// app

[hooey]

Applicant Info

◎ Name: Aaya
◎ Journal: kenya
◎ Contact: cuethemesong @ gmail // yagyuu

Character Info

◎ Character's Name: Ren Suzugamori
◎ Character's Canon: Cardfight!! Vanguard
◎ Character's Age: 17
◎ Canon Point: Post season 4
◎ Background/History: Cardfight!! Vanguard, Ren's surprisingly detailed character page on the wikia however it uses a lot of card jargon so I'm including my own too--;

In the near future, card games have become one of the world's most popular past-times. The most notable of these card games is Vanguard - a game where players control armies of humans and monsters to victory against their opponents. In middle school, Suzugamori Ren was an innocent kid with a simple dream - to win the Vanguard National Championship. He, along with friend Shinjou Tetsu and new transfer student Kai Toshiki, formed a team in order to do just that. For a while, things were great.


Of course, this is a card game show, so nothing stays nice for long.

When brought together with the overachieving and talented Kai, Ren's desire to help his team as best he could warped into a lust for power that brought his PSYqualia to the surface. PSYqualia is a power seemingly born from ambition, granting the user precognition (through connection to the fictional[??] planet Cray, where the Vanguard units reside) and corrupting their personality with its strength. The sweet, innocent Ren swiftly transformed into someone extremely arrogant and ambitious, twisting his personality until he was unrecognisable. It unhinged him, and though Kai tried his best to make Ren see reason again, he was driven away by Ren’s new ideals and the guilt of believing he had sent Ren down this path.

Over the next two years, Vanguard grew in popularity and Ren fell further into his delusions of grandeur. Ren developed Team Foo Fighter, his own company, to create Vanguard technology but to primarily filter out strong cardfighters (including Tetsu and a devoted, powerful girl named Asaka) in order to “take the Championship, and then the world.” In the present day of the story, our protagonist Aichi is slowly falling into the clutches of his own PSYqualia, ignited by the same desire to catch up to Kai. His first meeting with Ren properly sets off his PSYqualia for the first time, and Ren makes it his mission to bring Aichi over to his side by showing him how powerful PSYqualia can make him. Kai takes matters into his own hands by confronting Ren and then seeking to heal Aichi of PSYqualia’s influence, believing he is now strong enough. Kai is successful, undoing all of Ren’s work by bringing Aichi back to his senses, but Kai in all his desperation fails to defeat Ren. Ren's fate is instead left in the newly-freed Aichi's hands. Thankfully Aichi has discovered a few things through his dealings with PSYqualia, and is able to finally overcome Ren's strength by accepting both the 'light' and 'dark' in himself and besting Ren in the Vanguard National Championship finals.

Then some jerk comes along and resets the timeline.

Season 2 of Vanguard begins with a cast-wide precision memory wipe that only Aichi seems immune to. The three major card clans of the previous season have been sealed away, and everyone's memories of them with it, including Ren's. Now with no memory of having every gained PSYqualia, Ren seems to have mostly reverted to his childish younger personality. Ren is amiable and encouraging to other cardfighters and glad to have Kai with him when Kai rejoins Foo Fighter. As the cast makes their way through the Asia Circuit Tournament they meet Tatsunagi Takuto, the tournament's benefactor who is somehow connected to PSYqualia; and Souryuu Leon, a boy from a dying clan who also possesses the power. The season's climax has Takuto bring Aichi, Ren, Leon and the others to a border between Cray and Earth, where an entity named Void is threatening both worlds. Leon reveals himself as a pawn of Void, but is stopped after Aichi frees the sealed clans (which returns everyone's memories) and defeats Leon. Void is stopped for now, and life returns to normal.

But "for now" proves to be not long at all as Void makes itself known again in season 3. At the start of the year, having freed everyone's memories and restoring normality, Aichi enters high school. He forms a new Vanguard club and enters the high school Vanguard circuit, currently dominated by Fukuhara High; Ren's school. Ren and Aichi bring their respective teams to the local finals, and their display of growth and strength as they fight ignites some kind of jealousy in Kai that draws Void to him. Kai, seeking answers for all these darn emotions he seems to be having, is drawn into a fight with Takuto, who has been corrupted by Void. Losing the fight, Kai becomes "Reversed"; infected by Void and turned to its destructive mission. Kai spreads Reverse throughout the city, infecting most of Fukuhara's student body before moving on to other countries.

Ren blazes his way through Reversed fighters, Unreversing those he defeats. Eventually, Ren faces off against his friends who have been Reversed, including Asaka and Tetsu, and prevails in all of his fights. Eventually, the Reversed Kai returns to Japan and triggers a series of events that almost kills and Reverses Aichi, opens a portal, and allows Void's minions to enter Earth. Ren seeks to fight Kai, who accepts it as a challenge of strength; their fight becomes heated quickly with Ren (and Kai, actually...) slipping further and further into crazed competitiveness, claiming that fighting Kai is what he lives for. Ren, however, loses as Kai reveals new trump cards - but Ren is saved from Reverse by losing consciousness and only reawakening after Aichi defeats the Void-possessed Takuto who held the key to Reverse. Aichi also defeats Kai, convincing him that he doesn't need to prove himself any longer. Life returns to normal as Void is eradicated from the planet.

Aichi and any trace of him vanishes suddenly at the beginning of season 4, prompting a distraught Kai (originally the only one with lingering memories of Aichi) to gather a band of "mates" to find him. Kai, naturally, eventually goes to Ren. Ren feigns innocence, initially denying any knowledge of "Sendou Aichi"... but after Kai returns once more having gained further information, Ren offers him a cardfight to allow Kai to show his feelings. Ren, realising that Kai's desire to find Aichi is completely sincere, intentionally loses the fight. He divulges a clue that leads Kai to Aichi's residence (on the moon) where he sleeps, Aichi having unknowingly having been infected by a remaining seed of Void from Kai's previous actions.

Ren had been approached by Aichi prior to his disappearance. Aichi had requested that Ren become a "Quatre Knight", someone that would protect Aichi as he kept the last remainder of Void away from the world(s). Ren refused to agree to Aichi sealing himself away, but agreed to protect his secret if approached. Aichi also approached Leon, who basically said the same thing as Ren; Ren and Leon therefore retained their memories of Aichi and became secret keepers. Leon however also breaks his agreement with Aichi and assists Kai and his mates - when things go bottoms-up on the moon for Kai and the others, both Ren and Leon come to assist them. Kai eventually prevails over the Void and purges it from Aichi, bringing Aichi back to his normal life as everyone returns home. Several weeks later, Ren and the other third-years are revealed to be graduating soon, as the series comes to a close.

◎ Is the character a hacker and/or do they have a sixth-sense? No, but he's no slouch with technology either.

◎ Personality:

All the way back in season one, Ren was well and truly a villain. Megalomaniacal, cold and uncaring, Ren treated people like pawns and sought to manipulate others for his own ends. His cruelty was matched only by his talent for cardfighting. Despite that, others flocked to AL4 and others aspired to be like him. Extremely condescending, Ren wouldn’t even recognise the existence of those he deemed unworthy. He had power, and the distasteful personality to go with it. This had all been caused by his obsession with PSYqualia, and his abuse of the power. Thankfully, Ren isn’t like that anymore.

Ren is... strange.

Ren has completely reverted from the egotistical, grandiose PSYqualia-possessed personality he had in season 1. The loss of memories at the beginning of season 2 and the subsequent regaining of them at the end of the season affected his demeanor, resulting in the Ren we have today. He now comes across as rather sweet, if a little pushy and childish; however, he retains a powerful presence and slight air of mystery. By no means is Ren stupid, though. While scatterbrained and disconnected in his thoughts Ren is still a careful strategist and surprisingly good at giving advice, not just regarding cardfights. He is highly intelligent and seems to have an endless wealth of random knowledge, but isn’t always aware of the right time to bring it up. Easily distracted, Ren can quickly switch from one topic to another and go off on tangents, which often leads to confusing conversations. This tendency also helps mask his talent of talking in circles - he's extremely good at diverting conversations away from topics he's not willing to discuss.

His personality seems to clash with the fact that he's technically the CEO of a technology company, developing tech for improving Vanguard fights. Foo Fighter runs smoothly with his input - however, Ren leaves most of the technical work to other people. Ren encourages experiments and participates in testing, willing to lend a hand and be active in the company as long as he doesn't have to actually sit down and think too much about anything.

However, his vague demeanour is only skin-deep. Ren actually pays careful attention to situations and people, and every single action he takes is carefully calculated despite how random it may appear. Even if he appears lazy and uninformed, Ren is always aware of what he needs to do to help himself and other people. It's rare for Ren to overexert himself, but he knows when and why he's needed. Catching him off-guard is difficult, and he's very good at recovering from the occasional moment that does throw him. He's good at thinking on his feet and re-evaluating his own actions.

Ren dislikes being talked down to and isn’t afraid to speak his mind about things that are bothering him. He’s a professional whiner and an expert at how to drag people into things they don’t necessarily want to do. Appearing ignorant about some emotions (particularly attraction of others towards himself), Ren can be brutally honest - and will also sometimes intentionally hurt people’s feelings if he feels they deserve it. Ren can get very sarcastic and terribly condescending towards those acting rudely or stupidly. But he’s actually a very good judge of character, and generally wouldn’t associate with people he didn’t like in the first place. For those he does like, Ren is a surprisingly empathetic presence; those he cares about are precious to him. Ren can be selfish, but is actually very aware of when he needs to be compassionate. It’s difficult to get Ren truly angry, but an angry Ren can be very dangerous. As he’s liberal with his emotions, fury can colour him badly and he can display shades of ruthlessness attributed better to his PSYqualia personality. Ren's wrath can be invoked by hurting or manipulating the people he cares about, as he will go to any lengths to avenge or free them. Ren also hates being tied down, and any attempt to force him into a role will be met with harsh rebuttal. He's someone who values his freedom, as he's worked hard for it.

Ren's nastier streak tends to manifest itself differently in competition. Strong opponents drive Ren to improve himself, and he always aims for victory. Repeated clashes between himself and an evenly-matched player whom he respects can lead to a somewhat obsessive, almost sadistic reaction where Ren will begin to play as brutally as possible to grasp a certain victory. This doesn't happen all the time, though; there are certain triggers to sparking that side of Ren. High stakes and danger seem to be the clearest ones. Due to their history as rivals, fighting Kai appears to cause the strongest of these reactions. His passion for victory can sometimes blind him from the bigger picture. With that said, he's not above appreciation for other people's reasoning - if winning a fight has higher stakes for his opponent than it does for him, Ren will take that into account in his plays.

All in all, Ren is hard to pin down. He's flighty and fickle, but also intense and intelligent; his emotional rollercoaster through the first few story arcs has left him with a unique disposition and a strong desire to... well, basically to do what he thinks is best for himself and those around him. It isn't exactly justice or compassion that drives him, but instead a strong level of self-awareness.

◎ Powers/Abilities:

◎ Weapons & Other Special Inventory: Ren will be bringing several decks of Vanguard cards with him; five, to be exact. The decks possess no supernatural abilities of their own, although characters with clairvoyance may sense something distinctly dark about all of them. I will include decklists in his profile (and on request if you'd like to see them beforehand).

CEREALIA-Specific

◎ Element: Fire
◎ Sense: Sight - PSYqualia manifested physically as a swirling glow in the eyes; sight is essential to playing Vanguard.
◎ Seven Character Traits:
+ intelligent, amiable, observant
- cryptic, possessive, fickle
= fiercely competitive

Samples

◎ First-Person Sample:

◎ Third-Person Sample:

◎ Is your character retaining any previous game memories? Nope!