Application copy
PLAYER INFO
Name: Birdy
Age: 27
LJ username: ”shirhan_blade”
Email address/AIM: kyanve@gmail.com, shirhan blade
How did you find us? The password is “Lilly” >_>
CHARACTER INFO
Name: John
Series/Source: Ginga Nagareboshi Gin, Ginga Densetsu Weed
Age: 13 (~65)
Gender: Male
Species in canon: German Shepherd dog
Appearance: John's used to being the picture of a purebred German Shepherd, in excellent shape and health for his age in spite of scars, graying muzzle, and stiffening joints.
As a human, he's middling-tall at 5'10”, average build but well-muscled in the fashion of athletics and military. His black hair is graying out to silver, and he has clear amber eyes. He'll likely have slightly longer than normal canine-teeth as a betrayal of his original nature, enough to look fanged. It'll take him a while to adjust to being bipedal, but John has a fairly fast learning curve, and once he's adapted, he carries himself with the bearing of a predator and lifelong soldier, and a lopsided, mocking grin.
He has a number of faded scars and a few fresh ones; nearly all of them are some sort of claw or bite mark. The worst of them are a handful of large, old scars from bear claws in faded stripes across his back and sides; a decent number of fresh bite-scars on his arms, legs, and neck; and an impressive impalement scar on the side of his ribcage.
Personality: John is, even in his older age, energetic, active, and driven; while he's definitely feeling his age, he has a stubborn refusal to give in to time. This is a continuation of a lifelong trait that would make him the nightmare of any medic; “give up” is not a word in his vocabulary, and John's acquired a massive pain tolerance and been known for stubbornly ignoring injuries and illnesses, to the point of struggling to keep going through even crippling injuries and exhaustion, attempting to play off as if everything is fine and normal the whole time, whether it's apparent how beaten down he is or not. He's incredibly stubborn and willful, typically refusing to accept orders or instruction from anyone that hasn't well proven to be worth the respect; while he eventually outgrew his young refusal to ever turn his back on a fight and learned the words “tactical retreat”, he treats difficulties and challenges as all the more opportunity to prove himself. “Fear” and “Accepting Defeat” aren't exactly in his vocabulary either; even if something goes spectacularly badly, he will claw for any point he can score in his favor, and take whatever successes he can get as a sign that he didn't -fail-. If anything, learning to accept that there's limits to what he can do has bolstered his ego; instead of taking things like overwhelming-odds situations as a defeat, he finds what he DID manage to do that was over and above what was expected or said to be possible and takes that as a sign that he still overachieved. (As an example, his death to a bigger, younger dog in better shape while he was badly wounded and exhausted counts as a victory in his mind - he did damage, bought a good amount of time for his packmates, took out several of the other dog's subordinates and “got the bastard to freak out”.) He's intelligent, in a straightforward tactical fashion; he's not given to complicated plans or agonizing over puzzles, but is very observant, fast to absorb information, and good at finding the most efficient, effective solution to practical problems. He's very forward thinking as well, caring little about past problems and setbacks; bad memories are lumps to pick up from, shrug off, and move on to something better, regrets and mistakes are things to make one pause when they happen, figure out what went wrong and how not to repeat it, and then dash onward without looking back on again. He comes across as very devil-may-care; he does learn from his mistakes, but besides remembering the lesson, he doesn't really dwell on anything longer than the initial sting of it. He'll put up with it from others, but he doesn't have much patience for regrets and the like beyond humoring someone so long as their angst isn't making a nuisance of itself, and not bothering to pay attention to it past that.
Oh, did I mention he has an ego? In his lifetime as a hunting dog turned soldier, John's faced off against creatures and forces that were larger than him, stronger than him, or outnumbered him since he was a pup, with a long list of victories and a short list of routs. He was born with the ego of a hyper-competent purebred, and it's been reinforced many, many times over his life; he doesn't think he's one of the best, he knows he's one of the best, and his military carriage has a cheerful, cocky strut to it that's been propelled past “overconfidence” by stubbornness and the devil's luck.
He does have a sense of compassion and a strong, simple, straightforward sense of justice, although he'll come across slightly brusque at times and ruthless at others. He's willing to help others and be understanding of their weaknesses or shortcomings, but doesn't stand for it if he feels he's being taken advantage of, and he expects others to do what they can to take care of themselves, leaving him with little patience for wallowing, moping, or depressions - he won't berate beyond a few attempts at jarring someone out of it, but he won't hang back or be held back by it, either, and will likely just leave someone prone to such behind. His sense of right and wrong is that of a carnivore and a battlefield-soldier - you take care of your comrades and deal with your foes as quickly as possible. He has the Honor Code of “We Are Standing, You Are Not”, and the only thing that keeps him from being a very dirty fighter is a lack of talent for too much cunning and deception; he's unusually good for a dog at picking up when someone's trying to fool him, but is basically honest and never really thinks of trying to fool others. He doesn't particularly shy away from death and bloodshed, either; his less predatory packmates have worn him down to something more merciful than he was in his younger days, but he sees nothing wrong with using lethal force if he, his packmates, or “civilians/bystanders” are threatened, sometimes even when the threat in question isn't exactly a fair fight. He can be temperamental if challenged or pushed on something he considers important, ranging from just being short with someone he thinks is being stupid to a pretty impressive rage, but he has some degree of focus and control (possibly dangerously so) stopping short of blind rages, and he doesn't hold grudges; if someone ceases to be a threat and a slight is over, he may be wary of that person, but the past event won't really matter for his attitudes and reactions. John is basically emotionally good-natured, logical, and calm, for all his pride and occasional temper. He may not make shows of forgiveness, affection, or the like, but will simply and matter-of-factly stick by friends and comrades and move on from past issues.
His sense of humor is mostly sarcasm, smarm, and moments of sly jabs here and there, mixed with the occasional high-energy-predator prankish streak; early scare-awake “alarm clock calls” and friendly ribbing. He's not hyperactive or loudly cheerful, just maintaining an even-keel good mood that's only really marred by an occasional moment of annoyance, acid, or temper; more than once, those that don't know his name, neutral, friend, and foe, have just given him the identifier of “That grinning/smirking bastard”.
Strengths: John's in incredibly good shape for his age. He may not have the speed or quite the brute force he had in his younger days, but he's more than capable of keeping up with people half his age, and he's in good health. His stubbornness works in his favor; his pride and unflinching good mood have survived having his territory shattered and a period of imprisonment and humiliation, among other things, and not much is likely to really be able to put a psychological dent in him. He does have an understanding of his limits and weaknesses, even if he doesn't dwell on them or capitalize on them, and has enough sense of cunning to take care of himself quite well. He's incredibly loyal to his comrades and friends, and very loyal and dedicated to any perceived duty, be it something short-term and trivial or something large-scale and lifelong; he'll go to great lengths to help or protect anyone or anything he's gotten close to or chosen as a cause. His sense of humor and what's enjoyment is odd, and he's liable to laugh his way through things most others would consider ordeals.
Weaknesses: He's stubborn and proud, and while he's aware of his weaknesses and limits, he's used to pushing just past them enough that he's not always a good judge of what he can actually handle, plus he has a stubborn refusal to admit when he needs help or actually CAN'T handle things; he might sideways fish to see if someone's willing to stick with him through something if it occurs to him that maaaaybe he might be biting off more than he can chew, but he won't actually say he needs the help or ask for it. His loyalty and devotion to comrades and duties or causes goes to the point of being suicidal; he wouldn't go into it thinking of it as suicide, but neither does he really have any fear of death. He's also well aware of how old he is and has embraced the thought of dying on his feet in one of his trademark taking-on-more-than-he-should stunts, especially if it's doing something useful or accomplishing something. He's just cocky enough to get on the nerves of many that aren't used to him, and his odd sense of humor and entertainment can be off-putting. He's slightly clueless how to handle kids - he doesn't dislike them, but he isn't always the most patient, and it's generally known that while he's good for training the younger generation or being the crazy uncle figure, it's probably a good thing he never reproduced. He can be very, very blunt sometimes. He's gonna have HORRIBLE, “aj;dkfj;dsk walking on two legs wut?” dysphoria.
Background: John was born and raised for big-game hunting in the US by a top-dollar breeder. Before he was full-grown even, he was bought and became the hunting partner of a Japanese doctor named Hidetoshi, who had gone on a few years sabbatical world-traveling partly in preparation of pursuing Akakabuto, a particularly dangerous rogue bear that'd killed some of his family. During the first few years of his life, John helped Hidetoshi take down some of the most dangerous game in the world, usually being the one right up in front risking the claws, teeth, hooves, and other weaponry of the game.
When they finally returned to the little town by Ohu pass, John's ego was well-fed and healthy - and it was with amusement that John picked up a competitor in the form of not-even-yearling shiba-inu named Gin, the hunting dog of a crippled old bear-hunter and his grandson, both of whom were set on the same rogue bear. While Gin saw John as a rival to try and match, John was more entertained at the stubborn puppy, although there started being some respect after Gin and the grandson managed to take down a bear themselves.
The humans continued to have no luck with Akakabuto, who started allowing other man-eating bears to move into the territory under his dominance as if turning the valley into a fortress; the older grandfather was crippled beyond ability to hunt, and the death toll for humans and dogs continued to mount. During a trip out after the bear, John and Gin caught sight of a large pack of feral dogs bringing down one of the younger bears without any human aid; the bears continued to grow in power, but the human hunters stopped their forays into the mountain, putting off pursuit of the bears and just closing off the hills.
Gin ran away to investigate the feral dogs; John caught sight of him and tailed him. They made contact with a couple of the commanders of the wild dogs of Ohu pass, many of whom were former hunting dogs and guard dogs that turned feral after being abandoned or after the loss of their human masters. The dogs were beginning to gather in the pass in a mass of different packs whose commander-leaders all served under a single leader - Gin's father, Riki, thought dead and lost after a particularly bad bout with Akakabuto. In response to Akakabuto's tactic of gathering a small army of bears to cement control of the territory, Riki had begun recruiting numbers of other dogs to retake the pass. While Gin immediately joined the growing uber-pack, John initially retreated to try and rely instead on his human master whom he was familiar with; when it became clear to John, after a few days, that Hidetoshi had no intention of doing anything about the bears anytime soon, John left for good, now intent on challenging Riki for leadership. He earned the respect of some of the commanders after taking on, alone, one of the more dangerous leaders of the bears and managing to hold out a good while longer than most would have before the others had to intervene to drag him away from the battle.
The attempted dominance challenge was a spectacular failure, but John merely took it as proof that Riki was worth following in the war to come, and went off to rejoin the commander's packs that had spread out to bolster their numbers in preparation.
The next month was spent with the dogs spreading out across Japan to find every capable canine they could get; by the time they reconvened in late summer, Akakabuto had managed to carve out a fortress in an old cave system called Gajou in the mountains, and Riki's army of Ohu Pass numbered several hundred dogs.
John was in charge of one of the forward packs in the battle that ensued, leading a string of spearhead attacks on the dens of the more dangerous bears, breaking down the hold Akakabuto had on the pass and clearing a safe path for the larger force to reach Gajou itself. From there, the lead packs led the assault on the cave system, with John among the first to strike all the way up to the peak of the mountain.
By that point, a small group of the human hunters had caught wind that the bears' numbers had thinned out over a matter of days; Hidetoshi and both the hunters Gin had served under were among a small group that made it all the way to Gajou itself in the wake of the dogs' attack. The hunters ended up assisting in the fight against the massive rogue, although it was Gin that finally killed the bear and claimed Gajou. The humans retreated, leaving the woods of Ohu pass to the dogs. Gin succeeded his father as the leader of the Ohu Pass army; John became one of his two seconds.
Over the next few years, Ohu became known as “The Paradise of Dogs”. Gin, John, and Akame acted in oversight, with the other commanders spreading out across the territory, forming a sort of feudal chain of territories under the protection of the old army and enforcing some form of law over it, where any dog that was willing to respect the rules of the territory was accepted and given safety. They became known across Japan, to the point that Gin, John, and Akame were called on to travel to other areas to mediate disputes and put down the occasional petty-tyrant pack-leader. (Generally speaking, the mediation side fell more to Akame and Gin.)
This lasted ten years, until something completely unexpected to the dogs happened; while the trio was further afield on one of their missions, a human laboratory doing some form of bioengineering experiments had an escapee in the form of a former-dog that was now a very large, partly scale-armored monster that seemed unstoppable. The creature made straight for Ohu Pass, killing any humans and many dogs in its path; to make matters worse, the majority of the humans were unaware of the creature, blaming the killings on the Ohu dogs and spurring a group of hunters to go out pursuing the dogs, led by John's own former master, Hidetoshi. Kaibutsu made it to Gajou itself, slaughtering much of the defense and routing what remained of Ohu's command structure. For the better part of a year, the creature kept its lair there, and its forays out mixed with the human hunters made it nearly impossible for the Ohu dogs to regroup. Rather than returning straightaway, Gin's group was held up, largely by other harassment; word of the fall of Ohu had traveled fast, and quite a few less scrupulous dogs had started more vicious packs and begun whittling at the former territories and their allies. Moreover, unknown to any of the Ohu dogs, a particularly vicious Great Dane named Hougen had begun constructing an uber-pack of his own to rival the original Ohu army, taking advantage of the fear and confusion from the fall of Ohu to build his own numbers.
Kaibutsu was finally killed by a group of yearlings and a pack of specially trained guard-hunters from the lab that had created the beast; most of the guard pack was sacrificed in the retaking of Gajou, along with a couple of John's old comrades among the Commanders. Before the call could even go out to return to Gajou, Hougen moved in, sending small teams out to assassinate commanders and hunt down Gin's trio. Hougen's trackers used the daughter of one of Ohu's commanders as a hostage, with a large force sent out just to corner in and capture the three leaders. John and the other two old dogs fought valiantly, but were finally worn down by the sheer numbers of the younger dogs, with their own advancing age certainly not helping the three veterans. Akame escaped to warn Gajou of Hougen's intentions and seek aid for the other two commanders; John and Gin were drug off to Hougen's stronghold in the mountains. The two old soldiers were kept in an old abandoned woodsman's shack, beaten to within an inch of their life and used as trophies by Hougen to prove his dominance, although they both managed to prove that being too injured to move wouldn't exactly mean giving up - Hougen came out of some of his bouts of terrorizing the two vets with vicious teeth-scars in his ankles that John is particularly proud of.
A few surviving loyalists had infiltrated Hougen's army, and arranged an escape while Hougen's forces were preoccupied with an execution; Gin, being the worst off, stayed behind, sending John, the few loyalists, and Reika, the hostage, off to return to Gajou. Hougen's forces picked up pursuit quickly, and between his age and injuries, John couldn't keep up the forced-march sprint through a blizzard that was needed to escape. He volunteered to break trail the wrong direction and lead Hougen's group astray, all the while planning to confront Hougen and his small pack of trackers head-on; he managed to shoo Reika and most of the others off towards Gajou, but two of the others insisted on staying with him even after he'd let them know the plan wasn't exactly just to keep running.
The trio of dogs was outnumbered by Hougen and some of his stronger soldiers; they did quite a bit of damage, but the enemy managed to kill the other two dogs, finally leaving John facing Hougen in thoroughly wretched condition. John still managed to put up a fight, further delaying the Great Dane's pursuit of the other fugitives, until he was thrown into the broken-up remains of a dead tree, where a broken-off branch impaled itself in his ribcage. In his last act of defiance, John managed to pull out the branch and toss it in Hougen's face, passing out as the tyrant got his jaws around John's throat and began throwing the old commander around, thoroughly upset that John had managed to defy him to the end and deny him the satisfaction of torturing or breaking the old Shepherd. John briefly regained consciousness when a small team of Ohu dogs backtracked to find him, giving them orders to find Gin's son who had begun rallying a new army and reclaim Gajou before finally succumbing to his injuries, mumbling smugly about going off to overthrow Akakabuto again in Hell.
Third-person RP sample: Something nagged at John as being very, very wrong, but through whatever he'd been drugged with, it didn't seem important enough to focus on until he was out of the elevator.
He shook his head to try to clear his head a bit faster, and immediately had his balance completely fail him, because for some strange reason he was on two legs, and that was only the beginning of everything-feeling-wrong. There was cloth all over him, but it wasn't rubbing against - ... he had no fur, and -
He pulled up to a sort of sitting-kneeling pose that was far too awkward suddenly, shaking his head again.
"Fuck...how hard did Hougen hit me?"
Well, he wasn't dead, he didn't feel half as beat-to-Hell as he should, so figuring out where he was, was his first priority - then he could find out if the others had escaped and get back to Gajou.
Indoors, metal walls, some kind of specialized facility he'd guess, though it didn't smell as strong as a place like that should. He couldn't feel his ears either, like they were missing or -
He looked down at his own front paws, and saw hands.
Human hands, although when he tentatively pulled up the left sleeve, he could see familiar scars, from the bastard Dane and earlier fights.
Either he'd been hit harder than he thought, or -
Specialized facility. Like a lab. Like the lab the thing that routed Gajou came from.
He growled in the back of his throat, then flumphed back with his back against the wall to try to get some feel for the different body; having been hit in the head hard enough to hallucinate sounded like it would've been the better option.
Anything else? Uhm, yeah, what I said about getting a character that would be a minor with no dysphoria? I lied.