prisma

[anemoneae]

▶ PLAYER
HANDLE: Jan
CONTACT: cantito
OVER 18? Yes
CHARACTERS IN-GAME: Qih'sae Moui (FFXIV WoL)

▶ CHARACTER
NAME: Shogo Satake
CANON: Caligula Effect: Overdose
CANON POINT: Standard Route, after confronting Thorn at the rooftop.
AGE: 30 (appearance-wise: 18)
BACKGROUND: The Wiki for Caligula Effect is really sparse so I'm gonna just explain it all and mention Shogo's role in the story. Also there are mentions of suicide in Shogo's backstory so I'm warning for that now before we get into it. I'll certainly warn for it if it comes up when I play him. (He doesn't talk much about himself unless pressed, though.)

Basically, the characters in the game are trapped in a digital world called Mobius, which was created by the virtuadolls, μ (Mu) and Aria. Think, if Miku was sentient and had access and control over the entire internet, basically. μ, sensing humanity's unrest and unhappiness, created Mobius to grant the wishes of those who suffered in the real world. Mobius is supposed to be an escape where you could live out carefree years in peace and harmony, all without having to worry about the things that troubled you before. Those who get pulled into Mobius all recall hearing one of μ's songs in the real world before waking up in the small city of Miyabi (which is just the fake name people use to call Mobius when they don't realize it's all fake.) Their real bodies fall into a coma which can develop into "Astral Syndrome" after enough time, and eventually ends in death.

Needless to say, despite μ's best intentions Mobius is pretty far removed from paradise. People brought to Mobius have their memories of the real world wiped and instead get to experience (or re-experience) high school as a normal student, all without realizing anything is wrong. And yes, everyone becomes a high school student, regardless of their age. And when they graduate their third year? The loop begins again, putting them back into Year 1 so they can start all over again. Anyone who is "tuned in" won't notice the inconsistencies -- after all, who would want to see the truth, when fiction is so comfortable? It's only when characters come to the realization that their world isn't real that the cracks start to show. They see the "rift" between the projected fantasy and the digital hell they're actually trapped in. Any adults in this world are all faceless NPCs, the music everyone "enjoys" is actually played to make sure people remain tuned-in and brainwashed, and even people's appearances aren't what they're supposed to be. Noticing this rift can be quite a shock for most people. This is how the game starts: the main character suddenly notices that something is wrong, and that realization is what jump-starts them to finding out what. (You can choose to play as a male main character or female main character. For the purpose of this app, I'm going with female.)

There are essentially two groups of people who realize they are trapped in Mobius: the Ostinato Musicians, who work alongside μ and wish to remain in their dream world forever, and the Go-Home Club, who works alongside Aria and want to be escape Mobius and "go home" to the real world. All of these characters carry traumas and pain they wished to escape from, which is what brought them to Mobius in the first place. Inside Mobius, the emotional pain (or strength) from those traumas can be channeled and freed into a form of power called the Catharsis Effect. By channeling their internalized emotions (and with the assistance of a virtuadoll, be it μ or Aria,) their trauma takes on the form of a weapon that can be used to destabilize and break the simulation, or in the Musicians' case, to reinforce the digital illusion in which they are all trapped in. You can probably see where this is going, so I'll skip right to Shogo's part.

Shogo has been stuck in Mobius for several years. But unlike most people who have their wishes granted by Mobius, Shogo's existence in Mobius started out fine but quickly became a targeted attempt at messing with his sanity and reminding him of his trauma. For reasons initially unknown to him, Shogo is tormented by the image of a friend he believes he wronged. Seeing her face was the thing that made him realize Mobius wasn't real. This draws from Shogo's hidden trauma: at age 17, he and his then-girlfriend, Ichika Saotome, agreed to commit ritual suicide by jumping off of a building together. (Ichika was kind of really messed up.) When the time came, Shogo got cold feet and changed his mind at the last possible moment, leaving Ichika to fall to her death alone. This event traumatized him so deeply that he secluded himself from the world and locked himself up in his room because he couldn't deal with the guilt and grief of both the loss of his friend and his own powerlessness. By the time the game takes place, it has been 13 years since Ichika's death. To this day, listening to the music he and Ichika used to listen to, being in high places, and other reminders of her are enough to make Shogo physically ill. Hence why he became a shut-in for so long. Ironically enough, being pulled into Mobius was Shogo's first interaction with the outside world in a long, long time.

In any case, the torment Shogo was going through was due to the direct involvement of another character, a woman named Thorn, who leads the Ostinato Musicians and bears a striking resemblance to Ichika Saotome. Thorn's true identity turns out to be another former-friend of Shogo's and Ichika's: a man named Asuka Natsume, who was also a rival for Ichika's affections and who grew to hate Shogo and the rest of the world after Ichika's suicide. Naturally, it was Asuka's (Thorn's) wish to make Shogo's life a living hell, so he took on Ichika's form in Mobius and frequently tormented Shogo by appearing in front of him as a constant reminder of his guilt. He even goes so far jumping off of tall buildings around him in order to trigger his PTSD. (Worth noting: death in Mobius means death in real life, but since world is digital and Thorn is μ's closest confidant, Thorn can bypass the rules of the world and survive things no one else in Mobius would.)

Shogo hides his past and his connection to Thorn for most of the game but is forced to confront it at the end of the Shadow Knife Arc, which takes place in a building modeled after the one in which he and Ichika agreed to commit suicide. Naturally, this makes him super upset and nauseous, especially when Thorn confronts him in front of the entire party and reveals that the two of them share a connection. Shogo, believing Thorn to be Ichika herself, tells the party that he suspects she may be a ghost created specifically to haunt him, though Aria confirms that only the living can enter Mobius. Eventually the party confronts Thorn and Shogo realizes her true identity, calling her out as his old friend Asuka, and attempts to reach out so that they can both get over the trauma of losing their friend. Asuka, too absorbed in his grief and anger, is the one who wanted μ to destroy the world (essentially by shutting down the internet and causing missiles to fire on the earth,) but after he is freed from his trauma through the party's use of the Catharsis Effect, he comes back to his senses and begs the party to stop μ. Except he commits suicide anyway because the grief of losing Ichika and the weight of his actions was still too much for him. Thorn is so messed up.

Obviously, the party stops μ and she lets everyone escape Mobius and they all live happily ever after inasmuch as they're still messed up people but they maybe learned a thing or two about themselves along the way.

PERSONALITY:

Shogo is a somewhat recovering shut-in, so it's important to note that right from the get-go. He's 30 years old and trapped in an 18-year-old body, but even at 30 he wouldn't be well-adjusted by a long shot. He has poor self-esteem and believes he is a weak person. He spent much of his life running from his problems and dwelling on his guilt, and blames himself for both not stopping Ichika, and also for still being alive when Ichika is not. Considering his original wish that brought him to Mobius was to escape the guilt of Ichika Saotome's death and he was happy to remain complacent until that escape turned into a nightmare, he's not exactly prone to leaping to the call. Once he decides to pull himself together though, his better traits start to show. All the years he spent trapped in Mobius certainly forced him to at least try to come out of his shell. A little. He's still working on standing up for himself more and not letting women trample all over him, but he's still pretty prone to going along with other people's ideas and doesn't really have much of a backbone unless you really pin him to a wall (metaphorically.)

Shogo is something of the "big brother" type in the Go-Home Club, as he was both the founder and president until the main character shows up. He's not exactly a leader though, as he's more than willing to step down and let the main character take over his duties as president. It probably helps that he's much older than a high school student, but he views the other club members with a sense of responsibility and isn't the type to ignore someone who's in trouble. Likely it's him trying to atone for failing Ichika, but Shogo tries very hard to be the mature adult that people can rely on, even if the moment someone points it out, he'll deny it and withdraw back into himself guiltily. Really, he doesn't believe himself to be worthy of a "normal" life, because no matter how badly he wants it, he feels that starting at 30 is way, way too late. I mean he's got survivor's guilt and plenty of other problems so it's really no surprise that he doesn't think very highly of himself.

Guilt is the biggest part of Shogo as a character. His Catharsis Effect takes on the form of a revolver, but it's the secondary changes that are most striking in his case. Under the effect of Catharsis, Shogo's wrists and arms gain broken handcuffs, a symbol of the guilt that holds him prisoner and the "crime" he feels responsible for. The revolver lets him attack from afar, slow and hard-hitting and safe from the action if he can help it. He's so weighed down by his that guilt and his grief that it's largely what led him to withdraw from the world. He's not delusional, either. He knows it's unhealthy, and he knows nothing has come from it, but even if he's not really weak, Shogo is not strong. Until he meets the protagonist and goes through the events of the game, Shogo just didn't have the mental fortitude or initiative to get help and work through his trauma and defeat his fears. While he is eventually able to stand up for himself and tries to move on the game nears its conclusion, guilt is still a huge part of him that he can't escape.

Thanks to being mum about his past and being a bit out of practice when it comes to social interactions, Shogo can come off as cool and aloof, and even mysterious... but the truth is that deep down, Shogo is an awkward, recovering hikkikomori whose development was halted at 17 and his actions are all informed by it. He tries to hide his own perceived incompetence by taking on responsibilities and attempting to be the voice of reason where he can, but the truth is he's flying by the seat of his pants and the main character showing up and taking initiative was the only way he was ever going to make real progress for the Go Home Club. Even if unwillingly, Shogo is initially more drawn to complacency than action. Throughout the game he is able to confront more of his failings and take real responsibility for his actions, but he's still scared. He just channels that fear when he can. And hey, that's growth, right? Maybe he's starting late and he knows it, but Shogo really does want a second chance once it's all said and done. It just takes a while for him to realize that it's not about deserving one, it's about taking it for yourself.

POWERS/ABILITIES: Shogo's Catharsis Effect is tied to the way Mobius works but I figure he may as well use it since I'm bringing him in with his Mobius look (and there is no canon appearance for what Shogo looks like outside of Mobius anyway.) Catharsis Effect can't actually kill someone, it actually clears a persons incorrect misconceptions and makes them come to their senses if they find themselves in an elevated emotional state. As far as his time in Prisma goes, Shogo's Catharsis Rffect will tire him out a lot to use it at first since he won't have Aria to channel the strain of using emotional power to fight. I'd be happy to have him get a little better at using it as the game goes on, but let me know if that's too much and I can simply nerf it so that it's always extremely draining.

Anyway, onto the ability itself. When activated, the Catharsis Effect takes the appearance of a glowing pink stake that is drawn out from the user's heart. The stake turns black and solidifies, shrinking down to appear more like a big, black thorn, surrounded by flowers poking out of the user's back and chest. In Shogo's case, the flowers are anemone flowers, and in addition to the stake, the skin in his hands and arm peel to a shining black and he gains a pair of large, broken handcuffs around his wrists. Image here. Catharsis also gives him a huge revolver that he can use to fight enemies with. (The revolver disappears, along with the other effects, as soon as the Catharsis Effect is 'turned off.') This "form" essentially boosts his strength, speed, and gives him a weapon to channel emotional energy into. In terms of general fighting power, Shogo is something of an odd duck with high attack, subpar defense and very low evasion. He attacks relatively slowly and he's easy to catch off-guard. He is able to increase his max HP and buff himself, but besides a basic heal is a pretty selfish attacker. He might be a fast runner but if he gets caught by the enemy, they're definitely gonna hit him. He has only one short-range attack so he's much better off hanging back where he can fire wide, damaging shots. He mainly fights out of necessity, since he's really just a normal person in very un-normal situation. He's just a sad guy who wants to go home and will shoot enemies with emotion-bullets if that'll do the trick.

INVENTORY: Besides his school uniform, Shogo's only real belongings are his phone and his wallet. He's got a casual outfit and a swimsuit via DLC, so I'll include those too.

MOONBLESSING: Cordis

▶ SAMPLES

link #1
link #2