Justin Thyme

Justin Thyme was a teacher at Hope's Peak Academy, and a participant of Peacock's killing game on the Island featured in Despairing Vacation 1. His Ultimate Title was the Ultimate Punmaster. *(I guess you could say I was a very 'punny' guy, ohohoho!)*

### **Background**

Ever the class clown as a child: despite causing his previous teacher in kindergarten no end of exasperation - Justin’s skills with wordplay and practical jokes in making the entire classroom amused could not be denied - even the teacher themselves laughed. The main reason Justin adored jokes even while so young was because he came from a very poor family: they had a rough lot in life and struggled to get by, yet trying to make themselves smile was the strength they had to continue trying each day. He wanted to give others that same strength: but also tried to get smiles from the laughs because it was only him and his mother (his father passed from ilness when young). As such, he was very lonely deep down, and shared the jokes in hopes of making friends.

When called on for a school assembly one day (the head of the class was sick, and despite being very reluctant to do so, the teacher had no choice but to call Justin himself): he ended up being so skilled at puns he made the entire school laugh, and such skills were naturally those that caught the attention of Hope’s Peak very quickly.

Of course, he jumped at the chance: seeing the opportunity for giving his mother a better, happier life, and the prospect of more people to make happy and be friends with. He continued to be the class clown even in Hope’s Peak, but passed his drama classes with top marks: who better to play a slapstick routine convincingly than a Ultimate Punmaster, after all? After graduating from Hope’s Peak - he chose to buckle down, becoming not only a revered comedian after many years making his jokes even better (though he earnt much money, he always put his mother first to give her a happy life where she would not have to struggle again) - but a teacher of the Drama class at Hope’s Peak once he expanded his humor to that extent - this also attracted an interest from the love of his life. They’d grown up together, but separated over the years when Justin had to move to go to Hope’s Peak (that had been the most painful part of having to do what he did for his mother’s sake.) His fame enabled his beloved to find him again - and when they met privately one time after one of his shows, Justin made it clear he didn’t intend on them being separated again so easily, bending to one knee in a rare seriousness for him.

Once they married, he ended up adopting a child with the love of his life, but…a terrible accident happened to the love, and Justin was left feeling distraught and lonely again. Not only that, but to make matters worse, his mother passed away on the exact same day his beloved did…they were both on the same bus when tragedy struck: a foolish car ending up with the bus running off the road and deaths occuring. Wanting to keep a brave face for his child and his students, despite the inner pain: he masked it for their sake as best he could and he put his love further into teaching: only putting his comedy show on the holidays. Hence why he was mostly known as the Hope’s Peak Drama teacher before everything went wrong.

### **Pre-Vacation**

Before going into the seemingly innocent 'vacation' that would claim his life, Justin was incredibly devoted to both being a teacher students could have fun and talk to easily around, and his students themselves: he had a fond friendship with the headmaster as well, often inviting them over for tea and several bad dad jokes. However, his life as a teacher was not always peaceful: back when he had just barely become a teacher of Hope's Peak, he was witness to a terrible fire caused by one of the teacher's of Hope's Peak conducting an 'experiment' on talents, just barely holding back a young Clive Dove from running into the apartment to rescue his parents. The Academy's higher-ups, though not the headmaster themselves, covered this up, much to Justin's sadness, as he had expected them to be honest - but he tried to be honest on what he could on police interviews, though drew the line on the press attempting to pry into Clive's personal life, using his status as a teacher to try and shield him from as many unnecessary pryings as possible. He also made a sincere promise that day: that if he could help it, he would try to protect his students from such pain where possible as a teacher.

Due to this, he complained to the Headmaster when he found out that one of the teachers was upsetting a student in his class, Bendy, as well, even if it meant risking his job to do so when they taunted 'they would believe him over Justin': sadly, due to seeing only the good in students meant he could not note how Bendy's life had gone to darker paths. Thankfully, Justin being a trusted person in honesty meant that at least, the headmaster believed his tale, and new teachers were brought in to circumvent this: one being Uta, who shied away from talking to anyone. Feeling that the new teacher should have at least one friend to talk to and help him feel welcomed, as many others seemed to be 'creeped out' by him, Justin went out of his way to talk to the other and share bad jokes with him!

No matter how the other rebuffed him at first, he persisted with his stubborn kindness: and eventually Uta warmed up to him. It was over this time Justin slowly realized he was starting to have feelings for the other teacher and getting over his grief for the lover he'd lost, the other made him...happy, again, but Justin wasn't at all sure how to approach this without sounding like he was just 'joking' again. Matters of the heart, he did wish to take seriously! Whether it be luck or something else, Uta found the ring Justin had hidden away to try to find the right words to explain he had feelings for him before Justin could give it to him, thus prompting Justin to have to be direct and just say it.

The other reciprocated his feelings, and the two even invited many of their students to the wedding when it did happen, Bendy being the best man as Uta's 'adopted' son. Bendy and Justin's adopted daughter, Paprika, got to know one-another well after this, naturally. When the notice for the 'vacation' was given, Justin took the offer to keep an eye on the students, but also to enjoy a honeymoon with his lover...sadly, the intended peaceful times there would be anything but.

### **Killing Game**

On first arriving to the island, due to his memory of Hope's Peak in general being wiped, Justin did not know that many of the students there were his own students and that he'd been a teacher in the same school as them: while he was able to discern they were 'students' at least. This led to him approaching many of these 'unknown children' in a amicable manner to attempt making friends: making terrible puns by way of ice-breakers for every single one of these first meetings. (He even told bad jokes to his *own lover* on meeting with him at the island, due to not recognizing him.)

Marie was puzzled and somewhat exasperated for the reason for such jokes and attempted niceties, but Justin did share a serious moment with her later in the conversation, somewhat evening it out. Suki didn't take them well at all, leading to Justin feeling bad and trying to remedy the conversation: but accidentally only making matters worse and upsetting her. Feeling bad about this, Justin felt he shouldn't try and talk to her again, lest he upset her further, hence leading to him keeping his distance from conversing with her further along the killing game. It was after these initial conversations Monokuma appeared, expecting one of them to kill and not get caught to get off the island. Justin was, as some may expect, horrified by this notion, thinking it horrid and disgusting to force students to do such a thing.

Understanding, however, that students may have been shaken up by the bear's unexpected appearance and words, he employed the ID Card's messaging system to support as many students as he could: Akihiko and Celica both appreciating Justin's efforts. (Surprisingly, Celica actually laughed at his puns in the messages, too, which only encouraged his bad pun making, as laughing at him always did.) He also contacted Uta this way to encourage him as well, seeing as how their first conversation before the bear went so well, but puzzled at strangely feeling odd feelings of feeling strangely more calm and happy around the other. (This was due to the fact that while his memories had been wiped, his *feelings* were not as susceptible to forgetting.)

However, as time ticked by, and Justin being worried if the bear would indeed do something bad should nobody murder as promised for the 'first motive' - the ticking noise not helping this - he organized a search with Akihiko and Clive to see if they could find the source of the noise and do something about it to protect the students, so nobody would have to hurt anyone. Alas, they found nothing. Justin had suspicions at this point that the bear's musing of 'something bad happening should nobody murder' for this first motive was simply a bluff, but did not get time to say them before the dead body of Noah was found. He took this very hard, thinking that if he had said something in time, perhaps Noah wouldn't have had to be hurt: and Goro wouldn't have had to kill for no reason at all.

The fact that they all had to vote Goro despite this for their own survival - thus forcing 'blood' on their hands - didn't help, but despite his own guilt he tried to continue helping the students: Wataru seeming particularly morose after Goro's execution, and the two having a quiet talk which involved comforting on Justin's part, as Justin recognized the mask of one hurt by something and holding everything inside a little too well, with how much he'd done so in his past. He also encountered Peacock going through Goro's room and his things after his death, but assumed she was doing this out of a way of trying to comprehend the other's death, and so did not tell anyone. Perhaps if he had, things would have been different.

Before the second motive, Justin also woke up to Lear's misdirection of leaving bloody footprints on the carpet, but was too shaken up from the first trial to go confronting it at this point and simply went back to bed that morning, which honestly was a big mood. However, he would not be able to go back to bed and try to sleep off things for long, the second motive and it's shock collars then coming into play soon after, while he was still somewhat blaming himself for the first trial's events. He made strong coffee in an effort to try and help keeping both the students and himself awake: but eventually succumbed to the negative affects that a lack of sleep gave. In his case, he suffered a temporary loss of hearing, which led to him burning himself accidentally with the kettle due to not hearing it whistle.

Despite his groggy state, he was the first to find Daiki's body when the second murder happened, and his scream on finding the scene let everyone know where the body was. The fact that his loss of hearing got only worse in the trial to the point of not being able to hear *anything*, however, meant that he didn't even get to hear Wataru's pleads to vote for him, or his goodbye: yet seeing the other student's faces of shock, disbelief, and not wanting to believe was far worse. As was having to see Bendy dragged into Wataru's execution.

Being close to Wataru after their conversation, and already blaming himself for the first trial, meant Justin was very negatively affected by this, to the point where he wished he had been the one punished, and not his students, because 'that would have been easier for everyone' in his guilt-ridden mind. He even felt like he *deserved* that side affect of losing his hearing. Clive spoke with Justin after Wataru's death, but was very harsh with his words - to the point where Justin felt that expressing himself was 'selfish' and he shouldn't do it, thus resulting in the punmaster trying to shove all his problems inside internally even more so, which wasn't the best option.

Thankfully, a talk with Uta helped a little more, due to both of them realizing, due to the memories of everyone slowly returning at this point: that they were lovers - and of course, Uta had already supported Justin with his negative episodes in past, so he knew better how to do so. However, the moment of peace would not last - the third motive being that of literally being chained to another until someone killed. Justin was probably the most amicable with this, for being right next to a student hopefully would mean that he could keep an eye on and keep Celica - the person he'd been handcuffed to - safe at least...but a massive explosion killing not one, but two students shocked and horrified him greatly.

Both Lion and Marie were killed, and everyone at the trial assumed Clive had been the one behind it: the whole trial devolved quickly into a massive mess, Celica and Peacock both losing their cool a lot during it, and Justin actually having to shout and be stern for one to cool everyone off, but it didn't end there - Totoko getting stabbed almost out of nowhere - wanting nothing more than to make sure that Peacock was safe. It was another thing to see Bendy turn into a monstrous form, because Tougou, the true person behind the dual death, had decided to target him with harsh words completely out of nowhere. Justin, being close with Bendy at this point, hardly appreciated it, not to mention turning on Clive the way he did, so had nothing else to say to Tougou before his execution.

Justin attempted to comfort Celica afterwards, as well as Totoko due to his worry for her after she'd been stabbed. Of course, with such a mess of a trial where even he'd had to raise his voice...everyone's nerves were still high. The fourth motive, everyone being forced to swap 'worst traits of personality' with one another and gradually losing themselves to that personality, hardly helped that, for Justin at least - being swapped with Suki, he inherited her worst trait of *assuming everyone was out to hurt or use her*, then abandon her, and at first tried to help people even more than usual while he still had some of himself to lean back on, in a sort of clingy way...he'd rather be used and abused than left alone.

This devolved into being shaky and outright nervous around everyone on the investigation, and he wasn't able to help as much: but upon everyone's traits being returned to them back at the trial, he felt utterly disgusted in himself for doubting his students in such a way, even if he had been not at fault for it, and sternly promised to himself that he would stand strong and not be wavery or blame himself any more - not just for the other students, but for Celica, who ended up being the victim that time, and Clive, who was the one behind it. Despite all Clive had done...Justin still believed he had good in him to the end, and made this promise to become someone Clive could truly be proud of, though the Skullheart's presence on Clive's end, due to it moving hosts on Marie's death, meant he probably didn't respond to these words as much as he normally would.

Feeling sympathy for the student who had ended up getting *his* worst trait - 'worrying that he wasn't good enough to do anything right and a lack of confidence in his own abilities', (hence why Justin never physically got involved, helping more with words over the game) -Tohru, at the point of motive where it was revealed there was a traitor, Justin managed to break through to him supportively a little, but also got the finger pointed at himself over text by Suki for potentially being the 'traitor' himself, she harshly saying that he ' was mean, horrible, and didn't really help anyone'. (This was rather unfair, given Justin tried to help supportively rather than physically, but he understood her anger.) He promised that 'no further students would die' to her, but was unaware of how tragically true these words would be.

Taking Uta aside to talk with ways to try and protect the remaining students and calm down, think rationally in such stressful times (and also enjoying Uta's painting), the two were surprised by the appearance of Bendy, who seemed unnerved and frantic about something. Unknowing that it was due to the mastermind talking to Bendy, and the demon feeling he had to kill Uta to prove their words wrong - and roping Justin into this on spur of the moment on seeing him there too - Justin thought he was worried about the presence of a traitor, and invited him for tea with them.

However, Bendy poisoned both his and Uta's cups when they weren't looking. Uta realized their cups had been poisoned first, and moved to confront Bendy with cruel words, using up his energy first due to this. Justin felt too weak - the stress of everything beforehand taking it's toll and making the poison move along - to move much, but attempted to reach out to Bendy with the last of his strength, to try and pat his shoulder and show he didn't hate or blame Bendy for any of it...but he was simply too weak, and his hand grabbed Bendy's sleeve instead, snagging a yellow thread in his fingernail as his hand fell.

Ironically, it was that single yellow thread, grabbed by an attempted movement of sympathy, that ended up being the demon's downfall evidence-wise...

### **Personality**

Ultimately, Justin was the sort of person who never liked being serious unless he absolutely had to - cracking jokes and using humor mostly as a means to make others smile, as he felt there was enough seriousness in the world with having experienced so much sorrow in his own past - so he didn't want to add to the heavy, somber feeling reality could have at times! He wanted to try and bring smiles, perhaps even in the most darkest of days: and was a caring, empathetic teacher to all his students: no wonder he was seen as a trustworthy father figure to many of them. However, negatively, he also used humor as a means to cope with bad situations at times it may not have been the best timing to do so: defaulting to it on panic because it was the only thing he knew to work. He also hid a sufferingly low self-esteem from his students, much like how the Clown in drama productions has both a smiling and crying face - doubting a simple 'jokester' like himself could ever hold much serious weight despite him not liking to be serious until the situation called for it, or be of true use to anyone all the while trying to put on a brave face for others.

In short, he put others before himself to the degree where he didn't allow himself to really express other emotions other than cheer - not wanting to weigh others down by his constant fatherly worries or self-doubting. Uta was a good influence for Justin, just as Justin's kindness was for Uta himself, and reassured him that expressing all of himself was what the students would most appreciate - and nobody could say he 'wasn't useful' when he showed empathy to them all - but the worry of not being good enough did weigh Justin to supporting mostly verbally due to Uta not recalling him until later - though just before his own demise, Justin promised not to allow his self-doubts to hold him back from helping the students and made a breakthrough in himself, even managing to help Tohru a great deal....but alas, he would not live long enough to enjoy his confidence and finally breaking free from his own worries he 'wasn't good enough' in the end.

### **Trivia**

* Joked to be the 'Ultimate Dad' upon acceptance to DV1, actually almost *was* this talent before being apped, which would have made a lot of things sadder in retrospect.
* Was almost one of the original DV1 survivors, but chosen last-minute to be a victim.
* The top three characters with the highest 'Hope Fragment' count with Justin at Justin's time of death were Uta, Akihiko and Clive.
* Both Justin and Bendy employ bowties in their designs, which led to some confusion on the final trial of whether a bowtie found in the movie theater was actually Justin's or not.
* Even Justin's *own name* is a pun, being a play on the term 'Just in time', which seemed very ironically fitting for a Dangan Ronpa Roleplay, where sometimes you might not be in time to help or save certain people.
* The only character to never scold Justin for his awful puns during the killing game was Celica.
* Due to having a very clown-like motif overall, 'Send in the Clowns' is a song Justin's creator greatly associates with him.

### **Gallery**

ID PhotoJustin and the students of Hope's Peak, in a nutshell