[Asgard App]
IC Information;
Character Name; Byakuya Kuchiki.
Canon; Bleach.
Canon Point; After the end of the war with Aizen.
Age; More than 110 years; looks to be somewhere between mid, to late twenties.
House; Heimdall.
Power; Damage Drain.
Personality; Kuchiki Byakuya is a stick in the mud. Well, not really, but mostly everyone who knows him, knows of him or has even just seen him, is very readily convinced that he is a stick in the mud. And to be honest and fair with them, there is some truth to that. As the Head of one of the Four Noble Houses in Seireitei, Byakuya is elite among the elite, and he is and has always been expected to play the part of an irritating snob. And he's damn good at it. He's elegant, he's rich, he's... well, he's not rude, per se, but he's certainly not a friendly, charming guy. He's very self-conscious about his place in the world and what it means to occupy that place in the world - funniest thing in the world, watching this guy react to someone not using the appropriate suffix, you'll swear a vein will burst or something. It doesn't help that the guy has a perfectionist streak wide enough it almost sucks up all traces of a personality. But luckily for him - and several people close to him - there really is more about Byakuya than meets the eye. And though he might be a stick in the mud, sometimes, well, there are times even almighty perfect Kuchiki-taichou isn't perfect.
Byakuya used to be a brat, 110 years before the present storyline in Bleach. He was a loud, pretentious, easily-angered little urchin who just couldn't stop himself when it came to letting people know he wasn't pleased by them. Then again, in the defense of the poor guy, growing up around Yoruichi will do that to you. Woman is amazingly good at everything she does, including giving people ulcers. Not a whole lot is known about Byakuya when he was younger, except the fact his temper was something of a legendary thing - you make Ukitake-taichou call you a brat, you damn well earned being called a brat - but what little you can see in him then, certainly seems to be entirely missing now. Kuchiki Byakuya is the model shinigami, and he knows it, too. He is powerful - despite the pedigree, being able to reach Bankai is not a small feat, even among the Kuchiki family - graceful, conscious of rules and regulations, and just all around a poster for perfection. Which of course means there's something amiss somewhere in there, because really, perfection is boring, and Kuchiki Byakuya is anything but boring.
The truth is that underneath all that, Byakuya is a really passionate guy; he wants things, and half the time he wants things he really can't or shouldn't have. And the crux of his character is his devotion to honor and pride, as well as his surprisingly manipulative antics to get away with both, what he wants, and yet keeping his honor and pride mostly intact. He married Hisana, despite the fact that against pretty much every single rule and regulation in the book, and managed to reach a compromise anyway, with little to no real consequences. [The fact his whole devotion/love/passion for Hisana seems to be one-sided didn't seem to matter to him. At all. Because he could make her happy, somehow, and that was enough for him.] Or well, it would have worked out perfectly, if the whole plot of Aizen's war hadn't pretty much screwed it up. And the only reason it did screw up Byakuya's world upside down was because he'd inadvertently caught himself in two contradictory promises, and he's just too damn honorable to break either of them. He literally didn't know what to do, because he'd never in a million years expected to find his oaths to be contradictory. Ultimately, and with some of the Bleach equivalent of therapy - read: getting your ass handed to you by Ichigo - Byakuya chose to follow his heart and protect his adopted sister, keeping the promise he made to his defunct wife, rather than worrying about rules and regulations. It's not to say, however, that after that mess he's given up on rules and regulations. Oh no, this guy really does love orderly, properly done things; he just learned that sometimes there are a few - emphasis on few, and I'll give you a clue, her name starts with Ru and ends with kia - things that are worth more rules and regulations. He has also learned that it's okay to bend rules and exploit loopholes and technicalities, apparently. ("I was only ordered to bring you back, not to make sure you stay" is a pearl born out of that wisdom.)
Byakuya is very prim and proper, as is expected of him, but he seems to have an obscure, rather deadpan sense of humor - really, it's so deadpan no one can tell if he's joking or not, even after he's stated he's joking. Given that he rarely, and I do mean rarely, shows emotion, it's very hard to guess what he's really feeling. Again, when his adopted sister was slanted to be executed, no one could tell how tormented Byakuya actually felt about the whole thing. Everyone pretty much just assumed he was being his cold-hearted, dastardly self and didn't actually care about her, because that's just the sort of image he has. In reality, there are some rather... well, silly sides to Byakuya's character. I mean, the guy created a puffy weird... thing called Wakame Ambassador and seems really damn proud of it, too. Add to it that he and Rukia seem to share their... uh, artistic perceptions, and no matter how deadpan and unreactive Byakuya tries to appear, you can't deny there's some silliness in the guy. Of course, given the fact he is one of the most powerful people in his world, not only in the kill-you-dead way but in the will-make-you-wish-he-would-just-kill-you-dead way too, it's quite understandable why no one would want to point this out, or really stick around long enough to see it. And then there's the fact that as cool-headed and emotionlessly analytical Byakuya appears, he does tend to favor the overwhelming and the overkill. He is a very skilled tactician and he worries about tiny details with meticulous care, but at the same time it seems he needs to do that just so he won't let himself be governed by impulse.
Though he's not a very popular person in Seireitei - personality-wise, that is; he's pretty nice to look at and everyone knows it - he seems to be in relatively neutral terms with the rest of the Gotei 13. Notable exception being Kenpachi Zaraki, because Kenpachi Zaraki is pretty much everything Byakuya isn't, but they are quite capable of working together. Sometimes. So long as there's something there to kill that isn't each other. In the positive side, Byakuya's most important person is his adoptive sister Rukia, though he's not exactly the most demostrative, doting older brother out there. After all is said and done, he does respect Ichigo and his friends - as well as Renji, his own vice-captain - quite a lot, but it wouldn't do to show it openly, now would it? Byakuya also has a surprisingly soft spot for children - or maybe just Yachiru - despite the fact she makes his life very difficult sometimes, with her antics. Byakuya is known to carry a bun in his sleeves, for the explicit purpose of shutting her up and keep her quiet. He seems aware of her little crush on him, and though he appears irritated by it - and, you know, the fact she's constantly wrecking havoc in his house - he seems reluctant to do anything vaguely permanent. (To her. That poor, poor pool, you shall be remembered.)
In the end, though, the most important part of Byakuya's personality is to be aware that he is what he has made himself to be. Sometimes, what he seems and what he is don't seem to be the same thing. Other times, appearances are really bone-deep truths. He's a strangely flexible character, for all he's focused on his pride and his honor, and keeping up appearances. He has very refined tastes and enjoyments, but he's not exactly above using the route that actually works.
Character Name; Byakuya Kuchiki.
Canon; Bleach.
Canon Point; After the end of the war with Aizen.
Age; More than 110 years; looks to be somewhere between mid, to late twenties.
House; Heimdall.
Power; Damage Drain.
Personality; Kuchiki Byakuya is a stick in the mud. Well, not really, but mostly everyone who knows him, knows of him or has even just seen him, is very readily convinced that he is a stick in the mud. And to be honest and fair with them, there is some truth to that. As the Head of one of the Four Noble Houses in Seireitei, Byakuya is elite among the elite, and he is and has always been expected to play the part of an irritating snob. And he's damn good at it. He's elegant, he's rich, he's... well, he's not rude, per se, but he's certainly not a friendly, charming guy. He's very self-conscious about his place in the world and what it means to occupy that place in the world - funniest thing in the world, watching this guy react to someone not using the appropriate suffix, you'll swear a vein will burst or something. It doesn't help that the guy has a perfectionist streak wide enough it almost sucks up all traces of a personality. But luckily for him - and several people close to him - there really is more about Byakuya than meets the eye. And though he might be a stick in the mud, sometimes, well, there are times even almighty perfect Kuchiki-taichou isn't perfect.
Byakuya used to be a brat, 110 years before the present storyline in Bleach. He was a loud, pretentious, easily-angered little urchin who just couldn't stop himself when it came to letting people know he wasn't pleased by them. Then again, in the defense of the poor guy, growing up around Yoruichi will do that to you. Woman is amazingly good at everything she does, including giving people ulcers. Not a whole lot is known about Byakuya when he was younger, except the fact his temper was something of a legendary thing - you make Ukitake-taichou call you a brat, you damn well earned being called a brat - but what little you can see in him then, certainly seems to be entirely missing now. Kuchiki Byakuya is the model shinigami, and he knows it, too. He is powerful - despite the pedigree, being able to reach Bankai is not a small feat, even among the Kuchiki family - graceful, conscious of rules and regulations, and just all around a poster for perfection. Which of course means there's something amiss somewhere in there, because really, perfection is boring, and Kuchiki Byakuya is anything but boring.
The truth is that underneath all that, Byakuya is a really passionate guy; he wants things, and half the time he wants things he really can't or shouldn't have. And the crux of his character is his devotion to honor and pride, as well as his surprisingly manipulative antics to get away with both, what he wants, and yet keeping his honor and pride mostly intact. He married Hisana, despite the fact that against pretty much every single rule and regulation in the book, and managed to reach a compromise anyway, with little to no real consequences. [The fact his whole devotion/love/passion for Hisana seems to be one-sided didn't seem to matter to him. At all. Because he could make her happy, somehow, and that was enough for him.] Or well, it would have worked out perfectly, if the whole plot of Aizen's war hadn't pretty much screwed it up. And the only reason it did screw up Byakuya's world upside down was because he'd inadvertently caught himself in two contradictory promises, and he's just too damn honorable to break either of them. He literally didn't know what to do, because he'd never in a million years expected to find his oaths to be contradictory. Ultimately, and with some of the Bleach equivalent of therapy - read: getting your ass handed to you by Ichigo - Byakuya chose to follow his heart and protect his adopted sister, keeping the promise he made to his defunct wife, rather than worrying about rules and regulations. It's not to say, however, that after that mess he's given up on rules and regulations. Oh no, this guy really does love orderly, properly done things; he just learned that sometimes there are a few - emphasis on few, and I'll give you a clue, her name starts with Ru and ends with kia - things that are worth more rules and regulations. He has also learned that it's okay to bend rules and exploit loopholes and technicalities, apparently. ("I was only ordered to bring you back, not to make sure you stay" is a pearl born out of that wisdom.)
Byakuya is very prim and proper, as is expected of him, but he seems to have an obscure, rather deadpan sense of humor - really, it's so deadpan no one can tell if he's joking or not, even after he's stated he's joking. Given that he rarely, and I do mean rarely, shows emotion, it's very hard to guess what he's really feeling. Again, when his adopted sister was slanted to be executed, no one could tell how tormented Byakuya actually felt about the whole thing. Everyone pretty much just assumed he was being his cold-hearted, dastardly self and didn't actually care about her, because that's just the sort of image he has. In reality, there are some rather... well, silly sides to Byakuya's character. I mean, the guy created a puffy weird... thing called Wakame Ambassador and seems really damn proud of it, too. Add to it that he and Rukia seem to share their... uh, artistic perceptions, and no matter how deadpan and unreactive Byakuya tries to appear, you can't deny there's some silliness in the guy. Of course, given the fact he is one of the most powerful people in his world, not only in the kill-you-dead way but in the will-make-you-wish-he-would-just-kill-you-dead way too, it's quite understandable why no one would want to point this out, or really stick around long enough to see it. And then there's the fact that as cool-headed and emotionlessly analytical Byakuya appears, he does tend to favor the overwhelming and the overkill. He is a very skilled tactician and he worries about tiny details with meticulous care, but at the same time it seems he needs to do that just so he won't let himself be governed by impulse.
Though he's not a very popular person in Seireitei - personality-wise, that is; he's pretty nice to look at and everyone knows it - he seems to be in relatively neutral terms with the rest of the Gotei 13. Notable exception being Kenpachi Zaraki, because Kenpachi Zaraki is pretty much everything Byakuya isn't, but they are quite capable of working together. Sometimes. So long as there's something there to kill that isn't each other. In the positive side, Byakuya's most important person is his adoptive sister Rukia, though he's not exactly the most demostrative, doting older brother out there. After all is said and done, he does respect Ichigo and his friends - as well as Renji, his own vice-captain - quite a lot, but it wouldn't do to show it openly, now would it? Byakuya also has a surprisingly soft spot for children - or maybe just Yachiru - despite the fact she makes his life very difficult sometimes, with her antics. Byakuya is known to carry a bun in his sleeves, for the explicit purpose of shutting her up and keep her quiet. He seems aware of her little crush on him, and though he appears irritated by it - and, you know, the fact she's constantly wrecking havoc in his house - he seems reluctant to do anything vaguely permanent. (To her. That poor, poor pool, you shall be remembered.)
In the end, though, the most important part of Byakuya's personality is to be aware that he is what he has made himself to be. Sometimes, what he seems and what he is don't seem to be the same thing. Other times, appearances are really bone-deep truths. He's a strangely flexible character, for all he's focused on his pride and his honor, and keeping up appearances. He has very refined tastes and enjoyments, but he's not exactly above using the route that actually works.