OOC | Application
Player Name: Rae
Player LJ: aircrash
Contact: AIM - lend me your power; or LJ Message!
Character Number: Third? (I hope .__.)
Character: Junpei Iori
Fandom: Persona 3 (video game)
Personality: At first glance, Junpei seems nothing more than your average bro; in another place and time, he’d probably be right at home in a frat, hosting keggers, attempting (with a high level of fail) to pick up any pretty girl in sight with pathetic pick-up lines, cracking jokes and generally acting like your average borderline-idiot teenager ...
Well, except Junpei’s father’s an alcoholic, and they don’t exactly get along, and as a result, Junpei’s got about zero tolerance for alcohol and alcohol-related activities, so keggers are definitely out. Oops. Strike that one off the list - actually, better just start over.
Junpei seems pretty superficial and, compared to everyone else on the SEES team, bafflingly ordinary - he’s not a star boxer or a badass hobo punk or heir to a successful corporation. He’s not even leadership material, and he especially resents the game’s Protagonist (Minato Arisato) for being something Junpei acutely knows he’s not - special. Junpei suffers from pretty low self-esteem, and he typically copes with it in one of two ways: clowning around, and talking himself up to everyone else. He wants to be a hero, which was his main reason for joining SEES in the first place, but he knows he’ll never have that extra edge - superior physical strength, street smarts, Wild Card ability - whatever it is that makes a hero a hero. At best, he’s stuck in a support role - the sidekick, second banana, and it irks him. Junpei holds something of of an irrational grudge against Minato for most of the game, and this causes him to act on occasion in ways that can be best described as “jerkish.”
Despite this, he’s not a bad person. Junpei may be terribly unmotivated when it comes to things like schoolwork (he’s a notorious slacker, often bragging about how little he cares for studying and how unimportant school is compared to things like fighting Shadows), but he does genuinely want to help people and save the world - partly because he gets to be a hero in the process, but also partly because it’s saving the world, it’s a good thing to do, and really, who wouldn’t?
Strega wouldn’t. Strega’s another group of Persona-users in Iwatodai, and it’s through interaction with Strega - one member in particular - that Junpei experiences a large part of his in-game character development.
The three members of Strega all came into their powers by artificial means (hooray human experimentation). They carry out contact killings and other such nefarious deeds during the Dark Hour - convenient, because those who do not possess the power of Persona are Transmogrified during that time (a status something like suspended animation), so Strega is basically untraceable and free to do - whatever, really. The members of SEES find themselves at odds with the trio of antagonists throughout the game’s events, not only for obvious reasons (Strega does bad things and SEES is a bunch of do-gooders), but also because SEES’ M.O. is ending the Dark Hour’s existence, which would put a huge damper on Strega’s livelihood.
Junpei is the first to have any real interaction with any of Strega’s members, albeit unknowingly. While meandering around town during summer vacation, he encounters Chidori Yoshino as she’s sketching. Initially, he’s intrigued by her outfit and her sketches, and a little taken aback by her oddly blunt demeanor (the first thing she says to him is “Get out of my way”), so the next time they meet, he introduces himself and attempt to chat her up, only to be interrupted by alarm at seeing her hand injured. The wound doesn’t faze Chidori in the slightest (it’s self-inflicted) and she dismisses Junpei’s concern as “weird” and leaves, but not before inviting him in a roundabout way to find her there again sometime. He does, of course, and when she poses a question to him - “What do you do to feel alive?” - he responds in typical Junpei manner by blabbing a thinly veiled account of SEES' activities during the Dark Hour, claiming that he gets to be a hero then, and that’s when he feels best about himself.
Chidori, of course, knows about the Dark Hour and Persona, and encourages Junpei to talk more about it; he ends up telling her he’s the leader of the group of “chosen ones.” (Not the smartest move ever for Junpei - it’s easy to see here why Yukari Takeba tends to call him “Stupei.”) The next night, during the full moon, Chidori abducts Junpei and orders him to call SEES off from battling the Arcana Shadow that night. Junpei’s forced to admit he’s not really in charge, and questions Chidori on whether her interest in him was only an act. They’re interrupted by SEES’ return, and Chidori is apprehended and admitted to a hospital run by the Kirijo Group, where she’s kept under close observation for questioning about Strega’s activities.
During the next several months, while Chidori’s kept in the hospital, Junpei visits her fairly frequently - to chat, to check up on her, to worry over her self-injury habits, even to bring her a new sketchbook when she’s used up the one she had with her. Contrary to his previous behavior (let’s not even revisit Operation Babe Hunt), it becomes quite clear that Junpei is, in fact, capable of treating a girl with respect and decency, and not merely as a sexual object. Unlike with just about every other female character in-game, the most Junpei comments on Chidori’s physical attractiveness is to say she has beautiful hands. Hands. It’s a pretty glaring indication of how intense his feelings for Chidori are, to be sure.
Chidori’s feelings for Junpei grow pretty strongly, too, only it scares her (she Does Not Want attachment), so she turns frosty toward him once again and rejoins Strega after the other two members break her out of the hospital where she’s been kept since her capture. She calls out SEES to meet her on the doorstep of Tartarus, attacks Junpei when he attempts to plead reason with her, and loses the ensuing battle to the SEES party. Junpei, undeterred, pleads with her again to be reasonable and leave Strega when the other two members arrive; Takaya shoots Junpei square in the chest with his revolver, and Junpei keels over, assumed to be as good as dead.
Junpei would be dead then, too, if not for Chidori’s intervention. Using her Persona’s Spring of Life skill, Chidori completely revives Junpei and heals his wounds, but at a hefty cost - her own life. Chidori dies in Junpei’s arms after professing her love for him, and this provides the impetus for Junpei’s resolution. Takaya mocks Junpei as Chidori dies, calling her death “meaningless,” and Junpei summons his Persona with a great amount of emotionally-fueled power, thus transforming her Persona from Hermes into Trismegistus.
Junpei is (understandably) devastated by Chidori’s death, and he spends the next week grieving the loss. The rest of the SEES team groups together in an attempt to cheer him up, and presents Junpei with Chidori’s sketchbook. Inside the sketchbook are pages of sketched portraits of Junpei himself, and Junpei takes this as a message to strengthen his resolve to put the life Chidori gave him to good use and end the Dark Hour once and for all. He even apologizes to Minato for his previous jealousy-fueled jerkish antics. Truly, as a result of these events, Junpei is a changed man - a little more mature, a lot more focused, ready and willing to face the obstacles ahead.
History: Persona 3 @ Wikipedia; Junpei @ MegamiTensei Wiki.
Previous Game Developments (discedo): This version of Junpei spent approximately three months in a ruined city called Discedo, on a reasonably Earth-like planet called Fortuna. While his time in Discedo wasn’t overly lengthy, and Junpei didn’t come to any shocking revelations about himself, he was able to experience and learn a few interesting things:
• Aliens exist, as do other worlds. Junpei found himself on a completely different planet he’d never heard of, a captive of an alien race of scientists. Plus, some of the other people in the city were from other planets as well. Basically, stuff like you’d find in a weird sci-fi manga actually exists, which is kind of cool and also kind of disturbing, especially if the alien scientists are into body probes.
• Death is not the end. While in Discedo, Junpei found himself becoming reacquainted with two people he’d known who’d died in the previous year - Shinjiro Aragaki, his senpai and a fellow member of SEES, and Chidori Yoshino, former Strega member and love of his life who’d tragically and heroically given her own life so Junpei could continue living. Again, the bizarre and seemingly impossible are not, in fact, so impossible.
• There are worse monsters than Shadows. Junpei arrived to Discedo as the city was under onslaught from Lavos, an incredibly destructive creature with the ability to monkey around with time. Junpei witnessed the intense destruction leveled against the city, as well as his two present senpai (Shinjiro Aragaki and Mitsuru Kirijo) being turned into much younger versions of themselves (a child and a teenager, respectively).
• Yuka-tan isn’t so bad. Out of everyone Junpei spent time around in Discedo, fellow SEES teammate Yukari Takeba was probably the one person he was closest to. They even managed to set aside their usual childish bickering in favor of actual conversations a few times!
• Timelines can be wibbly and wobbly. As Yukari explained to Junpei, the scientists of Discedo had taken her from a point in their shared timeline before he’d been taken, and she’d been stuck in the city for nine months while her original timeline had been in a sort of stasis. If and when the scientists decided to return people to their lives, it would be at the exact same point from which they’d been taken, as if nothing had even happened. She had no memory of the events Junpei related to her as happening just before he’d been abducted, even though Junpei knew she had been there at his point in time.
• Strange things are afoot in general, dude. Junpei also met a girl named Minako Arisato while in Discedo. She recognized him, claimed to be a member of SEES with him, shared memories of some of the same events he’d been a part of, went to the same high school as him, yet he’d never seen her before meeting her in Discedo. She also had a very similar name to his buddy Minato Arisato, but they were apparently unrelated, as neither had any living relatives. None of his other SEES-mates in Discedo recognized the girl, either.
Timeline: Junpei was originally taken from the beginning of The Answer (31 March 2010), as he’s split up from the rest of the group in search of a supply route. He then spent three months in Discedo (history detailed above).
Abilities: Like the other members of SEES, Junpei is able to summon a Persona - Trismegistus, of the Magician Arcanum. Trismegistus sports a decent skill set of fire attacks, physical attacks, and a buffing spell or two; he’s weak to wind-based attacks but blocks fire attacks entirely, and has also inherited the HP recovery skill Spring of Life (from Chidori, after her death).
Since Junpei’s been out of practice for a couple months at the beginning of the events of The Answer, Trismegistus’ skill breakdown at that point (after reverting back to level 31) looks something like this:
• Spring of Life - Recovers a small amount of HP at the start of each turn (passive ability)
• Agilao - Inflicts a moderate amount of Fire damage to a single enemy (costs 6 Spirit Points per use)
• Re Patra - Recovers 1 ally from Down status (costs 3 SP per use)
• Rakukaja - Gives 1 ally a Defense boost for 3 turns (costs 6 SP per use)
• Double Fangs - Deals light Pierce damage to a single enemy twice each turn (costs 9 percent of Hit Points per use)
• Kill Rush - Deals light Strike damage to a single enemy 1-2 times each turn (costs 10 percent of HP per use)
• Counter - Grants a 10 percent (appr.) chance of countering a physical attack (passive ability)
Junpei’s also not entirely helpless without his Persona; he’s reasonably passable in hand-to-hand combat as well. His main weapon is a two-handed sword (how he ever picked up that skill is anyone’s guess) that he wields most often like a baseball bat (another weapon he’s able to use in Tartarus, in fact) with - well, let’s not say expert accuracy, as he tends to overswing and fall to the ground about as often as his hits actually connect with the intended target. But at least the enthusiasm’s there, right? Basically, if there’s something stick-like available, Junpei can use it for bludgeoning with moderately decent competence. To his credit, Junpei can also take a hit fairly well, too.
Link to an image of the character: HI MY NAME IS STUPEI 8]
Player LJ: aircrash
Contact: AIM - lend me your power; or LJ Message!
Character Number: Third? (I hope .__.)
Character: Junpei Iori
Fandom: Persona 3 (video game)
Personality: At first glance, Junpei seems nothing more than your average bro; in another place and time, he’d probably be right at home in a frat, hosting keggers, attempting (with a high level of fail) to pick up any pretty girl in sight with pathetic pick-up lines, cracking jokes and generally acting like your average borderline-idiot teenager ...
Well, except Junpei’s father’s an alcoholic, and they don’t exactly get along, and as a result, Junpei’s got about zero tolerance for alcohol and alcohol-related activities, so keggers are definitely out. Oops. Strike that one off the list - actually, better just start over.
Junpei seems pretty superficial and, compared to everyone else on the SEES team, bafflingly ordinary - he’s not a star boxer or a badass hobo punk or heir to a successful corporation. He’s not even leadership material, and he especially resents the game’s Protagonist (Minato Arisato) for being something Junpei acutely knows he’s not - special. Junpei suffers from pretty low self-esteem, and he typically copes with it in one of two ways: clowning around, and talking himself up to everyone else. He wants to be a hero, which was his main reason for joining SEES in the first place, but he knows he’ll never have that extra edge - superior physical strength, street smarts, Wild Card ability - whatever it is that makes a hero a hero. At best, he’s stuck in a support role - the sidekick, second banana, and it irks him. Junpei holds something of of an irrational grudge against Minato for most of the game, and this causes him to act on occasion in ways that can be best described as “jerkish.”
Despite this, he’s not a bad person. Junpei may be terribly unmotivated when it comes to things like schoolwork (he’s a notorious slacker, often bragging about how little he cares for studying and how unimportant school is compared to things like fighting Shadows), but he does genuinely want to help people and save the world - partly because he gets to be a hero in the process, but also partly because it’s saving the world, it’s a good thing to do, and really, who wouldn’t?
Strega wouldn’t. Strega’s another group of Persona-users in Iwatodai, and it’s through interaction with Strega - one member in particular - that Junpei experiences a large part of his in-game character development.
The three members of Strega all came into their powers by artificial means (hooray human experimentation). They carry out contact killings and other such nefarious deeds during the Dark Hour - convenient, because those who do not possess the power of Persona are Transmogrified during that time (a status something like suspended animation), so Strega is basically untraceable and free to do - whatever, really. The members of SEES find themselves at odds with the trio of antagonists throughout the game’s events, not only for obvious reasons (Strega does bad things and SEES is a bunch of do-gooders), but also because SEES’ M.O. is ending the Dark Hour’s existence, which would put a huge damper on Strega’s livelihood.
Junpei is the first to have any real interaction with any of Strega’s members, albeit unknowingly. While meandering around town during summer vacation, he encounters Chidori Yoshino as she’s sketching. Initially, he’s intrigued by her outfit and her sketches, and a little taken aback by her oddly blunt demeanor (the first thing she says to him is “Get out of my way”), so the next time they meet, he introduces himself and attempt to chat her up, only to be interrupted by alarm at seeing her hand injured. The wound doesn’t faze Chidori in the slightest (it’s self-inflicted) and she dismisses Junpei’s concern as “weird” and leaves, but not before inviting him in a roundabout way to find her there again sometime. He does, of course, and when she poses a question to him - “What do you do to feel alive?” - he responds in typical Junpei manner by blabbing a thinly veiled account of SEES' activities during the Dark Hour, claiming that he gets to be a hero then, and that’s when he feels best about himself.
Chidori, of course, knows about the Dark Hour and Persona, and encourages Junpei to talk more about it; he ends up telling her he’s the leader of the group of “chosen ones.” (Not the smartest move ever for Junpei - it’s easy to see here why Yukari Takeba tends to call him “Stupei.”) The next night, during the full moon, Chidori abducts Junpei and orders him to call SEES off from battling the Arcana Shadow that night. Junpei’s forced to admit he’s not really in charge, and questions Chidori on whether her interest in him was only an act. They’re interrupted by SEES’ return, and Chidori is apprehended and admitted to a hospital run by the Kirijo Group, where she’s kept under close observation for questioning about Strega’s activities.
During the next several months, while Chidori’s kept in the hospital, Junpei visits her fairly frequently - to chat, to check up on her, to worry over her self-injury habits, even to bring her a new sketchbook when she’s used up the one she had with her. Contrary to his previous behavior (let’s not even revisit Operation Babe Hunt), it becomes quite clear that Junpei is, in fact, capable of treating a girl with respect and decency, and not merely as a sexual object. Unlike with just about every other female character in-game, the most Junpei comments on Chidori’s physical attractiveness is to say she has beautiful hands. Hands. It’s a pretty glaring indication of how intense his feelings for Chidori are, to be sure.
Chidori’s feelings for Junpei grow pretty strongly, too, only it scares her (she Does Not Want attachment), so she turns frosty toward him once again and rejoins Strega after the other two members break her out of the hospital where she’s been kept since her capture. She calls out SEES to meet her on the doorstep of Tartarus, attacks Junpei when he attempts to plead reason with her, and loses the ensuing battle to the SEES party. Junpei, undeterred, pleads with her again to be reasonable and leave Strega when the other two members arrive; Takaya shoots Junpei square in the chest with his revolver, and Junpei keels over, assumed to be as good as dead.
Junpei would be dead then, too, if not for Chidori’s intervention. Using her Persona’s Spring of Life skill, Chidori completely revives Junpei and heals his wounds, but at a hefty cost - her own life. Chidori dies in Junpei’s arms after professing her love for him, and this provides the impetus for Junpei’s resolution. Takaya mocks Junpei as Chidori dies, calling her death “meaningless,” and Junpei summons his Persona with a great amount of emotionally-fueled power, thus transforming her Persona from Hermes into Trismegistus.
Junpei is (understandably) devastated by Chidori’s death, and he spends the next week grieving the loss. The rest of the SEES team groups together in an attempt to cheer him up, and presents Junpei with Chidori’s sketchbook. Inside the sketchbook are pages of sketched portraits of Junpei himself, and Junpei takes this as a message to strengthen his resolve to put the life Chidori gave him to good use and end the Dark Hour once and for all. He even apologizes to Minato for his previous jealousy-fueled jerkish antics. Truly, as a result of these events, Junpei is a changed man - a little more mature, a lot more focused, ready and willing to face the obstacles ahead.
History: Persona 3 @ Wikipedia; Junpei @ MegamiTensei Wiki.
Previous Game Developments (discedo): This version of Junpei spent approximately three months in a ruined city called Discedo, on a reasonably Earth-like planet called Fortuna. While his time in Discedo wasn’t overly lengthy, and Junpei didn’t come to any shocking revelations about himself, he was able to experience and learn a few interesting things:
• Aliens exist, as do other worlds. Junpei found himself on a completely different planet he’d never heard of, a captive of an alien race of scientists. Plus, some of the other people in the city were from other planets as well. Basically, stuff like you’d find in a weird sci-fi manga actually exists, which is kind of cool and also kind of disturbing, especially if the alien scientists are into body probes.
• Death is not the end. While in Discedo, Junpei found himself becoming reacquainted with two people he’d known who’d died in the previous year - Shinjiro Aragaki, his senpai and a fellow member of SEES, and Chidori Yoshino, former Strega member and love of his life who’d tragically and heroically given her own life so Junpei could continue living. Again, the bizarre and seemingly impossible are not, in fact, so impossible.
• There are worse monsters than Shadows. Junpei arrived to Discedo as the city was under onslaught from Lavos, an incredibly destructive creature with the ability to monkey around with time. Junpei witnessed the intense destruction leveled against the city, as well as his two present senpai (Shinjiro Aragaki and Mitsuru Kirijo) being turned into much younger versions of themselves (a child and a teenager, respectively).
• Yuka-tan isn’t so bad. Out of everyone Junpei spent time around in Discedo, fellow SEES teammate Yukari Takeba was probably the one person he was closest to. They even managed to set aside their usual childish bickering in favor of actual conversations a few times!
• Timelines can be wibbly and wobbly. As Yukari explained to Junpei, the scientists of Discedo had taken her from a point in their shared timeline before he’d been taken, and she’d been stuck in the city for nine months while her original timeline had been in a sort of stasis. If and when the scientists decided to return people to their lives, it would be at the exact same point from which they’d been taken, as if nothing had even happened. She had no memory of the events Junpei related to her as happening just before he’d been abducted, even though Junpei knew she had been there at his point in time.
• Strange things are afoot in general, dude. Junpei also met a girl named Minako Arisato while in Discedo. She recognized him, claimed to be a member of SEES with him, shared memories of some of the same events he’d been a part of, went to the same high school as him, yet he’d never seen her before meeting her in Discedo. She also had a very similar name to his buddy Minato Arisato, but they were apparently unrelated, as neither had any living relatives. None of his other SEES-mates in Discedo recognized the girl, either.
Timeline: Junpei was originally taken from the beginning of The Answer (31 March 2010), as he’s split up from the rest of the group in search of a supply route. He then spent three months in Discedo (history detailed above).
Abilities: Like the other members of SEES, Junpei is able to summon a Persona - Trismegistus, of the Magician Arcanum. Trismegistus sports a decent skill set of fire attacks, physical attacks, and a buffing spell or two; he’s weak to wind-based attacks but blocks fire attacks entirely, and has also inherited the HP recovery skill Spring of Life (from Chidori, after her death).
Since Junpei’s been out of practice for a couple months at the beginning of the events of The Answer, Trismegistus’ skill breakdown at that point (after reverting back to level 31) looks something like this:
• Spring of Life - Recovers a small amount of HP at the start of each turn (passive ability)
• Agilao - Inflicts a moderate amount of Fire damage to a single enemy (costs 6 Spirit Points per use)
• Re Patra - Recovers 1 ally from Down status (costs 3 SP per use)
• Rakukaja - Gives 1 ally a Defense boost for 3 turns (costs 6 SP per use)
• Double Fangs - Deals light Pierce damage to a single enemy twice each turn (costs 9 percent of Hit Points per use)
• Kill Rush - Deals light Strike damage to a single enemy 1-2 times each turn (costs 10 percent of HP per use)
• Counter - Grants a 10 percent (appr.) chance of countering a physical attack (passive ability)
Junpei’s also not entirely helpless without his Persona; he’s reasonably passable in hand-to-hand combat as well. His main weapon is a two-handed sword (how he ever picked up that skill is anyone’s guess) that he wields most often like a baseball bat (another weapon he’s able to use in Tartarus, in fact) with - well, let’s not say expert accuracy, as he tends to overswing and fall to the ground about as often as his hits actually connect with the intended target. But at least the enthusiasm’s there, right? Basically, if there’s something stick-like available, Junpei can use it for bludgeoning with moderately decent competence. To his credit, Junpei can also take a hit fairly well, too.
Link to an image of the character: HI MY NAME IS STUPEI 8]
![HI MY NAME IS STUPEI 8]](http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4081/4773185097_6906e1a818_b.jpg){kind=link}