Makoto Shojuro

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Makoto is a manic depressive, nerdy Shivic woman, born to a line of traditional shivic swordsmiths. She is a possible weapon upgrader for Tower in the Sky.

History

Makoto's father, Shoji Shojuro, was a skilled sword smith, following down a line of sword smiths that could be traced back to the old world. Her mother, Alexis coming from a broken home, had a history of substance abuse issues that she had under control for most of Makoto's early life. In 410 ACE, Shoji is assassinated for nebulous political reasons and Alexis falls back to hardcore drug use, leaving the 14 year old Makoto to try and hold things together for her and her mother.

• Why Shoji was exactly killed is unclear. He was definitely political and involved with David Zanicus, a controversial political figure in Shiv.
  • Despite being a traditional swordsmith, he was very anti tradition -- or at least how tradition was being used by the Shivic elite.
  • Refusing to make a sword for someone controversial was probably a final straw for someone
  • He was teaching Makoto, but she was 14 at the time. Fortunately, a big portion of it is natural attunement to magical materials.

Soon they had to move to outside the Shivic walls -- the 'poor' part of the city, due to Alexis spending so much money on drugs. This became unsustainable and around 18, Makoto was taken in by the Nasakis, with Kayin being a friend of Shoji. She starts going to college, studying material science.

Eventually the 20-something swordsmith (who can now practice more with the Nasakis) travels with Cassara to Stralvarre.

Appearance

Makoto, normally is chubby, pale, and mostly Japanese/Shivic looking, but with blue eyes. She typically have long hair, cut with blunt bangs. She's awkwardly tall, making her always look at her body in a negative light. She's very shapely though, big hips, big bust, soft skin. She has a lot going for her but early in life, can't put it together.

• Weight fluctuates a lot. Self image means she only things of herself at her worst.
• She tends to dress pretty lazily from her teens to early 10s. Hoodies, jeans, sweats, but not even fashionably.
  • As they got poorer in Shiv, Makoto clothing definitely got rattier, leading to more bullying.
• Makoto wears glasses a lot, but doesn't strictly need them.
• Makoto's appearance is affected a lot by her mental health. When she's doing bad, she looks ran down, tired and just gloomy.
• She's still cute though, but because of her nerdy reputation, no went near her.

As Makoto gets older, her appearance changes drastically, in ways that will be described below.

Personality

While Makoto is a funny, nice, and loving person around people she knows, she is deeply awkward around people she doesn't know, or people she thinks doesn't like her. Due to her insecurities, she might assume this even if someone likes her.

• Most people who don't know her well probably only hear her talk with a mousy stutter.
• Makoto is very smart, but in that type of way that gives you depression.
  • She has a lot of hobbies, many of them requiring lots of technical skills.
  • She kinda hates being smart she wants to be dumb and happy okay
  • Disastrously good at video games.
• Wants to please people. Big people pleaser, even if she's too shy to do it through a lot of her life.
• Manic highs of productivity and deep lows of depression.
  • Medication helps, but not always.
  • Manic highs get more destructive than the depressive lows as she gets older.
• Pansexual. Totally into all the wild type of queer identities that can exist in BE.
• Despite being anxious and depressive, Makoto is naturally (and Magically) resilient. Everything hurts so much, but nothing keeps her down.

Some of this changes as she gets older, but that I will be listed below.

Arc, Character Progression, and Relationships

While younger Makoto separates herself from her mother as much as she can, avoiding drugs and even drinking until later in life, she has to deal with the fact that she has her mother's addictive personality. She also has to contend with bipolar, anxiety disorders, and general insecurity/body image issues. At some point she has to contend with the fact she's not much better than her mother.

• While Makoto tries to avoid the same addictions as her mom, her addictive personality for games (probably especially gacha games) is a bit of a problem.
• ... She smokes though. Probably since around 16.
  • Makoto's smoking goes from sporadic to chain smoking, depending on her mental health at any given time.
  • The thing that probably bothers her the most about it is feeling like she's failed by giving in like her mom.
• While Makoto is trying to take care of her mom, she gets fat from living off takeout and anxiety eating. Her physical appearance also deteriorates from stress.
  • ... and she gets bullied for it in school, mercilessly.
  • Her general mousy personality doesn't help.
  • Even as she starts losing weight due to better living conditions, the insecurity stays.
• Makoto is terminally horny and has a bit of a porn and masturbation addiction, though this probably lines up again with her mental health.
  • When Makoto does start having sex she... of course gets addicted to sex.
  • During manic episodes later in life, she definitely inserts herself in dangerous and risky sexual situations with little concern for her wellbeing.

Eventually Makoto even falls to drug use, starting by off-labeling her anxiety medication and giving in to other drug use during manic episodes. This is doubly a problem because drugs help her overcome her social anxiety but end up creating new problems.

• This certainly happens once she moves out of the Nasaki home.
• Makoto totally ends up doing a lot of coke.
• ... and also a lot of E.
• She avoids needles at least, unlike her mother.
  • Heroine and Meth are probably big passes for her because of her mom.
• Not a huge fan of weed, but it's probably the best drug for her mental health honestly.
  • Once she becomes friends/roommates with Bunny, she might try and get Makoto to smoke more weed and do less of everything else.

Makoto also physically changes, both in body and fashion, using the reset of a new city to escape the shadow of her nerdy, awkward highschool life.

• Loses a lot of weight, both in healthy and unhealthy ways
  • Becoming friends with someone into fitness like Bunny probably helps get things more healthy.
• Bleaches her hair blonde and tries different styles.
• Finally steps up her makeup game
• Gets increasingly more tattoos
• Tans a lot.
  • The tan probably comes and goes, though she never goes back to being pasty pale.
• Dressing more confidently but also more provocatively.
  • Another situation where Bunny can try and tug her in the direction of 'hot but fashionable and tasteful'.

Makoto basically ends up zig zagging over a fine line between bettering herself and going off the deep end in terms of chasing impossible body standards. She at some point ends up getting some sort of cosmetic procedures, but how far this goes is still to be determined. (... In RP it goes pretty far)

The general idea is that Makoto should land somewhere she's happy with and chill out at some point, with the idea being that changing yourself can be good, even in extreme ways, but at some point you gotta realize "changing one more thing" won't be what makes you happy.

Relationships

The Nasaki Family

Makoto treats them like an adopted family. She's almost a little sister to Cassara and becomes best friends with her daughter, Hotaru. Makoto totally gets her first gay crush with Hikaru, Cassara's wife.

Naomi

Makoto and Naomi don't have a close relationship, but working on Naomi's gear in Tower in the Sky does lead to a bit of bonding, especially when they meet again in Steeton.

Sinlen

Sinlen is probably going to be the first girl Makoto ends up doing it with and probably a good intro to BDSM. Sinlen hooks up pretty easily with girls. While not the best at mentoring she probably does try and help the poor girl out, figuring out sex stuff.

Bunny

When Bunny ends up in Steeton, the two become friends, even though Bunny is MUCH cooler than her. Bunny likes knowing someone else in Shiv in the area. Eventually the two become roommates, and the caring, more experienced Bunny, who recognizes the trouble Makoto is getting into, can be there to help reel her in a little.

Gallery

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Categories: Characters : Shivic Characters : Tower in the Sky Characters