Persona Upon the Grave of Guilt

""Yes, someone is getting killed... hooray for character development!""

- Zincspider

A set of form-based role plays created by ZincSpider, inspired by the Persona series of video games by Atlus. The story takes place in Quarterman, a small town of vague location. The plot takes inspiration from various RPGs, science fiction, anime, and young-adult narratives. The Breakfast Club + Teen Titans + Classic mystery and light sci-fi elements, aside from the Persona title, no knowledge of the games are needed. This might as well be named: BEAST.

BEAST. A rag-tag group of high schoolers, under the supervision of a Mr. Garret Wulfgard, battle shadows, demons, and in some ways, themselves, in order to keep their town safe. Seeing the possibility to take advantage of everyone's powers, the name BEAST is thrown together by a teammate (Sofiya) met with neutral acceptance. Every day at midnight, monsters from another world attack the city. With the unique ability to summon their "Persona" a familiar of their personality, an investigation of where the shadows come from, and what they want, drives the team forward.

The narrative steps into the dark and edgy at times as the characters experience the feelings of death and loss at the cost of their actions. But at the same time, with so many boys and girls forced to live in the same dorm, the characters balance out the story with humor that's both crazy and smart. This is about growing up, and accepting who you are and those around you.

We now have a character sheet. Please put all character-related tropes there. The current version of the game thread can be found here. The original can be found here with second leg found here.

This RP provides examples of:
"Zinc: Liza was such a large ham that she imploded into a shy, flat, little girl."
 * Adult Child: The otherwise-absent principal shows shades of this.
 * After Action Patchup: Liza and Randy pretty much have this routine down to a science.
 * Anyone Can Die: The GM says this, but only two have died so far for circumstances outside of the RP.
 * Until now that is.
 * Badass: Where do you start...
 * Badass Longcoat: Used by Randy during the first Court with apparent fireproof properties, resulting in what is probably his Crowning Moment of Awesome so far.
 * Brick Joke: During the second Friday in the Court of Miracles, the Jester proceeds to call Liza fat, causing her to stress out for a few minutes. Several pages and many weeks real time later, Randy is noted to be eating lollipops out of a bag he found in a garbage can. Liza's favourite food? Grape lollipops.
 * Cast From Hit Points: As per the game series, this is how the Personas' physical attacks work. Persona magic likewise results in dizziness and mental fatigue.
 * Colossus Climb: Pulled off twice against
 * Continuity Cameo: Various elements of the games such as established Personae, a chain-store version of Junes and even Phoenix Ranger Featherman R get mentions.
 * Cooldown Hug: Performed at least once during the initial shock at the Court of Miracles.
 * Most recently used by Liza to try and calm down Randy during his bout of depression.
 * Custom Uniform: Demonstrated by several characters.
 * Dark World: The Court of Miracles is definitely this.
 * Die or Fly: The first student encounter with shadows, also the first "boss."
 * Drinking Game: Read one of Son_of_Shadows' posts. For every ellipsis, take a shot. Die of alcohol poisoning.
 * Dude Not Funny: In-universe, Ciara's effigy of Theresa.
 * Dysfunction Junction: The cast does seem to have quite the variety of family complications.
 * Elaborate University High: Bellow High is quite the school, having its own hospital, a full sized library, and even student housing. It's public, too, funded by the Principal, Fredrick Klause.
 * Empty Shell: Those inflicted with Apathy Syndrome.
 * Enemy Without: The basic premise of the Shadow Selves.
 * Evil Counterpart: Again, the Shadow Selves.
 * Fate Worse Than Death: Apathy Syndrome, where the person becomes a vegetable- those inflicted with it include Assua, Shinai's childhood sweetheart, and most recently
 * Fire Forged Friends / Nakama: Inevitable in such a setting, really.
 * Fire Ice Lightning: Randy, Liza, and Izzy seem to form this kind of trio.
 * Five Man Band: Several have already been theorised, whether they actually come about is another matter. An example is JP, Mana, Joshua, Theresa, Russell.
 * Multi-Token Band: The player characters are notably diverse, having no fewer than two students of Japanese descent, one African, another Russian, one Irish, a Portugese student and an English-born student in addition to the usual European-American mix - no matter where Quarterman is, a good chunk of the cast consists of immigrants.
 * Free Range Children: Partially justified in that the characters are teenagers from out-of-town and Bellow High has student housing. Still, at least a few students already lived in Quarterman before attending Bellow, and any parents still remain mostly absent.
 * Garage Band: Free Candy. After becoming the Crimson Beasts they actually have an audience.
 * Get Out:
 * Groin Attack: Sofiya pulls this on Levin. Not maliciously, he's frozen in fear at the sight of  and needs to move his ass.
 * Improvised Weapon: For lack of better option, such things as a shovel and a school desk are used by students to fight the first shadow that appears. The shovel actually became a regular weapon.
 * Kid Hero: All of the students, really.
 * With the technical exceptions of Randy, Liza, JP, Joshua and Theresa, all of whom are at least 18.
 * Language of Magic: Though how it is utilized varies between players.
 * Large Ham: Any character made by Zincspider. Including Liza.


 * Laser Guided Amnesia: If you're pulled into the Court of Miracles once, survive it, and don't remember it the next day, you won't be pulled in again.
 * Leeroy Jenkins: One of the gang's tactics against the first shadow. Works out roughly how one would expect.
 * Mood Whiplash:
 * Noodle Incident: Played with. At the start of the second leg of the game, Randy's arm is broken when he decides to patrol alone. His cover story attributes it to a game of "Extreme Red Rover".
 * Real Life Writes the Plot: This is due to the fact that throughout the GM's entire life of doing stupid things, he has only broken one part of his body... and that was his arm, while playing Red Rover.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: Two people. It is common thought that the Principal is exibiting this. The other... is Zinc. Look at his posts in the Discussion thread. He looks like a damn idiot... until he gets serious. Then he begins to show how he's kept his game going on as long as it has.
 * Now or Never Kiss: Between
 * Parental Abandonment: About half the characters have some form of this.
 * Phantom Zone: Persona seem to only be available to summon during the Court of Miracles, and any damage to physical property incurred during that time is repaired when the world returns to normal.
 * Put On a Bus: The current solution for handling inactive characters and cleaning up the roster between phases of the game.
 * Punched Across the Room: Randy gets flung across the grounds when
 * Running Gag: Several, both in-universe and amongst the writers, such as the Game Master misspelling a certain handle in at least two different ways.
 * Sadistic Choice:
 * Shout Out: Plenty, specifically to various anime and games. The GM seems to be particularly fond of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
 * The Court of Miracles happens to take a certain little something from a Disney Movie.
 * Summon Magic: It is, after all, a Persona game.
 * Taking the Bullet: Randy seems to be fond of this, his most recent example having him save Miyuki from  Zio spell... just in time to get electrocuted.
 * Testosterone Poisoning: A book owned by Randy named 'Bleeding Testosterone' features an impossibly buff man ripping a shark in half on the cover, and claims to be able to teach the secrets of killing a bear with its own hands. Oh, and it's written by a Mick 'Danger' Smooth
 * Thanatos Gambit: Back when the RP was still in it's first stage, it was begining to slow down after 300 posts. It seemed like it would soon whither and die. Zinc's answer to this? End the session, let everyone know it was nothing more than a prologue, and proceed to open up a new session hoping to get everyone excited again. Results? It worked.
 * The Maze: Mirror variety created by
 * Time Skip: A two-month long one after the events of Overpowering Past.
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Ciara looooooooves chocolate, while Liza is fond of grape lolipops.
 * Joshua's also pretty fond of Dr. Pepper, though that's more of a Trademark Favourite Drink.
 * Three Teacher School: The only staff shown are homeroom teachers and/or directly involved with the Court of Miracles. The only exception is the principal, who has made exactly one brief appearance.
 * Took a Level In Badass: Besides the obvious gain upon being initially equipped with magic, weaponry and summoning ability, most if not all returning characters showed a significant jump in skill between the first and second phases of the game.
 * There is an even greater jump in skill during the two-month time skip between the second and third phases.
 * Wake Up Go to School Save The World: Naturally for a Persona-based game.
 * Weapon of Choice: Everyone has their own, with a surprising variety and very few repeats. Examples vary from Randy's shovel to a simple shield.
 * Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys: Wulfgard has in his possession a sizable stash of weaponry, medieval and otherwise. No word yet on why he has these.
 * Where the Hell Is Springfield: Quarterman's location has been kept intentionally ambiguous by the GM. The common theory is that it's located somewhere in the United States.
 * World of Badass: Pretty much every player character has a Badass moment.
 * Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Used by Joshua to kill one of  minions.
 * You Are Fat: Used by the Jester to make Liza insecure. It worked, causing her to contemplate her waistline in the middle of battle, and throw out her supply of grape lollipops.
 * You Are Fat: Used by the Jester to make Liza insecure. It worked, causing her to contemplate her waistline in the middle of battle, and throw out her supply of grape lollipops.