Jion Haru is, for the most part, the kind of guy that you get along with but don't always remember afterward.
He responds promptly when spoken to, chipper and eager to talk. Laughs easily with the sort of goofy, undignified laugh that's a little embarrassing, but isn't necessarily bad to witness. Likes to spend his time lounging around munching on snacks and watching TV when he's allowed to, but works hard when he's on duty. Grows flustered easily when people poke fun at him, but doesn't hold it against them, either. Sweet, unassuming and good-natured. A little shy around girls. But friendly and low-maintenance. As hard-working as he needs to be.
And he's good at his job. As a medic, Jion is very much of the belief that no one ever deserves to suffer. He's used to seeing people die, and he's been taught that some situations just can't be resolved without conflict -- but no one ever deserves to be in pain. Any person who's injured or in pain deserves to be cared for, no matter who they are, and Jion will always try his absolute hardest to provide that care to the best of his abilities. He takes pride in his job as a medic, and he likes to see people pull back from the brink of death. Loves to see people recover from their injuries. He cares about pretty much everyone by default, enemy or not.
Not that he's a perfect guy, of course. Once you get past his technical knowledge and his trained dexterity, he's really about as graceful as you'd expect from a teenager: a little thoughtless, a little awkward, a little bit clueless about what he's doing with his life. While not particularly irresponsible or emotional or rebellious, Jion does tend to be a bit impulsive. If something sounds like a good idea, he'll move to work on it immediately, and if something sounds like a bad idea from the beginning, he'll promptly reject it. He's just as quick to blurt things out thoughtlessly at times, especially when speaking to people he doesn't know well, stumbling over his own thoughts when under pressure. Awkward in the way that a teenager doesn't quite know how to handle stressful social situations, Jion is the kind of guy who always tries his best but doesn't quite make the mark a lot of the time.
A good kid, basically, with as much emphasis on 'kid' as there is on 'good.' He comes across as pretty well-adjusted and likable, especially considering the weird circumstances he grew up in.
Right up until you pull him out of familiar territory. Then he starts falling apart like a wet cake.
The underlying problem is that Jion is incredibly inexperienced in a lot of ways. Having grown up in that laboratory, then immediately shuffled into life as a walking organ farm, Jion knows very little about normal life other than what he's seen on television. (Which is why he likes watching television and movies so much. Gives him a glimpse of what a normal, quiet life might be like.)
Most notable is the fact that Jion is almost entirely lacking in direction. So used to taking orders from people -- go here, do this, stitch up these wounds, take care of this person -- Jion tends to flounder immediately when he isn't given an obvious goal to aim for. While it's not necessary to micromanage him once he's been given a task, he does function best when pointed in a specific direction and told to head that way. And he's not especially picky about who gives what orders, either. Because he's sort of been herded along one specific path for the entirety of his life, Jion isn't the greatest at discerning who can be trusted and who can't; for the most part, if someone seems reasonable and higher-ranked than him, he'll assume that they know what they're doing (at least, better than he does), and do as he's told.
He lacks long-term confidence in himself. He knows he can sew up a wound incredibly well, but anything grander in scale than 'take care of the people here' tends to make him sweat and stress out and second-guess himself.
Also of note is the fact that Jion tends to have skewed priorities when it comes to taking care of himself, at least from the viewpoint of a normal person. Years of serving as a convenient blood-and-organ-farm have resulted in an incredibly blasé attitude towards his physical safety, and Jion would think very little about carving his body up when ordered to, even on a whim. The price he pays for his nigh-invulnerability is incredibly fast aging, after all, and scientists have told him that he's expected to be retired by his mid-20's, and probably dead before he hits 30. It's knowledge that Jion doesn't really know what to do with. Part of him tends to be especially reckless because of it -- thinking that it would be better to die actually doing something than it would be die of "old age" at 30. Though he's not immune to pain, he'll walk into gunfire without hesitation if told to.
But another, smaller part of him dreams of getting a chance to live a "normal life" before he dies.
As a result, Jion tends to be very curious about unexpected things. Cooking, for example. And finances. Fashion. How to organize a house. Riding a bicycle. Normal little things. Whenever he has the chance, he likes learning about new things, and he'd like to experience those things if he can, so long as it won't get him in trouble. And he'd like to meet new people, too. People not involved in the army. People who live completely different lives from what he knows about. As awkward and thoughtless and flustered as he tends to get when talking to strangers, he's never insincere, and there's sometimes the sickly undercurrent of something resembling desperation -- a desire to be liked and remembered.
Though he's unlikely to ever admit to it, Jion's biggest fear is being completely forgotten, living a short and meaningless life before expiring. He doesn't really have a family, after all; neither does he have many friends. He's lived his life so far only ever doing what he's told, and he's never really imagined himself living a different lifestyle so far. But -- it might be nice to deviate from what he's known so far, just a little bit at a time.
Long story short, Jion is basically a kid who's grown up far too quickly, both literally and figuratively. And it's been okay, really. He's not too choked up about what he's been through. The question is whether he'll ever get to break out of that mold or not.
no subject
Jion Haru is, for the most part, the kind of guy that you get along with but don't always remember afterward.
He responds promptly when spoken to, chipper and eager to talk. Laughs easily with the sort of goofy, undignified laugh that's a little embarrassing, but isn't necessarily bad to witness. Likes to spend his time lounging around munching on snacks and watching TV when he's allowed to, but works hard when he's on duty. Grows flustered easily when people poke fun at him, but doesn't hold it against them, either. Sweet, unassuming and good-natured. A little shy around girls. But friendly and low-maintenance. As hard-working as he needs to be.
And he's good at his job. As a medic, Jion is very much of the belief that no one ever deserves to suffer. He's used to seeing people die, and he's been taught that some situations just can't be resolved without conflict -- but no one ever deserves to be in pain. Any person who's injured or in pain deserves to be cared for, no matter who they are, and Jion will always try his absolute hardest to provide that care to the best of his abilities. He takes pride in his job as a medic, and he likes to see people pull back from the brink of death. Loves to see people recover from their injuries. He cares about pretty much everyone by default, enemy or not.
Not that he's a perfect guy, of course. Once you get past his technical knowledge and his trained dexterity, he's really about as graceful as you'd expect from a teenager: a little thoughtless, a little awkward, a little bit clueless about what he's doing with his life. While not particularly irresponsible or emotional or rebellious, Jion does tend to be a bit impulsive. If something sounds like a good idea, he'll move to work on it immediately, and if something sounds like a bad idea from the beginning, he'll promptly reject it. He's just as quick to blurt things out thoughtlessly at times, especially when speaking to people he doesn't know well, stumbling over his own thoughts when under pressure. Awkward in the way that a teenager doesn't quite know how to handle stressful social situations, Jion is the kind of guy who always tries his best but doesn't quite make the mark a lot of the time.
A good kid, basically, with as much emphasis on 'kid' as there is on 'good.' He comes across as pretty well-adjusted and likable, especially considering the weird circumstances he grew up in.
Right up until you pull him out of familiar territory. Then he starts falling apart like a wet cake.
The underlying problem is that Jion is incredibly inexperienced in a lot of ways. Having grown up in that laboratory, then immediately shuffled into life as a walking organ farm, Jion knows very little about normal life other than what he's seen on television. (Which is why he likes watching television and movies so much. Gives him a glimpse of what a normal, quiet life might be like.)
Most notable is the fact that Jion is almost entirely lacking in direction. So used to taking orders from people -- go here, do this, stitch up these wounds, take care of this person -- Jion tends to flounder immediately when he isn't given an obvious goal to aim for. While it's not necessary to micromanage him once he's been given a task, he does function best when pointed in a specific direction and told to head that way. And he's not especially picky about who gives what orders, either. Because he's sort of been herded along one specific path for the entirety of his life, Jion isn't the greatest at discerning who can be trusted and who can't; for the most part, if someone seems reasonable and higher-ranked than him, he'll assume that they know what they're doing (at least, better than he does), and do as he's told.
He lacks long-term confidence in himself. He knows he can sew up a wound incredibly well, but anything grander in scale than 'take care of the people here' tends to make him sweat and stress out and second-guess himself.
Also of note is the fact that Jion tends to have skewed priorities when it comes to taking care of himself, at least from the viewpoint of a normal person. Years of serving as a convenient blood-and-organ-farm have resulted in an incredibly blasé attitude towards his physical safety, and Jion would think very little about carving his body up when ordered to, even on a whim. The price he pays for his nigh-invulnerability is incredibly fast aging, after all, and scientists have told him that he's expected to be retired by his mid-20's, and probably dead before he hits 30. It's knowledge that Jion doesn't really know what to do with. Part of him tends to be especially reckless because of it -- thinking that it would be better to die actually doing something than it would be die of "old age" at 30. Though he's not immune to pain, he'll walk into gunfire without hesitation if told to.
But another, smaller part of him dreams of getting a chance to live a "normal life" before he dies.
As a result, Jion tends to be very curious about unexpected things. Cooking, for example. And finances. Fashion. How to organize a house. Riding a bicycle. Normal little things. Whenever he has the chance, he likes learning about new things, and he'd like to experience those things if he can, so long as it won't get him in trouble. And he'd like to meet new people, too. People not involved in the army. People who live completely different lives from what he knows about. As awkward and thoughtless and flustered as he tends to get when talking to strangers, he's never insincere, and there's sometimes the sickly undercurrent of something resembling desperation -- a desire to be liked and remembered.
Though he's unlikely to ever admit to it, Jion's biggest fear is being completely forgotten, living a short and meaningless life before expiring. He doesn't really have a family, after all; neither does he have many friends. He's lived his life so far only ever doing what he's told, and he's never really imagined himself living a different lifestyle so far. But -- it might be nice to deviate from what he's known so far, just a little bit at a time.
Long story short, Jion is basically a kid who's grown up far too quickly, both literally and figuratively. And it's been okay, really. He's not too choked up about what he's been through. The question is whether he'll ever get to break out of that mold or not.