Akuba: First Impressions
Smokin' Sexy
Ryusei slid open the classroom door with a little more force than necessary. Many faces, including Akuba's, turned to look at him. In spite of his abrupt entrance, he was slightly hunched in a listless way. An unlit cigarette bobbed near the corner of his mouth.
"Mornin', class." Definitely a young smoker's voice - deep, with a burnt in growl at the back.
The man dropped himself into the chair behind the teaching desk and leaned back, causing the heavy spring at its base to squeal. He propped his heels up on the desk and comfortably crossed his ankles.
Akuba noticed that this teacher's hands were restless even while interlaced on his belly and, though disguised by his casual aspect, the man's eyes focused on each student in turn and took note of who filtered in before the bell. Akuba nodded once to himself, barely moving. This is a man who knows combat. The boy's wariness was assuaged - the school had something real to teach after all.
With everyone in, Ryusei stood up and brushed himself off. He coughed to clear his throat.
"Alright then, kids. First things first. The name's Ryusei Sugiyama, Hero Name, Smokin' Sexy."
Akuba grinned. His Japanese wasn't perfect, but he was sure that was a bold moniker. He liked this guy already.
"If you haven't heard of me, good. I'm underground, so you won't be seeing my pretty face on any newspapers any time soon..."
Personality Synergy: Moderate
If he comes to know the real Smokin' Sexy and not a teacher persona, then he'll like him more. The tough-love training style is something Akuba would respond to positively, as well as the more free-flowing martial style. Japan's underground heroes are also closer to his cultural ideals than the showbiz types, especially ones who can rub shoulders with unlicensed vigilantes when the situation calls for it. However, he also won't appreciate some of Smokin' Sexy's more loserly qualities, since the jokey playful persona Akuba puts on is not his true heart and he has trouble letting things slide.
Professional Synergy: Moderate
Smokin' Sexy gets results. That's the long and short of it. He has experience and is a proven warrior. That's enough for Akuba. If his teacher leads, he will follow. Not blindly, but still swiftly.
Bonjwa Hero
tbc
Personality Synergy: Very Low
Akuba doesn't need to be a leader but he does need the people who try to stand above him to have proven themselves first. Jace does not fit the standard. The boy's bossy habits will instantly rub Akuba the wrong way, and his optimism will be misread as naivete by Akuba too. Further, they don't have interests in common, with the possible exception of being comfortable in rural environments unlike many of the urbanized kids.
Professional Synergy: Low
Jace's synergy chart is not wrong; Arach-Kid has an easy time moving among the swarm and they might even come to very similar strategems without direct communication. However, while the Spider gains plenty of meat shields and distractions, Bonjwa gets little in return except a unit with weird attack angles and no direct control.
Callous
tbc
Personality Synergy: Low
While on the surface they have a similar idea that heroism is obligatory and sacrificial, the difference that Akuba is doing it all voluntarily out of personal tragedy makes it like night and day. If ever he learned the full extent of what it has already cost Yuudai, it would become a rage-point for the African, and he'd likely act rashly no matter what Yuudai himself wanted.
However, Akuba knows only the fake version of Yuudai, and that's a respectful, hard-working, athletic, fatalistic guy dedicated to the same goal as Akuba. While they couldn't be close, because Yuudai would need to keep secrets, they could be on good terms. That would vanish when the mask fell away, since Akuba couldn't enable what he would see as honorless self-destruction.
Professional Synergy: High
Callous can 'easily' keep up with Arach-Kid regardless of his output and has a similar attitude towards Getting It Done. While Arach-Kid would be more willing to use taunts and psychological ploys to keep opponents off balance, that's a complimentary style to Callous' excellent training and efficiency. They create openings for each other and operate at the same level.
Cheshire
"Is this seat taken?" Sankai gestures down at the wooden bench upon which Akuba is sitting. He thought it would be a pleasant way to kill some time before the official start of term: become acquainted with the campus and watch the scant wildlife.
"Sit with my blessing," he invites her. He's trying to give off a gentle happiness towards her, in defense of the condescending smirk she's giving him. Kill whatever enmity is here with kindness.
"It's a sunny day. I thought I'd look for some birds." Her head twitches down, and her eyebrows go up. The smirk widens into a broad sneer. "Do you know any Japanese birds?"
Akuba scratches his cheek, and his teeth become hidden behind his narrowing smile. He looks around to make sure this isn't being witnessed as some kind of hazing. When he looks back, Sankai has placed her massive paw on the tip of her chin, but the mocking expression has otherwise not changed.
Akuba steups at her manners. "You remind me of one of my cousins." It's not a compliment. He shows his dimples when he smiles brightly back at her.
Personality Synergy: Moderate
He is not immune to how off-putting her mannerisms can be. Especially when his baseline shifts towards the comparative Japanese meekness against his boisterous home culture, her swift and rigid movements would be that much more dissonant.
However, when it becomes more clear what her real beliefs and motives are, it will become dramatically easier to be forgiving of it. The discomfort never entirely goes away, but Akuba admires many of the qualities she happens to possess, and is willing to make the effort for a mental adjustment.
Professional Synergy: Low
They have very different styles. Any stealth abilities that he has as Arach-Kid come from the simple fact that people don't usually stay wary above and below themselves, and Cheshire would need to go through a situation at different paces of speeding up and slowing down than Arach-Kid's smooth, quick rhythm. Even their ability to combo is low, since Cheshire spends time totally intangible.
Double Trouble
"This is- ...sorry, I forget the word. Costume games?"
"Cosplay?"
Akuba snaps his fingers and points. "That's it! Thank you; cosplay."
Personality Synergy: Low
Akuba has the iron self-image that Ichigo lacks, and a patience that looks like a lack of energy in comparison. Without any malice in it, he'll silently mark her as putting up an unsustainably false image, and begin with an emotional distance between them. He prefers when people are open about their personalities, even if they're flawed.
Professional Synergy: Moderate
In the field, they have compatible styles and can keep up with each other handily. His limits are more superhuman than hers, but he's not the type to push himself to those limits outside of when it's necessary. On the other hand, she has actual focused training. All her grace is earned.
There's undoubtedly combos that can be pulled off using web-pulls from strange angles on Niiko and Sanko. He'd be less willing to go all-out on using them with the real Ichigo, treating her as more fragile than she deserves.
Farsight
tbc
Personality Synergy: Very Low
Akuba is neither dim-witted nor lazy, and doesn't have the same perspective on girls that Yasu does. His attitude would quietly get on Akuba's nerves at first, which might grow into genuinely pissing him off, and Akuba actively avoiding being around the guy. He'd end up mouthing off in Yasu's direction, playing word games with insults, which is much more acceptable in West Africa than it is in Japan.
To Akuba, it would be all in good fun and a way to blow off steam and reduce tensions as they air out their grievances. To everyone else, it would probably look like bullying, especially when Akuba invites the same thing back in his direction with bravado like "nothing to say back to me? You can do better, surely. Dig deep."
Professional Synergy: Very Low
As a carrier for an eye, Akuba is quick but only one body and not a speedster. He also tends to be approaching and moving in strange ways that could cause someone who didn't grow up like he did to experience vertigo. As a user of the wallhax, it's barely any better than what Akuba can already do with his tremorsense.
Fumetsu
tbc
Personality Synergy: High
I was surprised too. Akuba is amused by all the braggart energy and gets a sheepdog's satisfaction in occassionally reminding her of what's definitely not possible. Otherwise, he's happy to play along and even gas her up sometimes, because who knows? Maybe it really can be victory snatched from the jaws of defeat, no matter how big or small the event in question is.
Akuba doesn't believe, but he wants to. She's like a clown to him. It makes him happier. She also feels heroic, like someone pulled from a fable. Flaws and all.
Professional Synergy: Moderate
We'll put aside that she's slower, because he can freely speed her up. She's also stronger, which has its own uses. And we'll ignore for the sake of argument that she is a premier single-point distraction. The important synergy can be understood with two words: wreckerball technique.
Greasetrap
tbc
Personality Synergy: High
No one should be surprised. Gyoyu and Akuba have the same ideals around justice and the sacrificial nature of heroism. They're masculine guys with gentle sides and intimately understand the difference between appearances and true character. It also seems like Gyoyu wouldn't mind Akuba's trickster tendencies, as long as they were pointed in the right direction. Plus, Gyoyu seems the type to be willing to correct Akuba on how to fit in better while in Japan, without squashing all the things that Akuba thinks are important about himself which would also make him stand out.
I think they'd easily start up a friendship.
Professional Synergy: Low
Greasetrap's capture/restraining ability is higher but so is, like, capture cloth. Possibly the only other student that can do his wall-crawling thing, for positives, but most motion abilities would be equivalent in effect on balance. His high skill brings him up to Arach-Kid's raw ability in my eyes, so they also don't add much to each other beyond being a non-antagonistic duo on roughly equal terms in combat.
Leviathan
tbc
Personality Synergy: High
Being taciturn and blunt actually makes it easier for Akuba to trust him. Takata also has a brilliant mind, without having to give up a powerful body, so even if he was as haughty as people tend to think then it couldn't be said he had no reason for it. Akuba has no issues with people awarding themselves flowers when they're earned. He encourages it.
Professional Synergy: Moderate
The water tricks could be tough to navigate around, but Feeding The Kraken by pulling targets into tentacle range is fast, easy, and highly repeatable. During the lag time between Leviathan's Crushes, Akuba can still pull his own weight in most circumstances.
Miracle
tbc
Personality Synergy: Low
Some common phrases. "Hey Shino, chill out a bit, huh?" "When's the last time you were outside?" "Smells like straight ozone in here. And burnt metal." "You did not just knock out the power again."
Taking him at face value, Shinohara's a menace of a mad scientist. Since the boy doesn't seem open about his tragic backstory - no judgement, Akuba's not either - there isn't the expected sympathy to moderate Akuba's impression and reactions. Being a trickster in nature, he has little respect for one-trick ponies.
Professional Synergy: Very Low
To Arach-Kid, Miracle's a field hazard if anything.
Muso-ka
tbc
Personality Synergy: Low
How to say this gently... Fukuchi's a geek. He's a sweet kid and the family aspect resonates with Akuba for sure, but how much do the two have in common? Fukuchi's had a relatively blessed life in comparison so there's a limit to how much they can trust the other one to understand. Akuba wouldn't be mean about it, and he'll do his best to be friendly and in good spirits, but friendly classmates is about as far as I can see them ever getting.
Professional Synergy: Very High
This is where the cultivated talent for a lie really shines. Since the people in the Dream direct the illusion in the same fashion one does every night, all Arach-Kid has to do is influence their way of thinking and he can weave the dream he wants them to have. A bit of play-acting, some set-up of the scene, an occassional leading question, and they become wrapped in his mind-webs.
Unlike poor Fukuchi himself, Arach-Kid also has the muscle to capitalize on the situation when it leads to the ideal point or when they break out of the illusion. So he covers the weakness of the Magic Tricks quirk, and enhances its efficacy as well. He's not even the type to take credit for someone else's contributions, so Muso-Ka gets the spotlight in the end. It literally wouldn't be possible without him.
Pegasi
tbc
Personality Synergy: Moderate
They're both sporty, he'd think it's cool how well she can move across both the ground and sky, and her attitude would generally inspire him to try a bit harder to be optimistic. They're also both transfers from very different parts of the world than this so they have the outside perspective in common.
The talking with her hands thing is cute. He might tease her a bit about it, as mild ribbing, but be instantly apologetic and reassuring if it actually makes her do it less. Possibly a culture clash there.
Professional Synergy: Moderate
It's hard to say. He loses things out of his bag of tricks if he plays the role of the rider that makes her quirk work better, as per the bought refinement. If she has a rider for a different reason, then he can make her targets have a harder time escaping her jousting and trampling. But that also breaks his flow and makes him a little less effective, so they might end up with the same effectiveness on net.
At least if he quickly comes up with a lateral solution, and she trusts him enough, her high precision and teamwork means they have a great chance of executing on those insights.
Petal Protector
tbc
Personality Synergy: I'm Stuck
dunno lol
Professional Synergy: Very Low
No way is he letting those things get into him, and if one tries his Danger Sense is going to go nuts first. Otherwise, it's a horde quirk like Bonjwa's, without the resilience of individual units to combo off of. It's a lot of plant mass but still.
Red Hat
tbc
Personality Synergy: Low
The kid's a brat. There's probably worse roommates to have. Maybe as they get involved in each others' secret lives, they'll end up closer. Or at the other's throat. If Reiji says something too out of pocket, Akuba will throw paper balls at him. "NAH, bro."
Professional Synergy: Moderate
The in-field tech support might have been bullshit, but it's genuinely something Arach-Kid needs. He might know a little more than the average Japanese citizen just from what's required to get into an exclusive school like Shiketsu, but that's way behind a true tech head. They don't enhance each other, but they cover ground the other doesn't, and that's always useful.
Reibai
tbc
Personality Synergy: Moderate
Akuba doesn't agree on all the details, but the way she talks about her quirk and her experiences don't see as impossible to him as they do to so many other people. He's comfortable with the idea of witches, spirits, a bit of magic and the macabre in the world. If he learns about her goth tea party aspirations, hell, he'd try to get hold of a properly fashioned outfit and indulge her. They share a morbid note underneath the public faces.
Still, her way is not his way. The muted emotions thing is hard for him to understand, since his emotions run deep and have been a primary motivator for years now. And it's precisely because of believing in ghosts too that he's unwilling to help her out with her ghost hunting efforts unless sufficiently bribed since that's a great way in all the stories to end up haunting, cursed, and/or killed.
Professional Synergy: Low?
It's hard for me to say. She can fight, so she's not helpless, and her access to information is as unique as it is situational. They both have silver tongues and can cut with them, but it's not the same style and they might disagree on the non-violent approaches. There's a tension there that I can't unravel, and I'm leaning towards their teamwork being inefficient. He's more a help to her than she is to him, even if I do say so myself.
Reset
tbc
Personality Synergy: Low
I don't think it's from his side. She's described as someone who can't get along with somebody who cuts others down or is frequently sad. So while he's willing to be silly with her, when he shows the other sides to himself it would make her lose respect for him. Maybe they can be "buddies" but apparently not friends. Not for lack of him trying.
Professional Synergy: High
Her big plays all require set-up and work better with distractions. That's his bread and butter. There's undoubtedly some niche tactics that become possible when you have a person coming and going across the timeline, and Arach-Kid has a talent for spotting things like that, so this is the rare situation where both of them function better with the other one in the mix.
Scour
tbc
Personality Synergy: Moderate
Akuba understands why someone would try too hard in escape the shadow of a family member, even your own father. If asked, he'd say that it's important to make your own path, but also it would be a shame to lose out on having a dad while you can.
More of the personality conflict comes from how Akuba sees rules as gentle suggestions until sufficiently justified. Otherwise, he has respect for being serious and dutiful, especially when others don't get why you're trying.
Akuba will accept your Friendship Beam. Don't think it will change him, though.
Professional Synergy: High
Well obviously Scour's teamwork with everyone in class is unparalleled, and everyone feels precisely the same way about him. It seems he can think in 3D as well as Arach-Kid can, which unironically is a huge weight off his mind, since he doesn't have to remind himself of flatlander perspective over and over again.
I'm going to coin a combo move right here and right now. Pinball Mayhem, where Arach-Kid's thwips and kicks keep a target slamming between Scour's scattered bubbles in a dizzying ricochet that will leave the foe begging for the chance to surrender.
Second Son
tbc
Personality Synergy: ???
Professional Synergy: ???
What can you even say? It's all so unpredictable.
The Adversary might be the only being in the class who can return the bantz to Akuba's satisfaction? There's that, maybe. Hiro and Akuba disagree emphatically about if everyone is redeemable and all lives are valuable. If they can avoid that hot-button issue they'll at least stay on good terms, and if he asked Akuba for help in mitigating some of the Adversary's sabotage then he'd at least try.
Southpaw
tbc
Personality Synergy: Very Low
This is assuming her real personality comes out. Otherwise, it's only a Low since her persona is lacking in personality and flair, but seems to be (describing charitably) puckish. That would get old fast.
Professional Synergy: Very Low
Let's be honest with ourselves. Her quirk sucks. It's a bad version of TK. And he can already do the "funny motion at a distance" invisible tricks, in some cases.
Splashdown
tbc
Personality Synergy: Low
She seems to personify the shallow version of Japanese media-heroism that Akuba thinks won't be relevant back home. Some of the media management and image cultivation lessons later in his high school career might be applicable, but he doesn't know that yet, and believes Atsuko to be false and immature.
Professional Synergy: Very Low
Around her, Arach-Kid is an "also ran." Ironically, about the only thing he can manage to help her with is in the realms of tactics and strategy. Or by lendon himself as a blunt instrument.
Swarm Storm Shooter
tbc
Personality Synergy: Low
He's friendly, she's friendly, so why the low connection? As it stands, it's too hard to take her seriously. Akuba sees her as soft, too much like a little sister type for what is - in his mind - a combat career. He might like her better if she has more respectable steel to her spine later. Maybe the school will be good for her.
He might go overboard sometimes being protective towards her, but since she's Ahead Of The Curve it won't come up much in coursework.
Professional Synergy: High
There's certain applications of manipulating rate of attraction towards his hands that can stop or slow targets and make them easier to shoot, and potentially some things he can accomplish slinging his (or something else's!) trajectory around after being launched from her orbit himself. Gravity quirks working together can do weird and wonderful things.
They also both possess Tactics and Public Relations so when both are "on mission" it might not even come to real combat anyway. If she turns out to be a good partner for the soft touch, his respect for her would invert and he'd whole-heartedly goof off with her, complete with inside jokes.
Teocoatl
He felt it for the first time when walking to the bathroom. A sharp warning, more definite and narrow than most, that caused Akuba to go from a casual trudge down the middle of the hallway in one moment to a twisted, cringing hop against the wall in the next.
He turned to look behind him. His sensitivity to vibration, enhanced by his hands spread wide and flat against the wall, told him something was calmly walking towards him around the corner. It dragged a slithering mass behind it. The warning was unmistakable, but incongruous with his other senses. Akuba pulled himself up to the ceiling and perched at the high corner.
As he looked down, tense and alertly wide-eyed, a boy walked into the junction of the male dorms. Just a boy - for all his mutation - who lazily looked right then left with a room key in his hand. A boy who spotted Akuba out of the corner of his eye, refocused, and froze.
Being directly in the stranger's sight was worse somehow. There was only one way to save himself.
"Yo," Akuba said, bobbing his head in greeting.
"Hi," Lixdite replied, with an undercurrent of confusion.
Akuba pointed his palm and flung himself out of sight, landing on the floor outside the bathroom. He used a stall this time.
So unmanly.
Personality Synergy: Not Applicable
Professional Synergy: Lowest Possible
Teocoatl's fear aura sets off Arach-Kid's danger sense. He reads as a consistent threat, constantly. Whenever the two ranges overlap, the interaction is such that Arach-Kid is given precise moment-to-moment pinpointing of Teocoatl's location and the warning he is about to attack. While the intensity is not severe - not to the level of, say, an incoming boulder or the prelude to a gun-shot - the consistency is unrivaled.
When it feels like you're going to be betrayed and preyed on any second, how can you have any kind of relationship at all?
Tsuyoi
tbc
Personality Synergy: Moderate
Akuba would try every angle to test if the coldness is her real personality and what her true motives could be. Tease, goad, (non-monetarily) bribe, flirt - always testing her limits. Who is this rich girl with the odd quirk? What happens next depends on what the answers turn out to be.
Professional Synergy: Moderate
They operate in completely different arenas, but not exclusive ones. Him being a front-liner covers her vulnerable points quite a bit.
Wampyr
tbc
Personality Synergy: Very Low
It's not just that Akuba grew up in a culture that has a significant degree of persecution against albinos (though it is to a lesser degree than is found in East Africa). It would be possible to rationalize through that. It's also that the two boys are at opposite ends of most personality metrics, so there's no reason to put in all that effort.
Professional Synergy: Moderate
As long as Wampyr doesn't try to feed on anyone's blood in front of Arach-Kid, the other parts of his suite of abilities have some amount of synergy. They cover each other's weaknesses in cases of infiltration, and Wampyr ironically has an excellent powerset for rescue operations where Arach-Kid would struggle. In battle, there's very little ability for them to meaningfully interfere with the other and neither will comparitively feel like dead weight, either. However, there's also no interaction that pushes them beyond their individual abilities. They are exactly the sum of their parts.