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themememerchant · 26 days ago

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Persona 5 Arcana Swap: Queenpin Of The Metaverse

I had this idea when I was awake one night and before I knew it I was opening a google doc to start writing a new Arcana Swap fic.

I have A LOT of ideas for all of the characters involved in this. Mostly revolving around various 'what-ifs' and headcanons I have in regards to the original story of P5R.

There's still a lot of kinks I Ned to iron out, specifically the confidants.

But the general idea of the phantom thieves has been sorted out in a way that I think I'm pretty satisfied with.

So keep in mind that some of these ideas may change later as I think of new plot threads to introduce, but for the most part the stories of the new Phantom Thieves of Hearts has been pretty well thought out.

So here we go! Introducing...

My Arcana Swapped Phantom Thieves:

Sumire Yoshizawa-Maruki - The Fool

Codename: Queenpin

Persona: Queenie

Despite being the protagonist and the fool, she doesn't have the wildcard ability, since I don't feel the need to include it from a literary standpoint.

MUCH different than her canon counterpart in behavior, as well as the fact that my version of her is trans and autistic (ME?! PROJECTING?! NOOO...)

The story of her arrest is that she came from an abusive household, one day she punched her father in a fit of rage while he insulted her for not being as good as her sister. The next night, the police crash into her room claiming they had an anonymous tip that Sumire had guns and narcotics in her possession, sure enough, when they searched her backpack, that's exactly what they found.

Her parents also hired someone to rig the trial she was forced to attend, they made it so they would be able to disown Sumire and people would think it was her own fault for being a criminal. When everything was said and done, her parents were all too happy to package her stuff up and send her to live with a foster caretaker to the other side of Tokyo.

After Sumire got to experience true freedom when she stood up to her parents, even if only for a moment, she vowed to never let people walk on her again. Which is exactly how her persona is able to coax her into having an awakening.

She's much less blindly polite than her canon counterpart. She's not insulting people left and right or anything, but she can and will call someone out on their bullshit. She's also not above some light jabs with her friends.

She flirts with every cute girl or hot guy with all the confidence of a maxed charm stat, but she immediately turns into a blushing puddle if anyone actually flirts back.

Growing up with strict parents who were trying to raise a perfect Olympic gymnast leaves her to feel the need to ask permission for the littlest things from any adults near her. She's fine in a room with just her friends or other kids, but when an adult is in the room she goes stiff and doesn't speak unless spoken to, the other thieves compare it to her almost going into a trance.

On the note from the above statement, she feels a little weird about being around people her age that are fine with acting relaxed around adults. it almost triggers a flight or fight or freeze response when one of the thieves so much as moves when an adult is talking.

She eventually starts a running gag with the thieves of calling Principal Kobayakawa, "Principal Humpty-Dumpty".

Her persona Queenie is called the godmother of Harlem, similar to how Arsene was called the pillager of twilight in the original. Queenie was the alias of an early 20th century mob boss, a woman who's own gang was so strong that she was able to keep Harlem clear of much more dangerous threats, she also employed many Harlem citizens with positions in her numbers-game schemes.

Queenie helps Sumire remain attached to reality whenever she's having a particularly rough time. Going from such a strict household to total freedom can give you some serious whiplash, so Queenie makes sure Sumire doesn't completely lose her mind from the sudden shift, while simultaneously helping her learn more about freedom.

Goro - The Magician

Codename: Ace

Persona: Sherlock Holmes

An ally who helps Sumire and Makoto by providing the information on palaces and changes of heart.

He doesn't fully take canon Mona's place, as he is completely human rather than the embodiment of humanity's hope. He does act as the resident expert on the metaverse due to the fact that he was once involved in the research of cogninitve psience, specifically, he was the first successful case of a person being transported to the metaverse when he was 13. Unfortunately, he ended up being trapped in Mementos for around 4 months without knowing how to escape.

The distortions of the metaverse affected him by turning his skin pure white with constantly changing black patterns, similar to Loki's design, he also has large crow wings on his back. In the real world, his skin turns it's normal color and his wings and dazzle-camouflage turn into tattoos all over his body.

He obviously doesn't have the ability to make people turn violent like he did in canon, nor does he have the ability to hold more than one persona. He's simply a guy who happens to know a lot about the metaverse and chooses to use that knowledge to fulfill his long-lost childhood dream of becoming a hero, he also has the hopes of making his mom proud from heaven.

Despite not going down the path of becoming a personal hit man for Shido, he still keeps his patented Goro snark that he had in the canon third semester. Though it's in much more of a-"I'm to tired to be polite"- way, and less of a-"Fuck you, just let me die already"-way.

My favorite line I've written for him so far is: "I'm Joe Schmoe from Shits-ville, DOES IT MATTER?!"

^This is right after Makoto tries to ask who he is.

Since he doesn't take on a different form in this AU, it means that he can't transform into a bus like Mona can. But he IS able to conjure a rather large trolley car thanks to his distortions giving him an understanding of how Mementos functions on a fundamental level

There's a running gag between the phantom thieves that Goro is homeless,-(think that one bit between Dream and Technoblade)-since nobody has ever actually seen where Goro lives. He likes to join in on the joke sometimes by coming up with increasingly ridiculous excuses as to why they can't come over.

^"Sorry, my house just got destroyed by an asteroid the other day. That's the third time this week too...OH WELL!"

His persona is Sherlock Holmes, not because he's a detective, but because in the early writings, Holmes was described as being a "Bohemian Genius", as well as being very antisocial and more like a renegade P.I. rather a straight-laced detective.

Holmes basically acts as Goro's impulse control, he also helps Goro realize whenever he needs to actually talk to his friends instead of being a smartass 24/7.

Makoto Niijima - The Chariot

Codename: Panda

Persona: Shek Yeung

Sumire's first friend at Shujin Academy, as well as the one who helps her investigate the newfound metaverse with Goro.

She used to be the same "good-girl type of pushover" that she was in canon, until her first day of high school when Kamoshida reeled her in as his newest catch. Halfway through her second year, she decided enough was enough and confronted Kamoshida about how he treated the students, unfortunately, Kamoshida being Kamoshida, tried to sexually assault her while in the student council room. She fought back at him, but he overpowered her and did the same thing that was implied to have happened to Suzui in canon.

After Makoto recovered from the...incident, she tried going straight to the principal about the issues, but he shut her down and called her delusional for insinuating that Mr. Kamoshida could have done something like that. Before she knew what was happening, her position as student council president went out the window, and she was suddenly known as "The girl who tried to whore herself out to Kamoshida-sensei"

To Makoto, it was almost liberating to have all of the expectations of the student council ripped off of her back-(minus the sexual assault part). She turned lemons into lemonade and decided that if people were going to give her dirty looks, she might as well have fun while doing it! So she dyed her hair all kinds of colors (mostly blonde), ditched the school blazer in favour of a customized bomber jacket, and fully embraced becoming a sukeban.

She swears a LOT, more than even Ryuji did in canon.

Chie had steak, Ryuji had ramen, and Makoto has pocky sticks. She always has at least two boxes on her person at all times, and always has one in her mouth, only eating it if shit starts to get real. If she looks you dead in the eye and starts chewing her pocky, you better start running before she swallows...

Makoto has, and will continue to start fights whenever some punk-ass thinks they can get away with being transphobic or ableist to Sumire, or any of the other thieves for that matter.

Less of an overprotective-mom and more like a badass-mom who's fresh out of jail. She's very lax most time but will instantly get on your ass if you do something stupid enough.

Her persona, Shek Yeung, was a woman from a brothel who married a pirate. After the death of her husband, she took his place as the captain of the Guangdong Pirate federation, who ravaged the coast of South China.

Shek Yeung helps Makoto fill the void that was left when Sae stopped trying to talk to her, acting as a big sister that supports Makoto when she can't support herself. She reminds Makoto to give herself some time to be selfish, as well as helping her be more open about what she actually wants in life.

Futaba Ishiki-Sakura - The Lovers

Codename: Rumor

Persona: Cleopatra

The chaotic gremlin child who unfortunately gets caught in Kamoshida's perverted grip when she first starts high school.

She joins the group a lot earlier than canon Ann did, mostly because she's a lot more pragmatic when thinking of solutions to her problems. She realizes pretty quickly that Sumire, Makoto, and "The guy with the weird tattoos" are scheming something that has to do with Kamoshida's obvious crimes, and she's not going to sit back and be a victim while everyone else starts taking action.

She overhears the three talking about how they need "-a third member to safely explore the palace." and decides to come to them directly.

^"Look, I don't care if you're blackmailing him, or planning to break his knees with a bat. Whatever it is you're doing, count me in!"

Her story doesn't revolve around being a shut-in,-(Though she still has social anxiety)-but rather that these new people she's met are really the first to actually make her feel valued as a person, and that she is someone worthy of respect.

Since she's not a shut-in, she's a lot less savvy when it comes to hacking and data mining, but she's sort of like the middle man between the thieves and some more...questionable sources of intelligence and resources. Whenever there comes a time for needing to analyze data, Futaba adjusts her glasses and calmly states: "Hehehe...I think I know a guy for that..." Nobody wants to ask what exactly she means by that, and it's probably for the best they don't know.

She has at least 157 different accounts built for browsing the dark web without the risk of collecting viruses or privacy-invasion. All of which have multiple fake IDs, credit cards, cryptocurrency, and other things necessary for her shady connections.

Her mom isn't dead in this AU, she was able to safely go into hiding with the help of Sojiro, whom she is now engaged to. Futaba has some repressed mommy issues since she still feels neglected from her mom needing to work, as well as her new fiance sweeping her off her feet at every turn.

Cleopatra, who needs no introduction, was the final Pharaoh of ancient Egypt. She was sought after by ancient rulers far and wide for her beauty, yet only in the modern day did people actually appreciate her for her intelligence and leadership.

Cleopatra sort of fills the motherly roll Futaba's needed for a long time, it's very helpful since Cleo knows exactly what Futaba needs to hear when she's upset. She praises Futaba for her work with the phantom thieves, gives Futaba reassurance on her appearance and behavior, and helps calm Futaba down from her frequent anxiety attacks.

Futaba once started bawling her eyes out in her sleep when she talked with her persona in a dream, and Cleo said: "I am very proud of you, Futaba...I love you..."

Yuuki Mishima - The Sun

Codename: Trickster

Persona: Geronimo

The fifth and final member of the founding phantom thieves.

He-(sort of)-takes the place of Shiho in this AU, where he has a breakdown on the school rooftop and strongly considers jumping, luckily Sumire, Makoto, and Futaba are able to shove their way through the crowd so they can talk him down and help him.

The story is that Kamoshida, after the gang starts screwing around with the stuff in his palace, finally snaps and decides that merely beating poor innocent Yuuki is not enough for him anymore. So he calls Yuuki into his office one day and decides to "Try something different..."

After the whole mess on the rooftop happens, the gang decides that Yuuki deserves to get some revenge on Kamoshida for what he did. They bring him into the palace and, sure enough, after seeing just how Kamoshida treats not just him, but the whole school, he awakens out of pure anger and desire to be a hero for once.

He's much more jokey than canon, usually opting to make hilariously bad puns and occasional innuendos. He also has no idea about anything involving the real world.

^Yuuki: "I'm inside her heart-shaped-box." ^Futaba: "You know what that means right?" ^Yuuki: "No actually I just know it's a song-" ^Makoto: "JESUS FUCKING CHRIST YUUKI!"

He's just about as awkward as he is in canon, but rather than being treated like shit for it, his awkward jokes are usually just met with a slight pat on the shoulder and a comforting "......we'll work on it, sweetie" from Sumire or Makoto.

He still creates, opens, and monitors the phansite on his downtime. Futaba and Sophia usually help him with how often the requests get backed up.

Even though some of his jokes end up falling flat, he's still really good at coming up with zingers on the spot. The thieves have dubbed him as "The official phantom-comedian", to the point that he, Akira, Futaba, and Sophia all collectively come together to annoy the shit out of Goro

His persona is Geronimo of the Bedonkohe band of the Chirihacua Apache, an American-Indian shaman who fought against Spanish soldiers after his family was murdered. He was said to have converged with a spirit to become immune to bullets, and it took all of 5,000 U.S. soldiers to drag him back to the San Carlos reservation, which he escaped later again

Geronimo fucking loves Yuuki's stupid-ass jokes and will always be his #1 fan, but despite Yuuki's quips, Geronimo knows he's hiding a lot of pain from what he went through with Kamoshida, so he always encourages his other self to admit there's nothing wrong with being upset or afraid because of the circumstances.

Akira Amamiya - The Emperor

Codename: Ghoul

Persona: Brutus

The pupil of Madarame who writes poems, plays, and dables in art which Madarame, of course, plagiarizes from him.

The thieves hear about how Akira is the only pupil who has not left Madarame from another source, and they try to ask him about the plagiarism and accusations of abuse. Akira, of course, denies all of it, but the thieves can see that there's something in his eyes begging for an escape from his situation.

Things pretty much proceed as they do in canon with Madarame's palace, but rather than the whole "Nude painting incident", Sumire pretends to go on a date with Akira at his shack so Goro can sneak in and open the necessary door to help their progress. Madarame comes home, Akira has a panic attack, and they discover the room with the supposedly stolen painting and it's copies before dipping into the metaverse to escape the security.

The painting that Akira is obsessed with isn't the Sayouri, but rather, a self portrait of his father. Akira, of course, has no idea until Madarame's shadow reveals this at the end, but it explains Akira's fascination with it.

Even though he is a gifted painter, he is much more interested with acting and script-writing. He is 100% a gayass theater kid who joins Yuuki's bad jokes to give people headaches.

He is the king of random talents and parlor tricks; he can do a hand stand walk, write and type with his feet, he's very good with sleight of hand tricks, and can even use throwing knives to catch flies.

He's personality is pretty much that of Gomez Addams, he's a hopeless romantic who flirts with anyone and anything that moves, and is constantly down to do the weirdest shit for his loved ones.

His persona is Brutus, the trusted ally of Julius Caesar who later joined a conspiracy to end his life for the benefit of Rome. He realized that Caesar was a dictator and decided to side with his own lofty ideals and morals. He is best known for his role in the Shakespearean play: 'The Tragedy of Julius Caesar'.

Akira often consults Brutus whenever he faces a complicated situation that requires thinking of things from a different perspective, Brutus, being a master of rationalization, is always there to give Akira a push in the direction that will certainly benefit him in the long run, even if Akira doesn't like it.

Sophia Ishiki-Sakura - The Star

Codename: Rogue

Persona: Peter Pan

A 10 year old girl whose abusive mother was run clean-over by a truck 10 months before the events of the story-(not Ichinose). She spent the last several months being tossed around the abysmal foster care system until she ended up at the Ishiki-Sakura household with Futaba. When she moves in, Futaba's meta-nav pings in on a "semi-palace" that has begun forming.

The thieves begin brainstorming ideas on how to help Sophia, then Goro chimes in with: "Why don't we just help her confront her shadow?" and the rest of the team's like: "...what?". So Goro gives the gist that, theoretically, someone can change their own heart by directly confronting their shadow. The thieves decide they have no other choice to prevent Sophia from becoming fully distorted, and bring her into the semi-palace.

Things happen, Sophia awakens to her persona on the 2nd visit with the help of her shadow, but the semi-palace doesn't disappear. The thieves learn that the semi-palace is actually ruled by a cognition, (similar to canon Futaba), she confronts it and is able to change her own heart. After everything is said and done, she basically twists the thieves arms until they allow her to become a permanent member.

Sophia becomes much happier after her semi-palace is destroyed, up until then she was the poster child for gifted kids who were forced to grow up too fast. Her shadow and persona helped her tap into her inner child, now she gets a lot more enjoyment from being so smart, while still acting like a dumbass kid sometimes.

She goes to Shujin with the rest of the thieves, she was actually smart enough to skip a few grades and go straight to being a first-year.

She's basically the thieves collective little sister. Sumire and her bond over being neurodivergent and stim together, Makoto takes her out for rides on her motorcycle, Futaba is actually her sister and they bond over making immature jokes, Akira and her have actually started a club within the thieves for trauma dumping about abusive parents, and Yuuki and her bond over a shared experience with being sheltered and needing to learn more about real life.

As for her and Goro's relationship...

^Goro: "I've only had Sophia for less than a day, but if anything happened to her, I would kill every shadow in Mementos and then myself."

Her persona is Peter Pan, the forever child who resides in the fantastical world of Neverland, where he leads the group of lost boys and learned magic from sprites. His childishness is meant to be depicted as negative, but here is something to be said for seeing even life itself as another grand adventure.

Even after the thieves take her in as one of them, she still has a lot of trouble with allowing herself to act and play like a little kid, Pan is usually the one to help her indulge in those things she feels ashamed of. He acts like the reverse version of impulse control, encouraging Sophia to enjoy herself with dumb fun instead of trying to live up to her reputation as a gifted kid, Sophia of course, is grateful and tries to listen to his advice.

Haru Okumura - The High Priestess

Codename: Vigilante

Persona: Calamity Jane

She takes the place of Kobayakawa's lap dog, but not by being the student council president, she is simply encouraged by most people in her life to "-have good connections early on." Most of the pressure she experiences comes from her father, who is no stranger to cooking the books.

Unlike canon Makoto, she is much more reluctant to blindly follow the orders of the teachers, but she feels as though she doesn't have a choice in regards to what she does. Mostly in the fact that Kobayakawa has close ties to her father, and threatens to speak to him unless Haru spies on the new transfer student he's obsessed with trying to expel.

Haru befriends Sumire under false pretenses, but goes back on her spying when she learns that Kobayakawa has a personal connection to a local "mafia" and has been exploiting the student body for a long time now. So she goes to Sumire and the thieves to come clean, as well as ask them to change the principal's heart.

Eventually, the thieves need Haru's help with proceeding through the palace, in doing so, she awakens to her persona and begins working towards earning the thieves' trust once again.

Once she gains their trust, she officially joins the thieves as a valued friend. They all forgive her fairly quickly once they proceed further in Kobayakawa's palace

She's slightly more unhinged than she is in canon, constantly saying the most out-of-pocket shit you've ever heard.

^Haru: "Do you think stabbing someone in the dark could be used as a legal loophole for assault?"

She and Goro are absolute besties in this AU. They constantly shit talk random people behind their back, especially the people whose hearts the thieves have changed. She also does this with Sumire and the "Principal Humpty-Dumpty" joke.

She and Ann have a secret "shit-talking-tea-date" that nobody else is allowed to know about. They talk about the stunts pulled by the other thieves.

If Makoto is the fresh-outta-jail mom, Haru is 100% the sassy aunt who encourages her nieces and nephews schemes in an effort to mess with the mother. In most cases, Haru usually just sits back and watches the chaos while calmly sipping a cup of tea.

Calamity Jane was an old West heroine who got her name for her reckless nature on the battlefield, as well as being known for riding straight into an enemy ambush to save her ally. She was a heedless, foul-mouthed, and heavily opinionated woman who made her name famous with her sharpshooting skills.

Whereas many of the thieves directly consult their personas for help, Jane acts more like a spectator with a bucket of popcorn while Haru hilariously flails around without contributing anything to creating a solution. If Jane is really feeling like a nuisance, she will interject with the most batshit things at the worst times.

^Haru: *Taking a test and trying to remember the answer* ^Jane: "Pssst-I think the answer is 25..." ^Haru: ".......this is an English test, Jane..."

Yusuke Maruki - The Hermit

Codename: Prophet

Persona: Paimon

Maruki's son whom he adopted in secret after the suspicious death of Yusuke's mother.

Things happen in a similar manner as canon, medjed threatens everyone, Futaba tries and fails to find a way to stop them, Yusuke contacts them under the alias of "Avra" saying that he can help them track down the one responsible for the threats if they change the heart of Yusuke Maruki.

Sumire investigates, finds out about Yusuke's story, and her and the thieves agree to change Yusuke's heart for him.

His palace takes the form of haunted catacombs, with a cognitions of the men in black suits being the true rulers, while his shadow is an imprisoned spirit who's desperate for freedom.

Sophia proposes that since the circumstances are similar, they could just bring Yusuke into his own palace to confront this shadow like she did. Goro interjects, saying that Sophie's semi-palace was no where near as large or dangerous as a full-blown palace, meaning that things are more likely to escalate poorly.

Yusuke comes in on his own during the thieves' heist, he awakens, and the team has a brand new navigator on their side.

Even though he is similar to canon Futaba with hacking skills, he has much more of an occult aesthetic rather than being a super-nerd. He simply picked up coding and hacking as a hobby when he ran out of books to read.

He's still as eccentric as ever, constantly joining Akira in being a drama queen about everything. He 100% knows how to commit to the bit.

Somehow he is even more deadpaningly hilarious than canon. Contending with Haru for saying the most out-of-pocket things, causing people's heads to turn.

^Futaba: "Why do you always say the most outta-pocket shit?!"

^Yusuke: *Deadly serious voice* "It would appear that the pocket has barely been opened at this point..."

His persona Paimon is the ninth spirit listed in the Ars Goetia, as well as a revered king of hell. Said to be a master of "all matter of secret things", he will bestow his conjurer with otherworldly knowledge whenever summoned.

Jane is a spectator who enjoys Haru's lighthearted suffering, and Paimon is a spectator who constantly wants to bash his head against a wall for all the things Yusuke is clueless about. He constantly has to put up with an antisocial teenager who can't so much as read a subway map correctly, despite living in Tokyo his whole life. Paimon is also forced to suffer second-hand embarrassment when his other self unknowingly drops the ball when talking to people.

Ann Takamaki - The Empress

Codename: Knight

Persona: St. Jeanne d'Arc

A friend of Sumire who has suspected her of being a phantom thief ever since the incident with Kamoshida, and later, the Principal. She later came to Sumire requesting that she change her mother's heart.

Instead of Okumura being the one who exploits workers and is involved with the mental shutdowns, Ann's mother is the CEO of a small-scale conglomerate who plans on ascending into politics.

Ann has known Sumire for a good minute, so she trusts her when it is resealed that she and her friends are the phantom thieves, but Ann still wants to see a change of heart in-person so she knows whether or not it is as justified as they say. It also helps that Ann has been hearing the faint voice of her persona over the course of a few months, so Sumire believes she can help with the awakening process.

The exact details of how the thieves prove their methods to Ann will be revealed later on, but the bottom line is that the thieves encounter another semi-palace that they need to take care of as quickly as possible.

Unbeknownst to the thieves, Ann has been very close to having an awakening and forming a semi-palace for several months, and she is beginning to reach the end of her rope. This all culminates in her trying to wrestle her own shadow to death whilst her persona tries to stop her.

When all the madness ends, Ann awakens, she helps the thieves destroy the semi-palace of their target, and she agrees to go forward with the plan to change her mother's heart.

She and Sumire bond over their conjoined "trans girl swag". She's pretty good with helping Sumire out with any lingering dysphoria that she's not comfortable about sharing with the rest of the thieves.

She has a weekly shit-talking session with Haru which usually happens over tea and sweets. They basically just talk about the stupidest things that the other thieves have attempted that week.

She and Futaba often unite to sow chaos amongst the group, they plot, they scheme, and then they make some popcorn to watch the chaos.

Her persona is St. Jeanne d'Arc, the woman in charge of flying the French flag before battles during the 100 years' war. Despite the fact that she had no formal position in the army, she was always found on bravely rushing to the battlefield, she was even known to give the troops tactical advice during meetings.

Jeanne is Ann's biggest enabler whenever she wants to have some harmless fun, basically, her favorite thing to say in response to Ann's ideas is: "Do it." But she also helps Ann come to terms with the fact that she needs to take responsibility and take things seriously.

Ryuji Sakamato - The Justice

Codename: Crook/Black mask

Persona(s): Nezumi Kozo/Maximilien

Takes the place of the culprit behind the mental shutdowns and rampage incidents, as well as taking the role of being the traitor who works with the conspiracy Shido runs.

His story is similar to canon Akechi, his mother was a prostitute who was killed by Shido one night. Ryuji, instead of becoming a detective, decided to become an extremist dedicated to bringing Shido, and the entire Japanese government, to it's knees.

He willingly signed up for some unethical cognitive psience research experiments so he could get close to Shido, there were other people who underwent the training, but Ryuji was the only one that actually survived long enough to gain his powers.

He climbed his way up the ladder until finally getting an audience with Shido, and he offered to become his hitman for the same reasons as canon Akechi. By this point in his life, Ryuji had become so jaded by everything he's been through, that he's convinced himself that everyone he killed needed to die for the greater good.

Ryuji's main cover story is that he's a justified rebel who uses graffiti art and peaceful protests to speak out against corruption, not only does this help him publicly detest the phantom thieves, but it helps Shido's reputation when they publicly join together around the election time.

He's not quite as irredeemable as canon Akechi, but when it does come time for him and the thieves to reunite in the 3rd semester, it basically boils down to: "YOU ARE GOING TO BE A GOOD PERSON! AND YOU ARE GONNA LIKE IT!!!"

During his "redemption" phase he still has to get over the fact that he's very cynical in how he views the world, as well as people in general. His philosophy is that since everybody has a shadow self, that means everyone is automatically at least a little evil.

He and Sumire have more of a "frenemies" type of relationship rather than the homoerotic undertones of canon Akechi and Joker. They insult and antagonize each other constantly, but Sumire is the only one Ryuji will allow it with, if it were anyone else insulting him, he's break their spine.

His "false" persona, Nezumi Kozo, was the "rat kid" who plagued noblemen across all of Japan during the Edo period. Even though his status as a vigilante is widely debated by historians, many folk songs and Kabuki plays portray him as an outlawed hero of justice.

His "true" persona is Maximilien, the man who was credited with leading the French reign of terror, which ended up being the most violent time of the French revolution. He encouraged the peasants and common folk to go on an execution spree against all royals, nobles, and anyone suspected of corruption. Ironically, he himself, was executed in July of 1794.

Nezumi Kozo started out as nothing more than a farce Ryuji created to help him get closer to the phantom thieves, a way to conceal his true nature. As the thieves helped him mentally recover from...everything, Nezumi seemed to gain consciousness, becoming his own separate entity from Maximilien and showing that Ryuji is on the right path and is dedicated to being better.

Maximilien is sort of like Ryuji's reluctant assistant who knows that what's happening is wrong, but is trying his best to support his friend in the hopes he will make the right choice in the end. As Ryuji becomes more distorted with the need for revenge, Maximilien talks to him less and less, and eventually Ryuji doesn't hear or see him unless he summons him in the metaverse.

Maximilien and Nezumi have a lot of friction when they need to share the space within Ryuji's heart, at first it's like the classic "angel and devil" situation. Luckily though, the two manage to work things out and work together to do their best for helping Ryuji becomes his best self.

That's all I'm going to be doing for now, I do plan on making bios for Morgana as the hope and Zenkichi as the charity, plus all of the confidants in royal, but I need to save that for another time.

This took way too long for me to make, but I'm very proud of it.

I do plan on making this full-blown story on ao3, and I'm working on the prologue right now. Hopefully I'll be able to start publishing chapters soon.

Until then,

Farewell bozos