Kanji Tatsumi | 巽 完二 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
truerevelation) wrote2019-09-06 09:58 pm
truerevelation) wrote2019-09-06 09:58 pm
(no subject)
P L A Y E R;
NAME: Sleepy
AGE: ...30+.
PLAYER JOURNAL:sleepyphoenix or dreaminghive
TIMEZONE: GMT, sadly
CONTACT: Discord Sleepy#4118, PMs.
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: Haru Okumura
C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Kanji Tatsumi
CANON: Persona 4 (AU)
POINT IN CANON: Updating to post-Ultimax
AGE: 16yo in canon / 19yo as Traveller.
APPEARANCE: Canon era, age 16. Traveller art and again
CANON HISTORY:
Here’s Megaten Wiki’s lowdown.
CANON PERSONALITY:
At first glance, it's easy to make assumptions about Kanji. He's a drop-out. A delinquent. The sort of person who just wants to cause trouble, and doesn't care what anyone else thinks. The way he carries himself, his dress, his hair: he could be any gang member on the streets. This image carries through in a casual conversation with him, too: his speech patterns are rough and casual with a fair helping of bad language - 'get bent' could almost be his catchphrase (though he technically only says it around three times ingame) and he’s been seen to even call his mother an ‘old hag’ when stressed! - and he's all too likely to go on the attack at the slightest provocation, at least before he’s mellowed out over the course of canon. He loves the chance to prove himself to be strong, going by his reaction to the idea that he’s dreaming about a grand tournament (which proved to be real…). He typically acts before he thinks through the consequences, and he’s no academic, to say the least - a lot of the time, he’s willing to let his fists do the talking. He’s also extremely adept at improvising with weaponry (being known for attacking opponents with a chair!)
However, while it's inaccurate to refer to his rough exterior as entirely a front, it's not the entirety of who and what he is. It's a defense mechanism, developed over many years, that's worked a little too well in protecting his inner self from the scrutinies of others. Inside, Kanji's spent a long time deeply insecure about who he is, and while during the course of the game he's worked to overcome this and become happy with himself it's taken him a long time to do so. If he's in any way accused of being strange or weird - or if he perceives it, something which he has a tendency to do so over the smallest thing - it's very likely that he'll go straight for the throat in his replies. Given some of his friends tend to be less than tactful, this is someting that’s happened on a regular basis. Even worse, he's very likely to fly off in a rage if his berserk buttons are pressed, or otherwise over-react, though he's working on controlling that much. Examples would be his chasing down his future friends angrily on their first meeting, believing they were calling him weird, or his charging into the girls’ tent on a camping trip at the thought that it’d prove him to be more interested in them than his tent-mates.
On a more positive note? He's very generous, when he gets the chance to be, being willing to give both his time and his handiwork very freely to others. For example, he goes out of his way to try and find a child’s lost toy and replace it immediately on hearing about what happened to it. He's a very protective individual, too, standing up for those weaker than him against accusation and trouble at the drop of a hat. As far as he’s concerned, there’s no point in having the strength he’s chased for so long if he can’t do the right thing with it. Even if he doesn’t want to fight for its own sake, he is more than willing to do so when it’s needed. A lot of his history of conflict comes from him trying to do what's right and look out for others: he's been known to go as far as tearing a whole biker gang apart single-handedly just to save his mother's sleep at night. When he warms up to someone, he softens quite a bit, becoming extremely caring, a loyal friend or a devoted big brother figure.
If that progresses to the point of actual attraction, that’s when things become more than a little awkward - he's not the greatest at admitting to his feelings, to say the least. He blushes, he flails, he can't find the right words, and frequently shoots himself in the foot. This can be seen in his interactions with his crush, Naoto, in canon - even when put in a position to do something that could be seen as romantic with her, for example something as simple as sharing an umbrella, he instead makes things worse for himself. As of the end of canon, he’s never been able to tell anyone what he feels, even when everyone else can see it.
Kanji's problems ultimately largely stem from a conflict between his natural interests and preferences, what society expects of him, and how what he likes and would otherwise act are perceived. He's spent his whole life trying to be a 'real man', thanks to his dying father's urges and influences - but he's grown up with hobbies that are seen as 'unmanly', loving to sew and knit thanks to his upbringing around his family's textile business and being fond of putting his considerable skills to use on creating such things as cute charms and plushies. Putting it bluntly, he loves cute and fluffy things! Such things as fur coats and his teddy-bear team-mate have all caught his attention at some point… If he’s around people who accept him for who he is, and for who won’t mock him for it, he does rather get carried away with it at times. While he gets to the point of being able to be proud of his skills with the needle, he doesn’t hold a great opinion of his other intellectual abilities - though in a forgotten timeline, he was at least confident enough in them to consider that he could one day improve them and be smarter, and some remnants of that have been seen lingering.
Unfortunately, not only have his hobbies been dismissed as 'unmanly', but they've caused plenty of accusations about his sexuality. He's had reason to consider that he might be gay on his own, and acknowledges there's a part of him that's bothered regarding relationships with girls, but overall, he's a rather confused young man as to where his actual attractions lie (particularly given that he fell for a cross-dressing team-mate without knowing her true gender…)
In the end, though, he's stated that his problems aren't about the gender of who he's attracted to - but whether he knows that they won't reject him in the same way as he's often felt rejected by society. The idea scares him more than anything. And for all he's struggled with the idea of what being a 'real man' means, he's come to accept it as meaning putting his all into everything he does... a trait that he's proud to have.
POINT OF DEPARTURE:
AU Background:
One day, April 2011, Kanji found himself running errands down near the gas station in Inaba. Found himself talking to a gas station attendant he didn't recognise while his bike was getting fixed up.
Found himself getting a handshake that, in another world, would have been given to another person: but Yu Narukami would not arrive in town until after school had started, and Izanami saw something interesting in the young man that was worth testing. An outsider by his own flaws and actions, who'd put up walls between himself and the world, but someone not yet broken. Was there still hope left for someone like that?
Kanji quickly discovered what had happened to him after some damn odd dreams - and spotting a vision on the TV one night, while up working on a project, and reaching out to it… looked like the rumours were true, after all. The Midnight Channel. And the visions on the television kept coming… followed closely by something more ominous. The strange murders in the town.
He finally confided in an old friend, Naoki - probably the only one he had left, after his downturn into fear and delinquency - later in the week. What started out as just a way to help take his friend’s mind off his recent loss turned into more. And so, they set out to investigate Saki’s death - something that would take them into another world, leading Kanji to discover other elements of the power he’d been granted.
His first Persona. Izanagi. A manly, creative force, looking like some kind of gang leader - on understanding what his ability truly meant, he’d think it made sense. A creator god for a craftsman, someone who'd brave hell for the one he loved for one with a loyal heart....
Chie would shove her way onto the team after finding them snooping around the Amagi Inn, looking into the threat to its young future manager, Yukiko; she later joined them. They weren’t the only people investigating the strange murders in the town, of course - “Detective Prince” Naoto, arriving in Inaba and spotting their activities, wound up talking to (and intriguing) Kanji… just in time, in early June, to end up thrown into the TV. Idol Rise Kujikawa would be the next to join them, with their TV world ally Teddie stepping up his active role at that point too. The last of their group would be a second-year by the name of Takahiro, whose meltdown caught on air would have him pushed into the TV world in September for the worst rescue yet.
They’d prove to be good friends to Kanji - something he’d not realised how much he needed. And in turn, with them joining their mission, he’d slowly grow into the leadership role he’d inadvertently found himself in.
He’d find himself making a lot of new friends, forming a lot of new bonds, that year. From the teacher who finally encouraged him to actually try his best at school, to the young boy he saw about to make the same mistakes he once had at that age, to the girl who first welcomed him on summoning the courage to set foot in the crafts club, to many more besides - including the bond he’d broken with his own mother. It’d be hard, but it’d teach him that he didn’t have to push everyone away, and just what he could accomplish with them by his side… slowly, he could repair the damage that he’d caused, show the world that he was more than a delinquent. Punk look or no.
And among those bonds, some would go … that bit further. He’d grown to distrust the idea of romance, and the idea that he could actually find someone he liked… no. No-one’d be interested in him, he was sure.
But they were - and he surprised himself by realising he returned their feelings.
(In a time that never existed, too, he’d make new bonds, and earn the respect of another group of Persona users as a reliable and determined leader for their combined teams - once they’d gotten over the fact that the Yasogami High team had an underclassman in charge. Didn’t hurt that his artistic talents lent themselves to him drawing some damn good maps... though it wouldn’t be his duty when a similar incident had them trapped in an realm where movies were real places to explore.)
Still, it wouldn’t all be smooth sailing, and things came to a head in November. The group were able to dismiss kidnapper Namatame as the original killer, and talk him down from any further “rescues” - after all, with both a detective there from early on and one of the victims’ brother able to provide more information as to what’d happened, they had a lot to go on. Unfortunately, their activities caught the actual killer’s attention, and Adachi would go after Naoto as the team’s ‘real’ detective. When he tried to force her into the TV, she took him for the ride, and the two ended up separated in the process. At least she didn’t have to re-confront her Shadow, but the rescue still wasn’t fun - especially when they finally traced the culprit down. Adachi had retreated to his own region of the TV world, and stopping him would be a hell of a ride. Just what was that that’d merged with his Shadow? What was ‘Kunino-Sagiri’ supposed to be?
By the end, he’d wanted them to finish him off, but - no. Kanji wanted justice, not revenge, and he made that clear as they dragged the cop out of there.
Sure. The murder mystery was solved. But what about the fog in the town, that’d settled in for good? And what about Teddie’s going off on his own little quest? That much would lead them back into the TV, and to the entity that seemed to be behind the fog.
But even that didn’t tie up all the loose ends. What had given him these powers in the first place? Could that really be all? While he thought he knew why his first Persona was who it was, was that everything that myth had to offer? And when one of his new friends turned out to be more than she seemed to be, it was just more proof that they still had to get to the bottom of it all…
In the end, they worked it out - and traced everything back to the gas station where it all began.
So their final target was a goddess. So what? They’d been defying the odds this whole time - this wasn’t the time to give up now! It wasn’t going to be easy, though. Despite all of Kanji’s best attempts to keep his group safe - they were the ones who pushed him out of harm’s way, before he too was pulled into the underworld’s embrace.
But they, too, were among those who called him back. And among all the bonds who he could see there that he’d forged or repaired over the past year? One he’d have never expected to see again. Here, between life and death…
His father. One who meant the world to him.
It was enough.
He awoke, pushed his glasses back - and called the power of truth itself down on Izanami.
…Closely followed by calling hell down on the friends who’d tried to sacrifice themselves for him.
What they could all agree on, once they were clear of the TV world and able to celebrate? It’d been a hell of a year.
Update: Arena and Ultimax
For the first couple of months after taking care of Izanami (and, here, returning to his timeline) Kanji’s life had been focused on making a fresh start; a clean(ish) school record from day one of his second year, helping make the family business a success. Biting off more than he could chew as usual, but some things don’t change. Apparently, the fact that Persona users’ lives are magnets for trouble is one of those things. Over Golden Week, Kanji and his team found themselves dragged into a series of fighting tournaments based in the worlds of Shadows; firstly, in the TV world, and secondarily seeing their own world temporarily invaded by an other-dimensional tower... The first series of fights would introduce them (or perhaps reintroduce them) to another group of Persona users originally from Iwatodai, and have them assisting a lost and confused robot by the name of Labrys – she would bond well with Kanji and his rescue team after he led them into the fray. The latter incident would have Inaba flooded with an even stranger fog than the one that’d plagued the town in the past, but again, two teams of Persona users would be forced into battle with each other and with duplicates of themselves in order to get to the bottom of the mystery. Kanji himself wouldn’t even bother to put his usual TV-crawling gear on before running out into the night to see what was happening... nothing wrong with saving the world in your pyjamas, right? No time to mess around! He teamed up again with Labrys for this incident, with the pair going to the source of the latest threat together (rather than apart as might have happened in other timelines...)
What better way to take down an enemy formed by others abandoning their bonds and loyalties than by forming a new one and learning to trust in each other?
Personality differences:
For the past year, Kanji’s been acting as the leader of his merry little band and reaching out to people that he might never have reached out to before. He’s matured a lot.
While he’ll never be a sophisticated speaker, he’s skilled enough at reassuring and encouraging people in his rough way. He knows when to rein in the shouting, swearing, and his own impulsive tendencies, even if his control’s far from perfect. He strives to be someone that his friends and team can come to and rely on, and he’s very protective over them.
While it was tricky for him to come to terms with, he’s pretty much accepted his sexuality as “attracted to smart, interesting people regardless of their gender” - he’s far more confident where romance is concerned overall than his canon counterpart.
He’s far less likely to dismiss his own skills than his canon counterpart, whether physical or mental, and he’s fought the whole way to prove it to himself. Sure, he knows he’s not a genius, but he trusts his brain - if he doesn’t get something, he’s got no problem in persevering until he does, or he finds another way to look at a problem. In turn, he’s huge on the idea that anyone can do anything they put their minds to, and that anyone can redeem themselves if they do the same.
However, he’s still got his share of issues. He’s still not always the best at dealing with authority, though he's definitely improved in that regard compared to his counterpart, and he's especially not good with people who abuse their authority. If he were to encounter his Shadow, it’d make it very clear that he’s still scared… he doesn’t always believe he deserves to be the leader, doesn’t always believe in his own strength, feels that he relies on his friends too much. While he no longer sees admitting to what he likes as a sign of weakness, he's very reluctant to let any actual signs that he can't cope with things show, even to his closest friends, especially given he's the youngest of the team - he can't let anyone think that he's 'just the kid'. He's constantly putting himself under pressure to be the leader he thinks he needs to be. It's all a strong facade from someone who’s still trying to learn what strength means.
Ingame/update development:
In some ways, Travelling did a lot for Kanji. In others ... it’s hurt him in unexpected ways. He’s grown up from a kid to an adult in Liminal Space, and expanded his horizons; he’s become more confident in who and what he is, in general, and even more willing to trust in the fact there is more to intelligence than sheer book smarts. He’s grown to realise that protecting his friends doesn’t have to mean in a physical sense; his Travelling abilities have given him a lot of ways to support them, including what Persona users would typically call navigation skills – ways to look after more people than just the ones he’s directly fighting with. He’s slowly becoming more willing to admit when he needs the help, and his experience rescuing Labrys has reflected that back at him too.
Still, growing has been complicated. The Traveller Naoto once told him ‘you belong in the stars’, and in some ways, he’s never wanted to let her down... He’s determined to make something of himself that’s more than he could have been in Inaba. He’s aware that the small town doesn’t offer him a lot of opportunities – but at the same time, he’s aware that it’s where his roots lie, and it’s hard for him to feel comfortable breaking those ties. The Traveller tendency towards adopting others as ‘family’ has become increasingly awkward for him over time; he’s grown resentful of the way that other Travellers can apparently settle into new groups just fine but that he can’t seem to manage it in the same way...
The same applies somewhat to the other forms of bonds Travellers form. With the nature of a Wild Card’s abilities being what they are, he’s grown very sensitive to the concept of forcing or using any supernatural connections between people that don’t form purely naturally. It leaves a bad taste in his mouth, and more than that, has had him starting to rethink the concept of ‘social links’... He’s got a lot to work out.
VETERAN?: N/A: previous run for the character lasted from the original Digital Frontier until the Walkabout opposite Elsewhere University. Three and a half years, damn.
ABILITIES:
Oh god.
We're dealing with an old-time Traveller here, so here's a list from his original run at the game.
In a nutshell, though:
- Persona: The classic! Summoning an avatar of your inner thoughts and feelings to beat up on things or support others in combat. He's the Wild Card leader for his Inaba's Rescue Team, giving him access to a larger range of Personas to summon than most.
- Reading the stars: Beginning with skills inherited from an overlay early in his Travels, Kanji's collected a number of abilities that relate to signal analysis and transmissions, encryption and decryption. He can basically pick up on any data or radiation around him. His Questing Country role as Adversary of Signals adds even more to this.
- Traveller Skill Expertise: Kanji's been quite the pioneer when it comes to Liminal and Psychic expertise; the Aiya diner was the first Permanent structure in Liminal Space! He started pushing into advancing Hybrid Skill territory before he ... left.
- Shapeshifting Talents: Kanji's got what at least once was a decent selection of forms available to him – pure and hybrid Hecatite, Stonefolk, and octo-mermaid, and two of his skills can alter his form in more wide-reaching ways for limited times.
- Piyo!: His Pogemon partner, Piyoshi is an adorable spacebird; they have very limited combat abilities, but can use song abilities to stun or disorient opponents.
INVENTORY: A pocket sewing kit, a wallet with a few thousand yen in notes and coins, a cellphone with a damn adorable bunny strap on it... and whatever he’s left in his hammerspace from last time.
ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW?This AU is shared with Naoki atleftbehindagain; their Chie has also Travelled, though she is currently not present.
M A R K S;
N/A: he was picked by Chariot in the earlier stages of the game.
S A M P L E S;
ACTIONSPAM SAMPLE:
What the hell have you lot been doing while I was away? Runnin’ dungeons for one of the Arcana – think I’m missing something here. How can ya have a Shadow when your mind is ... everything that your, uh, idiom is? Though just the dungeon bit... I mean, space and thought and all that bullshit are all the same thing for ‘em, in ways it can’t be for us? So that musta gotten really mixed up around there... Think I’m gonna have to look into that some more. Hell of a thing, though. Man. Well done.
But that ain’t the point here! The point is, I just heard about that Tower shit – I – I can’t – agh! Look, if the Arcana were plannin’ to really fuck something up, I’da been there with them. But ‘because they’re there’ ain’t a good reason to, I dunno, go tear a hole in the universe! Sometimes, the world needs Tower-ness. Make a clean break and get a fresh start. Been there, done that. Seen people who need it. Thing is ... when the thing that’s gettin’ broken is the idea of making a break... how the hell is that meant to work? Or make shit better?
How did I manage to come back and have everything be even more complicated than it was before, huh? Makin’ my head hurt.
PROSE SAMPLE: Test Drive!
NAME: Sleepy
AGE: ...30+.
PLAYER JOURNAL:
sleepyphoenix or dreaminghiveTIMEZONE: GMT, sadly
CONTACT: Discord Sleepy#4118, PMs.
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: Haru Okumura
C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Kanji Tatsumi
CANON: Persona 4 (AU)
POINT IN CANON: Updating to post-Ultimax
AGE: 16yo in canon / 19yo as Traveller.
APPEARANCE: Canon era, age 16. Traveller art and again
CANON HISTORY:
Here’s Megaten Wiki’s lowdown.
CANON PERSONALITY:
At first glance, it's easy to make assumptions about Kanji. He's a drop-out. A delinquent. The sort of person who just wants to cause trouble, and doesn't care what anyone else thinks. The way he carries himself, his dress, his hair: he could be any gang member on the streets. This image carries through in a casual conversation with him, too: his speech patterns are rough and casual with a fair helping of bad language - 'get bent' could almost be his catchphrase (though he technically only says it around three times ingame) and he’s been seen to even call his mother an ‘old hag’ when stressed! - and he's all too likely to go on the attack at the slightest provocation, at least before he’s mellowed out over the course of canon. He loves the chance to prove himself to be strong, going by his reaction to the idea that he’s dreaming about a grand tournament (which proved to be real…). He typically acts before he thinks through the consequences, and he’s no academic, to say the least - a lot of the time, he’s willing to let his fists do the talking. He’s also extremely adept at improvising with weaponry (being known for attacking opponents with a chair!)
However, while it's inaccurate to refer to his rough exterior as entirely a front, it's not the entirety of who and what he is. It's a defense mechanism, developed over many years, that's worked a little too well in protecting his inner self from the scrutinies of others. Inside, Kanji's spent a long time deeply insecure about who he is, and while during the course of the game he's worked to overcome this and become happy with himself it's taken him a long time to do so. If he's in any way accused of being strange or weird - or if he perceives it, something which he has a tendency to do so over the smallest thing - it's very likely that he'll go straight for the throat in his replies. Given some of his friends tend to be less than tactful, this is someting that’s happened on a regular basis. Even worse, he's very likely to fly off in a rage if his berserk buttons are pressed, or otherwise over-react, though he's working on controlling that much. Examples would be his chasing down his future friends angrily on their first meeting, believing they were calling him weird, or his charging into the girls’ tent on a camping trip at the thought that it’d prove him to be more interested in them than his tent-mates.
On a more positive note? He's very generous, when he gets the chance to be, being willing to give both his time and his handiwork very freely to others. For example, he goes out of his way to try and find a child’s lost toy and replace it immediately on hearing about what happened to it. He's a very protective individual, too, standing up for those weaker than him against accusation and trouble at the drop of a hat. As far as he’s concerned, there’s no point in having the strength he’s chased for so long if he can’t do the right thing with it. Even if he doesn’t want to fight for its own sake, he is more than willing to do so when it’s needed. A lot of his history of conflict comes from him trying to do what's right and look out for others: he's been known to go as far as tearing a whole biker gang apart single-handedly just to save his mother's sleep at night. When he warms up to someone, he softens quite a bit, becoming extremely caring, a loyal friend or a devoted big brother figure.
If that progresses to the point of actual attraction, that’s when things become more than a little awkward - he's not the greatest at admitting to his feelings, to say the least. He blushes, he flails, he can't find the right words, and frequently shoots himself in the foot. This can be seen in his interactions with his crush, Naoto, in canon - even when put in a position to do something that could be seen as romantic with her, for example something as simple as sharing an umbrella, he instead makes things worse for himself. As of the end of canon, he’s never been able to tell anyone what he feels, even when everyone else can see it.
Kanji's problems ultimately largely stem from a conflict between his natural interests and preferences, what society expects of him, and how what he likes and would otherwise act are perceived. He's spent his whole life trying to be a 'real man', thanks to his dying father's urges and influences - but he's grown up with hobbies that are seen as 'unmanly', loving to sew and knit thanks to his upbringing around his family's textile business and being fond of putting his considerable skills to use on creating such things as cute charms and plushies. Putting it bluntly, he loves cute and fluffy things! Such things as fur coats and his teddy-bear team-mate have all caught his attention at some point… If he’s around people who accept him for who he is, and for who won’t mock him for it, he does rather get carried away with it at times. While he gets to the point of being able to be proud of his skills with the needle, he doesn’t hold a great opinion of his other intellectual abilities - though in a forgotten timeline, he was at least confident enough in them to consider that he could one day improve them and be smarter, and some remnants of that have been seen lingering.
Unfortunately, not only have his hobbies been dismissed as 'unmanly', but they've caused plenty of accusations about his sexuality. He's had reason to consider that he might be gay on his own, and acknowledges there's a part of him that's bothered regarding relationships with girls, but overall, he's a rather confused young man as to where his actual attractions lie (particularly given that he fell for a cross-dressing team-mate without knowing her true gender…)
In the end, though, he's stated that his problems aren't about the gender of who he's attracted to - but whether he knows that they won't reject him in the same way as he's often felt rejected by society. The idea scares him more than anything. And for all he's struggled with the idea of what being a 'real man' means, he's come to accept it as meaning putting his all into everything he does... a trait that he's proud to have.
POINT OF DEPARTURE:
AU Background:
One day, April 2011, Kanji found himself running errands down near the gas station in Inaba. Found himself talking to a gas station attendant he didn't recognise while his bike was getting fixed up.
Found himself getting a handshake that, in another world, would have been given to another person: but Yu Narukami would not arrive in town until after school had started, and Izanami saw something interesting in the young man that was worth testing. An outsider by his own flaws and actions, who'd put up walls between himself and the world, but someone not yet broken. Was there still hope left for someone like that?
Kanji quickly discovered what had happened to him after some damn odd dreams - and spotting a vision on the TV one night, while up working on a project, and reaching out to it… looked like the rumours were true, after all. The Midnight Channel. And the visions on the television kept coming… followed closely by something more ominous. The strange murders in the town.
He finally confided in an old friend, Naoki - probably the only one he had left, after his downturn into fear and delinquency - later in the week. What started out as just a way to help take his friend’s mind off his recent loss turned into more. And so, they set out to investigate Saki’s death - something that would take them into another world, leading Kanji to discover other elements of the power he’d been granted.
His first Persona. Izanagi. A manly, creative force, looking like some kind of gang leader - on understanding what his ability truly meant, he’d think it made sense. A creator god for a craftsman, someone who'd brave hell for the one he loved for one with a loyal heart....
Chie would shove her way onto the team after finding them snooping around the Amagi Inn, looking into the threat to its young future manager, Yukiko; she later joined them. They weren’t the only people investigating the strange murders in the town, of course - “Detective Prince” Naoto, arriving in Inaba and spotting their activities, wound up talking to (and intriguing) Kanji… just in time, in early June, to end up thrown into the TV. Idol Rise Kujikawa would be the next to join them, with their TV world ally Teddie stepping up his active role at that point too. The last of their group would be a second-year by the name of Takahiro, whose meltdown caught on air would have him pushed into the TV world in September for the worst rescue yet.
They’d prove to be good friends to Kanji - something he’d not realised how much he needed. And in turn, with them joining their mission, he’d slowly grow into the leadership role he’d inadvertently found himself in.
He’d find himself making a lot of new friends, forming a lot of new bonds, that year. From the teacher who finally encouraged him to actually try his best at school, to the young boy he saw about to make the same mistakes he once had at that age, to the girl who first welcomed him on summoning the courage to set foot in the crafts club, to many more besides - including the bond he’d broken with his own mother. It’d be hard, but it’d teach him that he didn’t have to push everyone away, and just what he could accomplish with them by his side… slowly, he could repair the damage that he’d caused, show the world that he was more than a delinquent. Punk look or no.
And among those bonds, some would go … that bit further. He’d grown to distrust the idea of romance, and the idea that he could actually find someone he liked… no. No-one’d be interested in him, he was sure.
But they were - and he surprised himself by realising he returned their feelings.
(In a time that never existed, too, he’d make new bonds, and earn the respect of another group of Persona users as a reliable and determined leader for their combined teams - once they’d gotten over the fact that the Yasogami High team had an underclassman in charge. Didn’t hurt that his artistic talents lent themselves to him drawing some damn good maps... though it wouldn’t be his duty when a similar incident had them trapped in an realm where movies were real places to explore.)
Still, it wouldn’t all be smooth sailing, and things came to a head in November. The group were able to dismiss kidnapper Namatame as the original killer, and talk him down from any further “rescues” - after all, with both a detective there from early on and one of the victims’ brother able to provide more information as to what’d happened, they had a lot to go on. Unfortunately, their activities caught the actual killer’s attention, and Adachi would go after Naoto as the team’s ‘real’ detective. When he tried to force her into the TV, she took him for the ride, and the two ended up separated in the process. At least she didn’t have to re-confront her Shadow, but the rescue still wasn’t fun - especially when they finally traced the culprit down. Adachi had retreated to his own region of the TV world, and stopping him would be a hell of a ride. Just what was that that’d merged with his Shadow? What was ‘Kunino-Sagiri’ supposed to be?
By the end, he’d wanted them to finish him off, but - no. Kanji wanted justice, not revenge, and he made that clear as they dragged the cop out of there.
Sure. The murder mystery was solved. But what about the fog in the town, that’d settled in for good? And what about Teddie’s going off on his own little quest? That much would lead them back into the TV, and to the entity that seemed to be behind the fog.
But even that didn’t tie up all the loose ends. What had given him these powers in the first place? Could that really be all? While he thought he knew why his first Persona was who it was, was that everything that myth had to offer? And when one of his new friends turned out to be more than she seemed to be, it was just more proof that they still had to get to the bottom of it all…
In the end, they worked it out - and traced everything back to the gas station where it all began.
So their final target was a goddess. So what? They’d been defying the odds this whole time - this wasn’t the time to give up now! It wasn’t going to be easy, though. Despite all of Kanji’s best attempts to keep his group safe - they were the ones who pushed him out of harm’s way, before he too was pulled into the underworld’s embrace.
But they, too, were among those who called him back. And among all the bonds who he could see there that he’d forged or repaired over the past year? One he’d have never expected to see again. Here, between life and death…
His father. One who meant the world to him.
It was enough.
He awoke, pushed his glasses back - and called the power of truth itself down on Izanami.
…Closely followed by calling hell down on the friends who’d tried to sacrifice themselves for him.
What they could all agree on, once they were clear of the TV world and able to celebrate? It’d been a hell of a year.
Update: Arena and Ultimax
For the first couple of months after taking care of Izanami (and, here, returning to his timeline) Kanji’s life had been focused on making a fresh start; a clean(ish) school record from day one of his second year, helping make the family business a success. Biting off more than he could chew as usual, but some things don’t change. Apparently, the fact that Persona users’ lives are magnets for trouble is one of those things. Over Golden Week, Kanji and his team found themselves dragged into a series of fighting tournaments based in the worlds of Shadows; firstly, in the TV world, and secondarily seeing their own world temporarily invaded by an other-dimensional tower... The first series of fights would introduce them (or perhaps reintroduce them) to another group of Persona users originally from Iwatodai, and have them assisting a lost and confused robot by the name of Labrys – she would bond well with Kanji and his rescue team after he led them into the fray. The latter incident would have Inaba flooded with an even stranger fog than the one that’d plagued the town in the past, but again, two teams of Persona users would be forced into battle with each other and with duplicates of themselves in order to get to the bottom of the mystery. Kanji himself wouldn’t even bother to put his usual TV-crawling gear on before running out into the night to see what was happening... nothing wrong with saving the world in your pyjamas, right? No time to mess around! He teamed up again with Labrys for this incident, with the pair going to the source of the latest threat together (rather than apart as might have happened in other timelines...)
What better way to take down an enemy formed by others abandoning their bonds and loyalties than by forming a new one and learning to trust in each other?
Personality differences:
For the past year, Kanji’s been acting as the leader of his merry little band and reaching out to people that he might never have reached out to before. He’s matured a lot.
While he’ll never be a sophisticated speaker, he’s skilled enough at reassuring and encouraging people in his rough way. He knows when to rein in the shouting, swearing, and his own impulsive tendencies, even if his control’s far from perfect. He strives to be someone that his friends and team can come to and rely on, and he’s very protective over them.
While it was tricky for him to come to terms with, he’s pretty much accepted his sexuality as “attracted to smart, interesting people regardless of their gender” - he’s far more confident where romance is concerned overall than his canon counterpart.
He’s far less likely to dismiss his own skills than his canon counterpart, whether physical or mental, and he’s fought the whole way to prove it to himself. Sure, he knows he’s not a genius, but he trusts his brain - if he doesn’t get something, he’s got no problem in persevering until he does, or he finds another way to look at a problem. In turn, he’s huge on the idea that anyone can do anything they put their minds to, and that anyone can redeem themselves if they do the same.
However, he’s still got his share of issues. He’s still not always the best at dealing with authority, though he's definitely improved in that regard compared to his counterpart, and he's especially not good with people who abuse their authority. If he were to encounter his Shadow, it’d make it very clear that he’s still scared… he doesn’t always believe he deserves to be the leader, doesn’t always believe in his own strength, feels that he relies on his friends too much. While he no longer sees admitting to what he likes as a sign of weakness, he's very reluctant to let any actual signs that he can't cope with things show, even to his closest friends, especially given he's the youngest of the team - he can't let anyone think that he's 'just the kid'. He's constantly putting himself under pressure to be the leader he thinks he needs to be. It's all a strong facade from someone who’s still trying to learn what strength means.
Ingame/update development:
In some ways, Travelling did a lot for Kanji. In others ... it’s hurt him in unexpected ways. He’s grown up from a kid to an adult in Liminal Space, and expanded his horizons; he’s become more confident in who and what he is, in general, and even more willing to trust in the fact there is more to intelligence than sheer book smarts. He’s grown to realise that protecting his friends doesn’t have to mean in a physical sense; his Travelling abilities have given him a lot of ways to support them, including what Persona users would typically call navigation skills – ways to look after more people than just the ones he’s directly fighting with. He’s slowly becoming more willing to admit when he needs the help, and his experience rescuing Labrys has reflected that back at him too.
Still, growing has been complicated. The Traveller Naoto once told him ‘you belong in the stars’, and in some ways, he’s never wanted to let her down... He’s determined to make something of himself that’s more than he could have been in Inaba. He’s aware that the small town doesn’t offer him a lot of opportunities – but at the same time, he’s aware that it’s where his roots lie, and it’s hard for him to feel comfortable breaking those ties. The Traveller tendency towards adopting others as ‘family’ has become increasingly awkward for him over time; he’s grown resentful of the way that other Travellers can apparently settle into new groups just fine but that he can’t seem to manage it in the same way...
The same applies somewhat to the other forms of bonds Travellers form. With the nature of a Wild Card’s abilities being what they are, he’s grown very sensitive to the concept of forcing or using any supernatural connections between people that don’t form purely naturally. It leaves a bad taste in his mouth, and more than that, has had him starting to rethink the concept of ‘social links’... He’s got a lot to work out.
VETERAN?: N/A: previous run for the character lasted from the original Digital Frontier until the Walkabout opposite Elsewhere University. Three and a half years, damn.
ABILITIES:
Oh god.
We're dealing with an old-time Traveller here, so here's a list from his original run at the game.
In a nutshell, though:
- Persona: The classic! Summoning an avatar of your inner thoughts and feelings to beat up on things or support others in combat. He's the Wild Card leader for his Inaba's Rescue Team, giving him access to a larger range of Personas to summon than most.
- Reading the stars: Beginning with skills inherited from an overlay early in his Travels, Kanji's collected a number of abilities that relate to signal analysis and transmissions, encryption and decryption. He can basically pick up on any data or radiation around him. His Questing Country role as Adversary of Signals adds even more to this.
- Traveller Skill Expertise: Kanji's been quite the pioneer when it comes to Liminal and Psychic expertise; the Aiya diner was the first Permanent structure in Liminal Space! He started pushing into advancing Hybrid Skill territory before he ... left.
- Shapeshifting Talents: Kanji's got what at least once was a decent selection of forms available to him – pure and hybrid Hecatite, Stonefolk, and octo-mermaid, and two of his skills can alter his form in more wide-reaching ways for limited times.
- Piyo!: His Pogemon partner, Piyoshi is an adorable spacebird; they have very limited combat abilities, but can use song abilities to stun or disorient opponents.
INVENTORY: A pocket sewing kit, a wallet with a few thousand yen in notes and coins, a cellphone with a damn adorable bunny strap on it... and whatever he’s left in his hammerspace from last time.
ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW?This AU is shared with Naoki at
leftbehindagain; their Chie has also Travelled, though she is currently not present.M A R K S;
N/A: he was picked by Chariot in the earlier stages of the game.
S A M P L E S;
ACTIONSPAM SAMPLE:
What the hell have you lot been doing while I was away? Runnin’ dungeons for one of the Arcana – think I’m missing something here. How can ya have a Shadow when your mind is ... everything that your, uh, idiom is? Though just the dungeon bit... I mean, space and thought and all that bullshit are all the same thing for ‘em, in ways it can’t be for us? So that musta gotten really mixed up around there... Think I’m gonna have to look into that some more. Hell of a thing, though. Man. Well done.
But that ain’t the point here! The point is, I just heard about that Tower shit – I – I can’t – agh! Look, if the Arcana were plannin’ to really fuck something up, I’da been there with them. But ‘because they’re there’ ain’t a good reason to, I dunno, go tear a hole in the universe! Sometimes, the world needs Tower-ness. Make a clean break and get a fresh start. Been there, done that. Seen people who need it. Thing is ... when the thing that’s gettin’ broken is the idea of making a break... how the hell is that meant to work? Or make shit better?
How did I manage to come back and have everything be even more complicated than it was before, huh? Makin’ my head hurt.
PROSE SAMPLE: Test Drive!