Ren (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
pomerenian) wrote2014-03-26 11:13 pm
pomerenian) wrote2014-03-26 11:13 pm
Entry tags:
application; mask or menace
〈 PLAYER INFO 〉
NAME: Jenny
AGE: 24
JOURNAL:2wag
IM / EMAIL: inexstinctus@gmail.com | [aim] proditiones
PLURK:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
axaroffle
RETURNING: N/A
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Ren | Restraint
CHARACTER AGE: 23
SERIES: DRAMAtical Murder
CHRONOLOGY: Just after Aoba's uses Scrap on himself to save Ren, before Aoba and Ren go after Toue.
CLASS: Hero
HOUSING: Random is fine! But he will likely move in with Aoba ASAP.
BACKGROUND: It's not stated when DRAMAtical Murder takes place, but the entire world is definitely more advanced than what we have now. Almost everyone in the world owns an All Mate, which is an man-made android that they use for anything from cleaning the house to surfing the web. A lot of people even use them as pets, since it's much more convenient to have a pet that also is a computer. Not to mention the fact that they can be programmed with speeech. Talking pets? How cool is that? The technology is more than just All Mates, though. Everyone also has a device called a Coil, which is basically like the new Samsung Watch phone. You can make calls from it, surf the web, play games on holographic screens, and even use it as your ID to get into places. This technology is so common place that even the people living in the slums of Midorijima all have them. Midorijimi is the island that the game takes place on predominantly, Midorijima was once a beautiful game, long before the game started. That was all before Toue moved in an bought up most of the island to build a tourist resort called Platinum Jail. Pretty awful name for a tourist resort, but it's actually pretty close to the truth considering the kind of shit Toue is subjecting the inhabitants to subliminally. He wanted the whole island, but the Old District gave him the finger and stuck to their guns. Because of this, the Old District doesn't have many luxuries and can be a dangerous place to live due to being overrun by a ridiculous amount of gangs called Ribsteez teams and to a lesser extent Rhyme teams. Now that we've got the scene, let's move onto Ren.
Ren was originally a part of Aoba's consciousness, created to bring balance to the existences in Aoba's mind (himself, Aoba, and the other Aoba that desires destruction). These personalities are called Restraint (Ren), Reason (Aoba), and Desire (Sly Blue/the other Aoba). His voice had been with Aoba for as long as he could remember (likely when he developed the ability to speak) along with the voice of Desire. He remained a part of Aoba's consciousness for a long time, arguing with and restraining Desire from tainting Aoba's reason.
As Aoba grew up, he began playing Rhyme. Rhyme is a game played on a virtual field that is altered and controlled by the mind. He would unknowingly use the ability Scrap to locate a person's weakness and target it to win. Ren was there to make sure he didn't go too far with that power. As time moved forward and Aoba abused Scrap, the other entity in Aoba slowly tipped the balance, and Ren's voice would no longer reach Aoba to regain the balance. Because he existed only as a part of his consciousness, he couldn't influence Aoba with anything but his voice. But when he was unable to influence him any longer, Ren transferred his consciousness into a Pomeranian All Mate that Aoba finds discarded on the street. This was so that he could influence him physically, and become a voice that was not so easily ignored. This was when he ceased being Restraint and became Ren, though he still worked toward the same goal.
However, Aoba actually begins shattering peoples' mind after Rhyme games with the power of Scrap, and Ren is unable to prevent it for whatever reason. At this time, Virus and Trip, the leaders of the Rhyme group Morphine, took notice of Aoba. They erased Aoba and Ren's memories of that time when they played Rhyme. This was to prevent Toue from finding Aoba due to Scrap, because they were interested in him instead.
Aoba begins to have his headaches as he rejects and forgets the other entity, Desire, inside of him, and Ren forgets his duty in being the balance between Aoba and Desire. Because of Virus and Trip, he has no memory of ever being a part of Aoba's consciousness and loses his sense of duty as Restraint. Instead now he has a sense of duty as an All Mate to check Aoba's vitals and be useful to him.
Towards the beginning of the game, which is years after Aoba has had his memories erased, Aoba is dragged into a Drive-By Rhyme fight by a guy named Noiz, which is a forced Rhyme fight without the presence of rules or limiters. Because of this, damage limiters can be removed, and any damage a person or All Mate takes in the fight can transfer to their actual body. During this battle, it seems pretty hopeless for Aoba and Ren. In fact, Ren's health reaches zero in the fight, but for some reason or another he recovers immediately. At this point, Aoba seems to have changed, and immediately begins giving Ren instructions to attack (things he had previously not known how to do due to the memory erasure). This is the surfacing of Desire, the entity he rejected and forgot.
A lot of things happen, Aoba's grandmother is kidnapped by Mizuki, the leader of the Rhyme group Dry Juice and also one of Aoba's friends. In trying to save his grandmother, Aoba unwittingly uses Scrap on Mizuki and shatters his mind entirely. And here's where things start changing a little from the common route, since Ren will be from the "True Path" of the game (the path you open once you've completed all other alternate paths to the game). At this point Aoba is pulled into yet another Drive-By Rhyme match, and this time his opponent is Toue, the creator of Platinum Jail, the tourist hot spot that looms gaudily over the Old Resident District. Residents of Old District aren't exactly fans of Toue, and Aoba is no different in that respect. Toue pretty much mops the floor with Aoba in this Rhyme match. Aoba doesn't even put a dent into his All Mate before he's defeated. When Aoba awakes, they return to Aoba's house and Tae (Aoba's grandmother), proceeds to tell Aoba about his ability Scrap, and what it's used for. After this huge info dump, Aoba decides to go after Toue because he's attempting to use methods similar to Scrap to manipulate people on Midorijima.
Unable to sleep that night, Aoba speaks to Ren about everything that's troubling him. Ren attempts to reassure him, with minimal effectiveness. Eventually, Aoba falls asleep, and when he awakes his door is pretty much being beaten down by the police who have labeled him a terrorist (likely due to Morphine members reporting back to Toue about Aoba). Aoba and company escape the house just in time before they're captured. Everyone splits up and Aoba runs into yet another Drive-By Rhyme match because his luck is seriously godawful. The bad part about this Rhyme match is that Ren is infected by a worm.
At first, Ren doesn't appear to have any sort of side effects, and Aoba can't find anything wrong with him when he runs diagnostics. However, this "worm" that he's contracted actually works in sync with a bug that all All Mates are built with. The bug begins to force Ren into experiencing emotions. And a once patient and calm Ren turns volatile and rebellious, experiencing jealousy and inferiority. It's during this time that Ren's feelings start to look a lot like something not so platonic for Aoba. He seems almost possessive of him, while at the same time trying to push him away. This is another manipulative action of Toue's doing, since when in a Rhyme game, the consciousness of a player and their All Mate is connected. When the All Mate turns on their owner, it pretty much fucks their mind over. It's all a way for him to control a person mentally. Yeah, Toue is kind of a dick.
Ren runs from Aoba on multiple occasions when Aoba expresses concern over him, because he's struggling with the fact that he's a disposable machine that Aoba could replace at any time. Something he doesn't want to happen since he's... kind of in love with him. Yep. His dog/part of his consciousness is in love with Aoba. Pretty weird, right? No one said this game was normal by any means.
Aoba and Ren finally infiltrate the Oval Tower, which is the mainframe for Platinum Jail and also where Toue's chilling out. Aoba notices more and more that Ren seems to be acting really weird, and there's a whole crystal/pixelation thing going on with his eye. Ren insists that he doesn't want to be a burden to Aoba, and tries to get him to stop worrying over him, because he thinks he's "trivial" to Aoba. Ren runs away again from Aoba because of this conversation, and he's forced to chase him through a party while being tailed by security. One of the guards kicks Ren, and Aoba's other personality comes to the rescue. And by rescue I mean he proceeds to shatter everyone's minds in the room. When Aoba returns to his senses, he inspects Ren only to find that he won't start up.
Turns out Ren regained his memories because of the worm he contracted from the Drive-By working in tandem with the bug his All Mate form was programmed with. Because of these memories, he transferred his consciousness back into Aoba's mind and hid himself there because he's feeling insecure in regards to Aoba. This is largely due to the worm causing him to experience foreign emotions, and also the realization of his feelings for Aoba because of all that. It's basically one trainwreck-y domino effect into angst central. But for Aoba, all he can think is that Ren can't boot back up, since he doesn't know that Ren is a part of him yet. Aoba continues on through Oval Tower, breaks a few more minds, and then gets an info dump from Virus and Trip on all the memories they erased. Aoba's ragtag band consisting of Koujaku, Noiz, Clear, and Mink bust in to save the day. Aoba passes out and when he reawakens he's been relocated into a storage room by his saviors.
Ren boots back up, but his personality is completely violent. He initiates a Rhyme match with Aoba, who is confused at the lack of Ren's 'Avatar' form. Ren's Avatar, which is usually in the form of a tattooed human, is now replaced by Ren's All Mate form. Ren attacks Aoba, and Aoba starts to see Ren's memories, which look a lot like his memories. He realizes that Ren's always been looking through his eyes because he's been a part of him. Noiz hacks into the Rhyme field, bringing along the group and also a bunch of guards and their All Mates because that's totally a good idea!
Anyway, with the assistance of a reflection, Aoba preforms Scrap on himself to enter his own mind to find Ren. Ren appears in human form, fading in and out and looking pixelated, because of the bug. He attacks Aoba again, and Aoba attempts to reason with him. When he does so, Ren rejects him, and yes-no statements about Ren appear in front of him that Aoba must answer correctly. When he does, Ren's rejection shatters, and they find themselves on the beach. Ren explains why he put himself into the All Mate and they have a heart to heart that ends on a good note of them hugging and Aoba validating Ren's existence as something outside of himself. They return to the Rhyme field and finish up business there. Toue contacts Aoba to come alone to the top of Oval Tower, but Ren is coming in from before that encounter.
PERSONALITY: Ren is shown to be patient and logical. It's mentioned that is likely the sort of personality he was 'programmed' with, like Beni is programmed with an impatient, hot-headed personality. For Ren, who was not originally an All Mate, this is not actually the case. These traits of his were a part of the consciousness he had in Aoba that would help keep his mind at balance between the entities inside of Aoba. Throughout Aoba's life up until he began to forget the voice of reason in him (Ren), Ren would speak to him and take care of/influence him with reason.
When Aoba appears to no longer be able to hear his voice and the balance is tipped, Ren is shown to feel despair over being unable to perform the duty for which he was created. To that end, he shows the determination of not giving up and simply letting Aoba go out of control by transferring his consciousness into an All Mate so that he could better influence him physically, so that he would have a voice that Aoba could not ignore.
Ren is frequently shown to worry for Aoba's well-being, and while it's assumed that it's also part of his programming, it is remnants of a duty that he forgot when their memories were erased. He has a strong desire to protect Aoba, no matter what that entails. Though he exists in an All Mate, and can't do much in that form to protect of him, he monitors his well-being often to ensure he's alright. He's even shown to worry when Aoba over-thinks too much, because he doesn't want Aoba troubled, which is likely also a remnant of his duty to keep Aoba's mind balanced.
But that's not all there is to this little guy. A lot of his emotions are stunted due to having forgotten the truth of himself and assuming that he is only an All Mate. But once the bug is introduced into Ren, he begins experiencing "emotional outbursts" and remembers his past. Because Ren was never a machine to begin with, these emotions aren't actually entirely strange. In All Mates, they are sort of malfunctions, but for Ren it's simply coming back to his own existence. But here's where it gets tricky.
Are those emotions brought on by the worm, or are they actually Ren's emotions? In Ren's case, they are actually his. While he should only have a duty to protect Aoba's mind, because he's been separated from him so entirely and for so long, Ren's basically become a person of his own. The emotions he experiences are real, and they conflict with his duty to protect Aoba's mind. Ren is fiercely devoted to Aoba, even possessive of him. He wants to be the one that protects Aoba, the one that stands by his side forever. But he knows that's not his place, and it's a constant struggle for him once he's remembered his past.
Because of how important Aoba is to Ren, Ren is terrified of losing him. Though he originally assumed the fear of being replaced was actually the feelings of the All Mate, he realized the very thought of Aoba not needing him was his own fear. He wants to always be useful to Aoba, so that Aoba will never have a reason to discard him. Ren is incredibly insecure when it comes to Aoba, despite Aoba always taking care of him for so long. But when he's bugged and problematic, he thinks there's nothing that Aoba can do but dispose of him because he can't benefit from him. Ren has a hard time believing Aoba when he tells him otherwise, because his fears are so deeply rooted.
Ren's a pretty serious guy/puppy/consciousness/what-have-you. This is shown several times when Ren either attempts to make a joke and fail at it, or fails to understand laughter. He lacks a sense of humor, big time. When Aoba laughs because Ren is unknowingly tickling him, Ren immediately thinks he's done something wrong. Insecurity is a big thing for Ren, despite the fact that he can be logical in so many other circumstances. While he can direct Aoba on the right advice, he doesn't seem to be able to do that same for himself. His own self-hatred makes him a bit of a hypocrite. But that's only human, right?
POWER: As an All Mate, Ren doesn't have any sort of powers, just computer, phone, and GPS capabilities. However, when Aoba plays Rhyme, Ren's "Avatar" or Rhyme form has some pretty neat powers. The powers are called Sets. The first Set is Glory, which transforms Ren's arms into arm blades that he can use to attack with. His second set is Jubilation, which transforms Ren's arms into a canon. His only other Set is defense which is pretty self explanatory and not really a power.
I'd like for him to have the ability to change back into his All Mate form, but have him enter the game in his Rhyme form, and I'd like for him to be able to keep his Sets if that's possible!
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE: musebox sample!
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
Ren wasn't sure how much of a "hero" he was, or why this place considered him one. Aside from protecting Aoba in Rhyme, which had been part of his duty, he'd done nothing meaningful to warrant the title. He'd even failed to help Aoba before, when Desire had tilted the balance between them in the past. To have failed so many times and then have a place recruit him as a hero still had him confused and grasping. But more so than any of that was the fact that they had provided him with a human body. One that required food and sleep and a kind of maintenance he wasn't used to. Simple things that people went through the motions with every day had Ren stumped. Simply brushing his teeth for the first time required reading how-to instructions on the internet, reading how to tie shoe laces, even how to properly use the bathroom after his first embarrassing accident. Everything was different in a human body, and for a being that had spent much of his existence in the body of a robotic dog, Ren simply didn't have the natural habits that humans developed from early childhood onward.
But Ren learned and adapted as quickly as he could to not inconvenience Aoba or those around him. But the things he couldn't adapt were his own habits, the ones he had grown up with as a dog series All Mate. He still sniffed new things he was curious about, still tried to pull up the holographic screens to check his processors and emails, and he had to consciously prevent himself from walking around with his tongue sticking out of his mouth all the time (he wasn't having much success there yet). Going out by himself was strange and even a little anxiety-inducing. He was sure people were looking at him strangely and that it was obvious he was out of place in this body. However, ever mindful of not being a nuisance, Ren couldn't feel comfortable constantly asking Aoba to go everywhere with him, and as long as he was here he needed to take care of himself instead of relying on someone else as he'd always done as an All Mate.
There was always the option of transforming back into his All Mate form, but... Ren felt conflicted over doing it, feeling as though he would be more of nuisance in that form. The likelihood of finding All Mate parts if his body malfunctioned were low in a place that didn't seem to have All Mates at all. But everything was more familiar as a dog to him. He'd take up less space, he wouldn't need to eat food and deplete the supplies in the house, and he wouldn't be so awkward with his mannerisms. He'd ended up settling for a mixture of both, spending his time sleeping curled up in Pomeranian form and occasionally riding around in Aoba's bag again. It felt familiar and comforting to him in a place where everything was different than what he knew. As long as he didn't strain his robotic body beyond its limits and used it sparingly, then surely he could take care of it well enough that Aoba wouldn't need to try to fix him.
FINAL NOTES:
NAME: Jenny
AGE: 24
JOURNAL:
2wagIM / EMAIL: inexstinctus@gmail.com | [aim] proditiones
PLURK:
RETURNING: N/A
〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Ren | Restraint
CHARACTER AGE: 23
SERIES: DRAMAtical Murder
CHRONOLOGY: Just after Aoba's uses Scrap on himself to save Ren, before Aoba and Ren go after Toue.
CLASS: Hero
HOUSING: Random is fine! But he will likely move in with Aoba ASAP.
BACKGROUND: It's not stated when DRAMAtical Murder takes place, but the entire world is definitely more advanced than what we have now. Almost everyone in the world owns an All Mate, which is an man-made android that they use for anything from cleaning the house to surfing the web. A lot of people even use them as pets, since it's much more convenient to have a pet that also is a computer. Not to mention the fact that they can be programmed with speeech. Talking pets? How cool is that? The technology is more than just All Mates, though. Everyone also has a device called a Coil, which is basically like the new Samsung Watch phone. You can make calls from it, surf the web, play games on holographic screens, and even use it as your ID to get into places. This technology is so common place that even the people living in the slums of Midorijima all have them. Midorijimi is the island that the game takes place on predominantly, Midorijima was once a beautiful game, long before the game started. That was all before Toue moved in an bought up most of the island to build a tourist resort called Platinum Jail. Pretty awful name for a tourist resort, but it's actually pretty close to the truth considering the kind of shit Toue is subjecting the inhabitants to subliminally. He wanted the whole island, but the Old District gave him the finger and stuck to their guns. Because of this, the Old District doesn't have many luxuries and can be a dangerous place to live due to being overrun by a ridiculous amount of gangs called Ribsteez teams and to a lesser extent Rhyme teams. Now that we've got the scene, let's move onto Ren.
Ren was originally a part of Aoba's consciousness, created to bring balance to the existences in Aoba's mind (himself, Aoba, and the other Aoba that desires destruction). These personalities are called Restraint (Ren), Reason (Aoba), and Desire (Sly Blue/the other Aoba). His voice had been with Aoba for as long as he could remember (likely when he developed the ability to speak) along with the voice of Desire. He remained a part of Aoba's consciousness for a long time, arguing with and restraining Desire from tainting Aoba's reason.
As Aoba grew up, he began playing Rhyme. Rhyme is a game played on a virtual field that is altered and controlled by the mind. He would unknowingly use the ability Scrap to locate a person's weakness and target it to win. Ren was there to make sure he didn't go too far with that power. As time moved forward and Aoba abused Scrap, the other entity in Aoba slowly tipped the balance, and Ren's voice would no longer reach Aoba to regain the balance. Because he existed only as a part of his consciousness, he couldn't influence Aoba with anything but his voice. But when he was unable to influence him any longer, Ren transferred his consciousness into a Pomeranian All Mate that Aoba finds discarded on the street. This was so that he could influence him physically, and become a voice that was not so easily ignored. This was when he ceased being Restraint and became Ren, though he still worked toward the same goal.
However, Aoba actually begins shattering peoples' mind after Rhyme games with the power of Scrap, and Ren is unable to prevent it for whatever reason. At this time, Virus and Trip, the leaders of the Rhyme group Morphine, took notice of Aoba. They erased Aoba and Ren's memories of that time when they played Rhyme. This was to prevent Toue from finding Aoba due to Scrap, because they were interested in him instead.
Aoba begins to have his headaches as he rejects and forgets the other entity, Desire, inside of him, and Ren forgets his duty in being the balance between Aoba and Desire. Because of Virus and Trip, he has no memory of ever being a part of Aoba's consciousness and loses his sense of duty as Restraint. Instead now he has a sense of duty as an All Mate to check Aoba's vitals and be useful to him.
Towards the beginning of the game, which is years after Aoba has had his memories erased, Aoba is dragged into a Drive-By Rhyme fight by a guy named Noiz, which is a forced Rhyme fight without the presence of rules or limiters. Because of this, damage limiters can be removed, and any damage a person or All Mate takes in the fight can transfer to their actual body. During this battle, it seems pretty hopeless for Aoba and Ren. In fact, Ren's health reaches zero in the fight, but for some reason or another he recovers immediately. At this point, Aoba seems to have changed, and immediately begins giving Ren instructions to attack (things he had previously not known how to do due to the memory erasure). This is the surfacing of Desire, the entity he rejected and forgot.
A lot of things happen, Aoba's grandmother is kidnapped by Mizuki, the leader of the Rhyme group Dry Juice and also one of Aoba's friends. In trying to save his grandmother, Aoba unwittingly uses Scrap on Mizuki and shatters his mind entirely. And here's where things start changing a little from the common route, since Ren will be from the "True Path" of the game (the path you open once you've completed all other alternate paths to the game). At this point Aoba is pulled into yet another Drive-By Rhyme match, and this time his opponent is Toue, the creator of Platinum Jail, the tourist hot spot that looms gaudily over the Old Resident District. Residents of Old District aren't exactly fans of Toue, and Aoba is no different in that respect. Toue pretty much mops the floor with Aoba in this Rhyme match. Aoba doesn't even put a dent into his All Mate before he's defeated. When Aoba awakes, they return to Aoba's house and Tae (Aoba's grandmother), proceeds to tell Aoba about his ability Scrap, and what it's used for. After this huge info dump, Aoba decides to go after Toue because he's attempting to use methods similar to Scrap to manipulate people on Midorijima.
Unable to sleep that night, Aoba speaks to Ren about everything that's troubling him. Ren attempts to reassure him, with minimal effectiveness. Eventually, Aoba falls asleep, and when he awakes his door is pretty much being beaten down by the police who have labeled him a terrorist (likely due to Morphine members reporting back to Toue about Aoba). Aoba and company escape the house just in time before they're captured. Everyone splits up and Aoba runs into yet another Drive-By Rhyme match because his luck is seriously godawful. The bad part about this Rhyme match is that Ren is infected by a worm.
At first, Ren doesn't appear to have any sort of side effects, and Aoba can't find anything wrong with him when he runs diagnostics. However, this "worm" that he's contracted actually works in sync with a bug that all All Mates are built with. The bug begins to force Ren into experiencing emotions. And a once patient and calm Ren turns volatile and rebellious, experiencing jealousy and inferiority. It's during this time that Ren's feelings start to look a lot like something not so platonic for Aoba. He seems almost possessive of him, while at the same time trying to push him away. This is another manipulative action of Toue's doing, since when in a Rhyme game, the consciousness of a player and their All Mate is connected. When the All Mate turns on their owner, it pretty much fucks their mind over. It's all a way for him to control a person mentally. Yeah, Toue is kind of a dick.
Ren runs from Aoba on multiple occasions when Aoba expresses concern over him, because he's struggling with the fact that he's a disposable machine that Aoba could replace at any time. Something he doesn't want to happen since he's... kind of in love with him. Yep. His dog/part of his consciousness is in love with Aoba. Pretty weird, right? No one said this game was normal by any means.
Aoba and Ren finally infiltrate the Oval Tower, which is the mainframe for Platinum Jail and also where Toue's chilling out. Aoba notices more and more that Ren seems to be acting really weird, and there's a whole crystal/pixelation thing going on with his eye. Ren insists that he doesn't want to be a burden to Aoba, and tries to get him to stop worrying over him, because he thinks he's "trivial" to Aoba. Ren runs away again from Aoba because of this conversation, and he's forced to chase him through a party while being tailed by security. One of the guards kicks Ren, and Aoba's other personality comes to the rescue. And by rescue I mean he proceeds to shatter everyone's minds in the room. When Aoba returns to his senses, he inspects Ren only to find that he won't start up.
Turns out Ren regained his memories because of the worm he contracted from the Drive-By working in tandem with the bug his All Mate form was programmed with. Because of these memories, he transferred his consciousness back into Aoba's mind and hid himself there because he's feeling insecure in regards to Aoba. This is largely due to the worm causing him to experience foreign emotions, and also the realization of his feelings for Aoba because of all that. It's basically one trainwreck-y domino effect into angst central. But for Aoba, all he can think is that Ren can't boot back up, since he doesn't know that Ren is a part of him yet. Aoba continues on through Oval Tower, breaks a few more minds, and then gets an info dump from Virus and Trip on all the memories they erased. Aoba's ragtag band consisting of Koujaku, Noiz, Clear, and Mink bust in to save the day. Aoba passes out and when he reawakens he's been relocated into a storage room by his saviors.
Ren boots back up, but his personality is completely violent. He initiates a Rhyme match with Aoba, who is confused at the lack of Ren's 'Avatar' form. Ren's Avatar, which is usually in the form of a tattooed human, is now replaced by Ren's All Mate form. Ren attacks Aoba, and Aoba starts to see Ren's memories, which look a lot like his memories. He realizes that Ren's always been looking through his eyes because he's been a part of him. Noiz hacks into the Rhyme field, bringing along the group and also a bunch of guards and their All Mates because that's totally a good idea!
Anyway, with the assistance of a reflection, Aoba preforms Scrap on himself to enter his own mind to find Ren. Ren appears in human form, fading in and out and looking pixelated, because of the bug. He attacks Aoba again, and Aoba attempts to reason with him. When he does so, Ren rejects him, and yes-no statements about Ren appear in front of him that Aoba must answer correctly. When he does, Ren's rejection shatters, and they find themselves on the beach. Ren explains why he put himself into the All Mate and they have a heart to heart that ends on a good note of them hugging and Aoba validating Ren's existence as something outside of himself. They return to the Rhyme field and finish up business there. Toue contacts Aoba to come alone to the top of Oval Tower, but Ren is coming in from before that encounter.
PERSONALITY: Ren is shown to be patient and logical. It's mentioned that is likely the sort of personality he was 'programmed' with, like Beni is programmed with an impatient, hot-headed personality. For Ren, who was not originally an All Mate, this is not actually the case. These traits of his were a part of the consciousness he had in Aoba that would help keep his mind at balance between the entities inside of Aoba. Throughout Aoba's life up until he began to forget the voice of reason in him (Ren), Ren would speak to him and take care of/influence him with reason.
When Aoba appears to no longer be able to hear his voice and the balance is tipped, Ren is shown to feel despair over being unable to perform the duty for which he was created. To that end, he shows the determination of not giving up and simply letting Aoba go out of control by transferring his consciousness into an All Mate so that he could better influence him physically, so that he would have a voice that Aoba could not ignore.
Ren is frequently shown to worry for Aoba's well-being, and while it's assumed that it's also part of his programming, it is remnants of a duty that he forgot when their memories were erased. He has a strong desire to protect Aoba, no matter what that entails. Though he exists in an All Mate, and can't do much in that form to protect of him, he monitors his well-being often to ensure he's alright. He's even shown to worry when Aoba over-thinks too much, because he doesn't want Aoba troubled, which is likely also a remnant of his duty to keep Aoba's mind balanced.
But that's not all there is to this little guy. A lot of his emotions are stunted due to having forgotten the truth of himself and assuming that he is only an All Mate. But once the bug is introduced into Ren, he begins experiencing "emotional outbursts" and remembers his past. Because Ren was never a machine to begin with, these emotions aren't actually entirely strange. In All Mates, they are sort of malfunctions, but for Ren it's simply coming back to his own existence. But here's where it gets tricky.
Are those emotions brought on by the worm, or are they actually Ren's emotions? In Ren's case, they are actually his. While he should only have a duty to protect Aoba's mind, because he's been separated from him so entirely and for so long, Ren's basically become a person of his own. The emotions he experiences are real, and they conflict with his duty to protect Aoba's mind. Ren is fiercely devoted to Aoba, even possessive of him. He wants to be the one that protects Aoba, the one that stands by his side forever. But he knows that's not his place, and it's a constant struggle for him once he's remembered his past.
Because of how important Aoba is to Ren, Ren is terrified of losing him. Though he originally assumed the fear of being replaced was actually the feelings of the All Mate, he realized the very thought of Aoba not needing him was his own fear. He wants to always be useful to Aoba, so that Aoba will never have a reason to discard him. Ren is incredibly insecure when it comes to Aoba, despite Aoba always taking care of him for so long. But when he's bugged and problematic, he thinks there's nothing that Aoba can do but dispose of him because he can't benefit from him. Ren has a hard time believing Aoba when he tells him otherwise, because his fears are so deeply rooted.
Ren's a pretty serious guy/puppy/consciousness/what-have-you. This is shown several times when Ren either attempts to make a joke and fail at it, or fails to understand laughter. He lacks a sense of humor, big time. When Aoba laughs because Ren is unknowingly tickling him, Ren immediately thinks he's done something wrong. Insecurity is a big thing for Ren, despite the fact that he can be logical in so many other circumstances. While he can direct Aoba on the right advice, he doesn't seem to be able to do that same for himself. His own self-hatred makes him a bit of a hypocrite. But that's only human, right?
POWER: As an All Mate, Ren doesn't have any sort of powers, just computer, phone, and GPS capabilities. However, when Aoba plays Rhyme, Ren's "Avatar" or Rhyme form has some pretty neat powers. The powers are called Sets. The first Set is Glory, which transforms Ren's arms into arm blades that he can use to attack with. His second set is Jubilation, which transforms Ren's arms into a canon. His only other Set is defense which is pretty self explanatory and not really a power.
I'd like for him to have the ability to change back into his All Mate form, but have him enter the game in his Rhyme form, and I'd like for him to be able to keep his Sets if that's possible!
〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE: musebox sample!
LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:
Ren wasn't sure how much of a "hero" he was, or why this place considered him one. Aside from protecting Aoba in Rhyme, which had been part of his duty, he'd done nothing meaningful to warrant the title. He'd even failed to help Aoba before, when Desire had tilted the balance between them in the past. To have failed so many times and then have a place recruit him as a hero still had him confused and grasping. But more so than any of that was the fact that they had provided him with a human body. One that required food and sleep and a kind of maintenance he wasn't used to. Simple things that people went through the motions with every day had Ren stumped. Simply brushing his teeth for the first time required reading how-to instructions on the internet, reading how to tie shoe laces, even how to properly use the bathroom after his first embarrassing accident. Everything was different in a human body, and for a being that had spent much of his existence in the body of a robotic dog, Ren simply didn't have the natural habits that humans developed from early childhood onward.
But Ren learned and adapted as quickly as he could to not inconvenience Aoba or those around him. But the things he couldn't adapt were his own habits, the ones he had grown up with as a dog series All Mate. He still sniffed new things he was curious about, still tried to pull up the holographic screens to check his processors and emails, and he had to consciously prevent himself from walking around with his tongue sticking out of his mouth all the time (he wasn't having much success there yet). Going out by himself was strange and even a little anxiety-inducing. He was sure people were looking at him strangely and that it was obvious he was out of place in this body. However, ever mindful of not being a nuisance, Ren couldn't feel comfortable constantly asking Aoba to go everywhere with him, and as long as he was here he needed to take care of himself instead of relying on someone else as he'd always done as an All Mate.
There was always the option of transforming back into his All Mate form, but... Ren felt conflicted over doing it, feeling as though he would be more of nuisance in that form. The likelihood of finding All Mate parts if his body malfunctioned were low in a place that didn't seem to have All Mates at all. But everything was more familiar as a dog to him. He'd take up less space, he wouldn't need to eat food and deplete the supplies in the house, and he wouldn't be so awkward with his mannerisms. He'd ended up settling for a mixture of both, spending his time sleeping curled up in Pomeranian form and occasionally riding around in Aoba's bag again. It felt familiar and comforting to him in a place where everything was different than what he knew. As long as he didn't strain his robotic body beyond its limits and used it sparingly, then surely he could take care of it well enough that Aoba wouldn't need to try to fix him.
FINAL NOTES:
revisions
Regarding personalities: It's not explained outright why Aoba's mind splits into three personalities, but it's extremely likely that it's a side effect of Scrap. While a normal person would have restraint, reason, and desire all in one personality, these traits were so strong that they manifested into three different personalities for him and has been that way for him since he was a small child (probably as soon as he formed the ability to speak). Restraint (Ren) was created as a direct result of Desire being too strong for Reason (Aoba) to control. Restraint was created to be a balance between the two so that one did not ever overwhelm the other, like a scale. However, this ends up not really working out incredibly well. As Aoba grows into his teen years, Desire begins to overpower Reason and Restraint's voice can no longer influence him to become balanced. This is around the time when Aoba begins abusing the power of Scrap (though he's not aware of it's existence exactly) during Rhyme, and each time he uses it the the balance is further tipped in Desire's direction and the Scrap becomes more dangerous.
Regarding chronological confusion: I'm going to go ahead and reorganize the history into chronological order to make it easier to read. Let's start off with a handy little timeline! Canon begins about 10 years (give or take) after Aoba and Ren have had their memories erased by Trip and Virus. This happened when he was a teenager, but when the canon begins, Aoba is 23. There are certain things he remembers about his past, like about being a punk ass teenager and doing less than savory things, but all memories of fighting in Rhyme under the moniker Sly Blue have been erased. Ren's memories are likewise affected because of the erasure, and he loses any memory of once being a part of Aoba's consciousness.
To start from the true beginning, let's start with Aoba being born, since this is also Ren's beginning. Twenty-three years ago, Aoba was a test tube baby genetically engineered by Toue's research inside Platinum Jail. Toue's intention was to create a being that had the power to influence a person's thoughts or actions. This is just one of the many different ways that he was doing such experimentation, other ways included the use of mind-altering lights and music that would create a sort of drugged affect. However, experimenting by creating a human life is by far his worst transgression. Aoba was one of a set of twins, the other being Sei. When they were born, they both died. Tae, a researcher for Toue Inc (and later Aoba's adoptive grandmother), quit and took Aoba's body with the intent to bury it to make up for her guilt over experimenting with human life. Before she can bury him though, little Aoba begins to breathe again. Tae abandons him at a church that doubled as an orphanage on Midorijima, hoping that he would have a better life out of Toue's clutches.
From a very young age, Aoba begins hearing voices in his head that are always arguing. These voices are Restraint and Desire. Desire is constantly telling Aoba to pretty much destroy everything, and to not trust anyone, while Restraint is constantly countering these ideas. Their suggestions are often so loud that Aoba can't even hear actual people around him, so he grows up withdrawn from the other children and people in general, often slipping off on his own to sit on the beach and try to ignore the constant arguments in his head. It's here on the beach that Aoba meets Nain and Haruka, who would then adopt him and take them back to Haruka's home. Haruka's mother is Tae, who is shocked and stunned at the fact that Aoba has returned to her, but she adopts him nevertheless. Aoba's home life is much better than what he'd had before, and Restraint and Desire become silent in the presence of Aoba's happiness. This doesn't last forever, though. Nain and Haruka are free spirits, and they can't stay settled in one place for long. They end up leaving Midorijima for good, leaving Tae to look after Aoba as his primary caretaker. Because of this sudden upset to Aoba's happiness, Desire's voice begins to resurface, and so does Restraint's. This time, though, Desire has a lot more influence because Aoba is more susceptible now that he's had family abandon him. He spirals into a self-destructive state as he enters his teen years, doing all sorts of unsavory things. This is also when he finds the discarded All Mate, who he names Ren. He begins doing drugs, staying out all night, running with bad crowds, the whole nine yards.
While doing all of that, he also begins to play Rhyme, and meets Trip and Virus through it. It's during Rhyme that he discovers he has an advantage. For some reason or another, he can pin point an opponent's weakness and crush them. As mentioned before, this is actually the power of Scrap, but he doesn't know that yet. The more he uses this ability, the more Desire takes over and the stronger Scrap becomes, and the less Restraint's voice can be heard. Desperate to save Aoba from Desire's clutches, Restraint uses Rhyme to transfer his consciousness from Aoba's mind into the All Mate. And this is where Restraint officially becomes Ren, and I'll start referring to him as Ren now. It should be mentioned that Aoba is not aware that Ren was originally a part of his consciousness. Now that he is physically there for Aoba, he can influence him with a louder (and deeper) voice. It doesn't help as well as Ren would like it to though, and Aoba continues to use Scrap. This eventually results in a tragic accident after a Rhyme match where Aoba shatters the other players mind. Virus and Trip, who have been watching Aoba's abilities closely, take it upon themselves to wipe Aoba and Ren's memories, so that the incident doesn't draw Toue's attention to Aoba. For a little background here, Virus and Trip work for Toue, but Aoba doesn't find this out until much much later. They want to keep Aoba to themselves though, because they're creeps. But due to this, Ren now has no recollection of what he was before. He now believes that he is just an All Mate, and acts as such for Aoba.
After Aoba and Ren have their memories erased, Aoba decides to get back to the straight and narrow because he's realized that being a little shit has been stressing his grandmother out. But due to this decision of his, he unwittingly ends up suppressing Desire, which results in terrible headaches for him. Ren acts as a standard All Mate for him, monitoring his vitals and assisting him when he needs it, but he is really just an All Mate here, going to the motions that he's programmed with. But Aoba and Ren have a very unique relationship as far as All Mates and owners go. Aoba considers Ren his friend more than he does an All Mate, and while most people switch All Mates when new models come out, Aoba never does. Which means he's had Ren for a long ass time, and unfortunately that means Ren is kind of an obsolete model so it's hard to find parts for maintenance on him. But Ren doesn't have a lot of problems, so it works out. Everything mentioned above happened before canon actually started, and is generally seen through flashbacks or learned through info dumps throughout the game. Next I will discuss things happening after canon actually starts.
We start the canon off with meeting Aoba and subsequently meeting Ren. Some pointless and un-noteworthy stuff happens like meeting some friends and doing some deliveries for Aoba's boss. However, it is on one of these deliveries that Aoba is dragged into a Drive-By Rhyme fight by a guy named Noiz, which is a forced Rhyme fight without the presence of rules or limiters. Because of this, damage limiters can be removed, and any damage a person or All Mate takes in the fight can transfer to their actual body. During this battle, it seems pretty hopeless for Aoba and Ren. In fact, Ren's health reaches zero in the fight, but for some reason or another he recovers immediately. At this point, Aoba seems to have changed, and immediately begins giving Ren instructions to attack (things Aoba had previously not known how to do due to the memory erasure). This is the surfacing of Desire, the entity he rejected and forgot. When the Rhyme fight is over, both Ren and Aoba's memories of what happened in it are fractured. For Ren, it is because he was damaged in the fight, and for Aoba it is because Desire surfaced and he never has memories of those moments.
A lot of things happen, but we'll still to the important stuff. Aoba's grandmother is kidnapped by Mizuki, the leader of the Rhyme group Dry Juice and also one of Aoba's friends. Mizuki has had his mind altered by a Rhyme group called Morphine, which is under Toue's command (no surprise there). He's not normally such a douche. In trying to save his grandmother, Aoba unwittingly uses Scrap on Mizuki and shatters his mind entirely. This is the first instance of Scrap we see where Aoba physically enters a person's mind, and he failed horribly at it.
Now here's where things start changing a little from the common route, since Ren will be from the "True Path" of the game (the path you open once you've completed all other alternate paths in the game, think choose your own adventure style). At this point Aoba is pulled into yet another Drive-By Rhyme match, and this time his opponent is Toue, the creator of Platinum Jail, the tourist hot spot that looms gaudily over the Old Resident District. Residents of Old District aren't exactly fans of Toue, and Aoba is no different in that respect. Toue pretty much mops the floor with Aoba in this Rhyme match. Aoba doesn't even put a dent into his All Mate before he's defeated. When Aoba awakes, they return to Aoba's house and Tae proceeds to tell Aoba about his ability Scrap, and what it's used for. After this huge info dump, Aoba decides to go after Toue because he's attempting to use methods similar to Scrap to manipulate people on Midorijima.
Unable to sleep that night, Aoba speaks to Ren about everything that's troubling him. Ren attempts to reassure him, with minimal effectiveness. Eventually, Aoba falls asleep, and when he awakes his door is pretty much being beaten down by the police who have labeled him a terrorist (likely due to Morphine members reporting back to Toue about Aoba). Aoba and company escape the house just in time before they're captured. Everyone splits up and Aoba runs into yet another Drive-By Rhyme match because his luck is seriously godawful. The bad part about this Rhyme match is that Ren is infected by a worm.
At first, Ren doesn't appear to have any sort of side effects, and Aoba can't find anything wrong with him when he runs diagnostics. However, this "worm" that he's contracted actually works in sync with a bug that all All Mates are built with. The bug begins to force Ren into experiencing emotions. And a once patient and calm Ren turns volatile and rebellious, experiencing jealousy and inferiority. It's during this time that Ren's feelings start to look a lot like something not so platonic for Aoba. He seems almost possessive of him, while at the same time trying to push him away. This is another manipulative action of Toue's doing, since when in a Rhyme game, the consciousness of a player and their All Mate is connected. When the All Mate turns on their owner, it pretty much fucks their mind over. It's all a way for him to control a person mentally. Yeah, Toue is kind of a dick.
Ren runs from Aoba on multiple occasions when Aoba expresses concern over him, because he's struggling with the fact that he's a disposable machine that Aoba could replace at any time. Something he doesn't want to happen since he's... kind of in love with him. Yep. His dog/part of his consciousness is in love with Aoba. Pretty weird, right? No one said this game was normal by any means.
Aoba and Ren finally infiltrate the Oval Tower, which is the mainframe for Platinum Jail and also where Toue's chilling out. Aoba notices more and more that Ren seems to be acting really weird, and there's a whole crystal/pixelation thing going on with his eye that's really unusual. Ren insists that he doesn't want to be a burden to Aoba, and tries to get him to stop worrying over him, because he thinks he's "trivial" to Aoba. Ren runs away again from Aoba because of this conversation, and he's forced to chase him through a party while being tailed by security. One of the guards kicks Ren, and Aoba's other personality comes to the rescue. And by rescue I mean he proceeds to shatter everyone's minds in the room. When Aoba returns to his senses, he inspects Ren only to find that he won't start up.
Turns out Ren regained his memories because of the worm he contracted from the Drive-By working in tandem with the bug his All Mate form was programmed with. Because of these memories, he transferred his consciousness back into Aoba's mind and hid himself there because he's feeling insecure in regards to Aoba. He was hoping that by doing so, Aoba would reject him like he did Desire, and that he would cease to exist. This is largely due to the worm causing him to experience foreign emotions, and also the realization of his feelings for Aoba because of all that. It's basically one trainwreck-y domino effect into angst central. But for Aoba, all he can think is that Ren can't boot back up, since he doesn't know that Ren is a part of him yet. Aoba continues on through Oval Tower, breaks a few more minds, and then gets an info dump from Virus and Trip on all the memories they erased. Aoba's ragtag band consisting of Koujaku, Noiz, Clear, and Mink bust in to save the day. Aoba passes out and when he reawakens he's been relocated into a storage room by his saviors.
Ren boots back up, but his personality is completely violent. He initiates a Rhyme match with Aoba, who is confused at the lack of Ren's 'Avatar' form. Ren's Avatar, which is usually in the form of a tattooed human, is now replaced by Ren's All Mate form. Ren attacks Aoba, and Aoba starts to see Ren's memories, which look a lot like his memories. He realizes that Ren's always been looking through his eyes because he's been a part of him. Noiz hacks into the Rhyme field, bringing along the group and also a bunch of guards and their All Mates because that's totally a good idea!
Anyway, with the assistance of a reflection, Aoba preforms Scrap on himself to enter his own mind to find Ren. Ren appears in human form, fading in and out and looking pixelated, because of the bug. He attacks Aoba again, and Aoba attempts to reason with him. When he does so, Ren rejects him, and yes-no statements about Ren appear in front of him that Aoba must answer correctly. When he does, Ren's rejection shatters, and they find themselves on the beach. Ren explains why he put himself into the All Mate and they have a heart to heart that ends on a good note of them hugging and Aoba validating Ren's existence as something outside of himself. They return to the Rhyme field and finish up business there. Toue contacts Aoba to come alone to the top of Oval Tower, but Ren is coming in from before that encounter.