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Entry tags:
Balance: Application
Player Name: Kel
Age: 30
Contact:
Timezone: EST
Other character currently in game: none
Character name: Minato Arisato
Age: 17
Canon: Persona (Persona 3)
Canon point: Battle with Nyx (January 31, 2010)
History: Wiki link
Three key adjectives: Accepting, Quiet, Tired™
Influential Events:
1. Baby baby baby baby babyyyy
Late one night when Minato was six or seven years old his family got into a car accident. His parents died in the crash but he was able to crawl out of the burning wreckage and survive. A few moments later a robot shoved the last piece of the shadow of Death into his mind to contain it. The trauma left him disturbingly quiet and pensive for a child. Without extended family able or willing to care for him he entered the child welfare system, where his sense of belonging was stripped away. Foster homes rarely kept him and he moved so frequently he wouldn't be able to name all the places that he's lived. Because of his frequent moving he never stayed in one location or school long enough to make friends. With no attachments to people during these formative years his personality shriveled inwards. He learned to hide and express himself as little as possible. He outwardly appears calm, unphasable, and emotionless. People hold these up as either positive or negative traits depending on how upset they are with him at the time. Though he understands it's bad to die in concept, has no particular attachment to living himself. He has few opinions on things and most of the opinions he does have are weakly held and easily influenced by the people around him. He will, for the most part, just agree with whoever is talking to him. When dealing with people, he likes to take the path of least resistance.
2. Social Links Social Links Social Links
When asked to join SEES, he agreed because he couldn't think of a reason not to. Partially. The other reason is Yukari Takeba. While the two seniors asked him to join because of his unique power, Yukari had expressed a desire for him to join for the moral support that having a classmate on the team would provide. Even if they did lie to him. And spy on him. Ultimately he agreed to join because, despite his aloof attitude, he doesn't dislike people. He actually kind of likes them.
Then he's told by a supernatural being that in order to grow stronger with his super cool persona powers he needs to make connections with people. For the first time in a very long time he puts effort into making friends.
And it's exhausting! He likes all these people, from the corrupt CEO to the french foreign exchange student, but on top of the forays into Tartarus he's tired. Towards the beginning he can be found falling asleep in the middle of conversation and during class. Slowly his stamina builds up from climbing all those stairs in Tartarus and he's able to stay awake for most of the day, but he still occasionally falls asleep during class or important meetings.
And then there's the social exhaustion. Minato is more or less average at everything, but when he puts in effort he can be absolutely amazing. He makes and maintains all these friendships; he does well in school; he's an astute combat leader; he can be cheerful and energetic and optimistic. But dear gods, the effort! It drains him. Continuing it all becomes a struggle and he has to fight himself to get it done. He becomes slow and lazy. It's not unusual to see him give up or put very little effort into something he deems unimportant, either because he's run out of the energy to care or because he wants to save that energy for later.
And sometimes people are just annoying. They don't mean to be, probably, but they talk too much about nothing or they demand things from him when he's already tired or they just won't leave him alone. There's lots of ways for people to be annoying. He tries not to get sarcastic and snippy, because he does like people in general, but sometimes it's just too much effort. And explanations? The less effort he can put into those the better. He struggles to find the words to express his meaning as is and will lie if he thinks it will let him get away with less explaining.
Most of these traits wax and wane depending on his mood, but one thing that's consistent is how fiercely protective of his friends he is, no matter what they've done. He almost confronted a friend's ex-girlfriend for breaking his friend's heart; he defends the student council treasurer against accusations that she stole money; he lies to a little girl's parents when she runs away; he chases away thugs from a friend that wanted to end their friendship when Minato wouldn't give him over 130,000 yen; he glowers at people threatening Yukari for her wallet. He's willing to lie and protect anyone he's close to.
3. Did SEES do that?
The mission of SEES was to discover a way to get rid of the Dark Hour and save the world from monsters known as shadows. To facilitate this the chairman of their high school and retired shadow researcher, Shuji Ikutsuki, guided them along their journey. When massively powerful shadows started appearing on the full moon every month Ikutsuki theorized that there would be twelve such shadows in all. Defeating all twelve would cause the Dark Hour to go away.
For all of SEES, the idea that the Dark Hour would come to an end was bittersweet. Minato himself made deep friendships through its exploration. His unique power to summon multiple personas made him desired for once. People wanted to be around him, wanted his support and help. And he learned how to connect to people too, through his own efforts to seek others out and try to understand them. Over the past few months his outward unflappable appearance didn't change very much but his inward attitude did, and it all started with the Dark Hour. However, it's elimination was a good thing, and he was glad to finally accomplish what he and his friends set out to do.
But Ikutski lied. Ikutsuki's goal was to bring about the end of humanity. He used SEES to make it possible to summon the being that would kill everyone, though it would still take a few months to fully form. The day after the twelfth shadow was defeated the Dark Hour appeared again and SEES learned all about Ikutsuki's plan. He tried to kill them but died in the process, leaving SEES without a guide or goal. Purposeless. Hopeless. Confused. The world was going to end and frankly it was their fault. And more than anything it hurt to see his friends deal with this pain.
4. Guess we'll die ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
And so Minato had to make a decision.
Wait, rewind. First let's talk about Pharos.
The night Minato arrived at the dormitory he signed a contract that a little boy handed him. When he asked about the kid he was given strange looks and asked too many questions, so he decided not to bring it up again. The kid started visiting him in the middle of the night. Minato found him annoying at first but grew to enjoy his company, even if he was some weird sleep-deprived delirium. Over the course of their talks the boy gave himself the name Pharos. The morning after the twelfth shadow was defeated, Pharos remembered his purpose and said his farewells.
It was one of the less strange things Minato had hallucinated. The long nosed supernatural being that fused and created persona was definitely weirder.
Now let's talk about Ryoji Mochizuki.
Ryoji was a student that transferred into their high school shortly after SEES lost their purpose. He was instantly loved by the student body and he strangely resembled Minato in appearance. He could easily read Minato when no one else could. It was as if he knew exactly how Minato's mind worked. Ryoji and Minato became friends. It was much less work to be friends with someone that understood him so well.
The reason that he could understand Minato so well was that Ryoji was Pharos, and Pharos was the piece of Death that had been forced into Minato's mind as a child. When the last full moon shadow was defeated Pharos could finally leave his prison in Minato's mind, but before it merged with the other pieces it decided to take on a human form for a little while so it could experience friendship for itself.
When Ryoji remembered what he was he explained everything. At the end of the month he would merge with the other shadows and cease to exist. The merger would bring the maternal being Nyx to the planet on the next full moon at the end of January. They could not defeat Nyx. They had no hope of stopping her. They would live in fear until her arrival and be powerless to stop her. But Ryoji, just like Minato, hated to see his friends suffer, so he offered them a choice: they could kill Ryoji and forget everything about the Dark Hour. They could forget their pain. They had one month to make their choice.
And so Minato had to make a decision: Kill one friend to relieve the hurt and pain the rest of his friends felt, or let them suffer when Ryoji was going to disappear anyway.
If he had to make this choice in isolation, he would have chosen to kill Ryoji. It would free them of their pain and protect them from the knowledge of what was to come. If they could no longer make a difference then he, just like Ryoji, would rather his friends live in ignorance.
But over the course of that month he watched his friends' fears turn into resolve. He watched their pain turn into strength. They each came to him and said they wanted to stare Death in the face and fight for their right to live. Even if it was pointless. Even if they died in the attempt. They were going to die anyway, so they might as well go out fighting.
When Ryoji pulled him aside and asked what he wanted, Minato chose to do his best to protect his friends by fighting alongside them. He let Ryoji live.
On the fated day of Nyx's arrival, SEES made a promise: Whatever happens, win or lose, they won't look back.
They reached the top of Tartarus. They met Nyx, or her avatar. They fought a lengthy battle with all their strength.
And in the middle of it, the Hunger arrived.
Link to Samples: Top level TDM; Maria thread;
Chosen path: Bard
3 Abilities:
Canon Power: Orpheus with Tarunda, which lowers the attack power of one enemy. Weak to Electric and Dark.
Path Action: Prodigy
Path Action: Vicious Mockery
Why this path?:
Orpheus is his persona, a manifestation of his personality. Orpheus in myth is an accomplished poet and songwriter. His lyre was gifted to him by a god and he could impart enough emotion in his work that it changes the feelings of those that hear it. Even gods like Hades could be moved by his music.
But it's mostly because Minato is quiet and reserved and it tickles my funny bone to put him in a role that's traditionally talkative and boisterous. I'd like to see how he can make it work for him.
blurb code by photosynthesis