Batou

Batou is a rough-mannered black ops cyborg from the cyberpunk future of Japan in 2035. He arrived in-game on October 31st, 2010 and currently lives in [tba].

age: Unknown, appears to be mid to late thirties.

origins: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society

app link: Here

hmd: Here

played by: Ruingaraf

contact: Redwolfruin (AIM)

Setting
Ghost in the Shell takes place in the near future, with Batou being taken from the year 2034. The story follows Public Security Section Nine, an elite special forces unit that doesn't officially exist to the public eye that combats crime and terrorism through decidedly black-ops style means. Both criminals and police have evolved to a higher level to technology, using both artificial bodies capable of superhuman feats as well as the expansion of the internet to their advantage. The basis of the series is more or less valid in real hypothetical science, with the only supernatural element remaining being exactly what makes a human 'ghost' or spirit, unique and conscious. Most ordinary citizens have an artificial implant in their brains that allows them to connect to the net at any time, though some refuse the procedure for any number of reasons. Layman's prosthetics aren't uncommon in ordinary life, but their quality differs quite a bit from the high-end war machines used by Section Nine and the military, Additional information about Section Nine as an organization is here, and more about cyber-brains here

Personality
Like many members of Public Security Section Nine, (a group that is actually described as 'the ex-military cyborgs') Batou's body is highly cyberized with military grade weapons technology. What's a bit unusual is the percentage-- he is a 'full replacement cyborgs', meaning that less than twelve percent of his original brain is left, and everything else in his body is machine. This lends itself to a certain amount of recklessness, seeing as he is very difficult to kill without a powerful shot to the head. Everything else is replaceable, though it is expensive. At times, he's cynical about his humanity, but generally he doesn't let it bother him too much.

Batou is deeply protective of those he cares about, even if he generally isn't the greatest at showing it in everyday situations. For example, he normally picks on Togusa pretty relentlessly, but when he's shot, Batou is visibly enraged, practically baying for the blood of the son of a bitch who shot his comrade. In most cases, he isn't terribly concerned with politics, corruption, or the world at large, but that doesn't mean he never gets involved in cases on a personal level, which tends to happen through injuries or threats to the team. So help you god if you even look at someone in Section Nine the wrong way-- these people are more or less his family and he will do just about anything to keep them safe, and that mentality is returned in full. Despite not generally being too much of an emotional person (fleeting sentimentality and nostalgia being another matter entirely) as well as his tenancy to be generally brash and disrespectful to authority, he is absolutely loyal to a fault and will tirelessly carry out orders, assuming they are from one of the few people he respects and trusts. His teamwork is, in a sense, both astounding and abysmal, because within the unit of Section Nine he works as one cog of a well-oiled machine, but outside of that he tends to be rough around the edges and inclined to do his own thing.

His outlook on life is fairly cynical, but it's not exactly depressing. He believes the world at large to be the sum of its parts, for better or for worse, and he's still able to believe in the good within individual people. Killing and violence don't really seem to bother him, and though he's arguably desensitized to it by this point, he doesn't particularly seem to enjoy it either, preferring to gain satisfaction from terrifying criminals and other people he dislikes, as opposed to actually killing them. What does get to him is things like excessive sadism and torture, showing that while he's pretty laid back about morality unless it directly involves him, there are still a few things that are firmly not okay. That said, he ultimately views his job as violent in nature. If you can get shit done with diplomacy, fine, but if it takes too long or doesn't look like it's working anyway, he's pulling out his gun. Additionally, while he has a good sense of humor and enjoys joking around, he knows where and when to be serious and does so.

The fact that he's usually the first one on the team to reach for a weapon, combined with his large stature, leads many people to misclassify him as dumb muscle. However, Batou is in fact, far from stupid, though he's most definitely headstrong and impulsive. Some of his conversations with Motoko reveal a surprising amount of depth to him, and although he's not the type to sit around and philosophize all day, or even bother to read much on it, he's familiar enough with the subject to hold his own in a conversation. Whether he's aware of it or not, his position is pretty firmly grounded in Empiricism, and particularly so in that of John Locke and his definition of self. Theseus's Paradox in terms of full-body cyberization is also something that the series brings up quite regularly, and though Batou never actually argues the point, usually getting annoyed at the idea, he would likely takes Aristotle's followers' position that the object is fundamentally the same. Despite this, he cannot completely dismiss the opposite interpretation, even though he don't like the idea. All of this philosophy. however, is also equally subject to Batou deciding that it's getting too far from being grounded in reality, and simply bringing in a common man's position, or even deciding that it's nothing really worth arguing and going off for a smoke.

In general he's pretty blunt and doesn't much care what others think, characterized by a rough speech pattern and a lack of respect for most people, unless they've earned it, a long and difficult road. He's not terribly social, either, and while not exactly an introvert, he doesn't need too much human contact to get along.

At present, he hasn't been in the game long enough to note any significant personality change.

Abilities & Weaknesses
As a full-replacement cyborg, Batou is as resilient as technology in his world can be made. Within canon, he is shown taking leaps of several dozen feet and falling from well over a hundred with no visible repercussions. He is also capable of cloaking, making him essencially invisible to all human and all but the very best electronic eyes. This, of course, can be subverted by things such as snow, which stacks on any surface regardless of visibility and reveals his location, or anyone who has exceptional hearing or 'sensing' abilities. Being computerized, his reaction time is also completely inhuman. His strength level can only truly be guessed at, but considering that he weighs roughly as much as a car, it's a lot.

Possibly his most obvious feature, the Ranger eyes allow for a variety of advantages. More or less like a real-time camera, they are capable of a great deal of zooming, easily over 200 feet, They also enable him to see out of the sides of his eyes, greatly increasing his field of vision. The actual wavelengths picked up are well beyond that of human range, including infrared and ambient x-ray. However, he cannot close his eyes.

In addition to all of the skills stemming from his war-machine of a body, he has those picked up from experience. He has military training, and although it's unknown exactly what it entailed, he is shown to be good with tactics, shooting, and knife combat. Boxing is another notable skill of his, even outside generalized combat training. He's shown to be good enough to knock out a worldwide boxing champ, and he uses the skill in battle against Kuze as well, attempting to concuss him into submission. And although he is by no means a skilled hacker, he is at least able to follow Motoko and Ishikawa's more basic conversations on the subject, indicating that he has at least some knowledge of it. Additionally, translation programs in his cyberbrain allow him to read, comprehend, and mostly likely speak most common languages from his world.

Because his entire body and most of his brain is fully cybernetic, he is essencially weak to most things that would destroy a robot, such as EMPs and extremely large amounts of electricity. As previously mentioned, he also weighs roughly as much as a car, and will sink like a lump of steel in deep water, where he will drown. Just like a normal human, he will die if his brain is too severely damaged. When a part of his body such as an arm is destroyed, then replaced, it takes at least a week for it to feel normal again, as if it's really a part of his body.

Character Relationships
TBU