#akechi is a lot but not dumb

[anonymousewrites]

A Not-So-Disastrous Romance Christmas Special

Saiki Kusuo x Reader

Christmas Special

            “Kusuo, the cookies are ready!” said (Y/N), pulling the pan out of the oven. “Ow.” They hissed as the metal pan burnt their finger for a second. They drew it back and shook it out.

            “Don’t hurt yourself,” said Saiki. His psychokinesis picked up the tray and set all the cookies to cool down while he also healed (Y/N)’s finger.

            “Thanks, Kusuo,” said (Y/N), smiling and kissed his cheek before walking to a cupboard.

Behind them, Saiki eyed the cookies—shaped like little people—and one began to float into the air.

            “No eating them until we’ve decorated,” said (Y/N), not even having to turn around. They knew their boyfriend well.

            Saiki let out a mighty sigh, and (Y/N) just laughed, holding icing and sprinkles. “They’ll be even more delicious when we’ve finished and they have icing, and you know it.”

            “Fine,” said Saiki. Not only did he know they were right, but, as usual, he was unable to say no to them (which was maybe why he thought they were right…chicken and the egg problem).

            “I was thinking we make our friends,” said (Y/N), excitedly setting out the icing. “I’ve gotten better at cookie art, and I think I can make chibi-versions of them on these gingerbread men.” They smiled excitedly.

            “Who are our friends?” said Saiki, feigning ignorance.

            “Your ‘bothers,’ as you’ve nicknamed them,” teased (Y/N), knowing he cared. “We have enough gingerbread for a bunch of friends. I was thinking at least Nendou, Kaidou, Kokomi, Miko, Chiyo, Akechi, Hairo, and Toritsuka.”

            “He’s our friend?” Saiki was really doubtful of that.

            “He’s a perv, but he’s got his moments,” said (Y/N), shrugging. They grinned. “But we’re not including Saiko.” Giggling, they pretended to be posh and put on an accent. “ ‘You didn’t capture me well enough, and I have my chefs prepare an entire cake designed after me every year!’ ”

            Saiki smirked. That was a good impression. “Who do you want to make?” He would let (Y/N) choose first so they could have as much fun as they wanted.

            “Hm…Miko, Kaidou, Kokomi, and Chiyo!” said (Y/N) with a grin.

            “Then I’ll do Nendou, Akechi, Hairo, and Toritsuka,” said Saiki.

            “Let’s get to work,” said (Y/N) excitedly.

            Saiki nodded and got to work. With his psychokinesis and art-related abilities, he was able to represent the people he knew fairly well (and by ‘fairly well’ he meant perfectly but then he dumbed it down so they looked funnier). They all had school uniforms on, but Nendou had little question marks to represent how thick he was, Akechi had giant white “text boxes” with scrawls of black to represent his rambles, Hairo had his usual energetic fire around him, and Toritsuka…was just Toritsuka. If Saiki added too much of his personality, it would be inappropriate. …Maybe he’d add a tiny ghost and that would be enough.

            On (Y/N)’s part, they were also hard at work. Cookie Miko had sprinkles as barrettes all over her head, and (Y/N) carefully placed a round sprinkle in her hand as her crystal ball—they had been really excited to find those for this reason. Cookie Yumehara was also turning out quite nicely with some heart sprinkles around her because of her romantic personality. Cookie Kaidou was a lot of fun since (Y/N) added an “evil aura” around him for his battles of magic against Dark Reunion. Hey, they might tease him for it, but it was a cute, creative outlet. Satisfied with his cookie, (Y/N) put it with Cookie Yumehara.

            Cute, they thought, smiling.

            Teruhashi was next. (Y/N) happily made their friend with blue hair and put her in the same pose as everyone else. They added the golden glow that followed her around afterwards and nodded in satisfaction. Teruhashi looked adorable even as a cookie, unsurprisingly.

            Saiki watched (Y/N) work and looked at the remaining cookies—two. Floating one to him, he didn’t even have to think. He knew who he wanted to make. (Y/N) reached over and picked up the final cookie and smiled to themself. They knew who this was going to become.

            It was silent except for the soft Sinatra Christmas music playing through the house until (Y/N) and Saiki finished and looked up. Excitedly, (Y/N) smiled and looked at the tray of cookies.

            “They all look so good! You added their personalities, too!” said (Y/N), grinning. They knew he cared and paid attention to his friends. “That’s so cute.”

            “They’re so loud it’s impossible not to notice,” said Saiki.          

            “Uh-huh,” said (Y/N), shaking their head and grinning.

            “Yours look good,” said Saiki, seeing their knowing look. He saw through him like he was transparent. And I like it. No point (or ability) to lie there.

            “Thanks!” said (Y/N). “I tried to make it look like everyone and have important parts of them.” They paused and grinned. “And I made one more—here.” From behind their back, (Y/N) held up a Cookie Saiki.

            Saiki stared. It had his glasses, power dampeners, everything down to his deadpan expression. However, it did have a tiny sprinkle heart on his chest where his own heart would be. Oh, wow. It was so…sweet. (Y/N) saw him so nicely.

            “Do you like it?” said (Y/N) nervously.

            Saiki looked at them. “Of course I do.” He picked up another cookie. “And this one is for you.” He had also meant to surprise them by creating a Cookie (Y/N).

            They let out a surprised and pleased laugh, looking at the cookie. It had them in a little baker’s hat with hearts on it, and they were smiling widely. “It’s so cute,” said (Y/N). They smiled just as widely as the cookie’s expression and looked at Saiki with shining eyes. “I love it, Kusuo.”

            “I love you,” said Saiki, the words coming quickly.

            (Y/N)’s smile softened to a loving, gentle one. “I love you, too, Kusuo.”

            They put the cookies down and held out their hands. Saiki nodded, and (Y/N) hugged him. Saiki’s hands raised and pulled them close.

            “Merry Christmas, Kusuo,” whispered (Y/N), leaning back only so they could look him in the face.

            “Merry Christmas, (Y/N),” said Saiki. He leaned in to kiss them, and (Y/N) kissed back happily.

            The (Y/N) and Saiki Cookies lay side-by-side under the glow of Christmas lights, together just as (Y/N) and Saiki would be forever.

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[nshi-ao3]

I don't have time to draw this right now, but I figured I'd share a dumb exchange of ideas I had with my sister regarding a "Spacial and temporal rift nonsense accidentally drops WoL Joker into Persona 5 (maybe in the middle Endwalker and the third semester stuff in Royal, I dunno)" scenario:

Gets dropped from some nebulous portal in front of the Thieves in the middle of Mementos like this.

And while everyone's just staring at him in shock and horror he's already adapted to this bizarre scenario because hey— this aint the first time something like this has happened! So WoL Joker's just like "Oh!!! ;w; Oh, it's you guys! Look at you all, you're all so young and cute! (sniffling) I missed you guys so baaaaaaad" And giving them all a big squeeze.

The Thieves looking between OG Joker and WoL Joker like:

With how goddamn rough he looks the Thieves assume he's substantially older than he is, so when he's like "I'm 22*. :(" they're all REALLY WORRIED.

Ryuji: Dude, are your eyes blue now??? Futaba: why were you looking into his eyes so hard huh 👀

Sumire being super flustered haha. And Akechi's just being real quiet but keeps stealing glances...

They decide to go back to the real world to sort things out and Joker's still got his outfit on because of just how much of it's been augmented with physical material by this point. So everyone's just awkwardly cramped next to him while he's just chillin' on the subway pretending he's just a super-intense cosplayer coming back from a con and letting people take photos with him. It's Shibuya, no-one really cares!

WoL Joker and Sojiro having an exchange at the door to Leblanc like this.

He gets changed into more casual clothes and everyone's freaking out about how many goddamn scars he has all over his body, dang.

Ann: Are your ears pierced?? Nice.

Joker, slumping next to Morgana on the couch: I miss my wife, Mona. I miss him a lot.

At some point Joker and Akechi inevitably get into a fight and Joker just seems, like, kind of bored and disappointed with it, which pisses Akechi the fuck off so bad.

Joker, internally: Sigghhhh... Zenos would've disemboweled me by now. :/

"You always say you're going to slit my throat and lap up my blood, but you never commit!"

Joker, slumping next to Morgana on the couch: I miss my new archnemesis, Mona. I miss him a lot.

*I can't say for certain exactly how old he'll be by then because there's so much side-content I need to juggle alongside the main plot that I can't say for sure until I get there the exact amount of time that'll pass haha. But it's within this range!

[corviiids]

customary sparknotes for chapter 10

nobody asked this time i just got shit to say. don't read this post unless you've read chapter 10 of my akechi palace au fic "as you like it" because it will make 0 sense forever. here we go

the code for this part took way longer than i want to admit for it being so simple because it just kept breaking in really stupid ways and then it didn't work on mobile. it's fine. it's fine now. tell me if it's broken. don't tell me

i had this dream sequence part drafted back when i posted chapter 9. the thing that took so long was the action sequence, which is ALWAYS the thing that takes so long. i finished my first draft of this chapter about a month ago sitting in a hotel bar, and i got it to where it is now a few days ago sitting in the same hotel bar, so, thanks to that hotel bar and its fantastic jalapeno cocktail and very patient staff for sponsoring this chapter. not sponsoring actually the cocktails are expensive i sponsored myself. anyway

end of dumb preamble? beginning of dumb amble

this first bit takes place in ren's mind as a dream sequence after he gets hit with the sleep effect, basically. parts of it are laid out in a sort of mockup of a stageplay script, although obviously this isn't how you'd write a real script haha. i wanted to play with, like... akechi's palace is a theatre, but he and ren have a lot in common. in his own way, ren is a performer, too.

the scenes with the phantom thieves are all in past tense, which is how the flashbacks in this fic have been written. the recurring motif is how the phantom thieves interact with ren, mostly via his glasses, generally along the theme of how they see him. i didn't really make this explicit, but in all of these scenes, none of the thieves look him directly in the eye.

in the game, ren usually has two or three dialogue options. his narration in this moments are the options he didn't choose. he always chooses the one which is the least direct and the most deflective, because in these moments he is feeling vulnerable and being honest is too overwhelming. by the way, "don't look at me like that" is text that appears in one of p5's menus:

which i just find interesting.

the scenes with akechi, by contrast, are told in present tense. they're also rife with unreality. the setting changes as though it's a dream, which of course it is. it's unclear whether these scenes are an amalgam of things that happened that ren is mixing and remembering oddly, or if he's conjured them.

ok let's look at the script scenes as well. they're basically all retellings of ren's run-in with shido.

the idea is that in tokyo, ren spends a lot of time lying in bed replaying those moments in his head, wondering how else it could have gone. no matter how many times he plays it out, no matter how he thinks about regretting what he did, walking away, making a different call,

he always makes the same choice.

do you ever think about how disproportionate that trumped up assault charge was? ren, frustrated and bitter, has to wonder - if he was just going to get pulled up on assault anyway, what difference would it have made if he'd actually just fucking done it? at least gotten to do the thing he got busted for. for catharsis, or whatever.

unlike the phantom thieves, akechi DOES look ren in the eye

he doesn't let ren get away with dodging his questions, and he repeatedly asks ren what he actually thinks

and with akechi, ren is able to say what he's really thinking.

ok now the rest of the amble

i love writing a fic which has akechi's name plastered all over it and then repeatedly going SURPRISE! this is about ren. it's about ren.

ren's been really struggling with this whole hero thing a lot. i think this battle is where it really comes to a head, because all the shit akechi was giving him in the last chapter about the ethics of stealing a heart is really getting to him. he's wondering whether he's really doing this for akechi or if it's for his own satisfaction, plus the burden of being the leader of the phantom thieves weighs heavier and heavier because if he's not doing this for akechi then that means he's doing it for himself, which means he can't play this as self-sacrificial or selfless, which means his team is putting themselves at risk for him. he's disoriented and he gets put out of commission for his trouble, which just puts his team further at risk while he spirals and tries to do right by everyone. it's a chance for the phantom thieves to step up and save him - as their friend, not their leader. i love the phantom thieves and their dorky power of friendship.

i also really liked coming up with cognitive joker. the idea of the VIP Box being inhabited solely by shido and joker was super fun to me. shido is gone from akechi's cognition, which begs the question of why the box still exists if it was allegedly only there to seat the VIP, the person at the centre of akechi's struggles - obviously it's because the distortion has grown far beyond shido, who is no longer the only person akechi performs for. joker isn't there as a guest. he broke in, and he's unkillable. by the way, his hair is based on the persona super live key art from 2019:

look at his swoopy hair. isn't he cute? i wanna squish his cheeks.

how about that awakening

okay, here's a fun fact about the fucking awakening. here's a FEW fun facts.

1. i came up with the idea of fusing robin hood and loki into a third persona before i had even published chapter 1 (way back in 2019), which means i had that idea long before persona 5 royal was ever announced.

when p5r's marketing started up and was like "we're gonna fuse everyone's first and second personae for a third persona!" i was like (throws a chair at the wall)

2. my first idea for the third persona, back at that point, was for akechi's third persona to be adraestia. she was a greek goddess who later became identified with nemesis/rhamnousia, the goddess of retribution for hubris.

then fire emblem three houses came out, and i realised adraestia was only going to call to mind the black eagles. lol. i was like ok, that's fine, it doesn't really matter, and if it bothers me a lot, i can switch to naming her rhamnousia or something.

then THIS YEAR, i decided to check whether nemesis/rhamnousia existed in smt lore as a shadow already. and as it turns OUT, i had forgotten a VERY KEY FACT ABOUT PERSONA 3.

SHE'S TAKEN. BY A DIFFERENT JUSTICE KID. so i had to change tacks again.

this really left me floundering for a second i gotta say. and then i remembered that last year, i'd written a scene in a fit of pure self-indulgence in which akechi starts telling ren all about the iliad. (this scene appears in chapter 8.) when i wrote that scene, i hadn't really been thinking that hard about how it was going to affect the plot. i just thought achilles and akechi had some interesting similarities, and also, i wanted to talk about the iliad, so i wrote the scene and figured i could cut it if it stuck out too much. anyway, i remembered that scene and was like, holy shit hang on, i have an entire thing already set up for a mythological figure who represents akechi's soul. and it actually works way better than rhamnousia, whose connection with akechi's struggle here is pretty surface-level in comparison. here's a line from my planning doc:

pretty cool how in royal he literally does have twin fates: short and blazing or long and unremarkable

so that's how akhilleus became akechi's third persona. wow! what a happy accident! i mean im a genius and it was all planned from the start obviously. it just goes to show that sometimes you go on a stupid little infodump and it ends up solving a plot problem you didn't foresee an entire year later. fixation works.

akhilleus himself is really cool to me. if i had a persona, achilles would be mine, so i hope akechi fucking appreciates that i've donated him to the goro akechi cause. idk if any artists are keen on doing character designs for personae but of the suite of art i daydream about commissioning for this fic, key art for akhilleus is definitely up there. the woman hovering behind him is his mother, obviously - and akechi's.

this other thing

i also just wanted to mention this

i usually don't outline or plan fics very well, as you can probably fucking tell from the above. im just really short sighted when it comes to outlines and i usually can't see more than a few chapters in advance except for either vague shapes or VERY SPECIFIC SCENES, so doing this kind of intricate planning is a real challenge for me.

the goho-m thing is such a small detail, but im really pleased with it just because it is one of the things i actually did very deliberately plan and set up in advance. it first appears in chapter 6 when ren and makoto go to the zoo - ren gives all his goho-ms to makoto as a show of trust, to demonstrate that he trusts her to get him and their friends home safely after they resolve his fear and resentment for her plan almost getting him killed. i did that to wrap makoto's arc, but it also served a very important plot purpose in chapter 8: ren is stranded in the courtyard with akechi's "shadow" self, and he has no easy way of getting out of the palace because he gave all of his goho-ms to queen. oh no, ren trusted his friends so much it's gonna get him killed. unless?

(this is a plot hole p5 the game just never bothers to fill or else they wouldn't get dramatic anime scenes of the phantom thieves sprinting out of the palaces as they explode and im at peace with that but i still think it's funny and also i wanted to fill the plot hole myself.)

so then it finally gets to come back in chapter 10, when ren finally falls from being their fearless heroic leader and gives his friends a chance to step up and save him for once. makoto still has the goho-ms, and when ren is occupied and out of commission, she steps up and saves them like he trusted her to do. guys! i planned something that spanned five whole chapters. wow! wow i did it.

LONG POST. VERy LONG POST. god. HEY this is it the palace is destroyed. there are still two chapters to go and a lot left to get through, but palace-wise this was the climax, which is why it took so god damn long because it's terrifying to write something so pivotal. but thank you so much for reading the fic! and this if you read it! i wrote this mostly for me again. but if you read it i love you.

[no-psi-nan]

Both Kusuke and Akechi are obviously blond geniuses but I would argue that Aiura is pretty damn smart as well.

She gets bad grades at school, but we see her asleep during class and know she works a night shift, so that's probably a big part of why she's not doing so well.

Additionally, she just doesn't seem to care much about school, which isn't unusual for a teenager TBH but also could be because she knows through her powers that she doesn't need top grades. "Cs get degrees" remains true, and if she knows she doesn't need to go to a top college, why bother working hard at school?

Anyways, school grades ≠ intelligence and we see that Aiura has mastered her powers the most of all three psychics.

After all, Toritsuka shows that developing his powers takes a lot of effort from him, and Saiki sometimes spontaneously develops new powers but then has to spend a lot of time working out the kinks and developing control over them.

Aiura understands the limitations of her powers and the karma system enough to make money off her powers without getting hit by a truck any more (lol), plus she is not generally plagued by her powers like Toritsuka and Saiki are, except for seeing the occasional death mark she can't do much about.

Whether her powers developed more like Toritsuka's or more like Saiki's, the level of control and utility she has means she must've worked hard on them either way. For example, she figured out that crystal balls help her focus without having to do random rituals, even if decoden-ing the crystal balls and making shit up on the fly may bemore fun. The psychic google maps ability must've also been actively developed, considering that it isn't easy and inherent like her aura vision.

Aiura also has high social intelligence and is pretty successful at making money. While she did get targeted by that gang, who would've thought telling people about their soulmates would've led to gangsters trying to make you find legendary treasure at gunpoint?? Luckily Saiki is paranoid and has heard the thoughts of plenty of gangsters over the years.

Anyways, I don't think Aiura is as dumb a blonde as she might think she is, and therefore none of the Saiki blonds really fit the dumb stereotype*.

*Idr Imu's grades but she's generally a pretty good judge of people and doesn't seem to have trouble at school.

[recklessracoon]

Some thoughts on the difference between Kuusuke's intelligence and Akechi's intelligence. Kuusuke is very good at like mathematics and engineering and stuff like that but I don't think he's very good at understanding people. Like he's charming and good at getting people to do what he wants but I feel like he doesn't usually go deeper than looking for exploitable weaknesses when trying to get to know a person and is generally disinterested in other people to a degree that leads to him being kind of socially dumb despite how smart he is.

Akechi on the other hand despite his lack of social graces takes an intense interest in people and can read them really well. He also knows a lot about a wide variety of subjects in a way that suggest he really likes to spend his free time reading Wikipedia pages and various non-fiction books, and maybe even occasional scholarly articles on topics he finds especially interesting. I think he generally does okay academically but not to an especially notable degree, and he has to work hard to relate subjects that don't interest him to ones that do so he doesn't just have all information on the uninteresting subjects drain out of his brain.

[wishforged]

welcome to the very long postscript to Steal Ahead, a persona 5 fanfiction, that I doubt very many people will read in full but I have chosen to write anyway for my own self-aggrandizement.

before proceeding, please take note that in the following, I reflect on my writing decisions in some detail. reading these notes may color your perception of the story. if you prefer for the author to be dead, I'd advise stopping here!!

introductory thoughts

this fic is titled after a lyric in the song "Tape Song" by the kills.

pretty self-explanatory, right?

I started writing this fic because... well, that was 5 years ago and since then I've gotten a concussion at least once and my memory is kind of bad in general but I can still confidently say goro akechi is my favorite character in the world. a lot of post-vanilla fans might not completely understand the degree to which goro fans were imbibing copium before all the additional material royal gave us-- goro's story ended very ambiguously, and a lot of things about him and his relationship with Ren were left up to our little fujoshi imaginations to ruminate over and decipher. I couldn't help but want to give him a future in my own way.

I also really wanted to write a SUPER SLOW BURN LONG TERM YEARS-LONG EPIC AKESHU LOVE STORY!!! it ended up being a little different than what I envisioned lol but I think it's still true to my original aspiration, which was to create an intimate, realistic, friends-to-lovers dynamic between the two of them. I hope you enjoyed it...

one of my major influences was In Good Company by weialala. yes, it's a naruto fic, one that I've held dear for many many years. weialala's internal monologue for Sasuke and how she deals with questions about his life, as well as her take on Sasuke and Naruto's relationship, goes beyond Naruto canon in an incredible way that really influenced how I wrote Goro and the slow burn romance in this fic. I highly recommend checking the fic out if you're a naruto fan!! sorry if you're not and this revelation gave you psychic damage.

I outlined this fic pretty heavily, keeping a google doc with a timeline of events spanning the four years over which the story takes place. that didn't stop me from changing things and adding stuff up until the last minute, though. I also struggled to keep the timeline straight a lot because I made the questionable decision to start the fic two years after canon left off and I can be kind of dumb.

a look into my struggles/twisted mind. my outlines tend to be quite rough.

in the rest of this post I talk about several things in the fic, like Goro's disability and mental health, how Ren is portrayed, and the original characters, with some behind-the-scenes thoughts.

"redemption"

when it comes to characters who have Done Stuff Wrong, there is a lot of discourse to be had among fans about how they can Atone for their crimes. these arguments often touch a lot of nerves-- in my opinion, because our contributions to this discourse are influenced by how we think about crime and rehabilitation in the real world.

I live in a country where the carceral system is incredibly brutal and discriminatory, abuse of incarcerated people is routine, and the goal of incarceration is not rehabilitation but the infliction of suffering upon those deemed "criminals" by the state. this has shaped my beliefs about incarceration as a form of punishment. to put it simply, I am not a fan. and in a fictional context, I find the idea that a character in a work of fiction can "do their time" and have all their guilt and sin magically removed to be a cop-out.

this is just me and these are just my own thoughts of course. again, I think questions about crime and rehabilitation in fiction are influenced by our thoughts on these concepts in the real world. for that reason and many others this is quite a personal story that draws on my own personal philosophy in its telling (as half-baked as that philosophy may be bc im not a super genius who has all the answers). whether that is a flaw or a feature is up to you as a reader to decide.

in this fic I wanted to explore how to move forward after you have done something horrible. it was hard, because in this story and perhaps in life, there are no pretty answers and no perfect ways to make up for doing the things Goro did. I settled upon an "answer" that reflects one of my deeply-held beliefs: we do what we must after tragedy, and what we must do is move forward, rely on and be there for those we love, and try to do as much good as we can.

original characters

as stated in the tags of the fic, I wrote in OCs so goro could have actual relationships and friends. I tried to gift each one with their own unique personality and some depth! a lot of the OCs are women, maybe because I find it easier to write women lol. sometimes I feel like a lot of female OCs in fic can lean towards being misogynistic caricatures -- I'm not really blaming writers for this as much as I am blaming Society; fanfic deals in tropes and when you constantly see the trope of the bitchy secretary, the shallow seductress, etc. in the media you consume it becomes second nature to unconsciously replicate it, even if you identify as a woman. this is why IMO as a writer you need to make a conscious effort to do things differently (and read more books) although I'm sure there are a lot of ways I come up short...

one of my favorites is cleo which is funny because she only shows up for a handful of scenes in the last chapter lol, and maybe it's recency bias but I spent so long working on the last chapter she feels like my own child... I feel like her first name doesn't make sense for a Japanese-American person to have but I got attached to it lmao.

I actually do think I gave the Kato family too many problems, what with Kagami's illness and Taku's behavior -- I think I kinda reference this at one point by having Goro wonder what kind of a fucked up Dickensian family this is lol. I have some other self-critical thoughts on how I wrote them but I'll keep that to myself... still love them a lot though. I really enjoy messy but loving sibling relationships in fiction so I had to put one in here too.

(fun fact: like Goro, Taku was going to be Deaf, which is why Kagami comments that Goro is "like my brother" during her first appearance in chapter 1. when I decided to go another direction for Taku's character, I changed this to mean Goro and Taku have eyes that are the same color.)

shout out, also, to Hirakawa, who seems to be something of a fan favorite judging by the comments. she was a blast to write lol and I really love her relationship with Goro.

ren

I consider the Ren in this fic to be my Ultimate™ portrayal of him that is the closest to how I see him as a character. my most popular p5 work is The Next Time Around, an AU fic where Ren is an older adult that I wrote when I was a teenager (more than five years ago) (lol) (😔) and although I do have pride in/affection for that work and the Ren in it, he is a far cry from the way I imagine Ren today. (for one thing his name wasn't ren in that fic. lol)

being a silent protagonist, Ren is a tricky character to get right. I was very active in the p5 fandom space on social media for several years before I basically completely stopped paying attention to it, but like many others, in those early days I absorbed parts of others' portrayals of Ren into my own. I actually think that's quite a lovely thing about silent protagonists-- everyone in a fandom space kind of works to build the character together. yes, sometimes the portrayals that attain the most popularity are flattening or flanderizing, but ultimately, it's kind of fun to build a Frankenprotagonist. until you're writing a fic which prompts you to really sit down and think about what a true-to-canon portrayal looks like and how to make it also true to Yourself and what you really believe the character to be. (it's hard)

in Steal Ahead, Ren is superstitious and avoidant and quite bad at expressing his feelings. he's a charismatic anti-authoritarian, a middle child, and a neat freak with a strong, stubborn sense of justice. he's full of contradictions and flaws, and he's healing in his own way from the events of p5 proper, struggling with returning to a mundane life when for a short, glorious while, he was extraordinary. (hence the shoplifting subplot in chapter 2. fun fact -- that was originally supposed to be smoking but then I decided to change it. I forget why but I'm sure I had a good reason, probably. don't smoke, kids! or shoplift if you think you might get caught. kidding etc)

Ren argues and bickers with Goro quite a bit in this fic which I enjoyed writing. though they share many similarities, they're very different people -- I thought it would be only natural for them to clash sometimes, though they always come back to each other.

this Frankenren is composed of a bunch of headcanons, a lot of which were influenced by/shamelessly stolen from friends. I love him very much. thanks to everyone who helped me build my Ren along the way!

disability

goro has a disability in this fic-- single-sided deafness-- which I included because I felt it was unrealistic for him to have escaped from the engine room with no lasting consequences. I was pretty conscious of portraying it respectfully and realistically so I did my research on the condition. this source was helpful as a personal testimonial from someone who has this condition about how it affects their life.

by the way, goro's hearing aid in this fic is a CROS hearing aid, which is designed specifically for people with single-sided deafness.

one of my favorite moments in the fic is the brief conversation Goro and Ryuji have about their respective disabilities in chapter 2 -- it's short, because I didn't think either of them would really be enthusiastic about opening up to each other at that point lol, but it's nice.

I welcome criticism of how I handled this part of the fic from anyone in the Deaf community -- I'm not perfect and don't have firsthand knowledge.

mental health

obviously goro is not doing great mentally in this fic for many reasons. I have written a lot of goro-centric fics, but this one required really tapping into the headspace of a flawed person who has been traumatized & manipulated and is dealing with immense depression and guilt while recovering. like many (most?) writers I draw from my own past experiences and emotions while writing, which made this a particularly taxing fic to work on, and is definitely one of the reasons it took so long to finish 🥲

other than that I'd say one of the most difficult things was being realistic while avoiding melodrama, and portraying a real story of recovery/imparting positive messages without being too cheesy, which made some of the self-help book sections hard to write.

if you relate to goro's depressive thoughts in this fic, I hope it can be an affirming story for you. I also hope you're taking the time to reach out to people who can support you and practicing self-care.

the ending

I actually don't have a ton to say about the ending because I'd like to leave it up to interpretation. however, I will say that the ending is not the original one I had in mind when I started the fic. I'm not sure how people will react to it (if you've been following this fic maybe you'll just be happy it got an ending at all LOL) but I hope it didn't feel like it came out of nowhere.

concluding thoughts

compared to my other p5 works, this one isn't as popular even though I do consider it my best, which I will admit is disheartening. the release of p5 royal also created a new canon in which this fic does not take place, which I imagine certainly doesn't help. despite this, I got some lovely long, thoughtful comments and even occasionally saw people on social media discussing how they enjoyed this fic despite it being unfinished, which always made me super emotional. trust me, in those 4 years that this fic was lying dormant, each new comment motivated me to crack open the Google doc again and ultimately finish this work. let this be a testament to the power of comments and the ubiquitous egotism of fic writers. or writers in general, actually. thank you so much for your kindness!

if you actually read all of this, thank you again! I do like talking about this fic so feel free to ask questions or give feedback via my ask box, retrospring (linked on twitter) or ao3 comments.

I just ran a word count on this and it's like 2.5k words. good lord. bye

[senblades]

Tell us about the planning doc!!!

thank you very much for indulging me HAHA

So I started writing the planning doc like. When I really shouldn't have LMAO- I wasn't busy right then, but I was absolutely about to be. Oh well! What's done is done.

The planning doc is, essentially, a full outline of all the plot of fftsr, told exclusively in dumb jokes and memes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Or, well, more accurately, a dumping ground for all my ideas in chronological order, marked with dates and some (emphasis on SOME lmao) of the confidant rank ups for Akechi and Ren.

I'll share some of the outline already written in chapters to get my point across: (UH MAJOR AND MINOR SPOILORS FOR FAITH FOR THE SECOND RUN- earlier chapters, mostly)

As you can see, not everything from the doc makes the cut. Sometimes things just don't work anymore, or I can't quite find a place to shoehorn it. I'm pretty sure a line showing how Sumire was struggling without a team never made it into the chapter- or, if it did, it was so negligible that it doesn't even matter.

Plus, I definitely hadn't figured out all the scene-by-scene POV's by that point. The "April 18" bullet point implies that scene might have taken place from Sumire's POV, but the final chapter actually has it as Ren's.

I also put all my Metaverse powerpoint slide intermittently as they become relavent. I'm not actually sure if this explanation ever made it into a chapter... I think Akechi might have implied it? But I don't think it was ever spelled out, since I couldn't find a smooth way to do it. Oh well! Here it is now!

There's also outlines of character conversations and motivations, as expected. The level of detail within the planning doc is VERY uh. Well, it's dependant on a lot of things. There are some major beats that I just hadn't thought of until writing the actual chapters, but some of the character-related convos that are more centred to the plot got written down pre-writing chapter 1

From memory, I think the above scene also changed slightly in the final fic. Sometimes what I write as character motivations in the planning doc ends up being VERY DIFFERENT by the time I get to the actual chapter. And, sometimes, the characters just run away with a scene HAHA

Speaking of character convos, some of my jokes in the planning doc made it, almost word for word, into the fic's chapters. Akechi hysterically wondering if Rank 3 is the "deepest darkest secrets" Rank Up is something that I wanted to immortalise lmao

As you can also see, though, not all of the confidant rank-ups were planned- Magician rank 2 is implied, but I didn't actually know what it was going to be at the time.

And then there's the confidants I didn't have planned at ALL:

(UH SPOILERS UP UNTIL CHAPTER 46)

The Tower and the Aeon are the worst offenders of this: I retroactivaly added the Aeon into the planning doc- an easy feat, since it coincides with the Justice, but just know that it absolutely wasn't there originally lmao. The Aeon came about in two stages, if I'm remembering correctly- I wrote the dream sequence where Ren didn't remember shit, but some vision of Crow was there and did remember, pretty much on a whim, and then thought "okay what if that kept happening though"

I think that descision was one of the best things I could have done lmao- it made October third MUCH more exciting to write (and, I assume, to read)... (originally Metatron was not a factor in the boys remembering- just some annoying headaches and visions. Shadow Maruki was also a last-second addition! While Ren was off galivanting with Crow, I wanted to give Goro something interesting to do as well. So! Impromptu therapy session)

Now the Tower... I did have some. uh. Plans, for cognitive Akechi right from the start; I can't remember my exact thought process for when I started cooking for this confidant, but I think I saw a comment on Throw Away Your Mask explaining why the Tower was particularly apt for the character it's used for in that fic, and thought "wait I can cook with this". or something HAHA I can't quite remember. (I was also VERY MUCH inspired by Marigolds and A Tale of Two Tricksters for all of that... (love those fics you should read them if you haven't))

All of the PT's rank ups are missing from the planning doc, too. I knew I wanted to have all of them as confidants, but I had no idea what their arcana was going to be, or when those confidants would start or rank up.

I unfortuantly can't share some of my best jokes from the planning doc, since I'm joking about MAJOR SPOILERS from future chapters HA

ty very much for letting me gush lmao <3 <3 <3

[luuxxart]

So this is the anon who just finished the comic and does like hitoshi x akechi and after you mentioned it in the tags I just cannot stop thinking about Akira x hitoshi x akechi it seems so so silly. I feel like they all simultaneously balance eachother out while being terrible influences.

I would love to hear more of your thoughts on it if you'd like to share (I have more myself but I dont wanna ramble in your inbox dt6tudtud)

toxic trio real and true…,,,

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE SEND ME YOUR THOUGHTS OMLLLLLLLLLL PLEASEEEEE RAMBLE IN MY INBOX🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

like!!!! This makes me so happy u have no idea,,,,,

anyway,,,, if u are interested ,,, here

are my thoughts……….

too many cooks! too many cooks!

akechi definitely plays them against each other (ex. “Akira won’t do [x] for me 🥺 but will you…?” “Hitoshi told me no about [x] but… I know you would…”)

what is in it for Akira and Hitoshi? welp. Not much. Mostly Akechi. It’s like they’re positive hydrogens. and Akechi is a very negative oxygen in the middle

but Hitoshi is still definitely a pushover and would do anything Akira asked him to. and honestly ??? he’s probably pretty into the crimes Akira has him do. It gives him an outlet to vent his frustrations

Akira never asks Hitoshi to be his fall guy or look the other way when he’s stealing something. No no no. he wants that man in on the action. Live a little.

I think they would actually be like synchronized swimmers in the kitchen. Hitoshi despises how well Akira is able to prepare fish, but hey. Someone’s gotta do it and it’s not gonna be Hitoshi, so. They cover each others weaknesses in the kitchen.

Akira is also a really good listener and lockbox, so Hitoshi probably traumadumps on him often. It’s a comfort Hitoshi didn’t think he needed, but he probably ends up either falling asleep in Akira’s arms by the end of it all or saying some dumb shit before leaving like “I think I was born to meet you” that takes Akira’s breath away

Akira ends up spooning with Hitoshi a lot and having so much tall boyfriend to sprawl out on is a fucking dream.

For fear of Akira and Hitoshi leaving him for each other, Akechi probably wedges himself between them as often as possible.

But in the end they somehow… manage to make the discordance work a little bit……

idk I think it would end with Hitoshi having to leave both of them for the good of his own mental health unless they make it to the end of graduation, at which point, Hitoshi becomes well-loved long distance boyfriend for epilogue reasons while Akira and Akechi stay in Inaba for epilogue reasons.

Generally though,,,, I think it’s just not . Something that would come together . Like…Ever

[totallynotapsychic]

When is the loudest/ most genuine you have ever laughed and who/what made you laugh + why

i used to laugh a lot with akechi in elementary school. not sure over what, probably just dumb stuff like kids do.

[bruxairacunda]

P5 HEADCANONS

So here I bring some Persona 5 Royal headcanons I have because I kinda need to let them out of my system.

Would love to listen about your headcanons as well. Also if you're particularly interested in any of them I'd love to elaborate more or even write a short fic or whatever, just ask! <3 Many of them are post-game soooooo this gonna have spoilers. Also I'm gonna refer to the protagonist as Akiren because I can't decide on which name I prefer. I'm not gonna include here HC about ships for many reasons, one of them being that I want to keep these as neutral as possible. Other is that I'm against the idea of having a partner as a "goal". However I love shipping so probably I'll post headcanons about some ships sooner or later

This is already WAY TOO LONG so for the moment I'm not including more characters. Definitely there's gonna be an update sooner or later.

Phantom Thieves

Each of them have a big PT flag like the one you can see at Akiren's room during Shido's Palace.

After the events at Maruki's Palace they built a small shrine for Akechi, as they don't know where his grave might be or even if he has one. Of course they also left a PT flag for him there.

After Akiren's departure back to his hometown, the rest of the group kept being regulars at Leblanc. At the beginning they only went individually as customers, then they started going as a group, and some time later Sojiro just let them use the attic as they wanted. To compensate, some of them help Sojiro at the store, the most invested in lending a hand is Haru

Once, thanks to Morgana's help, the PT managed to go pay a surprise visit to Akiren at his hometown. He was so genuinely happy he started crying. That opened the floodgates and everyone started ugly crying for a long time. None of them wants to talk about this.

It gets really hard for the Phantom Thieves to make new friends or have a partner for a while. The bonds they formed are so strong and deep that for most of them it's really difficult to have that kind of connection again with anyone, and anything less than that seems like a waste of time. This is particularly hard for Yusuke, Futaba and Makoto, whose social skills aren't that good to begin with, and for a really long time they don't feel like they belong anywhere else but the PT

The whole group tries to meet at least once a year, but it gets difficult as time passes as Akiren is back in his hometown and Ann lives abroad most of the time. If one of them couldn't make it to a meeting, they try to at least videocall while they are still together

Ryuji

He dyes his hair himself and despite being quite used to it he has indeed fried it a couple of times. The first time it happened his mom told him he was gonna get bald if he kept damaging his hair like that. He pretends he's not worried about it at all, but getting bald is now a recurrent nightmare of his

He was utterly convinced he was dumb and a lost cause until Makoto offered to help him study for real and showed him that he just learns different, and traditional school doesn't accomodate to his needs.

He's pretty good at doing household chores. He started doing them to compensate the terrible son he thinks he is (he's clearly not but our boy has self steem issues). Later he realizes it's just the normal thing to do so he and his mom share domestic chores

His bigger fear is to be in any way similar to his father. That's one of the reasons why he dies his hair (his father has it black). Also that's why he's very against drinking alcohol. He doesn't intend to even drink it himself and he's very wary around people who drinks. Drunk people trigger him real bad.

It takes him a lot of time to move out from his mom's place. He feels like he's abandoning her, just like his father did, and doesn't feel comfotable leaving her living alone. Once he finally leaves to his own place, he keeps visiting her frequently and calls her several times a week

I know it's a very common headcanon but I don't care. He ends up being a teacher/trainer/instructor in anything sports related. Kids and teenagers adore him and he loves his job. But it's also is very hard for him because he mades his students problems his own and suffers with them

When Ryuji starts job-hunting he stops dieying his hair and goes back to his original black. He once went into Leblanc just after a job interview with black hair and wearing a suit and Futaba almost kicked him out because she though he was a random guy getting too friendly. The first time Morgana saw Ryuji with black hair, he hissed at him because he didn't recognized him. He gets back to blonde once he has a job that allows it

With his first decent salary, Ryuji got her mom a one night spa break so she could relax for once.

Makoto

She finally admits to herself that despite her initial reticence she likes her PT outfit. As she grows older and she's able to separate herself from that projection of perfection she kept as a teenager, she starts wearing more "punkish" clothes (always under that classy aura of hers, of course)

She does the same with her enviroment, so once she gets her own place even if it's still organized and practical, she adds stuff that makes it more "Queen" and less "little miss perfect" than her room at Sae's . For example, she requests Yusuke a big painting of Johanna, so she won't forget her rebel spirit. She also has TONS of Buchimaru stuff she got at second hand stores that Futaba recommended her. And of course she has a boxing bag at the living room.

Everyone in the PT refers to her as the "mom friend", in fact they call her Momkoto...all behind her back of course, they are not brave enough to face the consequences. Ryuji slipped his tongue once and called her "mom" in front of the others out of habit. It's hard to know which of them both was most embarrased by it.

Whenever she rents a place to live she always tries for it to have some extra space she won't use that much so in case a friend needs somewhere to stay for a while she could offer them her place.

Her relationship with Sae improves drastically when she moves out. Funny enough, they start doing more stuff together than when they were both living under the same roof

Makoto wants to be a cop to try and change the system from the inside, that's why she wants to become a commissioner. Once she realizes it's almost impossible she has an existential crisis and doesn't know what to do with her life.

She gets into videogames due to her passion for Yakuza movies. Both Futaba and Ryuji convinced her to give a try to Yakuza games and she becomes obsessed. From them she jumps to more genres and her competitive nature did the rest. She once snatched in half a controller with her bare hands playing Mario Kart

After getting a motorcycle license she realizes she really enjoys the feeling of driving, so from there she went for a heavy vehicle license, then a special vehicles one...She kept it to herself (didn't see the need to say anything since nobody asked) and one day Haru told something about how it would be a lot easier to go to a certain place flying and Makoto offered to fly them there as she has a Private pilot license

Yusuke

Yusuke carries a sketchbook everywhere, even if he's not planning to draw anything or goes to a place in which he won't be able to draw. He just can't leave home without one

Of all the Phantom Thieves he is , by far, the one who spends more time at Leblanc

He and Sojiro get along pretty well, to the point that he becomes a father figure for Yusuke. Sojiro, far from being disgusted with this idea, embraces it and kinda adopts him. He even went to Yusuke's graduation at Kosei.

Despite his talent and dedication working as an artist becomes a struggle for Yusuke. Not only because how hard it is, but because the art he loves so much is many times used as a tool to get money and that clashes head-on with his idea of purity.

From time to time he disappears and it becomes really difficult to contact him in any way. He calls those moments "a journey of artistic and existential dread ", Futaba calls them "autistic burnout" (she's right)

It's really hard for him to keep a job. The moment something doesn't align with his moral compass he won't hesitate to speak out and most companies do not like employees who remind them the huge pieces of shit they are

At a certain point he gets into digital art as he has to admit it's easier to get by with commisions than just art contests. However traditional art keeps being his absolute fave and he always favours it. (I feel you, my boy, traditional artist speaking here)

Futaba (and Sojiro)

They both miss Morgana so much they end up adopting a cat. Sojiro allows it on one condition, he has the right to name it (it's terrible)

Every year at Wakaba's birthday Sojiro and Futaba celebrate it doing something she would have loved. There's always a lot of crying but for them is a very special day, even more than their own birthdays

Futaba gets a very VERY lucrative job in cyber security. She tries to give back everything Sojiro spent on her but he obviously refuses and won't accept a single yen. To compensate Futaba gets him really expensive presents from time to time

She doesn't want to leave Sojiro living by himself so instead of moving out, she gets a better place at Yongen-Jaya for both of them to live together.

Haru

Haru has little to none attachment to the money her father hoarded by exploiting others. That results in her not wasting it mindlessly, but using as much as she can to make other people happy (mainly her friends)

She always offers to lend her friends money if any of them needs it. They always refused until she told them "if you ask a bank for a credit you gotta pay interests, if you ask me for a credit my only interests would be company and coffee dates"

Haru commissions Yusuke whenever she realizes he's struggling financially. She asks for huge expensive art pieces, giving him complete freedom on what to do. It's her way to help him whitout making him feel that he owes her.

She later uses said pieces to decorate her coffee shop.

In her crusade to learn as much as she can about coffee, tea and coffee shops she makes a list of all the places in Tokyo (and other places in Japan) she wants to visit. Knowing that Yusuke would never decline anything food related she invites him to go with her, also wanting to know his opinion on the different places as she knows he would be brutally honest. That way coffee dates (in a completely platonic way) end up being a routine for both of them

On the menu of her coffee shop she has drinks inspired on each one of the Phantom thieves, fitting their preferences and named after their codenames at the Metaverse.

[fluffydice]

I keep reading your ABO posts cause they’re like AHHHH✨✨ they fit so perfectly im love 💕

Aaahhhh thank you so much :3 here, have some more thoughts about this

We'll talk about Kuboyasu a bit here because he's my other blorbo. Here's some things of him in his gang:

Kuboyasu is also an example of someone who didn't latch onto their family pack properly. Unlike Kusuo, however, he sought out another pack in his gang.

He's never had the opportunity to act as a puppy in a pack dynamic: playing around, being taken care of and carefully taught. He's always been the pack leader. It's gives him that idea of being a man that he's so attached to in canon.

People in more dangerous and/or violent environments tend to be closer in sync with their hindbrain. Kuboyasu is very in tune with his, and it helps give him those finely-tuned battle instincts. It also, however, has the side effect of making him a bit more stereotypical, acting as a sole provider for his pack and more chivalrous toward omegas.

This gives him weird behaviors during his ruts, like obsessively cooking for his gang members. He's also a lot more possessive about his things than most, and doesn't really like it when people try to touch his stuff. His pack members are fine to touch any of it, except for a few key items (his bike, helmet, a specific favored weapon that I haven't decided on yet, etc.)

His gang is an all-alphas one, both men and women. This has the unfortunate side effect of him never actually really being close to any omegas or betas. And because none of his friends are omegas, nor his parents, he's never actually been inside a nest. He tends to give them a pretty large radius out of worry he's intruding.

Most people don't really tend to contest his authority. Kuboyasu's reaction, as a result of both his father's treatment, his violent environment, and his closer connection to his inner alpha, is usually to snap his teeth at them and growl instead of...talking about it. Very few people will continue to push after that. Nobody really questions it, though, because that's how a lot of gang leaders are.

As you might be able to tell, Kuboyasu is often a foil for Saiki in this narrative. His reaction to his trauma is almost the exact opposite of Saiki's.

Now here's some of him at PK:

He's very protective of Saiki and Kaido, and later, Teruhashi and Akechi. It more shows itself in an over-reaction to a perceived threat, rather than something in his day-to-day behavior.

When he first got to PK and started assimilating with Saiki, Kaido, and Nendo, he initially clashed a lot with Saiki. The reason being that Saiki was their pack omega, essentially their 'leader'. Both of them squabbled a lot sometimes because Kuboyasu, if you can believe it, tends to be more lax than Saiki about letting them fuck around and be dumb. Saiki's even more protective than he is, but it actually shows itself in his normal interactions.

Kuboyasu, in the midst of an argument, snapped his teeth at Saiki. Kuboyasu got such a bone-chilling growl in response that even his alpha thinks twice about doing something like that again. It's a necessary correction, and Kuboyasu kind of calms down a bit after that.

*Cocks gun* you thought it wouldn't be Kubosai, huh. He eventually does manage to win Saiki over, and kind of fills the role of pack alpha. Of course, there's a clear deference to Saiki in more stressful situations, but most of the time Saiki is content to let Kuboyasu smooth things out.

[nshi-ao3]

I play ff14 and my main character is called Ren Amamiya (although I to write it R'en because otherwise it was taken by an inactive user) I've been sat, scrolling through the clothing sets to try and get stuff that looks like joker please it's hell.

This fuckass bunny boy will look like him. (closest body type and I love bunnies)

Anyway the scientist coat is the closest to him I found so far. Reading the fic keeps me playing because I actually made my character before finding your fic, and my dumb ass brain went "hehehe me" except I started in limsa lomisa for the rogue job and ff requires you to join a grand company.

All this and I failed to mention the lalafell akechi I made because it was funny.

Sorry this was random.

Awww, that's very cute! Yes, bunny boys definitely come the closest figure and face wise, outside of just using a female character haha :P

There's a website called Eorzea Collection that has a bunch of people's submitted glamours! And there's lots of ones for Joker and many other characters. ;D Just putting Joker in gets the most results: https://tinyurl.com/yb75jwa4 (if you don't mind scrolling through Batman Joker as well haha). Though some of the gear's later content-- I don't know how far you are, but that could be an issue. There's options to filter it out for glamours for lower level / early-game accessible items if that's a problem. Also, make sure it can be worn by the class you're using! There's also Crimes™ as an option -- I know for sure there's a direct rip of Joker's mask and coat on a certain archive-- but uh, we're not supposed to talk about that...

Lalafell Akechi sounds absolutely amazing and I went to see him lol

[palmtreehero]

Will you continue updating your akeshu fic recs? I feel like we have the same taste so I can only trust in your akeshu recs.

Oh boy, it's nice to know others have the same taste as me haha I guess I do have enough to make a part two of my akeshu fic recs!

I'll put it in a read more ^0^/

1) nsfw, my favorite sugar daddy AU (it's unfinished but leaves at a good spot) https://archiveofourown.org/works/38761800

2) Soulmates AU, Goro Akechi Calls Persona 5 Protagonist Kitten (this fic destroyed me) https://archiveofourown.org/works/28074039

3) Another sugar daddy AU REALLY WELL WRITTEN https://archiveofourown.org/works/32411110

4) Akira runs a kissing booth! (I thought I had rec'd this before but apparently not?? I love how possessive Goro is) https://archiveofourown.org/works/32299783

5) nsfw, yes, another sugar daddy AU (I HAD A PHASE OKAY) https://archiveofourown.org/works/35389438

6) nsfw, I just love sub drop and top drop fics sue me https://archiveofourown.org/works/26374915

7) sleeping beauty bad ending. I love this series... lots of ride or die husband goro akechi, he's akira's one and only knight! https://archiveofourown.org/works/29829624

8) Another sleeping beauty bad ending fic (I had another phase) https://archiveofourown.org/works/48849352

9) Fake dating with cute shenanigans :) https://archiveofourown.org/works/56595781

10) nsfw, domestic and needy akeshu is so sweet https://archiveofourown.org/works/60022594

11) Short and sweet fluff https://archiveofourown.org/works/15799302

12) engine room but Joker is wearing punishment cop outfit, I really laughed out loud reading this it's great https://archiveofourown.org/works/33188542

13) short and sweet comedy haha https://archiveofourown.org/works/30517815

14) miscommunication v_v https://archiveofourown.org/works/27283306

15) Interesting concept where both Goro and Akira have memory loss https://archiveofourown.org/works/29914782

16) secret relationship actors AU... GOODDDD I LOVE THIS FIC but it never updated again... it has literally all the elements for a perfect fic for this trope sob https://archiveofourown.org/works/29546514

17) short and sweet lazy morning https://archiveofourown.org/works/22243645

18) warning: suicide attempt, but the fic is very sweet and I love the bitter sweet feeling so much. Probably has one of my favorite lines ever in fic. “I’m sorry I can’t let you go,” he whispers. “Even if it would be best for you...I’ll never be able to let you go.”  https://archiveofourown.org/works/27918658

19) Fun fic about streamer joker :D https://archiveofourown.org/works/49144162

20) The barista keeps flirting with that customer who clearly is very bothered and annoyed by him..! https://archiveofourown.org/works/35507662

21) sick akira v_v he needs to be spoiled and loved..! https://archiveofourown.org/works/57289483

22) nsfw, funny bed time shenanigans https://archiveofourown.org/works/14823944

23) omegaverse, I really like sussy goro but he's actually just a simp https://archiveofourown.org/works/42394629

24) I enjoy this fic, I think it was brilliant and cute but just a warning it does get super frustrating in the later chapters because of how dumb these two are but I still recommend it :> https://archiveofourown.org/works/36297340

This is it for now...! I'll make a third list once I have more to compile... anyways I hope you enjoy and ofc if you have anything you'd like to recommend to me please let me know ^^

For those who want to see part 1

[goodvein]

Onimusha 3: Demon Siege

Resident Evil was never meant to be a good game. And to be fair, they have kept their promise, by never making a good game.

Resident Evil was always designed as a shitty B movie.

Now, are Resident Evil games fun? Yes. At least until they discovered quick time events, (I spit upon the name of God of War for introducing them. Anyways, they started playing around with what they could do with the premise.

One of their spinoffs was Devil May Cry. DMC was based off a potential control system for Resident Evil. It turned out to be a dumb idea for Resident Evil, but a great idea for Devil May Cry.

Another was Onimusha: Warlords. While DMC took the cinematic aspect of Resident Evil, Onimusha took the controls, and tried to perfect them. The end result was what are referred to as Tank Controls. Tanks, at least early tanks, had to stop to turn. While Dante can turn on a time, Samanosuke has to turn that way before moving. This provided a plodding, methodical movement system.

And, we need to take a moment to point out that early 3D games absolutely suck. OoT was great. Mario 64 was 50/50 over whether the camera controls worked at the moment. Parasite Eve has completely unique controls, because while it (barely) worked, they were absolutely idiotic, if fun. Two-stick and mouse-look were not invented until the PS2 era.

And so, Onimusha's tank controls were, honestly, revolutionary at the time, even if they are rightfully left in the dusts of history.

The original pair of Onimusha games played off the Unification Era. Oni are good. Genma are evil. Because, subverting expectations.

The first one was actually close to Resident Evil, in the sense that it starts off as an investigation that turns supernatural. The hero of the first game is Samanosuke Akechi, whom is basically Akechi Hidemitsu. In the game he is an idealized confusion warrior. Confusion warriors are paragons of selflessness, to the point they don't have a personality, and the game is primarily interesting because you are dealing with people from the unification wars, although many of them are possessed/empowered by the demonic Genma. 2 was a different story, with a different character, but still used history as the primary way of making it interesting.

Onimusha 3: Demon Siege brought back Samanosuke, and added a new one.

Jacques Blanc

A modern French soldier with a blue trench coat flak jacket.

The two swap eras, coordinating through tier fairy tengu.

Jacques Blanc has whip-like weapons. Instead of the bow that Samanosuke uses, Jacques uses alternate whip attacks, which can grapple opponents. He can then draw his side arm to pepper them, toss them, slam them, etc. His whip also gives him a vertical movement option, dramatically improving the exploration options.

He allows the game to be a LOT more dynamic and exciting, even if, at it's base, he uses the same tank controls of Samanosuke.

He also has a personality. Girlfriend. Son. Emotions.

Demon Siege also follows the growing Resident Evil tradition of having a bunch of interesting characters have their own sidestories.

And this is an colossal east/west division, as while 3 is far more interesting for a foreign audience, it's largely decried by the Japanese audience.

This was honestly one of the best games of the PS2 era, but because of the disinterest in Japan, will likely never get a modern remake.

[yall-hate-kids-tourney]

Goro Akechi (Persona 5)

Y'all Hate Teens propaganda

cw terrorism

"Hey so, shocker, but victims don't have to be 'UwU I have done nothing wrong save me I am So Tragic' and still be victims? But no, according to (a surprisingly large portion of) the fandom, he was 'Asking for it' and 'stopped being a victim after joining Shido'. 

Theres also the 'Piss on the Poor' interpretation where he wanted to kill Shido, which...no? That wasnt his plan at all???? He never once mentioned wanting to kill Shido??? One of the biggest themes in P5 from ARC 1 is how there are fates worse than death???? ""His plan was dumb tho"" yea. Because he was a KID! YOU DON'T MAKE SMART PLANS WHEN YOUR A KID! 

(Not even mentioning when it becomes surprisingly misogynistic? Read the comments on Crystahls videos and you'll find SO MANY comments saying she's gonna date a murderer because she likes Akechi and acknowledges how he was a victim. Like bro, what is your train of thought here???) 

(Also, because I don't know where else to put it; I found people who compared him to STALIN. WHAT????)"

-

"He's a teen hitman due to an admittedly stupid plan to get revenge on his shitty father by intentionally working for him. He's also an influencer slash detective. He kills the mc's sister figures mom, the mc's friends dad, and attempts to kill the mc twice. There's also the other murders and breaking people's minds as a form of terrorism.

All of this happened because he made a deal with his terrible father at 15/16 to work as his personal supernatural hitman. He has no way to get out of this situation without getting killed himself, and nearly all the adults around him work for his father. He went into this already traumatized from an abusive childhood, and came out even worse.

It's reasonable to dislike the guy who kills the mc or to just dislike gray antags. But my god the level of hate this kid gets is entirely disproportionate. I've seen people claim he killed thousands, that he's just ""a sociopath"" because he doesn't start groveling for forgiveness, that the main characters are too nice for feeling bad when he dies, that it's bad writing for the mc to care about him after the murder attempts, and that he's worse than his father. Before the game was remade and improved his writing, I would get hatemail on tumblr and Twitter accusing me of supporting irl murder or violence against women (weird given he's the only guy in the main character group who isn't weird about women!). How the fuck a teenager hired by an insanely powerful fascist is to blame for not being able to 'just stop killing' beats me.

Oh, and a lot of these people prefer the prior villain in persona, even saying he's more relatable than Akechi. That villain is a violent misogynist."

[persona5butitsincorrect]

Hear me out about this concept/AU idea quick 👀

I always thought that it felt dumb that Akechi was such an obvious antagonist / traitor to the Phantom Theives. But what if Akechi was just a red herring for someone more unsuspecting -- Haru Okumura. There are a couple of ways I could see this playing out. Maybe her intentions being genuine at first but turning when she believes the Phantom Theives are responsible for her father's death, maybe they refused to let her join them because they believed the was too weak and she grew spiteful and plotted to take them down a peg. Or maybe, just maybe, if we want to be hella dark about it, what if she was the one who killed her father, and maybe that had always been her plan. What if Haru Okumura was using the Phantom Theives to get this far and had distorted desires of her own. She's pretty damn powerful on her own by the end of okumuras palace, what about after that? What if her idea of justice warped somewhere along the line, and isn't changing a heart but erasing the corrupt entirely? How long does it take the Phantom Theives to figure this out? How exactly does it go down once they figure it out? I just love the idea of her as a twist villian and have a lot to say about/wanna write about it!!!

Totally not me desperately trying to think up more imaginary screen time for Haru than the crumbs she acc got :')