savedbyasong (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
savedbyasong) wrote2018-01-18 01:27 pm
savedbyasong) wrote2018-01-18 01:27 pm
Life-aftr app
Player Information
Name: Katy
Age: Yes I am over 18
Contact: plurk :damua
Current characters: None
Note: Tower of Animus was a horror game and therefore should come with warnings for horror both psychological and physical -including body horror, torture. experimentation on children and despair (including suicidal ideation.)
Shion's personal history of the tower includes psychological torture, some body horror, unhealthy coping mechanics, co-dependency and unhealthy attitudes towards personal safety and death. I have endeavoured to talk about such things in a non-graphic way in my application but they are there, especially in the linked tower history.
Character Information
Name: Shion
Series: No. 6
Appearance: Here!
Age: Canon age is 16, my Shion though he looks 16 considers himself 18 almost 19 due to time in previous game
Canon Point: Episode eight, in the cave scene, just as Nezumi finishes singing Elyrius' song for the first time.
Transferring From: Tower of Animus
Canon History: Here! or Let me tell you a story about bees
Canon Personality: Shion claims that it was Nezumi that dragged him from a life as a mindless No. 6 worker, but truthfully Shion always felt a deep unease about the city he lived in. Always felt stifled even when he lived in luxury with his mother. It was that more than anything that led him to opening his window in a hurricane the night of his twelfth birthday and screaming. An act which drew Nezumi to him, and changed his life forever.
Shion is an idealist. He believes that human's are worth fighting for. All humans are equal, this is his key belief, he does not agree with polar extremes, does not agree with Nezumi's 'them' and 'us' stance. He seeks a middle way and tries to bring about equality whilst saving as many as he can. Even when Nezumi warns him that if Shion learned the truth about No.6 and still wanted to save it they would be enemies Shion believed they could find a way to cooperate he doesn't want to lose Nezumi, he doesn't want the city to die. He believes he can succeed.
Shion is friendly to everyone and trusts people easily, even when he definitely shouldn't. At the age of twelve he takes Nezumi in without even asking his name. Even when he finds out Nezumi is an escaped prisoner, against all social conditioning, his response is to offer the boy his supper. His only regret afterwards is that the punishment hurt his mother also. He is the kind of person who names robot rats, reads to small children and offers them soup when they are hungry.
He won’t hesitate to help anybody even when it puts his own life in danger. He tends to take the immediately compassionate route, not thinking about the effects of his actions. This means he does things that will cause trouble in the long-term even while helping in the short-term.
Shion has a very high IQ, at the age of two he was tested and given the right to live in Chronos; the elite district, he attended the best schools. When he was twelve he was getting ready to enter the special program for the brightest minds. He knows enough medical procedure to treat a bullet wound; at the age of twelve. He does this with glee happy to be able to use his skills. He remembers everything, is able to memorise the map of the correctional facility easily. He remembers odd details about people, in almost stalker detail though he just does it as a matter of course.
However his intellect and knowledge is limited to facts, data, scientific knowledge; things that can be summed up in numbers. Until he goes to the West Town he has no knowledge of the arts, of literature, of anything outside the strictly controlled curriculum of No. 6. He discovers a passion for reading and begins making his way through many of Shakespeare’s works and the classics.
Shion has no real fighting ability and indeed does not want to harm others. He is a peaceful person and violence shocks and upsets him. He is often afraid, but sometimes is not afraid even when he should be. He often panics or zones out and it can take physical shaking to bring him back to himself. During these times it is Nezumi who can motivate him, he can make himself move because Nezumi would taunt him he can face things if Nezumi is there. He is unfit, unused to having to run and climb.
Shion is a lot stronger than he seems, not physically but mentally. He survives the parasite bee, only the second known person to do so. Nezumi cuts the larvae out, with no pain control or anaesthetic. The pain it puts him through is indescribable and yet he survives.
There is darkness in Shion. Nezumi can see it and often claims that he is scared of him, of what he can become. Shion feels that darkness in himself as well.
He sometimes looses control, mostly if Nezumi is threatened. Shion almost throttles a guy for calling Nezumi a prostitute. If his canon was allowed to take it's course uninterrupted he would later kill for Nezumi, losing control when Nezumi was hurt.
Being fresh out of No. 6 and new to the West Town Shion tries his best to get used to his new life and be seen by the others as an equal and to not be merely something to protect. He tried to go and rescue Safu on his own in order to protect Nezumi, after he and Nezumi fought they promised no more secrets. Shion would always rather know reality. He would rather live in the real world then in a world of false comfort like No. 6.
Personality Shifts:
Shion's history in Animus is detailed Here
When Shion's world was destroyed and his soul 'rescued' and taken to the Tower he was very early on in his story. This meant that a lot of his canon development hadn't happened yet. He had not learned the truth about No. 6, had not fought through the correctional facility at Nezumi's side. Had not killed. Had not suffered.
Even though he would have claimed to no longer be a naive child, and to want to be Nezumi's equal he was naive, painfully so and not at all suitable to be flung into a tower of horrors beyond the worlds.
But flung there he was, he witnessed horrors beyond his imaginings. This caused him to grow and change, some of this change is very similar to how he would have turned out if he remained in his story, some is different. Suffice to say he is not the innocent child who Nezumi saved from No. 6 anymore.
General
Two and a half years in a horror tower is enough to majorly effect anyone. Spending the last year of that on a countdown timer knowing that if you did not manage to perform what seemed like an impossible task you and all the people with you would die forever, any hope of restoring their worlds lost was enough to drive anyone to desperation.
That said, Shion is still essentially Shion. He still cares an awful lot. He still believes in people, still loves animals. Still has the tendency to babble when he gets excited about things.. However under the surface he is different. Some of this is due to the trauma of the environment he was living in.
His accepted levels of safe is at rock bottom. His definition of fine is 'being capable of semi coherent thought'. He takes even bigger risks than he would in canon and tends to put goals and getting things done above personal safety even more so than he did before.
Due to events there are things that effect Shion in way that would not effect a canon Shion. Grabbing him by the back of the neck, or pressure on his neck when he is not expecting it will evoke a panicked or sometimes violent reaction. He has a fear of mazes, and would quite happily never see chocolate again. Questions that he cannot answer (about culture or music etc) are likely to cause him to panic.
He tends to take things harder than before, he is quicker to blame himself though he is actively trying to get better at forgiving his own mistakes. He can still get overwhelmed and panicked, but he has ways to deal with that and strategies to remain calm.
Strength
As already explained in his personality section Shion is a lot stronger than he seems. More importantly he is a lot stronger than he thinks.
He wants to be a strong person like Nezumi, his experiences in Animus convinced him further that physical strength was incredibly important. He could not protect anyone if he wasn't strong enough. He didn't want to be a burden on anyone. Reno trained him pushing him hard.
Therefore Shion became a lot stronger, he trained every day, he was fit and strong enough to carry Xion a couple of times when she was injured. He could fight. In this 'real world' he had found himself in physical strength was more important than the knowledge Shion had from his time in No. 6.
Now at the end, having restored their worlds his thoughts on the matter are more balanced. After all it was science that got their powers back, it was thinking hard that restored their worlds. Reno convinced him that the information gathering was just as important as fighting. Physical strength was important but so was everything else.
Shion still felt like he was someone who relied on others though, but he began to understand that that wasn't as bad as Nezumi made it out to be.
Friendship and Family
Nezumi taught Shion that having connections was a bad thing, that he should throw away the ties to his old life because all they could do was hurt him. Shion never fully believed it, or more he felt he was not a person who was strong enough to do such a thing. He still loved his mum, he still cared for Safu.
Shion after the tower believes that Nezumi was, in this instance, wrong. Connections made you stronger. It was the bonds between people that saved them in the tower. Friendships could drive the shadows back, connections to those you cared about opened the portals to allow them to rescue each other from their dead worlds. Their connections to their old worlds was the energy needed to restore them
In canon Shion only has Safu as a friend, and Nezumi. In the tower he found a family. Reno, Elena and Xion. Though they never replaced his mum they taught him a lot. Not just how to fight and stay alive. But how to live and how to love. He learned that you could love people in many different ways.
He also learned that in many ways Nezumi was right. Loving people was painful because you could lose them or they could be used to hurt you. Shion's feelings for Nezumi was used to punish him, breaking his spirit. Shion lost many friends and as they rushed on towards reviving their worlds he knew he would lose the rest. For all their hope there was a massive chance they would never see each other again.
But despite that it was worth it. If he had to chose between losing his new found family and friends and never having met them he would chose the former every time.
Culture and Learning
Animus Shion is quite well read, there was a library which he spent a lot of time in devouring the books. There was no history section so that is one area where he remains ignorant.
He researched a lot. He gathered information. He was part of the collar fluid research teams and though he started off as an assistant scientist he became team leader after their leader disappeared. He wrote a guide to edible plants he taught people ecology.
However there were times when he found he was not clever enough and it hit him hard. Notably was his punishment after the Labyrinth event when he was asked questions about literature and music and a version of Nezumi was stabbed every time he answered wrong. Another time he was killed for not being able to solve riddles. He took it very hard when the collar research was difficult.
When he first arrived in animus things such as magic, and science being broken (the floating island floors, floors bigger than they could possibly be etc) terrified him. Part of him was relieved when the glamour failed. Science wasn't broken, it was just a science more advanced than Shion understood.
And he got better in general in not panicking about the world not making sense. Alternative universes, magic, world eating virus', souls. To restore the worlds they essentially threw all the ideas into the middle. Every crazy theory, every way they could possibly fix things from barriers to time travel to the power of love. It was a impossible task huge and terrifying.
They succeeded. Despite the odds. The impossible does not scare Shion anymore.
Leadership
Shion is not a natural leader. Though he can take charge of situations- for example dealing with Nezumi's wound when they are younger he is not someone who would be comfortable in a position of leadership.
But he is capable of it (novel verse Shion goes on to lead his city for example). In the tower there were times when he found himself leading. For example in the collar research when Sertoria disappeared Shion took over as team leader. He slowly grew in confidence. When Reno created Ragnarok Shion was a team leader with Xion and Asch in his team.
When Reno was doubting his own ability to be a leader and claiming to not be strong enough Shion told him.
"Leaders are just people who lead. All that separates them and followers is that when the time came when someone needed to lead they were the ones who stepped forward."
Though Shion would still not naturally put himself forward in situations where leadership was needed unless there was no better choices he would not feel awkward if someone asked him to do so.
Memories
Due to his high death count Shion began losing memories. This terrified him, as he has such a good memory, forgetting things wasn't normal. When he realised he had forgotten that Dax had died he broke down. Because it wasn't just a fact, it was an event that he had witnessed, taken from his mind.
He relearned most of what he forgot. He forgot the colour of Nezumi's eyes (Reno told him they were grey, but he feels they were more than that), the name of his mums bakery (he never remembered as he had told no one nor wrote it down) and why his world was mostly wasteland (he has the version that he told Reno and Xion).
Because of this Shion became obsessed with writing things down and worried about the things that can't be put into words on paper. How did it feel to be hugged? How exactly to describe Reno's voice when he was teasing him? How to immortalise Xion's smile?
When they were discussing options in the end Shion argued passionately against a solution that would send them back in time if it would erase their memories claiming that forcing people to forget what happened there would be as great a crime as anything that was done to them in that place. Memories are precious to Shion.
Attitudes towards death
Death wasn't permanent in the tower, in fact it wasn't death at all as much as it felt like it. Shion had the highest death count in the tower. Some of that was due to the fact that when he first arrived he could not fight, panicked at everything and annoyed the wrong people. Later he became fascinated with the strange effects and it became a point of research for him.
He died twenty times and after about the fifth he stopped caring. He did try and be more careful when he realised how much it upset Xion. When he began loosing memories he became a lot more careful. He did not die between his October and May of year 3. He was quite proud of this achievement, seeing it as proof that he was becoming strong enough to survive.
In the cells during endgame he and Xion made a pact that they would try not to die anymore.
He still has strong feelings about other peoples deaths though. He believes others should not die and will be upset that they did, and angry if it is someone he is particularly close to. However the anger and sadness is more for the pain that dying caused them.
Loneliness
In many ways the worse fate in the tower was disappearing, returning to wander their dead world. Sometimes for a week, sometimes they never came back. Animus had a graveyard, a memorial for everyone whose souls had slipped out of the towers grasp.
Shion went to his dead world a few times, the longest time being just before they made the final push to restore the worlds when he was there for a month and a half. Being the only person in an entire universe where everything was dead, where things did not even rot because there was no living organisms at all is something that Shion has never been able to speak about. That level of loneliness was a shared experience in the tower something everyone who had ended up on their dead worlds understood and those who hadn't feared.
Shion has always liked people but was always quite awkward, might not seek out others if he didn't know them. Shion from the tower is a lot more likely to spend time around others. Most nights he spent curled up with Xion because nightmares are easier to keep at bay when others are there. He is a person who would always talk to someone if they seemed alone but now he will always make an attempt to connect with others, even if it led to awkwardness, being alone is not a fate he would wish on anyone.
Reality
Shion's big thing is knowing reality. No. 6 was a fake city, it was perfect but it was not real. When Nezumi rescued him despite his fear he was glad he saw the real world outside No. 6. He wanted to know the truth about No. 6 and why Nezumi hated it, it was important to him- he never did find out before his world ended.
In the tower he thought he knew about reality, the horror and the pain seemed like the 'real world' Nezumi was trying to teach him about.
Then he discovered that it was all fake, that in reality they were just souls... in wireframes. Everything was glamour. Everything he had seen for a year and a half was false.
It was awful but it was reality. More now than ever Shion would always rather know the truth. He would rather suffer then be kept in ignorance. He would rather a painful truth than living a peaceful lie.
Darkness and Loss of control
Shion has a lot of darkness inside him. In canon this mostly presents itself as Shion losing control when Nezumi is threatened, insulted or harmed going as far as murdering a guard violently after Nezumi was hurt. As he was brought from early canon he had only actually lost control once, when Rikiga insulted Nezumi.
The first time he lost control in Animus was after he was punished for dying in the labyrinth. When he broke through the numbness, the anger that the retrieval units had dared hurt Rat mixed with a panic response whilst getting his collar fluid checked and he went berserk.
He was killed and that was when Reno made the decision to make him a Turk. He lost control a few other times, most crucially when he killed Reno for betraying him (and more importantly betraying Xion). As things got worse Shion felt himself getting angrier more. He made a genuine effort to try and control the feelings. He tried training with Riku but that ended badly. He made a bit more progress with Diarmuid, chronicling feelings and trying to work out why he was feeling them.
He only managed to calm down when he got angry and lost control once, and that was with a lot of help from Diarmuid. But he has made more progress in realising sooner when he might get angry and has some strategies to calm down.
Nezumi/Rat
Shion's feelings for Nezumi are something that haven't changed much in the tower. He still believes that he owes Nezumi everything for rescuing him from No. 6. He still believes that compared to Nezumi he is not strong enough, that he will always be someone who relies on Nezumi and will just slow him down. Despite this he is desperate to prove that he can be Nezumi's equal, he can be someone Nezumi can be proud of.
If anything his feelings about Nezumi have grown in his time in the tower, Nezumi was used to break Shion before there even was a Nezumi as a resident. When there was a Nezumi he dismissed Shion as not even from his world- as the Nezumi was from novel verse where Shion's eyes turned purple not orange. He called him a sheltered child and refused to listen to Shion when Shion tried to explain things to him.
He was very defensive when Reno tried to convince Shion that Nezumi was not a good friend. He still maintains that the problem is with him not with Nezumi. After his time in the tower he says that he loves Nezumi, this is something he hadn't really qualified in his mind before he was taken from his world. He believes he needs to work harder to be a person Nezumi can trust in.
In the mirror in the void he saw glimpses of every possible future. Though they are vague and he cannot remember the specifics he saw Nezumi die many times, himself die, Nezumi leave him. He cannot remember one future where Nezumi stayed.
He really hopes that it was a trick, made to hurt him like so much in the tower was.
Feelings and hope for the future
Shion knows that if Nezumi had not saved him he would have grown up to be a mindless adult. He would have never known what it was like to love, or hate or feel. He now realised he knew nothing, even whilst living in West town. He knows hate now, he knows what it feels like to want to destroy everything around you. He knows love so deep it makes his heart want to burst. He knows loss, has lost many friends and had to make the choice that in saving his world and returning to it he would never see his friends and family from the tower again. He knows what it is like to lose, to be defeated, to be brought so low that he could not see a way to stand up again.
And he knows what it is to win. To succeed despite all the odds. To do the impossible. They restored the worlds, they beat Ruana. Rescuing Safu from the correctional facility, stopping bees from destroying No. 6 they are big difficult tasks, but Shion just helped restore hundreds of dead worlds. What is the government of No.6 compared to the end of the world itself? He helped defeat what was essentially a god, he feels hopeful that he and Nezumi can succeed. After all it is not like the parasite bees are driven by a research experiment victim infused with god like powers.Shion if only you knew...
Abilities
Powers: Shion has no powers, he is a completely unpowered human.
Science and medical knowledge: Shion is very good at science. Though he was only twelve when he was expelled from the special program he had more knowledge than most adults. He is confident he can stitch Nezumi's wound even whilst admitting he has never done it before. Later after he has left No. 6 he is working on making a serum with his own blood to counteract the effects of the parasite bees.
In Animus his medical skills and knowledge grew. He worked under Hojo at the makeshift clinic and learned from him. He got very good at first aid and in first aid without a lot of supplies. Shion has never been squeamish but his time in the tower has made him even less so.
His science knowledge increased as well. Helping with the collar fluid research meant that he worked with scientists from other worlds and was able to help figure out how to unlock the potential from their souls. He has a very good memory and this helps him with science.
Survival and combat: There were times in the tower when food was stopped. Shion learned how to hunt from Reno, he also learned how to lay basic traps for smaller animals, how to prepare meat and how to cook on an outside fire.
He was able to use his No. 6 learned ecology and with help from Reno apply it to real life. He could gather edible plants and even made a guide to help others do the same.
Reno taught him to fight, both unarmed and using Reno's EMR. He got quite good at fighting, enough to hold his own against smaller monsters and against people that didn't have immense power. He became very fit (even without Reno's training there were 101 floors between the bedrooms and cafeteria) and strong. Strong enough that whilst they were kicked out of the tower by Zo and in endgame when Xion was injured Shion was able to carry her on his back quite easily.
That was all in a fake wireframe body that had grown over two years, that he had spent two years training. As he will have his canon body he will be back to having no strength and being generally unfit as well as being shorter. Even though he was aware they would be returning to their real bodies he never actually thought about what that would mean in terms of his strength and endurance.
He will still have the knowledge of how to fight, pressure points to immobilise people, fighting styles and how to defend himself. But he will lack the strength or stamina to back it up.
Other skills: Shion can cook and bake very well. He learned to swim in the tower. He can make half decent barricades.
Inventory: His clothes. (Light trousers, white shirt, blue cardigan and a pinkish/brownish coat.)
Sample
Thread Sample: Test meme! and also Here!
Name: Katy
Age: Yes I am over 18
Contact: plurk :damua
Current characters: None
Note: Tower of Animus was a horror game and therefore should come with warnings for horror both psychological and physical -including body horror, torture. experimentation on children and despair (including suicidal ideation.)
Shion's personal history of the tower includes psychological torture, some body horror, unhealthy coping mechanics, co-dependency and unhealthy attitudes towards personal safety and death. I have endeavoured to talk about such things in a non-graphic way in my application but they are there, especially in the linked tower history.
Character Information
Name: Shion
Series: No. 6
Appearance: Here!
Age: Canon age is 16, my Shion though he looks 16 considers himself 18 almost 19 due to time in previous game
Canon Point: Episode eight, in the cave scene, just as Nezumi finishes singing Elyrius' song for the first time.
Transferring From: Tower of Animus
Canon History: Here! or Let me tell you a story about bees
Canon Personality: Shion claims that it was Nezumi that dragged him from a life as a mindless No. 6 worker, but truthfully Shion always felt a deep unease about the city he lived in. Always felt stifled even when he lived in luxury with his mother. It was that more than anything that led him to opening his window in a hurricane the night of his twelfth birthday and screaming. An act which drew Nezumi to him, and changed his life forever.
Shion is an idealist. He believes that human's are worth fighting for. All humans are equal, this is his key belief, he does not agree with polar extremes, does not agree with Nezumi's 'them' and 'us' stance. He seeks a middle way and tries to bring about equality whilst saving as many as he can. Even when Nezumi warns him that if Shion learned the truth about No.6 and still wanted to save it they would be enemies Shion believed they could find a way to cooperate he doesn't want to lose Nezumi, he doesn't want the city to die. He believes he can succeed.
Shion is friendly to everyone and trusts people easily, even when he definitely shouldn't. At the age of twelve he takes Nezumi in without even asking his name. Even when he finds out Nezumi is an escaped prisoner, against all social conditioning, his response is to offer the boy his supper. His only regret afterwards is that the punishment hurt his mother also. He is the kind of person who names robot rats, reads to small children and offers them soup when they are hungry.
He won’t hesitate to help anybody even when it puts his own life in danger. He tends to take the immediately compassionate route, not thinking about the effects of his actions. This means he does things that will cause trouble in the long-term even while helping in the short-term.
Shion has a very high IQ, at the age of two he was tested and given the right to live in Chronos; the elite district, he attended the best schools. When he was twelve he was getting ready to enter the special program for the brightest minds. He knows enough medical procedure to treat a bullet wound; at the age of twelve. He does this with glee happy to be able to use his skills. He remembers everything, is able to memorise the map of the correctional facility easily. He remembers odd details about people, in almost stalker detail though he just does it as a matter of course.
However his intellect and knowledge is limited to facts, data, scientific knowledge; things that can be summed up in numbers. Until he goes to the West Town he has no knowledge of the arts, of literature, of anything outside the strictly controlled curriculum of No. 6. He discovers a passion for reading and begins making his way through many of Shakespeare’s works and the classics.
Shion has no real fighting ability and indeed does not want to harm others. He is a peaceful person and violence shocks and upsets him. He is often afraid, but sometimes is not afraid even when he should be. He often panics or zones out and it can take physical shaking to bring him back to himself. During these times it is Nezumi who can motivate him, he can make himself move because Nezumi would taunt him he can face things if Nezumi is there. He is unfit, unused to having to run and climb.
Shion is a lot stronger than he seems, not physically but mentally. He survives the parasite bee, only the second known person to do so. Nezumi cuts the larvae out, with no pain control or anaesthetic. The pain it puts him through is indescribable and yet he survives.
There is darkness in Shion. Nezumi can see it and often claims that he is scared of him, of what he can become. Shion feels that darkness in himself as well.
He sometimes looses control, mostly if Nezumi is threatened. Shion almost throttles a guy for calling Nezumi a prostitute. If his canon was allowed to take it's course uninterrupted he would later kill for Nezumi, losing control when Nezumi was hurt.
Being fresh out of No. 6 and new to the West Town Shion tries his best to get used to his new life and be seen by the others as an equal and to not be merely something to protect. He tried to go and rescue Safu on his own in order to protect Nezumi, after he and Nezumi fought they promised no more secrets. Shion would always rather know reality. He would rather live in the real world then in a world of false comfort like No. 6.
Personality Shifts:
Shion's history in Animus is detailed Here
When Shion's world was destroyed and his soul 'rescued' and taken to the Tower he was very early on in his story. This meant that a lot of his canon development hadn't happened yet. He had not learned the truth about No. 6, had not fought through the correctional facility at Nezumi's side. Had not killed. Had not suffered.
Even though he would have claimed to no longer be a naive child, and to want to be Nezumi's equal he was naive, painfully so and not at all suitable to be flung into a tower of horrors beyond the worlds.
But flung there he was, he witnessed horrors beyond his imaginings. This caused him to grow and change, some of this change is very similar to how he would have turned out if he remained in his story, some is different. Suffice to say he is not the innocent child who Nezumi saved from No. 6 anymore.
General
Two and a half years in a horror tower is enough to majorly effect anyone. Spending the last year of that on a countdown timer knowing that if you did not manage to perform what seemed like an impossible task you and all the people with you would die forever, any hope of restoring their worlds lost was enough to drive anyone to desperation.
That said, Shion is still essentially Shion. He still cares an awful lot. He still believes in people, still loves animals. Still has the tendency to babble when he gets excited about things.. However under the surface he is different. Some of this is due to the trauma of the environment he was living in.
His accepted levels of safe is at rock bottom. His definition of fine is 'being capable of semi coherent thought'. He takes even bigger risks than he would in canon and tends to put goals and getting things done above personal safety even more so than he did before.
Due to events there are things that effect Shion in way that would not effect a canon Shion. Grabbing him by the back of the neck, or pressure on his neck when he is not expecting it will evoke a panicked or sometimes violent reaction. He has a fear of mazes, and would quite happily never see chocolate again. Questions that he cannot answer (about culture or music etc) are likely to cause him to panic.
He tends to take things harder than before, he is quicker to blame himself though he is actively trying to get better at forgiving his own mistakes. He can still get overwhelmed and panicked, but he has ways to deal with that and strategies to remain calm.
Strength
As already explained in his personality section Shion is a lot stronger than he seems. More importantly he is a lot stronger than he thinks.
He wants to be a strong person like Nezumi, his experiences in Animus convinced him further that physical strength was incredibly important. He could not protect anyone if he wasn't strong enough. He didn't want to be a burden on anyone. Reno trained him pushing him hard.
Therefore Shion became a lot stronger, he trained every day, he was fit and strong enough to carry Xion a couple of times when she was injured. He could fight. In this 'real world' he had found himself in physical strength was more important than the knowledge Shion had from his time in No. 6.
Now at the end, having restored their worlds his thoughts on the matter are more balanced. After all it was science that got their powers back, it was thinking hard that restored their worlds. Reno convinced him that the information gathering was just as important as fighting. Physical strength was important but so was everything else.
Shion still felt like he was someone who relied on others though, but he began to understand that that wasn't as bad as Nezumi made it out to be.
Friendship and Family
Nezumi taught Shion that having connections was a bad thing, that he should throw away the ties to his old life because all they could do was hurt him. Shion never fully believed it, or more he felt he was not a person who was strong enough to do such a thing. He still loved his mum, he still cared for Safu.
Shion after the tower believes that Nezumi was, in this instance, wrong. Connections made you stronger. It was the bonds between people that saved them in the tower. Friendships could drive the shadows back, connections to those you cared about opened the portals to allow them to rescue each other from their dead worlds. Their connections to their old worlds was the energy needed to restore them
In canon Shion only has Safu as a friend, and Nezumi. In the tower he found a family. Reno, Elena and Xion. Though they never replaced his mum they taught him a lot. Not just how to fight and stay alive. But how to live and how to love. He learned that you could love people in many different ways.
He also learned that in many ways Nezumi was right. Loving people was painful because you could lose them or they could be used to hurt you. Shion's feelings for Nezumi was used to punish him, breaking his spirit. Shion lost many friends and as they rushed on towards reviving their worlds he knew he would lose the rest. For all their hope there was a massive chance they would never see each other again.
But despite that it was worth it. If he had to chose between losing his new found family and friends and never having met them he would chose the former every time.
Culture and Learning
Animus Shion is quite well read, there was a library which he spent a lot of time in devouring the books. There was no history section so that is one area where he remains ignorant.
He researched a lot. He gathered information. He was part of the collar fluid research teams and though he started off as an assistant scientist he became team leader after their leader disappeared. He wrote a guide to edible plants he taught people ecology.
However there were times when he found he was not clever enough and it hit him hard. Notably was his punishment after the Labyrinth event when he was asked questions about literature and music and a version of Nezumi was stabbed every time he answered wrong. Another time he was killed for not being able to solve riddles. He took it very hard when the collar research was difficult.
When he first arrived in animus things such as magic, and science being broken (the floating island floors, floors bigger than they could possibly be etc) terrified him. Part of him was relieved when the glamour failed. Science wasn't broken, it was just a science more advanced than Shion understood.
And he got better in general in not panicking about the world not making sense. Alternative universes, magic, world eating virus', souls. To restore the worlds they essentially threw all the ideas into the middle. Every crazy theory, every way they could possibly fix things from barriers to time travel to the power of love. It was a impossible task huge and terrifying.
They succeeded. Despite the odds. The impossible does not scare Shion anymore.
Leadership
Shion is not a natural leader. Though he can take charge of situations- for example dealing with Nezumi's wound when they are younger he is not someone who would be comfortable in a position of leadership.
But he is capable of it (novel verse Shion goes on to lead his city for example). In the tower there were times when he found himself leading. For example in the collar research when Sertoria disappeared Shion took over as team leader. He slowly grew in confidence. When Reno created Ragnarok Shion was a team leader with Xion and Asch in his team.
When Reno was doubting his own ability to be a leader and claiming to not be strong enough Shion told him.
"Leaders are just people who lead. All that separates them and followers is that when the time came when someone needed to lead they were the ones who stepped forward."
Though Shion would still not naturally put himself forward in situations where leadership was needed unless there was no better choices he would not feel awkward if someone asked him to do so.
Memories
Due to his high death count Shion began losing memories. This terrified him, as he has such a good memory, forgetting things wasn't normal. When he realised he had forgotten that Dax had died he broke down. Because it wasn't just a fact, it was an event that he had witnessed, taken from his mind.
He relearned most of what he forgot. He forgot the colour of Nezumi's eyes (Reno told him they were grey, but he feels they were more than that), the name of his mums bakery (he never remembered as he had told no one nor wrote it down) and why his world was mostly wasteland (he has the version that he told Reno and Xion).
Because of this Shion became obsessed with writing things down and worried about the things that can't be put into words on paper. How did it feel to be hugged? How exactly to describe Reno's voice when he was teasing him? How to immortalise Xion's smile?
When they were discussing options in the end Shion argued passionately against a solution that would send them back in time if it would erase their memories claiming that forcing people to forget what happened there would be as great a crime as anything that was done to them in that place. Memories are precious to Shion.
Attitudes towards death
Death wasn't permanent in the tower, in fact it wasn't death at all as much as it felt like it. Shion had the highest death count in the tower. Some of that was due to the fact that when he first arrived he could not fight, panicked at everything and annoyed the wrong people. Later he became fascinated with the strange effects and it became a point of research for him.
He died twenty times and after about the fifth he stopped caring. He did try and be more careful when he realised how much it upset Xion. When he began loosing memories he became a lot more careful. He did not die between his October and May of year 3. He was quite proud of this achievement, seeing it as proof that he was becoming strong enough to survive.
In the cells during endgame he and Xion made a pact that they would try not to die anymore.
He still has strong feelings about other peoples deaths though. He believes others should not die and will be upset that they did, and angry if it is someone he is particularly close to. However the anger and sadness is more for the pain that dying caused them.
Loneliness
In many ways the worse fate in the tower was disappearing, returning to wander their dead world. Sometimes for a week, sometimes they never came back. Animus had a graveyard, a memorial for everyone whose souls had slipped out of the towers grasp.
Shion went to his dead world a few times, the longest time being just before they made the final push to restore the worlds when he was there for a month and a half. Being the only person in an entire universe where everything was dead, where things did not even rot because there was no living organisms at all is something that Shion has never been able to speak about. That level of loneliness was a shared experience in the tower something everyone who had ended up on their dead worlds understood and those who hadn't feared.
Shion has always liked people but was always quite awkward, might not seek out others if he didn't know them. Shion from the tower is a lot more likely to spend time around others. Most nights he spent curled up with Xion because nightmares are easier to keep at bay when others are there. He is a person who would always talk to someone if they seemed alone but now he will always make an attempt to connect with others, even if it led to awkwardness, being alone is not a fate he would wish on anyone.
Reality
Shion's big thing is knowing reality. No. 6 was a fake city, it was perfect but it was not real. When Nezumi rescued him despite his fear he was glad he saw the real world outside No. 6. He wanted to know the truth about No. 6 and why Nezumi hated it, it was important to him- he never did find out before his world ended.
In the tower he thought he knew about reality, the horror and the pain seemed like the 'real world' Nezumi was trying to teach him about.
Then he discovered that it was all fake, that in reality they were just souls... in wireframes. Everything was glamour. Everything he had seen for a year and a half was false.
It was awful but it was reality. More now than ever Shion would always rather know the truth. He would rather suffer then be kept in ignorance. He would rather a painful truth than living a peaceful lie.
Darkness and Loss of control
Shion has a lot of darkness inside him. In canon this mostly presents itself as Shion losing control when Nezumi is threatened, insulted or harmed going as far as murdering a guard violently after Nezumi was hurt. As he was brought from early canon he had only actually lost control once, when Rikiga insulted Nezumi.
The first time he lost control in Animus was after he was punished for dying in the labyrinth. When he broke through the numbness, the anger that the retrieval units had dared hurt Rat mixed with a panic response whilst getting his collar fluid checked and he went berserk.
He was killed and that was when Reno made the decision to make him a Turk. He lost control a few other times, most crucially when he killed Reno for betraying him (and more importantly betraying Xion). As things got worse Shion felt himself getting angrier more. He made a genuine effort to try and control the feelings. He tried training with Riku but that ended badly. He made a bit more progress with Diarmuid, chronicling feelings and trying to work out why he was feeling them.
He only managed to calm down when he got angry and lost control once, and that was with a lot of help from Diarmuid. But he has made more progress in realising sooner when he might get angry and has some strategies to calm down.
Nezumi/Rat
Shion's feelings for Nezumi are something that haven't changed much in the tower. He still believes that he owes Nezumi everything for rescuing him from No. 6. He still believes that compared to Nezumi he is not strong enough, that he will always be someone who relies on Nezumi and will just slow him down. Despite this he is desperate to prove that he can be Nezumi's equal, he can be someone Nezumi can be proud of.
If anything his feelings about Nezumi have grown in his time in the tower, Nezumi was used to break Shion before there even was a Nezumi as a resident. When there was a Nezumi he dismissed Shion as not even from his world- as the Nezumi was from novel verse where Shion's eyes turned purple not orange. He called him a sheltered child and refused to listen to Shion when Shion tried to explain things to him.
He was very defensive when Reno tried to convince Shion that Nezumi was not a good friend. He still maintains that the problem is with him not with Nezumi. After his time in the tower he says that he loves Nezumi, this is something he hadn't really qualified in his mind before he was taken from his world. He believes he needs to work harder to be a person Nezumi can trust in.
In the mirror in the void he saw glimpses of every possible future. Though they are vague and he cannot remember the specifics he saw Nezumi die many times, himself die, Nezumi leave him. He cannot remember one future where Nezumi stayed.
He really hopes that it was a trick, made to hurt him like so much in the tower was.
Feelings and hope for the future
Shion knows that if Nezumi had not saved him he would have grown up to be a mindless adult. He would have never known what it was like to love, or hate or feel. He now realised he knew nothing, even whilst living in West town. He knows hate now, he knows what it feels like to want to destroy everything around you. He knows love so deep it makes his heart want to burst. He knows loss, has lost many friends and had to make the choice that in saving his world and returning to it he would never see his friends and family from the tower again. He knows what it is like to lose, to be defeated, to be brought so low that he could not see a way to stand up again.
And he knows what it is to win. To succeed despite all the odds. To do the impossible. They restored the worlds, they beat Ruana. Rescuing Safu from the correctional facility, stopping bees from destroying No. 6 they are big difficult tasks, but Shion just helped restore hundreds of dead worlds. What is the government of No.6 compared to the end of the world itself? He helped defeat what was essentially a god, he feels hopeful that he and Nezumi can succeed. After all it is not like the parasite bees are driven by a research experiment victim infused with god like powers.
Abilities
Powers: Shion has no powers, he is a completely unpowered human.
Science and medical knowledge: Shion is very good at science. Though he was only twelve when he was expelled from the special program he had more knowledge than most adults. He is confident he can stitch Nezumi's wound even whilst admitting he has never done it before. Later after he has left No. 6 he is working on making a serum with his own blood to counteract the effects of the parasite bees.
In Animus his medical skills and knowledge grew. He worked under Hojo at the makeshift clinic and learned from him. He got very good at first aid and in first aid without a lot of supplies. Shion has never been squeamish but his time in the tower has made him even less so.
His science knowledge increased as well. Helping with the collar fluid research meant that he worked with scientists from other worlds and was able to help figure out how to unlock the potential from their souls. He has a very good memory and this helps him with science.
Survival and combat: There were times in the tower when food was stopped. Shion learned how to hunt from Reno, he also learned how to lay basic traps for smaller animals, how to prepare meat and how to cook on an outside fire.
He was able to use his No. 6 learned ecology and with help from Reno apply it to real life. He could gather edible plants and even made a guide to help others do the same.
Reno taught him to fight, both unarmed and using Reno's EMR. He got quite good at fighting, enough to hold his own against smaller monsters and against people that didn't have immense power. He became very fit (even without Reno's training there were 101 floors between the bedrooms and cafeteria) and strong. Strong enough that whilst they were kicked out of the tower by Zo and in endgame when Xion was injured Shion was able to carry her on his back quite easily.
That was all in a fake wireframe body that had grown over two years, that he had spent two years training. As he will have his canon body he will be back to having no strength and being generally unfit as well as being shorter. Even though he was aware they would be returning to their real bodies he never actually thought about what that would mean in terms of his strength and endurance.
He will still have the knowledge of how to fight, pressure points to immobilise people, fighting styles and how to defend himself. But he will lack the strength or stamina to back it up.
Other skills: Shion can cook and bake very well. He learned to swim in the tower. He can make half decent barricades.
Inventory: His clothes. (Light trousers, white shirt, blue cardigan and a pinkish/brownish coat.)
Sample
Thread Sample: Test meme! and also Here!