Follow TV Tropes

Following

Roleplay / Persona Dark Net

Go To

"LA Academy, a school that doesn't accept just any students. All students accepted here have a certain quality to them that makes them special, and the Academy wants to help the students bring it out."

Persona: Dark Net is a Play-by-Post Game forum hosted on FanFiction.Net based on the Persona series, specifically Persona 3. The Forum was created in early May of 2014 and is ongoing.

Despite Persona 3 being the primary source, elements from other games in the Persona series are used as needed while certain aspects are completely discarded. For example, while a few abilities are called by name, most of the fighting is done free form. Additionally, while Social Links still exist, they're done in little one-on-one One Shot stories.

The main plot involves a mysterious Boarding School by the name of LA Academy which only allows entry to an extremely narrow group of individuals with an unknown guideline allowing entry. The school's teachers and staff are good at their jobs, though none appear to be aware they're supervising teenagers and most don't seem to care to restrict their behavior in any way. A particular set of students, new to the school, find shortly after entering an overabundance of toy guns and computers in every room, and it's soon discovered that past students had been typing a special URL in their computers to open a gate into a new world, known as the Dark Net.

Upon entry, the group finds themselves soon infected with a Mystical Plague known as the Mark, a black spot on their body that will soon extend over their flesh the more they physically, mentally, and emotionally exert themselves. The Mark causes mood swings, soul pains, and whatever else might be inconvenient for those who have it. Soon enough, it'll take over the bodies of its victims and end their lives.

That is unless, they delve back into the Dark Net, using this newly discovered world's powers against it, deeper and deeper each time, to find the source of this darkness.

The forum can be found here for those interested.

As a note to editors, please keep all Character related tropes in the Character page.


Persona: Dark Net provides examples of:

  • A Day in the Limelight: Due to chapters of the main story keeping the spotlight as the group as a whole, Social Links act as this and highlight interactions between select individuals, often times delving into backstories or new aspects of familiar relationships.
  • Academy of Adventure: The main setting, LA Academy, has shades of this. However it's unknown just how much information the Academy has about the Dark Net, and there are hints it may be bringing in these specific students for a reason.
  • And I Must Scream: Humans caught in Chaos' Living Belfry are inevitably charmed and placed in the Mirror Hall, where they'll live out what seems to be forever as a mindless puppet. And that's not even getting into what happens to those who've stayed the longest...
  • Anyone Can Die: So far the body count includes David, Sara, and Cue.
  • Arc Words: "You're not me!" is a recurring one, as with in the original Persona series, these words trigger a Shadow Self to transform into a more beastly form.
  • Axes at School: Well what do you expect when most of the weaponry was found at the school. Somewhat justified as most of the starting equipment the group uses are either practice weapons or just manual labor tools.
  • Bears Are Bad News: A surprisingly common Shadow, even in different dungeons. Each time they're seen they seem to be trying to be even more silly and homicidal than the last.
  • Berserk Button: Rejection of a Shadow Self acts as this, leading to the above Arc Words entry.
    • Harming Erina is this for both Nyx and Artis
    • Mentioning Amanti, or harming Violet, are the quickest ways to anger Neil
    • Don't pity Elaine
    • Harm Enid and Christopher will immediately fly into rage
  • Break Them by Talking: How most Shadow Selves try to garner rejection out of their counterparts. Most are far beyond the point of wanting to be accepted peacefully and would much rather be rejected so they can better torment their original counterparts.
  • Dark World / Eldritch Location: The entire premise of the Dark Net.
  • Everything Trying to Kill You: Used in almost every area of the Dark Net. Even Shadows who are actually sentient seem to have nothing better to do than to kill any human they come across just for the street cred.
  • Ensemble Cast: While Erina is considered to be the story's protagonist, all other characters are given enough screentime and important to make this an ensemble rather than the story of just one person.
  • Evil Counterpart: Shadow Selves represent the character's darkest thoughts, fears, insecurities, and will attempt to kill their true counterpart when presented with the opportunity.
  • Evil Laugh: Used by too many Shadows to count, most notably by the Shadow Selves and Reverse Hemera.
  • Fire-Forged Friends: Repeatedly illustrated throughout the chapters, where, even if there is infighting in the group they will stand back to back to defend each other from certain death.
  • Follow the Leader: Averted. Due to the very divided nature of the group, following orders tends to be the last thing on anyone's mind. Most prefer to do their own thing, and if that happens to coincide with what the group wants then that's just all the better.
  • Four Is Death: The first main character death, David, occurred some time before or at the very start of Chapter 4.
  • Grand Theft Me: Type 2. The ultimate goal of most, if not all, Shadow Selves.
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: When a character is under the affects of charm or general mind control, most fights will boil down to another character trying to appeal to the victim while still putting up a fight. When characters are rendered unable to fight after hitting the Berserk Button on their Shadow Self, this is also a common way to try to snap them out of their funk.
  • Inn Between the Worlds: The Velvet Room.
  • Instant-Win Condition: Successfully accepting a Shadow Self pretty much removes them as a threat. The issue is that for most characters, doing this means accepting huge flaws in their personality, accessing repressed memories, or acknowledging huge screw ups from their past.
  • Mind Control: Basically the Charm status effect, complete with glowing pink eyes.
  • Never Found the Body: Given that corpses don't decompose in the Dark Net, this is even more disturbing than usual.
  • No OSHA Compliance: Chaos' Living Belfry is practically made of this trope, though most every dungeon counts as well.
  • One-Winged Angel: Almost all Shadow Selves do this after their original counterpart says the Arc Words.
  • Our Angels Are Different: Considering the handful of angel themed Personas running around, this trope is in full effect.
  • Personality Powers: The Personas.
  • Sex Equals Love: Played straight and averted.
  • Summon Magic: Again, the Personas, mostly with the aid of a gun-shaped device called an 'Evoker'.
  • Tactical Door Use: Used to great effect in Chaos' Living Belfry. Justified in that the doors aren't actually indestructible, but closing them pretty much permanently separates both sides anyway.
  • Too Dumb to Live: While a few main characters occasionally carry the Idiot Ball, none of them ever reach the stupidity of the Shadows, which are occasionally known to attack each other, become distracted by a Logic Bomb based on whatever their original purpose is conflicting with their desire to fight, and in rare occasions, die for no reason.
  • Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay: For all the Hollywood worthy heroics and battles, all the running and magical bursts of light and dark and who knows what else, characters generally manage to get out alive well enough. They also manage to frequently have broken bones or sprains from what, in comparison, are mundane dangers in the Net, and even the injuries that they're capable of ignoring tend to persist into later chapters.


"You're not me""I've been waiting all day for you to say that"


Top