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[fuckinstoplights]

OOC Information
NAME: Red
AGE: 26
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: None

IC Information
CHARACTER NAME: Kagerou (BP-500X)
AGE: less than a year, technically
CANON: Brave Police: J-Decker
CANON POINT: End of Episode 11, prior to capture
FAMILY TYPES:
DARK AREA: He often struggles with himself, and his situation, not usually making a calm, rational decision. His whole life, short as it was, is basically a struggle with "who am I/what am I", etc.
METAL EMPIRE: Based on his reluctance to trust anyone who isn't his "other half", and resulting isolation from others. Not even trusting to tell the other Brave Police his story, and opting just to run away.
JUNGLE TROOPERS: Also based on his introversion, and his apparent preference to keep things to himself. Which results in silence or short, clipped answers, most of the time.


APPEARANCE:
As a human, he stands 5'9", and is mostly leg. He looks like he came straight out of Japan, with hair hanging somewhere around his ears, or he would, if his one eye wasn't green. The other one? It's covered by a vaguely futuristic-looking patch. Don't take it off, unless you want to see a very red, very incapable of seeing, eye looking back at you. It looks sort of like someone punched it. Minus the neat bruising. He has very broad shoulders, for his body type, more wiry than muscular. In terms of clothing, he vastly prefers loose, green and black shirts and pants, nothing too confining. He wears no shoes.

PERSONALITY:
For the most part, Kagerou embodies the entire ninja persona. He's quiet, reserved -- and prefers it that way. He doesn't speak much, doesn't even reveal much in the way of emotion. At least, not with facial expression or his tone of voice. During his entire rampage, he never says so much as a single word, until confronted by the Brave Police. And only then, it's a very flat, clipped order for them to back off. He doesn't raise his voice, or appear angry. He just tells them to get out and go home. Even when he abducts a human girl, fully intending to kill her if he isn't left alone, he doesn't so much as scowl. It's safe to assume he keeps a tight lid on his emotions, since, being AI, he is fully capable of feeling, he just chooses not to, save for circumstances in which emotional strain is just too much to hold back.

He's still a child, in many respects, after all.

He never appears even remotely upset about the situation, until his confrontation with Shadowmaru later on, in which he seems to break down, all but shouting at him, and going into great detail about his feelings. He actually emotes when the other ninja-robot is around him -- and is shown to actually have smiled during a brief flashback of the two of them. Likely, it's only Shadowmaru he feels comfortable enough to really act normally around, instead of acting as his stealth/ninja training dictates.

Which isn't entirely surprising. Shadowmaru is literally the reason Kagerou exists. You're not going to build a prototype if you're not going to improve it later on. At least, that's what he feels. Whether or not he's right doesn't matter, not to him. Even so, he was okay with this. He threw everything into making Shadowmaru a good reason to live - the training and whatnot - in subconscious justification for his whole mindset. He defines himself completely and utterly by Shadowmaru's existence, directly stating this during their confrontation. Without one, there couldn't be the other. And, so he is naturally... attached. Over time, that attachment became important to him. He actually cared about his "improved version", along with everything else he felt. And he cared a lot -- still does, if he's being honest. He couldn't imagine living without him - either in memory or in the physical sense. It's safe to say that Shadowmaru is, without a doubt, the most important person on the planet to him. He displays extremely dependent personality traits, focused entirely on Shadowmaru.

Considering he seems to have spent the entirety of his life in a training and testing facility, as he and Shadowmaru were kept secret from even the other Brave Police, it's safe to assume that, in addition from being quiet and withdrawn, Kagerou is also supremely sheltered. He spent his life interacting with one other individual, primarily, with the addition of engineers and mechanics when necessary, and, given how he only really seems to show his feelings when in his fellow "ninja's" presence, likely only really knows how to deal with him in a social situation.

Also, given that his solution to the problem of reformatting was property damage and hostage-taking, he lacks real problem-solving experience in the "real world". He saw nothing wrong with his actions. He was scared, and it seemed to be the only way out -- thus he took it. It's less that he is amoral, or lacks morals, given that he was created for the purpose of law enforcement, but more that he panicked, and lashed out. He knows how to fight, and how to perform his functions -- he had to, in order to train Shadowmaru. But beyond that, he gets out of his depth. And covers it simply by not speaking.

He, understandably, takes issues with being treated as a simple machine, or the loss of memory. Memories are how he built his existence, and they, like Shadomwaru himself, are vitally important to who he is. Given that humans were the ones to threaten him with reformatting, he has become somewhat mistrustful of them, and clearly does not seem to value their lives as much as he does that of fellow robots -- while he kidnaps a girl, threatens her, he never once raises a weapon against his own kind. Not while he's himself, anyway.

HISTORY:
So in Japan, and later the rest of the world, the "21st Century" brought a lot more problems than it did anything else. Problems in the form of super-advanced crime and high-tech criminals. This tends to include everything from mutated monsters, to evil robots, to men who dress like clowns releasing mind-altering substances into the air. And, in order to combat this, the law enforcement system decided the best course of action would be to create giant police robots. More specifically, Commissioner Juzo Saejima decided this was the best course of action -- sort of like if Commissioner Gordon decided Gotham needed a giant Batman robot, and then was allowed to do so, then added strobe lights 'because it was cool'. Which... is pretty much Saejima in a nutshell, but that's beside the point.

They were known as the BP series, or Brave Police. Because this is Japan and everything has to sound like that. Outfitted with a special kind of AI -- or super AI -- they had personality, emotions, and were, on occasion, very nearly humans. Albeit humans in giant robot bodies. They were also pretty effective, enough to where more models, with different capabilities, were warranted.

Enter the prototype ninja robot -- no joke -- known as BP-500X, or Kagerou.

He was designed as a test. Meant to see how well his model would perform, before they went forward and designed the real thing. And, once the new model, another ninja robot known as Shadowmaru -- also no joke -- came along, Kagerou was tasked with training him, and testing him, until Shadowmaru was ready to operate in the field. And that's about when the problem started.

Very quickly, Shadowmaru became the most important person, or robot, in Kagerou's life. In a completely and utterly healthy fashion, he completely defined himself by Shadowmaru's existence -- and by their experiences together. His world began and ended with his double, though he himself always felt he stood in the shadow of the other, given he was well aware of his prototype status. He wasn't the important one, or the one that mattered. In the end, it was Shadowmaru who was valuable, who would go on to work alone.

Somewhere along the line, he found out what the department responsible for their creation had in mind for him, and really didn't like it. The higher-ups saw no reason to get rid of a functional model completely, so they decided they would simply reassign Kagerou once Shadowmaru's training was complete. However, reassignment meant a massive reformat of Kagerou's processor, effectively erasing the data he already had stored -- basically erasing all of his memories. And, since Kagerou's world was centered around Shadowmaru, forgetting him, and their training time together, was basically a death sentence. And he couldn't have that.

As soon as the training was deemed complete, the normally taciturn robot broke through the wall of the facility and, basically went on a rampage. Apparently, his intent was to get a message out to the higher-ups regarding his feelings on the matter, but it got sort of muddled up when he started smashing talking electronics like vending machines and stoplights. Apparently, something about the fact they were talking machines with no AI really got to him. Either that or Kagerou just really didn't like waiting at stoplights and a vending machine ate his last quarter. Or, more likely, it was a stab back at the humans who wanted to wipe his precious memories.

The good people of Japan were understandably nervous about this, and thus the Brave Police were called on to put an end to the rampaging robot. However, when Kagerou broke out, he was closely followed by none other than Shadowmaru. Why he never directly captured/arrested Kagerou isn't clear -- he had more than one opportunity, and instead used them to keep the Brave Police off his prototype's tail, claiming he'd deal with Kagerou himself. After a confrontation, Kagerou dropped off the map, along with Shadowmaru, until the former turned up at a convenient talking electronics fair, with the intent of smashing the place up. Human police officers opened fire, which caused him to take a hostage, and hole up in the building hosting the fair. He, very calmly, stated that if anyone came after him, the woman would die. It was the first time he ever directly threatened a human life, and he did it in the same calm, casual sort of manner he smashed up vending machines and stoplights.

The Brave Police team attempted to go after the wanted robot, but were stopped by some crazy saxophone music Shadowmaru again, who after showing off, went into the building on his own to deal with his prototype. The others stayed outside and got caught up on the situation thanks to some exposition by Saejima and his chief engineer.

Meanwhile, inside, the two ninja robots confronted each other. They had a conversation about life, memories, the usual. In which Kagerou basically said he was nothing if he couldn't retain his memories of their time together -- of Shadowmaru. It was also the only time he really showed any sort of emotion, raising his voice toward the end of their discussion, and generally being edgy and upset the entire time, whereas before, he'd been completely nonchalant, in control of himself. It's thus safe to say he has a few Issues regarding memories. In light of these revelations, Shadowmaru relented, and allowed Kagerou to get out of jail free, more or less, under the condition he wouldn't cause any more destruction again. It looked like everything would end up going all right...

Until, as he took off for parts unknown, Kagerou crashed headlong into electrified nets, dangling from helicopters a lot more stealthy than he was.

The helicopters were owned by the head of Excellent Corporation -- no, that's actually its name -- known as Shinjo. He had a hand in the development of the BP series of robots, but never really liked how they were so emotive. And, you know, not mindless automatons. Plus he had some kind of crazy lung disease, and wanted a giant robot body of his own, so, logically, the only thing to do was steal a Super AI chip from one of the BP Series. And implant his own mind onto it.

Which was what ended up happening to Kagerou. In the end, his memories were completely obliterated, save for a brief moment of recognition -- related, of course, to Shadowmaru -- and he died horribly, the reformatted AI chip implanted in a submarine, which then blew up at the bottom of the sea.

SAMPLES
First Person Sample:
Link 1
Link 2

Including two links since... he doesn't say much in his posts. Generally.

Third Person Sample:
It's dark. And that's appropriate, isn't it? For someone like him. Dark, quiet, and still. There isn't even a wind blowing. It isn't often he can find time to slip out, to stand up here on the rooftop of their facility, and observe the quiet around him. When he can, he does. It's peaceful, and they have tests to run, after his 'protege's' performance – meaning Shadowmaru will be occupied for some time.

And without him, where else is there for a shadow to go, but out into the dark? A smile flicks over his face, briefly. It's a dramatic thought, he knows. But given the news he received recently, he feels he should be allowed a little melodrama.

Reassignment, they had said. A new location. A new job. A new team... a new format for his processor. A complete and utter loss of everything he is. He had taken the news in his usual silence. Simply bowed his head, as if accepting it. When in reality, he could feel his AI all but scrambling, wanting to scream, wanting to strike out in denial. But he'd done none of it. He still wasn't doing any of it. Even as he stands here on the roof, watching the darkness shift and move under the stars.

Restraint is important. Restraint and silence. If he's nothing more than a shadow, nothing more than a fleeting image to the world, what right does he have to be anything else? They're taking his world, his entire being, simply because they can. And there isn't anything he can do, is there?

So why fight?

His attention is drawn away from the night, as something swift and dark-colored leaps up from the doorway behind him, landing on his shoulders with the heavy clank of metal meeting metal. It's a simple matter to twist, letting the big, robotic canine go sliding off of him, and onto the rooftop itself. If he hadn't known better, he'd have struck out with a weapon, or a fist, injuring the sudden, jubilant visitor.

So why fight?

If he hadn't known better, known who it was that landed on him so abruptly, he'd have injured the one who mattered most.

It's worth fighting for.