Loki

Where do you come from? What’s your origin story?   -Loki is a tanuki from Japan, descended from the bake-danuke. He inherited the shapeshifting ability of his ancestors, but with limitations due to crossbreeding with non-magical tanuke.   Only discovering his ability recently, first as a reflex response, he practiced until he could hold a shape for 10 minutes at a time, and only once per hour. Having anthropomorphic traits, he knew that life in the wild was not going to cut it for him. Realizing that he could use shapeshifting for theivery, he went to work stealing from the underbelly of Tokyo, knowing that it was the best way to keep his crimes from being reported. This allowed him to feed his addiction to streaming services, his source of information on all human culture, because he could only interact with the human world within the limits of his shapeshifting abilities. This was when he decided to name himself Loki, after identifying with the shape-shifting trickster as portrayedin the MCU.   Things took a turn when he was attempting to heist some mid-level crime lords when the person whose form he had taken to access their cash reserves walked into the room where he was raiding the safe. After an inability to escape before he reverted back to his tanuki form, he was captured and held prisoner as a pet, forced by threat of violence to perfom tricks for the oyabun and his guests.   After being brought to Manhattan with his captors on a trip to negotiate with their american counterparts, Loki was able to slip his captivity by using his shape-shifting powers to initiate a shootout between the two factions and escaping in the chaos. Now on the run and in a strange land, he is forced to rely on trickery and extensive knowledge of tv and movie tropes to get by.   What are your personal goals?   -Loki hopes to develop his shape shifting ability to the point where he can exist within the laws of society. While he has a genetic predilection for trickery and mischeif, having witnessed the levels of violence that he did while being held captive, he fears that he will fall victim to it if he doesn't find a more sustainable way of life. While he idolizes the superheroes of his favorite movies and tv shows, he does not feel he has developed his skills enough yet to be a formidable threat to wrongdoers.   What are your personal beliefs? Do you have any?   -All of Loki's core beliefs are based on the things he learned from watching streaming services. While he is fully aware that it is all works of fiction, it was his primary source of influence when it came to learning about the world. While that is the basis of most of his moral structure, he also draws lightly from shintoism as a way to honor his yokai roots.   What is your job/role in society? In the party? Was it different before your “origin”?   -He lives on the fringes of society, usually using shapeshifting to get into empty buildings for shelter and power/wifi so he can stream on his tablet. He will occasionally take human form, just to be able to walk the streets for a small amount of time in the daylight, but usually only goes outside at night, being able to utilize the cover of heavy garments and darkness to avoid standing out.   He has yet to make any friends, having tried to avoid detection most of his life, as he knew capture was likely do to his mystical ancestry. In New York, he is even more afraid, because he knows that the bake-danuke are not revered in the rest of the world like they are in Japan, so the consequences of being detected could be much worse than captivity. However, he is eager to someday be in a group of friends that he can live out the tropes he's become so familiar with.   Who is your closest friend or family member?   -Being the only member of his family that inherited his traits, he quickly left his family once he began standing upright and developing verbal skills. While he takes in a well-above-average amount of media, he favors the MCU, as he closely relates to both Loki and Rocket Raccoon. He also has a fascination for martial arts movies, with Sonny Chiba's 'The Street Fighter' being one of his all time favorites.   Do you have enemies? Who are they?   -While he is usually undetected by the victims of his theivery, he is aware that if there were any survivors of the shootout that allowed him to escape, they will likely be after him with a vengeance.   Are you wanted or notorious?   -Not directly, but any place he resides, myths of a magic bandit start to circulate in the criminal underworld as an explanation for the things he steals.   Do you have a rival? If so, who are they?   -He has always succeeded in avoiding establishing enough of a relationship with anyone to build a rivalry, although if he were ever to become known, there would be a lot of people looking for him for payback after being victims of his theivery.   What do you do for fun and entertainment? Do you have hobbies?   -Streaming services, practicing his shape-shifting skills, randomly pranking, and occasionally getting inebriated. Mid level computer skills to salvage discarded laptops and tablets.   What’s one lie your character believes about themselves? What’s one lie they believe about the world?   -He believes that he isn't strong enough yet to be a hero. He believes there's not a place in the world that would accept him in his natural form.   Does your character have a love life or romantic interests?   -Not physically, but he has a number of crushes on characters out of pop culture.   Do you have a secret (dark or otherwise)?   He's not particularly proud of the potential massacre that he caused to escape and earn his freedom. It makes him wonder how many other times his trickery resulted in violence that he just had not stuck around to witness.