Smash Academy > Application

[letsgetfunky]

Out-of-Character Information

Name: Iyo
Are you over 15?: Yes
Time Zone: -8 GMT
Personal Journal: mayuld
Reliable Method of Contact:

plurk @ karasalis
AIM @ karasalis

Other characters in the game:

Leon Kuwata andthefungoeson
Pidge the Pidgeot rivalairslash
Ecolo fakespeech

Link to slot request if 6th, 7th slot: N/A
Anything Else?: grandpersonas. Also contains spoilers!

In-Character Information

Name: Masao Inaba (aka "Mark")
Game/Series: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona / Megami Ibunroku Persona
Teacher/Student/Other: Student
Canon Point: Shortly after SEBEC route
Age: 17
Grade Level/Class Taught/Job: Junior
Dorm or Living Arrangement: Dorms!

Personality:
Mark's a cheerful guy, and usually the mood maker in a group. While he doesn't excel at the skills of actually using his head, he makes it up with a bright personality with an optimistic view. He likes to see those he care about smiling, and will go out of his way to make sure you're doing fine. In the game, he was actually crushing on Maki, and had been visiting her while she was hospitalized to cheer her up. He's not going for people to laugh 24/7 by obnoxiously throwing jokes around like Brown, but rather express concern to those who needs someone by himself. He's also one of the few out of the entire group who was concerned about Reiji when they first meet him, and the concern stayed with him throughout the incident. He doesn't like to see those who force themselves to act the lone wolf, secluded from any groups and will approach them in attempt to get them into one. Where's the fun in life if you're alone? That's Mark's mindset. He doesn't have the charisma to keep the group together as one, since he himself isn't able to act in a group when it is critical to do so.

In a game where the associated Arcana and Zodiac plays quite a bit, Mark plays off his role of both as a Chariot and a Cancer extremely well, perhaps a little too much at times. It's more often that it's seen more as him letting his emotions get the better of him most of the time, causing him to get into trouble more often than not. Even before the SEBEC incident, he was a routine troublemaker both at school and in the city, causing him to get to know the authorities regardless of whether he wanted to or not. When the city was overrun by demons while the group was visiting Maki at the hospital, Mark immediately broke off from the group in attempt to search for her and confirm that she's alright. This caused him to run into trouble near the police station, where he's caught by the demons due to running out of power with his persona, and when the group caught up to him they see him behind bars in the station. This is the sort of things Mark would do without someone to literally pull him back from jumping into things. Of course, it's another issue of whether it is possible to actually stop Mark from doing so; Nanjo actually had chased Mark when he had ran out of the school premise, but was unable to get him back. He has a lot of willpower and never knows when to give up, but it also means once he decides to do something he's determined to accomplish that no matter what.

Most of the time, Mark is honest with his feelings. If he likes you, he'll smile and be friendly. If he doesn't, he'll frown and be grumpy. It all depends on how you are: if you're a nice person, he'll like you; if you're a jerk, he won't. Overly nagging types are annoying and he won't like being around you that much either. Mark is a simple-minded guy, so that's enough reason for him to either like you or not. This ties in with his attachment to art, specifically graffiti art, as well as his hobby (as well as one of the contact options) of dancing. Expression oneself is important to him. Putting graffiti on abandoned buildings was what got him into trouble with the city police before the SEBEC incident. He has trouble returning any positive thoughts and feelings though; prime example is his relationship with his mother, where he casts aside her concerns and worrying, and snaps at her for presenting herself in front of his friends and babying him. He's very reluctant to show his actual feelings to her directly, that he actually cares for her. He worried about her during the time demons are wandering around the city, but quickly covered his concerns up when he caught someone noticing it.

As compared to Nanjo, Reiji and even Brown, Mark doesn't have much of a dramatic past. It can be said that Mark has always had a strong, explosive personality ever since he was little, and had started to grow up from being a child to a young adult during the SEBEC incident. When the group first got together at the beginning of the demon takeover, Mark had always been reckless and his anger preventing him from making a better decision. As time went on and he continued to stay with the group, he grows to become slightly more mature, taking a moment to get a breath in before plunging into action, as you see him interacting with Reiji when he had joined the group. While his recklessness stays with him it's not so obvious after the scene of him punching Nanjo in the face for mentioning that they kill Maki, and even during this scene it wasn't because of his own emotions but due to Nanjo's behavior. While he has a lot more to grow, he has came a long way to mature from a bratty kid to a (slightly) more responsible adult.


Backstory:
SEBEC route, which is the main storyline for the game. Other than the slight name differences, the general plot is the same.

After defeating Pandora, the party makes their way back to the original world. For Mark, though, as soon as he steps out of Avidya World, he finds himself standing at the front steps of Smash Academy. He immediately runs into the Headmaster Hands, in which they do a brief explanation of what might have happened, and proceeded to enroll Mark into school, since hey! There's two other students from the same high school as Mark. And that's how Mark ended up at Smash Academy.

Anything Else?:
▸ His wikia profile page. A few visual references are here as well.

▹ A brief description of him: A classmate of the MC's. A cheerful mood maker. He may have some mild traits of juvenile delinquency (like carrying an axe to school and making friends at casino), but deep down he is a just guy. He also has a crush on Maki.
▹ His birthday is July 11th, 1970, a Cancer. His blood type is A.

▸ As the same as Brown's case, Mark can summon multiple persona, three being the maximum he can hold at one time. This is due to the fact that the power has been bestowed to him by Philemon himself, and has successfully activated his initial persona during the first use, which was when the hospital they were visiting Maki at had been overrun by demons after the strange earthquake. Gaining new persons were done through making contracts between the demons that were running amok in the city and collect cards from them as a sign of contract. Combining these demons created persona for the user to wield. Mark can summon his persona without any restrictions that later generations have such as specific dimensions and/or evokers.

▹ As for the specific use of persona, Mark can only summon one persona out out of the three he holds at one time. It takes time to switch the said persona if and when he wishes to switch out for a different one, where he will be unable to use any persona during the time. Generally, the arcana and persona picked out are aligned with the arcana he is best affiliated with.
▹ His demon contract skill options are: Dance, Taunt, Stare, Brag.

▸ There are certain arcana that he is better off or unable to have.

▹ Arcana with best affinity: Chariot, Moon, Strength, World.
▹ Arcana with worst affinity: Justice, Death, Star

▸ His current Persona are Susano-o (CHARIOT), Gozu-Tennoh (CHARIOT), and Cerbreus (FORTUNE). To gain access to more and switch the roster around, he is required to enter the Velvet Room, which FDC probably doesn't have at the moment, so he's stuck with this roster.

▸ Mark uses axes for close-combat. For long distance, he uses shotguns (Bi-Buster). Axes are fairly small in size, being portable enough to be somehow slip past school security while he attended St. Hermelin High.

▹ As for fighting style, he leans towards dishing out physical attacks through the use of his persona the best. Spells and healing type skills are no good with him, so he can never fight on his own (see him getting captured by demons early on in the game for jumping out with no actual plan and leaving everyone else behind at school). He has no range combat even with his shotgun, so while in groups he tends to be in the front line.

▸ Hobbies! Mark likes to do some creative arts, which includes dancing and art! Graffiti art is what he focuses on, since becoming a professional artist in that area is what he dreams of.

▸ He has a crush on Maki. He also knows it's a feeling that will never be returned and will never act on it.

In-Character 1st person sample:
Meme thread

Hey! Mark here. Err... Name's Masao Inaba, but just call me Mark. I dunno what happened, but I'm not supposed to be at this school. Man, I thought we got everything solved and that things'll be back to normal, but guess not. Now I'm kinda stuck here. Seems like you guys know Uesugi and Nanjo who's already here. They're my classmates! Hope they haven't been causing trouble on any of you guys, at least for that Uesugi. Could care less about the dickweed though

Yo Uesugi! Nanjo! If you guys see this message, holler at me so I know you guys aren't dead yet! ...Better yet, don't. That way I don't need to deal with you guys.

In-Character 3rd person sample:
Truth to be told, Mark was pretty worried of how his hometown was like. Did they really fix the demon problem in Mikage-cho? Were the rest of the group able to return to the original world? Was Maki alright? Those questions circled around in his mind endlessly as he stuck his hands into his pockets while he wandered around the school campus. If there were means to return to the original world, Mark may not have thought twice about returning.

What made him reconsider was that he heard about Brown and Nanjo being here already. Why were they here even before him? He heard this world existed with different dimensions intertwined. It was hard to believe it; it sounded like some sci-fi movie. He needed to find out the truth by finding Brown and Nanjo.

"Man, to think I run into more trouble after I thought we got things solved..." Mark muttered, pulling down at his beanie.