everyone pile on

[Leblanc's attic, again! Except this time, Futaba's called a meeting for Official Thief Business. And when everyone's in the hideout... Well, Futaba's standing there, with a whiteboard, and she's wearing a fuckin labcoat.

Why does she have a labcoat? We just don't know.]

We know the Metaverse was a product of cognition, right? A world made out of manifested cognition, the world of the human unconscious. But Mona told us at the end.... The real world is made of cognition, too. But we didn't know that at first. The Meta-Nav vanished from our phones, and we lost access to our Personas, because we had already thought that was our final mission, and we had thought the Metaverse was going to vanish, and we never changed our assumptions. So our cognition was that the Metaverse would vanish, so as we believed, we lost access to it.

But if we turn that around... The Metaverse isn't really gone. As long as we believe we can access it, we can. And that means the Phantom Thieves can be back in business again.

[She pulls out her phone, showing... the creepy-ass Meta-Nav icon on her phone?]

Skull, Fox, phones out. You guys should have the Meta-Nav again now, too.

[why those two??? it is a mystery.]

[As nice as Haru's place is, they can't stay there all the time. And they do have other things to do with each other as a group.

Which is why somehow, Futaba has managed to wrangle everyone into the attic, around the table. A stack of sourcebooks are on the table, which she's made everyone read. And next to them, she's managed to bring over and set up her Featherman figures, which should make her pitch no surprise at all. And she's speaking aloud in her best spooky voice, with an occasional evil chuckle thrown in.]

Since time immemorial, a number of ninja clans have protected Japan. Over time, some have faded. Over time, some have grown stronger. Their petty rivalries have destroyed each other, burned cities, and caused untold suffering. Over time, a truce was called, and soon, ninjas began to forget even that each other clan existed.

But all this changed when one clan, the Toki clan, descendants of Akechi Mitsuhide, betrayed the rest. Ignoring their truce, they began to attack the others, and absorbed their powers for themselves. With their power, they would take over the country, then the world!

The other clans couldn't match up to the Toki clan's power divided. But the truce stopped them from working together, either. So they came to a compromise: They would send the finest single warrior from their clan, a master of their craft, who could use their ninja powers to transform, as was their way! Thus, they meet in modern Kyoto, leading separate lives of normal teenagers and young adults by day, and at night, they work together to fight evil as the Ninja Rangers, Shinobi Unite!

[... she drops the voice now, at least.]

Or, that's the setting, but this time we'll just work on character generation. What do you guys want to play?

[poly thieves poly thieves!!

It is late afternoon, there is a pile of thieves in Leblanc's attic, there's a bunch of cushions and somehow Futaba's managed to get a beanbag chair up in there, and she's brought over a game system too. A much newer system than Ren's old junk, even.

There's a fighting game on the screen, and Futaba is taking on all challengers.]

Is there no one who can give me a challenge?

[... She may be getting a swelled head from destroying Ryuji a few too many times.

popcorn at the destruction, challenge her, distract her so someone else has a fair chance? the choice is yours.]