Persona: Requis Aeterna is a Play-by-Post Game hosted on Gaia Online. It takes place in an original setting, based around Shin Megami Tensei’s Persona series, in particular, the style of Persona 3 and Persona 4 in the ongoing saga.
In this story, our protagonists will find themselves on an important day of their lives, moving on in the next step of adulthood at High School graduation. After their time in Tsukuyomi High school, those lucky enough to graduate would be gathering one last time at the High school, ready to move on and leave their childhood behind. Many have moved on this island away from their parents, dorming or living in apartments to focus more on their studies at the highly esteemed school. Around the school, placed on Onigashima island, many strange occurrences have happened, and the town is riddled with rumor and mystery, though most of the students had always found it exciting to explore, some finding their own adventure on this island.
But, it’s become time to leave your childhood behind. To take the next step in life and become a young adult. Some refuse to embrace this so soon, others eager for the chance, but on one fateful day after our young adults have graduated, everything changes for a select few who's lives will change forever. Soon, after the site of their first shadow, and someone disappearing, these particular students find themselves being the only ones who had seen it. In fact, the one who was consumed by the shadow, no one even seems to remember! But these few people… they do. They know what they saw, and as a chilling warning, they receive messages on how it will happen again very soon. …But they won’t have to fight it alone, deep in their hearts, they can feel a power rising, preparing them for the war against the Shadows.
People disappearing, others behaving strangely during the full moon. Some call it lunacy, others speculate a conspiracy. But in this vast town where life is cheap, and nearly anything can be bought with money, few seem to really care about these issues. But as time goes on, and the hand of fate is dealt, soon humanity will realize the very brink of its own demise is approaching. Though, they are not powerless to stop what is approaching. Creatures of the abyss have become the stuff of nightmares to humanity, but some have found a new power to fight them. The power of their will, their spirit, their Persona.
Will you join the fight? Does the existence of mankind even stand a chance? There’s only one way to find out. So get ready, and prepare for a journey deep into the void, where there is no turning back, and the world and all of life itself stands on the edge of destruction. Fight for survival. Fight for the truth.
The RP can be found here
, though it is not currently accepting new members.
This roleplay provides examples of the following tropes:
- Academy of Adventure: Subversion of the Persona games; there is an academy, and most of the main characters attended it, but as the youngest graduate at the very beginning, little of note takes place there.
- After Boss Recovery: Any wounds you gain from the shadow world end up being healed when you leave it; usually the group is down there explicitly to fight a boss shadow.
- All Men Are Perverts: With the exception of Batsu, nearly all of the male characters have had some kind of perverted thought.
- All Women Are Lustful: The females aren't any better, though.
- Almost Kiss: Zoey and Sypher; she takes it hard, thinking she'd screwed up somehow, and he immediately leaves for a date with another girl.
- Always Chaotic Evil: The mindless shadows that fill the shadow world.
- Anyone Can Die: The GM is not afraid to kill off NPCs, and anyone who quits likewise has their character killed off.
- Art Evolution: The shadows and some of the characters that are drawn. And comparing character posts from the first ten pages to the last ten pages shows that many of the players have gotten significantly better at writing over time
- Auto Erotica: This is how Joseph and Kazune's date ends.
- The Bad Guy Wins: There was a prior Persona group of seven before the current cast, who had almost all died six month ago, except for Chisame who was left to turn into a shadow and the two traitors who turned on them
- Be All My Sins Remembered: Every character at some point or another.
- Beach Episode: Planned to happen during the summer.
- Black Comedy: When the Villain jumped Akira, he/she beat Akira's skull in while singing My Favorite things from Sound of Music
- Big Brother Instinct: Anyone who has a younger sibling displays this.
- Bland-Name Product: Email addresses are used with '@Atlus.com'
- Blue with Shock: Daisuke when he discovered he had no chance with Katsumi and lost in the game tournament. Also Seraphim when Seotta actually starting winning their fist-fight and was making a fool of her.
- Boss Battle: A persona-user's shadow seems to amount to this. Shadows of important NPCs remain to be seen, but may be weaker.
- Breakout Character: This is how the NPCs work; the more interest the player characters show in them, the bigger and important their roles become.
- Break Them by Talking: Main tactic of the shadows.
- Broken Masquerade: Haro attempts to do this in his introduction. Not out of revenge or anything, but because he wants to look totally badass defeating a shadow monster.
- The Cast Show Off This trope is the reason reason Kazune has entire lines in Japanese.
- Cell Phones Are Useless: They still work in the shadow world, but have no reception. In the real world...
- Chekhov's Gunman: Though they do not know the killer yet, it could be any one of the NPCs, even someone that they've hardly given any attention yet.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Hiromasa, who had an impact on the story and characters, but disappeared mysteriously after getting fired from his job.
- City of Adventure: Onigashima, of course. Did you read that description?
- Coming of Age Story: Though not the theme, this certainly seems to be the case for many, as they're just graduating high school and getting into adulthood.
- Conspiracy Theorist: Lina is convinced that everyone is an alien or monster of some sort.
- Continuity Nod: Junes has a branch in Onigashima, and the Kirijou corperation gets a mention or two as being in a legal dispute with Sindertech.
- Cosmic Retcon: What happens when someone dies in the shadow world; history is rewritten to have them die some other way in the real world.
- Cuteness Proximity: Within seconds of seeing Batsu's puppy, everyone is all over it.Katsumi: Puppy!Zoey: Aww~
- Creator's Culture Carryover: Though some of it can be handwaved away by the fact that Onigashima has a lot of foreigners and therefore a lot of western influences, the setting gets numerous things about Japan wrong (the presence of parking lots and houses, for one)
- Cryptic Conversation: Victoria and Igor are guilty of this.
- Dark World: The shadow world's default state is that of a dark version of the city.
- Deadpan Snarker: Everyone to some degree, though Zoey makes a career out of it.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Kazune, Zoey, and Akira when genderflipped. They're all loner types to different degrees and styles, but the group slowly is opening them up.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The Shadow world in general when not influenced by another persons shadow.
- Depending on the Artist: It's an Gaia roleplay, and not all the players draw, so they have to scrape by on what the internet can provide for pictures; this results in people's hair length, bust size, and even sometimes eye color changing from picture to picture.
- Despair Event Horizon: Usually what warrants a shadow takeover.
- The Determinator: The one behind the murders.
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Katsumi can grope women left and right, but Sypher makes one comment on Kazune's panties and he gets punched into the shadow world. (To be fair, though, that is Kazune )
- Dude, Where's My Reward?: Since the only people who know about the shadow-related killings are a small group of young adults and the killer, the party gets little acknowledgement for their heroism.
- Dungeonmaster's Girlfriend: Ever so slightly with the GM and Katsumi's player, mostly just sharing plots. Though that's now spread to everyone~
- Dysfunction Junction: At least half the characters have some sort of family trauma in their past.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: As mentioned in the roleplay section on that page, the first few days in-rp were breaking the characters in and the characterization in the later pages compared with the first ones and the profiles seems a bit inconsistant. (Many of them became more social out of necessity, for example)
- Eldritch Location: Once again, we have protagonist venturing into the Collective Unconsciousness. As mentioned under Dark World, the shadow world normally takes the shape of a crumbling Onigashima, but twists to make itself into reflections of the minds of people trapped there.
- Ensemble Cast: Comes with being a forum rp; all player characters the main characters
- Epiphany Therapy: Subverted—accepting one's seem like it would be this, but it's more just accepting you flaws and continuing to work on fixing them.
- Even the Girls Want Her: Kazune and Saori are both on the receiving ends of this.
- Everybody Did It: A semi-serious theory on the strange happenings in Onigashima.
- Everybody Has Lots of Sex: Being a recent work, no one's sex life or lack thereof is commented on as being unusual.
- Everyone Is Bi: Though not true for everyone, it's starting to look like many people show interest for not just the opposite gender, but possibly the same.
- Expy: Several characters, at least appearance-wise. Saori and Sena are explicitly the same ones from their source material, though.
- Fascinating Eyebrow: Victoria and Zoey have done this quiet a few times.
- Kazune too, but only in text
- Fanservice: All over the place.
- Finger Poke of Doom: "Megido". That was all it took to blow off Chisame's arm.
- Fire-Forged Friends: The main group of Persona users is slowly becoming this.
- "Friends" Rent Control: Played straight with some characters, averted with others.
- Gaming Clan: <3 is an all-female one, and both Saori and Katsumi belong to it.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: A telltale sign someover's shadow is about to take over.
- Gender-Equal Ensemble: Zigzagged with the party: First, it was equal, then Ameko joined, weighting it towards females; then Seotta's player left, making it equal. This was followed by Ameko's player getting kicked, weighting it towards males. Then, Haro and Meishi's players joined, making it weighted more towards males, though not as heavily (5-4 as compared with 4-3) Finally, Hiromasa was kicked, putting it equal again.
- Averted with the NPCs, where there are twice as many women as there are men, though the magician getting changed to all four sindertech scientist add more men. Fortune may also be a male.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: Their may be much more to the plot of the main villain then anyone sees coming.
- I Work Alone: When a shadow starts to influence someone, they often start to feel this way, or completely abandon the group altogether.
- Just Friends: Zoey and Batsu. All starting when Zoey was designated to be Batsu's translator for class.
- Killed Off for Real: Eugene and Lance were both killed via the party defeating their shadows Though there might be a way to bring them back
- Level-Up at Intimacy 5: Getting Social Links high enough leads to the pair being able to perform fusion attacks and have their personae be able to block attacks meant for the other.
- Limited Wardrobe: Varies wildly—Haro has a few, Katsumi's player is drawing her more, Zoey's alternates between drawn and found outfits, and Batsu, Meishi, and Akira's source picture only comes in one outfit. The npcs may have a few, but many minor ones only have one outfit.
- Unlimited Wardrobe: Kazune and Sypher, on the other hand, have many outfits.
- Ludicrous Gibs: Lance when his shadow took over. He exploded.
- Mad Bomber: Lance's Shadow who used bombs with large smiles on them
- MegaCorp: Bio Life Industries, Sindertech, and even a Shoutout to Kirijo corp.
- Metaplot: Plots within plots within plots
- Mistaken Nationality: Onigashima has a lot of foreigners, in fact it's actually a defining part of the town. So this happens from time to time
- Mood Whiplash: One minute it's a happy graduation, the next the world is monochrome, people are turned into statues, and Eugene is melting as his shadow is born.
- More Friends, More Benefits: Social Links: with a persona-user, you gain combination attacks and perks like increased healing from that person. With a NPC, however, getting high enough gives some sort of hint about the greater mystery, thus more links = more clues.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Most of the party, after killing Lance.
- Morton's Fork: Early on, the party faced the decision of killing Shadow Lance, and
Lance along with it, or trying to contain the shadow in hopes that they could find a way to reverse the shadowfication process, but almost certainly dooming Lily and her unborn child. - Mythology Gag: For starters, the King's game played at the party celebrating Zoey's rescue.
- No Periods, Period: Averted; they're mentioned every so often, usually in reference to angry female character.
- NPC: Unusually for a forum RP, most of the Social Links are controlled by the DM, with the PCs/Persona users confined to a small portion of them.
- Official Couple: If the polls are to be believed, it's either Sypher and Kazune's panties or Sypher and Kazune's fist.
- Open Mouth, Insert Foot: Zoey's radio shows, she managed to trap her guests in what they say and make them feel like idiots. The fans love it. Her shadow mocked her for liking it too much to a sadistic degree. And put her through something very similiar
- One-Hour Work Week: Zigzagged with the character's day jobs; anyone with one is clearly specified as going to work that day, but they all seem to have enough job security to leave in the middle of the day for shadow-related emergencies.
- Definitely averted with their unofficial 'job' of fighting shadows—getting called out to save someone is clearly seen to cut into their social lives and work hours.
- One-Steve Limit: Averted with some minor characters; Kazune's mother has the same first name as Chisame's last name, and Hiromasa's mother and the Empress social link are both variations of Lily.
- Ordinary High-School Student: Though not the entire cast, most of them were just graduating when the roleplay took place.
- Orgasmic Combat: Seotta and Seraphim's fight.
- Katsumi jokes about it whenever Seraphim hits her.
- Otaku Surrogate: Symphony, and Saori.
- Out-of-Character Moment: When a shadow starts to manifest, it starts to really mess with the person for a few days before awakening.
- Parlor Games: Zoey threw a 'thank you ' party for them saving her. Games were played, drinks were had, and the next morning, a few people could not remember what happened.
- Poor Communication Kills: The party would have a lot more figured out if they shared their individual discoveries more often.
- Portal Network: Any reflective surface (Mirrors, calm waters, reflective metals) can be used to enter the shadow world, bringing you to different points.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The whole group in a nutshell.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Two people have quit and two have joined; the plot contorts accordingly to make one have never existed, another die, and two have a small story arc around their recruitment.
- Relationship Values: Social Links are basically this.
- Ret-Gone: Ameko and Kiyo; both their players left the rp without contributing anything significant, so the rest of the group took this route instead of the alternate.
- Right Under Their Noses: The one throwing people in the shadow world and behind the murders.
- Ripple-Proof Memory: The PCs are not affected by the shadow world Retcons.
- RPG Mechanics 'Verse: RPG in question being Persona.
- Rule of Symbolism: Persona in general, from the shadows, the personas, even the character weapons.
- Running Gag:
- Sypher and Kazune's panties
- Has since devolved into Sypher and panties in general.
- Seraphim breaking into Akira's apartment
- Batsu fending off Seraphim with a party female
- Akira's siblings trying to hook him up with a girl
- Katsumi referring to someone as a 'filthy casual' (though this is mostly out of character)
- Sypher and Kazune's panties
- Sacrificial Lamb: Once again, Eugene and Lance both count.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: Joseph and Kazune again, but applies to all sex scenes, in accordance with Gaia's terms of service.
- Shadow Archetype: The shadows, just like the fourth game.
- Schrödinger's Suggestion Box: The rules are there, but the GM is happy to let the roleplayers customize things how they want.
- Shatterpoint Tap: The 'Boss Shadows' seem to have several of these that need to be targeted.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Genderflipped, Kazune, Zoey, and Seraphim have quite a harsh vocabulary
- Souvenir Land: Onigashima has one, as well as a waterpark variant.
- Spanner in the Works: What the player characters' party is slowly becoming for the culprit.
- Suggestive Collision: Happens to Sypher and Kazune as they exit the shadow world. Kazune was about to dismiss it as an accident, until Sypher commented on her black lacy panties and she punched him back into the shadow world. However, he was in a daze from being landed on at the time, and didn't really know what he was saying.
- Summon Magic: As with all Persona games.
- Super Cell Reception: In the real world, no one has problems contacting the other members of the party for shadow-related emergencies.
- Superweapon Surprise: Just your normal group of young adults graduating high school. Until suddenly they get Personas and powerful weapon.
- Take Up My Sword: A prior Persona group had failed before them, and the current group is trying to hunt the ones who were behind it all.
- Tarot Motifs: Comes with being a Persona RP.
- The Power of Friendship: Social Links. They can also be The Power of Love if romantic in nature.
- The Promised Land: In the shadow world, enemies and danger lurks everywhere. However, by entering through the lake of Onigashima, they arrive in a large, relatively mundane area that is always void of shadows and safe. Chisame stays here.
- Trial-and-Error Gameplay: The direction of the RP and where it goes, it changes up a little depending on what the Player Characters seem to be liking the most.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Most people, immediately preceding their shadow fight
- Wall of Text: The radio show posts tend to be lengthy, as well as some of the plot posts.
- Wretched Hive: Actually averted; Onigashima is relatively crime-free and considered a safe place to live. At least on the surface...
- You Are Not Alone: Generally this is what the party spends a large part of the shadow fight trying to convince the victim of.
