Ushiromiya Lion (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
dialetheism) wrote2021-07-04 11:55 am
dialetheism) wrote2021-07-04 11:55 am
Entry tags:
❧ application for ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ryslig
OOC INFORMATION
Name: Skull!
Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
skulltaffy (formerly elimyx)
Are you over 18: Yup
Other Characters: N/A
As a preface, content warnings in the Wiki page/discussion of Umineko as a whole include:
incest, child sexual assault, grooming, abuse, neglect, gender dysphoria, suicide, torture, and dissociation/unreality/identity fragmentation.
Additionally, spoiler warnings for all of Umineko, as Lion is a very spoilery character by nature.
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Lion Ushiromiya
Age: 19
Canon: Umineko no Naku Koro ni
Canon Point: Post-EP7 Tea Party - as Lion dies, vored by thousands of cats
Character Information: oh boy. So, Lion does have a wiki page on the official 07thexpansion wiki, but... it's incredibly bare bones and at some point they deleted everything about EP7's plot?? So there's this wiki as a supplimentary source, and I'll provide my own (somewhat informal) summary in the comments of this app. If more information is required, please let me know.
(Additionally: Lion's exact gender is a plot point, and is kept ambiguous on purpose. I would prefer not to speculate on why their Situation is vague compared to Beatrice's gender nightmare, as it doesn't feel like something that fits in a personality section, but if the mod team ultimately deems it necessary I will happily add it as a revision.
I'll be using they/them pronouns for Lion to reflect the canonical phrasing, as "no pronouns" is difficult in third-person prose - there's a longer comment on my permissions post by way of explanation.)
Personality:
5-10 Key Character Traits:
❧ Mild
❧ Polite
❧ Dutiful
❧ Stubborn
❧ Playful
❧ Optimistic
❧ Sheltered
❧ Egalitarian*
❧ Passive-aggressive
❧ Curious
*I know "egalitarian" is a weird trait, but it's the most concise way I could describe their whole "everyone can, should, and will stand on an even footing, and I'll emotionally destroy anyone who says otherwise" thing.
Previous Sorting: Kelpie!
Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, EITHER, or opt for 100% RANDOMIZATION? Fits, please! While 'either' would normally be more fun, it'd be best to ease them into it.
Opt-Outs:
❧ Slime
❧ Shade
❧ Gargoyle
❧ Werewolf
❧ Werebear
❧ Waldgeist
Roleplay Sample:
❧ old sample 1, old sample 2.
❧ new sample 1, new sample 2.
Name: Skull!
Contact:
Are you over 18: Yup
Other Characters: N/A
As a preface, content warnings in the Wiki page/discussion of Umineko as a whole include:
incest, child sexual assault, grooming, abuse, neglect, gender dysphoria, suicide, torture, and dissociation/unreality/identity fragmentation.
Additionally, spoiler warnings for all of Umineko, as Lion is a very spoilery character by nature.
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Lion Ushiromiya
Age: 19
Canon: Umineko no Naku Koro ni
Canon Point: Post-EP7 Tea Party - as Lion dies, vored by thousands of cats
Character Information: oh boy. So, Lion does have a wiki page on the official 07thexpansion wiki, but... it's incredibly bare bones and at some point they deleted everything about EP7's plot?? So there's this wiki as a supplimentary source, and I'll provide my own (somewhat informal) summary in the comments of this app. If more information is required, please let me know.
(Additionally: Lion's exact gender is a plot point, and is kept ambiguous on purpose. I would prefer not to speculate on why their Situation is vague compared to Beatrice's gender nightmare, as it doesn't feel like something that fits in a personality section, but if the mod team ultimately deems it necessary I will happily add it as a revision.
I'll be using they/them pronouns for Lion to reflect the canonical phrasing, as "no pronouns" is difficult in third-person prose - there's a longer comment on my permissions post by way of explanation.)
Personality:
Lion Ushiromiya is someone who looks like they have it all figured out. For as long as they can remember, they've been strictly raised to represent the Ushiromiya family as its future Head, and the weight of that title has shaped their entire life.
Such a duty is a lot to live up to, and they strive to be worthy of it as best they can. In school, they're a model student — polite, attentive, excellent at studying, captain of the badminton team, popular enough to be the student council president for almost as long as they've been in school. At home, they're calm and poised (as an heir should be), but ultimately flexible in the face of the strange events that seem to haunt their family. It's easier to sigh and nod along when faced with things they personally disagree with, adopting an air of composure whenever possible, even when being afraid or upset would honestly be healthier. In both cases, they strive to treat everyone fairly whenever possible, believing that one's actions are what truly matter.
The desire to save face is a bigger problem than they'd like to admit. Everything they do is layered in expectation, and they're constantly under pressure to succeed, and succeed flawlessly. Whether they want to be the heir or not is irrelevant: making mistakes is not an option when so much responsibility rests on your shoulders, and Lion has grown up to hold that weight admirably. Being held to such high standards also left Lion with the tendency to watch others with a similarly critical eye — though tempered by their mild attitude, it's not unusual to see them intervene and scold someone for being too crass or acting in a manner that might reflect poorly on the family's honour. It's a reflex honed after years of navigating petty squabbles and harsh expectations. Survival meant knowing how to craft words and weave conversations to suit their needs, all while keeping a smile on their face and ample plausible deniability. Such a skill is praised and encouraged in the illustrious Ushiromiya household.
In short: Lion is exactly as described in their visual novel profile: mild-mannered and polite, without any faults, and undoubtedly the best candidate to someday lead their family. They’d be absolutely perfect were it not for one tiiiny problem: Lion only looks like they have it all figured out.
It's not wrong, just... misguided, an act held up purely through memorization and years of practice. They are quick-witted at books and studying, and adept at handling their mess of a family, at coming off regal and composed whenever possible — but if you put them on the spot it falls apart, as they either miss a step in conversation or space out in confusion when something throws them for a loop. They have passionate and lofty goals befitting the Ushiromiya name, and believe that everyone deserves to be treated equally — but if you ask them what the names of their servants are, good luck getting an answer, let alone why they have them in the first place. They appear flexible, but only in the situations they were raised for. And if that fails? Those skills honed to smooth ruffled feathers and avert fights can just as easily be used to drive people away when you're too sick of everything to be nice anymore.
And that's the thing, isn't it. Supposedly, Lion is too gentle to have a temper, and it's certainly true that they never yell or swear. Yet, when something finally gets under their skin, they have a surprising mean streak — they turn petty and childish, dig their heels in over the slightest stupidity if they think they're Right. Coupled with that is their innate, unquestioned arrogance; they have a tendency to get stuck on inconsequential things, like how amazing their terrible family is or the exact manner of someone's speech or whether or not they deserve to know all the horrible things that could have happened to them. They're as stubborn as a mule and being told 'no' only makes it worse.
And the worst part is it’s highly difficult to snap them out of it. They're so used to compartmentalizing who they are, cutting off anything that doesn't fit the mold of the precious perfect miracle child, that their hypocrisy goes completely unrecognized. They have a duty to be Kinzo's successor, a responsibility to be the next head of the family, and all that entails. It’s not their place to question it. Why bother? They know who they are already. They don't need a complete stranger to spell that out for them, when everyone else already has. And after nineteen years of this knowledge, Lion encountered three strangers that would uproot their entire world in the course of a day. Two were nice. One was... not.
The truth is, everyone expects something from Lion, and always has. Whether it be success, absolution, love, or something else entirely — every relationship they have is transactional, a lifetime of give-and-take. People at school had only good things to say about them, sure, but they’re not good enough to be friends with someone so amazing as Lion Ushiromiya. It hurt, but at least it was never malicious with their classmates. Their family was a different story. Their aunts and uncles and even their parents only ever spoke to Lion as an equal, but only to placate Kinzo and because they had to suck up the next head. Their cousins could've been different, but any perceived fault or misstep on Lion's part became a point to joke about. Even if they always thought their family loved them, it hurt.
Willard H. Wright, for all his faults, was different from the moment they met.
Will never approached their partnership like the Ushiromiyas did. Their status as the heir was simply not worth caring about, which was infuriating. That one October day is the sum total of all the times Lion Ushiromiya has ever lost their temper. But it was also wonderful, in a way they didn't have words for until it happened, to be pushed to drop the prissy attitude and just be themself. It didn't take the pair long to strike up a comfortable back-and-forth friendship, feeling like old friends within ten minutes of meeting, and bickering like an old married couple within twenty.
It was... nice. Without being the Ushiromiya Heir, Kinzo's Successor, or any other epithet, Lion liked just being Lion. They enjoyed just being a person, with no expectations or demands tied to them. Will encouraged a spark in Lion that they didn't know they had. He challenged them on unexamined biases, encouraged them to think about the world around them and not just accept whatever they're told, and maybe-kinda also made them realize that solving mysteries is fun, actually. It was one glorious day of being free to ask questions and enjoy themself, without constantly glancing over their shoulder for disapproval if they were anything but perfect. They got to have back-and-forth jokes and bicker with someone who actually joked back, without malice and without judgement. But this also meant acknowledging the huge hole in their life: the gap between the small world they know, and the infinite sea of worlds they don't.
And from that infinite sea came Clair — sometimes Beatrice, sometimes Sayo, but always a Lion from another world who lived the worst life imaginable. Every single one of Lion's comparably-tiny flaws was magnified a thousandfold in Clair, stark and raw from an endless waltz of suffering and trauma. It was Clair that made it clear that Lion's life was a rarity, that even their terrible life with a family that treated them like a living doll was one of blinding love and happiness compared to hers.
Compared to nineteen years as the Successor, that one day of being Just Lion was so much happier. They saw the self they wanted to be, that would make them happy instead of just their family. Will gave them a space to try being someone else, and Clair gave them the motivation to keep doing it, but Bernkastel is the one who cemented it. After seeing the things Bernkastel forced on them — and the traumatic situation that ultimately lead to their own death — Lion found the framework they wanted Lion to be.
Yes, they're sheltered and naive, but they want to believe the best in everyone, always, no matter the cost. They will be relentlessly optimistic in the face of every bad ending, no matter what, because otherwise it'll never change. They want everyone to exist on an even footing, regardless of gender or creed, and will do whatever it takes to embody that. They want to ask questions, make terrible jokes, get mad and yell at people, and... maybe it'll all end terribly, but they don't want to be told to stop.
They never thought about what their life meant until they were confronted with what it could have been, and that's fine. It's not too late to change. They can take this tiny framework, and take the tiny first steps, and learn to just be Lion.
By the time they arrive in Ryslig, they are a person unmoored from all they knew. This is not, in and of itself, a bad thing. Sometimes you have to be set adrift to find out who you really are.
Such a duty is a lot to live up to, and they strive to be worthy of it as best they can. In school, they're a model student — polite, attentive, excellent at studying, captain of the badminton team, popular enough to be the student council president for almost as long as they've been in school. At home, they're calm and poised (as an heir should be), but ultimately flexible in the face of the strange events that seem to haunt their family. It's easier to sigh and nod along when faced with things they personally disagree with, adopting an air of composure whenever possible, even when being afraid or upset would honestly be healthier. In both cases, they strive to treat everyone fairly whenever possible, believing that one's actions are what truly matter.
Lion was the successor to the head and lived with the main family. Kinzo frequently chose to speak with his successor. Because of this, Lion must have been used to chatting with people who were moody or hard to follow.
Deciding once and for all that getting hung up on trivialities would be nothing but a waste of time, Lion was able to converse naturally with this unknown man called Will, as though the two of them had been friends for a long time...
Will: Everyone knows Beatrice. And yet, no one knows her. Kinzo's the only one who's ever met her.
Lion: ...The Head seems to be particularly upset today. I'll find a good time to introduce you to him, so I ask that you adopt an appropriately reserved and polite attitude, Will-san.
Will: That makes things easy. ......I thought you'd resist a bit more than that.
Lion: I'm used to speaking with the family head. I've learned to accept most unreasonable situations and just go with the flow.
Deciding once and for all that getting hung up on trivialities would be nothing but a waste of time, Lion was able to converse naturally with this unknown man called Will, as though the two of them had been friends for a long time...
Will: Everyone knows Beatrice. And yet, no one knows her. Kinzo's the only one who's ever met her.
Lion: ...The Head seems to be particularly upset today. I'll find a good time to introduce you to him, so I ask that you adopt an appropriately reserved and polite attitude, Will-san.
Will: That makes things easy. ......I thought you'd resist a bit more than that.
Lion: I'm used to speaking with the family head. I've learned to accept most unreasonable situations and just go with the flow.
The desire to save face is a bigger problem than they'd like to admit. Everything they do is layered in expectation, and they're constantly under pressure to succeed, and succeed flawlessly. Whether they want to be the heir or not is irrelevant: making mistakes is not an option when so much responsibility rests on your shoulders, and Lion has grown up to hold that weight admirably. Being held to such high standards also left Lion with the tendency to watch others with a similarly critical eye — though tempered by their mild attitude, it's not unusual to see them intervene and scold someone for being too crass or acting in a manner that might reflect poorly on the family's honour. It's a reflex honed after years of navigating petty squabbles and harsh expectations. Survival meant knowing how to craft words and weave conversations to suit their needs, all while keeping a smile on their face and ample plausible deniability. Such a skill is praised and encouraged in the illustrious Ushiromiya household.
Lambdadelta: Maybe not. It's a play with an obvious ending. ....I was thinking I might sneak out in a moment.
Lion: ......So, you'd stop watching a play just because you think you know how it will end? Even though it might reach a climax you didn't expect?
Lambdadelta: .......
Lambdadelta licked her salty fingers. Then, she stared at Lion challengingly and grinned.
Lion: I know... that Ange's game wont end this way. ......I know Battler-kun's feelings will reach her. ......She'll understand that he wants her to live in a better future, ......and she'll choose that future of her own accord. ...I'm certain that's how this tale will end.
Lambdadelta: ...Huh...? Are you talking to me, the Witch of Certainty, and saying that the outcome is certain...?
Lion: That's right. I guarantee it. ...Ange-chan's game won't end like this. So please, don't leave your seat. We won't leave either. There must be something we can do. And that... will surely lead her to a better future. .....This tale will definitely have a happy ending. So keep watching until the end. I beg you.
Lambdadelta: ...Even though I, the Witch of Certainty, have already announced that this tale won't have a happy ending...?
Lion: Who gets to decide what makes a happy ending?
For a while, there was a tense silence. With a confident gaze that seemed to be saying 'are you serious?', Lambdadelta stared at Lion. However, Lion's eyes didn't even twitch. For some time, they both stared into the other's eyes without flinching...
Lion: ......So, you'd stop watching a play just because you think you know how it will end? Even though it might reach a climax you didn't expect?
Lambdadelta: .......
Lambdadelta licked her salty fingers. Then, she stared at Lion challengingly and grinned.
Lion: I know... that Ange's game wont end this way. ......I know Battler-kun's feelings will reach her. ......She'll understand that he wants her to live in a better future, ......and she'll choose that future of her own accord. ...I'm certain that's how this tale will end.
Lambdadelta: ...Huh...? Are you talking to me, the Witch of Certainty, and saying that the outcome is certain...?
Lion: That's right. I guarantee it. ...Ange-chan's game won't end like this. So please, don't leave your seat. We won't leave either. There must be something we can do. And that... will surely lead her to a better future. .....This tale will definitely have a happy ending. So keep watching until the end. I beg you.
Lambdadelta: ...Even though I, the Witch of Certainty, have already announced that this tale won't have a happy ending...?
Lion: Who gets to decide what makes a happy ending?
For a while, there was a tense silence. With a confident gaze that seemed to be saying 'are you serious?', Lambdadelta stared at Lion. However, Lion's eyes didn't even twitch. For some time, they both stared into the other's eyes without flinching...
In short: Lion is exactly as described in their visual novel profile: mild-mannered and polite, without any faults, and undoubtedly the best candidate to someday lead their family. They’d be absolutely perfect were it not for one tiiiny problem: Lion only looks like they have it all figured out.
It's not wrong, just... misguided, an act held up purely through memorization and years of practice. They are quick-witted at books and studying, and adept at handling their mess of a family, at coming off regal and composed whenever possible — but if you put them on the spot it falls apart, as they either miss a step in conversation or space out in confusion when something throws them for a loop. They have passionate and lofty goals befitting the Ushiromiya name, and believe that everyone deserves to be treated equally — but if you ask them what the names of their servants are, good luck getting an answer, let alone why they have them in the first place. They appear flexible, but only in the situations they were raised for. And if that fails? Those skills honed to smooth ruffled feathers and avert fights can just as easily be used to drive people away when you're too sick of everything to be nice anymore.
And that's the thing, isn't it. Supposedly, Lion is too gentle to have a temper, and it's certainly true that they never yell or swear. Yet, when something finally gets under their skin, they have a surprising mean streak — they turn petty and childish, dig their heels in over the slightest stupidity if they think they're Right. Coupled with that is their innate, unquestioned arrogance; they have a tendency to get stuck on inconsequential things, like how amazing their terrible family is or the exact manner of someone's speech or whether or not they deserve to know all the horrible things that could have happened to them. They're as stubborn as a mule and being told 'no' only makes it worse.
Will opened his hand... and something that looked like a pale-blue, glowing shard of a crystal appeared there. It contained the memories — no, the records — of all the games so far.
Will: ......Touch this. You'll be able to see your fate in other worlds.
Lion: ...I'll be happier not touching it, ...is what your face is telling me.
Will: Of course. ......I'm sure you guessed this, ...but it isn't pretty.
Lion: Even so... Even if it is another world, ......it's still about me.
Will: ...You have both the right to know and the right not to know. If you can convince yourself that what you're seeing is a person similar to yet different from you — that it is not you but someone else — then go ahead and touch it.
Bernkastel: You want to know, don't you...? YAbout the path that fate could have chosen for you...
Lion: ...I ask this as your partner. Would you show that to me?
Will: As your partner, I'd say 'look'. But as a friend, I'd say 'don't'.
Lion: Unfortunately, I'm not your friend.
Will: ......Touch this. You'll be able to see your fate in other worlds.
Lion: ...I'll be happier not touching it, ...is what your face is telling me.
Will: Of course. ......I'm sure you guessed this, ...but it isn't pretty.
Lion: Even so... Even if it is another world, ......it's still about me.
Will: ...You have both the right to know and the right not to know. If you can convince yourself that what you're seeing is a person similar to yet different from you — that it is not you but someone else — then go ahead and touch it.
Bernkastel: You want to know, don't you...? YAbout the path that fate could have chosen for you...
Lion: ...I ask this as your partner. Would you show that to me?
Will: As your partner, I'd say 'look'. But as a friend, I'd say 'don't'.
Lion: Unfortunately, I'm not your friend.
And the worst part is it’s highly difficult to snap them out of it. They're so used to compartmentalizing who they are, cutting off anything that doesn't fit the mold of the precious perfect miracle child, that their hypocrisy goes completely unrecognized. They have a duty to be Kinzo's successor, a responsibility to be the next head of the family, and all that entails. It’s not their place to question it. Why bother? They know who they are already. They don't need a complete stranger to spell that out for them, when everyone else already has. And after nineteen years of this knowledge, Lion encountered three strangers that would uproot their entire world in the course of a day. Two were nice. One was... not.
The truth is, everyone expects something from Lion, and always has. Whether it be success, absolution, love, or something else entirely — every relationship they have is transactional, a lifetime of give-and-take. People at school had only good things to say about them, sure, but they’re not good enough to be friends with someone so amazing as Lion Ushiromiya. It hurt, but at least it was never malicious with their classmates. Their family was a different story. Their aunts and uncles and even their parents only ever spoke to Lion as an equal, but only to placate Kinzo and because they had to suck up the next head. Their cousins could've been different, but any perceived fault or misstep on Lion's part became a point to joke about. Even if they always thought their family loved them, it hurt.
Willard H. Wright, for all his faults, was different from the moment they met.
Will never approached their partnership like the Ushiromiyas did. Their status as the heir was simply not worth caring about, which was infuriating. That one October day is the sum total of all the times Lion Ushiromiya has ever lost their temper. But it was also wonderful, in a way they didn't have words for until it happened, to be pushed to drop the prissy attitude and just be themself. It didn't take the pair long to strike up a comfortable back-and-forth friendship, feeling like old friends within ten minutes of meeting, and bickering like an old married couple within twenty.
Lion: ......The actions of this 'Bernkastel' witch have caused us all a great deal of inconvenience. Because of that, I am willing to help you. However, both of us stand on an even footing, so make sure you don't forget it.
Will: And I thought you were just some pampered rich kid. You've got guts.
Lion: I must be prepared to shoulder the Ushiromiya family's future, after all.
Will: ...Got it. Let's solve this crime together, Watson.
Will: And I thought you were just some pampered rich kid. You've got guts.
Lion: I must be prepared to shoulder the Ushiromiya family's future, after all.
Will: ...Got it. Let's solve this crime together, Watson.
It was... nice. Without being the Ushiromiya Heir, Kinzo's Successor, or any other epithet, Lion liked just being Lion. They enjoyed just being a person, with no expectations or demands tied to them. Will encouraged a spark in Lion that they didn't know they had. He challenged them on unexamined biases, encouraged them to think about the world around them and not just accept whatever they're told, and maybe-kinda also made them realize that solving mysteries is fun, actually. It was one glorious day of being free to ask questions and enjoy themself, without constantly glancing over their shoulder for disapproval if they were anything but perfect. They got to have back-and-forth jokes and bicker with someone who actually joked back, without malice and without judgement. But this also meant acknowledging the huge hole in their life: the gap between the small world they know, and the infinite sea of worlds they don't.
And from that infinite sea came Clair — sometimes Beatrice, sometimes Sayo, but always a Lion from another world who lived the worst life imaginable. Every single one of Lion's comparably-tiny flaws was magnified a thousandfold in Clair, stark and raw from an endless waltz of suffering and trauma. It was Clair that made it clear that Lion's life was a rarity, that even their terrible life with a family that treated them like a living doll was one of blinding love and happiness compared to hers.
Clair: ...After watching how I have wandered into a dead-end of fate, ......Lion, do you see how great a hope you represent to me?
Lion: ...I'm... a different possibility for you.
Clair: The fact of your happiness makes me jealous, but to an even greater degree, it shines brightly in my eyes... and makes me smile. .....You were a possible future. ......Right now, ...that fact is my salvation.
Lion: ...I...
Clair: ...Live with enough happiness for the both of us. I'm glad I got to meet you once... at the end.
Lion: ...I'm... a different possibility for you.
Clair: The fact of your happiness makes me jealous, but to an even greater degree, it shines brightly in my eyes... and makes me smile. .....You were a possible future. ......Right now, ...that fact is my salvation.
Lion: ...I...
Clair: ...Live with enough happiness for the both of us. I'm glad I got to meet you once... at the end.
Compared to nineteen years as the Successor, that one day of being Just Lion was so much happier. They saw the self they wanted to be, that would make them happy instead of just their family. Will gave them a space to try being someone else, and Clair gave them the motivation to keep doing it, but Bernkastel is the one who cemented it. After seeing the things Bernkastel forced on them — and the traumatic situation that ultimately lead to their own death — Lion found the framework they wanted Lion to be.
Yes, they're sheltered and naive, but they want to believe the best in everyone, always, no matter the cost. They will be relentlessly optimistic in the face of every bad ending, no matter what, because otherwise it'll never change. They want everyone to exist on an even footing, regardless of gender or creed, and will do whatever it takes to embody that. They want to ask questions, make terrible jokes, get mad and yell at people, and... maybe it'll all end terribly, but they don't want to be told to stop.
They never thought about what their life meant until they were confronted with what it could have been, and that's fine. It's not too late to change. They can take this tiny framework, and take the tiny first steps, and learn to just be Lion.
By the time they arrive in Ryslig, they are a person unmoored from all they knew. This is not, in and of itself, a bad thing. Sometimes you have to be set adrift to find out who you really are.
5-10 Key Character Traits:
❧ Mild
❧ Polite
❧ Dutiful
❧ Stubborn
❧ Playful
❧ Optimistic
❧ Sheltered
❧ Egalitarian*
❧ Passive-aggressive
❧ Curious
*I know "egalitarian" is a weird trait, but it's the most concise way I could describe their whole "everyone can, should, and will stand on an even footing, and I'll emotionally destroy anyone who says otherwise" thing.
Previous Sorting: Kelpie!
Opt-Outs:
❧ Slime
❧ Shade
❧ Gargoyle
❧ Werewolf
❧ Werebear
❧ Waldgeist
Roleplay Sample:
❧ old sample 1, old sample 2.
❧ new sample 1, new sample 2.
❧ ep7 plot summary.
❧ In Lion's world (or Fragment, to use the in-universe term), the 'tragedy' is replaced by a funeral held by their grandfather for the Golden Witch, Beatrice. This is weird, as in Lion's Fragment, a lot of the core features of the previous games - the epitaph, the servants Shannon and Kanon, and the legend of the Golden Witch herself - don't exist. Instead, Lion exists as the first child of Krauss and Natsuhi, and the chosen successor of Kinzo.
❧ Bernkastel, the Witch of Miracles, recruits the retired angel inquisitor Willard H. Wright to crash the funeral and solve the last remaining question of Beatrice's game - "who killed Beatrice?" (Killed is used as a stand-in term, more accurately meaning 'what lead to the circumstances that created Beatrice', and 'who is she, really, as Beatrice is more of a title then a name'.)
❧ Will and Lion interrogate the Ushiromiya family for clues, and eventually Will lays out what happened: Lion and Beatrice are two sides of the same coin. In the world where Lion grows up happy and loved, Beatrice is never born. However, that also necessarily means that in those other Fragments, Lion instead takes Beatrice's place - meaning they're not actually Krauss and Natsuhi's child, but instead the incestuous child of Kinzo and his daughter, Beatrice 2, and that everything they knew is a lie. The odds of 'Lion' growing up happy is next to impossible - one in 2,578,917 million, exactly.
❧ Lion doesn't take this well. As proof, Will and Bernkastel offer them a copy of the previous six games (which Bern was present for and Will already read) to get them up to speed. Accepting knocks them unconscious due to the sheer overload of information, and while they're out, Will introduces the other half of the 'whodunnit' - the remnant of Beatrice herself from after her death in Game 5, here to explain her side of the story. This remnant is named 'Clair', due to the title and image of Beatrice no longer belonging to her and needing something to hide behind instead (as her actual name is still a spoiler, even at this point in the story. Umineko is weird, y'all.)
❧ The second half of EP7 is devoted to Clair telling her life story and providing much-needed context to the rest of the mystery, as well as demonstrating to Lion exactly how terrible things could have been. At the end of this, she and Lion have a brief, but heartfelt, conversation about how the latter represents salvation to the two-point-something-million other 'hers' that exist in the Fragment Sea; the sheer fact that even one of them could be Lion is the miracle that she never knew she needed. Lion promises to live happily for the both of them - for all of them - and to take the lessons they'd learned today to heart. It's very sappy.
❧ And then she dies. All Clair wanted was for someone to understand her and to solve her mystery, and even if Will isn't who she wanted to see her truth, he's... at least better then never being seen at all. After the duel, Will departs the Fragment, and Lion is left to continue their boring, non-magical life.
❧ ... until the post-game Tea Party anyway, where they wake up in a theatre and are presented with the truth of what actually happened on Rokkenjima on the 4th and 5th of October. This truth is also, coincidentally, what was going to happen to them later that day. Turns out the notoriously backstabby Ushiromiya family isn't happy with Kinzo picking one person as the successor and calling it even. Lion is told that no matter what, the Tragedy of Rokkenjima will occur with absolute certainty. On that day, someone sets off the events that lead to the death of every living person on the island bar one. And then they're dropped back into their Fragment to experience it first-hand.
❧ Will barely rescues them from it, but the damage is done. He stays behind to fight Bernkastel so they have time to escape - where isn't important, merely Away - and later catches up sans an arm and most of his blood. Unfortunately, Bern also follows him, and after a brief argument about happy endings in the face of imminent death, both are devoured by her cats and erased from existence.
❧ revisions.
No worries! In hindsight I was definitely unclear in places, and I didn't realize I'd gone over 10 traits. (I think I accidentally used an older version of my list, from when I was still narrowing them down.) Thank you for giving me a chance to fix that.
Firstly, I'd like to remove the manipulative and miracle traits, to bring the list down under 10. I'd normally prefer to elaborate on both, but as said - there's too many anyway, and those are the ones I'm most comfortable cutting out.
Regarding playful and passive-aggressive:
❧ revisions, skull's followup.
To keep things nice and neat, I've edited the in-app Trait List to reflect the above revision request. The initial (wrong) list is saved here for posterity:
❧ brief ryslig personality changes.
As a result, they're less fixated on leaving or on avoiding the changes entirely, and more bracing for impact when they do finally arrive. It came with some upsides, at least; even if they hadn't really begun to explore what being an aquatic monster full-time really meant for who they are, it was still a bright island of possibility in the midst of a sea of misery.
In addition, there's Beatrice. Meeting Beatrice - the real Beatrice in her prime, not just the faded copy they knew prior to arriving - was... a revelatory experience to say the least. Living with her for three months has given them a lot of (very alarming) insight onto the parts of their personality that they're otherwise prone to ignoring.