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OOC INFORMATION.

NAME: Sou

CONTACT: PM; sousou4755 on discord; bigwoof ask to add

AGE: 30

OTHER CHARACTERS: N/A

TRIGGERS: N/A

IC INFORMATION.

BASICS

CHARACTER NAME: Rokurou Rangetsu

CANON: Tales of Berseria — 2016 JRPG

CANON POINT: Palamides.

AGE: 22

BACKGROUND

HISTORY: Tales of Berseria Wiki and Rokurou Rangetsu Wiki.

PERSONALITY:

What impression does your character give when meeting someone for the first time? How does the first impression differ from your character’s true nature?

Often described as happy-go-lucky, Rokurou comes off as amicable and good-natured (and maybe a bit dumb, depending on the moment) straight away. Tales of Link coins it well: a freewheeling young swordsman who treats even angry Velvet with good cheer. He's almost always smiling and his reactions tend to be calm and collected, giving the initial impression that this guy is friendly and confident. And he is!

But Rokurou Rangetsu is a man that keeps his true nature on his sleeve(s). Like, literally.

Rokurou’s style of dress is directly indicative of his true nature. He’s a man that became a daemon after intense fear, loss, anger, and regret—the stain of which is clearly painted on the right half of his face in rough daemon blight and iconic red eye, while the left half of his face remains human. His clothes mirror this contrast: his right side armored, tight-fitting, and ready for war. His left softer, with a loose kimono sleeve draping his shoulder and arm with the pattern of birds flying into a sunset. With the kinder, brotherly side comes a rougher, more violent nature. Velvet’s had to knock some sense into him more than a time or two when his bloodlust gets the better of him.

Rokurou is a man of halves. Half human, half daemon. Half warrior, half brother. Though he's good of taking care of others and sensitive to their emotions, his reactions toward the unsavory and deplorable tend to be a muted smile and a shrug. Among the group (a squad of criminals) his sense of humor tends to be the most morbid—he'll laugh at a dumb pun and a macabre comment. He'll point out when things are particularly fucked up, yet seems perfectly fine with going with whatever it is unless it directly goes against his personal code. When faced with others' shady ass behavior his answer is usually, "I'm a daemon—who am I to judge?"

So, yes. He's easygoing and friendly, but those traits, while true, obscure a violent nature on first meet. He doesn't hide it, however, so you'll figure out that he's weird in short time.

How does your character handle stress? What do they do in an emergency?

Being the freewheeling and easygoing guy that he is, Rokurou's quite good at rolling with the punches and taking challenges head on. Hell, he actually relishes a good challenge, though usually prefers it to be one he can take on with a sword. Often times in canon he's point on keeping Velvet in check when she's triggered by her enemy or ushering the group when there's a strong monster nearby. Thanks to his emotions being dulled and his training, he's generally cool and collected when faced with a stressful situation (of course, this all goes out the window when it comes to his brother).

After all, he's already lived through some crazy shit—becoming a daemon after fucking up his own life by making terrible choices, scarlet nights where daemons flood the continent and kill everything in sight, dragons, escaping the highest security prison there is, going on a quest of vengeance with a chick that uses her daemon arm to eat people's souls, just to name a few.

When it comes to the pressure of dealing with his brother, in the first few run-ins he snaps. Violent, angry, quick to fight. Yelling at his companions to back off. Attacking said companions like a dog redirecting its anger. He's knocked out of this state with a good punch to the head, but when it comes to the few things that touch a nerve, he'll get violent. He gets better by the end of the game... but I'm taking him from earlier on for the fun of working out these things ICly! Love character development.

What are some of your character's regrets? How is your character impacted by them?

Rokurou considers not killing his brother the night of the scarlet moon three years prior to the start of the game to be his greatest regret. He doesn't regret becoming a daemon—actually, he's so much better as a daemon, human!Rokurou was shitty—he doesn't regret going to prison or becoming a criminal. He doesn't even regret the demise of their clan. But that night has haunted him for a long time, and even with emotions dulled down it's one of the few things that really gets to him. It was a night of utter humiliation for Rokurou that lead to such intense self-hatred, suicidal ideation, and despair that he became a daemon.

This regret is his main motivator. Shigure tells him to get stronger—so that's his goal in order to kill his brother. Rokurou states several times in canon that he will do almost anything to become stronger, and it only comes with a caveat because he won't do anything that would cause him to lose his sense of reason/self. He'll chase any challenge for the sake of getting stronger. He'll face any enemy. He'll feed his violent nature and be the bad guy. It's all for the sake of killing the ghost of his weak self and killing his brother; the sword he wears on his back is a physical reminder of this promise to himself. Needless to say, the impact is huge. Teasing at his brother at all is great psychological torture for him, hint hint.



INVENTORY: The most important item that would have been on his person would have been the longsword on his back. The sword that he describes as "his life" is the marker of his past mistakes and weakness. Inside the sheath is actually a broken sword—something he considers himself to also be—that his brother broke the scarlet night they fought. His proverbial "cross" to bear, this is something that he repaired later in the game to indicate self-improvement. At the current canonpoint, it's still broken and he'll be looking for it since all weapons are taken on arrival. Other items would be his short swords, also taken upon arrival. Items kept would be a handful of gald, his flask filled with booze, and the clothes/armor on his back. The longsword is 100% the most important and has huge significance to him.

POWERS

SKILLS/ABILITIES:

Enhanced senses/Daemon abilities: As he explains to Velvet, once he turned into a daemon, Rokurou found all of his senses to be sharper than ever. Thanks daemon powers★! As a yaksha, which is the name in Berseria for war daemons, this is meant to send him into a thrall on the battlefield. I’ll estimate that they’re at least twice as sensitive/strong as a human’s normal senses, with touch and smell being among the strongest.

Endurance/Durability: Rokurou is much hardier than your average bear. Daemons have innate endurance for hard travel and durability in harsh weather or intense temperature. It doesn't bother them. Velvet is able to run around in a snowstorm in skimpy clothing, and Rokurou doesn't seem to mind running around sunny hot beaches in layers upon layers of armor and kimono. They also have higher pain tolerance, heal quicker, and just all around have better specs than most.

Swordsmanship/Dualwielding: A student of the Rangetsu style, Rokurou's trained in two kinds of styles: the longsword and two short swords. Even though he has studied both, in his quest to overcome his brother's mastery with one long sword, Rokurou's gone contrary and focused on mastering the short dual blades. Regardless, he's really skilled with both. Also with knives. Really, slicing stuff is his thing. As far as swordsmanship goes, he's pretty top notch but always endeavoring to better himself.

Artes: There are three kinds of artes: martial (base) artes, hidden artes, and mystic artes. They're fancy strikes that can include special skills or are rooted in a certain element. Martial artes are basic skills and wouldn't require any nerfing, think a normal strike or punch. In Rokurou’s case, all of his base artes are non-elemental, just your average dude using a sword with his own skill. On the flip side, all of his hidden artes have an elemental element (breaking down in JRPG, he needs to do a normal strike and then can trigger an elemental strike after like stacking on a ladder). Mystic artes are finishing blows.

NERFING: Hidden and mystic artes will be cut altogether. All senses will be less sharp—still better than average but there will be enough of a decline that he can feel it. He also won't have any of his weapons upon arrival which is a handicap to a swordsman. He's really going to be living off the charity of people who have a weakness for a hunk with a nice smile...


WEAKNESSES: Since he is a daemon with a lot of malevolence, I do play him as having a disadvantage against light/exorcist types (especially on crosscanon points). He's strong and hardy, but stab him in a vital and he's as vulnerable as anyone else. His brother is a weakness in almost every sense.

SAMPLES.

City TDM

Jigokucho Event TL