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PLAYER

Name: Teej
Age: 28
Contact: probabiliteej
Other Characters: n/a!
Interests: I'm always here for anything that pushes cr development, honestly-- my favorite things are events/plots that encourage either getting closer or interpersonal conflict (being at odds with people is also a+ development). Action's also good with me, and anything that digs into the world more is excellent because I am relearning the lore ooc also.

CHARACTER

Name: Souza Samonji
Canon: Touken Ranbu
Canon Point: specifically pulling from after the Honnouji stageplay (first in the series)
Journal: versicoloured
Age: 871, physically an adult but please don't ask me to guess age off an anime face. Twenties? He will make up a number if asked.

Also a note on this character: I plan to have an opt-out post for him, since he's likely going to pretend he's a regular human; as the spirit of an object he's used to referring to being owned/belonging to people, and that sounds very different if he's not also giving the context of 'by the way, I literally was an object at the time'. He'll probably learn to Not Do That but I also don't want to spring it on anyone before then.

Canon World

Touken Ranbu is a game (and stageplays, and musicals, and 2 animes) set beginning in the year 2205, after some sort of catastrophe killed off a chunk of humankind. Following this, a group of time criminals called the Historical Revisionists formed an army to travel back in time and try to change key points of Japan's history, pulling in an unlimited number of troops from the future to send to the past. By doing so, they hope to alter the course of history and set things right... or at least, what they consider to be right.

The Time Government, in order to combat this force, has enlisted humans known as saniwa with the ability to manifest the hearts of objects, giving them bodies and the capacity to wield themselves and fight. They're sent back to the past in small groups to preserve the recorded course of history; this often involves sending them to the eras they're most familiar with, and sometimes even involves ensuring their old masters' deaths or witnessing past events that damaged or broke them as objects. It's not an easy job to see these things through.

When they're not mobilized in the past, the swords live within a magically-protected citadel and essentially function as humans. They grow food, cook, raise animals, and train to improve their skills-- while also learning to deal with having emotions, interpersonal conflicts, and everything else that comes with no longer being an object. They retain their memories from when they were objects (most of the time) and so often have pre-formed friendships and rivalries based on their histories; they also have siblings, as swords forged by the same smith consider themselves to be brothers.

A note here on the different versions of canon: the game is essentially the base canon that everything else pulls from, and the characters themselves are the same people in each version. What changes is that they follow different citadels & storylines (so the characters have varying experiences & development between them) and in a couple of these versions the saniwa is an actual character and not a player-insert like they are in the game. In the version I'm using the saniwa does not appear in person and is voiceless; I'm pulling from the stage storyline using the game as background information, basically, as it establishes each sword's personality and then the other canons build from there.

History

There's history on the actual sword itself under Trivia on his page, I'm going to spare you guys the history lesson on what specific figures he was owned by.

There's no summary anywhere for the play he's pulled from, so here's a very quick breakdown of Honnouji Saien:

-At some point before the play he's summoned and given a human body by the saniwa, along with his two ‘brothers’ and two other swords formerly owned by the historical Japanese General Nobunaga.
-Fudou, another Nobunaga sword, is summoned and quickly throws off the relationship between all the Nobunaga blades due to his love for their former master and their Very Mixed Feelings on him.
-Some of the other swords of the citadel organize a team-based competition and put all the Nobunaga swords on a team to try to help fix things; this does not help at all. Souza has a flashback to Nobunaga's death in the middle of their arguing and passes out.
-The Nobunaga swords are sent back in time to the burning of the Honnouji temple, an important event that the Historical Revisionists are trying to interfere with.
-While there, they meet Mori Ranmaru, the man who Nobunaga gave one of the swords (Fudou) to as a gift, and who is scheduled to die in the battle ahead. Souza asks Ranmaru who Nobunaga truly is to him, and leaves him to think about it.
-They succeed in setting the temple on fire, but their enemy prevents Ranmaru’s death in the battle; the swords now need to kill him to preserve history.
- Fudou absolutely loses it and attempts to stop this.
- Souza intervenes and kills Ranmaru, who speaks to him about his love for Nobunaga.
- Fudou decides to kill General Mitsuhide, a historical figure responsible for Nobunaga’s eventual death.
- Souza intervenes again, by taking a blow meant for Mitsuhide. He tries to talk Fudou into changing his mind, arguing that this history made figures like Nobunaga and Ranmaru who they are, and that he risks changing the people he loves by saving them. Fudou eventually relents.
- Nobunaga dies.
- Souza breaks down, and questions aloud why he's crying and who Nobunaga really is to him, finally settling on an answer-- to him, Nobunaga's nickname of 'Demon King' fits best.
- When asked later if he's figured out his feelings on Nobunaga after the incident, he gives a non-answer and just says the man isn't that easy to understand.

Personality

Souza Samonji is, in short, a sword who has Seen Some Shit. He’s changed hands several times, been carved into, shortened, burnt and reforged. His experiences as a sword shaped his personality in his human form, and have left him with a jaded and pessimistic outlook.

To most, Souza holds himself at an emotional distance, and doesn’t know how to fully process the feelings associated with his humanity yet. He tends to be avoidant and to give indirect answers to dodge the subject, and while it's possible to push him into it by hitting the right buttons, he is rarely directly confrontational. He relaxes most around his family, who he looks up to and cares for, and it's those bonds in particular that have helped make him more human-- he's motivated to help support them, and to at least try to look like the person he wants his little brother to see him as.

He’s haunted by the memory of Oda Nobunaga, in whose possession Souza was physically altered and became an ornamental sword, rarely ever used in battle. Being owned by Nobunaga and other influential figures gave him his reputation as a ‘sword of conquerers’, but also turned him into a symbol, treasured and admired for appearances alone. The unpleasant fates of several of his old owners also lead him to believe he might be a more misfortunate sword to own than his reputation says. Bitterly describing himself as a caged bird, Souza holds a low opinion of the saniwa and others who seek to own him; nevertheless, he's resigned to his situation. Though most swords lose their memories after being burnt, Souza has retained his, further proof to him that there's no real escape from his past while he lives-- especially since he continues to experience nightmares and flashbacks of past events. While he doesn't actively seek it out, he does believe that death is the only way he'll truly be free.

Being in battle seems to help, and he's at his most confident when he's able to actually fulfill his purpose as a weapon... though this is also, well, a double-edged sword in that if he fails at it or becomes overwhelmed, it's easy to fall back into questioning whether he's meant to just be ornamental after all.

On the plus side, he's shown some improvement-- he's grown a little less bitter towards his current master, and being part of the mess that is the relationships between the Nobunaga swords has been a crash course in how to deal (or not deal) with conflict he can't just stay out of. It's always helpful to learn about having the capacity to punch someone in the face for not shutting up about sensitive subjects, as well as how to try to set things right after the fact.

Strengths & Weaknesses

+ Swordsmanship: Inherently talented with a blade, and has picked up tactical knowledge from several major political figures.

- However, he’s less experienced than some fighters, and can be overwhelmed by both battle, and his emotional responses to it.

+ Basic Skills: Can care for crops and farm animals.

+ Also pretty knowledgeable about linear time travel, if that ever comes up somehow.

- Feelings: Relatively new to having them, and still adjusting to it.

- Does not handle fire well.


And here's the pain in the ass part aka canon abilities.

+ Literally a Sword: Stronger and more agile than a human, however, his sword is his ‘real’ body. Damaging the sword will injure his human form, and breaking it will kill him. Repairing the sword, in turn, heals his physical injuries. Souza can sense through his sword — he feels contact with it as though touched, and if separated, is aware of the sword’s surroundings.

+ Spirit Detection: Souza can sense the presence of other spirits.

+ Cherry Blossom Petals: Sometimes they spontaneously appear, if he's in especially high spirits. It’s a thing.

Suggested Nerfs


-I figure we should tone down the 'being stronger and faster than a normal person' thing and keep that within reasonable levels for a human who's pretty good at fighting.
-If it's at all possible to keep some of the connection to his sword I'd like to, since it's something super inherent to him! It's all good if not, but whatever ties might be doable would be excellent.
--What I'm most interested in keeping there, if possible, is the link that lets him feel/sense through the sword. I think it'd be interesting to deal with damage to the sword being reflected on him/healing through repairing the sword but I feel like it'd be harder to make that part work.
-Ditto on the spirit sense, I'm fine ditching that but it would be neat to have.
-The flower petals are 100% a flavor thing, very unlikely to happen often with this guy, and that is exactly why I want to keep them.

Arrival Inventory

-His outfit, and
-Possibly his sword if that's doable, the artifact in question here is him.

I am also going to go ahead and let y'all know here that in canon he seems to pretty much only dream about the burning of Honnouji, which is a very bad time for him, so please let me know if you'd prefer me to roll with something different and not pull him in from a nightmare there! Otherwise this is just a heads-up that I intend to bring him in from Everything Being On Fire, in case you wanted some forewarning.

'Human'ization

He has pink hair and heterochromatic eyes (one green, one purple); while his clothes are going to be pretty obviously not local (for reference), he otherwise looks like a normal human guy. Sort of willowy for a fighter, though. There's also a mark on the left side of his chest, a black swallowtail butterfly.

As far as humanization, he's going to be blond instead of a flamingo; he usually keeps the purple eye covered but if that needs to be a more normal color like blue then we can also do that!

Fit

I picked him in part because I feel like he'll have an easier time adjusting than some of my more modern characters, but also because of his history as a sword and his views on himself; I'd like to play him outside of his canon situation and see how he develops when he's given a chance to actually make more of his own decisions, without having a direct master. Getting to choose to fight instead of being wielded/summoned with a mission will be A Big Deal, basically, and hopefully being able to properly live as a human will help him deal with some of that bitterness he's got.

SAMPLES

tdm thread 1
tdm thread 2