11: Zayn Nader : The Strength

Zayn Nader (زين نادر in Arabic, ゼイン•ナディール in katakana) is a transfer student from Syria, and the Strength Arcana, as of yet, he's not aware of the mirror world and thus has not awakened to his persona, however he has witnessed a vision twice in the mirror and suspects that something beyond normal understanding is going on.

He is played by Jade Rotaski

Personality
Zayn is a very quiet and reserved boy who despite his stand-offish personality at times, is more often then not honest in his views and opinions, he's straightforward and to the point when talking with people, he isn't ashamed to say what he thinks but at the same time he can be reserved, tactful and careful with his words when he needs to be, to the point where he can mediate between others and try to come up with a compromise everyone can agree with. While his attitude might grate on some, he doesn't go out of his way to antagonize others unless it's someone he particularity dislikes and he has no qualms about getting into fights if he feels it's for the right reasons; so far though he's kept his nose clean and has tried his best not to judge others too harshly when he first meets them.

Currently, Zayn would rather keep to himself and yet, the loneliness of being at home alone makes him crave company making Zayn sometimes he a walking contradiction; his personality helps in that case; on the surface he can act cold, he can be brash, blunt, cocky and doesn't really seem to care what people think of him be it negative or positive; he has a deep disdain for everything around him due to being suddenly uprooted from his beloved homeland and dumped in another country and due to this, he makes sure everyone knows that he dislikes the situation he's in.

The truth though is far from what he pretends to be, his grumpy attitude isn't really anything personal to others, but his own way of coping with recent trauma that no one else is aware of, as well as being ripped away from home and into a new place entirely, which takes some adjustment. As the 'new kid' he finds it hard to fit in in Japan and the small town itself, not only with him still getting to grips with the language which he wasn't fully fluent in to begin with, but with his skin colour and the different culture too making him feel quite alienated. Japaense food in his opinion is bland and tasteless save for sweet things like strawberry pocky, the temperature difference also affects him more then he lets on.

Repressed Side
Zayn has a lot of repressed emotions and grief stemming from the recent death of his younger sister and feels guilt for not having the foresight or strength to help her, he also feels anger at his father who has thus far refused to talk to him about Amia's death, and feels as if his father blames him for what happened, which is why he is constantly working and is never home, only providing for Zayn from a distance.

Backstory
Born in the rich city of Damascus in Syria, he grew up in a privileged household, his mother died of a heart attack when he was only eight years old, his father was a negotiator and translator with him a rich oil company that would export their oil over seas to different countries for the right price, his father spoke several different languages, including Spanish, English, Japanese and German to name a few, Zayn along with his younger sister were taught a couple of these languages, English and Japanese as well as their native Aramaic language.

Zayn was very close to his little sister and often would get into fights trying to protect her from bullies, his father grew tired of scolding his son for such reckless acts and decided that if he wanted to protect his sister so much that he should learn Hapkido, a purely defensive martial art with some emphasis on grappling as well as Sōjutsu, an art that focuses on using a spear to fight and defend ones self with, and he began training raising through the martial arts ranks and becoming a junior Hapkido champion at age 13.

It was around two or so years later that news of rebels entering the city and causing chaos were rumours at first, and while his father worried despite everything, he still took his sister Amia and himself to school; he went to a school down the road from hers, so he felt it when there was an explosion and smoke began to fill the area; it was reported later that a terrorist group had set bombs around the school, and while a good many people were injured but a few students that had been too close to the explosions were torn to shreds and Amia, unfortunately was one of the victims. His father grieving for his lost daughter, knew the city was no longer safe and fearing he may lose his son too made plans to leave the country despite Zayn's protests; despite the city becoming war torn it was still his home and one he'd known all his life, his friends were here and he'd be leaving them behind.

His father ignored his son's protests stating he would not stay here and wait for his son to die, or to become a rebel without a real cause, and made plans to leave for Japan, he quit his old job, took out his savings and book a flight for himself and Zayn. When they made it to Japan the first thing Zayn had trouble adjusting with was the temperature difference, the day times seemed to cold for him and the night times even more so, Japan was not cold per say but compared to someone who lived in a hot climate all his life it was a drastic change. Secondly was the language, he was fluent in speaking the language but writing and reading Japanese would take a little more practice.

Once his father settled into his new job and they had a home of their own, he was enrolled into the local school, much to Zayn's dislike; he hated this idea from the get go and was not very forthcoming at his introduction. Zayn feels as if his life is empty, he has no friends, nothing to look forward to, he has even lost contact with his friends from Syria and has no way to get in touch with them, he feels very much lost and alone, as if he is missing a piece of himself.

Persona


Resistances: Agi (Absorb), Garu, Slash (dampened) & Hama (Null)

Weakness: Zio & Bufu

Strength: High magic, Average durability.

Weak Stat: Low strength

Abilities:
Agilo: Medium fire damage to one enemy Maragi: Light fire damage to all enemies Garula: Medium wind damage to one enemy Magaru: Light Wind damage to all enemies Talon strike: Attacks all enemies with light damage with 30% chance to cause fear Makarakarn: Barrier that reflects magic damage on one ally for one turn Hama: Has a 30% chance to instantly kill a shadow (40% if its a weakness) Dia: Heals a small amount of health to one ally Blue wall: Nulls Zio weakness for three turns.

Appearance: Hoenhiem, or Hoen takes the form of a large white phoenix who's flames flicker white and blue on the ends of its feathers, while its hard to tell what gender the creature is, Zayn senses that the creature is male. t is unknown if the phoenix can talk yet (Mainly because Jade hasn't decided on that)

Lore: Hoenhiem a phoenix of fire and wind and like most phoenix's in legend, is meant to be a symbol of life, strength, rebirth and willpower as well as transformation and renewal, all which play into Zayn's dungeon and how he will gain his persona in the first place quite well.

Weapon: Zayn's weapon of choice is a spear though if he loses his weapon somehow or is disarmed he can just as easily use his fists and feet to do damage to his opponent. The reason for this being his weapon is because of his martial arts and weapons training with a spear.

Position:
Hoen is mainly a powerful magic persona able to clear waves of enemies easily with Magari and Magaru, as well as aid his allies with a couple of support abilities: Blue wall helps negate one of his weaknesses, Dia is to help with healing and Makarakarn is useful for reflecting magical damage on an ally, by contrast Zayn is very physical and can deal a lot of physical damage to an opponent on his own.

In this sense Zayn and his persona are very much yin and yang, mind and body and are in balance with each other.

Triva

 * Zayn was originally in a homebrewed &#x20;edition&#x20;DnD&#x20;persona&#x20;inspired&#x20;game 4th edition DnD persona inspired game], his Arcana was the same then as it is now and most of his original story about him being Syrian born and being dragged to Japan by his father, as well as the death of his sister, is pretty much the same. Zayn was originality the monk class in the game and like in this story, wielded a spear.
 * Zayn, is a masculine form of Zain which means 'beauty/ pretty'
 * Zayn's Surname, Nader is an Arabic surname meaning&#x20;'Rare'&#x20;or&#x20;'Scarce' meaning 'Rare' or 'Scarce'] So his name kinda means 'Rare/Scarce beauty'...perfect name for a surly pretty boy amirite?
 * Amia, Zayn's sister would be 12 years old from the date of the RP if she'd been alive.
 * On a test for symptoms of PTSD, Zayn scored 14 out of 20, based purely out of what has happened in the RP and what is in his back-story.
 * Zayn can speak four languages: Arabic, English, Japanese and he's currently still learning Spanish.
 * In the future after the RP Zayn's ideal career would be a cop, and was stated by Cloud that he and Mura could be partners.
 * Zayn is 'Naderaptor' in the Gay Grumps