Hi, sorry, same anon that asked the last ask on here. First please dont feel its self indulgent, if anything I'm the one feeling a bit selfish literally scouring your tumblr for fanart and your concepts of shadow nagisa. Seeing the fandom grow from barren to people who post interesting ideas and interpretations was one of the things that brought me back to p5x after a long break.
If I may ask a few questions about the nagisa's palace, could the phantom idols be mini bosses that the main squad has to face, with nagisa's cognition of them either hating nagisa for their repeated deaths or being sort of like ghost pirates that haunt the ship? Would Shadow Nagisa have some sort of persona switching mechanic like the Velvet room attendant bosses?
i'm so glad!! the fandom is really small, but i absolutely love seeing what everyone is coming up with, so i understand your position... i love talking about this AU too so more will come eventually.!!!
i love answering questions too, so of course you can ask! i didn't actually consider the cognitive thieves hating him, but that's such a good idea, especially considering how guiltridden he is... as it is, the cognitive thieves are probably the same if not more forgiving than in the real world. nagisa knows full well - to his own anger, really - that they would forgive him instantly if he were to ever tell them about how he's failed them. they're very protective of him, but he feels really guilty about it, so his shadow is always just observing from afar or has locked himself away in his quarters.
i could very easily imagine them being antagonistic towards the real thieves though... maybe the severity of it on a case by case basis. like, i could easily see cognitions of masaki, seiji, leo, or yukimi, etc being very defensive for example, whereas others like tomoko, miyu, or chizuko, etc would probably want to encourage outside help, since they know they can't do anything for him, otherwise something would have already changed. some of the cognitions are very out of the way - kira is always in the infirmiry, for example, or kiyoshi in the library - so their behavior would be up to how you'd approach them as well... the actual average shadow on the Ark is really hostile though, since its basically their 'grave'.
shadow nagisa's attacks are actually kind of similar! though he typically resorts to just fighting with his bare hands LOL... he has a knife he stole from the real nagisa, and his gun, the bullets able to change elemental affinity based on nagisa's own whims. shadow nagisa is actually pretty defenseless, and its by design, but he's also very volatile and viscious when he doesn't get what he wants, even if he doesn't actually have any real intent to hurt anyone. heres a snippet from a fic i haven't published yet:
He stretched out his wrist, circling it as he fixed the sleeve of his shirt. “You’re right,” he said. The breathlessness of his voice made them all step back, shivers running up and down Shun’s spine. “None of you have it in you to kill me. But I can make you.”
Before either of them could even think about what that meant, Nagisa was running forward, boots slamming against the ground with enough force to launch himself at the three of them.
Fucking hell, he was fast. Shun couldn’t even blink; he barely had the chance to shove Motoha to the side before Nagisa was slashing at the two of them with a knife he had dug out from his boot. It dug into the handle of Shun’s axe, just as he was able to whip it out to stop the knife from literally killing him.
pixelskylines
jacobvanloon
turnnoffyourmind
snowghoul
kianamaiart
