The Cards of Despair is a Danganronpa-style RP run on Tumblr. The group is set up as a submission-based group, but will also run on Skype for certain events. After Hope's Peak Students have been invited to a Christmas Party, only 18 of guests seem to remain at the manor mysteriously. Their entrapment has no explanation and the only people to offer them any explanation is the Lady and Master of the house.
Unfortunately for the trapped guests, their escape from this place will not be an easy one. There will be no breaking out, but instead they're forced into a game against the Court. The Court has begun the game of mutual killing. Murder means you get an advantage. Advantages could mean escape. But the mascots let on another way to escape. To find the Court.
Will they find the Court? Or will they die trying?
This game provides examples of:
- Anyone Can Die: Even the Court is capable of dying in this game of mutual killing.
- Deadly Game: It's a game where death becomes a necessity. Needlessly to say, it becomes deadly pretty quickly.
- Dwindling Party: As the game progresses, the group will gradually lose members. This is inevitable.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Not only are the card suits red and black, but the whole game hinges on these two colours.
- Teen Genius: All the Super High School Level students are young, and they are beyond an average intelligence. They all excel at their talents, and are well beyond the talents of a normal teenager.
- Victim of the Week: Each new chapter brings a new victim.
Characters
Master Red
- Ambiguously Brown: Not even the mods know where he's from.
- Ambiguously Gay: Players certainly seem to think this.
- Evil Redhead
Lady Black
Aika
SHSL Improvisational Actress
A girl with pink hair popped up on the streets of Tokyo one day, acting out a scene from “Macbeth” with a hamburger instead of a skull. Going by the name Aika, she started appearing around the city frequently, performing improvisational acts in the middle of sidewalks and shopping centers, a hat on the ground in front of her to collect donations. The girl earned quite a bit of cash, and after earning popularity through three years of cellphone videos and the increasingly larger crowd that stopped to watch her, she was scouted by the prestigious Yume Uta acting troupe. After about two years of acting with them and a good few traveling tours, she was noticed by Hope’s Peak for her exceptional improvisational acting skills, and Aika was invited to the academy.
Status: Alive
Akihito "Andy" Matsumura
SHSL Student
Akihito Matsumura is virtually unknown online. She has no online presence—not so much as a defunct twitter from middle school or a Facebook page. If one were to base their search entirely on social media, they would conclude that Akihito Matsumura does not exist. With slightly more than a cursory glance, however, one is able to unearth a veritable treasure trove of information about the student.
According to the public page on Hakone High School’s website, Akihito Matsumura is a star. Student and Staff lead news articles showcase Akihito as an inspiration to year-one students for years to come. A student with that name is shown receiving awards in athletics (specifically Baseball), academics (scoring the highest in their class two years consecutively on every test), and extracurricular activities (yearbook club). She is touted as being a model student in every category, with teachers beaming behind her in every picture, and testimonials of their bemoaning her departure for Hope’s Peak.
One odd thing worth noting: The person in all of the images present on the web page picture a masculine figure, who doesn’t seem to look very much like any of the people on the roster. Weird, right?
People who have been attending HPA with her for a few months before the Christmas party have likely noticed her intensity toward homework and cleaning up, but otherwise, she’s not very notable.
Status: Alive
Caroline Chambers
SHSL Combat Roboticist
Caroline - or rather, ‘Carrie’ as she prefers - is a well known figure on the Internet, though she initially went under the username ‘0cean-Metal’. She has become immensely popular for her numerous videos and photos, all of which showcase her machines. Did you ever watch a show about gladiator-style combat between robots? That’s what Caroline did. From the tiniest, 25 grams drones to the 340 lbs goliaths and titans, she made a spectacular variety of robots - and she started at the age of 14!
Through her work and a popular newspaper article, Caroline became the focus point and catalyst for a hot new trend amongst roboticists. All across the country, they experimented with the prospects of recreational combat between robots - Robot Combat, as it’s officially called. A great number of roboticists have credited the young girl as a key source of inspiration, though Caroline has never commented on the trend herself.
Status: Alive
Dom
SHSL Fashion Designer
Dom is a designer that’s become a new hotshot on the Tokyo fashion scene. His primary claim to fame is the fact that he only designs dresses, for both men and women. Each new design of Dom’s hits the runway twice— on both a male and female model. The italian man’s style is controversial, but has nabbed him status as a symbol against gender norms, and gets him attention in the couture scene. Anyone interested in Italian reality TV might have also seen him on Project Runway Italia two years ago, where he was eliminated in fourth place— just before the finals.
Status: Alive
Eka Imani
SHSL Interior Designer
Interested in interior design from a young age, when Eka first entered high school they began making a series of youtube videos featuring their design projects, showing how they’d made over their room, and designed several other rooms in their house. There were even a few episodes of them fixing up rooms for friends, and for some reason these became very popular in Japan. Excited by this, Eka signed up for a study abroad program and was hired to do freelance interior design after they’d flown over. Their success only grew when given a broader budget to work with, and it wasn't long before Hope's Peak Academy took notice and sent out an invitation with their name on it.
Status: Murdered Chapter One
Genichi Asuhara
SHSL Paintball Sniper
Splat! Paint exploding all over his opponents is just the style of aggressive paintballing that quickly ascended Genichi Asuhara to the top of the international paintball circuit. Along with his teammates Genichi has made a name as the premier long range competition. Nothing escapes his scope and nobody is safe from his steady trigger finger. Having what is considered the best modifications to his gun courtesy of a master modder. Having a perfect win streak the last 4 years of competition Genichi has only ever been hit once, even after some controversy over Genichi shooting his own teammates and the officials, Genichi was still allowed in one of the top spots of all players in the world. Genichi is a phenomenal marksman, even if his shots are just painted on. He’s been made out to be a firecracker off the field as well as on it. Though supposedly friendly he’s been tagged as the feisty one. Hope's Peak Academy took note of him after his and his team’s fourth international win.
Status: Alive
Hanako Shimizu
SHSL Bassist
Hanako began her career as an up-and-coming, self taught make-up artist who worked behinds the scenes for stage and television productions alike. She excelled in the use of average, cosmetic makeup and the use of prosthetics, building her own from scratch. She was mostly inspired by the way horror films would create convincing illusions of otherworldly creatures through the use of prosthetics and began practicing on her own, starting from a young age, where she would create prosthetics as part of her halloween costumes. Soon enough, a talent agency picked her up and she started her own make-up brand, even modelling it herself, and eventually the talent agency decided to take their best girls, including Hanako and create a popular all-female rock band, Dawn Infinity, where Hanako played Bass and sang lead vocals, however, she was known for being an impressive bassist.
Status: Alive
Hikaru Hanabashi
SHSL Tarot Card Reader
The online voice who can stir quite the number of people, Hikaru Hanabashi has proven to be one of the most successful names in online tarot card reading. Coming from Nagoya, locally he’s quite a name. His words and predictions are something you have to see to beleive, least that’s what the reviews say. Coming from a small time blog he did in his free time to making himself a common name in online tarot card reading communities, Hikaru’s a wonder with the cards. Advice for anyone who comes with a problem, or sometimes simple words of encouragement, he’s got just about everything he can along with the charisma to get people to give a damn. Accuracy isn’t what matters, he wants to make the process as fun and interesting as it can be.
Status: Alive
Kiri Matsumoto
SHSL Stunt Double
You might not have heard Kiri Matsumoto’s name before, but you’ve almost certainly seen her on screen! She’s been doing stunt work from a young age, and she is best known for doubling for the actress behind the heroine of film trilogy adapted from a series of YA novels. Kiri has even helped coordinate some of the film trilogy’s acrobatic rooftop scenes.
At Hope’s Peak, however, Kiri is mostly known for being relentlessly cheerful and friendly. Her energy seems to be boundless; whether it’s annoying or endearing or just plain infectious is up for debate. But seriously, does this girl ever stop moving?
Status: Alive
Louvel Sakagawa
SHSL Paintball Team Strategist
The ‘gentle giant’ of one of Japan’s top paintball teams, Louvel Sakagawa has been attributed to coming up with the strategies that have lead to their team’s victories. They’re a monster on the field as well, always ready to back up their teammates, Genichi and Dai. A master of camouflage, Lou seems to be everywhere and nowhere at once. Take into the fact that they can’t run for long periods of time due to a medical condition, and this is an even more incredible feat. Off the field, they’re even more mysterious. The only information one can find on them is what they’ve disclosed during interviews, and considering they prefer to let their teammates do the talking, that information is next to nothing.
Status: Alive
Madeline Inoue
SHSL Charity Worker
Madeline Inoue is a name that has been seen in newspapers all over the world. She’s well known for participating in all kinds of charity work - from saving the rainforests to providing for the poor. In the last few years, she’s gained recognition for her disaster relief work as well. She’s said to be pragmatic and generous.
Status: Alive
Miho Miura
SHSL Delivery Girl
You’ve probably heard of Miho- I mean, it’s hard not to. Quickest delivery girl in the country; she’ll get your order in on time, no matter what the cost. Tough weather? No problem, she can push through it. Traffic? Nah, she gets around on skates, you know! Big order? Not a big deal, she can carry more than you’d think.
Long story short, she’s amazing at what she does- but only because she’s worked so hard for it. She pushes herself to her limits, and when she falls, she gets right back up again with twice the determination she had before!
Can you believe she started her delivery service with Japan’s top pizza place when she was just 15? And to think, she did it out of boredom! Is there nothing this girl won’t do?
Status: Alive
Mitsu Matsumura
SHSL Roboticist
Mitsu Matsumura is eldest child of the engineering tycoon Mifune Matsumura, head of Matsumura Technologies. Mx. Matsumura has made a name for themself in many robotics competitions, winning awards in nearly every category from mobility and structure to programming and coding. In the last three years, special attention has been given to their efforts in artificial intelligence. In a recent interview, Mx. Matsumura had hinted at the completion of a program capable of independent thought and sentience. When asked if they would construct a human-like body for this AI, they had no comment. The robotics community will be watching Mx. Matsumura closely for any further developments on this front.
Despite their parentage and impressive skill set, Mitsu Matsumura is a rather underwhelming presence in person. They tend to be exceedingly quiet during class, and they also keep to themself during spare time. While they would engage in friendly conversation with some, they mostly squirrel away to their dorm to work on one of many projects they have going at a time. It’s very likely that they wouldn’t have met many of the attendees of the Christmas party.
Status: Alive
Ryoichi Ishikawa
SHSL Host
After picking up a job at his sister's bar, Ryoichi has made the place a startling success in no time. He's the head host there, knowing how to make use of a situation and woo whoever he's talking to. Socially enthralling and here to have a good time, if anything he’s not a person someone would actively avoid. Some might even seek him out.
At Hope’s Peak, he’s kind of hard to find most of the time, actually. He likes to wander in more nature-filled areas. Missing classes isn’t really a concern of his at all, school’s not that interesting to him. He shows up.. sometimes.
Most of the time, he can be seen hanging out with a blond-ish pink-ish haired guy and some brown haired guy with headphones, Akio Maeda SHSL Stock Broker and Haruki Ito SHSL Announcer respectively. Not really much to know, he’s not very exciting.
Status: Alive
Sabel Reyes
SHSL Rock Star
Not much can be said about Dante that his fans don’t know already, well, except for the fact that he hates being called Dante. Sabel Reyes, lead singer and dancer for the hit rock band Dante’s Ynferno, is touching down in a Hope’s Peak near you. If you haven’t heard of dY, then you’ve really been living in a cave. dY is the new equivalent to Twilight, but with more bass and less sparkle, plastering the walls of Hot Topic’s and Newbury Comics’ everywhere. The bad-boy, edgy hair-rock vibe that Sabel puts off is only enhanced by the vampire image he presents, claiming to be a real, honest-to-god creature of the night, and as we all know, the fans eat it up. To be fair, you probably do too.
Status: Alive
Sayuri Nomura
SHSL Actuary
Sayuri Nomura is known as the adoptive daughter of Kojika Nomura, rising star CEO of an illustrious company, changing the world with their positive changes to world energy. One of the top proprietors of solar energy, their business looks towards changing energy dependence, already helping the entire country slowly change to using solar panels manufactured by their own business. Sayuri is the Head Actuary, a young genius assisting her father and his trusted associates in making the best decisions for the company, for productivity, and for the world. She’s won various academic rewards for her studies on statistics, human mob mentality and economics, and graduated her middle school top of the class.
Being someone so analytical has its setbacks, however… Sayuri isn’t the most talkative of people, and more often than not, she has quietly herded herself away from her class. People’s opinions of her differ from how she’s treated them, from her being seen as a wonderful mathematics tutor, to being the cold and logical student council treasurer with no friends and a decisive attitude. Though, every single person who meets Sayuri Nomura can agree that what she does, she does with integrity and honesty. And maybe she even cares about what the company she works for does!
Status: Alive
Shigeo Tomimoto
SHSL Economist
Tomimoto Shigeo is not known for being modest. Why would he be? He has become a successful business investor and advisor infamously known for his ruthless practices. Yet, despite any bad reputation, no one can deny his skill. The limelight first truly and suddenly fell on him at age 16 when he proposed a plan to decrease the nation's debt that was actually picked up by the government's Ministry of Finance. He’s written books on the theory of economics and raised his personal fortune to rival some of the largest figures in Japan. Just since turning 18 he’s acclaimed up to sixty million yen in stock trade and he’s recently been rumoured to be in line for a Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.
Status: Alive
Sri Maitra
SHSL Storyteller
Often regarded as the living legend herself, Sri has made a name for herself amongst the various school districts in the Nagano Prefect. In a culture where storytelling is a great medium for entertainment, many were drawn to the foreigner with her retellings of classic Bangeldonian folklore for it provided an alien atmosphere and experience for many who had never heard such tales before.
Status: Alive
