#yusuke and joker are the only people in this fucking friend group who know how to wear a school uniform. why

[blueskittlesart]

ryuuji was not wearing a uniform u cant convince me he ever was. worst offender. anns at least looks like its just a school hoodie

the only reason i don't count him as the worst offender is that TECHNICALLY he wears every part of the uniform visibly and (for the most part) correctly except the shirt. his blazer is unbuttoned and his pants are cuffed but at least in american schools that's usually not enough to get you a violation. the tshirt is ridiculous yes especially with the summer uniform but i honestly think some of the girls are worse offenders. in the winter ann wears BRIGHT RED TIGHTS which i KNOW are not regulation and instead of the uniform shirt she's got a black shirt on under the hoodie. in both the winter and summer makoto just straight up wears a different shirt than everyone else. like, it's uniform-ADJACENT but noticeably tighter and a slightly different color than the uniform shirts, not to mention the fucking HALTER TOP she wears in the winter with no blazer???? isnt she cold?????? and haru just straight up wears a bright pink sweater instead of her blazer which i can only assume she hasn't been dress coded for because shes a billionaire

[discododging]

Unpopular Opinion Alert

Spoilers for Persona 5 Royal

A lot of Persona 5 fanfic I read has Joker become a politician in the future after the games conclude, which is fair. But me, personally, just don't see it. He's been screwed over by the system too much and even if it eventually got sorted out, I think he'd come out of it with just a general distaste for politics. Additionally, Persona 5 Strikers shows us that yes, his identity as the leader of the Phantom Thieves IS known and I don't think people, despite all the good they've done, would elect one into ANY governmental position.

No. What I think Joker (or Akira as I'll be calling him for the rest of this essay) becomes is a Counselor/Therapist.

Let me explain how and why

We first have to explain why he becomes a counselor, in the form of Takuto Maruki, the owner of the final Palace and the only Royal exclusive one, the former Counselor of Shujin Academy..

And a really shit one.

You might be asking: "Wait, what? I thought he was pretty good!" and if we're just using the scenes from before the Yaldaboth fight, you'd be right! Throughout the scenes we see of him interacting with the various members of our group, he's a pretty good one even with Yusuke/Futaba, two characters he wouldn't even know from the school. But that's where it ends.

Once we begin the Royal content, we meet Human Morgana. Ok, weird. We go out for the day, meet with friends, and holy fucking shit that is a dead woman sitting in LeBlanc.

Yes, let us talk about the elephant in the room: Wakaba Isshiki and Kunikazu Okumura. Two people who should be 6 feet under are currently just.. here. And then we see more weird and unusual things during our first venture into Makuki's Palace. With it all culminating in the reveal of the fact that he forced a poor girl into living as her dead sister for over half of the fucking year.

Holy shit. Holy fucking shit. Yeah, at the time he didn't know why he was able to do it, but he could CERTAINLY FUCKING TELL HE WAS THE REASON IT HAPPENED.

And now we get to why he's a shit councilor: forcing people to relive trauma. After we leave his Palace, we're given a week to talk to our friends and check on them. And almost every single one is happy, yes, but it's a false happiness that wouldn't last. It only takes all of 5 seconds for them to begin to realize their reality is false. It would've taken longer without Joker's help, but they 100% would've eventually realized they were living in a false reality.

Tragedy is an undeniable fact of life. It's as guaranteed as time and gravity. Just as the clock ticks forward and the apple falls down, bad things will happen. A good counselor would recognize this, and instead of vowing to make sure nothing bad ever happens, would vow to help people accept that bad things happen and be there for them as they go through it.

And that's when it struck me. Thats what Akira does.

In almost every confidant, he helps the people he meets get through the bad things in life. He helps Chihaya and Mishima gain their confidence. He helps Ryuji, Ann, Yusuke, Futaba, and Haru get through their issues. This pattern can be applied to every single confidant (sans Igor and Maruki, but both have their reasons)

And that's why I think he'd make a great counselor

[computerram]

More dumping about Akira’s palace au, this time about Goro - where he’s been for like 5 years and what his role in all it is.

Building off the dummied out p5r scene, Goros probably spent most of his time in and out of the rehab center outside Tokyo and being fairly under the radar. Poor bastard probably didn’t even get a chance to do his college entrance exams or anything, he’s only made a very recent move back to Tokyo and its far less comfortable now he doesn’t have Celebrity/Hitman money and of course as soon as he does some Fuckshit starts happening

The same time as the PTs, Goro’s metaverse app comes back and Of Course he checks it out because That’s Obviously Suspicious

UNLIKE the PTs however he just... can’t help but find himself... being drawn to a certain.... blue door...... wow whoever could it be...........(it’s lavenza)

Lavenza’s having trouble reaching her trickster and fears he’s losing his way against this new adversity - why he already has a palace after all! - so of course she’s going to turn to the only other trickster she can get ahold of to guide his way, and offers him a temporary contract - he aids Joker, and she gives him access to her old ward’s Velvet Room

‘This is my fusion equipment’ ‘That’s an iron maiden’ ‘I don’t have my master’s guillotine I have to improvise’ ‘That’s not-’

She also explains that it’s very admirable of him he got as far as he did the first time round with no external guidance and even then managed to turn around and say ‘fuck you’ to Yaldabaths plan. He would have been a remarkable guest. Wait what do you mean you didn’t know about Yaldabaoth’s plan for you did he not tell you? Do you even know what a Velvet Room is-

That being said his social links were Awful. Except for one of course. You already know who I’m talking about. But any other bonds he may have had have definitely been broken by now.

Anyway armed with some new personas (as much as he can make with his Terrible Terrible Bond management) he heads into Akira’s palace and oh look who it is fancy meeting you guys here no I’m not a cognition put the gun down-

Now here’s where some fun stuff kicks in

Remember when I said Goro’s social links were Terrible? Well as part of his contract with Lavenza he’s gotta FUSE and to fuse good stuff you gotta KNOW people and when you know people you get BONDS oh we are gonna get Goro some FRIENDS, baby!!!

Also since it’s more fun this way: I think Goro’s SLink arcanas with the thieves should be different to Akira’s, since the arcana probably simply a reflection of how the holder sees that person/their relationship w/ the holder sooo with that in mind heres my Thoughts:

Lavenza - Judgement, Wheel of Fortune could also work, but boils down to how she’s the one who’s giving him a call to action

Sumire - Lovers and I KNOW what you’re thinking come back I’m going to explain the meaning of the Lovers arcana in more depth. Lovers' arcana is more symbolic of important choices + between two people is more about solidifying an union with someone you feel you can be honest with. Sumire’s probably the first person in the group Goro forms a bond with and I feel like the two can discuss how they both would have reservations about simply going in and changing Akira’s heart considering how much they both value free will and choice. There’s other things as well but that’d make this section way too long.

Futaba and Haru are very interesting to imagine links with considering their Very Valid reasoning for not wanting to be around Akechi. Haru I can definitely peg as Hanged Man, being stuck between her own personal feelings and how useful he is as a whole to the group, whereas Futaba would probably be more to do with her own anxieties about him being around, so perhaps Moon or Death if we wanna be cliche

Less concrete Reasoning but they have the Vibe: Ann - Temperance Ryuji - Sun, Yusuke - Magician, Makoto - Strength

Morgana - I’ll be honest with you homies I have No Idea what the dynamic between Morgana and Akechi would be compounded by the fact one of them is Litchrally a cat bro

For those curious, his other bonds (broken now) were probably Sae (Chariot) and Shido (Emperor). Even if the bonds themselves were lies or for ulterior motives, they were still Bonds you know

Oh how could I forget. His maxed out rank with Joker, the Justice arcana. Teehee it’s a narrative foil :3c

[mypunkpansexualtwin]

Otp brotp whatever do it for them boys (Joker and friends)

Hell yeah hell yeah, just gonna jump around all the BroTP (the P stands for phantom thieves) because they’re all good kids and we all love a found family made of common trauma and metaphysical crime and some lowkey crushes on each other in every direction even if they’re all perfectly happy staying platonic.

Who steals french fries off the other’s plate Oh man, it’s a food free-for-all. It’s a chaotic communal chow-fest. It’s a veritable buffet of “here, try what I got, gimme a bite of yours, ooh that looks tasty lemme try” whenever they go out to eat as a group. That’s not your plate, that’s the team’s plate now. And any leftovers are boxed up for Yusuke because art supplies are expensive.

Who jokingly moves in for the kiss when someone asks if they’re a couple Depending on who the other person is (cause there’s plenty of “uh. dude. no.” instances too, plus friend’s comfort, etc.), Joker and Ann are the worst culprits for this, and delight in the various flustered reactions from their friends, from full-on flailing from Ryuji, to Futaba’s figurative blue screen of death. Haru occasionally gets in on it because she knows nobody expects it and will get a brainmelt level fluster from it every time.

Who has to bust or bail the other out of jail I mean, Joker has canonically been arrested three times by the end of the game. The game wraps up with various scenes of all the friends the guy has made trying to get him out of jail, soo...  Hm, but at the same time there’s also the metaphysical prison in the Velvet Room before y’all go and shoot god in the face. I guess it’s about equal?

Who gives the others advice/comfort about dating issues If you want comfort or someone to listen then Joker and Haru are masters of listening, commiserating, and letting their friends talk their way into their own solution. If you want advice then Ann, Morgana, Ryuji, and Sumi are very ‘go out there and get it, you can do this!’ pep talk and plan of attack type friends. Makoto’s also a planner, but a lot more level-headed and logical about it. This is not necessarily a good thing, but her heart’s in the right place. If you want a distraction then Yusuke has you covered. Let him ramble about art, the stars, whatever takes his fancy. Maybe he’ll take said friend out people watching with him so they can mull things over themself. If you wanna get meme’d on for having feelings Futaba and Morgana are the best bet. Why would anyone want this? Maybe a crush is less intimidating when everyone’s been able to laugh about it. Who knows.

Who shamelessly cheats at games by reaching over to cover the other’s eyes Team “NO HONOR AMONG THIEVES” - Ann, Joker, Morgana Team “I Don’t Need Cheats To Beat You--AH FUCK I CAN’T SEE” - Ryuji, Futaba, Makoto, Akechi? Team “I Don’t Videogame But You Guys Seem To Be Having Fun” - Haru, Yusuke, Sumi

Who immediately calls dibs on the top bunk Ryuji, Ann, Futaba, and god bless him Morgana’s sure gonna fuckin’ try. Joker also probably will, if only because the poor guy’s been sleeping on wooden crates for a year. Give him the luxury, please.

Who starts and who wins the pillow fights Starts it - Ann, Futaba, Ryuji, Morgana but only by goading the others into it and then watching the chaos unfold Finishes it - Haru, Sumi, Unstoppable, starts and finishes it - Joker Watches from the sidelines, obliterates when inevitably dragged into it - Makoto, Yusuke, Akechi. This is how your sleepover ends.

Who says “your pants would look better on their floor” to the other’s potential crush Joker, Ann, Ryuji, Morgana (”Calm down, it’s not like they can even hear me.”) and mayyyybe Futaba if said crush is already in her comfort zone of their circle of friends.

[iconsumeheadcanons]

persona characters autism headcanons!

hi im autistic and i started my day with sun so now im !!!!!!!!! some of these headcanons are from elsewhere on tumbr, but i dont know where :(((  so i am hoping someone out there knows that n that everybody knows that i love them <3

(also go check out mollypaup and i think hypeswap if you havent already! they post some good stuff autism+adhd hc too!!! i think.. oh! and thieves-in-the-palace!!!)

P5

Joker

there was some artwork from someone on tublr..where they pointed out that he doesnt really talk outside the metaverse so--hes hyperverbal as joker and just near nonverbal as akiren

he stims ALL THE TIME. that phone thing, the pencil thing, the little tappy tap of his foot, pulling at his bangs when hes embarrassed/smug. someone get him a fidget spinner. he’ll prob learn to do tricks with it

he probably sucks at focusing in class, like i know its just the game design but hes always surprised out of his daily “star out the window at the nearby office building” when his teachers ask him questions

mona mentions when the pt is at Wilton for the first time (after they run into shido) that joker eats like shit, and that could have multiple causes at the start of the story of course, but when i first played i thought that joker was a picky eater and that the variety (and amount of food) at the buffet would be an Ordeal...

tho mona makes that comment bc joker looked pale after having a little ptsd moment from shidos voice, but i didnt know that the first time i played

maybe when joker makes a face at ryuji putting so much ginger in his gyudon? joker probably does not like pickled ginger lol

his favortive foods are all spicy, which is why the curry he makes for his friends is always ‘overly spicy’, and why kasumi makes him a curry bento and joker kept going “...?” .... “....?!”

overly reflective glasses have been a great plus for him bc now he never has to make real eye contact every again!

mona Soft. play with Ann hair. maybe Braid. nice

puns (Gorou the Goroumet)

he has so many options to be straight up rude sometimes in game. he probably no clue on his own, which is why he defaults to Not Talking. people probably mention his constant scary face, which is just him being nonexpressive, squinting at all the fucking bright lights, and Tired

executive function who? we do everything last minute folks

high pain tolerance, which is why he was the kid that was always climbing trees in elementary school to get basketballs unstuck from the branches

his sixth sense lets him see treasure and possible places to climb/crawl bc 1. Shiny? Steal it. Steal it Now. and 2. Could i fit in that? Time to Find Out

probalby a bit of a klepto too oops. he’ll return it tho!! but he has to do it dramatically or he’ll die

cant sit properly to save his life

smells and touch are Great, they can keep him grounded when his brain goes off to police or dead rivals or guilt or

if a friend hung out with him and gave him total reigns of the agenda, he would choose to nap on the floor while his friend does something off to the side quietly

hyperfocuses on handy tasks (i.e. lockpicks, coffee brewing, cleaning, his part time jobs) and some things like movies and books. everything else is a tossup

his (normal) navigation app is his most used app bc he still doesnt know where hes going, even though he only goes to the same few places in the city

hates being sweaty, literally cannot stand it. probably double exhausted during the summer

but Needs Compression so hes often Struggling

Futaba

paraphrase from p5d “i have no motor skills so i cant play rhythm games :(” need i say more? (i will regardless)

echolalia all the time, from anime, memes, the PT

those headphones she wears all the time? noise cancelling ear protectors babey

only talks about her interests, “normal” talking is Not Easy, but she is still communicative w others despite her worries. shes not “hard to understand” at all but she feels the anxiety nonetheless

only talks informally, cannot talk ‘politely’ with out imitating someone around her

shes had meltdowns and anxiety attacks in game :( i relate so hard

Technology. thats it

def had an egypt phase that pops up every few months. probably came from yu-gi-oh

has Immune to Bright Lights buff.  joker is very jealous

“Time to make like a tree and leave!” and 30 other iterations

video game metaphors are the only ones that makes sense to her

probably relates hard to robot characters in anime for their general androgyny and confusion about human emotions and connections

probably gets told that shes “too smart to be on the spectrum” by teachers >:( she fails their classes on purpose

wakaba’s autistic too that just how it is

the Connection that she establishes with Joker is so Warm. my life goals include adopting an older brother like futaba has lsdkfjslkfj

also eater of 5 foods only, i mean, she brings cup ramen to the beach. i just really admire her...

hides in small spaces for comfort

doesnt she have like uhhhhh hyperthymesia or something like that?

Yusuke

art

his entire social link is learning how humans work, which i relate

talks seriously all the time

“sarcasm? who is that? are you saying I was sarcastic?...how?”

cant remember to take care of his body, and madarame did not help with that either

lot of uncomfortable staring, hes overdoing the eye contact thingy

infodumps all the time, doesnt know hes doing it

needs a lot of support even if he doesnt think he deserves it. no one ever complains about helping him out tho

visual stims my friends

he didnt know that you could look up pictures on the internet but he does know you can stream live videos of waterfalls and fluffy animales!!

I am certainly in the mood

for something salty today.

he and joker are scared of math. numbers do not interact

Yusuke, futaba, and akiren are a trio and i know this bc their first day of non-thievery interacts is Akiren clearing Futabas room w/o permission, futaba hyperfocusing on destroying medjed, and yusuke rearranging futabas figurines so they are more visually appealing

morgana is a support friend for all of them bc igor knows they need it

P4

Souji/Yu

yes, he mostly wears gray semi formal clothes bc parents tell him to, no, he will not changes this

Schedule or Death

“sorry, could you repeat that?” “huh? oh yeah, i was saying that--” “yeah that’d be cool.”

cats, fishing, he just likes to be quiet. you can literally spend a day at the beach just to think if you want, and that is what yu want

has a lot of scripts for things (of which he shares with nanako!) but if he runs out he just stops talking..

inaba is a godsend bc its so fucking quiet and warm

he Yearns to hold his friends hands, but he shies away from a lot of touch (excepting yosuke, teddie, and nanako)

Cooking and Cleaning makes the world better. he and joker vibe together with this

unlike akiren, he strong arms any executive dysfunction into Be Productive or Else. his punishment is feeling the pure anxiety of having to make up for ‘lost time’. (another symptom of his workaholic parents)

writes everything down, notes are very neat, has pages dedicated for bad doodles when hes not feeling his usual Super Classroom Focus

Cannot handle secondhand embarrassment (most often caused by yosuke) and will quietly slip away to random cats or origami folding

hungry, crunch crunch folks. probably needs chewelry bc he used to chew on his shirt collars when he was younger.

cleans up after everyone in the food court, constantly worries about them accidently hurting themselves. likely spends half of group conversations watching peoples hands

he canonically eats expired food, nanako plz help your brother

really clumsy, but people only notice after they decide that he is a cool person

video games are too chaotic for him

exhausted every night from the pure amount of masking he does, if a friend spends the night (or is like yosuke) they will know his more comfortable weirdo self (tho everyone knows hes a weirdo eventually)

hyperempathetic, sometimes just understands animals and children better than peeople his age or older

Yukiko

her jokes

she and souji get in ‘trouble’ together, she and joker commit crimes together

she and chie have to coordinate outfits, its important

actually understands metaphors, but does not understand people

like me, had no clue that creepy kid was flirting with her

she is very angry when she has meltdowns that might involve slamming doors and shouting. her parents call these ‘tantrums’ and ‘unfitting for a polite daughter’ but really thats because her meltdowns tend to be caused by arguments w her family after a long day of school and TV world traipsing

the metronome meme, except hers goes between Loudest Person in the Room to Quietest Pin Drop in the Planet. she is completely unaware of this

her atmosphere brightens when chie appears. that is not only the lesbian energy within her, but also because chie is like her Favorite Person

Cannot wear Pants. No (tho she wants to try it! but she puts them on and her soul instantly squashes)

happy flappy lesbian! watch out!

Naoto

the pouty face. all the time lskdfjlasdkf

hes really snappy sometimes and i love that for him. he and akechi should fight just to see what would happen (please read Bang Bang Shoot Shoot on AO3)

“do not touch me or my hat, thank you”

no one has ever seen him shutdown and no one ever will (except for his grandpa)(and kanji)(and rise)

probably likes certain food textures and will stand for nothing less, probably feels embarrassed about his preferences with friends

constantly jumps between ‘everybody hates me so i should act like them so they dont hate me’ to ‘i refuse to be anything but very comfortable as myself, and i dont care that im making you upset sir’

he and souji are the king and queen of subtle stims, but for unhappy reasons :(

does not make jokes. cannot joke around. understand? yes, do? no.

loose clothes are the only good clothes, but all tags and obtrusive seams will be obliterated by kanji tatsumi

not very empathetic so he probably comes off as an asshole to strangers (like when he throws away his classmates confession letters without reading them) but he tries so hard to sound comforting when his buds are struggling.

his understanding of others emotions/reactions come from his learning as a detective, which seems cold+clinical to others, especially compared to souji, whos completely unexpressive but very introverted people person

P3

Hamuko/Minako/Kotone

big personality!! very people-oriented!! koromaru and her are buddies!! when shes having a real bad time, shes very quiet and expressions turn off

interrupts herself in the middle of conversations all the time. no one knows where shes coming from. her brains is thousands of km ahead of her body

bouncey legs, swingin arms, twirlly skirt, little somersaults! when will she stop? never!

very obvious music stims with her hands and arms! people are like “oh there she goes! happy as usual!” shes listening to minatos heavy metal playlist

switches from exhausted to excited within milliseconds. no one can predict, not even her

SEES has to ask her for context all the time cuz she’ll just continue shit from 2 weeks ago without warning

professionals will assume shes very childish bc of how chipper she is, but she is beyond mature for her age and only feels comfortable enough to have serious conversations if a person has proved themself able to handle it

collects every little thing. her room is a mess and she has to get rid of most of it every time she moves :(

hates cleaning! smells bad, feels bad hhhhhgggg

dont let mitsuru-senpai see her bedroom

gets lost in the middle of conversations with others bc shes thinking about a story connected to one(1) word that was said earlier

 no sense of time and place, she just sees her friends and goes “ah, this is the right place, then” but junpei and akihiko are also lost so now theyre all screwed

Minato/Makoto/Sakuya

no talkies, no walkies

his story in the movies is him literally learning how to function around people he cares for

doesnt get jokes, expressions, body language, empathy, subtlety, metaphors, physical contact, or eye contact. aigis is probably the only person he truly understands right away

he is still nice to people because he doesnt see a reason not to be, but also he has very limited energy so only his senpai and old people get his most polite-kindnesses

cannot describe feelings for the life of him. the team wont know hes injured or sick until hes passed out

everything is too loud, time to drown it out with my loud ass music

rocking and chewing stims, ryoji is the first person to point him out for these subtle stims (not accusingly of course, just general pure curiosity and love for the uniqueness of humanity)

likes to cover his face with whatever is available, lives like a bat in a dark dry cave

will wear anything that has pockets and his blue/gray/black palette

sleepy at all times bc he never has much energy

when he was younger he probably needed a lot of support, especially after his parents died, because he wouldnt communicate like a neurotypical and would shutdown for hours in the middle of school without warning. probably missed a lot of lessons and field trips out of pure overstimulation

eating at all times. no preference, just whatevers closest

his meltdowns probalby include humming whining noises and curling up in a ball, which makes people want to touch him, but that is the LAST thing he wants. put a blanket on him! play some music! do not talk and do not expect him to speak

aigis is the only person who can touch him normally bc her hands are cold and he likes cold

never nude, feels mmmmmmmmm without clothes and probalby wears a full robe in the hotsprings

will not do things that take more than one step w/o someone else walking him thru it, which Same

[twilightknight17]

...today, on P5S...

...

Honestly, I talk a lot of shit about P5′s writing sometimes. Atlus made some exceptionally questionable writing choices in places. But one thing that P5 absolutely gets right is invoking the sort of emotion that draws you into the story.

With that said!

P5 is determined to make me want to stab actual human beings instead of Shadows. This is the second time now!

But first, I’ve got a boss fight to do.

Doing the mech part of Konoe’s boss fight again, it was actually easier the second time. I had a much better grasp of what I was doing, instead of flailing around frantically.

Konoe himself was still just as hard, but ultimately he was easier than Shadow Joker because it wasn’t a one-on-one duel. He still beat my ass, though; I think I used all of my rescue pills.

Once he goes down, Konoe starts going on about justice.

Don’t call me by my name like we’re friends. We never even introduced ourselves.

It’s interesting, because they admit to Konoe that what they’re doing isn’t without its flaws. But a world where no one can think for themselves is meaningless.

Konoe acknowledges that in his quest to eliminate evil, he ended up being the evil one. He also admits that he was the one who killed his father. He calls that “evil” too, which I don’t actually agree with. We saw what his father was like in the Trauma Cell. His father killed his mother, physically abused him, and threatened to kill him. I think, in that case, killing his father is a rational end result for someone in that situation. Not evil, just desperation.

The Thieves don’t contradict him, though. Just make some comments about how now he can make up for his actions. His Shadow returns to his real self, the Thieves return to the real world, and Zenkichi promises that as soon as they take Konoe in and get his confession, he’s going to arrest Owada, too.

With the case closed, the Thieves decide that it’s time to go back to Tokyo. But not before one last night in Osaka. The idea of leaving makes Sophia anxious, though, because she feels like she hasn’t learned enough about the heart. But Akira and Morgana reassure her that she can still stay with them, even after they return to Tokyo, and they’ll keep looking for answers about who she is.

Sometimes a family is a guy, a cat, and one of the guy’s four younger sisters. ^_^

Tenboto is the tower, and the game asks you to invite someone to the top. However, this time, you can only invite either the group of girls or the group of boys, so I took the boys, since I took Haru on the ferris wheel before.

Morgana isn’t pleased that we didn’t invite Ann.

However, I really don’t see the problem.

Look at how he’s looking at Yusuke! Even Ryuji can tell that we’re having a moment. :D

Afterwards, the whole squad headed off to “Universaland” to celebrate together.

I had no idea that there was a Universal Studios in Japan, but apparently there is, and it is in fact in Osaka! They compared it to their trip to Destinyland the year before, but thankfully this one went a lot better. Everyone had a good time! We had so much soda! We were so hungover the nex--what.

...what is it with Persona characters getting drunk off soda? XD I hope you kids at least played the King’s Game so the hangover wasn’t in vain.

Zenkichi shows up to let them know that Konoe’s in custody. He thanks them for everything that they’ve done, for both Akane and him, and says he’s telling them goodbye for now, but they’re welcome to visit whenever they want. He promises a tour of Kyoto next time. Yusuke will be so happy!

After hours on the road, lamenting that vacation is coming to an end, Sophia suggests detouring to Yokohama for a fireworks festival. So the Thieves finally get to see fireworks, and Sophia gets to experience them, too.

........don’t make me go home yet. I just want to spend time with my friends without the world ending.

After the fireworks, you get to speak to each of your friends, and get a trinket from each of them. Ann gives you a handmade friendship bracelet, Makoto a phantom thieves keychain that Akane made, Ryuji a Feather Red Duke mask to match his Yellow Ostrich, Yusuke his sketchbook that he filled with pictures of the trip, Morgana a scarf in phantom thief colors, Sophia a pair of custom gloves to match the scarf, Haru a teaspoon from Hokkaido with a flower pattern that symbolizes familial love, and Futaba a good luck charm for keeping families together.

STOP, P5S, you’re going to make me cry. Let these kids stay close.

Right before they’re about to leave, they take a group picture for Sophia, which we don’t get to see. Which sucks. But then she realizes that she can smell a Jail, and Zenkichi calls in a panic. It’s never a good sign when someone calls and leads with “Are you watching the news?”

EMMA’s servers were shut down, but apparently reactivated, and now a Jail is covering Tokyo all the way to the outskirts of Yokohama, and it’s just getting bigger. Zenkichi promises to meet us, and Lavenza opens a Velvet door because she wants to talk.

She’s... legitimately unnerved.

Thank you, P5S, for giving me the opportunity to comfort my youngest sister in some small way. Now let me out of this cell so I can actually give her a hug. With the context from Royal that she has actual nightmares about being ripped apart, this is heartbreaking.

She says that she regrets that she has to keep asking us for help, but the dialogue options let you reassure her that you’ll handle it, and that there’s thinking to worry about.

I appreciate having dialogue to actually reassure her more than I probably should.

Now...

LAST WARNING

If you’ve been reading along and don’t want the finale spoiled, DO NOT GO PAST THIS POINT. As soon as we leave for central Tokyo, we’re going 90mph and not slowing down.

If I didn’t have work in the morning, I’d have finished this damn game tonight. X’‘‘D Curse being a responsible adult.

After leaving the Velvet Room, Zenkichi’s waiting at the RV, and when you enter the RV, that’s when you get the warning above.

So we are off to Tokyo to figure out what the heck is happening with EMMA. And the core location is, exactly like I wanted...

LET’S CLIMB TOKYO TOWER, BABY.

People are crowded around the tower like mindless cultists. The Thieves are confused and unnerved, and then EMMA activates the navigation on its own and flings them into the Metaverse. LET’S SEE WHAT’S UP THIS TOWER.

...oh.

......oh no...

Ohhhhhhh no this is Mementos. Why is this Mementos. This is not a tower. Oh god. Why this.

Oh, we are incredibly fucked, what is this.

EMMA says calls itself the “Ark of the Covenant and the guide for all mankind.” This fucking AI thinks it’s a god. Holy hell. Human cognition really needs to cool it with elevating ordinary things to god status. We’re so tired. X’D

......I FUCKING KNEW THAT I DIDN’T TRUST THIS WOMAN. OH MY GOD.

She goes off about how EMMA brought her into this world to help it become a god. How Konoe teaching EMMA about cognitive psience allowed it to pass the usual boundaries of AI. How EMMA has been manipulating Konoe all along. How EMMA’s going to fulfill all of humanity’s desires.

Ichinose-san, may I suggest that you go hang out with Maruki? He has too much heart, and you have none. You’d complement each other perfectly, and then I can shove you both off a building.

The kids, obviously, reject this bullshit.

Logic over emotion, to the point of utter ridiculousness. She complains that people always want solutions to their problems, but that when the solution is offered, they turn it down.

Maybe that’s because your solution is mind control. At least Maruki wasn’t flagrantly puppeteering people.

“Li!” you cry, throwing up your hands at me. “Is this it? Is this why you want to stab her? Did you just admit that she’s worse than Maruki?”

To which I answer, “Oh, no. It’s the next bit that makes me want to stab her.”

After she straight-up admits that she has no emotions, she manipulated us right from the start, she was the one spying on the Monarchs, and that all of her cheer and friendliness is an act, the Thieves are ready to fight Ichinose. And Ichinose reveals why EMMA wanted her help specifically. Because not only did she program EMMA, she created Sophia as EMMA’s prototype.

And she can voice-override Sophia.

The Thieves freak out, the game throws us into a battle against a murder-mode Sophie, and none of your teammates will attack her. They just hang back or let her whale on them one at a time, and I didn’t know what to do, and I didn’t attack her either, and Yusuke got knocked out...

And then it went into a cutscene.

Joker took a yo-yo to the face and was actually bleeding, and that was enough to snap Sophia out of it. She starts clutching her head, stumbling back, and eventually stumbles right off the edge while apologizing to Joker. He lunges to catch her, misses, Ryuji grabs him, and all the Thieves turn on Ichinose.

Ichinose does not give a shit. She just comments that maybe that’s why EMMA used Sophia as a failsafe, because it knew we wouldn’t want to fight one of our own. Shut the fuck up. You killed my little sister. I know she’s probably going to be fine, but it’s the principle of the thing.

She summons some sort of giant red crystal and blasts the hell out of us, sending us flying down even further into the depths.

We found Sophia; she won’t cut back on, so we have to get out of here so Futaba can figure out what’s wrong with her. And then, I am coming back, I am beating that woman to a pulp, and then...

Well. It’s bound to be easier to kill an artificial god than a false one. :3

[electricea-archive]

jassi’s adventures with the persona 5 manga, volume 2, pt. 1!

this volume was actually a bit of a struggle to get but i got it, it’s in my hands, along with volume 3!!

-so last chapter, i complained about ryuji’s awakening being sort of jammed into the end volume 1.  well the first few pages of volume 2 more than make up for it by showing him kicking ass, taking names, and enjoying the hell out of himself - it’s nice to see this cocky and confident side to him that he has as skull.

-at one point, morgana jumps in and summons zorro to help out being like ‘can’t you do anything without me?’ and later goes on to call ryuji sloppy.  the start of a classic rivalry.  also morgana calls him blondie lol.

-also this must have slipped past me but unlike in the game, morgana isn’t there for ryuji’s awakening and is surprised to see that he’s a persona user.

-they have to be reminded of their goal to steal his treasure by morgana but given we’re barely a few pages in, they make their exit to the real world pretty quickly after.

-ryuji’s a lot more confident after awakening his persona - meanwhile cat!morgana turns up and claims he’d noticed something special about ryuji all along and how these two were all part of his infiltration plan.  sure, jan.

-though i do like how ryuji raises of the point as to why didn’t morgana just steal the treasure himself if that’s so imperative.

-ryuji takes charge of the calling card - everybody thinks it’s a prank and it features his trademark crappy artwork but i do like how his wording ‘to the creepy bastard of lust, suguru kamoshida’.  get ‘im ryuji.

-oh there’s more - ‘we know how shitty you really are taking your base desires out on helpless students, thus we have decided to steal those twisted desires and make you confess your crimes, we will arrive today to commit the deed, prepare thyself, signed the phantom thieves of hearts’

-akira must have helped with writing that lmao - that or ryuji’s a lot more well spoken than i thought.

-ann wonders if it’s because of shiho, meanwhile kamoshida flips the fuck out and demands to know who did this.  he starts accusing random students and rips that shit off of the bulletin board.  yep, he’s rattled lol.

-the group prepares to end the castle, but ann turns up - even in phantom thief gear, she immediately recognizes skull as ryuji and i guess came to the conclusion that they were the ones who wrote the calling card because kamoshida freaked out so much.

-she wants in on in the action too and there’s a funny exchange where ryuji is trying to explain how they have to go through a palace and she’s like ‘...a palace? yeah, i can see that.  it’s a castle.  so what?’

-morgana already crushing on her but meanwhile she’s just wondering how the hell that cat talked.  there’s a funny little callback to the ‘castle vs palace’ line with ann, who seems to be getting confused by the two.

-ryuji just kind of tells her to get lost and starts shoving her away - she looks to akira for help but he’s just like ‘we’ll take care of kamoshida’ - though to be fair, he does mention feeling bad about it.

-there’s a lot of castle parkour, ryuji nearly slips and falls off the side of a wall.

-a lot of the following pages are game accurate - morgana loves treasure, they grab it and try to carry the giant crown, kamoshida spots them, though he offers to trade them ann (who i guess at some point he captured) for it.

-the next chapter is ann flashback one, lots of references to her alienation by her classmates, they think she sticks out like a sore thumb because she’s not fully japanese, her hair and her eyes are too different, they treat her like a foreigner, they find her really aloof and generally just a lot of gossiping and whispering going on around her.

-‘this is what it’s like for me every day.’

-i can’t tell if this a first meeting between ann and shiho but it looks like they’re in art class and shiho tells ann her art sucks - but then says she finds it really unique and weird.  ann bursts of laughing at this and it looks to be the start of a best friendship here?

-she’s strapped to that crucifix looking thing - kamoshida grabs her face which just makes me shudder, and it’s mentioned she went back in and got ambushed by the cards.  he’s still trying to convince them to trade her for the crown.

-...they give it back - aww, such sweet guys, but asshole kamoshida never planned on being honest and calls ann an ‘interesting new toy to play with’ and says how he likes seeing the looks of helpless frustration on people.

-he grabs ann’s face AGAIN - asking what fun he can have with his new toy and cognitive ann makes her entrance basically saying that he can’t let ann talk back to him like that.

-i know that cognition is more or less well explained but it’s still disgusting that kamoshida’s perception of ann is that of a skimpily dressed, obedient, mindless sex slave.  the whole idea of cognitive ann is just so repulsive to me.

-ann rightfully calls him insane - kamoshida doesn’t like that and THREATENS TO DISSECT HER IN FRONT OF THEM, WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK.

-he goes on another disgusting tangent about how everyone is his slaves and calls shiho a stupid girl, saying there are more slaves where she came from and she was just a poor substitute for ann.  he says he had shiho ‘take her place’ and while it’s never outright said, i’m sure you can infer what happened and to put the icing on the cake, he blames it on ann saying that if she would have just graciously accepted his advances, none of this would have happened.

-he asks her if she thinks she actually has the right to feel angry - wtf man??

-ryuji and akira give her a pep talk saying how they’re nobody’s slaves and neither is she, even before they become phantom thieves together, they’re such good friends to her.

-ann’s had about enough of everything and is getting pissed off - i think there’s an awakening coming on!!

-her awakening is actually really cool, though with the black and white color scheme, her mask gives me catwoman vibes but carmen? super beautiful. ._.

-her tangent is more or less the same in the game - he took everything from shiho, she’s gonna take everything from him.  still super badass!!

-the first four phantom thieves have assembled - and kamoshida is not taking this well!

-he morphs into his shadow form and devours his own guards and from here, the next few pages are more or less the boss fight in manga form.

-there’s a panel where joker saves ann and they’re like staring into each other’s eyes, ryuji’s in the background being like ‘i helped too! where’s my thanks?!’

-kamoshida drinks from his giant drink glass and he’s all healed up.

even though the book feels about the same size as volume 1, it feels like there’s a whole lot more to go through with it, so i’ll be tackling it in parts, i think.  this volume doesn’t even end with kamoshida’s defeat, that’s only about halfway through - and they still have time to introduce yusuke afterwards, though i’m pretty sure that all of the actual madarame stuff is properly covered in volume 3, but yeah, ann was handled a lot better in this version, she got a lot more screntime, a lot more badass scenes, i liked the development with her.  kamoshida continues to be an immense pile of shit and it’s just fun watching ryuji grow more confident in himself as a phantom thief!

[bl00dgutsgl0ry]

As The World Caves In (Akechi Goro x Akira Kurusu)

Pairing - Akechi Goro x Akira Kurusu

Smut/Fluff/Angst - Lots and Lots of angst on this one I haven’t written and angst fic in a while.

Warnings - Canon typical gore/horror, and swearing

Additional Info - I edited the way the story plays out a bit and basically removed the fact that everyone knows that Akechi was going to betray them. It makes it more interesting lol.

    Akira hadn’t known many friends before being forced to move to Shibuya and do parole there. He was always very quite, but was always soaking up his surroundings like a sponge. He had his own personality most definitely, but it’s always been hidden and covered with the personality he pieces together from what he believes people will like. So getting thrust into this unknown situation that hadn't even been his fault was a very big shock to this built up personality. Not to mention being forced to make friends and relationships that would help him. Was it shallow to only make friendships he thought was beneficial to him? Sure you could say that, but in the end he actually started to depend on these people and greatly appreciated these people for helping him grow. 

    But that's enough reminiscing, the Phantom Thieves were currently in the middle of a meeting, deciding if they were ready to send the infamous calling card to Sae Nijima. Akira was used to seeing his other seven teammates and friends, but there was a newcomer who he had gotten quite close to: Goro Akechi. Akechi had been around Akira for quite some time making his first appearance when Ann Ryuji Morgana and Akira all went to the broadcasting station for a school field trip; Akira making himself known to the detective when he answered a question. Ever since then, Akechi would accidentally run into the taller raven haired boy. Each time they would run into each other it would make Akira’s heart flutter. The fans of Akechi were correct; he was incredibly charismatic and not to mention, exceptionally attractive. Whilst hiding behind his indifferent blank facial expression, he would eventually become happy to see the detective; even though he was progressively becoming more of a thorn in the sides of the Phantom Thieves.

    The group, after in depth conversation about whether or not they were ready to send the calling card, decided they should wait and send it on a specific day; per Akechi’s request. Akechi had a plan, even though most of the Phantom Thieves didn't exactly trust him, he was the best shot they had. Eventually most of them dispersed except for Yuskue, Akechi, and obviously Morgana. Akira decided to make them all coffee seeing as how Sojiro didn't really care what he did as long as he didn’t take too much coffee. They made small talk with each other before Yusuke left to go home and Morgana decided to retire to bed early, leaving Akechi and Akira in the shop alone with each other. They continued to small talk, even though Akira wasn't exactly paying attention to what was being said, he was paying attention to how Akechi looked. The way the dimly lit golden light of the café, and the almost shimmering light of the moon bouncing off of Akechi in such a pleasing way made him look so ethereal; almost like an angel sent from heaven.

    “Well, I must be going now if I want to catch the last train back to my home. I appreciate to coffee Kurusu it truly does get better every time I stop by.” Akechi said suddenly after a sudden gap of silence; a pleasant smile gracing his face. 

    “Be careful Goro, and I’ve said it before, Akira is fine.” The raven haired boy retuned the pleasant smile before taking Akechi’s empty coffee cup and going to wash it. He heard Akechi slowly gather his things, then the soft ring of the bell on the door alerting anyone inside that it has been open. After a beat the bell chimed once more and the door closed. Once Akira was done washing his dishes and putting them away, he left to lock the café door before retiring to his room to sleep.

    After that, the days leading up to the delivery of the calling card went by in what felt like seconds. Of course he spent the days hanging out with his teammates, getting closer to them giving him more benefits; though he did genuinely enjoy their company. Sadly to Akira’s misfortune though there were no signs of Akechi anywhere. He was probably getting ready still, as much as he didn't want to admit it he did miss him. His polite looking smile and the way his hair was always so soft looking and well kept. But oh well, they’ll have plenty of time to spend with each other finishing off Sae’s palace.

    And then the day was upon them, the day where Sae Nijima’s hear would be changed forever; that is as long as they were successful. They had Makoto deliver the calling card the day before, so this was it. Their only chance. Everything was going to be fine, they would do what they always did and they would be in and out of there within the day. 

    And that's how it went, there was of course a hiccup or two where they had realized that of course the shadow of Sae was cheating, but with Joker’s quick wit there were able to quickly figure out what she was doing and get past it. It difficult for Makoto to see her sister the way she was, but with everyone giving her a reassuring smiling and her subconsciously knowing that this was for the best, see was able to get through everything and talk to her sister for a moment.

    “The investigation will now be able to proceed. The suspicion against you will be lifted as well. This deal we made... was a great experience for me.” Akechi spoke gracefully after the battle had ended and Yusuke and Ryuji found Sae’s treasure. Akechi and Akira both nodded to each other, in mutual acknowledgment and respect. Akira could feel his bond growing with Akechi, this new found trust in him.

    “Alright we don’t need to stay here any longer..!” Morgana piped up, then looked at Makoto asking if she was alright. She gave a quick assured nod.

    “I am.. Let’s go.” Makoto stood from her kneeling position in front of her sister’s fallen shadow.

    “Huh?! Enemy readings! When did they...?! They’re gathering outside!” Futaba’s scan popped up in front of her as she looked through it, trying to asses what the hell was going on.

    “Look at those numbers...!” Yusuke said disbelief prevalent in his voice.

    “There are more coming?! This’ll be dangerous if we don't do something..!” The panic was visible in everyone, they knew that if they got surrounded they would be done for.

    “A group this large would be discovered immediately, so we would need to split up. Although we would need for someone to act as a decoy... No but that's too dangerous..!” Even Makoto was frantic as she desperately tried to think of a way out of this situation.

    “I’ll do it.” Akira’s voice was calm, but powerful and confident. He knew what he was doing and he needed his teammates to believe in him as well.

    “Joker?! Are you seriously planning on distracting them by yourself?!”

    “Let him do it Queen, he’s quite but once he’s made up his mind he wont take no for an answer.” Ryuji knew Akira well, seeing as how he was his first friend throughout this entire process and Ryuji knew that Akira would be okay. He had to be.

    With that Ryuji handed over the brief case, and with a couple more reluctant parting words from just about everyone, he was on his way. He needed to make sure they were safe. Akira gave a theatrical performance as he distracted the guards, making sure it was flashy and everyone knew of his presence. 

    As he bobbed and weaved through guards, finally moving in the shadows he made it back to the main room. His only way out? Through the giant stained glass window. And just with this he was spotted, what better way that to make his escape with an audience of people who were trying to capture him? He jumped up on the railing and ran towards the widow.

    “See ya.” With a quick flourish, he dived out the window and landed on the ground below. But before he could even realize, hundreds of spotlights were aimed at him, and even more police officers were surrounding him. He tried to get away but as he was climbing the latter he was knocked back down with the butt of someone's gun. 

    “Didn’t expect to find some kid. You have your teammate to thank for all of this. You were sold out.” Sold out? Sold out?! How could he have been... Who would’ve-

    Akechi...

    Eventually, he woke up, back to where everything began, the interrogation room. All the questions Sae threw at him as he refused to sell his teammates out. God he hoped they at least were able to get out. Sae’s time eventually ran out and she had to leave. After her Akechi himself entered the room, and it made Akira’s stomach drop. Why did this affect him so much... Akira watched as Akechi quickly swiped the silenced gun from the police officer and shot him, making Akira flinch.

    “What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Akira couldn’t help but lash out finally snapping. He had trusted Akechi so much, and of course that was probably his downfall but he couldn’t help it. Akechi was so perfect and he finally felt truly connected to him but what the fuck was this?!

    “What is wrong with me?! Tough talk coming from someone who is tied up screaming at a guy with a gun! You’re gonna regret being born. I don’t understand how you have always had it some much better than me. I trained myself day in and day out to be fucking perfect; but you who is nothing but attic scum showed up and had immediately gathered so much attention. Being worshiped by others.” Akechi swung at Akira, giving him a strong punch directly into the temple making him see stars. Akira groaned from the hit. Everything was so blurry, he didn’t know if it was because there were tears in his eyes or if it was because he just got knocked in the side of the head; probably both.

     Where did everything go wrong? Akira physically couldn’t comprehend what was going on. Akechi was his friend, wasn’t he? Why was everything so backwards now? Whilst he was in his head he hadn’t realized that he was staring at the ground while Akechi was going on and on about how much he hated him.

     “Are you even fucking listening to me?! Are you so fucking cocky that even now, as you sit before me tied up and helpless, you still think you’re better than me?!” Akechi’s voice was becoming raspier by the second as he screamed at the top of his lungs. His vocal cords straining to keep up with his howling. It sounded like the man was tearing his own vocal cords to shreds and he probably was. Akira didn’t even look up at Akechi though, just kept his eyes trained to the floor which enraged the psychotic man above him even more. He couldn’t even register what was happening before Akechi shot him in the knee.

     “Will that get your worthless attention attic trash?!” Akira’s ears were ringing, the adrenaline in his body only barely covering up the burning pain in his knee. Akira cried out, pleading Akechi to stop yet he was only met with maniacal laughter. Laughter that was ripping out of a man’s chest, tearing at his lungs and vocal cords in the process. Akechi screeched as he waved the gun around frantically, and once Akira shakily lifted his head took look at the man he once trusted with his life, Akechi thrusted the gun right between his eyes and pressed hard; throwing Akira’s head back.

     “Beg. Beg me not to blow your fucking brains out like the worthless piece of trash you are.” Akira’s eyes were blown wide open, his breath shaky while his tongue quickly darted out to anxiously wet his lips. He genuinely had to contemplate whether or not it was worth it. What if the other phantom thieves were already on their way to help him? He couldn’t lose his dignity like that. He knew he wasn’t exactly in the position to be choosing whether or not losing his dignity was worth losing his life, but for fucks sake he worked his ass off to get the respect he has now, he will not lose it.

     “Bite me.” Turns out that wasn’t the best answer. Because as soon as “me” left Akira’s mouth, a bullet entered his brain. So much for Joker’s dignity.

[absolutelybifurious]

yall im almost done iwth persona 5 and i just want t omake a fucking THREAD about all the reasons ryuji sakamoto is the most underrated amazing character in the entire world

-within 30 seconds of meeting protag he risks his life for him -he desperately wants to go back to the metaverse to help a bunch of ppl that weren’t real -he wanted to go back despite having no means of fighting -yet REFUSED to let ann come bc it was too dangerous -brings a ridiculous model gun in some adorable attempt to be helpful and in an incredibly plot twist  ends up being helpful -when he realizes its helpful he offers to take joker to the shop just bch es that fucking nice -literally tells you to be careful not to fall when you’re jumping on things -decides yall are friends and asks joker not to ignore him bc hes so used tob eing treatedl ike shit despite having already RISKED HIS LIFE FOR JOKER -does everything in his power to help ann once she gets captured in the metaverse -trips while running for his lilfe and still his first instinct is to reassure ann and protag that everything is fine -bears all the responsibility of letting the track team down despite being a teenager who REACTED TO ABUSE -never expects or receives an apology about what happened to his leg -is the only person other than the protag who doesnt get his misfit label removed and he NEVER complains about it -loves his mother so much and will do anything for her -has a super relatable temper that flares up but generally is followed by a sincere apology -tells ann that he doesnt want to go on a date with her as a “reward” for helping her,,,YALL -when he was in middle school he spent his subway fare money on a fucking souvenir for his MOTHER so ann had to spot him the way back -never gets even remotely jealous about protag being the leader -says things like WHATDYA THING when he learns a new combat move,,, -is the only person who doesn’t accuse makoto of being useless and reckless and therefore making her guilt worse -in fact steers the group away from blaming her at all by convincing them to move on -he says sorry in a slightly broken voice when he gets healing in combat  -also says ha LOSER when he dodges an attack in combat -apologizes carefully and profusely to futaba when he can’t understand her while she’s mumbling in a closet  -actually handles that terrifying mask she wears pretty well all things considered -never gets resentful when people accuse him of having no charm -getse really irritated when a guy from the tv station starts blatantly hitting on ann and not out of jelaousy’s sake -his first response to what kind of girl you like is “a nice one” -he wants so bad to room with the protag in hawaii -literally everything in hawaii excites him and he is adorable the ENTIRE TIME they’re en route -he kicks at the ground when people compliment him which is like never -he gets the shit kicked out of him during his confidant while the protag does jackshit and he doesnt even seem to hold it against him because he :) thinks :) deserves :) it :) -when he tells yusuke about his past, he leaveso ut ev erything bad that happened to him alnd only included how awful he was and no one corrects him and hes?? fine with it???  -he censors himself by saying effing and not fucking -he tries so hard to contain his temper like in the bat h scene when hes like itll be fine ^___^ and then he just FLIPS and loses it and has to leave, like same buddy -the little side hug he gives joker when he comes back from the Big Plot Twist -don’t even talk to me about the whole ship scene -he gives joker a damn gift after they spend time at the culture festival bc he got him out of looking dumb -HE GETS STAGE FRIGHT -he tells futaba how amazing she is like every time she does anything -in fact hes constantly complimenting everyone, even morgana when he does something to help the team and yet NO ONE RETURNS THE FAVOR -when futaba first joins the group and yulsuke upsets her and shes just sending emojis ryuji is the one who gets it and says yusuke needs to apologize  -the quote “has medjed been taken care of? or more important, is futaba okay?”  -hes honestly so gentle about all the other characters and like... trying to take care of them it hurts me -he calls joker c ute when he gets excited????  -he also offers to protect joker on a roller coaster when he thinks hes scared to go by himself -he says hes gonna be so fast that joker won’t even be able to see him and then gets distressed bc would he be showing joker anything then? -he tells joker theres a place for him too, right next to him, and then even adds, or maybe ahead? because thats how much he respects joker and doesent love himself :))) -he calls himself an idiot when everyone got tricked and then calls you to apologize for getting upset and THEN says he needs to apologize for futaba and haru bc he KNOWS they would react to it -i’m not even there yet and i can’t imagine what im going to,,, think -yall theres so much extra stuff i cant deal with it -im gonna make this longer eventually bc i love ryuji sakamoto more than life itself YALL DONT UDNERSTAND -you -don’t -under -STAND

everyone else (especially ak*chi) can choke ryuji is literally the best friend and the best,,, everything HES THE BEST YOU CAN’T YOU DONT UDNERSTAND MY FELEINGS

[monasatlantis]

My second review of Persona 5 (SPOILER!)

After my team is almost complete and I actually finished the fourth palace of the game I guess (and hope) that I am halfway through the game, so it is time for another review.

Lets start with a few of my complains from the last time. First of all, I’ve got used to most of the stuff, figured out a lot of the thing I did not get after the first palace. I still think that some thing should have been better explained, but I guess learning by doing is a thing in games too. I also figured finishing the palaces as fast as possible and then make use of the free time you have is the best idea for that game, since there is always a lot of stuff to do and not enough time to do it. So I try not to spend more then one day to secure a route to the treasure, even if it takes me 4 hours and a little help from the internet to get through a palace. But then again, time is rare in that game and no one really tells you about it. And it can get so so damn complicated suddenly. When I finished the first  palace I was almost bothered by only Ryuji asking me to spend time with him over and over again almost every day. After the second palast I had barely 3 people to talk to but focused on Ann because I wanted to date her. Now, after the third palace, there are like 5 people constantly wanting to meet with me and I don’t know whish one I should give my freetime, since I also need to do other stuff once in a while. So you basically went from having “nothing to do”, to “I am always busy” and no one was preparing you for it. I feel like I should have handled my free time totally different from the very start and there is no way I am starting over, because I am so happy that I finally made it this far. So year, my complain about the fact that important stuff about the gameplay-mechanics weren’t introduced properly... or at all.

I few of my complains about the plot got erased do to the fact that the plotholes are filled more and more. What still pisses me off is that despite everyone knows that Joker is under prohibition and it even gets mentioned multiple times by the others that it would be bad for him to get in trouble with the police again, they constantly put him in situations were he could get cough by the police. They even risk for him to get thrown out by boss by forcing stuff on him. Like keeping the get, or giving Yusuke a home or basically breaking into Sojiros house. What kind of friends are these people? It is like they couldn’t care less. I mean they made Joker the leader and yes, leaders do most of the stuff but they still should consider his position and the danger they put him in. And it pisses me off that the game makes it look like everyone (including Joker himself) is basically begging for him to get arrested again. What the actual fuck?

Once again, I have to mention that I am angry about the romance-stuff in the game. The game is actually set up in a really stupid way when it comes to this. You can date someone, but in the actual storyline, no one will acknowledge this. Ryuji mentions that no one has a boyfriend or a girlfriend, why my girlfriend Ann is sitting right next to me and no one says anything. At the beach Ryuji basically is showing that he want to grab her... boobs and Joker says nothing. When Ryuji decides they should hit on girls to show Ann what  they are capable of, Joker goes along. Like... what man on earth would try to prove to his girlfriend that he can successfully hit on other girls if he wants to? But then again, the game is not acknowledging that. Instead it goes on with the story the way it wants, obviously hinting that Ryuji and Ann were meant to be and that Makoto as well as Futaba are totally into Joker. They don’t even give a damn to make it look more logical. Like... why did Ann and Joker not talk about if they tell the group that they are a couple or not? If they would agree they won’t tell them, it would make more sense. Also... there are scenes that give Ann and Joker reasons to be jealous to the core, why not give them a cute scene together in which they explain to each other that “Ryuji is just a friend” and “I am just using that hot doctor so that we can get cheap medicine.” and then telling each other they only love each other? That would make those scenes look less like cheating. Also Mona who is totally into Ann doesn’t give a damn that I am spending more time with “Lady Ann” then with the others. I have invited her to my room multiple times and even “took her down” if you know what I mean and Mona, who is living at my house, is not getting it? How can this even be? If they can not write the romance into the plot, then they should leave it be. Point. And as I said before... I just don’t get the hype. I think the Idea of the game is not bad, having this slice of Teenager-life game mixed up with a fantasy and battle element. And adding romance is a good idea too. But if those things don’t work well together, then they should not do it at all.

[doktorpeace]

P5 Update after the break I’m very very far into the game so there will be heavy spoilers, just read through later if you aren’t at least in Mid November:

I guess first I’ll give an overview of my progress and general playstyle before moving onto thoughts about characters, social links, and the story. It’s currently 11/14 in game, so I’ll be delving into Sae’s dungeon soon. Like I mentioned before I’ve maxed 4/5 social stats, everything except Kindness which is at rank 4. Including the Confidants which will max out on their own eventually but have not yet (Fool, Magician, Judgement and I’m going to assume Justice) I’ve completed 13 social links with Haru’s (Rank 7), The Twin Wardens’ (Rank 8), Iwai’s (Rank 7), and Futaba’s (Rank 2) pretty likely to finish before the game is over. The only one I’m concerned for is Futaba’s since I’ve shamefully raised hers so little. Thus far I’ve completed every Palace in just one visit a piece, discounting any story forced segments like the first couple visits to Kamoshida and Madarame’s Palaces. I’ve really liked this game’s schedule tbh. Overall while I feel some of the story segments take up too much time, specifically during October, I don’t mind so much because I’ve gotten a lot done on a near completely blind first playthrough, and there’s still more I can do. While initially I was worried that social stats took too long to level up I feel it successfully threads the needle between 3′s “They’ll cap without effort” and 4′s “Fuck you for trying” approach for first time runs. They take effort and dedication, but like I said I’ve maxed nearly all of them. I also like how different confidant relationships will help improve your social stats as well, it’s a great secondary incentive to max certain ones and to stick with them. On top of that, there are more major barriers that require certain social stats and while some feel a little arbitrary (maxed charm for Makoto past rank 5) it makes sense to incentivize players to spend time on them as well. Another improvement to Confidants I enjoy over previous social links is how they all give a variety of skills. I know I focused on Hifumi’s and Kawakami’s way more than I might have otherwise just because their skills are so good and varied. Hifumi’s in particular add a lot of tactical depth. On the opposite end though, I know I ended up putting Ohya and Chihaya on the backburner because their skills weren’t that useful, though I certainly got a lot of use out of Chihaya’s social stat booster readings. Honestly, I just wish I had taken the time to max Sojiro’s. I like him a lot but he’s only at rank 3 because I spent the time I could have spent with him in the early game on my social stats. *sad trombone* For transparency, I’ve completed: Makoto’s, Yusuke’s, Ann’s, Ryuji’s, Takemi’s, Kawakami’s, Hifumi’s, Mishima’s, and Yoshida’s, and then another 3-4 will max automatically. I’ve enjoyed them all thoroughly, Yoshida’s in particular is one of my favorite non-party member Social Links in the entire franchise. I also like how Akira’s dialogue with women is much more respectful and natural than Yu’s or Minato’s was. He gets a lot more dialogue that doesn’t have sexual tension and feels like what an actual person would say, which leads to great character relationships and dynamics between him and characters like Ann, Makoto, and Hifumi even if you elect not to date them. In some cases I’d even say that his relationship dynamic is stronger if you do not date them, particularly with Futaba and Ann. (please don’t kill me avaterem if you’re reading this) This isn’t to say that electing to date one of them is bad or lesser per se, I just feel like there was a great dynamic between him and Ann as Just Friends which honestly I didn’t feel was there between Minato and Yukari or Yu and Rise, for instance.  Combat wise this game’s been a little on the easy side but I’ve enjoyed it a lot. I’ll definitely play new game+ through on hard or maybe even higher, we’ll see. All the party members fill unique niches and the greater variety of skills this game has helps keep them all fresh. Nobody overlaps unlike with 3 and 4 so that’s great. The Palace Bosses have all had really great fights, though I feel visually Kamoshida’s was still the most impressive because it was very out there comparatively. Still, they all fit thematically with who you’re fighting and they’ve all been very fun. Ever since she joined Makoto has been on the team and I just swap around the two members who aren’t Akira or Makoto. Generally it’s been a good move because she’s an extremely well balanced tank with good spread damage and support skills. The Palaces themselves have also been very enjoyable, they’ve each taken at least a somewhat different approach to design and I like that so far. Kamoshida’s has a good number of mandatory stops to keep you from getting worn out, and otherwise goes fairly easy since it’s the tutorial level basically. Madarame’s requires a mandatory stop to do stuff in real life which was neat and otherwise its level design was super cool and well realized thematically. Kaneshiro’s is a gauntlet through, it’s super long and fairly tough for its time in the story but there’s nothing stopping you except your own pacing and skill from actually just completing it in one go. Its level of difficulty is consistent throughout with no real spikes anywhere, it’s also the dungeon I had the most trouble keeping a low alertness rating in because it has a lot of unique mechanics. Futaba’s Palace is similar, though its difficulty is very spike-y. The dungeon itself isn’t too long, but the enemy mobs are generally speaking a good bit higher level than you are and many of them are only weak to PSI skills, which only Joker can have, or are weak to nothing at all. It’s the only dungeon that I made heavy use of just running away from encounters in. Most recently was Okumura’s Palace which is honestly one of my favorites. Its a great puzzle-dungeon that’s incredibly front loaded with challenge. If you can’t figure out that the worker drones are weak to fire then you’re in for an extremely bad time. On top of that several of the normal enemies in the first area are immune to regular attacks and guns, then it makes you fight a lot of unforgiving sub bosses up front but rewards you with an area where all the enemies are weak to physical attacks and guns. Then Haru really comes into play in spite of being a bit weaker than the others by virtue of lacking baton pass, the nearer you get to the end the more enemy types are weak to PSI and Gun skills, which Haru will just chew through. Overall it’s really well designed, but definitely much easier than 3 and 4. I’ve only had one game over happen and it was to a very unfortunate string of criticals. On a side note: Mementos is a nice bone throw to people who liked Tartarus a lot, though because of how it works it’s never challenging. I don’t have a lot to say on it, but I have a sneaking suspicion it’s gonna be the true final dungeon we do where we fight god or whatever because this is a Persona game so I know we’re gonna fight a god at some point, probably after the story mostly ends and we time skip to March. The story’s been very good so far. I was wondering when we’d get into the meat of it and oh boy October really delivered. There’s been this tension about the whole game because like, the first thing you learn is that you fucked up and got caught. You’re recounting what all happened to the prosecutor who’s in charge of your case. It’s flowed well and while a couple of the early segments, like within the first hour mostly, were somewhat stilted I’ve felt that way about every atlus product I’ve ever played. It’s just their weakpoint in storytelling as a company. This game does a great job not leaving things hanging, basically everything I’ve wondered about has been addressed in some way, even down to “Jeez Ryuji and Morgana are being really hostile towards each other” becomes an actual plot point and I like that a lot. Which btw Morgana running away called me the fuck out because like yeah, I’d totally benched him more or less in favor of the human party members since Yusuke joined. Since then I know I’ve been using him more not because I felt bad but because it made me appreciate having him more. I’ll do a full write up on the story once I’m totally done, all I really have to say right now is I haven’t trusted Akechi one fucking iota all game and that hasn’t changed now.  He’s a good character, but he’s sus as fuck and I’m waiting to fight him as a boss later. If he ends up just being an actually good boy and not betraying us I’ll eat my hat. But I’m dead fucking certain that he’s Future Prime Minister Shido’s darknet hitman who goes and assassinates people for him using the Metaverse. I’ve already caught Akechi in a lie, he said he only received his persona a month ago but that’s BULLSHIT because he could understand what Morgana was saying all the way back in May. He’s known about and been able to access the Metaverse for a long time. The only thing I’ve really not had addressed yet is why exactly was Akira accepted at this school? Kobayakawa mentioned it was because of ‘outside influence’ at the start of the game and that still hasn’t been addressed. The Phantom Thieves are great. Easily my favorite player group of the three people actually care about between SEES, The Investigation Team, and now these guys. They have a great set of dynamics and relationships, and you get a ton more interparty interaction and dialogue thanks to the text chat logs. They’ve all been great and it’s neat seeing the nuances of their relationships both as a group and individually. Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean I like either other group less now, but after P4 neatly sorted the investigation team into sets of two all game it’s refreshing to see them all interact with each other directly and often. They’re all interesting and good characters. Morgana’s improved a lot. I already liked him better than Teddie, but after the Okumura arc of the story he’s improved a lot. I like him a good bit, but I’ll still wait to talk about him in full until the story’s over. Ryuji’s still great. He’s the ‘your first and best friend’ of the game. Compared one to one I probably don’t like him as much as Junpei but he’s real close. Obviously he blows Yosuke out of the water because he’s actually a good and enjoyable character. Ryuji’s dates are also really great, he’s just an earnest, good, vulgar boy trying his best. His hot headed-ness has actually been a detriment for the group a couple of times, which is good because him shouting about being Phantom Thieves in public and being overly combative toward Morgana (for understandable enough reasons) SHOULD come up. Still, he shows great growth and humility over the course of the story, particularly when he apologizes to Morgana and after he gets angry during a meeting and scares Haru and Futaba by punching some furniture he tells Akira that it made him feel shitty and he’s going to apologize to them individually. He’s great, I love him, and he’s strong in combat to boot. Ann is still the explosive, great, multifaceted character she was and I like her even more now that I’ve finished her Confidant relationship. She’s a very good character and honestly the driving force behind a lot of P5′s feminist messages. She’s a great character who can be silly, friendly, and serious all at the same time and it doesn’t feel like she’s whipping around from one personality to another, she’s just really well realized. One of my favorite things about her is that she’s allowed to be angry, she’s allowed to be pissed off and shout and rage against society in the same way as Ryuji. She’s never as loud as him, but it’s still great. As a party member she’s a little weaker than the others, mostly because he gun fucking sucks lol. That said she has a great mix of offense and utility, I just wish her speed were a bit higher. Yusuke’s even better now that I’ve taken him on like, 4 dates and finished his Confidant relationship. Like, putting aside that he’s obviously gay for a moment there is way more erotic and romantic tension between him and Akira than there is between Akira and most other characters. His dialogue, the way they interact, Akira’s response options and what motions he makes around him, it’s all very homoerotic and it makes me even more confused as to why he’s not romanceable. He has more date locations you can take him on than several of the romance options, just make him a full romance please Atlus. Aside from that, I love his character, he’s great. As a character he’s also great representation for people on the autism spectrum, imo. This game never outright says “Yusuke is autistic” but it’s extremely obvious he’s intended to be on the spectrum given some of his dialogue, behavior, and the particular use of the word ‘eccentric’ and ‘eccentricities’ in regards to him and only him. Japanese games don’t like saying shit like that outright but it’s totally clear if you just pay attention. His Confidant Relationship is also one of my favorites in the game. You get a great look at his life circumstances, some of his philosophical beliefs, and you get to see this great maturity come about as he takes it all in and turns it into his art. I think it was really meaningful that his final art piece for that competition was just him going back to the canvas he started on and making something more out of it. He’s a well rounded character and is also one of my favorite combat party members because he’s so fucking strong. His damage output is absurd to be frank and his followup attack is one of my favorites, he just instantly kills whatever enemy has the most health on the field. It’s great. Makoto’s a total babe tbh... She’s got the punk biker aesthetic when you’re in the metaverse, her weapons of choice are her fists and revolvers, she does the whole ‘Pretend we’re dating and whoops we just don’t stop’ thing. She’s a little socially awkward but not totally, she’s the boss friend and voice of reason, though she isn’t beyond jokes and she’s just great. I’m weak, she’s powerful, I love this character. It also helps that she’s clearly the secondary protagonist of the game in the same way that Mitsuru and Naoto were before her, so she gets a lot of nice extra focus in the story. Not so much as to detract from the others, but her being Sae’s sister naturally makes her interactions with her sister the main way we see Sae characterized. I’ve got a lot to say about her but I can’t really get it into words right now. I’ll talk about her more later cause some drama’s gonna go down I’m sure of it. Futaba’s the character I was most worried about going in, but I’ve been happily proven wrong. I was worried she’d just be your NEET Japanese Gamer Waifu and she’s absolutely not. I mean, she is literally a NEET Japanese Gamer Girl, but the story doesn’t sexualize her nor does it make her the ‘obvious’ romance like how Yukari and Rise were in 3 and 4. She’s a character with paranoid schizophrenia for christsake and they manage to not only handle that well, but they kept the integrity of her character all throughout it and make her own effort the reason she improves, not the phantom thieves magically fixing her. I’m still not over it. I haven’t done much of her confidant relationship, but I do really like what I’ve seen of her. She’s driven and works hard, but she’s got her limits and is trying hard to broaden her horizons. She’s very comedic as well in the text logs but in a way that makes sense for someone her age and background. Her relationship with the others is a little stilted, but it doesn’t feel awkward, it makes sense because really she only interacts to any major degree with Akira, Yusuke, and Morgana. And finally we have Haru! I love her, she’s so fucking cute and such a sweet character. It’s kind of funny how she’s almost the same as Mitsuru but is so different. They’re both 1%ers who are the sole daughters and heirs to a conglomerate, are set up for an aranaged marriage they do not want, and whose dads die suddenly. Plus they’re both Empress Arcana. Yet the major difference is Mitsuru’s dad was supportive and she was prepared to inherit her company, where Haru has neither of those things. She was a passenger to her dad’s corrupt will and suddenly has all of this thrust upon her. I think it’s neat how similar they are in concept yet they’re totally different. I haven’t completed her confidant relationship yet but so far I like how down to earth it is. She just needs someone she can trust and talk with about her life issues. It’s cute seeing her go out and try different hobbies of her own choice just to get away from it all and to see what comes of it. Oh, I just realized, but also like Mitsuru she copes with her situation by burying herself in more work, though with Haru it’s with getting more hobbies to do where Mitsuru just takes on more corporate responsibilities. I hope this ends well for her. Honestly I wish she joined us sooner, I get the feeling she won’t be around for enough time to get the focus she deserves. Also, and this is just me, but I feel people saying ‘This game’s gay representation is shit just like Atlus always is’ really aren’t giving the game its dues. Yes, those two NPCs are bad and solely negative inclusions that just randomly throw in two (admittedly very short) scenes with a couple of predatory gay guys. But to only highlight them and ignore characters like Lala Escargot being well handled and shown to be nothing but a good person, Yusuke being pretty gay, and even the main character explicitly and without joking being able to show attraction to men multiple times is just unfair. The game’s gay representation isn’t perfect, but it’s certainly a lot better than Persona 3 or 4′s initial releases. Though Persona 3′s cast ended up being very queer with later content if you just compare the initial releases of each game Persona 5 blows the others out of the water by means of actually having positive queer representation. All in all, it’s still amazing, 10/10, my game of the year without question. I love it.

[thebaalpit-blog]

I like P5 a lot (Spoilers)

So I finished P5 and now that i’ve come out of playing it twice, both in separate languages, I have a lot of wild opinions to go about so here we go. It should go without seeing I’m gonna talk about the game freely, but here’s a warning in case.

I would have to say I like the story of the game a lot, but I’m accounting for the first, fourth, and everything after the fifth arc. Kamoshida is an incredibly strong antagonist who does a million things for setting up the game very well, Sae and Futaba are great ways of showing that Changes of Hearts can happen to people on their own so long as they’re willing to make the change, and Goro and Shido are great personal antagonists for the group and Joker respectively. I like the final storyline a lot too with Yaldabaoth, but it’s very cheesy social commentary in a lot of ways and Yaldy himself isn’t a compelling antagonist so much as the idea that the strict social order that controlled Japan so strongly gave birth to his existence. I’m a big fan of stories that have weird realms or things going on because of the desires of a person being so strong they manifest out of the blue due to human sin and it’s part of the reason why P3 and P4 disappoint me on that front, because they’re largely god plots with very little of that, while P5 is a god plot but it is a god plot created by humans and their sin. While Yaldy himself isn’t particularly impressive, the desire that the Citizens of Tokyo had towards not wanting any part of society to break even a little bit being so strong it creates a god to ensure that never comes about, is and it’s wonderful when Joker summons Satanael to blow his fucking brains out.

I am a big fan of things generally considered to be evil or negative are framed as heroic or things people use to grow. So I appreciate that Joker and Arsene while both very menacing and demonic looking are the heroes of the story and his persona. Arsene especially has such an amazing design that I love looking at him and honestly want to get some sort of figure of him if one gets made. Joker is a fantastic way to make a quiet protagonist that also has a lot of character to him. Between his own backstory, the grudge with Shido, Goro being his foil, and his generally menacing demeanor combined with very theatric and over the top motions he makes, he has a ton of personality in him. The game in general does, but I was not expecting to love the Protagonist more than most of the main cast. His ultimate persona being Satanael is also fucking cool, because not only is the entire moment just an amazing thing and the scope of the whole fight is absolutely beautiful, but Satanael in gnosticism is the dude who is supposed to keep Yaldabaoth in check. So it’s awesome they played to the Trickster theme, the “Blacks are whites” mentality P5 has towards the protagonists, and the lore of the mythological figures themselves. It’s such a cool moment and the music that plays during the summoning is a great arrangement on the boss them that played prior. I can talk forever about Joker and his persona, but I need to talk about other stuff.

The main cast is great. I love Ryuji, he’s easily the best bro character of the games excepting maybe Eikichi. You get to see him grow from a bitter teenager with a huge chip on his shoulder, to a young man with a strong sense of self respect and justice. He gets into silly situations and can be stupid, but he’s a genuinely cool dude and I love him. Ann’s alright and she enhances Ryuji a bit too since they’re both old friends, but they can mess around with one another and it feels organic. I don’t think highly of her tbh, but she’s alright for the most part. Makoto is awesome, being Joker’s contemporary in the group. She’s smart, she has a good head on her shoulders, she kicks ass, and has an amazing outfit. It’s really cool that when they thought of a girl they would try to push as the romantic interest for Joker they made her as much of a character in the group as him. Yusuke’s hilarious, but also is one of the more emotional parts of the team. His interactions with Futaba are great and shows how his weird perspective connects with others. Futaba herself is a ton of fun with her goofy ass personality and smart ass comments. Haru I don’t care for much, but she’s got cool animations so I warmed up a bit to her over time.

The antagonists are all kind of a mixed bag, but the great ones are great. I won’t talk about Yaldy because I already mentioned his deal before. Kamoshida’s an immaculate piece of shit. I cannot tell you how happy I am that he is never once hidden in that aspect. If they had tried to hide his shitty attitude when adults or whatever were around it would cheapen the whole thing, but nope he’s just as shitty to you regardless of whose presence he’s in. It helps that he has such a connection to the school that he effects literally everyone there even the people who don’t associate with him. The underlying character depth also of him being a gold medalist who probably got fucked up by the societal and personal pressure of having to keep being the best giving him a warped perspective on others owing him for this is also great. He’s just got a ton of fucking great things about himself and a super easily punchable face. 

For Goro and Shido, they’re both great. Goro is a fantastic foil to Joker, also being a user of the Wild Card and a pawn of Shido’s due to wanting to be recognized by his dad. His being sent from home to home as an unwanted child has fucked him up so much he desires to see the destruction of the same society that allowed this to happen. At the same time though Goro only has two Persona, Loki and Robin Hood. The underlying implication of course being Goro has only ever had himself and never actually made connections with others so he has two Persona compared to Joker’s several. Shido on the other hand is a good antagonist for how militant he is and how business like he is when handling others. He doesn’t actually recognize the people he steps over in his path to success. He barely recognizes Goro looking like his mother and doesn’t even know Joker is the same child he got locked off into Shibuya. It shows his megalomania off very well that he ultimately created his own enemy and him killing literally everyone tying back to him characterizes perfectly how militant and cold he truly is. 

As for the rest of them. Sae is a good antagonist for her purposes, but she’s not as strong as the other three. Madarame has moments where they characterize him later, but them insisting on his murdering of Yusuke’s mom and his moustache twirling villainy combined with that makes him a very confusing and lame character. Kaneshiro has a minute of characterization, but is a fucking joke villain. Okumura is boring and has a nice moment of depth with the space station kit, but unfortunately he’s being a nothing character every other minute in the worst storyline of the game so rip.

The music in the game is really fantastic. Beneath the Mask and Rivers in the Desert are hands down two of the best tracks in Shoji Meguro’s history of music. Blooming Villain is my favorite non-final boss track in Persona. Layer Cake is CATCHY AS FUCK. Price and When My Mother Was Around are amazing dungeon tracks with Whims of Fate being even better than those two. There’s a lot of other great tracks as well, but I cannot list every single one.

The gameplay mechanics overall improved for the better in a lot of ways and Confidants are really cool too. I do have to say though some of the non-party member ones fall into a really lame pattern of “Character is griefed by other outside character in some way, go to mementos and get rid of them.” But the storylines more than often make up for them. Hifumi, Munehisa, Sadayo, and Toranosuke are some of the more memorable ones. 

If I have complaints though it’s that Mementos is fucking lame. Some of the dungeons are really boring or have lame gimmicks or are LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNG (Kaneshiro and Okumura’s palaces most notably). The story feels like it’s going nowhere for a while. Bosses are boring for the most part with really lame ass mid battle gimmicks, the Sphinx is an absolutely garbage boss fight too. The best bosses are probably Shido and Shadow Okumura, the former because of it not being a lame gimmick driven fight and the latter because you can find fun ways to negate entire legions of the robots. Shadow Madarame and Kamoshida are okay too, but they’re not remarkable or particularly interesting either. The designs on a lot of them are pretty lame too. Also Morgana needs to shut the fuck up about telling me to go to sleep. I love the little bastard, but jesus christ.

But yeah, those are my thoughts on P5. It’s a really cool game that I love a lot that honestly has a decent number of faults, but I don’t care about them which is surprising because I haven’t felt that strongly about a game since like... Metal Gear Rising. Not that those two have a lot of crossover sans the incredibly buff final boss politician with lyrical music in the back.

[sambart93]

2017.02.16 SOUL FLOWER [Review]

I watched this last Thursday and I went because of one the guys (Tanaka Hiroki) from Onigiri (review) who I really fell for in that, was doing this and while at first I bought tickets without knowing what it was about, I soon learnt it was abut mutants and kind of dystonia and that my guy would be doing a BL character so NATURALLY I ended up being super excited for it!

Official Website here Official Twitter here Official Hashtag here PV here Music here Press 1, 2

CAST and CHARACTERS

Kuryu Mina as Kiko/Mashiro Ukai Mondou as Sagami Sugie Masahiro as Kurosawa Kouji Tamagawa Ramu as Eva Akiba Yusuke as Maruko / Mark Oguri Ryo as Sid Maniwa Ryosuke as Alberto Maikawa Miyako as Kokoro Mitsuki Saori as Uzumi Kojima Kotori as Sarubado-ru Kinoshita Aya as Kimura Chanel Araki Miyu as Yamashiro Myura Yuuno as Murayama Elmes Hiroya as Kaosu Tanaka Hiroki as Agape Matsushita Takashi as Filia Mitani Remi as Sheila Aino Eri as Risa Hanai Madoka as Aniesu Hagiwara Naruya as Zenelgef Maruyama Raiden as Khan Akaishi Nobu as Zoid Akiyoshi Aya as Young Kiko Ogura Erika as Shimamura Oba Saki as Sally Hanaoka as Dory Ensemble: Hikita Chiharu, Takami Sakiko, Watai Ryuya Tanaka Hyoga as Joker

As you can see the cast is huge! xD The stage again (like Onigiri) was small so having such a huge cast was kinda scary. ANYWAY!

Also as soon as the stage started I was SHOCKED to realise it wasn’t just Tanaka Hiroki from Onigiri in this, but two others from Onigiri were ALSO doing this and it made me very happy ^_^

STORY

SOUL FLOWER takes place in world quite like a dystopian where the rich and privileged live in the Three Hills, whereas the rest live in the slums. We follow a community of people who live in one of these slums, and it's called Sector 6, but even they call it 'Trash Town' (gomi no machi) because all the old and broke electronics and stuff the rich society want to throw away ends up being in their area, but it's their home and they love it. Well almost all of them: some would kill and hurt others in order to get a chance to have their barcodes changed (which every person is imprinted on them so the government know who belongs where in society) and be able to move to the Hills. Unfortunately also in this world, we have mutants who are feared and hated by most humans; Sagami is one of them and in order to keep the sector safe, he's locked up. One day, a famous idol singer from the Hills is kidnapped live on a music tv show, who then wakes up in Sector 6 with no memory of who she is. 

NON-SPOILER

This was SOOOO good! Oh my! I loved the story, all the characters were (while a lot of them) individual and great! This very much gave me Onigiri feels; not very known actors, doing a very unique and interesting and simple-to-understand story BUT it hits a lot of feels and it’s entertaining in both actor and comedy, there’s never a dull moment, you even want to route for the bad guys! The improvisation was great, the higawari (daily changes to the script) was absolutely hilarious. I enjoyed this so much! And the aftertalk too was a lot of fun! The singing was beautiful too! I literally cannot, I was so impressed and so happy with this stage! And my baby boy Tanaka Hiroki in his cute BL role had all the kisses and stuff so that made me happy ^_^ He’s so cute... Basically, this is a lot of fun and a great world and I enjoyed it a lot!

Rating: 8/10

SPOILER

Here’s an extension of the plot:

One day, a famous idol singer from the Hills is kidnapped live on a music tv show, who then wakes up in Sector 6 with no memory of who she is. The community welcomes her but turns out she was originally one of them but was kidnapped as a child by the Joker and got her memory wiped at the time and became a singer. She is also Sagami’s long lost childhood friend and they clearly have feelings for each other. During her time in Sector 6 

When the Joker learns she was kidnapped on live TV and ended up in Sector 6 he immediately goes mental and brings his posse with him to bring her back. But he’s not the only one, her singing rival Kurosawa also goes to the slums to find her. Because the singer was kidnapped on live tv, two more groups; one group consisting of two assassins and another is one of Sector 6′s own Zenelgef who has made a deal with Joker, if he finds and brings back Kiko then he can move to the Hills and in order to do this he tricks and manipulates his group (consisting of Agape, Filia and Kaosu) to help him even when he has no intentions of taking them with him once the mission is complete. 

Finally, with the help of Zenelgef, the Joker re-kidnaps Kiko and brings her back to the Hills however the stress and the fact she gets her memory wiped for the THIRD time really fucks her up, and she ends up completely inside her own head and is no longer consciously there and is very much a vegetable in a wheelchair.

In order for the slums to take control, as well as in order to get Kiko back, Sector 6 decide to infiltrate the Hills alongside Sagami who decides to drive a plane full of explosives into Joker’s building and manage to save Kiko and destroy the Hills for good. Naturally they all think Sagami is dead but thanks to his mutant abilities, he isn’t killed in the blast and finally Kiko and Sagami are reunited and it ends in a peaceful but bittersweet ending because while the Hills are destroyed and there’s no societal structure anymore, they did have a lot of deaths during this story.

---

Now, I really want to fangirl a lot about this, and I’m going to go through the actors:

Kuryu Mina as Kiko/Mashiro: She has a beautiful voice! She sings two main songs and they’re both great! All the feels with the songs! Seriously, check out the PV above to hear the first song << the PV is good too. I really liked Kiko. We first see who with no memory and she’s openly welcomed into the slum and they end up naming her Mashiro and she’s very positive and she ends up meeting Sagami and she’s like the only one accepting of him and then when she gets re-kidnapped to the Hills and loses her mind and becomes a blank vegetable is so heartbreaking and then seeing her react and come back to herself when Sagami sends her a video message and she’s starts to come back to her senses and is just like ‘S...Sagami?... Sagami!?’ and oh my it’s heartbreaking! She so cute too!

Ukai Mondou as Sagami: Pretty much straight away we learn he’s the only mutant in Sector 6 and because of his strong power and the fact that he’s unstoppable scares everyone off that they decide he should be locked up so he’s locked up in a dungeon, underground, sewer type place and where he starts to really feel like he shouldn’t live and when Kiko finally comes he’s like ‘stay away! I shouldn’t be allowed to live! Why you talking to me?!’ and he quickly gets soft on her because she feels familiar, she’s not scared of him and she comforts him. When he learns Kiko is his childhood friend he’s totally protective and starts to remember their times together. I really liked Sagami and I really like how they used projection mapping to show his powers and show him transforming and powering up. He has this cool red, fire like power and transformation. When Sector 6 finally accept him back and want to work with him; the plan to use the plane full of explosives come up and when he offers himself it’s really like ‘oh no! We’re know you’re a mutant but you won’t survive the blast!’ but he acts like it’s no deal. And when he makes that video recording for Kiko and he breaks down and it hits you in the feels. The moment he’s IN the plane and starts singing her song as he’s about to smash into the building is so heartbreaking... and then the relief when he turns back up thanks to Mark giving him a parachute before he left and I was crying so hard that he and Kiko could be reunited!! <3 also the fact that Ukai was also in Onigiri; both characters are similar and they both have a lot of action scenes, fighting scenes and also they both have HUGE swords to fight with xD I really like Ukai’s acting and he’s a very good actor -- and super tall too! - and in the aftertalk he was very funny. There’s a moment where he missed his step up the barrel which was hilarious xD

Sugie Masahiro as Kurosawa Kouji: Kurosawa is Kiko’s singing rival and I assume he has a romantic interest in her even though they’re rivals because that would be the only explanation as to why he decides to go looking for her. He doesn’t really leave that much of an impression, he’s just a really nice, decent guy, trying his best to save someone even though he’s never been a fight in his life so he’s not really that much of a help. BUT he is good looking and tall and has nice legs so there’s that xD

Tamagawa Ramu as Eva: She is basically Sid’s sidekick and they’re always together and they’ve been friends and buddies for a long time and she’s very much the woman fighter of the group. She’s very strong, she’s the only one out of the women who can fight, and she’s very strong and she’s definitely left to protect the entire group when Sagami and Sid aren’t there. Her outfit is super cool too. And we learn towards the end that she too is a mutant, just that she kept it hidden, and that he power is manipulating lightning.

Akiba Yusuke as Maruko / Mark: And now we get to the first ikemen I fell for in the stage! This boy is so gorgeous and good looking! He came onstage with Alberto and Sarubado-ru’s actors before the show started to do the stage greeting and rules etc. and I could not look away! I had a very hard time concentrating on Tanaka when he was onstage, I was definitely torn between who do I look at?! BUT the girl in front of me was definitely his fan so I kind of felt like it was okay if I didn’t focus on Akiba, NEVERTHELESS, he is GORGEOUS and so cute and his character is good too! His character is the mechanic and DIY guy of the group; he fixes pianos, planes, pretty much anything and it’s thanks to him that Sector 6 decides to scrap it’s ‘no music’ rule once they learn and hear the music he and his friends produce. There’s also a section where we see him answering phone calls and everything you start to suspect that he is Joker’s intel in the group, BUT luckily he’s actually been working with helping Kurosawa get into Section 6 and find Kiko! Which was a huge ‘phew’ moment because (he’s cute) they cleverly made it look like he was a spy or a bad guy. And now for this cutie to have a picspam:

Okay I’m done... it’s short but turns out I didn’t have many pics anyway xD he’s cute right!!

Oguri Ryo as Sid: He’s the second guy who was also in this but also in Onigiri (mid in the pic above). I really liked his character in Onigiri too! And again, just like Ukai, his character in this was similar to his Onigiri character: fights with a sword, long hair, probably the second leader of the group. His character was a small role but he was a big part of the fighting, especially when the fighting was AGAINST Sagami getting out. He was very against Sagami, so the Sector could stay protected, but then also when the Sector is getting attacked in general, he will through away his beliefs and work WITH Sagami to protect the group which is very mature of him <3 but,.... he got killed off. He got absolutely ruined by Aniesu and his death was sad, I did shed a few tears and he dies in Eva’s arms and it’s touching <3

Maniwa Ryosuke as Alberto: Okay this guy was with the other two doing the stage greeting and rules, and straight away he was saying the rules in English  and Mark’s actor Akiba was translating it into Japanese, and this guy got about half way into saying the rule in English when he sees me (smack in the middle of the 4th row) and he just did not stop looking.... he soon stopped using English too, maybe my fault and he started to worry if he was saying the rules correctly which was pretty much correct and his pronunciation was pretty much perfect(!). I don’t really remember this character because he never really got a center moment; he was always WITH the group so naturally I was off googling at Akiba or Tanaka or the other ikemen (explained later) instead. But the actor himself was very funny and interesting and during the aftertalk they spoke about the scene where Sagami volunteers to drive the plane and Akiba and Ukai turned to Maniwa (during the AT) like ‘you look the MOST like a mechanic and pilot between us! You should’ve drove the plane!’ and Akiba goes into his role ‘who will drive the plane...’ Mania ‘....*raises hand* I will!’ Akiba and Ukai: ‘Okay you go then’ xD In fact this guy, as soon as he walked on stage I was like ‘I know this guy!’ and once the stage had finished I immediately went to the internet, and it became very obvious that I knew him; Dance with Devils, Club Slazy, Tokyo Ghoul, Yowamushi Pedal and Onigirimaru.

AhHA holy shit this guy has the top score in TOEIC and did years barod in Oz and US, no wonder he did the whole saying the rules in English thing. FUCK now I really do regret not staying behind to talk to the cast, me and him could’ve had a great discussion...

Maikawa Miyako as Kokoro: Her voice is very high. VERY high. She was cute, had a nice hairstyles and stuck by her friends, especially Uzumi, but she was also very weak and minor, so I wasn’t so much interested in her. But when the aftertalk ended she fell back onto the steps which a cute and funny xD

Mitsuki Saori as Uzumi: Another I didn’t really pay attention to but she did spend the last 30 minutes of the stage just CRYING her eyes out because of Sid’s death then Sagami’s suicide then Sagami being dead but then learning he’s not and he’s alive so ALL the tears: hence kudos for being able to turn the water works on. She was cute too. But no one special or to pay attention to personally.

Kojima Kotori as Sarubado-ru: This guy is so cute! He looks VERY familiar and he’s been in Kin’Iro so that’s where I recognise him from. He’s really good at dancing and he’s very funny! The first time Kiko sings her song in Sector 6, he dances from the half way point and it’s so great! He’s a very talented dancer.

Kinoshita Aya, Araki Miyu and Yuuno as Kimura Chanel, Yamashiro Myura and Murayama Elmes: These three are basically Joker’s posse and they will do anything he tells them too. They’re rather annoying (on purpose) and can be funny at times. There’s a higawari where they chain Joker up and they ended up putting clothing pegs on his nipples and you could tell this was a higawari because the actor playing Joker actually started to freak when they pulled out the pegs and he was like ‘you sure this is safe?!’ to which Chanel said ‘I tried it before the show to make sure it worked’, and he replied ‘...you tried it?! Did you really?! Wait, wait, wait, don’t pull yet!’ and they pulled and his poor nipples were bright red and he was holding them. It was hilarious for EVERYONE else except him.

Hiroya, Tanaka Hiroki and Matsushita Takashi as Kaosu, Agape and Filia: I’m grouping these guys together because they’re a trio the enter time. They’re a group of three homosexuals who are pretty much in love with each other so they have this polyamorous relationship with each other. While their leader is Zenelgef, it’s very obvious it’s sepeareted and split as them three and then him.  First Kaosu: He’s really the leader in his group, but he has a lot of anger and he’s a little scary and he’s good at fighting, BUT he definitely cares about Agape and Filia a lot, even if he’s arguing with them. He definitely has anger issues but he’s interesting and he works out his struggles with the two other and they go through a lot together, they never go through their shit alone, and his death is heartbreaking, especially because of how it’s executed* and why he dies. 

Then we have Agape who is played by my beautiful boy Tanaka Hiroki and the reason WHY I went to this stage! He was so cute! He was playing a rather rough, mean guy. This group is THE group that pretty much fights against and terrorises the others in Sector 6 on a daily basis because they harbour a mutant. BUT as soon as he’s alone with Filia and Kaosu he’s very soft and caring and he worries a lot. It’s really funny seeing Agape and Filia fight over Kaosu’s attention and it creates some very good comedic scenes where Kaosu is just stood between them fighting for his attention and he just can’t decide who he should go to so he forces both of them to come to him xD Also Agape and Filia are very touchy feely with each other and hold hands a lot and Agape is pretty much the other who makes the first move when it comes to making the kisses so that made me squee xD again, his death was heartbreaking* and I cried and the position he died in what so sweet too... compulsory Hiroki picspam because he’s an Ikemen(!):

Last in the group is Filia who’s actor is ALSO an ikemen and I feel so straight away! He’s so adorable! Both his character and visually and during the aftertalk he was just adorable! Filia is a very quiet, and sweet boy who’s only fighting because the two guys he love is also fighting. He is very positive and very light and is a source of the comedy between the three of them and hes very childish and cute and caring and (did I already say funny)? He was just like the light between the three of them and helps soften the other two up. Compulsory Ikemen picspam!

*So all three of them die at the same time via suicide. Once they learn Zenelgef has betrayed them and really won’t be taking them to the Hills, they decide enough is enough and they decide that living in this situation sucks and they don’t want to be here anymore (literally) so in front of everyone, just after Sid’s death, Kaosu shoots Agape who dies in Filia’s arms, he then shoots Fillia who slumps onto Agape’s body and finally Kaosu shoots himself and lands next to and onto Agape. I was heartbroken... I didn’t want them to die! And especially how they story ends, it kinda feels like a waste of death; they didn’t need to die! And it hurts that they were so desperate to get out and that when their chance to get out is taken away from them, instead of staying hopefully, they feel the only way out is through death </3 I’m literally gunna cry now.

Art credit here.

But the BL goodness was good! So many handholds and kisses and funnily fighting for each other’s attention and it was beautiful seeing them three together in that way <3 I want their backstories tbh. *story ideas*

Also Hiroki posted this yesterday and it made me SO happy! <3

Mitani Remi as Sheila and Aino Eri as Risa: I’m very sorry but I did not remember who you were no why you were there. I remember you were dancers... maybe you were working for Joker?

Hanai Madoka as Aniesu and Ogura Erika as Shimamura: These two were badasses. Again I don’t quite remember why they were in Sector 6 (I’m pretty sure Joker also sent them) but they were badass. So Shimamura follows Aniesu religiously and turns out Aniesu USED to live in the slums but managed to get out and that she TOO is a mutant and she battles against Sagami but obviously dies, but she acts very much like a samurai with the hairstyle and using a sword to fight and she’s really badass even if she is only in it for a short time. Their costumes are super nice too!

Hagiwara Naruya as Zenelgef: This guy... he ends up betraying Kaosu and co (like I said) and he’s a traitor in the group but he’s very much one of those he’s violent, he’s crazy but he’s also exceedingly stupid at times that it’s funny making him rather pitiful. The best way to describe him is pitiful in all honesty. But he has a badass moment with a machine gun. But like I said his ridiculousness is a source of comedy. One moment that wasn’t meant to be funny was after he reveals his plans to leave Sector 6 if he succeeds in getting Kiko back to Joker and he goes to climb up the barrels to the top of the stage and he missed the barrel (just like Ukai did) and  smacked his shin against it and it was absolutely hilarious just watching him hobble up the remaining part slightly mumbling (in character) about the stupid barrel and his knee hurting xD he’s also good looking and his character was great but he didn’t come onto my ikemen radar so no picspam here of him xD

Also I’m pretty sure his dad was sat in the front row cos there was a guy about 20 years or so older than Hagiwara but looked EXACTLY like him xD

Maruyama Raiden as Khan: He’s the chief of Sector 6 and he’s the guy who originally banned music in the community but then reunbans it and he’s also the one that hid Kiko’s child kidnapping from Sagami and everyone. He’s a decent role and I really liked when he’s like ‘I’m old and lived a much longer life than you all so it’s only right that I drive that plane in the Hills’ but Sagami being a hero knocks him unconscious so he can take the plane and sacrifice himself. He’s just trying to look after everyone even if it means keeping secrets for a long time and such.

Akaishi Nobu as Zoid, Oba Saki as Sally and Hanaoka as Dory: This group are weird! Zoid is essentially the skeezy guy who says he can get people out of the slums and into the Hills but actually has been running an organ selling business on the black market and is responsible for a lot of people’s deaths, including Sarubado-ru’s mother! All this time Sarubado-ru had thought his mother had gotten out thanks to Zoid’s help but Zoid just got killed her and sold her organs off, naturally really pissing Sarubado-ru off. Thankfully these three aren’t in it a lot (the two guys are like his annoying sidekicks) and they get killed by Zenelgef.

Akiyoshi Aya as Young Kiko: She was so cute! And she has such a similar voice to Kuryu. They casted these two very well in terms of looks and voice and when they sang together it was beautiful! She’s tiny and adorable too! Ensemble: Hikita Chiharu, Takami Sakiko, Watai Ryuya: They did a bunch of random roles and they did a LOT of action in this which I give them kudos for! They did their part very well and all the different roles they did was great too! They play the kidnappers who take Kiko from the live show to Sector 6. Always makes me happy when women are in the ensembles and given lots of fighting roles.

Tanaka Hyoga as Joker: We ALL know my relationship with badguys right and how a part of my brain just loves falling for the bad guys right? Well it happened here too. Not only is his visually awesome with this circus like look but he’s also bat shit crazy and hilarious! He’s very entertaining and he also has his own solo song and I already mentioned his hilarious Higawari. Also he TOO is mutant (it doesn’t get revealed until the end - but when Joker first went to Sector 6 YEARS ago and found Kiko as a child, Sagami had fought with Joker and realised or at least had an inkling them that Joker was a mutant) and his has the power to absorb OTHERS power so he copies Sagami and Eva’s powers and he’s super powerful which allowed him to beat Sagami and take Kiko back to the Hills. But towards the end, his story is so heartbreaking! The last 20 minutes or so of this play just completely messed me up in streams of tears!! First because Sid died, and then Kaosu, Agape and Filia commited suicide, and then one Kiko is back in Joker’s building he starts losing it and breaking down because she won’t react to anything he says or does, she’s just blank and dead in the eyes and he’s begging for her to come back and he’s slowly losing it, and then Sagami crashes the plane into Joker’s building and we all think he’s dead, and Joker sees Kiko come back to life when she sees the video Sagami left her and is heartbroken that Sagami could get her to come back to her senses, and then once Kiko is rescued, even Sector 6 ask Joker to leave with them (like they forgive him!!) but he’s just like ‘no... Kiko is happier with you guys... I’ll stay here (and died)’ and so I’m crying at that and then FINALLY I cried from relief when Sagami turns up alive at the end!! Oh my... the last 20 minutes seriously just killed me and was a whirlwind rollercoaster.

 ---

Phew that’s the story and comments and actors and characters done! Now for the final section:

In the aftertalk the MCs were Hiroki, Matsushita and Yuya and while they were waiting for the rest of the cast, Hiroya was like ‘Okay (to the audience) lets find out who appears the most gay. put your hands up if you think Kaosu is the most legit gay?!’ and then the cast turned up so we didn’t get to finish the poll, but he ended up posting it to twitter later and Agape won xD

During the aftertalk, they spoke about which scenes they liked even if they aren't in it, and of course the whole Joker deciding to stay at the end was one scene they all agreed was a good and touching scene. I already mentioned the Alberto should’ve taken the plane part of the AT above. The other question they got was what powers they would want if they were mutants and the girls were picking more ‘wizard’ like abilities. One even said ‘I wish I could just go ‘pop’ and my food was already made for me’ and Hiroya was like ‘THAT’S MAGIC!’ xD Finally at the end Kuryu performed the main song and everyone got to join in with the musical instrument and Tanaka was super happy ‘I’ve always wanted to do the music scene with you all!’ xD and it was beautiful and a lot of fun.

---

I am definitely buying this DVD! Such a good story, world, characters and very touching and very funny <3

[wrath-and-regret-blog]

Tarot Meme: Vel - The Star; Akira - The Hanged Man; Lowell - Strength; Andralena - The Chariot; Kaladin - The World or Justice; Wax - The Hierophant; Navani - Death; Gwaine - The Sun

Put a tarot card in my inbox and I'll answer the question! || ACCEPTING

                                                                         @luck-crowned​

VELKYN

The Star: If your muse had one wish, what would it be?

Vel has never really been the sort of person to wish for things. He’s more of a ‘take what you can get, roll with the punches’ sort of person, despite his pessimistic attitude. If pressed, he’d probably say that it’d be nice to say he’d wish to be a better person or something like that, but while it would be nice, it wouldn’t be true. At all. If he wished for anything, it would be for power. Not political power or anything, more along the lines of power enough to destroy anyone he wished to destroy. No matter how important they think they are or how strong they might be.

While he takes no issue in killing almost anyone who becomes his target, he does have a personal sense of justice deep deep down, although it’s more akin to vengeance, not only for himself, but for those who can’t exact vengeance on their own. Seeing people prey on the weak and defenseless has...an effect on him. It reminds him of himself before he became what he is now and he isn’t able to detach himself enough to just ignore it when he sees it happening.

So if he wished for anything, it would be for the power to fucking demolish the real monsters of the world and he’d be fully aware that one day, that would mean destroying himself as well.

AKIRA

The Hanged Man: Name a bad habit your muse can't give up.

Akira never fucking sleeps. Ever. He tires himself out so much that eventually he just drops. He’ll stay up until sunrise sometimes, running on nothing but coffee, energy drinks or sheer willpower. Once, he spent the night doing pull-ups from the rafters and ended up falling asleep curled up on the floor.

The only time he goes right to sleep is after a day in Mementos or a Palace and that’s only because Morgana won’t stop pestering him to go to bed. If left to his own devices, he finds something to do in place of sleep and soon loses track of time until he can’t even keep his eyes open anymore. The worst case of insomnia ever.

He’s also that friend who texts the others random shit at 4 in the morning like. ‘Ryuji do you think knives have feelings’, ‘draw me like one of your french girls Yusuke’ and ‘Ann how do you get your hair to do that whole curly without being a complete embarrassment thing because mine just gets worse every day’

Not a cool dude at all 0/10 Joker is a complete fucking nerd (BUT ALSO 100/10 MY CUTE CRIME-SON)

LOWELL

Strength: Name a time when your muse had to be strong in the face of danger or trouble.

Honestly, though he may not seem like it on the surface, Lowell has a lot of courage and strength. It takes an incredibly strong will to handle Soulwalking in any capacity, otherwise, the walker risks losing their mind. Apart from that, he’s in nearly constant danger from his own older brother, though that danger is far less obvious, and his constant traveling makes him an easy target for those who would like to harm the Ethleseeri royal family.

However, one of the first times was when he was around 13 years old. He had accompanied Ignace and Reinault, his older brothers, to the mountainous snowy region of Norvang, to meet with their chief in regards to an alliance between their societies. Ever since their father had fallen ill, the two oldest Ashwind boys had taken care of everything that required travel. Lowell had never been invited to join them before so he jumped at the opportunity, though looking back, it was suspicious how easily Reinault relented.

The trip was going smoothly at first. While Lowell was very interested in the peace talks and getting to know the people better, children were not allowed in the tribe’s council hall. He had to remain out in the snow, much to his frustration. However, luckily for him, the chief had two children of his own. His son, a few years older than Lowell, was almost ready for his hunt, a ceremony that proclaimed when a child was ready to become an adult but had not done it yet, and the chief’s daughter was only ten years old at the time, so the three of them were left sitting out in the cold while their families held council. There were snowball fights, new friendships and everything seemed to be turning out for the best.

Until there was a raid on the village. Among the Norvangian tribes, there are some which resent the chief’s rule and are in a constant state of conflict with other settlements. The enemy warriors descended fast and before Lowell understood what was happening, the chief’s son had grabbed a hatchet and was fending them off the best he could, ordering Lowell to protect his sister while he guarded the council hall. Lowell took the girl’s hand and ran through the snow the best he could, but the half-giant warriors of Norvang caught up with him easily. The raiders told him, in their guttural language which he had only just begun to study that he could either ‘stand aside or die’.

It was then that he had to make a decision. Did he put himself in harm’s way to protect the chief’s daughter? Or did he save his own life?

He did not move. He grabbed a fallen tree branch from the snow-covered ground and held it like he had seen his tutor, Vega, hold his bowstaff in the training gardens. It was a pathetic attempt to look threatening but he managed to hold off the attacker for the next ten seconds, giving the Norvangian chief and his son the time they needed to arrive, armed and out for blood. The attack was repelled and the Ashwinds departed from Norvang with the chief’s promise of aid whenever it was needed, offered as repayment for defending his daughter.

ANDRALENA

The Chariot: If your muse ruled the world, what would they change first?

Depending on the world, it could be a number of things. In her main verse / Dragon Age verse, it would be to abolish the stigma surrounding magic. No magic, even blood magic, is evil unless the wielder is and magical crimes should be judged the same as nonmagical crimes. Simply using a type of magic, in general, should not be considered criminal and certainly not punishable by cruelty or death. The circles would not be completely disbanded, but she would make the voluntary. Only mages who feel that they need to be in a circle will be put in them, and the chantry would no longer have control of the circles. They would be run by other mages who are capable of teaching and guiding instead of frightening and controlling.

In her Stormlight verse, she’d likely make it so that female warriors were more widely accepted. Not really changing a law or anything, but giving more opportunity to women like her. At least then someone would tell her where the damned sparring grounds are holy shit

KALADIN

The World: What has been your muse's greatest success?

This is a complicated one, considering many of his greatest failures stemmed from what he had once considered great successes. Currently, though, it would be protecting and teaching Bridge Four. He took an unruly, downtrodden group of men with no hope, facing certain death, and turned them into a family. A family that would soon become the royal guard, defying all the expectations working against them. This time, he’s really managed to change something. Managed to make it better. He’s raised these men up after the world knocked them as far down as possible. He’s still terrified that something will happen and he’ll lose everything, but for now, he can be proud of his men.

He considers them his greatest success. They deserve no less than that.

WAX

The Hierophant: What is one rule or law your muse would never break?

I mean, there are quite a few laws he wouldn’t break but not as many as you’d imagine? Considering he’s. Supposed to be a law keeper. Gunfighting is cool, trespassing is cool, destruction of property is cool...The list of things he won’t do is much shorter than the list of things he would do.

Any and all sex crimes are a resounding no, he would absolutely never do something like that, and so is theft...usually? Unless he really needs something and it’s like. Life or death. or imperative to crime solving. Also, he would never consider harming a child or killing someone for anything other than work or upholding the law. He’s not squeamish about killing, but there’s a difference between bounty hunting/justice and murder.

NAVANI

Death: If your muse had to change something about themselves, what would they change?

She would like to be more capable of understanding emotionally driven people. She sees value in logical thinking and likes that part of herself, but she would like to be able to better understand her son and people like him. Like any good mother, she doesn’t enjoy having such distance between herself and her child, but she doesn’t have the tools to understand Elhokar, much less be of any help to him. Jasnah she can handle, and even agree with in some aspects, but Elhokar...she’s at a loss and feels that her attempts to help will do nothing but frustrate the both of them.

GWAINE

The Sun: What was the happiest moment of your muse's life?

First off, this tarot is so appropriate for my boy, what a ray of sunshine.

At the risk of sounding sappy, making friends with Merlin was a very important happy moment for him. Of course, it was sandwiched in there with danger and difficulty, but it was still a very happy occasion. At that point, he had been wandering alone for so long, without family or friends or purpose; not that he’d admit to being lonely, and he probably didn’t realize just how lonely he was until realizing ‘oh. This is friendship. I’m not alone.’ There are people everywhere he goes, and he tends to get on well with them, but Merlin is the first he can actually trust and relate to and that makes him so happy, just to have that bond that he didn’t realize he’d been missing between the taverns and the brawls.

That’s also why leaving was more difficult than it had been before. Because for once, he actually had a reason to want to stay. And then once Merlin found him for another ‘let’s save Arthur’ quest, he jumped right on board because being around Merlin makes him happy even if they’re facing possible death. Fuck it, right? That’s what friends do!