when he died - lemon demon

grown!akechi hiding from the public is heavy on my mind

inaccessible scenes: after the engine room

Many sequences in P5R are not deleted exactly—they're inaccessible. They're in game, theoretically, but game mechanics make it impossible for you ever to see them.

For instance, there are a bunch of TV shows that exist, that are presumably in game, but you can't ever get to the TV to watch them—usually because Morgana makes it impossible for you to go downstairs.

A couple of these scenes happen around the end of Shido's Palace, around the Akechi fight. Once you go into the engine room, you cannot leave until you defeat Akechi. You can't use a Goho-M, you can't take the route out. You are well and truly stuck.

Plus, once you have defeated him, the game funnels you to the Treasure, and any attempt to (say) go to a safe room will again be cockblocked by Morgana.

This means that the last two safe room meetings in Shido's Palace are never accessible. And one of them is important. Let's have a look.

We all know about the meetings—you go to the table in the safe room, you talk to the team, you ask how your progress is. They say some shit. It's usually worth a regular check-in:

The first inaccessible script appears to be triggered by entering the engine room. You get it after going in, but before fighting the Cleaner—so presumably after fighting his mooks, while you chase him about:

Morgana: We found the engine room, so all we need to do now is get our hands on the letter of introduction. Haru: It would be nice if we could avoid a fight in the process... Yusuke: Hm, given his attitude up to this point, that is highly unlikely...

The second one appears to kick in after the Akechi fight. After Akechi has given his life to save you:

Yusuke: Goro Akechi... I believe he may have been the greatest casualty of Shido's actions... Makoto: Was there no other way? Ann: We'll avenge him when we take Shido down. Come on, we have the letters now—let's do this!

"the greatest casualty of Shido's actions", huh? And it's inaccessible, of course. Leaving the engine room will warp you to the locked treasure room door. If you run to a safe room, Morgana won't let you go in. If you try afterwards, you've been updated to the "we need to send the calling card" script. You never see this.

But I'd bet money it's there. Just out of reach. Just another instance of the PTs understanding Akechi, and mourning him, rather than (say) hating him and being glad he's gone.

one more thing

Most people probably know that you can lurk mournfully by the shutters in the engine room. Nonetheless, here it is:

Hear me out.

P5R, the story going as usual BUT at one point during Sae’s palace it turns into a disaster movie scenario where the PT including Goro get stuck in a building during a big earthquake. Akira and Goro get stuck together and have to find their way out of the rubble while also being injured and dealing with little quakes and aftershocks.

They think they might die there so Goro actually confesses to being the black mask and the entire plan to kill Akira. Akira tells him that he knows and everything he and the PT were planning and they laugh at the absurdity of their situation.

They also confess that they both might be having a little crush on each other because they think there is no getting out anyway.

That’s when they’re rescued and reunited with the rest of the PT. After healing up, they become the best power couple planning Shido’s downfall together.

a very popular headcanon people have (i Think its popular. at least a lot of my twitter mutuals agreed with me a while back) is that joker comes from inaba, and if youve played p4 you know that theres literally nothing to do there

so a big headcanon that i used to be obsessed with is that he would spend a lot of his days skateboarding or biking around listening to music and exploring old dirt roads.. and he ended up getting a special interest in bugs and reptiles because hed come across so many during his little solo adventures. hes also very well versed in fishing its not a fixation or anything but just something hes pretty good at

this is why i tend to draw joker like some sort of skater boy. i think hes always stood out a lot in this small town even before the false assault charge, like he wasnt disliked or bullied but he just didnt really fit in. and this didnt bother him. i think he only realized how boring his life was when he became a phantom thief and got all these new friends in this new big city that understood him despite the circumstances that led him here. like man i really used to live like that and see nothing wrong with it? i didnt yearn for more?

it makes it even more painful when he has to leave and they naturally drift apart. because they all have dreams and ambitions, and the best years of their lives are waiting for them around the corner. but joker is back in this small town where theres nothing to do but hang out in some food court or poke around in the woods. i imagine this newfound loneliness is really hard on him, not to mention the guilt for feeling like hes somehow to blame for. well, whatever happened with goro

to me personally i think goro lived. i think he mustered up the perseverance to bite and claw his way out of shidos palace after seeing that even someone like him has a chance at being loved, he just didnt really remember this in marukis reality because it was all a blur. so both goro and joker were completely clueless as to what his fate would be if they went back to their true reality, which is what was so scary. the uncertainty. he could very well be dead but how could they know for sure? i just dont like the thought of him dying before he could truly live, even though i understand the tragedy of it can be poetic, i just cant stand for him going out like that because i relate a lot to his struggles. and i think it would go against the overall positive message of p5r. sure not everybody gets to have a second chance or a happy ending, but. man. anyways

joker fully believes goro is dead though. he wouldnt be crazy to assume this considering how they parted ways in shidos palace. but it eats away at him and maybe he really does go crazy. maybe his life feels like its stuck in time and while his old friends are out chasing their dreams, hes stuck. broken and shattered over feeling like he couldve done something to save him, knowing jokers savior/martyr complex

im running out of steam and i didnt mean to ramble on about my post-p5r headcanons but, to wrap it up: goro is in rehab somewhere and has a service dog to help with his dissociation and mood swings. and a couple other stuff. he feels like if he walks back into jokers life itll mess something up like joker will just break down or something. so he keeps his distance until they cross paths again. im just very obsessed with the idea of goro getting his life together vs joker wanting so badly to chase that high of phantom thievery again but failing and being actually so depressed

man morgana must be exhausted

look i know I talk abt pegoryu all the time BUT there's so much to love about Ryuji outside the context of ships. Like, there's plenty of good characters in p5 but Ryuji steals the show, no contest. He's so kind and selfless. He's the first to give joker a chance. He's not even on particularly good terms with Ann and is pissed off at Kamoshida's creepy behavior on her behalf. When they enter the palace and get attacked, he tries telling to joker to run even though Ryuji himself is being attacked by the guards - he wanted joker to leave him there and was okay with putting himself in harm's way to allow joker an escape. He's not moved to take down kamoshida by his own potential expulsion, or his own anger about their history, but is moved by seeing what kamoshida is doing to other students, particularly shiho. After the kamoshida arc, he doesn't say anything about his own trauma or history with kamoshida, he's just happy that things will be better for Ann. He's the first to forgive makoto after she gets kidnapped by kaneshiro and has generally been a thorn in the phantom thieves' side for weeks. In fact he jumps in front of a moving vehicle to get a taxi to follow the people who took her. He fights with mona and gives a half-hearted apology, but all that animosity is out the window when the group finds mona and haru being harassed by haru's fiance. His entire confidant is about him trying to help the track team, which benefits him in absolutely no way, even after they turned on him for standing up to his abuser. even after the track team themselves physically assault him in an early social link rank. he wanted to get a track scholarship for his mom's sake, not his own. He puts himself in danger to get the lifeboat when shido's palace is sinking. he puts himself in danger and takes an attack from possessed cendrillon in maruki's palace. he gets angry when hearing about joker's past, but doesn't actually seem to have much anger in regards to his own - in fact, consistently through the game he gets angry and moved to defend others while not mustering that same righteous sort of anger for his own sake. Everyone else is his priority. he's the only character who has mistakes in the plot of the game that he owns up to and apologizes for - for getting mad and scaring futaba, and for being preccupied by their fame. he's a momma's boy. he's joker's best friend and right hand man, and more than anyone else he opens up to and confides in joker, to the degree that he has moments like that which occur outside of his confidant whereas nobody else really does (he calls joker through the story several times and confides in him about things like his apprehension abt the current events or how he is sorry he got mad and yelled earlier or even just that he's worried about the kamoshida plan.) the world has been so cruel to him and he still finds so much compassion and selflessness within himself. he's similar to his drunk, abusive dad, with a temper and a reputation for outbursts. but he's a twisted, funhouse mirror representation of that. his anger is justified and sparked by seeing others mistreated. his outbursts were just him standing up for himself and his whole team. and for it he got abandoned and shunned. he's a deconstruction of the people who've hurt him; he's similar to them while also standing for the exact opposite of everything they stand for. he's selfless and kind and driven to protect others even at the cost of his own safety, social standing, or well being. he makes mistakes and owns up to them, then tries to be better. he trusts joker so much. he's been hurt and abused and kicked while he was down and he still wants so badly to help others. as cruel as the world has been to him he doesn't let it embitter him or make him cynical and mean.

tldr; your honor, I love him

an old comic for an old au i will never write that i call my Akechi & Sophia Murder Buddies AU. basically, what if akechi infiltrated ichinose’s palace and found sophia inside. sophia is very similar to akechi in a lot of ways, and it got me thinking how her arc would look different if she met someone like akechi instead of the phantom thieves. also, their dynamic would be comedy gold. more details under the cut

bonus:

so, the catalyst for the au is shido learning about ichinose's research into cogpsi in late september (idk if this timeline matches up, it probably doesn't, but let's just say i'm moving what ichinose does up to earlier in the timeline for the sake of the au). he has goro infiltrate her palace to get information on this and determine if she's a threat. goro finds absolutely nothing in her palace, which is a near-empty dollhouse with only lifeless dolls and furniture inside. shadow ichinose herself is nowhere to be found. he's just about to call it a wash when he stumbles upon the cognition of sophia and accidentally awakens her.

sophia insists on being goro's companion, much to his chagrin, and follows him around the palace as he tries to leave. however, on the way out they run into ichinose's cognition of EMMA, which tries to eliminate both of them. sophia "awakens" to her "persona" and saves akechi's life. tired from the fight, akechi bails on ichinose's palace without bothering to find ichinose's shadow. when akechi leaves the palace, he mysteriously still finds sophia on his phone in the real world--and he decides, well if i'm stuck with her, she might as well help me out in the metaverse. (he is Not happy about any of this.)

akechi tells shido ichinose is a nobody. he doesn't know if this is true but neither does he care. akechi and sophia enter a deal--she will help him eliminate evil targets, being his helpful companion, if he helps her find her creator after his plan of revenge is over. akechi has no intentions of keeping his side of the deal (at first).

sophia becomes increasingly heartless and cruel under akechi's influence, to a point where it even starts to shock him. essentially, its the opposite of her arc in strikers--instead of her gaining a heart by making friends and learning what love, kindness, and justice are, she becomes more heartless and robotic without their guidance. meanwhile, akechi starts to actually care about sophia, and feels a deep seeded guilt about what he's done to her--while being very much in denial about all of this. in essence, they have opposite effects on one another.

but things get interesting when goro still ends up joining the phantom thieves, but this time with sophia in tow......

(maybe i'll draw a comic about that someday and share more of the au then hehe)

Actually I think that what we see of Akechi in the third semester isn’t an entirely honest reflection of who he is. He’s not a ruthless bloodthirsty finds-power-arousing (pre-showtime dialogue) nor in most other aspects of the game does he mention how openly and explicitly fascinated by Joker he is, the way he does in the third semester. Yes he is fascinated by Joker yes he finds him attractive yes whether you ship them or not there is undeniable homoerotic subtext in their relationship and akechi is queercoded.

This might not be too coherent bcs it’s like 2;30am rn BUT I think one of the most important things to consider is that the Akechi that gets brought back isn’t the same level of Brought Back that Wakaba Isshiki was, or Haru’s father. You can bring back Wakaba because she had all of these connections, all of these people who knew her and loved her. She had a job, a reputation, a social life, and even if Futaba hadn’t wanted her back, Sojiro would have. Her other coworkers, her friends. The point I’m making is that Wakaba, much like Okumura, and on a smaller scale Madarame with the way his personality changed, were social people. To be brought back, Maruki could have used these different understandings of them to bring them back as they were perceived and understood. Wakaba is crafted out of Sojiro’s memories of her as a person, out of Futaba’s memories of her as a mother. Okumura by how he was to Haru as a father, turned into a polished version based on what she wanted him to be.

Those who were alive were changed by the people around them, too. Sae by Makoto, Madarame by Yusuke, Shiho by Ann, even the rude teacher whose name I can’t remember is likely changed because of the wishes of the students, who Maruki heard complain about how cruel or mean or rude he was.

And that brings me back to Akechi. The only person who got close to him for who he actually was, is Joker. The only person who got to peek past the walls he put up, even in a controlled way, is Joker. The only person he was honest with, chose to surround himself with, and opened up about his life with, is Joker. As such, it’s Joker who wants him back when he’s gone (shown by Joker staring wistfully at his ceiling after their fight in Shido’s palace and finding it hard to believe he’s gone) and it’s Jokers wish that brings him back.

And with Joker’s last experience with Akechi being this sudden reveal for what his capacity for violence is, with little time to process, probably spends the next while of his quiet grief trying to wrap his head around this sudden change and it warps his perception of Akechi. It’s not that he’s ruthless, unwaveringly bloodythirsty and takes sexual pleasure from killing people/shadows necessarily, but that as Maruki was pulling from people’s memories and experiences for this, he pulled a warped and slightly inaccurate version of Akechi from Joker’s mind.

And that’s how we end up with a version of Akechi who is attached to Joker at the hip, who is unwaveringly allied with him, who constantly says things like “jokers mad. I kind of like it, but it’s not you” or only gets the ability to throw himself in front of a fatal attack to protect joker/to endure a fatal hit because of his closeness to Joker AFTER he’s brought back in 3rd semester. He isn’t incapable of putting himself at risk for someone if he wanted to, but he has too much to do. He has his plans, his goals to become more powerful than Shido, and for that reason he can’t afford to risk dying.

But when Joker needs him to come back, to be his friend rather than his enemy, to use this tenacity and determination he has to aid the Phantom Thieves, he gets what he wanted and what he needed, and in doing so pulls out and exaggerates a worse side of Akechi because of how his own infallible memory has warped his memory of him.

So he gets the Akechi he wanted (passionate, dangerously loyal, allied to Joker and Joker alone, therefore connecting him with the Phantom Thieves too) while also getting the Akechi he never saw and never wanted to see (ruthless, bloodthirsty, capable of immense violence and capable of enjoying said violence) but being just submerged enough in Maruki’s reality not to properly question how or why he’s back, but indulging in his own feelings and choosing ignorance so he doesn’t have to doubt the one person who listens to, believes, and trusts him, when everyone else (even without knowing better)turns their back on him. That’s what I find so captivating about the third semester and their dynamic within it. I don’t think it’s accurate to Akechi, not even his own deepest and darkest desires, but those aspects of a personality are forced onto him as a result of Joker’s grief.

And that’s something I wish Atlus had been able to delve into in a little more detail.

l've always been annoyed at how Ryuji is treated sometimes by the Phantom Thieves, as a big Ryuji lover, it really hurts to see scenes like that especially when the girls beat him up after risking his life :(

So for my request, I was wondering if you could do a m!reader or gn!reader openly showing their relief/happiness upon seeing Ryuji is okay? This doesn't have to be applied to only that scene, any where he's hurt or made the butt of the joke would be great! Thanks so much <33

Reader Caring for Ryuji After He Came Back Hurt

Fandom: Persona 5

Character(s): Ryuji Sakamoto

Type of Request: Headcanons

Note(s): Tbh that's one of my biggest complaints about P5. The fact that once most of the character arcs were over, then the characters were kind of just there was annoying.

Ann being sexualized in one cutscene despite the creepy crap she went through, Ryuji being the comic relief and being hated on by Morgana all game, Makoto is kind of eh after her big moment with the palace, Haru didn't even get a chance to be a good character in the main story. It took a spinoff game for Haru to get love.

Sorry for my mini-rant, some of the decisions with the characters in Persona makes me sigh.

Ryuji

You knew that things have been rough with Ryuji. Every time it's time to leave a Palace quickly, you worry because of his leg. He smiles and tells you that it's fine, but you still can't hide your concern.

You weren't there during Shido's palace. Other obligations got in the way. But when Ryuji came and saw you afterwards, looking beat up and limping slightly, you were beyond worried.

"Hey, I'm fine, I'm okay! Ow, my ribs..." Ryuji would laugh as you bring him into a tight hug before starting to fret over the "ow" he let out. He explains what happened to you, grumbling about how most of his injuries aren't even from the palace but after he got out. You didn't quite understand what that meant (probably good as you would've torn the others a new one), you were more focused on helping Ryuji.

He didn't even get an option as you had him sit down and went to grabbing a first aid kit. You made him drink water and refuel from the running he did as you placed bandaids on his scratches. There is a tiny bit of scolding mostly because you were worried, but most of it is "I'm so glad you're okay".

And while Ryuji might complain or squirm a bit at how much you're babying him in this moment, but honestly, he's just trying to distract himself from how his heart squeezes tightly and how his eyes well up a bit. He really didn't think he could fall in love any more and you proved him wrong.

Taglists: @reo-the-leo

“i thought i lost you”

pairing: ryuji sakamoto x gn!reader

summary: after escaped shido's palace, ryuji is nowhere to be found. just when you think he died, your boyfriend returns!

“w-where is ryuji…?”

you all had narrowly escaped shido's palace, but when you got blast out of it by the explosion, ryuji was nowhere to be seen. despite looking around, desperately turning your head again and again, he wasn't here.

“n-no… it can't be…”

ann gasped quietly as she noticed he wasn't here anymore. and judging by the tears that quickly started streaming down her cheeks, she was suspecting the same thing you were; ryuji hadn't made it out of shido's palace.

“that idiot… sacrificing himself for us…”

makoto hissed quietly, her grief showing in the form of anger, as her hands balled into fists. despite how angry she was, the tears she tried to keep hidden showed that she griefed ryuji's loss as well.

“who sacrificed who? what did i miss?”

suddenly, all heads shot up at once, as you heard a familiar voice. a voice you thought you'd never hear again…

“ryuji…?”

you couldn't believe your eyes when the blonde smiled at you, as if nothing had happened. he seemed to be completely oblivious to everyone's worries about him.

“you… you're okay–!!”

“of course i'm– mpfh…!”

without a warning, you rushed towards ryuji and wrapped your arms around him, pressing a passionate kiss onto his lips. ryuji's eyes widened for a moment, caught off guard by the sudden display of affection, before he pulled you closer towards him and closed his eyes, reciprocating the kiss.

“don't… don't ever scare me like that again!”

you warned ryuji, as you pulled away from his lips after what felt like an eternity. though your threat didn't seem to get through to him, as the boy only stared at you with a giddy, lovestruck smile.

“you… you kissed me~!”

he pointed out the obvious, his smile only getting bigger. you couldn't help but roll your eyes and press another kiss onto his lips, this time much more gentle than the one before.

“i'll kiss you as much as you want… just please, never scare me like that again. i thought i lost you and i couldn't stand not having you around anymore…”

i’m here to play legos, 4, 5 and 30 for the fic writer asks!!

hi!!! tips my legos all over the floor

4. a story idea you haven’t written yet

i think my favourite right now is lawlight au of that specific australian mermaid show h2o. light uses his merman powers to drown criminals on the gold coast but he's not called kira because it's australia and he was first identified on nobby beach queensland so everyone calls him THE GHOST OF NOBBY, or NOBBO, for short, which is a stupid name that he hates so much.

5. first sentence of the fifth paragraph of an unpublished WIP

i have two almost-completed wips i just never get around to posting so here's both

ffxv - promptis 'crazy rich asians' au where prompto and noctis are in a long-term relationship but noct's never mentioned he's the heir to the lucian throne or that he's betrothed to lunafreya until he decides to invite prompto to his own wedding:

"You have a family?" Prompto asks, after he's done sheepishly mopping cheese off the table.

bg3 - wyllstarion divorce fic where they get divorced

"What brought the two of you to your end?" asks Lae'zel. "Wyll was smitten with you. It surprised me, but I thought you were as disgustingly devoted to him."

30. share a fic you’re especially proud of

it will ALWAYS be p5 akechi palace fic "as you like it" which i have been pouring my heart and soul into for years <3 the planning doc for this fic is so god damn long and so much of it is just me planning out what this palace would look and play like if it were a playable palace in the game. i even went so far as to start writing a palace theme for it based on akechi's leitmotif in the anime, like... just for funsies (sorry it's an incomplete phone recording). anyway heres some of it

“So does this mean he’s alive?” Don’t know. Couldn’t tell you. The answer, Morgana says, is yes—he thinks. “You think?!” Well, no one who’s dead has had a Palace before. And Shido’s Palace collapsed when he’d done that dead-not-dead thing (join the club, Ren thinks, not that he’d like to have anything in common with Masayoshi Shido nor let Akechi share in the same), and he’d clearly done so with intent, so the answer appeared to be—well, they’d find out. But the outlook was good. “Good,” Haru murmurs. “Depending where you stand.” Nobody answers this. Nobody feels they have the right to. Ren gets the feeling even Haru doesn’t know where she stands, and he doesn’t blame her. Honestly, he doesn’t feel like he’s standing at all. “So?” asks Ryuji to Ren, trying to exude bravado but looking about as tired as the rest of them. “What’re his keywords?” You could start with his name. “I don’t know,” says Ren.

Persona 5: Phantom Cat

An idea that plagued me ever since I saw Poppy Playtime Chapter 3 and been playing Persona 5 Royal. Joker but he's a Bigger Bodies CatNap. Things are gonna go insane and have a new flavor of dark.

For those who want to learn more about Poppy Playtime before delving in, this post has all the current info links.

Ren Amamiya was an orphan raised in the Playcare orphanage at Playtime Co. A secondary candidate for the Catnap Bigger Bodies experiments if one were to be found too unstable to use(looks at Ch3 CatNap). It's clear from the various VHS tapes which can be found throughout the chapter that there are some workers who been aware about the horrors done in Playtime Co.

People who absolutely hated it or disagree with such inhumane idealism. One particular scientist decides to do something unheard of: allow a child experiment to escape. Ren being the chosen person as they had grown close to him but were unable to adopt him in time before experimentation. The transformation for the boy gone faulty which led to a more unorthodox method of conversion.

Ren was made into a small Catnap who will overtime grow into a Bigger Bodies version. The perfect size for the scientist to sneak him out in a duffle bag and vanish after work was done for today. A simple swap with a normal Catnap toy.

No one knew they were in the process of moving to Japan nor the truth until it was too late. An experiment has gotten out into the real world. The scientist alongside the recently converted Ren were unaware about the growth process and thought he been made into a normal toy.

A mistake that became noticed when Ren had double in size within a span of two weeks. Despite this new problem, the scientist did his best to raise the boy. Unlike the other CatNap, Ren is completely different from the Smiling Critters as a whole.

His face isn't a stuck in a perpetual grin and he can make various facial expressions like his cartoon counterpart. Ren is around 12 years old when he fully grew into his staggering 23 ft tall Bigger Body. Long lanky body that is more lean has an almost humanlike upper torso. Well if they got extra long limbs.

The youth can easily pretend to be a toy as he's well fed and the healthy weight hides his bone structure. (CH3 CatNap was starved.) Ren can compress his body to 11 ft at minimum for the moment. He needs to train in order to shrink to the size of a plush, even more to reach rat size(thank Shido's Palace.)

(Comparison Bigger Bodies Catnap and the small toy alongside the cartoon art)

Ren doesn't produce Red Smoke but instead normal choloform. This is because he would be upgraded once reaching full size back at Playcare under The Doctor's orders. A safe measure to not deal with two rogue Red Smoke spraying CatNaps.

He didn't have a voice box added as the employees involved in this experiment rather leave him mute. Ren does get one from his rescuer which sounds like his own voice but can be adjusted to fit his age. Despite being a Bigger Body the youth lives a very happy life.

A few weeks after Ren's thirteenth birthday is when tragedy struck. The boy lost his parent from the result of a drunk driver(Shido.) Ren is forced to pack up all his prizes possessions and leave knowing their family home would soon be foreclosed.

He moves into Yogen-jaya as the place was the closest, most rural but most importantly least populated area. Ren survived by eating whatever food people threw out and stealing from homes if desperate. On one fateful day, he breaks into Sojiro's place where meets Futaba.

She was obviously frightened by the 11 ft (compressed) monstrous cat in her house. Until Futaba notices that the strange creature acted more like a hungry skittish feline from the almost empty messy fridge. It was in that moment Futaba would do something insane. She let Ren stay with her.

Using her hacking skills, the youth stole money from people's bank accounts/cards and ordered Ren food to pick up in secluded spots throughout the neighborhood. The duo's bond becoming that of siblings over time. Although it didn't take long for Sojiro to bump into Ren.

He was super concerned and frightened to see the giant feline in his home even when Futaba jump into his defense. It took awhile before Sojiro trusted Ren as he let the Bigger Body stay due to the sibling bond with his adopted daughter. The two were obviously disgusted at Playtime Co once they heard about the boy's backstory.

For those wondering, this entire thing did change events in the Persona 5 main story. The first being the Phantom Thieves line up. Makoto takes Ren's position as she was taken into Kamoshida's Palace alongside Ryuji in his place. He becomes leader much later.

Next is the Palace lineup. There are no time limits for the first two(no expulsion threat nor Medjed threat. Makoto kept Ryuji from losing his cool for the former.) Futaba's Palace takes the second slot instead of Madarame. The reason being her mental attacks have gotten so worse that Ren sought the Phantom Thieves' help upon finding the Phansite. Futaba was rightfully upset upon finding out but she understood her big brother's worry.

A few depictions of Ren can be found inside her Egyptian Themed Palace, each showing him as a guardian deity. Even Shadow Futaba carries a little charm that looks like him. Ren also awakens Arseńe in this very Palace. His Phantom Thief outfit remains the same but can stretch or shrink to fit his body no matter the size change. Same goes for his weapons, the knife becoming a broadsword when large and the handgun into a grenade launcher.

The current Phantom Thieves absolutely freaked out when they first met Ren. For the beginning, he gave them the request and the keywords to reach her Palace. However Ren wasn't aware that a new obstacle had manifested due to his powerful bond with Futaba.

A stone Sphinx at the halfway point who will only let them through if they present the 'The Pharaoh's True Guardian'. The group believe they needed a plush which is sorta correct. I thought it be funny yet perfect symbolism to make Ren a key companion for Futaba's Palace. Now onto the Joker changes.

Ren is still a Wildcard but he has no access to his original Velvet Room. Keyword being 'original' for he'll gain usage to a completely different one. This one being managed by Margaret who been concerned about the strange behavior of Igor and Lavenza's absence.

Ren's appearance in the Velvet Room is his canon iteration. Although this room takes the appearance of a fun house with him wearing a Catnap hooded costume. Every mechanic in the Velvet Room revolves around carnival rides or game booths.

Fusion are the tea cup rides while Fusion Alarm shifts into Bumper Cars. Itemization is a the Disappearing Crate magic trick. Strengthening results in the Hall of Mirrors. Training being various games from tossing to dunk tanks.

I will be going over the Confidants, Thieves' Den and the other Persona 5 games in a different post as this is getting pretty long. That's it for now! Until next time folks, I'll see you later.

P5 HEADCANONS

So here I bring some Persona 5 Royal headcanons I have because I kinda need to let them out of my system.

Would love to listen about your headcanons as well. Also if you're particularly interested in any of them I'd love to elaborate more or even write a short fic or whatever, just ask! <3 Many of them are post-game soooooo this gonna have spoilers. Also I'm gonna refer to the protagonist as Akiren because I can't decide on which name I prefer. I'm not gonna include here HC about ships for many reasons, one of them being that I want to keep these as neutral as possible. Other is that I'm against the idea of having a partner as a "goal". However I love shipping so probably I'll post headcanons about some ships sooner or later

This is already WAY TOO LONG so for the moment I'm not including more characters. Definitely there's gonna be an update sooner or later.

Phantom Thieves

Each of them have a big PT flag like the one you can see at Akiren's room during Shido's Palace.

After the events at Maruki's Palace they built a small shrine for Akechi, as they don't know where his grave might be or even if he has one. Of course they also left a PT flag for him there.

After Akiren's departure back to his hometown, the rest of the group kept being regulars at Leblanc. At the beginning they only went individually as customers, then they started going as a group, and some time later Sojiro just let them use the attic as they wanted. To compensate, some of them help Sojiro at the store, the most invested in lending a hand is Haru

Once, thanks to Morgana's help, the PT managed to go pay a surprise visit to Akiren at his hometown. He was so genuinely happy he started crying. That opened the floodgates and everyone started ugly crying for a long time. None of them wants to talk about this.

It gets really hard for the Phantom Thieves to make new friends or have a partner for a while. The bonds they formed are so strong and deep that for most of them it's really difficult to have that kind of connection again with anyone, and anything less than that seems like a waste of time. This is particularly hard for Yusuke, Futaba and Makoto, whose social skills aren't that good to begin with, and for a really long time they don't feel like they belong anywhere else but the PT

The whole group tries to meet at least once a year, but it gets difficult as time passes as Akiren is back in his hometown and Ann lives abroad most of the time. If one of them couldn't make it to a meeting, they try to at least videocall while they are still together

Ryuji

He dyes his hair himself and despite being quite used to it he has indeed fried it a couple of times. The first time it happened his mom told him he was gonna get bald if he kept damaging his hair like that. He pretends he's not worried about it at all, but getting bald is now a recurrent nightmare of his

He was utterly convinced he was dumb and a lost cause until Makoto offered to help him study for real and showed him that he just learns different, and traditional school doesn't accomodate to his needs.

He's pretty good at doing household chores. He started doing them to compensate the terrible son he thinks he is (he's clearly not but our boy has self steem issues). Later he realizes it's just the normal thing to do so he and his mom share domestic chores

His bigger fear is to be in any way similar to his father. That's one of the reasons why he dies his hair (his father has it black). Also that's why he's very against drinking alcohol. He doesn't intend to even drink it himself and he's very wary around people who drinks. Drunk people trigger him real bad.

It takes him a lot of time to move out from his mom's place. He feels like he's abandoning her, just like his father did, and doesn't feel comfotable leaving her living alone. Once he finally leaves to his own place, he keeps visiting her frequently and calls her several times a week

I know it's a very common headcanon but I don't care. He ends up being a teacher/trainer/instructor in anything sports related. Kids and teenagers adore him and he loves his job. But it's also is very hard for him because he mades his students problems his own and suffers with them

When Ryuji starts job-hunting he stops dieying his hair and goes back to his original black. He once went into Leblanc just after a job interview with black hair and wearing a suit and Futaba almost kicked him out because she though he was a random guy getting too friendly. The first time Morgana saw Ryuji with black hair, he hissed at him because he didn't recognized him. He gets back to blonde once he has a job that allows it

With his first decent salary, Ryuji got her mom a one night spa break so she could relax for once.

Makoto

She finally admits to herself that despite her initial reticence she likes her PT outfit. As she grows older and she's able to separate herself from that projection of perfection she kept as a teenager, she starts wearing more "punkish" clothes (always under that classy aura of hers, of course)

She does the same with her enviroment, so once she gets her own place even if it's still organized and practical, she adds stuff that makes it more "Queen" and less "little miss perfect" than her room at Sae's . For example, she requests Yusuke a big painting of Johanna, so she won't forget her rebel spirit. She also has TONS of Buchimaru stuff she got at second hand stores that Futaba recommended her. And of course she has a boxing bag at the living room.

Everyone in the PT refers to her as the "mom friend", in fact they call her Momkoto...all behind her back of course, they are not brave enough to face the consequences. Ryuji slipped his tongue once and called her "mom" in front of the others out of habit. It's hard to know which of them both was most embarrased by it.

Whenever she rents a place to live she always tries for it to have some extra space she won't use that much so in case a friend needs somewhere to stay for a while she could offer them her place.

Her relationship with Sae improves drastically when she moves out. Funny enough, they start doing more stuff together than when they were both living under the same roof

Makoto wants to be a cop to try and change the system from the inside, that's why she wants to become a commissioner. Once she realizes it's almost impossible she has an existential crisis and doesn't know what to do with her life.

She gets into videogames due to her passion for Yakuza movies. Both Futaba and Ryuji convinced her to give a try to Yakuza games and she becomes obsessed. From them she jumps to more genres and her competitive nature did the rest. She once snatched in half a controller with her bare hands playing Mario Kart

After getting a motorcycle license she realizes she really enjoys the feeling of driving, so from there she went for a heavy vehicle license, then a special vehicles one...She kept it to herself (didn't see the need to say anything since nobody asked) and one day Haru told something about how it would be a lot easier to go to a certain place flying and Makoto offered to fly them there as she has a Private pilot license

Yusuke

Yusuke carries a sketchbook everywhere, even if he's not planning to draw anything or goes to a place in which he won't be able to draw. He just can't leave home without one

Of all the Phantom Thieves he is , by far, the one who spends more time at Leblanc

He and Sojiro get along pretty well, to the point that he becomes a father figure for Yusuke. Sojiro, far from being disgusted with this idea, embraces it and kinda adopts him. He even went to Yusuke's graduation at Kosei.

Despite his talent and dedication working as an artist becomes a struggle for Yusuke. Not only because how hard it is, but because the art he loves so much is many times used as a tool to get money and that clashes head-on with his idea of purity.

From time to time he disappears and it becomes really difficult to contact him in any way. He calls those moments "a journey of artistic and existential dread ", Futaba calls them "autistic burnout" (she's right)

It's really hard for him to keep a job. The moment something doesn't align with his moral compass he won't hesitate to speak out and most companies do not like employees who remind them the huge pieces of shit they are

At a certain point he gets into digital art as he has to admit it's easier to get by with commisions than just art contests. However traditional art keeps being his absolute fave and he always favours it. (I feel you, my boy, traditional artist speaking here)

Futaba (and Sojiro)

They both miss Morgana so much they end up adopting a cat. Sojiro allows it on one condition, he has the right to name it (it's terrible)

Every year at Wakaba's birthday Sojiro and Futaba celebrate it doing something she would have loved. There's always a lot of crying but for them is a very special day, even more than their own birthdays

Futaba gets a very VERY lucrative job in cyber security. She tries to give back everything Sojiro spent on her but he obviously refuses and won't accept a single yen. To compensate Futaba gets him really expensive presents from time to time

She doesn't want to leave Sojiro living by himself so instead of moving out, she gets a better place at Yongen-Jaya for both of them to live together.

Haru

Haru has little to none attachment to the money her father hoarded by exploiting others. That results in her not wasting it mindlessly, but using as much as she can to make other people happy (mainly her friends)

She always offers to lend her friends money if any of them needs it. They always refused until she told them "if you ask a bank for a credit you gotta pay interests, if you ask me for a credit my only interests would be company and coffee dates"

Haru commissions Yusuke whenever she realizes he's struggling financially. She asks for huge expensive art pieces, giving him complete freedom on what to do. It's her way to help him whitout making him feel that he owes her.

She later uses said pieces to decorate her coffee shop.

In her crusade to learn as much as she can about coffee, tea and coffee shops she makes a list of all the places in Tokyo (and other places in Japan) she wants to visit. Knowing that Yusuke would never decline anything food related she invites him to go with her, also wanting to know his opinion on the different places as she knows he would be brutally honest. That way coffee dates (in a completely platonic way) end up being a routine for both of them

On the menu of her coffee shop she has drinks inspired on each one of the Phantom thieves, fitting their preferences and named after their codenames at the Metaverse.

shido's conspiracy is big: koenkai (supporters associations) in japanese politics

How do you take over Japan, if you're a corrupt piece of shit?

On 11/25, when the Shido's Palace mission starts and you're finally released from captivity in Leblanc, the Modest Housewife in the Shibuya underground mall suddenly becomes the Not-So-Modest Housewife. And what does she tell us?

shido has a what now

What's the "supporters association"? In Japanese, it's a 後援会 kouenkai. From Wikipedia:

Koenkai (後援会, lit. "local support groups") are an invaluable tool of Japanese Diet members, especially of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). (note: in P5, this is the "Liberal Co-Prosperity Party" or LCP, Shido's original party and the original ruling party.) These groups serve as pipelines through which funds and other support are conveyed to legislators and through which the legislators can distribute favors to constituents in return.

The article is fascinating; do give it a read, as I can't possibly do it justice here. These are massive organisations, and relay vast amounts of cash to their members. They organise endless activities for their members—that meeting at the Wilton Hotel on 5/5 is one. They often require a personal connection to be invited, which is why the Housewife says this to her friend:

... she knows she wasn't invited.

Though koenkai are weaker in modern times, there are many examples of them being involved with corruption; here are a couple.

"The Asahi reported in the mid-1970s that the [koenkai of former Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei] "virtually controls… agricultural committees, popular welfare committees, election management committees". This thorough penetration of Tanaka's koenkai into all important facets of Niigata's people's lives propelled him into becoming the father figure of the district. After his arrest in 1976 on corruption charges, many of Niigata's residents still expressed deep respect towards him."

"Due to the huge support [former Prime Minister] Takeshita Noboru enjoyed as a result of his koenkai, his electoral district in Shimane came to be known as ‘Takeshita Kingdom'. Despite being embroiled in many political scandals, related to insider trading and corruption (for which he was never charged), Takeshita's immense local support never waned."

so what does this tell us

In short, Shido's conspiracy is not a few corrupt high-level officials. It's not just Shido, Akechi, the SIU Director and those people on the ship. It is a vast organisation.

It recruits people by reputation (remember those five recommendations in the Palace?) from all levels of society—and those recruits then operate as a bloc, networking, doing favours for each other, advancing their mutual interests, connected via a hierarchy to Shido at the top. This is why Shido can control everything.

It also explains why everyone seems to be linked to the conspiracy—including the hapless Principal Kobayakawa. Did you think it was unrealistic for him to be involved? It seems likely that he was just a low-level member of Shido's koenkai.

When Shido needed someone at Shujin to investigate the Phantom Thieves, Kobayakawa was there—because they have people everywhere. A quick phone call from a higher-up in the organisation—the SIU Director, most likely, who we know Kobayakawa speaks to—and he's eating out of Shido's hand. And will do anything he wants....

So Kobayakawa wasn't anybody at all. He wasn't important. He wasn't somehow part of the deep state. He was just one of likely hundreds of thousands of paid-up Shido supporters looking to advance themselves, getting the vote out, and funding the cause.

He was in the right place at the right time. After all, the koenkai got Kobayakawa his job at Shujin. All his hopes for advancement are centred on it:

Because just like the two housewives in the underground mall, and probably like everyone else in the koenkai, Kobayakawa is a desperate social climber, impressed by wealth and fame and power and flashy titles.

I hope he thought it was worth it.

revision history

Click here for the latest version.

v1.0 (2023/10/31)—first posted.

(THIS IS EXTREMELY INCOHERENT HOWEVER I AM CORRECT)

Let’s start with the center. Akechi Goro is our ace detective/black mask. The ALIVE???? Above his head is to represent my insanity and act like a detective in a movie. He is the star of this theory. That’s abou all I will say about him as of right now. I am going to truly begin with the photo in the bottom right corner. In this photo you can see a screenshot from within the game. This is the point ingame that Akechi reveals his “true form” as the black mask. I put true in quotations because, like joker, he can also hold multiple personas at once. This is only the second person in game to be shown to be able to do that. Whether or not he can hold as many as joker is simply unknown. I also put true in quotation marks because both Robin Hood (prince side) and Loki (black masks) were formed within him. This means they both represent his true self in a sense. You must battle with him twice(?) I believe in the game before he is defeated. Your first fight with him is against Robin Hood, once you defeat that he has a monologue. This monologue is quite funny and the start of it is shown right below akechi. TEAMMATES????? FRIENDS???? TO HELL WITH THAT. WHY AM I INFERIOR TO YOU?? I would type out the whole thing, but I don’t have time for that. (every single website with it is also blocked on the school computer sighhhhh) In this whole spiel he goes on to talk about how he worked so hard to maintain his perfect image. He talks about how he was an ace detective, a celebrity, and how did you, a criminal living in an attic, defeat him. As you continue to try and calm him down, he starts going crazier. In the midst of it all he explains that Shido is his father, and that he was working with him. (Shido does not know that Akechi is his son.) He goes on to say he wanted to be the one to defeat him, and he was not about to let you take that away from him. As he gets crazier and crazier (I <3 my crazy gf) he soon reveals Loki and the black mask. Triggering mental shutdowns is a capability that only black mask can do. He triggers a mental shutdown within himself and then you get launched into battle with him again. After you defeat him again you begin speaking with him. During this speech it seems he has a slight change of heart and he wants to join you but his shadow counterpart interrupts this conversation (as see in bottom right photo).

In palaces there are sometimes shadow versions of people. These shadow versions are not the actual people, just how the palace ruler sees them. This shadow version of Akechi is like Shido’s lapdog. He calls real Akechi pathetic and worthless for not being able to complete his mission in killing the Phantom Thieves. He proceeds to threaten Akechi, so Akechi shoots a button in the room you are in with him and it causes a wall to come up between the two of you. Behind this wall you can hear two gunshots go off. After those gunshots Futaba (the navigator of the Phantom Thieves) claims to see no singles on the other side of this wall. This would hypothetically mean that both the shadow and Akechi are dead. HOWEVER I DO NOT THINK THIS IS THE CASE IN ONE SPECIFIC UNIVERSE WITHIN THE GAME.

In all the previous persona games there have been errors with navigation in the game. (Error that are canon within the game, Not mistakes with the creators.) In Persona 5 Royal this could be the navigation error. If we look at the photo in the top left, you can see MAruki. Maruki comes into the story soon after you defeat Kamoshida, the first palace in the game, he is a therapist and will be working as a school counselor to help students cope with the abuse that they endured with him. (Assuming you’ve played the game I am not going to explain further). He is one of the confidants you can up your friendship with within the game. You do that by hanging out with him after school for counseling. If you reach the max level with him before he leaves the school you will unlock the 3rd semester and a new palace. You unlock this palace after you defeat the god, Yaldabaoth. Typically this is the end of the game. You defeat the evil, mementoes disappears, and society is mostly reformed, but not in this timeline. In this specific timeline Maruki finds the remains of the dead god and absorbs its power. With this power he “reforms” society to his ideals. He makes the world perfect for everyone and grants their greatest wish. In this scenarios Sumire becomes her dead sister Kasumi, Ryuji is still on the track team, Shiho is perfectly okay, and Futaba’s mother is alive. There are more examples, but that’s all I’m going to say right now. I’m going to rewind a bit again.

Back to right after you defeat Yaldabaoth. It should be Christmas Eve when you defeat it. No later than that. And on Christmas eve it starts snowing, you adire the snow in towns square in Tokyo, but then Sae approaches you. (Sae is a detective much like Akechi. She was building a case against the Phantom Thieves, but at this point in the game she is on your side.) When she approaches you she requests that you admit that you are the leader of the Phantom Thieves. Doing this would incriminate you and send you to prison but asks that you trust her. In the timeline where you do not max out your friendship with Maruki, you will be sent to jail and used to help in trial to incriminate Shido. In this timeline I presume Akechi is dead because he is MIA the entire time. So he is either fleeing and taking on a new identity (which is something I really don’t see him doing) or he is dead. HOWEVER, if you DO max out your friendship with Maruki, right before you accept Sae’s offer Akechi comes out and say he will take your place for that.

I say this is the strongest evidence for his survival in Shido’s palace because this is before Maruki fully absorbs or even absorbs the power of Yaldabaoth at all. This means that Akechi was physically there on his own. MAruki’s weird perfect world powers don’t kick in till at night on New Years Eve. This is known because you have a dream the night before, a very vivid one. It takes you through the school and to Maruki’s office. When you wake up the next morning, you go into the cafe part of LeBlanc. You woke up without Morgana, but you ignore it. When you get downstairs Futaba and HER MOTHER????? Are here. That’s when you first realize something is wrong. (that was all kinda off topic). My point of this is that none of Maruki’s freaky shit triggers until New Year’s day.

Now to disprove anything that may prove me wrong. (I physically can’t be wrong. I’m always right) The first thing that may make my theory seem untrue is the Confidant cards. In Akechi’s, after the altercation in Shido’s palace, it says, “He sacrificed his own life in order to save you…in the end your wishes become one.” In this we can INFER he is dead. HOWEVER THIS CAN”T PROVE ME WRONG. These descriptions are based on what YOU think of the person. What Joker himself knows. This means some information may be inaccurate. It would be accurate for the point of time in the game, but can change in the future. At that point in the game Joker THINKS Akechi is dead. Therefore this can’t prove me wrong. The other thing that may prove that I am wrong is the fact Akechi disappears after MAruki’s palace with all the other delusions. If you think i’m wrong L + ratio

i'm drawing right now but i need to sumigoro parallels post because ghrngfhgrbh!!!!

long ass post and full p5r spoilers. you know how it is

THING ONE: LOCALIZATION BAD

i have mixed thoughts about the choice to add more cognitive characters in p5r but it is good because it very clearly displays some things about like, how people are perceived. right? like cognitive haru sucks for other reasons but it's a good display that her father does not understand her. she's a robot mindlessly following his orders, very literally. same thing with kamoshida and madarame and everyone else. and it's very easy to look at cognitive haru next to cognitive akechi and go "these two act exactly the same" but with one major difference:

that's goro akechi! correct dominant hand and everything! yusuke, who you can also draw easy comparisons to, is Literally A Fucking Painting to madarame. and that right there is Just Akechi.

i'm going to go into the localization because they beefed it up real bad here which is a personal insult to me. everything taken straight from this pastebin i have had bookmarked for like 2 years so i have no idea where i got it from originally.

the 'puppet' bit starts with the line "I was wondering how he'd protect himself if I used my power to tear though his Palace. Turns out you're how. So he's making a puppet kill me… Sounds like something he'd do." in japanese, the second bit of this line is "お前がその係…同じ顔した人形に殺させるって訳だ。…あの男らしい" which our pastebin translates as "You're in charge of that… in other words, I'd be killed by a puppet with the same face as me. …That's just like him."

the notable thing here is that akechi identifies the cognitive double as "A puppet with the same face as (him)" at the start of the interaction. what he's getting at here, with the "that's just like (shido)" is that he's saying "Shido still thinks i'm just some puppet he can order around to do whatever he wants!"

and cognitive akechi responds to that: "Aren't you, though?"

the localisation has completely lost this thread by this point and will continue to completely ignore it despite the fact this is the resolution to akechi's entire character in vanilla P5 no i'm not mad about it - "That's right. I'll do anything. But look at yourself… you're the true puppet." which is just "uhhh no you lol" - the pastebin translation is "That's right, I'm a puppet. I'll do anything. But if I'm a puppet… then the true puppet is you, isn't it?" ("そうとも、オレは人形さ。何だってする。 けどオレが人形なら…ほんとの人形は、お前だろ。")

like. cognitive akechi IS akechi. shido thinks that he can tell akechi to do whatever and he'll do it, and he's right. the entire time, akechi's big plan has been "i'll trick him into thinking i'm co-operating with his plan by co-operating with his plan, and then once he's the prime minister of japan, i'll tell him i was his son the whole time, and he'll be sooooo owned! that'll totally get his ass and I'll Win!" (preemptively addressing a common misconception: he was not going to kill shido. he never says he is going to kill shido. the exact phrase he uses is "living hell.") akechi is the puppet.

and then after the PTs have the heart to heart with akechi and he makes the decision to disobey shido & sacrifice himself for them, his final line in english is: "So, my final opponent is a puppet version of myself…"

which is Nothing. in japanese, it's:

"My final opponent is the puppet I used to be, huh…" ("最後の相手が『人形だった俺自身』か…")

which is EVERYTHING. he changed! he throws away both his life and everything he was working towards to have one real moment of free will!!! that's His Real Actual Death without maruki, and with him it shows why akechi is so fucking horrified at everything that's happening.

anyway, this post was also about sumire.

there she is :)

maruki thinks about sumire as some waifish wilting flower who needs kasumi to do everything and is so consumed by grief that she can't do anything on her own, and it looks like he's right!

pulling out the dogmeta again:

sumire is that weak and helpless when we first meet her, because maruki isn't giving her the tools to help herself and grow. you know, like a therapist? he's making her Feel Better in a way that does not address the problem and will instantly explode and ruin her life again if he's ever removed from the situation. sumire cannot get better because the person who's supposed to be helping her get better doesn't believe she can get better.

akechi and sumire are both completely reliant on Shitty Father Figure who have correctly identified them as useless on their own, akechi changes when he realises he's being controlled, sumire changes when she realises she doesn't need to be controlled.

THING TWO: LOCALIZATION STILL BAD

so you know the part in the sumi boss fight where maruki tentacle-crucifies sumire and makes her persona freak out and then he's like "waaah how horrible you have to save her amamiya-kun!!!" because he's the good guy?

the first thing akechi says is "Tch, it's gone totally berserk..." and in japanese the word he uses here is "暴走" now, berserk is a completely accurate translation of this! but the word comes up a couple other times earlier in the game, you may have spotted it, and it's translated there as.. "(making someone go) psychotic" and by a couple other times i mean every single reference to akechi's powers except weirdly one time with this random old couple in the very beginning of the game.

so akechi and sumire both have a second phase in your boss fight with them where they 'go berserk/psychotic'! just that maruki's making sumire do it a little more noticeably than shido is with akechi.

i'm normal.

Today I bring you, shuake spiderverse au

Tomorrow? Who knows.

Adding a break bc I’m going to RAMBLE

Ren is the one who gets bit by the spider obv

Have yet to decide on a name for him, Joker doesn’t feel spidery enough and Phantom Spider seems too on the nose but.

Goro is a detective working on hunting down said spider person, who keeps flirting with him.

Ren was a former member of spider society before quitting bc Miguel sucks. But he did make some friends in the form of his pre-existing friends from other universes who are spider people too.

That sounded rlly confusing hang on.

The PTs in Rens universe all help him out behind the scenes but then there’s also universes where each of them is the spider in that universe, so Ren has two sets of friends who are the same people. One of the Futabas made an app that lets them travel between dimensions without alerting spider society.

I have ideas to make each of the palace people (-Futaba probably) a big villain that Ren has to face all while dodging the really pretty detective who wants to arrest him.

Until Ren isn’t the only spider in his own dimension. Enter Akechi once again, now working alongside Ren as his own maybe spider themed alter ego that I also haven’t named…

except he wasn’t bit by a radioactive spider, his suit is entirely tech made to mimic Rens abilities (Goros ass cannot do whatever a spider can) featuring a very fun little ai named Robin Hood who keeps commented on Goro’s elevated heart rate when he looks at Ren. Wonder why.

The two continue to work together alongside the other spider thieves up until Ren and Goro wind up on a mission alone together in a lab, the very same lab Rens spider came from, where everything goes wrong, they get separated for a bit but manage to make it out in once piece.

Goro starts acting different after this though, becoming more snappy and never seeming to be available, always spacing out too. Also, there’s a new terror said to be attacking people at night, leaving its victims without heads. (If you can guess where this is going ily)

Ren, worried about his partner in stopping crime, goes to visit Goros apartment one night only to find it entirely a mess, unfortunately he can’t stay for long since there’s screaming down the street. Upon investigating, Ren comes face to face with the very creature he was hoping he wouldn’t have to see.

A thing a whole foot taller than him with a black and white striped body that almost resembled his suit in a way. Ren honestly would have thought it was a suit if not for the giant fucking mouth full of teeth and the horns. After promptly beating the shit out of Ren, the creature proudly announces itself as Loki.

Haven’t exactly figured out how the reveal happens yet but I do very much enjoy the idea of Goro having his own version of the iconic “we are venom” scene from the movie.

But basically Goro joining up with Loki was always the plan. His reasoning for teaming up with Ren is the same as in the game and he yeaa he’s been working with Shido, the mayor, this entire time :D the lab was entirely planned aswell. What wasn’t planned was how much of an impact Loki would have on Goros mental state, but he’s fine. Totally.

Blah blah shit happens, Shido becomes a major threat and Goro finally teams up with the Inter-Dimensional Spider Team for real to help take him down. Things don’t go according to plan, there’s a lot of fire, Goro can’t use Loki and Ren fails to save him! Tada! Canon event!!! *cue Miguel’s theme or whatever*

I want to include third semester because I think it would be cool but I just. Can’t think of how to make it work. But it would result in Goro coming back and finally learning how to get along with Loki.

This has been haunting my mind for weeks every since my friend sent me a design of spider Akiren.

Alsooo since there’s an alternate universe where each of the thieves got spider powers

This also means there’s a universe where it’s Goro.

Why have I strictly been using Ren this entire time? Because Akira is the one in Spider Goro’s world, with his symbiot Arsene

He’s uh. A little fucked up.

Thank you for listening to the deranged ramblings of a mad man, see you next millennium