Persona: Through the looking glass

[Omnial]

"Welcome~ To this Persona Role Play~"

Premise of This Role Play

This will be a Persona role play, with heavy Alice in Wonderland tones. For a specific, your persona will be based on characters, main or not, from Lewis Carroll's books, Alice's adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Or an Adaption thereof.

That being said, we won't just be sticking to those themes and works. We will also be dealing with other myths, urban legends and folklore.

Also, as with many of the persona games and anime, we will be diving into some potentially dark subjects, This is a WARNING. So while this RP is still not an 18+ RP, there may be some themes that are not pleasant. Prime examples, murder and abduction.

It will take place a in fictional City in England called Eigo. It is an English City that has heavy Japanese influence. The reason we will be taking place in England is due to the plot. That being said, we will take on more of the Japanese school system than the British.

Our characters will mostly be high school age students, as it seems to be the cool thing to do in the persona.
With the majority of the cast attending a new school to the city, "Dodgson Academy" As such, there is no "Transfer student" As we all fit that group, being the first wave to attend this school.

Persona can only be used in what is known as the "Mad World". This being a mirror of the real world, with a few noticeable differences based on the influence of the people in the real world. Normally only the shadows of people are there, and they simply mimic the every day life of their other half.

The "Mad World" will be viewed and veiwable by those with the ability through any reflective surface, and can interact directly with the real world. As such, one can perform an action on one side and have it affect the other.

Persona

A persona is the aspect of someone's character that is presented to or perceived by others.
~ google

A Persona is a manifestation of a Persona User's personality in the Persona series, referred to as a "mask" for an individual to use to face hardship. A Persona is similar to a Shadow. Shadows are malevolent manifestations of one's inner thoughts, while a Persona is a manifestation of the same feelings but tamed and trained. If an individual takes up a resolution in their heart, the Persona will undergo a metamorphosis into a stronger form. While the summoning sequences of a Persona differs from one installment to the next, a tradition that later adaptions follow is that blue-ish fogs are always released when a Persona is invoked. A fight using Personas weighs the user's mind and spirit. Continuous use of a Persona will eventually drain the user's strength and stamina.
~ Persona (concept)

So your Persona in this roleplay will be the characters, main and not, from Alice. They do not need to be exactly as those characters that they are based on, and feel free to be creative with it. For example. If "Bill the Lizard" was my persona, I could have him depicted as a simple lizard, an anthropomorphic lizard man, or as a freaky lizard monster.

They are usually assigned to a specific Major Arcana from Tarot Cards, which usually have defining traits or qualities about them. Honestly, if you are creative and can make sense of it, you can use any arcana you'd like with any persona. If you are uncertain about this, feel free to ask or take a quiz.

There are only two exceptions to characters which can be your persona being Alice and the Red Queen. Sorry, those two are consumed by the plot.

Combat and Challenges

There will be instances in the role play of combat and of challenges, each will be determined by dice rolls, dnd style! D20 !

So it will be your roll + modifiers vs a Difficulty level which I will have set.
At times, it can be roll vs roll example being pvp

Modifiers will come from your characters and their personas stats.

Your characters stats are, Courage, Expression, Knowledge, Understanding, Diligence. Each capping at 5, with 1 being the lowest they can go. Events and choices will give them a chance to level up after some time as well. You start off with a max of 7 points at the start.

Your Persona stats are their elemental strengths and weaknesses. For every strength you take, you require a weakness and you must have a minimum of one str and wk at the start.

Persona may change or develop over time, gaining resistances, and ability to absorb types of attacks.

Character Sheet

Human

Name:
Age: Between 16-18 preferably, or a good reason why not

Gender:

Weapon/s: This can change through the rp, but what do you prefer to fight with?

Appearance: picture or a decent description

Bio: Just a bit about you, who you are, and maybe why you are. Tell us a bit about your life. This should tie into your arcana a bit.

Stats: Courage: [ ] Knowledge [ ] Expression [ ] Understanding [ ] Diligence [ ]
You start off with a max of 7 points at the start.

~~~~

Persona

Name:

Arcana: It would be cool if we don't all have the same arcana, but it really is up to you, and it may change. This should be reflected in your character.

Appearance: Picture, description, or both. If just a description make it a vivid one.

Spells: Just counting magic, melee is not sub grouped into pierce, blunt, slash. if you need help with spells please refer to website.

Stats: Phy [ ] Fire [ ] Ice [ ] Electric [ ] Wind [ ] Dark [ ] Light [ ]

Fun arcana quizes and link to wiki

If you are struggling to pick an Arcana, or just for fun
Tarot- Major Arcana, a SelectSmart.com Metaphysical selector. Ask about my top result.
https://www.quotev.com/quiz/5739130...e-Social-Link-you-establish-unto-your-friends

Megami Tensei Wiki

Story Thus Far

Link to the Story

Summery
Day 0 nothing has happened thus far. We think...

If you have any questions, feel free to ask here or PM

 

[Iceydaze]

Np

Yay more people ~

 

[Kiririn]

The Migrant Judgement Arcana​

Name: Biniam Legesse
Alias: Addisu Okri
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Weapon(s): Trident [Left Hand] and Secutor Sheild, or just thick shields in general [Right Hand]

Appearance: A scrawny boy with dark-brown skin. He favors an ancient yet stylish brown leather jacket and baggy denim jeans which he bought used at second-hand store. He favors open toe sandals which reveal his feet to be rough and worn away by use, and along the inside of his right palm is a scar wrought by the slice of a knife from an assailant he promptly clobbered on the face with his left fist. Scrawny though he may be, he has a strong, athletic build, his short, fuzzy black hair, thick eyebrows, and a boy-ish rat-like face betraying his observant, brown eyes. They scan everywhere, and oftentimes they will notice even the slightest oddity before the oddity has time to notice itself. He walks with a cautious dexterous grace and walks proudly, the latter only as a facade. He always looks tired.

Personality: He is a timid, intelligent, analytical boy. His intense cesspool of willpower contradicts his lack of courage and allows him to utilize the asset of his mind in the worst of situations, even if his only goal is to escape the danger. In these intense situations, he tries to be moral but is ultimately out for himself, and has no qualms doing dirty things to live another day.

If you catch him on a normal day, however, you'll find him to be a somewhat quiet, nice, and humble fellow. He won't say more than he has to, he treats others with respect, works hard, enjoys something sweet every now and then, reveals his intellect sparsely, and even rarer reveals a hint of paranoia. Those who know him will know that he is an avid reader, though he hides his hobby (and the growing piles of books it leaves in his room,) for fear of being called out on it. He prefers not to be in the spotlight but can handle it.

Inside he haunted by the long journey he made to reach Eigo and might lapse into fits of terror if given the right moment. There times he hears bullets when there are none, sees threats when there are none, sees danger and violence in the eyes of other when they have none. In these fits, he acts quite like a rat and scurries off to the safest place he can imagine. God forbid if his fears are confirmed.

History: Where Biniam Legesse comes from the father's first name becomes the child's last. Where Biniam comes from, rural and suburban communities are known to have an elder whose wisdom is imparted upon the whole, and these same communities are tightly knit by tradition, faith, and goodwill. Where Biniam comes from, dark-skinned children run around in play. Where Biniam comes from, within a suburb within the capital city, there is a small house among many other small houses built up by the father's father that he called home.

Then the upper-levels of monarchy grew corrupt, the emperor was assassinated and buried under his toilet (only to be found years later,) and the military junta which did it took the reigns of a new, totalitarian rule, stifling the democratic undercurrent of the politically charged citizens, lead by philosophical university students, thus leading into political chaos as the nation which was a federation of his home nation joined in on the mess as parties vied for power over the lands. Guns could be seen everywhere and the streets grew less and less save till the stench of war permeated the minds of Addisu's peers.

In a terrified frenzy of panic he devised a plan to escape the mad world he once called home, not for once thinking of remaining for those he loved for in each passing moment he saw their numbers decrease as his childhood home contorted unto itself in a barbaric madness that proclaimed one of two things. Either Join the Rebellion and Die for a prosperous, new nation or Join the Military and be a true Patriot. He could not comprehend either, and valued his life over lofty ideals blared on a megaphone by men who wanted boys to die for them. In bed he once thought to the image of his best friend, someone with whom he had shared many boyish adventures, taking up his knife and boasting about how he slit the throat of some poor, camo-wearing military boy, and knew he had to leave.

He could not remain in his home, lest he risked being consumed by madness - whether it be the insanity's bullets or its rhetoric he could care less, and it was not long until he ran away from home at the young age of 12, alone, and for the border. One could see him skirting about in the shadows of shadows at twilight, sneaking behind patrols and into the storage bins of guerrillas and military men alike for his meal, his calculated heists weakened only by the intense, mind-shattering heartbeat that pulsed through his chest. As he made his journey up north there were moments where he ran in sheer terror with bullets, mortar, and fleshy bits whizzing all around him, the cloud of war engulfing him when he least expected it, at dusk, always when he least expected it. He could not control when people decided to shoot bullets nor where they left their mines, least of all could he control the ancient sins which had left his home susceptible to this madness in the first place.

He spent dawns breathing heavily, huddled underneath some corpse whose flesh protected him from bullets in a man-made trench or pit or something he'd taken cover in, thanking no god for his survival, for he no longer believed in such things. Instead, he saw spiritual truth as a mad ecosystem which spiraled unto itself constantly and made no sense whatsoever. Instead of a god, he thanked the cosmic dice for keeping him alive, shrugged off his corpse, once a woman, once a man, once a donkey, and continued on his journey to repeat these same moments again, of twilight, dusk, and dawn.

Miraculously, the sun and the restful dark only came for him at the end of his journey, each traveling day spent under intense cloud cover, sandstorm, or forest branches, and each night too riddled with bullets to be anything near peaceful. Peace, as I've said, only found him at the end. He met it at pleasure on the Mediterranean shore, kissed the sand, lay in it, listened to ocean beat as refugees nearby cried out for food and rest. He looked up to the sun and marveled at how bright it seemed. He slept with not a penny to his name in this same sand, under the stars and moon. He awoke and immediately set about locating whatever it was that could be seen as a mafia in the city turned refugee half-way home.

They were there, no doubt, always were when a crisis was present, and he approached them with the uncanny and oddly brave request for work. He said, in short, I am here and I will work to do anything for anything that will let me leave this crazy place, and pragmatic criminals as they were, they obliged. Thus it was that a boy of 13 would spend the next 3 years of his life, (and possibly much more had it not been for soon-to-be-revealed occurrences), acting as tiny pawn of a massive criminal organization whose tendons dipped into tiny affiliations, much like the one he associated with, that spanned Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.

The odd and bad jobs he performed, all with an intense longing for what he saw as the perfect order of modern countries, allowed him to see into the belly of the beast, so to speak, on multiple occasions, one such occasion allowing him access to Eigo. All it took were a few immensely risky favors, (which, if discovered, would have the wrath of the mafia squash him like mosquito under the boot's heel,) for a small-time bureaucrat with big-time connections for him to get all the papers he would need to purchase a ticket to Eigo with the sum of money he had saved for that express purpose. With the help of another connection, he feigned his death by hiding a charred corpse left with a few identifying personals among the wreckage of a terrorist attack (which, coincidentally, had lots of fire involved,) he knew of well in advance (due to his criminal affiliations and an ear for good gossip). He then immediately purchased his ticket and escaped to Eigo under the assumed alias of Addisu Okri. (Addisu meaning New One, a name chosen intentionally).

His life in Eigo was, by comparison, much easier. He quickly found work in a flower shop, quickly found lodgings in the attic of said flower shop, (which the owner was more than happy to give to such a diligent worker,) and quickly found his way in such a pleasant city. He found his way to the library, the beautiful bridges that made their way over pristine blue rivers, marveling at the ancient European architecture that was found in pockets amid modern designs. He found the culture strange, and almost stifling, but was pleased to find the people it bore seemed perfectly fine with leaving him to his own devices...and his own devices lead him to apply for school.

Now, one might assume Addisu Okri, judging from his true past and not the one which detailed a pair of parents having just enough money (from businesses they once owned) to send their son overseas for education, was an idiot, but the contrary was true. During those three years he spent under the mafia his meager wage was stretched raw for three things and three things alone: food, his ticket, and books; his lodgings already handled by his "business" relations. He was a quick and eager study who already could speak, read, and write English proficiently when he left home and this scholarly diligence would carry him far. Through daytime he would sleep, through evening and twilight he would study, and through the night he would do his criminal work, dawn being the brief repose where he would buy food and enjoy brief moments at the beach.

Thus it was that when he took the grade placement test designed to figure out whether immigrants from poor areas should be funneled off to 1 grade lower than what their age implied, or lower, he excelled, and had to take another test. This one would decide what quality of school he deserved, he excelled and took another, this one to rank how much schools should want him. This one placed him in Dodgson Academy.

He would spend the following days reading for leisure, bettering his English, finding books in his native tongue, and pondering, with worry, at the nature of that odd Leper who he always sees lingering behind him in the reflection of street-side windows. He could never find this gabi-wearing figure when he tried to turn around and chart through the walking crowds back to locate them, and now fears that it is a mafia spy who will soon kill him. He has a machete hidden under his pillow. He sleeps with an eye open. He restlessly dreams of gunfire.


Personal Stats:

Courage: 0
Knowledge: 3
Expression: 0
Understanding: 1
Diligence: 3

Persona - Chesire Cat​

Name: The Cheshire Lepper

Arcana: Judgement

Appearance:

The Cheshire Leper wears a variant of the Gabi, an article of clothing from Addisu's cultural roots, designed for the elderly. It is a white, handwoven cloth made out of a soft material called chiffon that is worn over the shoulders, just at The Cheshire Lepper wears it.

The Chesire Leper wears a Gabi that envelopes it's shoulders, waist, and lower body entirely in white, leaving it a blanketed figure with only its elongated appendages sticking out. It wears white trousers and sits on the floor, it's legs crisscrossed. It sticks its right hand out the grip it's right knee, the right hand and its limb made entirely of rose vines intersecting, spiky barbs sticking out along the length of the arm. The veins form into a cat's paw that serves as the Leper's right hand, and at the center of the cat paw is a reflective knife-wound whose green, coagulated surface acts as a perfectly good mirror.

Its left arm is stuck up to hold the handle of a cane held up-right and dug into the ground, the wooden stick bearing an ornate design. This limb is a normal human appendage, inked over entirely with the colors of twilight, black at the stem of the arm, red at the base of the upper arm, orange at the elbow, red at the fore-arm, and blue on the palm and fingers. At the center of the palm is a cloudy white resembling --- a cloud.

The Cheshire Leper has a frail, sickly form, its back disjointed as it leans in, one shoulder higher than the other. Its neck is a pure, shapeless black that dissipates into the air the further out you go. It wears a gray, stone mask depicting a roaring sabertooth cat that hides its face completely. From underneath the mask, a long green vine dangles just beside the neck, at its end, a beautiful upside down rosebud.

Removing the mask reveals that the rosebud's vine comes out of the right eye socket, which is a dark hole. Furthermore, upon pulling back the mask, one will see that the Leper has the face of a kitten superimposed onto a human head, its lips and single, cute blue eye staring out at the beholder without a hint of emotion. The Leper's head has black fur, its kitten ears poke out above the mask. Take the mask off, and sometimes it mews. Sometimes it will smile and show the many, many teeth it has.


Skills:

Mirror Flash [Ailment]: Medium Chance to inflict Dizzy to 1 foe, less effective if successfully used on the same target more than one time in a row ~ SP [Alteration of Dazzler]
Eiha [Dark]: Light damage to 1 foe ~ SP
Cane Swing [Physical]: Light damage & Light chance to inflict Dizzy to 1 foe ~ HP [Alteration of Sledgehammer]
Piercing Eyes [Passive]: Additional very slight chance for attacks & skills to inflict Dizzy.

Stats: Phy [ WK ] Fire [ WK ] Ice [ WK ] Electric [ WK ] Wind [ WK ] Dark [ STR ] Light [ STR ]

Justification: Addisu, due to The Cheshire Leper being...well...a Leper, has a lot of statistical weaknesses due to the lackluster physical condition of the Leper. Infact, he is weak to everything but the primary elements of Judgement, Light and Dark, against which he is strong. To make up for this, the Leper has an initial affinity for inflicting Dizzy, and, later on, during its progression, will gain access to powerful support/ailment skills, (along with a few decent Light, Dark, and Phys skills,) many of which would be capable of being an annoyance for the enemy. I imagine he might also pick up a minor health regen passive, or some form of defensive utility along those lines.

Based off the theme of The Cheshire Cat being a sort of passive guide for Alice in the original Wonderland book, capable of distorting the perception (or presence) of itself.

P.S. Instead of giving him a health regen passive, it might also be a decent idea to give him access to the Almighty Drain skills - due to his nature as a survivalist. Needs further thought.

 

[Omnial]

@Big Buddy I did state that they had to have a minimum of 1 in all their stats, but due to your character's story and bio, I would say it makes sense. So accepted.

@Moogle-Girl @Iceydaze @Klutzy Ninja Kitty @Big Buddy

So just so everyone is aware, here is the link to the IC, feel free to post everyone, I'll put up another post tomorrow to move it along if you are waiting for it to not just be the arriving to school scene.


Also, due to our number, we will be closed now for the time being for sign-ups.

 

[Kiririn]

Oh, well paint me the idiot. Glad it worked out in the end anyhow ^_^

 

[Kiririn]

@Omnial

Actually, regarding my P.S, I think I wanna add Almighty skills to the repetiteur of stuff Leper can do. Furthermore, I think I know the range of skills Leper will be capable of accessing.

Almighty [Utility skills + Drains] - Religious themes of Leper/Cheshire Cat
Nuclear [ Mediumish Damage] - Wartime inspirations of Leper's development
Gun [Mediumish Damage] - Wartime Inspirations of Leper's development
Phys [Small damage, ailments of increasing potency] Wartime inspirations/Cheshire Cat
Dark [Mediumish Damage] - Judgement Arcana
Light [Mediumish Damage] - Judgement Arcana
Ailments - Cheshire Cat Inspiration
Support - Cheshire Cat Inspiration/Gabi
Assist [Mental/Psych ailment heals] - Cheshire Cat Inspiration/Gabi/Personal Journey

Thoughts?

 

[Omnial]

My thoughts are that of we shall see how the rp pans out and based on your character and persona growing, then yes you can have said skills and abilities later on.

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

@Omnial What do our character's school uniforms look like, by the way?

 

[Iceydaze]

If it's got that heavy Japanese influence, it'll probably lean towards seifuku style. Though most have a western feel to them anyway.

Western-y

Or this like

Or this

Or something plainer or full blown sailor fuku. All I read was black and green so I'm also kinda curious.

 

[Omnial]

I'd say closer to the latter one, as that is closer to the uniforms I've seen in England, but still Japanese without a doubt.

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

Btw, I'm gonna wait for another reply before I post with Shinji again. Since he's trying to lay low at the moment. lol

 

[Omnial]

Posted and +1 important npc! XP

 

[Iceydaze]

It's been a while. Is this still up or are we waiting for something? o .o I was gonna wait for another to post before returning to class with the npc so it doesn't feel like I'm skipping anyone but if that's not the case, I have no problem posting again if that's needed.

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

I'm guessing this rp is dead? Just thought I'd check to be sure since it's been almost 2 months now since it's had any activity. o.o

 

[Omnial]

I must apologize.

Yes, it is dead.

I do not see me picking it up in the near future either. Again, Sorry. :(