Headcanon
Idea somewhat stolen from Luce, who stole it from Scath, who stole it from Aestas...... >.>
◇ Ukitake contracted his illness when he was a very small child - around four or five years old. Every single doctor that the family summoned during this time shook their heads at the case, and proclaimed that he had no chance of living to see the next year.
◇ Kyouraku is about five months older than Ukitake, though most people make the mistake of assuming Ukitake is the elder one due to his white hair.
◇ Ukitake's tolerance to alcohol is remarkably high - it's something that comes with being best friends with Kyouraku Shunsui for over two thousand years. For this same reason, Kyouraku is one of the very few people that can manage to get Ukitake spectacularly sloshed - and even then that's only on the rare occasion Ukitake has his guard down and probably needs it.
◇ Growing up, and even into his later Academy years, Ukitake once had a very profound fear of drowning. It was triggered by an incident when he was a child, and was accidentally pushed into a deep koi pond on his family’s estate by one of his brothers. Even months and months afterwards, he couldn’t entirely forget the sensation of his lungs filling with water, of trying desperately to breathe, of feeling absolutely helpless in the grasp of cold, black airlessness. The recurring nightmares plagued him for years.
And then he met Sogyo no Kotowari.
◇ Being the eldest of seven rambunctious siblings was a difficult task, even when (or moreso) they all look up to you as the role model and best confidant. Still, Ukitake always found that the best way to placate the lot of them involved a good deal of candy. Perhaps because of this, he’s maintained a mindset to this day that candy can console any child.
◇ Probably because of the number of younger siblings he once had, Ukitake is very fond of children. Even watching them grow up, and flourishing into their potential, cannot beat cataloguing the little, endearing things they say and do when they’re small.
◇ Ukitake loves tea. This fact is no secret, granted - his favorite food is ume ochazuke, even - but it goes a bit deeper than that. He himself thinks it’s silly - but he still retains a mindframe from his childhood that if nothing else makes the pain better…tea always will.
And, so far, this has yet to be proven entirely wrong.
◇ Ukitake never sleeps on his back, but on his side, as long as he has a conscious option for it. This can be chalked up to some very unpleasantly-learned lessons in his childhood, most involving sudden coughing fits in the middle of the night.
◇ Obligations of nobility and their House’s connections with the Gotei 13 often had Ukitake visiting the Shihouin estate quite a few times, for a variety of business reasons. He often kept Yoruichi audience during her childhood on these visits as well - he found her the most enjoyable company out of all the elder members of the family - and she would always demand candy off of him. It was because of this that he developed a habit of having a stash of candy tucked away in his sleeves wherever he went, just in case - and it’s a habit he has yet to have given up.
◇ He tends to candybomb Hitsugaya Toushirou for what actually amounts to...a very simple reason. More than anything else, Ukitake feels that Hitsugaya deserves to feel like a child every now and then, suspecting that the young Captain probably forewent most of his childhood at an early age to reach the position he maintains today. He really does respect Toushiro for that outstanding achievement, and views him as an equal colleague in every aspect of the word...but that doesn't stop him from dumping out-of-season Christmas stockings on the latter whenever he has the opportunity, because really, the kid ought to lighten up some more. And candy, as stated earlier above, is what Ukitake percieves as the perfect remedy.
◇ The precise definition of ‘cool’ continues to evade Ukitake to this day - and likely will forever. He’s placidly accepted this undeniable fact - never mind that it took several hilariously failed attempts at integrating with the ‘hipness’, ‘slang’, and ‘pop culture’ of the most recent generation - but he still occasionally likes to try and take a stab at it, just to see if he’s getting any closer to acheiving it. He has a distinct feeling that Kyouraku isn’t getting any closer to it either, despite the man’s repeated odes to coolness, but he just doesn’t have the heart to shoot the latter down. He gets into it so enthusiastically, after all - always investing in mysterious entrances and rose petals and all that…
◇ In all actuality, Ukitake would have been perfectly content to keep his hair short-cropped for the majority of his lifetime. He can’t quite remember why he ended up wearing it long in the first place, by now - only that it was something to do with a dare, a bag of rice cakes, and six kettles of tea, as far as he can recall. While he could easily get it cut short whenever he wants now, he’s come to rather like it long, and thus keeps it that way just because.
◇ He became a member of the Shinigami Men’s Association purely for the lulz. …And the free sunglasses.
◇ Ukitake has a bad habit of becoming sincerely concerned whenever someone makes it evident that they’re ill, or have been in the recent past. He’s aware of this, and always tries to quench it when he realizes he’s doing it, but his stock of overwhelming empathy tends to override his attempts at deference. If there’s one thing he will never wish upon even the bitterest of enemies, it’s sickness - because no one outright deserves something like that.
◇ There was a point in his youth, about a year prior to graduating from the Academy, when Ukitake found himself sometimes genuinely envying Kyouraku’s status as a second son - usually when the burdens and responsibilities of the eldest started weighting down on his own conscience. These spells were brief and sharply mentally reprimanded afterwards, though - and to this day he has yet to ever admit it to his friend. After all, it might have been petty and trifling, but…it’s still a bit shameful.
◇ One of the things Ukitake misses most in the Thor is his squad - and oh does he miss it dreadfully. Part of it probably has to do with being a Captain for over two thousand years, but Ukitake often finds himself with a feeling of immense displacement, sometimes…rising at early hours to catch up on paperwork that isn’t there, casting out for the reiatsu of Third Seats that aren’t present for beck and call, absentmindedly trying to figure how he ought to work in calligraphy after drills that he belatedly remembers he’ll never be supervising… He tries his very best to distract himself from these clockwork habits, but sometimes, inevitably, he has to pause and forcibly remind himself that he’s not a Captain anymore. And every time he does, there is a strong, unhappy pang left afterwards.
But he knows better than to linger on it for too long. One of the many things he’s learned in his longevity is that pushing forward is better than peering wistfully behind.
◇ Ukitake has yet to find anyone on the Thor that he outright dislikes. That being said, he finds it rather difficult to bring himself to disliking anyone in general - and outright hatred is just that much more distant. Usually it ends up being pity instead; after all, in his eyes, everyone starts out as a good person, and changes for better or worse depending on the circumstances of their surroundings. With this in mind hatred becomes an unreasonable notion to him, no matter how much himself or others might try to justify it. So if you do end up on his blacklist somehow...well, that's a pretty damn epic achievement in itself, actually. 8|
◇ Somewhat related to that point above, one of Ukitake's two very major personality flaws is that he always assumes the absolute best of every stranger he meets upfront, unless he has prior evidence or knowledge to have him lean one way or the other on opinion. ...Obviously, this is not always a good thing; it's a vulnerable point that people with manipulative intenions could exploit with ridiculous ease. He's very fortunate that he has Kyouraku around to help balance the tables somewhat, at any rate - Ukitake never suspects anyone of anything, but Kyouraku always suspects everyone of everything. This is one of the many things that give their friendship the strength it has.
◇ He never listens in on other's interactions in the Guide - it's a matter of proper upraising more than anything else; eavesdropping on people is very rude, after all. This is why Ukitake almost never butts into most conversations, even if they're in his own posts; he doesn't like interfering with anything like that unless something is said that absolutely requires an interjection on his own part, should he even catch it in the first place.
◇ Hair-dying is yet another recent fad of the Living World...but it's one of the sort that Ukitake truly does not understand, and actually rather disapproves of, to some degree. Why anyone would want a hair color that isn't their natural one, for the sake of standing out in a crowd, is a question that remains quite beyond him, and probably always will.
◇ Hot showers win over cold ones. Always. 8|
◇ Ukitake doesn't mind rain at all - in fact, next to a clear balmy day, it's his favorite kind of weather. The best sort are those warm flighty showers and cloudbursts prevalent during the springtime, alongside roaring thunderstorms of the ten-minute variety. After all, nothing beats stepping outside after the fact - when everything is washed clean, and the air is still damp and fresh, and the sky seems to have scrubbed itself pristine on the spot...and the cool breath of the water, lingering in the breeze, can be enjoyed at leisure with a cup of tea in hand
◇ Despite being an old man of two thousand years, Ukitake's memory is pretty remarkably sharp - he can recall events from hundreds of years ago with lucidity, and said recall prowess likely extends all the way back to his later years of early childhood, well before ever entering the Academy. Of course, that's not to say that it's easy to remember everything like that, necessarily; after a couple thousand years things can definitely get cluttered and muddled up, and if nothing else Ukitake has the most difficulty in sorting more minor events into correct timelines. He's quite aware of this - and, occasionally, Ukitake will get in a mood to sort it all out at once, like someone deciding to clean out a closet. Usually he ends up venting the notion on Kyouraku by bringing out old stories and haggling what happened, when it happened, and why, typically over a good dish or two of sake, for the good majority of an evening's hours.
◇ Ukitake contracted his illness when he was a very small child - around four or five years old. Every single doctor that the family summoned during this time shook their heads at the case, and proclaimed that he had no chance of living to see the next year.
◇ Kyouraku is about five months older than Ukitake, though most people make the mistake of assuming Ukitake is the elder one due to his white hair.
◇ Ukitake's tolerance to alcohol is remarkably high - it's something that comes with being best friends with Kyouraku Shunsui for over two thousand years. For this same reason, Kyouraku is one of the very few people that can manage to get Ukitake spectacularly sloshed - and even then that's only on the rare occasion Ukitake has his guard down and probably needs it.
◇ Growing up, and even into his later Academy years, Ukitake once had a very profound fear of drowning. It was triggered by an incident when he was a child, and was accidentally pushed into a deep koi pond on his family’s estate by one of his brothers. Even months and months afterwards, he couldn’t entirely forget the sensation of his lungs filling with water, of trying desperately to breathe, of feeling absolutely helpless in the grasp of cold, black airlessness. The recurring nightmares plagued him for years.
And then he met Sogyo no Kotowari.
◇ Being the eldest of seven rambunctious siblings was a difficult task, even when (or moreso) they all look up to you as the role model and best confidant. Still, Ukitake always found that the best way to placate the lot of them involved a good deal of candy. Perhaps because of this, he’s maintained a mindset to this day that candy can console any child.
◇ Probably because of the number of younger siblings he once had, Ukitake is very fond of children. Even watching them grow up, and flourishing into their potential, cannot beat cataloguing the little, endearing things they say and do when they’re small.
◇ Ukitake loves tea. This fact is no secret, granted - his favorite food is ume ochazuke, even - but it goes a bit deeper than that. He himself thinks it’s silly - but he still retains a mindframe from his childhood that if nothing else makes the pain better…tea always will.
And, so far, this has yet to be proven entirely wrong.
◇ Ukitake never sleeps on his back, but on his side, as long as he has a conscious option for it. This can be chalked up to some very unpleasantly-learned lessons in his childhood, most involving sudden coughing fits in the middle of the night.
◇ Obligations of nobility and their House’s connections with the Gotei 13 often had Ukitake visiting the Shihouin estate quite a few times, for a variety of business reasons. He often kept Yoruichi audience during her childhood on these visits as well - he found her the most enjoyable company out of all the elder members of the family - and she would always demand candy off of him. It was because of this that he developed a habit of having a stash of candy tucked away in his sleeves wherever he went, just in case - and it’s a habit he has yet to have given up.
◇ He tends to candybomb Hitsugaya Toushirou for what actually amounts to...a very simple reason. More than anything else, Ukitake feels that Hitsugaya deserves to feel like a child every now and then, suspecting that the young Captain probably forewent most of his childhood at an early age to reach the position he maintains today. He really does respect Toushiro for that outstanding achievement, and views him as an equal colleague in every aspect of the word...but that doesn't stop him from dumping out-of-season Christmas stockings on the latter whenever he has the opportunity, because really, the kid ought to lighten up some more. And candy, as stated earlier above, is what Ukitake percieves as the perfect remedy.
◇ The precise definition of ‘cool’ continues to evade Ukitake to this day - and likely will forever. He’s placidly accepted this undeniable fact - never mind that it took several hilariously failed attempts at integrating with the ‘hipness’, ‘slang’, and ‘pop culture’ of the most recent generation - but he still occasionally likes to try and take a stab at it, just to see if he’s getting any closer to acheiving it. He has a distinct feeling that Kyouraku isn’t getting any closer to it either, despite the man’s repeated odes to coolness, but he just doesn’t have the heart to shoot the latter down. He gets into it so enthusiastically, after all - always investing in mysterious entrances and rose petals and all that…
◇ In all actuality, Ukitake would have been perfectly content to keep his hair short-cropped for the majority of his lifetime. He can’t quite remember why he ended up wearing it long in the first place, by now - only that it was something to do with a dare, a bag of rice cakes, and six kettles of tea, as far as he can recall. While he could easily get it cut short whenever he wants now, he’s come to rather like it long, and thus keeps it that way just because.
◇ He became a member of the Shinigami Men’s Association purely for the lulz. …And the free sunglasses.
◇ Ukitake has a bad habit of becoming sincerely concerned whenever someone makes it evident that they’re ill, or have been in the recent past. He’s aware of this, and always tries to quench it when he realizes he’s doing it, but his stock of overwhelming empathy tends to override his attempts at deference. If there’s one thing he will never wish upon even the bitterest of enemies, it’s sickness - because no one outright deserves something like that.
◇ There was a point in his youth, about a year prior to graduating from the Academy, when Ukitake found himself sometimes genuinely envying Kyouraku’s status as a second son - usually when the burdens and responsibilities of the eldest started weighting down on his own conscience. These spells were brief and sharply mentally reprimanded afterwards, though - and to this day he has yet to ever admit it to his friend. After all, it might have been petty and trifling, but…it’s still a bit shameful.
◇ One of the things Ukitake misses most in the Thor is his squad - and oh does he miss it dreadfully. Part of it probably has to do with being a Captain for over two thousand years, but Ukitake often finds himself with a feeling of immense displacement, sometimes…rising at early hours to catch up on paperwork that isn’t there, casting out for the reiatsu of Third Seats that aren’t present for beck and call, absentmindedly trying to figure how he ought to work in calligraphy after drills that he belatedly remembers he’ll never be supervising… He tries his very best to distract himself from these clockwork habits, but sometimes, inevitably, he has to pause and forcibly remind himself that he’s not a Captain anymore. And every time he does, there is a strong, unhappy pang left afterwards.
But he knows better than to linger on it for too long. One of the many things he’s learned in his longevity is that pushing forward is better than peering wistfully behind.
◇ Ukitake has yet to find anyone on the Thor that he outright dislikes. That being said, he finds it rather difficult to bring himself to disliking anyone in general - and outright hatred is just that much more distant. Usually it ends up being pity instead; after all, in his eyes, everyone starts out as a good person, and changes for better or worse depending on the circumstances of their surroundings. With this in mind hatred becomes an unreasonable notion to him, no matter how much himself or others might try to justify it. So if you do end up on his blacklist somehow...well, that's a pretty damn epic achievement in itself, actually. 8|
◇ Somewhat related to that point above, one of Ukitake's two very major personality flaws is that he always assumes the absolute best of every stranger he meets upfront, unless he has prior evidence or knowledge to have him lean one way or the other on opinion. ...Obviously, this is not always a good thing; it's a vulnerable point that people with manipulative intenions could exploit with ridiculous ease. He's very fortunate that he has Kyouraku around to help balance the tables somewhat, at any rate - Ukitake never suspects anyone of anything, but Kyouraku always suspects everyone of everything. This is one of the many things that give their friendship the strength it has.
◇ He never listens in on other's interactions in the Guide - it's a matter of proper upraising more than anything else; eavesdropping on people is very rude, after all. This is why Ukitake almost never butts into most conversations, even if they're in his own posts; he doesn't like interfering with anything like that unless something is said that absolutely requires an interjection on his own part, should he even catch it in the first place.
◇ Hair-dying is yet another recent fad of the Living World...but it's one of the sort that Ukitake truly does not understand, and actually rather disapproves of, to some degree. Why anyone would want a hair color that isn't their natural one, for the sake of standing out in a crowd, is a question that remains quite beyond him, and probably always will.
◇ Hot showers win over cold ones. Always. 8|
◇ Ukitake doesn't mind rain at all - in fact, next to a clear balmy day, it's his favorite kind of weather. The best sort are those warm flighty showers and cloudbursts prevalent during the springtime, alongside roaring thunderstorms of the ten-minute variety. After all, nothing beats stepping outside after the fact - when everything is washed clean, and the air is still damp and fresh, and the sky seems to have scrubbed itself pristine on the spot...and the cool breath of the water, lingering in the breeze, can be enjoyed at leisure with a cup of tea in hand
◇ Despite being an old man of two thousand years, Ukitake's memory is pretty remarkably sharp - he can recall events from hundreds of years ago with lucidity, and said recall prowess likely extends all the way back to his later years of early childhood, well before ever entering the Academy. Of course, that's not to say that it's easy to remember everything like that, necessarily; after a couple thousand years things can definitely get cluttered and muddled up, and if nothing else Ukitake has the most difficulty in sorting more minor events into correct timelines. He's quite aware of this - and, occasionally, Ukitake will get in a mood to sort it all out at once, like someone deciding to clean out a closet. Usually he ends up venting the notion on Kyouraku by bringing out old stories and haggling what happened, when it happened, and why, typically over a good dish or two of sake, for the good majority of an evening's hours.