User Tools

Site Tools


character:jagdish-tsukinaka

This is an old revision of the document!


“I ask you now - and this is important, so do think before you respond, and answer earnestly: Will you be standing in our way?”

Jagdish Tsukinaka is the current spirit of Thorn - incarnated as the human Jagdish Nakano in 1802, son to Aglaia Nakano and Ji Nakano (a restorator) - and Arbiter.

Jagdish as Thornspirit

Jagdish does not fully comprehend his Thornspirit identity (other than 'something is clearly different about me') and was accordingly unnerved by the culminating signs of his unusual nature as he grew up. He keeps his hair as meticulously dyed black as he can - it's bright blue if left to its own accounts - and has avoided any questions as to his age since he hit his forties and still looked like he was in his early twenties.

Skills

He has the ability to craft matter as long as he doesn't start questioning how, as well as a few potent psychic tricks at his disposal, both of which he puts to use in his role as the Arbiter. Additionally, he has a charisma toward pokémon that he himself finds surreal and disconcerting, as outside of battles, pokémon tend to bestow friendship and trust on him without any cause.

Jagdish as Arbiter

Jagdish is not a friend of his role as Arbiter, but it's long since settled into habit for him, since he's accepted that pokémon will probably not accept anyone else for the role as long as he lives, and from the looks of things, his immortality makes that his purpose until the stars burn out or his life is taken, latter which he deems unlikely from outside attempts on it and isn't inclined towards out of his own volition in the least.

Personality

Jagdish is about as humble as a god ask to judge humanity by the pokémon legendaries can be. As such, he's extremely sure of himself and it's difficult, if not outright impossible, to take a bite out of his self-confidence. The worst he can fall to is a begrudging knowledge that he's currently guided by emotions clouding his judgement, something that's a rare occurrence and likely to become even more rare in future, given his immense age and experience.

He's fashioned himself into a very pleasant individual over the decades, except in two capacities: One, his role as Arbiter, which as as painfully neutral and rational as he can muster, with Council decisions utterly unempathetically executed; two, if something has attracted his ire, though despite wearing a far more frightful exterior toward those he's angry at, he's more bearable in this state given that in anger he does not have the cold precision he has in emotional distance (in part quite deliberately, since he dislikes acting from emotion rather than fact).

The most striking feature about his personality, however, is probably just the degree of dominance he exhibits. The furthest he comes to being submissive or humble is a calm, polite, persistently cautious manner explaining a situation - something he would adopt if he were somehow disarmed of his Thornspirit powers and at the hands of an angry mob. He's quick to demand obedience but - perhaps surprisingly - rather unfazed by the lack of getting it without working for it.

Outside of his 'official' deeds, he has a slight mischievous or fondly mocking streak, and he enjoys taking things literally that shouldn't be taken literally and flaunting his self-confidence with shameless retorts. To strangers, however polite he may appear, he's usually simply cunning and calculating rather than truly empathic (in part simply because he's likely to doomed to outlive any friendships he makes and thus shies away from deeper bonds), and if he detects someone might actually like him (to any degree), he's happy to milk it for all it's worth… although, to his partial credit, rarely to anyone's outright detriment - the most he'll take advantage of someone tends to be manipulating them to supporting his cause. Since he doesn't ever drop whatever act he has, he's not even particularly prone to causing anyone heartache.

Another notable aspect of his personality is that he draws few lines between people and pokémon in general. That goes much further than most people would assume and would probably get him burnt by the stake if some people found out just how friendly he gets with a fraction of them. (This is, by the way, an effect of the fact he simply meets far, far more pokémon on a personal level than he meets people and not any more common an occurrence than human/human romantic interactions would be.)

Excepting truly visceral anger reactions, Jagdish is non-violent and believes in peaceful solutions. He'd rather someone trying to assault him be disarmed as gently as possible than react in turn. He has no sadistic inclinations - something that certainly doesn't make his job as Arbiter any easier, though it does make it easier for him to accept Council rulings, since he finds the notion of taking joy out of another's pain or even just complete disregard for it deeply despicable, and a sad amount of pokémon trainers that make it up to Taqnateh are of such careless ilk. Equally, he's not in the least aversed to the use of pain as a way to get a point across, or as a form of retributive justice - of course, that follows from his acceptance of his role of Arbiter.

Stances on the current gym leaders

Cecile Madhukar

Despite Cecile having inherited her gym position, she's unlikely to lose it any time soon - not because she's not a headache for the gym circuit (she certainly is), but because she's so interwoven into the Science Center's daily machinations that it'd be hard to replace her without the effect going entirely ignored by the people of the Center and Njoty at large. Cecile is a celebrity and authority - she's not going to budge any time soon. Jagdish gets along with her better than Terry or Rose, however, simply because her voiced objections tend to be purely rational, however nitpicky and laced with mistrust they may be.

Terry Kiran

Jagdish finds Terry to be a bit on the immature side of things, albeit not because of his open misanthropism. Instead, what bothers Jagdish about Terry is the fear the man carries around with himself unnecessarily, and the fits of aggression it prompts. He's not in the least a fan of ruling by fear, and Terry is frustrating in that regard, and the next gymleader in line for replacement, as soon as Jagdish can find someone willing to fill in the role Terry has in the gym circuit - something that's a bit difficult, and unlikely to result in people with much better personalities.

Naomi Charna

Jagdish and Naomi respect each other to almost identical degree. They have very little emotional involvement with each other beyond what their professional interactions mandate. He finds her a pleasant individual - despite knowing, perhaps better than some, what lies beneath her polite surface. It certainly helps that the worst excesses of her hidden personality are directed against pokémon trainers rather than anyone else, which is an outlook he both of course understands and encourages.

Tove Zipporah

Jagdish considers Tove to be just a sliver short of naive and finds himself occasionally concerned by her young age (given the responsibility she shoulders, being a gymleader), but he cherishes her positive outlook on life and rarely questions her ability to master any situation given her boundless energy and enthusiasm. The biggest concern he has are honestly the inhabitants of Pyu Ivvi themselves and he trusts Tove's judgement that they'd not try to burn her on a stake for being a witch (though he's equally sure she has that status irrevocably in their eyes).

He feels he has something of a parental role to fill around her and could indeed be said to have a love for her as he would to a child of his own.

Rose Kaiki

Jagdish is no fan of Rose as a gymleader and would quite like to replace her with someone more malleable - she's as principled and hard-headed as he is, essentially - but knows that he'd have no means to do so, given her deep involvement in the Ehqaj City community. As such, he feels for her what she feels for him: A begrudging respect. He does know she's loyal to the gym circuit even if she doesn't approve of their methods, but he can't help but feel some unease that her personality may be unsuited for her job. It certainly doesn't help that she's simply not good at pokémon battles since she resents them so much - even if that trait endears her to him, personally, it's simply not a good trait for a gym leader to possess.

On a purely personal level, he cherishes her, since the way she views pokémon is so perfectly compatible with his views that it's hard to be anything but enamoured by her worldview, and he's quite a bit sad that she struggles to view him as a human being. If he could break her of her fearful attitude toward him, he would, but all meagre attempts so far have only left the status quo unchanged at best, and very occasionally worsened the issue, if only slightly.

Keith Sirius

Jagdish's opinion of Keith is that the man is clearly a kook, but he's quite fond of him for his intelligence.

He's been on the receiving end of one of Keith's 'friendly pranks' and has learnt to be cautious around him as well as just how to break him out of one of his 'playful' moods - a simple pounce and even light headlock usually does the trick, making it unmistakable that Jagdish is not to be trifled with. A firm, unafraid “No” can also help in a pinch. Nonetheless, there are days where he'll indulge Keith's morbid sense of entertainment, secure in the knowledge that Keith actually knows better than to piss him off. The delicate balance is quite expertly maintained - and Jagdish appreciates Keith for that, given that it proves without a doubt how perceptive he is beneath that supposed reckless, enthusiastic exterior.

Nonetheless, “or I'll send you to Keith” is occasionally his tongue-in-cheek way of 'threatening' gymleaders into compliance on trivial matters. He has no delusions about that Keith is a safe person to be around for anyone that doesn't happen to have the powers of Thorn or knows him well enough to switch his sadism off.

That being said, since Keith is expressly forbidden from physically harming anyone non-consensually and has adhered to this rule for as long as Jagdish can think, it's only anyone's psyche that he's concerned about… and Keith's position as the Kzye City gym leader makes that trait of his quite perfect from Jagdish's perspective. After all, a bit of psychological suffering never hurt anyone important.

Yarver Bakema

What started as a simple charisma exercise with Yarver has become a deep, genuine friendship. The relationship between Jagdish and Yarver is pretty much just a sliver removed from 'romantic'. They couldn't respect each other more if they tried. Of all gymleaders, Jagdish sees Yarver the most, visiting him at least briefly nearly each time he's down in Vale to buy something. In large part, that's owed to the fact that Jagdish is, quite honestly, entirely poor - he has no income, after all, since his settlement has no economy he could be part of, and so he's entirely dependant on the charity of his fellow gym leaders.

Yarver is possibly the only person Jagdish would consider deferring to - and, in fact, will occasionally ask his advice if he's not feeling sufficiently rational. Yarver certainly knows more about Jagdish than any one else (including Dakarai N'Sehla), being the one person that Jagdish will openly cry around if he's deeply upset.

As such, Yarver is one gym leader that Jagdish is wholly unwilling to swap for another.

Loyalties and Animosities in brief

TODO.

History

Jagdish has always liked pokémon, though pessimistic parts of his self point out that it's probably an inevitable attribute of… whatever it is he is. He worked in PokéCentres for most of his regular adult life, before it became too obvious to himself and others than he wasn't getting any older. After a bit of an incident involving his home town, Jagdish moved from place to place until he fell the decision to subvert the (budding) Sehto gym circuit as the practise was imported from overseas. He saw his way through it (with gritted teeth) and with effort (and no murders :P) ultimately replaced the eighth gym leader and de-facto leadership of the sparse Taqnateh settlement.

It's from that point onward that the legendaries considered him the Arbiter, and with the added pressure from them, he seeded the other gyms with the ones fortunate enough to get through Taqnateh alive, a practise he still repeats whenever chance arises, as not to let the message get washed out by something as simple as 'it was just passed on to me by my parents'. With how rare gym circuit runs have gotten in Sehto, however, and with the rate of actual survival in them quite low, quite a few current Sehto gym leaders simply inherited the position, which does not make for the smoothest possible sailing for Jagdish, though due to his rather real powers and allegiance with the legendaries (though he has yet to actually actively threaten anyone with them) - and because animosities are simply not that strong - thus far no one would dare to break the rules laid down by him.

Pokémon

Jagdish does not consider himself an owner of any of the pokémon that aid him, but the ones most frequently at his side are:

Descriptions from Sessions

Collected from Arsaga:

The silence passes, and those lanky arms relax, falling to his sides as he steps into the room, without bothering to close the door behind him, approaching Raiko with an expression wrought with pity, resentment and, paradoxially, friendliness. He extends his right hand, palm up. “Give me your hand,” he says, simply. No 'hello', no 'Hi, I'm Nemo', no 'So what do you think you were doing?'.

A brow arches and the exceptionally pretty face warps into a light grimace as the man leans toward him fractionally to seize one of his hands - turning it palm up and idly kneading into the base of the same. “First things first, Mr. Zelenka,” he says, regarding the hand rather absent-mindedly, but pronouncing Raiko's surname meticulously. “You don't remember last night, but I do. Allow me to refresh your memory?” It's a question. He's asking for permission to inform Raiko about the gaps in his memory? Why would he need permission for that? What a bizarre person…

“Nikki Arsaga - this girl from Kethi - both of you came up here looking for… clues?” The gaze snaps up to Raiko's face, solemn, stern, yet unquestionably alive, and the fingers kneading that hand halt their motion for a moment, to grant no distraction. Seeing recognition begin to dawn in Raiko's face, the man nods once, resumes his ritual, and exhales audibly, at which's end he strings the words: “I knocked you out, wiped your memories - and you're my captives now.” His tone is disturbingly neutral. “So much about last night.” His hands let go of the hand he'd kneaded… leaving Raiko with an almost unpleasant tingling sensation in his palm, mildly alien.

A brow arches yet again, though no comment accompanies it to explain its precise source, leaving Raiko in the dark as to what it might have been meant to criticise. The man straightens almost abnormally, before nodding once, meaningfully, slowly, to emphasise his words: “[How long I will keep you for] depends… well, this depends largely on you, to be precise, Mr. Zelenka.” Those strong hands fold at height of his hip and he regards Raiko with that same unbudging stern glance. “I can let you go… or I can incarcerate you for the rest of your life. […]”

The man frowns slightly, watching Raiko, before, obviously convinced that the pain has stopped, clearing his throat slightly. “You're wondering what you did to deserve that, aren't you?” he asks, the subtlest hint of pleading in his voice.

“Frankly…” the man trails off, tip of his tongue tracing across his lips contemplatively, his eyes narrowed to convey the same emotion, before he continues on normally: “You didn't deserve it.” He glances at Raiko for a moment, gaze seeking, darting across his shape with a hint of nervousness. “Think about that for a moment. Just a moment. I'll explain everything after a short pause - and I won't hurt you again.”

The man slides his arms behind his back, standing straight as though at attention, his arms folded behind him. “If you're feeling hurt, betrayed… loathed, perhaps… this pales in comparison to what many, many so-called pokémon trainers put their pokémon through. You, Mr. Zelenka, at least were never given the impression that the pain you've gone through was somehow a requirement for someone's friendship. You were given the courtesy of truth.”

“Do you [understand], really?” the man inclines his head. It's not a mock - instead, it has the tone of a serious, albeit somewhat doubting question. “Your companion, Nikki Arsaga, and her friends have entrapped pokémon with the primary goal of completing the gym circuit. Eight pieces of plastic like a band-aid over their pride.” He eyes Raiko, watching the words sink in, taking in the full extent of Raiko's understanding of the situation.

He glances at Raiko quietly, letting him finish speaking, before clearing his throat thoughtfully for a moment, before remarking: “I'm not sure they fully realise what they're doing, Raiko. As for [whether they die here]… yes. Yes, often. Not…” he trails off, face scrunching up. “Not always… but often. The majority of them leave their humanity at the doorsteps of the first gym.”

He smirks across at Raiko, a hint of sadness in that expression. He doesn't comment on Nikki, but once more lets Raiko finish his speech, before continuing his own. “I ask you now - and this is important, so do think before you respond, and answer earnestly: Will you be standing in our way, Mr. Zelenka?”

The man seems slightly jarred by the question, but blinks and nods softly. “Certainly. What do you wish to know?” he asks back, still astonishingly formal in the manner he carries himself, despite having shed the cold exterior from the initial conversation.

“We have the utterly best cuisine for Earl Grey,” he clucks, amusement tinkering in his voice. “And the cook is renowned for his excellect rendition of bacon and mash.” He gestures excellence with his right hand's index finger and thumb. “Highly recommendable.”

“I should probably check on Miss Arsaga before she ends up clawing at the walls, screaming, 'Oh my god, let me out of here, I have family!', don't you think?” he remarks after a moment's contemplation, inclining his head quizzically.

“I… do have a question before you go to see your… captive. Not only would I like to come up here and visit you often… I'd… like to study Mew… for my own interests. Nothing will get publicised unless it you wish it to do so.” - Jagdish regards Raiko for a moment, silently, before shaking his head. “You will do neither,” he says, simply, but not scornfully.

“So - you've come all the way up here to find nothing… I can't have that, now, can I?” he tsks, before adding, words heavy with sincerity: “Surely you want some breakfast.”

“My dear - if you live on your own for so many years, in such a desolate place, your name quickly becomes your most… prized possession.”

With a sigh, Jagdish moves to crouch before Dakarai, raising his left hand to his face to grip his chin slightly. “All right, I'll bite,” he says, tone conversational, even as his right hand is fishing for the item he'd brought along, without that his gaze drifts away from Dakarai's face. “I don't usually ask this question in this particular context, but you just keep prompting it: Why? Are you just sick of life - or did you actually have a motive?” While he's not keeping his voice artificially low, chances are it's not all too easy for Raiko to make the words out.

“Now that you're legally up here,” he remarks, bringing his hands up infront of him to knead his left hand's fingers into the structure of his right, cricking the knuckles slightly. “You can choose if you want to battle for the last badge.” And, with a slight hiss, he adds: “And try not kneejerk your decision.”

The gymleader stands at a distance on the rows of 'seats', fingers flexing, expression entirely unfazed, perhaps considerably more calculating that they might have estimated. His hair, of all things, is blue, streaking up like a crowd of hot flames. His skin seems white against the black attire, making his appearance seem almost like that of a modern painting rather than a depiction of a real human being, much less a photorealistic one. “You will play by my terms or not at all,” he remarks, proving the image is his own, the recognisable voice coming from him, passing moving, pale lips. His gaze seems latched not on Devi, but on the weapon her right hand's fingers are desperately locked around, knuckles whitening.

His gaze drifts up from Devi's writhing shape, away from the source of aggressive, snarling whimpers, a feisty display of pure fury, unrelenting; up to Marcus' face, though the gaze seems almost unseeing. A moment later, Devi shrieks, and the whip clatters to the ground beside her, her fingers letting go as she seemingly twists forward unnaturally… until it would become obvious that it's her shoulder joint that's bent beyond its natural limits, no doubt dislocated. Pinky and ring finger of her right hand tremble, wrist unmoving in the pokémon's grip. Her eyes have closed, though Marcus can't see it, leaking reflexive tears. “My terms - or not at all,” he repeats, emphasising the words more like a threat, his eyes narrowing a touch.

Jagdish chuckles darkly, even as the rock snake appears - it curling in rumble, not sure how precise it is supposed get at its opponent, and who its opponent is meant to be; in short, unable to understand what Marcus suspects it to interpret into 'get him' - sliding his fingers around the offered pokéballs, both hands curving to hold them. “Mister Arsaga, don't you think the battle has been decided?” he asks, voice clear, echoing slightly in the arena, tone casual, perhaps infused with slight amusement.

Devi stares across at the gymleader incredulously, scrambling to remember the terms he had laid out for the battle - loss by knock-out, hadn't it been? The three pokémon Vendetta had taken weren't knocked out - they were in their pokéballs, otherwise removed from battle.

Jagdish regards Marcus and his pokémon with a light smirk, the expression slowly melting into something less aggressive, becoming a lightly concerned glance toward the other trainer. His words, though, retain that darkness: “Are you going to raise a fuss over your part of the deal?” A brow arches quizzically, even as Vendetta steps forward, closer toward him, yet at the same time to the side. Jagdish's right hand comes to rest loosely against the pokémon's right shoulder in casual but blatant display of friendship.

It is then that Devi's silence shatters. “It is not over,” she says, tone flustered, tremble both of fear and fury in her voice, her eyes widened and yet narrowed at the edges. “Daemon is still conscious - and Marcus has three pokémon to go!”

Jagdish sighs almost theatrically, shaking his head. “Vendetta suffered an accidental SLASHing - but aside from that, is still quite comfortably standing, and could have crushed 'Daemon's consciousness out of it if he'd wished to, in passing. The trainer had a little nap…” - that last phrase is spoken in a mocking half sing-song - “…and now it seems that I have three of his pokémon. If you want, I will summon them one by one and Vendetta will wipe them all out, but is that really necessary?”

Devi, meanwhile, exhales sharply, sagging abruptly against Neike's shape - and bursts into mostly quiet sobs, fingers curled around the restraining arms, prying at them without much conviction. “Let him go… just… let him go - what did he ever do to you?” she groans, throwing the words at Jagdish with individual force as though they had been intended to be spoken with far more malice.

Jagdish responds coolly and immediately with: “That isn't the question, young lady,” which prompts Devi to snort: “Then what is?” Jagdish frowns lightly, peering at the chaotic bundle of clothes and flesh that is Neike and Devi. The silence evidently lingers longer than Devi cares to put up with. “What is?” she grunts, head rolling against Neike's chest, tone laced with a defeated air. “Later,” Jagdish remarks, casting a bitter smile across at Devi, corrupted result of his attempt to give a friendly answer.

character/jagdish-tsukinaka.1355780631.txt.gz · Last modified: 2017/11/18 21:34 (external edit)