application for gargleblasted
OOC:
Name: Caten
Are you over 16: oh yes
Personal LJ: forourlives
Email: catenalwera[at]gmail[dot]com
Timezone: GMT+1
Other contact: AIM: ornicocastle
Characters already in the game: Sophie Hatter
How did you find us?: Look, if it wasn't for me, there'd be no you.
IC:
Character name: Sha Gojyo
Fandom: Saiyuki
Timeline: After the reload manga.
Age: 23
~*Magical*~ abilites and strengths: Gojyo is half-youkai, meaning he is physically stronger than most humans (and, as it happens, most youkai as well). He can summon a shakujo, a long staff with a half-moon blade attached via a chain at the end. The chain extends as far as he wants it to, and he controls the blade with his mind, using it to slice up his enemies from all directions. It's a messy weapon.
How would they use their abilities?: Generally he uses them to defend himself, and in that case he might kill if he decides it's necessary. If you don't attach him though, it's unlikely you'll ever get more than a punch in the face, and that's if you piss him off. So, he won't use them much at all.
Appearance: Gojyo is tall, at about 6', and comes off as fairly skinny, though he's in fact incredibly fit. He has blood red hair and eyes, and two scars down his left cheek, and he's hardly ever seen without a cigarette in his mouth. His clothes are simple, but most likely chosen because they make him look sexy (his clothes in the first manga aside). He'll wear leather pants and a plain brown jacket, and if it's warm enough, he won't even bother with a shirt.
Background/Personality: Gojyo is born from a human mother and a youkai father, making him a half-breed or a child of taboo. We've never been given the full details of what happened to his family, although we do know that his parents killed themselves when Gojyo was three. He somehow survived, and after that Gojyo was sent to live with his father's legal wife -- a full-blood youkai.
She, of course, wasn't too happy with the situation. She despised Gojyo. He looked like her husband, but she could still see traces of the human he'd left her for in Gojyo's face. Gojyo was always desperately seeking her love, and would even bring her flowers, while she would beat Gojyo over the head, pull at his hair and call him names ("Such an ugly shade of red! Red, like that woman's blood!").
Gojyo had an older half-brother named Jien who protected him against the worst of his step-mother's anger. He loved his little brother, but he also loved his mom. He took the place of his father, often sleeping with his mom to get her to lay off Gojyo for a bit. As this was the only kind of love Gojyo could recognise, we can assume he was jealous as he listened to the moans of his step-mom during the night.
It was inevitable that his step-mom would eventually have enough. She'd lost her mind, and in a fit of anger she cut Gojyo's cheek and lifted an axe to kill him. He was prepared to let her, anything to make her stop crying (she always cried when she looked at him, and he felt bad, because it was his fault), but apparently Jien didn't agree. He killed his mother and then disappeared, horrified by what he'd done.
Gojyo was just a child, but having no one else he spent the next few years alone, stealing and gambling to survive, or seducing women so he could stay with them for a few days. He made a few not-so-good friends, and didn't care much about anything. He didn't expect anything either, not from anyone else, and not from himself. He hated the way he looked, his hair and eyes reminding him of what he was; a half-breed, bad luck. He couldn't kill himself, but he didn't have much of a reason to live, either. This though, changed one day, after someone made a comment on his hair and Gojyo decided to leave the pub early. Walking home in the rain, he found a man lying on the ground, covered in blood, his guts trailing behind him. Surprisingly, he was alive, and Gojyo decided to bring him home and nurse him back to health. Apparently he'd looked like he wanted to die, and Gojyo was too much of an ass to let him.
The man was Cho Gonou. He later changed his name to Cho Hakkai, and moved in with Gojyo because the half-breed couldn't even remember when trash day was, and it worried him. He proved, by saving Gojyo's life after Gojyo had pretty much told him to fuck off, that he could actually expect something from him and rely on him when he needed to, and he became Gojyo's best friend. At the same time he also met Sanzo and Goku, and they became, if not friends, still someone he'd consider family, dysfunctional though their group may be.
Three years later a minus wave started spreading across Shangri-La, the result of a forbidden experiment utilising a combination of human and youkai magic. This wave was affecting the land, making farmland and fields turn into desert, but it was also causing youkai to go berserk. They no longer saw humans as their equals, but as a potential afternoon snack instead, and only those with an exceptionally strong will or who weren't pure youkai, like Gojyo, Hakkai and Goku, were unaffected.
Sanzo, being a high-ranking monk, was given the order by the Three Aspects of Buddha to travel west and stop the experiments. They also told him to bring Gojyo, Hakkai and Goku along. This may or may not have been a very bad decision.
Events throughout the manga can be difficult to summarise, as they include several minor events all tied up into larger arcs that can go on for volumes. However, a few points are worth mentioning:
As the journey begins, youkai they run into keep mentioning a Prince Kougaiji, who they remember is the son of Gyomaoh, the youkai being revived in the forbidden experiment. It's not long before they run into him, as well as his companions. One of these, however, turn out to be none other than Sha Jien, Gojyo's long lost brother. He has now changed his name to Dokugakuji and is working under Kougaiji; meaning he and Gojyo are now enemies. It takes them half a moment to get over the shock of seeing each other again after ten years, and then the brotherly bickering begins. However, they both agree on one thing: They've decided how they're going to live their lives now, and being brothers doesn't change that. Dokugakuji has sworn loyalty to Kougaiji, and Gojyo is siding with Sanzo, and they will kill each other if they have to. They then pretend to fight, very unconvincingly; but then the two groups have a lot of respect for each other and never really get any better at being enemies after that.
A little over a year after the journey begins, another character makes an appearance. Hazel, from the new continent in the west, shows up with his trusty companion Gat. Hazel is a priest with the power to revive the dead, and he is on a mission to kill all youkai. Where he is from, they are simply known as monsters, and Hazel holds a grudge against them. Any human he revives also seems to be unable to forgive youkai, and act like zombies whenever one is around, attacking with a sudden super-human strength.
Hazel has the ability to get on all of their nerves, and maybe especially Gojyo. He also forces them to take a look at their own hypocricy: They get immediately angry when they realise that he is reviving people, feeling it goes against ethics, but if given the option, wouldn't they have chosen to revive a loved one, too?
Hazel is also well-aware that Gojyo, Hakkai and Goku are youkai, and for that reason is incredibly rude to them, while trying to convince Sanzo to join his cause. Things get worse though, when someone informs him that Goku is 'Seiten Taisei' - Neither youkai nor god, he is the great sage equalling heaven. He is the epotome of chaos, despite that, with the limiter he wears on his forehead, he is nothing but an adorable (if somewhat obnoxious), fight-loving, bottomless pit of a kid. Hazel becomes determined to see what he is for himself, and to kill him.
He gets his chance when his hidden informer attacks from the shadows, nearly killing Goku. Sanzo storms off to destroy whoever this person is (he thinks he recognises the presence - or rather, the lack of a presence - this person gives off). Gojyo and Hakkai come out and find Goku on the ground, bleeding to death, and their attempts at healing him and bandaging his wounds do nothing. As a desperate last-resort they remove his limiter, hoping the Seiten Taisei will be able to deal with the injuries better than Goku.
It works a little too well. The Seiten Taisei is born from the earth itself, and as such can draw energy directly from it. He is healed in seconds, and then goes into a berserker rage, attacking anyone who happens to be closest. And without Sanzo around, stopping him won't be easy.
In the end that falls to Hakkai, who removes his own limiters, telling Gojyo that he wants him to be the one to stop him if he minus wave makes him go insane. And Gojyo is forced to watch as Goku and Hakkai nearly kill each other, helpless to do anything. Sanzo returns just as Hakkai finally manages to get the limiter back on the boy. Gojyo is understandably pissed at Sanzo, and tells him to fuck off, carrying Goku and Hakkai on his own back to the inn. And Sanzo does; he leaves with Hazel to hunt down the person who dared attack Goku.
It's a while later before they have their reuinion: Sanzo is being utterly destroyed by another Sanzo, one named Ukoku. He has the power to erase someone's entire existence, and make it so they never lived, and is in the process of doing so when Goku, Gojyo and Hakkai pull him out. The following fight is one they barely survive, but they do, and make it out of there bloody and beat up, but still joking and always moving forwards.
Gojyo already spent some time at the S.S. Thor as well. What affected him the most there were the people, more than any events, as he's used to dealing with ups and downs and generally just shrugs them off. But the people he met there, for some reason, stuck around, and while he's slightly more used to that since meeting Hakkai, Sanzo and Goku, it was still an adjustment for him - if not one he let on to most people.
When he first arrived he was alone, and spent his time getting drunk, often in the company of a certain demon. This was, of course, just fun for the both of them, and didn't mean much. But then Hakkai showed up, Gojyo stopped getting wasted every night, and the demon stuck around. He also met Maka, a girl who seemed to strongly dislike, if not hate, people like Gojyo, yet treated him like an older brother. For the most part this made him uncomfortable - a responsibility he didn't feel up to at all - but as he's protective of kids to begin with (and she is one, no matter what she says), that didn't stop him from helping out when he could. He did attempt to pull back, but found that she sought him out. And another kid was Ritsuka, one he didn't talk to too often, but who reminded him so much of himself.
More importantly, maybe, were Zexion and Genkaku. Zexion reminded him of Hakkai, a little, with how proper and intelligent and fake he was, but Zexion put up with him, and a sort of... comfortableness developed. They weren't friends, because they couldn't be, with Zexion's lack of heart, but Zexion still seemed to enjoy keeping him around. And that was an ego boost, for someone who considers himself to be mostly stupid. Zexion, on occasion, told him that he wasn't - and those were the times he seemed to mean it, not the times he said that he was. And Genkaku - he reminded him of an old friend, one who left him to die. And that brought back bad habits, but Genkaku was one of few on the ship who saw a part of Gojyo that he tends to identiy himself by more than he should. He's half youkai, and he's taboo, and Genkaku liked that, encouraged that. Gojyo knew he was bad company, and yet somehow he felt more good about himself because of it.
These relationships and more developed and lasted, and Gojyo somehow got comfortable on the ship. Of course, the fact that he and Hakkai developed their relationship further and started having sex, that helped, too. Hakkai is the one who means the most to him, and proves again and again that he'll accept all parts of him, no matter how much of a screw up he can be. He trusted him entirely in canon, but Hakkai doesn't seem to be satisfied until he's helped with all his insecurities, and this was another one.
Of course, before he left Gojyo proved that he's still as much of a screw up as ever. He cheated on Hakkai, with one of the more recently arrived women, and probably couldn't explain why, aside from the fact that she's hot. Then Genkaku proved how much Gojyo really can't trust him. He drugged him, making Gojyo attack several people across the ship, including Genkaku, who he hospitalised. He was eventually stopped, the drugs wore off, and he was tossed in a cell, but disappeared before it was time to realise him.
So, to summarise:
The first impression you get of Gojyo is that he's a shameless flirt. He'll hit on anything with tits, assuming they've been through puberty, and might hit on some men as well. Sex was, for a long time, his only way of getting through the night.
His other coping mechanisms include smokes, beer and gambling, as well as getting into fights. He's also incredibly lazy, swears a lot; Sometimes it seems like he's got a list of all the sins and is checking them off one by one.
That's only on the surface, though. Most of the time, he gets into fights because of either sad women or helpless children, as he has a weakness for both. He has an incredibly soft heart, though he tries to hide it, and is the first of his group to help strangers. He also tends to act like a big brother towards kids, and has a talent for cheering people up.
While he'll often brag about how hot he is, and has a seemingly endless amount of confidence, he can be incredibly insecure at times. He knows he's not as strong as the others, rarely feels as useful; and as he's spent most of his life on the street, has never gone to school, so he doesn't come off as particularly intelligent. Plus, he's a half-breed -- half youkai, half human. This is taboo in his world, and the sign of a half-breed is the blood-red hair and eyes that he can't hide. His step-mom hated him for it, and he hates it, too, to the point where he might suddenly end a conversation and leave if someone brings it up.
He's not as insecure about it as he used to be, but it's not something he can forget, either.
Generally though, Gojyo is friendly and outgoing. He might come off as a bit crass as first, but once you get past that, he's a fun guy to hang out with. He's always got some sort of joke ready, and likes making people laugh, even if he'll never admit it. He also enjoys teasing, and the more he likes you, the worse the teasing will get. Said teasing can and will include one-liners, bad jokes, leering, and nicknames that make you want to hit him over the head with a dictionary. If he doesn't like you though, he'll outright insult you or try to ignore you if he doesn't want to deal with it (of course, he's not always very good at that).
Why should that character be in this game: B|
Why do you want to continue their history here: Because he's from here, and he has too much unfinished business not to return. He needs to sort things out with Hakkai and Genkaku and Ritsuka, and then he needs to get drunk a few more times, and continue being the idiot that he is. And I miss playing him here okay.
For applicants considering an alternate version of a character already in game, please use this as your chance to explain the key differences between your character and the one already in play: B|
Have you read up on how the game works?: I wrote the damn rules, c'mon. B|
Flaming Ferret, poker, thieving, accidentally signing up for jobs.
1st person sample: So apparently we're in space. In fucking space.
What the hell did I have to drink last night, 'cause last I checked, that was something that only ever happened in one of Hakkai's boring books.
'sokay, though, I s'pose, 'cause while I'm waiting for this hallucination-thing to pass, this place's got some really great booze. Has anyone tried it? People here kept trying to force towels on me, but I've got some fucking priorities. And the only way to cope with a creepy situation like this is to get drunk out of your mind.
Uh. Hakkai? You around? Think this is that Ukoku guy's fault? How did we break out of illu--
...
That woman is only wearing a towel. Screw saving the world. I like this illusion.
3rd person sample: Gojyo was only on his third beer of the evening.
Sure, he'd several throughout the day as well, but it didn't really count until he was in a pub, with cards in his hands and a woman practically in his lap. And anyway, he wouldn't get drunk for a few hours yet at this rate. It was kinda nice, actually, a bit relaxed. The place reeked of cigarette smoke (just the way he preferred it), the ladies were barely dressed (not the way he preferred them, but that could come later), and the other assholes still thought they could win.
Idiots. They never gave up, even after they'd lost nearly all of their money, as well as their pants and socks. Their luck had to change eventually, right? Unless someone was cheating, it couldn't go on like this all night.
It was perfect in every way. A brilliant night out, with a potentially just as brilliant ending. And it really was amazing beer. He hadn't had beer this good for years. He should be happy right now. Especially consider how long it had been since the last town.
It was just. Well.
"Ah, I'm sorry. I seem to have a straight flush."
Gojyo glared and kicked Hakkai hard under the table. Couldn't the asshole lose a hand at least once?!
Questions?:
Did you put your characters name and fandom in the subject: Yes.