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
Entry tags:
Understand the secrets and have some fun
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Tokiomi Tohsaka | Fate/Zero | Not Reserved; Re-App!
Name: Dal
Personal Journal:
E-mail: daletchica[at]yahoo[dot]com
AIM/MSN: AIM: AsylumBred
Timezone: EDT (GMT -4:00)
Current Characters in Route:
Solf J. Kimblee | Fullmetal Alchemist |
Jean Descole | Professor Layton |
Zulf | Bastion |
Reaver | Fable |
Character
Name: Tokiomi Tohsaka
Series: Fate/Zero
Timeline: Mid-Act 12 - after his conversation with Rin, before the meeting in the church.
Canon Resource Links: Type-Moon wiki
Personality:
The Tohsaka family line is an old one, steeped in tradition, dignity and a history that commands respect; to be born into this bloodline carries with it the demands of not only becoming a successful magus and realizing the family's goal of reaching Akasha, or the "root" of all knowledge, but also to serve as the secret guardian of Fuyuki City, the location of the Holy Grail Wars.
Tokiomi Tohsaka is, at least at first glance, everything the head of such a family line should be; though he's soft-spoken and rarely harsh in tone or mannerisms, any gentleness behind his words is tempered by a firm sense of authority - the sort of confidence that comes after one has come to know the world and their place in it, and that place happens to be one of great responsibility. He's a powerful magus, aligned with the fire attribute and specializing in jewel magecraft, which is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin - if you see him breaking out some pretty, shiny things during battle, you can pretty much be assured that this fight is about to start sucking for you, as chances are he's either enchanted those things to do something nasty, or he's about to unleash the power he's stored inside of them.
Basically, his power is now rubies. And his rubies are now a flamethrower.
That isn't to say, however, that his lineage ensured that Tokiomi had everything handed to him from birth; when compared to the previous generations within the Tohsaka family, his natural talents are mediocre at best, and in order to live up to expectations and not make an utter disgrace of himself and his family name, he would need to do double the training to attain half the result that would be required. As the only son in his generation, Tokiomi didn't back down from the challenge that was presented to him; rather, he turned his focus inward, striving to live up to the Tohsaka family creed - one which demands that the bearer should always act with composure and elegance. He's deeply internalized these words, simple though they are, and integrates them into everything he does; he repeats them to himself often in times of stress or turmoil, as a reminder to keep calm and think things through rationally before acting on impulse, and it's implied that this sort of practice is also how he learned to manage his mana flows and perfect his craft, keeping him from endangering himself or others accidentally by overloading or overusing the jewels he's working with. Also in keeping with the general themes of composure and elegance, Tokiomi acts with all the grace of a gentleman; he dresses well, he has incredibly refined taste, and his behavior is marked with charm and poise - while he doesn't hide his self-confidence, he's kind and polite, even toward those he doesn't know or who are of a lower station than he is, and he's found a balance that refrains from being too standoffish or too overfamiliar.
From an outsider's perspective, then, Tokiomi is a perfect gentleman. For those who know him, however...well. It isn't to say that there's a massive illusion that falls apart or anything there, but it becomes obvious fairly quickly that he hasn't quite worked out how to do this whole "genuine caring" thing. It's not that he treats the people he's close to badly - no, he treats them like everyone else. And therein lies the issue, really: he treats members of his family (his wife, his daughters) with the same distant politeness and cool rationality that he would a stranger on the street. This sort of behavior doesn't come from a lack of empathy or caring, as he's shown to care for the well-being of his family, friends, and even the servants in his household on several occasions; rather, his primary problem seems to be that his understanding of social cues and how interpersonal relationships work in general is very, very poor, and underneath all the superficial charm and grace, emotionally speaking Tokiomi is incredibly immature.
One of the places this immaturity is most obvious is when he's engaging other magi in battle, where it surfaces immediately and he goes from being an elegant gentleman to an openly arrogant asshole in the span of about point-five seconds - he's powerful and he knows it, and he isn't afraid to flaunt his power, either, often taunting his opponent, throwing out personal insults, implying that their intelligence may or may not be seriously deficient, and generally trying to goad them into attacking him blindly so he can tire them out and then set their faces on fire (which, while a dick move, is weirdly acceptable in magi society, as their battles are often to the death). However, while the taunting and gloating and generally behaving like a nine-year-old with a flamethrower is a bit jarring, it's arguable that the most damage is done toward those he's not trying to harm.
While it isn't nearly as obvious on first glance, his generally immature tendencies show up in his positive relationships most of all. He tends to handle serious interpersonal issues by refusing to handle them entirely, instead ignoring them and seeming to hope that they'll go away eventually; for the things that won't simply go away, he finds ways to rationalize and justify everything that's happening so he can continue to ignore his problems in peace. This is problematic on its own, when Tokiomi is just dealing with things that affect him, but he also seems to expect others to handle things in the exact same way; he seems a bit cold as a result, in that he often makes decisions that end up hurting his family and he doesn't seem to care, but in reality he doesn't understand that he's continually hurting them to begin with - he expects them to rationalize the issue and then and put it aside for good, and that will quite simply be that.
When it comes to positive emotion, Tokiomi is a little more open with his feelings around people he likes or cares about; even that, however, is done in a strange, incredibly stunted sort of way. He'll often tell people that he's experiencing a given emotion without acting any differently to show them; for example, he tells his magecraft student that he's very excited and wants to share his joy with everyone...while very calmly sipping wine, with pretty much no change in expression. He considers telling people how he feels to be enough, and has serious difficulty expressing himself physically; he also doesn't touch people unless he absolutely has to, often standing with his hands behind his back when he's near them and standing a fair distance away from them otherwise. If he has to hand something to another person, he'll ask them to reach out so he can drop it into their hands - or if that isn't possible due to the nature of whatever he's giving them, he'll intentionally set the object on a table or other surface so that the other person has to pick it up. This sort of emotional/physical disconnect can be confusing at best, and negatively affecting those he cares about at worst - the one time he reaches out in canon to pet his daughter's hair, she flinches away from him at first, unsure of what he's trying to do. He quickly realizes that it's because he's never done anything like that before; he's never come in contact with her at all unless he couldn't avoid doing so, much less done anything affectionate like that.
Admittedly, it isn't just the physical side of positive relationships that tends to give him problems, as he seems to have difficulty figuring out where emotional boundaries should be. This often results in Tokiomi taking an incredibly naive view of his relationships with others; he seems to consider all of his non-antagonistic relationships as being friendships, skipping over the "acquaintance" stage altogether, and he assumes that all "friendships" he has are completely mutual. He trusts everyone that he decides he likes, and once he trusts someone, he trusts them unconditionally - he believes that individuals he trusts would never betray him or lie to him, and he seems to think that ulterior motives in people simply don't exist, often contenting himself with a superficial explanation for others' behavior and leaving it at that. It's a bit difficult to tell whether this is blatant misinterpretation of people's actions, or the abovementioned unwillingness to accept that there might be a problem showing up again; it's entirely possible that it's a bit of both.
While he tends to think that he understands people far better than he actually does, in some ways Tokiomi does seem aware that he has problems that prevent him from interacting with others in ways that he should be able to, and he tries to find solutions for it when he can; for example, in selecting his wife, he intentionally sought out a woman who valued loyalty before love, which would be ideal for both of them - given his tendencies toward unshakable faith in those he cares about, they would both be satisfied with the knowledge that they could trust each other, and his general inability to express his feelings very well would be both understood and accepted. If he's flat-out told by someone he's close to (and willing to listen to) that he just said or did something horrendous, insensitive, or horrendously insensitive, he'll apologize immediately and attempt to amend the situation to the best of his ability - unfortunately, the fact that he doesn't pick up on social cues very well kind of hinders that last point to all hell, as he needs to be flat-out told.
A major part of the issue is that he simply doesn't pick up on subtle nuances in tone or facial expression very well; he understands being facetious, and he can also pick up on most sarcasm and he can tell when people are being derisive toward him (though he usually doesn't dignify it with a response), but he also often believes that others are being straightforward or honest even when they aren't, and he has a hard time following indirect statements and connecting points of conversation that aren't entirely linear. As such, Tokiomi is incredibly prone to communication problems, and unless the person he's talking to is being completely blunt, Tokiomi will often miss the point of what's being said, or require a question to be rephrased a few times before he understands what's being asked; he'll try to take a guess if he really has no idea what's going on, but he's a little hit-or-miss on it - sometimes he'll manage to answer properly, other times he gets hung up on or confused by a smaller detail in dialogue and focus on that instead, derailing the conversation for a moment while he gets his bearings.
However, regardless of what he believes when it comes to the straightforwardness of others, Tokiomi doesn't exactly wear his heart on his sleeve himself - this became incredibly apparent over the course of the Fourth Holy Grail War, where he basically spent the entire time trying to manipulate people into doing what he wanted in an attempt to ensure a victory by any means possible. This wasn't entirely through selfishness - the Holy Grail War is between magi, and magi certainly do like their battles to the death; a loss would likely mean that Tokiomi would be seriously injured or killed - but at the same time, a good amount of arrogance and personal pride went into it as well. Again, Tokiomi is very immature, and his ego and self-confidence are pretty much unrivaled once he's given a chance to show off his skills; a good amount of his unshakable faith is in himself as well as others, for a reason that comes down to "I'm awesome and I know it." When the hubris kicks in, there's not really much stopping it until something forcibly smacks him down again, and he gets into a general mindset of overestimating his abilities entirely. So while usually Tokiomi is at least fairly straightforward in his interactions with others, he'll try keeping secrets from them and manipulating them if he's feeling confident enough and it benefits him to do so; his success rate for this is...pretty terrible, however, as over the course of the Holy Grail War, he was intelligent enough to come up with some fairly good gambits, but ultimately he was severely hindered by most of the points above regarding his lack of ability to understand the behavior of others.
At the same time, the fact that he tries excelling in an area that he knows he has problems in isn't anything that should come as some sort of surprise; after all, he's been doing it since he was young. He's incredibly determined and driven toward success, especially when he's told that he can't do something; he isn't one to shy away in the face of adversity, even when things begin looking truly hopeless. In the end, it all comes down to the words he's placed his wholehearted trust and faith in; he believes in those words more strongly than he does any other person, including himself.
Always act with composure and elegance.
Should one adhere to that creed in all things, one way or another, victory will be ensured.
no subject
✔ Despite his general social problems, Tokiomi has a lot of superficial charm; as such, simple, casual social interactions with him tend to be rather pleasant. His presence tends to be calming, and he tends to behave with all the elegance and grace of a gentleman. He treats other people well unless they give him a reason to dislike them, regardless of their station; even if he doesn't like them or the other person is in a state of disgrace, he'll still address them like a human being, though he'll be a bit colder toward them overall.
✔ He is incredibly determined and driven to succeed; he went from being a kid with natural magical talent that was generally subpar to the second most dangerous person in the Fourth Holy Grail War through training, studying and sheer force of will alone. Basically, if he gets it into his head to do something, he will stop at nothing to ensure that it will be done.
✔ Along with the abovementioned determination comes a sense of responsibility - he's a guardian of Fuyuki City and he's willing to do what he can to defend his area properly, rather than cover up collateral damage after something has arisen; he's a Reasonable Authority Figure to his daughter, and one of the first things he tells her regarding the dangers of overflooding things with mana is that it risks not only oneself, but others. He also sent not only his family but also his servants away from the city before the Holy Grail War, not wanting them to get caught up in the crossfire; even though he doesn't express it in ways that are considered normal, he actually does have a reasonably strong sense of empathy.
✔ A lot of his energy is driven toward positivity, rather than negativity. He's incredibly optimistic, often seeking out the brighter side of situations regardless of how dark they appear to be at first; though he isn't a doormat, he's willing to go out of his way to keep peace between others and himself, and he prefers to form as many positive relationships as possible as opposed to antagonizing people to try to force an upper hand.
✔ He's very competitive and won't back down from a challenge; however, his acceptance of such challenges are done with the same amount of grace with which he handles his social interactions. He sees no honor in attacking someone weaker than he is, and he doesn't get overzealous in fights; if he's forced into taking on a far weaker opponent, he'll often try to end the fight quickly, without humiliating them. However, there is a mild exception to this, in the form of those who have already disgraced themselves, though even that isn't a definite; an example of what's meant by this, as canon goes, would be his battle against Kariya Matou. Kariya had previously turned his back on magus society, deeming it full of bullshit and pain and deciding he wanted no part of it; he wasn't wrong, but that's hardly the point - the point was that Kariya was supposed to be the successor to the Matou family, but he more or less just ditched everyone and rendered himself a disgrace in the eyes of those who did remain within the hierarchy. Tokiomi was incredibly cruel to him because of this over the course of their battle, but when it became obvious that Kariya was desperate, in a huge amount of physical pain, and there was no way he'd win, but there was also no way he'd stop, Tokiomi did feel a huge surge of pity for him and ended the battle quickly, the way he would have against a normal opponent.
✔/✘ Tokiomi is a very trusting person. This is good in the World Of Pokémon, given that a major point of the series is trust and the power of friendship; at the same time, he's too trusting - he doesn't believe that anyone he likes and has befriended will betray or hurt him at all.
✘ Severe social problems, as outlined in the personality section above. These problems are so deeply ingrained into his personality that they belong in that section instead of this one, but a quick recap is as follows: he has difficulty expressing himself physically, and to some extent verbally; he doesn't understand social cues and often won't pick up on nuances in interaction; his grasp on personal relationships and how they work is very poor and his idea of where emotional boundaries lie is abnormal; he has difficulty following conversation that is anything except perfectly linear; overall, he's incredibly naive and immature, and he handles his social interactions in a way that reflects that.
✘ Tokiomi is very technophobic; in canon, he refuses to use even basic things like fax machines and telephones, and his house seems to rely on fire rather than electricity for light and heat, despite the series being set in 1993. He believes that magi shouldn't lower themselves to using common technology when they can rely on their skills instead; it's not going to be terribly pretty when he realizes that isn't an option here due to the nature of the Gear, nor is he going to think of anything outside of the Pokémon as being a valid weapon unless he's given very good reason to think otherwise.
✘ He's very quick to judge others. Once he decides he likes someone, they're immediately his friend and nothing will shake that; once he decides he doesn't like someone, they're disgraceful and horrible and he will continue to think of reasons to dislike them until someone beats him upside the head with a massive appeal to his sense of pity or something equally jarring (see: abovementioned fight with Kariya). Tokiomi also has a lot of pride in being a mage and is willing to openly declare himself to be such to those who know about magus society, and he isn't shy about declaring certain practices, behaviors and ways of thinking to be "beneath" him as a result; he's very haughty and set in his ways in terms of lifestyle, and once he's made up his mind it's insanely difficult to get him to change it.
✘ He has a tendency to be overly impulsive and not wait to see things through to the very end - this is shown early on in his tendency to grab things being written on before the ink is dry, risking smudging it all over because he simply has to read it right now...but it also comes back to bite him later, given that it extends to behavior like not verifying that he actually killed someone in a battle to the death, preferring to simply assume that No One Could Have Possibly Survived That and being on his way.
✘ His reasons for doing half the things he does quite simply do not adhere to Earth logic; a lot of his logic is incredibly roundabout and tangential, and this tends to present a lot of problems when he's trying to converse with people because he expects them to be able to follow what he was thinking when he did something, and doesn't realize that it looked...incredibly off-the-rails to everyone else.
✘ While Tokiomi does adhere to the generally accepted rules of mage-style battling, those rules are ruthless and seem to consist primarily of "BEAT THE SHIT OUT OF YOUR OPPONENT UNTIL THEY DIE, BUT DO IT HONORABLY." He's used to going no-holds-barred against people who are the same strength as he is or stronger, and he doesn't tolerate failure; as such, he'll likely have difficulty adjusting to the fact that you quite simply can't do that here, nor can you take someone out back and set them on fire, even if you have a serious problem with them.
Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Trainer
Starter: Roggenrola ♂
Password: Scrambled Eggs
Samples
First Person Sample:
This is getting rather old.
[Well, Johto, it seems someone is back and...less than pleased about it. At least this time he doesn't appear to be awkwardly holding Mom hostage in the name of getting answers, but given the fact that he's still standing outside calmly threatening the 'Gear, it's clear that he hasn't learned too much.
Oh, well. Second verse, same as the first - Tokiomi is outside Mom's HouseTM in New Bark Town, and he's got the 'Gear propped up on what's most likely a fence post. He has his Mystic Code with him, his hand resting lightly against the large jewel embedded into the head of it; he swings it upward, twisting his wrist easily around it and catching it lithely as it twirls up and over, pointing the abovementioned ruby directly at the 'Gear.]
Well-played, whomever you are; I don't believe you'll respond to this, and I have no intention of continuing to threaten you. But know this: as the head of the Tohsaka family line, I have no intention of backing down from any challenge you may place before me.
If it's a battle you want, in the end, it's a battle you shall receive.
Third Person Sample:
While it still didn't feel like it had been that long since Tokiomi had been in Johto, he still hadn't been quite prepared for the creature in front of him. He had raised one the last time he was here - he remembered that much extremely well - and the evolution hadn't been anything he had expected then, either; it was perhaps comforting to know that however long he spent in this strange would, the sight of what was best described as a large, flaming unicorn was never going to be something that struck him as normal.
Tokiomi had never really been one for animals; horses weren't really an exception to that. He could acknowledge that they had their uses, of course, but the fact of the matter was that his natural talent with anything along these lines was on par with that of your average rock; the fact that this...unicorn seemed more than able to set him on fire should he choose to actually ride the thing wasn't exactly comforting, either. Of course, there was also the chance that it could throw him...
...plainly, all of this had to do with the possible temperament of the unicorn in question, and nothing to do with the fact that Tokiomi had no idea what to do when it came to riding it. This would be why he had taken to pacing a slow circle around the creature - strictly in the name of study, of course - and had yet to actually get on with the whole riding process; he halted in his tracks when he realized the Rapidash was looking at him like he'd quite simply lost his mind.
The animals here were surprisingly intelligent, really; it was simultaneously impressive and mildly irritating, but for the time being, he supposed there was nothing else to be done about it. He laid his hands on its back, muttered something so quietly it was nearly inaudible about how he sincerely hoped this thing would use that intelligence to not burn him through his clothes, and vaulted up.
And. Well.
...Huh.
Apart from the fact that this was the most physical contact he'd had with any sort of animal in his life (and that was, undoubtedly, unpleasant, but not intolerable), this actually wasn't too terrible.
He reached forward a bit, patting the Rapidash on the side of the neck lightly before urging her onward as though all that stalling beforehand hadn't just happened; staying on the outskirts of this city forever wasn't an option.
ACCEPTED!
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no subject
Sorry for the delay, the last two days have been wicked busy.