Goro Akechi (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
herewardbound) wrote2024-01-09 07:50 pm
herewardbound) wrote2024-01-09 07:50 pm
To Make a Long Story Short
-Vanished from the Metaverse on 2/3 and immediately woke up in a shared dream world over at ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
songerein
-Spent over a year there. Made up with his Ren and Sumire, and Futaba, bonded with Ann and Zenkichi from the Strikers timeline. Had an identity crisis and failed to access his Persona in any meaningful way for months.
-Faced his Shadow, which was a chaotic amalgamation of all the faces he'd adopted for other people, with Ren and Sumire backing him up. Got punched by said Shadow. Got chewed out and asked a lot of painful questions by said Shadow.
-Accepted what said Shadow was trying to tell him and came to the conclusion that his memories, whether they were real or not, were real enough to him and that he was a person who wanted to live.
-Bad news: Lost access to Robin Hood, Loki, and Hereward.
-Good news: Awakened to Captain Nemo, a Persona of the Fool Arcana. Found out he suddenly had Bonds, in the form of the Fool, the Magician, Hunger, and Faith- for the town of Reverein, Ren, Shido, and Sumire, respectively. Felt the best he had in years and resolved to start over with his life that he totally now had.
-Took up monster hunting with a few people from the Helluva Boss cast plus Alastor, who were doing odd jobs as IMP, now featuring Dante, from the Devil May Cry series. Also Denji Chainsawman Nolastname, who was also there, and primarily annoyed the shit out of him.
-Got into a whole host of dreamlogic shenanigans. Song was a wild ride.
-Made a few friends not directly connected to his workplace or the Thieves.
-Lost most of them when they all abruptly woke up shortly after Christmas. Unfortunately, Ren, Ann, and Sumire were among them.
-Spent a lot of time in a massively depressed state due to his social circle collapsing overnight and believing he could be next, and as a cognitive double there was nowhere for him to go.
-During a conflict with a world-devouring entity powered by nightmares called the Story Eater, had to face a dream construct born from his nightmares of Maruki's control. This was a fun time. Ren was back! And an apocalypse wasn't happening.
-None of those three things were true and Zenkichi snapped him out of it.
-Had a final confrontation with Nightmare!Maruki and Azathoth, who took the news that he was a cognitive construct rather well, in the circumstances, and resolved to take the lesson of Goro turning dream magic to awaken new Personas into an evolution from Azathoth into Zulchequon, the elder god of forbidden knowledge who twists the wishes of mortal petitioners. Awakened, briefly, thanks to the magic of Reverein protecting itself, to the spirit of Loki Laufeyson, the completion of the Fool Arcana, and a newfound resolve:
-Acceptance of the mantle of 'Trickster', and to be determined to find a means out of Reverein with his mind and memories intact. To steal his future from the world.
-Got really close to Blitz, Stolas, Octavia, Dante, and Denji, who more or less convinced him that they were gonna help him find a solution.
-Turns out Stolas has this grimoire. It makes portals.
-They offered him (and Denji, whose home situation was absolute dogshit) a home.
-He accepted. Let's all go to Hell.
-Now featuring Dante, from the Devil May Cry series.
songerein-Spent over a year there. Made up with his Ren and Sumire, and Futaba, bonded with Ann and Zenkichi from the Strikers timeline. Had an identity crisis and failed to access his Persona in any meaningful way for months.
-Faced his Shadow, which was a chaotic amalgamation of all the faces he'd adopted for other people, with Ren and Sumire backing him up. Got punched by said Shadow. Got chewed out and asked a lot of painful questions by said Shadow.
-Accepted what said Shadow was trying to tell him and came to the conclusion that his memories, whether they were real or not, were real enough to him and that he was a person who wanted to live.
-Bad news: Lost access to Robin Hood, Loki, and Hereward.
-Good news: Awakened to Captain Nemo, a Persona of the Fool Arcana. Found out he suddenly had Bonds, in the form of the Fool, the Magician, Hunger, and Faith- for the town of Reverein, Ren, Shido, and Sumire, respectively. Felt the best he had in years and resolved to start over with his life that he totally now had.
-Took up monster hunting with a few people from the Helluva Boss cast plus Alastor, who were doing odd jobs as IMP, now featuring Dante, from the Devil May Cry series. Also Denji Chainsawman Nolastname, who was also there, and primarily annoyed the shit out of him.
-Got into a whole host of dreamlogic shenanigans. Song was a wild ride.
-Made a few friends not directly connected to his workplace or the Thieves.
-Lost most of them when they all abruptly woke up shortly after Christmas. Unfortunately, Ren, Ann, and Sumire were among them.
-Spent a lot of time in a massively depressed state due to his social circle collapsing overnight and believing he could be next, and as a cognitive double there was nowhere for him to go.
-During a conflict with a world-devouring entity powered by nightmares called the Story Eater, had to face a dream construct born from his nightmares of Maruki's control. This was a fun time. Ren was back! And an apocalypse wasn't happening.
-None of those three things were true and Zenkichi snapped him out of it.
-Had a final confrontation with Nightmare!Maruki and Azathoth, who took the news that he was a cognitive construct rather well, in the circumstances, and resolved to take the lesson of Goro turning dream magic to awaken new Personas into an evolution from Azathoth into Zulchequon, the elder god of forbidden knowledge who twists the wishes of mortal petitioners. Awakened, briefly, thanks to the magic of Reverein protecting itself, to the spirit of Loki Laufeyson, the completion of the Fool Arcana, and a newfound resolve:
-Acceptance of the mantle of 'Trickster', and to be determined to find a means out of Reverein with his mind and memories intact. To steal his future from the world.
-Got really close to Blitz, Stolas, Octavia, Dante, and Denji, who more or less convinced him that they were gonna help him find a solution.
-Turns out Stolas has this grimoire. It makes portals.
-They offered him (and Denji, whose home situation was absolute dogshit) a home.
-He accepted. Let's all go to Hell.
-Now featuring Dante, from the Devil May Cry series.
(too late)
-Goro emerged in
-For a brief moment he was convinced that this was more or less the end of his days as a Doer of Crime, but a few snags caught him. The King of Hell, Lucifer himself, had found out about the intrusion, and was curious to see what, exactly, the fuck.
-After a most-inadvisable argument with the King vis-a-vis the yearly Exterminations, Goro found, much to his surprise, that there was a new- or rather old- app on his phone, one claiming to be the Metaverse Navigator. Gone, however, was the red eye motif and the familiar color scheme, replaced instead, simply, with this:
-Experimentation showed that many of the same functions had been preserved, but who had made it? Who'd installed it on his phone? Old Palaces and Mementos were either gone or out of range, so he tried for the closest person he could think of that he could be certain had a Palace: his adoptive father's abusive (and now, murderous) wife, Stella Noctis ars Goetia.
-Stella had a Palace, alright, and finding the keywords wasn't hard, but he came to the conclusion that it would be wrong to tackle this without consulting any of the people who'd been most wronged by Stella. He explained the situation to Octavia, and the two entered Stella's palace, which took the form of a vast garden full of rare and dangerous plants.
-During a confrontation with her mother's Shadow, Octavia awoke to the Persona Mulan, and between the two of them they were able to force Stella's Shadow into submission, and find her Treasure.
-Octavia made the call. Stella would confess to her crimes- and in the course of composing a Calling Card, a name was decided upon. Nautilus, the name chosen for Captain Nemo's famous ship. The Shadow-