#thank you! apparently a p5 themed set of responses

[candidateofloyalty]

For the ao3 wrap ask: 22 and 25 please?

25. Free space: Recommend a fic!

I'm going for please don't take off my mask, which manages to take my favorite things about the Persona 5 protag being a silent protagonist and examine them in a fic in which he speaks regularly. The Akechi POV is also really good, capturing the feeling of being 17 and convinced you're irredeemable because you're rude and angry (and also maybe a serial killer but don't worry about that). It does have some non-violent gore but that's all part of the Palace so it's not happening to real people. Also the imagery of it rules.

22. Share a deleted scene, if you have one.

It's not really a full scene but here's the opening to a fic I started about makoharu moving in together and then totally lost track of where I was going with it (under the cut for your sanity).

AO3 Year In Review

They’d talked about living together for college, giggling and a little loopy from staying up too late, but Maruki’s nightmarish paradise had them both ready to move up the timetable. They hadn’t spoken about it directly. Haru just invited Makoto over to look at apartment listings the first chance she got.

Makoto thought that maybe she was having trouble readjusting to living alone. That was certainly something Makoto could understand - a week of having her own fake father around had been enough to rehaunt the apartment she and Sae had spent years exorcising.

By mutual agreement, they didn’t commit to anything before the 3rd. They knew Maruki wasn’t influencing the Thieves' cognitions anymore, but still, it felt like tempting fate. This was supposed to be the bridge to the future, and it needed more solid foundations than the ever-shifting Metaverse.

Of course, neither of them had fully realized the implications of a world put back to rights. Without a Goro Akechi to confess to everything in Ren's place, the leader of the Phantom Thieves was quickly swallowed up by the criminal justice system that had tried so hard to devour him in the first place. It was hard to feel like celebrating a new beginning after that.

Haru would have backed out at that point. It wasn't so long until college, really, Mako-chan. It made sense to time a lease to the academic year anyway, so Makoto wouldn't have to juggle coursework along with moving. There were a number of perfectly good reasons for her to keep drifting through the remains of her former life.

Makoto wouldn't have it. Haru had a lifetime of practice justifying her own discomfort, and even with Milady's help, old habits were hard to kill. Makoto knew that better than anyone, and if she could provide a baton pass against this one, so much the better.

And so it was that, on a cold day in late February, the two of them went to the furniture store in Kichijoji. Haru had suggested they look through catalogs, apparently unaware that there was any other way to shop for furniture, but Makoto wanted a chance to test things out and see them in context. Besides, she thought to herself. It would be good for both of them to get out for the afternoon. They'd been so focused on the campaign to get Ren released, and as important as that was, it was exhausting as well.