Player Name: Zoe E-mail: fourteenthraidou@gmail.com Preferred Contact:fireplacecat or PM character journal Timezone: EST Current Characters in Victory Road: Cassandra the Dust-Eater
Character Name: Shinobu Tsukuyomi Series: Original Character (Changeling: The Lost/Mage: The Awakening) Timeline: About a year and a half after escaping Arcadia Original Character Background: Shinobu hails from the World of Darkness tabletop system; in fact, he hails from the same world as Steven Durante and Tyler Huang, although Shinobu's background as a Mage adds a few additional quirks.
The World of Darkness is very much like our own world on the surface; however, magic and supernatural beings are quite real, although most humans don't know this and many supernatural beings (or supernaturally touched humans) would like to keep it that way. Mages are humans who have "Awakened" to their own magical abilities and written their name on one of five "Watchtowers," each representing their own discipline, which exist in the Supernal Realm, a higher plane of existence from which all magic springs. Born in Japan in 1914 and raised in a family of Mages who belonged to an offshoot sect of their particular discipline, Shinobu was a particularly precocious Mage who Awakened to his power and wrote his name on one of the Watchtowers at age seventeen. If things had progressed normally, he would have continued on like this, dedicating his life to the study of those branches of magic his family specialized in, but then a pair of Fae who styled themselves on Titania and Oberon took a fancy to him and spirited him off to Arcadia, and there went that. He would spend five years (to him) as their unwilling plaything, forced to navigate between their quarrels and tantrums, or worse, those moments when their wills were in accord. His body began to alter itself accordingly, as the Fae and their realm alike worked their magic on him, eventually shaping him into a a Changeling - specifically, a Fairest. Further, navigating the whims of two masters left him with two different kiths: Dancer, for the metaphorical dance he'd been forced to do to keep them both happy, and Romancer, for the way he'd had to repeatedly mold himself to his captors' respective ideal lover.
Meanwhile in the human world, his Fae Keepers had left behind a Fetch, a copy of Shinobu created with bits of detritus and a piece of Shinobu's own soul, in the young man's place. Unfortunately for the Fetch, he was found out almost immediately by Shinobu's family, and forced to go on the run. He spent what turned out to be the next several decades traveling through Asia and the Pacific Islands, eventually ending up in San Diego sometime during the late 1960s. During that time, the Fetch came to sympathize enough with what he knew of Shinobu's plight that he resolved to rescue him from Arcadia. To that end, he would eventually ally himself with the San Diego Changelings' Autumn Court - almost unheard of for a Fetch - and set about doing so. It took a great deal of time, far more than anyone would have liked, but between his efforts and those of Shinobu himself, he was eventually successful. Shinobu was finally able to escape Arcadia and the Hedge, but there was a cost: his magic was diminished, its growth forever stunted; he would never be able to attain the heights he could have before being Taken. Not only that, but while for Shinobu his torment had lasted for five years, in the outside world almost ninety had passed. It was 2020, and he was half a world away from his home and his family, with no chance of return.
With little choice in the matter, and not wanting to sully his Fetch's efforts, Shinobu set about adjusting to this new upheaval. Already multilingual as a result of his magic studies, he worked to further refine his English. He joined the Autumn Court... although his Fetch being so known and respected there has been something of a double-edged sword. He studied and practiced with the powers he'd developed as a Changeling, as well as what was left of his old magic, adapting it to his new circumstances (this last would pull him into Steven Durante's orbit, as one of the things he did for practice was summoning the ghost of his sister, a vampire, to learn why they'd mostly disappeared; she then convinced/browbeat him into attempting to break into her brother's apartment to steal his anime for her, which was not the most auspicious beginning, but they managed). With a new identity - ironically, on paper he's his Fetch's great-grandson - he's essentially starting his life over again. What else can he do?
Personality: Before his Durance (i.e. his time as a prisoner of his Keepers), Shinobu had been a diligent student, focused on his studies almost to the exclusion of all else. He retained that diligence through his Durance; it's one of the things that kept him alive. His Keepers were capricious, with flaring tempers and needs and wants that almost seemed to change from minute to minute, and Shinobu had to learn to anticipate all of it as best he could in order to avoid punishment (that they quarreled constantly didn't help). Accordingly, he's very observant - and very controlled. It wouldn't do to show his own feelings in a situation like that, lest they be noticed and used against him. Unsurprisingly, post-Durance Shinobu has a very, very good poker face... and an eidetic memory, which is something of a double-edged sword.
Of all the varieties of Changeling, Fairest like Shinobu are the most likely to lose their grip on reality enough to be drawn back into Arcadia, even becoming True Fae themselves. Shinobu is well aware of this, and he works hard to prevent himself from falling to that particular fate. That's complicated, though, by his specific circumstances. He feels split in a number of different ways: between Mage and Changeling, human and... not-human, Japanese and American (on paper, anyway, via some very good forgeries from the Court), past and present. He's even got dual kiths - although one is much easier to deal with than the other. The Blessing and curse of a Romancer is that their appearance tends to reflect the desires of whomever is looking at them. To someone who likes black hair and brown eyes, or blonde hair and blue eyes, or tattoos or any conceivable combination of traits, a Romancer will appear to have those traits. Shinobu is never quite sure what other people are seeing when they look at him; sometimes even he wonders if the reflection he sees in the mirror is really true, or just another ideal. It's done nasty things to his sense of self, which also isn't helped by the fact that his Fetch is in such good standing with the Autumn Court. It's hard for Shinobu not to feel like a pretender to his own life sometimes. He fights fiercely against it, but it's wearing, and he can't help but wonder how long it will be before he finally gives in. Part of him almost resents his Fetch's efforts, no matter how many times he castigates himself for being ungrateful. Most Fetches wouldn't even try to rescue their originals; how dare he resent his own for actually doing so? He does his best to bury those feelings, but he's fairly sure his Fetch isn't fooled, which just makes things worse.
While he does have his bad days (too many of them), Shinobu is still determined to find a place for himself in the world, to prove he's not just an empty plaything or an inferior version of his own copy. He's much more willing to try new things than he was before his Durance (although given how long his Fetch has been around, chances are that he's also tried them at some point), and he's reached out here and there and made friends of his own, although he's not the most socially adept person around. Still, he doesn't trust easily; he can't afford to. He's always polite, but letting people get close to him is harder. That doesn't mean he doesn't try, and not just because he can't afford not to; he needs all the touchstones he can get in order to keep a basic grip on reality. But he also doesn't want to spend the rest of his life alone in a crowd. He just wants people who can see him for who he actually is, and not who he seems to be. He wants that more than anything. If he can find them.
Pokémon Information Affiliation: Trainer Starter: Galarian Ponyta Password: Atomic Fireball
Shinobu Tsukuyomi | Changeling: The Lost/Mage OC | Not Reserved
Name: Zoe
E-mail: fourteenthraidou@gmail.com
Preferred Contact:
Timezone: EST
Current Characters in Victory Road: Cassandra the Dust-Eater
Character
Name: Shinobu Tsukuyomi
Series: Original Character (Changeling: The Lost/Mage: The Awakening)
Timeline: About a year and a half after escaping Arcadia
Original Character Background: Shinobu hails from the World of Darkness tabletop system; in fact, he hails from the same world as Steven Durante and Tyler Huang, although Shinobu's background as a Mage adds a few additional quirks.
The World of Darkness is very much like our own world on the surface; however, magic and supernatural beings are quite real, although most humans don't know this and many supernatural beings (or supernaturally touched humans) would like to keep it that way. Mages are humans who have "Awakened" to their own magical abilities and written their name on one of five "Watchtowers," each representing their own discipline, which exist in the Supernal Realm, a higher plane of existence from which all magic springs. Born in Japan in 1914 and raised in a family of Mages who belonged to an offshoot sect of their particular discipline, Shinobu was a particularly precocious Mage who Awakened to his power and wrote his name on one of the Watchtowers at age seventeen. If things had progressed normally, he would have continued on like this, dedicating his life to the study of those branches of magic his family specialized in, but then a pair of Fae who styled themselves on Titania and Oberon took a fancy to him and spirited him off to Arcadia, and there went that. He would spend five years (to him) as their unwilling plaything, forced to navigate between their quarrels and tantrums, or worse, those moments when their wills were in accord. His body began to alter itself accordingly, as the Fae and their realm alike worked their magic on him, eventually shaping him into a a Changeling - specifically, a Fairest. Further, navigating the whims of two masters left him with two different kiths: Dancer, for the metaphorical dance he'd been forced to do to keep them both happy, and Romancer, for the way he'd had to repeatedly mold himself to his captors' respective ideal lover.
Meanwhile in the human world, his Fae Keepers had left behind a Fetch, a copy of Shinobu created with bits of detritus and a piece of Shinobu's own soul, in the young man's place. Unfortunately for the Fetch, he was found out almost immediately by Shinobu's family, and forced to go on the run. He spent what turned out to be the next several decades traveling through Asia and the Pacific Islands, eventually ending up in San Diego sometime during the late 1960s. During that time, the Fetch came to sympathize enough with what he knew of Shinobu's plight that he resolved to rescue him from Arcadia. To that end, he would eventually ally himself with the San Diego Changelings' Autumn Court - almost unheard of for a Fetch - and set about doing so. It took a great deal of time, far more than anyone would have liked, but between his efforts and those of Shinobu himself, he was eventually successful. Shinobu was finally able to escape Arcadia and the Hedge, but there was a cost: his magic was diminished, its growth forever stunted; he would never be able to attain the heights he could have before being Taken. Not only that, but while for Shinobu his torment had lasted for five years, in the outside world almost ninety had passed. It was 2020, and he was half a world away from his home and his family, with no chance of return.
With little choice in the matter, and not wanting to sully his Fetch's efforts, Shinobu set about adjusting to this new upheaval. Already multilingual as a result of his magic studies, he worked to further refine his English. He joined the Autumn Court... although his Fetch being so known and respected there has been something of a double-edged sword. He studied and practiced with the powers he'd developed as a Changeling, as well as what was left of his old magic, adapting it to his new circumstances (this last would pull him into Steven Durante's orbit, as one of the things he did for practice was summoning the ghost of his sister, a vampire, to learn why they'd mostly disappeared; she then convinced/browbeat him into attempting to break into her brother's apartment to steal his anime for her, which was not the most auspicious beginning, but they managed). With a new identity - ironically, on paper he's his Fetch's great-grandson - he's essentially starting his life over again. What else can he do?
Personality: Before his Durance (i.e. his time as a prisoner of his Keepers), Shinobu had been a diligent student, focused on his studies almost to the exclusion of all else. He retained that diligence through his Durance; it's one of the things that kept him alive. His Keepers were capricious, with flaring tempers and needs and wants that almost seemed to change from minute to minute, and Shinobu had to learn to anticipate all of it as best he could in order to avoid punishment (that they quarreled constantly didn't help). Accordingly, he's very observant - and very controlled. It wouldn't do to show his own feelings in a situation like that, lest they be noticed and used against him. Unsurprisingly, post-Durance Shinobu has a very, very good poker face... and an eidetic memory, which is something of a double-edged sword.
Of all the varieties of Changeling, Fairest like Shinobu are the most likely to lose their grip on reality enough to be drawn back into Arcadia, even becoming True Fae themselves. Shinobu is well aware of this, and he works hard to prevent himself from falling to that particular fate. That's complicated, though, by his specific circumstances. He feels split in a number of different ways: between Mage and Changeling, human and... not-human, Japanese and American (on paper, anyway, via some very good forgeries from the Court), past and present. He's even got dual kiths - although one is much easier to deal with than the other. The Blessing and curse of a Romancer is that their appearance tends to reflect the desires of whomever is looking at them. To someone who likes black hair and brown eyes, or blonde hair and blue eyes, or tattoos or any conceivable combination of traits, a Romancer will appear to have those traits. Shinobu is never quite sure what other people are seeing when they look at him; sometimes even he wonders if the reflection he sees in the mirror is really true, or just another ideal. It's done nasty things to his sense of self, which also isn't helped by the fact that his Fetch is in such good standing with the Autumn Court. It's hard for Shinobu not to feel like a pretender to his own life sometimes. He fights fiercely against it, but it's wearing, and he can't help but wonder how long it will be before he finally gives in. Part of him almost resents his Fetch's efforts, no matter how many times he castigates himself for being ungrateful. Most Fetches wouldn't even try to rescue their originals; how dare he resent his own for actually doing so? He does his best to bury those feelings, but he's fairly sure his Fetch isn't fooled, which just makes things worse.
While he does have his bad days (too many of them), Shinobu is still determined to find a place for himself in the world, to prove he's not just an empty plaything or an inferior version of his own copy. He's much more willing to try new things than he was before his Durance (although given how long his Fetch has been around, chances are that he's also tried them at some point), and he's reached out here and there and made friends of his own, although he's not the most socially adept person around. Still, he doesn't trust easily; he can't afford to. He's always polite, but letting people get close to him is harder. That doesn't mean he doesn't try, and not just because he can't afford not to; he needs all the touchstones he can get in order to keep a basic grip on reality. But he also doesn't want to spend the rest of his life alone in a crowd. He just wants people who can see him for who he actually is, and not who he seems to be. He wants that more than anything. If he can find them.
Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Galarian Ponyta
Password: Atomic Fireball
Samples
RP Sample: TDM thread
Victory Road Sample: Fourth Wall thread