with a thousand lies and a good disguise

[Text him! Or do whatever, I'm not the police, and neither is he, thank God. Just specify if you want the more-fun-but-less-stable pre-11/20 guy or the grumpy third semester/postcanon guy. Pancake only for VRDR guys please, he's not third semester yet]

character in one line

• red jacket icon - age 18. postcanon or third semester canon. grumpy, abrasive chuuni edgelord ex-murderer (though it's still in his toolbox). Brutally honest, and just brutal tbh. Still clever. Largely inexpressive.
  
• grey jacket icon - a younger 18. what a good, earnest boy! what a sweet smile! yeah, it's not real and he won't drop the facade—or not for more than a second. in reality he's bored, empty, trapped through his own doing, angry and spiteful as hell, increasingly grandiose and narcissistic. and, oh yeah, a mass murderer on contract. Clever, but not unnaturally so. Wordy fucker. Self-important little shit. Highly expressive.

quick précis

canon: Persona 5 (video game)
role: secondary villain (grey jacket) -> aloof ally (red jacket)
age: 18 (born 1998)
height: 5' 10" (178cm)
nationality: Japanese
handedness: left
sexuality: gay, but not into your character
alignment: between neutral and chaotic evil (grey jacket) -> chaotic neutral (red jacket)

nb

• red jacket Akechi is a complete ass. Actually, they both are, but grey jacket Akechi is playing nice. He doesn't care if your character likes him, and if he's talking to them, he probably has something he wants. Please feel free to be an ass right back to him or just don't tag back, it's nbd.
  
  
• Akechi is his family name; nobody calls him Goro (it happens once in canon and freaks him out). If your character does it and they're Japanese, it will piss him off. If your character isn't Japanese... well, it will probably still piss him off, lol.
  
  
• Akechi is, God help me, a detective at heart yes, despite faking all his cases for daddy. He's intelligent, observant and methodical, and when he draws conclusions in canon they usually prove correct. That said, he's not Light Yagami +2 controversial or Sherlock Holmes; he's just a very smart kid who "works" with the police. In RP, he may draw conclusions about your character, which will likely be slanted (he hates everyone), incomplete, inaccurate, or outright wrong.
  
  
• my character is very observant/a detective/literally God, what will they notice about grey jacket Akechi? ohoho. first, he's good—his mask is almost flawless. Note that Sae Niijima, a very bright prosecutor who works with Akechi for a long while and is exposed to his cynical side, truly believes he's just a nice boy. Observant people tend to notice that his manner is fake, but they put it down to him being famous/self-conscious/very young/fill in the blank yourself; nobody thinks his polished front is hiding a killer. Extremely observant people (Sherlock Holmes level) should catch on to many suspicious little things: hidden emotion, coldness or flatness around the eyes (he tends to look down or away when this happens, or when something annoys him), glibness in conversation, manipulative tendencies, that he's terrifyingly well-turned-out for an 18-year-old (creases ironed, shoes polished etc), the fact that he's usually wearing black leather gloves like a card-carrying villain.... the list goes on. Maybe it's just that he doesn't want to put himself out there, huh? After all, he is very young. NB, if your char is a Phantom Thief before the phone call in November, go wild; y'all know about his pancakes anyway; if your char (regardless of canon) has any form of telepathy or mental sensitivity, they should be on to him on sight.

links

• Villains Wiki. much better than the canon wiki though it often gives him too much credit.
  
• TVTropes.
  

Lastly, never forget he gets his ass handed to him repeatedly by a gang of average high school students.

[ooc: subsequent to this.]

With Raven hopefully reassured and now upstairs shepherding the kids, Magpie has swung into action.

The tangible shit is easy—check the first aid kit, start water for tea, make sure the stocks of bottled water, soup and so on are reasonably intact, and that nobody's left an upturned Featherman figure or spiky dinosaur anywhere too immediately lethal.

After a moment's thought, he switches on the kotatsu, even though spring is creeping closer. Then, with everything done that should be done, he checks over everything again, like an anxious hen. It's hard to shock him for long, and he's settling on a response, which is that if Sparrow's Ren wasn't already dead, he'd kill him.

It's been almost a month, and there's no sign of Akechi reverting to his former self. So, of course, he shows up where he's perhaps least expected—in Rose's poison garden, to continue their conversation from the party.

Or perhaps he is expected. Who knows? Goros are like that, after all. Regardless, he pokes his head around the door to find her, as if he expects her to bite it off. Or as if he's hoping not to be seen.

For all the talk of blowing up the Diet Building, and his little rampage through Shido's office the day he arrived, Akechi doesn't try his father's keywords until the day after he learns everything. Or at least... some things. The shadow of how things might, or might not be.

The ship is right there, no different to how he remembers. He moves through it uncostumed, unmasked, just as he always has, in that mossy green jacket that's slightly less tailored than his shirt and pants; he belongs. The guests titter and giggle about their privilege; the cognitions look through him as if he isn't real. Sometimes he feels eyes on him and looks up, only to realise he's looking into a mirror.

Eventually, far inside the ship, in the balconied chamber with the plants that the Shadows patrol, he drops down into a chair. Could call Loki and run rampage here, if he wanted. Could pull his gun and put a bullet through each of those patrolling Shadows, one, two, three. Could use his claws, tear those plants from their holders for a start. Shred the velvet, punch through the walls. Scream and scream and scream. Beat the palace hollow till whatever's lurking in its deepest depths shows up to finish him.

But he doesn't. One mustn't, after all—heh—rock the boat. Even if you want nothing more than to tear a hole in the hull and go down with it. Even if you've been running, and running, and someone's dropped a brick wall into your path.

Abruptly, his head snaps up, eyes sharpening. Someone's here.