桑田 怜恩 // Kuwata Leon (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
babermetrics) wrote2015-05-12 05:33 pm
babermetrics) wrote2015-05-12 05:33 pm
Entry tags:
CEREALIA APPLICATION
Applicant Info
◎ Name: Tomo
◎ Journal:benthic
◎ Contact: benthic @ plurk; monkeypop @ gmail; PM (any of these!)
◎ Current Character(s): None!
Character Info
◎ Character's Name: Kuwata Leon (Eastern order)
◎ Character's Canon: Dangan Ronpa, game canon
◎ Character's Age: Mentally ~17, physically ~19. He hasn't noticed.
◎ Canon Point: post-execution/Chapter 1
◎ Background/History: Wiki link! Hopefully this is sufficient. f-f-fandom wikis
◎ Is the character a hacker and/or do they have a sixth-sense? Absolutely not!
◎ Personality:
The first thing anyone back home tends to know about Kuwata Leon is that his skill in baseball is absolutely mind-blowing, and as much as he hates that people think of that first, it's an important place to start.
It's not only that Leon is an awesome baseball player; it's that he's an awesome baseball player without even trying, and that's an unfortunately formative aspect of his life and personality. In a class full of people who have had to claw their way to the tops of their fields--a martial artist who trains incessantly to pursue her dreams, an heir whose entire childhood was a constant struggle to achieve, a pop star who devoted herself so entirely to her career that she was willing to do things she won't admit to in pursuit of success--Leon has never had to face adversity like that. In fact, he's never had to face adversity like . . . anything. His Super High School Level(/Ultimate) talent comes to him so effortlessly that he doesn't even need to attend practices. He claims to have never opened a textbook; why should he need to study, when he's an athlete on the fast track to make millions in the major leagues? Who needs brains for that? His dream is actually to give up baseball and become a punk rock star instead--but why bother to learn any instrument, or anything about music, period? All that matters is that he looks cool and can kind of sing!
Such is the philosophy of Leon's life. And, notably, he's never actually proven wrong before he dies. He is an amazing ball player without practice. He does get into an elite high school without ever studying or giving a crap about his classes, based solely on his athletic abilities. Leon's coasting through life and lack of understanding of the effort most people put into their success isn't born of entitlement or snobbery; it's pure, ignorant naïveté. He is simultaneously aware that his own talent is remarkable and exhibits a complete lack of understanding of what that means: for example, he challenges his cousin to throw a fastball at 160 kph, and honestly believes she will be able to do it, despite that being 20 kph above the world record for a fastball thrown by a woman (which his cousin is--and an untrained schoolgirl two years his junior, at that). It's easy for him, why shouldn't it be for her? He honestly believes he won't need to put any effort into punk rock, either, despite him having no natural talent in it. He has no cognizance of the work his favorite artists have put into their craft, claiming that "no one really cares if they can play." Because he doesn't know how the industry works and has never studied it, he just doesn't know any better. In Leon's mind, life is as easy for everyone as it is for him; he's never been exposed to a reality that proves otherwise. With his innate skills and well-off family (his uncle at least is rich and spoils him), it doesn't occur to him that things aren't always this straightforward and effortless, or that other people are struggling and might be a little put out with him for the half-assed way he approaches everything.
Well, almost everything. There is one thing that Leon puts immense amounts of effort into. Leon's motivation isn't bettering himself or excelling at anything, like that of most of his classmates: it's being liked and getting attention. And to that end, he will work tirelessly. It's easy to think of Leon as a lazy guy, and he is, when it comes to doing anything he doesn't want to do or developing any skills that don't provide instant gratification of some sort--but when that gratification is popularity, he's very, very willing to put in the effort. It's not by coincidence that every life choice Leon considers making involves him being a sex-symbol center of attention: if he's not going to be a millionaire ace baseball player, he's going to be the lead singer of a rock band, and by the way, he doesn't want his bandmates taking the spotlight off of him. If he's not going to do that, he's going to be an actor, as he briefly mentions in one of his free time events. Every vision Leon has of his future involves being popular, especially with women, and even in his present, his decisions revolve around how they will make him look to girls. His makeover transformation from buzzcut plain jock to pierced punk? Well, he didn't stand out or look hot enough before! His platform shoes? He wasn't tall enough for the ladies, in his opinion. One of his favorite vending machine gifts, a bottle of cologne? Chicks dig it! His entire decision to leave behind baseball in favor of music was made for two reasons: to appeal to a specific girl, and because baseball didn't fit the image he thought would net him the biggest fanbase. And while he's extremely concerned with being sexually attractive to women, it's everyone that he wants to look cool for: he hates Naegi seeing a pre-makeover picture of him, and in School Mode, his reactions become immediately defensive if Naegi's conversations with him start to edge on making Leon look stupid, abnormal, awkward, or unattractive. Unless, of course, it's the cute and charming kind of awkward.
It's funny: Leon's never been proven wrong in this either. For all that he tries embarrassingly hard to be popular (it's seriously kind of cringe-worthy), the joke is that he already was. Pre-makeover, he already dated girls constantly and had a reputation as a popular playboy, as noted by his cousin in her spinoff novel, Zettai Zetsubou Hagakure. He doesn't appear to have any trouble making friends or being social; when he isn't being overly defensive of his image (or having a meltdown when cornered), Leon comes off as open, inviting, personable, and easygoing.
The truth is, for being a lazy, gullible, temperamental, dimwitted, tryhard womanizer . . . he actually isn't a bad guy, underneath it all, and that's probably how he manages to win friends and influence people in the first place. For one thing, as strictly as Leon obsesses over his own image and desire to be "cool," he doesn't apply his same standards to anyone else. He's perfectly willing to make friends with an extremely ordinary guy like Naegi, and doesn't tend to harshly judge people for their own hobbies, habits, and fashions, however different they may be from his own. He'll call out awkward behavior, sure, but he's not the type of guy who sees some unfashionable nerd and decides he's too good to talk to them, or bullies them. He's forgiving and encouraging of the people he likes and believes in their abilities, even when it's uninformed of him; he has a desire for people to be as overall happy as he is, even when it would detract some from his own goals. (For example, his cousin Kanon is sexually obsessed with him and stalks him, and he freely admits to her that he kind of likes it because it makes him feel popular to have a stalker--but he also encourages her to stop for her own benefit, because he doesn't want her to feel the pain of seeing him with other women when he doesn't return her feelings, though he cares for her very genuinely.) And despite how calculating he is about giving off the best impression he can at all times, he's also surprisingly open and honest about himself at times--even if it's just for lack of thinking through the things he says--making him an overall easy dude to approach and strike up a rapport with. While he wants to look as good and be successful, he isn't interested in tearing anyone else down to do so . . . which might not have served him well on his way to the top of the music world, if Maizono's implications of her own past are anything to go by.
Of course, that was never in the cards anyway, even before the rug was pulled out from under his future. Because while Leon is ostensibly dedicated to promoting his cool new musician and totally not jock image, he does still genuinely like baseball in a way that runs deeper than that . . . kind of. It's true that his reasons for liking it tie right back into his overall motivation (after all, he does get lots and lots of positive attention for his skills, and it's not like he's not going to be famous and popular as an athlete too), but there is also some genuine pleasure in being good at something and indulging in the safe and familiar there too, and in his FTEs and school mode routes, he grows enough self-awareness to realize he doesn't actually want to turn his back on his past self just because it's not "cool." It's a small step on the path to actually understanding himself and his own desires, but it's an important one to start with.
Leon is thoughtless about anything he hasn't actively dedicated thought to (which is mostly "how do I make people like me"), and that's the bottom line. It's both a bad thing and, occasionally, a good thing; he can be extremely friendly and affectionate, and you know it's from the heart, because he acts entirely without guile and is incapable of manipulation. In ZZH, Kanon comes to the conclusion that he's manipulating her multiple times, only to be proven wrong every time; he actually did mean everything he did and said, even the really stupid shit. Quite frankly, he's not intelligent or forward-thinking enough to manipulate people: he only comes as close as he does to getting away with Maizono's murder because she manipulated the circumstances of it. But that same thoughtlessness is what leads to him being too-blunt, overly defensive and snappy when things don't go his way, insensitive to the reality of the world and people's struggles within it . . . and, finally, to becoming a murderer.
In essence, Leon has one hell of a cushy life, and all he wants is to make it even cushier through gaining more and more positive publicity. Operating within those parameters, he's actually a pretty chill guy. But when he's forced outside of that--whether it's as trivial as coming off poorly in a conversation or as serious as being forced into a murder game--he crumples, resorting to whatever he can think of to save face and cling to the happy life that went unthreatened for seventeen years before being utterly shattered by Enoshima Junko.
◎ Powers/Abilities: As mentioned, Leon's the SHSL Baseball Player, and his skills in baseball are legitimately remarkable; for one thing, he both pitches and bats in arguably the most key position in the lineup, an incredibly unlikely feat. (There's a reason the American League doesn't even require their pitchers to go up to bat. Most pitchers are shit at it.) His fastball has literally brought tears to the eyes of people who witness it, he can pitch at least 160 kph, his incredible precision almost lets him get away with murder, and he manages all of this without any practice or effort at all.
That said, his last experience with baseballs was pretty unfortunate, to say the least. While his pitching skills won't be affected, it's going to take some time and maybe some therapy before he's worth anything at bat or can field anything again.
His other skills tend to be tangentially related to his baseball skills; he claims to be good at any sport that involves balls (though certainly not to SHSL levels), and he has overall good aim, physical strength, and stamina. His baseball sense, and related strengths, are pretty much all he has going for him, so it's a good thing they're so awesome.
◎ Weapons & Other Special Inventory: a guitar; a handheld video game system; the game Project Zombie; a tool kit that's missing its screwdriver; his Electronic Student ID Card; a photograph of himself with his cousin, taken before he came to Hope's Peak; and a butcher knife.
CEREALIA-Specific
◎ Element: Fire.
◎ Sense: Sight; it's vital to his career as a baseball player, and he's a very visual guy in general. Even in his misguided musical aspirations, he obsesses over the look, not the sound, of punk rock. The first thing he notices about everyone is what they look like and what that projects about them.
◎ Seven Character Traits: ( Personable, Guileless, Supportive ) | ( Self-centered, Temperamental, Naive ) + Thoughtless.
Samples
◎ First-Person Sample: test drive tho
◎ Third-Person Sample:
The first time Leon hooks up to ViVid--voluntarily, that is, not including that first experience he never signed up for and still doesn't quite forgive anyone for--
Well, he feels a lotta bit like a loser, to be entirely honest.
Because the fact is, he can't pretend even to himself that the way his heart rate picks up when the countdown begins is excitement. Here he is, about to have a crazy immersive gaming session no one back home would ever believe was possible--he's a lucky guy, right, with all this badass technology totally at his disposal!--and when his heart starts to thump in his chest, it's panic, not the thrill of the experience. Shit, man. What would people think if they knew he was going into this with sweaty palms and a dry lump in his throat?
He can't help it, but knowing that doesn't make him feel much better about it. It's all because of that stupid first time they dragged him into this! He'd thought he was over it, and that was the real killer; the images of his world destroyed and crumpling at his feet, corpses littering the ground inches from where he stood, he was so over it. It was just some shitty video game they'd forced on him, totally no worse than a horror movie, and he's seen plenty of those in his time. They're perfect for dates; there's nothing like a girl cuddling up to his side in terror in a dark theater.
So whose girl is he now, shaking like a total wuss at some numbers counting down, of all the stupid things?
Is it because it was more than a game? Leon doesn't want to think about that. It's too big and ugly to fit in his head. He'd finally agreed to try playing one of these, after all, because he didn't want to think anymore for a while! Isn't that the point of games? They're not supposed to bring back bad memories or make your stomach feel tight and nauseous unless you can't handle the higher ratings, which he can, thank you very much. He'd totally prove it . . . if he hadn't decided to take this first run solo, because as much as he hated to admit it, he had to account for the possibility that he was going to totally suck at this, and there's no way he's letting the public see that go down if that's how it goes down.
It's just him and the game, this time.
So get the fuck over it, Kuwata, he tells himself, hands balling into fists at his side--he takes a moment to wonder if that's happening in real life too, which is a totally weird thought, but he still doesn't get enough about how this technology works to know if it's true, so whatever. Maybe he'll find out when he wakes up. But right now there's a field of enemies blinking into existence in front of him, and he finally snaps to full attention as the complete unreality of that sinks into him. And damn if it isn't such a relief.
He's not the kind of guy who's ever been into hardcore escapism before, but maybe it's time to consider the benefits.
◎ Is your character retaining any previous game memories? Nope!
◎ Name: Tomo
◎ Journal:
benthic◎ Contact: benthic @ plurk; monkeypop @ gmail; PM (any of these!)
◎ Current Character(s): None!
Character Info
◎ Character's Name: Kuwata Leon (Eastern order)
◎ Character's Canon: Dangan Ronpa, game canon
◎ Character's Age: Mentally ~17, physically ~19. He hasn't noticed.
◎ Canon Point: post-execution/Chapter 1
◎ Background/History: Wiki link! Hopefully this is sufficient. f-f-fandom wikis
◎ Is the character a hacker and/or do they have a sixth-sense? Absolutely not!
◎ Personality:
The first thing anyone back home tends to know about Kuwata Leon is that his skill in baseball is absolutely mind-blowing, and as much as he hates that people think of that first, it's an important place to start.
It's not only that Leon is an awesome baseball player; it's that he's an awesome baseball player without even trying, and that's an unfortunately formative aspect of his life and personality. In a class full of people who have had to claw their way to the tops of their fields--a martial artist who trains incessantly to pursue her dreams, an heir whose entire childhood was a constant struggle to achieve, a pop star who devoted herself so entirely to her career that she was willing to do things she won't admit to in pursuit of success--Leon has never had to face adversity like that. In fact, he's never had to face adversity like . . . anything. His Super High School Level(/Ultimate) talent comes to him so effortlessly that he doesn't even need to attend practices. He claims to have never opened a textbook; why should he need to study, when he's an athlete on the fast track to make millions in the major leagues? Who needs brains for that? His dream is actually to give up baseball and become a punk rock star instead--but why bother to learn any instrument, or anything about music, period? All that matters is that he looks cool and can kind of sing!
Such is the philosophy of Leon's life. And, notably, he's never actually proven wrong before he dies. He is an amazing ball player without practice. He does get into an elite high school without ever studying or giving a crap about his classes, based solely on his athletic abilities. Leon's coasting through life and lack of understanding of the effort most people put into their success isn't born of entitlement or snobbery; it's pure, ignorant naïveté. He is simultaneously aware that his own talent is remarkable and exhibits a complete lack of understanding of what that means: for example, he challenges his cousin to throw a fastball at 160 kph, and honestly believes she will be able to do it, despite that being 20 kph above the world record for a fastball thrown by a woman (which his cousin is--and an untrained schoolgirl two years his junior, at that). It's easy for him, why shouldn't it be for her? He honestly believes he won't need to put any effort into punk rock, either, despite him having no natural talent in it. He has no cognizance of the work his favorite artists have put into their craft, claiming that "no one really cares if they can play." Because he doesn't know how the industry works and has never studied it, he just doesn't know any better. In Leon's mind, life is as easy for everyone as it is for him; he's never been exposed to a reality that proves otherwise. With his innate skills and well-off family (his uncle at least is rich and spoils him), it doesn't occur to him that things aren't always this straightforward and effortless, or that other people are struggling and might be a little put out with him for the half-assed way he approaches everything.
Well, almost everything. There is one thing that Leon puts immense amounts of effort into. Leon's motivation isn't bettering himself or excelling at anything, like that of most of his classmates: it's being liked and getting attention. And to that end, he will work tirelessly. It's easy to think of Leon as a lazy guy, and he is, when it comes to doing anything he doesn't want to do or developing any skills that don't provide instant gratification of some sort--but when that gratification is popularity, he's very, very willing to put in the effort. It's not by coincidence that every life choice Leon considers making involves him being a sex-symbol center of attention: if he's not going to be a millionaire ace baseball player, he's going to be the lead singer of a rock band, and by the way, he doesn't want his bandmates taking the spotlight off of him. If he's not going to do that, he's going to be an actor, as he briefly mentions in one of his free time events. Every vision Leon has of his future involves being popular, especially with women, and even in his present, his decisions revolve around how they will make him look to girls. His makeover transformation from buzzcut plain jock to pierced punk? Well, he didn't stand out or look hot enough before! His platform shoes? He wasn't tall enough for the ladies, in his opinion. One of his favorite vending machine gifts, a bottle of cologne? Chicks dig it! His entire decision to leave behind baseball in favor of music was made for two reasons: to appeal to a specific girl, and because baseball didn't fit the image he thought would net him the biggest fanbase. And while he's extremely concerned with being sexually attractive to women, it's everyone that he wants to look cool for: he hates Naegi seeing a pre-makeover picture of him, and in School Mode, his reactions become immediately defensive if Naegi's conversations with him start to edge on making Leon look stupid, abnormal, awkward, or unattractive. Unless, of course, it's the cute and charming kind of awkward.
It's funny: Leon's never been proven wrong in this either. For all that he tries embarrassingly hard to be popular (it's seriously kind of cringe-worthy), the joke is that he already was. Pre-makeover, he already dated girls constantly and had a reputation as a popular playboy, as noted by his cousin in her spinoff novel, Zettai Zetsubou Hagakure. He doesn't appear to have any trouble making friends or being social; when he isn't being overly defensive of his image (or having a meltdown when cornered), Leon comes off as open, inviting, personable, and easygoing.
The truth is, for being a lazy, gullible, temperamental, dimwitted, tryhard womanizer . . . he actually isn't a bad guy, underneath it all, and that's probably how he manages to win friends and influence people in the first place. For one thing, as strictly as Leon obsesses over his own image and desire to be "cool," he doesn't apply his same standards to anyone else. He's perfectly willing to make friends with an extremely ordinary guy like Naegi, and doesn't tend to harshly judge people for their own hobbies, habits, and fashions, however different they may be from his own. He'll call out awkward behavior, sure, but he's not the type of guy who sees some unfashionable nerd and decides he's too good to talk to them, or bullies them. He's forgiving and encouraging of the people he likes and believes in their abilities, even when it's uninformed of him; he has a desire for people to be as overall happy as he is, even when it would detract some from his own goals. (For example, his cousin Kanon is sexually obsessed with him and stalks him, and he freely admits to her that he kind of likes it because it makes him feel popular to have a stalker--but he also encourages her to stop for her own benefit, because he doesn't want her to feel the pain of seeing him with other women when he doesn't return her feelings, though he cares for her very genuinely.) And despite how calculating he is about giving off the best impression he can at all times, he's also surprisingly open and honest about himself at times--even if it's just for lack of thinking through the things he says--making him an overall easy dude to approach and strike up a rapport with. While he wants to look as good and be successful, he isn't interested in tearing anyone else down to do so . . . which might not have served him well on his way to the top of the music world, if Maizono's implications of her own past are anything to go by.
Of course, that was never in the cards anyway, even before the rug was pulled out from under his future. Because while Leon is ostensibly dedicated to promoting his cool new musician and totally not jock image, he does still genuinely like baseball in a way that runs deeper than that . . . kind of. It's true that his reasons for liking it tie right back into his overall motivation (after all, he does get lots and lots of positive attention for his skills, and it's not like he's not going to be famous and popular as an athlete too), but there is also some genuine pleasure in being good at something and indulging in the safe and familiar there too, and in his FTEs and school mode routes, he grows enough self-awareness to realize he doesn't actually want to turn his back on his past self just because it's not "cool." It's a small step on the path to actually understanding himself and his own desires, but it's an important one to start with.
Leon is thoughtless about anything he hasn't actively dedicated thought to (which is mostly "how do I make people like me"), and that's the bottom line. It's both a bad thing and, occasionally, a good thing; he can be extremely friendly and affectionate, and you know it's from the heart, because he acts entirely without guile and is incapable of manipulation. In ZZH, Kanon comes to the conclusion that he's manipulating her multiple times, only to be proven wrong every time; he actually did mean everything he did and said, even the really stupid shit. Quite frankly, he's not intelligent or forward-thinking enough to manipulate people: he only comes as close as he does to getting away with Maizono's murder because she manipulated the circumstances of it. But that same thoughtlessness is what leads to him being too-blunt, overly defensive and snappy when things don't go his way, insensitive to the reality of the world and people's struggles within it . . . and, finally, to becoming a murderer.
In essence, Leon has one hell of a cushy life, and all he wants is to make it even cushier through gaining more and more positive publicity. Operating within those parameters, he's actually a pretty chill guy. But when he's forced outside of that--whether it's as trivial as coming off poorly in a conversation or as serious as being forced into a murder game--he crumples, resorting to whatever he can think of to save face and cling to the happy life that went unthreatened for seventeen years before being utterly shattered by Enoshima Junko.
◎ Powers/Abilities: As mentioned, Leon's the SHSL Baseball Player, and his skills in baseball are legitimately remarkable; for one thing, he both pitches and bats in arguably the most key position in the lineup, an incredibly unlikely feat. (There's a reason the American League doesn't even require their pitchers to go up to bat. Most pitchers are shit at it.) His fastball has literally brought tears to the eyes of people who witness it, he can pitch at least 160 kph, his incredible precision almost lets him get away with murder, and he manages all of this without any practice or effort at all.
That said, his last experience with baseballs was pretty unfortunate, to say the least. While his pitching skills won't be affected, it's going to take some time and maybe some therapy before he's worth anything at bat or can field anything again.
His other skills tend to be tangentially related to his baseball skills; he claims to be good at any sport that involves balls (though certainly not to SHSL levels), and he has overall good aim, physical strength, and stamina. His baseball sense, and related strengths, are pretty much all he has going for him, so it's a good thing they're so awesome.
◎ Weapons & Other Special Inventory: a guitar; a handheld video game system; the game Project Zombie; a tool kit that's missing its screwdriver; his Electronic Student ID Card; a photograph of himself with his cousin, taken before he came to Hope's Peak; and a butcher knife.
CEREALIA-Specific
◎ Element: Fire.
◎ Sense: Sight; it's vital to his career as a baseball player, and he's a very visual guy in general. Even in his misguided musical aspirations, he obsesses over the look, not the sound, of punk rock. The first thing he notices about everyone is what they look like and what that projects about them.
◎ Seven Character Traits: ( Personable, Guileless, Supportive ) | ( Self-centered, Temperamental, Naive ) + Thoughtless.
Samples
◎ First-Person Sample: test drive tho
◎ Third-Person Sample:
The first time Leon hooks up to ViVid--voluntarily, that is, not including that first experience he never signed up for and still doesn't quite forgive anyone for--
Well, he feels a lotta bit like a loser, to be entirely honest.
Because the fact is, he can't pretend even to himself that the way his heart rate picks up when the countdown begins is excitement. Here he is, about to have a crazy immersive gaming session no one back home would ever believe was possible--he's a lucky guy, right, with all this badass technology totally at his disposal!--and when his heart starts to thump in his chest, it's panic, not the thrill of the experience. Shit, man. What would people think if they knew he was going into this with sweaty palms and a dry lump in his throat?
He can't help it, but knowing that doesn't make him feel much better about it. It's all because of that stupid first time they dragged him into this! He'd thought he was over it, and that was the real killer; the images of his world destroyed and crumpling at his feet, corpses littering the ground inches from where he stood, he was so over it. It was just some shitty video game they'd forced on him, totally no worse than a horror movie, and he's seen plenty of those in his time. They're perfect for dates; there's nothing like a girl cuddling up to his side in terror in a dark theater.
So whose girl is he now, shaking like a total wuss at some numbers counting down, of all the stupid things?
Is it because it was more than a game? Leon doesn't want to think about that. It's too big and ugly to fit in his head. He'd finally agreed to try playing one of these, after all, because he didn't want to think anymore for a while! Isn't that the point of games? They're not supposed to bring back bad memories or make your stomach feel tight and nauseous unless you can't handle the higher ratings, which he can, thank you very much. He'd totally prove it . . . if he hadn't decided to take this first run solo, because as much as he hated to admit it, he had to account for the possibility that he was going to totally suck at this, and there's no way he's letting the public see that go down if that's how it goes down.
It's just him and the game, this time.
So get the fuck over it, Kuwata, he tells himself, hands balling into fists at his side--he takes a moment to wonder if that's happening in real life too, which is a totally weird thought, but he still doesn't get enough about how this technology works to know if it's true, so whatever. Maybe he'll find out when he wakes up. But right now there's a field of enemies blinking into existence in front of him, and he finally snaps to full attention as the complete unreality of that sinks into him. And damn if it isn't such a relief.
He's not the kind of guy who's ever been into hardcore escapism before, but maybe it's time to consider the benefits.
◎ Is your character retaining any previous game memories? Nope!