Fanfic / New Vegas Showtime

The story begins right after the Final Boss fight of Persona 5, and so spoilers for the canon events from that game are unmarked.

Cover by wr3h

"Fine then, cards on the table. I’m from the mid-2010s Japan, banished to this time and place by a vengeful god. I do not know anything about this world, other than that it is dangerous, but my friends ended up scattered around it and I need to find them as quickly as possible. So if you’d be so kind as to give me the cliff notes so I can get going, that would be lovely."

— Ren "Akira Kurusu" Amamiya, summing up the premise of the story to the Courier

New Vegas Showtime is an ongoing crossover fic between Persona 5 and Fallout: New Vegas, by BarthVader, betaread by Mr. Dusk and Wr3h/Wren.

In a last-ditch effort to beat the Phantom Thieves, the Demiurge banishes them into the/a post-apocalyptic future. Good news: Igor is capable of returning him back to his time and space, in the exact moment when he was banished, so he can deal the finishing blow. Bad news: he needs Morgana to do it, and both he and the other Thieves are scattered across the Mojave Wasteland. And considering the ongoing conflict between two local superpowers, Mojave is not an okay place to live.

The fic can be found on AO3 and FF.net.

The fic contains the following tropes:

• Adaptational Heroism: Akechi goes from a remorseless assassin to an Anti-Hero, in part because what happened in the Engine Room caused a change in priorities, but mostly because Mojave is such a Crapsack World that it bothers even him.
• Adaptational Intelligence: The courier lacks the cluelessness the player character seemingly had during the early game in canon, and often acts as Mr. Exposition to Akira.
• Adaptational Skill:
  • Almost every Phantom Thief speaks nigh-fluent English, with the exception of Ryuji, Morgana, and Yusuke — and the first two acquire that skill later on. Canonically, if the situation required, translating English to Japanese was left to Ann. The author describes it as a necessity, because writing a story with most characters blocked off by Language Barrier is hard.
    Author's comment: The handwaves are thus: Makoto and Akechi are neeeeerds, endgame Akira's stats can be high enough to count him as a nerd too, Haru's father paid for extra English classes, Ann is Ann, and Futaba learned English because every piece of documentation for a programming language is in that language.
  • Doctor 8's canon specialization was soundwaves. The fic extends it to linguistics as well, with a handwave that "language is just sounds made with mouths".
• Affably Evil: The convict Makoto interacts with in Primm, named "Diego Salazar" in a later chapter, is a former NCRCF inmate that broke out of the facility, probably took part in the assault of Primm, and tried to mug Makoto the moment he saw her, but once he realized she's a Fish out of Temporal Water, he hands the wallet back and gives her advice on how to reach relative safety. Unlike his colleague, he also doesn't try to hit on her. Later on, he wants to go to Nipton to try and help whoever might've survived, unlike most of his former cellmates.
• Alternate Universe: Futaba and Neil theorize that the former came from a different universe altogether, based on her finding the state-of-the-art-by-Falloutverse-standards technology antique.
• Ambiguous Situation: There's no explanation of what happened between Vulpes spotting Akechi in Nipton and Akechi getting the Powder Gangers down from the crosses, leaving it up in the air whether Akechi killed him or let him walk away, both being possible in canon.
• Arms Dealer: Danger Caravans, consisting of Vincent "Vince" Danger, an antisocial repairman refurbishing old guns, and Bernie "Burns" Michaels, a more personable friend of his playing the salesman/advertiser.
• A Sinister Clue: Downplayed, in that it merely represents a character turning greyer rather than a full-on Face–Heel Turn, but Makoto's first kills in self-defense were done with her left hand, since she got wounded in the right arm a moment prior.
• Bad Liar: Akira tries to avoid drawing attention to himself after he wakes up in Goodsprings, but blunders twice in a row before straight up admitting to the locals that he's from a different time and space — he says he's gonna head north to look for his friends (the area north of Goodsprings is swarming with Cazadores), and later he claims that he's from Vault 22 (which was taken over by Spore Carriers a long time before he showed up in the Mojave).
• Battle Discretion Shot:
  • Haru's fight with the Fiends isn't described, the reader only sees the aftermath: Haru, covered in blood, most of it not hers, tightly gripping a fire-axe.
  • Ditto Akechi's fight with the raiders that assaulted Nipton after the Legion left. All we're shown is a pile of corpses on the side of the road.
• Blatant Lies: Futaba proclaims she ended up on Black Mountain in a freak teleportation accident. It only works because both the world she ended up in has technology that'd allow it, and because the people asking her are both over a century old and have seen enough weird stuff in their lives.
• Blunt "Yes": When discussing what to do with a teenager (Futaba) that had materialized out of thin air in Black Mountain, Neil mentions he can't leave the area on the off-chance some Super Mutants come over enticed by Tabitha's broadcast.
  Raul: Are your compatriots too dense to read a sign?
  Neil: Some of them are. And they didn't have a choice in the matter.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: As soon as the most immediate danger is out of the way, Makoto offers to help people of Primm deal with their lack of law enforcement, despite being stranded in space and time and already being aware how dangerous the world can be. It gets her shot in the arm and puts her in a position where she's forced to kill two raiders in self-defense.
• The Cloudcuckoolander Was Right: Like in canon, No-Bark's ramblings have a grain of truth to them.
  No-Bark: (on Ann) She's obviously an exile from another realm, banished here by unjust gods. (beat) Though she might have some ancestry in this world, on account of her eyes and hair.
• Cliffhanger:
  • Chapter 4 ends with Akechi materializing in Nipton, and getting spotted by Vulpes Inculta.
  • Chapter 7 ends with Ryuji triggering the crashed satellite and getting teleported to Big Empty.
• The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: The Translator Microbes that allow Ryuji to speak English were the work of Doctor 8, who can't communicate with others (Think Tank colleagues aside) due to his voice box being busted.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The fic opens with a spin on Fallout's Arc Words of "War never changes"; it argues that it's a simplification, since while the reasons for war remain consistent, the means of waging war depend on a variety of factors.
  • The Thieves' Japanese accent is identified by various characters as New-Reno-sounding; Fallout 2 had a bunch of yakuza-based raiders scouting the wasteland around New Reno.
  • The title of chapter 3 ("The Case Was Rigged From The Start, This Is How Your Last Delivery Ends") mixes together Akechi's and Benny's one-liners right before they shoot their respective game's protagonists.
  • The pistol the Courier and Sunny buy for Akira is explicitly identified as a Tokarev, the gun that's the basis of the Tkachev model he uses at the beginning of his game and in promotional art; he notices the similarity and wonders if the universe is messing with him.
  • One that doesn't refer to either game's canon: In chapter 4, the soldier in Searchlight (all but stated to be First Sergeant Astor) directs Yusuke towards the Dinky statue, but due to language barrier shenanigans he refers to it as a dragon. When the narration returns to Yusuke three chapters later, he thinks to himself the dragon looked more like a dinosaur, but he's not willing (or able) to argue.
  • The courier mentions that the Khans that robbed him stole a Pip-Boy he had bought for himself in Massachusets.
  • In chapter 15, like in canon, Akechi accidentally exposes himself as knowing more than he should've — this time, by refering to himself and Makoto as "Japanese" in a setting that largely forgot the country even existed.
• Cover Identity Anomaly: To cover for his Japanese accent and lack of local knowledge, Akira initially claims to be from a Vault populated only by Japanese-Americans with a stash of Japanese media. When the Courier asks which number the Vault was, the first number Akira thinks of is 22; unfortunately for him, the Courier knows that Vault 22 is both long abandoned and completely overrun by mutated plantlife. This, along with his outfit (that doesn't resemble a Vault suit at all) and airsoft gun (which shoots plastic, a massive waste of oil in the Wasteland) puts enough holes in his story that he quickly abandons it in favor of the truth.
• Creator's Culture Carryover:
  • The author is Polish, and he based Robert House's Palace on Warsaw's Palace of Culture and Science. The author's note at the end of the chapter introducing it (8) points it out.
  • Klein invokes the names of two Polish mathematicians, Banach and Tarski.
• Distinction Without a Difference: Discussed: Lt. Hayes claims that NCR not stepping in to help Primm unless they join the Republic isn't malice, just bureaucracy, before admitting it doesn't really make any difference.
• Double-Meaning Title: Chapter 15's name is a Polish idiom that literally translates to English as "to attack from the left/with the left hand". It's a reference to Akechi, who finally reappears after eleven chapters and whose left-handedness was a canon plot point, but it also references Makoto shooting the raiders with her left hand.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Ryuji mistakes a symbol based on the flag of the pre-War United states - twelve stars encircling a thirteenth, with vertical stripes underneath - for a "flag of Europe" (actually European Union).
• Even Evil Has Standards: Akechi is a self-destructive mentally unstable hatchetman and a traitor, and even he finds what the Legion did to Nipton horrifying. He later takes time and effort to get everyone off the crosses and defend them from a band of raiders.
  Akechi: Other than [one NCR medic], the survivors are apparently escaped convicts and traitors, but I don’t care. Nobody deserves what the larpers did to this town. Don’t fucking argue with me about it.
• Expy:
  • Lilith, Phoenix and April, the Khans that encounter Haru, are based on the Kanker sisters — more specifically, the author's take on them in his EEnE/FNV crossover oneshots. Chapter 9 introduces Dee, 2D and Eddie, expies of the Eds from the same show/fanfic series.
  • Chapter 10 introduces Bernie and Vince, a pair of Novac-based gun merchants loosely based on Mike and Zach.
• Flat "What": Ryuji's reaction to Klein describing his fingers as "hand penises" is a deadpan "...my what now?".
• Four Lines, All Waiting: The story opens with nine characters in nine different locations, and the POV cycles through characters until they reform into a single group again.
• Girl with Psycho Weapon: Haru ends up with a fire axe and, judging by the vague descriptions of being covered in blood, "most of it not hers", made good use of it. Eddie plans to take advantage of it when collecting debts around Freeside, using her for intimidation.
• Goroawase Number: The neck bit on Makoto's armor on the cover reads 09, for "Ma-ko".
• Gratuitous Japanese:
  • Futaba responds to Raul asking if she speaks Spanish in Spanish by asking him if he speaks Japanese in Japanese. She later blurts out a "Nani?" after being told what year it is.
  • On a subtler note, both Haru and Akechi introduce themselves to the Khans or Vulpes respectively in Japanese order, family name first, implicitly because they're too shaken by the horror around them to remember given name comes first in English.
  • Morgana's lack of understanding of English is conveyed by transcribing the English lines he hears into katakana.
  • Ryuji's first reaction to the Think Tank is a blurted out "ittai nan da?", "what the heck?".
  • When looting Higgs Village, Ryuji stumbles upon a kawaii submachinegun with some Japanese writing on it - 怒っているワイフ, which the narration translates as "Angry Waifu".
• Gratuitous Spanish: After Futaba regains consciousness, Raul (a Mexican) asks her if she speaks Spanish in Spanish. When she replied by asking him if he speaks Japanese in Japanese, he mutters under his breath that it was worth a shot. He later nicknames her "Naranjita", meaning "little orange".
• Grave Humor: After the Courier mentions he found unconscious Akira while digging up graves for the Powder Gangers that attacked Goodsprings, there's a cutaway describing an inscription on the leader's grave:
  Joe Cobb
  dunno – XX/XX/2281
  nothing of value was lost that day
• Inconsistent Spelling: Referenced: when Ann introduces herself to one of Novac settlers, she gets asked if her name is spelled "Ann" or "Anne", alluding to the difference between the Japanese version's romanization and the English localization of the game. The narration quips it's technically spelled "杏, with maybe a little あん written on top as a pronunciation guide".
• I Never Said It Was Poison: When the Primm cons mention to Akechi that they had seen someone similar to him (Makoto) in a different town, Akechi slips up and refers to her and himself as "Japanese". The cons then point out that most people don't even know Japan existed, and Makoto refered to herself with that term as well.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Despite Ryuji taking the Courier's place as the latest of Think Tank's abductees, the events (at least initially) unfold more or less as in canon, implying there's something special about Ryuji's brain, equivalent to the Courier's brain damage from the double tap.
  • The courier proclaims he's not interested in following Benny or retrieving the package... but changes his mind when House, via Victor, offers to reimburse his stolen equipment and pays extra on delivery.
• Killed Offscreen: The Joe Cobb-led Powder Gangers died in their assault on Goodsprings. The Courier mentions finding unconscious Akira in the cemetery when digging up graves for them.
• Language Fluency Denial: When encountered by the Khans, Haru briefly pretends that she doesn't speak English to gauge their reactions. After one of them suggests attacking her and the other two point out it's not a good idea, she reveals she understood them all along.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: The Courier has gaps in his memory because of the Double Tap Benny inflicted on him, mostly in regards to his own identity. He still remembers enough about the Mojave and its politics to play the part of Mr. Exposition for Akira.
• Like a God to Me: Vince invokes the name of John Moses Browning like this when giving Ann a free 1911.
• My Friends... and Zoidberg: The narrator singles out Akechi in the first chapter:
  Ren Amamiya – known to friends and one murderous traitor as Akira Kurusu...
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Khans and Freesiders Haru encounters are loosely based on the depiction of the Eds and the Kankers from the author's earlier New Vegas crossover one-shots.
  • Joker's legal name being Ren Amamiya, with Akira Kurusu being a nickname he uses, showed up previously in the author's Zwrotnicaverse series. Chapter 15 is named after a Polish idiom, following Zwrotnica Królewska's chapter naming convention.
• Name Amnesia: As a side effect of Benny's Double Tap, the Courier doesn't know his identity or name.
• Nominal Importance: Out of all the convicts in Primm, only those that didn't bail from the Mojave get named by the narrative.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted with all three Ds. Eddie shares a nickname with the convict leading the NCRCF Powder Gangers, and his actual name, Edwin, is the same as Robert House's middle name. Dee/Daniel shares a name with the missionary from Honest Hearts and a few minor characters in the Mojave. 2D's real name is Edward, like Edward "Caesar" Sallow's.
• Only Sane Man: Ryuji, as a relatively normal human, ends up playing that role to the scatterbrained Think Tank, to his irritation.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Once the Primm cons notice that Nipton was hit by the Legion, almost all of them turn tail and head out of the Mojave, towards the core NCR.
• Seen It All:
  • Raul and Neil have both lived for over a century (234 and ca. 150 years respectively) and seen enough to take Futaba's lie about being a victim of a teleportation accident at face value.
  • The courier is also willing to believe Akira when he comes clear and tells him everything that happened over the past few months, up to and including the fight with a literal god, proclaiming that while he did not see that specific type of weirdness, he saw enough "mad science and other pre-War bullshit" that it sounds plausible.
• Self-Deprecation: After Ryuji manages to pronounce /θ/ and /ð/ without issue, the narration jokes that his English is better than the author's.
• Shout-Out:
  • The title of the first chapter on FF.net is "The Aku School of Problem Solving".
  • Yaldabaoth's Rays of Control attack is described by the narration as a "wide-angle disintegration beam", a name taken from the most powerful attack used by angry gods in NetHack.
  • The cover has Makoto in Zach's combat armor and Akira and Akechi in Mike's vest and beret respectively. Expies of them appear later on, named similarly to their expies from The Frontier.
  • One of the tags on AO3 for the story reads "Following The Proud Someguy Traditon Of Populating The Mojave With Thinly-Veiled Expies".
  • Chapter 17 has a bunch of minor shout-outs to Ed, Edd n Eddy, on top of focusing on the expies of titular characters - the title, "Ver-D-Go" references the title of a Season 1 episode of the show, a Sneeze Cut to Akechi has him reuse Edd's Verbal Tic of repeating things thrice, and Dee's full first name is given as Daniel, like EEnE's creator Danny Antonucci.
• Sneeze Cut: After Haru decides there's no point in thinking about Akechi when he's dead, the scene very briefly cuts to him sneezing twice - representing Haru thinking bad thoughts about him.
• Spoiler Cover: The cover spoils that Akechi not only survived the Engine Room, he also somehow ended up tossed into the Mojave alongside the Thieves.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • Canonically Akechi possibly died a few weeks before the Thieves faced Yaldabaoth. Here, he unambiguously survived that fight and lived long enough to get banished to the Mojave alongside the Phantom Thieves.
  • Barton Thorn (the guy near Goodsprings source that lied about geckos trapping his girlfriend) survives his encounter with the Courier, which isn't an option in canon... assuming the Courier didn't lie about letting him live to not upset Akira.
  • Neither Jacklyn nor Tomas (the two people near Nipton fighting over star bottle caps) die; Akechi recognizes Tomas is innocent and leaves him be, and when he tries to shoot Jacklyn in self-defense, he blasts her gun out of her hand and scares her away. Canonically, if the player won't intervene in their fight, one will die shot by the other, and if Jacklyn survives, she attacks the player character afterwards and dies for it.
• Stealth Pun: Considering both the faction that April, Phoenix and Lilith belong to and the characters they're expies of, they could be collectively referred to as Khankers.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: When April the Khan guesses that Haru was travelling to Vegas and got very lost, Haru decided to roll with it, explicitly telling them it's more plausible than the truth.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Downplayed: Phantom Thieves that aren't Akechi are unwilling to take a human life, but as Sunny points out to Akira, "some thugs and highwaymen shoot first and ask questions never". Haru and Makoto end up getting their first kills in self-defense within hours or minutes of ending up in the Mojave.
• Throwing Off the Disability: The Auto-Doc that removed Ryuji's brain, heart and spine ended up fixing his leg while he was at it. Ryuji's excited about it when he finds out... until Dala ruins the mood.
• Translation Convention: Characters speaking Japanese are marked with dialogue in [square brackets]. One chapter provides an inversion, with English dialogue transcribed to katakana to convey the listener's inability to speak English and no knowledge of the English alphabet on top of that.
• Translator Microbes: Two variants: Morgana is granted the ability to speak English by Igor, his creator, while Ryuji ends up speaking English thanks to some Think-Tank-produced solution.
• Trapped in Another World: The premise of the story; the Phantom Thieves got booted into the Mojave Wasteland and scattered around the area.
• Unusual Euphemism: Futaba uses "file-system-checked" as a euphemism for "fucked" at one point; it's a reference to a Unix system utility which name is/was used as a euphemism.
• Viler New Villain: The Legion plays that role from the P5 characters' point of view. Akechi, who in his own canon was an assassin and the lynchpin of a nationwide conspiracy, finds their brutality and cruelty appaling even by his standards.
• Webcomic Time: Between the irregular upload schedule and Four Lines, All Waiting, only a few hours passed in-universe between chapter 1 and chapter 17, which were posted 18 months apart in real time.
• Year X:
  • Whenever the Thieves mention the year they came from, it's rendered as "20XX". Akira mentions they're from "mid-2010s".
  • A variant: the date of Joe Cobb's death is rendered as "XX/XX/2281".