#verse (maruki): during p5

[cxdemusings]

@silver-strings-of-fate

A few months had gone by since that day in the engine room. They passed Christmas, New Years...it was spring now. Rehab, therapy, coping mechanisms, realizing what he could've done differently...

All of that was done to help himself heal, to better himself.

And now, he waited in the slight chill of the night air around the corner in the laundry area for a single sign that Leblanc would be closing for the night...to ensure they wouldn't have an audience.

An hour passed, then two. Upon nearing the third, he heard the chime of the bell and was quick to peek--and caught sight of Sojiro walking around the corner as he headed home.

He took a deep breath, then approached the door, turning the knob--It was still unlocked. Did that mean Ren was still inside?

A single chime of the bell rang above as he entered.

[personaiiisms]

@silver-strings-of-fate liked for a starter with Maruki!

"Ah, just in time." Maruki smiled as he placed his book down and gestured for Ren to come in. "Have a seat- though I'm sure I don't need to go over how this works with you anymore."

It had been several weeks since they had first started having these meetings. Several weeks since they had started talking.

Several weeks since he had seen Ren and his friends exiting from that other place.

"How have you been? I know there past few weeks have been rather intense at school."

[personaiiisms]

"If you attended class then you could spend your time after school doing something fun. Maybe even with your peers."

Even as he was speaking, though, Maruki was aware that he was stepping into scolding territory. It wasn't going to encourage her to talk to him. If anything, it would chase her away.

She wasn't his responsibility, but he was still worried about her. She was a child, he was an adult, and he didn't want to see anything bad happen to her. After all... what was the point in wanting to try to make sure people didn't suffer if he couldn't even held someone who was right in front of him?

"... And you probably hear that a lot." A soft sigh, followed by a smile. "You seem like you know what you're doing. But if you ever need a break while you're at school and you don't want to go the truant angle, you can stop by my office at the school. I even offer snacks for every visit."

He would have stayed longer to speak with the teen, but his order was handed to him. Maruki gave her a nod before leaving - and just hoping that she would stay out of trouble.

She had no reason to not be upfront about it, given the fact she'd be seen worse if she didn't. At least in the rumour mill of Shujin, with all that'd happened before. Not to mention any attempts at even talking to a guy in school just to ask a question got her the ire of some of the student body.

Good taste? At least it was something that she didn't have to make herself. Cooking, although something she was at ease with, was boring sometimes. Fully stocked fridge with every meal made being another nail in the proverbial coffin of always alone.

At least out here, she wasn't eating alone. Even if it was until she finished her meal.

Though she was a known truant, the fact she never did this while in uniform said a lot. She could give the school a bad reputation by skipping out and not going to class while wearing it and her parents had always been about the image instead of the person behind the image.

"Missing-? Oh, definitely not." Not that she cared to tell, anyway. She was a part of the top five despite her truancy, so it wasn't like she was going to miss anything. "I've got plans to study tonight, anyway, so it's not like missing one day is gonna drop my grade or anything."

His question, though. Something happen to have her leave? She wasn't about to divulge her personal life to someone she just met, because that wasn't something you did to another person. Even if he wanted to know the truth of the matter, Hotaru wasn't going to share it.

"I just didn't want to go to school. That's really all there is to it." Easy enough to understand, right? "It's not like I'm putting the school's reputation on the line or anything by missing a day or two here and there."

She didn't really care about the school's image but, if she didn't act like it? Keiko would come down hard on her like always. The image of everything else was more important than Hotaru. But she couldn't let it show.

"I'll show up tomorrow. I'm just gonna wander to my heart's content today. Maybe just chill at the arcade. Who knows?"

As long as her mother didn't decide to show up at home twice in one week and argue with her, that is.

[smolstarthief]

Ok but when I was thinking that the opening chapter of my fic is gonna end up being more of a nod to P5's "in media res" opening narrative instead why did my planned narrative for Viktor suddenly shift from a typical slow developing collaboration with Maruki and nothing much else to a more complicated situation where he was probably taken and experimented on by Shido midway through the chronological narrative (Akechi ends up notifying Shido about his powers when Vik ends up accidentally getting more careless and Shido wants to utilize them for himself) which worsens his mental state to the point of unknowningly developing a Palace which suddenly fused with Maruki's due to their now further aligned goals during the whole Yaldy event? Weird...

And this all started from the time I asked my hubby a random question earlier this week: Between the two of them, who would most likely develop a Palace or Jail if Jayce and Viktor end up in the P5 verse? The conclusion we reached that day?

Most likely to develop a Palace: Viktor, he would have enough distorted desires to develop one but definitely not out of malice like Maruki, Sae (to an extent depending on who you ask), and Futaba. Most likely a mix of trauma and warped view on how to "save and end humanity's suffering." It would no doubt resemble his commune but definitely add a dark underbelly to it where he probably locks away his own issues and true feelings/emotions. Bonus points if said dark area is based on the Hexgate as symbolism of him and Jayce's shared but then destroyed dream or their old lab.

Most likely to gain/develop a Jail and become a Monarch (P5 Strikers): Jayce, do we even need to say it? Jails are primarily themed around traumas and being trapped by one major one that started the Monarchs' downward spiral/their ultimate breaking point and Jayce has a boatload of them and it can be any one of the shit he went through (it would be a massive gut punch if the Lock Keeper/Warden of the Jail took the form of Viktor). The overall layout would probably resemble Piltover (not sure about the main gimmick/puzzle yet) with the Bird Cage (where the Monarch resides/is locked away in) resembling the forge.

(Granted, it can be vice versa depending on the context and situations but yeah! ^_^)

Again, weird... It was either that or Jayce gets one himself but hoo boy I don't know gang. XD

[jesterofinaba]

[i need to make a solid p5 verse for my verses page but i feel like it’d be harder bc Adachi’s still in prison... until the third semester, that is..... >:3c

definitely a wishlist plot of mine would be for during 3rd semester in p5r adachi to suddenly be released from prison and all of a sudden he’s a successful detective in a relationship w someone and he never killed anyone and the entire time his bullshit sensors are tingling bc of how much of a nihilist he is and how he remembers everything that caused his arrest in the first place. so a thread where Adachi tries to take down maruki in some capacity (whether that’s by fighting or by giving the protags information) would be so cool.]

[sabazio]

I’ve been playing the end of royal again for kicks and thinking more about my p5 verse. spoilers below:

First, I’ve just been enjoying the parallels between P3 The Answer and P5 The Royal. P5 especially borrowed much from its predecessor. 

At 3′s core its themeing mainly stems from Greco-Roman myths with a sprinkle of Jewish mysticism, while P5 goes heavy on the Judeo-Christian lore and Gnosticism. 

The floors of Tartarus are all named after different Hebrew words  that I’m sure are from somewhere but I’m not sure where whereas the doors in the abyss of time are all named for the different circles of hell in Dante’s Inferno.

Mementos is also named after Hebrew words (though I believe they’re gibberish?) , and references the Qliphoth (the opposite of the Sephirot, or Tree of Life.) In P5R, this culminates with the very last level being Da’at, or ‘wisdom’. The Sephirot also references the Fool’s Journey, and is something that Dr. Edogawa gives a lecture on during summer school in p3. 

Metis describes The Abyss of Time as stretching out below the Iwatodai Dormitory ‘like tree roots’, bringing to mind mementos and its winding, root-like depiction; and when we dig into that deeper, SEES finds themselves unable to leave their dorm due to their collective, unconscious wish not to move on with their lives. That desire was strong enough to warp reality around them, and link their dormitory to the Abyss of Time. If Mementos is society’s collective unconscious, then the Abyss of Time was SEES’s. Or at the least, they created some cognitive distortion.

As a side note, Metis and Morgana both appear mysteriously to help the characters through their new circumstances and have retrograde amnesia as to their origins. They also both disappear :)

Another part I found interesting is when SEES is ready to fight Erebus and they’re commenting on the state of the world: how society’s ennui and passive s*icidal ideation is what called down Nyx, and how they, at some point in their lives, have all done the same. Fuuka comments, ‘For [Erebus] to truly disappear, everyone’s feelings must change’. Their general consensus is that they can’t change society, but they can change their own mindsets to help make the world better. They promise to hold onto their evokers ‘until the day when everyone can change’. 

And then P5 rolls around and screams ‘life will change’. The Phantom Thieves act not like the persona-users before them, but as the shadows, ripping off their own masks to ‘reveal their true selves’ and changing cognitions. A mental shutdown is just apathy syndrome rebranded.

But what I really wanted to talk about 

....was my p5 verse with all of this in mind. If the shadow operatives are working undercover I want to know what they would think of Maruki’s world-- how they would cope with that? I want to write their perfect illusions. I want that difficult choice of being free of pain versus a life worth living. Would Maruki be especially merciful knowing how much they’ve been through. It has so much potential I’d love to play around with it in some way. Not to mention if a Maruki would be involved it would be fun to write with two adults for once instead of SEES hanging out with teens lmfao. how do you do fellow kids. 

anyway. I love takuto maruki and sumire is literally akihiko :/

if you read all of this send me an eggplant and I'll write you a ten page starter.   

[kirbychan234]

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

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

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

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

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

(rest are under the cut)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[mediioxumate]

🌻 🌻 🌻 🌻 🌻 🌻 🌻 🌻

send 🌻 and i’ll say whatever! || @dearleader || accepting!

🌻 im starting to become fond of pietro as i move from associating him with my terrible ac experience and instead with you who is my friend. this feels a little bit like stockholm syndrome? much to think about. 

🌻 i am still thinking about hair down kaito. i am thinking about kaito with a ponytail and/or manbun. i am thinking about kichi putting kaito’s hair into TERRIBLE pigtails.  

🌻 vibrates gently in waiting for you to get further and further into p5. i just thought about it and my heart warmed, and it reminded me both that i wanna work on p5 verses for some of my dr kids, and actually write out the ideas i had for a future foundation verse for maruki!

🌻 also looking forward to developing rinri more and potentially throwing her at kichi at warp speed. gay and lesbian solidarity, probably not at it’s finest but it’s still there. 

🌻 just remembered your kokichi is trans and i love that for him. 

🌻 miki is currently asleep in her favorite box. she’s been a little extra snuggly today and also screamed while i was on vc on my lunch break. she continues to be absolutely perfect. also i offended her with an onion bc she kept begging for it so i let her smell it and she Hated That

🌻 i’ve been feeling the Reading Itch again and i really want to reread the glass castle and gone girl but also finish moral disorder and actually read the screwtape letters! if anyone has book suggestions, feel free to slide them my way!!

🌻 people give shit about audio books and it makes me so mad honestly. i love them and they made reading SO much more accessible for me in school, bc i could listen during my life drawing studios and while working on paintings etc!! there’s nothing lesser about audio books than physical books!! i love physical books just as much, but there’s no singular valid way to absorb stories, plus it all depends on learning/information delivery styles and what clicks for people!! my adhd ass Has to be doing something with my hands to absorb an audiobook, but it’s also the sweet sweet multitasking my brain loves

[musaeon]

okay, so. remember how i said i was gonna be working on a post for how p5r was ng+ to akira? well that’s this post. this kinda just started bc it’s basically how i played akira during my p5r playthrough and just. it’s a headcanon i have had since the game released in japan and holy shit it acutally kinda makes sense come me completing the game. (also it’s kinda the basis for the p5r fics i want to write as well so! yeah)

so here’s me rambling about how p5r being ng+ to akira makes a lot of sense and plays too well into how i characterize him! spoilers abound for both vanilla p5 and p5r, also under the cut for well. length and spoilers.

so where do i begin with this post?

i’ve always liked the idea of ng+ runs in general, because while the characters don’t, the player does and it’s just. the best and worst thing because you know what’s coming and the characters don’t so just chef’s kiss angst is good okay! i like the idea of some of the characters figuring out that they’ve lived through these events and have future knowledge and are just like. what can i do with this.

really i think this whole idea started just because of me reading new game + (yes that fanfic. it’s great and i love it) and just. the idea of akira being sent back a year and remembering most of what happened during his stay in tokyo is such a fun idea to play around because? akira knows what is going to happen. how much can he change things to make things better (and not hopefully worse) without getting things too off track that he doesn’t end up with a different ending per say. also there’s a comment on this video that also ended up contributing to this headcanon as well (when akira says ‘this must be how things were supposed to happen...’ since he remembers turning himself in instead of akechi so. he thinks maybe this is how things were supposed to happen before during his first run)

(and as a side note i like the idea of the mcs being able to go back and redo their years as they wanted to but also arriving at the same ending as they did before for whatever reasons. thanks fj for validating me about this thumbs up)

anyways for akira...he doesn’t remember everything perfectly because human memory isn’t perfect but he remembers most of the big events (all the targets, the members of the thieves, the truth about the velvet room/morgana, the truth about the metaverse/mementos, etc...) so he doesn’t have to worry too much about most of those. what does trip akira up, is the appearance of kasumi/sumire and maruki because they weren’t here before. he’s more suspicious of kasumi than maruki for a while tbh, but really, a lot of his focus this time around is trying his damn best to try and save akechi from his fate.

i do headcanon that akira has a lot of regret about not being able to save akechi in vanilla p5, and it’s something that carries over to this headcanon/verse as well. when akira realizes that his bond with akechi is different this time around, he thinks there’s a chance. the more he hangs out with him, the more that he thinks he can change things, that he can save the one person he wasn’t able to save beforehand. so understandable, the confrontation breaks him so much more than it did beforehand, because dammit he knew this was going to happen and he was trying to stop it from happening and he wasn’t able to and he hates that he really wasn’t able to change anything in the end. however akira does end up holding onto the small chance of wanting to hold onto his promise to akechi after rank 8 (and still having his glove helps a lot)

so he’s so relieved seeing akechi show up at christmas eve and while it hurts to see him turn himself in, akira thinks it’s for the better and the fact that he’s alive is enough to make him happy.

and then third semester hits and messes akira up in so many ways it’s not even funny.

third semester messes with akira because a) this didn’t happen before since he turned himself in and not akechi b) everything about this is so wrong (futaba mentioning her mom is the first clue that something’s incredibly wrong, and what everyone else says at the shine just confirms it more for him) and c) no one but him seems to realize this is wrong. when akechi shows up on 1/2 he’s both relived and even more confused at what’s happening. the palace visit helps a lot but it leaves akira feeling conflicted as hell. he agrees with maruki’s ideas but not his methods, and also the fact that none of his friends realize this reality is wrong and they’re happy in this reality makes him feel so bad that he’ll have to take this all away from them in order for them to make things right again. but akira doesn’t want to live in a reality like this, where the things he and his friends went through never happened, living without the dreams and desires they had beforehand. hell, when the thieves are hesitant to target maruki/work with akechi, akira flat out states that he’ll work with him regardless of what the others feel because he trusts akechi (admittedly more than he should despite everything) and agrees that they can’t stay in this reality. they need to get back and since akechi never brought into this reality, he trust him more than the thieves in a way. (note that akira still cares about the thieves a lot and knows what akechi’s done to them, but that this is something they can’t hesitate on. they need all the strength they can get to tackle maruki’s palace and cause him to have a change of heart)

and then the 2/2 conversation comes along and hits akira like a ton of bricks.

the whole time during this run, the only person akira tells that this is a second run is morgana. he doesn’t tell morgana everything, but he tells him this is the second time he’s lived through this year, and that he knows what’s going to happen but doesn’t want things to play out too differently from before. he does mention the differences between this run and the previous one (re: kasumi/sumire + maruki and how his bond with akechi is different this time) but not once does akira verbally admit to wanting to be able to save akechi. he hints to this to morgana, but never outright states it. so the fact that maruki basically outright guessed what akira wished for more than anything without knowing that’s what he wanted...strikes closer to home. because no one else should know that. morgana might have ideas from what akira’s said, but he’s never told anyone how much he wants to save akechi. so the realization of his wish being a part of why akechi’s here (and that the realization of if this reality goes away akechi might be dead for real and akira doesn’t want to lose this) ...hurts a lot. akira breaks basically but he doesn’t fold on agreeing to maruki’s deal. because they have to do this, they’re the only ones that can do this. i have a whole fic i’m writing about this because it’s a very emotional moment for akira especially but really it’s just. a mess of emotions on akira’s part.

and as for everything post palace? well akira isn’t exactly happy about waking up and realizing he’s in juvie but...he trusts that everyone will get him out again. he’s glad for that and when everyone meets to talk about what they’re planning to do...akira’s proud of his friends for making these plans and changes. that what they all went through in maruki’s reality and also over the past year has really helped them all change, and it’s sad they won’t be together, they won’t stop being friends and talking to each other. the thieves mean so much to akira, they’re his best friends and in someways his family. he’d be proud of them regardless of anything. his send off to them from the train while bittersweet, is more sweet this time. they’re all going to work towards the futures they want and earn them on their own merits this time.

akira leaves tokyo this time with a smile and a promise in his heart. because after all this time, he still has akechi’s glove with him. it’s proof of their promise, a chance for a rematch and a chance for a reunion. a chance that akira will hold onto for as long as he has to because that’s just how akira is. and considering what’s happened in the two times he’s lived through this year? akira will believe that it’s a possibility.

THIS GOT TO BE...REALLY LONG (and real rambley haha...) but it’s a headcanon i hold near and dear to me and how i write akira. i won’t force this onto anyone but i will say i am very open to rping this headcanon/verse/idea with anyone that asks for it! to anyone that read all of this i thank you so much and just hope that people like this idea of mine!

[liibrorums-blog]

          THE CANONICAL TIMELINE OF THE PARADOXICAL MAIDEN.

i. events of persona 3: portable : as a charismatic young woman who had been stained by tragedy year after year, arisato minako arrives on tatsumi port island with the intention of being a residential student at gekkoukan high school on april 7. there, she meets the members of the specialized extracurricular execution squad : namely, fellow second years takeba yukari and  iori junpei.  during the first attack on the dormitory, minako awakens to her persona, orpheus, and takes her place among the others as a member of SEES, learning of its true nature. she is hereby dubbed leader of SEES for the time being due to her position as a fool persona specialist, using multiple personas.

in the endgame, minako accepts her role as the seal, refuses to kill ryoji, and remains alive for one month after the defeat of nyx. she, unlike the others, retains her memories of the dark hour and the destruction of the shadows. after saying ‘see you later’ to the rest of her friends, she climbs to the top of the roof of gekkoukan high, falling asleep in aigis’s arms and seemingly losing her life.

ii.  events of persona 3 : the answer :  it is revealed to the members of SEES that minako has died the day after her slumber with aigis, leaving the party confused about the circumstances of her death : doctors rule her cause of death as exhaustion, and a funeral is held in the SEES dorm in her memory. during this time, aigis learns the truth about minako’s death : she has become the great seal to protect humanity from death. it is later revealed that nyx was only awakened because erebus, a grand being manifested from humanity's grief and negative emotions, was reaching out to nyx to bring the fall. the protagonist wasn't trying to seal nyx; she was acting as a barrier between nyx and erebus. after defeating erebus and realizing the protagonist's purpose, the remaining members of SEES swore to help her bear the burden by making the most out of their own lives.

iii.  the awakening : arisato minato becomes the seal  :  three years after arisato minako’s acceptance as the seal, a young woman wakes up alone by the train tracks wearing a high school uniform that is too small for her to wear. disoriented and confused, she is equipped with only a handgun, stylized to have the word “SEES” inscribed into it and a silver pocketwatch. stumbling around for a moment, the amnesiac woman looks down at her wrist to see a series of kanji written on her hand with ink : ARISATO MINAKO.  assuming that this is her name, she rises to her feet and is struck with an image -- a young man, a high school boy, placing that same gun she had to the forehead of a crucified image of herself, and then pulling the trigger. the word persona leaves her mouth, and she begins to get herself cleaned up.

during this time, minako regains very basic memories about herself : her name, her age (19, at this time), and the potential of the personas in her head. often, she sits up waiting for the dark hour, but it never comes. she begins to take menial jobs to pay for expenses, hoping there will be answers. soon, there would be.

iv. events of persona 4 golden :  now 20 years old and having been researching these ‘personas’ for multiple months, minako gets her first lead : the concept of the midnight channel, located on a message board whose original poster lives in inaba, japan. minako applies for an internship with the inaba police department under the false identity that she is a law student : over the phone, she speaks with dojima ryotaro, who is impressed by her go-getter attitude, and invites her to come accept the internship. he even goes so far as to allow her to stay in his own home ( implying that perhaps a partial reason she was accepted was to be a good feminine role model for his young daughter, nanako ). 

arriving in inaba, minako moves into the dojima house and sets up a small room in the attic, across the hall from one seta souji. she begins to get a mild idea that souji himself may be a persona user, but never pushes the train of thought.

there, she is directly involved alongside dojima and adachi tohru to uncover the work of the heinous murders that have begun to take place in inaba. investigating all of these further, minako quietly makes the connection that these individuals may have had some correlation with the midnight channel, prompting her to investigate it herself. there, she learns of the midnight channel and the world of shadows that live within it. independently from the investigation team, minako battles her way through the midnight channel with her naginata and her evoker, hoping that it can give her answers to finding her “brother” ( the name she has given the blue-haired boy from her vision ) and her friends.

during this time, the memories she regains are of SEES: she remembers their names, who they are in relation to her, and the original owner of the pocketwatch she holds onto: aragaki shinjiro.

she picks up on the negative vibes that adachi tohru has been dispersing slowly but surely throughout the entirety of the game, but does not-- cannot-- act. instead, she leaves a note on souji’s bedside table moments before she leaves inaba for good, only with the cryptic phase ‘adachi isn’t who he says he is.’

v.  the events of persona 5 :  a breakthrough reached at twenty two years of age, minako has joined back up with kirijo mitsuru, sanada akihiko, and aragaki shinjiro and has a special role within the kirijo group : a persona specialist. minako’s role within the company is to locate other persona users and learn about the varying circumstances in which personas can be summoned. she does not ever become a phantom thief, but instead is placed within shujin academy as one of two counselors for students on call. she works alongside maruki takuto as his feminine counterpart. while she does serve her duties to the academy as a high school counselor, she predominantly serves as an advisor to the phantom thieves after the events of kamoshida’s palace. in addition, she collects research similar to that of takemi tae, with the secret goal of using this information to free her brother. her confidant in relation to kurusu akira / amamiya ren is represented by the WORLD ARCANA.

by maxing out arisato minako’s confidant link, akira can talk minako out of returning to tatsumi port island and taking up the mantle as the seal again. in doing so, the two timelines of persona 3 and persona 3 portable line up. akira leaves minako to mourn her ‘brother’ at the church in kanda at her request and goes home for the evening. akira is told by his inner self, ‘ you feel as thought your relationship with minako has changed . . . you’re not sure how or why, but you feel as though she’s been . . . completed. ’

the next day and any day after that, akira notes that ‘minako is in a significantly better mood’, and there is a ‘blue-haired man’ present in the counselor’s office whenever he or any phantom thief visit the office for counseling. minato has been freed from the seal now that erebus does not reach out for nyx to bring about the fall. the twins appear to be rejuvenated, if not a bit exhausted -- they know that the next time erebus reaches out for nyx, one / both of them will have to sacrifice themselves, but they appear to be living in the present instead of in the past. 

p5-verse trivia: on occasion, a tall man with a beanie will appear, offering to walk minako home. akira will never know who this is, but writers/players will acknowledge this to be aragaki shinjiro, whom akira can assume to be a close confidant of minako’s. on occasion, minako will disappear for days/weeks at a time, leaving only maruki in the office. maruki explains that minako has ‘gone to report back to HQ’, implying that she’s gone back to tatsumi port to work with the kirijo group on something.

[thedetectiveofinaba]

Unless mentioned otherwise, I will use vanilla P5 as the basis in my P5 PT and P5 AU verses. If you wish to use P5R details in it (aka the 3rd Semester section and the two extra SLs they added), it must be asked and plotted specifically.

The details in question apply for December 201X onwards and will contain P5R Spoilers. The further details will be listed after the Read More portion. The spoiler-free TLDR for the both verses is that Naoto won’t take any part to the shenanigans after December 24th and has the same function to try getting Akira out of the jail.

In P5 AU verse Naoto takes a break from her work for one-two months and travels to UK for that + reappears to flip the bird at Shido and in P5 PT she just focuses on her other cases and leaves the job to the Thieves since she thinks they can handle it on their own & she has lot of work to do. 

P5 PT

Once Shido gets arrested she starts to focus on non-PT cases more and steps away from her task as the info gatherer/extra help in Mementos. Since the worst corruption seems to be gone so far it’s going smoother than assumed and she’s more effective in her cases.

Only when asked specifically (read: plotted) she’ll lend a hand on the events. Even then, she tries to make sure her facade on being only a Shirogane heiress and not a PT member is working.

P5 AU

When she hears that Shido got arrested and Goro can prove his guilt she asks for a work holiday without paycheck from Tokyo PD for 2 months and asks her aunt if they’d be fine with a spontaneous visit from her for several weeks. Due to the Maruki’s cognition stunts she gets a vacation for two months and doesn't think twice when applying for a visa on the same day + leaving after 15 days on applying for it.

Her reasons on visiting London are to take a break from her current life to find out if she'd be happier if she lived in the UK for real. At that point in her life she wants to abandon her old one and to start a new one in a new city or country and is prone to doing spontaneous decisions: burning all old bridges without any regret sounds so tempting to her she will take the risk without looking back. 

During her vacation she hangs out at her aunt’s apartment, tries to lurk on possible college degrees she could apply for, reconnects with her family as much as possible and sleeps until she has no sleep deprivation. She’d get less paranoid on the cell phone since she’s in another country and bought a VPN & masks her location to be either Japan or Ireland.

Naoto gets informed about the recent update on all details later: since she kept her work cell phone off for the whole time only people who had her personal phone number got in contact to her. (Her reaction is pure frustration on every party having false hope  She’d return as planned to Japan after hearing the evidence by P5 protag is necessary and how it most likely isn’t enough to convince the PD.

Naoto resigns from her work as a Consulting Detective at the end of the same month when she informs Sae and co. all information she knows about Shido. This is to ensure she doesn’t risk her reputation even more and prevent her worst case of burnout she notices she had at UK showing more clearly: she masks it as a decision to go studying for a Law degree so she can open a PI firm like her parents and preventing a severe case of burnout.

Despite threatening several times to move fully to London she decides to stay at Japan and move to Kyoto for her studies at Kyoto Uni for a Law Degree. She got the break she needed and a somewhat realistic view of what her life would be like in UK & realized what she really needed was a fresh start to her life in a new location instead of running away and avoiding the issue. She also needs to deal with the mental health issues she has and get real help instead of. The focus on her life after Tokyo PD is on Naoto relocating herself to a place what she feels is like home & leaving her previous, miserable life behind.

[personaiiisms]

@gloryseized: "You're out of control." ( to Maruki from Akira @gloryseized ) (losing control)

He could hear the anger and pain in Akira's voice as he spoke. It was so painfully clear to Maruki what the young man was doing; burying his own pain, his own suffering, all in the name of what he perceived as justice. His justice, of course.

"Akira-kun. I understand why you feel you have to act this way." Gentle, gentle. Kind, patient, understand. They were standing on either side of the Issue and it was one that they had to fight over. Akira - no, Joker, Joker had to face against the force that wanted to remove free will from humanity. That was how he saw him. Just another cruel and evil adult trying to force others to bend to his will.

"But there must be some part of you that wants to understand why I'm doing this. Otherwise you wouldn't have come here." To his lab. Alone. Maruki had noted that Yoshizawa and Akechi were both gone. It was just Akira.

The shadows of the Palace had simply watched as he entered, allowing him to come to where Maruki was waiting. In Reality this place would have been one of the offices in the stadium; in here, it was a recreation of the room he had used when meeting with Akira to discuss his work on cognitive psience. It looked out of place in the lab, the color and warmth a stark contrast to the sterile whites.

A gesture toward one of the chairs as Maruki moved to sit himself. "I feel if we could just talk about this, you would understand my stance."

[personaiiisms]

@epitomees asked: ❝ They found him dead the very next day. ❞

(Song is Hometown (fun fact this is genuinely one of my favorite SH songs and I feel it's horribly underrated))

SILENT HILL LYRICS

"I see."

Maruki had sat quietly as he listened to the young woman pour out her thoughts, her worries, her fears to him. He had known that far too many of the students at Shujin were holding onto pain far too intense their age. They should have been worrying about their grades, whether or not they wanted to try to get a part-time job, whether or not they wanted to try to ask someone out. Not worrying about being sexually harassed by their gym teacher, or being afraid that they could be targeted and expelled for wanting to do something about him-

And they should not have been struggling with the pain of dealing with the loss of a loved one. Especially not the loss of a father.

"I'm sorry." It was such a paltry thing to say in the face of learning about how he had died. Killed in the line of duty, run over by truck. There was perhaps a touch of grim humor in the event, but that only make the tragedy that much deeper; were his death caused by something nobler than perhaps there would be a sense of pride in knowing he was killed, instead of just bitter remorse.

And how horrible was it that it was even something to be questioned? That someone's death was simply not tragic enough to earn the right to be properly mourned?

"Your father sounds like he was quite an amazing person." And Maruki paused for a moment, allowing Makoto space to interject if she wanted to. "Do you want to talk about him some more?"

[personaiiisms]

@gravity-wall from [x]

"Of course. I didn't mean to imply you didn't want to tell them."

Ren's response didn't bother Maruki. It anything, he was glad to hear him forming a solid decision for himself instead of falling into the mindset that anything was okay just as long as his friends were happy. It was a clear want from him.

For his friends to know and be accepting of who he really was.

"But feeling like you need to can also make you feel more stress and anxious, and that may make it harder to be open and honest with them. The more pressure you place on yourself, the harder it becomes."

Maruki shifted, letting his elbows rest against his knees as his hands folded together, chin coming to rest against it. "I suppose then, do you think they would resent you? For being gay, or for hiding it? Do you feel there just hasn't been the right moment to tell them?"

[personaiiisms]

@gravity-wall liked for a starter with Maruki!

"Ah, Amamiya-kun." Running into him in the hallway hadn't been something that Maruki had planned, but he found he always welcomed the moments he had to speak with the young man. It was always so clear to him that there was far more going on in his head than Ren ever dared to let on, and that he seemed to... need to have a place he could talk.

"How are you doing?"

It was still in the middle of the day, so this conversation was going to be nothing more than the brief exchange of pleasantries - or would have been that, if he hadn't noted the troubled look on Ren's face. Considering everything that had been happening lately, Maruki could hardly begin to guess what the cause of it was, but that didn't really matter.

"... You know, if you need a moment to talk, I can write you a pass to return to class when we're done."

[personaiiisms]

@tckeyourheart asked: — " he's a bad egg, that one. " - Kawakami at Maruki | Vengeance Most Fowl

He couldn't help but frown in response to her saying that. It was clear just who she was talking about; following her gaze showed a young man there, one with an unsteady stance, hands in his pockets, and vivid bleached blond hair. He had the appearance of a thug, of a delinquent, of a--

A bad egg--

--sure. But hearing another teacher say that so openly, and likely even within earshot of him, just had Maruki feeling a little off about the interaction.

"I'm certain he isn't that bad, Kawakami-san. Maybe you just need to try approaching him a little differently." A smile as he said that too; he could only hope she would listen and believe him.