#but one day he gets on the catbus by himself and says he's not getting off til he gets to the catbus dispatch center

[abeinginsand]

talked to cal a while ago about the idea that because link does canonically take medication that he has an anxiety disorder and that's what he takes meds for and was taking to happi earlier about the idea of the teens being in the forgotten realms and link wasn't prepared to be gone for so long so he doesn't have his meds and it is Bad. because his anxiety is severe and the other teens notice how in conversations about battle strategies link gets more rambly and worried than usual and runs out of breath faster and keeps thinking things will go wrong and one day on the catbus when everyone is asleep taylor wakes up and sees link curled up in a ball having a really severe anxiety attack for the first time in a While and taylor not really knowing whats gone but also trying to help and talk him through it and when taylor asks him whats wrong what happened did he have a nightmare what's going on link says he hasn't taken his meds and it's fucking him up and it's been so long since it's been this bad

Sorry for the delay. I fell asleep very cool to wake up to this idea though thank you cookies 👀

Oh yeah, that detail! The battle strategies being a distinct source of anxiety seems so fitting for him too. Just wants to keep his friends and himself safe the best he can. It's great that Taylor does wake up and is trying to provide comfort and support even if confused. The curled up and that it's more severe than usual details stuck out to me too. Sounds like a scary stressful experience for sure and someone who stands so tall looking small in a moment of intense vulnerability always gets to me. Also taylor surprised since not used to seeing him so shaken up especially since link tends to help everyone else calm down too. I love this idea :]

[catsafarithewriter]

@champion-masquerade we thank you for your vote! You requested Baron making a fool of himself, and so I did provide!

(Unfortunately it looks like the final results are in amd despite a very close run, the Catbus has won this round! Thank you everyone who voted, and if anyone still wants a ficlet snippet for their vote, the offer remains! However, now I sleep, so please enjoy Baron and his antics!)

x

All Creations were made with a purpose. For Baron it was to help ‐ something he achieved through the Bureau and, before that, through just generally being a nosy busybody.

Toto had been created to protect, and unfortunately he appeared to have latched on to Baron Humbert von Useless Dramatics.

It hadn't been intentional. At first, he'd just joined the Bureau as a favour to an old friend, a temporary thing which gave him a proverbial roof over his head and a perch to call home. It should have been simple. Easy. After all, the Baron was a Creation, immune to age and disease, and hardier than any mortal. He shouldn't have needed protection.

And then the Baron had leapt through a cathedral rose window and only Toto's quick reflexes had saved the cat Creation from being dashed to splinters.

"But I knew you'd catch me," the Baron had lightly remarked when Toto had later aired his grievances. "You always do."

"And if I hadn't?" Toto had pressed. "What was your grand scheme then?"

The Baron had paused in straightening his bowtie, as frustratingly unflappable as ever, and merely looked to his friend with that trusting surety which left him leaping beyond his reach. "But you always do," he had said once more.

And Toto does. He catches the Baron again and again and again, from one sure death to the next, until Toto's begin to ebb. Even so, there are limits.

He perches on his column and watches his old friend with all the raised eyebrow a crow can muster. "I know this won't change anything," he says, "but I have to say it anyway, in hopes that one day it will sink in: this is madness."

Baron stands atop the rooftop of the Bureau and grins one of his smiles which reassure the clients, usually in the absence of anything ekse to do the job. "I would have thought you'd approve, Toto. After all, usually my leaps are in the spur of the moment, unrehearsed things. For once, we shall actually practice this before putting it to use."

"That's all well and good, but jumping for your life is one thing, whereas this simply feels... frivolous."

"It's a practical skill."

"You want to leap off a roof backwards and land on a moving object," Toto reminds him.

"Possibly with a spin, once I get it figured," Baron adds, somehow missing how not-reassuring his addition is. "Or possibly a backflip."

"Well, that makes all the difference," Toto deadpans.

"It's a matter of maintaining an element of surprise," Baron persists. "Say I'm cornered against a drop, nowhere to go but back. If I turn to leap, I'll broadcast my actions too early and probably end up skewered. However, if I learn to leap backwards, they'll never see it coming."

"Right. Because only an idiot would jump back blindly over a sheer drop."

"Exactly."

"And the spin and/or backflip helps how?" Toto asks.

"Momentum."

A long pause passes. Toto supposes that Baron's willingness to practice a leap before he puts it to the test is a sign of... well, perhaps not common sense, but an improvement. Toto sighs. "Alright. But this move better only be used in last-resort measures only, understood? This isn't to be another client-impressing trick like your light show."

"Rest assured: I shall employ it in only the most dire of circumstances."

To his credit, Baron keeps to his word – or almost. Right up until he rescues a schoolgirl from an unwanted marriage, and in their final departing, he makes that backward spin.

Toto catches him – because of course he does.

"Most dire of circumstances?" Toto reminds his friend.

Baron groans and drops his head against the crow's feathers. "Love confession."

Held from Toto's talons, Muta guffaws. "Again?'

[danieyells]

Lucifer holding young Satan like "you hear that?

"It's coming. . . .

"Here it comes. . .!"

And the fucking catbus rounds the corner and little Satan GASPS and starts kicking and flailing and wagging his tail in excitement, doing the little excited baby screech because CAT!!!! CATBUS!!!!!!

And they're not getting on it or anything, it's just on the walk to wherever but Satan squeals and yells hi at it and waves and sometimes if it's picking somebody up at the bus stop Lucifer holds him up so he can pet it for a little while or it'll lick him before going on its way and it's THE BEST THING EVER as far as little Satan is concerned

Only way he'll calm down if Lucifer takes him anywhere is if a cat gets involved at some point. And the catbus, even if they don't get on it(because Lucifer REFUSES to take public transport does he LOOK like a commoner to you????) is one of the most convenient cats on the way to anywhere.

(the first time he gets to ride the catbus reminds him of the first time he learned Satan, still part of his head as an angel, just the developing voice of rage in his heart, liked cats. He's completely silent and still in his excitement. It's very odd and awkward because at that point Satan is still more Emotion than Person and ordinarily he's screeching and growling and hissing and yelling. But he gets to sit on the catbus and he just clams up and is calm he's practically not there at all it creeps Lucifer out but also he can tell Satan is happy.)

[touyasdoll]

Early Established Relationship Shouta & Reader, but they haven’t talked about having kids yet and Reader just found out she’s pregnant. She’s worked herself up in anxiety over how Shouta will take it. This is not helped by him coming home from teaching, having had a hellish day and grumbling about “problem children” and thankful that he only has to deal with kids for a few hours.

Hearing that, Reader just… hides everything. There’s ice in her chest as she tidies up the bathroom, takes out the trash, washes up to start on dinner just. Mind blank, but her usual smile on her face (well honed practice from years of mistreatment due to having an ‘unacceptable’ quirk) as she tells him to go clean up. She’ll make a fast dinner so he can sleep and then wake him later for patrol. He’s too tired to notice anything off, thanks her with a loving smile, the soft ones only she gets, as he goes and showers, changes for a meal and a nap with his favourite girl.

And that’s how it goes. Day in, day out, feeling sick is just a bug, just extreme reaction to allergies, just bad food, etc. She kind of disassociates a lot, mind unable to process as somewhere in there she’s coming up with a plan. Obviously he won’t want to be with her, right? She should cherish these days before she starts to show. So she does.

For about two days, no matter what he says about kids he’s run into or his class — though a small voice tries to remind her that Shouta is excellent with kids, even the ones that act out and he doesn’t hate them no matter what he acts like, she knows this, but it’s drowned out by the words she’s heard him say while tired and grumpy — she cherishes the fuck out of spending more time with him. A little needy, maybe a lot, but she loves him with everything she has to give. Everything but what she keeps held back for their her child.

And then one morning Reader wakes up, showers and notices a slight bump that she knows won’t be going down. There’s ice in her chest again, but she can’t have the same reaction as last time. It won’t be good for the baby, especially if she disassociates. So she plans out her week carefully; makes a grocery list so she can make all of his favourites, makes a list of what she needs to stock up on for herself, what she can pack quickly and sensibly, looks up apartment listings so Shouta won’t feel caged or that he has to leave because it’s his apartment after all, budgets her upcoming checks and what she has in her accounts.

But she gets careless, tires out far too early, doesn’t even make it to lunch, and leaves an apartment listing ad and pregnancy clinic check-up assessment on the table as she unintentionally drifts off on the couch. (Her iron levels are a little on the low side.) On the school’s half-day, where Shouta only needed to go in for meetings and would be back by lunch. Her stealthy as fuck boyfriend, who she never hears come in, but certainly sees her wearing one of his shirts and having fallen asleep in the middle of…..something. It doesn’t look like one of the analysis notebooks she uses for her freelance job as an analyst. Huh.

He’s curious, nosy maybe, but that’s a hero trait. You would’ve made good hero, if everyone hadn’t made it nigh impossible for you before you broke away from your past and headfirst into analysis. You aren’t bitter, but he can be so enough for both of you. You deserve the best, in his eyes, but he’s selfish so he’s going to keep you for himself. Now if he just steps closer to get a look at what’s on the table…..

  

  

Hey so I made myself go full on fucking ugly crying and decided to share for anyone’s thoughts or added writing contributions. :D

All I can think of to add is that:

Shouta is not letting Reader get away from him, from this misunderstanding no matter how he has to do it. (He’ll probably start by shredding that apartment add with his bare hands, though.)

Shouta feels like the biggest fucking idiot for missing all the signs and not taking better care of you like you deserved, kid or no kid behind it all. (TBH you’ve been carrying their family — not that either of you have said it but that’s what you have — since you moved in. If it was left up to him the entire building would’ve somehow collapsed.)

He’s gonna add some more bitterness to the “my girlfriend could’ve been a heroine but people are assholes” fund because she managed to hide a whole ass pregnancy from him completely for who knows how long while other Pros can’t even hide their favourite colours. (Most can’t even hide their lack of genuine civilian safety oriented tactical knowledge, which is just sad, in his opinion. Then again, he is very judgmental of other heroes abilities.)

He may or may not quickly realize why Reader hid the news. And may or may not feel even worse. Because having a kid with you? That’s a dream he didn’t want to let himself have, not yet. Not until after he proposed and settled into his teaching job more, at least. (Better find a ring soon. Even if it’s a Studio Ghibli’s Catbus themed one — it’ll do.)

💜

Oh God. Oh God, wait. Option 2 though, right? My brain wants more angst, go figure.

Ahahah this gets a little sad, sorry. But my contribution is under the cut ❤️‍🩹

Warnings: panic attack, mental breakdown, pregnancy, medical

What if his initial reaction is to be angry? Like he’s reading it just as you’re waking up and you gasp, trying to explain, but he’s already raising his voice, demanding to know how you could have kept something like this from him for so long?

He’s not even upset with you. He’s really just upset that he didn’t even notice. Like you said, he feels like a fucking idiot. He wanted to be there for you through all of this. He wanted all the cute cheesy pregnancy bliss that other couple go through. The first appointment. First sonogram. Telling your friends and family together.

And you’re looking for another apartment? For all of you? No, the place is already plenty big enough. Were you going to leave? He’s beating himself bloody inside, cursing himself for not being more attentive to you. You could have slipped right through his fingers. You and that little miracle inside of you that he already feels so attached to.

And he’s just so disappointed with himself that he misplaces those intense emotions and lashes out at you. He’s never once raised his voice to you, but he can’t control himself in his state and he does. He starts barking about why you never told him, demanding to know why you didn’t come to him, pressing you about how long and why and where you were going to go and he just gets so worked up that he doesn’t even know what he’s saying, he’s just screaming and there’s hot tears and he can’t breathe anymore. He’s having a panic attack for the first time in who knows how many years and he just keeps kicking himself, because now after all that, you’re looking at him with concern and tending to his needs once again, instead of him having the strength to be there for you in what is obviously your time of need. He feels selfish and stupid and starts wondering if maybe why you didn’t say anything is because you were really going to leave, because you know that he can’t even properly take care of you, let alone a child.

[augment-techs]

…….can I get a crash course on Zeyla and Skull’s storyline??? Pretty please!!???👉🏻👈🏻👉🏻👈🏻

Alrighty then. *Deep Breath* They met originally in MMPR when Bulk and Skull were attempting to get high definition recordings of a monster fight with the Rangers in their Zord. Bulk and Skull ended up saving a group of teens that were cut off from escape in an alley at the expense of their camera up on the rooftop. Zelya as Candice was a part of the group and ended up tracking the boys down at the Juice Bar later while Bulk was down on himself due to his rival for covering the Rangers’ exploits showing up with footage and getting an interview by a big time news channel. Skull was playing video games and Zelya as Candice confirmed he was one of her rescuers, introducing herself and getting Skull’s actual name before she said she’d see him around. Cut to a couple months later, ping-ponging between Power Rangers, MMPR, and Mighty Morphin, Skull had been spending a little less time with Bulk and decided to introduce “Candice” as, and I quote, “She’s kinda my girlfriend. Kinda,” with queued up Bulk being a little awkward (probably realizing that this was NOT a good thing) while Tommy, Kim, and Billy eavesdropped. Billy called it, “Mutually assured destruction,” and BOY HOWDY was that on the nose. Throughout the Omega Ranger introductory in the plotlines, “Candice” and Skull have been going out in the background, with Bulk steadily getting more and more tense and sad looking, despite “Candice” offering to set Bulk up with someone, joining the boys at lunch in the Juice Bar, and the three of them getting caught up in Goldar’s Catbus incident (Skull and Candice ended up making sure Bulk was okay while he looked dizzy and spooked in one panel and it was ADORABLE). 

As we move on into the Mighty Morphin series, we find that while the three of them continue to hangout, with “Candice” doing her best to go to theater, arts, and concert events with the two of them, Bulk still isn’t very warm towards her, causing some friction between him, Skull, and her. After taking “Candice” to a sushi bar as an apology for Bulk’s behavior, she says that expensive dinners aren’t necessary for her to like Skull, but about a second later, she claims to thinks she left her wallet in the sushi bar. When Skull goes to get it, “Candice” walks down a dark alley where a member of the Eltarian army meets her and says that her observation of Earth is coming to an end. This is where she reveals herself as Zelya to the camera and she starts pulling away from Skull. Skull thinks she’s cheating on him and attempts to improve his fighting ability at the Juice Bar, asking Bulk why she had to find someone else--with Bulk absolutely pissed, but also promising Skull that he’s sure that’s not it, and they’ll figure it out. About a day or so later, when they go to meet up at a concert venue, while Bulk and Skull were getting snacks, Zelya slipped away, sensing the trap Zedd set for the Rangers, and bumped bodily into Rocky. They ended up in a compromising position when Bulk and Skull found them two seconds before the Z Putties attacked. While the Rangers try to take care of the monsters, Zelya, Bulk and Skull try running for cover and end up cornered in an alley by a Z Putty. Skull tries to fight the thing, but it gets pissed and punches him so hard he gets knocked out, with Bulk taking a protective position when the Putty tries to advance--but Zelya knocks the thing away with a full garbage can. While they wait in the alley for the monster fight to end, guarding Skull’s unconscious body, Bulk and Zelya get into it; with him confronting her about cheating on Skull when he’s totally in love with her--also revealing that he knew that she’d leave, that Skull would be left alone and Bulk would end up cleaning up the mess. She looks completely floored to be told that Eugene loves her, promising she’s not cheating, but before they can talk more, Skull wakes up. When Bulk says that he’s totally okay, Skull asks if they’re alright and they to find Zelya gone. When the Dome over Angel Grove was put in place by Zedd, Skull and Bulk were looking for Zelya while she was in full Guardian mode helping the Rangers. We even see her hiding behind a building in her human disguise when she was supposed to be checking up on things, reporting back to Tommy that, she could find them, “I looked everywhere.” When she was taken by Zedd and the Dome came down, Skull spent a every other panel being shown looking for her, asking for help in finding her in their podcast, asking Brady and his friends for the footage they got during the occupation, putting up fliers with her face and last seen location. Aisha said it was wrong, knowing what happened and letting this continue, but Kim said there was nothing they could say without revealing their identities and what could they say? “Hey, Skull, your girlfriend’s an alien being held hostage on the moon.” When the Eltarian War takes place, and Zelya is on the battlefield, Skull and Bulk took the first chance they got to go to the fight scene and hope they’d see “Candice” because an invasion was the last time they saw her and maybe they’d find her there. Unfortunately, what they find instead is Promethea blown to bits and an interview with fucking Zartus and multiple guards. They still haven’t met up again, in a continual Missed Him By That Much/Failed Spot Check/Hidden In Plain Sight trope parade, but RYAN and the other writers keep hinting that when they do meet up again, it’s going to HURT. Hopefully that answers all the questions.

[sparklyjojos]

CARNIVAL EVE recap

Or: way too many characters to remember, Ryusui sending people weird stories YET AGAIN, an ominous prophecy, and horses and deers and cats, oh my!

[This is a sequel to Cosmic and Joker, please check these out first if you haven’t]

[tw: mentioned suicide]

---

This book is more of an introduction to Carnival than its own thing (although Seriyoin claims in the author’s note that it’s a separate whole, so YMMV). It’s set in August 1996 – 2,5 years after the Locked Room Lord case – and so we have to catch up on what the characters have been up to.

Because of the sheer amount of old and new characters, I’m doing what Seiryoin does and bolding names that you Really Should Remember For Later.

THE ‘CATCHING UP WITH CHARACTERS’ PART:

Hikimiya Yuuya, the statistics expert of JDC, is going through a rough patch. He’s so concerned with the vague Internet rumour about the worldwide “Crime Olympics” coming soon that his work performance suffered and landed him back in the Second Group of JDC. Cue imposter syndrome. Hikimiya is also afraid that were the worldwide crime event to really occur, his sweetheart Ryuuguu Otohime (the older sister of Ryuuguu Jounosuke) would have trouble surviving because of her disability. Right now Hikimiya’s leaving for France, where he will assist / learn under one of the seven S-rank detectives in the world, nicknamed Deus Ex Machina.

Yaiba Somahito, the leader of JDC's First Group, recently had to be hospitalized after he’d collapsed from stress. He’s worried that the stress brought on by the Crime Olympics -- will they occur -- could finally trigger his (still unclarified) hereditary psychiatric disorder. In the hospital he befriends a young boy, Amano, who with his prematurely white hair looks a lot like Yaiba’s brother Amato (who committed suicide years ago because of the aforementioned hereditary disorder). Amano was given only a few months to live.

While Yaiba’s hospitalized, Kirika Mai takes over his duty as the First Group’s leader. While people seem to like her in this position, she considers herself a temporary replacement. Since the last time we saw her she cut her hair short and has started dating a forensics expert Hazama [who showed up briefly in Joker]. She’s still confused about whether or not she has/had A Thing for Juku or was it just deep respect or what, and she certainly feels a pang of jealousy whenever she thinks about him surrounded by other people but not her.

Kirika mentions getting an author manuscript of a book describing the Locked Room Lord case. Every detective concerned gets a copy so they can approve the scenes they show up in. The book is written by a mysterious writer using the nickname Seiryoin Ryusui and is called Cosmic. It seems Seiryoin is already working on another book, Joker, this one about the Geneijo case. [WE META NOW, WE META HARD]

Tsukumo Nemu is there, but doesn’t really do anything in this book. Aside from instilling JDC representative Ajiro Souji’s “stupid parental feelings” and indirectly making him remember his dead son Souya, that is. [Have I ever mentioned that my favourite JDC AU is the one in which Ajiro inexplicably becomes the dad to Juku, Nemu, and the Ryuuguu siblings in addition to his own son? Just the 30-something Ajiro and a bunch of quirky genius kids he’s dadding over. Perfect.]

Amagi Hyouma is distraught after his work partner Yakuma Suzume was arrested for drug possession. Yakuma was a JDC detective whose reasoning ability was at its height when he subjected himself to risky activities like bungee jumping. Adrenaline and all. Nicknamed “Akuma”, or demon.

Later Hyouma is entrusted by Ajiro to take a bottle of alcohol to Yaiba as a get-well-soon gift, but predictably drinks it all right there in JDC’s lobby – his own meta-reasoning method relies on him getting drunk and, well, it didn't have the best influence on his life. Hyouma thinks a lot about his mysterious past: he can’t remember his parents, and all that his early childhood left him are vague memories of a terrifying fire and burn marks he usually hides under his bandana. He still dearly remembers his dead girlfriend Takabe Yuu (the one who died in Cosmic) and always wears a locket with her picture.

Later in the hospital Hyouma spends some time playing UNO with a fairly new detective Suzukaze Unomaru. Unomaru talks and dresses like a samurai completely with a wooden sword strapped to his back. His reasoning power increases when he’s playing card games (any and all, though UNO is his favorite), and in fact he got hospitalized because he’d somehow fucked up his hands due to too intense card game playing.

Later Hyouma is given a lift back to JDC by Kasumi Fuyuka (whose D-name, that is her “detective nickname”, is Fuyuu Kasumi), who’s similar in looks to Kirika and reasons better while she’s sleeping. (I'm starting to think they just pick someone's characteristic at random and call it a reasoning method.). The two were an item once, but nowadays Kasumi is more into someone else.

That someone else is Christmas Mizuno, a girly young man wearing all red except for the white shirt. People often call him Joya (“New Year’s Eve”) as he was born on 31st December. He’s the younger brother of the late meta-detective Pyramid Mizuno (who was ironically the one born on Christmas), and has a baby sister simply called JDC (born on the anniversary of the establishment of JDC). He was once Ajiro Souya’s friend in school, and sort of became a detective inspired by him. As of recently, Christmas became Ryuuguu Jounosuke’s assistant. His reasoning, sometimes called “anti-reasoning”, is kinda… searching for the truth via randomly wandering around or rambling to eventually stumble into the right thing. It doesn’t help that he has zero sense of direction. He’s trying his best, but can clearly see the barrier of talent between him and the big name detectives. Really wants a stuffed Catbus.

Ryuuguu Jounosuke hasn't changed much – still wears the same black clothes everyday, loves word plays, has autistic traits out the wazoo, is as aroace as they come (yay!), and is affectionately known as “JDC’s greatest weirdo”, or sometimes “the black-wearing Joker” because of his cheerful disposition. He’s horrible around machines and WILL break your laptop or phone if you let him as much as touch it, which is in a way really impressive. Ryuuguu lately feels exasperated because of one of JDC’s new detectives…

... Somedaring Amagoi [or Same Darling Amagoi? It's romanized differently on the cover and in the annex]. She's pretty much the teenage female version of Ryuuguu (that is, a walking pun hell), except she dresses like a shrine maiden. Her D-name is Amagoi Samidaare? (yes, with the question mark), but most people call her Ittai-chan because of how often she says “ittai” (“what the hell”). She considers Ryuuguu her teacher and constantly challenges him to riddle battles. Even Ryuuguu is a little done with it at this point.

On the day most of Carnival Eve is happening, Ryuuguu is giving a welcome to a new detective who has recently passed the hellishly difficult JDC entry exam. It’s Hoshino Tae, the very same person that survived the Geneijo case. Tae accepts a D-name that Ryuuguu created for her: Fuumonji Jouka, which honors the memory of Tae’s brother known under his pen name of Fuumonji Kousei.

Another future detective is Yuiga Dokuson. For now we’re just told that he was Hyouma’s school friend. Emphasis on “was”. Dokuson is a self-proclaimed narcissist (his reasoning method apparently relying on that) who claims to be thousands of years old, and rumour has it that he once drove a man to suicide simply by talking to him. If Tsukumo Juku’s beauty could be described as godly, Dokuson’s unusual good looks (fortunately not to the point of making others faint) feel like the demonic equivalent. Hyouma doesn’t have the highest opinion of the guy, and is pretty pissed off that Ajiro let the dude come anywhere near JDC.

As for other JDC detectives we haven’t met yet, there are two we need to mention:

Ushiwaka Gigolo (that’s her D-name, not real name) usually dresses in traditionally male clothing, and while she may seem brash and bold at first sight, she’s actually very amiable. Her reasoning abilities rise whenever she falls head over heels for someone, but as soon as the case at hand is solved the feelings for the partner fizzle out completely, which understandably leads to Problems. While she feels attraction to any gender, it seems she likes other ladies the most. It’s mentioned that a lot of female JDC employees certainly like her a lot. Think of that what you will. [...I don’t think I have to point out that having your bi/pan character be the one who’s defined by changing partners like socks is uhhhh not good.]

Kakuusan Kanke (this D-name being a pun on a relationship triangle) is a talkative woman with round glasses and okappa hair which gave her a nickname “Kappa”. Her reasoning ability soars whenever she’s jealous about something (a relationship, talent, fame…). Before JDC she worked as a DJ. She’s also an amateur hypnotist, weirdly enough. Kakuusan and Ushiwaka worked in a trio with another female detective, who unfortunately was murdered fairly recently.

While we’re looking at JDC, we should mention that Ajiro Souji’s usual secretary Hanto Maimu had to recently take maternity leave. (She already named her yet unborn kid Hanto Kuraimu. 'Crime Hunt'. That’s metal.) The new secretary is Mito Muramasa, a young office worker guy with low levels of self-confidence who’s fairly anxious all the time, described as evoking maternal instincts in everyone, and who basically isn’t sure how to adult properly and feels completely out of place. Relatable.

For reasons that will only come into play much, much later, we also have to mention one of JDC’s security guards called Nakamoto Hiroya, whose secret dream is to become a writer.

--

As for the God of Detectives Tsukumo Juku, he’s taken a paid leave -- which he never does, mind you -- to return to Shunkashuutou, the Tsukumo family’s residence in Shimane Prefecture. He invited two people along.

One is Tousen Yomiko, a private detective specializing in criminal psychology who was Juku's childhood friend and at one point in life his fiancée. Yomiko previously showed up in Cosmic helping others solve the Jackie the Ripper case. Just like Juku, Yomiko has the atmosphere of being an extremely loving and understanding person to the point that it kinda wraps around to feeling uncanny. Yomiko’s father Yomi was good friends with Juku’s father, and in fact was the one to built Shunkashuutou.

The other invited person is Inugami Yasha, now around 17-year-old private detective who helped JDC during Cosmic. Walking to Shunkashuutou, Yasha accidentally remembers that time he saw Juku’s eyes and faints (hfjsjkhf), and while he’s unconscious the black cat he brought along goes missing. The cat had been entrusted to Yasha by a randomly met dying man who introduced himself as Kanai Hidetaka, or Employee D who once worked in Geneijo. [Kanai Hidetaka is our world's Seiryoin's real name, btw.] The cat is called Kanaihidetaka ( Yasha says you’re not supposed to split that name, so I write it together). Apparently it’s connected to something called “the last case of humanity” that also has to do with a mysterious "Shinrui” (Yasha has no clue what it is, but thinks it should be written with the kanji meaning “God's tear”).

In a conversation with Yasha, Yomiko reveals that there’s something that even Juku still can’t solve -- he still can’t figure out the tricks to his father Saimon Ryuusui's “Miraculous Illusions”. The illusions in question were only ever shown once, and only to little Juku, before his father died during the Saimon Family Murder Case. The Miraculous Illusions were still unfinished at the time, but Juku thinks that if they were perfected, they could lead to some sort of an “ultimate trick”.

As for the missing cat, there’s a Shimane legend about people and animals being spirited away, so who knows if that didn’t happen to Kanaihidetaka too? But thankfully the cat is soon found by Juku, and everything's fine. (For now.)

THE ACTUAL PLOT (what little there is of it for now):

Hoshino Tae / Fuumonji Jouka brings to JDC a letter that Dakushoin Ryusui sent her a long time ago. It was sent on 26th October 1993… that is, during the Geneijo case. It contains another envelope and a curt note from Dakushoin asking the recipient not to open it until the date given (yesterday as of now). The envelope contains a short story consisting of 7 acts and called:

ANOTHER JOKER ---The Revised Detective Myth (But The Culprit Is The Same?)

[Note: Joker’s full title is Joker: Detective Myth As The Old Testament]

This short somewhat absurd story takes place in a building without an entrance or exit called Gensoukan (Phantom House? Phantom Mansion? Either way, it’s a clear riff off of Geneijo). Aside from the lead character – Ryuuguu Jounosuke – the story features only people who are already dead: Kirigirisu Tarou (apparently the owner of Gensoukan) with his wife Kano; Ajiro Souya; everyone else who died in Geneijo; as well as Kosugi the butler and his son, who both died during the Locked Room Lord case. (Incidentally, the kid’s name is now furigana’d as Katsutoshi and not Shouri like it was in Cosmic and Joker. This is never explained, but I’ll go with my Meta Instinct and assume this is an intentional change. None of the detectives reading the short story seems to notice the change. Oh, and the kid is reading a certain book called Joker. Meta intensifies.)

Another Joker’s Ryuuguu is quite confused about how he got into Gensoukan and why all the dead people he saw die in Geneijo are alive and acting like nothing happened, but he feels like he may as well go with the flow and solve the case. The victim is one Employee O, or Ousetsu Kan. The locked room he was in burned down. Witnesses heard the victim yell something like “dou, dou”. While everyone was running around and trying to break the door open, the victim must have tried to extinguish the fire by turning on water, but he was too late to save himself from burning down to a pile of bone fragments. (Ryuuguu realizes that a normal fire wouldn't be hot enough to leave only bones, but whatever, this is Gensoukan, it’s weird.) There seemed to be more bones left than just one man would have, though. The only other clue is a message carved into the floor that “the culprit is ZI”.

Murder aside, two animals held in Gensoukan's stable went missing: a man-eating horse called SIKA (“deer”) and a deer called UMA (“horse”).

Ryuuguu was apparently chosen to be in Gensoukan as Dakushoin's guest, whatever this means. Dakushoin helps the investigation by making a map of Gensoukan including everyone present's name and room location. This helps Ryuuguu eventually figure out the case and who 'the Joker' (the culprit) is. He gathers everyone in the recreation room to explain it, but the story ends just as he points and yells “You are the Joker!”

Attached to the story is a short bonanzagram (a riddle in which you substitute free spaces with letters) that prompts the reader of Another Joker to fill it in with the answers to the case.

–

The real Ryuuguu Jounosuke and Tae / Jouka solve the story's case incredibly quickly, but still have to help Christmas through his own stumbly reasoning.

The title having that But The Culprit Is The Same? part would seemingly point to whoever committed the Geneijo murders as the culprit of the story.

However, Christmas says that the person he suspects is not the culprit of Geneijo, but the Kosugi boy. [A statement which should give everyone who read Joker a long pause, but then again, Juku and Yaiba probably didn’t reveal the truth to anyone.] Ryuuguu and Jouka think the boy is just a red herring here.

Christmas’s next guess is the story’s rendition of Nijikawa Ryou. The map that Another Joker’s Dakushoin made has everyone’s pen name and real name. Everyone without a pen name has a note that “(Real Name Is The Same)”. However, Nijikawa Ryou has a slightly different note that “(Real Name = The Same)”, which can be read as him being called The Same, and since The Culprit Is The Same...

If a person was called 同じ, onaji (The Same), then the last name would be Ona and the first name would be Ji. Or maybe the last name would be Dou (same kanji, different reading) and the first name Ji. The syllable “ji” can be romanized as “zi”. And that’s why the victim yelled “Dou, Dou!” (the murderer’s last name!) and the dying message said that “the culprit is ZI”.

[I feel like this is a good time to remember Juku’s final observation in Joker about Dakushoin’s manuscript having a message that mina onaji, or “Everyone’s The Same”. I sense multiple meanings here.]

Since Story Nijikawa shared alibi with Story Miyama Kaoru (they were playing hanafuda in the recreation room), this means they were partners in crime, and maybe lovers. See, there’s apparently a proverb that “the one who interferes in love will die kicked by a horse”, so the two could symbolically use a horse as a murder weapon to deal with Ousetsu Kan, who threatened their relationship in some way.

Nijikawa planned to get the horse and the victim in the same room, scare the horse with fire and make it trample the victim. Things went awry and Nijikawa had to flee the now burning room. The victim locked the door in fear of Nijikawa returning and tried to extinguish the fire, but the unhinged horse ate him. The bones found at the scene belonged to the horse.

As for what happened to the deer, well, there’s this proverb that “the person who chases a deer does not see the mountain”. Yama, mountain, is also a term for a card deck. Like the hanafuda card deck Nijikawa and Miyama used. Hanafuda, which has a deer card in it. The deer called UMA was a card all along, and Nijikawa hid it inside a deck of cards in the recreation room.

[A somewhat absurd story, as I said.]

--

The filled-in bonanzagram looks something like this:

“KAN died. HANnin [culprit] ZI. UMA was brought into GORAKUshitsu [the recreation room]. DEKOI [the person used as a 'decoy' killer] was the KOSUGI boy.”

Ryuuguu and Jouka notice that there's a hidden message obtainable by making an anagram of all the filled-in letters. Poor Christmas Mizuno feels inadequate as he's not able to guess it as easily as these two did (and the reader will share his pain of being denied the knowledge of the message before the end of the book). Concerned about the message, Ryuuguu brings the story to Ajiro, who then arranges one-on-one meetings with each of the big name detectives to ask them what they personally think of it.

While this is happening, Ryuuguu thinks about a dream he had that night in which he talked to someone. He can’t actually remember anything else, but he has a vague feeling that the dream was important. What was it about...? 

–

[This chapter is called “The real short story: Cosmic Zero”]

Ryuuguu is in some empty space in which he can only hear Dakushoin's voice. Dakushoin talks about vague and weird things, about space-time curved into a Moebius strip in which the cases are recurring again and again, and the dead are coming back to live and repeating their deaths without noticing.

Ryuuguu asks about Another Joker and the manuscript from the Locked Room Lord case. Just how much does Dakushoin know if he was able to hint at future events in them? Dakushoin answers that since Ryuuguu will forget this conversation even happened (because it shouldn’t be happening in the first place), there's no harm in telling him some things.

A plan to exterminate all humanity is under way. It started back in 1979 with the Saimon Family Murder Case, one of the Four Great Tragedies. The other three are the Geneijo case, the Locked Room Lord case, and the future Twin Disappeareance case of 1999. The Crime Olympics are not included in the Four Great Tragedies, as it's a worldwide event that doesn't concern just Japan, and it's really just a preparation for the last Tragedy.

The Twin Disappearance case will be the last one. Then, on the night of the last day of the current century – 31st December 2000 – Tsukumo Juku will be murdered, and the human race will perish soon after.

All of the culprits of those giant cases – Shiroyasha, the Artist, the Locked Room Lord, Kamikakushi of the Twin Disappearance case, as well as the Billion Killer of the Crime Olympics – are nothing more than decoys. They are all controlled by a mysterious Tsukumo Jaki (九十九邪鬼), who will be the one to kill Juku. Tsukumo Jaki is apparently someone Ryuuguu knows – why, it's one of his fellow detectives!

Ryuuguu is upset, but Dakushoin points out that since he'll forget this anyway, and all is destined, there's no reason to care a lot about it now. The two have a conversation about language and writing, and Dakushoin hints at there being a root language that all others came from, and that Ryuuguu should look into it.

Finally they bid each other goodbye. Dakushoin says that he himself can only return to 'the beginning' and tread the same path over and over again, but Ryuuguu can now continue walking forward in new time.

[End of Cosmic Zero]

--

The hidden message is finally revealed:

KAN HAN ZI UMA GORAKU DEKOI KOSUGI --->

HANZAI GORIN SUGU KOKO DE KAIMAKU

“The Crime Olympics will be starting here soon.”

–

At exactly 1 PM on 10th August 1996, the Crime Olympics really do start.

With the JDC building -- and about 300 detectives inside it -- exploding.

And that's where Carnival Eve ends.

[To be continued in Carnival]

[c-is-for-circinate]

I am on the seventh dungeon, but my prompt is what happens if the Phantom Thieves don't quite take the bait on targeting who they are supposed to? What if they just double down on entering palaces for anyone that seems appropriate, entering the palaces of people they judge bad as rapidly as they can to help as many people as they can, instead of leaving month+ gaps.

I really like this one, it spurred many ideas in me!

I expect that there is more in this universe but eh, this is what we’ve got so far.  An evening in Mementos, in a world where stop only ever means just for a second.

(Spoilers through early October)

Every other Saturday is Mementos night.  It’s nicely consistent, something they can mark their calendars by.  Consistency is key for everything they’re trying to accomplish here.

“Targets tonight?” Queen asks the table at large.  It is large, especially with Noir here, but the diner is the closest place to Shibuya Station’s Mementos entrance where they can congregate without attracting too much attention for loitering.  They never come here as a group, except on Mementos nights.  The waitress knows them and their favorite back booth by sight.  It makes Mona twitchy, which means Joker is twitchy, but that’s okay.  A tense Joker is as still and quiet as a cat just before the pounce.  It’s hard to read the hyperfocus in his posture unless you really know him.

“Three new targets from Mishima,” Skull reports.  “Plus the one from last time whose name turned out to be wrong.”

“The blackmailer?” Joker asks.  “Futaba?”

“Haru got her credit card information from the flower shop,” Oracle reports, her glasses glinting from the reflected glow of her tablet screen.  “I traced the fake name back to an address rented under another fake name, and followed that back a bunch more levels to a real passport.  Her real name’s Michiko Sakai.”

Nods all around.  “Good job,” Joker says.  “Anyone else?”

They rarely go into Mementos with fewer than half a dozen targets, these days.  It feels like a waste.  There are too many power-hungry, corrupt, and greedy people around.  If they’re going to change all of Tokyo, they can’t exactly do it one individual at a time.

“I have one,” Queen says.  “Our friend at the supply shop has been having some difficulties with a couple of old acquaintances.  He could use our help.”

Queen is always the most circumspect, when they have these discussions here.  She always positions herself near the end of the booth and within shin-kicking distance of Skull, just in case.  Joker, who sits on the opposite side of the booth with clear lines of sight to both entrances and every possible line of approach, appreciates it.

“Uh, what kind of difficulties?” asks Skull.  “And…what kind of old acquaintances?”

Queen waits for Joker’s nod–the next table over is preoccupied with a small child wailing over a spilled glass of milk, and the waitress has just stepped outside of easy eavesdropping range, so he gives it–and says, “Yakuza.  Akimitsu Tsuda.  He’s been threatening our friend.  We’ll have problems if we don’t take care of this.”

“Is that a good enough reason?” Panther asks.  "Just because we’ll have problems if we don’t?”

Joker worries about Panther, sometimes.  Someday she’s going to fight enough battles, kill enough Shadows,  that she stops asking that question.  She’s not the only one who asks, but she brings it up most often.  Their unanimous decision-making won’t be worth much if that finally happens.

If it does.  It hasn’t yet.  They’re still warriors of justice, for now.

“He’s rejected even the Yakuza’s version of a code of honor, and he’s suggested he’ll come after both our friend and his son,” Queen says.  “He’s definitely killed before, and he doesn’t appear to regret it.”

“Good enough for me,” says Skull.  “Anybody else?  C’mon, somebody’s got to have something good.”

“Our reporter friend is experiencing difficulties, but nothing that presents a target as of yet,” Fox says.  Joker is going to need to check in on that soon.  Fox has the most time and freedom to hang around in a bar in Shinjuku with a mostly-drunken news hound, but he misses things, sometimes.  It’s not an ideal setup, but somebody needs to cultivate Ohya.  With the number of new palaces they have to explore, her articles are just too valuable.

If Joker had all the time in the world, he’d get to know her himself.  If he had that much time, he wouldn’t need a team in the first place, and he’d have nothing to spend it on.

“That’s five,” says Queen.  “A light evening.”

“Six,” Noir says.  “I know how to beat that gamer.”

They all look at her.  Mona purrs in satisfaction.

“Told you she could do it,” he says.  Joker hadn’t been so sure about setting their newest member on the trail of that Gamer King–but it had been a test as much as it was meant to be a distraction from her father’s looming change of heart.  He needed to see just what Noir could do on her own terms.  She’s come through with flying colors.  He’d hoped she would.

“That’s a full load, then,” Skull says in satisfaction.  “We ready?”

Joker looks around the table of thieves–lean, fierce, hungry.  Ready.  Well-honed weapons thirsty for the next rush.

“Let’s go,” he says.

.

There are plenty of reasons for going to Mementos.  Time is too precious not to multi-task, always, always, always.  Joker beckons Queen to take Mona’s front passenger seat and heads his way down.

The first hour or so in Mementos, while most of Tokyo is still awake, is always predictable.  Shadows mill back and forth along set paths and go down easily when Mona hits them, spilling out forms and faces that Joker’s already worn and known from the inside out.  They spend it gliding through Kaitul, picking up treasure along the way and flexing their muscles for the warm-up.

“Learn anything interesting from Hifumi this week?” Joker asks.  Tactics.  He will never have time to learn to be half the strategist Queen is.  That’s why he has her.

“She’s been focused on teaching me defensive plays lately,” Queen murmurs.  The shadow up ahead trundles past without glancing in their direction, golden when Joker blinks his eyes, then back to shapeless lumbering darkness.  “I’m pretty sure I can find us an opening to escape even if we’re surrounded.”

Useful.  Very useful.  It’s hard to understand how a few nights of studying under a shogi master could produce a tactic that practical, but Queen’s brain is a marvel and Joker never takes it for granted.

“Can you teach me?” he asks.

Mementos is perfectly, predictably unpredictable, especially this early in the night.  Every tunnel twists and splits in new chaotic pathways every time they’re here, and every tunnel is always the same.  It’s practically safe, more or less.  It’s the perfect time to learn something new.

“Get us caught a few times tonight, and we’ll see,” Queen says.  Her smile glints in the dim, green light of the twisted subway tunnel.  

Joker considers the dim shapes just around the corner, at the edge of the sweep of Mona’s eye-beams, and lifts his head.  “Get ready,” he says, loudly enough to cut through the banter of the back seat.  “Fox.  Skull.”

“Wait,” Mona says, as he spins the wheel and guns the engine, aiming just to the right of the lumbering shadow.  They should pass by close enough to lean out the window and stroke it, if they wanted.  Definitely near enough to draw attention.  “Joker, what are you doing–”

“It’s spotted us!” Oracle warns.  “It’s going to–”

Wham.  The catbus keels over at the blow and Joker springs free, knife in hand, Arahabaki just behind his eyes and ready to go.  Towering shapes spin up out of the gloom all around them, spitting fire and lightning and throwing Fox to his knees before they even have the chance to move.  It’s fine.  He can take far, far worse.  Having time to prepare would defeat the purpose of training to be caught off guard, after all.

“You’re surrounded!  This looks bad!”  Oracle’s voice rings clear.  Joker glances over at Queen.

“Leave it to me,” she says.  “And guard!”

.

There are three shadows ahead of them, clustered, drowsing.  They flicker different colors when Joker lets his eyes go unfocused and peers at them through thief-sight, red one moment, blue the next.  No telling how strong any of them are–or will be, on and off, if they change mid-fight.

Late night, as Tokyo drops bit by bit off to sleep, is when Mementos really comes into its own.  It’s a labyrinth of thoughts and possibilities when the real world is mostly awake.  When Tokyo is dreaming?  Anything at all could happen next.

Oracle’s in the front seat–seeing out the front window doesn’t help her navigate Mementos any better, but it puts her that much closer to Joker’s attention, lets him respond that split-second quicker when she hisses, “Now, go, now!”

A moment later the tunnel to their right wavers and melts away like soft wet ice cream, sludging down around the tracks on the floor.  It’ll stick to Mona’s wheels like tar if they go too slow, and if they aren’t all the way through by the time the wall forms back up they’re in trouble, but Joker’s foot is already on the gas pedal and they shoot forward with a squeal and a squish of tires in the muck.  The walls around them waver like heat-mirages in midsummer, iridescent with flickers of emerald and blue and gold against the Akzeriyyuth violet.  Nothing in Mementos stays stable for long, but if they pick just the right moment–

“There it is!”  Oracle points triumphantly ahead and to the left without even looking.  “The next target.”

“Panther,” Joker says, and then considers the rest of his party.  Fox and Skull are still knitting skin and bone back together from a few fights ago, Oracle’s passive restorative powers not quite as fast or clean as actually digging into their bags of medicine or their healers’ skills.  Noir is starting to tire and pretending not to.  Queen’s got plenty of energy still, but the night’s only just begun, and there’s no sense tapping her out yet.  “Fox, use a Life Stone.  You’re up.  Mona too.”

“Yesss.”  The cat-bus all but purrs around them.  “Let’s get ‘em!”

In the other world, Takeshi Saito is a clean-cut police detective with an easy smile, one he tends to flash to burglary victims before suggesting they make a donation to his wallet if they want him to take their case seriously.  In this world his smile splits wide, wider, spilling his insides out in a great ribbon of shadow that wends its way up tall and thin, Makami’s familiar face on a starving wolf slavering for their blood.

“Mona, Garula,” Joker orders, pulls Unicorn’s silvery-white bolts of lightning up in his own mind, and reaches for his mask.

It’s a swift, brutal fight.  They’re stronger than Saito’s shadow,  probably have been for months, but it’s quick enough to freeze Panther solid and nearly shatter her with a nuclear explosion that even rocks Joker back on his feet.  Fox dives in, katana flashing, and slices it down before Mona even has Panther back up again, and Joker stands back to throw bolt after bolt of lightning, sending the shadow crumbling to its knees.

Saito’s shadow melts back into his human face, panting on his knees.  Joker takes a step forward, then another one, gun at the ready.

“I’m sorry,” the shadow cries.  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, it’s just that the world and the system are so fucked already, I didn’t think it mattered if I took advantage of it.”  He’s too pathetic to even want to kill.  Human-form shadows get like that at the end, and Joker is grateful.  They’re not murderers.  Even now, they’re not murderers, and that matters.

“You should tell us about that,” Panther says, more sympathy in her voice than Joker could muster.  Her health is low but she’s standing on her own two feet, stepping forward to offer Saito an understanding ear.  “Who hurt you so badly you thought this was the only way to be?”

“I…I don’t…”  Saito’s shadow shakes its head and rubs at its face.  “So many people…”

“Who’s the worst?” Panther asks.  “Not just to you.  Who’s the worst person you know?”

“The district chief,” Saito says instantly.  “He knew everything I was doing!  He runs the whole precinct for himself, all he wants are convictions, he’ll even make us arrest the victims–”

“A name,” Joker says.  “Give us a name.”

“Jirou Kazumi,” the shadow says.  “Please, I don’t want to die.”

“Quit your job and atone for your crimes, then,” Joker orders.  “Now go!”

The shadow dissolves into smoke.  Joker snatches the kernel of Treasure out of the billowing black with one gloved hand, glances at it disinterestedly before he tucks it in a pocket.  Freeze Boost.  Not entirely useless, but not what they came here for.

“Well that was useful,” Mona says cheerfully.  “Nice going with the information, Panther.”

“Ugh, I just want to climb into the back seat and take a nap,” Panther says, stretching her arms out and cracking her neck to the side.  “But yeah, we’ll put Kazumi on our list of names to check this week.”

“Someone as powerful as a district police chief may even have a palace of his own,” Fox suggests, audibly pleased by the prospect.  “Finally, another one.”

“What do you mean ‘finally’?  We haven’t even finished Fujimada,” Oracle points out.  The others are behind her, ready with high fives and congratulatory pats on the shoulder.  Mona settles from two legs to four wheels with a satisfied beep.

“We are mere days from sending that calling card.  It won’t do to be without a new palace for long,” Fox muses.  “I wonder what it will be this time.”

“How can you start thinking about that when we haven’t even met the guy?”  Skull shoves Fox up and into the bus.  Joker hides a smile with long practice as he settles in behind the wheel.

“Two more targets to go,” Oracle proclaims in satisfaction.  “C’mon, Mona, let’s hit the road.”

.

Time warps oddly in Mementos, when they stay for long enough.  Their phones don’t help, blinking bright NO SERVICE notices whenever they try to use anything more than the Meta-Nav app, but Joker has a watch he scavenged from a shadow two months ago that hasn’t broken yet.

By 2 AM it never matters what path they’re on.  Tiny Pixies that spit Ziodyne and dodge bullets spring up next to enormous, winding golden dragons along Adyesach just as Qimranut, and the walls flicker color and substance at every glance.  Enemies appear and disappear mid-fight, or change form and abilities just when they’re inches from destruction and need to be defeated all over again.  It only gets worse as the team’s eyes start to blur in exhaustion, and weariness drags their reflexes slower and slower.

It’s far too late to leave now.  Out in the real world the trains from Shibuya aren’t running any more, and there’s no telling what sort of hell they’d have to pay if any of them were caught sneaking home at this hour.  Better to stay put through the night and slip out in twos and threes in time for the 5:00 early train, fall into bed and sleep Sunday morning away as best as they can manage.

It used to be that they could barely last a couple of hours down on the twisting rail paths of Mementos, but they’ve gotten stronger since then.  They only need a twenty-minute break.  They sit clustered close together in the island of yellow light at a rest floor on some path or another, wailing winds whipping through the tunnels outside, dozing against shoulders.  Panther pours still-hot coffee out of a canteen and offers it around.

“Not as good as Joker’s,” she says, but it’s warm and full of caffeine and that’s all that really matters here in the dark.

Fox is snoring gently with Mona a dark-furred lump in his lap, Oracle curled up beside him.  Queen and Noir are tucked up against each other like pressing together can hold off the darkness.  Joker nudges Skull’s ankle with his toe and passes the coffee to the side.

“Gah, hate that stuff,” Skull complains, but he takes the cup and downs it in three big gulps.  “Shouldn’t we be saving it for this week’s Palaces?”

Panther shrugs.  “I can always call Kawakami and have her make more,” she says.  “Not that I like blackmailing our teacher into helping us out, but…”

“She’s helpful,” Joker says.  Then, quietly, not loud enough to wake the others from any naps they might be managing–“How’ve you been?”

“Who, me?”  Skull elbows him in the ribs, gently, where Joker is still a little bruised and healing.  “I’m fine, man.  Busy week, but hey, aren’t they all?”

It’s true enough.  Joker’s barely seen Skull since last Saturday’s successful foray against Ryuunosuke Kuroda’s treasure, outside of the two days they spent slogging through the hot and sticky morass of Hina Fujimada’s jungle palace.  There’s always a lot of work to be done, and never enough time to do it.

“You run into Takeishi or Nakaoka again?”  Joker keeps the question casual, something that could be brushed aside, but his tone is serious enough.  Skull stares down at his boots.

“Yamauchi’s fucking with them,” he says.  “I know he is, and they’re all going to end up hurt or worse servin’ his ego, but I can’t…”  He shakes his head.  “Damnit, I know we could find him down here easy, too.  No way Yamauchi doesn’t have a shadow we could beat the shit out of.”

“But we can’t,” Panther says, leaning forward, all worry and sympathy in her voice.  “There’s too much attention on the school already.  First Kamoshida, then Kobayakawa…”

‘I know, okay?” Skull shoots back.  “I know already.  And we can’t solve every problem in the world, those guys are going to have to work some shit out for themselves.  I just hate knowing exactly what they’re getting themselves into and not being able to do anything about it.  They’re–they used to be my teammates, you know?”

“It’s not your fault,” Joker says.  Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Queen’s foot twitch in something only a trained observer could possibly recognize as empathy.  “If there’s anything we can do for them, we’ll do it.”

“I know,” Ryuji sighs, exhausted and defeated.  For just a few moments he’s more boy than skull mask, more person than Phantom.

It’s important to remind the team of that, once in a while–Skull himself and all the half-dozing eavesdroppers who’ve surely been listening in for the past five minutes.  Being Phantom Thieves is less of a career and more of an entire lifestyle.  There’s never much room for any of their more human selves underneath.

“C’mon,” Ann says, patting Ryuji companionably on the knee.  “Cheer up.  Let’s wake up the others and go beat up monsters for cash.”

“Hell yeah,” Ryuji says with just a little more brightness.  He lifts his head and that’s it, he’s Skull again, mask in place and ready to go.  “C’mon, guys, shove some coffee down your throats and let’s hit it.”

.

Joker has his own tradition of slipping into the Velvet Room for the last half hour or so of Mementos night, while the others slowly trickle away one by one, avoiding the curious eyes of station attendants and curious police as they go.  His Personas are always stronger after a night’s work, and he always seems to pick a couple of old ones back up along the way.

Today Orthrus and Lamia and Rakshasa latched on and clung to him, desperate to save their own lives, which was foolish of them.  All Joker’s personas die sooner or later.  He’s already got all three in his Compendium–now it’s just a question of how they die, sacrificed for items or turned into power for Queen Mab, for Scathach, for weak, unlevelled Hecatoncheires.

If Akira Kurusu ever had a true self, he sent it to the guillotine to fuse into a Kelpie six months ago.  The Joker can’t be precious about protecting parts of his own personality.

“Wow, inmate.  That’s dark.”  Caroline chuckles approvingly, a sick nasty grin on her face as she and her sister head to the gallows.  Joker doesn’t point out that feeding Daisojou the power it couldn’t get when he first fused it is really more about boosting light spells.  It’s really all just sides of the same coin, after all.

It’s important not to get too cynical.  Mona reminds him of that, once in a while.  Too much cynicism, despair at the doomed and failing nature of humanity, is its own kind of distortion.  Not everybody they’ve changed so far has thought their warped world represented reality as it justly ought to be–only reality as it actually is.

“Have you finished?” Justine asks after a while, as calmly as though she hasn’t fried and hanged and sliced her way through Joker’s selves one after another.  He slips back from Velvet Room blue to Mementos shadows-and-red with a silent nod of thanks.

The light’s just coming up, filtering into the warped turnstile where Oracle is waiting for him cross-legged with her laptop, Mona by her side.  It’s never bright down here, but morning always seems to make it a little less dark.

Palaces all blur together after a while.  For Joker it started happening months ago, somewhere in between the flying bank run by Junya Kaneshiro, mob boss, and the high-security mafia compound holding the heart of Ichiro Shimizu, banker.  They tend to repeat, after a while.  There’s always another would-be king in their own castle, another cathedral built to honor some awful adult’s worst delusions of grandeur.

Last week they stole a tattered paperback copy of The Tale of Genji from the Heian-era Imperial Palace inside the heart and courtroom of a vicious, prideful judge.  Their current target looks out at the dance floor of the largest nightclub in Roppongi and sees a dark, steamy rainforest full of hungry tigers and venomous beasts ready to devour each other at any moment.  Next week they’ll check out Jirou Kazumi, for whatever that tip is worth, and maybe his world will turn out to be a fortress or a cave or a cattle ranch.  They see the world through so many people’s eyes, one by one.

Mementos is easier somehow.  Cleaner, maybe.  It’s everyone’s palace and that means it’s nobody’s, a sliver of chaos and dreams, not anybody’s full world.  It’s a nightmare, that’s all, and that means it dissolves with the dawn.

“Are you done zoning out at nothing?” Oracle asks.  “Can we go home now?”

“Let’s.”  He offers her a hand up from the floor and she scrambles to her feet, computer safely disappearing into whatever bag Oracle keeps it in when she’s not working.  The others have all gone, as usual on a Sunday morning.

Sojiro tends to open the cafe later on Sundays.  If they hop the next train to Yongen-Jaya, Joker should be able to help Oracle slip through her bedroom window and make it back to his own bed before Sojiro is there to notice he hasn’t been home.  They’ll probably catch hell someday, but it hasn’t happened yet.

It’s October already, a chill in the early-morning air when they slip from Mementos back to reality.  Has it really been six months already, since everything began?

Six more months until Akira Kurusu is supposed to finish out his probation and go back home to the middle of nowhere, a quiet, biddable boy who’ll have learned his lesson one way or another.  Six more months to finish changing the world.  They’d better get moving.

“Look into Kazumi this afternoon,” he murmurs.  The train is nearly empty at this hour, nobody there awake enough to question the two teenagers slumped tiredly in their seats or the cat riding on their lap.  “We’ll have a strategy meeting for the week tonight.”

‘Got it.”  Oracle nods sharply.  “We’ve got work to do.”