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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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[justicesfool]

How do you like the prospect of everyone staring at you because they know what you've done the moment you walk into a room?

I've had about enough of that from back home. I don't look forward to more of the same here.

Especially if it ends up coming from my own face.

[And this is why he asked about Crow.]

[pancakeboy]

Well. I struggle to get Crow to judge me, no matter what I do. I could shoot someone in front of him and he'd rush to make excuses.

Perhaps everyone from that world shares that same naivete.

[As for people staring at him like they know what he did... he'll just bypass that.]

[justicesfool]

I'd be concerned if they did. What with the serial murders, false gods, and therapists running around.

But in that respect, he almost sounds like mine. Held a gun to his head and he wasn't bothered.

[Or, Akira never saw him be bothered about it.]

[pancakeboy]

You did?

[He's thought about it; he's wished for it. But he's never done it—yet.]

[justicesfool]

By this point, a couple of times. And don't forget the daggers.

First was the dicey one. He was lucky to get out alive. The other was more fun.

[For a given definition of "fun" of course.]

[pancakeboy]

[Daggers, is it? That sounds....]

Fun for you or for him? Or is that just how the pair of you roll? Not that I'm anxious to bring "the serpent below the belt" back up, as Crow put it.

[There are limits, after all. And when your indiscretions are on a movie poster, you are well past those limits.]

[justicesfool]

...excuse me, the what?

[Because... really?]

Both of us let loose a fair bit that time, so I'd say both of us. Less fun for the unwanted audience.

[pancakeboy]

I think you're going to have to summarise that situation. I'm imagining half a dozen scenarios, all alarming.

[As for the other thing... he forwards the photo of the Shinjuku movie poster, complete with daintily blushing Akechi (hopefully Crow) and the snake emerging from his pants.]

I won't go into too much detail about the rest. But here's my summary. Careless talk costs dignity, it seems.

[justicesfool]

[When the image comes through, he... blinks at it. It Doesn't explain much of anything. Nothing he'd like to know, at least.]

Thanks for the... warning?

[Hm. How to put it briefly.]

Right at the end of November. Tensions running high. I was stressed. Not many places I could just casually go chatting with a dead guy. We all ended up in Mementos and... I started a fight.

Me against him. My two against his set, no holds barred. Sidelines only allowed to step in if there was an emergency. Which there wasn't, by the way, and he only made that rule because one of us doesn't have any healing abilities.

[pancakeboy]

This was before the fight with the cognition, obviously.

[The one that came up before. Where he dies, or doesn't die.]

So who won?

[justicesfool]

Well, yeah.

It was a close thing.

[He hadn't inherited any of his other (past) self's personas, after all, but Akechi had Loki back at that point. So among other things and reasons...]

He did, actually.

[pancakeboy]

Is that right?

[Oh, what a strange vortex of feeling. Not least is pride on his unknown counterpart's behalf. Though the other implications are....]

Due for a rematch, then? I admit to wondering who'd come out on top, between me and Amamiya. [The one back home.]

[justicesfool]

He had a few advantages.

[If he's honest, looking back on it... he's kind of proud of Akechi, too. For getting that far.]

It'd be inevitable, if the Metaverse comes back. And if there's a free moment so we don't have to worry about pleasure getting in the way of business.

Depends on if you want to go all out, or fight fair and square.

[pancakeboy]

Please don't start in about pleasure. I've heard as much about that this week as I can take.

[There's something of a delay, before his second message. The idea of the Metaverse going away makes him feel hollow, like the thing that makes him himself would vanish—even assuming he was alive at that time.]

I can't go all out with him. We can't ever be fairly tested. It's annoying as hell.

[justicesfool]

Your interpretation there, not mine.

[Hah. Is a little innuendo enough to scare him that much? It's not even an uncommon saying.]

Isn't that the thing? It's a power level thing, or a "how is it fair he can cover all my weaknesses" thing. I get it, you know.

The first is easy, really, just give it time. Second is harder. But I'm sure you can if you really want to and put your mind to it.

If you do, you'd be able to beat me to it.

[pancakeboy]

[He's not scared. Not. Probably. It's just been so unending this week, and ultimately, so isolating. Like he even cares if he's isolated, for fuck's sake.

There are other questions, though. He thinks of that little talk they had in the Dojima garden, about arcanas.]

How many Personas do you have?

[justicesfool]

Two.

Why, want to see?

[Hey, at least he's not saying "you show me yours and I'll show you mine."]

[pancakeboy]

[Small mercies. But he's going to ask a big question, here.]

Which two?

Did you always have two?

[He could just be asking about Kurusu's awakening, because of the way his own differed from Crow's. But he's not.]

[justicesfool]

Started with just the one. Got the other one a while later.

[There's a pause. Because- does he really want to say that second name? Then again, it's all going to come out sooner or later. But.]

Let's see. By the point you're at... my Akechi knew about Arsène.

[pancakeboy]

Interesting. You're the second I've spoken to who got their Personas at different times. [And it's annoying as hell.

Arsène, though. He remembers him from Madarame's Palace. As to whether Kurusu once had more than the two, either he never did, or he won't tell Akechi.]

That was your first Persona, right? You'll forgive me if I say you don't seem the type to have an inner Phantom Thief?

[justicesfool]

You don't say.

[He stares at that last bit for a good long minute or so. Ha. Haha.]

Yup.

Funny, that. I fitted in really well. It was fun.

[When he ignored and blocked out what'd happen after the end, sure.]

[pancakeboy]

[Yeah, he stares at that reply, too. "Fun". It did seem like fun—or like it might have been, if he'd got further than the elevator, if he'd gone into Sae's Palace more than once. Now he'll probably never know.]

I don't know about fun. I got to impress them the once. That was fun, I suppose.

You did the whole Palace?

[justicesfool]

All the way in and all the way out.

Also, just the once? That's criminal.

[pancakeboy]

I hope it was a little more than once. But in the Metaverse itself, when they knew it was me? Only the once.

[Part of him doesn't want to ask.]

What was it like? Were they as intolerable? The whole time? [Oh, right, Crow doesn't know too much about cognitive beings, does he?... fuck you, Takamaki.]

[justicesfool]

Damn.

[He... sighs. He knows how it was for him. He can also remember how it was before... and how the others were.]

Can't say the others didn't have their moments. I'm sure I didn't make things easy for them either, since I wasn't exactly used to working in a team at first.

[Akechi had apparently made things bearable on both sides; he can't make that kind of promise, that this one's Ren will do the same when he isn't in the kind of position they were in.]