#my love for maruki is unparalleled

[obeysword]

@arcanalight​ - chihaya !! 👻

     When photography first arrived in Japan, people believed that the camera could steal soul. POSTMORTEM PHOTOGRAPHS became a type of morbid photography that held a special significance in Japanese history. Yu’s only read a little about it, not able to understand why anyone would find COMFORT in seeing pictures of loved ones resting in eternal slumber. The booklet wedged inside his bag holds too many questions and he lacks the answers. But the pictures are beautiful. Locked in time, whoever took them had an unrivaled talent in the field. He’s not sure if he particularly wants them, either. But before the book arrived from Yukiko in Inaba, he’d found another CAMERA OBSCURA. It looked just like Yukiko’s from all those years ago. But along the box was a distinct crack, like it’d been dropped. The cover was broken but held the box shape. No wonder it was for sale. The moment Yu saw it along JINBONCHO he couldn’t ignore it, however. Antique bookstores often accumulated rare findings from paperbacks to items: tea sets, figurines, clocks, furniture. The old camera, able to take photos of ghosts and other objects unseen by the naked eye, is different from Yukiko’s. This one holds compound lenses.

      Another camera, this old book of photographs, and even Akira had discovered one on the sketchy website he frequented. It’s too perfect to ignore the threads of fate are binding them in the direction of the dead once again.

      Yu will never forget the mansion, the shrine, the ROPES, and the mirror. Tingling bells still manage to send chills up his spine and heightened his already unnatural awareness. How many nightmares did he have of that place? It was supposed to be an outing to satisfy Yukiko’s curiosity of legends and myths, and Yu wasn’t going to let her go alone -- and he hadn’t found a convenient way of getting out of it with his thoughts stalling after hearing the tale. He got more than he bargained for going there. The mansion was haunted with ghosts and curses and all ill-manner of supernatural phenomenon. Women with BROKEN NECKS, hanging from the sakura trees, and a gateway to Hell that needed to be binded with the bloody ropes of the strangled maiden. He survived the horror story and lived to tell his own tale. But of course there would be other cameras, other places shrouded in death. There were rumors all over Inaba-shi regarding legends of the sunset and the mountain that loomed in the distance.

      It’s with heavy thoughts that he approaches the table and the woman with gentle features and pretty blonde hair. There’s an odd serenity that comes over him being in her presence. Where there’s no need for secrets, he can be open with his thoughts and the records of his life. Yu’s soul is old, older than what one lifetime prior can tell of it. And he can tell, it’s never found peace until his current cycle. Tragedy and death always seem to line his wake. It’s almost poetic if he thought about how unfortunate it all was.

      ❝Mifune-san. You might not remember me...❞ Polite and honorable as can be, but Yu knows how IMPOSSIBLE it is to forget his face. Pale hair, striking eyes, handsome features unrivaled by anyone who comes in contact of him. He’ll never be left alone, and will never be truly forgotten no matter the years that pass. Yu is an entity unlike any other; even his grace and perception remains unparalleled. Traits that he once resented, he’s embraced. It’s probably made him even more beautiful as a result. ❝But I came to you about a year ago. You gave me a reading and told me I was at the crossroads to RUIN if I ignored what was going on around me and didn’t allow my partner to help.❞ It’s frightening how accurate everything turned out. She couldn’t have predicted a reality driven by a sociopath with a god-complex, but there was a purpose for it as well. Yu won’t thank Maruki. He hopes he’s lying face down in a ditch somewhere. But he’s happier than he ever was.

      ❝I was hoping you’d be able to help me with something, and maybe even listen to a story or two.❞ A cocky uplift of the corners of his mouth, and mirth flickering through sharp grey eyes. Untrained gazes could see it as flirtatious. With Yu, it’s DANGER and a warning, like thunder booming in the distance and the storm growing closer. One could count the seconds before the lightning split open the dark sky. The topic isn’t going to be as light as his calm voice alludes. Small animals would sense the underlining tension coming from him and scurry off to the safety of the underbrush. ❝Can I sit down?❞

[kareofbears]

using the canon timeline, when do you think akira and ryuji fell for each other, when did they realise their feelings for one another and when did they get together?

vic, i have stared at this ask for weeks and i am finally mentally stable enough to answer this because this might possibly, actually be the best ask someone has sent me. holy shit. 

fell in love

i believe that ryuji (my moon and stars) would have fallen in love first between the two of them. ryuji, someone who’s a bit of a space cadet and struggles picking up in the small nuanced signals, would have fallen in love in the mundanity. it starts off small--akira waits for him in front of ryuji’s classroom one day after class. akira picks up a book that ryuji needed for school from the library without being asked. akira taps his shoulder to get his attention. its nothing, in the grand scheme of things, but its everything to ryuji. 

but in terms of an actual moment in canon for ryuji to fall in love with akira, it happened in hot pot picture with yusuke: akira, forever cool and untouchable, has his glasses fogged up because his food was too hot. ryuji laughs, not because it’s that funny, but because it’s endearing and it fills ryuji’s heart with a feeling that he doesn’t know how to name. 

akira would be a little later (depending on your playthrough.) it would happen in the classic, well-known, iconic moment in ryuji’s rank 9--”my place is next to yours” or some type of variation. its the levity and casualness of the way ryuji says it that makes akira pause, to consider why on earth he feels swept off his feet despite being sat down. 

realization of feelings 

here’s my hot hot hot take: ryuji would know that he fell in love with akira much before akira would know that he fell in love with ryuji. my son ryuji is a bag of rocks in terms of academia, but his emotional intelligence is unparalleled. i think ryuji would also have a slight lingering anxiety from hanging out with people because of how he was treated in the past, so he would be the type to think about how a hangout went down as he’s in the train on his way home from the hot pot hangout--yes, this means the same day he fell in love is also the same day he realizes he’s in love--and he would be listening to music, thinking about what happened, and then all of a sudden his eyes would widen; he’s in love with his best friend. 

i just love the idea that ryujis been in love with akira longer and realized it sooner. i just think its neat. 

akira on the other hand would be much later--it’s when ryuji jumped in front of a taxi when they’re chasing down makoto. i think the feeling of intense dread washing over akira, the flinching of his hand towards his face as he instinctively tries to summon a Persona to do something, anything, to prevent ryuji from getting hurt. he realizes that this feeling, this desperation is different from his protectiveness over his teammates--this is a protectiveness over a partner. 

i think its because ryuji is more inclined to small gestures over a long period of time because consistency in love languages is something that he doesn’t have outside of his mom, and akira is more gravitated towards grand gestures because it’s more meaningful to him that someone is willing to put themselves out there for someone like akira, you know what i mean? 

get together 

this is where we start throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. at the current state of persona 5 royal, i believe that they are not together. there is no canon moment that screams “they confess here!!” so instead i will offer two scenarios: a canon timeline-insert of where it would have happened, and also another idea. 

canon timeline-insert would be in the third semester--after the quick group huddle outside of maruki’s palace (once everyone’s been awakened from maruki’s fake reality) akira asks to go for a walk. just the two of them. 

ryuji gives him a long, long look, and agrees. they walk in step with each other, and before they know it, they’re automatically taking their running route--countless exercise sessions lead to this path being muscle memory, and its another reminder of how tied they are with one another. their relationship is easy. it’s muscle memory. confession happens, it’s lowkey, it’s sweet, it’s romantic, it’s perfect.

but honestly, i think they would get together once akira’s already moved back. ryuji honors his promise of visiting him in his hometown, and they hangout for a summer. they talk, they touch hands, they confess, they kiss. easy as breathing. the long distance is temporary once akira gets into Tokyo University, and they move into an apartment as two adults.  

(but if you want to ask me how i really want them to get together, it would just be this again)

PHEW that was fun as all hell!! thank you vic!!!! that was so fucking fun!!