Stańczyk [Iris's Artificial Persona]

Persona Name: Stańczyk

Persona Type: Artificial Persona

Persona's Arcana: Jester

Owner: Iris

Persona Appearance:


Stańczyk isn't that large of a Persona. He's around three feet tall in height and, due to a combination of that and his overall appearance, comes off more as a sort of mischievous imp than a towering, threatening figure. Make no mistake however: Stańczyk, despite the initial impressions one may have of him, is not a force to be taken lightly.

Stańczyk's face is divided into two half halves of a mask: one white and one black. On the black, right side of this face, his eye glows a luminescent yellow similar to the eyes of a Shadow. This is noticeably missing from the other side and could be a result of him not being fully "tamed" -- Iris being required to use Persona Suppressants in order to be able to properly control him and his abilities. His arms and legs are completely colored black in a direct contrast to his colorful torso and hat.

The mask that has become his face is eternally locked in a sly, condescending grin and atop his hat rest three small, golden tips in the shape of a diamond.

Persona Background: The most famous court jester in Polish history, Stańczyk was employed by three of the nation's kings and lived from 1480 to 1560. Unlike other European jesters at the time, he was considered to be much more than a mere entertainer and left a great impact on Polish culture and literature within later centuries. Most scholars believe he did indeed exist, although even those who dispute this claim acknowledge that the jester -- whether man or myth -- had quite the impact on Poland itself. He was a gifted political philosopher with great insight into the affairs of the country and would often use his status to subtly criticize the policies, plans, and actions of the government and king.

One of the best known tales about him covers a supposed hunting accident. Sigismund, the current ruler at the time, had imported a large and mighty bear from a foreign country in the hopes of hunting it for sport. Releasing it in the forest, the king set out on the hunt with an entourage that included both his queen and the sly jester himself. Upon encountering the beast, the bear gritted its teeth and snarled at the king. It charged toward the group at a great speed and spread panic amongst the group! The queen in particular, caught off guard, fell off her horse to the ground below. While the king managed to slay the beast, his wife had been pregnant at the time and her fall had caused a miscarriage. And though Sigismund frantically looked about for his jester, he could find him nowhere!

Enraged, he stormed off deeper into the forest and found Stańczyk sitting in a tree. He questioned the jester as to why he had retreated instead of joining the fight against the bear. Despite being pressed, however, the jester seemed unfazed. His lips curled into a smile and it's said that he looked down from the branch at the king below and reportedly responded to the criticisms with but a single sentence.


This remark of his is often interpreted as an allusion toward the king's policy toward Prussia -- a country which had recently been defeated by Poland, yet not fully incorporated into the Crown.

Another notable appearance of his was in a fictional work of Stanisław Wyspiański's written within the 19th century. There he visited a journalist as a ghost and accused him of inactivity and passive acceptance of the Poland's fate. The jester placed his cap on the journalist's head and instructed him to stir the nation. This portrayal reinforced the view of Stańczyk as a symbol for patriotism and political skepticism. It also further cemented his place of influence within Polish cultural: an influence that one could very well argue remains today.

Strengths: Slash, Strike

Weaknesses: Ailments, Dark

Passive Boosts:

Quote :

The Jester Arcana is the equivalent of the Fool Arcana, numbered 0. The Jester symbolizes much of what the Fool symbolizes--ignorance, spontaneity, and freedom--but in a suppressed form. In the case of the Jester, the querent is misguided and unwilling to work with others, in contrast to the Fool, who is compatible with everyone. The Jester is a prankster clown which is a variation of a Fool. Furthermore a Jester acts like a fool instead of genuinely being a fool.

Pros: Those of the Jester Arcana are a spinning wheel. Where the Fool can control what their 15% boost is focused on, those of the Jester cannot. At the start of each battle, the boost they will receive will be randomnized between all of the boosts of the other Arcanas, but because of this, the boost is raised to 25%

Persona Skill List:

Skill 1: Regenerate 1 | Recovers 2% of max HP on each user turn | Passive | Tier 1
Skill 2: Bewilder | 25% chance of inflicting the Distress ailment to one enemy. 50% chance of landing a critical hit on the distressed enemy for the next 3 turns. | 5 SP | Tier 1
Skill 3: Tremorou | Moderate Strike and Terra damage to a single opponent. | 16% HP | Tier 2
Skill 4: (Unlocked once using your Persona fifteen times in combat; Must be Tier 2 Skill or Lower)
Skill 5: (Must have used your Persona Overdose to defeat three enemies in one battle or have used your Persona an additional 30 times in PvS combat; Must be a Tier 3 Skill or Lower)
Skill 6: (Unlocked once using your Persona an additional 30 times in PvS combat; Must be a Tier 3 Skill or Lower)
Skill 7: (Unlocked once using your Persona an additional 30 times in PvS combat; Must be a Tier 3 Skill or Lower)
Skill 8: (Unlocked after using your Persona an additional 50 times in PvS combat; Must be a Tier 4 Skill or Lower)


Special Ability:  

Ability Name: Persona Overdose
Persona Name: Stańczyk
Appearance:


Miyuki covers her mask with her palm and suddenly begins laughing uncontrollably. Her body exudes a dark aura, a warning of what's to come, as Stańczyk appears with an odd silence unbecoming of him. The Persona looks completely normal at first, but soon enough a black goop starts to rapidly ooze out of his mask and onto the ground below. It spills out of the jester with no end in sight to the point where he begins to lose shape and flatten. Meanwhile the black, amorphous glob beneath him slowly crawls away and starts to rise on top of itself changing shape as it does so. By the end of the transformation Stańczyk's body falls to the ground as a lifeless husk; the yellow glow emitting from his right eye flickering on and off before completely disappearing by the end of the turn. In contrast, the strange substance that came out of him stands in front of its former host with a new, solid form.

Standing at ten feet, the Persona is far taller than it once was and much more slender too. Just like in Stańczyk's normal form its expression remains the same regardless of current events or its surroundings, although it's noticeably much less talkative than he ever was and gives off a far more sinister, malicious atmosphere. Its former shell remains on the ground where it fell and while it can still be hit by attacks it will have no effect on Stańczyk as he is not currently inhabiting it. Once Overdose ends he'll remain in this form until the three turns of randomizing actions are over. Afterwards he'll dissolve back into his blob-like state and reenter his previous body through the mask he came out of.

Miyuki's appearance will remain the same as it is usually does, but the dark aura that she gives off will remain until Overdose is over. Additionally she'll act much more erratically and should she be downed will respond to her opponents with a stream of spiteful, psychotic laughter.

Description: Rogues get an ability called “Persona Overdose” that can be used once per battle. In this mode, for three turns, the Rogues get access to a completely new skillset, swapping it for their previous one for that time limit. The new skills are unlocked as the Rogue gains skills normally, and they can be anything, so long as the skill has the same tier as the tier of the skill in their normal skillset. For example, your first skill is Tier 1 in your normal skillset. That means your first skill in your “Persona Overdose” skillset can be any skill as long as it is Tier 1. You can also change your strengths and weaknesses in this mode as long as you have the same amount of strengths and weaknesses as your original skillset does. Your available skills in “Persona Overdose” also are unlocked at the same time you unlock your normal skills. So if a Rogue only has five skills unlocked in their regular skillset, they can only have access to the first five skills in their Overdose mode. Once the three turns are up, their skillset reverts to normal, and for the next three turns, your active Persona skills will be randomized each post, as well as the target for said skill, meaning you will not have any control over what your Persona does for the duration of the three turns.

Strengths: Dark, Fire

Weaknesses: Light, Ice

Passive Boosts:

Quote :

The Jester Arcana is the equivalent of the Fool Arcana, numbered 0. The Jester symbolizes much of what the Fool symbolizes--ignorance, spontaneity, and freedom--but in a suppressed form. In the case of the Jester, the querent is misguided and unwilling to work with others, in contrast to the Fool, who is compatible with everyone. The Jester is a prankster clown which is a variation of a Fool. Furthermore a Jester acts like a fool instead of genuinely being a fool.

Pros: Those of the Jester Arcana are a spinning wheel. Where the Fool can control what their 15% boost is focused on, those of the Jester cannot. At the start of each battle, the boost they will receive will be randomnized between all of the boosts of the other Arcanas, but because of this, the boost is raised to 25%

Persona Overdose Skillset:

Skill 1: Dia | Recovers a small amount of HP (30%) to one ally. | 4 SP | Tier 1
Skill 2: Mamudo | 20% chance of instant death from the power of Darkness to all enemies. | 12 SP | Tier 1
Skill 3: Rakukaja | Raises one ally's Defense by 30% for 3 turns. | 6 SP | Tier 2
Skill 4: (Unlocked once unlocking your fourth skill in your original skillset; Must be Tier 2 Skill or Lower)
Skill 5:  (Unlocked once unlocking your fifth skill in your original skillset; Must be a Tier 3 Skill or Lower)
Skill 6: (Unlocked once unlocking your sixth skill in your original skillset; Must be a Tier 3 Skill or Lower)
Skill 7: (Unlocked once unlocking your seventh skill in your original skillset; Must be a Tier 3 Skill or Lower)
Skill 8: (Unlocked once unlocking your eighth skill in your original skillset; Must be a Tier 4 Skill or Lower)

Soul Skill Name: Media Magic
Persona Name: Stańczyk
Tier: Tier 1
Cost: 8 SP
Type of Damage: N/A
Description: In Greek mythology Iris was said to be the messenger of the gods and served as humanity's link to the divine. It is fitting then that Miyuki takes after the namesake of her terrorist alias when it comes to her more special abilities and the duties that follow. Possessing the ability to link her mind temporarily with the internet, she can convert her memories into data and send them out for the whole world (or just whoever she's messaging) to see. As they're supernatural in nature these memories are not limited to a specific form and can be anything from a normal picture to an audio file to a full video showing everything she saw and heard within an allotted period of time. Regardless of what she chooses to convert them into, however, these supernaturally created "files" of hers all abide by very specific and strict limitations.

-Whatever she uploads to the cloud is filtered through her perspective. People won't be able to hear the thoughts that she was thinking at the time or anything of that sort, but they will see everything through her eyes and experience the events exactly as she did (or exactly as she remembers it anyway). Voices will not sound any louder or quieter than they seemed to be to her, people will not appear onscreen unless they were within her line of sight, any hallucinations or illusions she underwent at the time will transfer over, etc. Tl;dr: she's a walking recording device for the purposes of this soul skill.    

-Miyuki cannot edit them in any way unless she were to somehow alter her own recollection of the events. She can only upload what she witnessed herself and while she can choose where to start and end the memory sequence she can't cut out or change parts of it to suit her goals or purposes. The only way to get around this would be to upload her memories in individual parts which would be more tedious and risky, not to mention that it'd no doubt look suspicious (moreso than usual anyway) or at the very least odd and confusing.

-Where she's uploading them doesn't matter (within the boundaries of common sense), but how she's uploading them does. Miyuki could theoretically place a full video at its normal size in the middle of a comments section but once she's done it she can't go back and turn it into a picture. She could reupload the same memory in a different form, but she can't alter pre-existing versions of it, even if they aren't necessarily subject to the normal rules and limitations of the web.

-Miyuki can only interact with one device at a time with this skill. She can't send something through her phone and laptop simultaneously for instance; her focus can only be devoted to one machine at a time.

-If it wasn't painfully obvious already, she needs internet access to do it.

Under normal circumstances what she sends out can be deleted just like a mundane post/comment/message: an admin of a forum might notice a new topic on their website and delete the thread after they discover just what it entails or the recipient of a private message might feel as though something's a bit odd and remove it from their inbox. If she's willing to devote one of her day's timeslots to it though, Miyuki can take her information campaign to the next step and reinforce the memories with supernatural protection that prevents them from being edited out or deleted through the usual non-supernatural means. The option will simply cease to appear and in the rare case that someone finds a workaround (like cutting off access to the section of the site it was posted on), they'll find in due time that the thread they deleted has reappeared on another part of it as if it was never gone.

The last thing worth noting is that if she opts to spend the timeslot on it, she'll have the added benefit of anonymity. Her IP address won't be able to be traced through the supernaturally transmitted message nor will she have to register normally to upload content, which also ensures that efforts to ban the Psyche Terrorist will prove about as futile as you'd expect them to. Iris's username can be set to whatever she wishes (even if it goes over the character limit or if another user has already claimed the name) and attempts to access her account will direct the curious member in question to an error page. At best it'll look as if someone hacked into the website and at worst it'll be clear from a glance that it was the work of someone with supernatural powers. In the age of the masses believing only what they wish to believe though, who's to say how it'll be received?

Edited to accommodate for the template changes.

Alright, most of this looks fine.

Regarding the Soul Skill, I would like a given range of how far objects and people can be from you in order for it to work, and it should also be noted that it requires an extensive use of focus, making it's combat use minimal. Make sure you can't force others to see the memories either, and that the skill can only be used at the In Character consent of your subject.

When it comes to transmitting over the entire city, that's a bit much for a tier 1 skill, even with the parameters you've given. I'd limit it to any Screens within a given district, so that there's some flaw in it, given that it's still a rather weak skill. I love the creativity displayed here though. Like always, you fail to dissapoint. Sending a Memory can cost 8 SP sure, but for transmissions, you'd need to up the cost, since you're basically Hi-Jacking radiowaves, which is quite a big deal. It's not a huge increase mind you, but I'd say 9-10 SP should do the trick.

Aside from that, great job. Creative Soul Skill, and a fantastic start to Endymion.

Edited. As for transmitting over the entire city, I don't see why that wouldn't be allowed. To do so she'd have to capture and occupy the SMILE TV Station which, aside from being a huge prerequisite, would allow her to broadcast normally across the entire region on its own right. Thereby, I don't really see the problem with using the technology as a catalyst for the soul skill.

I can edit if you still want me to, but it just doesn't feel like that big of a feat to me with all this in mind. Aside from the obvious fact that it's supernatural and costs SP to pull off, it'd really be no different a feat than broadcasting an actual television show across the region.

So long as you're not capable of using home-made tools to do the same thing, sure. Approved.

Edited strengths and weaknesses cause I dun goofed.

Approved edit.

Edited regular and OD skillset.

Edited appearance and transformation sequence of Overdose form as well.

Approved.

Approved.