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Entry tags:
APPLICATION ( KENOS ).
PLAYER INFO
NAME: PaxCONTACT: PAX#8074 or
OVER 18?: Y
CHARACTER INFO
NAME: Reigen Arataka [ Western: Arataka Reigen ]SERIES: Mob Psycho 100
CANON POINT: Just after the Telepathy mini-arc ( Chapter 98 / Season 3, Episode 33 ).
AGE: 28+
CHARACTER SUMMARY:
A pathological liar, con artist and oddly dependable mentor in the lives of many struggling individuals, Reigen is the self-proclaimed "Greatest Psychic of the 21st Century". Except that he's not a psychic at all, barely able to see weak spirits, he offloads his business's workload onto the backs of actual psychics -- including his teenager student, Kageyama Shigeo, and adult learner, Serizawa Katsuya. While only a perfectly-average adult man, Reigen is a gifted mentalist, manipulator and absolute mess.
He's also representative of the duality of humanity; a bundle of contradictions and a network of complexities, Reigen is both a terrible human being and a good man. He faithfully instructs a child on the importance of virtues such as kindness, morality and empathy, while simultaneously utilizing that child's nigh-godly power for his own schemes. He lies and fleeces clients, while also providing them quality care that suits what he uncovers as the core of their actual problems. He is an oddly realistic character, who feels like he was born from the real world and put into a shonen anime to speak directly to the problems within. Don't fight children, do fuck with adults!
POWERS: Like, basically none to speak of. Reigen is a mundane human in a world where there is a subset of human beings with psychic and spiritual abilities. He is largely reliant on the abilities of others, including his employees - both psychics - and his own knowledge of How People Function. He really doesn't need any nerfing, and I've detailed his key skills below!
MEDIUMSHIP. After being infused with Mob's power - becoming "Reigen - 1000%" while dealing with the 7th Division Scars, Reigen was left with the ability to see spirits and otherworldly entities. He can't interact with them, or exorcise them, which is the basis for his entire business, but he definitely can see and communicate with them.
MENTALISM. As a conman, Reigen's predominant skillset involves mentalism, a performative art that he utilizes in order to appear as though he has highly developed mental or intuitive abilities. He's a textbook fraud, utilizing a combination of refined intuition, subliminal communication, emotional intelligence, reading of body language, behavioral science, psychology, straight-up LYING, and theatre/special effects to represent himself as a premiere psychic in a world where psychics are actually real. He's a skilled manipulator, with his most powerful asset being his charisma and mental fortitude; he does not ruffle easily, always crunching options and executing plans on the fly, even when facing down individuals and entities far more powerful than him.
JACK-OF-ALL-TRADES. Truly, this is a guy who's acquired a lot of different skills that he uses to support his lies and wriggle out of a lot of Bad Situations. Apparently he knows martial arts, the masseur trade, general salaryman things like how to balance a checkbook and use a computer, and a bunch of
And if he doesn't know it, his ability to lie is so good that he could likely convince several people he's got game where he has none. It's not an 'ability', per se, as the fact that his convictions are airtight.
GAME INFO
ASPECTS:The Stargazer. Arguably, Reigen is a free-spirited individual who's only focus is success in life. He finds it through the expansion of business, monetary wealth and popularity, despite being a deeply insecure individual who fears abandonment, mediocracy and Actually Being Perceived. He rarely turns down a client, whether they're truly in need of spiritual services or "spiritual services". Preferring to use his words rather than physical violence, he's an anti-nihilist who believes in working hard to make something of yourself ( "being the protagonist of your own story" ), despite never truly feeling as though he's made anything of himself -- he was definitely a chuuni as a kid, and it's hinted that he was either neglected or deeply unpopular. Like the Stargazer aspect as well, under all his bluster he is a deeply insecure individual who wants to change, but feels he is stagnant and incapable of changing who he is.
The Advocate. With an ostentatious personality and a large presence to counter the fact that he has ZERO POWER in a world where power is important, especially during those tender adolescent years, Reigen also could represent the Advocate aspect with ease. His entire business model is built on customer satisfaction, and despite that he's a snake-oil salesman, he is oddly faithful to helping those who come to him for help, and doing it cheaply. For many characters in the series, he is a mentor that provides guidance, emotional support and moral instruction. On the weak side of things, he does have a propensity for maudlin when he is alone, and does feel like a disappointment -- a sentiment his parents do not alleviate, as they rarely contact him and if they do, it's to tell him so.
ANTICIPATED FACTION: Zenith, without a doubt. Internally, Reigen knows that he's no where near strong enough emotionally or mentally to adhere to Meridian's goals and will provide little assistance in the long term; he'd rather join the bigger, stronger-looking team and maneuver his way through the two groups until he has a better image of what the leaders of each faction are looking for, and what they're willing to do to obtain it. He'd choose Zenith readily, too, by asking for the shard of his young protégé, Mob, in order to protect him -- and find a way to bring him back, because while Reigen couldn't restore all the worlds, his freaking godly student could. At least in his mind. Besides which, he's responsible for the kid.
SUITABILITY: tl;dr he's here to con silco and spend the rest of the game's existence avoiding him lest he DIE
Okay, fr. Reigen's suitability for the game doesn't come from any super-awesome powers, accumulation of experience or particular skillset. In his canon, he is the Normal Guy in a sea of Abnormality, yet serves the narrative as a strange moral compass and uniting force around which a lot of people derive their guidance from. If anything, for Kenos he might best serve as a shady-as-fuck therapist or morality pet. He's also an absolute lunatic and loser, so having some comedy involved in the midst of the Factions when everything begins to go tits up means maintaining some degree of external perspective that isn't ENTIRELY wrapped up in being a Meri vs. a Zenite.
Though I plan to have him join Zenith, I'd love to have him serve as a spy/informant between factions, or even on behalf of neutral/competing third-party options. Being someone who looks at the effects the growing tensions between Meridian and Zenith have on people who: want neutrality, were forced to join a side to gain access to resources, aren't Shard-bearers, and/or are going to become impacted by the pursuit of the Oracles is kind of his area of expertise. Having him as a "mediator for the little guy" would suit him really well, since he genuinely cares about individualism and protecting people. He doesn't really stand for total pacifism and neutrality, nor does he enjoy seeing people conned or manipulated at their most vulnerable. It's indeed hypocritical of him since he IS a conman, but he always strays towards faithfully helping people WHILE lying to their faces.
Weird guy, could be a cornerstone for building a third option around if it plays out that way, or at least being someone who encourages people not to become zealots. In terms of general stuff, I basically want this for him.
