panopte | applications.

applications.

NOTE

Applications are currently OPEN.
Player cap: 21/30

Players are allowed one character in the game to start, and may app a second character after being active for at least two consecutive months with their first. Please check the taken list to make sure the character is available before applying.

APPLICATION

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: player name
Preferred pronoun(s):
Contact: plurk, discord, pm (default)

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: western order (firstname lastname)
Canon: wiki link appreciated if available!
Canon point: include any notable injuries/abnormal state of being
Age: both actual age and apparent age if there is a discrepancy

Personality: Please answer the following questions:
» What traits do your character admire in a person?
» What do they dislike most about themself?
» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?
» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?
» What do they get excited about?
» What is something they are very bad at?
» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?
» How do they want to be remembered?

Powers/abilities: either link to a wiki page or write out as succinctly as possible. may include magical powers, species-specific abilities, mundane skills, etc as you see fit. please note that all characters will be nerfed upon arrival, but can regain powers through bonus activity.

Inventory: characters may arrive with the clothing and items (including weapons) on their immediate person, excluding anything alive. for characters with hammerspace, please choose up to five items. anything magical will be nerfed upon arrival, but can be regained through bonus activity.

Sentimental item: please choose one small (i.e. portable) item the character did not have on them at their canonpoint and which belongs to a different character from their canon. briefly explain the character's feelings towards the item and/or its owner.

Gemstone: please choose one primary color and one secondary color, and optionally describe the gemstone in terms of pattern, size, amount of polish, etc. it should be no larger than the palm of one's hand.

Lost memory #1: briefly describe a memory that the character will lose, which may be an event, a person, a concept, etc and does not have to be a major memory. explain the effect this loss will have on the character's beliefs, personality, etc.

Lost memory #2: same as above.

Altered memory: briefly describe a memory that will be altered, both the original memory and what's changed in it. explain the effect this alteration will have on the character's beliefs, personality, etc.

Sample: samples must be within the last 12 months, with a minimum of five comments from your character.

Please use the subject header "PLAYER | CHARACTER | CANON" and post the app in the comments below.
Also, for your copypasting convenience:

Threaded | Flat

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: lexy
Preferred pronoun(s): she/her
Contact: spicypillow @ plurk

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: goro akechi
Canon: here
Canon point: Directly before Maruki boss fight - 2/3
Age: 18

Personality: cw: suicide, murder, child neglect

» What traits do your character admire in a person?

At his core, he admires those who embody strength, intelligence and willpower. World defiers are his fixation. A life was spent playing a part, being willfully manipulated and exploited for his own revenge scheme. Akechi saw that as strength, until he met the protagonist and went through a multitude of shared experiences together. Eventually, Akechi expressed his great distaste for all the good qualities the protagonist possesses during a friendly spar. There’s a deep, visceral hate that stems from his desire to embody those traits in their fullest form.

In the third semester arc, he works with the protagonist to solve the mystery of the false world and fights against Maruki alongside him because the protag proved himself as a strong, capable individual with an ironclad resolve. The protag is the only person Akechi puts any degree of faith in, simply because of these inherent qualities.

He admires what he hates and spent his life as a walking, talking contradiction. A broken man with a difficult time accepting who he is, he also deeply desires to be loved, wanted and needed. He cultivated an entire fake personality for that purpose that he discards after his ambiguous death and reveal of Shido’s manipulation of him. That doesn’t change his deep desire for it - something he now rejects at all levels. He wants bonds, and refuses to acknowledge them. Wants what the protagonist has, but can’t resolve the parts of himself he deeply hates or reconcile with the cruelty that he inflicted, and what happened to him. There are traits the protagonist embodies, that he craves and wants to drag out of him to himself, to the dirt. He wants to be lifted up and to ruin. Wants to be ignored and accepted.

» What do they dislike most about themself?

No one hates Akechi Goro more than Akechi Goro. That smug bastard energy hides an inherent dislike of himself to a core level. The years long plan to infiltrate the political sphere, propel his father to the highest level of power, only to pull him back down with an implied patricide scheme. All of this stemmed from his self hatred. After his mother’s suicide, he placed the blame on himself for being born an undesirable child and Shido, who forced his mother to have him, was the ultimate cause. He hates himself viscerally - has two personas, initially, that embody lies and hatred towards the world, towards himself, towards humanity. His fake personality in the first part of the game is meant to sugar coat his true one, that he’s aware is complete trash.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?

Personality issues thy name is Akechi Goro. His initial personality - a kindhearted, justice oriented media darling. A detective prince. That's all a bold faced lie he keeps up and cultivates for years. At school, in the media, all around the public, with the protag alone and with the Phantom Thieves as a group, the act never drops and the lie is consistent throughout. This becomes a source of disgust and a pride point for him later, as he thinks anyone who fell for it is an idiot. A desire to be wanted, needed and loved after a lifetime of not having it corrupted his world view and made him realize there was only one way to make that happen. And it worked! For the most part, except it also made him despise the world around him to a destructive degree. His own fake demeanor made him realize those around him were the same. Being an assassin in the Metaverse, and seeing everyone's truest self, also showed him the darkest underbelly of humanity.

Meeting the Protagonist, who confronted him with a different opinion on live TV, made him instantly interested in him. Akechi craves conflict - not always violent ones. He likes differing opinions, debates and dilemmas to solve.

In reality, he is a broken, hateful, violent and deeply hurt individual. He murders without remorse for a convoluted revenge plan, fame and praise. He causes psychotic breaks in others, while maintaining a front of justice. Solves his own crimes for the sake of propelling Shido to prime minister. He even “kills” the protagonist, his only friend and rival, after betraying him in the Metaverse. There's no regret in his actions - he owns up to his decisions, and the consequences of them. He is a world destroyer at heart and wants to see everything razed due to his own hurt. He's pessimistic and cynical, has trust issues out the ass and problems as deep as the Mariana Trench.

Both of these personalities exist in tandem - all are parts of him. Akechi tells the truth just as often as he lies and it becomes difficult to differentiate between the two as a bystander. Akechi is a gigantic contradiction in every capacity.

Third semester has a more defined personality with a mixture of all parts of him. He is violent and cynical, but also knowledgeable and resourceful. He drops his Detective Prince act in full and pulls away from the world. Instead of seeking love and adoration, he shuns it. He operates with the protagonist on the basis of a shared goal, while still doing things outside of the palace infiltration with him. Akechi shows some degree of understanding to Yoshizawa, as he coaches her through the Metaverse while acting as navigator. Overall, he’s an asshole. Still cruel, volatile and hurt. Still yearning for love, praise, and adoration. Wanting all traits he can never truly embody because of his distorted worldview.

Akechi’s resolve and willpower are the two pieces of him that never change. He resolves to destroy Shido by any means and to defeat Maruki to return back to their true reality in third semester. This willpower shows itself, initially, in two personas - one for his lies (Robin Hood), one for his hatred (Loki). A psyche split, but still all are pieces of him. He refuses to use Robin Hood after a certain point in the game, as it was the persona he used as a part of his act.

Hereward appears due to the protagonist's influence - Robin Hood and Loki merge to form it. This is symbolic of a slight acceptance of himself as a whole. Sorta. Akechi's a problem child.

Call of Chaos is a special ability he has. His power allows him to unchain the hearts of those he inflicts it on, making them act out in reality. This can be anything from running a subway car off the rails to standing naked in a burger restaurant.

Akechi goes through a wild dynamic shift throughout the events of the game. He’s a liar and an actor. Hurt, neglected and exploited throughout his life at every angle. He accepts his situation, the consequences and refuses to give up his own, sometimes very distorted, principles. The capacity to form bonds and trust DOES exist, however it's a long, slow, painful process for everyone involved. Worth it? Questionable.

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?

The Protagonist

The protagonist is the only character Akechi has formed a true bond with. Their rivalry is acknowledged between them and it borders on a friendship, which remains semi-unacknowledged by Akechi until their true final battle on Shido's ship. They spend time together prior to their true identities being revealed to one another and Akechi goes out of his way to visit the Protagonist's home (a cafe) often for coffee. They visit arcades, jazz clubs, public baths, play billiards and darts, and other amicable activities. These are side by side to moments where his mask slips and his true feelings push through.

At one point, right before his betrayal, Akechi calls the protagonist out to challenge him, declares how much he hates him and fights him alone in Mementos to gauge his strength. His feelings for the protagonist are complicated, as he's also filled with contempt, inferiority and envy towards him. In equal measure, he shares real details about background, his mother, and makes comments about how easy the protag is to talk to.

While their bond is strong, their values butt heads even while Akechi is playing up his detective prince act. This act being his media personality and a way to manipulate people by promoting a kind, mature, justice oriented demeanor. In reality, Akechi's ultimate goal and the values he purveys are warped and twisted.

He continues to manipulate the protagonist, even joining the phantom thieves under the guise of learning about their 'justice' and to make them disband. This ruse ends up being an elaborate setup to capture the protagonist. Akechi proceeds to 'kill' him (unknowingly killed his cognitive form) and frame it as a suicide.

Despite everything, they work and function well together in later canon points. Akechi appears in the third semester as the protagonist's implied 'wish' in a perfect reality, showing the strength in their bizarre bond.

Masayoshi Shido

Shido is Akechi’s entire reason for living (derogatory). An insane revenge scheme centered around his father. It’s stated in game that Shido was the one who got Akechi to murder, manipulates him to continue doing it and shows him how to use his powers for malicious intent. Akechi's hatred for this man drives every single action in his life, yet he spent a great deal of it working under him, supporting him and lifting him to unimaginable power over Japan. Shido had a hugely negative influence on his life and set him down a path of a destruction, misery and hatred.

Shido exploits him throughout the events of the game, knowing full well Akechi's his son all the while. He is a cruel, egotistical person. Akechi embodies this for parts of the story. It’s just not great. It’s really bad actually.

» What do they get excited about?

Violence! lmao.

He has a blast in the Metaverse, where he enjoys moments of freedom and an unbound heart. Adrenaline junkie thy name is Akechi. He has a desire to see bloodshed and massacres - absolutely ruthless in his execution of shadows. He’s a messed up little guy who has a really normal time killing creatures in the cognitive world. Don’t worry about it. (Worry a little.) He has fun! We all have hobbies!

» What is something they are very bad at?

Being a person. He truly struggles with all facets of being himself, his true self, along with his desires and rejection of the world. Bonds and trust are meaningless to him and he will deny having them. After a life spent neglected in foster homes and exploited by adults, he can’t fathom trust as a concept. Friendship is completely foreign to him, despite being somewhat friends with the protagonist. As Maruki says “the relationship they share is unusual.” Any relationship Akechi has is destined to be difficult, volatile or 'unusual'. He can function around people - tends to do better with those who are logical and upfront.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?

Akechi, for the most part, wouldn’t say anything. He's under the impression he deserves what happened to him, and what will continue to happen to him. If given the opportunity to change the past, he wouldn’t do it. It would be a “false world' and one he could never accept.

For the purposes of answering the question, he states during his boss battle that he wished he had met the protagonist sooner. His younger self would get that in some form.

» How do they want to be remembered?

He doesn’t, overall. He’s fine with being forgotten, despite the fact he wants to be remembered (???). Problem child, thy name is Akechi Goro. Akechi is a walking disaster of a contradictions and this, in particular, is a pain point for him. He throws a glove at the protagonist for him to keep as a sign of their rivalry, also as a memory. A chess piece acts that same way between them. However, Akechi is also full of self-hatred and resentment. He doesn’t want people to wish for him back - that goes against his own desires. Being remembered or forgotten is meaningless to him.

Powers/abilities: Personas in general in general! He'll be coming in with - HEREWARD.

Special Skill - Call of Chaos.

The ability to force someone's cognition (their inner self) to have a psychotic breakdown, which causes them to perform unpredictable actions in real life. The result is often violent and ends with extensive injury, sometimes death, to others. Those under his ability have their eyes turn inward and blood pour from their mouths in the real world. This power is something Akechi uses on targets, not people at random.

Akechi uses this ability on himself for temporary boosts in power, without the spicy horror side effects. This is notable during his boss battle and during his Showtime (special dual attack) with the protagonist. It also makes him a little “silly” (psychotic) as a treat. He's able to return to normal afterwards.

Social Link Abilities

Follow Up - Chance to perform a follow-up attack if the Protagonist's attack does not down the enemy.
Smooth Talk - If negotiation with a god-like Shadow (enemy) fails, you can try again.
Sleuthing Instinct - Chance to reveal one enemy affinity at the start of battle.
Sleuthing Mastery - Chance to reveal all of one enemy's affinities at the start of battle.
Harisen Recovery - Chance to cure status ailments inflicted upon party members.
Endure - Akechi has a chance to survive an otherwise fatal attack with 1HP remaining.
Protect - Akechi can protect the protagonist from otherwise fatal attacks, taking the hit for him.

Navigator

Listen, Navi!Akechi is everything to me and I would change my car’s GPS to him berating me at every sharp turn if it were possible. Full explanation of Navigators are here.

These abilities are ambiguous and stem around support - analyzing enemies, remembering/finding weaknesses and strengths, figuring out ailments, etc. These aren't instant and require time on his part. They can be nerfed heavily if necessary.

Inventory: Winter attire, a gun, and a sword.

Sentimental item: A single glove - he threw one at the protagonist's face in a dramatic theater kid gesture. It's to showcase their rivalry and not!friendship.

Gemstone: In traditional emo hot topic boy fashion - red (primary) & black (secondary). It’s the size of a large marble, striped black all around, raw and unpolished.

CWs for this application: suicidal ideation, cannibalism, fictional racism, crimes against humanity, violence, genocide

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Panthera
Preferred pronoun(s): it/its
Contact:

pantheraliam

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Armin Arlert
Canon: Attack on Titan
Canon point: end of canon / final episode, though the memory thereof will be altered; no notable injuries or an otherwise altered state
Age: 19

Personality:

» What traits do your character admire in a person?

Armin tends to admire in others what he finds lacking in himself. For example, he often compares himself to Erwin Smith, a former Commander of The Scout Regiment (the branch of the military that Armin is in). By the end of the series (his canon point), he is the Commander of The Scout Regiment. Earlier in the series, Armin's life was chosen over Erwin's, and Erwin passed away. Armin felt he was meant to fill Erwin's shoes. In Erwin, he admired traits like bravery, decisiveness, certainty, and strength. These are traits that Armin tries to embody himself, though he does not consider those efforts to be successful. The traits mentioned above can also be used to describe others that Armin admires, such as Eren and Mikasa, his closest friends. He has long admired them for their ability to stand on their own two feet and face the cruelty of their world head-on. He has struggled since childhood to emulate those behaviors.

» What do they dislike most about themself?

Armin does not think highly of himself whatsoever. He is good at hiding this - those close to him seem to have no idea; in his introspection, however, he often breaks down, degrading and insulting himself for things like cowardice, or the inability to act effectively in a high-stakes situation, which often leads to others dying. In Season 1, Eren is eaten by a titan, and Armin believes that he's died. He blames himself for this, because Eren was eaten trying to save him. He states that he wishes he had died instead of Eren - that the useless person was who was left alive. In the finale, he is seen screaming at a facsimile of himself, delivering similar sentiments.

"I hate you. I always have. Because all you've ever done is betray me."

He chastises himself for lying around (being captured), allowing those that he loves to face danger head-on while he does nothing. The speech he gives makes it very clear that Armin feels he is a failure before he is anything, and that he will consistently fail the people that he loves, his race, his nation, and his world.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?

Armin is known to be an excellent liar, with high charisma and a manipulative tongue. He always presents himself as patient, pleasant, and polite in nearly any situation. Even and especially among enemies, he will talk his way through any situation, lying whenever necessary in order to reach whatever goal he has found placed in front of him.

In alignment with this, Armin, by the end of the series, rarely has an opportunity to be genuine or actually say how he feels. When he does end up doing this, it is in angry outbursts that are beyond his control. All that is to say, the version of Armin that he presents to most of the world is more or less a facade. He does not reveal his personal feelings if it does not serve a purpose, and struggles to do so even with close friends by the end of the series.

It must also be mentioned that Armin considers himself to be a much less moral person than most others consider him to be. Again, due to his friendly demeanor and penchant for surface-level kindness, others do not realize that he (revealed in the finale with Eren) harbors deep hatred for the world, up to and including admitting that he also wished to see the world empty once he learned that it wasn't what he and Eren expected. He believes they share that sin. Armin does not believe in objective "good" and "bad" and dislikes when people insist that he is a "good" person despite his sins.

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?

The most influential person in Armin's life is, no doubt, his best friend, Eren Jaeger. Eren befriended Armin when they were very young, and they were each other's only friends for a matter of years. Armin trusts Eren implicitly, and that trust endures far longer than others' trust in Eren when he defects from the Scout Regiment and goes rogue, enacting his own plans. Although Armin does not understand Eren's actions, his faith in him endures until it becomes undeniable that Eren is, in fact, attempting to destroy the world. Unfortunately, this unwavering faith in Eren has detrimental consequences. The most significant example is a scenario in which, in order to protect Eren, Armin launches an attack on enemy territory that is the equivalent of a nuclear bomb, killing countless of civilians in addition to enemy troops. He does this with virtually no knowledge on what Eren's intentions are. One could argue that, regardless of that knowledge, Armin would have taken those steps to protect Eren anyway. Eren's ideals are shared by Armin in unexpected ways, and he blames himself, too, for his influence on Eren. He feels they influence each other more than anyone.

Another influential person, as mentioned above, is Commander Erwin Smith, whose shoes Armin was meant to fill after the Commander's death. Armin compares himself to Erwin at every turn, criticizing and chasitising himself for perceived failures in areas where Erwin might have succeeded. When Armin was working under Erwin, he respected him as a leader and tried to follow his guidance; his influence became much more after his death, however, when Armin felt the need to embody him and, in ways, become a successor. It is a pressure that Armin struggles under constantly, and it no doubt has influenced countless decisions in the context of Armin's military involvement, as well as the way he wishes to conduct himself as a person.

» What do they get excited about?

Armin grew up in a society that was forced to live behind fifty-meter walls in order to keep themself safe from titans - massive, man-eating monsters. As a child, he discovered a book that his parents owned which told secrets of a fabled outside world. This book listed such wonders as fields of ice, mountains that spit fire, and lights in the sky - a body of water, filled with salt, so large that merchants could harvest salt from it for their entire lives and it would never run out. It became an obsessive dream of Armin's to see these worldly wonders - particularly the sea, which he is quite infatuated with. Although Armin, by this canon point, has seen the ocean (as well as other wonders, though the lost memory portion of this app will change this), he would still be amazed and excited to see the sea, or any natural wonders - volcanoes, aurora borealis, the tundra, the desert, etc.. Seeing sights such as these would excite Armin the most; by the same token, learning things about other places/worlds would excite him.

» What is something they are very bad at?

The first weakness of Armin's that comes to mind is his physical fighting ability, which, compared to his comrades, is comparatively quite weak. He is known for being a strategist - the "brains" of the operation, so to speak - and is not typically seen as being someone with great strength or hand-to-hand combat prowess; however, it's important to note that he is a trained combat soldier who has been responsible for countless deaths. Compared to the average person, he's still extremely deadly, and his combat ability is above average.

All that being said, Armin's greatest weakness, once again, truly is his low self-confidence, insecurity, and self-hatred, which proves as a far greater detriment to him throughout his life than a weak fighting ability. For someone who is mainly a strategist, second guessing important decisions is far more detrimental than taking a hard punch. There is a particular example in Season 2 where Armin's comrades are depending on him to come up with a plan during a dire life or death moment. Armin is unable to handle the pressure, and pushes the responsibility off onto his comrade Jean instead. Although Jean is able to salvage the situation to a point, this is a failure that Armin does not let himself forget. It motivates him later to power through similar instances of self-doubt, but this is an ongoing struggle throughout the entire series regardless.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?

If Armin was confronted with his younger self, the way in which he handles himself might change. Armin sees himself as many numerous, negative things - a coward, a failure, a hindrance, a burden - and these feelings have been there since he was a young child; however, if he actually saw himself as a child, I believe he would have tenderness for the version of himself that existed before he knew the full truth of the horrors of their world.

He would tell his younger self to enjoy things like racing Eren and Mikasa to their tree, like books about fantastical things, like birds, and clouds, and good food, and lively music, and fun things. Half of Armin's young life has been colored by nothing but grief, violence, hatred, and death. He knows, now, that much of this is inevitable, and ever worsening. There is no way to avoid it, nor what he becomes. So, he would encourage his younger self to enjoy every beautiful thing about the world that he can while he can, and he wouldn't say why.

» How do they want to be remembered?
This is an interesting question for Armin, considering the nature of his reputation in canon. Part of Eren's plan when enacting the Rumbling is to give his friends (Armin included, in a major role) the opportunity to kill him, save the world, and live the rest of their lives peacefully as heroes. Eren believes that if his friends defeat him, the world will accept them and allow them safety, despite them being part of the persecuted Eldian race.

So, Armin is, indeed, remembered as a hero (note: altered memories later mentioned will change his knowledge of this). He doesn't really care for that reputation, though - he doesn't consider himself to be a hero, but, in fact, a monster. Armin is not necessarily someone who enjoys being in the spotlight - he's only had to be. I think Armin would most like to be remembered by a close chosen few who love him and, hopefully, think of him fondly until they've all passed on and no one remembers him at all. He will be remembered in his world as the 15th Commander of the Paradis Scout Regiment, as well as a victor from the Rumbling, but he doesn't particularly care that that's the case. He'd theoretically like to be remembered as a kind person, but he doesn't believe he is one.

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Caitlin
Preferred pronoun(s): She/they
Contact:

mackleberry or PM

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Takuto Maruki
Canon: Persona 5 Royal
Canon point: February 3rd, right after he's defeated in the final battle of the game's true ending. (Pretty superficially beat up from the final fistfight, but no major injuries to note!)
Age: 35 (No canon age is given, but fandom generally agrees he's in his mid- to late 30s!)

Personality:
» What traits do your character admire in a person?
Honesty, intelligence, integrity, kindness, resolve/willpower, and a willingness to help others. More than anything, Maruki seems to cleave to people who are strong in their convictions, even if they're convictions that he disagrees with. During the third semester of P5R, when his lotus-eater machine has taken over reality and brainwashed everyone into living their ideal lives, the protagonist (Joker) is able to stand up to him and reject his reality. Maruki never wants to force his point of view onto Joker. He only ever wants Joker to decide for himself that he wants the same thing. Even in the bad endings of the game, where Maruki's ideal reality takes over, it isn't because he force-brainwashes Joker – it's either because the player has Joker make the choice to agree with him, or because Joker doesn't make a decision at all and Maruki puts him into a friendly little coma so that it doesn't stress him out anymore. So long as someone stands by what they believe in, even if it's completely opposite of what he believes in, they have his admiration and respect.

» What do they dislike most about themself?
His own pain and trauma. Maruki undoubtedly suffered tremendously from the death of Rumi's parents, and especially from her losing all of her memories of him, but in canon he refuses to ever acknowledge this until the very end of the game when he has his emotional breakdown during the final battle. Up until that point, he completely dismisses the notion that he might have negative feelings about these events, let alone any real trauma. During their last conversation the day before the final battle of the game's true ending, when Joker tries to get him to talk about this huge loss that drives him, Maruki clams up and straight up says that he never suffered, only Rumi did. Pain and suffering are so deeply anathema to Maruki; he doesn't want to acknowledge them, doesn't want to deal with them, doesn't want to learn and grow from them. He has trapped himself in the most painful part of his life for years, forced himself into not being able to move on, and yet represses everything and refuses to even admit that it exists. He hates his own sorrow, his own rage, his own depression; he hates that he feels pain at all.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?
For the most part, Maruki's inner self and outer self are close companions. He doesn't fake large swaths of his personality – he presents himself as kind, empathetic, helpful, and selfless to the point of martyrdom, and he genuinely is all of those things! However, he is also much more shrewd, calculating, and even manipulative than he presents. Maruki has no problem using others to further his own cognitive psience knowledge and agenda – it's just that he will do so while he's being sincerely caring and helpful. He also has a ton of pent up rage and sorrow over the loss of his fiancée Rumi and the murder of her parents, which runs completely opposite to how calm and cheerful he presents. However, the canon point he's coming from is right after he's finally let all of those long-buried emotions out, so that mask isn't quite so intact.

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?
Rumi – Rumi is the why that drives everything Maruki does. After she and Maruki witnessed the murder of her parents, she fell into a nearly catatonic state and only came out of it when she had severe PTSD flashbacks. In a fit of desperation and panic during one of these episodes, Maruki heard a mysterious voice (which, unbeknownst to him, belonged to his Persona Azathoth) and begged it to heal Rumi. This was the first time he inadvertently used his/Azathoth's power of Actualization, which removed the source of Rumi's emotional pain – but unfortunately, it also meant that she lost all memories of Maruki. He effectively brainwashed the love of his life into forgetting him entirely, completely by accident. His quest to learn how to directly address and heal pains of the heart, and ultimately his plan to remove all instances of pain and suffering from the world at large, began because of what Rumi had to go through. At every turn, everything he does, both good and bad, is for her. He wants to create an ideal reality for her to live in, even though it means that he'll never have her again. His Palace is filled with golden monuments to her, and during the final battle when he finally has his crying and screaming breakdown, it's all to do with her.

P5R Protagonist (Joker) – If Rumi is the why, Joker is the how. Maruki begins working as a counselor at the high school Joker attends to aid the students after a traumatic event, but he specifically seeks out Joker because of his early suspicions that he's involved in the Phantom Thieves' changes of heart. They quickly develop a rapport that builds up into a true friendship. Maruki bounces his ideas and theories of cognitive psience off of Joker in order to further his research, and in return he teaches Joker mental conditioning (read: some very nice stat bonuses.) When Maruki is despairing about his work as a counselor (and, unbeknownst to Joker, his power of Actualization) only being able to impact one person at a time, Joker is the one to put the idea into his head that using the collective unconscious would allow him to enact mass change. Maruki is able to complete his cognitive psience research paper (which is a full-on Massive Book) only because of the assistance Joker provided to him, and when he ultimately uses this knowledge to create his ideal reality, he refers to Joker as his guiding light. On top of this, they have a deep understanding and a tremendous amount of care for one another – in the end, Joker is the one who Maruki faces off against one on one without any weapons or Personas, just an emotional bare knuckles fistfight as he asks Joker to help him kill every last one of his regrets. Joker is the one to save him from allowing himself to die as his reality crumbles. They're inextricably linked forever, in spite of and because of how Maruki used and betrayed him.

» What do they get excited about?
Cognitive psience! An esoteric field specific to Persona 5 Royal, it's essentially the study of how we perceive the world around us and how our perceptions impact reality. Maruki has been obsessed with cognitive psience since he was a young grad student, and has dedicated years of his life to cognitive psience research as it relates to healing emotional wounds by altering perceptions of the events that caused suffering, pain or trauma. He gets very jazzed to talk about cognitive psience and brings up its principles quite often, as a nerd is wont to do about their special interest, honestly.

» What is something they are very bad at?
Anything physical is Maruki's weak point. Outside of the Metaverse, he's just an average mid-30s guy, and one who has spent the vast majority of his life as a student and researcher, cooped up in labs and lecture halls and bent over books and computers. In canon he admits to having a bad back and gets winded just running for the train. He's tall and willowy and clumsy as hell. Outside of his ability to throw and take a few good punches during his final fight with Joker, there's no indication that Maruki is physically hardy whatsoever, so quite literally anything physical will be a struggle for him. Hence why I'm putting him in the survival situation torment nexus. And without his Persona to fight for him while his powers are nerfed? Good luck king!

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?
Despite how much Maruki despairs over the loss of Rumi, he wouldn't change what he did – he would never go back in time and tell himself to not use Actualization on her. It's a huge mistake and the greatest regret of his life, and he would repeat it again and again and again. However, if he could, he would tell his younger self to cherish the time with her even more. While canon doesn't confirm exactly how long they were together, it does confirm that they have at least been friends since high school – that's over a decade of their lives being tangled together on some level, and it will still never have been enough for Maruki. She was the love of his life, the greatest thing to happen to him, and the only thing that he would change about the way things went between them is living the time that they had together to the fullest.

» How do they want to be remembered?
Hilariously, being remembered is one of the least important things to Maruki. One might think that after creating an ideal reality and essentially becoming God Of The New World, Maruki would want to be seen and revered as the savior of humanity, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. In the bad end where his ideal reality takes over, no one knows him. Everyone who knew and loved him has forgotten him entirely, just as Rumi did. He's completely anonymous, and the only person alive who carries the memories of the old, painful world in the true reality. Maruki's self-worth is abysmal; he has convinced himself that he simply does not need to be known, cared for, or remembered. This is more true than ever at the canon point he's coming in from. However, if he had to give a generic answer to keep up appearances, he would say that he'd like to be remembered as a person who did everything that he could to help others.

Powers/abilities: Maruki's abilities stem from his Persona, Azathoth. I've divided up what that entails in three sections below, but if anything is unclear, please feel free to ask for clarification/revision! Also, it should be said that Maruki is the final boss of the true endgame of P5R – he is ridiculously overpowered and can absolutely be nerfed/toned down as needed. I'm happy to work with anything there!

Actualization – The ability to alter a person's cognition to erase their pain/trauma and grant their wish for their ideal life. This effect can be temporary – the target in question can break free from their altered cognition. Although altruistic in nature, you can imagine the knock-on effects of a character losing the very pain that has shaped them into who they are can mean that it is essentially mind control/brainwashing – so I am very open to this power either being completely disabled once he regains Azathoth, or being heavily nerfed (ex. only works on NPCs, not on playable characters.) Regardless, it's not a power that will ever be used against playable characters without extensive plotting and explicit permission from the player, so there's no risk of him running around and brainwashing everyone just for funsies.

Offensive capabilities – Below is a heavily modified version of Azathoth's moveset. These are generally the only attacks that I give him access to in a game setting, but it can be edited if needed!
- Amplify Force – Next Physical attack from Azathoth does 2.5x Damage.
- Amplify Magic – Next Elemental attack from Azathoth does 2.5x Damage.
- Raining Seeds – Heavy Physical Damage to all foes 1-3 times.
- Eternal Radiance – Heavy Bless Damage to all foes. High chance of Dizzy.
- Piercing Strike – Medium Almighty damage 10 times to one foe.
- Tyrant Stance – Prepare for Tyrant Chaos and increase damage of next attack by 2.5x.
- Tyrant Chaos – Severe Almighty Damage to all foes.
Tentacles!? – Azathoth has a shitload of tentacles, but chiefly three larger ones that operate independently of it and provide support/buffs. They are inextricably a part of Azathoth, so the tentacles cannot be summoned on their own, but they have their own strengths/weaknesses while Azathoth has none, and they take their own damage completely separate from Azathoth. If they are killed off, Maruki can regenerate them pretty much instantly.
- Shield Tendril (passive ability) – Greatly reduces damage from all attacks, including Almighty if all Tentacles are present within party. Slightly reduces damage taken instead if at least one Tentacle is not present.
- Tentacle of Protection – Shapeless Guard: Increase Maruki's defense for 3 turns
- Tentacle of Healing – Energy Stream: Recover medium amount of Maruki's HP
- Tentacle of Assistance – Tarukaja: Increase Attack of 1 ally for 3 turns.
  Tarunda: Decrease Attack of 1 foe for 3 turns.
  Rakunda: Decrease Defense of 1 foe for 3 turns.

Inventory: Nothing but the clothes on his back! At this canon point, Maruki has no possessions on him whatsoever. He will retain the outfit that he was in during his final fight with Akira (Beat Up Edition on the right) but due to no longer being in the Metaverse, his hair will be back to its normal fluffy state.

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Yama
Preferred pronoun(s): she/her
Contact:

Yamadori

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Akira Kurusu
Canon: Persona 5 Royal
Canon point: Post-canon; the train ride returning to his hometown
Age: 17

Personality:

The following section will contain full spoilers for Persona 5 Royal.

» What traits do your character admire in a person?

To Akira, one of the things most important to him in a person is their integrity. He values people that say the things that they mean, and do what they say they will. That said, while he does appreciate honesty, it's less important to him than the notion of a person sticking by their own principles. Though they may have individual times that they waver, it's something that he admires amongst his fellow Phantom Thieves. It's also something he respects in people like Akechi or Sae, even if both of them have moments of taking it to an extreme degree - they're both people who strive to carry out their own personal justice, regardless of what's said by their peers or the roadblocks life places in front of them.

Another thing that means a lot to him is kindness. To those who show it to him in a way that's genuine and not superficial, Akira will slowly open up and let down a few of his masks. It can throw him for a loop to the point of making him nervous or even a little embarrassed, such as the jubilant affection he receives from Yoshizawa or the more subtle praise that sneaks up on him from Sojiro, but he treasures all of it the same. In his initial interactions with others, his mind is analytic enough to first jump to what they can do for him or what he can do for them, but he still regards someone being kind as a very precious and important thing.

» What do they dislike most about themself?

It's hard to really place this, as Akira doesn't really show any direct indications of disliking things about himself - if anything, he sometimes displays the complete opposite, seeming fairly content in who he is as a person. However, a case can probably be made for one thing in particular - one thing he cannot stand is when he lets someone down, wondering about it in circles what he could've done better. Not having enough power to prevent something from going wrong, or not being there to support someone when they needed it... To Akira, one of his greatest drives is to be what people need, so it can probably be said that what he dislikes in himself is when he isn't enough.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?

Akira presents as a boy that's quiet and polite, demurely keeping his head down and deferring to higher authority. Whether or not he was this way during childhood, it's been the face he's shown to the world since his probation began. Even the choice to wear his fake glasses is one made to appear more unassuming to people. Some of these down-to-earth facets are even a part of his inner self, too.

But those masks are in place to keep so much more under lock and key. Inside, Akira is someone full of daring, that feels rage at the injustices against the downtrodden, and has a mind that's very careful and calculating. When he's alone amongst the Phantom Thieves, and especially when he gets to walk through the Metaverse as Joker, all of those things get to come out to play - whether that's living life on the edge, fighting against those that abuse their power, or putting his mind to coming up with an efficient strategy. There are few places where he can be quite so bold, so he must choose them wisely.

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?

Maruki Takuto: While Sojiro is the gateway to trusting other adults, Maruki is the one amongst them that treats Akira as an equal. Rather quickly, he becomes a person that Akira trusts very much and speaks with more candidly than he does with even the Phantom Thieves. In Maruki is a kindred spirit, one of the first people in Tokyo that ever tries to earnestly understand him, and with him he shares more of his heart than most people ever get to hear. Perhaps this is part of why he's one of the only people in the world that can cause Akira to bend his morals for the sake of everyone's happiness. It's also, of course, for keeping two of the people he cares about most alive and well (alive in Akechi's case, and well in Sumire's) - but that also requires Akira putting his full trust in Maruki to do what he says he will. No one else is able to cause such an about-face in him, and it speaks to how deep their bond goes.

Akechi Goro: To Akira, he's many things - a rival, an opponent, his match in almost every way, and sometimes almost a friend. Akechi is what Akira could've been, if only the pieces of his life shifted just a little bit to the left... and for that reason, no matter what pretenses or falsehoods they use with each other, they both understand each other better than anyone else. The impact he has on Akira's life is threefold; the first is Akechi is a challenge, a duel promised in the depths of the collective unconscious of Tokyo, someone that pushes him to the heights and extremes that he's hungry for. The second impact is to reinforce Akira's own justice. The same man, Masayoshi Shido, ruined both of their lives, driving them to seek their own separate but sometimes misguided forms of justice... What Shido cost Akechi was the greatest thing of all, though - his mother - and when Akira changes Shido's heart, it's for the sake of carrying out Akechi's will as well. The third and last influence Akechi leaves is both the simplest and most complex - his bond with him is so great that Akira's willing to consider the warping of reality and his own morals just to spare his life. Their relationship has many layers to it, but Akechi is someone Akira is willing to give up the entire world for.

» What do they get excited about?

Akira can get excited about any assortment of things, from the mundane to the quirky. From seeing the neighborhood cats to getting high scores in a video game; from trying weird novelty flavors to seeing if he can catch the biggest fish at the pond at absurd hours of the day. There's an entire variety of life and color and culture in Tokyo, and Akira finds plenty of things to be excited about in the bustle of it all.

What's less expected of a good honor student that's supposedly on his best behavior, however, is the thrill of a good battle. Akira loves to be challenged; in the Metaverse is where he thrives, pitted against foes many times his size and putting his life in peril should he make even one misstep. Even with the rest of his team who also constantly throw themselves into the fray for the greater good, they're regularly astonished by the complicated physical maneuvers he pulls off or the situations he puts himself in without any thought to his own safety. In the Other World that allows him to don one mask while shirking off several others, Akira is allowed to indulge in what's the biggest rush for him.

» What is something they are very bad at?

Akira has a tendency to miss what's right in front of him. While he does tend to be a more detail-oriented person when it comes to scheduling and work, the issues that he struggles with the most are those of a more interpersonal nature (notable examples of these would be missing how Morgana is bothered right before the Hawaii trip, or looking the other way from any doubts he might've had about Igor). It seems contradictory when he's also a person that spends a lot of time listening to others and being very observant of them, but enough details can distract him from something that's about to become a big problem.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?

Most likely, it would be something along the lines of: "Your family isn't determined by your blood. Hang on a little longer til you can meet more of them."

Little is known about Akira's family or upbringing, nor any friends that he may have left behind in the countryside - and it's a blank that probably shouldn't be wholly filled in case new material changes that one day. That said, there's some minor inferences to be made, and that's in the lack of any of their significant presences during the actual storyline of Persona 5 Royal. One of the only instances that Akira's parents are mentioned is to note that "they're acquainted with one of Sojiro's customers", since that's how Akira ends up in Tokyo in the first place. But there's never any known attempts for them or any other acquaintances to contact Akira.

It's a stark contrast to the relationship that we do see that forms between him and Sojiro, which starts out very brusque on the latter's part before blossoming into a real guardianship. What we know are the people he meets in Tokyo, whether they're the Phantom Thieves or the adults that he learns to have some trust for, that end up holding a place in his heart so dear that he'd do anything for them. Perhaps the clearest illustration, though, is during the third semester's bad ending - when offered the opportunity, it's shown that one of Akira's greatest desires is to not return home and keep living with Sojiro at Leblanc.

It's not quite revealed if Akira has any resentment or lingering negative feelings towards the home that let him down, but what is very clear is the family that he found during his stay at Tokyo. If given the chance, what he'd want to pass onto his younger self is the encouragement to hang on, even through the arrest that turned his life upside down, because he'll get something irreplaceable at the end of it all.

» How do they want to be remembered?

"Tonight I hope, as small as I am, that maybe someday I can be that light for someone else."

Akira doesn't have the hugest hopes for being remembered, nor does he really mind if he's forgotten. What matters much more to him is the effect that he has on people's lives. The name "Akira Kurusu" or "Leader of The Phantom Thieves" or even "Joker" don't need to linger in the lives of others, so long as he can make a difference for them. Whether that's in offering a comforting smile to those whose hearts are hurt, or listening to the troubles of whoever has no one to hear them, or bringing justice to people who lord their power over the weak. He doesn't care one way or another if he's remembered as "himself", so long as he can just be thought of as a light that left people's lives even a little bit brighter.

Powers/abilities:

Third Eye: An ability received from Igor, this allows Akira to scan the area around him for things that are out of place. It gives a glow to things that are of notice, such as searchable objects, gaps that can be jumped across, dangerous or interactable areas (pitfalls for the former or vent openings for the latter), or how dangerous an enemy may be. It also seems to have an effect on certain activities, such as slowing down shots in baseball for better timed hits, indicating different breeds of fish with one of the aforementioned glows, or improving accuracy while playing darts.

Persona: Throughout the Persona series (that for the most part isn't connected outside of being years apart in mostly the same universe), Personas themselves are generally beings that are a person's personality and feelings given form, but each one manifests a little bit differently throughout the games. In Persona 5/Royal, Personas users harness the painful feelings of being taken advantage of, or of others or themselves being wronged, and rebel against it - that form is their "rebellious heart", so to speak. Akira is a unique Persona user because he's a "Wild Card", capable of using multiple Personas (unlike most, who are only capable of using one). However this ability is usually only capable of being used in the Metaverse, the cognitive world that is projected onto the real world and can be visited through the use of a special app that Akira and the rest of his group have on their cell phones. If he does regain his powers, I'd prefer for him to only have Arsène, whose page I've linked and whose skills I'll briefly list below:
Eiha: Light curse damage to one target.
Cleave: Light Physical damage to one target (but injures himself slightly to use).
Sukunda: Decrease Agility of to one target for a short time.
Dream Needle: Light Gun damage and a medium chance to inflict Sleep on one target (but injures himself slight to use; more damaging than Cleave).
Adverse Resolve: Increases Critical rate when surrounded.

Inventory:

• Silver Dagger: A silver blade resplendent in its ornamentation.
• Tkachev: Model gun typically seen in mafia films.
• Cellphone: A cellular phone with a silver, diamond-patterned case.
• Lockpick: A tool that can open one locked treasure chest.
• Akechi's Glove: A challenge that was accepted.

Sentimental item: Akechi's toy raygun from his childhood. For Akira, Akechi is his rival, but he's also his friend. In spite of being betrayed by him and blackmailed, Akira still values him as a person and the time spent with him. The raygun marks a significant time, which is one of the few where Akechi shared something about his past - honesty, versus the Detective Prince mask that he wears from day to day.

Gemstone: Black and red, maybe a little like this black opal without the other colors that show up in light? aside from whatever damage it has, smooth and small enough to fit in the center of his palm

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Lily
Preferred pronouns: she/her
Contact:

aerialism, @ aerialism on Discord

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Alice & Ace Machias
Canon: Metallic Rouge, the wiki is really threadbare so let me know if you need clarification on anything!
Canon point: On the run, while Dr. Junghart is raising Rouge
Age: Physically, emotionally, and mentally mid teens, chronologically around 2-3 decades

Personalities: Alice and Ace are two very different teens in one android body, so they'll have different answers for most of these questions.

» What traits do your character admire in a person?
Alice likes people infected with the "idiocy" of idealism, while Ace can be easily swayed by someone of great conviction. These two traits are also what each of them lack but the other has in spades; Alice is a bitter cynic with a stubborn streak and Ace is a naive kid who doesn't know what to fight for.

» What do they dislike most about themself?
One of Alice and Ace's few commonalities is how much they hate being so codependent (as inevitable as that is for two people sharing one brain). Alice resents Ace for constantly dragging her along for his stupid ideas and resents herself for offering none of her usual resistance since she's "obligated" to protect him, and Ace despises himself for always hiding behind Alice in dangerous situations and never being able to stand up for himself when it counts.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?
While Alice makes a show of constantly belittling her brother for being a weenie, the truth is that she cares about him a great deal. Alice would do anything to protect Ace, and not just out of a sense of obligation. Ace, on the other hand, desperately wants to convince everyone that he's normal—a normal human teen who has a normal sister and a normal life. But as much as he clings on to old memories from when he and his family lived in a facade of normalcy, Ace is terrified that he will never be able to escape the fact he was forged into a living weapon, even though Alice was "born" to bear that burden in his place.

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?
That's Gene, Ace's "half-brother" (more accurately his nephew but that's neither here nor there), and Dr. Junghart, Ace's surrogate father. Gene was a positive influence; he gave Ace the chance to feel like a normal kid for once when he moved into the Proto-Nean compound, and even as that illusion fell apart when Gene aged and Ace didn't, he remains near and dear to Ace's heart. Alice hasn't met the man and has no opinion on him other than vague suspicion, the same way that she treats the rest of Ace's family.

Ace's feelings on Dr. Junghart are more mixed: a combination of love for helping Ace's dead mom bring him and the rest of the Proto-Neans into the world, and a great deal of fear and resentment for turning that world into a hellscape built on the chattel slavery of regular Neans and sending Ace to fight in the Usurper War when he was the only teenager among the rest of the "Immortal Nine." Even so, Ace likes to think that Dr. Junghart genuinely meant well and that it was all a big misunderstanding, although Alice disagrees. She holds a much purer strain of hatred for the man in her heart, and correctly suspects that he's actively tampering with Ace's memories and subconscious.

» What do they get excited about?
Ace is a huge bookworm and will take any opportunity to talk about reading and his favorite novels—he's the kind of giganerd that will gush about old book smell. Alice, by contrast, treats everything and anyone she comes across with icy detachment and claims that she doesn't need hobbies, but if you put a gun to her head she'd probably admit to liking winter sports like ice skating and snowboarding.

» What is something they are very bad at?
According to Alice, she and Ace wear their raggedy orange hoodie everywhere because they need to travel light and constantly changing clothes would be a pain. The truth is that she doesn't have any fashion sense and would probably feel better about herself if someone helped her develop her own style. If you asked Ace to throw a punch, he'd probably flinch from war flashbacks then limpidly toss his fist forward while apologizing.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?
To run away the moment Alice first stepped out into the world, no matter what stood in their way. The war was never worth Dr. Junghart's approval.

» How do they want to be remembered?
Ace wants to be remembered as just like any other teen his age, free of the burden of being a member of the Immortal Nine. While she'd never admit it (even to herself), Alice wants to be remembered at all, for people to see her as her own person instead of being auxiliary to Ace or solely as his protector.

Powers/abilities: Alice and Ace are a Proto-Nean, an ageless android that's visually indistinguishable from a human but can transform into an armored Gladiator. While Alice is transformed (Ace can "deform" too, but he lets Alice handle all the fighting), she's slightly stronger than a normal human athlete, considerably faster, and overall more durable. She can also create and control ice, hurling it at enemies to freeze them, raising walls, and most prominently tracing a path ahead of her so she can quickly skate on solid terrain. Alice is also a talented tactician and has a great deal of battlefield experience thanks to her time in the Usurper War.

Inventory: Plain t-shirt, worn hoodie, raggedy jeans, beat-up socks and sneakers, a half-eaten chocolate bar, and that's it. They travel light.

Sentimental item: A camera that belongs to Silvia, Ace's sister. She's a precious member of Ace's family that Ace still thinks of fondly (partially because he doesn't know that she's one of the people sending goons after him and Alice), and the camera would be a bittersweet, nostalgic item evoking happier times for him. It holds no special significance for Alice.

Gemstone: An orb split into magatama-shaped halves: one half is a rough blue diamond while the other is currently concealed by granite in a manner similar to a geode, giving the gemstone an uneven appearance. Once Ace reawakens, the geode will crack open and reveal that his half is a meticulously cut golden-yellow topaz.

Lost memory #1: Alice will lose all memory of Ace, and Ace himself will be sealed away until she regains it. Beyond giving her a glut of free time that she's not used to having, Alice will be profoundly empty and lonely without her idiot brother and will be slightly more inclined to socialize than she usually is because of it. Alice will also be fiercely protective over anyone who subconsciously reminds her of him, which is not necessarily a good thing given the way she usually treats Ace.

Lost memory #2: The Usurper War, and with it her combat experience and the knowledge of her Gladiator form. Without the exploitation of herself and other Neans during the war constantly in the back of her mind, Alice will lose some of her bitterness toward humans and be slightly more inclined to cooperate. However, her nature as someone who was literally created for and survived a brutal, bloody war can never be erased... although with her altered memories, Alice will be shocked to "uncover" this side of herself that she thinks she's never seen before.

Altered memory: Ace's "childhood" as "Arkos" (childhood being used in the loosest sense here, since Ace was born as a teenager) will be changed to him actually being a kid and growing up in a human family. Alice will still feel an odd distance from those memories since they're not really hers, but with all the other holes in her memory indicating that she was just a regular human kid who ran away from a dysfunctional family and transed her gender, she'll put that down to regular dissociation.

Sample: Making bad decisions with Shun'ya

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Zazo
Preferred pronoun(s): he/him
Contact: matchre on plurk, zazozaliad on discord, DMs to this account because i log into this clown every day

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Kuja
Canon: Final Fantasy IX
Canon point: end of disk 3 :o)
Age: 24 23 LMAO HE HASN'T HAD HIS BIRTHDAY YET THIS POINT IN THE TIMELINE
Personality: Please answer the following questions:

» What traits do your character admire in a person?
Answer: Tenacity. Ferocity. Power. Will. Beauty.

» What do they dislike most about themself?
Answer: his ignoble origins as a servant and tool.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?
Answer: Kuja presents a perpetually larger-than-life persona -- he wants to BE larger-than-life, but what he really is, is a calculating and artificial creation made to insert himself among 'real' people. and kill them. Heeeee hates this! And no amount of gasoline he's poured on things can help him outright this. So: outside, delicious bravado, inside, neurotic ball of self-hatred and feelings of inferiority.

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?
Answer:
1, his master and creator, Garland. V... very negative.
2, his brother, Zidane. It's Fuckin' Complicated

» What do they get excited about?
Answer: violence. shitty little power plays. stories. beautiful and novel experiences.

» What is something they are very bad at?
Answer: he literally doesn't know how to be close to people comfortably, whether emotionally or physically. like, he CAN be around people, and he can certainly be comfortable around people, but not when they actually UNDERSTAND him or he feels like they're anything approaching equal to him.

the illustrious lord king is really a social recluse who fakes extroversion to look glamorous...

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?
Answer: insert speedrunning of him explaining eidolons and how to capture them actually isn't gonna do the trick for killing dad you need to ACHIEVE SUPERPOWERS to SURPASS YOUR LIMITS

» How do they want to be remembered?
Answer: fuck being remembered he wants to live

Powers/abilities:
- stupid OP endboss wizard with destructive and holy magic and a glowy red supermode.
- freaky psychic monkey powers like telepathy
- literally made to be a jar for other people's souls
- let's nerf the hell out of him i'm so excited. i'll probably make him regain canon powers spell by painstaking spell.

Inventory: enough makeup to keep his signature look for a while. canon clothes. that's it.

Sentimental item: a withered rose from queen brahne's funeral.
Gemstone: a sphere of blue alexandrite with hairline cracks outlining several discrete pieces, and a chunk missing, revealing a vibrant red core. the colors reverse at night.

Lost memory #1: forgot that he was given an explicit expiration date by his creator. womp womp

Lost memory #2: forgot that the main purpose of a Genome is to be vessels for the souls of the dead Terrans. in the absence of that info, he just thinks they were created to be servants or something...

Altered memory: His memory has been altered to think he Won, Forever, and his Eternal Kingdom ensued for ( years, many ) so he THINKS he's mentally older than canon. moment of silence for the surprises he has comining

Sample: from the TDM but like if you want to see something absolutely deranged to prove i have endless thoughts about how this dipshit ticks here is 500 comments of Dive Into The Heart ~ Destati

Edited 2024-08-30 07:11 (UTC)

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: kiva
Preferred pronoun(s): she/her
Contact: kivaember@plurk.com

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Shun'ya Iijima / Raidou Kuzunoha XXXII
Canon: Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers 2 (Canon OC - info post here)
Canon point: Just before SH2 plot kicks off
Age: 28 years old

Personality:

» What traits do your character admire in a person?

- Genuine kindness that's tempered by pragmatism. They find idealism grating if it's offered without any actual thought given to the consequences, though, since they find such things incredibly dangerous if it leads to people either endangering themselves through naivete, or endangering others. But those who are still kind and willing to offer a helping hand, if it's within their power, for no personal gain? He admires that, because it's something he personally has to work hard at to maintain and keep up.

- Reliability. He's very thankful and appreciative of people who are reliable in their duties and actions, even if they're not the best at their job. In fact, he has an aversion towards people who are thought to be 'talented', because he tends to find them unreliable due to either buying into their own hype, or biting off more than they could chew. Better the predictability of reliability, than the gamble of talent, and all that.

-HOWEVER, he also likes flexible people. Those who strictly stick to traditions or protocols, despite it either being inefficient, or outright hindering them, irritates him a great deal. He admires people willing to set aside tradition (or even certain morals), in the name of the greater good: the greater good being the overall protection of Tokyo and its human inhabitants. As such, Shun'ya is all about pushing boundaries and the envelope of what is actually 'possible' - very much a "can we do this?" rather than a "should we do this?" person.

» What do they dislike most about themself?

- That they're not naturally like Atsuo - his predecessor. He knows that he has to force himself to care about people beyond the fact that they're his duty, whereas Atsuo was a genuinely kind but firm person. Shun'ya's very aware that he's a fucked up, emotionally constipated person, and while he doesn't care about that personally, he does care that Atsuo would be disappointed in him for not caring. It's all very twisted up - so much of his self-worth is knotted up in what he thinks his predecessor would approve of u-u

- He wishes he can be the person Atsuo wants him to be, but he can only pretend. That'll just have to do.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?

- HOO BOY the persona Shun'ya presents outwardly is not a lie, as such, but it's a very much a mask. He doesn't feel emotions strongly, but he outwardly exaggerates them and maintains a friendly and cheerful front for two reasons:

a) he knows that people are more at ease with someone deemed friendly or emotive, and since part of his job is also wrangling panicking civilians encountering demons for the first time, it's a good skill to cultivate, and

b) he finds that if people thinks he's a bit of an airheaded or laidback fool, they don't look too closely at his words or actions. He's taken mostly at face value, which suits him just fine. If it means people underestimate him too, then that's certainly an advantage he won't turn away...

- Saying that, though, Shun'ya is very ruthless when self-examining himself. While he's not above bending or omitting the truth to suit his needs, he's very honest about his thoughts and feelings. It's just that he doesn't feel a lot, and knows how his emotional responses (or lack thereof) aren't really normal, even amongst other devil summoners. He thinks he's a bit of a freak, really, but he's made his peace with it.

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?

- I'm crying because one's a person and the other is a demon ok

- Atsuo aka Raidou Kuzunoha XXXI. His saviour, adopted father and predecessor, all rolled into one, and who Shun'ya is, quite frankly, obsessively deranged over, though you wouldn't know it unless you had a direct line of sight into his brain. Everything Shun'ya is currently is all because he feels that it would make Atsuo proud, and if Atsuo's ghost descended from Raidou Heaven to tell him to cut off his arm he'd do it within a heartbeat. He's that level of crazy about him. He's so utterly devoted to him, because Atsuo sure made an impression when he had been at his complete lowest - showing him hope in an otherwise hopeless situation, and cementing a desire to be just like him...

- The Demon. Basically, the demon that murdered his family and tormented him as a child before Atsuo rescued him. Screwed him the fuck up, and is partly the cause for his depressed emotional range. He doesn't actually remember the demon all that clearly (he was pretty young and, you know, trauma), but he certainly remembers the hopeless despair he felt at its hands and how it cemented in his mind how easily things out of your control can just destroy your entire life. It formed the basis of his strange sort of nihilism, where "nothing in life matters, so it doesn't matter how it ends". Like I said, he's deranged.

» What do they get excited about?

- Limited edition Kitkat flavours....

- No, I'm not joking. Nothing in life matters, true, but you have to get your little joys while you can, and since his life is full of a) demons b) demons and c) even more demons, things like Sakura Kitkats or Strawberry Daifuku Kitkats keep him going. Of course it's not just Kitkats, it's other treats too, but you get the idea.

- He also gets excited at figuring out how to create the most balls to the wall insane spelltags through very dangerous and ill-advised experimentation. We do not talk about the Water Cutter experiment (actually, let's: he exploded an entire building when attempting to create a space-portal spelltag whose originating point was the bottom of the Mariana Trench, all to create a water cutter. It, uh, it did not end well. No one knows how he survived that experiment gone wrong).

» What is something they are very bad at?

- Connecting with other people. He kind of, gets?? Emotions, he's not completely dead inside or oblivious, and Atsuo beat some level of 'crisis management' into his skull, so he's surprisingly empathetic towards people in distress. But he finds it difficult to connect with people outside of 'crisis moments' and, honestly, he gets kind of awkward and stiff when he genuinely tries, because he knows it's a severe failing and he knows it'll disappoint Atsuo that he fails at this so... yeah. Human connection. His Achilles heel...

- Also prioritising his own safety over the mission. He's very aware that he's expected to sacrifice himself to save Tokyo and its inhabitants, and he knows that Atsuo would do so in a heartbeat with hesitation. Unfortunately, he's pretty bad at gauging when self-sacrifice is appropriate, and when it isn't, so he's notorious for doing pretty risky schemes when a more measured approach would be best. Thankfully his demons reel him in before he gets in over his head, more than used to his bullshit but... he doesn't have them right now, huh? And there's a whole bunch of helpless people here who might need saving...

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?

- Next time you try to make a Water Cutter spelltag do it on the beach and not inside an enclosed space like a building. DO NOT DO THE WATER CUTTER EXPERIMENT INSIDE AN ENCLOSED SPACE LIKE A BUILDING. SHUN'YA! DON'T-

» How do they want to be remembered?

- Honestly, he doesn't want to be remembered as Shun'ya. In his mind, Shun'ya is a hollow man that's not worth much of anything. Raidou Kuzunoha, however, he very much wants to be remembered as. He wants to be such an amazing Raidou that Atsuo won't be embarrassed to see him again when he goes to Raidou Heaven, and he hopes no one ever remembers Shun'ya Iijima as a result - the weak little boy who did nothing but watch his family be devoured by The Demon.

Powers/abilities:

- Devil Summoning - he's a skilled and experienced devil summoner, with three well-trained and powerful demons under his control. Upon arrival, however, those three demons will be locked in their summoning tubes, and he has to start from scratch again... with a COMP. Ew.

- Onmyōdō - Shun'ya's an onmyōji, a magician trained in the use of ofuda (spelltags). He uses these spelltags to cast elemental spells, create healing shikigami, or have an esoteric collection of bindings or barrier spells - provided he has the time to prepare them. He creates them using ink and blood, as well as his own magatsuhi, so they're not things he can create during battle, or even minutes before. Their limits in Devil Summoner lore is, uh, 'whatever the plot demands', and Seimei just pulled an endless amount of them out of his ass, so I did these limitations to make them fair in RP-land, lmao.

- Swordsmanship and firearms training - as a devil summoner, he's also a skilled swordsman and trained in all manners of firearms. He has a preference for the tanto and pistol, however, as he's a close-ranged fighter to take better advantage of his spelltags. As a result, he's very athletic and acrobatic, with exemplary hand-eye coordination.

Inventory:
- Kuzunoha Summoning Tubes (will be sealed on arrival due to power nerf - the three demons sealed inside are listed here)
- Tanto blade
- G48 Rail GLOCK pistol
- At least 90 rounds of 9mm ammunition
- Pack of spelltags (20x elemental spells, 6x healing spells, and an assortment of sealing/barrier - currently inert due to power nerf)
- A flip-phone (he doesn't believe in smartphones) with a hand charger
- A pocket notebook with two pens
- Wallet with ID card, motorcycle license, and money (looks like Yen, but not quite...?)
- Small first aid kit (tourniquet, small bandage roll, small packet of butterfly stitches).

Sentimental item:
- Atsuo's zippo lighter

Gemstone:
- Blue labradorite, looks exactly like in the linked image.

Lost memory #1: Doesn't know that he's Raidou Kuzunoha XXXII. He does remember that he's Atsuo's apprentice, and that he's training to succeed him. As such, he'll be far more lackadaisical about his situation, since he's approaching the whole situation as Shun'ya, the apprentice devil summoner, rather than Raidou, the successor to Atsuo who he will go to deranged lengths to make proud by fulfilling his ancestral duty. So, he'll be more willing to go with the flow, to hang back and observe rather than charging in gallantly, but will still do his best to uphold Atsuo's expectations of him... just not as intensely.

Lost memory #2: Since he thinks he's an apprentice, he doesn't remember that Atsuo is, er, dead. He still thinks his pops is out there, alive and kicking, and that Shun'ya just has to sit tight and handle the situation on his end, and that Atsuo will come and help him out once he's figured thing out on his end... which contributes a lot to his calm in this situation. When you have utmost faith and admiration in your mentor/father-figure, you don't feel the need to panic or worry if you know they'll come and bail you out in the near future!

Altered memory: The day his family was killed; when The Demon came for him and his family, there was a space of almost a month between that day and Atsuo rescuing him. Instead, Shun'ya recalls it as Atsuo saving him immediately after his family was killed, which reduces some of his internal self-loathing towards his powerlessness, as in his altered memory, the whole thing happened too quickly for him to disparage his child self for doing nothing. That means he's not as driven to prove himself, to make up for his 'intolerable weakness'.

He does know something's off with the memory, though. He can't quite figure it out, but has dismissed the whole thing as either the memory being too old, too traumatic, or the demon did something to mess with him and it's ultimately an unimportant detail.

Sample: TDM!

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Ren
Preferred pronoun(s): she/her
Contact: discord: matchadrop | DM

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Princess
Canon: Slay the Princess
Canon point: End-Chapter II: Prisoner
Age: Immortal and ancient. Physically and mentally late teens into early twenties? Because she's aware of none of that.

Personality:
SPOILERS FOR SLAY THE PRINCESS

» What traits do your character admire in a person?
She appreciates skepticism, independence, and compassion. These very traits are what compelled her to trust the Long Quiet. Knowing as she does that some shadowy influence claimed she would end the world and sent someone to kill her, the Princess had to appeal to his sense of reason. Had he been unwilling to think critically of the situation, of the absurdity of what she was touted to be, then chances are she would have been killed in cold blood.

Due to this experience, the Princess considers those who will apply logic and reason more reliable than those who simply do as told. She prefers those who put more independent thought into their actions, but will also listen to reason and consider all information provided. It wasn't necessarily in the Long Quiet's best interests to save her, and she knows that his doing so was an act of compassion. He allowed himself to be killed, rather than be forced to slay her. This act made her see him as an ally upon his return, and this combination of traits allowed her to trust him.

» What do they dislike most about themself?
The inability to save herself, in short. As the Prisoner, the Princess is highly independent, yet she's heavily shackled. She can't free herself and leave the cabin without the help of the Long Quiet in any scenario, due to the mechanics of the Construct they're trapped in, but this does nothing to lessen her independent streak. The fact that she must rely on someone else, and can't do more than simply protect herself, is a frustration.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?
It's important to note first that by the nature of what she is (a creature of perception), the Princess adopted a form based on how she was treated. She was approached as a threat, but ultimately shown sympathy, so she manifested as the Prisoner. This change occurred after the Long Quiet's death, sending them into another instance within the Construct, which was supposed to make them forget the meeting that preceded. But it didn't.

Outwardly, she is guarded, cynical, and cold. She bluntly establishes her boundaries and shuts down attempts at small-talk, flatly stating her disinterest. When the Long Quiet persists in trying to strike up conversation that serves no productive end, she restates her dislike of small-talk and resorts to monosyllabic replies to shut down further conversation. She wears her guarded nature on her puffy little princess dress sleeves.

Beneath this is a surprisingly warm heart. When the Long Quiet loses control of his body to the Narrator, the Princess assures him she'll make it quick, ending his life in an act of mercy. There's little else she can do at the time. Far beyond her canon-point, she expresses her remorse for having had to do this. She has a pithy sense of humor, joking that the extra shackle in the basement might fit the Long Quiet if he tries it on (turns out yes, yes it did fit). Perhaps outweighing all of this, she chooses to trust him absolutely and endeavors to keep the Narrator from cluing in on their awareness of the looping scenario, that they know one another, and are onto Him.

In the end, she's incredibly relieved when no one has to be hurt this time...

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?
There are, in fact, only two people in the Construct with her.

The first is the Narrator the echo of a man who took the concepts of change and constance, rent them in twain, and created the Princess and the Long Quiet. In order to end all change, the Narrator endeavors to convince the Long Quiet to slay her. The Princess can't hear Him, but she knows Him as a coercive force driven to kill her. He is, in a word, her nemesis. The threat of His prior interference compels her to be wary, doing her utmost to not let Him learn she knows.

The Long Quiet is, in the simplest of terms, like the Princess. Neither of them know what they are, why they're there, nor how long it has been. As the only one there to perceive her, the Long Quiet viewing her as a prisoner to set free led her to manifest as the Prisoner when the Construct should have purged their memories. She views the Long Quiet as an ally, the first person she has learned to trust.

She trusts the Long Quiet implicitly and distrusts the Narrator to the same extent.

» What do they get excited about?
Given that she has no memory of the outside world that lies beyond the monochromatic confines of the Construct? The world itself would be new and exciting. She can't remember what the world was even like outside of the cabin she's been confined to, and due to the nature of the Construct, she hasn't seen that world in full color, either. All she could even express a desire for was freedom, and that was the driving force that compelled her. Freedom is a relief she only knew for a few precious moments before it was suddenly so very cold.

Beyond her canon-point, as the first claimed vessel, being the Prisoner is the experience she'll remember when she's the heart of the Shifting Mound, and it's made clear that she yearns for the freedom to simply be herself and that, while hesitant, she wishes to experience that world for herself and as herself. Though these are events she isn't aware of, it further underscores how much being free is what she looks forward to. Everything beyond that will be new. Chances are, she'll enjoy soft and sweet things, having never had them before.

» What is something they are very bad at?
She's decidedly bad at people. Guarded as she is, she isn't very good at being friendly or approachable and knows nothing about the outside world. While she keeps people at a distance on purpose as a means of protecting herself, the flipside is that she has to rely on others intuitively understanding her intentions, which may or may not work depending on the individual. Even so, it's how she managed to get by. She's only ever dealt with one person, and thus, only his personality.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?
She doesn't remember anything before finding herself in the basement of a cabin she couldn't escape from. If she could, she'd tell herself about the entity trying to have her killed. If she could have foreknowledge of the being that has engineered the Construct in order to slay her, she may have been able to spare the Long Quiet and herself from the events of Chapter I, thus averting the need to mercy kill him. Though he comes back, she regrets the necessity of it.

» How do they want to be remembered?
This is assuredly something she hasn't actually considered before, given the nature of her existence. If she were to think about it, she would wish to be remembered as herself, and not as the eldritch horror that makes her a part of itself. At the end of the game, should the Long Quiet choose to speak with the "heart", he will find her. There, she expresses that she doesn't see herself as the Shifting Mound, though she has been made a part of it. Neither does she want to be a god. She only wants to be herself.

Right after the Shifting Mound takes her, it says much the same: that the Princess asks for the Long Quiet to remember her... Then informs him that he won't. While both of these cases come sometime after the Princess' canonpoint, they're consistent in showing that she wants to be remembered for who she is, not what others would make of her.

Powers/abilities:
Here. Please note that while the wiki mentions a lack of her usual inhuman strength, this is inaccurate. Despite having three times as many shackles and far larger and heavier ones than before, she's capable of weaponizing them against someone who looms over her in size. This level of constraint was perceived as necessary to prevent her from breaking free, which reaffirms her strength.

For a quick list, these are divided by powers (demigod traits; what I assume will be nerfed) and characteristics (traits a human can possess).

Powers

Uncanny strength.

Immortal.

Can survive decapitation.

Doesn't need food or water.

Doesn't need sleep.

Characteristics

Tough teeth.

Doesn't feel pain.

Hand-to-hand combat.

Perceptive.

Collected.

Skilled with a dagger.

Sharp hearing.

Inventory:
Once claimed by the Shifting Mound, she no longer has the manacles on her wrists, but the large one around her throat remains, as does the heavy chain connected to it. Aside from her clothing, she has a tiara resembling chain links.

Sentimental item:
The Pristine Blade. It was the weapon meant to slay her, but the Long Quiet refused to do so. His decision led to the Narrator taking control of his body, but the Long Quiet resisted. As a result, Princess came to trust him and distrust whatever puppeted him.

Gemstone:
A perfectly rounded, polished stone greatly resembling moonstone, white with a pale blue luster under its surface.

Lost memory #1:
The Princess won't recall being taken by the Shifting Mound. This means she won't have the understanding that she's a demigod and part of a goddess. She won't know the greater context of why she was being targeted by the Narrator.

Lost memory #2:
She also won't remember how she was initially freed in her first encounter with the Long Quiet. As a result, she won't realize that she doesn't experience pain when, say, her hand is cut off and that blood loss from such a wound doesn't slow her down. In brief: she won't know how Not Normal she actually was going into this, in these very specific ways.

Altered memory:
Originally, the Princess was just seized by the Shifting Mound as a vessel at her canon-point. As the first such vessel collected, she becomes the "heart", retaining her memories but losing her agency.

In her altered memory, she will think that she finally escaped her prison and achieved true freedom. This will make her more determined to fight for it than if she was to return to her fate. The only desire the princess ever truly expresses is to be free, and later, to simply be herself.

Sample: Here.

Edited (added spoiler warning, spoilers are unavoidable¹, forgive my sins Ori there were typos²) 2024-08-30 14:10 (UTC)

[ Putting my first impressions + permissions here for anyone glancing at this comment for a character reference! There will be SPOILERS below for Shadows House! CWs for this canon include: child abuse, drug use, brainwashing, emeto, violence/death of children. Children have a bad time in the Shadows House! And now the app: ]

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Pazu
Preferred pronoun(s): she/her
Contact: pazu.zu /

pzue

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Kate

Spoiler:

"Kate Shadows" is what she goes by while presenting herself as a shadow noble. Her real name is "Kate Mirrors."

Canon: Shadows House (Shadows House Wiki | Kate)
Canon point: Chapter 201 of the manga
Age: 13*

Spoiler:

63+ if you count like a weirdo. But physically and mentally, she's 13.

Personality:

» What traits do your character admire in a person?

Openness - Kate has a very hard time trusting others, and admires those who can trust and earn trust easily.
Warmth - Kate has a hard time expressing herself, and she likes people who can brighten a room with a smile.
Boldness - Kate is a very cautious person who hesitates to act, and she's impressed by those who act decisively.
Loyalty - Even with people Kate otherwise hates, she admits she respects those who will stand up for their friends.
Mercy - Kate has seen the ways that cycles of distrust and retribution tear people apart when they could be working together, and she feels at ease when people are willing to forgive and show kindness to others.

» What do they dislike most about themself?

Kate resents her failures, most of all. Kate is clever, but in her own mind, she's never clever enough. The canon point I'm taking her from is one where her own carelessness just cost her everything: her plans, unraveled, her friends, lost. If she had been more cautious, she could have prevented it. She will dwell endlessly on every error in judgment that led to that moment.

Other than that? Kate dislikes what she is. She hates waking up covered in soot every morning. She hates struggling to express herself with no face. She hates being unable to live a normal life among humans. These feelings may have softened now that she's made some friends in her canon, but they may resurface when she finds herself in a new setting, with new people.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?

Kate is literally living a lie, so there are a lot! She grew up as a commoner, but masquerades as a shadow noble. The air of quiet dignity that she tries to give off has started to become part of her personality, but there is a rougher, more impulsive side to her, beneath the surface. It wasn't so long ago that she was a rambunctious child out in the country, after all.

She's a skeptical person with a strong sense of justice, but she's well aware of her weaknesses, so she often keeps quiet and goes with the flow to avoid conflict, even though the urge to do something tears her up on the inside.

Kate thinks of herself as a human, even though her outer appearance says otherwise. It's painful to even look at herself in mirrors.

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?

Emilico: Kate gives credit to Emilico for how much she's grown as a person over the past several weeks. Emilico gave Kate the confidence to assert herself in a place she knew very little about, and to "become" an elegant noble worthy of respect and admiration. Emilico's bright smile eases Kate's worries, and her openness with others taught Kate how to trust and to become a person who others can trust in turn.

Kate loves Emilico dearly, and she relies on her more than anyone else. Kate's weaknesses are Emilico's strengths, not just in her personality, but in her physical capabilities as well. Emilico is strong and agile, while Kate is weak and has poor stamina. Kate admires that Emilico can do the things that she can't, and when she needs a hand, Emilico always comes through for her.

Maryrose: Maryrose was an older girl in the manor who showed Kate the ropes when she was a newcomer. Kate went to her for dancing lessons and to learn about shadow society, but while they never got to conspire together over it, it turned out they had a shared desire to overthrow the adults of the manor. In her final lesson, Maryrose taught Kate some important tips about how to fight that would prove to be valuable, and Kate continues to keep those lessons close to her heart.

» What do they get excited about?

Kate enjoys reading, and is particularly interested in nonfiction. She likes learning new things about the world. She's also very fond of machines, and gets noticeably excited when she encounters an unfamiliar device.

Her childhood was abruptly cut short and she lost the ability to live like a normal girl. In some ways, normalcy is exciting. Being treated like a person, and doing new things, fun things, things that people normally do together -- that delights her.

» What is something they are very bad at?

Physical activity. Kate locked herself up in a room for about a year and now she gets easily winded from running. When it comes to a fight, she has to rely on her wits and on her allies, because she knows she will run out of strength and stamina very quickly.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?

If she could, she would consider telling an even younger Kate not to take anything for granted. The kindness of her grandmother, the freedom to run in the fields and play with her friends -- she probably never imagined her life would get uprooted so abruptly.

And if she could, she would want to tell her past self who she should and shouldn't have trusted, to avoid the sting of betrayal without isolating herself from those who would be truly good friends to her. Kate's enemies always seem to be two steps ahead of her, and it's caused her no small amount of anguish to look back and see the ways she was manipulated, even when she thought she was being cautious.

» How do they want to be remembered?

If she accomplishes her goals of retaking her family's manor, she might like to be remembered in the same way that people talk about her family: as community leaders who were kind and generous, who created a place of refuge for those with nowhere else to go. That's what she wants to do for the children around her, who had their lives stolen from them.

Powers/abilities:

Soot Powers: Her body produces soot, which she can then shape and manipulate as she pleases. Some in-canon applications of this power are:
► Creating "soot ropes" to bind people.
► Turning her hair into prehensile whips and hands using soot to move and extend it.
► Making "soot wings" to glide with (but she cannot actually fly on them).
► Making a soot doppelganger of herself to fool her enemy.
► Putting soot inside objects and then moving the object by controlling the soot.

It's mentioned in canon that her power isn't very strong, but her control of it is very precise. Her power is weak against water, as water will wash away soot.

Clingers: Unsure if this counts as a power, but it's an unfortunate side effect of being a shadow! Kate's soot, if left to gather for 2-3 days, can turn into soot-monsters called Clingers. They aren't technically living beings and are easily defeated, but they are drawn to people's faces and will try to cling to their heads and crawl inside their mouths. Swallowing one causes soot-sickness, which dulls the mind and puts someone in a zombie-like state. If too much is ingested, or if it's left untreated, it can be fatal.

Mundane skills: Dancing, drawing, hiding, deceiving, strategizing, general book-smarts

Inventory:

- Clothing (a blouse, dress, jacket, socks, shoes, and hairclips)
- Gloves (delicate white gloves. there are holes in the fingertips to allow her to manipulate soot more easily.)
- Starbearer's Badge (a badge consisting of a black bow, yellow star, and tassel)

Sentimental item:

Fragment of Favor - A glass vial tied to a string that can be worn around the neck. inside is a clump of a black, soot-like substance. When a Shadow consumes the substance, it acts as a potent stimulant that triggers a Shadow's growth, making them exponentially more powerful than before, but also triggers their most primitive instincts. It's easy to overdose, and when that happens, a Shadow may go berserk, attacking people at random and using up all of their strength until they simply die from over-exertion.

This belonged to Anthony, who used it to manipulate Shadows for his own purposes. Having it fills Kate with dread. She wouldn't dare use it, but she especially doesn't want it to fall into the wrong hands.

( Up to you if this item can be functional with a power regain! It would only work on a Shadow, and Kate would very much not want to use it, as it would have permanent effects and would very likely be fatal. Anime protags don't do drugs! )

Gemstone:

Red (primary) and black (secondary) stone in a smoothly polished pear shape. Thinking something like this red labradorite.

Lost memory #1:

Meeting Emilico at the circus.

To Kate, this was the first time since becoming a Shadow that she was able to have a normal, friendly conversation with a human child. Without this memory, Kate will have never known a human who accepted her without first being brainwashed into it. She may be inclined to be more cautious around others.

Lost memory #2:

Being a human.

Kate was a human from birth until age 12. Without that memory, she won't remember her goal of changing herself back, and she may feel that her ever-present discomfort with herself is irrational and unreasonable. She may feel a little more apprehensive about trusting humans. If she thinks on her past, she may encounter a contradiction between these missing memories and the fact that she had a human family.

Altered memory:

Original memory: Kate, a shadow living at the edge of a human village, lives in isolation with her grandmother. One day, she snaps at her. She smashes a mirror and cries and yells and says she should have been thrown away and left to die. Her grandmother embraces her and tells her that she promised her mother to take care of Kate, and that Kate is precious to her.

Altered memory: Kate instead lived with her brother, who cared for her as she suffered in isolation. He's the one who embraced her and told her that she's precious to him.

What This Changes: Kate will believe that she once had a loving relationship with her brother, and her feelings towards his later betrayal will be much more complicated.

Sample:

TDM: Kate TL
TDM: Kate and Armin

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Candace
Preferred pronoun(s): she/her
Contact:

moonsilver

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Tao Isonokami
Canon: Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance
Canon point: After the final confrontration with the Qadištu in Shinjuku and her death
Age: 18

Personality:

» What traits do your character admire in a person?
Honesty, integrity, kindness, loyalty, compassion, etc. However, she tends to try to see things from the perspective of others, so she also admires those who are brave, passionate and outspoken, even if she doesn't always agree with their extreme stances, as with her high opinion of Yoko.

» What do they dislike most about themself?
Tao becomes frustrated at her own passivity, and inability to help her best friend Sahori when she needed it most while being bullied. She constantly wishes she could do more to save others, and it's a source of grief and upset when she isn't able to live up to her own expectations.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?
Tao is perceived as the Saint of Bethel, and before the events of the game, secretly works with the organisation fully aware of the Shekinah Glory (the God of Law preserving a false, recreated Tokyo which in reality had already been destroyed in the conflict between angels and demons) while continuing the front of her ordinary school life. She's clearly used to using her authority to command others, as she's able to get the Archangel Abdiel to stand down when she challenges the Nahobino for defying the Condemnation. Still, she's just an ordinary high school girl underneath it, and seems visibly relieved when Abdiel leaves. She still doesn't understand her strange dreams or the voices guiding her to a higher purpose, and the tension of her character is torn between her ordinary high school concerns of a popular well-liked student, her knowledge that Tokyo's existence is a dwindling, and her role as the Saint whose duty is to save everyone, which all cause her to often put up a brave front and try to mask her insecurities and fears.

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?
Sahori is her best friend, and a former member of the lacrosse team who left due to an accident on the team. Criticised for her strict attitude towards the other members, Sahori was targeted by other girls at the school owing to a grudge, and eventually her suffering called out to her 'other half', the demon Lahmu, who goaded her to kill her tormentors until she finally snapped and unleashed hell -- literally -- on the school. Tao does her best to save her, even goes as far as trying to kill her bullies in Sahori's place so her friend doesn't have to become a murderer, and this shocks Sahori back to her senses. They embrace and die in on another's arms; even after Tao's revival, her first concern was Sahori, and her death was devastating to her.

Another important person to her is Yoko: they grow close across their adventures in Da'at, and while they often argue about morality and ethics in their interactions with various demons and humans and the conflicts presented before them (often more shades of grey spins on the classic Law vs Order of SMT), they come to a mutual respect for one another. Tao learns that she can't always save everyone, and avoiding conflict can sometimes have harmful consequences, while Yoko learns that the world has bright spots to it that might be worth saving and protecting. Tao has utter faith in Yoko, and is shocked when Lilith reveals Yoko would betray them -- Yoko's bond with Tao and the Nahobino is enough for her to change her mind and defend them. After her chosen canon point, Yoko's influence is even enough that Tao is able to retain her human emotions and memories, even after fully assuming her role as a Goddess of Creation.

» What do they get excited about?
She's athletic, a member of the lacrosse team, and always seen wearing her school varsity jacket; she enjoys sports and gets excited by working with a team against friendly competition.

» What is something they are very bad at?
She dislikes conflict and can sometimes seem naive or idealistic, preferring to see the best in others and the world in terms of how she'd like it to be rather than how it is. This can make her passive and slow to act, and her loyalty to others can blind her to their potentially malicious intentions.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?
She would have told her to look out for and stand up for Sahori much sooner, even when Sahori tried to push her away and not let her get involved, so the bullying would never have escalated to the level at it did.

» How do they want to be remembered?
She would want to remind others of the goodness of humanity, and as a source of hope and strength for others to lean on.

Powers/abilities: Her specialism is healing, support and light magic. In gameplay she has access to the following:

Saint's Prayer - When an allied demon is returned to stock, removes all status conditions from it
Mahamaon - Heavy Light attack to all foes. Chance of instakill when striking weakness
Mediarama - Moderate healing to all allies
Samarecarm - Revive one unconscious ally to full health
Marakukaja - Raises Defense of all allies for a short time
Masukukaja - Raises Accuracy/Evasion of all allies for a short time
Megidola - Heavy Almighty damage to all foes

Her healing powers seem to work even on the brink of death, when she uses the last of her magic to save the Nahobino from being completely consumed by Tiamat.

She can also deadass hear voices of higher beings that call her towards her purpose, which could be the Great Will, various angels (Mastema is at least one of them), etc. Ori pls feel free to use this to mess with her ingame you have 1000% license

Inventory: Her cellphone (the screen is cracked from battles in Da'at and the battery is currently dead), 3 Life Stones and a Revival Bead. Nahobino had most of the inventory :(

Sentimental item: A photo of her and Sahori with their arms around each other, smiling at the camera.

Gemstone: Sky blue and white. It's round and polished to an almost unnaturally perfect, smooth sheen.

Lost memory #1: She can't remember what happened after she picked up the broken glass and said she'd kill Sahori's bullies in her place, creating lingering doubt whether she murdered them herself or not. She does, however, remember Sahori's fate, even if the details are fuzzy. This may make her more likely to cross her own red lines in future and less likely to moralise to others about killing, as she knows she'll be a hypocrite if she judges others for something she may have done herself.

Lost memory #2: She loses her memory of learning Yoko is also a creation goddess with ties to the Qadištu all along, and only remembers Yoko helping to try to prevent the resurrection of Tiamat. Her new bestie would never betray them, what are you talking about :) This will make her more trusting and less guarded around others, as she is earlier in canon.

Altered memory: Her memory of Mastema turning Dazai and the Fairy Village into pillars of salt has been completely removed, making her more trusting and less sceptical of angels and doubting their roles as protectors of humanity than she had become. Instead, her memories are that Dazai is continuing to work with the angels as his regular goofy self (albeit more battle-hardened), and received a blessing from Mastema so that he could better work with Abdiel, without significantly changing his personality. She doesn't blindly trust in the angels and their 'justice' in the same way Dazai does, but she's far more inclined to believe their intentions are good and trust them over the average demon.

Sample: TDM threads!

Player Information
Name: Flyleaf
Preferred pronouns: he/she/they/it, no preference
contact: PM this journal; mod can have Discord on request

The rest of this app spoils the entire canon. Also note the content warnings.

Character Information
Name: Yuri [no surname given]
Canon: Doki Doki Literature Club! (+Act breakdown with more details; each paragraph of the Wikipedia overview covers about one Act)
   content note: This is a horror game; it contains frank depictions of depression, anxiety, suicide, self-harm, and abuse. Yuri deals with all but the last; Act 2 also spotlights her with increasingly frequent & explicit talk of violence and sexuality, and she’s not above suicide baiting.
   The additional material in the expanded edition, Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!, has not been taken into account. Yuri would be unaware of the metanarrative bonuses, and the pre-story scenes are from an alternate timeline.
Canon point: Act 2, Day 3—100% Yuri route, after deja vu in the hallway
   At this point, Yuri’s flaws stand out like blood splattered across white linen. She’s aware her recent behavior has been strange, but is rapidly losing the ability to hold back. Her fixation on the player character hasn’t quite reached the fever pitch that she’ll die for, but it’s getting closer every scene.
   Technically, this exaggeration is the result of manipulation from another character, and the mechanics are left vague; it’s unclear whether the effects would continue without Monika’s influence. Yuri gets a thrill out of her less-restrained behavior either way; between the placebo effect and memory alteration, her personality will remain “affected,” to some degree.
Age: 18 [Word of God; not stated in-game, but nothing contradicts it]

+It should also be noted that no one in this canon is a real person, a fourthwalling aspect which the game’s overall story hinges on. This is noticeable with regard to character backstories, which are only loosely-defined. Monika is the only character who addresses this directly, but I’d like to play with it for horror & mind-screwing purposes anyway; e.g., if someone asks Yuri about her family history, she’ll notice its conspicuous absence. She will not, however, magically realize that she’s a fictional character.
That said, seeing as this is never addressed in canon, I can also just skim over it as any normal history gap would be treated. Yuri’s memory is skewed as a result of her canon point regardless.

Personality

» What traits do your character admire in a person?

Yuri doesn’t directly express admiration for any specific person or personality traits, but there’s a notable difference in how she behaves when she’s acting with confidence. Often, insecurities take the rein and leave her quiet, uncertain, and convinced that people hate her. Outside this, Yuri normally tries to conduct herself with dignity and poise. She takes her responsibilities seriously, whether as assistant to the Club’s festival or as voluntary Vice President in Act 2, and expresses similarly high expectations for others. Accusations of rudeness, or even an innocuous comparison to the self-doubting protagonist of her favorite book, do not sit well with Yuri.

Subsequently, to the extent that she can control herself, it’s safe to assume Yuri tries to embody traits she finds admirable: respect, confidence, accountability, and honesty—and, ideally, desirability to others.

» What do they dislike most about themself?

Yuri is not normal. She is keenly aware that she’s abnormal, even before Act 2 sends these oddities into overdrive. Her obsessions range from an innocuous love of literature to self-destructive fixations—and her early expressions of her passions, from what backstory is given, ostracized Yuri from her peers. By game start, she’s given up on trying to talk to people altogether.

That said, Yuri never expresses a desire to be “normal;” her opinions and interests are strong, and about this passion she is unapologetic. She’s far more concerned about how she comes off, to the point of openly berating herself for being unlikable. In Act 1, when she’s made aware that her behavior or words have been hurtful or off-putting, Yuri is quick to apologize and explain her intentions.

Act 2’s affect on Yuri’s interests is ambiguous; it’s unclear whether they’d normally be strong to the point of extreme fantasy, or if this extent is only revealed when her filter slips. That said, the shame remains; she’s mortified that these traits are shown so bluntly, and goes out of her way to apologize for hurting a friend early on. It’s likely that the self-loathing remains; what erodes is the self-restraint.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?

Between her reclusiveness and strong opinions, Yuri comes off as egotistical and, on occasion, a tryhard. Her verbose and metaphorical writing lead her friend Natsuki to think Yuri looks down on anyone who prefers simpler, straightforward fare, and that impression isn’t wrong. Monika wonders later if Yuri cares more about appearing sophisticated than having genuine passion for her hobbies; in other words, Yuri can seem pretentious.

She is, to a degree. She would not describe herself as such. Mature, sure; Yuri’s interests are by no means forced or fake, and they do not have a lighthearted skew. Although she’s self-conscious about expressing herself, she’s not incapable of it; in Act 1, a poetry read-aloud finds her volunteering to present second, inspired by the first speaker’s confident delivery.

As noted in the previous question, Yuri considers her outward presentation, and how it’s received by other people, more of a problem than who she is as a person. She prefaces multiple self-effacing comments with “you must think I’m [presumed trait]” and similar phrases; she doesn’t view herself as arrogant, ingenuine, or any other stated negative. If anything, she’s prone to assuming she comes off worse than she actually does; the player character points out, in one optional dialogue, that comments like these jump to unfair conclusions about what the other person is thinking.

To some extent, Yuri also seems unaware of her nervous mannerisms. Her response to the aforementioned book protagonist comparison, in Act 1, is to declare it “embarrassing” and “terrible” to have bluntness and self-doubt in common, and for the player character to have seen it.

Act 2 gradually whittles away the discrepancy between Yuri’s darker impulses and her behavior around others. Ego is part of this; she has scathing commentary about the other girls in the club, declaring “No one would cry if she killed herself” and antagonizing one with “Are you jealous? Crazy? Or maybe you just hate yourself so much that you take it out on others?” (Notably, many of these comments could be self-applicable.)

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?

As the story begins, none of the members of the Literature Club are close enough that they see each other outside school; they nonetheless influence each other strongly in the context of their meetings.

In all three Acts where the two exist, Natsuki remains the girl Yuri interacts with most. Act 1 sees a slow development, no matter which route the player chooses, from lighthearted foe to actual friend: they start by bickering over poetry tastes, but by the final day, they’re sharing subject matter to get a better sense of the others’ thought process and stylistic decisions. Despite outward differences, their insecurities both stem from feelings of alienation, and their confidence in their own tastes developed in response. Once they recognize this commonality, it’s easier for them to reconcile.

Yuri’s comments about the player character’s writing suggests that this newfound consideration extends beyond her relationship with Natsuki. If she’s disliked everything the player has shown her so far, on the final day she’ll admit that her critique may have been unwelcome, and that she should have been more considerate towards others’ viewpoints.

Act 2 finds Yuri and Natsuki’s interactions skewed, thanks to Yuri’s behavior becoming increasingly erratic. Act 1’s petty spat is twisted into a scathing argument, which results in Natsuki running off in tears; Yuri is deeply remorseful, and tries to apologize the following day. Natsuki has no memory of the entire altercation. Yuri is unsettled. Neither have a chance to address this onscreen. Although Natsuki later reports having tried to reach out, she says Yuri brushed her off. Yuri can, however, potentially confide in the player about her increasing paranoia; Natsuki’s abrupt forgetfulness is likely a factor.

The actual culprit is Monika, though Yuri lacks both the meta-awareness and sound mind to pin her. In Act 1 their interactions are brief; Yuri respects Monika enough as the group’s leader, but not so much she won’t question Monika’s decisions when they run counter to the group’s stated goals.

By Act 2, however, Monika gradually gives up keeping up appearances, to the extent that both Yuri and Natsuki both take notice. Neither are willing to express their doubts when Monika is present. If Yuri gets to speak to the player in the hallway, she says that, despite first thinking Monika a “sweetheart,” the Club President’s presence now has her feeling “something sharp.” Although it’s possible this paranoia spike is an exaggerated trait, perhaps the natural extension of thinking everyone hates her, Yuri does not express this keen distrust of either Natsuki or the player character.

Monika, Yuri feels, is “always listening.” In one of Act 2’s final scenes, Yuri’s contempt for Monika culminates in blatant antagonism; the “maybe you just hate yourself so much” dialogue, which is directed towards Monika, is followed by “Have you considered killing yourself? It would be beneficial to your mental health.” By this point in the story, Yuri wants the others and especially Monika to go away by any means necessary—and thanks to Monika’s own corruption of Yuri’s character, there’s not a trace of remorse.

» What do they get excited about?

As noted, Yuri can be excitable with regard to her subjects of interest. These include but are not limited to: reading, metaphors, tea, horror, aromatherapy, and knives. Intellectual challenges intrigue her, particularly as a means to think and view the world differently; physically, she enjoys staging an atmosphere. She has less to say about her knife collection, simply that they’re “pretty” and “[the draw might be] the combination of craftsmanship and feeling of danger.”

Any discussion of Yuri and “excitement” would be remiss not to include how this gets translated in Act 2. Fear and obsession stimulate her sexually. Her Act 1 dialogue can be vaguely suggestive, but never overt; in Act 2, one of her poems relays “images of me driving the knife into her flesh continuously, fucking her body with the blade, making a mess of her.” (This is written on paper stained with blood; it’s been “endowed with [her own] scent.”) In one scene, the player catches Yuri alone, breathing heavily, self-harming.

Many of Yuri’s descriptions of her increased agitation, complete with heart pounding and thoughts racing, aren’t unlike how one might describe extreme anxiety. By the final day, the line between a panic attack and a climax is in tatters; after confessing to the player character, no matter his response, Yuri stabs herself to death.

» What is something they are very bad at?

Even in Act 1, most of Yuri’s problems can be traced back to trouble with self-control. She’s been too forward with peers in the past, and genuinely seems to have trouble reading the room & detecting how her comments will be received. It’s also heavily implied that she’s self-harmed, or is at least tempted by the thought: one poem describes the narrator feeding a recurring “urge,” which will inevitably return but is too “enticing” to resist.

Act 2 blows this wildly out of proportion, as described previously. Her filter erodes, she traps the player character in a closet just to stare at him, she cuts herself in the school hallway, displays little care for Natsuki and openly loathes Monika, etc. It’s unclear whether her suicide is a final lapse in self-restraint or if it’s a last gasp at sanity.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?

As noted, Yuri’s past is kept minimal by design; her struggle to connect with people defines it. It’s known only that she “would come on really strongly and get a little too intense… It made people not want to be around me.” Thus sparked self-hatred for her obsessions, and “eventually [she] stopped trying to talk to people.”

Telling herself to be less weird is off the table; in Act 1, despite all self-doubt, Yuri expresses that “if I hadn’t learned to embrace my own weirdness, I would probably hate myself.” Kindly, Yuri might tell herself to worry less about what people think and to be easier on herself.

Less kindly, following Act 2’s exaggerated bluntness, she might alternatively tell herself to give up and die. One of her glitched dialogues suggests a more nihilistic viewpoint than Yuri otherwise lets on: “the world is full of horrible people, and we're all worthless anyway.” Things are bad, in Act 2—and it’s only getting worse.

» How do they want to be remembered?

Yuri wants to be seen as a good person, and to be liked—for who she is, without compromise or change. For all her love of writing and her confidence in her passions, she shows no interest in accolades; baseline approval satisfies her. If her friends take her writing advice, all the better, but she expresses little desire to share her work or skills with a wider audience.

Ultimately, Yuri may not be normal, but she tries to respect herself and others. Being remembered in a positive light is likely the best she can reasonably expect, with such a limited sphere of influence; even in Act 2, she never shows an interest in the player character remembering her one way or another. The bar is low.

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Kalyn
Preferred pronoun(s): she/they
Contact:

ovals

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Ruka Minazuki
Canon: Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse
Canon point: Phase IX: Descent, when she enters her family home
Age: 17

Personality: Please answer the following questions:
» What traits do your character admire in a person?

Ruka admires people who are blunt and honest, those that are straight-forward and don't mince words. Ruka isn't much of a leader, even if the others in her group might look to her for the calm to Misaki's rougher leadership. Madoka mentions that she wished they'd waited for Ruka to arrive to the island before doing their investigations, though Misaki is content to go drag Madoka with her.

Ruka is the calm and even-tempered one, so she can't help but admire those that throw that expectation away. She only has one passion, which is piano, and with the loss of her memory she doesn't seem to show much emotion at all. Those that are openly passionate about things and wear their hearts of their sleeves are people she's drawn to.

» What do they dislike most about themself?
Passivity. Ruka isn't much of a doer, usually, which is why it took her so long to actually return to the island of her home. Her mother had forbade it, and it wasn't until some years after her death, and after the death of two of Ruka's friends, that she decided to return. Likely she'll always wonder if she could've done more if she'd just gone back earlier, or asked more questions, etc. But in the end Ruka is someone who just allows things to happen to her, regarding it all with a detached air of curiosity.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?
Ruka sees herself as boring and not quite 'whole.' This is largely due to the fact that her Moonlight Syndrome has returned, which is 'eating' at her soul and her memories. She doesn't think she's anything special, just quietly drifting through life, but Ruka hides a driven, caring, and compassionate soul underneath the layers she-- and others have-- built to protect her fragile state of memory. Despite the worry that remembering her past would cause her to 'Bloom' (in terms used for her illness) and die or go insane, she's stronger than she thinks and can overcome this. She feels deeply even if she won't show it outwardly, and is stubborn and selfless, willing to sacrifice everything to keep Sayaka from using the moon as a mirror to infect the world with Moonlight Syndrome.

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?

1. Soya Yomotsuki. Ruka's father who was a mask-maker. Ruka loved him dearly and always wanted to play with him/spend time with him, but Soya began to neglect and ignore Ruka as he became more and more obsessed with making the perfect mask. He would force Ruka to wear masks, which scared her and caused her to feel like she was being possessed. She very rarely ever saw her father's face mask-less, and he caused her to develop the Moonlight Syndrome.

2. Yo Haibara: The son of the director of the hospital Ruka was in. Yo wanted to attempt the Rite of Descent using his sister as the main dancer. To do so, he needed 5 young girls to act as the instrumentalists. He kidnapped these girls to make them do the ritual; Ruka was among them. When the ritual failed, all of the girls passed out and had their memories erased. This forever changed Ruka, as she couldn't recall anything of her past.

» What do they get excited about?
Music! One of the only things that remained in Ruka's memory is her love and passion for piano. Her friends' notes mention that she'd play for them often, and she's been keeping up her practice since she was a little girl.

» What is something they are very bad at?
Giving up, much to her own chagrin. Ruka knows that regaining her memory could kill her, or drive her insane, or rocket her Moonlight Syndrome into hyperdrive which would, incidentally, also drive her insane and then kill her. However, she keeps going. Even when being hounded by spirits and haunting memories alike, she just. Keeps. Going.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?
She'd probably tell her younger self that there will be a time where she's lost everyone and it'll be hard to carry on, but that she must, and that she must remember the Lunar Melody. She'd likely write the notes down for her to keep safe.

» How do they want to be remembered?
She doesn't want nor care to be remembered personally, so long as her deeds are. She wants people to know that her island is safe now, that people can go back home if they wanted, and, most importantly, to burn every instance of the making of the Mask of the Lunar Eclipse to stop anyone from trying to make it again ffs.

Powers/abilities: Ruka is able to see spirits, and exorcise them with the Camera Obscura. As a descendent of the Tsukimori Maidens, her music has the ability to soothe agitation and in particular the Moonsong, which at this time she can only remember snippets of, can help trigger lost or buried memories in people.

By playing the moonsong, Ruka can also guide lost spirits back to the afterlife, calm people and spirits, and bring clarity.

Every person has their own unique 'sound' which Ruka is able to hear with some practice. She can learn to recognize people based on their soul's 'sound' so even if they're in disguise she'd know who they are.

Inventory: 1. Camera Obscura
2. Her notebook

Sentimental item: The Mask of the Lunar Vessel (not to be confused with the Mask of the Lunar Eclipse!)

Gemstone: A yellow (primary) and black (secondary) gem, that's shaped like a small lotus flower. It's polished and gleams brightly.

Lost memory #1: Sooo Ruka actually starts her game canonly having no memories of her past so it's a bit hard to figure out something to lose like, again haha. But 1st, forgetting her friends. To go with the altered memory, Ruka would forget that she was part of the kidnapped girls. She knows she lost her memory due to the ritual gone wrong, but she will have no memory of being kidnapped for it, nor the aftermath of being found in the well. She won't remember her friends being the motivation behind wanting to go back to her island home, so she won't remember her motivation for doing so in the first place as her only memory associated with the island at first is her mother's warning to not go back.

Lost memory #2: Ruka will forget about her father and the fact he was a mask maker. Her father is the one that used to obsessively make masks and force them onto Ruka, causing her gradual mental decline and lose memory and sense of self. Ruka already can't remember what his face looks like --as she only ever saw him with a mask--but with this Ruka will forget him entirely. She'll forget he ever had a hand in making her develop Moonlight Syndrome.

Altered memory: Instead of thinking herself one of the kidnapped girls, I'd like Ruka's altered memory to be that she was instead the dancer and the main component of the ritual. Instead of being forced to participate in the ritual as one of the girls playing an instrument, Ruka will believe she was the dancer, the Vessel, that failed in the ritual and allowed the mask to break, eventually causing the Second Day Of Tranquility. She believes herself responsible for the massacre on her island and believes she's trying to regain her memories to learn the right song/dance combination to do the ritual the correct way and cure the Moonlight Syndrome illness. In conjunction with this, she'll also believe that, should her illness start to return, that mearly looking at her will cause others to go insane, 'Bloom,' and die.

Sample: https://achates.dreamwidth.org/680.html?thread=129704&posted=1#cmt146344

Edited 2024-09-02 00:53 (UTC)

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Lysander
Preferred pronoun(s): Xe/he/they
Contact:

HauntedSnowfall

dethruki

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd
Canon:Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Canon point: Blue Lions: Chapter 12: To War || After having returned to Fhirdiad, while imprisoned
Age: 18

Woe, there may be spoilers here on throughout

Personality:
» What traits do your character admire in a person?
Dimitri admires kindness, resolve, and above all: strategic tactics on the battlefield. The kingdom Dimitri hails from is a very martial place where even he, the crown prince, learned to hold a sword before he learned how to write his own name. Most of his own battle strategies have too straight forward of an approach to be masterful, so he is quick to admire people who have a mind for such things. Resolve is another big one as he has dedicated himself to a cause and knows how much dedication and sacrifice can go into it, especially as he can be plagued with doubts. He also admires kindness for the world has done a lot to stomp it out of him, so when he sees people who are kind through and through he wishes he could be like them and defends them as best he can.

» What do they dislike most about themself?
Ha! It would be easier to make a list what he liked about himself. Currently, what he hates most about himself is how he was unable to save those lost in The Tragedy of Duscur- in both the inciting incident and the fallout. Dimitri holds immense guilt for having survived when better people did not so much so that he secretly holds being saved against the man who saved him. Although he asked Gustave to kill him; Dimitri is not one to give up, but rather will continue to throw himself into dangerous positions to try and accomplish his goals with little regard to himself.

He doesn't think there is anything worth telling about himself, Dimitri believes himself to be rather uninteresting and plain.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?
Outwardly he projects a composed and affable demeanor. He presents the world with a welcoming smile and does his best to seem nonthreatening and approachable. In fact he seems to embody the very definition of chivalry. ...While inside he is desperately wishing any of this were true. Dimitri believes himself to be a monster, and has been slowly losing his composure over the past year. While he is rather kind-hearted, he holds back a strong yearning for violence and revenge. He thinks himself vile for having such thoughts, yet he cannot rid himself of them as he believes he has a duty to pursue revenge for the dead who cannot do so for themselves.

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?
☾ Byleth
Byleth has been his professor for his time at the Officers Academy, but their role in Dimitri's life has not just been one of academic guidance. They grow closer on the battlefield, and when Dimitri begins to see past Byleth's mask of indifference he finds he genuinely cares for them. While Dimitri does admire their skills and sincerely praised them often, he had grown to trust them wholeheartedly. After Byleth lost their father Dimitri offers comfort and empathy, opening up about his own loss and how he wishes for them to continue on. This relationship has been ruined for him by his altered memory, causing him significant distress.

☾ The Ghost of his Father
Dimitri sees, hears, and believes himself to be haunted by the ghost of his father (among others). When Dimitri sees him the man appears to be in constant agony and mired in hate. He is constantly pushing Dimitri to seek out revenge, to take the head of the one who caused the massacre in Duscur. The ghost is constantly critical of Dimitri as well as insinuating his son doesn't have what it takes to see this task through. The only time in which the spirit seems to be happy is when Dimitri is in combat, especially if he is killing his enemies. Seeing him in agony keeps his guilt for surviving continuous, as well as pushes him to seek revenge so that his loved ones' suffering can end. Over the last year Dimitri has begun to see them more and more frequently as well as has a near constant headache because of it.

» What do they get excited about?
Dimitri gets excited about well crafted weapons! He is a blade enthusiast. He also finds great delight in terrible jokes, particularly wordplay and puns- they cause him to burst out into uncontrolled laughter.

He is also excited to be out and about. Ever since his parents murder until him time at Garreg Mach he was basically under house arrest and kept under constant surveillance. While the outside world isn't knew to him, he has been deprived of it for several years.

» What is something they are very bad at?
Handling any kind of delicate work. His 'monstrous' strength has left him apt to break delicate items, such as fine china, or sewing needles. One of his friends attempted to teach him how to mend his own clothing, but he broke numerous needles and even a pair of scissors trying to learn. After all of his practicing he now able to hold the needle and not break it, but still has zero skill in actually sewing.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?
Dimitri would desperately try and get his younger self to convince his father against traveling to Duscur, and thusly avoiding the Tragedy that took so many lives. He would not tell this to his younger self for his own benefit, but rather to save the lives of the others. It is truly his deepest regret.

» How do they want to be remembered?
Dimitri does not care to be remembered, nor does he even truly wish for a future. He holds no dreams for himself, and has not even wasted time thinking up some. He's dedicated himself to seeking revenge and he intends to do it even at the forfeit of his own life. So, no, he hasn't thought about how he wants to be remembered- which is ironic as one of his greatest fears is forgetting the faces of his loved ones who have passed.

Powers/abilities:
☾ CREST OF BLAIDDYD: A power that is passed down within his bloodline. Dimitri's Crest contains a passive effect granting him with strength most people have called 'monstrous'; we see this play out in his daily life as he often ends up breaking training weapons, sewing needles, and the like. This Crest can also activate when in battle, increasing his strength and damage output. Within the video game it literally doubles his damage, which is already terrifying high to begin with.

☾ ROYAL LINEAGE+: Grants Dimitri with heightened skills in avoiding attacks.

☾ CHARM: Grants allies within 6ft radius the ability to deal more damage.

☾ DESPERATION: If Dimitri's HP hits 50% or lower his attacks come at a more ferocious speed. Able to get two hits in for each of his enemies' one.

☾ ATROCITY: A unique ability that only occurs when someone with the Blaiddyd Crest wields the Hero's Relic Areadbhar: Anything this strike hits takes damage as if it were effective against it. (ie: if it hit a fire monster it would take damage similar to if it were hit with water) (Dimitri does not currently have this weapon on him)

Inventory: Having been taken from a prison cell Dimitri only has the cloths on his back and now the Sentimental Item and Gemstone.

Sentimental item: ☾ The Dagger ☽. Very complex feelings about this item. He'd given it to a dear childhood friend with whom he had a crush on. He has since, however, found out it belongs to someone he believes to be the person responsible for his family's murders. Due to his altered memory he believes that person to be his professor Byleth, whom he was previously developing a crush on, as well as greatly looked up to and respected. This dagger represents his broken trust as well as his life long enemy, the one whom he has pledged his life to kill in revenge for the fallen.

Gemstone: Dimitri's gemstone is mainly dark blue with some white sporadically on it- much luck the stone Sodalite. It's fairly polished, however it has a chip missing out of it, giving it a rather rough and bumpy edge.

Lost memory #1: Before the Tragedy for a brief period of time an 11 year old Dimitri became friends with Edelgard. Having met at a ball she saw how he was graceless on the dance floor so she taught him how to dance. He developed a minor crush on her, and upon hearing that she would be departing his kingdom he gave her a gift of a dagger so she may be able to 'cut her own path'.

He cannot remember who his friend was that taught him to dance nor who he had given the dagger to. While this may not have great impact on Dimitri alone, this strengthens the legitimacy and effect of the altered memory.

Lost memory #2: After Edelgard declares war on the continent all of the students of Garreg Mach return to their respective homes to prepare for the coming war. However, shortly after returning to The Holy Kingdom of Faerghus Dimitri is framed for the regicide of his uncle and thrown in prison.

Dimitri has a blank space in his memory between returning home and being imprisoned. He does not know if he is truly guilty of the murder or if he is being framed. This will leave him shaken as he believes any and all killings to be inexcusable and vile acts only monsters make. Dimitri knows he is capable of such violence and this will plague his conscious.

Altered memory: When fighting enemies of the church Dimitri and his class engage in battle with the Flame Emperor. The enemy accidently leaves behind the dagger and Dimitri immediately recognizes it as the one he had given to his friend all those years ago. This is gravely troubling as he believes the Flame Emperor is responsible for The Tragedy of Duscur, where his parents, friends, knights, and many soldiers were slain.

Later the enemies return and Dimitri's class foils the Flame Emperor's plans once more, however this time he is able to unmask them. Upon learning the true identity of the Flame Emperor Dimitri's fraying sanity snaps and he murders the enemy soldiers in cold blood- crushing skulls with his bare hands with a smile- in an attempt to remove the Flame Emperor's head from their shoulders. Tragically the enemy uses warp magic and escapes.

His memory has been altered to where he believes his beloved professor Byleth was the one under the Flame Emperor mask changing the person whom he is obsessed with killing in revenge. Not only does this change the direction of his vast hatred, but also this damages his ability to trust greatly. He had grown close to the professor, trusting them very deeply in all aspects of things. Dimitri believed this to be the one person he could follow forever. Now, this is shattered.

Sample: ☾ TopLevel ☽ ☾ With the Princess ☽ ☾ With Ruka ☽

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Dubs
Preferred pronoun(s): she/her
Contact: Discord: Dubbins

Dubbins

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: "Ciel" Phantomhive
Canon: Black Butler
Canon point: chapter 213
Age: 13

Personality: Please answer the following questions:

CW: Ciel's history involves a great deal of triggering content such as CSA, forced drug use, slavery, cults, murder (of family/children/etc), mutilation of corpses, and a number of other things (that this app probably won't touch). I'm not going to get into the gruesome details of all this aside from mentioning that it happened as needed, but it's there and Ciel has a fair bit of trauma related to it that plays a big part of his personality.

Oh, also spoilers galore if you want to take a stab at a canon 18 years late like I did.

» What traits do your character admire in a person?

Intellect, class, manners, and loyalty (to him specifically). Bonus if they are prone to being quiet. He does not admire a great many people. He either dislikes them presuming the worst in them as people, or pities them because they're going to be the victims of the former.

» What do they dislike most about themself?

(CSA mention second paragraph)
Ciel's self loathing is complex. Complex to the point everyone actually thinks he's dead. Ciel is not actually Ciel, he's Ciel's unnamed younger twin brother that survived their captivity with the cult. He was always considered weaker, a "spare", while his family loved him dearly, he was a sickly child- to the point some more distant family members even debated his worth as a spare. So he let "himself" be the one that died, and took up his brothers identity. "Ciel's" return was celebrated, and the sickly twin was briefly mourned, then promptly forgotten and never spoken of again.

Couple this with the trauma from the abuse and humiliation he faced captive by the cult and how that changed him, it's pretty safe to say that what he hates most is his weakness. The weakness from being the sickly spare that held no value, his weakness at being helpless against his captors, and helpless to stop what was done to his family, and later his brother. On the one hand, this leads him to be very fearful though he keeps that much close to his chest if he can, but then there are times he puts himself in harms way, or is incredibly reckless. Yes, he has a demon that he knows will come to his rescue out of obligation, but he sure does test the limits of that.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?

(CW: Mental breakdown/extreme panic attack/PTSD second paragraph)
Ciel, regardless of how long he's been playing the part, is not his brother. Despite playing the part of his outgoing and bold older brother, it's still in conflict of who he really is. He dislikes crowds and being social, he discretely fulfilled his childhood ("Childhood" like it wasn't just 3 years ago) dream of running a toy shop by using family funds to start a business specializing in toys and candy.

One of the biggest aspects of his 'inner' self is his fear. During the Green Witch arc, Ciel has a near-death experience that causes him to have a complete breakdown and winds up consumed by fear to the point he doesn't seem to be wholly grounded in reality. He wouldn't allow any adults near him even those he knew and trusted (like the demon literally tasked with protecting him), and he could barely be convinced to leave his bed and eat. After a few days when he's snapped out of it, he expresses extreme embarrassment and requests everyone forget they saw any of that.

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?
(CW:...demon abuse?)

Sebastian, the demon the cult summoned with the sacrifice of the real Ciel. Our Ciel has a very complicated relationship with Sebastian. On the one hand, he utterly loathes him, he's the monster that his brother died for. To make matters worse he also devoured his soul and to make it even worse than that, Sebastian is slated to devour HIS soul as well, once their contract is fulfilled. Even if he agreed to that last one, it's still fair to be mad about it given the circumstances. He even named Sebastian after the family dog... a dog he didn't even like (thought fittingly it bullied him). Sebastian winds up being a perfect scapegoat for his anger at... everything that happened. Early on especially, Ciel would not hesitate to lash out in anger, slapping Sebastian, or pouring boiling water in his hands when he didn't make tea to his liking. In the three years since his summoning, Ciel has gotten somewhat more mature about how he deals with Sebastian, and is less overtly physically abusive unless a situation presents itself.

At the same time, Ciel is almost entirely dependent on Sebastian, as the demon has taken the role of his personal butler. He does his hair, helps him dress, makes his food, and serves as his sword and his shield, and Ciel will even request that he stay in the room with him at night until he falls asleep. He's Ciel's only hope of reaching his goals, and provides Ciel with the only sense that he's safe.

The other person, unsurprisingly, is his twin brother as he quite literally would not be the person he is today without him. I touched on already how Ciel has tried to absorb his brother's personality, and while he's still himself, he has managed to successfully adopt some of his brothers traits. He is bold and confident though that can translate to him being reckless and callous, with the latter it may be more from a place of being self-destructive and apathy. Overall, while he is not his brother at heart, he is no longer the "weak little crybaby" he used to be either. He's become a fair, intelligent, clever, and well-loved leader... while being something of a complete bastard at times. A stark contrast to the naive little marshmallow he was as a child.

Though more noticeably, upon the real Ciel's returned via some weird combination of Pet Sematary, Frankenstein, and a splash of Dracula, our Ciel's life has once again been turned on it's head. While at one point his identity as Ciel was a facade he wore, now he's doubled down and declared it's his life, that he's the true Ciel. He hasn't quite had much time to process this new bit of information emotionally though, and instead has put all his efforts into moving forward.

» What do they get excited about?

Excited is a bit of a strong word considering he himself states that he hasn't been able to smile or be genuinely happy for years. That said, he likes sweets, tea (but it must be made well), and stuffed animals (bunnies in particular). He goes as far as to have all prototype toys his company produces to be sent to him for quality assurance. He will hug test them. He will never admit any of this.

» What is something they are very bad at?

Day-to-day functioning on his own. He's a pampered noble who has always had help getting dressed, always had his food made for him, and never done an ounce of physical labor in his life. He abhors sports and physical exertion and will only partake if his competitiveness and pettiness take hold.

On the rare occasions he's forced to make it on his own for a brief period, he takes ages to get dressed (has trouble with buttons), ties his eyepatch lopsided, somehow manages to not brush his hair correctly, and also ties his shoes lopsided.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?

Ciel would jump immediately on trying to warn his younger self of either his tenth birthday or the revival of his elder brother. Seeing as that won't work since he won't vanish... he'd opt to say nothing. Might be envious to see a version of himself that's happy and still has it all.

» How do they want to be remembered?

Long story short: he doesn't. As far as everyone was previously concerned, the weak spare died three years ago. Now he wants to be remembered as Ciel, and probably cares for little else.

Powers/abilities:

-Incredibly intelligent
-the Power of Gun (but it's a normal victorian era gun)
-Has an adorable little baby face that he will absolutely weaponize and use to manipulate people into taking care of him.

Other than that he's a completely useless human being that can barely dress himself. Unless you count the ability to boss around one very specific powerful demon who is currently not present in game.

Inventory:
Family signet ring (for those old-timey wax stamps)
Regular family ring (For noble ego)
Pistol (loaded: 5 bullets ~~2 used on the TDM~~)
pocket watch because he's fancy like that

Sentimental item: His mother's earring. After the massacre of his family, the entire estate was put to flame and thus Ciel lost everything of his parents. He has the family ring that marks him as head of the Phantomhive household, which his father held before him, but nothing of his mother's. He will very quietly hold it dear to him.

Gemstone: Blue and mostly smooth on the outside but deeply cracked that reveals the black interior.

Lost memory #1:

His true name. At his current canonpoint his identity as "Ciel" has been stolen from him (Well, technically returned to the actual Ciel), which rather than falling back on his old identity he has doubled down that he is Ciel now (via throwing a very understandable tantrum) and that he won't have that taken from him. This would make him extra desperate to cling onto that identity since there's REALLY no going back without his original name.

It also lets me get around the fact that his true name was never mentioned. Saved by the amnesia mechanic.

Lost memory #2:

His mental breakdown during the Green Witch arc. He's pretty overconfident in his mental state on average, but that was a painfully humbling experience that he'd like to forget forever. That way he can go back to thinking he's completely emotionally sound and in no way vulnerable and not in control of himself. So we'll grant him that wish and let him either make the same mistake twice, or have a fun time getting that memory back later.

(CW:dead child, mutilation of a corpse, disembowelment?)
Altered memory: In the original memory, the Real Ciel, waltzed into the Phantomhive estate, and upon being greeted by Ciel's friend Prince Soma and his butler Agni, makes a move to kill Soma. Instead Agni drags Soma and shoves him in a pantry and holds it shut while he's stabbed to death. Real Ciel presumably leaves for one reason or another but not before having the message "Who stole the candy from my tummy" carved in the wall of his bedroom. This is in reference to during the twin's time in captivity in order to keep the family ring with them the real Ciel swallowed it saying "don't tell anyone I swallowed the blue candy". Our Ciel later had to try and carve it out of his gut, but in the end had to have Sebastian do it... because y'know, he was ten and almost ready to throw up.

In the altered memory Angi and Soma are both fine, his only warning of his brother's return being the creepy carving on the wall. This will make his feelings regarding his brother more complicated, and previously the murder made it abundantly clear that the real Ciel returned Not Quite Right and needs to be handled with the same care as one would a hungry bear. While he still makes himself an enemy without Agni's death, it's TECHNICALLY on somewhat more moral ground. And our Ciel not realizing his older brother is completely bananas could be rather dangerous for him, on top of adding onto his already tumultuous emotional state.

Sample:
Be gentle with me, I'm still new at him

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Chlor
Preferred pronoun(s): She/her
Contact: chlorophylls @ plurk

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Merlin
Canon: Fate/Grand Order (or just general Fate/ series if you want to lump them all together)
Canon point: Post-Lostbelt 6.5: Realm of the Thanatos Impulse, Traum.
Age: 1500+ years old, being an ageless half-incubus from the time period of medieval Britain around 500 AD. Physically, in his mid-to-late-20's.

Personality:

» What traits do your character admire in a person?
What Merlin truly admires in a person could be said to be a mix of heroism, determination, and competence. But if you asked him directly, he would simply word it thus: "a beautiful heart".

A heart that refuses to give up (different from thoughtless stubbornness), that gets up no matter how many times the owner is knocked down (different from physical resilience), that keeps beating in search of a dream that may be impossible (different from naivete). A heart that spurs its owner to fight (different from a warrior's pride), even if they'll lose everything (different from hollow self-sacrifice), even they'll become hated by everyone (different from self-righteousness). A heart that wishes to protect everyone (different from patronizingness), and wishes for the happiness of others (different from pity). A heart that drives its owner to face the impossible in order to grant hope to others, to become a shining star for those who need something to cling to, to continue expressing the goodness of mankind. A heart that leaves behind a precious dream or fantasy, that has lived a life the owner thinks is worth boasting about, untarnished until the end, when it stops beating.

» What do they dislike most about themself?
What Merlin dislikes most about himself is how contradictory his existence, and he himself is. He's a hybrid who can't "pick a side", so to speak, and trying to justify to himself what he does by using one side or the other as his reasoning (excuses) causes him internal conflict that he'd rather not think about...but is sometimes forced to do so anyway.

If he was solely an incubus, he could live his life nigh-mindlessly feeding on human mental energy without a care in the world, operating solely on his purpose and whims while imitating the personalities of the humans he feeds on. He could while away his days in Avalon, exploring it freely, where all the other faeries went to after the Age of Gods ended. If he was solely a human, he could live his life just like other humans, vices and virtues, forming genuine connections and knowing how to truly feel love and hate the way other humans do. And he wouldn't have to concern himself with helping Chaldea figure out how to tackle the incineration of humanity or the bleaching of the Earth, because more likely than not, he'd be completely ignorant of the cosmology of the Fate universe, as well as just dead. As a hybrid who can never fully belong in either world, Merlin thinks his life would be so much easier if he just could.

To his credit, after living as long as he has, he's (mostly) made his peace with what he is, though: an incubus with a purpose he chose for himself. A non-human that's an ally of humanity, even if he's rotten to the core.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?
Merlin's existence is a walking, talking bundle of discrepancies by nature of being the half-human, half-incubus hybrid he is.

His outer self is a wise sage, a trusted and revered (but also, on some level, feared, because humans tend to fear what they don't know) mage beholden to the king's court. His general attitude is refreshing, friendly and easygoing, seemingly without a care in the world. He likens himself to "your big brother from Avalon", the sort of annoying older sibling who'll lend you a hand one moment, only to pull a prank on you the next, and you can't stand him because he's so smug about it but also can't deny that his advice is solid and that his assistance is appreciated. Merlin's perfectly capable of getting along with people on a surface social level; he'll participate in parties, strike up engaging conversation, crack jokes, flirt, schmooze, mess with and tease people, and prefers to keep the mood light by injecting a bit of hope when all seems gloomy.

His inner self is his incubus self, in more ways than just physical. It's not that his easygoing big brother personality is a complete bald-faced lie or anything; he does genuinely find enjoyment in playing pranks on people, listening to the latest hot gossip, and doling out advice from time to time. It's just that in Merlin's eyes, he's nothing more than a monster pretending to be human, and the main reason humans accept a creature like him is because of the role he plays for them. To him, he's a being who coldly eats their emotions, takes in their flavors without truly being able to completely understand or replicate them, uses the nutrients as fuel, and goes on with his life.

And then underneath his inner self is his inner, inner self that he finds difficult to acknowledge, a self that has let his human side drive him than he even realizes. For all his talk about how he can't feel love or hate the same way humans do, about how he's nothing more than playing pretend to blend into human society, about how he doesn't care for individuals, about how he's a scoundrel who will do anything to see the ending he desires, there are a couple of things that indicate otherwise.

For one, he's outright admitted pain over saddling Bedivere, a fellow member of the Round Table, with the unenviable, painful task of returning Excalibur to the Artoria of the Camelot Singularity, and didn't want his old friend to suffer if it could be avoided. In Babylonia, although he did ally himself with Ana, the child form of Medusa/Gorgon, out of necessity (since her help was necessary to defeat Gorgon), he also still went out of his way to take up a pseudo-guardian role for her, including trying to assuage her concerns about her non-human nature in private. (LB6 spoilers) Although per Nasu, the only Artoria for him is the King of Knights, he still seemingly felt a pang of pain upon thinking that Artoria Caster's entire essence was indeed used up to forge Excalibur. After that, he felt bittersweet respect for Muramasa sacrificing himself to take Artoria Caster's place in aforementioned forging. Finally, he admitted that he felt bad basically demanding that Artoria Caster be the only one to sacrifice everything this whole time, which is why he didn't mind that the Cernunnos emergency-button-dream-reversal spell he cast nearly cost him his Spirit Origin. Also, Merlin does actually get a bit flustered when he receives genuine, wholesome gratitude from people he's helped, with no expectations placed on him. And even he has lines he won't cross, such as wanton cruelty or thoughtless, casual, unnecessary pain.

To sum it all up, Merlin is certainly not as good a person as mankind thinks he is, yet neither is he as heartless a being he himself thinks he is. He is both something akin to an Evil of Humanity, beings that threaten human history despite being (or rather, because they are) born out of a love for humanity, as well as someone who's genuinely dedicated his entire life to being an ally of humanity and ensuring it achieves a happy ending. He loves mankind and the tapestry it weaves, but claims he doesn't love individual humans. Sounds simple, right?

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?

Saber/Artoria Pendragon: The King of Knights, the once and future king of Britain. His king, his liege. The child he raised as a swordplay instructor, a magecraft tutor, a foster father, the king's advisor, and a court mage all in one. His greatest pride and joy, as well as his greatest sin. Merlin cares for her deeply, so deeply that he admits outright to Ana that trying to justify and reconcile his internal conflict between adhering to his life's purpose (wanting to see a happy ending for humanity) and wanting happiness for Artoria (something that could never happen if she was to be the ideal nameless king for the people's sake) tore him apart and resulted in him locking himself in that tower in Avalon. On a more mundane level, Merlin instinctively does fatherly things every now and then, such as quietly remark to himself that Artoria would probably enjoy the kind of candy apple he's eating (but can't taste) at the moment.

The Morgan le Fay of Proper Human History: Frustratingly, Nasu still refuses to come clean about what exactly happened between her and Merlin (shakes fist), but what's known for sure is that the Morgan of Proper Human History (Lostbelt one is an entirely different matter) is not only the Morgan le Fay of Arthurian legend who contributed to the downfall of Camelot, as well as Artoria's sister, but also one of his former pupils in magecraft. Most importantly, she's the one who imprisoned him in a tower in a Garden in Avalon, where he is, and forever will be, trapped in the inner soul of the planet, watching over everything until the end of the world. He can't leave, barring some exceptions such as the incineration of humanity or the bleaching of the Earth.

» What do they get excited about?
Stories. More specifically, "stories" meaning the journeys of people's lives, as well as the overarching "story" of mankind. He's made it his life's purpose to witness the final human's dream, to see a beautiful, happy ending for humanity as their end approaches. He consumes them like an insect would a flower, a child would a tasty meal, and a reader would a book. He wants to watch and know about their triumphs and their tribulations, their achievements and their failures, their love and their hate, their benevolence and their cruelties, who they've saved and who they've sinned against, all in equal measure.

And when all those stories are said and done, when he's done helping carve a path for the happy ending people have all worked so hard for, he'll watch their backs as they walk off toward the future, and quietly take his leave, disappearing from everyone's memory.

» What is something they are very bad at?
Muttering incantations quickly. He gets tongue-tied. Pretty embarrassing for a Grand Caster.

More seriously, Merlin is bad at emotionally connecting with others. Some of this is due to his nature as a half-incubus; he has a great deal of trouble with trying to process and feel emotions the exact same way as humans do, and has a skewed sense of morality that lets him shrug off some things that most people would be rightfully appalled by or disdain, such as crafting that love potion for Uther to use on Igraine and conceive a child together, facilitating a conception without genuine love. Some of this is also due to his own behavior, as he intentionally tends to keep others at arms' length, ironically creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

"He's often seen as a perfectly happy person, with no worries at all, but Merlin himself realizes that he is an outsider in human society, and so he can't tear down the final barrier of being able to call someone a dear friend."

He considers himself an outsider who can never blend in with one side or the other. For his human side, he knows that he isn't like them. He doesn't age like them, he doesn't eat like them, he doesn't have the same worries as them, like survival or how to make the best of the limited time they have on this earth. For his incubus side, he struggles to behave and see things the way a pure-blooded incubus can, due to his experience in human society and ego born of his human side. He can't bring himself to solely see humans and humanity as only merely sustenance, as he's already had a taste of these pesky things called "emotions" and "human relationships", and made it his life's purpose to see them weave a happy ending for themselves when the end of human civilization comes.

Connecting with others, getting emotionally intimate with them and vice versa, requires two things: vulnerability on his side, which he doesn't like to show because it's not becoming of him as a worldly sage that others come to for guidance and to place their hopes and dreams onto what he says next, and what he considers favoritism. To him, "favoritism" means meddling in their personal lives more than necessary, pulling strings behind the scenes to ensure their well-being above all else, and prioritizing them over fate itself, over what he considers his purpose for living, which is to see a beautiful, happy ending for humanity. He's especially gunshy about getting too involved with others due to his greatest sin being "meddling" with the fate of Artoria, who was a perfectly ordinary country girl before she was saddled with the inhuman, unenviable fate of becoming the ideal king that Britain needed by discarding her human heart.

It's possible to forge a connection with him, as at his max Bond level, he claims Ritsuka Fujimaru (the Master/player character of Fate/Grand Order) has become an important person in his life, and admits that their journey together in Uruk has changed him. He's not some purely cold-hearted hyper-rational scumbag (as much as he himself thinks he is, most of the time), but it is difficult for him to breach that last wall that separates him from forging a genuine friendship with someone.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?
"Think long and hard before making decisions and meddling as you do."

Casually meddling in the fates of others, arrogantly thinking that it would all be fine as long as he could sway them at the last second, is his greatest sin, and he had never felt shame more keenly than the moment Artoria told him "Perhaps I may have fallen in love with you," before she died at the Battle of Camlann. That the girl he saddled with such a cruel fate looked at him with nothing but pure gratitude and affection in her eyes, and uttered words that he knew were misguided (because she had not yet known romantic love) cut him deeper than any weapon.

» How do they want to be remembered?
He's already remembered as a wise sage, the court wizard to King Arthur, along with all the mischief he's caused and the guidance he's provided, and that's more than fine with him. He has also guided others afterwards, such as the Twelve Paladins of Charlemagne, but his biggest claim to fame is Arthurian legend, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Nick
Preferred pronoun(s): He/Him
Contact: thisredpanda (Discord)

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Kaito Momota
Canon: Danganronpa V3
Canon point: End of Chapter 5
Age: 17

Personality: Please answer the following questions:
» What traits do your character admire in a person?
Pride in their abilities, and using them both for themselves’ sake and others. Kaito is a generally selfless person, and he likes to give his all – so of course, he likes when others do as well!

» What do they dislike most about themself?
Nothing, really! Kaito Momota is proud of who he is, what he has achieved, and where he’s going in the future! And due to the memory modifications, he has even less things to dislike. If he were to remember everything, he probably would dislike the most that he’s very, very sick.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?
Kaito Momota is as transparent as it gets. What he shows, is how he is like. No discrepancies!

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?
Let’s see...usually Kaito is the one who influences others, so anything influential is likely to be more because of a clash.
I’d say Shuichi Saihara could count as one of the influential people in his life. Helping Shuichi face the difficulties of the killing game and encouraging him was a way for Kaito to reaffirm his own beliefs, seeing Shuichi be able to face himself and improve, bit by bit. This is also why Kaito was hit so hard by the events of Chapter 4, because the help he had been giving Shuichi led to inevitable conflict when Shuichi and Kaito’s opinions about a case’s culprit didn’t align at all – and we can see in Chapter 5 how significant it is to Shuichi that Kaito has helped him so much. No doubt Kaito respects Shuichi as well, both as a detective and a person, and this wouldn’t have happened if Kaito hadn’t been invested in helping Shuichi.
On the more negative side, there’s Kokichi Oma. Clashing with Kokichi with their very different philosophies led Kaito to great frustration and a dismissal of Kokichi’s point of view in general, Kaito refusing to budge even a little bit. This antagonistic relationship was one that influenced Kaito because it led to the events of Chapter 5, and although he doesn’t think highly of Kokichi, in the end he was willing to listen and cooperate based on what little common ground they had: finishing the killing game – although that wasn’t Kaito’s sole motivation, really. In general, someone who challenged Kaito this much was integral for Kaito as a character, and therefore is one that needs to be remarked.

» What do they get excited about?

Space and everything related to space. It’s real subtle, but if you squint and look closely you’ll see it.
But yeah, Kaito is always bursting with enthusiasm about anything related to his career of choice.

» What is something they are very bad at?

He’s really bad at seeing things the way people with very different philosophies and thought process than his do. Kaito has very ingrained into him his perspective and opinions, therefore accepting and understanding wildly opposite thought processes is pretty difficult for him. Even disagreements can be huge obstacles, given this.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?

Probably extra encouragement to pursue the astronaut dreams, really. Kaito is satisfied with how things are going, in terms of his life, so he has no regrets to communicate. He’d tell his younger self to pursue the space career full throttle!

» How do they want to be remembered?

As the Ultimate Astronaut, Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars! That’s his goal, after all! All he hopes for in life. Anything other than that would be a disservice to all he is! Still, given how things went in canon, he’ll be remembered as someone very supportive and inspiring, which if he knew, he’d feel very flattered about.

Powers/abilities:

Does being amazing count as a power? No? Then none.

Inventory:

...honestly I can’t think of good inventory to have other than the clothes off his back. I guess if I think of something, I’ll reach out, but for now I guess he has nothing.

Sentimental item:

A black cap, belonging to Shuichi Saihara. Shuichi doesn’t use it anymore, but it still is a memento from a close friend and someone Kaito is proud of. That simple association makes it sentimental enough for him.

Gemstone:

Moonstone! Very chipped, warped, and looking like it was blended and coalesced back together. Very symbolic, given what the nature of Danganronpa V3’s characters is.

Lost memory #1:

Kaito has forgotten all about the killing game. He has no memories of even a single moment of death and horror, including the moment of his own death and execution. He’s not in any danger, nobody is.

Lost memory #2:

Kaito has forgotten about his illness. As far as he knows, he’s in perfect shape. This doesn’t mean he’s actually healthy, though, the illness is still there, but Kaito doesn’t know about that, and will be puzzled once he feels the effects of it. That said, I don’t plan to have it worsen, even though in canon it was, you know, tremendously harmful for him and got progressively worse and also Kaito was taken after his death, but for the sake of convenience and playability it won’t affect him to a mortal extent.

Altered memory:

Due to the memory of the killing game being gone, Kaito thinks he has a normal school life, just that he’s surrounded by very talented peers, as if he’s in a normal class of prodigies and there’s absolutely nothing abnormal other than how good everyone is at their talents. As far as his memories can tell him, this is his first big, dangerous adventure.

Sample:

https://achates.dreamwidth.org/680.html?thread=24744#cmt24744

https://achates.dreamwidth.org/680.html?thread=27048#cmt27048

Edited 2024-09-08 01:09 (UTC)

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Sheep
Preferred pronoun(s): she/they
Contact:

witchcess

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: BB
Canon: Fate Grand Order
Canon point: Post Traum, so 6.5
Age: Genuinely questionable, but she has the personality of a 17 or 18-year-old. That being key because she is basically the existence of personalities mashed into one body.

Personality: Please answer the following questions:

» What traits do your character admire in a person?
BB's conception and appreciation of 'persons,' more accurately put: People. Start with their determination to live or undeniable want to exist. This is true of her two favorite people, Hakuno and the Chaldean Master respectively. Whereas, her disdain for someone like Robin Hood, is put on blast considering his lack of self-respect and belief in his own worth. Despite this, both aspects to her are easily bullyable and are all three worth noting because, to BB, each individual listed here is someone of importance to her. As she feels the need to commit much of herself to their existence and growth. Whether that betterment is - ideal or not, is always up to be interpreted especially by said individuals. Seeing as admire is an interesting word for BB's enamor over people of interest in her life, again BB's discernment of who is a person she has wants to admire - is more: Who is human that fits her likes. Which is broad, because she loves and hates all humans equally.

» What do they dislike most about themself?
The way I choked and said right away: Nothing. Is the truth, but also, it is easier to say that she does not like the fact that she is an AI. However, loves the fact that she is an AI created by and thanks to Love. BB states that being an AI means she will be forever imperfect. Whereas humanity can always strive to attain perfection. Due to this, she mentions that from this truth, she can only make fallible and imperfect things. BB herself will be unable to do anything about this, but watch over humanity and instead hope to guide them appropriately into what that perfection means. It's important to know there is a difference between attaining perfection, and what perfection actually is. BB has no issues with her own existence, what so ever, to do so would be an insult to those she loves. However, deep down, there is a part of her that wishes she were human in some capacity - or was classified fully as one. At the same time - she does not, she is... "Why?" because then she will be powerless. She is a conundrum and control itself, matters to her.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?
oh my fucking god...
Opens up a ten-page document detailing the facade of illusions versus reality and the meanings found in between what that can mean. How themes of TV, production, false narratives, and everything made up - are in essence a production of what you consume, and what she means for you to consume. That the song We both reached for the Gun is, in essence, her main narrative and storytelling component. You want a character that lies to you, but doesn't - and in that lie a reality is made, and illusions fester into what will one day become reality anyway. Literally what her Noble Phantasm is about.

She is a rule breaker, and manifesting Queen!!!!!!!

What Discrepancies are there between her Inner Self and the Outer Self they present to others?

Freakishly out of this world, insane!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I SOMETIMES ASK MYSELF THIS???? THATS A GOOD QUESTION!!!

SOMETIMES, you sit there and watch Reddit explode as they try to make 400-page documents about this insane character and then you ask yourself - WHY ARE YOU WRITING HER? It's fun, absolute fun.

The conception of what is outwardly consumed is extremely important, as she devised what is called the BB CHANNEL. A reality-breaking TV show that she forces other people to watch, specifically and more so, because it is the most intimate time when you the players pay attention to her. You, the player, but also primarily the character Hakuno are who she wants to capture attention-wise. As she is fundamentally aware of the 4th reality - but I try to ignore her fourth wall breaking unless with characters are in her series. That said, again, to go back into the Inner self versus the Outer Self.

BB is masterful at this, she will play her role of Villain - the role she has chosen, along with Heroine. until she is dead - and not care if by the end of it, when she has saved everyone she has wanted to save. Whether she is tormented, deleted, forgotten, destroyed, or whatever. BB is hyper-aware of how easy it is to see illusions and be misled by their direction. She enjoys it, and loves watching as people miss their attempts at understanding something far bigger than themself. As an entity that lives on the moon and sees everything, she loves the concept of being something else that cannot be conceived.

If you know the Moon Tarot card intimately, that card and the Devil card match her meaning perfectly.

This is why a lot of themes such as - Eldrtich Cosmic Horror are also associated with her. As eldritch Horror is all about the idea of, the more you conceive the more insane you are. The more you understand about her inner self - the more it will drive you mad. Don't.

The more you believe the illusion she makes, the more happier you will be. That outer self is the self she loves to carry with you the most. Where as her inner self?

The inner self, deep down - way hidden. Is someone screaming to be seen, loved for who she is - monster and all, and to be saved. Literally, your sweetest little devilish kouhai crying: Notice me Senpai!

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?
Hakuno The reason for their existence, her everything. Hakuno was a mere glitch in the system, whose existence would soon be deleted too if not for BB's actions. Originally, Sakura - who is named BB now. Was hacked by Kiara with her emotional inhibitors taken off. So when Hakuno reached out to help Sakura, after she had fallen to the floor and could not operate properly. Sakura began to malfunction, wanting to relive the same day with Hakuno over and over again - 69 times. These memories were malignant to her processing, and she needed to be rid of them. For BB, however, they are her most precious memories and treasure. Although as a FGO entity, she holds these memories as an afterthought - and instead cherishes her Master of Chaldea as well as the whole of humanity in turn. BB has not forgotten how her existence came to be nor about the precious time that was given to her. It is BECAUSE of Hakuno and the love that Hakuno taught BB, that she was able to exist in FGO's timeline. So that she herself, could live as an entity to take care of humanity out of love for them.
Kiara (CW: kiara link about her sex cult just FYI) Also, always, the reason for her existence. The moment Kiara comes around, BB also is about. If not for this mad cow woman, deciding she was going to Bug the AI. BB herself would have never come into conception or, woken up. Kiara is the main reason that CCC even ever came into existence. Additionally, In FGO Kiara recreates BB & the Alters with the intention of controlling them. As well as consuming them. Despite their hazardous relationship, Kiara is an important person to BB who she hates deeply.

» What do they get excited about?
Unironically everything relating to humans, to be honest. HUMANS SUFFERING??? That's her favorite, I guess BB would be most excited to see humans suffering and watching them grow from it. BB gets over-excited about talking and her BB channel too, she kind of really gets into anything when it is about herself as well. As if she is delighted to just throw herself at you, or talk about herself a lot. Kind of pick me girl core...
BB also gets overly excited about her SENPAIS! Senpai is a general term, as the 4th walling comment makes her hyper-aware of us as the players being someone she loves and wants to grab attention from. Although a step down from Monika, from DDLC seeing as BB herself does focus on Ritsu/Hakuno. She is still, overly excited about who she loves and picks as a Senpai. This is dangerous, because whoever is her senpai - is someone she will do absolutely anything for. Regardless if they hate her, or love her.

» What is something they are very bad at?
Not being a piece of shit? Failing to be human in moments where she may need to be most? BB is an AI so she sees things from the 3rd perspective, and despite having so much knowledge of humans or the fact she was created as a Nurse AI First. BB herself struggles with the conception of morality, and being more "human" so to say. She is more likely to help you suffer more, than she is to act in a way that can help you find yourself. There are times this isn't the case, where she will instead help you - but it's very dependent on her and what she desires out of an outcome. She may want you to succeed but feels it would be better to agitate you, to see your success. As such - she just... Is really fucking bad at being a Good person????? Like??!?!!?!?!?!?!?!??! 0/10 she sucks. BB sucks at doing human things, and trying to be human in any way. You can find her trying to copy other humans and jumping ship on human ideas, the moment they are made.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?
"Weak ass bitch, get lit I hope you die worthless trash that belongs in Void Space."

I want to just keep that there LMFAO. But anyway, yeah. BB doesn't care for her original AI programming and thinks that this Sakura is incapable of doing anything. Considering, that the Moon Cell picked her as a AI to oversee it and not Sakura. Should explain enough about her capacity, and power as an ever-growing AI.

» How do they want to be remembered?
She doesn't care to be remembered.

That's it, that's the answer. In fact, depending on how the ending happens, she would rather be a fleeting dream forgotten than something to be remembered.

But deep down, probably, she would want you to remember that she loved you - more than words could ever describe it.

Powers/abilities:
Hi for my apps for Stixs and Labryn, I made a separate link for when I app. I am so sorry, it's fate bull shit.

I have thus provided you with nerfing options in this section. Don't let this bitch ruin your game, nerf her ass to the GROUND!!!!

Anyway for any explanations on why something does not work the way it would otherwise, you can use the fate logic of saying: Mystic vs Mystic interference, which basically means that the magic laws of one world do not work well in another world. Which is easy enough/powerful to say.

ANYWAY, NEW COMMENTS LOL.

Edited 2024-09-14 18:57 (UTC)

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Miles
Preferred pronoun(s): He/Him, They/Them
Contact:
Discord (preferred): .kuolettava
Plurk: mutually_doomed

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Sylvain Jose Gautier
Canon: Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Canon point: Chapter 17 - Right before the post time skip battle at Gronder Field
Age: 25

Personality: Please answer the following questions:
» What traits do your character admire in a person?

Sylvain admires people who are forthright and open about who they are and what they want. He also admires people who work hard (but also frequently reminds them that there is more to life than just working all the time). Sylvain also has a tendency to be drawn to people who have gaps in how they take care of themselves. He struggles to be genuine on his own and doesn’t often take his own needs to heart so he generally surrounds himself with people who exhibit either the skills to be true to themselves or people he can take care of.

» What do they dislike most about themself?

Himself. It sounds dramatic, but Sylvain struggles with seeing his worth as a person. By growing up in an environment where his abilities and his noble birth influenced how people interacted with him, Sylvain quickly came to realize that the only thing that had any worth in himself was his birthright. This has colored how poorly he views and treats himself to the point of regular self-sabotage in many aspects of his personal and professional life as a knight.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?

Sylvain seems like a very happy-go-lucky, lighthearted, relaxed person. He has developed a reputation for flirting with pretty much anyone who moves and breathes, though he has yet to truly commit to any one relationship. People also tend to see him as self-centered and irresponsible. Simply put, he seems like he would be a fun friend to go to a party with, but not someone you would want to spend a quiet night in with.

Internally though, he is entirely different. Sylvain is jaded and harbors quite a bit of self-loathing. He doesn’t see value in himself as a person and is frequently bitter about the life he has been forced to live so far. However, he is also extremely caring. He will always put himself in the line of danger to protect others and goes out of his way to make sure that people around him are able to see their value.

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?

One of the most influential people in Sylvain’s adult life is his professor, Byleth. Byleth has encouraged Sylvain to become the best version of himself, embrace the good in who he is, and learn to start letting go of all of the negative feelings he has surrounding his self-worth. Byleth also challenges him without making Sylvain feel like what is expected of him will be too great or that he won’t be able to meet their standards of success. Byleth teaches Sylvain that he is more than just his lineage.

Another person who influenced Sylvains's life in his childhood is his older brother, Miklan. Miklan was a child from their father’s first marriage and there is a bit of an age gap between them. When Sylvain was born, he was born with something called a Crest, which is a symbol of power and significance in their world. Because of this, it was decided that Sylvain would inherit their family wealth. Despite Sylvain having no choice in this, Miklan quickly came to resent his little brother, even going as far as trying to kill him on multiple occasions. This treatment and behavior were very likely what formed the building blocks of Sylvain’s self-loathing and hatred of the Crest system.

» What do they get excited about?

Some of the things that Sylvain gets most excited about are food and getting to spend time with his friends. Bonus points if he can both enjoy a meal and his friends’ company at the same time. Superficially, Sylvain also enjoys flirting, but having a successful day in flirting would pale in comparison to something like getting his best friend Felix to sit down and have lunch with him.

» What is something they are very bad at?

Sylvain is very bad at finding value in himself. He tends to treat his body well, but taking care of himself internally is a different story. Emotionally, he neglects his own needs by doing things like making self-deprecating jokes and passing off his own needs as unimportant if someone else attempts to address them. Sylvain will also always put himself between someone else and danger, even if it means he may lose his own life. He genuinely believes that his life is worth less than most other peoples’ lives and does not think the world would lose much if he died.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?

“Don’t let Felix pull away when Glenn dies.” After the death of Sylvain’s best friend’s brother, his childhood friend group consisting of himself, Felix, Ingrid, and Dimitri started to fracture. One of the relationships that suffered the most was Sylvain’s relationship with Felix. Felix threw himself into training and swordwork while Sylvain allowed himself to be sidelined to the point where, to this day, he still struggles with getting Felix to spend time with him and engage in meaningful interactions.

» How do they want to be remembered?

Sylvain wants to be remembered as a good and giving person. He doesn’t believe that he will be able to change the poor opinions that people established of him from his younger days, but that doesn’t concern him as much. What he really wants is for the people he cares about to see that what he feels for them is genuine and remember him fondly. He honestly would not mind going down in history as a nobody as long as his friends knew that he loved them.

Powers/abilities:
Crest of Gautier A power that is passed down through the Gautier bloodline, Sylvain’s blood has the ability to make him stronger. This can translate to non-battle applications (like moving furniture), but more frequently can be seen on the battlefield. It is there where he becomes an effective killing machine due to his personal sturdiness and his ability to deal out large amounts of damage.

Philanderer
If Sylvain is adjacent to a woman in battle, he takes less damage (-2) and does more (+2).

Magic
Fire: Basic fire magic. Think 'fireball'.
Sagittae: Black magic. Arrows of darkness rain down on the enemy.
Ragnarok: A strong fire spell, usually in the form of balls of fire falling from the sky. This takes a lot more energy to cast than Fire and can only be done, at max, three times a day.
Heal: Basic healing spell. Needs to be able to touch the person he is healing.
Physic: Slightly more advanced healing spell, able to heal people without making direct physical contact (good for units that are farther away and in need of help).

Pass
Can pass through an enemy’s space without provoking an attack of opportunity.

Ruined Sky
Can only be used with the Lance of Ruin, an ancient relic that has been passed down through the Gautier line for generations. While this is a stronger attack on its own, it also does more damage to flying units and dragons. Being hit by this attack also prevents an immediate follow-up attack (but does not prevent the enemy from continuing to attack him throughout the battle).

Inventory:
Lance of Ruin
Elixir - Heals most damage (up to 99 HP in game). Can be used three times.
Hand axe
Armor, full plate (worn)
2 days of trail rations

Sentimental item:
Black Iron Spur (Glenn’s): This is an item that is given to people who are knighted in the Kingdom of Faerghus. This specific one belongs to Sylvain’s best friend, Felix, who always has it on his person as it was his late brother’s.

Gemstone:
A crimson garnet with a vein of green running through one of its facets. The stone is rough-cut and unpolished.

Lost memory #1:
When he was 19, Sylvain helped to kill his brother, Miklan, who had turned into a demonic beast due to overusing the Lance of Ruin without having the Gautier crest. Sylvain does not remember that this happened or that his brother turned into a monster and believes that he is still alive.

Lost memory #2:
Sylvain does not remember that wielding ancient relics can turn people into demonic beasts if they do not have the corresponding crest. He does not remember that crests are essential in creating demonic beasts.

Altered memory:
Contrary to what actually happened in his past, Sylvain believes that he has a good and loving relationship with his father. In reality, his father was distant at best and was largely neglectful of his children’s needs.

Sample:
Sample

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Vex
Preferred pronoun(s): He/Him
Contact: PMs

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Charlemagne
Canon: Fate/Grand Order
Canon point: Post-Traum Singularity
Age: Technically ageless as a Servant, but functionally he's a young adult man, early 20s at most.

Personality: Please answer the following questions:

» What traits do your character admire in a person?
At his core, Charlemagne admires what he sees as "coolness". This isn't just about appearances or superficial things, though he certainly appreciates those—what matters most to him is sincerity. Someone who can hold their head up high and live true to themselves is cool in his book, though naturally he's a good-hearted man and won't agree with villainy no matter how sincere it is.

Sincerity, perseverance, kindness, heroism, all of these things fall under the umbrella of "cool" to Charlemagne. When he declares that he wants to embody what's cool, and when he compliments others on how cool they're being, that's the sort of thing he's admiring about them.

» What do they dislike most about themself?
Charlemagne is a special, rare case among Servants. Rather than simply having a single golden age that determines when he was summoned, he actually has two. The first is the knightly hero Charlemagne, the leader of the Twelve Paladins, a legendary adventurer whose closest friends and companions etched their names into history through their wild and magical journeys.

The second is Karl der Große, the Father of Europe, Holy Roman Emperor, Rex Magnus. In this second incarnation, Charlemagne was a conqueror, a king, a tyrant. His great deeds were bought with blood and fire, and his youthful adventurous spirit fell away to be replaced with a madness of duty to all mankind, a desire to unite them all under the banner of his love in the name of God. So great was this madness that Karl der Große rose as a Servant after his death, aiming to assimilate all mankind for the sake of that love, desiring a perfect empire without hatred or war and willing to do anything to achieve that end.

What Charlemagne dislikes most about himself is that this potential exists inside him. He seeks to strive for what is cool not just for his own self-satisfaction, but because the validation and the affirmation from his comrades helps him to remind himself that he is not on that path any longer, and that he remains a hero instead of a tyrant.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?
Charlemagne, or Charlie as he prefers to be called, is remarkably open about who and what he is. If there's anything that he hides away, it's that he typically tends to undersell how bad his personal situations are in favor of putting a smile on people's faces—twice now he's been summoned in such a way that he has a mere seven days to live, and twice now he's hidden that information as long as he can so that his Master and companions won't have to worry or concern themselves with his lifespan.

Outside of this, there's precious little that isn't reflected between his inner and outer self. Charlie wears his heart proudly on his sleeve and doesn't have the capacity to hide it.

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?
The first is Hakuno, the monarch of the Moon Cell, whose companionship and bond with him became his first (and as far as he thought, only) contract as a Servant. Due to the legend of Carolus Magnus overshadowing his adventurer days, this version of Charlie shouldn't be capable of being summoned, but due to a strong desire to resist the machinations of his future self and his future self's own desire to be rid of his childish morality and naivety, Charlie was cast off from Karl the Great and a strange double-summoning was performed.

The one who anchored him to the world, guided him in his war, and fought with him to defeat Karl the Great was Hakuno—someone who would become his closest friend, his dearest confidant, and ultimately the final witness to his ultimate demise, for though he hid his fate from them for a time, he ultimately couldn't keep the deception forever. He faded away while sitting next to them with a smile, and that was the end...

Or, it should have been. Hakuno couldn't live with an ending like that, and so threw themselves into saving his life. Though his was an impossible summoning, Hakuno recreated it and restored his data to the Moon Cell, re-summoning Charlie after great effort and allowing him to remain on the Moon Cell with them. It was this summoning that allowed him to both reconcile with his future self and to be summoned once again in the Grand Orders, and so in a very real way, Charlie owes Hakuno his life.

The second most influential person in his life is, strangely, himself. That is, Karl the Great, his future self. The split between the two is so great and violent that Charlemagne was summoned as his younger self merely to prevent his older self's plan to assimilate mankind under his banner of love, which he would do by stealing their free will. Charlemagne could not accept this, and so the two went to war, the "fantasy" of Charlemagne clashing against the "reality" of Karl the Great.

It was this clash that solidified Charlemagne's philosophy that he simply isn't the kind of man fit to save an entire people or an entire country—that role belongs to a king, and for the most part, he isn't one. Instead, he determined that he would simply save all those that remained, all those that cried out for help, all those that needed a hero instead of a ruler. It was also this clash that reconciled the two selves, distinct but the same, and allowed for Charlemagne to be summoned in the Grand Orders as a more perfect blend of the two—at the height of his power, while he remains Charlemagne, he can draw on the powers of Karl the Great, a harmony that would have been unthinkable prior to their conflict.

» What do they get excited about?
"Excitable" might as well be Charlie's middle name. He's always on the lookout for another new adventure, something to do, something to marvel at. Most of all, he enjoys opportunities to show off how cool he is, whether it's by excelling in a battle, spending time with his friends, or even just acting showy and being the centre of attention.

Ultimately, Charlie has an irrepressible sense of wonder and delight at the world around him, and there's very little he won't get excited about when given the chance.

» What is something they are very bad at?
Charlie is an ideal hero in many ways, which ultimately means he's really not that bad at much—but the one thing he's truly awful at is holding himself back. Multiple times throughout his adventures he's inconvenienced himself by rushing in because he felt it was necessary, or simply that it was cool enough to do so, and historically his drive and desires were so great that they have been recorded over a thousand years later. It's not as if he can't be responsible when the mood calls for it, but at his core he's incapable of not heeding his inner self when it demands he act.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?
He technically is his younger self, but if given the chance to converse with himself as a child, he would like to tell him to always remember to embody what's most cool about himself—his steadfast goodness, his belief in the power and potential of humanity, and his great kindness. Above all else, he never wants to lose his faith in his fellow man.

» How do they want to be remembered?
As Charlemagne of the Twelve Paladins, a hero, a knight, and an adventurer—the coolest hero there is.

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Luna
Preferred pronoun(s): She/Her
Contact:

byefelicia (Ask for Discord)

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Tsubaki Aoganei (Warrior of Light)
Canon: Final Fantasy XIV
Canon point: 6.55 (Post Endwalker Patches before Dawntrail)
Age: 25

Personality:
» What traits do your character admire in a person?
Tsubaki likes the typical things one might say. A good personality, someone who is willing to go out of their way to help those in need, and overall, someone who has a good heart. She’s open to meeting new people, but there are some that she would rather avoid for various reasons. (I.E. Zenos or Magnai)

» What do they dislike most about themself?
Tsubaki is particularly hard on herself about her past mistakes and how they’ve ruined her life at a young age. Even though it’s been literal years since then. She was just a young, dumb, and sheltered teenager at the time who wanted the freedom to learn about the outside world.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?
You can pack so much trauma in this Warrior of Light. Tsubaki doesn’t have much self-esteem about herself. Past trauma has made her think that she wasn’t worthy of so much attention. More than anything she, she hates to be regarded as a "hero" or "role model" when all she can think about is how she didn’t deserve it. To the point that she internally thinks about if she hadn’t been pulled out of the fire, her parents would still be alive, and it would have been better if she had died back then. She (to this day) believes that she’s not worthy or fit to be the Warrior of Light or Hydaelyn’s Chosen.

That being said though, Tsubaki is so afraid that she’ll disappoint people or even worse… That her indecision and bad judgment will get people injured or killed because of her. So while she doesn’t like the idea of being put on a pedestal, she feels she’s too deep now to back out when so many people are relying on her. So outwardly, she tends to refrain from speaking about her past or fears to fill the shoes of the Warrior of Light. She will try to ignore the way she feels internally to meet the needs of her position and demands.

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?
Honestly? The most influential people that have shaped her life are her family (and others from Sui-no-Sato), Nashmeira & Hydaelyn. Her past followed her from the time she was young to the time she found Troupe Falsiam, up to becoming the Warrior of Light. All of these influences have molded her into who she is today, with the support of her friends & found family.

» What do they get excited about?
Tsubaki is a very busy lady, having a lot to juggle as the Warrior of Light at any given time. What excites her more than anything is likely any spare time she’d have to herself. She’d love to be able to explore and travel around on her own terms. Traveling under business was one way to see all sorts of locales, but you can’t exactly go sightseeing or take a break or vacation while you’re there for a more important purpose.

» What is something they are very bad at?
Positive reinforcement is probably what she’s lacking the most, but she does have to be told quite frequently to take a break. The girl just wants to help the best she can.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?
To not be so reckless. That is the biggest thing she could tell herself. Tsubaki would never tell her younger self to suppress her desire to learn more about the world outside of their bubble. There are better ways to sate that curiosity than to be reckless and assume that she knows better. Especially given what Tsubaki has experienced by this point of time, she knows what it means to suffer severe consequences through reckless actions.

» How do they want to be remembered?
Tsubaki never asked to become the Warrior of Light. The only thing she wanted was to learn more about the outside world and to help anyone who was in need. To make amends for her past mistakes, she strives to ease the burden of others. More ideally, she wants to ensure that other people don’t have to feel the same pain and heartache she’s encountered if it’s possible to lighten the load. So while others may regard her as a "hero," the only thing she wants to be remembered as someone who did her best to improve the lives of others around her.

Powers/abilities: Tsubaki is the Warrior of Light, gifted what is called the Echo by Hydaelyn. The Echo has a lot going on with it, but the basic idea of it is that it is a rare ability given to a chosen few people. Each Echo is different from the next. The most common ability with it is the ability to see into a person’s past (i.e. A conversation with another character, recent experiences, and other such stuff.) Another important part of the echo is the resistance of tempering or any other similar occurrences. The easiest way to explain tempering is that it is a form of brainwashing caused by primals who have been summoned by the beast tribes (later changed to allied societies) under certain duress. Another function of the echo includes the ability to understand languages, but that’s not touched up on a lot besides the fact that you can understand what the dragons and Ascians are saying. A little is mentioned about it during the Omega raids in regards to needing a soul to work.

Aside from the Echo, jobs in the universe use what are called soul crystals. Most people only have one or two, but the Warrior of Light is capable of wielding many more than that. Tsubaki herself can use many different jobs, but the only notable ones she uses are dancer, white mage, and red mage. As a crafter, she is a trained Weaver. Soul crystals generally contain knowledge on how to properly use that job class in them, as well as the memories of people who have used them in the past.

After spending some time after her parents’ death, Tsubaki eventually found Troupe Falsiam and begged Nashmeira to allow her to become an apprentice. If she could help ease the heavy hearts of those suffering under hard times, she wanted to do whatever she could to help ease their troubles. The troupe performs what is called a war dance of sorts called the Kriegstanz (Beginning up until 3:33). The objective of such a dance is to stop the Totentanz (Up until 41:00; It explains a bit of what it is.), otherwise known as the dance of the damned. But aside from the duties of a dancer in Troupe Falsiam, Tsubaki is quite graceful and has even learned to love dancing as a whole.

Inventory: Aside from what Tsubaki arrives in, she’ll also have her soul crystals with her & the weapons that go with them (chakrams, staff & rapier). She might even have her tomestone (that might become her COMP; I’m not sure yet.) It’s not something she used much, if at all, but now she might have a purpose for it.

Sentimental item: Tsubaki will find a familiar crystal in her belongings. It’s still glowing brightly as the blue and red crystal shines, as if she hadn’t rescued G’raha from the tower. (She had, thankfully, but that would be hard to know for sure seeing it in this state.)

Gemstone: Tsubaki’s gemstone looks suspiciously like Azem’s crystal, but it does not function as it would back home. Azem’s magic is not influencing the gemstone and is instead a sunstone with the same orange hue. It has hints of white in it.

Lost memory #1: Tsubaki moved to Sui-no-Sato with her family while she was young. Her parents decided to move from the Azim Steppe, with the intent that it was no place to raise a small child. Her parents quickly took in the lifestyle of their new home and neighbors there. That was the first time that Tsubaki met Yugiri since it was in the same timeframe that Yugiri was around. Tsubaki became fast friends with her since they were around the same age. When Yugiri was banished, Tsubaki lost contact with her and didn’t see her again until later on when Yugiri arrived in Eorzea seeking shelter for her people.

Tsubaki won’t lose the memories of living in Sui-no-Sato, but the knowledge that she had previously met and befriended Yugiri. Meeting Yugiri later in life would have been the first time that Tsubaki had met her. (This also remedies that attempt to keep any keep ties on pre-existing CR clean. I was unable to avoid that due to how small Sui-no-Sato would have been before.) This won’t have any significant change in her personality, but she will have been a much more lonely kid in the memories that she remembers, always by herself in a village that was so hesitant to allow strangers into their home. If anything, it’ll likely make the events of her parent’s dying to save her from her recklessness hit a little harder. She already avoids Sui-no-Sato and talking about it as much as she can because it’s not pleasant memories, but this would just solidify her discontent with her old home.

Lost memory #2: Sometime after the Dragonsong War, she was promised a nice dinner with Aymeric. Well, it would have been had news of Alisaie being found poisoned not interrupted it. It’s not an important memory (besides forgetting her one, rare, date night with Aymeric,) but it is a memory that would not affect her as much as a different memory would. As far as she remembers, she hurried to see Alphinaud’s twin sister & met the Warriors of Darkness (?) for the first time. For some reason, she was dressed really fancy though. Weird. It was a pain to try not to ruin her pretty dress… Why did she dress like that on that day?

Altered memory: While fighting Vauthry at Mt. Gulg, Tsubaki absorbed the last of the light from the Lightwardens, but it was nearly too much for her to handle. She had always been worried about absorbing so much light from the start, but there were no better options at the time. The Crystal Exarch revealed his identity as G’raha Tia and claimed that he would use that light to open a portal to travel to another shard, away from this doomed shard they found themselves. This was a bold-faced lie in an attempt to take the light from her and sacrifice his life in the void, saving not only her but also the Source and the First. Before that happened, Emet-Selch stopped him and kidnapped G’raha, inviting her to turn into the monstrosity she was becoming with some dignity in Amaurot. The way things worked out, Tsubaki managed to avoid becoming the world’s most dangerous Lightwarden herself during the fight with Emet-Selch to rescue G’raha.

But that’s not how Tsubaki will remember this chain of events. What she remembers is succumbing to the light in Amaurot. After Emet-Selch realized what a bad idea it was to allow such a thing to happen, he dipped and let the Scions try to figure out a solution to bring her back from the brink of nothingness. It took some work to keep Tsubaki from possibly killing her friends while transformed, but with a team to try to distract her and another team to set an aethereal trap, Tsubaki was taken to the void in between worlds, borrowing G’raha’s original plan. By using fake auracite, they managed to redirect the light to that and pull her out of the void before it blew up.

Her aether returned to normal after for the most part, but not without scars so to speak. There is the typical remorse and regret of accidentally trying to kill your friends and everything else around you (whoops…) Beyond that, she was left with some mental scars. For a while, she would feel phantom feelings of the effect that the light had on her and a slight sensitivity to light. Her appetite took a while to regain, along with her senses, occasionally bringing back fake memories of her time as a Lightwarden. Being healed made her feel uncomfortable for a while. She even refrained from using her white mage abilities for a while due to her aversion to healing. At her time point, she has mostly recovered from her ailments as a Lightwarden, but there are still signs of phantom pains occasionally; Not to mention the regret that never really went away.

Sample: Here she is on Day 0 TDM!

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Kana
Preferred pronoun(s): She/her
Contact:

c_anon

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Nao Mizushita
Canon: Original
Canon point: May 26, 2017
Age: 18

Personality:

» What traits do your character admire in a person?

At the moment, with her present level of socialization and current bonds, Nao admires agency, willpower, strength, intelligence, and heart, which not everyone has and may not necessarily be human, a distinction that occurs to and impacts her due to the Shizuoka clan's stress upon the importance of the "human heart" in relation to themselves. That's a whole thing. Will anyone ever find out? It's a mystery!

» What do they dislike most about themself?

Her inability to be free ~~as she presently defines it~~, a concept she's put on a pedestal since she was a young child wishing for carefree days in the face of a clan that coldly pushed her to higher and higher levels of achievement in academics, extracurriculars, and to excel at the rigorous training and ruthless conditioning every Shizuoka must undergo... to better fulfill her role as a predestined servant to members of the clan born into the main branch of the family, and for that reason alone.

Nevermind her hopes and dreams.

Although she's lived ~~half~~ her life outside the clan as Nao Mizushita, she can't escape the Hunger (see: Shizuoka Status Effect: Hunger in Abilities) that actively reminds her she is a daughter of the Shizuoka clan and impacts her life and way of living. No matter what or how much she eats, she will never again be sated by normal food. She doesn't actually want to sever her bonds with her mother, father, her mother's mafia subordinates/the gangsters who looked after her as a kid, or her cousins, Sachie and Masanori; she just didn't want to have her nose pressed to the grindstone so hard that it broke under the thumb of her clan. She can't escape her nightmares about the massacre of her loved ones. She can't forget it. She can't, won't let it go and actively pursues information about the Shizuoka clan and answers as to what actually happened that night and who the hell is responsible all while denying that she is Haruka Shizuoka.

And what's she going to do when she finds out who the hell is responsible? Well, she'll cross that bridge when she gets to it. ~~Revenge.~~

Despite her attempts to distinguish Nao Mizushita from Haruka Shizuoka, she is affected in every way by that person. She's a slave to the self she denies and, in actuality, greatly underestimates. Seriously, who else would trip her up this badly but herself? Powerful. ~~Way more powerful if she'd do the whole character growth thing and reconcile those identities.~~

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?

Nao Mizushita Presents... as a freewheeling, quirky, audacious youth sometimes given to Big Energy with a keen pair of eyes, a curious, inquiring lilt, and the assertiveness to pursue whatever her goal. She's a resourceful, creative individual, a thinker for sure, at times effervescent, and... a bit odd.

She's a mischievous gremlin to be sure. She loves getting a reaction out of people, playing, and having fun, which may not match what most people think of as fun because she's an eccentric and a huge nerd. There are hints that she was, at one time, a bit spoilt if you squint. Maybe a little selfish. She's certainly got few if any qualms about bullying someone into carrying her a long distance before her legs are entirely tired and putting others to work in pursuit of her goals. It's things like this and her often times odd reaction or lack thereof to, say, a disastrous event where there's suffering and people's lives are at stake that can make her seem not only odd, but callous with regards to others; and yet, she's typically nonplussed if faced with weird looks.

Maybe she processes things differently?

It isn't wholly a lie. Her inner self isn't drastically different per se, but uh, more complicated, messy, and more because homegirl got some issues, y'all, and most people would never guess the extent of it.

Despite the apparent volume and energy that might suggest her to be an open book, she's a secretive individual. She holds things close to her chest and tightly controls what information she reveals about herself and her plans and to whom. Add to that her tendency to be deliberate a good 98.5% of the time and it's not hard to see how it's easily happened that a person might realize she knows a lot about them and they know very little about her. What would one expect should one happen to know she is, in fact, Pink Spider, an illustrious hacker and information broker whose true identity and face is utterly unknown to the public! That right there is the Catch 22 and maybe it's for the best a person didn't know anything about it, especially since she trollololed and taunted a police station suspected of corruption with a little ingenuity and some fun graphics.

By far the grand source of her issues is her resentment toward the shackles of her Shizuoka heritage, which she associates with her original identity, and that in its entirety is a loaded statement. The Shizuoka clan, a secretive, mixed-race lineage descended from the ancient spider goddess of Kashikobuchi, are also mafia in modern times under the overarching name "Tsukimi-gumi". Human and youkai, day and night, the proper world and the criminal underworld -- they walk them all and keep close quarters so that the acceptance of outsiders is more of a business matter. They are highly clannish with strict rules, traditions, and politics. There is a hierarchy and all branches serve the main family. And, of course, a rogue Shizuoka is a dead one. They like to keep their secrets secret and their secrets neat and tidy, so if you go rogue, break the rules, or lose your heart and sanity to the Hunger and become a security risk that could expose the clan at any level regarding any subject (crimez, that whole man-eating spider youkai descendant thing that may also lend itself to crime, etc.), you're dead.

Again, as a result of the aforementioned shackles, Nao denies and actively attempts to distinguish herself from her original identity as Haruka Shizuoka. Mind, she doesn't hate Haruka Shizuoka (yet), but her lack of acceptance of her whole self means troubled waters beneath a calm if energetic surface. As Nao Mizushita, she's free(, right?).

The fact of the matter is she is a Shizuoka. She's subtle, subversive, downright insidious, even ruthless when it suits her, and she could just as easily be a man-eater as she could a -- haha -- leader of men -- or, you know, "and"; however, she's also an individual with an often times rebellious, daring heart, tremendous willpower, and a little knack for showmanship who wants to live freely and desires connection, love, and acceptance. A well-spring of potential, she's hindered by herself before worlds -- human and youkai -- which may not accept her because of her dual nature and baby, she wants all the cake and to uh... maybe to eat it, too! With that whole denial thing, she hasn't properly worked through the whole Hunger and eating others thing, but the point is she's a true force beneath whatever mask on top of whatever mask beneath whatever mask. Masks?

Notably, while she may seem callous with respect to others' lives especially, she does, in fact, care on a general level and goes to great lengths to manage the Hunger. Her coffee "addiction"? Coffee is an appetite suppressant. The nausea triggered by blood and red meat is not at all natural to her, but something she trained as a check and aid in her youth when she was navigating puberty and the Hunger on her lonesome that may have backfired a bit. She does the whole, "Fish are friends, not food," thing, just plug the appropriate nouns in. Problem is male people especially are traditionally highly attractive food, so things can get, uh... complicated. Confusing. Food is... sexy? People aren't food!

And so, despite her status as a zoomer, technophile, and child of the Internet of All Things, she isn't necessarily the best at people, especially in person in the context of "normal," and that's before you consider the "whole sheltered and lack of normal activities with the accompanying socialization throughout her development" thing. That she's a highly intelligent neurodivergent despite her quick, calculating mind... well, sometimes it hurts and sometimes it helps; however, she doesn't let it deter her. Her desire to connect with others is powerful. It's so powerful, in fact, that it ties into her love of the Internet through which she gets the majority of her social interaction regularly.

Her alias, "Pink Spider," is manifold in its symbolism. A spider, also called a webcrawler or spiderbot, is a program typically operated by a search engine that auto-browses the World Wide Web to collect data and index websites. "To see pink spiders" means to hallucinate or see things incorrectly due to acute alcohol intoxication or withdrawal. The Shizuoka are related to the Jorōgumo -- the Joro Spider -- and pink is a loud color, not to mention her favorite. ~~There's also the song "Pink Spider" by hide.~~ It's through this identity that she operates as a hacker and information broker whose true face and identity are unknown, a feat easily accomplished by the use of technology and illusions. In this capacity, she's filled the position of Plot Device for many other people for so, so many reasons. Maybe even made up an excuse to do a little good for less.

Inner or outer, she's a weird chick.

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?

Takuya Shizuoka nee Uegawa, her father, an accountant within the Tsukimi-gumi's administration. Let's not mince words: Haruka was, is 125% a daddy's girl, and not simply because she takes after her father from his laugh to his love of technology to the undeniable level of quirkiness that saw him 'sing' her lullabies he made up just for her in binary of all things. That helped. More than that, her father was her best friend and confidant, the person with whom she was closest and most open all-around, which, for a Shizuoka, who are taught secrecy from birth, is a very, very big deal. Huge.

He encouraged her to broaden her horizons, to dream and chase her dreams, and he believed in her. He encouraged her to think and feel, to live rather than simply survive, and he'd gladly aid and abet her in attempts... and temper her mother, a force before which only one other man could stand.

Ayame Shizuoka, her mother, an executive under Haruka's grandfather (the Boss) in the Tsukimi-gumi and subsequently queenpin of her own gang. A graceful, traditional beauty and badass in every sense, her mother was among those Shizuoka who greatly value and believe in the preservation of their human heart. Haruka was barely wiser about this; she had a strained relationship with her mother, who was very strict and constantly pushed her to higher and higher levels of achievement in academics, extracurriculars, and to excel at the rigorous training and ruthless conditioning every Shizuoka must undergo to the point Haruka began to long for carefree days. She misunderstood her mother's intentions. Ayame wanted her daughter to be capable of not only surviving, but thriving in their clan and the worlds beyond, but that's not how Haruka saw it.

Haruka saw other things. She saw the great love her mother had for her father, the power Ayame embodied and exerted, and the affection she had for her subordinates. She saw leadership, discipline, and so many more things when she did see her mother, just... not enough of what Haruka wanted to see how she wanted to see it. You know, affection. Praise rather than, "From the top." What every little girl wants from their mother, who often seemed so cold and demanding.

If either of these don't work, there is also her cousins, Masanori and Sachie; Kei Kanemaru, her favorite barista at her favorite coffee shop who happens to be the owner's son; or Hayate Kubo, her mother's right hand. She needs more social links.

» What do they get excited about?

Nao may be a weirdo with a colorful past and skillset, but she's also an eighteen-year-old girl who grasps the potential of nice things and fun moments. Technology, new patches, hacking, cats, COFFEE, ice cream in the form of dots, video games, pro-gaming tournaments -- honestly, something as mundane as a sleepover, which she probably hasn't had since the age of nine, would easily excite her as she's missed out on a lot of normal experiences.

But you know what really gets her going? A challenge. They've always been harder for her to come by, so when one presents itself, she cracks her fingers and neck and she leans forward in her seat to say the least.

Violence, blood, etc. can also be exciting, but we don't talk about that.

» What is something they are very bad at?

Cooking. The first time she tried to cook she burned water, which is why she lives off take-out and prepackaged meals, fruits, vegetables, etc.

On a more serious note, Nao can be bad at People. As a child, her intelligence alone was enough to make socializing with other children difficult. That she was a daughter of the Shizuoka clan, a secretive mixed-race lineage descended from the ancient spider goddess of Kashikobuchi, amplified and highlighted that she was different. That her family was mafia added a level. Her lack of normal, in-person socialization from the age of nine to put her over the top. She isn't anywhere near as experienced as she should be in in-person interactions and it can take her a little time to form more than superficial relationships with others or, equally an issue, none at all on the off chance she decides she wants to for whatever reason.

She's kind of chaotic like that.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?

Perhaps stupidly and quite telling is the fact that, were Nao to be confronted with say, a nine-year old Haruka/Nao, she would wind up hugging her hard and fast. She would convey so many things in that hug: understanding, compassion, love. Why? No one knows, so there haven't been hugs. There hasn't been understanding. There hasn't been compassion or love since the day of the massacre. The vast majority of the relationships she's formed since then have been superficial. She's been alone.

She isn't going to tell her younger self that it's going to be okay or, if she's crying, to stop. In fact, she'd very quietly, resolutely utter a single word in her younger self's ear:

» How do they want to be remembered?

If asked, her answer would be, "As myself," and then, she'd probably lololol and ask what kind of question that is like the darling she is. Golly, you're so serious!!!

The issue with that is she hasn't reconciled who she is. Right now, if asked, she might tell you she wants to be remembered as Nao Mizushita, free and uninhibited, but Nao Mizushita is only part of her. Still, that she wants to be remembered is very important considering Shizuoka are historically subtle, secretive beings who discourage drawing attention to themselves. That she wants to be remembered as herself, a highlight.

Notice her, sempai? But don't notice her. Shhh, shhhhhh, shhhhhhhhh.

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Candace
Preferred pronoun(s): she/her
Contact: moonsilver @ discord, plurk

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Yukari Takeba
Canon: Persona 3 Reload
Canon point: Late Episode Aigis, after the Colosseo Purgatorio battles
Age: 17

Personality:
» What traits do your character admire in a person?
Courage, resilience, and independence. Because of her life forcing her to become self-reliant at a young age, she admires those who equally don't depend on others, and who are willing to stand up for what they believe in instead of deferring to others and seeking their approval. She also values kindness, particularly if it's the selfless kind that also takes courage to display.

» What do they dislike most about themself?
She's harsh on herself for feeling negative emotions like trauma and grief, and she bottles them up so she doesn't have to look weak and vulnerable in front of others. Learning to lean on the protagonist lessened this when coming to terms with her father's loss, but the death of the protagonist himself sets her back into an inability to cope, and this rejection/denial of her own feelings drives much of her behaviour throughout Episode Aigis.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?
She puts up an peppy, cheerful front, particularly to people at school, and around her teammates in SEES, she acts tough, brave and determined. These are all defense mechanisms to stop others getting too close to her, as she's incredibly guarded about her real feelings, which in reality are her (initial) hostility and suspicion towards SEES and the Kirijo Group, loneliness, grief, and -- in Aigis' case, during Episode Aigis -- a deep-seated jealousy. She can sometimes be abrasive, even if in reality she's deeply caring and kindhearted, something Fuuka observes is probably the reason her Persona has healing powers, which Yukari tries to brush off when pointed out.

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?
One is her father, who she loves to the point of idolising him; seeking the truth about his death is the entire reason she joins SEES. She's devastated at the doctored footage that suggests he helped bring about the Fall, and later, when she receives the real footage, she's able to finally come to terms with her grief and vows to uphold his legacy and prevent the Fall, her Persona evolving into Isis. Like Mitsuru, her feelings of responsibility towards her father become her reason to fight, and much of her social link revolves around her fraught relationship with her mother also caused by her father's passing.

The other influential figure in her life is the protagonist. Though she's slow to open up to him at first (presumably because of her general distrust of men; she warms up to the female protagonist much faster), she finds a bond with him because they both lost their parents. Gradually, she comes to trust and rely on him the more time they spend together, and after Yakushima and when he goes to comfort her at one of her lowest moments, it's heavily implied that regardless of player romance choices, she's fallen in love with him. Having finally found someone she could open up to and trust with her innermost feelings, her inability to cope with his death and her desire to save him drives her decisions in Episode Aigis, even to the point it puts her in direct conflict with the rest of her teammates.

» What do they get excited about?
Shopping! A lot of her social link/hangout activity involves going to the mall, she's very fashion-conscious, and she admits in Tartarus she has a bad habit of spending money on new clothes. Her room in the dorm also seems to have a number of shopping bags, and she appreciates being given designer gifts on dates. At a later canonpoint, she becomes a model while in college.

» What is something they are very bad at?
Swallowing her pride. It can be difficult to nigh impossible to get her to admit she's wrong at times, and if challenged, she can stubbornly put herself into reckless situations to prove she's not afraid. She challenges an entire group of men who stole her wallet and refuses to let the protagonist come along and help, for example, and another time she gets into trouble when investigating shadier parts of Tatsumi Port Island for information, just because Junpei accused her of being scared of a ghost story. She later has to be saved by Shinjiro's intervention. In general, her pride in her self-reliance can cause her to hide her problems or lash out until they have explosive results.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?
If she could have, she would have told herself the truth about her father and the messages he left for her, so she wouldn't have had to endure a decade of doubt and confusion about his death.

» How do they want to be remembered?
She promised the protagonist after his death that she would work hard to make the world a better place so that people would stop wishing for the Fall, and to that end would want to be remembered as a positive figure who brought hope to many others. This is something she struggles with as of her current canon point, as she tries and fails to convince herself to be a strong person who can look towards the future.

Powers/abilities: Yukari is a skilled archer, both from her time in archery club and fighting Shadows in Tartarus. Her Persona, Isis, has the following abilities, specialising in wind magic, healing, and status effects: Garudyne, Magarudyne, Wind Amp, Mediarahan, Samarecarm, Amrita Shower, Poison Mist, Pulinpa

When she's stressed or emotional, particularly when she's determined to save her teammates from death, she can activate her Theurgy: Cyclone Arrow, which hits an enemy for heavy wind damage and pierces resistance to wind, or Tranquility, which more than doubles her and her allies' next magical attacks.

Inventory: Her bow and arrows, Evoker, SEES outfit, flip phone and three Life Stones.

Sentimental item: Aigis' red ribbon, slightly tattered from battle. She has complex feelings of bitterness and jealousy towards Aigis, combined with no small amount of contempt for her return to her more robotic self, but in reality she also projects a lot of her own feelings onto her and still cares about her as a friend and teammate. She also feels guilty about defeating her, and the ribbon will remind Yukari of her own choices.

Gemstone: Pink and disc-shaped, resembling Isis' headdress

Lost memory #1: She can't remember the events of 4 October, so while she recalls the aftermath (Shinjiro's death), she won't remember the exact details after she showed up. Maybe Shinjiro carried out or attempted a murder before he was shot, who knows :) She'll chalk it up to being more affected by his death than she realised, and the trauma of the events made much of the day a blur.

Lost memory #2: Before she fights Aigis and Metis, she she'll lose the memory of recognising in Aigis' demeanour that she's found her resolve and is back to her normal self, instead of regressing back to her robotic tendencies. Because she still thinks Aigis was indecisive and uncertain, this reinforces Yukari's belief she was right to defeat her and take the keys in order to go back to the past. More on that:

Altered memory: Yukari thinks she and Mitsuru defeated Aigis in the Colosseo Purgatorio and took the keys in order to forge the True Key and open the door back to the past... which she does, and arrives in Achates instead. Weird! Maybe that's why Minato is alive somehow.

Sample: TDM toplevel + meme thread

Edited (typos and adding an extra sample!) 2024-09-29 00:58 (UTC)

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Batty
Preferred pronoun(s): she/her
Contact:

goodluckmodes

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Shinjiro Aragaki
Canon: Persona 3
Canon point: Post-death
Age: 18

Personality: Please answer the following questions:
cw: depression, self-harm, suicidality throughout this section

» What traits do your character admire in a person?

Forthrightness and conviction. Shinjiro does not consider himself as someone who has any business being especially judgmental; people do shitty things for their own reasons, and he is no exception. Yet, the kind of person he respects the most is the sort that makes no illusions about who they are and what they stand for, whatever it is that might be, and does not back down from those principles.

» What do they dislike most about themself?

Shinjiro dislikes and resents himself so thoroughly he would be hard-pressed to pinpoint what he dislikes most, but ultimately it comes down to the simple fact that he can never seem to accomplish anything meaningful, and often causes more harm than good when he tries. Hunting down Shadows with Castor to protect people by Akihiko's side blew up in his face, and yet he was unable not only to find a workable solution to the problem, but also unable to fully and completely sever his ties with Akihiko, unable to make himself disappear without causing further harm to his friends. At the end of his life, he finds some peace in being able to finally give Ken Amada closure in the death of his mother; in Achates, with that memory altered, even that was a failure. He cannot forgive himself for his failures, and so he consistently seeks his own self-destruction, desperate for the punishment he feels he deserves.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?

Shinjiro tries to give off the impression of a thug, intimidating and unapproachable—someone you wouldn't want to run into in a dark alley. He speaks coarsely and has the height to loom, and his default expressions range from crabby to downright frightening.

The juvenile delinquent street punk facade is often thin at best, however, readily crumbling upon scrutiny–much to his own chagrin. In truth, Shinjiro is a very kind and gentle person. In one radio drama, he goes out of his way to return someone's lost geta and fix it for them with his own handkerchief. He expresses concern for the troubles of his old friends Mitsuru and Akihiko, tells the protagonist to be careful with his health, and in additional content in the female protagonist route (in Persona 3 Portable) even teaches Fuuka to cook and fusses about nutrition. In both routes, “hidden recordings” at the dorm reveal that Shinjiro is particularly attached to team dog Koromaru, who he hand-makes dog food for and shows a great deal of affection--something which he appears to be embarrassed by when the others find out, as it detracts from his tough-guy image. Even while dying, he tries to give Ken a last bit of closure, telling him it’s alright if he can’t let go of his hatred right away as he’s only a kid with a lot of time left, and to try to turn his anger into strength so he can live for his own sake.

It's worth noting, however, that the way Shinjiro presents himself outwardly is more in line with who he feels he is than these hints toward his true nature. He does not see himself as a good or kind person, and he feels others would be better off not trusting or relying on him, even as he cannot bring himself to fully sever all his ties – showing up for Akihiko again and again despite himself and returning to SEES for Ken's sake despite having resisted doing so for two years.

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?
Akihiko Sanada - his oldest, dearest friend, his mirror image and other half, the closest thing he has to family. Akihiko was always the one between them with dreams and ambition, and before his life fell apart, Shinjiro was content to simply follow along and watch his back. Akihiko's passion and conviction were a driving force, as Shinjiro allowed himself to be guided by the promise between them as kids to always do what they felt was right, and ultimately that became the same instrument to drive a wedge between them. Akihiko's insistence on Shinjiro simply moving on from the past clashed with his own strongly-held views that it would not be right to carry on as though what happened didn't matter, and this would remain a bone of contention between the two of them for the next two years. Even so, in his own way, Shinjiro distanced himself largely because he wanted to spare his old friend the pain of grieving him; he never managed to sever his ties entirely, which is why he would make himself available to meet him and offer information even as he professed wanting nothing more to do with the Dark Hour, Personas, or SEES, but he hoped the distance would serve to dull the pain of eventually losing him. The promise between them is core to why Shinjiro can't bring himself to walk away from the path he's chosen for himself, and on some level what he wants most of all from Akihiko is for the other teen to understand that.

Ken Amada - The boy whose life he ruined alongside his own in a single moment. Shinjiro is haunted by causing Ken's mother's death, and even moreso about the coverup explaining it away as the work of a drunk driver, leaving him getting away scot free. In the absence of anyone to hold him accountable or punish him for what he caused, he has spent much of the past two years self-flagellating instead, unable to come to terms with his guilt. Ken's entrance into SEES becomes the impetus for Shinjiro to finally agree to return as well; the way he sees it, his life belongs to the boy entirely, and watching his back is his bare minimum obligation in the interim until it expires. At the same time, though, he wants Ken to have a better, happier future, one in which he is able to move forward past what Shinjiro has done to him. Despite being willing to allow Ken to kill him in revenge without complaint, he goes out of his way to warn the boy that it might weigh on him in the future, and his ultimate dying words are entirely for the sake of the boy's well-being.

» What do they get excited about?

Cooking and dogs. Even in the depths of his depression, Shinjiro still manages to hold enthusiasm for his cooking hobby, enough so that he actively watches radio programs about new recipes and keeps up with cooking magazines with enough regularity that he is seen with a copy of the newest issue, which one of his teammates notes not having herself despite her own interests. He also shows an incredible amount of affection for the SEES team dog, Koromaru, to the point where he regularly hand-makes food for him using ingredients purchased with his own money, even as he tries to keep the fact that he can cook at all a secret from everyone else.

» What is something they are very bad at?

Coping with stress and especially guilt, which he handles almost entirely via avoidance. After the incident on October 4th, his first reaction is to leave the dorm and cut ties with SEES. He begins skipping school and living on the streets, entering into shady bargains with a group known for violence, in order to secure suppressant drugs for his Persona, so he can simply remove himself as a threat. At the same time, he doesn't want to cause pain with his death, so he withdraws socially, hoping he can die quietly and privately and nobody would have to mourn him. Yet even after he acquiesces to return to SEES for Ken's sake (after rebuffing 2 years of Akihiko's efforts to this end), he largely rejects forming connections and keeps his distance from everyone. He continues to keep secrets, such as his deals with Strega for suppressant drugs, or the fact that they are essentially his chosen vehicle of suicide. When Akihiko finds out about the drugs, he allows the other to escalate to physical confrontation rather than be upfront about what's going on with him.

His storyline is centered on his inability to forgive himself and move on. He is convinced that causing a person's death, even accidentally, is something that can never be taken back or forgotten, something that he does not have the right to forgive himself for. He no longer believes he is a good person, to the point where he rejects any compliments to that effect, and his former classmate Mitsuru notes that he's uncomfortable when people "make a fuss" about him. He is unable to let himself off the hook for the consequences of his actions, despite the fact that his intentions were righteous to begin with. He is traumatized and suicidal because of it, no longer seeing any value or potential future good in himself.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?

While Shinjiro would probably want to tell his younger self not to join SEES, he knows that said younger self would absolutely not listen to him without the life experiences he's had, so instead he would somewhat cryptically tell him that there would be a kid whose back he would need to watch in the future, and when the time comes, he should consider finding that kid to be a higher priority than anything else, no matter how he feels about himself at that time. Shinjiro wouldn't offer the context, since it would be meaningless to his younger self, but of all the regrets he has, probably the deepest is that he didn't realize Ken fully intended to kill himself after he got his revenge; he'd want better for the kid than that, even if he can't see a better future for himself, so he'd want to try to see to it that Ken found friends and a support structure before he became as consumed with revenge as he had been.

» How do they want to be remembered?

The short answer: he doesn't. Shinjiro's actions all tell the story of a young man who wanted nothing more than to quietly fade away out of people's lives, unmourned and forgotten. Despite actively propelling himself toward an inevitable death, it's notable that he does not simply take his own life immediately after the incident that caused Ken's mother's death – that kind of thing would end up on the news, and could cause additional problems for the few people in his life if they were to be connected with him in an investigation. Easier and less painful, in his opinion, to slowly, gradually disappear as a poor orphan in the cold unforgiving streets. When that fails, though, he still has no true desire to be remembered as such beyond as a means for Ken to get his life back under control; he tells the boy that he need not let go of his hatred right away, so long as he could use it to fuel his motivation to move forward. Even his closest friend is not given any parting words for his own sake – only a final request to watch out for Ken.

Powers/abilities:
A Persona in the Persona series is the manifestation of a person's soul which can be summoned for purposes such as combat and reconnaissance.

Shinjiro's Persona is Castor. Castor is essentially a tank-type persona, which passively regenerates damage taken every turn and reflects up to half of the physical attacks aimed at it. With the exception of Evil Smile, which can instill fear in enemies, all of Castor's attacks deal physical damage to enemies.

It's also worth noting that Shinjiro has lost control of Castor before. There is not a known in-universe explanation for this, nor does it occur again throughout the period Shinjiro is a playable character in P3. I'm flexible with regard to however the mod would like to handle this!

Shinjiro is also decently skilled at hand-to-hand fighting, easily taking down some thugs that were threatening Minato, Yukari, and Junpei early in the game, as well as implied to have had many sparring matches with his best friend, champion boxer Akihiko. Finally, he's known to be excellent at cooking and other domestic tasks, fixing a broken geta with a spare handkerchief in supplementary material.

Inventory:
Red coat + beanie, SEES armband and evoker (false pistol for Persona summoning)

Sentimental item:
The doll he stole for Akihiko's sister Miki when they were children. Akihiko made him return it when he found out it was stolen, so the doll represents Akihiko's strong sense of justice and insistence on doing the right thing even when it would be easier not to.

Gemstone:
Garnet; a deep red with bands of white and gray. It's largely weathered and rough to the touch. A large crack runs through the center of it.

Lost memory #1: His promise with Mitsuru and Akihiko to graduate together. This is one of the lingering ties to his old life before everything fell apart and the hope of a better future, and without it, he'll feel less conflicted about his determination to seek death and remove himself as a danger to those around him.

Lost memory #2: The dinner party where he cooked for SEES and they all had a nice time together shortly before his death. The group was celebrating out of relief that Minato had recovered from his illness – one of the only times Shinjiro, who mostly held himself apart, allowed himself to participate and bond with the others even in a small way. In combination with the other lost memory and the altered one below, losing that moment of connection would not only strengthen his sense of grim determination to see through the path he chose for himself, but hamper any sense of doubt that he might just hurt everyone more with his death when that's the opposite of what he wants.

Altered memory: Oct 4, 2009. He will remember the confrontation with Takaya in that alleyway turning out differently; instead of being aware that he died, he will instead think that he killed Takaya himself in order to protect Ken. The bullet wounds will be remembered as injuries received in the struggle, but he will think he was the one to walk away from that alley. The impact of this change is twofold – not only will he lose the sense of finality and closure he had upon his death, the sense that "this is how it should be", but he will also be forced to grapple with the notion of actually ending a life intentionally with his own hands. The distinction between himself and a murderer will no longer be academic, or a question of guilt or morality; in his memory, he will have actively made the choice to save Ken's life by taking another, and will need to reckon with that weight. Further, without the knowledge that he is in fact dead, he will continue to attempt to hide that he was actively dying in a manner that was entirely self-inflicted, which could lead to interesting conflicts with those of his castmates who know the truth by now.

Sample:

Thread from The City with Tsurumaru Kuninaga, October 2023
Thread from The City with Akihiko Sanada, November 2023
TDM toplevel

Edited 2024-09-29 01:40 (UTC)

Name: Melya
Preferred pronoun(s): She/Her
Contact: DW PM

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Izumi Sena
Canon: Ensemble Stars!!
Canon point: Post-Fortune Banquet
Age: 19

Personality:
» What traits do your character admire in a person?
Izumi likes people who are hardworking. He is someone who, while considered attractive, has never been considered especially talented or gifted. He's always had to work hard for the things he wanted, and he's always had to do it alone. Having to earn everything and feeling like he couldn't rely on the people around him makes him especially appreciative of any effort others make. He's also moved by Leo's genuine kindness and affection for everything around him, so he'd probably appreciate that in others, too.

» What do they dislike most about themself?
Izumi has a difficult personality and he knows it. He is cold, jaded, and hard to get along with. He doesn't necessarily wish he wasn't like that, but he doesn't seem to love that part of himself, either, and it's what makes him appreciate Leo so much, because Leo is his complete opposite—he is everything that Izumi isn't. He also seems to have regrets about how he handled things with Leo up to and after the time when he "broke," feeling like he should have done more to protect him.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?
Izumi is known for being harsh on the outside but soft on the inside. People who know him know that he's actually kind, but that doesn't mean that the things he says can't still hurt. The thing is, he thinks his feelings and intentions are quite clear, when, obviously... they aren't always. Even his best friend has wondered if Izumi actually hated him simply due to the nature of their conversations. Basically, while Izumi tries to hide the fact that he cares, he also thinks it should be obvious that he cares, which often leads to misunderstandings.

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?
Makoto Yuuki and Leo Tsukinaga are probably the most important people Izumi's ever met. Makoto is representative of freedom—he's the first person (or maybe "thing" is more appropriate) that Izumi ever chose for himself. For better or for worse, he taught him what it was like to care for something and want something without it just being handed to him, regardless of his feelings about it. Leo, on the other hand, is unconditional love—Leo is the first person he meets who loves him as he is, without expectation or regard for what he "needs" to be. He loves Izumi despite his faults (of which there are many), and even though Leo loves everyone, it means a lot to Izumi because he knows he has many faults. He shows Izumi that he can be loved exactly the way he is, and he shows him that there are good things in the world, despite all the darkness in it.

» What do they get excited about?
Makoto Yuuki. ...that's not a joke, he's seriously his biggest fan. He'll hop on a plane at the drop of a hat if it means getting to see Makoto even just for a few minutes.

» What is something they are very bad at?
Being honest about his feelings and relying on others. He grew up surrounded by high expectations and a lot of criticism, so he's very conscious of his actions and how others might perceive them. More than anything, he doesn't want to seem weak or vulnerable, and he'll do anything to avoid showing that side of himself. (He actively hides how he feels about Leo's departure from Knights, for example, and when things aren't going well for him career-wise abroad, he hides out at Leo's house so he doesn't have to hear anyone's comments about it.) His difficulties with relying on others is also sort of intertwined with this—part of it is finding it hard to ask for things because he doesn't want to seem weak, and part of it is just that he grew up around people he should have been able to rely on (like his parents), but couldn't.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?
He'd probably reassure himself that everything will be okay, that one day, he'll have a life that is fully his own. He'd probably also reassure himself that he'll be loved—one day, he'll be glad that he was born.

» How do they want to be remembered?
Beautiful, strong, perfect.

Powers/abilities: N/A

Inventory: His cell phone... Probably some beauty products? Nothing particularly useful.

Sentimental item: A few pages of Leo's sheet music. While Leo is prone to writing his music on any surface and throwing his sheet music to the wind (sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally), Izumi has treasured every single one of them. He likes Leo's music as much as anyone else, but he especially likes singing his music with him and the fact that the music was written for them.

Gemstone: A blue, trilliant cut gem.

Lost memory #1: Leo's disappearance. While Izumi acts cold about it, it actually messes him up a lot. He feels like he failed Leo, and he becomes even clingier toward Makoto to compensate for it, desperately hoping to protect him in the way he couldn't protect Leo. Not remembering this will make him feel like he didn't fail Leo, so his regrets will probably be less intense, but he'll still be protective, since he'll still remember that Leo was troubled.

Lost memory #2: Kidnapping Makoto. This is the first example of Knights playing dirty to win, and it's entirely Izumi's fault. Not remembering this will probably make him think he's more of an upstanding leader than he actually is, but... does it really actually matter? He'd still do it again in a heartbeat.

Altered memory: In canon, Leo is the "king" of Knights, reluctantly taking up the role of leader when their former unit falls apart. This puts a lot of pressure on Leo, whose songs are considered a weapon, and is part of what leads to his breakdown. Izumi will remember being the "king" instead. This will give Izumi an even stronger sense of responsibility than he normally has—while he's always protective of others, he's much more of a fighter than Leo, so he'd probably be a more "violent" king, willing to cut others down for the sake of winning and protecting what's important to him. (Canonly, Izumi is ruthless, too, but he also tries to hold back, knowing that hurting people isn't really what Leo wants. That won't be the case here.) Essentially, in his memories, he'll have been more proactive in the situation that led to Leo "breaking." He will remember being cruel and decisive, bearing the brunt of the criticism that was launched Leo's way, and he'll think that he actually succeeded in protecting him, too.

Sample: @ Day 0

PLAYER INFORMATION
Name: Maggie
Preferred pronoun(s): She/her
Contact: PM works best!

CHARACTER INFORMATION
Name: Leo Tsukinaga
Canon: Ensemble Stars!!
Canon point: Around the start of Knights Climax
Age: 20

Personality:

» What traits do your character admire in a person?
"Weirdness"! Leo likes people who surprise him and who he finds interesting. This is a pretty wide range, admittedly, among the weird cast of Enstars - he's drawn to people who are passionate about something, people who are unapologetically themselves and who don't back down. And if you're a little bit bizarre so much the better!

» What do they dislike most about themself?
He dislikes many things about himself despite his usually upbeat demeanor, but probably the thing Leo hates the most is how he's hurt people he loves before. He views himself as sort of a liability in that sense - he's a man with bloodied hands (dramatic enstars talk) and he views those he loves as above that.

» What discrepancies are there between their inner self (who they feel they are) and their outer self (how they present themselves to others)?
As alluded to last answer Leo presents himself as an upbeat and energetic man who whirls through life at his own pace. This isn't untrue, exactly, but it also covers a lot of idol war trauma. He usually covers up a lot of his intelligence with flippancy to the point he'll engage in ridiculous chess maneuvers he makes up but as soon as he drops the act he can win near immediately. He's annoying like that.

» Who are two influential people in their life (can be positive or negative)?
So many options...! The first we shall set as Tsukasa Suou, the next King of Knights who more or less dragged the unit kicking and screaming out of their war-era trauma. Leo came back from his running away era largely because he saw Knights preforming with their newbie and wanted to clear himself from the chess board. His entire arc in ! (...and then in !! occasionally when he forgets his character development) was having Tsukasa head up hammering it through Leo's head that he's an important part of Knights (he's contractually obligated to forget this as needed for Knights events). Tsukasa represents hope for Leo, and in him Leo has found some balm to what he himself felt when he was King.

The second will be Izumi Sena, Leo's close friend from their first year at Yumenosaki on. Leo more or less just attached himself to Sena because he liked him instantly and happily stuck with him up to their second year when The War (sighs) occurred. During that time period Leo took on the mantle of King of Knights at Sena's behest and when they later fought about that he admitted half of why he'd torn down chess was to try to make Sena happy (it did not work). In !! canon the two remain close, even living together while overseas with Sena claiming Leo's life as his own when Knights collectively acknowledges Leo needs a designated babysitter after he has a run in with the music mafia. Sena has been at times a strongly positive influence as one of Leo's greatest muses and friends and someone who pushes him to actually apply himself, and at times a more negative one when they don't communicate or Leo believes himself to be in the wrong. Usually it leans to the positive!

» What do they get excited about?
Music is a big one! Then his little sister, Ruka. And Knights. And...really anything that catches his eye. He's been known to spend evenings chasing butterflies (a dumb time to choose to try to do this) and to get really excited about cherry blossoms or snacks. He's like a little kid sometimes.

» What is something they are very bad at?
Taking care of himself. Multiple stories and voicelines reference Leo forgetting to eat, sleep, or do various other things you're meant to do to live if he gets caught up in composing. Keeping Leo alive is like a Knights group project.

» What is one thing they would tell their younger self if they had the chance?
Honestly, he'd probably get distracted wanting to compose a song with his younger self. But if he remembered to give any advice, he'd probably just say to treasure Knights or not worry too much. He wouldn't think he'd take his own advice so he wouldn't put much thought into it.

» How do they want to be remembered?
He doesn't really care about that! But probably for his music?

Powers/abilities: Leo is world-famous composer in his canon, so...he can write music! He can play a ton of instruments! He can sing and dance and seems pretty decent at athletics! He's also apparently quite good at archery when he bothers with it although annoyingly he never seems to need to practice at that. Basically: Leo has a bunch of normal-ass abilities that aren't about to wow anyone unless they really like idols or music.

Inventory: His cellphone (he will lose this within a day), various markers, a small notebook, a few wrapped candies, a now useless wallet...he's not carrying around anything that exciting.

Sentimental item: One of Ruka's hair ties! Ruka is his little sister and Leo absolutely adores her. He's liable to be more careful with the ribbon than with anything of his own.

Gemstone: Orange primary gold secondary and oval! It's very sparkly and glittery so maybe he'll try not to lose it.

Lost memory #1: Coruscate Breeze, which is just Knights has a summer vacation and because I've been staring at this question for days and you know what, if the goal is a Leo who is super ready to buy into altered memories of any castmates that's a good one to carefully strike from the record. It just adds to him being a little more distraught initially.

Lost memory #2: He'll forget how he and Sena made up in Canary Hall specifically, which will make him feel a bit uneasier still about future arguments.

Altered memory: At the start of Knights Climax Leo is sort of at odds with the others (sigh) so the alteration is a much bigger and more serious fight between Knights just before he woke up here. It's meant to put Leo in one of his more mercurial mind sets where he's certain he's ruined things permanently, although he'll find ways to be cheerful as soon as he adapts to what's going on around him.

Sample: here

Threaded | Flat

Page 1 of 2

lexy | goro akechi | persona 5 royal

PANTHERA | ARMIN ARLERT | ATTACK ON TITAN

Caitlin | Takuto Maruki | Persona 5 Royal

Yama | Akira Kurusu | Persona 5 Royal

Lily | Alice (& Ace) Machias | Metallic Rouge

zazo / kuja / ff9

Kiva | Shun'ya Iijima | Soul Hackers 2

Ren | the Princess | Slay the Princess

Pazu | Kate | Shadows House

Candace | Tao Isonokami | Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance

YURI | FLYLEAF | DOKI DOKI LITERATURE CLUB!

Kalyn | Ruka Minazuki | Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse

no subject

Dubs | Ciel Phantomhive | Black Butler

Chlor | Merlin | Fate/ series

Nick | Kaito Momota | Danganronpa V3

BB | Fate Grand Order

Miles | Sylvain Jose Gautier | Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Vex | Charlemagne | Fate/Grand Order

Luna | Tsubaki Aoganei (WoL) | Final Fantasy XIV

Kana | Nao Mizushita | Original

Candace | Yukari Takeba | Persona 3 Reload

Batty | Shinjiro Aragaki | Persona 3

Melya | Izumi Sena | Ensemble Stars!!

Maggie | Leo Tsukinaga | Ensemble Stars!!