OOC: App/Contact/Crit post
PLAYER INFORMATION-
Name/Nickname: Claire
AIM/E-mail/Contact: ametatsu7 (AIM) clairepear@hotmail.co.uk (email/MSN)
LJ: baby_werewolf
CHARACTER INFORMATION:
Canon Character and Series: Katsushiro Okamoto, Samurai 7
In-Game Name: Katsushiro Okamoto
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Position & Ship: 4423, Seaman
Appearance:
On the shorter side of average, and slightly built, Katsushiro isn’t the most imposing of figures, though he is stronger than he looks. His relative youth shows in his face, which is more pretty than handsome, with large, dark green eyes. His hair, a similar colour, is generally worn held back in a neat ponytail with a hairpin and barrette.
His clothes are typically smart but hard-wearing and relatively practical. His usual garb consists of a black, orange and yellow military-style jacket, along with yellow trousers (an ensemble which sounds like it ought to look a lot sillier than it actually does). Over the top of this, he wears a cloak for travelling or bad weather. He also carries his sword with him at all times.
Personality:
Though he’s lost some of the innocence he had when he was younger, Katsushiro is still young, and it shows. He’s idealistic and still a little naïve, and this idealism makes him lose respect for people who he thinks are acting dishonestly or dishonourably. It’s also a large part of what prompted him into taking up his present role as a wandering samurai - to help and protect people in need.
He’s determined and persistent - having once said he’ll do something, he’ll see it through as best he can. Nor does he lack courage, generally being ready to rush into a fight, even one he can’t win. Although his first kills fazed him completely, he’s since grown into someone who can kill, if not without qualms, without having a complete breakdown over it. While he’s guilty about killing, he feels strong enough to carry the weight of that guilt.
As a samurai, Katsushiro tries to live by the bushido code of values, and, not yet being old or cynical enough to question them, his ideas of loyalty and honour are something he holds to in their purest state. To the despair of more pragmatic souls, he tends to hold honour at a higher value than success, and a plan that dishonours the participants is a bad plan in his book, even if it succeeds. It will probably take a deal of life experience, rather than argument, to convince him to the contrary - he can be a stubborn ass when he wants. While he has a lot more respect for his elders than a lot of boys his age, he’s still a teenage boy, with the teenage capacity to see everything in uncompromising black and white.
Abilities/Weapons:
Katsushiro is a competent, if far from perfect, swordsman, and although his lack of experience holds him back, he can hold his own against most opponents.
He’s determined, intelligent and a good learner - he’s able to pick up skills from the people around him. He’s a willing worker and, unless he has reason not to, good at following orders.
How well can your character hack?: Only very easy stuff - he doesn't have the skills or the motivation to hack anything harder. And it's dishonest, which is bad. So even what he can hack, he probably won't.
Weaknesses:
Katsushiro is both idealistic and headstrong, and is therefore very capable of being really stupid if he thinks he’s doing the right thing, even if he’s told not to do it.
While he has plenty of courage, he doesn’t always have the skill to back it up, and can end up rushing recklessly into fights or other sticky situations and getting himself into trouble.
History:
Katsushiro was born in the Colvus area, to a fairly prosperous family. Although the family was traditionally a samurai one, by the time Katsushiro was born, they mainly concentrated on trading and managing their large farm estate. He was trained somewhat in the fighting skills necessary for repelling monster attacks, but no-one ever expected him to want to devote his whole life to fighting.
Katsushiro’s grandfather, who had been a respected warrior in his day, inculcated him with respect and admiration for the samurai codes of honour, as well as for the old man’s stories of battles and adventures he’d been involved in.
This, combined with Katsushiro’s desire to help other people, as well as his natural restlessness (he didn’t want to live on the farm his whole life, it was a dismally boring prospect for an adventurous teenage boy), led to his desire to become a samurai himself.
At sixteen, he left the family farm and struck out on his own. Heading into Colvus city, he encountered Kambei, and, awestruck by the older samurai’s skill, begged Kambei to take him on as a student. Kambei wasn’t willing at all, but Katsushiro persisted, and basically clung to the other samurai like a limpet, pestering him until he gave in. It was in following Kambei that he became a real samurai - when they first met Katsushiro was thoroughly naïve and rather incompetent, and had never really seen death or been in a serious fight. Defending a farming village from bandits alongside Kambei and five other samurai, Katsushiro went through a lot of growing up, very fast. He came out of it having become a pretty formidable fighter, as well as encountering his first kill and the associated guilt. However, once he learned to deal with the idea of killing people, he developed something of a taste for fighting, and once the village was safe found himself missing the smell of the battlefield.
Once the bandits had been defeated, he set out alone in search of more adventures, despite the friendships he’d formed with the other samurai.
His newfound skill and maturity gave him a fairly successful life as an itinerant warrior for the next year or so, fighting off bandits and monsters on behalf of farmers across the land. He travels alone, which gives him free rein to go wherever he feels the need - so upon encountering the 4423, with the pleasant surprise of re-encountering some of his old comrades, there was nothing to keep him from signing on.
~*~
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