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Your Name: Moot
Your Age: 17
Your LJ: moot
E-Mail: tomethyfurse[at]gmail[dot]com
Instant Messenger: eternal faptain (AIM)
Other Characters Played in Absolute Threshold: n/a

Character: Minato Arisato
Series: Persona 3
Timeline: after he goes to sleep in Aigis' lap at the end of 'The Journey.'
Wiki Us a Bio/History: spoilers abound


Elaborate, if necessary:

P3 UNIVERSE

Before explaining Minato's history, I have to explain a little bit (read: a lot) about the Persona 3 universe. (I guess it goes without saying, but MASSIVE SPOILERS AHEAD.) It's revealed that an event known as The Fall is predicted to happen, in which the goddess of the night - Nyx - will be summoned, by humanity's collective desire for death, to bring about the end of the world.. The game centers around defeating Shadows, which are huamn-borne manifestations of negative emotions. They use their power to call Nyx to bring about the Fall, so that the lives they were created from, and in turn their suffering, will end.

In 1999, the scientific research group called the Kirijo Group were alerted of the Shadows' existence and began attempts to channel Shadows' power. Upon learning about the Fall, many of the scientists accepted it as the natural end of the world, and thought of it as deliverance; with that in mind, they began working toward collecting Shadows in an attempt to reawaken Nyx's harbinger, Death. They succeeded in awakening Death, but before the experiment could be completed, one of the lead scientists halted all proceedings, causing Death to be separated into fourteen powerful shadows each representing an Arcana. Death, the thirteenth shadow, was still its main body. Due to the disruption of Death, the Dark Hour was created: a twenty-fifth hour in the day during which normal humans transmogrify into coffins to protect themselves, and Shadows are free roam about inside a gigantic building called Tartarus which had grown out of the Kirijo Group's destroyed laboratory.

Back in 1999, the still-incomplete Death managed to escape from the laboratory. In order to halt its progress, a sentient anti-shadow weapon named Aigis was deployed to destroy it. Death was much stronger than Aigis, and she couldn't hope to fully defeat it. As a last-ditch effort to weaken it, she sealed part of Death within the body of a boy whose family had died as a result of the battle - and that boy was Minato Arisato.

EARLY HISTORY

Nothing much is known about Minato's childhood other than the fact that his parents were killed as a result of the battle between Aigis and Death, and that part of Death was sealed within him at a very young age. Ostensibly, he was brought up in an orphanage in Japan, leading a relatively normal life. At about age 17, he was invited to study as a transfer student at Gekkoukan High School, and that's where the game begins.

PERSONA 3 HISTORY

Minato's first conscious experience with the Dark Hour came on his trip to the co-ed dormitory of Gekkoukan, where he would live during the next year. He first realized that something was amiss when his ever-present headphones stopped functioning and the people around him transmogrified into coffins. He seemed to dust it off and continue his trip. When he reached the dorm, a strange young boy presented him with a signing book and told Minato to sign his name. After he agreed and signed his name, the boy disappeared and he was faced with a girl named Yukari Takeba holding a gun. As he would soon learn, it was no ordinary gun: it was an Evoker, fired at the user's head to summon a Persona used to fight Shadows. That night, the members of S.E.E.S. - Special Extracurricular Execution Squad - were under attack from a large shadow that was outside its normal realm of Tartarus. It came to attack the dormitory, and Yukari and Minato found themselves stuck on the roof of the dorm, surrounded by shadows. The strange young boy from before appeared and encouraged Minato to use an Evoker. Minato summoned up the strength to fire it at his head, and instead of his brains being blown out, a Persona appeared. Minato's initial Persona, Orpheus, defeated the shadow, and all was well - for a while.

Upon Minato's discovery of his unique ability to summon not only one Persona, but multiple Personas, he was asked to join SEES, and he accepted. SEES was founded as a way to gather people who could summon Personas; their goal was to fight and destroy shadows. At the beginning of the game, the team was comprised of three high school students: Yukari Takeba, Mitsuru Kirijo, and Akihiko Sanada. Soon after Minato's entrance, another student named Junpei Iori joined. They would venture into Tartarus almost nightly, fighting the weaker shadows that lurked there and trying to make their way to the top, hoping that getting to the top of the tower would reveal more about the nature of Tartarus and the Dark Hour. Within a few months, they discovered that every few floors, there was a block put in place, and the only way to dissolve that block was to defeat one of twelve shadows born from Death's dissolution. One of those shadows appeared outside of Tartarus each full moon, and under the direction of Shuji Ikutsuki, the dorm's chairman, SEES was dispatched to destroy them.

Of course, despite his important job of battling shadows, Minato still had to attend school. He went to classes, took exams, joined sports teams, attended after-school clubs and was a member of the student council. He made plenty of friends, and with each new friend, he established a Social Link, a bond that infused his Personae with power. New members were constantly being added to S.E.E.S. as well. He made friends, rivals, allies, partners, and even met several girls that he could date. No matter how good his social life was, though, he still had the Shadows and the Dark Hour to contend with.

Over the course of the year, the history of the Dark Hour and the Kirijo Group's experiments came to light, as well as the truth about Death, Nyx and the Fall. After the twelfth shadow - that SEES believed to be the last one - was destroyed, the group thought that they had successfully vanquished the source of the Shadows and the Dark Hour, but they were wrong. The Dark Hour came again. The team headed to Tartarus, where they found Shuji Ikutsuki and Aigis, who had been reprogrammed by Ikutsuki, ringing Tartarus' bells. He told the team that he would kill them as sacrifices meant to summon Death, and then ordered Aigis to carry out their executions. Due to the bond between Minato and Aigis, though, she fought off Ikutsuki's programming and refused to kill Minato. Takeharu Kirijo, Mitsuru's father, interceded and managed to kill Ikutsuki, but at the price of his own life. Even though Death wasn't summoned by human sacrifices, the battle didn't ensure that Death was gone, only that its arrival would be delayed.

Unbeknownst to SEES, Death took on a human form as Ryoji Mochizuki, a "transfer student" to Gekkoukan High. Aigis distrusted him, and tried to warn Minato against befriending him, but as time passed, Minato did indeed befriend him, and even Aigis became unsure as to why she distrusted him. During the Dark Hour on the night of a full moon, Aigis and Ryoji met, and Aigis asked him if he remembered his past and his identity as Death. While he hadn't been aware before, Aigis' questioning led him to remember who he was, and the second battle between Aigis and Death began, leaving Aigis severely damaged. Ryoji explained his identity as Death - and his purpose of summoning Nyx - and gave Minato two choices: kill him rather than face Nyx, living out the short remainder of their lives as normal students, or leave him alive and allow him to summon Nyx. While the player can choose either option, the "true" choice that Minato made was to refuse to kill Ryoji, and thus Nyx was summoned. The Moon, Nyx's true form, began to descend towards Earth, and all of SEES - with the exception of Minato - was immobilized by her effects. He ascended to the Moon and made the decision to summon up all of the strength given to him by his bonds with his friends and their will to live, and use that power to perform the Great Seal, sealing Nyx away from humanity and effectively preventing the Fall. However, Minato had to sacrifice his life to create the seal. After locking away Nyx, he returned to Earth and met with Aigis, falling asleep in her lap and never waking up.

PERSONALITY

At first glance, Minato seems apathetic. That isn't exactly true - while he's somewhat apathetic about daily life, not having strong preferences in food, classes or books, he has a sense of justice, an inherent knowledge about 'right' and 'wrong', and is fully prepared to make sacrifices to benefit people he cares about. He is, by all accounts, a hero, but he doesn't carry with him the sense of entitlement and decoration that the word 'hero' usually implies. When he's not in an urgent situation, he's very passive, only making choices when he's asked. In the manga, he's also characterized as sleepy, mostly for comic effect (this probably has something to do with the fact that you can choose to have him nap during class). The one everyday thing he seems to be extremely interested in is music: he's never seen without his headphones and MP3 player, and from the volume he plays it at, he probably uses music for escapist purposes, choosing to ignore outside stimuli. During the Dark Hour, however, he doesn't have this escape route, as all electronic devices cease to work.

Although you wouldn't think it from the looks of him, when it's necessary, he's actually an incredible leader. Initially, he was appointed leader of SEES solely because of his Wild Card ability, but he quickly grew into the role, never hesitating to direct his teammates and send out orders during battle. The fact that he was constantly being appointed leader during every SEES mission drew the ire of some of his teammates, who were frustrated that he always seemed to be in charge; however, they never formed a coup of any sort because they recognized that his abilities as a leader were necessary to succeed in battle. To his credit, he never allowed his ego to inflate, and even as his courage grew, he kept himself from making reckless decisions.

Throughout the course of the game, his growing courage also led him to make a lot of friends. He became very popular, but that wasn't because he was charming, outgoing and friendly - it was because he let himself serve as a sounding board to the people he met, listening to them spill their concerns and only interjecting to reassure and console them. He doesn't talk about himself unless prompted, making the perfect friend for someone who's more interested in their own lives than someone else's. Even though a large number of his peers and friends are rather naive and self-absorbed, he's patient with them, never losing his temper or insulting them. In fact, his ability to keep a cool head regardless of his situation was one of the qualities that made him such a good leader in battle, and allowed him to make calm, rational decisions even in the heat of the moment.

What are they bringing to Nuadoria?: A school bag, an Evoker that looks like a pistol, a pair of headphones and an MP3 player, Tsubaki-maru, and three packets of Medical Powder

Third-Person Sample: The last thing he heard in his home world was the sound of Aigis' voice, but it was faraway, and the ringing in his head muffed most of her words. His eyes were closed, and behind them he saw spirals of color, spirals of darkness, and then his stomach lurched and he lost consciousness. When he woke up, he was sprawled face down on a cobblestone street, and upon sitting up and touching his hand to his aching head, the stones left imprints on his face where they had pressed up against his skin. A quick glance around showed him that wherever he had ended up, it wasn't Iwatodai.

"Aigis?" he asked, but he already knew that she wasn't there - if she was, she'd have rushed to his side immediately.

The sun was high in the sky - it wasn't the Dark Hour. He felt his sword and his schoolbag at his side, and he picked them up, hefting the bag over his shoulder and then unsheathing the sword. When he stood up, his knees weakened and he stumbled, but he tightened his grip on the handle of the sword and continued on, turning out of the alleyway and onto a main road. As he slowly stepped forward, he kept his eyes constantly sweeping over his surroundings, searching for any passerby. Nobody appeared. The farther he walked, the faster his steps became.

When he looked up towards the sky and saw that the sun was hovering just over the tops of the trees of the forest, he paused in the middle of the street and looked down at his feet, appearing lost in thought. After a few moments, he began walking again with a sense of increased resolve, and soon it was apparent why - he turned to what looked like an apartment building, testing the door as if expecting it to be locked. When the door easily opened, he peeked his head inside and looked around before continuing onward.

First-Person Sample: [When the message first began broadcasting, all that could be heard was silence - and then a breath, as if the person behind the headset was steadying himself.]

These are meant for communication, aren't they? Who am I speaking with?

[Another long stretch of silence followed his words.]

F-

[He cut himself off and then sighed. The sigh was followed with an irritated groan, and then the broadcast ended.]