[ooc] background/personality
PERSONALITY: Retarded. No, seriously. He's cocky as hell, and manages to be both smarter and dumber than he acts. He's rough and driven, having worked his way up from the streets, all the while lugging a big-ass chip on his shoulder. He thinks everyone's better than him, even as he strives to prove them wrong. Awkward at expressing his affection, but his sincerity comes through nonetheless. He's determined to prove himself in the eyes of his oldest friend, Kuchiki Rukia, and her older brother, Kuchiki Byakuya, who also happens to be his captain. Despite his background, he's learned how to conduct himself in society, being generally respectful to his superiors. But it doesn't take much for the brawler to come out.
BACKGROUND: Renji is the vice-captain of the Sixth Division of the Gotei 13. He grew up on the streets of Rukongai with other orphaned children, a group of boys and the one girl, Rukia. In his eyes, she shone even in their desperate circumstances. But it's hard to stay healthy when you can't afford proper food or shelter or care, and so one after another, his friends died until he and Rukia were the only ones left. Having strong spiritual energy, the two decided to travel to Seireitei and become shinigami. To both their surprise, Renji wound up in the advanced class while Rukia didn't. For the first time in their lives, he was finally better at something than her. He threw himself into academy life wholeheartedly, but in his rush to catch up with his best friend, he didn't notice he was actually leaving her behind.
Out of nowhere one day, Rukia was offered adoption into the Kuchiki clan, one of the great noble houses of Seireitei. She asked him what she should do.
What should he tell her? Should he be selfish and keep her back with him, or give her up to a life he believed she'd always been meant for?
He let her go.
For the next 40 years, he trained and worked his way up the ranks, more determined than ever to catch up, to be good enough to stand by her side, good enough to stand toe to toe with the man who now symbolized everything standing between them. Just as he finally made vice-captain, finally achieved enough rank where it would be acceptable for him to associate with a noble of her standing, Rukia was sent to the living world on assignment. He decided to wait till she got back to give her the news.
Then everything went to shit. Rukia was arrested and sentenced to death for the crime of giving a human her powers. Crippled by an assumption that the people in charge were infallible, Renji took longer than probably necessary to get his head straight. Multiple ass-whoopings helped.
Renji's fierce loyalty had now extended to the whole group of humans who had traveled to Soul Society to rescue Rukia. So when Inoue Orihime was kidnapped, he and Rukia defied their superiors to travel to Hueco Mundo, joining Ichigo, Ishida and Chad. After the longest fight in the world, he and Ishida were saved by reinforcements from SS. Their injuries healed, he was ready to jump back into the action when he found out they'd all walked into a trap, and were now stuck in Hueco Mundo while the enemy was free to carry out their plans.