#I have the most mixed feelings about P5

[takeyourheart]

gonna talk about a lil thing I noticed in p5/p5r about joker and akechi that I think everyone knows but nobody's really mentioned yet.

when it comes to confidants, we sort of make our own opinions about them outside of how joker actually is with them in game (example: mishima. so many people hate him but that's a topic for another day)

but the exception to this is akechi. sure, in p5r's confidant, we still get to choose what to say as part of the Silent Self Insert Protagonist™ shtick, but to my knowledge, we never see joker explicitly have dialogue in the form of thought bubbles revealing his (and not our) thoughts about his friends.

you know who he does acknowledge in his thought bubbles? akechi.

specifically, I'm thinking about 2/2 ("this isn't trivial!" "but akechi will...") and when you go to jazz jin after the palace, to realize joker has kept akechi's glove in his pocket this entire fucking time. and yea sure joker has tons of shit in his pockets, that's how inventory works, but keep in mind he's just having his hands in his pants pockets at this moment. he literally carries around akechi's glove in his regular ass clothing pants pocket.

what I'm trying to say here is that with all the other characters, you're expected to grow to like them. joker doesn't have special dialogue because you're expected to see them as his/your friends, and he doesn't need to establish anything different.

but with akechi, you're most likely going to have mixed feelings about him, and joker is making it very clear that no matter what the player thinks, joker loves akechi, and he wants to do everything in his power to help him. because he's joker, and that's what he does, and what he must do. (another discussion for a different time tbh.)

tldr; joker loves akechi even if the player doesn't. people who think joker dislikes or hates akechi can't read

[philistiniphagottini]

HIIII!! found your blog recently in hsr tags :3 and I also saw your talks doing for P5!!1

Akechi Goro with 🚿 ?

Hi Anon. I'm curious which fic you found me through :)) And thanks for the request. This was a little self indulgent for me because my stupid foot has been acting up the past couple of days cause of the cold weather. I hope you enjoy.

cw. fluff, bathing together, gender neutral reader

Domestic Bliss

A contented sigh blew past your parted lips as you let your body sink further into the warm, relaxing waters of your bath. You struggled to keep your eyes open as the scent of expensive soaps curled in your lungs with each deep breath you took, bubbles clinging to your skin as the suds danced along the rippling surface of the bath water. Your mind swirled in a blissful haze of serenity and your body threatened to drift off into the sweet embrace of velvety sleep. That was, until you felt someone lightly squeeze your foot and snap you out of your stupor. 

You jolted lightly as a soft noise rumbled in the back of your throat and you snapped back to attention. A warm chuckle breezed past Akechi’s lips as he watched you on the other end of the tub, cradling your foot in the palms of his hands as he continued to rub his fingers along your sore muscles. 

“You were drifting off” he said with a soft hum. “It’s dangerous to fall asleep in a bath.”

A lackadaisical smile graced your lips as your shoulders dropped and you relaxed once more. You wriggled your toes as Akechi worked the knots out of your tired muscles, the smooth touch of his hands a soothing balm against your heated skin. A flicked a stray bead of water out of your hair, tussling your frizzy locks as the tips of your fingers started to prune from how long you had both been soaking in this bubble bath concoction. 

“I can’t help it” you replied with an airy tone to your voice. “You’re really good at giving foot rubs.”

Akechi’s lips twitched into a small smile as he pinched your big toe between his fingers, hands holding firm as laughter bubbled up your throat and you tried to jerk your foot away from the ticklish brush of the tips of his fingers. A thoughtful hum stirred in his chest as he kept his eyes trained on his task, thumbs drawing repetitive patterns into skin as he paid extra attention to the scars around your ankle. You tried to contain the grimace when he pressed his fingers into the round ball of your ankle, fingers pressing into the scars until he could feel the metal that lay just beneath the skin. Another soft noise drifted past his parted lips. 

“Have you been moving around enough lately?” he inquired. “You know how sore your ankle gets when you don’t.”

A puff of air blew past the seam of your lips, flicking a stray strand of hair out of your eyes as a small pout tugged at your lips. 

“It’s hurting because it’s cold” you replied. “Did you know metal and cold weather don’t mix?”

You lightly pushed the heel of your foot into his chest, tapping on his skin as a warm smile lit up your features. It touched you that he was so concerned for your health but you had been managing just fine this winter. Although, he wasn’t wrong about moving around. It would help lessen the pain if you were a bit more active and stretched your muscles a bit more. But most mornings, you didn’t even want to get out of bed. 

“Yes, I know” Akechi replied. “You tend to remind me. You complain that you can feel the rain coming with all that metal in your foot.”

You rolled your eyes playfully in response. “Enough about my bum foot” you announced. “Just keep talking or I might fall asleep again. How’s work?”

Akechi ran his thumb over your ankle as he pondered. “It’s the same as usual. You know I cannot go into too much detail about the cases.”

You waved your hand idly through the air. “Yeah I know. Confidentiality and all that.”

Akechi chuckled softly as he squeezed your foot. “And how about you? Tell me about your day.”

“Trying to change the subject?”

“Is it wrong of me to ask about my partner’s day?” Akechi shot back.

You huffed loudly. “Just keep rubbing my foot and I’ll let you know.”

At this rate, you’d both turn into prunes before you even got the chance to wash your hair. But, neither of you seemed to mind and continued to bask in this simple piece of heaven as long as you possibly could.

[0heartangel0]

PERSONA 5 TACTICA IS NOT GREAT: A VERY ODDLY-CONSTRUCTED RANT

Pt. 3: This Is Not My Jam

Originally, I was gonna talk about the gameplay next, but I realized that in order for my argument of it to make sense, be accurate and fair, I'm currently stuck in a rather long bit of "research", so to speak. So, for the time being, I'll move on to my next complaint that doesn't require extensive comparisons, which I hope to be short and sweet: The music!

....it's very forgettable-

OKAY! Like I said from the beginning: I'm not here to judge people's tastes! If you enjoyed the music, that's great! Flippin', blast that crap while doing a power study at 3am all you want, I ain't stopping you (except for your neighbors likely filing noise complaints).

But, for me personally, they just didn't click with me.

As of me writing this, I had JUST listened to the full version of the opening theme ('Revolution In Your Heart'), and have immediately forgotten most of how it goes. Not to be harsh, but it sounds like someone trying to write what they think a Persona 5 song sounds like. It just doesn't have the *oomph* factor that would classify it as a Persona 5 song to me.

It doesn't have the high energy of 'Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There'.

It doesn't have the excitement of 'Colors Flying High'.

It doesn't have the motivational feeling of 'You Are Stronger'.

Unlike those openers, Tactica's opening theme doesn't give me that feeling - the feeling of wanting to move, and not just in dance. It doesn't get me hyped to play a game, where I'm overthrowing tyrants for the sake of

And the same is sadly true for the rest of the soundtrack.

(Update: Listening to Revolution In Your Heart again made me realize that in comparison to the other openings, Lyn here is getting drowned out by the music. The other openings leave her crisp and distinguishable from the instrumental. I haven't touched it, yet, but the mixing in this game is not very good....)

I'm glad almost everything is original music, apart from this one rendition of 'Beneath The Mask' at the very beginning of the game, as well as - of course - the Velvet Room theme. However, once again, almost none I remember too well and don't sound like Persona 5 songs. And yeah, I know that sounds contradictory to what I just said about liking that we're doing original music, but what I meant by it was that they don't sound like songs that would *come* from a Persona 5 game. It's just....eh.

What makes it most astonishing about all of this, mainly in regards to the battle music, is that unlike P5 or P5S, you'll be listening to these songs for about 5-10 minutes per level due to the nature of Tactica being a tactical rpg, so battles would run longer. And yet, despite P5's and P5S' battles running shorter (as a turn-based rpg and Musuo-styled rpg respectively), I still remember 'Last Surprise', 'Take Over', 'Axe To Grind', and 'What You Wish For'. Once again, I think it comes back to those songs having more energy and oomph in them by comparison.

You could try to make the argument that they probably wouldn't try as hard with the soundtrack due to it being a spinoff game, and to that, I say that that's a bad faith take to make, because A) that's a harsh assumption on the song writers for this game's soundtrack, as much as I dislike it. Looking it up, there's over a hundred tracks for this game, so they'd be obviously busting their butts on this soundtrack. It's just disappointing to me that I myself didn't find it worthwhile to listen to, personally. Besides, I already know there are people out there who disagree with me on this, so on that front, the songwriters succeeded.

And B) have you not listened to a single track from *any* Persona spinoff?

I already talked about some of Striker’s songs, both PQ and PQ2 have bangers in there, especially since they're balancing the song styles from all three modern Persona games due to the nature of them being crossovers, and Arena created themes for every fighter there, and they all fit them and *slap*! I don't include the Dancing games, since they're already based solely around the music, and most are just renditions or remixes of already existing songs.

(God, I just reminded myself of that terrible remix of 'Mass Destruction' they did in 'Dancing Moon Night', and now I have to apologize to the Tactica soundtrack, because its only crime is being just forgettable, unlike....that thing.)

There's only ONE song I remember, albeit, rather repetitive. It's called 'Abyss Of Despair', and it plays when you fight the Eri monster thing. However, there's only *one* reason I remember it: it reminds me SO much of 'Memory' from Undertale.

It's probably just me, but I just wanted to point it out.

But...I don't get it? Apart from the energy, I feel like there's this other "thing" that's missing in these songs. I've been trying to wrack my brain to come up with the explanation. What is the secret ingredient that makes a Persona 5 song *feel* like a Persona 5 song?

So, I've been listening to some tracks from P5, P5R, and P5S to maybe find that secret sauce. And after listening to the openings of all three back-to-back...it hit me.

It's.....

THE VIOLIN!!!

Think about it! A vast majority of P5 tracks have the violin as a major component in it. There are a few exceptions, mainly the palace and jail themes, but I let those pass because they're supposed to represent the rulers of those places, so they themselves would be given specific instruments ('Price's' zurna, my beloved). To me, I feel the Phantom Thieves themselves are represented by the violins in the music, which is why you mainly hear it in their battle tracks and infiltration themes.

You immediately hear it in 'Last Surprise:'

You hear it in 'Life Will Change' about 45 seconds in:

You can hear it in 'Daredevil' a few seconds in:

Hell, I got curious and looked at 'Counter Strike' to see if they had it (for I only recall the electric guitar), only to immediately be hit with that violin:

And going back to the beginning of this post, you can hear it in all of the openings.

All of them, except for Tactica's. And that's when the crux of my argument becomes realized.

I went back, and listened to random tracks on the Tactica soundtrack, and I didn't hear a *single* violin. No even a cello...

Even the songs done by Lyn don't have them ANYWHERE! Not 'Got Your Tail', not 'Inextinguishable', and definitely not 'Truth Or Dare' (I might do a reblog that adds these three Lyn tracks to show it, because I've run out of space, according to meany Tumblr....).

How could they forget the violins???

I get they're trying to go for a more "revolutionary" sound to the music (which is why you hear a lot of marching drums and guitars (mainly of the electric variety) in them. And a low synth, apparently...), but P5 was already about revolution in a sense. It's a bloody synonym to REBELLION, P5's main theme! And even then, they still could've kept the violins to keep the P5 sound. But, they chose not to for reasons that escape me.

So, in conclusion, I'm not big on the soundtrack to Tactica, and my findings have led me to conclude that it's because some lone bandit snuck into Atlus' headquarters, and stole all of their violins. The only thing they had left was little Ami's drumkit, so worked with that.

Pt. 1

Pt. 2

Pt. 4

Pt. 4.5

[nshi-ao3]

Hello! I originally wrote this as a comment, and then the hypers fixated and it ended up being so comedically long that it didn’t come close to fitting tumblr’s comment character limit XD. So I’m sending it as an ask instead!

Also!! Spoilers for A Realm Reborn, the Stormblood patches, the Werlyt questline, and extremely vague spoilers for a region in Endwalker! Massive Writing Ramble (™️) ahead. You have been warned. >:D

Regarding your Wyvern AU: AGAHDBDJEDHWKDHWJFB?!???!!?!?!?

As both a whump-hurt/comfort enjoyer and a Maxima fan (I LOVE HIM. I LOVE HIM. I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT MAXIMA AS A CHARACTER OKAY) this au is incomprehensible shrieking noises.

I’m so interested in Ren and Gaius. From a storytelling perspective, I honestly really like Gaius, (liking a character and agreeing with their actions are two Very Different Things!!!!!!!) and I think his arc in the STB patches is SO good. He’s such an interesting character!! Our first intro to him is in ARR, as the pretty generic villain of the pretty generic Bad Empire™️ who wants to invade Eorzea (there are a host of reasons for that genericity, and the game absolutely adds complexity to Garlemald and Gaius later, but in ARR at least, they’re both pretty flat). He gives an iconic yet also very generic elevator pitch (literally), and then we don’t hear from him until STB. In that time, we hear much about him — namely that he treats his soldiers fairly, that he does genuinely seem to believe this is the best course of action for Eorzea, that he’s a guy with a lot of privilege and a lot of power and some Extremely misguided yet well-intentioned beliefs. He shut down Black Rose! He doesn’t want to destroy every Eorzean after he subjugates them! Big Yikes, but that in itself provides the opportunity for some REALLY interesting character growth. And we see that in the STB patches and Werlyt! That he’s dedicated his life to trying to atone. That he fucked up big-time, and he wants to try and put some good back in the world. That he survived Prae for a reason, and he’s going to hunt down Ascians so no others can follow the path he followed. Now, throwing Ren into the mix? Ren, who may have lost his memories and been badly tortured, but whose entire purpose before getting yeeted to Hydaelyn was destroying the concept of authority and fighting against oppression? Whose literal heart and soul are a conceptualization of rebellion?? Throwing THAT Ren, even without most of his memories, into Gaius’s path????? Knowing where Gaius eventually ends up (regarding both his goals for Prae and his later arc in the Burn) and that his current path is formed from some Very Very poor choices with at least not evil intentions??? ohohohohoho. OHOHOHOHO. Cackles in storyteller. That is FASCINATING. That’s SUCH an intriguing dynamic. Does something in Ren realize what it is he and Gaius are doing? Does something in Gaius? How do they interact? How do they read each others’ actions? How do they affect each other??? What could go differently if someone (Ren) were to step in before Gaius led the charge on Eorzea?????

SCREECHES. AWGRJWGDJG IT’S SO SO INTERESTING AND I LOVE THIS SO MUCH AND AGAGAGFJFEHFJGK coughs. haha

ANYWAYS. This AU is so damn good. I think that the intersection of Ren and Maxima as characters in this context is so interesting, and I love Ren having at least one little bright light in the form of that relationship in the midst of a Very Bad experience. I love that dynamic between him and Zenos?? It’s hilarious and so in character for both of them. And also like… man. The IMPLICATIONS!!!! Ren and Hydaelyn!!!! Ren and the Scions!!!! How would they feel about each other?? The dramatic irony too is SO *chef’s kiss.* We as the audience presumably are familiar with either or both FFXIV and P5, and also, considering we’re reading the post on your tumblr, with Stars in the Dark. So we know what could have happened, and seeing the characters and the differences in their relationships and the differences in particular with how Ren interacts with them is ough agh big feelings /pos. And even an eventual healing arc (if that’s in the cards for him) in this AU would be so. agh /pos. whump-hurt/comfort beloved fr fr

Obligatory disclaimer that all of the questions here are rhetorical and meant not as actual questions/demands directed at you, but more as conceptualizations of the different ways one could explore this dynamic and these changes!!

This au is so so cool!!!!!! :D

Haha! That's fine! I'm glad you had so much to say about it!

Maxima! Yeah Maxima's a great guy. Good to see some Maxima love. :) I love the idea of him being utterly horrified by what they're doing to this poor kid, but he hasn't had a chance to defect yet or anything so he's just... trying to sneakily make Amnesiac!Ren's life as comfortable as he can by dropping by the lab and doing nice things when no-one's looking. And Ren would be pretty fucking feral by this point, so I just imagine it'd be a bit like trying to look after an abused wild animal. "Okay, I'll just sneak him some nice food-- aaaaand he just tried to bite off my fingers. Swell!" At least Ren would come to appreciate it more once the experiments stop and he gets his head on a bit straighter and acts more human haha. :P

And Gaius! Yes, he's an extremely complicated and fascinating character, once the game finally gives him a chance to step outside his initial role. I agree, there is a lot of intriguing potential for the concept of him and Ren working as... psuedo-allies, kind of. Or at least forced on the same side, from the start. As I mentioned in a reply to a comment-- Wyvern would actually have 0 loyalty to the empire, since he'd just think of them as the fucks that tortured him. But he doesn't know what else to do (no memories at all! where's he gonna go??) and also he's obsessed with Zenos and being what Zenos wants and staying beside him in general, soooo... Imperialism it is, I guess??? (Not that Zenos is actually loyal to the empire either lol) But it would be very interesting if Wyvern prompts Gaius to start doubting everything he thought he knew... >:3 Add Zenos into the mix and we have the potential for... something, I dunno! But it's certainly exciting and probably very chaotic!

I wish I had more I could say about all that and the Wyvern AU in general, especially since you're so intrigued by it, but it's very half-baked at the moment since it was just an "OOH WHAT IF..." thought that got a bit out of hand lol. I still have, y'know... (gestures to the monolithic mountain of canon content) ALL OF THAT to get through first in the regular ol' timeline haha! But I really appreciate hearing your thoughts, since it does give me some very interesting ideas if I ever do plan on writing anything about it... >:3

I recently had to buy myself a new drawing tablet, so maybe I should break it in by drawing some stuff for this AU... hmmm!

EDIT: Oh! But I can say that Wyvern would probably make an initial impression among the Eorzeans (and the Scions) as being the Empire's scary new human weapon. THEIR ULTIMA WEAPON, IF YOU WILL. HAW HAW. (it even eats Primals!)

[valdrinors-writing]

so ive been working on both my p4 and p5 asau concepts and decided to write down my current ideas for p4 (foolsuke plot bunny is coming soon too! i just need to think about it lol)

yu narukami - naoto shirogane

moving into a new town when your grandfather is sick is pretty rough and then you get swooped into this investigation? naoto is still pretty intelligent and good at deduction, but struggles with making friends - partially because he's distant and tends to get hyperfocused on his latest interest, and partially because he's just... so good at everything (except skiing, and talking to people). also im using he/him pronouns for naoto, i imagine that he's not out in terms of official papers, but he is out socially, and most people use he/him pronouns for him

yosuke hanamura - rise kujikawa

rise never became an idol in this universe, but has a desire to become one that she often keeps hidden because she thinks its embarassing. she works at her grandma's tofu place and was close with saki as they both bonded over not being linked to junes', but when saki started working at junes', they began to drift apart, with both rise and saki feeling like the other 'betrayed' them (saki by leaving rise and rise by staying at the shopping district). her shadow represents her idol wishes and her desire for attention (in reality her desire for someone to love her for who she is)

chie satonaka - teddie hanamura

theodore 'teddie' was adopted by the hanamuras when he was like about 8 years old, a fact that he has mixed feelings about. the hanamuras are much more strict about junes' in this world, often feeling like they have to lord over their children in order to keep them in line, which uh... doesnt help. teddie is outwardly an upbeat and athletic kid who just wants to 'score' with girls, but in reality feels insecure due to being not fully japanese as well as adopted (think a lot of ann's issues with her being not fully japanese, but with the bonus of him being in a fully japanese family). he's jealous of yosuke, the heir, while he feels like he's less important

yukiko amagi - yosuke hanamura

take yosuke's canonical small town boredom, add on the pressure of running junes' and being isolated for destroying the business district? yeah yosuke's not going so hot. he's still the kind, upbeat guy we know and love, distracting from his boredom by working his ass off at junes' to make his parents proud. as he's the third subject of the midnight channel, his shadow acts as the 'ruler' of that dungeon, which appears like a pirate ship with his goal being to escape inaba as quickly as possible - including escaping his responsibilities as the heir of junes'

kanji tatsumi - yukiko amagi

still the heir to the amagi inn, but began to lash out following a traumatic experience in middle school in which she was bullied for being 'prettier' than the other girls, because kids can be cruel. unlike kanji, who has a rough exterior but a soft, squishy centre, yukiko was made bitter due to her bullying experiences and views the amagi inn as a prison that she's trapped in, her entire life being decided by her parents and the people around her. she's much more distant compared to canon, but she managed to make the news due to a scuffle with another group of girls which lead to a report on delinquint problems plaguing inaba. this leads to her becoming a subject of the midnight channel... but its not a castle. its a prison, with yukiko being more resigned to the fact that she's stuck there no matter what she does

rise kujikawa - kanji tatsumi

ooh boy you thought kanji's rejection sensitive dysphoria and fear of being judged was bad in canon? add him to a visual kei style idol group and see how that goes. kanji is the drummer for the group, and is often considered very reliable and cool, with many people having crushes on him for his outwardly brusque and badass demeanour. but take off the makeup and the hair dye, and he's just kanji, a socially awkward timid kid who's scared shitless of being rejected by those around him. he moved back to inaba for a fresh start after an argument with the group lead to him being kicked out of the band, and the rumors forming around him are causing him to spiral. his dungeon is p much the same steamy bathhouse as in canon, but with the added bonus of shadow kanji switching between flamboyant and girly to tough and masculine because that's the 'role' he was given in the group

that's p much all at the moment, but star!marie and fortune!chie are coming soon once i think of their characterisation lol

[p5x-theories]

P5 Collab Chapter 4 Summary

(last updated 10/15/24!)

Usual disclaimer: Please keep in mind this game still has no official English translation, so this summary uses a mix of what happens visually, what I understand of the Japanese dialogue, and Google translate for the Chinese text, in order to get the broader picture here. This will be focused on summing up everything that happens overall, without getting into a line-by-line translation.

Contrary to this blog’s name, this post is going to have as little speculation as possible, and stick to confirmed facts.

This post will cover the fourth chapter of the P5 Collab, also called the “Pyramid Chapter”.

Part 4-1

The Phantom Thieves meet up at Shibuya station. Riko apologizes for calling everyone together, but admits she wants to learn as much as she can about using a Persona. Shun tells her it's no problem; everyone helped him out when he was new, too. Motoha agrees, she was a beginner once, herself! Plus, helping Riko get stronger helps them all get stronger as a team. Ruferu agrees- they're lucky to have a talented tactical advisor, but it won't mean much if they can't all cooperate efficiently. So it's not just Riko that needs practice; they all need to practice working together with her strategies.

Wonder nods, agreeing, and Riko thanks everyone. Motoha tells her to cheer up, and shouts "Let's head to the Metaverse!". Shun, exasperated, reminds her to lower her voice when talking about the Metaverse, then asks Wonder to activate the MetaNav. However, as before, it glitches, due to a "signal interference". This time, they find themselves in a desert town.

(There are also floating coins scattered around, but none of them acknowledge it (they're a collectible for this chapter), so I guess I won't acknowledge them after this, either!)

Wind, surprised, is the first to react, and asks where they are; does Mementos sometimes look like this? Cattle says it doesn't seem to be Mementos, but he does recall an "error" like this happening before... he turns to Wonder, and asks if his memories are returning as well. Cattle likely responds the same way regardless of the player's choice; he explains that twice before, they've had the MetaNav glitch, and take them somewhere unexpected. Most likely, they'll eventually find a shadow imitating a Palace ruler that they've never met before here as well.

Wind asks why this happens, and Cattle admits they're still not sure, but he's starting to wonder if it's being done intentionally.

You can watch the rest of this part, and the beginning of the next part, roughly fan-translated to English here.

Wind startles, and asks if they heard anything. Immediately after, they hear a girl's voice calling for help, and quickly agree to go check it out. Using Chiyome, Wind figures out where the girl ran to, and they follow her. Sure enough, a masked girl runs up to them, and begs them not to eat her, she's not even tasty! However, she processes who she's looking at after a moment, realizing they look human. Still panicking, she asks why they're here and who they are, as well as who she is. Closer and Wonder are confused, and the girl realizes they're not shadows, they can talk. Cattle, slightly exasperated, asks what she's doing here. The girl freaks out again, calling him the "Mysterious Lifeform X" and saying it's impossible. She runs off, and, incredulously, Cattle repeats "Mysterious Lifeform... X?!". Soy says it's an understandable reaction to seeing Cattle for the first time, and Closer agrees. Cattle, annoyed, demands they consider his *own* feelings about being called a "Mysterious Lifeform X". Wonder gestures like he's saying something to Wind as Cattle continues to yell at the others, and she nods and goes after the girl, who's crouched behind the wall in front of them. She asks if she's okay, and the girl mutters she's a "bishoujo with long black hair", which apparently seems "believable", as "it's common for bishoujo with long black hair to be companion characters" (she claims this is written in the Kojiki). Wind is confused, but they return to the group, the girl now hiding behind Wind. The girl now notices they're dressed like phantom thieves, and wonders if they're the same as "us". Wind takes this chance to ask if she's a phantom thief as well, and the girl confirms, but says she was separated from her team. However, it's not the time to talk about this- there was a nasty shadow chasing her with a sword! Sure enough, the shadow reappears, and the girl panics again, asking it if they can just talk things over. Wonder (and his team) steps in. As the fight starts and Wonder summons Janosik, the girl runs out from where she was hiding, realizing that, sure enough, they have Personas too! Suddenly becoming more confident, she declares she can't be lazy either, then, and her support skills are perfect. Wind, already sitting on Chiyome's swing, comments that she suddenly seems like an entirely different person. Cattle says they'll leave the support work to her, and the fight begins for real.

Once the shadow's gone, Soy comments that the girl was awesome, and made the fight way easier. Closer agrees, saying she was shocked, and then realizes the girl's gone again. They turn, and see she's hiding behind the wall again. Closer calls out, thanking her for her help. The girl mutters that they're all too "bright" for a person of the "dark" like her. Closer wonders what she means, while Soy insists they're not going to catch and eat her, so she should come over. The girl retorts that he speaks too rudely, like a stubborn ramen shop boss, to Soy's bafflement. She continues that she's too socially anxious to bother with someone who's too lazy to communicate. Everyone's silent for a moment, then Cattle laughs at Soy. The girl then adds she probably can't communicate with the "weird creature", either, so she refuses, to Cattle's shock. Wonder can thank her for earlier or ask her to come over, and the girl comments that something about him feels familiar, which she doesn't hate. She cautiously approaches, and Wind apologizes for overwhelming her with so many people trying to talk to her all of a sudden. She asks if the girl can tell them more about her being a phantom thief. The girl brightens, commenting the bishoujo with black hair is nice, she was right! Hiding behind Wind again (Wind seems slightly confused by this, but allows it), she finally introduces herself as Oracle, a Persona user like all of them. She somewhat quietly says it's nice to meet them, and Closer immediately wants to ask a question, alarming Oracle again. She mutters that she was suddenly exposed to the sun, but gathers herself, and says she'll allow questions. Closer, a bit sheepish now, asks if Oracle knows Panther, Joker, and their team. Oracle's not sure how Closer knows them, but confirms that's her team. Wonder can clarify that either this has happened before, or they're already friends with the others. After, everyone introduces themselves, and he explains the previous times this has happened. Oracle accepts this explanation, and Wind lets her know this is *her* first time experiencing something like this, too, so she's at a bit of a loss. Oracle admits she feels better not being the only one going through this for the first time. Soy brings up that, if everything's the same as before, they'll need to steal this place's Core to leave. Wind adds that they need to help Oracle reunite with her team. Oracle says that her friends might be in similar situations to her, so they need to find them- but Oracle can't protect herself, so she'll leave that to the rest of them. Cattle mutters that she speaks so frankly it keeps throwing their rhythm off. Oracle, looking a bit more determined, adds that she can help with navigational support, though! Closer thanks her, saying they don't have to worry, then, and asks whether they should look for the Core or the others. Cattle, Wind, and Oracle all agree they can sense a Core and more people in the pyramid nearby, but Oracle adds that it's probably not everyone. Soy comments that the three of them are impressive, being able to sense so much when he can't sense anything. They agree to head that way.

Part 4-2

We see Fox and Queen standing outside the pyramid, musing about how they're once again standing in front of a place that looks just like a Palace they've seen before, and regained their memories upon entry. Queen thinks this has happened too many times to be a coincidence. Oracle's voice calls out, and she runs over to them as they turn around, relieved to find them okay. She whimpers that she was thrown into the desert all by herself, and a strange creature stared at her. She thought she'd never see them again. Queen is glad to see she's okay, and Fox says they were worried. Queen thanks the others for saving Oracle, and Fox lists out their codenames as he recalls them- Wonder, Cattle, Closer, and RAMEN! Soy corrects him indignantly, and Oracle says that no matter how much he seems like the owner of a ramen shop, "Ramen" would be too weird of a codename. Fox agrees, then complains that he's hungry. Soy, reconsidering, realizes that while "Soy" is good, "Ramen" is even more his style. Wonder shuts this down, to Soy's dismay, and Oracle asks if Soy and Fox are both stupid. Queen addresses Wind, noting that they haven't met before. Wind introduces herself, saying she's still new to the Phantom Thieves. Oracle, however, gives her a bit of a glowing review; Fox and Queen shouldn't worry, as Wind's a navigator like Oracle is, plus she's the head of her school's disciplinary committee, *and* she was even kind to a person of the dark like Oracle. Queen is glad to hear she gained Oracle's trust. Wind says she actually learned a lot from Oracle. Queen introduces herself as the Phantom Thieves' strategist, and Wind realizes that makes them counterparts. Wonder can either say Wind is also an advisor, or apologize for the trouble last time they met. Cattle proudly confirms that they have their own tactical advisor now, and apologizes for being pushy last time. Queen says she was flattered, but she's glad they have their own advisor now. However, Cattle then realizes it wouldn't be bad to have *two* advisors... Closer forcibly tells the "scouting hooded monster" that that's enough, and Cattle backtracks, saying it was just a joke, though he takes some offense to what she called him. Soy gets things back on topic, and asks who else from their team is unaccounted for. Fox says they're still missing five others, and Queen lists Joker, Mona, Skull, Panther, and Noir, hoping maybe they're all together. Closer points out "Noir" is new, but she hopes they didn't get separated. Oracle asks Wonder if he'll help them find the others, since she, Queen, and Fox working alone doesn't give them much in combat. Wonder immediately agrees, impressing Oracle with his decisiveness. The group heads into the pyramid to look for their friends and the Core.

They don't get far before encountering a pit of sand sinking inward. Deciding the only way forward is down, Wonder jumps in. As in the original pyramid, they find an area underneath the sand, although unlike the original, Wonder ends up on the lowest walkway along the side, rather than in the middle of the quicksand. They then climb their way back up, and follow a hallway out, running into a shadow along the way.

Part 4-3

The group continues exploring the pyramid, learning about familiar mechanics like the ballistas and the light that shines to open doors. They pass through a door, behind which lies a powerful shadow, and then just past the shadow they find Panther and Skull standing around chatting.

Closer runs over, excited to see her again after so long. Panther, equally excited, says she was hoping she'd get to see Closer again. Oracle, a bit further back, complains about the extroverts meeting up; their "light" is unbearable for a person of the "dark" like her, and her body's melting... Fox pities her.

Skull, meanwhile, greets Wonder, and asks how everyone's doing. The group chats about how many things have happened since they last met, and Oracle, Noir, and Wind are all new. Wind introduces herself to Skull and Panther, and Skull reacts normally before being caught off-guard by how attractive she is. Panther tells him to snap out of it, then says it's nice to meet her.

Oracle, picking herself off the floor (from where she "melted"), complains that their group's getting really big, and it's hard to remember everyone's names. Realizing this is Oracle's first time meeting Wonder and his friends, Panther asks if Oracle's doing okay. Oracle complains that she's not okay, because she's the most socially awkward one and she got thrown out there alone with the other team! If it weren't for Wind, the bishoujo with long black hair, she would've lost it!

Wind admits she's not sure what the "bishoujo with long black hair" thing is supposed to mean, but she's glad she could help Oracle. Oracle hugs her, commenting she smells nice, and Fox discovers their hug makes for an excellent composition. Framing the scene with his fingers, he comments on the "love" overflowing from them. Queen tells him to cut it out, as they need to stay focused and find the rest of their team.

Oracle and Wind stop hugging, however, and share that there doesn't seem to be anyone else in this pyramid. Cattle says their senses are powerful (possibly implying more powerful than his own?), but he doesn't sense anyone else, either. Oracle brings up what they told her about how, last time, stealing the Core opened a path to another area. Her guess is that Joker and the others are in that next area. Wind adds that she can sense the location of the pyramid's Core more clearly now, and knows where it is.

Skull is slightly unnerved by how much they're able to sense, but Closer points out they're reliable, too. They can probably still sneak around, even with this big of a group! Everyone agrees to press onward towards the Core.

Part 4-4

They explore the pyramid more, continuing to redirect the light along the way.

Part 4-5

Following the light and progressing deeper, they discover a mural one one of the walls, featuring a snake.

Panther wonders what it means, and Skull says it's probably just because it makes sense for Egypt. People there can charm snakes with flutes. Oracle flatly corrects that this snake is specifically a cobra, and snake charmers are from India. Skull complains that if she points out he's wrong, he won't look smart anymore, and Panther comments he never did. Changing the subject, Skull mentions that it was something different in the original Palace; wasn't it Oracle's-

Queen stomps on his foot, cutting him off, and Panther tells him to be quiet. Wonder, Cattle, Closer, Soy, and Wind watch this in confusion, but Queen brushes it off as nothing.

The light shines through the mural, allowing them to progress.

Part 4-6

They encounter the room with the large, rolling ball trap, and the holographic ball puzzle next to it. Resolving it more simply than in the original puzzle, they then walk over the balls once all of them have rolled out, and jump down to ambush a shadow.

The encounter another mural, this time featuring a chicken. Closer wonders what it means if the first was a snake, and now this is a chicken. Soy asks about the original owner of the Palace this is based on, to the alarm of Fox, Skull, Queen, and Panther. He recalls that the two they mentioned last time were Madarame and Kaneshiro; maybe there's a connection between these murals and the original owner here?

Oracle sighs, and Panther awkwardly says she doesn't think there's a connection here. Fox adds that the original Palace had different murals, so this is probably unrelated, and Queen agrees. Wonder, Cattle, Closer, Soy, and Wind react in confusion again, and Oracle mutters that they don't need to worry about her.

Wonder asks, and Oracle admits that she was the original Palace ruler here. Closer asks if that means Oracle's Shadow was there, too, and Oracle explains that she always felt her mom's death was all her fault, and it distorted her heart. She hid in her shell, and believed what the rotten adults told her, until a group of nosy people helped open her heart and save her. Brightening a bit, she insists it's all in the past, and she's alright now! She has Sojiro, and the Phantom Thieves, her friends.

Closer and Soy still seem a bit down hearing this, and Soy apologizes for asking about it. Oracle brushes it off, saying he didn't do anything wrong. At least, nothing worse than Skull. Skull starts to take offense, but admits he did almost mess up earlier before Queen cut him off. Oracle reassures him that his "straightforward character" can also be an advantage sometimes.

Wind says Oracle's strong- no, stronger because of her friends. Oracle agrees; she's a timid and gloomy person, but having everyone around her makes her stronger. Wind thinks that's wonderful, and admits that she was also deluding herself until recently, when she finally decided she'd never abandon herself again, with help from her team and Ms. Katayama.

Oracle comments that they have a lot in common. Wind laughs, saying that really is true, then notes that they should all probably get moving. They can keep thinking about the chicken mural as they continue on. As if on cue, the light shines through the mural, allowing them to progress.

Part 4-7

They continue through the pyramid, learning more about its puzzles, and using another ballista to break into a new area.

Part 4-8

More pyramid exploration, and the light and pathways lead them to another mural.

Seeing that it's a pig, Closer comments that if the first one weren't a snake, maybe the connection could've been that they're all animals you can eat! Skull says he was thinking the same thing, but Fox points out that snakes are edible, too, and adds that unfortunately he's never caught one because he's never found a wild snake. Skull tells him not to talk like he'd eat it if he caught one, and in general, people don't eat snakes. Soy mentions that you could probably use one to make a soup base, though he's never heard of it being done.

Cattle brings up that most animals, snakes included, are edible, so it's not really a good guess for the pattern. The majority of the group (everyone but Wind, Oracle, and Queen) seems alarmed by this, and Closer mutters that it sounds like Cattle wants to eat snakes, and she knows he loves meat, but she didn't expect him to be that much of a glutton. Cattle, annoyed, fires back that he's not talking about his appetite, he's trying to discuss the matter at hand! Oracle notes that the Mysterious Lifeform X does appear to be a raptor.

She then points out that snakes, chickens, and pigs are the creatures that symbolize the three kleshas. Panther and Queen admit they don't know what that is, and ask her to explain, so she does: the three kleshas, or poisons, are negative emotions that people are taught to overcome in Buddhism. The three kleshas are ignorance, greed, and hatred, symbolized by the pig, rooster, and snake respectively. Cattle muses that if they're negative emotions to overcome, that's another way of saying they're typical negative desires. Something occurs to him: "in our world, even this concept has already..."

Wonder tries to ask what he means, but Cattle apologizes, saying if he started to suggest something outrageous, they should just forget about it. Wind decides they'll have to just keep moving forward; she's been thinking all this over as well, but she hasn't drawn any conclusions yet. Oracle points out that finding the Core might give them some more information, too. Queen agrees, and says that whatever all this means, the Core is their priority right now.

Once more, the light shines through the mural, allowing them to progress.

Part 4-9

The group finds themselves in the deepest part of the pyramid, the summit, and Cattle notes that the Core should be just ahead. They navigate the distorted area, and reach the door at the end.

Part 4-10

You can watch the entirety of this part roughly fan-translated to English here.

Closer, seeing the Core, does an impression of Mona when *he* sees a Core, and Panther laughs, immediately understanding the joke. Closer then approaches to grab the Core, but the pyramid shakes, and the roof begins to open up, Oracle warning them it's going to collapse. In moments, the roof and walls have completely collapsed around them. Skull wonder if this is seriously going to be- Wind spots something in the sky and directs everyone's attention: it's a massive sphinx with a boar's head. Skull mutters that that's what he thought, and Queen asks if Oracle's okay. She replies there's no problem, and points out the face is different from last time. However, using this *again* is unforgivable; everyone, attack it! The sphinx- labeled as "Moha" in its text box- complains that it's tired, and asks why they came here, telling them not to bother it. Still, the fight proceeds. After getting through its first health bar, Oracle says to leave it to her, and hacks in a ballista. Closer is surprised, but Fox just comments that he didn't expect to use one of these again. Oracle says it's a bit confusing, but seems to claim this world is still connected to her (or her Palace?) in some way, so she created the ballista by "breaking through the distorted cognition". The team can then charge up and use the ballista to shoot Moha down temporarily. Once Moha is defeated, Cattle grabs the Core, but celebrations are cut short, as the pyramid begins to shake. Cattle notes that this is strange, as the place shouldn't collapse until *both* Cores are stolen. Closer says this still feels bad, and Oracle senses something strange in the sky. Fox sees it, too, and Wonder looks up and sees "That's...!" Wonder is then abducted, pulled into the air and off-screen by an unknown force resembling a UFO's tractor beam, to everyone's alarm. Closer calls out to him, and is abducted next. Wind wonders aloud if this is some kind of black hole, as the rest of them are all abducted at once. They land in a much more sci-fi location. Panther and Skull complain that that hurt, and Soy says it seems like everyone's fine, but asks what happened. Queen tells everyone to look around, and after a moment of doing so, Oracle says the mechanical design here is unmistakable. Offscreen, a familiar voice calls out that he's been waiting for them, expecting they'd arrive here. Another, less familiar voice comments that it's amazing that Mona was completely correct. Looking over, the group sees Mona jump down from atop the nearby shelves, accompanied by someone else dressed like a musketeer, who poses when she lands. Skull, calling out to Mona and Noir, is glad to see they're okay. Mona laughs and replies that of course they are, while Noir explains that the two of them waited here for everyone because they wouldn't be able to get further into this place without her. Wind asks what's going on, and Mona starts to answer, then suddenly realizes he has no idea who she is. Oracle tells him to listen up: she's a bishoujo with long black hair, and the head of her school's disciplinary committee. Mona complains that she still didn't give a *name*. Queen, pacifying, says that everyone's a bit confused right now, and they should introduce themselves and take a break. They just had a big fight, and they're all tired, right, Wonder? Wonder agrees, and Noir does as well, finally properly introducing herself as the camera pans away.

[real-life-cloud]

18 and your choice of ship?

hiii sorry this took so long!! i decided to pick momojirou ♥ i listened exclusively to rain ambience mixes of animal crossing music and p5 music while writing this lol

you can real the drabble on ao3 -> here

you can see the prompt list -> here

⛅

Prompt 18: Walking Home wordcount: 1.4k

During their final period for the day, Kyouka started to hear raindrops on the roof of UA. She doubted the others heard it—aside maybe Shouji—but her sensitive ears certainly did.

Internally, she cursed. She didn't bother checking the weather that morning, and didn't have an umbrella. 'Hopefully,' she thought, 'if I'm lucky, the rain will pass quickly.'

Jirou Kyouka wasn't known for being lucky.

That rainy, gloomy Thursday afternoon was no different. By the time she was about to leave, it had turned into a full-on downpour.

She could ask a classmate to share, or see if anyone had a spare. But an anxious and uncomfortable feeling swirled around in her gut at the thought of doing so. It was the first week of school, she barely knew any of them. What if they thought she was being too familiar with them? She fidgeted with her audio jacks as she watched the rainfall.

'No one is going to hate me for forgetting an umbrella.' She mentally reassured herself. It did nothing to get rid of the feeling.

"Wow, it's really coming down…" A voice to her left startled her out of her thoughts.

She turned to see Yaoyorozu staring out into the rain as well. A folded umbrella lay in her hands, as she was a smart person who probably checked the weather every day.

She really was so smart. And beautiful, and competent, and tall. Not that that was all it took for her to get a crush. She did not have a crush. Probably. She barely knew the girl. They hadn’t properly talked outside of a brief introduction. Who knew if she even remembered Kyouka’s name.

Yaoyorozu cocked her head to the side, her pretty black hair swaying along with it. It looked so glossy, yet never greasy. "Did you not bring an umbrella, Jirou?" 

"Ah, well." Kyouka faltered, feeling embarrassed. That answered one question. "I forgot to check the weather this morning, heh." She laughed.

Yaoyorozu's brows knit together, "You're a highschooler now, you really should be remembering things like this!" She chided, sounding more like a teacher than a student.

Kyouka's eyes fell to the floor. Of course it was one of her most responsible—and gorgeous—classmates that found her like this. She felt her face heat up.

A beat of silence, then, "Sorry, I didn't mean to, um, what I meant was-" Yaoyorozu sighed, clearly flustered. "You… walk to the nearest station, don't you, Jirou?"

Kyouka nodded dumbly.

"I could walk you there; if you wanted, that is."

Kyouka nodded again, more enthusiastically. Then, she finally remembered to speak, "If you don't mind."

She smiled, "Not at all." Then she opened up the umbrella and they stepped into the downpour together.

She was so close to her. She even smelled nice—like fresh cotton. Kyouka inhaled sharply when their shoulders brushed. God, this was so stupid. Was this really all it took for her to get a crush?

Yaoyorozu closed her eyes and inhaled, "I do love the smell of rain, though. Don't you?" She suddenly asked with a smile.

Kyouka fumbled for a moment, but only a moment. "Uh, yeah! Yeah, though, I think it's even better in the fall 'cause it, like, the leaves-"

"It mixes with the smell of fallen leaves! I feel exactly the same." She cut in excitedly. She was so cute that Kyouka couldn't even be upset at being cut off.

Kyouka giggled. Giggled. In what world did she ever giggle? “Yeah.”

Okay, it was definitely a crush.

They walked slowly, and Kyouka was glad for it. In part because her legs were much shorter than Yaoyorozu's, but also because it gave them more time together. Students around them were walking home, too. Some slowly, others running without umbrellas with the hope that if they were fast enough, they wouldn’t get too wet. Kyouka was almost one of them, a few minutes prior.

Green leaves poked through the pink cherry blossom trees, it would be summer before they knew it. She much preferred spring. As she looked around, she noticed the rain getting lighter.

She looked up at Yaoyorozu only to find her already looking back. They both quickly looked away.

Was Yaoyorozu just as curious about her? She bit the inside of her cheek at the thought—no, she shouldn’t get her hopes up like that. ‘Seriously Kyouka, you just realized you even have a crush on her…’ She chastised herself.

The rain, much gentler than before, filled the silence between them.

Yaoyorozu spoke up first. She cleared her throat daintily, “I apologize for earlier, I didn’t mean to start scolding you like that. I’m not your mother, or even your upperclassman! Sorry about that.” She said, sounding formal even when she looked embarrassed.

She was still worried about that? God, she was cute. “Hey, it’s fine, dude. I mean, I should know better by now—this used to happen all the time in middle school!” Kyouka laughed and tried for a reassuring smile, but Yaoyorozu just looked even more troubled. Her pace slowed then stopped.

“Goodness, would you just run in the rain? Didn’t you get sick?” She asked with a hand clutched on her chest.

Kyouka’s laugh turned more awkward, “Yes and yes.”

Even Yaoyorozu’s appalled face was cute. Her brows scrunched together and her hand shot up to cover her mouth—like a worried little granny, except she was a pretty, teenage girl. “Well, I’m glad I ran into you, then.” She huffed, then began to walk again.

Kyouka hummed as she followed suit, “Me too.”

“If you ever forget in the future, I can walk you to the station again. We can’t have you getting sick—every day of training is important!” She scolded, sounding older than she was yet again.

Kyouka laughed, “You sound like a teacher.”

The taller girl blushed at her teasing, “I don’t mean to…”

Kyouka continued to giggle, and the tension between them softened.The rain was slowing down to a drizzle, but Kyouka silently, selfishly hoped they stayed under the umbrella anyway.

Yaoyorozu changed the subject to schoolwork, and Kyouka found that talking to her was actually pretty easy. Especially when none of her other classmates were there to make fun of how obviously infatuated she was with the girl.

The train station came into view, and Kyouka repressed a sigh. Had they really gotten there so soon? On any other day, she’d be thankful for the short trip. But she worried���what if this easy closeness was confined under their umbrella? What if Kyouka came to school the next day and suddenly she didn’t know how to talk to her anymore? She didn’t want it to end.

But eventually, they made it to the train station doors. The two of them ducked under the covered entrance, but Kyouka noticed Yaoyorozu lag behind her. She turned to give her a questioning look, “Aren’t you coming inside?”

“Oh, no.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, “No, I get picked up by car, actually, so this is where we part ways.”

For a moment, she just stared. Then it set in.

“You didn’t have to walk me the whole way!” She blurted out, waving her hands in a flustered motion. Why didn’t she think of that? Everyone knew Yaoyorozu was a rich girl, of course she got picked up by car.

Kyouka was so busy in her own head that she didn’t notice the other girl step forward, and jolted in surprise when she grabbed her hand. Her hands were so soft, her nails perfectly manicured. Her fingertips were cold.

“I wanted to.” She said, oddly serious. Her expression melted into a smile that had Kyouka’s chest swirling. “I never get to walk home with friends, it was nice. So don’t worry about it, okay? I already texted my chauffeur to pick me up here instead.”

A sleek black car pulled up, perfectly on time. Yaoyorozu gestured to the vehicle as if to say, “See?”

A mustached man in a suit emerged from the driver’s side to open the backseat door for her with a bow. She was rich rich, huh? Yaoyorozu thanked the man politely, then turned back to Kyouka one last time. “It was nice talking to you, Jirou. I hope we can get to know each other better.”

Kyouka stammered out a, “Me too.” And then she was driving away.

She decided right then: she was never going to bring an umbrella to school again.

[brionnnne]

HC that Sebastian SDV listens to a very broad range of music, like he's kind of all over the place. He likes classic emo stuff (MCR, Panic!, PtV, La Dispute, Movements, [Nineteen is a big one,] etc.)) with goth and new wave stuff in the mix, as well (Depeche Mode, Bauhaus, Cocteau Twins, Sisters Of Mercy, etc.) Lots and lots of instrumentals in his catalogue (HOME, LUNE, etc., the sorts of songs you find on YouTube searching for playlists); just a bunch of things to play while he works (ex. Isolation by Ichika Nito). Listens to jazz, lo-fi, ambiance, etc. It doesn't have to be when he's working, but that's most of it. If he's writing, coding, probably even if he's reading, honestly. Real thinkin' music. Listens to the music that plays when you take exams in P4 (Specialist) P3 (During The Test...) and P5 (Life Goes On) unironically. Type of person who needs music on to work, so he's almost always got headphones on and something playing lightly in the background. Also listens to dream pop and darkwave. Coldwave, as well, definitely. Them Are Us Too. Molchat Doma. Can see him liking Gost, Carpenter Brut, and similar things; likes the horror inspo. Tons of video gamey things, of course; OSTs and covers aplenty. Listens to songs with titles like for when i feel better (zenshou) or lonely again (Ichika Nito) or fool (frad) or sleep it off (leon chang) or i need to be alone (girl in red). Freaks (Surf Curse). Sleep Through Ur Alarms (Lontalius). The whole of Youth by Citizen. When You Die (MGMT). Feel like he listens to Vocaloid, as well. Kikuo, mostly. Dark Festival, or Song of the Night. Things that are kind of freeing, if spooky. Probably Utsu-P. For the angst. When he's happy, listens to things like Friday I'm In Love (The Cure), Til Now (potsu), or It's U (Cavetown).

Goes easily towards mood music in general. If he's listening to music that sounds happy, then he's happy, and if he's listening to music that sounds angsty, then he's likely to be upset. Enjoys immersing himself in whatever he's feeling, and also feeling as if someone understands. I think he only starts listening to the sweeter stuff, especially in the sense of relationships, after meeting the farmer, though. Before that, I think he kind of cringed at it and wouldn't let it touch his playlists just because he was very cynical about all that. After he gets to know them, I think he definitely changes his mind; finds himself gravitating towards that stuff. Makes a couple playlists that make him think of them. Things he feels or things that remind him of you.

[acacia-may]

Rose Garden Headcanons [Valentine's Day 2023]

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! A fun fact about me: my family has run a florist shop for nearly five generations now, so I have a lot of random flower-related knowledge which tends to pop up in my writing and which has inspired this event! 💐I hope you all enjoy it! 🥰

Please choose a character and build a bouquet from the flowers below by following these few rules:

You may select up to 5 headcanons per character, per request

You can mix and match from the various categories (i.e. Noelle Silva: Y3, Y4, P2, R3, and R5) or choose all from the same category (i.e. Leopold Vermillion: Pink Roses).

You may request more than one character and/or can submit more than one request.

Requests may be may anonymously if you wish.

Any characters (or OCs) from any and all fandoms I've previously written about are fair game for this event so please pick whatever you'd like!

Requests can be submitted from now until midnight on February 15th. Headcanons will begin to be posted on February 14th.

🌹🌹 Thank you so much for your requests! 🌹🌹

YELLOW ROSES [Friendship Headcanons] 💛

Yellow roses symbolize friendship and joy so choose from the list below for some friendship themed headcanons

Y1. What do they consider the most important quality in a friend? What qualities do they bring to a friendship?

Y2. Do they make friends easily and have a lot of friends or are they more selective in their choice of friends and only have a few?

Y3. Have they ever had a best friend? Was there a specific moment when they knew this person was their best friend?

Y4. How do they most like to express love and affection for their friends? Is it the same or different as how they most like to receive affection in return?

Y5. What role do they take in their friend group (i.e. "The Mom-Friend," "The Troublemaker," "The Glue that Holds Everyone Together" ect.)? Is this different than the role they think that they take?

PINK ROSES [Family Headcanons] 💗

Pink roses symbolize admiration and gratitude so choose from the list below for family-themed headcanons (Note: Found Families can and will also be included in this category)

P1. When was a time they felt truly loved by someone in their family?

P2. What is one of their fondest family memories?

P3. How does their family express love to each other in general? (For instance, are they particularly doting, complimentary, or touchy-feely? Do they go all out for birthdays and other special occasions?)

P4. Do they particularly look up to or admire someone in their family? What do they admire about them? On the flip side, does anyone in their family particularly look up to or admire them?

P5. Do they want a family/children of their own one day? What kind of parent would they be, and how would they express love to their children if they had them?

RED ROSES [Romance Headcanons] ❤️

Probably the most iconic of all roses, red roses symbolize romantic love and affection so choose from the list below for romance-themed headcanons

R1. Are they a particularly romantic person? What do they consider to be the ideal romantic gesture?

R2. How would they tell you they loved you? (For instance, would they use words--planned out in a speech or accidentally blurted out? Or would they prefer to show you they loved you through their actions?)

R3. What do they look for in a romantic relationship? What would make them feel the most loved and supported by a significant other?

R4. How would they react to being in love? Would they want to keep it a secret--would they even be able to? Would they be awkward about it or take it all in stride?

R5. What is a love song that really suits them and why?

[quilna]

Currently obsessing over the persona series you know how it is and i was thinking up on my persona au for tgs and brainstorming some ideas while listening to music you also know how it is but then i remembered! Theres also ANOTHER person who is equally as insane as i when it comes to the persona games and also has their own persona au for tgs! Hello! I wish to hear your random headcanons and facts and just random bits and bobs on your au. Even stuff that is probably considered barely important or noticeable. Give me it all! Feed me knowledge to satisfy my brain! (Please)

Persona aus are just so fitting for jekyll and hyde! I'm honestly extremely surprised that theres not really any persona aus out there considering how well the series fits with the whole... well everything of the main themes of jekyll and hyde! Hiding parts of yourself and having them take personification and be uncovered whether you want to or not is mostly the two main themes of both persona and jekyll and hyde so why not mix them together?

Hello fellow Persona enjoyer!

First of all, YEAH! Persona aus go with Jekyll and Hyde just incredibly well for two completely different medias. Physical incarnations of all the inner feelings that you repress and don't admit to anyone, not even yourself? Having to face them and maybe even fight with them? They just work very well.

I've already said most of my ideas for the persona au and, unfortunately, I haven't come up with anything majorly new since then but I can think about smaller headcanons and stuff that I haven't considered before

Here's the past information I've given in case you haven't read any of it before:

And with that, onto headcanons

Major Plot Headcanons

Comic Occurances

The Persona au does follow a lot of the comic. Aside from Jekyll's experiment to split the human psyche having a different result, they're still dealing with mad science and society at large hating them, Moreau still comes chasing Frankenstein (But the situation ends without a fire because there's no Hyde around), and Jekyll still gets very stressed over the exhibition. But great news! Jekyll's mental state is now connected to a whole separate world so a poor mental state for Jekyll means a horrific and dangerous imbalance between worlds that could destroy both worlds as we know it rather than just an imbalance between his two forms!

Whoopsy. Let's hope he doesn't get back together with Lanyon, letting him become happy and creating the final crack in his mental state that could cause the end times themselves.

...Whoopsy

Hyde's Powers

As I've mentioned before, Hyde is a shapeshifter - his form as 'Hyde' isn't his original form but one he made up because he wanted to separate himself away from his identity as Jekyll as much as possible. Perhaps even from seeing Eli in the other world once and copying his appearance, not knowing what that form would come to mean to Rachel.

Hyde can shapeshift into any person, whether made-up or real. His clothes remain the same when he changes and his eyes are always yellow so he tragically can't mess around with Lanyon and the gang too much with his powers. However, he does use his powers to relentlessly mock people, turning into them and doing impressions. It can also be used in palaces - other shadows don't tend to be bright enough to be suspicious about the changed clothes so he can change into other cognitions to sneak into places.

He can't change into anything non-human - However, if the shadow ruling a palace views people in some different way (For example Rachel's palace cognitions tend to be a lot of cute, little, helpless, and very fragile animals), Hyde can turn into that form solely in the palace due to the owner's cognition of humans.

Lanyon and the Wild Card

Lanyon meanwhile is the least willing Wild Card in existence and probably the worst you can be at it.

He gets freaked out at the Velvet room and Igor and probably does his best to avoid needing to go there. He also probably sucks at talking to shadows to convince them to join his party. Overall, it takes a long time before he picks up more than one or two persona at once out of his sheer reluctance. If he wasn't forced into the other world every night, he probably wouldn't go at all.

Bonus points if I include the headcanon where people's personas can talk to them constantly because Lanyon would just be having the worst time in that case.

Rachel: I think it's very nice that we have our Personas to talk to, it's like we're never alone!

Lanyon, listening to about 10 voices bickering in his mind over whether or not to tell Jekyll his feelings: .............Yeah, sure thing Rachel.

Jekyll, with only one persona but that persona is Hyde: ................

Hyde in Jekyll's body

When Hyde ends up in Jekyll's body by accident, it goes about the same as the comic right now with Hyde causing mayhem. Jekyll is also in there for the ride and, while he's not having the best time, he also gets to be incredibly confused on top of this.

For fun, since the connection between the two of them is already very messed up by Jekyll's experiments, Hyde can possibly continue taking control of Jekyll's body when he pleases even after he's become a proper Persona and everyone who knows about it has to constantly try to stop him doing anything weird. After all they're still dealing with the comic-typical mad science hatred from society and, if anyone catches on to the other world (and especially how dangerous it is) or Hyde, they'll all be in a lot of trouble.

The moment Jekyll's eyes go yellow, about 10 people tackle him at once.

Navigators

Hyde gets to be the navigator first because he doesn't have a persona to fight with like everyone else - he's basically the Teddy of the group - but that will eventually get replaced with someone with a proper persona for it. I'm not sure who the navigator will be yet but perhaps Ito? Or maybe Jasper since he's very good at reading people and all? Unclear.

Minor Headcanons

Rachel has absolutely brought her sewing supplies to the other world to attempt to dress Hyde. If there wasn't such a time constraint to their visits, she would have succeeded.

Hyde's favourite place to visit is a palace in the other world that takes the form of a bar which can give you any drinks you could possibly dream of. He's been kicked out numerous times but keeps shapeshifting into new forms to get back in

Frankenstein is definitely bitter that Lanyon gets the super cool powers and not her. She probably got even more ticked off to find he actively avoids using them as much as possible. (Worst of all is when she finds out that he does his utmost best to avoid using any persona with the same arcana as her. That probably leads to an outright fight)

Most of the lodgers inventions probably work in the other world whether they work in the real world or not due to the cognitive nature of it. As long as the frightened society believes they would work, they do. Unfortunately, this usually means they're more on the dangerous, weaponry side than anything useful because that's how society sees them but, hey, at least the lodgers can have whatever cool weapons they want.

Speaking of the lodgers, they would absolutely swarm on the cognitive world to check out what it can and can't do, hauling inventions over to find out what they do in the space of another world. The main gang have to keep the other world a secret just to stop someone running off and getting themselves killed in the name of discovery

Rachel's cooking and baking definitely has a healing effect in the other world. If it wasn't for Jasper, the lodgers would be curious over why she can be seen hefting around tables-worth of pastries, cookies, and chicken legs around at near-midnight. (Lanyon, tragically, doesn't get such an excuse as he buys bulkloads of weapons and armour off lodgers in exchange for the weirdest things that he just seems to keep obtaining like multiple busts of Frankenstein (?) or piles and piles of birdcages (???) or plants literally nobody on earth has ever seen before (?!?!?!) The gossip mill is certainly churning.)

Arcanas

Arcanas aren't something I've considered in the past because I wasn't sure what determined each arcana for each person but they are a major part of Persona and, therefore, a fun thing to fill in for the au. Possibly less interesting from the perspective of someone reading this, hence why I've left it to the end but you did say you wanted all the little bits and bobs so...

Fool - Lanyon

Obviously, as the wildcard, Lanyon gets the Fool arcana. Looking into it some more on the Fandom wiki, "The Fool is often called a fool because of his lack of understanding of the world, yet that is also his greatest strength, as his actions are so radically different from others that it impacts the world in ways no one would imagine." I never thought about it before but it does fit Lanyon in other ways too as the character in TGS who is less involved in the mad science side of things. He's more of an outsider to the world that he is currently in and holds less understanding of it than the other lodgers but it also makes him more open to making different decisions.

Yes, this role could fit Jasper much better but I like Lanyon a lot and, therefore, I am gifting him Protagonist privileges and that means the Wild Card. Favouritism.

Magician - Hyde

Next arcana needs to be the Magician since they are generally the right hand man to the Fool. "Characters of the Magician Arcana are normally bright and ambitious yet arrogant. They lack purpose or a dream, which they normally find through the help of their friendship of the respective protagonist." in the Megami Tensei wiki which would probably fit Hyde. He's arrogant, ambitious but lacking purpose besides running around having fun.

Moreover, Magicians are "strong in magic and illusion." which is fitting for how I've made Hyde a shapeshifter. Given that he's Jekyll's shadow and Jekyll himself tends to hide himself and project whatever version of himself he thinks people want to see, an illusionist seems fitting indeed. (Also, Magicians apparently get an innate boost to fire magic and, uh *cough* Hyde's arson *cough*)

Lovers - Rachel

Next is Rachel who I think would fit the Lovers arcana? Though it might be more of a stretch. "The theme of the Lovers Arcana revolves around choice, but the concept normally leaves them in what is secretly a dilemma with no right choice. With the help of the protagonists, the characters take a step back and find a balance between both options, or outright change their perspective on the choices they need to make, reconsidering what truly needs to be sacrificed." Which I think would fit Rachel's dilemma with her brother Eli - needing to find a balance between smothering the people around her and dealing with the pain of her loss? She does, after all, voice in the comic that she always seems to end up going too far and driving people away, wanting to stop but being unable to because then she has to face "the hole" where Eli used to be again. A perspective that is outright changed in the comic by finding Ito, someone who genuinely wants to be fussed over.

Moreover "A commonality among individuals of the Lovers Arcana is their popularity, cheerfulness, and their emphasis on social interaction. Lovers characters are almost always the "popular" ones, if not, then they are the "spirited" ones." which seems to fit Rachel? She's certainly spirited.

Death - Frankenstein

Then, of course, Frankenstein is the Death arcana, no question. She's associated with death because of her experiments and all and Death arcanas' "lives have a strong focus on someone that they care for dearly, but are separated from due to some form of tragedy. They carry great guilt inside for this tragedy, despite carrying little to no responsibility for causing it. It's through the bond with the protagonist that they're able to forgive themselves and look to the future with hope." Which, yeah, Frankenstein and Elizabeth. Admittedly, Frankenstein is very much involved in causing Elizabeth's death but I feel like I need to make some stretches here. She has the guilt, she has the tragedy, and she has the death.

Hermit - Jasper

Jasper I think should be the Hermit arcana? "Hermit Arcana characters share the commonality of placing themselves in situations that hide them from the public eye. Hermit individuals hide away from others or act in more supportive roles rather than putting themselves in the spotlight." Jasper supports Jekyll in many ways but dislikes putting himself in the spotlight. Admittedly, I think Frankenstein's Creature could also be this arcana but I also don't think they would get involved at all in anything going on.

Empress - Ito

Ito I think would be the Empress arcana? "They are often stoic, but still present a high degree of care and concern towards others, and like queens, they are mature, elegant, often wealthy, and dangerous when challenged." Ito is stern but still caring towards others and I can imagine her being dangerous when she wants to be but I'll admit that I'm less sure on this one if anyone else has a more fitting suggestion.

"The Empress Arcana often find ways to break out of their strict authority by opening up to their personal, normal and emotional selves; organic traits that do not conform to their responsibilities, expectations and image." Which I could relate to her opening up to Rachel and wanting to do girly things with her?

Lucy could also fit the Empress arcana, being wealthy, mature, and dangerous. Heck, she's even called Queen Lucy. However, she doesn't seem to have any journey she needs to take about opening up to herself - she seems pretty comfortable as the person she is and she seems pretty able to open up without help.

Temperance - Jekyll

Then, of course, Jekyll. I'm going with Temperance for him but I'm sure there are other fitting arcanas. "Characters of the Temperance Arcana are often struggling to find a balance in their lives and in their hobbies, dealing with severe stress but putting great effort into hiding it. This imbalance and stress come from the absence of someone that they greatly cared for, usually through death." Hiding severe stress and balance, huh? The absence of someone they cared for which I'm arguing could be Lanyon and their relationship.

Sure, nobody died but it's an arcana about balancing one's life, it fits very well with Jekyll.

Social links

From there, arcana gets a bit more difficult because we have a lot of lodgers and I don't know who would and wouldn't be involved yet. Neither do we know a lot about them so there would need to be a few headcanons involved.

However, the tarots come from social links, from whoever has a bond with the Wild Card, that being Lanyon, so I suppose throughout the au, Lanyon would need to slowly befriend a bunch of people. Which would be interesting because I don't think Lanyon would want to befriend them. Another way that he is very reluctant to be a Wild Card.

I think with the whole mystery going on with the other world and such, Lanyon would be reluctantly forced to ask around in the society to try to figure out what is going on, accidentally forcing him to befriend people along the way and learn more about them and whoops, you're friends now.

Further than that?

There's a lot of gaps because my focus lies mostly on Lanyon, Hyde, and Rachel and I'm willing to hear other people's ideas if anyone has any! Palaces, party members, headcanons, personas, arcana, just anything anyone has ideas on. Persona has a lot of ideas that one needs to fill to the point where I'm learning that making an au for it is so expansive that it feels like a multiple person job.

Moreover, if you ever want to talk about your own persona au, anon, I would be very excited to hear it too!!! I would love to hear what other ideas people can come up with because there's a lot of room in a persona au for ideas! Just the question of who takes the role of the Wild Card opens up a ton of possibilities, not to mention which Persona games you want to take the most inspiration from!

Anyway, thank you for the chance to ramble, anon, this was fun! There's probably even more I could think of if left for a few days to stew but I don't want to leave this response too late

[semi-imaginary-place]

started watching p5t consensus seems that's it's on par with other persona sidegames so alright but not good on its own. seems like its taking the worst of p5 aping on the language of revolution while not engaging with any sort of actual rebellion. with its like middleschool understanding of the french rebellion nobles evil rebels good. shame i like grid tactics games guess it'd time to watch a playthrough and see for myself.

lavenza looks older. like in p5 she was like half joker's height. but she also looked like a child because yald was messing with her power so maybe this is closer to her true appearance.

wtf. why does his chibi make him look older. his chibi looks like 45 but his full sprites make him look like he's in his 20s.

wedding ring as slave collar. huh.

...this is all an elaborate capture the flag game.

Toshiro acts like he's 45. but he's the youngest diet member so i think he's between 28-36.

Getting the impression toshiro is the main character of this game. Everything in the collective unconscious related back to him. The thing i cant figure out is how erina relates to him.

I do like how the war general is going around looking like buddha and talking like a love cult thats christianitys deal.

Been wondering the party treats the little hat dudes as normal so I've been wondering if they see them as humans and the generic sprites was for the audience or if they actually are little hat dudes and everyone is cool with that.

Hmm so erina is some version of toshiro's highschool classmate that explains why she's phantom thief age. But why was she in the first world?

Yeah this is all toshiro all the way down. Finished with the school and so far tactica hasn't really impressed me.

What is UP with makoto's characterization in this game. The others are mostly fine but for her the violence anger gag is like half her character here damn tactica writers hate makoto.

Oh eri lived thought she was dead dead for a minute. What with erina's whole deal.

And since eri isnt actually here to affect things this is all from how toshiro sees things. That means he forgot or couldn't accept what eri actually said (rude).

Huh this shadows eyes are white (inverted). Weird because in the first curscene they were yellow but every appearance afterwards has been white.

Oh i like that take for erina. Whats interesting is this is the only example i can think of where the user and persona are different genders. In most instances if the persona user is female the persona is feminine and if the user is male the persona is masculine, with a few more gender neutral persona designs in the mix.

Look im all for fighting gods but this feels a little forced.

P5T is meh. It's mid for persona side games which themselves are not as good as the main games. Tactica has fun interactions if someone already likes the p5 cast but beyond that it doesn't have much. Story is kinda weak i mean it's ok but there's also not really anything really engaging about it. I did like how it was essentially a toshiro vignette instead of trying to juggle multiple characters and stories, nice and focused.

It seems dlc is another entirely separate side story (a side story to a side story) but maingame didn't impress me with it's writing so i probably won't look into this. I kinda want to play tactica because i like tactics games but no way is this game worth $60? 70?, It's worth like 15$ maybe 20.

Hold up you telling me toshiro's persona is THE CHE GUEVARA. and they queered his gender and turned him into a woman.

[videoplanchette]

I'm having a lot of mixed feelings about the Persona 3 Remake and how it is still not the definitive edition. It's just a remake of base Persona 3 with not even the compensation of the Female protagonist like the PSP rerelease got.

(which if you didn't know, you actually can't talk to a majority of your party without the Female protagonist so objectively p3p's female route has more narrative focus and weight than BASE Persona 3. So if new players want to know Akihiko, Junpei, Ken, Or Shinjiro ((arguably the most important narrative beat in the whole game that jump-starts everyone's character arc)) like they can with their party members in P4 and P5-- that's just a let down.)

Instead they're getting a remake of an incomplete game from over decade ago. For, I assume, a new game price of 70-80 dollars upon release where they would then leave it hanging on for dear life at 50 dollars for the rest of eternity.

Regardless of my own opinion of the bonus campaign offered in Persona 3 FES-- it's at least more content and more story. It's more canon context that people need to understand the other spin-offs. It also would have been a great opportunity to tweak things about that campaign that a lot of players had issues with.

[cuntstable]

top 5 jojos and why

1. josuke….. i think jolynes better written honestly but HES MY LITTLE GUY…… if you followed me in early 2020 you would have seen how attached i was to him and i still am….. hes just so fun to me and endearing like thats all. i like the way he contrasts kira as his total opposite and the quote jotaro has about him having the ”kindest most generous gift of all” or whatever with his stand being able to heal others…. hes just my little guy :) and also hes funny i love every time he and okuyasu are on screen

2. jolyne… like i said i think shes THE best written jojo the same way puccis the best written villain…. or at least theyre both the most INTERESTING to me thematically…. i mean shes the final jojo of her world, the inheritor of the will (both real and thematic) thats been passed through each part of the story so far and she grows so much as a person through the story, from a scared girl into a woman literally willing to sacrifice herself so that one small child she loves might escape (also the parallers she has to jonathan…the first and last jojo….. aaaah). i also love how she connects to the idea of memories as a driving force in stocean with her whole character development hinging on her recontextualization of her memories of her father and his abandoment of her… perfect protagonist for her story. love her i could rant about her forever. also shes silly and fun :)

3. hmmm…….. i think overall jotaro maybe. i liked him ok in p3 and i liked him a lot in p4 but after stocean i really love him…. i think he definitely slowly became not only one of arakis best characters as the parts went on but also hes so tragic to me…. like every jojo was affected by their journeys but his whole life really was just ruined by dio and he never got over that…. and the way that ties go jolyne….. im thinking about it always

4. johnny!! i like him…. similarily to jolyne i love how he changes and learns through out the story…… hes absolutely not a static character and i found his pain over his past (and of the abandonment and betrayal he felt towards his dad) and the fear of faith cathing up to him to be really heartwrenching… also i love how absolutely ruthless he is like some other joestars are also Quite Brutal (giorno..) but the killing instinct he had…. whoah. cool. also ik it wasnt handled 100% perfectly with the way the story ends especially but it was just really cool to have a disabled character as the lead!! hes cool

5. giogio…… i have a lot of mixed feelings about him but i do care…… cant get into it rn but much like everything else in p5 i feel like hes SOOO interesting but kinda unsatisfyingly written…. but i do like him. breaking faith and gaining god like powers through a funny ladybug stand :)

[auncyen]

ooooh for the trope thing, that one specific kind of canon divergence AU where canon characters are swapped around :D

This is a tough one lmfao I want to rate it higher because I think it's an interesting concept, but my general experience with it has it sitting at D for me in persona fandom. Black Mask aus in p5 fandom usually make me pause, read the summary, and then keep scrolling. I just don't usually find them convincing about why the other character became Black Mask and how they're a threat without the conspiracy or alternatively why they're working with the conspiracy. (ex. one of the most convincing AUs for Akiren's Black Mask/Akechi's PT characterization tacked on new metaverse powers way bigger than what either Akechi or canon Akiren has to explain how Akiren was a huge threat working truly solo.) So I feel like that counts a D. Every so often I'll read the summary and tags, think "sure I'll give that a try" and browse, and I don't think they're all bad... I just still don't have a Black Mask au that's like YEAH, THAT'S TOTALLY HOW IT'D GO DOWN. I'm not the biggest fan of arcanaswap, either, which usually does the entire cast and seems to make characterization shifts to fit what the arcana's usually been associated with. When you examine each character, sure, there are different arcanas you can associate them with (and I've argued for swapping Ann, Makoto and Caroline/Justine around!) If I see the entire cast being changed I assume I'm not going to like it.

That said in general with fandom I find "what if" interesting, and "what if this character ended up in completely different faction because someone else reached out to them (or similar)" interesting. Hell I've toyed with the idea of an AU where Akiren is functionally the Black Mask but working directly with Yaldabaoth, an AU where Haru was fumbling through the Metaverse and giving people something close to psychotic breakdowns but not quite (between it being Haru and her element being psi I wanna say like. she just gives them waking nightmares, some of them might actually look like changes of heart with the victim screaming confessions to the people they've hurt pleading for it to stop) before her father discovered what she was doing and directed her targets with a mix of "see how corrupt this guy is?"/"you must do your part to help the Okumura name too, Haru (UNLESS YOU WANNA GET MARRIED OFF)" until it goes too far. So like I'm not completely opposed, I'm just... skeptical.

I think the best way to sum this up is that I'm more likely to like a roleswap if it's kind of incidental/secondary to the "what if X's life went differently in this way, how would things work out", with a big focus on characterization, and the more characters that are being shuffled around the more likely it is I won't be interested.

[lorz-ix]

Persona 3 Reload (2024)

Totally a "biggest persona 3 fan plays it for the first time" energy. I've seen the movies, I've read the manga, I've even played the old versions of the game, but I'm terrible with RPGs, so I never actually finished the original, despite really loving it. I had to constantly remind myself to slowly chip away at this remake, especially during the relatively boring parts, but in the end, I did it, and I'm kinda proud of myself. Still need to try the DLC though...

The original versions of P3 get a bunch of criticism ever since P4 and P5 kinda showed us the amount of quality of life stuff the previous game was missing. Plus, because Persona 3 FES and Persona 3 Portable both have different additional content, there's no "definitive" version of Persona 3 you can play, each of them is missing something. And tragically, while a lot of us hoped that would change, that remains the case.

Reload offers tons of quality of life improvements and extra content. If we count the Aigis DLC (it sucks that you have to fork over an extra 35 bucks for it), it's a good replacement for FES, but it's still missing all the content that Portable added. Most of the gameplay saw features added, it's especially noticeable during combat and exploration, where characters get all sorts of new abilities and special moves. Perhaps to the point that the party is a bit too powerful, I definitely felt like the game wasn't re-balanced around their new toolset, as nice as it is. I won't lie, doing massive stat-boost combos by mixing these special moves was a blast, but they also trivialized plenty of fights that should have been more challenging.

Every new story event that was added was a plus in my book. It would have probably been too difficult to keep everything from the original game and also give notable characters the social links they were missing, but the "totally not social links" they gave Junpei, Shinji and the rest of the gang were still nice, a good compromise I think.

In terms of visuals and sound, there are very few things to complain about. The game looks great, it's very much taking after P5 with its stylized menus and updated artstyle, though an argument could be made about the "vibe" of the original art and menus no longer being fully there. The re-recorded soundtrack isn't half bad, but it feels like the new vocalist isn't quite in her element in these old tracks. She does much better in the brand new ones, like the new battle theme and opening, which might be a bit too "poppy" for, again, the original "vibe" of P3, but I still quite liked them. Full Moon Full Life and its animation are no Burn My Dread, sure, but it's a nice track, and it most importantly succeeds at conveying the meaning of the game itself.

In conclusion, I'm glad I pushed through and actually finished one of my favorite RPGs out there. I'm sad this massive opportunity to deliver the perfect Persona 3 so far has been wasted, and I hate that the epilogue from the old ps2 re-release is a paid DLC worth 50% extra, and I especially despise how much of a scam the collector's edition was (it was a birthday gift, shush). But I'm relatively happy with what we got. After all, Persona 3 Portable has also been released for modern platforms, so we're well served in terms of accessibility, as flawed as the actual product is.

[p5x-theories]

Imo this new version of Mont fit way much better what i think might be the new art direction toward the metaverse costumes, as i noticed the last 6-7 phantom idols we got, are more focused on their wants/desires than the others, especially the first batch Like, Mont's original design is pretty, but its just a white shirt and shorts with some pizzaz. Yuki's...Lets be honest, is a mess, which it might be done on purpose since her mother is so controlling, but the mix asymmetry, phantom of the opera mask, knight left motive and Japanese style AOA ...Fleuret is wearing a butler costume.

While i sound a bit negative here, im actually really happy that the character design is finding a good footing! Im a huge fan of character design that tell you what a character is about! (I add that Yuki, Mont and Fleuret's design might be leftovers from the first project before p5x became what we know now, so that might be the reason why the look a bit off)

Putting everything else aside for a moment, I have to defend Fleuret, that is not a butler costume. I can sort of see the resemblance if you just quickly glance over him, but to me it is far more reminiscent of a old-fashioned revolutionary (as in, the kind of thing people wore around the era of the Revolutionary War here in the US). I won't say it's a 1:1 match there either, but that's the impression I get, and you can't just come into my inbox and slander my friend Seiji, haha.

Okay, with that out of the way, my answer to this got pretty long, heh, so I'm going to put it under a cut:

I do think this is a bit more of a matter of character analysis, interpretation, and personal taste than you're making it out to be, though your own opinion on each costume is entirely valid (as long as you're not just watering them down, haha)! As an artist and fan of character design myself, and someone who's taken some classes about it, I'd also say I enjoy character designs that represent who they are, but I think there's some nuance to it. And context is really important!

For one, like you said, Yuki (and most likely Fleuret and Mont) was originally designed for Codename: X, made obvious by her featuring on the promotional image for it, haha. Yuki, Fleuret, and Mont's designs feel more like thieves to me, in the way that the original P5 team does, without too many extra bells, whistles, or details compared to how some gacha designs can get. They were meant to be P5 characters, basically, not spinoff characters!

Mont's may seem a bit plain, but it didn't really need to be anything more than what it is. I agree that Yuki's can come across as a bit of a mess at first, but it's actually really grown on me. I think the philosophy here wasn't to tell you what they literally are (ex. Ryuji isn't literally a pirate, he's a former track star, so in the same way, Yukimi's outfit shouldn't be an aspiring lawyer) but to define their will of rebellion visually, in a way that feels like something you could imagine a thief wearing. However you feel about, for instance, Panther's catsuit, it's meant to reflect a thief who uses sex appeal to get what she wants, because that's how the writers chose to visualize Ann's sense of rebellion.

It's the same way here- Mont's outfit works for an ice skating thief, without being too flashy or superfluous, because Mont's not the type of person to be like that. Yuki's outfit seems Phantom of the Opera-themed, for reasons that may have gotten reworked over time, but you can still trace them back to her rebellion against her mother, and with armor because she's meant to be a fighting character that takes hits. Assuming Fleuret is meant to evoke a revolutionary, the ties to rebellion there are obvious, even when we don't have as complete an idea of who he is.

I'll agree that Yuki's AOA finisher doesn't really fit the rest of her theme, but it does fit her character- despite her differences with her mother, it's a complicated relationship, and she still has a fondness for traditional Japanese motifs. In general, I think the perceived messiness of Yuki's entire Metaverse aesthetic reflects a messy, complicated relationship and rebellion.

I suppose Dancer Mont's appearance does fit her desires more directly than the original Mont's does, but in a way that's sort of like saying Summer Tomoko's does too because it's the outfit her job on the beach gave her to wear. Obviously, wearing literally what they wear while fulfilling their desires in the real world is going to more directly represent their desires! But it loses some of the Phantom Thief-y-ness of the original, and that's why it's an alternate version, not a replacement.

Honestly, in my personal opinion, as pretty as Dancer Mont's outfit is, it's way less interesting than a proper Metaverse outfit like the original Mont has. It doesn't tell me anything I don't already know, or give me much of anything new to speculate on. I like a Metaverse outfit that isn't just the obvious choice, which is what Dancer Mont's outfit would be if that were her actual Metaverse outfit rather than an alternate version. Maybe that's why I'm so quick to remind everyone that the Dancer/Summer versions aren't replacements, heh!

And again, in the end, it's partially personal taste. I like character designs that make me think, and give me details to think about, rather than just telling me outright what the character is. But Dancer Mont seems to literally be her performance outfit, in the same way that Summer Motoha and Tomoko wear their literal swimsuits, and that's okay for what they're meant to be! I don't dislike Dancer Mont's outfit, but in my mind, it's certainly no replacement for the original, either.