![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stitchedfromsteelOut Of Character Information
Name: Sleepy | [sleepyphoenix]
Are you over 16?: Yes
Time zone: GMT.
Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
sleepyphoenix
Anything we should know?: YA WANT SOME?
In Character Information
Name: Kanji Tatsumi (Anti Shadow Weapon 9th Generation Thyreos)
Series: Persona 4
Canon Standing: Post-P4 Arena, pre-Ultimax.
Age: Appears 15. He’s been active for a lot less time.
Birthday & Astrology Sign: Complicated, but originally January 19, Capricorn. (Listed as Aquarius on SMT wiki but all my sources say Capricorn for that date?)
Arcana: Emperor
AU | Previous Game Backstory:
Kanji’s canon background can be found here: http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Kanji_Tatsumi
Also relevant to this particular AU: http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-Shadow_Suppression_Weapon
The point of divergence for this AU occurs previously to Persona 3. Instead of the Anti Shadow Weapon program being abandoned completely after Aigis’ construction and the incident at Moonlight Bridge, another branch of the project continued on. The eighth generation was a failure, but the ninth…
In a manner that owed a lot to the research done during the time of Labrys and the fifth generation, part of the focus was on recreating an existing human’s personality, going as far as to transplant the memories almost directly. Making a robot that was more human on activation, rather than having to develop over time, and using more purely human components to do so. After falling ill, Kanji Tatsumi had been sent away from home to the Iwatodai hospital that shared his name - and from there, he’d been used as a template for the latest robot’s construction.
The Anti Shadow Weapon codenamed Thyreos (the name meaning ‘shield’) was activated successfully, showing a forceful personality from the moment he was switched on - but insisting his name was Kanji. The memory transfer had worked a bit too well… leaving him clinging to those memories as the only things he knew past his programmed in role.
During the reconstruction of the Kirijo Group and the establishment of the Shadow Ops, Mitsuru would find out about the existence of the other Anti Shadow Weapons (before he could be tested to see whether he could successfully activate a Persona). She offered Kanji the chance to go back to Inaba, and he took it, trying to tell himself that he was the same person as the boy his memories had come from. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be so easy, and trying to get into the swing of what he considered his old life would be riddled with problems - a mother scared and unsure if he was still her son, and a school suspicious of him on his arrival.
His attempt to prove how much he cared for her and how much she could rely on him went horribly wrong. After all, how could her son take on an entire biker gang unarmed?
This was, as with his original, enough to bring him to the attention of the cameras: and onto the Midnight Channel. Namatame would have to infiltrate the Tatsumis’ house to “save” Kanji, finding him shut down for diagnostics - but not quite willing to believe the evidence present around the place. And even if he accepted it, what would he tell other people?
He’d reactivate in a world hell-bent on shoving the truth about what he was and what had happened to his original into his face - and the faces of the group who were looking for him. A labyrinth of wires, broken machinery, and puppet imagery, and mechanical voices that sounded all around them. The truth that he’d have to face? That the first Kanji Tatsumi had died…
He joined up with the Investigation Team, feeling that he should try and save them from having to fight the Shadows themselves - they’re just human (and Teddie), after all, and this was what he was created for… what good was he if he couldn’t do that? Over time, he would come to learn that he didn’t have to do everything himself, and learn to accept the differences between the life he remembered and who he was.
However: pushing himself too far during the fight with Kunino-Sagiri would have side effects. While the group had learned to repair most of his damage handily, what he'd sustained from combat and overclocking his systems this time would be enough that they had to contact the Shadow Ops, who would be involved with the situation until Adachi’s capture. They would take the killer into their custody - but not knowing about Izanami, the Inaba team would be left to tackle the goddess herself on their own. With what information Kanji could give her, Naoto would start looking into the organization early.
The dynamic of the P4 Grand Prix tournament would be changed drastically with the two sides knowing each other from the start. Not to mention the confusion that came with having a robot on both sides… Mitsuru would ask Kanji if he wanted to come back with them again at the end - but conversely, he and his mother would ask Labrys if she wanted to live with them instead. She agreed, planning to come back soon.
Major Differences (List Form):
* …Well, he’s a robot. Created as part of the Anti Shadow Weapon program and based on the original Kanji’s memory and personality. He's clearly visibly identifiable compared to the original, though he habitually covers up the worst of his mechanical features.
* His personal issues, and therefore TV world area and Social Link, differ wildly from canon Kanji’s. No Bad Bad Bathhouse, sorry.
* His TV dungeon highlights the fact that he’s trying to deny that he’s not the same as the human Kanji was, and his Social Link is him learning to find happiness in his life for what he really is (as an example, he’s not capable of knitting and sewing as well, so he’s trying to find something to take its place in his life.)
* His interactions with the rest of the team are affected to various extents:
-- Yosuke finds him stranger than before, but eventually agrees to help him with his maintenance problems. (After all, if he can cope with Teddie...)
-- Yukiko doesn't quite know how to deal with this copy of someone she knew as a child, but she's willing to help him where she can.She also makes him glad he can't eat or taste anything.
-- He shares Teddie's worries about what being human and being real means.
-- Naoto finds him fascinating as a machine. It takes them a while to get to the point where he understands that she doesn't see him as less for it - he's awkward as ever around her, but understands why even less than his original.
-- Chie is interested in what he's actually able to do.
-- Rise finds him strange to begin with, but understands what it's like to have to try and be something you're not, and to be looking for your own identity. They eventually get on better than before.
-- That said, Yu is his usual protag self.
* He doesn’t get on well with his mother, even compared to their canon conflicts, to begin with; she’s actually Yu’s Empress Social Link for this timeline, as she learns to adjust.
* He, and the rest of the Investigation Team, deal with the Shadow Ops when they're taking down Adachi.
* Overall, the Inaba and Iwatodai groups have more overlap in their dealings. There is a lot of confusion during the P1 GP regarding the identity of the ‘missing robot’…
Personality:
Canonically?
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 and he's all too likely to go on the attack at the slightest provocation. He loves to fight, loves the challenge and the adrenalin rush, and he's 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. Even worse, he's very likely to fly off in a rage if his berserk buttons are pressed, though he's working on controlling that much.
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. He's a very protective individual, too, standing up for those weaker than him against accusation and trouble at the drop of a hat. 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 and possibly 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.
The canon 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…)
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 been known to state 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. 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.
However, ‘real’ can mean a lot of different things…
…and in this version of Kanji’s case, the question becomes rather more literal.
He’s a very confused individual, to say the least. While he’s had a lot of help in coming to terms with the fact that he’s not the original Kanji, he’s still having trouble finding out just where he fits into this world. During periods of the investigation when they believed that the Shadow threat was finished, the fact that he was basically a weapon with no target has played on his mind a lot… he can’t do what his original once did, can’t make the “cute shit” that he once did, so what is he supposed to do? It worries him, though it’s not something that he’ll admit to freely. In fact, he’s not entirely sure that he shouldn’t have left with the Shadow Ops when the P4 Grand Prix ended…
It takes a lot for this version of Kanji to open up to others much. He’s extremely defensive, given that if he’s found out for what he is, it could lead to trouble quickly. As with his original, he’s very quick to jump on any suggestion that he’s weird or strange. However, his sexuality isn’t as much part of that issue, here - in fact, he barely knows that he even has one, and the fact that he has any feelings that might be considered romantic confuse him to no end. Is he supposed to or isn’t he? He's very, very clueless where it's concerned.
He’s a lot more naive on a lot of counts than his original, actually: while he has full access to his human self’s memories, it’s more like they’re the pages of a book, or a memory of a dream. He lacks the emotional connection to them. He’s still learning his way around what real feelings are overall, and that he’s experiencing them differently to the memories he had when he woke up. Whether or not he should try and stay loyal to them as he develops his own life and has new experiences is something that preys on his mind.
While the original Kanji was driven to protect those he cares for, this version takes it to an extreme. He will throw himself into harm’s way for those who might be in danger on a second’s notice. After all, he can be repaired, can’t he? He was made for this! It’s a habit - and more than that, a programmed-in trait - that his friends have been trying to get him to break. He doesn’t have to take all the danger on himself, but isn’t this why he’s here? So no-one else has to get hurt?
He has a little more respect for authority and rules than the old Kanji does, having had less run-ins with them and a certain amount of conditioning and programming, but still doesn’t entirely trust them given his interactions with some of the scientists who created him. He’s more likely to skip school to try and avoid being found out for what he is than anything else.
Only his closest friends and family get to use his codename (only Aigis and Labrys use it as a default). With anyone else, he tends to snap at them, taking it as a sign that they see him as a machine rather than a person - something that’s as much of a berserk button for him as “so do you like girls anyway” is for his original self. Any implication that he’s less than anyone else, that he’s less than a human, that he’s not real - it’ll likely result in someone getting punched through a window.
He’s not the original Kanji Tatsumi, sure, but he’s the one who’s here now. And if they don’t like it? They’ll have to deal with it.
Canon Powers:
Canon Kanji is an existing Persona user, with Take-Mikazuchi wielding physical attacks and electric techniques. A full rundown of mostly everything he has available to him can be found here: http://realmenknitplushies.dreamwidth.org/3193.html
AU Kanji’s Persona here differs from his original’s Take-Mikazuchi. Talos is highly slanted towards endurance and defensive techniques.
On top of that, he comes with inbuilt weaponry: dual machine guns built into his arms (Pierce damage). He is also capable of operating in a powered-up overdrive mode, although this poses a danger to him the more he pushes its limits and the longer he runs it for. Overall, he’s designed to operate in environments that would be hazardous to a human, such as extremes of temperature. He’s physically stronger than a human, and his melee attack skills show it, being as willing to punch something out as shoot it (Strike damage).
On a lighter note? Like Aigis, he’s able to understand and communicate with animals freely.
Canon Weapons|Items:
(Canon would basically be a folding chair or a shield of some sort.)
AU: Aforementioned inbuilt machine guns. And his fists.
Canon Allies:
N/A
Canon Baggage:
A monitoring and charging station (similar to that which Aigis is seen to own in Persona 3), various bits of maintenance equipment, a couple of crates of ammo, clothes adjusted to hide his mechanical traits - and an absolute host of various cute and crafty ornaments and plushies that he’s acquired.
Persona
Arcana: Emperor
Name: Talos
(Moveset to be determined later. Focuses on physical attacks, with possibly some electric element in there too, and support skills that boost his endurance in battle.)
Writing Sample
Test drive!
Extra:
A city of Persona users.
That wasn’t the entirety of it, that was true: but it was close enough for Kanji. A city where something that they’d worked so hard to keep hidden wasn’t a secret, but something to be celebrated… it was eerie to think about, to say the least. For someone so used to keeping secrets just to live his day to day life, the idea of having one of those taken away from him? It should have been a relief, he knew. But it wasn’t. Not when it made the burden of hiding the other secret worse once more.
Here he was, then, walking through the city streets, passively scanning the scene. This was going to take some getting used to… one school trip and scattered glances out of car windows hardly made for a substantial experience. No data he could download, really, either. He was on his own.
Still, he was made for this. So he had to be confused for a bit. So what? Was he going to let that get in the way? No. He had a job to do, and dammit, he was going to get it done. First stop, though, he needed to find the city hall. Ugh, dealing with official business… they’d better not ask too many questions.
As he walked, something moved, just enough to ping on his senses - he looked over. A little smudge in the corner, under a box - oh. Oh. That was just… poor little thing!
The kitten looked up at him, fearful, as he crouched down to look. Big-scary, weird-smell - go away!
“Hey! Hey, I smell fine, okay?” he retorted, a little louder than he’d meant to be when dealing with something so small, shuffling backwards a bit all the same. “Don’t gimme that.”
Stop! Scary! Strange!
Gah - he was not going to take that from a kitten… a sweet, fragile little… damn. As quietly as he could manage, he whispered - “If ya want me to stop, okay. I’ll stop. But I just wanna make sure you’re alright. Is your mother around?”
It seemed to calm a little. Bigger one was here once. Now she isn’t. The simple message just about sent a shudder through his system and he closed his eyes. Being alone… no.
His mind was made up. “Look. I - I ain’t gonna leave you here. Not where you’re gonna get hurt.” Very cautiously, steadily, he reached out a hand towards it. Hesitantly, the kitten moved forward, sniffing - “C’mon. Climb on here. You’re gonna be fine.”
Name: Sleepy | [
sleepyphoenix]Are you over 16?: Yes
Time zone: GMT.
Contact:
Anything we should know?: YA WANT SOME?
In Character Information
Name: Kanji Tatsumi (Anti Shadow Weapon 9th Generation Thyreos)
Series: Persona 4
Canon Standing: Post-P4 Arena, pre-Ultimax.
Age: Appears 15. He’s been active for a lot less time.
Birthday & Astrology Sign: Complicated, but originally January 19, Capricorn. (Listed as Aquarius on SMT wiki but all my sources say Capricorn for that date?)
Arcana: Emperor
AU | Previous Game Backstory:
Kanji’s canon background can be found here: http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Kanji_Tatsumi
Also relevant to this particular AU: http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-Shadow_Suppression_Weapon
The point of divergence for this AU occurs previously to Persona 3. Instead of the Anti Shadow Weapon program being abandoned completely after Aigis’ construction and the incident at Moonlight Bridge, another branch of the project continued on. The eighth generation was a failure, but the ninth…
In a manner that owed a lot to the research done during the time of Labrys and the fifth generation, part of the focus was on recreating an existing human’s personality, going as far as to transplant the memories almost directly. Making a robot that was more human on activation, rather than having to develop over time, and using more purely human components to do so. After falling ill, Kanji Tatsumi had been sent away from home to the Iwatodai hospital that shared his name - and from there, he’d been used as a template for the latest robot’s construction.
The Anti Shadow Weapon codenamed Thyreos (the name meaning ‘shield’) was activated successfully, showing a forceful personality from the moment he was switched on - but insisting his name was Kanji. The memory transfer had worked a bit too well… leaving him clinging to those memories as the only things he knew past his programmed in role.
During the reconstruction of the Kirijo Group and the establishment of the Shadow Ops, Mitsuru would find out about the existence of the other Anti Shadow Weapons (before he could be tested to see whether he could successfully activate a Persona). She offered Kanji the chance to go back to Inaba, and he took it, trying to tell himself that he was the same person as the boy his memories had come from. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t be so easy, and trying to get into the swing of what he considered his old life would be riddled with problems - a mother scared and unsure if he was still her son, and a school suspicious of him on his arrival.
His attempt to prove how much he cared for her and how much she could rely on him went horribly wrong. After all, how could her son take on an entire biker gang unarmed?
This was, as with his original, enough to bring him to the attention of the cameras: and onto the Midnight Channel. Namatame would have to infiltrate the Tatsumis’ house to “save” Kanji, finding him shut down for diagnostics - but not quite willing to believe the evidence present around the place. And even if he accepted it, what would he tell other people?
He’d reactivate in a world hell-bent on shoving the truth about what he was and what had happened to his original into his face - and the faces of the group who were looking for him. A labyrinth of wires, broken machinery, and puppet imagery, and mechanical voices that sounded all around them. The truth that he’d have to face? That the first Kanji Tatsumi had died…
He joined up with the Investigation Team, feeling that he should try and save them from having to fight the Shadows themselves - they’re just human (and Teddie), after all, and this was what he was created for… what good was he if he couldn’t do that? Over time, he would come to learn that he didn’t have to do everything himself, and learn to accept the differences between the life he remembered and who he was.
However: pushing himself too far during the fight with Kunino-Sagiri would have side effects. While the group had learned to repair most of his damage handily, what he'd sustained from combat and overclocking his systems this time would be enough that they had to contact the Shadow Ops, who would be involved with the situation until Adachi’s capture. They would take the killer into their custody - but not knowing about Izanami, the Inaba team would be left to tackle the goddess herself on their own. With what information Kanji could give her, Naoto would start looking into the organization early.
The dynamic of the P4 Grand Prix tournament would be changed drastically with the two sides knowing each other from the start. Not to mention the confusion that came with having a robot on both sides… Mitsuru would ask Kanji if he wanted to come back with them again at the end - but conversely, he and his mother would ask Labrys if she wanted to live with them instead. She agreed, planning to come back soon.
Major Differences (List Form):
* …Well, he’s a robot. Created as part of the Anti Shadow Weapon program and based on the original Kanji’s memory and personality. He's clearly visibly identifiable compared to the original, though he habitually covers up the worst of his mechanical features.
* His personal issues, and therefore TV world area and Social Link, differ wildly from canon Kanji’s. No Bad Bad Bathhouse, sorry.
* His TV dungeon highlights the fact that he’s trying to deny that he’s not the same as the human Kanji was, and his Social Link is him learning to find happiness in his life for what he really is (as an example, he’s not capable of knitting and sewing as well, so he’s trying to find something to take its place in his life.)
* His interactions with the rest of the team are affected to various extents:
-- Yosuke finds him stranger than before, but eventually agrees to help him with his maintenance problems. (After all, if he can cope with Teddie...)
-- Yukiko doesn't quite know how to deal with this copy of someone she knew as a child, but she's willing to help him where she can.
-- He shares Teddie's worries about what being human and being real means.
-- Naoto finds him fascinating as a machine. It takes them a while to get to the point where he understands that she doesn't see him as less for it - he's awkward as ever around her, but understands why even less than his original.
-- Chie is interested in what he's actually able to do.
-- Rise finds him strange to begin with, but understands what it's like to have to try and be something you're not, and to be looking for your own identity. They eventually get on better than before.
-- That said, Yu is his usual protag self.
* He doesn’t get on well with his mother, even compared to their canon conflicts, to begin with; she’s actually Yu’s Empress Social Link for this timeline, as she learns to adjust.
* He, and the rest of the Investigation Team, deal with the Shadow Ops when they're taking down Adachi.
* Overall, the Inaba and Iwatodai groups have more overlap in their dealings. There is a lot of confusion during the P1 GP regarding the identity of the ‘missing robot’…
Personality:
Canonically?
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 and he's all too likely to go on the attack at the slightest provocation. He loves to fight, loves the challenge and the adrenalin rush, and he's 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. Even worse, he's very likely to fly off in a rage if his berserk buttons are pressed, though he's working on controlling that much.
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. He's a very protective individual, too, standing up for those weaker than him against accusation and trouble at the drop of a hat. 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 and possibly 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.
The canon 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…)
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 been known to state 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. 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.
However, ‘real’ can mean a lot of different things…
…and in this version of Kanji’s case, the question becomes rather more literal.
He’s a very confused individual, to say the least. While he’s had a lot of help in coming to terms with the fact that he’s not the original Kanji, he’s still having trouble finding out just where he fits into this world. During periods of the investigation when they believed that the Shadow threat was finished, the fact that he was basically a weapon with no target has played on his mind a lot… he can’t do what his original once did, can’t make the “cute shit” that he once did, so what is he supposed to do? It worries him, though it’s not something that he’ll admit to freely. In fact, he’s not entirely sure that he shouldn’t have left with the Shadow Ops when the P4 Grand Prix ended…
It takes a lot for this version of Kanji to open up to others much. He’s extremely defensive, given that if he’s found out for what he is, it could lead to trouble quickly. As with his original, he’s very quick to jump on any suggestion that he’s weird or strange. However, his sexuality isn’t as much part of that issue, here - in fact, he barely knows that he even has one, and the fact that he has any feelings that might be considered romantic confuse him to no end. Is he supposed to or isn’t he? He's very, very clueless where it's concerned.
He’s a lot more naive on a lot of counts than his original, actually: while he has full access to his human self’s memories, it’s more like they’re the pages of a book, or a memory of a dream. He lacks the emotional connection to them. He’s still learning his way around what real feelings are overall, and that he’s experiencing them differently to the memories he had when he woke up. Whether or not he should try and stay loyal to them as he develops his own life and has new experiences is something that preys on his mind.
While the original Kanji was driven to protect those he cares for, this version takes it to an extreme. He will throw himself into harm’s way for those who might be in danger on a second’s notice. After all, he can be repaired, can’t he? He was made for this! It’s a habit - and more than that, a programmed-in trait - that his friends have been trying to get him to break. He doesn’t have to take all the danger on himself, but isn’t this why he’s here? So no-one else has to get hurt?
He has a little more respect for authority and rules than the old Kanji does, having had less run-ins with them and a certain amount of conditioning and programming, but still doesn’t entirely trust them given his interactions with some of the scientists who created him. He’s more likely to skip school to try and avoid being found out for what he is than anything else.
Only his closest friends and family get to use his codename (only Aigis and Labrys use it as a default). With anyone else, he tends to snap at them, taking it as a sign that they see him as a machine rather than a person - something that’s as much of a berserk button for him as “so do you like girls anyway” is for his original self. Any implication that he’s less than anyone else, that he’s less than a human, that he’s not real - it’ll likely result in someone getting punched through a window.
He’s not the original Kanji Tatsumi, sure, but he’s the one who’s here now. And if they don’t like it? They’ll have to deal with it.
Canon Powers:
Canon Kanji is an existing Persona user, with Take-Mikazuchi wielding physical attacks and electric techniques. A full rundown of mostly everything he has available to him can be found here: http://realmenknitplushies.dreamwidth.org/3193.html
AU Kanji’s Persona here differs from his original’s Take-Mikazuchi. Talos is highly slanted towards endurance and defensive techniques.
On top of that, he comes with inbuilt weaponry: dual machine guns built into his arms (Pierce damage). He is also capable of operating in a powered-up overdrive mode, although this poses a danger to him the more he pushes its limits and the longer he runs it for. Overall, he’s designed to operate in environments that would be hazardous to a human, such as extremes of temperature. He’s physically stronger than a human, and his melee attack skills show it, being as willing to punch something out as shoot it (Strike damage).
On a lighter note? Like Aigis, he’s able to understand and communicate with animals freely.
Canon Weapons|Items:
(Canon would basically be a folding chair or a shield of some sort.)
AU: Aforementioned inbuilt machine guns. And his fists.
Canon Allies:
N/A
Canon Baggage:
A monitoring and charging station (similar to that which Aigis is seen to own in Persona 3), various bits of maintenance equipment, a couple of crates of ammo, clothes adjusted to hide his mechanical traits - and an absolute host of various cute and crafty ornaments and plushies that he’s acquired.
Persona
Arcana: Emperor
Name: Talos
(Moveset to be determined later. Focuses on physical attacks, with possibly some electric element in there too, and support skills that boost his endurance in battle.)
Writing Sample
Test drive!
Extra:
A city of Persona users.
That wasn’t the entirety of it, that was true: but it was close enough for Kanji. A city where something that they’d worked so hard to keep hidden wasn’t a secret, but something to be celebrated… it was eerie to think about, to say the least. For someone so used to keeping secrets just to live his day to day life, the idea of having one of those taken away from him? It should have been a relief, he knew. But it wasn’t. Not when it made the burden of hiding the other secret worse once more.
Here he was, then, walking through the city streets, passively scanning the scene. This was going to take some getting used to… one school trip and scattered glances out of car windows hardly made for a substantial experience. No data he could download, really, either. He was on his own.
Still, he was made for this. So he had to be confused for a bit. So what? Was he going to let that get in the way? No. He had a job to do, and dammit, he was going to get it done. First stop, though, he needed to find the city hall. Ugh, dealing with official business… they’d better not ask too many questions.
As he walked, something moved, just enough to ping on his senses - he looked over. A little smudge in the corner, under a box - oh. Oh. That was just… poor little thing!
The kitten looked up at him, fearful, as he crouched down to look. Big-scary, weird-smell - go away!
“Hey! Hey, I smell fine, okay?” he retorted, a little louder than he’d meant to be when dealing with something so small, shuffling backwards a bit all the same. “Don’t gimme that.”
Stop! Scary! Strange!
Gah - he was not going to take that from a kitten… a sweet, fragile little… damn. As quietly as he could manage, he whispered - “If ya want me to stop, okay. I’ll stop. But I just wanna make sure you’re alright. Is your mother around?”
It seemed to calm a little. Bigger one was here once. Now she isn’t. The simple message just about sent a shudder through his system and he closed his eyes. Being alone… no.
His mind was made up. “Look. I - I ain’t gonna leave you here. Not where you’re gonna get hurt.” Very cautiously, steadily, he reached out a hand towards it. Hesitantly, the kitten moved forward, sniffing - “C’mon. Climb on here. You’re gonna be fine.”
