— Spoilers for Persona 3 up to October 4th all up in here. —
Normal Memories
1. There are memories that are always meant to flow together. They're flashes of moments, like frames of film, most only seconds long, but irrevocably tied together like string without a knot. The memories are of he and Akihiko playing at the orphanage or at the Naganaki shrine at various ages. In mornings. Evenings. Snow. Rain. Sun. All of them are good and differ from one another very little. They're happy and carefree. It's like nothing could possibly go wrong, and they have all the days in their infinite immortal lifetimes to be this way. Sometimes Miki, Aki's younger sister, joins the memories too, like a quiet ghost. She's a shy girl, and Shinjiro wants to look after her, like a brother should even if he's not one, but in the end, she doesn't need much watching. Aki needs more looking-after than Miki ever does. He's a bit weird, and everyone knows it, though Shinji's never called Aki weird to his face, and he can't say he cares so long as Aki doesn't hurt himself. And someone has to make sure that doesn't happen so Shinjiro sticks by him and looks after him and indulges (and happily participates in) all his little games (most of the time), and if Aki hasn't torn his shirt off by the time he's catapulted down the damn slide like some kind of oiled fish with lightening for blood, Shinjiro knows he's not being competitive enough for his idiotic standards.
2. Miki doesn't have any friends, so one day, Shinjiro steals one for her. It's a toy, a doll, that he takes effortlessly from a nearby toy store. He feels a little guilty about it because he's stealing, and he's more than old enough to know that it's wrong. But there are other things that are pretty wrong with how the world works: it's wrong that Miki should have to go without just because she doesn't have parents anymore and the orphanage is poor. So, in his mind, he's just fixing an injustice because he knows it will make Miki happy. However, before he can even give the doll to her, Aki's found out about it. And Aki's idea of what's right and wrong are different from his, because as soon as he realizes what Shinjiro's done, he beats him up for it. Beats the crap out of him even though they're only young kids—seven. Shinjiro thinks about fighting back, almost, except Aki's crying, tears rolling down his face like he intends to drown Shinjiro in them. That hurts more than the punches do, so he lays back and takes it. They return the doll together. Shinjiro never steals again.
3. There's a certain solemnness to this memory. Shinjiro's eight years old. He and Aki are dressed in black, in clothes that are old and don't fit either of them well, and both are leaning against the wall of the building that's not the orphanage—because the orphanage doesn't exist any more. Aki's been crying, but the tears are gone, and he says that he wishes that he were stronger, because if he were stronger, things like this wouldn't happen. There's a pause, and Shinjiro suddenly realizes he can't be who he is now anymore. Shinjiro needs to be stronger, too, and he thinks he knows what he has to do and who he needs to be. So they promise to become stronger together, no matter how long it takes or what sacrifices it requires.
4.The Chairman told Shinjiro that he didn't have much potential. Shinjiro can't say he gives a damn what the Chairman says (he can't even make a decent pun, let alone seem competent, don't matter what his IQ is when you like to act like an idiot), and has taken to making a very quiet, stubborn nuisance of himself within the almost-empty dorm building that the Kirijo family owns and Aki now lives in. Shinjiro's been in the Dark Hour just like they have, and he can't leave Aki to it alone. Finally, after what seems like weeks of waiting, Mitsuru comes down the stairs and hands him something that resembles a gun: an Evoker. Aki acts like he's just gotten the best news of his life. Shinjiro just wants to buy a very short leash.
5.Shinjiro is 17, and drawn to the sound of rough-talking going on at the back alley he frequents now, though says little because he'd rather keep to himself. What he finds when he ventures over doesn't surprise him, especially once the encounter is done with and he's given time to mull the whole stupid thing over. It's like some sort of joke, really. The "what happens when three idiots walk into a bar" type of deal. Except this is Tatsumi Port Island's back alley and he's not laughing. They shouldn't be here. But he'll take care of it.
6.It takes time, needling and resolve, but soon the planning is done, the ingredients are set, and he'll only have Fuuka to watch and manage like a hawk, though she's improving when she bothers to focus and pay attention. He can handle that with his own rough sort of patience. The rest will come easy. Even so, it's easier to feed people than be around them, because they say unnecessary things (like, "thank you, this is delicious) that they should keep to themselves. By the end of it, the evening wasn't nearly as bad (it wasn't at all) as he'd like to pretend. He's forgotten how simple it is to make people happy.
7.He just wants to hear Minako talk. It doesn't matter about what, really. He's not much of a conversation piece, so it doesn't really matter. It helps him get his mind off things, except now it's working less and less, but at least it looks like she's enjoying her life like she should be. That's important to him, somehow. He wishes he could find a way to not ruin it, but he can't think of one. Nothing stays normal for very long. He can't make her forget him, and he doesn't expect her to forgive him for what's probably going to happen. But he's not going to fight what's fair. He just hopes she'll keep smiling, because he'd like her to. Just like he wants all the others to forget him and move on, so maybe he can stop worrying about them. He doesn't want to leave anything behind, doubts or regrets, but he's not doing a very good job.
Important Memories
1. The air is filled with smoke and fire and flakes of falling embers. The orphanage is a roaring inferno of flame: it's devouring their home from the inside out. Aki's yelling and crying and fighting with every last ounce of energy he has, a mess of struggling limbs and wide grey eyes. One of the orphanage workers is holding Aki back, keeping him from running back inside. Aki has already yelled himself hoarse, but Shinjiro has fallen completely silent. Watching. He feels numb. He already knows there's nothing he can do. Miki's in there, but Shinjiro's old enough to know that she's probably dead. He hopes she is, because he doesn't want to imagine her alive in there, scared and alone. He hopes that she's gone and that the fire never had a chance to touch her.
2. The night starts off as any other, edging into the hidden Dark Hour like clockwork even though the watch hands have stopped counting the seconds. The three of them have chased down an irregular Shadow, tracking it to a house in Port Island's back alley, in the cheap housing there.
That's the only normal part of the night. After that, everything goes wrong.
The woman inside the house is awake but something's off, because the Shadow's there but something still isn't right because the woman's not acting half how she should. There's something said about a kid, and Shinji thinks he can't let the Shadow move further inside, because he can't let it harm a little kid. And then, suddenly, something inside him snaps, and his head feels like it's splitting open. He hears someone yelling, but doesn't realize the yelling is coming from him as he tries to hold the pressure in his head back, but he can't. He can't hold it back, because it hurts too much. He sees the little kid then and Castor just tears out of him and there's not a damn thing he can do. Nothing Aki can do and nothing that Mitsuru can do. All he can do is hear Castor's screams and watch the Persona continue on his wild, berserk rampage through the room in a whirlwind of uncontrolled power. Things break and the house is torn apart. Castor stops only when the Shadow is dead, until there's not even wisps of dark to remember its presence by, then he disappears as abruptly as a nightmare.
But the Shadow isn't the only thing that's dead. The woman is dead too. He can tell because he just knows and her body's broken, arms thrown over the little kid in a final effort to protect him, because even if she wasn't all there, she was still a mother in the end. And now she's dead and it's all his fault and nothing can possibly make any of this better. He wishes he were dead. Or that he'd wake up. But nightmares don't get as bad as this.
Shinjiro does. Of course he does. He hasn't been able to forget. He came to this place to die; he hasn't come here to live.
And by the end, when he's lying in a pool of his own blood and struggling to breathe under the night's dark green sky (still darkening), he finds that everything is (finally) as it should be.
(He told her, though, not to cry.)
4. When she says "I love you," it's not that he doesn't believe her, or that he doesn't feel the same. It's that she shouldn't, and neither should he.
Character Quirks:
His speech is blunt, abrasive, and direct to try to distance himself from other people, and make sure they stay distant from him, even with friends, even though he worries after their well-being. Uses "tch" in conversations, and expletives are common.
Holds in his emotions in favor of a rougher presentation. Pretends he doesn't care.
Fond of animals (especially dogs).
Enjoys cooking and watches cooking shows and reads cooking magazines. Really hated carrots as a child.
Has a mountain full of guilt and self-worth issues. Prefers not to "lie." Would rather just not answer or evade a question.
Cautious and stubborn. Tends to scold and call out people who do things that could potentially harm their well-being. Nags people he cares for about eating healthy.
Gets easily embarrassed and flustered over things like being thanked or appreciated, and hates being in the limelight.
Mundane Skills: Cooking. Very street-savvy. Unique Skills: Is able to use axes (or any blunt-force weapon like hammers) proficiently. Advanced Persona knowledge and use (including Evokers).
Shinjiro Aragaki [OU] & Yarne [OU]
Character's Name: Shinjiro Aragaki [OU] (Persona 3 Portable) —
Exchanging With: Yarne [OU] (Fire Emblem: Awakening) —
— Spoilers for Persona 3 up to October 4th all up in here. —
Normal Memories
1. There are memories that are always meant to flow together. They're flashes of moments, like frames of film, most only seconds long, but irrevocably tied together like string without a knot. The memories are of he and Akihiko playing at the orphanage or at the Naganaki shrine at various ages. In mornings. Evenings. Snow. Rain. Sun. All of them are good and differ from one another very little. They're happy and carefree. It's like nothing could possibly go wrong, and they have all the days in their infinite immortal lifetimes to be this way. Sometimes Miki, Aki's younger sister, joins the memories too, like a quiet ghost. She's a shy girl, and Shinjiro wants to look after her, like a brother should even if he's not one, but in the end, she doesn't need much watching. Aki needs more looking-after than Miki ever does. He's a bit weird, and everyone knows it, though Shinji's never called Aki weird to his face, and he can't say he cares so long as Aki doesn't hurt himself. And someone has to make sure that doesn't happen so Shinjiro sticks by him and looks after him and indulges (and happily participates in) all his little games (
most of the time), and if Aki hasn't torn his shirt off by the time he's catapulted down the damn slide like some kind of oiled fish with lightening for blood, Shinjiro knows he's not being competitive enough for his idiotic standards.2. Miki doesn't have any friends, so one day, Shinjiro steals one for her. It's a toy, a doll, that he takes effortlessly from a nearby toy store. He feels a little guilty about it because he's stealing, and he's more than old enough to know that it's wrong. But there are other things that are pretty wrong with how the world works: it's wrong that Miki should have to go without just because she doesn't have parents anymore and the orphanage is poor. So, in his mind, he's just fixing an injustice because he knows it will make Miki happy. However, before he can even give the doll to her, Aki's found out about it. And Aki's idea of what's right and wrong are different from his, because as soon as he realizes what Shinjiro's done, he beats him up for it. Beats the crap out of him even though they're only young kids—seven. Shinjiro thinks about fighting back, almost, except Aki's crying, tears rolling down his face like he intends to drown Shinjiro in them. That hurts more than the punches do, so he lays back and takes it. They return the doll together. Shinjiro never steals again.
3. There's a certain solemnness to this memory. Shinjiro's eight years old. He and Aki are dressed in black, in clothes that are old and don't fit either of them well, and both are leaning against the wall of the building that's not the orphanage—because the orphanage doesn't exist any more. Aki's been crying, but the tears are gone, and he says that he wishes that he were stronger, because if he were stronger, things like this wouldn't happen. There's a pause, and Shinjiro suddenly realizes he can't be who he is now anymore. Shinjiro needs to be stronger, too, and he thinks he knows what he has to do and who he needs to be. So they promise to become stronger together, no matter how long it takes or what sacrifices it requires.
4. The Chairman told Shinjiro that he didn't have much potential. Shinjiro can't say he gives a damn what the Chairman says (he can't even make a decent pun, let alone seem competent, don't matter what his IQ is when you like to act like an idiot), and has taken to making a very quiet, stubborn nuisance of himself within the almost-empty dorm building that the Kirijo family owns and Aki now lives in. Shinjiro's been in the Dark Hour just like they have, and he can't leave Aki to it alone. Finally, after what seems like weeks of waiting, Mitsuru comes down the stairs and hands him something that resembles a gun: an Evoker. Aki acts like he's just gotten the best news of his life. Shinjiro just wants to buy a very short leash.
5. Shinjiro is 17, and drawn to the sound of rough-talking going on at the back alley he frequents now, though says little because he'd rather keep to himself. What he finds when he ventures over doesn't surprise him, especially once the encounter is done with and he's given time to mull the whole stupid thing over. It's like some sort of joke, really. The "what happens when three idiots walk into a bar" type of deal. Except this is Tatsumi Port Island's back alley and he's not laughing. They shouldn't be here. But he'll take care of it.
6. It takes time, needling and resolve, but soon the planning is done, the ingredients are set, and he'll only have Fuuka to watch and manage like a hawk, though she's improving when she bothers to focus and pay attention. He can handle that with his own rough sort of patience. The rest will come easy. Even so, it's easier to feed people than be around them, because they say unnecessary things (like, "thank you, this is delicious) that they should keep to themselves. By the end of it, the evening wasn't nearly as bad (it wasn't at all) as he'd like to pretend. He's forgotten how simple it is to make people happy.
7. He just wants to hear Minako talk. It doesn't matter about what, really. He's not much of a conversation piece, so it doesn't really matter. It helps him get his mind off things, except now it's working less and less, but at least it looks like she's enjoying her life like she should be. That's important to him, somehow. He wishes he could find a way to not ruin it, but he can't think of one. Nothing stays normal for very long. He can't make her forget him, and he doesn't expect her to forgive him for what's probably going to happen. But he's not going to fight what's fair. He just hopes she'll keep smiling, because he'd like her to. Just like he wants all the others to forget him and move on, so maybe he can stop worrying about them. He doesn't want to leave anything behind, doubts or regrets, but he's not doing a very good job.
Important Memories
1. The air is filled with smoke and fire and flakes of falling embers. The orphanage is a roaring inferno of flame: it's devouring their home from the inside out. Aki's yelling and crying and fighting with every last ounce of energy he has, a mess of struggling limbs and wide grey eyes. One of the orphanage workers is holding Aki back, keeping him from running back inside. Aki has already yelled himself hoarse, but Shinjiro has fallen completely silent. Watching. He feels numb. He already knows there's nothing he can do. Miki's in there, but Shinjiro's old enough to know that she's probably dead. He hopes she is, because he doesn't want to imagine her alive in there, scared and alone. He hopes that she's gone and that the fire never had a chance to touch her.
2. The night starts off as any other, edging into the hidden Dark Hour like clockwork even though the watch hands have stopped counting the seconds. The three of them have chased down an irregular Shadow, tracking it to a house in Port Island's back alley, in the cheap housing there.
That's the only normal part of the night. After that, everything goes wrong.
The woman inside the house is awake but something's off, because the Shadow's there but something still isn't right because the woman's not acting half how she should. There's something said about a kid, and Shinji thinks he can't let the Shadow move further inside, because he can't let it harm a little kid. And then, suddenly, something inside him snaps, and his head feels like it's splitting open. He hears someone yelling, but doesn't realize the yelling is coming from him as he tries to hold the pressure in his head back, but he can't. He can't hold it back, because it hurts too much. He sees the little kid then and Castor just tears out of him and there's not a damn thing he can do. Nothing Aki can do and nothing that Mitsuru can do. All he can do is hear Castor's screams and watch the Persona continue on his wild, berserk rampage through the room in a whirlwind of uncontrolled power. Things break and the house is torn apart. Castor stops only when the Shadow is dead, until there's not even wisps of dark to remember its presence by, then he disappears as abruptly as a nightmare.
But the Shadow isn't the only thing that's dead. The woman is dead too. He can tell because he just knows and her body's broken, arms thrown over the little kid in a final effort to protect him, because even if she wasn't all there, she was still a mother in the end. And now she's dead and it's all his fault and nothing can possibly make any of this better. He wishes he were dead. Or that he'd wake up. But nightmares don't get as bad as this.
3. Ken says, "Do you know why I asked you to meet me here?"
Shinjiro does. Of course he does. He hasn't been able to forget. He came to this place to die; he hasn't come here to live.
And by the end, when he's lying in a pool of his own blood and struggling to breathe under the night's dark green sky (still darkening), he finds that everything is (finally) as it should be.
(He told her, though, not to cry.)
4. When she says "I love you," it's not that he doesn't believe her, or that he doesn't feel the same. It's that she shouldn't, and neither should he.
Character Quirks:
Mundane Skills: Cooking. Very street-savvy.
Unique Skills: Is able to use axes (or any blunt-force weapon like hammers) proficiently. Advanced Persona knowledge and use (including Evokers).