OOC: Application (The Velvet Key)
Player Info:
Nickname: Doji
Age: 19
Personal LJ: pyra_k_akaidra
Method of Contact: AIM: dojikuni, Plurk: Sonica
Characters Played: N/A
Character Info:
Name: Atsuro Kihara
Age: 17
Canon: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor
Pull Point: Pregame, before Naoya called him to hang out with him, Protagonist and Yuzu.
Background Info:
History:
Devil Survivor on Wikipedia
Devil Survivor on Megami Tensei wikia
Atsuro on Megami Tensei wikia
Personality:
Atsuro's a pretty cheerful and friendly guy, who is also quite proud to be an otaku. He makes jokes and teases with his friends, especially over Yuzu being the Protagonist’s ‘girlfriend’.
He enjoys being on the computer, fiddling, and working with the coding. When given the chance, he'll eagerly leap at the opportunity to test his skills and to make Naoya proud of him. More often than not, Atsuro would claim to be ‘Naoya’s No. 1 apprentice’, and shows obvious happiness at the acknowledgement of the role.
Knowing that not everyone can understand his technical talks, Atsuro can explain things in layman's terms quite well, quite often for Yuzu's sake and anyone else who don’t follow him earlier.
Due to his childhood, his social skills aren't typical. He usually goes on the laptop, unless he's hanging out with his friends, and sometimes his enthusiasm isn’t appreciated by some people (from teasing nicknames like calling Yuzu 'Yoohoo' to thinking up disturbing speculations). His enthusiasm was partially a coping mechanism for dealing with loneliness as a child, as well as an attempt to hide his negative emotions from everyone or just brushing them aside. He also likes being complimented, as it meant being acknowledged by the other person and not being alone, even for a moment.
He’s always thinking of improving things for the better for other people. He enjoys utilising his talents for others and thinking up ideas. It always gave him a good feeling, knowing that people’s lives are a little better, and that he feels needed. Sometimes, his ideas can be abused for the worse, such as the proposal to have the government control all the demons. However, he’s well aware of the potential and thought up ways to minimise the abuse.
Atsuro does have his own worries. However, he would generally hide it behind his cheerful self in order to not make his friends worry about him, or trouble everyone else. This was shown when he admitted to the Protagonist about maintaining a cheery exterior around Yuzu in the game. It’s when he’s pushed to his limits and got very stressed that the mask slips. Only people he’s very close to and trust can see through him, namely the Protagonist and Naoya.
Loyalty and faith is a big part of Atsuro. He believes in people and to place his faith in them, even when they falter or whether they can pull through, such as Keisuke and Naoya. He specifically mentioned his faith in his teacher in his, Atsuro’s, route. Even with all the troubles, there’s still the good part inside them he want to believe in. For loyalty, anyone that he considers as his friend and trust in will gain a very loyal friend; no matter what, he’ll stick by them and help them out. This is proven in the various routes, as he’s the only one to stay by the Protagonist’s side, even if they choose to fight God.
Game Specific:
Arcana: Magician
Justification: Atsuro have the initiative to take action and to plan, as seen when he wish to help people and to find a way to improve things for everyone. His resourcefulness is in his skills with the computer and knowledge, and has the awareness to realise the potential abuse in his proposed plan for the Lockdown (giving control of demons to the government). He have his own individuality in how he show himself, as a proud ‘otaku’ and programmer, but is still more than just the stereotype associated with those two terms. ‘Power’ in the arcana’s meaning is the power to harness one’s talent, which Atsuro can and will do if there’s a chance.
However, negatively, even with his ideas, Atsuro also can suffer from self-doubt in himself or lacking self confidence, even in secret. He would also sometimes defer to another person on decision making, even when he believes his idea is a good one. There’s also his tendency in seek out acknowledgement of his ideas, even if he’s not consciously aware of it, hoping to hear that another person agrees with him. But there’s always a chance for him to overcome his difficulties, contributing to his mental growth and continues on with his own life’s journey.
Samples:
First Person Sample:
[To community:]
Anyone interested in a new, better firewall program? It should be able to protect your computer much better than most other programs due to how I design it. It’ll definitely last for a while until stronger viruses get created, then I’ll do either an upgrade or make a better program than before!
[To friends:]
Hey, guys. We’re still up for that thing at school? Let me know so I can head out and get the stuff we needed. [Beside, he need to buy some electronics and can get what they need at the same time.]
Third Person Sample:
Atsuro glanced at the time on his laptop, before turning his attention back to the program in front of him. It’s late at night, almost midnight, and he’s staying up to finish off the project he’s working on for a while.
He knows quite well that the Dark Hour was approaching and could’ve used the time beforehand to prepare himself. However, typing in the code and working with the program was comforting to him. The many lines of the programming language scrolling by, the simple joy of being challenged to make it run smoothly and to improve it. It’s both a comfort and a distraction.
Though, sometimes, it’s not always an effective distraction. His mind would drift over to other subjects and one in particular would always make him pause, staring at the screen. Ever since he’s at Prospero, Atsuro managed to keep himself busy with work, school, daily life and the Shadows he fought with others at night. Yet, he would sometime think of people he know, friends, family, his teacher, and feel homesick for them.
The aspiring programmer tried not to think about it too much, but sometimes, it slipped in. Despite all the friends he made here, there’s that sense of loneliness in him.
Glancing at the time again, he saved his work and turned off the laptop. The Dark Hour’s approaching very, very soon.