at him for it, he's a hero. All he's gotta do is never admit it when someone asks him if it's fun.

Even if it's violence for a good reason, it's still violence, yannow. And even with your first thing-- people trying to help the hurt, who's to say they're not drawn to it for their own reasons, too? Despair has a pull! You can call that pull 'pity' all you want, but that's as black and white as my fur!

[malignans]

[The bear appears to be more clever than Dio was initially willing to credit him with, but he's not willing to say that he's impressed just yet. He provides him with the opportunity to impress at least with a question of his own.]

And what sort of person do you believe violates that rule and would enjoy it even when it is inflicted upon them?

[disjunct]

You'd be surprised! There are some real sickos in the world. Masochism's too easy of a target, though, even if we both know it exists!

[ Because that was an adult thing. What's something more banal, simultaneously present and invisible? It doesn't take Monokuma long to think of something-- after all, a certain rotten orange springs to mind an example. ]

Misery loves company! And people who are suffering comfort themselves with the pity they'll inevitably get for the pain-- sometimes, it's all the positive attention they ever get. So 'ah, ah, my cousin died, so everyone will be really delicate with me today and treat me super sweetly' can wind up being a relief in and of itself! Humans can be so resourceful! But then again, so is a vulture! Upupu!

[malignans]

[Well, well.]

[Dio anticipated that masochism would be named. It was really whether or not the bear would supply that — a plain, obvious answer that anyone with any sort of awareness of the world could feasibly identify — and only that. But the bear merely acknowledged it and moved along. It's one thing to play along with this little game, but it's another to demonstrate some mild but acceptable degree of intelligence.]

[Consider him mildly impressed officially.]

What about a bear? Clever and insightful is not the same thing as resourceful after all.

[disjunct]

Resourceful, eh? I suppose I get it from my mom's side... you know what they say? That the moment you see a polar bear tailing you in the arctic, you're already dead!

[ Even as his laughter patters off at the visual pun, that's a good question to consider. ]

In all seriousness, though, I think the way I'm 'resourceful' with despair differs a lot from most humans. It's neither masochism or capitalizing on opportunity...

[shootaro]

[Wow. Sparkly.]

... did you bring confetti with you from home or that Comedy place?

[Yeah, that's what he's wondering about right now.]

[disjunct]

Rule 43! No asking a professor where he gets his instruction materials!

[ Read: Junko stole it. From some kid's birthday party, probably. Before lighting up the presents. ]

What's important is that you're now officially my student! Not everyone gets such a high honor, kiddo!

[fivenareff]

Fair enough. But I think you're inclined to give things a negative spin no matter what. You could just as easily say an ambulance technician is drawn to their work because they want to help, or that a policeman feels a rush of joy because he's taken someone dangerous off the streets. Right?

You might be correct in that people are naturally drawn towards violence. People run towards screams and all that. But I think it's flawed to say the why is always for a sadistic reason.

[disjunct]

Yeah, that'd sound about right... if it were just sadism, that is! Humans use despair to their own ends all the time, without getting gratification from inflicting pain on others. It's just as much of a swiss army knife as hope can be! It's way too simple to boil down, you know?

Heroism, even when someone 100% thinks they're doing good, still profits at the despair of someone else most of the time! Huzzah to the cop that shot the robber! Pity the robber's family has to bury them now, but he was a bad guy, so it's okay, right? Even moreso, you nail a drug addict at the lowest point in their life, and you throw them in with people just as bad as them-- ensuring almost none of them will ever get help!

No matter how you cut it, good vs. evil is just survival of the fittest, baby!

[malignans]

There aren't many alternatives left when you eliminate those. At least not while working under the assumption you don't subscribe to the antithesis of survival.

[disjunct]

Upupupu... upupupu!

[ A little raspier than before, with his mouth wide open. ]

It's more complex than that! But at the same time, I don't show my cards on the first draw! Sorry!

[malignans]

Pity.

You were just becoming interesting.

[fivenareff]

You're reaching with that robber example, I think. Not every thief is Jean Valjean. But you have one thing right: it's too diverse an issue to boil down to a correct or incorrect side. Every example you give I could counter and vice-versa.

So how does a bear come to such conclusions? That's a better question.

1/2

[disjunct]

What a despairingly cold answer for dis' bear! You're gonna give me frostbite!

[ As long as Monokuma is acting for her stand-in, what she reveals about the bear doesn't necessarily reveal anything about Junko. Therefore-- ]

Alright. Because you weren't boring to talk to...! I guess the unknown of throwing over the poker table is fine too, huh?

[ Monokuma's voice ... changes. It's no longer a cutesy animal voice, but it still isn't very distinguishable, either. The puppet goes limp, and this is the first time the person behind the camera feels like they're talking into it. ]

You have to think outside of the box. What kind of person doesn't use despair like a masochistic vulture or like a sadist? That's very hard to answer if you're just thinking about an ordinary person, with ordinary goals and ordinary ideals. A human being is only capable of dishing pain or receiving it. We want to think that's the very nature of despair-- a weapon, to inflict or take damage from.

Hope is knowable. If you hope for something, you already have the vision within your head of the future you want. Someone with super-duper extra talent to make their dreams come true only needs hope and ambition. Hope is a prophecy only people with guts can fulfill.

[disjunct]

... and fulfilling its role as the opposite, despair is an unknown.

[ Now her voice is feminine, though deep and serious. ]

What happens when something ripples the world in a way that you couldn't anticipate? When someone's despair, their desire to pull the trigger on someone important or to burn trees in droughted land, becomes everyone's despair? When someone prizes their ownership and power above the wellbeing of everyone else's 'hope'?

Despair is change, and pain is the only way humans-- no, anyone of sentient mind-- changes. But no one seeks despair, do they? No one seeks the very particular pain that would show them how badly they need to change. What they really desire. How badly they want it. Hope is the idea of becoming a great sculpture.

Despair is the chisel and mallet that actually shapes it.

[disjunct]

Ah! Now that'll get us somewhere! I guess I was just made this way. As a certified headmaster, I can promise you the best way to reach a conclusion is by asking questions!

So what better advice to take than my own? I asked a lot of questions, and got a lot of answers!

[shootaro]

[Junk, that's almost literally stealing candy from a baby. That's mean.]

Really?

I thought we were all your students just by being here.

Will we take tests?

[disjunct]

[ Mean is the name of the game!! ]

Of course! What kind of credit can I give you if I don't issue tests? This isn't some new-age classroom nonsense!

... but because I'm so new here, it'll take a bit to organize a proper curriculum. I have to evaluate my students' needs and go from there!

[fivenareff]

Good advice. You won't mind if I take it, then. What kind of school has a bear as a headmaster? And is that what you were made for?

[disjunct]

Ahh, wanting to pry into my juicy backstory, do we? Very well, then! I was headmaster of only the most prolific school in the entire world! All of those talented students looked up to me for advice! Rules! Discipline! And fun!

What I was made for? Hmm... you'll make a bear self-conscious if you go for those too-deep questions right off the bat. I was made to do my job!