✒ application
♟ MUN INFORMATION
[ name ] Odile
[ contact details ] synergic / aim I Swear We Flew
[ characters played ] N/A
♘ CHARACTER INFORMATION
[ name ] Ougi Takaya
[ fandom ] Mirage of Blaze
[ canon point ] Book 9/The OVA : Rebels of the River Edge.
[ age ] physically 17, mentally mostly 17 (I will explain!), actually 400
[ personality ]
At first glance, Takaya definitely retains a street punk attitude. He is brusque and easily annoyed, a little bit of a loudmouth without any real sense of decorum. However it soon becomes apparent from his actions and the fact that he does not abandon the Uesugi that he is actually pretty serious about the powers that have been thrust on him. His attempts to educate himself about his history can seem lazy or irreverent (for example, learning about the Sengoku Period from video games) and he may be entirely too quick to jump into a fight (spewing insults all the way), but his heart is in the right place. He wants to help protect innocent people, especially those who are close to him. As a matter of fact, Takaya could almost be said to be too trusting of his friends, and when he's truly comfortable can even sometimes adopt an affable, open demeanor. He's also very fair, and has an extremely strong desire to make things right whenever he feels somebody's been wronged.
One of the underlying reasons for this layering of his emotions is that Takaya has extremely deepset abandonment issues, so that he simultaneously wants to be strong and self-sufficient but secretly craves someone he can truly rely on and would also do almost anything to keep such people near him. While he is sometimes disgusted by this behavior in himself, he is incapable of changing. He's surprisingly introspective about this, and many other facets of "normal" life, something that has always been denied him in one way or another.
Takaya also has brief busts of remembrance about his past, and while in the grips of these could almost be said to have a dual personality. As "Kagetora" he is much colder, stronger, and extremely tactically sharp. Takaya deliberately distances himself from this facet of his personality and the occasional flashes of repressed memory that come with it, both because they are painful and because they are not things that his current self wants to claim responsibility for. Remaining "Ougi Takaya" is very important to him, but his sense of justice and confused desire for strength means he still wants the power of Kagetora, if not the weight of his memories.
[ history ]
Unfortunately there is no wiki that covers the real plot twists of MoB, so I apologize in advance if this gets a bit lengthy. 400 years ago, in the midst of what is known as the Sengoku Period, Japan was divided into fragmentary states all fighting against each other. According to Mirage the majority of the people involved were motivated by greed and a lust for power, but not so Uesugi Kenshin. Wishing to bring order and peace to the land, Kenshin transcended even death and became a god of war.
He is hardly the only historical figure to live on after their demise. Most of them become vengeful spirits, fighting on in a "Dark Sengoku"/"spiritual underworld" and interfering with the mortal world.
To exorcise these ghosts, Kenshin appointed his (also dead) adopted son, Uesugi Kagetora, and a small group of loyal followers. As a god, he gives them a special dispensation to possess new bodies without reincarnating, the better to fight on an even playing field with spirits who don't hesitate to subjugate the bodies of the living. For almost 400 years, fighting is just what Kagetora does. He is a brilliant but extremely driven leader, who often uses his full strength even if the situation doesn't require it. When it comes to controlling his subordinates, he is highly charismatic but also a brutal driving force, to the point of being almost inflexible.
Eventually, this causes huge rifts withing the Uesugi clan, and drives his second in command, Naoe Nobutsuna, crazy in a fairly spectacular way. Jealous and enraged, Naoe destroys the woman Kagetora loves and pushes the Uesugi to the breaking point in their most difficult battle ever. Unable to cope with the devastation of his life, Kagetora chooses to possess a new body and seal all his memories away from himself, effectively being born again as "Ougi Takaya."
Takaya's life is not exactly easy either. He grew up with an alcoholic, abusive father and a mother who was passive until snapped and suddenly left, abandoning Takaya and his younger sister to fend for themselves in a broken household. Although his father actually has made some effort to restrain his drunken violence following this separation, he was not always successful. His home life drove Takaya into self-destructive behavior as early as middle school: smoking, using drugs, and briefly even running with a gang. However for the sake of his best friend Yuzuru and his sister Miya, he put these things behind him after entering high school. It would be incorrect to say his character wasn't sharply shaped by his childhood, however.
At 16, strange spiritual occurrences, including the possession of Yuzuru by the spirit of a Daimyo, bring Naoe Nobutsuna into Ougi Takaya's life. Recognizing him as his lost leader, Naoe insists on and eventually gains Takaya's cooperation in fighting against the spiritual underworld. Although Takaya agrees, he has difficulty acknowledging that his soul is truly Kagetora's despite the fact that in moments of duress he can wield that man's powers without any kind of instruction. He also learns that the relationship between Naoe and "himself" was strained past the breaking point; a dangerous obsessive battle for dominance that Naoe forces both of them to continue, even though Takaya doesn't understand or relate to their shared history and began to depend on Naoe as a true friend before he knew the full extent of his character.
As of Rebels, Takaya has a lot of unresolved issues with his own identity and self-worth, as well as his relationship with Naoe and the rest of the Yami Sengoku.
[ appearance ] http://pics.livejournal.com/synergic/pic/000ekaza
[ abilities ]
Takaya's abilities can be roughly divided into two types:
nendouryoku: Different forms of telekinesis which include manipulating objects, forming barriers and shields, and lashing out with raw power.
reinamiryoku: Different forms of mind control. In Takaya's case, his only real power is the ability to seal away memories.
On top of this, Takaya knows various methods of spiritual exorcism and can summon certain gods and elemental spirits... which I assume would not be appropriate to this setting. He also has the power to "possess" a new body if he dies, and for purposes of keeping the game level I'd like to suggest that his spirit be somehow sealed and bound to his clock-heart so that this is not an option.
♛ WONDERLAND INFORMATION
[ allegiance ] Carnival Faction, MAFIA, Royalists
[ chosen weapon for the shifter ] A sword. Preferably, I would like him to channel at least some of his nendouryoku power into this.
[ form of the shifter when not in use ] a short wallet chain
♗ SAMPLES
[ first person ]
Dammit! If this is some kind of game, it's gotta stop. I don't want to know how many wars I can get myself dragged into.
[the image in the mirror jerks and swings down as Takaya lowers his arm a little, free hand running through his hair. he doesn't look like he's going to be explaining that outburst, but at least he's calmed down now]
... not like it's anybody's fault though. Look, if there's anyone else who feels like just ignoring this whole thing for a while, how about we meet up somewhere?
[ third person ]
"Che." The sound was spit out between his teeth, but quietly. He didn't want to attract anyone's attention here. Not yet. Anybody who was wandering around a back alley like this one might be looking for a fight, although personally he'd just wanted to walk as long and far as he could. He thought better that way. A moment later, when the silence of the side street wasn't instantly broken and no one else appeared on the scene, he figured he was safe enough and added a soft "Damn it."
Just when he thought he'd been starting to get a handle on the rules that governed his existence, all of them had been thrown out the door for the sake of somebody else's game. Assuming he bought into that clock bastard's story... and there wasn't exactly a way for him to check short of cutting and running, killing himself and attempting to abandon this body to snatch another.
Abandon myself. He still couldn't think of it any other way. No matter what those flashes of memory might tell him, this current life still felt more real. This body was the only true constant he had ever known, and he wasn't about to give it up without a fight.