rionaleonhart | Entries tagged with persona q

pict demanded to know all my ambitious fic ideas, which reminded me of something I've been thinking about doing for a while: archiving the fic ideas I've been scribbling down in my diaries.

Every year, I buy the same style of diary, which has a couple of blank pages at the back. I've been using these blank pages to note down fic concepts since 2013. Some of these get written! Many of them don't.

If I type up the unwritten concepts, maybe one of them will inspire me? (Or indeed inspire someone else? Feel free to let me know if you're interested in writing any of these!) At the very least, they'll no longer be languishing in old diaries I rarely look back at.

These are sorted in alphabetical order by fandom; the notes under any particular fandom may contain spoilers for the canon. Some ideas are extremely vague; some are very specific. Crossovers are filed haphazardly under whichever fandom feels right in the moment. The tags on this entry should give you an idea of which fandoms are represented, if you're wondering whether anything you know is in here!

( A huge pile of unwritten fanfiction ideas. )

I'm not sure this exercise has actually sparked any inspiration, but it's good to have all these ideas in one place. If any of these would particularly interest you, let me know!

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/572937.html

I finished Persona Q, if you hadn't deduced that from the fact that I wrote a fic about it!

At one point, Yosuke said he'd give me a shoulder massage later. I risked the Reaper to get that conversation, and it was worth it.

The trouble with Persona is that it's a really charming series of games about THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP, but occasionally it has strangely mean-spirited scenes that don't seem to fit the themes and tone at all. In particular, there are moments when a party member is upset or distressed and, rather than giving you the opportunity to intervene or comfort them, the game goes 'and then you just walked away and left them to it, it was hilarious.' When Yosuke's on the verge of tears because of a misunderstanding, please just let me explain it to him!

Having finished Persona Q, am I going to shut up about Persona for a while?

No. No, of course not. It's time for Persona 5 Royal.

After I finished Persona 5, my main thought was, Wow. That was incredible, but it was also vast and exhausting. I definitely want to play the Royal expanded edition, but I don't think I'll be ready for that for at least a couple of years.

Seven months later, here we are.

Now that I've played Persona Q and met the actual Persona character called Rei, I probably shouldn't name the Persona 5 protagonist Rei again; it was already confusing, given that that's my housemate's name, and is now doubly so. That said, I'm naming him Rei again and nobody can stop me.

( Rambling about the early hours of Persona 5 Royal. )

I'd forgotten how much Persona 5 makes me think of Final Fantasy VIII, between the school setting, the quiet protagonist and Ryuji 'Zell Dincht' Sakamoto. Ryuji and Zell aren't identical, but there's definitely enough similarity to call Zell to mind.

I dreamt a couple of nights ago about Squall and Zell kissing, and I'm blaming this game. (Maybe 'thanking' would be a better word than 'blaming'. Squall/Zell was my first ever ship, and I woke up reflecting very fondly on it.)

I just looked up the account of the dream I wrote when half-asleep, and I'm going to type it up because it made me smile:

Dreamt I was Squall Leonhart and kissed Zell after an intense foot race around a raised track. EXTREMELY GOOD. I think I was sort of trying to hint at it and he went 'yeah, you don't have to ask, you can absolutely kiss me' (because, as we all know, Zell is very in love with Squall).

Barret was annoyed with us for kissing on the track instead of continuing to race. Barret, the race was supposed to be seventy-two laps; it was lap five and we were all exhausted already. Making out with Zell was a much better conclusion to the race than actually seeing it through. Also, what are you doing here? You're a FFVII character.

Rinoa had previously suggested letting Zell win to make him feel better. Hopefully the kissing succeeded in making him feel good without having to compromise the race.

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/563893.html

Here are some teenage boys being terrible at feelings at the end of Persona Q. (It should be understandable if you're only familiar with Persona 4, though!)

Title: Clean Slate
Fandom: Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth
Rating: G? I think this might actually be G-rated. Nobody bleeds or anything.
Pairing: Yosuke/Persona 4 protagonist
Wordcount: 2,000
Summary: If they're going to have their memories erased anyway, it's okay for Yosuke to kiss Yu, right? No consequences. The perfect plan.

( Clean Slate )

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/563342.html

Some more notes on Persona Q! These run from the Inaba Pride Exhibit up to the third floor of the clock tower.

Yukari's response to 'we should all go to a festival together!' is 'Oh, hmm. That does sound fun... But you'll be there, won't you, Teddie?' and I'm glad she understands my 'I love everyone here, EXCEPT TEDDIE, WHO I AM FORCED TO SIT THROUGH FOR TIME WITH THE CHARACTERS I LOVE' struggle.

Rise's disappointed that she wasn't in the party to see Kanji's bad bad bathhouse!

Akihiko's characterisation in this game is generally very poor, but it's cute to see him and Chie training together.

It's lovely to see everyone talking about the possibility of Kanji becoming a teacher. And Kanji actually starting to consider it!

Yosuke's canonically flustered by the giant sweaty muscular loincloth man monster. Sometimes I wonder whether 'Yosuke is very clearly into guys and repressed about it' is just in my head. It's not.

Chie: You don't use me enough in battle.
Riona: Oh, I'm sorry, Chie! Let's do some fighting together.
Teddie: You don't use me enough in battle.
Riona: Good.

Oh, wow, the game actually addresses the fact that the games these characters are from aren't set in the same year! (I'd be really interested to see the Persona 4 cast's reactions if they get home and try to look their new friends up online.)

Awww, seeing the Persona-users of the future gives Mitsuru hope!

Yukiko wants to see Akihiko in a skirt! I'm enjoying Yukiko in this game. (Yukari's also into the idea!)

I still don't understand how this game managed to get Akihiko so wrong. He's not stupid and he's not reckless, going by everything we see in Persona 3. Where has this characterisation come from?

Holy shit, I was not expecting this game's plot to be so devastating. I didn't know it had a plot beyond 'Persona characters from different games hang out'!

Also, I went 'oh, wow, I hadn't realised Rei's voice actor was this good' when the plot kicked in, and I looked her up; it's Ashly Burch, voice of Chloe Price and Aloy! Suddenly I can hear her so clearly. She's giving a very intense performance!

Tentarafoo continues to be phenomenally useful. I love you, Yosuke. I think you're wonderful.

It's nice that Yosuke's privately telling me how much he admires Kanji, but you could tell Kanji that once in a while, Yosuke, rather than just teasing him!

Yosuke really cares about the entire team! It's very sweet. It's nice to see him and Rise have a warm interaction, too!

I told Yosuke he's cool, and he went into a blushing panic. ('Yosuke is flustered,' the narration informed me.)

'Hey, maybe what's good about me is that I'm blessed with the friends I have.' You're so cute, Yosuke.

Protagonist: Say nice stuff about me!
Yosuke, blushing: Huh? Well, it's kinda tough saying it to your face... I can't say stuff like how you're reliable and cool and great at playing along, you know?

Yosuke's got it so bad. I love it. (RD's response to the screencaps I've been sending her: 'riona he's so extremely gay for you. every single one of his lines could have NO HOMO at the end of it and read the same.')

I just end up cooing over Yosuke whenever I try to talk about this game. I'm not sorry. I love this stupid in-denial kid more than he deserves.

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/563051.html

I've now seen the first six episodes of the World Ends with You anime! It's not a bad adaptation, but it does feel very videogamey. This is because it's adapted from a videogame, of course, but seeing the characters completing obvious videogame missions does sometimes leave me wondering why I'm watching this, rather than playing it. It's a great story, but it's very much a story that works best in the original medium.

I also feel the anime waters down the characterisation slightly. Joshua, in particular, is not enough of an unbearable little shit. If I don't want to strangle him within sixty seconds of meeting him, he's not Joshua.

Also, Joshua is too tall! I always envisioned him as noticeably shorter than Neku; it's very weird to see them around the same height. Joshua's supposed to be tiny and frail!

I think Joshua may actually be taller than Neku in the anime, which is obviously illegal. In the game, Neku thinks 'this pipsqueak is my new partner?' when they first meet!

All that said, the anime does have some nice little additions, particularly with regard to Eri. And it's cool to see the characters in motion! I love how closely the art style matches the game. (The World Ends with You has a very distinctive graffiti-inspired visual style: bold designs, thick black lines.)

Plus there's some weird, sinister homoeroticism between Neku and Joshua, and that's very important.

More notes on Persona Q! I've just finished the Evil Spirit Club labyrinth. (The Evil Spirit Club is much more unsettling than I expected of a non-horror game on the 3DS and I do not like it at all. I slowed down on playing Persona Q for a while because it was entirely too scary.)

I'm glad this game gave me the opportunity to say that Yosuke is one-third handsomeness, but also why is it letting me flirt with Yosuke if it won't let me follow through?

('Whoa... C-c'mon, you're embarrassing me!' Yosuke responded, blushing.)

Holy shit, Tentarafoo is a lifesaver. I never realised how useful it was before. I've started using it at the beginning of every battle.

heck yeah, gonna hide from a cursed doll in a bathroom stall with my boyfriend

(and also Mitsuru and Ken I GUESS)

'Sorry, I was daydreaming, so I'm not sure what you asked me.' I'm glad Persona 3 protagonist Kosuke is living up to my 'clueless weirdo' headcanon characterisation now that he actually has dialogue.

It's lovely to see Kanji clumsily offering Ken advice and support!

'I'll show you what a man I am,' Kanji mumbles in his sleep. I love Kanji.

Elizabeth left me a secret message, and Yosuke was really unreasonably excited by the prospect that she might be confessing her love to me, just absolutely thrilled, and I felt pretty bad about having to tell him that the note said 'the price tag is still on your clothes'. It's okay, Yosuke; you don't have to settle for vicariously being with me.

I'm glad Persona Q has reminded me of how much I love Yosuke Hanamura (it's a lot), but now I'm torn between 'I should write more fanfiction about Yosuke!' and 'I don't have any inspiration'. I checked my list of unwritten fic ideas to see whether it had anything to offer, but the only Persona 4 concepts listed are unhelpfully vague:

- something about Persona 4 inspired by Higurashi (small towns!) or maybe Silent Hill (fog!)? Either of these would probably be a good opportunity to psychologically destroy Yosuke. (Or anyone else, but, let's be honest, it's going to be Yosuke.)
- Persona 4/FFXV: can you make Yosuke and Prompto meet? (Should you?)

Come to think of it, the Evil Spirit Club labyrinth makes a Silent Hill-esque Persona fic strangely plausible.

Yosuke meeting Prompto does sound potentially delightful, but I'm a little afraid that, if I attempted to write it, they'd end up sounding exactly the same and I'd be exposed as a fraud who can't differentiate characters.

Maybe at some point I should try to write a hundred words of every concept on my 'unwritten fic ideas' list and see whether any of them get a foothold. (Although I'm not sure about some of these ideas. 'Community/Utena. Jeff at Ohtori Academy. Meets Akio, goes "wow, so much better than the dean", gets banged.')

I think Persona 4 might be my favourite Persona game, which is impressive, because I played Persona 5 and went 'holy crap, I love this game, this is incredible. I suppose I'll check out Persona 4, but there's no way it won't be a disappointment after this.' And then I loved Persona 4, if possible, even more.

The Persona series isn't perfect by any means, but it's brought me so much joy during a worldwide joy shortage. Easily my best discovery of 2020.

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/562656.html

'I keep starting games and not getting anywhere with them. I need to stop jumping around and - ooh, Persona Q is on sale!'

I've just finished the Group Date Café! My notes are below, cut more for length than anything else; there's nothing particularly spoilery here. I'll be honest: I'm mostly just talking about my fondness for Yosuke.

( Rambling about Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth. )

'You fix Yosuke with a gentle gaze...' WHY CAN'T I KISS HIM

I was really hoping the mysterious matchmaker would pair me up with Yosuke, but it paired me up with Koromaru, who is admittedly a pretty strong choice.

(Turns out it was all just a setup for the clergyman to try to murder us, so I did not actually end up marrying the dog.)

Some of the characters in Persona Q have better portrayals than others. Akihiko's portrayal, in particular, is a shame; it feels like the game has forgotten everything that made him interesting and endearing in Persona 3. But, overall, this game is fun crossover nonsense and I'm having a good time.

Crossposts: https://rionaleonhart.livejournal.com/562224.html

Profile

Riona

AO3

Trabia Garden

Entries tagged with persona q

I Do A Lot Of Writing Down Fic Ideas Instead Of Actually Writing Fanfiction.

Your Companions Are Having Fun, And Seem Reluctant To Part.

Fanfiction: Clean Slate (Persona Q)

There's A Scary Takoyaki To My Left.

Do Wrathful Gods Mend A Lot Of Shoelaces?

You Guys Are Screwing It Up Faster Than I Can Correct You.

Profile