application [agoge]

[doublejumps]

PLAYER
NAME: Court
CONTACT: demonology, demonology#1725 @ Discord
ARE YOU 18 OR OLDER: Yep!

CHARACTER
NAME: Genji Shimada
CANON: Overwatch
AGE: 35
CANON POINT: All the way up through the comic "Reflections," which is his most recent canon appearance.

HISTORY: Here!

PERSONALITY:

Genji has gone through a lot of turmoil and subsequent growth over his lifetime, both physically and mentally, which has resulted in him becoming a strong-willed person who's accepting of himself. Finding an inner peace and coming to terms with the state of his body is a big part of his development as a person — including the revelation that he is still a person, regardless of how he looks.

For much of his life, Genji has existed in some ways as an outsider. As a young man, he was the younger son of the Shimada clan, groomed to follow in his father's footsteps alongside his older brother, Hanzo. Given that the Shimada clan was deeply involved in criminal activity, though, Genji wanted nothing to do with it — and was ultimately shunned for that view, leading to his brother attempting to kill him. While Overwatch recovered him and offered him a second chance at life by rebuilding his body, this was the part of his life when Genji was most haunted by being part-machine, and most uncomfortable in his own skin. Overwatch is the closest he got to a family, but the organization itself was doomed and fraught with problems, leading to him striking out on his own. Again, he was very much alone at this part of his life, wandering in search of meaning and purpose. When he finally found the monks of the Shambali, he received the chance (after some resistance) to exist in a place where he truly felt he belonged.

While Genji's learning under the Shambali monk, Zenyatta, has allowed him to accept that he still has the soul of a man within his mainly metallic body, it is only at the monastery that he feels truly at home. In-game voice lines (which are not strictly canon, but give us a glimpse into characterization) back this up. When Genji is played on certain maps, he says things like "I do not think cyborgs are welcome with open arms in Junkertown" or "Even here I feel an outcast" — in reference to a city that is accepting of equality between humans and omnics. In Nepal, on the other hand, he says things like, "Just setting foot here sets my soul at ease", "Only here do I not feel outcast", and "This is my home now." This indicates that Genji is still somewhat at odds with the world around him, and will need to put more work into integrating back into the rest of civilization.

That being said, Genji hardly spends all of his time dwelling, at least not these days. There is now a serene and peaceful quality to him, a sense of comfort with who he is. He can still be stern and even violent, as shown when dealing with Hanzo during a long-awaited encounter between them. Genji is able to express frustration with his brother's inability to move on, and they physically fight, but he is also able to offer forgiveness to the very person responsible for his cyborg state. He tells Hanzo that now he has to learn how to forgive himself.

While Genji has involved himself with a group of peaceful monks who live in isolation, that is not to say that he's laid down his sword, or his pride with regard to his abilities. It's been stated that he has never let anyone else handle his katana, and that he maintains it himself, so he definitely has an attachment to his weaponry and his ability to do damage with them. Genji spent at least a few years working with the black ops division of Overwatch, who carried out the sorts of missions that couldn't be publicly known, such as assassinations, weapons proliferation, and coercion. It is ironic that Genji ended up in such a position after refusing to do such a thing for his family, but at that point it was definitely an act of spite, after he was almost murdered for his refusal to assume his intended role in the clan. More than that, Genji assisted Blackwatch in wiping out the Shimada clan, personally playing a part in eradicating them. Again, he has since worked through his anger and feelings of revenge, but the point here is that he has extensive combat experience—not just with fighting, but with killing.

To this end, he can be cocky and playful about his competence. When he deflects someone's shots in-game and sends them back at them, he'll say things like "Nice try," "That's it?", or "Show me what you can really do." When he deflects McCree's ultimate ability back at him (McCree being one of his fellow Blackwatch agents), he says, "Ha! Good aim, McCree." The point is, he can be a little shit. He likes a good challenge in a fight. When it comes to the actual morals of it, Genji would likely not do the sort of underhanded acts that he performed through Blackwatch at this point, but he also hasn't committed himself to a life of non-violence. This is an educated guess, but I believe that he would still be willing to take life, if he believed that it was necessary. He has a strong will bolstered by his own inner peace, and that gives him the confidence and reassurance to act without uncertainty.

In terms of Genji's most important relationships, they're as follows. First is Hanzo, his brother, who he has an obviously troubled history with. Genji has managed to find forgiveness in his heart for him, but he knows that Hanzo still has to do a lot of work in finding that forgiveness for himself, and so he is going to give him the space to do that, as of their last canon interaction. Then there is Zenyatta, the omnic monk who found him when he was at his most lost and who didn't give up on him, even as he initially resisted his teachings. It is hard to imagine the two being separated from each other at this point, and Genji seems to have the intention of helping Zenyatta travel beyond the monastery to see the world. Next is Angela, Overwatch's doctor who played a key role in saving his life. Genji feels greatly indebted to her and the two of them remain in touch to this day, exchanging letters with each other.

All in all, Genji is a man who has gone on a long journey of self acceptance, and who is now confident in who he is and what he's doing. This isn't to say that he doesn't still have hang-ups, or situations that might unsettle him, but he is now equipped with the tools to deal with it.

POWERS:

• Cybernetics: A good portion of Genji's body is made up of prosthetics/cybernetics, and as a result he has enhanced abilities, most specifically his agility. He's able to jump higher, move faster, scale walls, and flip around like, well, a cyborg ninja. It can be assumed that he's got extra endurance and strength in his legs and arms for this same reason. While this is headcanon, I also assume that he does not require as much food to get by, because so much of him is mechanical. The downside to all this is that if he's injured/damaged, he needs someone with cybernetics experience to get him fixed up.

• General combat training: Genji has been trained from a young age in combat due to his position within the Shimada Clan, as he was being groomed to possibly take over, and the clan was involved in criminal activity. After that, he joined Overwatch and more specifically its Blackwatch division, which had a focus on (you guessed it) black ops, stealth, assassinations, etc. As far as weapons, he is specifically skilled with using shuriken, wakizashi, and katanas.

• Deflection: Something specific that Genji can do with his blades is deflect almost any projectile/bullet/etc. that is thrown at him. Again, this isn't just for regular bullets, but for energy attacks as well. The only real exception this is laser beam type attacks, as they're not projectiles. The rule of them is anything that has to travel some distance through the air, he can deflect. Anything that's emitted as a beam from a device of sorts, he can't deflect.

• Spirit dragon / Dragonblade: Genji's ultimate ability involves summoning a spirit dragon by drawing his katana. It allows him to do massive amounts of damage with each swing of his blade, and is overall flashy and ridiculous, especially in a canon where things are mainly based in science. There isn't a very good canon reason given for why he can do this, except that it's a secret of the Shimada clan. As far as I can tell, he'll need his sword to actually do this, so he won't be able to perform Dragonblade until he gets his katana back.

SAMPLES
1ST PERSON: With Angela
3RD PERSON: With Thor and full TDM thread

MISC
PLANS: I had a general interest in a war-based game, and had been waiting for one to come around for a while, but I wanted to wait until I had time for it and I had a character I wanted to play who would fit in well. Genji has a long history of combat and stealth training, so he'll be able to tackle most of the aspects that Agoge has to offer, and I was interested in the troubles he'd have trying to fit in, given that he's a cyborg.
ITEM: His wakizashi, please!
CHARACTER @ID SUGGESTIONS: You can assign him one! Maybe something to do with "Sparrow"? It's a nickname of his. I'm up for whatever, though. Feel free to go pun-crazy.
HOW DID YOUR CHARACTER JOIN COST? I'm going with the option of him waking up suddenly with no memory of joining. Which he'll find suspicious, since that's the case for both of his canonmates too.