#also i LOVE where you took The Joker's design

[hiilybemyfriendpls]

I was gonna reblog talking about how much I want to steal the Riddler. Just grab him and hug him bc he looked so comfy cosy

But instead! Did u know you could do this!!!!!!

Gotham rogues: dadfred and babybat style! 🦇🖤

[fanfic-obsessed]

I have a prompt for you, in light of the recent (very entertaining) DCU aus you've posted. If you were going to do a batfam-are-cryptids-but-now-the-justice-leauge-meets-them thing, how would you do it?

Have I told you thank you yet, @somestorythoughts, your prompts and responses make me so happy. Also I almost always end up with  more to write, which is fun.

Now back to the important part.

Fair warning, I screw with ages and timelines with this one. There is no canon here

I think, as far as a cryptid status is concerned this will be a ‘Batman is a founding, and funding, member of the Justice League, but has never revealed his identity’ kind of idea (with all the precautions therein to make sure even the metas can’t guess his identity). There is some speculation throughout the Justice League that Batman does not actually have a civilian identity, that he is the spirit of justice possessing a cape and cowl (Seriously there were three attempted exorcisms).  It is known that Batman always works alone, and that no one is to set foot Gotham, a few of the youngest members disbelieve that Gotham even really exists. 

However there are always rumors that can’t quite be dispelled.  No one in the Justice League can figure out the Watchtower’s firewall (designed by Oracle). Through the years there have been half heard conversations by the JL that almost sound like a wellness check after a fight, going either direction over a com line they can’t access. Sometimes during particularly difficult fights masked strangers will appear, most of which fight with styles similar to Batman, only to vanish again without a word. A few swear they have caught code names (Robin…or maybe Red Robin…Or was it Red Hood…no it was really Black Bat…there might be a BatGirl????) but no one can confirm anything.

In addition, it is impossible to quell the rumor that entering Gotham uninvited means you will disappear.  Not every time and no one can figure out the difference between being escorted out and vanishing, but there have been several heroes from the community who vanished after entering Gotham over the years.

What’s really happening is that I love the Young Justice Team and want a way for it to work with Cryptid BatFam. 

Two of the most notable, the first but certainly not the last, were Bart Allen, Impulse, and Cassie Sandsmark, Wonder Girl who entered the city limits together to try to prove that they too could be heroes. Both were 15 when they vanished.  Unknown to anyone else, at the same time an unnamed clone of Clark Kent and Lex Luthor was also sent into Gotham, as a test of some kind. 

All three of them, for different reasons, entered feeling abandoned or dismissed by the people around them. So when they encountered Tim Drake, as Robin, age 14; he called dibs and adopted them on the spot (Tim: These are my children Cassie, Bart, and the newly named Connor. Yes, I carried them in my very own womb and I am very proud of all of them. No, I will not accept questions. Batkids: Cool! Niblings. Batman<sighs>: At least tell me you didn’t kill someone to acquire them. Tim: I just told you, I birthed them myself).  So Cassie, Bart, and Connor are absorbed into the BatFam. Both Bart and Cassie decide against telling anyone where they are, with Connor not really having anyone to tell.  It should also be noted that the JL avoided asking Batman about the whereabouts of the kids who vanished after entering Gotham, they didn’t want to admit where the kids had gone. 

Three years later, Jason, as Red Hood (Jason did not die here, though it was close. He still took on the moniker of Red Hood after a beating by the Joker), age 19 happens upon Roy Harper, age 20 after Roy had a fight with Oliver and does the same thing. Only Jason dragged Roy home and introduced Roy home as his newest brother, giving Bruce a crazy look that said under no uncertain terms that Bruce better break out the adoption papers immediately; never mind that Roy was not underage.  

At the same time Raven, originally 26, was de aged to about 8 due to an attempted possession by her father, accidentally portals into Gotham and practically climbs Dick Grayson,age 22, in fear. The effects of the spell and the portal wiped her memories past her physical age.  So now Dick has a daughter as well, who he thinks is a Gothamite since he never saw the portal.  As far as anyone from Justice League Dark can tell there was a portal leading to Gotham where Raven disappeared but no one knows what happened (Batman and his family are looking for an adult Raven and never connected her to the 8 year old Rachel that became Dick’s daughter).

Others also disappear, having been adopted by the Waynes

What I am saying is that Gotham is considered quite a bit more dangerous to the caped community and the Batfam encompasses a few people it might not have otherwise. I think it would be funnier if Batman was not aware of his family's cryptid status (It never occurs to him that his kids have never been invited to join any of the younger generation teams).

Something sparks a partial return of Raven’s, now around 14 or 15, memory, enough for Rachel (who is the current Robin) to realize she is Raven. At her request, Batman announces this at a meeting and her intention to remain Dick’s daughter and Bruce’s granddaughter.  The JL react confusingly (they are all losing their collective minds at the thought that Batman has kids AND grandkids).  His response that one of his sons made him a grandfather when the boy was 14 does not inspire confidence.  Eventually, and I do mean this takes ages, it leads to the entire Batfam coming up to the Watchtower.  In spite of the masks Barry recognizes Bart, and after a moment the Wonder’s also recognize Cassie. Both had been desperately missed (the feelings of abandonment had been a misunderstanding).  Though the Wonder’s and the Speedsters both try to hug their missing members, it becomes clear that you can pry them from their mother, Tim, introduced as Red Robin, only when Red Robin is dead. 

The Speedsters look at each other, shrug, and immediately start lobbying Red Robin for Visitation (it does not matter that Tim’s kids are all adults with their own lives in Gotham). The Wonders do not have a chance to do the same as Connor, code name Agent C (he decided he did not want to be a field Vigilante, instead he has taken on a support role, like Alfred, where he is their Mechanic/Mechanical Engineer), drops the bomb that he is a Clone of Superman and Lex Luthor (Connor had not been told enough by the scientists at CADMUS to know what was going on, or even if Lex was aware his DNA was being used but of course the Bats did a DNA, he didn’t even know what the lab was called or where to find it).

Superman does make the connection to CADMUS labs, which he had shut down a few years earlier-though he never put those reports in the Watchtower computers as he considered it an internal matter (Batman would like it noted that all of the Batfam reports end up in the watchtower computer and is irritated that the other heroes do not do the same). 

Connor had been the only ‘viable’ clone but all the records (whether viable or not) had been stamped with ‘failure’, so Superman had not known that there should be a clone of him out there somewhere.  Also the intervening years of being able to process, ‘hey this person I knew, and was once friends with, stole my genetic material to try and create a new person without my consent or knowledge’ without having to deal with the results of said actions (Compounded by the guilt of not being able to look at this miniature version of himself without making the connection to his enemy Lex and his violation, knowing intellectually that it was not Connors fault for being created or that Connor was created specifically to be a weapon against Superman, but still not able move on emotionally, not enough to be responsible for a child) added to the fact that it is pretty clear that Superman does not need to be responsible for Connor means that superman can verify that Connor is happy where he is, which he is. Then Superman can, with a clear conscience-since Batman is undeniably paranoid enough to have a plan if Connor becomes a villain or an actual problem, offer to help with unexpected powers and have Connor meet the rest of his family. 

So Red Robin is simultaneously mediating the reunion between his three children and their other families, all the while ready to take down a Cape that breathes wrong in their direction. 

Red Hood, sans helmet but with a mask, is creatively and rhythmically cursing Green Arrow out on behalf of Roy (I want you to picture a Red Hood that practices and excels in the art of Flyting).  Green Arrow had made an immediate, and poorly phrased, inquiry into Roy sobriety.  Roy has been sober for almost 3 years. 

Damian, codename Firebird, is critiquing several of the last major fights and their fighters while having a discussion about blades and underwater fighting with the Aqua family.  He is also keeping a protective eye on Nightwing and Robin, who are facing off against JLD (who would like to see if what happened to Raven is reversible-mostly to make sure she is healthy and whatever happened is stable, Nightwing and Robin are taking it to mean they want Raven back instead of Robin). 

Steph as Spoiler, Cass as Black Bat, and Duke as Orphan are explaining to a largely horrified audience of former Titans the complicated legacy of the Batman, Robin, and Batgirl names in Gotham (The current Batgirl, Helen Wayne-12 year old daughter of Selina Kyle and Bruce Wayne- is standing with Bruce and Alfred-mask firmly in place. She is new to the name and this is her first mission outside of Gotham). It is at this point that the Justice League finds out that there are a number of times when the Batman they dealt with was NOT the same person. Someone also brings up the rumor that Batman is actually a haunted piece of clothing, to the entire BatFams bemusement.

At no point during this process does anyone in the Batfam reveal their civilian identities (save the ones that are now known, like Bart, Cassie, and Roy).  They also do not admit to the fact that every single one of them steals and impersonates each other frequently (Tim holds the honor of having patrolled, handled an Arkham breakout, and met with someone outside of Gotham, and handled a world wide invasion in every vigilante identity from Gotham successfully).  

It also should be noted that this does not provide clarity to the Justice League about any topic regarding Gotham or its vigilantes.

[batfambrainrotbeloved]

The Sleepy Kitten Cafe 🐱💤 

(The Drakes Spoiled Brat. (im sorry dad))

Ill solidify an actual layout design later (since this will become a major setting for most of the fic) BUT for now you get a shitty collage design Edit- Fuck it I was gonna wait till post chapter 7 but I decided to publish now so here you go!

Info (may or may not become relevent in the fic, I just think is neat also for my own reference)

Located on The Narrows of Gotham city

All utensils and containers are thrifted so none of them match

Upstairs lounge is a mini library/book store

They sell baked goods and have a shitty service window where you can order diner style food/snacks

Regular game nights/other events (including jazz night which Tim vehelementaly refuses to attend)

Not uncommon for random strays to come hang out (no one tell their manager)

Have a photo wall of regular customers (it took several weeks of begging before Tim allowed Gwen to snap his pic and pin it up)

They have a whole buisness card holder on the counter people can advertise their shit

Owned by a former hippie from Washington and her husband from Sikkim

Almost gets robbed once a week but hey its Gotham, what can you do? (emphasis on almost)

Employees (named thus far, who I will also probably draw later)-

Gwen Parkins she/her- Main Barista Alans (Tims) BFF, utter sweetheart, but will cry if yelled at. Also plans like 80% of the work events. Wears clips in her hair that are "on theme" for whatever event is for the day (cat ones for work obvi) Never checks her bank account so doesnt notice Tim slipping in an extra 500-3k every month (tax free of course) and she ends up saving or donating half of it anyways. From the Narrows.

Zeek (Ezikel) Zoref he/they- Cook/Security Very open stoner, likes bullying his friends (kinda an asshole, but will apologize if too far), also loves Gotham for the fact he can and will fist fight customers given the oppertunity, and there are PLENTY of oppertunies. Carries around a bat. Almost became a Joker Goon out of nessesity but by sheer happenstance he tried robbing Alan who somehow got him an interview at the Cafe, even with zero experience. (Owes his life, but will never admit it) Allergic to mint and mourns mint gum everyday. From Crime Alley.

Obsidian Fowler they/them- Manager/Barista The reason shit gets done, newly recognized artist, meticiously does inventory because they find it fun. Gets stressed about hygine when his coworkers keep sneaking random strays in the cafe, but weak to begging. Did not give in when they brought in a Raccoon. Keeps offering Alan a job because "Please I cannot be the only competent member here" From Old Gotham.

[klbwriting]

Broken Prism

Chapter 16

Fandom: Red Hood

Pairing: Jason Toddxfemale!Reader

Warnings: none, just a hint of violence

Summary: Jason and YN have settled into the Batfamily, but things never stay nice in Gotham

The heat in Gotham in mid-July was the worst. The pavement was sticky, the city smelled rank and it made having to walk around all day the worst experience possible. That was why so many people saved their outings until after dark. And that’s what you did also. You needed to meet a contact about Joker. He was still in Arkham but there were rumblings that Harley Quinn was resurfacing after her escape from Blackgate in early June. Your contact was supposed to meet you at the docks around 11PM, and it was still in the upper 80s with no breeze. The river looked refreshing honestly and you understood for a moment why Killer Croc would want to stay underwater all the time. It was 11:30 at the moment and you were about to give up when someone climbed out of the water.

“King Shark?” you said, having not expected that at all. “You said your name was Nan.”

“My name is Nanaue so I told the truth,” he said. You let out a nervous breath, not exactly a fan of all those teeth and being alone. “Are you Lady Red?” You nodded, still pleased with the name you and Jason had come up with to keep your name off the street as much as possible. He wasn’t going to want you out there fighting crime in a cape yet, but you could do your job and hopefully keep your real name and where you lived under wraps.

“You have information on Harley for me?” you asked. He nodded. “What do you want in exchange?”

“Nothing, Harley is my friend and I want you to stop looking for her. She is with us now, she does not like Joker anymore,” he said. You nodded.

“So, she’s not planning to break him out of Arkham?” you confirmed, and the shark shook his head. “Good, thank you.”

“Tell your friend he should take a shower, I can smell him from here,” the shark said before diving back into the river. You laughed out loud at that, turning and looking towards the nearby warehouse where you knew Jason was hiding, watching.

“Well, that was rude,” he said into the communicator you had in your ear. You laughed even more. “Do you think he’s lying about Harley?” You could hear the nervousness in his voice. He still had nightmares about Joker, you heard him across the hall crying out sometimes and had one more than one occasion run into his room and climbed in next to him, letting him curl around you as he listened to your heartbeat to fall back asleep.

“I normally can tell if people are lying, but he is a giant shark so it’s a little harder to tell, but I think he was telling the truth,” you said. King Shark’s voice has been even, his eyes focused on you, not skirting around. “I’m going to head down to the Diamond District, I need to visit CADMUS. You can go back to your own thing; I don’t think a scientist is going to kidnap me.”

“I’m sorry have you met most of the scientists in this city? They’re the worst,” Jason answered. “But I do have to get moving, Penguin is trying to run some guns through East End and well, I need some more guns.” You rolled your eyes, climbing into the McLaren you so desperately loved to steal from Bruce’s garage.

“Yes, more guns, Bruce will love that,” you said. You heard him laugh and smiled. “Did you show him those new designs you were working on?” He didn’t answer. “Red, your designs are good and they would help you be less lethal, which we all know he will love, and you should also show him your updates to the exploding gel.” You heard him clear his throat. “Ok, I’ll stop, see you at home later Hoodie.” You took the communicator from your ear and drove off towards CADMUS.

Jason heard you disconnect, not being able to stop the smile that appeared when you said you would see him at home. He didn’t exactly know how or when it happened, but he had a home and a family again. He was even on decent terms with Tim, though he wasn’t telling anyone that yet. Even Bruce had taken him back to the basketball court to see how he did, and he was pleased to say he won that round of 1-on-1. And YN, she had made everything come together, held him together, even when he was about to fall apart. The nightmares didn’t stop, and sometimes even the coping skills that Dr. Thompkins was teaching him in their sessions wasn’t even to keep the sound of laughter and screeching metal at bay in his mind, but he was having more good days than bad now. It was refreshing and freeing.

He dropped down to the ground from the warehouse and hopped on his bike, heading towards East End to deal with Penguin and get himself some new guns. He was just crossing over into East End when he saw too late the spike strips across the darkened alley. He tired to veer but they bike hit them, tires bursting and sending him and the bike spinning out. He slid on the pavement, lucky for his armor and helmet or he would have been torn to shreds. He still felt the pain of impact but thought he was safe from most of the damage. He jumped up, ready to attack when he felt the bat to his back. He spun, guns aimed and fired at the retreating attacker. What the hell? He looked around, watching as dozens of guys walked out of the surrounding buildings. And there on the fire escape was Penguin.

“I see you got my invitation,” he said. Jason didn’t respond but saw what was going on. The gun run was a ruse and he had fallen for it. “Your men are dead, I already had them thrown into the river. You on the other hand, you are a bigger problem.”

“I’ve heard that before,” Jason snarked, watching around him for someone to make the first move.

“Ya, well, it's time I deal with you. Go ahead boys, have fun, but I want him alive,” Penguin said, waving his hand and disappearing back into the building. They descended and Jason knew, even as he fought and clawed and shot and stabbed, that he didn’t have a chance.

By the time Tim responded to the tracker alarm Jason had activated all that was left in the alley was his guns and a torn-up leather jacket covered in blood.

[alarmsofmyheart]

Alright let's start.

Jack and Joker U Steal My Heart

Ep 5

Hoi cares more than anyone.

GODFUCK! I had to pause. I've never seen an actual wine bottle be broken on anyone's head. The closest I saw that was in Doona and he used helmet. But damn. Joker sure loves Jack alot.

I'm stupid what did I expect when Joke returns the ring.. I just didn't think, if I saw it week after week, I might have thought so but yeah..

Sweet he bought medicine.

Ajajshssh Aran becomes the bait now.

Wound cleaning!!!

Mark looks so royal and pretty!!!

God Yin the acting🤣 Jack was so over the top!

Omg are the wearing the same outfits

What is this cat fight 🤣🤣🤣

Jack, your eyes, can't be hidden by that scarf mask. I'm reminded of that one episode in word of honor where they used a barely hiding scarf as mask, but this is atleast black in color.

Are they idiots or what?? Oh they just hate each other.

Hope knows what he likes - Save, beating up people, graphic designing.

Well Joke didn't have a nice dad or brother to learn driving from. And yeah he was in jail too.

Not them using a BMW to learn to drive😭😭😭

Nice sneaking way of listening.

Stop smiling Jack. He stopped.

New disguise 🥸🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

It's nice to see him act different roles in same show.

Aran roaming around with three buttons of that jacket is cute.

Did Aran just smile at Tatoo?

The number of times Joker got choked, if I drank each time in today's binge watch, I would have been drunk by now.

Did Jack just take over the call from Tatoo.. aw..

War's wig is bouncing with every step haha

Why is that place empty?

Awww Jack showed up! Oh it's the same bar!

Same, if everytime Joker got kicked in stomach and I drank, I would have developed acute liver failure by now.

Not Aran getting slapped twice. Boi you should not be fighting. That's why you have bodyguards😭

Did he just throw Aran on top off Tattoo and walk away🤣😭

Tooth and Tongue by P'Bird 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Did he stab Jack???

Double kick was so well shot. In sync. Dk how many takes it took, but it was good.

Jack, Joke and Ama sound the same because they both love you, you idiot.

Did Tatoo steal it again? What's wrong now??

Awww povidone in :) shape

More Wound Caring 🩷

War's eyes. Crazy mad Joker.

Joke forgave. ???!!!!!!!!!!!!

Terrace! Is it terrace or parking area!! Or both.. this is reminding me of Vee Mark terrace scene. Yin War - They have both grown up a little.

OHmy Jack forgave!

Does that mean more than what he means?

Oh damn my tablet died.

Not the 'theres a lot to eat, do you want to come over' cliche cutest thing

Awwwww Kicking my feet in the air, they are restarting. Gosh those few minutes was so good SO GOOD. I could write about it more and more but the rest of plot also takes up space. I will probably write about in rewatch sessions.

(Now I regret not watching the show since it was airing, this would have felt so much better if I had been watching and waiting for a month.)

The issue with not registering the marriage sure shows up in hundred different ways in the next generation's life. It's sad.

It's sad to see Rosé walk all over Aran, because yes, she has more money and legitimacy. Fuck all these hierarchies.

Aran being a decent boss' son by covering up this and that and everything was actually very angel baby of him.

Not Jack getting caught out of all those people. But it's for plot purposes. Let's wait.

So the preview shows Jack introducing Joke to his home tuition kids and then sleeping together. I'll pretend that information is not yet processed and I shall wait peacefully for the next episode.

[princesspuresarahk]

The Batman Au: Riddler’s Reform

Chapter: 5 Shopping and a date?

Warning before read for a sexual mature scene (mustbe18+) hints of heavy Riddlebat

The morning sun was slowly peeking through Edward’s window softly hitting his eyes as Eddie slowly awoke smiling happily as the warm rays kissed his face he gently rubbed his eyes getting the sleep out of them and checked the clock on the wall. It was 7:00 in the morning oh well might as well get up. mind still fuzzy Edward gave his limbs a good stretch before crawling out of bed giving his back a nice satisfied pop, went to the bathroom to relieve himself and splash some cool water on his face to wake himself up more, and made his way downstairs where he could smell fresh coffee brewing following the smell he found the kitchen where Scarlet was sitting by the table still in her PJs too in a violet grey nightgown with rose designs on it with a kimono-like roll tied loosely around her waist "good morning Eddie you're up early just in time I just made a fresh pot." She greeted cheerily handing him a porcelain coffee cup just like her own decorated with little flowers and birds on it "In a little bit do you want some breakfast? I can make some porridge or some bagels?" Scarlet asked as Edward put in that good amount of cream and sugar into his cup making his coffee into a creamy sweetness. “Good morning Scarlet. Yes, some breakfast sounds nice” said Edward who couldn’t help but feel drowsy. He couldn’t help but still feel tired from yesterday. It was as if everything happened at once. Edward was released from Arkham, but Edward escaped only seconds before he was to be let out. Edward was worried his early departure would land him back in Arkham, and all his credibility of working hard to get better would be tarnished. However, Edward knew his life depended on escaping; especially when Joker and Penguin had placed a number on his head. “Should I tell Scarlet this? Does she even know that she’s sheltering a potential fugitive?” Edward asked himself. Edward knew that Scarlet’s heart was so big and would do everything she could to help him out. When Edward came to her last night, he was tired and soaked; he felt happier at least to know his cousin helped make him feel better. Edward smiled as he felt the lovely and soft fabric of the night dress he was wearing, the uniform he wore at Arkham didn’t feel as comfortable. But wait as he thought again. I was at the bus stop I'm not far after I was released so maybe that doesn't make me a fugitive at all. So the only fugitive somewhere out was that psycho clown and bird brain darn it what was I thinking? Scarlet would go to Hades and back to protect him and his foes have no idea where he's at so all should be good as long as he keeps his head low and stays out of Gotham for a while today is a new day for you Edward remember that. He told himself as he took a sip of his coffee letting out a happy sigh at the taste of Irish cream and a little bit of hazelnut as Scarlet brought them breakfast nice hot porridge with nuts and fresh berries."I have some clothes you can have while we go shopping once we're done we'll be heading out to Stygainville." Interesting Edward heard of it, it was a small town out of Gotham City's limits known for its nickname Little Gotham except it doesn't have a lot of crime not a trace of it and looks more like a village with old Gothic architecture but it did have a lot of amazing little boutiques and little cultural shops from French, Spanish, Korean, Yorkshire and Irish. Making it a cute small place to explore for tourists while on their way to explore the big dark city.

After breakfast, Edward was led by Scarlet to her room to show him the outfit she picked for him. “So… how does it look?” asked Edward as he walked out wearing a turquoise cotton sundress with a v-neck, he also wore a pair of small white heels. Edward smiled, he almost forgot how it felt to wear a cute dress instead of that tight green costume he’d worn back when he was the Riddler. It seemed like ever since he came to Scarlet, Edward felt like he was on the path to becoming a law-abiding citizen. However, Edward was fearful that the authorities could be looking for him; especially his so-called friends from Arkham Asylum.

“Edward, Darling! You look absolutely stunning! Oooh, it’s as if that dress was made for you. I must say that for a man, your taste in women’s wear is very nice!” said Scarlett as she walked out wearing a white button-down shirt with a red leather jacket over it, a plaid pencil skirt and a pair of small off-lime colored heels. The two cousins held hands and walked towards Scarlet’s car as she drove them to Little Gotham. Little did they know that keeping tabs on them was Batman who was staking out their house from the top of a nearby church as Scarlet pulled off from the driveway and onto the road, Batman fired a small magnetic tracker onto the back of their car. This tiny tracker was linked to the Batwave and was able to interface with satellites in space to provide up-to-date information about Riddler’s whereabouts at all times. Seeing Riddler in that dress, Batman couldn’t help but get a boner in his tights; he tried to get rid of it as he was worried his concentration might be disrupted now that his thoughts were on the effeminate Edward.

Right now he needs to focus and Batman needs to be back in the City at least he knows for now Edward is safe away from harm's way knowing he's in good hands silent as a ghost he made his way back down from the church to one of his batcycles riding out back into Gotham where just in time got a report of Clue Master up to old tricks again and Batman heads out to the situation. In the meantime a classic 1958 hot cherry red Cadillac gently cruised down the road towards Little Gotham as the song Born This Way by Orville Peck gently played on the radio Eddie took a deep breath enjoying the cool morning breeze gently blowing on his face and dark raven hair watching the scenery with a lazy smile as apple and peach blossom trees bloomed soaking up the fresh rain from last night "it's such a beautiful morning isn't it Scarlet?" He asked as the song finished a song by Elvis Presley began to play "Indeed it’s gorgeous Eddie baby today is a brand new day for you it's going to be absolutely fun by the time we're done shopping you'll have enough clothes it can make you come up with a riddle for it," she joked causing the both of them to giggle in glee after another hour of driving they soon made it to the sun village a cute sign in French design saying 'Welcome To Stygainville' on it and Edward got to admit it was a cute little town everything was in a traditional and aesthetic design some buildings built with dark colored bricks and stones(hence its nickname little Gotham) covered with flowers in celebration of spring in the center of the town square a small garden area where people could rest in its center stood a beautiful natural fountain in gothic design that looked like it came out of a fairytale an idea that came from the founder of the little town who had a deep love for fairy tales and the Grimm Brothers. Like Gotham has its legend about Solomon Grundy its little sister has her tales for there is a little legend where some of the settlers in the 1840s from Ireland and Yorkshire unknowingly brought fairies and fae with them who couldn't depart from them thus so secretly follow them all the way to America to continue their mischief and magic in the New World there is even a little museum that talks about its history something that Eddie thought interesting and would love to check out sometime.

After finding a parking spot they headed to the nearest boutique for fun shopping Stygainville was one of the few suburban towns outside of the greater Gotham City. Being a working-class and slightly more liberal town, this part of Gotham had a low crime rate and was known to be one of the best towns in America to raise a family. Aside from the town’s history, it was home to several of Gotham’s Anglican, Irish, and Eastern European immigrants who have built the town and its many achievements to Gotham. Presently, tourism is what brings in the money; the town boasts the largest outlet mall in Gotham. There were so many lovely clothing stores ranging from Mexx, Jones: New York, Polo: Ralph Lauren, and Victoria’s Secret, just to name a few wonderful shopping destinations. “These stores are wonderful, oooh it’s too difficult to decide where to start first. Perhaps we can check out the Polo: Ralph Lauren” Edward said excitedly as he and Scarlet held hands as they both walked into the nice clothing store. The racks were lined with so many things to choose from.

“Perhaps something like this?” asked Edward as he pulled out a dark green polo shirt dress with a long skirt that was believed to be knee length. " you and your color scheme Eddie always look fabulous in green it's cute," Scarlet commented as she helped him pick out some more clothes including some dresses with miniskirts a black cotton dress with grey black lace high-thigh stockings and a red slick dress with a flowy skirt that gives a cute twirl when he spins “I really need to expand my wardrobe, and all of these cute clothes are just the ticket~” said Edward as he kept picking out more cute clothes for himself, after adding more items into a bunch that he wanted to try on; Edward flagged down a saleswoman. “Could we please have two change rooms for us?” asked Edward, who was overly keen on trying on his items. As Edward was looking forward to wearing his things, he thought of Batman. Edward couldn’t believe that Batman was going through all this trouble to protect him when some years ago the two were on opposite sides of the law.

After a few minutes of changing Edward came out wearing a white dress covered in lilac and lavender flowers with a light pink sweater, Scarlet came out wearing a knee-length green dress with white sleeves the bottom of the sleeves covering in colorful flowers a pink peony flower attached to her breast “It looks so cute on you, Scarlet. Let’s these outfits, I have a few other places in mind that we should shop at. There’s the Mexx store that has some really classy clothes… oh and there’s the Victoria’s Secret too, we should definitely treat each other to some new lingerie~” said Edward before he and Scarlet went back to their respective change rooms to change back in their regular clothes. The two went to then pay for their items before they left. Little did they know that Batgirl or Barbara Gordon was there buying some new polo shirts while also informing Batman on the scene when she heard Edward and Scarlet having fun together on their shopping trip.

“Awwww they’re having fun. I wish I could have a cool sibling like Scarlet to shop with~” said Barbara as she tried on a violet polo shirt dress, she took some selfies of herself with her phone. Bringing back old memories from a certain ex-friend. “Did you and Ivy use to?” asked Bruce as Batman who was in the city with Robin and trying to find both the Joker and Penguin.

“We used to… but yeah… that was a long time ago,” said Barbara in her changing room, the mention of her old friend turned supervillain made the girl shed a tear. “Forgive me, I didn’t mean to bring up old wounds. Umm, I’ve done a complete scan of Gotham, Joker and Penguin aren’t here anywhere. I’ve concluded that they’d try to blend in, which I’m willing to doubt” said Batman as he kept looking around for any sign of these bad guys. “I also wanted to ask Edward on a date, I’m going to drop by where he’s living later to ask him,” said Bruce whispered to himself whose chest was pounding at the excitement of wining and dining Edward, he was especially excited at the possibility of spending another night together in bed. Throughout the morning Edward and Scarlet shopped at every store they could walk to buy Edward's brand new wardrobe, their hands getting so full of shopping bags they had to take a break and put them in the car before heading out again by then they just gotten him some new footwear some lovely ballerina flats, boots, a couple of heels some cute rain boots and sandals along with a couple of cute stockings and socks for his cute Cinderella feet, then they went to get Edward a new phone getting special security on it to keep him safe whenever he's out on his own and a cute green Anushka Embroidered Leather Zipper crossbody with a regal peacock design on it by then it was entering afternoon and both were ready for some lunch stopping by a cute little cafe called The Little Black Cat known for its tea party foods and ambiance serving tea of all kinds either it be a hot teapot or fresh cold picture they even have known for their fresh spring pink lemonade "This has been quite a day huh Scarlet I think I have so many clothes to last me a lifetime," Edward smiled picking up a cucumber sandwich after their food arrived "Indeed Eddie you got everything to settle in our home now," Scarlet replied with a wink.

A little after noon, the two happy cousins returned home. With their purchases in tow, Edward and Scarlett walked inside excitedly. As Scarlet volunteered to put their things away upstairs, Edward heard the revving of an engine outside. Stepping out of the charcoal grey Lamborghini was a tall well-built man with white porcelain skin, piercing blue eyes, and well-groomed hair on his head. He wore a black suit with a blue button-down shirt that was open halfway. Wearing a pair of black shades over his eyes, he walked away from the sports car towards the womanly-looking man with a bouquet of roses in one hand. “Hello there Edward, remember me? Bruce Wayne, CEO and co-owner of Wayne-(soon to be) Saddler Industries. Anyways, we met once and well… I just couldn’t stop thinking about that pretty face of yours~” said Bruce with a charming smile on his face, he hoped Edward wasn’t too startled by how the prince of Gotham had come near to Stygainville just to win his heart. “Ohh umm, Mr. Wayne… yes, how do you do? It’s been a while since our last confrontation- ah encounter~” said Edward who blushed a deep shade of red as he was charmed by the billionaire playboy’s charisma. “I came here to ask you on a date, there’s something we both did before that was unfortunately cut short… and besides, a cute creature like you needs to get out with a guy. So what do you say?~” said Bruce as he had to save himself from feeling the effeminate Edward. Out of sight, Robin was up in a tree maintaining surveillance. Robin couldn’t help but cringe at Bruce’s Prince Charming act, but he was trying to be happy for Bruce since being the billionaire playboy by day and a highly intelligent crime fighter by night rarely awarded any sweethearts.

“Ooh well… I’m not doing anything else…. Sooo well… um y-yes~” said Edward, who had never been so tongue-tied in his life. Edward wasn’t sure what Bruce meant by “what they both did together before”, however, Edward still couldn’t piece together that Bruce Wayne and Batman were indeed the same man. Bruce’s intentions of course were very determined, he wanted to sleep with Edward. The last time they were together, the last time they were engaged in sex was beautiful, erotic, honest, and was something they wanted. Bruce slept with Edward as Batman, but he decided that if they were going to have an honest relationship together; Bruce wanted to include the reveal of his secret in the date. Bruce wanted to come out slowly as Batman for Edward, during their night of burning passion together. Edward's blush lightly faded as Bruce handed him the bouquet "That's great how does next Friday sound at 6:30? I'll let you choose the place," he suggested knowing Edward’s long day from yesterday and getting settled at his cousin's so would want to give Edward time to fully settle down and didn't want to rush things for him. As for Eddie (hmm well he suggested next Friday that's two weeks from now so yeah I guess that's not so bad and getting to choose the place and I know that I am not ready to go near Gotham for a long time) "the.. that's sounds alright to me ah thank you, Mr. Wayne, I..I'd like that," he whispered shyly his hair cutely covering his face and bringing the roses closer to smell them trying to shyly hide his blush.

“Until we meet again, Beautiful. See you later, Edward~” said Bruce with a smile before he kissed Edward’s cheek and whispered something along the lines of “There will be more than you think coming the Friday after next~” whispered Bruce before he smiled, waved at Scarlet and got back into his car to head back home. As Bruce drove away, Edward smiled as he felt a strange feeling forming inside his panties. Edward remembered this feeling, it was so familiar; similar to how Bruce felt.

“You like him a lot, don’t you?” asked Scarlet, she saw his growing blush she knew just how he felt. Edward blushed as it was rather inappropriate for his cousin to see the heat forming underneath his skirt crossing his legs to hide it but pretended not to so as not to embarrass Eddie.

“I do… I can’t stop thinking about him. He treats me the same as you do, he likes me as a woman… he sees me as a feminine~” smiled Edward as he crossed his arms, pretending he was being hugged by him.

“He’s a nice guy, and he truly cares for you. You really should go on that date, I don’t know Bruce Wayne that well… but he looked like he cares a lot about you… and besides, I always support queer relationships~” smiled Scarlet as she hugged her cousin, showing him that he deserved a relationship of this kind. At the same time, Robin disappeared from his tree and was back on his bike bound for Gotham.

credit to the lovely https://www.tumblr.com/theivylinerart for being part of this story!

[steampaul]

i've started a little series of weekly posts documenting every MoC i made (digitally) over the last few years:

Week 10: 2023

for the galaxy explorer, Some GWP ideas, the bricklink designer program,my gripes with an ideas set, being abandoned, some potted blocks, classic defender mini and a bit more Rock Raiders stuff

this is the last week.

i got the 10497 galaxy explorer as a christmas present in 2022 and i wanted to make a base for it. this is of course based on the printed baseplate that was included in the original 928 (or 497) galaxy explorer in 1979. its build atop a 50x50 baseplate.

my first idea of a possible GWP inspired by the trend of GWPs being remakes of older sets, like 40567 forest hideout, 40580 blacktron cruiser, 40601 majisto's magical workshop and 40581 tahu and takua was this MoC.

I chose 7708 Uplink from Exo-Force to base my GWP MoC on even though 7701 Grand titan was my first Exo-Force set (and the first one i got from shop@home), because it's a smaller set and thus more suited as a GWP (also i think that joker hair looks better in purple and would be more fitting as a modern version of the Exo-force rubber hairpieces for Ryo and less for takeshi imho)

the original Tumblr App-icon. but in lego.

i made this to be my current Phone background. the grey greebles are my lockscreen and the Ace flag is my homescreen, so that unlocking my phone imbues the background with colour.

this is my First MoC i posted on Tumblr at the same time i posted it on reddit.

i love 21340 tales from the space age, but i had a few gripes with the added fourth art piece and i felt the need to analyse why exactly i thought it wasn't as good as the others and how i would try to fix it.

Bricklink opened their designer Program to the public with series 1 in that year and i wanted to add something based on one of my favourite MoC ideas i ever had. the abandoned factory i posted back in week 2. i hd the idea of an old, abandoned industrial building that you could give walls using your (probably huge) collection of brick seperators. i cannot remember if i posted it anywhere or not. and why i didn't if i didn't.

yipieeee! it's Tbh, the autism creature. my first MoC iv'e only posted to tumblr.

oh god, this one. someone asked me to build them a MoC based on a house they wanted to buy on zillo. i made it for them, took a bit longer than i thought it would and even though i've been pretty transparent about this, they ghosted me.

oh well.

cheesy brick studios made a Video where he made some minecraft Potted plants inspired by 10329 tiny plants.

this then inspired me to make some bigger versions of (almost) all minecraft potted plants.

40650 creator land rover classic defender released that year and i wanted to make it look more like it's Icons counterpart (10317).

i think it looks nice. even though it is not on par with the 8 wide speed champions sets....

some More Rock raiders!!! this time in the style of another possible GWP, so no neon green or orange, sadly, because those colours were discontinued just as i finished building this MoC.

an who are these little guys?, you might ask. well they're also Rock Raiders MoCs, based on the a little one person Mining transport that i cannot find the reference i used. and i cannot remember what they're called.

this is it. the final week. i have no idea what to do to continue with my MoCs, maybe something yearly? making at least óne MoC every week? i dont know. but i know i'll make a master post sometime later this week where i'll link every one of these Ten weeks.

see ya!

first week last week

[phantom-witch]

Phantom's Finished: Persona 5 Royal

Where do I even begin? It's taken 20 days at least to even start writing this. This is one of the most impactful games I've ever played. I've seen the impact on games as a whole this game has made, and this released the same year as BREATH OF THE WILD. The way games have used 2D stylisation especially as part of a limitation has been super inspired since this. This game is a masterpiece despite all its flaws and I'm okay to say that!! I'll split this up into many sections so this will be very long, you have been warned...

Context & Importance:

Before getting into the game itself, I wish to go into the significance of this. I was a closeted Trans girl who had heard of this game from the 2017 game awards, I then looked into it and became obsessed, I watched a whole playthrough of the og Persona 5. I wanted Joker in smash AND GOT THAT! But it took forever for me to have the opportunity to play it on switch. I almost gave up hope until last year in July it happened.

This was basically my most anticipated game of all time, of which had given me comfort alongisde playing Xenoblade 2 and Pyra helping me realise I was a girl. So these two games have very close and personal connections to me. Not only that, my partner and friends got to hear the majority of my reactions to this game whilst I projected a trans girl headcanon onto my beloved Ren Amamiya! (she/her will be the pronouns I use here) That's why this has been so hard to start, how important this is... it's overwhelming!

Final note, I'm not going to shy away from spoilers on both Persona 5 and the Royal content at any point, as it would be hard to discuss a lot otherwise, so SHOO if you don't want that!

Story:

I will be going over my favourite and least favourite parts and then Royals segment on its own!

The Amazing:

Where do I begin? This game has so many amazing moments! The entire build up to Sae's palace, Joker's awakening, Akechi's justice?? That last one I'll save for Akechi's section but gosh this game has so many moments! A favourite is how Futabas palace is really a gamechanger with both Futaba herself but the mystery around everything to do with her mum and how that effects Sojiro and even carries over into his second half of his confidant.

Then there's the whole build-up to Shido and the super close connection he has to Ren, after ruining her life. You feel the personal importance so powerfully as the game has built up connections to him and the main crew so well! Which in my opinion overpowers the obvious "save Japan" element of it in the best way. Once you send the calling card too, you get the coolest reveal ever with a takeover of Japan's network revealing Joker to be alive and it is SUCH a satisfying feeling!

Even the calmer moments of this game are beautiful. Whether it's a lovely dance with Kasumi at the festival, or Maruki's sessions, or the lovely time at the beach! Even in Hawaii when Ann and Ryuji have a lovely bonding moment with you. Simple moments like that make this game the beautiful experience it is...

The Awful:

Before I get into my three main things, I want to cover some minor things.

Firstly I believe that Ann gets way too sexualised throughout the story sadly, especially by Morgana. Furthermore, it feels the balance of the cast is sometimes a little off. Ryuji and Ann suffer this a bit but Yusuke is the worst for this and reduced to a bit of a joke sadly in terms of story. There's also a lot of gender stereotypes pushed for no reason on the cast at times that feels out of place for the rebellious message this game tells.

However, 3 things in this game bug me the most. First off is honestly just... Morgana. I'll get into him a bit later but he is such a hypocrite that when he finally gets negative talk back to him he immediately bails and it causes the games design and structure to awkwardly change focus and takes away partly from Haru's introduction! The one character that didn't need less screentime. Then there's how Ryuji gets treated especially in the out of place beat up scene after Shido's palace. He is literally disabelled despite managing to run so it comes across extrememly abelist having the girls smack him so hard like that. Bad vibes after an incredible moment. Finally, Yaldabaoth. I don't hate this at all for it's moment to moment experience, but my main issue is for a finale it really doesn't connect to our party like the Shido and it doesn't feel like the finale for the characters, moreso the world they're in.

Speaking of...

Royal:

The moment I started this part of the game, the eeriness was immediate... everything was wrong, completely incorrect. Morgana was a human, Makoto, Haru and Futaba had their parents still alive whilst Ann still had Shiho. And then Akechi arrives, fully aware of everything going on. With Kasumi's support after some sweet moments with her, they enter the palace they had encountered during Okumura's arc and the atmosphere is potent. Maruki shows a wish to help the world be better for everyone by creating a reality fit for them. But it's all artifical, fake, a lack of choice. Due to this pursuit, Kasumi is forced to learn of her true identity of Sumire, as her sister who is actually Kasumi is dead. Learning of the dancing sisters and how Sumire felt so low of herself and behind Kasumi, we also learn Sumire was saved from a car by Kasumi, causing a massive trauma and survivors guilt in her. Maruki altered her reality to make her think of herself as Kasumi.

This is how far Maruki is gone, to the point Akechi was even brought back to life due to the bond he and Ren share. The reason this is so much better than Yaldabaoth is because it's about every party member choosing freedom over a fake happiness. As what is living if you don't get to choose for yourself? This whole game happened due to this groups choices and will. Allowing Maruki's reality goes against everything they've gone through and being ignorant again. This new semester allows us to see more of Akechi shine, Sumire become her true self, Ren show her resolve and the phantom thieves stick to their truth. Whilst having an antagonist that is deeply connected to the main group. I'll go into Maruki himself later but wow, this third semester concludes the themes of the games perfectly with an ending that had me going "no, don't go..." because i grew in love with this group of teens so much. An amazing story with a lot of lovely moments and some hiccups.

Characters:

Here I'll be going over the party members, villains and any other's of note! To start with...

Ren Amamiya (Rin Rivamiya for my playthrough):

Never have I seen a protagonist designed with minimal lines to be so well characterised! She is such a lovable dork and I love her so much. Constantly trying to be cool and IS cool as a Phantom Thief, constantly expressing herself through the prompt options beautifully.

As stated, I projected onto her a lot whilst also seeing her as her own character as a trans girl who helped me a lot with my gender identity when I originally discovered Persona 5 in 2018. Ren makes this games personality and charm all by herself whilst everything around her compliments the charm she brings. I admit that I headcanon a lot but overall she is handled very well still! However, there are some questionable lines sometimes given this is adult men trying to write a teen boy poorly. But, this is a given with Persona sadly, and I'm willing to look past this for my own enjoyment.

With an amazing dynamic with most characters and beautiful climax to her ideals with every phase of the true final boss of Maruki... what a beautiful character I found such huge comfort in and glad how popular she now is.

Her Persona, "Arsene", is a beautiful representation of her will, strength and rebellious spirit. Arsene represents Joker's energy and the pallet and visual design of Persona 5 as a whole perfectly

Ryuji Sakamoto:

I already covered the poor moment for Ryuji earlier, but I feel this game doesn't take him seriously at all and that is such a shame. Morgana belittles him and that is never taken seriously, having his self-esteem constantly put down by another party member and sometimes treated as a joke despite having some lovely moments!

That isn't his fault though, and instead the short comings of the writers. This boy is loud, passionate and has one of the biggest hearts ever! If he makes a mistake, he tries to learn from it. A brilliant example is how after Okumura's palace he realises how he lost his resolve and sincerity for a while, too focused on the fame over helping those in need. Once he realises, he talks a lot about this mistake and genuinely grows massively from it.

We get to see how he looks out for others often in both the main story and his Confidant, alongside how he manages to get by with his injury and supporting his mom. I feel they balance his involvement out pretty well throughout the whole game.

Ann Takamaki:

Ann has to be the girl that gets treated the worst by this game, and that's such a shame! Funny how I'm formatting the images as I feel one of the biggest issues is how they designed her Phantom Thief outfit. It's super sexy which is exactly what Ann isn't comfortable in, to the point she expresses discomfort! That sucks and I think the design is actually quite poor and even fails at the catwomen inspiration.

Sadly she also gets quite dumbed down as the game progresses and her role is extremely non-existent for a while with a few high moments. This infuriates me as it is one of the rarer moments of hypocrisy this game goes for with a character that could have been much more empowering for young women.

Despite all this, I still adore the positivity and vibe she brings to the group, she absolutely is the one to lift people's spirits whilst being the very extroverted one in the group to help support those more reserved or introverted and especially has a lovely dynamic with the other girls and Ryuji, helping them all to express themselves wonderfully with a Confidant that slips a little as I wish it went over her growing stronger for Shiho and helping her to recover but instead is about an infuriating model. I love Ann but it's so weird how much problems this games has for me with how she is handled, which is very comparable to Rise who is another Lovers arcana in Persona 4.

Morgana:

*sigh* This is the can of worms character. Persona has a tendency to take their talking mascot designs and write them in the weirdest ways possible. Teddy in P4 was unnecessarily creepy and with Morgana they went, what if it wasn't as bad... but still a thing. Especially when it comes to Ann it really infuriates me how infatuated this cat is with this teenage girl and constantly calls her "Lady Ann" in a very flirtatious way. It sucks!

The thing is, he has moments of a good character shining through with his dynamic with Ren, and in the end of the base game with how he is a metaphor for people's hopes genuinely got me emotional! To the point it makes me so wish he was written differently.

Then there's... the Okumura Arc. Morgana loses his mind with the group because of his own insecurities and gets mad at a single time Ryuji belittles him. Which, would be understandable if Morgana hadn't been doing this to Ryuji for literally the entire game. He is one of the most hypocritical JRPG party members I've ever seen as someone whose favourite genre is this JRPG's. Plus he takes away from Haru's introduction in that arc which is such a shame as despite that Morgana and Haru have a lovely dynamic!

Yusuke Kitagawa:

Yusuke very much reminds me a lot of myself in many ways. He is extremely autistic coded with how his mindset is very unique and has an wonderful art focus. Even his Confidant is a wonderful showcase of him rediscovering his love for art beyond the Madarame Arc.

Speaking of, he is so heavily focused on in that arc and it is so beautiful how that arc handles him! Going over how he was manipulated and abused without even realising and how he learns and accepts this fact, whilst finding reconciliation with his late mother and the art she made to represent her love for him. It is very wonderful seeing his recovery from everything he went through and learning to recover.

However, as the game progresses, his involvment slowly dwindles more and more to the point he is more the comedic relief character and I heavily dislike that. I like the comedic moments but I wish he got more serious moments in the main story as I feel there's multiple missed opportunities with him. That being said, Yusuke grows a lovely dynamic with Futaba in such a lovely way that contrasts each other wonderfully! It made me smile whenever they interacted.

Makoto Niijima:

If I had originally played the original release of Persona 5 and not started with Royal, Makoto would have been my favourite character. Originally I didn't really understand the hype around her, but she has now become one of my favourites right next to Ren and two others I'll get to soon.

Makoto is really inspiring to me, she is very intelligent whilst still having sincere flaws or shortcomings (for example her social anxiety and struggle to connect with others). Her Confidant is about her overcoming some of these flaws as a genuine way to help her newly made friend whilst trying to feel more in touch with her peers. Not only that, she is an active member consistently playing a role in the story whilst having a nice contrast with her sister Sae Niijima whilst complimenting her too. In fact when the Sae Arc happens she gains an even more active role again which is awesome! My only criticism is that she seems to be portrayed strong and I feel they could have leaned into that with her building up her muscles past the game as her being strong in the real world would've been amazing (and I would've crushed hard over that in Strikers given she's a young adult now)

none of this has even gone into when she's introduced! Which smartly ties to everything that happened with her father to do with crime lords and how people around her that are old adults pressuring her instead of doing the work themselves to the point she snaps completely after the Phantom Thieves help her out and she decides to join for her own truth. Accompanied by an amazing Persona design with some very unique animations! She is very much a highlight of the original game for sure.

Futaba Sakura:

Whilst I clicked more with Makoto, I believe Futaba is the best written party member of the base game by a mile. She is full of personality that shines so bright, funny and they know how to be serious with her character beautifully.

Futaba has one of my favourite palaces in the game because like Sae and Maruki, it isn't an inherently evil person and more someone struggling a lot with their mindset on reality. Futaba's arc heavily focuses on this and how she copes with the survivors guilt towards her late mother, Wakaba. We learn how much adult's victimised her as the reason Wakaba was driven to her death to the point it caused genuine hallucinations. This isn't the kind of trauma that can heal after her treasure is stolen instantly. Sure, it's a huge help to her recovery but we see how after they take a lot of time with her as a group to help her be more comfortable and allowing herself to manage more overtime

This carries over into her Confidant where her sister (yes I said sister as that is very much the INTENDED dynamic don't be weird) Ren helps her to further her recovery, by supporting Futaba's checklist. This is the one Confidant I'm really upset I didn't finish as I adored her! Her dynamic with the group is funny, has amazing battle lines and has amazing use story wise which is shown off and contextualised super well! She is probably right behind Makoto for my favourites and any Persona game without her genuinely feels it is missing something.

Haru Okumura:

This is one of the characters heavily effected by the extra time in Royal. I've already covered how Morgana completely overshadows a good chunk of her introduction compared to how every other party member prior gets proper spotlight. But the reason it's so bad here is because she's the last standard party member in the base game so gets even less time than already due to Morgana overshadowing her arc.

However, not all is lost! As what is there is amazing, alongside a wonderful character design and lovely performance by Xanthe (love all her work). We get to see how she accepts and stands up to her father for her beliefs and how her family legacy is important to her over being rich. She is very sweet but deadly as she shows a more brutal side under that sweet tone. It's used for both endearing/comedic moments as well as a way for her to be more powerful in moments.

Her Confidant is fantastic as it goes through both the grief of her father dying in one of the rawest moments of the game but also her having to run the company he left despite only being 18. For the grief, she didn't even get to hear her father apologise for everything he'd done. Every other chapter allows for reconciliation except for this one and it hits so heavily. Haru has to continue on with that whilst learning to manage to support a company and it makes her one of the strongest characters mentally in this game. Furthermore, she learns and gains her goal for her future to go back to her family roots with her own personal homemade café and is able to be supported about that. I adore what we do get and how she's able to shine in Royal a lot better!

Goro Akechi:

Goro

Akechi...

One of the best characters of this game. He gets a lot in Royal but let us start with the base game content for him. Akechi is one of those twist villains that the twist isn't that he's a villain, but instead the how and the why. I find that is always more interesting when that is the focus on a mystery over "who?" He is established pretty early on as an opposing force to the Phantom Thieves ideals, of which builds him up throughout the game as a striving Detective that's also investigating the Phantom Thieves.

However, one Royal I can't save for later is his entirely new Confidant. It establishes his rival dynamic with Ren so well in a very positive way compared to how it develops later on to be more of a serious rivalry in the latter of the game. He almost lures the group in perfectly if it wasn't for a single slip up of him overhearing Morgana speak, to which it causes the best comeback and moment in the whole game. Akechi's jealousy shows so strongly whilst he wants an opportunity to get to his father to get his revenge. It gets to the point he is so determined to prove himself to Ren and the Phantom Thieves, only to see his true self with how aggressive and insane he is. Akechi's true self is amazing to see as we get an amazing design with amazing Persona and one of the best boss fights in the game. Combine this with a beautiful performance of how desperate he is to prove himself, to the point he is killed by himself, leaving Ren devastated. Akechi shines in vanilla and the new Confidant establishes his relationship with Joker adds so much to Akechi's build up to his highest moments, like when he kills Joker (technically) all in the name of his own Justice. Already a top 5 character here alone!

And then there's the entire new third semester in Royal. Suddenly appearing as not dead taking Ren's place to turn himself in. As mentioned, Akechi is brought back to life by Maruki through his new reality. Akechi being a smart detective is able to put the pieces together and learn this himself. One thing about Akechi that I really enjoyed is how he always sticks to his own beliefs, to the point he would rather stay dead over be brought back to life just to live some reality he never earnt. Stopping Maruki with Ren, fully aware of what will happen to him as we see him fully shine as a party member fully unhinged. No niceties, no compassion, just a fully blunt ready to get the job done man without having a façade to the world. Robbie Daymond does a fantastic job with him, as we hear such conviction to every line he delivers as Akechi is consistently firm about his beliefs. That's the brutal reality, Akechi was always meant to die and he knows it. Ren was the one that couldn't accept this as we see Akechi fighting for free will and the justice he chooses.

A character that was amazing goes to being one of the best in this game, literally in the top 3 of this game easily with how amazingly handled he is.

Kasumi & Sumire Yoshizawa:

Let's get the main thing out of the way, she is my favourite character of this game! I adore her and how she develops over the course of this game, especially as the main new character to this version of the game!

She's introduced in the prologue as someone you know in Sae's Palace, meaning you get a tease that she will be able to go through palaces by that point of the game. From a time perspective, the actual first time you meet is middle of Kamoshida's Arc where during a trip to school you see an act of kindness from her rudely interrupted by a man. She is clearly shocked but doesn't wish to cause a scene, establishing her kind yet non-confrontational as Ren tries to help her. It's not until Madarame Arc onwards she is more prominent role with interactions with Ren, most notably when they properly meet and introduce themselves to each other on a school activity. It even kicks off their Confidant alongside more interactions over the main story!

Her Confidant is only 5 levels long and it goes into her feeling a level of control with her body as she's growing and changing, whilst supporting her family and dead sister, Sumire. It's a lovely and super endearing Confidant where Ren feels equal in terms of the support given in return where her feelings are also considered and I love that! Kasumi really cares for Ren and vice versa which creates such a strong dynamic between these two that is very balanced. We then learn that Akechi and her know of each other and we have an interaction with Ren and those two where she proposes a wonderful opinion about how she really respects what the Phantom Thieves do but also believes people need to help themselves too as that won't last for society if people stop trying to change themselves. It shows a very open minded angle to her and how she's extremely intelligent by having a more nuanced answer for a serious topic in the world of these characters and I really like that, it considers how some might need that help whilst others are over-relying on it.

We get so many lovely moments, ranging from a beautiful dance with Ren smoothly dancing, to her saying Aloha in Hawaii with a cute gesture. We even discover this unknown palace with her, of which she learns of the Metaverse and Persona users. Even awakening to her Persona after showing such will power to fight for herself instead of relying too much on Ren, like she said about the Phantom Thieves! However, that's all we really see for the most part, outside of further lovely moments the game gives us. They intentionally make the awakening feel cool and yet, overall off and different in comparison to the other Party member's awakenings (more on that in a bit). I find a lot of queer-coded elements within Kasumi, in how her struggles of her own bodies feels akin to puberty, especially with a teenage trans girl and I felt very close to that alongside her charisma, self-doubt and struggles. I was like, "yeah I kin Kasumi so much I love her! She's just like me!"

Ah... oh Riley of 2022 how unprepared you were you innocent girl...

Cut to the new Third Semester to Royal, as the whole reality shift happens. The only suspicious people are Ren, Akechi & Kasumi going into the palace where she awakened to her Persona. The further in, the more suspicious I and the trio got that something was up with her, as manifestations of her memories start to show up with weird inconsistencies. Even seeing her get called by her memory as Sumire? Overtime they end up meeting the host of this palace, Dr. Maruki, only to reveal that Kasumi really is dead. The girl with us has been her younger sister all along, Sumire.

Sumire was Kasumi's younger sister, always feeling in her older sisters shadow and struggled to keep a smile on herself or even see her own worth. Because of this, there was an accident where Sumire stormed off after not being able to cope anymore with how low she feels. Kasumi rushes after she tries to call out for Sumire about an approaching car. Too lost in her head, she doesn't hear Kasumi as she is pushed away by Kasumi, saving her but crashing into her older sister. Sumire blames herself for all of this, she feels so low about her self and worth that not only does this all happen but she has such survivors-guilt too. Getting to the point she see's herself as Kasumi partly due to Maruki's influence. Upon remembering this she goes into a downward spiral of guilt and denial, begging to be Kasumi still as the Phantom Thieves (+Akechi) fight her Persona and then herself, rescuing her and escaping the palace as best they can. Recovering and sleeping from mental and physical exhaustion, Sumire wakes up at Leblanc whilst deeply apologising to them all for her actions, whilst thinking hard about how to move on with her life back as Sumire. With support of Ren and the thieves, she is determined to live for her sister since she would have wanted that, unlocking the second half of her Confidant finally.

Sumire is shown to be much shyer, keeping to herself and over-apologising much more compared to when she thought of herself as Kasumi. Exploring how as a dancer and gymnast she finds her own style instead of trying to copy what people liked about Kasumi, with a lovely tutor who is stern yet supportive of her growing. This Confidant highlights how living for someone else isn't really living, you need to live for yourself and I really like this for Sumire. The clear depression and anxiety she has due to how she's been made to feel by society and herself really hits close to home and I relate very hard to her journey, especially when I was her age. Grief and guilt have plagued her for ages, and the death of her sister was only a year ago. Her Confidant ends beautifully with her talking about how much Ren's support has meant to her, with her confessing to Ren as the trans lesbian flirts awkwardly back (love you Ren) at her new partner! Only for Sumire to finally perform her own dance instead of a copy of her older sister. Her tutor even notices this, commending her and being absolutely proud. Traits seen when she was presenting as Kasumi can still be seen as her own personality traits when she's more confident, and how they're easily brought out from additional support due to how little confidence she has. Speaking of "presenting as Kasumi", it's very trans-coded with how one experiences their own self-acceptance of their gender identity. It's easy to say "I wish I was cisgender" instead of embracing the you here and learning to support yourself on your journey.

I only have three criticisms of Sumire's handling. Firstly, I find her reclaiming the ponytail hairstyle for herself as a memory of her sister to be poorly contextualised in the game and feels extremely abrupt compared to everything else with her writing. It feels like they didn't want to commit to her new design in the endgame moments and reversed the design near the end. Secondly, I never got to experience her Showtime due to how easy to miss as the only one you don't get naturally through story. This sucks as it was the one I was looking forward to the most! Finally there is me being so selfish, I wanted her as a party member sooner. I love how she becomes apart of the group naturally but I love her so much I wish I got to use her outside of the last Palace in the whole game.

That being said, I think the length of this segment is a testament to how Sumire is my favourite character in this game, if not one of my all time favourite characters. They did a fantastic job with how they naturally integrated her to the plot of the game, with a beautiful job and range from Laura Post alongside the animators at P Animation Studio, perfectly representing the theme of will power and overcoming hurdles in your life with precise execution.

Sumire Yoshizawa, thank you for bringing me such joy and tears to my eyes 💙

The Villains & Antagonists:

If there's one thing Persona 5 doesn’t lack, it’s antagonists and villains! Every arc has one and they vary in quality, so let’s go over the more simple villains from the first half of the game…

By simplistic, I mean that they are easy to explain and define in how they are portrayed. For example, Kamoshida who starts the game off beautifully with an utterly detestable character praying on minors abusing a power of authority that very much happens in real life. He kicks this game off strongly with a simple yet powerful force for our first Palace. My only issue is Atlus’ hypocrisy with how underage girls in their games, including this one, are treated. Ann especially is treated with sexualisation, which is awful given she was the main victim of Kamoshida. That’s less a criticism of him and more the writers when handling other things in comparison. Next is Madarame, who has a really good aesthetic and boss design. His design for him and Palace are stunning, which is where my huge praise ends. I love this chapter a lot, but Madarame doesn’t have much to him than “the one that stole the Sayuri” as there isn’t much else to him? I can’t separate him from Yusuke whatsoever and it feels like there’s nothing else to him. That being said, he’s still enjoyable, just doesn’t come close to Kamoshida. Kaneshiro has to be the most “this isn’t about him” moments in a game, as it really isn’t. You don’t see him for long at all and yet I like that choice due to him being a crime lord. I find it akin to how Dr. Seuss in “The Lorax” book doesn’t show the face of “The Onceler”, AKA the metaphor of capitalism as to not humanise them. Here I felt similar intent behind Kaneshiro, however he is still an extremely simple villain. His arc is more for Makoto’s character than it is for him, whilst properly establishing the threat of another Persona user. A fun boss and fun palace still give him a leg up though! Lastly is Shadow Wakaba, who is a weird one given the villain here isn’t the Palace holder. Instead it’s Futaba’s visualisation of her mother after so many adults tormented her for Wakaba’s death. Of course this girl would become distorted in how she perceives her mother due to this! Not much else to say since a good chunk of it is covered in Futaba’s part.

Then we get to the nuanced villains, those with more depth either in motivation, or how they connect to the grander story. First up is Okumura, who is a bit of a tricky one to discuss without going into game design and barely linked story content within the same arc. Morgana’s whole fallout not only affects Haru but Okumura as well, giving a bitter feeling throughout that arc whilst allowing less time to develop. That being said, Okumura is a character who clearly started off with good intentions and lost his way and I really enjoy that about him. He is detestable and yet we understand why Haru loves the father she once knew. Only making it more tragic when he is eventually killed and not given the chance to reconcile with his daughter as a changed man. I would love him if not for the association with the worst boss in the whole game, if not any RPG I’ve played. Strong base, weak executions around it with some bad association around it. Next, here comes our first antagonist that isn’t a villain: Sae Nijima. Sister to Makoto, she is actively after the Phantom Thieves to the point of such desperation that it makes her lose sight of her own justice. She’s gone through a lot with Makoto, losing both parents and having to raise Makoto at a pretty young age and trying to get by in the prosecutor department as a woman proves to be difficult due to gender norms in society. This has a heavy impact on her mental health as she is pushed by higher ups, of which are secretly using her, to the point she resorts to scummy and unjust methods. A character so desperate to catch a group of thieves to the point of seeing herself as a protagonist of this story, falling into the trap of those controlling everything. However, she isn’t the true antagonist of this arc and instead built up as the reason the Phantom Thieves survive. Ideals challenged and thinking about her own justice and faith once more. Akechi I’ve gone over but his father, Shido, actually has a little to say. Whilst being nuanced, it’s different to Sae for me, in that the depth comes from around him and not from him. To elaborate, he is overall a very simplistic villain in that very enjoyable way that’s almost theatrical, but is also behind all the wrongdoings the characters have experienced. Ren got put under probation due to him, Makoto had to see her sister go through hell and back because of him, Futaba and Sojiro lost Wakaba due to him, and Haru lost her father. Even Akechi, someone working for him, was so heavily affected all his life to the point of madness and how his true self is revealed to be. Shido feels personal, a fight the Phantom Thieves have been so prepared to finally face and save the world from him. However, they allow a level of selfishness, by also having motivation on avenging everyone’s pain, especially Ren’s. I love Shido because of this huge personal connection with a powerful presence, making for an exceptional villain. 

Along come the last two, Yaldabaoth and Maruki. Yaldabaoth is the final boss of the original release of Persona 5, and I have to be honest, despite the really cool set piece and moment I don’t care much for this and as the final boss think it is extremely weak as it barely ties to our main party with the exception of Ren sort of. Cool boss gameplay wise, super weak story wise. With that brief mention out the way, it’s on to Dr. Maruki from the Persona 5 Royal content of the game. Like I said at the beginning of this review, Maruki is the complete opposite here, as Maruki actively connects to our main cast consistently throughout the game. This is especially the case with Ren as she helps Maruki learn to research the heart of the mind, eventually bonding overtime as his paper gets completed. He also acts as a councillor that the students talk to, therefore allowing us to see the main cast talk about what they’re going through and struggling with. Maruki has such sweet goals, to help the world be a place where pain shouldn’t have to be felt anymore. He had gone through so much himself and seen so many people affected by reality that his will became so strong to the point he was able to alter reality. Therefore, his goal became to change the whole of reality to help people for the better… but the game brings to question if that really is a good thing? And the Phantom Thieves oppose this as free will is more important. I loved this as it ties the overall themes and motifs of the game with rebellion, freedom and individuality. Despite that, Maruki’s intentions come from such a pure heart of a man wanting to help, to the point of trying to be reality’s therapist. Ending with an amazing 3-stage boss sequence and amazing voice acting from the late Billy Kametz (rest in peace and lots of love Billy) and concluding the game masterfully and becoming one of my new all-time favourite antagonists. 

Others of Note: 

Here are the noteworthy thoughts on side characters go! Sojiro is probably my favourite confidant in this game, as he plays such a pivotal role to the found family of Ren with how the injustice she goes through is shown a shift of mentality. He grows to care a lot and show his softer caring side with Futaba and Ren, even their friends by supporting their cares and needs. Furthermore, he grows to regain his sense of justice and it’s such an amazing character growth! On the flip side there’s Mishima, who sucks due to the very incel characterisation he gets that makes him unbearable alongside his constant attempt to insert himself as your friend. It was annoying and I could not stand him. Takemi and Hifumi on the other hand each have a really well done support that I enjoyed a lot. Without going into loads of detail they both go into hardships these women face in their respective industries and it does an amazing job going into the kind of people that wish to hurt them. Yoshida was a fun one despite me struggling to listen to politics so directly (can you blame me as a trans woman in 2023?) but he clearly cared a lot. Kawakami sucks, there's no explaining it. It's gross and hypocritical, moving on. Justine and Caroline/Lavenza are a delight throughout comedically and thematically. The only thing I’ll mention is how forgettable the others felt either due to their intro or their overall support. 

Gameplay:

This is a game after all! However, this game has two very contrasting sides to it, so let's get into both

Social Life: 

Persona as a series likes to have two sides to itself, one of them being the social side. This sees Ren experiencing activities you can do throughout the game in a limited time. This can range from hanging out with other characters, studying, working at a part time job and so much more. The best part about this is how it has a consistent loop for rewarding each other for how they help your journey. Furthermore, they beautifully help with the “Thief Life” I’ll go into more detail soon. But you can get health items, weapons and gear and even abilities in the social side of the game that help for the thieves side! Limiting the time really makes you think about how to approach your stats and activities in what you need (i.e. money, social stats, abilities). Royal adds to this by having additional requirements to unlock the third semester. Speaking of, that allows for some final confidant interactions you wouldn’t get otherwise! Surprisingly enjoyable for what’s the most down time of the game compared to…

Thief Life:

The more typical RPG side of the game, but don’t let that make you think it’s traditional. This is what in my opinion is the peak modernisation of turn-based RPGs, as it enhances and adds to the turn-based formula to such an extreme that it may be my favourite turn-based combat of any game. There’s your basic attack, your gun with limited ammo per fight, guard, item and then Persona. Persona is the most in depth option out of all of them, of which where that character uses their will and inner self to cast magic attacks, physical or gun attacks and even buffs and heal. These all use your Spirit Points, with the exception of physical attacks using Health Points, and each element can have their own effectiveness depending on the enemy you’re fighting. If you expose their weakness, the game awards you with another turn in which you can act again or pass to a teammate and give them a stat buff. This allows for a learning of knowledge in the game and a chain of attacks that reward your knowledge. If every enemy is knocked down, you can do an All Out Attack for high damage and even quickly finishing a fight. This helps a lot with this games pacing for me as you can really quickly finish fights if you know what you’re doing and the game helps nudge a little to help you with that. 

With a decently varied party you can choose between different playstyles that each play into different roles. Ren has multiple Personas too! Allowing for her to customise her options throughout the game through the fusion or interrogate system. This is where you either fuse personas together to make a new one with some attacks from the previous two or bargain with a shadow you knocked down to recruit them as a persona in your selection. Shin Megami Tensei, Persona’s older brother series, has had this for a while and it really works with how they added it within the unique elements of Persona and especially Persona 5 Royal. 

Last but not least is the dungeons, aka Palaces. A Palace is a world with its own unique setting and aesthetic based on the boss of the place in the Metaverse, and that current arcs focused antagonists at that point in the story. These dungeons are all blooming with fun aesthetics, set pieces and level design that all vary in quality. Maruki, Sae and Shido had especially fantastic palaces with Okumura hitting more of a low point even gameplay wise. In Royal specifically, they added these 3 part collectibles called Will Seeds. Exploring rewards you for looking through every nook and cranny of a palace with these and getting all 3 in each palace grants you a huge reward. Bosses are overall good and play to the game's gameplay strengths mostly. Okumura again being the worst case for this whilst others range from pretty neat to some of my favourite fights in gaming. Royal’s final boss uses every mechanic beautifully as it is required to manage it, which Okumura’s boss tries to do but in a way that is much more draining and limits options too much. Instead there is many different approaches that beautifully use every system you’ve learnt the last 100 or so hours and can learn and manage in the way you have learnt to manage. With that there’s one last thing to mention, Mementos. This is a large palace that is a randomly generated dungeon that you can get deeper in throughout the story, sound fun and replayable right? Sadly, the layouts are so simple and repetitive that I found this to be pretty boring and would only do it when I needed to shut my brain off. I get Persona has always hand randomly generated dungeons but to me it’s clearly not working when the layout is so flat and repetitive without much to even do outside fighting.

Art: 

Art is important to any medium, and it couldn't be any more true for this game too. There's a reason this game has stood out so much...

Music: 

I’m sure it’s no surprise to hear this, but Persona 5 Royal has absolutely amazing music. Its use of Synthesiser as the main instrument adds such a smooth yet eerily unique approach to any part of the OST it touches, alongside the piano, violin, jazz instruments and so much more. Shoji Meguro perfectly encapsulates the phantom thieves and how they feel at every turn. Busy daytime? ‘Tokyo Daylight’ constant change of notes represents the mass amount of different people you’re passing by in central Tokyo each day. ‘Is it Boring’ accompanies anytime you’re in school with a long repetition of bars whilst also moments of tensity to show the mundane yet unfocused side of life you have to manage whilst being a thief. However, this OST wouldn’t have the strong identity it is known to have if it isn’t for the singer of any track with lyrics: Lyn Inaizumi. She sings every track with such power and yet grace and confidence that it is a match made in heaven for the themes of this game. The songs show her vocal range beautifully with the slow, tranquil ‘Beneath the Mask’ or the intense, determined ‘Life Will Change’. Persona 5 Royal’s OST is so cohesive and yet so varied that it never loses itself and that is beautiful. My favourite OST of all time.

Art Direction:

As already stated, the Palaces have beautiful varied aesthetics that keep most of them visually interesting. This applies to Tokyo as well, with the advertisements of the subway popping out at you left right and centre, or the town centre bustling with lights. Whilst not perfect, I would say it does what it sets out to do within the budget Persona 5 originally had amazingly and uses these limitations to its advantage. Speaking of, the menus and UI of this game show that in full force. Everything has a red, black and white colour scheme with minor colours accenting from time to time. The use of silhouetting and sharp poses whenever you select a menu option to cleanly transition is eye candy alongside the distorted look of where you’re selected on clearly catching your eye within the stylised font. Even in battles this applies, as the options you have look to come off the character themselves, even with a silhouette of them layered behind their model for additional flare. Additionally, the UI is made clear where every button is as the options are displayed like a controller layout perfectly. Ingenious! Finally there’s All-Out Attacks, which have a barrage of attacks in a cartoonish but powerful manner of black on red visuals. If this kills the enemy, the character that triggered it will come in to do a custom animation into a key pose, where it snaps to artwork of the pose perfectly in time. You are rewarded for playing with visual flare and it does all this within its own limitations perfectly. Innovating on what the industry hasn’t tried to this extreme yet due to a limitation of their team.

Character Design:

The majority of significant characters in this game have a massive variety to them. Even with the main party they come with two main designs. With their school uniforms, each of them have very intentional subtle touches that make them instantly recognisable. Ann’s hoodie, Ryuji’s T-Shirt, Haru’s jumper all show different traits and key elements alongside other key features like hairstyle, hair colour, expressions and much more. With their thief design, we get to see a lot of their personality shine even further. Ren gets to present as cool in an unapologetic way and she comes with a traditional mask worn in the 1900s. Makoto shows her powerful side and even the surprising strength she has, even if I wish she was a little more toned in her design. Yusuke and his traditional art fits the traditional Samurai, Futaba fitting with a more Sci-Fi tech outfit, Sumire having elements of dancer gear whilst also a clear conflict within her own outfit, reflecting off of Ren partly as we learn that’s her coping mechanism. There’s one that isn’t so good though, Ann. She sadly is given a very Catwoman-esque skintight suit, which she herself is uncomfortable in and is sexualised in too. My main issue is how this goes completely against her arc and the message of the general arc of the first game. Owning one's sexuality does not mean being sexualised and should’ve gone for another angle, like her fashionista or model side.

Morgana in both forms is very strong character design, going for a black and white approach akin to mascot characters of the rubberhose era with yellow and blue to make the collar/bandana and eyes stand out as contrasting colours. Every social link design does really well with variety of age, body types and features. From Sojiro’s curved beard to Yoshida’s broader body type. My only criticism is actually body types, despite just praising them, as that tends to apply more to the men than the women and older features aren’t used much if at all to make them more appealing. I want older looking women in games! 

Finally, the Antagonists and their shadow designs. Each represents their main theme perfectly, from Kamoshida’s almost naked body to Kaneshiro’s bug look like a fly to a light as he is to money. Sae has a perfect villainess look to her especially within the context of the palace being a bank as Shido and Maruki both represent very different forms of discomfort especially in their designs (specifically third semester Maruki) with how their uniform is perfectly kept clean and without fault, Shido even having tinted lenses to show his tainted lens on the world. Whilst not perfect, I think the character design is extremely strong despite it and I look forward to seeing how this evolves in the series

Conclusion:

Persona 5 Royal is an extremely important game, to me, others and this industry as a whole. It pushed the boundaries of thematic intent through how even its UI and music so heavily emphasise the themes of this game. Persona games have always used it’s main colour to represent it’s theme (i.e. Persona 3 for blue to represent life and death) but this entry takes that to such an extreme and we are still seeing the repercussions of that today. Breath of the Wild influenced open design in the industry and how mechanically fine tuned and creative it can be, and I feel Persona 5 did this for the art, character design and music and stories of this industry. This is not a perfect game, no game will ever be and sadly a lot of bigoted people worked on this game which affected some qualities like the sexualisation. But I will never let that ruin what this game does so beautifully right as it is an important magnum opus of turn-based RPGs that fine tunes every issue the genre has had prior whilst fine tuning its own series mechanics to a stunning peak. Bias plagued this review and I’m well aware of this, but art analysis can’t be truly objective and this art stole my heart

[trans-mouse]

somebody should just commission me to actually finish literally any of my projects so i have a sense of urgency. here’s a list of projects in various states of completion:

Full games:

Weird Eusocial Kobolds: I actually have a plan for this now! with the year zero engine going open source, I’m gonna have a go at using that for this weird little reverse-adventuring RPG, that will someday get an actual name.

City of Names: Like half-finished? It’s an RPG about being trans and living in the woods as guerilla witches in the capitalist post-apocalypse. also about the power of naming yourself. (and carrying names that your friends give you) Also, this is the game that evolved out of my jokey system that I called “Lydia’s Intelligent RolePlay for Attractive People”

S/S/N/V: Stat/Skill/Noun/Verb, aka “I really love esoteric rules, and I think you should too!” This game will get an actual name, but it’s essentially a game about creative thaumaturgy, words like “conflagration” and “defenestration”, and using tarot cards in place of dice because it lets you do interesting things with results.

Casino Nights: An urban fantasy casino heist game in which you play blackjack instead of rolling dice! Features cool mechanics like counting cards, being a fucking dragon, and jokers up your sleeve!

Some kind of monster hunting game: A game that would probably look something like a cross between Monster Hunter and Bloodborne, with mechanics based on Slayers and Vaesen. You’ve been exiled to a cursed land to hunt monsters with ancient mystic relic weapons, for the good of all humanity.

Smaller Projects:

The Fly Gallery: A floating entertainment district designed for Slayers, but realistically usable for basically any urban fantasy campaign, featuring sewer monsters, acrobat pickpockets, and bonkers aerialist circuses.

Rockfall, Colorado: A setting for Changeling the Lost, set in a tiny town in the Rockies, where the freehold is based entirely around a diner run by an old changeling. So long as the diner never closes, nobody can be taken from the town, so of course, the fae prince that once took his prizes there wants it shut down.

Psion, Soulknife, and Psychic Warrior classes for 13th Age: I like 13th age a lot, I like psionics a lot, and I have pretty solid ideas on what each of these classes would and should do. (I actually have an outline already for PsiWar, I just need to mostly nail down numbers)

I’ll probably wind up remembering some other small projects I’ve thrown on the backburner at some point, but tbh, if anybody is interested in any of these and wants to kick some money my way to see them actually get made, I’d really love that. It’d be helpful both for money and for urgency lmao.

[doublel27]

Thank you for these excellent additions. Mine was not as organized as you added in even more of what I saw/felt.

I keep going back to the first two episodes, which I feel lay out this problem for us pretty clearly.

Joke on his own has been isolated in his own family. He sees the structures of power and privilege for what they are because while he’s grown up within them he’s denied access because he’s “not as smart” and “wasting his life.” And he takes on a mantle of justice as Joker. He steals only from the wealthy and the terrible who exploit others. He has a moral code but it doesn’t actually help anyone. As he will tell Hoy and Tattoo the first time they ask him to pull a heist with them, he works alone.

Then he meets young Jack. Jack when we meet him is full of love for his community. He has dreams of using a collective education center to better the opportunities for the neighborhood and the villagers that are cut off to him. It’s that dream and that optimism and that love for his community that draws Joke in to Jack and makes him want to help him with the bank heist. Joke’s mission to do something now has a focus. And he helps.

But the help is false and based on a lie and because Joke isn’t working with Jack. He’s doing this for him. Joke isn’t part of the community at this point but a benevolent benefactor. And that benevolence turns on them when the police go after Jack.

And it’s then that Joke makes his first actual sacrifice, in order to attempt to save Jack, by confessing to his crimes, taking responsibility and going to prison in hopes that Jack and his dream can be saved.

But Jack is left in a whole different prison of Boss’s making. Because Boss doesn’t just refuse to be in community with the neighborhood and the villagers, he actively works to isolate them. In holding things that people value personally, he keeps the villagers focused on themselves. He does this with all the men that work for him but particularly with Jack, Hope and Save who all do wild things for him at various points because of what he holds over them.

Jack still tries to help the community but to his own detriment and alone. Ama has to remind him to take care of himself as well. To not just give himself away totally and by himself.

When Joke gets out of prison and finds this cold, isolated Jack, Joke is understandably heartbroken. It was Jack’s deep love and commitment to his community that Joke first fell in love with. He’s devastated to find that man is gone.

They told us from the start where this story was going. But then as @respectthepetty laid out, this is a version of Journey to the West (which I can’t unsee now) and if you enjoy other Journey to the West retellings (like One Piece) then the continue commitment to community and working together to face down what feel like insurmountable odds against a system designed to tear you apart is part of the journey to bettering yourself and others.

The focus on community as the answer really comes from Ama, Toi Ting, Hoy and Auntie Nang. They’re the ones that end up holding the through line even when other characters get lost.

If you were looking for a revenge narrative, this could never actually be that because that was Boss’s storyline all along. He was the one on a revenge track and we saw how far it took him. His need to gain power for vengeance had him playing the game the Four Horsemen wanted him to all along. Even his sister begging him to try a different way could not sway him.

Also, a very interesting through-line that exists as much about the scars suicide leaves and that there is no actual atonement in martyrdom.

That’s why the show ends in their community center with everyone present and being in community. Because that’s how they managed to save themselves. And they need to remain in community because it’s the only way to survive the games of the four horsemen.

At the end of the day, Jack & Joker was a story about turning to community instead of going solo. It was about returning Jack to his original dreams of uplifting his community. It was about Joke uncovering what it means to be in community when his family was never in community with him so he didn’t know.

It took everyone truly banding together to make sure they all made it out alive. Any time our motley crew of heroes tried to go it alone or make an individual plan work, it failed.

Aran was able to rally the villagers to community in the end. And it helped.

Ultimately, it was vindictiveness and bitterness that lead Boss to turn on the villagers. Instead of being in community, Boss turned on the villagers like the Four Horsemen did to his own family. While Nang built community at her shrine, Boss wrecked community wherever he went. He wanted to amass power to take down The Four Horsemen. He was so laser focused, so desperate, he missed the game they were playing with him all along.

And isn’t that too often the tragedy. We’re so focused on winning we miss the game is rigged and we can’t go solo.

[nemirutami]

I discovered you recently and was scrolling through your stuff when I fell in love with your Joker redesign. It’s just so Good! Not only is your art style perfect (for all your art, really) but the thought you put into it was just wonderful. My favorite part were the horns, they just fit so well! I’d love to see any other ideas you have, but really I just wanted to gush about how much I loved it. Thank you!

Aw, that makes me so incredibly happy!!!! As much as I rag on P5's story execution, I do adore all the potential there is to the characters and the potential in redesigns that better fit the character's personalities. I'll repost all the ones I've finished for funsies, but I think now is actually a good time to mention that I'm going to be compiling all my p5 redesigns into a little zine (a re-de-zine haha) with more detailed thought process behind what I was thinking when redesigning them (there wasnt enough blank space for all my notes, or my sketches)! I'll add some blurbs from the document I have in [these] brackets! I actually focused heavily on his mask, so I'm super relieved and excited that it's what you liked most about it!

JOKER

[[Aside from Akechi’s prince outfit (which I think was flawlessly executed), I knew that I couldn’t allow myself to butcher Joker’s design- especially since I intended to remake his mask, despite his mask being perfect as it is (and was also my base for the Black Mask design before I decided to remake everyone else). // My main concern was to make the outfit represent all of PT’s, not just Joker, but I also wanted to highlight Akechi’s part in playing as his foil. As such, where Akira has a heart shape connecting all phantom thieves together by a silver string of fate, Akechi has a distorted red glow that extends chains to weigh him down as well as wings to show his ability to choose his own path.]]

AKECHI [[I wanted to keep his face obscured, but add an option to show himself if he wished. So, a hood helped cover him up for me. It helped me make it feel as though it’s a “lost” part of Robin Hood that still clings on to his Black Mask design- a desire (though weak and decaying) to be a good person underneath it all for someone he once cared about. //

Akechi's chains (from his heart) symbolize his outlook on bonds, and how they tie you down, whereas Jokers symbolize the strength he has with his teammates. I felt like this was a little too sad to write on the concept page. Reading “Goro Akechi has no friends and it manifests in his Black Mask outfit” isn’t the most uplifting sentence you want to stumble across.]] ANN [[Ann was often forced to hold her tongue around Kamoshida in order to protect Shiho, and Shiho in turn tried to do the same to protect Ann. The whip I created for her is a play on the phrase “hold your tongue” showing a lion with it’s mouth open and its tongue hanging out- filled with thorns and ready to be used as a weapon to protect those that she values. One of her biggest weaknesses now becomes her force for change and success, and she ultimately uses her power as a thief to open the maw of the man that told her to be quiet- revealing all his ugly secrets with his own words.]]

FUTABA [[This one doesn't have any notes I can share yet, but she took ages to design, so that's why, lmfao!]]

MORGANA

[[ I wanted to make him blend in more with a classic SMT demon such as Jack Frost, but still distinct enough to stand out as “more than a demon”.

//

Since Morgana is the collective human hope, I think he can take any shape or form. I only retained his cat persona because I wanted to stay true to the original design concept of it being an animal. If I was allowed complete creative form over a “guiding light” however, I think I would base Morgana’s design on Anubis or psychopomps- guides of souls (souls of human hope). The interesting thing about psychopomps is that while Anubis is also an example of one, commonly, so are crows. Meaning, I would have to design Morgana to fit a canine in order to imply Akechi himself could have perhaps had a guide similar to Mona if he was not used to bring about ruin. However, Morgana’s cat aesthetic is tied into Joker’s own traits (sometimes down to mannerisms), so getting rid of the cat persona was not something I really wanted. That, and the fact the last protagonist was based on a loyal dog made it hard for me to choose canine. I would have liked to pull something out of zoroastrianism if possible, but I was not sure how far I could take it before his design became entirely unrecognisable. And the point of a redesign was not to entirely change them to become different characters, but just to play around with different themes to better fit the character and their backstory/feelings/traits.

]]

I really hope this content was fun to read!!!! The next design I have in my WIPS is Yusuke. Honestly, I find Ryuji and Yusuke are going to be super challenging, since I ADORE their designs and I genuinely do not want to just touch them up randomly without purpose and happen to downgrade them. Morgana and Ann were my easiest targets haha.

[goggles-mcgee]

FUCK FREUD CLUB SHENANIGANS because I didn't think people would enjoy my little idea so much and I have more to share!

• Harley who may have been drinking a bit: "I gotta admit Brucie babe, I, like many of our classmates, had a little crush on you!"

Jonathan who was getting more comfortable without wearing his Scarecrow hood, also who has been drinking too: "Confession, I also had a crush on you Wayne."

Bruce, now blushing and wondering if he made the Sangria too strong for this week's club meeting: "Well I'm flattered. If we're being honest here, I did have a crush on you Crane after you went off on Professor Kingsley when he said Freud was a genius."

Jonathan, now also slightly blushing: "Stop Mister Wayne or the media will somehow get wind of that and it'll be the new scandal."

Harley: "Speaking of scandal! Have you guys heard about the latest fight Pengy and Riddler had? I heard they legit got into a fight in front of the Bat!"

Sometimes their club meetings turns into gossip sharing.

• Harley bursting into Bruce's Study with Jonathan right behind her: "You're being played by George Clooney!?"

Jonathan: "You agreed to be the secret identity of Batman!?"

Bruce who was plotting Jason's second funeral and Tim's first: "My son's forged my signature on those papers. Then the other's heard about it and got so excited and I couldn't back out! Especially after Cass made me a card! She made me a card!"

Harley: "Pushover."

Jonathan: "People pleaser."

Bruce with his head in his hands: "Arnold Schwarzenegger is Mr. Freeze....Uma Thurman is Poison Ivy....Should I be worried that they'll attack me more after the movie?"

Harley now super excited: "They're in the movie!?"

• Jonathan standing next to a white board as he hosts this week's club meeting: "Today's club meeting will start off with our absolute favorite thing we hate about Freud. After that Harley has designed a Family Feud style game where Bruce, you and I will go against each other and guess Freud's stupidest idea's and studies based off Harley's questions. Winner takes home the homemade Fuck Freud Trophy which is a golden hand giving off the middle finger."

Bruce and Harley lifting up their hands in unison and solemnly flipping off a picture of Freud: "Fuck Freud."

• Bruce being held "hostage" by Two-Face before looking at the clock: "Oh shit. Harv? Can we like, reschedule this? I have a club meeting and I'm in charge of snacks this week."

Two-Face: "You...want to reschedule a hostage situation? For a club?"

Bruce, completely serious: "Yes."

• Harley got them Letterman jackets for the club, of course personalized. Jon even got them mugs for the club. Bruce caved and got them pens and pins made for the club.

His kids do not understand why he goes along with the club but they have also never seen their dad so normal and happy.

Clark gets jealous.

• Bruce walking in late to a club meeting with Starbucks for everybody: "You would not believe the nightmare I had last night."

Jonathan already pulling out a clipboard and pen: "Tell us all about it."

Harley coughing to hide her chuckles: "Yes tell the dream psychologist that has a nightmare kink all about your scary dream."

Jonathan who is blushing now, is it in anger? Is it in embarrassment? Who knows: "One class! One dream psychology class! And I do not have a fear kink!"

Bruce finally taking his seat: "Denial. Interesting. Now let's acknowledge the fact that Harley said you had a nightmare kink not fear kink. Do you want to discuss that further Mr. Crane?"

Jonathan throwing a pen at Bruce: "We were talking about you not me Rich Boy!"

Bruce and Harley cackling.

• Jonathan and Harley are still villains but they kind of start to edge into the anti-hero stage of things. Nobody knows why expect Bruce and he's so proud.

• They actually call each other on their bad days. Harley yelled at Bruce about being more open with his kids and he actually really took it to heart. Jon got collectively yelled at about his self esteem issues and taking better care of himself because no Jon, a human can't just survive off corn and sweet tea. Harley had a tough love session when Bruce and Jon had to tell her just how bad Joker was to her and yeah she realized that but she shouldn't be afraid to get into a relationship with someone just because of that past toxic relationship.

• Bruce's kids actually start to get comfortable with Harley and Jonathan being around the house from time to time. It's still weird to them but they see first hand the changes that all three are going through.

• Bruce babysits Lou and Bud for Harley whenever she needs him too or if she gets in trouble and is sent to Arkham. Damian loves helping out with them.

• Batman may or may not have taken the long way to the university when he heard Scarecrow took over the Psych 101 class because the teacher was obviously incompetent Bats. He was teaching young impressionable minds!

• Bruce admits to them that he hates the whole 'Playboy Billionaire' role he used to play and can't seem to escape from. Especially because he's a dad now, it's not like he can really afford to be a playboy.

• Harley insists on teaching Bruce how to fight because she can't believe how often he gets himself into bad situations.

Jonathan agrees about this and even gives Bruce some of his Fear Toxin in case he ever has to use it in defense to get away from anyone. He even put it in a pepper spray-like bottle so it would go unnoticed.

I have so much more headcanons but here are a few XD

Enjoy

[skullsfigurepage]

POPUP Parade Oracle!

The Info (taken from Goodsmile’s website)

Sculptor: Design COCO

Paintwork: Yotaro Taniguchi

~170mm tall

Manufacturer: Good Smile Company

Material: Plastic

Release Date: June 2022

Original Price: ¥3,900 / $38.99 USD

A far too long post about the newest Futaba Sakura figure from Goodsmile! (Under the cut)

I got her from a local comic store for 50$ and tax, which ended up being ~6$ cheaper than my other figure from this series since I wasn’t covering shipping. Which was fun. Usually in stores like this I look for P5 figures or other merch unfortunately, since it’s my favorite game.

The place I was at had a ton of Popup Parade figures which was really cool to see, but I honestly didn’t expect to find any of the P5 ones since (at least in my opinion) P5 merchandise is hard to get your hands on after the initial release. It was a nice find since this is one of the few figures of a girl from Persona I feel aren’t super creepy (there are some Bad persona figures out there. Ann’s figures usually get the worst of it 🙁). Although its hard to find any devoid of Creep since the phantom thief designs for the girls are... the way they are (see: Bad).

That being said I think this one has some aspects that are kind of... off. I guess it’s fine for her to look kind of lost in thought, I wish they’d given her a more mischievous face entirely because I plan on displaying her next to my Akechi figure from this line and think it’d be funnier if she looked like she was picking on him. Also I just think they should always make every figure of her have the vibe of :3c. For fun.

Alright so for some far less than stellar photos I took of her!

Overall I think she’s a cool figure! For the most part I like her pose and expression but just wish it was all rendered slightly differently (see my comments about how the p5 girl figures are all a little creepy from earlier). The paint work is nice with no noticeable issues or misprints. Her face is printed very crisply and looks neat, although I wish there was some more blushing since the face is where people look by default.

She works pretty well displayed from any angle, but naturally works best displayed front facing, and easily the worst angle (again, in part because it is Weird to me) is the back. It’s mostly hair, which while sculpted nicely, isn’t super interesting to look at.

I don’t tend to collect boxes, which is good in this case since hers had a price sticker from the store I got her from that seems hard to rip off. It’s a shame though since I think the p5 popup parade boxes do look really nice. (they’re too large for me to keep though lol.)

Final thoughts

I think she’s neat! Gonna be on the lookout for the Joker popup parade figure so she can have her brother with her! (and ig her brother’s miserable boyfriend). Glad I saw her in store and didn’t have to worry about shipping. Ideally the second wave of p5 popup parade figures (Futaba and Makoto) means they’ll make more in the future and I can continue my insane habit of buying Ryuji and Ann’s figures together (they are besties to me).

Do I recommend this figure?

Yeah! Love the Popup Parade figures a lot and think they’re worth the price, especially for the P5 sets, usually p5 figures go for a lot more :,)

Where to buy

As of December 30th 2022 the Goodsmile US shop has her available. When/if she goes out of stock there I might update this, but for now that’s the only place I’d recommend buying this from.

Thank you for reading!

[growling]

alright im back part 2

the slime

id kinda let aoyama kill me tbh

its sooooooo nice of zero to train kuronaka in the game world in order to prepare him for. i don't know man. the rbtots

battle segment incoming. this shall be skimmed

well that was quick

kuronaka just kills and kills and kills and kills. these are the effects of video games on our men.

oh look its the girlie. the. the shinigami lite. the white hair girl the one with th

oh hi twogami

twogami look at me listen. you can stop. sdr2 is over. you don't have to keep doing this man

aoyama gives off major komaeda vibes and i do not like what is happening in my mind right now while having this knowledge

once again: it is sooooo nice and considerate of zero to keep his pet boyfriend in good shape for all these years stuck in stardew valley

the aplatonic inside me rolling around in agony right now

i like todoroki. not very fond of poor people

Oh my goddddd STOPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP with the shocking femboy reveal I am praying so hard that this is the last time they mention greenguy looking like a girl and then never again and god forbid make a gag out of it. because i will enter my joker arc

i knew takinogawa for 2 seconds and already came to the conclusion he should be shot

i love how zero just has a flying city and satellites that spy on people and shoot laser beams. he's living the life

ZEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheering and clapping and crying and screaming and throwing up... they gave him another art. look at him. look at him

"and the Demon Lord (from yo's vidio game prison) that the hero must defeat, is me... Zero" okay man!

he's so dramatic hsgdfhsdghjsdgh

AND he's got special effects on the area

AND he's fucking flying

Zero babygirl you are the only reason I watch this game. keep serving

AND he was just joking. what a silly little guyyy. "i put up quite an act here. did it surprise you?" yes bravo great job son. this is once again why theater kids are evil. also sprite time. also fix your hair boy

"Congratulations on clearing the game, Yo. The Hero Training Game is now over. You are much stronger now, so you should be able to survive out there. Let us play something even more exciting." chat i think he might likeeeeeeeeee us (sinister)

oh he's not normal!!

Kuronaka, why are you, as a man, describing another man, in this way,

though i don't think Zero is even a man lmao that is the most non-binary xenogender thing I ever saw. From the moment I laid my eyes upon the trailer. This guy's gender is murder

Zero is kinda like a metaphor for vidio game addiction rising in our society he's like what happens to the average teenage mind after playing violent football games

i love him and his silly little floating hands he punches people with

he says "oopsy..." please i want him so bad

AND he can shoot lasers from the satellite from his mind. ok!

also: how does he see with that mask. does he just forfeit the ability to look at shit in order to look cool

"Took your memories and locked you up...? I didn't expect you to think of it that way. I've always wanted the same thing. To play a fun 'game' with you. [...] It's the best game I've ever designed! A fun game that can get your head tingling and your heart pounding! A game won't be a game if you don't risk your life playing it, don't you agree? That's the kind of game I want to play. I'd bet it's the same for you? [...] Yo. You are a very important 'opponent' to me. All the cities on the surface of Neo Tokyo have been modified to places where everything is decided by games. I, who accidentially became the ruler of the surface, created that law."

1.) sorry i just wanted to type what he said first but then he just kept fucking going

2.) these are the effects of violent video game addiction on the human mind

3.) he's a little bit confused in the courtship methods area but he's got the spirit. i mean certainly not the worst attempt at bonding with your gay crush I ever seen

4.) wdym "accidentially became a ruler". what kinda accident .

5.) he crafted gamer paradise

guysssss don't be mean to him he just wanted to play some baseball with people :(((((((((((

EVEN THE KIDS KDJHFGSAIUFJHWKJDFGHDJSKADKJFHSKDYDH

Zero why are you as a man talking to another man like that. "you are special to me. you are different from those garbage on the surface" oh my fucking god just ask him out like a normal person you freak

and he just keeps on going. guys call me crazy but i think he might be a bit obsessed

"you masked bastard" stop. stop im having. flashbacks.

"A dream...? Is that something more important than my games?" the effects of violent video game addiction on the average human min

AND he's giving us a choice between him and them and thinks that he's got a chance? damn he's very normal about Yo huh.

youtuber didn't choose "do what zero says". shame on them. shame forever.

AND he's actually dissapointed.

AND he's doing the Martina horny shaking pose. cool

oh so you didn't choose me huh. huh. oh ok i see. im killing all your fucking friends. i now see that they are the burdens that are holding you down and back from falling in lvoe with me

this is so funny to me. he's so hurt by this .

YESSSSS KILL THE RED GUY!!!!!!!!!! I ALWAYS THOUGHT HE WAS ANNOYING GOOD JOB ZERO ELIMINATE YOUR COMPETITION

I knew they were so dead coded lmaooooo

yandere behavio- *gets shot*

What makes this funnier is that Zero literally used the satellite death lasers he controls with his brian. He literally got so mad he exploded them with his mind

also. purple blood

and he makes Yo choose again until he picks him sdhfgdhsjdfhdskjdh. "Yo. I prepared the best games! Care to play with me? :D" he might be a little fucked up. its ok he's pretty he can be a little menace to society

AND he still didn't choose him. cringe as fuck if you ask me. we're ending in there to have a moment of silence in honor of the massive fucking L zero just took

and these are the main effects of playing too violent vidio games on the average human mi

oh wait i forgor. tribe nine beta lol

Zero my angel I'd recognize that voice maybe not anywhere but like in some places

"kuronaka got 10 gold" *EAR BLASTING 9 HOUR LONG FANFARE*

hmmmmmmmmmm.. not saying anything but narrowing my eyes thoughtfully

they're trying to fnaf pizzeria simulator my ass, unfortunately for them I am an incredibly clever smart intelligent wise boy (looked at the art on tweeter)

they put kuronaka in the generic rpg torture dungeons💔💔💔 get well soon

shut the fuck up boyyyy look at the claypot. loook at my claypot boy

jesus stop jumpscaring me if i die my grandma will sue

im calling it now. lady goddess is just zero (and if so: gender win)

$laymate

if it does end up being zero it will be so fucking funny. please. let this manifest. me when i put some random dude in the generic rpg torture dungeons and make him look at claypots forever as form of foreplay also i pretend to be a statue

its that blue hair motherfucker from the promos or whatever

this is so fucking funny im tearing up. im tearing up. also they just implied that i was right. this is so fucking funny. vidio game brainwash yaoi. zero you silly man i desire you carnally

"well its not unusual for this man to do this kind of thing" please tell me more about zero's crimes against humanity .

forgot to mention this earlier but of course the protag has amnesia. not a proper kodaka game without an amnesiac protagonist. this is not a complaint

this is so funny. this is so funny.

redguy yellowguy leave that poor fucker alone. blueguy grayguy why are you just staring tell them to leave that poor fucker alone this is probably not how you approach a dude with amnesia who has been stuck in the generic rpg brainwash torture dungeon for an unspecified period of time

3d time. fuck that boy up guards induce a panic attack in this man

and the torture dungeons were just some random medium sized platform..... help me thats so embarrassing for kuronaka!!

"the village you were saying [sic] were all just drawings on the floor and on the walls!" THAT'S SO EMBARRASSING.... KURONAKA THAT'S SO EMBARASSING......

HE WAS 2 FUCKING YEARS STUCK IN THE GAME LMAOOOOOOOOOO THAT'S SO EMBARASSING FOR HIM

ok. ill stop being mean to him. i promise i will be nice and understanding of his situation from now on. it must be very hard and traumatizing for him.

LMAOOOOOOO HE LOOKS SO FUCKING STUPID THIS IS SO FUNNY. FUCKING IDIOT XDDDDDDDDD

also buy him brown contacts pls

ZEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fucking look at him this shit looks biblical. look at him descending onto the mortals. this is fucking jesus imagery

nice robot hands. they're not attached yet but i will force him to become a cyborg no matter how many limbs i must detach from his body

i am not ready to hit unpause. but also im yearning.

wait look at his hand pose.... awww look at him i want him carnally

alright alright whatever im unpausing.......

so 24 city is just named like that because it's the 24th city and they ran out of ideas

24 city must be a shit place to live in, a strong breeze knocks you over and you fall one kilometer onto the pavement

"... but who would have thought that there is such a surreal area here, designed just like a video game?" zero. zero would have. that man is all about vidio game addiction i called it once and ill call it again

and he called him "the masked man" i fucking cant i need t. i need to take a breather okay i cant take this anymore

zero lore listen closely now this will be on the test (instead of listening starts imagining zero touching me in a bus and gets so hrard ii passkdf uout )

Kuronaka likes tea. +1 for Kuronaka I love tea

Zero the robot enjoyer

alright, Iroha is gonna return Kuronaka's smartphone next time and I'll end it here :] twas a pleasure. transcending experience

[stardancerluv]

A Night Out, 44 Below

Part One of (not sure!)

Summary: Time for Roman to show you off to the underworld.

Note: Here is the time line for this… just after Chapter 3 of Creative Fervor but before (part 3a) and just after Being A Couple. 6 months into Roman x Reader dating!

I saw The Batman, loved it. Decided to incorporate a bit of Penguin’s Below 44…there may also be some Falcone…enjoy!

Zsasz, made a face as he held the door of the Rolls open for you and Roman. Sliding in, you watched him pause before joining you. Zsasz said something you couldn’t hear.

Once beside the window, you smoothed your dress. Roman had wanted you to look exceptionally beautiful tonight. He had picked out the dress and treated you to a day at the spa. It had been a while you had been so you didn’t protest. A little flutter of nervousness washed over you as checked the strap that laid gently on your ankles.

Rarely, did Roman bother going to other clubs. So you knew when he told you that the two of you were going to 44 Below, it was serious. In these last few months, you learned how much he despised Oz.

The man was a thug. He was as big and as wide as an armoire. Having that bulk made it easy. He had acted like he was doing you a favor when he hired you. On that reason alone you almost turned him down. You did not care for power trips.

But in the end work it was work. He had you design the horseshoe booth for his table, in Below 44. Unlike Roman, who held most of his meetings in the open; Oz had a part that was tucked away from his main club. You had heard whisperings about the place.

You had never been there at night. He had assured you, that it was at night when in his words, it took flight with activity. An expression, that made you bite your cheek considering his moniker was that of a flightless bird. You didn’t breathe a word of your thoughts on the matter. You kept your head down and did your project for him.

He’d brag that this is where people, important people could come and relax. You knew he was throwing shade at Roman but you didn’t care. You had seen him show up enough times squabbling away to Roman or begging to use a portion of Roman’s club. So you knew it was a lot of hot air.

He was still bitter that Zsasz, had become part of Roman’s security and not his. So in the end you nodded and let him ramble on, while you sketched.

Roman was brave, he didn’t like to hide things. He had always felt having that second club was cowardly, but to that he also kept his mouth shut. He was not one to ruffle any feathers, unless it was absolutely needed or it suited his interests. He also you noticed, chose to wear one of his various masks when it was needed.

Oz would usually come to Roman so that he could complain about Falcone. Roman was a sponge at times like that. He’d hold onto whatever information he could soak up.

In these last few months, Roman you came to find out was very protective of you. It had taken a lot to get used to. This morning, Roman told you over a leisurely breakfast, he had decided to let the underworld he moved in know you were his.

There had been some rumors, a few exposes in the papers but nothing was truly solid. You had finally let your friends know, that had been on the tough side. As for your family, you didn’t particularly care what they thought. So tonight, he was going to show you off.

Usually, the people he dealt with would only come to the Black Mask when they needed a favor or to cause a scene. They paid you no mind, despite having hired you possibly in the past. The ones that craved attention were only Joker and Harley Quinn.

He had grown tired of them all speculating about you. They were worse in his eyes then Gotham’s legit population. They were more likely to try to woo or even steal you away from him. Honest people, knew better than to cross him. They were not likely to want lose their faces over a girl.

While the men he knew, saw it as a challenge. Also girls that floated in that underworld were seen more as accessories. Something that looked good on their arms and they easily got a new one when they tired of the current one.

Roman had even admitted to you, he had been like that too. No attachments and no feelings were always easy. But you changed that.

The afternoon Zsasz brought you in handcuffed to the chair; you had simply sat there. Zsasz and the others had dragged you and the chair to the middle of his darkened and shadowy night club. The rehearsals had been over for the day and he still had hours before opening that evening. You had not struggled or screamed, you struck a nerve.

Sure you had caught his eye years earlier. Yet the time had not been right and you like sand had easily slipped through his fingers. But this day, you had sat there. You were brave and more beautiful then he had ever seen you.

Now months later, you were his girl. He was your world. You still reigned in the creative world of your business. He had no say there.

In the beginning, you stopped him from attending your meetings or attempting to step in with protection. It was hard for him at times. He saw it as helping and you saw it as simply intruding. You wished to remain working in your world and his, so in the end he didn’t interfere.

In turn, you never questioned him or what you heard him discuss during meetings. You’d sit there and looked pretty. You sat in on more meetings then you would have imagined. None of them caught your interest. Well, except for the one where he got shot in the arm. Otherwise you would zone out and think about the projects you would were working on.

Roman continued to make your heart race. At times the emotions between the two of would clash, voices would raise and tears sometimes spilled. In the end, passion would wash over the two of you. It always reminded the two of you how you both needed and craved each other.

There were times, rare as they were that you enjoyed which were sweeter, quieter up in the penthouse or at the amusement park where Roman’s hair would be ruffled, p a shadow of growth would grace his face or perhaps clothes like a t-shirt or even a sweater and jeans would be on his body instead of a tailored suit.

As you sat in the back of the Rolls, your heart sank a little as you saw Roman’s face take an edge as he spoke to Zsasz. He straightened his gloves. Zsasz, was trying his patience. You could only assume, they were talking about going to 44 Below.

With his mouth a line of annoyance, he slipped on his aviators and finally slid in beside you.

Zasz went around and finally got behind the wheel, the car roared to life and soon was clearing the alleyway. Roman’s Rolls like a great white in an ocean of guppies was weaving in and out of traffic.

Not even waiting that long, one of his gloved fingers pushed the button and the divider was went up. It made your heart skip a beat.

You turned to Roman, your breath already catching in your throat. “Roman?”

A smirk curled his lips, even with aviators you could practically see the playful twinkle in his blue eyes. “There’s no time baby, I just wanted a moment with you against my side and silence from him.”

He opened his arms to you.

“I’d like that.” You replied softly and happily closed the small distance.

He chuckled against your hair. “That certainly sped up your heart.”

You giggled up at him. “That’s what you do to me.” Usually the wall up always led to more.

“I like the sound of that.” His smirk remained there. “And well, you could give me a kiss before we get there.”

Your lips met just as he finished his sentence.

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[arty-shadow-morningstar]

Graveyard Siblings (4)

I am sorry for not posting in a while. School is a total bitch. Here is part 4 of a fic that is not a fic.

[Masterlist]

(Part 1)(Part 2)(Part 3)

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Tall Marinette.(I admit I might be projecting a little here.)

One day, she took out something from someplace high and the whole family realized that ‘holy shit when did you get so tall?’

Bonus if Jason comes back from a long mission and had a wtf moment because she was wearing 6-inch-heels and met his eyes with them on.

“Pixie?!”

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You know how Bruce has the identity of Matches Malone to infiltrate the Gotham Underground.

While Jason does the drug deals more street crime stuff, Maria uses an excuse of being the representative for Red Hood excuse to mingle with the rich people who does crime on the side (Penguin), she uses it to go to black market auctions and buy some of the lost miraculouses which got into the hands of black market dealers.

Jason knows about it and acts as her ‘bodyguard’ anytime he can or sends one of his henchmen to be one with a death threat if she gets a single scratch on her.

Bruce is unaware of this. Or is he?

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Mari helps with running WE since she is a little less busy with the vigilante side of things.

It started with Tim panicking about deadlines and Mari offering to help, to Bruce and Tim bullying the board to have her as co-CEO.

She has to be that and head of Afterlife. So she is very busy. Doesn’t know about what comes next….

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Somehow the class comes to Gotham for a trip. It has been 3 years since her death.

Mari has changed her appearance since the day she left Paris. She has highlights in her hair after a ‘sibling bonding day’ with Jason. Her hair is kept short for convenience and not in pigtails. Along with her tall height and more confident aura, she is almost unrecognizable.

She rides a motorcycle too.

The class waits in the lobby for the tour and in walks this badass woman with aviator sunglasses, leather jacket and designer clothes which was all MT brand, making a lot of people swoon.

She takes off her glasses and walks past the class. Checking stuff on her phone and sipping coffee in her other hand.

She seems familiar but they couldn’t figure out why. (All except Chloe, Alix and Felix who are snickering in the background.)

Lila sees her and comments on how she must be a criminal with the way she dresses. (Lila internally freaks out because were her eyes messing with her? Because she looked a little like Marinette. Also jealous of the new arrival for stealing all the attention.) Alya takes the bait and calls security to ‘arrest’ her.

They just laugh. The class doesn’t understand, speaking in confused French.

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“I am Maria Todd-Wayne, also known as designer MT. CEO of Afterlife and co-CEO of the very company you are in. I am allowed in here. Don’t judge a book by its cover.” she said in perfect French.

“But Lila told us you can’t speak French.”

“Who?”

“Lila Rossi, your friend. She told us that you and MT were dating.”

“Me dating myself. Okay I love myself because self-love is a thing but that is a whole other level. MT are my initials. Anyone who has a brain could have figured that out or at the very least do a Google search. I am not sure where your friend got that notion.”

“Hey, Bean, come on. We have a long day ahead of us.” Tim reminded her.

“Goodbye but cease the rumours or you would be escorted off the premises.”

As they rode up the elevator, “Tim, why are they here?”

“They are the lucky winners of the Wayne Enterprise Young Prodigies Contest. Why, Maria?”

“Lucky, huh.” She muttered under her breath. She might as well tell him. They are the Bats and they will find out anyway. “They are from my old class, the one you know…”

“Oh. Want me to send them back? I can do that if they are making you uncomfortable.”

“Nah. Too much to deal with. And it is unfair to send them back over a petty grudge. Besides, I could have some fun.”

“Anything that Bruce and I should be worried about?”

“I swear no killing. Just because Jason came back from the dead, hell-bent on killing. Doesn’t mean I am too.”

“Cool, just don’t do any property damage or traumatize our employees.”

“I might need you to erase some footage later and tell Bruce about this.”

“Some brownies, my favourite coffee cake, the ‘special’ brew and you have yourself a deal.”

-----

So basically she just showed up around where the class was ‘by coincidence’.

Talk to a few people and take them out of earshot of the rest of the class.

End the conversation by saying a few things only they and her would know. Insides jokes and secrets. (I pick her old childhood friends like, Nino, Kim and maybe Sabrina)

Uses Trixx to turn into a walking dead version of her 15-year old self and disappears as they freak out about how she knew that secret/story.

Freaks them out further by appearing again in front of the whole class and pretending not to know their previous conversation.

Mari manages to get Lila alone.

I should also say that Lila thought that her curse was making her see MT as Marinette.

It terrifies Lila when she finds out that MT is actually Marinette, not dead but alive after all this time and apparently living the high life she wanted. This fact made the Italian swell up with jealousy.

“I hope you are not lying about me again, Lila Rossi. Like you always do.”

“What do you want with me? I swear I didn’t say anything else about you.”

“Aw, Lila. Don’t recognize me?”

Maria flickers and Ladybug is in her place and later, the Marinette that appeared in her bedroom and back to normal.

“You! How? Why are you here? Why can’t you leave me alone?”

“Why not? I mean you did take away nearly all my friends, my parents and made my life a living hell. If you think about it, I am just repaying you the same favor. How are the others? Treating you well?”

“What did you do to me, you bitch?”

“I just put a curse on you. The ghosts of your past will haunt you until you stop.”

“Stop what?”

“Stop Lying, Liar. They all feed and grow in power from your lies. I wonder what would happen in a few years if you kept this up.”

“You think you can get away with this. This is war and I have already beaten you once.”

“Oh Rossi. This isn’t a war. It’s a death sentence.” With that she disappears.

Lila tries to tell her class that MT is actually Marinette. She is met with crazy looks. Some of them look like they want to believe her but don't because they don’t want to look crazy too.

Oh. Adrien wasn’t on the trip because his mother didn’t want him to go to the crime capital of America although the crime rate has gone down a little due to Hellbat curing some of the city’s bad energy..

Right after Lila told the class about MT, Scarecrow came to steal some Wayne tech and the class got caught in the crossfire. So later, it was brushed off as Lila seeing things due to the fear toxins.

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Joker made the mistake of kidnapping her. Once was enough to never try that again.

(It involved the use of nearly all of the Miraculouses, old and new. He was thoroughly humiliated at the end of it and his picture by the time Hellbat was done with him was on the Batfam’s Christmas Card. Like I said she doesn’t kill but making them beg for death was okay.)

It coincided with Jason’s Birthday and the video of the incident was ‘the best birthday present ever.’ The uncensored version was watched at the next undead siblings bonding day. Damian included.

After hearing a few rumours about what happened, most criminals were glad for Hellbat’s rare appearances. (which happens once a month and during really busy time of the year)

There was a time where Penguin was carrying out one of their plans and when Hellbat showed up, all of their thugs surrendered instantly. (No Batman did not pout at the fact that this French girl was more imitating than him.)

Scarecrow used his newest batch of fear toxin on her during the first year after she died.

He was astounded to see her still standing and she later proceeded to beat the crap out of him while being under the toxin’s influences.

He has tried to stay out of her way since then.

She saw Scarecrow as Hawkmoth and said a lot of things in French which scared everyone because she said it with so much hate, anger and in a very menacing tone that everyone is like ‘I am not touching this.’

It took Red Hood and Nightwing to restrain her from further beating Scarecrow up.

He was one of the people who sympathised with the Joker after the Incident.

The next was Riddler being so arrogant in his plans and managed to get Hellbat and Spoiler into a death trap.

“You know I have a few regrets in life. And my final one is that I got captured and am now going to get killed by a walking fashion disaster.”

“Hey! I made this myself. I will have, you know.”

“You have a brilliant mind but no sense of fashion at all. When I get out of here, I am going to burn that thing with you in it, for your crimes against fashion.”

“What is wrong with it?”

Cue a lot of roasting of Riddler’s costume and Spoiler adding more fuel to the fire.

They manage to escape while Riddler is crying on the floor, having an existential crisis.

The thing was no one knows why Riddler was silent the entire week after encountering Hellbat and crying when anyone mentions it.

They now think Hellbat is the scariest one in the Batfamily, second to Batman and tied with Black Bat/Orphan.

The few who find out what really happened in the warehouse that night. Blackmail material on the Riddler.

Three ( four if you count Penguin) of Gotham’s biggest villains of the Rogues Gallery scared of Bats’ newest addition. Hellbat was not someone they wanted to mess with.

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Magic crisis stuff. Like a world ending event thing. Dr. Fate says they need the Miraculous jewels but the last mention of them had been in Paris a few years ago and had vanished since then.

Costantine looked at Batman. “You know who you have to call.”

Batman calls Hellbat. Who hasn’t been introduced yet to the JL.

“Ah. Bats. Not that I question your authority or anything but how can your newest ‘ward’ help us?”

She takes off her helmet and reveals her face and more importantly, her earrings.

Tikki comes out of her hiding place.

“I am the current Guardian of the Miracle Box and wielder of the Ladybug miraculous during Hawkmoth’s reign in Paris a few years ago. Any other Questions?”

“Oh great Guardian. Tikki. It is an honour to meet you.”-Wonder Woman, who else.

“You too, Princess Diana. Pass on my regards to your mother.”-Tikki

A huge face-off and the big evil is defeated.

WW asks abt HM and gives a horrified face at the end of her story. Nearly everyone who eavesdropped on the conversation was.

"Forgive me, Guardian for not aiding you in your hour of need.”

“It’s okay. I understand that there are other crises, world-ending ones that JL have to take care of. I am better now. Mostly.”

“I doubt it with those revenge schemes I found lying around. But she is getting there with her therapist.”-Batman

“I hate you, Dad.”

“Did you just call him Dad?”

“No….”

“Do you see me as a father figure?”

“I see you as a nuisance with how nosy you are with my personal business. So you are more of a bother figure.”

“I see you as part of the family too, Daughter.” (Got that reference anyone?)

“Jason was the one who adopted me.”

“Legally you are adopted by me.”

Maria with Pikachu surprised face because nobody told her that. “My life is a lie.”

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(Part 5)