[OOC] Application for Route 29
Player
Name: Raile
Livejournal Username: literatehyaena
E-mail: godchild_of_arrogance [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk
AIM/MSN: literatehyaena on AIM
Timezone: EST, but I'm on a biphasic sleep schedule.
Current Characters in Route: None
Character
Name: Machi Tobaye
Series: Ace Attorney/Gyakuten Saiban
Timeline: Post-canon
Canon Resource Links: Wiki
Personality: The 'other half' of Lamiroir--Lamiroir says at one point in the game that she and Machi together are 'Lamiroir,' and in a way this is quite true. Prior to the trial and Machi's stint in jail, the two were never separated and had almost a symbiotic relationship--they were always seen together, hand in hand, 'The Siren of the Ballad' and 'the Pixie of the Arpeggio.' He is very devoted to her and has dedicated his life to her, whether she realises it still or not. On his own, Machi is generally a very smart, gentle boy, but does not do well around people he does not know. In fact, with the exception of Lamiroir (and possibly Daryan), his attitude towards others could best be described as either "indifferent" or "uneasy," depending--at worst, he's visibly nervous; Machi is shy around strangers and hard to get to know because of it. In fact, if you push him towards conversations he doesn't want to have, he can even become downright abrasive, although usually that's a good sign you screwed up somewhere.
Coming from a world where a lot of people are either fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, Machi is a little bit of both--possibly fifty percent on each side, possibly a little more of one than the other. Either way, he's in significantly more conflict than most and struggles with his actions a lot. Machi sees himself as bad, but refuses to identify himself as such, trying very hard to be the good person Lamiroir wants him to be. He tells lies (a lot) and manipulates others, but is also completely and unnecessarily honest, alternating erratically between the two and creating a very hypocritical (and possibly dangerous) persona in the wake of his conviction. I don't know whether in his heart Machi is fundamentally bad or good, but I know that whichever of the two manifests depends as much on the people around him as the events that shape his life... and that there will always be that other part of him as well, just not always demonstrated. For Machi, it's not so much a question of moralities as it is a question of loyalties. He wants to do the right thing. He just doesn't know what the right thing is yet.
There's also his 'darkness'... Lamiroir alludes to it at the end of case 4-3. Lying isn't necessarily all he's capable of...
Machi's great love is the piano. He directs himself towards music obsessively and often ignores other people in favour of the piano, preferring the company of music to the company of other human beings. Machi himself is very withdrawn and stoic (read: unresponsive to or afraid of dealing with people); however, his playing is far more expressive and emotional than is, and carries a lot of feeling that he himself could never express. In fact, it could be theorised (possibly incorrectly, possibly not) that he expresses himself through his music rather than through verbal or visual communication--i.e. normal communicative means. Regardless, he's definitely a prodigy. I've had one person describe Machi as a little autistic, and that might be a good way to describe him, however he does become braver and more normal-acting when you get to know him (or rather, he gets to know you and becomes comfortable around you--it helps when he knows what to expect, which takes a while), so I'm not entirely sure that's accurate. However, his understandings of things are often very abnormal, and this often compounds his presentation as something of an oddball. Gentle though he is, he is not afraid to get his hands dirty. He is partially dedicated to surviving in a country whose language he understands poorly, and occasionally gets extremely frustrated flustered in dealing with other people. If it gets really bad, he may abandon the situation and run away. A people person Machi is not.
Ironically, Machi has a problem with facing his problems--he avoids them, runs away, or pretends not to know they're there instead of taking on even simple dilemmas out of fear of doing the wrong thing. He doesn't like confrontation, and violence is something he seeks to avoid. This probably has something to do with the above, as well as his very limited and unusual life experiences, which leave him ill-equipped to deal with normal day to day things (though he has learned a lot), let alone unusual and more drastic or complicated situations. He is somewhat prone to panic and indecision because of this, and is very nervous around unfamiliar things.
Unfortunately, he's also prone to excessive stoicism.
One thing to remember about Machi, however, is that he is smart. No matter how much trouble he has with English or seeing things the right way, or how scared he may be, he is extremely clever and resourceful and may surprise you when you least expect it. That is all.
Strengths/Weaknesses: Machi is very good at deception, but he is primarily a talented pianist--in fact, he plays piano professionally as a permanent accompaniment to a famous singer named Lamiroir. He is actually musically talented in general, although he's never played any other instrument or even tried to learn one, and he still holds his greatest affinity for the piano. He almost certainly has perfect pitch, and is possessed of very sensitive hearing--hypersensitive, possibly, but either way he is basically a gifted and perceptive kid, very smart and hardworking in certain circumstances. His history expands on this a bit. Given an unfamiliar instrument and a basic demonstration (or even without one), he could mostly likely familiarise himself and learn out how to play quickly--which is to say, in a matter of minutes or hours (depending on whether it's a guitar or a theremin or a didgeridoo--the more obtuse the instrument, the longer it'd take.)
There are also some advantages to him being young and small. He fits easily in places adults wouldn't dream of trying to enter (air vents are a good example) and can squeeze in a number of surprising locations if he has to. Machi has very good fine motor skills and has a great deal of dexterity in his fingers--you'd think this would be obvious, but it has plenty of applications outside of piano playing. As smart as he is (above average at most, although not exactly exceptional), Machi is a fast learner and picks up on new things easily (if he can, he still has poor reading and maths and the like.)
His bizarre range of life experiences can come in handy--as a performer and as an orphan, he's faced a lot of... unique challenges, and can often be counted on to think rationally through minor crises. He knows how to go a long time on a little food and he knows how to convey a lack of understanding in more cultures than you can count, for example. He also probably has some familiarity with some strange foods and tends to be much more quickly accepting of strange customs or cultures... possibly this is contributed to by his crash-coursing in normal life as well.
As for weaknesses... well. Okay. Machi has very poor English. He's fluent in Borginian, but his English frankly sucks (I know he's supposed to become fluent in Route, but he's so barely verbal anyway, I may leave him with a struggling accent to make him recognisable). He's somewhat delicate in build as well, and--being fourteen--is not able to keep up with adults or older teens in terms of strength or speed or stamina. He's a tough nut to crack, but once he's cracked he doesn't hold up very well at all. He's not very literate, either, on account of the fact that he hasn't had much standardised or formal (or even informal) education. I'm not even sure he can multiply and his reading is weak at best. I think his bizarre and alternately limited and immensely different life experiences can definitely count as a weakness, since he has little to no steady concept of what qualifies as "normal" and shares very few regular life experiences with other people he may meet. Between survival as a restaurant musician in Borginia and performance travelling, which took him around the world where he mostly lived out of hotels and participated in a lot of publicity events with Lamiroir (exposing him to a lot of very nice but carefully controlled environments) he is not usually person you want to ask about 'how his day was.' He's faced the two major extremes without any 'normal' in between. It makes for interesting challenges--for example, social tact or running a washing machine. Or... well, anyway.
He's also very nervous, and easily startled; coupled with his perpetual stoicism and rigid adherence to rules that may or may not have a bearing on the situation, he is sometimes impenetrable--very often right when he needs to be understood the most. His sporadic kindness is also a weakness, as it may be taken advantage of--on the flip side of this, his paranoia and mistrust can prevent him from seeking help when he actually needs it, or making friendships when they are available.
As far as other things that count as weaknesses... I think I have to list Lamiroir. He and Lamiroir shared an extremely close relationship, both functionally and emotionally. She raised and protected him like a mother and clearly viewed him as her own son, even though they (of course) had little to no physical relation at all. He feigned blindness so that she could pretend to be sighted (this was actually pretty necessary for commercial and practical reasons) and took the fall while actually guiding her with hidden symbols he drew into her palm. All things told, they developed a very close professional and personal relationship over the years they were together and they are obviously unusually close, even for two people of their circumstances. But--as I explain in the history--he basically betrays her trust, although the circumstances behind his reasoning are never clarified. Perhaps, in a way, he began taking her for granted, a 'safe anchor,' which would account for many interesting aspects of his personality change and development. However, prior to Daryan, Lamiroir was really the only person he would open up to, with his secretive personality and closed off nature. Even now, is still the only person to whom he truly allows himself to be honest, and exposes a much more trusting, vulnerable side to him.
Machi's biggest fear may be helplessness--a lack of control. This contributes to a lot of his more erratic behaviour and overlays a lot of his other fears, including, perhaps, part of his problem with handling new situations. He takes drastic and irrational measures to prevent it in extreme situations, which can not only be used against him... it kind of often is.
In more day to day situations, Machi has a fear of strangers and immediately distrusts them--as a result he may attempt to earn and manipulate trust from them to better his position or simply prove he's in control; alternately, he may genuinely try to earn their trust, in keeping with the person he wants to be. Losing this control or having his lies exposed is a great fear of his, though, which compounds the hypocritical situations he puts himself in with them. He's extremely afraid of most people in general, though, and avoids them to the best of his ability, shying away from all but a rare few... whom he becomes very reliant on in many ways. He also has a bit of a fear of being alone, as best as I can put it. I don't mean physically alone, but... he doesn't self-regulate well and without Lamiroir he's at a bit of a loss, to put it mildly. Since he responds to very few people, introducing him to new ones usually ends with him stonily silent or leaving just because he's not interested. The rare people he picks to attach himself to may find him willing to do just about anything for them in exchange for their trust. His trust can also be earned, and both come with a heavy attachment for Machi. See a lot of the above.
He is also afraid of dying, but I suppose that's pretty normal.
Finally, Machi is afraid of damage to his hands. Deathly afraid. As a pianist they're pretty much all he has and because playing the piano means so much for him even slight damage--especially to the fingers--scares him.
Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer.
Starter: Poochyena. (He is somewhat afraid of dogs, though.)
Name: Raile
Livejournal Username: literatehyaena
E-mail: godchild_of_arrogance [at] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk
AIM/MSN: literatehyaena on AIM
Timezone: EST, but I'm on a biphasic sleep schedule.
Current Characters in Route: None
Character
Name: Machi Tobaye
Series: Ace Attorney/Gyakuten Saiban
Timeline: Post-canon
Canon Resource Links: Wiki
Personality: The 'other half' of Lamiroir--Lamiroir says at one point in the game that she and Machi together are 'Lamiroir,' and in a way this is quite true. Prior to the trial and Machi's stint in jail, the two were never separated and had almost a symbiotic relationship--they were always seen together, hand in hand, 'The Siren of the Ballad' and 'the Pixie of the Arpeggio.' He is very devoted to her and has dedicated his life to her, whether she realises it still or not. On his own, Machi is generally a very smart, gentle boy, but does not do well around people he does not know. In fact, with the exception of Lamiroir (and possibly Daryan), his attitude towards others could best be described as either "indifferent" or "uneasy," depending--at worst, he's visibly nervous; Machi is shy around strangers and hard to get to know because of it. In fact, if you push him towards conversations he doesn't want to have, he can even become downright abrasive, although usually that's a good sign you screwed up somewhere.
Coming from a world where a lot of people are either fundamentally good or fundamentally bad, Machi is a little bit of both--possibly fifty percent on each side, possibly a little more of one than the other. Either way, he's in significantly more conflict than most and struggles with his actions a lot. Machi sees himself as bad, but refuses to identify himself as such, trying very hard to be the good person Lamiroir wants him to be. He tells lies (a lot) and manipulates others, but is also completely and unnecessarily honest, alternating erratically between the two and creating a very hypocritical (and possibly dangerous) persona in the wake of his conviction. I don't know whether in his heart Machi is fundamentally bad or good, but I know that whichever of the two manifests depends as much on the people around him as the events that shape his life... and that there will always be that other part of him as well, just not always demonstrated. For Machi, it's not so much a question of moralities as it is a question of loyalties. He wants to do the right thing. He just doesn't know what the right thing is yet.
There's also his 'darkness'... Lamiroir alludes to it at the end of case 4-3. Lying isn't necessarily all he's capable of...
Machi's great love is the piano. He directs himself towards music obsessively and often ignores other people in favour of the piano, preferring the company of music to the company of other human beings. Machi himself is very withdrawn and stoic (read: unresponsive to or afraid of dealing with people); however, his playing is far more expressive and emotional than is, and carries a lot of feeling that he himself could never express. In fact, it could be theorised (possibly incorrectly, possibly not) that he expresses himself through his music rather than through verbal or visual communication--i.e. normal communicative means. Regardless, he's definitely a prodigy. I've had one person describe Machi as a little autistic, and that might be a good way to describe him, however he does become braver and more normal-acting when you get to know him (or rather, he gets to know you and becomes comfortable around you--it helps when he knows what to expect, which takes a while), so I'm not entirely sure that's accurate. However, his understandings of things are often very abnormal, and this often compounds his presentation as something of an oddball. Gentle though he is, he is not afraid to get his hands dirty. He is partially dedicated to surviving in a country whose language he understands poorly, and occasionally gets extremely frustrated flustered in dealing with other people. If it gets really bad, he may abandon the situation and run away. A people person Machi is not.
Ironically, Machi has a problem with facing his problems--he avoids them, runs away, or pretends not to know they're there instead of taking on even simple dilemmas out of fear of doing the wrong thing. He doesn't like confrontation, and violence is something he seeks to avoid. This probably has something to do with the above, as well as his very limited and unusual life experiences, which leave him ill-equipped to deal with normal day to day things (though he has learned a lot), let alone unusual and more drastic or complicated situations. He is somewhat prone to panic and indecision because of this, and is very nervous around unfamiliar things.
Unfortunately, he's also prone to excessive stoicism.
One thing to remember about Machi, however, is that he is smart. No matter how much trouble he has with English or seeing things the right way, or how scared he may be, he is extremely clever and resourceful and may surprise you when you least expect it. That is all.
Strengths/Weaknesses: Machi is very good at deception, but he is primarily a talented pianist--in fact, he plays piano professionally as a permanent accompaniment to a famous singer named Lamiroir. He is actually musically talented in general, although he's never played any other instrument or even tried to learn one, and he still holds his greatest affinity for the piano. He almost certainly has perfect pitch, and is possessed of very sensitive hearing--hypersensitive, possibly, but either way he is basically a gifted and perceptive kid, very smart and hardworking in certain circumstances. His history expands on this a bit. Given an unfamiliar instrument and a basic demonstration (or even without one), he could mostly likely familiarise himself and learn out how to play quickly--which is to say, in a matter of minutes or hours (depending on whether it's a guitar or a theremin or a didgeridoo--the more obtuse the instrument, the longer it'd take.)
There are also some advantages to him being young and small. He fits easily in places adults wouldn't dream of trying to enter (air vents are a good example) and can squeeze in a number of surprising locations if he has to. Machi has very good fine motor skills and has a great deal of dexterity in his fingers--you'd think this would be obvious, but it has plenty of applications outside of piano playing. As smart as he is (above average at most, although not exactly exceptional), Machi is a fast learner and picks up on new things easily (if he can, he still has poor reading and maths and the like.)
His bizarre range of life experiences can come in handy--as a performer and as an orphan, he's faced a lot of... unique challenges, and can often be counted on to think rationally through minor crises. He knows how to go a long time on a little food and he knows how to convey a lack of understanding in more cultures than you can count, for example. He also probably has some familiarity with some strange foods and tends to be much more quickly accepting of strange customs or cultures... possibly this is contributed to by his crash-coursing in normal life as well.
As for weaknesses... well. Okay. Machi has very poor English. He's fluent in Borginian, but his English frankly sucks (I know he's supposed to become fluent in Route, but he's so barely verbal anyway, I may leave him with a struggling accent to make him recognisable). He's somewhat delicate in build as well, and--being fourteen--is not able to keep up with adults or older teens in terms of strength or speed or stamina. He's a tough nut to crack, but once he's cracked he doesn't hold up very well at all. He's not very literate, either, on account of the fact that he hasn't had much standardised or formal (or even informal) education. I'm not even sure he can multiply and his reading is weak at best. I think his bizarre and alternately limited and immensely different life experiences can definitely count as a weakness, since he has little to no steady concept of what qualifies as "normal" and shares very few regular life experiences with other people he may meet. Between survival as a restaurant musician in Borginia and performance travelling, which took him around the world where he mostly lived out of hotels and participated in a lot of publicity events with Lamiroir (exposing him to a lot of very nice but carefully controlled environments) he is not usually person you want to ask about 'how his day was.' He's faced the two major extremes without any 'normal' in between. It makes for interesting challenges--for example, social tact or running a washing machine. Or... well, anyway.
He's also very nervous, and easily startled; coupled with his perpetual stoicism and rigid adherence to rules that may or may not have a bearing on the situation, he is sometimes impenetrable--very often right when he needs to be understood the most. His sporadic kindness is also a weakness, as it may be taken advantage of--on the flip side of this, his paranoia and mistrust can prevent him from seeking help when he actually needs it, or making friendships when they are available.
As far as other things that count as weaknesses... I think I have to list Lamiroir. He and Lamiroir shared an extremely close relationship, both functionally and emotionally. She raised and protected him like a mother and clearly viewed him as her own son, even though they (of course) had little to no physical relation at all. He feigned blindness so that she could pretend to be sighted (this was actually pretty necessary for commercial and practical reasons) and took the fall while actually guiding her with hidden symbols he drew into her palm. All things told, they developed a very close professional and personal relationship over the years they were together and they are obviously unusually close, even for two people of their circumstances. But--as I explain in the history--he basically betrays her trust, although the circumstances behind his reasoning are never clarified. Perhaps, in a way, he began taking her for granted, a 'safe anchor,' which would account for many interesting aspects of his personality change and development. However, prior to Daryan, Lamiroir was really the only person he would open up to, with his secretive personality and closed off nature. Even now, is still the only person to whom he truly allows himself to be honest, and exposes a much more trusting, vulnerable side to him.
Machi's biggest fear may be helplessness--a lack of control. This contributes to a lot of his more erratic behaviour and overlays a lot of his other fears, including, perhaps, part of his problem with handling new situations. He takes drastic and irrational measures to prevent it in extreme situations, which can not only be used against him... it kind of often is.
In more day to day situations, Machi has a fear of strangers and immediately distrusts them--as a result he may attempt to earn and manipulate trust from them to better his position or simply prove he's in control; alternately, he may genuinely try to earn their trust, in keeping with the person he wants to be. Losing this control or having his lies exposed is a great fear of his, though, which compounds the hypocritical situations he puts himself in with them. He's extremely afraid of most people in general, though, and avoids them to the best of his ability, shying away from all but a rare few... whom he becomes very reliant on in many ways. He also has a bit of a fear of being alone, as best as I can put it. I don't mean physically alone, but... he doesn't self-regulate well and without Lamiroir he's at a bit of a loss, to put it mildly. Since he responds to very few people, introducing him to new ones usually ends with him stonily silent or leaving just because he's not interested. The rare people he picks to attach himself to may find him willing to do just about anything for them in exchange for their trust. His trust can also be earned, and both come with a heavy attachment for Machi. See a lot of the above.
He is also afraid of dying, but I suppose that's pretty normal.
Finally, Machi is afraid of damage to his hands. Deathly afraid. As a pianist they're pretty much all he has and because playing the piano means so much for him even slight damage--especially to the fingers--scares him.
Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer.
Starter: Poochyena. (He is somewhat afraid of dogs, though.)