APPLICATION: Empatheias

[cuteshit]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Christine
Contact: necrofancy or PM
Age: 32
Current Characters: Ignis Scientia (newrecipe), Snow Villiers (rebelpugilist), Karin Koenig (sonnestark)


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Kanji Tatsumi
Age: 16
Canon: Persona 4
Canon Point: Post-True Ending (Golden), but before the new epilogue.

Background: "I'm gonna RENOVATE your ass!"

Personality:

Though he’s only a first year in high school at the time Persona 4 takes place, Kanji’s first appearance in the game makes it clear that he comes with a long-established reputation-- and not a particularly good one. The first time we meet Kanji, he’s being interviewed on the local news during a special concerning local biker gangs because of his own involvement in a recent gang fight. Yu’s uncle, Detective Ryotaro Dojima, comments that he’s familiar with Kanji as a kid who often gets himself into trouble and who has been escorted to the police station a number of times. During the interview itself, Kanji is seen yelling at the TV crew to leave him alone and to “get bent,” and goes so far as to physically shove the camera out of his face when they continue to bother him. At Inaba’s own Yasogami High School, Kanji has a solid rep as being a bully and a delinquent. Other students are plain about the fact that even though he’s only a first year, they’re afraid of him-- especially girls. He's known for skipping school as well as getting into fights, and the sight of him walking down the hallway when he does show up is usually enough to point other students firmly in the other direction so that they can put as much space between themselves and Kanji as humanly possible.

In reality, Kanji’s image is one that he put together for himself as a means of protection. He grew up watching and helping his parents run the family business, Tatsumi Textiles, and was constantly told that “cloth was alive” among other such sentiments. He was interested in crafts from an early age, and his parents encouraged him to pursue that passion. Kanji found that he enjoyed sewing, crochet, knitting, painting, and taking on all manner of projects. He was happiest when he was making things, whether they were for himself or others, but once his fellow students found out what he did with his spare time, he found himself being ridiculed and ostracized, especially by girls. “Why aren’t you more manly?” “Painting is so not you.” “You don’t act like a guy.” “Sewing is for queers.” He was bullied for not meeting people’s expectations of what a boy should be or do, and so over time he decided to turn himself into someone that others would be afraid of so that he could keep people at arm’s length. Kanji's father told him that being a man meant “being strong” shortly before his own death, and Kanji took that to mean that he needed to be tough and change his image to become someone that people would respect and accept as being “manly.” He bleached his hair and started dressing like a delinquent, skipping school on the regular and getting into fights with people he thought ‘deserved’ it-- the aforementioned gang fight was absolutely real, although Kanji was not a member of the gang as people originally suspected. He later admits to chasing the gang down on his bicycle for making noise at all hours and keeping his mother up at night.

While his actions did earn him a bad reputation and keep people from bullying him, Kanji later found that in trying to protect himself, he was very lonely, and that the absence of bullying did very little to quiet his insecurities. He is shown to be defensive and insecure, especially when anyone questions his sexuality, largely as a result of how often he was made fun of and called ugly names just because of what he liked. His sexuality is irrelevant-- whether he likes boys or girls, it doesn’t matter, and the fact is that he’s still young and has plenty of time to figure that out. Kanji’s dungeon in the game introduces us to his Shadow, a manifestation of his “true feelings” that have gone haywire. As his Shadow leads the party deeper into the dungeon, he bemoans the cruelty of women and how men were much better-- girls, in his opinion, told nasty lies and spread rumors, which had always been the real Kanji’s experience. His Shadow is shown to be desperate to be accepted for who he is, asking what it really means to be “manly” or “strong” and wanting to know “what’s wrong with doing what I want to do?” The real Kanji confronts his Shadow and confesses that this was how he really felt, telling the rest of the party that all he cares about is being accepted, and admitting that he’s “scared shitless of being rejected,” no matter who it was by. Changing his image kept people from getting too close, allowing him to avoid having to deal with rejection for who he really was, but in doing so, he wasn’t being true to himself.

Not everything about Kanji’s delinquent persona is a fabrication, however. While his intentions are good, his short temper and tendency to get over-eager and start yelling are absolutely real, meaning he can still be something of an overwhelming presence even when he’s not meaning to be, especially to anyone who doesn’t actually know him. He has a violent streak, and his impulse is usually to solve problems -- or more accurately, chase them away -- by shouting and using his fists. He gets carried away easily, often caught up in the moment, whether it’s from anger or enthusiasm. He’s excitable, and whatever he’s doing, it’s easy for Kanji to get himself fired-up over a given task or problem. For better or for worse, he’s an extremely passionate person, which makes him a fantastic friend and ally, but also potentially very dangerous if you happen to anger him. He is stubborn and determined, absolutely tireless when he’s invested in something. His loyalty is unquestionable, and his friends on the Investigation Team are the most important people in the world to him, after his mother. He values their friendships immensely, having spent most of his school years as a loner, and he practically idolizes Yu, who he feels is not only his best friend, but the kind of person everyone should strive to be like.

Despite the fact that his temper often gets the better of him, Kanji himself is a very sweet and well-intentioned young man. Even though he’s blunt and often clumsy in his handling of things, he is kind and generous, and over the course of the game, he learns to appreciate how good it feels to do things for other people, whereas experiences when he was younger taught him otherwise thanks to ridicule. When he was in middle school, he used his sewing skills to repair a classmate’s bag, but the girl in question cried when their other classmates teased him for it, embarrassed. During the game, Yu witnesses Kanji going to great lengths to help a little boy find a lost doll that he’d borrowed from a friend. When it can’t be found, Kanji makes him a replacement, and starts getting requests from other children and their parents to make similar toys. Though Kanji is embarrassed by the attention, he admits that it feels good to share what he loves with other people, and allows himself to start being more open about doing what he loves. He is young for his age in many ways, shy and easily flustered, but he himself says that he wants nothing more than to be better than the delinquent he’d let himself become. He wants to make his mother proud, feeling bad for all he’s put her through with his past trouble-making, and his friendship with Yu is a huge inspiration for him going forward. He tells Yu that he wants to learn to take time to get people to understand him, instead of getting angry and losing his cool when he feels challenged, as he so often does. At the end of his social link, he promises Yu that he’s going to stop lying to himself and running away from who he really is, and that being true to himself is the best way to “be strong” as his father wanted him to be.

Abilities:

Like the rest of the Investigation Team, Kanji has the ability to summon a Persona after facing his Shadow. He calls upon Takeji Zaiten (formerly Take-Mikazuchi and Rokuten Maoh), who specializes in both physical attacks and lightning magic. His abilities are as follows:

Ziodyne - Heavy electric damage to one foe.

Vile Assault - Heavy physical damage to one foe, bonus to enemies who are already knocked down.

Matarukaja - Boost party's attack power.

Maziodyne - Heavy electric damage to all foes.

Primal Force - Severe physical damage to one foe.

Elec Break - Nullifies one foe's electricity resistance temporarily.

Elec Amp - Strengthens electric attacks.

The Man's Way - Chance of disorienting/causing Down and Dizzy to all foes.

Kanji is also good in a fight without the aid of his Persona, having had a lot of practice beating up local bikers, using whatever he can get his hands on to serve as a bludgeon for his weapons. Combat aside, he's handy with a needle and thread and is known for his love of crafts and artistic talent, though both were once major causes of embarrassment for him.

Alignment: Sosyne. "Anger and calm" are both running themes for Kanji; he's a character who's known for his short temper and flying off the handle, and while this tends to scare people off, those who stick around and get to know him learn that he's incredibly kind and gentle. He finds calm and solace in the things he loves, whether it's crafting or sewing or painting, and learning to master his anger and maintain that calm is an ongoing struggle for him, but one he feels is well worth the effort.

Other: Kanji won't be coming in with any weapons, but that doesn't matter a whole lot, since he can and will easily pick up a new bludgeon somewhere. He will, however, have his phone on him, complete with his pink knit rabbit cell phone charm, as well as his wallet and its contents.

⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉

General Sample: Kanji @ the TDM!
Emotion Sample: Here, as a continuation of the emotional effect in his D-1 prompt.


Questions: N/A!