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[pancakeboy]

[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]

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[pancakeboy]

[For a moment, he stares across the table. Then he reaches into his pocket, unlocks his phone, and sets it on the table, Nav up.]

I have to ask. Was yours always blue?

[fogbornphantom]

No. It was red. I imagine it was the same for you?

[Which suggests a very clear shift in control and the purpose of the app. Interesting. In fact...]

Now that I think about it, when my younger self met Morgana, he was terrified at the prospect of me even having access to the Metaverse.

[pancakeboy]

Red with an eye. With a star in the centre. [And, while the star is still there, the vast, rather unsettling eye has gone. He takes his phone back up, gives it a glance... then powers it off, setting it back in his pocket.]

What did you get out of Morgana? [Actually, why hasn't he seen that cat?]

[fogbornphantom]

Honestly, not a lot. He was terrified by the prospect of me having the MetaNav, but our interactions after that pointed shifted when my Shadow appeared and he tried to work with me until I could comfortably accept it.

[There's a tiny trace of a smile at the memory. Heh...]

He succeeded, of course. And he did mention some things about how you didn't want friends, which at the time I didn't put too much thought into. I myself was grappling with similar feelings. Hmm... and actually, I recall him being offended when my Shadow joked about him being a therapy cat. So perhaps he knows of Maruki, even if Okumura-san does not...

[pancakeboy]

[Morgana talked about him? Actually, wait. Hope leaps in his chest, with the grace of a rusty clockwork owl.]

Wait. She hasn't heard of Maruki? She's from after my time—obviously. He works at her school.

[fogbornphantom]

Evidently not in her timeline.

[He lets that linger for a moment, but then...]

I still wouldn't get your hopes up. Akira was the one who warned me about Maruki. I trust he's given you quite a bit to stew on as well, since you'd mentioned him before. He was the one who confirmed to me that you were set up against Ren from the very beginning. However, he also told me that he was from after everything had resolved, Maruki included.

[pancakeboy]

[And yeah, that model owl screeches to a halt, and falls to bits; he sighs, and figures that in this context, there's only one Akira worth discussing.] February, he told me. So a month at least earlier than her.

[He touches his lip, staring past other-him.] So she's from a world without your cognitive anomalies—which may exist in my own world in some form, or may not. But if something like that is so different, then perhaps....

[Perhaps he won't die. Which is a mixed blessing, shocking as it was to hear. He's almost started taking comfort in it, in the knowledge that one thing, surely, will go as he has planned.]

[fogbornphantom]

Hmm... Let's do a little thought experiment.

[He straightens his posture and lets his hands rest comfortably on the table.]

Do you recognize any of the following: Will Seeds, Mementos flowers, and Jose?

[pancakeboy]

[Sure, he'll play. He relaxes in turn, meeting his counterpart's challenge.]

Yes. And yes, and... no. [He glances up, frowning.] What's the context?

[fogbornphantom]

Okumura-san was unfamiliar with Jose and Will Seeds. Jose is a being who travels Mementos and collects the flowers to blend drinks. He approached my team with a deal- namely, if we bring him flowers and stamps collected throughout Mementos, he will in turn share his wares and alter the cognition within Mementos to our benefit.

[Still, that's another interesting data point. He pulls out a notepad and jots it down.]

So, it would seem, Okumura-san is from a reality missing quite a few elements from ours. Yet there are others- Akira and that other Ren, who at least are familiar with Maruki, whether directly or through his cognitive psience work.

[pancakeboy]

Is that what those flowers are for? I always ignored them. [He takes a breath, biting back the question: what do you mean, "alter the cognition within Mementos"?]

No, I found the seeds occasionally. They didn't seem to serve much of a purpose, other than offering an energy boost. But I never met anybody else in Mementos.

[He blinks, sitting back.] Okumura-san knew about our father. I mention this because it's in question whether or not he funded Maruki. Kurusu knows about him as well. [An understatement; call it professional courtesy.] I wonder if Shiho Suzui attempted suicide in those worlds. Or if Sumire Yoshizawa's sister died.

[fogbornphantom]

Okumura-san didn't seem to react at all when I mentioned Yoshizawa-san, which begs the question of if either sister died, if both did, or if they simply didn't attend Shujin at all.

[There have been stranger discrepancies between realities, and yet the broader picture seems consistent. There are certainly commonalities.]

Hers is a reality where Wakaba Isshiki and her father still died. You are still the one who caused the mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns. It's almost as if the general trajectory is the same, but minus a few pieces of the proverbial puzzle.

[pancakeboy]

[Wakaba Isshiki still died. You are still the one who caused the mental shutdowns and psychotic breakdowns. His face smooths over, perfectly blank.] Or with different pieces. Our own worlds are enough to illustrate that.

[You could kill him, if you wanted. It would be the work of a moment. But you don't. You don't.

He picks up his drink, the second one; cradles it in his lap untouched. You didn't.] I had the impression, from comparing notes, that Maruki is significant. A cognitive psientist arriving at Shujin during the tenure of the Phantom Thieves is more than significant. But if he was missing in Okumura-san's world, and nothing changed... I wonder what he was doing in the meantime.

[fogbornphantom]

Yes, even Okumura-san found it worrisome. If I had to hazard a guess, the key difference may be what Akira described- when Maruki reached the height of his power.

[Hmm... come to think of it, maybe there is something to it.

Akechi takes a sip from his second drink, then carefully sets the glass down.]

This is purely hypothetical, but perhaps Maruki's presence at Shujin is key. Ren and I have established confidant bonds with him back in our world, and Ren has been trying to help him with his "research," though I suspect that is solely a front, if he truly is our brainwashing culprit.

But if Maruki is a cognitive psientist, regardless of world, it is possible he could learn of Mementos. And I was informed that this false god lurked at the very depths of Mementos. But the god was defeated, so perhaps...

[Hm, but does that make sense? Or is it, perhaps, a stretch to assume?]

[pancakeboy]

[The thing is, he doesn't really know what Mementos is. But he has theories. Oh boy, does he have theories.] If you tell me Takuto Maruki is a false god at the bottom of Mementos in Okumura-san's world, I'm going to walk out.

[He leans back.] You're thinking of what Kurusu claimed? That his power increased dramatically?

[fogbornphantom]

[Pffft... he snickers at that remark. Amazing.

Any hint of amusement fades fast, however.]

I believe it's possible that when one god fell, someone else took its place. If we assume that Maruki's powers became so wide reaching, then perhaps that is what allowed him to alter this other Akechi and presumably even his world.

So perhaps the difference is that, for one reason or another, Maruki did not go to Shujin in Okumura-san's world. He did not get whatever resources necessary to ascend, and thus never became a threat...

[He takes a deep breath, leaning over the table.]

But if that is the case, this vapid lookalike of ours might be a warning.

[pancakeboy]

About Maruki. And more relevantly, if you'll forgive me—[he doesn't care that much about Maruki, and he really doesn't care about that lookalike beyond "shit, that's disturbing"]—about what's at the bottom of Mementos. The thing that erased Ren and the rest, and kept Shido from being defeated.

I suppose it connects to both our problems. I did wonder about those doors. Even the trains wouldn't take me to the bottom. [Yes, he used the trains.]

[fogbornphantom]

What we've discovered is that the more the Phantom Thieves soar into the public eye, the deeper we're able to delve. So, I suppose that in order to reach the depths, we'll have to be quite notorious, if not beloved...

[Positive or negative attention, it's difficult to say if it matters. They only have so much of an indication. Namely, that each victory lets them dive deeper.]

Unfortunately, since I'm only from August, I can't say what lies ahead or just how much it takes to reach the depths. It took Okumura-san's Phantom Thieves until Christmas Eve, but I'm not sure if it could be achieved earlier under the correct circumstances.

[pancakeboy]

[Wait a goddamned second. He sips his drink quickly, sets it back on the table.]

You're saying the doors are linked to the public's cognition. That as you make deeper inroads into the public mind, you likewise make deeper inroads into Mementos.

[fogbornphantom]

That seems to be the case. After Kamoshida, we could only progress so far, but once we had thwarted Madarame, we plunged deeper. The same applies to Kaneshiro, as I doubt Kobayakawa had nearly as much public sway.

[After all, one was a notorious mafioso who avoided capture for a long, long time. The other was a school principal.]

[pancakeboy]

[Goddamn it to hell. He considered that specific theory several times, and discounted it for the best reason he could imagine.]

Only one problem with that. I'm probably the most famous boy in Japan outside a boy band—[he's a generous soul], and I couldn't even open the first door.

[Though now he comes to think of it... maybe he should have tried it in the white suit.]

[fogbornphantom]

[Hmm... That is a wrinkle, isn't it? He pauses momentarily, running possibilities through his head.]

I can think of a few possibilities. One: it was all a ruse, orchestrated by the false god to drive us forward so that it could crush out spirits when the time is right. Two: That false god was deliberately keeping you from progressing.

Perhaps both. It's rather difficult to say.

[pancakeboy]

I wonder if it would go differently if I wasn't in the black mask. More like the person the public think they know—though if they picture you and Ren when they think of the Phantom Thieves, you've really blown it.

[But there's another question, actually; another thing he's wondered about.]

Why didn't you use the trains? [Akechi never had any trouble getting to them, which might be revealing—as revealing as the fact that he was prepared to ride with the dozens of creepy Shadows.]

[fogbornphantom]

Morgana turned into a literal bus rather soon after we first arrived.

[And so he shrugs, playing it off like it's no big deal.]

It got the job done, so the thought of using the trains never really crossed our minds. I wouldn't mind pilfering some motorcycles, though, just to see how they compare...

[pancakeboy]

Don't get me started on that cat again. A bus, for fuck's sake. [But there's a glint in his eye.]

You've thought about that as well? [If it hadn't been for the doors, he might actually have been reckless enough to try it. You can get in from Shibuya Crossing, after all—though not without being seen.]