[1:47 AM] Mister Bad Guy: Etsuko has gotta be a weird kid
[1:49 AM] Mister Bad Guy: between the genetic engineering, one of her moms being an international woman of mystery, and her other mom being a psychic recovering cult member
[1:52 AM] Risa618: How weird are we talkin'?
[1:52 AM] Risa618: And in what way?
[1:54 AM] Mister Bad Guy: that's part of what i'm trying to puzzle out
[1:57 AM] Risa618: Well, does she inherit any of Aki's psychic powers? I feel like there are a lot of ways one can be weird with psychic powers
[1:57 AM] Mister Bad Guy: good question
[1:58 AM] Mister Bad Guy: I think it mostly takes the form of moderately enhanced senses
[1:59 AM] Mister Bad Guy: which makes her rather sensitive to light and sound and touch
[2:00 AM] Mister Bad Guy: which she usually counters by spending her time wearing heavy clothes and sunglasses
[2:02 AM] Risa618: I mean that sounds like goals to me but I see how that would strike other people as "weird"
[2:02 AM] Mister Bad Guy: she can also hear surface thoughts, but it's not something she can control so it mostly just leads to unpleasant mental images
[2:02 AM] Risa618: makes you look like of aloof and closed off
[2:02 AM] Mister Bad Guy: she tends to use her mom's old restraining bolt
[2:03 AM] Mister Bad Guy: she also tends to speak very quietly
[2:05 AM] Mister Bad Guy: basically, asocial, and her power is more or less a low-grade disability
[2:07 AM] Risa618: Does she still manage to have friends/make friends eventually you think?
[2:07 AM] Mister Bad Guy: oh absolutely
[2:08 AM] Mister Bad Guy: and she actually has rather good parents
[2:10 AM] Mister Bad Guy: because both her parents already have issues with lack of parenting in their own lives and so were determined to leave her with either Mizoguchi or at least one of them if at all possible
[2:12 AM] Risa618: XD I can never find it in me to make the canon characters bad parents
[2:13 AM] Mister Bad Guy: well i feel outright abusive parents i don't do
[2:13 AM] Risa618: Even Bandit Keith is more of a sitcom buffoon dad than anything
[2:13 AM] Mister Bad Guy: but there's still a lot of fun to be had in parents that are definitely well-meaning but still mess up
[2:14 AM] Risa618: Yeah but considering the track record for yugioh parents "well-meaning but still mess up" is a gold star
[2:14 AM] Mister Bad Guy: no perfect way to raise a kid
[2:15 AM] Mister Bad Guy: Aki and Sherry are mildly helicopter-ish
[2:16 AM] Mister Bad Guy: and they have their own disorders that occasionally prevent them from being as good as they could be
[2:18 AM] Mister Bad Guy: that is to say occasionally Etsuko will bring up something about dressing up as a witch for halloween and then aki will just break down crying and refuse to explain why
[2:18 AM] Risa618: :neutral_face: that sounds awkward
[2:18 AM] Mister Bad Guy: mmm
[2:19 AM] Mister Bad Guy: which is unpleasant for a daughter, needless to say
[2:19 AM] Risa618: does she learn eventually what the deal is?
[2:19 AM] Mister Bad Guy: that's part of her arc, I think
[2:21 AM] Mister Bad Guy: she learns a fair bit by just searching their names
[2:21 AM] Risa618: Oh, that would make sense
[2:21 AM] Mister Bad Guy: but she's not going to ask "hey mom weren't you in a cult"
[2:22 AM] Risa618: although shouldn't sherry be a little harder to find info on, considering the international woman of mystery deal?
[2:22 AM] Mister Bad Guy: well, of course
[2:24 AM] Mister Bad Guy: but she can learn "Aki Izayoi was briefly the spokesperson for a psychic cult named the Arcadia Movement, whose founder is currently serving a life sentence"
[2:25 AM] Risa618: is the stuff about her being the black rose witch in there too?
[2:26 AM] Risa618: just finding out scarring family secrets via wikipedia
[2:26 AM] Mister Bad Guy: very likely "was heavily implicated in the manhunt for the Black Rose Witch, but was cleared of all charges and the Witch's true identity remains unknown"
[2:28 AM] Mister Bad Guy: like they basically argued in court that Aki was making some kind of messed-up intimidation tactic rather than confessing
[2:29 AM] Mister Bad Guy: the whole incident kinda flew under the radar because at the time the city had almost been destroyed
[2:33 AM] Risa618: Ah
[2:34 AM] Risa618: Does Etsuko feel uncertain upon reading this that her mom might be the witch or does she conclude she must be?
[2:34 AM] Mister Bad Guy: the latter
[2:35 AM] Mister Bad Guy: she definitely remembers when she heard her mother muttering in a monotone in her sleep
[2:36 AM] Mister Bad Guy: as for her other mom, well
[2:37 AM] Mister Bad Guy: Sherry has her own problems
[2:39 AM] Mister Bad Guy: she's not a vengeance-crazed weirdo anymore but she still has homicidally high standards and a very driven attitude
[2:40 AM] Mister Bad Guy: she believes Etsuko needs to work through her disabilities the Roosevelt way
[2:41 AM] Risa618: Does that result in a lot of pressure?
[2:41 AM] Mister Bad Guy: that is to say "stay in ridiculously good health"
[2:42 AM] Mister Bad Guy: walk a mile every day, learn a martial art, eat well
[2:45 AM] Mister Bad Guy: as for pressure, it's certainly hard on her but it does generally work
[2:48 AM] Mister Bad Guy: but basically, majorly introverted semi-disabled paragon