justicepuppet

[justicepuppet]

Tiny rule update completed.

I am going to go through my followers and clean them up tomorrow. This does mean that if we have no interactions it's likely you will be softblocked. You are more than welcome to follow me back later when you intend to interact, or to block me if this upsets you.

[justicepuppet]

Brain decided that no, now was far better.

Tiny rule update completed.

I am going to go through my followers and clean them up tomorrow. This does mean that if we have no interactions it's likely you will be softblocked. You are more than welcome to follow me back later when you intend to interact, or to block me if this upsets you.

[justicepuppet]

Tiny rule update completed.

I am going to go through my followers and clean them up tomorrow. This does mean that if we have no interactions it's likely you will be softblocked. You are more than welcome to follow me back later when you intend to interact, or to block me if this upsets you.

[justicepuppet]

Undertale would have already come out by the time Persona 5 happens

[justicepuppet]

What if I wrote but it was to the threads I feel strangling my brain

[justicepuppet]

He meant to do cleaning on the day off he had. He had meant to also go pick up the few groceries he would need for the week (cat food was the most important), and maybe actually go to a climbing center for the first time in forever. Maybe he would actually hook up the PlayStorm that had sat in his living room and contemplate whether or not he was going to try to play a video. Or go for a walk. Or a ride.

Or he could end up falling asleep, curled around Big.

[justicepuppet]

Futaba had texted him saying that he needed to head to Akihabara stat. What she failed to clarify is that her emergency wasn't a 'real' one, it was just a flash sale for Feathermen figurines and she wanted him to pick some up. What she also failed to add was that the weather had predicted a sudden and almost freak flash storm on the horizon.

Well. That last one she likely hadn't actually known.

It was why Akechi was walked back to his condo, plastic bag contained said figurines clutched tightly to his chest in a vain attempt to keep it dry. The contents inside should be fine, at the least. The same couldn't really be said for him, though he was only... a few minutes from home.

[justicepuppet]

Akechi found himself smiling slightly at just how surprised Ann seemed to be hearing that he had his hair styled before. It was part of the process of preparing for each and every public appearance he had, even if his hair just looked like it was just some careless shaggy mop draped across his head. His appearance had always been very carefully curated to ensure he was able to get across the exact and specific right vibe. He had to look kind and caring and trustworthy and approachable... and also attractive to teenage girls.

The last point had been one that Akechi understood as a necessity, but never entirely liked. Which meant it was really the fault of teenage girls that he had gone with the frizzy-haired look for as long as he had.

Now that he wasn't required to keep his appearance in any specific manner, Akechi had gotten... lazy. Brushing often even felt like too much work at times, so keeping it in a ponytail was the simplest and easiest way for him to handle his appearance. As long as it was neat it was good enough for the cafe.

He found himself frowning at Ann's question, though more out of confusion than upset. "You want to style my hair?" Her own statement was repeated back to her just so that Akechi could be certain he really had heard correctly.

Akechi found himself going quiet for a moment as he wiped his hands off; the small pieces in the cleaning solution would sit there for the evening to make sure they were fully sanitized and that any dirt was removed. "... I'm not against it. But I don't really get why you'd want to spend your time doing that. Your interest is in modeling, not hair styling."

"Oh, you have?" She could've sworn she caught a good majority of the interviews he was part of. It was important to stay vigilant of someone they were wary of--Makoto and Futaba had been in agreement, too. Maybe she wasn't paying attention to his appearance at the time, but she could've sworn his hairstyle was always the same.

Maybe he just meant different products were used?

Twirling her blonde hair around her finger, she took a sip of the drink she had ordered, trying really hard to remember any single time she'd seen it styled differently than--well, a somewhat neater mophead.

That was mean. Don't say that out loud.

"It's just...I've always been curious about your hair. It always looks so soft. Maybe a little fluffy. I kind of really wanted to try styling it for you?" She set the cup down suddenly with a somewhat loud clank, waving one hand--sudden anxiety coming forth.

"O-only if you're okay with that, though! I wouldn't dare force a makeover on someone who doesn't want it! It wouldn't even be a full makeover!" This was awkward and she was the only one making it awkward. "I mean, no one else will let me style their hair...I was hoping maybe you might...? I promise I won't do anything weird."

[justicepuppet]

Akechi frowned as he looked over the room - really looked it over, red eyes taking in each and every inch that he could see. It was clean and seemed free of dust and dirt and that was fine and normal but, but, there was also a lack of anything else. Ren had packed up, but that meant there should have been signs of where things had been. Marks on the walls from hanging up posters, discolored spots on the shelves or the floor from where something had sat and saved it from sun damage. It shouldn't have looked as immaculate as it did now if Ren had done any amount of actual living.

And from there came the first spark of something that wasn't just the strange numb sensation that made it feel like he was walking through a dream. Something hotter, bitter and angry mixed together. But the spark flickered and faded quickly at Ren's words.

"Did you?" Akechi found he couldn't actually remember. Someone had encouraged him to come up here. Sojiro had made more sense in his mind, but that didn't change that it had just been his own brain attempting to fill in the gaps. "Wow. That was stupid of you."

He hadn't really been thinking when the words came out, and Akechi grimaced for a moment immediately after. No offer of an explanation or an apology was given though, because it really was stupid of Ren to do that. Invite the person who had tried to kill him to spend some alone time with him in his room. If it didn't read like it came straight from a terrible porn novel then Akech would have mentally categorized it as being actively suicidal.

Red eyes flicked down to the shirt still held in his hands before Akechi glanced back at Ren. "Not really much of a gamer, but sure. Only if it's two player though." Because if he was going to play a game, then it was going to be a competition. No other option was acceptable.

Nothing to see. Sure. They could pretend it was for Akechi's sake that Ren didn't want to look-- That he didn't want to give himself the chance to feel anything. Though he didn't know the first thing about what was actually hidden under those sleeves, it had been enough for him to turn away simply for the fact that...

It was normal for a guy to turn away from a girl. This was the same.

"I'll... do it later," Ren figured, eyes on the box on the bottom shelf. To unpack would've suggested anything was littered around in this room in the first place. As if he hadn't kept all his clothes in a selection of duffel bags the whole past year. As if everything hadn't been on that set of shelves next to the stairs or shoved underneath the table. Where would he have put anything now?

"Barely had to pack anything up, anyway."

Ren hadn't even packed up the console in front of that old TV. Why should he have? His parents wouldn't have let him hook it up, or they would've taken it once his grades inevitably started slipping again. He hadn't even played the games much. Purchase stickers still held the vast majority of his game cases shut; Only the one he'd played with Ryuji that one afternoon had even been opened.

The bed was still just a futon on top of some haphazardly-scattered milk crates. The couch was still just a spare booth seat-- Though it was of better make than the bed or the cheap plastic tables. Nothing to complain about, when the rest of this room was already the type of empty that served as a constant reminder: He wasn't still supposed to be here.

"Didn't I invite you up here?" Ren asked, finally turning back around. Sojiro had been... remarkably silent on the matter of Akechi joining him. He'd wanted to get the both of them out of the man's hair for a minute.

As much as it should've been a dream come true to get to stay here a little while longer... As often as he begged in his heart to never have to leave... It felt like a nightmare now. He took up space where he didn't belong. Taking anything out of his bags and setting it anywhere now, he realized, would have made it worse.

If anything decorated this place before, it was the smiles of friends. It was the next thing they had to do, or the million plans he had running through his head at any given time. Now the attic really was empty.

Morgana having run off to see Futaba earlier that morning wasn't really helping there.

"You know." He fidgeted with a lock of his hair. "I don't mind. If you want to crack open one of those retro games by the TV or something." It was better than whatever awkward shuffling they were doing now.

[justicepuppet]

Akira was doing a good job trying to play it all off, but Akechi wasn't blind and he wasn't stupid. He could see the exhaustion radiating off of him, and the disappointment dripping from his tone. This was not the type of behavior he wanted to deal with. This was not the type of behavior that Akechi was supposed to be engaging in. He was supposed to be better than this. Someone who had their shit together, not a burgeoning drunkard.

Sure. Right. But his counterargument to that was that he didn't have to think and he didn't have to feel so much when he was several shots in. He might have been left with a pounding headache, along with body chills and aches, but those feelings faded with enough water and pills and who cared if that was probably destroying his body? Akechi didn't. Wasn't he the only one whose opinion actually mattered?

"Lame." A snort before another drink. Wine wasn't his favorite, but beggars couldn't be choosers or something. Since he still couldn't legally buy anything, Akechi settled on whatever he was able to get his hands out. It was all alcohol and it all did the same at the end of the day.

The mention of dinner had Akechi shrugging. "Pasta? I mean, I guess." He didn't really find the thought of eating appetizing, and something as heavy as spaghetti with soy sauce and seaweed; no thoughts of Italian styled food popped into his head. But again - beggars can't be choosers. If Akira wanted to make that, then that's what Akechi would get to eat.

He wandered toward the kitchen area, leaning against the island with the bottle placed on the countertop next to him. "--how come you're home late?" With only the slightest touch of a slur in his words.

He tried to hide the alcohol from the other when he could. After all, if an unhealthy coping mechanism was left in the immediate vicinity Akechi would find it, and he would take it. However, Akira couldn't be there all day every day to make sure Akechi wasn't doing something stupid and self-destructive. It was impossible.

Akira sighed, wandering in to the kitchen and grabbing some pain killers and a bottle of water before placing it on the coffee table in front of Akechi. He had to be functional the next day.

"No, I don't. Not much of a wine guy," Akira tried to laugh off. He had to be understanding. It's not like Akechi wanted to feel this way, but he couldn't deny feeling some level of... fatigue with it all. He loved Akechi-- more than anything-- but sometimes it felt like his love was competing with Akechi's self hatred. And he felt sometimes that Akechi's self-hatred won over him more times than not.

And contrary to popular belief, unconditional love didn't suddenly fix a person. Luckily, he'd been training at a certain bar in Shinjuku, and he knew what could help sober a person up.

Food.

"But you know what goes great with wine, I've heard? Pasta. Shall I make some?"

[justicepuppet]

Akechi couldn't help but snort in response to Ryuji's first statement. That was true, but it felt like it was only in the barest sense of the definition of throwing. Tossing gently, with aim and purpose, and yes that did sound impressive on paper, but he was well aware of just how much effort it really took. That knowledge removed the magic, and reduced the game of darts to something a bit more pathetic.

"Correct." And a slight nod at Ryuji. "And free climbing is done outside, without climbing equipment. There are variations of it. Some people will still allow safety gear so that you can anchor yourself against the cliff face, and others prefer to go without anything." What Akechi might have been neglecting to add was that most people still thought free climbing was legitimate, and even still required, the safety equipment. It was only those who were more on the fringes that felt it ruined it.

He was one of them because honestly what was the point if you weren't willing to stare death in the face?

Another snort as he fought against rolling his eyes. "You could say that." Akechi himself would have worded it more along the lines of having an intense and obvious death wish, but that felt like it was splitting hairs.

"I enjoy it." And a pause before adding: "I wouldn't recommend it, though. You should start with bouldering and move up if you like it. There's more than a few climbing gyms around you could pick from."

"I mean, it's throwing which is something,"

"I guess bouldering is when you do it indoors with those little things you can grab onto...?" He wasn't much of a rock climbing guy but he'd seen something like that, before.

"I guess a bit of danger has never held you back though, yeah? You seem like a risk taker,"

[justicepuppet]

❝It seems I'm unwelcome no matter where I go...

... I wanted people to rely on me... I wanted to be needed...

... I wonder why we couldn't have met a few years earlier.❞

Indie RP blog for Goro Akechi from Atlus' Persona 5 Royal. Not spoiler free, heavily focused on post-game content. Written by Benji.

[justicepuppet]

Indie mutuals-only RP blog for characters from Persona 5. Includes Joker, Makoto, Maruki, Yuuki, and others Also including the protagonist from Persona 3 Please read Rules when following Follows back from @justicepuppet Written by Benji.

[justicepuppet]

This felt so absolutely pointless. The guidelines of his probation just said he had to work at Cafe LeBlanc; there had been nothing in it saying he had to learn how to do everything in the shop. He could just clean or stand behind the counter to take orders or-- or whatever else was needed to be done in a place like this. If he had to learn something then brewing coffee was simple enough (even if Akechi still seemed to possess the magic ability to burn even that). But instead, the far more work intensive, time consuming, and complicated task had been dropped into his lap.

It sucked. He hated it - because what was the point in trying to learn something that he knew he'd never be good at? Even if Akechi followed every instruction to a t, whatever he ended up making wouldn't be what he had tried to make.

Akechi drew in a deep breath through his nose as he listened to Sojiro rattle off the instructions. It felt like it was all going in one ear and out the other. He wanted to follow along, but at the very start he found himself getting distracted by the initial instructions. Fry the flour... dry?

"I... I don't know how to cook. Anything, mostly."

Those weren't the words that Akechi had meant to say, but they were the ones that had just sort of... came out. And it was the truth; his mother hadn't really shown him how to cook much of anything with the limited time she had spent with him, and in any of the foster homes he had stayed in he would have been hit if he dared to think about entering the kitchen. Once he was on his own he could have tried to learn, but it felt like a waste of time when he could just buy frozen or pre-prepared meals.

Rice was about the extent of his culinary skills.

The words had tasted sick as Akechi had sputtered them out, and he paused for a moment to slowly - hard. After another moment he looked over at Sojiro, struggling to keep his own expression flat to keep any flicker of shame from filtering out. "How do you fry... flour?"

If Sojiro had a single yen coin for every time a parolee apologized to him over something inconsequential, he'd be able to afford another part timer.

A calm, guiding hand... It had worked the last time. For the most part. If he'd learned anything from the other two, it was that trying to help these kids out was a dangerous tightrope walk that he was never really going to get used to. Don't encroach too much on their space, but don't be so hands-off that nothing can ever improve. Don't just teach them stupid coffee stuff, but don't neglect the importance of having that skillset, either.

And despite everything else... Akechi was still just a teenager. The kid gloves stayed on.

"First thing is," Sojiro began, "The flour." A bowl dragged across the kitchen counter. About 36 grams of flour, prepared beforehand, sat within. "You'll want to fry that completely dry, till you see it turn brown. Once you've got that--"

Another bowl slid over. This one, filled with a mixture of seasonings, some spicy, but mostly savory. "You'll add the spice mix and keep frying that until you've got the right aroma."

However! "While you're doing that, heat up your oil in a second pan. Shouldn't need more than a light covering." Pre-prepped, evenly cut chunks of beef slid over in that moment. "Try to sear the beef in the oil-- That's each side browned. When you've got that sear, you add one cup of cooking wine, three cups of water. You let that simmer, and you can take the flour mix out of the first pan."

Pre-prepared caramelized onions left in the fridge overnight, finely chopped garlic and carrot, grated ginseng, apple, and ginger, were all situated in a final, single bowl at the very furthest end of the kitchen counter.

"You'll warm that mix up, on low heat, till it's all bubbling. Then you add the dry mix back in, put in any optional ingredients the customers asked for, and add your butter. We'll talk about putting it all on a plate when you get there."

Phew.

"If you need me to repeat any of that, just say so."

[justicepuppet]

"Nothing in particular..." Those had been the words that Akira had muttered out sheepishly before letting out a sudden flood of words. Complaints and frustrations about his life, his brother, his parents, and how everything was firmly against him and how unfair his life was.

Well. That part might have been paraphrasing, and perhaps also a bit mean to think. There was more nuance than that, and Akechi wasn't going to just-- say the thoughts circling in his head. He would think them, but that was fine. There was no crime in having unfair thoughts.

He remained silent as Akira vented.

"... are you getting treatment for it now?" That wasn't really the focus of the rant, but Akechi had to focus on something he could grasp and tackle first. The issues with his parents was one that Akechi could try to be sympathetic toward, but he would fall short of what Akira wanted; family was disappointing and it was better to learn that as soon as possible. To be upset over how they acted felt like a fact of life. The only way to stop the hurt was to stop caring about them.

Right. Pot calling the kettle black of course; he was still struggling with the fact that he had never been able to measure up to what Shido wanted. So better for him to not say anything at all on that topic.

"No, Akira." And a heavy sigh as Akechi stepped forward to hug him. "Just because I'm bad with this doesn't mean I think you're an idiot. I also don't think you're a piece of shit."

Akira... deserved to have a better partner than him. He deserved to have a partner capable of handling a situation like this without just being flat and cold, borderline unemotional. But what he had was Akechi instead.

He has to stop himself from muttering out another apology. It wasn't going to suddenly make this conversation any better. He'd let his upset slip and now there was nothing to do but face it. But since when had his answers ever mattered? When had his feelings ever mattered? His life had been dominated by how he was nothing more than his disorder to his parents and a burden because of it to his brother.

And he thought he would always have his brother at least, but in the end... Ren couldn't be around him either and they shared a womb together. If he couldn't trust his own identical twin to leave him than who could?

"...Nothing... in particular..." Akira muttered out sheepishly before casting a gaze downward. His heart felt heavy and... he... didn't know what to do with the emotions, "...Ren passed his college entrance exams back home. I had to find out through Futaba because we just... don't talk anymore. But of course we don't. I've always been a piece of shit who ruined the lives of everyone around me because I'm an uncontrollable whirlwind of chaos that can't control myself because of my fucking disorder."

It all fell out of him like a heavy weight anchor. Now that he was venting he couldn't stop.

"It's always about how my disorder inconveniences other people. How my behavior just made everyone's life so hard and how if I cared about other people I would just be better. But no one ever stops about how hard my disorder has made my life."

Suddenly, he found tears streaming down his cheeks. He didn't realize just how upset he'd been by this.

"But you know, Ren still had a home to go back to. Our parents always implicitly loved Ren. Despite everything, they welcomed him back with open arms after the whole shit with Shido, but me? I got kicked to the curb. I have you and Sojiro and the Phantoms, but I had to convince people not to believe I wasn't some worthless piece of garbage who wasn't just gonna end up in jail. And for fucking what? Because I tried to stop a woman from being raped? Because even after I have had to prove my innocence time and time again. And when has Ren ever had to do that? Prove that he was good? Never. Because he's the "normal one"-- he'll get to go to college, get a good degree, live a half way normal life... and... he deserves that... but I'm... pissed off about it too."

Akira looked down, feeling most of his anger spent by the frantic and impromptu rant, but that sank into despair.

"My parents never tried to get me treatment for my disorder. I was just punished and told to be better. I was always the bad one and as soon as they got the chance they dumped me. Ren says he always acted out of best interest for me, but that's not really true. He just views me as some person who can't control myself either, but he just always hid behind a facade of pretending he cared about my well being. In the end, when it was convenient he dumped me too. So, yeah. I guess I'm a piece of shit. But you know, I know I'm a piece of shit because everyone in my life has spent my entire life reminding me I'm a piece of shit and what a burden I am, so you know they've gotta be right about that if I keep fucking hearing it."

There's a long uncomfortable silence as he finally has just run out of words to say.

"Does that answer your question? Gonna snap at me? Tell me I'm an idiot? Because I am. I know that, okay?"

[justicepuppet]

p5r memes pt 7

memes masterpost

[justicepuppet]

affection, affection, don't let your pride go... one day i know you'll grow into a fine hero. + ft. eli's yosuke hanamura. trigger heavy, viewer discretion is advised.