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[creamsouda]

PLAYER INFO

Name: Luc/Luciano
Contact Information: gueyprince
Time Zone: EST/EDT
Characters Played: Maya Fey


CHARACTER INFO

Character Name: Kazuichi Souda
Character Canon: Dangan Ronpa series; Super Dangan Ronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

History: On the Dangan Ronpa wiki

AU History:

Once upon a time, during the war, there was a girl named Junko Enoshima-- a girl who had descended into dark despair and used her pokémon to fight against both sides, wreaking havoc wherever she could. One of those pokéon (amongst a mightyena and an umbreon) was a mawile. Junko and her pokémon were killed during the war, but because she and they had been turned into the monsters they had become because people had never loaned them compassion, their memories were taken from them and they were given another chance. The mawile was called Kazuichi. Their time then had been lost, and heir lives began anew in Union.

Hundreds of years after the war came an engineer by the family name Souda. He came from a long line of engineers, and was married to a Mawile shifter. But this engineer was better at making mechanical things-- and not as good at the engineering bits. He made plenty of prototypes and new designs for many helpful objects, but he was ahead of his time, and these blueprints never took off and never sold. He, his wife, and his son were left poor, and he became very bitter. He set up a bike shop that took in a little money, but his attitude left most of the work to his son.

His son was not an engineer, and they had not learned if he was a shifter yet, either. However, he was just as good as his father at mechanics, even as a child-- rather, he was better. Before his father's blueprints took a nose dive, he'd given his son a set of tools, and with these tools, Kazuichi Souda began to create a great deal of his own prototypes-- things that moved and supported and walked and worked. He could identify any problem with a bicycle and fix it with ease, and did his best to use these skills (as well as other handy-work jobs, as he was just as healthy as any other kid) to bring in money for his family. He also did his best to recover parts from the Old City, but since he was young and seemed to be unenlightened, he had trouble retrieving much. Still, he had a fascination with old tech, and did his best to risk it despite his fears.

From his father, Kazuichi learned most of the trade-- that which he didn't learn on his own, in any case. He learned basic shop techniques and basic first aid, as mechanics… tend to get hurt. But his father was not completely pleased with Kazuichi taking so much interest in the shop; though he understood he needed Kazuichi's help, he wanted for Kazuichi to stay in school and find a better profession, one that would bring more money. Unfortunately, his father was much too bitter to communicate this; instead of talking to him about it, He'd yell and hit Kazuichi for skipping school if he found out. Still, they were poor, and some school functions cost money. Kazuichi preferred risking getting caught and beat then turning up at school without the funds. Even with his father being somewhat abusive, he believed his parents loved him, and accepted it as just something parents do when their kids act out. He loved his father despite everything-- even if Kazuichi was quick to admit his father was absolutely useless to the household in his bitter old state.

Kazuichi's mother was the stay-at-home, stay-out-of-sight type. Always quiet and focused on cleaning and cooking and cleaning (and cleaning, and cleaning), she took care of most of the messes around the house. Though Kazuichi was, like most kids, too messy to help with most of the cleaning, he did at least help her cook and learned from that. She made most of his clothing-- on an old machine her son fixed up from a discarded one. Though his father was still close to him and his mother did not have the presence to influence much of his attitude, Kazuichi cared a great deal for his mother.

Throughout his school life, Kazuichi was somewhat studious and did well enough in his studies that he was able to help his peers. However, he was a bit shy and more concerned with tinkering, so the friends he made were few and far between. He would become far too loyal to the friends he did make and try to excuse their behaviours, even if they hurt him; he was lonely enough to think that his friends could do anything to him, so long as they didn't leave him behind and alone.

Around when he was 12-14, Kazuichi had a friend he believed to be his best friend. They did everything together, and Kazuichi truly believed he'd made a real friendship happen. It went so far as Kazuichi allowing his friend to copy the right answers off a test of his. They were caught, and Kazuichi's friend insisted it was Kazuichi who said he should copy the answers-- Kazuichi, of course, was willing to take the fall. However, his friend was overcome with guilt and unable to face Kazuichi anymore. Unable to understand why his friend left, Kazuichi was heartbroken and felt betrayed. He couldn't make himself bitter toward the world, softhearted as he was, so he decided that he would find a way to make the world fear him more-- and that was when he awakened as a shifter.

With his mawile shifting awakened, his long hair lengthened even more and turned a mauve-pink shade, steel teeth tangled in its twitching locks, and his own teeth sharpened. His eyes turned pink, and his hands changed color as well. To match it, he pierced his ears and dressed in bright yellows, determined to look and act like some sort of street punk. He put on airs, eager both to be accepted and to be left alone, and adopted the behaviours he thought were right for strong guys to have-- being confrontational, going after girls, and of course, working hard on his machines. Of course, this backfired a little on him; girls became more interested in him, which quickly proved that Kazuichi was far too timid to accept their advances. He continued to have trouble making friends, but because of his appearance as a strong steel-fairy type, many people just left him alone.

Kazuichi discovered one more thing after shifting; while stealing parts from the salvage at old city (timid and shy though he was, parts are always necessary) he came across a very young houndour missing a leg-- probably abandoned by its mother. Kazuichi was strong, but not always the most coordinated; his miscalculations led to him being discovered by a much stronger pokémon. As he was running from it, the houndour called out to him from where it was hiding, and Kazuichi was able to hide with her. When the danger was gone, he took the houndour with him and named her Belaire and since then, he's been working on improving designs for prosthetic limbs for pokémon.

Through school he made friends with Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu and Hajime Hinata, boys who helped him with… a few of his problematic behaviours. Because of their interference in his life, however, he is intensely loyal to them.

Kazuichi's best work is with vehicles and prosthetics, but he has big dreams and likes to aim high. One day, he's determined to make a machine that will allow non-flying-types to fly.

Canon Personality:

Kazuichi is one hell of a mechanic, but just like his brightly coloured hair and jumpsuit, he makes one hell of a first impression. Whether it's that someone ends up thinking he's a punk, or they end up thinking he's an annoying crybaby depends on the circumstance. Either way, a first impression of Kazuichi-- or a second, or even a third-- is not enough to get a true feel of what he's all about.

When a player first starts playing Super Dangan Ronpa 2, it's easy for them to be annoyed by Kazuichi's personality. Passed off for the comedic relief character, he looks either like a jerk for his poor flirting, feigned aggression, and somewhat perverted/machismo comments, or like a joke for being the biggest crier of the cast despite his looks. He comes off as aggressive, excitable, and rude-- and for all the machismo he spills out of his sharp-toothed mouth, he's afraid of the robotic bear Monokuma right off the bat. Not, 'cowers in his boots' afraid. Full-on screaming about monsters afraid. Always quick to shed tears, Kauzuichi's reaction to the killing game is much less composed then the rest of the kids'; he screams, he cries, and he becomes less trusting. He's afraid from the very start, and many of the others are annoyed by it. Koizumi Mahiru, a photographer with a high sense of responsibility, damn near tells him to man up about it and watch over the girls. The rest of them offer little sympathy to the kid they see as a punk-- and though it severely limits Kazuichi's chances of comfort, their avoidance is just what his appearance was originally intended for.

Kazuichi didn't start out as pink-haired, though there are other characters in his canon with strangely coloured hair and eyes. His eyes are contacts and his punk undercut style was dyed pink because it was one of the first things he tried and it stuck. At the time, he'd been reinventing his image-- taking things apart and putting them back together, like a mechanic does.

Take it apart, put it together.

Every problem Kazuichi faces is dealt with the same way.

When he was young, he had very few friends. Those he did have weren't especially nice to him, and didn't make him feel like he was important. He describes himself in canon as being a "weak, cowardly kid" who believed "everyone who talked to [him] was a nice person" in his final Free Time Event. He continues to explain that whether he was betrayed or lied to, he always believed there was a good reason for it, and wouldn't let himself admit that some people had malice in their hearts. This lead to him being troubled by an incident when he felt betrayed. His best friend at the time and he got caught after Kazuichi gave his friend the answers to the test, and the friend insisted that Kazuichi gave him the answers of his own volition. Kazuichi reveals his self-sacrificing behaviour by explaining that "as long as [his friend] didn't get punished… [he] really didn't mind sharing [his] answers with him at all." However, since his friend kept avoiding him after that (assumedly out of guilt), Kazuichi became very angry, believing both himself to somehow be the cause and that it was human nature for people, if you believed in them, to betray you.

Hating himself, he "got rid of all of it," and did what he does best; took things apart and put things back together. He changed his appearances and behaviour, trading a shy personality and black hair for a boisterous personality and bright pink hair. He made himself look like a punk, driving away his old friends with his appearance and letting delinquents surround him. In that way, he was able to run away-- both from wanting to believe in people, and from their supposed inevitable betrayal.

Despite his punked up looks, however, Kazuichi was unable to escape his cowardly self. Even if he was able to bulk up both from hanging out with delinquents and from being a mechanic, he still balks at the idea of killing or being killed, and doesn't like the idea of fighting. He cries easily, both at having his feelings hurt and at the prospect of being hurt physically. Despite this, he seems to be able to read most people (meaning not girls, since to teenage boys, girls seem to be a foreign species) rather well, and is able to pick up on the fact that the seemingly unflappable Nidai is a sensitive guy who cares very much about other people. He's also able to clue in on what other people like easily and tends to use that to his advantage; if he can make what they like, he can feel that he is of some use to them.

Even though he's aged and tried not to believe in people, Kazuichi still struggles with self-sacrifice. If the others at all don't believe in him for something, he takes it to heart; something must be wrong with him or his machines or the way he does things, so he has to take it apart and fix it again, make them notice him. Though he hates himself for being "too weak to believe in others" and shows his paranoia about the other kids, Kazuichi can't help but put himself in a self-sacrificing position to try and get the attention of those he wants to make friends with.

More than anything, however, he's also a kid with big dreams. Though he is quick to assume people will laugh at him or think he's silly for his dreams, he has real goals in life, and he can't help but adore his work. Being a mechanic is his one true passion, and he loves it above all other things. He's a bit of a softie and would much rather tinker with something than go out on an adventure or fight, and he can't even ride in the vehicles he makes and repairs thanks to his awful motion sickness. But for all his crying and fears, he's incredibly loyal, and from the way he's quick to defend those he actually believes in, one can assume that if push came to shove, the mechanic would put up a fair fight in defence of his friends.

His biggest flaw, however, and one of the biggest annoyances to his castmembers, is that it's easy for him to idealise others. The subject of his idealisation in the story is Sonia, SHSL princess--- a girl who wants to be treated, for once, like a person instead of royalty. To Kazuichi, however, though he may not be completely aware of it, Sonia is an opportunity. If a person as important as Sonia gave a shit about him, someone who because of her status could effortlessly be believed in, it didn't matter if anyone else found him important at all. If he could be important to her and win the love of a princess, he wouldn't feel lonely or lesser. However, it's this very idealisation that proves he didn't have a real crush on her-- just the idea of her. It's also exactly what Sonia doesn't want; another person treating her like a princess instead of a person. However, since everyone on the island is a teenager, no one can see the miscommunication between them, and no one can explain to Kazuichi why his pursuits of her are wrong. Instead of seeing that his whole approach makes her feel less of a person, he interprets her refusals of his advancements as suggestions that he isn't good enough, and constantly tries to change to suit her-- not realising that it's that very behaviour that continues to turn her off. While Kazuichi proves to Hinata that if he learns one of his behaviours isn't right for someone like him to have, he does his best to change it (apart from the crying, which is something he can't seem to control at all), there isn't a way for him to understand Sonia in their situation, which unfortunately leads to a near irreparable rift in the friendship between them.

In the end, Kazuichi's a teenage boy who's still learning. He slips up often and can hurt other people's feelings, just like the rest of the cast does. However, he's also eager and willing to learn and change-- and can often be too self-sacrificing. Like most of his castmates, he devalues himself, and idealises many others. Even still-- his poor first impressions mask what he really is; a bright kid with a bright dream, and the hope to find a way to finally believe in someone again.

AU Deviation:

Souda's life is different here mostly because of the absence of Hope's Peak Academy (an academy that stressed individual talents above all else, to a healthy point) and his involvement with his friends, who help him combat his loneliness. The presence of Belaire in his life also gives him the initiative to pursue prosthetic development, which is not something he would have originally. In addition, he's much better at defensive situations and quicker at hiding and evading trouble, thanks to his experiences in the old city.

Canon Abilities:

Souda is Super High School Level Mechanic, meaning that he can repair and/or build almost any mechanical object with ease. He is so adept that he can even program simple robots, though more complex robots would require help from a programmer. He is very physically strong because of this, but he does not have any training in fighting.

Enlightened Abilities: SHIFTER - MAWILE (fairy/steel)

Starter Pokémon: HOUNDOUR (female)

Notes/Special Considerations:

In his canon, Souda's a mechanic. Evolutionary items are not exactly what he would have made, so I didn't make him an engineer; however, I'd love for him to have an obsession with and aptitude for machinery and be able to build things such as prosthetics and moving parts. He'd also have an obsession with old tech. His dream is to build vehicle-type things, so if he could one day help to create crude flying machines or help to modify carriages and other such vehicles, it'd be great.

SAMPLES

First-Person: test drive + 1

Questionnaire:

-What do you feel your role in Union is?

What? Oh-- you mean what I wanna do, right?

[Whether it's what you mean or not, that's how Kazuichi's decided he's going to answer.]

Shit, I wanna make stuff! Everything we got, it can get better, y'know? Bicycles, vehicles, all that. An' those prosthetics, too! I can get everyone movin', y'know?

-To what lengths would you go to rescue your allies if they were lost in the wilderness?

M-me?! I don't--

[A shuffle, and Kazuichi starts pulling his hat down over his forehead.]

I-I dunno if I'm cut out for that, man, but… S-someone's gotta go after 'em, right? I'd do what I can-- and if it was Belaire, I dunno. I can't let 'er get hurt, y'know?

…I-I don't wanna think about somethin' like that.

-A human has attacked a wild Pokémon who retaliates in defense. How do you respond and whom do you defend?

Look, all I'm sayin' is, you don't go playin' with fire if you don't know how to keep yourself safe, y'know? I'll get the asshole out of there, but he better know he ain't supposed to go around fuckin' with people! And if he was goin' too hard on the pokémon, well… Maybe he deserves to get his ass kicked, y'know what I'm sayin'?

-You plunge into the depths of the Old City. What is it that you seek from the past? Treasure, technology, wisdom?

M-me, in the Old City?

I'm not sayin' I go down there, but, uh, if I did, it'd be for parts. Look, you gotta keep things runnin', don'tcha? S-so… If you need parts and you don't got a lot of money, you just gotta be quick. I mean, if you… were gonna go down there.

-What strengths make you most qualified for your role within Union?

I can fix just about anything! Well, anything mechanical. You ain't ever seen a bike repair go faster than I've done it! You got a broken wheel on your cart? I got it. Anything you can take apart-- I can fix it! An' I'm pretty damn good at gettin' these prosthetics workin' too. Right, little lady?

[He looks to Belaire, who gives him a happy bark and wiggles her little nub of a tail.]

-No Enlightened chooses their abilities - and not all are Enlightened. What type abilities would you most desire to manifest and why?

Huh… I didn't think about it before, but I guess if I'da been an engineer like my old man… maybe things woulda been a little easier on 'im.

[Again, he tugs at his hat, but he seems less distressed than before.]

But, I can't change that, right?