akitsu masa; application info

[frogpup]

Player Information

Name: aaron
Age: 28
AIM SN: xXbananarchyXx
email: see player contact list
Have you played in an LJ based game before? yes
Currrently Played Characters: Doumeki Shizuka drainedpaladin, Kazura Iha no_veteran, Claire Leonelli cosa_nostra, Dio Eraclea creeper-tan
Conditional: Activity Check Link: completed AC here

Character Information

General
Canon Source: House of Five Leaves
Canon Format: anime
Character's Name: Masanosuke "Masa" Akitsu
Character's Age: not clearly stated, but likely very early 20s; if pressed, I will say he's halfway through 20
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. n/a

What form will your character's NV take? Masa's NV will be a touch screen device similar to an iPad, but smaller - approximately 4x8 inches. It will come with a stylus that has pressure sensitivity to mimic a calligraphy brush, which Masa is used to working with. The NV itself, while technically being a small computer, will look much more rustic than high-tech, with a writing surface resembling paper, and a lightweight metal backing to protect it from damage. It will function with a system of icons that Masa can circle or mark with the stylus for different options such as voice, video, or hologram. The text function will work with the stylus, and translate his handwriting into text for other NVs to read.

Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: Masa is canonically a skilled dual-wielding samurai. He's known to be extremely strong with the use of his katana, moves quickly (when in good health) and is naturally talented at swordsmanship. However, this is severely limited by his performance anxiety and even without that, is not superhuman in any way.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? Since Masa has no canon superhuman abilities, I'll be giving him the ability of ability nullification. Initially, he would only nullify abilities (anything superhuman, bringing any superpowered characters to a 'normal human' level) within his immediate vicinity - there would be a roughly round space approximately 10 feet across with Masa in the center where abilities could not be used. This would affect anything superhuman with the exception of abilities related purely to physicality (eg. a body that is exceptionally strong because of training or super strength that is because of a physical alteration rather than just a "super power"). After he's been in the Port for one month, this would extend to his maxium radius, which would be 20 feet across - approximately the size of a medium room.

After Masa becomes aware of and used to his ability, he will find that he's able to control it to some extent. He will be able to mentally "target" people outside of his usual 10 foot range, turning off their abilities at will. In order to do this, he must be able to physically see the target (via NV, video recording, mirror, or other indirect means don't count).

While this ability has its obvious positives - he cannot be targeted by negative abilities, and most fights would occur on a more level playing field - it has its drawbacks as well. While Masa can't be targeted by offensive abilities, he also can't be targeted by supportive or helpful abilities either, nor can they be used while he's in close quarters. Masa won't be able to be healed supernaturally, or any other type of helpful ability - and to compound this, people with abilities helpful to themselves (quick-healers, for example) wouldn't be able to use their abilities while in close quarters with him.

Though the initial aura cannot be removed and doesn't drain him, pushing the aura outwards and controlling it will take a heavy toll on his stamina, weakening him seriously, and causing nosebleeds, nausea, and vomiting. If overused, he will vomit blood and pass out.

Weapons: Masa will arrive with his full complement of samurai weapons - katana, wakizashi, and tanto - a long sword, short sword, and dagger, with sheaths.

History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: Masa was raised in a noble family, the oldest of three siblings, with one younger brother and the youngest a sister. Not much is said about his upbringing, other than that he and his brother were both trained as and called upon to be samurai, and that his younger brother has a certain amount of debt that could cause the family to fall if it isn't paid off. The series is relatively historically accurate, so his position as a samurai implies that he was well-educated and has trained in the way of the sword since childhood - the equivalent of being raised in a modern upper-middle-class home while being groomed for a particular career.

Masa obtained a position for a retainer to the shogun as a samurai through connections with his uncle, who held a position of power there. However, due to his anxiety and some other unspecified circumstances, he was asked to leave, resulting in him becoming a ronin, or unemployed samurai. He migrated to Edo, the capital of Japan and its largest city - the ancestor of modern-day Tokyo - in order to earn money to send home and to try to correct his "personality problem," his anxiety. He found a small room to rent and started to take on jobs as a bodyguard, though he tended to be fired or let go quite frequently due to most of his employers finding him unreliable due to his anxiety. This left him in poverty and with the very real danger of not having money to send home, let alone to buy food with, hanging over his head.

Things changed when he ran into a pale-haired man with light eyes in the street. Intimidated by the sharp look he got from this man, Masa fled to a shrine, where he was approached by this same man with a skewer of dumplings. The man, who introduced himself as Yaichi, had a job proposition for Masa, and hired him on as a bodyguard to attend a nighttime meeting with him. During this meeting, Masa discovered that Yaichi was part of a group called the Five Leaves who regularly conducted kidnappings of children or heads of retainer families to the shogun in order to make money. Worrying and guilty about participating in something like a kidnapping that went against his morals, Masa was paid for his participation, but refrained from using the money until he could figure out what it was he wanted to do.

At this point, Yaichi started to pressure Masa to join the Five Leaves. Masa was consistently fed at Yaichi's request by Ume, another member of the group who owned a bar, and became interested in the various members of the Five Leaves after going with Ume to the countryside with (unbeknownst to Masa until it was too late) one of their kidnapping victims. Masa here met the Elder, Soji, a close companion of Ume's, and his previous boss in a group of bandits. Though Masa was unwilling at first to join the group because of his moral objection to kidnaping, he kept returning to the group because of an interest in them - Yaichi, in particular.

Masa was gradually taken into the Five Leaves through a series of involvements in their plots, generally masterminded by Yaichi and done without Masa knowing. For example, Yaichi had him placed as a bodyguard in the home of one of their prospective kidnapping victims, where Masa made friends with the young boy who was kidnapped, and took the fall for allowing him to be kidnapped (Masa was taken out with some drugged food along with the boy). After this incident, Masa took on a position as a bodyguard with the brothel in which Yaichi lived, which he held for only a short time before he fell ill with "Edo sickness" - a historical term for beriberi, or thiamine deficiency from living off a diet of white rice and pickles. Masa was taken out to Soji's place in the countryside to recover, and while he was there, he started to untangle some of the history of the Five Leaves, in an attempt to understand where all the members were coming from, though Yaichi was still the primary target of his interest. It was also during the time before he fell ill that Masa made friends with the third son of a retainer to the shogun, Yagi, who he accompanied to graves of Yagi's dead friends - a boy named Seinoshin who was the son of a neighbour, and his servant, Yaichi.

While living with Soji for a month, Masa found out why Ume was a member of Five Leaves - he needed money to help out a friend from his bandit days who was being blackmailed by a former friend - and protected Soji when he was attacked by a previous member of his gang. After Yaichi was tricked into coming to visit him (Ume told Yaichi that Masa was desperately ill and considering going back to his hometown), Soji recognized him, and this is when Masa realized that it was likely Yaichi had previously been in a gang and that Soji could probably tell him more about Yaichi if Yaichi refused to open up.

Upon returning to Edo after his recovery, Masa returned to his position at the brothel, and continued to help out the Five Leaves as much as he could. He was surprised by a visit from his little sister Sachi, who was running away from home after his younger brother, to whom Masa had given headship of the family in his absence, had arranged a marriage for her that she didn't agree with. She had come to Edo hoping that Masa would tell Bun (their brother) to call off the arrangements, since his word as oldest sibling could not be ignored (though she ignores it on a frequent basis). During this time, he also had a run-in with a fellow ronin who challenged him to a public duel, and discovered that his anxiety problems hadn't gone anywhere when he had a panic attack and was forced to flee the scene. It also caused him to start being concerned about his skills as a swordsman, and Yagi agreed to help him with training at his place.

While Sachi was visiting, another member of the Five Leaves, Matsu, got into trouble when a man he was deeply indebted to lost some wooden tags very important for business to a competitor. When Matsu went to try to take the tags back, he was caught by the competitor and held hostage there in an attempt to subdue the man he was indebted to - who thought of him very fondly. Masa, acting on his own initiative, asked Yagi for help in getting a position as a bodyguard with the competitor, and after working his way in, was able to rescue Matsu from his captivity, while Yagi, a member of the police force, managed to return the wooden tags with no harm done.

After a chance meeting between Yagi and Yaichi, though, Yaichi told Masa to be careful around Yagi, and to make sure that Yagi didn't see his true strength. Uncertain of why this was the case, Masa started to pay closer attention to Yagi and Yaichi both, hoping to find out more information. After this meeting, Yaichi started behaving strangely, related to, as Masa found out from Soji, the release of several members of a particular gang of bandits that Yaichi had been part of. The tension of this situation caused Yaichi to be more evasive, more on guard, and more paranoid - avoiding contact and clamming up about his history. Eventually, this behaviour frustrated Masa, who wanted to know more about Yaichi and to know how to protect him.

Eventually, Masa sat with Yaichi, told him a bit about his past, and where he came from - how he became a samurai, and why he left, as well as a bit of his motivation - and then told him that he was going to go speak to Soji to find out more about Yaichi's history. This prompted Yaichi to hit him with his heavy hardwood smoking tray, right across the face, a blow which Masa took without flinching before getting up to go visit Soji. During his visit, Masa found out that Yaichi had been a member of a gang that rivalled Soji's, and that he'd killed a fellow member of the gang to atone for a slight against Soji. He also found out from a run-in with a previous member of the gang Yaichi had been part of, that Yaichi had betrayed that gang he was part of. Also, through his own observations, overheard conversations, and other cues, he had worked out that Yaichi had been kidnapped before, and that he was connected to Yagi - piecing it together, Masa realized that Yaichi was, in fact, Yagi's young friend Seinoshin, who had been kidnapped and was believed dead, and that he had the name of Yaichi after his servant.

The situation reached a head in the last episode, when Yaichi was taken out to drink by Yagi, became very drunk, and had a run-in with his former gang mate, who tried to attack him and told him that his servant hadn't betrayed him as he'd always believed - Yaichi responded by killing the man. Masa was alerted by Matsu that Yaichi hadn't come home, and so Masa went out looking for the man, discovering him just after sunrise at the gravesite of his servant. Masa knelt beside him, and Yaichi cried into his lap for a time, before leaving. Later, Masa found him again at the same shrine they'd first spoken in, sitting by the same statue. Masa knelt in front of Yaichi and offered him a skewer of dumplings - which Yaichi accepted, eating directly from Masa's hand. This is the point at which Masa would be pulled to Siren's Port.
Point in Canon: I will be pulling Masa from the end of episode 12, the end of the series. At this point, he has finally found out what it is he wants to know about Yaichi, has settled himself with the Five Leaves to some extent, deciding to stay with them, and has helped Yaichi through a very difficult time, gaining something closer to friendship or a relationship with the other man.
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: n/a

Character Personality: Masa is a very timid young man, compassionate and with a heart of gold. He can be naive and gullible at times, but always says what he thinks, a trait that can upset some people. On top of this, though he's a strong fighter as a ronin, he's also got what is likely a case of an anxiety disorder.

Masa is, at the heart of him, a good person. He's soft-hearted, compassionate, and caring. A considerate person, he goes out of his way to address people politely (generally, he refers to people with the Japanese equivalent of "Lord" or "Lady"). He's generally likeable, taking well to most people he runs into and who express interest in him - he returns this willingly and genuinely shows interest in the thoughts and opinions of others, listening and taking them into consideration. This trait, however, occasionally edges into territory where he is overly concerned and becomes nosy, so it is a fine line for him. He also has a lot of concern for other people, being more than willing to put himself out to help others. In his canon, in fact, he becomes a little reckless on a few occasions in order to protect people he sees as friends. He's a very protective person, being willing to step up to the plate and use his samurai fighting skills to ensure that people he cares about won't be hurt. His fighting skills are also top-notch, he's unsurpassed with the sword in his hometown, and anyone who is familiar with his fighting or sees him fight generally says that he's extremely strong. Finally, Masa also has a good sense of pride - he doesn't want to lower himself to standards he doesn't see fit, and won't sacrifice his own dignity until there's no other choice.

Masa is shy, timid, easily intimidated by people he doesn't know well who have composure and a certain coolness about them, and he can allow himself to be gullible at times, in order to fit in. Masa wishes he had the sort of mental stability and natural charisma that some of his friends have, and because of this desire to emulate them, he can go against his better judgement in an attempt to remain close to them. Masa tends to be naturally anxious and socially awkward - despite his natural timidity and politeness, he actually has a habit of saying exactly what he thinks regardless of how socially acceptable it may be. Often, he will say out loud things that everyone is just thinking, or things better left unsaid, and he is often told that he's crude or offensive because of it. Whether this is his natural inclination, or poor socialization during his upbringing (the latter is entirely possible, since his sister behaves in the same way), it contributes to a social awkwardness that causes Masa to be self-effacing and anxious with others. Additionally, despite his strength with the sword, Masa is physically a bit clumsy, often bumping into things when distracted, tripping over his own feet, and generally seeming a bit spaced out.

Masa is, physically, a bit delicate - that is, while his body is quite strong, he seems to have a weak constitution. He suffers from "Edo disease" through part of the series, which is a thiamine deficiency, and it takes him over a month to recover. Aside from this, he is also generally low-energy, and has evidenced a difficulty doing manual labour. These things can be traced to his poor diet due to poverty, and are likely exacerbated by stress due to his anxiety.

Speaking of which, Masa is a very, very anxious person, and the series strongly hints that he likely has some sort of anxiety disorder. When put in situations where he stands out too much, has to perform in front of a group, or has to face off with someone more cool and charismatic than himself, he shows the classic signs of having a panic attack and physically runs from the source of his anxiety. This often leaves him looking like a coward - and while he isn't a coward, he does have a near-crippling anxiety about performance and his own social failures. In the past, and throughout the series, this anxiety has caused him no end of grief, ranging from humiliation in front of peers to frequent loss of jobs due to employers thinking he's unreliable. This is something he's come to Edo in order to try to correct, and he refers to it as his bad personality.

Throughout the series, though Masa does grow as a person, and learns to assert himself with people he cares for, he still suffers these same failings and has not overcome them. They are, at the end of the day, part of who he is.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game: n/a
Character Plans: Masa, being from the 1800s somewhere, will be understandably very confused about how the modern world works and how to integrate with it when he could barely integrate with his own world. I'm really looking forward to playing him doing the everyday slice-of-life things, like looking for jobs (and probably getting repeatedly fired, as in canon), learning to cook with a stove, navigating transit, and other everyday modern things. I doubt he'll be very involved with the factions, too focussed on trying to live a normal life, though he may get involved if someone brings it to him. In general, I'd like to play him slice-of-life and for developing CR unless the plot brings itself to him.

Appearance/PB: The lovechild of a frog and a puppy. It is also of note that Masa is at least half a head taller than most of the other characters in the series, both major characters and background characters. There are only two others who are his height, making him above average for the time (though pretty much average height for now). He compensates for this by slouching his shoulders heavily to make himself closer to an average height for the time.

Writing Samples

First Person Sample

[the video post engages as the NV is carefully set down on a table. the screen shows a shot of a fast food meal - a cheeseburger, some french fries, and a drink in a paper cup, condensation beading on the sides. it's uncertain if it's an accidental post or not, because Masa is sitting there staring at his meal and ignoring the NV for the moment.

he reaches forward and pokes at the fries thoughtfully before his brows raise and he pulls his finger back to his mouth]

Hot.

[after regarding the food suspiciously for another moment, he sets his mouth, picks up one of the fries, and brings it to his lips. blowing on it a bit, his brows furrowed, he tries to cool it down, and then takes a cautious bite. he chews for a moment, and then his brows raise, and he stuffs the rest of the fry into his mouth, reaching down for another one and glancing over at the NV with a small curvy smile on his face]

It's good. There was some food from metal cans, and some from boxes, and most of it was bad and cold, but this kind of food... [his smile widens slightly and he picks up another french fry] This kind of food tastes good!

Third Person Sample

It was strange how this new modern world could be so different from home, and yet the same in so many ways.

Masa tugged at the bottom of the heavy sweatshirt he wore, a "hoodie," it had been called by the woman who helped him at the place he'd gotten it. A sort of donation place, it had been explained to him, where people gave clothing they didn't need for others who were poor. It was a bit uncomfortable, nothing compared to his hakama and juban, but not the worst thing he could be wearing. The most difficult part was that he couldn't wear his katana and wakizashi around the way he had at home. People frowned on openly wearing weapons of the sort here, and being a samurai held no meaning anymore. It just wasn't something he could get away with, but it still left him feeling naked and ungrounded.

Walking inside the unemployment office - something that hadn't changed much, with the sense of failure and desperation that accompanied going to such a place - he shuffled at the papers he held in his hands, glancing down at them. He was appreciative for the help they'd offered with the "resume" and application forms, his scratchy writing all over the papers, filling in the blanks, his full name too long for most of the spaces left and awkwardly backwards with the "Western" style of writing it. Still, it was a pain, not so simple as meeting up with the employer and negotiating pay in person.

Walking over to the counter area, he stood in the lineup area marked with ribbons attached to poles, and waited his turn to get to the desk so he could speak with his employment counsellor. His shoulders were slouched, his mouth set in a small pout, errant strands of hair hanging around his face, he knew he looked a bit unkempt by the standards of the time, but he had no way of improving his look. Not without a job. So he quietly waited until the woman behind the counter gestured for the next in line.

As soon as she lay eyes on him, her face fell slightly, and when he got to the counter, she clucked her tongue at him, shaking her head, "Mr. Akitsu, back again so soon?" she asked, her voice kindly but still disappointed. It was the fourth job he'd lost since he'd come to this place for the first time. He couldn't even remember how many times he'd been "written up" for various things he didn't understand.

Still, he gave her a weak attempt at a smile, and sighed, pushing his resume across the counter at her, "I'm here to look for a security position, again." he said, voice low, eyes averted in embarassment, a flush across his cheeks and nose, "Has anything opened up?"