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Jouya is a fun-loving guy with an affinity for fish -- it's for this reason that he's the ultimate Aquarium Keeper, hoping to become a marine biologist. (His number one aspiration is to figure out how to transport blobfish to sea level without killing them, and although he hasn't made any progress, being a literal teenager... some day, he'll have a real-life Blobert, and then his sister and her haunted cat plushie will finally stop being mean to him about it.)

Strengths

• A caring dude! He'll basically do anything for his loved ones, and looks out for them as much as he can — in part because his heart says so, in part because he's just used to the responsibilities of being an older brother (even if by mere minutes) and it ends up extending to his friends too. Anyone harming them is just about the only reason he would drop his otherwise gentle demeanor and turn into this.
• Patient, with a positive outlook! Being an aquarium keeper means he has to have endless patience before, say, the conditions in a tank are just right where he could properly introduce some fish friends. It extends to dealing with people, and as such he also tries to see the good in everyone even if it's under a bunch of other problems, listens to others' worries willingly, keep going even though the chances of escaping from the killing game unscathed are slim…
• He's got a good sense of humor, so he's generally kind of a mood-maker. By which I mean he's capable of making such wonderful (or perhaps, really bad but circles around to being funny in the end) jokes and puns such as [redacted] and his default response to "What's up?" is usually a literal one because I mean that joke's a classic come on guys.
• He has the big smart! By this I mean he's book-smart, especially well-versed in marine biology, and probably somewhat tactful as a result — although he usually considers emotion more than logic, that just makes him emotionally intelligent and helps him interact well with others too. Don't get me wrong, though, he would still be the kind of person who asks if you gain calories by rubbing soap on your body. (Alternatively, the sort of person who'd hold a 4.0 GPA for years but would mumble "Hyenas aren't a bird..." to himself completely out of context.)
• He tries to be gentle and non-confrontational, when dealing with others both physically (no fighting, shakira shakira) and verbally (he doesn't swear unless he's really angry, honestly) — he hates hurting others' feelings, for one, and having been more of an aggressive kid he tries to be the direct opposite of that nowadays because it just didn't Feel Right. Besides, even though Jouko's kind of in the same boat, he still feels the need to be a good role-model, so even if something pushes his buttons to a point where talking it out is basically impossible he'll count down to 1 and ask the nearest person to hold him back.

Weaknesses

• Forgetful, scatterbrained boy. He has bad short-term memory, which he and Jouko dub "fishbrain", in the sense that he'll do things such as walk into a room and forget why he came here, forget someone's name not even a minute after they introduce themselves, maybe forget to eat, forget someone’s squicks too late, forget where he was at the time of the murder… He tries to alleviate this by paying attention to important things, for example, or noting things down if he can help it, but it doesn't always work.
• He acts brave, given that he wants to be someone others can talk to, look up to, and feel comfy around, but he still gets spooked by things pretty easily — haunted cat plushies, conspiracy theories, sudden noises, bloodstains that shouldn't be there… So it's pretty obvious to see through that, given that he gets all shaky and/or smiles really uncomfortably and tries to avoid that sort of stuff if he can help it so honestly being here and knowing he could die at any moment is a living nightmare and the fact that he tries to keep that all in is arguably even worse when it still cycles through his mind so much haha see below.
• The fact that he's caring and looks after others so much means he's kind of… a second priority to himself. It's not as though it's a self-esteem issue, which is surprising given my track record, but it's more that he just… forgets to take care of himself too (he's already forgetful as is already), tries to be strong in front of others so they feel like they have someone to talk to without showing his own worries, and when he's pissed off by others being mean to his loved ones or worried to death about them he might do Very Stupid Things.
• Being patient with everyone and everything does lead to issues of its own, too. He's sort of a pushover, given that it's kind of hard to thus put his foot down and realize that, for example, this thing isn't going to get better, or there's genuinely nothing good in this person and sticking with them and give them too many chances that'll lead to more harm than good, and putting up with this stuff for so long likely starts to take a toll on him and Yet he wouldn't feel like this was too much. Of course, he won't deal with properly, because he's the idiot that would tell others this stuff and not himself.
• He tries to be gentle with others, but he also doesn't really recognize his own strength? Like, he's kind of well-built, so he might forget that people might not actually be able to breathe when he gives them bear hugs or that playful nudge might actually hurt like hell for the next few hours… Maybe break something he's not supposed to… He's aware of the fact that this is a thing that Happens, and his way of dealing with this is to just avoid doing things that might cause those issues like the plague, but it Happens when he's Not being extremely careful with it in the first place. F.

History

• Jou had a relatively okay life! He'd grown up close to the ocean in Osaka, with his parents and his sister and his oversized lap dog.
• Coincidentally (or not), he'd always had sort of a fascination for marine life — maybe it was Jotaro Kujo (what's a part 4? dad keeps suggesting they sit down and watch it together - wait, no, wasn't dad's birth name?), maybe it was going to the beach so often as a child or maybe it was listening to his dad's research, but the point was that every time he'd see a fishtank at, say, the doctor's office he'd stick his face to the glass and stare in awe.
• Being the impulsive little kid that he is, he'd gotten a few fish as pets at the age of 9! And really, his dad knowing how to Not kill them instantly helped like jesus dont put ur goldfish in tanks, but being an impulsive little kid who honestly couldn't quite remember that he had fish in the first place, his dads did most of the work for him for the first two years and he'd finally realized that fish are a responsibility he needs to take! And so, at 11, with newfound confidence he started looking after Goldie and Fishy properly.
• ...And it went from there.
• As Jou's fish count started to increase ("maybe i can trust myself with this many!", to "maybe i should stop here— OOH BETTA", to "okay i guess im just a full time fish dad now"), however, he'd slowly retreated more into his shell, because anxiety is a bitch and he doesn't even know where it came from frankly even though he's supposed to be the one looking after Jouko because he's the older one and yet he's not much better at actually talking to people than her (or to people other than her).
• And to deal with that anxiety, Jou'd ended up doing whatever came to mind first, and that was to snap at whatever felt threatening enough where he'd need to defend Jouko or maybe himself against…….. Something! Hooray! Which kinda sucked for him, feeling like he couldn't stop and think for a second without worrying about not being able to fix the situation anyway, but he couldn't stare at fish to calm down at school because he was too anxious to join any clubs there that might let him actually do that!
• And where did that lead him? Jouko's girl gang, the Sharkteeth.
• Granted, he didn't do much more with them than just hand out refreshments, and honestly Jou-chan's friends were really nice, but just… being there, being involved, even if they're just middle schoolers and don't have that much power outside… school, it just felt kind of weird feeling like he was doing something wrong, like an outcast, like he was just isolating himself and setting a bad example as an older brother even though he was the one going along with her in the first place because she was the one who actually had the initiative to find a place to belong…
• And so he'd bowed out at some point, and put his fish at the forefront and used his remaining time trying to somehow still make friends — and, to an extent, it worked! At the very least, as a consistent top-scorer despite the otherwise lacking presence, he figured helping his classmates with school was a good place to start, and he'd somehow found it easier to keep his worries under control despite the pressure on him as a tutor to do enough to help with people's slipping grades with his goals to help both them and himself at the forefront of his mind (and being able to count down from 10, or imagining waves ebbing and flowing and breathing along to those, something he'd always pass along in case anyone needed it for their own moments).
• Eventually, as he entered highschool (and thankfully, Jouko had found her own code of morals — that is, that's how he thinks of it anyway, because her Judo teacher seems like a really cool person and that's just a cool phrase to go along with it), that blossomed into actual friendships with the Marine Biology club, even with Tako who he'd always felt awkward around from when he dropped out of the girl gang and even during then when he had that stupid crush on her…
• And now that he was able to show the better sides of him with less fear, by offering a helping hand (and, if they'd feel comfy enough, it'd extend to a shoulder to lean on?) and enough jokes to go around to his peers, he'd found himself start to loosen up, realizing that there wasn't as much to be afraid of as he would think before then, and that he could just do what he was used to — looking after others as much as he can, even if they weren't family like Jouko was. (And even Jouko he tries to help in the friend department at school, given that he's able to understand what she wants to say even when she can't verbalize it at all, for starters…)
• ...Besides, he had some really cool fish, even if most of them weren't anything you wouldn't find in a pet store.
• So cool, in fact, that he'd started a blog to - well, in part to show off, because honestly being able to look after 42 fish is pretty cool of him, and in part to show the wonders of fishkeeping in general! And given that most teens in Japan probably do not keep 41 fish in a room of their house and care almost meticulously for them, it's inevitable that he'd eventually be noticed by one of the biggest schools in the nation, isn't it?

miracle to happen.

Fate

DRV2: Visceral Rift: he's coping

• In all seriousness, though, he's the fourth and final victim of Chapter 3, having been murdered rather brutally by Fujio Nishida. While he hadn't gone down with a fight, having both tried to attack Fujio with whatever he could still move and cussed him out because intending/succeeding to kill him and many of his closest friends (and more, redacted for the reader's sake) is a special line to cross with him, he ultimately ended up drowning both in a fishtank and his own regrets.
• HOWEVER! As it turns out, the entire killing game was a simulation of some sorts, so his death - despite feeling very real - was fundamentally not. As of now, he's working to get his life back together, which is very hard when your lifelong passion gets linked with your hugest trauma, but he's doing his best! At least he has his dearest sister, his beloved -- boyfriend?! boyfriend!!!! -- and his precious friends, right?

Trivia

• First of all, check out his playlist!
• He's bi!
• Far-sighted, and needs reading glasses.
• He snaps his fingers a few times when he tries to remember things he’s forgotten, and once more when he does remember it.
• Once ate a candle thinking it was ice-cream.
• He tries not to pick favorites between his fish but truly his favorite is Blobby. "blobby is a plush?" yeah and
• Another thing he'd want to do someday is to invent a self-feeding, self-cleaning aquarium… It's not foolproof, of course, and honestly he thinks it's safer to just do it yourself, but wouldn't it be cool if you could make one?
• That said, he tries not to eat seafood unless absolutely necessary, mostly because of the ethical dilemma it puts him through considering he literally keeps them as pets. It’s like being a reverse pescatarian?
• Princess Jellyfish is his favorite anime! He also thinks Spongebob is neat. Aye-aye, captain!
• In noncanon + postcanon boyfriends with this fucking tsun lol