This page contains the synopsis for the roleplay Persona: Shadows of the Mind.
Story Arcs
On the night of August 18th, the seven students destined for a fateful night laid down to sleep, having finished their preparations and paperwork for school to begin in two days. That night, they had a strange dream about a long-nosed man in a Velvet Room, who spoke to them about awakenings and things to come. The strange dream faded as suddenly as it had appeared.
The following day, August 19th, the seven students who were unknowingly connected by a common dream were called in to the office of Horizon Academy to be informed of a scheduling error. According to the school president's son, Henry Gauthier, the records of the seven students down to their medical records and birth certificates had been mysteriously wiped clean from the school database and physical archives. The students were prompted to fill out their schedules manually, signing an agreement as per standard school procedure in the process.
As the students went about their lives afterwards, Max Delaney noticed that his mother had left for the night for a late doctor's visit to check up on her chronic headaches, and had not returned throughout the night.
Again they had a dream of the Velvet Room, and again they were warned vaguely of things to come. Despite any attempts they might have made, they could not speak nor move until they woke up.
On the morning of August 20th, Max saw that his mother had still not returned. As the first day of school carried out, the students got a cryptic text, urging them to speak a strange phrase to the 'master of the room': In Articulo Mortis, loosely translated from latin as "In the grasp of Death". Meanwhile, a student unrelated to the other seven named Brendan Rathburn attended his first day plagued by recurring headaches, and Max Delaney was given the unfortunate news that his mother was found dead the previous night.
When the seven students fell asleep that night, they were once again welcomed to the Velvet Room, though this time they were able to speak and move. By uttering the phrase In Articulo Mortis, they were seemingly granted 'entry' to the Velvet Room, and could see one another. They were offered a choice; delve deeper into the strange world presented to them by the enigmatic Igor, or leave and be forever blind to the threat facing humanity. The students all chose the latter and descended an ethereal staircase from the Velvet Room, leading them into a dark ice rink containing Brendan Rathburn and a shadowy clone of himself.
The clone turned out to be Brendan's shadow, taunting him with his own insecurities and doubts. Something seemed to provoke it when the seven students entered the rink, however, and in a berserk fit the shadow transformed into the massive serpentine creature, Leviathan.
Leviathan summoned shadowy imitations of loved ones and other prominent figures from the lives of the seven students, hoping to psychologically torture them into submission. The intense stress brought on by the ordeal, however, awoke the hidden supernatural power within each of them; the power of Persona, the ability to harness one's inner consciousness to do battle with the shadows.
A battle erupted as the newfound summoners wielded their Personas in tandem against the mighty Leviathan, and after a short but brutal struggle the beast was defeated. The shadow faded away to its original form and reconciled with Brendan, transforming into the Persona Guan Yu. The students then searched for a way to leave the rink; Makoto prompted the appearance of the door to the Velvet Room by approaching one end of the rink.
