You may call me Yukino or Yuu, either one is fine! Also, you can use any pronouns, so don't worry.
Ā·RULESĀ·
[ Things I will NOT write: Incest, Nsfw, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, R#pe, Ships/pairings, and more if added. It makes me uncomfortable, so please follow the rule. ]
I won't be online a lot, since i'm quite busy with some stuff. Also, i will try to answer every single ask, but sometimes i get really tired or got my hands full, so i would usually forgot, so sorry for that!
Hiii hello I went down a rabbit role and now I made a guide of (almost) all the fonts used in the game, here's the link for the drive I put them all in:
bitable.
Ū¶Ūą§ your boyfriend is very bitable.
ā around 800 words, just domestic cuteness aggression. gender neutral reader.
āYouāve been staring at me for a while now,ā Dan Hengās voice is quiet and gentle as always, and itās accompanied with a slight smile and a soft fondness to his eyes when you look up to meet his gaze. He tilts his head, a small gesture to encourage you to speak. āWhatās on your mind?ā
When you shrug, he puts down the book he was reading to fully turn towards youāand you are sure he notices the way your eyes follow the gentle way he places his bookmark and closes it to preserve the spine before it is set aside to on the coffee table.
āSpeak, please,ā Dan Heng rolls his eyes fondly when you shake your head no. āIām quiet enough for the both of us already.ā
āItās nothing serious,ā you reassure once his brow furrows. āI just want to look at you.ā
He smiles. āIs that so?ā
āMm,ā you nod, admiring the way loose way his hair falls over his eyes, and the domesticity of him in his favorite worn-down tee. āYou just look pretty.ā
That makes his cheeks pinkācompliments always do that, staining him in a soft wash of color while taking his ability to meet your gaze (itās not that he canāt, but it flusters him so much he looks away to regain his composure, which only makes him all the more endearing). āIām not any different than normal.ā His voice trails off softly before he lets out a small sigh. āThank you, though.ā
āSo polite,ā you tease, just to be rewarded with a further darkening of the pink on the tips of his ears to a red. āCute,ā he stiffens a little when you croon that and move closer to him on the couch, nuzzling against his side. āSo, so cute.ā
Despite his shyness, he shifts his arm to let you move closer to him, cheek smushing against his chest while you beam up at him. Itās nice, to be surrounded by his mild cologne and feel his breathing beneath you, to have him let you twine your body with his until youāre all tangled.
Your attention slowly shifts to the arm around your shoulders, the lithe muscles that have gotten just a bit bigger ever since heās come back from Amphoreus, and the small mole just below the crook of his elbow. Heās pretty, heās always been achingly pretty, but thereās something about the slight tan, and the sprinkling of imperfections you can see this close, and the flex of the muscles as he mindlessly taps his fingers along the back of the couch that is captivating.
With a quick glance to himāand you are pleased to find his attention is not on your movements, eyes shut in the way he prefers in times like this, where itās easier for him to fall asleep, lulled into rest from the comfort of your warmth that combats the worst of his insomniaāyou turn your head and gently bite his arm, right by the mole.
He flinches a little from the sensation, arm twitching under you, though he makes no effort to move it from under you. āWhy are you biting me?ā
āLooked yummy,ā you muffle out before biting him again, just as gentle and playful, though this time you pick a spot on his bicep.
āIām not food, love,ā Dan Heng sighs, though, despite his words, he curls his arm up and towards you so the muscle flexes and his forearm meets you betterāhe knows you well, and he knows the way they flex is what catches your eye. It makes you giddy, the semi-headlock and the willingness to let you continue, though you stop biting to instead press small kisses to both marks. He turns you towards him gently, letting his arm fall back to the couch while you grin at him so hard your cheeks hurt.
He squints at you, looking at the light sparkling in your eyes and then the small indents left by your teeth on his skin. Suddenly, before you can ask if it hurt, Dan Heng leans close and gently nips your cheek. It doesnāt hurt, but it is a little uncomfortable, and you blink up at him quickly in your confusion. He snickers at that.
āNot so nice, is it?ā
You pout, a little petulant as you huff out, āyour arms are yummier than my cheeks.ā
Dan Heng pats your head gently. āIāll let you bite them another time. Letās just go to sleep, hm?ā
At the lightness in his tone, where you canāt tell if heās messing with you, you extend a pinky towards him. āPromise. Or Iām not moving.ā
He laughs and locks his pinky with yours. āI promise. You can bite them later.ā
Ū¶Ūą§ nyx's notes: bites him bites him bites him
In which you almost die of DEET poisoning, among other things (7615 words)
(ao3 link)
(part 1) (part 3)
(masterpost)
Okay, youāre notĀ literallyĀ running for the hills.
You feel someone grab at the back of your shirt, that almost trips you up. You simply go limp, and suddenly being faced with your entire weight, theyāre thrown off and they let go. You glimpse pink.
You would say that youāre running for the woods, or into the woods. Woods time. You love the woods. The woods are so great and awesome. Those look like pines. Your mind is abuzz. Maybe this is a weird side effect of a concussion that no one told you about before. Maybe itās all a dream. That would make sense.
An inopportune branch drags across your cheek.Ā Gah!Ā It stings with dirt and grime.Ā
Your run stutters to an awkward forward hop through the well trodden path and you cover the scratch with your hand. No one expects the Surprise Tree.Ā
Your face is wet. When in the hell did you find time to spill water on your face? Why donāt you remember that? Did the freaking⦠the morning dew from the leaves get everywhere? Is there even morning dew? You wipe it off. Your palm is red.
Holy shit your palm is red. HolyĀ shit,Ā youāre bleeding.Ā
āOver here!āĀ
You turn sharply toward the voice behind you. Sounds like the guy with fur pelt. Sounds like the Hero Of Twilight. Weird to listen to him talking.
No, no it doesnāt. It only sounds like him if you still donāt have any signal. You just need to find somewhere different and youāll get signal and youāll call someone and youāll go home and youāll tell your friends about what an adventure you had and youāll go back to your life exactly how it was before and nothing will have ever to change ever again. Yes.
Focus. Focus! The ground is barren dirt with the footsteps of many people long past. You weigh your odds: you, teenager of average physique, against nine guys, all strong enough to carry swords and wear real metal armor, along a linear path where your only tool is how fast you can run.Ā
The odds are not in your favor.Ā
You veer to the left, straight into the underbrush. You keep your hand over your face because you know that bleeding onto the ground makes you way easier to track. Youād say you have some basic knowledge of how that kind of stuff works. Woods stuff. Unless people can only track you that way if they have a dog. You didnāt see a dog. Oh, but Twilight Princess Link can transform into a dog.Ā
No! Anyway. Youāll have to find a place to stop. Youāre sure you have a bandaid or something in your bag.
Running through the underbrush makes you very aware of why people usually hack through this stuff with a knife. Youāve grazed several spiky plants at this point, and youāre sure that your calves are gonna be a whole mess of tiny scratches. You donāt even wanna think about all the bugs there could be, roaming around invisibly just at your feet. You left your dang DEET in your backpack. And not even that, itās hard to straight up watch for roots that poke out of the ground.
Youāre stopped suddenly and for no reason. No, wait, Your shoe caught on a root poking out of the ground. You knew it. You knew it would happen the whole time. You tilt forward and fall off a cliff to your death.Ā
Actually, itās more of a hill. A gently sloping hill on which you roll downward and you canāt gain your bearings at all. But it still hurts.Ā
āEgh- Ow- Ow- Ow- Ow-ā
After an hour (a minute), you finally crumple into a puddle of limbs and torso and head at the end of your fall. Your backpack collapses next to you. Thank god itās over.
You lie there on the ground for long enough to ponder how bad it would be to just not get up at all. Maybe it would be best to just let nature slowly reclaim you, and youāll die peacefully of hypothermia on a cold night and once again become one with the Earth and universe. Your death will happen eventually either way. Or something like that.
But no, instead you slowly push yourself upward from the rocky dirt with a few sparingly placed patches of grass so that youāre sitting. You take a breath afterward, that was a lot of effort. Too much effort. You need to get more in shape. You look up at the sky. At the clouds floating by, carefree. You frown.
Just where are you?Ā
LARPers aside, you literally have no idea where you are, and you have no way to get back home. You doubt anything those weird guys say, but the pounding in your head thatās been there since you woke up lends some credibility to their claims, because at least theyāre not lying about that.Ā
Youāre definitely concussed. But howād that even happen? All you really garnered from that was that āit was a miracle you survived,ā which doesnāt do anything except for make you anxious wondering about what the fuckĀ happened.Ā You have enough to worry about.
The decked out as fuck guyā okay. You have to call him something else. Itās a mouthful⦠or well, youāre not saying the words out loud- mind-ful? Yeah, thatās accurate. Your mind is full right now. Speaking of āmind-fulā, why would they even call mindfulness āmindfulnessā if itās about emptying your mind. Word sound opposite of what word mean. Youāre sure thereās a word for that as well. Thereās a word to everything. Information is so vast. Mindfulness is also, like, impossible to achieve, so who cares anyway. You find the breathing exercises to be kind of embarrassing.
What shall you call him? Big ears? No, they all haveā theyāre all wearing elf ear prosthetics. Hm. Maybe⦠big as fuck scar guy. Yeah, thatās easier.
Anyway. Big as fuck scar guy was about to- oh god, he was about toĀ tellĀ you what happened, wasnāt he? And you interrupted him! And made fun of his ears even though they are big and youāre right! You donāt even know if these guys are bad, itās not like they tried to do anything to hurt you while you were awake. One of them was like twelve, thirteen. How evil could he possibly be?
Very, actually. Very. Very evil. You know firsthand as someone who was twelve and also thirteen once upon a time. But that one didnāt seem particularly evil. Or even judgemental. He was just curious. All of them, they were all just curious, or cautious, or both. The same as you are. What if they were telling the truth?
Your sight starts to blur. This is so stupid. Whyād you even run? Whyād you have to be so emotional? Why couldnāt you just calmly sort it out like Linkā like big as fuck scar guy said? Why were you so mean to them? Why do you always mess things up like this? Whatās wrong with you?
With the back of your hand, you wipe the dirt off of your face. And also the blood off of your face. And also the- right. You should do something about that.
As soon as your backpack is in sight, you remember oh shit, your switch and your school computer!Ā
ā¦actually, who cares about your school computer. Itās not like itās any good.Ā
Wait, if itās damaged thenĀ youāreĀ the one that has to pay for it. Fuck!Ā
You shove your phone in your pocket. When you grab your backpack by the top, thereās a lot more resistance to it than you remember. It wasnāt this heavy before. Did those weird guys slip something in there? But why would they do that, who would slip something into someoneās backpack, why wouldnāt they just steal from it. Thereās valuable electronics in there. Unless itās because they⦠they slipped a bomb in there and planned on exploding you and⦠killing⦠you. No, no. No, thatās completely outside the realm of reality. If they did, you wouldāve exploded already. And they wouldnāt have chased after you. And it would have been heavy before you fell down the hill or took off or even woke up. Though it does make more sense than you being isekaiād or whatever.
Before you can think about any of that at all, you look a little closer and see-
What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck isĀ that.Ā What the fuck. What IS that???
There is a giant ass cyclops spider-crabā arenāt those the same thing? Giant ass arachnid. There is a giant ass cyclops arachnid looking CREATURE that has a hold of your bag now. Why in the fresh fucking fuck is it strong enough to pull your bag away from you? What does it need that strength for? What does it need your bag for?? It doesnāt even look like itās struggling!
The wise thing to do would be to run. But are you just gonna let it take your bag? Youād run if it was, like, a human. Or a coyote. Or a boar. Or a lion. Or a tiger. Or a bear. Oh my! Anyway you are not getting your shit jacked by aĀ bug.Ā That would be your lowest low. Even lower than going āmade you lookā and running away. Though, maybe thatās your highest high. You got nine people with it, thatās pretty impressive. Ha ha.Ā
You kick the bug. Your shoe collides with a hard shell. Ow.Ā
You yell at the bug, āGet off of my stuff, you fuckinā fiend!ā. Nothing happens. You donāt even know if it has ears, whyād you even do that.Ā
You stop standing and let it pull on both your bagās weight and your weight, insteadāĀ
You land on your butt. That worked a little too well. The giant ass cyclops looking Arachnid Freak of Nature flies off of your bag, landing on its back and wriggling its legs around. You take your bag back for the second time, today.
In what you can only describe as a miracle, it manages to flip itself back over. It looks at you with its big as fuck cyclops eye. Your video game mind tells you to punch it in that eye, thatās its weak spot. Seriously, why does it only have one eye. Animals usually have at least two, if any, because of depth perception and what not. Are there any animals that have just one?
This one does apparently because itās looking at you with it and oh god itās mad itās gonna attack you and you canāt defend yourself because youāre frozen in fear. Your emotions get the better of you yet again. Shit. Fuck emotions, all your homies hate emotions.
You flinch when it starts moving. It turns around and scuttles away into the wood into the bushes and the roots and the other insects.Ā
You watch it disappear into darkness. When itās quiet for a bit too long, like the anticipation before a jumpscare in a horror movie, you slowly lean backward.
ā¦
ā¦nothing⦠happens.
Nothing happens.Ā
Nothing happens!Ā
You pump your fists up into the air. Yes! You win! You are so cool! Letās fucking go! That was so awesome of you! You did something scary, and you didnāt die or fuck it up irrevocably! Yay!
You sling your backpack around to the front. Now, whereād you put your bandaids. Do you even have any? Oh, thank god, your switch is still fine. Your school computer is also fine. And your DEET! So many loose papers. Your folders arenāt even organized.Ā
The forest before you whispers. You still your celebration.
ā¦letās⦠go..?
First the forest whispers. Then it rustles. Then it shuffles, like the stampede of cats again. Did those guys find you? Oh, god. Youāll have a lot of things to explain.
Something very old in the back of your mind jerks awake, the hair on your skin stands up.
Look up look up lookĀ up!
You jump and throw yourself backward. There is a big fucking thing descending upon you. The air displaced from the big fucking thingās landing pushes you even further.
They do not find you. You wish they found you. You canāt believe you thought what you now know is comparatively a nothing arachnid was big. No. This is the Biggest. It stands on four legs instead of six instead of eight. Its exoskeleton is sharp, jagged, its teethā pincers. Its pincers look like they would hurt. Will hurt. The other ones, crawling forth from the trees, surround the biggest. Probably their leader or their queen or something. And you pissed it off. That little fucker ran off and told its mom on you.
The wise thing to do would be to run.Ā
Youāve never been able to think on your feet. Your brain likes to pluck possibilities at its leisure, which leaves you frozen sitting and thinking on the kitchen floor at one in the morning instead of doing any work for school or otherwise or even just going to bed in an attempt to salvage what little hours of sleep you have left. When you try to do this with not even half as much time, your instincts are always wrong.Ā
Your first instinct is to escape. So, so, maybe you shouldnāt do that? Maybe you should fight. Fight it. Punch it in its one big stupid eye and win.Ā
A click emerges deep from its throat, and then its mandibles split open and it lets out a terrible screech, spraying you with spittle that sizzles and eats through the fabric of your backpack. If you hadnāt swung it out in front of you, your stomach would beā
Nope. Running it is.
-
āOver here!ā
Link, the ranch hand, the Hero of Twilight, calls out to his traveling party.Ā
Or his friends. Or his companions. Or his brothers-in-arms, maybe. Itās hard to find a word to describe the kinship heās found with the heroes that come before him and those that come afterward. Maybe brothers-in-arms is the closest. Heās never had much of a blood family to speak of, so he isnāt one to know who to give the title to or what itās supposed to mean. But in the very least, he knows that ābrotherā feels right.Ā
He makes the familiar transformation from a Hylian to a wolf, a beast of darkness and shadow. While a wolf, even if his sight is greyer and duller, the air of the forest bites sharper, and he can see just as well with his nose. Heāll let that guide him.
He trots forward. First itās the kidās footprints that almost glow compared to the undisturbed foliage around them. Then, a trail of blood droplets paints the ground, though not many. The kidās not bleeding out in the very least. He cranes his neck upward, to see the culprit. An awkwardly placed tree branch. That would leave a nasty cut.Ā
Just up ahead, the trail they created turns to the left. He peers down the line of trees. There is a path of flattened plants and an absence of animals that dispersed in their presence. He follows it, knowing his brothers-in-arms are not far behind, knowing that they know who he is, and that heās not just a wolf going where he pleases.
He never really had a plan to tell everyone about it. He was sure that many among them would react with less than hospitality toward what dangles from his neck. Using dark magic to transform can drive people mad.Ā
He follows it until he comes to a hillside where the trees grow thinner because of the angle.
The footprints stop here.
Link sheds the skin of the wolf, and he comes out on the other side clutching the curse solidified. Itās a little less startling each time, it hurts a little less. Though it exacerbates the dull pain in his side. Heās beaten death. Nothing he canāt handle. He hears everyone else approach from behind.
āThey went that-a-ways,āĀ
He points with his thumb. Though their path is not nearly as easy to see now, the marks from where they clearly tumbled their way down the hill are obvious to anybody that knows what to look for.
The Hero of Winds frowns, squinting with the distance, looking into the area of woods thatās grey and desolate. The decay spirals outward. Evil has walked there, and it has taken life out of the land. āBut thatāsā¦āĀ
āA Gohma nest,ā Says the old man, with a grave expression that leaves no room for mirth, as heās had on more than usual these days.
The Hero of the Four Sword looks like he just appears behind him. He does this often. No oneās been able to figure out if this is a power of his he gained on his journey, or a skill he picked up somewhere, or just because of his⦠stature. āMore of the Shadowās minions?ā
āPresumably.ā The old man nods. āNo monsters outside of the Shadowās influence have thought to show themselves in this era, as of yet.ā Link feels his eyes on him. Again, heās beaten death. Nothing he canāt handle.Ā
The travelerās words sound like a wince under his breath, āLetās just hope it stays that wayā¦āĀ
āUgh,ā The sailor shivers, and he sticks his tongue out. āI feel bad for them. I hated fighting that thing,ā
The vet squints at their apparent destination. āTheyāre the one that decided to deceive us and run off right into the woods.ā
Link raises an eyebrow. āOh, and youād have a better reaction?ā
The chosen hero offers, āThey were probably pretty confused waking up to nine boys and men, honestly,ā
āTheyĀ wereĀ very disoriented when they woke up.ā The captain rests his hand on his chin. āThey wonāt be able to just walk away from that kind of injury,ā
āBut theyĀ did.āĀ The vet looks nothing less than affronted. Now this, this is a common expression for him to have on his face. āAm I the only one that doesnāt think thatās weird? Are we to assume that everything is just a coincidence, now? For what reason would they lead us away from the Shadow other than-ā
āVeteran,ā
He stops speaking at the voice of the Hero of Time.
āWhile your input has merit, itās unnecessary at this moment. We need to prioritize saving a person from danger over questioning their intent. Should they be innocent, would you rather have let them be killed?ā
The mild chatter of the party fizzles to a halt.Ā
The vet opens his mouth. He closes it. Looks away. He hunches, glaring at the ground as he drifts toward the traveler. Link hears him mumble something like āthatās not what I meantā¦ā.Ā
Funny hearing him talk like that, knowing what form he takes when faced with the magic of his curse.
The old man starts down the hill. Then the captain. then Link, the chosen hero, the vet, the traveler, smithy, the sailorā¦
āHup!ā
Then thereās the champion. A blur of blue and gold just gliding right past him and everyone else, feet planted on his shield. The sailor gapes.
āWhat??āĀ He says it from his chest, and it pokes a hole in the tension. His eyebrows are up high enough to crease his forehead.Ā
Link chuckles, āKeep makinā that face and itāll get stuck that way,ā
āBut- b-ā The sailorās head bobs between the Hero of the Wild, already entering the forest, and said captain. āyou canĀ doĀ that?!ā
āHeĀ can do that,ā The captain shuts down that idea quickly. Itās true that the last thing any of them need is everyone breaking their shields trying to surf. Though, Link was there when the champion tried to teach him. The captain wasnāt entirely successful.
And they wouldnāt have time to do that, anyways, because theyāve reached the end of the hill.Ā
The air of the woods before them is nothing less than dark and oppressive. The kind that puts weight on the chest, every muscle in the body coiling up to run, run, run. But the feeling is not unknown to any of them. Far from it.
Just a little up ahead on the trail is their very own champion, looking sternly down the end of his new sword on which a ghoma larvae is skewered. He lowers it, holding on with both hands, and he pushes the body off with his boot. He glances up at the group.
āSwordās good,ā He says, raising it up to prove that it is in fact not broken.Ā
Smithy eyes said sword. He has to appraise if itās actually fine or not, because the Hero of Wild has a way with the destruction of swords and bows and shields, even if theyāre newly made. Itās a talent at this point.
āMake sure it stays like that,ā He says with a smile in his voice.
The champion doesnāt get a chance to respond, because more gohma larvae crawl out of the wood-work. Literally.Ā
Link stretches the band of his slingshot, hitting the creature right in the eyeball. Itās stunned still. Thatās usually the weakness, when everything else is armored. Itās always either the eye or the back if he canāt just pummel it. He doesnāt this time, instead he just kicks it. It lets out a squeal. Its four little legs wriggle around rapidly, before it stops moving altogether.Ā
He hears the call of another, behind him. When he turns around, the old man is already cutting through it. The Hero of Twilight blinks. He- he surely had that. The old man knows he had that.
āItās on myĀ shield!ā
The sailor cries out, as he rotates his arm to shake it off.
āDonāt worry, Iāll-ā The captain cuts himself off, because now one latches on to his boot. The chosen hero spins in a wide circle to be rid of those swarming him, smithy grasps for the one on his back, the champion picks up the one crawling up the new sword and he throws it.Ā Ā Ā
The vet kicks away a larva that was intent on doing the same to him. He gives his attention to the Hero of Time, āThereās too many of them to fight, old man,ā
Said old man sighs. Even Link will agree that it sounds like a jab.Ā
But that kid isnāt wrong. It is, indeed, too much.Ā
āThis is true. We shall move ahead, instead of wasting time fighting an uphill battle.ā
Link rolls forward, and this sends anything that might have attached itself to him flying back where it came from. He comes out on the other side running.Ā
āIāll catch up to you guys!ā
The traveler yells. Link feels the heat and smells the stench of burned bug before he cranes his neck to see it. When he does, the traveler is shooting flaming projectiles forth from his sword. Damn, these kidsā¦
He runs ahead to catch up to them after all that can be done is done. The champion follows suit. Nocking three arrows that burn and sizzle, he releases them. They fly in a tall arc, and they explode whatever was left into ash upon impact. Unfortunate for whatever harmless forest creatures were caught in the blast, but impressive nonetheless. The force pushes a short burst of wind toward them. Linkās hair ruffles in his face.
āWhoa..ā The sailor voices his awe, but that isnāt to say no one else has a similar look on their face. Theyāre all still for a moment as the smoke billows out from the ground.
āThat surely took care of them,ā The traveler remarks, an astounded smile resting upon his face.
The champion looks back at him. āWhen thereās no time to figure out how to defeat monsters, shooting a bunch of bomb arrows at them works just as well,ā
Link reminisces upon all the times the Hero of the Wild completely made up something on the spot, or brute forced his way through a puzzle, as the traveler pats said hero on the back. āā¦sounds about right,āĀ
āGah!!!!ā
Now that voice, neither Link nor anyone else is familiar with hearing come from any member of their partyās mouths. The kid, from up ahead.Ā
āPOISON! POIIIIISON!ā
JustĀ whatĀ in the world are they hollering about?
Link doesnāt have time to wonder, nor does he really want to at the moment. When it comes to the life of a hero, oneās gotta keep a tight grip on the thoughts. Wondering is for later.Ā
The captain and the old man catch the groupās eyes. They nod. Link nods. Everyone nods. Theyāve all done this a thousand times over.Ā
Rescue is for now.
-
āPOIIIIIISONNNN!!!āĀ
You yell, as you release another volley of DEET from your spot of ultimate tactical advantage up in this tree.
It was probably surely definitely actually happening, what you thought was happening and then thought couldnāt be happening.
Your eyes burn. These motherfucking piece of shit arachnid fucking spider fuckingĀ gohmaĀ are the worst thing ever invented. And yeah, invented. You would say that jokingly about rain or about an invasive bug or about sickness, like āoh haha imagine if someone invented this thing that sucked so bad and made everything worse for no reasonā. Except in this case the gohmaĀ wereĀ invented and whoever did decided that they would be a good enemy to put in a Zelda game to suck so bad and make everything worse for no reason, a Zelda game which is also something that is real by the way.Ā
Like any normal person you did not think that video games were real, or that other dimensions were real, or that magic was real. As much as you would wish it into existence so that you could do anything and be anyone other than who you were right then, identity disturbance or something, it would not happen because thatās not how the world works. Thatās not how the universe works. It doesnāt care about anything some random kid has to say and everything will keep spinning with or without you. Even if you saw magic happen right in front of your eyes, you would deny it. It would simply be too good to be true.Ā
Little did you know that all of those things actually fucking are they are real theyāre so real that they can hurt you and you just ditched the chance to meet all of these really cool characters you think about and rotate in your brain all the time in favor of horrible death by big mama gohma and tiny gohma babies and maybe even falling because you feel your grip getting loose and your hand slipping from all the sweat you sweated. Swote?
And you acted like an insane person in front of all of them. You called the motherfucking HERO OF TIME from OCARINA OF TIME AND MAJORAS MASK an āanime hair elf manā. AHHHHHHH!
You would be the worst isekai fanfic protagonist ever and if this was a story you are sure that no one would want to read it at all. People read stories for escapism and for wish fulfillment and the like, they do not read it to watch someone fuck around and taunt their favorite guys with preschooler insults and then get lost and die. From a giant BUG.
āDEATH! Death to ALL bugs who DARE to cross me!!!ā
You spray big mama gohma right in the eye as she tries to climb into your designated spot and eat you or kill you or whatever it is that she wants, enemies in Zelda just kind of attack you because theyāre evil or something. It makes you wonder, maybe itās only because you encroached upon your territory. Maybe Link was only ever poking his face into places where he wasnāt wanted, and thatās why everyone kept attacking him.
She screeches again. You are so done with hearing that screech. You could go your entire life without hearing or making any screeching at all and you would be happy. Youād be happy to survive this encounter, even.
But then again, maybe itās what you deserve. Maybe it is this universe punishing you for existing where you arenāt supposed to. Actually, this universe probably doesnāt care that much either or even know that youāre here. Who makes up the empty void beneath Hyrule, again? Null? That probably doesnāt know about you, either. No one knows who you are or where youāre from or anything about your life other than that youāre kind of an unstable jerk that runs away from confrontation. What a way to be remembered. Might as well just accept it now. Donāt want to look like the loser that said shit and proceeded to be unable to take shit.Ā
āHyah!ā
What.
You open your eyes. They were closed? You open your eyes.Ā What?
Thereās a- you hear a dense thunk. You see the tail of an arrow, and also the shaft of an arrow, an entire fucking arrow sticking out of the seam between big mama gohmaās thorax and her head. She makes this awful, low clicking sound as she slowly turns her body to face whatever or whoever did that. You peer out over her, because of course you wanna know too.Ā
āPick on someone your own size, why donāt ya!ā
And well, that is fluffy pelt guy. That is the Hero of Twilight.
You always read things that were like āand their jaw droppedā, and you never quite understood it because you would envision the characterās jaw literally dropping. It was distracting. Someoneās jaw literally dropping would be a very bad medical emergency.Ā
Your mouth falls open. You think you understand it now.Ā
You thought that the most competent heroes who had saved the entire kingdom and world several times over combined wouldnāt be able to find someone that got turned around in the woods. For some reason. Or maybe they wouldnāt want to. For some reason. But they did find you. Because theyāre real. And theyāre heroes. And theyāre here to save you. Theyāre here to saveĀ you!Ā Of all people.
And - okay. Big Mama Gohma jumps off of the tree and leaves it freaking swaying. You tighten your grip on the bark at the sight of the ground, which is very far away from you. Youād at least break a rib. Or a limb. Or a skull. Just the one.
You hold on securely enough with your hands gripping a branch above and your legs wrapped around the even bigger branch below. You are the most scared youāve ever been. But still, you stretch your neck a bit to see the fight. The bossfight.
The one in the blue tunic and the- the Hylian hood. His hood is down. Thatās Breath of the Wild Link. Holy crap, thatās Breath of the Wild link. Wow, he grew his hair out. Itās even longer than it was in Tears of the Kingdom.
The one who looks like the Hero of Men is probably⦠the guy from the Minish cap. And Four Swords, because thatās the Four Sword in his hand. And his tunic is the four colors of the Four Sword. But heās not in four.Ā
Woah, theyāre all moving incredibly fast. Itās a blur. You catch- oh, is that the original Link? From the original Legend of Zelda, not from Skyward Sword. Where is his hat? Holy crap, you actually talked to the Link from Skyward Sword, and he asked you if you were from⦠Skyloft. Whatās the jump in logic there.Ā
The kid in the blue tunic- is that Wind Waker Link? Ah!!! Wind Waker Link!!! With a battle cry Wind Waker Link jumps over a wriggling little larvae that had attempted to trip him up. He pulls out his boomerang, and- woah holy mackerel he just took out five of the larvae at once!
Holy mackerel? Youāve never said that. Youāve never said that before. Why did that happen. And okay. Okay, there is the guy with pink edges. And completely pink tuft, you did not notice that beforehand. That must be the guy from all the fuckinā games, like, ever. Wasnāt he in four? Or five? Or six? His hair must be pink because thatās how it was in A Link to the Past. Do A Link Between Worlds and Triforce Heroes count, is he also from those?Ā
Thatās Hyrule Warriors Link again. If you ever had any doubts about their abilities to swing a sword, no you donāt. Gone, completely. Itās like watching a figure skater. Makeup and all, heās got, like, a bit of a smokey eye going on. It might actually be a lot actually, considering you can see it from all the way up here.
Then there is who must be the Hero of Time and Termina.Ā
He fights likeā¦ā¦. a video game character.Ā
Okay, well, thatās not really how you meant it.Ā
He fights like- like every swing is so practiced and like he knows where his arms and his legs and where everything all has to be in order to get a goodĀ hitĀ in. Like how moves are in action games with everything animated so smoothly and whatnot. 60 frames per second. Whatever. Youāre not very good at metaphors. Hero Of Time Fight Good And It Cool To Watch. There, thatās all you had to say.
Itās actually the Hero of Time who deals the final blow. He stabs it in the eye because you were right, the eye is the weakness. You remember Ocarina of Time, you remember being scared shitless of the Gohma boss and it took forever to beat it and then you eventually replayed it and you thought, why was this ever hard for child me. This is the easiest thing in the universe, it goes down in like two hits. You feel a bit like that child again, your heart and mind buzzing with pure, unfiltered excitement. Emotion so overwhelming that you feel it physically crushing you, if it goes on itāll surely squeeze tears out.
āYou can come down now,ā He projects his voice up toward you. His voice, that he has. Heās saying words. To you.
āUhā¦ā You groan in a ghastly way.Ā
The Link from Wind Waker grins up at you. āDonāt worry, itās all the way dead!ā And he gives the corpse a good kick. It twitches, and he jumps back with a yelp. Everyone including you zeroes in on the sound, it seems. But then the Link from Hyrule Warriors says something to him, placing a hand on the boyās shoulder, and the boy lowers his sword.Ā
āWe have red potions and we have fairies. Weāll give them to you if you need them.ā The Hero of Time speaks again.
You slowly bring your hand up to the cut on your face.Ā
Right. That.
Oh god. The infections you could get from that alone. What if bacteria got into your blood and then you went into sepsis. And died. In the woods. With no hospital and no doctors apart from a bunch of medieval men.Ā
You need to stop being so slow to realize anything at all. Itās embarrassing. Youāre like a little worm wriggling around on the sidewalk after it rains in front of the nine coolest people youāll probably ever meet, just objectively.Ā Would you still love me if I was a worm?Ā
Focus!!!
You hear someone click their tongue.
āLook, it really is dead. See?ā The Link from A Link to the Past and Oracle of Ages and Seasons and Linkās Awakening and maybe even A Link Between Worlds and Triforce Heroes but you are not sure, draws his sword again, twirling it in his hand for a moment, before he leans over to tap the corpse of big mama gohma once, twice. It doesnāt twitch the second time. āDead. Deader than dead. So, itās safe to come down now. And then we can all just sit together and have a nice calm talk about what happened, and walk away from it allā¦ā He begins to pace in a slow circle. That is, until he points an accusing finger at you.Ā Objection! Hold it!
āUnless there is aĀ reasonĀ you want us to remain here, in the middle of the den of evil.ā
āDen of evilā, huh?Ā
They definitely share a vocabulary with the series.
For someone that went through four, maybe five games, he looks pretty young. Just a bit older than you are. One would think heād be the de facto leader just because of sheer experience, but no that honor goes to the Hero of Time. You guess it mirrors Ocarina of Timeās treatment in real life as one of the first games that really cemented Zeldaās reputation as a three dimensional game as video games moved away from 2D, and also how almost every game made after it mentions it in some way. As a legend in the Wind Waker, as a prayer in Breath of the Wild, and then heās literally just in Twilight Princess. The Heroās shade is literally just him. That gold shoulder plating looks familiar.
What were you thinking about. Right. This guy. The Hero of Legend. Every game guy. Thatās what youāll call him for now. Every game guy has every right to be suspicious of you. Heās seen so much shit, and heās gotta think that you suddenly⦠appearing⦠must be a trick⦠tooā¦?
But wait, they still havenāt told you what happened because you were being a jerk an interrupted them. They havenāt told you the what. Or the why. Or why all the fucking Links from everything everywhere all at once are all here, you havenāt even thought about that yet. Why are all of them here? Together? And what, theyāre not even a little bit suspicious of each other? With how many iterations of Dark Link or Shadow Link or Echo Link there have been? Where is Link from Echoes of Wisdom, anyway? Whereās Link from Spirit Tracks? All of the other nine of them are here. Why arenāt they questioning each other just as much as this guy is questioning you? Do they all know each other already? How??
āWhatā what happened??ā
You blurt out.Ā
āWhat?ā Says every game guy, and the ātā is sharp.
āWhat happened.ā You repeat. āI want- I want to know what happened. Because, likeā I woke up to a bunch of weird guys with swords, and you all were like,ā You lower your voice an octave. āāoh that was a really bad fall, it was a miracle you survived, uh, Iām not gonna tell you my name but where is your house and where are you from?ā and then you start chasing me and then I had to fight thatā¦Ā thing, and Iāve never seen a bug so big before, like holy shit is this the fuckinā carboniferous period or what, I still donāt knowĀ whatĀ happened orĀ whereĀ I am or why IāmĀ hereĀ or why youāre so suspicious of me or where all of- why all ofĀ youĀ are here, and youāre here talking about the āden of evilā, like, what does that even mean? What does itĀ mean???ā
You throw your arms out in front of you. And you actually make eye contact with every game guy. His mouth is slightly open, his finger lowered. The fire and the certainty gone.Ā
Before you can break eye contact, you slide forward off the branch below, because you forgot that you were holding onto another branch with those arms. You suppose thatās one way to get out of a conversation.
You hear the wind whistle in your ears, and you see your whole life in fleeting flashes. You squeeze your eyes shut in preparation for the pain, and then the nothing.
Youāre stopped. Youāre plucked out of the air. Youāre floating. Youāve died, and now youāre above your body.Ā
ā¦you open one eye.
Black fur, dark green, dirty blond hairā
Itās the Hero of Twilight. Again.Ā
Youāre not dead. Youāre alive. The Hero of Twilight has hoisted you up by your armpits, your legs dangle just above the barren dirt that would have killed you.Ā
Maybe it wouldnāt have killed you. Itās more likely you would have broken your arm, or something. But you did fall forward instead of backward. You couldāve landed on your head. And broken your skull. Or broken your neck. Or at least gotten a worse concussion. That would have been bad. Really bad.Ā
But it didnāt⦠happen.Ā
No, right now youāre being held by the Hero of Twilight from Twilight Princess. Link from Twilight Princess is holding you. Like how one would hold a cat. Behind him, you see the Hero of Time, The Hero of⦠wars⦠seriously, what is he called in the context of that naming convention? And the Hero of Legend all with their arms out also. Further behind him, still, you see the rest frozen in a run. Well, not frozen. Theyāre all just still. Whatever. The impulse is stronger than ever to touch the pelt around his shoulders. Touch it. Touch the pelt.
He slowly, gently, sets you down, and you donāt give in to your impulses.Ā
No, instead the darkness bubbles in the corners of your vision. It might be because of the concussion, but it might also be because of the metric ton of DEET you inhaled. Yay pesticides. You only take a step backwards, instead of falling, throwing your arms out again to make your center of gravity bigger this time.Ā
āOp-ā Says Link from Twilight Princess.
āAh-ā Says Link from Every Game. Youāre not going to list all of them in your head every time. Says The Only Link With Pink In His Hair.
āCareful,ā Calls out Link from The Legend of Zelda, the originals. Where is his silly hat. Youāll riot.
āDonāt pass out,ā Says Link from The Minish Cap and Four Swords (or is it Four Swords Adventures? Does it matter?)
āUh oh,ā Says Link from Skyward Sword. You arenāt as surprised hearing those words come out of his mouth as you are at the others.
āI canāt see!ā Says Link from Wind Waker, but you canāt see him either so you can only hear him. No surprise here either
āDonāt crowd them,ā Orders Link from Ocarina of Time and Majoraās Mask, and he ushers everyone backward.
āDid that thing poison you?ā Except for Link from Hyrule Warriors, who questions you. Interrogates you. While looking down at your poor melted backpack.Ā
You feel like you should shape up and fix your posture and fix your face and report exactly what happened one hundred years ago. Nope, you mean one hundred seconds ago. Or so. It would be best to refrain from those types of jokes around the guy that it happened to even if itās only in your head. In your head can become out of your head quick if youāre not careful. Said guy is turned around and crouched near the ground. Go figure.Ā
You breath in, and you close your eyes, and you do stand up straighter, actually, waving your hands around again. Thatās worked twice so far when it comes to getting others to stop talking. Your arsenal of strategic moves only growsā flapping your hands, falling limp, and going āmade you lookā. Youāll be a hero yet.
āIām fine. Itās fine. WhatĀ happened,ā
You stare at them with wide eyes. You feel a little like the guy running around looking at the ground, except not really at all because theyāre going to tell you really soon and you wonāt have to travel around trying to match up the world to twelve photos and then some.Ā
The Hero of Time gestures at Wind Waker Link. He says something like āIām afraid I am out of fairiesā but you canāt hear him because heās turned around.
Wind Waker Link looks up from where he was quietly pondering the sparse foliage, it seems. What an odd change of pace. And he bounds over, rummaging around in his bag until he pulls out a bottle with a light in it. No. A bottle with a fairy in it. He literally just said it was a fairy. Thatās what he said. Just because you donāt want to hear it doesnāt mean thatās not what he said. You need to snap out of it. Or snap into it, that would be more accurate. Itās all real and itās all happening and you canāt be left behind everyone else. He hands it to him who then unseals the bottle and holds it out at you.Ā
The fairy (you never thought you would think that in your head about anything that is flying and small) whirls around you. The pounding in your head, the burning of your eyes, the aching on your chest, and also in your chest, the burning in your muscles and the cut on your cheek all disappear with that fairy as it flies up, up, up, and away. Into the canopy. Free. Beyond the canopy is the sun. And itās not the same sun that every human has seen since the beginning of time. Not even one other human from your home has seen it. Or you suppose some have seen it. Youāve seen it. But none of them have felt it. None of them have felt the midday heat of this completely alien main sequence star, on this completely alien ground. āAlienā isnāt a word you associate with Zelda (except for that one time in Majoraās Mask, you guess), but thatās what it is. Alien. In the classical sense.
Donāt the fairies disappear after they heal you, in the games? You canāt remember. It was probably to save on animation costs.
Link from Ocarina of Time and Majoraās Mask, The Hero of Time, an older and wiser Hero of Time who wouldnāt be someone dressed as him and really in character, because you canāt playĀ the look in his eyes, tells you this with his mouth and his voice that he has now.
In which you wake up in Linked Universe (4886 words)
(ao3 link)
(part 2)
(masterpost)
The beginning of this story is one familiar to many. There is someone sleeping that must wake up. There is someone watching as a light steadily approaches. There is someone unburdened by adventure that must step into that light from the shadows for the first time. There is someone that wonāt be able to grasp what a journey truly is until they venture forth onto one and meet all of the faces that come with that journey, faces that have appeared before and faces that make their first introduction. People that fall into patterns that fall into myth that fall into pixels on a screen determined by calculated on-off switches, ones and zeroes.Ā
The sprawling randomness and infinite possibility that comes with a universe, or maybe a multiverse (Itās difficult to interrogate infinities on their size) is hard to comprehend. People of a mortal existence naturally want to compartmentalize. They attempt to sort things like chemical reactions or momentum or simply energy into stars or planets or blood or life or stories. They want to create structure out of concepts as much as they once did out of wood and leaves when the rain came. Just as the rain would have them die from exposure, so would the empty, uncaring nature of the universe that they were jumbled into via cause and effect. Itās harsh and itās scary, and it would be cruel to call these concepts fake or childish. Theyāre as real as they are believed to be. They protect a fragile mind from the insanity that is sprawling nothingness.
The most important thing to know is that everything has already happened, and nothing has happened yet. Everything is old and everything is new. Nothing that is imaginary is original. Probability is an ouroboros.Ā
And, it is time for this someone to wake up.
-
You have to wake up.Ā
You have to wake up you have to wake up RIGHT now.Ā
Unfortunately, you donāt have anyone to that for you. No oneās gently urging you or urgently tugging you. Itās just you, dragging yourself out of unconsciousness.
Thereās still a pressure on your sternum. You feel grass tickling your hands and your feet. You are well acquainted with this sensation. Anyone that ran around in grass, whether it be at a park or at school or in someoneās yard knows the sensation. Itās weird, thoughā you could have sworn there was⦠blanket? Here before. There was blanket. There was definitely blanket, and there was a mild chill.
If there was blanket before, you were probably in bed before. And youāre not in bed now. Which is really weird. Ohh, shit, did you sleepwalk or something? Did you go out on a bender? Wait, youāre still in highschool. You shouldnāt be going out on a bender. But there are highschoolers that go out on benders all the time, so maybe you did go out on a bender. That would be pretty bad. What would your parents think of that, oh god. What did you do? How would that have even happened? You probably wouldnāt even remember. On account of the bender.
Or maybe there was an emergency like a fire or something and you had to evacuate your house but you wouldnāt wake up so they had to carry you out, and the safest place just so happened to be a grassy field. Or maybe, you got kidnapped and the kidnappers are discussing what to do with you as youāre sitting there in the grass. You donāt know whatās worse, the sleepwalking or the bender or the emergency or the kidnappers. Well theyāre technically all emergencies. āEmergencyā is kind of vague. You donāt like being vague. Being vague makes you feel trapped in your own head with your own thoughts, like how you are right now.
Wait.
Youāre jumping to conclusions.
You havenāt even opened your eyes yet. Shit, howād you not realize that? God, you hate the post-dream brain haze. Itās like youāre stumbling through a fog and trying to round up your thoughts, which are all running away from you by the way. Unruly toddlers in your head mashing the keyboard that makes your mouth say words.
You open your eyes.
ā¦
!!!
Holy fucking ow, that is the sun right in your delicate retinas hurting your entire brain.
There is nothing to provide you relief from the brightest ball of burning hot plasma you can see from Earth. So youāre forced to squeeze your eyes shut again. You know, that kind of makes you think, itās been the same brightest ball of burning hot plasma throughout all of human history and even before that. If thereās one thing that every person has seen or felt, it is that sun.Ā
Why are you thinking about that right now. The unruly toddlers are at it yet again.Ā
The pressure on your sternum returnsā no. Pain. Thatās surely more pain. Thereās Even More Pain rolling across bone now like knuckles that are too sharp because the universe loves you so so much.Ā
Your head hurts. And lord, so does the rest of your entire body. It all hurts. The tingling of the grass from before morphs into a blunt, slamming pain, like the frog in the water that slowly warms up until itās boiling. This sucks. This sucks so bad.Ā
Itās not that you couldnāt feel your arms before, more so that just now, you suddenly remembered you had them as the ability to move slowly seeped back into your nerves. Certainly not the first time youāve experienced this. You canāt even count on your hand the number of times youāve woken up, completely paralyzed, facing terrifying horrors beyond your imagination, or something. You canāt believe that these episodes only last for, like, thirty seconds. Time dilates between each of those seconds, marinating in a moment youād much rather let pass. Maybe time is more fickle than anyone else thinks it is. It stutters and it trips and it bounds when excited, it drags its feet when it chooses.Ā
Back to your arms. They rise toward whatever is digging into your muscles and bones. Try to push it away. They donāt make it, because your lungs decide to suck in a big helping of air.Ā
Youāre coughing soon enough. Well, you werenāt breathing before, thatās probably why. Why are you so slow on the uptake, here?
After all of this time, all of what is probably like one minute, the sun is finally obscured by a dark silhouette. Far too close to be a cloud. Thatās probably a person.
Oh shit, itās a person!Ā
Your vision, wide pupils now unhampered by the overload of light, coalesces into something coherent.Ā
You donāt remember ācoherentā meaning āblond-haired-blue-eyed white guy of an elvish beautyā. You guess thatās what it means now.
He is dressed in some kind of ren faire garb. He has those pointy-ear prosthetics and a scarf of bright blue, under which is an old-fashioned white tunic. And on his shoulder is a giant metal plate, by the way. Wow, what a costume. Thatās cool as hell. Itās more realistic than anything youāre used to seeing. You see a lot of cosplay. Cosplay is very cool.
You really like video games. And comics. And shows. And movies. You think about them all the time. You think about them right now, even. They just make so much more sense than the real world. And whatās happening right now. You wish you could take a step outside of your life for a moment and observe it as though it were a piece of media rather than live it. Maybe then it would make sense to you. Itās much too confusing to make out whatās happening while youāre in it. Itās like trying to see the shape of a storm from inside the storm, it doesnāt work. You have to send a rocket into space with a satellite. They should send you into space, instead. Often you will think to yourself, surely this is not how humans were meant to live. And then other times you will think, there is something deeply wrong with you.
Maybe you really did get high or drunk or something and end up at the⦠ren faire. A convention. Somehow. You donāt know if there even was one happening near where you live. Good lord, that makes it even worse.Ā
Ah, this is truly a shitty situation. This is type three fun, wherein itās not fun at all until you laugh about it with other people afterwards. At least his fit is cool.
āCan you hear me?ā
Well, now you can. There is your hearing back. You didnāt even realize that was gone either. It breaks the surface of the water back into focused, clear sound. You wonder how many other things youāve missed that wonāt return until you remember them.Ā
āOwā¦ā
And thereās your voice. It kind of hurts to use. Like you have a sore throat. Actually, you were just busy hacking up a lung, so thatās not all that surprising.
āTheyāve returned to us.ā
What is he on about?
āWhat..?ā Your voice is a hoarse, tired approximation of your thoughts. Talking feels like your thoughts are slipping through sand, and only a fraction of what once was makes it out of your mouth. Itās no wonder that your friends, your teachers, your family will say that you live entirely too much in your own head. But they donāt understand that there are moments where you want to step outside your brain, and you just canāt. Youāre overjoyed every time you manage to simply communicate your thoughts with someone.
You turn your head to theā what is that, is that a crowd? Sounds like a crowd. You turn your head toward the small crowd of voices that are next to you, apparently. Maybe you really did pass out at the ren faire in front of a group of LARPers. Those poor LARPers. At least youāll make for a good story, youād hope.Ā
You observe⦠eight pairs of boots, varying in flamboyance. Surely there are people attached to those boots, because theyāre all talking all at once.
You find it hard focusing on the different sounds running past each other, like those videos of bees trying to enter a hive in slow motion. They run into each other all the time. Can you imagine living like that, making head-on collisions at full speed and just walking off like itās fine? Then again, maybe thereās some higher, more eldritch entity observing how humans live and is recoiling in disgust, or cringing in sympathy, or watching in fascination, as one would witness a train derailing. A spectacle that is great and terrible. Or maybe there is no story, and no one cares at all.Ā
You remember how to sit up.Ā
āAh!āĀ
You yelp. You donāt remember it being this dizzying. Your bodyās telling you that youāve been lying down and you havenāt had to do anything for a thousand years. Yet another time your body is grossly incorrect. Your mind is always at odds with it, it seems. You forget that they are one in the same.
ā¦well, now all of them are looking at you. Good job, you.
āUuah.ā You say automatically. Whenever your nerves get twisted in such a way, your brain reverts to Caveman Mode.
There is an awkward silence afterward. These guys in front of you look vaguely familiar. Do you have a concussion? Did you get high and pass out? Did theyĀ kidnapĀ you?Ā
Your brain really doesnāt want to let that one go, does it.
āHowā what.ā You feel your left eye blink, and your right follows. āHi.ā
Ā Ā
You stare.
āWhoā¦ā
Who are these women?Ā Your brain supplies, unhelpfully. It likes to do this with quotes.
The one with the blue scarf and the shoulder plate looks at you carefully, and also holds his hands out in the same position they were a moment ago just as carefully. All of the entire crowd of eight people behind him gather around to watch, almost like a gaggle of curious elementary schoolers. Even though some look to be your age. People your age and grown adults. Or wait, that one looks twelve.Ā
āDo not strain yourself. That was⦠quite a fall you just had.āĀ
Says the dude decked out as fuck in armor and also face paint. Thatās a real metal chest plate. Thatās a big fucking sword. You furrow your brow. What? What.Ā
āWhat?ā
The way he looks at you, itās like youāve grown a second head, as the saying goes. Youāve learned to identify the emotions behind the expression as confusion, or bafflement. Youāre used to this. It isnāt the first time ever that a group of people has looked at you oddly for a thing you said, or the way you look, or the way you act, or your presence in general.
āItās a miracle youāre alive,ā Says a guy with dirty blond hair and more face paint or makeup or whatever it is on his forehead, and a giant pelt on his shoulders. That looks comfy.
āCould they be of your people?ā Says a kid- a kid. No. What? Says a guy your age with just so much hair, itās so fluffy dear god. He wears a green tunic that is worn with age.
āMaybe⦠but if weāre really before my time, I donāt know if weād be able to walk around so freely,ā Says the other guy he was talking to who also has dirty blond hair and a white embroidered scarf⦠cape. Whatever. A blue pattern you canāt discern is weaved into it.
āItās not impossible to think that the land grew safer even before you descended. It had to become the way it was at some point, right?ā Says theā woah. Woah. The dude with the headband that looks twelve does not sound twelve even a little bit at all.
āThis is true. Though, they look very differentā¦ā
āOh, come on,ā There is a guy that has pink edges in his hair and he is very unhappy right now. āEven if they are one of your people, youāre telling me theyĀ survivedĀ that? Is this howĀ youĀ began your journey, Skyloftian?ā
Guy with dirty blond hair grabs his cape. ā...it wasnāt,ā
āYeah, exactly.ā Guy with pink edges huffs. āThis is clearly some kind of trick. Itās a ploy to- to strike us while weāre weak. Obviously.ā
Guy with comfy fur pelt crosses his arms. āCome on, vet. Theyāre just a kid,ā
āYeah, and evil takes on unassuming forms! Do I have to remind you?ā
Dude with fur pelt narrows his eyes at dude with pink edges. āNo, you donāt.ā
What on earth what are they talking about.
ā¦
Wait,Ā Skyloftian?
āSkyloftian?ā You parrot. Itās the one thing they have said this entire time thatās made any sense to you at all. Skyloft? From fucking- fromĀ Skyward Sword?Ā Surely not.
You see the boy with dirty blond hair and the white scarf cape thing perks up. The two of you make eye contact for a moment, which you immediately avoid. You will have no part in that.Ā
āDo you hail from there as well?ā Oh no. He speaks gently. His voice has rounded edges, painted like stained glass. His footsteps are light as he stands next to the guy that woke you up.Ā
Guy with pink edges gestures animatedly. āWhat- donāt go up to them, what did I just say!āĀ
Do youā he what. Do you what.Ā
You know that change is important, logically, but you donāt like it. Which sure, you and every other human being on Earth. But for you itās like dragging your entire skin and body across coarse sandpaper. A change to your schedule like a school assembly serves to mildly stress you out. A missing ingredient, when youāre hungry, irritates you. Anything bigger than that makes your chest hurt from the inside.
So they must be in cosplay. The first guy you saw, he was in cosplay. They are in character. They have to be. You are so familiar with them because you recognize their characters from The Legend of Zelda because you really like video games and comics and shows and movies. Thatās why. They look so much like them. You donāt want to look too closely, actually. You arenāt going to look at them, actually. You donāt want to think that what youĀ thinkĀ is happening is whatās really happening.
āDo IĀ hailĀ from there?ā Your voice comes out shakier and more appalled than you planned for, unfortunately. That sucks. You have a lot to say about this. Your chest is starting to hurt from the inside.
āYeah,ā He nods like it is all very simple.Ā
āNo I do not- Iām not fromĀ Skyloft,āĀ Your voice stumbles over itself as a laugh ripples up from your lungs. āHaha. No. Iām from the planet Earth. Ever heard of planet Earth? Not the TV show,ā
You pad your pockets. Shit, whereās your phone? Where is your phone at? Youāve heard jokes about teenagers like yourself being glued to the things, of course, but this is the one time that your frantic search is justified.
āIām not⦠Iām unfamiliar with that kingdom,ā
Guy with fluffy hair remarks, āWhat in the world is a āTV show?āā
Itās gone. Was he saying something? Whereā
That is your bag. That is your bag whoās home is on your back and on the floor in your room and your house next to the Link from Hyrule Warriors.
Nope. Your bag is next to the guy that isĀ dressed upĀ as Link from Hyrule Warriors, because these kindly LARPers have woken you up from your concussion or your bender or whatever the fuck happened, you will not think about it, and theyāre just acting a bit oddly. Theyāre just still in character. Thatās all thatās happening.
āWe just collected it, we werenātāā
You crawl forward frantically before he can finish his sentence. You wouldnāt be out of place in a horror movie. This is your least favorite horror movie, what is happening to you right now. It just canāt be. Itās like a bad isekai. Not even, itās like a bad isekai fanfic. Youāve read your fair share of these. Everyone wants an escape from their daily life. Everyone wants to be the special main character that has all the things happen to them. Itās cool, looking in from the outside. You live it now.
No you donāt. Everythingās normal and fine and cool and normal. Maybe in another world and another time, you would find the face he makes as you snatch your bag away with a tight, unrelenting grip to be funny. You dig around in your pack, equally frantic-- among your various items and trinkets and papers for school is your nintendo switch? No, not that, you donāt need that, you discard it next to your bag. Then, your hands make contact with the cool, smooth familiarity. It fits right in your hand.Ā
The screen lights up. There is no signal in the corner. There is straight upĀ nothingĀ in the corner. There is not even SOS. You have no notifications at all. Your displayās gotta be broken. You open your phone.Ā
āIs that a-Ā
-Sheikah Slate?ā
ā-pirateās charm?ā
A boy clad in a deep blue and a younger boy clad in light blue both share a look. The younger one actually sounds like heās twelve, this time. Now thatās someone that you can reasonably call a kid. But nevermind all that, youāre still getting no signal. God damn it.
Sheikah Slate? Pirateās charm?Ā
Secret stone? Demon king?
ā¦
Sheikah Slate?!?
āNo,ā They are really dedicated to this character that they are playing and thatās whatās happening and nothing else is going on. You tap the screen rapidly. āItās not a Sheikah Slate. And itās not a pirateās charm. AndĀ youĀ arenātā no.ā You shake your head. āThat would be crazy. Actually, literally, crazy, impossible. You canāt gaslight me into anything. Iām too cool and knowledgeable. And ungaslightable. To be gaslit.Ā And itās a phone which is something thatās real and exists, thank you. And I donāt have any ffffreaking signal, so, so-...ā
You just want the truth. All you want is the truth. All you want is to know. Itās rare that you are sure of the world, of reality.Ā
And this canāt be reality.Ā ThisĀ only happens in your head. You wander into another world in your reading or in your dreams. It makes sense because you know what happens, and it makes sense because you can re-do a misstep or a fumble or a wavering dialogue as many times as you want to. You donāt have shit here.Ā
No internet connection. Refresh. Please try again. No internet connection. Please try again. Youāre offline, retry later. Try again. Nothing. No one. Youāre alone. Youāre all alone.
āIām sure you have questions you would like answered.ā Thatās a steady, sure voice, thatās a guy that knows what heās talking about. āWe have questions we would like answered as well. There is no reason that we all canāt just settle this in a civilized fashion and figure out where to go from there. It will be easier that way,ā
You slowly look up from your phone.
The one speaking wears the fierce deity armor makeup from Majoraās Mask, you would recognize it anywhere. Itās not just facepaint.
Or well, itās half of it. Oh, and the face itās painted on belongs to the decked out as fuck guy who has a big scar over his right eye, by the way. That rhymed. Whatever. The decked out as fuck guy with a big scar over his right eye who is standing on the same ground that youāre sitting on, in the same way that a real person made of solid matter would. You know who he is, you know exactly who he is, even if heās a little older than youāre used to seeing him. Maybe if you ignore it a little longer, it will go away.Ā
āSettle this in a civilized fashionā. Oh, you would love to do that. It would be so cool to do that. You have read fanfiction where the protagonist flips the fuck out and you imagined yourself doing the opposite and being really cool and impressive to the fictional characters, someone that is calm in the face of uncertainty and someone that knows enough to put the right amount of distance from everyone else so that they donāt get the upper hand and catch you looking stupid or weird or cringey. This happens in real life and each time it does you are stuck thinking about it forever. Unfortunately you canāt be cool or funny or introspective or impressive or anything other than afraid because you are feeling a lot of emotions that are weird im your body, which is really inconvenient when youāre trying to be logical.Ā
So when you slowly look up from your phone, the absolutely appalled look on your face is cartoonish, you quickly stand up on your own two legs. This is a mistake because you have the balance of someone who just became alive yesterday. You stumble backward. Wait thatās good actually, you wanted to put some distance between you and this⦠thisĀ guy.Ā Good.
āYou,āĀ You point at him, keeping your phone safely tucked against your side. āYou. You stay away, you fuckinā⦠anime hair, elf⦠man. Donāt come near me with all that mystical bullshit,ā
His face is blank.Ā
āLook, Iāll tell you-ā
He inches closer, raising a hand like heās pushing back your intense flurry of emotions, calm down. You wave your pointing hand wildly in response.
āWHAT did I just say.ā You are the victor of the battle of gestures because he stops trying to get closer to you after that. Though, you are getting the sense he could fold you with like, one hit. Heās got that old man, well worn strength. āYou arenāt listening to me. Listen to me. With your big ears.ā
He lets out a quick, bemused breath from his nose. The guy with blue cape snorts.
āMy what?ā His voice is a bit airy.Ā
āYour big ears,ā You tap your own. Double down, might as well. You feel like you can say anything and your words wonāt be instantly soured by worry, unable to be taken back. Thereās fire in your veins and also arteries. āListen to me with them. My personal space bubble startsĀ here-āĀ You swing your free arm in a wide arc around you. ā-after which point none shall enter. No one shall pass. All must respect the sanctity of the bubble.ā
Wait no, it was āyou shall not passā. Whatever.Ā
After a moment of staring at you like you had grown a third head this time, he raises his eyebrows, nodding. āJust as well. We can all speak to each other from a distance, if you wish.ā
You blink.
Not what you wanted. Not what you wanted at all. You have to get away from those weird⦠these weird guys. You wonāt think about it too hard. Not right now. You have to get away from those weird guys until everything stops being so random and disconnected and separated from the natural chain of cause and effect. Clarity can only be found in solitude.Ā
āā¦nuh-uh.ā
He squints at you. āWhat do you mean,Ā ānuh-uhā?ā
āI mean, nuh uh- hey!ā
In the corner of your eye, you spot the boy with the long hair and the deep blue tunic picking up your switch. Just picking it up, like it belongs to him and always has. What the hell! āDonāt touch that!ā
You march over to him and you pry it from his hand (āAh-ā he says). Or you snatch it. And you step back from him. You still see him eyeing it. You have the feeling that he just let you take it back and you arenāt super strong all of a sudden. You also swoop down and hoist your backpack over your shoulder, just for good measure.
āLook, I dunno what kinda weird ass LARP, improv class, theatre shit you guys got going on. And you know what, keep doing it man. Good for you. Is it a class I can take? Donāt listen to that. No. But leaveĀ meĀ out of it. I have to go call, fuckin-⦠I gotta go. I gotta go.ā You have to go to a hospital. Something is fucking wrong with how It All Hurts and Youāre So Dizzy and Nothing Makes Sense and Where Are You.
āBut itās so similar to theā¦ā Linkā NO. The boy in a blue tunic has not yet gotten over the sudden absence of your nintendo switch that belongs to You from His hands. His hands which are now hovering over the. No. Whatās probably a prop of a Sheikah Slate. At least itās accurate to the game. Maybe you know too much about the game if you can recognize that.
āāTheatre. Do you think we are performers?ā Says the short one wearing the headband with a tilted head and a hand on his chin and a raised eyebrow. His iris catches the light of the sun, you see purple.
Guy with blue cape has something to say about that, with how quickly he perks up. Quicker than you can respond. āWe are not performers, I can assure you,ā He says. Is he really freaking āNo, Andā-ing you right now. āI am knighted. Several of us are. And weāre true heroes. All of us.ā He gestures to the small crowd.
Everyone nods their head, saying all their different words of agreement, save for the dude with the pink edges but itās not like he disagrees with his gaggle. The bumblebees come to mind again.
āIndeed. There is no need to panic. We are not the enemy.ā
In the decked-out-as-fuck dudeās eyes you see sincerity that while guarded, is still sincerity. Honesty. The very serious, very grounded very⦠very condescending (if you were to try and put a word to it) kind that adults give you a lot and it always makes you wanna crawl out of your skin and run for the hills.
You point at nothing in particular.
āWhat isĀ that?ā
Maybe they are all very gullible, or maybe itās the genuine fear seeping into your words out of your mouth, but all of the heroes turn around. Guy with pink edges, guy with blue cape, guy with white cape, guy with deep blue tunic, decked out as fuck guy and fur pelt guy. They all reach for the hold of their swords that they have. Swords that are probably surely fake. Surely. They reach for their swords. Even the kid and the not-kid. And the short one. His eyes glint blue.Ā
But thereās nothing behind them because you made it up because youāre evil. By the time they all turn around (you can hear them calling after you), youāre already running for the hills.
Welcome to November 15th, this month's halfway point! š
I'm here with our mid-month update, where we keep you updated on the tasks that have been checked off over the last two weeks.
Right now, GB is planning the last Step 2 Moment and its epilogue ā the final few tasks before Step 2 is complete. The team also opened a new position for an additional background artist, and GB is currently sorting through those applications.
Finally, this month's Patreon beta went live extra early so testers can check everything out before the public demo launches later this month! GB and our lead developer, Shawna, are working hard, and predict it will likely be in the final week of November. (ā¼ļøā¼ļøā¼ļø)
Thanks for tuning in, folks! š We'll see you at the end of the month for more updates.
LATER THID MONTH? Gang, i'll prob be busy by then (end semester and all that) but you got to know i will play the game like my live is on the line. (THE ANGST WILL KILL ME LITERALLY)
I've had an idea for a Persona fic and it's been sitting in my drafts forever. I have a ton written, but somehow not a single chapter is completed. I donāt know if I'm ever going to finish it, If I don't talk about it soon I swear I'm going to explode.
It's about a Player/Reader/OC(?) that gets transported to the world of Persona after meeting their end (normal isekai things yk). They wake up with no memories outside of some vague life they feel they didn't actually live. They end up at the arcade, run into Ryuji, have all memories but their finally moments come back to them and panic. Now they have to figure out how they want to go about existing in this world. Do they want to intervene in the plot or not? Do they even have the strength to?
Still not sold on making it an OC or a Reader Insert (drafts are a mix of both rn it's hell), but it's vague either way. I don't want to name or design the Player, I only do that when I'm drawing the more emotional scenes. For the most part they're merely a catalyst for my unhinged ideas and amusement.
If you want to hold out for the teensiest bit of hope that I finish the fic and post full length chapters, then stop here. There will be spoilers ahead in the form of a vague unhinged plot summary of its entirety (oops it's around 22k words).
If I do finish any scenes I find pretty good I may or may not post them separately. If I do I'll link it to my pinned.
(The rest of this is written in second person (you/your/yourself))
(ALSO a warning that comes with mild spoilers. By this ideas very nature this isāin wayāa fix-it-fic, but the ending is still very bittersweet)
(ALSO ALSO it has very minimal proofreading done. I tried but it is long.)
You wake up with no memories in a house by yourself, until you find papers saying you were accepted into Shujin Academy and start in a few days. Then you get vague memories of a normal life leading up to you deciding to study abroad at Shujin. Something about the whole thing seems off, but you shake it off and start to get ready to get the last supplies they need and to familiarize yourself with the area.
As you're walking around you keep getting hit with waves of nausea until you reach the arcade. Staring at the Jack Frost claw machine you nearly collapse, but someone catches you before you hit the floor. You thank him and end up talking and enjoying the arcade together for a while. At some point you mention you're going to Shujin and the guy seems pretty happy about it, but also warns them almost everyone there kinda sucks, teachers included. That's when you both realize you never introduced yourselves to each other so the guy goes first andā
He introduces himself as Sakamoto Ryuji.
Everything clicks after that and you remember that you are in fact, a player of Persona and you should not be here. You don't remember the events leading up to you waking up, but you remember the rest of your life and start having a panic attack. RyujiāSakamoto (they're real people now you can't just use their first name anymore) tries to help you through it, but when he does you look around and recognize all the buildings around you and panic even more.
You try to play off your panic as just being tired. You didn't realize how long they were out for and have to get back home! You make sure to tell Sakamoto you're happy you'll know someone when you start Shujin so he doesn't think you're running away from him then quickly, but cautiously, make your way back home.
You wake up the next day, realize not only are you in Persona, you're months before the arrival of Joker. You proceed to have a breakdown.
When you start Shujin you've sort of committed to not changing anything drastic in the plot, then Sakamoto steals you away at the first chance he gets. You can't bring yourself to deny him.
Of course hanging out with Sakamoto you eventually run into Takamaki Ann and Suzui Shiho, the track team (if you could kick them in the crotch you would), and unfortunately Kamoshida.
He warns you about hanging out with the likes of Sakamoto and tries to get you to join the volleyball team. You refuse as politely as possible and speed away from him.
You've been around for a couple months now learning to live on your own and start to wonder what your in-universe parents are like. You don't imagine it's anything good. Sure they're paying for the apartment and giving you a hefty allowance, but not once have they reached out to you. You don't know if they're expecting you to be the one to reach out either. As long as they don't bother you, you don't plan to bother them to find out.
All too soon the years change and you meet Yoshizawa for the first time. You never stopped to think about which version of the world you were in, and seeing Yoshizawa Sumireācurrently Kasumiāmakes you realize that Maruki is going to be an issue. It would be terrible for him to learn anything about you so you have to do your best not to stand out to the school when Joker arrives. Oh and he's arriving in a few days. Great.
You spend those few days trying to think of ways to subtly help and how what you might do could affect the future, but don't come up with anything in time.
When you walk to school and see Joker standing waiting for the rain to stop you don't know what to do. You're about to talk to him when a thought crops up in your head.
"Would you even be able to get a persona?"
You don't want to be a liability so you walk past him with your head down.
Or at least you tried to walk past him, but he ends up grabbing you. You're surprised and it looks like he's surprised himself that he did that and apologies. He struggles to put his thoughts together while you stand there awkwardly wanting to get away as soon as possible. He's giving you a look you don't know how to feel about. Then Takamaki shows up and basically saves you from that encounter.
Then Kamoshida drives up in his car.
You didn't want to get into an enclosed space with him, but you knew if you didn't join you'd end up walking with the boys and getting stuck in the palace (which is honestly worse). You also remember how Takamaki looked during the cut scene and couldn't stand to leave her alone with him, so you got in the car.
Waiting for the boys to get back from their kidnapping is agonizing. When Sakamoto finally arrives after lunch and you ask hum if he's okay he kinda avoids the question. Which is about what you were expecting.
After the final bell rings Sakamoto tells you to he has something to do and runs off without you. That's fine since you know what he's gone off to do and make your way out, accidentally bumping into someone in the hall. You hear the murmurs of the student body around you and glasses hitting the floor before you lay your eyes on who it is. Of course it's Joker.
He introduces himself to you. Amamiya Ren. At least now you know which name he goes by, but this is still not ideal! He's also still got that strange curiosity in his eyes when he's looking at you. It's intense. You don't like it, so you quickly make an excuse and leave. He has to talk to Sakamoto anyway.
You're watching the events of the game take place from the sidelines, wanting to help but to scared you'd change things for the worse. It's when Suzui falls from the roof the guilt sets in and starts to eat you alive. You make your way up to the roof to stew in it and cry when you hear the door slam open and Sakamoto shouting.
You forgot they resolved to take Kamoshida down with the Metaverse today. You're also surprised you can already understand Morgana.
Yet again you're put into the position to make a choice and let yourself be known to them. You're actually about to when you look over the edge of the roof. That's when the last bit of fog on your previous life's memories clear up.
You were pushed off of the roof. It was an accident, a sore loser who couldn't get over his own ego pushed your friend, accusing her of cheating in a tournament. She lost her balance and ended up crashing into you, making you tumble off the side. Everyone that was there tried to reach for you, including the egoist, but none of them were fast enough. You distinctly remember the feeling of your head caving in before everything went dark. It was dark for a while, before you woke up in that apartment.
Your vision blurs as you start hyperventilating. You scramble away from the edge of the roof and run all the way to the station, wanting nothing but to go home.
The next couple days you try to avoid every canon character, which isn't that hard since they're focusing on Kamoshida's palace. Unfortunately the man himself notices you're on your own and tries to harass you. It's both fantastic and horrifying when the thieves start showing up again and hanging around you until you get on the train. Something must've happened in his palace regarding you. If none of them can keep an eye on you before they enter then they always ask you to go to the store for them. If you didn't know what was going on you'd have a lot more questions, but you're content to do their shopping for them.
After they change his heart they strong arm you into hanging out with them as a group. It's not at the buffet so you guess they already ate there and solidified themselves as the Phantom Thieves.
You feel you're going to go insane waiting for them to find Madarame. Important people keep bumping into you and it's stressing you out. Amamiya keeps trying to get you to talk or hangout or something so you keep having to make excuses, Kitagawa asked to sketch you 'cause apparently your solemn look down at your coffee sitting alone at a cafe was the perfect scene for him, you keep getting asked if you want to study for midterms, and you literally bump into Akechi. It's the most shame and terrified you've felt in this world. You want the plot to start happening so you can get a minute to breathe.
Finally after exams are over they start Madarame and you expect your interactions with the main cast to go down. How wrong you were.
The thieves still ask you to buy items for them occasionally, though now Amamiya seems to use it as a way to talk to you. Sometimes someone will message you asking to buy something ASAP and bring it to the passage before bolting. You think they're using you to get items during a palace run so they can stay in longer, but you're not asking. Then Takamaki practically begs you to join her for a modelling gig.
You assumed she was talking about her actual job. Maybe she picked up a more free gig and she was allowed to pick someone to join her? Suzui still wasn't able so her next choice was you. You have trouble saying no to these people so of course you agreed to join her.
You're petrified when you end up standing in front of a shack and not a studio.
One thing happens after the next and you're on the verge of a breakdown inside the palace. You can't pay attention to anything. The only thing you notice is Kitagawa getting his persona so you move out of the way on autopilot. Before you all exit the thieves try to ask if you're okay, but you wave them off and ask to leave. As soon as you do you head home.
When you get inside and after a bit of hesitation, you call your supposed mother and learn she's really weird. She does what she asks of you though and now you're home bound for some terrible "illness." She somehow got the school to agree to send your work over while you're "recovering."
It's Niijima Makoto the school sends to hand over your work. They also give her your number. You message her to tell her she doesn't have to physically give you the work, that it's excessive and sending it through an email would've been fine for the school, but she doesn't relent. You have her drop your work off in front of your door and watch you pick it up from a distance, cursing the principal out in your mind all the while.
You receive an endless amount of messages from the thieves, but you ignore them all. They never stop as the week passes, but the contents change.
One day Niijima shows up at your door with Sakamoto in tow and he basically bullies his way into your apartment. They help you air out the place and try to cheer you up. Niijima takes the work you finished and organizes what you didn't while Sakamoto gives you a ton of games to borrow and asks you to play at least one of them to completion. None of this makes you feel any better.
A few days later you're sent a calling card.
??What the fuck??
You don't know why you were sent one or how it would even feel to get your heart changed. To be frank you don't WANT to know! You're fine! They're ignoring your messages now so you guess they've already jumped in. But to where? Mementos? A palace?? Was whatever they think is wrong with you strong enough to make a palace???
If you think about it any longer you feel you'll go insane, so you try to get some sleep, hoping you can skip whatever process happens during a change of heart. You barely get any when your phone lights up. Hoping it's a message from a thief you open your eyes only to be greeted to a black and red swirling eye.
You throw your phone across the room, turn to face the other wall and go to sleep.
Much later, you wake up to someone banging on your door. Just to get them to shut up you open the door and end up nearly knocking Sakamoto out. They came over immediately after they left and they're almost frantic as they explain the situation.
Yes, you had a palaceāstill have a palace. They didnāt change your heart. Not because they couldn't, but because it apparently wasn't a good idea. After the fight they got to talk to your shadow and they seemed to be much better than before.
You're able to piece together that they basically handled your palace like a jail in Strikers/Scramble. Now that the scare is over you realize you feel more⦠put together. This is the most at peace you've felt with your place here since meeting Sakamoto.
But beyond that you have no idea what they exactly talked about that made taking your treasure a bad idea. They don't explain, and you don't ask. You're too afraid of what they might've seen inside of it and you're sure stress radiates off you in waves, but they never push it. What they end up doing is reiterating multiple times that they're your friends and can and will help you through whatever you need.
You go back to school. Madarame apologizes and the student body clowns on him. The Social Studies trip happens but you don't go. You still somehow run into Akechi again and now he wants to use you as his rumour mill. Like always you have a hard time saying no to these people when you probably should.
A few days past with Amamiya insisting that he hangout with you. Sometimes the others join, but it's mostly just you and him. The last time you were together he left just a little agitated. When you asked he only said it wasn't anything you did, which obviously didn't answer the question. There's no time to ponder though when Niijima blackmails the group the next day.
They're scrambling to find any information, but refuse to go to you for any help. They don't even let you walk around Shibuya, blaming it on you needing more time to recover from your illness. They know you weren't actually ill they just suck at excuses. It makes sense since it's the mafia, but youāre itching to do something to keep them from getting blackmailed again.
Of course between your inability to come up with a plan to save your life and constant hesitation, Niijima ends up running into the lion's den and getting them all in trouble. They basically come to you after they've already gone into the palace with their tails between their legs. For a variety of reasons, including their stupidity (and cause of the location),the hideout changes to your apartment.
The first couple days is the same routine as before. They jump in and have you get items for them, but since you know you're able to bring them more things they could use. They don't make much progress in the palace despite this though to your confusion and their ire.
One day they don't show up at your apartment anywhere near the time they should be back. They haven't asked you for items either, so unless Amamiya brought a crapton with him it starts to feel like something's gone wrong. Your nerves get shot and after almost an hour of nothing when you remember you have the Metaverse app on your phone. Fearing more for them over yourself you input Kaneshiro's palace keys and go in.
After hyping yourself up, you force one of the ATM people to carry you to the floating bank. When it gets there you bolt out of its arms and through the secret passage into the building and immediately hear the sounds of a fight going on.
It doesn't take you long to find the source of it, and as you peak around the corner to see you find the Phantom Thieves fighting a bird. A really, really fast bird. They can barely land a hit on the thing, and when they finally do it barely does anything. The bird keeps moving around like it wasn't just stabbed, electrocuted, and burned all at once.
Morgana is also knocked out cold on the floor, his bandanna and fur singed at the edges. The rest of the thieves are extremely tired and must be running low on SP.
This bird shouldn't be here, hell it doesn't even look like a normal shadow! Despite knowing this is not a regular encounter in this palace it feels familiar somehow. Once you remember why it takes everything in your power not to groan.
Unfortunately not only were you a Persona player, you were a Persona player that modded the game.
Specifically, you modded it to make it harder. Much harder.
You are now seeing the consequences of your actions, but it's not like you thought you'd be forced to fight this dogshit in real life! How were you supposed to know your methods of self torture would follow you to merge with this worlds Metaverse and create nothing but problems. If you'd known you would've saved yourself the trouble. Unfortunately you can't go back in time to slap yourself in the face for thinking of downloading all of that garbage. You just have to deal with it, but you have no clue how.
It's obvious they were not prepared for a fight like this and you can't blame them, but you can't jump into the fight to give them advice. You don't have a persona, effectively making you a sitting target. A liability. You didn't bring any items to help you for this either. You can't help them, but they also can't afford to fall here.
You back away to root through any antiques or statues laying around, hoping to find anything, but instead get ambushed by a group of shadows. They knock you into a corner and radio in Kaneshiro. You think you're done for.
It's when you hear the thieves cry out at another member falling that your resolve strengths.
"It appears this flickering lamp wants to shine as bright as the stars in the sky, but still allows darkness to cover their truest desires.
Is this still a game to you? Do their deaths not matter? Should they fall, are you expecting time to reset for many second chances?"
"Of course not. They aren't characters on a screen anymore. They're living people trying to change the world for the better, and I wantā I need to help them! They can't die here!"
It blasts all the nearby shadows away, leaving you standing. Not taking any time to marvel at your new power, you leap past them to save the thieves from the bird.
After reviving Morgana and Ryuji, you help guide the Thieves on how to take down the enemy. As soon as you do you're all rushing out of the palace in the Monacar and getting to your apartment as fast as possible.
When everyone recovers, They're all grilling you for answers, wondering when you got the app on your phone, how you knew what Kaneshiroās keywords were, how you knew what to do in that fight etc. You reply with lies and excuses, which they catch you on every time. Eventually you run out and you gotta spill.
You tell them about the game (not about your original reality though), and you're surprised when they almost instantly believe you. They say it's because the way your palace worked and the talk they had with your shadow at the end.
Now that you've finally confirmed that for them they start to speculate where it couldāve come from. Yet again you're shocked they're worried more about the game then about you. They're honestly appalled and saddened you would even think that, so they reinforce you're their friend first and the knowledge you have of future events is now a really cool helpful bonus. None of them leave until you promise to use their first names from now on and confirming you're joining the team.
AmamiyaāRen stays behind for a bit longer to learn about his protagonist status. In turn he tells you he's been trying to get your confidant leveled since he learned about it (but really since he first laid eyes on you). You blame his fixation on being a protagonist to a player. He tells you he doesn't give a shit.
By the end he's relieved and explains your confidant kept locking itself, but now it's free of chains. He threatens you with the promise of him taking up multiple of your free days before leaving.
When everyone meets up again you get your code name Bug. Like a bug in a video game, you're a bug in their fate. You wouldāve denied it if Ann hadn't called it cute. Ryuji called you weak for that, then was promptly hit.
On your first actual outing as a Phantom Thief you can see how bad your modding habits have affected the Metaverse. None of the bosses have become harder then they originally should be, but more shadows then you're expecting are from your mods. You highly doubt it'll stay this way moving forward.
Now that you're helping Kaneshiroās palace is a little easier, but it's still confusing as to why modded shadows are even here. Morgana blames it on your preconceived perception being stronger than most because of the game. Basically the palace gets warped by both you and the ruler. You really wish you could call bull, but spot another bird in the distance and cry.
During down time you head into mementos by yourself to talk to Jose. You needed to know if he could tell you were from another world, and if he did to be quite about it before the rest came down for requests. You're having a nice conversation with him when fighting is heard in the distance. Peaking around the corner you find the Black Mask fighting off more of your modded shadows. He's not doing to good, and the shadows aren't making it easy to escape.
You're conflicted one whether you should help him or not. You know you should, but he's still very much Shido's lap dog rn.
Then a voice pops in your head asking if your efforts start and end with the Phantom Thieves. Of course not, so you promise yourself to save everyone you possibly can and you get your second persona.
"It appears your meddling has cause problems for more than your own.
Then end you seek goes against the will of the world, continuing down this path shall will bring great struggle and hardship.
Do you still plan to defy the gods of this world, knowing all will be against you?"
"I don't care. In this world, I'll make sureā"
Your chest burns as you gaze upon the fight happening before you. It feels like daggers are stabbing into every inch of your skin, twisting, but you stand tall. Not once taking your eyes off of what you now perceive as your ultimate goal.
"āI'll make sure no one has to die!"
"Then it would seem you have finally clipped all threads tying you to fate. I shall lend you my strength to brave this future head on!
I am thou⦠Thou art Iā¦
Carve out a path of your own and show fate its place!"
You don't allow yourself a moment to ponder the implications of getting a second persona before you're jumping into the fray to help Akechi.
After a long fight and subsequently long interrogation with a sword at your neck, you manage to convince him that you want to help. Also to wait to doubt the validity of your future knowledge by telling him about Shido's plans with Medjed. He nearly slit your throat for that alone thoughā¦
Going back to the thieves you don't say shit and you all take down Kaneshiro. Afterwards it's a barrage of studying and being dragged to hangout left and right before Akechi runs into all of you in the subway. He points out your group is sus as fuck and you can tell he expects to meet up with you later.
Meeting up in Mementos again he says he believes you and is willing to work with you to change the future cause fuck fate. Especially if it means he lives to see the fall of Shido. He also has a few choice words he wants to say to the gods you described⦠with his sword.
You both agree to plan in the background before revealing him or your full hand to the rest of the thieves. You try to at least get Ren in on it too, but Akechi can barely handle your sudden team up. He's not immediately jumping for joy at the thought of anyone else.
Alibaba shenanigans happen. The thieves try to pry who they are out of you, but you feel it's easier if they figure it out themselves. You don't know what would change if you told them and just went in. It's not worth the risk of Futaba not overcoming her perception herself or gaining her persona.
One break-in later you're in her palace and⦠It sucks.
Most of the palace has changed to reflect the many mods you injected into the game. Makoto thinks it's because her palace is so disconnected from everything else, your presence effects it more. All to say most of the shadows in here are beyond irritating. When you were playing the game, it was annoying and bullshit sure, but now actually having to fight these things has put the fear of God into you.
Every fight is life or death more than before. If a shadow can hit a weakness they will, if it has an insta-kill you better bet it's going to land it at least once, if it can inflict an ailment it just so happens it will use the more BS modded version. Burn will bring someone to the brink of death, despair saps every ounce of energy someone has left, rage is now a worse brainwash, and a ton of new ailments you wish you could remember from the mod. Of course they can access moves that shouldn't exist too.
The bosses are a whole different nightmare themselves.
Slow as you all were, you were able to make through a majority of the palace. Only to get stopped by a boss only weak to bless. You're able to get around it for now, but you need to go that way eventually. Ren doesn't have anything of value and you're no help in this case. To not risk all of your lives in this shithole he chooses to grind in Mementos to fuse a decent bless persona.
You know it won't be enough though, so you rush to inform Akechi that he might be needed earlier than planned. He asks why so you tell him how everything's gone and he blames you. After staging a meetup in Mementos Akechi joins the team as Crow to everyone's disappointment, besides you and Ren.
When you fight the boss again it's still a struggle, but Akechi makes it so much more bearable.
The palace crawling goes a little smoother than before with the extra member, but it still takes a few days to get to the end. During this time you and Akechi are desperately trying to rework your plans. You also ask him how he's holding up going through Futabaās palace, but he brushes you off redirecting you to how she would feel with him here. You feel awful and resolve to tell her when she wakes up.
The Wakaba fight happens as normal, but this time with you and Akechi included. He hates seeing her again and Ren takes notice.
When summer break officially starts for everyone Ren basically kidnaps you and Akechi. He gets you to explain yourselves and becomes the next to be in on the planning. He asks when you and Akechi planned to tell everyone else and you don't have an answer, which disappoints him. He agrees to help with initial planning to avoid all the drama that happens during and after the Hawaii trip, but only if you tell everyone afterwards.
After that you're playing the waiting game.
You hangout with the thieves, explore Mementos with Akechi and Ren, more planning + stress over the Hawaii trip after remembering the principal dies, Ren informing you over the unique state of your soulā wait what?
Apparently soon after your Mementos trip, Igor informed Ren that your soul is beyond what heās seen before. You're not a wild card, so you can't get personas on your own, but you can still wield multiple. Then when Ren asked how you could get more, he called you a leech. Someone capable of stealing personas, no matter how strong, and keep them forever. No matter how hard he tried to get it back, he wouldn't be able to without killing you. Fusing a new one would also be impossible if you were to ever obtain one, so he told Ren to be weary around you. Maybe break the team up altogether. Hell, that Akechi guy is also suuuper sketchy and untrustworthy so he totally shouldnāt be working with either of you at all.
Akechi had nothing to say about the obvious try at manipulation, while you went of on a rant about "Igor" calling you a leech.
One more Mementos trip and figuring out what the faker meant by "leech" you gain your third persona!
Around this time you also remember your palace still might exist. Out of pure curiosity you enter and find it's nothing like the thieves described. At least not anymore. Some time between now and your sudo change of heart it's shifted from a normal palace to something more akin to the thieves den. There's rooms where your personas reside in (you count six with no room for more) and what looks like a war table in the middle.
During one of your Mementos runs a door also appears for you, leading you straight into your palace. This instantly gives you an idea you can't wait to tell the planning committee.
It has to wait though because Futaba wakes up and puts a stop to the fake Medjed. The thieves then switch gears and put their efforts into making her more comfortable with all of you. Things proceed as normal, besides her outing you being a seer immediately. You correct her ("I wish. I just played a game where all of you were the characters" "Oh⦠What??") and move onto the beach episode.
Later on Futaba comes up to you and asks if you know what happened to her mother.
It's a very intense, emotionally driven conversation. You're trying desperately to explain why you had to bring Akechi in did you really though? and vaguely explain his side while Futaba is rightfully pissed off. She feels gross knowing her mothers killer was in her head.
She tells you to leave her alone and you do, now wondering if you're going about this the wrong way.
You spend the next day trying to finalize your plan with Ren and Akechi, while also trying not to let the guilt eat you from the inside out. It's also agonizingly difficult to focus when a major part of the problem is sitting next to you.
Akechi ends up pulling you to the side after one to many caught glances had his irritation bubble over. He doesn't take you brushing off the problem lightly with it impeding on the planning, so you spill and tell him what happened with Futaba.
He doesn't have much to say about this situation, not much positive anyway. Though he does say youāre the only one that can tell them what's happening, so you have to get your shit together. You fucked up, but you need to focus now so people will stop dying through the Metaverse.
The meeting concludes with no solutions made again.
There's still time before you have to call it a day, so you make cookies to act as a peace offering gift for Futaba. You knock on her door hoping she responds so you can apologize for the gross negligence of her feelings. When she doesn't respond you leave a note and homemade cookies before going home.
The next meeting you're able to stay on track and able to come up with a plan. You can't deal with Okumura, at least not yet. If you were to change his heart, Akechi will be forced to either kill him or go into hiding. Letting him die isn't an option, but going into hiding is too risky. Though you can't leave him alone either. Shido wanted him dead to begin with, if it doesn't look like the Phantom Thieves are interested in looking into him at all there's a chance he might send Akechi to kill him anyway. It's easy to forge a calling card, that's what they do with the principal after all.
So during the Hawaii school trip, Akechi will take Morgana (for the support. He says he doesn't need it but you insist) and try to recruit Haru to your cause. While he's doing that you're also waiting for the poll to pop up and fester for a little. Once it has, the idea is to make a big show of it being fraudulent and how all this evidence popping up against him is too sudden. At the end making sure to note that you will be looking into this yourselves later. Hopefully by the time everyone else comes back you'll have a new member and be ready to move onto phase two.
To change Sugimura's heart.
Haru still needs to be saved before October 11th, and the Phantom Thieves still need a public target. This kills two birds with one stone. Then on the same day you plan to send the calling card to change his heart, you'll also kidnap Okumura.
You're not actually going to do that, but the plan does involve making the public think he's gone missing. Both Ren and Akechi (and you tbh) can't believe this is what your plan devolves into, but the best way to make sure he stays alive is to keep him in somewhere safe where no one can find him. Somewhere you can easily bring him where not even he will know you're involved.
The Metaverse is the easiest solution. While Mementos isn't an option, your palace will keep him out of danger. It'd be easy to have Akechi go up, trick Okumura into the Metaverse (possibly with the help of Haru if she agrees to join), and convince him to agree to hide away for a while. Then Akechi brings him to your palace. Your personas will also make sure he won't even remember his time there.
His sudden disappearance should also cause the public's uproar a little more and Shido to question what's going on. Hopefully he's more focused on finding you guys than killing Okumura.
Safe to say you're not particularly proud of this plan, but none of you have come up with anything else and Hawaii is around the corner so this will have to do.
You're plan wavers into jot notes and vague ideas after this. Plans usually never stay on course so you have to revisit what to do when everyone's on the same boat. You have 45 days after the 11th before Shido's palace is initially supposed to start. Removing days you'll be focused on something else, that only leaves about 34 days for you to figure out something attention grabbing and follow through.
Before you can get there you still have to do the first part of your plan, and unfortunately the first part of the plan requires Futaba. She's the only one that can hack the Phansite to leave the initial message. Your positive Futaba's still mad at you and there's no way in hell she even wants to be in the same room as Akechi. That leaves Ren to try and get her on board so he leaves to go talk to her.
When he comes back he arrives with Futaba in tow. You tense when she comes over to you, but are surprised when she clings to your clothing.
"I'm still mad at you, but if you promise not to hide anything like that from me or anyone again I'll forgive you."
You give her your word and tell her you'll inform everyone once you get back from the trip to Hawaii.
She ignores the massive elephant in the room for a while longer before turning to Akechi. She starts by saying she'll never forgive him, but wants to hear why he did it though his own mouth.
He evades answering the question in any satisfying way until you heavily gesture that he should be a little honest. Once he provides the bare minimum he walks out and Ren goes after him, leaving you with Futaba. You accidental sigh out wondering if you're doing anything right. Futaba tells you you're trying to save a murderer with a tragic backstory, a rich guy that exploits the working class until they die, and are sad over not being able to help your pushover, sad excuse of a principal that happily endorses the man behind the slaughter. There's not many ways you can do any of that "correctly."
You thank her and she just reminds you that you have to tell her all about the game. When you try to say that wasn't what you promised she just turns around, pretends to not listen and threatens to rescind her forgiveness.
Ren comes back without Akechi. He informs the both of you he had to head back home, but he plans to follow through on his end of the plan. So you tell Futaba what she's going to be doing and head home yourself.
Now you're nervous about how you're plan's going to go. You hope well, but you highly doubt that after you let the rest of the thieves know Akechi is the Black Mask. Then you think about how you'd be telling them after he just killed someone and realize you should tell them a lot sooner.
School starts, you meet with everyone individually to explain what's going on. With Morgana, Ann and Yusuke it goes surprisingly better than you were expecting (though you suspect Morgana is only saving it to pester Ren about it later). Though it goes as expected with Ryuji and Makoto. They both already hated the guy so this was only adding fuel to the fire. You're hoping a talk with Ren will help Ryuji get his thoughts in order before he ends up lashing out at Akechi.
The Hawaii trip starts and the first part of the plan begins.
Futabaās able to take down the poll on the Phansite and as suspected the public lashes out. Ren makes sure to inform Mishima not to put it back up. Morgana's and Akechi's side goes through a few hiccups, but in the end Haru agrees to join and Morgana helps her get her persona. Akechi had to leave at that point to get the principal on Shido's orders then lay low.
No one was able to enjoy the trip to Hawaii.
You all get back to Japan and things still do not go smoothly in the slightest. The meeting to explain who their next target is and why is⦠rough to say the least. Makoto is being more antagonistic than you hoped for, Futaba is giving him a wide berth and still doesn't really talk to you (though both were to be expected), Ryuji is calmer than you thought he would be but still aggressive, and Morgana clearly makes his disappointment known. Ann, Yusuke, and Haru are the only ones able to get through it without unworkable levels of aggression.
Ann is one of the kindest people you've ever met and willing to give him a chance (even if it's just 'cause you and Ren like him), Haru knew from the start this time around, and Yusuke can see where Akechi came from even if he doesn't understand how it got that extreme.
Everyone is emotionally exhausted by the end of the meeting, but you're able to explain what's going on to everyone else. The others are a bit upset to learn of this. They're disappointed you went off and planned on your own (and with Akechi which is super dangerous btw what were you thinkingā) and force you to promise again to tell your teammates when something is happening. One by one. It's embarrassing but you do it.
Once that's done the hideout changes to your thieves den and you start Sugimuraās palace. It's⦠better and worse than you were expecting.
In terms of difficulty it's surprisingly not complete bullshit. You were expecting everything to be harder after the hell Futabaās palace put you through, but it's a fair mix of "harder by Persona 5 standards" and "harder by your dogshit modded standards."
In terms of palace contents⦠it's more subtle than Kamoshida's, but still painfully obvious what's happening. You all want out of this palace as soon as possible. You're happy the war table in your thieves den is seeing some use though!
The treasure is located at the very top of this skyscraper of a palace. Futaba blames the height on his ego. When you all notice the treasure room shift occasionally to a bedroom, you secure your route and leave immediately.
The next day your plan is sent into motion. Morgana leaves to deliver the calling card to Sugimura, Akechi and Haru are sent to get Okumura, and Makoto and Futaba have to make sure there's no evidence left from either. The rest of you wait until Morgana comes back with word to enter Sugimuraās palace.
While you're waiting Ren gives you another persona that cost him nearly all the yen on his person. You would've scolded him right then and there, but you were much too focused on your new addition.
Once everyone shows up, they check on you to make sure there's no side effects of him being in your palace and your personas give you the okay. Everyone is still iffy on this plan, but Haru assures everyone that she'd rather they do this then have him found dead somewhere.
After one last once over everyone heads over to steal the treasure and encounter Sugimura's shadow. He's almost as gimmicky as Okumuraās and it annoys the fuck out of everyone, but you all get through it relatively fine.
While waiting for Sugimura's heart to change you all enter a period of limbo. You and Akechi want to plan ahead, but everyone else tells you to relax for a second. You've been stressed and need to take a minute before you explode. They also bring up that Sugimura hasn't even apologized yet so the waiting game begins again. During this time Haru tries to keep the business afloat as best she can before you can help with her father, Ren accidentally enters Maruki's palace with Yoshizawa, Akechi's keeping tabs on Shido, and you all enter Mementos a couple times when everyone's free to train and let off steam.
The celebration is still held at Destinyland. The trip is a little stained with stress, but you try to enjoy yourself anyway before you have to think about the future. You have more fun then you thought you would running around an amusement park just for yourselves. Akechi can't join since he has to play to Shido's whims and act like he's still looking, so you and Ren take a bunch of pictures and buy him souvenirs. At the end of the day you're all sitting around eating when Haru gets notified about a live stream and your blood runs cold.
For a brief moment you think you've failed at saving someone again, but your personas chime in and say Okumuraās still in your palace, and there was no way for Shido to know about Sugimura. It still does little to calm your nerves.
When Haru tunes in it appears to be a news live stream talking about Sugimuraās apology statement. He made what you could only assume was this worlds equivalent to a twitlonger. Explaining what he did and why he was so sorry and that he'd be stepping down to better himself. While there was no death on live TV this time around (thank god), this is still a little disappointing with no promise of jail time.
Ann and Yusuke note that this whole thing felt hollow. You all took down someone obviously deserving, but it feels like you didn't do anything. Makoto marks that on top of Sugimura not showing himself for his apology, it's probably because of the public's reaction.
They seemed.. split at best of this turn of events. A majority are unsatisfied to a certain extent. A lot of people where happy when they heard of everything Sugimura was doing, but a lot of people were still upset. No one knew who Sugimura even was (he's in politics so really that's their own fault but whatever), so the apology feels hollow. Yes you changed the heart of a scumbag, but how did you even find this guy? How'd you end up investigating him when the entirety of the internet was rallying behind Okumura?
Technically, this is still good for you. The Phantom Thieves just need to get their name out thereāit doesn't necessarily have to be all positive, but it still leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Some of the others are more infuriated with the public perception as well.
Despite all your efforts, the night at Destinyland still ends on a sour note.
The next day during a meeting between you all (still minus Akechi), Okumuraās disappearance finally breaks out on the news.
This makes the public unrest even more palpable. A more than insignificant amount of people blaming the Phantom Thieves for not going after him first and letting him get away. Some people note that if the Phantom Thieves could find Kaneshiro, then surely you guys could find Okumura too! Some are also going so far as to suggest you kidnapped him, which isn't that far, but he agreed to be protected in the first place and it's wild they came up with that at all.
It makes every thief antsy and hard to keep their stress at bay. A new targetāor at least something else eye-catching obviously has to be found soon. No one has any ideas though, not even you. Ann suspects the public won't be happy with whatever you do anyway. If it's not finding and changing Okumuraās heart they won't care.
Then Makoto reminds everyone that you all have to lay low for a while and act like normal students. Tensions are too high to do anything rash, and you have midterms to study for anyway. Disappointed and anxious, everyone splits off.
The next few days is a barrage of studying with your friends exams. You try your best to keep your mind off of everything and all of them are really good at acting like clowns or actually helping you study.
Coming into Shujin the day after you overhear some kids talking about the police. You⦠completely forgot about the investigation, so you quickly inform everyone over the group chat. Ryuji bashes you slightly for forgetting. Then Akechi is brought up and why he didn't say anything and hasn't said anything for a while now. He finally comes on, types out "I'm busy" and promptly leaves again. After Makoto remarks that everyone should be careful with what they say everyone shuts their phones off.
You're stressed during your interrogation, but they don't ask you much questions so you think you got through it fine. All they really did was ask easy yes or no questions you already knew not to lie about.
After school everyone meets at your place to discuss the interrogation, then move onto the investigation. They ask you if you remember what's going on, but before you can say anything Akechi appears out of thin air. When everyone shouts in surprise he's taking out the battery in his phone and tells everyone else to do the same.
He arrived at your apartment through the Metaverse 'cause he needed to be absolutely sure no one was tailing him. After they do that he finally divulges as to why he's been absent for so long.
He was busy dealing with everything at the precinct and trying to understand the sudden cold shoulder he's receiving from Shido.
Shido's still holding meetings with him, but all of them haven't been for anything important. No exchange of information, no targetsāhe's not even venting anymore, Shido's giving him nothing. It's all just to waste time, so Akechi can only assume Shido's become suspicious of him and trying to fish for evidence. A change in behaviour, connections he might have made, anything. All the extra work that's been piled on top of him is also probably to increase his stress and chances of tripping up.
To add onto the horrendous news he just dropped on you, he also informs everyone that Sae Niijima is on the brink of falsifying a case on the Phantom Thieves.
They ask how they managed to deal with all this in the game, and you tell them Ren just told her everything that happened and she joined their efforts. Before they get too happy about it though, you do note that Ren was locked in an interrogation room deep underground, beaten, and drugged. This was also after she received a calling card, so who knows if she'll listen as willingly as she did then.
"The police did WHAT!?"
"Long story worth over 100 hours of game playā look it's probably not going to happen so can we move on?"
"You can't just say that and expect us to get over it!"
Pushing aside the horrifying reality how far the police brutality and corruption goes, you can't talk to Sae Niijima without something more concrete to get her on your side. Since their ticket to taking it even a little easier is off the table, you all still have to lay low for a while. Makoto enlists all the second years to help in the festival executive committee to meet without suspicion.
Planning for the festival is as boring as you thought it was, and unfortunately the student body still want to see Akechi as their celebrity guest. He outright refuses to step anywhere near Shujin unless it's for an investigation, so you have to lie to the student body and get someone else "oh, we apologize, but we couldn't get Akechi. He's currently very busy working on the Phantom Thieves case and can't spare any time to stop by. So sad⦠anywayā"
The Cultural Festival is still a moderately fun time despite the impending doom it feels like your group is currently facing. Spending time with everyone takes your mind off of it at least for a little while.
The next day you wake up and remember the thieves are supposed to get slapped with a large bounty and hurry to watch the news. You played it the entire morning and even on the way to school, but no announcement of a bounty ever came. The Phantom Thieves still become wanted, but the police only ask for any information
It puts you on edge enough to inform everyone about the change. While they're glad there's no bounty on their heads, it's still concerning, and gives more credence into Shido putting his efforts into investigating Akechi. He is Shido's best asset, so having even an inkling that Akechi might have turned means a tighter leash on him and less opportunities for him to help you guys.
Not wanting to sit around and wait for Akechi to plan your next steps (he'd call you all morons if you ever did that anyway), Ren decides to at least scope out Maruki's palace to see if they could possibly deal with that earlier.
When you get in everything seems normal, but when you try and go beyond the entrance you all end up back outside. Going back in and trying another door yields the same results. Hearing laughing in the distance only makes the Thieves want to figure out what's going on more, so after Futaba checks the surrounding she says to try the front door twice. You walk in, turn around, and walk right through the door you just came in and somehow it leads you to⦠an empty hallway. Granted it is a different room, but it's still not really progress.
Everyone is already fed up with this palace when going back through the door again doesn't lead you back to the entrance, but into another hallway with more doors.
You are so lost at this point since none of this should even be happening at all. Yusuke wonders if this is some form of punishment for trying to do this "earlier" than intended, and Morgana thinks it might be some sort of defense mechanism.
Low and behold Morgana ends up being correct! Azathoth comes around claiming the cat is right and that he is protecting the palace in his rulers place. He laughs everyone for thinking he'd let them get anywhere, ignores any attempts made to fish for answers, and leaves.
Ryuji opens one of the doors in frustration and nearly gets punched in the face by a shadow.
You all spend⦠more time than you'd like to admit running around opening doors. Each new pathway always taking you back to the start at the end of it. Once everyone's to exhausted to continue and agrees that nothing's going to get done at this rate you finally leave.
You and Ren tell Akechi about everything that happened and he focuses on the fact Maruki's persona was personally talking to you guys. He thinks this would be a good opportunity to get information on Maruki without actually having to talk to him. He also notes that making progress in his palace might be impossible without learning more about his powers anyway. Ren agrees with him, so Akechi does his best to get time off for tomorrow.
Akechi manages to pull through, so the next day you're back in Maruki's palace with him in tow this time, hoping to gain something out of this visit. Be it information or by some miracle, progress.
Azathoth is there to greet you as soon as you step inside and calling your group "bold" for daring to come back. Akechi steps forward to try and manipulate it into telling him how Maruki's powers work. Azathoth see's through it though being able to read Akechi's mind, and instead offers to show everyone. Then it teleports everyone to different sides of the palace and places them under the effects of actualisation. It doesn't end up working on you since Azathoth isn't actually able to read into your deepest memories. There's not enough for him to draw upon to actualise into a fantasy for you, so instead to keep you out of the way he places you onto a pedestal. It's high enough that if you were to jump off you'd without a doubt break something.
When you're put up there all you can think about is the event that got you sent to this world in the first place, and break down. You're there for a while, hyperventilating and begging for someoneāanyoneāto get you down from there. You freak out when something starts to circle around your waist and pull you upwards until you're pulled into somebody. It takes a bit longer for you to calm down and open your eyes, and when you do your vision is filled with floating holograms filled with code and random hieroglyphs fluttering across the walls.
Futaba continues holding onto you tightly, trying to ground you and asks if you're doing any better. When you tell yes she says she's going to make her persona spit the both of you back onto the ground now. It's a short distance so you should be fine! You give her the okay and wait for your feet to finally touch the floor before you're thanking her profusely. She's a little embarrassed, but otherwise brushes it off. You're her friend and her teammate, she would never leave you in that kind of position. Especially when she knows how awful it is to feel that panicked.
Taking another moment to fully calm yourself, you remember everyone was supposed to be put under the effects of actualisation, and ask Futaba how she was able to save you.
She tells you she was, but her persona alerted her to you being in trouble. When she arrived and saw you in that state she realized she was in a fantasy and had to snap out of it to help you. You thank her again and set off to find the rest of your teammates.
You both end up coming across Ryuji and Makoto and freeing them from their fantasies, and afterwards you hear something collapse in the distance. Futaba brings you to where it supposedly happened, and when you enter you find the place has been utterly demolished.
Following the path of destruction leads you to Akechi. He's a mess. Breathing heavily on the floor and completely disheveled. He nearly cuts your head off when you try to walk towards him, but quickly puts his sword away when he realizes it's the real you.
The others stay off to the side while you're helping him up. Makoto asks him what happened here and Akechi's only response is to call this his hell.
They would've asked why, had the room not started to shift. Akechi's hold on you tightens as everything that was broken gets put back where it was in peak condition, and a couple people start to form out of the dust that was scattered across the floor.
Oh.
It's his parents.
You don't know much about his mother, other than the fact she killed herself, but watching Shido attempt to be fatherly towards Akechi is enough to make you gag. You can't begin to fathom how Akechi is taking this himself.
It quickly sinks in for the others what the gravity of the situation is. With the way his grip on you tightens even further, and the way his other hand twitches as if ready to throw his blade through their skull.
You're positive you're moments away from entering a fight, when lightning strikes them both, shocking them in place. It's Ryuji who announces it's time to leave, grabbing your other arm and bolting off with Futaba in Makoto's grasp running beside you.
"He's your dad??? No wonder you turned out the way you did."
"If the peanut gallery could shut the fuck up and focus on escaping I'm sure that'd be beneficial to everyone!"
You're all panicking running through hallway after hallway and coming to the realization that the house has suddenly turned into maze. You're weaving through the cognitions attacks and doing whatever you can to try and slow it down so you can backtrack if you ever come across a dead end.
Eventually you find the door you used to get in here, but it won't budge which effectively makes it a dead end. You quickly turn around to try and find a different exit, but the cognitions have caught up to you and trapped you there. They fuse together with a bunch of objects in the surrounding area and become an amalgamation of things you assume Akechi's supposed to love. There's no way around it now, so you're forced to fight it.
The only thing this⦠thing seems to be weak to is gun, but very quickly you all run out of bullets. It seemed like all anyone could do was scratch it when trying anything else, and soon the fight turned from "is this weak to any other element?" to "is there anything in this area I can throw at it to simulate gun damage?"
In the midst of everyone outside of Akechi rooting through household objects, Futaba is able to come up with a plan. A plan that requires Akechi to enter her persona with her for a bit while the rest of you keep the cognition occupied. Akechi's the only one with gun skills so it'd be a pain to let him off the front lines, but you all trust Futaba and tell him to get in the UFO. After a moment of hesitation he eventually does.
They're separated from the fight for some time, long enough for the pressure to start being felt by the rest of you, but Akechi soon descends from Necronomicon. He walks past everyone, only to aim his gun right at the cognition. Futaba tells the rest of you to stand back before starting to charge his gun. That's when you notice the green pixels flying off of his gun in sparks.
Once it's fully charged and Futaba shouts at him to fire, you're surprised when he calls out to Hereward and is actually able to summon him.
Hereward shoots its arrow at the same time Akechi pulls the trigger and creates a massive explosion on impact with the cognition. When the smoke dissipates and you see no part of that monstrosity remained, the doors behind you opened. Everyone is swift to make their exit, and while you are too, you can't help but ask about what you just witnessed.
"When'd you get Hereward!? You've been using Loki this whole time??"
"Just now."
"???"
You're utterly confused and Akechi refuses to elaborate. When you look towards the others to see if they have any answer, Makoto shakes her head, Ryuji shrugs, and Futaba looks away.
While wandering around looking for any of the other Thieves, Makoto and Ryuji waste no time asking what the hell all of that just was. Akechi for the first time willingly answers questions asked of him (no you're not upset he answered them and not you. Of course not). The questions he chose to answer end up with him talking shit about Shido and ignoring everything else, but it does help the three not in the know understand him more.
Finally you run into the Thieves not already with you and make a b-line to the exit. It's safe to say this try at Maruki's palace was also a bust, so you leave pretty dejected having made no progress at all.
Everyone's moodāthough already sourāimmediately gets shot when you bump into Sae Niijima as soon as you leave the palace.
Filled with confusion, suspicion, and righteous fury, she demands you come with her to her apartment.
She was looking for Akechi. It was urgent, and he wasn't responding to her messages. When she asked around, the last place people saw him at was the stadium. She went thinking he was following a clue, only to see all of you appearing out of thin air.
Once you get there, the conversation with her quickly devolves. It turns from Sae sternly talking to you all and everyone trying to provide her with answers, to her yelling about all the trouble your group has caused and everyone frantically trying to rebut her claims. She doesn't believe a word any of you say and finds it baffling that you're somehow the cause behind Japan's recent incidents. You're at your wits end when she starts to harp on Makoto for getting involved with the Phantom Thieves, comparing her to their father, then trying to walk away.
None of you can allow her though, not when she's still so wound up and will clearly sell you out immediately. Makoto and Ryuji block her way to the door and everyone is trying to get her to listen, but it only makes her more agitated. When all seems to be reaching a boiling point, you hear someone behind you starting up the navigation app and without delay you're all sent into the Metaverse.
The house for the most part looks the same, except now there are two Makotos. It's Akechi that passes from behind you, dressed in his red and white rebel outfit, and explains why he sent everyone here. The only way to make sure she couldn't leave and force her to listen to us was to show her. What better way to show her than with her own palace?
Sae's still angry, even when looking at two Makotos she just thinks it's some form of joke, until Morgana starts to speak. Almost instantly all anger turns into confusion, and gets worse when you tell her that's your cat.
Now she's finally willing to listen to you, Ren's able to explain what's going on from when he arrived to now with everyone else chiming in here and there. To help explain the concept of Palaces to her, since you were already in one you went towards where her casino is. It's a reality check for her, when you explain what's in there and she has a brief encounter with her shadow.
Afterwards you exit her palace. She tells you she understands what you guys are doing now and that she needs a moment to clear her head. You still can't fully trust that she won't tell anybody, so Makoto elects to go with her for support.
Now that you all can finally breath everyone nearly collapses where they are.
You melt into your chair while everyone else talks about the events leading up to now. You chime in a couple times when they're talking about Sae, then they start to talk about what happened in Maruki's palace.
They each go over their own experiences when you all were separated by Azathoth. You learn Ren wasn't one of the people completely effected by the actualisation. He was put into a fantasy, but couldn't be fooled into thinking it was real so he was able to escape and help the others you and Futaba didn't find.
Despite the others mostly opening up (Everyone involved in Akechi's skirts around the topic. Akechi just calls it shit and asks to move on) you're very brief about yours and completely downplay the event, only saying that Azathoth couldn't use actualisation on you for reasons unknown and just put you somewhere high up so you couldn't interfere. You don't get to move on from it though, because Futaba ends up mentioning how awful you actually felt. While explaining the fantasy that Azathoth gave to her brought her mother back, the only way she realized it was fake was because she ended up in the room you where kept in. You were near inconsolable and could barely hear a word she was saying. The only way to help was to snap out of the fantasy herself and use her persona to get you down from there.
You get sympathy looks from some that you wave off as just your fear of heights getting the better of you, but the others look at you with some form of guilt. That's when Ann asks if it's really just a fear of heights. You're confused as to why she'd even ask, then she brings up your palace and you freeze. Then you realize everyone looking at you with some form of guilt are the ones that explored your palace ages ago.
They explain the only way to defeat your shadow without killing it was to use your fear of heights against it. It screamed a lot and they felt terrible for doing it, and one of the many things it ended up shout at them was "Please, I'll do whatever you want, just don't push me."
You're horrified that they've known this the whole time and they feel bad for forgetting to ask. Now everyone is staring at you waiting for you to say literally anything in response, but you have no idea how to tell them. You still don't even want to think about it.
Before you can say anything and therefore can keep delaying processing all of that, the TV cuts to a broadcast. Unfortunately, it'd the SIU Director.
Everyone in the room glances to Akechi for answers, but he's unfortunately just as confused as everyone else. That in itself is terrible news.
He proceeds to go on and on about how the Phantom Thieves are an egregious danger to this society, how outside of hacking their ways of "changing hearts" are completely unknown. Are they getting blackmail? Are they threatening them in person? Could they possibly be staging every ordeal? Or is it something even more sinister? Then he blames the death of principal Kobayakawa on them, how there was a calling card found in his office yet statements on it were kept quiet, and suggests that something similar might've happened to Okumura. He states these "Phantom Thieves of Hearts" to be public enemy number one and offers a fifty million yen reward for any information useful to the investigation.
Everyone is shocked and outraged, but falls silent when Akechi's phone rings. He answers the call in another room while the rest of you sit in tense silence.
When he comes back he reveals he's been given a deadline. Find and kill the Phantom Thieves before the end of November. Shido didn't say what would happen if he didn't, but it's not hard to piece together what the consequences are.
Everyone takes a moment to calm down while waiting for Sae and Makoto to come back and tell them what just happened. Sae promises that she won't sell you out and suggests that you all should go home so you can think things through with a clear head tomorrow.
The next day when you all come together you get to planning. It's clear Shido and the Director are trying to goad you into delving into the palace of someone on the investigation team. That would severely lower the number of people Akechi has to look into. You can't go after the Director since that would still be falling into his trap yet again. It seems the only way to stop this is and save yourselves + Akechi at the same time is to go after the man himself to expose the conspiracy.
So now you have to switch gears and deal with Shido before Akechiās deadline. The only problem is you still have Okumura tucked away in your palace. You don't know how much time you'll have after you beat Shido before the Metaverse takeover, so you're going to have to complete two palaces at the same time. Knowing how each palace has gone up to this point, both are going to be extremely hard as well.
Everyone is stressed and already exhausted, so you all decide to go home and rest for tomorrow. Before you get too far away though Ren pulls you aside and asks you to follow him. He brings you into Mementos telling you he has a persona for you. You're excited for about two seconds until he tells you it's Hell Biker.
"Are you being serious right now?"
"He has fifty in magic and sixty in agility."
"I'm listening."
Ren tells you he's been working on Hell Biker alongside ArsĆØne since he learned he could give you personas. Now seemed like a good time to give him to you since you'll need all the coverage and firepower your team can get. Also because he's worried. He's worked on this forever (3 months) he needs you to have him.
You're overjoyed you get to have one of the skeletons on your team and at how much work Ren put into him.
When you accept him into your heart you're expecting the serene experience with slight hints to their element thrown in that the other personas given to you had. What you were not expecting was for a burn so intense to bring you to your knees and adrenaline to start pumping through your veins. It's even more surprising to watch his form morph into something else. Not by much, but noticeable enough to question why anything about it was changing in the first place. Then he speaks,
"So you are the one that changes fate? Very well. I am Ghost Rider, and together we will be the saviours of the innocent! Let us show those sinners the true meaning of Hell!"
Half of his moves also mutate into better versions of themselves, before the burn fades away and your body releases its tension.
Ren helps you up as you both watch the newly formed Ghost Rider hitch up his monster of a motorcycle in one of the side areas and everything around it change to match. Switching from looking at him to his stats you find they've all increased.
"⦠This is the best thing you could have ever given to me."
Ren, after getting over his shock, of course acts cocky about it before you check him in the arm. He laughs it off, then sincerely tells you he's happy it got stronger for you. He still needs to figure out what the best persona would be for your last slot, so the sudden mutation was beneficial in the meantime.
The next day you all meetup again to decide what to do. You only have around a month, given the deadline Shido's set for Akechi, but who knows if he'd pull the trigger earlier then that. That makes Shido top priority, but you canāt ignore the possibility of that being the catalyst of the Metaverse takeover. If that happens then you can't do anything to Okumura. Seeing as it'd be too inefficient to do one before the other, it comes to the terrible conclusion to do them at the same time. If you split into to teams, one to work on Okumuraās palace and one to do Shidoās, then the problems they could potentially face down the line don't apply.
No one really wants to, either because they know the next palaces are going to be extremely hard or because the thought of going in with a small group in itself is difficult, but you all know you can pull it off. You have to.
After some deliberation, you all manage to decide who's going to be on what team.
On operation Shido there's Joker, Crow, Mona, Panther, and Fox, while on operation Okumura has You, Skull, Queen, Oracle, and Noir.
It felt wrong to move either Ren or Akechi to do Okumuraās Palace since they both have a personal stake in Shido's. You, obviously, were sent to Okumuraās as the only other person with multiple personas and knowledge of his palace. As much as you'd love to help them deal with that piece of shit, the firepower is needed on Okumuraās side.
That does leave both wildcard's in the other palace, so you can't help but ask who's supposed to be the leader on your team. Everyone gives you various looks, from surprised, to disbelief, and amusement. It takes you a moment to understand why.
"⦠Wait it's me!? I don't know the first thing about leading a team!"
"Haven't you technically already lead our team to victory multiple times?"
"Yeah, in the game! This is completely different I don't know the first thing aboutā"
Ren places a hand on your shoulder to stop you before you ramble yourself into a panic. He only had one thing to say,
"You'll be fine."
You don't know if you should be embarrassed that was all it took for you to calm down.
Once you discuss a little more on how each team is going to operate you split off. Each group going towards their respective targets location to start their palaces. Ren does make sure to give you half of the coffee and curry supply to hopefully make up for the half of the team your missing. He also tries to shove a majority of his healing items and smoke bombs onto you since your team doesn't have a backup member. It takes a while before you get on the train to head towards Okumura foods.
You arrive with your members and find an alleyway nearby to go over his palace in more detail. When you're about to head inside so you can use the war table in your palace to help with descriptors, you get a message from Ren. He's telling you to hold on for a moment and saying he's leaving the final decision to you. You would've asked him what he meant if the answer didn't come barreling into you at top speed.
It's Yoshizawa. She wants to help.
You want to deny her help since this has nothing to do with her at all and the stakes have gotten extremely dire, but she's still insistent. Especially since she figured out you're going in with such a small group. You can't deny that you know she's good and having an extra person would only be beneficial, so after talking it over with the others, you acquiesce and let her on the team as Violet. Though, you make her promise that this is going to be the only palace she helps you with.
Now that your team has a party of 5 attackers, 3 of which can also heal (that's including you), and a navigator, it makes you feel a little better about diving into Okumuraās palace.
You head into your palace first to get Yoshizawa up to speed and describe the layout of Okumuraās palace (at least the games layout. You don't know if it's changed or not). Once everyone's got everything down you head into his palace proper.
You find Okumuraās palace has altered in ways that makes it all the more irritating to get through. He is simultaneously, more confident in his position, yet more terrified of getting taken down one way or another. The shaky agreement you currently have with him saves him from Shido, but now he also knows Shido wants him dead. Sure you've lent out your hand to help him, but the Phantom Thieves are still a rouge vigilante group that change the hearts of the corrupt, and the Black Mask is an assassin working for Shido. Even if siding with you guys is a safer bet, to him every side is a loss.
His shadow is⦠without a better way to put it, completely delusional because of this. He never physically shows himself, but he's constantly heard over the speakers and occasional TV broadcast. It drives all of you insane, though it does lead you to learning how to navigate the area faster.
On one of your runs through and quickly getting tired of hearing Okumuraās shadow mouthing off, you remark how nice it would be if Prometheus could carry you all. Futaba tells you she could fit one extra person in there at most. Ryuji then says it would be nice if they could all just ride their personas, before summoning Seiten Taisei and attempting to jump onto his cloud.
It works.
That in turn makes you summon Ghost Rider to try and get on his bike. After he scoots back a bit you perfectly fit on the seat infront of him.
Makoto gets on Anat in motorcycle form, Haru is able to join behind her, and Futaba lets Yoshizawa into Prometheus.
With this revelation the palace exploration goes by much quicker. You're even able to skip a couple of the puzzles thanks to both yours and Ryuji's lack of self preservation (you both mostly just want to reach the end to make Okumura shut up).
"I bet I could make that jump."
"I could just fly over."
"How about that's a long fall with spinning gears at the bottom so neither of you should do anything!"
In about a week, your team reaches the end of Okumuraās palace and secures the route to his treasure. When you reach the rendezvous point excited to tell the others about the news, it's dampened when you notice the other team hasn't arrived yet. Makoto then notes you've arrived a little early and to give them a bit more time to show up.
Over ten minutes past the meetup time and they still haven't shown up. Futaba checks to see if their phones are even getting service. They aren't, so they must still be in the Metaverse.
Worried for their safety, you all agree to go to Shido's palace. Though you make sure Yoshizawa gets on the train home first and promise to text her when you're out. None of you want her anywhere near the politician.
As soon as you enter, Futaba tracks their location and you all set off. It's when she notices there's a powerful signature in the area with them you get her to patch you all into coms.
"Joker! What's going on over there? Are you guys okay??"
"What theā What are you guys doing here!?"
"You were late!"
You're all speeding towards the location Futaba gave you when an explosion suddenly shakes the yacht. The others are frantic on the other side of coms and when you reach the side of the boat they're on you can see why.
They're fighting way off the side of the boat on pillars of ice. The side of the ship where you vaguely remember the IT President's room is lit ablaze. Almost like a meteor struck that exact spot. You assume that was the cause of the explosion earlier.
The others are trying to ask what the hell happened here. Key word trying, since they're frantic themselves and trying to figure out a way up that won't have everyone slip and fall into the water below. Eventually Ren breaks away for a moment to give you answers.
This is the IT Director. He was just some nerd in a suit, but then they accidentally pissed him off. He proceeded to turn into Oberon, shock everyone in the room, take the letter and fly off the side of the ship. They've been trying to get him back on the ship, but he's as fast as a bullet, and anytime they get close he summons a Titania to protect him. Titania also keeps breaking the pillars and it's taking a toll on Yusuke. Akechi then interrupts to ask if you're going to stand around and watch, or get up there and help.
Ryuji and Futaba fly up to get to the fight faster while you, Makoto, and Haru have to climb up the side of the yacht to jump over. It takes all of you to enact a plan to get the IT Director back on the ship, and when he is, you and Ren waste no time trapping him there. Surrounded by a wall of fire, he has no where to go as you both pummel him into the ground and take the letter from him. At that Ren calls it a day and you all head back.
(Of course you inform Yoshizawa about what happened and it takes a long time to calm her of her guilt and to stop worrying about you all)
The next day you're debating whether you should steal Okumura's treasure now or closer to Shido's. There's good points for both, waiting mostly in favour of his safety, but Akechi brings up how useful Okumura could be if done now. He could be an immense boon once they plan to write and send out Shido's calling card since he was deep into the conspiracy. While true, Futaba does clap back that they'd still have to wait for the change of heart to fully come into affect. Who knows how long that'd take or if it'd even get done in time. Then there's the obvious problem if Shido finds out he's back he'd just try to kill him.
It's Haru that steps up next, saying she could keep his return a secret from everyone. That way there'd be little risk in taking his treasure now. Even if the change isn't finished in time, they'll at least won't have to worry about it later. When everyone asks if she's okay with the possibilities of it going wrong, she solidifies her stance. She wants her father to get better, but she also wants to make sure Shido gets convicted for as much of his crimes as possible. So she'll make sure both succeed.
The only problem with the plan is the public's opinion since they wouldn't be able to make a grand gesture of Okumura's calling card, but at this point no one cares that much. If anything they're irritated that public opinion matters that much at all. There isn't anyone with a better plan that appeases the public while also dealing with both of their targets in a better manner so it has to do anyway.
Later on, you have Sae deliver the calling card to Okumura, feigning that it was left at the door and interrogating him over it. When she tells you he read it and looked manic your previous team absolutely dreads the fight. The others that have yet to experience his palace worry for the state of it at your reactions.
Okumura's fight, for better or for worse, has barely seen any changes. The only difference is him being more frantic in his decisions and overall being more unpredictable. Which sucks since all the shadows and cognitions have more nullifications and repels that always comes back to bite you. He's also yapping the whole fight, and while your team was used to his nonsense (unfortunately), the other team was not. You're pretty sure Akechi would've shot him if he wasn't trying to be as careful as possible.
When you finally win the fight and take his treasure, you're now waiting for it to take effect and acting as normal as possible.
During the waiting game, Akechi is almost never around since he still has to act like he's searching for the Phantom Thieves, but there is one day where he asks to meet you in your palace. When you arrive he's already there, and he doesn't wait long before he's
He tells you he's giving you Loki.
You think he's insane.
Then he starts to go off on how he doesn't really need Loki, Hereward and him are basically the same. Hereward is just stronger in every way and knows Rebellion Blade. He also doesn't even need Loki's ability anymore and Hereward has a more useful ability anyway. And he's not annoying like Loki is soā
Akechi's basically giving you the worst sales pitch in the world, but you start to figure out where this decision is really coming from. Without another moment of hesitation you stop him from further making a fool of himself to give your answer.
"Sounds like a pain. I'd be more than happy to take him off your hands."
After he collects himself, Akechi begins the transfer and Loki slowly comes into your view. The feeling is just as intense as it was with Ghost Rider, but instead of the feeling of fire coursing through your veins, it's a bone chilling freeze creeping up your spine. Though this time you're prepared and continue to stand tall. You don't want to collapse encase Loki would see that as a weakness and somehow reject you, but he breaks that train of thought quickly.
"YOU ALREADY KNOW OF ME, AND I OF YOU. YOU HAVE PROVED YOUR WORTH LONG AGO. WE SHALL CLAIM VICTORY OVER ALL AND LET NOTHING STAND IN OUR WAY. MAY THE GODS FALL BENEATH OUR FEET."
When Loki's fully accepted into your heart and the pain subsides, you watch as the last room in your Thieves Den morph into one perfectly fitting for him. Then you go to check his stats and can't believe what you're looking at. His move pool is so much larger than any of your other personas. You have to do a double take and count everything just to make sure you're not making things up.
You have access to everything.
Every move or ability Loki has ever used is available to you.
Including Call of Chaos.
You're staring at the list in shock while Loki is laughing somewhere in the room. If he's laughing at you, at the mayhem he thinks/hopes you'll get up to, or just at the situation you don't know. Akechi walks next to you looking more smug than he was before.
"I hope he does you well."
You're overwhelmed. So overwhelmed that you don't think twice before you're pulling him into a hug. He's stiff for a moment, then relaxes and just lets it happen.
"Thank you Akechi."
"⦠It's Goro."
While you're stunned at the next emotional bomb he just dropped on you, Akechi successfully pushes you away and promptly speed walks over to the exit. He informs you he's stayed around for too long and has to get back to looking like he's doing work, then makes his leave.
A couple days later with no sign of Okumura getting out of his slump or Shido making any sort of moves, you all head back into Shido's palace. Everyone's relieved to finally have the full party back together again. Especially knowing that this last letter will probably have them run into cognitive Akechi. A fight that sounds like it's going to be extremely taxing since they're expecting The Cleaner to be hard enough.
Once you take out his goons and follow him into the Engine Room, you're unfortunately proven right. He has no weaknesses, something you were expecting since the original is the same, but he's also immune to your strongest fighters. It's completely irritating, but more doable than the last guy was and you beat him without too much issue. The real problem comes after.
Everyone heals up and replenishes their energy before leaving the Engine Room, to unfortunately be greeted by cognitive Akechi waiting on the other side.
He spouts a lot of nonsense similar to what he originally said in the game, everyone disputes him, Goro tells him to fuck off and die, and the fight commences.
This world's Shido must've thought he was some unkillable god of some kind in the Metaverse 'cause the fight is utterly ridiculous. It doesn't help that he keeps summoning shadows to his side, making the fight more cluttered than it needed to be. You all know Shido's faith in Goro has waned though, so everyone tries to figure out where to poke to get the cognition to slip.
When everyone is on that, Goro slips over to you to ask if you know how to use Loki. When you reply that of course you do, he's your persona now, Goro just says that's great and to get ready. As soon as the others find cognitive Akechiās breaking point, you and Goro strike. The look on the cognitions face when he realizes the real Goroās no longer the one in control of Loki is absolutely priceless.
It's a thrill moving in tandem with Goro. There's a level of sheer violence that no one else has that's so invigorating all you can do is laugh alongside him. You don't bat an eye when he shoots his doppelganger in the face. If anything you feel lighter than you did before.
That's one fate you've finally managed to change for good. Even though you still have a ways to go before you're out of the absolute worst of it, it still feels like your efforts are finally bearing fruit. The cognition you just watched Goro wipe being the proof.
Now with all the letters in your possession, you're able to open the door and secure the route to Shido's treasure. Now all that's left is to see if Okumura will change in time, or if you have to continue without his additions.
A few days after, Haru informs everyone Okumura's change of heart has finally gone through. She had to do a lot of convincing to get her father to stay put and not make any sudden announcements, but he did eventually concede. With a little bit of negotiating with Sae and a few scant sightings of Black Mask, Okumura agrees to help the Phantom Thieves take down Shido (not that he needed much convincing, but some definitely needed to be made when it came to what information needs to shared to the public and what can wait for trial).
It takes a couple more days to get the footage, but when you do
It goes over about the same as it did in the game. The Phantom Thieves hacking multiple news stations to send out their video calling card to Shido. With the addition of you of course, but Goro refused to make an appearance. Despite everything he still doesn't want to openly associate with the Phantom Thieves, and says it's beneficial for it to stay that way.
One major change does happen at the end, which makes the public go wild (and you can only hope it drives Shido mad). Okumura makes his appearance at the end, openly apologizing for everything he's done and lifting the veil on the conspiracy. Shido is a maniac, and has an assassin he only knows as the Black Mask under his belt. He is responsible for all of the mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns happening around Japan. All he can do now is apologize profusely for his appalling behaviour in taking apart of this and turn himself into the police.
When his section cuts off and the declaration to steal Shido's heart has been made you all jump in.
The talk with Shido's shadow at the start is⦠rough to say the least, but it's not like you weren't expecting that. It was already charged when it was just the Phantom Thieves with Ren. Now that Goro's here too it makes listening to him so much more infuriating.
The fight is also more or less what you expected. The horrendous fusion of Shido's ego and the bonus difficulty increase was comically easy to guess and plan around. Granted it doesn't make the battle any easier to actually fight against, but you're as prepared as you possibly could. Especially Ren, who's somehow managed to become over prepared, but at this point you can't even blame him.
When you get separated from the battle with the other Phantom Thieves, it leaves the only ones left facing Shido to be Ren Amamiya and Goro Akechi.
In any other instance you'd be worried, every fight up to this point has been made so much harder, but you already know they'd never let him get the upper hand again. No matter how much harder he may be, he's going down now, and you get front row seats for such a spectacle.
There is a moment where you're worried Goro may actually go through with his original convictions and kill Shido, but Ren manages to talk him down from that. Goro also doesn't want to squander their chances of getting the other criminal convicted and killing a god, so instead he says he hopes Shido rots in prison and dies at somebody else's hand.
That's when the palace starts to collapse.
Without another moment to spare, Morgana transforms into his bus form for everyone to hop on, while those that can ride their own personas take the lead.
It's anxiety inducing dodging all the falling rubble and trying to pick paths that whoever is driving Morgana is able to follow through. A few times you've had to go a different way or just blast your way through the falling ship, but you quickly make your way to the start of the yacht.
Not wanting to even attempt getting the lifeboat (even though your memory of the game has slowly faded with time, you will never forget the Ryuji scare) you have everyone drive immediately into your palace. You get stuck there for a bit while it's deciding where it should spit you out now that the original exit is gone, but no one cares. You've all finally accomplished one of the biggest hurdles in your way.
With both Okumura and Shido having a change of heart, the public and the police force are frantic. Sae outright tells you your group is highly suspected to be the Phantom Thieves at this point, but they don't have any evidence to make an arrest. You're forced to lay low and not draw more suspicion towards yourselves unless you want to tempt the police to take action against you anyway.
This still isn't ideal. Even though nothing happened immediately after Shido's change, Yaldabaoth could still make his move at any moment. You can't do anything if you get arrested though, so you all pick one day to celebrate your victory over Okumura and Shido to get your minds off of everything.
After waiting a few days, the police only seem to get busier and busier. Dealing with two high level people, to them, basically confessing to a heinous conspiracy at the same time, public pressure forcing them to comb through every other candidate, needing to take in the SIU Director into custody, and having the Phantom Thieves still be at large on top of all that. They are stretched thin and barely holding on, but it does let them move a little more freely than earlier.
At some point when trying to studying for final exams with Yoshizawa, you accidentally let it slip that Maruki may be your next target. This obviously concerns her, and after a bit of convincing on her end and not wanting to sit around waiting for the world to end on yours, you agree to search through the palace with her.
You don't think you'd get into any fights since you're only scouting, but just in case you inform Ren where you're going and who you're with. Ren tells you it's a bad idea and informs you Morgana will be very disappointed if you go in. You reassure them that you plan on staying outside and at the entrance, only enough for Yoshizawa to get the picture. He relents, but if you're not back in less than an hour he's going in for you.
When you and Yoshizawa get in, you walk around the perimeter with her, trying to explain why his idealsāeven though are done with good intentionsāaren't exactly great. You wouldn't even be here discussing this if his desires weren't distorted in some way.
You think she's starting to understand why his mentality isn't necessarily a good one, but when you open the front door to show her some of the things inside things start to go horribly wrong. Beyond the door lies bright flashing lights, accompanied by the sound of slot machines and people chattering.
This is clearly not Maruki's palace.
You ask Yoshizawa to stay by the door and go further in to see if what you think is happening really is happening. Walking around you only find more and more slot machines, until you come across a shadow at a desk. She's selling membership cards for fifty-thousand coins. You think you're going to scream.
On the way back towards Yoshizawa you notice a shadow behind her charging up some sort of attack.
Without thinking you pull her out of harms way, which unfortunately meant you pulled her away from the door. The explosion caused by that shadow was enough to close it behind you. It doesn't open again.
You both try everything you can think of to get it to open again, even just a crack, but it doesn't budge a bit. You actually do scream this time.
Knowing Ren will show up at some point to save you and to say "I told you so" has you stay put for as long as possible. You don't want to run off and make it harder for the rest of the Thieves to find you guys, but you eventually do have to move when what looks like security starts scoping out the floor. You don't know how strong they could be, so starting a fight with only two of you is asking to die.
The more doors you open the more you realize something's not right. Sometimes when you open a door you'll find yourself in a castle or a bank, but most of the time it's still the casino. Though not one of the doors has lead you back to the Science Centre. You thought the one time you were messing with a randomizer mod had somehow injected itself into Maruki's palace, but this is clearly more selective then that.
After speed walking past the fifth ass you and Yoshizawa had the displeasure of looking at, you end up in a different section of the Sae-but-not-Sae's palace. That's when you get patched through to coms and--
"Hey Glitch, we're here! Care to tell us what the heck is going on??"
"Why hello Oracle it's so nice to hear from you! I was just thinking about you. I managed to find a copy of Zephyrman earlier that we could watchā"
"Answer the question!"
While you're telling them what happened, you eventually get cut off by shouting in the distance. Looking around you realize it's coming from their side, and after they calm down they inform you they were separated. Now you all have to take part in this randomized maze of a palace.
Along the way you and Yoshizawa manage to group up with Ren and Goro, before finding yourselves in Maruki's palace again. You don't know whether to consider it good or bad that you end up in the room with the projection of Kasumi. Then her headaches start. You would tell her what's going on, but she wants to figure it out for herself, so instead you help her navigate through the areas.
After some time you finally come across a room filled with Maruki's research. It's in there Yoshizawa figures out what happened to her.
It takes a lot of reassurance, but she eventually calms down enough to continue moving. Ren and Goro lead while you stay behind with her to make sure she doesn't fall behind or get ambushed. When you make it back to the entrance of Maruki's palace, you find Futaba and Makoto are already there. Everyone else is still somewhere inside.
You lead Yoshizawa to sit on the side of the building and let her cry. Soon everyone's come over to offer their condolences, while Futaba and Makoto are able to offer more in the form of experience. When the others arrive they also go over their own false realities Maruki had them stuck in for a time, and how they pushed through it.
Yoshizawa thanks everyone and says she just needs a moment before they can move on, which everyone readily gives her. It shouldn't have been a surprise that when you were all distracted talking about what was wrong with this palace, Yoshizawa gets taken away by Azathoth.
You're all chasing after him, threatening the persona to give her back while he berates you for undoing Maruki's work.
"She was doing well under our guidance until you dismantled our hard work."
"Are youālook at where that's gotten her!" "Like she needs his shitty fucking therapy!"
With him holding Yoshizawa so close none of you can really get any good hits in that won't harm her in the process. So you're exhilarated when she starts to fight back herself. She's still distraught, but she wants to try and face herself and asks you all to call her Sumire.
Now that she's freed herself from Azathoth's grasp, you all get ready to fight him head on. Azathoth clearly didn't want to though, so in order to make sure more of Maruki's efforts to go to waste, he makes haste to eject you all from his palace. Trying to go back in leads to you getting an error message.
When you finally leave you offer to walk Sumire home before heading home yourself. You feel terrible for what you put her through, but she doesn't regret asking you to take her into Maruki's palace. She feels awful right now, but she wants to push forward like all of you can.
The next day you learn through Goro that Maruki's palace has been completely locked off. After much deliberating and learning most of the Thieves apps aren't even working properly anymore, the only thing that comes to mind is Yaldabaoth getting tired of things not going his way. This literally leaves you to sit around and wait for the apocalypse to happen.
You do as much as you can before exams start. Help Sumire get more comfortable with herself, finishing of the last of the requests that you had no time to do before, and of course studying for the actual exams.
When exam days finally roll around you're on autopilot. You're physically doing the tests, but in your mind you can only think about the upcoming fight. The others aren't doing much better than you, but you all always come together to try and do something other than worry. It's one of those times when the sky turns red and the pillars of bone start to protrude from the ground. Knowing what comes next, you all descend to the depths of Mementos to confront the false god.
The journey through Qliphoth World is surprisingly mostly normal. Sure the shadows in the area are still stronger than normal, but it's nowhere near as agonizing as the last couple palaces have been. Morgana thinks since this area is the depths of Japan's psyche, you would have much less of an effect on it. Probably the reason why the shadows are even stronger is because they all were expecting it at this point.
You reach the bottom and are greeted to the cup of giant proportions. His monologue is about the same as it was, with the addition of him openly hating on Ren and Goro for veering off the guided course of the world, and you for daring to interfere in the first place.
This fight is much harder than any of you were expecting. You let the rest of the area lower your guard and paid the price for that. Though whether fortunate or unfortunate, the rhythm of the fight is still the same. After making enough progress, the masses simply heal him to full again and eject all of you back to the real world where you begin to disappear.
Another wrench is thrown to your expectations again when you find yourself floating somewhere in the void, instead of the Velvet Room. You're wandering around completely confused, hoping to find somethingāanything to help you figure out where you are when you see a sliver of blue. You rush to it hoping to find a possible entrance to the Velvet Room, but when you reach it you're only left more confused. You found the Velvet Room, it's just below you.
You stand there and watch as Ren frees everyone from the cages they were locked in while Goro and Morgana wait with Igor and Lavenza. Even after everyone enters the main area, Ren continues to run around. It takes you a moment to realize he's probably looking for you. The goal to find the exit becomes more urgent since you don't want to leave them to freak out, but you still don't know where to even start. When you turn around to continue looking, you're surprised when you bump into someone.
You jump back and begin to profusely apologize, afraid whoever you ran into could be a different Velvet Room attendant (god you hope it's not Elizabeth that would be a terrible first impression), but the laugh that you hear makes you pause. It's not one of the female attendants, but it doesn't sound like Theodore either. You look up to see who could possibly be talking to you and nearly blank.
It's Philemon.
Philemon is standing in front of you and he's laughing.
You think you're about to short circuit. Never in your lifeāeven once you got transported hereādid you ever think you'd be meeting one of the Gods of this world (by your heart of hearts Yaldaboath doesn't count), it wasn't even a thought that crossed your mind, yet here you are.
He starts to talk in what you think is a teasing way, but you're still struggling to process that he's standing right there. When you're brain's finally caught up, you accidentally cut him off to ask why he's here and why he's talking to you.
He wanted to converse with you since he finds you "interesting". Of course that tells you nothing so you ask him to clarify. Then he brings up your status as an outworlder. You're just about to roll your eyes when he continues speaking. It's much more than just you being from another world. He's the one that brought you here.
He's the one who gave you a second chance at life. He grew interested in your universe when he noticed a copy of his had been made in the form of a game. He wanted to know how pulling someone who already knows of this worlds future events would affect how things change. Since he was still recovering from his last major hurdle, he couldn't simply pluck someone from your world and bring them to his. Especially with all the barriers already surrounding it. Though when he saw you fall off that roof he couldn't help but to try and at least pull your soul over. Now here you are.
You honestly can't believe anything that just came out of his mouth. He summoned you over because you happened to be at the wrong place at the right time? Truly you can't believe it. You don't want to.
God was actually just fucking with you.
You can't entirely hate him for pulling you from your original universe. If he didn't you would've died and never had gotten to meet any of the Phantom Thieves you now hold even closer to your heart. You got to improve the lives for people you care about and for that you'll forever be grateful. But none of that changes the fact he did all of this on a whim.
He continues to go on about the changes you've made to fit your perception of a happier ending. He applauds you for your commitment and ability to preserver through strife despite this being completely unthinkable territory for you barely a year ago.
You stop him for a moment to collect yourself. You have a ton of questions you could be asking, but only one rests at the forefront of your mind. Why is he telling you this now?
His gaze almost turns somber in the way he looks at you. It makes you dread his response.
"You're being has become intrinsically tied to the Metaverse. There was no other way for me to tether you to this reality whilst lacking my full capabilities. What do you think will happen once it's gone?"
It barely takes you a moment to think of the answer, and it makes your blood freeze. Philemon can only look sorry for you (as much as he's willing to allow himself). He says that's all he had to impart onto you, and that he prays you find some way around it. With that being the last thing he had to say, he teleports you into one of the many back areas of the Velvet Room.
You sit there for a moment, needing to process this alone before you run into the main room where all your friends are waiting. The thought of Thieves nearly makes you cry.
A glowing butterfly makes itself known in the corner of your vision. It reminds you of what you're currently fighting for, so you pull yourself together. There's currently a god whose ass you have to help kick, you can feel sorry for yourself and your friends later.
As soon as you walk into the room your friends are immediately on you. They're completely panicked when they ask what happened to you, and you have no idea how to tell them the news. They still don't know you're from a different universe entirely, so you'd have a lot to explain. Time you don't really have. You guess you faltered for long enough for Igor to step in your place. He doesn't explain your predicament though and only brings the conversation back to Yaldobaoth. You feel guilty and you're sure some of the others notice, but you delude yourself into thinking it's fine and that you'll have time to tell them later.
Everything from then plays out like in the game. The climb up the tower of bones, fighting the archangels, and then Yaldabaoth himself. He still hates you all for steering everything off course and making this more complicated then it needed to be. He thanks you though for the new status ailments to use and you can only flip him off. He knocks you all down, Morgana makes his big speech and you earn the belief of all Japan. Ren summons Satanael and shoots the false god in the face.
It's when the Metaverse starts crumbling away and everyone is saying their 'goodbye's and 'see you later's to Morgana that you start to disappear.
You're freaking out. Some of them are freaking out, but a few are also mad at you. You don't get to explain yourself before you're dragged away by what's left of the Metaverse.
It's dark for a while. You don't know what you were expecting when you died, but it wasn't sitting in the void for an eternity. Soon you see a butterfly flying towards you from somewhere beyond the darkness, it's glow being the only thing eye-catching in this place. It comes close enough to land on you, but when it does a shock is sent throughout your entire system. Then something you aren't able to decipher starts to pull you out of what feels like the bottom of an ocean of oil. As soon as you breach the surfaceā
You wake up.
You take in your surroundings, groggily, but still with rapt attention. You don't even know why you're looking around in such a fervor, your room is exactly how you left it. Though the Persona merch does make you pause. It makes you uneasy, but you can't understand why for the life of you.
Then someone barges into your room and it's⦠Ren? Foggy memories start to come back to you and you're starting to freak out. Then the Ren look-alike re-introduces himself as Akira Kurusu and says you must've had some lucid dream to confuse his name with Ren again.
Apparently everyone's been waiting for you to come to Leblanc to study. When you never showed up he was sent to come looking for you at your house.
You're getting a headache listening to him. Memories start to clash against each other trying to take up the dominate space in your mind. Though when RenāAkira leaves to allow you to change, you can't find any scars on your body. At least none that would look like battle wounds, so you'll take his word for it.
When you finish getting dressed, he Akira leads you to where everyone else supposedly is. You don't know why, but you're actually surprised to find everyone actually is waiting for you.
Ryuji, Ann, Yusuke, Makoto, Futaba, Haru, Goro, Akira's (lovingly) annoying ass cat, and your old friends. You don't know why, but you cry upon seeing them again.
The next few days are fairly normal to you. You go to school, hangout and play games with all your friends, and study. Despite everything proceeding as normal, you can't stop this nagging feeling that something is horribly wrong here. It all comes to a head when Akira visits you out of the blue.
He's acting a little off. He's much more silly and charming than he usually is, but there's also a sadnessāa yearning in his eyes when he looks at you. Every one of his actions and every word he says also seems to be meticulously chosen in a way. Almost like one wrong move and he'd mess everything up. You can't figure out what he's so scared of getting wrong, he's only visiting you. You don't know what's gotten into him, but you're still finding it a nice change of pace from the laid back dude he usually is.
Once he's finished looking over your room with an attention to detail you didn't know he had, he confuses you with what he says next.
"This is a nice dream, but when are you going to wake up?"
You don't even know what to say to that. You're already awake. It's not like you could talk to him without being awake?
Akira leaves shortly after, but when he does you find a figure of Joker sitting on your shelf.
This repeats with all of your friends over the next few days. All of them telling you to "wake up" in various ways, either kindly, desperately, or⦠aggressively, and leaving behind a Persona figure eerily similar to them. Now you're having a hard time remembering what the Phantom Thieves actually looked like, but you can't find the game anywhere to check.
This whole thing is so confusing to you, you already woke up! Multiple times now in fact! You're starting to suspect they're talking about something else, but no matter what you can't put your finger on it.
Then everything sort of collapses in on you when you run into a new girl.
She introduces herself as Sumire, and she has the same yearning in her eyes that everyone else has had, along with their determination to confuse the fuck out of you.
"Have you even seen what's beyond this neighbourhood?"
When you tell her you've lived here all your life, she's adamant that you come with her to experience something new. You should be more weary of random people telling you to follow them, but something deep within you tells you she's trustworthy.
When you both reach the edge of your neighbourhood, you notice a line drawn in the ground to signify this is the end. You're a bit apprehensive, but Sumire is very patient and encouraging with you. Though before you can even take a step towards the line, you hear someone calling out to you.
It's some doctor. Apparently your therapist. Your instincts tell you not to trust a word he says, and the feeling is only furthered when Sumire talks back to him.
Soon the rest of your friends arrive on the scene and block your "therapist" from getting any closer to you. While he's distracted, Sumire tries to bring you across the line, but a barrier stops you from making anymore progress.
Not able to just drag you out anymore, Sumire starts talking about events that you swear never happened, but sound way too familiar. You shouldn't know this person, so your head is splitting when memories of you together crop up. She must see that what she's saying isn't helping at all, so she switches to hold your hands instead.
"You never gave up on me, so I'm not giving up on you."
Then she takes a figure of Violet out of her pocket and gives it to you, completing the set you didn't even know wasn't finished. You're trying to remember where this Thief comes from, and while staring at it your memories finally click into place.
The Thieves are extremely happy to finally have you back, while Maruki is disappointed he couldn't figure out a more surefire way to keep you affected by actualisation for longer. Your unique constitution made it incredibly difficult to figure out how to get it to work on you at all. Eventually he found if he kept you separated in your own little pocket, it'd be harder for you to tell what was real.
You're honestly appalled he put you in a bubble at all, but he promises it was only until he found a different solution, like that somehow makes it any better. Sumire starts to argue against his logic, so you go to stand next to her and give your own
"This is not the future I fought for! It's not the one we went through all that pain and suffering for! This fantasy you put me in might be happy, but it's meaningless without any of our past achievements!"
Maruki tries to argue that no hard work could get you your old friends and family back like he could, but you tell him they're just sock puppets performing on a stage. Even with all his new powers, you know those aren't and never could be your actual friends. Sumire also arguing that she wants to live her life in honour of her late sister and to make her proud through her own efforts, instead of trying to be exactly like her.
At the end of your speeches, you feel the power of your original personas combine to create something stronger, while Sumire's persona awakens into Ella. With them, together you destroy the bubble keeping you all contained.
You all head back to the real Leblanc, and the entire time their both celebrating finally getting you back, and teasing you for what they found in there. Though you can feel the underlying tension in the way they hold onto you and make sure you never leave their sight.
When you reach the cafe and the conversation goes silent, you all can no longer avoid the elephant in the room.
Goro's the one to bring up your disappearing act first, suspecting you knew that was going to happen and angrily asks why you didn't tell anybody.
Emotions are high on all sides of this conversation, but you're eventually able to get it through that yes, you had died, though technically you were already dead, your soul is tied to the Metaverse, so once it's destroyed by extension that includes you, one of the gods of this world told you so and unfortunately he's a trustworthy source.
They're not pleased in the slightest you kept this from them, but are still extremely confused as to why your life is connected to the Metaverse in the first place. There's no reason to hide anything from them, especially now, so you just come out and tell them everything.
They're wondering why you thought you had to keep this from them, and thinking about the answer it forces you to face the facts. This whole time you've been running away from your problems. You didn't want to think about dying, and you didn't ant to think about leaving your friends they way it happened, or about how guilty they must feel, or how you'll never be able to talk to them again. That life is over, but you avoided thinking about it after you got your own persona and threw yourself into this one.
You tell everyone as much and apologize. They're all completely distraught, but no one holds it against you.
Now that everyone knows this is most likely your last month to live, when you're not exploring Maruki's palace you always have at least one person with you.
The palace is also more or less the same. There are some rooms that take the aesthetic of a different palace, but it's still the same layout as it originally is. The real kicker is the shadows, that are basically all their modded variants.
The section in Mementos is also harder than usual. Unlike the other floors, this also added more difficult shadows in. You assume its because this is Maruki's personal addition. Fighting in both areas is extremely annoying, but much more doable than before with everyone's third tier personas, Ren finally getting access to some of the broken moves, and an overall increase in skill.
After handing Maruki the calling card, the walk to the top is slow. Everyone knows what will happen to you after, and prolong the confrontation to say goodbye before getting swept up in the fight.
In many ways, Maruki and Azathoth are harder to fight than Yaldabaoth. The false god had used the aliments you ended up bringing to the world, but Maruki is trying everything at his disposal. They basically use your memory against you, going in to find what annoyed you the most and using it in the battle. It ironically gets easier when they ultimately switch to that gigantic gold monstrosity. Especially once he resorts to just trying to punch all of you. You help the others block his next punch for Ren to shoot him in the face.
The palace starts to crumble and Ren falls further down with Maruki, while the rest of you end up in the Morgana-copter. Watching Ren beat the shit out of an older man in real time is funnier than you thought it would be, but all amusement is cut off when you start to fade away again.
It's another tearful goodbye, even more so on your end since Ren's not even there, but they all promise to never forget you.
AAaaaannd that's the gist of it. This ended up taking a lot longer then I thought it would, but that's my fault for constantly switching from describing the plot to "hey this scene is important I should make it sound important". Then it started getting too long so I had to cut things down lol.
Again, I am such a slow writer and I'm still rehashing plot points that don't really work + filling in gaps. This probably won't even be one to one once I finish it. My memory is dogshit and I think it's a little obvious where I'm forgetting what happened in the game and what I might need to change after I finish my *checks notes* seventh playthrough? Idk I feel like I've played this game both 0 and 100 times lol. This did help me flesh out certain plot points that were giving me a hard time though :)
Obviously there'd be more interactions in-between with the Phantom Thieves + Akechi & Yoshizawa. This is just going over the main plot, but there's a ton of bonding. I nearly have the whole timeline of events planned out (I put it all on a fckn calendarā) and Bug's constantly juggling who to spend their time with after getting past their "these people are characters that I canāt possibly befriend or be useful to in anyway" phase.
I've put the entirety of this group and their interactions in a microwave and they've been spinning for almost a year in my head. I don't actually think I'd ever finish thisāand if by some miracle I do, I don't even know if I'd post it. I just gush over this so much I needed to share something about it, so here we are!
Here's a few more bits of this fic/au/interactions in my brain that happen in my planning document:
Bug is Joker's Aeon and Akechi's Fortune confidants
Bug has a special cognition in Kamoshidaās palace his shadow labels as "Temporarily Unattainable" or "Surprisingly Entertaining." Depends on if Bug is fem or masc I'm not sure yet.
Morgana sometimes calls Bug precious. No one will explain why and they don't think they want to know anyway.
In fact everyone has a nickname for Bug:
Jokerās is "my Aeon" and every cheesy soulmate term under the sun
Ryuji's is "Frosty"
Ann's is "Peaches"
Yusukeās is "Muse"
Makoto's is "Angel"
Futabaās is "Player 1" (Jokerās changes to either "Player 2/3" or "Protag" (also switches to "Glitch" when she's mad at Bug))
Haru's is "Bell"
Akechiās is "Charm[y]" or "Luck[y]" (depending on Prince or Crow, though Crow will also use "Charmy" just to piss them off)
Bug is a pretty good crafter, and after they finally join the team they start making things for Mementos trips instead of buying. If this was a game mechanic it would be like asking Bug to make the gadgets you don't have time to, or getting them to make something only they can.
After a combination of Bug talking about their experience playing the game, the insane difficulty curve Bug's modding habits added to each palace, and Akechi being way stronger than the rest of the party when he joins, has turned Joker into a min-maxer. Whatever he has must be OP, and if something he really wants isn't, then he has to force it to be. If it's unattainable then he'll cry, get over it, and move on to the next strongest persona (He is devastated that Izanagi-no-Okami isn't actually an accessible persona for him. Bug regrets telling him.)
Joker never completes Marukiās confidant. Unfortunately, Azathoth is a snitch, so it didn't matter anyway.
Bug is petrified of heights and that never goes away. Assume they're cowering like a baby whenever they're any substantial height above the ground. Unless they're facing Yaldabaoth. Then it gets pushed aside because they hate this guy more then their fear of heights.
Bug has a different rebel outfit for each persona (may or may not keep this. It was related to a plot point I might not write about anymore. It was waay earlier in the drafts lol)
When Bug gets Loki, Joker is a little sad that they couldn't brainstorm what their last persona could be together. Akechi may or may not have been a little smug over it.
Everyone's personas talk to them occasionally. Bug's head instantly gets more lively once Loki is added and they wonder how Akechi dealt with that for so long.
Bug does end up telling Futaba about the other Persona games and she becomes as well versed in the lore of the world as Bug is.
At some point Futaba also asked Bug who their favourite character was, which was the catalyst event to everyone constantly asking. Bug avoids the question each time.
I'm not sure if I'll write full length chapters for the spin-off games (or yk⦠at all), but they do happen and Bug takes every opportunity to gush over the other protagonists. They like abusing the fact no one will remember (even if they are sad they technically won't either)
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