Application: route_29
Mun
Name: Aly
Livejournal Username: samekh
E-mail: ohfourplan [at] gmail [dot] com
AIM/MSN: AIM: phantasm brigade, MSN: vegetas [at] live [dot] com
Timezone: EST
Current Characters in Route: Izaya Orihara, Fay D. Flourite
Character
Name: Tohru Adachi
Series: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4
Timeline: The afternoon of 7/28, right after the Souji talks to him.
Canon Resource Links: Persona 4 on Wikipedia; Adachi on the MegaTen Wiki
Affiliation: Trainer
Personality
When you meet Adachi, his personality is pretty unmistakable. He’s a bright-eyed, young and enthusiastic detective, working closely with Ryotaro Dojima on the case of serial murders that seem to be plaguing the small town of Inaba. At first glance, you’d even wonder how qualified he is for the job - at the sight of a dead body, he appears to run from the scene and get sick. Most of the time, he seems more like Dojima’s lackey or assistant than a detective all his own. He brings the superior his coffee and does other menial tasks when need be.
In speaking to him, he comes off as friendly, perhaps even too much so. His lips are loose, often revealing too much information to unrelated parties about the case at hand. He tends to get ahead of himself in doing so, asking Souji and the rest of the Investigation Team not to tell anyone that he’s given them such information. He tends to studder when he realizes the errors of his ways, but it seems to be all in good spirit.
But if you think that’s the truth of Adachi’s nature, you’d be completely wrong.
In reality, Adachi is cold. While he plays the part well of being a bumbling idiot, he’s really nothing of the sort. His view of the world and humanity is very cold; he really wants nothing more than for the mundane style of life to simply cease to exist. He sees it as being pointless, that it’s a complete waste, and he feels so for many more reasons than one.
Even from the very start, his intentions were less than favorable - he wanted Mayumi Yamano for himself, and when he was spurned, he grew more violent. In accidentally shoving her into the TV and realizing the potential of his abilities, everything around him became a game. His second attempt - that with Saki Konishi ended just the same, and from that point, Adachi grew even more calculated in committing the crimes that would grow to be his game.
Every event that happened after Saki’s death was planned by him, carefully plotted to keep himself entertained until the fog crossed over from the TV world into their reality, ultimately putting an end to life as it was known. The start was simple, manipulating Taro Namatame into believing that shoving people into the TV was a way of saving them. All he needed to do at this point was just sit back and watch. It was easy for him to throw the police force into running in circles; after all, there was absolutely no proof he was connected and he’d done just a fine job of acting as if he’d been as innocent as he was prior to the events.
Adachi only grows more calculated as time passes. As he realizes how the Investigation Team is interfering, he takes things a step further. When he meets them, he feeds them information - though most of it is just to run them in circles as well - a means of preventing his intentions to be discovered. When Mitsuo Kubo confesses to the crimes, Adachi realizes this is a threat that can’t come to be -- if he’s arrested, then there’d be no reason for Namatame to throw anyone else into the TV, effectively ruining his fun.
His distaste for humankind is what drives him, and although he doesn’t know just what caused him to have such a power, he feels that he needs to use it to his advantage. Although he’s not keen to admit it (and won’t until the events of the true ending), it nags at him that he doesn’t know what exactly gave him the abilities.
It’s pretty safe to say that even before that, Adachi wasn’t exactly normal or well-adjusted. He never really cared about justice or the well-being of the populace - in fact, his entire reason for joining the police force was to legally carry a gun. Being transferred to a small town, followed by being rejected by multiple women left him a bitter man. A bitter sociopath with a crazy streak.
He covers it up pretty well by bumbling and talking about cabbage though, which is impressive in itself. Adachi remains the type to play a well-adjusted 20-something in nearly all cases, especially if it’ll ultimately benefit him in the end.
Strengths/Weaknesses:
+Good Actor: Adachi plays his role very well, covering up all his disdain for the world around him, as well as the crimes he’s caused with the façade of an innocent, less-than-stellar detective.
--as a note to this, the façade gives him more apparent positive traits than he really has; he comes off as friendly, if not a bit dumb. But he’s personable and generally easy to talk to -- and for people like Dojima, he’s kind of a doormat at times, even if that’s much to Adachi’s chagrin in reality. But the fact of the matter is, his positive traits are really a farce, given what a cold douchebag he actually is.
+Cunning and manipulative: He’s able to play situations into his favor - be it with how he worked with Namatame, or how he constantly misled the Investigation Team, leaving his tracks nigh untraceable for the most part.
+Persona user: Null in the setting, but he’s capable of summoning Magatsu Izanagi, who is a corrupted form of Izanagi, Souji’s initial Persona.
-He’s a crazy sociopath murderer. ‘Nuff said
-Corrupted view of reality: Adachi thinks it would be better for the world and humanity to just give up and let the fog cover Inaba, rendering all the people as mindless shadows.
-Violent: He rarely appears so, but he assaulted both Mayumi and Saki when they rejected him. He wanted to have a gun, even before all of the madness began. Even his Persona is a corrupted, bloody version of Souji’s.
+/-/? Cabbage: is very cheap at Junes and there are many things Adachi can make with it. Cabbage is actually his only ally in the world.
Pokemon
Starter: Wooper
Password: Deviled Eggs
Samples
First Person Sample:
Seriously, this has to happen on today of all days? Damn. Dojima-san’s gonna kill me if I’m gone. [There’s a sigh, but he continues to talk.] With that kid being missing and everything, this is-- oh. So it is on. Right? This phone thing, PokéGear or something. Can anyone hear this?
We-well, if you did, can you just… pretend you didn’t hear that first part? I’m not really sure who can hear this, but… it’s kind of important business and I really don’t want Dojima-san to end up pouring his hot coffee on my head and then force me to bring him another one or something because someone found-- Damn, I’m saying too much again, aren’t I? N-no, really! Forget I said anything.
[There’s a long pause, followed by sound that sounds somewhat inquisitive.] Actually, I have a question. Or two, really. First, I can get to this Cherrygrove City place by following this Route, right? And the second… there’s no easy way back to where I came from, right? That would be too easy, I guess. Oh, and uh… if anyone is still listening, thanks. It’ll be a pretty big help, you know!
Third Person Sample:
His eyes narrowed in disdain as he took in the surroundings. Adachi was the furthest thing from amused right now, that was for sure. Sure, he’d had the basics explained to him by that guy claiming to be a Professor, but… seriously? What the hell was going on - that was all he wanted to know.
When he’d awoken in the strange building, he’d briefly considered the possibilities. Had he fallen victim to his own scheme? Was this the reality behind falling into the TV? Brief was indeed the thought as he quickly deduced that it couldn’t possibly be the case. No. He’d only seen a little of it from his point of view, but the results of someone being in the TV was certainly not this. That much he knew. He’d seen it. He’d seen what happened to his own victims, and he’d seen the ever-fabled “Midnight Channel.”
This? This was not that in the slightest. It was something else… but how? How could he land in a world that was nothing short of the realistic form of a video game he’d played well over ten years prior. Adachi’s eyes meandered downwards, looking at the Wooper that was standing at his feet.
“Ironic, isn’t it?” His lips curved into a twisted smile. It seemed far too appropriate and in no way coincidental that his Pokémon had antennae. Maybe it was as he thought - maybe there was someone else involved and he’d fallen victim to being one of their pawns. “Whatever.”
He’d figure it out eventually. He had plenty to do back in Inaba, and this was nothing short of a huge annoyance at this point. It couldn’t be denied - he was pretty pissed about this happening right now. Those damn nosy kids were still prying around what happened to that Kubo kid and he needed to try and divert them before they started to figure more shit out. Without him there… this could be a problem.
First things first, though. Answers. He needed to get more info about this place. Whether or not it had connections to the TV world, if anyone else he knew was around. Well, there was an easy way of doing that.
He shifted the backpack, which he thought looked ridiculous, especially with his suit on, and pulled it forward to open it. He’d been given that phone-like device… All he had to do was play the idiot as he always did and he’d probably be able to not only get answers, but get a better handle on how he needed to be while he was stuck in this irritating situation. He gripped the PokéGear in his hand, taking in a breath, and turning it on. All he had to do was act confused, and then it would all begin to unfold before him.