surgeworks

25 – January 2 | Table of Contents | Finale Part 1
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Alternate Title: Life and Love, as Understood by Stalkers

Chris: Here we are, people, the final ten days of the last month of the game. The last ten days of the world, should Nyx go undefeated.

Shinjiro: Before we do that, there’s two last Social Links to finish: Mitsuru’s and Aigis’.

Tristram: One of the best Social Links, and the abject worst. Sounds like the perfect way to round off the day to day life section of this game honestly.

Empyrea: Very fitting, indeed. I still find it hilarious that the game managed both.

Chris: The day is 1/20, so let’s get on that. After school, Junpei admits to being very bothered by the empty seat where Ryoji used to sit. I’m not—we knew him for one month, man. Besides, somebody else is supposed to have that seat anyway. I guess they came down with Apathy Syndrome? Anyway, today is an Aigis day.

Tristram: I wasn’t here for it, but the homeroom teacher basically going ‘yeah, you can sit there, the person who usually sits there can suck it up’ is incredibly unlikely. You just don’t do that in Japanese schools. You are assigned a desk and come hell or high water that is where you will stay until the year ends. Nobody swaps, nobody is sick and comes back to find someone else there, nothing. More proof for the ‘Creepy Ryoji is a creepy creepy mind warper’ theory, I think!

Empyrea: As the resident Asian here, I second Tristram’s statement. I was once seated next to and in front of the class bullies once and the teacher would still ask me to return to my proper seat. That went on until the seating arrangement was officially changed at the start of the next quarter. Like, come on, I would’ve loved Ryoji’s mind warper skills then! It would’ve saved my uniform from the all the stuff written on it!

Chris: Aigis and I head to the strip mall today, where we come across the little old lady to whom we returned Mewlie the other day. We find her with a young student who calls her “Granny”, and says he has a date tomorrow, but doesn’t have any money, hint hint. Playing into this kid’s hands, she calls him “Kiyoshi” and “a good boy”, and gives him an advance on his allowance. He complains about being called Kiyoshi, and she goes on about how good a name it is and it seems he’s heard this story many times before. He impatiently asks for her money, she gives it, and he struts off right away.

Aigis runs after him, only stopping to tell the old lady that that’s what she wants to do. At the station, she catches up with him, calling him by name to his annoyance, until he sees her. He promptly addresses her as Aigis-senpai, and she’s surprised that he seems to know her, and he calls her “famous”. He introduces himself as a freshman that prefers to be called Joe, but doesn’t finish his sentence before she plows on (calling him ‘Kiyoshi’ anyway). When he sheepishly approves her question, she asks if he feels lonely when he’s by himself. He’s confused, and she said his grandmother is lonely because she has nobody else. He asks if he’s being lectured (yes you are, you fuck), and she says no, she just wants to know. Why doesn’t he visit his grandmother more often? He’s a relative, so if she’s lonely, he likely has power to alleviate that, she reasons. He says he’s “just” her grandson, and gets defensive, telling her to butt out.

Tristram: I rarely say this, but I’m absolutely in agreement with Aigis over this self-centred shit of a human being. Treating your lonely grandparent as a money dispenser is gross, and I would be angrier if I didn’t know he’s only here and being this gross to give Aigis more ‘what does it mean to live’ angst. I have read Mary Sue self-insert fiction written by ten year olds with better characters than this.

Honestly Aigis is managing to make me the same kind of angry Castiel makes me and that’s not a shining achievement.

Empyrea: *contemplates for a moment* It’s something for me that I remember some silly details about this game, but this completely escaped me. That said, it’s pretty cheap of the game to pull off a hate-sink character like this dude just for some angst.

Chris: There’s enough hate sinks in this game to go around already.

Shinjiro: She ain’t fazed, and asks him if he’s ever considered what it means to live. He’s taken off-guard again, and she says she thinks the bonds between people are what’s most important, and says that’s what his granny’s slowly losing. He blows her off, saying what’s most important is having fun—which is what makes him happy, and he’s alive to be happy. She ponders this, and he uses it as a lead-in to ask her (and us, too, if we’re down) out for some fun, but Aigis is satisfied and drags us off.

Chris: Kiyoshi’s flabbergasted and asks if that’s really all we came to say to him, and wonders if we’re part of the cult going around, and stalks off. Aigis turns to us, saying she can’t understand him, and asks if she did something wrong.

> “He wanted to date you.”
> “You brushed him off.”
> “You didn’t call him Joe.”
> “No, you didn’t.” (All of the above are true, but he needed his ass called out for being such a shit.)

She wonders about our reassurance and how she feels about it, and says it makes her happy, and she seems a “little embarrassed”. She reports that ever since she decided to live, she’s been using words like “why” and “how” more frequently. The longer she spends with us, she says, the more she discovers that she can’t understand. Why she is or isn’t alive seems to be a particular stumbling block for her. She wonders if this is what’s called frustration, but all the same, she feels fortunate for the few privileges she can enjoy that others don’t have, one of which she explains as being able to be near us, “the one most precious to [her].”

Aigis I’m Stuck With You: 45

Tristram: *gags violently*

Chris: Aigis, you’re literally the last in a very, very long line.

She wonders about how strange it is to experience two coexisting yet conflicting feelings, and we RANK UP. She hangs her head as she finds her feelings towards Kiyoshi to be “unusually harsh”. He has “warm, soft hands” that he can use to “feel those precious to him”…

Shinjiro: First of all, enough with the quote abuse, and second, god that’s creepy.

Empyrea: *eye twitches* I get what you’re going for, but can you at least say it in some other way?

Tristram:

Watch on YouTube

You said it, Scar. Good GOD.

Chris: And yet he chooses to feel up fellow students with them instead. What’s this ugly feeling, she wonders? It’s natural, Aigis, it’s anger. Actually, she refers to it as jealousy. She resolves to stop that feeling, since it isn’t right, and wants to head home.

Junpei wants to go to Tartarus, but too late, we’ve already leveled our whole party to 99. We head to bed early.

1/21. After school, Mitsuru comes into our classroom. Oh, god… Today is…

Shinjiro: What’s today?

Chris: *Looking sick* She says she’s sorry to ask so suddenly, but wants us to come with her. There’s something that needs discussing, and she only wants us for now. We head to the student council room, and once we’re gone, Yukari says it’s kind of weird that she’d only want to talk to us.

Jesus, Yukari. No, it isn’t. Junpei brushes it off as some big important student council business, but if only he knew. She can’t shake the feeling, saying Mitsuru had that look on her face that she always does when she’s keeping a secret. Junpei just wants to go home, but Yukari says he needs to clean up in our absence per the seating chart.

Over in the student council room, we’re alone with Mitsuru, who says there’s something we need to know: Chidori is alive. And she might wake up today. Mitsuru cuts off our appropriate protest that hey, didn’t that chick die in front of our own eyes, weren’t we done with her? But her body started undergoing transmogrification a few days after the incident. For the past few weeks, she’s been in limbo, neither living nor dead. We ask how it happened, but she doesn’t know. All she can speculate is that it’s related to her Persona abilities (remember those flowers she healed? That life force she put in them returned to her). What Mitsuru wants to know is how to break the news to Iori.

Tristram: WE DON’T! Look at what happened the last time he had anything to do with her! We don’t tell him ever because the entire situation is creepy and gross!

Chris: Her cell rings. On the other end is the hospital, who inform her of Chidori’s awakening. And who should walk in but Junpei, as if he was listening outside the door to spare us the choice of actually telling him.

He wonders if it’s some kind of joke or trick, and Mitsuru is forced to explain again. She tries to explain something, hesitantly, about Chidori, but Junpei runs off before she can finish. Yukari walks by in time to complain about him running off on cleaning duty, and Mitsuru turns to us to say it’s a moot point now. Welp. We may as well head to the hospital.

And then there we are, back in Chidori’s room again. I am so not doing this on any subsequent playthroughs.

> You caught up with Junpei, who was taking deep breaths outside the room, and pulled him inside.
> Chidori is sitting in bed, looking thinner than before, but with a healthy complexion…

The happy music starts up, and a doctor who for some reason has a portrait is saying her damaged endocrine system and other internal organs have completely healed. She’s still weak, but she’s not going to keel over in two years anymore. Junpei asks if it’s really her, and if he’s not dreaming. She answers, and he starts to get all hiccupey in happiness.

STOP YOUR DAMN CRYING. SHE TRIED TO KILL YOU TWICE, I—

Tristram: DAMAGED ENDOCRINE SYSTEMS DO NOT RECOVER! SCARRED AND WEAKENED ORGANS DO NOT MIRACULOUSLY WORK AGAIN! THIS IS SO STUPID IT'S ACTIVELY OFFENSIVE! *exhausted broken sobbing*

Empyrea: *pats Tristram* Science fail aside, I would very much like to know how many flowers died for this. They did nothing wrong!

Chris: Ugh. There’s no more point in yelling about it, is there? However, Chidori has no idea who he is. Junpei is shocked, and Mitsuru says she suspected this much—transmogrification happens to those without a Persona, so there was reason to believe she might’ve suffered the loss of more than Medea. The doctor says that these people are her friends.

Honestly, I should feel kind of happy. What a slap in the face it is for this idiot teenage boy and his star-crossed romance, for her to not even remember it, huh? She introduces herself as Chidori Yoshino, and in a voice that doesn’t sound nearly as...affected as how she used to, she apologizes and says she can’t remember any of the past few years. Like she was dreaming for a very long time. Junpei repeats her full name dumbfoundedly.

...Is this the first time he’s ever even heard her last name? It is, isn’t it? That is getting a point no matter how vindictively thrilled I am.

Romantic Plot Cancer: 68

Empyrea: *shrugs* Of course she doesn’t remember. If she did, it would look really weird that they ignore the fact she’s alive again for the remainder of the game. Can’t do that now, can we?

Chris: The doctor says that any memories she had since having Medea put inside her have disappeared with her, so she has no idea who we are at all. Junpei’s a little stunned, but when Mitsuru tries to comfort him, he smiles. He thinks it’s better for her that she doesn’t remember. According to him, it’s not a bad thing to wake up if it was a nightmare you were having.

Chidori promptly takes issue, as she didn’t say it was a nightmare, and tells him not to put words in her mouth. Wow—memory loss or not, she still doesn’t seem all that warm to him. Speak for yourself girl, it was a nightmare for me. Actually, I’m ding, dong, wrong again. She describes her dream as meeting a kind, warm person at the end of a long tunnel.

Romantic Plot Cancer: 69

*coldly* Oh, so she can’t remember anything except for her love interest, how convenient.

Tristram: I hate this so much, I hate this so very very much, it’s all so very stupid and contrived and offensive I can’t even explain how angry I am any more…

Chris: She remembers wanting him to be happy, and remembers a room full of flowers. He tells her to take it easy, saying she doesn’t have to force herself to remember. The doctor brings up the flower bit I explained earlier, saying she’d always restore the flowers in her room on the days Junpei would come.

Romantic Plot Cancer: 70

That’s...almost a picture-perfect representation of the forced romance I’ve been seeing. Let the flowers be dead until he walks in. When he arrives, he’ll see healthy flowers, and when he’s not around, they can wilt all they like. I’m sure Atlus intended that to be lovely and symbolic—aww, look how the atmosphere brightens when he visits her! That lovely little metaphor doesn’t work if she forces it to brighten, assclowns.

Anyway, the doc says the flowers he put on her chest after the autopsy as tribute might’ve restored her. He says that’s not the only thing that’s changed. Chidori pipes up, not liking that she’s being talked about as if she’s not there, and he says they’re talking about wanting to live. She says of course she wants to live.

See that folks? The power of romance makes suicidal people all better!

Romantic Plot Cancer: 71

Empyrea: Oh, come on. Clearly, it’s because—

Chris: And in case you want to doubt that it was romance (I’d still give it the point even if it wasn’t, for Chidori’s romance-laden storyline ending with all her problems magically going away), she says the next line:

“I have to find the person in my dream someday… I can’t lie in this bed forever.”

So you want to live not for yourself, or any of your own interests (that apparently don’t exist), but just so you can get your love interest back? Nice.

Empyrea: *sighs heavily* I was going to say it’s because she lost the memories of her trauma. Make it a lil’ easier for me to defend your decisions here, Atlus. Pretty please?

Romantic Plot Cancer: 72

Mitsuru asks what she plans on doing, should she actually find him and meet him. Chidori refuses to answer and calls it none of her business in a way that makes it fully clear she intends on making something romantic happen. Yeah, can’t spare Chris any pain today—she can’t just come back to life, she has to come back to life to reignite that oh-so-great passion.

Romantic Plot Cancer: 73

Mitsuru has this to say:

“Two hearts reunited… it’s a miracle.”

*icily* But miracles are only for Chidori and Junpei, I guess. Shinjiro and the female protagonist can just get fucked, can’t they?

Shinjiro: It does bug me a lot, I gotta admit. They make this canon, but I get to just stay dead? And no mention of your female character at all?

Tristram: Honestly this stinks worse than Marie’s poems. The character we like gets to suffer, and the character we hate and who wanted to die comes back!

Chris: That is Castiel-esque. And it’s not like Chidori’s the only one this would’ve made sense for, either! Your Persona had regenerative powers just like hers did!

“No… It’s a victory.”

Sure, I imagine it’s a great victory for whichever designer at Atlus never got over that one ex-girlfriend and continues to reinvent it in this game. I am convinced that someone’s relationship gone sour had something to do with this stupid subplot in the game. I don’t mean that in a Contend-ey way either, it’s just my own suspicion.

Junpei starts crying for real, and she asks why. He can’t help it, he says. This is the happiest moment of his life.

*inhale*

Shinjiro: *covering ears*

Chris: THE HAPPIEST MOMENT OF YOUR LIFE?! YOU’RE SEVENTEEN AND A DUMBASS. YOU’VE SHED MORE TEARS FOR THIS GIRL THAN YOU DID FOR YOUR DEAD SENPAI, WHO GAVE HIS LIFE TO PROTECT HIS WOULD-BE KILLER FROM TAKAYA, AND SHE TRIED TO KILL YOU TWICE. NOT ONLY AM I SICK OF YOUR EMOTIONS BEING TIED TO THIS GIRL WITH A THICK RED ROPE, I’M PISSED OFF THAT THE HAPPIEST MOMENT OF YOUR LIFE IS TIED TO A GIRLFRIEND, WHEN YOU HAVE YOUR WHOLE DAMN LIFE AHEAD OF YOU.

Empyrea: *snickers* That’s romances in JRPGs for you, Chris.

Tristram: Not to mention how incredibly messed up it is to make a romantic relationship be the be-all and end-all of your character, no matter what age they are! What about kids? Grandkids? How about escaping his abusive drunken father?! Fuck this entire plotline!

Empyrea: Oh, I think the problem there is that Junpei’s backstory is an addition in P3P, and only in the Female MC route. Just like the revival flag event was an addition in FES and P3P.

Romantic Plot Cancer: 75

Chris: Why the extra point? One for his stupid crying and declaration of happiness when he has every reason to be upset (she doesn’t even recognize him, after all), and one especially pissed-off point for the fact that he didn’t start crying and declaring happiness until after she made it clear that her life will be dedicated to finding and romancing him.

His crying in text literally looks like this, by the way:

He looks like he's whining about something annoying.

Mitsuru remarks on how no one is surprised, not even the people listening outside the door, Fuuka and Yukari, who are also sobbing.

Tristram: I’m sorry but no, nothing involving Chidori is going to ever make Fuuka sob. Because the bitch possessed her and Juno in case anyone needed reminding of how terrible a person Chidori is!

Empyrea: That might be true, but for once, they’re putting their friends’ happiness over whatever little opinions they may have of Chidori. *scratches head* This subplot really needed more time in the oven. It’s not all that bad conceptually, but it just had to hit some really bad points.

Chris: Faint praise, because there really wasn’t much of a concept here to begin with. I don't think it even made its way into the oven.

We are finally handed control. That chick took up five of our six pages so far. Our after-school time has been taken, so we walk Koromaru.

1/22. We hear about Career Counseling next week from the gossip. Ms. Miyahara has her moment where she renounces all the cult activity. We spend time with Aigis today.

She takes us to Paulownia Mall, where we meet Kiyoshi’s grandma again. Granny says we have great timing, as she was just thinking about us. Mistic is playing, and she says that Mewlie’s disappeared again. Aigis says we’ll look for her again, but Granny says it’s alright. She says that Mewlie must be looking for a place to die.

DEATH IS INEVITABLE: 78

According to her, when cats realize they’re going to die soon, they leave on their own to wait for the end.

I……am almost positive that’s not true at all. I have cats, and I have lost some and shed the tears. I’m actually very fucking annoyed by that notion.

Tristram: I too have had cats, all my life in fact, and not a single one of them went off into the world to die. They either got put down due to injury/illness, or we found them one morning curled up contentedly in their beds. I don’t know who came up with that stupid urban ‘wisdom’ but I’d like for them to stop now.

Chris: Granny says Mewlie came to say goodbye before she left, so she doesn’t want her looked for again. She just wants to thank us for letting her see her one last time before the end. Aigis is very perplexed, and troubled it seems. When Granny’s about to walk off, she shouts after her that she’s not alone, she’s certain of it. She looks back and smiles, telling Aigis that if there are people like her in the world, then she’s happy to say she’ll never be truly alone. She blesses Aigis and her kindness to an old woman before leaving.

Aigis turns to us, saying that Kiyoshi said people live to be happy, and wonders if Mewlie was happy. We’re sure she was, we respond. Was she happy to have been born, she asks? We’re sure she was, we say. What purpose was Mewlie born for, she asks? We don’t know, we answer. Aigis contemplates life, where it comes from, and where it goes, and what reason it has to exist. Don’t think too hard on it, I would say. But, she does. To live is to be connected to other people, but life eventually ends…Parting is natural and inevitable, unavoidable.

DEATH IS INEVITABLE: 79

Life, she muses, is cruel. Will the day come when she has to part with us forever, too?

Yep, in about nine days!

Tristram: And it cannot come fast enough! I think Aigis is the actual worst version of the ‘robot becomes a real person’ trope I’ve ever encountered, and I grew up on 1980s pulp sci-fi. I think I enjoyed the series-destroying Mary Sue of Space:1999 more than listening to Aigis pontificate like a first year philosophy student.

Empyrea: Not sure if I share the sentiment, but I’ll give it this: I hate everything that came after because of Aigis.

Chris: Aigis says she wants to live, but that’s not all. She doesn’t just want to become close to human, she wants to do it with us. She is confused by her feelings again. We RANK UP.

Aigis I’m Stuck With You: 46

She apologizes for getting upset so suddenly, and we head back.

1/23. We go with Aigis again today. She takes us up onto the roof to be yet another character to say how the wind is calm today. She apologizes for yesterday, dejectedly wondering if her heart was becoming more and more human-like, but as a result, she’s realized something: heart and body are inseparable, and a human heart can only function within a human body. She asks us if we’ve ever come here alone with a male before. We have, but the ‘right’ answer is obviously “not yet”.

Aigis I’m Stuck With You: 47

Tristram: The actual right answer is “None of your goddamn business.”

Empyrea: *groans* The romantic slant of every female SL leaked over here, yeah.

Chris: While I realize you’re getting more human, we haven’t even done anything to warrant you falling in love with us, Aigis. When we give her that answer, she wonders apologetically if it’s because she takes up so much of our time.

Yes, Aigis is a love interest even for the female main character. There’s even dialogue differences to support it. With that, the availability of Elizabeth to the FemC but not Theo for the MC, the refusal to acknowledge any male homosexuality from P3 onwards, and my knowledge that the director of Persona changed from 2 to 3, I can only conclude that Atlus and in particular its director and producer, finds girl-on-girl hot, but male sexual freedom is too gaaaay for them.

Bad Game Design: 81

I will always give BGD points to any game that allows you to be a lesbian, but not a gay man. Sorry, not sorry.

Empyrea: Don’t be, man. We strive for equality! *strikes a pose*

Tristram: You’re certainly not wrong, that’s for sure! And not for a lack of the series giving us multiple characters who would make incredible gay love interests for the ongoing string of male protagonists. (I could get started on how hard they teased female protagonist options for P4: The Golden and P5: The Royal, but if I did my rage would drown out the sun.)

Chris: Anyway, Aigis has been wondering lately if she’s been taking up too much of our attention, seeing as there are undoubtedly countless people waiting on our time, and she doesn’t want to be an obstacle between us and anyone else.

> Aigis sounds as if she’s trying to convince herself.

We don’t mind her being here, and we say as much. And just like I knew she would, she comments on the great view from up on the roof. Sometimes she comes here and finds a couple here. She usually doesn’t give it a second thought, but lately, she’s been thinking it’s a kind of connection she can’t obtain.

“I am not a male… I’m not even human! The closer my heart becomes to that of a human, the more I realize how much sets us apart…! Just because my heart is developing doesn’t mean I can actually become human…”

She’s known this from the beginning, of course, but she’s realized she has another wish in addition to living, one that can’t be granted.

> Aigis seems very distressed…

She apologizes for losing control of herself again, but the feeling that we’re precious to her won’t ever change. We RANK UP. She says that’s not exactly the way her feelings should be phrased, but phrasing them the truthful way would bring her pain because it just can’t happen. She runs off.

Welp. The robot’s in love with us, everyone.

Tristram: And there’s no way to avoid her being in love with us either! If you do the Social Link, not only are you guaranteed to romance her, but she all but completely blocks off anyone who isn’t her being with us during the ending despite how much the advertising for P3P made of there being new ending scenes for the different partners. And she is canon for the first time you see the ending, no matter what. Romanced Mitsuru and ignored her entirely? Tough, you’ll take the annoying robot girl and like it.

Empyrea: See, Atlus, this type of thing is why you shouldn’t have added a dating sim mechanic if you’re going to have a clear preference. This is just rude to us players.

Chris: At the dorm, Akihiko reminds us that once we enter Tartarus on the 31^st, we won’t be able to leave until the battle’s over. We walk Koromaru.

1/24. A Sunday, and Mitsuru calls. We go with her to the strip mall, where she talks about acknowledging her own weaknesses and thanks us.

1/25. Mrs. Terauchi says she’ll be done teaching after this year, when she’ll be moving to India, where her boyfriend is a missionary. She thanks us all for being wonderful students, including us, Yukari, Junpei, and even Kenji. We have Career Counseling today, and we enter the faculty office where Ms. Toriumi is waiting.

She asks if we want to go to college, or enter the workforce. Since it’s up to us, I choose college. She approves of either so long as we’ve given it serious thought. She expresses confidence in us, saying we’ve really matured over the last year. When asked what we think has changed us the most, we answer “responsibility” over “losing a loved one”—

Shinjiro: Really…? I’m kidding, that’s fair. You were pretty mature when I got here.

Chris: *glancing in Junpei’s direction* It didn’t mature all of us. Ms. Toriumi tells us to be proud of the young woman we’ve become and hopes we have a successful senior year. Aigis is next in line, so we let her know.

Tristram: The fact that the game genuinely expects us to believe Ms. Toriumi thinks Aigis is a ‘normal human’ even after all this is the cherry on the frustration sundae that is this plot.

Chris: We go up to the roof, where Aigis is sitting by herself. We ask if something’s wrong, and she says she just needed time to think. When she finally calmed down after New Years, she realized something: after she fought Ryoji, she got scared when her consciousness began to fade, very scared. That wasn’t all, though. She was confused and embarrassed upon realizing she couldn’t defeat him, even though she didn’t have those feelings ten years earlier despite being just as outmatched then. She really has changed. We tell her that’s a good thing.

She’s been thinking a lot about this change that’s occurred in her. In the past, if she didn’t get something, she’d just ask someone for an explanation, but since she’s decided to “live”, no one’s been able to answer the questions she’s been facing. But she does understand one thing: the reason she wanted to be close to us was to monitor Death, proving me right. Yet, despite Death no longer being in us, that desire remains.

Aigis I’m Stuck With You: 48

She still doesn’t know what it means to “live” yet, but she wants to learn.

“And I think I can, if I’m with you…”

So she asks us to take her with us—even if she’s not strong enough, she wants to fight with us to the end.

> “We’ll get there together!”
> “I can’t do it without you!”
> “I’ll protect you.”

This makes her happy, and we rank u—wait, no we don’t. Shit, I forgot this wasn’t a rank-up scene. We send her on her way to Ms. Toriumi. That’s gonna keep her occupied, so we head straight home.

Empyrea: Ha! She got you!

1/26. This time we’re gonna rank up.

We’re on the rooftop again. She compliments the view, comparing the sunlight to life. January 31^st is almost here. Yeah, it is. She comes up here to think thoughts like “I can’t let it end” and “I must protect it.” Since last time, thinking things through has calmed her. She thought about Granny, and Kiyoshi, and Mewlie. She wonders if Mewlie was alone at the time of her death, and figures Granny probably wanted to be there with her. She again brings up life equaling connections, yet life being finite. But this time, she’s accepted it—it’s precious precisely because it’s limited. So, in the face of that, she wants to tell us her true feelings: she wants to be by our side, closer than anyone else. She wants our love. She knows that she’s a metal machine, and that she’s not even a male machine, but her affection remains. We RANK UP.

*Sigh* I wonder if someone on the Atlus team just really wants to fuck a robot…

Tristram: Given some of the stuff in The Answer and the design of Labrys in the Arena games…

Empyrea: *sits and rocks self in a corner* It’s okay...! Labrys doesn’t exist, she can’t hurt you...!

> You gently hold Aigis’ shaking hand.
> It is surprisingly warm…

Chris: She’s alarmed, and lets it be for a moment before shaking us off. She feels very hot inside and wonders if she’s broken something, and wants to go home, unable to look at us.

1/27. Time for our MAX Rank visit with Aigis. Or it’s supposed to be—we get a holdover visit. I probably should’ve had an Aeon Persona on me all those times, since apparently you need points to get the last rank despite not needing them on any of the others.

Tristram: I think it says something that Aeon is pretty much the only one where I can’t remember a single Persona associated with it, despite me being able to for basically every other one in the series from 3 through 5.

Empyrea: Not surprising. By the time you can fuse an Aeon Arcana Persona, there are better options, maybe even including the highest form of some of the earlier ones. Uriel, the lowest level one, is 63. Really, Ananta is the only Aeon Arcana worth fusing, what with it being half of the needed Personas for Infinity. Yet even that was taken away by Fusion Raids being items in P3P.

Chris: 1/28. Ms. Toriumi gives a heartwarming speech about hopelessness and overcoming it. We go with Mitsuru today for her final rank-up. She takes us to her room at the dorm, which is full of expensive furniture. She’s red in the face as she foresees a few comments on it. Her maid staff helped her move here.

She gives us her motorcycle key. Not wanting to run from her future anymore and having no desire to escape her feelings, she doesn’t need it anymore. She wants us to ride together with her sometime, noting that we’ll have to sit on the back until we have our license. When the big fight is over, she’s going to teach us how to work it and ride it. And she can’t wait.

“I am Mitsuru Kirijo. I hold my head high when I give that name. Thank you, Chris. You have given me pride.”

We feel a tight bond with Mitsuru, and our Empress Link reaches MAX RANK. The music plays, and we’re informed we can now fuse Alilat, the Ancient Goddess. That aside, she’s nervous about our DVD pick—a horror movie. She quietly asks if it’s okay to hold our hand.

Tristram: Mitsuru’s Social Link is a delight, even when it takes brief dives into the realm of caricature for the sake of giving her the push she needed to become the glorious queen we know and love. I’m going to have to fight off some serious simp vibes come the Final Thoughts.

Empyrea: Save for Aigis, I say the girls’ Social Links got a major improvement in the Female MC route. Mitsuru’s is one of my favorites, all things considered.

Chris: 1/29. A couple days late, but we achieve our MAX Rank for Aigis today, and the last one of the game. We note that she’s somehow blushing as she asks to spend time with us. She wants to show us her room.

Tristram: Oh boy here it comes.

Chris: It’s very...mechanical and computer-ized. There are blank gunshells on the floor. She was hesitant to invite us in here, she explains, as there’s no decorative or heartwarming furniture. She finds it hard to believe that she once thought this room was normal. The décor of the room is further proof that she’s a machine. There’s something only she can say, since she’s unable to die. And that something is that she’ll never leave us. No matter how or when our life ends, she can be there for us. We won’t die alone and will remain in her heart. Speaking of...

The something that she wanted to show us? A charred screw. It’s one of the parts of her that had to be replaced after she collapsed at the Moonlight Bridge. She asked Mitsuru to have it sent here. She’s changed since then, and she’s not afraid and won’t give up. This is the proof, and she wants us to have it. She reaffirms that her connection with us is her reason for living, and smiles. We reach MAX Rank, and are informed that we can now fuse Metatron, Attendant to the Infinite, which is an apt descriptor of Aigis herself. But, she’s not done yet. She has one more thing to ask.

“At the base of my neck, behind the knot of the ribbon… My most important component is located there. The source of the artificial psyche that makes me who I am… My emotional engine… the “Papillon Heart.” It’s extremely delicate, so I am forbidden to expose it outside of the laboratory’s clean room… I…want you to touch it. If exposed to your skin oils and cells, your genetic information will most likely be burnt into it. Even so… I want you to do this. I want to leave indelible proof in this body of the understanding that you and I have reached… Not as a memory that can be erased, but as something permanent… Something irrevocable.”

> Aigis is gazing at you intently…

Shinjiro: *Mouth dropped open in shock* I…

Chris: If I try, if I really reach, I could accuse Atlus of sexism for having Aigis’ vagina/virginity metaphor also be what makes her entire psyche function, ain’t that just like a wammen? …But I’ll just go with kicking them for having a loss of virginity metaphor in a robot anyway.

“Please, come closer.” … “Since you’ll be coming into contact with my heart… I apologize in advance if I say something odd, or make unusual noises… As a precaution, I will cut off motor functions to my arms and legs.” … “Well then, um… Will you untie my ribbon?”

Shinjiro: *in horrified, second-hand embarrassed tears*

Chris: Right?!

Empyrea: *just boggles* How did I miss this when I replayed P3P back in college?! Man, I’m so super dense. The problem is that now I can’t unknow this!

*looks at Tristram, then grabs popcorn* This, though, would be fun.

Tristram: Here it is. The pinnacle of putridity, the imperial majesty of excrement, the court jester of absolute crap. Let’s talk for a second about how bad an idea this is, first from a technical standpoint and second from a metaphor standpoint.

Aigis outright says any damage to this ‘Papillon Heart’ will destroy everything that makes her Aigis. And it’s on the back of her neck. Protected by a ribbon. A FUCKING RIBBON. This is worse than being able to deactivate Data’s neural network with a single button! At least the button is extremely well hidden and his neural net is protected by super-strong alloys so he can be reactivated just as easily! Aigis was literally designed so one sharp blow to the back of the neck, something all but guaranteed to happen at the appendages of beings that are fighting humans, will destroy her forever.

Aigis could be killed by Junpei giving her a friendly slap on the back from the wrong angle. The all powerful Shadow-destroying robot could be taken out by a clumsy student in PE class.

And she wants you to touch the extremely delicate never-to-be-exposed-to-open-air-because-it-might-break piece of circuitry and burn your genetic data into her very being. And let’s not forget she uses the word burn, implying that it’s probably a very unpleasant experience for us.

As if that wasn’t bad enough on its own, we then have to talk about it being called a ‘Papillon Heart’. Papillon is a French word for butterfly. So she now has a delicate easily destroyed ‘heart’ named for a butterfly, an insect known for looking pretty but being extremely fragile and short-lived. I live in a world where there is a retinal protein called pikachurin and I still refuse to believe that any scientist would call the core of the potentially immortal android driven only by purpose after a fucking butterfly.

I’m not even going to touch on the sexual metaphor because I might well puke.

This is literally the stupidest scene I have ever been exposed to and I’ve seen Married At First Sight.

Chris: It’s a metaphor, Tris. Aigis the robot becoming human is just like a caterpillar emerging from its hard shell as a butterfly! *vomit*

Let’s go fuse Metatron and the rest of the Aeon and Empress Arcana and see if we can’t get the Metatronius before the end of the game. Oh, but we have something to hear at the Velvet room.

(The source for this screencap, as Chris Caine did not pursue every Social Link)

It seems that we’ve discovered each of the social links and formed strong bonds with them all. Taking note of this, Igor gives us the Colorless Mask, with which we can fuse Orpheus Telos. So! Let’s do that, and the others, shall we? We start with the Empress Arcana, fusing Leanan Sidhe, Yaksini, Lakshmi, Hariti, Gabriel, Mother Harlot, and Skadi before moving on to Alilat. Interestingly, she's not the one with the unique move like other Personas. That's Skadi—she has Niflheim, the "severe"-damage single target ice spell, with a 100% chance to freeze.

Alilat is strong against all physical attacks, can learn Tetrakarn and High Counter, and learns all three physical Repels, so she doesn’t like physical attacks at all. Then in the Aeon Arcana is Nidhoggr, then Ananta Seisha, then Atavaka, and finally Metatron, done by fusing the four Seraphim: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel. Aside from having amazing skills like God’s Hand and Megidolaon, he also learns Repels for Fire, Ice, and Electric. We promptly drop him off at the antique shop to get the final weapon.

The last thing we fuse is, I believe, the last normal Persona in the game we haven’t done, and that’s Lucifer. He’s a pentagon spread with Helel, Satan, Beelzebub, Abaddon, and Samael. Since Helel and Satan are both required, I’d like to get both Morning Star and Black Viper on there…but after long enough seeing it, I start to wonder if it’s straight-up uninheritable. I settle for Morning Star. He gets Victory Cry on his own. We’ll fuse Orpheus Telos at a more appropriate time after I’ve leveled some of the necessary Personas—he’s a Hexagon spread, but I’ve also managed to find him in a three-way spread.

Empyrea: You learn something new everyday. Case in point, I never encountered Telos in a three-way spread.

Tristram: He’s turned up as both a Hexagon and three-way spread in various different games since this one, usually as a DLC Persona. He is always, always worth the effort, especially in Persona Q2. In that game he gets three unique moves, resists and reflects to multiple elements, and an incredibly easily covered weakness. He’s comparable to Purple Mirror in Devil Survivor 2, which is so broken it’s never turned up anywhere else outside of the remake.

Chris: Well, you say that, but we’ll have to see how he holds up. Passing by all the cult fliers and spray paint, we head back to the dorm. We have a walk to go on tonight.

This time, it’s with everyone.

> Everyone has gone for a walk with Koromaru.
> Everyone is playing… On the jungle gym, on the slide, on the benches…
> They are all talking and laughing with youthful spirits.

Mitsuru and Yukari talk, planning to go clothes shopping together. Fuuka and Junpei are playing like little kids on the playground’s equipment. Akihiko and Ken play on the slide. Aigis teaches Koromaru how to shake paws. It’s honestly all very adorable.

> The day of the final battle draws near…
> Everyone is having fun, as if trying to make the most of this moment…
> You spent a pleasant evening with them…

1/30. It’s the last day before the end of the game, the promised day. There’s nothing to do today.

This game is just about over, everyone. Here's all we've got left: we’re going to do Monad, Vision Quest, Orpheus Telos, Theodore, and Margaret next time, and then on to the final boss: Nyx.