#yiffquius

Thank you aaaa ;;;A;;; Anatomy is really important to me, I try to make sure there's more differentiating species and characters than just fur colour and 'hair' cx

Oh and tangentially related but in all my paleoart ramblings i forgot to mention my absolute favourite Ice Age comic, Horse Age!

combined Raiju with Red Riding Hood for this one

meme bonus my gf suggested me to make under the cut

1) yes.... Chaos is a weird one to me cuz, on one hand, they help zag cuz he’s entertaining and specifically because he’s shaking up the status quo and comes to appreciate him for who he is, on the other, zag is constantly walking on eggshells around them cuz they're terrifying and powerful af and they don't want zag to respond unless they specifically tell him to. all in all i consider them...a friend????????

2) fo sho

Cute!! I'm just sitting in my back yard scrubbing the rust off some old lanters and I left the door open and Mona decided to come out.

Hhh sorry for how long this one is, I noticed a plothole that needed fixing and proceeded to get carried the eff away

The reason the rest of the Phantom Thieves find out about Akira’s Palace is because he starts sleeping a lot more than usual, has a harder time getting up in the morning, and starts eating less. Morgana pesters Akira into visiting Takemi in case he might be sick, but Takemi concludes that he’s perfectly healthy. When the issues persist, despite Akira’s claims that he’s alright, Morgana brings it up with the others b/c he’s worried. While they try to figure out what’s going on with their leader, someone (maybe Ryuji) jokingly puts his name into the MetaNav. Everyone’s caught off-guard when it’s a hit.

The Phantom Thieves appear in their normal real-world outfits the entire time, rather than shifting into their Thief outfits at any point (though they still have access to their weapons). Even if they’re identified as a threat in the Palace, real-world Akira still sees them as his friends first and foremost. Morgana does change into his bipedal form, but it has more to do with him being in the Metaverse than him being perceived as an enemy.

The cognitive versions of the Confidants all appear relatively normal/undistorted, but there’s still something a bit…off about them. Think uncanny valley here: they look perfectly human, but their movement are just a little too stiff to be natural, etc. Aside from being sorta fixated on the show and quick to praise Puppet!Akira, their personalities are pretty spot-on.

The non-Thief/non-Velvet Confidants are only semi-aware of Puppeteer!Akira, and don’t really have an opinion of him. Cognitive Igor, Caroline, and Justine are aware of Puppeteer!Akira, and have a generally neutral opinion of him.

The Thief Confidants are aware of Puppeteer!Akira, but they don’t like him, or like talking about him. If/when the Thieves manage to get their cognitive equivalents to talk about Puppeteer!Akira, they won’t have anything good to say about him – he’s creepy, it’s annoying when he messes up the show, it’s frustrating how he’s been taking more breaks recently, etc. This (combined with how easily they compliment Puppet!Akira) is to reflect how Akira feels like his friends only like the act he puts on around them, and not Akira himself.

All the cognitive Confidants refer to Puppet!Akira as “him,” but Puppeteer!Akira refers to Puppet!Akira as “it” instead.

LISTEN I know I said “eff the rules give Akira two Shadows” last time but I gotta change that now for the sake of Plot™. Right from the beginning, Akira’s Treasure is already manifested as Puppet!Akira. There are a few possible explanations for this, but the idea I’m leaning towards the most is that Puppet!Akira isn’t a “true” Shadow. It’s a Treasure that, due to its nature as a fabricated version of Akira made to perform for others, is a little more sentient than usual. As such, Akira would always be aware of its existence, thus leading to it already being manifested by the time the Phantom Thieves enter the Palace. This also leads to them mistakenly believing that Puppet!Akira is Akira’s Shadow at first.

@the-baron-of-burgle​ you brought up in ur ask how part of Puppet!Akira’s performance could include talking to the audience, and I really love that idea?? The Phantom Thieves would have the opportunity to tell him to drop the act, that he doesn’t have to put on an act to be loved, etc. Unfortunately Puppet!Akira doesn’t have enough autonomy to revolt against Puppeteer!Akira like you mentioned, but Puppeteer!Akira does hear the Thieves when they talk to Puppet!Akira. Their responses startle/confuse him enough that the performance is noticeably disrupted. This draws the ire of the cognitive audience, so the show is quickly resumed; afterwards though it’s announced (maybe by Caroline & Justine) that there’s going to be a short break before the next performance. The cognitive Confidants complain again at this, blaming the PT for messing things up, but they don’t become hostile. The enemy Shadows in the audience do attack though, but luckily there aren’t many of them, and the Thieves are able to escape and regroup.

You also brought up cutting Puppet!Akira’s strings and that is EXACTLY what’s gonna happen here baby!! If the Phantom Thieves are able to change Akira’s cognition from the real world, Puppeteer!Akira will cut Puppet!Akira’s strings, rendering it unable to perform. If they wind up having to send Akira a calling card, there will be a boss fight against Puppeteer!Akira – part of this fight will involve cutting Puppet!Akira’s strings themselves.

Although the Phantom Thieves agree to try changing Akira’s cognition from the real world and leave stealing his Treasure as a last resort, they still spend a decent amount of time investigating the Palace and trying to locate a route to the Treasure. To their confusion, all the routes they investigate wind up either being dead ends or leading them back to the main stage, where Puppet!Akira performs.

Puppet!Akira can talk and emote to an extent, but it doesn’t blink or breathe. Its eyes stay relatively emotionless, and are the signature Shadow yellow, though they look much less alive than Puppeteer!Akira’s. It generally doesn’t do much unless it’s actively being controlled.

Puppeteer!Akira can talk, but rarely does so – when he does, his voice is very quiet. His eyes are more emotive than Puppet!Akira’s, even if his main emotion is unfortunately “depression.” He doesn’t like Puppet!Akira very much, but views it as necessary to keep around.

@yiffquius like u mentioned in ur tags, the memories that get played out by the bunraku puppets 100% are altered from how they actually went down. The alterations always reinforce Akira’s perception that he has to keep up the act or else there will be some form of consequence, primarily people abandoning him.

Speaking of the memories, I feel like they ought to expand back to pre-canon, or at minimum to the day of Akira’s arrest – Palaces take a long time to form, after all. However, another way to go about it is to say that the PT don’t see any pre-canon memories for whatever reason. Maybe they feel like it’d be an unnecessary invasion of privacy, or there’s not enough time to watch all of them, etc. Of the memories they see, I think three that would emphasize Akira’s distortion well (and be easy to alter) would be the night of his arrest, his car convo with Sojiro/Sojiro threatening to kick him out if he gets into trouble, and that part of the buffet scene where he’s made leader of the Phantom Thieves.