Mementos
Mementos
Mementos, or The Palace of Everyone's Hearts, is a mysterious subsection of the Metaverse that has not yet been fully explored by any Persona User in the world. Those who enter are greeted with grotesque imagery of festooning train stations and winding subways, with a constant flow of Shadows boarding trains that descend further into Mementos than any Persona User can go. The mysteries of this place have become a recent hot topic among Persona Users worldwide.
Entering Mementos
The simplest way to enter Mementos is to enter 'Mementos' into the Meta-Nav app on a smartphone. Once you enter it, it will be forever saved into the app. If you've possessed the Meta-Nav at any point in your life, it will automatically appear on any phone that your cognition accepts as yours.
However, not every Persona User possesses the Meta-Nav app or even a smartphone. Alternatives have thus been devised by a dedicated community of Sumaru City Rumormongers and Strega.
- The easiest method available to everyone is through a Rumor that has been spread throughout Japan. Saying "Mementos" five times in a restroom's mirror at any train station or bus station throughout Japan will immediately draw you and those around in your immediate vicinity into Mementos. Civilians attempting this rumor get an intense feeling of dread and visual hallucinations on the third "Mementos." Because of this, most people don't complete the Mementos challenge during tests of courage; however, it does happen on occasion. Usually these people require rescue, though some manage to run out the exit of Mementos before the supernatural nature of the place starts to affect them.
- Individuals that possess Evokers if used within the rough vicinity of any train or bus station will enter Mementos. During the Dark Hour, Persona Users see strange rippling mirage-like distortions within locations like this; that eventually clued Strega into this phenomenon, but the Dark Hour is not required for Evokers to send you and those within your vicinity to Mementos. Takaya can perform this feat simply by the act of trying to call his Persona in such places. Jin, Strega's Rumormonger, spread hints of this online to the Rumor circuit in exchange for some particularly valuable information, leading to this eventually reaching SEES.
Exploring Mementos
Exploring Mementos can be a trying experience. The place is similar to most supernatural spaces in that it is exhausting merely to exist in that space, much less to fight within it. Deformed roving Shadows travel the rail lines within, accosting anyone that comes near them and growing stronger and stronger the deeper one goes.
The risks come with appropriate rewards for dedicated explorers. Treasure Chests are everywhere, hidden behind cracked walls and near dead-end alcoves. The Shadows all possess a respectable amount of yen that can multiply significantly with intimidation or negotiation, and there is always a chance for Shuffle Time to occur after one is defeated.
Explorers will eventually run into the Shadows of people through swirling portals that distort even the rails that vanish inside of them, or waiting at platforms deep within for victims to cross their path. These distorted individuals transform into demonic forms when antagonized, and only the Phantom Thieves of Hearts currently understand how one of these might be permanently dealt with non-lethally.
At the bottom of each section of Mementos is a train platform, sealed by an intricate sliding stone plate that prevents any further exploration. This may open or close for each group depending on how accepted they are within the public's consciousness. This doesn't require achievements that make the media circuit like a confession by someone whose heart was changed; feats like defeating a Major Arcana Shadow or raiding a New World Order facility resonate within the Collective Unconsciousness and will open such doors.
The structure of Mementos changes every time one enters because the public's consciousness is always shifting, but the Mementos trains will take a group down as far as they've already been previously...
Travel Within Mementos
...and no further than that. Trains that descend deeper into the depths are always packed full of Shadows. Attempts to ride down further than one has been allowed result in the doors remaining opened and never closing until one gets off.
If one attempts to remain on board anyway, the Shadows within get irritated, then angered, then finally swarm the individual and toss them off the train. These Shadows do not transform into demonic forms, no matter what, but are numerous enough that attempting to prevent your ejection is always a losing affair.
So long as individuals don't attempt to break that rule, train rides down are typically uneventful albeit cramped affairs. Train rides back up are much easier; they're nearly always empty.
The top floors of Mementos always have train lines that don't take them into the depths, which change every visit, but instead to other supernatural spaces across the world. While deciphering which are which may be a challenge at first, eventually most Persona Users will discover them.
During the Dark Hour, there's always a line to Tatsumi Port Island. When someone uses The Mark in Sumaru City, the train takes one to the edges of the space that coalesces. No one understands why this occurs, but it has obvious practical use to groups that desire to intervene.
There is a caveat to this. The moment one leaves an area of supernatural influence, the person in question is shifted back to where they entered Mementos without fail. This has obvious utility to people who are fleeing a situation beyond their ability to handle; however, that is impossible in the Dark Hour without waiting for its end. If one used Mementos to travel to a place under the influence of the Dark Hour and is currently outside of Mementos, you're sent back the moment the Dark Hour ends.
OOC Notes on Mementos
- The MUSH will progress the renown that allows a given group to descend deeper into Mementos at roughly the same rate for all groups.
- There are rare individuals at Mythic level who can go further into Mementos than the average group at MUSH start. These individuals simply aren't very chatty about their experiences down there. These characters are OOCly prohibited from roleplaying taking groups further down than MUSH progression without approval from the staff. No Persona User has reached the bottom of Mementos, period.
- While it can be fun to portray ignorance and first experiences traveling through Mementos to other areas, all players are allowed to already understand the travel functions to other supernatural spaces at the start of the MUSH. It's fine! We value facilitating roleplay and getting to scenes over roadblocks.