application for empatheias

[ryuji]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Jay
Contact: centerfold
Age: 29
Current Characters: none


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Ryuji Sakamoto
Age: 16
Canon: Persona 5
Canon Point: 12/24, prior to the final boss fight

Background: From the SMT wiki

Personality:

Warning! Most of this is a major spoiler for the Persona 5 game

When looking at Ryuji Sakamoto by the first glance, the impression that's invoked is one of a teenage delinquent. He's the type of kid that looks like he's forsaken all societal norms, and doesn't give a single care or thought to what other people think about him. The outside is a self-carved masterpiece, a reaction to the careless world that exists all around him, and it shows. He perpetually dyes his hair blond, refuses to accept a rigid dress code at school, walks like he constantly has a chip on his shoulder, and even his posture contains all the hallmarks of indifference toward anyone or anything that approaches him. And maybe it's because he wears all this as a badge of courage rather than a Scarlet Letter, that he just doesn't seem to fit in anywhere he goes. The people he interacts with have low expectations of him, and he complies with that image- going with the flow and letting people assume whatever it is they want to about him. They're the ones with the problem, anyway- right?

However, that isn't exactly the whole of his story- and one would be remiss to not listen to that age old adage of not judging a book by its cover. The problem with someone like Ryuji Sakamoto is that he doesn't really care what people think about him because there's rarely ever a spark inside himself that ignites, to feel like he needs to take action against those assumptions that are made against him. Life is just easier for him if he doesn't have to explain himself, as it fits in with an aesthetic he loves so deeply that his entire ego is built around it; the concept that, in order to live a good life, you have to be free. It bolsters a slacker lifestyle, which is obvious to anyone who actually pays attention- his grades in school are abysmal, he has no interest in part time jobs or extracurriculars, and mostly lives in a bubble that contains the things he's only directly interested in.

There's so much more to him, though. Ryuji navigates this life with an outward air of ambivalence just by the merits of how he looks, but that's because no one actually gives him a chance to see past the obvious self-defense mechanisms that he's worked with for the majority of his adolescent life. Looking deeper, there's a genuinely good egg behind the layers of shell, and even though it follows a trite cliche, the reason he acts and looks this way is all dependent on a really crappy hand he's been dealt with in life. Prior to the start of Persona 5, Ryuji has lived alone with his mother for an undetermined number of years. His father, who's no longer in the picture, was an abusive drunk who liked to take out his anger, and his fists, on his family. Looking back prior to the events of Shujin reveals another side of him that exists, a Ryuji that was very different from the person he becomes over the course of time leading up to the start of the game.

Before Joker enters his life, Ryuji is a hard working member of the track team. He has friends, is sociable, has dreams of maybe one day going off to college and working towards getting his run times lower and lower. These friendships are pretty shallow, he even admits at one point, simply because in running, everyone is looking out for their own best interests, pushing themselves to the limit, giving it their all. But there's still a sense of community behind it, and Ryuji had finally found a place where he initially got the taste of that freedom he loved so much. He loves the feeling of testing his body to its limits, the way air feels against his hair, how hard he can pound the ground. Running was an outlet for him, an allowance for Ryuji to get out his anger towards his life, providing him a safe haven from his home life.

But there are some things that he just couldn't outrun. The coach of their team at the time, Suguru Kamoshida, had it out for them. He pushed the team to the literal point of breaking. Sensing that Ryuji was both a star runner, and the most likely to become more abrasive to the system rather than cooperative, goaded Ryuji into directly attacking him. The resulting skirmish wound up as anyone can imagine: poorly. Kamoshida intentionally broke Ryuji's leg, leaving him with a permanent disability, crushing his dreams, disbanding the track team, and breaking the last straw that Ryuji towards his own sense of self-preservation. Kamoshida had known that Ryuji would lash out- even getting it down to a T, learning of the details surrounding the abused environment he had come from, knowing full well that someone who's been smacked around as much as him would complete the cycle and become the aggressor. That's what had started the change within him, producing a vile taste in his mouth for adults and the shitty attitudes that they toted around. Coupling that with his friends leaving him behind in anger that he single handedly caused the break apart of the track team, the ex-star track member was left to his own devices. Branded an outcast, he donned the personality, and didn't look back. If this world was truly this messed up, then why should he have to play along and live under the guise that it's anything but what he thought it truly was: fucked up.

The first person to actually pay attention to him since those events is none other than Joker, the protagonist of Persona 5. It doesn't take very long for the other to see past the mask he's created for himself- and it's obvious. Deep down, Ryuji is still a very caring, honest, malleable person. He's fiercely loyal, to a fault, and does anything for those around him that actually give him a chance to do so. That doesn't mean that he still doesn't have a lot of faults about him, because he's still that rash, impulsive, defiant kid that had originally fought Kamoshida head on- but when he finds a new purpose in life, it changes the context. When he realizes that he can change the world around him, he wants to take every opportunity in his path to prevent the same thing that happened to him to anyone else.

His motivations for helping Joker form the Phantom Thieves (codenamed: Skull) are compounded upon by his history of violence and abuse. He can't sit still while there are those around him that use their power to manipulate and uneven the field in life. He's determined to believe in rooting for the underdog, because mostly he sees himself as one, and some of that passion from his days in the track team is rekindled when he accepts his persona. Better to wave the flag of rebellion than get caught in the undertow. Throughout his friendship with Joker, he learns to start to let go of the past in order to embrace the future- one that's unbound by the strings of fate, one that's truly free and in their grasp. It comes full circle when he confronts the track team and asks them to hit him, if it would help them get over their anger towards him.

That is to say, Ryuji is a complicated set of paradoxes. On one hand, he helps old ladies cross the street, and yet, on the other, has streaks of extreme vulgarity in his speech that make those around him cringe. He shows that he wants to overcome the injury to his leg by training and engaging in physical therapy, but rarely ever has a plan of action in mind before he does something. He wants the Phantom Thieves to become world renowned, but struggles in the face of constant rejection by members of the opposite sex around him.

Around his newfound friends, Ryuji is genuinely a happy person. He has a tendency to be blunt and speak his mind, which often pits him against people within his own group, but it's never filled with malice or ill-intent. There are multiple points in the story where he's seen being highly compassionate and understanding to the concept of feeling loneliness- even offering to take Yusuke out for a beef bowl to keep him company. Even with all the abrasiveness in his personality, he wants to do good by them, find a spot among them that makes him valuable. For someone that's been thrown away by so many people in life (his own father, his track team friends, school, to name a few), he sincerely wants that approval and love from those he trusts... even if it happens to be that there are so few of those types in his life.



Ryuji's personality can best be summed up by the ranged weapon he carries with him: a shotgun. He's a force to be reckoned with at close range, and has a lot of spread to the many bullet pieces that make him up. He's not the refined, scoped accuracy that comes along with a more stable weapon. Often times, he's impatient and has outbursts of energy that make those around him question how much attention he can hold in any one thing for a given time. He's the loud burst of a shell when you're looking for serenity. (or the discretion the rest of his team wishes he had in not pronouncing he's a Phantom Thief in public so often).

Overall, around people he's comfortable with, he's pretty much a walking goof. He's the type of guy in a group of friends that ends up being the butt of a joke, and sometimes those jokes go straight over his head. Not the brightest person out there, but he's always prided himself on being street smart more than book smart (although honestly, even that isn't as incredibly self-evident as he thinks it is). Most of the time, he can take jeering in an absolutely comfortable stride, like the attention is welcome even if it's slightly negative towards him. He keeps the air around him comfortably light hearted, likes to joke around quite a bit, and tries to ruin overly serious moods around him.

He also has quite the tendency to be a bit of a loud mouth. Not exactly the type of person that should be trusted with any sort of secret, since he gets overly excited about all sorts of little things, and may easily blow the cover of anything that's trying to be kept under wraps. It's not intentional in the slightest; he just has a strong tendency to overreact or assumes that it's easier to connect with people when he's forthright and open about what's going on at the moment. He's probably the worst person in all of Japan to be an actual thief, considering even his footsteps are audibly loud, which tends to draw in a larger than life presence.

His brain is wired differently from other people, too. Aside from his ability to jump to conclusions all too hastily, he tends to connect things weirdly, like how a normal, rational person would think "A, then B," Ryuji is constantly in a state of "C, then A, therefore B." Chances are, speaking to him will always bring a little bit of surprise to the conversation, welcome or not, since he has a unique way of interpreting the world around him. He has a decent level of emotional intelligence, just because he's been through a good deal in life on his own, but he's also not the type of guy to go to for relationship advice or to settle a dispute between two friends. If only he applied some of this passion to his studies, there might be hope for Ryuji to actually excel well in school (which will never happen).

All it takes to understand Ryuji is a little bit of patience, even if there's barely an ounce of that inside the kid himself. He'll have your back in a fight, even if he started it on his own, and doesn't back down when it comes to protecting the people he cares about or the fucked up world in which adults operate without impunity.

A good boy, but mostly misunderstood. And honestly? He's okay with that.

Abilities: As a persona wielder, he harnesses the power of Seiten-Taisei, a mythological trickster that once tried to force his way into heaven using his might alone. Max rank confidant. Associated abilities include:

◇ God's Hand - Colossal Physical damage to 1 foe.
◆ Agneyastra - Medium Physical damage to all foes 1x to 3x.
◇ Maziodyne - Heavy Electric damage to all foes. Rare chance of Shock.
◆ Matarukaja - Buff party attack power for 3 turns.
◇ Shock Boost - Enhance chance of inflicting Shock status.
◆ Evade Wind - Triple evasion chance against Wind attacks.
◇ Adverse Resolve - Increase critical rate when being ambushed.
◆ Charge - Next physical attack inflict 2.5x damage.

Outside of his abilities, he's a decent runner and a fine connoisseur of ramen.


Alignment: Thras. Ryuji is very much motivated by acts of (dumb) bravery, like when he saves the rest of the team at Shido's palace at the cost of nearly killing himself. Likewise, he is also hindered by the concept of fear- mostly in the form of his own inadequacies.

Other: n/a


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉

General Sample: [ 1 , 2 , 3 ] I wasn't sure if general thread links from memes are acceptable, but if not, I can make one from scratch, let me know!

Emotion Sample: [OOC: Based on the Trudy's Taffy from the Task Board: SOMEONE decided to pull a prank on us and now some of our taffy have come to life! They don't move until you take them out of their wrapper but when they do, they'll coil themselves around you and try to choke you! PLEASE SOMEONE EAT ALL OUR TAFFY BEFORE THEY EAT US.]
___________

[This had to be a joke, right? Ryuji was certain that he's seen some weird things go down since coming to Verens, but taffy that could actually come to life? Part out of curiosity, and part out of a desire to fulfill that sweet, sweet tooth, he takes up the mission. It's just taffy. The extra cash in his pocket would be nice, too, considering that it would mean for a higher standard of living than the bowls of instant ramen that have been laid to waste these past two weeks. There's nothing goddamn frightening about the prospect of chewing down some candy, so what could go wrong, right?

Wrong.

He laughs to himself as he's procured the morsel in his hand. A smarter Ryuji probably would've gotten Joker or Panther involved in this sort of thing, but as a novice adventurer and huge enthusiast towards the school of Figure Shit Out On Your Own, he doesn't call on his friends. His heart beats a little faster when the wrapper is caught between his fingers. This is stupid. Really stupid. Someone probably just didn't like the flavor.

As he gets increasingly nervous though, the air around him starts to feel increasingly arid. They say that the desert is a dry heat, that is sucks the moisture out from everything around it, and whatever is starting to happen feels something strangely akin to that exact condition. He's not sweating, but his body is alerting himself that he ought to be- but far be it from Ryuji to actually understand the havoc his emotions can unfurl in this world. He bites his bottom lip. What the hell is he waiting for?

Get yourself together, Sakamoto. It's just freakin' candy. No big. You've killed demons who sit on toilets and mock you, you've got this.

Unwrapping it is the next mistake he makes.

Oh no. Oh no- it starts to expand, unravel in his hands. That little stretch of pink is becoming larger by the second, until it's literally starting to eat him alive.

(Really, he should've done better in expecting the expected, since it was literally written in black and white on the task board, but- he's a slow learner.)

Up his arm now, Ryuji is frantically waving himself around, trying to displace the amorphous goo from taking over his entire body. Once upon a time, he thought that sweets were only deadly to your teeth and your gut, but now? This thing is out to kill him. It's merging with him. Becoming one with him. Down the leg it goes, and he's almost sure that he's going to die. What a bittersweet way to go. Feet plastered to the floor, he tries to take a step, but everything beneath him is heavy and intractable.]

J---JOKER!? ORACLE? FUCK, CAN SOMEONE HELP ME?

[Is this what quicksand feels like? Is it going to straddle up to his neck and strangle the life out of him like some anaconda? Ryuji's panic driven state just makes him scramble more internally, until the taffy has consumed 75% of his body. You are what you eat, right?

Crying out for help again, he feels the panic taking over every sense of his body and that's when it happens- the air around him becomes charged, electrons pulsating like livewire are coursing through the atmosphere. Ryuji can feel it, like his entire body is becoming quickly awakened to some sort of magnetic pull. It's not a persona, exactly, but the rush is almost the same. The static in the area builds to critical mass, as everything around him seems to vibrate- including the taffy that's threatening to eat him.

Which is, to say, really freakin' weird. It's like he's sitting on a washing machine that's way overloaded, and it's about to burst. His vision seems like it's becoming blurrier and blurrier by the second- but in reality, most of the objects around him are vibrating at such a high enough frequency that it seems like he's seeing double. That is, until there's enough static electricity around him that it burns a halo around his body in the ground.]

I'm gonna die, I don't wanna die, I haven't even had my first drink- I----

[And just like that, the molecules of sugar in the taffy start to disintegrate, overcharged by the electric current in the air. It melts off of him slowly, reversing the process of its upward crawl until Ryuji is nearly clear of it.]

What the hell?

[He looks down- it's just a clump of broken down complex carbohydrates below him. And, like the idiot he is, he reaches down to touch it. It sparks.]

Wh...whoa. Wassup!

[Ryuji shouldn't really look in a mirror anytime soon though- every single hair on his blond head is standing up, like he belongs in a 90s boy band.

But hey, mission accomplished, right?]


Questions: None!