APPLICATION - ROUTE_29
Player
Name: Marion
Livejournal Username: swordflowers
E-mail: conductings@gmail.com
AIM/MSN: AIM - axemarionette
Timezone: United States EST
Current Characters in Route: N/A
Major spoilers for the game below.
Character
Name: Ace. Real Name: [Gentarou Hongou]
Series: 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors
Timeline: Post Safe End.
Canon Resource Links: 999 wikipedia
Personality: When the protagonist Junepei sees Ace for the first time, he is given the codename "Lion", until an official codename is given (which turns out to be Ace). In some regards, Ace is very much a lion as Junepei first regarded him being. For starters, he believes he has the rights of a 'king' to do as he pleases and accomplish his own goals at the sacrifice of others. Everyone in his eyes is ultimately below him. Not even an hour into the game he tricks the man with the Number 9 bracelet into going through a number door alone, which ends in the latter's death. Even worse, it's later discovered that the man Ace tricked was a past friend of his no less. He also comes off as a kindly leader, who breaks up squabbles and seems to have everyone's best interest in mind. When everyone is deciding who will be left behind from entering the second set of numbered doors, Ace volunteers and even drugs himself so that no one can argue against him. This is a showing of heroism, but in truth it was simply done as a way of not having to take the risk of entering and he knew very well that the others would regroup at the same location.
Ace in general is someone who at first appears altruistic, giving guidance to others and good spirited encouragement, but slowly toward the end of the game shows his true colors. Rather than altruistic he is more egotistic and only truly cares about himself and his own goals. There are many examples, but this is best shown when it is discovered Ace was the original creator of the Nonary Game before Zero ever came into the picture. He orchestrated the kidnapping 18 children and forced half of them onto a boat and half of them into a building in the middle of Nevada. Then he told those children to solve the challenges presented or die trying. At the end of True End Ace reveals that he originally created the Nonary Game in the hopes of possibly finding a way to cure his disorder through morphic fields. It was fully for his own selfish reasons and wild theories, nothing more.
Speaking of that, Ace has a rather unique condition that is revealed in the Safe End. He is afflicted with prosopagnosia, a brain disorder that hinders facial recognition. Ace cannot perceive the faces of other people to any extent. It adds to his rather egocentric personality, as he simply cannot understand the people around him. Their faces are all blurs to him and recognizing emotions, facial cues and even remembering a face is all out of his capability. He has no reason to care about other people when he cannot even tell one person from the other, normally relying on identifying them by their voice or their wardrobe choices. During the Safe End he was almost fooled into thinking Junepei was Santa and in every route he ends up killing another friend of his from the original Nonary Game, all because said friend was dressed in Snake's clothes (he was attempting to murder Snake) and Ace couldn't tell the difference.
While there are many negative things about Ace, there are also very minor positive ones. Very minor. Ace considers himself to be a fair person. While he orchestrated the kidnappings and such, he assured all the children that they would escape safely if they completed the tasks given. When he throws Akane into the incinerator after she attempts to escape, he tells her through the doors that if she completes the task she too can leave with her life and he won't even try to put her there again. That still doesn't excuse his horrible actions, but it is worth pointing out that Ace is simply a man who wants something badly enough to do anything for it. Driven by his desire to cure his prosopagnosia, he will go to many extremes for the sake of this one goal. He also has some expertise in medicine, being the CEO of a company called Cradle Pharmaceuticals and still staying that way even after the end of the 1st Nonary Game (no one discovered his true identity at the time). Whether he had any desire to do something like the Nonary Game is unknown, but given that many years passed and there were no movements toward that goal it is likely he partly gave up on running such an experiment again.
However, his disability and the reasons he explains for conducting the original Nonary Game does not change the type of man Ace is. He is callous, selfish, slightly deranged and overall believes he is always right in his actions. Willing to send people to their death, so that his own may be preserved and without regrets. The only thing he likely ever regrets is being led around by Zero throughout the Nonary Game. Yet at the same time he is also a pathetic man when he is hanging on nothing more than a thread. During the events of Safe End, when Snake attacks him in the incinerator (while it is active no less) Ace continuously pleads for mercy from the other man. Even after he killed Snake's sister in cold blood, he has the gall to beg for forgiveness. More than willing to betray others and act as a kindly old man to deceive, Ace is nothing if a despicable person with little to none redeeming qualities about him. He'll kidnap children, throw them onto sinking ships and active incinerators, pull a gun out on others, cheat, lie and do anything he needs to in order to benefit his own interests.
Strengths/Weaknesses:
-Lying: Make no mistake, Ace is something of a great actor and liar. He is capable of acting like a kind man one minute and then switching on the heel to being cruel. He attempts to kill Snake out of cold blood (it turns out he murders someone else) and even tells his good friend (who is the 9th man) that the Nonary system changed and allows a single person to go through a numbered door, which leads to that man's unwitting death. Given the circumstances it is unsure to how many people he really fooled, but at the very least the ones that did not know his true identity from the start were certainly tricked by Ace.
-Medical Knowledge: Ace is the CEO and head of an entire pharmaceutical company in the game and thus is implied to have a detailed understanding in medicine and chemistry. He knows how to inject himself and others using a syringe properly, create new medicine using plants (such as the one he found on the Gigantic nine years before the game begins) and has used his expertise to make his company one of the most successful in the country, if not the world.
-Strength (physical): While Ace is already in his 50's according to the game, he is still considerably strong for his age. He's able to hold Lotus at gunpoint and move her around quite fluidly, despite having to hold her in a tight grip so she cannot escape. He also easily took Nagisa Nijisaki (who is the man he killed instead of Ace) and pushed him through Door 3 in order to kill "Snake". Later he also killed Kagechika Musashidou using an axe provided in the second part of Room 1 unbeknownst to Junepei and Clover, by taking the pocket watch used to open the door and then quickly sneaking back in without them realizing he went through. This murder was especially quick, considering neither Junepei or Clover even noticed that Ace was gone long enough to murder a man. Of course he is not nearly the strongest of the nine, compared to Seven and even Snake, but his strength for what it is worth shouldn't be discounted.
-Prosopagnosia: As mentioned earlier, Ace has a brain disorder since birth that doesn't allow him to recognize the faces of others. He likely cannot even recognize his own face in a mirror to add on to it. Not even in photographs can his brain process a facial recognition system, as seen in one of the Safe End puzzles. This disorder is the driving point of Ace's insane tactics to try and activate 'morphic fields' in the eighteen children, by kidnapping and putting half of them into a life or death situation (half of them were stuck in a building and the other half were stuck on the actual Gigantic, which was sinking at the time of the start of the Nonary Game). It is his greatest weakness and not simply because he cannot see faces, but more because his ambition to find a cure for it through these fields drives him throughout the nine years. That ambition leads to his ultimate downfall in the end of the Safe End.
Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Team Rocket Grunt
Starter: Growlithe (Male)
Password: Sunflower Seeds.
Samples
First Person Sample: Ah, excuse me...is this thing even on? [He taps the receiver a couple times, looking a bit frustrated as he tries to make sure its active.] I'm sorry, but I think I must have gotten...lost somehow? Not that I have much idea how that could happen, so it sounds silly to say that. I woke up in this strange place and I don't know-- hey, ah, down boy, down! Sit, heel -- get off!!
[Ace's words are suddenly deterred when a Growlithe leaps up at him off-screen and barks enthusiastically. The man flails for a moment, before getting the Pokemon off of him. He sighs roughly and continues.]
I would appreciate some directions! Or if there are any phones to contact local police? I'm a busy man and I'm certain people are concerned about my whereabouts. ...Also, I need to report this missing dog. At least I think he's a dog, he might be a wolf of some kind. He doesn't have a collar, but I'm sure the owner will be able to tell. It would be hard to miss a dog with this unusual coloration. [He slowly moves the video screen to the Growlithe, who barks excitedly at the device.] If he doesn't have any owner I might just send him to a pound. So if anyone happens to know who owns him, I'll be happy to-- gahhh!!
[And the PokeGear is suddenly dropped when Ace catches the Growlithe spitting out a small ember flame mid-bark.]
...What in the hell is this thing?! Dogs don't breathe fire!
Third Person Sample: Ace didn't expect to awaken. Forget that he was in a completely different place that did not look anything like the interior of the Gigantic. He was alive. How did that happen. The last he recalled was red, the sight of a snake squeezing his legs, the heat. It burned. Badly. For a moment he thought to check a mirror, but then the obvious life long defect he lived with burned into his memory once more sadly. Instead he took a hand (it was cold and clamly, nothing like it felt in the incinerator) and brought it up to his face. He was covered in cold sweat, but he didn't feel any scarring.
...Was it all just a bad dream? Being kidnapped by the cloaked person, trapped behind the Number 1 door, meeting people that he knew of from a specific day nine years ago and so forth. Was all of it just a terrible nightmare. Burned alive, killing his old companions, doing all those things. The old man sighed and began to slowly move off the bed. Wherever he was now it wasn't his apartment complex in California or a ship in the middle of the ocean. So where was he anyway? He began to scope his surroundings.
A fairly average room, with nothing in it other than the bed he was apparently sleeping in and a desk. He quickly went to the door and tried to open the door. To his surprise, it was unlocked. So he was free to move around as his captive saw fit.
His clothes (or at least the last pair of clothes he wore before arriving) were gone and he was in a pair of black pants.
On the ground by the bed was a backpack. He cautiously opened it and found supplies, along with what looked like foreign currency. And a pair of black clothes. Odd.
The desk only had some sort of strange device he had never seen (for a moment he thought how Kubota would probably like to take something like this apart to see how it ticked, but pushed those thoughts quickly away) and a tiny red ball.
His investigate was quickly halted when he heard the sound of a bark. He spun around only to see something that looked like a dog emerging from under the bed. A very orange looking dog.
"Wha--"
It didn't take long for the dog to pounce at him and Ace, in his confusion, fell down against the desk from the impact. For a moment he wondered if he would be bitten, the face of the dog blurry and confused, until he felt something warm against his cheek. ... Saliva.
"Very nice," he grumbled out, picking the dog off of him. He didn't have time for this nonsense. He had to seek a way out.
Canon Side-Material
As another side note, the Nonary Game wasn't Gentarou's idea: It was Gordain's. He would take young Englishmen who'd accumulated massive debts and force them to play games on the ship. He would enjoy the show with his millionaire friends and they would bet money on who would survive. All the losers were burned in the incinerator as a sacrifice during the ceremony... After many years of this, Gordain died of old age but the games continued. In the final game, Gentarou was abducted and forced to participate. He was victorious, and felt that if he could win the game, then he could come up with a better one. he told Gordain's successor and his fellow millionaires as much. They decided it sounded interesting, and told him to do it. That was what lead to the Nonary Game that happened 9 years before 999. Of course, Gentarou's true intention was to test the theory of morphogenetic fields, but that was the story behind the Nonary game. He inherited the ship from the millionaires and hosted the game. That was how he got all the funding as well. In other words, there were millionaires watching the game 9 years before 999 and placing bets on who would live and who would die. Yes, they were truly rotten people. That was also when Gentarou found the mandrake root in the coffin. He used that root to create the drug, Soporil, that made him a millionaire.
The events of 999 take place in the year 2027. So the first Nonary game would have been in 2018.
Name: Marion
Livejournal Username: swordflowers
E-mail: conductings@gmail.com
AIM/MSN: AIM - axemarionette
Timezone: United States EST
Current Characters in Route: N/A
Major spoilers for the game below.
Character
Name: Ace. Real Name: [Gentarou Hongou]
Series: 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors
Timeline: Post Safe End.
Canon Resource Links: 999 wikipedia
Personality: When the protagonist Junepei sees Ace for the first time, he is given the codename "Lion", until an official codename is given (which turns out to be Ace). In some regards, Ace is very much a lion as Junepei first regarded him being. For starters, he believes he has the rights of a 'king' to do as he pleases and accomplish his own goals at the sacrifice of others. Everyone in his eyes is ultimately below him. Not even an hour into the game he tricks the man with the Number 9 bracelet into going through a number door alone, which ends in the latter's death. Even worse, it's later discovered that the man Ace tricked was a past friend of his no less. He also comes off as a kindly leader, who breaks up squabbles and seems to have everyone's best interest in mind. When everyone is deciding who will be left behind from entering the second set of numbered doors, Ace volunteers and even drugs himself so that no one can argue against him. This is a showing of heroism, but in truth it was simply done as a way of not having to take the risk of entering and he knew very well that the others would regroup at the same location.
Ace in general is someone who at first appears altruistic, giving guidance to others and good spirited encouragement, but slowly toward the end of the game shows his true colors. Rather than altruistic he is more egotistic and only truly cares about himself and his own goals. There are many examples, but this is best shown when it is discovered Ace was the original creator of the Nonary Game before Zero ever came into the picture. He orchestrated the kidnapping 18 children and forced half of them onto a boat and half of them into a building in the middle of Nevada. Then he told those children to solve the challenges presented or die trying. At the end of True End Ace reveals that he originally created the Nonary Game in the hopes of possibly finding a way to cure his disorder through morphic fields. It was fully for his own selfish reasons and wild theories, nothing more.
Speaking of that, Ace has a rather unique condition that is revealed in the Safe End. He is afflicted with prosopagnosia, a brain disorder that hinders facial recognition. Ace cannot perceive the faces of other people to any extent. It adds to his rather egocentric personality, as he simply cannot understand the people around him. Their faces are all blurs to him and recognizing emotions, facial cues and even remembering a face is all out of his capability. He has no reason to care about other people when he cannot even tell one person from the other, normally relying on identifying them by their voice or their wardrobe choices. During the Safe End he was almost fooled into thinking Junepei was Santa and in every route he ends up killing another friend of his from the original Nonary Game, all because said friend was dressed in Snake's clothes (he was attempting to murder Snake) and Ace couldn't tell the difference.
While there are many negative things about Ace, there are also very minor positive ones. Very minor. Ace considers himself to be a fair person. While he orchestrated the kidnappings and such, he assured all the children that they would escape safely if they completed the tasks given. When he throws Akane into the incinerator after she attempts to escape, he tells her through the doors that if she completes the task she too can leave with her life and he won't even try to put her there again. That still doesn't excuse his horrible actions, but it is worth pointing out that Ace is simply a man who wants something badly enough to do anything for it. Driven by his desire to cure his prosopagnosia, he will go to many extremes for the sake of this one goal. He also has some expertise in medicine, being the CEO of a company called Cradle Pharmaceuticals and still staying that way even after the end of the 1st Nonary Game (no one discovered his true identity at the time). Whether he had any desire to do something like the Nonary Game is unknown, but given that many years passed and there were no movements toward that goal it is likely he partly gave up on running such an experiment again.
However, his disability and the reasons he explains for conducting the original Nonary Game does not change the type of man Ace is. He is callous, selfish, slightly deranged and overall believes he is always right in his actions. Willing to send people to their death, so that his own may be preserved and without regrets. The only thing he likely ever regrets is being led around by Zero throughout the Nonary Game. Yet at the same time he is also a pathetic man when he is hanging on nothing more than a thread. During the events of Safe End, when Snake attacks him in the incinerator (while it is active no less) Ace continuously pleads for mercy from the other man. Even after he killed Snake's sister in cold blood, he has the gall to beg for forgiveness. More than willing to betray others and act as a kindly old man to deceive, Ace is nothing if a despicable person with little to none redeeming qualities about him. He'll kidnap children, throw them onto sinking ships and active incinerators, pull a gun out on others, cheat, lie and do anything he needs to in order to benefit his own interests.
Strengths/Weaknesses:
-Lying: Make no mistake, Ace is something of a great actor and liar. He is capable of acting like a kind man one minute and then switching on the heel to being cruel. He attempts to kill Snake out of cold blood (it turns out he murders someone else) and even tells his good friend (who is the 9th man) that the Nonary system changed and allows a single person to go through a numbered door, which leads to that man's unwitting death. Given the circumstances it is unsure to how many people he really fooled, but at the very least the ones that did not know his true identity from the start were certainly tricked by Ace.
-Medical Knowledge: Ace is the CEO and head of an entire pharmaceutical company in the game and thus is implied to have a detailed understanding in medicine and chemistry. He knows how to inject himself and others using a syringe properly, create new medicine using plants (such as the one he found on the Gigantic nine years before the game begins) and has used his expertise to make his company one of the most successful in the country, if not the world.
-Strength (physical): While Ace is already in his 50's according to the game, he is still considerably strong for his age. He's able to hold Lotus at gunpoint and move her around quite fluidly, despite having to hold her in a tight grip so she cannot escape. He also easily took Nagisa Nijisaki (who is the man he killed instead of Ace) and pushed him through Door 3 in order to kill "Snake". Later he also killed Kagechika Musashidou using an axe provided in the second part of Room 1 unbeknownst to Junepei and Clover, by taking the pocket watch used to open the door and then quickly sneaking back in without them realizing he went through. This murder was especially quick, considering neither Junepei or Clover even noticed that Ace was gone long enough to murder a man. Of course he is not nearly the strongest of the nine, compared to Seven and even Snake, but his strength for what it is worth shouldn't be discounted.
-Prosopagnosia: As mentioned earlier, Ace has a brain disorder since birth that doesn't allow him to recognize the faces of others. He likely cannot even recognize his own face in a mirror to add on to it. Not even in photographs can his brain process a facial recognition system, as seen in one of the Safe End puzzles. This disorder is the driving point of Ace's insane tactics to try and activate 'morphic fields' in the eighteen children, by kidnapping and putting half of them into a life or death situation (half of them were stuck in a building and the other half were stuck on the actual Gigantic, which was sinking at the time of the start of the Nonary Game). It is his greatest weakness and not simply because he cannot see faces, but more because his ambition to find a cure for it through these fields drives him throughout the nine years. That ambition leads to his ultimate downfall in the end of the Safe End.
Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Team Rocket Grunt
Starter: Growlithe (Male)
Password: Sunflower Seeds.
Samples
First Person Sample: Ah, excuse me...is this thing even on? [He taps the receiver a couple times, looking a bit frustrated as he tries to make sure its active.] I'm sorry, but I think I must have gotten...lost somehow? Not that I have much idea how that could happen, so it sounds silly to say that. I woke up in this strange place and I don't know-- hey, ah, down boy, down! Sit, heel -- get off!!
[Ace's words are suddenly deterred when a Growlithe leaps up at him off-screen and barks enthusiastically. The man flails for a moment, before getting the Pokemon off of him. He sighs roughly and continues.]
I would appreciate some directions! Or if there are any phones to contact local police? I'm a busy man and I'm certain people are concerned about my whereabouts. ...Also, I need to report this missing dog. At least I think he's a dog, he might be a wolf of some kind. He doesn't have a collar, but I'm sure the owner will be able to tell. It would be hard to miss a dog with this unusual coloration. [He slowly moves the video screen to the Growlithe, who barks excitedly at the device.] If he doesn't have any owner I might just send him to a pound. So if anyone happens to know who owns him, I'll be happy to-- gahhh!!
[And the PokeGear is suddenly dropped when Ace catches the Growlithe spitting out a small ember flame mid-bark.]
...What in the hell is this thing?! Dogs don't breathe fire!
Third Person Sample: Ace didn't expect to awaken. Forget that he was in a completely different place that did not look anything like the interior of the Gigantic. He was alive. How did that happen. The last he recalled was red, the sight of a snake squeezing his legs, the heat. It burned. Badly. For a moment he thought to check a mirror, but then the obvious life long defect he lived with burned into his memory once more sadly. Instead he took a hand (it was cold and clamly, nothing like it felt in the incinerator) and brought it up to his face. He was covered in cold sweat, but he didn't feel any scarring.
...Was it all just a bad dream? Being kidnapped by the cloaked person, trapped behind the Number 1 door, meeting people that he knew of from a specific day nine years ago and so forth. Was all of it just a terrible nightmare. Burned alive, killing his old companions, doing all those things. The old man sighed and began to slowly move off the bed. Wherever he was now it wasn't his apartment complex in California or a ship in the middle of the ocean. So where was he anyway? He began to scope his surroundings.
A fairly average room, with nothing in it other than the bed he was apparently sleeping in and a desk. He quickly went to the door and tried to open the door. To his surprise, it was unlocked. So he was free to move around as his captive saw fit.
His clothes (or at least the last pair of clothes he wore before arriving) were gone and he was in a pair of black pants.
On the ground by the bed was a backpack. He cautiously opened it and found supplies, along with what looked like foreign currency. And a pair of black clothes. Odd.
The desk only had some sort of strange device he had never seen (for a moment he thought how Kubota would probably like to take something like this apart to see how it ticked, but pushed those thoughts quickly away) and a tiny red ball.
His investigate was quickly halted when he heard the sound of a bark. He spun around only to see something that looked like a dog emerging from under the bed. A very orange looking dog.
"Wha--"
It didn't take long for the dog to pounce at him and Ace, in his confusion, fell down against the desk from the impact. For a moment he wondered if he would be bitten, the face of the dog blurry and confused, until he felt something warm against his cheek. ... Saliva.
"Very nice," he grumbled out, picking the dog off of him. He didn't have time for this nonsense. He had to seek a way out.
Canon Side-Material
As another side note, the Nonary Game wasn't Gentarou's idea: It was Gordain's. He would take young Englishmen who'd accumulated massive debts and force them to play games on the ship. He would enjoy the show with his millionaire friends and they would bet money on who would survive. All the losers were burned in the incinerator as a sacrifice during the ceremony... After many years of this, Gordain died of old age but the games continued. In the final game, Gentarou was abducted and forced to participate. He was victorious, and felt that if he could win the game, then he could come up with a better one. he told Gordain's successor and his fellow millionaires as much. They decided it sounded interesting, and told him to do it. That was what lead to the Nonary Game that happened 9 years before 999. Of course, Gentarou's true intention was to test the theory of morphogenetic fields, but that was the story behind the Nonary game. He inherited the ship from the millionaires and hosted the game. That was how he got all the funding as well. In other words, there were millionaires watching the game 9 years before 999 and placing bets on who would live and who would die. Yes, they were truly rotten people. That was also when Gentarou found the mandrake root in the coffin. He used that root to create the drug, Soporil, that made him a millionaire.
The events of 999 take place in the year 2027. So the first Nonary game would have been in 2018.