#im just thinking of this idea for jokers palace

[thesoundofmadness]

I can't live blog my daydreams huh

[kroosluvr]

january 9

ok i have a lot of thoughts. erm. buckle in

im sure everyone agrees that the joker vs sumire fight on jan 9 was so nothing..... so i wanted to raise the stakes. UP THE ANTE.

so to make it more intense life-and-death situation, in my head sumire basically tosses her own life away at joker in a "one of us is gonna die here and honestly? i dont care which way the cards fall"

"either i die here -> sumire doesn't have to live anymore. or, i kill you and i get my true reality (and sumire doesn't have to live anymore.)"

joker notices this immediately, by the wild way she fights all of a sudden. however crow doesn't notice bc i think he sees sumire as inexperienced and just assumes joker will win by default (like he does in canon. nothingburger fight.....)

but joker is too damn cautious, knowing one wrong move might result in her demise or his downfall...

i think here he only deflects with his melee, doesn't even try to summon his personas. crow notices smth is off and then sumire manages to get a deep hit on him w cendrillon+her sword

which activates crow bc. at this point he dgaf abt sumire BUT he doesnt want joker to die.

(ironically, crow's selfish goal to Help Joker helps sumire bc she then realizes that she's being irrational/hurting one of her dear friends (akira).. she didnt really think abt how this choice of the ideal reality would affect him (or goro)

also i always thought crow just walking away frm that fight was kinda lame so. just the idea of akira Faltering... about to let himself get killed.. in a way Giving In to the Wrong Choice of the ideal reality.... yeah that'd piss him off BIG time

(though, if i framed it in the way this comic does, crow walking away at first to let joker handle it is so real. bc hes like i cant be wasting time on this, just let akira handle her and then we can go back to figuring out how to conquer this palace and maruki etc. Sumire is small potatoes rn)

also akira being too compassionate/sensitive abt her emotions to fight her directly bc he can see how shes barely hanging on by a thread.. ough ough ough.....

but also sumire being so angry and desperate that she dgaf if she hurts akira rn. OHHHH OUCHHH OWIE

also this is the scene i showed in the bg of this comic! (sorry twitter link im lazy

"she'd rather die at our hands than her own" implying if she lost here and didnt die, she'd kill herself upon returning to the True reality bc she cant live with "sumire" anymore. okkk.. yeah

"This is the only way. I know you know that too, Joker" -> the only way back to our reality as we know it. we can't afford to be soft if it'll kill us. if this is truly sumire's choice, then we HAVE to fight. we can't back down here.

(and, also, this is the only way to show sumire that we're serious: we won't let her live as kasumi, she has to face herself, she can't run off to some dystopian ideal reality - this is the only way!!!!!)

Dying's easy. we already know sumire would die to become kasumi, to become a better gymnast, to not be sumire anymore. But would she kill for it. Who would she kill for it

[kekisu]

a very popular headcanon people have (i Think its popular. at least a lot of my twitter mutuals agreed with me a while back) is that joker comes from inaba, and if youve played p4 you know that theres literally nothing to do there

so a big headcanon that i used to be obsessed with is that he would spend a lot of his days skateboarding or biking around listening to music and exploring old dirt roads.. and he ended up getting a special interest in bugs and reptiles because hed come across so many during his little solo adventures. hes also very well versed in fishing its not a fixation or anything but just something hes pretty good at

this is why i tend to draw joker like some sort of skater boy. i think hes always stood out a lot in this small town even before the false assault charge, like he wasnt disliked or bullied but he just didnt really fit in. and this didnt bother him. i think he only realized how boring his life was when he became a phantom thief and got all these new friends in this new big city that understood him despite the circumstances that led him here. like man i really used to live like that and see nothing wrong with it? i didnt yearn for more?

it makes it even more painful when he has to leave and they naturally drift apart. because they all have dreams and ambitions, and the best years of their lives are waiting for them around the corner. but joker is back in this small town where theres nothing to do but hang out in some food court or poke around in the woods. i imagine this newfound loneliness is really hard on him, not to mention the guilt for feeling like hes somehow to blame for. well, whatever happened with goro

to me personally i think goro lived. i think he mustered up the perseverance to bite and claw his way out of shidos palace after seeing that even someone like him has a chance at being loved, he just didnt really remember this in marukis reality because it was all a blur. so both goro and joker were completely clueless as to what his fate would be if they went back to their true reality, which is what was so scary. the uncertainty. he could very well be dead but how could they know for sure? i just dont like the thought of him dying before he could truly live, even though i understand the tragedy of it can be poetic, i just cant stand for him going out like that because i relate a lot to his struggles. and i think it would go against the overall positive message of p5r. sure not everybody gets to have a second chance or a happy ending, but. man. anyways

joker fully believes goro is dead though. he wouldnt be crazy to assume this considering how they parted ways in shidos palace. but it eats away at him and maybe he really does go crazy. maybe his life feels like its stuck in time and while his old friends are out chasing their dreams, hes stuck. broken and shattered over feeling like he couldve done something to save him, knowing jokers savior/martyr complex

im running out of steam and i didnt mean to ramble on about my post-p5r headcanons but, to wrap it up: goro is in rehab somewhere and has a service dog to help with his dissociation and mood swings. and a couple other stuff. he feels like if he walks back into jokers life itll mess something up like joker will just break down or something. so he keeps his distance until they cross paths again. im just very obsessed with the idea of goro getting his life together vs joker wanting so badly to chase that high of phantom thievery again but failing and being actually so depressed

man morgana must be exhausted

[lacystar]

Ryuji - Tommy (obviously)

joker - ranboo (bc you can project any personality onto him)

hawkmoth - dream (big bad)

Sae - sam (older sibling potential, breaking free from dream's control, cop shit)

sojiro - phil (dad)

ok and then beyond that im not so sure

Yusuke - fundy? (literally theyre both melodramatic and also. the fox thing. thats all I got. ig the daddy issues with madarame also could work)

futaba - fundy? (fits better overall and theyre both gingers. literally the storylines match up perfectly. cons to this: I have no idea who else would be Yusuke. also her aesthetic matches with purpled better but they have nothing beyond that in common at all.)

makoto - tubbo OR Quackity? (Quackity makes more sense in relationship to sam and also their personalities align better, but I could also see tubbo aligning with makoto okay. also I think makoto/joker is one of the better pairings and that fits with beeduo)

ann - tubbo OR Quackity? (Ann's story is abt like regaining sexual autonomy after abuse which makes me think of Quackity but like . ehh??? it feels weird to have him in this role and also with allium duo off the bat. tubbo is literally only an option here to fulfill bench trio for the first palace. im not happy with either of these)

Kamoshida - Schlatt (if Quackity is ann obviously)

akechi - wilbur? (akechi's ability to bring a rivalry up to an intense and insane level of crazy obsession is just sooo. idk. would work better if q was joker obvs but in this scenario it could be twisted to the weird burger van control thing Wilbur had over ranboo. "were the burgers good?" ass confrontation)

maruki - wilbur (they look the exact same I swear to god whenever maruki comes on screen it jump scares me fuck. also I think it would be fitting to have wilbur be the "twist" villain after dream as a final hurrah. revealing he has a palace at the end would be cool and make sense for the dsmps treatment of wilbur as a whole. im p set on this one).

Iwai - techno (if I can't find a better place for him)

haru - ???

sumire - ???

everyone else - ???

some other villain - bad (cool egg themed cult palace)

morgana - jack (would be funny but doesn't make any real sense)

lala - jack (drag queen slayyy)

maid teacher - hbomb

[royalbilliards]

Im curious what are the maruki misinterpretations that the fandom can have do you dislike the most? Your maruki takes and analysations are great i’d love to see more of your thoughts on him :D

Thank you!! I love the wet man councillor and I spend a lot of time thinking about him, it’s a problem

And hmm there’s a few, a lot of them is the idea he’s doing stuff maliciously, which he isn’t, and like it doesn’t take a genius to go “yeah he’s not evil” he’s just sad and hurt and kinda dumb about his own emotions and I think literally anyone given the chance to control reality would be unable to handle it and stop themselves from shaping the world as they personally see fit, humans are complicated and no one is free from their own biases and ideas about what a perfect world would look like.

I’ve already gone on my rant about the whole bad therapist/ joker acts as his therapist thing so we don’t need a repeat of that here.

People using his as an instigator in stuff because they Need a Bad Guy tm for their fic and because Maruki is the Palace Ruler Joker and Akechi go up against together they default to Him and they just severely fuck up his character or misunderstand how he acts, a lot of the time making him an active antagonist or someone who genuinely hates the PT for dismantling his false reality, when Maruki really isn’t like that at all, his themes are literally called Gentle Madman and Out of Kindness, like Fucking come on man.

Those are just a few but I know if I look in my discord dms with my friends I’ll find more, because I don’t think I ever shut up, a large portion is just Misunderstanding his character, purposefully misunderstanding his character, or people not doing a little research into things I guess. The grey morals are allowed for other characters in the series but not Maruki I guess

[theartisticintrovert]

currently percolating an au idea in my brainicles, though i doubt I'm gonna do anything with it any time soon bc im a busy bitch lmao

the basic idea is persona 5 swap au, but instead of akechi/joker swap it's akechi/futaba swap. more details under the cut (also big huge thanks to my bud @lunagalemaster for enabling me <3)

so this actually spawned bc i have milgram project brainrot rn, and while listening to mu's first audio drama some things about persona 5 clicked. luna mentioned that wakaba being so caring towards futaba despite her being born out of wedlock is actually not the norm, and it's some pretty important cultural context we missed.

naturally, i made a joke that the real akechi foil was the futabas we found along the way...but actually it could work!

in this version, everything up to medjed is the same wrt palaces and such, but shadow madarame doesn't mention the black mask bc black mask doesn't exist. more on that later.

instead, he mentions a hacker that's been exposing and/or threatening people, doxxing them, etc. you guessed it, it's futaba.

she doesn't have leblanc bugged bc she doesn't live with sojiro, she lives with either her (less shitty) relatives or a random foster family, so she doesn't actually know who the pts are.....yet. mishima better hope his website security is beefy as hell, im just saying.

her whole plan is to dig up as much dirt on shido and the conspiracy as she can, then go to him in person, slap the information down on his desk, inform him she's his daughter and that she knows he killed her mom, and then basically blast all that shit all over twitter. she also has a deadman switch set up so that even if he kills her, the info still goes out.

of course, shido knows about her already, because genius or not she's still 15. he just doesn't care bc he thinks he's untouchable.

akechi, on the other hand, is sojiro's ward. he's not a shut-in due to anxiety, but more in a sense of "what's the point?"

he takes online courses, either highschool or college depending on if i wanna accelerate him a bit, so he doesn't see the point in leaving really. it's not like there's anything interesting outside, so why bother?

if you've ever seen either the mekakucity actors anime or the mv for lost time memory from kagerou project, you probably know exactly who im basing him on.

anyway he does have a palace, it's a void of foggy swamp with ruins scattered around, like futabas endless desert in canon. a charon-like figure drifts around the swamp in a little raft, and surprise! that's shadow akechi.

he's only got the one persona since he has no detective prince mask, and that's loki, though ill probably fuck around a bit personality wise. who knows, maybe his persona actually is charon lmao

luna said it adds a new dimension to the black mask/crow persona and i fully agree: depressed, directionless, passively suicidal akechi's first real full force emotion in YEARS? anger. like how futabas was determination and righteous justice, his is anger and spite at how society managed to convince him to drift through the life he fought so hard to have.

[cherubchoirs]

my toxic trait is everytime i read akeshu fics i end up thinking about pegoryu

once read a post canon fic where joker was going through it and the pts are openly worried but have to go back to tokyo and im sitting there like

"you can't tell me ryuji wouldn't drop everything the minute something was wrong and keep his best boy company"

BASICALLY v this song? this is ryuji

https://youtu.be/OIlzMQEtE-I

i swear to GOD i can never get links to work but i will agree that ryuji is always ALWAYS going to be there for akira when he needs him!! it's funny bc my aus are generally shuake, but i'm a massive pegoryu fan and i have them together in my idea of what happens post-game (or go full pegoryugoro) ryuji is just. so what my akira needs in his life and i'm deeply, deeply attached to the shujin trio as a core unit of the group - my team is ALWAYS akira, ryuji, and ann, plus whoever's palace it is (with goro always being on the team when he's there or morgana if not) they have such a DYNAMIC such a FLAVOR and to me ryuji is such a fantastic balance to akira. i also think he just takes my akira in stride, like he's the only one on the team that can fully 100% handle his dramatic personality and how he's constantly fucking around with everything he says. and i also have the post-canon idea that akira struggles MIGHTILY after the events of the game, and it's really ryuji that helps him weather it to get to a more stable place sometime during college. ryuji is such an important character to me...i mean...guess who's the only one i've bought a nendo and figma of to match my akiras.....

[kaetor]

Aw that superhero au looks neat!! I love your ideas for the thieves powers and their costumes. Is there any other information on it you'd like to share? What roles do the palace leaders play in this story?

This au is like, almost entirely vibes so far, so palace leaders are like... vaguely??? supervillains? in my head... some of them are probably lex luthor esque people who are powerful buisnessmen who commit crimes on the side...

I have however, thought way too hard about the powers each phantom thief has. Specifically joker--he can copy people's powers, but there are drawbacks, like... for example, superspeed takes a lot more than just being super fast--you also need to have a body that protects you from things like whiplash & all the million ways that running at 100 miles per hour would kill a regular human being. So joker is a lot better at copying those Main powers than the other small powers that make those powers work, so sometimes whey he say, throws a fireball he burns himself. this does not stop him from throwing fireballs <3.

uh. other facts i can think of: most of the characters gained superpowers in a single Event, similar to how the whole speed force thingie happens in the cw flash (i have not watched that show in years, idk if im remembering it right) and makes a bunch of meta-humans. akechi is the only phantom thief /thief adjacent character who didn't get powers that way--he was born with his regular abilities & got his black mask powers through evil experiments

[drawyourheart]

i was going to post something but honestly its been a while since i played the game and ive forgotten some of his character in 1) my own projections that involve me using the canon as a baseline to develop a storyline that appeals to me personally (involving joker and akechi) that IDK IF WE EVEN GOT CLOSE TO IN CANON because im scared to finish shido’s palace, and 2) browsing around tumblr at other peoples interpretations. its all gotten jumbled up and honestly i wouldnt really feel comfortable to share my opinions about him without reviewing the canon again.

i do like to think of akechi as a character that grips onto his anger and spite out of necessity, like a lifeline. it helps him just as much as it hurts him, i think, and i enjoy seeing fandom interpretation that reflects on both of these sides. it reminds me a lot of myself as a trans person, and some of my favorite trans activists & artists on this platform, and reflecting on how a person may learn to let go of hate and latch tighter onto love comforts me. i also enjoy the bpd akechi headcanons out there (i’d link them if i had them immediately on hand), and other headcanons that explore how one may fall into cycles of self destruction solely so that somebody you care about cannot do it first. akechi is that kind of guy.

i have to  finish my playthrough of P5R before i give my opinion about what akechi post-shido may want or do, although i do have a lot of non-canon ideas that i like. but how far removed from canon can you get before just writing your own story lol... thats why i dont like thinking about these things too long cuz im afraid of writing something new that came from just me. that sucks and i hate it. so thats it i guess

[luniise-kel]

Opinion on each of the Phantom Thieves ?

oki im going to go in the order of whoever i remember first, this turned out kinda long lol (also i ramble a lot in this, sorry not sorry) 

Akechi - hes a silly, little silly man. goofy goober, committed lots of crimes i think he should be jailed for these crimes. He and joker kiss. I think Akechi is a really complex and well written character and that his entire life is really tragic, I really love his character in general. Akechi’s character is someone who sticks to his ideals, no matter the situation or if his ideals are proven wrong and this loyalty to his ideals translates to his loyalty to the protagonist and the deep sense of envy he is implied to feel for him. baby man, my babygirl Protag/Joker - opinion for him r all my hcs. he is like cat. Futaba - forced to kin her, i love her omg. shes so me. character great 12/10 love her to death. She was the most useful character in the metaverse no i do not take criticism. wasnt able to finish her confidant in vanilla but im def going to max her out on my royal playthru. I do like futaba’s videogame logic being applied to irl logic bc,,,, i do that too and erm Ryuji - i like him. I hc he wears a leg brace. I wish all his prevy scenes were cut, idk they all felt out of character for him. also i wish we talked more about childhood friends ann and ryuji like. hello? they should have been besties, sharing embarrassing stories about each other. Ryuji’s confidant was def one of my favorites, always hung out with this man. I really like Ryuji’s strong desire to be helpful and to just be a guy, he wants to make ppl happy and like yeah me too bestie Ann - atlus ruined you im so sorry. act 1 ann was fire, she was so badass amazing 10/10 great character. everything past the first palace was like ????? where her character go??? i wish we had more scenes were ann explicitly takes back her sexuality, like she is not uncomfy with it and rather confident or something idk. but i love her anyways, i hope she girlbosses gaslights and gatekeeps her way through life Yusuke - sigh, another force kin. i think he is also silly, my honorary babygirl. Yusuke struggle with his identity and place in the world is really cool bc Yusuke is a great foil to Akechi, i guess its a more black mirror situation with Yusuke and Akechi but whatever. Yusuke being an orphan but had a (albeit bad) father figure with akechi has no father figure and the closes thing he got was shido (shitty father). and like i wish we would have gotten more yusuke relates/sympathizes or something with akechi, i mean they both have strong ideas r without a mother, cmon atlus do something. also Yusuke is like, my favorite, besides Akechi. hes so girlypop. Makoto - sorry makoto lovers shes not a favorite. i do like her character but also i hate it. Like some aspects r cool amazing great even, but other parts. I like her persona thats cool. um not much to say other than decent character. solid 6/10. not a fav but i still love her.  Haru - i have literally not met her yet, she spoke to her once in vanilla and im working my way slowly to her in royal. current opinion is: she exists. i like her hair. Morgana - cat (i almost forgot about him) Sumire - shes cool, i like her so far. accidentally spoiled her entire character arc for myself……whoopsies. dont have much to say about her other than good character, shes solid.   

Okay and i think thats everyone, i really love all of the phantom thieves and yeah maybe ill come back to this question when i finished the game but this is my currect opinion on everyone. 

[paperstarzz]

Persona 5 vs Persona 5 Royal

In my super expert opinion (spoiler free? I tried)

I just finished royal for the first time last night and I have some thoughts.

Things I liked about Royal vs Vanilla

Akechi gets a full social link

More ways to improve the game (ex. Darts, jazz club, billiards)

More Haru

Getting to do a palace with Black Mask Akechi was hands down one of my favorite things in my run. I adore Loki and Akechi when hes not pretending to be likable.

Also Joker gets a showtime and its with HIM?!?!

I loved the last palace animated cutscene simply because Akechi.

Third awakenings. I dont like some of the second awakening personas but the third ones are good (I think. Thought Loki went bye bye which was sad. But it was for the sake of character development so i’ll live)

I really didn’t want the good ending in the game, which im giving atlas a point for. Good villain, i guess.

Things I didnt like

Kasumi (she feels way too forced and I couldn’t care less abt her)

The ending cutscene. I liked it better when the PT took joker home. Whats the point of the car in this one? Also the Morgana gag was hilarious.

I need Atlas to stop TOYING with me is Akechi DEAD OR NOT

Semester 3 palace fight felt way too long. He kept coming back.

Will seeds were a pain in the ass and for what

In conclusion I like vanilla persona 5 better as I feel the whole third semester shenanigans draw out the story and it feels like the Lord of the Rings Return of the King out here. They had some great ideas but it just felt like tacking it on at the end was a poor way to execute them.

I may add more later but these are some of the things I could think of. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

[elemyah]

hello! im a recent follower of your blog, and i wanted to bounce a Ryuji fic idea! i wanted to write something angst or hurt/comfort with him, but im a bit dry as to what exactly can i angst or hurt him XD i was thinking about writing about his leg injury, but i wasnt sure if im able to write him right since ive never written him before can you give me a rundown of his personality? like, what are his key characterizations?

Hi, and welcome! Ryuji is my favorite, so I’ll try to help as I can.

Before anything, I just want to make it clear that much of how I interpret him is based on headcanons I came up with during the years, so it might not always be canon accurate.

That being said, I'll put some of my thoughts on him under the cut, since I'll probably ramble a bit.

If you don’t want to read my long ramblings about my favorite character, there’s a small list of key characteristics at the end. Anyway…

To me, Ryuji's main characteristic is that he's incredibly loyal. Be it to his friends, his mom, or his goal of being a Phantom Thief and do good. He can be pretty silly and dense, and sometimes his mouth goes much faster than his brain, but he's always trying to do what he thinks is best, and help those who need. He considered dropping out of school to help his mom financially, allowed his old team to (unfairly) let out their frustrations on him, was ready to sacrifice himself for the other Phantom Thieves, and is always willing to shield his friends, or fight for their sake no matter what. He has a strong sense of justice too, much stronger than his self-preservation and fear of consequences, as we saw with what happened with Kamoshida (I also don’t doubt he would’ve punched Shido’s face without a second thought if he knew who he was when they came across him… He’s the kind who acts by instinct before he thinks, and frequently get into trouble for it).

He’s someone who, despite his short patience, is also very forgiving. He was annoyed at Yusuke and Makoto at first, but didn’t think twice before helping them once he understood their situation. This is even clearer with Akechi, since Ryuji never trusted or liked him, but also had one of the strongest reactions to his story and “death”, even saying that he was more than special when Akechi had a breakdown after his fight in Shido’s palace. He’s the kind who takes no bullshit, and hates people who harm others and abuse their power, but is willing to give people a second chance if he feels they are willing to do better.

Since you’re planning to write about his injury, I think it’s important to keep in mind that not only did Ryuji lose something he loved to do and his chance to become a professional athlete when Kamoshida broke his leg, but he was also shunned by his team for it, and had to deal with the guilt of his mom apologizing for raising him on her own. It’s a bunch of terrible things happening at once, and I wish the game gave it all a little more attention, since people tend to forget about everything Ryuji went through because his personal drama isn’t as present in the narrative as other characters’. (There’s also the abusive father situation, which is something that doesn’t go away easily, but the game just mentions it and then forgets about it later…)

Ryuji was also probably pretty lonely before he met Joker, given how he was treated at school. That might be why he got so attached to Joker so quickly, since he was the first person in a long time to be willing to listen to his side of things and get to know him without the usual judgment. (Also, unrelated to Ryuji, but I feel like Joker felt the same way about him, since Ryuji was the first to listen to his side of things and be on his side. They were a good support for each other in their time of need, and that’s one of the reasons their friendship got so strong in such a short time). I also like how Ryuji’s emotional intelligence works, because he can be very dense for some things, but then there are moments when he’s the first to notice something is wrong with one of the PTs and tries to do something about it. Like when Yusuke mentions that people avoid him at school, and Ryuji immediately invites him to go out after that. He can be a little blunt, but he never tries to hide how much he cares about those close to him, and does what he can to help them when they need, or cheer them up when things go badly.

This goes more into headcanon territory, but I also think Ryuji is afraid of becoming like his abusive father. He’s constantly being treated as a “good for nothing punk” by teachers and classmates, was called a traitor and shunned by his old team, has a short temper, and often acts without thinking. It feels to me like he’s not only fully aware of his flaws, but also internalized this idea that he can do nothing right, so he (consciously or not) tries to compensate by being a hero as a Phantom Thief. Of course, he does care about the people they’re helping, but I think part of it is also him trying to prove to others and mostly himself that he can be good, and do good, and not just harm others like his father (or even Kamoshida) did. I can’t remember the exact words, but he mentions after Shido’s palace that he liked feeling like a hero, to the point he lost sight of what they were doing, and why. But, in the end, I think Ryuji put helping people who have no one to rely on, and no way out of a bad situation as his main goal, since I’m sure he often wished someone would help him (and his mom) when he needed, but ended up having to struggle on his own until he met Joker. So, in short, I think he has the best intentions and a willingness to do good things, but can easily get lost in his own problems and insecurities. His self-esteem is also pretty low, given how he often lets people treat him badly with little to no protests (some of it was for the sake of “humor” in the game, but it doesn’t change the fact that sometimes the group is unnecessarily mean to him).

TL/DR: to me, his main characteristics are loyalty, willing to do good (despite not always knowing how, or the best way to approach certain situations), and some pretty low self-esteem behind his confident and positive attitude. He’s a dork, but has a strong sense of justice, and often acts before he thinks. He can be dense, but is also openly caring and affectionate with those close to him, is always trying to help them, and tends to put their needs and feelings above his own (which can also be a flaw).

If it’s difficult for you to write him, it might be a good idea to read a few fics by different authors, and see which parts of their characterization feel right to you. I’m more of a P5 writer than a reader, so I don’t really have fic recs, but Ryuji is a fairly beloved character nowadays, so it should be easy to find good fics and rec posts around.

Anyway, sorry for the wall of text, I hope some of it can be of help to you. I love Ryuji, and it makes me happy to know you're interested in writing him. Good luck!

[luuxxart]

LUXX THE ROBOT AU??? HELLO YOU NEVER TOLD ME ABOUT THIS IM IN LOVE PLEASE ELABORATE

AH WELL,, YOU SEE,,,, i hadn't really intended on doing anything w it for a while but then i made some good doodles and i was like. ah i guess i'll just go ahead and do somethin with this lmaoooo

so info and doodles are under the cut and here's the mentioned post in case this gets buried in the eventual tag haha

i kind of just started doodling the idea in december. i dont remember why lmao but,. it was a thing (Ren was originally going to be based on Sumire as well and utilize Prince Charming). and then i did these two drafts of a comic for the new year lmao (i might finish them later but for now here they are)

so heres the basic gist of the au without going into spoilers (jic i want to actually write this in the future, and,,,, i do have a small piece of a beginning bit of prose)

five years after the events of Royal, shadows are on the rise again, and specifically, they are present outside of palaces, much like in Port Island. Okumura Foods is rebranded into Okumura Tech, and with help from the Kirijo Group, a new line of Anti-Shadow Suppression Weapons which are not as advanced as ASWs like Aigis or Labrys so as to avoid any unecessary thinking on their part and so they can be mass produced.

(also yeah i know im missing an "S" there. im not taking chances. but in the fic futaba and akira will be calling them a**-bots. its too funny to pass up)

however, it becomes increasingly clear that they need a free thinking weapon to take care of some of the bigger shadows, so Okumura Tech goes through a few constructions, trying to recreate Aigis. nothing is really working. the personas they're trying to produce are overwhelming the Plumes of Dusk. in fact, a few end up being total disasters that have to be destroyed at all costs.

finally, they manage to recruit Mishima, who is just coming out of college with a doctorate degree in AI design (having switched from a degree in general coding, inspired by the advent of ASWs). instead of just using the Plumes of Dusk, Mishima introduces the idea of AI to aid the Plumes in persona construction. think the Cores from Portal, except they can't be separated from the ASW or the Plume of Dusk.

so Mishima, still worshipping the ground Joker walks on, constructs an ASW in Akira's image, codenamed Joker, who ends up rebelling against Okumura Tech (feeling that something nefarious is afoot). Joker renames himself Renegade (Ren for short) and just kind of adopts Amamiya for a reason i'll have to figure out as i write.

Mishima's persona is half-AI based and half-awakening. Talos is an AI that he designed, but when he gets so stressed out that he awakens his persona, the AI sort of merges into his psyche. He's a Nav (just your regular old Otacon guy in the chair archetype) but he can do damage if need be. (also im bringing this meme back bc i love it)

also, Ren's persona is. a secret. mostly because its a reference to a real AI/antivirus and that reference sort of would reveal the antagonist. i dont want to reveal that before i even write the story haha

the story itself is told between Akira and Ren's perspectives at vastly different times. Akira's starts when Mishima shows up at his door after a major disaster at Okumura Tech. hijinx and romance ensue. Ren's starts when he tracks down Akechi, hoping the former Detective Prince will help him figure out why the shadows resurfaced in the first place and if there's anything going on under the surface of Okumura Tech.

oh and this is very much detached from anything regarding the Uncle Adachi AU haha im still using Mishima's persona user design and persona from the Bunny AU tho. itd be a short fic. hopefully six chapters at most. probably more mature than Everyone's a Ki/ller??? remains to be seen.

and yes. haru and mitsuru would of course also be major characters.

[brokenhardies]

wait yusuharu roleswap too bc that idea slaps so hard

haru kitagawa accidentally bumps into the party on the street, quickly sees that ann is exactly what she’s looking for, and asks her to model. due to haru being really sweet and soft and just so so friendly, ann accepts, up until they start talking about madarame’s supposed misdeeds and haru freaks the fuck out, but weirdly enough, never fully loses her cool. after summoning her persona (either milady OR shizuka gozen) in madarame’s palace, she calms down and becomes close to the pts, joker especially, however has some identity issues to deal with the fact she still respects madarame just... well... all his crimes

yusuke okumura is in ryuji’s class, but he’s more often than not on the roof, tending to the flower beds, so ryuji doesnt know he exists and more sees him as “that weird quiet kid”. he’s incredibly generous, which is something kunizaku resents due to the fact that yusuke often helps the workers out at big bang burger. after morgana runs off, he follows the cat in order to try to get out of his arranged marriage. unlike haru, he’s actually REALLY trying to get the pts to join him and mona, its just mona who causes the problem. idk if he calls himself beauty thief? im gonna think about that :’) 

[electricea-archive]

jassi’s adventures with the persona 5 manga, volume 2, pt. 1!

this volume was actually a bit of a struggle to get but i got it, it’s in my hands, along with volume 3!!

-so last chapter, i complained about ryuji’s awakening being sort of jammed into the end volume 1.  well the first few pages of volume 2 more than make up for it by showing him kicking ass, taking names, and enjoying the hell out of himself - it’s nice to see this cocky and confident side to him that he has as skull.

-at one point, morgana jumps in and summons zorro to help out being like ‘can’t you do anything without me?’ and later goes on to call ryuji sloppy.  the start of a classic rivalry.  also morgana calls him blondie lol.

-also this must have slipped past me but unlike in the game, morgana isn’t there for ryuji’s awakening and is surprised to see that he’s a persona user.

-they have to be reminded of their goal to steal his treasure by morgana but given we’re barely a few pages in, they make their exit to the real world pretty quickly after.

-ryuji’s a lot more confident after awakening his persona - meanwhile cat!morgana turns up and claims he’d noticed something special about ryuji all along and how these two were all part of his infiltration plan.  sure, jan.

-though i do like how ryuji raises of the point as to why didn’t morgana just steal the treasure himself if that’s so imperative.

-ryuji takes charge of the calling card - everybody thinks it’s a prank and it features his trademark crappy artwork but i do like how his wording ‘to the creepy bastard of lust, suguru kamoshida’.  get ‘im ryuji.

-oh there’s more - ‘we know how shitty you really are taking your base desires out on helpless students, thus we have decided to steal those twisted desires and make you confess your crimes, we will arrive today to commit the deed, prepare thyself, signed the phantom thieves of hearts’

-akira must have helped with writing that lmao - that or ryuji’s a lot more well spoken than i thought.

-ann wonders if it’s because of shiho, meanwhile kamoshida flips the fuck out and demands to know who did this.  he starts accusing random students and rips that shit off of the bulletin board.  yep, he’s rattled lol.

-the group prepares to end the castle, but ann turns up - even in phantom thief gear, she immediately recognizes skull as ryuji and i guess came to the conclusion that they were the ones who wrote the calling card because kamoshida freaked out so much.

-she wants in on in the action too and there’s a funny exchange where ryuji is trying to explain how they have to go through a palace and she’s like ‘...a palace? yeah, i can see that.  it’s a castle.  so what?’

-morgana already crushing on her but meanwhile she’s just wondering how the hell that cat talked.  there’s a funny little callback to the ‘castle vs palace’ line with ann, who seems to be getting confused by the two.

-ryuji just kind of tells her to get lost and starts shoving her away - she looks to akira for help but he’s just like ‘we’ll take care of kamoshida’ - though to be fair, he does mention feeling bad about it.

-there’s a lot of castle parkour, ryuji nearly slips and falls off the side of a wall.

-a lot of the following pages are game accurate - morgana loves treasure, they grab it and try to carry the giant crown, kamoshida spots them, though he offers to trade them ann (who i guess at some point he captured) for it.

-the next chapter is ann flashback one, lots of references to her alienation by her classmates, they think she sticks out like a sore thumb because she’s not fully japanese, her hair and her eyes are too different, they treat her like a foreigner, they find her really aloof and generally just a lot of gossiping and whispering going on around her.

-‘this is what it’s like for me every day.’

-i can’t tell if this a first meeting between ann and shiho but it looks like they’re in art class and shiho tells ann her art sucks - but then says she finds it really unique and weird.  ann bursts of laughing at this and it looks to be the start of a best friendship here?

-she’s strapped to that crucifix looking thing - kamoshida grabs her face which just makes me shudder, and it’s mentioned she went back in and got ambushed by the cards.  he’s still trying to convince them to trade her for the crown.

-...they give it back - aww, such sweet guys, but asshole kamoshida never planned on being honest and calls ann an ‘interesting new toy to play with’ and says how he likes seeing the looks of helpless frustration on people.

-he grabs ann’s face AGAIN - asking what fun he can have with his new toy and cognitive ann makes her entrance basically saying that he can’t let ann talk back to him like that.

-i know that cognition is more or less well explained but it’s still disgusting that kamoshida’s perception of ann is that of a skimpily dressed, obedient, mindless sex slave.  the whole idea of cognitive ann is just so repulsive to me.

-ann rightfully calls him insane - kamoshida doesn’t like that and THREATENS TO DISSECT HER IN FRONT OF THEM, WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK.

-he goes on another disgusting tangent about how everyone is his slaves and calls shiho a stupid girl, saying there are more slaves where she came from and she was just a poor substitute for ann.  he says he had shiho ‘take her place’ and while it’s never outright said, i’m sure you can infer what happened and to put the icing on the cake, he blames it on ann saying that if she would have just graciously accepted his advances, none of this would have happened.

-he asks her if she thinks she actually has the right to feel angry - wtf man??

-ryuji and akira give her a pep talk saying how they’re nobody’s slaves and neither is she, even before they become phantom thieves together, they’re such good friends to her.

-ann’s had about enough of everything and is getting pissed off - i think there’s an awakening coming on!!

-her awakening is actually really cool, though with the black and white color scheme, her mask gives me catwoman vibes but carmen? super beautiful. ._.

-her tangent is more or less the same in the game - he took everything from shiho, she’s gonna take everything from him.  still super badass!!

-the first four phantom thieves have assembled - and kamoshida is not taking this well!

-he morphs into his shadow form and devours his own guards and from here, the next few pages are more or less the boss fight in manga form.

-there’s a panel where joker saves ann and they’re like staring into each other’s eyes, ryuji’s in the background being like ‘i helped too! where’s my thanks?!’

-kamoshida drinks from his giant drink glass and he’s all healed up.

even though the book feels about the same size as volume 1, it feels like there’s a whole lot more to go through with it, so i’ll be tackling it in parts, i think.  this volume doesn’t even end with kamoshida’s defeat, that’s only about halfway through - and they still have time to introduce yusuke afterwards, though i’m pretty sure that all of the actual madarame stuff is properly covered in volume 3, but yeah, ann was handled a lot better in this version, she got a lot more screntime, a lot more badass scenes, i liked the development with her.  kamoshida continues to be an immense pile of shit and it’s just fun watching ryuji grow more confident in himself as a phantom thief!

[risingmoonyue]

Batman/P5 Crossover

-Sometime before Akechi but after Futaba or Haru

-Damian is sent to Tokyo to check it out for whatever reason (maybe they had a fight, or he’s going stir crazy, or he’s just the only one they can send at the time and didn't bother with all that "you're not old enough" business)

-Dami is younger than Futaba by a year or three or four

-He is baby

-He is transferred to Shujin as a child prodigy where he also immediately joins the "outcast" community because of his attitude and intelligence

-Talia goes too, manages to cut off all his communications with the Batfam, and is planning to take him home in a month whether he likes it or not

-For whatever reason, Batfam doesn't realize this??? (Like, either she's faking reports or they're too busy (think fight or chaos in Gotham scenario maybe???))

-Anyways, obviously Dami doesn't want this

-Somehow the Phantom Thieves hear about the situation

-Maybe he was assigned to shadow Makoto for a while, and they managed to overhear a phone conversation either to Talia or Dami trying to get in touch with the Batfam and nothing really working

-And eventually they outright see him fighting with his mother with him at some point (either in person or over a phone call) mentioning that she already disowned him, he's happy with his Father's family, and that he will head her family business over his dead body—and oh would you look at that, you already managed that, care to try again Mother?

-The PT's are understandably alarmed

-And learn her name from Damian (from Makoto maybe or someone else he bonded a little with) (MORGANA) (THEY GAVE HIM MONA FOR A DAY AND NOW THEY KNOW EVERYTHING FROM HIS MANY PETS TO HIS LEAST TO MOST FAVORITE SIBLINGS STARTING FROM TIM TO DICK TO HIS FAVORITE FOODS TO EVERYONE IN HIS FAMILY’S NAMES TO HOW STUPID HE FINDS EVERYONE AND WHY THEY'RE STUPID TO HIS FAVORITE MUSIC TO WHY ANIMALS ARE SUPERIOR TO HUMANS AND MONA’S LIKE OMG TMI BUT LOVED IT THERE BECAUSE HE WAS PAMPERED LIKE NO TOMORROW GOT ONLY THE BEST FOOD AND THE BEST BEDS AND TOYS THAT HE GOT TO TAKE WITH HIM BACK TO LEBLANC AND NOW AKIRA AND SOJIRO ARE LIKE DUDE WHY AND MONA’S LIKE IM KEEPING HIM THIS HUMAN IS GOOD SORRY AKIRA YOU’RE DEMOTED)

-The palace is basically a fortress full of assasin ninjas and clones

-Dunno what her keywords are tho

-Or her what her palace actually is

-Help?????????

-Cognitive Bruce, Ra's, Damian, Dami clones, and Jason (maybe rest of batfam??? Idk)

-Long story short, the traps are so assassin-y that they need someone who knows the actual Talia because egads, this is the closest they have all come to actually dying

-And they didn't really want to do it and were just gonna power through

-But Dami manages to find out and get in and of course uses his background to help out whether they like it or not

(-he's slightly off put by Joker's name, but then decides to just solely call Gotham!Joker "The Clown")

-At some point they are captured by the Shadow Talia who is decked out in super fancy traditional Arab clothing and probably every conceivable hidden weapon known to man

-Talia says Damian won't and can't ever change from who he "is meant to be", referring to him as her Alexander and basically brutally addresses all of his insecurities concerning the batfam and people and society in general

-And all this is kinda killing him cause he still loves Talia despite the fact that she killed him and had a violent citywide custody battle with Batman but he also loves the batfam too even if he would absolutely never admit it (except to maybe Grayson)

-Joker does his emotional kick-start thing and/or Dami is like Makoto and just gets so mad he triggers it himself, but either way, lo and behold, Damian is now a persona user, usurping Futaba's place as the baby of the team

-The outfit is kinda inspired by his future adult league outfit with the top and bottom and gold jewelry, but has a raggedy cloak with dull gold edges, a Robin mask and gauntlets, and his main weapons are batarang-sword hybrids

---acknowledging his past and moving on with his present

-Persona: Aladdin, Tsun Zu, Ali Baba, somone else???? Need ideas plz help

-Probably the fastest member of the group

-His small body makes his hits not as strong, but hoo boy can that kid move around

-Hits a lot and dodges most

-Most of his Persona abilities are physical and have high crit and/or are status affects

-Downside is he has not a lot of SP (compared to the rest of the group)

-And he has pretty good HP

-Those good ol' “superior genetics” have to be good for something after all

-Anyways they escape to find the treasure another day

-And Dami is all smug because HA you definitely can't stop me now

-And the PTs are just resigned to keeping an eye on the extremely competent snotty assassin/vigilante child

-They do like him though so it's not too bad (comes with learning all his darkest secrets via his mother and thought processes that tends to accompany watching someone at their lowest get a persona)

(-They do manage to temper him a bit and help him adjust better to actual society too that's nice)

-As such, they also know about Batman and Robin and his whoooole family. Both sides.

-Damian decided not to tell batfam because he does agree with the whole "most adults suck" mentality that the Phantom Thieves have; despite his deep, deep respect for his father and mother and Grayson, they all do kinda suck

-And he’s rather not get pulled out as he surely would if he told them

(-On a side note, he likes Sojiro

-The man gives him coffee, curry, and leaves him mostly to his own devices

-Instant win)

-He is dubbed "Mockingbird" apon return to the metaverse because of his freaky talented vocal skills in mimicking anyone and everyone's voice

-Eventually, they beat Talia

-She doesn't publicly confess to all her sins unlike everyone else

-PTs don't realize it worked until Damian came into school with a genuine smile on his face, and more relaxed than he'd been since he got there

-PTs are confused until Damian's like, this works out because hey, don't want to have several people assassinated and draw the entire freaking league to Tokyo

(-Which was probably why Talia didn't)

-They agree

-But she does break down to tears in Dami's arms and promise to ACTUALLY TALK CIVILLY with Bruce to try and make up for everything and try to fix up the league

-He stays for the rest of p5

-But steers all his reports very much away from the Phantom Thieves

-If anything, he downplays absolutely everything, and makes it seem like it's nothing super big but he's gonna stay a while to keep and eye out because y'alls are busy and I like it here and I haven't gotten expelled so there

-The PTs like to add funny stuff on there just to see if they’ll notice

-Like, Akira likes to have Dami describe his day in excruciating detail. Like, recounting the entirety of his nine or so months to Sae during police interrogation, excruciating

-Mona is pushing for the shiny stuff

-Yusuke just likes to put in bursts of randomness (Dami once mentioned that an acquaintance made another acquaintance T-pose in a church for art lol)

-Ann loves to rant about food

-Haru is always insisting on about feelings

-Ryuji likes to complain about everything and puts in ridiculous requests

-Futaba is just putting in every gen-z thing ever

-Makoto is actually responsible and tries to get him to talk about his progress in school and his social life

-And Akechi is absolutely nowhere near any of this and doesn’t know it exists

-When they have the Tokyo/Japan-wide calling card, Batfam sees it too because let's face it, that's totally the sorta thing that they would keep an eye out for even if he didn't look at the news in the entirety of the time Dami was in Tokyo

-And they send a message to Damian (the first actual communication they've had since before Talia) saying "WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON OVER THERE????"

-And with the entirety of the Phantom Thieves looking over his shoulder, Damian's just like "Chill dudes, everything's fiiiiiiiiiine"

-And they're like "UH WHAT PART OF THIS IS FINE????" because they've dug around a bit and found every news report, and oh hey, this isn't anywhere near as calm as Damian described and he’s being super OOC and what’s going on?!?!?!?!?!

-And Damian, being egged on by the most of the PTs, just sends a winky face

-Just

-😉

-And he's smug, because it's still chaos over there so they can't actually come get him and try to pull him out because he's being super ooc

-Which means he's free to do what he wants/needs in the meantime

-Cue the end of the game

-And Dami is going with them on their summer road trip and cackling because the batfam is scrambling to find him in Tokyo but lol nope he's in a van the Japanese government tried and fail to follow

-And he found all the trackers like, a year ago

-Every

-Single

-One

-They eventually track him down to Akira's house where they're calmly eating dinner (and they've been expecting this for the past week so Mona was keeping watch just so they could pull this off) and talking about how uneventful the school year was

-Cue mass confusion in the batfam

-As the PTs enjoy just confusing them so much

-By talking to Mona

-Talking normal then crazy then normal again

-And just generally being their normal selves lol

-They explain absolutely nothing beyond gushing about how much progress socially and academically he’s made (gotta embarrass the baby of the group somehow) and making sure that if Dami absolutely has to go home that he's able to stay in touch

(-Later, Damian forms his own hero persona outside of Batman and Robin)

(-He names it Mockingbird)

(-Batfam proceeds to have a brain aneurysm while the PTs dab their happy proud tears out of their eyes on their regularly scheduled tea time at the Wayne Manor)

(-Damian sends a private plane every week or two lol)

(Bonus: ARTTTTTTT)

(Psst if you guys have ideas for art, outfits, interactions or scenarios, let me know)