-Revenance- Application

[realmenknitplushies]

[IC Information]
Character Name: Kanji Tatsumi
Series: Persona 4
Gender: M
Age: 16
Species: Human

Appearance: Kanji stands 6 foot tall, and rather well-muscled with it, though he's still a teen. His overall image is that of a rough delinquent, with a number of piercings and an obvious scar above one eyebrow. His hair's bleached blond, cut short, over a face with a heavy brow and grey eyes. He tends towards wearing such things as leather jackets and sleeveless shirts with images that convey a violent theme: skulls, fireballs, and so on, with a taste for jewellery that matches that image.

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 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.

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.

Abilities:
Kanji's skills lie in two discrete areas.
Firstly, he's a talented craftsman. His passion's for knitting and textile work, which he excels at, but he's also capable of putting together other things with ease.

In combat situations, while he's not trained, he's an experienced hand-to-hand fighter who's adept at improvising with weaponry.

While he can't directly use magic in the classical sense, he does have some paranormal abilities, in the form of his 'Persona'. This is a guardian being summoned from his heart and soul, part of his psyche: it takes the form of a metallic giant bearing a skeletal motif. It allows him to boost his or his allies' strength, use electrical attacks, and it can also attack directly with devastating strength.

Items: None

History: Kanji comes from a small town in rural Japan by the name of Inaba. Growing up around his family's textile business, it was only natural for him to pick up an interest in the subject himself - he developed it into a hobby, creating cute plushies and similar. However, this passion caused others around him to look down on him, seeing him as strange and 'unmanly', and to make accusations about his sexuality - in return, he started to fight back, becoming known as rather a vicious delinquent in the process. It didn't help matters when he took on a whole biker gang by himself.

This situation changed when he was fifteen, in his first year in high school, when he was abducted and thrown into another world (through a TV!) by someone with strange powers - there, he was forced to confront a being, his Shadow, made from the aspects of his personality he refused to face. Fortunately, he was soon rescued, but not without having to accept the truth of what the Shadow was presenting to him. In doing so, he gained the earlier mentioned Persona power, and the ability to travel into that world.

The TV world proved to be more than just a television programme. A number of killings had taken place previous to Kanji's own abduction via the killer throwing the victims into the TV: without the people who would soon become his friends' rescuing him, it was believed that Kanji would have become the next in line. As such, he happily joined their group in searching for the truth about the murders and the TV world, saving other people in his situation, a process which would eventually end up with him facing down a being who proclaimed herself to be a goddess. At the same time, through the help of one of his new friends in particular, he's been able to take a look at who and what sort of person he is, and come to terms with himself.