Shougo Makishima (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
passingships) wrote2017-03-29 09:38 pm
passingships) wrote2017-03-29 09:38 pm
Entry tags:
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
maisondeportes App
Character: Shougo Makishima
Canon: Psycho-Pass
Version: Anime
Canon Point: After his capture at Nona Tower
Age: 27 (rumoured)
Gender: Male
General info: Wiki character page, episode list
History:
Canon gives very little information about Shougo's life, and what little we 'know' is pure speculation on another character's part. Supposedly he discovered at some point that he could control his Psycho-Pass at will and this led to him being isolated. Whether that's true or not, it seems Shougo was at one point isolated given his comments in the latter half of the series.
His recent history is easier to recount: Shougo has in the course of his life met with certain individuals and encouraged them to forsake the Sibyl System. A few shared his trait of being an asymptomatic criminal - an individual who cannot be judged by the System - but the majority are pulled from all strata of society. A schoolgirl, an engineer, the head of a prolific robotics company - he supplies and funds people who catch his eye like a future-day Moriarty, cutting them loose once they either become a liability or they bore him.
SPOILERS BELOW
The Specimen Case - November 2109 to January 2110
A series of grotesque yet captivating human sculptures appear in public areas disguised as holograms. The Ministry of Welfare's Public Safety Bureau struggles to identify the culprit for a long time. A total of three such figures appear before one of their own disappears: Mitsuru Sasayama. The man features in his own work of art a short time later.
The case is closed on March 2110 by Joshu Kasei (head of the MWPSB) while the perpetrator is still at large.
(It turns out the culprit is a schoolteacher known as Touma Kouzaburou who teaches social studies at a prestigious boarding school for young women, Oso Academy. Shougo met him there and supplied him with the resin needed to plastinate the bodies used in each human sculpture. Touma disappears sometime after Sasayama's sculpture is made.)
Hachioji Drone Murders - November 2112
At a manufacturing plant for drones, there are a series of dismemberments committed by robots with supposed glitches in their programming. The culprit is revealed to be an engineer who had been routinely bullied by his peers, a scapegoat for them to relieve stress on in an environment where the workers cannot access other pleasures.
The disc used by the engineer to corrupt the drones' programming was made by a hacker known as Choe Gu-Sung, an associate of Shougo's.
The Avatar Murders
A man disappears from his apartment and his remains are discovered flushed down the pipes. He has almost certainly been murdered, however his online presence, an Avatar known as Talisman, continues to grace the CommuFields. This anomaly uncovers a string of murders where the perpetrator has removed the owners of several prominent Avatars and then taken over management of them.
Once again, Choe Gu-Sung is involved. His hacking skill allows the culprit access to the Avatars up until the point where Shougo decides he is bored with their mimicry. Shougo himself is also present at their last kill: the owner of the Avatar 'Spooky Boogie'. During the culprit's last moments, he puppets the Avatars they have taken over and leaves them to die.
Return of the Specimen Killer
Once again, plastinated corpses are turning up in public spaces. However, there's something different about them: they exhibit a particular style reminiscent of a former artist. The daughter of this artist attends Oso Academy, the same school where Touma Kouzaburou once taught, and the same school where Shougo has been masquerading as an art teacher.
As soon as the MWPSB catch on to the girl's scent, Shougo (literally) leaves her to the dogs. He also leaves behind a partial recording of one of his conversations with her to tempt one of the MWPSB's Enforcers, Shinya Kougami.
Methuselah's Game
Shougo and one of his patrons, Senguji Toyohisa, set up a deadly hunting game in the bowels of an old, abandoned subway. They lure Shinya Kougami to it using a civilian as bait. Unfortunately for them, he survives against all odds and destroys Senguji Toyohisa's artificial body and brain. In the process, he is severely injured. Shougo appears before him and reclaims the hostage, leaving him a parting message.
Kougami's handler, Akane Tsunemori, pursues Shougo further into the facility and confronts him. It's there that she discovers he is unable to be judged using the MWPSB's Dominators (a type of gun which assesses an individual's level of threat/criminality). Unable to understand why, she remains frozen in shock until Shougo tosses her the shotgun he has been carrying. He tells her to use the gun to shoot him instead, to take justice into her own hands as it were. To give her incentive, he threatens to kill his hostage - her friend - if she fails to hit him.
Both shots go wild. Disappointed, he cuts open her friend's throat and leaves both women behind.
The NONA Tower Break-In
Shougo's next act is to introduce special helmets to certain citizens. It begins with one - likely to test its effectiveness - given to a man who steals drugs from a pharmacy and then brutally beats a woman to death with a hammer. Oddly, his low Psycho-Pass renders him immune to the Dominators' judgement, similarly to how Shougo was immune.
With its effectiveness proven, Shougo and Choe introduce more helmets to other latent criminals and leave them to wreak havoc on the city wards. The escalating destruction forces the MWPSB to deploy all of its personnel on the ground, leaving a key building unguarded: NONA Tower.
Shougo and Choe use the opportunity to slip inside, aiming to delve into the heart of the tower. Choe's prior readings had revealed an unusually high energy consumption flowing towards the tower with no clear reason as to why. Unfortunately, Division 1 is quick to catch on to their plan. Not a few minutes later, Akane, Kougami and Kagari arrive at the tower and split up to pursue the two men.
While Choe heads down, Shougo heads up. He lures Akane and Kougami to the very top of NONA Tower, sending helmeted men to slow their progress down. Kougami is the first to reach Shougo, Akane having been injured in the fight on the way up. He and Shougo face off on the roof, trading words at first then blows. After a hard fight, Shougo emerges victorious. However, just as he's about to cut Kougami's throat, Akane catches up and swings one of his fallen lackey's helmets at his head, knocking him out instantly.
From that point, he remains unconscious while being transported to a secure helidrone.
Personality:
He is remarkable in that he is quite unremarkable. He walks the streets of Tokyo every day and barely merits a mention. His untainted Psycho-Pass lends him anonymity, a fact which he boldly takes advantage of in his day-to-day criminal activities. Whether or not it's a condition cultivated or inherited, Shougo status as an asymptomatic criminal affords him a unique position in Sibyl's society. He is free to think what he likes, do what he pleases - all without repercussion from the law.
As a result, Shougo is rather free-spirited. The myriad of people he picks up are on a whim and he disposes of them just as quickly if they begin to prove uninteresting. The only things which can hold his attention without fail are his beloved books, which he often discusses with some of his pawns. Choe Gu-Sung in particular is subject to many of his ramblings, being Shougo's closest ally and, arguably, friend. While Choe is happy enough reading digital books, Shougo's preference is for physical paper. He claims that nothing can compare to the feel of the pages turning in one's hands.
Shougo's preference for real books is a symptom of his larger obsession for authenticity. He avoids, where possible, the bland, processed foods made entirely from a genetically modified grain developed by his society. He spends an exorbitant amount of money on real food, clothing, bags, and accessories. While he is clearly at ease with the digital era he has grown up in, his love for past-century living is one of his key motivators in bringing down the Sibyl System.
The one friend which Shougo has is Choe Gu-Sung, a brilliant hacker who has been complicit in many if not all of Shougo's crimes. The two men have a shared vision for a society free of Sibyl's dictator-like influence and often spend intimate sessions together (as friends) discussing literary works or having tea. Compared to the myriad of others Shougo has personally overseen, Choe is the only one whose death he flinches at. His reaction indicates a higher level of affection than is usual for him, even if it's only subtle.
Although Shougo can be likened to a spider pulling others' strings, he personally has no desire to manipulate them. To him, this is not a contradiction: inspiring acts of free will in those he sponsors is an act of liberation. He does not command them and nor does he see what he does as 'manipulation'. To call it manipulation would suggest there is a lack of free will: exactly the opposite of what he wants.
It's because of his desire for free will that he refuses to accept an offer to join the collective consciousness known as the Sibyl System. Sibyl attempts to recruit him willingly by citing the ability to play God, yet Shougo could not be less interested in becoming a deity. He is more fascinated with humanity, its flaws and its wilfulness. Playing God would take all the enjoyment out of the experience. Not to mention, he would be robbed of his own.
To that end, he can be seen as the reprehensible, unforgiveable sort of person who will condone any act so long as it's taken with clear purpose. It doesn't have to be reasonable - just wanted. His personal preference is for acts which have a higher purpose (e.g. murder done in the name of art) but he enjoys seeing people take their fates into their own hands.
Throughout the series, Shougo has been doggedly pursued by one Shinya Kougami. Shougo is unaware of the depth of Kougami's hate for him at first but ends up welcoming the man's pursuit of him. Kougami displays a keen hunting sense and a desire to take the law into his own hands - rare traits in their current society. The latter is what he had hoped to see in Akane but she had disappointed him. Kougami, however, goes so far as to break off from the Public Safety Bureau in the name of bringing Shougo to justice. In return, Shougo gives him due respect as an enemy and clashes with him throughout the final arc of the series.
When Shougo's last, desperate plan fails and he realises that he no longer has anywhere left to run, he calmly accepts death at Kougami's hands, stating that he knew, somehow, that it would be Kougami who would end his life. Far from being upset by this, Shougo dies with a smile on his face.
It's likely that his canon's name, 'Psycho-Pass', intended its homophonous reading, 'psychopath', to apply to Shougo. He displays many characteristics that would diagnose him as such: charisma, intelligence, lack of empathy. However, taken in the context of the world he grew up in, it's likely that he never would have considered himself to be such a person. To him, he must imagine that he is one of the few truly human creatures left in a country which mindlessly follows the word of Sibyl.
Fears:
He fears an end to the means to create intellectual stimulation for himself. He also worries that there may be a day when he no longer finds anything stimulating. On very rare occasions, he may fear for someone else's life, but that's little more than a blip and only really applies to his solitary friend: Choe Gu-Sung.
He also fears isolation, simply because isolation means he has no means to stimulate the mind or engage in conversation with others, however banal.
Weaknesses:
Being a regular human being, he's subject to all the typical physical weaknesses of one. His main psychological weakness, however, is that he finds it hard to resist following someone whom he finds interesting. Whether they're interesting because of the actions they take or their attitude towards situations, Shougo will watch them - and maybe egg them along - regardless of labels such as 'good' or 'bad'.
All of which means he's vulnerable to being reverse-manipulated. Or getting himself into situations where other characters may logically think are Bad. If they can provide him something new to learn or a fresh perspective, then he will align with them for however long they hold his interest.
Prone to soliloquising if allowed.
Mundane Strengths/Abilities:
= Adept at pencak silat, a self-defensive martial art.
= He has some sort of charisma which makes him very personable even though he completely lacks empathy. You wouldn't think he's a killer from how approachable he is.
= He is reasonably intelligent but not genius-level.
= Well-read. Really...really well-read.
= Could be manipulative if he really tries, but he doesn't. It's more interesting not to. Let's call them "suggestions" instead.
Sensitivity/Magical Ability:
None whatsoever
Supply List:
None. At his canon point, he has been stripped of possessions.
Game Transfers:
N/A
Sample RP post:
Test drive meme
Canon: Psycho-Pass
Version: Anime
Canon Point: After his capture at Nona Tower
Age: 27 (rumoured)
Gender: Male
General info: Wiki character page, episode list
History:
Canon gives very little information about Shougo's life, and what little we 'know' is pure speculation on another character's part. Supposedly he discovered at some point that he could control his Psycho-Pass at will and this led to him being isolated. Whether that's true or not, it seems Shougo was at one point isolated given his comments in the latter half of the series.
His recent history is easier to recount: Shougo has in the course of his life met with certain individuals and encouraged them to forsake the Sibyl System. A few shared his trait of being an asymptomatic criminal - an individual who cannot be judged by the System - but the majority are pulled from all strata of society. A schoolgirl, an engineer, the head of a prolific robotics company - he supplies and funds people who catch his eye like a future-day Moriarty, cutting them loose once they either become a liability or they bore him.
SPOILERS BELOW
The Specimen Case - November 2109 to January 2110
A series of grotesque yet captivating human sculptures appear in public areas disguised as holograms. The Ministry of Welfare's Public Safety Bureau struggles to identify the culprit for a long time. A total of three such figures appear before one of their own disappears: Mitsuru Sasayama. The man features in his own work of art a short time later.
The case is closed on March 2110 by Joshu Kasei (head of the MWPSB) while the perpetrator is still at large.
(It turns out the culprit is a schoolteacher known as Touma Kouzaburou who teaches social studies at a prestigious boarding school for young women, Oso Academy. Shougo met him there and supplied him with the resin needed to plastinate the bodies used in each human sculpture. Touma disappears sometime after Sasayama's sculpture is made.)
Hachioji Drone Murders - November 2112
At a manufacturing plant for drones, there are a series of dismemberments committed by robots with supposed glitches in their programming. The culprit is revealed to be an engineer who had been routinely bullied by his peers, a scapegoat for them to relieve stress on in an environment where the workers cannot access other pleasures.
The disc used by the engineer to corrupt the drones' programming was made by a hacker known as Choe Gu-Sung, an associate of Shougo's.
The Avatar Murders
A man disappears from his apartment and his remains are discovered flushed down the pipes. He has almost certainly been murdered, however his online presence, an Avatar known as Talisman, continues to grace the CommuFields. This anomaly uncovers a string of murders where the perpetrator has removed the owners of several prominent Avatars and then taken over management of them.
Once again, Choe Gu-Sung is involved. His hacking skill allows the culprit access to the Avatars up until the point where Shougo decides he is bored with their mimicry. Shougo himself is also present at their last kill: the owner of the Avatar 'Spooky Boogie'. During the culprit's last moments, he puppets the Avatars they have taken over and leaves them to die.
Return of the Specimen Killer
Once again, plastinated corpses are turning up in public spaces. However, there's something different about them: they exhibit a particular style reminiscent of a former artist. The daughter of this artist attends Oso Academy, the same school where Touma Kouzaburou once taught, and the same school where Shougo has been masquerading as an art teacher.
As soon as the MWPSB catch on to the girl's scent, Shougo (literally) leaves her to the dogs. He also leaves behind a partial recording of one of his conversations with her to tempt one of the MWPSB's Enforcers, Shinya Kougami.
Methuselah's Game
Shougo and one of his patrons, Senguji Toyohisa, set up a deadly hunting game in the bowels of an old, abandoned subway. They lure Shinya Kougami to it using a civilian as bait. Unfortunately for them, he survives against all odds and destroys Senguji Toyohisa's artificial body and brain. In the process, he is severely injured. Shougo appears before him and reclaims the hostage, leaving him a parting message.
Kougami's handler, Akane Tsunemori, pursues Shougo further into the facility and confronts him. It's there that she discovers he is unable to be judged using the MWPSB's Dominators (a type of gun which assesses an individual's level of threat/criminality). Unable to understand why, she remains frozen in shock until Shougo tosses her the shotgun he has been carrying. He tells her to use the gun to shoot him instead, to take justice into her own hands as it were. To give her incentive, he threatens to kill his hostage - her friend - if she fails to hit him.
Both shots go wild. Disappointed, he cuts open her friend's throat and leaves both women behind.
The NONA Tower Break-In
Shougo's next act is to introduce special helmets to certain citizens. It begins with one - likely to test its effectiveness - given to a man who steals drugs from a pharmacy and then brutally beats a woman to death with a hammer. Oddly, his low Psycho-Pass renders him immune to the Dominators' judgement, similarly to how Shougo was immune.
With its effectiveness proven, Shougo and Choe introduce more helmets to other latent criminals and leave them to wreak havoc on the city wards. The escalating destruction forces the MWPSB to deploy all of its personnel on the ground, leaving a key building unguarded: NONA Tower.
Shougo and Choe use the opportunity to slip inside, aiming to delve into the heart of the tower. Choe's prior readings had revealed an unusually high energy consumption flowing towards the tower with no clear reason as to why. Unfortunately, Division 1 is quick to catch on to their plan. Not a few minutes later, Akane, Kougami and Kagari arrive at the tower and split up to pursue the two men.
While Choe heads down, Shougo heads up. He lures Akane and Kougami to the very top of NONA Tower, sending helmeted men to slow their progress down. Kougami is the first to reach Shougo, Akane having been injured in the fight on the way up. He and Shougo face off on the roof, trading words at first then blows. After a hard fight, Shougo emerges victorious. However, just as he's about to cut Kougami's throat, Akane catches up and swings one of his fallen lackey's helmets at his head, knocking him out instantly.
From that point, he remains unconscious while being transported to a secure helidrone.
Personality:
He is remarkable in that he is quite unremarkable. He walks the streets of Tokyo every day and barely merits a mention. His untainted Psycho-Pass lends him anonymity, a fact which he boldly takes advantage of in his day-to-day criminal activities. Whether or not it's a condition cultivated or inherited, Shougo status as an asymptomatic criminal affords him a unique position in Sibyl's society. He is free to think what he likes, do what he pleases - all without repercussion from the law.
As a result, Shougo is rather free-spirited. The myriad of people he picks up are on a whim and he disposes of them just as quickly if they begin to prove uninteresting. The only things which can hold his attention without fail are his beloved books, which he often discusses with some of his pawns. Choe Gu-Sung in particular is subject to many of his ramblings, being Shougo's closest ally and, arguably, friend. While Choe is happy enough reading digital books, Shougo's preference is for physical paper. He claims that nothing can compare to the feel of the pages turning in one's hands.
Shougo's preference for real books is a symptom of his larger obsession for authenticity. He avoids, where possible, the bland, processed foods made entirely from a genetically modified grain developed by his society. He spends an exorbitant amount of money on real food, clothing, bags, and accessories. While he is clearly at ease with the digital era he has grown up in, his love for past-century living is one of his key motivators in bringing down the Sibyl System.
The one friend which Shougo has is Choe Gu-Sung, a brilliant hacker who has been complicit in many if not all of Shougo's crimes. The two men have a shared vision for a society free of Sibyl's dictator-like influence and often spend intimate sessions together (as friends) discussing literary works or having tea. Compared to the myriad of others Shougo has personally overseen, Choe is the only one whose death he flinches at. His reaction indicates a higher level of affection than is usual for him, even if it's only subtle.
Although Shougo can be likened to a spider pulling others' strings, he personally has no desire to manipulate them. To him, this is not a contradiction: inspiring acts of free will in those he sponsors is an act of liberation. He does not command them and nor does he see what he does as 'manipulation'. To call it manipulation would suggest there is a lack of free will: exactly the opposite of what he wants.
It's because of his desire for free will that he refuses to accept an offer to join the collective consciousness known as the Sibyl System. Sibyl attempts to recruit him willingly by citing the ability to play God, yet Shougo could not be less interested in becoming a deity. He is more fascinated with humanity, its flaws and its wilfulness. Playing God would take all the enjoyment out of the experience. Not to mention, he would be robbed of his own.
To that end, he can be seen as the reprehensible, unforgiveable sort of person who will condone any act so long as it's taken with clear purpose. It doesn't have to be reasonable - just wanted. His personal preference is for acts which have a higher purpose (e.g. murder done in the name of art) but he enjoys seeing people take their fates into their own hands.
Throughout the series, Shougo has been doggedly pursued by one Shinya Kougami. Shougo is unaware of the depth of Kougami's hate for him at first but ends up welcoming the man's pursuit of him. Kougami displays a keen hunting sense and a desire to take the law into his own hands - rare traits in their current society. The latter is what he had hoped to see in Akane but she had disappointed him. Kougami, however, goes so far as to break off from the Public Safety Bureau in the name of bringing Shougo to justice. In return, Shougo gives him due respect as an enemy and clashes with him throughout the final arc of the series.
When Shougo's last, desperate plan fails and he realises that he no longer has anywhere left to run, he calmly accepts death at Kougami's hands, stating that he knew, somehow, that it would be Kougami who would end his life. Far from being upset by this, Shougo dies with a smile on his face.
It's likely that his canon's name, 'Psycho-Pass', intended its homophonous reading, 'psychopath', to apply to Shougo. He displays many characteristics that would diagnose him as such: charisma, intelligence, lack of empathy. However, taken in the context of the world he grew up in, it's likely that he never would have considered himself to be such a person. To him, he must imagine that he is one of the few truly human creatures left in a country which mindlessly follows the word of Sibyl.
Fears:
He fears an end to the means to create intellectual stimulation for himself. He also worries that there may be a day when he no longer finds anything stimulating. On very rare occasions, he may fear for someone else's life, but that's little more than a blip and only really applies to his solitary friend: Choe Gu-Sung.
He also fears isolation, simply because isolation means he has no means to stimulate the mind or engage in conversation with others, however banal.
Weaknesses:
Being a regular human being, he's subject to all the typical physical weaknesses of one. His main psychological weakness, however, is that he finds it hard to resist following someone whom he finds interesting. Whether they're interesting because of the actions they take or their attitude towards situations, Shougo will watch them - and maybe egg them along - regardless of labels such as 'good' or 'bad'.
All of which means he's vulnerable to being reverse-manipulated. Or getting himself into situations where other characters may logically think are Bad. If they can provide him something new to learn or a fresh perspective, then he will align with them for however long they hold his interest.
Mundane Strengths/Abilities:
= Adept at pencak silat, a self-defensive martial art.
= He has some sort of charisma which makes him very personable even though he completely lacks empathy. You wouldn't think he's a killer from how approachable he is.
= He is reasonably intelligent but not genius-level.
= Well-read. Really...really well-read.
= Could be manipulative if he really tries, but he doesn't. It's more interesting not to. Let's call them "suggestions" instead.
Sensitivity/Magical Ability:
None whatsoever
Supply List:
None. At his canon point, he has been stripped of possessions.
Game Transfers:
N/A
Sample RP post:
Test drive meme