Takeo Watanabe

Takeo was born in the Purple District to a single mother and former high profile lawyer, Ms. Misaki Watanabe. He spent most of his childhood with a rotating selection of nannies while Ms. Watanabe honed her Vibe and used it to enforce the “law”, working as an interrogator for the Funk Mafia.

Despite showing promise in both voice and dance, Takeo showed no signs of developing a Vibe and Ms. Watanabe became increasingly anxious. In an attempt to encourage Takeo, she demonstrated her own Vibe to him and to her surprise and delight Takeo was able to immediately mirror her movements.

At the time she simply believed he had inexplicably inherited her Vibe, however, after an incident with one of the nannies in which Takeo mimicked her healing Vibe while she patched him up, Ms. Watanabe realized Takeo’s Vibe was far more versatile and dangerous. It was only when Takeo himself came to understand the nature of his Vibe that he became a bit of a problem.

Takeo was always getting into trouble. It’s not that he was purposefully cruel to others, but his selfish actions typically rub people the wrong way. He is fascinated by other people’s Vibes, anxious to try them for himself, and eventually this desire resulted in an incident which led to him being exiled by the Funk Mafia in X111.

He has since become a Roller Bandito, and moves around (somewhat) unintentionally causing trouble cross-district. He is an extremely fast learner, some may use the term genius, but his poor attention span leaves him a bit of a jack of all trades, master of none.

Takeo became aware, through various whispers in the community, of a Stepper with a Vibe that piqued his interest. The rumor was, that despite allegedly having a powerful Vibe, the stepper in question had ceased to dance after the War of '99. Recognizing the scarcity of the Vibe, Takeo’s interest quickly became obsession and he frequently harassed the Stepper in question trying to provoke them into a throwdown.

Exasperated, eventually the Stepper reacted, using their Vibe in self defense. In a match unregulated by a DJ Bot, Takeo faced off with the other Stepper whose Vibe, Combustion Inducement, was dangerous even to someone with previous experience controlling it.

Takeo was severely burned by the Stepper’s flames, his right arm completely disintegrated by the spontaneous combustion. Still, he managed to copy and counter the attack — accidentally completely immolating his opponent.

Despite the extreme reaction being technically unintentional, witnesses of the unofficial throwdown were quick to inform higher ups of the fight and its gruesome outcome. Without an official match being declared beforehand, Takeo’s forcefulness and initial provocation of his opponent was deemed an affront to the ceremony of dance. He was forced out of the Purple District, and went on to become a Bandito.

After becoming aware of the incident, Ms. Watanabe shelled out a massive amount of cred to rush Takeo to a Dr. Vendy in an attempt to save his arm. It worked…more or less. Although the arm looks normal enough, it functions a little inconsistently.

The arm has quite a delayed response to pain and occasionally experiences spasticity (involuntary flexing, stiffening, twitching/spasming). It’s a bit cold to the touch, bleeds slowly and is particularly sensitive to Vibe running through it. Vibes that require hand/arm actions are more likely to trigger an adverse reaction.

“Lemme Try that Out”
Takeo can copy a Vibe that is being used in a close proximity to him that he can either see or feel the effects from. He cannot 1 to 1 copy a Vibe that utilizes unique physical constructs to function unless a similar object or structure is readily available to him.

In a fight, Takeo will automatically roll with disadvantage for the first round of a throwdown unless he has previously successfully Mastered at least one move from the Vibe of the Stepper he is fighting.

Unless agreed upon otherwise, Takeo will have never copied a Vibe that belongs to any active PCs outside of those encountered canonically within documented RPs.

“Does it Go a Lil’ Somethin’ Like This?
Takeo gains the ability to copy a Stepper’s moves as they’re revealed to him.

Even if Takeo has mimicked a Vibe previously, when he is attempting a new move, he will roll with disadvantage on his first attempt at mimicking it.

Takeo will continue to roll with disadvantage until he achieves a mixed success or higher on a roll to use the move in question.

“Now I’m gettin’ it!”
Takeo starts to understand the way the Vibe works.

When Takeo mimics a Move with a mixed success, Takeo will make flat rolls when using that move for the duration of the current throwdown.

If he achieves a success or critical success, the Move is considered "Mastered" and he will always make flat rolls moving forward when using it as described. (If a Steppers Move is improved or altered mechanically, the Mastery will reset.)

If the throwdown ends without Takeo achieving higher than a mixed success, he will resume rolling with disadvantage in any subsequent throwdown until Mastery is achieved.

Against High Level Steppers
The number of disadvantaged rolls Takeo incurs when Move mimicking increases along with Stepper notoriety to 3 sets of 2d6 for Boss Level steppers and 5 sets of 2d6 for Leaders.

While successful uses of these moves are potentially achievable in combat, Mastery of any Boss or Leader level move (unless otherwise agreed upon) is Impossible.

In addition, mimicking moves from powerful steppers can occasionally come with kickbacks. Kickbacks, along with deciding when and how they are applied, can be discussed in DMs as a fight progresses to decide on specifics based on the moves Takeo is attempting to mimic.

Quick Combat Rules
Unless all participants in the combat agree that Takeo has enough of an understanding of his opponent's Vibe to mimic it efficiently for the duration of the event, he will make his rolls with disadvantage for a number of rounds equal to half the potential rounds to win rounded down.
Example: Best of 3; Takeo will roll with disadvantage for one combat round.

Dice Mechanics (2d6 System)
Disadvantage:
Roll 2 or more sets of 2d6 | The lowest total is applied to the move
Range of Success:
2 - Critical Failure with Consequences | 3-6 - Failure | 7-9 - Mixed Success | 10-11 - Success | 12 - Critical Success