[RP] Shadow World: A Persona RP [Open and Accepting]

Play fun games in the forums with other members.

Moderators: EN - Assistant Moderators, EN - Forum Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
Sami-Fire
Posts: 97
Joined: Mon Jan 30, 2012 2:55 am
Gender: Female
Spoken languages: English

[RP] Shadow World: A Persona RP [Open and Accepting]

Post by Sami-Fire »

Image
INTRODUCTION


Harakawa (from 原, natural/primitive/original, and and 川, stream or river) is a peaceful Japanese town in the countryside. It seems to be a fairly idyllic little town, with a high school (Nakagawa [中川] High) not too far from where most of the houses are. It's the last place you'd expect anything big to happen, but it has become a literal wellspring of events recently. Monsters have been spotted crawling out of an old well near the high school, and sometimes people disappear, only to reappear near the well with either no memories of what happened or a new power: that of Persona.

PLOT


In this RP, you will be playing a group of high school students who, as the RP goes on, will gain the power of Persona and investigate the mystery of the world behind the well. Your characters will receive their Personas early in the plot; unlike Persona 4, this event is separate from the Shadow battles. However, the first phase of the RP will involve the characters facing their Shadows and (most likely) accepting them. (If you have a character that simply will not accept their Shadow, there is a contingency plan in the form of Shadow Symbiosis, which I will explain below.) Your goal will be to investigate Acheron alongside the AID (Acheron Investigation Department) and learn about what's bringing the monsters to Harakawa.

Naturally, there is normal school life (and activities beside school) to play out on days that you don't go to Acheron. Don't forget to establish your social links!

Concepts in this RP

- Personas. Personas are basically a representation of a person's inner selves that typically takes the form of a creature or mythological deity. Personas are used for magical attacks (plus some physical ones) in battle, but some can take on a support role, doing things like providing information on monsters. You will be able to upgrade your Personas at some point in the plot. More information will be given when the time comes.

- Shadows. Shadows are representations of all the deep, dark thoughts a person keeps hidden away and doesn't want the world to see. They manifest as a clone of the person with golden eyes, but transform into monstrous forms when they go berserk from being denied. When they are accepted, they will transform into the person's Persona.

- Shadow Symbiosis. This is what will happen if someone is KO'd during their fight with their Shadow (making protecting them a priority) or denies them even after the battle. The Shadow will settle within the person's body, and while they will be able to use some limited powers (they will not be able to unlock any powers beyond the ones they start with), the Shadow can occasionally take control of the person's body. (As a side note, if a person attempts to use these powers in this state, it will appear like they're using the magic themselves instead of summoning a Persona.) Symptoms of the Shadow taking control include the golden eyes (one or both), and black, vein-like marks on the skin. The episodes can worsen until the shadow has full control over the person all the time, but this is not always the end result. If a person accepts their shadow, it will turn into their Persona and everything will function as normal.

- The other world, codenamed Acheron by the authorities. Acheron is something of a patchwork world. Some of it is terrain natural to the world, while others are formed from information that filtered through to Acheron. For example, Shadow Zones (zones created when a Shadow appears and creates it, naturally) aren't naturally part of Acheron (so a castle created by a Shadow will be recognized by the naturally-occurring denizens of Acheron as unnatural).

Setting Layout

The town is divided into east and west sections by the river that runs through the middle of town. Most people live in the east section, and there is a shopping district there, too. The population density on the west side is a bit smaller, but it functions more as a general business district. Nakagawa High is on the west side; students who walk to the school typically cross a bridge across a narrower part of the river to get there.

RULES


- The application process is as follows: you will PM me your application. I will look over it and either approve it, send it back with revision requests, or reject it (though I really do prefer revisions to rejections). Accepted applications will be posted in a characters section with some information taken out (though after story events progress, I may put the taken out sections back in). If you wish to update or alter your application, let me know and submit the changes and I'll add them in. (Alterations are only allowed up to a certain point- small personality/backstory details you forgot, a last-minute Persona/Shadow change, things like that. Updates basically mean including information on things that have happened in the story since the app was submitted, such as natural personality changes brought on by character development. However, they should be add-ons to the original app, not edits.)

- I'm going to take a page from Sleuth here and say please put some effort into your app. I can understand if you're stuck on, say, the personality section or if you have a naturally terse writing style (like mine =7=) and thus can cover what you need to in one paragraph. However, a one-sentence personality section or backstory will not fly here.

- NO godmodding or bunnying. Do not have your character hit everyone without a chance to react, and don't control other people's characters unless they explicitly give you permission to do so. If you need to declare a hiatus and want your character to be auto-moved from place to place (or if you just want them to not come along on missions/trips/whatever while you're on hiatus), let me know and I'll handle that.

- No spamming. While I don't expect you to make Ridiculous McLargeHuge-level posts, your posts should be at least a few sentences long and somehow contribute to what's going on. Quality over quantity, and make that quality decent.

- Your characters in this RP are average humans. Please don't try to pull anything like superhuman skills or supernatural heritages. By the way, your characters don't have to be Japanese, but you should probably provide an explanation of just what a foreigner/foreign family is doing in Japan.

- Shadow World has nothing to do with the main Persona canon. Please don't say you met Minato Arisato or something like that. ;3;

APPLICATION


Resources for Persona-making:

Arcana List
List of skills

Code: Select all

Player's Username: [For the sake of recordkeeping, please just put your username here.]
Name: [What is your character's name? Western name order, please.]
Age: [How old is he or she?]
Arcana: [What tarot Arcana does your character and their Persona fall under?]
Weapon: [Semi-optional. You can have your character not use a weapon and just use their Persona in battle. Your character will receive their weapon as part of the plot; if it's a special weapon (like, a personal one and not just a random weapon), the character will receive that (it'll just be teleported to them when everyone is receiving their weapons). Weapons will also be upgraded over the course of the plot; you can either get a new version of your weapon or you can just request a stronger version of your current one (like, a supernatural power boost) if your character's weapon is special. Weapon upgrades can be received in treasure chests as rewards for defeating enemies or possibly even other things.]

Appearance: [You can provide a picture or a written description. Both would be awesome!]

History: [Include a brief history of your character- about significant events in their life, possibly about their family, so on and so forth.]

Personality: [What is your character like? What motivates them? Sometimes you can sum it up in one paragraph, sometimes you can't.]

Persona: [What is your character's Persona? Provide the name of your Persona and, optionally, an information link.]
Persona Description: [What does your Persona look like? Providing a picture is fine.]
Strengths and Weaknesses: [The possible elements are Physical, Fire, Ice, Electricity, Wind, Light, Darkness, and Almighty. You should have at least one weakness. You need one weakness for every element you are strong against, and two for everything you absorb or block. You may only block or absorb one element, and you can only block OR absorb an element. You can't block or absorb Almighty.]
Skill set: [Pick eight skills that your Persona will have over the course of the game. Keep in mind that you will start out only being able to use your first two, and you will unlock the others by using your Persona in battles. Be fair with your selections! Your early attacks are not going to be amazing kick-butt multihit skills. By the way, Almighty-element skills are banned from your initial Personas' movesets. The strongest move you can have is a single-target large damage skill of an element, and it should be towards the end of the moveset. You can, however, have a moderate damage multihit skill towards the end of the list.]

Shadow Description: [Describe your character's Shadow here- what kind of issues they'll bring up, and what their berserk/monster form will look like. Also, please describe what the "Shadow Zone" they'll create will be (that is, what "dungeon" will it make).]
CHARACTERS

Spoiler : Reiko Honda (Sami-Fire) :
Name: Reiko Honda
Age: 16
Arcana: Tower
Weapon: Bat or Club

Appearance: To start with, Reiko is a bit shorter than average- roughly 5' 2". Her hair is normally black, but she has dyed it reddish-brown. It's cut shortish and the bangs go to her right. Her build is average- not too curvy, not too flat. Her skin is naturally a bit tan. Her ears are pierced, but she hardly ever wears earrings. A picture of her can be seen here.

History: Reiko was bullied from a young age for being something of a nerd, amongst other things. She frequently got into trouble when she tried to fight back at the bullies through various means, including hitting them with her books. Naturally, she would get in trouble, and this began a cycle of bullying, retaliation, punishment, and more bullying. It seemed that she couldn't win. Her parents were understanding, but they were firmly disapproving of her fighting back. She felt trapped, with no way to escape the cycle.

When she began high school, it seemed that her bullies had vanished. Moved or expelled, perhaps. She gave it no thought, but they had left deeper scars on her psyche than she knew. They ruined her self-image and gave her the roiling rage that forms most of her inner thoughts.

Reiko has picked on a lot of people (mostly on the internet) that really didn't deserve it. On her list are a person with a disorder that gives them a lot of chronic pain and someone who was frequently depressed and possibly considering suicide. She basically told them to shut up because she was tired of hearing them complain/"whine" about their lives. She has attacked various other complainers too for the same reason. She tries really hard not to let any remorse leak in, but she does occasionally experience regret for what she does despite trying not to.

Personality: On the outside, Reiko seems pretty calm and collected. She can smile sweetly enough, and while she's not the most outgoing, she can socialize well. She prefers to quietly watch from the sidelines and let people approach her first. If she is slighted, she might frown a bit but otherwise keep her cool, sometimes even providing a witty retort. The worst things might get is a bit of snark, and even then she mostly attempts humorous snark. Generally, she seems to be pretty functional, getting through each day at school at work without issue.

A sort of deadpan snarkiness is Reiko's true manner of speech. While she talks politely when trying to act polite, she's really just more comfortable with a dry sort of humor.

Under the surface, though, there boils an anger that no one, not even Reiko herself, can quite pinpoint the source of (aside from bullying in her childhood, which is an answer she finds unsatisfactory). Deep down, she has feelings of hate for everyone, even those she considers friends. Everyone annoys her to some extent, and she finds fault with things very easily. The flip side of this is that if she doesn't hate them, she probably also fears them (whether that is a respectful fear or not depends on the person).

Every once in a while, her anger does flare up, and she'll try to provoke people and start fights that she shouldn't. On a bad day, nothing delights her more than "teaching someone a lesson" by making people fight with each other over trivial things. (Yep, she likes to troll on the Internet.) She may be around for the first few volleys, but she doesn't stick around for long. She does get her comeuppance sometimes when someone blasts her back for trying to provoke someone.

Reiko actually has rather poor self-confidence. She is anxious about various aspects of her life, including her future and her competence. She does feel bad about being so angry all the time, but she doesn't exactly do anything about it.

This doesn't mean that she's incapable of liking people. She has some people she considers friends and trusts, but she isn't above occasionally sniping about them in a private space.

Persona: Amatsu-Mikaboshi
Persona Description: Here's his Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon appearance.
Strengths and Weaknesses: Strong: Physical, Fire | Weak: Ice, Wind
Skill set: Bash (Small Physical damage- 1 target), Agi (Small Fire damage- 1 target), Hysterical Slap (Small Physical damage with 10% chance of Rage ailment- 1 target), Maragi (Small Fire damage- all targets), Agilao (Medium Fire damage- one target), Heat Wave (Medium Physical damage- all targets), Balzac (40% chance of inflicting Rage ailment on 1 target), Blade of Fury (Medium Physical damage two to four times- all targets)
Spoiler : Yuriko Odatsuyo (Topaz) :
Player's Username: Topaz

Name: In western (lamestern) name order: Yuriko Odatsuyo

Age: 18

Arcana: Justice

Weapon: Longsword, usually sheathed.

Appearance:

Image

To give a basic idea. Her boots are high heeled, with red tips. This is generally how I imagine the character, but with a darker shade of hair, and brown eyes. Her sword is incredibly well polished, almost appearing white. She rarely ever unsheathes it.

History: Yuriko is the daughter of the Japanese minister of defense. She was raised behind her father, and adopted a very militarist outlook on life. Having a very rich upbringing, Yuriko enjoyed the pleasures of life with no problems. Her father still serves as the minister of defense today, and Yuriko is rumored to strategise with her father behind the scenes. Her skills as a military tactician and general are exceptional.

As part of her father's scheme to improve the work ethic of Japanese youth, a number of schools were bought over by her family. These schools became more strict and orderly, and started molding the next generation into strong and bright workers. Behind this whole plan was 14 year old Yuriko. She entered into every single one of these schools to monitor progress, and progress she saw. She pridefully watched delinquents become honor students, and slackers become focused.

3 years on, Yuriko decides on a school to settle in for her final year or two. She chooses Nakagawa High as her target, and immediately bought it over. As Student Council President, Yuriko plans to turn the school into a paradise of order and study. She rules over the school with an iron fist, imposing her ethics upon every student. Delinquents will be punished, rebels will be punished, slackers will be punished. This school requires her guidance, and her guidance she will give it. Now that Yuriko is 18, she spends her last school year here, continuing her position as Student Council President until graduation.

Personality: If the final paragraph of her backstory wasn't enough, then...

Yuriko places order and strength above all else. Her will is resolute, and she does not falter when dealing with any member of the school. She doesn't take pleasure from punishing students, only pleasure from reforming them into ideal workers. Success in order is the end to her means.

Her father is her role model. In the future, she plans to take over for him as minister of defense. The scheme is her application. The success of this scheme has been immense, and will be her proof of promise.

Persona: Themis, a titan of order in Greek mythology.

Persona Description:
Image
This, but with a pure white dress.

Strengths and Weaknesses: Strong to Light, Weak to Darkness.

Skill set:

Dia
Skewer
Hama
Fatal End
Mahama
Me Patra
Diarama
Herculean Strike
Spoiler : Tsukasa Konishi (GuardianDreamer) :
Player's Username: GuardianDreamer
Name: Tsukasa Konishi
Age: 16
Arcana: Hermit
Weapon: Bow and arrows

Appearance: The first thing that you should notice about Tsukasa's appearance is that he looks very feminine, which is something he has mixed feelings about. His black hair is in a bob cut that reaches about jaw-length, which includes a fringe/bangs which can occasionally cover one of his hazel eyes. His facial features are a bit feminine (of course) and he usually wears a purple hairband or a blue ribbon (switching between the two every day). Most of the time he tries (and fails) to keep his facial expression neutral. The truth is that it is extremely easy to tell what emotions Tsukasa is feeling, whether it be boredom, happiness, sadness, anxiety, or something else. He's not exactly good at concealing if he's bothered by something as a result.

As for his clothes, Tsukasa follows the rules of the school by wearing his school uniform. This is because he doesn't want to get into any unnecessary trouble over dress code of all things, and because having a male school uniform makes it easier for people to tell his gender. When not in school, Tsukasa tends to wear a purple parka and black jeans, and for everything else, he just tends to go with whatever looks good.

Tsukasa is somewhat paler than most people, which might have something to do with the fact that he carries a parasol around whenever it's even slightly sunny. As for his build, Tsukasa looks a bit fragile and is mostly lacking visible muscles, which is almost certainly due to the fact that he often forgets to eat. Surprisingly enough, he's stronger than he looks, which is proven by his archery hobby. In terms of height he's about 5'2. As mentioned before, Tsukasa has difficulty concealing his own feelings, so his body language varies a lot. As an aside, Tsukasa's voice is one of the easiest ways to tell that he's a boy. While it IS slightly feminine, his voice is clearly that of a male. (Just imagine all the Japanese teenage males voiced by women in anime/games. That's basically what I mean.) He can try to make himself sound more like a girl, but there's really no reason for him to do that.

History: Tsukasa has a relatively ordinary life, with its own ups and downs. His immediate family consists of his parents and his older sister, Emiko. Though his family is relatively normal, Tsukasa has always felt a bit strange since he's so much younger than the rest of his family. His sister is about 15 years older than he is, and his parents are occasionally mistaken for his grandparents instead. Still, Tsukasa is able to get along with the rest of his family, and often chats with his sister using the internet. (Since she lives in a different city.)

From a young age, Tsukasa had a rather girly appearance. This lead to him being bullied about it when he was a young child, but thankfully, he was able to get past that thanks to his older sister protecting him from any bullies (Emiko still lived with the rest of Tsukasa's family up until some point when Tsukasa was in Junior High). However, while he was grateful for her help, Tsukasa disliked the fact that he basically had to rely on her to solve his problems.

Before entering High School, Tsukasa had to make a choice. His parents had decided that he was now old enough to decide his own appearance (including what he wore and his hairstyle), as long as it wasn't too ridiculous. Tsukasa had considered changing his appearance to seem more 'manly', but ultimately decided against it, even going the opposite direction and choosing to wear a hairband sometimes. While it likely seemed very silly to anyone else, this was Tsukasa's own way of saying that he could defend himself from any bullying. Thankfully, he hasn't had too many problems with bullies, though he does receive some teasing remarks. Still, it's not really something he angsts about.

If there's one thing that still bothers Tsukasa, it's the fact that he believes that he still can't find a purpose in life without someone's guidance. He has no idea what to do with his future, but doesn't want to rely on anyone to help advise him, because he feels like accepting help would make him feel 'weak'. The exceptions to this rule are his own family. He is willing to listen to their advice. (Though he acknowledges his own hypocrisy in this and wishes he could make up his mind about whether he wants help or not.)

Tsukasa is not what you would call a social butterfly. His best friend is his own older sister, and he barely has any friends at all. Even joining the school's Archery Club has hardly helped, though at least now he has some acquaintances there.

Personality: The History section likely gave insight into his personality, but there are a few points that could be cleared up. First of all, it is quite true that Tsukasa is the kind of person who's reluctant to accept help from anyone who isn't his family. On the other hand, he has a very kind heart and is willing to help OTHER people if they need it. He's well-aware of the hypocrisy of that.

If one examined how Tsukasa interacted with other people, they would notice that he prefers to speak very little, only really opening up to his family. However, if someone persisted, they could earn his friendship and he'd be much more willing to speak a lot. Still, he prefers to listen to other people rather than be the one to talk. He also thinks of himself as a rather submissive person, and rarely asserts himself.

Also, while one might think that Tsukasa likely sound like a very emotionally cold and distant person, that's not really true. In reality, Tsukasa is a very emotional person who is easily embarrassed, easily made happy, easily made sad, and much more. He would react to even the lightest of friendly teasing with a lot of embarrassment, and as previously stated, he has difficulty concealing his own feelings. Even if he tries to keep to himself, it doesn't take a genius to find out what he's thinking at any given moment.

One thing that should be kept in mind about Tsukasa is that he despises himself for anything he perceives as himself being a hypocrite. He dislikes the fact that he's trying to be 'independent', yet still relies on his family for advice. He also dislikes the fact that he has absolutely no clue what to do with his own life. His own grades are better than average, but they're not spectacular, and there isn't anything that really stands out to him. So he often spends a lot of time in solitude, trying to ponder the meaning of his own life and what he can do with it. One of his favorite hobbies is to just look at the clouds from a good viewpoint and just think.

Finally, as previously stated, Tsukasa has a fondness for archery, which he's very good at. His general likes include a lot of 'cute' things in general and sweet foods. His general dislikes include most spicy foods and most sour foods.

Persona: Nidhoggr.

Persona Description: Let's go with the P4 appearance.

Strengths and Weaknesses: Weak to Light and Wind, strong against Ice and Darkness. [s]Why is Nidhoggr weak to Wind in P3 but absorbs it in P4 I demand answers.[/s]

Skill set:

Bufu
Evil Touch
Mudo
Mabufu
Evil Smile
Mabufula
Mamudo
Ghastly Wail
Still accepting. Come on in and app!

GAMEPLAY UPDATES


Phase 1: Shadow Phase

Here's how the first phase of the RP is going to work. After everyone gets their Personas, I will roll randomly to determine what order people will be facing their shadows in. (Reiko, my character, will not be going first, unless you guys want her to so you can see just how I run things before you guys get your turns.) I will roll a die and post the order in which people will be facing their Shadows.

When your turn comes up, your character will be kidnapped and sent to their Shadow Zone. Since it's probably not fair to have the kidnapped character sit out till they're found, I will have a seperate section in my post for them to respond to, which means they can explore ahead of the other characters if they want. (As a general rule, my posts will be divided into two sections when necessary: the GM section and Reiko's section.) When the others arrive, you will explore your Shadow Zone for a time and then eventually encounter your Shadow boss. I will be running the Shadows in this RP, both in character form and boss form.

The character facing their Shadow will not be able to use their Persona during the fight, and whether they regain their Persona at the end of the battle or undergo Shadow Symbiosis depends on the actions taken. As mentioned earlier, if the character facing their Shadow is KO'd in combat, the battle will count as a loss and they will undergo Shadow Symbiosis for at least a short while. If they were going to accept their Shadow after the battle anyway, the symbiosis won't last for very long, and in fact the character might be able to convert the Shadow back into a Persona by themselves. It's up to you whether you want to play out the "acceptance speech" as an internal monologue or as a full-on Persona 4-style speech.

Now, there will be some things going on behind the scenes. Before the Shadow battle begins, I will PM you to check some things: whether the Shadow speech I've written is IC for your character, whether you like the attack pattern I've set up for the boss, and perhaps some other things. If you have anything specific you'd like done, please let me know.

ANYTHING ELSE?


I'd really like a plot consultant to help me keep things moving and check to see if things make sense. Inquire within if interested. (I'm not sure if I'll let a player be a plot consultant or not. We'll see.)
Post Reply