#the ending is so sweet but god damn naoto

[unfinshedsentec]

The only thing not happy about this future is Naoto’s new look

LIKE DAMN WAKUI, YOU COULDN’T DO HIM RIGHT?!

[koiblossom5]

random hcs bc im bored

-inui has a fondness for cute animals, but because of his resting bitch face, he always manages to scare them away :(

-inui has a massive sweet tooth which is a trait he shared with akane! he will not hesitate to snarf down on pure whipped cream at 3 in the morning. breakfast is a social construct for this guy

-koko is the type of person to study really late into the night to the point where he will willingly mix gatorade into black coffee just to keep going. he’s also super near-sighted and can’t see for shit, but for some reason he refuses to wear his damn glasses

-“why the fuck does the clock say 79:00″

-“koko, it says “1:06. wear your glasses for once you dumb fuck”

-chifuyu has a guitar. sometimes when he can’t sleep at night, he plays a few songs to help him fall asleep. it drives the building crazy, but the music is so nice they can’t bear to complain

-once chifuyu and baji started dating, peke j became unnaturally aggressive and envious toward baji. whenever baji comes over, he dives underneath chifuyu’s bed and sulks from afar. if looks could kill, baji would be dead, burned, and tossed into the ocean

-kazutora is a god-awful cook. if he was in kitchen nightmares, he would probably make gorden ramsey cry with his cooking. he tried taking cooking lessons from mitsuya, which ended up him nearly burning the house down

-luna and mana regularly gossip about hakkai and mitsuya whenever yuzuha babysits them. in return, yuzuha paints their nails. naturally, they choose red because that’s the colour of hakkai’s blood once they get their hands on him

-in the future timeline, everyone babies naoto in front of his police colleagues just to embarrass him

- “aww, you look so grown up now! has it only been twelve years since your heard barely reached my waist 🥺”

- “i have never felt such bloodlust. sleep with one eye open. this is a warning.”

- “so cute!”

- chifuyu constantly flexes the fact that takemitchy was the first one to tell him about his time travelling ability

[individuationfic]

Seeking to Seize Chapter 22

AO3

Nanako can’t stop smiling.

She’s home, finally. The nurses at the hospital were nice, but she missed home. And her daddy and Onii-chan and all of Onii-chan’s friends are here, too, and her hospital room wasn’t big enough for all of them. She feels like her family is finally coming together.

The cake the girls (and probably Kanji-niichan; she remembers the omelettes they tried making once) made is really yummy. She hasn’t had good dessert since before she was in the hospital, and it tastes so sweet she could cry. And the doll Teddie-niichan gave her feels good in her lap, even if her daddy doesn’t understand it. Her kidnapping feels like it happened a lifetime ago.

Until someone knocks on the front door.

It was the usual delivery man. Onii-chan said not to open the door for strangers, but she’s seen this delivery man a lot, so he’s not a stranger. She blows her nose, throws the tissue away, and answers the door. The delivery man’s smiling at her, but he doesn’t have a package, and then suddenly his hands are grabbing her shoulders and pulling her away from the house, and then he covers her mouth with a washcloth and she feels sleepy, really really sleepy—

Teddie-niichan’s hand on her shoulder makes Nanako realize she’s gone tense. Onii-chan and Yosuke-niichan have gotten up to answer the door, but everyone else is looking at her with worried eyes. “Sorry,” she mumbles, face heating.

“Don’t be,” Yukiko-neechan says. “It’s okay to be scared, Nanako-chan. You went through something really scary.”

Nanako takes a deep breath. “It’s just a door,” she says, trying to convince herself that’s all it is.

Onii-chan and Yosuke-niichan return, followed by a pretty blonde lady in a blue dress. Her daddy makes a weird noise in his throat. “You’re that interpreter!”

The lady smiles. “Yes. My name is Margaret. I have been helping Narukami-kun and his friends in their investigation. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Nanako twists around and sees her daddy blush. Then she looks at Onii-chan and sees the playful gleam in his eye. She takes a minute to think, then decides she wants to get to know Margaret-san better. After all, she thinks, she might be my new mommy soon.

Rise meets Kanji-kun and Naoto-san at the shrine about an hour after the party ends. She’d stayed behind to help clean up and give Kanji-kun and Naoto-san some privacy to talk first. Plus, she can’t deny how funny it was to watch Dojima-san tripping over himself in front of Margaret. I still can’t believe Yu-senpai is playing matchmaker. He doesn’t seem the type.

It may have been a mistake, Himiko says. He probably didn’t realize his uncle would be attracted to her until she came in.

Yeah, Rise admits, that makes more sense.

Kanji-kun and Naoto-san are sitting side by side on a bench near the shrine when Rise arrives. Even from this distance Rise can see how their fingers brush against each other, the blush on their cheeks, and her heart sinks. I’d better prepare for a rejection.

When he sees her, Kanji-kun stands and motions for  her to take his seat/ “Did you two have a good talk?” she asks, hoping they can’t hear the emotion trying to invade her voice.

“Y-yeah!” says Kanji-kun.

“It was… enlightening,” Naoto-san says.

“And your decision?” Rise keeps her chin raised. She’ll be damned if she isn’t graceful in this. No matter what, they’re her best friends. They deserve happiness, even if it isn’t with her.

“I’ve been doin’ a little research,” Kanji-kun says, “and I think I know a way we can all be happy. Rise, have you heard of ‘polyamory?’”

The word seems familiar. “Like polygamy? I know there’s an American TV show about a man with four wives, but I’ve never watched it.”

Naoto-san snorts. “Don’t. It’s a garbage show.”

“It’s similar,” Kanji-kun says. “Except in our case it wouldn’t be me having two partners. It’d be all of us having each other at the same time. Like, uh, a three-way relationship. That’s a good comparison, right?” This last part is aimed at Naoto-san, who nods in approval.

Rise’s chest tightens. “What are you saying?” She stands, legs shaky. “I—that’s not how relationships work!” She turns on Naoto-san. “And you’re okay with this?” She’d come here expecting a rejection, expecting her two best friends to find happiness and love in each other, but here’s Kanji-kun, proposing what sounds an awful lot like an emotional threesome.

Naoto-san opens their mouth to respond, but it’s Kanji-kun who barrel in. “Three people came to Ma’s shop a few weeks back,” he says. “Two guys and a lady. The one guy—he’s the one who gave me the idea. He said it works for them. It makes them happy. They all love each other, so they’re all together. And.” He pauses here. Licks his lips. “And I love both of you. I don’t know if I could ever be happy with just one.”

“That surprisingly selfish of you,” Rise says, a little breathless. “I didn’t know you could be so selfish.”

“And I never expected you to be so stubborn,” Kanji-kun rebuts. “Naoto sees my point. Right, Naoto?”

Much to Rise’s shock. Naoto-san nods. “I like you both,” they say, “and I’m more than happy to share you with each other.”

Rise’s knees feel weak, so she sits back down. Her hand lands atop one of Naoto-san’s.  She doesn’t pull it away. “How would this even work?” she asks after a few seconds. Kanji-kun says, “Communication. Lots of it.”

Naoto-san’s fingers twitch under hers until they’re entwined on the bench. “All three of us will have to be on the same page,” they say. “It wouldn’t be like an open relationship or anything like that. We’d all be committed to the entire thing.”

“People won’t like it,” Rise says. She squeezes Naoto-san’s fingers. Their hand is warm.

“Fuck ’em,” says Kanji-kun. “The important people won’t care.”

“What about marriage? Kids? Won’t this complicate things like that?”

Naoto-san exhales in a way that doesn’t quite hide a laugh. “Do you worry about things like that every time you contemplate a relationship? We’re high schoolers. Rise; concerns like that are a long way off yet.”

She blushes.

“The important thing right now,” Naoto-san says, “is whether or not this relationship is something you want. I know you like Kanji, but…” They sound shy now, and Rise can feel the sweat on their hand. “Do you like me?”

When Rise swallows, she knows the others can hear it. Then,very quiet, she says, “I think I do.”

Kanji-kun and Naoto-san both breathe out sighs of relief. Kanji-kun sits on the edge of the bench, barely even really touching it, and leans his weight onto Rise/ The touch fills her with warmth, just as Naoto-san’s did. “That’s a fuckin’ relief,” he says, and Rise can’t help but laugh. Then he says, “What will you tell your agency about work?”

“I won’t hide you,” Rise says. “Either of you. I’ll miss being an idol, but it’s not worth more than you guys. Besides,” she adds, “as long as I keep practicing my singing and I stay in shape, I can become an independent singer when I’m older. I’ll have more freedom that way.”

“I’d hate for us to be the reason you quit, though.”

On her other side, Naoto-san hums, contemplative. “Just leave that to me.”

It’s always weird to see Yukiko in her room, Chie thinks. The inn is more convenient most of the time, after all, but on Christmas Yukiko would be roped into helping out, so Chie offered her house for some private time.

Yukiko never seems to mind the mess, or that Chie’s room is so much smaller than her’s. She sitting at Chie’s desk, now, reading a book with so much intensity Chie’s worried she might set it on fire. None of their powers have bled over to the real world, but with how little they really know about Personae, it’s a possibility. Chie sets the two cups of tea she made for them on the edge of the desk to get Yukiko’s attention. “What’re you looking at?”

Yukiko blushes but closes the book so Chie can see the cover. It’s a university guide. “We’ll be third years soon,” she says, “and my parents have been asking about college plans, so I picked this up.”

Chie’s stomach drops. She hasn’t put much thought into the future this year, what with all the supernatural shenanigans. Her parents are gonna be on her ass. “What are you gonna study?”

“Business would be best for the inn, but I’m not really sure I want to take over. I’ve been thinking about studying medicine instead.”

Chie laughs a little. Because that makes too much sense to not be funny. “You’re smart enough for it. And your parents won’t be able to complain about their daughter becoming a doctor.”

Yukiko sends her a fond look. “Do you know what you want to do?” she asks.

Chie sits on the floor facing her. “I dunno. Maybe I’ll go to the police academy or something. God knows I’ve had enough practice this year.”

She means for that last part to be funny (how long has it been since Yukiko has actually laughed?) but Yukiko makes a contemplative humming noise instead. “That’s good,” she says. “Police academies are pretty much everywhere. It shouldn’t be hard to find a school with a medical program close to you.”

Chie startles and feels herself start to flush. “W-what?”

It’s Yukiko’s turn to blush as she realizes she spoke aloud. “Oh—uh—I mean…” She takes a deep breath,  as if to calm herself, though her cheeks remain a fiery red. “I was sort of hoping we could move in together after graduation.” Chie finds herself at a loss for works, which Yukiko must take as a rejection, because she quickly continues. “I know it’s a long way off, and we might not even still be dating then—I mean, I hope we are, I like dating you, I don’t want to stop—and I shouldn’t’ve said anything—”

Her body on autopilot, Chie surges up. Her fingers wrap around one of Yukiko’s slender wrists and Yukiko, surprised by the movement, goes silent. “I would love,” Chie says, her voice rough in her ears, “to move in with you after graduation.” And then, before she can chicken out, she presses her lips to Yukiko’s.

Itt’s clumsy, as far as first kisses probably go. Even when Yukiko starts to respond, there’s no real coordination. They just kind of mash their lips together a few times. When they break apart, Yukiko’s face is redder than it’s ever been and her lips look a little swollen and Chie thinks I did that.

Yukiko fists her free hand in the material of Chie’s shirt. “No fair,” she mumbles. At Chie’s confused look, she continues, “I was supposed to kiss you first.” Then, quieter, “It was going to be your Christmas present.”

Chie feels her heart swell. “Well. You could always kiss me again.”

Yukiko snort-laughs and Chie’s smiling so hard her cheeks hurt and then Yukiko is pulling her face back up and they’re kissing again and everything feels right.

Yosuke can’t help but smile as Nanako-chan wiggles along to the Junes commercial on the TV. He knows he needs to be getting home soon—it’s been dark for over an hour and he didn’t tell his parents he was going to be out late—but it’s hard to tear himself away. They’ve all be worrying about Nanako-chan for so long. He almost forgets he’s just a normal kid sometimes.

A plate clatters to the floor, startling him. Oh, right, he thinks when Yu’s puzzled face turns to look at him. I’m helping with the dishes. ‘Sorry, partner.’ He bends to retrieve the plate and starts at it with his drying towel.

Yu shakes some excess suds from his hands. ‘What’s on your mind?’ he signs. ‘It’s not like you to be so distracted?’

Yosuke sets the plate on the counter to buy time. ‘I’m just glad Nanako-chan is okay.’

Yu raises one eyebrow.

‘Fine. I was wondering what you were like as a kid.’ He knows he’s blushing, and he prays Yu won’t comment on it.

He doesn’t. ‘Before I got sick,’ he signs, ‘my parents say I was a lot like Nanako. Cheerful, energetic, a little shy. Apparently I used to fake being sick to get to to miss work. That’s why—’ His hands stutter and his face falls.

‘Why what?’ Yosuke refuses to let him retreat in on himself. ‘Talk to me, partner.’

Yu glances at the living room to make sure Nanako-chan isn’t paying attention before he continues. ‘That’s why my parents caught it late. They thought I was faking again.’ He doesn’t have to clarify what “it” is. Yosuke knows Yu’s deafness stems from a childhood sickness; it’s been brought up a few times. But Yu keeps going. ‘My hearing was already going when they finally took me to a hospital. And the medication—it took the rest of it away. So, really,’ he finishes, ‘it’s my own fault I’m deaf.’

Yosuke frowns. Yu looks as nonchalant as he usually does, but Yosuke can see the real emotions underneath. “Hey,” he says aloud, mindful of the volume. Then he continues signing, ‘I like you the way you are.’

Yu’s smile is painfully tender. So much so that Yosuke is actually glad when someone knocks on the front door. In the living room, Nanako-chan whimpers. Yosuke signs, ‘Someone’s at the door. Go comfort Nanako-chan; I’ll answer it.’

Yu nods and moves to calm Nanako-chan down, giving Yosuke an excuse to escape.

The person on the other side of the door is one Yosuke’s seen around but never actually met. “Ah, Yuki-senpai, right? What brings you here so late?”

The third year raises an eyebrow. “I could ask you the same. This is Narukami’s house, right? There are a lot of things two teenage boys could be doing together after dark…”

Yosuke flushes. “Point taken. Wait here, I’ll go get Yu.”

Together they manage to convince Nanako-chan to go get ready for bed, promising a story and cuddles when they’re done talking to their “friend,” and then Yuki-senpai is sitting at the kitchen table. Yosuke, absurdly, thinks he should put on some tea before he remembers this isn’t actually his house. Instead he looks to Yu so he can start translating. “Why are you here?”

Yuki-senpai’s face remains blank. “Can’t a guy come wish his schoolmate a Merry Christmas?”

Yu’s bland stare needs no translation.

“Fine.” Yuki-senpai leans across the table to he can lower his voice. “You guys did good, getting rid of the fog, but don’t get too comfortable. There’s always a bigger fish to fry. Complacency could get you killed.”

Well, thinks Yosuke, that’s cheerful.

Jiraya chooses then to speak up. He’s correct. Were the danger truly gone, I would be, too.

What?

Personae exist to counteract threats. When the threat is gone, we’re no longer needed.

Yu’s snapping breaks Yosuke out of his own head to he can translate again. “You’re a veteran Persona user, right? Have you ever seen two people wield the same Persona?”

Yuki-senpai frowns. “No,” he says. “I—have you?”

“Adachi had a version of Izanagi.” Yu’s face twists. “It felt wrong, seeing someone else use him. Even Izanagi was confused.”

“I’ll look into it,” Yuki-senpai says. “That doesn’t sound good. In the meantime, your team should continue combat practice. At least once a week, I’d say.” He stands. “I won’t keep you any longer. Merry Christmas.”

And then he’s gone, and Yosuke and Yu have a child to put to bed and many, many things to think about.

[gigapoodle]

My Big Ass Long Necessary Rant Post Comparing Persona 3 and 4

Literally the most indulgent shit ever I just beat P4 and I gotta talk about it turn your eyes away unless you care for some reason

Things Persona 4 Did Better Than Persona 3

-The Social Links, oh MAN they were so much better in this game. Persona 3 had some pretty mediocre Links (Tanaka and that one fat cult kid immediately come to mind, also the student club kid who was obsessed with the cigarette). I don’t think any of the links were bad at all? Hell even the ones that I thought were gonna go sour (the Nurse one started off rough) ended up taking a really interesting turn. I also think that P3 relied too much on Social Links for random people I don’t care about, whereas so many of the SLs in P4 were already established, like Nanako and Dojima, all of the investigation friends (seriously P3, why couldn’t I SL Akihiko or Junpei?? What the hell???). It was just so much more rewarding in the end and I loved all of them. 

-To add on to the point above without making the paragraph too long; I like how all of your friends were INVOLVED in the plot before you even get to do their SL. The whole Shadow Self thing was so clever and made the characters so much more interesting. Like Kanji? SO interesting. Struggling with concepts of masculinity and his own self image, and you know all of this BEFORE you even start the SL, so when you do get around to it it is much more interesting and fleshed out. I’m so happy about all of this

-The whole Romance thing. P3 handled it terribly. Apparently in P3 I wanted to date everyone (no choice on just being friends!) and if I talked to too many girls it would screw up the whole system. In P4 everybody still wants to fuck you but at least it doesn’t screw up my other SL links thank God (but I would like it if I didn’t have to be romantically interested in every girl plz and thank you)

-THANK GOD I COULD CONTROL MY TEAM LIKE HOLY SHIT....thank GOD. Now they actually felt like super strong teammates with something on the line rather than robots who I hoped wouldn’t do something fucking stupid. (I’m pretty sure Junpei killed himself literally 10 times during the Nyx fight and I couldnt’ do anything but watch.) 

-P4 protag was still the most powerful member of the team but wasn’t blatantly OP like P3 protag

-Being able to look at what the fuck my skills actually did was a godsend (like I remember the difference between Masukukaja and Marakukaja, jesus) 

-Social events were generally funnier and better. I laughed like 10x more in this game than in P3. (God bless Kanji and Yosuke tbh)

-The individualized dungeons were much more fun to go through. Tartarus becomes a fucking drag around level 150, but jumping from a sauna to a strip club to an underground secret base? LOVE IT

-Music was generally catchier and I found myself humming along too it way too often 

-Way more save points, thank GOD (although they did screw me over at one point so this isn’t that much of a bonus)

-I like that when Rise couldn’t scan the enemy for weaknesses, I just had to figure them out on my own. Made the dungeons enjoyably harder. I also appreciate that healing spells cost less in this game, considering how much you need them. 

-Having the after-battle reward be basically ONLY personas was a smart move. The addiction of the Tarot Card Bonus/Drawback was a super neat feature as well that I absolutely loved. 

-Rise got on my nerves much less as an announcer lady than Fuuka. (Teddie was the worst though. Thank god we only had him for a little while.)

Things Persona 3 Did Better Than Persona 4:

-Even though P4 made a huge improvement with the battle system by allowing you to control your teammates, P3 had a vastly better battle system imo. The three different physical attacks (Slash/Strike/Pierce or whatever) made physical attacks actually feel lie they matter. P4′s system was way too watered down and as a consequence I never used Light/Dark ONCE and it felt a little too easy. 

-Better pacing. There were set dates for when I had to finish dungeons of Tartarus, and I could do whatever I wanted during those times. Afternoons were always free for SLs since exploration was at night. In P4, the fact that dungeon crawling took up an entire afternoon on top of the fact that I never really knew when the fog was gonna settle in made it hard for me to plan out everything. (I ended up having a lot of unfished SLs in P4 which pisses me off.) (P4 tries to make up for this by moving some SLs into the evening but it wasn’t enough.)

-Much better ending. Once you found out who the killer was for P4, everything just felt anticlimatic. His boss battle wasn’t even that bad. And then he turns out to be the opening battle for some weird God eye that I don’t give a shit about. It felt like nothing was really at stake and it was just weird. But P3? You knew your damn destiny. The world was gonna end and you literally had no hope but you fought anyways. The entire MONTH leading up to that felt so somber and powerful. Climbing up the stairs on that final day to battle the Strega members and then finally, Nyx (in a boss battle that took a HOUR AND A HALF on top of some cool symbolic shit where the protagonist literally dies) it as just...something, man. And then everyone meets on the roof as you die, like...it’s so neat. P4 felt like they were trying to live up to that while still keeping the wacky cartoony vibe and it didn’t work out. 

-The theme was much stronger in this game, and holy shit was it powerful. I get that P4′s whole thing was discovering the True Self, but it doesn’t really tie into the ending imo, nor the murder mystery shit. P3′s theme of Death is much more powerful and well written in the story. Everyone in this game has had at least ONE person die in their life, and seeing how everyone copes with it is sooo interesting. And dealing with the futile fact that everyone dies eventually with Nyx like....so fucking cool. And to top it all off, YOU die. The P4 protag doesn’t discover shit about himself (maybe in Golden? idk). Very very cool 

-Evokers are way way way cooler than some fog glasses. 

-Music was much better in this game. It was so damn unique. And it worked! It was weird and kinda glitchy at times but it worked so damn well! 

-More on the battle system - I’m really sad they took away group member healing in P4 because that was so helpful. I’m also sad they took away general healing of everything whenever you went back to the base of Tartarus. That made it so much easier to grind and just get through Tartarus. Forcing me to only heal SP by paying the fox a shitton of money (and man this is the first RPG I’ve played in a while where money was actually on shortage and a problem) made it suck. It took away precious time from SLs that I needed. 

Things They Both Need To Work On:

-Is Japan just super fucky about social issues? It was way worse in P3 but man do I feel played over by P4. Like the whole Kanji thing, CLEARLY his Shadow stuff was alluding to him possibly being gay, but they pull the rug under form you at the last second and throw that out the window. Same with Naoto - there was literally DIALOGUE about how she wanted to be a man but they threw that away too! Why??! They gotta stop skirting around these things. Also why are all of the dudes so pervy in these games? Junpei and Yosuke sucked about that, both games HAD to have a weird men-accidentally-walking-in-on-bathing-girls scene (P3 literally had a MINIGAME baed on it ffs). Also they are really mean about fat people in these games and always make them the butt of the joke. Stop it Persona 

-This Good Ending/Bad Ending shit. WAY worse in Persona 4 but P3 still had it. I think that’s part of the reason why P4′s ending was eh? because even though you face the final boss, of course there’s a TRUE ending where you face ACTUAL God instead of EYEBALL God. Ugh. Also they made it way way WAY too easy to get the Bad Ending in P4. Like you literally have to use a guide not to get the Bad Ending. At least P3 made it very obvious how not to get the Bad Ending and they didn’t do any of that true ending bullshit.... (I guess they kinda did with The Answer but THE POINT IS STOP WITH THESE MULTIPLE-HOUR ENDINGS GOD)

-Please give me female friendships where they don’t end in fucking. It complicates things so much and makes me feel weird. 

Overall Verdict:

I like them both equally and cannot place one over the other. Persona 3 felt more cohesive and satisfying but Persona 4 had a better cast and was arguably more enjoyable. I think that P3 will always have a special place in my heart since it was my first Persona game and it just fucking blew me away, on top of the fact that it took me about 4 months to complete whereas Persona 4 took me like 3 weeks (whoops). I think that Persona 4 tried to tackle too much (murder mystery while also keeping their whole ‘facing god and humanity’s fragility and flaws’ thing) whereas Persona 3 arguably did too little at times. But in the end this game is probably now my 2nd favorite series (behind Fire Emblem) and you can bet your sweet ass I’m getting P5 literally the moment it comes out. I’m almost salivating over it. I’ve already got PQ and P4A to tide me over while I wait so!