Siren's Pull Application
Player Information
Name: Kal
Age: 21
AIM SN: walkthedawn
email: otherpromise@gmail.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Y
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Persona 3 Portable
Canon Format: Video Game
Character's Name: Minako Arisato
Character's Age: 17
What form will your character's NV take? It'll just look like a normal cell phone but from the Kirijo Group back home.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities:
- Capable of using the bathroom to increase her status from 'Good' to 'Great'.
- Able to stay awake during the most boring class sessions ever.
- Drinking coffee to gain Charm.
- Able to juggle relationships with many people at the same time.
No, I'm kidding.
The Protagonist's most famous canonical ability is that of the "Wild Card"; because she has a piece of Nyx, Death, within her, she is capable of summoning, mastering, and creating Personae from any arcana attribute. That may sound a little confusing, so I'll try to explain it a little better. Persona are all given skills and attributes associated to a certain Major Arcana card (from Tarot Cards). Because of this, the Protagonist can use their 'Social Links' to fuse stronger and better Personae to use in battle.
Social Links are simply friendships and relationships; the Protagonist begins a relationship with someone who represents an Arcana, and as their relationship grows, so too does the strength a Persona of that Arcana will be. Some are simple, with just being friends, but others require the Protagonist to do favors, constantly entertain their companion, or even agree with their unscrupulous business ideals.
The ability to summon a Persona is the Protagonist's core ability, allowing them to attack the Shadows (other Persona) in their world who would harm others and feed on their minds. Because of their "Wild Card" ability, they can summon more than one and switch between them in battle. The Protagonist, by the end of the game, can have the strongest Personae available at the time, so that they can fight their final enemy.
Minako can also use a naginata in normal combat, when she doesn't summon a Persona.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? Minako's final act in the game is to become the Seal over Nyx, the bringer of death, so that the end of the world doesn't happen. Because of that, she gave up her life to keep Nyx away from the world and away from the destructive thoughts and feelings of humans.
This isn't a real "ability" so much as a drawback; because she's really still the Seal back home, she'll be prone to bouts of fatigue, lucid dreaming, and loss of consciousness if she uses too much energy or too much power from her Personae.
Weapons: Minako will be arriving with her Evoker, a gun used to summon a Persona, and her final three Personae:
-Thanatos
-Orpheus Telos
-Messiah
Skills: Minako's good at cooking, tennis, piano playing, and making crafts in Home Economics.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: The story of P3P directly follows the same story as Persona 3, with a few differences. The first is the option to choose whether you want to play the make protagonist or the female one, because the game is trying to demonstrate how the butterfly effect works; every playthrough will be different based on choices, based on relationships, and even based on your gender. Even the smallest change can have an effect on the people and the surroundings you encounter in-game.
Because Minako is from P3P, the female side, there have been obvious changes to the storyline.
Wikipedia
Male Protagonist History
Female Protagonist
Minako arrives at the Port Island station for the first time in ten years, since her parents' deaths, finally returning to her home town. She's a transfer student to Gekkoukan High, a school owned by the Kirijo Group, which is a very important company at the time. But even as she steps outside, things are obviously very strange. The moon is a glaring orange and the street's littered with coffins and blood. Despite her concerns, she heads to her assigned dorm, where a boy greets her and asks her to sign a contract. Once done, he disappears, and she's confronted by Yukari Takeba, a girl in her class, with a gun. She almost attacks Minako, but is stopped by Mitsuru Kirijo, a senior at the same school who shares the dorm space. She explains that Minako will soon be transferred to another dorm, but that she's welcome to stay for now. Despite the absurd welcoming, Minako goes to school with few expectations, but seems to already be the talk of the students because she came with Yukari. Junpei Iori, another classmate, greets her and makes friends with her, beginning a short week of simple and routine activities. Shuji Ikutsuki, the Chairman of the high school, and Akihiko Sanada also greet her with kindness, glad to see she's there.
What they're really doing is checking her for her "potential", to see if she's capable of summoning a Persona. When the Dark Hour occurs, an hour that occurs at midnight and lasts a full hour (only going by as a second for normal people), people are turned into coffins so that they sleep through the hour. Because Minako does not, she possibly has the potential. As they monitor her for a few more nights, the full moon arrives, when a large Shadow appears. Shadows are creatures born from the negative emotions from humans, and will try to prey upon a person's mind. Yukari wakes Minako up and they run to the roof where their enemy corners them. When Yukari fails to summon her Persona and drops her gun, the Evoker, Minako picks it up and shoots herself in the head, summoning her own Persona, Orpheus. Orpheus is suddenly overcome with agony, and Thanatos (another Persona) rips itself from Orpheus' body and destroys the Shadows with ease. Minako faints from stress.
She finds herself in the Velvet Room, a dark blue room where a man named Igor sits. He is a mysterious individual who tells her of her Wild Card ability and promises to help her create and strengthen Persona as she finds them or fuses them. He also tells her that he has her contract, the one that boy had, and that he expects her to honor it by always taking responsibility for her actions. He bids her farewell and tells her that they will meet again.
When she awakens several days later, the group accepts her as a Persona user and introduces her to their group called SEES - Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad - who fight the Shadows and protect people. Along with her being inducted into the group, Junpei also joins as a newly awakened Persona user, and she, Yukari, and Junpei become the new trainees. Akihiko, wounded from the full moon fight, stays out for about a month while Mitsuru provides them support as they go into a mysterious tower called Tartarus, formed from their school, which only appears during the Dark Hour. Minako is quickly appointed as group leader, being the only one to summon her Persona without any hesitation, which causes some friction between her and Junpei. She also finds a door to the Velvet Room in Tartarus, where Igor introduces her to a man named Theo, his assistant. Theo promises to also help her, and that he will update her on anything strange in Tartarus.
At school, Minako begins to join clubs, including tennis and Student Council with Mitsuru, where she begins to form bonds with the people around her. Igor encourages her to do this, since these links will help strengthen the Personae she carries within her. She makes friends with Rio from tennis, Bebe from Home Economics, the old couple from the bookstore, Hidetoshi from Student Council and a small girl from the nearby shrine. She even starts to hang out more with Junpei, forming a close bond with him despite his sometimes moodiness.
The first month goes by with barely a problem, and when the next Full Moon comes, they save several people from being killed. Junpei, however, takes the victory as just another example of Minako's strength, and shoves himself into one of his broody tantrums. Akihiko soon comes back to help them, and he makes reference of another Persona user he met at the hospital named Fuuka. However, Fuuka soon disappears and no one can find her; she's assumed dead by several people, and she becomes the new center of Gekkoukan's ghost story rumors. Yukari insists they investigate, leaving them to go to Port Island Station at night, a rather seedy place to be. They're nearly harrassed, but a man named Shinjiro Aragaki steps forward, saving them. He tells them that Fuuka hasn't been home, and asks if Akihiko sent them. Before he leaves, he curiously stares at Minako for a long time, but then shrugs off whatever he sees and leaves them.
They discover that Fuuka's classmates locked her in the gym one night and she was accidentally transported to Tartarus. SEES heads in after her on the full moon, and when they're split up, they find her in one of the upper floors. Downstairs, Mitsuru and Yukari are attacked by two large Persona, and Fuuka awakens her potential with a supporting Persona who can sense the abilities of other Personae. They soon discover that the full moon brings more powerful Personae than are found in Tartarus, and that they all have a correspondance to an Arcana from the Tarot Card deck. The boy Minako met on the first day begins to appear to her sporadically during the Dark Hour, and he introduces himself as Pharos, forming a bond with her. He promises to come again when he can, so he can warn her of any coming ordeals.
As the next month goes by, they take down two more powerful Personae, which sends Junpei into another bout of jealousy over Minako's success. At the same time, Yukari confronts Mitsuru in front of the group about the true nature of the Kirijo Group. Mitsuru explains that the Kirijo Group was once conducting experiments in Gekkoukan High, trying to harness the Shadows for power. One day, ten years prior, they escaped and many people died, including Yukari's father. The group suffers through several days of friction and distress from this news, despite Ikutsuki telling them that once the original twelve Shadows that appear outside of Tartarus fall, then the Dark Hour will disappear and so will Tartarus. He suggests a vacation to the Kirijo summer home to calm the group's nerves, and they eagerly take the opportunity.
Mitsuru's father tells them the truth, that his father was trying to create a time machine with the Shadows' power so they could shape the future to their liking. Yukari's father headed the research, and she's devastated by this news. Even so, the girls go out the following day to cheer each other up and the boys go to the beach, where they meet a strange girl named Aigis. She runs off and finds Minako, clinging to her. They discover that Aigis is an Anti-Shadow weapon, and is strangely drawn to Minako. She, too, can summon a Persona, and so they take her back to the dorm to live with them. They also acquire Ken Amada, a boy with the potential, and Koromaru, a dog who can summon a Persona. When the next full moon arrives, two men meet them at their destination who call themselves Strega. They fight to keep the Dark Hour so that they can retain their abilities as Persona users, and find SEES to be a nuisance; they lock the group in with the strong Shadows and they defeat them.
As the summer progresses, Minako takes the time to hang out with more and more people, forming deeper bonds with them. She meets with Akinari (a sick man at the shrine), a monk in the nearby club, a TV personality, and even forms a stronger bond with Fuuka, Yukari, Akihiko, and Koromaru. Akihiko asks her to come with him as he goes to find Shinjiro and ask him to join, which allows her to be privy to a facet of their relationship: they both seem overly concerned about Ken Amada, whom they seem to know. The full moon approaches and Junpei is captured by a third member of Strega named Chidori, whom he spoke to on several occasions. She believes he's SEES' leader and tries to get him to stop. This plan goes awry, and she's taken instead and put in a Kirijo hospital to be monitored and held captive. Junpei begins to spend more and more time with her, even as emotions run high between the rest of the group. As the next full moon appears, they go to fight another set of Personae, but Shinjiro and Ken have gone off on their own. Ken is determined to kill Shinjiro for accidentally killing his mother years ago. Strega interferes and Takaya, the head of Strega, shoots Shinjiro twice. Because of the Dark Hour, no electrical equipment is working, and so Shinjiro is unable to be saved.
The group slowly recovers from Shinjiro's death with a heavy heart, especially Akihiko, Ken, and Minako. Junpei secludes himself into trying to help Chidori in any way he can, while the others find their own ways of handling the situation. Minako spends a little time to herself, but then eventually just starts hanging out with Akihiko when she can, concerned for him, even when Akihiko gains a stronger Persona form. They throw themselves one hundred percent into training for the final full moon when they'll defeat the last arcana Shadow. They encounter Strega again, who refuse to allow them to destroy the Dark Hour, but they fail in preventing SEES from killing the last one. The group takes the time to relax, having a small celebration the following day in honor of their accomplishments. Pharos comes to Minako and bids her farewell, saying all of his memories have been restored. The group spends the day relaxing, and then have a huge dinner with Mitsuru's father attending, even though Ikutsuki and Aigis are strangely missing. As midnight approaches, they all wait for nothing...
But the Dark Hour is still present. They rush to Tartarus to find Ikutsuki there with Aigis, who reveals that he lied to them all along. He was working with Mitsuru's grandfather and wanted the Shadows to win. He's fully ready and willing to allow everyone to die in order for Nyx and the end of the world, to occur. The Shadows they defeated merely formed together to call upon Nyx, who would soon bring about the Fall. He orders Aigis to capture them and prepare them to be sacrificed. She does, and even captures Mitsuru's father. Ikutsuki gladly orders Aigis to kill them, and when she hesitates, Mitsuru's father attacks Ikutsuki, shooting him; Ikutsuki shoots him as well, and he dies. Aigis sets the others free and Ikutsuki throws himself from the top of Tartarus, killing himself. Mitsuru takes the next week to recover herself, and Yukari is given a video on her father, the two of them awakening their new Persona forms. Some days later, a boy named Ryoji transfers into school, and Junpei and Minako become friends with him. Minako feels something familiar around him, but she's unsure; Aigis reacts a little coldly to Ryoji's presence.
As the month progresses, and Minako becomes closer to Ryoji, Junpei has finally gotten close enough to Chidori to frighten her, and Strega frees her from the hospital. SEES chases her into Tartarus, where she fights them desperately, afraid of succumbing to her feelings for Junpei. When she fails to defeat SEES, Takaya appears and shoots Junpei, nearly killing him. Chidori uses the last of her energy to heal him and she crumples to the floor, dead. Strega runs off, leaving Junpei broken over her demise. He awakens his new Persona as well, finally willing to give it his all for her memory. The rest of the month progresses with them finding Chidori's sketchbook full of Junpei pictures, and with the group slowly growing closer over time.
As the final full moon approaches before the end of the year, Ryoji discovers his true self as the avatar of Nyx, and was once set free ten years ago. Aigis had been there and had tried to defeat Nyx, but failed. Instead, she dispersed the pieces of Death into the other Shadows, and into one little girl who was there and awake during the Dark Hour, who had just lost her parents. That was Minako Arisato. A piece of Nyx still resides within her, and Ryoji takes it from her so that he can fulfill his purpose. Aigis malfunctions, shutting down for a time. With her resolve shaken, Minako sees Ryoji to talk about what's going to happen, and he offers for the group to kill him if they truly want to. They will forget everything and will live fairly peaceful lives before the inevitable end. SEES leaves it in Minako's hands, but she decides to allow him to live, despite what's happened. He transforms into Thanatos to scare her into making a decision, but she stands by what she said. Ryoji tells them that they must get to the top of Tartarus before the promised day, January 31st, and then they can fight her...even if it might be impossible. He leaves them while he still looks normal, and the group begins to prepare.
The group celebrates New Year's to cheer themselves up for the time being, and Minako takes the last of that month to see as many friends as possible after school. Their nights are filled with training, and then climbing Tartarus higher and higher. As the month draws to a close, they make a promise to always remember each other, and to meet after graduation. The day of reckoning arrives, and they go to the top of the tower, encountering Strega along the way. They fight them one last time, Jin dying in the process, and they ascend to the tower's top, where Ryoji has become Nyx. Minako and the others fight her until she falls, but then she gets right back up, preparing to destroy the world; the others fall back and can't seem to get up, some pressure keeping them to the ground. Minako faints, bringing herself into the Velvet Room, where Igor assures her that she's not dead. He asks if she can hear the voices of her friends calling out to her. He creates the Universe Arcana for her to use, the strongest of all, so she can continue with their help.
Minako's social links make her strong enough to stand, and she faces Nyx alone. No matter what Nyx does to her, the others give her strength, refusing to let her die. At the end, she creates a seal strong enough to stop Nyx, though it costs her life. The others call out to her, but Ryoji answers for her, telling them that she'll be alright and that he will sleep. The Dark Hour disappears and Tartarus breaks apart, and the world returns to normal. Everyone forgets what they saw and graduation day finally arrives. Aigis, however, still seems to remember, just like Minako, and when graduation day arrives, Aigis takes her up to the roof of the school to where they promised to meet. Minako starts to feel tired and Aigis allows her to rest. The others finally remember and they rush to her side on the roof; Minako closes her eyes and goes to sleep, dying sometime later.
Point in Canon: Post-P3P
To clarify as well, she will have max'd out several social links:
* Fool: SEES
* Magician: Junpei Iori
* Priestess: Fuuka Yamagishi
* Hierophant:Bunkichi and Mitsuko
* Lovers: Yukari Takeba
* Chariot: Rio Iwasaki
* Fortune: Ryoji Mochizuki
* Strength: Koromaru
* Hanged Man: Maiko
* Death: Pharos
* Temperance: Andre Roland Jean Gérard (aka Bebe)
* Sun: Akinari Kamiki
* Judgement: Nyx Annihilation Team
None of the male interactions went beyond "friends", as of note; I just don't want to make the other players potentially uncomfortable.
Character Personality:
Because most of the decisions made by the main character are things that the player has a direct say in, it's also rather impossible to really know what's going on inside of the protagonist's head.
Minako, like Minato, has a personality that's generally determined by the player in terms of whether or not they make certain speech decisions. However, the choices are very different between the two of them. Minako is more upbeat, and most of her statements end in an exclamation point. She generally seems much more excited and friendly, and several of her social links come almost easier than Minato's, because she's much more socially outgoing and extraverted. She charms both guys and girls by being just a friendly and all-around fun person to be around; she's definitely a people-pleaser.
Many of her social links involve her befriending people who just want to be listened to, and that's one of her more apparent strengths. She can sit there for hours and just listen to other people talk about their lives and their aspirations, and put her own two cents in on the subject at the very end. She extends an outward bright and kind attitude to the people she encounters, and doesn't seem to hold any judgments or grudges against anyone, including Aigis and Ryoji, both of whom were keeping secrets from her. Instead, she has the option of pursuing a relationship with Ryoji and Aigis is so close to her that she's there when Minako dies.
While she also has the option of pursuing several romantic relationships with her male friends, several of them are even the type that don't open up to others. Besides that fact, many of her social links can end in simple friendship, like with Junpei, who's social link is entirely platonic because of his feelings for Chidori. She befriends Ken, Akihiko, and Shinjiro, breaking through their defenses to try and make them happy. She takes a lot of her relationships in stride as well, and doesn't like to take jokes very seriously (Junpei more than once calls her on her figure and likes to take potshots at how popular she is), nor does she take insults to heart most of the time (Yukari once acts like she doesn't understand what it's like to lose a parent and Junpei wishes his parents were gone).
Minako's personality is centered around a solid belief of a Gemini-duality scope; she's capable of moving through a situation and adapting herself to what's best for each new conflict. She befriends such a wide spectrum of people that it's almost laughable, even winning some of the hardened adults over. She has a great deal of patience in many of her activities, willing to not only listen to others but to act on their words and try to make them feel better by either doing them a favor, giving them a gift, or doing something else that's equally kind. Another true example of her patience is shown when she interacts with Theo, Igor's assistant, who requests to visit her world several times in the course of the game. He's rather socially inept, only knowing things he's heard or read of, and so she takes her time to lead him around and cater to his whims.
With that, however, comes consequences. Minako is a little too trusting for her own good and when someone's angry with her, she can feel the tension and frustration behind every encounter when she tries to talk to them. There's not enough hours in the day for her to do what she wants to do, and that often leaves her feeling ragged and tired the following day and a little sluggish. She's a little hesitant when it comes to leadership, and when Mitsuru offers for her to be leader, the initial suggestion surprises her and makes her feel a little embarrassed. She's often flustered when people talk about her, even though she's pretty good at covering it up by a simple smile. She's also a little bit too forward sometimes, which leaves several people floored. She also has a bad habit of accidentally double-scheduling people in her efforts to please everyone. And when she has to cancel on someone, it takes her a while to regain that person's trust in her.
Character Plans: Minako will be a social and active member of the community, striving to see the world as something more than what Nyx saw, and trying to protect her friends. I hope to get her involved with little things, like the cafes, but also being a member of a potential new S.E.E.S. and try to destroy the Darkness.
Appearance/PB: Minako
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
I never really thought I'd ever get to visit Canada. Well, I actually...never gave it much thought, but I figured the next place I'd go to was France. My friend Bebe lives there, and even though he's going to come back to Japan, I think he wouldn't mind if I visited. [The smile in her voice is apparent.] He doesn't really like it but I think that has more to do with his uncle than anything.
[She pauses.]
But anyway, I don't really see many differences here from Japan. The city is still lively and active, there's still schools and all of that... I guess the only thing missing is a shrine, but I've heard about that church. That's just as good. It's just like home.
[Another long, thoughtful pause.]
So why do I still miss it?
Third Person Sample
It didn't make any sense. How was she alive?
Minako sat on the greenery of the baseball diamond, among all the angry signs, and just stared at her feet for several moments. Her heart was thundering loudly in her ear almost along to the steady beat of the music in her ears, wired through her mp3 player, and she pressed a hand over her chest. It hurt a little, she slowly realized. One moment there had been the calm of oblivion and the gentle darkness, and the next...she was here. She didn't even recognize her surroundings. She slowly lifted her head, peering around at the rest of the diamond, and got to her feet with some effort. Her limbs felt heavy and sore, weighing her down even as she stood there in the dark. Who brought her back to life, and where did they put her?
It doesn't... Ow, my head.
It was eerily quiet and only a few lights were left on in the diamond, making the shadows crawl across the ground almost menacingly towards her. She sighed, dusting off her skirt, and turned to head out of the diamond and into the street, her eyes wandering the black for any signs of movement. Nothing seemed to lurk in the darkness, and so she hurried out of the diamond, down the street and around the corner, wandering vainly in search of signs of life. The street signs pointed her in different directions, towards the hospital, the government building, the library...but none of them had what she wanted.
She turned around and nearly bumped right into a winged figure, jumping back as a screech resounded in her ears and over the headphones. One of her earbuds fell out and dragged against her chest; her red eyes fixed themselves on the monster as its ripped wings tore through the air. It growled at her and attacked, forcing her to jump to the side and make a run for it. It caught up with her just the same, its claws gripping her shoulders and tossing her to the ground. She cried out as she hit the pavement, hands skidding along the rock. It circled and turned back for her, a shriek filling her ears.
Slowly, Minako stood up from the ground, hand going instinctively to her waist. The beat from her player resounded in her ears, urging her on. She stared the creature down as she grabbed up the gun in its holster and put it to her head. "Let's do it," she murmured bravely, and it swooped in as she pulled the trigger.
"Persona!"
Name: Kal
Age: 21
AIM SN: walkthedawn
email: otherpromise@gmail.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Y
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Persona 3 Portable
Canon Format: Video Game
Character's Name: Minako Arisato
Character's Age: 17
What form will your character's NV take? It'll just look like a normal cell phone but from the Kirijo Group back home.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities:
- Capable of using the bathroom to increase her status from 'Good' to 'Great'.
- Able to stay awake during the most boring class sessions ever.
- Drinking coffee to gain Charm.
- Able to juggle relationships with many people at the same time.
No, I'm kidding.
The Protagonist's most famous canonical ability is that of the "Wild Card"; because she has a piece of Nyx, Death, within her, she is capable of summoning, mastering, and creating Personae from any arcana attribute. That may sound a little confusing, so I'll try to explain it a little better. Persona are all given skills and attributes associated to a certain Major Arcana card (from Tarot Cards). Because of this, the Protagonist can use their 'Social Links' to fuse stronger and better Personae to use in battle.
Social Links are simply friendships and relationships; the Protagonist begins a relationship with someone who represents an Arcana, and as their relationship grows, so too does the strength a Persona of that Arcana will be. Some are simple, with just being friends, but others require the Protagonist to do favors, constantly entertain their companion, or even agree with their unscrupulous business ideals.
The ability to summon a Persona is the Protagonist's core ability, allowing them to attack the Shadows (other Persona) in their world who would harm others and feed on their minds. Because of their "Wild Card" ability, they can summon more than one and switch between them in battle. The Protagonist, by the end of the game, can have the strongest Personae available at the time, so that they can fight their final enemy.
Minako can also use a naginata in normal combat, when she doesn't summon a Persona.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? Minako's final act in the game is to become the Seal over Nyx, the bringer of death, so that the end of the world doesn't happen. Because of that, she gave up her life to keep Nyx away from the world and away from the destructive thoughts and feelings of humans.
This isn't a real "ability" so much as a drawback; because she's really still the Seal back home, she'll be prone to bouts of fatigue, lucid dreaming, and loss of consciousness if she uses too much energy or too much power from her Personae.
Weapons: Minako will be arriving with her Evoker, a gun used to summon a Persona, and her final three Personae:
-Thanatos
-Orpheus Telos
-Messiah
Skills: Minako's good at cooking, tennis, piano playing, and making crafts in Home Economics.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: The story of P3P directly follows the same story as Persona 3, with a few differences. The first is the option to choose whether you want to play the make protagonist or the female one, because the game is trying to demonstrate how the butterfly effect works; every playthrough will be different based on choices, based on relationships, and even based on your gender. Even the smallest change can have an effect on the people and the surroundings you encounter in-game.
Because Minako is from P3P, the female side, there have been obvious changes to the storyline.
Wikipedia
Male Protagonist History
Female Protagonist
Minako arrives at the Port Island station for the first time in ten years, since her parents' deaths, finally returning to her home town. She's a transfer student to Gekkoukan High, a school owned by the Kirijo Group, which is a very important company at the time. But even as she steps outside, things are obviously very strange. The moon is a glaring orange and the street's littered with coffins and blood. Despite her concerns, she heads to her assigned dorm, where a boy greets her and asks her to sign a contract. Once done, he disappears, and she's confronted by Yukari Takeba, a girl in her class, with a gun. She almost attacks Minako, but is stopped by Mitsuru Kirijo, a senior at the same school who shares the dorm space. She explains that Minako will soon be transferred to another dorm, but that she's welcome to stay for now. Despite the absurd welcoming, Minako goes to school with few expectations, but seems to already be the talk of the students because she came with Yukari. Junpei Iori, another classmate, greets her and makes friends with her, beginning a short week of simple and routine activities. Shuji Ikutsuki, the Chairman of the high school, and Akihiko Sanada also greet her with kindness, glad to see she's there.
What they're really doing is checking her for her "potential", to see if she's capable of summoning a Persona. When the Dark Hour occurs, an hour that occurs at midnight and lasts a full hour (only going by as a second for normal people), people are turned into coffins so that they sleep through the hour. Because Minako does not, she possibly has the potential. As they monitor her for a few more nights, the full moon arrives, when a large Shadow appears. Shadows are creatures born from the negative emotions from humans, and will try to prey upon a person's mind. Yukari wakes Minako up and they run to the roof where their enemy corners them. When Yukari fails to summon her Persona and drops her gun, the Evoker, Minako picks it up and shoots herself in the head, summoning her own Persona, Orpheus. Orpheus is suddenly overcome with agony, and Thanatos (another Persona) rips itself from Orpheus' body and destroys the Shadows with ease. Minako faints from stress.
She finds herself in the Velvet Room, a dark blue room where a man named Igor sits. He is a mysterious individual who tells her of her Wild Card ability and promises to help her create and strengthen Persona as she finds them or fuses them. He also tells her that he has her contract, the one that boy had, and that he expects her to honor it by always taking responsibility for her actions. He bids her farewell and tells her that they will meet again.
When she awakens several days later, the group accepts her as a Persona user and introduces her to their group called SEES - Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad - who fight the Shadows and protect people. Along with her being inducted into the group, Junpei also joins as a newly awakened Persona user, and she, Yukari, and Junpei become the new trainees. Akihiko, wounded from the full moon fight, stays out for about a month while Mitsuru provides them support as they go into a mysterious tower called Tartarus, formed from their school, which only appears during the Dark Hour. Minako is quickly appointed as group leader, being the only one to summon her Persona without any hesitation, which causes some friction between her and Junpei. She also finds a door to the Velvet Room in Tartarus, where Igor introduces her to a man named Theo, his assistant. Theo promises to also help her, and that he will update her on anything strange in Tartarus.
At school, Minako begins to join clubs, including tennis and Student Council with Mitsuru, where she begins to form bonds with the people around her. Igor encourages her to do this, since these links will help strengthen the Personae she carries within her. She makes friends with Rio from tennis, Bebe from Home Economics, the old couple from the bookstore, Hidetoshi from Student Council and a small girl from the nearby shrine. She even starts to hang out more with Junpei, forming a close bond with him despite his sometimes moodiness.
The first month goes by with barely a problem, and when the next Full Moon comes, they save several people from being killed. Junpei, however, takes the victory as just another example of Minako's strength, and shoves himself into one of his broody tantrums. Akihiko soon comes back to help them, and he makes reference of another Persona user he met at the hospital named Fuuka. However, Fuuka soon disappears and no one can find her; she's assumed dead by several people, and she becomes the new center of Gekkoukan's ghost story rumors. Yukari insists they investigate, leaving them to go to Port Island Station at night, a rather seedy place to be. They're nearly harrassed, but a man named Shinjiro Aragaki steps forward, saving them. He tells them that Fuuka hasn't been home, and asks if Akihiko sent them. Before he leaves, he curiously stares at Minako for a long time, but then shrugs off whatever he sees and leaves them.
They discover that Fuuka's classmates locked her in the gym one night and she was accidentally transported to Tartarus. SEES heads in after her on the full moon, and when they're split up, they find her in one of the upper floors. Downstairs, Mitsuru and Yukari are attacked by two large Persona, and Fuuka awakens her potential with a supporting Persona who can sense the abilities of other Personae. They soon discover that the full moon brings more powerful Personae than are found in Tartarus, and that they all have a correspondance to an Arcana from the Tarot Card deck. The boy Minako met on the first day begins to appear to her sporadically during the Dark Hour, and he introduces himself as Pharos, forming a bond with her. He promises to come again when he can, so he can warn her of any coming ordeals.
As the next month goes by, they take down two more powerful Personae, which sends Junpei into another bout of jealousy over Minako's success. At the same time, Yukari confronts Mitsuru in front of the group about the true nature of the Kirijo Group. Mitsuru explains that the Kirijo Group was once conducting experiments in Gekkoukan High, trying to harness the Shadows for power. One day, ten years prior, they escaped and many people died, including Yukari's father. The group suffers through several days of friction and distress from this news, despite Ikutsuki telling them that once the original twelve Shadows that appear outside of Tartarus fall, then the Dark Hour will disappear and so will Tartarus. He suggests a vacation to the Kirijo summer home to calm the group's nerves, and they eagerly take the opportunity.
Mitsuru's father tells them the truth, that his father was trying to create a time machine with the Shadows' power so they could shape the future to their liking. Yukari's father headed the research, and she's devastated by this news. Even so, the girls go out the following day to cheer each other up and the boys go to the beach, where they meet a strange girl named Aigis. She runs off and finds Minako, clinging to her. They discover that Aigis is an Anti-Shadow weapon, and is strangely drawn to Minako. She, too, can summon a Persona, and so they take her back to the dorm to live with them. They also acquire Ken Amada, a boy with the potential, and Koromaru, a dog who can summon a Persona. When the next full moon arrives, two men meet them at their destination who call themselves Strega. They fight to keep the Dark Hour so that they can retain their abilities as Persona users, and find SEES to be a nuisance; they lock the group in with the strong Shadows and they defeat them.
As the summer progresses, Minako takes the time to hang out with more and more people, forming deeper bonds with them. She meets with Akinari (a sick man at the shrine), a monk in the nearby club, a TV personality, and even forms a stronger bond with Fuuka, Yukari, Akihiko, and Koromaru. Akihiko asks her to come with him as he goes to find Shinjiro and ask him to join, which allows her to be privy to a facet of their relationship: they both seem overly concerned about Ken Amada, whom they seem to know. The full moon approaches and Junpei is captured by a third member of Strega named Chidori, whom he spoke to on several occasions. She believes he's SEES' leader and tries to get him to stop. This plan goes awry, and she's taken instead and put in a Kirijo hospital to be monitored and held captive. Junpei begins to spend more and more time with her, even as emotions run high between the rest of the group. As the next full moon appears, they go to fight another set of Personae, but Shinjiro and Ken have gone off on their own. Ken is determined to kill Shinjiro for accidentally killing his mother years ago. Strega interferes and Takaya, the head of Strega, shoots Shinjiro twice. Because of the Dark Hour, no electrical equipment is working, and so Shinjiro is unable to be saved.
The group slowly recovers from Shinjiro's death with a heavy heart, especially Akihiko, Ken, and Minako. Junpei secludes himself into trying to help Chidori in any way he can, while the others find their own ways of handling the situation. Minako spends a little time to herself, but then eventually just starts hanging out with Akihiko when she can, concerned for him, even when Akihiko gains a stronger Persona form. They throw themselves one hundred percent into training for the final full moon when they'll defeat the last arcana Shadow. They encounter Strega again, who refuse to allow them to destroy the Dark Hour, but they fail in preventing SEES from killing the last one. The group takes the time to relax, having a small celebration the following day in honor of their accomplishments. Pharos comes to Minako and bids her farewell, saying all of his memories have been restored. The group spends the day relaxing, and then have a huge dinner with Mitsuru's father attending, even though Ikutsuki and Aigis are strangely missing. As midnight approaches, they all wait for nothing...
But the Dark Hour is still present. They rush to Tartarus to find Ikutsuki there with Aigis, who reveals that he lied to them all along. He was working with Mitsuru's grandfather and wanted the Shadows to win. He's fully ready and willing to allow everyone to die in order for Nyx and the end of the world, to occur. The Shadows they defeated merely formed together to call upon Nyx, who would soon bring about the Fall. He orders Aigis to capture them and prepare them to be sacrificed. She does, and even captures Mitsuru's father. Ikutsuki gladly orders Aigis to kill them, and when she hesitates, Mitsuru's father attacks Ikutsuki, shooting him; Ikutsuki shoots him as well, and he dies. Aigis sets the others free and Ikutsuki throws himself from the top of Tartarus, killing himself. Mitsuru takes the next week to recover herself, and Yukari is given a video on her father, the two of them awakening their new Persona forms. Some days later, a boy named Ryoji transfers into school, and Junpei and Minako become friends with him. Minako feels something familiar around him, but she's unsure; Aigis reacts a little coldly to Ryoji's presence.
As the month progresses, and Minako becomes closer to Ryoji, Junpei has finally gotten close enough to Chidori to frighten her, and Strega frees her from the hospital. SEES chases her into Tartarus, where she fights them desperately, afraid of succumbing to her feelings for Junpei. When she fails to defeat SEES, Takaya appears and shoots Junpei, nearly killing him. Chidori uses the last of her energy to heal him and she crumples to the floor, dead. Strega runs off, leaving Junpei broken over her demise. He awakens his new Persona as well, finally willing to give it his all for her memory. The rest of the month progresses with them finding Chidori's sketchbook full of Junpei pictures, and with the group slowly growing closer over time.
As the final full moon approaches before the end of the year, Ryoji discovers his true self as the avatar of Nyx, and was once set free ten years ago. Aigis had been there and had tried to defeat Nyx, but failed. Instead, she dispersed the pieces of Death into the other Shadows, and into one little girl who was there and awake during the Dark Hour, who had just lost her parents. That was Minako Arisato. A piece of Nyx still resides within her, and Ryoji takes it from her so that he can fulfill his purpose. Aigis malfunctions, shutting down for a time. With her resolve shaken, Minako sees Ryoji to talk about what's going to happen, and he offers for the group to kill him if they truly want to. They will forget everything and will live fairly peaceful lives before the inevitable end. SEES leaves it in Minako's hands, but she decides to allow him to live, despite what's happened. He transforms into Thanatos to scare her into making a decision, but she stands by what she said. Ryoji tells them that they must get to the top of Tartarus before the promised day, January 31st, and then they can fight her...even if it might be impossible. He leaves them while he still looks normal, and the group begins to prepare.
The group celebrates New Year's to cheer themselves up for the time being, and Minako takes the last of that month to see as many friends as possible after school. Their nights are filled with training, and then climbing Tartarus higher and higher. As the month draws to a close, they make a promise to always remember each other, and to meet after graduation. The day of reckoning arrives, and they go to the top of the tower, encountering Strega along the way. They fight them one last time, Jin dying in the process, and they ascend to the tower's top, where Ryoji has become Nyx. Minako and the others fight her until she falls, but then she gets right back up, preparing to destroy the world; the others fall back and can't seem to get up, some pressure keeping them to the ground. Minako faints, bringing herself into the Velvet Room, where Igor assures her that she's not dead. He asks if she can hear the voices of her friends calling out to her. He creates the Universe Arcana for her to use, the strongest of all, so she can continue with their help.
Minako's social links make her strong enough to stand, and she faces Nyx alone. No matter what Nyx does to her, the others give her strength, refusing to let her die. At the end, she creates a seal strong enough to stop Nyx, though it costs her life. The others call out to her, but Ryoji answers for her, telling them that she'll be alright and that he will sleep. The Dark Hour disappears and Tartarus breaks apart, and the world returns to normal. Everyone forgets what they saw and graduation day finally arrives. Aigis, however, still seems to remember, just like Minako, and when graduation day arrives, Aigis takes her up to the roof of the school to where they promised to meet. Minako starts to feel tired and Aigis allows her to rest. The others finally remember and they rush to her side on the roof; Minako closes her eyes and goes to sleep, dying sometime later.
Point in Canon: Post-P3P
To clarify as well, she will have max'd out several social links:
* Fool: SEES
* Magician: Junpei Iori
* Priestess: Fuuka Yamagishi
* Hierophant:Bunkichi and Mitsuko
* Lovers: Yukari Takeba
* Chariot: Rio Iwasaki
* Fortune: Ryoji Mochizuki
* Strength: Koromaru
* Hanged Man: Maiko
* Death: Pharos
* Temperance: Andre Roland Jean Gérard (aka Bebe)
* Sun: Akinari Kamiki
* Judgement: Nyx Annihilation Team
None of the male interactions went beyond "friends", as of note; I just don't want to make the other players potentially uncomfortable.
Character Personality:
Because most of the decisions made by the main character are things that the player has a direct say in, it's also rather impossible to really know what's going on inside of the protagonist's head.
Minako, like Minato, has a personality that's generally determined by the player in terms of whether or not they make certain speech decisions. However, the choices are very different between the two of them. Minako is more upbeat, and most of her statements end in an exclamation point. She generally seems much more excited and friendly, and several of her social links come almost easier than Minato's, because she's much more socially outgoing and extraverted. She charms both guys and girls by being just a friendly and all-around fun person to be around; she's definitely a people-pleaser.
Many of her social links involve her befriending people who just want to be listened to, and that's one of her more apparent strengths. She can sit there for hours and just listen to other people talk about their lives and their aspirations, and put her own two cents in on the subject at the very end. She extends an outward bright and kind attitude to the people she encounters, and doesn't seem to hold any judgments or grudges against anyone, including Aigis and Ryoji, both of whom were keeping secrets from her. Instead, she has the option of pursuing a relationship with Ryoji and Aigis is so close to her that she's there when Minako dies.
While she also has the option of pursuing several romantic relationships with her male friends, several of them are even the type that don't open up to others. Besides that fact, many of her social links can end in simple friendship, like with Junpei, who's social link is entirely platonic because of his feelings for Chidori. She befriends Ken, Akihiko, and Shinjiro, breaking through their defenses to try and make them happy. She takes a lot of her relationships in stride as well, and doesn't like to take jokes very seriously (Junpei more than once calls her on her figure and likes to take potshots at how popular she is), nor does she take insults to heart most of the time (Yukari once acts like she doesn't understand what it's like to lose a parent and Junpei wishes his parents were gone).
Minako's personality is centered around a solid belief of a Gemini-duality scope; she's capable of moving through a situation and adapting herself to what's best for each new conflict. She befriends such a wide spectrum of people that it's almost laughable, even winning some of the hardened adults over. She has a great deal of patience in many of her activities, willing to not only listen to others but to act on their words and try to make them feel better by either doing them a favor, giving them a gift, or doing something else that's equally kind. Another true example of her patience is shown when she interacts with Theo, Igor's assistant, who requests to visit her world several times in the course of the game. He's rather socially inept, only knowing things he's heard or read of, and so she takes her time to lead him around and cater to his whims.
With that, however, comes consequences. Minako is a little too trusting for her own good and when someone's angry with her, she can feel the tension and frustration behind every encounter when she tries to talk to them. There's not enough hours in the day for her to do what she wants to do, and that often leaves her feeling ragged and tired the following day and a little sluggish. She's a little hesitant when it comes to leadership, and when Mitsuru offers for her to be leader, the initial suggestion surprises her and makes her feel a little embarrassed. She's often flustered when people talk about her, even though she's pretty good at covering it up by a simple smile. She's also a little bit too forward sometimes, which leaves several people floored. She also has a bad habit of accidentally double-scheduling people in her efforts to please everyone. And when she has to cancel on someone, it takes her a while to regain that person's trust in her.
Character Plans: Minako will be a social and active member of the community, striving to see the world as something more than what Nyx saw, and trying to protect her friends. I hope to get her involved with little things, like the cafes, but also being a member of a potential new S.E.E.S. and try to destroy the Darkness.
Appearance/PB: Minako
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
I never really thought I'd ever get to visit Canada. Well, I actually...never gave it much thought, but I figured the next place I'd go to was France. My friend Bebe lives there, and even though he's going to come back to Japan, I think he wouldn't mind if I visited. [The smile in her voice is apparent.] He doesn't really like it but I think that has more to do with his uncle than anything.
[She pauses.]
But anyway, I don't really see many differences here from Japan. The city is still lively and active, there's still schools and all of that... I guess the only thing missing is a shrine, but I've heard about that church. That's just as good. It's just like home.
[Another long, thoughtful pause.]
So why do I still miss it?
Third Person Sample
It didn't make any sense. How was she alive?
Minako sat on the greenery of the baseball diamond, among all the angry signs, and just stared at her feet for several moments. Her heart was thundering loudly in her ear almost along to the steady beat of the music in her ears, wired through her mp3 player, and she pressed a hand over her chest. It hurt a little, she slowly realized. One moment there had been the calm of oblivion and the gentle darkness, and the next...she was here. She didn't even recognize her surroundings. She slowly lifted her head, peering around at the rest of the diamond, and got to her feet with some effort. Her limbs felt heavy and sore, weighing her down even as she stood there in the dark. Who brought her back to life, and where did they put her?
It doesn't... Ow, my head.
It was eerily quiet and only a few lights were left on in the diamond, making the shadows crawl across the ground almost menacingly towards her. She sighed, dusting off her skirt, and turned to head out of the diamond and into the street, her eyes wandering the black for any signs of movement. Nothing seemed to lurk in the darkness, and so she hurried out of the diamond, down the street and around the corner, wandering vainly in search of signs of life. The street signs pointed her in different directions, towards the hospital, the government building, the library...but none of them had what she wanted.
She turned around and nearly bumped right into a winged figure, jumping back as a screech resounded in her ears and over the headphones. One of her earbuds fell out and dragged against her chest; her red eyes fixed themselves on the monster as its ripped wings tore through the air. It growled at her and attacked, forcing her to jump to the side and make a run for it. It caught up with her just the same, its claws gripping her shoulders and tossing her to the ground. She cried out as she hit the pavement, hands skidding along the rock. It circled and turned back for her, a shriek filling her ears.
Slowly, Minako stood up from the ground, hand going instinctively to her waist. The beat from her player resounded in her ears, urging her on. She stared the creature down as she grabbed up the gun in its holster and put it to her head. "Let's do it," she murmured bravely, and it swooped in as she pulled the trigger.
"Persona!"