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[killingstance]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Din
Contact: cyber_chaps
Age: 28
Current Characters: n/a


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Maki Harukawa
Age: 17-ish
Canon: Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
Canon Point: Chapter 6, before the trial

Background: Here

Characters that come up in the personality section:

Kaito - gun-ho optimist that she ends up falling for (just before he dies)
Kokichi - deceptive and manipulative guy that she hates (also dies)
Mastermind - mystery person running the killing game and main antagonist
Shuichi - soft-spoken and diminutive boy that she befriends


Personality:

The way Maki carries herself is deeply affected by the fake memories that Team Danganronpa implanted in her. It's unclear what type of person Maki was before the game begins, although the mastermind suggests that each student volunteered to participate; this implies that each was deranged in some way, knowing that they would likely die or be forced to kill someone.

In the context of the killing game, Maki's abilities and profile as an assassin are what motivate her to build an emotional barrier to separate her from the others. To give her a fair shake, the mastermind hides her Ultimate Ability and Maki chooses to play along with the lie. During the early stages, Maki shows that she is sharp and curt. She remains aloof and avoids antagonizing the other students directly. She refuses to cooperate with any of them, and she does little to help with the early investigations.

Her "true" talent is exposed after the completion of the second trial. Maki nearly kills Kokichi so that she can continue to hide the truth, which reveals a few elements of her character. Though she considers herself practically inhuman because of the many murders she's committed, the self-loathing doesn't outweigh her sense of duty. Maki is willing to take any extremes necessary to survive and return to her old life for the sake of the orphanage where she was raised. As long as she can continue to be a successful assassin, the orphanage will receive funds and none of the children there will be forced to suffer like she did.

The weight of what it means to kill isn't lost on her, so she endeavors to bury her feelings and separate herself completely from the other students. Thanks largely to Kaito, Maki doesn't choose to shut herself away completely – though it's implied that she might have if not for the intervention. With her talent exposed, there's a shift in how she interacts with the group; she becomes more intense, and she's more likely to rely on the threat of violence to get what she wants. Her trademark line, which she even sometimes uses with affectionate irony, is: "Do you want to die?"

Maki very much prefers to solve problems on her own, or ignore them so long as they won't affect her. She gains no type of camaraderie until Kaito coercers her into socializing with he and Shuichi. It's extremely difficult for her to be open with her feelings and trust others with them. Ironically, once she does form a strong bond with someone, she becomes much more emotionally vulnerable. When she believes Kaito is in danger, she becomes hasty and reckless in her efforts to save him. This is also spurred on by her distrust of Kokichi, and she doesn't at all question that he might not be the mastermind when attempting to kill him.

In essence, the emotional void Maki has forced herself to endure manifests a strong dichotomy between trust and distrust. Kaito's execution and the events that follow force her to look inside herself and consider her own feelings with more critical nuance. It also dampens her penchant for violent outbursts. Kaito sacrifices himself to keep her from killing again, and to preserve her life; it's important for her to honor his memory by staying alive and changing for the better as a person.

Towards the end, she is still forceful and biting with her words. She doesn't suffer fools and remains skeptical of people, and things in general, until there is hard proof that they deserve trust. Her fidgety hands are a noticeable quirk; many of her portrait expressions depict her playing with her hair or tugging on the ribbon she wears. When provoked into violence, it's common for her to go for a stranglehold. One of the students describes her as having a "resting bitch face," and she can use her severe expressions to her advantage when delivering threats.

Abilities:

Maki is strong, physically fit and agile, but to a relatively unclear degree. The training she supposedly received to become an assassin was fabricated, so I'll be playing her with the physical abilities of a very athletic high school student. Her fake memories include extensive knowledge of everything an assassin would logically learn: weapon techniques, killing methods, etc.

Alignment:

Piphron. There are layers to this, but her character arc revolves around her decision to trust and open up to other members of the killing game. She's still much more likely to be distrustful by default, though.

Other: n/a


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉


General Sample: Here

Emotion Sample: Here

Questions: None!