Coming Out of Her Shell (Setsuna)

[Setsuna Hanamori]

Setsuna is a fifteen-years-old samurai fanatic, and can come off as a bit of a loner. Unfortunately, while she puts on a tough front, this girl is an emotional wreck, riddled with insecurities that stem from a single incident in middle school. She only just unlocked her ability to summon her Persona a few days ago, though she is trying very hard to forget everything that happened. Unless she were to meet someone who can explain everything to her, it's doubtful that she'll ever be brave enough to leave the safety of the city a second time. 

Friendship
Setsuna can be...difficult. She has some rather deep emotional scars, and she will actively avoid getting close to others, because she's terrified of getting hurt. It's already happened once, and, though the circumstances were a little more extreme than usual, it's nonetheless had a huge impact on her life...and definitely not a good one. She's still friendly to anyone who she interacts with, so long as they give her a reason to be, but that's about it. Someone seeking anything beyond a casual acquaintanceship will have their work cut out for them. If someone is diligent or stubborn enough, they may be able to make Setsuna lower her guard and start opening up a bit. Otherwise, it won't be easy.

Still, should someone actually succeed in penetrating her defenses, few will find themselves with a more loyal and trustworthy friend. She has an awkward way of showing that she cares and her self-confidences is rather abysmal. There may even be times when she'll be a bit clingy. However, there will rarely be any doubts as to whether or not her feelings are genuine. It's just a matter of getting her to lower her guard just enough to where she feels even a little comfortable with letting someone into their hearts. Once that happens, the rest will take care of itself.

Enemies
Usually, Setsuna will just ignore anything that annoys her, so it can take a lot to get on her bad side. Even if someone does manage to do so, she isn't the type to antagonize anyone, but she will more or less refuse to acknowledge that they exist, unless it's necessary for whatever reason (i.e. something class related). But even then, she can be rather spiteful, and she'll make it clear that she would much rather be doing something else.

Generally, all one has to do is act like a raging asshole to her or anyone she cares about. Her past is an especially sore subject for her, so prying into that and disregaring her feelings is probably the easiest way to piss her off. Other berserk buttons include displaying any hints of homophobia, or to let her catch you bullying someone else.

If, by chance, you do end up pissing her off, not all hope is lost. While it will take a lot of persistence, if you can find a way to make it clear that you regret what you did and/or didn't mean to do it, then you might have a hope of her eventually forgiving you. Still, they say that one of the hardest things to fix is broken trust, and, considering how difficult it is for her to trust someone in the first place, this is especially true for Setsuna.

Romance
Now we get to the fun part. Basically, take all of the complications with friendship and increase them several fold, That's pretty much what we have here. She was in an abusive relationship with an older woman a few years back, and to say that it didn't end well would be a huge understatement. Not only is she terrified of being heartbroken again, but she was made painfully aware that her preference of other females is considered anything but normal. In other words, she's almost as terrified of what others will think as she is of getting her heart broken.

Needless to say, she avoids romance like the plague even though, ironically, she tends to easily fall for other girls. Even when she actually has a chance of getting with someone she might have feelings for, her fears hold her back, preventing her from acting on them. Just like before, anyone who wishes to become "more than friends" with her will have their work cut out for them, as they will need to slowly-but-steadily deal with her insecurities. Still, anyone who is patient enough will find it well worth the effort, as she would be a very loving girlfriend.

As mentioned above, she is a lesbian, so she only ever shows interest in other females. Additionally, despite how badly her first relationship went, she also has a bit of a thing for older women, usually within the range 18 to 21 years old. This isn't to say she won't fall for anyone closer to her own age, but it definitely won't happen as quickly.

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So yeah...that's about it. To sum it up, she'll pretty much be incredibly tsundere toward anyone who makes an effort to befriend her, and that goes double for anyone who might be interested in anything romantic

In any case, if you're interested in plotting with Setsuna and/or have any ideas for a potential thread, feel free to either post in here.

[Layla Amare]

So, here's Layla, a dying girl from India.
...okay, that's only half true.  She is from India, and may be dying, but you wouldn't know the latter from looking at her.  She has a condition that normally doesn't give her any trouble but has, at least once, given her an attack so severe it led to a near death experience, and because of that believes that she could die at any time.  So until then, she's trying to make the most of her life that she can.  She's an outgoing person that loves having lots of friends, but because of her condition will rarely get close to anyone because she doesn't want to have to leave them behind.  In Setsuna's case, I think she'd put more effort into trying to befriend her because she's seem lonely to Layla.  As for anything closer...well, I think both of them would be reluctant to try it.

And I've mentioned Jaelyn a few times, but I might as well put something here anyway.  Jaelyn is unstable.  Jaelyn is possibly crazy.  Jaelyn doesn't trust people, but attaches to them very easily, then in many cases severs those attachments just as fast.  She'll seem...well, not normal, but sane at least, at first, but the longer one spends around her the more they'll realize that she's probably not safe to be around.  She dreads the idea of becoming like her mother (a sadistic serial killer who tried to swear it off after giving birth to Jaelyn, but then instead became so self-destructive that she eventually starved herself to death), but between power fantasies and her lack of morals beyond what directly benefits her, she's probably heading in that direction.  She does seem to care for people she attaches to, but...well, let's just say the ways she shows that will get really skewed.
Where I'm going with this is that given the right interactions, Jaelyn would probably attach to Setsuna, stalk her, fantasize about getting close enough to make Setsuna entirely dependent on her, try to make those fantasies a reality...then have a realization of 'what the hell am I doing?' and try to break it off.
As you said, it probably won't end well.  But the details of what could happen are still up in the air.

[Setsuna Hanamori]

Layla: I could see this working. Setsuna would probably be a little awkward at first, but I could see her warming up to Layla a little once she realizes that she doesn't want to get too close either.

Jaelyn: Oh God...I want to do this, yet I don't XD

[Phoebe Minola]

Well... I guess given Setsuna's age she might meet Phoebe at school, Phoebe being the new English teacher substitute. Despite being an awkward dork at times, Feebs is pretty nice and given her introversion, she would probably be a good ear-lender for Setsuna, if she's so inclined. Given that Phoebe's riding the tail end of a disaster relationship too, she may not want to get intimate with Setsuna (there's also the age gap) but she'd certainly relate and genuinely want to help her through her hard times. Awkward support and muffins and all that.

[Setsuna Hanamori]

Isolde: If nothing else, I can definitely see Setsuna looking up to her, especially since she seems to have some experience in battling Shadows; something that Setsuna lacks. She would be a bit tsundere toward Isolde at first, but she'd steadily warm up to her as long as she continued to interact with her. She also may or may not end up developing a mild crush on her, though that would last long, especially since Isolde apparently has a lover.

Nigel: Maybe. She isn't really the type to approach others unless it's necessary, so I'm not really sure how we'd go about having them interact in any way

Phoebe: As I mentioned in the cbox, this sounds great. Only thing is that, due to her fears, she'd be hard-pressed to talk to Phoebe about anything related to her past, since she's doing her best to hide that from everyone. Still, if something comes up where they end up talking, then yeah, I can see this going rather well. also, as you might have noticed, Setsuna wouldn't really mind the age gap XD

[Phoebe Minola]

XD I think she's kind of adorable. Phoebe might wind up seeing her as a little sister or something because she's quite conscious of her own age. she feels old sometimes, lol.

They wouldn't need to start talking about their pasts right away, of course; I suppose a teacher might be concerned about Setsuna's behavior and send her to the counseling thing with Phoebe. They could grapple with why the heck Setsuna's landed there and just make small-talk -- which shall be funny, because Phoebe is rubbish at it. Maybe a few slipped words bring up the Persona thing and they find some common ground to get started on.

If nothing else, Setsuna's leaving that session with a muffin XD