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[prophylactic]

Player: Laura
Contact: jojoveller
Age: 31
Current Characters: none
Link to Reserve: here!

Character Name: Shinjiro Aragaki
Character Canon: Persona 3 (Portable)
Canon Point: October 4, 2009
Age: 18

Crime: Involuntary manslaughter... it's true.

Background: here, notably: the female protagonist P3P route, so when he gets shot at his canon point he is not super killed, but he won't know this immediately.

Personality: this is 800 words precisely i promise

Shinjiro is fundamentally defined by his prickly shell, which poorly hides his soft, gooey center. He presents himself as cold, serious, and harsh— yet everyone who spends even a little time around him (and isn't an Enemy) can see through him easily. Under the prickly shell he's a worrier who cares more about his friends than himself and is always looking out for them. His treatment of himself is not so generous - Shinjiro believes that his past has tainted him forever and he deserves whatever misfortune or premature ending he gets. He's a grouch with resting scary face and his tough love is emphasis tough, but he's got a good heart and a huge capacity for empathy and care.

The prickly outer shell is about half-genuine, half-defense-mechanism. Shinjiro doesn't have patience for people who cause problems for others, bullies and such— he's ready and willing to threaten violence to whoever he's marked as an enemy, from street bullies to actual evil organizations bent on destroying the world. Much as he doesn't want to get into fights - he knows he's strong and has a mean right hook, and he's solved problems with his fists before, but he doesn't aim to fight; he thinks it's pointless - he can and will, if there's no other effective, lasting option. There's also the fact that he and his bestie eternal Akihiko beat the snot out of each other sometimes to say hello - Shinjiro has complained that he frequently has cuts and bruises from fighting with Akihiko, which is just how they've always been since they were kids. They are best friends.

One layer down towards his gooey center, he's very... mom-ish. To the point that his friends call him out on it constantly, and don't find it threatening when he barks back at them to shut up. He's genuinely the SEES team member with the most motherly concern for the rest; he cooks for them and gets soft and fuzzy about how happy it makes them and how nice it is to make memories, he worries after their health and bugs them to eat more veggies, he rejoins the team in the first place to look after the gang. Shinjiro, despite his chronic inability to tell people he likes them, is a big softy who loves his friends.

But not himself. Shinjiro is haunted by the guilt of accidentally killing a woman when his Persona went wild two years ago and it's why he acts so prickly and avoidant of connections. He both considers himself guilty no matter what - and thus deserves punishment - and also a danger to the people around him. As a result he keeps his distance from his friends for those two years, and even when he returns to the team he's reluctant to get close to anyone. It's under protest that he gets close to the protagonist, and through constant argument that he resumes the usual friendly fighting with Akihiko. It can be comical - he pretends to be asleep so he doesn't have to chat with the girls, because he's too awkward to be friends - but most of the time it's guilt and low self worth that keep him distant. He doesn't believe he deserves happiness because he doesn't believe he's a good person, all from his one mistake.

At his core, Shinjiro's relationship with his life is one of resignation. He took Persona suppressants for two years, and if that doesn't kill him, vengeance for the woman he killed certainly will, and he's resigned to the fact that he will die and he earned it. His friendship with the protagonist shows the way he still feels conflicted about this: while he eventually says that it's fine the way it is when he's shot and assumes he's dying (he goes into a coma), he previously tells the protagonist how important it is to have happy memories and take care of each other. He wants to leave SEES better than they were when it was just him and Akihiko and Mitsuru; he wants to go quietly into that good night knowing that the people he loves the most in the world will be okay and take care of each other. It doesn't matter what happens to him; it only matters that his people are okay.

Broadly, he is just a little awkward, socially. When he can't just snap at someone and have them scamper away, he doesn't quite know what to do - it's embarrassing to be caught caring and he genuinely doesn't know how to talk to people without his crusty shell. It's these brief moments of bumbling that crack his tough guy veneer and let just about everyone he meets see straight through him. He pretends not to notice. It's even worse if he has to hear a compliment.

Abilities: Shinji has a Persona, broadly defined in the greater Persona franchise universe as a manifestation of his soul. Unlike the later games, P3P demonstrates that Personas can be summoned in the "real world," although all summoning requires the use of an Evoker, or an old-timey looking magic gun. For his own part: Shinji is not super into his Persona due to accidentally killing someone with it, but he'll use it when needs must. His Persona is Castor, which has no offensive magic skills and as a result primarily hits really, super hard (at the cost of Shinji's HP). Its skills that do not Hit Really Hard are able to:

- give him a little HP boost on his turn
- possibly instill fear in its targets, which as a franchise game status makes foes want to run away
- charges! up! to double physical damage on the next hit

In terms of making turn-based RPG skills translate into text-based RP: he hits really hard, and his Persona is kind of scary. Its passive ability to regen HP makes him a little hardier, but the hard hitting still takes a lot out of him and his body is extremely messed up due to his two years of taking Persona suppressants, which may or may not kill him eventually.

He is also a talanted axe-wielder without his Persona. And he's a very good cook.

Inventory: His clothes, a pocket watch with a suspicious bullet wound, a cooking magazine rolled up and shoved into his coat like one would hide a dirty magazine in shame (except it's about risotto), Evoker pistol.

Samples: tdm toplevel & tdm thread

Questions: none!