RP App
OOC
alias: ceru-chan at ceru_chan
timezone: GMT+8.00 (Same as Taiwan and Hong Kong)
chat: mesmerizedbyceruleaneyes AT gmail DOT com on AIM and for email
character journal: riousgeneration
IC
name: Nakazawa Riou
age: 16
position & team: New catcher, Tousei
koushien dream email: iamthirdbase@koushiendream.net
history:
[Most of this is made up by yours truly, because there is precious little information on Riou anywhere online and I can't seem to find any manga chapters after the Bijou match.]
Nakazawa Riou is a high-school first-year reserve catcher in Tousei, one of the most prominent baseball teams in Oofuri-verse Saitama.
With a half-Japanese, half-European mother and a Japanese-descended Brazilian father, he is just a little more than a quarter Japanese. Fortunately or unfortunately, he inherited most of his parents' non-Asian genes, resulting in copper-colored hair and green eyes. His older brother Roka, on the other hand, got away with the typical Asian black hair and eyes, and was spared the decidedly cool reception Riou received on coming to Japan.
The two brothers were born in Brazil, and their parents, in that inexplicable flight of fancy that even the best of parents must suffer at the sight of their newly-born offspring, decided to name each of them after Brazilian landmarks. 'Riou' was thus a reference to the famous Rio de Janeiro. Sometime in the middle of Riou's grade school years, his dad's company decided to post him to Japan, and he returned with the middle-school Roka in tow. Mom stayed behind to look after Riou until he finished grade school, with the help of her own mother. Since she had to work to supplement the money her husband sent from Japan, Riou was for the most part left in the company of his grandmother, and they developed an unusually close relationship.
Not long before they too were to leave for Japan, his grandmother passed away from old age. The twelve-year-old Riou was devastated. Only when the Christian pastor presiding over the funeral service told him that he could still talk to his grandmother in heaven did he come out of his stunned stupor. From that day onwards, Riou wore his grandmother's old cross pendant on a chain around his own neck and held lengthy conversations with her, usually in the privacy of his room so that Roka wouldn't scoff at him.
On returning to Japan, however, there were more problems waiting for Riou. Following Roka's education pathway, he was enrolled in Tousei's middle school section. By then Roka was making a name for himself in the high school baseball team. Things should have been easy for Riou - should have being the operative phrase. Riou's distinctly foreign hair and eye colors made his classmates avoid him in typically xenophobic Japanese fashion. His odd accent was met with stares and silence. If it hadn't been for baseball, he may not ever have been able to make friends.
But he did have baseball - had been playing it since he was old enough to hold a mitt and a bat back in Brazil - and with baseball came Kazuki and Junta, who probably saved Riou's Japanese school life. Roka had mentioned in passing that his younger brother was joining Tousei, and the pair quickly picked him out of the group for warmups and other mentor-the-newbies type activities for those first few practice sessions. Before long they were meeting for lunch and extra baseball practice after hours. His classmates, especially those in the baseball club, started opening up to him upon seeing these mildly famous sempai being so friendly to the gaijin oddball. By the time Riou started his second year, he was perfectly at home in his new environment. By the time he entered high school, he was a minor celebrity, possibly due to the fact that high-school and third-year middle-school girls were a lot more interested in his foreign appearance than his first-year male classmates had been.
personality:
Riou is bubbly, impulsive, melodramatic, and very often the butt of everyone's jokes. He is endearingly naive and in some cases downright silly, believing that Junta is the best pitcher to ever exist and that his grandmother is really in heaven listening to him rant about his various daily mishaps. He makes it a point to have 'Grandma time' every night, and where everyone prays to God, Riou prays to Grandma in the belief that she can argue his case much more convincingly than he can before the Almighty. Face to face interaction being more persuasive and all that kind of thing.
Anyone eavesdropping outside Riou's bedroom while he's having 'Grandma time' is sure to hear plenty of juicy blackmail-worthy information because Riou tells Grandma everything, read everything. Including which porn actress he's been jerking off to lately and how Tajima's been teaching him new techniques. And then he asks Grandma if it's really appropriate to need to be taught in such things. Poor Grandma. How should she know? She doesn't have a dick. Imagine her struggling to explain her grandson's situation to the Almighty.
Outside of baseball (yes there is an outside-of-baseball for Riou!), he keeps an eye on J-pop artists, particularly the visual-kei bands. He likes how they have outlandish colors and styles of both hair and clothes and yet are popular. This is presumably a relic of his friendless days when he was ostracized for having naturally colored hair and eyes.
RIou can be rather immature at times, but his usual bouncy and cutely cheerful character makes up for these detriments. Out of the shadow of Roka, he is outgoing and has a strong I-can-take-on-the-World confidence in himself. He is sometimes exaggeratedly emotional (particularly when it comes to Grandma) but those who know him well usually just brush it off or endure it as entertaining melodrama.
Apart from that, Riou has an extremely strained relationship with his brother. It doesn't help that Roka calls him Loser and insults him on a periodic basis. He knows that Roka thinks very little of him, but Riou remains in awe of him because Roka is older than him by several years and is thus somehow accorded the respect normally due to a parent or teacher. Not to mention that Roka's regular insults and arrogant air impress a kind of servility, almost a Roka-specific inferiority complex (quite different from Mihashi's non-specific inferiority complex) on Riou whenever they meet. He pretty much gets knocked around by Roka and so far has made no move to fight back. Roka's departure for Bijou was a relief for Riou, as Roka stayed in Bijou's boarding school and Riou didn't have to endure the derogatory after-dinner comments on his latest inadequacies.
Riou has a grudge against Haruna because Roka recruited him for Bijou instead of him, his own brother. However, he has never personally met Haruna, and only hates him on principle as a result of wounded pride. Partly his own, for obvious reasons, but partly on Roka's part too because despite the bad blood between them, Riou still thinks Roka is an amazing baseball player as well as coach and getting turned down by Haruna was an insult to Roka and, by extension, Riou.
The baseball coach apparently uses Riou as his proxy, making Riou give signals instead of giving them himself. Why he does this is anyone's guess. He could just be lazy. Or Riou's just unlucky. Something about him invites teasing, sort of like how Mihashi indadvertedly invites getting noogied by Abe. Perhaps due to incessant training through living with Roka, Riou habitually just takes whatever is thrown at him (no pun intended) with a long-suffering air, which is highly amusing for sadists like Junta.
strengths & weaknesses:
[All non-baseball, because I've never seen him play.]
Strengths: Taller than almost everyone despite being a first-year (one of the benefits of being part-Brazilian) and also cute by anyone's (except Roka's) standards. He also speaks fluent Portuguese. Sad that its pretty much useless in Japan. As a result, he is popular with girls although he's only a reserve player. His bouncy, extroverted character is also a plus point.
Weaknesses: Is a sitting duck for sadistic opportunists like Roka and Junta due to his resemblance to an eager-to-please Golden Retriever pup. Also has a tendency towards hero-worship, Tajima being one example. Tends to speak or act before thinking through it completely, and occasionally acts distinctly childishly (like if someone praises Haruna in his hearing). As said earlier, he has a Roka-complex. He's an average student, unlike his two top-ten-of-the-cohort best friends, and generally believes the best of people, much like the aforementioned puppy.
Strength/Weakness: Despite voicing his fair share of complaints, Riou will still do whatever task it is that has been forced on him, even if it is something he dislikes. His resignation to Fate's decrees is a martyr-like strength, although it makes sadistic opportunists like Junta want to tease him more. For instance, Riou manages to endure Roka's abuse and probably has done so for several years, in itself a superhuman feat.
SAMPLES
-first person-
[first online post]
Yo! You're reading Nakazawa Riou's journal! I'm Tousei's new catcher. Come join us, we have brownies and Jun-san whose awesomeness is rivaled only by Tajima!
Tajima from Nishiura is beyond amazing! He managed to hit Jun-san's sinker! That's like, the ultimate proof of awesomeness. Only a superhuman could hit Jun-san's sinker. Because Jun-san is the best pitcher ever no matter what Nii-chan says about Haruna. And I get to be his catcher because I begged Coach and put up with slaving for him for three months and trained with Jun-san and Kazu-san till we couldn't see straight. Too bad Kazu-san is leaving baseball already. Entrance exams are such a bummer.
Kazu-san and Jun-san are my best buds. My older brother Roka is scary. Stay away from him. Unless of course you are Haruna, in which case please join him in Bijou, because Nii-chan is scary but he's also a scarily good coach. Scary more than good, though. Yup. Mmhm. Try not to get onto his bad side. Unfortunately for me I was apparently born on his bad side. My life sucks like that.
Erh... I'm joining this, this baseball social networking site (really, WTH?! I had no idea these people had the time for social networks!) because Tajima insisted that it'd be really fun and not get in the way of baseball at all. Honestly I'm surprised that he even has the time to participate in this, since he seemed to be the Kazu-san and Jun-san type who eats, sleeps, and plays baseball. Well, Tajima also finds the time to masturbate... Kazu-san would probably nag me about this if he knew. Maybe I'll persuade Jun-san to join, and then get Jun-san to persuade Kazu-san to join. Then nobody gets nagged. Hmm. Jun-san might agree to join if I said there were funny pictures and videos of that Nishiura pitcher available here. I'll go ask Tajima for some.
Seeya around! And if you're Tajima, lemme know if you have those pictures.
-third person-
[A censored excerpt from my Kazu/Jun/Riou angstfic Wordless which can be read here. I don't think Riou will have much chance to angst in the RP, but this does show the adorably clumsy and confused and somewhat less adorably selfish aspects that are so much a part of him.]
The pitcher catches his eye and tilts his head slightly. Riou nods at once, resisting the urge to bounce around the clubroom in a victory dance. They leave together, heading for the dormitories.
“Today’s practice was good,” comments Riou, trying for casual conversation. “Ne, Jun-san?”
“Mm. You finally managed to catch my forkball.” Junta smiles. “On the twentieth attempt today, I think.”
Encouraged, Riou pouts. “It’s only been three weeks since I started really catching for you! I bet -“ He stops short, shocked at the near miss. I bet Kazu-san wasn’t much better. “I bet I could catch your sinker by next week!” he rushes to cover up his error.
“Oh? I look forward to it.” The older boy doesn’t seem to have noticed; the small smile still touches his lips and his face is relaxed. “Did you see Coach rip apart Aoki for talking to his girlfriend during practice?”
“Yeah!” Riou jumps onto the chance to change the subject. “I thought Coach would lose his voice, yelling like that. Or end up in hospital.”
“It’s not good to be distracted,” says Junta fairly. Junta is always the reasonable and logical one. Or, more accurately, Junta is the reasonable and logical one as long as they are doing nothing inappropriate.
Riou decides that it probably isn’t the best idea to think of such things when they’re having a nice, safe, normal conversation. A conversation that might have taken place whether Kazuki was with them or not. A conversation between good friends and nothing more.
alias: ceru-chan at ceru_chan
timezone: GMT+8.00 (Same as Taiwan and Hong Kong)
chat: mesmerizedbyceruleaneyes AT gmail DOT com on AIM and for email
character journal: riousgeneration
IC
name: Nakazawa Riou
age: 16
position & team: New catcher, Tousei
koushien dream email: iamthirdbase@koushiendream.net
history:
[Most of this is made up by yours truly, because there is precious little information on Riou anywhere online and I can't seem to find any manga chapters after the Bijou match.]
Nakazawa Riou is a high-school first-year reserve catcher in Tousei, one of the most prominent baseball teams in Oofuri-verse Saitama.
With a half-Japanese, half-European mother and a Japanese-descended Brazilian father, he is just a little more than a quarter Japanese. Fortunately or unfortunately, he inherited most of his parents' non-Asian genes, resulting in copper-colored hair and green eyes. His older brother Roka, on the other hand, got away with the typical Asian black hair and eyes, and was spared the decidedly cool reception Riou received on coming to Japan.
The two brothers were born in Brazil, and their parents, in that inexplicable flight of fancy that even the best of parents must suffer at the sight of their newly-born offspring, decided to name each of them after Brazilian landmarks. 'Riou' was thus a reference to the famous Rio de Janeiro. Sometime in the middle of Riou's grade school years, his dad's company decided to post him to Japan, and he returned with the middle-school Roka in tow. Mom stayed behind to look after Riou until he finished grade school, with the help of her own mother. Since she had to work to supplement the money her husband sent from Japan, Riou was for the most part left in the company of his grandmother, and they developed an unusually close relationship.
Not long before they too were to leave for Japan, his grandmother passed away from old age. The twelve-year-old Riou was devastated. Only when the Christian pastor presiding over the funeral service told him that he could still talk to his grandmother in heaven did he come out of his stunned stupor. From that day onwards, Riou wore his grandmother's old cross pendant on a chain around his own neck and held lengthy conversations with her, usually in the privacy of his room so that Roka wouldn't scoff at him.
On returning to Japan, however, there were more problems waiting for Riou. Following Roka's education pathway, he was enrolled in Tousei's middle school section. By then Roka was making a name for himself in the high school baseball team. Things should have been easy for Riou - should have being the operative phrase. Riou's distinctly foreign hair and eye colors made his classmates avoid him in typically xenophobic Japanese fashion. His odd accent was met with stares and silence. If it hadn't been for baseball, he may not ever have been able to make friends.
But he did have baseball - had been playing it since he was old enough to hold a mitt and a bat back in Brazil - and with baseball came Kazuki and Junta, who probably saved Riou's Japanese school life. Roka had mentioned in passing that his younger brother was joining Tousei, and the pair quickly picked him out of the group for warmups and other mentor-the-newbies type activities for those first few practice sessions. Before long they were meeting for lunch and extra baseball practice after hours. His classmates, especially those in the baseball club, started opening up to him upon seeing these mildly famous sempai being so friendly to the gaijin oddball. By the time Riou started his second year, he was perfectly at home in his new environment. By the time he entered high school, he was a minor celebrity, possibly due to the fact that high-school and third-year middle-school girls were a lot more interested in his foreign appearance than his first-year male classmates had been.
personality:
Riou is bubbly, impulsive, melodramatic, and very often the butt of everyone's jokes. He is endearingly naive and in some cases downright silly, believing that Junta is the best pitcher to ever exist and that his grandmother is really in heaven listening to him rant about his various daily mishaps. He makes it a point to have 'Grandma time' every night, and where everyone prays to God, Riou prays to Grandma in the belief that she can argue his case much more convincingly than he can before the Almighty. Face to face interaction being more persuasive and all that kind of thing.
Anyone eavesdropping outside Riou's bedroom while he's having 'Grandma time' is sure to hear plenty of juicy blackmail-worthy information because Riou tells Grandma everything, read everything. Including which porn actress he's been jerking off to lately and how Tajima's been teaching him new techniques. And then he asks Grandma if it's really appropriate to need to be taught in such things. Poor Grandma. How should she know? She doesn't have a dick. Imagine her struggling to explain her grandson's situation to the Almighty.
Outside of baseball (yes there is an outside-of-baseball for Riou!), he keeps an eye on J-pop artists, particularly the visual-kei bands. He likes how they have outlandish colors and styles of both hair and clothes and yet are popular. This is presumably a relic of his friendless days when he was ostracized for having naturally colored hair and eyes.
RIou can be rather immature at times, but his usual bouncy and cutely cheerful character makes up for these detriments. Out of the shadow of Roka, he is outgoing and has a strong I-can-take-on-the-World confidence in himself. He is sometimes exaggeratedly emotional (particularly when it comes to Grandma) but those who know him well usually just brush it off or endure it as entertaining melodrama.
Apart from that, Riou has an extremely strained relationship with his brother. It doesn't help that Roka calls him Loser and insults him on a periodic basis. He knows that Roka thinks very little of him, but Riou remains in awe of him because Roka is older than him by several years and is thus somehow accorded the respect normally due to a parent or teacher. Not to mention that Roka's regular insults and arrogant air impress a kind of servility, almost a Roka-specific inferiority complex (quite different from Mihashi's non-specific inferiority complex) on Riou whenever they meet. He pretty much gets knocked around by Roka and so far has made no move to fight back. Roka's departure for Bijou was a relief for Riou, as Roka stayed in Bijou's boarding school and Riou didn't have to endure the derogatory after-dinner comments on his latest inadequacies.
Riou has a grudge against Haruna because Roka recruited him for Bijou instead of him, his own brother. However, he has never personally met Haruna, and only hates him on principle as a result of wounded pride. Partly his own, for obvious reasons, but partly on Roka's part too because despite the bad blood between them, Riou still thinks Roka is an amazing baseball player as well as coach and getting turned down by Haruna was an insult to Roka and, by extension, Riou.
The baseball coach apparently uses Riou as his proxy, making Riou give signals instead of giving them himself. Why he does this is anyone's guess. He could just be lazy. Or Riou's just unlucky. Something about him invites teasing, sort of like how Mihashi indadvertedly invites getting noogied by Abe. Perhaps due to incessant training through living with Roka, Riou habitually just takes whatever is thrown at him (no pun intended) with a long-suffering air, which is highly amusing for sadists like Junta.
strengths & weaknesses:
[All non-baseball, because I've never seen him play.]
Strengths: Taller than almost everyone despite being a first-year (one of the benefits of being part-Brazilian) and also cute by anyone's (except Roka's) standards. He also speaks fluent Portuguese. Sad that its pretty much useless in Japan. As a result, he is popular with girls although he's only a reserve player. His bouncy, extroverted character is also a plus point.
Weaknesses: Is a sitting duck for sadistic opportunists like Roka and Junta due to his resemblance to an eager-to-please Golden Retriever pup. Also has a tendency towards hero-worship, Tajima being one example. Tends to speak or act before thinking through it completely, and occasionally acts distinctly childishly (like if someone praises Haruna in his hearing). As said earlier, he has a Roka-complex. He's an average student, unlike his two top-ten-of-the-cohort best friends, and generally believes the best of people, much like the aforementioned puppy.
Strength/Weakness: Despite voicing his fair share of complaints, Riou will still do whatever task it is that has been forced on him, even if it is something he dislikes. His resignation to Fate's decrees is a martyr-like strength, although it makes sadistic opportunists like Junta want to tease him more. For instance, Riou manages to endure Roka's abuse and probably has done so for several years, in itself a superhuman feat.
SAMPLES
-first person-
[first online post]
Yo! You're reading Nakazawa Riou's journal! I'm Tousei's new catcher. Come join us, we have brownies and Jun-san whose awesomeness is rivaled only by Tajima!
Tajima from Nishiura is beyond amazing! He managed to hit Jun-san's sinker! That's like, the ultimate proof of awesomeness. Only a superhuman could hit Jun-san's sinker. Because Jun-san is the best pitcher ever no matter what Nii-chan says about Haruna. And I get to be his catcher because I begged Coach and put up with slaving for him for three months and trained with Jun-san and Kazu-san till we couldn't see straight. Too bad Kazu-san is leaving baseball already. Entrance exams are such a bummer.
Kazu-san and Jun-san are my best buds. My older brother Roka is scary. Stay away from him. Unless of course you are Haruna, in which case please join him in Bijou, because Nii-chan is scary but he's also a scarily good coach. Scary more than good, though. Yup. Mmhm. Try not to get onto his bad side. Unfortunately for me I was apparently born on his bad side. My life sucks like that.
Erh... I'm joining this, this baseball social networking site (really, WTH?! I had no idea these people had the time for social networks!) because Tajima insisted that it'd be really fun and not get in the way of baseball at all. Honestly I'm surprised that he even has the time to participate in this, since he seemed to be the Kazu-san and Jun-san type who eats, sleeps, and plays baseball. Well, Tajima also finds the time to masturbate... Kazu-san would probably nag me about this if he knew. Maybe I'll persuade Jun-san to join, and then get Jun-san to persuade Kazu-san to join. Then nobody gets nagged. Hmm. Jun-san might agree to join if I said there were funny pictures and videos of that Nishiura pitcher available here. I'll go ask Tajima for some.
Seeya around! And if you're Tajima, lemme know if you have those pictures.
-third person-
[A censored excerpt from my Kazu/Jun/Riou angstfic Wordless which can be read here. I don't think Riou will have much chance to angst in the RP, but this does show the adorably clumsy and confused and somewhat less adorably selfish aspects that are so much a part of him.]
The pitcher catches his eye and tilts his head slightly. Riou nods at once, resisting the urge to bounce around the clubroom in a victory dance. They leave together, heading for the dormitories.
“Today’s practice was good,” comments Riou, trying for casual conversation. “Ne, Jun-san?”
“Mm. You finally managed to catch my forkball.” Junta smiles. “On the twentieth attempt today, I think.”
Encouraged, Riou pouts. “It’s only been three weeks since I started really catching for you! I bet -“ He stops short, shocked at the near miss. I bet Kazu-san wasn’t much better. “I bet I could catch your sinker by next week!” he rushes to cover up his error.
“Oh? I look forward to it.” The older boy doesn’t seem to have noticed; the small smile still touches his lips and his face is relaxed. “Did you see Coach rip apart Aoki for talking to his girlfriend during practice?”
“Yeah!” Riou jumps onto the chance to change the subject. “I thought Coach would lose his voice, yelling like that. Or end up in hospital.”
“It’s not good to be distracted,” says Junta fairly. Junta is always the reasonable and logical one. Or, more accurately, Junta is the reasonable and logical one as long as they are doing nothing inappropriate.
Riou decides that it probably isn’t the best idea to think of such things when they’re having a nice, safe, normal conversation. A conversation that might have taken place whether Kazuki was with them or not. A conversation between good friends and nothing more.