Application for synodiporia

[carbonatedscientist]

P L A Y E R;
NAME: Airdra
AGE: 33
PLAYER JOURNAL: hyper_air_dragon
TIMEZONE: CST
CONTACT: Airdra
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: Hajime Aikawa @ chalicejoker, Zed, @ whydoyoushine, Jules Thibault @ failgoyle

C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Sento Kiryu
CANON: Kamen Rider Build
POINT IN CANON: End of Episode 16, after Sento has been pep-talked out of his funk and learned that Hokuto has declared war.
AGE: 26
APPEARANCE: Image here, please note his ridiculous mismatched shoes.
CANON HISTORY: Ten years ago, a Japanese astronaut brought a mysterious box back to Earth from Mars. The box, dubbed Pandora's Box, was reputed to be an unparalleled source of energy and power. When the box was opened, the mysterious Skywall formed and split Japan into three parts--Touto, Hokuto, and Seito. Relationships between the three parts were not good, with each new country at the others' throats vying for control of the box and control of Japan as a whole. The Skywall also produced Nebula Gas, a toxic substance that could turn people into monsters known as Smash. In the midst of all this, a scientist named Takumi Katsuragi, a prodigy called the Devil's Scientist for his willingness to disregard any sort of ethics in the pursuit of science, participated in the founding of a shadowy organization called Faust that sought to weaponize this gas. While with Faust, Katsuragi participated in experiments that turned people into monsters known as Smash through an injection of this gas, and his Project Build sought to turn the bottled, distilled, and purified gas into a further weapon, which was exemplified by the Build System, a Kamen Rider transformation device that used different bottles of gas to transform the wearer into an armored warrior who kept their own mind, unlike the Smash transformations, which often left the victim without any memory of what had happened. Katsuragi came to regret what he'd done--he wanted to wash his hands of Faust and leave the organization. He took all of his research, entrusted an encrypted thumb drive containing said research to his mother...and was found dead, apparently murdered in his apartment by a man named Ryuga Banjou.

Some time after Katsuragi's body was found and Banjou was convicted of a murder he insisted he had not committed, an amnesiac man was found outside a coffee shop and given the name of Sento Kiryu by its owner, a man named Shouichi. Shouichi's daughter, Misora, was capable of purifying the bottles of Nebula Gas that powered the Build System, and she'd been held captive by Faust before her father had broken her out. As fate would have it, Shouichi was in possession of Katsuragi's Build System and a couple of these full bottles, and the newly-christened Sento was compatible with the system. He set out to fight the Smash and Faust as Kamen Rider Build, bringing bottles of the Nebula Gas he got from defeating these Smash and returning them to normal humans back to Misora for purification, which in turn built up Build's power. He was more than willing to fight, for some of his only remaining memories were of being experimented on and tortured by Faust, and he felt that fighting was the right thing to do. He didn't want to see anyone suffer as he had. A year after coming to terms with his life as an amnesiac, Sento also got himself a job at the Touto Institute of Advanced Matter Physics where Katsuragi had once worked, because even a hero of justice needs to pay rent. He even put "probably a physicist" on his "previous work experience" part of the job application because he genuinely didn't remember, and they somehow hired him anyway.

On the same day Sento started his new job at the Institute, a very confused Banjou found himself the victim of similar Faust experiments--so much for the justice system. He managed to escape, and he ended up rescued by Sento, who believed his innocence thanks to the similarity of their memories. Now the masked Build was a fugitive from Touto's government, the same as Banjou, while Sento continued to work at the Institute under the supervision of Gentoku Himuro, son of Touto's Prime Minister. Build, now aided by Banjou, continued to fight the Smash while trying to unravel the mystery of Sento's true identity and the murder of Takumi Katsuragi. They were also assisted by Sawa Takigawa, a freelance journalist who was interested in doing a story on Build.

Sento and Banjou soon found themselves repeatedly butting heads with Faust and the Smash. Faust's two leaders, Night Rogue and Blood Stalk, were particularly aggressive in trying to hunt the Rider down. Their fight was not without its losses. Banjou's girlfriend was taken and turned into a Smash, and she died as a result--but only after revealing that someone had her send Banjou to Katsuragi's apartment the day of Katsuragi's murder, thus setting him up as a patsy. She'd had no idea things would turn out the way they did, and her death solidified their resolve to take Faust down. An important lead in the mystery surfaced when Sawa tracked down a man who had apparently reported Sento missing. This man, Tetsuya, claimed that Sento was actully his missing roommate and bandmate, Taro Satou, who had last been seen going to Katsuragi's apartment as part of a job--the same job Banjou had arrived there for. Sento could not believe this report of his true identity--the man he supposedly was in reality was coarse and crude and a bit of an idiot. He couldn't even abide being in the apartment Tetsuya and Taro shared because it was too messy, and he did not at all feel a sense of being at home. There was also the matter of Sento's extensive scientific knowledge, which didn't match up with anything Taro had going for him. Tetsuya got infected with Nebula Gas several times in the course of their encounter as Faust tried to make use of him, and after he was saved, he went home. Sento did not go with him, instead choosing to stay with his new friends and continue to fight as Build.

Sento and Banjou eventually found their way to Katsuragi's mother in search of Katsuragi's research. She was initially reluctant to trust the pair, as she maintained that her son the so-called Devil's Scientist was just misunderstood--and the fact that Banjou had been publicly convicted of the murder didn't help at all. After seeing the two of them save a kid from Blood Stalk, she warmed to them enough to serve them Katsuragi's favorite meal--tamagoyaki that Banjou found far too sweet, but that made Sentou start crying for some reason. When Faust tried to kidnap her, steal Katsuragi's research, and turn her into a Smash to wipe her memory, Sento and Banjou rescued her. They ended up with Katsuragi's research, for she'd given Faust a dummy safety deposit box key Katsuragi had provided in the event someone untrustworthy would come looking for the research.

Time passed, they fought more Smash, and Banjou became Kamen Rider Cross-Z through Sento's making use of Katsuragi's research and Banjou's own affinity for the Dragon Full Bottle, which had been obtained from purifying Banjou's deceased girlfriend. The two of them continued to fight against Faust, especially against Blood Stalk and Night Rogue, both of whom seemed to be playing their own games with the Riders. Sento came to discover that Blood Stalk was actually the kindly Shouichi, who had taken him in and given him a place to stay. Shouichi had been using Sento to play superhero--he needed his daughter Misora to purify Full Bottles, but she wouldn't cooperate with Faust's aims. Allowing her to think that she was doing something good played right into his hands.

But Blood Stalk's machinations didn't stop at simply manipulating an amnesiac. Sento's true identity is revealed by Gentoku, Night Rogue, who wants his old pal Takumi Katsuragi to join forces with him once again. Gentoku had been unaware of it until this point, but Stalk had lured Taro Satou to Katsuragi's apartment, killed Taro, and knocked Katsuragi out. He had then made use of one of his special abilities, the ability to completely change a person's appearance, and he switched the two men's appearances, thus producing a dead Katsuragi for the police to find along with a very confused Banjou to serve as a patsy. Stalk took Katsuragi, wiped his memories, allowed Night Rogue to experiment on him, then dumped the now-amnesiac Katsuragi outside his coffee shop, and pretended to "find" him as Shouichi, where he gave his victim the new name of Sento Kiryu.

The revelation was a lot for Sento to deal with--he'd spent all this time learning about Katsuragi and Katsuragi's terrible research, and now Gentoku, who he'd been fighting against as Night Rogue, wanted an alliance, to work together again.

Banjou didn't take this well--he blamed Katsuragi for his girlfriend's death--and demanded that Sento fight him. Sento allowed this, but his heart wasn't in it. He let Banjou beat on him a little while before giving into the other Rider's demands, getting serious, using the RabbitTank Sparkling power-up he'd designed, and ending the fight with one kick.

It was clear that Sento had a lot of guilt for everything he'd done, and he didn't know how he'd bear the weight. He was ready to go charging after Smash again, but to be reminded that he'd had a hand in their creation paralyzed him on the battlefield. Between Misora and Banjou reminding him that he'd done good as well as bad, that he'd been fighting to help and protect people--that Sento Kiriyu had been doing that. It was enough to get him through the end of the episode a fight in which they realized that Hokuto was invating Touto, and it renewed his resolve to protect innocent people. (It did not, however, prepare him for actual war, which is where we leave off here...)

CANON PERSONALITY: Sento loves science. It's the best. When he gets particularly excited about a scientific idea, some of his hair will pop up in a wild curl, and he'll immediately drop everything in order to go wander off and start scribbling equations on a marker board or other available large flat surface. He'll hyperfocus on whatever scientific task he has if it's interesting or important enough. He values cleanliness and order, but this all goes out the window if he's sufficiently focused on a scientific problem or other task. When a single-minded need to accomplish something through the power of science strikes him, sleep is for the weak and food doesn't really need to happen because science alone can sustain him.

Sento's love of science and math cannot be understated. When presented with an opportunity to draw on someone's face in revenge for her drawing on his face while he was napping, he writes equations everywhere. His watch is not a normal watch and instead features some kind of mathematical expression for each number on the clock face. He is a colossal nerd. He also believes that science should be used for the betterment of mankind--the idea of someone using science to hurt people or make war seems to offend him on some deep and instinctive level. He approaches fighting Smash as a grand experiment. The Build Driver is a piece of experimental technology, and he's its willing guinea pig. What happens to him is far less important than in saving people.

He generally carries himself in a confident, self-assured fashion, though this confidence has been eroded as of late. Finding out you're not at all who you thought you were and worse, that who you actually are is the Devil's Scientist, is kind of a hard thing to deal with. He has so many regrets for what Takumi Katsuragi did that he's made no effort to reclaim that identity. Earlier, he'd claimed that what he feared most was never finding out who he really is--now, he's learning that you better be careful what you wish for. He's now Sento Kiryu, for better or for worse, and he will step up and do what he can to stop Faust and the Smash and keep innocent people safe.

He's very intelligent, he's aware of that, and he's proud of it. He is, as it's put at one point, "a narccisistic, egotistic, righteous superhero." He gives people a hard time if he's got to dumb things down. "Humble" isn't a thing he does very well, and he's got a healthy ego. He shows this off with Banjou more than anyone else, partially because that's the nature of their friendship. It's easy to get a rise out of Banjou, and Sento knows it. They constantly bicker with one another, and their banter even extends to the relatively self-aware episode recaps, though any sort of fourth-wall-breaking stays out of the main narrative. Sento is the sort of person who, when baiting a trap with fake Full Bottles for Blood Stalk to steal, rigs every single one of said Full Bottles with a little flag that pops up with a "Too bad!" and small cartoon picture of himself. He's smarter than you, he knows it, he'll rub your nose in it. And if his infallible intelligence manages to fail, he'll bluescreen for a while or throw himself into some sort of research until he feels better.

Despite his often brusque and egotistical manner, Sento deeply cares for people. He's garbage at showing it, but he does care. That's why he and Banjou often take turns trying to die for each other because neither of them has much of a sense of self-preservation. He might not care for himself, a tendency which has only gotten worse now that the truth of his identity has been revealed, but he cares for others. That lack of self-preservation is one reason why Sento is so ready to go out there and fight as Build--he's saving someone else from that sort of fate. The idea of saving people resonates with him. He wants to be a protector, wants to be a rescuer, wants to make up for what he's done and what's been done to him.

POINT OF DEPARTURE: N/A
VETERAN?: Nah, he'll be a newbie.
ABILITIES: Sento is an accomplished scientist. His true love seems to be physics, but he's also got a bit of biochemical and electrical engineering experience if his Build Driver and everything related to that is any indication. His primary ability is his transformation into Kamen Rider Build, which needs to have two Full Bottles of purified Nebula Gas in order to happen. The bottles may all be used interchangeably with each other, though Sento prefers to fight with a Best Match--a set of bottles that compliment each other to the point their power is maximized. His favored form, the one he usually opens up with, uses the Rabbit and Tank bottles. Best Matches involve an organic component and an inorganic component. Each component features a power that's pretty obvious from the component's name. For example, another Best Match is HawkGatling--the Hawk portion allows Sento to fly, and the Gatling allows Sento to open fire with a gatling gun. OctopusLight allows him to attack with tentacles and blinding lights, and so on and so forth. The Rider Wiki actually goes into great detail about the specifics of each bottle and each form. Each of the Best Match forms also comes with a corresponding weapon to sell more toys.

Fullbottles have also been shown to have effects in combat when used by themselves without any driver. In the first episode, Sento ends up in a fistfight with Banjou, who is a professional boxer. He holds his own in large part because he's been using the Rabbit Full Bottle, which increases his speed. Banjou spends a good part of the early series using the Dragon Full Bottle to allow himself to fight Smash without transforming--it seems to let him hit harder and gives him more endurance. It is possible that other Full Bottles could be used in similar ways for minor power-ups, and it's not clear if this requires the same prerequisites for transformation as the Build Driver does--users must have been exposed to enough Nebula Gas to raise their Hazard Level to at least 2, which is what happens if you were dosed with the gas and survived. It's important to note that I don't think Sento has done this since that first episode, and it's not a course of action he will immediately think of.

Sento has also developed RabbitTank Sparkling, a powered-up form that uses a coke-can-like device powered up by energy from Pandora's Box itself that combines and amplifies RabbitTank's power with a lot of carbonation and bubbles everywhere.

I'd also like to ask for him to start out with Hammerspace I since Riders have a tendency to carry large amounts of ridiculous transformation trinkets on their person without huge pockets or a visible bag. This helpful Tumblr post illustrates this concept.

INVENTORY: Sento is carrying the Build Driver and the following Full Bottles: Rabbit, Tank, Lion, Hedgehog, Panda, Pirate, Ninja, Comic, Vacuum, Rocket, Train, Fire Engine. The Best Matches he can create from this group are RabbitTank, FireHedgehog, LionCleaner, RocketPanda, PirateTrain, NinninComic.

He also has the RabbitTank Sparkling can and a few Empty Bottles that he'd keep on hand should he have to purify a Smash.

In addition to this, he has his motorcycle--which is also a smartphone. Inserting the Lion Full Bottle into the phone transforms it into a motorcycle. The phone is also insanely durable and can survive drops from great heights without a scratch.

ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW? I hope to canon update him via dungeon later on, which would shuffle his arsenal of Full Bottles, get him a couple more power-ups, and dramatically increase his personal angst levels because war is hell. I am absolutely planning on doing this by having him infiltrate with the name Takumi Katsuragi and villaining it up after a few Jaunts.

M A R K S;
JUSTIFICATION:
Death - Sento has essentially been reborn--Takumi Katsuragi is dead. He's got amnesia, doesn't remember who he originally was, and yet he's still setting out and trying to work for a brighter future. When presented with his original name and a chance to go back to his original life, he is appalled, sticks with the new name, and keeps moving forward with his new life.

Justice - Sento prides himself on his intellect and his quick wit. He's a scientist, and he'd much rather take a step back and think things through before rushing in to a situation. Sure, he'll rush in if necessary, but that's never his first choice. This can, at worst, lead him to seem insensitive or uncaring...or lead to a bunch of science that Should Not Be.

Strength - Sento operates under the belief that he's got a responsibility to protect the weak and the innocent. He will save people, no matter the cost to himself.

Judgement - Going with the rebirth theme again, Sento has, without realizing it, been trying to do the right thing, essentially atoning for Katsuragi's mistakes. At this canon point, he really, really wants to make up for Katsuragi's sins. Unleashing monsters through human experimentation is kind of a lot to have to deal with.

VETO: Vetoing Empress, mostly because Jules already has her and partially because even if Sento could use a bit of mom-ing at, I don't think it's a good match.

S A M P L E S;
ACTIONSPAM SAMPLE: Has anyone undertaken any significant scientific analyses of this Liminal Space we've found ourselves in? I'd be really interested in the results of this research, if any such research has been done.

I'd like to run said data against some research data from my own world, in regards to a Martian artifact that caused quite a bit of chaos when it was brought back to Earth; it caused walls to form from out of nowhere and had a few...other effects.

[It's an understatement, but he doesn't need to go into a lot of detail here, right? Right.]

I don't believe they're linked at all, but there are a few similarities here I want to investigate, because when I get back home, I should be able to use some of what I've learned to help quite a few people. If this ability to alter the landscape could be moved into the real world in an area with a landscape that is likely already unstable on a quantum level...the ramifications could be

PROSE SAMPLE:
TDM Prompt #61
Sento is not really certain how he got here, nor is he certain as to exactly why he's wearing some kind of ridiculous pointy hat, which he immediately snatches off his head to get a better look at. He looks at the hat, out at his surroundings, and is kind of flummoxed by the whole thing. "Fascinating..." Clearly, this needs to be investigated.

It is with this sort of investigation in mind that Sento, still clutching the weird hat, tries to charge off in one direction, and promptly finds himself forced to pause at each square while only moving in the direction he's facing. There's a bit of fancy footwork as he quickly starts testing this. He tries to walk backwards, tries to dive diagonally, and is stopped each time.

His eyes narrow as he looks out over the checkerboard pattern and the hat he's still holding, and he remains thoughtful-looking as he pulls the hat on. It does not take him long to figure out the basics of movement here. He no longer needs to pause, but he can only move diagonally. It would be easy enough to traverse the area with this new knowledge, but he wants more.

Sento immediately starts looking for another person wearing a different hat. "Hey! You there! I want to test something!" And of course he's not bothering to say who he is or why he wants to test something or anything like that. He wants to test something, and so clearly this random person he's coming up to should just help him out with that.