application (vatheon)
[ Player Name ] : Alysha
[ Personal LJ ] : vanecek
[ Age ] : 17
[ Timezone ] : GMT-8/PST
[ Other Characters ] : masaoming
[ Character's Name ] : Ritsuka Aoyagi
[ Character's Age ] : 12
[ Series ] : Loveless
[ Canon Point ] : Chapter 86
[ History ] :
wiki link!
[ Personality ] :
Ritsuka began with average grades and lots of friends: a busy social life. An unknown traumatic experience occurred that caused him to lose his memory and develop a second personality, which is where all the personality of the Ritsuka I'm playing starts.
His mother, Misaki, was and continues to be abusive. His older brother Seimei spent all the time he had around the house taking care of Ritsuka--playing with him, bandaging his wounds, and more importantly, being the father figure his rarely-present biological father is not. Ritsuka's new personality is a lot more anti-social, he shuts himself off from other people, especially kids his age, and grows extremely attached to his brother. As just the two of them, they presented the picture of the perfect family: bathing together, knowing everything about one another, worrying for the other when they weren't around.
Seimei later dies, by being burned to death and left to be found in Ritsuka's assigned chair in his elementary class. This is a second turn for his personality - this time it doesn't change altogether, however, Ritsuka is greatly affected by the loss of his brother. As he's distanced himself from people, he continues to be like this, only now it is much worse as there is almost no one left to turn to. He sees a therapist, who he gets along with well. Ritsuka would like to know the cause behind Seimei's death, in fact, his mind is practically plagued with it. He changes schools shortly after the event.
He meets Soubi the same day as his first day at school. Ritsuka appears indifferent to him to begin with, as he does with many people. Soubi introduces himself as a friend to Seimei, and instantly Ritsuka's reaction and tone changes - he's interested now. He becomes friends quick with Soubi, and soon they become almost inseparable.
Ritsuka loves taking photos, or as he calls it, making memories. The fastest way anyone can win Ritsuka's heart over is by asking to take a picture with him, or even by mentioning the word memory as he will immediately connect the word with a photograph. He likes to take many pictures at a time and save them on his computer and somewhere else as a backup - he fears losing them, as he fears losing his personality for a second time.
Ritsuka has a personality that seems to grab people's attention. Not only is he good at manipulation, in a way (usually by being polite to adults and convincing them of things that are lies), he simply seems to charm the people around him. He gets along well with people, especially once he lets them into his heart a little. Depending on the person, he may act indifferent towards them upon first meeting, and it can be seen in so many people - he acts like this towards Soubi, Yuiko, Yayoi, and the first Zero pair. Ritsuka writes them off at first, but they grow together and become friendly. However, he almost never acts this way towards adults, as he has a high level respect for almost every adult he meets before even talking to them.
Even towards his abusive mother, Ritsuka is polite to her. She beats him nearly everyday and has come close to killing him (she always manages to stop herself). Ritsuka never runs away, in fact, he often encourages her, because he thinks it's his fault he isn't the "old Ritsuka" with the old personality, and that's why she hits him. He even has sympathy for her.
Ritsuka is seen to be mature for his age. He develops his own opinions and sticks to them, thinking through things a lot more than an average 12-year old would. He is still immature in some areas, though, and they are apparent. He is strictly pacifist and disagrees with violence for any reason (ironic, don't you think - with his mother and all?). Ritsuka cannot let go of his attachment and love for Seimei no matter what horrible things he does, no matter how much he disagrees, and will (presumably) forgive him unconditionally. His pacifism also shows in how much he hates to order Soubi around and prefers free will but since he's such a tsundere, he orders Soubi around when he does something that triggers Ritsuka.
Ritsuka is also "immature" and more uncomfortable with the topic of love (in a non-family/friendly matter). When Soubi says he loves him he tends to get angry and confused, and sends Soubi home, yet he will always be thinking about him, whether it be because he's waiting for a text or call or if Soubi's just on his mind.
[ Strengths/Weaknesses ] :
Strengths:
1. Um, he has this really odd, extremely likeable personality. Most people who first meet Ritsuka are drawn to him/immediately like him, provided they don't know of him already (aka, students from 7 Moons aren't fond of him because of association with his brother/they're trying to capture him, Kio doesn't like him also because he knows he is Seimei's younger brother and dislikes the association). There are some exceptions to this, of course, it's just that they're few and far in-between - his classmates on the first day of school don't seem to like him, and this is because he made Yuiko cry (though, he is attached to him instantaneously).
Otherwise, examples of people who are drawn to him are ordinary strangers - Ritsuka is very good at playing the double-role, similar to acting one way towards your friends and another towards your boss - Soubi (Seimei orders him to love Ritsuka, but Soubi finds himself feeling something more than just an order), Yuiko from the first day of class, and his therapist.
The cold-hearted zeros are even endeared to him. They despised Soubi, but ended up becoming "friendly" with him, and are interested in Ritsuka as soon as they meet him - they even go out of their way to attend the same school and are literally all over him.
2. This kid's got a stomach. He's seen a lot of traumatising things and endures abuse, and he was clearly affected by something horrible in his past. There are things today that freak him out and cause him to go batshit temporarily insane, but I'd say he can stomach quite a lot. I guess this is a strength. :D
Weaknesses
1. Bringing up Seimei. Depending on context. If someone insults Seimei, he'll be angry. If someone mentions Seimei in a nicer way or is simply talking about him, Ritsuka will be pretty moe, I mean, pretty cute about the whole thing and talk about how much he loves his brother no matter what. But a good way to piss him off is to say something bitchy about Seimei. He'll constantly argue that "the Seimei you know isn't the Seimei I know" (as most characters think he is a crazed, possessive and obsessive slavedriver) and generally deny that Seimei is anything less than God. That's not to say he completely disregards what other people tell him, as these kind of thoughts are swirling around in his mind a lot, but the things he says are defending Seimei 99% of the time.
Similarly, more than just mentioning Seimei...Ritsuka will pretty much do anything for Seimei. So far, he hasn't been in a true situation where he has to pick from Seimei or someone else (and the stakes are extremely high), so it's not determined which he would do. In lesser things, he definitely keels over for Seimei and is easily controlled by him.
2. Love. Specifically, coming from Soubi, or if someone were to talk about Soubi loving him. Ritsuka is extremely good at handling love in a platonic (his therapist asks him out on a date, and that sounds exciting) or family-manner (Seimei and his mother), or if he knows it isn't true (he's accused of being Yuiko's boyfriend and has no problem with clearing that up), but not as anything more.
3. Mentioning his split personality. Ritsuka is capable of talking about it - he talks to his therapist about the other Ritsuka without flipping out - but say the wrong thing, and it's a trigger. Example: In the first volume when he's leaving school, Yuiko mentions that "it's like you have a second personality!" (because he was acting rude towards her, but told the teacher a completely different story), and he loses it, crying and running away from her. Then he does a complete 360, meeting Soubi and finding out he's friends with Seimei...
[ Other Important Facts ] :
He loves to read books, he's short (4'10", well, he is 12, but his height is compared to Yukio and Yayoi in the first volume), and is a pretty bad artist. His fighter is not introduced/nowehere to be found, and his "true name" is also nowhere to be found on his body.
[ Sample ] :
[There are a few things Ritsuka's gathered.
He's woken up in a completely different place. His clothes are wet. He is alone. Alone, alone, alone. Soubi is not here - although he could've sworn Soubi was right there a few seconds ago. This place is, um, underwater - that's rather unsettling.
He has a headache. Is it because of the journey here, which he still doesn't quite understand, or is it simply a headache? It's hard to know these days. Ritsuka sits up, looking around and trying to figure out what's going on before completely overreacting.
There are other people. Perhaps they would know?
But he kind of wants to cry. However, this is a public setting. He'll try stopping some people, instead...]
Hello? Where am I...? I want to go home.
if you'd like to see more, this is a sampley thing I wrote up with a friend for a circus-based RP. The icons might end up being a little messed up, because I plan on messing with his selection in a few.
[ Questions? Comments? Concerns? ] : Na.