#sai yamagishi

[lonelyoleander]

Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad

[zipsunz]

close enough, welcome back zenkichi hasegawa

[kerto-p]

mitsuru senpaaaiii leader and fuuka are making out in the hallway againnnn

[pearlglimmer]

Raffle prize for a friend, who gave me an excuse to draw more Persona 3 fan art :D

[meatiors]

The big and small

[still-breathing-au-p3r]

Minato hadn’t meant to stay out so late tonight, but talking with Bebe makes it so easy to lose track of time. He looks down at his little carryout box of dorayaki, scraping his thumbnail against one of the cardboard edges. It’s funny– he’s always been kind of indifferent about azuki beans, but something about Bebe’s enthusiasm for them has given him a new appreciation for their flavor, their texture, their color. It all seems– like more than it used to. More intense, more appealing, more interesting. 

Bebe’s enthusiasm has that effect for a lot of things that Minato has never noticed or had written off. He wonders if they truly can figure something out so that his friend can stay in Japan, surrounded by things that make him radiate that infectious happiness. 

Even as he turns various possibilities in his mind like rocks in a tumbler, he knows that tonight his focus really should be on Tartarus. They’ve been shirking that duty for a while now, but now that Aragaki is awake again, Minato is itching to get back into the fray. 

This is the last lap, after all. Just one more battle looms ahead of them, one last sprint. They have to make sure they’re ready– they’ve come too far, overcome too much just to trip right before crossing the finish line because they hadn’t prepared enough.

“You’re certain?” 

Mitsuru’s voice jolts Minato out of his thoughts so sharply that he can practically hear the record needle scratch. He looks up, blinking, to see her gathered with Sanada and Fuuka near the bulletin board. 

He has no idea what it is about that particular spot, but his attention seems to skip over it at first every time he comes into the dorm. The number of times he’s combed through the upstairs hallways looking for someone only to return to the ground floor and immediately find them in the vicinity of the bulletin board– where it turns out they had been standing the entire time– is embarrassing. 

“Mhm,” Fuuka nods, her hands folded thoughtfully over her heart. “It just sort of…happened. It wasn’t flashy or dramatic, it all just felt…totally natural. It felt like– like growing into something, all at once. I hope that makes sense. Is that…a weird way to put it?” 

“I don’t think so,” Sanada shakes his head. “That’s how it felt for me too, with Cincinnatus.”

“You too, Sanada-senpai? I thought so, but I didn’t want to be intrusive.”

“Yeah. Me and Shinji both.”

“When did it happen for Aragaki-senpai?”

“Two days ago, same time as mine. We… hashed a few things out–” So they had fought, Minato surmises. ”And made a deal together.”

It’s easy enough to make an educated guess as to what they’re talking about. He thinks it’s cool, honestly, that even with access to the Velvet Room and all of its secrets, there’s still so much that he doesn’t know about Personas. Something like that just feels like it ought to be full of mysteries. 

He has a hard time imagining changing enough himself that Orpheus would change too, but then– that probably doesn’t apply to him, anyway. He already changes his Personas all the time. 

He has the brief vision of Orpheus turning back into that weird, shrieking specter with its halo of coffins. That hadn’t been anything like the others had described their second awakenings– more like a wasp tearing its way out of a used-up caterpillar.

On second thought, he’d rather not wander down that particular memory lane. Minato takes the recollection and all the questions that come with it– because he still has no idea what that had been– and buries all of it as deeply as he can. The less he thinks about it, the better.

He forces his attention away from that… unpleasantness, and back to his teammates’ discussion.

“Incredible…” Mitsuru murmurs. “To go more than a decade only being able to speculate on the possibility, and then see four second awakenings in such a short amount of time…”

“Well,” Sanada says with a wry little half-smile. “A lot’s happened recently.” 

Understatement of the century in Minato’s opinion. Mitsuru chuckles, seeming to have a similar thought. “Yes, I suppose it’s no more unprecedented than anything else we’ve experienced in the past six months.”

Fuuka is the one who finally notices Minato loitering around and eavesdropping. She smiles when they make eye contact. “Oh, Leader! Welcome back!”

His senpais turn to look at him. Sanada regards him warmly, and Mitsuru smiles as she brushes her hair off her shoulder. “There you are, Arisato. I’m glad you’re here.” 

Minato tilts his head and Mitsuru takes this as her cue. “I wanted to thank you. Aragaki passed along his re-enrollment form yesterday,” she continues. “Even after everything that Akihiko and I tried, it was you who ultimately convinced him. So…thank you for that. For reminding him of the promise we made. I truly appreciate it.” 

“Same here,” Sanada adds. “I think it needed to be someone other than us to give him that kick in the ass.”

“Yes, perhaps that is a more succinct way of putting it,” Mitsuru says, her voice tinged rosy with fond amusement.

“No problem,” Minato says. Sanada was right– sometimes knowing a person too well can have its drawbacks. A neutral party was definitely needed here. Sort of neutral. Neutral-ish. 

Able to invoke plausible deniability about not being not-exactly-neutral.

“Next time you visit, he’ll probably moan about all the make-up work he has to get done,” Sanada laughs. “But don’t let him fool you. He didn’t have any trouble at all getting back into the swing of it. I think he’s glad to have something to keep him from getting bored during the day too. 

“And hey–” A grin sprawls out onto Sanada’s face, light and easy, unshadowed. “We’ve got that school trip next month, right? Depending on how his make-up testing and rehab go, Shinji should hopefully be back by then! He’ll be able to come with us.” 

“Really?” Fuuka brightens, briefly popping up to stand on the balls of her feet. “That’s wonderful! It’ll be so much more fun if all of us can go!”

Something that could probably count as a smile works its way onto Minato’s face. The school trip had genuinely slipped his mind. It’s a gentle reminder that things are starting to look up– one he thinks the whole team sorely needs. A lighthouse beacon marking the normal life waiting for them on the other side of this full moon. 

Aragaki probably won’t be well enough to join them in time for the final battle, but that’s fine. He’ll be there to join them in celebrating their hard-won peace when he’s able to come home. 

“It will,” Mitsuru agrees, smiling serenely. “It sounds fantastique. But before then, we have a war to win. On that note…” She turns to regard Minato, suddenly all business. “Shall we head to Tartarus tonight?”

Minato nods. “Yeah. We’re behind,” he says. 

Sanada looks delighted, his grin widening as he slams his fist into his open palm. Fuuka nods in understanding. 

“Alright,” she says. “I’ll make sure everyone knows.”

[marialagidyne]

careful her attack stat is high

[kaisertheadvisor]

Hey, at least he's doing his best.

[muszlamuesli]

I love Yukako she is like if Rapunzel was evil

[chantillyxlacey]

Another test run for our AU blog project!

Feeling out how we want to format conversations using the talksprites

Technically this conversation happens really late into the story but without context it's not spoilery at all and also I just really like it

(the 'he' that's being a pest is Minato lmao)

[gio-cosmo]

FUUKA 🫶

[helielune]

love deluxe 💘

[startropicz]

bersona 3 hcs for funsies ahehehe

[starry-blue-echoes]

I'm curious now!

Why don't you like Cinderella? If you're okay with talking about it!

I don't mind, don't worry, tho slight heads up I do go on a bit of a rant so sjrbgvsrbgvd-

tldr, Cinderella rewarded Yukako for crossing boundaries and consent was iffy and I Do Not Like That

my issues with the Cinderella episode are less with Cinderella The Stand and Aya and more about the episode itself and the message it's showing. To get even more specific, my issue is how Yukako falls into things

It just felt..... really iffy to me? Like, Aya flat out explained her Stand essentially manipulated Fate to make romantic partners work out, and as we saw the effects were pretty instantaneous. Koichi suddenly found her much more attractive than before, situations kept falling into place to put the two closer together, and on the surface it seemed like a textbook high school love story, but the whole time I couldn't get out of my head how Cinderella was responsible for all of this behind the scenes. These things were not happening naturally, Koichi wasn't falling in love with her naturally, it was all because of a Stand manipulating things and creating these coincidences without him even knowing it was happening in the first place

there's also how it really didn't feel like Yukako got any consequences for her actions at the end of it. I really loved how Yukako Yamagishi Falls In Love ended, the two parter is honestly among my favorite episodes in the whole Part. Koichi told Yukako what she was doing was wrong, how she was making him very uncomfortable and that he didn't want a relationship with her. He didn't tell her "someday", he didn't tell her "if she changed," he just flat out told her no and that he wasn't interested and to me that was really awesome! That just because she liked him and was willing to do things for him, he didn't owe her anything, and her taking steps to try and force it was wrong and disrespectful of his boundaries

and then the freaking Cinderella episodes smash that into the ground. Despite Koichi making his opinion very clear, she STILL wanted him to love her and was even watching him from far away. If someone rejects your feelings, you don't do that! That's creepy and not respecting the boundaries they've set!!! Just because Yukako is a girl doesn't mean this fine, and if she was a boy I know for a fact it would be portrayed in a WAY worse light

The fact that Yukako was so desperate for Koichi to reciprocate her feelings that she went as far as to essentially manipulate him with a Stand wasn't romantic to me, it was just terrifying. She wasn't respecting his feelings or even his agency as a person, all that mattered was her feelings. Koichi didn't reciprocate them, so instead of moving on she sought to "change his mind."

If the Cinderella episode had been Yukako's first one, I would've more okay with it. It would've gone more like the Teen Romance With A Twist it was trying to do and would feel more like a "oh, she's just too shy and embarrassed and wants his attention" type thing. But it wasn't and it didn't. Yukako wasn't trying to get this stranger's love, she was trying to get Koichi to love her after everything she had done to him. She fucking kidnapped him from his bedroom in the middle of the night so she could "F I X" him for god's sake and she didn't let him go, he had to ESCAPE AND FIGHT BACK. She didn't even so much as apologize for what she did when everything was over, it just made her more determined

and honestly? when Yukako forgot to reapply the lipstick and started losing her identity I was happy. After all, she was FINALLY getting consequences for her behavior which she wouldn't be able to ignore and actively impeded her goal. She was paying the price for the lengths which she was willing to go and seeing that Hey Maybe This Wasn't A Good Idea

but it didn't stick. Koichi saved her, Aya undid the damage, and she got her happily ever after with him with no lasting punishment or consequence. It didn't feel triumphant or romantic or even remotely positive, it was just...... incredibly uncomfortable for me to watch

but yeah, that's why I Really REALLY Don't Like The Cinderella Episodes

[wombocombo4x3]

Persona Mod Banned After Sparking Hypocritical Outrage From Puritans On ...

[whos-hotter-jjba]