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PLAYER
YOUR NAME: porto
18+?: yep
CONTACT:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
tawnyport or journal pm
CHARACTERS IN GAME: n/a
RESERVATION LINK: boom
YOUR NAME: porto
18+?: yep
CONTACT:
CHARACTERS IN GAME: n/a
RESERVATION LINK: boom
CHARACTER: CANON SECTION
NAME: Mao Isara
AGE: 17
CANON: Ensemble Stars!
NAME: Mao Isara
AGE: 17
CANON: Ensemble Stars!
CANON HISTORY: Ensemble Stars is a mobile game with story-intensive events every two weeks so this is definitely an abridged history but more details can be provided on request!
The first time the player character meets Mao, it's because he's showing up to try to protect the members of his unit, Trickstar, from the repercussions of being present at an event that is being held in defiance of the student council, where Mao is the treasurer. This is pretty much Mao Isara in a nutshell: overcommitted, but no less committed for it. The idol course at Yumenosaki Academy, the school that provides the setting for Ensemble Stars, is on the brink of collapse under the weight of the current student council's regime. The student council president is determined to see only the highest quality idols graduate, and in order to achieve that he's set up a system where students are pitted against one another to compete or be crushed. Before the events of the game, there was even a time period known as the war, and it's intimated that numerous students quit the idol course, the school, or even took more drastic measures as a result of the student council president's authority.
It's not explained how Mao came to be a part of the student council, but he uses his position on it to affect change within Yumenosaki as much as he can, even if it's just by doing things like protecting his friends and giving them a heads up about the consequences coming for them. He's not disloyal to the student council, but he is somewhat on the outside of it: the core of the student council are the president, Eichi, the vice president Keito who is also Eichi's closest childhood friend, and the secretary, Tori, who is in the same idol unit as Eichi and is wildly devoted to him. Over the course of the events of the story he gets closer to the members and eventually takes over as the president of the student council with Eichi and Keito's support, a demonstration of how much he's grown into the role of a leader as much as it is a signal that things are changing at Yumenosaki.
His unit, Trickstar, are initially at something of a disadvantage, but because of their inherent talent and passion (and some help from other forces opposing the student council), they're able to do better and better in the DreamFest they enter, allowing them to expand their budget and become more competitive until in the end they are able to defeat the school's top unit, cementing the changing of the guard in Yumenosaki and opening the way for a less restrictive, more dynamic and optimistic future. Mao's speech at the incoming student council president tells the other students to follow him but also to ask him for help when they need it, and acknowledges the inherent humanity that makes idols who they are. It's an uplifting ending that promises even better things to come in the future.
CANON PERSONALITY:
I'm not strong. All I do is act like a good guy and take care of other people...
And run around, prostrating myself on the ground while saying, "please don't hate me."
Mao Isara, Band Ensemble event story
All of Trickstar are Good Kids, as is expected of the protagonists in a game like this, but Mao might just be the best kid among them. He's hard working, compassionate, loyal, and smart, though he sometimes doesn't know his own limits and can be insensitive or even a bit whiny.
Everyone at Yumenosaki Academy has a lot on their plate as the idol course is very demanding, but the members of the Student Council take that on as an additional responsibility. Unlike the other members of the student council, however, Mao isn't there because he thinks he has an infallible plan for how to produce the world's finest idols. He's there because he genuinely wants to help the school and the student council itself as the school's governing body. Being only the treasurer, he can't do very much, but as the year goes by his potential grows and is seen by the president and the vice president, to the point where they are comfortable leaving the school in his hands when they graduate. That doesn't mean Mao's other responsibilities are in any way decreased, however. Idol students at Yumenosaki are responsible for booking, promoting, and staging all their own live performances, including building stages, creating costumes, generating choreography, and managing merchandise sales. During the game, Trickstar are often helped with this by the player character, but they still have a lot of things to look after themselves and Mao is right in the thick of that. On top of these things, he's also the vice president of the basketball club, and while this is a minor consideration compared to the other two, he's still the second in command, helping to calm the tensions between Chiaki, the club's exuberant president, and the other members, who often object to Chiaki's constant cheerleading and skinship. Mao provides a quieter middle ground between them, a role he takes up in other ways as well.
Mao says more than once that he doesn't want any additional troubles in his life, but they seem to have a way of finding him. While chief among these is navigating his position on both the student council and the rebel unit Trickstar, he also runs interference between the members of his unit when they argue, between the members of his basketball club when they argue, and even between a pair of brothers. Mao's best friend is Ritsu, a fellow second year with a lazy streak a mile wide who depends on Mao for wake up calls in the morning, transportation to and from school, and a host of other things in between. Ritsu has an older brother named Rei. Rei adores his brother but to say Ritsu chafes at Rei's attention is putting it mildly. There comes a point when their relationship comes to a bit of a head, partly because of actions on Mao's part, and he ends up relaying a message that helps to repair their relationship somewhat, even though he's not overly close to Rei. While the fight between Ritsu and Mao is more about Ritsu's unwillingness to grow than anything Mao does, it does show a more depressed side of Mao than any other moment in canon, and it creates the rare opportunity for him to be looked after by others.
Mao doesn't talk a lot about what affects him negatively, but in his inner monologues it's easy to see that two fears are dominant: the fear of being disliked, which is part of what leads him to play both sides in the fight between Trickstar and the student council, and the fear of being left behind. Mao knows he's risking a lot in spreading himself as thin as he does, and he often laments the speed with which his unitmates are developing. The other three of them are all in class together; Mao is the only member of Trickstar in class 2-B, which means he sees his unitmates less often and as such, is more capable of noticing when they change. He comments often on how much more even-tempered Subaru becomes, how much of a leader Hokuto grows to be, and how much more confident Makoto is, and he worries they'll leave him behind as they achieve more and more. Of course, his unitmates see how reliable and mature he himself grows to be, leaving behind the Mao who whines about how much trouble his unit causes him and becoming someone who embraces their energy and spirit, but he can't always see that about himself.
Apart from his unit, student council, and basketball activities, Mao also likes to read and he does spend a great deal of time taking care of Ritsu. He doesn't have a bad relationship with his family, but he's gone so much that his little sister has started taking over his room. Mao rarely lets on just how big of a toll everything he's taken on is really taking on him but then again, there's rarely time. He's relieved to have some of the burden taken off by the appearance of the player character, who helps to produce the school's idols, but even when the school year is over he's still working and comments that summer's the only time he has to catch up on his reading. Even in his downtime, Mao is working to improve himself (while also complaining about how inconvenient the timing is, of course!).
SKILLS/ABILITIES: Mao is athletic as a result of both his idol training and playing basketball with the school club. He's flexible with a natural sense of rhythm and a natural sense of leadership. He can play the guitar well enough to be included in a stage performance playing it. Otherwise, Mao's a regular teenage boy.
The first time the player character meets Mao, it's because he's showing up to try to protect the members of his unit, Trickstar, from the repercussions of being present at an event that is being held in defiance of the student council, where Mao is the treasurer. This is pretty much Mao Isara in a nutshell: overcommitted, but no less committed for it. The idol course at Yumenosaki Academy, the school that provides the setting for Ensemble Stars, is on the brink of collapse under the weight of the current student council's regime. The student council president is determined to see only the highest quality idols graduate, and in order to achieve that he's set up a system where students are pitted against one another to compete or be crushed. Before the events of the game, there was even a time period known as the war, and it's intimated that numerous students quit the idol course, the school, or even took more drastic measures as a result of the student council president's authority.
It's not explained how Mao came to be a part of the student council, but he uses his position on it to affect change within Yumenosaki as much as he can, even if it's just by doing things like protecting his friends and giving them a heads up about the consequences coming for them. He's not disloyal to the student council, but he is somewhat on the outside of it: the core of the student council are the president, Eichi, the vice president Keito who is also Eichi's closest childhood friend, and the secretary, Tori, who is in the same idol unit as Eichi and is wildly devoted to him. Over the course of the events of the story he gets closer to the members and eventually takes over as the president of the student council with Eichi and Keito's support, a demonstration of how much he's grown into the role of a leader as much as it is a signal that things are changing at Yumenosaki.
His unit, Trickstar, are initially at something of a disadvantage, but because of their inherent talent and passion (and some help from other forces opposing the student council), they're able to do better and better in the DreamFest they enter, allowing them to expand their budget and become more competitive until in the end they are able to defeat the school's top unit, cementing the changing of the guard in Yumenosaki and opening the way for a less restrictive, more dynamic and optimistic future. Mao's speech at the incoming student council president tells the other students to follow him but also to ask him for help when they need it, and acknowledges the inherent humanity that makes idols who they are. It's an uplifting ending that promises even better things to come in the future.
CANON PERSONALITY:
And run around, prostrating myself on the ground while saying, "please don't hate me."
Mao Isara, Band Ensemble event story
All of Trickstar are Good Kids, as is expected of the protagonists in a game like this, but Mao might just be the best kid among them. He's hard working, compassionate, loyal, and smart, though he sometimes doesn't know his own limits and can be insensitive or even a bit whiny.
Everyone at Yumenosaki Academy has a lot on their plate as the idol course is very demanding, but the members of the Student Council take that on as an additional responsibility. Unlike the other members of the student council, however, Mao isn't there because he thinks he has an infallible plan for how to produce the world's finest idols. He's there because he genuinely wants to help the school and the student council itself as the school's governing body. Being only the treasurer, he can't do very much, but as the year goes by his potential grows and is seen by the president and the vice president, to the point where they are comfortable leaving the school in his hands when they graduate. That doesn't mean Mao's other responsibilities are in any way decreased, however. Idol students at Yumenosaki are responsible for booking, promoting, and staging all their own live performances, including building stages, creating costumes, generating choreography, and managing merchandise sales. During the game, Trickstar are often helped with this by the player character, but they still have a lot of things to look after themselves and Mao is right in the thick of that. On top of these things, he's also the vice president of the basketball club, and while this is a minor consideration compared to the other two, he's still the second in command, helping to calm the tensions between Chiaki, the club's exuberant president, and the other members, who often object to Chiaki's constant cheerleading and skinship. Mao provides a quieter middle ground between them, a role he takes up in other ways as well.
Mao says more than once that he doesn't want any additional troubles in his life, but they seem to have a way of finding him. While chief among these is navigating his position on both the student council and the rebel unit Trickstar, he also runs interference between the members of his unit when they argue, between the members of his basketball club when they argue, and even between a pair of brothers. Mao's best friend is Ritsu, a fellow second year with a lazy streak a mile wide who depends on Mao for wake up calls in the morning, transportation to and from school, and a host of other things in between. Ritsu has an older brother named Rei. Rei adores his brother but to say Ritsu chafes at Rei's attention is putting it mildly. There comes a point when their relationship comes to a bit of a head, partly because of actions on Mao's part, and he ends up relaying a message that helps to repair their relationship somewhat, even though he's not overly close to Rei. While the fight between Ritsu and Mao is more about Ritsu's unwillingness to grow than anything Mao does, it does show a more depressed side of Mao than any other moment in canon, and it creates the rare opportunity for him to be looked after by others.
Mao doesn't talk a lot about what affects him negatively, but in his inner monologues it's easy to see that two fears are dominant: the fear of being disliked, which is part of what leads him to play both sides in the fight between Trickstar and the student council, and the fear of being left behind. Mao knows he's risking a lot in spreading himself as thin as he does, and he often laments the speed with which his unitmates are developing. The other three of them are all in class together; Mao is the only member of Trickstar in class 2-B, which means he sees his unitmates less often and as such, is more capable of noticing when they change. He comments often on how much more even-tempered Subaru becomes, how much of a leader Hokuto grows to be, and how much more confident Makoto is, and he worries they'll leave him behind as they achieve more and more. Of course, his unitmates see how reliable and mature he himself grows to be, leaving behind the Mao who whines about how much trouble his unit causes him and becoming someone who embraces their energy and spirit, but he can't always see that about himself.
Apart from his unit, student council, and basketball activities, Mao also likes to read and he does spend a great deal of time taking care of Ritsu. He doesn't have a bad relationship with his family, but he's gone so much that his little sister has started taking over his room. Mao rarely lets on just how big of a toll everything he's taken on is really taking on him but then again, there's rarely time. He's relieved to have some of the burden taken off by the appearance of the player character, who helps to produce the school's idols, but even when the school year is over he's still working and comments that summer's the only time he has to catch up on his reading. Even in his downtime, Mao is working to improve himself (while also complaining about how inconvenient the timing is, of course!).
SKILLS/ABILITIES: Mao is athletic as a result of both his idol training and playing basketball with the school club. He's flexible with a natural sense of rhythm and a natural sense of leadership. He can play the guitar well enough to be included in a stage performance playing it. Otherwise, Mao's a regular teenage boy.
CHARACTER: AU SECTION
AU NAME: Mao Yata
AU AGE: 16
PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES: Less exhausted? He's essentially the same, unless his hair would need to be explained in which case it's dyed. He'll be an AU son to Cherche, though, so if hers is all right hopefully his is as well.
AU NAME: Mao Yata
AU AGE: 16
PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES: Less exhausted? He's essentially the same, unless his hair would need to be explained in which case it's dyed. He'll be an AU son to Cherche, though, so if hers is all right hopefully his is as well.
AU HISTORY:
☆ Mao was born in Recolle and has lived there his entire life. His parents were happily married with his mother staying home to raise him and his brother.
☆ Their family was middle class with Mao and Misaki not wanting for anything but not being especially indulged, either. Mao saw how hard his father worked and how much his mother did to support him and didn't want to take any of that for granted, so he started on his own version of working hard, working to do as well as he could in school and to be the best son and brother he could. Luckily, with a good, stable family, that wasn't especially challenging.
☆ When Mao was in middle school, his father was killed in the line of duty. It was tragic and Mao thinks about his father often, but he knows if there's one thing he wouldn't have wanted, it would've been for his family to fall apart without him. As such, Mao did everything he could to support his mother and brother through this time and he still does. He worries about Misaki since he's joined the force but he also has to divide that concern up to support his mother as well. With Misaki living on his own, Mao's the man of their house and he takes that responsibility seriously.
☆ It was after his father's death that Mao started throwing himself into more activities, however. At first it was to distract himself and keep busy, but now it's to try to be as hard working as he remembers his father as being and as he sees his mother being, as well as to make sure he's ready for a career later on. Since his father's death, he's gotten involved in student government and started playing sports, as well as continuing to teach himself guitar. Internet videos are great things.
☆ Now that he's in high school, Mao is definitely looking toward the future. He's only sixteen but he's thinking about colleges. He wants to find a way to support his family and remember his father without putting himself in the line of fire and risk his mother losing any more family, so he's starting to think about law school.
☆ He also uses the various activities he's involved in to manage his social life and social position in the school. It's tricky being a teacher's kid, it can be the worst perception of teacher's pet-ness to ever happen, but he does his best to stay involved in enough things to avoid the perception of just coasting by on that privilege. He wants people who like him (or don't like him, but he'd rather people like him) to like him for himself and the things he personally has to offer as opposed to seeing him as a path to an easy in with the staff. He loves his mother, he'd never say anything against her, but things at the school are a little more complicated because she's there. She's a tough teacher, after all.
AU PERSONALITY:
☆ Like his canon counterpart, Mao is hardworking, perhaps to a fault. Without the constructs of Yumenosaki, that comes out through involvement in student government, sports, hobbies, and whatever else he's needed to do in his friends' lives. His motivations for this have shifted over time but there is a part of him that's still working and keeping busy to avoid fully dealing with his dad's absence and the unresolved feelings around that.
☆ Mao can be blunt and seem hard to get to know, but it's really just a way of determining the authenticity of how people feel toward him. He wants very, very much to be liked but he wants to be liked for himself, even if he doesn't always like that self. He's not any angstier or more self-loathing than your average sixteen year old boy without a male role model in his house but he does have his insecurities and not letting people in emotionally while also doing everything he can to get them to like him is how he expresses that.
☆ Mao's a smart kid. He's smart enough in canon to be able to navigate the two sides of the conflict he's involved in, but in Recolle it's more a matter of just possessing a bit more maturity and perhaps common sense than a lot of his classmates. Part of that is natural, it's just his personality, and part of that is from his circumstances. Losing his father, especially in such a violent way, made him grow up faster than he otherwise might have but rather than seeing it that way, he sees it as the rest of his classmates needing to be a little more mature. He could always just make more mature friends, but where's the fun in that? Besides which, more mature people might need him less (see above point about his insecurities).
☆ Mao was born in Recolle and has lived there his entire life. His parents were happily married with his mother staying home to raise him and his brother.
☆ Their family was middle class with Mao and Misaki not wanting for anything but not being especially indulged, either. Mao saw how hard his father worked and how much his mother did to support him and didn't want to take any of that for granted, so he started on his own version of working hard, working to do as well as he could in school and to be the best son and brother he could. Luckily, with a good, stable family, that wasn't especially challenging.
☆ When Mao was in middle school, his father was killed in the line of duty. It was tragic and Mao thinks about his father often, but he knows if there's one thing he wouldn't have wanted, it would've been for his family to fall apart without him. As such, Mao did everything he could to support his mother and brother through this time and he still does. He worries about Misaki since he's joined the force but he also has to divide that concern up to support his mother as well. With Misaki living on his own, Mao's the man of their house and he takes that responsibility seriously.
☆ It was after his father's death that Mao started throwing himself into more activities, however. At first it was to distract himself and keep busy, but now it's to try to be as hard working as he remembers his father as being and as he sees his mother being, as well as to make sure he's ready for a career later on. Since his father's death, he's gotten involved in student government and started playing sports, as well as continuing to teach himself guitar. Internet videos are great things.
☆ Now that he's in high school, Mao is definitely looking toward the future. He's only sixteen but he's thinking about colleges. He wants to find a way to support his family and remember his father without putting himself in the line of fire and risk his mother losing any more family, so he's starting to think about law school.
☆ He also uses the various activities he's involved in to manage his social life and social position in the school. It's tricky being a teacher's kid, it can be the worst perception of teacher's pet-ness to ever happen, but he does his best to stay involved in enough things to avoid the perception of just coasting by on that privilege. He wants people who like him (or don't like him, but he'd rather people like him) to like him for himself and the things he personally has to offer as opposed to seeing him as a path to an easy in with the staff. He loves his mother, he'd never say anything against her, but things at the school are a little more complicated because she's there. She's a tough teacher, after all.
AU PERSONALITY:
☆ Like his canon counterpart, Mao is hardworking, perhaps to a fault. Without the constructs of Yumenosaki, that comes out through involvement in student government, sports, hobbies, and whatever else he's needed to do in his friends' lives. His motivations for this have shifted over time but there is a part of him that's still working and keeping busy to avoid fully dealing with his dad's absence and the unresolved feelings around that.
☆ Mao can be blunt and seem hard to get to know, but it's really just a way of determining the authenticity of how people feel toward him. He wants very, very much to be liked but he wants to be liked for himself, even if he doesn't always like that self. He's not any angstier or more self-loathing than your average sixteen year old boy without a male role model in his house but he does have his insecurities and not letting people in emotionally while also doing everything he can to get them to like him is how he expresses that.
☆ Mao's a smart kid. He's smart enough in canon to be able to navigate the two sides of the conflict he's involved in, but in Recolle it's more a matter of just possessing a bit more maturity and perhaps common sense than a lot of his classmates. Part of that is natural, it's just his personality, and part of that is from his circumstances. Losing his father, especially in such a violent way, made him grow up faster than he otherwise might have but rather than seeing it that way, he sees it as the rest of his classmates needing to be a little more mature. He could always just make more mature friends, but where's the fun in that? Besides which, more mature people might need him less (see above point about his insecurities).
SAMPLE
Mao has mixed feelings about Fridays. On one hand, the weekend is so, so close. He can see it, he can almost feel it, the sweet freedom. Unfortunately, he's feeling it from the far side of a classroom door as the last member of the student council to leave for the week. It's his own fault, as it usually is. He volunteered to tie up the last few loose ends that came up with the prom since he himself wasn't going. Staying to make sure everything was settled meant that everyone else could go get their dresses and suits ready, get their pictures taken, do all the things prom goers needed to do to have the night of their lives. He'd get to have his turn next year. This year, he answers emails, double checks invoices, and wonders if he's going to have to figure out where to buy yellow feathers to release from the ceiling next year if the chocobo theme wins.
It doesn't take very long but it does take long enough that his phone buzzes. It's his brother, letting him know he's coming to the house for dinner and telling Mao he better get home with enough energy for a gaming marathon. He's got his thumb over the keyboard to reply when another message comes through. It's Mizuki, reminding him (more like pre-scolding him even though he's never missed yet) that they have plans for chess practice on Saturday afternoon. Mao sighs and taps that message, trying to figure out an appropriately nice reply that will also clue Mizuki in that he's not going to blow him off. They have plans, he'll show up.
And that's when his phone goes off three times in quick succession. It's Eijun. His catcher isn't answering his messages and Eijun wants company at the diamond. Mao's not sure when he became somebody Eijun would contact for that, but he feels bad at the idea of turning him down. It won't take too long, and if Misaki is there for dinner then he'll be there for the night so maybe they can make it a midnight gaming session as long as Mao doesn't let Eijun run him around too much. He takes a minute to send off the last email, then replies to everyone before gathering his things.
That should make everybody happy, and that's a good way to finish a Friday, even if it doesn't really feel as sweet anymore.
Mao has mixed feelings about Fridays. On one hand, the weekend is so, so close. He can see it, he can almost feel it, the sweet freedom. Unfortunately, he's feeling it from the far side of a classroom door as the last member of the student council to leave for the week. It's his own fault, as it usually is. He volunteered to tie up the last few loose ends that came up with the prom since he himself wasn't going. Staying to make sure everything was settled meant that everyone else could go get their dresses and suits ready, get their pictures taken, do all the things prom goers needed to do to have the night of their lives. He'd get to have his turn next year. This year, he answers emails, double checks invoices, and wonders if he's going to have to figure out where to buy yellow feathers to release from the ceiling next year if the chocobo theme wins.
It doesn't take very long but it does take long enough that his phone buzzes. It's his brother, letting him know he's coming to the house for dinner and telling Mao he better get home with enough energy for a gaming marathon. He's got his thumb over the keyboard to reply when another message comes through. It's Mizuki, reminding him (more like pre-scolding him even though he's never missed yet) that they have plans for chess practice on Saturday afternoon. Mao sighs and taps that message, trying to figure out an appropriately nice reply that will also clue Mizuki in that he's not going to blow him off. They have plans, he'll show up.
And that's when his phone goes off three times in quick succession. It's Eijun. His catcher isn't answering his messages and Eijun wants company at the diamond. Mao's not sure when he became somebody Eijun would contact for that, but he feels bad at the idea of turning him down. It won't take too long, and if Misaki is there for dinner then he'll be there for the night so maybe they can make it a midnight gaming session as long as Mao doesn't let Eijun run him around too much. He takes a minute to send off the last email, then replies to everyone before gathering his things.
That should make everybody happy, and that's a good way to finish a Friday, even if it doesn't really feel as sweet anymore.