Ren: Just kind of good a this game on the principle that his other self is a master thief and manipulator. Actually likely to cause the crewmates to lose because he’s trying to figure out who the imposters are and forgets to do his tasks. When he’s an imposter he’s really good. He knows how to sabotage things and lure people into traps and stuff. 

Ryuji: Mixed as an imposter. Generally pretty good at staying above the suspicion, but once he gets caught he’s very bad at covering for himself, so generally caught within three rounds. As a crewmate is very likely to get murdered in the middle of a task.

Ann: Living for the drama tbh. Won’t do tasks as a ghost because she’s trying to figure out who the imposters are (assuming one didn’t kill her). Like Ryuji, not the best when caught in a lie but usually good at acting innocent so she can’t be caught in the lie. Unless it’s voice chat.

Yusuke: As an imposter: “Wait how are you supposed to fake tasks?” Very good at doing tasks as a crewmate. Also very likely to be murdered in the middle of a task.

Makoto: It takes her a few games to get the hang of things but after awhile figures it out, but is eventually a force to be reckoned with. She’s keeping eyes on everybody and probably has a mental map of where everyone was at the time of death. Also very good at framing people and deflecting if caught.

Futaba: Very good at doing tasks and mostly tries to help Yusuke and Haru when they’re having trouble. Unless she’s the imposter, in which case she will kill them. This has happened multiple times. Otherwise she’s ok but really specializes in sabotaging things.

Haru: Also very bad at this game but mostly just happy to be here. Not sure how to do most of the tasks and still takes a while. Unless she’s the imposter, in which case she goes on a murder spree. Tends to self report after multiple people have died.

Goro: Admitably better assisting a fellow imposter as a ghost than actually impostering on his own. As a crewmate, no one believes him so he’s kind of bad at that too. Definitely better at playing with strangers which lead to a wonderful incident where he ended up on the same server as Shinya and there was a dramatic showdown between the two of them.

Yet it wasn't the only reason this time he stirred from otherwise blissful sleep. He was having dreams of Tokyo again... of the Metaverse. Bizarre and frightening, Ren would have passed the events he'd had to endure as stress-inducing nightmares if it weren't for the feline sleeping by the foot of his bed. Having forged a bond that's unbreakable, Morgana insisted he'd come along to his home in the countryside. His parents were... less than pleased with having a new, unexpected addition to the family, but in time they grew to love Morgana as one of their own (and Ren sometimes wondered if they loved the cat more than they did him).

There was one dream... one dream in particular that Ren had constantly revisited. One about Goro, always about Goro, and never something else.

It was an open secret amongst the Phantom Thieves during their yearlong time of operation that Ren fancied the star detective prince, even since he stood up to the Detective Prince in front of millions on TV, that first sighting of him made his heart flutter in a way he never experienced before, almost jumping up his throat and out of his mouth, and Ren always wondered if Goro ever acknowledged how flushed his cheeks under the studio lights as they shook hands.

Opposite ends of a conflict, rivals, a detective and a thief. He loved the way they danced around each other, their game of cat and mouse, constantly pushing the other to their limits, always in competition to outdo each other, the cyclical motion in which one chased each other by the coattails of their intertwining destinies… Ren knew the same day he had met the detective that he was suspicious, always aware that Goro might be the ‘Black Mask’ behind the mental shutdowns, yet never raising it to his friends both from uncertainty and fear that the boy he crushed on was, in fact, a cold-hearted killer.

His unframed eyes wandered from his lap onto the bedside table. A lone glove sat beside his glasses, gently illuminated by a stream of moonlight. He remembered their duel in Mementos. A private battle against the other in the arena that was the stream of the public consciousness, and his triumph over his rival, his crush. Ren wouldn’t dare forget that day when Goro allowed his mask to slip for the first time, for Ren to witness the real Goro on that day as he threw his glove at him... The same glove he picked up from his bedside table. The only real keepsake he had left with the detective. He tightened his grip around it.

How he wished that things played differently, for them to be something more than rivals he insisting they’d be between each other... Ren remembered the many, many insomnia-filled nights even after changing the heart of Shido, his mind wandering to that engine room. The iconography of Shido’s twisted party burned in his mind, faded red paint pulsated perfervidly as he pounded heavily on the shutter door, how peaceful Goro sounded within his last moments of their time together, the sudden, sharp bangs of bullets blasting between his crush and his crude, cruel copy.

Yet that was not the source of his continued grief. No; with time he would have moved on from his loss, an emotion he practised when parting with his Phantom Thief life completely from Tokyo. He brought the glove to his lips and kissed it; vulnerable tears blinked down from his eyes.

Maruki. He had saved Goro from his fate, bringing the detective back from perceived death, Ren remembering how absolutely stunned he felt when he saw Goro, loosed tongued, the ‘Detective Prince’ mask he donned on gone... it was a miracle... it was a lure for him to accept his reality, Goro a piece of bait for him to allure Ren into wanting Maruki’s twisted haven of reality, to ensnare the rebellious boy into his will.

And Ren almost bought into it, almost accepted his deal, remembering his almost shameful want to keep everything Maruki had given him. He wanted to stay in Tokyo, to be with his friends, to love Goro freely, both of them finally breaking the binds that bound them to expectation and binary. Yet it was not meant to be. He remembered the way Goro sneered at him for even considering the Gentle Madman’s deal; angry, red eyes squinting hatefully at him. And Ren understood why. Even with the uncertainty of his destiny he still chose to stand against Maruki’s wishes, chose to discard being a puppet for the counsellor’s dream, taking the reins of his destiny as Ren demonstrated to him.

It was something that Ren did not want, the Fool almost abandoning the integrity he had clung on so desperately all that time, all dashed at the opportunity to finally save the one he couldn’t. Yet; he saw that even while discussing his uncertain fate, the freedom to finally control his destiny, his future, the one thing Goro had desired this whole time, even if it meant dying in Shido’s Palace, even if it meant that they would never see the other again... that Goro was happy.

And who was he to reap the happiness from the man who pursued it for so long? Ren was now sobbing, holding the glove close to him, squeezing the leather tight. The dream he would have. Where he would always see glimpses of Goro, a modern Tantalus, the thing he desired the most always just out of his reach. He would often imagine how Goro’s fingers felt intertwined in his own, skin touching skin, Ren almost pretending when he filled the glove with his grip, clutching his hands together in prayer for the life he wished for...