Aug 20, 2020 23:10:46 GMT -5
Post by Iwatori Arata on Aug 20, 2020 23:10:46 GMT -5
IWATORI ARATA
OVERVIEW
ALIAS: N/A
AGE: 16
GENDER: Male
ROLE: Student
ALTER EGO: N/A
SCHOOL: Seijin
CLASS: 1-A
PERSONALITY
>Intuitive
>Intelligent
>Amiable
>Innovative
NEGATIVE TRAITS
>Insecure
>Cautious
>Nihilistic
>Paranoid
LIKES
>Learning
>Cooking
>Reading
>Gaming
DISLIKES
>Violence
>The Family Business
>Things Going Too Well
>Bitter Flavors
Generally speaking, at first glance, most people tend to assume one of two things about Arata when sighted alone - first, that he's quiet, and second, he tends to keep to himself. This, however, could not be further from the truth. Arata is talkative - very, very talkative. Many might say too talkative. Sociable to the extreme, the teen tends to make a habit of striking up conversations with whoever might be present, although the reasons tend to vary depending on the individual. Communication, gathering information, gossip, but more often than not and almost entirely the case when conversing with strangers, plain and simple boredom. Things don't tend to keep his interest long, which flows quite well into the next thing.
As most people can quickly tell just after talking to him for a few minutes, the other trait that Arata shows quite readily is that he's intelligent - more than just intelligent, intuitive. Curiosity has dominated the boy's life for a fair portion of it, and has driven a lot of his actions, responsible for nearly every skill he's picked up. Cooking, if only well enough not to starve, literary knowledge, basic home repairs, and several more mundane skills that generally do little beyond improving one's quality of life or random bits of trivia. Conversely, however, is the other problem - Arata's attention does not hold for long. Once he's learned enough to be able to comfortably discuss a topic or passably perform a given skill, the boy tends to move on to greener, more intellectually stimulating pastures - the one and only notable exception being a near complete refusal to develop or further explore aspects and uses of his Quirk.
While this goes to partly explain his interest in people, however, family tends to be rather complicated. Arata, from the start, never had any lasting interest in the hero life - it was but one profession, and one that he had lost interest in from an early age after learning enough to sate his curiosity. That being said, however, simply being part of the Iwatori family ironically rather limited his career paths, but that isn't to say Arata holds it against either his parents or extended family - they had their own lives to live, and it would be hypocritical to the extreme to complain about it given his own rather differing views on the life. While relatively close to his siblings in a general sense, Arata does tend to keep them at a somewhat comfortable distance save for his parents, an almost direct contrast to his usual attitude towards people as a whole.
Finally, while he would have been a definite optimist under different circumstances, Arata's rather shit luck, for lack of a better phrase, has long since taught the teen not to expect the best. Best case scenario, he is often pleasantly surprised - worst case scenario, he's prepared, although Arata is a firm believer in the idea that plans never survive beyond the initial stages of conception and are practically useless save for identifying where things can go wrong. That said, however, he is still a firm believer in karma in spite of his luck, and short of very good reason not to will often help people quite readily should they simply ask for it.
APPEARANCE
WEIGHT: 111 lbs
EYE COLOR: Dark gray
HAIR COLOR: Black
FACECLAIM NAME: Koyomi Araragi
FACECLAIM SERIES: Bakemonogatari
Generally speaking there isn't much to say about Arata - as far as the Japanese populace is concerned he is exceedingly average. Perhaps a little on the shorter side at only 5' 1" and what muscle the teen does have is rather well hidden by his typical choices in clothing - often neutral colored hoodies, t shirts, cargo pants and jeans with sneakers, with perhaps the only noteworthy feature (if it can be referred to as such) being a single rather notable cowlick that refuses to be tamed no matter the effort spent. Beyond that Arata tends to keep his hair slightly on the long side, enough that the front often manages to keep one eye hidden from view and the rest dropping down to his neck.
HISTORY
Born sixteen years ago, Arata's life began with the single good bit of fortune that came with being born to a fairly affluent family. His early years were by and large as normal as anyone born to two parents who were both working heroes could ever hope for - as Arata grew he likewise developed at a fairly normal pace, learning to crawl, walk and talk just as other children his age did, following in the proverbial footsteps of his older sister three years ahead of him. Once speech came to him in earnest, however, the world around the boy began to get quite a bit more complicated as his ability to comprehend the reality of things began to play a factor in his decisions.
While Arata was never truly a problem child in the traditional sense of the phrase, curiosity became a driving force in the boy's life very early on, and it was from that point on that the initial good fortune in his life began to pull a complete 180. Wandering off, poking at things that frankly should not have been messed with in the name of SCIENCE!, and otherwise asking generally awkward questions ahead of his years - while not by any means malicious, nothing was off limits during Arata's childhood when it came to simply wanting to understand the world around him. Unfortunately, this led to Arata discovering a few particular truths about his family fairly early on.
The Iwatori family, as a whole, had been part of a long line of heroes. Like many of the other such families Arata would never have had a real life outside of that of following the family business. At least not within living memory had members of the family made real efforts to branch outside of their comfort zone. And why would they when they were typically born with strong Quirks, many the result of planned marriages and decades old alliances? While there were small outliers that chose to pursue additional ventures alongside their hero careers they were few and far between, so with both that and paternal pressure to follow in both those same footsteps it became clear from an early point that any choices Arata made would come when he was far older. Ridiculous a question as it might have been, it did bring up rather unsettling implications of restrictions early on in life... especially after curiosity led to attempts to experiment with his emerging Quirk as a child which very nearly got him killed.
Despite coming to terms with that realization fairly early on in his life, much earlier than most, Arata didn't hold it against his family when they made it clear that he was expected to enroll at Seijin, the school at which both his parents and grandparents could claim alumni status. At that point, there wasn't much Arata could do about it either way - complaining wasn't going to do him any good. As much as he didn't have any sort of vested interest in the hero lifestyle he couldn't fault those who came before him from setting the standard simply by following what they wanted to do, or doing what was necessary to survive.
ITEMS
Quirk AND SKILLS
QUIRK TYPE: Emitter
QUIRK RANK: Silver
QUIRK DESCRIPTION: In simplest terms, Arata's Quirk allows him to alter the vectors of any object he comes into contact with. In essence this allows him to - theoretically - do any number of things, including altering the force and direction of any kinetic impact if not negating it entirely.
QUIRK DRAWBACKS: As powerful as Reflection is at a glance Arata was very much stuck with the short end of the stick when he was born with it. While it is true that, theoretically, it can function as a nigh impenetrable physical defense that only holds true if Arata can learn to control it - and there have been multiple speed bumps along that path. To begin listing off weaknesses of the Quirk, the first and most obvious is that Arata can only benefit from it if he knows the direction of an incoming threat. His Quirk requires active and conscious use, and without that he is just as vulnerable as any other Quirkless human being - attacks that catch him by surprise are just as dangerous/lethal.
Second, while Arata may have the control needed to actively use his Quirk he lacks the control needed to define the direction and force of any reflected attacks or objects. While he is able to safely "stop" most dead in their tracks any attempt to do more than that comes at the cost of both severe migraines (the result of an underused Quirk his body is not used to) and the object/attack being Reflected at a randomized angle and with a randomized degree of force. To say that this makes Reflection an incredibly dangerous and unpredictable Quirk would be a severe understatement, one just as likely to harm or injure an ally or bystander as it would Arata's theoretical attacker(s).
Third, Arata's Quirk cannot affect objects he isn't directly and physically touching. This can result in a number of different issues and potential weaknesses, the first and foremost being that his Quirk has absolutely no effect on mind altering Quirks or their effects on him. Additionally, the second limitation prevents Arata from being able to reliably apply his Quirk to thrown items or other ranged offensive methods - and even were that possible he would only be capable of controlling their initial direction and force with no further influence on the projectile after it lost physical contact with him. Additionally, the Quirk does not protect him from more abstract environmental threats like oxygen deprivation.
Fourth is that while Arata's Quirk can theoretically be applied to himself the one and only instance of this being attempted nearly killed him as a child through what amounted to a self induced heart attack. While falling short of the actual thing the attempt to use his Quirk on his own body unintentionally altered blood flow due to his flimsy and unpracticed control, one of the primary reasons that Arata has been hesitant to further experiment with his Quirk through the remainder of his childhood.
On a lesser note, where Arata's Quirk does work it isn't without further limitations. The amount of time it can remain active is heavily dependent on the amount of punishment it is attempting to handle, although endurance is about the only point Arata has working in his favor here. Any attacks or incoming objects capable of causing physical harm of silver tier or below cause negligible strain to Reflection, enabling Arata to use it for up to five posts (these need not be consecutive). Attacks capable of causing Gold level damage, however, will lower this count by 1 for every attack the Quirk interacts with. While Arata is capable of pushing his Quirk beyond this initial limit each further post counts as an extra "point", each additional attack above silver tier handled as before. At 1 point Arata begins to suffer from severe migraines, limiting the effectiveness of his Quirk's defensive ability and allowing Platinum level attacks to penetrate it for silver tier damage. At 2 points the migraines intensify to the point of tunneling his vision and reducing awareness of his surroundings. 3 points will further intensify symptoms (nosebleeds are common), at which point his Quirk will only be capable of blocking Bronze level attacks with Silver being reduced by a tier and Gold/Platinum completely unaffected. At 4 points Arata will fall unconscious as his Quirk overloads his body's ability to handle it. Assuming Arata is still standing at any point and his Quirk has reached its safe limit or beyond it, 5 posts without using it will be required for his body to recover and regain normal use. If his Quirk is allowed to rest before reaching this safe limit 4 posts (they need not be consecutive) will reset the seven post count, alternatively 3 consecutive posts of rest.
Attacks utilizing more abstract forms of corporeal harm such as electricity, fire or forms of radiation and the like are completely unaffected by Reflection with Arata's current level of control.
SKILL NAME: Enhanced Endurance
SKILL RANK: Bronze
SKILL DESCRIPTION: Arata long ago learned the benefit of running to live another day - and persistence often beats raw speed. He can run at max speed without getting tired for 3 posts.
SKILL NAME: Seijin Ninjutsu (Throwing Knife)
SKILL RANK: Silver
SKILL DESCRIPTION: Arata understands the basics of weapon training, acrobatics, and stealth. Largely the result of instruction by individual family members before being enrolled in the school at their discretion, Arata only knows what he does on account of a decent memory and intuitive aptitude for it.
PLAYED BY Spartan
