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Feb. 2nd, 2017
Character
Name: Genji Shimada
Age: 35
Memory Option: 1, deteriorating AU.
Established Status: 4 years.
Canon: Overwatch
Canon Point: post-Dragons short
Citizenship: None. (former Qreshi, assumed dead)
Job: He technically doesn't exist, so I'd say "none". Works for the Resistance in a multitude of capacities. He runs a ramshackle bar called The Sparrow's Nest in Old Town which is actually a Resistance cell meeting point, but the bar is registered under someone else's name.
Abilities:
Minor
He was trained at length in swordplay as a child, and took to it like a fish in water. When he "died" and was brought back to life by hack-mods, his augmented reflexes have made him a deadly opponent on the battlefield. He can scale walls of great heights, dash across short distances at inhuman speeds, and ninja his way into hard-to-reach areas.
His coordination is such that he can deflect bullets out of the air with his short sword/wakizashi.
Given his upbringing, he likely trained with a number of different weapons, but his mainstays are his tachi/dragonblade, his wakizashi, and his arsenal of shuriken. He's not a strength-based brawler; he's the type to dart in, kill off his enemies before they can react, and dart back out (in gaming speak, he's the DPS flanker meant to target squishies). He can hold his own due to his skill with his sword and his speed/agility, but his preference is to follow the ninja way™.
Major
He can summon a spirit dragon after a period of intense concentration. Its existence is tied to his bloodline ("Only a Shimada can control the dragons"); it affords him augmented strength and speed for a short period of time. That said, as discussed with the mods on Hanzo's brainstorming post, in game they'll only be aesthetic projections.
Personality:
Genji's story is the sort of cautionary tale that Yakuza leaders tell their children at night. Live too hard, love too carelessly, and you'll find yourself dead by your own lack of fortitude.
He was a playboy. Dyed his hair lurid green, spent his days sleeping through Hanamura and beating all the high scores in the local arcade. His family, the Shimada clan, represented a curious meeting of the old and the new - though traditional values were emphasized, their business relied on the lack of traditional values in all others. The modern bushido, footnotes scrawled in blood. Genji had little care for his family's dark dealings: as the younger of two sons, he was not subject to the same expectations that his elder brother, Hanzo, faced.
He felt little remorse at the unbalanced state of affairs. Naturally brilliant in swordplay, charismatic, handsome, likable — these were all traits that Genji knew he possessed. And he wielded them all with astonishing skill.
It took his father's death and his brother's subsequent stumbling fall to put him to rights. Hanzo, urged by the clan to blot the stain of Genji's existence, has no choice but to do so.
Overwatch saves Genji. He remains with the group for several years, but Genji himself has changed too severely to revel in the camaraderie of a new family. His brush with death had only been skirted by an Overwatch doctor's brilliance: he emerges as a monster half-man and half-machine, everything that his family's prejudice had taught him to hate. When he leaves Overwatch, he leaves a bitter, half-wrought shell of the bright young man he once was. He wanders without motive for months, eventually finding himself in Nepal; there, a friendly omnic monk named Zenyatta takes him under mentorship.
Genji, stubborn as always, initially does not take well to Zenyatta's teachings. He is too angry and too hurt to think of accepting what he has become. It takes years of patience and friendship for Genji to embrace the ideals of harmony and balance that Zenyatta bestows upon him, but the payoff is obvious: he returns to Overwatch a different man.
The Genji of the present has regained much of the confidence of his youth, tempered now with forbearance and wisdom. He is friendly with many of the Overwatch members, though not overly so; his early days amongst them were likely rife with tension, and it will take time for Genji to reach the place of tranquility to which Zenyatta had sought to guide him. He can freely joke about his appearance if prompted, but he still has a great deal of shame holding him back from self-acceptance. He speaks often of feeling like an outcast, even in the Nepali hills amongst Zenyatta and his omnic brothers.
Even so, his inner turmoil is kept sealed tight within his heart, shared only with Zenyatta. He has calmed, he has gentled, he has forgiven his brother. He laughs easily. He retains his cockiness when thrown into mission after mission. He chuckles when he passes a ramen stall that he'd frequented as a young man, though his changed physiology has made the experience impossible to replicate. He has a sharp tongue when provoked, but even then he remains in the playful shallows of insult.
To expand upon his reconciliation with his brother - Genji approaches after ten years of distance, offering a hand in forgiveness and urging Hanzo to join Overwatch. Genji's demeanor during the fight-cum-conversation is calm and unaffected, warmth surfacing only in his parting remarks. But a visit to Genji's room in Nepal reveals a shrine to their shared childhood: a painting of the Shimada dragons, a lone picture of the brothers in their youth. His ceremonial garb, a fraternal twin to the garment Hanzo owns, stands proudly in the middle of the room. Genji loves his brother deeply despite the ills that have befallen him — the act of forgiving the ultimate betrayal says much about the sort of man that Genji has become.
Forgive, because we only have power over our own hands. Forget, because a sweeter future deserves more contemplation than their bitter past.
All in all, Genji can best be summed up in a few words: cocky, energetic, well-meaning. His training with Zenyatta helped a shadowed young man staunch his fears of stepping into the light.
He also has a really nice ass.
AU History:
Born as the second son of the Shimada family, known as minor nobles, on Qresh. As the younger, he was given more liberties than his elder brother, Hanzo; having a cheery disposition and a dislike of the mundane, this meant that Genji took full advantage of it. His father, full of expectations for his elder son, spoiled Genji rotten, rarely chastising him for his lackadaisical approach to live. He trained with his brother when he wanted to. He didn't train when he didn't. It wasn't unusual for Genji to be missing for days at a time from the estate, lost in the nihilistic throes of the latest party being thrown. The typical rich boy party-loving lush, who dyed his hair a different color every week and dated a different pretty face every night.
He had very little interest in the Shimada family business - arms production for the Company - that Hanzo was to inherit. For the most part, he found it unstimulating: with money, power, and prestige on his side, he had no motivation to work for any of the three.
He and his brother frequently spent their summers on Shimada-owned land on Leith, where the production mills ran. Distribution was performed on Qresh, but much of the production and assembly was done on cheaper land with cheaper labor - hence, Leith. As such, Genji spent a good deal of his childhood on Leith, as well.
It's not until his early twenties that Genji's world began to rumble under his feet. After taking an unplanned trip to Leith - to spend a few weeks lazing about with some old friends, nothing more - he stumbles upon a late-night arms trade between some of his father's men - his father himself! - and a scattering of shifty-eyed men. Curiosity piqued, Genji conducts his own investigation, eventually discovering his family's black-market ties to the Resistance. The Company wasn't the only organization benefitting from the Shimada's top-of-the-line arms production.
It's not that Genji grows a sense of responsibility overnight; idly curiosity has him digging further in an attempt to understand the Resistance beyond the brief overview he'd once received from his tutors. He begins to take long trips off-planet, joining rallies, making connections. Genji, born into the lap of luxury, had never seen suffering of the like the Resistance fought so hard to abate.
He begins to wonder about his place in the universe. It starts in small measure: a meeting here, a meeting there. The spiral begins not too long after; soon enough, he's full to brimming with the desire to join the Resistance. Rebellion, resistance, pride — it struck a chord within him never before touched.
Given his Qreshi background, however, the Resistance is slow to trust him. As a training exercise, he's tasked with smoothing out the logistical issues involved in a planned attack on one of Leith's most historically relevant political buildings. Genji, eager to prove himself, throws himself into the task.
On the day of the attack, Genji leaves the Shimada compound, ready to take the last step into the new existence he'd unearthed. Unbeknownst to him, however, his father had cottoned on to his activities weeks before. Joined by Hanzo, they follow Genji to the site of the attack, intent on stopping him before Genji sinks into the Resistance underworld. However, the Resistance group working with Genji - half-expecting his betrayal - set off the explosions earlier than planned. Both Genji and his father are caught in the explosion.
His father dies. Genji does not, only due to Resistance intervention.
He spends delirious months on a black-market doctor's table, losing much of his organic body to cybernetic fittings. He'd proven his loyalty to the cause in the last moments of his former life, and now - presumed dead, without valid identification, fitted with cybernetic parts he could never afford without his family's financial backing - he belonged to the Resistance.
It's been years since he joined. Despite the unhappy circumstances of his entry, he's never once looked back.
CRAU: No.
Original History: GENJI SHIMADA at the Overwatch Wikia.
Inventory:
A set of 24 shuriken
His dragonblade
His wakizashi
Images of all of the above.
This photograph
His armor
Samples:
Two threads on the TDM. Please let me know if you need any other samples, I can whip another one up if those haven't gotten long enough yet.
Miscellaneous Notes:
I'm aware that Genji's existence is a bit unconventional in this setting, given the rarity of hack-mods. That said, since he's an undocumented Resistance member who (generally) keeps his head down, I'm assuming that won't be too much of an issue? I've broken down his physical state HERE if you need further detail.
Thanks, mods!
