#which involved unpacking all the electronics and figuring out the TV

[halfdeadfriedrice]

best thing about homestuck's availability on the web being shot to absolute garbage due to corporate disinterest is that, thank god, i cannot read it at work.

[iconsumeheadcanons]

P4 x P5 crossover

there are very slight p5r spoilers but its kinda just using some lines from the bad end like just a little ref...so up to you i guess :p

Ren (our protag) goes home to Inaba with Mona. Kinda connected to my other headcanons: his ‘family’ includes his mother, his step-dad, his younger half-brother (step bro? idk), and his twin brother Akira. Akira usually lives with their mother’s ex husband, but something is going on court-wise that he has been deemed unfit for child care, which is why Akira is back with his mother. For now Akira sleeps in the room where his father used to practice tea ceremonies.

The twins kinda reconnect but things are very different and they didn’t have contact at all last year so Ren is surprised to see Akira. Ren is still kinda (not) dealing with all of the stuff from the last very many months, and Akira is still kinda not dealing with how messed up things are with his dad and the fact that he’s pretty sure his brother is The Phantom Thief but absolutely no one in the Amamiya household will acknowledge it so he feels like he’s going crazy. Especially the weird cat Ren brought back home that he keeps talking to.

Anyway, Akira’s not really going to school and Ren’s going to Yasogami (the high school he didn’t get expelled from) so Akira doesn’t know what is going on until he comes back from his part-time to see his mother and her husband arguing over the whereabouts of Ren. Apparently he skipped school that day. Ren doesn’t come home that night and the adults argue over calling the police since Ren won’t answer his phone. Akira avoids them and instead searches Ren’s bedroom for his cat or any sign that he might’ve packed up and left. He finds neither so he goes to bed and tries to remind himself that Ren survived in Tokyo kinda on his own and that this is not the first time he’s gone off to be stupid.

Ren still doesn’t show up at school or the house the next day. Step-dad wants to call the police because Ren is missing and he’s causing trouble and stress for the family. (“Clearly last year taught him nothing.”). Mother doesn’t want to call the police because she’s tired of police stuff and she doesn’t want this kind of stuff to keep affecting their family. Mostly she’s worried about how this will affect her youngest son. She’s losing the argument mostly because she’s losing conviction in herself as a ‘good mother’. 

Akira can’t handle their argument so he goes upstairs and finds Morgana trying to paw open the sliding door of Ren’s bedroom and meowing a whole lot. Akira opens the door for the kitty wondering if the talkative kitty just wants to sleep in Ren’s room like usual. Instead the cat paws at Ren’s laptop. Akira opens it and stares at the very intelligent looking animal. Mona unlocks the laptop (“Wait--is that his password?! That’s stupid as hell.” “Meow...”) and tries to get Akira to do something but Akira is mostly shocked so Mona uses a pen on paper to write, “Video Futaba.”

Akira doesn’t know who Futaba is, but he follows Mona’s instructions. He doesn’t find a Futaba in Ren’s contacts but Mona gestures at the one called ‘lil sis :3c’ so Akira calls.

In Tokyo, Futaba’s on a people-watching walk with Yusuke late afterschool when she gets a video call from the recent ghost Ren. She asks the person who she thinks is her pseudo brother where he's been and if he’s all good, but Mona jumps in before Akira can say anything and Mona starts talking away. Curious about the existence of a twin brother that they never knew existed before but more concerned for Ren’s safety, Futaba and Yusuke ask Akira to convince the adults to NOT call the police because Ren will definitely freak out while they call the rest of the group together to figure out what they can do. Futaba says she hasn’t been able to track Ren at all in the past two days and she’s worried he’s gone somewhere service doesn’t matter (like the metaverse). Akira tentatively asks if they and Morgana are part of the Phantom Thieves and Futaba’s like, “Duhhhhh,” and Yusuke very intimidatingly informs Akira not to get the authorities involved in any manner. Futaba says they’ll call back in an hour and hangs up, so Akira decides to get right to work (bc Phantom thieves can be very scary even if they arent trying).

Downstairs Akira tries to appeal with emotions. He warns the adults how calling the police to find Ren will not end well because Ren has had so many bad experiences already and anything that happens will not help Ren try to stay out of more trouble. Step-dad is mad that Ren wouldn’t trust law enforcement and Mother is just so-so tired of the whole mess. Akira doesn’t normally stand up against bullshit (normally Ren’s thing) but Akira is done with this so he’s like, “Of course he doesn’t trust the police! He’s the Leader of the Phantom Thieves and the police put him in fucking solitary! He’s never gonna trust you again after this either!” something like that.

Step-dad and mom are upset and they say Ren was doing the wrong things as a Phantom blah blah. Akira argues that the Thieves exposed bad people including the wrong-doings in the government where the law enforcement works, but the adults won’t hear it so Akira stops talking, turns and grabs a jacket, and leaves the house. It’s late, it’s raining, and Mona follows behind even when Akira climbs on his bike to go out and try to find Ren by himself.

The two end up at Samegawa after checking under bridges, mostly soaked and irritated when they spot a group of people up on the road with three umbrellas. Souji and Yosuke, Yukiko and Chie, and Kanji and Teddie are strolling around, hanging out, and what-not when they spot a teenager, a cat, and a ruined bike by the water. Souji goes down to help them because of course, and everyone follows because of course. Akira recognises like half of them and he’s wary these random adults just seem to bypass the distrust in the air by collectively worrying over him and his poor poor kitty.  

Teddie thinks he recognizes the teen because he’s like, “Ren-kun? Why aren’t you at work today! You abeardoned me to unpack the freezer by my lonesome!” And Akira stares because he didn’t know Ren works at Junes. Yosuke tries to hop in but Akira cuts them off and explains that Ren has been missing for two days and he’s trying to find him before the police get involved. If these adults want to help out so bad then maybe they can look for Ren too. Yosuke and Teddie get confused though because they both saw Ren at work yesterday. The rest of the adults also mention seeing him around town yesterday as well, including when they went into Junes before they…

Akira is confused about all the glances they give each other, but Yukiko quickly catches on and asks if Akira thinks Ren might have been stalking them, and Akira gets offended. (Yukiko wasn’t making a serious accusation, she was just trying to distract Akira from the fact that they almost admitted to the existence of the TV World.) Chie asks what would be wrong with calling the police, and Akira says, “Bad experience,” ready to ditch these random people and continue his search, but Yosuke goes wide-eyed and urges Akira to wait. Yosuke clearly understands some of what Akira meant and says they’ll help out, especially since they were the last to see Ren.

They go to Junes where Yosuke unlocks the back door (after Kanji searches around any place in the area that delinquents like to hide. It’s raining too much for anyone to be out.) They check the worker room to look through any of Ren’s stuff. They don’t find anything weird until Souji points out that Ren signed into work yesterday but never signed out. Now that doesn’t indicate everything, but the weird hours he worked yesterday do, mostly because they line up with the time that the group went to Junes yesterday. Chie investigates on the security footage and finds video of Ren sneakily following the group around the department store until they finally end up at...the electronics section.

All the adults + Teddie get real quiet and Akira and Morgana get real angry about all the silence. Akira asks why the camera is angled so weird over the TVs, and why the adults had gone into the electronic section and had not come out until an hour later, or why they don’t see footage of his brother away he followed them into the TV area. No one says anything right away so he asks if they hurt him or if they did something magic to them, like put him some place where his team couldn’t track him. Kanji jumps up to defend them all to say they didn’t even know Ren was actually following them and that they would never hurt a kid, but of course Akira has many reasons to not believe a stranger, so they’re both very tense. Souji tries to stop the fighting when suddenly the old CR in the room turns on.

P5R spoilers sorta!!! But the Midnight Channel shows an Asia-based fantasy world where Ren (with horns because you know he would want them) is in a version of Leblanc soaking dishes in a pail of water when Sojiro (plain but nice human) walks over and mentions that he wishes Ren wouldn’t have to go back to his hometown. Ren asks to stay forever and Sojiro agrees, talking about how happy their little weird family is now. They tease each other over the honesty, but they both look happy. The Midnight Channel shows this like a scene in a drama and the camera does a close up of Ren’s genuine happiness until there are sudden distorted voices telling their vile prisoner to focus. The camera pans out to show Ren alone in a dark, gross, blue prison cell wearing ragged clothes and his hands bound behind him. Someone opens a cell door, and judging by Ren’s unmasked trepidation, whatever follows next will not be good. The clip ends with an echoing slam of the bar doors behind the visitor.

In the darkness following the end of the clip, the IT members all freak out over the recurrence of the whole thing while Akira numbly checks his phone . He didn’t realise he had gotten messages, but they are all from someone who is somehow in his phone as Alibaba. The messages are asking where the hell is he and that there better not be police involved and that the only reason he shouldn’t be looking at his phone is because he fell asleep or something. Judging by the (loud, knowing) reactions around him and Morgana scratching at the door, Akira thinks he understands what is going on and why that Phantom Thief said that she hadn’t been able to track Ren. Akira leaves a message that says, “I think I know where he is,” and then he turns to the others and says that it's obviously some sort of magic that they know about and if they won’t help him out further, than he and his brother’s magic cat will do it on their own.

Of course that is a problem so the IT goes nonono we’ll do this this is our job let’s go, and Akira successfully swindled the IT into shutting up and helping. They all go inside the TV where Morgana can stand on two legs, Teddie is in a bearsuit, and the world is gorgeous and bright. The IT gets straight to work, Teddie sniffing, everyone putting on glasses, and trying to explain things to Mona and Akira. They don’t have to explain much because Mona understands most of it already and he’ll likely ask Lady Lavenza later. Akira is so confused about talking cat-shaped embodiment of hope and this entire night, so Souji urges them to focus on at least finding Ren. 

Teddie can only confirm that someone is in the World, just not who or where, so they need more info. Chie suggests leaving for the night and coming back with more info or maybe sleep? Guys? But Akira is worried out of his shit and Morgana is angry at Ren for running off so they start saying as much as they can think of. Akira mentions Ren’s obsession (big ol’ crush) with Naoto when they were in middle school (to everyone’s great discomfort), Ren’s average grades, and Ren’s favorite color. Mona mentions that Ren is a phantom thief (to the IT’s great surprise) and that recently they had a...disagreement.

Two days ago, Ren decided to skip school. Morgana had said that if he didn’t keep his grade up and/or his attendance, Ren would get in trouble and his mom would never let him go back to see everyone in Tokyo. Ren, who had been oddly quiet and down the past few days, suddenly got angry and said if Morgana wanted to go back to everyone so bad, then he should have never followed Ren to Inaba. Morgana said he came home with Ren to watch over him and keep him out of trouble, but Ren said there was no trouble that he hadn’t gotten into already and that he doesn’t need anyone breathing down his neck. Mona got pissed and asked why Ren wouldn’t want him (his roommate for a whole year!!) here when no one else was friendly, but Ren didn’t answer and left.

Morgana hadn’t seen Ren since they argued, and he didn’t understand why Ren had been so angry all of a sudden, but Akira realized quickly. Yes, the twins aren’t very close anymore, but Akira says that Ren won’t ever ask for help even from people he trusts. Ren stands up for others all the time, but rarely does anything for himself. When their parents divorced and the twins were split up, Ren only got mad for Akira’s sake. Ren definitely doesn’t see Inaba as home anymore (maybe not even since Akira and Dad left), but he’d rather send a friend home (his REAL home) than both deal with his feelings and drag friends into it.

This is plenty of info for Teddie but before they go Souji reassures Mona and Akira that they’ll find Ren, help him talk, and help him be some place where he’ll be happy and supported. (Souji works as a social worker so kids can find homes like he did when he came to Inaba.) They all set off in a direction and they find what seems to be a fantasy village of similar looks to the clip from the Mayonaka TV. Morgana starts to recognise some of the streets as streets in Yongenjaya so he leads the way to the street Leblanc is on. They get interrupted by the guy who owns the second-hand shop. He starts talking to Akira and Mona like he knows them (he’s assuming they were hit by a witch’s spell that changed their appearances) and says he’ll always give them a discount for everything they do for the community. 

This is confusing wording so Mona points out that the man sells them materials for tools when they can’t get enough from the Metaverse. The man shouldn’t know what Ren does with those tools. Souji points out that this area they’re in does not seem to be wealthy, so maybe their Phantom Thievery has supported the area. They head to Leblanc to investigate more.