havenmods | Applications Two

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applications

Applications Two

APPLICATIONS ARE CLOSED!
The next application opening date is Friday 16th January, 7pm EST.
The next application processing date is Friday 23rd January, 7pm EST.

IMPORTANT: PLEASE POST YOUR APPLICATIONS HERE ON THE NEW APPLICATION PAGE

We're so glad you're thinking of joining us in Haven, where we are all safe.

In order to apply for a canon character, please fill out the information below and post it in a comment in this entry. For an OC, please apply using the OC information. Please do not link to applications, all applications must be posted here. Please do not delete your applications; if you do not want it to be seen, you can request for it to be screened after a decision is made.

You may apply for two characters every application round, to a total of six characters. Only two of these may be from the same canon, and they cannot be too familiar with one another. Please make sure to mark the header of your comment(s) with RESERVED or NOT RESERVED, as well as the character name and canon. App challenges are not allowed currently.

Try to remember spelling and grammar are important, and in app length quality and not quantity is what matters. All parts of the application must be your own work, plagiarism will not be tolerated, though you are welcome to reuse your own old applications.

If you are asked for revisions, please don't panic! It doesn't mean the mods don't like you, only that we probably need more information before making a decision. If you are asked for revisions, you will have one week to supply them.

Applications are open on a monthly cycle, where they will be opened on the second Friday of every month for a week, and then processed on the third Friday of the month, before being closed again.

We now have a test drive community at haventest which is continuously open. Posts there may be used in lieu of a sample in the application. You may also link posts, logs, or threads from other games and memes in lieu of samples, though we ask that they be no more than one year old. As of November 22nd 2014, samples cannot be "where am I" intro posts. The reason for this is that we often find it hard to gauge characterization from those, as most people when immediately in a new surrounding are confused or frightened.

While we encourage players who have dropped to re-join us, we do not encourage the continual rapid dropping and re-apping of the same character in a short time period. You are welcome to request specific housing, and all attempts will be made to accommodate that request, but it may not always be possible.

To see what we are looking for:
Canon Characters:
Sample Application (Faith Lehane)
Sample Application (Iroh)

Original Characters:
Sample Application (Mors)
Sample Application (Vera de Barr)
Sample Application (Malkus Iverwelling)

Previous Game History:
Sample Application (Abel Nightroad/Mayfield RPG)
Sample Application (Bolin/Discedo)

The old application post can be found here if you would like to look through past accepted applications.

Applications will be open on the following dates (from 7pm EST):
12th-19th December
16th-23rd January

Applications will be processed on the following dates (at 7pm EST):
19th December
23rd January

To apply for a canon character, please fill out this form:
Name: Your name or nickname Contact Info: Email, plurk, IM... as long as there's a way to contact you, it's fine! Other Characters Played: Any other characters you play at Haven. Requested apartment: Please put N/A if you have no preference. Character Name: Names and nicknames, in Western order (first name, surname) Canon: Canon Point: Where in the series are you taking them from? Background/History: A link to a source about the canon is fine for this. Previous Game History: At least two paragraphs on important events for the character and how they have been shaped by the previous game. If this is not applicable, please delete this section. Personality: This is the most important section! There is no specific word count, but anything less than three paragraphs likely isn't detailed enough. Abilities/Powers: Please assume canon-blindness and explain in as much detail as possible. Items/Weapons: Which three items and/or weapons will your character arrive with? Sample Entry: At least ten sentences in first person/action bracket format, please. A link to a previous post or thread with the character is also acceptable. All links must be one year old or less. Samples submitted may not be in the form of a "where am I" intro, as these are hard to judge characterization from. All other scenarios are welcome. Sample Entry Two: At least two paragraphs in third person/prose format, please. A link to a previous log or thread with the character is also acceptable. All links must be one year old or less. Samples submitted may not be in the form of a "where am I" intro, as these are hard to judge characterization from. All other scenarios are welcome.

To apply for an original character, please fill out this form:
Name: Your name or nickname Contact Info: Email, plurk, IM... as long as there's a way to contact you, it's fine! Other Characters Played: Any other characters you play at Haven. Requested apartment: Please put N/A if you have no preference. Character Name: Names and nicknames, in Western order (first name, surname) Background/History: At least three paragraphs, please. Try to focus on events in the world history that have had an impact on the character. Previous Game History: At least two paragraphs on important events for the character and how they have been shaped by the previous game. If this is not applicable, please delete this section. Personality: This is the most important section! There is no specific word count, but anything less than three paragraphs likely isn't detailed enough. Abilities/Powers: Please explain in as much detail as possible. Items/Weapons: Which three items and/or weapons will your character arrive with? Sample Entry: At least ten sentences in first person/action bracket format, please. A link to a previous post or thread under a year old with the character is also acceptable. All links must be one year old or less. Samples submitted may not be in the form of a "where am I" intro, as these are hard to judge characterization from. All other scenarios are welcome. Sample Entry Two: At least two paragraphs in third person/prose format, please. A link to a previous log or thread with the character is also acceptable. All links must be one year old or less. Samples submitted may not be in the form of a "where am I" intro, as these are hard to judge characterization from. All other scenarios are welcome.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Name: Rhi
Contact Info:

amazinglystrange or PM
Other Characters Played: None but also apping Chiaki Nanami
Requested apartment: N/A

Character Name: Elena
Canon: Final Fantasy VII
Canon Point: Post Advent Children
Background/History: Here and a bonus timeline

Personality: Elena is a perfectionist and an overachiever. At the Military Academy, she earned the highest scores in her exams often enough to earn five Elite Emblems, more than anyone else at the school. This despite working as a bartender at the same time, which would seem to support the fact that she best thrives within a working environment, or at least an environment where she has something in which she can progress. There's also the fact that she was spurred on by a desire to outperform her sister, or at least separate herself enough that she couldn't be constantly compared - which is partly why she initially refused to even entertain the idea of joining the Turks while her sister was part of the group and is the main reason she dropped marksmanship in order to pursue martial arts instead.

These traits have lasted long into her tenure as a member of the Turks. Where Reno and Rude often appear laid back about their work, Elena always comes across as entirely serious, sometimes a little too much so - to a point where she doesn't always know when to switch off, as demonstrated when she rushed to confront Cloud and the others in Wutai when she and the others were on holiday and thus off the clock. While this is doubtless a balance she has learned to handle better in the two years since, it would be fair to say that she still tends towards the side of taking her work incredibly seriously.

That being said, Elena also has something of a reckless, impulsive streak and it is this which probably best explains her clumsier moments when she first joins the Turks, such as saying too much about the Turks' plans to stop Sephiroth or rushing off by herself only to get kidnapped by Don Corneo when Reno and Rude refused to help the other Shinra officers sent to find him. Essentially, she often acts or speaks before thinking and it's on those occasions she finds herself tripping up. Beyond that, she does also have something of a clumsy streak anyway, though it's likely by now that she's largely outgrown that. She's also remarkably stubborn, something in which she takes after her sister, and this also helps to explain why she often lands herself in trouble, because she determines that she can handle things even if they're beyond her capabilities - for all she's talented, she is still far less experienced than the other Turks, and it's possible her bid to prove she's capable of standing beside them feeds into this stubborn determination to prove herself, alongside the habit ingrained in her for having to keep up with her sister.

Even this, however, can be related back to the way she strives to give off the right impression. Appearance is important to Elena, both on a more superficial level (for example, her retreat animation after the fight below Midgar sees her touching up her hair and make-up before moving to follow Reno and Rude) and in wanting to be seen as and taken seriously as a Turk. This is another reason she tends to clash with Reno and Rude and why she struggles to switch off from things - where they see it as a job, Elena appears to see it more as a way of life. Hence why she feels they, as Turks, should be willing to put their holiday on hold when work calls - she even accuses Reno of not acting the way a Turk 'should' act, despite being the rookie of the group. It's likely this comes from having seen the Turks in action and thus gaining more of an insight into how they are more than just the Shinra dogs she once thought them to be, but it also speaks to a touch of rash immaturity where she works toward an ideal of what a Turk should be rather than the reality.

That being said, it's apparent that ruthlessness doesn't come naturally to Elena and that she is the most emotionally open of the Turks. For all she's quick to try to provoke a fight in Wutai, and is willing to lash out at Cloud at Icicle Inn, she doesn't manage to capitalise on her success in the event she manages to knock Cloud out, instead leaving him to recover in one of the nearby houses, and she's the first to suggest that they might not necessarily have to fight Cloud and the others when they meet again in Midgar. Indeed, her lashing out at Cloud at Icicle Inn appears to have far less to do with Shinra and far more to do with her mistaken belief that Cloud had killed Tseng - the boss she admires and has a rather heavy crush on, to the point that when he suggests they have dinner together, she fumbles in her response and hides behind a more formal attitude to try to cover up just how much it means to her. She is often told off for being weak when she does let her emotions show (such as her relief at being rescued after Corneo kidnaps her) and it's likely she's managed to rein that in a little over the past two years but it's probable that she still very much has that side to her, just much better hidden.

Indeed, the two years between FFVII and Advent Children mean that she has likely grown out of much of the inexperience and immaturity she once showed. Certainly, the recklessness is likely still there and she's still likely to be awkward in certain instances (such as her feelings for Tseng), but she's quite clearly grown into the role of Turk, whatever that means by the time the events of Advent Children take place - while recovering Jenova's head, she manages to get it to the helicopter (and thus to Reno and Rude) and fight her way back to an injured Tseng's side before being overpowered herself and while the true extent of what she and Tseng endured at the Remnants' hands is unknown, that she can be on her feet again so soon after being brutally tortured and left half-dead certainly speaks to her resilience. That's not to say she might not still slip up at times but she's learning and her determination to succeed to the best of her abilities means she will always be looking to improve where she feels she needs to.

Abilities/Powers: Elena is highly skilled in both martial arts and firearms (mostly handguns), though she tends more towards the former most of the time. Also as a Turk she is trained in information gathering and has experience in handling dangerous and even life-threatening situations.

Items/Weapons: Her gun (standard Turk issue pistol), a small box of ammunition and one Hi-Potion

Sample Entry: (This is an old City of Ariel entry but since I can't link I've copy/pasted instead, hopefully that's okay)

[The feed opens to a shot of blanket-wrapped legs and hands, mostly covered by sleeves, holding a coffee mug that’s still mostly full, in such a way as to suggest the person behind the ‘camera’ wants to show as little skin as possible.

After a moment, the view shifts to a window where blonde hair and feminine features are faintly reflected, just enough to identify Elena before she speaks. For those likely to notice such a thing, the view outside doesn’t appear to be one from any of the apartment buildings, though Elena doesn’t seem to be focusing on any part of said view enough to suggest it’s something she’s showing intentionally.

When she speaks, she sounds tired but determined, low on sleep but wanting to get this out now and throw herself back into Ariel life.]

I know this question seems to come up a lot so I figured I may as well put this out there: what they say about going back home when we leave is true, or at least a possible truth. I don’t know, maybe it’s not the same for everyone. But I’ve seen it myself...if anyone was wondering where I was yesterday, there’s your answer. I was back on Gaia, right where I left off when they brought me here.

[Which won’t mean much to most people but is subtle clue for anyone who happens to know what she’d last remembered first time around and what had happened from there.

Her gaze turns back to her coffee, then, as she affects a laugh that has no humour or warmth behind it.]

If I didn’t know better, I’d swear it was some sort of punishment. That maybe they think their methods won’t work on me and why risk it when they can send me back to what they did. But then, if that was the case I’m not sure they’d have welcomed me back by giving me somewhere bigger to live.

[And an apparent promise of promotion, though she doesn’t want to mention that until she’s made it to work and found out for certain.]

Anyway, I figure one account by itself doesn’t mean much but if it lines up with what other people have experienced, a bigger knowledge base never hurts, right?

[And it distracts her from certain bigger issues she has now she’s back, though she’s already planning how to counteract those.]

Sample Entry Two: Here

Name: Marie
Contact Info: seemarierun AT plurk
Other Characters Played: None, but I'm probably apping Bart Allen.
Requested apartment: N/A

Character Name: Julio Esteban Richter, codename Rictor, "Ric"
Canon: Marvel Comics, 616-verse
Canon Point: X-Factor #259
Background/History: @ Marvel Wiki

However, I've got a write-up that includes the basics as well as explains his affiliations and friends.

The Marvel 616 universe is meant to be much like the world that we know, and it is nearly always set in the present day. There is nothing that exists in our world that does not exist in 616. However, there are numerous additions to it. The primary one is that super-humans, superheroes, and super-villains exist. Others are less noticeable, such as the fictional country Genosha (detailed further down) or the American government's spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. and its Canadian counterpart Department K, both of which tend to be the government's way of working with or against super-humans.

These super-humans have supernatural abilities, ranging from the expected flight and super strength combination to the absurd, like having a digestive tract comprised of two sentient maggots. They have come about these abilities in various ways.

First, there are the aliens. The Skrull and Kree are two of the more famous; these races are constantly at war with each other. Skrulls, at one point, took a fancy to impersonating super-humans of Earth in an attempt to take over the world. It didn't work. Ric has come up against the Spineless Ones and their leader, Mojo, more often. These Jabba-like blobs are extremely technologically savvy, addicted to television, and live in another dimension known as the Mojoverse. While they consider humans to be disgusting creatures, they have genetically constructed a race of slaves based on humans to be servants, gladiators, and actors. Immobile slug beings make for boring TV. When they get bored with this, they kidnap real humans, generally mutants, and put them in the gladiator fights instead. The only good thing to come out of Mojoverse is his half-construct, half-human boyfriend, Shatterstar.

As for the more human super-humans, some were experimented on, many were drenched in radioactive rays/materials/bug bites, and others are magically attuned or demigods. Still more can't claim the abilities as their own, having instead used their technological genius to create gadgets that let them fly or shoot missiles. The do-gooding of these super-humans tend to gravitate to the more legally recognized, government-chartered Avengers. The Avengers exists to fight off huge, world-threatening Bad Guys that none of them could take on their own.

Finally, until several years ago, the most common way to find oneself with a superpower was to have been born a mutant, a human with an "X-gene." While some physical mutations caused by this gene appear at birth, most mutants first realize their status during puberty while under great stress. It has been theorized that it is the nature of this stressor that defines the actual abilities granted by the X-gene. A girl whose best friend is in a coma receives telepathy; a boy who was gravely injured is granted a healing factor. This first use of power, or manifestation, can be violent and uncontrolled. When Rictor manifested his mutant ability, he leveled a good chunk of his neighborhood.

Due to incidents like "destroying several city blocks" and the bad PR that follows them everywhere, mutants are not much loved by the general populace of the world, who can't be thrilled to see the next step in evolution happening quite suddenly all around them. It's like being a Neanderthal when humans starting popping everywhere. Mutants are hated to the point of 'average' humans forming multiple, violent, anti-mutant organizations that are willing to do anything to drain the X-gene from the gene pool. Mutants have been kidnapped, tortured, experimented on, and killed in myriad ways. It's slightly irrational, as some of the other ways to become a hero turn out rather beloved figures like Spider-Man, but that's how it works.

In order to protect mutants, work for their acceptance, and advance their rights, Professor Charles Xavier created a boarding school for "gifted" youth, the Xavier Institute. It was mainly a front for him to safely collect mutant teenagers and teach them to use their powers. Ostensibly, actual education is given as well, when the school isn't being destroyed by training accidents and attacks. Due to the fact that simply hiding what mutants he could at a school wasn't enough to protect them, Xavier used his first students to create a team that would fight on behalf of mutants - or fight against ones that sought to use their powers for evil.

Two of the prominent groups that regularly attack mutants are The Right and the Purifiers. The Right, lead by Cameron Hodge, have generally been kidnappers who attempt to stir up shit by making mutants look worse to the general public in hopes of creating more anti-mutant feelings that will turn the government against them. Ric was one of their earliest victims. The Purifiers are a bunch of religious nutballs who think mutation is caused by sin and occasionally wage a sort of holy war against them. On the opposite end of the spectrum is things like the Brotherhood of Mutants, who believe that mutants should rule the world (depending on the writer). There are more, but the bottom line is that Bad Guys Exist; X-Teams Fight Them.

There have been many mutant groups/teams with the Xavier Institute and the X-Men. To keep things streamlined, only the ones which Rictor has been associated or are currently operating will be discussed. Defunct teams have been included in an effort to show how well-connected he is within the mutant circles.

Mutant Groups/Teams/Factions

X-MEN:
The original is still the best. Sometimes, including right now, there's more than one team running around with this name. Since they were first formed, there's only been a brief stint when there wasn't a squad running around under this name. They're a little goody-goody, no matter how many times they let reformed villains join, and Ric has never been a member, though he has teamed up with them.

X-FACTOR (original):
The original five X-Men - Scott Summers (Cyclops), Jean Grey (Phoenix), Bobby Drake (Iceman), Hank McCoy (Beast), and Warren Worthington (Angel) - reunited and decided to pretend to be a bunch of mutant-hunting mercenaries that they called X-Factor. This was a way of disguising their recruitment/saving of several young mutants, including Julio. The saving was always done while pretending to be yet another squad called the X-Terminators, so that nothing could be connected to the original X-Men name (or to the school). Good thing, too, because this team turned into a spectacular PR nightmare.

X-TERMINATORS (defunct):
X-Factor's growing collection of young wards, including, began to emulate them, co-opting the X-Terminators name.

NEW MUTANTS (original incarnation):
A teenaged team based out of the Xavier Institute that grew to include the X-Terminators. In a... stunning lack of common sense, the role of training and leading them was given to Magneto (Erik Lehnsherr), who advocates mutant rights to the point of being a zealot and has clashed with the X-types more often than he's sided with them. The squad almost never listened to him and had a terrible life expectancy.

GENOSHA (currently a wasteland):
When Ric first encountered it, the Genoshan government was enslaving all of its mutant population to create a paradise for humanity. It was overthrown by various X-members, including Julio, and was later given over to Magneto by the U.N. to be a mutant nation, much like what was done with the land in our world that became Israel. This was successful for some time, and the island country grew to a population of 16 million before they were all slaughtered, because everyone still hates mutants.

X-FORCE (original incarnation):
The remains of the first New Mutants team became a violent squad with a penchant for law-breaking and collateral damage when Magneto turned the team over to Cable (Nate Summers). The name has been reused for other teams that must operate further outside the law than the X-Men are willing to go.

CABLE:
A faction all to himself, having played the Jesus role of the universe several times. The man has his own agenda and is willing to use people as soldiers or pawns. His clone, Stryfe, murdered Rictor's father.

X-CORPORATION (defunct):
The closest Rictor has come to being an actual X-Man, this was an international collection of squads created by Xavier to aid the exploding mutant population. Until suddenly, there was a morning where Rictor and over 90% of mutants woke up and weren't mutants (the day has been termed M-Day). With the population it meant to serve decimated and its offices being bombed, X-Corporation dissolved.

X-FACTOR (current):
The superhero team that isn't exactly a team. Rictor fell in with them almost by accident. Namely, he was prevented from committing suicide by the newly re-formed X-Factor, now a detective agency comprised of mainly old friends/teammates, and he just... stayed on. This X-Factor focuses itself on helping the mutant and no-longer-mutant population with its troubles (generally for a fee), while looking into what caused the massive depowerment, protesting the Registration Act, or chasing around the first mutant baby born since the massive depowerment. They run with whatever the Mutant Cause du jour is.

Other Members of X-Factor (very briefly & somewhat through Julio's eyes):

Multiple Man/Jamie Madrox: Leader, as he owns the building they live-in rent free. Wins at life for bagging Monet and Terry in one night. Fails at life for falling for Layla. A good friend, but he'll never be told that, especially because he's literally a demon right now.
Wolfsbane/Rahne Sinclair: One of the best people Julio's ever met. He admires her ability to have faith. A former flame and close friend, they know the other is damaged (and that they caused some of it), and they're very protective of each other.
Shatterstar: Reads Ric too well, but that's why they've been best friends since they met and why Julio's dating him. There's no one better to watch your back in a bar fight. Obsessed with tv, enjoys cracking skulls, and makes Ric laugh.
Siryn/Theresa Cassidy: Stereotypical fiery, Irish redhead. They go way back, and, like all of his friends, she has her problems (recovering alcoholic, professional at denial). Currently the manifestation of an ancient goddess.
Monet: Julio's favorite verbal sparring partner. He'll never admit it, but he recognizes that they're alike. She's still stuck-up though.
Layla Miller: The most annoying person ever born. Now she's married to Jamie, and he'll never get to slap her. She made the boneheaded decision to bring Guido back to life without a soul.
Longshot: Useful, but even Ric thinks he's an idiot and something of a pig. Was impersonated by a Skrull at one point. Ric doesn't trust him much.
Havok & Polaris: Babysitters sent by the X-Men to keep tabs on X-Factor's nosiness and to give them some legitimacy. They're train wrecks masquerading as people, so they fit right in.
Darwin: Seemed okay. Tried to kill Tier, Rahne's kid, and Ric was forced to attack him - nearly killing Darwin in the process.
Strong Guy/Guido: ~~Nice enough, funny. Something of a friend.~~ Died and resurrected soulless, he got rougher around the edges. Then he killed Rahne's kid, and he's pretty much Dead to Ric.

Personality:
[NOTE: Purple is headcanon.]

To begin with, Julio doesn't want to be here, really. Not "here" as in Haven (though that doesn't help), here as in "stuck in the mess of mutant issues that he can never quite get away from". But it's all he's known since he was about 13, and he honestly thinks that there's no other place for him in the world. This superhero stuff, if he is one, is partly to try and make sure no kids have to live through what he did and partly because sometimes they actually get to do that. He can take the successes and coast on the good vibes for awhile.

He's an angry person. As a youth, Rictor witnessed the murder of his father and was overcome with grief, and the wounds are there to this day. Through DNA alone - something that he had no say over, he's stuck being treated like dirt by millions of people over his status as a mutant. It's doubly painful, because his power is one of the only things that he is proud of and believes himself to be good at. He's seen too many of his friends die for someone who's only in his mid-twenties. Most of them were only teenagers. Rahne's kid wasn't even that old. Ric, himself, has been kidnapped multiple times, tortured with a proddy electrical machine, forced to fight in gladiatorial combat, temporarily enslaved, etc. So yeah, he's bitter. He'd like to get the long end of the stick once in awhile (and then whack a few people over the head with it).

Unsurprisingly, due to all of the trauma he's suffered, Ric is completely unable to handle personal, emotional stress. When he was younger, getting overly emotional or worked up tended to set off his powers (sometimes literally bringing the house down around him). He's attempted suicide twice. The first time was as a teenager, when it seemed as if he was going to fall back into the hands of the Right (who had tortured him).

When he was de-powered, Ric wound up on a window ledge again threatening to commit suicide, because he values himself by his ability. Without it, he felt like nothing. He's struggled with depression. It's never been explicitly diagnosed, but, aside from the suicide attempt, he's admitted that his bad days are spent in morosely wallowing in self-pity and that the good days are the ones when he's just too busy to do so. He's not above self-medicating with alcohol or sex when it gets to be too much. Getting help seems out of the question. When Jamie insisted that the entire roster of X-Factor see a psychiatrist, Julio was alternately hostile and flippant during his session. He's too proud to admit that he may not be able to handle something on his own.

When he was repowered permanently, Rictor was exuberant. There was extraneous use of abilities for several weeks and enough cocky swagger that multiple teammates had to basically tell him to calm down. He hasn't been as glum since then, but he will always find things to get upset about.

Ric has an established problem with authority figures. It's not entirely without reason. His father and uncles, who he loved, turned out to be arms-dealers and murderers. The original X-Factor team was working with Cameron Hodge, who tried to force Julio to cause a massive earthquake that would "prove" how dangerous mutants were. Cable's a douchebag, and it's been proven that its somewhere in his DNA to be a killer. . The list goes on. Julio is usually one of the first in line to question an order, particularly when it comes from an outsider. You have to earn Ric's trust, and he goes out of his way to make it hard to do just by being who he is.

Even ordinary conversations with him can get combative, especially if he goes into it feeling judged. Rictor is always on the defensive. Sometimes, it's quips, but, more often than not, it takes the form of stronger tones and debate. If it degenerates into a fight and he's taking a few too many stings, he's outta there. Anything to keep you and whatever hot mess you're in away, because he's got his own to deal with, thanks, and he doesn't want your pity. With close friends, he'll let his guard down sometimes, so long as they just operate on assumptions and don't expect him to actually talk about his feelings. That never goes well, because he hates being vulnerable.

Take his relationship with Shatterstar. It's obvious that Julio cares for him deeply, but Star's insistence on an open relationship makes Ric feel like he's leaving himself at risk of emotional pain. And so there's arguments, annoyed glances and snorts and angry remarks everywhere, and general overcompensation for being gay/bi and a complete refusal to enjoy any pop culture that might have the barest hint of being considered part of the gay stereotype (really, who doesn't like Singin' in the Rain? This guy. That's who). He sees it as completely justified behavior, because the last person that he attempted a relationship with (Rahne) fucked him and basically took off, leaving him with a Dear John letter, until she turned back up pregnant with someone else's kid and telling him it was his. He forgave her for that, but it still hurt to go through.

There's an unrecognized hypocritical streak in him as well. He's got an aversion to conforming to gay sterotypes, but Ric is ignorant of how he adheres to the one about the Latin male and his precious machismo. His honesty can work in brutal ways. He'll rail on someone for their mistakes, faults, and screw-ups and expect them to take it, but, if someone does the same to him, he blows them off. Fiercely against guns through his teenage years, he begins using handguns while he is depowered, in an effort to not be weak.

He's good at excusing his own bad behavior. He tried to explain away his suicide attempt to Rahne while he was still on the ledge threatening to jump. Ric lies to himself, as well. He's admitted to doing so while he was in the closet, but that's not the only time it's cropped off. It's more of a lying by omission than attempting to delude himself: if he can pretend that something didn't happen or didn't affect him, then it didn't. Picking minor fights (both verbal and physical) tends to help with this; it lets off some of the steam that builds up as a result of ignoring problems.

The one thing that he doesn't try to excuse is the killing that he's done. Ric doesn't enjoy killing, and he's actively avoided it in the Mojoverse gladiatorial arena. That said, he has taken lives when he thinks it's merited. Notably, he dealt what should have been the death blow on Cameron Hodge (reminder: leader of a human faction that seeks to destroy mutantkind, tortured Rictor personally), burying his still human head and cyborg body (don't ask. Comics.) under tons of rubble. He also killed a deranged man who abducted and mutilated Terry. Ric firmly believes that some people can't be allowed to live on, and he won't apologize for it.

When it comes to his friends, he's fine with them being vulnerable and will act as a support system, if allowed. He'll listen and offer well-meaning but terrible advice that you're probably better off without because Ric makes Really Bad Life Decisions, but the friend in question has to be bleeding emotions all over the place for him to see it. He's not trying to ignore them; he's just a self-centered asshole in his day-to-day life. But when the big stuff happens, he's right there to help. Just whack him on the face with it to get his attention. For example, with Rahne's pregnancy, he didn't bail on her when she told him it was his (as one could reasonably expect him to, with his penchant for storming off when things get hard). Even when he found out it wasn't his, Ric eventually got over himself and agreed to continue the farce that it was his child, even offering to help raise the kid.

Moodiness and anger issues aside, Rictor isn't a bad person. He may roll his eyes and bitch, but he'll never walk away from someone that needs help, even if it's a random domestic disturbance that doesn't concern him at all. He often misses the mark on his reactions to people, but, when he cools off, he can regret his lashing out. Sometimes, he can even manage to say that he's sorry. If he knows something is a sore spot for someone, he'll do the fighting for them without hesitation. Once he considers someone a friend, he's on their side even when they're possessed and attacking him, like Shatterstar was, or causing international incidents. It's part of his charm.

Another reason why people put up with him is that he's a sparkling conversationalist. Ok, not quite, but if you're in the market for someone to go have a few beers with and shoot the shit, he can be fun to talk to. There's a sense of humor there, and, as stated in several ways already, he doesn't enjoy talking about the bad memories. Underneath the mountains of manpain, he's an average guy with a sense of humor. He likes to go clubbing and drive too fast. He'd rather ask someone about their hot date this weekend or start a pool on how many more inches the zipper on Monet's uniform can go down before she gets hit with a ticket for indecent exposure.

Abilities/Powers:Rictor's mutation allows him create seismic waves and energy. This can manifest in various ways. He's mostly seen channeling the vibrational waves through his hands and directing them at a target, which can cause the target to shatter, crumble, or explode. Due to the violent nature of the effect, he usually directs it at surfaces and objects around someone rather than directly at them.

In his younger days, he would sometimes lose control of his power and shake uncontrollably, causing the energy to spread out in all directions and with a strong force. It doesn't specifically need to be his hands, but they certainly are the most convenient way to control the direction. In fact, he doesn't need to direct them at anything through the air - the energy can be transferred by touch, causing objects in his hands in the same way that they would through an indirect attack.

Should he lose control or opt for a unfocused attack, Ric basically creates a localized earthquake. While it's not widespread devastation, it's akin to a high magnitude earthquake resulting in a radius of several city blocks brought to the ground. Due to this, he is extremely hesitant to use his powers near a fault line and will refuse to use them at all near a major one.

As luck would have it, his mutation also grants him a connection to the earth itself. He can feel the movements of the tectonic plates, sense fault lines, and wax poetic about how he can feel the rain on the dirt and the life in each ant. Obviously, he's not going to be connected to the turtle. If there are fault lines or tectonic plates beneath the ocean, perhaps he would have a dim sense of them? It's unnecessary, as turtle is not anchored to the plates and is cushioned by the sea, so it doesn't seem likely that Ric will be in danger of setting off something catastrophic.

When he channels the power through his hands, there is something of a glowy effect. It's blue-ish, sometimes leaning more to purple or to green.

Somewhere along the way (it's never really said when or how), Ric has become an accomplished hacker. He's good enough to the Avengers database, as well as that of S.H.I.E.L.D.

He's fluent in Spanish, English, and the language of the Mojoverse rebels, Cadre Alliance.

Items/Weapons: Just the clothes on his back.
Sample Entry: http://tushanshu-logs.dreamwidth.org/181402.html?thread=20225178#cmt20225178
Sample Entry Two: http://thewakingworld.dreamwidth.org/404.html?thread=22932#cmt22932

Name: Danni
Contact Info:

reenact, khajixda @ AIM, purewhiteglastonbury@gmail.com
Other Characters Played: Travis Touchdown, Tony Chu; apping in Gustavo Fring this round.
Requested apartment: With Joseph Joestar, please!

Edited 2014-10-11 11:55 (UTC)

Character Name: Caesar Anthonio Zeppeli
Canon: JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Canon Point: Episode 20, before channeling his Ripple energy away for Joseph.
Background/History: This is the Zeppeli family spirit, from the past to the future! It's the human spirit!

Personality:

We first meet Caesar Zeppeli when he’s at the top of his game for flashy, suave, and over-the-top: he ~~very embarrassingly~~ sweet-talks a pretty girl over food and wine, he shows protagonist Joseph Joestar up at his own Ripple energy game, and... he does this sweet flippy thing with his dead grandpa's hat.

(Seriously, look at this showy asshole.)

In any case, Caesar's intent, i.e. the image of himself that he wishes to project, is crystal clear-- he's the cool one, and he is superior to Jojo in every way that he can be superior to the guy. He's a ladies' man, he's classy and and cultured and completely put together, he takes great pride in his Zeppeli blood, and he is very, very good at what he does.

And, of course, first impressions aren't necessarily reliable ones.

First of all, what's immediately evident in Caesar's nature is his immense haughtiness and pride. His first spoken line is to make himself look better at Jojo's expense, even: I'm FAR more presentable than THAT tactless, uncultured idiot. And to an extent, he is. Caesar actually does have a fairly solid grasp of social niceties, from looking good in a fancy restaurant to working government connections: he can look good in front of any girl he wants, and he can pull strings well enough to get favors from the German army. Which means that that pride isn't completely unfounded, because god damn does he he knows all of these things about himself, to say nothing of the talent for Ripple that runs in his blood. Caesar isn't shy about his own talents; if he's the best at something, he damn well will let everyone know that much if he can help it. He tries to be as straightforward as possible and is easily irritated by people who bullshit or do things halfway: Caesar does everything as thoroughly and impeccably as possible, because why would he (or anyone else) settle for less when he knows he can meet his full potential?

His competence, of course, doesn't make up for how horrendously petty he can get. Instead of working with Jojo, he talks shit about his family and picks a (literal) fight with him to prove that he's better, that he doesn't need to work with him, that a Joestar will simply drag a Zeppeli down once more. When things have calmed down, he calls Jojo out for challenging him to a game of cards and trying to cheat his way to a win... when he himself had been planning to cheat, as well. Tellingly, he doesn't acknowledge his own error and instead tries to pick another fight with Jojo-- as if getting caught screwing up was Jojo's fault rather than a result of his own hypocrisy. It isn't enough for him to simply be better: others, especially those he feels he is superior to, have to know it, even if that means having to fake it a little.

This inconsistency shows itself again and again, and though it isn't exclusively based in superiority it is always based in Caesar's actions placed alongside what he wants himself to look like. In other words, Caesar is always doing things that come into direct conflict with what he says about himself. The most obvious example is his friendship with Jojo. Even when they manage to get over themselves long enough for a positive relationship to take root, he's still denying his soft squishy feelings of friendship, all in the name of continuing to look better than Jojo. He only helped him because X idea was so stupid and predictable; he's checking on him because he wants to make sure his talent isn't surpassed, not because he's worried; he's not super relieved Jojo isn't dead, or anything, so you survived after all, huh, you must be one lucky guy.

Araki's profile of Caesar says it best: for the most part, he's an annoying guy who really, really likes to look cool.

In accordance with being The Universe's Largest Tsundere, how aloof he'll occasionally fancy himself to be belies his capacity to care-- sometimes, even, to care too much. For how much he tries to present the exterior of being calm and collected, Caesar’s actually a highly emotional person. He cares a great deal for his loved ones, and depending on the person and their level of closeness is fairly open about his affection, including on a physical level. He doesn't shy from initiating contact or hugs or hair ruffles or good-natured teasing (and, hell, he'll even do it to people he doesn't like: he condescends to Joseph before they're friends with a pat on the head). And when it comes to those that Caesar deeply respects, all bets are off. For a person like his Ripple coach, Lisa Lisa, Caesar wastes absolutely no time on hemming and hawing about his admiration-- he'll defend her and talk her up to anyone who'll listen, as well as go after anyone who dares to do or say anything ill toward her. It's not a stretch to imagine that he'd do the same (to a lesser degree) to anyone else he considers a good and reliable friend. Just about his only limitation in this respect is toward those he sees as competition, most notably Jojo, yet again. And even then he's still willing to grudgingly compliment Jojo. Just... not to his face.

It’s rather easy to stir his feelings, for better or for worse. On one hand, this results in a genuinely and deeply caring friend; on the other, it results in a very fatal personality flaw. He is fairly quick to judge and to fully throw himself into situations without first gaining a complete understanding: it isn’t that he acts without thinking so much as he thinks too quickly, assuming details too easily and taking things too closely to heart. In this way, his resolve, admirable as it can be, is also his greatest undoing. Caesar’s confidence is a great asset when well-founded, but should he dedicate himself to an ideal that’s wrong or risky from the get-go--his delinquent youth, his intended patricide, his desire for vengeance against Cars--he lacks the flexibility necessary to stop and consider whether pursuing these convictions is a good idea at all.

This also manifests as an occasional impracticality. Caesar is intelligent, naturally talented, and persistent: consistently capable of thinking outside the box, not so much. He values order and organization and things that make sense-- things that he's able to prepare for and plan out-- but when thrown for a loop or forced to think unconventionally, he'll falter. Yet again, this is another fatally exploitable flaw: Caesar doesn't always know how to react when presented with unexpected twists in a situation, giving a more creative thinker free reign to make a fool out of him while he tries to process the unknown element. Unless he's accompanied by a more flexible thinker. (Which is, coincidentally, why he and Joseph make such a good team: Joseph keeps him from operating so unflinchingly by-the-book, and he keeps Joseph grounded to reality, and the two of them are slowly influencing each other enough that Caesar's beginning to loosen up some.)

Caesar is also highly attached to his own personal values, the most important of which is his connection to his family. Along with an enormous potential for the Ripple, Caesar has inherited the Zeppeli legacy. The pride that he holds for his family name runs deep, but it wasn't always that way. His father Mario Zeppeli abandoned a 10-year-old Caesar and his four siblings, and Caesar's hatred and resentment for the man was intense enough that fell into violence and delinquency and vowed to kill him when he saw him again. Of course, when he did see him again, he learned that Mario was only protecting Caesar and his siblings from that ery legacy-- one of immense responsibility as well as immense tragedy. Caesar's father died before his eyes without even recognizing that the teenage boy he'd saved was his own son.

Therefore, his family history is both a point of pride and a topic of great sensitivity for Caesar. More than anything, he wants to fulfill his role as his father's son-- he idolizes his father (whom, pre-abandonment, he saw as the ideal father and man in general) and grandfather to compensate for the years he refused the Zeppeli name. Prodding at that-- when Joseph snaps that he shouldn't risk his life for men who are already dead-- sets him off completely. After those teenage years of aimless and empty frustration, his identity and self-image are so tied up in matters of succession and family history that to say that none of that even matters is a nearly unforgivable personal slight. There is nothing more important to him than this value of family. Even his desire for revenge against Cars and the Pillar Men is at its core a mission for the family that he has lost: both as a means to avenge his father, and a way to establish his identity. In the end, all he wants is that validation: the feeling that he is a worthy son and a worthy part of the Zeppeli line in general.

Edited 2014-10-11 12:06 (UTC)

Abilities/Powers:

Athleticism:
He's not quite superhuman and can still be damaged and killed, but even without his abilities, Caesar is at a physical peak. He's a competent hand-to-hand fighter, with good reflexes, good fighting instinct, and the strength to back it up. And although his status as a Ripple user enhances his endurance and tolerance to pain some, it's not enough to put him past the level of a very exceptional baseline human (unless he specifically uses it to dull pain or heal a wound).

~~also he's a big ol beefcake but that's a parts 1-3 jojo standard so~~

Ripple (Hamon/Sendo):
Caesar, like his grandfather Will Zeppeli before him, is capable of utilizing Hamon, also known as Ripple, or Sendo. Only a select few possess the ability to use it effectively enough in combat, but Through careful breathing techniques, it channels the energy of sunlight through the body of the user to create a powerful, multipurpose energy. As Ripple is linked to breathing, it relies heavily on the ability of its user to do just that: if made unable to breathe, Ripple is unusable. Hindering the flow of blood in any way (blood loss, rapid temperature decrease, etc) also renders Ripple unusable.

--Attack
Ripple energy can imbue a user, or an object imbued with Ripple, with a greater amount of strength: for example, Will Zeppeli was able to split a large rock in half with a Ripple punch. The energy is capable of going through objects to attack (just kidding, Will gently touched a frog with his fist and broke the rock with Ripple, leaving the frog completely unharmed). It is especially effective against vampires and undead and other evil beings, to the extent of melting through their skin when the energy or an object imbued with the energy is used on them (i.e. Joseph Joestar using Ripple-infused string to wrap up and kill a Pillar Man), based on the idea that the power of the undead is the flip side of the coin of Ripple energy.

Objects usable as Ripple weapons tend towards organic objects (human hair, wool, oil, wine, noodles, a scarf with fibers made from beetles). Metals and other liquids are also shown to conduct Ripple.

Against normal humans, Ripple still hurts, of course-- but it would take a great deal of it to harm anyone to the level that it damages vampires and the like.

--Defense/Healing
Ripple energy can be used as a defense through using Ripple to repel an object: for example, Caesar once used repelling Ripple to go through a high-pressure sheet of oil (razor sharp and strong enough to slice the top off a pen) completely unharmed. It can also strengthen the surface of objects, such as when Caesar creates a shield (or enclosure) out of bubble. And although Caesar himself is not capable of this just yet, Ripple can also be used to heal injuries, to the extent that Jonathan Joestar once inadvertently brought dead blossoms on a tree back to life.

--Control
The bodies of living creatures can be controlled through the Ripple: Caesar once used Ripple on a woman and was able to control her movements thoroughly enough for her to fight Joseph Joestar to a standstill. The control is both initiated and concluded through physical contact (Caesar did so in the form of a kiss) and is not limited to human beings, as Joseph once controlled a pigeon through use of the Ripple.

Hamon can also be used to contain objects, such as holding the water inside an upturned glass by blocking its movement with a thin film of the energy, and even keeping a liquid in a specific shape when not held in by anything at all through the use of slightly more advanced Ripple technique.

--Movement
In opposition to the repelling technique, Hamon can also be used to stick to objects or to stick objects to each other. When used effectively, it can do things like turn disconnected objects into a rope connected by the energy (such as when Joseph used a string of icicles as a rope) or allow someone to scale a Hamon-conducting surface (i.e. a pillar covered in oil) by clinging to solid objects with Hamon.

Bubble Hamon:
Caesar's particular specialty is using the power of the Ripple on bubbles. Through a special soap solution that his clothes are coated in, he creates bubbles, charges them with the Ripple, and uses them as projectiles. He can launch single bubbles or large barrages of them, and can alter their shape and size (sharp, edged discs or powerful lenses to reflect light thousands of times and create lasers), keeping them from popping through the Ripple energy. He's also capable of creating large, difficult-to-pop bubbles as enclosures. The bubbles aren't completely limited to soap (most notably, he creates a bubble out of his own blood right before his death in-canon), and his Ripple isn't limited to what he can make bubbles out of, either.

JoJo Posing:
Like basically every other JJBA character, Caesar has the innate ability to pose really dramatically, and also totally unprompted.

It's an extremely important power, okay.

Items/Weapons: Wham's ring, a pack of cigarettes, and a lighter. (His clothes don't technically function as a weapon, but his jacket and gloves are coated in a soap solution that allows him to make bubbles for Ripple attacks more easily; he's not limited to making bubbles with just that soap solution, however. If that would count them for an item slot I'd be cool with giving up the ring.)

Sample Entry: Haven Test Drive: small threads, and if that's not allowed, 10 comments in one thread

Sample Entry Two:

The irony of a smoker wielding a lung-based power has never been lost on him.

Caesar shifts forward, resting his arms on the railing of Lisa Lisa's balcony. Venice fades in the twilight, thirty minutes away by boat; the end of his cigarette smolders gray and red and he takes a drag, exhaling a thin wisp of smoke through pursed lips. It isn't the best habit he's ever formed, but, hey-- a man deserves a vice or two. He deserves it, anyway. Now more than ever.

The fact that he could be having his last cigarette any day now isn't lost on him, either.

He could dwell on the ways this could all go wrong: what to do if Joseph dies, what to do if Lisa Lisa or their teachers cannot pull through, what they'll end up doing if Caesar ends up dying instead. But, he figures, those worries are useless. Five Ripple users, three Pillar Men, right? They'll succeed. They'll save the world. They have to.

He flicks ash into the ocean far far below. There's no other option, of course: none he cares to think too deeply about. Their strategies are solid. His strategy is solid. There's no way that they will lose.

Inside, a peal of laughter, unmistakably Jojo's, rings out; in spite of himself he feels his eyes roll and the corner of his mouth turning up. Figures that he's making trouble, even the week before they fight the Pillar Men, doesn't it? Caesar breathes smoke one last time, crushing the cigarette butt into an ashtray, and turns, following the sound.

It might do him good, at least once, to take a page out of Jojo's book and be frivolous while he's still got time. He can afford another little vice for now.

Name: Steve
Contact Info: darkspineshadow @ AIM | abnormacus @ Plurk
Other Characters Played: N/A
Requested apartment: Please put N/A if you have no preference.

Character Name: Yu Narukami
Canon: Persona 4
Canon Point: Persona 4 Arena Ultimax | Episode P4, Chapter XII
Background/History: The Protagonist @ the SMT Wiki | Persona 4 @ the SMT Wiki

Personality: One simple look at his name alone can tell you just about everything you need to know about Yu Narukami. For instance, the way “Yu” is written can refer to a state of calm, tenderness, or superiority, while “Narukami” itself refers to a howling god of thunder. So, is Yu Narukami a peaceful young man, calm and quiet on the outside with the thunderous potential of godhood within him? Yes, you could most certainly say that.

Yu may not speak much, but when he does, it’s undoubtedly something important. Whether it’s something as simple as correctly answering a question when his history teacher calls on him at random, as complex as explaining the concept of death to an innocent little girl, or as courageous as calling out a close friend on their bullshit. If he has something to say, you can guarantee people will listen to him without question.

(Unless he tries making a joke, that is. His deadpan sense of humor isn’t always the most well-received.)

What he has to say, of course, depends not only on the circumstances, but on whom he's saying it to. At the guidance of both Igor and Margaret, Yu gradually comes to learn that his bonds with others are what gives him power, and as such, he winds up with a pretty eclectic social circle. Apart from his friends on the Investigation Team - a group that's certainly diverse, if not just a little off-beat - Yu's capable of getting along well with various people and personalities, positive or negative.

How else could we describe Narukami at a first glance? P4 Character Designer Shigenori Soejima actually refers to him as the “Blue Ranger” of his group of friends. Unlike the Red Ranger, who would function as the “obvious leader” of the group, the Blue Ranger would “stand silently by the Red Ranger’s side… ready to back him up with an equal amount of skill.” But even if Yu might not be “the obvious leader,” it’s a position he accepts without reluctance when he and his newfound friends embark on a strange mystery in his new hometown of Inaba.

Not only is Yu quick to assume his role as Leader of his friends’ Investigation Team, he’s also quick to make new friends. Over the course of his year in Inaba, Yu makes an acquaintance in practically everyone he meets: family, friends, coworkers, strangers, even animals. And as those friendships grow stronger, so, too, does Yu’s power within. Despite his usual soft-spoken demeanor, he does show off a bit of charisma every once in a while. Not even a week into their new school year together, Chie tells Yu that “there’s a funny air about [him],” that perhaps “that’s what draws people to [him].” Yosuke agrees with her assessment of Yu as a pretty open guy, suggesting that perhaps he has nothing to hide.

But what if he does have something to hide? The anime adaptation of Persona 4 (creatively titled Persona 4 The Animation) explores this question in considerable detail and comes to an interesting conclusion. We begin to see this explored around Episode 12: “It’s Not Empty at All,” in which Yu, confronted by the Shadow of Mitsuo Kubo, is revealed to have a bit of an abandonment complex. It’s definitely understandable. Had our hero’s parents not taken a job overseas, Yu wouldn’t even be in Inaba; he’d still be experiencing a normal, everyday school life in the city. Considering that not only do we, as players, not see or hear much mention of Yu’s parents, but we also don’t see Yu keep in regular correspondence with them at all over the course of his year in Inaba, one could certainly make the argument that his relationship with his parents is incredibly strained, and that they are, more than likely, not nearly as dedicated to their son as they are to their respective careers. One can only assume that this sort of a dramatic removal from his usual environment thanks to his parents’ demanding careers isn’t the first time he’s been forced to cope with abandoning everything (and everyone) he used to know.

And having been flung into a strange new place like Haven? It surely won't be his last.

Abilities/Powers: Yu has the ability of the Wild Card. In other words, not only is he capable of summoning a Persona---a spectral figure that represents a facet of your True Self---but he's also capable of housing multiple Personas within his consciousness, switching between them in battle and fusing them together to unlock new potential. In the interest of fairness and balance, however, Yu will be given a bit of a handicap upon his arrival and will only be able to summon one Persona out of a possible 215 for the time being.

Izanagi, the first Persona that Yu awakens to after his first trip to the Midnight Channel. Though weak against Wind-type attacks, Izanagi has a very high resistance to Electricity and has the following abilities:

Zio - Light Electricity damage. One foe.
Ziodyne - Heavy Electricity damage. One foe.
Cleave - Light Physical damage. One foe.
Rakukaja - Increases Defense for three turns. One ally.
Rakunda - Decreases Defense for three turns. One foe.
Tarukaja - Increases Attack for three turns. One ally.

Apart from his Persona-summoning abilities, Yu is fairly skilled at wielding most two-handed weapons, especially katana.

Items/Weapons:
- Yasogami High School Winter Uniform, Second Year
- Yu's katana
- Yu's cell phone

Sample Entry: Sample Thread from

dear_mun
Sample Entry Two: Sample Log from

bakerstreet, with use of the Protagonist's name in the manga, Souji Seta.

Name: Froot
Contact Info:

frooting, AIM: frugivorous
Other Characters Played: None, but apping in Peter Parker as well, oopsies
Requested apartment: N/A

Character Name: Youichi Hiruma
Canon: Eyeshield 21
Canon Point: End of series
Background/History: [x]

Previous Game History:

To say Hiruma had a tough time in Holly Heights would be a gross underestimation. His illustrious year and a half was chalk full of everything from death, destruction, boredom, inertia, hard-fought loss, and endless toil to keep himself and his mind preoccupied. He never wanted to face the fact that, yes, he was kidnapped (irony—he’s normally the kidnapper—aside) and, yes, he couldn’t do a single goddamn thing about it.

After his arrival, Hiruma quickly made enemies, one of the natural happenstances when dealing with an offensively brash kid straight out of high school who had the gall to colour himself “invincible”. A month in, he learned that the dark in people could grow far far darker. He was shot in the chest by a too-trained, too-paranoid man named Robert; killed on Halloween on his front doorstep. From that jarring experience on, his offensive ideals led him to believe that it was far more beneficial to spiral into a cynic’s world to adapt and survive—at this point, Holly Heights became a jail to his eyes, and he developed the prisoner’s mentality, kept more people (even friends, even teammates) at arm’s length, shut himself up and in, became that dangerous and unpredictable son of a bitch he always craved to be.

He did, however, discover benefits to this lifestyle. It was like an extended vacation; it allowed him to hone himself, his mind, and his skills without the worry of time constraints.

He learned how to take heavy hits and took some combat lessons from Hijikata Mamoru, so he’s not entirely helpless in a scuffle. Not to mention he trained himself rigorously to improve his aim with guns, accuracy and precision sharpened to an impressive pedigree (not tournament-level, but that’s far from the desire).

Hiruma made countless acquaintances—few “friends”, but the ones he raked in were the ones who were worth it, who helped him with his plans to break out of the suburban nightmare (“slice of life”? not a chance, not to him, not to the driven and the ambitious with plans at home left unfulfilled). He found small comforts in strange places, in strange people; he learned to grow too fond of strangers, discovered that he could take solace in company whereas he couldn’t before.

His “friends” left, however. Dropped from the game. He always knew they would, especially his teammates from the same canon.

The impact exacerbated his sociability issues and affected him negatively; it made him more apt to distrust, to take extra caution, to remain distant and wary of people who express interest in him.

All in all, the changes have been negative, but the bad times pave way for good lessons learned — Hiruma recognizes that he’s adapted in a sketchier way. The angles of his personality are sharper, far more barbed. He’s well aware of his newfound aggression, cynicism, and instinct, a wilder approach to thought being taken; he isn’t relying solely on his mind to suss out situations for him, they have to feel right now, they have to feel safe, feel rational.

Hiruma matured greatly over a year and a half. In his last few days in Holly Heights, he realized that his naivety and his “want it now, get it now” mentality didn’t fit with the rest of his modus operandi, or his hard-working, relentless soul. So, naturally, he changed it. Too bad he won’t be too pleased getting dragged onto another meaningless roller-coaster ride.

Such is life.

Personality:

Hiruma’s personality, on the whole, is rather bizarre.

He demonstrates this in almost every situation, intimidating others with his eccentricities and his belligerent attitude. He chooses to approach his circumstances uniquely; from the way he copes with stress to how he teaches people lessons, he is shown to be an amoral, vulgar character – an “anti-hero” in the eyes of the Eyeshield 21 cast.

The Deimon quarterback is disreputable for being a foul-mouthed cretin whose violent behaviour scares the wits out of everyone he meets. He calls everyone by a specific nickname which starts with “fucking” and ends in the most descriptive feature of a person. “Fucking monkey” and “fucking fishlips” are two among many—anyone who disagrees with the derogatory name is subject to the wrath of his weaponry. He carries guns around everywhere and he always, always has one on him at any given moment. Hiruma even went as far as to build a weapon’s silo underneath their team’s clubhouse.

Being the excitable person that he is, when he’s faced with exciting situations he tends to go all out to the point of ludicrousness. He celebrates things like well-executed plays by his team, touch-downs and winning games with flashy reactions including setting off fireworks, confetti, spraying fire hoses at large crowds and shooting dangerous weaponry into the air (a very common reaction, whether something happens as planned or not).

He’s prone to manic cackling during these activities when he’s particularly pleased or is plotting something sinister... not to mention at the misfortune of people around him. He is rather easily entertained by such things as idiocy, overconfidence and failures, while extremely quick to anger — just say something uncultured about American football, mess with him personally, or do something inexplicably stupid. His short fuse is seen frequently, in one case when Monta, the team’s wide receiver, almost gets disqualified for fighting with a referee. Hiruma ran after him hollering, guns blazing.

Though, really, he holds no special regard for any authority (including law enforcement, the air force, even the army), his superiors, those he trains, or the rest of the general populace.

This is clear from the way he is constantly exploiting peoples’ weaknesses through blackmail — where his infamous “Book of Threats” or the “Devil’s Handbook” comes into play, a notebook supposedly filled with dirt on everyone he meets. He has managed to get funding for the American football club from the principal of Deimon High with relative ease as he threatened to tell the man’s wife about an affair he was having. The extent of his manipulation is so notorious that his name is even known in the United States and when they travel there for training, they have no trouble getting into restricted places like casinos because of Hiruma and his extremely wide net of dirty information.

Known as one of the “brainy three” on his team, Hiruma is as intelligent as he is cunning. He makes up inventive ways of communicating to his teammates without the use of words to confuse their opponents, can see through enemy football teams’ plays with ease and has an exceptional photographic memory.

He can memorize an entire multi-paged booklet of unique sign-language cues the club manager, Mamori, created in a matter of seconds. In Las Vegas at the end of the team’s Death March across America, Hiruma won ¥20 000 000 (around $255 232) playing Black Jack by “counting cards”, basically keeping a running tally of all high and low valued cards seen by the player, an extremely difficult mathematical, memorization approach to the card game.

Hiruma hates the idea of showing his feelings to others. Having feelings would ruin his image, the carefully sculpted demon persona almost everyone but his teammates see when they look at him, would ruin the frightening factor, the element of surprise. He is verbally extroverted, but mentally introverted; he goes home alone, he sits alone on more than a few occasions (like on the Devil’s Bats Death March across America) and shrugs worrywarts off, finding it extremely difficult, due to past transgressions against him (most notably his terrible relationship with his father), to trust and put faith in others. This is clear when members of his team, Musashi and Mamori, point out his struggles to him, and begin to find sympathy for him. He belittles the things they have to say, tells them it’s all in their heads, replies sardonically in order to deflect the conversation away from himself.

He is goal-oriented—one of the main reasons he acts the way he does.

He says that “In American Football, you’ll win if you scare the opponent outta their wits! You gotta become a badass in order to deal with the enemy!” Hiruma believes a lot of the game is about psyche-outs, tricks to confuse his opponents, taunts and intimidation. The writer of Eyeshield 21, Inagaki, stated that he intended to make a character “only concerned with winning” and who will do “whatever it takes to win”. He is unfalteringly stubborn, refusing at times to rest when he sees a goal is in sight — even when he received a broken arm in a later chapter, he asked Mamori to hide it with bindings so he could support his teammates.

He’s rarely ever seen slacking off or doing something that isn’t for his benefit, or for the benefit of the Devil Bats; his incessant hard-work is an important staple in the development of his team, and he even trains his teammates in odd, roundabout ways by helping Musashi — a former construction worker who later rejoins the team as their kicker — renovate and build parts of the football clubhouse.

He’s selfish and exploits people to get whatever he wants whenever he wants, but at the same time selfless. He puts his team and their physical needs first — he is shown on the Death March to have neglected the health of his own legs while running in order to train the team’s rookie players. It’s clear that while Hiruma actively pretends not to harbour a conscience of any kind, on occasion he is sympathetic and even shows compassion to his fellow teammates. When someone tries their hardest and gives the absolute maximum they can possibly manage, he reaches out to help the underdog to bring their hopes up.

When he made potential recruits for the American football team grab bags of ice, forcing them to climb the Tokyo tower before all of the ice had melted, Hiruma is seen assisting Yukimitsu — a cram school student with no talent at sports — at the last second by dropping an ice cube into Yukimitsu’s bag, declaring that there was still one unmelted cube left.

More than anything, Hiruma is inspirational.

He may be loud, crude and mischievous on and off the field, but when a chance to teach his team valuable lessons appears, he seizes each and every one of those chances. He is a walking, talking pep-rally for his friends, encourages his players to give their all whatever the circumstance and has a surprising amount of charisma that enables him to receive the hope and faith of his team, in some cases just by shouting:

“There’s no fucking trashes that would think like that in the Deimon Devil Bats, right?!”

Abilities/Powers:

ABILITIES SUM-UP
∙ One of the manga’s most intelligent/perceptive/sensible characters
∙ Excellent right throwing arm; he’s a cannon with high accuracy
∙ Photographic memory; recalls tiny details, can memorize things in seconds
∙ Tactical/strategical genius, good at solving problems and puzzles
∙ A guru at card games and strategy games, i.e. blackjack, poker, shougi
∙ Is a great actor, using his skill in drama to confuse opponents
∙ Statistics:
40 yard dash: 5.1 seconds
Bench press: 165lbs (75kg)
Height: 5’9" (176cm)
Weight: 148lbs (67kg)
STRENGTHS
Let me break it down.

Hiruma’s a man of many talents, but has crippling weaknesses that make his story one to sing about. He’s an excellent quarterback; a strategical genius, a puzzle solver, a wizard at all things information and knowledge. With a mind like a steel-trap, Hiruma’s known well as one of the trickiest men in the series, and a devil to get to know, with all of his dramatics, eccentricities and surprisingly impressive acting and imitation.

He’s hard to rattle, and hard to keep rattled; he’s logical in everything he does and feels, even if it is a harrowing scenario. He prides himself on being able to think up several different plans at any given time, even under colossal amounts of stress, and in some cases, pain. He’s detached, keeps his emotions and his thoughts to himself unless he’s expressing an opinion, and is generally an enigma to most people he crosses.

Not only is he as smart as a whip (bolstered by his photographic memory; he’s an eidetic, recalls the tiniest details, can speed read, memorize written word in seconds, burn sights into the backs of his eyes to dredge up later), he’s been named a "portable artillery cannon" by the game announcers, he can throw well and throw hard. He can beam a football, or anything else he finds lying around, at a high speed with incredible accuracy —

honed in order to make up for his debilitating stature, one not suited for the constant battle that is American football.
WEAKNESSES
Hiruma is average in every sense of the word.

Despite his beautiful mind, of course, and the few other things that make him a worth adversary. He isn’t fast, he isn’t strong, he isn’t big enough to make an impact; he’s too thin, too wiry. Even though he is physically fit, has impressive stamina, and can hold his ground in even the most unlikely, dangerous situations, he’s all brains, no brawn. It’s a crippling disadvantage, especially in his position.

Not only is he gangly and unsuited for the physical aspect of battle, he’s far too perceptive for his own good. Memories and the things he sees will stay with him for a long time, and might eventually have an extremely negative impact on how he operates on the day to day.

Hiruma’s prone, unfortunately, to harbouring pessimistic thoughts about himself and others; he has a low opinion of people until he’s proven wrong, and can’t find it in him to trust anyone until they’ve proven themselves to be worthy and useful. This keeps him away from heartache — the reason why he detaches himself like this and keeps others at arm’s length is because he feels too strongly for others, and actually does care a great deal for the people who’ve managed to throw down his barriers to get at his fluffy centre; he’s only human.

He has a great sensitivity for people and the things they go through, whether it’s physical or mental injury, he simply hides this fact well — rather, he’s more apathetic about himself, and would sooner put himself in harm’s way than risk the health of one of his comrades.

He fears betrayal and loss more than anything else.
Items/Weapons:
∙ Colt M4 Carbine
∙ Set of all-black clothing, including a scarf from his Holly Heights pseudo-daughter
∙ One pack of sugarless mint gum
Sample Entry:
Forestcovered log.
Sample Entry Two:
Eyes following each stroke forming his critique on the sports columnist’s notepad, Hiruma listens as intently as he can.

There’s only so much patience he allots himself in certain scenarios, and even less when he’s expected to do all of the talking. But it’s a comfortable topic, a comfortable seat, with someone he’s been comfortable with so far. And those are the only three elements he needs to remain an almost tolerable individual.

For if there’s something Hiruma enjoys, it’s hearing about how well the new techniques he’s applied to his own skill set are working, how he’s bettering himself, how he can beat odds, beat down the skepticism of those judgemental talent scouts (dream-makers; dream-crushers), how to strive to appeal to the audience, and thrive in this dog eat dog world of sports — everything his interviewer says resounds in some way. Hiruma’s expression is flat, seems a bit inattentive despite those unwavering eyes, but he’s been cataloguing all of it, feeding his thirst for knowledge.

It’s only at the lull in writing, and a gentle admonishment (“you’re rookies, with potential — would you place more trust in your team?”) that he picks up his slack in the heavy-worded conversation.

“We ain’t half bad.”

One of his highest compliments.

“But loyalty, from me, is secured through action. A player that’s inactive, unwilling to carry his own weight, and against picking up his teammates’ slack when someone falls behind— well. I don’t want any losers like that on my team. Through constant scrimmaging, mandatory daily practices, and a hellish regime, I’ll weed out the fucking weaklings. They can decide whether they want to step up their game, or quit.”

He lifts his coffee, neutrally, crossing a leg almost daintily; he holds himself well.

“And, as we both know, quitters never win. I place my trust in the bastards with the highest winning percentage. You mention ”potential” — many of my players have great ability, come from some strong, capable roots. Controlling those skills, controlling them is the first step to controlling a proper team. Only then will the well-oiled cogs start turning.”

A smirk, as damnable as those needle-sharp teeth, all white-edged and sinful.

“That’s when I’ll worry about trust.”

Edited (items edit) 2014-10-14 02:06 (UTC)

Name: Roy
Contact Info: journal PM is the best/easiest.
Other Characters Played: None yet!
Requested apartment: 18.1, if possible?

Character Name: Steve Rogers.
Canon: Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Canon Point: Post Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Background/History: Wikia link!

Personality:

A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.

Steve Rogers is a character meant to represent and embody not only the soul of an American patriot and the bright dreams of its imagined future but also that of the quintessential underdog. He's born impoverished and sickly to a widowed Irish-immigrant mother in a time when being Irish-Catholic meant being treated as less than a second class-citizen, rife with derision and scorn. He grew up hard and fast in an area of Brooklyn notorious for its corruption and violence, highly radicalized by its immigrant population that fought, rioted, lived and breathed the politics of the age there.

In many ways, he's a product of his time and of the social mores and biases it entailed. He grew into a scrappy, ferocious champion of justice with a strong sense of right and wrong and an innate dislike and intolerance for bigotry in any of its sundry forms. He also rather lacked in a sense of self-preservation, and was given over to throwing himself into the midst of fights both literal and figurative to stand up for his beliefs or for the benefit of others. Those that couldn't defend themselves often found in him a rather... ineffective sentinel, one who would frequently end up limping home with scrapes and bruises. Despite hard knocks, Steve never found it in himself to give up. Quite the opposite, as he relays during The First Avenger to Peggy Carter. He says, You start running, they'll never let you stop.

He's shown to be honest (though not too honest – despite his assertion in The Winter Soldier that he always is, this is a guy who lied on numerous enlistment forms) and trustworthy, known to be a man of his word not only by his allies but his enemies as well. He's compassionate and driven, unafraid to speak his mind and has a firm belief that no one ever has the right to ask of others what they aren't willing to do themselves.

It was the culmination of those traits in one diminutive package that caught the eye of Doctor Abraham Erskine, a man who would go on to change Steve's life in some of the most fundamental ways possible and who helped to put him on the path towards becoming Captain America. Having seen what the a prototype of the serum could do to an evil man, Erskine was determined to try his perfected version on someone who was already a great man by the measuring stick of his own not-inconsiderable morals, and he selected Steve.

Though the serum changed him physically and enhanced his intellect it had the distinction of leaving his – for lack of a better word - heart completely intact. Which isn't to say he hasn’t' changed at all – on the contrary. Though Steve was never a naïve person, something nearly impossible when growing up during the Great Depression, becoming a supersoldier exposed him to myriad situations he simply had no prior context for – such as becoming Senator Brandt's dancing monkey. Though he was already an adult when he was selected for Project Rebirth, becoming an active duty soldier in one of the bloodiest wars of the 20^th century shaped the trajectory of his personal growth considerably.

In a perfect world, it's easy for someone to claim goodness unchallenged, to expect that because one isn't by nature cruel that they are therefore kind. And perhaps in that perfect world, it's true. However, it is far more difficult to maintain one's morals in dark times, when the choices one makes are often in direct opposition to commonly held practices or beliefs. Decency takes courage and strength of character, gusto and conviction. Being hard to kill definitely helps, don't get me wrong! But Steve, despite being a good man, didn't come through the war as the bright and shining paragon of Truth, Justice and the American Way that the world came to associate him with. Steve believes wholeheartedly in the idea of a greater good, the necessity that sometimes someone must make sacrifices for the sake of others, their liberty or lives.

Steve never wanted anything more than to be a soldier, to serve the idea of a future he knew he may never live to see. Yes, when necessary he got his hands dirty. And yes, he'd do it again in a heartbeat. Sometimes what's right and what's necessary overlay only in grayscale, a concept with which he became intimately familiar in the war. In his own words, yeah, we compromised. Sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did it so that people could be free.

Despite the fact that his legend paints him as a perfect soldier and in some aspects a perfect man – a model American to which everyone should aspire – one needs to remember that he's still deeply, desperately human. He can be a loose cannon – disregarding orders as it suits him while relying perhaps a little too much on the safety net of his name and notoriety. He's stubborn, determined, willful, and often takes risks – both physically and with regards to his reputation and rank – to get the job done. He's defiant (verging into the insubordinate at times) and impulsive (he was willing to run off completely alone to save his best friend on a wing and a prayer, with a costume and a prop shield! Steve no.) and if the results he could achieve weren't so out-of-this-world phenomenal he'd probably be giving his superior officers ulcers left, right and center.

He also has a sharp sense of humour that can be either playful ('You can't give me orders!' 'The Hell I can't! I'm a Captain!') or downright sarcastic ('Well, all the guys from my barbershop quartet are dead, so...') or even gently teasing ('if that's what you call running.') depending on the circumstances. He's a highly adaptive individual, capable of making split-second circumstantial decisions and acting on variable information to maximum effect. He's compassionate to a literal fault, the sort of guy to make the 'sacrifice play' without regret. Additionally, he's has an almost instinctive understanding of the human condition, being both a good judge of character and by that stroke an excellent leader.

But he's also capable of rather unbridled shows of anger (Zola's 'zero sum' conversation) and he's certainly shown to be jealous (do you fondue?) and can be kind of petty at times (see: his conversations with Tony in Avengers. Yes, he was under the influence of Loki's scepter at that time, but the sentiment still had to come from somewhere.). He can make assumptions and jump to conclusions (see: the way he cornered Natasha in the hospital in The Winter Soldier) and just generally be wrong about things – people, ideas, etc. But the core of his character is based around the idea that he always gets back up. If he makes a mistake, he fixes it. If he needs to apologize, he does. It's just who he is.

In the Avengers, we see a man that's had his entire world ripped away from him. In 1945, he lost his best friend and was ready to die to save the world from the Red Skull. If he had died, Steve absolutely could have accepted that as being a necessary sacrifice. The problem is that he didn't. That he woke up surrounded by people, the first act of which was to try and deceive him (playing the commentary of a baseball game from 1941 how do they think that would go over.) was damning. It's safe to say that Steve woke up in the future already deeply wary, in addition to being angry and lost, a 'man out of time' in all the worst ways. The events of The Avengers happen approximately two weeks after he 'wakes up' in the future, and in those two weeks he was forced to cope with his grief over Bucky – something he never had the time to address in 1945, as he 'died' within a week of it happening himself – and the loss of nearly everyone and certainly every thing he'd ever known as familiar, as well as the fact that the world as it stood in 2012 isn't the one he'd hoped for or dreamed of.

He rises to the occasion against the Chitauri, and afterwards falls in with SHIELD but nothing he accomplishes with them assuages his sense of being misplaced and lost. A man of hard-earned confidence and surety in The First Avenger, it's telling that one of his most frequent answers to questions he's asked over the course of The Winter Soldier is 'I don't know.' He's grown harder and colder in some ways, which isn't to say he doesn't care about people anymore – after all, it's one of the primary hallmarks of his character - but he shows an unwillingness to let people into his life beyond the superficial. It's worth noting that no one in modern times knows who he actually is, because when people look at him they see the soldier he had to become and not the skinny kid from Brooklyn he was and still fundamentally is at his core. People see and are awed by the legend, and they either aren't aware of the foundation of his life or they can't reconcile it with the man they see.

So he keeps to himself, remains isolated and essentially friendless until he meets Sam Wilson in The Winter Soldier and deepens his acquaintanceship with Natasha Romanoff. More than anything, having a cause again is what reminds him of who he used to be and allows him to begin overcoming the hurdles of the future. In a symbolic gesture, during his final assault of the Insight Hellicariers, he wears his WWII era uniform. If you're going to fight a war, you gotta wear a uniform. I believe this signifies a return to his roots and finally an acceptance of his place in this new age without sacrificing or compromising on who he used to be.

Abilities/Powers: The TL;DR version is thus: Steve is a genetically enhanced supersoldier that operates at about thirty to forty percent beyond the peak physical condition of an Olympic athlete. I'll break down his abilities below for easy perusing!

●Top-tier physical combatant. Steve is both strong and durable, with exceptional endurance and top-notch training. He's shown to capably fight multiple opponents at once. He knows numerous martial arts and incorporates a variety of styles into his fighting according to circumstance and need. His primary weapon is of course his signature shield, which is made of vibranium – a metal that's known to nullify vibration and absorb impact. He is capable of calculating ricochet vectors for it on the fly.

●Genius-level intellect. He's a seasoned tactician – given his habit of avid reading and the books he's shown to have both in The First Avenger and The Winter Soldier it's a safe bet to say he's read as many books about tactical theory as he could get his hands on. He also has a memory that verges on the eidetic, and can adapt very quickly to new ideas or technologies. He's a capable leader and is good at motivating others and earning their loyalty to his cause.

●Linguistics! Though he's only shown speaking French, it's likely that he's conversant in languages relevant to WWII – namely German, Italian and Russian.

●Art! He's capable of professional-level artistry, probably only in two-dimensional mediums as it's highly unlikely he'd have access to more than that in in his early life.

●Metabolic things! Steve's metabolism is roughly four times that of a normal human. What this means for him is a) he probably eats enough to feed a small army and b) he heals and recovers far faster from things that would lay a normal human out for weeks. He also has a higher body temperature than normal, meaning that viruses and other pesky bugs can't survive in his body and thus affect him. He is also either immune or has a high resistance to poisons. On the flip side, this likely means that your garden variety painkillers also don't work on him. If he gets a compound fracture, he's probably just going to have to set it on his own unless anyone nearby has horse tranquilizers to spare.

●General wartime knowledge. This ranges from standard first-aid (dressing and bandaging wounds, setting bones, how to deal with things like open pneumothorax – probably all things he's done or helped with) to things like codebreaking, navigation, knowledge of a variety of weapons from mortars to pistols and tanks, how to do things like purify water for drinking/build a fire/make a sturdy foxhole/etc. He also shows himself capable of driving a variety of vehicles and even hotwiring them.

Items/Weapons: If I may be able to consider his (stealth!) uniform/shield as one item, then I would also like his compass with Peggy's picture and a sketchbook/pens as my second/third respectively. If the uniform and shield count as separate items, then just the compass in addition to that, please.

Sample Entry: TDM top-level.
Sample Entry Two: A top level thread on a minor injuries meme.

Name: Sarah
Contact Info:

hypothetical
Other Characters Played: Mako (

browbeater | Legend of Korra
Requested apartment: 18.1, or near Steve Rogers if at all possible.

Character Name: Sam Wilson
Canon: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Canon Point: Post Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Background/History: Please see Sam’s Wiki article.
Personality: Being a soldier requires having grit, being able to operate under pressure, and knowing when to trust your gut instincts. Sam Wilson has all of these traits, and additional traits of empathy that are harder to teach. Having been a member of an elite para-rescue battalion during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Sam has seen a lot of things, and he’s learned from them. Sam then went on to become a counselor for the VA, to help his fellow soldiers cope with PTSD.

When we first meet Sam, he has the unfortunate luck of going on a run through DC while Steve Rogers is taking his morning run. Despite being outclassed by him, Sam enjoys the challenge, and jokes around easily with Steve. He’s easy to trust, especially when he can make note of someone’s character. Just from that one moment, he becomes fast friends with Steve, and invites him to visit the VA. Though he says it’s to impress the girl at the front counter, he knows it’s probably something that Steve needs, having been a soldier thrown out of his time.

This is our first look into Sam’s empathy, and it gives us a window into the type of calm, collected person he is. It also shows his desire to help, which he reaffirms the next time that he sees Steve. But I mentioned that being a soldier requires a certain level of toughness, and this is true. When Steve asks for his help, Sam quickly accepts the challenge, even when Steve tries to talk him out of it. Sam has accepted Natasha and Steve into his home, despite the danger that came with fighting against an organization like SHIELD, because Sam isn’t afraid to fight when he sees the need.

While Sam is somewhat sarcastic, loves his Marvin Gaye, and works with an organization known for its layers of bureaucracy and slowness, he quickly throws whatever issues he has aside, and ultimately trusts the words and opinions of good people. He trusts Steve to know what the right thing to do is, and thus has no issue with following him… He definitely would trust him and Natasha to watch his back, just as much as he’d return the favor.

He also has a pretty good knack for candidly dealing with uncanny situations. He makes Steve and Natasha breakfast after they come to him to seek shelter like it’s not really that big of a deal. When he offers to help them, he suggests they bust out the last version of the EXO-7 FALCON wings from an armory near-by like it’s not really that big of a deal and he isn’t testing Uncle Sam.

Sometimes, though, you just really have to know when to trust your gut instincts that maybe, maybe, Uncle Sam would understand when the fate of the world is at stake.
Abilities/Powers: Sam has standard pararescue training: He knows self aid buddy car tricks, as well as more important stabilizing measures. He knows how to operate in covert environments, and has a pretty extensive weapons knowledge. He’s an effective shooter, as well.

Other than that, he’s a normal human. He runs fast, and can bench and squat more than your average guy, but he has not extra powers.

He is also a pilot for the EXO-7 Falcon wings, which give him the ability to fly and maneuver quickly in tense situations. They were designed to be better able to evade hostile fire/RPGs in MEDEVAC situations.
Items/Weapons: EXO-7 Falcon wing pack, a semi-automatic pistol with one ammo pack, and his headphones for his ipod, because why not.
Sample Entry: TDM Top level
Sample Entry Two: Voice test with Steve

Edited 2014-10-12 00:39 (UTC)

Name: Laura
Contact Info:

appliances
Other Characters Played: none but also apping Naki (Tokyo Ghoul)
Requested apartment: n/a

Character Name: Hazel Grouse
Canon: Saiyuki Reload
Canon Point: vol. 9, after leaving the desert oasis, wandering around up on a mountain

Background/History: wham; specifically, the manga version—only one section of the wiki page talks about anime ver. Hazel, who has a super different backstory & also dies

The wiki also abruptly stops after describing Hazel's second meeting with The Main Characters, so allow me to pick up from there:

After Hazel interrupts the main group's fight in the woods with youkai, he invites them to come back to town with him and buys them lunch! There, the townspeople beg Hazel - who is becoming infamous as a savior from youkai - to trek into the woods and deal with a group of youkai who have been kidnapping humans from the town. Hazel drags the main group along with him (because he needs a ride...), they use themselves as bait, then force the youkai who try to attack them to take them back to their youkai hideout. Here is where things get a little questionable, because after plowing through all the youkai in the way and reaching the room where the kidnapped women from town are being kept, Hazel resolves to kill them all. Yes. All. Women included. He justifies this by explaining that killing three youkai and three humans leaves him three youkai souls, so after he kills the women he can revive them, and "The price is zero."

This doesn't go over well with the main group and they kill the youkai without harming the women, who are then taken back to town by Hazel, Goku, and Hakkai. On the ride back to meet up with the others, a youkai child runs in front of the jeep—they usher him on, and Hazel casually asks if they'll stop the car for a bit. Suspecting (correctly) what he intends to go do, they don't let him and threaten him if he tries to get out. When they get back to the others, some other humans approach them and ask them to save a sick infant—the group looks to Hazel, who says he can't do what they expect of him because he's out of souls. He makes a pointed reference to the youkai child on the road, and they get really mad at him about it. Later that evening Hazel tries to get Sanzo to join forces with him because they have ~similar pasts~ (true), and Sanzo totally rejects him.

The following day, while eating, the same youkai child runs into the inn to escape from humans chasing him after being caught stealing food; he hides under the main group & Hazel's table, and afterwards they let him run out again. Hazel then... immediately gets up and says he's done eating, at which point the main group gets tired of his shit and challenge him to a fight to prove a point about their clashing ideals. Out in the woods, the fight is Hazel and Gat vs. Hakkai, Goku, and Gojyo, while Sanzo stands off to the side and says he's not involved in this. Eventually the youkai boy shows up and Hazel explains to him that if he dies he can save a human baby, and the boy says he's willing to give up his soul because all the other youkai - his family - have gotten weird and he doesn't want that to happen to him. Sanzo steps in then to wheedle the boy into saying he doesn't want to die and everyone looks nastily at Hazel, who's like, "Whaaatever." They agree to a stalemate and make a wager: who can accomplish their goal first, Hazel trying to kill all youkai or Sanzo and co. trying to stop the Minus Wave? Then the main group takes off, deciding to "Leave it at 'much obliged'," both a thank you and a jab at Hazel's accent. Friends!

Enter Ukoku Sanzo, another, you know, Sanzo priest, who shows up suddenly to reunite with Hazel after the ten or so years since Ukoku visited Hazel's home in The West. They go have a drink and Ukoku conveniently tells Hazel a bunch of emotionally manipulative things about his master's death-by-youkai and how there's a Great And Terrible Youkai lurking around called Seiten Taisei. He tells Hazel there won't be any peace for humans while Seiten Taisei is alive and Hazel, gullible, realizing he's talking about Goku, immediately leaves Ukoku there and takes off to follow Sanzo and friends again. When they get there, Gat tries to tell him listening to Ukoku is a bad idea, and Hazel agrees but is going to do this really dumb thing anyway. The dumb thing is removing Goku's little tiara thing, which he suspects is a power limiter (wow and it is).

However, he never actually gets to do this, because Ukoku almost kills Goku and causes his friends to take off the limiter themselves because Seiten Taisei's power will heal his wounds. They fight Seiten Taisei, and Hazel stands back being kind of horrified and misinformed about everything that's happening. When the fight finally ends and they've gotten Goku back to normal, Sanzo comes back from having suddenly run off to catch Ukoku; Gojyo promptly ditches him and leaves with Goku and Hakkai, unconscious, and Sanzo tells Hazel to follow him. They split.

THEN, in this bizarre oasis town in the desert, Hazel and pals are on the human side (with access to the water), while Goku and pals happen to be on the youkai side (basically abject misery, without access to the water). The humans in this town trick Hazel into starting a "war" between the two towns by kidnapping a youkai, bringing him to the town, and telling Hazel he's attacked and needs to be killed. After this is revealed they tell Hazel he has to revive their fallen men because he started it, and he would have—if not for Gat crushing his pendant and Sanzo telling the humans that at least Hazel has pride because he was ashamed of being tricked into something like that.

They take to wandering again, with Sanzo intermittently pressing about Ukoku's whereabouts and Hazel getting more involved in youkai fights for the sake of "training" instead of just, uh, murder. Suddenly Ukoku appears in the woods with them!! And immediately sets about tormenting Sanzo while Hazel and Gat watch in mild horror; complete with using his sutra to nearly erase Sanzo's existence before Goku, Gojyo, and Hakkai crash the party and drag Sanzo out of the retcon pit. Everyone gets in on fighting Ukoku after that, except Hazel who stands in the back looking tragic, until Ukoku manages to get a word in edgewise about how fascinating the various members of their group are—including Hazel, the human with a youkai living in his body.

At this point, the youkai that is indeed literally living in his body wakes - no longer suppressed by Hazel's childhood trauma - and takes over his body. The group tries to fight him to give Hazel his body back, but nothing works until they let Hakkai loose and Hakkai calls him a weak, pathetic, stupid coward for like five solid minutes. This insults Hazel's pride so much that he suppresses the youkai actively, complete with meaningfully echoing in the "Let's leave it at 'much obliged'" from way earlier. Then he passes out, and stays passed out until Gat throws him out of the way of Ukoku's sutra, which cuts Gat in half. Hazel looks around for a soul to take to revive Gat before he truly dies, and all the assembled youkai-ish guys are pretty worried until Hazel abruptly attacks Ukoku instead. It doesn't work, and Gat's body crumbles, at which point Hazel fully loses it and utilizes the power of the youkai in his body to its fullest to attack him. Ukoku winds up sending him falling off a cliff, where he's found by a local and last seen waking up the following morning, crying about Gat's bandanna.

Personality: In the most general sense, Hazel is well-intentioned but ultimately still a huge jackass. He's arrogant, prejudiced, and careless with other people's lives, but he does genuinely want to help people! Human people specifically, with zero regard for the equally present youkai in society. What ultimately shapes Hazel is his pride; in himself, in his actions, in his philosophies. He has a very extreme set of values and sticks to them religiously (ironically, he does not stick to his supposed faith religiously at all). Because of this, he's very driven and determined, but can also be really gullible and easily lose perspective on reality. He tries—but his own talents tend to get in the way of learning any valuable life lessons, or at least do for a long time.

The first taste of Hazel people get is his cloying politeness. He's very nice - even charming, depending on who you are, but much of it is facetious. It's likely he picked up this faux-politeness habit after his master died and he set out on his kill-all-youkai revenge mission, because in the flashbacks to his childhood we can see that he was an ornery, mistrustful, generally bad-tempered kid around strangers. Fast forward ten years, and he's practically a celebrity, because he's just so nice and helps grieving humans no longer need to grieve by reviving their dead. It's easy for him to come into a town, say some nice words and perform a miracle or two, and then have what amounts to hero status in that town forevermore—people who've met him before roll out the red carpet for him and give him free lodging and etc if he comes around again. And to this hero-worship regard, Hazel... takes full advantage of it. He's very casual about it, and while he'll put up a front of humility when people are actually giving him things and praising him, he'll drink all their expensive wine and brush off the treatment with, "I've been here before." There's some basic gratitude there, but for the most part it's arrogance.

And Hazel is very arrogant. He's always been prone to over-estimating his skill level, as shown in his youth when he desperately wanted to prove his skill at exorcism even though he had no formal teaching in any of the spells. Now that he has a power that revives the dead, it's only exacerbated his arrogance problem. He calls it a wretched power and says he doesn't like to use it because obviously someone will have to die for him to use it, but given that he uses it shamelessly, this is blowing hot air. He's a showoff; he loves to swoop in and save the day with a miracle, and be the center of attention when a bunch of townspeople need his help with something. He thinks so highly of himself (and possibly so lowly of God) that even though he used to spend a long time praying daily, he's since switched to telling others that gods don't do anything and prayers are pointless—so if they'd like to direct their prayers to him instead, he can work the miracles they ask gods to perform.

Hazel's power adds to this arrogance problem, but also causes him to be reckless and downright careless with people's lives. Because he can bring the dead back to life (under the right circumstances), he's lost a little perspective on the value of a life. The people he revives don't come back exactly as "living," either, but more along the lines of animated golems; if they "die" again, they crumble into dust, and Hazel's bodyguard Gat says that they don't need to eat or sleep although they can if they want to. This fate, of being somewhere in between life and death, is not the most ideal for a lot of people - Gat, for example, was exiled from his people when Hazel reanimated him after he was accidentally killed - but Hazel doesn't seem to realize or just plain doesn't care. The act of reanimation is where he finds satisfaction, and whatever those people do afterwards isn't his concern. He's reckless with it in basically everything he does with Gat, too; because he can revive or "repair" Gat in any fight that kills one of the other guys, he allows Gat to lay down his life and die/lose limbs repeatedly. He even scolds Gat for getting in trouble when there isn't a soul handy for Hazel to revive him with, as if he's blameless in the whole situation.

In terms of his carelessness, there are two scenes in the series that demonstrate Hazel's seeming lack of value of any life, whether it be human or youkai. The first and most obvious one is when the group is confronted with youkai who have kidnapped human women and are using them as shields such that the group can't attack without hurting them. Hazel immediately suggests that the women sacrifice themselves and says threatening to kill the hostages "won't work on me," justifying his proposal by saying that he'll be able to revive them anyway once the youkai are killed. When the rest of the group objects and kills the youkai themselves, Hazel's response is just an idle comment on how he thought they weren't going to interfere— it's pretty cold, and he shows no regret for what he asked the women to do or that he would have gone through with it if not interrupted. The other scene is when he repeatedly tries to kill the youkai child that keeps coming across the group; he goes so far as to kneel down in front of the kid and tell him that everything will be better if he gives up his life for a human baby. When the kid eventually says that he doesn't want to die, Hazel backs off, but not out of a change of heart; he's actually disappointed in the stalemate that that puts him and the Main Four in. There's also the fact that he collects souls like postage stamps, and really, he is not the best at valuing others because of his overconfidence that he can fix the problem of loss indefinitely. He'll learn.

He is not, however, very worldly. Despite having traveled across whole continents and been involved with many types of youkai and people, he's still really set in his ways that youkai are all trouble that need to go, and humans are superior simply by being human. It makes him gullible, as seen in how he's easily fooled by corrupt humans into starting a human-youkai war. The humans manipulate him into firing the first shot, as it were, and then after their plot is revealed they tell him that since he started it, he's obligated to help them revive their dead. Hazel doesn't like this—but he still agrees. He's ashamed and angry at letting himself be played, but it's still Gat and Sanzo who have to step in and tell him that he doesn't have to help them just because they're human. He isn't anything close to overly trusting - he doesn't trust anyone except Gat, really - but he's easily manipulated because of how extreme his values are.

And... his values. Obviously, he values humans over youkai, which all goes back to how his master was killed by one and he couldn't do anything about it. Even after gaining his resurrection power, he couldn't revive his master, and so he's off on a very long jaunt to eradicate all youkai. He has no interest in listening to youkai who haven't been affected by the Minus Wave yet, working under the assumption that they'll all lose control and kill humans sooner or later, and this is a thought he carries with him for the greater part of ten years. It isn't until he meets the Main Four that he even begins to consider that youkai aren't all scumbag human-killers, and even then it takes a while. But for the most part, his ire is subtle; sure, when he's confronted about wanting to kill them all, he says it without hesitation, but he doesn't broadcast it. He'll say things like "For what purpose?" when asked if his resurrection works on youkai as well as people, and he'll spend days with three youkai without referring to any of them by name, and things like that. He paints a picture of his prejudice as more about helping humans than getting rid of youkai, but really, it's the latter. It's totally the latter.

His eventual paradigm shift is slight and not very big; midway through the story he tells Ukoku that he's not sure his beliefs are 100% rock solid, but doesn't act on this and still tries to set up the same youkai who caused this change in him (the Main Four, minus Sanzo) to show their "true colors." When this actually happens and there's a big youkai fight, his first response to Hakkai falling and being close to death is to go for his pendant to collect the soul—so, honestly, he's a work in progress. But he's getting closer to judging humans and youkai on a case-by-case basis instead of painting with a wide brush, which is hammered in explicitly when Gat is literally sliced in half at the end of the series. Hazel finally realizes that he values Gat as more than just his easy-fix-it bodyguard, because he's been Hazel's only companion for so long, and he wants desperately to grab a soul to prevent him from dying. The available souls are three youkai, and two humans who are both sanzo priests he sort of likes—and he goes for Ukoku Sanzo instead of the youkai. This moment illustrates his shift from pure bias to a more careful observation and understanding of the world and people around him, even if it doesn't work and Gat still dies...

With other people, Hazel is obviously cagey - unless he wants them to like him, in which case he's all but clingy and annoying. Gat is his most valued companion and only trusted person after the death of his master, and Hazel depends on him pretty much entirely for protection from everything - Gat even sits at his bedside and guards him in his sleep. He's (almost) completely open with Gat, not even putting up a front when Gat points out Hazel's frequent nightmares (of his master's death, for the record). Even though he treats Gat like a disposable shield much of the time, he outright says at the end of the series that their bodyguard-guardee arrangement doesn't matter anymore and he values Gat for other reasons. Then there are the sanzos, because Hazel can't seem to have a normal interaction with any of them. Genjo Sanzo is, as Hazel tactlessly points out, a lot like him; they have almost identical childhood circumstances as orphans taken in by masters who died protecting them, and Hazel is pretty unrelenting in trying to get Sanzo to join forces with him. This shows him being more open with people he actually wants to like him, because he's a lot more frank about his intentions even if he's still putting a veneer of politeness on everything. Ukoku Sanzo is the priest who visited his master when Hazel was a child and screwed him up, basically. He toyed with Hazel's morals and left a "dark spot" in his mind, as well as manipulated him into doing stupid things with exorcism spells. Hazel is friendly with Ukoku when they meet again, but also readily admits that he doesn't trust Ukoku at all and knows there's something incredibly wrong with him. But for the most part, everyone Hazel interacts with gets the outer layer of politeness, with varying degrees of realness and occasionally blatant passive-aggression.

At Hazel's core is his pride, which has caused him problems and, on one memorable occasion, saved his dumb ass. Even as a child he felt that he deserved to be taught exorcism spells, because he definitely would be able to do it! and because he wanted to help his master, who he valued more than his deceased parents. This pride leads him to get involved with Ukoku, obviously a bad idea. Later, ten years later at the end of the series, his pride saves him - after Ukoku spills the beans on Hazel's repressed memories of his master's death. As it turns out, the youkai that killed Hazel's master was severely weakened by that battle, and took up refuge to recover... inside of Hazel. This is the reason he suddenly developed the ability to transfer souls, but because he repressed the trauma of his master's death, the youkai was unable to surface in his consciousness. Until Ukoku rips open the old wound, of course, at which point it immediately takes over his body. Hazel initially gives up - he retreats into his mind in shame and guilt over having acted the way he has about youkai for so long with one of them in him, and him using its powers. But after Sanzo and Hakkai insult him mercilessly, calling him pathetic and a coward for running away instead of fighting back in his usual arrogant manner, Hazel is able to overcome the demon literally by being more full of himself than it is. He keeps it subdued by sheer force of prideful will, and it's this final moment where he comes to terms with what he is and the things he's done that he understands what it means to value life and death and to have pride that isn't empty self-righteousness.

So. In sum, Hazel is a young man who carries himself as cheerful, polite, and pretty full of himself, with an undercurrent of slowly changing extremist philosophies. He's learning to care about life in all its forms, gradually.

Abilities/Powers:
Hazel can remove souls from bodies and transplant them into other things. He removes the soul from a body (usually demons, but it works when removing human souls too) and puts it into a different body. This serves one purpose, which is to revive bodies from the dead. Moving the soul does not change the deceased's personality in any way (it's more like soul = life force, in that sense), except sometimes his revived people are known to go crazy and murderous. This doesn't always happen, and Hazel while "admits" he can't control that part of his power, it's possible that he can; but for convenience purposes we'll say no... And it is shown that there's at least one whole town that was revived by Hazel after being killed by demons, and they function perfectly normally without going berserk - same for his revived-multiple-times-bodyguard, Gat. People he revives all come back with yellow eyes, for some reason. They also don't need to eat or sleep, but they can if they want.

He also can store souls in inanimate objects, in the event that there isn't anyone who needs reviving nearby at the time. Canonically, this item is a pendant (shaped like the Star of David... for no apparent reason...). He does not need any item to use his ability, only to store souls between bodies A and B.

It's important to note that Hazel has this resurrection/soul tennis ability in the first place because there is a demon trapped inside his body. The demon is the ability's originator, although Hazel doesn't know there's a demon in him and so he believes it's an exorcism skill he honed himself.

As a priest/exorcist, he also presumably has knowledge of relevant exorcism spells. The only ones that have been shown are an "anti-demon" spell that dispels demonic creatures with a blast, and a similar spell that forces enemies back with a... smaller blast. Considering he has traveled around quite a lot and made a name for himself as a famous exorcist, it's probable that he can... perform exorcisms... however those work. With spells.

Aside from that, he's surprisingly fast and agile—like, acrobat agile—and notably effective with a good kick, but has no special prowess with weaponry. Sometimes he's charming.

As for weaknesses, he's physically small and kind of delicate, and is not accustomed to having to dodge from any attacks - so he's bad at it. He's also gullible when something is framed as helping others, prone to nightmares, and arrogant to the point where he loses a decent amount of perspective.

Also, without his pendant, his soul-transfer ability can only be done in the moment, so in the absence of the pendant it's effectively useless unless there are enough dead people around at the same time.

Items/Weapons: His pendant, and... that's it!! I've got nothing else.

Sample Entry: Here's a thread from a previous game - note: Forest Covered has a replacement-name gimmick, hence why he's not called Hazel. It's not a memory loss game though.
Sample Entry Two:
One minute Hazel is looking up to say something to Gat, something about his childhood and, damnably, crows— and the next he feels like he's just woken up, lying in a bed somewhere looking up at an unfamiliar ceiling, and something infernal is beeping. It's not a pleasant, refreshed kind of waking up either; he feels sluggish, like he slept on uneven ground and woke mid-nightmare, body heavy and limbs leaden. It takes him a moment to fully comprehend he's in a bed that isn't in any inn he can remember setting foot in, and fully dressed to boot.

He sits up, pushing the blanket on this bed away and reaching out automatically to touch the clock and stop it from beeping. Without looking around the room he says, "Gat." And then, when the expected answer doesn't come, he scowls and does look up, around—beds, bodies, none of the familiar. Not even- "Mister Sanzo?" Still nothing. He even gets up to investigate the other room, but there isn't anything familiar here. How did he get off a mountainside and dumped in some little cabin without anyone doing anything to stop it? Sanzo might not be his biggest fan, but Hazel wants to believe he'd at least stop someone hauling Hazel away before he gets what he wants— and Gat, if something happened to Gat and he wasn't there-

"Well," Hazel says to the empty common room, putting his hands on his hips and breathing out a sigh through his nose. "Ain't this a fine kettle of fish." He even stops to listen, but still no one answers- which is fine, he thinks, as he'd even prefer silence over a cacophony of crows. He turns on his heel to go back into the room and stops at the familiar sound of a jingling chain, for the first time noticing a weight around his neck he'd just gotten used to not having anymore. He looks down, already lifting a hand to touch his pendant with his fingertips. It's certainly there, empty but whole. Of all things, that one especially isn't right.

"What's this-? I swore I watched Gat crush you..." he addresses the pendant aloud, to cut into the eerie silence. He raises the pendant to eye level to study it for some sign it's a replacement, but it's surely the same one; the same imperfections from wear and hanging around his neck for years. But it was in pieces, so how...? He sighs again, trying to force out a chuckle. Okay, this is- this is odder than it needs to be, certainly, but he'll figure out what's going on soon enough. He just needs to find Gat and Sanzo and they'll be on their merry way, easy as lying.

Ideally. He fingers the pendant, heavy against his chest as he pokes his head back into the bedroom he woke in, to see if the others are awake yet. With all this suspicious activity, lying might be a requirement around here.

Name: Laura
Contact Info:

appliances
Other Characters Played: none but also apping Hazel Grouse (Saiyuki Reload)
Requested apartment: n/a

Character Name: Naki
Canon: Tokyo Ghoul
Canon Point: chapter 105, after leaving the Kaneki Squad

Background/History: Sparse wiki... Anyway: Not much of Naki's life pre-canon is known, except for his somewhat typical existence as a Ghoul. Like many Ghouls, he was not raised in a community of similar people or even with his family - he says at one point that he doesn't remember what his parents look like - and has not had a life comparable to the average human life. Some Ghouls do try to integrate into human society and pass as humans, but just as many if not more do not, and Naki is among the latter. As such, he's never gone to school (he has a poor grasp of reading and writing and isn't all that bright), held down a job, lived with a family, and so on. Unlike some Ghouls who desire that kind thing, however, Naki really doesn't.

All we really learn about what he was up to pre-canon is that some ways back he got involved with a Ghoul named Yakumo Oomori, or Yamori (or Jason, by the Commission of Counter-Ghoul/CCG). Naki was more or less Yamori's sidekick, calling him "big bro" and emulating his ruthless, borderline psychotic/torture-happy tendencies. He also ran errands for Yamori, doing his shopping and handling his money, however well he managed to do that. Then at some unspecified point, they both wound up in the CCG's Ghoul prison and were rated S rank on the danger scale. Being in prison hasn't had a great effect on Naki; at one point Yamori promised to keep doing their thing whenever they broke out, then he broke out, and Naki stayed in the prison until the Ghouls of a gang called Aogiri Tree broke him out some time later.

Now, by this point, Yamori has been killed by the combined efforts of Kaneki and CCG Investigator Suzuya Juuzou, so Naki gets out of prison only to find that his most important big bro!! is dead. He stays with Aogiri after learning this, anyway, and is a minor grunt in the organization who goes around with his own pair of big dumb henchmen and various members of the higher ups, carrying out basic tasks and getting into fights. He first shows up in the canon timeline kidnapping a nurse attached to the elusive human Doctor Kanou, who Aogiri wants for some mysterious reason. Here Naki, his henchmen, and another Aogiri Ghoul named Shachi throw down with Kaneki and friends and make off with the nurse. Back at Aogiri's hideout, Naki chats with Eto, one of the leaders, about how much he misses Yamori. Then he gets in a stupid shouting match with someone who thinks he's a big moron, complains about how unfair it is that they get to be ranked with Yamori when they clearly don't deserve it, and reports that he should have been the one to interrogate the nurse. Although he would have just tortured her and not gotten any info, according to the brighter Ghouls around. He cries a bit.

Later, Naki and his crew are the ones Eto and Shachi bring to Kanou's hideout to catch him, where Kaneki and friends have already arrived, again. Naki throws himself into a fight with Tsukiyama, then is easily convinced to join forces with him for a little while to fight the CCG when they show up as well. He gives the investigators a hard time until one of them whips out an aerosol can full of gas designed to break down Rc cells and cripple a Ghoul's kagune. Naki's dissolves, and he winds up leaping in front of an attack meant to kill his precious henchmen and then taking a huge chunk out of an investigator's leg to get more Rc cells in him and try to force his kagune back out. He's attacked again, the Ghouls fall back, and eventually the Aogiri group makes a run for it and leaves the Kaneki club to deal with themselves.

After the Kanou lab incident, Naki isn't important enough to feature again until the very end of the manga, where it's shown that even though Kaneki's side is largely dead or disbanded and Aogiri seems to have taken Kanou and vanished to do something gross even by Ghoul standards, Naki is out with his henchmen. On a playground. Crying on a seesaw. Thug life.

Personality: Like many Ghouls, Naki has grown up believing and treating humans as food on the level of cattle and nothing more. Straight away it's evident that he sees no real worth in human life and even takes pleasure in torturing or killing humans for the sake of harming them, rather than only for food—in his very first scene he gives a human nurse the choice between fast and painful torture or slow and extra painful torture, even. He is ruthless and downright cruel, with no regard for humans or his enemies, if they happen to be Ghouls. This viewpoint is common among Ghouls, although where some Ghouls need to treat humans like cattle so as to distance themselves from taking lives to survive, Naki is not like that at all; they're cattle, plain and simple. His insistence on torturing humans and taking pleasure in it is also a pretty common Ghoul attitude, as there are Ghoul "clubs" like the Ghoul restaurant that engage humans in fighting for their lives before they die like gladiator sports. Killing without specifically caring about the final payoff, the meal, is a bit less common. He picked it up from Yamori, most likely.

So let's get into the Yamori thing. Yamori is known to the CCG as pointlessly ruthless and cruel, a Ghoul who kills for the pleasure of killing rather than eating. He tortures for fun and profit, and Naki idolizes him. In his own words, Yamori is "awesome and cool and really strong." Naki is incredibly loyal to him, even after his death; he talks about him constantly, references "how Jason of the 13th Ward does things" in fights, and says that when he found out Yamori had died, he cried every night and still gets emotional thinking about it. He is really, really, powerfully attached to this guy, and Yamori's philosophies and bad habits shape most of Naki's as a result. He even picked up his manner of dress and his knuckle-cracking habit. The knuckle-cracking is significant in demonstrating his desire to be like Yamori voluntarily; another character, Kaneki, picks up Yamori's habits including that one after Yamori tortures him, whereas Naki intentionally picks up the habit and modifies it to be his own (a different knuckle... it's important!!). He emulates Yamori, rather than being essentially tortured into adopting the same madness to cope. It's intentional. Yamori is also a big point of his pride, especially after death, as Naki constantly feels the need to prove himself to prove that Yamori was worth more than his unseen death. He's following in his footsteps to some extent, but not trying to overtake him by going after his position in Aogiri or anything like that. Naki is all about big bro Yamori. All about... Yamori.

After getting out of prison and finding out his most important big bro is dead, Naki's attachment to his dumb henchmen goes through the roof. He's a big crybaby and will lose it at the drop of a hat, despite his tough gangster image, and when he saves his henchmen from being killed by the CCG, he says he'd rather cry because he's in physical pain than cry because of loneliness. In this way, Naki is pretty dependent on having others he can call allies; being alone is the worst thing he can imagine, trumping even risking his own life. He's drawn to others for this reason and surprisingly open about his tender emotions about it, telling Eto about how he misses/yearns for Yamori very earnestly. What with all of the crying and how his behavior always seems to be at 150%, he pretty much wears his black heart on his sleeve.

To this end, he is gullible. Partly because he's not very bright, he can be really easily convinced to do things for others and not realize he might be screwing himself over. To wit, our dear friend Tsukiyama Shuu gets him to turn around and forge and alliance with him in about five seconds, when previously they'd been literally at each other's throats. In the same fight in which Naki had charged in and defended Tsukiyama from a third party without meaning to (and immediately complained that he'd ruined his entrance upon realizing what he'd done), all it takes is Tsukiyama saying "let's forge an alliance for this" to get Naki's agreement—and get him to think that Tsukiyama isn't all that bad, while Tsukiyama thinks Naki is an idiot who he'll turn on as soon as the CCG people are out of the way. Naki's loyalties are very surface-level; if you say you're his ally, he'll probably believe it. Likewise, if you're the ally of his ally, he'll probably be okay with your allegiance, even if he doesn't like you as a person. See: Ayato Kirishima, a member of Aogiri who calls him dumb and gets under his skin all the time, who Naki still puts up with because he's a member of Aogiri, which he's attached to because of Yamori. It's really not that hard to get Naki on a given team, because he'll take "alliance" as airtight until it's agreed upon to be null, so... yeah. Gullible.

On top of being gullible, he is just generally unintelligent. He's barely literate and mishears or plain misinterprets what people say really often ("forge an alliance" = "four gem lions?!"), and since he's never gone to school or been taught by another Ghoul who is more intelligent, it's likely that his practical knowledge is all he has. He can sort of handle money, supposedly. Naki knows he's not very bright, and this is a sore spot for him as he is very proud; he considers it a personal affront when someone is more intelligent than he is, because he takes almost every display of intelligence as mockery, even if it's not. This is his main problem with Ayato, who does call him a moron all the time, but Naki has also been shown to be offended by Tsukiyama speaking foreign languages at him (all of which he interprets as English, when they're French). He picks fights based on his own perceived worth and beefs up his own importance as Yamori's errand boy, and uses his fighting prowess to maintain his image and prove himself. A fight based on avenging Yamori is something he considers himself entitled to, when Kaneki is on the scene, and he even gets legitimately angry when his suit is torn. Image and pride are pretty important to him, although he goes about maintaining them in a pretty clumsy way due to his low intelligence.

Following the pride thing, he also demands respect based on further shallow justifications for why he should be treated better than he is. Age is one of them; he's personally offended that Ayato, who is much younger than he is, is higher ranked in Aogiri and insults him all the time. He also says he has "no interest in kids" when Kaneki's gang first tries to take him in a fight, which is a little silly because he's not that old himself, but it's a flimsy reason for his superiority that he's latched onto, all the same. Naki has a terrible temper and can go from zero to screaming in no seconds flat, and peppers almost everything he says with swearing, for some kind of tough image effect. When he's calmer he doesn't say "fuck" every other word, so it's very much a conscious thing.

As if it weren't obvious by the age thing and the errand boy thing, Naki overall is just very childish. He has a black and white view of people, situations, and just about everything - Yamori is Good, enemies are Bad, enemies might as well not be people at all given how much thought he puts into their lives (which is none). It seemingly doesn't occur to him that people have more depth than what he sees at any given moment, which both leads him into those ultra gullible situations like switching his opinion of Tsukiyama at the drop of a hat and into situations like being constantly mad at Ayato, because he just can't comprehend that maybe Ayato has some depths to him that he isn't privy to.

Naki is childish and solves most of his problems with ruthless violence or crying, but at the same time is aggressively loyal and at least good at fighting, if you can point him in the right direction.

Abilities/Powers: Naki is a Ghoul, which gives him physical abilities that far surpass human capabilities (as long as he's not starving, meaning he has to actively consume human flesh or his abilities take losses). Speed, strength, agility, and so on. Ghouls can also quickly heal most injuries and are impervious to being physically cut open with anything besides another Ghoul's kagune, which are the physical weapons that come out of their bodies. The kagune are "liquid muscles" made up of Rc cells, a cell type existing only in Tokyo Ghoul that Ghouls have an abundance of compared to humans. The Rc cells can be independently moved outside of the body and hardened to form the kagune.

Kagune also come in different types! There are 4, and Naki's is called the koukaku type. This kagune type comes out of the body just below the shoulder and is characterized by being sturdy, heavy, and the best defensive type of kagune. Because it's so heavy, it slows Ghouls down in combat, but its high defensive capabilities make it good to fend off the rapid-attack style kagune (ukaku). Naki's sort of looks like a broadsword, and can be seen here and here.

In terms of fighting skill, Naki is considered an S rank Ghoul by the CCG. The highest rank known in canon so far, held by only one Ghoul, is SSS—there are only a few SS types, and S rank are a high priority to capture or kill. As such, he's really good at fighting. He gives canonically very talented CCG investigators a hard time in fights and was captured rather than killed before the story begins, so it's safe to say that he knows his way around a battle. He's also ruthless and sort of likes to torture people?? It's just a hobby...

Also, fighting aside, Ghouls can only consume a few things: human flesh, other Ghouls' flesh, and black coffee. Consuming human food/drink will make them violently ill, and although they can eat other Ghouls, engaging in cannibalism like that tends to mess with their sanity. Why can they drink black coffee?? Who knows, but it's the only "food" besides people they can stomach. When they're hungry, excited, or using their kagune, their eyes turn black and the irises turn red, although Naki's irises are red already so it's only one change.

Items/Weapons: An extra suit.

Sample Entry: here!
Sample Entry Two:
It's the bed that throws Naki off first. Aogiri Tree might provide some luxuries to its higher ranking members, even tag-along thugs like him, but a cozy bed and- is that a fucking alarm clock? He rolls halfway out of bed with a curse, smacking the clock off the tiny dresser to the floor. Good enough. Then he rolls the rest of the way and straightens up, looking around the room with a distasteful expression. The first thing he notices is he's alone- his friends aren't here, and not even some shitty kid like Ayato is waiting for him. What are they playing at in the higher ups? Are they trying to get rid of him, and think leaving him in someone's stashed room is going to do the trick? He swears again, tugging the wrinkles out of his suit jacket. He'll show them how much he's worth, that's for sure.

The second thing he notices is the smell. It takes him a minute, but then it comes at him and refuses to go— humans. The whole place reeks of humans, and suddenly the sleeping forms in the other beds in the room hold his interest a lot more than before. He's not hungry, not yet, but if he has a room full of humans all to himself maybe this isn't so bad! That's practically a gift, isn't it? Which one of them will scream for mercy the loudest, he wonders...

That's funny. That's really funny, and he chuckles to himself as he walks out of the room and through the adjoining one. He stops short just outside the house itself, expression lighting up at the sight of more houses. He can still smell the scent of humans out here, and a quick look around tells him that this isn't any ward of Tokyo he's ever heard of. What the hell is this? A bunch of humans, prepackaged in little houses, with only one Ghoul around? It's practically unbelievable.

But he sure does believe it. Things have sucked lately, what with what happened to Yamori right after he got out of prison, and then that gang of assholes trying to get in the way of Eto and everyone— Naki deserves a break, he thinks. A vacation. Maybe this weird mystery ward will be just that.

Name: Grey
Contact Info:

peakedcap
Other Characters Played: --
Requested apartment: N/a

Character Name: Gerome
Canon: Fire Emblem: Awakening
Canon Point: Chapter 25: To Slay a God
Background/History: @ fire emblem wikia. Let's assume that Frederick is his father.

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Elena | Final Fantasy VII | Reserved

Julio Richter | Marvel 616 | Reserved

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caesar zeppeli | jojo's bizarre adventure | reserved

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Yu Narukami | Persona 4 | Reserved

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