Sakuya Tachibana / Kamen Rider Garren (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
triggerhappytraitor) wrote2019-02-27 06:10 pm
triggerhappytraitor) wrote2019-02-27 06:10 pm
(no subject)
Player Information
Name: Fran
Age: 38
Contact: https://www.plurk.com/Frannyan or Frannyan@gmail.com
Current characters: N/A
Character Information
Name: Sakuya Tachibana / Kamen Rider Garren
Series: Kamen Rider Blade
Appearance: Linked here
Age:25
Canon Point: Post series (about a month or so post series to allow for healing and recovery from the series finally)
Canon History:
Tachibana is a researcher turned monster fighting hero, who walks through a rotating door of alliances, each time believing he is doing the right thing.
The first of the four Kamen Riders in the series, Tachibana’s role in the series shifts back and forth, first the seeming antagonist as his actions in the start of the series are painted as being what destroyed BOARD -- the organization researching the Undead and creating the Rider system that allowed the creation of Kamen Riders. Swiftly in it’s revealed that his only hand in the destruction was failing to contain the Undead that trashed the lab, and that his kidnapping of Karasuma, the one in charge of the Riders at BOARD, was to find answers to his mysterious failing health that seemed to be connected to the Rider system.
The truth behind his health is revealed to be a flaw in the Rider System; it works with the Rider's mental state. When the Rider is in the proper mindset, it amplifies his physical abilities, but when the wrong mental state, in Tachibana's case, one heavily influenced by fear, it can cause a backlash, resulting in Tachibana's feeling as if he’s falling apart.
After first trying to rid himself of his fears through pure force of will and failing, Tachibana attempts to give up being a Rider and live a normal life, an attempt that is short lived as an Undead shows up where he and Sayoko are on a date, prompting a fight he swiftly loses. Soon after, he's approached by the Peacock Undead, Isaka, who offers him a cure for his fears. Tachibana refuses, but is easily overpowered and defeated, leading to the Undead applying the cure to to the unconscious Rider.
The “cure” is an ancient seaweed that was used by the Undead to boost their fighting abilities that acts like a steroid. Under both the influence of the seaweed and Isaka's manipulations, Tachibana becomes Isaka's lacky, fighting against Kenzaki, the other BOARD Kamen Rider that Tachibana mentored, and Hajime, an Undead Rider.
Sayoko finds out that continued use of the seaweed will destroy Tachibana's nervous system, and attempts to get him to stop using it. Tachibana rebuffs her attempts and breaks up with her, telling her that their worlds are too different. However, Sayoko continues trying to get him to stop, resulting in Isaka killing her for "getting in Tachibana's way."
Before he even becomes aware of that, however, Tachibana rebels against Isaka, only to be swiftly defeated as the effects of the seaweed run out. He then stumbles across Sayoko as she's dying.
After her funeral, he tracks down Isaka, confirming that the Undead is the one who killed her and attacks. With nothing left to lose, his fear is gone, and he's able to overpower and seal Isaka.
He returns his Rider System to Karasuma, meaning to quit being a Rider for good, but the plot doesn't let him stay away long. He witnesses Mutsuki finding the 4th belt and returns to the rest of the group to try and find the teen and retrieve the cursed belt. He resists taking his own back, however, despite Kenzaki's urging, feeling like he can't.
In his search for Mutsuki, he spots Kiryu, the original candidate for the Garren System, who had lost his arm in the compatibility trial and left BOARD. Kiryu had become a vigilante, killing those he deemed wicked in the name of justice, something that horrifies Tachibana who used to look up to the man.
Kiryu manages to get ahold of the 4th belt, Leangle, and is able to transform. He taunts Tachibana, demanding that he take up Garren again and fight him. Tachibana finally does, but Kiryu is killed by Undead after Leangle returns to Mutsuki.
Because Mutsuki is being manipulated by the Undead in the belt, Tachibana feels a kinship with him, and decides to mentor him, to teach him to take control of the belt’s power and not be a puppet to it. For a short while, his efforts seem to pay off, but Mutsuki soon slips more fully under the Spider Undead's power, even going as far as to attack Tachibana and hospitalize him before fully taking on the altered persona of the Spider Undead's influence.
Tachibana continues to reach out for him, however, repeatedly trying to break through the influence to return Mutsuki to his true self.
However, the arrival of an unsealable Undead, a "Trial" temporarily redirects his energies, as he's contacted by the man who caused the Undead to be unsealed, Hirose's father who supposedly had died in the unsealing. According to Mr. Hirose, Kenzaki is in danger of becoming a second Joker, an Undead, and the Trials that he has created are part of his plan to stop that transformation. To both help save Kenzaki, and to try and get Mr. Hirose to return to the "kind" version of Hirose's father and reconnect with her, Tachibana works alongside him, despite increasing reservations about the man's methods. It's finally revealed that Mr. Hirose's true intentions are to insure Kenzaki's transformation to an Undead as part of his goal to discover the secret of eternal life.
In addition, the version of Mr. Hirose Tachibana had been working with turns out to be a Trial himself, one that was given the memories of the original and modified by the head of BOARD, Tennouji, to continue the work of discovering the secrets of the Undead.
With the decision that the Riders have outlived their usefulness, Tennouji sends his latest creation, Titan, to infect the Riders with a poison that will turn them into Undead.
Mutsuki is the first to fall to it, but through the efforts of the Tiger Undead and Shima, the Tarantula Undead, (and some assistance from Tachibana) not only is able to fight off the poison, but to finally break the control of the Spider Undead.
The four Riders finally united on the same side of battle and only 2 Undead left (one being Hajime), Tennouji takes center stage. His final trump is Cerberus, an artificially constructed Ace that he merges with to become an Undead himself. He reveals that his true plan all along was to cause the Battle Fight to restart, use the Riders to eliminate almost all of the Undead, become an Undead himself and then step in to win the Battle Fight and receive the ultimate prize: a wish to remake the world in the image of his choosing.
The team up of all four Riders, plus the unlikely help from the other remaining, unsealed Undead (Kanai), swiftly defeats him, however, Kanai killing him and taking the Cerberus card, a card that allows anyone to seal Undead. The true ace in the hole for the restarted Battle Fight was the inaction of the Battle Fight "Master," the sealing stone. With the Stone inactive, the only ones able to seal the Undead were the Riders and Joker, Hajime's Undead form. With Cerberus, Kanai is determined to seal Hajime and win the Battle Fight himself.
Hajime's fighting ability, however, is hampered by the risk that if he, as Joker, wins the Battle Fight, it's a mulligan; all life is destroyed and the world is reset.
Tachibana attempts to have Mutsuki assist him in a last ditch plan; Unseal the Human Undead that Hajime has been borrowing the form of, seal Hajime and Kanai, leaving the Human Undead the winner and preserving the world. Mutsuki, however, refuses, choosing like Kenzaki had, to trust in Hajime. Despite easily overpowering Mutsuki and being in a position where sealing Hajime would be far too easy, Tachibana can't bring himself to do it, and instead goes after Kanai alone.
Despite the Undead's repeated reminder that if Joker wins, the world will be destroyed, Tachibana insists that with everything he's lost, the only thing he has left is his friends and his trust in them. Kanai manages to knock the sealing card from Tachibana's hand over the cliff into the ocean, but Tachibana grabs hold of the Undead and jumps after the card, managing to seal him before his transform finally breaks, leaving only cards and the damaged Garren buckle for Kenzaki and everyone to find.
Like his previous brushes with death, however, he manages to survive. Karasuma locates and rescues him from the ocean, even as Joker's victory has started the slow destruction of the world; the spawning of uncountable Dark Roaches. Despite everything, it looks as if there's only one way to save the world; Sealing Joker.
Even with the Garren system broken, Tachibana attempts to take the Blade buckle to go to fight Hajime so that Kenzaki doesn't have to, but Kenzaki stops him and goes after Hajime himself.
But rather than seal Hajime, Kenzaki instead had been working on doing what he and everyone else had been trying to prevent; his transformation into a second Joker. With two unsealed Undead, the Battle Fight victory is called off, and the Sealing Stone appears to order the two to fight. Kenzaki says instead, he'll fight fate. Telling Hajime to continue living amongst the humans, he runs off, swiftly vanishing.
Personality:
Tachibana, at his base core, is an idealistic man who puts the needs of others before his own without thought. Rash, impulsive, but full of good intentions that rarely go how he thinks they will, he survives the series having lost almost everything he once had, deeply shattered from his battle against the Undead.
From the very start of the series, we see Tachibana at his lowest point, hurting from an unknown illness that is slowly destroying him, as well as the feeling that he is no longer valued by those he’s sure are the cause of his illness, his superiors at BOARD. In his hurt and anger, he lashes out at those around him, but is very quick to show his true upset and fear, and despite his anger and feelings of betrayal, he still holds a deep respect and connection with those he lashed out at, wanting to believe in them despite all signs pointing the other direction.
This faith in other people is a core motivation that, despite multiple betrayals, never wavers for long. Even when faced with the knowledge that Joker winning the Battle Fight will destroy the world, he can’t bring himself to seal Hajime, even when given multiple clean opportunities to do so. His anger is almost always heat of the moment, rarely lingering outside of a face to face confrontation, and easily sidetracked or aborted. Rather than a natural state, Tachibana’s anger often is a defensive action, a reaction to emotional pain or fear.
Despite the stoic and collected exterior that he does his best to hold in place whenever around others, Tachibana very easily gives in to his emotions, especially when he feels as if he’s being betrayed or tricked, as he has so many times before. Even being the eldest of the main group, and the one who had been with BOARD the longest, he’s still very fresh faced in so many ways and is stunned anew every time he sees someone’s true face or intentions. He often makes very rash decisions, jumping to conclusions and rushing in, ready to fight for what he thinks is the right thing.
Tachibana in many respects, views himself as weak and blames himself for much of everything that goes wrong around him, regardless if he had any influence on it at all. Because of his failings as a Rider, allowing his fear to affect him and being unable to fight the way Kenzaki can, he grows angry and bitter, partly to Kenzaki and others, but mostly at himself, and in the first arc of the series, lashes out and often attacks Kenzaki even when Kenzaki is trying to help him. He tries, through pure force of will, to overcome his fears and fails utterly, seemingly only to have made himself more afraid in the acknowledgement of the problem. It’s only when the person he’s closest to is killed that his fears no longer matter, and he’s able to fight again, no longer caring what happens to him and willing to give his very life if need be, to avenge her.
Tachibana’s life revolves completely around others. Even when he’s being destroyed by the Rider system amplifying his fear, he’s unable to walk away from the fight when people are in danger, even when Sayoko is physically trying to pull him to safety. After he quits being Garren, Mutsuki finding Leangle’s buckle pulls him back in, and it’s only in attempting to save Mutsuki from suffering a similar fate to his own that allows him to pull himself back together after being shattered by the loss of Sayoko. During the entire series, he’s striving to help or save someone, whether it’s protecting people from being attacked by Undead, trying to bring Hirose’s father back to his old self so that he’ll reunite with his daughter, trying to save Kenzaki from becoming an Undead or even trying to keep Kenzaki from having to seal Hajime. Even before the series, he had joined BOARD to help humanity, and becoming Garren was at both being selected by BOARD to be the second candidate, and being told by Kiryu, the first to attempt becoming Garren, that he could do it.
Kiryu’s brief return to Tachibana’s life also illustrated how deeply attached to, and influenced by, people Tachibana can get. Just seeing a small glance of his former mentor is enough to send Tachibana searching for him, and he’s utterly devastated to find that Kiryu has become a vigilante and murderer. Despite angrily declaring that the old Kiryu was dead, when told by Kenzaki that Kiryu’s true self was calling for Tachibana to save him, he wants to believe it, and it’s enough to get him to take up being Garren again. Similarly, when faced with Tennouji’s true intentions, Tachibana is all but physically pained at the utter betrayal, and yet, when Tennouji is killed by an Undead, Tachibana gets incredibly upset, yelling that despite having fused with and Undead to become one, Tennouji was still human, defending the man who would have destroyed the entire world.
Tachibana so easily looks up to others, despite so often finding out that those he respected were manipulative and only out for their own good. He doesn't really ever learn from his mistakes and repeated betrayals, remaining idealistic til the end. He is far more a follower than a leader, despite being often stuck in a position where he’s both leader and mentor to the younger Riders of the group. He very easily falls in line behind those who take charge, and all but blindly believes in them, especially those whom he had worked for before. Yet despite this, he very easily shifts to mentor mode when needed.
As a mentor, he’s hard and demanding, yet at the same time, compassionate and caring. In Mutsuki’s training, he pulls no punches, neither in combat training, nor in chewing the teen out when he runs away. Yet when Mutsuki needs it, Tachibana is easily able to offer him a strong shoulder to lean on, and is willing to offer him anything he needs, or thinks might help. He repeatedly reaches out to Mutsuki, even when the teen is possessed, and even after that possession had landed Tachibana in the hospital. (Even in the hospital, Tachibana attempts to protect Mutsuki, saying that he fell, and looks quite upset when no one believes him.) His care for his younger Riders often comes out a touch harsh (especially when dealing with Kenzaki) but always comes from a good place, and a want to protect them.
Abilities:
The majority of Tachibana’s non-standard-issue-human abilities are tied into the Rider System that allows him to become Garren and the cards of the sealed Undead. The wiki has a list of all the cards he has and the forms that his transformation allows him (as well as all the bits and bobs that go with it.) As of his pull point, this System is damaged, and while Tachibana has the skills to repair it, having been on the team that worked on its creation, (and the system, in theory, is self repairing), he does need to have the equipment to do so (and the self-repairing mechanism works on plot-convenience-timing.)
In addition, even when not transformed, he has what could be best described as fast vision ("Simultaneous Eyesight" ). When he was showing the skill to Mutsuki, it allowed him to see the number on a baseball fired from a machine at high speed. It's something that he cultivated through practice and it's implied in canon that it's a skill anyone can learn (as he taught it to another character)
For basic skills, he has working knowledge of motorcycle mechanics, electrical mechanics, superior driving skills on a motorcycle, good reflexes, high stamina, fighting skills and the normal TV show level ability to recover swiftly from injury. He’s also coming from a background of bio-tech research and has the knowledge and skills to go with it, as well as additional knowledge from extensive research on the Undead and work on developing the Rider System.
Inventory:
Rider System, Rouzer, Rouze Absorber and Cards (Note: the wiki is garbage and they put the information in the least helpful format possible. Tachibana’s cards are the Diamond suit ones): These allow Tachibana to transform in to Kamen Rider Garren. The Garren armor is pretty resilient, self repairing, and responds to Tachibana’s mental state.
As these items functionally exist in a hammer-space in the show (all of this gear fits in the pockets of his slacks) they should be mostly unaffected by the water, but as stated above, the Buckle was damaged in canon and the Absorber can’t be used without the Buckle. The cards are waterproof as they are functionally supernatural in nature, but their energy can’t be accessed without a functioning Rider System.
Also, wallet, flip phone (from around 2005 when the series took place), watch (that has already survived one long trip in the ocean in canon, so is assumed to be functionally invincible), and keys.
Sample
https://synodiporia.dreamwidth.org/225753.html?thread=98413273#cmt98413273
(Note: This version of Tachibana is from 10 years after canon, but in the game he was in, worked out a lot of the crushing depression that those 10 years resulted in, so is pretty much the same.)
Name: Fran
Age: 38
Contact: https://www.plurk.com/Frannyan or Frannyan@gmail.com
Current characters: N/A
Character Information
Name: Sakuya Tachibana / Kamen Rider Garren
Series: Kamen Rider Blade
Appearance: Linked here
Age:25
Canon Point: Post series (about a month or so post series to allow for healing and recovery from the series finally)
Canon History:
Tachibana is a researcher turned monster fighting hero, who walks through a rotating door of alliances, each time believing he is doing the right thing.
The first of the four Kamen Riders in the series, Tachibana’s role in the series shifts back and forth, first the seeming antagonist as his actions in the start of the series are painted as being what destroyed BOARD -- the organization researching the Undead and creating the Rider system that allowed the creation of Kamen Riders. Swiftly in it’s revealed that his only hand in the destruction was failing to contain the Undead that trashed the lab, and that his kidnapping of Karasuma, the one in charge of the Riders at BOARD, was to find answers to his mysterious failing health that seemed to be connected to the Rider system.
The truth behind his health is revealed to be a flaw in the Rider System; it works with the Rider's mental state. When the Rider is in the proper mindset, it amplifies his physical abilities, but when the wrong mental state, in Tachibana's case, one heavily influenced by fear, it can cause a backlash, resulting in Tachibana's feeling as if he’s falling apart.
After first trying to rid himself of his fears through pure force of will and failing, Tachibana attempts to give up being a Rider and live a normal life, an attempt that is short lived as an Undead shows up where he and Sayoko are on a date, prompting a fight he swiftly loses. Soon after, he's approached by the Peacock Undead, Isaka, who offers him a cure for his fears. Tachibana refuses, but is easily overpowered and defeated, leading to the Undead applying the cure to to the unconscious Rider.
The “cure” is an ancient seaweed that was used by the Undead to boost their fighting abilities that acts like a steroid. Under both the influence of the seaweed and Isaka's manipulations, Tachibana becomes Isaka's lacky, fighting against Kenzaki, the other BOARD Kamen Rider that Tachibana mentored, and Hajime, an Undead Rider.
Sayoko finds out that continued use of the seaweed will destroy Tachibana's nervous system, and attempts to get him to stop using it. Tachibana rebuffs her attempts and breaks up with her, telling her that their worlds are too different. However, Sayoko continues trying to get him to stop, resulting in Isaka killing her for "getting in Tachibana's way."
Before he even becomes aware of that, however, Tachibana rebels against Isaka, only to be swiftly defeated as the effects of the seaweed run out. He then stumbles across Sayoko as she's dying.
After her funeral, he tracks down Isaka, confirming that the Undead is the one who killed her and attacks. With nothing left to lose, his fear is gone, and he's able to overpower and seal Isaka.
He returns his Rider System to Karasuma, meaning to quit being a Rider for good, but the plot doesn't let him stay away long. He witnesses Mutsuki finding the 4th belt and returns to the rest of the group to try and find the teen and retrieve the cursed belt. He resists taking his own back, however, despite Kenzaki's urging, feeling like he can't.
In his search for Mutsuki, he spots Kiryu, the original candidate for the Garren System, who had lost his arm in the compatibility trial and left BOARD. Kiryu had become a vigilante, killing those he deemed wicked in the name of justice, something that horrifies Tachibana who used to look up to the man.
Kiryu manages to get ahold of the 4th belt, Leangle, and is able to transform. He taunts Tachibana, demanding that he take up Garren again and fight him. Tachibana finally does, but Kiryu is killed by Undead after Leangle returns to Mutsuki.
Because Mutsuki is being manipulated by the Undead in the belt, Tachibana feels a kinship with him, and decides to mentor him, to teach him to take control of the belt’s power and not be a puppet to it. For a short while, his efforts seem to pay off, but Mutsuki soon slips more fully under the Spider Undead's power, even going as far as to attack Tachibana and hospitalize him before fully taking on the altered persona of the Spider Undead's influence.
Tachibana continues to reach out for him, however, repeatedly trying to break through the influence to return Mutsuki to his true self.
However, the arrival of an unsealable Undead, a "Trial" temporarily redirects his energies, as he's contacted by the man who caused the Undead to be unsealed, Hirose's father who supposedly had died in the unsealing. According to Mr. Hirose, Kenzaki is in danger of becoming a second Joker, an Undead, and the Trials that he has created are part of his plan to stop that transformation. To both help save Kenzaki, and to try and get Mr. Hirose to return to the "kind" version of Hirose's father and reconnect with her, Tachibana works alongside him, despite increasing reservations about the man's methods. It's finally revealed that Mr. Hirose's true intentions are to insure Kenzaki's transformation to an Undead as part of his goal to discover the secret of eternal life.
In addition, the version of Mr. Hirose Tachibana had been working with turns out to be a Trial himself, one that was given the memories of the original and modified by the head of BOARD, Tennouji, to continue the work of discovering the secrets of the Undead.
With the decision that the Riders have outlived their usefulness, Tennouji sends his latest creation, Titan, to infect the Riders with a poison that will turn them into Undead.
Mutsuki is the first to fall to it, but through the efforts of the Tiger Undead and Shima, the Tarantula Undead, (and some assistance from Tachibana) not only is able to fight off the poison, but to finally break the control of the Spider Undead.
The four Riders finally united on the same side of battle and only 2 Undead left (one being Hajime), Tennouji takes center stage. His final trump is Cerberus, an artificially constructed Ace that he merges with to become an Undead himself. He reveals that his true plan all along was to cause the Battle Fight to restart, use the Riders to eliminate almost all of the Undead, become an Undead himself and then step in to win the Battle Fight and receive the ultimate prize: a wish to remake the world in the image of his choosing.
The team up of all four Riders, plus the unlikely help from the other remaining, unsealed Undead (Kanai), swiftly defeats him, however, Kanai killing him and taking the Cerberus card, a card that allows anyone to seal Undead. The true ace in the hole for the restarted Battle Fight was the inaction of the Battle Fight "Master," the sealing stone. With the Stone inactive, the only ones able to seal the Undead were the Riders and Joker, Hajime's Undead form. With Cerberus, Kanai is determined to seal Hajime and win the Battle Fight himself.
Hajime's fighting ability, however, is hampered by the risk that if he, as Joker, wins the Battle Fight, it's a mulligan; all life is destroyed and the world is reset.
Tachibana attempts to have Mutsuki assist him in a last ditch plan; Unseal the Human Undead that Hajime has been borrowing the form of, seal Hajime and Kanai, leaving the Human Undead the winner and preserving the world. Mutsuki, however, refuses, choosing like Kenzaki had, to trust in Hajime. Despite easily overpowering Mutsuki and being in a position where sealing Hajime would be far too easy, Tachibana can't bring himself to do it, and instead goes after Kanai alone.
Despite the Undead's repeated reminder that if Joker wins, the world will be destroyed, Tachibana insists that with everything he's lost, the only thing he has left is his friends and his trust in them. Kanai manages to knock the sealing card from Tachibana's hand over the cliff into the ocean, but Tachibana grabs hold of the Undead and jumps after the card, managing to seal him before his transform finally breaks, leaving only cards and the damaged Garren buckle for Kenzaki and everyone to find.
Like his previous brushes with death, however, he manages to survive. Karasuma locates and rescues him from the ocean, even as Joker's victory has started the slow destruction of the world; the spawning of uncountable Dark Roaches. Despite everything, it looks as if there's only one way to save the world; Sealing Joker.
Even with the Garren system broken, Tachibana attempts to take the Blade buckle to go to fight Hajime so that Kenzaki doesn't have to, but Kenzaki stops him and goes after Hajime himself.
But rather than seal Hajime, Kenzaki instead had been working on doing what he and everyone else had been trying to prevent; his transformation into a second Joker. With two unsealed Undead, the Battle Fight victory is called off, and the Sealing Stone appears to order the two to fight. Kenzaki says instead, he'll fight fate. Telling Hajime to continue living amongst the humans, he runs off, swiftly vanishing.
Personality:
Tachibana, at his base core, is an idealistic man who puts the needs of others before his own without thought. Rash, impulsive, but full of good intentions that rarely go how he thinks they will, he survives the series having lost almost everything he once had, deeply shattered from his battle against the Undead.
From the very start of the series, we see Tachibana at his lowest point, hurting from an unknown illness that is slowly destroying him, as well as the feeling that he is no longer valued by those he’s sure are the cause of his illness, his superiors at BOARD. In his hurt and anger, he lashes out at those around him, but is very quick to show his true upset and fear, and despite his anger and feelings of betrayal, he still holds a deep respect and connection with those he lashed out at, wanting to believe in them despite all signs pointing the other direction.
This faith in other people is a core motivation that, despite multiple betrayals, never wavers for long. Even when faced with the knowledge that Joker winning the Battle Fight will destroy the world, he can’t bring himself to seal Hajime, even when given multiple clean opportunities to do so. His anger is almost always heat of the moment, rarely lingering outside of a face to face confrontation, and easily sidetracked or aborted. Rather than a natural state, Tachibana’s anger often is a defensive action, a reaction to emotional pain or fear.
Despite the stoic and collected exterior that he does his best to hold in place whenever around others, Tachibana very easily gives in to his emotions, especially when he feels as if he’s being betrayed or tricked, as he has so many times before. Even being the eldest of the main group, and the one who had been with BOARD the longest, he’s still very fresh faced in so many ways and is stunned anew every time he sees someone’s true face or intentions. He often makes very rash decisions, jumping to conclusions and rushing in, ready to fight for what he thinks is the right thing.
Tachibana in many respects, views himself as weak and blames himself for much of everything that goes wrong around him, regardless if he had any influence on it at all. Because of his failings as a Rider, allowing his fear to affect him and being unable to fight the way Kenzaki can, he grows angry and bitter, partly to Kenzaki and others, but mostly at himself, and in the first arc of the series, lashes out and often attacks Kenzaki even when Kenzaki is trying to help him. He tries, through pure force of will, to overcome his fears and fails utterly, seemingly only to have made himself more afraid in the acknowledgement of the problem. It’s only when the person he’s closest to is killed that his fears no longer matter, and he’s able to fight again, no longer caring what happens to him and willing to give his very life if need be, to avenge her.
Tachibana’s life revolves completely around others. Even when he’s being destroyed by the Rider system amplifying his fear, he’s unable to walk away from the fight when people are in danger, even when Sayoko is physically trying to pull him to safety. After he quits being Garren, Mutsuki finding Leangle’s buckle pulls him back in, and it’s only in attempting to save Mutsuki from suffering a similar fate to his own that allows him to pull himself back together after being shattered by the loss of Sayoko. During the entire series, he’s striving to help or save someone, whether it’s protecting people from being attacked by Undead, trying to bring Hirose’s father back to his old self so that he’ll reunite with his daughter, trying to save Kenzaki from becoming an Undead or even trying to keep Kenzaki from having to seal Hajime. Even before the series, he had joined BOARD to help humanity, and becoming Garren was at both being selected by BOARD to be the second candidate, and being told by Kiryu, the first to attempt becoming Garren, that he could do it.
Kiryu’s brief return to Tachibana’s life also illustrated how deeply attached to, and influenced by, people Tachibana can get. Just seeing a small glance of his former mentor is enough to send Tachibana searching for him, and he’s utterly devastated to find that Kiryu has become a vigilante and murderer. Despite angrily declaring that the old Kiryu was dead, when told by Kenzaki that Kiryu’s true self was calling for Tachibana to save him, he wants to believe it, and it’s enough to get him to take up being Garren again. Similarly, when faced with Tennouji’s true intentions, Tachibana is all but physically pained at the utter betrayal, and yet, when Tennouji is killed by an Undead, Tachibana gets incredibly upset, yelling that despite having fused with and Undead to become one, Tennouji was still human, defending the man who would have destroyed the entire world.
Tachibana so easily looks up to others, despite so often finding out that those he respected were manipulative and only out for their own good. He doesn't really ever learn from his mistakes and repeated betrayals, remaining idealistic til the end. He is far more a follower than a leader, despite being often stuck in a position where he’s both leader and mentor to the younger Riders of the group. He very easily falls in line behind those who take charge, and all but blindly believes in them, especially those whom he had worked for before. Yet despite this, he very easily shifts to mentor mode when needed.
As a mentor, he’s hard and demanding, yet at the same time, compassionate and caring. In Mutsuki’s training, he pulls no punches, neither in combat training, nor in chewing the teen out when he runs away. Yet when Mutsuki needs it, Tachibana is easily able to offer him a strong shoulder to lean on, and is willing to offer him anything he needs, or thinks might help. He repeatedly reaches out to Mutsuki, even when the teen is possessed, and even after that possession had landed Tachibana in the hospital. (Even in the hospital, Tachibana attempts to protect Mutsuki, saying that he fell, and looks quite upset when no one believes him.) His care for his younger Riders often comes out a touch harsh (especially when dealing with Kenzaki) but always comes from a good place, and a want to protect them.
Abilities:
The majority of Tachibana’s non-standard-issue-human abilities are tied into the Rider System that allows him to become Garren and the cards of the sealed Undead. The wiki has a list of all the cards he has and the forms that his transformation allows him (as well as all the bits and bobs that go with it.) As of his pull point, this System is damaged, and while Tachibana has the skills to repair it, having been on the team that worked on its creation, (and the system, in theory, is self repairing), he does need to have the equipment to do so (and the self-repairing mechanism works on plot-convenience-timing.)
In addition, even when not transformed, he has what could be best described as fast vision ("Simultaneous Eyesight" ). When he was showing the skill to Mutsuki, it allowed him to see the number on a baseball fired from a machine at high speed. It's something that he cultivated through practice and it's implied in canon that it's a skill anyone can learn (as he taught it to another character)
For basic skills, he has working knowledge of motorcycle mechanics, electrical mechanics, superior driving skills on a motorcycle, good reflexes, high stamina, fighting skills and the normal TV show level ability to recover swiftly from injury. He’s also coming from a background of bio-tech research and has the knowledge and skills to go with it, as well as additional knowledge from extensive research on the Undead and work on developing the Rider System.
Inventory:
Rider System, Rouzer, Rouze Absorber and Cards (Note: the wiki is garbage and they put the information in the least helpful format possible. Tachibana’s cards are the Diamond suit ones): These allow Tachibana to transform in to Kamen Rider Garren. The Garren armor is pretty resilient, self repairing, and responds to Tachibana’s mental state.
As these items functionally exist in a hammer-space in the show (all of this gear fits in the pockets of his slacks) they should be mostly unaffected by the water, but as stated above, the Buckle was damaged in canon and the Absorber can’t be used without the Buckle. The cards are waterproof as they are functionally supernatural in nature, but their energy can’t be accessed without a functioning Rider System.
Also, wallet, flip phone (from around 2005 when the series took place), watch (that has already survived one long trip in the ocean in canon, so is assumed to be functionally invincible), and keys.
Sample
https://synodiporia.dreamwidth.org/225753.html?thread=98413273#cmt98413273
(Note: This version of Tachibana is from 10 years after canon, but in the game he was in, worked out a lot of the crushing depression that those 10 years resulted in, so is pretty much the same.)