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tenebriskukris · 2 months

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Oshi No Ko Chapter 143 – My Thoughts/Analysis

I knew we were going to be in for a real treat when the previous chapter ended the way it did, and boy howdy did this chapter not disappoint. Spoilers for Oshi No Ko Ch143 below.

The chapter starts off immediately where the last one ends. I said in my previous analysis that we might cut away from Aqua’s reaction where it stands but to see them commit to showing the entire scene like this is a really good sign. Considering how things are framed in the manga, giving this interaction continuous spotlight without cuts is really going to hammer in the importance of this chapter even further.

“I can’t help it. If I don’t hold you tight, I feel like you’ll suddenly disappear, sensei.” Rubyyyyyyyy. You really have to feel for her in this scene. After finding out Goro died when he was the reason she wanted to become an idol in the first place and now that he’s here in front of her you can’t blame her for being so clingy to him.

Ruby asking him to call her Sarina-chan is as precious as always. Aqua trying to brush it off is also quite in-character for him. The man can be insensitive toward other people’s feelings sometimes—mostly because of his own Issues—but his heart’s in the right place. Not to mention his own trauma pushing him in the direction where he thinks he doesn’t deserve anything good happening to him. Trauma can be a bitch like that.

Ah, I’m sure the mental age comment is going to have people riled up again. It might be relatively accurate for Aqua—though not fully, as we’ve already seen the lines between Aqua and Goro blur by his own admission—but Ruby didn’t get the chance to grow this old in her previous life. This is all new to her, whereas for Aqua he’d already had the chance to be this age in the past.

…Aqua owns a pair of glasses? I recall he had a pair in the first few chapters of the manga where he wanted to deceive that one girl but it’s the first time that’s been brought up in awhile. It could be Ichigo’s but we haven’t seen much of him since he reappeared.

“You always listen to my selfish requests no matter what.” I’ve suddenly been attacked by the mental image of Sarina staying up late to watch B-Komachi and Goro telling her to go to sleep and in exchange he’ll record the concert for her to watch later.

He looks so similar to Goro in this scene with him wearing the glasses. Perhaps it’s the way the panel and his hairstyle is drawn, but I’m already reminded of the first chapter of the series. The callbacks…

What did I just say about the callbacks??? Ruby asks Aqua if he’ll marry her in a joking manner and again Aqua brushes her off like in the first chapter. Holy shit.

And Ruby’s using the 18 years old line here. I was wondering when she was going to bring that up. And seeing her being praised by the person she loves…it’s so sweet. We really needed some levity after how dark and depressing the past few chapters were. Depending on the atmosphere of some media an onslaught of darkness can be fine, but Oshi No Ko isn’t solidly grimdark enough to justify it.

Ruby is really piling on the pressure here. To her, those meetings with Goro in the hospital room were her light. They were one of the only things tying her to life and a better future since even her own parents didn’t give her the relief of human interaction. Is it any wonder that she was so attached to someone who treated her with overwhelming care and affection? Sarina wasn’t even his patient and he took time out of his day to be with her and comfort her through her ordeal. Of course she was going to be attached to him and vice versa. Those days might have been the happiest she had ever been.

And of course Aqua’s trauma rears its ugly head. It’s an integral part of his character that I’ve seen so many people discount since the series has started. His entire character is built upon the guilt that he feels for being the reason(in his mind) about why his mother is dead. Am I talking about Ai or Goro’s unnamed mother? Either works—but the fact that Aqua’s been put into a situation where he feels like he’s the reason why someone he loves is dead isn’t going to do him any favors. Any sort of healing he’d done over the years as Goro had suddenly been ripped apart after Ai’s death.

Aqua with his singular white star eye… Oh jeez, he’s really letting down his barriers in front of Ruby now, isn’t he. And I also note that he doesn’t have that black star eye in his other eye. In half the chapter alone Ruby has already done more for him than any of his other love interests. I mean seriously—Kana didn’t even seem to notice Aqua’s entire facade, and Akane couldn’t even partially drag him out of it. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Ruby is the most important person to Aqua if he’s reacting like this to her right now.

And damn—we get to see Aqua’s thoughts on what he’s been doing and how he feels about all of this. This chapter really echoes back some of the things we’d already seen about Aqua and how he thinks, how he reacts and his thoughts on everything that’s happened. The black star eyes return to him as the memories of all the things he’s done come back to him…with the revenge plot looming in the background of this entire interaction.

Ruby’s star eyes returning as she mentions idols is very on-brand for her. Ditto with this entire infodumping setup about idols. Very cute.

“Sensei, you’re my idol.” Aqua is the real Oshi No Ko confirmed. This is only half a joke as I do think that both Ruby and Aqua are what the title of Oshi No Ko is referring to. So I wonder if in the future Aqua will say that Ruby is his idol as a callback to this scene. There’s also the odd brackets in the whole Oshi No Ko title that I know will be relevant due to Word Of God but I’ll table that discussion until it becomes more relevant.

“Thank you for being alive.” It’s quite plausible that this might be the first time he’s heard those words before. Goro’s relationship with his grandparents wasn’t exactly the coziest from what I remember, Ai famously had issues speaking about love and intimacy, and Miyako would always have some sort of distance with the twins even if she was their foster mother. Even Aqua’s other love interests haven't even got that far with him to say those words.

Blind follower, huh. I know that there’s some translation liberties taken with this scene considering the underlying currents behind those English words, but someone made a better explanation of the subtleties that were lost in translation that I’ll link here.

Oh hey it’s a mention of an event that only happened in the Spica novel! That whole thing where Goro ran to get Sarina concert tickets. I was hearing some slop about how people were talking about it being noncanon because of the material in it and because it was written by another author, but with the Oshi No Ko writer’s blessing, so it’s great that we finally have some confirmation on that end.

“Nothing’s changed. You’re still the first love I adore.” Putting aside the whole “first love” bit which I will get to later, it’s also curious to note that his behavior from when he was Goro vs Aqua hasn’t changed from Ruby’s perspective. As the only person to see both Goro and Aqua—aside from Ai, but she’s dead—she can make such a statement and leave it uncontested.

This monologue from Ruby about how she’ll accept everything about Aqua wholeheartedly…it really tugs at some heartstrings. Whatever evils, whatever burdens Aqua will endure, Ruby will accept them all alongside him. It’s a stark contrast to Akane wanting to “save” Aqua from himself. And makes it perhaps doubly hilarious that Akane hasn’t done anything plot relevant to actually stop Aqua’s revenge scheme—hell, she’s even now a part of it.

DID SHE REALLY PULL A TITLE DROP THERE???? AND WITH AQUA SHOWING WHITE STAR EYES AS WELL?????

Oh my god we cut back to the movie Ai and Hikaru kissing. I can’t believe it. On one hand I’m mad because we didn’t get the buildup for it on the set itself and context for it there, but on the other I’m just as satisfied because we finally got to see them set their feelings on the table and FUCKING KISS.

I NEED to know whether or not Aqua has white star eyes after the kiss scene during the movie. His eyes are still closed in the final panel but if they’re still white after it I think that’s game. Both Kana and Akane have had their shot at dragging Aqua back from the abyss and failed but if he still has white star eyes in the next chapter and keeps having them for the long term…then it’s pretty much over.

Thematically, none of the other girls were able to understand Aqua enough to make him shine again. Akane could only understand a fraction of the whole of Aqua, and Kana can only see Aqua’s facade without exerting the effort to understand him deeper.

But I don’t think this is the climax of the entire arc just yet. Things still need to develop for Aqua and Ruby with the movie production further—there are still issues with the script that need to be touched on, Crow Girl’s presence, Hikaru lurking in the background, and Ruby’s former mother still shrouded in darkness. There’s still plenty of things that’ll still need spotlight on—I wouldn’t be surprised if we’re only about a third or so of the arc down, which is already concerning considering it’s already the longest arc we’ve got. But I’m sure I’ll have words to say on that mess and the entire state of the movie arc after it finishes.

#oshi no ko #onk #oshi no ko analysis #onk analysis #my analysis #mine #oshi no ko spoilers #oshi no ko ch143 #i am uber late to the party for this one but better late than never

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vashtijoy · 1 year

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fic excerpt: goro and his aunt

It's been hours and I'm still sad about baby Goro who couldn't make anyone love him, so here's something from the unpublished fic mountain. Goro is nine years old.

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By the time he’s nine, Goro has been living with his mother’s second cousin for a year. She’s a professional woman, very busy, a newspaper sub-editor. She has no husband and no children, and doesn’t seem to feel their lack. She offers Goro a roof over his head and little more.

When he returns from elementary school—his fourth—he murmurs a quiet “I’m home” to the empty apartment, and he puts a frozen meal into the microwave, and eats it from its plastic tray. He cleans up after himself, then scurries about the large apartment, cleaning anything that might need cleaning, and quite a few things that don’t. He makes sure everything that might suggest a boy ever lived there is erased.

And why is he even bothering? She’ll still never notice him. His stomach hurts if he thinks about it too much, and his lips turn down in what’s becoming an habitual scowl; he bites his lip when he notices it, because nobody will want him if he looks sulky. The chance that she will notice, and send him away, feels even worse.

He even has his own room, this time. There’s food every day when he gets back. Nobody is yelling at him, or hitting him. It could be so much worse.

When he’s satisfied with the state of the apartment, he walks into his small bedroom—just a bed and a closet, a desk and a chair, all quite anonymous—and pulls out his homework: pages of maths practice (easy) and kanji practice (insulting). He fills in his day diary: how is the weather, what has he done? Goro lies fluently: I went to the park and saw a dog chase a balloon. Nobody will ask. He gets more credit for making up something interesting, some more colourful life that overshadows his own. And if he writes I sat alone at home then went to bed—that, they’d be sure to notice.

He goes over his work again, checking for errors. He’s top of the class, has been since he was seven, other than when he’s changing schools, and he intends to stay there. He’s a credit to his cousin, if she would only look. He talks and laughs with the other boys in his class, a knot of high achievers keeping opportunist bullies out, even though he rarely feels like talking or laughing. He could have friends, if he wanted them; Yamada and Ogata think Goro is their friend. But what’s the point? Eventually something will go wrong, and he’ll move on, and he’ll never see them again.

His stomach still hurts; these days, it seems like it hurts all the time. He puts his head down on his completed homework and just breathes. It comes out as a groan, not loud enough that the neighbours will hear or, worst of all, anyone else who could have been in the empty apartment.

It wouldn’t be like this if he had parents. If his father hadn’t run off and his mother hadn’t died, Goro would still have a home. He thinks about that all the time. He’s not stupid enough to think it would have been a happy home, but he still thinks it.

Maybe his mother would have died sooner. His father is a piece of shit, you only have to see him on the TV to know it. Maybe Goro would have ended up here regardless. But he knows one thing: all his problems are his father’s fault. His mother would have lived if she never met him. Okay, Goro would be dead, or more accurately never born, but his mother ….

His mother would still be alive, somewhere.

He doesn’t move, or twitch. He sits quite still at his desk, face buried in his folded arms. He can’t be angry. He can’t be ungrateful. He has to be a perfect child, to reward his cousin for taking him in, to make it worth her keeping him. Clever, polite, smiling, helpful: he has to be all of those things all the time, even though he doesn’t feel them on the inside at all. Or, okay, he knows he’s clever. But clever by itself just puts people off.

Shakily, he gets up from his desk. He goes to the kitchen, drinks a glass of milk, washes the glass carefully and puts it away. Then he loads his cram school books into his bag, and heads back out into the Kugahara evening.

Kugahara is in Ota, near the river, so far south as to be more like Kawasaki than Tokyo proper: a small suburb of white houses and brick, apartments and offices, and trees; so many trees once you get off the main roads that it feels to Goro like a park. He walks the streets alone with his black backpack, the same one his mother bought him when he was six, almost the only possession he’s been able to keep for all of that time.

Goro has never gone to cram school before. But his cousin had glanced at his grades, just after he’d arrived, when he’d still been catching up, determined to take back his number one spot at yet another new school. The next week, she’d given him the times and days, and told him do well, it’s expensive.

And Goro had done his best. Now he’s top of the class every week again, and by now it’s not even close. And his cousin still won’t look at him, much, or talk to him, much, or even come home before he’s asleep.

Outside, he meets up with Yamada, and with Fujimori, who always sits with them but goes to a different day school, and Goro smiles and says hi, and they all catch up. Yamada wants to know if Goro has finished his homework, and when Goro says he has, Yamada groans and calls him too serious. Goro, for his part, flashes an infuriating grin, and tells Yamada it’s because he does his homework that he doesn’t have to be serious. And then Yamada shoves him for being an asshole, and Goro shoves him back harder with his blood up for a second, and Fujimori laughs and gets in between them somehow, and then it’s over.

But it’s not really a fight, despite the teacher’s whistle from the door, since they are, after all, friends. Or so Goro swears with every breath in his body, every time it comes up. After all, people are temporary, and he’ll be moving on.

When he gets back, he takes off his shoes and backpack, and he washes his face and hands, and he has a sandwich and a glass of milk, and tidies himself away yet again, out of sight. He takes his cram school homework into the front room, and does it in front of the TV; Featherman Crystal is on, but he quickly flicks past it, changing the channel, again and again until—

The remote falls from his hand. He grabs it, turns up the sound, scans the text onscreen. It’s his father; more accurately, it’s that bald pig Shido Masayoshi. It’s one of the politics talk shows, the one with the red table, and Shido is sounding off on one of his favourite topics: how the children of Japan have become lazy, have lost their way, don’t want to work and even skip school. Shido thinks this is appalling, or at least, he says he does; Goro already knows far better than to believe a word he says.

The knot in his stomach grows as Shido speaks. Goro isn’t lazy. Goro doesn’t skip school and has not lost his way. Goro is in fact the uncontested top of his class, he gets regular awards for helpfulness and good behaviour and effort, and where is his father to see any of it? Every word Shido speaks fills Goro with hate, with more and more tiny, corroded coins that add to the weight inside him, heavier and heavier until the bag holding them inevitably splits.

“Liar!” he shrieks suddenly, voice cracking. “You can’t say that! You left us! She died! You did it!” Tears spill down his face. He reaches blindly, snatches up his pencil case, and hurls it hard at the TV. Pens and pencils scatter over the pale carpet.

He presses his face into his knees and cries. And when he’s done, the voice is gone; the show has cut to adverts. A woman in a dress, in a white kitchen that looks like the apartment he’s sitting in, like nobody lives there and nobody ever will, is doing something with strawberries.

Goro changes the channel. Anything; it doesn’t matter what. Breathing carefully, he scoots forward, and he picks up his pens and pencils one by one, terrified he’s broken something, or made a mark. But there’s no sign at all of his tantrum. The TV is big and boxy, and its screen is an inch of solid glass; it’s not one of the new flatscreen TVs. But he gets a soft cloth and polishes the screen all the same.

It was like something in him burst. He sits down in the front room window. The night has closed in, and the apartment lights aren’t on; he watches cars drive slowly by, sees people move around in their own apartments. Children and adults. Real families who belong together, who talk.

Goro can’t do that again. He can’t scream and throw things and break things like a baby. Not if he wants his cousin to keep him around; not if he wants to keep up his act. He’s not even sure why he did it in the first place.

It’s a shame, too, because the painful knot in his stomach has gone. He feels a lot better for telling his father exactly what he thinks of him. Even if the piece of shit won’t ever know.

Six months later, just around the time he’s starting to relax, his cousin gets a sideways promotion to her newspaper’s Osaka office. “I can’t keep you,” she tells Goro, not looking at him. “Do you understand?”

Goro wants to argue. He wants to beg her to keep him. Instead, he accepts this with his hands knotted behind his back. All his hard work, everything he did, and it wasn’t enough. He’s never, ever enough.

He moves back to his aunt in Setagaya, where he was before. It has the feel of a temporary posting; his aunt scowls when she sees him, and he bobs a nervous bow instead of giving the smiling greeting he’d prepared. She yells impatiently and shoves him inside the house.

They don’t even register him at the local school, that’s how much they want to be rid of him. Goro is a bit relieved. He rides the bus to his old school, there and back, alone, and after school he does his homework in the library until it’s time for cram school—which his cousin is still paying for, so maybe she feels guilty. But she didn’t feel guilty enough to take Goro to Osaka with her, so he hates her.

He’s back to sleeping in the front room, too. Now there are voices around him—his uncle and aunt, who perpetually bicker, and their screaming baby with its runny nose. They yell at Goro for being in the way when he has homework, and for being underfoot when he tries to help out. It’s not hard to find things to do; the place is filthy. At night, when he’s supposed to be asleep on the sofa, he hears his aunt in the kitchen, calling anyone she can think of who might take him off her hands.

#persona 5 #goro akechi #things i write

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roselyn-writing · 1 year

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In this mini-series, Aliyaa healed Goro to help her Kill Kotal, just something my brain comes up with when I heard a song lol 😂.

In the Kuatan Palace;

Goro, Sitting alone in his throne room, his father is dead because of Kotal Kahn, and most of his generals too, He is dishonored and disheartened because of his torn arms, he can’t rule now, he can’t do anything. He has no brother to rule on his behalf because he killed him a long time ago.

His mother is long dead, and so is his family, He wanted revenge against Kotal Kahn. Goro’s heart is full of pain and sadness. Looks like the prince of pain is filled with pain himself.

But, that won’t be for long, because the dark one had listened to his pleas.

“Fret no more, I am here,” the voice of a woman came off

“Who in the ten hells are you? And how did you get here undetected?” Goro asked, With malice in his tone.

“None of this matters, I’m here to help you,” Aliyaa replied, offering help.

“You? Help me? Hah!” Goro mocked, he can’t move his arms because they are gone. He badly wanted to give her a gesture of dismissal.

“Don’t you wanna to kill Kotal?” She cajoled, completely ignoring him and his sexism.

This caught him off guard, “ you know Kotal? How do you know him!” He demanded, while cocking his eyebrow.

“Yes, I know him but, How I know him is none of your concern” She replied, but refused to tell him how she knows him.

“Why would I want the help of a woman?” He sneered,

Aliyaa didn’t respond, But, she chuckles a bit, then her chuckles turn into scary laughter, which made Goro confused and nervous. Completely insulted by her “reply”.

“You laugh because you feel threatened!” He snarled at her, in a vain attempt to silence her.

*music plays*

“Threatened? By an armless Shokan?” She taunted him, “Let us not forgot who lost against Kotal!” She reminded sternly,

“If it weren’t for me, maybe think what if? You would still be here, just a sad old tale, disfigured and shamed, a mourning mess, all because YOU lost!” She says in a sing-song tone, in the last part, she points her finger his face, (yes she can sing!) 🎤

As she was singing, she was walking slowly to him, folding both of her hands together.

Goro was speechless because he didn’t expect she replied to him by singing, (his reaction Dafuq wrong with her 🤣🤣😂) he said nothing, while he is sitting on his throne, he is thinking, it is a good way to be healed and regain his shokan pride and honour, She seems powerful, a great ally for his cause.

“I’m listening to you,” he finally agreed, he is firmly looking at her, but her face is still shadowed by the darkness of his castle.

“Good!” She muttered, With a snap of her finger, his four arms re-grow back, flesh and bones mended back together, his veins regrow in them, and his heart pumps the blood into them. Feeling a rush of power washed over him.

Goro was astonished by this, he must admit she is powerful and he must repay the debt, he is indebted to her for healing him. But, at the same time, he doesn’t want his people to see him, indebted to stranger women out of nowhere. He has mixed emotions about this. But he will repay the debt. Anything means possible.

“Now! Are you in?” She asked while smiling at him, She read his mind, and she heard his thoughts of agreement and satisfaction.

“Yes,” he simply answered.

Now that his honor is restored and his arms are back, he can’t wait to kill the usurper, Kotal.

This is the first chapter of this mini-series (darkness and muscles)

#MK Goro #Aliyaa Aepel #Mortal Kombat #Mortal Kombat X #MK comic #mkx comic #mini-series #aliyaaaepel3 posts #silly idea #“Darkness and muscles”#wartb #when a rose turns black #Goro MK #disney vibes #Goro

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kashimos-hajime · 3 years

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homestretch of the hard times | g.t.

summary: the eve days of your potential death kinda spurns things to move forward: for takemura, it means confessions. for you, it means making exceptions. and drinks. ‘cause takemura’s the pickiest fucking eater you’ve ever met.

WARNINGS: small spoilers for act 1 of cyberpunk 2077 and references to non-spoiler texts between takemura and v, just fluff, small angst, swearing, idk what else is going on so if there are actual spoilers thats completely coincedental ndlnskfsldnf pairing: goro takemura x fem!street-kid!v word count: 2.6k

a/n: so cdpr did us dirty for not allowing us to romance him (to my knowledge) but he has my mind, heart and everything else so :) listened to the bones by maren morris w/ hozier

part of the tales of a two-bit thief series

It starts with something straight out of a romance movie: A car crash, saving each other’s lives (well, him more than you) and “Wait, V, I need you.”

You don’t know how you got here, to be precise. There were a chain of events, some absolutely stand up fucking moments on your part, and just… fuckery. So much fuckery and life went to shit.

All you know is the ticking time bomb’s only ticking louder and at this point, the only thing that can silence it at all is the man beside you. Not even the meds Misty gave you can help you now.

You’re sitting in his car because you called him and he had answered and now… now they’re on one of the off ramps looking over Night City like they own the fucking place.

Maybe you did, once. Ha, maybe back when everything seemed more job to job and not life to life. For a moment, maybe you were in the big leagues.

Takemura doesn’t say anything, even though you can tell he wants to. His hair still pulled into that man bun, collared shirt with not a single wrinkle in sight. Weird how he never looks out of place, not really. Not even with the car crash. Shit, he always looked good.

You think you’re actually gonna miss that. That one semblance of someone being put together that gave you the hope that maybe you could stick it too.

You think you’re gonna miss a lot of things about him—from his stupid complaints about the food here, to his stupid random philosophy texts in the day, to the fact that he eats the ramen you buy anyway without complaint, even though it’ll never compare to what he has in Japan.

The thought that counts.

They don’t even have the radio on, just the dim lights of the car, a window rolled down. You don’t smoke but you feel like you should be tapping a cig either way. You haven’t had the time to just fucking breathe—not with Silverhand breathing down your neck, corpo rats swarming you on all sides.

Everyone wants a piece of you, it feels like.

You look at Takemura.

Almost everyone.

“Thank you,” you tell him quietly, with difficulty. It’s hard to get through your words without thinking Silverhand’s behind your back, mocking you. You’re so fucking tired. “It hasn’t been easy.”

He doesn’t respond. He’s too busy looking at one of the cars nearly collide with a pedestrian. You could’ve laughed. You used to make fun of the shitty drivers in Night City, knowing full well you’re one of them.

You get chased by a couple of cops, rules start to bend.

You used to wonder why you never left.

Then, you actually left, and you realized that hell, you can take the person out of Night City—can’t take the Night City out of a person.

Atlanta fucking sucked, but maybe you should’ve stayed there.

But then, a tiny voice whispers as you look out the window to the fresh night wind. You never would’ve met him.

It’s funny, you think. To come back and get a brain tumour in the shape of a rocker who can’t fucking touch anyone who loves him, who he loved, only for you to fall in love with a corpo you can’t fucking touch at all because… because there is no time left. It just isn’t fair.

“I used to be a corpo kid,” you confess, looking at him with a wry smile again. That catches his attention. He looks at you with those eyes that scrutinize you, interrogate you, peel you apart to your bare essentials and you have to look away before you can’t control your face anymore. God fucking damn it. “Not when it mattered, obviously, but… I remember what it was like. Grew up hating every single on of them.”

“Your parents were Arasaka?”

“Mhm. Security division.” It’s like your eyes are magnetic to his because when you blink, you find yourself regarding him again. Your fingers play at your lips. “Counterintelligence. I was supposed to go into that, too. Big dreams.”

“I see.”

“Yeah, then my parents were tried for treason and murdered, so I got thrown out. That’s it.” Your hand falls away. You pick at the chipped nail polish on your thumb. “Never told anyone that. ‘Cept…” Jackie. Well, he’s fucking dead, now. “‘Cept you, now, I guess. Guess some corpos aren’t so bad.”

The corner of his mouth pinches up like he’s flattered and you can’t help the pleased warmth spreading through your chest.

“Should I be honoured I am one of the few exceptions you have made?”

“Well, I don’t make exceptions often, so…” You grin slyly. He looks away just as you catch a flash of his smile growing. It’s a nice smile. You wish you saw it more often before the end of the road. Maybe it’s one of the regrets you have, too. “Yeah, maybe you should feel special.”

“Hm.”

“C’mon, Takemura. Humour the walking dead, yeah?” You stretch against the leather of his car seat with a pleased sound. “I’m spending what time I have left with who I want to. Can’t ask for much better than that.” A quiet hangs in the air as you melt against the black leather and you look at Takemura who’s staring at the wheel with an intensity you don’t often see. It makes your gut squirm.

“And I? I am one of those people?”

You lean on one hip and look at him, bending a knee and resting an ankle on your thigh. He looks at you with an uncertainty—an uncertainty you’re sure echoes in your eyes.

It was business, then it wasn’t. Maybe it never was.

“Yeah. You’re one of the few on the short list.”

“Exceptions again.”

You laugh. “Yeah. You’re an exception to most things, I think. Weird, that.”

“How so?”

“Ah, I don’t know. I’ve had family—still do, ones that matter, you know. Just… no one ever like you, Takemura. Drives me crazy.”

“The feeling is mutual. Your mocking brings you onto thin ice, V.” His fingers tap against the steering wheel. The engine’s off so it seems more fidgety than anything. Weird. You never noticed he fidgeted before. Maybe he’s nervous?

About what?

“I must ask you something.”

“Shoot.”

“If you have a future, what do you see for yourself?”

Your eyebrows shoot up. You frown and pick at your flecking nail polish even more, looking at your hand and focusing more on that so you don’t have to answer your question. His eyes burn into you and you swallow, trying not to act like you haven’t thought, in regret, at night, about a hundred million fucking times the possibilities they could’ve had together.

You’re not about to say all that.

Instead: “Settling down with the family. Mama Welles, people at the Coyote.” You blatantly don’t look at him when you add, “Others. This has been enough action for a lifetime.” You rest your hands on your lap and chance a glimpse at him. He’s looking away from you, out the window on his side, and you shift in your seat. “How about you? You must’ve… had dreams. Before all this shit went down. You make it out of here and then what?”

When he looks at you, your heart nearly cracks at the sadness in his eyes. He smiles, but there is no strength, and his eyes are darker than the night surrounding them.

“I would go to the countryside, just as I’ve always wanted. Leave this, all of this, behind. Rural Japan is beautiful, so a small town would suffice where everyone knows everyone. We do favours for one another. It is community. Nothing like here.” His lips pull into a tiny frown. “When I was a younger man, I wanted a daughter,” is all he says. “I believe I could have been a great father, so perhaps… perhaps one day.”

“A daughter? Not a son?” you ask curiously, and he almost chuckles. You can’t help the faint smile on your face.

“If my daughter grew up anything like her mother,” he explains with a slight glance towards you, “I would have more hope than a son who was like me.”

You frown. “You’re not a bad man, Takemura. Any son like you—with your code of honour, your shitty selfie skills—no one’s gotta a chance.”

He merely scoffs in response. Again, with the you mocking him. It’s a wonder he lets you.

“But really, that sounds… nice. A daughter, a wife.” You drum your fingers against your knee and his eyes dart to yours, click like they were always destined to meet, and your lips part. Words stall on your tongue and you want to speak but in the dim lights, you are lost in the darkness of his eyes. Something comes, something goes, and you barely croak out, “Whoever marries you will have to deal with so much of your shit that the kids have to turn out alright. The complaining, for one. Picky eater for another.”

This time, he does chuckle and you swallow a breath at the sound. “Dealing with it comes with practice, V.”

“Is that so?”

“Shouldn’t you know?”

“I—“ For once, no funny retort, no witty quip shoots out of your mouth, and you realize that there is an implication—an intricate dance where they’re struggling not to step on each other’s toes and nearly failing at every turn, yet somehow, it works because they’re dancing, and it’s quiet, and it’s… it’s peaceful.

Shit, you’re getting a load of this. When’d you become a poet?

“I guess I should know,” you finally say. “Never understood why I got so giddy whenever I saw your texts, you know, seein’ your name flash on my phone.” You laugh bitterly. “Guess I know why, now.” He’s silent and you don’t look at him. You look at the dashboard where you’ve kicked your feet up a dozen times, the glove compartment that still has your sunglasses inside.

Shit.

“Thank you for everything. Shit’s a little… more bearable, I guess. When you’re around, that is.” The words come out stilted, awkward, but your heart is so heavy in your throat you feel like you’re going to choke. You look into your lap, your whole body incinerating under what you’re sure is the most judgemental glare of your life and you just hope to fucking God this man says something, does something.

Holy shit. You’re going to die of embarrassment. Didn’t even think that was possible.

Then, a loud sigh. A sigh you’ve heard often enough beside you right before a gunfight or when he has to eat the food you ordered for him or even the nights when they’re exhausted, bruised, and just plain tired right before going to sleep where they lay on the floor.

It’s exasperated, a how on earth did we get here, a very annoyed again, you’re so fucking stupid, and you’re still running through your list on what this particular sigh can mean before a hand gently takes hold of yours. Your eyes dart to his, blinking and he stares at you like you’ve just stabbed him. Your heart is fucking racing in your chest, pounding like thunder. His fingers fold over and you realize, as you interlace fingers, that his skin is burning at your touch.

Or maybe, it’s the other way around.

They sit there in silence, not looking at one another, looking out windows, parts of the car, everything but each other, and when he squeezes your hand, you close your eyes and swallow your heart.

It’s over.

“V,” he murmurs, voice so deathly quiet and raspy in your ears that your gut clenches. You turn to watch him. “Tell me that you will not stop fighting.” You swallow your breath as his eyes flicker from your own to your parted lips. He inhales quietly and you swear you can feel his heartbeat pulsing in his fingers in your grip. “That this is not all for nothing.”

“It isn’t.“

“Then I was right.” His eyes flutter back to your gaze and he tilts his head. Wisps of fine hair escaping his manbun brush over his nose and you reach up on your own accord, swiping it behind your ear. You lean over the console, your elbow digging into the leather and, tentatively, you trail your fingers down his jaw, hold his face in your hand. “I am… what is that phrase you use so often?”

“SNAFU?”

“No.”

“Assblasted.”

“No.”

“Royally fucked?”

“We need to expand your vocabulary.” You smile nefariously as his other hand reaches for your chin. He pinches it lightly, thumb stretching up to brush over your lips and your face freezes at his touch. “But yes. Royally fucked. I wasn’t wrong when I said I needed you.”

“I think that meant a whole something else back then,” you whisper rawly and he smiles sombrely. His thumb leaves your mouth to brush your cheek, his eyes fixing on you as if he’s trying to memorize aspects of your face: the arch of your nose, the bow of your smile, the way your brow wrinkles. “Meant more business-like.”

“I did. And now, I believe the terms have changed.” He arches an eyebrow. “Are we at a mutual understanding, V?”

“Yes.” And I hate that we are. Your hand along his jaw lifts to wrap around his wrist. “Consider that feeling mutual, yeah? It goes both ways.”

“I will.” Another small smile graces his lips. It makes him look younger every time and you rub your thumb over the back of his hand.

“Do you wanna grab something to eat before you drive me back home for some shuteye?”

“The choices here are atrocious, V.”

“Then, drinks,” you propose, letting go of his wrist. He lets go of your chin, and turning to face the front, you kick up your feet on his dash. He stares at you for a moment then sighs because there really isn’t anything he can do about it. Nor, do you think, he wants to. You squeeze his hand and send him a silly smile. “How about drinks? I wasn’t hungry anyway.”

“Are you paying?”

You eye him incredulously. “Who do you take me for? You?”

He snorts and the engine roars to life with a flick of his wrist. He grabs the wheel dominantly and you swallow at the way his fingers wrap around the handle. “The Afterlife, then?”

“Or, we could make it rustic.” You pull his hand into your lap playfully and run a thumb over his knuckles. His eyes flit over and you send him a smirk. “I know Mama Welles doesn’t like you, but the Coyote’s serving cheap. Happen to like me there.” He begins to pull out of their little overhang and he nudges their joined hands into your abdomen, silently telling you to buckle in. Rolling your eyes, you mumble out a ‘boomer’ underneath your breath before letting go of him and following orders.

He settles a hand on your thigh and squeezes. You hang an arm out the window.

The wind’s running through the car, he has the radio on low, and they’re easing through onto the highway.

Your chest is lighter than a feather, mind’s quieter than a ghost.

You’ve seen scarier deaths, dealt a lot more. You know that silence is a bigger killer than most bullets.

But here you are now…

“I’m changing this,” Takemura says. “This music is terrible.”

…Shit, maybe life isn’t so bad, ending the way it is.

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cardsthings · 3 years

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P5 Pirate AU That I May Or May Not Want To Write (Or Want Someone To Write For Me)

Captain Akira - Banished Prince, is from some small kingdom but got banished when he unknowingly crossed the king of a bigger kingdom, initially was going to be executed to prevent an incident but was quietly banished instead. Became a pirate because "fuck it am I right?" Steals from the rich, gives to his pirate crew. Is Ren Amamiya when in towns.

First mate/co-captain Goro Shido Akechi - Kidnapped Prince, was taken for ransom by the pirates but the Kingdom never asked for him back. (Must mess with your self esteem, sorry buddy.) Dating Akira in the background. Joined between Yusuke and Makoto probably. Only competent one on this ship.

Best Boy Ryuji - Probably mans the cannons, I dunno, Captain Kidd has cannon arms so why not? Was some guy Akira met after being banished, he worked under Kamoshida (who was in some form of power) and helped Akira to steal all his shit and get a pirate ship.

Best Girl Ann - Has been there since the beginning. IDK what she does yet (look up pirate jobs later). She was a minor noble (lower than Kamoshida but higher than random peasant) whose family was being hosted by Kamoshida. She fell in love with Shiho and found out about how terrible Kamoshida was, also found out about these two guys planning on robbing him blind and maybe killing him(?) and decided she wanted in. Eloped with Shiho when she joined the crew.

Other Best Girl Shiho - Is the one who goes into town usually when they go to port. The only one who doesn't need an alias or disguise because she looks like the normal people around/isn't banished royalty/isn't a known criminal. (Keyword, known.) Assisted in the Kamoshida heist (because she deserves better) and eloped with Ann.

Yusuke - Was a painter, the adopted son of a very rich but not very powerful noble, Maderame. Really liked the sea and often went on merchant ships to personally buy new paints. (not to escape Madarame at all) Joined the crew when a ship he was on was targeted. Assumed dead but is living his best life as a pirate.

Actual Cat Morgana - Do not call him a cat, he somehow knows what it means and will throw paws. Doesn't get along with Ryuji. Also sometimes antagonizes Goro. Lives with Futaba and Sojiro on dry land but sometimes sneaks into the ship.

Stowaway Makoto - Initially wanted to be a naval officer like her sister and late father. Got a little too carried away trying to be useful and accidentally ended up trapped on a pirate ship with nowhere to go but the ocean. Turns out, they are pretty chill pirates and also they are a mess. Eventually joins and becomes an advisor to Akira.

Basically a Child Futaba - Is a child. Not exactly but still, pirate life does not suit her, she can't swim. Lives on land with Sojiro but manages to get information out to the crew about targets when she can (being the daughter of a tavern/inn(?) keeper works out really well for information gathering). Not sure when she and Sojiro met Akira yet but they are family.

Kidnapped Royalty Haru - Was actually really excited when she was kidnapped because her life low-key sucked. She was rich and had a few titles and was like 5th in line for the throne of a small country but she wasn't allowed to do anything and was essentially being sold off to her husband. Gilded cage situation. Her dad actually wanted her back (sorry Goro) but didn't want to pay the ransom. Sent people after her, yay he cares! When she got back, he tried to rush the marriage, boo it was only for political gain! Haru runs off and properly joins the crew. Maybe she sparks something with Makoto later, I don't know.

Strategist Hifumi - Wants to escape her controlling mother so she runs away. Hides away in a church for a while and strikes up a friendship with the priest until Akira finds her. They play shogi where he is impressed by her strategy and controlling authority figures in her life. Offers her a place in the crew which she accepts. Very enthusiastic about strategy and shogi, regularly kicks both Akira and Goro's asses at the game.

Informant Mishima - Was saved by the crew from Kamoshida way back when but was not cut out for pirate life. Got a job at Crossroads and tries his best to give information to the crew.

Performer Sumire - Used to be in a traveling performing troupe of some sort with her sister but was tired of constantly being compared. Notices Goro in the crowd at one of her shows (definitely a date with Akira) and recognizes him. Approaches him after the show and asks to join the crew. Akira is there and accepts immediately because why not. (Goro is not irrationally jealous of her. Nope. Not at all.)

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ellenripleysbelieveitornot · 3 years

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What about an Akechi/Joker role swap AU where Akechi is still the detective prince and Joker is still the Shujin delinquent, but the major difference is that Morgana never lost his memories and found Akechi before he approached Shido with his metaverse assassination plot?

Like, imagine Akechi, bitter and jaded, who has just awakened Loki and felt the terrifying and thrilling rush of the berserk power. He's formed a plan to get back at his piece of shit father, even managed to set up a meeting, which he had to set up months in advance, and on the day he's going to present Shido with info on the metaverse, he winds up arriving a few minutes late, because even though he intended to be early, he was accosted by a talking cat (he's been in the metaverse, so he can hear him) on the way over, and in the whole wtf-ery of the moment, lost track of time. Shido, being Shido, refuses to see him and will not reschedule because he doesn't like having his time wasted.

Pissed off, Akechi leaves to find Morgana still waiting for him outside. So he doesn't look like an idiot yelling at a cat on the street, he brings Morgana back to his shitty apartment, where Morgana explains why he had found Akechi and whats up. He doesn't know about Yaldobaoth taking Igor's place, he just knows there's two champions, and Akechi was the one he found first, so he must be Igor's chosen champion. (It is my theory that it doesn't actually matter who was Igor's and Yaldobaoth's champions, it was more about the choices they each made and where they ended up.)

Akechi has no interest in saving the world, but he knows that if he wants to get back at Shido, he needs to become someone of consequence, so he agrees to undergo Morgana's training, since Morgana clearly knows more about the metaverse than he does, and he can use it to solve cold cases, earning him a place as the Detective Prince. He changes a few hearts, to pacify Morgana, too. It takes a couple years, but during his senior year in high school, he makes it, earning himself the cooperation of the police and the spotlight of the public eye. He's getting so close to making Shido notice him that he can practically taste it. Also, what’s this ‘velvet room’ he keeps dreaming about?

Then Morgana finds Kamoshida’s palace and is like ‘heyo, you thought changing hearts in the metaverse was cool, check this shit out’ and Akechi is admittedly intrigued , so he takes a look. He sees the inside of Kamoshida’s heart and is appropriately disgusted and says to Morgana, ‘hey we should totally kill this guy’s shadow.’ Morgana’s like ‘why is your first suggestion always murder, we don’t know what would happen if we killed his shadow, Igor wasn’t very clear about that bit, we should try stealing the treasure instead’ and Morgana has been useful (and it’s been really nice to have the company these past two years, though he won’t admit that) so Akechi agrees ‘fine, we’ll steal the treasure, but if that doesn’t work, then I’m killing his shadow.’

And that’s when Ryuji and Ann make an appearance (’ohmigawd, goro, be more careful with that damn app, i s2g.’) Ryuji’s mom apparently thinks Akechi is pretty neat and watches all his interviews, so Ryuji knows who he is and is delighted to find out that the lame-ass detective his mom has talked about is actually a grumpy badass in the metaverse, with this shadow that has some kind of insane power, and hey, he helped them bring down Kamoshida (alive,) so maybe he is actually pretty cool, even though sometimes he spaces out and talks about evil twins and some longed-nose dude. He decides then and there that he’s going to be Akechi’s best friend, since he apparently has none, and Ann is all too happy to join in for the ride, and all of Goro’s protests have fallen on deaf ears, and they know about the whole detective prince thing being a facade, so he might as well indulge them for now.

The ‘Phantom Thieves’ (a name that makes Goro want to roll his eyes whenever he hears it, and why is everyone calling him ‘leader?’) gain fame and change hearts, gaining new members such as this weird-ass artist dude who fights with ice, and oh, god, one Nijima is bad enough, don’t tell me there’s two! and she uses nukes, wtf?!

Around this time, he also meets Shujin’s delinquent, enigmatic transfer student whose talk of hope and justice never quite seem to reflect in his stormy grey eyes, and he and Goro are clearly birds of a feather in a way, he can tell, there’s just something about him, and he thinks this guy might actually be his best friend, but don’t tell Ryuji that, he’d never hear the end of it.

Akechi learns the truth behind Akira’s arrest and Shido’s involvement and he is disgusted to find that he genuinely wants to help this guy, and he can’t do that if Shido’s dead, maybe he doesn’t want his revenge as badly as he thought??? Oh, ew, I have feelings that aren’t anger and it’s all my friends’ fault, I can’t just leave them and go off to get revenge, they’d literally die without me, those lovable idiots. Also, when Ryuji saw his home, he pretty much insisted he stay with him instead, and Ryuji’s mom reminds him of the good times he had with his own mother, and he honestly doesn’t think he has the strength to disappoint her like that. So, he decides to change Shido’s heart, but he knows that there’s no way that this little group of miscreants is strong enough to take on the fucked up bullshit that he’s seen in Shido’s heart, so let’s hit pause on that for now.

Shido had Wakaba killed via completely non-supernatural ways and stole her research, same as before, so Futaba still has a palace. He found out Akira worked at Leblanc a while ago and started dropping by, and then somehow Ryuji found out about it, and now all the Phantom Thieves know, so much for a peaceful place to get away, but he actually doesn’t mind that much, and Akira lets Akechi keep an eye on the shop when there are no customers so he can go out and do errands and Boss doesn’t mind, so they’ve ended up hanging out there as a group from time to time and talking Phantom Thief business, so Futaba knows who they are, and asks for their help.

Okumura’s palace pretty much goes the same, Okumura dies somehow, are we responsible, why does murder actually make me feel kinda bad, stupid friends and their stupid good influence.

Goro attends the Shujin student fair as guest speaker, whoa, the class president being friends with Akechi does have its perks, doesn’t it? Akira finds them all there together and approaches them, tells them he saw them go into the metaverse, awakened his own persona, and saw a guy in a black mask kill Okumura’s shadow, hey why don’t I join you, you probably need all the help you can get, who’s heart are we stealing next, how about Sae, she knows my probabtion officer and has been giving me hell, plus I already checked, she definitely has a palace.

They agree, and oh, hey, Akira can hear Morgana talk now, but WAIT A MINUTE?! Didn’t he hear Morgana talk before when he told Goro that Leblanc didn’t sell sushi, even though Goro hadn’t asked for any?

They hack Akira’s phone, learn that Shido (Akechi recognizes that voice) will have thugs waiting to capture them when they leave the palace. They plan around it, pull the metaverse switch and manage to sneak a heavily drugged Akechi out of the warehouse Shido stashed him in by traveling through the metaverse. Shido’s lackey’s have written a fake suicide letter from the leader of the Phantom thieves, and the chief of police, under Shido’s orders, delivers a statement confirming its authenticity, and look the plan succeeded. All they need to do know is take down Shido.

Things are going great, until they get to the engine room, where Joker, having realized what happened, is waiting for them. Joker, who lost everything after he transferred, who discovered the metaverse completely alone, who didn’t mean to kill that guy’s shadow, but he attacked him first, and Shido had somehow known, had been keeping an eye on him, had him convicted for a crime that he didn’t commit in the hopes that he would break because he needed an agent in the metaverse, and so far he’s had no luck. Joker, who had nothing left to lose and had accepted the only hand that had reached out for him.

They fight, and when it looks like things are going badly for Joker, he pulls out... a second persona?!?! At least, it looks like a persona, but something about it is off. it looks familiar somehow. And then Akira asks if they knew it was possible to fuse personas and Akechi realizes what he’s looking at. These aren’t the clean executions that Caroline and Justine perform, these are personas that have been ripped apart and haphazardly thrown back together with no thought to form or elegance, look, there’s a Yaksini’s arm, and that bit right there clearly used to belong to a Rangda, and I think that piece might have belonged to a Seiryu, and Akechi should stop listing personas now because Ann thinks she’s going to be sick.

They keep fighting. Joker can’t understand the difference in power between them. After all, aren’t they the same? Unloved, unwanted, soldiers pitted against each other by some bullshit higher power?

When Joker shoots the bulkhead door closed and Futaba reports that she’s lost Joker’s reading, Akechi vows then and there that he’s going to kill Shido after all. And he almost does. He stands there, with his gun pressed to the head of the shadow of his father, his friends can’t blame him, and even Morgana knows better than to try and stop him. But he doesn’t. He remembers Akira’s madness there at the end, and wonders what he would have become of him if it weren’t for Ryuji, who somewhere along the way, he’d realized he’d stopped tolerating and started actually liking. Ann, who shared his woes about being in the public eye and swapped tips with him about how to handle the press. Yusuke, who, although he was still completely bizarre to him, appreciated the beauty in life and didn’t tease Goro for his taste in Grandpa clothes. Makoto, who knew the importance of hard work and who, between herself and her sister, had caused Goro to pick up some healthier coping mechanisms. Futaba, who made fun of him for his food blog, but liked the same nerd bullshit that he did and would bombard him with memes until his day somehow became a little less shittier. Haru, who dreamed of starting her own business and actually cared about Goro’s opinions, and could threaten someone with a smile in a way that even Goro was jealous of. And Morganna, who had reminded him what it was like to not be lonely, and demanded more sushi than he could afford, but always made sure Goro ate his fill, instead of getting so focused on his work that he forgot.

Akechi guesses that he must have turned soft somewhere during the past several months, but after seeing what happened to Akira, he can’t help but be grateful, knowing with certainty that if things had turned out differently, that would have been him. Hey, Morgana, you know that world-saving bs you talked about two years ago? Let’s leave this piece of shit here to rot and focus our attention on that instead.

And you guys know the rest.

Or, at least, that’s how I thought it would go. Feel free to share your thoughts. :)

#shuake #akeshu #akechi goro #akira kurusu #ren amamiya #Shuake roleswap #roleswap #persona 5

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liukangmybeloved · 3 years

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everyone else is fighting for second {Mortal Kombat (2021)}

SPOILERS FOR MORTAL KOMBAT (2021)

Summary: Canon Divergent AU. Crack & Fluff. The team develops into something of a found family, which happens to include Cole's actual family. They take a day off from fighting to go to the fair, where the biggest question is 'who is Cole's daughter's favourite in the team?' Besides her dad, of course. Kano is very competitive about this question.

A/N: 1968 words. I will take a meat-tenderizer and FIX the canon and make it SOFT. i love cole young and mk 2021, if you don't like that, you've been warned. everybody lives/nobody dies AU & kano isn't a traitor. also imagine there's just like.... more time before the tournament. enough to become a found family. like i said, fluff & crack. warnings for swearing.

If Cole had it his way, Emily and Kano would have never met. He would be perfectly happy letting everyone else on the team meet her, but he's yet to hear a single sentence leave Kano's mouth that didn't include some colourful variation of 'fuck', 'shit', 'wanker', or 'cunt'. So unsurprisingly, he wasn't exactly eager to let his teenager daughter near the man who Sonya had literally called 'scum of the Earth', but alas.

"I'll be on my best behaviour, pinky-swear!" Kano's grin was all teeth as he'd held his pinky finger up to Cole's glowering face, wiggling it a little when Cole made no move to finish the pinky-swear.

"If you say - cunt -" and the word sounds so uncomfortable coming from Cole, he damn well looks uncomfortable just saying it, "within a hundred feet of her, I'll get Kung Lao to cut you in half." And he gesutres over to where Kung Lao and the rest of their ragtag bunch of misfits; the man in question had forgone his usual weapon for a more modern, soft-brimmed sunhat, but his jaunty wave to Kano at the sound of his name still managed to be menacing. The Australian shuddered in horror at the mere thought; at least he took the threat seriously.

"You don't have to be jealous, man," the threat seemed to only have dampened Kano's jovial attitude momentarily, as he's got a spring in his step as he follows Cole to the rest of the gathered champions, "Uncle Kano's gonna set a fuckin' - flippin' -" he corrects himself as Cole shoots him a warning look, "great example." Sonya barks a loud, derisive laugh as Cole sees fit to remind him that he's not Uncle Kano.

"Emily's a good kid," Liu Kang assures, kind and sincere.

"Yeah, she never even believes me when I tell her Kano's a dirty, little rat," Kung Lao smirks in the face of Kano's sudden outrage, and Cole is pretty sure that, despite it being Emily and Alison's idea, to give the team a day of levity and to bond, this might be the worst plan he's ever agreed to.

"This is a day of bonding, not of infighting," Raiden's voice joins them, followed by the God himself only moments later, which is enough to unite all the champions in confusion at his choice of wardrobe for the day. While still sporting a majority of his usual attire, somehow he'd managed to procure a t-shirt with a meme of all things on it, a personalised meme!

"I designed it myself, I think it turned out pretty okay; whaddya think?" Kano sounded far too proud of himself, looking at the cartoon drawing of what could only be Raiden himself pointing awkwardly at Thor as depicted in Marvel Comics, who was pointing back.

"We are both Gods of Thunder," Raiden explained, pointing to his own shirt; Sonya had gone wide-eyed, unsure of how to react, while Jaxx was doing his utmost not to burst out laughing.

"I... didn't know you knew what a meme was," Cole admits, though honestly, once the shock had worn off of, it was rather charming.

"I didn't know you knew what a meme was," Kano fired back, equally confused.

"I have a thirteen-year-old, of course I know what a meme is -" but then it seems to hit him just as it hits Sonya and Jax, and the three of them turn to the pair of confused, cave-dwelling, internet-free champions. None of them knew where to begin trying to explain the whole situation, but thankfully, Raiden chose that moment to open a lightning portal, and they all headed through quickly.

----

The night that Cole and his family had gone home after everything had gone down, the fighting, Sub-Zero, and the man he's pretty sure is the ghost of his ancestor, Emily had looked him dead in the eye and called him a super hero.

And then told him that his friends were really cool.

This was a sentiment that his new friends seemed to share about his family.

Cole quickly comes to realise that family isn't something a lot of the rest of the team have nowadays; they have each other, but for a lot of them, that's mostly it. He sits on an invite to dinner that he'd already ran past Alison several days ago, before inviting Liu Kang and Kung Lao over, if nothing else, to repay the hospitality they'd shown him so early on.

Alison's rule was that there was to be peace on their property; no training, no fighting, but the team was welcome as long as they didn't bring trouble to the door.

So then it was Sonya and Jaxx, who brought dessert when they came over.

Emily once asked what Thunder Gods ate. Did they eat? Cole wasn't sure. He extends an invite to Raiden anyways, but it's politely declined. The next time, however, he took up Cole's invite, mostly for the company, and to thank Alison and Emily for their patience; having Cole away so often wasn't easy, he'd be the first to acknowledge that. Alison appreciated the sentiment, as did Emily, though she was also just bursting with questions for the God, and he did his best to answer what he could.

Then finally - finally - after so long spent with the team, of most of them coming to find comfort and serenity in his home on the occasions that they need it, Kano is invited to Sunday lunch too.

----

"I know us champions and our super powers are pretty cool," Kano says to Emily, the moment they step through the lightning portal and emerge into the sunshine and the noise of the fair, "but I'm your favourite, right? Besides your old man, of course," and he rolls his eyes a little at that, as does Cole, for very different reasons, while Alison shoots Cole a questioning look. Thankfully she still does not trust Kano as far as she could throw him.

For her part, Emily answers incredibly diplomatically, sounding much older than her thirteen years, and quite a bit like her mother;

"Kano, you're a grown man, my approval shouldn't matter to you," she sounds sincere, which is completely undercut by Kung Lao sliding into step beside Kano.

"Which means you're not her favourite," he teases, and Kano practically growls back, embarrassed, while Emily calls out to Raiden that she likes his shirt. He practically beams.

"Not a lot of people will really get it, though," she points out, and Raiden muses on that for a moment.

"But I get it, and it's mine."

"Fair point," Emily nods at that, as their strange group steps up to buy tickets.

---

Emily spends more of the fair of people's shoulders than she does actually walking, which delights her endlessly. Mostly she's up on Jax's shoulders, and charges her cotton candy for the ride, ripping a small chunk from the one Cole had bought for her.

"It's weird seeing you all look so normal," she says to Sonya, the two of them in line for the Dodge 'Em Cars alongside Liu Kang and Kung Lao. Sonya grins, knows exactly what she means, gaze turning to the two members of the Shaolin Order of Light, not that anyone would know simply from looking at them now. Where Liu Kang had found a pair of trendy, ripped jeans was beyond Sonya's imagination.

"You look cool, though," Emily amended quickly, "I didn't realise you all would come to the fair, but I'm glad you did," she's smiling brightly as they get closer to the front of the line.

"Who did you expect to come along today?" Liu asks, eyes wide and curious. It wasn't that he was as competitive as Kung Lao or Kano, but he still found the child's interpretation of their group to be interesting. She knows, in some capacity, what they're capable off; she'd watched her father slice, dice, and kill Goro after all. The fact that she could think so highly of them speaks a lot to her capacity for kindness, or perhaps her childish naivety, but Liu preferred to think it was the former.

Emily, however, goes quiet, seems to be a little embarrassed. She mutters something, avoiding eye contact with any of them, and Liu goes to ask her to repeat herself, but she interrupts him while doing so;

"I wanted Dad to have a day off," she admitted, before adding, "and... and Lord Raiden; I don't think he's had a day off this millennium."

"It's good of you to look out for them," Sonya tells her fondly, "our team can be pretty single-minded, but we needed this day off, I think." And she gives Emily a pet on the shoulder, and lets her steer the tandem Car when they finally get a turn.

----

"It's me, right? I'm your favourite," Jax asks Emily over lunch, not because he genuinely believes it, but because it riles up Kano, and to a lesser extent, the competitive Liu Kang.

"Jax is one bad day away from pledging his allegiance to Skynet, he can't be your favourite -" Kano grumbles.

"Dad's my favourite," Emily reminds them sternly, and Cole has to hide his proud little smile, before she adds, "and mom's my favourite too, the rest of you, well of course you're all badass as hell -"

"Is it Liu? 'Cos he's pretty and you're, yanno, a teenage girl," Kano scowls at the warrior who'd been attempting to just quietly enjoy his basket of fries. Both Cole and Alison are wearing similarly murderous expressions, and Kano raised his hands in mock surrender, dropping his gaze.

"Actually," Emily said pointedly, despite the embarrassed flush on her cheeks, though she was mirroring her parents intensity, "my favourite is Raiden because he's literally a God that shoots lightning out of his hands, and you're now my least favourite because you're a rat bastard."

"I taught her that," Kung Lao was grinning from ear to ear, and when he and Emily look to each other, they share a definitive nod.

"How come he's allowed to teach her words like bastard?!" Kano demanded to know.

"Because you're a bastard," Sonya interjects.

Kano is thankfully quiet for the remainder of lunch, sulking at his end of the table as chatter returns to normal, returns to talk of how everyone else had been enjoying the day.

----

At the end of the day, Kano shoves a large, stuffed kangaroo at Emily that he'd won at the booth where you had to knock over bottles.

"Didn't even use me eye or anything; lost an hour of my life and fifty fuckin' dollars," he was grumbling, while Emily was examining the prize.

"You won this?" She seemed endeared by it, endeared by the thought that he'd put the time into winning it for her.

"'course I won it, can I stop being your least favourite now?" He asked, and Emily tucked the kangaroo beneath her arm, giving him an appraising look.

"You can't buy my loyalty -"

"Wouldn't want it if it could be bought, I know that shit from experience," Kano interjected, crossing his arms defensively, ignoring where Cole was glowering at him every time he swore.

"But you put time in, and effort, so you're back to third with everyone else."

"As long as none of those bastards is beating me, I'm okay with that."

As they headed to the exit, to where Raiden had created a lightning portal for them all to go home through, Emily reached out and punched Kano lightly in the shoulder.

"Thanks, Kano, it's pretty sweet that you care so much."

"Don't tell the others," he grumbled back.

"We've been with you all day," Jax calls out, "we already know."

#mortal kombat #liu kang #mortal kombat 2021 #kano #kung lao #cole young #raiden #jax briggs #emily young #alison young #sonya blade #mortal kombat fluff #mortal kombat fanfiction #lkmb

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uselesslesbiab · 3 years

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Angsty headcanons for Akechi come get y’all food. TW for mentions of self unalivement and abuse.

I don’t think I need to say it but obvious P5 and Royal spoilers below. This is gonna be a long one.

Goro is the one who found his mother’s body. They lived alone in a shitty apartment in a shitty neighborhood and it took the police several hours to get there and remove the body. He was 7 years old when it happened.

His mother’s entire family cut her off out of embarrassment and shame once they learned she had a child out of wedlock and was now a prostitute. Goro absolutely hates his mother’s family for abandoning her so when they reach out to him later things don’t go well.

Goro drinks heavily when he’s alone because he can’t stand to think about the way his life has become and how sad his mother would be to see him now

The first orphanage he was sent to was an all boys home. He was the smallest one there so he got beaten pretty frequently by the other boys and the staff all turned a blind eye

He has a scar on the right side of his forehead from a time he was kicked into a metal bed frame. He covers it up with his hair.

As he got older he learned how to defend himself more and became a vicious and brutal fighter who would beat the other boys nearly to death. The staff never reported any of these incidents because they just didn’t care

Once he was 13 he was sent to a foster home that only had a few other kids in it. The foster parents here weren’t abusive, but they were neglectful. He figured it was the best he was gonna get.

At some point he saw Naoto Shirogane on tv, and it gave him the idea for the smart, sophisticated detective prince image.

Putting on this facade is exhausting for him but he knows it’s only temporary, he’ll be dead soon anyway

Being Masayoshi Shido’s right hand man has its perks. He was given an apartment and a contact to get guns under the table. That same contact gets plenty of booze for him every time they meet.

He has a lot of self destructive tendencies and doesn’t care about his own life at all until that last moment when facing his cognitive self

He was asked to kill Sae Niijima back in June. That night he drank until he was sure he’d thrown up everything he’d ever eaten and had to skip school the next day. He chooses to stall killing Sae for as long as he possibly can and hopes he’ll be dead before he has to do it.

#persona 5 #persona 5 royal #can you tell he’s one of my favorite characters #because I don’t usually write angsty stuff #goro akechi #sae niijima

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oceantoast-writes · 3 years

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Ryugoro week prompt: Meeting the family

Title: Gone

Word Count: 605

@ryugoroweek

It’s cloudy the day Akechi meets Ryuji’s mom. They went to the park but ended up having to go somewhere else because it was too windy to stay there. Ryuji complained the whole time and she smiled and took it in stride. She dotes over Akechi, so happy that Ryuji made a friend.

Ryuji has to awkwardly explain to her that they’re dating. Her face lights up, clearly ecstatic that Ryuji found someone.

She bombards him with questions about his life and about Ryuji and he can barely recall the answers he gave her.

What he does remember is a dull ache in his chest, unable to help but wonder if his own mother would give him the same warm reaction. More than anything he’d like to not have to question such a thing, but she died young and his memories of her were fuzzy. He can’t say for certain what her reaction would have been.

It’s sunny when Ryuji meets Akechi’s mom, ironically enough. They stand in front of the gravestone in a silent reverence that Akechi thought Ryuji incapable of. Ryuji breaks the moment by stepping forward a little, giving a sad little smile.

“It’s nice to meet you ma’am. I’m Goro’s boyfriend.”

“Ryuji what the fuck are you doing?” Akechi’s voice is flat and almost irritated. This is ridiculous, Ryuji has to know that.

“I’m talking to your mom,” Ah yes. Because that made so much sense and was not at all entirely inane.

“It’s not like she can hear you. Dead people don’t care.”

Ryuji turns to him and frowns. “C’mon dude this is your mom, you can’t really believe that she’s not out there somewhere.”

Akechi’s seen enough death to be sure of that. Ryuji’s optimism isn’t quite infectious after all. He folds his arms and lets his solemn expression turn into a scowl.

“I don’t. I’ve seen what happens when people die, they’re just gone.”

“Goro…”

“I mean that. Nothing happens, the light just drains from their eyes and that’s it.”

“Goro, knock that off.” Ryuji steps to him and holds out his hands for Akechi to take a small grasp of. “Tell me what you remember about your mom.”

Akechi closes his eyes, feeling the small breeze that brushes past like the ghost of his mother creeping up behind him. If he truly believed in ghosts, that was. “She was a lot like you. Fiery and headstrong, but that was only because her heart was too big for her own good. That fire could warm those she cared about as much as it could burn those that hurt them.”

He looks at Ryuji, who only nods him on. He thinks he might cry.

“I don’t remember much about her, but I do remember we struggled to get by. But once a year, on my birthday, we’d go out anywhere I wanted. The mall, the movies, the amusement park, didn’t matter. How much it cost didn’t matter and she wouldn’t let me worry about it. Then we’d go home and she’d let me help her bake a birthday cake. It always lasted a while after my birthday too since I usually only celebrated with her.”

When he looks at Ryuji again Ryuji gives him a small smile and squeezes his hands. “See, your mom isn’t gone, you still remember her. Even if it’s just in your imagination she’s alive somewhere and I’m sure she’d love to talk to you.”

His vision starts to blur with tears as he nods. He doesn’t believe it. She’d probably hate him if she really knew him. She’d hate him and so would Ryuji.

#ryugoro #ryugoroweek2021 #Ryuji Sakamoto #goro akechi

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atopearth · 3 years

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Nightshade Part 1 - Ishikawa Goemon Route

I'm superrrr excited to play Nightshade! I've always been so curious about it so yayyy! Enju looks so cool and cute too. Toriumi Kousuke voices Chojiro? Okay, I love him already, and it seems like he's a big brother figure too, I love those🥲🥲 I have a soft spot for overprotective bodyguard types like Gekkamaru too though, he's so loyal! Maybe to the point of it being detrimental to the both of them though, since when Enju trains, he protects her lol, and he doesn't go out on a lot of missions because he wants to protect her. I guess the good thing about it is that this is of his own free will. I guess it's interesting that Enju is the symbol of peace between the Iga clan (that was mostly decimated by Oda Nobunaga) and the Koga clan (who was the Iga's rivals and ended up taking in the remnants of the Iga clan) due to being the daughter of the Koga clan master and the late Iga clan master's sister. Ohh Chojiro is Momochi Tanba's (late Iga clan master) son! I wonder how he feels.. Wow, Kando (Enju's father) looks so fierce and cool. I guess Gekkamaru protecting Enju isn't completelyyyy his free will, considering it was what Enju's deceased mother asked of him and he's kept his promise to this day. Awww Chojiro recommended Enju to come along for the mission! Exciting! I can't imagine having to go on a mission for 8 years, I wonder if Enju and them will even recognise Kuroyuki. I can't believe Kuroyuki was sent on the mission when he was 8 years old! That's just crazy.. Aww Kasumi is so cuteee, her crying at everyone leaving on a mission was so sweet. Lmao at Chojiro telling Enju and them that the mission will always come before their lives and Gekkamaru completely dismisses it later by saying it doesn't matter to him since Enju will always be his top priority.

Kuroyuki definitely seems like he has a lot of baggage with him, but I guess that's to be expected when he was dumped on a mission at such a young age, and if he's coming back alone, that means for all these years, he must have been really lonely. He never got the support of others like Enju and them did. For some reason, I really like Kyara's voice, I should check the VAs. Okay, omg no wonder why lol, I loveee Hayami Saori~ WHOA, I'm in for a ride, Tsuda Kenjiro voices Hanzo? I'm looking forward to that. Oh nooo, Midorikawa Hikaru voices Goemon?? I don't like Goemon's looks, but I guess I'll love his voice regardless😂 Right now, he kinda reminds me of Tamahome from Fushigi Yuugi lol. Even though Enju's naive, I really did like how she took back the girl's money bag from the thief and gave it back to her naturally. I'm kinda interested in "Goro" (Goemon), he looks sleazy (lol) but he seems to be quite mature? Oh, their mission is to find the next place Goemon will rob? I know Goemon is a "good" person because he only robs officials who are corrupt and don't treat the citizens properly, but that's about all I know haha. I guess it's understandable why Ishida Mitsunari needs to capture him if Tokugawa Ieyasu and other council guys are coming, it would be pretty embarrassing and shameful to not be able to catch a single notorious thief, and it doesn't help that Toyotomi Hideyoshi is getting older and the council elders have considerable influence. Btw, lmao at Kyara trying to cook with her weapon😂

Wow, Ieyasu is beautiful~ I love his looks🥺 I didn't realise that guy was Hattori Hanzo until I heard his voice a bit more though hahaha. Anyway, yeah, Enju throwing a shuriken to save Ieyasu (when he used himself as bait) was definitely reckless and silly as a shinobi, but I can't really dislike her for it, because she's not someone who can just ignore that. Considering that Hanzo is the strongest/top Iga ninja, and is tasked with protecting Ieyasu, is he a part of Koga now or is he independent? Honestly, I always took Kuroyuki as a flighty guy so when he stood up for Enju (when Hanzo called her a burden if they were to take her along to kill the guys after Ieyasu) against Hanzo, I was a bit touched. Ieyasu is really kind to think about the shinobi who died protecting him from the assassin, it is pretty saddening tbh. Enju catching Goemon was pretty cool, I think he really let his guard down and didn't want to hurt her though. I knew Hideyoshi was going to die and Enju would be accused as the killer, but it's kinda sad since Hideyoshi seemed genuinely happy and impressed with her. Anyway, considering how important Hideyoshi is, I'm surprised they even let him be alone with Enju with no guards at all?? Or any ninjas to protect him or anything?? I like the idea of Goemon "stealing" her away, so she's not escaping and causing more trouble for the Koga clan, but I wonder what will happen to the clan... I mean, Ishida's missions were what kept the clan going so... Anyway, I forgot that Goemon was an Iga ninja, that's certainly interesting, and he left before the Iga clan was basically destroyed so hm~

Aww Enju and Goemon traveling together, pretending to be husband and wife and holding hands is so cute~ I love how Goemon speaks his mind and tells her she's cute, because Enju is definitely super cuteee. Lmaoo when the innkeeper thought they were siblings. How heartbreaking to hear that Enju's father disowned her... It's probably what he needed to do to protect the rest of Koga, but yeah that would hurt. At least Gekkamaru is adhering to what he said before and is ready to discard everything to protect Enju. I agree with Goemon and his choice to leave the village though. I mean, it's respectable and crazy how dedicated and loyal shinobi are to their mission and to their villages, but shinobi literally live for all that and nothing else. It's admirable, but it's also such a saddening way to live? Especially since so many of them die so frequently for their missions. I'm personally glad Gekkamaru is doing this for Enju. I guess in a sense this journey is a blessing in disguise (as long as no one dies) because it will help Enju think about how she wants to live. She's always been stuck in her village "protected" by everyone just because she's the symbol of peace, so rather than appreciating her for who she is, people only look at her as a symbol that needs to exist, yet Enju feels like she needs to "repay" them for treating her so kindly when they basically imprison her in the village and bind her to it in a sense to make themselves feel better. Not saying they're not nice people but the whole ninja village thing isn't really great when it comes to anything about freedom and choice, so it's nice for Enju to now see things with a different perspective. It was cute how they both said to each other they would be a good wife/husband. As for Mokichi, I was suspicious when he insisted on going to the festival alone with Enju, but I do feel bad for her. I know Enju is very careless, too naive and kind for her own good, but I honestly wish to see her continue to see the world in a nice way because it's saddening otherwise I guess. I'm surprised Gekkamaru didn't follow them at all though, like it's still dangerous!!

I was wondering what Kuroyuki was doing this whole time considering he's just like his brother Gekkamaru in terms of how much he wants to protect Enju, but it seems like he was trying to look for her too! Oh.. Goemon wasn't even born into Iga, he was sold there and used as disposable pawns when needed and trained harshly to the point that if he couldn't take it, they would just dump him. Honestly, Goemon hasn't really made my heart flutter much haha, but when he got angry and asked Enju whether she wanted to live or die (when she thought maybe she should stop running so she wouldn't trouble the others anymore), and then when he told her that he would stay beside her until the end, I couldn't help but feel touched. He's not optimistic enough to think that they will definitely survive, but he's not willing to give up, and is willing to do whatever he can to stay alive alongside her and I think that's sweet. Goemon patting her head as she enjoyed the soothing view of cherry blossoms was nice. Enju has really gone through a lot these days so I'm glad Goemon is always trying to help her relax a bit. Whaaat?! Goemon was the Fuma leader?? Oh...Goemon escaped from Iga when he was 8 and somehow or another ended up at Fuma.. I guess Goemon hates killing because of the amount of people he's killed before, and knowing how "easy" it can be with the ninjutsu he learnt as the Fuma leader... It's nice how comfortable they've gotten with each other that they can even sleep side by side together now lol.

I honestly don't really trust Mitsunari, and really don't know if this "goodbye" with her friends will really be for the good. I mean, even on the off chance Mitsunari has good intentions, other people in the castle don't. Anyway, I really liked how forward Enju was in wanting Goemon to stroke her head, and he even kissed her on the forehead~ Goemon is a flirt but he's always so polite and careful with Enju, it's kinda cute. Honestly, the last bit with Goemon pretending to kill Chojiro and them etc was pretty... meh? Like, it was obvious what was going to happen, especially with the gold and him giving it to people lol. I guess something nice and interesting was that Enju will continue to hide from the public eye since she's supposed to be dead, so she'll be traveling with Goemon from now on. Kinda cute how Goemon is more open with his affections. The bad ending was quite nice, I liked how it was Enju who gave up on living because of everything that happened, and because of that, Goemon ended up using the ninjutsu he hated so much to kill the Elders for causing all this to happen, and forcing an innocent girl to lose the will to live and basically sacrifice herself.

Overall, while I do like Goemon's personality, I find his route very lacklustre. I think the biggest problem with Goemon's route is that it's very focused on Enju and her escape from the Elders and how Goemon helps her with that, supports her and that's how they end up bonding by both encouraging her and understanding the desire to live for oneself rather than romance. There were cute moments that I enjoyed between the two, but I don't feel like I learnt much about Goemon as a thief or even as the Fuma leader. They talk about his past and why he hates it all, but it doesn't expand on it which can be okay, but the story doesn't expand on the current him as Goemon either. All we ever learn about him is the superficial stuff like he's a good thief with a crappy past, and that he's a flirt lol. I just feel like since it was his route, I wanted to learn more about him, because other than his desire to live without being tied down to stuff like villages and stuff, and hoping that people like Enju wouldn't have to sacrifice their lives for stuff like that, I'm not sure anything much happened. Like, I wanted to see more of the ramifications of how it was for a shinobi clan to lose their master, how Goemon's "betrayal" towards the Fuma went etc. So yeah, kinda disappointing. The bonus scenarios and stuff were nice though, especially when they chatted about little Chojiro back in the day being cute hahaha.

#hyakka hyakurou #nightshade

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twilightknight17 · 3 years

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So I almost disqualified these anon asks for using “every single [fanfic]”, but honestly the fact that we’ve moved to actually looking at the game itself feels strangely like progress. Plus, this is technically at least halfway to a new topic. You’re still harping on about Goro, but at least there’s a second target.

I have given you homework, though. Hope you don’t mind. You lot really need to start providing some evidence for the things you’re claiming.

I might jump around a bit while answering this, because three asks worth is a lot to cover, but let’s talk about Okumura along with the usual bullshit, under a cut!

P5 really doesn’t delve as deeply into the nuances of its morality as it could. They definitely gloss over a few things that could have been really interesting explorations of character motivations or potential conflicts in the group. (Conflicts that would have been a lot more interesting than Morgana throwing a temper tantrum.)

Not exploring those things leads to a bad habit in the fandom of black-and-white thinking when it comes to characters, instead of making the slightest effort to read past the surface level. People seem very quick to assign labels of “good” and “evil”, instead of accepting that maybe characters can be morally grey.

That’s what you’re doing now. So:

Homework: Please show specific examples from the game:

- where it’s implied that we are supposed to “want them to hurt Akechi.”

- where it’s implied that Akechi wanted to kill Ren “out of fun”

Because why would the game need to disprove something it didn’t say in the first place? It’s not the story’s fault that you’re making wild assumptions.

Anyway, let’s jump and talk about Okumura!

I think the issue is that, when looking at the situation around Okumura, all the nuance is eclipsed by the fact that he didn’t deserve to die like that. Okumura received disproportionate retribution for his crimes, and between the media immediately turning on the Phantom Thieves (because it was being manipulated), and the kids panicking and worrying about Haru (because they never wanted to kill anyone), the rest gets set aside. Hell, it took them two days to remember that there was a possibility that Black Mask got him, they were so freaked out.

And there’s not really a moment to go back and discuss, “Well, yes, he shouldn’t have died, but he did still do horrible things”, because at that point, that would just be disrespectful to Haru. She’s mourning her father, and the lost chance to get back the man he used to be.

(Which is a different issue, because Haru wasn’t going to get him back. He was going to go to jail. There wasn’t going to be a happy family afterwards. But... I’ll chalk that up to teenagers not thinking ahead. It’s not like they think about what becomes of their other targets, either. I did read a really good fic once where Akira had to admit in front of Haru that he thought she was better off with her dad dead. She didn’t take it well.)

Homework: Please show specific examples from the game:

- where it’s shown that Haru actually, specifically forgives her father. The third semester does not count, because that’s an idealized version of her father.

However, Goro does mention that his targets were doing the same thing as him during the engine room confrontation. While Goro doesn’t name Okumura specifically, the implication is there. And Wakaba isn’t mentioned, but considering how many people support the theory that Wakaba experimented on Goro...

I kind of want to write a oneshot of Akira/Goro and Haru/Futaba arguing about this now. Can’t really hit harder than, “You killed my mother!”/”Your mother tortured me with illegal experiments for a year!” X’D

Anyway, when I wrote Cascade, Okumura not being killed by Goro was meant to be a result of the Thieves getting to Goro earlier. He hesitated, because he was with the team. He’d been with them for an entire Palace, he knew how a change of heart worked, and his sunk-cost-fallacy mindset was starting to change, even just a little. It wasn’t because Okumura was a “tragic figure”, and you can’t really compare that to canon when the situations were different.

Now. Regarding this bit:

“the writing and the tone is that he, not Shido, is to fully toblame for the worst stuff. Why else do people still say he approached Shido intending to kill from the start?”

Shido’s perception of Goro is literally a soulless puppet that does whatever it’s told. Shido is ordering people killed just so he can become Prime Minister, and lets other people request targets in exchange for political favors. Shido has no qualms about having his allies killed when they’re no longer of use. That’s right there, in the game. How do you get “Goro is to blame for everything” out of that unless you’re a brain-dead idiot just looking for reasons to hate him? A powerful man orders a teenager to do horrible things, with the implication that there will be consequences if he refuses, and it’s the teenager’s fault??

During the confrontation with Shadow Shido alone, you get:

Shido mentioning that he “controlled” Goro

Haru saying specifically to Shido, “You even killed my father.”

Shido admitting that “It was thanks to me that Akechi was able to properly use his power to begin with.”

And then there’s the SIU Director before Futaba’s Palace, saying that the plan to trap and frame the Phantom Thieves was “too brutal to be [Akechi’s] own idea.”

Homework: Please show specific examples from the game:

- literally anywhere where it’s implied that Goro’s offer to Shido was specifically about killing people

- literally anywhere where it’s implied that any of this is Goro’s fault alone

Because as far as I can tell, the only reason people claim that Goro showed up at fifteen years old and offered to murder people is because they’re idiots, interpreting the character in the worst way possible because they already hate him. The most likely scenario is that Goro showed up with a pitch of, “I can use these powers to get inside information and make your opponents embarrass themselves.” Shido is the one who started using him as a supernatural hitman, the “”“proper””” way to use his powers.

If the SIU Director thinks the Plan was too brutal to be Goro’s idea, and Goro himself refuses the order to kill the rest of the Phantom Thieves, I find it very hard to believe that he started out as a killer. Technically, he never says he wants to kill Shido, even. In the end, what he wants is basically a change of heart.

Because really, as the Thieves point out, they’re not so different.

#answered #nothing like typing up an essay in 20 minutes #which is more of my attention than anon prolly deserved #but whatever

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ffamranxii · 3 years

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Bro. My shipper heart is bleeding. These are my current fandoms (Persona, Sailor Moon, Fruits Basket, and Haikyuu!!) and I have some FEELINGS (under the cut).

1. I don’t ship Ryuuji/Protag/Goro. I very specifically headcanon Joker as two different people, with slightly different personalities. Joker-as-Ren I ship with Ryuuji, Joker-as-Akira I ship with Goro.

2. Makoto/Hifumi is a chance interaction that takes place when Joker and Makoto go to Jinbocho. I decided that very second that I ship them so hard, since Makoto abandoned Joker to go shop with Hifumi.

3. I do have specific headcanons for the other thieves, but none are romantic. Ann and Ryuuji have an epic bromance; Yusuke is asexual but best friends with Futaba and Joker; Futaba and Sumire are best friends and neither of them need a relationship while they are healing from their respective traumas; I hardcore ship Haru/happiness but have yet to find a specific person to ship her with. Same with Mishima - I love my boy but haven’t found the right person for him. Also honorable mention to Iwai/Takemi.

4. Yu/Yosuke was my first P4 ship. Never looked back. I also shipped Yukiko/Chie way before I shipped Ann/Shiho, despite playing P5 first.

5. My take on Naoto is conflicted (I understand their story from both the Japanese and Western point of view and can’t decide which I like better). I very specifically ship Kanji/boy!Naoto.

6. Teddie/Marie was a crackship I came up with during Golden and decided I really liked for some reason. I was thinking of what to write for a fic and Yosuke mentioning “oh hey my brother [Teddie]’s getting married” “oh yeah? to who?” “that weathergirl, Mariko Kusumi” just popped into my head. I’m on board now.

7. I really like Rise but I can’t for the life of my find a person to ship her with. I do not like Rise/Yu.

8. Honorable mention to the ball bois Kou/Daisuke.

9. I don’t know why I ship Minato/Yukari. I just really like them together and surprisingly I can hardly find any fics or art of them. I also ship the Minato/Aigis bromance and I love Elizabeth-loves-Minato.

10. You can pry ShinjiHam from my cold dead fingers. VIVA LA SHINJIHAM!

11. These two are similar to Minato/Yukari in that I don’t know why I ship them, I just do. There’s also not much art/fic of them. :(

12. Ngl, Junpei’s inability to leave Chidori alone because he can’t fathom a girl just sitting on a bench drawing really rubs me the wrong way. However, they develop an actual relationship (in as much as a secondary character can in Persona) and by the time she sacrificed herself for him I was hooked. I think Chidori really didn’t give a fuck about Junpei until she was in the hospital and saw how much he cared about a person he didn’t really even know.

13. I’m not totally sold on the other SEES peeps. I LOVE Fuuka but I can’t find anyone I truly love her WITH. Ken is a child among near adults so I don’t really have anything for him, and Koro-chan’s a doggo. I love Rio and Saori, but not together, and also Mamoru...

14. Maya/Katsuya are just stupid cute. I take no criticism.

15. TATSUJUN FO LYFE. DON’T EVEN @ ME.

16. Eikichi and Miyabi are honestly super sweet, I can’t even.

17. Maki and Naoya are the only two people from P1 I really connected with in any meaningful way, so of course I ship them together. I also loved Yukino in P1 (but not P2, really), and Yuka, but have no one to ship them with. Yuka married rich so maybe she married Kei! XD

18. Sailor Moon is the ONLY series where I ship people differently based on adaption. I ship Usagi/Mamoru in both, of course (and I think Mamoru was done better in the live action than the anime and especially the manga); but in the live action I hardcore ship Rei/Minako (who seemed to be the replacement Haruka/Michiru, since they weren’t in the live action), and really, really enjoyed the developing relationship with Ami/Nephrite during the Dark Mercury arc as well as the surprisingly stable and sweet Makoto/Motoki relationship.

19. However in the anime/manga I tend to ship what I’m “supposed to” (within reason, lol). Chibiusa was the first person I ever shipped with two different people. I like the idea of her and Hotaru in young love, and Mistress 9 and Wicked Lady getting together, and I love the idea of older princess chibiusa with her first love Helios.

20. Ah, the Kakeru love triangle. Kakeru just RADIATES bisexual energy - he hits on literally all the Sohma men and he LOVES Yuki. I actually did not like Yuki with anyone but Kakeru until the 2019 anime came out and I saw a lot of discourse about how well Yuki/Machi went together. I’m also a sucker for Kakeru’s girlfriend Komaki and I hope they put her in the anime. The idea of chaotic bisexual Kakeru actually having been in a longterm relationship all through high school and marrying her is just super sweet.

21. I will never let go of Hatori/Kana. They should’ve had it all.

22. Kagura/Kunimitsu and Momiji/Kimi are two crackships I found as fanart (I’ve reblogged them at some point), that every so often I stumble upon a fic or art for. I originally didn’t like them, but ended up ADORING them. Kunimitsu is exactly the calm yet gently mischievous presence Kagura needs and Kimi and Momiji would create SO MUCH CHAOS.

23. I do not like Uo/Kureno within the context of the show. I understand that Uo is probably the first non-related girl Kureno’s interacted with since his essential imprisonment and he is probably suffering from “new is always better” syndrome when he meets her. Kureno hardcore needs a few years on his own, away from the Sohmas, to figure out who he is, and what he likes to do, and live as a normal person; and Uo is NOT the person to help him do that. She’s got enough on her plate with the death of her mentor/mother figure and rehabbing her father. Uo is in a good place right now and Kureno is not, and she shouldn’t need to “save” him. I DO like Uo/Kureno as an “after the series” pairing, where Uo’s in her twenties and out of college (if she went) and got a career, and Kureno’s finally gotten his shit together, and they meet again by chance and they’re both in a good place. That’s adorable. Uo/Kureno while Uo’s in school isn’t.

24. I actually think Kagehina was the first ship I shipped in Haikyuu!! I remember watching the first episode and going “...are.... are they gonna make out?” Then Noya and his dramatic “ASAHI!!!!!” and “I’M NEVER GOING TO PLAY UNLESS ASAHI PLAYS TOO!!!” swooped in and I forgot about them. Asanoya is just so precious and pure. Daisuga smacked me in the face like, “Oh. OH. This is... this is fucking GREAT.” I think it was because I saw someone say “Daisuga are basically volleyball mom and dad” and I was hooked. I DO, however, enjoy a Kuroo/Daichi bang it out rivalry though. Tsukki and Tadashi was a no brainer; Tadashi yelling at Tsukki at the camp was just *chef’s kiss*

25. Yachi is the cutest little lesbian, and she’s even gayer in the manga. I actually can’t decide who I like more, Kiyoko/Yachi or Kiyoko/Tanaka.

26. Iwaoi and Kuroken came to me during my first forays into AO3 for fics. I can’t imagine shipping them with anyone else. They’re just... MADE for each other.

#ffamran speaks #ships #i made a few of the graphics because they didn't exist otherwise #like teddie/marie kunimitsu/kagura and momiji/kimi #my adhd brain just wanted to make a chart

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kingspuppet-a · 3 years

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Sometimes I think about the fact that Goro’s last name is such a dead giveaway to Shido. And Goro mentions how she was abandoned when she got pregnant, and we know his mother’s line of work. So I don’t necessarily see how Shido wouldn’t have known her name if he was hiring her services (unless he did something far worse which honestly wouldn’t be surprising considering why Joker got a record in the first place).

If there’s a chance that Shido would know though, could it be possible that Goro is using a fake name? Because let’s be real, Goro is a really smart guy and has obviously put a lot of thought into his plan. And sure, in the end it doesn’t really work because Shido figured it out solely from the fact that he was just like his mother/reminded him of her. But that doesn’t stop me from wondering if his last name isn’t actually taken from his mother’s name.

Don’t mind my musing. I just think about this every so often and can’t decide what I vibe with more for him. Because this just opens up so many more layers and thoughts to if he did then is there more reasoning? Why did he pick what he did? The list goes on.

#; OOC || Bri ♟️#//Also I apologize for extremely slow replies to everything (DMs specifically).#//I mean I'm always slow with that and gosh that's another bag of guilt to unpack. But still.#//I have no energy and my brain has just been deciding that hyper-fixating is the only thing it can manage.#//Depression's been really high these last few weeks especially which doesn't help.#//And last night my brain was excessively hyper-active and I've been drained since.#//So I apologize if I don't get around to things tonight besides gushing and nerding out over Goro.

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itsybitsylemonsqueezy · 4 years

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Oh gosh i literally LOVE your analysis thank you. And what about Majima??

Awww, thank you very much ^^; I’ve been having a good time writing these, I”m glad people are enjoying them. And everybody’s free to ask for seconds too, if interested. *breathes deep* Hoo boy, you pulling out the big guns there. Okay lads, settle down, it’ll be awhile.

character: hate them | don’t really care | like them | LOVE them | THEY ARE MY PRECIOUS

I would give my life for Majima Goro. But I won’t because that would trigger him to fuck and back. Best boy, golden son, I am mad fucked up about him. I don’t even have time to explain all my feelings about Majima fucking Goro. You can tell because I can’t go a single fucking post without mentioning him. *whispers* I love him.

ship with: Y’know how sometimes things are popular and you don’t get why? This is not one of those times. It’s cliche, but Kiryu Kazuma is the popular option here For A Reason. Like, I started Zero not knowing a fucking thing about Yakuza, as I think many do. And I wasn’t at all sure how Majima and Kiryu were going to be with each other, I had heard that they were the going ship and that seemed legit enough. Kiryu’s a nice boy, Majima’s a nice boy, they’d probably get on. But you make it through Zero and they don’t meet, not even once. They vaguely hear about each other and if they thought enough about it, they’d probably figure out that each other was holding the other half of their story, but there’s only that 5 second meeting in the epilogue, after the entire game is already fucking over and... Oh Shit.

That, my many gendered gentry, was an imprinting in live time.

But first, let’s back up a second, because I bet you’re all wondering about the Other important love in Majima’s life. So Makoto, Makoto... As I discussed in my Saejima post, after Anagura, Majima is living to die. That’s it, that’s his only goal in life, to get back into Tojo and wait there so his brother knows where to find him when he comes to kill him. He’s not looking for any other attachments in life. Because that’s the way Majima loves, body and soul, his whole existence dedicated around one thing. And he’s already signed himself up for sacrificing himself as repayment for Saejima’s sins and wasted years in prison. But then this... tragedy happens. This hit that isn’t a hit, this villain that’s really a victim. Everything goes wrong and Majima is left with do I commit the unthinkable to shorten my wait for my brother or do I forgo my brother’s rightful revenge to save this innocent? And Majima can’t. He can’t.

He could never kill and he can’t turn his back on someone who needs help. And she does need him, specifically, there’s no one else. Anyone else couldn’t be trusted, or if they can be trusted, they’re dead. Majima is the only person he and Makoto can trust so he’s just here, doing his best, trying to keep her alive in the face of everything he wants and all the power and hate the underworld of Japan can offer. He would sacrifice his one goal of staying alive for his brother if it means keeping Makoto safe. Is that love? Oh yes, but not the livable kind. You don’t come back from that kind of dedication. Majima loves Makoto as gods love: completely. It is without judgment and without reason. That’s not the love of one finite person to another finite person, admitting, exploring, and cherishing all the flaws and limits therein, it’s not even the love of a parent to a child or vice versa. It is infinite love, all-consuming and all-destroying. It is not cognizant of personality, worthiness, or risk. It just is. In many ways, Majima does not know Makoto, he doesn’t see her, neither, ironically, does she see him. These are not two equals of mutual interest enjoying who each other is. This is a far less personal and far more profound experience. It’s like a calling, a quest. And it’s not something a stable relationship can be built on because it doesn’t actually have anything to do with who Makoto is in her day-to-day life or who Majima is in his embodied, finite experience. This is love as a philosophical point, as a moral decision.

It is the greatest thing I’ve seen in my life that he lets her go. That sort of love will destroy you if you let it, it crushes your existence, your personality and sense of self, entirely into that of another. And you can’t live as a part of someone else, you cannot actually live for someone else, not sustainably, no matter how badly you want to. It’s the strongest thing I’ve ever seen done that Majima has the power to walk away from her and walk away from that sweet, blinding death. To choose a finite, flawed, embodied, but his own individual existence rather than let himself be consumed in an idea. And that they walk away from each other where they can both survive it. Where the idea of what was and what might have been doesn’t drive them into despair of all earthly, finite joys. Because who would choose to have a normal, dirty, working life where you are required each day to be an individual with your own wants and desires that are spurned and rewarded by turns of luck rather than the pure, golden existence of perfect moral agape? And I’m so glad that they walked away before they could be blinded by it, again, ironically enough.

But the fact that Majima is capable of that level of love is truly terrifying. And then how fascinating that he walks away from it. That he chooses a harder, darker life that will have the normal range of joys and disappointments. The restraint it takes. The incredible, unbending sense of self and to decide that there are selfish, individual things worth caring about, even if you had the chance to become selfless for the rest of your life. I don’t think we talk about or think about that Majima walking away there was a moral choice. He wasn’t walking away from happiness, he was walking towards a different happiness. And, most importantly of all, even though he is still waiting to be killed by his brother, the fact that he walked away means that Majima is much healthier and much less self-destructive than he was at the beginning of Zero. He could have escaped it all if he went with her. But he doesn’t. And that fucking blows my mind.

I love that Majima grows after Zero. That his absolute nihilism changes as he allows himself to care about people again, maybe even care about himself again. Especially after Shimano’s death, he starts to develop relationships and things that he cares about as soon as it is safe to do so. He decides that he isn’t going to waste away waiting for his brother, he will live in this time, even if it has an expiration date. He will build something he cares about. And I think, in no small part, knowing Kiryu gives him the courage and the will to do so.

Because Kiryu is this shooting star in the dark night of Majima’s world. He is this mighty pillar standing amidst slag and waste. Kiryu does things that are right because they are right, with no thought to his own gain or risk. Kiryu does things that are right at tremendous personal risk and will fight through people trying to stop him. And Kiryu will win. Not only does Kiryu agree with the way Majima thinks and feels but, mother of god, eh actually has the power and strength to survive.

Think about that. You’re Majima Goro and every day since you became yakuza, you have been kicked down, tortured, and abused just because you wanted to do the right thing. You have watched countless friends, allies, and enemies be shot and killed in front of you because they were trying to do the right thing. You have no choice but to do right in the secret places of your heart, to do good only in ways that can never be traced back to you, in ways no one would confuse for being good, kind things. Because it will get you killed, or worse, it will get the people around you killed. It’s not paranoia, you’ve seen it happen, your nightmares are filled to the brim with the blood and horror or good people dying just because they were good and it’s your fault, it’s all your fault because you didn’t warn them, you let them get close, you let them see you were a good person and you can NEVER. EVER. let that happen to anyone again.

And then there’s Kiryu. Stupid, mutton-headed freak with the arms of a lumberjack and a heart as white as lilies. He’ll be dead tomorrow, you know it. He’s too good, he’s too kind, and he’s not afraid. He’s not damn near afraid enough. He has no idea what’s waiting out there to snap him to pieces. But he’s there tomorrow. Not even a scratch on him, still standing, still strong. You try to warn him, you try to beat him in a way he can survive so that he learns to never try to be good again. But he beats you. He actually fucking beats you and what the fuck are you supposed to do with that? He’ll still die anyway, there’s no way he’ll live where so many have been slaughtered. And he’s still there tomorrow. You pester him, you follow him, you watch him closely, to see what he does, who he is, how is it he’s still alive? It must be some trick, he’s either not as good as you think he is or not as strong or, or... something! Because it’s impossible, it’s impossible that anyone could, that anyone could...

And he smiles. He smiles at you, like he can see right down to that tiny, beating, pure heart you’re trying every second to wrap in barbed wire. And you’re done. You’re fucking done for. He smiles and... it’s all fucking over. Whatever happens now, whether he dies or lives, it’s too late. He’s everything you ever wanted and it breaks you that he, somehow, wants you too. Because who would smile at you if they didn’t know you? Oh, he’s dumb as rocks still, but... the way he looks at you, in those moments when you fuck up, in those moments that if someone was watching, they would see you. And he sees you. And worse, he thinks he likes it. And... oh god. You love him. This will all end in tears.

But it doesn’t. Kiryu’s alive and the same and that’s... that’s wonderful. And that’s the love of two people, two people who see each other and know each other and, god help them, like each other. Despite it all, the risk and worry and the problems, they just... get along. That’s why I ship it.

(I also ship Kiryu/Majima/Tachibana sometimes and we’ll save my essay on that for an entirely different post.)

brotp: Saejima Taiga, obvs. I will not repeat my sentiments on why that’s the brotp here, there’s the Saejima post for that. But I also put Nishida and Kage right up there as Majima’s best bros. You got Nishida out here doing his best to keep his boss from dying and facilitating Majima’s ridiculous courtship ploys and trying to articulate Majima’s feelings for him when Majima Won’t because Nishida cares So Fucking Much about Majima. And he knows that Mjima hates it when people care about him, he knows Majima actively does tno want you to like him but... Nishida’ worked with him for too long not to know what a good, kind person Majima really sis, even if he’s trying his best not to show it. And god damn it, but Nishida’s not going to let him live in misery when he’s got a heart of gold like that.

And Kage too, he and Majima look out for each other. They enjoy the odd cage match and a morose drink of fine liquor. They’ve both seen tragedy in their lives and Kage tries his best to convince Majima not to give up all hope. That Kiryu boy, he really likes him. Even Kage can see it. He’d be happy to... no, no, alright. Just thought he’d say.

Because Majima has that effect on people. He makes friends wherever he goes because he’s a good time, he’s generous and kind and has a knack for picking up people who are down. And he’d do anything for you if you didn’t have a friend in the world. He has so much love to gives and slowly, slowly, with time and healing, with the death of Shimano and the return of his brother, slowly Majima is allowed to feel safe in loving people once more. And it warms everyone’s heart to see him happy and whole with a family and friends. Everyone he’s touched just wants him to be okay, after all he’s done for the world, please, just give him this little bit. It’s all he ever wanted.

general opinions: I Am Love. I LOvE HiM. I lOVe. I LOOOOOOOOOOOVE. I Love HIm. *sobs*

#Majima Goro #There's more to say. There always is. But I'll cut it there for today #Yakuza #ask Lemon #blurred-voices

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yusuke-of-valla · 4 years

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If I mashed all of my swap aus together it would be basically:

Joker comes to Tokyo and on his first day meets Makoto, a punk biker upper classmen who's in a personal recurring war with Kamoshida

He and Makoto then team up with Morgana and Ann to change Kamoshida's heart.

Joker befriends Futaba and Kasumi, two new first years. Futaba asks Joker if he's heard of cognitive psience (unbenownst to Joker, Futaba knows about the Phantom Thieves and wants to understand the Metaverse better). Morgana suggests that this will be useful for Metaverse so he and Futaba form the "Psych and Cognitive Pscience" Club.

Haru overhears the about the PT while tending to the plants on the roof and unintentionally blackmails them into helping her change her dad's heart.

Ann's childhood friend Ryuji and the current Student Council president asks for their help dealing with a mafia boss named Kaneshiro. He eventually joins the team and helps with strategizing

The PT again get what they think is a blackmail text from a mysterious person who happens to be Joker's neighbor, a shut-in named Takuto Maruki who Sojiro has been checking in on for the past couple of years since his fiance died (apparently a running theme here is the PT assuming they're being blackmailed by people who are too nice to actually blackmail them)

Between all of this Futaba has been meeting with the other PT for her reasearch as part of the Psych club

Morgana starts to feel useless now that Ryuji and Takuto have joined the team so after the team can't agree whether or not to go after Madarame, he decided to the Palace by himself and gets his ass handed to him.

Luckily, he's found by Yusuke. Unluckily, Yusuke is happy to help the injured cat creature but has exactly 0 interest in helping him change Madarame's heart so Morgana has to spend a while badgering Yusuke into it while acting like he totally does not need the rest of the PT when they run into each other.

After some shenanigans and making up and stuff Yusuke runs into Madarame's shadow and finally snaps. He joins the PT and change Madarame's heart, only Madarame then dies mid-confession.

So things go downhill from there and the PT get actually blackmailed by Akechi into doing Sae's Palace much to Makoto's chagrin.

Sae's palace is thus 80% more a sisterly screaming match, but the plan works and Joker successfully fakes his death.

Things continue as normal from there until the Third Semester

Ryuji's wish is that he could keep doing track and Makoto wishes her dad were still alive still. Yusuke probably doesn't wish for Madarame to be alive because Madarame had gotten a lot worse near his death and that really soured the memories so Yusuke wishes his mom were alive. Takuto wishes Rumu were alive

Goro is not there because Fugaba found our he was responsible for her mom's death and is like "yeah no, not bringing that back"

LUCKILY, Haru's dad isn't dead in this au and things are pretty chill so she sorta takes Goro's place without all the grumpiness.

Anyway they confront Futaba and learn the truth about Sumire

Then they wake everyone up and go rescue Sumire.

Throughout Futaba's palace they see memories of her and her mother and her desire to get back at the people who killed her.

They confront Futaba and steal her treasure and then Futaba tries to punch you and it's more emotionally destroying to have to fistfight this traumatized teen than anything else prior to this.

But anyway, everyone gets out, it's fine. The end.

In summary: Joker, Ann, Morgana, Sumire and Goro are the same (except for the fact that Goro doesn't come back in the third semester), Haru pretty much gets everything she wants, Makoto is more rebellious but less stressed, Ryuji is more stressed but also more responsible, Yusuke is like 15% grumpier than he was when you first meet him in canon and that only goes down slightly after his mentor dies because once artist dies they become 10x more famous and get more praise so Yusuke is .2 seconds away from breaking a canvas at all times, Takuto is sadder but also Team Dad, Futaba tries to fistfight the administration after hearing about all the pressure they're putting on Sumi and filled with righteous anger in general.

#p5r spoilers #futaba/maruki roleswap #makoto/ryuji roleswap #yusuke/haru joinswap #uhhh let's call it #megaswap au #yusuke/haru join swap

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kareofbears · 3 years

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perspective

#42 on my top 100 spotify wrapped: grow as we go by ben platt

read on ao3 or below the cut

—

“I didn’t ask you to do that.”

Haru stops when she hears Akechi’s quiet voice, letting the rest of the Thieves walk past her in Shibuya station. It’s late enough that there are only a few midnight workers hustling to get to their night shifts, heads down and coats tight around them, barely glancing at a group of exhausted teenagers appearing out of midair.

Akira throws her back a look, eyes flashing warning signals. She nods. It’s fine.

Haru waits until they’ve headed down the escalators before turning to face Akechi. “You didn’t.”

“I didn’t,” he repeats. “And yet, you did it.”

“And I’d do it again.”

The trains a floor below seemed to hush as they stare each other down—her smiling and his expression blank.

“I’m not him, Okumura. The mission can still go on if I’m down—”

“This isn’t about the mission, Akechi-kun.” Her voice was harder than usual. “I would have done it for Akira, yes. But I also would have done it for Futaba-chan. Ryuji-kun. I would have done it for anyone on the team.”

“But I wouldn’t have done it for any of you.” He readjusts his gloves passively, casually. “If a Shadow was behind you, your back exposed, and a bless attack strong enough to fry you dead was coming towards you a hundred miles an hour, I would have let my attention fall elsewhere. I would have looked the other way.”

“I know that.”

“I killed your dad, did you forget?”

As if there’d ever be a morning where she wakes up and doesn’t repeat that fact over and over again until she’s forced to get up for the day. “No.”

“And Sakura’s mother,” he says, voice brisk. “Did you forget that part?”

“No,” Haru mutters. “I didn’t.”

His words are flying out of his mouth now, each syllable nearly tripping over each other in their haste to make themselves known. “And that time I trapped your leader in an underground interrogation room to kill him? That was a good one. How about the dozens of families affected by the mental shutdowns? Or that time I fought my damnest to kill you all in Shido’s Palace? Or—”

“I remember it,” she says softly. “All of it.”

Akechi’s cool expression falls; in it’s place, something akin to confusion. Lost. A genuine look of incomprehension. “Then why did you do it?”

“Why did I save your life?”

He nods, and she feels a pang of something, deep in her chest. It feels awfully close to pity. Haru glances around the station to make sure it was still empty, before saying:

“I hate you.”

“I’m aware.”

“I thought I wanted you dead for a long time, Akechi Goro.” It feels strange saying it out loud after countless times of wishing, pleading in her head. “I really, really did.”

“I understand,” he says simply. If anything else, that was one thing she knew they did have in common—the prayer of revenge. “After all that I’ve done, it only makes sense.”

“Right?” she can’t help but smile, just a little. Odd, being validated by the person you hate the most.

“But I saw it. It was inevitable. If I hadn’t done anything—” her smile slips from her features as she remembers it. The moist yet scorching scent of Mementos. The sound of trains on their tracks and their never-ending scheduled journeys. A quiet Shadow within a deafening battle. Akechi’s bloodlust eyes focused, always focused, on the target in front of him. Used to never having someone watching his back. “In that moment…I don’t know.”

Was it a compulsion? A need to save people the way Akira does? “I couldn’t let anything happen to you. I couldn’t let you die, no matter how much I wanted you to.”

A beat passes. She’s gotten good at reading the poker faces that come with dealing in business, the hard expressions with cracks that tell her everything she needs—a slight frown, the gnawing of the lip, the nervous ticks that everyone has.

Despite this, Akechi’s expression remains unreadable. “I didn’t want you to do that.”

When he doesn’t answer, she pulls back her sleeve. “It’s getting late. I should go. We have an exam next week, so I should study for that, I think. I’ve never been good at chemistry.”

She winces. It’s not a surprise, but it still makes her heart sink to hear it. Was it because it was her who did it? Or any of the Thieves? Or was it something that she’d be better off not knowing about?

“It doesn’t matter whether or not you wanted it,” is what Haru says instead. “I already saved your life. It’s done. I’ve already done it.”

She walks away, but before she can get very far, a voice calls out, almost desperately.

“Now what?”

Haru turns, and Akechi stands there, an arm outstretched towards her. “What am I supposed to do now?”

It’s strange. The way his shoulders droop like he’s burdened with stones, his lips tilted downwards, eyebrows scrunched and eyes wide yet doubtful—a decade of begging for help, for someone to notice, and being shot down every single time without fail.

It’s strange, because this is the expression she saw in the mirror before she found the friends she had now.

She smiles, despite the way her chest constricts. “If you want my honest advice, Akechi-kun, you grow. Heal. You don’t have to save anyone’s life, but it might help.” She rocks on her heels. “It doesn’t have to be here. It doesn’t have to be with us. But it has to happen.”

Haru turns back. “If you do that, it’ll make sense why I did it. Trust me, once you break out of what you think the whole world is made of, it gets better.”

Walking towards the escalators, she blinks as she sees everyone waiting at the bottom, waiting for her.

A laugh slips from her lips, remembering how used she was to an empty house waiting for her.

It gets better.

#fic tag #fank yew spaghetti #mine #p5 #got a prompt??? send me an ask bro!#gotta pat myself on the back for resisting the urge to do a gardening fic

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