#redduo

In the event that pre cannon Kotone and post cannon Ren meet (in the most common situation of P3 time travelling), they’d have such a weird first interaction that I think they’d be in each others heads for days after.

Ren learned how to see when someone is wearing a mask through Akechi. He knows what someone pretending to be someone else because they are scared of how people would really see them/ hate the person they really are so they pretend to be someone else through Sumire.

He knows exactly what having a mask on to protect your real self looks like because He Himself sees one when he looks in the mirror. In fact, Ren’s mask and Kotones mask are polar opposites. Ren is energetic and a bit snarky but he hides that under the veneer of a calm quiet guy to not draw attention, while Kotone is deeply introspective and solemn at time but she hides it under the veneer of being energetic and bright so she doesn’t have to confront it with others.

Kotone would absolutely find Ren jarring and interesting both because as soon as she meets him, he quickly sees through her mask in a way no one else has. Ren would be so confused as to why someone would set off so many of his alerts. Imagine this one guy you’ve never met manages to see right through a disguise you’ve been building your entire life as soon as you meet them. That’d drive someone wild.

The fundamental difference in how their social links work would also be so interesting. A P3 social link involves their protagonist helping someone else and learning from them, while a P5 confidant is someone who teaches the protagonist or having a mutually beneficial relationship.

So if Kotone ever planned to make a social link with Ren, he’d definitely offer to teach her persona things or cognition hacks in exchange and it would be so interesting to have a social link where the protagonist actually gets asked about themselves instead of them having to initiate. Combined with the fact that P3 Protagonist only gives gifts while P5 protagonist is used to exchanges means that the first time Ren gives Kotone something to keep, it would be very significant.

The dynamic of one person trying to figure out why someone else was able to see through their mask and end up coming face to face with their mask, and the dynamic of the one person the other can drop the mask around and just Be without having to keep the charade up is just so Interesting to me.