Saku Pönni

Saku Pönni is one of the two main protagonists of the One Piece Reboot. He is an up and coming Marine, whose dream is to live a fun life.

## Appearance

Saku has short blonde hair, blonde eyebrows, and a blonde goatee. He usually wears a standard Marine cap and uniform.

## Personality

### Overview

Saku tends to explore with his hands and eyes, touching and examining the world around him with cool rationalism and spirited curiosity. Saku is a natural maker, moving from project to project, building the useful and the superfluous for the fun of it, and learning from his environment as he goes. The marine finds no greater joy than getting his hands dirty pulling things apart and putting them back together, just a little bit better than they were before.

Saku explores ideas through creating, troubleshooting, trial and error and first-hand experience. He enjoys having other people take an interest in his projects and sometimes doesn't even mind them getting into his space. Of course, that’s on the condition that those people don’t interfere with his principles and freedom. Saku enjoys lending a hand and sharing his experience, especially with the people he cares about.

### Dare to Differ

While his mechanical tendencies can make him appear simple at a glance, Saku's personality is actually quite enigmatic. Friendly but very private, calm but suddenly spontaneous, extremely curious but unable to stay focused on formal studies, Saku can be a challenge to predict, even by his friends and loved ones. Saku can seem very loyal and steady for a while, but he tends to build up a store of impulsive energy that explodes without warning, taking his interests in bold new directions.

Saku’s decisions stem from a sense of practical realism, and at his heart is a strong sense of direct fairness, a “do unto others” attitude, which really helps to explain many of his puzzling traits. Instead of being overly cautious though, avoiding stepping on toes in order to avoid having his toes stepped on, Saku is likely to go too far, accepting likewise retaliation, good or bad, as fair play.

The biggest issue Saku is likely to face is that he often acts too soon, taking for granted his permissive nature and assuming that others are the same. He’ll be the first to tell an insensitive joke, get overly involved in someone else’s project, roughhouse and play around, or suddenly change his plans because something more interesting came up.

### Defying the Rules

Saku has a particular difficulty in predicting emotions, but this is just a natural extension of his fairness, given how difficult it is to gauge his emotions and motivations. However, his tendency to explore his relationships through his actions rather than through empathy can lead to some very frustrating situations. Saku tends to struggle with boundaries and guidelines, preferring the freedom to move about and color outside the lines if he needs to.

Finding an environment where he can work with good friends who understand his style and unpredictability, combining his creativity, sense of humor and hands-on approach to build practical solutions and things, will give Saku many happy years of building useful boxes – and admiring them from the outside.

### Spontaneous and Rational

Saku is usually up to his elbows in some project or other. Cheerful and good-natured, Saku rarely gets stressed out, preferring to go with the flow. Saku is very imaginative when it comes to practical things, mechanics, and crafts. Novel ideas come easily, and he loves using his hands to put them into action. Combining spontaneity with logic, Saku can switch mindsets to fit new situations with little effort, making him a flexible and versatile individual. This flexibility comes with some unpredictability, but Saku is able to store his spontaneity for a rainy day, releasing his energy just when it’s needed most.

With all this hands-on creativity and spontaneity, it’s no wonder that Saku is a natural in crisis situations. He usually enjoys a little physical risk, and isn't afraid to get his hands dirty when the situation calls for it. Through all this, He is able to stay quite relaxed. He lives in the moment and goes with the flow, refusing to worry too much about the future.

### Stubborn and Private

As easily as Saku goes with the flow, he can also ignore it entirely, and usually moves in another direction with little apology or sensitivity. If someone tries to change his habits, lifestyle or ideas through criticism, he can become quite blunt in his irritation. Saku uses logic, and even when he tries to meet others halfway with empathy and emotional sensitivity, it rarely seems to quite come out right, if anything is even said at all. Saku is notoriously difficult to get to know. He is a true introvert, keeping his personal matters to himself, and often just preferring silence to small talk.

Saku enjoys novelty, which makes him an excellent tinkerer, but much less reliable when it comes to focusing on things long-term. Once something is understood, Saku tends to simply move on to something new and more interesting. Long-term commitments are particularly onerous for the marine. Saku prefers to take things day-by-day, and the feeling of being locked into something for a long time is downright oppressive. This can be a particular challenge in his romantic relationships.

### Keeping It Spontaneous

When it comes to friendships, Saku seems made for Bushnell’s Law of game design: *Easy to learn, difficult to master*. With his well-rounded and interesting array of hobbies, he has no trouble at all making acquaintances to share his activities with. It’s getting beneath the surface to become his true friends that is the real challenge, leaving him with a lot of good will and friendly faces to call on, but only a few people who he feels truly understands him.

A lot of this comes down to Saku simply not wanting to be bound to any particular person or activity. He tends to live in the present, enjoying whatever life brings, and feel no real obligation to shift course on account of others’ plans. If friends don’t want to do what he is doing, then they are free to go do their own thing, and they’ll hang out some other time. Sometimes his shifts in attitude can catch his friends flat-footed, but his motto remains “everything can be changed”. Forcing him to constantly commit to scheduled activities is probably the quickest way to end these friendships.

Saku is also thoughtful, rational people. Being fairly creative individuals himself, he often enjoys discussing new ideas – but in the end, the point of sharing those ideas needs to be to take action. Dreaming is well and good, but talk is cheap, and discussions on abstract or distant subjects like East Blue politics can only hold Saku's attention for so long before he decides to shift his focus to something he can do.

## Relationships

### Allies

#### Joona

Prior to the story of One Piece Reboot, Joona Burke was a good friend of Saku. The two haven't met so far in the story.

#### Smoker

Saku, although at first intimidated by Smoker, quickly formed a student-master relationship with the man. The young marine has a large amount of respect for his captain and treats his every word and action as guiding principles for himself. Smoker's exact thoughts on Saku are currently unclear, though, they appear to be positive.

#### Baka

Saku and Baka make for a good team, as shown on Sunny Island, during their first mission together. Baka's seemingly limitless energy matches well with Saku's ability to listen like a brick wall. Even Baka's below average intellect does not pose a problem for their relationship, as Saku truly does not care how much of and idiot the other marine is.

### Enemies

#### Rummy Pirates

During his time on Sunny Island, Saku was tasked with taking down the pirates.

## Abilities and Powers

Saku has knowledge of Haki, but has not trained to use it.

### Physical Abilities

Saku has the strength of an above average human being, due to his training with Smoker.

### Equipment

Saku wields a standard marine cutlass and musket. He carries a pocket flintlock in case of emergencies. Alongside his weaponry, he also carries other useful support paraphernalia such as hand cuffs and a first-aid kit.