(no subject)
[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Pocky
AGE: 25
JOURNAL: pockythoughts
IM: AIM - TehPockySquirrel
E-MAIL: pockysquirrel@yahoo.com
RETURNING: Yes; Sentinel Prime | theprimerprime . Also re-apping this guy.
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Taiitsu Shinjin
FANDOM: Houshin Engi, manga continuity
CHRONOLOGY: Post Sennin War, circa chapter 150
CLASS: Hero!
SUPERHERO NAME: The Otaku ^^a
ALTER EGO: Taiitsu will be doing freelance repair work and possibly selling some of his inventions and gadgets.
BACKGROUND:
Taiitsu was born in 12th-century BC China, an era in which mortal humans still interacted with the immortal and technologically advanced Sendou, who lived overhead on the flying mountain of Kongrong. At a young age, Taiitsu was identified as having ‘Sennin bones’, the physical potential necessary for one to become an immortal, and invited to train in the Sennin world. Even though his overall potential was a bit below average, the Kongrong faction of sennin intuitively knew that his mind would be a valuable resource. An energetic student with an unparalleled passion for learning, Taiitsu predictably failed at most physical trials but was surprisingly adept at wielding a paopei, the magic weapons wielded by sennin. Not to mention being utterly fascinated with paopei in general.
After completing his training, Taiitsu immediately focused his 'career' as a sennin on researching, developing, and constructing paopei. He quickly became well known throughout Kongrong for inventing paopei in a variety of forms and purposes, all of them remarkably energy efficient to minimize the drain on the user's energy. This earned him a promotion to the Juunisen, Kongrong's 12 most elite sennin. He now shares the title of ‘Shinjin’ with several other members of this group. His favorite inventions were the Kyuuryuu Shinkatou restraining paopei, useful for trapping an enemy or hiding inside to avoid damage; and the all-purpose computational visor he relies on for most of his work. But forever pushing the boundaries, Taiitsu had an ambitious goal in mind: artificial intelligence, artificial sennin power, artificial life. To that end, he developed the Raiju, a paopei that when merged with a pregnant human female would result in the birth of a living weapon. This was Nataku, whom Taiitsu considers his son and cares about a great deal...even though Nataku frequently threatens to blow him up and otherwise scares the daylights out of him.
Taiitsu had been in the sennin world for about 90 years when Genshi Tenson, leader of the Kongrong faction, and his disciple, Taikoubou, launched the mysterious Houshin Project and set off a series of events that would forever change both the human and sennin worlds. Taiitsu first encountered Taikoubou after he had a run-in with Taiitsu’s ‘son’ Nataku in the human world. After this meeting, Taiitsu took Nataku back to the sennin world for further training (at great personal peril, given Nataku’s explosive disposition), promising to send him to assist Taikoubou in his quest once his training was complete. After several years, Genshi Tenson requested that Taiitsu send Nataku on this mission. Of course, that meant getting the stubborn boy to comply with orders, which meant that Taiitsu had to fight him. Taiitsu’s superior technology won out, and after repairing Nataku’s injuries, Taiitsu gave him the weapons that had been used to defeat him and sent him on his way.
For some time, Taiitsu’s sole role in the Houshin Project was performing repairs after various battles and upgrading Nataku’s weapons when he demanded it. But as the conflicts became progressively more severe, he began providing more support and assistance to those doing the fighting. When Kongrong went to war against the enemy Kingou faction of Sennin, he was instrumental in bringing Kongrong’s ancient, massive main cannon back online, though it ultimately proved ineffective. The other 11 Juunisen were killed in the subsequent struggle, leaving Taiitsu the last of his team alive. The war having ended, Taiitsu was assisting with the cleanup and rebuilding effort before being brought to the City.
PERSONALITY:
Cheerful and energetic, Taiitsu has an unending passion for what he knows best: technology. He’s referred to as an otaku for his fanboy moments (he’s even been known to drool in response to particularly impressive technology), and generally presents himself as a complete nerd trying with varying degrees of success to be cool. He can seem a bit narcissistic at times; bragging about his own skills, making dramatic entrances, and placing himself squarely in the center of attention. He seems to take nothing seriously because his attitude is so flippant. But his demeanor changes when he’s allowed to exercise his skills as a tech expert; his confidence becomes more genuine, rather than an overplayed façade. He can take things seriously, and is thoughtful, determined and ethical as a scientist, but he also has a sense of whimsy and innocent curiosity about his work.
It is very easy to write Taiitsu off as a coward due to his well-publicized fear of heights and the fact that he is forever running and hiding from his own creation, Nataku. But rather than calling him a coward, it would be more accurate to say that Taiitsu has a strong sense of self-preservation and a healthy understanding of his own limitations. He’s smart enough to know that there are a lot of situations he simply isn’t strong enough to get out of alive, and that he will be of no help to his friends and allies if he’s dead. So he’ll run or hide until he can come up with a plan, creating a moment of comic relief in the process.
POWER:
As a Sennin, Taiitsu ages much more slowly than mortal humans and is effectively immune to disease. However, he can still be injured and killed. He is a natural genius with all things mechanical; I’m expanding this slightly and giving him some limited, non-canon technopathy. His form of technopathy is touch activated, giving him the ability to download a mental schematic of any machine he gets his hands on. This in turn allows him to understand, build, or repair just about anything (with certain obvious exceptions, of course). Unlike other technopaths, he can’t interface directly with the network, but he will be learning to hack and encrypt the ‘old-fashioned’ way. A combination of canon skill and technopathy side-effect is his ability to sense the presence of cameras.
He’s bringing with him his favorite defensive weapon, the "Kyuuryuu Shinkatou", a piece of white armor worn over the shoulders. The two domed pieces on the shoulders can detach and expand to form halves of a hollow, egg-like object that come together to trap and restrain an enemy. (Think putting a toy inside a plastic Easter egg, and you have the basic concept.) He also tends to hide in it himself to avoid harm.
[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE:
[The comm turns on with a bit of rustling.]
Aha, I knew there was a camera in this thing...!
[The picture clears up as the person holding it moves it to arm's length, and here's this derpy guy smiling at the camera and waving. While he's holding the communicator in a way that causes his face to dominate the screen, glimpses of the Porter building can be seen in the background. ]
Am I transmitting? What a silly question, of course I am. Greetings, fellow heros!
What a fascinating place this is! And have you seen that teleportation device? It's spectacular! I'd love to meet whoever built that thing and congratulate him properly. I mean, I've been trying to build a functional teleporter for years! Do you know how hard it is to get all those molecules to re-align properly? I tried to get it open and have a look at the mechanism...not entirely sure what happened after that, but I'm guessing the AI didn't approve of my interference because I ended up out here. [Laughs.] I'll just have to have another crack at it later, I guess.
But enough about that. Where am I, anyway?
LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE:
Taiitsu’s latest invention was a hand-held, short-range teleporter, inspired by the fascinating, frustratingly mysterious contraption that had brought him to this place. He’d been tinkering with it for weeks, spent countless hours hunched over its tiny, fiddly circuits as he lovingly pieced it together. He’d spent the past few days in testing, transporting various living and non-living objects here and there. There had been glitches at first, of course - he still hadn’t managed to dislodge that fish from the bathtub drain - but since those few minor defects had been repaired, the whole thing was working like clockwork. And since his last several test subjects had arrived at their designated coordinates alive and intact, it was time to test the machine on something a bit larger.
Like himself.
He let out a little squeal of excitement and hugged the device before punching in the coordinates. He hit the enter button and vanished, reappearing fractions of a second later with a triumphant smile on his face, chest puffed out with pride at his accomplishment, scarf flapping dramatically in the breeze.
It was only then that he realized he had landed on the roof.
Suddenly panicked, he dropped onto the roof in a crouch and hung on for dear life.
“Must have input the wrong coordinates on the y-axis…” he muttered to himself.
No matter, he could now simply teleport himself out of this unpleasant situation. In fact, his problem with heights was half the reason why he had decided to build this thing in the first place, the other half being that teleporting is just plain cool. He fumbled with the device, hands trembling, only to discover that his trip had shorted out the battery. Great. Just great.
This left the terrified sennin with only two options: brave the perilous climb back toward sweet, safe earth, or wait for somebody to come along and get him down.
FINAL NOTES ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER:
This will be Taiitsu's second time being ported in, and as such, I'm bringing him in with a canon update of one chapter, during which he does absolutely nothing useful. I probably don't need to mention that, but I thought I would anyway.