So I have this really weird idea that won’t probably be written anytime soon – or maybe it will, who knows, maybe work will calm down after the ridiculously busy weekend.

I’ve always had this random Persona 4 idea of, “What if the characters were switched?”  As in, not the characters themselves, but who they are in the game.  For example (which is one of the main ideas of the fic), what if Naoto were the popstar instead of Rise?  

More behind the cut, and still a Kanji and Naoto story, just with a popstar! Naoto.  Warning, spoilers to the game and weirdness ahoy!

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So I had this thought of Naoto being a popstar (I’ve also had this thought with Yosuke but that’s a whole ‘nother story), complete with her same gender issues.  So she’s a popstar who poses as a boy and no one knows that she’s actually a girl.  She does this for various reasons.

1.  Because of how female popstars are seen to the public.  This includes all the lovely stereotypes, particularly ones I’ve seen about Rise being a slut (which I still don’t get, but that’s another ramble for another day).  

2.  Because of what people want from said popstars.  Cute and sweet, hot and sexy, you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t and Naoto doesn’t want to deal with either.  It’s all about creating a fantasy for people and the fantasies are a contradiction she doesn’t want to play into.

3.  Because of the pressures of being a female idol.  I’m mostly referring to the recent AKB48 scandal (which, if you want the short version, one of the girls spent the night with her boyfriend, which is a big no-no for the group) and the whole, you know, wanting the girls to be available so people can have the dream of being with them someday.  OR, from an American standpoint I guess, if stars do start dating we know absolutely EVERYTHING they do, and I mean everything.  We’d know they were breaking up before they even do it.  

This fic would prooooobably be based on what I see in American pop-culture, which doesn’t seem to be as serious business to me compared to Japan and what happened with AKB48.

So Naoto decides she doesn’t want to deal with that and poses as a boy.  Not that boy idols don’t also have problems, but you know, she feels like she has more freedoms as a male idol.  Though while doing this, she sort of gets lost on who she is – especially since, in reality, she’s a girl.  She’s losing that girl aspect of herself while trying to keep up the demands of who the public wants her male persona to be.  There’s also the fact that she sees how girl idols are treated, sees what the public wants from them, and it probably terrifies her what would happen if they knew the truth, what they would think of her.  In her world, public opinion is absolutely necessary, she can’t just say, “Whatever,” to them – well, she can, but… yeah….

So she leaves.

This leads her to the Investigation Team and the others.

As far as a fic goes it would probably end with her facing her shadow, joining the team and being with Kanji, mostly because I have no idea who would be her detective replacement as far as plot goes?  

In the fic, Kanji has a huge crush on “him,” which awakens all of his issues and shadow and blah blah blah (and I want Kanji and Yukiko friendship times because, you know, they were friends).  When Naoto comes to town after leaving, they end up getting close (because he’s a nice fanboy and Kanji likes the change of pace).  

For some reason I have this thought (which might be more of an American celebrity thing than Japanese, I have no idea) of Naoto, as a boy, dating Kanji is no big deal.  Being pro GLBT is a great thing in the celebrity world.  We have Neil Patrick Harris with his husband and child, Jodi Foster coming out after years and years of being in the closet, Ellen, things like that.  Not that Naoto cares about “his” image, but when people find out that he went off to Inaba and started dating a boy, they think, “Awwwww,” versus if “she” were to do it, which would lead to, “That skank dropped her career over some guy.”  This probably leads to some troubles between Kanji and Naoto, in which he thinks Naoto’s just using him to boost his image which isn’t true at all (cue Naoto being upset, running off, and probably getting kidnapped.  Also, this takes over the Kanami plot that Rise had).

The only thing about writing this is with Naoto taking Rise’s spot, I have no idea where Rise would be – if anywhere.  I guess she could take the detective spot, but if the story ends with Naoto’s shadow, there’s really no need to do that either?  I’m also don’t have anything concrete in my head in regards to this except for some scene where Kanji’s watching one of Naoto’s concerts on dvd and trying not to crush too hard, and a scene where Kanji and Naoto “break up” because he thinks Naoto’s trying to make himself look better.  

Maybe if work is slow I can try and iron things out?