Ryuuritan Kinmamon

[wantakesmanhattan]

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Name: Ryuuritan Kinmamon, Kin-san, Kinkin

Age: 24
Birthdate: 08/15
Nationality: Japanese - Akita province
Height: 5ft8
Weight: 143lbs
Gender: Male

Affiliations: Independant (informal ties to the Shinto Shrine Network, the Shinsengumi, the NAPI and the Yokai Hunters' Guild)

Appearance: Standing somewhat short compared to some of his peers, Kinmamon could almost described as mousey or perhaps otter-y. Thin, lithe-bodied, and fresh-faced, with messy dark hair and light-brown eyes, he has a smile that's hard to brush off his face (a sign of his generally relaxed temperament). Like cats and other smaller animals whose head doesn't have enough place for the size of their eyes and mouths, his smile pushes his cheeks up, giving his eyes an omnipresent squint that looks slightly mischevious. Kinmamon usually wears comfortable clothes - nothing fashionable, just rugged shirts and pants and shoes good for hiking. It's not rare, in fact, to see him wear the same clothes a few days in a row - myriad changes of clothes are a luxury of the sedentary.

Belongings: Kinmamon travels with a pretty packed car. Tent and camping equipment (head lamps, sleeping bag, biodegradable soap, etc), electric cooler (which acts as a fridge), portable stove and cooking utensils, a hiking backpack and one large suitcase with a few changes of clothes (neatly organized), first aid kit, laptop and journal, photo camera, skis, raincoat and winter coat stuffed in a compression bag, change of shoes and boots, portable toolkit,, bags of souvenirs and gifts meant for friends across the japanese archipelago... Needless to say, the entire backseat is compromised. In his pockets, he always carries a Higonokami penny knife, along with a multitool, a notepad and pen, a flashlight, his wallet, and other everyday carry bric-a-brac. He also always wear a Seiko brand field watch with a NATO strap around his left wrist, along with a paracord bracelet.

Personality: "A side-dish which pairs with rice well". In other words, amiable, pleasant, and downplayed, Kinmamon has a friendly personality that easily puts others at ease, and is good with children. The young man is polite, hospitable, and doesn't like to make too much fuss - though sometimes, he lets his mind wander and says things that may sound a little bit off-the-cuff, his imagination going rampant and reality escaping him a bit. There is another expression that fits him well: "a head full of flowers". Still, beyond simply being polite, he is also courageous and kind, choosing to help others even if it would put him in trouble. His wanderlust is also tangible - perhaps even one could say his karma would always pull him towards the horizon, since he has adored travelling since he was a child. All in all, Kinmamon is best described as a "pleasant guest", no matter where he goes - a man who feels like a shoegaze rock demo album sounds. When it comes to being an odd duck, he's pretty much top banana.

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Character Strengths:
- Amiable: as described in his personality, Kinmamon's friendliness and knowledge of customs make him a very hospitable person to be around, whether in official or mundane settings. He can easily set the tone to a more positive note, and knows how to read the air and set the pace to make people feel comfortable. Both as a host and a visitor, Kinmamon is of the highest grade.
- Courageous: Kinmamon isn't a warrior or a wizard - though he's supernaturally significant, he lacks a fighter's training to remain steadfast. Still, his desire to help others or to protect innocents, as well as his own nerves of steel (or ability to bluff his way into making others think he isn't scared) are on the level of a warrior. In some situations, a tea ceremony is more nervewracking than a battlefield...
- All Sorts Of Skills: picked up everywhere during his storied life, from working part-time here and living temporarily under so and so's house there, Kinmamon has gathered a large amount of "savoir-faire" both professional and utilitarian. Car and motor repair, cooking, sports, bartending, karaoke, tea brewing, horse riding and boating, piloting civilian planes, lockpicking... You name it, and Kinmamon can (probably) do it, and pinpoint when and where he learned said skill.
- Travelling Knowledge: the best road to travel, the nicest hot bath, the best restaurant, the most unknown camping spot, the tricks of the trade of living on the go are imprinted in Kinmamon's brain. Going from point A to point B is a puzzle and he has spent more than half of his life figuring out the best way to fit all the pieces. Of course, his driving is top notch. Perhaps most important in all of this: the innate skill to fall asleep anywhere.

Character Flaws:
- Wimpy: as mentioned earlier, Kinmamon isn't a warrior or a wizard - so when it comes to physical altercations, he's kind of weak. He partakes in occasional sports (with a preference to swimming or skiing), but other than that, his physical attributes are nothing to write home about. A bit of a pushover that doesn't want any trouble and will try to apologize to get out of fights he doesn't think are worth it.
- Cloudcuckoolander: our boy is on the spectrum, and has a median amount of ADHD going on, and that's okay, but sometimes it makes interacting with other people tricky. Simply put, his attention sometimes starts to drift, and he'll follow silly ideas all the way through within his mind without caring about the outside world too much. You might have to fight an uphill battle to get his attention back sometimes.
- Frugal Living: that's a nice way to say that Kinmamon is rather poor. Being transient is also a nice way to say that you could consider him to be homeless. Living out of his car, camping, crashing in people's houses, Kinmamon doesn't even live paycheck to paycheck: he lives meal to meal,
- Transient: meaning, he isn't here to stay. Kinmamon's relationships aren't shallow, but they are built with the understanding that he won't be visiting often. Long-term relationships that can't survive the distance are impossible when one of the two's way of life involves constantly being on the move. He is unrooted and free, and for people who want consistency and routine, this can be more than a little aggravating. Thankfully, it's the age of information, so any good internet connection will allow anyone to talk to anyone across the world. Still, his nomadic lifestyle means you shouldn't get used to this.

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Backstory: According to himself, Kinmamon's life is very unremarkable, but there might have been a time where he wouldn't have been born at all. His birth was apparently troubling, and there was a time where his family thought he wouldn't make it, but it ended up being just fine. Born in a regular family in Akita, he grew up around people who liked to travel - either for work, as a pastime, or by necessity. As such, he inherited their wanderlust almost immediately. The first time he went camping as a boy with his father felt like a transcendental experience that left him wanting for more, and he knew that from that point on he would always chase this insatiable high of being one with the world. His other passion, that of meeting other people, he seemed to be born with: even as a child, he was talkative with strangers and had a talent with getting along with others, not making lasting impressions but never negative ones. Making his way through education, Kinmamon eventually got a college diploma in anthropology (and a minor in archeology), and then simply packed his car and left.

Then after a month or so, his car and bike started speaking to him, and things got weird after that.

Kinmamon was always conscious of yokai, kami, and other spirits, but once he made the active choice to travel the japanese archipelago, it seemed like they were much more present. As he travelled, he found himself welcomed pretty consistently, whether by humans or spirits, and he saw his kindness returned in kind. Even more than that, he felt more at peace with himself. It took his vehicles of choice - his home, in a sense, or maybe his temple - talking to him to discover that he had accidentally stumbled on becoming a yorishiro - in other words, an object or person capable of attracting holiness - through his way of life, kindness and wanderlust. In other words, his supernatural and holy attributes came not from a place of study and intellect, but from a natural and spiritual journey he had decided to undertake for himself since he had first camped all those years ago. In other words, Kinmamon had tricked the world into recognizing him as a Marebito - a holy traveller, a divine vagrant, a human treated as a god, beholder of divine communalism and hospitality by simply existing and living and breathing plainly.

Taking his newfound status in stride, Kinmamon decided that if people would naturally be inclined to kindness, he should repay them in kind. Ever since that day, he's continued travelling the country, having completed the circuit a couple of times since then, using his talent to help people, both humans and spirits, and try and give to others the words they need to feel better. As an unaffiliated talent within the Shinto Shrine Network's phonebook, he sometimes takes odd jobs that line up well with his talents - talents of travel, of hospitality, of kindness, of mediation, of communality. But no matter what, Kinmamon lives his life one day at a time.

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Family, Friends Etc.:
- "Otosan": Kinmamon's dad. In his fifties or so. Lives abroad, working in Australia as a big rig driver. Loudmouth, braggart. His letters and postcards are always accompanied with drone pictures of his truck against the sunset.
- "Okaasan": Kinmamon's mom. In her late forties or so. Lives abroad, currently settled in Europe as a connection to a japanese fashion store as a textile expert. Prim and proper. An amateur photograph by trade, she shares pictures with her letters and emails.
- "Imouto-chan": Kinmamon's little sister. In her early twenties or so. Lives abroad, currently studying in an ivy league university in america in anthropology. Bubbly and kind. She shares cute snacks and selfies with friends in her text messages.
- "Ojisan": Kinmamon's grandfather. In his seventies or so. Lives in japan, but travels all the time, always on his Honda bike even in his advanced age. Used to run a motorcycle gang in his teens. Was the inspiration for Kinmamon to live on the road. Stone-faced but secretly kind. A man of few words, his text messages are curt and dry. Secretly loves spoiling his grand-children.
- Tokkuri-san: Kinmamon's red 1981 Honda City Turbo, and Ochoko's twin. Due to his spirituality and innate divinity, this kei car, which he calls his home, has become inhabitated by a kami. Tokkuri-san seems to favor masculine pronouns, and is calm and lazy - akin to a gentle pachyderm. Thankful for Kinmamon's care and love, he drives around lazily and merrily, happy to see the sights and act as a comfortable home and reliable vehicle. Seems to hold more cargo than one might think for such a small car...
- Ochoko-chan: Kinmamon's red 1981 Honda Motocompo, and Tokkuri-san's twin. Similarly invested by divine energy and given sentience as the host of a kami. Ochoko-chan favors feminine pronouns, and is, in contrast to Tokkuri-san, fiesty and high-spirited: always looking for an opportunity to cut loose, she loves speed and the feel of the wind. Thankful for Kinmamon giving her opportunities for speed, she flies through the road with the freedom and grace of bikes two times her size and weight.

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Powers: Marebito

Power Theme: The Marebito, godly visitors who come from "far away" - from the sea, the mountains, the horizon, or "the other world". Across the archipelago, villages welcomed travellers - travelling monks, performers, or vagrants - and treated them like divinity. Kinmamon, being a constant traveller who carries himself with the calmness of a bozu and the spirituality of a priest (and who accidentally dipped into "the underworld" before birth), accidentally stumbled upon this position - that of the traveller who channels divinity and brings good fortunes to dwellings he visits. Though human, Kinmamon is considered close to the divine in certain spiritual aspects. As a visitor in other people's lives, Kinmamon passes through the world helping those he can, meeting his hosts' hospitality in kind.

Kinmamon naturally exhudes divinity recognizable by most kami, yokai, and supernatural beings of japan. Though very much a human, he simply has the aspects of godlihood and mystery stapled on top of him - so long as he doesn't settle and become sedantery. Tied to mountain and nature worship, his camping in the wild is a form of religious ritual, and "coming down from the mountain" can be considered a blessing onto the communities he visits, oftentimes enough to ward off curses.

Thanks to his innate divinity, Kinmamon's vehicles of choice - a Honda City Turbo and Motocompo set - have become "temples" in his name - more acurately, you could call them Yorishiro, or objects which are suitable to become vessels for kami. Due to the accumulation of divinity in his dwelling, they have become a form of Go-Shintai: objects of worship that house a kami. In a roundabout way, then, Kinmamon's car and bike are sentient, and have the spiritual strength to fight off against other spirits and defend themselves (and their riders) against forms of magical attacks, much like a shinto shrine naturally carries a blessing and can be considered holy grounds where misfortune isn't permitted. One could call that something almost like a contract of sorts, but both parties involved (the vehicles and the human riding them) disagree with that statement.

Rank C Ability - Marebito Procession: Kinmamon's car and bike, Tokkuri-san and Ochoko-chan, are go-shintai, meaning that they are physical vessels for the kami. In that sense, they are sentient vehicles that can communicate freely. Kinmamon can drive them around, of course, but if push comes to shove, both can move and drive themselves and are tough enough to get into scraps with the supernatural - meaning they are supernaturally tough enough to be used as battering rams or even as weapons against yokai. Ochoko-chan is especially flighty, her speed good enough to let Kinmamon ride her on walls or on very thin lines like telephone poles.

Rank B Ability - Namahage Dragon Scale: When Kinmamon is in situations where a host or visitor is improper and does not respect the rules of proper etiquette, or puts the other party in danger, his strength increases. As a Marebito, being welcomed kindly is an expectation, but any faux-pas can be punished. In the region of Okita, the Namahage oni visit is a tradition where people dress up in oni masks and scare children (and improper people) to make them be less lazy and more kind. In that way, one could call these holy oni the war-form of Marebito, who punish impropriety - and in fact, the two beings' folklores interact and have reason to coexist together, as Namahage are also described as "travelling gods from afar" who take curses and bad things away. When he powers up, Kinmamon enters a form "close to those super s*iyans in that one anime" that let him punch above and beyond his regular wimpy weight class, moving at incredible speeds and slapping people with the strength of a bull. This strength, of course, can only be used against the offending party...

Rank C Passive - Divine Pedigree: Spirits and Yokai recognize Kinmamon as a Marebito - both a human and a member of their own class of being. Similarly, he is able to recognize them and meet them in kind. In that sense, seeing spirits and talking to them comes naturally to him - as a guest, it would be improper to be unable to do so, after all. Kinmamon also has a certain amount of luck related to his status: because Marebito are often welcomed with festivities and small celebrations, Kinmamon often comes into town at the right time for a festival, a wedding, a birthday or some kind of celebration, whether big or small, and ends up involved in it. Gifts he brings to others, or recieves from hosts, gain some amount of divine blessing to them, so souvenirs (whether they're local foods or art pieces or alcohol) have the attributes of a shrine's blessing which makes them a solid (but temporary) defense against curses.

[mermalaide]

Okay! Sorry to keep you waiting!

I have a bit to tackle with your character sheet. Some of it is complex and has to do with the rules, the nature of the Marebito and some of the powers. I will try to break it down in an itemized list so that amendments can be simple! I want to say firstly, I do like the character himself. I also like the concept. I will say this though, when we were talking about character creation, I did mention to you that we were not accepting full blooded yokai or god characters. Part of it is powers and leveling. Only npcs in this setting can be full yokai/gods, and this is to keep it fair for everyone. We don't want to make a power imbalance but also it writes you, the player into a corner.

I think that a lot of this has to do with language regarding Kami. Now, we have characters blessed by gods (example- Tatsu Soma) and then we have bloodlines touched by divinity (see-Haru Sato), we also have people with yokai in their lineage (Ayame and Max are both good examples of that) where they have traits passed down in their family, so they have abilities that are pretty entrenched. From what I was reading about Marebito is that some people regard them as deities, and others visitors from the other side. It is something that people have a difficulty agreeing on. If Kinnamon leans more toward being a visitor, that would be more accepted, but the powers would have to be scaled appropriately.

For example, Namahage Dragon Scale is a bit too open ended for a power. Not only would he need to have an iron clad list of rules that are faux pas, the unlimited nature to punish other pcs as well as the scale of that strength could be abused, which could set a problematic precedence. Which nobody wants. There has to be a limit, as well as a time duration for the ability, and a drawback to using that power for an extended period, Your rank B is your overdrive type ability, so he would be pushing to the limit so to speak. So after a point it would have diminishing returns on him. Or detrimental effects.

Also, Tokkuri-san and Ochoko-chan being vehicles for kami are something that that goes into the kami zone. My suggestion for fixing this is contracted/pact yokai or spirits. As Umbra was pointing out when we were talking, They could be kami as npcs, but Kinnamon cannot. In the backstory and when were were chatting, I remember us talking about how Kinnamon had really won them over and they wanted to help him and hang with him. I like that, but there also needs to be an exchange that benefits them, which would tie them to helping. If he has two kami who use those vehicles as "temples," he has to ensure they get something out of it. It's like being contracted with a yokai - they have got to benefit in some way. Be it through prayer or offerings made on a regular basis. Something needs to be there to power and keep them going.

This last bit is more of a question on my part relating to backstory, but how did Kinnamon become a visitor so to speak? Was he born on the other side? What gives him the nature and ability he has? Was he touched by the supernatural at an early age, and if so, did it leave a mark on his spirit that was not seen necessarily, but felt?

I know this is a lot, but I think this is a great character, but also possible to make in the setting if we make specific adjustments. I will step back and let a few of the other mods also chime in with questions and observations!