Player: Colleen
Age: almost 40 :')
Invited by: Me!
Contact: asondeiru or asondeiru on Discord
Current Characters: N/A

Character: Sangonomiya Kokomi
Canon: Genshin Impact, update 4.6
Age: 20something (25?)

Background Information: Genshin Impact Wiki.

Personality:
1) Tell us about who your character is and what someone’s first impression would be upon meeting them.

Kokomi serves as the Divine Priestess of Watatsumi Island, a title she inherited from her mother that has been held by daughters of the Sangonomiya Clan for ages. She often comes off as shrewd and enigmatic, especially with her reputation of being a master strategist and the leader of her people preceding her.

Without such airs, someone may instead see her as shy, a bit overly polite, and a nerd. Both first impressions have a bit of truth to them.

Kokomi is an intelligent young woman with a very strategic mind, which is where the "shrewd" and "nerd" descriptions come from. Repeatedly, Genshin Impact emphasizes these traits through how she handles the war with Narukami, how she leads her people (typically with entire treatises of instructions on plans A, B, C, and so on), her interest and capability in strategic games such as Genius Invokation TCG, and how other characters speak of her. She adores learning and reading, especially about military strategy and preparation, and is happiest when she is alone and surrounded by her books and the natural beauty of her island.

Generally, Kokomi is a deeply introverted person. This makes some of the duties of her extremely public job challenging for her, which is why she comes off as aloof and/or shy in interpersonal situations. She does her best to make it work.

Why she works so hard is because she cares very, very deeply about her people. Despite the fact that she does not necessarily excel with social interaction, she makes herself available to meet the needs of Watatsumi as much as she possibly can. While it's not necessary achievable, she tries to treat everyone with fairness, equity, and compassion, and even spares some amount of that compassion and understanding to her enemies. Despite being at odds with the Raiden Shogun, that conflict was never personal—her rebellion was in the best interest of her people. No more, no less.

2) What is a driving force your character has? What goals do they have, what motivates them, etc?

Kokomi has no major ambitions of her own. Her Vision lore specifically states that she lacks "such strong ideals" as a leader, instead deferring to the hearts of her people and helping them realize their wants and needs. Her love for and sense of responsibility toward Watatsumi is immeasurable, so much so that she's unable to fully detangle how much of it is imposed by her position as Divine Priestess and how much is her own heart's desire.

Ultimately, that difference doesn't matter. In Kokomi's own words, her primary motivation is life is as such: "I wish to protect all of Watatsumi Island and allow its people to lead happy lives."

All of that said, she does have another, more selfish motivation that she occasionally indulges in. Kokomi craves solitude, her books, and natural beauty. When her work becomes too overwhelming, she takes her leave (making sure there are instructions in her absence, of course) and disappears to her secret cove to read, or goes on a long walk along the shore, or goes diving amongst the reefs and fish. It's in these moments where she feels most at peace.

3) What are their flaws as a character? What is something they've messed up, or have done that they regret?

Kokomi's biggest regret is something that she had no control over: rising to the position of Divine Priestess in the first place. It's a position she doesn't feel comfortable in, and as a result she's often plagued with self-doubt and stress in performing her official duties. While she's more or less made peace with it—she tells the Traveler in one of her voice lines that she "can't defy that which flows in [her] veins"—it's still something that a part of her wishes she didn't have to do at all.

As far as her flaws, the same strategic mind that allows her to plan ahead for every possible contingency also causes her to overthink things to the point of detriment. She's incredibly careful not to share too much of her own tastes for fear of unduly influencing the tastes of her people, for example.

Relatedly, social interaction is difficult for her. This is in part because of a lack of experience and in part because she overthinks it. In the Secret Summer Paradise event, she stresses about how she's being perceived and makes up a story about herself to hide the fact that she's the Divine Priestess of Watatsumi Island because she doesn't want to make things awkward due to her position. On the flip side, she admits to hiding behind her "Divine Priestess airs" when she's working in an official capacity to allow some space between her and her people so she doesn't become too overwhelmed too quickly. It only sort of works.

Her lack of self-confidence is another area in which Kokomi struggles. She mentions as much to the Travler in her final ascension line, saying, "I often used to succumb to self-doubt. I would think to myself, "Can a person like me really hold the title of Divine Priestess?"* While she goes to great lengths to hide it, she constantly second-guesses herself and her leadership. People's hearts are often fickle and difficult to manage, and she knows that she's not the most astute person when it comes to interacting with or understanding people. She wants all of her people to be happy, but worries if her approach toward that goal is lacking. She also has concerns about whether or not her tendency toward planning for all contingencies has stymied her people's ability to be flexible and think/act for themselves.

The longer she serves as Divine Priestess (and the more she builds a capable team around her, the Traveler included), the more confident she feels. But doubts about her own capability still keep her up some nights.

Kokomi also pushes herself to and past the point of exhaustion in her duties, in part to compensate for her own perceived weaknesses, and inevitably hits a point where she has to withdraw or she will shut down entirely. Her "energy points" (a means by which she tracks her stress and social battery) are often in the red. While her intentions are good—it's for the sake of her people, after all—the stress she puts on herself is unsustainable, particularly in difficult times.

*This being the final ascension line, the context is that being besties with the Traveler has made her more confident in her capability. That's why the verbs are past-tense despite me saying it's a present-tense flaw of hers.

4) What is something unique and interesting about them, or what is a fun little tidbit that sets them apart from the crowd?

Despite fishing being a major industry for her people, she doesn't eat seafood because fish are friends. :( Please don't tell anyone. She'd hate for morale among fisherman to go down.

Abilities & Inventory: Kokomi possesses a Hydro Vision, which gives her the capability to manipulate the element of Hydro (i.e., water). A list of her in-game capabilities can be found here.

As far as inventory, Kokomi will arrive with the clothing on her back and her Vision.

While Kokomi could excel in either armada, I'd like to put her forward for Corsair. Yes, she's a figure of authority back home, but she's one with limited autonomy who didn't hesitate to rebel when the occasion called for it. The mindset of the Corsairs is also more in-line with Kokomi's people-centric style of leadership than that of the Paladins. She'll turn her nose up at the more unsavory Corsairs, and she'll happily cooperate with the Paladins when the occasion calls for it, but overall I think she'd be happier with fewer constraints, not more.

Test Drive Sample: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Questions: Any questions you might have.

Permissions
backtagging	Y
threadjacking	Y
fourthwalling	N
mindreading	Y
touching	Y
shipping/kissing	Y
smut	Y
fighting/injury	Y
character death	Y
Misc. Notes
If anyone wants to do a mermaid AU, I am so down.

contact: dropbox    code: transilience    mermaid kokomi image: estelle ୨୧