Destiny Strings App

[fools_journey]

Out Of Character Information
Name: Snarky | [jackalope]
Age: 22
Time zone: GMT-4 until November 4th; then GMT-5 stupid daylight savings time
Contact: AIM: sargentsnarky; sargentsnarky
Anything we should know?: I do love you. ;* And thanks for putting up with my questions. c: ... I think I might have messed up with the Persona scaling anyway, though.



In Character Information
Name: Minato Arisato
Series: Persona 3: FES
Canon Standing: Post end game / post death
Age: 17
Birthday & Astrology Sign: June 19 & Gemini [headcanon]
Arcana: The Universe

Personality:

Minato is a quiet and calm teenager with a mysterious air to him; in part possibly because of the Death that was sealed inside him for ten years, this air is also due to his choice of hair cut and due to his tendency to not share very much about himself and simply go with the flow. If someone asks for his opinion, he will give it, but usually he simply lets others do most of the talking. That said, he will maintain conversations and sometimes even tease his friends, pulling their legs with deadpan snark. However, even when asked for an opinion or otherwise prompted to give a statement on something, Minato is not always completely honest, nor does he always give sound advice, instead sometimes telling people what they want to hear or otherwise leaving it open for them to make their own choices – and therefore their own mistakes and triumphs. In his social links with others, for the most part he does not overtly guide them towards any one end but rather stays by their side and listens and supports them as they make their own choices and come to their own realizations. He acts as a sounding board and as a crutch to help them through, and in the end, whatever growth they achieve is through their own actions and choices and the repercussions therefrom.

Indeed, at times it seems as though he is simply enabling them and letting them use him as they want, as he fulfils requests for others (though the ones from Elizabeth, at least, do come with rewards for successful completion) or otherwise caters to their wants. However, that is not to say he is totally passive, nor is it to say that he is simply a welcome mat, letting others use them purely for their own needs and wants. Although he is willing to give people many chances – even allowing a sketchy middle aged man to con him out of thousands of yen on a chance – and will contentedly listen to whatever the other person wishes to say, Minato does have lines he will draw, and there are times when he will intervene or say no. For example, even after Yukari asks him to wait while she goes and retrieves her missing wallet, Minato nonetheless goes after her when she doesn’t immediately returns and intervenes in an altercation she is having with several punks. And for another example, in his social link with Nozomi, the other teen tries to get Minato to join his cult. Minato says no and when this continues, he even goes so far as to tell Nozomi to stop trying to scam others.

… of course, that said even though when Minato tells Nozomi to stop scamming people Nozomi grows angry and spurns Minato, Minato is still there to help Nozomi out when others who had actually been scammed by Nozomi come to take their revenge. That Minato is nice enough to do this even after everything impresses Nozomi and is certainly notable – Minato gives people lots of second chances and remains loyal to and kind towards people, even when they have wronged him.

More notable aspects of his relationships with others include the fact that he forms a romantic relationship with almost every female he forms a social link with. The dubious exceptions are Maiko, a young girl with whom he has a more brotherly relationship (though… that said, she does give him a ring and ask him to marry her when she’s older), and ‘Maya’, a woman he meets and plays with through an MMO (though… it turns out that she is his homeroom teacher and that independently of the game, she has a crush on him in school). It might be surmised that Minato is once again showing his near total willingness to go along with what others want in that is generally the girls who initiate the idea of taking their relationship to a romantic level and who in the end invite him to their rooms and initiate what leads to a blackout and the game telling us that ‘> You spend a long time with ___’ with the implication that they probably had sex. And what average teenage boy doesn’t like the idea of sex with girls?

However, other conclusions that might be drawn from this include that Minato… doesn’t really know how to form entirely healthy relationships with others and may in fact conflate the idea of having sex with forming a close bond with a member of the opposite sex of around the same age. After all, all of his relationships with others are unequal in one way or another, given that his friends will share their hearts with him, but does not spill out his own concerns and feelings in return. And given his lack of a stable family life with solid examples for healthy, long-term relationships, that the friendships and relationships he forms with others are not always what might be considered healthy, equal or well paced might very well be a symptom of that.

On the subject of this instability, Minato is relatively independent, used to moving around and starting anew on all fronts, as he has lived a lot of places since his family died when he was six and we see no indication of him continuing any correspondence with people from his previous schools and so forth. Presumably, he was passed either between foster families or between distant relatives – either way, he’s lived in many different places and likely as a consequence has grown used to relying only on himself. Moreover, also likely because he has moved a lot, he keeps his room pretty sparse, only putting books and a computer on his desk and never bothering with any decorations. The only really personal effects he seems to own, besides clothing, computer and the ever important social link items he is given, are his mp3 player and headphones – and these are the two items, in fact, that he is never seen without save when around large bodies of water (at the beach and at hot springs), indicating that they are quite valuable to him and that he must spend a lot of time listening to music.

However, music is not his only hobby, nor is he prone to merely keeping entirely to himself and his music when he is not hanging out with friends. Among other things, he also frequently participates in karaoke, plays video games, goes to see films, and spends time at a café or other restaurants. He even will visit the local shrine both with friends and to pray for blessings or attend festivals. In fact, it’s this willingness to go out and explore and visit all sorts of places that gets him several social links to begin with. He befriends an old couple who runs a bookstore, he meets two different people at the shrine, he befriends Tanaka at the mall, and he even befriends an old monk in a dance club and bar, of all places, only even meeting this monk after hearing about the place from a friend at school and going to see it for himself.

His willingness to go out and do things and participate is not confined only to life outside of school, however, as in school he participates in several activities. He joins a sports team, a cultural club and, at Mitsuru’s behest, the student council. And all of this is on top of SEES and the periodic nighttime forays into Tartarus, as well as dealing with the Full Moon Shadows. Minato is really quite an active guy, for being so quiet! Maybe it’s no surprise, then, that he has a tendency to fall asleep in class…

But this does bring us to SEES and dealing with the Shadows. Because Minato is the first among the underclassmen to call forth his Persona and seems to do so the most easily, as well as because he maintains a calm, level head even in stressful situations, he is chosen to be the field leader – a position he fills well enough that he maintains it for the duration of the game. But even if he is the leader, for the most part he still lets his teammates act as they will, only sometimes making calls to guide and mediate rather than directly dictate what they should or shouldn’t do. Still, much of his success as leader comes from his adaptability. His fighting is pretty improvised, and he’ll pick up just about any weapon and use it to the best of his ability and sometimes make funny noises while doing so and try to be all cool striking poses afterward, but his real strength is in his Wild Card ability, which allows him to – with the aid of the Velvet Room – call forth a wild menagerie of Personas to aid his team in battle and thus wind up being the most flexible member of the team. All of this does cause some friction between himself and Junpei due to Junpei’s envy, but while Junpei is angry and lashes out, Minato simply accepts it calmly and moves on, unruffled. He may make use of his unique (among his peers, at least) abilities, but he doesn’t make a big deal about them.

And in the end, it’s the same way with the sacrifice he makes. He makes no extravagant gestures, once he approaches Nyx. He makes no heartfelt speeches. He just accepts the support of his friends, faces Nyx and holds up a finger as he creates the Great Seal, calmly and willingly giving up his life so that his friends and the rest of the world can survive, despite his own strong desire to keep on living. The very last thing he does, after hanging on for one more month so as to keep the promise SEES made to meet up on Graduation days, is simply lie on Aigis’ lap and listen to her and offer a little comfort before their friends come, and he can’t hang on any more, falling asleep before dying. No elaborate goodbyes – he doesn’t even leave any explanatory notes for them to find. Just quietly slips away with no regrets.

He was content with his life and had no regrets, even if he hadn’t planned on effectively dying at 17.

That is not, however, to say that all his own wants, desires, issues, etc. all vanished at that point, for certainly he will have to deal with the aftermath and fully come to terms with his own death, his choice and what that ultimately means, and now in this new city, he will have plenty of time to do so…


Backstory:
Wiki link here

Special notes:

> I will discuss max vs non-max social links with castmates

> I draw one thing from Persona 4, and that is the implication that Minato faced and defeated Elizabeth is canon.

> Assuming Track for sports and Art Club for club of choice but that he knows how to play the violin (and thus why music club is an option available to the player, although this Minato did not partake of it).

> Importantly, the Minako-mun and I have agreed to play them as though they are twins with the assumption that in each of their respective worlds, their twin died in the car crash. That is, for Minato, his twin sister died alongside their parents, and meanwhile in another world, his sister grew up with him having died alongside their parents.

Given that all we know about them prior to their return to Iwatodai is that 1. they moved around a lot and 2. the sequence of events during the Moonlight Bridge incident, we feel that assuming them to be twins is fundamentally no different than assuming they are utterly unrelated and are simply alternate universe counterparts of each other. Indeed, I feel that this does more to distinguish them as separate characters rather than AU gender-and-color-schemeflips while still accounting for the similarities in their lives.


Canon Powers:
Physical
> Can wield: Swords (1H and 2H), Axes, Blunt Weapons, Spears, Fist Weapons and Bows effectively if maybe not skillfully...
> Ability to run with hands in his pockets - N/A

Persona-related
> Wildcard - can hold up to 12 different personas in his head and change between them at will, albeit with a bit of concentration. This power will be modified here such that he can hold up to 3 personas at any given time.
> Fusion Skills - unlike any other Persona character, he can perform select Fusion Skills (i.e. special combinations of two persona's powers at once) by himself. - it remains to be seen if this is effective here or not.
> Forming the Great Seal!

Other
> Stat farm with an odd assortment of tasks, such as karaoke, drinking coffee and playing video games.
> Recover from illness or even mere exhaustion by napping in class or visiting the bathroom.
> shh these are totally legit powers

Canon Weapons|Items:
_{Going with the end-game set-up I had in my game}
Weapons [note: give his canon point, that he wouldn't have had his sword on him at the time (and probably not his Evoker, either), and the fact that characters will be issued Evokers for dueling anyway, I'm okay with these things not being in his possession.]
> 1 Lucifer's Blade - katakana, no element
> 1 Evoker

> Omnipotent Orb from Elizabeth ; ordinarily this blocks every type of attack besides Almighty. However, given the therefore overpowered nature of this item, I would be all right with it being nerfed in some fashion. Whether that means it only works on a Mutation Skill level or is powered down to resistances or is even reduced simply to a pretty bauble that holds personal significance, I am not sure. But I'm fine with however it ought to go.

Other Items
> 99 Soma Drops >_>;
> 52 Life Beads
> okay no I kid

Canon Allies:
Koromaru N/A

Canon Baggage:
> 1 Gekkoukan School Uniform
> 1 SEES Armband (probably in his pocket)
> 1 mp3 player
> 1 set of headphones
> 1 wristwatch
> 1 set of pocket things (wallet, keys, phone)
> 1 violin
> 1 laptop

> Social Link items (though will discuss with s. link castmates if they want to go with maxed or not; once that is determined, I will put in the list here. It's all pretty much stuff like a choker, letters, a tag for a bottle of liquor, and so on.)
> Bookmark from Elizabeth

Persona
Starter Persona
[Messiah]
JUDGEMENT

CURRENT LVL: 2
WEAK: Dark | REFLECTS: Light | ABSORBS: none | BLOCKS: none | RESISTS: Electricity

SKILLSET
▶ Heaven's Blade | Inflicts a large amount of Physical damage on one enemy.
▶ Hamaon | 60% chance of instant KO from the power of Light on one enemy
▶ Diarahan | Recover all HP to one ally. Can be used in the field.
▶ Recarm | Wakes up an ally with 50% HP
▷ Mudoon | 50% chance of instant KO from the power of Darkness on one enemy.
▷ Agilao | Inflicts a medium amount of Fire damage on one enemy.
▷ Tetraja | Protects an ally from an instant KO attack once.
▷ Salvation | Heal 1 ally's HP and cure all status effects
★ The Great Seal Protective Blessing | Forms a barrier around chosen target or targets (provided they are close together) that reflects all incoming attacks and prevents enemies from crossing through for a short duration.

PASSIVE SKILLS
▶ Endure | Survive being knocked Unconscious once per battle
▷ Resist Physical | Reduces damage from Physical attacks. Voids weakness to Physical.
▷ Endure Dark | Automatically survive instant KO one time from a Darkness attack with 1 HP.

Ultimate Persona
[Orpheus Telos]
THE UNIVERSE

PLANS: even though you don't ask for them
This both is and isn't the Orpheus Telos from the game. It shares the same name and the same basic design, though when I've got the time and energy I'll be redesigning it a bit.
Minato has completed one journey, and he has spent a lot of time being what other people need him to be, so now in this new world where he does not have a path laid out for him, he is starting a new journey. It will be one filled with self-discovery and new experiences, and thus it is fitting that he will move back to Orpheus again - the persona he started with. But it's a new Orpheus - an Orpheus who comes at the end and who has been changed by the journey already. These changes will be reflected in the redesign so that this Orpheus Telos is not *just* a palate swap of original Orpheus with upgraded badass stats perfectly geared for taking Elizabeth on.

1st Person Example
7/22 entry at Arcanarum
5/28 entry at Arcanarum

On the testdrive meme

Take your pick between them, as either Arc one between the post and the responses should give adequate examples of how I have been playing him at Arcanarum. Obviously the Minato here will be different because of differing circumstances, though his core personality should remain the same. However, if you would prefer that I write a new first person sample altogether, I would be happy to. I also included a link to the testdrive meme, since... it's also a relevant recent sample?


3rd Person Example


Minato wasn’t sure whether to be surprised or not, when he found himself settling into Hinoto-Ri rather quickly. Of course, having moved somewhere new just about every year certainly helped, but more than that, he found of all things that the presence of the Dark Hour here to be almost comforting in its familiarity. Almost, for it was also troubling to find such similar strange events occurring even in another world… However, as of yet no way to end this world’s Dark Hour had been discovered, and it seemed as though most people were primarily focused on surviving, and so Minato was left to fill in his time gradually exploring the city (and trying to find a job and also make his mind about attending school here or not – he knew Mitsuru would most likely expect it of him, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to disappoint her even here).

On today’s itinerary was exploration of Scorpio, district of the arts, or so he had been told. He had also been told that the architecture got a little strange, but that only made him more interested in going. Besides, though most of his possessions had somehow wound up in the apartment he’d been assigned, he was lacking in much of the way of art supplies, and he hoped to find a sketchbook and pencils for sale, at least.

However, ten minutes into exploring Scorpio, and he had temporarily forgotten about his personal quest, having been thoroughly distracted by a demon and the perfectly harmless question, “Hey kid, you wanna do me a favor?”