Goro Akechi (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
undyingcrow) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
dorking2024-12-29 05:17 pm
undyingcrow) wrote in dorking2024-12-29 05:17 pm
Entry tags:
App for Bottlecap Bay
CONTENT WARNING: Brief mentions of his mother's sex work, suicide, and abuse.
PLAYER
NAME: Mega
CONTACT: Dorked @ Plurk/Discord
OVER 18? Yes
CURRENT CHARACTERS: N/A
CHARACTER
NAME: Goro Akechi
CANON: Persona 5 Royal
CANON POINT: Post-game, true ending ("Akechi lives" variant)
BACKGROUND: Here!
SUITABILITY: I think a character like Akechi has a lot of potential in a setting like this, where he can't just go it alone and will have to open himself up to collaborating as a part of a bigger whole, with others in a similar boat. Solitude and loneliness defined so much of his life. The ostracism of being an illegitimate child in a country that shunned them, in addition to his mother's sex work, left many scars that only deepened and festered after his mother's suicide.
His pain and loneliness broke him over time, allowing a malevolent god to use him as a perfect pawn by awakening chaotic powers inside him. Akechi then used these powers to stupidly approach his monster of a father for a short-sighted revenge plan that ultimately left him on a tight leash as a child assassin, with praise, status, and luxury forming a gilded cage around him.
In short, he's never known true freedom or connection for the vast majority of life, making the setting of Bottlecap Bay a ripe opportunity for culture shock. That's not to say Akechi has never opened his heart or worked with others. His most important canon connection is Joker, the game's protagonist, who broke through his walls and formed a genuine bond with Akechi, even if Akechi eventually got the order to kill him and convinced himself that he had to for the sake of his goals.
The thing is, Akechi is aware of his crimes, his mistakes, and doesn't see much value in himself despite his lifelong desire to be loved and needed by others. At the point I hope to take Akechi from, he has had all his preconceptions and pride shattered, has come to understand Joker and his Phantom Thieves as truly good people, and was even willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of stopping his father and then again at the end of the third semester.
So, when push comes to shove, he absolutely can be thoughtful toward others and work as a team. In fact, the game's third semester shows this wonderfully. While he remains cold and aloof, he genuinely reaches out to Joker to get to the bottom of a strange, almost picturesque reality they found themselves in. He even cooperates with the Phantom Thieves to break free from the false reality for the sake of his and everyone else's freedom, even if there's a chance he won't make it out alive. Since I'm picking him from the ending where he does survive, he's already having to live with the aimless state of surviving what was meant to be a graceful and elegant end on his own terms.
For that reason, I think he'd have reservations about his new set of circumstances, because someone or something dragged them all here from their homes, forcibly changed their bodies, and left them stranded in the ocean and forced to fend for themselves. This shared displacement would leave him in a better position to understand those around him. Plus, now freed from his past as a tool for villainy and given the chance to adapt to a new setting with a fresh start, there's an opportunity for healthier growth and, more importantly, healing.
It's an opportunity to walk a new path, of his own design, even if it means working under a guild.
Akechi's morality is already... complicated. As a young child, he had a strong sense of justice and wanted to be a hero. As he grew older and more jaded by his traumas and experiences, that justice grew twisted and tainted by thoughts of revenge, which led him down an extraordinarily dark path. When his father made him use his abilities to kill, Akechi lied to himself by telling himself that it was worth it for his end goal of building his father up and then destroying him at his peak. Missable texts in the game reveal that he took no true pleasure in killing most of his targets and that he was fully aware of his status as a puppet.
But because he has killed, he's also willing to get his hands dirty where others aren't. He's vicious in battle and sees lethal force as a necessary evil against foes who will not otherwise yield.
If he must go against what's "morally righteous," he will do so, but only if it's necessary. At this point, he's already done so many terrible things that it would hardly be an issue for him.
The changes in his form, coupled with the drastically different world, would certainly challenge him, and he'd resent being dragged to another world and put in a new body, suspecting there's some grand puppet master at work. No doubt he'd want to investigate and uncover the truth for himself, but at the same time, a world like this would grant him a blank slate and fresh opportunities. At first, he might be angry and abrasive, but I can see it being a chance for him to heal through connecting with others for a greater purpose rather than acting simply for revenge.
So, all in all, I'd like to explore Akechi finding himself at a point in his life where he's aimless and has only just started to turn over a new leaf. I'd like for him to connect with others, rekindle that childhood love for justice, even if he struggles from time to time.
QUESTIONNAIRE:
POKEMON: Rookidee! A big part of this is that Akechi's codename is Crow, and while I could have gone for Corviknight, I wanted to go with something smaller so that Akechi would have to earn his evolutions. Rookidee already evokes the vibes of the Black Mask Metaverse costume Akechi wears, and by making him something so small and vulnerable, he won't be so easily able to head off on his own and will be forced to rely on others.
GUILD OPT-OUT: Cheri Berries. I think Ribbombee's attitude would piss him off and he wouldn't be content to just blindly surrender to leadership.
Honestly, between Oran and Lum, I'm torn. On one hand, Akechi is a very intelligent person, a former detective, and would absolutely seek knowledge of this new world, his new form, and his present circumstances. Lum would afford him a bit more luxury, but the problem is that he's been given luxury before with strings attached.
I do not see him trusting Polteageist, and I think Lum would have him on edge because he's used to living in a gilded cage and he'd absolutely suspect there's a catch. This would be interesting to explore, but it would leave him very skeptical and distrusting.
Oran, on the other hand, would offer a healthier place for Akechi to learn and grow. It may lack the wealth of information that Lum offers, but Akechi has always been an outcast and a great part of his downward spiral was due to a lack of support when he needed it most. A place so accepting, with honorable principles, that offers care for even the strongest would be strange and even a bit laughable at first, but ultimately give Akechi something he's needed for so long.
Of the two, I personally think Oran would have the most long-term rewards and opportunities for character growth, so I have a slight preference here, but either has a lot of potential.
SAMPLES: SAMPLE 1
SAMPLE 2
PLAYER
NAME: Mega
CONTACT: Dorked @ Plurk/Discord
OVER 18? Yes
CURRENT CHARACTERS: N/A
CHARACTER
NAME: Goro Akechi
CANON: Persona 5 Royal
CANON POINT: Post-game, true ending ("Akechi lives" variant)
BACKGROUND: Here!
SUITABILITY: I think a character like Akechi has a lot of potential in a setting like this, where he can't just go it alone and will have to open himself up to collaborating as a part of a bigger whole, with others in a similar boat. Solitude and loneliness defined so much of his life. The ostracism of being an illegitimate child in a country that shunned them, in addition to his mother's sex work, left many scars that only deepened and festered after his mother's suicide.
His pain and loneliness broke him over time, allowing a malevolent god to use him as a perfect pawn by awakening chaotic powers inside him. Akechi then used these powers to stupidly approach his monster of a father for a short-sighted revenge plan that ultimately left him on a tight leash as a child assassin, with praise, status, and luxury forming a gilded cage around him.
In short, he's never known true freedom or connection for the vast majority of life, making the setting of Bottlecap Bay a ripe opportunity for culture shock. That's not to say Akechi has never opened his heart or worked with others. His most important canon connection is Joker, the game's protagonist, who broke through his walls and formed a genuine bond with Akechi, even if Akechi eventually got the order to kill him and convinced himself that he had to for the sake of his goals.
The thing is, Akechi is aware of his crimes, his mistakes, and doesn't see much value in himself despite his lifelong desire to be loved and needed by others. At the point I hope to take Akechi from, he has had all his preconceptions and pride shattered, has come to understand Joker and his Phantom Thieves as truly good people, and was even willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of stopping his father and then again at the end of the third semester.
So, when push comes to shove, he absolutely can be thoughtful toward others and work as a team. In fact, the game's third semester shows this wonderfully. While he remains cold and aloof, he genuinely reaches out to Joker to get to the bottom of a strange, almost picturesque reality they found themselves in. He even cooperates with the Phantom Thieves to break free from the false reality for the sake of his and everyone else's freedom, even if there's a chance he won't make it out alive. Since I'm picking him from the ending where he does survive, he's already having to live with the aimless state of surviving what was meant to be a graceful and elegant end on his own terms.
For that reason, I think he'd have reservations about his new set of circumstances, because someone or something dragged them all here from their homes, forcibly changed their bodies, and left them stranded in the ocean and forced to fend for themselves. This shared displacement would leave him in a better position to understand those around him. Plus, now freed from his past as a tool for villainy and given the chance to adapt to a new setting with a fresh start, there's an opportunity for healthier growth and, more importantly, healing.
It's an opportunity to walk a new path, of his own design, even if it means working under a guild.
Akechi's morality is already... complicated. As a young child, he had a strong sense of justice and wanted to be a hero. As he grew older and more jaded by his traumas and experiences, that justice grew twisted and tainted by thoughts of revenge, which led him down an extraordinarily dark path. When his father made him use his abilities to kill, Akechi lied to himself by telling himself that it was worth it for his end goal of building his father up and then destroying him at his peak. Missable texts in the game reveal that he took no true pleasure in killing most of his targets and that he was fully aware of his status as a puppet.
But because he has killed, he's also willing to get his hands dirty where others aren't. He's vicious in battle and sees lethal force as a necessary evil against foes who will not otherwise yield.
If he must go against what's "morally righteous," he will do so, but only if it's necessary. At this point, he's already done so many terrible things that it would hardly be an issue for him.
The changes in his form, coupled with the drastically different world, would certainly challenge him, and he'd resent being dragged to another world and put in a new body, suspecting there's some grand puppet master at work. No doubt he'd want to investigate and uncover the truth for himself, but at the same time, a world like this would grant him a blank slate and fresh opportunities. At first, he might be angry and abrasive, but I can see it being a chance for him to heal through connecting with others for a greater purpose rather than acting simply for revenge.
So, all in all, I'd like to explore Akechi finding himself at a point in his life where he's aimless and has only just started to turn over a new leaf. I'd like for him to connect with others, rekindle that childhood love for justice, even if he struggles from time to time.
QUESTIONNAIRE:
⟡ Your character is on an exploration quest when they find an injured Pokemon in need of help. This Pokemon appears to be in distress and is quite dangerous, posing a risk to your character even if they mean well, and putting your quest mission at risk. What do they do? What are some possibilities of how they work with teammates to address this, or do they go at it alone?
-
This would frustrate Akechi. On one hand, it's an inconvenience, diverting from the goal. However, while his heart has hardened over time, he has already taken steps away from the person he used to be. For starters, he was willing to sacrifice himself to let the Phantom Thieves escape a deadly situation in pursuit of stopping his father, a man so vile that he abandoned Akechi's mother when she became pregnant and never gave him a second thought until he saw an opportunity to mold Akechi into the perfect human weapon to further his ascent in the political sphere.
Akechi, who had done so much harm, realized the weight of his actions and put his faith in people he had once opposed, letting them stop the man he'd sworn to take down himself. He's already taken steps away from focusing on his own personal objectives and vendettas, and he's even lamented not meeting Joker sooner and how they could have been genuine rivals and friends in another life.
There's also the aforementioned third semester to consider. As I briefly mentioned, this arc of P5R focuses on the sudden shift to an idealistic reality where everyone's wishes come true, and they're all oblivious to how things "should" be... except Akechi, Joker, and a girl named Yoshizawa. In this confusing time, Akechi reaches out to Joker to make a deal and set aside their differences to work together and investigate the situation, and when Yoshizawa followed along, he didn't put up much of a fight and later helped fight to save her from a vulnerable, brainwashed state.
All that to say that, despite Akechi's criminal and violent past, he's already shown that he's able to reach out to others and do the right thing. He's already fought for the good of the world, rather than solely for his own self-gain, and this is an opportunity to be the hero he always dreamed of being when he was very small.
The kind of hero his mother would be proud of.
While he'd act cold and aloof, I could see him pushing to delegate, if nothing else. Someone should at least aid the Pokemon, even if it's not him. His own experiences with neglect and solitude would likely make him picture a scenario where this Pokemon survives, but grows to resent the ones who failed to save them.
So, really, it's pragmatic. It may even boost their reputation by carrying out the rescue.It's not like he cares or anything, shhh.
⟡ Your character's worst enemy has recently appeared in game, and has joined the guild your character is part of. They both want to tackle the same quest, and your character's enemy suggests that they work together as a team to accomplish this goal. How does your character respond to this?
-
I would consider Akechi's worst enemy at this point to be Masayoshi Shido, his good-for-nothing father. Because of that, I think he'd be furious and refuse. He had already been little more than a puppet under Shido, and though Akechi hardly considers himself blameless when he initially approached Shido to begin with, being molded into a teen assassin and used like a weapon for all those in Shido's inner circle only intensified the resentment that already existed from how Shido treated his mother.
Because of Shido, Akechi robbed an innocent girl of her mother, and Shido used that as an opportunity to gaslight that girl and make her believe her mother's death was her fault, an experience Akechi went through when his own mother died. And, yes, Akechi caused psychotic breakdowns and killed other people since, and not every kill brought him the same degree of guilt, but by Shido's own admission, he was the one who instructed Akechi to use his powers to kill. Akechi doesn't think this absolves him of blame, but now that he's been liberated from Shido, he never wants to go back.
And he'd be very outspoken about how having Shido in the guild is a mistake to begin with and that he deserves to be locked up.
So rather than work with him, Akechi would stubbornly try to do better than Shido. Finish the mission first, on his own terms, and prove that he doesn't need Shido anymore. Even if his guildmates disagreed, he wouldn't care. It's a matter of principles.
⟡ The leader of your character's guild has just approached your character with an offer: they will provide your character with extra supplies, reputation points, and help them with any of their current struggles. In exchange, they ask for your character to do a favor for them that may harm the other guilds, and will not specify what the favor is in advance. It sounds shady, but it's the deal of a lifetime in your character's path to get back home, and refusing it may cause strife for your character within their current guild. What do they think of this offer? What do they ultimately decide to do?
-
Oh, this is a tough one. I think it'd honestly set off a huge red flag for Akechi, given that favors were one of the ways that Shido manipulated him and kept him in line. And, with hindsight, Akechi is now fully aware that he was never truly in control. For the guild leader to harm the other guilds... He'd question why it's necessary. How does interfering with their operations benefit him and get him closer to returning home?
He'd likely turn the conversation into an interrogation, trying to poke holes in the conversation and assess the guild leader's true intentions. The last time he sacrificed his principles for the sake of his personal gain, it backfired tremendously, and he does not want to repeat his past. So, he'd need a really good incentive and proof behind it to even consider agreeing.
I could see him ultimately laughing it off, even if it bit him in the ass later. He's already faced death twice. He can handle a little inconvenience if it means sticking to his principles.
⟡ Due to shortages on supplies, the city is facing issues deciding where to cut corners during this rough time. Somehow, the responsibility has fallen on your character's shoulders, and they have to make a decision. If they send out an extra team of Pokemon, they will be able to gather more food, and through that, save the lives of dozens of starving Pokemon that were in dire need of nutrition. However, the only Pokemon available to scout for food are those working at the pokeclinic, and sending them out would mean certain death for at least two ill patients. What does your character decide to do? How do they feel about this choice, and how would they deal with the pushback that comes from either side?
-
Ah, the trolley problem. I think he'd laugh bitterly, first of all. It'd remind him of the decision to accept or refuse Maruki's reality, and how his own life was used as a bargaining chip. Only now, it's presumably innocent patients? I think, in this kind of situation, he'd be more inclined to pick option three and do it himself, even if it's a risky gambit that puts himself in danger. Akechi is stubborn, and he'd take it as a personal challenge to prove that he can.
Of course, in the event that he absolutely has to make a choice, I think it would actually bother him quite a bit. The most in-character choice is still him bending the rules, doing it his own way, especially because he wants to be better than he used to be.
But for the sake of the initial prompt, I think he'd vote to send people to gather supplies, but only enough that it's possible, and he'd still insist on being a part of it to ensure it gets done swiftly and efficiently. He would opt to minimize the collateral, so as not to leave the hospital too understaffed, and he'd fully take the blame for the weight of his decision because he already sees himself as someone undeserving of forgiveness. If anyone is to be the "bad guy," why not Goro Akechi? He's already killed people. This is hardly any different.
However, it'd be a bitter decision, and he'd have to be stuck in a position where a third option is entirely impossible.
POKEMON: Rookidee! A big part of this is that Akechi's codename is Crow, and while I could have gone for Corviknight, I wanted to go with something smaller so that Akechi would have to earn his evolutions. Rookidee already evokes the vibes of the Black Mask Metaverse costume Akechi wears, and by making him something so small and vulnerable, he won't be so easily able to head off on his own and will be forced to rely on others.
GUILD OPT-OUT: Cheri Berries. I think Ribbombee's attitude would piss him off and he wouldn't be content to just blindly surrender to leadership.
Honestly, between Oran and Lum, I'm torn. On one hand, Akechi is a very intelligent person, a former detective, and would absolutely seek knowledge of this new world, his new form, and his present circumstances. Lum would afford him a bit more luxury, but the problem is that he's been given luxury before with strings attached.
I do not see him trusting Polteageist, and I think Lum would have him on edge because he's used to living in a gilded cage and he'd absolutely suspect there's a catch. This would be interesting to explore, but it would leave him very skeptical and distrusting.
Oran, on the other hand, would offer a healthier place for Akechi to learn and grow. It may lack the wealth of information that Lum offers, but Akechi has always been an outcast and a great part of his downward spiral was due to a lack of support when he needed it most. A place so accepting, with honorable principles, that offers care for even the strongest would be strange and even a bit laughable at first, but ultimately give Akechi something he's needed for so long.
Of the two, I personally think Oran would have the most long-term rewards and opportunities for character growth, so I have a slight preference here, but either has a lot of potential.
SAMPLES: SAMPLE 1
SAMPLE 2