trainerlyra | damned if i do ya || joshneku [joshneku week day 4: music] @trainerlyra3 | Uploaded 2 years ago | Updated 1 hour ago
AYOOO HERE WE ARE!!! JOSHNEKU WEEK IS HAPPENING!!!!! i seriously. am so so happy it's going on bc there's been so many amazing fics and art coming out and i just. i really cannot describe to y'all how much i absolutely adore them. (i will later in this description bc youtube is my personal soapbox)

first off HUUUUGE THANK YOU to grace and ru for putting this together!! we've been talking a lot more over the past month and with everyone in our little chat and i'm super grateful... such wonderful people!! such a wonderful celebration of the best ship!!!!
secondly this is my somewhat different take on day 4's prompt music hehe. usually i just do fics for ship weeks (and oh boy do i have some fics!! here's my series for the week, i also have fics for days 5-7 coming!!!! archiveofourown.org/series/2577571) but i really wanted to do an edit too. bc i love them sm and they deserve ALL of my talents!!!!! so i interpreted this as literally as possible and here we are :)
thirdly also big shout out to river nd red, red bc as always i love her more then anything in the universe and she lets me ramble to her all hours of the day and river bc i love them too and their own ramblings both about jn and persona have been so helpful for making the brain juices go AND fun.

ANYWAYS, soap box time, i really cannot describe to you how much i absolutely adore joshneku but i really will try!!!!
like ok. from joshua's perspective we get this bored and lonely god who thinks the world around him is eroded and boring and wants to wipe it to a clean slate and be done, effectively killing himself and everyone else. he sees a kid who hates everything as much as he does and goes yeah, This Is The One. so he kills him to make him a player in his awful game for the fate of the city only to play with him and... see him change? see his views change about the world around him and start on a path to growth and joshua can't help but start changing too. bc this person, who he thought would understand him, not only does understand him but tells him he is Wrong. and then at the end, after everything, when he fully expects neku to shoot him and be done, neku just... doesn't. he puts the gun down. he chooses this single boy, this single lonely god, over the whole city. over all his other friends. over everything he loves. and idk about you guys but it really feels like this is the first time anyone has EVER chosen joshua first. even hanekoma, someone who is also supposed to Get Him, chooses the city over him. but not neku. and then in return, joshua just... gives it all back. he forfeits. because neku choosing him was the final nail in the coffin for joshua to change, too.
and neku!!! from neku's POV he finally meets a friend who he thinks gets him, but also, this kid might have killed him. but he tries SO HARD to give him the benefit of the doubt while doubting him lol it's hilarious. he tries bc he doesn't want joshua to be that person. and then he spends all of week 3 regretting everything and fully making the changes in his worldview and life to be a different, better person. and when joshua really does turn out to be the one behind everything, the one who killed him AND the one who is trying to destroy shibuya.... he's so upset. he's so angry, he's so devastated, but at the end of it he still puts his faith into joshua. trusts that he'll Get It, just like neku came to get it. bc they are two sides of the same coin and constantly building off of each other, constantly learning. and of course joshua does. and so neku gets it too!! he may not forgive him but he still trusts him, bc after all, that trust was what led shibuya to being restored, to all his friends coming back to life... so of course he trusts him!! he still wants him in his life. he wants him to come to hachiko, to be real with all of them... bc after everything, joshua is still his friend. his partner. someone who gets him. someone who was allowed to enter his secret garden, who expanded his world...........

and in NEO we see it come to a totally different place then i EVER expected canon to give us!! the gentle banter, the soft looks and fond gazes, the genuine trust and care they have for each other.... GOD!!!! and i really could go on forever about the rindoka/joshneku parallels and what that could possibly mean as rindoka is Implied Canon, but, like, i think i'm running out of space soon and also don't wanna type all that so red can finally see for herself wtf i'm talking about now that she has neo.

ANYWAYS!!! i love twewy sm. shout out to dina for showing it to me and for editing them for my bday!!! that edit inspired me sm and that's where i got inspo for a certain section here hehe.. shout out to kyle also for listening to me talk about it so constantly that i think he could literally recite the whole plot of the game back to me. i love him.
ok and that's all for real. peace out see ya next time i really did use nearly all 5000 charas yikes.