hii i am back with my horrible ms paint edits but,, Shoki Ikenami with one of those "_____" Starter Packs because. Uh. because I can.
this is very stupid but also very funny. most of these i mixed together from the existing italian american starter packs on reddit while adding a bit of my own experiences as well (the italomix music which is like, THE music used in italian restaurants in the early 2010's in germany, watching winx and witch bc they are fire shows, and Luca because I think Shoki would absolutely cry at that movie even if it isn't strictly italian.)
honorable mentions are:
you definitely have a cousin who's part of some shady stuff but you're better off not mentioning it
saturday markets where you get your week's worth of fresh produce and cheap, freshly-caught by your cousin fish
everyone always owes everyone money
a lot of religious imagery even if you're not necessarily religious
the hand gestures! his in-game model makes so many gestures i love it. i bet he hates having to express himself in high emotions without gesturing!!
on that note: suddenly becoming about ten decibels louder when talking to relatives on the phone bc WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU, NONNA? NO, I DIDN'T GO TO THE DENTIST, WHAT??
everyone on the same street his mother lives in knows him. they call themselves his cousins. once shoki asked his mom if they're really all related, and she laughed but never answered him
that one ice cream shop that's been running for fifty years with the best ice cream and the cheapest prizes and whose competitors all mysteriously vanished. shoki still gets perfect gelato for 1.00€ there whenever he visits.
he says he only picked up a few words, but he's perfectly fluent if he spends like, two days there. also, he understands italian perfectly
shoki probably, at one point in time, spent a weekend on a ship and was taught how to catch fish. his mother has a framed picture of him with his prize
he probably visited like, a lot when he was small and then petered off when he got older and now he feels guilty about not visiting but also it's difficult what with living in japan and everything he's got going on and I'm sure he'll start visiting in the future again yes yes of course
since @kiaroscuro and @jesseoftheorder already made their own wanluce fake dating au drabbles, i needed to make my own! my writing isn't nearly a good as y'all's (check out their drabbles if you haven't read them!!), but i hope everyone enjoys the little bit i'll write anyways!!
"How?!"
It was a fair question, and a question Shoki should've been a little more prepeared for. But instead, here they were, in Nagisa's living room. When Shoki had texted him asking for a very private place to talk, as soon as possible, yes it was time sensitive, Nagisa had offered his house, even letting him know that Lufel was taking a nap. That actually helped him quite a bit - he didn't mind Lufel, but he didn't exactly want an audience to explain this to. Especially because right after he opened the converstation with 'mamma thinks we're dating', Nagisa froze for a second, eyes opened wide, and, well, here they were.
"When I was talking to mamma, I wanted to tell her about how I had made some new friends, and how amazing you all were. And I tried to tell her about how much you helped me, without telling her about the Phantom Thieves. And... I think she misunderstood." Shoki sighed, running a hand through his hair. "I was telling her how amazing you were, and... she took that as me dating you." Shoki waited for Nagisa to respond, but it took a second. Nagisa blinked a couple times, clearly trying to process it all.
"Why didn't you correct her, though?"
"She was... so happy on the phone. She sounded so much happier than she had in years, I couldn't be the one to break her heart," Shoki said. "And I did try to call her back, but she didn't pick back up. Mamma knows a lot of people who want to know how I'm doing, and by now she's probably told all of them that I'm dating someone, and is probably on the phone to papà." He could even see her, beaming proudly as she excitedly told her friends that her son had found someone, isn't that wonderful? And the idea of his mamma smiling so brightly, he couldn't, wouldn't, dare make her upset by correcting her. Nagisa took another second to think, his face betraying the hundred questions he had swirling in his head. Shoki spoke up again. "I know it's a lot to ask you, but i just need you to pretend we're dating, just for a little while, and just in front of my parents... and maybe the team, too."
"The rest of the team?" Nagisa asked, still a bit bewildered. Shoki couldn't blame him.
"If we're going to be acting in front of my parents as a happy couple, then we need to be a believably happy couple. We need a lot of practice for that, so we'll need others to believe that we're together too." The more he spoke, the more insane the idea sounded, but he was already too deep here, might as well see how long before he drowned in it. "We'll start slow, just telling them, and then from there see how it goes. And after my parents have met you, maybe a couple more weeks, and then we can 'break up', as it were," he put air quotes around the word 'break up', "and we can pretend this whole thing never happened."
"Can I let Lufel know?"
"I don't think so. Like I said, making it believable to everyone is the goal, so the only people who can know is us." Shoki sighed again, muttering a couple of Italian curses under his breath. "I'm sorry, this is way too much to ask of you, especially when we barley know each other."
Nagisa didn't say anything, but was clearly deep in thought. Shoki just studied him, watching as Nagisa thought of the next thing to say. He really was quite pretty, dark red hair shining slightly in the afternoon light while dark crimson eyes studied the desk, framed by full lashes. On the most vain of levels, he was a good option for a fake boyfriend, looks-wise. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of silence, Nagisa spoke up.
"I'll do it."
"Thank yo- huh?"
"I'll do it," he repeated. "I don't want you to be in any more trouble than you're already in, and it's not even the first time I had to fake a relationship with someone, though that time I had to pretend to be her cousin." Nagisa said this so matter-of-factly that Shoki could only stare for a second.
"But, don't you have a girlfriend? Won't she be mad?"
"Nope, I've never had a girlfriend," Nagisa shook his head, "I spent Valentine's about as single as you can be, so you don't have to worry about that." Shoki couldn't believe that girls weren't absolutely falling over themselves to confess to Nagisa, but that did make this much, much easier.
"Alright," Shoki nodded. "Well, I'm not sure when we're going to tell the team, but-"
"Tell the team what?" A sudden, third voice, and the sound of wings ruffling made Shoki's head snap around. Oh, Lufel had woken up, and now he had flown down from Nagisa's room to the living room, hopping up onto the table. He wasn't expecting to start the performance this early, before any rehersals, but an actor always had to be ready to improvise. And Nagisa seemed to know this too, taking Shoki's hand into his.
"That we just started dating," Nagisa said. Shoki looked away, both to play the bashful new lover and to avoid eye contact with Lufel, as the obvious reaction to that news happened.
Ooh I love it! Lufel has the most comedic of timings, doesn't he?? Haha
And I see you continued on from my part, more or less? Thank you! If we continue like that we'll all end up co-writing a whole drabble series 😂😂 this is 3/3 by now, lol
I really like the big bro little bro exchange between Joker and Yu in PQ2 especially with Inaba Ren because it then becomes, “Care for me like you do your beloved cousin,”and Yu agrees in a heartbeat.
He’s deliberately echoing Nanako in that interpretation. (Like to think Yu understands and cheerfully agrees anyway.)
inaba Ren is such a delightful interpretation anyways because you can have him experience the horrors of persona as a child only for him to later go :D oh i see! once he gets arsene, lol
you gotta love flower symbolism haha. now i wanna look into victorian flower symbolisms again, its one of my favorite topics!
See, that's Exactly my interpretation of it! Arsene fucked up Yaldy's plan and so Yaldy was like: >:[ okay you're getting fused!!! only for Arsene to come back in the Casino palace!
Re: Shiho: Yess!! I love how proud of Shiho Ren is, and how supportive he is of Ann and Shiho throughout the confidant (also sorry if i answered this one already, i forgot to delete the last bactch of asks from my inbox so it's awfully cluttered, lol.
The Confessions of Arsène Lupin Ren Amamyia. (He couldn’t not confess not with her being so brave and honest and thinking she alone was responsible for them being trapped there.) Gah I love this so much.
oooh yes, this part made me go absolutely feral! I love getting tidbits of Ren's thoughts about the whole incident! or just him generally talking!!
(on a sidenote, god do i love how Ren is sitting all cool there and then Nagisa with this I-don't-even-know-how-to-describe pose i can best call the german slap-on-the-knees-aight-we're-going-then crossed with a schoolboy sitting in on a Big Boy Discussion, lol)
Re: the thieves' den screenshot: Ren is delightfully quirky and i love that :D
honestly, the Feelings i have in regards to Arsene's children (especially felicien, who was taken and more-or-less brainwashed by Balsamo) is just... nonexplicable in plain words. the melancholy/sadness/grief towards them (he sees them but can't really tell them who he is) is so hearbreaking that if I hadn't so violently latched onto Ren/Arsene as a ship I can just see how good a dad arsene would be to ren, and it would be just as wholesoem as chaotic!
Well I Am Now! it's always nice to get new tidbits of info about the Lupin novels, lol
I really liked it! It's been a while since I read Holmes, so I got caught off guard by how long his monologuing can get even though I should've known better, lol, and it's a pretty interesting mystery with really compelling characters, and I can really see the connection between Violet Hunter and Violet the phantom thief, especially with how alice as the name of the daughter immediately invokes fairy tale imagery!!
@violetidol I fear you have altered my brain chemistry with the Shoki/Nagisa fake dating au because I can't stop thinking about it.
I'm just picturing them being increasingly more real-coupley but still both deep in denial.
Like, Nagisa initiates hand holding at a time when they are ostensibly alone and unlikely to be walked in on and he just very seriously says it's "just in case". And Shoki doesn't question it at all, he just nods like "Yes of course, this makes perfect sense, you're so smart." And then they just hold hands for a loooong time and never question if it means anything more, they're just soooo dedicated to their ruse.
Shoki's laying in bed, sighing, phone at his ear while he waits for the line to connect, his other hand brushing through unruly locks, enjoying that he doesn't have to care about how he presents himself for once. He's tired, bone-weary, but for the first time in months, it's the jubiliant kind of a performance well-received, the tiredness of sore muscles and of a mind trying to remember all the new lines and cues, only the character he's supposed to be playing is both an encore and a first act. He's still in quiet disbelief.
He hasn't felt this light in ages, and he's aware that it's in part due to Ghino, whose presence feels something like the first ray of sunlight on morning dew, but also because of Nagisa and the whole Phantom Thieves team that took Shoki in like vengeful mother swans.
The line connects, his mother's gentle voice greeting him, and with a start he remembers that it's not afternoon but early morning for her. "Ciao, mamma," Shoki greets her, glancing to the side where the Phantom Famiglia manuscript is lying innocently on his nightstand. He thinks, surprisingly bubbly, that he really has to thank Hirano for insisting on continuing on with the school play and laughs at how unaware she is with how perfect the four Kokatsu Academy students actually are for the roles, Shun as the mother notwithstanding.
They talk a little, about nothings and her neighbors and the cat that keeps demanding fish from her, before his mother remarks that he seems in a surprisingly good mood, especially compared to their past calls, most of which were wrought with a somber mood. Shoki hums, because she's not wrong. "Eh, sì. Volevo dirti… ho conosciuto qualcuno, qui."
His mother makes a surprised noise, suddenly much more invested in what he has to say, which. Fair, Shoki guesses; his work does make it difficult to find friends he can rely on, and he's been keeping even more to himself ever since his mother's left.
"Ah davvero? Raccontami."
Shoki flushes, tries to figure out how to explain the whole Phantom Thieves thing in abstract, before he settles on talking about Nagisa, because that was a safer venture. "Sì, è… davvero speciale. Molto gentile. Un’anima dolce, capisci? Penso che ti piacerebbe." After a moment, he tacks on that they're spending a lot of time together, which works as a nice addendum why he's busier than other times in the afternoons and evenings, so she doesn't call him whenever they're in the Metaverse.
She hums, before laughing, and he can hear her smile in her voice when she speaks next, and Shoki really misses her something fierce. "Amore, sono così felice per te! Finalmente! È importante avere qualcuno accanto che ti tratti bene."
"Sì, sì, certo—"
He's interrupted by her continuing, still strangely elated, and Shoki wonders if she's truly been so worried about him for these past months, because telling her that he's got a friend never got such a strong reaction in the past. "Devi portarlo a casa prima o poi; voglio conoscerlo, Shoki!"
Meeting each other? It would be nice to introduce his new friends to his mother when she visits Tokyo, all things considered; Shoki really misses her, and the other thieves really are quickly becoming a family to him (or even better: a phantom family. Ha. Shoki will never not get over how funny that coincidence is).
"…sì, magari."
They hang up shortly after, and Shoki hums, lets himself enjoy the just laying in bed for a moment longer before he has to get up and change, because Riko and Nagisa planned a team run in Mementos so that Shoki can be introduced to the common layer of consciousness of Tokyo or whatever Mementos is supposed to be. He closes his eyes for a moment, replaying the phone call, enjoying how his core seems to simply be… warm…
Shoki jumps up from the bed, staring at nothing, and the warmth is disturbed like a screeching record when his mothers words really sink in, his brain too tired to fully parse funky linguistic nuances between Italian and Japanese, before Shoki groans, because while his intent was to introduce Nagisa like the incredible wonderful friend that he was to Shoki, he's given his mother a best of Nagisa Kamishiro's qualities list. A gentle soul, someone really special, someone Shoki spends his time with and his mother would like—
"Oh, merda. She thinks he's my boyfriend."
He finds her number again and redials, because he's gotta clear things up, even if she's sounded so happy over the phone for his behalf.
Shoki waits.
Shoki waits some more. The warmth is tentatively seeping back into his bones and he sends a stray thought of grazie-thisfeelsgreat-talklater? into Ghino's direction, before staring at his phone, his mother unreachable, before a hysteric thought settles in his mind that she's probably already talking to her friends and neighbours and told his father, which means that… well.
Shoki's already mentioned to Nagisa that he and the others could do with some more acting lessons.
It seems Nagisa will get the full crash-course for free with an audience of noisy aunties and neighbors and Shoki's mother.
I am,, not dead! Just super busy and also Tomodachi Life has just taken over my life, lol. Asks will be answered this weekend! And y'all will be getting a sneak peek at my Timeloop Nagisa fic because that one's like, 2/3 done, maybe? Unless I get more ideas to torture Nagisa (rip)
Chapters: 2/3
Fandom: Persona 5
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Arsene/Persona 5 Protagonist, Arsene/Kurusu Akira, Amamiya Ren/Arsene (Persona Series), Arsene & Phantom Thieves of Hearts, Arsene & Twitter
Characters: Arsene (Persona Series), Hasegawa Akane, Sakura Futaba (Persona Series), Mishima Yuuki, Assorted orher p5 people, Amamiya Ren (Persona Series), Cameos from Other Fandoms - Character
Additional Tags: Social Media, Group Chats, Chatting & Messaging, Everyone Is Gay, Arsene Is A Menace, Banter, Humor, Fluff, Metafiction
Series: Part 7 of You Captured my Soul
Summary:
AaAaAaA @potterybill
Do I see me a fellow queer?
Arsene Lupin @pillageroftwilight
News just in: Maurice Leblanc's literary figure Arsene Lupin, who spends a whole book trying to impress a pretty man, is bisexual!
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Arsene Lupin @pillageroftwilight
or something of the sort, at least.
Thieves? Trivago. @phantomlady2.0
why do you know how to m e m e?
Arsene Lupin @pillageroftwilight
phantomlady2.0 I do spend my time around Joker, though I admit that I cannot imagine Valjean doing this.
I love how he words this. “I don’t but some do.” Also he knows he hates it.
hiii I'm back from being sick, rip. anyways: re: the two screenshots: it's a very fine line between "haha you jest" and "oh you think you're so smart" for Akechi in the collab event, lol. and I've noticed the hearts on the upgrade screen, so I'm honestly thinking that the hearts missing in the art is probably only oversight or so (kinda how nagisa's model has black pupils but most of his artwork has white ones)
that's cool! and i'm a big fan of ann liking ren because he's not a creep towards her, even if her whole confidant gives me wlw dynamics with her and shiho in the end, haha. but yeah, after having to put up with kamoshida someone like ren must've been such a breath of fresh air!
oh i agree, absolutely! the fact that arsene comes back automatically if you don't have him in your party anymore after the casino heist (or something., my memory is jiffy) also adds nicely to that theory, for me!)
ren and mona have this perfect balance of "he's younger so i must protect him", which is only slighly hindered by the fact that mona is like, a 7 kg heavy cat and can be flung against a wall very easily. but he does his best!
hm. now i want a thieves den style interaction between the wildcards just exchanging recipes (i know ren and shun talk about recipes. give me everyone else as well! with custom animations, haha)
eeeh, i think it's kinda a stretch, there's better symbolisms that fit lupin than the bluebird, to be honest.
good question! and i honestly don't know, lol. depending on how showy he approaches her makes her enjoy his company or be annoyed by him (tho in my own post-canon au shenanigans and whatnots, she's grudingly impressed by him even if he's Too Much. I'd like to think. kind of a slow-burn friendship!
haha i can't believe you captured my soul is turning five today oh god
the series isn't dead!! my perfectionism just has me stuck like nothing else ugh. and also life happened, that too. have a funny little anniversary illustration that's just slightly rushed, and there's a fun little three-part noncanon side story being uploaded on ao3 over the next hanful of days! I'll link it here either later today or tomorrow once I'm at my computer hehe. let's just say Arsene got his hands on the internet :D
hi hi, OP, I was curious if you would ever share the full JokaWon pic that you made for your DS back in January? 👀 I would LOVE to have that as my wallpaper!! Totally ok if you’re not comfy sharing it, though! Thanks either way for your time, and long live JokaWon! 🖤❤️
oh god, wow, i kinda forgot about this. so I never actually finished any illustration of my own for the 3ds theme (i initially tested it and it just kept crashing whenever i tried to import audio), and i think i mentioned that i used fanart for the top screen wallpaper? anyway i used fanart for that. I found it on danbooru, and rudimentary search jielded no result as to who actually did it, rip, but it's like, on the second to last page if you type in nagisa's name if you want to find it for yourself!
if i however did mention that i downloaded the art academy game and did art on the 3ds (honestly i can't remember, i know i planned on mentioning it!), here's the art, lol!
the quality's obviously crusty as hell, but hey, i drew it on my 3ds, so i'm decently proud of it, haha
You ever think about how Ann’s feelings towards both Kamoshida and Ren when she meets Ren is reflected in this part of L'amour est un oiseau rebelle?
L'un parle bien, l'autre se tait;
Et c'est l'autre que je préfère,
Il n'a rien dit, mais il me plaît.
One speaks well , the other’s silent;
And it’s the silent one that I prefer,
He didn’t say anything, but he pleases me.
(I think it still works if you don’t ship them.
And it feels a bit like a joke on Ren being a silent protag.)
re: the carmen song: oh I agree, that's a really fitting lyric! i wonder if it's a funny coincidence or not, considering the phantom thieves mirror their persona in experience very loosely.
honestly, they'd probably start up a cooking club at one point or another, haha. that's kinda a cute thought, that arsene doesn't bring experiences or tall tales but recipes of his adventures with the other wildcards back to Ren, it's very domestic!
yep! that's why i really love Kotone interacting with the Thieves, she brings a levity to them they're kinda lacking by that point in time, especially Ren
personally, I always read it as 'yaldabaoth created arsene specifically for ren' because I'm a firm believer that yaldy manipulated akechi by giving/gifting him loki, and ren is another manipulated chess piece to a point (why else would arsene be visible in shibuya and sorta-slow down time before ren summons him in the palace if not because yaldy planted him as a test), and because yaldy is narcissistic like that, arsene shares the same shape language as yaldy and the shadows, but the part about satanael makes sense too, considering how, like you said, the flavor text for arsene explicitly calls him 'based off of'
you know, in my mind there's a hamster wheel that goes *AU AU AU AU* and it has latched onto this silly.
i put my money on lufel, to be honest. he's already got the sharp talons and he has a sky advantage.
also dog claws aren't actually that sharp, poor mona.
Love it when Joker main seven thieves show how much they know and understand him. Makes me kinda feral . Same when Confidants reveal they know he’s Joker because of the Mementos’ missions he did on their behalf to a lesser extent. (Also love it when Shiho does it and his boss at the flower shop if you do the Mementos’ mission that’s unlocked by working at her shop a couple of times as well but those also have different vibes to me.)
Re: Nanako: did i answer this already? I genuinely cannot remember. Nanako will become the most loved little sister in the world if Yu and Arsene would team up, lol. I honestly think it would be funnier if Arsene starts off genuinely annoyed at Teddie's bear-isms before growing fond of it and hiding it, but just... playing more and more into the wordplay until he got a routine.
As for sharing recipes... isn't Yu already a good cook? Though i can see them try and fail to teach the girls the simplest of recipes...
Re: the Copper Beeches: I started it! I'm like ten pages in, rip, my attention wasn't really on it, but i plan on finishing it this weekend :)
I guess I'm going backwards with this, so the headcanon is next! that's a really cute idea, actually; my ideas usually go along the line of 'shadows that had been persona before seek out other wildcards to lend them their abilities to help' because of how curious shadows generally are portrayed (when they're not dangeous, at least--)
I think you mean labyrinth as a general catch-all term for the metaverse? because i initially thought of pq2 and p5t at first, and how ren is generally much more lighthearted in those than in canon p5, but it does apply in general as well, yeah! (also,, cannot forget Ren just going along with the second jail's fantasy novel tropes in Strikers, my favorite Metaverse Ren Moment of all times)
I really love the juxtaposition of portraying satanael (an aspect of satan/lucifer, the devil) as his more angelic origin (an aspect of samael/lucifer, a seraph) with all of the design elements incorporating both into him, with that perfect little french flair. i love angel imagery in general (on that note, did you notice how similar arsene's overall shape-language to the overworld shadows on the path to fighting yaldabaoth are?? with the mask-for-face and vague triangular shape, It Keeps Nagging At My Brain. ahem. i got pictures on my switch somewhere...)
satanael does strike me as the quiet but has profound things to say person, and as someone secretly proud of whatever stand against authority you might make, big or small.
also, yeah! robin hood being akechi's feelings towards the thieves as a whole/ren in general makes sense! especially because hereward is much more robin-hood coded than loki-coded, even though the third tier persona all are based on the first persona and loki is ostensibly akechi's first.
Arsene's Feelings radiating off of him whenever he's summoned by other wildcards in a "look at them! they're mine!! aren't they great??? isn't kidd great???!" is a very funny image, not gonna lie. he's like maes hughes about his thieves/their persona in the way maes is about his daughter. He Will talk about that time futaba and necronomicon misled six men into financial ruin at the drop of a hat and for six hours
I didn't know the flower shop boss finds out! I never worked there!! (lol)
but yeah, i love how his confidantes end up putting two and two together about him, it's so funny. he's actually shit at keeping his identity secret simply because he cares so much about others he goes in guns blazing to help (yoshida and kawakami are my favorites, haha).
In general i adore the friendship of the thieves, boy was strikers full of that, just,, such great interactions. everyone praising ren for cooking, calling him out for being silly, trusting him implicitly, aaaagh---
It’s also one of the couple times Joker isn’t soft and accommodating but firm and commanding with Violet in the whole event so far.(The other time being when she nearly runs through Cattle and Wonder with her sword.)
the event was super fun! violet is just such a wonderful character nothing bad will ever happen anything to
no but really, i also really love how brotherly/soft Joker's with her compared to literally any of the other thieves because she's not used to stuff, and also how Wonder kinda follows along once he gets used to Violet. hearing him being so stern/worried about her was really surprising, especially since he's not shown that much concern in canon royal i think (well. through text, i mean. i have a feeling that crossfates already singlehandedly is more often that Joker talked compared to the whole of royal and maybe even the anime, at least that's how it feels, lol.)
also the genius of having a dream related shadow being the antagonist of the first half of the event is just *chefs kiss*
ooh i knew that fact about the hat! mostly because i kept getting thrown off whenever i drew the mask-face and the hat both regarding the anatomy. I may draw arsene's anatomy off, but i draw it off full-well knowing that Its Not Like That (also, the stupid back of the vest being dark grey/black, i only noticed it wayy too late, ugh--)
Arsene generally looks smug, but you're absolutely correct in that this screenshot really gives off nyehehe vibes
