Hidehiko (Brown) Uesugi (P1 & P2) 01/01

The faces one wears. The other selves. Persona. The other you that exist within.

They now come to the surface as something you can use in battle. It's strange, to find you share an affinity with gods, demons, and angels. That you can create a connection forged from the traits you share with them.

Igor says that you are strongest in Justice and Hanged Man, Moon, Fool, and the World. That you have other affinities you are strong with too, but should avoid Chariot and the Moon.

Hanged man feels appropriate. You don't know the arcana as easily as Elly, but it's not hard to pick up on some of its possible meanings. Indecision. Introspection. Egoism.

It's harder to find how justice is a mask that you wear. Igor says that most of you wear your masks in reverse.

There's a lot of things you don't like about yourself, as much as you try to cover it up. You are not as confident as you like to make out, and you know you are not funny. Everyone says fake it until you make it, but it doesn't seem to be working out well for you.

You still feel like the person who got teased in middle school, and your attempts to change who you are have made a mask that doesn't feel comfortable, but is unquestionably yours.

So how can you make it something you can wear easier?

It's something you question as you change masks throughout your journey.

Yukino talks about her past, and you tell the story of how you got your name. You are not mocked, as you expected to be. Instead the others offer honesty too.

Elly confesses to having a stiff smile. Her mask is her elegance, her beauty, and politeness. Yuka confesses to fearing the future. Maho speaks up too, which is odd, as Maho is usually pretty quiet.

"I feel like nothing I do has meaning. That I'm doing anything that will get me ready to face the future, that's it not even impacting my present. That I don't have a purpose. I went to find the mask, and I don't know what I wanted to do with it before Miss Saeko noticed it. Maybe I was afraid to ask. But I don't feel pointless anymore. Fighting through these towers, helping make up for my mistake, it feels like I mean something, you know? It shouldn't take a threat to humanity to find purpose."

"I get it." You tell them, these women you have fought up towers with. "I'm scared too. But maybe we don't have to be. "

"Maybe you can try being honest?" Elly asks

You smile at her. "Maybe if you stop talking like a dainty lady?" She laughs, and it's genuine.

It's an agreement that lasts until the Snow Queen is defeated. Elly slips back into formal language at the sight of her crush. But she also starts talking about her genuine interests a lot more openly, and you consider that good progress.

Yuka settles on a realistic dream for her future and gets married as Yukino sets out to be a photographer.

Maho decides she's going to be a doctor, and writes long letters about her courses.

And you feel that in order to be true to yourself, you need cut the crap out of your mask that you don't need, and fill it with things that are true. Like honesty.

And it's hard, but it's worth it when you feel like you can breathe. It's worth it when you become a talk show host, and it came from talking about yourself, not any of the story's you used to come up with.

You are annoyingly smug about that, and owning up to it. It's true, it's yours, and nothing can take it away from you.

Maho is a name I gave to a NPC whose brief appearance and dialogue in Persona 1 indicates she may have ability to summon a persona, and never (as far as I could tell) showed again. I decided she could work as a fifth party member for the purposes of a non MC Snow Queen route. Her strongest afinities are Temperance, Hanged man, and Tower, her weakest are Devil, Death, and Strength. Not that she's going to show much, probably.

Brown has probably one of the most unique representations of justice afinities, in that it's something he does to himself