💐 ᴀᴘᴘʟɪᴄᴀᴛɪᴏɴ; ᴅᴇᴇʀ ᴄᴏᴜɴᴛʀʏ

[virtuosital]

Character Base

• Character Name: Yoshizawa Sumire
• Age: 15
• Canon (Date/Year Released)/Canon Point: Persona5 Royal, 2020/post-game.
• Items Coming Along: 1.) A light blue duffel bag containing her practice gear (likely a school uniform, a leotard/performance costume, shoes, tights, possibly some ribbon wands, and at least two other track suits and several hair ribbons).
2.) Her good luck charm (a small red shrine o-mamori)
3.) Her smartphone
4.) A rapier like the one she uses in the Metaverse
5.) A model rifle, also like the one she uses in the Metaverse.
• Content Warnings for Character: Grooming of a minor, family death, dissociation, identity crises, violence... Persona-typical themes, major storyline spoilers for Persona5 Royal.

Character Background

• History: Wikia.
• Core Relationships: Takuto Maruki; Sumire's counselor, who later becomes the school therapist and, eventually, the final boss of the game. Sumire has a lot of respect and adoration of Maruki, despite coming to understand that a lot of his behavior was damaging and manipulative. Maruki is near-singlehandedly responsible for Sumire's entire character arc, being the one who took the grief of a teenage girl who had lost her twin sister and used it to further his own research and create an actualization of her cognitive preference. Sumire was the first subject of Maruki's actualization, and for most of the game she believes she is Kasumi, her older deceased sister, due to her grief and self-blame, in addition to having felt inferior to Kasumi in gymnastics. Maruki uses his research of cognitive psience to actualize her grief-stricken desire to be her sister, because she both felt responsible for Kasumi's death and felt as though everyone would have preferred she had been the one lost.
Goro Akechi; the teenage celebrity frequently featured in shows on the television station run by Sumire's father. Prior to the events of the third semester of the game, Sumire didn't know Akechi closely, likely due to their respective busy schedules. Akechi and the protagonist being the only two unaffected by Maruki's actualization in the third semester results in her forming a three-man team with them and coming to understand Akechi better, calling him a "ruthless sort of person". Despite this, she still regards him with respect and seems to honestly enjoy being around him, even if he is a touch intimidating.
Akira Kurusu; an upperclassman Sumire meets early in her first year transfer to Shujin Academy. He is the first person in her life to meet her as "Kasumi", based on the student ID she drops that actually belonged to her deceased sister. They then support each other through the school year as friends, and she gives him lessons in gymnastics to improve his flexibility while he provides moral support when her self-confidence wavers. Akira and Morgana discover Sumire has a Persona when they first enter the Odaiba Palace before it is known to be Maruki's, but she does not formally join the Phantom Thieves because she has personal goals to attend to that don't allow her the time to join them. Despite this, she is an ally to the Phantom Thieves, both in that she does not blow their cover and she assists Akira at a point he is separated from the other Thieves when escaping a palace.
Kasumi Yoshizawa: Sumire's deceased older sister, whom she spent most of the game assuming the identity of. Sumire adored her sister and mentions they spent every day together since a very young age (obviously, being sisters). They had formed a dream to become globally famous in gymnastics as sisters, and even before Sumire wakes up from pretending to be Kasumi, she has continued to live that dream by taking a scholarship to Shujin Academy and take on gymnastics tournaments solo.
Coach Hiraguchi: Sumire's athletic coach and personal trainer. She is a tough teacher who loved both Yoshizawa sisters, and pushes Sumire to truly understand herself and move past her sister's memory to honor her rather than hiding behind her.

Character Personality Through Key Moments

(2 ) Positive Experiences:

+ "Introducing" herself to Akira as Kasumi: on May 30th when Sumire spends time with Akira during the school's field trip to clean up Inokashira Park, they exchange names despite having met briefly the previous month. He asks her name just as she jumps away from the bench she was sitting on with him to retrieve a child's balloon, and she drops the student ID of her deceased sister, Kasumi. Given she and Kasumi look very similar, Akira has no reason to believe the ID is not Sumire's own, so he is the first person to designate her as Kasumi. This can be seen as both a positive and negative experience, as it validates her grieving decision to assume the role of Kasumi, which impacts her negatively by making it seem realer still beyond Maruki's influence, and positively by giving her confidence by making her truly feel like she is her sister, whom she considers the better student and better gymnast.
+ Awakening to Cendrillon: After months of being held to a higher standard than she was capable of performing, both due to not giving herself proper time to grieve her sister and subsequently assuming Kasumi's role, Sumire adamantly insists she is Kasumi within the Metaverse when faced with a shadow that repeats a series of oppressive statements in regard of her character and her lackluster performance. She then awakens to her initial Persona, Cendrillon, of the Faith Arcana. This too can be considered both positive and negative, as it further cements her idealized mentality of being Kasumi, to the point that she must later re-awaken after her Persona goes berserk and she attacks Akira and Akechi with her.
+ Batting Cages: There is an option in August for Akira and Sumire to go to the Batting Cages near where Akira lives, and being an athlete, Sumire assumes she will do well, only to miss all of the pitched balls and become somewhat depressive. Akira encourages her to keep trying, and she eventually hits the ball and picks herself back up due to his support. She declares that for a long time she's been somewhat directionless, but now feels stronger due to wanting to live up to Akira's expectations of her. This completes her initial Confidant where she is "Kasumi" to Akira, which then leads into her realization she is pretending to be her sister, which then allows her Confidant to be extended with Sumire as herself.
+ Fashion choices: On two separate occasions, Sumire enlists Akira's help in shopping. The first, she has him help her pick out a pair of new glasses frames for her father (which he loves, and wears in a later cutscene). The second, she's gone out to choose a new style for herself, and asks Akira to come along. At first she is in four different types of animal print and a ridiculous pair of sunglasses, based on the suggestions of the staff. She realizes with Akira's help that she's just standing out in the sense of a sore thumb, gets very down on herself, but eventually finds something more her style to express herself in.
+ Sibling Rivalry: Sumire and Kasumi's gymnastics coach continues to coach Sumire alone, and in January makes mention of Kasumi having considered Sumire her rival. She had a competetive streak and refused to lose to her little sister's delicate, graceful style of gymnastics, which Sumire's inferiority complex toward Kasumi's greater performance had never allowed her to see. Learning this helps Sumire start to see and pursue her own strengths independently of hiding in the shadow of her sister.

(2 ) Negative Experiences:

- Kasumi's death: In the Spring prior to her transfer to Shujin, Sumire and her sister are returning from a practice that has left Sumire depressed due to her poor performance. Her sister tries to cheer her up, but Sumire shouts that she could never understand and runs past her, paying no attention to the crosswalk light. Kasumi pushes her out of the way of an oncoming vehicle and is killed, resulting in Sumire's extreme survivor's guilt and an increased inferiority toward her sister's memory.
- Reliving her past: In hopes of convincing her to not want to return to her painful, guilt-ridden life, Maruki shows Sumire (and Akechi and Akira, who were also present) the death of her sister in his palace on January 2nd. This both reminds her of her extremely depressive state at the time, feeling inferior to Kasumi who is confident and always wins first place, and of the fact that that state lead to Kasumi's death. In remembering that she is Sumire, she becomes very unstable, and when offered to return to her life as Sumire, she refuses, claiming she cannot go back to being Sumire who stole her sister's life and dreams. Later, on the 9th, she then attacks both Akira and Akechi, losing control of Cendrillon in her uncertain state and due to Maruki's influence. This later causes her to be temporarily incapable of calling Cendrillon, forcing her to reawaken to her Persona with newfound resolve (though reawakening counts as a positive point).
- Re-introducing herself as Sumire: On January 13th, Sumire apologizes to Akira for having viewed her previous gloomy states as just a slump for poor performance when in actuality it was because she was pretending to be her sister due to her extreme inferiority complex toward her and her survivor's guilt. She realizes, and claims to Akira, that she was never on Kasumi's level, and that's clearly why she was never improving academically or athletically. This is yet another situation that can be seen both negatively and positively, as it does result in her starting to grow into her own by way of asking Akira to allow her to talk about her life with her sister now that she's started to remember it more accurately, but at a great emotional toll as it involves discussion of how inferior she felt and still feels to Kasumi.

Deer Country Attributes

• Canon Powers: Gymnastics: While self-proclaimed inferior to her late older sister, Sumire is still an award-winning gymnast. She is flexible and limber and extremely agile, and was stated by her sister to be delicate and graceful. She is a skilled dancer, as an extension of this, and translates these skills from real life into battle within the cognitive realm of the Metaverse.
Persona: Sumire has the ability to summon a manifestation of what in canon is known as her spirit of rebellion. Basically, there's a part of her soul that really wants to fight back against injustice and unfairness, and it has cool supernatural powers and stuff. Her base, initial Persona is named Cendrillon, which later becomes Vanadis (the link calls her Freya, but in 5/for Sumire she is called Vanadis, I am not sure of the reason for the change), and finally Ella.
• Blood Type: Vileblood
• Omen: A coral snake she named Kasumi.
• Blessed Day: May 30, the date her Confidant is initiated.
• Patron Pthumerian: Bausphomette | Sumire will fail to understand why Baus has chosen her for a long time, as she doesn't consider herself an especially rational thinker, or one to think overmuch about self-care. What she doesn't realize is she's already been through her personal journey and Bausphomette would see this, and if at any point Baus makes themselves apparent to her she too will realize she has already grown into her truest self.
• Blood Power Manifestation: Honestly I have no specific plans outside of the basic universal Vileblood functions. I chose it because it's atypical to a character like Sumire, but her Thief codename is "Violet", so the floral scent to the blood was appealing. I think she will possibly be losing her canon powers, or they will be weakened, in the sense of summoning her Persona, if that's something that is remotely usable/regainable, but her athletic abilities will stay the same since those aren't powers, they're abilities gained by life experience.

Writing Samples

TDM Toplevel for the second TDM; and as supplements...
One: Dipper and Jesse.
Two: Akechi and Akira, separated due to being with canonmates.

The Player

• Player Name: ghost
• Player Age: 33
• Player Contact: ghosthotel#0287 on discord!
• Permissions: Here.

Link to your reserve for this character: Here.