[Application] Mai ; Cerealia

[upcard]

Applicant Info

◎ Name: Cal
◎ Journal: kalisona
◎ Contact: Plurk: kalisona | AIM: carriwitchets

Character Info

◎ Character's Name: Mai (Note: she has no default name as the protagonist, but this is one of the generally accepted fan names for her)
◎ Character's Canon: Amnesia
◎ Character's Age: 19
◎ Canon Point: Episode 10 of the anime, right after Ukyo drops her off the roof
◎ Background/History:

At the Wiki!

It is pretty thorough, but I'll also elaborate a bit here on game and anime canon if that's all right!

The anime condenses the romantic routes of the game into an episode to an episode and a half apiece, so it obviously glosses over quite a lot--I'll be using game canon to fill in the blanks there. However, it also does two very important things: it gives the protagonist a voice aside from just her choice options, and it establishes that she remembers each route and progressive bad end.

In essence, in the anime, the protagonist is constantly vaulted from world to world, where she has to live her alternate self's "life" through that particular route (from Shin to Ikki to Kent to Toma). However, she hits a bad end in each route, ending in her death, at which point she is thrown again into another world.

She remembers each of these routes (and deaths), while frantically trying to figure out what is happening, who she's supposedly "dating", and why everything is going the way it is.

This culminates in the "Joker" route, where she meets Ukyo in the original world, where he saves her from dying. By doing this, however, he created a paradox in that world--either he or she is supposed to exist, but never both. Therefore, the world in question is doing its best to eliminate this paradox, and kill Mai. In response, Ukyo tries to save her each and every time, but is also one of the greatest dangers to her, as his alternate personality also wishes to get rid of her so that he can live instead of her.

Episode 10 has Mai finishing with Toma's route, left in the hospital due to injuries (and some unfortunate drugging). She remains there overnight to rest, where Ukyo's much crazier half finds her, takes her up to the roof and wakes her up.

And then he drops her off the roof.

◎ Is the character a hacker and/or do they have a sixth-sense? Neither!

◎ Personality:

First and foremost, Mai is a silent protagonist. This bears stating because the majority of her actions are either not scripted in the game, are implied by how the other characters react, or are given by Orion, her Constant Cute Fairy Companion. (Who of course won't be in Cerealia with her. Thanks for nothing, Orion). All of that said, there's a great deal of personality that is implied in how she's spoken about, her past actions, her future actions and the choices she makes.

It's implied in canon that having Orion crash into her soul and jar loose her memories did some damage to her personality as well, which explains why she's so quiet and muted throughout everything. All of the characters remark on how strange it is that she's being so polite and quiet, and a number of them are extremely concerned.

Furthermore, as she regains more of her memories (and as Orion fades away more), she starts to return to her proper personality, bit by bit, growing more determined, having more agency and shaking off the quiet muted girl she's been.

BUT at the moment she's coming in from, she's still missing a good portion of her memories. She has regained a few, but she'll still be struggling to regain the rest as she goes along, and so she's still rather passive and quiet. Honestly, her passivity gets her into a great deal of trouble; when people push her to do something, she'll usually do it and without much argument. At first glance, she's honestly an extremely obedient person, willing to politely do whatever a person says if it will make them happy or make their lives easier.

She's polite, demure, sincere--all of the traits one would expect from a self-inserty protag-chan in an otome game.

But of course, that's not all there is to her at all. She's obedient and passive, but only until you hit the point of no return--and then she has a backbone of steel. There are a few things she refuses to bend on, and most of all is her concern for others. She'll go out of her way to help a complete stranger; someone she knows and cares about only is further assured that she will do whatever it takes to make sure that they're alright. Even if it means going out in a dangerous storm on a day when she knows the entire world is out to get her, just to be sure that he'll be alright.

Because she's not concerned for her own self that much. She's much, much more concerned for other people, constantly fretting over them or trying to do her best to help them sort out their problems or make them feel better. Honestly, her own self-preservation instincts are more than a little broken; whether it's just how she is or it's a consequence of her dying a few times and remembering it all is up for interpretation. Regardless, she's willing to give up on surviving, and it is thinking of Ukyo's dream that convinces her to keep trying to live, not her own life.

It's a trend for her, though. Putting other people first is a lifestyle for her.

Furthermore, despite her passivity, her willpower is off the charts. It's made plain that Ikki, who has the power to charm women with his eyes, is first interested in her because she's not affected by his eyes. When he asks her why, it becomes clear that it's simply because she decided she wasn't going to be. She had the willpower to remove that influence, because she felt so strongly against it.

Because she does have her very own strong opinions when it comes to certain Topics. For example, she felt so strongly about Ikki and his flirting and philandering because her own father was the same around women. She grew to hate men who treat women like disposable toys, and it is an opinion she holds onto strongly. That said, she still treats Ikki himself fairly, and never holds it against him as a friend. After all, she tries to be as open-minded as she can, never leaving out her friends.

And on top of this, she really is very perceptive. She's good at figuring out what's bothering her friends or loved ones and giving them really very decent advice on how to deal with it or even just how to cheer up. She figures out that Ukyo's darker side also loves her and just wants her acceptance, and is willing to give it to him, understanding that both sides of him have to be accepted despite barely knowing him. She's rather good at understanding people, when she's given the chance.

But truly, despite all of this, she's more than a little shellshocked at this point in time. She's hopped a number of worlds and timelines, experience a few unforgiving deaths (she's been hit by a bus, drowned, hit by cars, dropped off a roof--) and hasn't really had the chance to process all of it. All she's doing is her best, clinging to what she knows is true: that she has to get back her memories, that sitting around feeling sorry for herself will accomplish nothing, and that it's up to her to do whatever she can. Everything has been rather unforgiving, however, so perhaps she can be forgiven for being quiet and timid for now.

Of course, that said, she's very good at rolling with the punches. She has to be able to, to not go crazy from all of this insanity. Instead, she deals with it as best she can and carries on, finding more important goals to put her focus on. Because honestly, she's a ridiculously caring person. For strangers, for friends, it doesn't matter; she's always kind, considerate, and does her best to help them however possible. Because of this, she's quick to put a brave face on her own issues ("I'm fine" is a common response from her) and is quick to apologize, even for things that aren't her fault. She really just wants things to go smoothly for the people she cares about, and doesn't want to cause any trouble at all.

This is all a little different from how she truly is. Everyone comments on how strange it is that she's being overly polite; while she's still a reasonably polite person, she's definitely the sort to easily joke around her friends, instead of always standing on ceremony with them. This is because she's quite frank and honest with her friends. In Kent's route we learn that she was constantly getting into arguments with him because she refused to allow him to not learn to deal with people (namely her, since she was dating him at the time). He couldn't understand romance or dates, and so she would point it out, even if it meant they would end up bickering.

In Ikki's route, she gives him a dressing down for his philandering behavior, as it's something she finds deplorable; she refused to let it just go, instead scolding him until he explained his behavior to her. From all of this, it's clear that she wasn't the sort to simply lie down and accept things the way they are if they bother her; rather, she's not afraid to point out others' flaws if she thinks it will benefit them in the long run, and she isn't afraid of conflict at all.

Furthermore, she has always been a fiery defender of others. It's revealed in Shin's route that she was always the one to stand up for him when they were children, refusing to allow him to be bullied by anyone else (despite being a tiny little girl). That didn't matter to her, however; taking care of her friend did.

She is a fiercely independent person as well, living on her own due to her father's lifestyle, making money to support herself and take her own trips, having her own job and refusing to lean on anyone else. Despite how obedient she tends to be towards the people she trusts, she's got her own brain and isn't afraid to use it, especially when she's being particularly stubborn. Because she is certainly stubborn and hard-headed, refusing to leave Ukyo even when the building around them was burning to the ground, simply because she didn't want to allow him to die (even though there was nothing she could do). The survival instincts are not strong in this one

But ultimately, she's a very strong person. She's an extremely hard worker (even when she has no idea what she's doing because of her amnesia, she does her absolute best), she rarely cries, and she doesn't crumble despite the difficulty of her situation. No matter how bad things get, she always keeps fighting, even if quietly (such as finding a way out of the cage Toma stuck her in, despite having nowhere else to go).

And on top of that, her ability to forgive is simply ridiculous. She forgives Toma for said cage incident, as well as drugging her, and she forgives Ukyo for killing her multiple times. She's willing to speak with, help, and listen to both of them despite what they did to her. She has complete faith in Shin in his route despite being told that he was a questionable person by everyone around her, and despite not remembering a single thing about him. Her ability to forgive is her best and most prominent trait, and though it gets her into trouble, it's something that will simply never change about her. She doesn't hold grudges. Instead, she simply does her best to move forward, no matter what happened in the past.

So while she's quiet and passive now, there are times when the rest of her personality shines through quite clearly, and the more she retrieves her memories and her own self, the more like herself she'll be. After all, all of this together makes up her, through all of her trials and tribulations.

◎ Powers/Abilities:

As a completely ordinary, average human, she doesn't have any abilities that will be of much use to her in Cerealia. She does possess an extraordinary amount of willpower, as pointed out above, to the point where she can shake off something that is established to work on most everyone else. She also possesses forgiveness at jesus levels, not that that's an ability so much as a liability, but it is what it is.

You can expect standard otome fare from her otherwise--klutziness, tripping, and the works. She is rather resourceful, able to find her way out of a cage (thanks Toma) and pick a lock with one of her bobby pins (though admittedly not a very strong lock).

She works at a maid cafe, so she's good at all that that would entail, including brewing tea and coffee, making sweets and the like, and being absolutely adorable.

She gained a series of skills in Synodiporia, including network archive retrieval, psychic protection, psychic healing and sensory livestreaming. As these were all psychic network skills, they will do absolutely nothing for her in Cereal, but it's worth noting she had them.

She also began to learn magic, but as she wasn't able to practice it much, she knows practically nothing beyond being able to levitate a pinecone. A+, otome protag, A+.

◎ Weapons & Other Special Inventory:
- bag with:

: cellphone (waterlogged and no longer functioning)
: diary (waterlogged)
: pen

- pepper spray, given to her by Ukyo
- metal-coated pinecone from liminal space in Synodiporia; it has no special effects

CEREALIA-Specific

◎ Element: Water
◎ Sense: Sight - there's a rather large emphasis throughout the series on eyes and eyesight, and Mai's first instinct when she jumps worlds is always to explore the world with her sight and see if she can find anything familiar. Often, the last things she sees before her deaths are what truly stick with her.
◎ Seven Character Traits:

( + )
- determined
- optimistic
- independent

( - )
- timid
- passive
- reckless

( +/- )
- innocent

Samples

◎ First-Person Sample: Here are a few previous game threads.

◎ Third-Person Sample: Already in the game with Sousei (deontology)!

◎ Is your character retaining any previous game memories? YEAH LET'S TALK ABOUT SYN HERE.