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pearlsephoni · 1 year

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Inevitabilities

Can also be read on AO3!

Rating: T

Fandom: Psycho-Pass

Pairing: Shinkane (Akane/Kogami)

Characters: Akane Tsunemori, Shinya Kogami

Word Count: 1.2k

Summary: In their line of work, certain sacrifices are always to be expected. That doesn't make preparing for them any easier.

A/N: Written for @shinkaneweek Day 2: timely preparation for future eventualities. c/w for discussions of death and grief. Further author's notes can be found on AO3.

🕊

It was a beautiful night. Kogami was back from a mission, letting them pass an evening cooking and working on separate casework, before Akane abandoned her chair in favor of slouching over his shoulders, her whole body jostling from his soft chuckles as she leaned against his back.

Now they were on the couch, her legs draped over his, reading different books and occasionally breaking the silence to read out a quote, whether it was striking or ridiculous or funny. Her heartbeat was steady, calm, matching the rhythm of his thumb as he drew arcs along the inside of her bare ankle. The soft light of the floor lamp was all that illuminated their books, letting the rest of the apartment be washed by the silvery moon and bright neon lights of the city.

It was domestic, comfortable, perfect. Akane hated to ruin it.

She gave herself until the end of her chapter, then slid her bookmark into place and slowly shut her book. She felt the weight of Kogami’s eyes flickering towards her, even though she was looking away to set the book aside. But he didn’t say anything, simply slid his own bookmark into place and placed the book on the coffee table, before turning his focus completely on her. A silent signal that he was ready.

“Um…Kogami-san.”

“Yes, Inspector?”

She grimaced at the teasing note in his response. “Shinya.”

“Yes, Akane?”

“I, ah…I’ve been assigned a new case.” His brows furrowed, but again, he didn’t say anything. “My assignment comes straight from Kasei.”

Now those brows raised, but still no response. “It’s…known to be dangerous. The Division assigned to it lost one of their Inspectors, so—”

“No.”

There was nothing light in Kogami’s voice now. It was all steel, perfectly matching the sharp edge of his gray gaze. Akane flinched, as though she could feel the edge of his words, but she powered through. “I wanted to tell you, in case something happens to me—”

“Akane, no.”

“I’ve set my journal to respond to your fingerprint—”

“Akane—”

“—and all of my most important codes and passwords will be in there, behind some other—”

“Stop it—”

“—I’m sure you’ll be able to find your way around—”

“Stop!”

The barked word seemed to echo around the room and bounce between the couple as they stared, wide-eyed, at each other. “Stop,” Kogami repeated, voice softer with appeal. “Don’t tell me you’re planning on…on…”

“It’s not like I’ll have much say in the matter,” Akane muttered with a humorless scoff. “I’m not sure how closely you’ve been following the new reports, but his victims don’t exactly volunteer.”

“You’ve survived worse cases. You’ve outwitted smarter murderers. You fought and you won.” He met her gaze and held it, his glinting eyes cutting straight through her walls as quickly and efficiently as ever. “You’re going to keep fighting, right?”

Indignation sparked up Akane’s spine and lifted her chin. “Of course I am.”

“Then what’s with the preparations?”

“There is more than one way to be prepared.” A wry grin pulled at her lips. “I’m not in the interest of leaving you with nothing more than a note this time.”

Her words were closely followed by a small yelp of surprise from a sudden pinch at her ankle. “Good,” Kogami huffed, fingers already soothing her reddened skin. “But I’d rather you didn’t leave me at all.”

“Now now,” Akane tutted, scooting closer until she could rest her chin on his shoulder, “don’t be greedy.”

“Why not?” He gently shrugged her away and turned to face her again. “You already know I’m selfish. Why shouldn’t I want more of the one good thing in my life?”

Kogami always loved to play at being cold and collected, only ever showing the spark remaining in him when caught in combat. He let down those walls around her, but she was still unprepared for his sudden, simple, achingly-vulnerable statements of his love for her. “You have your team,” she protested weakly. Her fingers ran through his messy hair, brushing it out of his face in a well-worn gesture. “You have Tenzing, somewhere in the world. You have others who care about you.”

“Not like you.”

“Not like me,” she relented. Her hand drifted from his hair to rest against his cheek. “You’re listed as my next of kin, so…if anything does happen”—her fingers lightly pressed to his lips, holding back his protests—“you’ll gain possession of my things, apart from a few things I’ll leave for some others.” It was her turn to let a teasing note slip into her words, despite the morbid topic. “Think of it as my way of paying it forward. I had to clean up your things, so it’s only fair for you to return the favor, don’t you think?”

“Oh, you think you’re so funny.”

“A little bit, yeah.” She was ready for his nip at her fingers, though she couldn’t help giggling at the glancing pressure.

He caught her hand before she could pull it away, weaving their fingers together and staring intently at all the lines where their skin met. Then, he murmured, “Me, too.”

“Hm?”

“You’re my next of kin, too.” When he looked up at her, his expression was newly-solemn. “You and Gino. Though unlike you, I’m not planning on making either of you face those responsibilities for a while, so…wish me luck.”

Akane simply hummed in response before snuggling in closer and nuzzling into the curve of his neck. When he spoke again, she felt more than heard his soft words. “...I don’t know if I could survive it.”

“Hm?”

“Grieving you.” Akane fell still, but she didn’t pull away, letting him wrap his arms tighter around her. “Sometimes I…I think I’ve grown numb to grief, after everyone we’ve lost. But then I imagine grieving you, and I…” A slow breath shook out of him before he could continue. “I feel hopeless just imagining it, Akane. You’re the color in my life, and I…I can’t go back to black and white.”

“Well, I’ve already grieved you once,” Akane murmured, words slightly muffled in his skin. “I don’t think I could survive grieving you again.”

“Hm…that’s no good. We both have to die eventually.”

“Maybe we’ll just have to go together…in a grand, fiery explosion!”

“An explosion? Haven’t we had enough excitement in life? Can’t we go peacefully in our sleep, holding each other?”

“My goodness, you’re such a romantic.” Laughing, Akane pulled back just enough to press a sweet kiss to his cheek. “Like you’d ever get tired of excitement.”

He grinned when their eyes met, a warm, fond little thing, only to melt away the longer he stared at her. “Promise me you’ll fight to live,” he suddenly murmured, hand rising to her cheek. “I want more time with you.”

“Of course I will. These are just precautions, Shinya, nothing more. I promise.”

“Good.”

When he leaned in for another kiss, he was quicker to lick into her mouth, and Akane welcomed him. She let him guide her to straddle his lap, let him slide fingers into her hair and arch her neck for his lips, let him press her close until their bodies were flush against each other. For all her teasing and scolding, Akane was just as greedy as he was, at the end of the day. And for all her intention to fight, the future was still unpredictable. This time with Kogami was a precious thing, and dammit, she was going to relish it with everything she was worth.

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kyouka-supremacy · 10 months

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What's p/p?

Ah, I meant to say, pp, Psycho-Pass. I usually add slashes to avoid unprompted rambles to show up in main tags, sorry if that resulted confusing.

I love Psycho-Pass. I already made a post about why bsd fans might find it enjoyable, but honestly, there's so much more to it beyond what it has in common with bsd.

The prompts for reflection this series offers are just wonderful: on the relationship between citizens and government, on pervasive systems, on freedom of choice and free will, on safety vs. freedom, on discrimination of minorities and creation of scapegoats, on propaganda and brainwashing, on the increasing and treacherous presence of technology in everyday life, on how government uses technology to control and manipulate people, on fighting the system from the inside vs. fighting the system from the outside. I should watch it again too. It's crazy good.

Akane Tsunemori - the coprotagonist of the first season, the protagonist of the second season and overall the true core and heart of the franchise - is one of the most complex and beautiful characters I ever met. Her growth and character development is truly amazing: the way she starts off as unknowing and naïve, and grows so so much from there; how her writing finds this perfect balance between becoming more mature / hardening and staying true to her beliefs - even when everyone, the system, the people she relies to, the people she looks up to - tell her that there's no other way, that it can't be. It's breathtaking. She is a breathtaking character. The way alone that no matter how conscious and aware she becomes of how cruel the world is, how unredeemable people are, how beyond saving the system is, she still keeps believing in humans… It may sound cliché by itself, but believe me, it's wonderfully executed, and her character is truly amazing. Not to mention, the way she mirrors the coprotagonist Kougami is fabulous, but this is not really about him; she's an amazing character of her own right, and I will die on this hill.

The female cast in general is all amazing honestly. Don't get me wrong, the male characters are just as complex and multilayered (and I LOVE Gino and Kou, how couldn't I), but that's… Something we're more accustomed to, while finding well written female characters is objectively much harder. Female characters in Psycho-Pass aren't written as female characters, they're written as people, just as much as their male counterparts are. They have their fears and hopes and strengths and weaknesses just like any other character. I love Yayoi for being strong and coolheaded. I love (LOVE) Shion for being her fabulous self, kind and flirty and confident and with an heart so big, and for her subverting the trope of guy in the chair by being a glamorous woman who's also incredibly competent at her job of analyst. I love Akane's friends and I don't like season 3 but Mai is genuinely awesome and a joy every time she's on screen. I love Risa so much I could die, I love how strong and independent she is, I love the dilemmas she had to face, I love her choices and how they might have been the wrong ones and how it still haunts her, I love the tragedy of her character in general, I love the doomed friendship that used to be between her Gino and Kou. I love love love Fredrica, I love her being bossy and confident, diligent and determined. There's just a lot of… Strong and independent women in Psycho-Pass, and it's not just a way of saying, they really are.

I LOVE women loving other women, canonly, on screen. The confirmation may be delegated to a small moment in the last episode of the first season, but the fact that it's still there nonetheless, and how it confirms that all the previous moments and exchanges were indeed moments and didn't leave it to ambiguity… It's nice, to say that the first season of Psycho-Pass came out in 2012. And you might have to wait eight years, three seasons, five movies for it, but the phrase “I just want to go outside, dine somewhere nice, and go for walks with someone I love” may make it worth it.

And I LOVE how all the leader positions are filled by women. It's a little funny, honestly, in the best way– despite what I made it look like so far, the Psycho-Pass cast is still men-dominated (or at least a pretty equally split 50/50?); yet all the leader positions are always filled by women: Akane and Mika and Kasei and Frederica and Karina, it's always women.

Also, Mika is a brilliant character. Of course I love her. I'm so so sorry for how much hate and criticism she gets (over being a purposely annoying character! Insane! When Dazai exists!), when she does really and excellent job at conveying “look! A fucked up brainwashed individual in a fucked up brainwashing environment! I wonder how that could have happened!”. Not to mention that her growth, her long and devious way to admitting that the system is flawed, is truly well made, too. Unpopular opinion, characters with big flaws, characters who are unsufferable and make lives impossible to everyone around them, characters who mess up again and again, are actually great to watch.

Again, don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore Gino and Kou too ahah. They're both great!! But that you can probably see by your own. Gino in particular used to be my favourite, how his character does a total 180° turn. I love to see men admit their mistakes and make the choice to be better tomorrow.

About that, the relationships between the characters are AMAZING. Especially the main trio Akane / Kou / Gino, all the combinations within it are beautiful and deep and brilliant, so so enjoyable to explore and with their fair share of canon content, while still never straying to romantic territory (I mean, Akane/Kou may be going in that direction, but if that's true, that's the slowest slow burn I've ever witnessed in my life).

What's more. The world building / general premise - a dystopian world, where your predisposition to do crime can be measured and the government makes use of such technology to monitor and control the population and guarantee everyone's safety - is genuinely interesting and compelling. The aesthetic is genuinely cool (AH, now that I think about it, I've got my unfair bias for people in suits, and pp has a LOT of people in suits… ). The opening and endings feature great artists like Egoist, Ryo, Who-ya Extended and Cö shu Nie, so you're sure to love them!!

(Also, Psycho-Pass is something I used to spend entire nights talking about with a friend, and I'm always thinking about her and hold her tight to my heart in every moment so. That's worth mentioning for me, pfffttt. I love my friend so much.)

Finally, because the other Psycho-Pass post I made here keeps haunting me for the lack of trigger warnings, please be aware: Psycho-Pass DOES have trigger warnings. Pretty much for eveything you can think of. Sexual assault and gore and body horror on the top of my mind, but it's quite dark and gritty at parts in its entirety, so please please keep that in mind if you decide to pick it up.

Well, this is the end of my Psycho-Pass love letter for now. Please give it a chance if you can! I'll go rewatch it now. General watch order, in order of release, is season 1 → season 2 → movie → Sinners of the System movie trilogy → season 3 → First Inspector movie → Providence movie. I don't really like the third season or First Inspector movie (the characters are still great tho, even the newly introduced ones), and I've yet to watch Providence. The first season later came out with an extended edition of added scenes between episodes, and they're quite nice, so if you can't get ahold of it, you might want to look up for a compilation of the missing scenes still.

#Me: Psycho-Pass is great! I need to explain people why it's great by exposing different and various aspects of it!#My brain: WOMENWOMENWOMENWOMENWOMEN #To be fair that's just what b/sd did to me lol. I didn't use to pay much attention to it before...#Until it (good female characters writing) was taken away from me #people asks me stuff #Following up ask me what klk stands for so I can rant about it lmao #Although K/ill la K/ill is like. Media literacy level: extreme.#You really have to think it through to get why it's so good–#and the apparent unsuspectable fanservice that doesn't have anything to it doesn't help the case.#(Unless you wonder if the constant fanservice ties with the theme of “women will never be free of objectification of their own bodies–#because that's something coming from how other people decide to view them and thus is out of their control.#The only way to truly be free is to stop giving the things you can't control importance and act noncaring and independent from them–#while you keep fighting for your right to make your own choices in society.#All using as a commentary on how clothing is both women's nightmare‚ something they both desperately hate and yet rely on for strength‚#their biggest weapon‚ their greatest confinement‚ their closest friend and worst enemy.#Ultimately‚ true freedom will not be reached when others stop viewing women as an object for their own pleasure‚#but when women accept themselves and their body and their appearance‚ even naked‚ paying no mind to how others see them.”)

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psychosimp17 · 8 months

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Tagged by the lovely @thinenotthee

**thnx for thinking of me!**

last song: Euphoria by bülow 🎶

favorite color: mulberry purple. 💜

last movie/show: Sailor Moon Crystal ((bc im introducing the kiddo 🥹🎉))

sweet/spicy/savory: savory ftw 🍜🍔🥡🌮

relationship status: old (#enm) married lady 👵🍍😂

last thing i Googled: Effexor for nerve pain 🧐 #fibrolife #autoimmuneawareness

current obsession: Psycho-Pass (legit forever) // writing // figuring out these new bangsss

tagging: @tarogatchi @psychopasss4

#randomness #the more you know #friends and strangers #psycho pass #stuff about me #mulberry

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yuukimiyas · 10 months

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૮꒰˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶꒱ა another successful monday & workday completed!! woo!! now it's cozy time!! <33 i hope you had a great day!! MWAH!! smoochin your cheeks, too!! ꒰♡˃̶̤́ ꒳ ˂̶̤̀ ꒱

#ᕱ⑅ᕱ.* journals!#i was supposed to have the day off but bc of work drama & stuff i got to go in & make that extra coin!! >:3 hehee!!#& i started the show psycho pass too!! it's v good so far!! im rlly rlly liking it!! kogami reminds me sm of spike from bebop!!#sobs im sorry i've been slackin on here :< just sm life stuff happening & i'm tryin my best to keep up!! ໒꒰ྀི ∩ ⸝⸝ ∩ ꒱ྀིა #things should begin to mellow out soon hopefully!! <33 ilyasm & i hope your dec has been so kind to you so far!! ໒꒰ྀི´ ˘ ` ꒱ྀིა

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frankie-bell · 10 months

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Sorry for taking so long to respond to asks and comments. Between school and tutoring, life has been kicking my ass this semester. But I promise, I'm hard at work on those GinoMika Kinktober requests and should be posting them soon. They’ll just be for Kinksgiving or Kinksmas instead. 😉

#psycho pass #ginoza nobuchika #shimotsuki mika #ginomika #frankie says stuff #delete later

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you-can-be-what-you-want-to-be · 1 year

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genuinely think the best way to watch something is to be unable to find it and then have someone hook you up with an archive or Google doc link and then just continuing to pass it around. Yea thank you for saving my life. Also everyone else looking for this pssst pssst pssst I’m calling you like cats here I have a little treat. I will look up fandom posts just to find people asking where to find the stuff for free so I can tell them. Really builds a sense of community in my opinion (and is less likely to be taken down if you share via dms rather than just saying where you get stuff bc snitches get that and have it taken down.

#Anyway if anyone’s curious #I have Mash without the laugh track #Mob psycho S 1 and 2 GOOD church roll level sub with ova #Mob psycho stage adaptation #Death note tv drama #The entirety of the thrilling adventure hour podcast (it got locked behind a pay wall so it’s the only way I can still listen dkdkd)#So dm me for any of these #Love passing stuff around #Also if someone could teach me how to archive or make piratable files lmk love to add to this instead of just passing others stuff around

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faefaye · 5 months

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Every time a lot of stuff happens,

Someone: I'm worried about you, Tsunemori.

Akane: No need to worry, my Hue looks great.

#rewatching from S1 because my memories of the series are so blurry and this poor woman...#psycho pass #akane tsunemori #source: image from kc green's comic “gunshow”#psycho pass stuff

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crehador · 11 months

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hell yeahhhhh

#this is gonna be a big one #possibly my biggest package so far this year?#official guide book+ with the broken cd lol #some psycho-pass stuff #and like... a few hundred of the new weiss schwarz blau cards lmao #i don't know if i did my math right i bought enough sleeves/holders for all of them #it's 500 cards in this shipmetn and i think... 200 in the booster packs that are coming later?#so like approx 75 cards #and i got 10 packs of the sleeves (75 per pack)#2 deck holders (holds approx 70 cards each) and 2 boxes (apparently holds up to 400 cards each??)#i guess my concern is like idk what all is coming out of the booster packs #so since i got mostly bb/mtc sleeves some random other cards might have to go in there #well in any case unboxing should be fun lol #oh i need to find some gloves i don't even want to be touching these with my bare hands

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isabelguerra · 2 years

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i dont have an actual name for it but depressed college au is probably one of my favorites. i dont really care for the adults in paranatural and thinking about how the activity club/others might grow up and continue their lives is so much more interesting to me

#i started reading this comic when i was 15? i think? and now im recently 23. i cant really say i relate or want to relate to 12 year olds an #y more. and yeah i prefer a lot more nuance and complexity when crafting+ reading stories #but when your protags are 12. well. yeah pass #pnats adults are fine but the kids are the ones i have any actual emotional interest or compulsion towards #so when i write something that might be less 'yippee whimsical wacky adventures' and the options are spender and zarei. again theyre fine bu #t i dont really care enough about spender and zarei #but i still want to write about adults you know. BEING 12 was hard enough you could not PAY me to go back into that headspace #honestly thats actually why most of wizard au takes place in their later school years #like you know those aged up mob psycho 100 aus. where mob is like a fireman and ritsu is an english major and theyre not exactly having epic #adventures anymore but theyre coming into themselves etc. god. thats the stuff 2 me #i used to hate aged up aus as a teenager bc i thought it was the author/artists excuse to put kids in weird situations. and idk considering #it was 2015. yeah fair. but i do think i get it now. teenage years are hard and theres a certain part of that hardness that i love. things #like growing up [from a 17yo perspective] and people you love going to college and trying to find yourself and dealing w friends and fear #for the future. THOSE are the kind of teen stories i like reading about. but when you start getting tired and mellowing out and things that #come with the end of college and grad school and growing up [from a 22yos perspective] is similar. but its more somber. youre older now #when the protagonists become people. thats what i like #wizard au is fun as a huge intense magical adventure project but depressed college au is just like. where i can project.#drinking an entire pack of mikes hard lemonade by myself and lying on the floor talking to friends about how im scared and pushing myself #towards a career that i love but dont know i can achieve. friends leaving. getting an apartment for the first time. and the second and #the third. that feels better when i can sit down and go 'okay. someday isabel will do this too. i might not understand. my friends might not #understand. nobody could understand and i could be alone. but max woke up with a hangover today and i know what that feels like' etc #idk just feels better. taking your favorite characters with you while you go through things. by which i mean #'taking my favorite characters and making them go through things'#you want them to be safe and happy and having fun. i want them to feel fear. we both know what we want from fiction and treasure each #depressed college au #dcau

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lelair · 1 year

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Ethyl Alcohol (70% Solution)

Every time I open volume 3, this eye still haunts me...

I should have left that weird stain alone.

#サイコパス #psycho pass #kougami shinya #漫画 #マンガ #manga #manga and stuff #big brain moment #never use ethyl alcohol on manga #specimen stash #silently screaming #kanshikan kougami shinya #photos #ethyl alcohol (70% solution)#fandom

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pearlsephoni · 1 year

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To Paint a (Still) Life

Can also be read on AO3!

Rating: T

Fandom: Psycho-Pass

Pairing: Gen

Characters: Tomomi Masaoka, Nobuchika Ginoza, Akane Tsunemori

Word Count: 2.2k

Summary: In a world that grows bleaker with every passing year, Masaoka does what he can to immortalize the little joys.

A/N: This was written for In Time: A Psycho-Pass 10th Anniversary Tribute zine. It was such an honor to be included amongst so many incredible creators in this tribute to an incredible series! Thank you to the mods @/temporarilyunstable and @/shikkokans for organizing everything! The zine site went live on November 12, 2022, and this fic was originally published on AO3 on June 26th, 2023. Further author's notes can be found on AO3.

———

Every good still life must first have a subject.

The flowers on the bedside table were starting to wilt, the edges of their petals turning brown and brittle despite the still-vibrant colors clinging to the rest of the satiny surface. Masaoka let his fingers brush the dry edges, a wry smile curving his lips.

“I’ll have to remember to bring you new ones next time, hm?” he asked.

He received no response, nor did he expect one. These visits usually found him speaking into the air, his words falling on unhearing ears.

But still, he came. There was no fixing their family now, he knew that, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t do…something to ease the damage. And he wasn’t the only one.

“I wonder where Nobuchika found these tulips,” he mused, his fingers wandering back to the red petals. “They’re awfully pretty. I’m glad he still appreciates beauty in the little things.”

A soft sigh came from the wheelchair parked at the large window. The sound drew Masaoka to its side, where he took a look at his wife’s—former wife’s, he corrected himself sullenly—blank features. To his surprise, there was an almost-imperceptible upward curve to the very edges of her lips. The small difference was enough to bring some light to her face, and for a single bittersweet moment, she looked like the vibrant woman he had fallen in love with all those years ago.

“You always did love red flowers,” he murmured, unable to resist the urge to brush a wayward strand of hair back behind her ear. “I never would’ve expected him to remember. Our son is more thoughtful than he likes to let on.”

Another soft sigh, and the feeling of her leaning just the slightest bit into his gentle fingers. “He got that from you, Sae.” There was a hitch to his voice, almost imperceptible to his own ears, but the sight of her thumb tracing a small curve along the back of her clasped hands told him she’d heard.

His eyes wandered from her gentle features back to the flowers, the source of her quiet joy. Perhaps he should immortalize them somehow.

———

Draw your chosen objects onto a canvas, taking care to get their shapes accurate.

“Ah, Ginoza.” Masaoka tried and failed to keep his surprise out of his voice. He had more success in biting back the smile that nearly rose to his lips at the sight of Ginoza’s mouth twisting. “To what do I owe the honor?”

“No honor, just news.” Ginoza’s green eyes flickered over his shoulder before snapping back to him. “Well? Aren’t you going to invite me in?”

That was more like it. Masaoka never knew what to do with the brief glimpses he caught of his son’s deep-buried insecurity, and the quiet manners it brought out. This, though, this show of superiority and power that he’d put on ever since he entered the PSB as an Inspector, was something Masaoka was much more familiar with. “Of course. Come in.”

He didn’t wait for Ginoza to step in, simply left the door open behind him as he made his way back to the windows, where he’d set up a new canvas and his sketching pencils in front of a chair. He sat just as he heard the door clicking shut and Ginoza following him. “Well then,” he said as he took his pencil back up, “what is this important news?”

Silence fell where he’d expected a curt answer. He looked over his shoulder, and found Ginoza staring at the photo of Sae’s flowers that Masaoka had taken and was now projecting from his communicator. “…Ginoza?”

“Ah.” Ginoza blinked as though he’d been dragged out of a dream. Masaoka could easily read the way he shoved his glasses back up his nose, knew that it was a way to stall, but he didn’t say anything. He simply turned back to his canvas, and sketched.

“…Our division has been issued a new Inspector,” Ginoza finally announced. “She will be starting in a month, after she has completed her pre-work training.”

“I see.” Masaoka finished sketching out the petals of the second tulip. “And have the other enforcers received this news?”

“That’s none of your concern.” Ginoza’s voice sounded tight, and Masaoka almost felt bad about his gentle teasing. “What matters is that you will all know when she gets here, and you will all treat her with the respect that a superior deserves. I’ll have enough on my hands showing her the ropes as the only other Inspector. I don’t need to worry about your basic manners.”

With his face safely turned to his canvas, Masaoka finally let a small grin pull at his lips. “Understood, Inspector.”

“…Good.” Another beat of silence, then the sound of business shoes clicking back to the door.

“I’m sure she’ll be an excellent Inspector,” Masaoka suddenly spoke up, just before Ginoza reached the door, “especially under your instruction. You don’t have anything to worry about, Nobuchika.”

“I don’t need an Enforcer to tell me how to feel about this,” Ginoza bit out, “I know I’m capable of doing my job.”

That was about the response Masaoka expected to get. What he didn’t expect was the soft, “…I’ll see you Tuesday,” that came right before his door opened and closed.

His small grin broadened into a smile as he sketched out the smaller branches of leaves. “You’re welcome, kiddo.”

———

Paint in the base colors, working from the darkest colors to the palest.

Akane Tsunemori proved to be a little bundle of contradictions. Where Masaoka had expected a no-nonsense Inspector, he saw the walking embodiment of nerves and an eagerness to please. Where he anticipated her to crumble under the pressure of having such a gruesome first case, she instead stuck to her morals and shot down their most intimidating Enforcer. And where he expected her to flee the PSB after a hellish first day, she instead dug her heels in and worked to adapt. And she did so remarkably well. He just wished that didn’t include her stubborn attempts to understand one Shinya Kogami.

It was unnerving how much she reminded him of both Kogami and Ginoza when they first began working as Inspectors. She was determined to make a difference, wanted her work to be for the greater good, and not just the preservation of Sibyl. And just like before, Masaoka could already see the signs of their work hardening Akane’s skin like armor.

But there was something else. She wasn’t becoming tough to the core. Somehow, she still held on to her sense of justice, still wanted to believe in the inherent good of both the people and the system she worked to protect. Her determined optimism was achingly familiar to Masaoka—he remembered seeing it light up his son’s eyes when he was first assigned to the PSB, remembered seeing it flicker behind Kogami’s smile back when he was still an Inspector…remembered feeling it burn hot in his own chest when he was still a detective with a happy wife and a newborn son.

It never lasted long, not in this line of work, and especially not with Sibyl breathing down their necks. He knew it was only a matter of time before it faded from Akane as well. And yet…he still found himself wanting to protect it—protect her—for as long as he possibly could. If that meant discouraging her from lingering too long on her fascination with Kogami, then so be it. He’d seen first-hand the way Kogami’s dangerous mix of charisma, intelligence, and focus could tempt those around him into the same destructive habits.

“If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you,” he told her, only to earn furrowed brows and a small frown in response. Ah, he realized, she really is cut from the same cloth. It didn’t matter what he said to her—she’d already made up her mind. Her wide eyes and gentle voice couldn’t hide her fierce curiosity and immoveable stubbornness.

Well…if he couldn’t convince her to protect herself, maybe he could find some way to keep her safe himself.

———

Add details to the foreground and background, deepen the shadows to add more depth. This will help your subject stand out.

The door shut behind him with a soft click. Just like that, he was alone, isolated in his own home—or, cell…he really couldn’t tell the difference anymore—and left with no distractions from the mess he’d just made.

He’d thought he was so much older and wiser, thought that he had left behind the wide-eyed idyllicism that had drawn him to this god-forsaken career. But here he was, down one pistol and one set of keys to his safe house. He had just sent Kogami on what was essentially a suicide mission, and now he would have to face Tsunemori and Nobuchika and all the others, and watch them figure out what he’d done.

He knew giving Kogami a gun and refuge was a mistake. He knew it. And yet…he couldn’t find it in himself to feel any regret. The fool was always going to pursue Makishima, no matter the personal cost. At least Masaoka could tell himself he’d done what he could to lessen that cost, just a bit.

His eyes burned with exhaustion and his stomach burned with bourbon, but he didn’t move towards his bedroom. He instead found himself wandering into the moonlit living room, flicking on a lamp on his journey to the easel that was still set up by the windows. There was no way he was going to sleep. He might as well get some other work done while he could.

———

At last, you can add the final details to your piece, such as brighter highlights. But be careful—less is more.

“Thank you for helping me with this.”

“Of course, Ginoza-san.” Akane was growing used to the grief that had settled in her chest like a rock. It felt like her days were a never-ending parade of sorting through the things her loved ones had left behind—Kagari’s vintage tech collection, Kogami’s books, and now, whatever secret interest Masaoka had stashed away.

And yet, for all that she was getting “used to” the process, she still felt her eyes sting when she stepped into Masaoka’s old living quarters and breathed in the familiar scent of bourbon and paints. She could see the effects of being surrounded by his father’s presence weighing on Ginoza, and no amount of wry grins could keep her from noticing his curved-in shoulders.

“No need to use ‘-san’ with me,” he chuckled as he led her further into the salon. “You’re the superior, now.”

“I still learned everything about this job from you.”

“Not just me.”

The quiet words pulled her eyes from wandering around the room back to Ginoza. He was standing by a covered easel near the window, holding up one edge of the fabric to peer at the painting underneath with a small, sad smile. “He never finished.”

“Finished what?”

“This.” It was surprising, seeing how carefully Ginoza unveiled the painting, but not as surprising as what awaited underneath. Akane’s breath caught in her throat—she...she knew that painting. She could distantly remember watching Masaoka lay down the base colors so many months ago.

And the strangest thing was, it looked finished to her. The vase looked almost real from how detailed the reflections were, and the flowers looked like they could bloom straight from the canvas. “It looks done to me.”

“It’s not. The flowers, they…they look too alive. They were starting to go brown at the edges when he started painting them.”

“How do you—?”

“I gave these flowers to my mother. He must have taken a photo of them and painted them to let her enjoy them forever.” Something around his eyes hardened, and his fingers tightened in the fabric he was still holding. “He…he had plans and projects and now—”

His voice broke. The next thing Akane knew, the fabric was fluttering to the ground as Ginoza pressed his hands to his eyes, shoulders drawn up tight around his ears.

Akane had never seen anyone in the PSB cry. In fact, the last person she’d seen cry was Kaori at Yuki’s funeral. So she did what she’d done for Kaori: she stepped up to Ginoza, gently wrapped her arms around his shoulders, and didn’t let go, not even when she felt him stiffen. “Don’t,” she murmured firmly, “don’t apologize. We have to grieve for him. We have to remember him. We’re the only ones who can, Ginoza-san.”

He was frozen for a moment, his only movements coming from his shaking sobs. Then, like a drifting boat in search of a mooring, his hands fell from his eyes and clutched at the back of her shirt as his forehead came to a rest on her shoulder. “...Thank you, Tsunemori,” he whispered, his voice rough from his tears.

“Of course.”

Ginoza gave himself a few more breaths before he pulled away, granting Akane a look at his reddened eyes. “Um,” he murmured, rubbing at the lingering tear tracks on his cheeks, “would you…be willing to help me take this to my mother? I don’t know how well she remembers him, but…I think he was painting this for her in the first place. She should be the one to have it.”

“Give me the time and place,” Akane agreed with a smile. “I’ll be there.”

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