SENTENCE RENDERED.

Icon by https://x.com/Lemonz_Starr Header by https://x.com/hver_afro12/status/1895215631190139164 basic rp etiquette applies | mun 21+ | muse 26 | no minors pls | penned by Lew

[roninsae]

“I’ve made my choice regarding where my Justice leads.”

An independent take regarding a Phantom Thief Sae Niijima, codename Ronin, taken from the fic Hour of Judgement. P5/P5R, adored by Lew. (he/him) Threads may contain triggering content as is shown in source material.

A study in Repentance, Rage and Union, a woman looking to make her life her own again. Wearing a mask in the Metaverse, she will take her freedom back with a bloodied maw and a...more than reasonable amount of ferocity. A monster made by the SIU, now a Penitent Soul of her own choosing.

Mun 25, Caard!

[rpmemepalkia]

Project Hail Mary starters

from the 2026 film, requested by anonymous. Alter wording as needed to your heart's content. Some of these have been changed slightly for rp use.

"Why do I know that? Am I smart?"

"I can’t be the only person here. Right?"

"That’s the sun! There it is."

"(name), can you help me out? There we go!"

"I’m not sure it should come from me."

"We’re all gonna die!"

"You're forgetting something."

"I need your help."

"That was a long time ago."

"You heard about that, huh?"

"No one in your field wants anything to do with you because you refused to back down from a very unpopular view, and I can give you a chance to prove them all wrong."

"Well, joke’s on them because I don’t even care."

"You’re running away because you’re scared."

"I need you to come with us."

"Sorry, I didn't catch your name."

"I want you to tell me what they are, how they work."

"(name)'s really dying, isn't it?"

"Is all of this necessary?"

"It died. This is great news."

"Sorry if I overreacted in there."

"Thank you for your help. I’m glad you didn’t die."

"I need people who think they’re right when everyone else thinks they’re wrong."

"The world is counting on you."

"I’m not doing that."

"We don't. But I do."

"We don’t need a coupon. We’re the government."

"Why you saying 'Uh-oh'?"

"We're parents, (name)."

"I can't do this. I can't. I can't."

"Why on earth would you need that much (thing)?"

"For that, we need you, my friend."

"There are infinite possibilities for this to go wrong."

"Nothing about this is safe."

"First, I owe you three bottles of vodka."

"You deserve much more than this."

"Seems like something we should talk about."

"Well, I guess there’s egg on both our faces, huh, (name)?"

"We would need years for that, and we have months."

"I’m wrong about everything and everything’s wrong."

"You’re a long way from home. I'm a long way from home too."

"You scared me when you went (imitates screaming)"

"I don’t have one of these. I love it! Thank you."

"I still don’t think I can do it, though. Sorry. It’s just, uh if I’m wrong, I’m really wrong."

"You need to solve it. I need to solve it."

"If we’re gonna save our planets, we have to learn how to communicate."

"I’m really excited to be working with you on this. Fired up. Sorry I'm talking so much. It's just, I haven't been around someone in a long time.

"That’s really interesting. That sounds like something we can unpack that tomorrow."

"This is where the science happens."

"There’s no way you can hear me right now."

"The beach is always changing. You could go to the same spot every day, you’re always looking at a different beach."

"I miss the (thing). What about you, (name)? What do you miss most about home?"

"You don’t sing, huh?"

"You're very mysterious."

"You believe in God?"

"Just stop your crying; it'll be alright."

"I got to meet you. I got to do all this amazing stuff. I’m good. I’ve made peace with it."

"I didn’t mean any of that. That’s just something you say."

"Can you take a compliment please?"

"I’m not worried. Are you worried?"

"I don’t think there is gonna be a later."

"I’m not ready. I don’t have any training."

"I’m not heroic in any way. I cannot do this."

"No pressure but we did make a deal.*

"I understand the stakes. I do. But I don’t have it in me. My mind is made up."

"This may seem like me betraying you, but it’s actually me believing in you."

"Don’t make this harder, please."

"I can’t do both. I can go home or I can save (name)."

"Why you always gotta be so early?"

[evelicious]

THE   BODY   IS   MANGLED   .   FLESH   TORN   ASUNDER   &   NEAR   UNRECOGNISABLE   .   WHAT   WAS   ONCE   A   MAN   DANGLES   LIMPLY   WITHIN   THE   GRASP   OF   EVELYNN'S   LASHERS   .               a   morbid   sight   indeed   for   anyone   unlucky   enough   to   stumble   upon   her   in   this   dark   ,   dank   alleyway   .   so   many   people   like   to   throw   around   their   moral   compass   …   they   try   to   say   ‘   he   didn't   deserve   it   '   —   evelynn   begged   to   differ   .               she   will   be     JUDGE   .   JURY   &   EXECUTIONER   .         OPEN !

[roninsae]

Finally.

FINALLY.

Evidence. A trail, a body, a. Far too much viscera for just one person, Sae's seen too many people dead in her line of work to know the particulars of what a body holds. What a person exists as, when life leaves them and their internals cease to be a system and instead become objects to examine, matters to determine guilt and innocence.

But these have been people she's examined from an emotional distance. This...this is too close. If being a detective and lawyer was dangerous, this is practically suicidal. She may as well have leapt into the maw of the night and let it consume her, for all the risk that crossing Evelynn Demonias entails.

Homo homini lupus est.

Man is as a wolf to man.

People are full of savage, violent cruelty, if driven hard enough. Perhaps Evelynn is much more human than she'd like to admit. Or perhaps humans are far too much like monsters than they'd like to admit.

Not important. Right now, all Sae needs is photographic evidence, and she can get Evelynn on the ropes. Then will come the matter of dancing with the devil that was the Justice system...but that dance, Sae knows. When to flatter, when to taunt, when to threaten and when to command.

And then, their cloak and dagger soiree will be over. Perhaps Evelynn is Sae's Crow. Someone who appears decent, but hides their monstrousness.

Who she is inextricably drawn to.

[roninsae]

"Happy Pride! Remember that the fascists will kill us all equally, so fuck them. Be gay. Do crime, but. You know what I mean."

...

"Anyway if you all want me I'm going to kiss Tae on the face-"

[roninsae]

Closed starter for @pocket-sized-lawyer! Not guilty.

The verdict echoes throughout Sae's head from the court case she oversaw.

Not guilty.

A member of the Yakuza, a felon with a snide look, who she knows was there for that street brawl. Who she knows shed blood. A protection racket turned ugly, a calculated show of force that didn't account for that pesky human element, violence-

Not guilty.

And. And somehow, he had walked free. Witness tampering from the prosecution called out, CCTV footage thrown out due to doctoring, all those dirty tricks the 99.8% use, and still, he walked. If the her of a month ago had seen this, she'd have derided the prosecution for being a failure and moved on.

If it was her as the prosecution back then, she'd have had a mental breakdown. Failure wasn't an option, and success brought her one step closer to making reforms…

Still, she isn't angry that her "side" lost. Her banner is that of the Thieves, beneath her pea-cocked allegiance to the SIU.

Not. Guilty.

She's angry, because she knows that the defendant will walk. Without a doubt. And it's not because of anything that he's done, far from it. The only smart move he's made is hiring an excellent defence attorney. Who knows the tricks of the prosecution, and can work around them.

Her goal, after the SIU burns down.

Not. Guilty.

The same man who's office doorway, she has just roughly tore open. Door slamming into the wall, her eyes blazing with anger at this sheer injustice that she's done the likes of-

"Itsuawari."

[roninsae]

Again, dodging is not in their modus operandi. No, such a thing is for more agile and dainty fighters. Your ballet dancers, your Spiders, even that two-faced traitor.

No, dodging is for rogues. She's more of a berserker, who calculates the risk beforehand...and then reaps her toll in wounds.

So instead, she just tanks the hit. Not entirely just to the face though, the mass of Symbiotic chaos lurches forward to take that burst of bone and fire with a snarl and both arrows positioned to mitigate at least some of the damage. Bone fragments from spear meeting guard flay her cheeks into ribbons of loosely tied meat, revealing naught but rapidly regenerating matter and far too many teeth behind her molars, shark-like in their sharpness and formation.

However, shotgun blasts have more than pellets behind them, they have concussive force! With the BLAM! of both barrels, Yoritomo's sent backward with a barked out command of- "Gear!" being her response as that manifestation splats into her outfit before being absorbed.

And the deep, dark chuckle of that crimson presence that lurks in her every cell happily obeying echoes from inside her mind. Symbiotic tendrils writhe underneath her sleeves as her hands exit from her pockets, flesh melding to tendril to make each digit a cruel, sharp talon. She is carefully wielded brutality. She is mercilessness for the wicked.

For ronin, by definition, have no master.

"Come on!" She roars, somewhere between a laugh and an offended scoff. Her face is melded together and eyes in that classic Symbiote look, red all over. It seems she's done merely gauging dear Sovereign's reaction. "You wanted my approval for so long, EARN IT!"

No defense. Just offense, charging forward into the shotgun's area of effectiveness with nothing but dauntlessness in her freshly forged heart. Her hands are clenched in fists, and the blood in her ears is pounding nicely. This is freedom. From fear, from Envy, from cursed Acedia. Yes...

"Here and now, make me proud to call you my sibling! I hurt you, and I can't apologise enough, now make me bleed for it!"

Her voice is somewhere between crazed fanatic, and proud elder. If Sae has reached a form of acceptance and resolve through becoming Ronin, becoming a Dyad, it is one that is unhinged and monstrous.

[altered-personas]

The damage done to her sister should've made her wince. She was trying to save her after all, not kill her. But she is done holding back, done worrying about hurting her. Sae wants a fight, and she's damn well getting one.

"I care not for your approval, sisssster!!" Sovereign snarls. "We give ourselves all the approval we need now!! We're no longer slaves to others' expectations! Not even yours!!"

The engine of the bike roars like a monster unleashed as she races towards Sae attempting to ram her with it, the whole vehicle ignited with nuclear fire. But that wasn't enough, oh no, so just before impact, she'd leap from the bike and over Ronin, flipping around to point the shotgun at her for another midair blast.

'That's it, just keeping wasting your energy.' Makoto thought. 'The sooner we wear you out, the sooner I can talk some sense into you.'

Anat meanwhile saw weakness in the Dyad's words, and it was one she was keen to exploit.

"Is that all this is? Some sick form of punishment for your past mistakes??"

Sovereign landed on her feet, reforming the shotgun back into her arm. Those two shots were all she had the ammo for, but that didn't mean she was out of weapons, as Sae would no doubt discover should she continue her assault.

"You think more punishment will change what you've done!? As if us torturing you and turning you into this wasn't punishment enough!"

'Anat, what are you doing??'

Trying to talk some sense into her. What do you think I'm doing? Don't you trust me??

'Not when it comes to this!'

Fine then! You take the mic!

Sovereign removes her mask again, the suit peeling away and sinking down into her scarf.

"Sae, I forgive you for the way you treated me. You were just trying to look out for me the only way you knew how! I know you never meant to hurt me!"

"B-but I... I did hurt you! I'm the one who deserves to be punished!! I'm the one who deserves to bleed!!"

She was speaking from the heart here. She still felt guilty over that night, never truly finding it in her to forgive herself. But a small part of her hoped this would get Sae to see reason, even if only for a moment. If there was any time to reach out to her it was now.

She just hoped her sister would take it.

[roninsae]

She's got some of it wrong. Wrong, wrong, WRONG. Punishment? No, this is freedom! To live without distortion, to break ones shackles. This is what it means to be free. The chains of society had wrapped tightly around her neck and wrists...and she had bitten through them with bloody teeth.

"Bullshit!" Yoritomo hisses in return. "You're like everyone else. We all want approval at the end of the day, we all crave for what we lack!"

Simple parlor tricks only work the once, Sovereign. Already, her eyes track the shot and how the two aim, straight for center of mass. But you have to take the head off monsters. And what else was she, but a monster that didn't want to serve the state anymore?

No longer human, that is true. It's especially true given how she seems to just tank the second blast. Her chest concaving with impact, and then her hands spitting out the fragments back at them like stones slung from a catapult. No damage. If she has more weapons for range, she'll have to use them, lest she risk getting up close for a dance with the devil.

"Tch."

"She's grown so much..."

"Still so far to come, though."

"I've not known you to doubt."

"Doubt? No. No, I simply state the shackles she still has."

"Punishment!?" The more honestly monstrous of the two roars. "Sovereign, I am grateful for that night! You freed me and her, you made us whole!"

Fusion and adaptation not as desperate bargains, but as ascension. Rising beyond the station of what law could provide, humanity could provide. The only way to ensure that people get their fair share, is to break the jaws of those who rig the rules. A part of her feels that she deserved worse than a night of horror.

It demands a life of it.

"My intent didn't matter! It doesn't matter! A wound is a wound and what I did is monstrous! I hurt you, over and over, while you trusted me with your life! I deserved that night what I've done. And I. I don't know how to help with that weight."

In the strangest sense, Makoto's words have struck true, and Sae is offering that forgiveness that she hungers for.

"But I know how to help with what you've got. I know what this kind of bond does to you, and how you're struggling."

Both of them did.

"Let us help. Spider can't take you going all-out. But we can."

There's softness, acceptance, and madness in the duo's voice. All in equal measure.

"Work out your frustrations with me...and let us find out just how far you've come."

[roninsae]

“You know, a heart can be broken, but it keeps on beating, just the same.”

"You? Lecturing me? On heartbreak?"

...Perhaps the supposed 'Mad Dog of Shimano' isn't that far off an authority on the subject. How many changes of the guard has been through? How many people has he lost? His line of work, diametrically opposed to law, is one laden with blood. One of chaos rather than the law's order.

On paper.

However, if you look beneath the thin veneer of respectability that the police hide under...they aren't quite so different. An officer is an agent, an enforcer, a hired gun to do what the state wishes. Each prosecutor is a sword sharpened to cut down who has found themselves in the sights of the government. Whoever is decided to be guilty beforehand pays, and the jailors collect. An extortion racket.

Ignorant, sycophantic rules.

And those were the rules she upheld with her divided heart, once.

"Don't presume that we're on equal ground regarding this, Majima. You don't know what I've been through, and I've read enough dossiers about your...exploits. We do not live similar lives." She snarls out, defensive venom employed to mask his keening words.

Because there's enough similarities that he'd get it. What it takes to break someone. What it feels like to shatter.

"Dad would have loved him." The thought flits across her mind. "An honest criminal, same as Joker."

Weren't they just two rabid dogs, barking at whoever tried to hurt them?

"It does." The words tumble out of her mouth with remorse dripping from each syllable. "The heart breaks. A person breaks. And they keep going, because they don't know anything else."

[ohmywardens-blog]

PSA:

    if you play ANY sort of villainous character - from a pick-pocket to a full-scale serial killer - and i follow you, please know that i’ve come into this FULL WELL what i’m signing up for. i don’t expect you to soften your character for me, i’m not going to complain when they aren’t nice to my characters, and i honestly probably love watching them do what they do. not all characters are going to be the “good guys”, or the type of villain that can be redeemed. not everyone has a tragic backstory that makes them do the things they do - some people enjoy it, others just do it because they can, and for some it’s all they know. yes, there are villains with a soft spot or two - this doesn’t mean they need to change everything. our characters become friends/lovers even though my character is a “good guy”? you keep doin’ you. keep stealing those purses, killing those people, burning those villages to the ground. 

        tl;dr - I DIDN’T FOLLOW YOU BECAUSE I WANTED SOMETHING SOFT AND EASY - you keep bein’ a villain, babe, cause you’re  just as excellent as the heroes.

[gloomglimmer]

say some nice things in the tags about the person you reblogged this from.

[roninsae]

✉ - push my muse back down when they try to get out of bed (perhaps involving illness, injury, or sleep deprivation) (from her sis, Makoto :3)

"I'm fine!" The eldest Niijima insists, while running a temperature that is decidedly NOT fine. "I can get to work, you're exaggerating."

No. No she is not. Stupidly, Sae's managed to catch a fierce fever. Maybe it was being caught in the rain that one time. Maybe it was getting kissed by Tae after she had finished handling some samples. Or maybe it was waiting for Kawakami while it was cold in the visitor's room in Shujin, picking her up for date night.

It was probably that one time she had tore out a Collective Shadow's throat with her teeth after it had pinned her arms and Yoritomo was otherwise occupied.

"...Stupid flu." She spits out, almost petulant with how she's been forced to bed. Palaces, her workplace, Phantom Thievery, gay panic, and this is what keeps her down?

How the mighty fall.

[justmemethings]

‘Why aren’t we interacting?’

😿 - I’m too shy to reach out

😥 - I’m a little intimidated by your writing length / style / formatting

😵 - I don’t know how to approach you

⌛️ -  You seem really busy

👥 - I don’t know which of my muses you’re interested in

📝 - It would help if you could fill my interest checker!

❓ - I’m not familiar with any of your current muses

📩 - I’ve sent you asks / written you starters, but you never replied to them

📤 - We have threads, and I’ve been waiting on your replies

💬 - I have a plot in mind for us, but I haven’t found the right way/time to reach out

💞 - I ship our muses, but I don’t know if you’re interested

✒️ - I usually interact through memes / open starters and you don’t post a lot of them

🥇 - You followed me first and I’m waiting for you to make the first move

🥰 - I’m following you because I love your writing and content and I just want to read your stuff

➕ - Other reason(s) -sender specifies-

[electricea]

ryuji is looking at your muse like this. what did they do?

[roninsae]

"Yes. That is what I have to go through on a daily basis at work. If I had 100 yen for every rude comment directed towards me, I wouldn't need to be here."

[shiromemes]

On or Off anon, Send me your favorite moments or quotes from any of my threads.

Spread a little positivity! Let people know you love their writing!

[formerlyluckymanticore]

Reblog if you will never. Ever. Use AI in your writing.

[roninsae]

FINE! If it requires her to beat the Palace Ruler to submission via attrition, then so be it! She hasn't been knocked back, so the offensive will continue. Double-time, striking with her fists and her legs and her Persona's blade, despite how she can feel exhaustion start its fell work.

"And who decided that!? You? You, who I am, who spent three years-"

Her voice reaches a feverish pitch. No-one in her day life has heard her like this, unhinged and unrestrained in her diction.

"Pursuing Justice, trying to change the system from within-"

One cannot tell if she is about to break into laughter, screaming, or sobbing.

Perhaps it is all three.

"Enduring all the cruelty that we were beholden to, what we dealt out, rationalising it for some greater good!"

It doesn't matter what one it ends in, lightning rebuttal coursing through her veins, sent from Shadow to self.

"And it all meant nothing! All of it! All we have to show for it is the blood on our hands!"

If Makoto could see the kind of feral beast that Sae's become, baying for her own blood in this dark place. She's not a violent person, really...but the thing she knows the most is how to bite.

"IT ALL MEANT NOTHING!" She howls, eyes frenzied and blood trailing from her bit lip.

[caramialunaestelle]

The Leviathan stayed silent as Sae wailed on her, desperately trying to beat her with her physical attacks. Each attack was met with an elemental counterattack, a shock of lightning, a nuclear blast, a flood of ice. She hit Sae and her Persona with everything she had, and the crowd was loving it.

"And yet here you are, forcing yourself to fight within an inch of your pathetic life," She cooed. "We're both dying in this battle. You'll leave poor Makoto all alone."

Her words were true. While Sae did her best to beat her down, the Shadow was also slowly chipping away at Sae's strength. If they kept going like this, neither would win.

"You can save yourself from this terrible fate," She continued. "Just embrace me. Join me again. Embrace your true desire and lean into your envy again."

She flickered back into the seductive temptress, arms open wide as if to call her over for a warm, protective hug. "You know you cannot win, Sae. Simply embrace me, and we can enact our justice as one."

[roninsae]

Of course they were loving the spectacle of red on gold, her screams of rage and the Shadow's retorts. Everyone loves a competition, deep down. This is just a more rabid form of clashing wills. Self-conflict, and burning anger beyond compare. Beyond restraint.

"...I'd..."

Of course they delight to an intruder's retaliation, struck back for perceived insolence. A rebel against the state, struck fiercely. But this masterless blade has come too far, to fail here.

"Rather..."

Even with her body ravaged with wounds, pain flaring...she won't take the deal.

"Die."

She's given up so much to the state already. Not just her life, but how many others? How many people has she cut down in the name of the courthouse? How many lives has she irrevocably ruined with Envy in the shotgun seat? More than one person can count.

One Shadow did. And it had taken her guilt, and broke her with it.

"Then sign back up, with you."

The cloaked brawlers steps are staggered as red stains her clothes and mask, but she is somehow, not done just yet. There's more fuel in the tank, the roiling storm in her heart full of rage and fury. If it takes her life to make up for what she's done...so be it. But Makoto would never forgive her. Not really. Sure, she may put up a brave face, and be all soft smiles, but agony laid beneath. Three years of absence, and a cold cold heart on her end.

All she had wanted was her friend back.

She had her. Incomplete. Far greater than the hollow arm of the state she once was, yet still incomplete. But Sae would be whole again. She made a promise.

And promises, she did anything she could to keep now. So much lost over the years.

Finally, the storm has decided on how to express itself.

And it's with a screaming charge forward.

[electricea]

[roninsae]

Damn it all. Damn the boy for being so damn resilient, and damn her for not being strong enough to take him down.

"The kid did good!" Her Persona, somewhat unhelpfully, chimed out. She can feel him in the forefront of her skull, sharpening his spear. "They won, yes, but we got admission! No-one lost, really."

The aggravating sensation of how the, as yet unanalysed healing effect of the beads, is only exacerbated by the knowledge that he's right. Far better than the splitting ache of guilt, or the harrowing emptiness of grief. Part of her imagines that this is how the people in her office feel when she shows them up.

Except many of them hated her, of course.

"...I yield. Joker." Beneath the bravado, the classic grandstanding she's learned to excel at...there's respect. Appreciation.

One Akira Kurusu has proven himself to her, and she has proven herself to them.

"Come on," Sae starts, clambering to her feet. "I'll drive you to Leblanc. I'd like to share the good news with Queen on my own. I owe her many things, but this comes first."

[phantomuheist]

"...Good." He was too tired to walk for long. He taught himself not to show any obvious signs of exhaustion unless it was the enemy's doing. This long battle was enough to tire him out of all his energy for the day. She did well. Really well. That should be enough for today.

"I appreciate it." A genuine smile curled on his features, phone taken out of his pocket to tap on the application. The familiar automated voice about thanking them and getting them back to reality spoke out. Black and red swirls invaded his vision and within a few seconds, they were in Shibuya near the underground station. It had gotten late.

Akira, now relieved with a slight headache, breathed out and looked at Sae with that same awkward smile, rubbing the back of his neck. "I hope this helped you out somehow. It definitely opened my eyes to see how capable you really are."

[roninsae]

Feeling her Shadow Arm disappear into nothing is never going to be. Normal. The closest approximation she has to the feeling is what a sword must feel like when it's sheathed, or how a cat feels when they retract their claws.

Not lesser, but. Calmed? The concept is not quite describable in her limited grasp on emotions, but. It's something she's had to get used to. After all, she's spent so long as a sword to be wielded by the state. Her soul in exchange for her financial safety, depending on performance and ruthlessness. Never enough, no matter how many heads she brought to the altar of Victory.

A fool's errand.

But this new path she's embarked on. The path of penance? It brings her joy as much as her failings have brought her sorrow. It's...different. Difficult, to clean her conscience, stained as it is.

"I had a good time." Sae smiles back. None of the feral unhingedness of Ronin is in her eyes. Not needed. "I take it I've passed the test?" She inquires, with no small amount of confidence in her voice. She's always put up a front of bravado in her line of work. This isn't much different, but much more honest.

How novel.