((Application for vatheon))
[ Player Name ] : Yuuring/Laurence
[ Personal LJ ] : alsharatain
[ Age ] : 22
[ Timezone ] : GMT+10
[ Other Characters ] : N/A
[ Character's Name ] : Kaori Suruga 駿河 香（するが かおり）
[ Character's Age ] : 16
[ Series ] : Yorozuya Toukaidou Honpo よろず屋東海道本舗 (US: Satisfaction Guaranteed)
[ Canon Point ] : File 21: Kimi no Tonari (Next to You), Book Volume 8. Almost mid-way through the chapter, Kaori disappeared from the hospital where he recuperates from the injury he received from the case of "Dread: Tajima Kaito", leaving a note that says "I'm going home."
[ History ] :
(Due to the existing undetailed information in wikis that aren't exactly correct, I feel inclined to provide a brief summary of the character's history.) Kaori was born from a weak mother who passed away right after his birth delivery. Due to the inner grudge of his father, who initially wished for his wife to abort the pregnancy in reason to her unpromising condition, Kaori was neglected from parental care as he grew up. Although he tried to seek the attention of his father, nothing resulted well. At one point, his father had tried to strangle him to death, which resulted to Kaori's trauma of people reaching out for his face or neck, or those who mounted over his body. In consequence to the shocking event, another existence was born within Kaori, named Kyou. It is safe to identify him with a DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) case. Kaori is able to interract with Kyou in his conscience, and Kyou was one who provides him parental guidance and teachings, as well as family care and attention, and ultimately a guardian that will do anything to keep Kaori safe and unscathed, even if someone has to die in the process. Unfortunately, Kaori's frequent interraction with Kyou had caused his older sister to worry about his condition in their father's negligence. In the end, his sister took him away from home to live with her and her fiancee. Not too long after, Kaori is employed in his brother-in-law's Media Entertainment agency as a model, and been working as one since then up to present. It's almost a year back since he joined the freelance Jack-of-all-Trades agency ran by his partner, and probably the most valuable person to him, Yoshitsune Shima.
[ Personality ] :
In general, Kaori likes simplicity and comfort. He’s rather clean and tidy, enough to keep his apartment neat despite being occupied almost all the time. Fashion-wise, he likes wearing as least as he could, usually consisting of a light jacket, a long-sleeved shirt, and a pair of cargo pants. Of course, this excludes the times when formal dress codes are required. As a student at school, Kaori can be viewed as a normal teenager. Studious, yet a little of a delinquent, he pulls off jokes and small pranks. Not to mention, his social skills are Grade A as he's always surrounded by friends--or perhaps it may have been his charisma that attracts his fans. Although he may look normal, he has a very independent personality. It often occurs that he refused escorts while commuting to and from school despite being a well-loved celebrity. He's convinced of being able to take care of himself--or rather, his "other self", namely Kyou, would make sure no harm comes to him. Although Kaori could have drop out of school anytime he wants to pursue his career in the celebrity world easily, he still views education as part of an important and must-have experience for those who can afford it.
Though he is only 16 years of age, Kaori is also a professional in his occupation mostly known under the name Kyou. He started using Kyou as his stage name in the entertainment media in fear of failing on his own. His days were normally full of photo shoot and scene-taking schedules want it outdoors or in the studios. He seems to have built quite the stamina to fulfill everything without collapsing, but it's never possible to run through all those packed schedules without extreme exhaustion, even for Kaori. However, Kaori always covers his exhaustion and worries with a perfect and refreshing smile that can easily fool others into believing he's still in fully-charged energy. He seems to have a complexity over showing his weaknesses to others, hence never allowing himself to relax all his strains when he's not by himself. No matter where and when, so long there's someone in the work area, he would keep up that humor-loving and casually teasing attitude, while pulling off being a little flirty sometimes. He would pick on his overly protective and worrywart manager, Yukinobu Yagami, whom he's been under the care of since his early days in the agency. Kaori also lacks the ability to cry due to his strong policy to mask his own weakness. When such times in need for scene-taking, Kyou would take over his conscience to proceed with the scenario and shed the tears in place of Kaori himself.
If anyone would ever work out about anything unusual of Kaori’s patterns at all, however, it would probably be his partner in the freelance agency, Yoshitsune Shima. It may be due to Shima’s ability to understand Kaori more than anyone before in such a short time since they have met, Kaori had developed a kind of attachment to the older-yet-smaller-in-stature lad. Though as more time they spent passed, it became more than obvious that Shima depended on Kaori more than Kaori would on Shima. Nevertheless, it seems to give Kaori the most comfort that he is depended on by Shima, and would grow displeased when his partner tries to shove him out of dangerous cases even if it were for his own sake. He seems to hate being left out by his partner most, and prefers to protect Shima more instead of being protected by him. Inarguably, the always quick-witted and fun-loving Kaori would grow hot-headed and cold-hearted (yes, such a paradox) if his precious partner were to be injured at all by anyone.
Kaori can be extremely stubborn about the views he strongly holds. He hates fortune telling, and he would not sway from his disbelief in them no matter how strong the psychic power and wisdom of the teller would be. Hence when something becomes a “fixed belief” to Kaori, it’s absurdly hard to convince him otherwise-but not fully impossible. One thing notable about Kaori’s weak spot may be the fact that he can be easily influenced by something or someone he admires or comes to respect. Although he would come to disagreement at first, when he deciphers the reason and argument, he would accept and reform his idealistic thoughts. Kaori is also easily absorbed in things he favored, such as watching a film or reading a film script written and directed by his favorite film director: Warlock Gartray. Usually he would be very alert with his surrounding, even to the slightest sound, at least in standard human ability range. However, when he focused his concentration on what his attention is absorbed in, he would miss out on anything that takes place right next to him, from the stupidest thing ever to the most life-threatening event. Still, there aren’t so many figures and things he admires in life, which makes him rather picky in what kind of people he would come to respect.
Another aspect of Kaori was-in the shortest and best term anyone ever put it: A mirror. It’s hard to know Kaori in his rawest personality. He easily adopts a mask and behaves in any certain ways the person he interacts with likes best. If one is most comfortable with a firm and highly disciplined company, or a sweet gentleman who would look out for others, Kaori would easily pull off any of their desired attitude. This habit may have started due to his discovery of what would please his father most in the past. The reason why he couldn’t shed tear was also because he threw away the part of himself that would cry, after figuring out that crying gives the worst reaction from his father, and smiling giving it the best. It also explains why Kaori would instantly cover up his troubled soul with his refreshing smile. If anything, Kaori was desperate for the attention of the father who ignored him, and deeply desired for his existence to be acknowledged. It’s the initial reason why he worked diligently as a model and actor, hoping one day his father would give him the attention he wanted.
Last but not least of himself is his other self, Kyou. Kyou’s name was ironically taken from the name of Kaori’s father, Hibiki, which character can also be read as Kyou in kanji. Kyou’s presence meant the most to Kaori, being the one who gave everything Kaori had never truly received before: care, attention, protection, companionship, family, discipline, and more. Although they initially were one same person, Kyou was almost a completely different presence than himself to Kaori. Though the existence of Kyou had become natural to him, Kaori has the uneasy feeling of Kyou taking over his body and conscience wholly, despite the other having no single intention to do so. However, he’s starting to grow aware of the day that Kyou will vanish-or merge back into him as one conscience, and he fears of the disability to interact with his other self. Realizing he’s been taking Kyou’s existence and effort for granted the whole time, he has a relentless-yet unsure-wish to resolve the complications of his mentality that had called Kyou’s presence in the first place in hopes to free him from his ‘duty’. At the same time, he’s in self-conflict about being left behind by his other half, because even if Kyou would only merge back into one mind with him, he would still feel the loss of his valuable, life-long companion who had walked beside him the whole time.
[ Strengths/Weaknesses ] :
+ Natural charm, he's been working as a model since he was in elementary school
+ Professional actor, also trained since young
+ Easy to socialize with, his personality is flexible and adaptable
+ Calm and composed, he hardly acts rash
+ Agile movement and remarkable reflexes
+ Perfectly capable all-rounder combatant, easily puts anything his hand could reach in good use
+ Sharp observation skills and instincts (on normal human level)
+ Refined culinary skills
- Stubborn about his beliefs
- Can be influenced a little easily by people he highly respects
- Persistent in disbelief towards fortune telling, although won't impose his opinion
- Difficulty in exposing his real self to others
- Disability to shed tears
+/- Can be fiercely protective to people he comes to treasure
[ Other Important Facts ] :
• He stands at quite a tall height for a 16-year-old, having dark hazelnut hair reaching down above his shoulders and piercing emerald green eyes.
• Kaori arrives with a freshly stitched and dressed stab wound on his abdomen. He's wearing a short-sleeved white jacket and a textured shirt with long white sleeves, grey pants and black sneakers.
• An obsidian stone piercing is on his left ear given by Tajima, the very person who gave him the stab wound.
• Carries a book is on his left hand titled "I Will" by author John Maxwell, which was also lent to him by Tajima.
• Since appearing in Vatheon, he's been unable to interract with Kyou, despite how many times he tried to call for him. Due to thinking about this anytime he could, he would seem to space out sometimes, which is unusual for him. He also stones at the sight of flickering fire, no matter the size of the flames, since it gets him thinking about Shima's trauma towards fire, and pondering if his partner is alright back home.
[ Sample ] :
Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3
[ Questions? Comments? Concerns? ] : SO LIKE, why do we get a fairy stalker...? 8D