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OOC:
Name: Haru
Are you over 16?: Anpan
Personal LJ: sohma
Email: sohma[at]livejournal[dot]com
Timezone: EST
Other contact: [aim] HARUgoesBLACK
Characters already in the game: thesubsequent and placid
How did you find us?: Anpan
IC:
Character name: Sagaru Yamazaki
Fandom: Gintama
Timeline: Episode 105
Age: 19 (not specified in canon so I’m going with this!)
~*Magical*~ abilities and strengths: He’s excellent at getting beat up.
… His real strength lies in playing badminton, probably, because he is kind of too obsessed with playing it.
Being that he is a member of the shinsengumi where you have to have skills in fighting (with and without weapons), he can fight when it’s necessary. He’s also a ninja? Really, he’s a spy, with a specialty in naturally gathering intelligence, meaning he goes undercover to do other “jobs” and things necessary in order to collect data on a person/group of suspicious people.
How would they use their abilities?: Playing badminton whenever he gets the chance. Also, regardless of whether or not we ever get other members of the shinsengumi, he’ll probably still use his spying skills whenever he feels the need to. And of course he’d use his fighting skills to defend himself when necessary.
Appearance: He’s about 5’ 6” and 127 lbs. Small but he’s built, what with being active and having to exercise and train all the time as a member of the shinsengumi (and playing badminton forever). He’s got sorta kinda longish black hair, brown eyes and in canon is mostly seen in his shinsengumi uniform. He’s also seen often randomly carrying around a badminton racquet or getting his ass kicked by someone or something. That totally goes with appearance don’t even deny it.
Background/Personality: Gintama is a series based in Edo, Japan. It was conquered by aliens known as the “Amanto.” Samurai fought the aliens, however, after defeating them, there was a ban on carrying swords in public. Gintoki, who is a samurai, helps Shinpachi save his sister from a group of aliens. After saving his sister, Shinpachi decides to work with Gintoki as a freelancer to help him. They then rescue Kagura, an alien, from a group of Yakuza who wanted to use her to kill people because of her abnormal super strength. She then joins the two as a fellow freelancer and they become known as “Yorozuya,” which means Jack of all trades, since their jobs as freelancers is to do any “odd” job that a client wants to hire them for. Every so often they come across the police force, known as the shinsengumi, while doing freelance work. The shinsengumi end up working with the Yorozuya at times, since they always seem to be sent to take care of something that involves dangerous criminals. The series also include a lot of breaking the fourth wall.
Yamazaki, being a minor character, doesn’t have much of a background... Yet? Gintama is a very long and ongoing series so who knows if this will change. Anyway! Yamazaki is a member of the shinsengumi. During training with the shinsengumi, he has been caught playing badminton instead. The vice commander of the shinsengumi, Hijikata, beats him up, as he tends to do when catching Yamazaki playing badminton during work. This is pretty much a daily thing for Yamazaki: Getting beaten up by Hijikata. It’s not just Hijikata, either. He seems to have bad luck, because he also gets beaten up by other people, or objects coming at him. An example is once while he was playing a game of badminton, and other people’s racquets and birdies came flying and hit him in the face.
Specifically, Yamazaki is a spy for the shinsengumi. Sometimes his job is to make sure the coast is clear for the shinsengumi to make their entrance. Other times, his job is to go around to suspicious areas, or groups of suspicious people, to gather information and go “undercover.” He does things such as disguising himself to fit into the group of people (for example, if they wear a particular type of clothing, he will dress accordingly) so that he can have a closer look at what they are doing. One time in particular was when he was going to spy on Katsura Kotaru. Katsura is a terrorist who resists the Amanto, and has created a group of followers known as the Jouishishi faction. Yamazaki had an interview with Katsura in order to become a member of the faction. Little did he know that he’d have to apply and take a class test in order to do so, meaning he was bound to fail considering he wasn’t at all prepared. In the end, however, he lucked out and passed (by drawing a little doodle since he had given up, no less), and was able to go for a more physical part of the test, which required experiencing what it’s like being a member of the faction. At the beginning of that final test, he thought he was failing, simply because Katsura’s ideas of how and where to hide, and which items were best to use for an escape were very strange (not that the first part of the test wasn’t strange, but yes). But in the end, Yamazaki proved to have enough fighting skills and “common sense” to pass... only to drop his police badge in front of everyone, which is basically an automatic mission failure on his part. Most of his missions tend to be a failure.
Yamazaki also spies on other members of the shinsengumi and reports to Hijikata. How dare people keep secrets from one another?! Sometimes, however, he only catches pieces of the conversations, and therefore sounds crazy or perverted when telling Hijikata the things he’s heard (“He said he did some of this, and that, and his bled from his ass.” Something to that effect). On the other hand, sometimes he’ll skip out on work and hide with other shinsengumi members to read magazines, or play Kabaddi with random people on the street.
He’s probably one of the most unappreciated members of the shinsengumi. Often times when there is something going on, a fight, or explosions, Hijikata will want to leave Yamazaki behind, not caring whether or not Yamazaki gets killed in the process. He’s often called a failure, or, by those who are not members of the shinsengumi, boring, unrecognisable, bland. When Gintoki lost his memory, he called Yamazaki “Jimmy,” which is Japanese for boring. He’s also considered to be on the same level of boring as Shinpachi, and they’ve even competed against each other during a video game competition. The loser of the video game is the most boring (which was Shinpachi). Despite their rivalry, they tend to understand each other better compared to the others of their group. Another time, Yamazaki was stabbed badly. It was thought that he was dead. After returning to the shinsengumi headquarters from the hospital, he thought he’d secretly watch, or spy on “his funeral” as he tried to decide when to make his entrance to let everyone know that he didn’t actually die from his injuries while they all were away on a huge battle. He was touched and teary eyed, happy to see that they were all grieving over him. As it turned out, the funeral was mostly for one of the shinsengumi member’s dogs, and he got pissed off with how no one really ever cares about him.
All in all, Yamazaki has a cheerful personality. He greets everyone with a smile and is always friendly and willing to help people. He takes his job seriously, doing the best he can with every mission, despite what any of the shinsengumi say. While he tends to get riled up easily, he tries not to let it get the best of him. He tells himself he’s the perfect guy for his job, because he’s bland enough to fit in with any group of people. He has moments where he tries to be really cool to impress others. He once thought he got a new, sweet sword. He tried to act like he wasn’t trying to show it off to some of the guys of the shinsengumi, but he totally was. Then Okita and Kondo came by with even better swords, taking the limelight away from him, and he got aggravated. No one ever appreciates him! Yamazaki also has weird food habits during stakeouts. He’ll randomly have shinsengumi sausages to eat. He’ll also only eat anpan with milk for as long as a mission takes... which only makes him sick. But he tries to stick to it because it’s his “act of sacrifice to the myriad of gods for a successful operation.” He also miiight have an addiction, being that he’s inhaled anpan fumes from inside a bag. He also enjoys cosplaying as a badminton version of the Prince of Tennis during badminton games, and even uses a line from the series. And last but not least, he, of course, gets panicky because EVERYTHING IS OUT TO BEAT HIM UP! Okay not everything, but it sure seems like that sometimes!
Have you read up on how the game works?: Yesh they use the Flaming Ferret for communication and make money by stealing, selling, or getting jobs.
1st person sample: [Yamazaki has the most panicked expression on his face. He doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry... or both?!]
Whaa--!
[He knew the shinsengumi didn’t much care for him, even threatening to leave him behind to die sometimes, but he was just watching them at his funeral-that-wasn’t-really-his-funeral! This is so messed up! How could Sorachi use pages from the manga to wipe his ass!? How was he going to find out what happens next?! He needed to know if this funeral really was as terrible as it seems so far...
No, Yamazaki, calm down! Don’t get upset just because you work with a bunch of jerks who don’t appreciate you!]
I can do this!
[He speaks quietly, then looks up at the guide and gets more serious... seriously aggravated.]
I’M NOT DEAD! I’M NOT DEAD!
I can’t believe you guys! Do you really hate me that much that you don’t even care if I die?!
[So much for staying calm, but it really did piss him off!]
Do you even care that I’m not dead?! I’m putting my foot down! If it wasn’t for me, it could have been someone else! You should be thanking me for protecting someone else’s life!
[He stops suddenly, as a thought comes to him.]
I- I guess I shouldn’t get upset when it’s not anyone’s fault that... what happened to the manga... happened. Why did he use it for... for his ass?!
[A voice can be heard nearby, shouting and telling Yamazaki to SHUT UP!!!! and get out of the hallway.]
A- ah! I’m sorry for disturbi--
[Before he could finish, he threw his guide as if it would somehow turn into a useful weapon and protect from what was about to come. A CRASH is heard, along with Yamazaki screaming.]
AAHH! Kondo-san, Hijikata-san, send help!
3rd person sample: Yamazaki was against the wall, peaking over the corner as he watched others in a line at the New Arrivals Office. This was some serious stuff! He put a hand to his chin in thought as he spoke quietly to himself.
“This is no joke. My world is really gone. Is this what the Soul Society is like here? Except with aliens everywhere...”
Shakes his head.
“No, Yamazaki! This is not anime! This is real life! Okay! Be calm and think!”
He looked around, observing what others seemed to be doing. Okay, from the looks of it, he had to fill out those papers at the desk. He was sure that the sheets had to have some sort of information that would be of good use to him. Maybe it would tell him about this place and how to get around. Maybe he’d receive information that would help him find others. And even better, maybe they kept records of others from his world. Yes, that would be great!
“The only way to get anything done is to get in that line!”
Yamazaki made a fist of determination! He was positive he’d find someone and somewhere to stay in no time! Then maybe he’d also be able to get his hands on a badminton racquet...
Questions?: Anpan anpaning anpan?
Did you put your characters name and fandom in the subject: Sure did!