[OOC] AU Profile (xavier_institute)

[mouflon]

PLAYER INFORMATION

PLAYER: Nyx
CONTACT: salroka [Plurk]

CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Rin Tousaka
CANON: Fate/EXTRA
CANON REFERENCE: Here; the Fate/EXTRA Material book provides some additional information on her background, stating that she originally managed records and finances for a pro-bono medical organization doing work in third world countries. However, after seeing the problems caused by the Harway Plutocracy's resource management firsthand, she grew cynical and became a mercenary working for the more violent revolutionaries in the Middle East, half for money and half for the sake of her ideals.
AGE: 17 (Exact age not given in canon)
GENDER: Female
YEAR IN SCHOOL/FACULTY POSITION: Grade 11
APPEARANCE: Here

PERSONALITY:
You think you know Rin Tohsaka, but let me tell you about Rin Tousaka. Rin Tousaka is, first and foremost, a mercenary and terrorist; in the alternate universe cyberpunk future, she's a wanted woman for her actions against a government body with a stranglehold on 60% of the world's GDP and the global flow of information. That fact alone speaks volumes about her character—both good and bad.

Superficially, the impression Rin tends to give off to others around herself is that of an ideal young woman: composed, quick-witted, and attractive. However, in the words of the protagonist themselves, that impression goes out the window the moment she opens her mouth. Certainly, she possesses all three of those qualities, but they come together in a way that is hardly ideal; that is to say, Rin is really, really rude. While the other Masters in Fate/EXTRA's Grail War seem to regard her with respect for her poise and skill, there's also a certain amount of enmity between herself and others due to the way she treats them in simple conversation. One Master refers to her as being "a real queen B," and the protagonist notes how skewed the "ratio of put-down to advice" is more than once upon talking to her.

However, there's no real hostility behind Rin's sharp tongue—unless you've done something to earn hostility, anyway. It would even be wrong to refer to her speech as being scathing, as she doesn't go out of her way to be particularly witty when she's giving someone their dressing down. She simply doesn't care to waste her time on tact. If Rin Tousaka deigns to give you her opinion, you'll receive her opinion without her dulling its edges, and she doesn't care if that happens to hurt your feelings. This is especially true in the context of the Grail War, where everyone around her is an enemy; by the same token, though, it isn't untrue outside of it. In her line of work, she doesn't have time to beat around the bush, after all. She isn't accustomed to mincing words.

On that note, Rin is pragmatic—or maybe even a little bit cutthroat. While she isn't cruel, that doesn't make her kind. She will do whatever is necessary to successfully complete her mission, whether that mission is striking a blow against the Harway plutocracy, disseminating information about the Grail War, or winning the Holy Grail herself. And, while she prefers "whatever is necessary" not to bring harm to other people, she doesn't always shy away from that path if a better one fails to present itself. Over the course of the Grail War, she kills two to four people without batting an eyelash, and when she is defeated by the protagonist in Rani's route, the reason she gives for her loss isn't that she was unable to kill someone she had come to care for; it was that she had let her guard down, because she believed the protagonist could finish her mission for her even if she lost.

Along with that pragmatism comes opportunism. Early in the game, Rin outright states that she is taking advantage of the protagonist by giving them advice on how to deal with their first round opponent; after all, if allowed to win, Shinji has the potential to be dangerous later on, so it's better that he be taken out right out of the gate. Similarly, when the protagonist is in need of material to alchemize, she agrees to give them what they need—but only if they get her something she's unable to obtain on her own, as she isn't a "charity organization." (By the way, when you make the trade, it's made clear that she didn't actually expect you to succeed, but nonetheless upholds her end of the bargain because "a deal's a deal.") Altogether, she has no problem taking advantage of the circumstances surrounding her for her own benefit.

All of this—her quick thinking, her resourcefulness, and her determination—come together to create a person who is industrious and quick to get back on her feet. When she fails, she doesn't allow that failure to stop her, but instead reassesses the situation and finds the best way to proceed. For example, if the protagonist chooses to rescue her from her fight with Rani, she becomes an anomaly in the system, stripped of her Servant but still in possession of her Command Spells; once she's done berating the protagonist for being an idiot, she immediately begins going over the facts of the situation, deciding on how to proceed from her new position within a matter of minutes. She isn't the type of person to give up or stop working.

With all that said, Rin isn't completely hardened. If anything, her morals are what drives her—and at their core, they're the morals of someone who cares about other people. She can't stand the sight of injustice, and she wants the world to be a better place for the people that live there. She just knows that in order for her to succeed, she can't allow her empathy to rule her, and that she needs to put her ultimate goal first. This can be seen in the ways she provides assistance to the protagonist throughout the game; unless they're explicitly working together, she restricts her help to providing advice and basic information, and even then, she calls herself an idiot for doing so. The only exception is cases that would provide some benefit to her as well, of course.

Rin isn't a perfect picture of poise and self-control, either. There are times when her determination can turn to hardheadedness, and her confidence into arrogance. The fact of the matter is that she is set on her own perspective as much as the plutocrats she fights against, and sometimes relying on her preconceived notions or refusing to consider other perspectives can cause her to fumble. Early in the game, she feels the protagonist up from top to bottom, mistakenly believing them to be a simple NPC because, in her own words, only an NPC could possibly be so boring and generic; when she realizes the truth of the matter, she is mortified, continuing to blame the protagonist for being "confusing" rather than accepting she made a mistake based on a faulty assumption. Later, when confronting Leo of the Harway family, she openly says that she would mock anyone who would choose stability at the expense of personal freedom, only to fluster and come up short when asked if she would rather leave people to face adversary unassisted.

Rin also has a tendency to fluster when questioned about actions she has taken solely or primarily out of kindness. In reality, she is extremely self-conscious, in the sense that she is incredibly aware of how she is perceived by others. As such, she feels threatened when someone notices behavior contradictory to the perception of her as a cold, ruthless mercenary that looks out for no one but herself. It's also very easy to tell when she is being honest about her motivations and when she isn't; in the case of the former, she will deliver her explanation with a straight face, while in the case of the latter, she will blush, squeal, and stammer. She didn't do it because she wanted to help you or anything, okay?!

Under it all, though, Rin is—or wants to be—a normal young woman. During Rani's route, when talking to the protagonist prior to their match, she can reveal a few different things about herself, depending on which dialogue options the player selects. If asked about what she would like to do in the event that she wins the Grail War, she admits she would like to go back to Japan and experience something she has never before had an opportunity to: a normal school life. Or, if asked about love, she admits that it would be nice to be around someone who treats her like a normal girl, rather than someone off-limits. Having to constantly stand alone as the strong, perfect Rin Tousaka is tiring, and no matter how firm her convictions are, the fact of the matter is simply that she would like to be able to depend on others sometimes, or maybe even be pampered a little.

Not that she'll ever admit it. It's not like she likes you, you idiot!

POWERS/ABILITIES:
Rin has the ability to conduct energy through crystalline structures, with Rin drawing the energy in question from an internal, naturally replenishing stock. Direct skin-to-surface contact isn't required, but it needs to be close, and the fewer barriers there are in the way, the more efficient the ratio of energy expended to energy received is.

In practice, this power mostly manifests itself in one of two ways: either a direct flow from Point A to Point B, or with the energy stored in its target location until Rin activates it at a later point in time. In either case, Rin cannot reuse the same crystals indefinitely; releasing medium or high levels of energy causes them to fracture to the point of uselessness. It's for this reason that, in combat situations, Rin mainly uses this ability to create small-scale explosions, though things like making a light source out of a piece of quartz, heating something up to the point that it's painful to touch, etc, are also within her power.

In addition, Rin has learned to further adapt her ability to her line of work—that is, manipulate silicon in electronics. While this doesn't put her on the level of, say, a dedicated technopath, it does give her something of an edge when it comes to dealing with electronics, whether that means applying energy in a way that simulates a command or just breaking something. She can only affect machinery she's in direct contact with, of course, and this, combined with the fact that her power must be applied very delicately to avoid unwanted fractures in the silicon, limits this application of her ability.

The obvious weakness to this ability is, of course, that Rin needs to have some kind of crystal on hand to use it. While creative solutions to this problem are possible—ice and salt are both form crystalline structures, for example—the larger the crystal and the sturdier its structure, the more energy that can be channeled through it before it fractures. Additionally, because she's expending "personal" energy to fuel it, it has the potential to leave her winded unless she relies on crystals that have been charged beforehand.

The transfer of energy also takes time. A piece of crystal she has charged up for only a few seconds can only do as much as produce a blinding flash of light, which, while good for disorienting attackers, does not do any harm in and of itself. If she takes a bit longer, she'll get something about on the level of a flash grenade, and requires longer still to create something that bursts with enough force to do real appreciable harm to people or their surroundings. Because it's just not practical to do this on the fly, both due to time and energy restraints, Rin generally carries a set of crystals she has prepared in advance, putting a little bit of energy into them each day until they're at capacity.

Additionally, due to her background, Rin has some non-mutant skill in hacking, survival skills, use of firearms and explosives, self-defense, and guerrilla tactics.

AU HISTORY:
Though Rin was technically born in Japan, she remembers nothing about it. Her parents picked up and moved halfway across the globe with her while she was still an infant, instead resettling in the Middle East. She never found out the reason for this drastic move—though, then again, she never asked, seeing as it wasn't anything she considered important. As far as she was concerned, she had no connection to Japan at all.

From as far back as her earliest memories, Rin's parents were involved in mutant advocacy. Of course, seeing as they were both mutants themselves, this wasn't exactly surprising. Primarily, they worked with a group giving aid to mutant refugees who had been forced out of their homes due to both religious and systematic persecution, providing them food, clothing, and medical care they were otherwise denied. As a result, she and her family rarely stayed in one place for long, going wherever another pair of hands was needed most.

Rin, being headstrong since childhood, naturally involved herself in her parents' work to whatever extent she was able. At first, this just meant holding supplies as they were passed out or running small errands here and there, but as she grew older, she began to help with bookkeeping and computerized records. She also discovered her own mutant power somewhere along the way, but again, that wasn't particularly shocking, considering her pedigree. She took it in stride and continued to focus on the bigger issue that was her parent's work.

Over time, however, Rin became disillusioned. The organization they worked under never received enough in the way of funding, meaning they could never do enough for the people who came to them for help. To make matters worse, more mutants were being harmed all the time while the people in power did nothing about it. The values she had been raised with warped under the weight of her anger and feelings of powerlessness, and she came to believe that, while social change was something admirable, it would never be achieved with the peaceful methods her family utilized. Mutants needed to take back their rights by force.

So, when she was barely a teenager, Rin struck out on her own—or, rather, ran away, right into the arms of a group of mutant mercenaries she had heard word of from a refugee. Oh, sure, there were certain values they abided by, and they specifically focused on the kind of "advocacy" Rin had taken an interest in, but it was a simple fact to say they performed acts of terrorism for money. Ultimately, it was her attitude and bullheadedness that convinced them to take her under their wing, and she took to the lifestyle with a kind of ferocity that proved their decision merited.

Rin's time with that group lasted a little over three years. In the end, though, a high risk mission they accepted went bad. Specifically, there were whispers that the Egyptian government had been doing some very serious, very secret research regarding mutants for reasons unknown, and they were to figure out the what and why of it. What they discovered was a number of writings on ancient mutants and their activities, some substantiated and some speculative.

Their activities did not escape detection, however, and they were ultimately cornered by authorities. Rin was given the task of escaping with the salvaged information, leaving the rest of the team to their probable deaths. Unsure of what to do or where to go, but knowing she needed to get as far away as possible, she bribed her way out of the country and overseas, using almost all of her money and resources to get to America.

(See, her money hoarding came in handy after all!)

Of course, once she had managed to get into the country, the only thing for her to do was plop herself down on the doorstep of Xavier Institute. She had no money and nowhere to go—the fact that she had come to America in the first place had mostly been a fluke, based on where she could get fastest. She had little intention of explaining the circumstances that brought her there, but they couldn't just turn away a homeless mutant at their door, right? Right?