Ausflucht -- Shinsuke Hino/Rokuta
▬ Player Information;
Name/Alias: Mercedes
Sex: Female
Age: 29
LJ handle: jmercedesd
AIM/E-mail: KushielChan/templewing@hotmail.com
Experience: 10-ish years of accumulated experience, starting with a D&D based PBeM, 6 years as admin for the Children of Nerima mailing list RP, plus several other message board and mailing list-based RP's. I've been RPing through AIM for about 3-ish years now, too. The only venue I haven't tried, unfortunately, is LJ. So, that part will be new to me. :)
Timezone: Eastern Standard Time
▬ Character Information;
Race: Kitsune
Public Name: Shinsuke Hino (shown here and below in the Western format with the family name second)
Real Name: Rokuta
Age: c.700
Physical Age: 19
Sex: Male
Sexual Orientation: Acts heterosexual but bi-curious; is really closer to pansexual.
Physical Appearance: PB: Kazuya Kamenashi (#'s 12, 26, 62, 68, 76, 78, 105 for Shinsuke; #'s 53, 56, 87, 103, 125 for Rokuta)
Shinsuke is 5' 7" and weighs about 125 pounds. In other words, he's a skinny bugger. Black hair cut shaggy to the nape of his neck. Dark brown eyes, almond-shaped, often narrowed. He usually dresses casually, but is never sloppy; accessories are kept to minimum. He wears glasses during class and while studying.
The human form he uses as Rokuta is very similar in appearance, with longer, red-tinted hair. Usually wearing whatever he was wearing as Shinsuke, but yukata or casual traditional clothes are also common, depending on the situation. His true form is that of a larger than normal (approximately 5' tall at the tips of his ears) Hokkaido red fox with five tails, bipedal and wearing an informal kimono. He can also appear as a normal fox.
Character Personality: On the surface, Shinsuke is comes off as intensely serious about his studies and nothing else. Many people tend to avoid him because of this, thinking that he’d be stiff and boring. While that perception isn't entirely incorrect and is indeed what helped him get accepted to Ausflucht, he's a lot more relaxed once a person gets past the ultra-studious exterior he presents in class.
Towards those he’s on good terms with, Shinsuke is friendly and helpful. He enjoys hanging out with friends or even just friendly acquaintances when he’s not studying, even when they go out drinking. Despite not being of legal drinking age in Japan, it’s obvious that he’s experienced and can hold his liquor, something most people don’t expect when they first meet him.
He has a dry sense of humor, prone to making sarcastic comments when he thinks they’re deserved. Both this and his unwillingness to fight get him into trouble more often than not.
He rarely gets truly angry about anything at all, preferring not to fight. He won’t get upset if someone interrupts his studies, nor will he scoff those who are lax about them. Even in situations where the others involved are violently angry, Shinsuke is likely to remain unimpressed and even-tempered. This mild attitude seems to make him the perfect target for bullies and, indeed, his junior and senior high school years were speckled with a series of incidents.
In reality, Rokuta isn’t about to try and fight those physically stronger than him (as kitsune rarely have a strength advantage over a human), but he'd sooner lose his tails than let a measly human brute get away with insulting him. It was often worth enduring a little abuse just for the fun of getting revenge. Make no mistake, Shinsuke Hino is just a character, one the kitsune has been playing for nearly two decades and will continue playing until it is no longer convenient or interesting to do so. A name, a mask and a script, but it is always Rokuta inside.
Beneath his human guise (or perhaps, alongside it) Rokuta is just as easy-going and smiles often; as prone to the occasional prank -- or more than -- as any of his kind. He trusts very few people completely, but, then again, very few people trust him. A favor given is a favor earned, however, and Rokuta believes in repaying his debts. He is fair within the bounds of his own morality and loyal to his allies, friends and family, willing to help them where he will not help others.
Some of his likes and dislikes do leak through when he is appearing as Shinsuke. He can appreciate a good practical joke, whether he or another executes it, even if the joke was ON him. He enjoys liquor of almost every kind and, if given the opportunity or reason, he’ll drink himself under the table. That weakness is one he keeps under tight wraps, for it’s when he’s drunk or extremely tired that his illusions are weakest, including that of his human form.
Though he has never married a human, he has had affairs of all sorts with members of both genders, from one-night stands to committed relationships that lasted years. His perception of attractiveness is fickle and he’s just as likely to want someone who is considered ugly or boring physically as he is someone who is considered beautiful. And while Shinsuke isn’t likely to ever openly confess romantic or sexual interest in anyone who isn’t female, gender isn’t something the kitsune considers very much when it comes to having fun.
Character Biography: Like many Kitsune, Rokuta was born a normal fox in the wilds of Japan. He understood that he was more than ordinary when he had out-lived even his great-grandchildren and so set out to find others like him. He didn't have to search long; not more than a couple days into his journey, they found him.
Since the late 17th century, Rokuta has lived a double life, one in the human world and one with the spirits. The name "Rokuta", in fact, was the name he chose for his first and favorite long-term human guise. He has used the form repeatedly over the centuries and prefers it over all others save his true form.
In order to better understand humans and to deepen his knowledge of them, he also has a habit of living and "growing up" with a human couple as their child, remaining in that guise until the human form reaches adulthood. Hino Tsuyoshi and his wife Mariko are the fifth couple to become his chosen family.
Shinsuke's adoption papers state that he was three years old when the Hinos, unable to have a child of their own, took him in. He was bright and, even though his parents spoiled him, he was never bratty or demanding. His father was a middle-class businessman who made a decent living while Mrs. Hino stayed at home with the boy until he was old enough to go to school, at which time she started working part-time.
Shinsuke was considered something of a nerd and, though he wasn’t without friends, he was a target for bullying up through his last year of high school. One of the reasons could have been that he never fought back or responded to insults, but he never caved under them, either.
He never complained to anyone but his friends, so no one with authority ever knew about the incidents. However, not long after each and every incident, Shinsuke's attacker would be plagued by odd occurrences. It could have been anything, from finding themselves assaulted by a gang of street thugs, to something as simple as tripping on air and falling face first to the gymnasium floor. Only a scant few ever made the connection between the bullies’ actions toward Shinsuke and the string of misfortune afterwards.
After all, no kitsune worth his tails would be caught so easily.
Shinsuke chose to go into business after high school, following in his father’s footsteps. However, showing rare ambition, he chose to focus on International Business, instead of just a general overview of the profession. He minored in Linguistics, knowing that half of understanding how to conduct business in other countries would be to understand the languages.
Thus, when the council called on Rokuta to go see what was up at Ausflucht, he had a viable reason to take a semester abroad in Europe. The choice of education was, in fact, made in hopes that they would send him out of Japan. Already fluent in English and Mandarin, with some basic knowledge of French and Dutch, he buckled down on learning German immediately. While he didn’t have enough time to become fluent before leaving, he didn’t anticipate having enough problems that his mission - to spy on the humans who found the mermaid and to watch the spies and representatives from other areas of the world - would be in danger.
Character Occupation: Student, majoring in International Business, minoring in Linguistics. Oh, and a spy for the Japanese arm of the Council, but -- shhh -- no one is supposed to know about that.
Race Information: The word kitsune, directly translated, means "fox" but also is used to refer to the spirit foxes. Nearly all kitsune were once mortal foxes; they are the ones who continued to grow in wisdom and knowledge, leaving behind their mortality. The only exceptions are the white kitsune who serve the god Inari directly; they are immortal spirits with neither birth nor death.
Humans have many legends about kitsune. They are tricksters and scholars, lowly thieves and holy beings that serve Inari and bless his worshipers. There are tales of them helping those who deserve it and they are reputed to be completely sexual beings, often turning into men and women with the sole purpose of having wild sex with ignorant humans. Most kitsune will neither deny nor confirm any of this.
Kitsune magic, with few exceptions, is based entirely on illusion and deception. Even their ability to appear human is little more than a highly advanced illusion, convincing every physical sense that they are the human they're pretending to be. They're adept at fooling the senses into believing the illusions they create, but they cannot directly influence a person's mind. Consequently, they can disguise themselves as anyone or anything, though what, who, and how convincingly depends on the kitsune. Weaker kitsune find their illusions broken the moment they are startled or taken off guard. Others can create false lifetimes for those trapped in their hidden worlds.
The two known abilities kitsune have that are not illusion are the kitsune-bi or foxfire, and the ability to possess humans. The fire usually appears as one or many balls of blue flame often used it to mislead and deceive humans into thinking it is a lantern or the lights of a house, getting them lost. Possessing humans is something only the highest-ranking kitsune can do, as they are the closest to being pure spirit.
The strength of a kitsune's power can be determined by the number of tails it has, the most powerful and usually the oldest having nine. Human legends differ as to when a kitsune gains its next tail, but none of them are truly correct. The change is dependent on the individual kitsune, not a set time line or specific event.
Third Person Sample:
Rokuta dropped his messenger bag onto the floor beside him, sitting in the chair indicated. The woman who had ushered him into her office was now sitting down across from him, a sturdy, cluttered office desk between them. She was in charge of the student exchange program and was essentially his general adviser while he remained at Ausflucht. Or, to be more accurate, Shinsuke’s adviser. After all, she would never know that he was anything other than a regular human student.
“This meeting will be brief. I realize that you must still be exhausted from your flight, so don’t worry that I’m going to be holding you up for hours with paperwork. I can’t vouch for what your professors might have you do, however.” Her smile was practiced, meant to put a nervous student at ease. Rokuta nodded, returning the smile with a weak one of his own.
It was his first day on the Ausflucht campus, having just flown in from Japan that morning, and already he could tell that the next few months would be very interesting. So very different from home, from the scents in the air to the way sunlight sifted through the clouds. There was a thrill of being here, in a place so vastly different that it almost made his head spin.
"I take it you found your dorm all right, Mr... Shin-suke Hi-no? I'm sorry, is that right?" She pronounced it "shine-sook hai-no"; he bit back a sigh. At least she wasn't presuming that her attempt was correct.
"Shins'ke Hino, if you please," he replied, the slide of familiar syllables jarring with the accented German that followed. He'd learned through experience that while native English or Mandarin-speakers had little trouble with it, the German language had an entirely different way of pronouncing the romanization of his name. He was willing to bet he'd be correcting a good number of people during his stay at Ausflucht. "The directions sent with my travel information were very good, thank you. I did not have trouble."
The woman nodded and continued spouting reassurances, but Rokuta had already half tuned her out. He’d heard this sort of hollow speech before and, even if she did say something important, he had no doubt that he would catch and remember it later. In the meantime, he began to catalog a few other non-human scents he thought he’d identified on the walk from his dorm to the main campus. If even half of them were informants for the Council as well… this would be an interesting semester indeed.
Notes: Accent is one of the few things he cannot mimic flawlessly and is something that will always give him away as foreign when he changes forms. He can try and make people think they're hearing him speak with the correct accent, but a sharp mind can easily see through that, so it's a trick he doesn't try often.
Also, Rokuta can and will change into a woman if he needs to, or even just for the fun of it, but he prefers being the gender he was born. That and he'd rather not put aside Shinsuke more than he has to.
OMFG, I took too long writing this! XD
Name/Alias: Mercedes
Sex: Female
Age: 29
LJ handle: jmercedesd
AIM/E-mail: KushielChan/templewing@hotmail.com
Experience: 10-ish years of accumulated experience, starting with a D&D based PBeM, 6 years as admin for the Children of Nerima mailing list RP, plus several other message board and mailing list-based RP's. I've been RPing through AIM for about 3-ish years now, too. The only venue I haven't tried, unfortunately, is LJ. So, that part will be new to me. :)
Timezone: Eastern Standard Time
▬ Character Information;
Race: Kitsune
Public Name: Shinsuke Hino (shown here and below in the Western format with the family name second)
Real Name: Rokuta
Age: c.700
Physical Age: 19
Sex: Male
Sexual Orientation: Acts heterosexual but bi-curious; is really closer to pansexual.
Physical Appearance: PB: Kazuya Kamenashi (#'s 12, 26, 62, 68, 76, 78, 105 for Shinsuke; #'s 53, 56, 87, 103, 125 for Rokuta)
Shinsuke is 5' 7" and weighs about 125 pounds. In other words, he's a skinny bugger. Black hair cut shaggy to the nape of his neck. Dark brown eyes, almond-shaped, often narrowed. He usually dresses casually, but is never sloppy; accessories are kept to minimum. He wears glasses during class and while studying.
The human form he uses as Rokuta is very similar in appearance, with longer, red-tinted hair. Usually wearing whatever he was wearing as Shinsuke, but yukata or casual traditional clothes are also common, depending on the situation. His true form is that of a larger than normal (approximately 5' tall at the tips of his ears) Hokkaido red fox with five tails, bipedal and wearing an informal kimono. He can also appear as a normal fox.
Character Personality: On the surface, Shinsuke is comes off as intensely serious about his studies and nothing else. Many people tend to avoid him because of this, thinking that he’d be stiff and boring. While that perception isn't entirely incorrect and is indeed what helped him get accepted to Ausflucht, he's a lot more relaxed once a person gets past the ultra-studious exterior he presents in class.
Towards those he’s on good terms with, Shinsuke is friendly and helpful. He enjoys hanging out with friends or even just friendly acquaintances when he’s not studying, even when they go out drinking. Despite not being of legal drinking age in Japan, it’s obvious that he’s experienced and can hold his liquor, something most people don’t expect when they first meet him.
He has a dry sense of humor, prone to making sarcastic comments when he thinks they’re deserved. Both this and his unwillingness to fight get him into trouble more often than not.
He rarely gets truly angry about anything at all, preferring not to fight. He won’t get upset if someone interrupts his studies, nor will he scoff those who are lax about them. Even in situations where the others involved are violently angry, Shinsuke is likely to remain unimpressed and even-tempered. This mild attitude seems to make him the perfect target for bullies and, indeed, his junior and senior high school years were speckled with a series of incidents.
In reality, Rokuta isn’t about to try and fight those physically stronger than him (as kitsune rarely have a strength advantage over a human), but he'd sooner lose his tails than let a measly human brute get away with insulting him. It was often worth enduring a little abuse just for the fun of getting revenge. Make no mistake, Shinsuke Hino is just a character, one the kitsune has been playing for nearly two decades and will continue playing until it is no longer convenient or interesting to do so. A name, a mask and a script, but it is always Rokuta inside.
Beneath his human guise (or perhaps, alongside it) Rokuta is just as easy-going and smiles often; as prone to the occasional prank -- or more than -- as any of his kind. He trusts very few people completely, but, then again, very few people trust him. A favor given is a favor earned, however, and Rokuta believes in repaying his debts. He is fair within the bounds of his own morality and loyal to his allies, friends and family, willing to help them where he will not help others.
Some of his likes and dislikes do leak through when he is appearing as Shinsuke. He can appreciate a good practical joke, whether he or another executes it, even if the joke was ON him. He enjoys liquor of almost every kind and, if given the opportunity or reason, he’ll drink himself under the table. That weakness is one he keeps under tight wraps, for it’s when he’s drunk or extremely tired that his illusions are weakest, including that of his human form.
Though he has never married a human, he has had affairs of all sorts with members of both genders, from one-night stands to committed relationships that lasted years. His perception of attractiveness is fickle and he’s just as likely to want someone who is considered ugly or boring physically as he is someone who is considered beautiful. And while Shinsuke isn’t likely to ever openly confess romantic or sexual interest in anyone who isn’t female, gender isn’t something the kitsune considers very much when it comes to having fun.
Character Biography: Like many Kitsune, Rokuta was born a normal fox in the wilds of Japan. He understood that he was more than ordinary when he had out-lived even his great-grandchildren and so set out to find others like him. He didn't have to search long; not more than a couple days into his journey, they found him.
Since the late 17th century, Rokuta has lived a double life, one in the human world and one with the spirits. The name "Rokuta", in fact, was the name he chose for his first and favorite long-term human guise. He has used the form repeatedly over the centuries and prefers it over all others save his true form.
In order to better understand humans and to deepen his knowledge of them, he also has a habit of living and "growing up" with a human couple as their child, remaining in that guise until the human form reaches adulthood. Hino Tsuyoshi and his wife Mariko are the fifth couple to become his chosen family.
Shinsuke's adoption papers state that he was three years old when the Hinos, unable to have a child of their own, took him in. He was bright and, even though his parents spoiled him, he was never bratty or demanding. His father was a middle-class businessman who made a decent living while Mrs. Hino stayed at home with the boy until he was old enough to go to school, at which time she started working part-time.
Shinsuke was considered something of a nerd and, though he wasn’t without friends, he was a target for bullying up through his last year of high school. One of the reasons could have been that he never fought back or responded to insults, but he never caved under them, either.
He never complained to anyone but his friends, so no one with authority ever knew about the incidents. However, not long after each and every incident, Shinsuke's attacker would be plagued by odd occurrences. It could have been anything, from finding themselves assaulted by a gang of street thugs, to something as simple as tripping on air and falling face first to the gymnasium floor. Only a scant few ever made the connection between the bullies’ actions toward Shinsuke and the string of misfortune afterwards.
After all, no kitsune worth his tails would be caught so easily.
Shinsuke chose to go into business after high school, following in his father’s footsteps. However, showing rare ambition, he chose to focus on International Business, instead of just a general overview of the profession. He minored in Linguistics, knowing that half of understanding how to conduct business in other countries would be to understand the languages.
Thus, when the council called on Rokuta to go see what was up at Ausflucht, he had a viable reason to take a semester abroad in Europe. The choice of education was, in fact, made in hopes that they would send him out of Japan. Already fluent in English and Mandarin, with some basic knowledge of French and Dutch, he buckled down on learning German immediately. While he didn’t have enough time to become fluent before leaving, he didn’t anticipate having enough problems that his mission - to spy on the humans who found the mermaid and to watch the spies and representatives from other areas of the world - would be in danger.
Character Occupation: Student, majoring in International Business, minoring in Linguistics. Oh, and a spy for the Japanese arm of the Council, but -- shhh -- no one is supposed to know about that.
Race Information: The word kitsune, directly translated, means "fox" but also is used to refer to the spirit foxes. Nearly all kitsune were once mortal foxes; they are the ones who continued to grow in wisdom and knowledge, leaving behind their mortality. The only exceptions are the white kitsune who serve the god Inari directly; they are immortal spirits with neither birth nor death.
Humans have many legends about kitsune. They are tricksters and scholars, lowly thieves and holy beings that serve Inari and bless his worshipers. There are tales of them helping those who deserve it and they are reputed to be completely sexual beings, often turning into men and women with the sole purpose of having wild sex with ignorant humans. Most kitsune will neither deny nor confirm any of this.
Kitsune magic, with few exceptions, is based entirely on illusion and deception. Even their ability to appear human is little more than a highly advanced illusion, convincing every physical sense that they are the human they're pretending to be. They're adept at fooling the senses into believing the illusions they create, but they cannot directly influence a person's mind. Consequently, they can disguise themselves as anyone or anything, though what, who, and how convincingly depends on the kitsune. Weaker kitsune find their illusions broken the moment they are startled or taken off guard. Others can create false lifetimes for those trapped in their hidden worlds.
The two known abilities kitsune have that are not illusion are the kitsune-bi or foxfire, and the ability to possess humans. The fire usually appears as one or many balls of blue flame often used it to mislead and deceive humans into thinking it is a lantern or the lights of a house, getting them lost. Possessing humans is something only the highest-ranking kitsune can do, as they are the closest to being pure spirit.
The strength of a kitsune's power can be determined by the number of tails it has, the most powerful and usually the oldest having nine. Human legends differ as to when a kitsune gains its next tail, but none of them are truly correct. The change is dependent on the individual kitsune, not a set time line or specific event.
Third Person Sample:
Rokuta dropped his messenger bag onto the floor beside him, sitting in the chair indicated. The woman who had ushered him into her office was now sitting down across from him, a sturdy, cluttered office desk between them. She was in charge of the student exchange program and was essentially his general adviser while he remained at Ausflucht. Or, to be more accurate, Shinsuke’s adviser. After all, she would never know that he was anything other than a regular human student.
“This meeting will be brief. I realize that you must still be exhausted from your flight, so don’t worry that I’m going to be holding you up for hours with paperwork. I can’t vouch for what your professors might have you do, however.” Her smile was practiced, meant to put a nervous student at ease. Rokuta nodded, returning the smile with a weak one of his own.
It was his first day on the Ausflucht campus, having just flown in from Japan that morning, and already he could tell that the next few months would be very interesting. So very different from home, from the scents in the air to the way sunlight sifted through the clouds. There was a thrill of being here, in a place so vastly different that it almost made his head spin.
"I take it you found your dorm all right, Mr... Shin-suke Hi-no? I'm sorry, is that right?" She pronounced it "shine-sook hai-no"; he bit back a sigh. At least she wasn't presuming that her attempt was correct.
"Shins'ke Hino, if you please," he replied, the slide of familiar syllables jarring with the accented German that followed. He'd learned through experience that while native English or Mandarin-speakers had little trouble with it, the German language had an entirely different way of pronouncing the romanization of his name. He was willing to bet he'd be correcting a good number of people during his stay at Ausflucht. "The directions sent with my travel information were very good, thank you. I did not have trouble."
The woman nodded and continued spouting reassurances, but Rokuta had already half tuned her out. He’d heard this sort of hollow speech before and, even if she did say something important, he had no doubt that he would catch and remember it later. In the meantime, he began to catalog a few other non-human scents he thought he’d identified on the walk from his dorm to the main campus. If even half of them were informants for the Council as well… this would be an interesting semester indeed.
Notes: Accent is one of the few things he cannot mimic flawlessly and is something that will always give him away as foreign when he changes forms. He can try and make people think they're hearing him speak with the correct accent, but a sharp mind can easily see through that, so it's a trick he doesn't try often.
Also, Rokuta can and will change into a woman if he needs to, or even just for the fun of it, but he prefers being the gender he was born. That and he'd rather not put aside Shinsuke more than he has to.
OMFG, I took too long writing this! XD