somnia: app.

[potentialman]

PLAYER INFO

Name: Sam
Preferred Contact: PM or atkascha
Age: my back hurts
Invite Link: boop

CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: Megumi Fushiguro
Canon: Jujutsu Kaisen
Age: 15
If Under 16, why is this character a good thematic fit for Somnia?: JJK is heavy on body horror and nasty things happening; in terms of general violence and trauma, he's been pretty much inundated in it for a while and has proven himself very capable of functioning. Identity is also a big thing in his character arc, so I feel like this setting is a very good fit to play around with that for him! (Also, he's only a couple months out from being 16 -- bumping his canon point to make the cutoff would put him after he gets possessed, which I want to avoid. But he's very close to making the age limit on his own!)
Canon Point: After passing out in Shibuya in volume 14.
Wiki Link(s): bloop

SOMNIA-SPECIFIC QUESTIONS

1. Dreams are how Sleep chooses you. What might draw your character into Somnia— a wound, a wish, a weakness? Would they follow the dream, or run from it?
Nearly getting killed -- and as such, he's initially assuming that's what actually happened. Megumi has kind of a thing with dying; he's not actively suicidal, but he displays an alarming lack of investment in keeping himself alive sometimes, and early in the plot he's very quick to jump to using an attack that will kill him (mutually assured destruction, basically) when he thinks that's the only way to win. He has a big moment with his teacher, who points out to him that his willingness to die to win is inhibiting his own growth as a sorcerer -- and in his next fight, he makes a huge leap forward by succeeding at a difficult technique he's never used before. So at this point, he's very conscious that resorting to the tactical nuke when his back is against the wall has held him back, and he needs to fight harder to stay alive -- be greedier, as Gojo put it. He subsequently nearly dies in Shibuya, which is the canon point I'm taking him from; at this point, he's very willing to latch onto anything that promises a chance of survival and ride it as far as he has to.

2. Somnia is a slow unraveling—of worlds, and of selves. How does your character respond to fear, transformation, and losing control? Do they fight, adapt, collapse?
Megumi is very determined to win. The problem, as mentioned previously, is that he hasn't always considered his own life to be a prerequisite to victory. If it achieves the aim he's fighting for -- destroying something dangerous before it can hurt anyone else, usually -- he's very willing to sacrifice himself to get 'er done. While he's just had that point beaten into him by his teacher, and he's being much more conscious of it than he had previously, the fact remains that he is bad at considering his own life worthy of protection and preservation. He fights tenaciously for what he considers the greater good to be, but he's very willing to write himself off in the process, and while he's more self-aware of that fact than he used to be, old habits die hard.

It's worth noting here, I think, that after he's possessed and his body is used to kill his sister, he spends the final arc having given up on life, basically just floating in some kind of soul purgatory waiting to die, and Yuji convinces him not to live for his own sake, but by saying "I'll be lonely without you" and convincing Megumi to get up and fight to live again -- but he flat out says, he's going to try living again for someone else. So a lot of his reactions to the possibility of transforming or losing control are going to be heavily colored by whoever he becomes close to in-game, as well. He's much better at taking care of himself when he's reminded of the impact he has on other people.

3. Connection is the only constant. What kind of bonds does your character form— fast and burning, slow and wary, deep and desperate? How might that shape their time in this world?
Megumi is selective about who he attaches to, and doesn't form many close bonds, but those he does attach to, he latches on hard. There's probably no better example than Yuji -- Yuji jumps headfirst into the jujutsu world once to save Megumi's life, then dies a few weeks later to save him again, and Megumi is visibly sobbing over it...which is pretty notable, considering that his reaction as a young child to being abandoned by his family and sold for literal money is to shrug it off and be like "nah, don't care." He's cynical and his social skills are poor, but when somebody doesn't flip his immediate switches and he decides right off the bat that they're good, he can get very attached, and when he's attached, it's easy for him to prioritize their well-being over his own. (As in the previous answers, Megumi doesn't place much value on his own life.)

As such, I think that who he decides to latch onto and how quickly he finds someone will be a big factor in how things play out for him in-game. Megumi really needs to find a few good influences he can cling to, otherwise he's liable to dig his own grave pretty fast with his willingness to put his life on the line as collateral for victory. The people he chooses to let in carry a tremendous amount of weight in his decision making -- he wasn't really worried about being sold to the Zenin clan until he knew how it would affect his sister, it takes a lecture from his teacher to get him to be more willing to fight for his own life, he eventually chooses to live instead of succumbing to despair not for his own sake but because his best friend said it'd be lonely without him. The people around him are his single strongest motivation for anything, so that's going to set his trajectory pretty quickly.

4. What are two major forces in your character’s personality that are often in conflict? (Ex: logic vs emotion, power vs guilt, obedience vs rage, etc.)
Self-control versus sheer lack of restraint is probably the most dramatic one. Megumi is painted from the beginning of canon as the smart, stoic straight man. He's the one who tends to stay serious and just impassively watch the comedy moments (or be dragged into them entirely from his serious demeanor), he's the one who's first to recognize what they're up against and strategize, he's the guy who stays calm and figures things out.

When people are watching, at least.

There are several points where, upon being caught alone and having his back to the wall, Megumi becomes flat out unhinged. The first time he successfully performs domain expansion, when he finally completes the summoning for Mahoraga instead of getting conveniently interrupted -- we get a tremendous contrast to his usual facade. Megumi covered in blood and laughing like a maniac is pretty much the opposite of how he's introduced to us -- calm but grumpy, on the phone with Gojo and being extremely unamused at Gojo making light of the current situation.

He's very controlled -- not a complete ice prince, but much closer to being one than anyone else in the core cast. It makes those moments when he throws it out the window and just acts all the more unsettling, and those moments never seem to come when any of his classmates or allies are close at hand to see it. I don't think it's accurate to say that appearances or protocol are the most important thing, because he has willingly broken rules or admitted that his choices might be viewed as wrong by others and he doesn't care, even when he's got an audience. But he's very reluctant to let go of restraint when anyone else is around; I think it's more about restraint as a way of controlling the situation. If his friends are there, he has to stay cool and look out for them, but if the only person he has to worry about is himself, he takes whatever remaining fucks he has left to give and flings them out the window.

VESSEL SELECTION
Which Vessel Type are you choosing: Token or Offering? Token
Why does this Vessel type feel appropriate for your character? The shadowbinder powerset is a very close match for what he does in canon, and because a lot of his identity issues kind of go hand in hand the fact that he has a highly coveted technique in the Ten Shadows, I'd really like to keep him operating in a similar way. (Additionally, he's at a point where he just started really blossoming in terms of using his powers in more creative ways, but canon cuts that off by having him get possessed -- I'd like to mess around with it and let him continue on that course!)
Choose one OR list three subclass options within your chosen Vessel type that you think would suit them: Shadowbinder