OOC:
Name: Reslari
Are you over 16?: Yes
Personal LJ:
reslari Email: thegreatprinceutena@yahoo.com
Timezone: Mountain ST
Other contact: Sodomu no Yami on AIM
Characters already in the game: Nada
How did you find us?: Gonsai, we’ll blame Gonsai
IC:
Character name: Yukari Yakumo
Fandom: Touhou Project
Timeline: Post Subterranean Animism
Age: It’s assumed at least 1200 years old (canon is very little help in this regard); it’s implied she’s likely a lot older than that.
~*Magical*~ abilities and strengths: First off, Yukari is a youkai; which means as human as she looks it should be very well noted that she is not human in any capacity. Youkai, by nature, are much stronger physically than humans, can heal more quickly and survive more grievous wounds. She is known for being incredibly intelligent and logically inclined, with a great grasp on mathematics. Beyond that, like everyone from Gensokyo, she has her non-lethal Danmaku and spell cards, and possess the ability of flight, though she’s not the fastest - her preferred method of travel, in any case, is via portal.
And that is Yukari’s special ability - she is known as the Youkai of Borders, with the power to manipulate boundaries. This is a very, VERY broad power - it can manifest in a physical form as she opens portals in space in order to travel from place to place instantly. She can and has been seen riding on or sitting on her portals, so they can be made to be more solid than one would assume a portal is. But it’s not just limited to creating portals; she can control and manipulate any type of border, and all the many abstract ways that can be interpreted. For instance, she once opened a portal to the moon by manipulating the boundary between truth and lies and jumping into the reflection of the moon on the surface of a lake to launch a youkai invasion on the lunar surface, and weakened the boundary between the realms of the living and the dead so Yuyuko could steal spring (the season) to try to make a sakura tree bloom.
She is known as one of the most powerful youkai in Gensokyo; the title of ‘the’ most powerful is still up for debate, but Yukari is definitely a strong contender in that area. Her powers have even been compared to that of gods.
How would they use their abilities?: In short: for trolling and saving the world. In long: Yukari rarely uses her power to do anything grander than on a personal level. From teleporting herself and objects to and from places, to reaching through her own gaps in order to snatch things or give people things to trip over, or summoning trains to run people over, her primary use of her power is for her own personal ease and convenience… or amusement.
However, if the time and circumstances called for it, she would not hesitate to use her powers on their more broad scale in order to protect her interests. Now whether those interests put her on the side of good or bad is a different story; she’s a character that could very easily be a heroine or a villain, depending upon her whims and circumstance. But, again, that is just under extreme conditions.
As for how she battles; she was the one who invented the spell card battles, the one who put forth for the rules that govern how danmaku is used, and so if challenged in such a way, she’ll be happy to settle a dispute that way (provided one did not seriously irk her, in which case she may be prone to just killing said person). If it’s not a danmaku battle, despite the godly level of her powers, she has more of a preference for paring her powers back to match her opponent, and toying with them rather than just overwhelming and defeating them that way.
Appearance:
This is the purple dress,
And this is the other. (Yes, those are both official art, yes it's ugly)
Generally speaking, Yukari is usually seen as being one of the taller crew of Touhou. She has long blonde hair, the ends of which she typically ties in red ribbons, and purple eyes. (canon actually bounces back and forth between her eyes being purple and yellow, but purple seems to be the most commonly seen color). She is known for wearing two different outfits: the first is a purple dress, with white arm-length gloves. The second is a pink dress with a purple, Chinese-style overlay that has symbols and a big yin-yang on it. With either dress she wears, she has a pink mob cap with a red ribbon tied in a large bow on the front, and is usually seen carrying around a parasol.
Background/Personality: Given this is Touhou, much of the background of this character is not canonically known, so expect some headcanon to fill in the gaps.
In her earliest years Yukari Yakumo was really not much different than any other young youkai: spending her days terrorizing humans (though perhaps not with as much predatory intent as many other youkai; much was simply for her own amusement) and honing her natural talent for manipulating the boundaries between things. This ability would quickly gain her notoriety amongst the humans and youkai alike, and through plenty of years and battles, she became known as a very dangerous being, not to be trifled with.
In those days, youkai were the dominant species, even over humans; their power, strength, and difficulty in being killed made them definitely the top of the food chain, and they knew it. It gave them all a sort of sense of egotism, and that led to greater and greater conflicts amongst the youkai themselves, conflicts generally fueled by greed. The territories the youkai occupied were not enough for them, they wanted more and more and finally, with a suggestion from Yukari herself, they turned their sights not to the rest of the world, but to the sky, to the moon itself. And so, with an army of youkai at her back, she used her power to change the barrier between the truth and lie of the reflection of the moon on the surface of a lake, and then, as the reflection was actually a way to the real moon in that instant, stepped in and began an invasion of the moon itself.
However, what they found on the moon, the Lunarians, were a powerful and technologically advanced race. The youkai were defeated, badly, and had to beat a hasty retreat back through the portal to Earth. The lesson, at the very least, was learned, and the youkai that survived returned to their homes, beaten, and with sufficiently deflated egos. Later, Yukari would claim she led the youkai in the invasion on the moon because she knew the egotism was getting out of hand and wanted to teach them a lesson, but, as with many things Yukari has been to known to claim, the truth of that statement is questionable. Either way, some time later, about a thousand years ago, in fact, Yukari met a young human princess named Yuyuko, and, perhaps because of what she had learned from the lunar incident, or perhaps it was just coming with age, whatever the case, the two became good friends. Eventually the princess found out she had a frightening power - the ability to control death itself - and the shock was so great, so terrifying, she took her own life. But that wasn’t the end of their friendship, as the girl came back in the form of a ghost… and their friendship resumed, almost exactly where it had left off, and they resumed eating, drinking, and being merry.
Some time later, Yukari caught wind of a young kitsune terrorizing the country side and, curious, set out to investigate. She came to learn that the creature was quite powerful for its age and type and pursued it, but not to defeat it and stop the attacks. No, she had something else in mind; she was going to tame the fox and make it into a servant, a familiar - a shikigami. The battle was fierce, but in the end, the fox was defeated and made into her shikigami, she named it ‘Ran’ and gave it a human form. And another companion for many centuries was added to her repertoire - though this one she had to raise more or less like a child, at first, teach the ways of the world of youkai and humans, of what a society was and what it meant to live in one… among many, many other things.
It seemed her life was to be easy from then on, she had a shikigami to do many of the more complex tasks of her life… but the world was a rapidly changing place. Humans, the youkai were finding, were resilient and very adaptive creatures; they were growing powers that could rival and even defeat the youkai themselves more quickly and easily. They spread easily, and very greedily, running youkai from their homes and spreading their ever-growing populace further over the land. It was becoming apparent that the youkai were starting to fight a losing battle against the burgeoning human population.
They needed a place to go - a place where there wouldn’t be as many humans and their civilizations, the strange advancements their technology was making. It was a huge effort on the part of the youkai to seal a portion of the land from the major human world, not the least of which was put forth from Yukari and her ability to manipulate boundaries. Eventually the land was sealed, with a gate of sorts placed at an old, abandoned shrine, and they called their new land Gensokyo. A human family (as some humans did, indeed, end up trapped in the Gensokyo bubble) was tasked with maintaining the shrine that acted as the border’s gate, the Hakurei family; Yukari, being the Border Youkai was pretty much tasked with managing the rest of it. She did the job quite well… at least until her shikigami was old enough and powerful enough, at which point the fox inherited most of Yukari’s responsibility for general upkeep and maintenance of the border.
Yukari was easily a thousand years old at that point; actually quite old for a youkai. And older youkai tend to be much less active than younger youkai, spending a lot more time sleeping than anything else.
She still did interact with those she knew, however, even though her time spent outside her home was notably less than it had even been before, and soon she received an odd request one fine, late-winter day - to weaken the barrier between the realm of the living and the dead so that her ghost princess friend could attempt to make a sakura tree blossom. She did it; even though she knew that the sakura tree could never truly bloom. Of course, as soon as she had opened the can of worms, she… promptly went to sleep, almost as though she didn’t truly care what would happen when the ghosts began to gather the essence of spring… and then stayed asleep even after the event was over and she should have reinforced the border between the realms of the living and dead once more. But she just kept sleeping… until a very certain magician, the current human in charge of the gate shrine, and a maid woke her up and demanded she reinstate it - by force. She did, eventually, though perhaps not as strongly as it even had been before.
From then on, it seemed, her interest in being on top of issues within Gensokyo suddenly increased, and her involvement in activities reached a level that it hadn’t been since long before she had delegated her general duties to her shikigami. When a fine mist settled over the land, forcing groups of people to gather for some reason, Yukari was one of the first to set out to save the day… by singing and stealing people’s alcohol. (It worked in the end, and she and the perpetrator, an oni, ended up friends as well). She teamed up with one of the Hakurei, Reimu, a girl she’d come to also be friends with since the spring incident, when the false moon was causing lunacy amongst the populace, and helped end the Imperishable Night. When a bored celestial decided to cause havoc, a very miffed Yukari was there to restore the balance. And when a distress call came from the Old Hell, Yukari... well, she didn’t rush out to help, as she thought it was better if those youkai on the surface, and those below it stayed separate, but she did provide powerful support to Reimu once again, sending the human down to investigate for her.
Otherwise, when she’s not protecting the safety of Gensokyo, or sleeping, Yukari enjoys being a troll. She knows how useful her portals are for stealing things, moving things, or just appearing and disappearing from places as she fancies, and she tends to drop in as an unannounced guest, especially toward the humans she’s come to be acquainted with over the years. She still drinks with Suika and Yuyuko when she visits them (they don’t visit her, her home is carefully hidden). She makes Ran’s life more difficult with her antics, as though making Ran do her dirty work wasn’t trolling enough (but Ran is her Shikigami and she does love her). Also, despite the fact she is, indeed, a youkai, she tends to be quite friendly toward humans, as long as they are friendly or polite to her, and is more than willing to tell them about herself and Gensokyo. The trick is telling if she’s telling the truth or not; and that may very well be another way she trolls. She seems to know more about technology than your average Gensokyo resident as well, and it’s heavily implied that she traverses across the Great Border to visit the human world outside often, making her quite world-savvy.
Why should that character be in this game: N/a.
Why do you want to continue their history here: N/a.
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: N/a
Have you read up on how the game works?: Flaming Ferret, you can get a steady job, do odd jobs, or open your own place of business… at least those are the more legit ways.
1st person sample: [The camera flicks on to a mostly empty room - there doesn’t appear to be anything in it at the moment but the basic furniture. And then… something, a hole opens in space, oval-shaped, with the edges tied in red ribbons it pulls open to reveal red eyes, many of them. From it, a woman steps, a closed parasol held at rest against her shoulder]
My, so much paperwork. [The gap closes, and she looks toward the device; seems maybe she turned it on from outside the room. Who knows.] And such a funny little device this is, with a picture on it like those human ‘camcorders’ as well, hm? I believe I read this is visible to others, so hello all! [Another portal, smaller this time, opens, and she reaches into it. The device jostles a bit, flashes black, and the next thing seen is Yukari’s face, much closer] I am Yukari Yakumo; the ‘Yakumo’ may be familiar to some, and if it is, don’t be shy, say hello! [She smiles, pleasantly; oh and guess whose presence she’s feeling right now] If there are any others out there listening that bear the ‘Yakumo’ name I think you know where you can find me, I need to speak with you. And if they’re not listening… well… all that standing in line has me quite tired.
3rd person sample: It was a good day for a nap; of course, every day was a good day for a nap, but today seemed to be particularly suited for such a thing. She didn’t sigh though, didn’t let her shoulders slump, no she walked, almost lazily, without purpose. Not that she needed to do that, either, seeing as she could instantly take herself wherever she so desired but…
Today was slow. And she had little to do, she hoped to run into someone that would start a conversation with her, simply to kill some time. Ah, perhaps therein lied her answer. If she couldn’t find anyone to speak to, she could bring someone to herself. Her look changed for one much more amused and interested; it seemed today she was channeling her inner Suika. Well, not like there was anything else pressing that needed her attention; Ran was out, Chen was with Ran, and with them doing the chores for the day, she was left in her predicament.
A portal opened near her side, just large enough to fit her hand into, and so she did, slipping fingers into it and out the other side. Her brow furrowed a little in concentration, before she yanked suddenly, hard, and a loud crash clank smash was heard through the opening.
With that done, she withdrew her arm, now holding what appeared to be a bottle of sake, closed the gap, and turned back, setting back for her room. All she needed to do now was wait… ah, and perhaps she’d take a nap while she waited.
Questions?: 11 was a race horse. 22 was 12. 1111 race. 22112. Can you figure it out? (No Google!)
Did you put your characters name and fandom in the subject: Like a baws.