APP ♚ empatheias

[acedeceptive]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Ramey
Contact: exposition
Current Characters: Arthur Inkwell (FFXIV)


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Goro Akechi
Age: 18
Canon: Persona 5
Canon Point: 12/16, before his confrontation with the Thieves on the ship.

Background: wiki this way

Personality: To call Goro Akechi complicated would be… a pretty big understatement. He’s a mess. A very big, very contradictory mess.

Akechi was born out of wedlock, the illegitimate son of an up-and-coming politician, Masayoshi Shido, who vanished from Akechi’s mother’s (we never learn her name) life as quickly as he’d entered it. In turn, Akechi’s mother was ridiculed for her promiscuity and, unable to handle the pressure, took her own life when Akechi was very young. Akechi landed in the foster system, where he was bounced around without much ceremony. As a result, he grew up lonely and spiteful. He blamed his mother for leaving him, he believed himself unwanted and undesirable, and above all, he hated his absentee father.

When he awakened to his Persona— the circumstances of which we never really learn –he didn’t end up with the power to change hearts for the better or form bonds. The bitter hatred in his heart gave way to a different, darker sort of power, one that can twist the hearts and minds of others to make them psychotic. That, more than anything, speaks to the true nature of his own heart. He grew up without love and support, and as a result, came to hate the world... while all the while wanting it to love him.

It was that desire for love and recognition that drove him to rebuild himself. In his eyes, to be wanted means to be better. Smarter and more successful than the people who cast him aside, better than everyone around him. Fame is the only way he knows how to prove his worth, and so he meticulously started from the ground up and created Goro Akechi, the second coming of the detective prince and the people’s darling. By using his power to drive others psychotic to fabricate crimes and then solving them himself, he gained a reputation, and once he was thrust into the public eye, it was only a matter of putting on the right mask.

The Goro Akechi that the world sees is a sweet, respectful, and soft-spoken boy. He touts himself as a hero of justice, as befitting a young prodigy detective, and is first seen condemning the game’s heroes, the Phantom Thieves, saying that while their actions are noble, forcing someone to have a change of heart against their will is not just. Akechi has quite the fanclub as well, thanks to his good looks and likable personality. He’s always at the ready with intelligent commentary or an easy joke, and honestly looks like he feels right at home in front of a camera. He likes to show off, relishing in the praise it garners him. He’s even weirdly dramatic and flashy when he joins up with the Phantom Thieves— his all-out attack animation is sure… a thing to behold.

Of course, not everything about his public persona is a complete lie. His intelligence is quite genuine; he says it himself that he was very particular about his schooling, and his grades are the real deal. While he may not be a true genius at solving crimes, the fact that he has been able to plan and fabricate incidents while in turn believably “solving the case” takes a wicked sort of intelligence on its own, not to mention meticulous planning and flawless execution. His need to show off also seems quite real, though he’s fairly reserved when showing his face to the public, forgoing flashy antics for shows of intelligence and insight instead. There are moments, as well, where the more callous side of his personality rears its head. He calls one of the other characters a pushover, with a sweet smile and a light tone, like he'd just complimented her shoes and not completely belittled her.

Because he never had anyone there for him while growing up, he remains convinced that he must make his own way, by himself. Sure, he eventually joins forces with the Phantom Thieves, but they’re just a means to an end for him, a scapegoat to further his true plans. He has colleagues, but they’re largely adults, and the things he has in common with them are very surface-level, another piece of Akechi’s carefully crafted façade. The idea of friendship isn’t completely alien to him, as he’s able to open up to the game’s protagonist a little before ultimately betraying him, but even then, it’s difficult to tell what’s an act and what isn’t. The stories he tells are true, but are his intentions genuine? It’s almost as if he’s stuck in a self-fulfilling prophecy, with the way a craves attention yet swears up and down that he doesn’t need anyone’s help. Again, the drive to be better than everyone else pushes him into seeking attention in all the wrong ways, with masks and deception. No one had ever wanted the real him, after all.

Akechi’s true hang-up is his father. Shido is a massive blind spot in Akechi’s otherwise very meticulously crafted plans. Contrary to what Akechi believes, Shido is well-aware of his true identity as his bastard son, and strings him along with praise as Akechi works behind the scenes with his Persona abilities as a political assassin for Shido. He’s so convinced that Shido needs him that he doesn’t see that he’s being used. It’s love that Akechi is looking for from his father, yes, but only so he can tear him down again in the name of vengeance. Justice features heavily as a theme for Akechi, not only in how he presents himself as a detective, but it’s also the major arcana that he represents for the protagonist. However, it seems less like Akechi is truly after some grand, nebulous justice for the people, and more focused— laser-focused, even –on his own personal justice. He wants justice for Shido, who ruined his life by walking out of it. He wants justice on the world that didn’t want him by making it want him. It’s absolutely twisted and selfish, though he doesn't see it that way.

Truth be told, all this inner turmoil has left him a little unstable. When the Phantom Thieves eventually beat him, he loses his mind, screaming and cursing and even goes so far as to use his power to make people psychotic on himself. There's no denying that he's probably a little bit of a sociopath as well, since he seems to show no remorse for the lives he's taken, and instead is rather good at coming up with dark and twisted plans. He would have shot the protagonist in the head, point-blank, had the other thieves not outwitted him.

Abilities: Akechi is a Persona-user, meaning he can access a plane of existence known as the Metaverse. In the Metaverse, his appearance changes and he can summon a being that is representative of his true self and use it to fight. It's like pokemon, but in your soul. He's also a rare breed of Persona-user known as a Wild Card, meaning he possesses and can use more than one Persona. Unlike the other Wild Cards as they appear in Persona 3, 4, and 5 (in the form of the protagonist), Akechi seems to be unable to obtain more Personas than the ones he already has, or use Personas outside of the Justice Arcana.

He only has two Personas that we see: Robin Hood (with abilities up to lvl 59) and Loki (under Second Phase because the wiki likes to make my life difficult). The long and the short of his Persona abilities is basically he hits really hard with both magic and physical/weapon skills, can buff and shield himself (or an ally if he had any of those), with a few other support abilities tossed in.

Not listed on the wiki is Loki's ability, “Call of Chaos”, which can make someone or something psychotic. When used in combat, this tends to make the afflicted monster or person fight desperately, forgoing their personal safety for more power. When used on people in the real world, they go crazy for a short while, putting themselves and others in danger without realizing what they're doing.

He won't have any reason to use Call of Chaos in-game, since he's basically starting from square one and his castmates will no doubt keep him in check. If it does come up, I will be sure to work everything out on an OOC level first.

Alignment: Elios is a perfect fit for Akechi, as he harbors a deep hatred for the world, and struggles desperately with wanting to be loved.

Other: N/A


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉

General Sample: TDM: where everyone was super happy to see him

Emotion Sample: Throwing tables and breaking windows.


Questions: Nope!