Updated August 5th, 2013!
Individual Character's full name: Tetsuya Shinbo
Alias/ Nickname/ Code name: Shin, Shard
Gender: Male
Age: 33
Date of Birth: 01/22/1988
Birthplace/ Home/ Place of origin: Kyoto, Japan
Nationality: Japanese
Ethnicity/ Cultural Heritage: Japanese
AppearanceHair color and style: Black hair, kept short.
Skin Tone: Your typical Asian skin tone, a creamy light brown.
Eye Color: Hazel
Height: 170 cm (5’6”)
Build: Shin often trains at a dojo, the danger room, or at a gym, so he’s toned, but not exceedingly muscular.
Visible mutation: His eyes have triangular pupils. The tip of the triangle points up.
Scars/ Tattoos/ Piercings: He used to have a tattoo of Yotsuba, a little green anime girl, on his rear… due to Abyss. But it got removed due to shenanigans.
Other features: (if applicable)
Everyday clothing style: Varied. He likes white shirts, jeans, black slacks, hoodies, and humorous t-shirts. He also likes long flowing white coats and anime-inspired creations.
Uniform: These days, it’s likely to see Shin wearing a New York City Police officer uniform. Otherwise, he creates his X-men uniform, or wears the coat Kealey made specially for him.
Sleepwear: White undershirt and shorts.
Miscellaneous clothing: Silver wedding band. White GARO-themed jacket.
CharacterPersonality: Shin's a nice guy with a kind heart. While at times he can be goofy, or over-the-top, when something important is on the line, Shin's personality shifts. He becomes calm, focused, and determined. He protects friends, no matter what.Shin is good at empathizing with people and their problems. He tries to be understanding and sensible. At times, he might even be considered sweet.
In fights, Shin in strategic. He prefers finesse and creative thinking over brute force in taking down his foes. Brute force is easy. It's also dangerous. Someone could get hurt. Over time, Shin has worked at focusing his powers in ways that minimize damage, going with the belief that less is more. His shard strategies keep getting more focused and compact.
Beneath the sugar-coated exterior of the goofball X-man, there's a darker side. During his life, Shin has gotten into his share of trouble and dealt with the wrong crowds. He's competed in underground boxing tournaments. He's done some things he isn't proud of. He's dealt with anti-mutant extremists. He went through the Romanian Registration camps. It affected him emotionally, even if he wears a brave face. It made him understand that the world isn't perfect. There's darkness. There are bad people. The world is dangerous, and living in it is difficult... but that's okay. It's worth it, living. You do your best. Sometimes, you can't be the hero. Sometimes, you just get by.
Hobbies/ Interests: Shin's hobbies are practicing jujitsu, boxing, and wushu kung fu. He practices at the Flying Dragon dojo on weekends when he has the time. He goes for runs when he can, and occasionally trains in the Danger Room or at the gym. Shin's favorite genre of literature is science fiction, and he collects comic books (both Japanese and American). He likes watching all sorts of interesting stuff. His favorite is Tokusatsu series like GARO or Kamen Rider.
Job or part time job and description: Shin is currently working as a MRC police officer. He is also an X-men team leader. He used to work at the Full Circle Book store, and as a mansion greeter.
Fears/ phobias/ concerns: Deep down, he fears old age and indecision. The inability to act is a terrifying thing. Shin also fears losing the people he cares about.
Special talents: Shin knows how to knit and sew, thanks to his mother and Kealey. He has several years of martial arts experience. His main focuses are jujitsu and wushu kung fu. Due to remnants of memories from the future plot, he finds wushu kung fu easier to grasp than he would, otherwise. As a kid, he played around in kendo and karate, but those weren't for him. He never spent much time working on them, and barely knows the basics. He graduated from college with a 4 year degree in mathematics.
MoralityGood/ bad/ neutral/ other: As far as morality goes Shin is a good guy, through and through. He’s kindhearted, and likes to be good to others, although in his line of work, that isn’t always possible. He doesn't like seeing people hurt. As an X-man and a cop, he's seen some rough things. These things made him more hesitant to put people in the line of fire unless it’s unavoidable. He feels that citizens shouldn’t be running around trying to save people, unless they’re working with the police (like the X-men). It’s unnecessary. If people are in danger, he’ll do everything in his power to help people. He hates it when they throw themselves into danger without thinking about the risks. The police coached him on that.
MutationsMutation Description: Triangular barrier creation and manipulation.
Shin can create and manipulate razor-sharp, diamond-hard, levitating, triangular barriers with his mind. He calls them ‘Shards’. He uses these shards to form psychic constructs, like blades or armor. During his time experimenting with his mutation, he's gotten very good at making detailed constructs.
When he forms shapes, he imagines the geometry behind them. He stacks shards and arranges them, and colors each and every shard. He can also use this power to add many layers of tiny shards to constructs in geometric patterns such that the end result is a rounded (or blunted) form. These shards can stack up like dots in a pointillist painting, many small points all contributing to one clear image. With enough time and drafting, there are very few objects his mind can't sculpt.
His power is heavily weighted in math. Because Shin has to imagine how things come together, some constructs take more time than others to form. Practice makes perfect and can reduce the time a little, but as mentioned before, many things still take mental drafting. It's like building a 3D model on a computer. It takes time to make the wire frame, program how it moves and works, add a skin, and paint it. His body and mind have adapted to make this process easier, thus increasing the speed at which he can generate and control shards. He calls this adaptation 'Triangle Eyes'.
Triangle Eyes make his pupils appear triangular, black point up. They enhance the part of Shin’s mind that deals with mathematics, allowing him to perform rapid calculations in his head on par with a powerful calculator. They change how he sees the world, to display things for him on a mental grid. The grid allows for perfect depth and angle perception, which helps him in a variety of ways. Knowing the distance and angles of surface allows him to be more cautious, by rounding and blunting edges to reduce the chance he cuts things he didn't want to cut. It helps with his spatial awareness, to help him avoid side-swiping allies when he's cutting down trees in the wild. The mental side of his mutation allows him to do math quickly, and build up mental models faster than before. Rounding and model-making have also led to shard armor, a type of construct built up directly on his skin or clothes, for added protection.
With shard armor, shards are built up onto Shin (or a target) in layers. The layers stack like a fish's scales, or scale mail, or ring mail, or plate armor (or whatever armor type he's mimicking today), ultimately leading to armor composed of several grain-sized scales of mail! And thanks to rounding, each layer is arranged in such a way that this razor armor is unlikely to cut its wearer into ribbons if hit by a strong enough punch. Unlikely, but not impossible! Still, shard armor looks AWESOME and provides your good ol' fashioned friendly neighborhood body armor style protection in many forms. Shin likes it a lot.
Through the use of Triangle Eyes, and the process of 'Rounding', Shin learned to armor himself. He learned to form constructs, round them, and fire them off. Those are called 'Shard Bullets'. And thanks to triangle eyes, he's more capable of making complex psychic constructs now than he ever was before.
Strengths:His shards are razor-shard, and their hardness is comparable to diamonds on the Mohs scale. He can control them, create things with them, use them for offense, defense, and utility. With a little finesse, he can even use them for levitation and flight, through the use of shard platforms or shard armor.
His shards exude whatever emotion he's feeling, which is mainly important to Empaths. They can come in a variety of colors, with various traits. He can color them any color you can imagine, changing their coloration before your very eyes. He can make them clear, opaque, or reflective. They've also been known to glow at times, though Shin hasn't mastered making them glow at will. The triangles he creates come in a wide range of sizes, from 12 inches large… to a little smaller than a the tip of a needle. Many tiny ones can work together to add details to constructs, like pixels in a picture or dots on a pointillist painting. It all adds up. Rounding allows Shin to create spherical shapes of varying sizes, complexity, and coloration. He can use these to form shard armor, as well as shard spheres. Because of this, Shin can use tiny rounded shapes (and regular shapes) to make complex shapes beyond just ‘spheres’.
One of Shin’s tricks is called Shard Spheres. Shin can fire these spheres off like fastballs using concentrated psychic force. Doing so requires 2-3 seconds of mental focus, and causes recoil. After a sphere is fired, Shin must take a second or two to catch his breath. These spheres have a top traveling speed of 75MPH. The spheres can vary from ping pong ball to beach ball-sized. They hit about as hard as a ball shot from a pitching machine or a hockey puck hit at top speeds. They can break glass, dent cars, and leave a nasty bruise.
Through concentration, Shin can manipulate his shards to form Shard Armor. Shard armor is hard as diamonds, and can dissipate force, and take blows just like regular armor. It looks however he wants it to look at the moment. He spends a lot of time designing new suits. He’s mastered making things look detailed, for vanity’s sake. A sexy suit of tuxedo shard armor can be just as good as a suit of medieval full plate. While wearing Shard Armor, Shin is still capable of Shard Manipulation. This means he can add to the armor, or create floating shard constructs around him (within range).
Triangle Eyes allow for perfect depth and angle perception, and rapid calculation, which helps Shin know distances between points, angles, and measurements at a glance. This helps in every aspect of his mutation.
Weaknesses:Shard travel has a maximum air speed of 75MPH, if Shin is flying alone. With the weight of one or two passengers, his maximum flight speed drops to around 45 to 55MPH. The more he carries, the greater the drain on him, physically and mentally. Maneuverability and speed suffer, due to encumbrance.
Shards are sharp. If he isn’t careful, he can injure friend and foe alike. His ability is a double-edged sword. Because of this, he’s evolved his use of his power and turned it inwards, focusing on armoring himself, rather than cutting down foes. He tries to focus on defense, and on minimizing the potential for damage his own ability can do.
His Triangle Eyes identify him as a mutant, and while they allow for rapid calculations, he still needs to study and keep up his skills at math. They’re as useful as a calculator. Calculators are useless without a strong guiding mind. His eyes are also sensitive to strong lights, so he’s taken to wearing shades.
Since his brain is constantly calculating distances, he has greater susceptibility to dizziness and motion sickness. Because of this, he tends to avoid using storms of shards. While he has no trouble controlling a few shards here or there, or coating himself in shard armor, a constantly-shifting sea of shards is sure to make him motion sick. As might Jello… or a really busy aquarium. Thus, he aims to use one few constructs, and shard armor, instead of the shard storm strategy he might have used in the past. Due to a hyperactive mind, Shin often suffers from insomnia.
Shards aren’t permanent. If Shin is knocked unconscious, shards vanish.
They also have a limited range of control.
Shin’s maximum range is 1000 feet. Shards can travel a maximum of 1000 feet away from Shin before vanishing completely.
If Shin isn’t focused on keeping his shards active, they go away. The only exception to these rules are a pair of wedding rings Shin made for Kealey and himself. These permanent shard constructs took a great deal of concentration to make. They don’t suffer the weakness of distance limits set by Shin's main mutation. They don't go away while Shin is unconscious, of vanish if he stops focusing on them. There are three ways to get rid of them: destruction of the construct, Shin willing it, and Shin’s Death. The maximum number of permanent mental constructs available at one time is two. Shin can control them, as he could any other shard construct. He can also sense their presence, and track them with his mind.
Constructs take time and focus to create. Shin spends a lot of his free-time brainstorming new tricks, and practicing them, so he can make them quickly and easily when they’re needed. Even with the practice, though, complex constructs like shard armor still take several minutes to create. Because of the focus required for some of his constructs, Shin can only work with about three constructs at a time. That includes shard armor, but doesn’t include his wedding rings. That means if shard armor’s up, Shin can only use two more constructs, at most.
There are limits to Shin's focus. If he's at his limit of 3 summoned shard constructs, he can focus on one, maybe two, fist-sized groups of shards. Those groups can be free-floating, or drawn to an existing construct to build onto it, or reinforce it. In lieu of this, he can focus on two hand-sized shards, or one hand-sized shard and one fist-sized group of shards, and can use these to build and reinforce. Shin can really only focus on about 5 mutation-related things at once... and it's exhausting. Usually, he'll try and use less than three constructs, and a minimal number of shards.
Shards themselves also take time to call into being. While shards summoned through focusing for around 2-3 seconds or longer are at the level of a diamond’s hardness (10), shards summoned in a split second to react to a threat are much weaker. On the Mohs hardness scale, a shard summoned in haste would be about the hardness of glass (6). Rapidly-summoned shards with this hardness have a tendency to shatter into smaller triangles when a strong force is applied. They hover in the air for a second, and then vanish as Shin’s focus on them breaks.
When shards get hit hard, Shin has to work hard to focus on keeping them together. Destroyed Shards cause mental strain. The strain is equivalent to the amount of shards destroyed, as well as their size. A few average-sized shards would be relatively minor, while a large shard construct might take its toll on his mind. Destroying a few tiny shards wouldn’t affect him as much as destroying a ton of huge shards, or an entire shard wall, but if someone managed to shatter an entire suit of armor, all the little shards would add up to a whopping big headache for Shin.
The concentration required to keep up Shard Armor is great. While wearing shard armor, Shin’s range is reduced to one quarter of its current maximum. In this case, 250 feet. This reduces the amount of shards Shin can summon and control, by reducing the area he has to summon them in. His focus is drawn towards the countless shards on his person.
Because shards conduct heat and electricity well, Shard armor is weak to both heat and electricity. Shin's own body heat can also make situations too hot to handle. It's easy to become overheated in full-plate shard armor. Shards also don’t form a perfect seal in most situations, so water can get in. And just like any type of body armor, shard armor isn’t perfect. People in body armor can still get injured if they’re hit wrong. Bullets will still rock him. Falling will still hurt. And with shard armor, just like with diamonds, if it’s hit wrong, it can crack. It might provide excellent protection from blunt trauma, but it isn't the best at stopping piercing attacks like arrows and spears. Knives, it can manage. Also, if Shin is hit wrong, someone’s forcing scale mail made of blunted razors into his flesh. That is bad. This is why he doesn’t often wear shard armor on bare flesh.
Finally, while Shin is good at coloring his shards, he has not attained the level of coloring a skilled computer painter has. His constructs look plenty good. Shin can make a tuxedo that is colored like a tuxedo, but it does not look like fabric. He cannot mimic visual textures on objects using shards. (See Power Growth for updates.)
Power Growth: Henshin -- (Coming soon!)
By focusing for a time, Shin is capable of building up mental constructs within the confines of his mind. After the 'charge up' period, these constructs can be summoned fully-formed, rather than built up with torrents of shards. This 'charge up' time varies in length from 10-20 seconds for your more simple constructs, up to 2-3 minutes for full shard armor. He calls the charge up ‘Henshin’, which is Japanese for ‘transformation’ or ‘transform.’
Strengths:The longer he focuses, the more detailed constructs can appear. Shard armor can replicate the visual textures of detailed cosplays. He can make a really cool-looking sword. He can do limited camouflage.
Shard armor takes less time to form using this growth, and it works great for smooth-looking plastic and metal Kamen-rider cosplays! It looks great, and gives him a chance for slick-looking transformation sequences, an important thing in any battle! Classic shard armor takes up to 5 minutes to build up during battle. By focusing for 2-3 minutes during battle, he can summon shard armor via ‘Henshin!’
The growth doesn't restrict him to only using it. He can use his old method of shard manipulation, too. He just can't use both skills at the same time. Once the armor's summoned, though, he can use his classic power.
Weaknesses:Limited Memory. Shin will only be able to remember 11 different costume changes of shard armor with detailed visual texturing, and 11 different detailed shard constructs (in addition to his basic shard shapes, which take up very little memory).
He'll still be required to practice and study how to make said constructs, and remember his math.
The texturing is somewhat realistic, but it isn't a physical texturing. It's just visual. Something that looks silky smooth won't feel like silk. Things can only appear rubbery. They won't feel that way. The only exception to this is physically rough textures, though a rough-looking brick design won't feel like brick. Just rough.
If the shard armor is summoned using the Henshin power, he can’t use his Henshin effect to charge up further construct summons without first dismissing the shard armor.
The great detail that goes into his shard armor and detailed shard creations is useless in battle. It just looks good. It does not make him any more dangerous.
This power seems like it might be useful for camouflage, and it would be, if he stood still. But it's as useful as wearing camouflage pants during a street brawl. He won't blend in with a thing. The texture mimicking is purely for style, to make his shard armor look like a well-done cosplay. He really likes Kamen Rider. And, to reiterate, it takes time. He has to spend time out-side of battle, practicing and figuring out how to replicate the visual textures of things for his costumes. He has to spend time in-battle going over the data he remembers. He has to charge his transformation sequence up over a minute, and I've saved the best for last! During the charge up time, he can't use his mutation to summon or manipulate any shards. Any shards he already had out go bye bye, too (save for Shin and Kealey's wedding bands)! He's left with his wits and whatever he has on him until his transformation is charged up.
Here's a list of the 11 armors and 11 constructs in his repertoire (to be updated and edited as it changes):
Armor (10/11 so far): Tuxedo Mask, Kaito Kid, Golden GARO Armor, Kamen Rider Ichigo, Kamen Rider Double, Kamen Rider Kabuto, Kamen Rider Den-O (Sword Form), Reinforced Bullet-proof Vest, Saejima Kouga's outfit. And of course, default shard armor.
Detailed Constructs (7/11 so far): GARO Wolf Fang Sword, Porygon, Sirius Black's Motorcycle (with Sidecar, and without), Kamen Rider Den-O (Sword Form)'s Sword, Saejima Kouga's sword, Gouten, zanbato, a sexy katana (because why not?)
Shard armor default description: Default shard armor is streamlined and seamless, with little ostentation other than two long triangular “icicles” on his right shoulder, jutting back, and tiny shards creeping up his right cheek. Boots and gauntlets and breastplate that aren’t overdone. And the whole thing gives off an ambient white glow.
Physical AbilitiesGeneral Physical Capabilities: Shin trains often in the Danger Room. He spends time at the Flying Dragon Dojo, when he can, and he goes for runs. He’s toned from physical training.
Fighting Style: Shin used to do boxing, but trains more these days in jujitsu and wushu kung fu. In a fight, he’ll tend to use his brain and strategy more than his fists. His power is useful for strategic combat.
Fighting Style Pros/Cons: Pros: Shin’s mutation allows him great flexibility. He can create various shard constructs, for use offensively and defensively. He can fire shards, ride them, fly with them, cut with them, shield with them, or wear them and do all of the above. When he gets stuck in close-range fights, he's prepared for it. He can break opponent's rhythms with a well-placed punch or grapple, or break their fists with a well-placed block. He can grapple with jujitsu. He's good at wearing people down.
Cons: Shin’s shards are a double-edged sword. They can cut him just as easily as they can cut others. Because of this, he tries to fight more defensively than offensively. It's an involved defensive fighting style, built to use an opponent's force against them. It wasn't made for punching through boards. Larger opponents might require more finesse. His power and fighting style both require him to fight strategically… and somewhat cautiously. He’d rather not hurt anyone he doesn’t want to hurt.
Faction AllegiancesThe X-men, The NYPD, MRC.
History Of Your CharacterTestuya Shinbo was born in Kyoto, Japan on the 22ndth of January, to parents Fujiko and Yosuke Shinbo. He grew alongside a doting sister, Sasami, a kid with an ego too big for his body. As a child, he was a flirt and a heart breaker. He had himself an attitude. His parents sent him to several extra-curricular activities hoping to help curb that attitude. Of note were Kendo, karate, and jujitsu. His different masters did their best to temper his temper, but the only one to succeed was his jujitsu teacher. That’s the fighting style he decided to spend most of his time on, and the one he liked the most. At school, he also participated in boxing club. This interest continued into adulthood.
He moved to New York at the age of 16, through a foreign exchange student program, and eventually became a naturalized citizen during his adulthood. In High School, he spent time at a boxing club, and spent time looking for the best jujitsu dojo in town. He kept up his training amid school work. He did well at school. Unfortunately, during this time he also fell into the wrong crowd. Somehow, his gang friends helped him find people who could make him money with his interest in fighting. Megara Cerberus was the one who took him under her wing.
Thanks to Miss Cerberus, Shin competed in underground fighting challenges (working under her supervision). He made his living in the boxing ring. This all ended when he got attacked outside the ring after a particularly good fight in which the wrong guy lost. His mutation activated. Someone shot at him. A shard wall sprang up to block the shot unintentionally. His body had reacted on its own. In a flash, he was exposed as a mutant, and alienated himself from that world. As a mutant, many of his past victories were questioned, and people became hesitant to fight him, lest that mutant freak cheat. The only ones who would still have him were caged mutant matches… but he wasn’t all too interested in doing them. Leaving it all behind, he found Xavier’s Sister School (the Mansion) and a new resolve.
During the first few weeks at the Xavier mansion, Shin met several students that shaped his life. Among them was a white-haired book store employee named Ghost. On his way to her book store one day, an anti-mutant riot broke out. He did his best to quell it and protect the people in the store, but in the end, all he could do was help everyone in the store to safety. The rioters tore down Full Circle. His view of humanity was tarnished. As he talked with others, and rebuilt it, the resolve eventually grew. He decided to join the X-men, to give the world a good face for mutants, and to try and prevent hate crimes like that from happening to innocent people ever again. When the Full Circle reopened, he made a point to work there and promote mutant-human relations alongside his friends.
In October of 2009, his friend Ghost got married. Shin took the moment to look upon another very special girl in his life, Kasumi. He loved her. Shin still wasn't sure where they wanted to take their relationship... but he wanted to go there with her. Unfortunately for Shin, any developments he wanted to pursue had to be put on hold.
Thanks to some foolish senators in Romania. The X-men were drawn to the country, and Shin was drawn towards an old acquaintance named Jaxon Kane. This was the very same Jaxon Kane that Shin had spent two weeks of his time protecting, during the events of Freaky Friday, when Kasumi’s mind became trapped in Jaxon’s body, and Shin’s mind was trapped in the body of Abyss. In Romania, some men tried to kidnap Jaxon. Shin tried to stop them… at the exact wrong time. A painful power growth took root during his attempt, and wound up costing him the fight. Shin’s valiant attempted rescue led to his being knocked unconscious twice, imprisoned, and sent to the Romanian Mutant Camps, all during a 24 hour period.
Shin was forced to reexamine his values inside the camps. This all happened amid a very painful power growth. Shin was reduced to sightless groping and stumbling, lest he activate the shock collar. He questioned why he'd gotten into the situation. He blamed himself. He blamed others. Ultimately, he decided everything his fault. He'd been too protective of Kasumi... even the image of her in a past form had made him a stumbling fool. He’d made stupid mistakes. He blamed it on his own weakness. When he came back stateside, he kept out of contact with her. He didn't know what to do. All he knew was that working alongside her wouldn't work, but he didn't want to deal with those changes... it took a night out drinking with his friends to bring him to a conclusion.
Shin broke up with Kasumi over the phone. He turned his attentions to other things, in order to avoid thinking about the heartbreaking breakup. He applied for registration at New York University. He was accepted. Eventually, he was okay again. He could deal. The words of his cousin, Kokoro, helped him move on. She told him how stupid he really was. That helped. When he realized he liked someone else, he was shocked... but Kokoro's words helped him accept his feelings. He took things slow, and let himself figure out how he felt. Eventually, he confronted Kealey about his feelings. Their relationship began.
Kealey and Shin are now married. Yay!
Tetsuya Shinbo got into a situation with the X-men that put him in a difficult situation with the police. The X-men did that, time and again. He kept secure information hidden. He didn't report crimes. His job with the police felt less and less of a truth. Shin bent the rules for the X-men. Police shouldn't bend the rules for anyone. A few months after using Cerebra in an attempt to track down the person who attacked Cold Steel failed, Shin left the NYPD. The temporary partial loss of his powers was only part of it.
The Asian did not leave the X-men. His power to summon new shards was broken, but shards already summoned stayed intact. Offensively, all Shin was left with were projectile wedding bands and his ability to perfectly calculate angle and depth, as well as processing rapid mathematic calculations. Those abilities weren't very useful to an officer directly handling mutant related crimes, and he couldn't work for the police in good faith when his loyalties were to the X-men alone. But as an X-man, he could still train members and lead groups.
Shin decided to get a job while he worked on getting his teaching degree. The only thing that made sense to him was teaching at the mansion. He planned to focus on teaching mathematics and foreign languages. While he worked on getting his degree, Shin taught self defense, and went through various odd jobs in retail and sales.
He thought his shard generating abilities would return. They still haven't come back. He isn't unhappy, though. Good wife, good life, good friends.
Eventually, he got his degree and started teaching at the mansion.
RoleplayWhere did you learn about this site?: Google
Do you have any other characters on MRO, if so who: Lenna, Aurum Mellitus, Amelia Mellitus, Ashton Drake. Blue Badger (Moderator Account)
Sample RP:An excerpt from
The Badger Says HelloIt stood, waving back and forth in front of the window, and it was blue. Very blue. There isn’t much of a way around stating that the thing that stood and waved was very blue. And quite possibly, a badger. Yes. It was a blue badger, and it waved. It looked like it had been cobbled together by a five-year old.
Its hands were round and cartoony, as if someone had designed them with a box cutter and an elementary-grade compass. Its joints were simple cardboard rectangles and screwed-on squares. Its head… looked like a cross between an egg and a court jester. One corner of the hat was hastily duct taped on. Its face was smudged with a blue handprint, and as it gyrated, it swung its hands like opposing windmills, each turning a different direction as it trailed a flag.
On the flag were the words ‘Full Circle’, and if one were to rate this little gyrating blue badger whose hips waggled as he danced to a cheery clip of music, they might rate it ‘horrific’. It serves as no surprise that to Shin, it was a massive point of pride and the best thing ever.
Yup.
“Thank you for shopping at Full Circle, home of the Blue Badger. We hope your every book is a Badgertastic one. My name is Shin. How may I help you?” He grinned as another customer walked in off the street.
“Um… I’m looking for book three in the Man’s Life series.” The boy scratched the back of his head with a weak laugh.
“Ah, A Man of History? We just got that in. Check the display table right over there.” He shifted a finger to point across the room to the table. Books were stacked neatly on a fresh table. The replacement for the table Dominic had broke had just come in that morning. Shin had set that display up too. The customer nodded and hurried over to the display, grabbing a copy off the stack. He ran right back to the front counter and set it down with a pint of excitement.
“I-I’ve been looking forward to this one all m-month. It’s supposed to talk about all the manly men throughout history, and how they got to be so courageous. K-kinda a…” He blushed and quickly looked away.
“Kind of a what?” Shin gave an understanding wink.
“S-s-s-s…” He made a sound like a deflating balloon.
“Spit it out. You’ve read the first two books, right? What’s it kinda?”
“Kindalikeaselfhelpbookformetogetsomecourage!!” He spat out in a stream of letters. Shin nodded courageously, giving a noble bow.
“Indeed. I see it’s already helping you now. That’ll be $10.50.”
“H-here,” the boy set a handful of coins on top of a few folded dollars. Shin slid the money over to his side of the counter, and counted it.
“9, 10, 11… and here you go.” He handed back two quarters, then scooped the book into a plastic bag and handed it back to the boy. “Thank you for shopping at Full Circle. Enjoy your book~”
Nodding, the boy hugged the book to his chest and rushed out the revolving doors. The Blue Badger gyrated to him as he passed by. You see, in Badgertalk, that's a wave 'good bye'.
And Badgertalk is a lot like the language of Hawaii, for you see, good bye in Badgertalk is like Aloha. It can also mean 'hello.'
Another customer approached to revolving doors of Full Circle. The badger said hello.
