pochi & spellbind

[rikoren]

OOC INFO;

NAME: Kes
AGE: 28
CONTACT: rikoren
CHARACTERS IN GAME: n/a

IC INFO;

CHARACTER NAME: Ponpokorii Chitchoriina III
CANON & HISTORY: Wiki!
For slightly more detail than that page gives: Pochi gets adopted by the wandering itsuwaribito Utsuho in his quest to "help people through lies," and that's what they do for a good while, picking up new companions on the way. Later on, Utsuho decides he wants to look for the Kokonotsu, nine mythical treasures supposedly gifted to someone by God. Over the course of their adventure, they also fight (and defeat) a criminal group, save Pochi's grandfather's village from an even more evil villain, and fail to get Grandpa's permission for Pochi's hand in marriage.
AGE: around 8 months
CANON POINT: Chapter 101
PERSONALITY: Pochi is a child, barely a year old, and it shows in his apparent total lack of understanding of the world. (As a side note, I'm going with "he" in this app for convenience, but will go more for avoiding gender pronouns entirely in actual rp, as Pochi's gender is canonly unknown.) While being a year old makes him potentially a teenuki, his lack of a proper tanuki education (and Utsuho's habit of spoiling him rotten) has prevented him from maturing at the rate he probably should. His vocabulary is limited, he falls for every trick or lie anyone throws at him, and his first instinct is to trust everyone he comes across, no matter how horrible they may appear or prove themselves to be. In fact, it's this same gullibility that gets him into trouble multiple times throughout the series, going out in the open to meet a poacher or untying a criminal because he says the ropes hurt. Despite all the times he's been tricked or hurt for it though, Pochi continues to trust in people, and manages to keep a cheerful and positive outlook on life. He happily follows the team around on their adventures, treating the entire thing like more of a picnic outing than a dangerous adventure - much like the protagonist does - and never complains or cries, unless he gets hurt, because it's hard not to cry when something hurts.

This isn't to say he's a total airhead; Pochi understands perfectly well (or as well as a small child can) that it's dangerous out there, that there's bad people, etc. He was covered in scars when he first met Utsuho, and barely survived to see his mother's grave. But he was saved from death back then, and he has complete trust in his new family's ability to keep him safe. In fact, trust might be his strongest trait - even when facing a perilous situation (which could define quite a large portion of the situations he's been in with Utsuho), if the people around him believe it will be okay (or tell him it will), then he'll believe that over everything else. He's able to collect one of the treasures the team is looking for, solely because he's innocent enough to believe when the sign tells him it's safe and walk through all the dangers to the treasure at the end. His trust in people is his defining characteristic, and the thing that keeps him moving forward (or staying still if he's lost) no matter how bad things may get.

A perfect example of Pochi's gullibility is the chapter in which he's first introduced. When a hunter caught Pochi's mother and said he'd return her if Pochi came to his hut in an hour, Pochi - of course - went as fast as his little legs could carry him. But the hunter tried to catch him as well, and so he escaped. Over the course of the next three days, Pochi kept coming back to the hunter's hut, believing wholeheartedly that he'd return his mother (despite the fact all he'd gotten so far was a huge amount of scars and injuries from all the traps the hunter had set). Despite the hunter having been the first human being Pochi ever spoke to, and despite how much danger he'd been in the past three days, his first reaction to being stuck in another trap is to call out for help, trusting Utsuho wholeheartedly when the protagonist comes to the rescue. Being a habitual liar, Utsuho uses tricks and lies to fix Pochi's injured foot (telling Pochi there's something in the distance to distract him while he pulls out the spikes), and offers poison for Pochi to kill the hunter - an offer Pochi politely refuses, because the hunter said he'd return his mother. In other words, Pochi continues to trust the hunter, despite being covered in scars, caught in countless traps, and hearing the hunter himself say he planned to sell Pochi. Another example of Pochi's willingness to trust is much later in the series, when the team tries to get a treasure called "the seven-colored rainbow." A sign at the beginning of the perilous-looking path says "only the pure of heart may walk this path," and "Do not be afraid. The path is safe." Continuing forward, the team is stopped by a variety of dangers - a spiked floor, strong winds, collapsing ground - only to discover it's all just an illusion. Pochi sees these illusions as well, but trusts the sign so absolutely that he doesn't even consider the dangers he seems to encounter might be dangerous ("My feet hurt, but it's safe, so I'm okay!"), calmly walking all the way to the end and picking up the treasure without any problems.

Pochi's youth also means that even truths are sometimes misunderstood: the first time he hears the word "omatsuri", which means festival, he decides Utsuho must mean "oma tsuri", or "fishing for monsters". Likewise, in a scene where Utsuho tells him to stretch out his hand (so Utsuho can catch him as he's falling) he attempts to tug at his own paws. Growing up in medieval Japan with a group that's constantly getting into trouble, Pochi has also grown relatively immune to the sight of violence, cheerfully applauding when Utsuho pulls a cool move in a fight, and showing no sign of distress when there's blood all over the place.

Pochi has been called such things as "foolishly honest", "sort of oblivious", and "very, very innocent." And the truth is, he might be all three - but that foolishly oblivious innocence is also what attracts people to him. When an apparently dangerous person joins the group, Pochi keeps him in check simply by accepting and appreciating his presence. When the guy miraculously returns from his apparent death, Pochi is the only one who innocently comes up and says he's glad he's okay, not bothering to ask about the whys and hows of the matter. Likewise, he's adamantly against the thought of anyone dying or killing willingly, even stopping Utsuho when facing off against the person who'd slaughtered his village. (He's okay with hitting people though.) He's a child with enough love for everyone he ever meets, and the strength of that love may be a weapon in and of itself - his only weapon, and the only one he'll ever want or need.
POWERS: Has not yet learned to shapeshift, but that's still a thing!
OTHER: Big appetite, likes puns and jokes

GAME INFO;

MAGIC ABILITY: The power to turn anything different colors/patterns! Temporarily!
PRICE: The Seven-Colored Rainbow (It's a sparkly rainbow comb!)
ACCLIMATION: 8; goes along with pretty much any situation both willingly and easily, but will definitely miss Utsuho the rest of the team.

SAMPLE;

LINKED SAMPLE:
tdm thread