Is いつもの an adjective or the object in the following sentence?

Question

Context: Character A, a middle-aged man, suddenly enters the room where Riku, a child, is.

Character A: 何してんだ？リク

Riku: いつものおじさん

Then, in the next balloon (it's a manga), Riku explains what he was doing.

What is いつもの in the sentence above? Is it an adjective? If so would the translation be "oh, the usual man/the man that always comes here"? Or is it the object of the implicit sentence "(I'm doing) the usual, old man"? I would say it is an adjective, because if it was the object it would be いつものを", right? Thank you for your help!

Answer 1

Yes this simply means "the man who always comes here".

いつもの彼/いつものお客さん/etc is a common way to refer to that person you often see or talk about ("you-know-who"). 例の is similar.

In reality, it's unusual to directly address a person with いつものおじさん, and this smells a bit like 説明セリフ to me. 説明セリフ is an jargon term that refers to unnatural lines in fiction (often long one) which only serve as a description for the readers. (Here are typical 説明セリフ in a battle scene; he talks to himself to explain to the readers)