05: Ming Yu - The Hierophant

Ming Yu (玉明 Yù Míng) is the first character to get her persona, the leader of the Rescue Party, and the rebel of the series. She is played by Unnoticeable Kohai.

First Iteration
Ming Yu was posted for twice in another RP that never went anywhere. Here, her persona and shadow were the same, and nobody really interacted with her, especially since she lived off campus. Kohai eventually quit because nobody likes an RP that barely moves.

Shattered Perceptions
Ming's second iteration sets her as the leader of the exploration parties after accompanying Joe to Seraphim (to perform a ritual). Ming agreed simply because she wanted to go there herself to destroy some mirrors. Once arrived, she met Itsuki Akagi, a potential friend who appeared briefly. Ming and Joe went inside the Hall of Mirrors, and Joe soon began to get pulled inside, dragging Ming along with him. Their persona's were soon summoned to protect them and together they defeated the shadow. Ming and Joe agreed to not tell anyone of what they saw, until they knew more of the other side. After some doubts about her own self, she was able to bring the team to Lysistrata and finish the shadow off, and lead the party to face the shadow self of Mura Sanada

Background
Ming Yu was born in Hong Kong to Dalang and Yang Yu, two wealthy businesspeople who were quick to hand her care over to a legion of servants. She was born only to take over the business of her parents which was trading stocks. Her care was supposed to be that of the highest quality, to be polite, smart, and quiet. For the most of her childhood, Ming never saw much of her parents, but found a motherly figure in her personal nanny. Ming's days were filled with exercise books on how to do math, writing in Cantonese, and going to school. She never had many friends due to this, nor any desire to play with the others. It was a strict upbringing and Ming feared disappointing the shadowy figures who constantly reminded her that this was the easiest path to success.

When she was about to start high school, she was sent as an exchange student to New York to learn the ways of the world in America, a place that she would have to know if she was going to succeed. She spoke little English at that point, and was living with a friend of her parents, who cared as much as they did. At her new school, she was bullied because she was Chinese and therefor not like the other students. Ming was too shy to get to know other people, and the few that she did hang out with (other ESL exchange students) didn't talk to her because of her upbringing.

In her second year of high school, Ming Yu tried to change herself in order to not get bullied by the other students. She watched the other bullies, seeing how they acted, and modelling herself on that behavior. She only got noticed as someone who bullied the other exchange students, and even went so far as to change her name to fit the culture.

Her life further went downhill as the years progressed. She started drinking, smoking, partying, sleeping around, and didn't seem to care about who she was anymore. For once in her life, she had friends, of whom were equally as loud. Or at least, that was how it was at the surface. Someone asked her one day to take a bag of unknown blue stuff, and she took it, sliding it in her purse. Within the next hour, the police had descended upon the house they were partying in and she was arrested for drug possession.

The girl was subsequently deported to Hong Kong, where she was faced with disappointment from her parents. Not only had she gotten a criminal record at a young age, she was the opposite of what they wanted from their daughter. A few attempts at behavioral therapy proved unsuccessful, and her parents moved to Japan in order to start again in a quiet town, where their daughter could finish high school, and change her ways. It proved successful: the girl had at least re-adopted her old name, and considered the entire experience so far a "living hell" being so far away from New York.

Character
Ming Yu is very quick to butt heads with almost everyone and anyone on almost any topic. She enjoys drinking, coding, and has dabbled into hacking as well as vandalism. Ming can be rude, especially towards authority figures, and often skips class just for the heck of it. Ming can also be silent at times, especially when on her computer or when listening to music. She has her moments where she is shown to actually care for her friends more than herself, her computer or running.

Persona
Ming Yu's Persona is Jīnshǔ Nǚhái (金屬女孩 in Kanji), a metallic white robot with black hair. Her name is Chinese for Metal Girl, and does well in physical attacks while her magic is poor. Despite that, most of her attacks are magic based. As is tradition of Hierophant arcana, her persona is balanced to excel neither in offense or defense, with three resistant types and three elements she is weak to. She is summoned with a pair of gloves that her caregiver gave to her.

Her weapon is an assault rifle that originates from Jīnshǔ Nǚhái's back, that is tossed to Ming Yu. It deals pierce damage to one enemy. Her "secondary" weapon is her own fists and feet after the use of her Unison Strike, dealing strike damage instead.

Her Unison Strike is Overclock, a move that deals three heavy Strike attacks over a period of three turns, each one resulting in a Down. However, Ming wastes a turn to power up the move and is left without a persona for three turns afterwards. She also cannot use her gun for the remainder of the fight. The three turn "cooldown" can be either made longer by being hit with a fire attack, or sped up by being hit with an ice attack.

Dungeon
Ming Yu's dungeon is supposed to be a late game dungeon, that starts out in a school with wires and computer towers glitched into the walls. The shadows also appear as glitches or robots. The school has three floors, representing different parts of her life. The third floor, where people start out as, shows Ming Yu bullying other kids and her arrest for drug possession. The second floor delves more into her change into who she is, while the first floor ends with her true self being revealed: a shy girl who had to change in order to feel accepted. The dungeon then exits out into a field similar to the one in Kirisame High, but it is in the middle of a snowstorm. In the center of this dangerous trek is an abandoned warehouse with Ming and her shadow fighting.

Ng Mui, while also being an anagram of her name (save for one letter) was a nun/warrior in the Ming dynasty. She will summon a giant pit to trap Ming Yu in while she fights and you must defeat a number of shadow robots in order to save Ming Yu.

Personal Life
Ming Yu currently freeloads off of her parents, who have just recently moved to Kagamino in order to let Ming sort herself out as a vacation. They have refurbished an old mansion that allegedly was owned by the person who built Seraphim. Inside are plenty of servants, among them Ming Yu's old nanny from when she was a child.

Trivia

 * Her name comes from the Kenny Loggins song "For The First Time." A young Kohai would hear one verse and due to the nature of the song, get "same you" mixed with "say Ming Yu".
 * Ming also shares her name with the last Han-led dynasty in Chinese history. It means "brilliance" or "enlightened" and Yu is Chinese for "jade"
 * The name 'Ming' uses the character for 'bright' and is composed of the characters for 'sun' and 'moon' together.
 * The bag of crystal meth that gets her deported is a reference to the Crystal Method, who performed the song "Drown In The Now" which is used in her battle posting style
 * Her faceclaim is the Decker Specialist from Saints Row: The Third, though most images are generic black haired women.
 * Ming Yu's persona was originally going to be named Medea, a woman who killed her sons in revenge for her husband's betrayal. This is evident in some of the file names. Her persona was eventually changed to suit Ming's Chinese origin.
 * The title of her test thread, "The Electric Lady" is the name of a Janelle Monae song
 * Her parent's names come from the novel "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan". Dalang is the husband of the protgagonist, where Yang was the oldest woman alive who knew Nu Shu and met with the author. Dalang means "large light" while Yang means "poplar" or in Chinese philosophy, the active force of the universe, characterized as male.