Arsène Lupin

 

♚ OOC
Name: Shou
Age: 20
Contact: shoutarou
Character In-game: N/A

♛ IC
Name: Arsène Lupin
Canon: Code:Realize
Canon Point: Post-chapter six
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Species: Human
Appearance: Default appearance, gentleman thief disguise

History/Background: Hilariously inadequate wikia

Note: Code:Realize is a visual novel. Depending on the protagonist, Cardia's choices, the outcome of the story can differ. The story consists of a common route featuring preceding events that will happen regardless, and then branches out into individual characters' routes depending on who the player chooses to romance. Some events take place in a certain character's route that will not happen in the other characters' routes and will cause the story to conclude in different ways. Consider them as different universes within the same canon.

Lupin's childhood was spent as a poor orphan living on the streets of Paris, relying on pickpocketing to get by. He had a talent for pickpocketing, supposedly never being caught once. An exception came when a man he tried to pickpocket managed to immediately catch him. While he thought he would be handed over to the police, the man decided to teach Lupin his own thievery skills instead. Said man was an honorable thief himself, who would rob those who gained riches unjustly and donate them to the poor, and would become Lupin's teacher and a parental figure to him.

Lupin was impressed by his teacher, and respected him highly. He learned various skills such as infiltration and disguise from him. One day he questioned why his teacher had taught him so much, to which his response was that he himself had done many dark deeds, both unknowingly and purposefully, and teaching Lupin was a way to atone for his sins. In addition, he tells his protege "It doesn't matter what others believe to be right. Protect your own definition of justice and faith with your very life." It was a piece of advice that struck the young Lupin significantly.

Several years after, Lupin had surpassed his teacher by pure technique under his tutelage. It was around then when he discovered that his teacher had stopped giving money to the poor, and had taken advantage of the riches that Lupin robbed to create a criminal empire. The betrayal was shocking to him, and his teacher cut him out of his life when Lupin asked him to stop. Feeling hopeless upon seeing the criminal organization he indirectly funded prey upon the weak, he comes to the decision to take down the organization and start over with his teacher.

Lupin infiltrated the organization, stole all their riches and uncovered evidence. The riches were donated to orphanages while the evidence was submitted anonymously to the police. Before the police could intervene, the organization collapsed itself with internal discord, and started killing one another in search of a traitor. His teacher was eventually mortally wounded, and left to die in an alley. Lupin grieved for his teacher nonetheless, and pretended to be his son in order to make his funeral arrangements.

As he organized his late teacher's possessions, he found a handwritten note. The note indicated that his teacher was a former high-ranking member of Twilight, the British intelligence agency. It noted his regret and fear of escaping Britain upon finding out Isaac Beckford's, ( a genius scientist in the British Royal Society) plan entitled Code:Realize, which he was not able to stop.

To carry out the justice which his teacher was unable to, Lupin makes his way to London. Along the way, he meets Impey Barbicane, an aspiring engineer and St. Germain, a mysterious count who offers his residence for him to stay in. It is then when he hears news of a monster that will burn skin that will be taken by Twilight, and prepares to steal away the monster. The monster is in fact Cardia Beckford, the protagonist of Code:Realize and they take her under their custody. In addition, they team up with Victor Frankenstein, an ex-Royal Society alchemist and maligned wanted terrorist and Abraham Van Helsing, an ex-Twilight agent and renowned super soldier. Gradually, they train and educate Cardia in various basic skills, such as self-defence, the layout of London, how to operate machinery, and handle chemicals. Lupin teaches her escape techniques and how to improvise plans. In their quest to seek out answers regarding Twilight and Isaac Beckford, they stage a train robbery to capture Twilight's head, Finis. The train robbery is a failure and Lupin is foiled by the Scotland Yard detective Herlock Sholmes.

They manage to escape, and decide to capture a thief supposedly after Nosferatu's Saber, a pendant held by the vampire king Delacroix who fell to Van Helsing in the vampire war. They spot the thief, Delacroix II who is the late king's son. They seek to challenge him in Scotland, and Van Helsing defeats him. Eventually, Delacroix II is convinced to join them, and Lupin steals the old treasures of the vampires back for the former.

To gain protection, Frankenstein suggests the idea of crashing a knighting ceremony to ensure a direct audience with Queen Victoria. Even when Twilight agents, the Royal Guard and Sholmes appear to foil their plan, they manage to meet with the queen and Frankenstein strikes a deal with her, with his loyalty to Britain in exchange for the Crown's protection.

Personality:

Dashing, charming and elegant, Arsène Lupin is the original embodiment of the Gentleman Thief. When he makes his appearance, many will see him but none will be able to catch him as he makes off with whatever treasure he sets his eyes on effortlessly. Behind the literal mask, is a kind spirited young man who has a strong sense of justice.

Lupin's most prominent trait that makes him is his confidence. While he is not arrogant, his confidence is more or less a necessity for the Gentleman Thief. Unwavering faith in himself is what he needs to be able to carry out his high-risk heists perfectly without a sliver of hesitation, as failure would undoubtedly result in dire consequences. He himself claims to have zero percent chance of failure, and he does indeed have the boldness and attitude needed for success.

"I'm able to be bold thanks to all the precautions I take."

Pride is not enough for Lupin to be able to be successful, but rather his cautiousness. He is skilled at drawing up plans, and is incredibly detail-oriented. For every scenario, even for failures, he makes sure to account for anything possibly going wrong, as mistakes can be inevitable. He makes sure to plan meticulously and go over his overall process before any heist. It is this trait that he also makes use of at gambling, when he was playing blackjack with Cardia at a casino, he memorizes every card dealt and played, so that he could bet all of his chips and win a lofty prize by predicting the final result. Calculated risks are what he chooses to make, because he aims for victory in the end.

Another key trait of Lupin's personality that contributes to his success as a thief is his resilience and sharp wit. In any unfavorable scenario, he believes there is always a plan that can be made to provide a solution of sorts. Even in dire situations, he is able to remain calm and improvise a scheme to extract himself and others if needed. In spite of overwhelming odds, like skilled and armed assailants or supernatural abilities or even both, he can keep a cool head and work out a way.

His intelligence also manifests itself as being to read other people's thoughts and actions, which not allow him to anticipate other people's possible future moves, it also gives him the ability to negotiate deals if their favour needs to be earned. Plus, his understanding of people also allow him to be proficient at disguises, such as when he imitated an aristocrat's way of speaking when trying to sneak Cardia effectively through London's security checks, or as a worried citizen when asking someone what was happening in London during a time of crisis.

The distinction between the gentleman thief and any ordinary burglar would be their morals, and Lupin has his own set which he firmly believes in. As inspired by his teacher's original work, Lupin sees himself as a hero of justice. He does not steal for personal gain, but rather to help others in need and to punish those who abuse their wealth and power. When Delacroix II is utterly defeated and left powerless as the last surviving royal vampire from his race's genocide, he makes sure to return the former's old artifacts which had ended up being exploited by unsavory individuals. This attitude is his guiding light, and he is determined to see it come through. Even if he is in need, he would still not steal from ordinary folk for himself. He would not want to betray himself like his teacher did, and carries on this sense of justice to honor himself and his teacher in their earlier days.

In combat, Lupin dislikes the use of violence. He finds it repulsive and this is reflected in his own choice of weaponry. Lupin's main choice of arms is a walking stick which hides compartments for anesthesia and smoke bombs to obscure vision as well as setting non-lethal traps. His modus operandi is deception and disarming his foes. However, it is only when the people he loves are threatened that he would choose to use violence. When Cardia is persecuted by angry villagers who want to kill her claiming she is a monster, it angers him to the point where he declares that he would kill anyone who would harm her. In addition, he would not hesitate or is shamed by the idea of running away from a battle if that would mean his defeat in order to fight another day, preferring to have another chance at a final victory.

He values his friends, which he affectionately nicknames the "Lupin gang". Lupin is generally amiable to anyone in general, and can befriend anyone relatively quickly. While his occupation can be seen as unscrupulous by some, Lupin's own noble nature and charisma can make him a loyal friend who would not hesitate to help out others in need. That being said, he values the importance of being able to trust one's friends highly. When Cardia had once run away, he berates her for thinking that she might be a burden or that she was troubling them for getting them tied up in her own affairs, and the irrationality of facing her own troubles alone which would be easier if she had approached them instead. When it comes to danger, he can be a lot more rational. He would not stay behind to if someone more proficient insisted on handling a more dangerous task, such as combat specialists like van Helsing becoming a decoy for example. Instead, he would choose to find a way to gain an advantage somewhere else, instead of blindly sticking with them since he is more specialized at espionage and escape. While it is not only for pragmatic reasons, it is a sign of his faith in said friend's abilities, to have confidence in them that they could handle danger.

Lupin can also be a voice of reason to others if needed, be it them needing advice or possibly acting inappropriately in various scenarios. Most notably, whenever Impey's actions or words is too inappropriate towards an unknowing Cardia, he did not hesitate to give him a good hit for the less than gentlemanly approach, such as not getting out of a doctor's office when Cardia had to remove her clothes to be examined. In addition, he also teaches Cardia the conventions of society when she is first brought out of her isolation, like how she should never walk alone or it is inappropriate to expose her chest, even if she wanted to show her horologium embedded on it.

Towards Cardia, the main protagonist in general, he treats her like the lady she never really saw herself as. His actions and mannerisms are gentlemanly, though he is not exceedingly formal. He continues to maintain his charismatic self, albeit with a little bit more teasing here and there. While he did initially picture her as monster as rumours suggested of her identity before the heist, his impression completely changes upon actually seeing her. Even when she is revealed to be a homunculus, he does not withdraw his original faith in her as a human, and his liking for her. If their relationship is developed in his route, Lupin's unwavering loyalty shines through as a reassuring, selfless gentleman.

There are occasions where Lupin does lose his cool image. If someone of his caliber manages to outmatch him, and is proud of it, he will in fact show a more visibly flustered side. This is the case for Herlock Sholmes, a talented Scotland Yard detective who manages to evade his tricks and (literally) trip him up. He expresses displeasure, in an almost childish manner at seeing Sholmes in future occasions even when Sholmes did not mean harm, much to Sholme's and his friends' amusement.

When Lupin himself is left unable to act in a scenario where his loved ones are in trouble, it can similarly cause him to lose some of his trademark level-headedness. In his own route, when Cardia is captured by Twilight and a plan to retake her is due in a few days, he instead is seen trying to find a way to go alone to rescue her, with Cardia's life being at stake. Despite Cardia being currently held in a highly-fortified airship, he considers taking the ornicopter (a flying vehicle) and breaking in. While he would have done so, Van Helsing berates him for his desperation-induced foolhardiness.

The gentleman thief truly embodies what his title represents, and Lupin does not live to disappoint. He is made to impress those who go against him, those who see him but most importantly, those he treasures. 

Carrier: A dog that is similar to his and Impey's original pet, Sisi.
Magic Weapon: A walking stick that conceals compartments for releasing gases, chemical vials and ammunition. The top comes embedded with a blue jewel that allows Lupin to steal mana from sources. He can either swiftly use it to take small amounts, or slowly but gradually siphon larger amounts upon connection to another mana source. Stolen mana can be transferred to others, but only a limited amount can be used to empower his own weapon.

Sample: Here!