Takatsukasa Mai

CHARACTER: Mai Takatsukasa
CANON: Kamen Rider Gaim
VESSEL NAME: Byouki 苗 - on her back right hand shoulder blade.
VESSEL FORM: A golden apple.
POWER: Healing and regeneration. Can assist with physical and mental healing post battle.
GOD: XOCHIPILLI - Yoko Kurama
EXP POINTS: 10
CAUSE OF DEATH: While trying to figure out what Kouta has in mind for his future, Mai tags along with Peko to the abandoned grocery stores in Zawame to get food for the remaining Beat Riders. However, she is kidnapped by Mitsuzane as she watches him have outbursts to his brother's "ghost". She is taken to Rosyuo for protection when Redyue hints to Mitsuzane that she wants to use her. Mai comforts Rosyuo saying that even though his castle is hollow, he tried his best to save his civilization, and her innocence and honesty wins over Rosyuo. Rosyuo implants the Golden Fruit into her, causing her body to have sporadic spasms and pain. Mai is taken by Ryoma Sengoku after Rosyuo's death and he dissects Mai alive, killing her and leaving her lifeless body on the operating table and obtains the Golden Fruit.

Player Information


Name: Mei
Contact: plurk: nekomiao
Age: 30
Other Characters: none


Character Information


Name: Mai Takatsukasa
Canon: Kamen Rider Gaim
Canon Point: End of series (including final movie)
Age: 16
History: http://kamenrider.wikia.com/wiki/Mai_Takatsukasa
Personality: Mai has two slightly different personalities which I'll go into as she has two different forms in the series.


1) Human Mai
This is her personality all the way up into the middle of the post-invasion part of the story line, before she gets given the golden apple that turns her into the woman of the beginning.
Mai is the daughter of the priest at the shrine which was next to the giant tree in Zawame city. As such, she was inspired to dance from a young age as she wished to perform the ceremonial dances which would bring the town together. When the temple was raised (As Yggdrasil wanted the tree for their own purposes) Mai kept her passion for dance and found a street dancing group called Team Gaim. She believes that continuing to dance she can bring happiness to people and bring together the people around her. Even though it's a different medium, the passion in her dance still shows through. It's important to her that the people around her are happy and safe.


At the start of the show, it can be seen that Mai is quite hard on herself and doubts a lot of the things she does and unfortunately that self doubt lingers through the whole series. When the lock seed (item that summons Inves - aka monsters) is knocked out of her hand during a dance battle, she blames herself for not being strong enough. Later on in the series when she gains powers and strength, she still apologizes to Kouta for not being strong enough to change the hands of fate. She blames a lot of what happens on herself even though fate is set and nobody has the ability to change that.


Mai's passion for dancing and bringing happiness to people is based a lot on her belief in hope and trust. She believes that everybody deserves hope and a future which is the resounding theme through her character in the series as she fights (not physically) against the other characters who believe that weak humans should be wiped out etc. She questions the overlords when she meets them as to whether or not people should lose trust after one betrayal. Mai strongly believes that even though somebody betrays you, all you need to do is listen and understand them. She believes that once you gain this understanding then you can talk to them and bring them hope again. When this happens, they deserve forgiveness.


This also shows when Kouta admits to killing their good friend and leader of Team Gaim, Yuuya. When this happened, Yuuya had eaten the forbidden fruit and had turned into a monster. Kouta didn't know who he was killing but all he could tell Mai was that he was the reason Yuuya is dead. By this time, Mai had been searching for her friend since about episode 2 and this confession happens in episode 26. Her belief and trust in her friends helps her to quickly overcome and understand that Kouta has been hurting and she shows him love and forgiveness rather than hurt and betrayal. She is the same when talking to Kaito. Even though she knows that he wishes to kill the weak people of the planet (that's what he says out loud, his real idea was to make the world a more even playing ground so the strong no longer have the opportunity to prey on the weak), her trust in him helps her understand his view point and still accept him.


Mai's personality in the show is very innocent and childlike. She believes that if bad things are happening, everyone should know. She tried to announce to the city on a dance stage that monsters were invading and that Yggdrasil were to blame. She believed that once the dance teams stopped arguing, the city would trust in them again. This starts to change and mature about episode 24 when she's questioned about what her true strength is. Her initial answer being that she just wants to keep dancing to make people happy. At that point, she was told by Kaitou that he will only believe her if she can prove her strength to him.


Her personality still remains quite childlike through the rest of the show but her innocence changes as she begins to mature. She starts to understand that conflict needs to happen and that there can only be one victor to the final battle. She starts to question whether it is better to change the world completely or save the world as it is now. Even through all the hard questions, her loyalty to her friends remain. She questions her friends without judging about their intentions and has faith that at the end of the day, they are doing the right thing.


Mai has a determination to help, specifically to the people she believes are doing the right thing or to the people that she really cares about. When Kouta wanted to work to make money but was still busy trying to save the city from the monster invasion, Mai would cover his shift and work for free. She was put onto a train to escape the city without her knowledge, as soon as she found out it was a plan to aid her escape, she gets off at the next stop because she wants to help. This can also count as one of her less desireable points. It is due to her wanting to help all the time that she does end up in trouble and then she requires rescuing (which then results in a little self doubt and more apologising).


Due to her passion and her energy when she believes in something, she has a tendency to draw people together. When Yuuya disappeared, Mai became the natural captain in the dance team even though people didn't call her that as such. She was able to lead the team and they looked to her for advice for the next step when Kouta wasn't around. Mai doesn't put herself into these positions on purpose, she just finds herself in them. When the pre-invasion crisis with the Beat Riders (collective name for the dance teams) happened, she was the person who spearheaded the plan to get all the dancers dancing together without arguing on one stage. When people slowly started giving up due to nobody agreeing to the group dance stage, she still took it upon herself to go around and try to speak to Kaito (who everyone hated at the time) and declared that the stage will go ahead. She also puts a lot of energy into doing things that bring people together and help them feel happy. Such as organizing the Christmas dance stage even though the war was going on and getting cake for the team when they gather.


When pushed into a corner, Mai can react impulsively. Such as, when Micchi attacked Kouta for destroying Mai's happiness (telling her the truth so she can no longer live in ignorance), she slaps Micchi. At that time, tension was high and she felt that everyone was losing grip and she desperately wanted to bring it all back under control. Also, like the earlier example, when she was tricked into getting on the TOQ train, she decides to get off at the next stop angrily as decisions were being made for her to leave without consulting her first. Another example would be when she knew her three good friends were going to fight endlessly and they were all getting hurt for this war, despite warnings, she went back in time to try and changes things even though it was futile. The hands of fate cannot be changed. That last action caused her to be lost in time and land in an alternate universe. She was then forced to wait until the final battle was finished before she could join back into the fixed time line.


2) Woman of the Beginning Mai
There are a few parts about Mai that weren't changed when she turned into a goddess. Firstly, her ongoing self blame for everything. She reached travelled through time to seek out the three people battling for the future (Micchi, Kouta and Kaito) and even though there was a restriction protecting the path of time to keep going on the set path, she blames herself for not trying hard enough to change the future for the safety of her friends. Her loyalty also remains in tact and her desire to help everybody also remains the same. These are the core traits of her personality.


There are two major changes in regards to her reactions to things when she is in her goddess state. The first would be that she is more accepting of things once she realizes they can't be changed. The human Mai is more emotional and stubborn and is always looking for a way to help, change things, make things better and support people. When she becomes a Goddess, she is able to see and understand more things and with that comes acceptance. When she is explained that the final battle for the apple must happen and one of her friends must die, she stands back and watches the final battle without interfering. When one of her friends dies, she moves to accept the victor as her partner; the man of the beginning. She does this without feeling any strong emotions and it almost feels as if she's going through the motions because she knows it's expected of her. She follows his lead and then is exiled to another planet where it will just be the two of them for the rest of eternity.


The second change is (slightly explained in the paragraph above) her calmer state. When she speaks to people in her Goddess persona, as she's more accepting of her fate and how things will be, she doesn't appear overly emotional. She'll blame herself for things going wrong but not to the point where she's upset and crying. She just talks about it (maybe with a hint of desperation) but more in the sense of "this is how it is". The biggest example of this is when she finds Micchi in the final movie and explains that there is something evil taking over their home town and she's been captured by it and that to save the city he may have to kill her along with the evil being. She says this without any concern for herself and that it is just something that needs to be done.


For the sake of Far Shore
Her canon point will now be before she becomes the woman of the beginning so her traits will be taken from when she is human. The original supernatural abilities listed below in the application now don't apply. Strengths and weaknesses are still the same.

Abilities:
*Dance - She has the ability to dance in a street style free form as well as traditional miko style.


Strengths:
1)She is able to bring people together and unite them/direct them towards a single cause - Mai's positive nature and belief in people (and her desire to have everybody smile) has the energy to bring people together and unite them towards one goal. Whether this was (in her canon) uniting all of the separate and arguing dance teams together in one dance performance or convincing their enemy (she did this without meaning to) that she was a worthy subject for the golden fruit that everybody was fighting for.


2) Loyalty - Mai always looks on the bright side of events and of people. Whether you are a snarky brat who thinks that power is the way to the future (such as Kaito in canon) or whether you have just unknowingly killed one of your best friends because he turned into a monster before you realized (Kouta in canon) she is ready to forgive and trust that you did what you thought was best. She doesn't cast blame and will be there to support you if you need it regardless of what you may have done in the past.


3) Physical ability - She's been a dancer since she was young so this means she's agile and she's strong. She has the stamina to do what needs to be done physically and her dancing means that she has grace and confidence in her body so she will be able to move the way she needs her body to move whether on stage or other circumstances.


4) Lead by Example and always willing to do more - Mai is always willing to put herself out there to help her friends in need. This includes things such as working a share job with Kouta where she would essentially be working for free so he can continue with saving the city as a Kamen Rider. She is also the first to put her hand up to try and unite the dancers together on one stage to show her city at the Beat Riders aren't the cause of the invasion. She then lead the charge with saving the citizens despite not having any special abilities of her own and she helped with getting a lot of people to safety.


5) Determination - Regardless of whatever happens, she's always determined to try and find a way through this. This comes out in a number of different ways. She's determined to always help (such as in example 4), she's determined to show everybody her form of strength which isn't based on just power (this is seen when she speaks to Kaito and tells him that just fighting your way through everything isn't the only way to win). She's determined to travel back through time to try and change the past even though the future is set and can't be changed. Then, when she realizes that she can't change the future after all, she is determined to see everything through to the end and follow through with the exile of herself and Kouta so that her home town isn't required to be completely destroyed and changed.


Weaknesses:
1) Self doubt - Mai is quick to blame herself for anything that goes wrong and is always second guessing whether she can do more. She is always thinking that she could have done more to help with a situation regardless of whether it's in her control or not.


2) Act without thinking/Reckless - She is quick to jump to conclusions and think of solutions to things such as thinking that it is a requirement for her to broadcast to the city in regards to Yggdrasil and the Inves without understanding that this can cause widespread panic and more danger. Without listening to Sagara, she chooses to travel through time as soon as she gains powers from the Golden apple even though she may never find her way back to the correct future. She will hear something is happening and make snap decisions as to how to try and help without considering how her help may pan out.


3) Selflessness - Mai doesn't have much in the way of self preservation and is willing to give up everything for her friends. While this can be thought of as a positive, it is a great weakness in the sense that people will then step in and try to protect her and get hurt for her sake (this is one of the biggest reasons for Micchi turning evil as his love for her and to protect her make him choose all the wrong paths in life). It is also because she spends her time trying to understand other people and their thoughts that she inevitably then gets given the golden apple (which then leads her to her death in canon). In the megahex movie, she outrightly tells Micchi that to save the hometown, he will have to kill her as she is being held captive.


4) Naive / Too trusting - Mai believes in the inherent good of everybody and is easily trusting and understanding of everyone. Again, this is linked to 3 where she believes in the invaders and tries to talk to them that she has the golden apple bestowed upon her. As everybody is then fighting for the apple, this leads to her being operated on (read: dissected) and killed. (She subsequently regenerates into her god form after this). She believes in people like Kaito even though he turns into a power hungry person wanting to raze the planet and only let the strong survive as she believes that deep down he is a good person regardless of what he says out loud. She believes in the inherent good of Micchi even though he kidnaps her and eventually leaves her as a captive with the invaders (which again, in turn, is the reason she dies). No matter what happens, she still has trust and belief in people, even when she turns into a goddess and is able to see what has happened and travel through time, her belief in people remains and she her number one goal is to still help people.


Naive also plays in the sense that she thinks of things sometimes in black and white. Such as the belief that if everybody knows about the invasion, everyone will band together and support each other to fight through this. If they need help, the rest of the world will come help them from invasion (whereas the reality was, the rest of the world directed missiles towards her home town to try and kill everything before it escaped to the rest of the world). She can't see that people may be in love with her (Micchi who was willing to destroy half the world for the sake of being with her) and even when it can sometimes be obvious that people are backstabbing and doing the wrong thing for good reasons, she can only see the good behind their actions.


5) Reliant on other people - Even though Mai has a lot of determination and she is always out to get things done, she is reliant on other people a lot for just about everything that helps her get to places. She has no fighting ability so when she gets in trouble she's being saved by people like Kouta, Micchi and Kaito. When she's upset and feels like she's failed things, she's reliant on somebody to emotionally pull her back out of the rut she falls into. When she's doing great, she can fly but she works better with a team of people around her helping to keep her in line. She tends to get herself into trouble a lot due to her headstrong wanting to help, wanting to figure things out, wanting to know things in general and so when she gets in trouble, she's usually (always) lost until somebody comes to assist her back onto her feet.


Shinki
Why?: Mai has the desire to help people and assist works great under the lead of somebody else. She'll do everything in her power to work towards the same goal and if required, it's not beyond her to ask other people to help when she's unable to get the results herself. Since she works hard and her number one desire is to make sure everyone around her stays happy, any God should be happy to have her around.

Cause Of Death: In her canon, she was given a golden apple to turn her into a goddess. This was then dissected out of her by a crazy scientist man. Rather than have her recover in her goddess form, this can be where she's pulled into Farshore and that is the cause of her death.
Vessel: Golden Apple - this is the item that is fought over in her canon.
Name Location: On her back, top right shoulder blade.
Power: Since she's about love and assisting others, her power would be based around healing and regeneration. That would be the healing of injuries and assisting with mental trauma such as calming people down when required etc. If that's too expansive then just healing of wounds and injuries.

Sample:
Mai in a hunger games setting where she's looking after people despite the emotional situation : http://gamesarena.dreamwidth.org/3360.html?thread=149024#cmt149024
With Micchi in the hunger games setting being emotionally broken down : http://gamesarena.dreamwidth.org/3360.html?thread=143904#cmt143904
Or a happier Mai in the land of pokemon: http://victory-road.dreamwidth.org/2092.html?thread=34348#cmt34348

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