AMAT APPLICATION
CHARACTER
Name: Himura Kenshin
Fandom: Rurouni Kenshin
Reference: Wiki
Canon Point: Between chapter 1 and 2 of the manga, so quite literally the first night he slept in the Kamiya Dojo.
Gender: Kenshin is male physically and mentally
Orientation:
At the current point Kenshin would be entering this game his sexuality is fairly dormant. He has no interest whatsoever in relationships or sex in the least. This is primarily because he is on a path to atonement and doesn’t see himself as fit for another person’s affection, not to mention the danger that could come from their association with him. The possibility of any person, not just a lover, being put in harms way because of his idenity is a slight complex for him. The death of his first wife, no matter the complicated circumstances, will always be ingrained in his head as his fault because of her association with him (not to mention the fact that she fell by his own blade-but that’s… slightly another topic), even though he learned after her death that the kidnapping and hostage situation had initially been a rouse. This makes it extremely difficult for him to become truly close to anyone.
However, for the nature of this game, he will obviously be forced to do something of that nature. And at the end of the day, if he is forced to acknowledge his sexuality, he is 100% heterosexual. Because of his height and effeminate features, not to mention his gentle nature and de-maning hobbies (cleaning, laundry and cooking), he has been on the receiving end of countless jeers toward being homosexual (or even secretly a woman underneath it all). Such jeers are met with (sometimes) polite irritation, but in the end proven wrong. My justification for seeing him straight is simple: it’s cannon. By the end of the manga he has married twice, both times to women who he clearly loved more than life itself: the first he was willing to throw his life away to protect, the second whose voice brought him back from the brink of death for no other reason than that he had to return to her.
TL;DR: He’s uninterested in sex and relationships, but he’s straight when it comes down to it.
PERSONALITY:
The most notable part of Kenshin’s personality is his fierce desire to protect the people around him. To him, this is the most important aspect of his life and has been his driving force probably from the moment he could first form thoughts. As early as seven years old (maybe ten--I keep getting conflicting info on his age at this event), he attempted to defend the three sisters in the caravan he was traveling in when they were attacked by bandits, despite the fact that he could barely even lift the sword he was attempting to protect them with.
The second most notable portion of Kenshin’s personality is his sheer stubbornness and refusal to give up, mentioned in the manga as the ability to allow the spirit to surpass the body. Once Kenshin has set his mind to something (generally the protection of another person) he will drive himself to succeed no matter what, no matter how injured his is, and no matter how logical it would be for him to have already succumbed to the pain of his injuries. (This is otherwise known as the shounen retardo strength reserve.)
Aside from these things, Kenshin is an extremely kind individual-it is essentially required in order to be as aulturistic as he is. For the most part he is very easy-going and difficult to anger, at least with trivial things. The things that do make him angry always fall back to the same trend: people abusing their power and making others suffer for it.
The darker part of Kenshin’s personality revolves around his years during the Meiji revolution, while he was the Ishin Shishi hitokiri, Battousai. The traits above, most notably gentleness and kindness, are not the traits one would expect to see in an assassin. And that did not go without an affect on Kenshin. He is constantly plagued by deep seated guilt for his actions during the revolution. To those around him he tends to throw up a happy, clueless mask, but on the inside he is constantly tormented by his past. At the end of the bakumatsu he threw down his sword and took up an oath never to kill again, and set out on a journey to try to atone for the crimes he committed during the war. His atonement is witnessed in every fiber of his being, from his actions, to his appearance and right down to his words. He speaks in “humble” Japanese, referring to himself as “sessha” (this unworthy one), and using the honorific “-dono” for nearly everyone he meets (an honorific that is close in meaning to “-sama”). This style of speaking is his way of setting up walls between himself and others-a proper amount of distance from someone stained with the amount of blood on his hands.
While being a personable, friendly person, at least when approached, he is hesitant to let anyone in all the way. He will speak of the past, but it has the air of a history lesson rather than a telling of his personal life. This is true even with the pseudo family that is assembled in the manga. Though he is close with all of the main characters, none of them are really allowed passed the wall he has put up around himself (at least until the Revenge Arc of the manga, where those walls come crashing down out of necessity) for the simple fact that he neither wants to stain them with his past, nor drive them away because of it.
Lastly, Kenshin has a slight split personality. After the bakumatsu he took up an oath not to kill. However, for someone practicing a form of swordsmanship as brutal as Hiten Mitsurugi this was a very drastic step. In rejecting most of what made him the hitokiri during the war, those thoughts and feelings have come to manastitize in him. In the manga he has reverted to being Battousai three times (facing Jinei Udo, Saitou Hajime, and Hiko Seijurou). Each time it was a situation in which he was desperately trying to accomplish something in the fight. What is notable is that when this happens he becomes borderline animalistic (more so than he had been during the bakumatsu, at least if these scenes are compared with the scenes of him from the Remembrance arc). Battousai is, for all intents and purposes, a version of Kenshin that is brutal and vicious in battle specifically because he does not value his own life. He’s taken so many lives during the war that his own life is moot, it doesn’t matter if he lives or dies. Because of this, he can pull off the impossible in battle because the end result doesn’t matter, so long as his enemy is defeated. After learning the Hiten Mitsurugi Ougi he stamped out this tendency to revert to the hitokiri. However, as he is entering this game from the very beginning of the manga, his reversion to the hitokiri is fully possible (if not likely under the right circumstances).
SAMPLESAmatomnes Entry:
This unworthy one has the distinct feeling he is going to regret this...
For those of you who have been here the longest, are there any less drastic methods of loosening the collars?
[Private]
This unworthy one shouldn't hold so much aversion to this... We are all in the same situation... most here are probably just as upset by it as he is...
...
There has to be something else he can do... Even if it is... taking matters into his own hands as it were... though he highly doubts that will be enough...
...
After all these years trying to keep others at a distance... this seems like a colossal slap in the face... Agreeing to stay with Kaoru-dono had been such a step for him... But the contrast between the simple act of sharing space and this... is so... overwhelming...
...
But who have you really been protecting all this time, Kenshin? Others? Or yourself?
...
You can't go through the same pain if you don't let anyone get that close again...
...
But this place isn't concerned with actual emotional attachment, is it? Just the carnality of it all...
...
He has another day or so... before this becomes dangerous...
...
He wonders if the other Shishi would find him being in this situation amusing. It would probably be a regular riot.
...
Yare yare...
amatomneslogs Entry:
Callused fingers traced the leather of the collar at his neck. Just as he had been warned, it was growing tighter by the hour. At this point he could still breathe and swallow. That was all that really mattered a the moment, right?
He pointlessly dug at the edge again. He knew it would not loosen. That he wouldn’t be able to even get a single digit between the collar and his neck at this point, but he did so anyway.
It had been a day in this place so far. The answers he had wanted came relatively quickly-though they still didn’t make any sense. But whether the explanations were plausible didn’t matter, did it? One way or another he was here. He couldn’t very well argue with his own eyes, could he? Or with the band of slowly tightening leather that threatened to snuff his life out in a few days time. That is, unless he was willing to…
His brows drew down as he hashed the situation over in his mind again. For some the terms for survival in this place were probably simple. His lips pressed to a thin line, thinking of a choice few comrades from the Ishin Shishi who would have been more than happy to do what needed to be done in this place. “You need to get laid, Himura,” “Why are you so serious? We need to get you a woman,” “Maybe we need to get him a boy,” oh yes, that last one was always cause for hurrah's. At least until he would pop his katana from its sheath. Then the jokes would be over instantly with nervous silence in their wake. He remembered well how many of the other soldiers would visit the brothels between movements and how the knowledge always half sickened him. Did they think for one minute that it alright? That the women in those brothels were there by their own choice?
The faces of the sisters from his childhood flashed in the back of his mind… The sisters who had shielded him and gave their lives so that he could live… that was the fate they would have had had they not died… sold into slavery and prostitution to pay off debts… Perhaps it was that thought and that thought alone that gave him such a low opinion of anyone who made use of the brothels… the thought that those women who held such importance to him would have been forced to do such things…
And that was the biggest part of it all at this point, wasn’t it? His survival wasn’t going to be determined by his own actions, but would depend on the actions of someone else… That was what he was so bothered by. Survival here meant using other people… and that went against every fiber of his being…
He shifted slightly where he was seated, his back against a tree and his sheathed sword resting at his shoulder. Kaoru-dono was not in this place. He was more than happy to realize that. He felt a small twinge of remorse thinking of her disappointment at his absence. She would probably think he had changed his mind after all and gone wandering again in the middle of the night…
She had looked so… lost… when he had begun to leave-at least after her initial show of temper…
Then to hear those words…
“I didn’t say I wanted Battousai to stay! I want the Rurouni-”
That… was the first time in fifteen years that someone had acknowledged him for himself… as Himura Kenshin… and not merely as Hitokiri Battousai... at least while aware of both sides of the whole.
That was why he agreed to stay… It was her acceptance of him… the apparent unconcern over his past…
And now he was here.
Perhaps he had been foolish to think he deserved a reprieve from wandering… But -it didn’t matter… In a way it was probably better that he wasn’t there after all. It would only be a matter of time until someone recognized him. “Red hair and a cross-shaped scar on the left cheek” . It was not as though those two traits made it easy for him to remain incognito…
And what would he have done when the inevitable ghost showed its face? Whatever it may have been… Kaoru-dono would have been drawn into it by mere association…
And he already knew how that would turn out. In a subconscious move, the hand that rested on his sword lifted to brush the tell-tale mark on his cheek. Yes… he already knew that well.
It was probably better this way. If for nothing else, then for her own sake. After all, anyone he allowed too close would become dirty from his past. He most certainly didn’t deserve the company of such a pure young woman…
He gave an aggravated sigh, this train of thought coming back to his current predicament. “This unworthy one can’t do this,” he muttered to himself. His fingers traced the collar yet again. How long did he have to figure something out? Three days? Maybe a week?
“Damn it,” he muttered again before standing. He was going to have to accept this… one way or another… Because no matter what happened, no matter how appalled he was by the idea, he couldn’t simply let himself be strangled.
Name: Himura Kenshin
Fandom: Rurouni Kenshin
Reference: Wiki
Canon Point: Between chapter 1 and 2 of the manga, so quite literally the first night he slept in the Kamiya Dojo.
Gender: Kenshin is male physically and mentally
Orientation:
At the current point Kenshin would be entering this game his sexuality is fairly dormant. He has no interest whatsoever in relationships or sex in the least. This is primarily because he is on a path to atonement and doesn’t see himself as fit for another person’s affection, not to mention the danger that could come from their association with him. The possibility of any person, not just a lover, being put in harms way because of his idenity is a slight complex for him. The death of his first wife, no matter the complicated circumstances, will always be ingrained in his head as his fault because of her association with him (not to mention the fact that she fell by his own blade-but that’s… slightly another topic), even though he learned after her death that the kidnapping and hostage situation had initially been a rouse. This makes it extremely difficult for him to become truly close to anyone.
However, for the nature of this game, he will obviously be forced to do something of that nature. And at the end of the day, if he is forced to acknowledge his sexuality, he is 100% heterosexual. Because of his height and effeminate features, not to mention his gentle nature and de-maning hobbies (cleaning, laundry and cooking), he has been on the receiving end of countless jeers toward being homosexual (or even secretly a woman underneath it all). Such jeers are met with (sometimes) polite irritation, but in the end proven wrong. My justification for seeing him straight is simple: it’s cannon. By the end of the manga he has married twice, both times to women who he clearly loved more than life itself: the first he was willing to throw his life away to protect, the second whose voice brought him back from the brink of death for no other reason than that he had to return to her.
TL;DR: He’s uninterested in sex and relationships, but he’s straight when it comes down to it.
PERSONALITY:
The most notable part of Kenshin’s personality is his fierce desire to protect the people around him. To him, this is the most important aspect of his life and has been his driving force probably from the moment he could first form thoughts. As early as seven years old (maybe ten--I keep getting conflicting info on his age at this event), he attempted to defend the three sisters in the caravan he was traveling in when they were attacked by bandits, despite the fact that he could barely even lift the sword he was attempting to protect them with.
The second most notable portion of Kenshin’s personality is his sheer stubbornness and refusal to give up, mentioned in the manga as the ability to allow the spirit to surpass the body. Once Kenshin has set his mind to something (generally the protection of another person) he will drive himself to succeed no matter what, no matter how injured his is, and no matter how logical it would be for him to have already succumbed to the pain of his injuries. (This is otherwise known as the shounen retardo strength reserve.)
Aside from these things, Kenshin is an extremely kind individual-it is essentially required in order to be as aulturistic as he is. For the most part he is very easy-going and difficult to anger, at least with trivial things. The things that do make him angry always fall back to the same trend: people abusing their power and making others suffer for it.
The darker part of Kenshin’s personality revolves around his years during the Meiji revolution, while he was the Ishin Shishi hitokiri, Battousai. The traits above, most notably gentleness and kindness, are not the traits one would expect to see in an assassin. And that did not go without an affect on Kenshin. He is constantly plagued by deep seated guilt for his actions during the revolution. To those around him he tends to throw up a happy, clueless mask, but on the inside he is constantly tormented by his past. At the end of the bakumatsu he threw down his sword and took up an oath never to kill again, and set out on a journey to try to atone for the crimes he committed during the war. His atonement is witnessed in every fiber of his being, from his actions, to his appearance and right down to his words. He speaks in “humble” Japanese, referring to himself as “sessha” (this unworthy one), and using the honorific “-dono” for nearly everyone he meets (an honorific that is close in meaning to “-sama”). This style of speaking is his way of setting up walls between himself and others-a proper amount of distance from someone stained with the amount of blood on his hands.
While being a personable, friendly person, at least when approached, he is hesitant to let anyone in all the way. He will speak of the past, but it has the air of a history lesson rather than a telling of his personal life. This is true even with the pseudo family that is assembled in the manga. Though he is close with all of the main characters, none of them are really allowed passed the wall he has put up around himself (at least until the Revenge Arc of the manga, where those walls come crashing down out of necessity) for the simple fact that he neither wants to stain them with his past, nor drive them away because of it.
Lastly, Kenshin has a slight split personality. After the bakumatsu he took up an oath not to kill. However, for someone practicing a form of swordsmanship as brutal as Hiten Mitsurugi this was a very drastic step. In rejecting most of what made him the hitokiri during the war, those thoughts and feelings have come to manastitize in him. In the manga he has reverted to being Battousai three times (facing Jinei Udo, Saitou Hajime, and Hiko Seijurou). Each time it was a situation in which he was desperately trying to accomplish something in the fight. What is notable is that when this happens he becomes borderline animalistic (more so than he had been during the bakumatsu, at least if these scenes are compared with the scenes of him from the Remembrance arc). Battousai is, for all intents and purposes, a version of Kenshin that is brutal and vicious in battle specifically because he does not value his own life. He’s taken so many lives during the war that his own life is moot, it doesn’t matter if he lives or dies. Because of this, he can pull off the impossible in battle because the end result doesn’t matter, so long as his enemy is defeated. After learning the Hiten Mitsurugi Ougi he stamped out this tendency to revert to the hitokiri. However, as he is entering this game from the very beginning of the manga, his reversion to the hitokiri is fully possible (if not likely under the right circumstances).
SAMPLESAmatomnes Entry:
This unworthy one has the distinct feeling he is going to regret this...
For those of you who have been here the longest, are there any less drastic methods of loosening the collars?
[Private]
This unworthy one shouldn't hold so much aversion to this... We are all in the same situation... most here are probably just as upset by it as he is...
...
There has to be something else he can do... Even if it is... taking matters into his own hands as it were... though he highly doubts that will be enough...
...
After all these years trying to keep others at a distance... this seems like a colossal slap in the face... Agreeing to stay with Kaoru-dono had been such a step for him... But the contrast between the simple act of sharing space and this... is so... overwhelming...
...
But who have you really been protecting all this time, Kenshin? Others? Or yourself?
...
You can't go through the same pain if you don't let anyone get that close again...
...
But this place isn't concerned with actual emotional attachment, is it? Just the carnality of it all...
...
He has another day or so... before this becomes dangerous...
...
He wonders if the other Shishi would find him being in this situation amusing. It would probably be a regular riot.
...
Yare yare...
amatomneslogs Entry:
Callused fingers traced the leather of the collar at his neck. Just as he had been warned, it was growing tighter by the hour. At this point he could still breathe and swallow. That was all that really mattered a the moment, right?
He pointlessly dug at the edge again. He knew it would not loosen. That he wouldn’t be able to even get a single digit between the collar and his neck at this point, but he did so anyway.
It had been a day in this place so far. The answers he had wanted came relatively quickly-though they still didn’t make any sense. But whether the explanations were plausible didn’t matter, did it? One way or another he was here. He couldn’t very well argue with his own eyes, could he? Or with the band of slowly tightening leather that threatened to snuff his life out in a few days time. That is, unless he was willing to…
His brows drew down as he hashed the situation over in his mind again. For some the terms for survival in this place were probably simple. His lips pressed to a thin line, thinking of a choice few comrades from the Ishin Shishi who would have been more than happy to do what needed to be done in this place. “You need to get laid, Himura,” “Why are you so serious? We need to get you a woman,” “Maybe we need to get him a boy,” oh yes, that last one was always cause for hurrah's. At least until he would pop his katana from its sheath. Then the jokes would be over instantly with nervous silence in their wake. He remembered well how many of the other soldiers would visit the brothels between movements and how the knowledge always half sickened him. Did they think for one minute that it alright? That the women in those brothels were there by their own choice?
The faces of the sisters from his childhood flashed in the back of his mind… The sisters who had shielded him and gave their lives so that he could live… that was the fate they would have had had they not died… sold into slavery and prostitution to pay off debts… Perhaps it was that thought and that thought alone that gave him such a low opinion of anyone who made use of the brothels… the thought that those women who held such importance to him would have been forced to do such things…
And that was the biggest part of it all at this point, wasn’t it? His survival wasn’t going to be determined by his own actions, but would depend on the actions of someone else… That was what he was so bothered by. Survival here meant using other people… and that went against every fiber of his being…
He shifted slightly where he was seated, his back against a tree and his sheathed sword resting at his shoulder. Kaoru-dono was not in this place. He was more than happy to realize that. He felt a small twinge of remorse thinking of her disappointment at his absence. She would probably think he had changed his mind after all and gone wandering again in the middle of the night…
She had looked so… lost… when he had begun to leave-at least after her initial show of temper…
Then to hear those words…
“I didn’t say I wanted Battousai to stay! I want the Rurouni-”
That… was the first time in fifteen years that someone had acknowledged him for himself… as Himura Kenshin… and not merely as Hitokiri Battousai... at least while aware of both sides of the whole.
That was why he agreed to stay… It was her acceptance of him… the apparent unconcern over his past…
And now he was here.
Perhaps he had been foolish to think he deserved a reprieve from wandering… But -it didn’t matter… In a way it was probably better that he wasn’t there after all. It would only be a matter of time until someone recognized him. “Red hair and a cross-shaped scar on the left cheek” . It was not as though those two traits made it easy for him to remain incognito…
And what would he have done when the inevitable ghost showed its face? Whatever it may have been… Kaoru-dono would have been drawn into it by mere association…
And he already knew how that would turn out. In a subconscious move, the hand that rested on his sword lifted to brush the tell-tale mark on his cheek. Yes… he already knew that well.
It was probably better this way. If for nothing else, then for her own sake. After all, anyone he allowed too close would become dirty from his past. He most certainly didn’t deserve the company of such a pure young woman…
He gave an aggravated sigh, this train of thought coming back to his current predicament. “This unworthy one can’t do this,” he muttered to himself. His fingers traced the collar yet again. How long did he have to figure something out? Three days? Maybe a week?
“Damn it,” he muttered again before standing. He was going to have to accept this… one way or another… Because no matter what happened, no matter how appalled he was by the idea, he couldn’t simply let himself be strangled.