мαуα αмαησ ❥ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
heartboobs) wrote2013-10-05 09:49 am
heartboobs) wrote2013-10-05 09:49 am
Entry tags:
city of ariel app
→ OOC
□ Name: Ginko
□ Age: 18+!
□ Contact:
silmeria, or any others of mine□ Journal:
silmeria / reserved with heartboobs□ Do you play anyone in Ariel?: N/A
→ IC
□ Name: Maya Amano
□ Journal:
heartboobs□ Series: Persona 2
□ Canon point: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, just after meeting up with Kei Nanjo and Eriko/Ellen Kirishima for the first time
□ History: here, here, and here [Last two links are to fansites, but very informative as far as background history goes. Any extra needed information can likely be found through these three sites.]
□ Personality: Much of the person Maya Amano is is obvious, or will be within seconds of meeting her. She's cheerful, almost always wearing a smile, naturally beautiful. Positive-thinking and optimistic -- the reporter's diehard motto itself is "Let's think positive!" -- she doesn't make it a habit to linger on regrets or entertain the negative. At the age of 23, she already pursues her life’s goals with passion, serving as a gutsy journalist wholeheartedly devoted to her magazine job. Maya is a bright, supportive force lifting up the spirits of those around her and encouraging them to face their own struggles with the same positivity, strength, and drive to accomplish their dreams she has, though these characteristics are hardly all there is to her.
What drives Maya inside is complex and simple at the same time, obvious and not so obvious, something that's been with her from childhood. To start with, family is important to her, and as an extension of that, close friends are as well. The untimely death of a journalist father who wasn’t home as often as his daughter prayed for ensured that balancing a loving family alongside a rewarding occupation would be a central aim of Maya's, and in many ways, this is what she sees as her ultimate goal, a top dream of all dreams to someday meet. In Persona 2: Innocent Sin, she gladly dons the mantle of “Big Sis” for a masked group of misfit youngsters, forming an incredibly strong familial bond with them shortly after her father's passing. With Eternal Punishment's cast, there's no past history or obligation to act older than she is, but even the adults around her steadily become far more than mere acquaintances to her over time. For Maya, who's perceived as "family" isn't limited to blood. To a greater extent than she might reveal normally, dreams are important to Maya, and they're another key factor in what causes her to live life how she does: her career in the journalism field was chosen because it's able to expose the truths of society with pride, highlighting the hopes, dreams, and struggles of people. Because she knows how tough it can be to pursue a dream (after all, her father died pursuing his), she wants to work to help others achieve with pleasant outcomes, to “be a reporter who passes down dreams to everyone." Finally, optimism and good will are important to her. Due in no small part to her father’s influence and his gift of a stuffed rabbit doll named Mr. Bunbun designed to dry her tears as a girl, Maya believes it's important to smile, especially when you’d rather scream or cry instead. Regret, revenge, anger, jealousy, spite, selfishness, ignorance-- acting out of those emotions is often a shame in her eyes, using up energy better spent on something more positive and purposeful. Out of anything else, in fact, it is blatant disregard for life itself that really triggers her anger. In Innocent Sin, Ixquic’s indifference to dying earns true scolding, and Maya doesn’t stop until the girl’s realized a healthier perspective. At the moment of her own death, Maya urges Tatsuya and the others to forget about her, so they won't be sad and let their mourning hold themselves back from continuing to live on. As a whole, Maya is powered by very easy to understand concepts, but she gives much complex consideration and care to what she chooses to believe, and more importantly, what she chooses to do.
The events of Innocent Sin and Eternal Punishment make this clear. At the start of her respective journeys, Maya is much the same: a reporter/journalist hot on the trail of a story, she finds herself embroiled in something far greater. It doesn't take long for her personality, responsibility, and natural inclination for involvement to shape her into an integral part of the chain of events from there, and although Tatsuya Suou is the assumed "leader" in Innocent Sin, it is almost always Maya who actually directs and guides everyone from the background. On several occasions, such as the party's trek through a locked underground bomb shelter manifested in a high school by the power of rumors, it’s her optimism and nigh-boundless positivity that keep her companions on track, and it's Maya, not Tatsuya, who orchestrates the stunning rescue in the Sky Museum. In Eternal Punishment, Maya is the unofficial, unnamed leader of the group from the very beginning, and she's obviously well-suited to the demands of that role even in this timeline. Without her consistent strength, it's doubtful things ever could have advanced, as completely or as well.
Maya also undergoes major growth throughout the course of the two games. Although she's mature and intelligent from the beginning, positive and outgoing but with a very sensible head on her shoulders, she's not immune from lacking in a few obvious (if also understandable) ways. In Innocent Sin, her longtime phobia of fire and victimization by an arsonist stalker are enough to send her into a trembling, crying mess at the mere hint or sight of either, something that's a problem when said arsonist is a major antagonist. In Eternal Punishment, she throws herself headlong into pursuing a murderer and other supernatural phenomena without ever really understanding what's going on at first. In both cases, Maya overcomes her shortcomings spectacularly when push comes to shove, enough to save schoolchildren from the burning, multi-story Sky Museum when it goes down in flames and take responsibility for fixing world-changing mistakes. She is not without her failings -- she uses the rumor system to her advantage before she realizes all the horror it can cause, for example -- but she accepts those trip-ups for what they are and moves on with her best foot forward. It's not inaccurate to say that Maya's one of the more static or consistent characters in Persona 2; then again, she also doesn't start out with as much to change. Chiefly as a result of regaining her memories, she slowly comes to take on a familiar motherly or "big sis" role that, to say the least, proves a giant boon to her and her companions. This ties in excellently with her strong will, big heart, bravery, and independence, and in many a case what's most significant about Maya is how she serves as a constant source of encouragement and care for others, only becoming more so, not less, with time. When it boils down to pure confidence, Maya is second to none, and plenty of people can rely on someone like that.
This is especially true of the individuals in Persona 2 that either find themselves drawn to Maya or fight by her side as an ally. They all have their own problems-- Katsuya, for example, is a worrywart police detective absorbed with concerns about his brother and challenging the justice system he's been so loyal to, Eikichi deals with multiple issues connected to his self-image, and Ulala is down on herself and too focused on finding a man. In stark contrast, Maya seems perpetually okay with the type of person she is and the life she lives, working to only do more and help others along the way. It would be natural to think that she'd try to act as a positive force of change in her friends' lives, and this is in fact what she does. The relationships significant to her are almost too numerous to count, but their dynamics all follow along this common thread, given also that she tends to portray as a motherly/big sister figure to younger characters (such as the four teenagers) and is more on the level of equals with her adult peers, but no less inspiring compared to them. She encourages Eikichi to stand strong as the person he is, playfully urges Lisa on in her quest to become a woman Tatsuya can admire, lightens up Katsuya and doesn't trample on his romantic feelings for her even if she doesn't return them, reminds Ulala of her value and how her life is her own, and helps Baofu come to grips with his past. Her connections with Tatsuya Suou and Jun Kurosu/Kashihara bear special mention no matter which part of canon she's drawn from.
From a young age, Jun, Tatsuya, and Maya hit it off remarkably well. It wasn't uncommon at all for the two boys, setting off from the same apartment complex, to sneak over to where Maya lived late in the day and long past the hour when the three of them also played with Lisa and Eikichi. Here, no masks to disguise their faces to each other were worn, and Maya, in addition to taking on that role of a motherly and supportive Big Sis, was the first to notice the strong bond between Tatsuya and Jun and label it as something of "doppelgangers". Years later, it would be this same bond that would help draw Jun out of his role as Joker and reforge his important relationships with both his childhood friends and Tatsuya, postponing the end of the world while giving everyone a fighting chance to stop it. But even when Tatsuya doesn't enter into the picture, Jun's closeness with Maya just on its own is practically enough to halt the inevitable. With an absentee and ignorant mother in Innocent Sin's timeline, Jun adopted a young Maya as his "mama" figure instead, and the two obviously developed a good rapport, bonding over topics like poetry and the language of flowers. He would do anything for Maya -- Joker itself was an entity partially created to seek revenge for her perceived death -- and likewise, she would do anything for him. She's the initial member of the group to suspect Joker as someone familiar and even mourn for him, and it's her reassurances and kind words that help Jun begin to forgive himself and live on in the only way he can, inasmuch as he's able to. In short, with Jun, Maya most closely takes on the role of a mother/big sister and takes it on gladly, and so powerful is their bond that it sees them through tremendous hurdles. When Maya dies, Jun is the first to commit to losing his memories forever so that she may live again.
It could be no surprise that Maya's relationship with Tatsuya is just as strong, and it is. Throughout Innocent Sin, Maya changes from an attractive and boisterous but otherwise stranger of a reporter to someone the main protagonist can truly connect with on a higher level: like with Jun, she's motherly, a big sister figure, supportive, and prone to guidance. Maya is often there to pick up Tatsuya's slack while he leads the group, and when she herself encounters a rough moment, he's well-equipped to bring her back with his quiet but firm contrast. She helps him open up to his friends, stay strong in his convictions, and believe in himself enough to pursue the best choices, whether it's for his life or the situation of the moment. He comforts her when she's fallen victim to her phobia, cautions her to calm down when confronting Sudou, and follows her advice. The pain Tatsuya feels at her death is much the same as the pain any of the four teenagers feel, and as Eternal Punishment goes on to show, the young man shoulders an enormous amount of guilt and danger to keep Maya safe. Part of this is because he regrets inadvertently renegading on his promise to forget his memories, of course -- giving Nyarlathotep the means to destroy the world in the process -- but his resolve is heightened when it comes to Maya: he'll do anything for her, he has a deep obligation to her, and one of his most important tasks is to ensure the woman so wrongly robbed of her life on the "Other Side" doesn't end up dying again. While it ultimately falls in Maya's (and her crew of adults') hands to fix the mess Tatsuya set in motion, this isn't seen as an annoyance to her and doesn't lessen the significance of his devotion. Maya's complicated feelings towards Tatsuya earn both true tears and true determination from her many times, and after reliving her time with him in Innocent Sin and growing close with the "Deja Vu Boy" once more in Eternal Punishment only to lose him forever, he remains a major sticking point in her mind. Tatsuya colliding into Maya gives him his memories back in the first place and changes her life irrevocably from that point, and Maya watching Tatsuya continue on draws their shared story to a close.
As expected, Maya is not without her additional little idiosyncrasies, either. Some of these are simple, almost comical alongside her self-sufficient and mature aura: defying expectations, she’s a horrible driver, can’t cook to save her life, regularly leaves her room a pigsty, and depends on her roommate and best friend, Ulala Serizawa, for most matters of daily living. She fails to hold grudges against the exact people she should sometimes; near the end of Innocent Sin, Maya insults Nyarlathotep as one of the most despicable individuals she’s ever met, only to be told her and her big heart will forgive anyone. In Eternal Punishment, she's later completely honest when she refuses to say she hates him, instead admitting she's just sad. Much as she tries to keep up appearances to the contrary, even Maya doesn't have unlimited energy and strength of mind. She can be oblivious to her own deficiencies -- in taking care of herself as an adult, for example, or with her disinterest in nabbing a single date when marrying and having a family is a life goal -- and she tends to close up her more personal issues as the default, to the extent that it’s not until one of the very last cutscenes in Innocent Sin that the party learns about Maya’s tragic history with her father that's been affecting her all along. She’s also bubbly, scatterbrained (bumping into other passersby on sidewalks as a matter of course), a fan of playing video games, reading manga, and watching sentai shows, and slightly more invested in eating than anything else when there's food in front of her. Yes, including at matchmaking parties when she's supposed to be mingling with the men!
Overall, Maya appreciates what some might see as fanciful values, but is smart, mature, skilled, and quirky enough to evidence the power of what she believes in to both anyone around her and the world itself. There are few types of people who would willingly consent to undergo a dangerous adventure against humanity’s greatest nemesis; she does it not just once, but twice, and with a smile on her face each time. It’s very possible life in Sumaru City wouldn’t exist the way it does at the end of Eternal Punishment without her having entered into the equation. Ultimately, Maya is best pictured as the strong woman taking on the “innocent sins” of Tatsuya and the others while enduring the “eternal punishment” of remaining the only person, in the end, who suffers the most so nobody else has to suffer as much. She loses her life, and almost loses it several more times. She loses her dear friends and substitute younger siblings forever, and is doomed to silently recall the closeness they once shared whenever she sees them out on the streets. For Maya, however, the indescribable hurt she experiences is more than worth it, as long as everyone important to her is happy and her world is safe.
□ Age: 23
□ Gender: Female
□ Appearance: Maya is a naturally pretty, typical young adult Japanese woman in almost every way. She doesn't make it a habit to wear a lot of makeup (she's horrible at applying it!), but it's not uncommon for her to paint her fingernails. She has shoulder-length black hair simple in style that easily keeps its shape, and a very curvy figure with good height-- running jokes in canon often have Maya commenting on the large size of her breasts. Maya doesn't have much of a mind for fashion and wearing outfits like her standard one (pictured on the history link pages above with knee-high boots, a skirt, and shirt complete with, yes, two hearts over her chest) is par for the course, even if she may realize they're a little flashy or cheap. From her canon point, she would likely have a consistent bruise mark near the center of her chest [link] that acts up sometimes and brings her significant discomfort.
□ Abilities/Powers: Maya has the power of Persona, which means she can summon spiritual entities known as Personas, or different sides of one's self designed to overcome hardship, to her aid. Her main Personas include Maia and Artemis, and for the purposes of Ariel and considering her canon point, Maia Custom would probably be the Persona she initially has access to. If she powers up over time, Artemis could be a future possibility.
Each Persona has various spells available to them. Maia Custom's include the following:
- Hama: A holy-elemental spell with a small chance of instant death or rendering one enemy unconscious.
- Invitation to Sleep: Lulls a group of enemies to slumber.
- Scratch: Weak, strike-based attack. What it sounds like.
- Maha Aques: Moderate amount of water-elemental damage (not too weak, not too strong) upon a group of foes.
- Mediarama: Restores a moderate amount (not too little, nor too much) of a group of her allies' health. Likely heals wounds and refreshes vitality.
- Multi Dimension: Another instant kill/send unconscious spell, although with no elemental type.
- Recarm: Revives an unconscious or seemingly dead ally, also restoring a small amount of health to them.
Aside from her Persona powers, Maya is skilled in fighting with two twin pink handguns. She likely doesn't have any extensive marksmanship training to speak of, but knows her way around them well enough when it comes to maneuvering and attacking.
□ Personal Items:
- one of her trademark pink handguns
- the clothing she came with-- a pair of boots, shirt/coat, skirt, and some kind of crazy bra and panties
- her small stuffed bunny memento, Mr. Bunbun
- her recording equipment for interviews (a tape recorder plus microphone carried in a briefcase)
- a book of poetry of hers, containing Der Doppelgänger
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zodion! Let me know if you'd like to see something else.]□ First Person Sample: Network post and thread replies.
□ Third Person Sample: Intro log starter to a player-led event.