#since i know crossovers and especially crossover pairings aren't everyone's cup of tea

[artekai]

Wait just saw ur pinned post and now I HAVE to ask how maruki is being inserted into p4 ABDHDJFJ

SO GLAD YOU ASKED

ASDFSHFG OKAY where to start?

I must have some kind of curse because whenever I try to write a fic I cannot physically resist the urge to put Maruki in it. So every time I start writing a P4 fic it feels like the how do you do fellow kids meme except it’s Maruki going “how do you do, fellow Persona 4™ characters?” This is funny in my head.

I also have tons of crossover ships involving Maruki and P4 characters (okay, they’re only three, but three crossover ships are three sources of pain too many), so it makes sense to put him in P4 so he can interact with them, right?

Usually, the way I put him where I want him to be is very basic. I just say that, after P5R, he moved to Inaba to get a fresh start in life. There, he meets Dojima and falls in love and gets married and becomes Nanako’s father and has a family of his own and they LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER. 

(Hi there, hello, I’m the CEO of Dojiruki, nice to meet you :] )

But, well, using a post-canon setting ensures that neither him or the P4 characters can interfere with the main plot of the games.

HOWEVER, one of my fics, Tristitia, takes place during the main plot of P4 in an AU where everything is the same except Maruki is there and is dating Namatame. Well, they’re not dating, but it’s not really platonic either, it’s complicated. To be fair, though, Maruki doesn’t really affect the plot there, because he’s not close to any of characters (besides Namatame) and the whole fic is basically just Maruki reacting to Nanako’s kidnapping, combined with a bit of a character study and comparing and contrasting him and Namatame.

So, moving on. I do have an AU where Maruki plays a huge part in the plot of P4 and that is the Adaruki Roleswap AU, which is exactly what it sounds like. Maruki and Adachi are swapped, so Maruki is Dojima’s partner and the Inaba murderer while Adachi is Shujin’s counselor and can bend reality to his whim during the third semester. It’s the most elaborate AU in this list but it’s pretty half-baked, mostly because I cannot figure out Maruki’s motives for murder and Adachi’s motives to NOT murder the Phantom Thieves during the third semester.

Still, it’s a fun idea to toy around with, and I’ve written two fics about Maruki interacting with the P4 setting in this scenario, Credit Where It’s Due and Pink Alligator in a Forest of Green. I don’t consider any of those as strictly “canon” to the main plot of the AU, because that was just me playing around and seeing what I could do with the idea of Maruki being Dojima’s partner, but he gets to interact with six year old Nanako in the second one, so that’s nice :3

A similar AU that I haven’t talked about but that has been on my mind for a long time is the Dojiruki Roleswap AU. That one doesn’t change much in P4, only the Hierophant SL, but it’s also half-baked because I have no clue what to do with Nanako’s kidnapping since she’s not in Inaba but in Tokyo with Dojima. And, when it comes to the P5R side of things, Dojima’s reality bending shtick is a whole other can of worms. He should be easier to figure out than Adachi because at least he cares about people’s wellbeing, but that doesn’t mean it’s not gonna take a lot of planning too.

Maruki is still a counselor in this one, but I was thinking that Dojima could maybe be Akiren’s probation officer? We’ll see.

Oh, and I know we’re talking about Maruki and not Rumi, but I thought this might be relevant since we’re talking about P4 x P5R crossovers. In the Phantom Thief Rumi AU, the plot kicks off when Rumi moves out of her grandparents’ and moves to Inaba. But this AU is in its very early stages so I probably shouldn’t say much because else I might end up spoiling the whole plot :)

Anyways, I guess I just have a thing for putting Maruki and Rumi in Inaba and seeing how they interact with the setting and the other characters. Probably because P5R came out right in the middle of my P4 phase, haha :)