#i imagine this would be during sae's palace

[may-lutlone]

I had a brainrot during my another p5 replay and I imagined that he would slay sae’s palace in a ballroom gown

[persona5butitsincorrect]

thoughts on shuharu/headcanons?

Its not my personal favourite ship for either of them but it's definitely my favorite for Akira/Ren/whatever you wanna call him x any of the other female phantom thieves. I mean to me she was the only one who seemed like she already liked him during her confidant in the game and they do look pretty cute together as well as seem to have a matching temprement. I also feel like I can acc see a future for them as (at least as for what I imagine for Ren) running or working in a small cafe like Leblanc would suit him. As for what I imagine they'd be like in a relationship here's a couple headcannons of mine:

Lots of coffee dates, Haru would make a point of wanting to discover new obscure restaurants and cafes, and of course Ren will follow suit. Not that he doesn't enjoy it mind.

Mans whipped (😏) and pretty much owns it.

In all seriousness, it's more like he enjoys seeing her doing things that make her happy, since he knows she wasn't for so long.

When it's his turn to decide what that do on dates/days out, it's usually movies or the arcades. They're both surprisingly nuts for horror. And the part timer working at the theatre in shibuya knows their faces by now and always seems slightly afraid.

Same goes for anyone in the arcades, naturally, Haru calls out the most horrendous sadistic stuff like in mementos while they play first person shooters. It's like she forgets she's in public sometimes. Ren finds seeing peoples shocked faces pretty funny.

When Ren moves back home Haru winds up coming to visit for a majority of the summer. Out in the country, she stands out like a sore thumb even more than in Tokyo. She hadn't not been in a city before and seemed to imagine it being a lot more different than it actually is.

His parents though mostly absent are incredibly confused by her sudden surprise arrival in a chauffer, with four suitcases of clothes (she knew she was staying quite a while). Especially as they'd never even heard of her.

Ren hadn't brought her up mainly because they didn't need to know, just like they hadn't bothered to call once when he was in Tokyo, he hadn't bothered to say anything.

Honestly, Ren had very few friends at home, even less after everything that happened. And the people who did still hang around seemed to have an issue with Haru. In general she has this level of unintentional classism-- she just kind of forgets certain things are a luxury and not everyday. And it seemed to be the main thing that was putting people off tho her. It really annoyed him but he didn't really know what to do about it except from distance himself.

It was all making him really regret moving home. So much so he wound up making plans for how he'd move back to Tokyo after finishing his 3rd year of high-school and what he'd actually do with himself once he did. Plans Haru and Makoto helped him draw up.

He, like Haru, wants to run some kind of small private run cafe. Sojiro is mentoring them both. They're heavily considering the possibility of going in on the buisness venture together but it's still very much early days.

Both of them have a keen interest in French literature. Which is part of what got them both talking to eachother outside of the group in the first place. They exchange annotated books a lot - haru using purple post it's and Ren using red.

After her "Relationship" with Sugimura, Haru isn't all that comfortable with physical affection. She especially hates feeling vulnerable. It's a very slow process for her to feel secure again. Luckily Ren is very aware of that and incredibly patient. Partly because he feels the exact same way. After being caught in Sae's palace, battered and dosed up, losing his autonomy and feeling out of control. It all bore on his mental wellbeing a lot. That understanding between them is part of what makes them feel safe around eachother.

Ren has a pretty hard time getting to sleep. He thinks maybe a part of him is Afraid he'll wind up in the velvet room again. Most of the time Haru tries to stay awake with him or offer to stay up so he feels less alone and in danger. But 99% of the time she winds up conking out, of course only after half an hour as incoherent slurred talking whilst she denies she's even tired.

In line with all this, Haru still has moments where she gets incredibly upset or distressed and isn't sure how to communicate it. The way Ren chooses to respond is to give her physical space but stay with her. A majority of the time they don't talk and he just sits by her, letting her come to him if she wants/needs anything (usually a hug once she's calmed down).

There's a lot of hand holding between them. If there sat idly somewhere haru tends to grab Rens hand and trace it's edges with her finger out of boredom.

She's definitely a snorer. But it's a cute snore. Like a little toot noise every so often. That actually does help Ren sleep.

Whilst he already has a pretty good sense of fashion. Harus always wanting to dress him up, and a majority of the time he let's her.

One time Ann suggested she should try and get him to wear a dress, not expecting the fact he was more than happy to. Even more so he pulled it off with way more confidence than anything any of them had ever seen. (Ryuji discovered something about himself that day)

When there together they have this peaceful quiet sometimes, both of them enjoy just stopping and listening to the world around them (which cannot be said for some of their other friends). As well as this they have this way of being able to communicate without words. When they're in group settings it drives everyone else insane trying to figure out what the difference is between their different stares at one another mean and how they developed such a language.

[p5x-theories]

Discussion: Which P5X character do you think would work best as a member of the original Phantom Thieves?

It can be for any reason, something like character dynamics, powers, or even just a design fitting in.

Oh, that’s a good question! And a tough one, hmm... I might actually break this down based on different categories, rather than just one character across the board?

Because, to start out, from a story perspective, I think Puppet might be the easiest one to literally fit into something like an additional Palace within the P5 storyline.

She’s a politician’s daughter, which sort of reflects Haru except that Haru’s dad hadn’t quite actually made it into politics yet. Puppet’s family, or maybe at least someone causing problems for Puppet’s family, could potentially be someone the Phantom Thieves come across in between Okumura and Sae’s Palaces, or something. (Though, in the meta sense, that probably would’ve slowed down the plot momentum at that point. But strictly in terms of something you could slot reasonably into the story)

Puppet ran away from home, as well, which could potentially provide the deadline for changing, for instance, her father’s heart (days until her father involves the police/starts a search for her, or something)

As for character dynamics, I think- okay, there’s no way to answer this one totally unbiased, haha, and it’s also tricky because it’s really easy to favor characters we know more about. So I’ll go about it this way:

Tomoko, Kiyoshi, Kayo, Yaoling, and Yui currently feel the least like the characters that are already in the Phantom Thieves, to me, so they’d be the most likely to introduce something new into the group? 

Tomoko parallels Shiho, who’s not on the team (though, as Ann’s friend, isn’t completely separate)

None of the PT are chuunibyou like Kiyoshi seems to be (not to mention an excorcist theme might be kind of funny alongside Makoto)

We don’t have any adult women on the team, across the P5 games, and Kayo in particular doesn’t overlap any existing teammate too much (maybe Ann is the closest, but they’re distinct)

Yaoling is from another country, and generally seems to have a slightly different demeanor than any single current member of the PT

Yui’s inherently interesting as a teammate who we haven’t met in person, and even her Will of Rebellion is based on her online game character

I know I also talked about character dynamics that I could imagine between the Wonder Squad and the Phantom Thieves in this post, haha, though that was during the second beta

Design-wise is another one that’s sort of subjective, though Wonder might be the automatic winner by default considering he literally has the same character designer, heh. That said:

There’s sort of a Phantom Thieves general color scheme pattern of primarily black/a dark color + a bright, saturated color. Obviously not every one of the Thieves fits this perfectly (Panther, you could argue Fox, prince Crow, Sophie, and however you might want to categorize Toshiro and/or Erina), but enough of them do that it’s sort of what I think for it. So going from there: 

Okyann, with her black and yellow

Puppet, with her black/grey and blue/cyan

Rin, with her black/dark brown and red

Maybe Soy and Moko, though I feel they maybe disrupt the color balance there a bit

On the other hand, there’s also just who feels most like a Phantom Thief, which is way more subjective, but for me, I’d probably list Moko (in a Robin Hood sort of way), Yuki (she puts the “phantom” in “Phantom Thief”), Okyann (she’s adjacent to like a heist/villainess cat suit, to me), Rin (she feels very “phantom thief but with clear Chinese influence”), and maybe Sepia but in kind of an “adult man who threw together the best Phantom Thief outfit he could on short notice from a costume store to try to impress the teens” sort of way, haha

As for powers, that one’s kinda tricky, since their powers literally are more unique and less “standardized” (so to speak) than the ones in the mainline Persona games, with more unique features. And I don’t have a super great grasp on all the differences yet, let alone what unique things the original Phantom Thieves themselves have been given, so it’s hard to say what might fit in best? So I might skip that category, if that’s alright, haha.

But definitely feel free to reply/reblog this with your own ideas, if you’re seeing this post and thinking something else!

[lowkeyclueless5137]

In regards of Riddle's mother and what you said in your reply. What if she does have a palace? It could take place shortly after Riddle's own OB (that you said could take place between book 5 and 6). Maybe the PT decided that they should try to see Riddle's mom in the metaverse. Thinking that she will simply have a shadow (though they have a feeling she has more than that).

And they're right. She couldn't be found in the metaverse, for she has her own palace. What is it like? Maybe a twisted version of the Queen of Hearts' palace? Which form has been a disturbing mix between the beautiful palace with a twisted hospital. Here Riddle have to fight himself to wholly accept the truth about his mother's thought and 'affection' to him all these years. While Ren and the other's PT members (would be great tho, if they already have Akechi here) have to see the sadness and prison that is Riddle's own life. For even with Ren's help and friendship all these years, it could only soothe so much of Riddle's pain, that he has to endure and live with from the moment he taste that sweet, sweet strawberry tart.

:0c I wrote this at the pool so... Imagine just me jumping in there, swimming, then coming to write a bit and repeat :v

Well I did have some ideas for it, but I always find it interesting to explore new themes for it

But first... We would have to put in place the rooster. If we want to have Aketchi on the team, we have to take account of the fact that Riddle's supposed ob would be in between chap 5-6, therefore in early February. Most likely we can close in the dates in between Sae's palace and this ob if we say Riddle's ob was during VDC camp.

That means that Ren would basically start his 2nd year during Riddle's end of the 1st and finish it while Riddle had his 2nd year. (man... Japanese-European systems are hard to pin-point :v)

For Riddle's bonus for the team, one thing he had would be to force the targets into prolonging the deadline, hence the palaces periods get longer, the confessions/change of hearts are going later and later until Sae's palace falls in February, along the VDC, hence the ob happens during that infilrtation period.

I just imagine Trey being a main tipping point for the ob, so I just see after the PTs get the news about it, they would just bang at Trey's door with guns and everything. Like sure cake man.. You have exactly 15 seconds if Haru is in a good mood. :3

As for Mrs rosehearts palace, Aketchi might be the one to draw a conclusion that maybe they should look into Riddle's home life a bit. Cue, trying his mom's name.

Riddle's absolutely horrified to find out his mother, of all people, had a palace. And quite an extreme one.

I would take that theme of the queen of hearts palace, but make it more morbid. Like a group of towers that immiate the feel of a palace, all representing different things such as money, fame, knowledge, etc.

And the main gig of this palace would be that it was a maze. The more you get lost from the main towers, the more morbid it looks, with more vicious shadows. The treasure would be at the top of the tallest tower and manifests as a flag, symbolising just who runs the place.

And a few notable cognitions would be trey and Che'nya. Seen as some bulglars, while her cognition of Riddle would be a perfect little doll prince, the difference being that he had a crack on his face from. Where roses grew out. That crack was representing Riddle leaving for NRC and being out of his mother's full influence.

This of course would alter a bit Riddle's ability of prolonging the deadline, therefore this palace, just like Shido's, will have much shorter deadline.

Also Ren would have a lot of influence there, as he was Riddle's first official friend and even more than just best friend at how close they grew. So during this palace period, Riddle as a confidant will grow a lot, but even so, his original persona(as in the last post I mentioned that for the metaverse to act as a bridge, Ren and Riddle are both wildcards, which imprints tied together via metaverse) does evolve into it's 2nd form only when he faces his mother's shadow and steals the treasure.

Another thing would be that after the overBlot, Trey and the others at NRC will try to mend things, only to notice that Riddle hanged out and talked a lot with other people, whom he apparently befriended since some time. Welp... Another jab in the pride I guess.

Also a thing that I forgot to talk about would be Riddle's own confidants and how they influence each other. Ryuji would teach him to loosen up a bit, Ann will help with fashion skills, Yusuke probably with art influence end expressing oneself, Makoto with standing up for something, Futaba mostly tech and some geek things and Haru might teach him gardening. Not sure about Aketchi or Kasumi(as we follow the royal version) tho. Unlike Ren's, Riddle's confidants take different tarot cards. For example, if Ryuji is the Chariot confidant for Ren, then for Riddle he is the Tower. :v

Although Riddle as Ren's confidant is marked by the 'Reflection' card, which is vice-versa, marking the fact that both are wildcards and also both had history together previous to the main adventure.

:v for now! That's all I juiced up :'3

[webbedphantom]

Random P5 Verse Headcanons

No rhyme or reason to it, I just thought of two of these which reminded me of another, so I figured I'd make a post about 'em.

So first up, I think almost every single one of the Palace Rulers would call Aaron an "insect," which slowly start to get on his nerves because "Spiders are arachnids! How do you not know that??"

And when I say almost, I mean everyone but Sae and Futaba. Sae because she just seems like she would know that for some reason, and Futaba because she isn't trying to antagonize any of the team so her Shadow doesn't really call them anything.

At first, he just starts off jokingly correcting them, but the more often it happens, the more it starts to annoy him. Like "Does nobody know basic Animal Taxonomy??"

Eventually he gets used to it for the most part, but he still finds it a little bit annoying.

The second Headcanon is one that I posted a few times on Twitter, but I don't think I ever did so here, and that is that Aaron could not take Kaneshiro's shadow seriously.

Like don't get me wrong, at first he totally bought into the whole "Yakuza tough guy" thing he was going for, all the way up until it came time to fight him... Because then he turned into a fly man... and started talking "gangsta."

Yeah, no he could not stop laughing for the first like 5 minutes of that fight, to the point that his sides hurt, which ticked Kaneshiro off to no end, but he didn't care. The guy ruined his whole image the second he started trying to act cool, which Aaron would proceed to mock him relentlessly for, making several quips about "You do know what spiders do to flies, right??"

This actually worked to the team's advantage, because Kaneshiro was so focused on trying to shut him up, that the rest of the gang were allowed to get several free hits in. Aaron did take a major beating, but it's not like he couldn't handle it. In fact, the "mock the enemy relentlessly" strategy was one they'd use for pretty much every boss to follow, aside from Sae, Akechi, and Shido. (Sae because he didn't want to make fun of her with her sister right there, not to mention they were kinda trying to save her, so it wouldn't have felt right. Akechi because he was way too ticked off to make jokes, and Shido because it wasn't really necessary, as he kinda was going to target Aaron regardless, plus the rest of the team rightfully didn't think it was the best idea to further antagonize the strongest foe they've faced by far)

Finally, a bit more lighthearted one. Even though this doesn't really happen in-game, I like to imagine Aaron and his Aunt talked regularly throughout his probation, just call her up to chat and get her up to speed with what's going on (minus any Phantom Thieves shenanigans of course). They're really close, so I have a hard time believing she wouldn't call to check in on him unless there was a reason she couldn't. And as petty as Shido can be, I doubt he'd be willing to waste time keeping her from calling him just to isolate him further or something

So yeah, they talk often, at least until after Christmas when his powers reawaken, since he gets a lot busier after that. But whenever they do talk, he brings up his friends quite often, only getting more frequent the closer he gets with them. He absolutely adores his teammates, so of course he'd gush about them to his "mom" whenever he got the chance. (Though he'd make sure to leave out any personal/embarrassing details that may have happened, like during their confidants for example, since those aren't his to tell)

[scapegrace74-blog]

New Ways of Turning into Stone, Chapter 3

A/N As promised, Jamie returns in this chapter.  He has an appointment to keep, after all.   Because I can’t think of anything more creative, this chapter is entitled “Second Appointment”.  For previous chapters, your best bet is to check out the story on my AO3 page.

The week both crept and flew past, like one of those dreams in which she ran until her lungs burned, but never managed to get anywhere.  Kinetic motion trapped in amber.   Claire never did tell Geillis about her excursion to Corstorphine Hill over the weekend, embarrassed by how it had ended.  

And now it was Thursday.  She’d opted for a protein smoothie for lunch, a meal with no chance of leaving leafy residue between her teeth.  It was likely wasted vanity.  As two o’clock drew near, she bargained with herself to abandon any hope she may be harbouring.  Jamie Fraser had shown no interest in participating in the psychiatric process during his first appointment.  Fraternal obligation had brought him to her office once, but he didn’t strike her as a man who yielded the reins of his life easily.  It wasn’t likely he would return.

When it came his distinctive knock, crisp and insistent, caught her unawares, even though she’d just been staring at his name in her planner.  She hastily pushed the items on her desk to one side, patted uselessly at her curls, and called out for him to enter.

“Good afternoon, Doctor Beauchamp,” he greeted cautiously.  “Miss Duncan told me tae come straight in.”

There was something different about him today.  His clothing, certainly.  Instead of casual wear, he wore trousers and a button down, wet splotches over the shoulders attesting to the fact that it had begun raining again.  And while he still took up an inordinate amount of space in her small office, he seemed... diminished, somehow.  A paler echo of the fireworks display of his first visit.

“Of course.  Please have a seat, Mister Fraser.”

“Jamie, if you will,” he corrected as he settled gingerly into the armchair.  “Mister Fraser was my Da.”

Something about his tone and the fact his laser blue eyes wouldn’t meet her own as he spoke the words caused her to lean into his statement.

“Did your father pass away recently, Jamie?”

A moment, an indrawn breath of panic, and then it was cleverly masked with a wry glance.

“Aye, last year.  An’ yer no’ very subtle, doctor.”

“I didn’t realize subtlety was called for,” she parried.  “You made another appointment, and I specialize in grief counselling.  Why else would you be here?”

Despite the fact that it wasn’t productive from a psychiatric point of view, she enjoyed his reluctance to hastily expose his inner demons.  Too often, her practice required her to work carefully in order to avoid shaping the pliable emotions of her patients.  While obviously hurting, Jamie had an unflinching, unalterable quality that she admired.  Not to mention that the intellectual game of cat and mouse they were playing was wildly stimulating.

“I suppose I enjoyed our conversation,” Jamie teased.  “An’ Miss Duncan’s shortbread.”

With an awkward squint that she imagined was meant to be a wink, her patient rose to investigate the current offerings on her tea table.

“Och, petit fours!” he exclaimed with childlike glee and perfect French pronunciation.  “There was a café none too far from my flat in Paris tha’ made these.  I’d often grab some on my way tae the office.”

He returned to the desk with a small plate of the pastries, pushing it towards her as he settled into his seat.

“No, thank you.  I’ve just eaten.”

Like a searchlight, his bright eyes didn’t miss much.  He glanced significantly at the half-empty plastic smoothie container to one side of her desk.  Rather than chide her for her austerity, as Geillis frequently did, he instead made a show of biting into each of the four little squares until there was nothing left but crumbs.  Her stomach muttered in complaint.

“What did you do in Paris?” she asked as he finished his snack with a contented sigh.

“Oh, a wee bit of this and that,” he demurred.  In response to her exasperated look, he continued, “I started out at the Bourse.  Futures, options, arbitrage, that sort of thing.  I have a good ear fer languages, sae from there I went into foreign exchange.  Import export, and the like.”

“You’re a financier?” she asked, somewhat more incredulous than she ought to be.  She wasn’t certain what she had pictured James Fraser doing for a living, but greasing the wheels of capitalism definitely wasn’t it.

“Was,” he corrected.  “I quit an’ came home tae Scotland last year.”

“When your father died,” she guessed.

“Aye.”

She once again had the sense of standing in front of a locked door that Jamie had no intention of opening.  Rather than hammer uselessly on its stubborn surface, she nimbly diverted the conversation sideways.

“What do you do for work now?”

A slow blink followed by a dawning smile indicated he was aware of her stratagem.

“I’m a carpenter.”

It was rare for Claire to be truly surprised by people.  She made a living reading their unspoken cues.  Twice in the same conversation was unheard of.

“A carpenter?” she repeated as though she hadn’t heard him perfectly well the first time.

“Aye.  Like Jesus, ye ken?”

With a quicksilver grin, Jamie launched into a description of his current occupation, which involved the making of reproduction antiques and custom pieces for clients around Scotland.  She realized with a start that she’d read an article about his business in a popular local magazine.  

International financier.  Self-made entrepreneur.  Tall drink of water.  James Fraser had a lot of things going for him.  And yet here he sat, paying her by the hour to listen to him avoid talking about whatever hardship had befallen him.

She mentally composed a list of the topics he was deftly avoiding with his charming anecdotes.  His father’s recent death.  The reason behind a radical change in career.  Living in the city on account of unspoken ‘family obligations’, even though his verbal reminiscence of the Highlands was so poetic it damn near made her cry.  There was something raw just below the surface of his nonchalance, and her innate curiosity cried out to find out what it was.

“You told me last week that your sister, Jenny, insisted you attend counselling.  But you said that you’re handling matters fine on your own.  Can you tell me why your sister believes otherwise?”

It might have been amusing to see such a large man squirm in different circumstances.  His left hand furrowed through his hair, setting the autumn waves on end.  His mouth, so recently relaxed and mobile as he eagerly shared the details of his craft, froze in a pained frown.  She considered whether she had pushed too hard too soon.

“I gave a lot of thought tae what ye said when we parted last week,” Jamie began at last.  “Tae be honest, it haunted me.  Jen kens me better than anyone, an’ while I like tae complain tha’ she meddles where she doesna belong, the truth is she’s truly scared fer me.  An’ even if I dinna agree tha’ my lifestyle is cause fer concern, I owe it tae her tae try tae sort myself out.  I owe her far more than that,” he finished with a rueful shake of his head.

“What kind of lifestyle has your sister so worried?” she probed.

“Whisky, women and song,” he quipped, before adding, “Weel, I canna carry a tune, but twa out of three isna half bad.”

He tried to smile away the awkward tension that descended on the office, the air ripe with unspoken words.  Claire felt disappointment whirlpool in her gut.  Just another charming rake, after all.  It really shouldn’t matter, and yet somehow it did.  More than she dared to admit.

“Yes, well, the road of excess leads to the palace of consequences, ” she sniffed at last, angry at herself for sounding like a schoolmarm.  What a bore she must seem to him, with her regimented behaviour and rigid morals.

Jamie rose abruptly, and for a half-second she imagined he might lunge at her, or storm from the room.   Instead, he spun around to face the door.  Without a word, he untucked his shirt and began to expose his lower back.

Claire was momentarily stunned silent.  Just as she managed to draw a deep enough breath to censure Jamie for his highly inappropriate strip tease, the golden velour of his lower back transformed without warning into a furrowed landscape of scar tissue, ripples and craters left by some massive trauma.  The air left her lungs on a questioning sigh.

“I ken all about consequences, Doctor Beauchamp,” he stated.  “I live with them every moment of my life.”

Her fingers found the knotted skin, surprisingly warm and mobile beneath her touch.  A shiver shimmered over the unmarred muscle of his flanks.

Before she could find any appropriate words of apology, the office door opened and Geillis stuck her head in.  She barked a cough upon seeing Jamie’s state of undress and Claire’s position, leaning across her desk.  Doctor and patient jumped apart like opposing magnets.

“Sae sorry for the interruption, but yer three o’clock is here.  Should I tell her ye’ve been... delayed?”

Jamie muttered an obscenity under his breath which Claire whole-heartedly seconded.  There was no way Geillis wasn’t going to be utterly insufferable about this.

“Mister Fraser was just leaving, Geillis.”

With a lewd wink and a nod, the door closed.

“Look, Jamie...” she began just as he apologized.  “I’m sae sorry, lass.”

They both laughed nervously.  Jamie finished tucking his shirt into his pants and turned to face the desk.

“I hope this willna cause ye any difficulties with Miss Duncan,” he began, eyes wide with concern.

“No more so than usual,” she sighed. “Geillis is a good friend.  She just... doesn’t know when to quit, sometimes,” she explained.

“Sounds jus’ like my sister.  Perhaps we should introduce them.”

She smiled, struggling to find something else to say to move past the moment.  She could hear Geillis and her next patient conversing just outside the door.  There was no time left for subtlety.

“Will I see you again next week, Jamie?” she asked, giving up on finding a more oblique way of phrasing the question that was reverberating through her mind.

Jamie’s bashful smile dipped towards the floor, causing his hair to fall in front of his eyes.

“Aye.  I’ll even keep my clothes on, if ye ask nicely.”

It was that smile, that hair, those eyes, that carried her through the rest of her week, aloft on the anticipation of something utterly forbidden.

[ellenripleysbelieveitornot]

What about an Akechi/Joker role swap AU where Akechi is still the detective prince and Joker is still the Shujin delinquent, but the major difference is that Morgana never lost his memories and found Akechi before he approached Shido with his metaverse assassination plot?

Like, imagine Akechi, bitter and jaded, who has just awakened Loki and felt the terrifying and thrilling rush of the berserk power. He's formed a plan to get back at his piece of shit father, even managed to set up a meeting, which he had to set up months in advance, and on the day he's going to present Shido with info on the metaverse, he winds up arriving a few minutes late, because even though he intended to be early, he was accosted by a talking cat (he's been in the metaverse, so he can hear him) on the way over, and in the whole wtf-ery of the moment, lost track of time. Shido, being Shido, refuses to see him and will not reschedule because he doesn't like having his time wasted.

Pissed off, Akechi leaves to find Morgana still waiting for him outside. So he doesn't look like an idiot yelling at a cat on the street, he brings Morgana back to his shitty apartment, where Morgana explains why he had found Akechi and whats up. He doesn't know about Yaldobaoth taking Igor's place, he just knows there's two champions, and Akechi was the one he found first, so he must be Igor's chosen champion. (It is my theory that it doesn't actually matter who was Igor's and Yaldobaoth's champions, it was more about the choices they each made and where they ended up.) 

Akechi has no interest in saving the world, but he knows that if he wants to get back at Shido, he needs to become someone of consequence, so he agrees to undergo Morgana's training, since Morgana clearly knows more about the metaverse than he does, and he can use it to solve cold cases, earning him a place as the Detective Prince. He changes a few hearts, to pacify Morgana, too. It takes a couple years, but during his senior year in high school, he makes it, earning himself the cooperation of the police and the spotlight of the public eye. He's getting so close to making Shido notice him that he can practically taste it. Also, what’s this ‘velvet room’ he keeps dreaming about?

Then Morgana finds Kamoshida’s palace and is like ‘heyo, you thought changing hearts in the metaverse was cool, check this shit out’ and Akechi is admittedly intrigued , so he takes a look. He sees the inside of Kamoshida’s heart and is appropriately disgusted and says to Morgana, ‘hey we should totally kill this guy’s shadow.’ Morgana’s like ‘why is your first suggestion always murder, we don’t know what would happen if we killed his shadow, Igor wasn’t very clear about that bit, we should try stealing the treasure instead’ and Morgana has been useful (and it’s been really nice to have the company these past two years, though he won’t admit that) so Akechi agrees ‘fine, we’ll steal the treasure, but if that doesn’t work, then I’m killing his shadow.’

And that’s when Ryuji and Ann make an appearance (’ohmigawd, goro, be more careful with that damn app, i s2g.’) Ryuji’s mom apparently thinks Akechi is pretty neat and watches all his interviews, so Ryuji knows who he is and is delighted to find out that the lame-ass detective his mom has talked about is actually a grumpy badass in the metaverse, with this shadow that has some kind of insane power, and hey, he helped them bring down Kamoshida (alive,) so maybe he is actually pretty cool, even though sometimes he spaces out and talks about evil twins and some longed-nose dude. He decides then and there that he’s going to be Akechi’s best friend, since he apparently has none, and Ann is all too happy to join in for the ride, and all of Goro’s protests have fallen on deaf ears, and they know about the whole detective prince thing being a facade, so he might as well indulge them for now. 

The ‘Phantom Thieves’ (a name that makes Goro want to roll his eyes whenever he hears it, and why is everyone calling him ‘leader?’) gain fame and change hearts, gaining new members such as this weird-ass artist dude who fights with ice, and oh, god, one Nijima is bad enough, don’t tell me there’s two! and she uses nukes, wtf?!

Around this time, he also meets Shujin’s delinquent, enigmatic transfer student whose talk of hope and justice never quite seem to reflect in his stormy grey eyes, and he and Goro are clearly birds of a feather in a way, he can tell, there’s just something about him, and he thinks this guy might actually be his best friend, but don’t tell Ryuji that, he’d never hear the end of it.

Akechi learns the truth behind Akira’s arrest and Shido’s involvement and he is disgusted to find that he genuinely wants to help this guy, and he can’t do that if Shido’s dead, maybe he doesn’t want his revenge as badly as he thought??? Oh, ew, I have feelings that aren’t anger and it’s all my friends’ fault, I can’t just leave them and go off to get revenge, they’d literally die without me, those lovable idiots. Also, when Ryuji saw his home, he pretty much insisted he stay with him instead, and Ryuji’s mom reminds him of the good times he had with his own mother, and he honestly doesn’t think he has the strength to disappoint her like that. So, he decides to change Shido’s heart, but he knows that there’s no way that this little group of miscreants is strong enough to take on the fucked up bullshit that he’s seen in Shido’s heart, so let’s hit pause on that for now.

Shido had Wakaba killed via completely non-supernatural ways and stole her research, same as before, so Futaba still has a palace. He found out Akira worked at Leblanc a while ago and started dropping by, and then somehow Ryuji found out about it, and now all the Phantom Thieves know, so much for a peaceful place to get away, but he actually doesn’t mind that much, and Akira lets Akechi keep an eye on the shop when there are no customers so he can go out and do errands and Boss doesn’t mind, so they’ve ended up hanging out there as a group from time to time and talking Phantom Thief business, so Futaba knows who they are, and asks for their help.

Okumura’s palace pretty much goes the same, Okumura dies somehow, are we responsible, why does murder actually make me feel kinda bad, stupid friends and their stupid good influence. 

Goro attends the Shujin student fair as guest speaker, whoa, the class president being friends with Akechi does have its perks, doesn’t it? Akira finds them all there together and approaches them, tells them he saw them go into the metaverse, awakened his own persona, and saw a guy in a black mask kill Okumura’s shadow, hey why don’t I join you, you probably need all the help you can get, who’s heart are we stealing next, how about Sae, she knows my probabtion officer and has been giving me hell, plus I already checked, she definitely has a palace.

They agree, and oh, hey, Akira can hear Morgana talk now, but WAIT A MINUTE?! Didn’t he hear Morgana talk before when he told Goro that Leblanc didn’t sell sushi, even though Goro hadn’t asked for any?

They hack Akira’s phone, learn that Shido (Akechi recognizes that voice) will have thugs waiting to capture them when they leave the palace. They plan around it, pull the metaverse switch and manage to sneak a heavily drugged Akechi out of the warehouse Shido stashed him in by traveling through the metaverse. Shido’s lackey’s have written a fake suicide letter from the leader of the Phantom thieves, and the chief of police, under Shido’s orders, delivers a statement confirming its authenticity, and look the plan succeeded. All they need to do know is take down Shido.

Things are going great, until they get to the engine room, where Joker, having realized what happened, is waiting for them. Joker, who lost everything after he transferred, who discovered the metaverse completely alone, who didn’t mean to kill that guy’s shadow, but he attacked him first, and Shido had somehow known, had been keeping an eye on him, had him convicted for a crime that he didn’t commit in the hopes that he would break because he needed an agent in the metaverse, and so far he’s had no luck. Joker, who had nothing left to lose and had accepted the only hand that had reached out for him.

They fight, and when it looks like things are going badly for Joker, he pulls out... a second persona?!?! At least, it looks like a persona, but something about it is off. it looks familiar somehow. And then Akira asks if they knew it was possible to fuse personas and Akechi realizes what he’s looking at. These aren’t the clean executions that Caroline and Justine perform, these are personas that have been ripped apart and haphazardly thrown back together with no thought to form or elegance, look, there’s a Yaksini’s arm, and that bit right there clearly used to belong to a Rangda, and I think that piece might have belonged to a Seiryu, and Akechi should stop listing personas now because Ann thinks she’s going to be sick.

They keep fighting. Joker can’t understand the difference in power between them. After all, aren’t they the same? Unloved, unwanted, soldiers pitted against each other by some bullshit higher power?

When Joker shoots the bulkhead door closed and Futaba reports that she’s lost Joker’s reading, Akechi vows then and there that he’s going to kill Shido after all. And he almost does. He stands there, with his gun pressed to the head of the shadow of his father, his friends can’t blame him, and even Morgana knows better than to try and stop him. But he doesn’t. He remembers Akira’s madness there at the end, and wonders what he would have become of him if it weren’t for Ryuji, who somewhere along the way, he’d realized he’d stopped tolerating and started actually liking. Ann, who shared his woes about being in the public eye and swapped tips with him about how to handle the press. Yusuke, who, although he was still completely bizarre to him, appreciated the beauty in life and didn’t tease Goro for his taste in Grandpa clothes. Makoto, who knew the importance of hard work and who, between herself and her sister, had caused Goro to pick up some healthier coping mechanisms. Futaba, who made fun of him for his food blog, but liked the same nerd bullshit that he did and would bombard him with memes until his day somehow became a little less shittier. Haru, who dreamed of starting her own business and actually cared about Goro’s opinions, and could threaten someone with a smile in a way that even Goro was jealous of. And Morganna, who had reminded him what it was like to not be lonely, and demanded more sushi than he could afford, but always made sure Goro ate his fill, instead of getting so focused on his work that he forgot.

Akechi guesses that he must have turned soft somewhere during the past several months, but after seeing what happened to Akira, he can’t help but be grateful, knowing with certainty that if things had turned out differently, that would have been him. Hey, Morgana, you know that world-saving bs you talked about two years ago? Let’s leave this piece of shit here to rot and focus our attention on that instead.

And you guys know the rest.

Or, at least, that’s how I thought it would go. Feel free to share your thoughts. :)

[akiwirain]

Persona’s Talk AU??

I keep seeing all of these cool headcanons about each of the group’s personas talking to them throughout their day ... and ofc I have to expand upon it, because it sounds so cool??

So imagine:

Ann: her persona is as fierce and fiery as she is. she’s constantly giving advice to Ann and just genuinely helping out. Carmen is supposed to be known for her charm and using that to make men fall for her, then discarding them.

Cue Ann getting asked out at school by some guy ...

“Uhh, well, you see—“

“Ooo, tell him yes!! He’s a bit cute!!”

“....No.”

Ann never listens to Carmen’s comments about woeing the men around her. Carmen isn’t the happiest about it, but Ann doesn’t mind much. She isn’t ready for a relationship and her persona will have to just accept that.

Ryuji: Using his awakening as an opening point, Captain Kidd reallt wants to just ... wreak havoc and let loose. He’s almost a fun side in Ryuji’s head, constantly wanting to have an adventure. He also helps a lot with Joker, by giving Ryuji advice on how to be a good right hand man.

Morgana: Zorro is known as a defender, along with being a masked outlaw (most of the personas are based off outlaws oof). I would imagine he would just aid Morgana in his quest to help others.

Cue Zorro chastising Morgana when he makes comments about Ryuji:

“He won’t get better with that talk.”

“Tsk, if he even has the mental capacity to get better.”

“Everyone has the ability to get better ... including you.”

Let’s just say Morgana does a lot of tuning out in these moments.

Yusuke: Goemon was a skillful individual who would steal from the rich and give to the poor. Using this, I’d imagine Goemon would help aid Yusuke in his aid to find who he is. His entire confidant link could be Goemon trying to help him find his way. When Yusuke gets offered the deal, Goemon is sure to tell him not to accept. Goemon wants Yusuke to make his own path and have a sense of self in all of his work. To not be tainted by greed, like his master.

In this way, Goemon pushes Yusuke and Yusuke is quick to agree and accept the help. Goemon maybe views Yusuke with a certain ... guardian-like view. I’d imagine he’d be proud when Yusuke finds his way.

Makoto: Johanna is based off of a Pope who disguised herself as male to well, be a Pope. She essentially goes against societies norms and with this, I believe she would push Makoto to push through the box she had previously been in. Whenever an adult asks something of Makoto now, Johanna is quick to inform her to choose her own path—be her own person.

When Makoto gets a bad feeling about who her friend is dating, Johanna backs her up.

“I agree, this man does seem rather suspicious..”

“Exactly! I have to investigate further.”

Johanna wouldn’t be afraid of trouble and would be just as rash as Makoto. In the end, they would each have good intentions, but wouldn’t want to be held back by the norms of society.

Futaba: Necronomicon almost seems like a reference to how Futaba was Medjed, but yet fake Medjed’s were made. Necronomicon was a book that ended up getting fakes circulated (along with a cult following ... yikes). I would imagine Necronomicon to be partially quiet. It wouldn’t say much, except when things get immensely serious and Futaba is spiraling.

Futaba might be out, seeing people and freaking out, but Necronomicon gives a simple,

“It’ll be alright.”

Somehow it works and Futaba doesn’t feel as alone.

Haru: Milady is essentially an independent woman (who don’t need no man (forgive me)). She was fierce and apparently rather manipulative and was branded a criminal, along with a villain. She would also bring others to ruin, more focused on personal gain.

I would imagine this would come up when Haru is so focused on being selfless. She has to overcome her reasoning and realize that no, she wants to change her father’s heart because she doesn’t want to marry, even if it’s partially for the people her father hurt. Milady would be quick to tell her to unleash this side of herself, learn to be selfish. I’d imagine after losing her father, Milady would be quick to comfort her, would be quick to lead her to want retribution for whomever was the black mask.

Maybe even lead Haru to thinking it was the Phantom Thieves at first?

Cue Sae meeting with Haru about the calling card and mentioning the principal:

“It seems we were deceived, my dear.”

“No. No, it couldn’t have been them. The-The principal ... that..”

Cue angst and Haru having to talk to the others, while Milady still is in the back of her mind, doubtful. Eventually she quiets, realizing that Haru truly belongs with them. She wants Haru happy, after all.

Sumire: Cendrillon is really just a French adaption of Cinderella. In essence, it’s Sumire putting on that gown and playing pretend (as in, being Kasumi, because Maruki allowed her to do so). Cendrillon relates to Sumi’s wishes and that’s what leads to them being so easily manipulated by Maruki.

Cendrillon, after being awakened, helps to keep Sumire motivated. She would be talkative during Sumire’s gymnastic practices and would get Sumire to truly do her best.

When Sumire finds out the truth after watching the video, Cendrillon is silent and practically in the same pain Sumire is. She knows what it’s like for that magic to disappear.

This is where things get interesting ... multiple persona users:

Akechi:

Robin Hood would be Akechi’s more ... childish side. The side that was more innocent and truly wanted justice for what happened to his mother, along with himself. Robin Hood is known to steal from the rich and give to the poor, much like Goemon. Robin Hood would be the side of Akechi that pushes him to do good.

Whenever Akechi is around the Phantom Theives, Robin Hood is loud. He likes to remind Akechi that .. “maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if we belonged here. With them.”

Loki, on the other hand, is based off a trickster god in mythology. He is known for both mischief and trickery. I imagine this side is awakened from Akechi’s sense of revenge. It’s the more enraged side of him that he uses to paste the mask on day by day.

Loki likes to be loud and opinionated. He likes to remind Goro of his plans and how he can’t turn back now.

The two personas would essentially fight a lot and it drives Akechi insane.

Cue Akechi getting a text from Shido about a target in mementos:

“Come on, let’s just get it done now. We need to enact our revenge after all, don’t we?”

“We could stop now. We could end your pitiful father’s tirade here and enter his palace..”

Akiren: Arsène is his starter persona, so I’ll start there.

Arsène is known for targeting criminals and is essentially an anti-hero. He’s also known as a Gentlemen Thief! With this, I think he’d really just encourage Akiren’s will of rebellion.

Cue Akiren getting to LeBlanc late one night after a mementos run:

“Ah, you’re back.”

“Quick, think of a lie.”

“Uh-“

“You were at the bathhouse!”

“I was at the bathhouse...”

“Okay?” Sojiro never really cares and gets back to his crossword puzzles. Akiren is still grateful to Arsène anyway.

Ah, but his other personas...

At first, it’s okay. He has a small arsenal that he carries around and while some are louder than others, it’s tolerable.

Until Igor raises his stock.

Eventually, he has 12 personas in one sitting and it’s never quiet. No matter what persona he’s holding in stock, they like to talk to one another or make comments on his daily life.

Or, alternatively, it only matters what mask he is wearing at the time.

Say, he’s hanging with a certain friend, so he cues up the matching arcana of that friend. That persona is quick to make comments on how to achieve max results with that friend and how to advance their confidant.

Cue Akiren meeting with Ann and cuing up a Lover’s persona.

I’d imagine some of the persona get aggregated at never being useful besides being used for comments and never for combat.

Anyway! That’s all the Phantom Thieves.

I don’t know if I’ll do Maruki?? Or even maybe the second/third awakening personas? I think it might be an interesting concept though!

[yusuke-of-valla]

I know I already ranted about this many tomes but I really hate that the narrative lets Takuto beat up a kid that just recovered from police brutality and it’s also a huge missed opportunity to not be able to convince him to abdicate. Not that it should be easy but him being completely unreasonable shoots him being a sympathetic palace ruler in the foot. Like imagine if Sumire joins not because she changed her mind on the thieves but because she has faith they can change his mind so they don’t need to change his heart.

I feel like it’s like the part where Sae threatens to have Futaba taken away if Sojiro doesn’t talk where this is a big issue that should have been addressed in the actual narrative but ISN’T because Sae is supposed to be a good guy except arguably Sae gets character development between then and when she helps you and the characters themselves aren’t aware it happened except Maybe Futaba if she has the restaurant bugged which Idr if that’s a canon or a canon thing, which isn’t the case for Maruki because it literally happens in a week before the next time you see him, and even if he’s chilled out relatively speaking because Yeah I don’t think he was in his right mind during the fistfight but he still could have easily gotten Joker killed by trapping them in a collapsing building, or gotten the others killed if Joker hadn’t let go by crashing the Monacopter, SOME ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE FUCKED UPEDNESS OF THE SITUATION WOULD BE NICE

[mage-ellie]

His Wish

This is my first request from AO3! People seemed to like it so I thought I’d post it here too :) I’m open for small requests! Feel free to request headcanons/scenarios/prompts! I’ll write about any of the P5R cast. Akechi is just my favorite boy <3 All I ask is that you don’t request abusive/toxic relationships, yandere, smut of underaged characters (I will age them up though), or pieces that romanticize mental illnesses. I prefer to write fem!reader since i’m a girl and it’s easier for me, but if you say please, i’ll do my best to write GN and male!reader pieces! <3 

Warnings: P5R spoilers, lots of fluff

Word count: 2,497

Link to original post: Click me!

Summary:  All Goro Akechi had wished for was to be loved, to be needed, by someone, anyone. He never could've imagined that his wish would actually come true.

In less than 24 hours, Goro Akechi was going to be married.

He never could've imagined that he would live long enough to find love, let alone get married. He had also never imagined that he would be marrying one of the infamous Phantom Thieves. Although, he couldn't complain, she was quite the impressive thief, having managed to steal his heart right out from under his nose.

Goro was currently lying alone on the bed in the hotel room he was staying at. Their wedding reception was going to be held at the Yoshiki-en Garden in Nara, Japan. His fiancée had practically begged him to have their wedding there. The garden was at its most beautiful during the spring time. But truth be told, Goro would've married her any where, even in that little hole in the wall, Leblanc.

The soon to be husband couldn't stop replaying everything that lead up to this moment.

How she had practically forced him to live with her during the whole Maruki conundrum. How she confessed her feelings to him in March when he returned. How he told her he loved her for the first time during their date to the cherry blossom festival in Tokyo. How he proposed to her in front of all of their friends 3 years later at that same cherry blossom festival.

He was so nervous for tomorrow, and yet so excited. He actually found someone who wanted to be with him for who he was, not because of his celebrity status. She knew about all of his flaws and his horrific past, but not once did she let him doubt her love for him. She worked so hard to support him while he went to therapy, to help him make amends with Futaba and Haru, to help him come to terms with the fact that he deserved a second chance.

A few years ago, he would've been terrified at the thought of having someone in his life like this, but now, he couldn't imagine his life without her.

-

The next thing he knew, he was being awakened by the sound of someone slamming their fists against his hotel room door. Akira Kurusu, Ryuji Sakamoto, and Yusuke Kitagawa were currently standing outside of his room, each with a black tux in hand. As well as Morgana, who was sitting on the floor next to Akira's feet, already wearing a cute little handmade formal black vest. They wanted to get ready with Goro, seeing as it was his big day and all.

A little ways down the hall, the group of boys could hear a group of girls squealing about marriage, dresses and romance. It was 8 A.M. and they were already so energetic. The groom and his groomsmen all laughed to themselves, they were excited as well. This was the first marriage in their friend group after all.

Akira, Goro's best man, mentioned that he should try to take as many mental photos as he could, because this day would go by in a blur. Goro believed him, one moment the boys were standing at his door, ready to get the day started, and the next they were all dressed and making their way to the venue.

The normally oh so composed Goro Akechi was sweating bullets. His hands were clammy and his throat was dry. Never in his life had he felt so nervous, so unprepared.

Before he knew it, it was suddenly 3 P.M. and the ceremony was beginning. Only your closest friends and family made up the audience. No media or paparazzi in sight. Goro shifted his weight from one leg to the other, he hadn't seen you all day. His heart raced as music began and you appeared in your gorgeous white wedding gown, Sojiro by your side, walking you down the aisle. He felt a hard lump forming in his throat at the sight of you. You always looked gorgeous to him, but in that moment, he truly believed that you were an angel sent from above.

A soft, teary eyed smile spread across his face as you made your way closer to him. He knew he'd be teased by the others for the rest of his life for crying while you walked down the aisle, but he didn't care. All that mattered, was that you were now standing before him, in a gown he never imagined he'd see you in. A warm, comforting smile made its way to your cheeks from behind your veil as you looked up into his eyes. It was taking all of his self control to not kiss you right then and there.

He could hear the officiant speaking about love and happiness, but he wasn't really listening. Goro was too busy taking as many mental pictures as he could fit into his brain. He only tuned back in when you brought up a small index card filled with writing. It was your vow to him.

"My dearest Goro. Never in a million years had I imagined that I would be spending the rest of my life with you, and to be honest, I'm pretty sure you had thought the same thing." You began, a light giggle coming from your throat. The Phantom Thieves, Sae and Sojiro also laughed, knowing what you meant by that. He had quite the troublesome past with the thieves after all. "Despite our differences in the past, I can't imagine being with anyone else. I vow to you that I'll work tirelessly to show you my love, to always be there for you, and to give you the home and family that you deserve." If he hadn't been so entranced by the way you looked while reading your vows to him, your words would've had him sobbing. "I love you Goro," He froze when your voice cracked, "I'm so happy that you're home." He knew what you meant by that. He remembered how devastated you looked when he told you that he might not have survived during Shido's palace, but he wouldn't dwell on the memory, he was with you now, right?

It was his turn. Shakily, he pulled out a card with his vows on it from his tux pocket. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he began. "Y/N, my love. I truly didn't believe that I would live long enough to find love like this. And you're right, never had I imagined that I would be marrying you of all people." He watched as you lifted a hand to your mouth and laughed, your eyes lit up as you did so, the other thieves snickering along with you. He was glad that you could all laugh about the past like this. It lifted a guilty weight off of his shoulders. "And yet, here I am, unable to picture this day any other way. These past few years, you've shown me a love that I've never known. Today, I vow to you that I'll spend the rest of my days finding ways to bring happiness to you, like you've brought to me. I vow that I'll protect you and cherish you with my entire being." He looked up momentarily, amazed by the fact that a single tear was making its way down your cheek. "I love you Y/N. It's good to be home." He watched as you nearly broke down at his last sentence. You took a moment to close your eyes and take a deep breath.

The officiant started talking about your rings, but once again, Goro was too busy staring at you to listen. The sound of you squealing is what brought him back to reality. He watched as Morgana trotted down the aisle, carefully balancing a pillow on his head and carrying the rings to you both. You had a look of pure delight on your face, apparently, Akira had told you that Morgana wouldn't be able to make it because cats weren't allowed or something, but of course, your kitty friend wouldn't miss this day for the world.

Everyone in the audience cooed at the cat as he sat in front of you both with a smug grin on his face. You both reached down for the rings, your hand lingered for a moment to scratch the black cat on the head.

Goro melted into your touch when you took his hand so you could put the ring on his finger, it was a simple silver band with both of your initials engraved on the inside. Next, Goro delicately took your hand in his and slid the crown shaped wedding ring onto your left ring finger. He was the ace detective prince after all, marrying him made you his queen, right?

The officiant spoke a bit more before saying the words Goro had been waiting to hear all day. "I now pronounce you husband and wife! You may kiss the bride."

Goro gently lifted the veil from your face, but before he could lean in, you had pushed yourself onto the tips of your toes and pressed your lips to his, your arms making their way around his neck. You had been waiting just as long for this moment as he had. He quickly slipped his arms around your waist and pulled you close to him, reveling in the feeling of your lips.

Cheers erupted from the small crowd as you two pulled away. "I love you Goro Akechi." You whispered, only loud enough for him to hear. "I love you too, Y/N Akechi." His response was just as quiet as yours. Saying your first name with his last name did funny things to his heart. He wasn't sure if he'd ever get used to it, not that he minded. It would be a reminder that someone out there truly did love him.

The rest of the night was a blur for Goro. His most prominent memories of the night were of Sojiro sobbing when he danced with you, Morgana and Futaba arguing over who got to dance with you next, Ann screaming when she caught the bouquet of flowers you had thrown, and the way you looked, swaying slowly in his arms to a song he didn't know the lyrics to, but you knew every word. He wasn't even sure if he got to eat a slice of the expensive wedding cake that he had paid for.

By the time you both made it to the bridal suite, you were exhausted. Goro was barely able to get your wedding dress off of you before you passed out on the bed. He did his best to carefully remove your makeup so you wouldn't have to worry about it in the morning. He couldn't help but stare at you for a bit as you laid beside him, the light from the moon making your skin glow. His mind was ready to burst from how many mental photos he had taken throughout the day.

Gently, as to not disturb you, he wrapped you in his arms and drifted to sleep while going over the memories he had of this day.

-

5 years.

You and Goro have been married for 5 years now. Goro couldn't deny that he was happy to wake up next to you every day.

However, today was different. He knew that you had planned to meet up with the girls for an early breakfast, but you didn't wake him up to say goodbye. Usually, on the rare occasions that you would have to leave your shared house before he woke up, you'd wake him up and give him a kiss goodbye.

He had noticed that you had been a bit distant lately, and he couldn't help but worry. Were you falling out of love with him? Were you cheating on him? Was it something worse? His mind filled with all sorts of negative questions and concerns in an attempt to figure out why you were acting the way you were.

Goro waited for you on the couch in your home, planning on confronting you about your strange behavior when you got back. In the 8 years that you've been together, you've never once done something like this, so he was incredibly scared.

The familiar jingle of keys and turning of the lock on the front door signaled your safe arrival home. He watched you freeze for a moment when you made eye contact with him, uncertainty and nervousness clouding your once bright eyes. Goro raised an eyebrow, despite the fear that coursed through his veins.

You took a deep breath before approaching him silently, once in front of him, you dug around in your purse for a moment, before handing him a small white box with a red ribbon tied around it. He stared at the box, shocked as you took a seat beside him. Goro could feel you staring at him, burning a hole into the side of his head. A... gift? This wasn't what he was expecting at all.

"Well?" Your voice sounded so small. Were you afraid of something? He took a moment to look at you before untying the ribbon and opening the box, inside sat three pregnancy tests. Each one testing positive. It took a moment for his brain to process this information. You were pregnant, with his child. That's why you had been so distant. The two of you almost never talked about kids. Due to his traumatic past, Goro believed that he would never be a good father, even with all of the therapy and support from you, he could never see himself being one.

"You're pregnant." He breathed, still staring at the pregnancy tests. "Yeah." You sounded so tired, sad even. Despite his original negative stance on becoming a father, he couldn't help but feel joy. He was going to be the father of your child. He was being given the chance to start a family of his own.

Slowly, he turned towards you, staring down at your stomach. You weren't really showing yet. "Well?" You repeated. Your voice shook, on the verge of tears. Goro didn't respond with words, he just leaned forwards and pushed you into the couch, his arms wrapped around your back and his face pressed into your stomach. He couldn't stop the sob that escaped his lips. He never could've imagined this. Despite his initial fears, he would do his best to be the greatest father that he could be.

Your body shook as you began sobbing as well, one hand gripping the back of his head and the other resting against his back, holding him as he cried.

"I'm going to be a dad?" He cried into your stomach, needing to confirm that this was real. "You're going to be a dad, and an amazing one at that." Your response was so genuine, it made it impossible for him to believe otherwise.

His wish of being loved, of being needed, had really come true.

[nightshadedawn]

Persona 5 Royal Playthrough pt3

I ended up going through two Palaces before I could update y’all. Oh well.

...Yeah, no, quit calling me Miss Special Snowflake's boyfriend. It's not happening.

Ryuji, Morgana, and Yusuke having a conversation in the laundromat: "It's like he's our mom," says Ryuji... the mom friend.

Every time Morgana is like "I have to turn into a human so no one else can have Lady Ann!" then expects no one else to hear him makes me laugh. Like, bitch, no.

I have the restaurant in my Thieves Den 'cause I like it. Yusuke, Ryuji, and Morgana are there. They're so precious.

I got a three in a row Tycoon on cutthroat!!!

Ryuji and Ann just keep going "Shoulda figured" and other versions of the statement every time I win.

Ann just rejected Morgana's feelings HARD. I am happy.

Ryuji is too good, honestly. Why would anyone not like him? He's... He's always trying to build the team up, make them proud of themselves and what they've done. I will admit that he has his moments of being not a great human, but they're teenagers who were given absurd powers, so honestly, can you blame them?

I didn't know darts was an actual minigame! There's so many minigames. I'm so happy.

I don't like Akechi. I don't know why some people do. Like, his death scene was a bit... too late for a redemption for me, right after he tried to kill Joker, several times. His pain is understandable, but still... I can't.

Their "two sides of the same coin" also doesn't seem particularly fair. It's totally uneven in everything but color schemes.

Guys, GUYS, please, PLEASE decide whether you're going to react to my teasing or not.

"We don't have to deal with them directly," Ryuji says joyfully about the mafia. Oh you sweet, sweet, innocent child, if only you knew what I do.

I literally can't play this game around anyone else because I tend to yell "BABY!" to Ryuji, Ann, and Yusuke and "BITCH" or "FUCKER" to... a rather long list of villains in this game... and Makoto.

I can literally feel Yusuke's anxiety about his painting when you take him to Leblanc to see Sayuri.

How can you say Yusuke isn't gay when he says everything I do is beautiful?

I love Ryuji's 9th social link. It's LITERALLY written like a confession scene. This also means I kinda hate it because... I can't date him.

Also... PRETTY BOY RYUJI PRETTY BOY RYUJI PRETTY BOY RYUJI

I actually kinda thought that the new scene for Ryuji being a crossdresser is kinda funny??? Is this bad??? I wanna see him in a dress, tho. I gotta agree, he'd be a natural. Not the like, painfully obviously not taking it seriously from the dancing game, though.

Though I do think it's valid that he freaks out when two strange adults come up to him and try to take him somewhere, especially in a place known for being shady, and at night.

...When Ryuji complains about it, I do feel bad about ditching him. Then again, I blame the cat.

Ryuji may be my ideal type on paper, but I'm also highly attracted to Yusuke and this is so totally unfair.

*softly chanting* butlers butlers butlers butlers

Don't mind me just... *makes meticulous plot to avoid having Makoto join the team that i may or may not write a fanfic about*

Makoto is one dumbass bitch. Like, honestly, there's nothing she does that's in any way remotely smart.

...I thought I'd just skip Makoto's scenes until she became relevant, but here I am, still skipping her scenes. Does that mean she’s still irreleveant?

"Witch" I suggest, and Makoto complains! "Would you prefer "Bitch"? I can use that too.

I put Yusuke on the team in the middle of the palace through settings, replacing Morgana, who had been standing right behind me. Which made Yusuke stand right behind me. It looked like he was holding onto my waist and standing uncomfortably close. Bro, babe, I love you, but not in front of my boyfriend and girlfriend!

Just accept the compliment, guys, I'm not going to compliment Queen.

...Opening chests with Ann or Ryuji is just so sweet because they're so affectionate and touchy feely. Especially Ryuji.

Math. Fucking. Sucks. I should not have to use math in a game. I hate this. Obviously it's the Palace Makoto comes in that this happened.

Well, I finished the Palace in a day. I love the feeling. But it was getting close there. Joker and Yusuke were down to no spells...

...Yoshizawa hasn't showed up yet. When is she getting shoehorned in?

WHY IS THE VELVET ROOM RED!?

My very first playthrough I didn't execute a single execution except for the first one we have to do. It  really screwed me over my second playthrough...

...I broke the electric chair. That's certainly something that happened.

147 games of Tycoon later and I've only been a beggar 31 times in total, versus the pure thirty wins in just Cutthroat.

They're in their summer uniforms and it makes make miss warmer weather already. It's fucking snowing outside. Grrrr.

Beat Kaneshiro! ...Wasn't a fan of his new boss battle. I'm even playing on safe mode! But whatever.

Makoto is a DISASTER at Tycoon. She exclusively got beggar all three times I played with her!

...RYUJI YOU CAN'T SAY SHIT LIKE THAT AND NOT LET ME DATE YOU.

Ann, sweeties, baby, you're doing so well.

She confessed to me, then in the call afterwards it was basically insinuated I proposed... WHICH IS LIKE FUCK YEAH 'CAUSE SHE ACCEPTED IT.

It makes me think of the future conversation where they're talking about marriage.

Anyway, if you haven't noticed, l love Ann.

My next playthrough I'm not gong to date her, though. I'm a completionist and I want ALL of the possible awards. But... I refuse to cheat on Ann. So I'll date everyone else then just hang with Ryuji... despite how cringy some of the date things are.

...If Akechi wasn't, you know EVIL and tried to KILL ME, SEVERAL TIMES, I might, MIGHT, like him. But in truth, I think that's really just the Persona 5: Revival talking. We get... into some stuff during that.

I know that either Atlus or the translators know EXACTLY what goes on in the Persona fandom because otherwise "He's too pretty to be wrong" would not be an option when talking to the newspaper girl about Akechi. I have to agree with her that his looks aren't really, you know, awesome enough for that.

Also, I read it as "He's too petty to be wrong" at first and I think that's an accurate sum of his character.

YO AKECHI-FUCK I HAVE NO NEED TO SEE YOUR ASS LIKE THAT WHEN I HAVE BOTH A BF AND AND GF.

...fucker fucking giving me shit about my fake glasses...

If you COULD date the boy out of mod, Akechi would definitely be the one they were pushing you to date. Like Makoto. Or Yoshizawa.

But hey, at least I get to not be nice to him.

I remember seeing this picture where Ann, Ryuji, and Joker kept going to the movies together and seeing 3D movies, and Joker couldn't wear the 3D glasses properly because of his own. I keep imagining that picture during this event with Caroline and Justine.

You know what? Some people call Joker a loli lover because of them, but nope! He's just adopted two more siblings. That is my stance on it.

FUcking

Fucker

WHAT THE FRRRRRRRR

FUCK YOU ATULS OR TRANSLATORS OR WHATEVER

APHRODITE AND MARS ARE FROM TWO DIFFERENT MYTHOS. Aphrodite is GREEK, Mars is ROMAN. Their reversed are VENUS and ARES. USE ONE OR THE OTHER PEOPLE.

I get very pissed about this, and it's worse with Hades.

7/4 is the day I am screaming at, if you were wondering.

My dad asked me if the other students think Joker's stupid because every time I answer a question right they get all surprised.

I don't really like Makoto, as I'm sure you've noticed, but she was super nice about Ryuji's special move idea. And that put her ahead of Akechi in my book.

TESTS ARE NERVE WRACKING EVEN WHEN THEY'RE FICTIONAL

Yusuke and Ryuji are good boys, the best boys. And they're so awesome about their special move.

AND RYUJI OFFERED MONEY FOR YUSUKE'S FOOD. And implied that he did it before???? Ryuji, you best boy.

This boys' outing DOES make me happy, though. Like, insanely happy. Dunno why.

Maybe because Joker gets to be so flipping cheesy.

...fuck you, Yoshizawa.

HONESTLY WHAT THE EVER LOVING--- Grr. Too many choices while with her. Too many. OOC Joker when with her. 0/10.

I LOVE THE FESTIVAL PHOTO

And you know, it's really hard to choose between Lala-chan and Ann, but... GONNA TAKE ANN ON A DATE

Got her some flowers. Lets see if we can give them to her this time!

"Such a good FRIEND." Babe, we're DATING. For like, TWO WEEKS NOW.

AND I DIDN'T EVEN GET TO GIVE HER FLOWERS

Ann called Yusuke a pretty boy, but then she's missing out on the REAL pretty boy, Pretty Boy Ryuji.

Ryuji, why're you so worried about other girls when you've got ME?

"I like the shade." "What are you, moss!?" Oh, admit it, Ryuji, I'm growing on you.

Cargona. Snrk. Gods, I love you, Ryuji.

Dome town with Ryuji! "Isn't it all couples?" That's the point!

I COULD GIVE RYUJI THE ROSES!?

Sadly, I bought those for Ann. Ryuji, you get the noodles.

AND HE FUCKING LOVED IT.

"It feels like I really captured Ryuji's heart!" FUCK YEAH I DID

Gonna give Yusuke the bracelet when I get the chance.

Why is everyone color coded in the chat room? Kawakami, Akechi, Mishima, and the reporter are all ORANGE. What's the point? Well, Akechi's more of a golden orange, but close enough.

While Mishima is not my first choice for a date, he's definitely not my last.

...But the boy really needs some fucking sleep. He's not drawn with the bags under his eyes, but I can see them!

It's not fair that they give Akechi a kicked puppy sprite. I'm... goddamnit, they're trying to make me not hate him.

When Makoto doesn't know something, I'm brought great joy.

NO DAD MAKOTO IS NOT MY GIRLFRIEND ANN IS AND SHE IS LITERALLY R I G H T T H E R E

First day in Futaba's Palace! I've gotta say, this is my second favorite palace. Kamoshida, Futaba, Madarame, Sae, Okumura, Shido, Kaneshiro, Holy Grail. In that order. I HATE Kaneshiro's place and dealing with the Holy Grail. But whatevs, man. I love this game. (Vanilla, at least, this one is still on the fence)

I found out a cool little thing. On the uphill sand slopes in the town (don't know about anywhere else) if you're running and turn back quickly, Joker will do a little animation to steady himself. It was cool and made it seem, I dunno, more human? Anyway, while I was admiring this, Ryuji and Yusuke just stood at the top of the slope and Ann followed me while I was running. Best girlfriend ever.

Kin-Ki is looking pretty kin-ky if you know what I'm sayin'

Please don't murder me because I do terrible puns.

*we fall through the trap door* *Ryuji starts screaming* Same, baby, same.

...Makoto is seriously annoying. Like, she's got no business acting as familiar with Futaba's situation. The one who WOULD be the most familiar is Yusuke, and I'm glad he recognizes that. It's not the exact same, none of their stories are after all, but I feel like those two get each other better than even Ryuji and Joker understand each other.

Yusuke and Ryuji's special attack is THE BEST

Ryuji and Joker getting up close and personal in the shadows. All those fanfics coming true, man.

I thought Futaba was sloth, not wrath? Why are her Will Seeds called Wrath?

Beat it in one day! It's so satisfying to watch all those achievements when I leave the palace.

You know, I'm thinking of wearing the Christmas outfits for the final battle. Just to be kinda funny.

Spending a relaxing day with Yusuke after going through Futaba's Palace... kinda want to take him to the bathhouse to check out that new scene, but I also REALLY wanna feed the boy... gonna feed the boy.

Apparently I can only make 'decent curry.' Which is fine. Because "I" can't make curry at all. Joker, you've done much better than I.

THE DATE CHANGE SCREEN HAD A RAINBOW AND RYUJI WAS COMING OVER ON THE SAME DAY FUCK YEAH MY BISEXUAL BABY

...Broooooo, the way you talk about your manga is how I talk right before I start shipping.

Took him to the bathhouse, 'cause I don't gotta worry about Mama Sakamoto feeding him.

...Can I take Ann to the bathhouse?

Asked Ryuji to move in. He was all up for the idea until he remembered that I live in an attic.

I'm Charismatic now!

...I was all hoping Ann would stop by but then Akechi asked me out. Laaaaaaaame.

Ryuji's smile is so fucking cute.

...I say we just be honest, and everyone's so fucking stupid about it until Makoto explains it. This pisses me off. They're not that dumb... At least, they weren't until Makoto showed up.

Futaba's hiding in the closet. ...I've spent too many weeks making jokes about closets to not have a joke about it.

Really, Yusuke? You see those books and think she can't understand?

...Wait, that sassy tone of voice... You were TRYING to pull a reaction of her. I knew I shipped those two for a reason. OTP and BroTP. Doesn't matter, they're both awesome.

I love you Ann, but I don't think your situations were the same at all. It's not like both are valid and bad, but... different.

Joker is SO fast compared to the others, especially when he's speeding.

What the...

Holy fuck...

JOKER IS TOO EFFING COOL

THAT MOVE TO GET FROM THE ENTRANCE TO TO TREASURE DOOR? Awesome!

Damn, Joker has my heart too.

I kinda wish we could see Futaba's costumes in her Persona. That would be pretty neat.

The moment right before Wakaba appears is so aesthetically pleasing.

...Futaba being happy is almost enough for me to accept Maruki's offer, and I haven't gotten there yet.

Ryuji and Ann keep smacking each other out of their ailments. Like, you guys just love each other so much! It's awesome.

Joker has lackluster responses to Wakaba... I'm hoping that isn't one of those "Answer these wrong and you break her!" things... Not that I think I was, but still.

I liked Futaba's new animation for when she defied her mother.

I wish the anime looked more the cutscenes. I'm trying to rewatch the anime so I can pinpoint specific moments for future editing purposes, but it's kinda painful.

1- This is the SECOND TIME you've landed on Yusuke while running from trouble.

2- YUSUKE LET GO OF MY GIRL

No Makoto, I don't want to go see Futaba with you! I can go see her myself.

So, I like Takemi's new voice with her lines during this scene.

Sure, she collapses every so often and sleeps for a while. Stays like that for a few days. Sorry that I put her into a coma for a month, Boss...

SHE LOOKS SO CUTE WITHOUT GLASSES

Guys, we have a month. Stop worrying.

THE TWINS ARE SO CUTE WHILE HANGING ONTO THE BENCH PRESS

Damn, Joker's dying to the amusement of two little girls.

I'm kinda disappointed I didn't get results for all that training. But I liked the scene.

Yusuke just casually be lugging bigass paintings around.

Taking the girls to the church may have been one of the funnier moments. These cement them as Joker's little sisters. With Futaba. Damn, Joker, you got no brothers.

Yusuke promises to come by every day and we can tell him to take his clothes off. ATLUS, you have some EXPLAINING to DO.

..And Yusuke took it and ran with it. My sweet summer child, I don't think I could handle you in as little as possible on the day to day.

"The heat induced delirium made me think outside the box." Same.

Guts takes sooooooooooooo long to level up.

"Punish me more" he says, as if Takemi won't do it.

"Good god. Well, none of my medicine can cure THAT." AT LEAST WE'RE ALL ON THE SAME PAGE

BATHHOUSE WITH YUSUKE

Awe, he had fun. :)

[mystech-master]

Persona 5 + Fate/Grand Order stuff

I was trying to imagine the Persona characters being involved in FGO with one big idea I wanted to have was Joker in the Shinjuku singularity, since his persona is Arsene Lupin a fellow enemy of Sherlock Holmes like James Moriarty (oh, I’m sorry, “Herlock Sholmes”).

Like imagine him showing off his god killing Wild Card power, using Satanel’s Sinful Shell to destroy the Meteor all while giving some big speech to Moriarty to make him HIS servant. Then when they fight Baal and maybe combine Moriarty’s NP with Sinful Shel.

B/c of Joker having Arsene and that weird copyright shit, he and Moriarty call Sherlock Holmes, “Herlock Sholmes” just to mess with him.

I was originally speculating that in order for Joker to be involved in these events, I’d have to use the US event order with the events happening 2 years later (Shinjuku happens in 2017 in the JP version, and 2019 in the west), because Joker was in jail or dealing with Maruki during these events. BUT, it turns out that Joker returns to LeBlanc on the 13th of Monday in 2017, with Shinjuku being released on Friday the 24th, with him going home on the 20th of March, so there is plenty of time for Joker to do a mission with Chaldea in that time.

I have been going through the P5 events to see when they occur during the F/GO Solomon arc.

Joker gets his Persona the day the 7 Counterfeit event happens (where we get Jeanne Alter),

Kamoshida’s arc happens all through that event’s duration and his change of heart happens a bit into the Fate/Accel Zero Order event, with the Theive’s establishment, going to Mementos, Midterms, meeting Yusuke, and the first infiltration of Madarame’s palace happening during the F/AZO event.

The Madarme arc goes into the Rashomon event (if we are using Royal then the Faith Confidant starts the day before this event happens).

The Kaneshiro/Makoto arc starts around the same time the Journey to the West event happens

Onigashima happens after Kaneshiro’s change of heart and goes into the End-of-Terms Exams, the Medjed threat and start of the Futaba arc.

Camelot Singularity starts the day you first instigate Futaba’s palace.

The Futaba arc goes through Camelot and the first half of the Summer 2016 event, with Futaba Training Week happening the day Part 2 of the Summer event happens.

The Hawaii trip happens the day the Prisma Illya event starts, and the Prisma Causeway event goes through the first part of the Okumura arc (funny, I saw a lot of people bashing the Prillya event due to the writer being too horny on main for lolis, and the Okumura arc’s first part with Morgana leaving is a lot of people’s least favorite part of P5).

Okumra arc goes through Nero Fest (If you wanna make a story with this, maybe just have the Theives smash through the Palace so they can all attend the Nero Fest (you get a glimpse of Maruki’s Palace during the Nero Fest), with Okumura’s change of Heart happening the day after the final day of Nero Fest.

The Culture Festival and the first exploration of Sae’s Palace happens during Halloween 2016 in F/GO

I personally was thinking of rearranging events with Christmas, Babylonia and Solomon in my own story interpretation. Like there is the whole beginning of November that is open, so that the Christmas event can happen on Christmas.

Joker gets captured and interrogated the week before the Christmas event with Jeanne Alter Santa Lily, which starts during the whole Shido’s Palace Arc.

Babylonia was all in December, but we’re told that Rituska and Mash spend at least a month in Uruk.

The Solomon Singularity happens the day before the Final Deadline with Yaldabaoth. But officially Solomon happens on New Years Eve I think.

For the Royal Events

The Old Man of the Mountain Summoning Campaign starts during the Maruki arc, so imagine all of the thieves meeting King Hassan.

Joker returns to LeBlanc during the Valentines Day Re-run.

Shinjuku and Chaldea Boys happens between Joker getting out of Jail and him going home.

Strikers happens from July 24 to August 31, during which the All the Statesman Event and the Summer Race happen in F/GO. But going by the US/West version, Nero Fest happens from July 25 to August 3, then the Moon Goddess Event from  August 17 to August 24.

I just thought this would be a fun idea to think about.

[misplacedmalice]

Once again, more spoilers for P5R, because I can't sleep and this is what I do.

I'm also going to throw in trigger warnings for trauma, suicide, and several types of abuse. I don't want to cause anyone any pain just because they can't sleep either and stumbled onto my post.

I should preface this by saying I was starting in child development and psychology before I left college due to my own health, so I've done a lot of research into the topics I'm going to be addressing.

Okay. So I want to talk about the mental health implications of Goro Akechi and his use of Loki's special ability on himself to make himself go berserk. The reason I want to talk about this, is because its something that people with the right (horrible) combination of mental health issues and trauma can more or less do, and I feel it will help explain some of the endgame content a bit more comprehensively.

To start off, I want to address that Goro would not have been in a healthy place when his persona was unleashed in the first place. That's canonical. His mother committed suicide, was living life as a prostitute before that, and he was afterwards passed from foster home to foster home before living on his own. That in itself is a whole lot of damage just as a base, but you have to think a bit deeper into it, as well.

Its a known fact, at least in the western world, that growing up with parents that act as sex workers often leads to the child being physically and sexually abused. I think its very likely that Goro went through this with at least one of his mother's customers before she passed. I will double down on the point that its very common, again at least in the western world, for foster children to land in the homes of abusers as well. In that case, its not limited to the care takers, but could even extend to the other minors living in the homes that were older than him. In my studies, I've read many cases of younger male children being taken advantage of by older female children, only to have it brushed aside. A common example of something like that happening is actually with teachers, if you need a basis for where my thoughts were going. Based on this alone, Goro would have been suffering from severe abuse for about ten years before his persona manifested. Keep this point in mind.

My next point actually deals with Goro's persona and when it manifested. There's no real clarification there of what transpired during that event. So, I want to take into consideration the fact that this probably happened without Goro's knowledge, like how Akiren and Ryuji slipped into Kamoshida's palace the first time unawares. Here's the thing; Akiren had Ryuji with him, so even if Ryuji couldn't fight, there was a distinct difference already. It is heavily, heavily implied that Goro was ALONE when this happened. Imagine being fifteen and stumbling onto a literal metaphysical world filled with supernatural entities trying to kill you. That's what would have been happening, realistically. How do you think Goro would have survived that? Manifesting his persona.

But here's the thing: how badly beaten and near death was Goro when his persona manifested? How desperate to survive was he? He would have been weak, and he would have needed a fuck ton of strength boost to get through a situation like that. How would he have gotten it, do you think? That's right; the same way he got it on the cruiser.

Loki's Call to Chaos.

I firmly believe that Loki is actually Goro's "true" persona, like how Arséne is Akrien's at the beginning. I think Robin Hood actually came much later, out of a sad, hurt child's wish that he could have been like Robin. But I don't think he created RH, like how Akiren can create personas; I think he manifested RH much like Akiren did Satanael. But I believe it was at a later date, and was a reflection of his mind, what's still good in his mind, made manifest.

The next thing I want to talk about is Shido and his manipulative behavior towards Goro. Everyone knows all this, though, so ill keep it brief. The effect that this would have had for Goro would have made his previously developed mental health issues so much worse, which lead him to have a crucial thought pattern that's dangerously common with people with his mental illness. At one point, many trauma victims come to think of both other people, and themselves, as acceptable losses.

This actually happens when there's a disconnect in your mind within your ethical reasoning. And here's where I get to the point I wanted to make; Loki's special ability is basically the manifestation of sending someone into a dissociative mania. Basically a manic state in which your mind disconnects from its higher thought patterns, and dissociates completely with how your memories are stored.

The reason I'm talking about this is because trauma, depression, and dissociative episodes can and do cause severe memory issues. I want to bring to a point Joker and Crow's showtime for this, actually. You see at the end of it, Goro walking towards the camera looking exhausted and holding his head. Many times, when people have manic episodes, it leaves them physically drained, and can cause migraines. Most commonly these things are associated with anxiety attacks, though truthfully it has most to do with your adrenal responses.

So now we come to the effects that all these have on the endgame content. I'm not arguing the "is Goro real" aspect of the endgame content, because he is. I've gone through everything I did in this post to try to help make it clear for others what would have realistically happened after the scene on the ship.

A big real world consequence of all the mental health issues I've gone through here are going to be as such: first, Goro is not going to have any committed, accessible long term memories due to the mental strain that a manic episode like his berserk state can cause. Next, he's going to take a hell of a long time to heal after being literally blasted from the metaverse, which is what it seems happened. I believe this is actually paralleled by Ryuji for that reason, actually. Last: he's not going to be himself for a while afterwards. When you suffer such a huge episode, like his berserk episode is heavily implied to be, you're just not yourself after. It's like your whole mind has to reboot. I believe this is why he turns himself in to Sae, because its the only thing that makes sense for him to do.

The second to last thing I want to address is the way Goro seems to 180 after all those events, and how different his personality is. Feral!Goro is his real personality. This archetype--cynical, methodical, sarcastic, and cruel--is actually fairly common in people with his kind of history. He's actually showing his true self, probably for the first time ever. That's a huge step in the right direction for him, and something he's only able to do because of Akiren's support.

The very last thing I'm going to address is actually the events of Maruki's palace, when he goes to shoot and kill Dr. Maruki. This comes back simply to the idea of acceptable loss. This is not something that Goro takes lightly. This is his weighing the outcomes, looking through every door at the same time, like trauma victims tend to. He's choosing the path that guarantees the desired outcome. Its a downright terrifying trait that Goro has, but that's what was happening. Just like (unfortunately) Wakaba, Okumura, and countless others, Goro counted Maruki as an acceptable loss.

And I want to point out that he stops when the Phantom theives point out that he's wrong. I'm pointing it out because that tiny gesture shows just HOW MUCH Akiren helped him start to heal, starting with the events on the ship.

If anyone actually finished reading this rambling post, man, good on you. You have my thanks.

[kingspuppet-a]

I had this really strange dream last night (that I can’t remember the actual plot too because it was just a lot). But Goro was in it!! And he was like an ally (kinda like during Sae’s palace). So he was putting up this facade of being helpful and using Robin. But there was a cognition of him that could forcefully use Loki, and it actually ended up really hurting/effecting Goro because of it.

It was...an extremely strange dream to say the least. There was more to it after but trying to explain that coherently right now is probably not gonna happen. But damn, could you imagine if because of Shido knowing about the Metaverse his cognitive Goro could use Loki? What a trip that would be.

[radiantresplendence]

Doctor Takuto Maruki Was Right

Maruki is the Councillor Arcana in Persona 5 Royal and is a fantastic character that the original game was sorely lacking. I’ll be talking some spoilers here. Be warned. 

We can talk about how Demiurge/Yaldabaoth/Yagor/Jägermeister (or whatever you want to call him) is straight trash and shouldn’t be the overarching antagonist of Persona 5 another time, but that’s not what’s important here. 

What’s important here is that Maruki wasn’t in the original game and that does a disservice to everyone who played it. 

For the vast majority of P5R, Maruki is just the high school counselor who was brought in to the school in the aftermath of the Kamoshida incident as a means of damage control. He’s kind, emphatic and insightful and genuinely wants to help anyone seeking his services. 

The Phantom Thieves, due to their involvement in the Kamoshida incident are mandated by the school to talk to him; as the game progresses, most of the team members form some sort of connection to him, save for Akechi and Futaba (I believe) as Akechi is only a Phantom Thief when his goals align with the team and Futaba isn’t a student. 

Even Yoshizawa and Yusuke interact with Maruki, as Yusuke goes out of his way to do so after hearing about him from the other thieves and he was Yoshizawa’s counselor after the death of her sister. 

Over the course of his confidant, Joker gives Maruki his perspective on some of Maruki’s research, which is later revealed to be Cognitive Psience. At the end of his confidant arc, Maruki reveals that he’s known that Joker’s group were the Phantom Thieves since he saw them exit the Cognitive world during the first heist. He says he supports the thieves and their justice but he has to go a separate way. He then exits the story until after the defeat of the God of Control.

If you finish Maruki’s Confidant Arc by the time that he leaves the school, Maruki completes a belated Cognitive Psience paper that he was working on with funding from a college in Toyko and winds up applying his theory when Mementos merges with the real world. 

In short, Maruki fully awakens to his persona with the special ability to rewrite cognition. When the cognitive world and the real world are merged, however this power becomes absurdly potent, and Maruki begins to warp reality in order to make a world where no one suffers. 

Maruki’s machinations affect all of the Phantom Thieves positively: Joker doesn’t go to prison because... Akechi is alive and confesses to his crimes in Joker’s stead. Akechi is let off the hook for his crimes. Morgana is a human. Ryuji was never injured and is still the star of the track team. Ann’s friend Shiho never attempted suicide. Yusuke was never exploited by Madarame, who instead acts as a passable father figure to him. Makoto and Sae’s dad was never assassinated. Futaba’s mother is alive and is presumably in some sort of relationship with Sojiro. Finally, Haru’s father wasn’t executed after his bossfight and he was never an exploitative egoist. 

There’s a lone exception to this: the girl who the game refused to let join the Phantom Thieves; a girl who had been receiving therapy from Dr. Maruki since before the start of the game due to her trauma from the death of her sister, Sumire Yoshizawa.

In a way, “Kasumi” was Maruki’s prototype for the world he wanted to create. She couldn’t process the guilt she felt for surviving the crash that killed her allegedly more talented sister and consequently wished that she was her late sibling. 

Now the world that Maruki creates is essentially a utopia, where no one suffers and crippling psychological harm is unable to befall anyone. Now we can consider the value of free will that Maruki is removing by becoming a new “God of Control”, but as a card carrying deterministic nihilist, I see it as more or less as trading the whims of an uncaring chaotic universe for those of a benevolent eccentric. The game frames this as a stagnation of humanity, something I don’t entirely agree with. Maruki understands that physical wounds (aka hardship) are inescapable (and can provide adversity to fuel growth) and his big theory revolves around altering cognition to inoculate against mental illness. Any issue with Maruki’s world revolves more around his personal flaws and lack of moderation than it does with his theoretical framework. Regardless, Maruki’s world is more ethical than what it replaces. 

In the third semester, if we ignore some of the alterations like reviving the dead as they’re more of a condition of the world than an effect of it, many people who would otherwise be sick or destitute are not, and the natural conclusion of Maruki gaining full control (as evidenced in the bad ending where you side with the doctor) is a world where no one is. Essentially, the Phantom Thieves in the third semester who fight against Maruki are condemning these people to poverty, despair and a miserable death. Ethically, for the sake of their own morality, the Phantom Thieves are the bad guys. 

Maruki’s motivations need to be examined closer. He is someone who has been largely unable to move past his own trauma (as evidenced by the entire third semester and foreshadowed in the scene where he runs into a college friend) so he has come to the conclusion that he should dedicate himself to moving others past theirs. I mean, mind-wiping your fiance of most of her life with you to cure her of her PTSD and having your life’s work stolen by Shido as you try to pick up the pieces would probably leave a guy feeling pretty empty. Essentially Maruki has resigned himself to his own sorrow after repeatedly being dealt a bad hand, so to speak. 

I think we can safely say that at the very least, Maruki has been emotionally displaced (if not worse) since the incident with Rumi and having his life's work defunded has led him to a place where his only real desire is the pursuit of a singular goal: obliterating sadness. Not his mind you, but everyone else's. 

Basically, Maruki is not well, emotionally or mentally, despite him being able to function as a productive member of society. Completing his contract with a cosmic entity and taking the throne of the god of control, enables him to pursue his goal far beyond what he was capable as a mere doctor with a special power. He infests the human subconscious to further his goal and relentlessly tightens his grip on the world. Despite having augmented physiology in the fused metaverse as a persona user, I feel that he's a mentally ill man who's burning the candle at both ends, so to speak. I think, if anything, fully awakening to Azathoth’s power exacerbated his preexisting mental state. 

To evidence my claim of Maruki’s declining illness, allow me to cite: putting a friend and confidant into a vegetative state because he couldn’t solve a moral dilemma in a month’s time, tentacling a teenage girl and brainwashing her because her dissent is a rejection of your life’s work, picking a fistfight with a high schooler while screaming about stuff unrelated to him, choosing to martyr yourself in resignation to your own suffering when you have the power to avert it. 

Imagine a world where Maruki became the new ruler of the Cognitive World, but acted in a more limited capacity that is more in line with his original research, than the extreme conclusion of it. Consider him acting more like the collective subconscious's guardian angel than the god of control, possibly with the blessing of the Phantom Thieves. I think that’s more what a sane Maruki would settle on, feeling responsible to use the powers he was granted by his contract with an outer god. 

With that out of the way, let’s discuss the way that Maruki implements his agenda.

While working at Shujin, Maruki isn't anything particularly special as a counselor, as it's neither something that he's particularly skilled at, nor is it something that he's passionate for. It's more or less a case of his job being something that he is qualified to do. 

We know that his real passion was cognitive psience research. In essence, he's a scientist over a health professional, even though the funding for his area of expertise was slashed to bits forcing him to take an alternate career path. Especially early on, the way he’d approach his job would certainly be influenced by his passion. To that end, I think you need to analyze his session with Yoshizawa from a research perspective. He rewrote her cognition to be that of her sister’s because he thought it would help her move on. His actions here were absolutely unethical, as he was experimenting on a minor without guardian consent or full disclosure of information, but initial results of his cognition rewrite were positive (especially in the short-term, despite Yoshizawa struggling more in the long term than she otherwise may have). 

"Kasumi" in a lot of ways is a proof of concept for the world he creates in the third semester, even if she isn't necessarily an optimally-functioning prototype. Now, I think Maruki was definitely acting as a bad counselor, and a "mad psientist", if you'll allow my pun, in the flashback. In the third semester however, there's no validity in examining him as a counselor, as he's not actively doing counseling. You can't even really examine him under the lens of ethical science, as he's essentially beyond morality. The man has the power to massively warp reality, raise the dead and alter memories. Essentially, his powers are such that only the end result of any action he takes really matters. If Maruki were to harm or kill someone, regardless of intent, he could make it never happen. So, only the ends of his actions can really be taken into account. 

The ends of his actions are, of course, to obliterate human misery, and he proved effective at this. The exceptions being Sumire Yoshizawa (albeit before the full implementation of his agenda) and himself (his palace is the Laboratory of Sorrow after all.) I guess what I'm getting at here is that, Maruki has to be judged as a god for all of his actions in the third semester, as that’s really the only lens applicable to his role there. 

With that in mind, the questionable actions that he takes in the third semester are basically just holding Akechi’s life hostage and forcing Yoshizawa to be Kasumi. He avoids physical altercation with the Phantom Thieves until they literally approach him with a mutual agreement of force. The Akechi situation is one that Maruki claims to be unintentional, and I do believe him. I think the awkwardness of that reveal is more due to Maruki’s social ineptitude and difficulty revealing that sensitive piece of information than it is anything nefarious. As for the Kasumi situation, Maruki has every ability to revive the real Kasumi and adjust Sumire’s life to become one more satisfying to her. In the end I think that that unfortunate situation has more to do with an ill man with unlimited power unable to distance Yoshizawa’s rejection of his initial gift as a personal sleight to everything he’s spent his life working towards. With his work being pretty much the only thing he’s currently attributed meaning to in his life his swift rejection of dissent makes a little more sense. 

This leads to something I consider mandatory, Yoshizawa needs to rebel against the fate Maruki assigned to her, or every member of the Phantom Thieves would be working against their and all of humanity’s best interests. 

I think no one would disagree with me when I say that his role in the third semester is that of a god antithetical to the themes of Persona 5, and thus narratively has to be deposed for a satisfying conclusion. Looking objectively at his grand plan however, even with his hiccups, I can’t really say he’s wrong, even if his implementation isn’t as clean as I (or even himself in a better frame of mind) would like.

[kirbychan234]

Now here's the big question.... ultimate talents for the P5 gang?

ah yes, thank you anon for indulging me. as if i haven’t thought about this constantly for the past three weeks :D

a lot of these are no-brainers but some i would like to go into detail!!! the idea of these kids attending Hope’s Peak is extremely intriguing (never mind the fact i like imagining that Hope’s Peak is a thing in the Persona 3,4,5-verse)

Akira Kurusu - SHSL Lucky Student (honestly i feel like this fits him perfectly. Morgana says constantly about how lucky Akira is, and come on, dude needed some SERIOUS luck to survive the aftermath of Sae’s palace. i feel like his luck is sort of a combination of Naegi’s and Komaeda’s, in that he can’t really control it the way Komaeda can, but it’s definitely not as passive as Naegi’s is

after he’s arrested, he receives the letter from HPA. the police are kind of hesitant to let him go to such a prestigious school, especially after he was just expelled from his last one, but HPA insists that Akira attend. after all, if someone under probation is lucky enough to get picked to go to their school, they definitely want to study that! (hell they’ve got criminals going there anyway (Kuzuryu, Hoshi)). Akira almost wants to decline anyway for kind of the same reasons Naegi almost did (i.e. incredibly overwhelming), but his parents insist he go to help restore the family name, etc)

(rest are under the cut)

Ryuji Sakamoto - SHSL Track and Field (early in the school year, he gets his leg broken by Kamoshida...but that’s for later)

Ann Takamaki - SHSL Model  (very similar to canon: modeling was never really something she thought she wanted to do, it was more of just a hobby for her. later on in the school year, thanks to a certain other bitchy and jealous model, she starts taking it more seriously)

Yusuke Kitagawa - SHSL Painter (honestly he’s shocked and honored to be the first student of Madarame’s to be recruited to go to HPA. Madarame is also thrilled, but well...we’ll get to him later too)

Makoto Nijima - SHSL Student Council President (she’s got a lot of pressure put on her, not only from the school, since the last SHSL Student Council President became so successful after graduation, but by Sae. her sister was never recruited for HPA, but their father was, and she pushes Makoto a lot to keep up her studies. she thinks she’s being supportive and helpful, but really it’s just stressing Makoto out even more)

Futaba Sakura - SHSL Hacker (Sojiro pulled a few strings to have Futaba be in online classes at first. it’s only when her heart is changed and she starts following Akira around that she slowly starts to get more comfortable to come to the actual school)

Haru Okumura - SHSL Gardener (the daughter of the founder of Big Bang Burger attending Hope’s Peak Academy? oh it’s absolutely perfect, although Okumura would have preferred her talent not be so...”useless”. but it’ll make his company look good, and her fiance is more than happy to say that he’s engaged to someone who goes to HPA. Haru is...less than enthused about that bit, but she’s happy to make friends and is glad that her gardening hobby has suddenly earned her some respect)

Goro Akechi - SHSL Detective  (he’s definitely a lot more charismatic than the other detectives at school, and he’s definitely got the brain and observation skills to be the detective the school says he is...but there’s something off about that smile. nevertheless, he enjoys conversations with Kirigiri and Saihara when they get the chance to talk (and of course Akira too))

“Kasumi” Yoshizawa - SHSL Gymnast (i’ll be honest, i really didn’t want to put Yoshizawa on here because i don’t care for her character in the slightest, but people would probably be upset if i didn’t. ugh.

i imagine it actually is Kasumi at first who goes to HPA, but after she dies in the accident, strings are pulled by a certain someone to make it seem like it was Sumire had died instead, and Sumire takes her sister’s place in HPA. it takes a while for people to notice)

as for the targets, most of them are alumni of HPA

Kamoshida is the Former SHSL Volleyball Player, and works as a teacher at HPA now. he’s still as scummy as ever and still breaks Ryuji’s leg

Madarame is the Former SHSL Artist, and uses his status to bring in more artists to steal from. Yusuke is his first pupil to be recruited for HPA as well, and it’s better for him too since the school won’t do anything to their alumni

Kaneshiro is the Former SHSL Fisherman, something that has absolutely nothing to do with crime. he was born poor but was thrilled when he got picked to go to HPA. however, he was made fun of a lot for his talent, and in turn scammed other students (especially Reserve Course Students) out of their money. he was expelled for this, but he uses the connections he made during his time to scam more people and become the mob boss he always wanted to be

Okumura is the Former SHSL Businessman, which led him to revive his father’s dying business and transform it into the huge corporation it is today. but he becomes incredibly jaded over time and craves more power

Shido is the Former SHSL Public Speaker. he’s the one that uses all of the connections he can from his school, and has everyone else under his thumb, even HPA itself at times. he was the one who put forth the idea of the Reserve Course in the first place, and he gets a share of the profits in return

And then Maruki. He’s the Former SHSL Counselor, but unlike the others, he’s actually a decent person. He works and Hope’s Peak now as a Counselor, and is part of the reason why Sumire is able to attend as Kasumi. it’s a part of the Hope Cultivation Project, which he is also a part of. he’s hesitant about the extremes the others to go but... 

Hope’s Peak knows a lot about their alumni’s crimes (especially Kamoshida’s) but they turn a blind eye because...it’s Hope’s Peak, of course they would