Yamazaki Shiori

[Zelphas]

Yamazaki Shiori and Bacomon

 

Mechanics

Yamazaki Shiori (PL 5, 75 PP)

 

Abilities: 20 pts

Str: -1

Sta: 2

Agi: 0

Dex: 0

Fight: 0

Awe: 5

Int: 5

Pre: -1

 

Defenses: 10 pts

Dodge: 5

Parry: 5

Toughness: 2

Fortitude: 2

Will: 4

 

Skills: 34 pts

Acrobatics: 0 (+0)

Athletics: 0 (-1)

Close Combat: 0 (+0)

Deception: 0 (-1)

Expertise (Anime): 6 (+11)

Expertise (Digimon): 10 (+15)

Expertise (Programming): 6 (+11)

Insight: 0 (+5)

Intimidation: 0 (-1)

Investigation: 10 (+15)

Perception: 10 (+15)

Persuasion: 0 (-1)

Ranged Combat: 0 (+0)

Sleight of Hand: 0 (+0)

Stealth: 10 (+10)

Technology: 10 (+15)

Treatment: 0 (+0)

Vehicles: 0 (+0)

 

Advantages: 8 pts

Eidetic Memory

Hide in Plain Sight

Languages 2 (English, Chinese (Mandarin))

Luck 3

Well-Informed

 

Powers: 3 pts

Think Too Fast: Quickness 4 (Limited to Mental, Innate). {3 PP}

 

Abi: 20 + Def: 10 + Skil: 31 + Adv: 8 + Pow: 3 = 72/75 pts.

Complications

The Third Try (Motivation: Acceptance): Shiori is well on her way to swearing off any chance of human connection, convinced that her presence will only annoy and disgust others. Choosing to download Digimon GO! and deliberately attempt to play a game that requires her to be around others is what she consciously thinks of as her “last try” at mingling with normal people.

Social Unaware (Quirk): One of the biggest contributing factors behind Shiori’s isolation is her shattering lack of awareness for social situations. She is bad at holding conversations, may as well be blind to social cues, and can easily come across as rude when she’s trying to be considerate. Shiori is aware that she doesn’t know how to act socially, but doesn’t currently know how to fix it, which is a source of constant frustration.

The Squirrel (Reputation): Shiori’s brain works very quickly, and she tends to talk as fast as her brain allows her to when she’s excited. Add this to a short stature and a high-pitched voice that only gets higher the faster she talks, and Shiori’s been known as “Ururisu”, Loud/Annoying Squirrel, since elementary school. Somehow, the name made it to Tokyo—or perhaps her bullies made up the same name; regardless, she’s known to be annoying and best avoided by several people around her age in the area.

My Beloved Smother (Relationship): Shiori has a typical relationship with her mother. That is, Yamazaki Aoi is desperately worried about Shiori and her NEET tendencies, cannot understand her daughter’s fascination with technology and “kids shows”, and is convinced that what Shiori really needs is to meet someone nice, get married, and give her grandchildren. Fortunately for Shiori, her mother lives in Hokkaido, so she can’t visit every day or even every week—though she still finds a way to “pop in” far more often than the distance suggests.

Backstory

Yamazaki Shiori’s story is, perhaps unfortunately for her, not terribly unique. Born to an overbearing mother and a father who spent as much time as possible on business trips, Shiori quickly found that video games, computers, and VR (with very limited AR) was much more comforting than trying to interact with her peers. Still, pushed forward by her mother, Shiori decided to try. She’s tried three times now, and failed twice.

Shiori’s first failure occurred when she started Junior High School. Having been isolated and abandoned by her classmates in elementary school, Shiori began Junior High School determined to make a difference. She let her mother pick out clothing styles and give her ideas of what to talk about, looked up what she could about the best advice for her situation, and started the school year determined to make at least one friend… only to meet the same people she went to elementary school with, who already had her labeled and boxed and who weren’t interested in her attempts to change. It took her less than a month to give up her attempt to make friends as a lost cause.

After a year in isolation in middle school, Shiori came up with a new plan. These people knew her—and worse, her mother was always hanging over her head, ready to barge in at any moment. She needed a new, completely fresh start. She was already smart, especially when it came to computers; if she got her grades high enough, she could aim for a high school in Tokyo, away from everyone she knew here, away from her mother. She got to work, and in her last two years of middle school she was an excellent student (though a bout of bullying from the top of the class and her friends taught her not to aim for the top spot). She reached her goal; acceptance to a real Tokyo high school, Takigawa High! Her mother fought against the idea of Shiori moving, but eventually gave in, and Shiori went out to try again.

Within a week, she knew she’d failed for the second time. Her classmates in Tokyo were new to her, but they still seemed to know somehow that she was supposed to be a friendless outcast, and they treated her the same way everyone else had. Shiori gave up quickly. She made it to school and did her work well enough, remained a permanent member of the “Go-Home Club”, and tried not to inflict her company on anyone if she could help it. When her mother nagged her to get a part-time job in order to “meet new people”, she started picking up coding and programming jobs off of the internet, making just enough to scrape by and convince her mother that she was being, if not social, at least productive.

March 31, 2049 is the day Shiori graduates from high school, and she has no idea what she’s supposed to do next. The revival of Digimon GO! is something that she’s at least interested in, and it seems like others are interested in it too. Maybe, if she downloads the game, if she plays it out in public, if she meets other people who play it… maybe something will happen. She’s already failed twice. One more try, just before high school is over, shouldn’t be too hard, right?

Physical Description & Personality

Shiori is roughly 147 centimeters (4’10”) tall, and does not exercise as often as she should, though her mother has already threatened to upend her entire life and move in if she lets her “figure” slip too much. Her complexion is a few shades too pale to look healthy, and her hair is black and long—and often snarled, because brushing it is almost as much of a hassle as cutting it would be. Her eyes are dark brown and often have shadows under them from late nights in front of bright screens. She prefers comfortable clothes over fashion, and baggy clothes over form-fitting.

Despite her isolation, Shiori actually likes people; she is simply, ludicrously bad at engaging with most normal people in a positive, beneficial way. Because of this, she tends to be withdrawn to the point of vanishing in social situations, simply enjoying the fact that people seem to enjoy each others’ company without her “ruining” it. When something she enjoys appears, however, she can be vocal and energetic, even overwhelming… which is part of the problem for her.

Bacomon Mechanics

Bacomon (PL 8, 120 PP)

Main Element: Neutral

 

Abilities: 38 pts

Str: 3

Sta: 6

Agi: 2

Dex: 2

Fight: 2

Awe: 5

Int: 0

Pre: -1

 

Defenses: 13 pts

Dodge: 6

Parry: 6

Toughness: 10

Fortitude: 6

Will: 10

 

Skills: 17 pts

Acrobatics: 0 (+2)

Athletics: 0 (+3)

Close Combat: 4 (+6)

Deception: 0 (-1)

Expertise: 0 (+0)

Insight: 13 (+18)

Intimidation: 0 (-1)

Investigation: 0 (+0)

Perception: 13 (+18)

Persuasion: 0 (-1)

Ranged Combat: 8 (+10)

Sleight of Hand: 0 (+2)

Stealth: 4 (+6)

Technology: 0 (+0)

Treatment: 0 (+0)

Vehicles: 0 (+2)

 

Advantages: 12 pts

Accurate Attack

All-Out Attack

Assessment

Fearless

Instant Up

Interpose

Luck 3

Move-by Action

Power Attack

Takedown 2

 

Powers: 40 pts

Cardboard Armor: Protection 4. {4 PP}

 

Self-Delivery: Leaping 5. {5 PP}

 

Gum Roll: Affliction 6 (Dazed & Impaired/Stunned & Disabled, Resisted by Fortitude; Extra Condition, Limited Degree, Increased Range (Ranged), Cumulative, Multiattack, Secondary Effect). {30 PP} (Element: Earth)

--Alt: Transdelivery: Move Object 10 (Damaging, Multiattack, Reduced Range (Close)). {1 PP} (Element: Metal)

 

Abi: 38 + Def: 13 + Skil: 17 + Adv: 12 + Pow: 40 = 120/120 pts.

Bacomon Digivolution Paths:

Bacomon -> Nohemon -> Ghilliedhumon -> Puppetmon

Bacomon -> Mimicmon -> Digitamamon -> Devitamamon

 

As always, if there are any comments/questions/concerns, please let me know!

Edited March 25 by Zelphas (see edit history)

[Lwmons]

So one thing that jumped out at me when reading the backstory is that I'm a bit confused on Shiori's ability to move to Tokyo. I wholly understand the fact that she wanted a fresh start, but the fact that she seems to be so deeply under her mother's thumb makes me question how she, as a minor, was able to move to another city to attend a new school without any parental supervision. Particularly I'm curious how she's able to support herself while presumably struggling to go out and shop for herself and do day-to-day things.

I really like the use of Quickness to tie in with "The Squirrel" complication. Though I do think it might benefit from the Innate quality or something similar to represent it not being a "super" power and just part of how her mind naturally works.

How does the Inspire advantage fit in with the character? Is it meant to specifically be applied to her Digimon? Because otherwise I have a hard time seeing it click in with the rest of her character.

You don't need to put Python as one of your languages, though that is a clever use of the languages advantage. Any programming languages can reasonably be covered under both your Technology and Expertise skills.

Bacomon is a fun choice. Just make sure to pick an element for him and each of his attacks, and you should be good!

[Zelphas]

That's a good question. It's not common, but due to the way high schools are set up in Japan, some students do end up living alone in single-person apartments away from their parents. The way I see it, it's part of the complicated relationship Shiori has with her mother; despite her controlling and coddling behavior, Aoi does love her daughter and want her to succeed. She saw that Shiori was not making friends or finding connections in Hokkaido (what Shiori calls her "failing"), and Takigawa High is actually a good school with decent prospects, so eventually she gave in to Shiori's pleas. Shiori's parents would pay her rent and groceries; this would allow her mother to exert control from afar, by threatening to cut off the payments and/or move her back to Hokkaido if she didn't call her mother at regular times and report on her days.

Thanks! I think it fits well. I added Innate to the power; it makes more sense that way, I agree.

I had extra points, and I'm never good about keeping some in reserve. If I remove Inspire 4 and take 1 of those PP to purchase Innate, I'll have 3 PP left over, which I think I'll try to reserve for the actual game.

Sounds good; I enjoyed the idea of her learning programming "languages" as languages, but it isn't necessary. I changed her third language to Mandarin Chinese. Since her father is away on "business trips" a lot, I like the idea of him working often in China and her learning Chinese as a roundabout and ultimately futile way to connect to him.

Right, the elements! Bacomon is Neutral, as a creature wrapped in cardboard. I made "Gum Roll" Earth (rooting an enemy to the ground with tape and trapping them) and "Transdelivery" Metal (something something shipping containers is the idea, mostly). Let me know if there's anything else you'd like to see!