INFO & PERMISSIONS

[fireandfaith]

This AU is a fic I am slowly posting to AO3! Be warned that I spoil the broad strokes of a good chunk of fic I haven’t posted yet below!

AU INFO:

Following the PT’s fight with the Holy Grail in a Persona 5 Vanilla timeline, Akira Kurusu (Codename: Joker) takes the deal offered by the false God of Control, Yaldabaoth. In the scant moments left before reality is overwritten, Lavenza uses the last of her strength to call out to the Trickster’s bonds.

Ann Takamaki hears her.

After having the situation and the consequences explained to her, Ann makes a deal with Lavenza in order to attempt and save the world from ruin once and for all. Before sending her on her way, Lavenza grants Ann a boon—shielding from Yaldabaoth. In the new timeline she finds herself in, his sight will not fall upon her. Even when she enters the Metaverse.

Ann then finds herself waking up in her bedroom on April 1st—she’s back to before the school year even began. She uses those first few days to get her bearings back, and reconnect with Ryuji Sakamoto. He, of course, does not remember the previous timeline.

On April 4th, Ann sets out to complete Kamoshida’s Palace—before the school year starts, and before Akira’s criminal record can be leaked (before he can ever lay hands on Shiho). She intends only to bring the Palace down, but no plan ever survives contact with the enemy.

On April 4th, Suguru Kamoshida dies.

The start of the school year is set back a week for Shujin Academy as they scramble to fill in a faculty spot with little to no warning. Takuto Maruki is hired as the school counselor, to help in the wake of such sudden loss, and Junpei Iori is hired as the new PE teacher. He’s young, and doesn’t have the accolades or experience Shujin would have preferred—but he’s what’s available on such short notice (and not at all because the Shadow Ops are jumping at the opportunity to get an operative into the city that Masayoshi Shido has made sure they’re kept out of, in terms of jurisdiction).

Ann Takamaki never becomes a Phantom Thief. The thieves still form, but they are missing two key members: Ann Takamaki, Codename: Panther (fighting her own fight), and Morgana, Codename: Mona (his whereabouts, unknown to even Ann at her current canonpoint, are a surprise tool that will hurt us later!)

The first Palace the Phantom Thieves overcome is that of Sadayo Kawakami—the Phantom Thieves, that is, known as Shadow (Akira Kurusu), Skull (Ryuji Sakamoto) and Ember (Kasumi Yoshizawa). In the aftermath of this ordeal, Akira Kurusu requests extra help with his studies to keep an eye on her, thus forming a bond with the Temperance Arcana.

Meanwhile, Ann Takamaki is avoiding Dr Maruki after a disastrous first session with him, and trying to figure out her next moves. Before even attempting to make contact with Goro Akechi (also known as: The Black Mask) she instead messages Alibaba (Futaba Sakura). Promising to help her through cognitive means, Ann gains an ally in cybersecurity.

Ann’s next target is Yusuke Kitagawa. With the Thieves being fairly low profile thus far in this timeline, and loving him as a friend, she cannot risk that they might not target Madarame, or that they might take longer to get there. Through various means, Yusuke Kitagawa ends up moving into Ann Takamaki’s house.

It’s at this point that Ann makes a move to find Goro Akechi in Mementos. During their confrontation, in a moment of desperation, Ann awakens to Celestine. Wary and shocked to see someone else with the same power as him (two personas!?) Goro Akechi withdraws, to encounter her again another day.

In the wake of her third Awakening, Ann’s thief outfit also changes:


Worried that some aspects of it might be immediately recognised were she to encounter the Thieves in the Metaverse, Ann attempts to remove some of the most obvious pieces (Fox’s Tail, Skull’s Jacket, Queen’s Scarf, and the Mona Earrings) and finds, to her astonishment, that manipulating her cognitive appearance to such a degree is possible. Experimenting further, in an attempt to make herself completely unrecognizable as Ann Takamaki, she turns her hair bright red (see Ann Takamaki concept art).

Thus transformed, the former-Panther christens herself ‘Carmine.’

Shortly thereafter, in a time where she is in an uneasy truce with Goro Akechi, Ann Takamaki encounters Elizabeth, who, possessed of a Wildcard of her own after P4AU, has been exploring the world outside of the Velvet Room in attempt to find her Answer, and was thus not in Attendance when Yaldabaoth invaded and conquered the Velvet Room. Upon sensing her younger sister’s influence on Ann, she confronts her, and makes a deal with her, lending Ann her Wildcard and acting as a means through which Ann can perform Persona Fusions.

Elizabeth also confirms for Ann the existence of her bonds and the manner of her Arcana—in traveling through time and changing as she has, Celestine (and Ann herself) as well as the bond that ties her to Akira Kurusu are of the Judgement Arcana.

[this is her canonpoint, in terms of major knowledge and events that she possesses]


CHARACTER INFO:

VISUALLY, Ann remains much the same as her canon counterpart, discounting her Metaverse transformations.
IN TERMS OF PERSONALITY, Ann is a little more mature—a little more tired. A lot angrier. And a touch more openly ruthless. Otherwise, she’s still Just Ann.
FUN THINGS TO BE NOTED: She was seventeen when she was transported back, and she keeps slipping up on being sixteen again. She has a complex but genuinely and generally loving relationship with her distant parents. She’s lost a lot of shame and ability to be embarrassed by things she was, in the original timeline.


PERMISSIONS:

IN CHARACTER,

⁍ do not physically touch her without permission unless you want it to devolve into a fight
⁍ do not make sexual advances
⁍ cease to make romantic advances if she states a hard no or stop
⁍ lavenza’s boon of protection from yaldabaoth’s eyes grants her immunity to most forms of scrying or psychic abilities (in terms of being able to sense her, specifically) that would otherwise affect a persona user, all the more so if they are DIRECTLY related to yaldabaoth. ETA: to clarify, when not in the metaverse, she would ping as a non-persona user, generally; within the metaverse (or similar phenomena like the Dark Hour) she would be completely invisible to yaldabaoth and powers gained from him (ex. Joker's Third Eye ability), and likely hard to register to general non-yaldabaoth related scanning and psychic abilities (the exact specifics of this can be discussed and plotted out before we thread!)

OUT OF CHARACTER,

⁍ backtagging? go wild
⁍ threadhopping? go nuts
⁍ fourthwalling? i would prefer to discuss it first, but it’s not an immediate no
⁍ content to warn for? moths. warn me before you hit me with moths.