Edensphere Application v2.5
PLAYER INFO
NAME: Jennifer/Fru
LOCATION/TIME ZONE: EST
CURRENT CHARACTERS, if any: None; former player returning!
CHARACTER INFO
CHARACTER NAME: Sha Gojyo
SERIES: Manga/Anime - Saiyuki (Gensomaden Saiyuki/Saiyuki Reload/Saiyuki Reload Gunlock) by Minekura Kazuya
RESERVED: Y
WISHLIST: N
PERSONALITY: Gojyo is best described as a playboy with a heart of gold. His favorite things in life are cigarettes, booze, and sex. While on his own, he used booze & games with strangers to get through the day and love with strangers to get through the night. All the while, feeling like his hanyou status (half human, half youkai) would not allow him to enjoy life because neither human nor youkai wanted him. By remaining with the humans, Gojyo stood a chance at hiding the nature of his birth. To earn money, he became an excellent gambler - playing cards and mah-jongg - and something like a petty thief along with Banri.
After meeting Hakkai, Sanzo, and Goku, Gojyo was confronted with the idea that "there are other things in the world that are red". Basically, that he can enjoy life in spite of his "taboo" birth. He becomes a raucous brother-figure to Goku, a best friend to Hakkai, and a pain in Sanzo's side, regularly stopping the journey to do "good deeds" that Sanzo would have otherwise looked over. For example, two brothers were being deceived by a man called "Kami-sama" and Gojyo in fact left his companions (who at first continued on their journey without him) to try to help the brothers, nearly dying in the process. Hakkai also says to Gojyo at one point, "you make a terrible villain". While Sanzo and Goku both accuse Gojyo of being "lecherous", it is nearly always harmless flirting. In fact, the girls he hits on will often indulge his advances and it is only then that Gojyo "gets in trouble" -- being smacked with a paper fan by Sanzo and teased verbally by Goku. In essence, while he enjoys sex, he can actually restrain himself, and is actually more interested in love, which he has never experienced and has said before that he'd "like to experience it at least once".
Because Gojyo is arguably the weakest member of the team in terms of youki, he often makes up for it in personality. He cracks jokes, he teases mercilessly, he is tenacious to a fault, and quite the charmer canonically to ladies, but often uses the word "bijin" (beautiful person) instead of "bijou" (beautiful lady), leading one to wonder if he had ever - in his earlier years - been intimate with a man. Often this is blamed on Banri, but they were as much room-mates then as Hakkai was Gojyo's room-mate for the three years before the Sanzo Party set out for India.
By the point at which I have pulled him from, Gojyo has also discovered a streak of intense loyalty to his traveling companions - the people he considers to be truly friends - and occasionally steps up to a fierce battle for nothing more than to keep the group together. Each time, Gojyo becomes quite frustrated because he actually has very little in the way of extraordinary abilities. He has some increased strength, a great deal more endurance, and some improved speed and dexterity, allowing him to jump and swing his bladed staff. Despite all that, his fighting style remains crude - mainly tavern-brawling, including punches and kicks - and his only "magical" ability is his power to summon his weapon. Some extraordinary talents - ability to hold his breath for long periods of time, impressive charisma, as well as the strength/endurance/speed/dexterity - are often blamed on his heritage as a half-water-youkai, only vaguely remeniscient of the kappa of Japanese myth that he is often called as a nickname.
TIMELINE: Between acts 33 & 34 aka The Even A Worm arc parts 20 & 21 (Saiyuki Reload Gunlock); Sanzo has abandoned his three traveling companions (recovering from the Seiten Taisei versus Youkai-Hakkai battle) to travel with Hazel and Gato. It's completely Manga-verse -- no Homura arc or Movie, as they were anime-only. :( Gojyo is not physically injured, but suffered emotional damage detailed below.
BACKGROUND: Sha Gojyo was born to a human mother and a youkai* father, but his mother wasn't his father's wife. Somehow, probably after both blood parents died, Gojyo found himself in the "care" of the woman he came to call Mom - his father's legal wife, a youkai, and mother to his older half-brother. Even though she beat him, yelled at him, and could only be comforted by his older brother, Jien, he wanted to make her happy. One day, Mom tried to kill Gojyo, and Jien made the desperate decision to stop her by killing her instead. To the present day, Gojyo carries two scars on his left cheek from where his mother scratched him. The brothers parted ways and didn't see each other for approximately 15 years.
*Youkai live longer than humans, tend to have elemental powers, and are marked physically by a small tattoo somewhere on their body, elongated ears, and fangs. In Gojyo's case, the element is water because he is a "kappa", or water demon.
This next interim period of the series - after Gojyo lost his mother but before the Ikkou (traveling party) begin their journey in the main series - is known as the "Burial arc". The only part of this detailed in the first series (Gensomaden Saiyuki) is how the four met, explained later. Anyway, in the Burial arc we learn that Gojyo wandered the streets and learned, probably with the help of a youkai named Banri, how to play cards, rack up a beer tab, and become quite the lady's man. Gojyo himself is a "taboo child** ", but most humans don't realize this while most demons do. Thus, Gojyo has lived among humans for most of his life and feels more comfortable in their culture.
**Taboo children are half-youkai and so-called because it is a social taboo for the two races to fornicate. They are marked physically by blood-red hair and eyes; apparently possess no elemental powers; and yet they do have some measure of extraordinary strength, speed, and life expectancy.
Gojyo is particularly close to one of his companions, Hakkai, because they met each other a few months before meeting the other two. Hakkai was "Cho Gonou" then and nearly dead, lying face down in the rain when Gojyo took Gonou back to his house and had a doctor look at the turned-youkai. Eventually Gonou recovered and was just about to leave Gojyo's company when a buddhist priest (Genjyo-sanzo) showed up at his door with a monkey-like boy (Son Goku) and demanded the "mass murderer" be turned over. Long story short, Gonou was not sentenced to death and took on the new name Hakkai to begin his penitence, but he and Gojyo are still best friends to this day as a result of the mess.
Gojyo wields a staff-like weapon with a crescent blade at the top and a chained spade at the bottom, summoning it with his youki -- the magical powers youkai possess and use in a variety of ways. In the show, it is called a 'shakujou', but is closer to the "cresecent-moon-toothed spade" (yueyachan) that Chinese Buddhist priests used as both a traveling staff (with clanging rings) and a shovel to dig graves. The story of how he acquired his weapon is this: Gojyo and Goku knocked over two urns where sacred weapons were being contained, and when the urns cracked open, the weapons claimed new owners. The "staff" claimed Gojyo and the only way to separate them would have been for Gojyo to die - an option, it's worth noting, Sanzo was openly in favor of.
Three years after the four men met, Gojyo's destiny caught up with him. He was summoned to journey with Genjyo-sanzo - among the highest ranking of Buddhist priests but without the shaved head or abstinence from killing, drinking, or smoking - to India to stop a "Minus Wave" from turning all youkai into ravenous, mindless beasts. His other traveling companions include the legendary Son Goku - the Sage Equaling Heaven - and Cho Hakkai, a human cursed for killing 1000 youkai by being himself changed into a youkai. This is the rag-tag group that Gojyo travels with for a year and a half at the time he is pulled from.
In Gensomaden Saiyuki (the first series published), the Sanzo Party fought against a youkai prince, Kougaiji, and his team (Jien among them, now called Dokugakuji) to keep Sanzo's sutra in his possession. It was during this time that the team first caught a glimpse of Goku's berserk "Seiten Taisei" form - the "Great Sage Equaling Heaven". Only through the intervention of Kanzeon Bosatsu (Merciful Goddess) was Goku calmed. What drove Goku berserk was seeing Sanzo nearly die of blood loss from a gaping hole in his stomach. Kanzeon Bosatsu replaced Sanzo's lost blood with some of Gojyo's - she acquired it through a kiss - but it left Gojyo so weak he fell to his knees. It should be noted that Kanzeon Bosatsu thought it would actually knock him unconscious.
In Saiyuki Reload, they continued their journey westward, fighting a variety of youkai along the way and finally going up against Kami-sama - a man who called himself "God" and stole Sanzo's sutra. During the struggle, all four Ikkou (traveling party) members nearly died, but it also forced them to learn more about each other's fighting styles and unite them more as a team as well as friends. All of this happened over a game of mahjongg, a game they played often during the trip because it requires 3-4 people.
Most recently, they encountered a man by the name of Hazel and his attendant called Gato. This whole portion is the 'Even a Worm' arc, but appears in Saiyuki Reload: Gunlock in the anime versus Saiyuki Reload in the manga. Hazel is a Christian (?) bishop with the power to trap youkai souls in his pendant (with the Star of David on it), then release them into the dead bodies of humans, seemingly bringing the dead back to life. But they've changed - the biggest difference is that their eyes become yellow and they despise youkai, going crazy at the sight of them and chanting "Kill Youkai" while attempting to do just that with their own hands. Hazel 'revives' humans who fall in youkai attacks, because he desires to kill all youkai and make a world exclusively for humans. He thinks that he and Sanzo have identical goals and therefore seriously questions why Sanzo travels with "monsters". Naturally, this does not sit well with Hakkai, Goku, and Gojyo. The way that Gojyo deals with it is by mocking Hazel's accent, which is translated as a southern accent.
In the last battle, Gojyo was reminded of how powerless he was in comparison to his fellow travelers. Goku was ambushed with a nearly fatal attack that left Sanzo so distraught he ran off to confront who he supposed to be Goku's ambusher. This left Hakkai and Gojyo to deal with the problem, which they did by choosing to remove Goku's limiter***, thereby transforming Goku into his insanely powerful form - Seiten Taisei, The "Great Sage Equalling Heaven" - that could heal himself and survive the attack. The bad thing about that is that Goku's STTS form is completely berserk - he doesn't distinguish between friend & foe and lives only for himself; Gojyo and Hakkai knew that when they removed Goku's limiter, but it was the only way to keep Goku alive. To stop Goku from going on a killing spree, Hakkai removed his limiters as well to combat Goku. Hakkai's Youkai form is not much better than Goku's STTS form, but Hakkai has a stronger personal will, so he has a greater chance of coming back to his senses while still transformed. Unfortunately, Gojyo had to actually stop Youkai-Hakkai from killing Goku, and Gojyo nearly got his head chopped off by Hakkai in the process. Goku was finally knocked unconscious after a cooperative effort by Hakkai with Gato to elotrocute Goku, after which Gojyo placed the limiter back on Goku's head. However, he still had to help tend to Hakkai's wounds and stopped Hazel from stealing his best friend's soul, screaming, "He's not dead, damnit!" Bearing the weight of both Goku and Hakkai - Goku under his right arm and Hakkai leaning on his left shoulder - Gojyo left the town to find Hakuryu**** and take them to a safe place where they could rest and recover. On his way out, he scorned Sanzo for abandoning Goku when Goku needed Sanzo the most. "Sorry, dick. I've got my hands full. So I can't beat you senseless right now."
***Limiters in Saiyuki canon are the name of small metal objects, usually a kind of jewelry because we've seen earrings, a bracelet, and a headband among others. A limiter does two things for youkai: 1) dampens their power levels by varying amounts and 2) magically creates a facade that makes the youkai appear human. Goku and Hakkai both require limiters to not only stay sane but protect them from the Minus Wave; Gojyo, being only half-youkai, doesn't require a limiter and can slip into most human settlements with ease.
****Hakuryu is the name of the small white dragon that travels with the party, usually in the capacity of their transportation because Hakuryu can transform into a jeep. Since, "Jeep" or "Jiipu" was copyrighted, they had to change the name for the anime, but it's a lot easier to distinguish between Hakuryu's forms by using both names - Hakuryu for his dragon form, and Jeep for his vehicle form. Hakuryu is essentially Hakkai's pet and thus I did not request Hakuryu coming to the game along with Gojyo.
[[Edensphere History]]
At first Smoke was content to just lay around in the shade of trees, or work the minimum hours necessary as a Tradesman (carpentry & general repair work) to buy food. Unlike so many newborns, Smoke didn't really have a 'birth sibling'; "Ice" (Haku) and Smoke got along about as well as, well, water and fire. Plus the guy wasn't around long. Smoke soon felt that tug: two things were missing in this new lifestyle. First was companions - nightly flings, people to share a cigarette with, suckers to play cards or mahjongg with... and the second was a place where all of that occurred. So began Smoke's journey to establish the first bar/tavern in Edensphere. Along the way Smoke met some of his first friends in Edensphere, and lost a few too. These were his first brushes with people disappearing and reappearing without memory of their time in Edensphere, and it created two of the strongest bonds Smoke still feels the effects of today: Trust (Kogenta) and Bastet (Yoruichi). Trust became a battle-buddy for Smoke and Bastet became a confidant and mentor, both of which he interacted with off the journals to really solidify the bond. Smoke's first experience with Revolving Reveries not only gave him some insight into his past, but also created bonds with Drake (Sasuke) and Chosen (Zelos).
When the Wilderness shifted to Adstringendum, Smoke was able to meet (versions of) his friends Hakkai and Goku. They weren't able to convey too much to him, but they did call him "Gojyo" and Hakkai gave him a birthday present: Hi-Lite cigarettes. This was the first time Smoke dealt with how to distinguish between the "Gojyo" that Hakkai and Goku knew versus the "Smoke" he had become in Edensphere. Smoke decided that until he remembered more about the person Hakkai and Goku knew, he'd prefer to be called "Smoke" and stay in Edensphere to help his new friends - few though they were. Surprisingly, Hakkai understood and appreciated those intentions, and so the three spent every day they could together until the Wilderness shifted again... to Las Vegas.
Through Smoke's could-be-my-brother Chosen, Smoke met Ghost (Jack) and his companions, namely Kanin (Toki) and Alexi (Skwisgaar) who would become bartenders for him. A few weeks later, after some prodding by Clé (Diana), Smoke reflected on his "friendship" with Ghost - just before Ghost was kidnapped by an evil version of himself. Smoke and Trust formed a battle-bond to fend off their own evil twins, then helped rescue Ghost and Spike (Sky) alongside Brooklyn (Bridge) and Blood (Yachiru), Ghost's birth sister. Ghost returned the favor by supporting Smoke when Chosen died. It was through this mourning period that Smoke got to know Lucy (Selphie) as more than just another name in the journals. After dealing with that, Smoke and Trust felt like they had done enough practicing together that they confronted their evil twins again, killing them through the strength of their teamwork.
At last, Smoke had a reason to be happy again; it took 4 months and a Paintball game reward, but he got his bar, and he called it Smoke's because he's just that creative. Suddenly Smoke's was a hang-out for all kinds of people, and it excited Smoke to be around that kind of camaraderie. He made many new friendships with the workers and regulars, plus other bonds were strengthened once the bar opened, namely with Bastet, Ghost, and Clé. The start of the new year brought an awkward date, and thus began Smoke's formal relationship with Ghost.
While journeying in Rivelata, Smoke met versions of Hakkai and Goku who didn't know him, someone Smoke thought was another (evil) twin, and watched Fugue flail when they found a number of bodies, including one they thought was Drake. When Ghost met a guy named Adam, Smoke became a keeper of Ghost's real name; in turn, Smoke revealed his real name to Ghost. The two of them stumbled into the elevator and ended up stuck on the 4th floor, but Ghost was sucked out within a few minutes (as far as Smoke could tell). Then Smoke witnessed something so strange that it made him wary of Fugue thereafter - Fugue typing away on some foreign, advanced technology. This pinged Smoke for the technology that the youkai are rumored to be using to resurrect Gyuumaoh, a youkai so powerful and terrifying it took the War Prince of Heaven Nataku himself to seal him away - Nataku couldn't even kill him! Unfortunately for Smoke, this revelation inside the elevator actually took about 3 months according to the rest of Edensphere.
By the time Smoke re-emerged, Trust was gone. Not long after the Charity Ball held by Bubbles (Glinda), Kanin and Fallen disappeared too. They were very hard friendships to lose. On top of that, Smoke had to try to hire new people to help him run the bar. Thing (Mieu) held a special fascination for Smoke pinging for Hakuryu; Smoke offered Thing a home in exchange for waiter duties. Then along came Grift (OC), a man that Smoke took an immediate liking to - Grift's penchant for using the term "boss-man" to refer to Smoke helped. Then came a double-blow: the deaths of Ghost and Bastet within about 2 weeks of each other. Smoke ranted about how evil Fugue was all over the journals, causing concern among many - some who he didn't even like that much. In return... Smoke and his whole tavern got the pink treatment, which lasted quite a long time to Smoke's ire. It did, however, make a point: calling out Fugue (or the Tree in general) over the journals (i.e. in public) was a pretty bad plan. So, Smoke reached out to Alchemy (Ed Elric), who was both intelligent and interested in Edensphere's secrets. Smoke convinced him to use his "magic" to fix a table in exchange for information about Sky (Alfons), Fullmetal (Alphonse), and other "doubles" in the Sphere. Smoke hoped that the connection with Alchemy could be useful as they both learned more.
Conversations like that made Smoke remember all the friends he'd lost and appreciate the ones still in the Sphere. To that end he created the "Specialty Drink List" for Smoke's bar, with 26 varieties to start off with. It was one of his points of pride because so many residents appreciated the intention. Of course, then the whole place got burned - the whole Sphere. It was the first time Smoke "died," the first time he had another dream to go on, and the first time he really lost something he cared about - both intangibly and tangibly. When he was reborn after the fire, Smoke had lost every single memory directly related to Ghost. He also had to face the burned-out shell of his beloved bar. Both required help from other characters to overcome the loss. Smoke and Ghost - with some interference/aid from Aurora (Tieria) - made a sort of agreement regarding how to go about their lives with these gaping holes in their memories, yet knowing through mutual friends they were very close. One way that Smoke was able to distract himself from that amazing amount of awkwardness was by repairing the bar, but another was by offering to fill in for Chosen's guard duties when he went missing again. As Smoke pondered why he'd been one of the only people in ES to end up without a birth-sibling, karma supplied him with an "adopted" sibling in the form of Amurui. At first Smoke was fighting off a whirling mass of rage, then he remembered that when people get like this there has to be a way to calm them (pings for Son Goku in his Seiten Taisei form). He scrambled for something to place on Amurui - and it worked. Smoke was struck by Amurui's behavior both in rage and when the rage subsided, and so he decided to keep himself near to Amurui in case such a thing happened again.
For the bar, he held a "party" of sorts where many people showed up to help, and to be entertained by "The Newborn Beauty, Miss Goodbye" - among them Gene (Lyle), Juliet (Grell), Youth (Gai), Kagerou (Orihime), and Lea (Axel). They all got major upgrades of trust and friendship in Smoke's book. So did Mirror (Alfons) when he helped make a redesigned layout for the bar. Smoke eventually requested his post as a Guard become a permanent position. This was particularly important when members of the Sphere were attacked by unknown entities, and Smoke took a team of people to Crystala on Bastet's orders: Toushi (Ichigo), Kiba (Renji), and Blood (Yachiru).
Smoke still remembered the two different Hakkais and Gokus that he'd met in the past, but had only met Moon (Sanzo) once, and it wasn't on pleasant terms. So he arranged to meet Moon again and talk about what they both knew of "home." Smoke was pleased they could do that much - talk, and not throw punches. The bar's grand reopening came just over a year after it was first opened. Smoke got the rest of the items he needed when the Wilderness became a Mall - or basically a storehouse of already-assembled furniture and accessories, as Smoke saw it. He also got to have a lot of fun with the "redhead brigade" - Toushi, Kiba, Lea, and Smoke himself - as they tore through orcs and an Oliphant when the Wilderness changed to Mordor. Oh yeah and Kazahana was there too.
His last job as a Guard/Greeter before his death was for Dyad (Allelujah) and Lithium (Tieria), so that was all kinds of awkward. Back then, Smoke was starting to get (re-)acquainted with Lithium. The other two people Smoke was getting really close to were Kagerou and Lea. Smoke's last known major action was posting a journal entry asking if anyone had seen Goodbye (Sheryl) or Aimo (Ranka), two more affiliates of his bar to disappear.
ABILITIES:
-- Some enhanced strength, speed, and stamina, including jumping agility. This is of an 'extraordinary' level, i.e. better than humans but not up to "super" status. He'll never beat Dash in a foot race, he'll never jump tall buildings in a single bound, and he'll never bench-press a bus. This is just a bit watered down from "shounen series physics" like you see pulled in Bleach or Naruto. He's gotten particularly better at jumping during his stay in Edensphere.
-- Summon weapon (the "shakujo/staff", see description above) and telekinetic control of the weapon's chain.
GAME INFO
EDENSPHERE NAME: Smoke, because I can't call him anything else anymore. ♥
BIRTHDAY LOG: Yes please~
DREAM:
She raised his own weapon high above her head, cackling madly. He couldn't see her face, but he could hear the menace in her voice. "It's a sin you know... to have that red hair and eyes... yes, it's a sin... you're no child of mine... not mine... NOT MINE!"
He scuttled backwards on his butt until his back hit the wall, his eyes wide as he stared up at her. He couldn't take his eyes off of her. As terrified as he was, she commanded his attention.
"Please... Kaasan..." It was like there was an echo in the room, and he looked to his right.
It was his own self, as a child, seemingly unaware that his adult self was in the room with him. That's when he remembered - from so long ago, he had known this. Before he knew her voice, and before he knew his name, and before he knew what he was.
Before 'Smoke' came this dream-that-wasn't-a-dream.
She swung the shakujo down and he knew what was coming. He instinctively closed his eyes.
"YOU! The hot tempered one! Let me use you!"
It wasn't his mother's voice - it was a... feminine... ish... deep voice. He couldn't speak at all as he felt a pair of lips pressed to his. They were soft, warm, and moist - like they'd never once known winter's frost or old age.
The room grew tighter and tighter around him - he could tell because the air was suffocating him. He tried to squirm and stand, but he couldn't. No part of his body responded any more, not even his eyelids. He was trapped in a fetal position.
What the hell did she do to me?!?!
"If you are pissed, try to live on with your own power... Boya~"
If there was anything that got him going more than a good roll in the hay, it was a challenge.
I'll show you hot-tempered!
And with that he ripped his way out...
Note: Inspired by this part of the manga, and the awesomeness that is Kanzeon Bosatsu
JOURNAL SAMPLE:
Heyhey Edensphere - miss me?
For those who don't recognize my handwriting (or those I've never met), my name is Smoke. I... got lost for awhile, but I'm back now, and I'm really glad to be home ... around friends again.
I'm feeling the muscle cramps from being shut up inside those gooey messes for so long. So! Anyone been looking for a sparring partner? I need work on close-range and long-range both. Because I can think of a few people who will want to kick my ass.
♥ Smoke
ASPIRATIONS: Uhm, TO RP AGAIN BECAUSE I MISSED ES SO FREAKING MUCH???
But seriously, I want to get Smoke social again more than anything. If he can't get immediately reinstated at his post in the Guard (and occasional Greeter), I'll completely understand and so will he. He'll just start training his ass off to be worthy of the position again, which includes staying up-to-date on the workings of the Sphere and meeting/interacting with the new characters who have arrived since his departure.
I've already chatted with Fey with regards to Smoke's (the bar/tavern), and we have a rough plot planned out to accommodate this. The agreement we came to was that she/Grift will retain "ownership" of the place, but Smoke will get to work there as bartender (i.e. a part-time position). Smoke will no longer live there, and he/I have no say in how the place runs. I have full permission to talk to her about ideas, plan events, provide insight to players about the bar as any player of a bar-worker would, etc., but she retains the last word on all things related to the bar. We hope that this will be a very amicable arrangement.
PLOT PERMISSIONS:
ES 4th Wall: YUP!
Chara 4th Wall: YUP!
ES Mysteries: lol done
Memory Rec'v: Yep, as previously!
Memory Distrib: Yep, as previously!
Dream Distrib: Yep, as previously!
Your Wilderness: Saiyuki-verse would be awesome.
NAME: Jennifer/Fru
LOCATION/TIME ZONE: EST
CURRENT CHARACTERS, if any: None; former player returning!
CHARACTER INFO
CHARACTER NAME: Sha Gojyo
SERIES: Manga/Anime - Saiyuki (Gensomaden Saiyuki/Saiyuki Reload/Saiyuki Reload Gunlock) by Minekura Kazuya
RESERVED: Y
WISHLIST: N
PERSONALITY: Gojyo is best described as a playboy with a heart of gold. His favorite things in life are cigarettes, booze, and sex. While on his own, he used booze & games with strangers to get through the day and love with strangers to get through the night. All the while, feeling like his hanyou status (half human, half youkai) would not allow him to enjoy life because neither human nor youkai wanted him. By remaining with the humans, Gojyo stood a chance at hiding the nature of his birth. To earn money, he became an excellent gambler - playing cards and mah-jongg - and something like a petty thief along with Banri.
After meeting Hakkai, Sanzo, and Goku, Gojyo was confronted with the idea that "there are other things in the world that are red". Basically, that he can enjoy life in spite of his "taboo" birth. He becomes a raucous brother-figure to Goku, a best friend to Hakkai, and a pain in Sanzo's side, regularly stopping the journey to do "good deeds" that Sanzo would have otherwise looked over. For example, two brothers were being deceived by a man called "Kami-sama" and Gojyo in fact left his companions (who at first continued on their journey without him) to try to help the brothers, nearly dying in the process. Hakkai also says to Gojyo at one point, "you make a terrible villain". While Sanzo and Goku both accuse Gojyo of being "lecherous", it is nearly always harmless flirting. In fact, the girls he hits on will often indulge his advances and it is only then that Gojyo "gets in trouble" -- being smacked with a paper fan by Sanzo and teased verbally by Goku. In essence, while he enjoys sex, he can actually restrain himself, and is actually more interested in love, which he has never experienced and has said before that he'd "like to experience it at least once".
Because Gojyo is arguably the weakest member of the team in terms of youki, he often makes up for it in personality. He cracks jokes, he teases mercilessly, he is tenacious to a fault, and quite the charmer canonically to ladies, but often uses the word "bijin" (beautiful person) instead of "bijou" (beautiful lady), leading one to wonder if he had ever - in his earlier years - been intimate with a man. Often this is blamed on Banri, but they were as much room-mates then as Hakkai was Gojyo's room-mate for the three years before the Sanzo Party set out for India.
By the point at which I have pulled him from, Gojyo has also discovered a streak of intense loyalty to his traveling companions - the people he considers to be truly friends - and occasionally steps up to a fierce battle for nothing more than to keep the group together. Each time, Gojyo becomes quite frustrated because he actually has very little in the way of extraordinary abilities. He has some increased strength, a great deal more endurance, and some improved speed and dexterity, allowing him to jump and swing his bladed staff. Despite all that, his fighting style remains crude - mainly tavern-brawling, including punches and kicks - and his only "magical" ability is his power to summon his weapon. Some extraordinary talents - ability to hold his breath for long periods of time, impressive charisma, as well as the strength/endurance/speed/dexterity - are often blamed on his heritage as a half-water-youkai, only vaguely remeniscient of the kappa of Japanese myth that he is often called as a nickname.
TIMELINE: Between acts 33 & 34 aka The Even A Worm arc parts 20 & 21 (Saiyuki Reload Gunlock); Sanzo has abandoned his three traveling companions (recovering from the Seiten Taisei versus Youkai-Hakkai battle) to travel with Hazel and Gato. It's completely Manga-verse -- no Homura arc or Movie, as they were anime-only. :( Gojyo is not physically injured, but suffered emotional damage detailed below.
BACKGROUND: Sha Gojyo was born to a human mother and a youkai* father, but his mother wasn't his father's wife. Somehow, probably after both blood parents died, Gojyo found himself in the "care" of the woman he came to call Mom - his father's legal wife, a youkai, and mother to his older half-brother. Even though she beat him, yelled at him, and could only be comforted by his older brother, Jien, he wanted to make her happy. One day, Mom tried to kill Gojyo, and Jien made the desperate decision to stop her by killing her instead. To the present day, Gojyo carries two scars on his left cheek from where his mother scratched him. The brothers parted ways and didn't see each other for approximately 15 years.
*Youkai live longer than humans, tend to have elemental powers, and are marked physically by a small tattoo somewhere on their body, elongated ears, and fangs. In Gojyo's case, the element is water because he is a "kappa", or water demon.
This next interim period of the series - after Gojyo lost his mother but before the Ikkou (traveling party) begin their journey in the main series - is known as the "Burial arc". The only part of this detailed in the first series (Gensomaden Saiyuki) is how the four met, explained later. Anyway, in the Burial arc we learn that Gojyo wandered the streets and learned, probably with the help of a youkai named Banri, how to play cards, rack up a beer tab, and become quite the lady's man. Gojyo himself is a "taboo child** ", but most humans don't realize this while most demons do. Thus, Gojyo has lived among humans for most of his life and feels more comfortable in their culture.
**Taboo children are half-youkai and so-called because it is a social taboo for the two races to fornicate. They are marked physically by blood-red hair and eyes; apparently possess no elemental powers; and yet they do have some measure of extraordinary strength, speed, and life expectancy.
Gojyo is particularly close to one of his companions, Hakkai, because they met each other a few months before meeting the other two. Hakkai was "Cho Gonou" then and nearly dead, lying face down in the rain when Gojyo took Gonou back to his house and had a doctor look at the turned-youkai. Eventually Gonou recovered and was just about to leave Gojyo's company when a buddhist priest (Genjyo-sanzo) showed up at his door with a monkey-like boy (Son Goku) and demanded the "mass murderer" be turned over. Long story short, Gonou was not sentenced to death and took on the new name Hakkai to begin his penitence, but he and Gojyo are still best friends to this day as a result of the mess.
Gojyo wields a staff-like weapon with a crescent blade at the top and a chained spade at the bottom, summoning it with his youki -- the magical powers youkai possess and use in a variety of ways. In the show, it is called a 'shakujou', but is closer to the "cresecent-moon-toothed spade" (yueyachan) that Chinese Buddhist priests used as both a traveling staff (with clanging rings) and a shovel to dig graves. The story of how he acquired his weapon is this: Gojyo and Goku knocked over two urns where sacred weapons were being contained, and when the urns cracked open, the weapons claimed new owners. The "staff" claimed Gojyo and the only way to separate them would have been for Gojyo to die - an option, it's worth noting, Sanzo was openly in favor of.
Three years after the four men met, Gojyo's destiny caught up with him. He was summoned to journey with Genjyo-sanzo - among the highest ranking of Buddhist priests but without the shaved head or abstinence from killing, drinking, or smoking - to India to stop a "Minus Wave" from turning all youkai into ravenous, mindless beasts. His other traveling companions include the legendary Son Goku - the Sage Equaling Heaven - and Cho Hakkai, a human cursed for killing 1000 youkai by being himself changed into a youkai. This is the rag-tag group that Gojyo travels with for a year and a half at the time he is pulled from.
In Gensomaden Saiyuki (the first series published), the Sanzo Party fought against a youkai prince, Kougaiji, and his team (Jien among them, now called Dokugakuji) to keep Sanzo's sutra in his possession. It was during this time that the team first caught a glimpse of Goku's berserk "Seiten Taisei" form - the "Great Sage Equaling Heaven". Only through the intervention of Kanzeon Bosatsu (Merciful Goddess) was Goku calmed. What drove Goku berserk was seeing Sanzo nearly die of blood loss from a gaping hole in his stomach. Kanzeon Bosatsu replaced Sanzo's lost blood with some of Gojyo's - she acquired it through a kiss - but it left Gojyo so weak he fell to his knees. It should be noted that Kanzeon Bosatsu thought it would actually knock him unconscious.
In Saiyuki Reload, they continued their journey westward, fighting a variety of youkai along the way and finally going up against Kami-sama - a man who called himself "God" and stole Sanzo's sutra. During the struggle, all four Ikkou (traveling party) members nearly died, but it also forced them to learn more about each other's fighting styles and unite them more as a team as well as friends. All of this happened over a game of mahjongg, a game they played often during the trip because it requires 3-4 people.
Most recently, they encountered a man by the name of Hazel and his attendant called Gato. This whole portion is the 'Even a Worm' arc, but appears in Saiyuki Reload: Gunlock in the anime versus Saiyuki Reload in the manga. Hazel is a Christian (?) bishop with the power to trap youkai souls in his pendant (with the Star of David on it), then release them into the dead bodies of humans, seemingly bringing the dead back to life. But they've changed - the biggest difference is that their eyes become yellow and they despise youkai, going crazy at the sight of them and chanting "Kill Youkai" while attempting to do just that with their own hands. Hazel 'revives' humans who fall in youkai attacks, because he desires to kill all youkai and make a world exclusively for humans. He thinks that he and Sanzo have identical goals and therefore seriously questions why Sanzo travels with "monsters". Naturally, this does not sit well with Hakkai, Goku, and Gojyo. The way that Gojyo deals with it is by mocking Hazel's accent, which is translated as a southern accent.
In the last battle, Gojyo was reminded of how powerless he was in comparison to his fellow travelers. Goku was ambushed with a nearly fatal attack that left Sanzo so distraught he ran off to confront who he supposed to be Goku's ambusher. This left Hakkai and Gojyo to deal with the problem, which they did by choosing to remove Goku's limiter***, thereby transforming Goku into his insanely powerful form - Seiten Taisei, The "Great Sage Equalling Heaven" - that could heal himself and survive the attack. The bad thing about that is that Goku's STTS form is completely berserk - he doesn't distinguish between friend & foe and lives only for himself; Gojyo and Hakkai knew that when they removed Goku's limiter, but it was the only way to keep Goku alive. To stop Goku from going on a killing spree, Hakkai removed his limiters as well to combat Goku. Hakkai's Youkai form is not much better than Goku's STTS form, but Hakkai has a stronger personal will, so he has a greater chance of coming back to his senses while still transformed. Unfortunately, Gojyo had to actually stop Youkai-Hakkai from killing Goku, and Gojyo nearly got his head chopped off by Hakkai in the process. Goku was finally knocked unconscious after a cooperative effort by Hakkai with Gato to elotrocute Goku, after which Gojyo placed the limiter back on Goku's head. However, he still had to help tend to Hakkai's wounds and stopped Hazel from stealing his best friend's soul, screaming, "He's not dead, damnit!" Bearing the weight of both Goku and Hakkai - Goku under his right arm and Hakkai leaning on his left shoulder - Gojyo left the town to find Hakuryu**** and take them to a safe place where they could rest and recover. On his way out, he scorned Sanzo for abandoning Goku when Goku needed Sanzo the most. "Sorry, dick. I've got my hands full. So I can't beat you senseless right now."
***Limiters in Saiyuki canon are the name of small metal objects, usually a kind of jewelry because we've seen earrings, a bracelet, and a headband among others. A limiter does two things for youkai: 1) dampens their power levels by varying amounts and 2) magically creates a facade that makes the youkai appear human. Goku and Hakkai both require limiters to not only stay sane but protect them from the Minus Wave; Gojyo, being only half-youkai, doesn't require a limiter and can slip into most human settlements with ease.
****Hakuryu is the name of the small white dragon that travels with the party, usually in the capacity of their transportation because Hakuryu can transform into a jeep. Since, "Jeep" or "Jiipu" was copyrighted, they had to change the name for the anime, but it's a lot easier to distinguish between Hakuryu's forms by using both names - Hakuryu for his dragon form, and Jeep for his vehicle form. Hakuryu is essentially Hakkai's pet and thus I did not request Hakuryu coming to the game along with Gojyo.
[[Edensphere History]]
At first Smoke was content to just lay around in the shade of trees, or work the minimum hours necessary as a Tradesman (carpentry & general repair work) to buy food. Unlike so many newborns, Smoke didn't really have a 'birth sibling'; "Ice" (Haku) and Smoke got along about as well as, well, water and fire. Plus the guy wasn't around long. Smoke soon felt that tug: two things were missing in this new lifestyle. First was companions - nightly flings, people to share a cigarette with, suckers to play cards or mahjongg with... and the second was a place where all of that occurred. So began Smoke's journey to establish the first bar/tavern in Edensphere. Along the way Smoke met some of his first friends in Edensphere, and lost a few too. These were his first brushes with people disappearing and reappearing without memory of their time in Edensphere, and it created two of the strongest bonds Smoke still feels the effects of today: Trust (Kogenta) and Bastet (Yoruichi). Trust became a battle-buddy for Smoke and Bastet became a confidant and mentor, both of which he interacted with off the journals to really solidify the bond. Smoke's first experience with Revolving Reveries not only gave him some insight into his past, but also created bonds with Drake (Sasuke) and Chosen (Zelos).
When the Wilderness shifted to Adstringendum, Smoke was able to meet (versions of) his friends Hakkai and Goku. They weren't able to convey too much to him, but they did call him "Gojyo" and Hakkai gave him a birthday present: Hi-Lite cigarettes. This was the first time Smoke dealt with how to distinguish between the "Gojyo" that Hakkai and Goku knew versus the "Smoke" he had become in Edensphere. Smoke decided that until he remembered more about the person Hakkai and Goku knew, he'd prefer to be called "Smoke" and stay in Edensphere to help his new friends - few though they were. Surprisingly, Hakkai understood and appreciated those intentions, and so the three spent every day they could together until the Wilderness shifted again... to Las Vegas.
Through Smoke's could-be-my-brother Chosen, Smoke met Ghost (Jack) and his companions, namely Kanin (Toki) and Alexi (Skwisgaar) who would become bartenders for him. A few weeks later, after some prodding by Clé (Diana), Smoke reflected on his "friendship" with Ghost - just before Ghost was kidnapped by an evil version of himself. Smoke and Trust formed a battle-bond to fend off their own evil twins, then helped rescue Ghost and Spike (Sky) alongside Brooklyn (Bridge) and Blood (Yachiru), Ghost's birth sister. Ghost returned the favor by supporting Smoke when Chosen died. It was through this mourning period that Smoke got to know Lucy (Selphie) as more than just another name in the journals. After dealing with that, Smoke and Trust felt like they had done enough practicing together that they confronted their evil twins again, killing them through the strength of their teamwork.
At last, Smoke had a reason to be happy again; it took 4 months and a Paintball game reward, but he got his bar, and he called it Smoke's because he's just that creative. Suddenly Smoke's was a hang-out for all kinds of people, and it excited Smoke to be around that kind of camaraderie. He made many new friendships with the workers and regulars, plus other bonds were strengthened once the bar opened, namely with Bastet, Ghost, and Clé. The start of the new year brought an awkward date, and thus began Smoke's formal relationship with Ghost.
While journeying in Rivelata, Smoke met versions of Hakkai and Goku who didn't know him, someone Smoke thought was another (evil) twin, and watched Fugue flail when they found a number of bodies, including one they thought was Drake. When Ghost met a guy named Adam, Smoke became a keeper of Ghost's real name; in turn, Smoke revealed his real name to Ghost. The two of them stumbled into the elevator and ended up stuck on the 4th floor, but Ghost was sucked out within a few minutes (as far as Smoke could tell). Then Smoke witnessed something so strange that it made him wary of Fugue thereafter - Fugue typing away on some foreign, advanced technology. This pinged Smoke for the technology that the youkai are rumored to be using to resurrect Gyuumaoh, a youkai so powerful and terrifying it took the War Prince of Heaven Nataku himself to seal him away - Nataku couldn't even kill him! Unfortunately for Smoke, this revelation inside the elevator actually took about 3 months according to the rest of Edensphere.
By the time Smoke re-emerged, Trust was gone. Not long after the Charity Ball held by Bubbles (Glinda), Kanin and Fallen disappeared too. They were very hard friendships to lose. On top of that, Smoke had to try to hire new people to help him run the bar. Thing (Mieu) held a special fascination for Smoke pinging for Hakuryu; Smoke offered Thing a home in exchange for waiter duties. Then along came Grift (OC), a man that Smoke took an immediate liking to - Grift's penchant for using the term "boss-man" to refer to Smoke helped. Then came a double-blow: the deaths of Ghost and Bastet within about 2 weeks of each other. Smoke ranted about how evil Fugue was all over the journals, causing concern among many - some who he didn't even like that much. In return... Smoke and his whole tavern got the pink treatment, which lasted quite a long time to Smoke's ire. It did, however, make a point: calling out Fugue (or the Tree in general) over the journals (i.e. in public) was a pretty bad plan. So, Smoke reached out to Alchemy (Ed Elric), who was both intelligent and interested in Edensphere's secrets. Smoke convinced him to use his "magic" to fix a table in exchange for information about Sky (Alfons), Fullmetal (Alphonse), and other "doubles" in the Sphere. Smoke hoped that the connection with Alchemy could be useful as they both learned more.
Conversations like that made Smoke remember all the friends he'd lost and appreciate the ones still in the Sphere. To that end he created the "Specialty Drink List" for Smoke's bar, with 26 varieties to start off with. It was one of his points of pride because so many residents appreciated the intention. Of course, then the whole place got burned - the whole Sphere. It was the first time Smoke "died," the first time he had another dream to go on, and the first time he really lost something he cared about - both intangibly and tangibly. When he was reborn after the fire, Smoke had lost every single memory directly related to Ghost. He also had to face the burned-out shell of his beloved bar. Both required help from other characters to overcome the loss. Smoke and Ghost - with some interference/aid from Aurora (Tieria) - made a sort of agreement regarding how to go about their lives with these gaping holes in their memories, yet knowing through mutual friends they were very close. One way that Smoke was able to distract himself from that amazing amount of awkwardness was by repairing the bar, but another was by offering to fill in for Chosen's guard duties when he went missing again. As Smoke pondered why he'd been one of the only people in ES to end up without a birth-sibling, karma supplied him with an "adopted" sibling in the form of Amurui. At first Smoke was fighting off a whirling mass of rage, then he remembered that when people get like this there has to be a way to calm them (pings for Son Goku in his Seiten Taisei form). He scrambled for something to place on Amurui - and it worked. Smoke was struck by Amurui's behavior both in rage and when the rage subsided, and so he decided to keep himself near to Amurui in case such a thing happened again.
For the bar, he held a "party" of sorts where many people showed up to help, and to be entertained by "The Newborn Beauty, Miss Goodbye" - among them Gene (Lyle), Juliet (Grell), Youth (Gai), Kagerou (Orihime), and Lea (Axel). They all got major upgrades of trust and friendship in Smoke's book. So did Mirror (Alfons) when he helped make a redesigned layout for the bar. Smoke eventually requested his post as a Guard become a permanent position. This was particularly important when members of the Sphere were attacked by unknown entities, and Smoke took a team of people to Crystala on Bastet's orders: Toushi (Ichigo), Kiba (Renji), and Blood (Yachiru).
Smoke still remembered the two different Hakkais and Gokus that he'd met in the past, but had only met Moon (Sanzo) once, and it wasn't on pleasant terms. So he arranged to meet Moon again and talk about what they both knew of "home." Smoke was pleased they could do that much - talk, and not throw punches. The bar's grand reopening came just over a year after it was first opened. Smoke got the rest of the items he needed when the Wilderness became a Mall - or basically a storehouse of already-assembled furniture and accessories, as Smoke saw it. He also got to have a lot of fun with the "redhead brigade" - Toushi, Kiba, Lea, and Smoke himself - as they tore through orcs and an Oliphant when the Wilderness changed to Mordor. Oh yeah and Kazahana was there too.
His last job as a Guard/Greeter before his death was for Dyad (Allelujah) and Lithium (Tieria), so that was all kinds of awkward. Back then, Smoke was starting to get (re-)acquainted with Lithium. The other two people Smoke was getting really close to were Kagerou and Lea. Smoke's last known major action was posting a journal entry asking if anyone had seen Goodbye (Sheryl) or Aimo (Ranka), two more affiliates of his bar to disappear.
ABILITIES:
-- Some enhanced strength, speed, and stamina, including jumping agility. This is of an 'extraordinary' level, i.e. better than humans but not up to "super" status. He'll never beat Dash in a foot race, he'll never jump tall buildings in a single bound, and he'll never bench-press a bus. This is just a bit watered down from "shounen series physics" like you see pulled in Bleach or Naruto. He's gotten particularly better at jumping during his stay in Edensphere.
-- Summon weapon (the "shakujo/staff", see description above) and telekinetic control of the weapon's chain.
GAME INFO
EDENSPHERE NAME: Smoke, because I can't call him anything else anymore. ♥
BIRTHDAY LOG: Yes please~
DREAM:
She raised his own weapon high above her head, cackling madly. He couldn't see her face, but he could hear the menace in her voice. "It's a sin you know... to have that red hair and eyes... yes, it's a sin... you're no child of mine... not mine... NOT MINE!"
He scuttled backwards on his butt until his back hit the wall, his eyes wide as he stared up at her. He couldn't take his eyes off of her. As terrified as he was, she commanded his attention.
"Please... Kaasan..." It was like there was an echo in the room, and he looked to his right.
It was his own self, as a child, seemingly unaware that his adult self was in the room with him. That's when he remembered - from so long ago, he had known this. Before he knew her voice, and before he knew his name, and before he knew what he was.
Before 'Smoke' came this dream-that-wasn't-a-dream.
She swung the shakujo down and he knew what was coming. He instinctively closed his eyes.
"YOU! The hot tempered one! Let me use you!"
It wasn't his mother's voice - it was a... feminine... ish... deep voice. He couldn't speak at all as he felt a pair of lips pressed to his. They were soft, warm, and moist - like they'd never once known winter's frost or old age.
The room grew tighter and tighter around him - he could tell because the air was suffocating him. He tried to squirm and stand, but he couldn't. No part of his body responded any more, not even his eyelids. He was trapped in a fetal position.
What the hell did she do to me?!?!
"If you are pissed, try to live on with your own power... Boya~"
If there was anything that got him going more than a good roll in the hay, it was a challenge.
I'll show you hot-tempered!
And with that he ripped his way out...
Note: Inspired by this part of the manga, and the awesomeness that is Kanzeon Bosatsu
JOURNAL SAMPLE:
Heyhey Edensphere - miss me?
For those who don't recognize my handwriting (or those I've never met), my name is Smoke. I... got lost for awhile, but I'm back now, and I'm really glad to be home ... around friends again.
I'm feeling the muscle cramps from being shut up inside those gooey messes for so long. So! Anyone been looking for a sparring partner? I need work on close-range and long-range both. Because I can think of a few people who will want to kick my ass.
♥ Smoke
ASPIRATIONS: Uhm, TO RP AGAIN BECAUSE I MISSED ES SO FREAKING MUCH???
But seriously, I want to get Smoke social again more than anything. If he can't get immediately reinstated at his post in the Guard (and occasional Greeter), I'll completely understand and so will he. He'll just start training his ass off to be worthy of the position again, which includes staying up-to-date on the workings of the Sphere and meeting/interacting with the new characters who have arrived since his departure.
I've already chatted with Fey with regards to Smoke's (the bar/tavern), and we have a rough plot planned out to accommodate this. The agreement we came to was that she/Grift will retain "ownership" of the place, but Smoke will get to work there as bartender (i.e. a part-time position). Smoke will no longer live there, and he/I have no say in how the place runs. I have full permission to talk to her about ideas, plan events, provide insight to players about the bar as any player of a bar-worker would, etc., but she retains the last word on all things related to the bar. We hope that this will be a very amicable arrangement.
PLOT PERMISSIONS:
ES 4th Wall: YUP!
Chara 4th Wall: YUP!
ES Mysteries: lol done
Memory Rec'v: Yep, as previously!
Memory Distrib: Yep, as previously!
Dream Distrib: Yep, as previously!
Your Wilderness: Saiyuki-verse would be awesome.