#THE SQUAD

[roborain]

Inktober day 6 - trek

[godisarepublican]

[vashtijoy]

inaccessible scenes: after the engine room

Many sequences in P5R are not deleted exactly—they're inaccessible. They're in game, theoretically, but game mechanics make it impossible for you ever to see them.

For instance, there are a bunch of TV shows that exist, that are presumably in game, but you can't ever get to the TV to watch them—usually because Morgana makes it impossible for you to go downstairs.

A couple of these scenes happen around the end of Shido's Palace, around the Akechi fight. Once you go into the engine room, you cannot leave until you defeat Akechi. You can't use a Goho-M, you can't take the route out. You are well and truly stuck.

Plus, once you have defeated him, the game funnels you to the Treasure, and any attempt to (say) go to a safe room will again be cockblocked by Morgana.

This means that the last two safe room meetings in Shido's Palace are never accessible. And one of them is important. Let's have a look.

We all know about the meetings—you go to the table in the safe room, you talk to the team, you ask how your progress is. They say some shit. It's usually worth a regular check-in:

The first inaccessible script appears to be triggered by entering the engine room. You get it after going in, but before fighting the Cleaner—so presumably after fighting his mooks, while you chase him about:

Morgana: We found the engine room, so all we need to do now is get our hands on the letter of introduction. Haru: It would be nice if we could avoid a fight in the process... Yusuke: Hm, given his attitude up to this point, that is highly unlikely...

The second one appears to kick in after the Akechi fight. After Akechi has given his life to save you:

Yusuke: Goro Akechi... I believe he may have been the greatest casualty of Shido's actions... Makoto: Was there no other way? Ann: We'll avenge him when we take Shido down. Come on, we have the letters now—let's do this!

"the greatest casualty of Shido's actions", huh? And it's inaccessible, of course. Leaving the engine room will warp you to the locked treasure room door. If you run to a safe room, Morgana won't let you go in. If you try afterwards, you've been updated to the "we need to send the calling card" script. You never see this.

But I'd bet money it's there. Just out of reach. Just another instance of the PTs understanding Akechi, and mourning him, rather than (say) hating him and being glad he's gone.

one more thing

Most people probably know that you can lurk mournfully by the shutters in the engine room. Nonetheless, here it is:

[hussyknee]

A foreign lobby group wielding this much influence is insane. Coupled with the fact that most journalists, students, academics, activists and artists being expelled, fired, persecuted and disproportionately penalised are BIPOC, it seems like white supremacists are using this opportunity as a concerted effort to push minorities out of every institution of influence. It's nothing less than a bipartisan attack by the white establishment on civil rights.

If y'all do not fight like hell for these people US minorities will be fucked no matter how much you vote.

[street-of-mercy]

Fallout & Cinnamon Roll Squad

[homuraholic]

打了光的神圣六重奏 by 高粱Sorghum [pixiv] [twitter]

♡ reprint permission was granted by the artist. 

[harlquinzels]

-Returning here... Who decided on that? -Oh, that's right... I have a letter from Mom.

[scaryscarecrows]

Jason wakes up to breathing and for three terrible seconds thinks, God how long has he been here what's he done to me please no--

Wait.

Wait, wait. There's multiple people, which is not unheard of but is also not typical. At least, not without chuckles. Joker's goons suck at shutting up. Okay. One point in the What the Hell box.

He's on a bed. That's point two. Decent thread count in the sheets, smells like Tide, firm-but-not-too-firm mattress. Hotel?

Everything hits him at once after that realization and he finally shudders back to reality. Gotham. Out of Gotham. Some hotel in fuck knows where. Domino's delivery. Everyone had, at some point, been watching something about the most venomous animals on the earth, but now he hears what sounds like QVC. He's curled into a ball, fingers fisted in something soft; t-shirt. Someone's got a tight grip on his sweatshirt and there's another hand flung haphazardly over his shoulder.

The deep, rusty-engine breathing a few feet behind him is Ages. The hand on his shoulder is Dylan--it's too small and tense to belong to anyone else. If he moves, it'll probably smack him out of reflex. Drouot's the one gripping his shirt; probably for the best, because it feels like if he rolls backward he'll fall. Whacking his head on the nightstand or the gross hotel floor is not something he needs right now.

He should move. Dylan's reflexes are good, but Jason's pretty sure he can untangle himself enough to disappear back to his room.

But.

S'just.

He's safe. He's comfortable enough. He's got people he trusts between him and the entrances to this room, and damn if he's not still reeling from...from, frankly, everything.

Fuck it. He has no idea what time it is, he's still knocked on his ass from Scarecrow's shit (three days, four, six? what day is it now, has he lost time again?), he's safe enough.

He curls into a tighter ball out of habit more than anything--yep, there's the smack--and sighs. To hell with it. He'll deal with the consequences later, but he's not moving.

[odinsblog]

AIPAC, a rightwing conservative, quasi-religious, foreign organization, is interfering with U.S. elections and shaping who is and who isn’t a member of Congress.

AIPAC is currently targeting progressives like Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Summer Lee, Jamaal Bowman, Greg Casar, Delia Ramirez, Maxwell Frost, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and others who do not feel beholden to Israel and are sympathetic to Palestinians.

If AIPAC was a super PAC funded by North Korea, or China, or Russia, or Iran—and interfering in elections by financing the campaigns of specific candidates—almost every member of Congress would be freaking out. And rightly so. This is no different.

[shepherds-of-haven]

Hi Lena hope you've been well! Just wanted to say I've been loving the alpha and Patreon goodies (can't wait to jump Red's bones 🥰)! I had a question that I'm not sure has been answered before: For the inner circle members with their own squad of recruits to train, what is their leadership style like? (ie. if someone were to be a fly on the wall during trainings, what would they see? (the Chase scene with our squad had me SCREAMING 😳))

Hi anon, thanks for your great question! I hope you've been well too, and thank you so much for your lovely words! I'm so glad you're enjoying the alpha build and Patreon goodies, that's so motivating to hear! 🥹💖

Blade: Blade basically hand-picked his squad to create clones of himself, so he essentially has a death-squad of elite assassins who have a similar personality to him, whether due to nature or his training LOL. He's naturally pretty strict and has those rigid Ket standards of what's acceptable behavior and what's not, but because they were already so terrified of him and so intimidated and honored to have been picked by Day 1, his squad was so eager to gain his approval that they've never really had any true issues, lol. You hardly ever see him interacting with them, but he could turn his head and speak a quiet word and one of them would materialize out of thin air like a royal guard shadowing his king, lmao! The other recruits are scared of them 😭

Trouble: he's in turns quite strict with his squad and also quite friendly and jocular with them! He's just as prone to be found drinking with them as he is scaring them witless by bawling orders at them like an army commando and forcing them to sprint through mud obstacles while he's pelting them with rubber bullets. He has a surprisingly soldierly demeanor when it comes to training and field discipline, which I find hypocritical, given what a pain he is about authority and taking orders from other people and his general rebellious spirit... 😒 strangely, this hot-and-cold demeanor does not prevent his squad from being obsessed with him, lol

Tallys: Tallys has the kind of presence where she never acts any differently, no matter what situation she's in, which really makes people pay attention to her! It's kind of like those people who say something in such calm, even tones that you find yourself really leaning forward to hear them and find yourself intent and hanging on every word they say? She hardly ever raises her voice or shouts at her squad, but she doesn't really have to... her coolness makes them crave her approval so much that it's kind of a "yes mommy 🥺" energy with them lol, she only needs to communicate what she wants with a glance and they're running to do it!

Shery: she doesn't really have her own squad, she has a team of staffers who work under her! They mostly get along great, though sometimes some of them can accidentally take advantage of Shery when they're being thoughtless--it's not really malicious or on purpose, it's just that they don't really hesitate to ask her for a longer break or a day off, and sometimes that workload ends up falling on her! But overall things between them all run fairly smoothly, especially because she has other people (including Caine) who keep an eye out for that!

Riel: Riel also doesn't have his own 'squad,' per se, but a team of staffers... he basically just treats them like they're the hired help lol, he knows their names and whatnot, but he's basically the extremely busy CEO and they're just like the administrative assistants scampering after him as he strides into the office and starts rapping out orders lol!

Beyond the necessities of work, he hardly acknowledges or exchanges a word with them, but they learn so much just from watching him maneuver and think and politick lol, so they're very grateful to just be in his proximity!

Chase: Chase is extremely slack with his recruits... He teaches them the skills they need to know, and they're quite good at what they do, but the team discipline on that squad is like a 0, lol. He's done a lot of his own "teaching" and leading in Thieves Guild, taking younger or more inexperienced thieves under his wing to show them the ropes, so he's sort of not into doing the whole thing all over again, lol. To be completely honest, he basically lets his squad do whatever they want and only interacts with them during mandatory training and missions. Like a really chill TA or substitute teacher who shows up because they have to but lets you watch a movie or go hang out in the hall or something, go nuts kids, he's not really the boss of you!! As a result, his squad adores him, but they're also really chaotic partiers lol. Once in a blue moon they'll try to wrangle him like "CAPTAIN!! You promised you would be here to train us at dawn, why are you two hours late?!" "sorry guys, I got lost on the road of life~~"

Red: I feel like his entire squad is hopelessly in love with him, lol. He basically teaches them like they're his interns or teacher assistants and he's a professor; he's fairly mild-mannered and hands-off, but they do learn a lot from him and respect him immensely (to the point of practically hanging on his every word). Having his own squad is extremely low-priority for him (he prefers deploying on his own missions and focusing on his research, plus he still teaches some classes at the Circle now and then), so he often lumps them in with his classes or is on hand to advise them as they run their own missions, but he's more of an advisor or "teacher who sponsors your extracurricular club" rather than being "club president," if that makes any sense?? Like you typically go to him for help, which he's always willing to provide, rather than he's the one really pushing for more time together!

Ayla: at first she hated the idea of having her own squad of dweeby little recruits, but now that she's used to it, she relishes having someone to boss around! She trains them like a drill sergeant, barking orders and subjecting them to Mr. Miyagi-style domestic chores with a sadistic kind of relish, but they're still extremely proficient at what they do. They're also terrified of her. She does abuse her power slightly sometimes by like making them pull the weeds outside her window, but it's typically as punishment for some legitimate misdeed... typically.

Briony: her squad didn't initially take her very seriously because she came off as a bit nervous and burbly and not really an authoritative figure, and her amnesia puts her at a real disadvantage, so initially they would be like, "oh the high lord of Lancastre is in town today, I wonder if there will be trouble" Briony: "who is that :D"

So for a little while, her squad were sort of bewildered by her, and it started to become a dynamic where they were on the surface nice but somewhat condescending, like, "hey guys, could you go do so-and-so?" "...sure captain 😏 we'll get right on that!" They'd eventually do it, but they'd take their damn time, which is something Ayla, Trouble, or Blade would never tolerate, but Briony would pretend not to notice!

But then they saw her pulverize a tree with her fist for the first time (._.), and now they're very meek and obedient! Nowadays they get along well, and she treats them warmly like they're all friends, and they're pretty tight-knit, though Briony still has some trouble outright ordering them to do things rather than requesting it nicely like they're equals/comrades-in-arms... she's not fully comfortable with having command over anyone yet!

Lavinet: Lavinet, as a late-comer, actually got to pick her own squad rather than being assigned one, so she was able to avoid the inevitable resentment and defiance of a random team who probably would have doubted her skills due to her being a noble and thought she was some kind of nepo baby who bought her way in! The people she ended up picking tended to be people who appreciated and understood who she was and wanted to work with her. As a result, she's quite polite and amiable with them and doesn't have to get strict, though she secretly longs for the ability to just let loose one day and start barking orders like one of the others... That wouldn't be seemly, though! Even as an instructor and a captain, she still has to maintain her courtly composure and just delivers her orders in a calm tone (which sounds more icy and deadly when she's displeased).

Halek: squad? what squad? He already had the Black Shield Hunters, the elders, and Naolin dogging him around everywhere, now he has to babysit some snotty recruits? he can't even teach them anything, he basically just joined! 😩 he spends a lot of time dodging them and hiding places to nap, but either they or someone like Blade or Tallys go and drag him back by the ear. Eventually he had to be like, "...you really want me to train you?" "yes!" "the way I was trained to hunt demons?" "YES!" "...okay... if that's really want you want..."

*cue the most grueling, back-breaking military regiment you've ever seen* The White Order doesn't play around with how it trains its younglings, so he just applies the same techniques to his squad! If he has to be awake and suffering, so do you :') He doesn't yell at them or anything, you just look into the slight malice in his courteous smile as he asks you to get on your knees and crawl into a mysterious hole and you suddenly feel a deep, existential terror...

[leorio-posting]

gon gets easily distracted while driving. killua experiences terrible road rage. kurapika simply can’t seem to grasp how to do it, no matter how hard he tries.

leorio is the only one of the group that knows how to drive properly. he’s also an incredibly annoying backseat driver.

[simply-ivanka]

Remember 2020?

[vashtijoy]

terms of address: maruki

I was asked how the squad refer to Maruki, so here goes.

first, the normies

Many of the cast refer to Maruki exclusively as "Dr. Maruki": 丸喜先生 Maruki-sensei. These mentions are universally in kanji.

Ann has 41 of these, and often uses sensei by itself;

Haru has 26 of these, and uses sensei alone a couple of times, during Maruki's Palace;

Makoto has 27 of these. She uses sensei alone quite often;

Yoshizawa has 41 of these total, 14 as Kasumi and 27 as Sumire. She calls Maruki just sensei often.

Noticing anything? Yeah: they're all the girls. These particular characters consistently seem to have relatively colourless and unmarked speech. This may in itself, of course, be a form of marking, since expectations around gendered speech in Japan can be so strong.

the relatively boring

Ren appears to always use "Maruki", apart from one instance very early on when an option, "Ask about the counsellor", includes Maruki-sensei. He also always uses kanji; protagonists don't have to be polite.

He calls Maruki sensei alone once, during his confidant. Kawakami gets it more often, while Takemi gets it constantly.

slightly more edgy

While Futaba always uses "Dr. Maruki", she slurs it a little, making it slangier: 丸喜せんせー Maruki-sensee. She always uses kanji for "Maruki", except in the text chat after he visits Shujin, where she's only heard his name spoken!—which is a cute detail. Occasionally she uses せんせー sensee by itself, which is distinct from her 先生 sensei meaning "a teacher".

Ryuji, again, virtually always makes it "Dr. Maruki", usually Maruki-sensei in kanji; a few mentions very early on, when they're still talking about the new counsellor guy, are just straight "Maruki". Also, in his counselling session, Ryuji almost just calls him that!—ultimately deciding to make it "Dr. Maruki":

Ryuji なあ、丸喜⋯センセーってよ、よく『変わってる』って言われね? naa, maruki... sensee tte yo, yoku "kawatteru" tte iwarene? Hey, Dr. Maru— ah, I mean, Doc. Anyone ever tell you you're kinda… not normal?

The meaning is a little lost in translation here, with Ryuji cutting from the normal form of address to a nickname. Also, in Maruki's Palace, he recognises Maruki on one of the videotapes, and starts off in hiragana before finishing in kanji. It feels a bit as if he isn't initially sure what he's seeing:

Ryuji まるき… 丸喜先生？ maruki... maruki-sensei? Maruki... Dr. Maruki?

He uses sensei by itself a couple of times, far fewer than you might expect; his "Doc" is usually either glossed in, or was originally Maruki-sensei, "Dr. Maruki".

He also uses 大先生 daisensei, "great leader/teacher/artist" etc, as a term of abuse, aimed at palace bosses such as Shido and Madarame. 獅童大先生 shidou-daisensei—"that stuck-up bastard Shido!".

the slightly outlandish...

Morgana overwhelmingly uses katakana for names, and Maruki is no exception. He talks about him a lot, always in katakana, as マルキ Maruki. He never uses any honorifics for him.

He has only one use of kanji, 丸喜 Maruki, in "will you meet with this confidant?" text, around I think rank 5, which looks like it may be a slip.

the strangely polite...

Akechi, of course, fails to grace Maruki with his title of "doctor"; he's just plain "Maruki". The localisation sometimes makes it "Dr. Maruki", but that's a gloss; Akechi never once uses sensei (or any other honorific) about him.

But he uses an honorific to Maruki, once:

That "isn't that right" is ですよね desu yo ne, which might seem startlingly polite for third semester Akechi. In fact, he's rather consistent about his masu forms to Maruki—and only to Maruki—during the third semester.

He has no uses of desu or -masu/-masen, for instance, to anyone else in the third semester. It's actually rather cute, because it makes it clear a number of his lines in the 1/2 and 1/9 Palace are directed not to Ren or Yoshizawa, as it might seem, but to Maruki.

So this looks like a sardonic little aside, and I'm sure there's a lot of that in it—"Maruki-san". But this is also the only time Akechi ever addresses Maruki by name. And since he has all these desu and -masu forms going on around Maruki, then maybe he just calls him Maruki-san, full stop.

Did I mention he's a weird boy?

...and the downright weird

That leaves us with Yusuke, who (as nobody will be surprised to hear) does his own thing that raises some fascinating possibilities.

Yusuke only appears to address Maruki by name once, when they first meet in the courtyard, and as you'd expect, he calls him sensei—丸喜拓人先生 Maruki Takuto-sensei, "You are Dr. Takuto Maruki, correct?".

But every other time Yusuke uses sensei in the script? He's referring not to Maruki, of course, but to his sensei, Madarame. That initial approach to Maruki, stranger to stranger, face to face, is the only time he uses it to anyone else.

So what does Yusuke call Maruki? He calls him 丸喜氏 Maruki-shi.

what is shi

氏 shi is a very formal and exclusively third-person term, usually seen in writing, or heard from newsreaders. It's often translated "Mr X", which can be very odd to hear in media that retains honorifics like -san and -kun; "Mr. Akechi's coming on!" is an example, from 6/10. And Akechi is, in fact, usually mentioned as Akechi-shi on the evening news.

Yusuke's Maruki-shi is universally translated as "Dr. Maruki", as if he'd just said Maruki-sensei like everyone else. Which is a little bit of a shame.

Yusuke also uses shi for one other person—the art patron Kawanabe, in his confidant, before you meet up at the sushi bar. Most of the rest of the time, before and after, Yusuke just calls Kawanabe "Kawanabe" in third-person, with no title; he pulls out a Kawanabe-san at rank 10, after he's won the contest—face to face, of course, since shi is only third-person.

On the other hand, Yusuke never mentions Maruki at all without a title.

the other time yusuke uses sensei

Okay, I lied: Yusuke has one other instance of Maruki-sensei. This, like Morgana's single lapse into kanji, is in prompt text: "Are we going to Maruki's Palace today?" Again, I think this is likely an error.

revision history

Click here for the latest version.

v1.0 (2023/12/29)—first posted.

[dragons-library]

I adore Violet and Rhiannon

I love them so much, those are my girls my everything 🫶

Rhi being protective over Violet the second they got across the parapet, how they helped each other and are always impressed and proud of each other.

Rhi was having none of Dains bullshit from the first moment, and them going to see her family in Monserrat 🥹🥹

I love them I love them I love them 🫶 female friendship is so important and those are true besties

[jenarosscity]

I suck at drawing so I just did this instead lol