App post
Character: Shindou Hikaru
Series: Hikaru no Go
Character Age: 15
Canon: Hikaru no Go is the story of a boy who, at the age of twelve, threw himself into the game of Go like a man possessed. Which was because he had been, by a Go-obsessed ghost named Sai. Sai, being invisible and intangible, hoped to use Hikaru as a physical body to help him play Go. Which could have been the case, had the first person Sai played not been Touya Akira, a boy Hikaru's age with the skill level of a high-ranking professional player. Hikaru immediately wanted to start playing on his own to become Touya's eternal rival, and began mastering the game with Sai's help. He quickly rocketed into the world of the pros, and along the way he dealt with both profound joy and profound loss. Finally, he and Touya faced off, and the two of them came to the conclusion that all they needed for the rest of their lives was each other and the opportunity to kick each other's asses forever at their board game of choice. Romantic!
Hikaru is an enthusiastic, loud-mouthed, headstrong teenage boy who loves life and throws himself into things with reckless abandon. He is occasionally thoughtless and kind of ignorant of the broader world around him (he's definitely not culturally sensitive, for one). But Hikaru at least means well, and strives to better himself, usually after shoving his foot so far in his mouth he can see shoelaces coming out his other end. His cheer and earnest good nature win him friends, even if they think of him as a lovable moron. He's not actually stupid - he has a near-perfect memory and a sharp and analytical mind - but pays no attention to anything not relevant to his interests (like, you know, school. Or almost anything else that isn't Go). Even his fellow Go pros view him as kind of obsessed - his mind is always on "Go", "Touya", and "Go with Touya", and he never bothers to hide this fact. His favourite number is even 5 because in Japanese, it's pronounced "go". So he's kind of fixated, yeah.
Note: As he is being apped from end of canon, Sai is no longer with him.
Sample App:
Being a professional Go player, I've been sent some pretty weird places as part of my job, but I never thought I'd be sent to America to teach Go. At first I was a little, you know, weirded out by it - a one- or two-day trip to other parts of Japan is one thing, and I wouldn't mind going to China or Korea sometime, but all the way to America? Crazy! So I wasn't sure if I'd take it, but then they told me about the pay. Now, I'm not worried about money or anything - when I win my first title, I'm going to be rolling in cash. But it's the kind of money that got my interest. My English isn't the greatest, but I sounded it out, and they'd said I was going to be paid in Rap Dollars. And sure, I like rap. Awesome musical genre, very catchy, and getting paid by having a song written about me would be badass! But the real point here is that Touya Akira's never been paid in Rap Dollars. He is going to be jealous forever.
But when I got here, I kind of wondered if I'd made a mistake, because the first thing that happened was that I was given a shotgun. And a computer, which I guess will be useful for Internet Go, whatever. But a shotgun! Holy shit, America, what?? Sure, I joked to Mom before I left that she'd need to keep up on international news to find out if I get shot and killed. But I didn't think that entry to the country would actually come with a free shotgun! I'm just here to play Go, guys! Don't shoot me!
Still, even if the gun thing turned out to be horrifically true, I have to say that the Americans I've seen so far haven't really fit the stereotype? Like, the first person I ran into was this girl who was all skin and bones. Literally. Which was not what I expected, though when my friend Nase was on a diet, she said something to me about the media really getting to girls about things like that. Which sucks. Don't starve yourself, ladies! It's okay, Go players come in all shapes and sizes! Anyway, I'm obviously here for a reason, so I offered to play some Tutoring Go with her. We had a bit of a language barrier problem - I don't know what she kept saying, but she sure as hell said it over and over - but we managed to get a game started. Look, I know I'm here to tutor beginners and all, but she stank. Literally. We kept going because she didn't know when to resign, but even if she'd had any chance to recover... well, she fell apart in the endgame.
Literally.
Yeah, so I'm about ready to get out of this weirdass camp and go home, but I've got a job to do. And I intend to get it done as quickly as possible. Who wants to play? Come at me! I'll take five of you on at a time! Let's go! Put down your first hand!
...Well, that's gross.
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