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Duplicity App
Feb. 18th, 2022 09:45 pm« « « RASH » » »
Name: Ana Age: 34 Contact: Timezone: EST (-5) Other Character(s): Drake Holloway, Trevor Belmont / double AC here |
Name: Kazu Iida Door: door pass; submissive Canon: gen:LOCK Canon Point: s2e4, 'Together. Together.' Age: 22 Appearance: image ref - Kazu is a 6'2" Japanese man with broad shoulders and a muscular physique. He has flippy shoulder length dark brown hair, dark grey eyes, plugged earlobes, and a scruffy goatee surrounded by stubble. History: Season 1 -- comic & s2e1-4 discussed below! After defeating Nemesis in the battle of Chicago, the GL team learns that the Unity has deployed forces to blockade Polity-aligned Japan. The Vanguard and Kazu himself both advise against involvement in the conflict (Japan has made clear that foreign aid isn't welcome) but GL is now autonomous and the others vote to go anyway. Sure enough, upon arrival their Holons are confiscated but after they escape lockup the Japanese General allows the team to stay with Kazu's parents at his family home while things are sorted out. It's a very awkward reunion and eventually Kazu admits to Valentina that he believes he's unworthy of love, even from his parents. He seems angry with them only because he feels he's dishonored his war hero grandfather's memory with insubordination and doesn't know how to cope. This is the first canon instance of Kazu letting himself be emotionally open with anyone, and with Valentina's support he is able to not only reconcile with his parents but confront General Anno to move past his feelings of shame and failure. They are allowed to recover their Holons and push the Union forces back, after which Yaz addresses the Japanese Polity. She speaks about trust and tells their allies they are not alone in this fight, at which point Kazu reaches out and takes Valentina's hand -- another first for him, as he's not been seen initiating affectionate physical contact before. The team returns to RTASA, expecting to continue supporting the Vanguard in their fight to push the Union out of North America. Unfortunately, it turns out the Union made copies of Nemesis and starts throwing more and more of them at the Polity. Instead of reclaiming territory or even just holding the line, GL is now just barely surviving battles against dozens upon dozens of enemy mechas while the Union claims city after city. The Anvil is lost, the line is pushed, and eventually the only ground the Polity still holds in North America is a tiny patch of southern California. Desperate, General Marin decides to take drastic measures. Against Weller's final wishes she has been making copies of the GL team and now merges them (mimicking the team's dramatically more powerful mindshare state) with altered personality settings to upload into what she calls Holon frames. These essentially disposable mechas use kamikaze tactics and even the odds, quickly turning the tide of war back in the Polity's favor. They begin to reclaim territory, and upon taking back Las Vegas the GL team is allowed the first actual R&R they've had in about a year of constant fighting. You'd think that Kazu, who frequently complains about wanting to leave base and get drunk, would enjoy the downtime... but something is amiss. He's been exceedingly cranky, picking fights and snapping at everyone and strangest of all to the others, avoiding Val (who has physically transitioned to male at some point since Japan), the teammate he spends all his free time with. It turns out that his avatar, the physical representation he appears as while uploaded, is presenting female and he thinks he must have "caught" Val's genderfluidity somehow. Cammie claims it's a manifestation of his self conscious and there's nothing she can do, and Kazu storms off in another rage. Val later finds him at a strip club, ignoring the dancers in favor of getting drunk. Kazu refuses to tell him what's wrong but ultimately accepts the company and the next day after they get over their hangovers, Val tries again to help him work through his issues. It turns out to be rooted in toxic masculinity -- Kazu confesses he's scared and struggling with his feelings, falling back on anger because he views vulnerability as a feminine trait. In a man, he sees it as a weakness. He asks Val to mindshare and they exchange upsetting childhood memories that have informed their views on weakness vs strength. Val's is especially traumatic, and when Kazu comforts him Val responds with a kiss that turns their relationship physically intimate. It's immediately after this that R&R ends, Marin contacting the team and ordering them back to base for a new mission: they're going to retake the Anvil. Although in the end the Polity wins back their stronghold and its advanced weaponry, it comes at great cost. All of the soldiers physically present on the battlefield are killed by smoke and Kazu is killed by a Nemesis, stabbed through his Holon's electronic brain as he's protecting Yaz. They were mindsharing as he died, and she later tells Val that Kazu's last moments were spent worrying about him. Personality: - repressed - The only reason this isn't Kazu's top negative trait is that he's finally got someone around who sees him as more than 'someone else's problem' and is willing to help him process his feelings (spoilers, it's Val) which means he's actively working on improving. But the fact that he's always repressed so much still informs everything he does and has influenced every relationship he's ever had. Anything he doesn't know how to deal with, that he doesn't understand, that he finds unacceptable or inappropriate or weak... it's all initially shoved down and bottled up in favor of being "tough" and "strong." Not only does this lead to him frequently lashing out from all these pent up negative emotions, it's wrecked his self-worth. He's set himself up to fail his entire life by holding himself to a completely impossible standard: Kazu's concept of a hero isn't reality, for one thing. And for another, it's not at all who he is. It's someone who's never scared, or sad, or soft. Every time he feels something that doesn't fit who he's always wanted to be, the instinct to repress it keeps him from being able to move past the challenge and has led to a life full of wrecked relationships and conflict and ultimately disappointment. It's unfortunate that he only started figuring out how to be himself and find happiness in the year before he died. - rash - I know what you're thinking: really? This man took whole year to hook up with his love interest and wasn't even the one that made the first move, how can you say he doesn't think things through? But unfortunately for just about everyone else on the planet, his caution is pretty Val-exclusive. He has to prioritize someone to a truly absurd degree to swing in that direction -- usually Kazu is reckless, impulsive, and impatient. He almost never considers the consequences of his actions, be it blurting out the first (often rude or insubordinate) thing that comes to mind without a filter or causing massive collateral damage during a fight. He constantly rushes into combat ahead of the others, hates being told to wait for anything, activates his suit's enhancements without knowing how they work, and is prone to snapping. In a similar vein, he escalates situations other people start and never seems to know when to stop. Even in training Kazu leans towards overkill, wanting to fight until he wins despite poor Leon yelling at the giant robots to stop breaking things. Outside of that, his go to coping mechanism is to get wasted to the point of misery the next day. Nearly all of his choices are made in the moment. Whether or not it's something he's considered before, he's making a snap decision now based entirely on what feels right and even the best of intentions don't always translate to positive outcomes. He does learn from the mistakes he regrets so there's definitely the potential for him to find a balance between 'no thinking only action' and 'no action only thinking' but there's a lot more work to be done. - rebellious - When he was younger, all Kazu wanted was to be old enough to join the military and follow in his grandfather's footsteps. He wanted to uphold his family's honor, protect his homeland, win fights and earn metals. Unfortunately it didn't take long at all for it to become apparent that he's absolutely terrible at following orders. In civilian life his rebelliousness mostly manifested as a love of counter culture and small acts of defiance -- nothing dramatic or criminal, Kazu essentially just never grew out of his punk phase -- but in the military? You're expected to what other people tell you to, no questions or discussion, and certainly no disagreement. By his own admission Kazu thought he knew better than his superiors more often than not, and constantly refused to fall in line. Transfers didn't work. Demotions didn't work. He was bounced around until no one would take him anymore, at which point they gave up and pulled him from combat entirely. There's an implication that he was a pain in the ass on kitchen duty as well, because by all accounts the Japanese officers were glad to be rid of him. One of the first things he declares when told exactly what gen:LOCK is meant for is, "I don't fight simply because someone tells me to." And he goes on to show that he doesn't fight by the rules, either, taking great joy in breaking them instead. Ultimately his goals and morals align with the Vanguard's enough that he's an asset to GL rather than a problem (most of the time) but you really can't make Kazu do something he doesn't agree with. Especially when he's a 40ft robot. + caring + Despite not knowing how to express his emotions most of the time, Kazu has a lot of them, especially when it comes to other people. On the rare occasions he does put his feelings for others into words, he usually keeps the statements short but meaningful -- lots of superlative statements and important vocabulary choices. He calls Chase his brother, tells his parents he loves them more than he could ever put into words, and threatens strangers on Yaz and Valentina's behalf. But most of the time he chooses to show his love rather than talk about it. When he first arrives at the Anvil he only cooks for himself, but as he gets to know his new teammates he starts cooking for Cammie to encourage her to eat more, then eventually winds up making breakfast for all of them regularly. During fraught group conversations where he's present but silent, not knowing what to say, he feeds them instead. He doesn't have the right words to comfort Val after learning about his past, but shows how much he cares by holding his hand and wiping away his tears despite not usually being a physically affectionate person. He's always worried about the others' well-being, most often Cammie and Chase, even if he only admits this to Val/entina because he doesn't know how to address issues directly without it turning into another fight. In combat (even when he's not a 40ft tall robot) he leaps in front of his teammates to block them from bullets, is the first one to rush in to help civilians, and ultimately he dies protecting Yaz. Essentially, Kazu cares a lot, often more than he can handle, about both his comrades and strangers. Just don't ask him to put it into words. Powers and Abilities: Kazu is an absolutely brutal close combat fighter, skilled in swordsmanship (he uses greatswords, twin swords, and katanas) and hand to hand with a highly adaptable and difficult to predict style in the latter. Not only does he hit like a mack truck and know exactly where to strike for maximum damage, he utilizes the environment as much as possible by grabbing whatever's around for use as weapons or shields, sometimes even enemies themselves. He's surprisingly fast and agile for his size, able to dodge most attacks, and in one instance slide under an enemy's legs to get behind him for a takedown. It's also shown that he's proficient with firearms, shooting at least handguns and a shotgun with high accuracy, and he was a mobile gunner with the SFD for several years before GL. Outside of combat skill, he's an experienced cook and plays multiple styles of guitar. Inventory: shield pauldron, katana, talking roboshogun keychain Samples: 5 threads (network & log), log, log |
