Route 29: ｍｏｄｓ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
these_balls) wrote2010-04-27 11:40 pm
these_balls) wrote2010-04-27 11:40 pm
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Understand the secrets and have some fun
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Kaneki Ken | Tokyo Ghoul | Reserved
Name: Chi
Personal Journal:
E-mail: winterbolts@gmail.com
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Timezone: EST
Current Characters in Route: Jimmy Two-Shoes (
Chihiro Fujisaki (
Nagi Naoe (
Character
Name: Kaneki Ken
Series: Tokyo Ghoul
Timeline: end of chapter 52
Canon Resource Links: http://tokyoghoul.wikia.com/wiki/Ken_Kaneki
Personality:
Ever since he was a child, Kaneki was always very quiet and reserved. He preferred to spend most of his time reading novels, alone. He’s like his late mother to a fault- he’s kind and gentle, and his greatest concern is making sure other people are safe and happy, even to the extent of “being the person who is hurt” himself, instead of someone else. He doesn’t particularly see himself as someone exceptional or great- he’s average, normal at best- so he doesn’t mind taking the brunt of any misfortune for the sake of others. This results in Kaneki being an easy target for bullying and leads to peers taking advantage of him. After his mother passed he was left with practically no family (not a family that he felt comfortable with, at least) and barely any friends. His best friend, Hide, was able to pick up on this in Kaneki and basically decided then and there that he would be Kaneki’s friend, and so he was.
This sort of thing is extremely important to Kaneki since one of his greatest fears is being alone. He’d already lost his parents and only had Hide as someone he could truly call a friend, and thus is willing to do whatever he can to make sure he doesn’t lose anyone close to him to avoid being alone again. After he becomes a half-ghoul his priority still lies with protecting those dear to him. Even in light of the circumstances he meets others that he wishes to protect- such as Touka, Hinami-chan, and others- and finds himself working not only to find a place to belong, but to strengthen himself so he can do whatever he can to protect them. He relies heavily on having other people being there at all to stave off the threat of being alone and tends to rely less on himself and his own abilities, lacking the self-confidence and independence to do so.
Joining Anteiku gives Kaneki a place where he feels can ‘belong’ as much as one possibly could in both the human world and world of the ghouls. He tries to cling to his humanity but at the same time finds himself genuinely caring about the plight of the ghouls, those he had previously feared and misunderstood. He realizes that no matter who they are, he can’t just stand by and do nothing while anyone is struggling or suffering, whether they are human or ghoul. Even after nearly being killed by the ghoul Nishiki in a previous encounter with him, Kaneki stops a group of ghouls from attacking him, even though they appeared much stronger than him. Seeing that they had ‘gone too far’ was enough for Kaneki to want to get involved.
As kind and well-meaning as he is, Kaneki seems to struggle to actually stand up for himself since he’s never been much of an assertive person and it has resulted in unfavorable instances that could have been avoided otherwise. Namely his encounter with Tsukiyama, for example, whom he ends up trusting though his intuition (and basically everyone he talks to about him) tells him that he would be better off if he avoided him entirely. While he did have more motivation to want to trust him thanks to the possibility of getting information about the accident that killed Rize from Itori in exchange for information about the Ghoul Restaurant, he still found himself believing Tsukiyama to be a good enough ghoul that he could trust. The same could be said of his encounter with Rize, but it’s less so considering he never knew she was a ghoul to begin with. Still, it ultimately shows how Kaneki is more willing to try to be kind, accommodating, and trusting than he is worrying about his own well being.
He also has trouble actually finding ways to communicate any frustration or anxiety he feels at any given time. His solution to getting away from things bothering him has always been to bury himself in books and be alone. It can be particularly difficult for him to actually express himself. That isn’t to say it’s impossible, it’s just hard. This only is exacerbated when Kaneki becomes a half-ghoul, finding himself thrust into a way of life that he can’t grow accustomed to or ever fully understand. It’s stressful and upsetting and constantly he’s bombarded with all of this. Notably, beginning to work at Anteiku does seem to help alleviate this a bit, along with Yoshimura’s help and guidance. Of course that much can take Kaneki only so far, leaving him stuck to try and deal with his new life as best as he can. Though he clearly struggles to get a grasp on his new life, Kaneki does start to find a sort of niche where he can exist. It isn’t the same by any means, but he works hard to get himself to it and is able to work and live at Anteiku, up until when the members of Aogiri Tree come.
Strengths/Weaknesses:
✓Studious and quick thinking: Kaneki is an avid reader and is very intelligent due to the wide array of books he immerses himself in. He’s not only able to read and digest impressive amounts of information from the books he reads, he is able to call back on what he’s read and actively apply it in situations as necessary. While he mostly reads novels, he has also read books on martial arts to bolster his knowledge on various techniques so he can compensate for generally being a weak fighter. In Route, this would lend to him being able to learn various tactics and strategies for battling rather quickly by reading about them. He could turn out to be a formidable trainer if he got enough information on the basics/various strategies and practiced, since he could stick to knowing how to apply the strategies he read about while his Pokemon actually do all the heavy lifting.
✓ Intuitive: Tying in with the previous strength, Kaneki compensates for his otherwise weak fighting by being able to look at his opponents and quickly read their actions so he can react accordingly. He fights in ways that he knows he can, relying on his quickness and ability to dodge more so than the strength he has, which is pretty little to start. Again, this would be applicable to Route during battles; he could quickly turn the tables on a situation quickly going sour if he could think of a solution to the problem at hand, even if he were at a disadvantage by way of levels or type.
✓ Gentle and Kind: While Kaneki tends to be a bit awkward in initiating friendships, once he has formed a relationship with someone he really finds himself caring about that person, no matter how they treat him at times. Even Touka, who belittles him and argues with him constantly is on his list of people he would probably let himself be killed over. He’s eager to spend his time to help Hinami learn to read kanji better and he does his best to get on well with all of those working at Anteiku. He is generally an optimistic person on the whole to begin with, preferring to try to see the good instead of the bad, in both situations and the people he meets.
✓ ✗ Can’t be alone: This works as both a strength and weakness for Kaneki. As mentioned he is practically the poster child for modesty and really genuinely cares about people, but his underlying fear of being alone makes him selfish in that he’s trying to protect himself by protecting others. He doesn’t want to be alone, and if something happens to the people he cares about, then he’ll have to suffer through being alone again.
✗Not a strong fighter: Suffice it to say that Kaneki is pretty weak, physically. He is absolutely terrible at anything to do with sports and he’s not very coordinated, and this leads to him being beaten down quite a lot early on as a ghoul. He cannot properly control Rize’s Kagune, and when it does successfully manifest it has a tendency to go beyond his control, leading him to nearly killing Nishiki in a frenzy trying to protect Hide. He does as best he can without having to ‘rely on a power he can’t control’, but he still finds himself outclassed in most situations he ends up in.
✗I trust you: Kaneki has a bit of a problem with trusting far too easily, and those he trusts tend to end up being the last people he should be trusting. While Hide can immediately tell when something is off about someone, Kaneki tends to run off of his initial impression and comes to discover that the person he thought he knew wasn’t all that they seemed. This happens when he meets both Rize and Tsukiyama, both times being tricked by the other due to his overly trusting nature. In the same vein, he is often far too willing to actually forgive someone for the things they’ve done, no matter how terrible. He would take ‘seeing the best in people’ too far more often than not.
✗Bottle it up: Kaneki doesn’t let out his emotions or troubles and rather hides them and pushes them away, seeking methods such as burying himself in the world of books to do so. This is mostly due to the way he grew up, lacking the social skills to actually know what to do with these sort of feelings, and thus is unable to express them properly.
✗Doesn’t belong (alternatively, Schrodinger’s protag??): After becoming a half-ghoul, Kaneki struggles with the idea that he cannot belong anywhere. He’s unfit to live as a human, and he comes under the impression that he cannot truly understand a ghoul living the life he had previously. He’s simultaneously both and neither, all at the same time. He does all that he possibly can to live normally as he did before, but at the same time discovers time and again that it will be impossible for him to truly live normally ever again. How can he be friends with Hide, who could so easily discover what he is and endanger both him and the other ghouls he has come to know? Would he even understand or sympathize if he knew? It’s a line he’s constantly having to walk, and essentially two lives he has to figure out how to balance.
Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Zangoose
Password: Apple Strudel
Samples
First Person Sample:
[When the feed turns on a very brief shot of the ceiling of some sort of establishment can be seen before the ‘Gear is angled back down to reveal Kaneki seated at a table in what looks to be a café. At least…it seems to be him, anyway. It’s a bit hard to tell at just a glance, given that he’s nearly obscured by the piles of books stacked up on the table in front of him. After a bit of careful shifting he gets a better angle, though he almost has to hold the thing over his head to do so.]
Does…anyone have any good book recommendations? I’ve been looking through as many as I can find but…something doesn’t seem right about some of them.
[His brow furrows and the camera shifts as he reaches out to pick up one of the books from the top of the pile nearest him, turning it around so the title is visible.]
Like….Don Quilladin?
[That’s…not Don Quixote. Not even close.]
And, um… [He puts that one down and picks up another.] The Scarlet Leavanny? [And one more, for good measure.] …A Tale Of Two Sentret?
[Giving a sigh, Kaneki puts the books back and leans back in his seat, turning his attention to the stacks that he’s rummaged through multiple times at this point.]
I don’t even know where to start with some of these…but I guess they can’t be…all that different. I haven’t seen anything by Takatsuki Sen, either...but if anyone recognizes the name of that author, please let me know.
[It’s a bit of a stretch, he knows, but he can’t help but ask anyway…even though that bit was mostly said as an aside to himself. He’s a bit dejected that he doesn’t have any of her works with him anymore, but that’s not going to stop him from finding new material to read. However…strange.
With that, the feed cuts.]
Third Person Sample:
Kaneki hadn’t anticipated his day going quite like this. Having to trek through a cave was…interesting enough, but he had actually managed to make it out without too much trouble. Having a companion who is mostly interested in talking with her fists- or claws, in this case- certainly helped prevent him from being dive-bombed by the insane amount of bats roosting on the ceiling. But when he finally stumbled into the light once again, he only had a moment to catch his breath before his bag moved on its own accord.
Now, he found himself on his hands and knees, peering carefully into his knocked over bag. His Zangoose stood crouched nearby, her hackles raised as she glared daggers at it while keeping a close eye on her trainer at the same time.
“I…I don’t see any- uwaah!”
He jerked back as the bag jumped again, something flashing out of the inside and pinching him hard on the hand. It caused Kaneki to fall back stiffly on his bottom as he drew his now bleeding hand to his chest. Naturally, his Zangoose was going to have none of it, and promptly proceeded to thrust her head in the bag to snap at the thing inside, earning herself a rather horrible little screech of dismay from the culprit. Out of the bag scurried a Skorupi, which gave one look at Kaneki- brandished its tail with a threatening snap snap of the pincers- and shot a glare at his Zangoose before disappearing back into the cave.
“Ow…” He hissed, turning his hand over to inspect the wound. It wasn’t life threatening, but it certainly wasn’t a paper cut, either. The sort of injury that would take a normal person a couple weeks to heal. A ghoul would be fine in just a few minutes, seconds if they were stronger. In that moment, it struck Kaneki as strange that that would be his first thought as he watched the small trickle of blood make its way down his wrist. When he noticed his Zangoose eyeing the cut with concern, he finally snapped out of it and reached down into his bag to find something to stop the bleeding until he could get to a town…a scarf or something would do.
But now, Kaneki’s heart was racing again, his hand twitching as he reached in his bag. It was still hard for him to actually believe that he was really a human again, here. That he really could…possibly live a life like he had back home in Tokyo, before he encountered Rize. He could eat. He could live without the constant fear that comes with being a ghoul. He could live.
He pulled his hand back out once he found the scarf, looking at the wound again. It hadn’t changed. As he wrapped it up, he wondered if it would be gone if he checked in an hour, or if it would still be there…reminding him. Once he was done he looked back down at his starter, offering her something of a weak smile.
“I’m okay, really,” He said as he brought his left hand idly to his chin while singing his bag over his shoulder again with his right. As he bent down the Zangoose climbed up onto his shoulders with a low growl, pushing her head against his jaw. He could still feel his hand throbbing as he started walking again, his mouth dry but something deep inside of him cautiously optimistic. He was a little reluctant to allow himself to get his hopes up over all of this too much, after all…maybe it was just a dream, as he’d once thought.
An hour later Kaneki would remove the scarf to stare down at a still bloody wound, not having quite yet begun to scab over and heal.
Maybe it wasn’t just a dream after all.
no subject
In the revised section, we would like to see a more in-depth look at how Kaneki's experiences have shaped him as a person, as well as further elaboration on what makes him a distinct and identifiable character in his own right. With regards to what we feel are inaccuracies of canon, we would like to see either a correction of those inaccuracies or a detailed overview of the rationale that led you to your interpretation of canon events.
You will have one week to complete these requests before the character is available again.
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Kaneki is best described as being a quiet, reserved type of person. From a young age he was always shy and struggled to stand up for himself, and this lead to him becoming an easy target for bullying with peers taking advantage of him since he wouldn’t do anything about it. He grew up rather lonely, living with his aunt and adopted brother following the death of both of his parents with only one person he could truly call a friend, but when Kaneki does find other individuals who will stick with him, be a legitimate friend to him, and care about him, he will do whatever he can to help them or keep them protected, even to the extent of being the person who is hurt himself instead of them. His mother always taught him to see the best in people, meaning that he’s willing to give second chances or turn a blind eye to the way he’d been treated as a child.
However, this leads to Kaneki being far too willing to trust someone or totally set aside the bad in them in exchange for seeing only the good. It is because of this that he unknowingly accompanies an incredibly dangerous ghoul known as Rize by himself to a secluded alley, giving her the opportunity to attack him. This can be seen again and more prominently when Kaneki encounters another ghoul, Tsukiyama. Even though everyone warns him about how dangerous of a ghoul he is and that it would be in his best interest to avoid him entirely, Kaneki instead gives Tsukiyama a chance and willingly meets with him. He decides that he and Tsukiyama are people who are a lot alike- which couldn’t have been farther from the truth- and is nearly killed at the Ghoul Restaurant Tsukiyama takes him to, fooled into believing Tsukiyama just wanted to enjoy a meal with him…not make a meal of him.
When Kaneki becomes a half-ghoul, he initially has trouble accepting it. He does everything he can to remain ‘human’ and denies the fact that he’s anything but, refusing to be lumped in with the ‘monsters’ that ghouls are. But eventually he comes to realize that while he’s no longer human, he isn’t a ghoul either. The idea that he cannot belong anywhere troubles him, especially since one of his greatest fears is being left alone. If he cannot belong as a human or a ghoul, then he will truly be alone. The desperate way in which he reacts to being turned into a half-ghoul shows how important not being alone is to him; he tries to eat food he can no longer stomach, and even goes to the lengths of trying to stab himself in the hopes that if his wound is serious enough, he’ll receive another organ transplant and that that will somehow fix him so he can belong again.
In times of stress such as these, Kaneki finds solace in reading books. He can be seen reading very frequently during his free time as he uses books as a way of calming himself and as an escape from reality. Kaneki tends to read novels and short stories; when he can’t find a way to properly express frustration or anxiety, he reads. Even before he became a half-ghoul books served a more deeper purpose than just being a simple hobby. However, after the accident, reading avidly is one of the things that helps to keep him tethered to his human life.
In spite of all of the things that he has to go through, Kaneki remains a gentle, optimistic person. He cares a lot for others and tries to help them in any way he can. As mentioned he tries to see the best in people, but this extends to situations as well. When he is taken in at Anteiku by Yoshimura he works hard to earn his keep as a waiter instead of succumbing to the easier route of despair over a seemingly hopeless life he now must adjust to. He forges relationships with many of the ghouls he meets such as Hinami, a young ghoul whom he ends up bonding with when he discovers that she’s been reading books by one of his favorite authors. He shows her kindness in helping her learn how to read kanji more fluently, as well as by protecting her when her mother is killed by ghoul investigators in the only way he can: by making sure she didn’t have to see her mother die.
Kaneki is not very easily angered and if confronted he tends to instead turn the other cheek and let the situation rest if at all possible. He would much rather avoid confrontation- or violence at all for that matter- and on his own he’s not assertive by any means. When he encounters a territorial ghoul named Nishiki for the first time he doesn’t fight back at all, and likely would have been killed by him if another ghoul hadn’t intervened and stopped him. It is only when Nishiki later puts his best friend’s life at risk that he fights back, more willing to put himself in harm’s way to save a friend than to save his own skin. He usually opts to be cautiously defensive rather than be bold and stand up for himself in most situations otherwise, and this is evident both in his interactions with others and when he physically is forced to fight with other ghouls.
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