thriceunified | Dec. 20th, 2016

↠THE PLAYER

Name: Eri

Over 18? Yep!

↠THE CHARACTER

Name | Alias: Souza Samonji

Age: ~880, give or take a decade or so.

Canon: Touken Ranbu

Canon point: Current game canon (All swords present through Ookanehira, Current Map 7-4)

History: [ Game ] [ Character ] [ Meta ] [ Swordsmith ] [ With Nobunaga ]

Personality: "... Souza Samonji, present. Do you too, desire the Symbol of Conquerors in your service?"
Souza's line when you first obtain him sheds light on how jaded he is towards life - how he's used to being owned and kept and passed around from (important) person to person as a possession, rather than as a close 'brother in arms' as other swords would be. He thinks the saniwa will be just one more in the long line of people to have him only for what he is and what he symbolizes, and only very thinly veils his disdain for that, speaking often of what he believes to be the saniwa's motivations for doing anything with him at all.

"I'm aware of it. No matter what becomes of me, you'd have me at hand once you re-temper me, wouldn't you?"
"You want to boast about having me in possession, is that it?"
"You're showing off to your practice opponent, isn't it?"
Yet at the same time, he always finishes these statements with a question. While that might be a chance for the saniwa to deny his accusation - something he would surely disbelieve - it also shows there's still some small sliver of hope left in him for the saniwa to be the one person to care about him, over his status.

"Is it alright? To let a caged bird go outside... Just kidding."
"There is nothing I can do but come back to you."
When sent out on expeditions, his bitterness shows through, covered up in lighthearted tones as always, but there all the same. He longs for freedom and agency of his own, and while going out seems to offer some taste of that - it isn't going into battle, or to PVP or the shops to be shown off - he can't simply run away from the saniwa, much as he might want to, because the saniwa is his current master, and that's not what swords do, that's not what caged birds do, and that's certainly not something Souza can do, because every time he's disappeared, he's been found by someone else who knows what he is, who uses him as he's come to expect.

There is; however, a certain level of trust offered to his brothers that isn't offered to the saniwa or, presumably, anyone else. In the Sword of Imagawa recollection, Kousetsu comments that Souza seems depressed, and instead of coming back with some quip or passive aggressive jibe as one might have come to expect from him, he opens up and comments on the 'what if's he's been thinking about - what if he hadn't been stolen by Nobunaga on the battlefield, what if he hadn't become the "Sword of Conquerors"?

"...I don't know. Whether I would have been happier being a sword of Imagawa to the end."
"So many things have happened... that I don't know anymore..."
His voice shakes as he talks about this, and it shows that he must have had an opinion on the matter once, when the events were closer at hand, that maybe he would have been happier, but that everything that has happened even colored his opinions of his masters before Nobunaga into something less than ideal, changed the 'I was cherished, once' into 'I have always only been a possession to be owned.' The fact that he isn't sure anymore also shows that he's unsure of himself, or what he would do with himself, if he had the freedom he craves so much - what would he do if he wasn't a caged bird? Who would he be? So much has happened that he doesn't know, and doesn't know what he would do with the knowledge if he did know, and can't long for the possibility, because it was so far out of reach, going through the three great unifiers, being burnt and reforged, passed from family to family as a symbol of what his previous masters had done, that letting history be changed - as would happen should the sortie on that particular map fail - would erase who he is forever. But succeeding in preventing the change of the flow of history means damning himself to everything that chipped away at his self-worth and chained him down, making him withdraw into his birdcage and become resentful of everyone who even gives him a second glance. It isn't a position he wants to be in, and isn't a comfortable thing for him to think about.

"Burnt twice, and reforged again after... But there is no next time. Aah... At long last, freedom."
He embraces death readily, because only in death is there freedom from everything that, to his view, causes him pain in the world - his reputation, people desiring him for such, the ordeal of being passed around and possessed, never cared for past status. There's no such pressures in death, and he's relieved to finally find the freedom he's longed for for so long - yet at the same time, he never did go ahead and break himself. There's a resilience there, whether he'll admit it or not, to have gone on for so long, even if he's relieved to finally be able to fly away.

Abilities and Nerfs: Souza is a tsukomogami - an object that has been bestowed with a soul, and was given a human appearance by the saniwa. Because of this, his true body is actually the sword, and its condition effects the condition of his human form - damage to the weapon will manifest as damage to him. But because of this, he is capable of withstanding more than an ordinary human, so long as the blade is able to be repaired.

He is an uchigatana, which means while he isn't as hard-hitting as larger swords, he is still capable on the battlefield, being quicker and better at scouting than the larger swords. He can also enter an 'Awakened' state after sustaining damage, which significantly boosts his stats to make him a formidable enemy in exchange for lowered defenses.

As for nerfs - I don't really think they're necessary in his case, but if you do, mods, please let me know and I'm more than happy to oblige.

Inventory: Aside from the clothes he's wearing, all he'd have is his sword.

Five Desires: The sweet embrace of death | little reminders of his brothers | a repair kit, just in case | strong sake | some peace and quiet

Samples: One & Two!