APPLICATION.
OOC:
Name: Jade
Are you over 16?: Yes!
Personal LJ: gravefucks
Email: atreriaestus@gmail.com
Timezone: EST
Other contact: [AIM;] lemonfetishes
Characters already in the game: prayforprey & withoutnobody.
How did you find us?: lol o u
IC:
Character name: Takasugi Shinsuke [last, first]
Fandom: Gintama
Timeline: most recent appearances
Age: Early 20s
~*Magical*~ abilities and strengths: While Takasugi is a trained and skilled swordsman and has intense ~~persuasive skills~~, he's still human! He can't blow shit up with his mind or control anyone's brainstems or be anything but human.
How would they use their abilities?: It's true that Takasugi is the main antagonist of Gintama, but the amount of what he actually does? Sliiiim. With the destruction of his world already taken care of, he'll honestly probably be at a loss for what to do with his skills. He doesn't kill uncontrollably, only as chess (shogi?) moves, and the game's already been won. As far as persuasion, well, he's pretty fond of casual mindfuck and/or accruing useful people to his team should they come in handy.
I think after some time he'll realize that inherent sense of loathing he feels hasn't left, and simply never will. He'll never be satisfied--but he'll try to exterminate every remnant of his the world that he hated to much. This may include attempting a mass genocide of everything Japanese... l-lmfao.
Appearance: Average height for a Japanese man actually makes for a short character in anime! He's only 5'7" (170cm) and has an average-but-toned build around 132lbs (60kg). He carries himself very languidly, always slouching and relaxed, smoking a pipe and hanging his arms on the inside of his pajama-like robes that hang low on his chest, printed with butterflies or flowers as a motif. Some say he's flamboyant. I just say motherfuckers wanna be comfortable when they destroy they world!
His black-but-sometimes-animu-purple hair flops in his face, and his expression is usually either tired/bored or strikingly insane. His head is wrapped in bandages that cover his left eye and ear, and the remaining eye is a dark, murky green with a droopy lid and and pupil that's usually shrunken.
Oh, and sometimes he wears one of those cool motherfuckin' hats. You know the hats? Yeah, that fuckin' hat. It doesn't come as a partner to the occasional Shamisen, though.
Background: Gintama wasn't always the uproariously hilarious and crude, 4th-wall-breaking story we see today. It actually has something of a serious past, and stemming from the somber history is Takasugi's personality, who didn't evolve into constant humor relief like... everybody the fuck else.
In olden Japan, with the loyal samurai practices still in great popularity, three boys were being trained by the righteous Yoshida Shouyou. Katsura Kotarou, quickly nicknamed Zura, Sakata Gintoki, and Takasugi Shinsuke all trained under the man's watchful eye and upright codes, building sometimes tenuous bonds of friendship. While Zura tended to get along with both boys (Gintoki moreso gravitated to), Gintoki and Takasugi always had a fierce rivalry and were often at ends over their teacher's affection. Even so, they were all relatively happy and well taken care of.
...And then aliens came to Earth.
The Anti-Foreigner wars kicked up, the aliens called "Amanto" against the samurai trying to defend their country from foreign threats. It's unknown exactly when Shouyou-Sensei lost his life to the conflicts, but all of the boys were quite young. Always desiring the man's attention, Takasugi took the blow deeply; the boy that had been -- while not always social, but certainly not insane -- took the loss of his teacher and personal mentor to a very dark place, cultivating a deep hatred of the Amanto, and, eventually, the entire rotting world that took the most important person away from him.
First he joined the Anti-Foreigner War as a samurai with Zura and Gintoki by his side, as well as a fourth member: Sakamoto Tatsuma, and quickly ascended through the ranks for his mercilessness in battle and his cold calculation, even forming a division he led called the Kiheitai, which he reigns control over in current canon (albeit with different intentions). Here is where he lost his left eye in a surprise attack by an Amanto leader, and when Gintoki jumps into the fight, Takasugi is furious, causing a deeper rift between the two comrades.
Their efforts were all for naught, however, when the war was lost and Amanto became so fully integrated into Japanese society that they even held positions of political power. Edo changed then, and Takasugi changed with it.
Zura, injured badly at the end of the war, was escorted to safety by Gintoki, whose whereabouts quickly became unknown as he ceased all contact with everyone. Presumably, Takasugi too goes off the face of the map for a while, though Zura later informs that he'd spent much time in Kyoto. Sakamoto, having always been the biggest dreamer of them, becomes a successful business man and eventually ascends into the stars they'd always all looked at together on nights after battle.
By the time he resurfaces in the current timeline of Gintama, he is a completely different man, practically devoid of human emotion. The Amanto-puppet police force, the Shinsengumi, revere Takasugi as one of Japan's most wanted criminals. At this point, he's resurrected the Kiheitai from the Anti-Foreigner wars, but with a completely different purpose: to destroy the world in a radical extremism, instead of protect Japan from foreigners. To see this goal, his resurgence in Edo is during a festival in which he manipulates a grief-stricken father that lost his son in the war into attacking the Shogun, the leader of the government. He's unsuccessful, but doesn't seem too upset, knowing there will be other opportunities in the future.
Later, he resurfaces with the rest of the Kiheitai, working together with a swordsmith who manufactured bio-mechanical weapons called "Benizakura". He manipulated one of the members to become equipped with the sword, both of them knowing it would destroy his life, all to aid his plans of destruction. Here he came face to face with both Zura, thought to be killed by the Benizakura, and Gintoki with their factions: The Joui and The Yorozuya respectively.
Takasugi shows a deeply treacherous side when he offers to pay his way into the Amanto-driven Space Pirate faction called the Harusame with his old friends' deaths. Here, the two redact any affiliation with Takasugi, swearing to him that the next time they cross paths, it would be as enemies and without mercy. He doesn't seem hurt by the loss as he watches his former war-mates escape over his space ship via parachute.
Later, he causes a huge dispute in the Shinsengumi by using a man named Itou to turn traitor, hoping to make the police force destroy itself from the inside, only saved by aid from the Yorozuya. His latest appearances are back with the Harusame, where he stages a coup with a clan of Amanto called the the Yato, making one of the leaders, Kamui, his ally.
Personality: Takasugi wasn't always the crazypuff you see kekekeing in the shadows and making scary faces. He was once a noteworthy student, a friend, a comrade, and an excellent soldier. There was a time when he could form normal human attachments and feel the warmth of others. As mentioned in the history, when Edo changed, he changed with it.
As the main antagonist of Gintama, Takasugi certainly wastes no time with his introductions. He presents himself as a cool, calm, and inherently ominous person. It's not so much the clothes he wears, but the way he walks. He downright smells dangerous, and if you stick around long enough to talk to him, you'll find out why.
Takasugi hates. That's all there is to it. He hates the whole world so much that he wishes it would burn. He sees people as nothing but useless trash to either be used and discarded or just plain discarded. He doesn't hold lives to any sort of regard and, despite being a samurai, he is faithful to no code or friendship, to the point he's downright sociopathic. He will use people until they are useless again, and he certainly does not stand betrayal and insubordination from his underlings. He always makes known that he is in control and he is the one pulling the strings.
And while he has very solidified plots: destroy the corrupt governernment and the world, he seems to wander through life almost aimlessly. One of his comrades he came across while simply wandering the streets and asked if he was "satisfied" with petty killing. The people he accrues into his life, with exceptions, seem mostly fiercely loyal, dedicated to his insane ideas, who all refer to him by first name with high honorifics. He is incredibly charismatic, preying on the desperation and sadness of the weak or the greed and desires of the strong.
He is completely cold inside, feeling so little it's practically inhuman, ruthless and treacherous to a fault. He claims he has a "black beast of revenge" inside of him, and it single-mindedly drives him to push on to his goals. Thusly, he's completely aware of his own insanity and defects, but even so, genius and insanity are a fine line. He's very intelligent, not only in his extremist motivations, but he's also able to speak in thick metaphors and use words to sway others.
Although he cares little for life, he doesn't often dirty his own hands. He's much more comfortable and certainly intelligent enough to be the shadowy figure behind everything, pulling the strings. Whenever he's attacked or threatened, he rarely even reacts strongly, instead letting one of his underlings take care of the offense. He moves people around the board as he sees fit, also making him terribly egotistical, full of himself, and difficult to please.
As far as relating to other people? Every shred of camaraderie he felt for Gintoki has vanished and been replaced with cold, dark hate that he he goes so far as to almost kill his Kiheitai member that calls them "comrades", only sparing him because he thinks he's still useful. While Zura is more tolerable, that's all it is: tolerance. He acknowledges they'll never be friends or comrades again and isn't upset by it in the least. Sakamoto he doesn't even believe fought the same war as the rest of them, always stuck in his land of daydreams. Most human emotion has simply been scorched out of him by the loss of his Sensei, the neverending growth of hate, and that black-beast-desire for revenge inside of him.
The only left over affection and nostalgia he has is in Sensei, as he still keeps his little green book from childhood inside his robes.
Why should that character be in this game: For OCs only.
Why do you want to continue their history here: For characters from other games only.
For applicants considering an alternate version of a character already in game, please use this as your chance to explain the key differences between your character and the one already in play:
Have you read up on how the game works?: >World Dead
>Thor
>Refugee
>Paperwork
>Babelfish
>Guide
-FlamingFerret
>Make Money
-Missions
-Mooch
-Steal
>Be Coo'
1st person sample: Note: since Takasugi is one of those puppetmaster-in-the-shadows type of characters, he wouldn't use the Guide for the same standard of posts -- he would use it as a tool, thus never using the video function or making accidental posts and what-have-you. That being said, samples are meant to display the "voice" of a character for judging! Just know that this sample itself is somewhat "out of context", maybe even to the point where he's been on Thor for several weeks and has already confronted Katsura, Gintoki, and Sakamoto.
[the voice feed clicks on and there's nothing at first, only smoky breath and the shifting of fabric]
[then, one rough slam onto three strings, a banjo-like plucking]
There is a story behind every song. The desires of men, the weights of their guilt, the love for a tender woman, all objects that capture the hearts of others in a jovial or desperate grip.
[there are three hearts he's trying to vice grip on the ship of Thor with the jumbling, stringy beat that goes steady into the feeds]
[he already knows they're here.]
Naa, this one... this one is about tragedy. This one is about brothers on a battlefield who should have died there.
[the tune rises, hungry for more speed and power, crescendoing slightly with more powerful bangings of a plectrum]
It's about the hardships they faced at each other's shoulders, the enemies they slaughtered with their blades, and the blood that stained their armor. It's a somber tale about how honor would have been achieved if they had all simply fought well and died hard in the heat of their country's war.
[another rise, and the speaker's hands must be moving quickly along the neck now]
The sad part is they lived on, to become mangled beasts that are simply shadows of their former selves.
And the worst part of it all?
[and all at once all the music comes to an abrupt end, the silence deafening]
[he chips into it with every fang, his voice low and angry:]
They're happy that way.
3rd person sample:The filthy Amanto in front of him is smacking his jaws and dribbling onto his chin. The disgusting creature in front of him is aggrevatingly serious and immobile. The grotesque bag of flesh in front of him is saying almost uncomprehensible things like your world is gone and please sign here.
He wonders for a moment if it's a cruel prank by the Yato clan. His darkest, most heartfelt desire brought to fruition... while he was away on a goddamn space ship with those aforementioned vile beings, trying to push his plans along inch by cultivated inch, and someone else went on ahead and did it on their own. Without him.
He feels the flames of his glory shrivel into ash behind is back, no longer warming his spine.
Bureaucracy. More of it. He signs and signs and signs, the sharpquick calligraphy of his name demoralized with some pen that isn't the same traditional, beautiful brushes of the ukioe paintings.
They'll rub their filth off on him with their modernized ways and their get-it-done-quick attitudes. He can't even stand the way the air tastes in their presence.
The beast inside of him is raising hackles, black mangy fur tickling his throat to dryness.
Ohh, but he should be satisfied. Shouyou-Sensei's death is avenged. The government he'd waited to see burn to the ground is justly so. The cruel, cold, greedy world that had taken everything from him and spurned nothing but death and destruction is in ruins, floating in its on stratosphere spacejunk. He should be relieved.
He isn't relieved.
His hand won't stop lingering on the hilt of his sword, calloused thumb rubbing the bloodguard. He can't stop gritting his teeth as he tries to take in the foreign Amanto space station.
When he leaves the offices and sees the aliens hustling and bustling in the corridors, he almost vomits with rage. There's one feverish thought snarling up inside both his and that inner beast's head:
are there any more survivors?
Questions?:
Did you put your characters name and fandom in the subject: Yyyyes.
Name: Jade
Are you over 16?: Yes!
Personal LJ: gravefucks
Email: atreriaestus@gmail.com
Timezone: EST
Other contact: [AIM;] lemonfetishes
Characters already in the game: prayforprey & withoutnobody.
How did you find us?: lol o u
IC:
Character name: Takasugi Shinsuke [last, first]
Fandom: Gintama
Timeline: most recent appearances
Age: Early 20s
~*Magical*~ abilities and strengths: While Takasugi is a trained and skilled swordsman and has intense ~~persuasive skills~~, he's still human! He can't blow shit up with his mind or control anyone's brainstems or be anything but human.
How would they use their abilities?: It's true that Takasugi is the main antagonist of Gintama, but the amount of what he actually does? Sliiiim. With the destruction of his world already taken care of, he'll honestly probably be at a loss for what to do with his skills. He doesn't kill uncontrollably, only as chess (shogi?) moves, and the game's already been won. As far as persuasion, well, he's pretty fond of casual mindfuck and/or accruing useful people to his team should they come in handy.
I think after some time he'll realize that inherent sense of loathing he feels hasn't left, and simply never will. He'll never be satisfied--but he'll try to exterminate every remnant of his the world that he hated to much. This may include attempting a mass genocide of everything Japanese... l-lmfao.
Appearance: Average height for a Japanese man actually makes for a short character in anime! He's only 5'7" (170cm) and has an average-but-toned build around 132lbs (60kg). He carries himself very languidly, always slouching and relaxed, smoking a pipe and hanging his arms on the inside of his pajama-like robes that hang low on his chest, printed with butterflies or flowers as a motif. Some say he's flamboyant. I just say motherfuckers wanna be comfortable when they destroy they world!
His black-but-sometimes-animu-purple hair flops in his face, and his expression is usually either tired/bored or strikingly insane. His head is wrapped in bandages that cover his left eye and ear, and the remaining eye is a dark, murky green with a droopy lid and and pupil that's usually shrunken.
Oh, and sometimes he wears one of those cool motherfuckin' hats. You know the hats? Yeah, that fuckin' hat. It doesn't come as a partner to the occasional Shamisen, though.
Background: Gintama wasn't always the uproariously hilarious and crude, 4th-wall-breaking story we see today. It actually has something of a serious past, and stemming from the somber history is Takasugi's personality, who didn't evolve into constant humor relief like... everybody the fuck else.
In olden Japan, with the loyal samurai practices still in great popularity, three boys were being trained by the righteous Yoshida Shouyou. Katsura Kotarou, quickly nicknamed Zura, Sakata Gintoki, and Takasugi Shinsuke all trained under the man's watchful eye and upright codes, building sometimes tenuous bonds of friendship. While Zura tended to get along with both boys (Gintoki moreso gravitated to), Gintoki and Takasugi always had a fierce rivalry and were often at ends over their teacher's affection. Even so, they were all relatively happy and well taken care of.
...And then aliens came to Earth.
The Anti-Foreigner wars kicked up, the aliens called "Amanto" against the samurai trying to defend their country from foreign threats. It's unknown exactly when Shouyou-Sensei lost his life to the conflicts, but all of the boys were quite young. Always desiring the man's attention, Takasugi took the blow deeply; the boy that had been -- while not always social, but certainly not insane -- took the loss of his teacher and personal mentor to a very dark place, cultivating a deep hatred of the Amanto, and, eventually, the entire rotting world that took the most important person away from him.
First he joined the Anti-Foreigner War as a samurai with Zura and Gintoki by his side, as well as a fourth member: Sakamoto Tatsuma, and quickly ascended through the ranks for his mercilessness in battle and his cold calculation, even forming a division he led called the Kiheitai, which he reigns control over in current canon (albeit with different intentions). Here is where he lost his left eye in a surprise attack by an Amanto leader, and when Gintoki jumps into the fight, Takasugi is furious, causing a deeper rift between the two comrades.
Their efforts were all for naught, however, when the war was lost and Amanto became so fully integrated into Japanese society that they even held positions of political power. Edo changed then, and Takasugi changed with it.
Zura, injured badly at the end of the war, was escorted to safety by Gintoki, whose whereabouts quickly became unknown as he ceased all contact with everyone. Presumably, Takasugi too goes off the face of the map for a while, though Zura later informs that he'd spent much time in Kyoto. Sakamoto, having always been the biggest dreamer of them, becomes a successful business man and eventually ascends into the stars they'd always all looked at together on nights after battle.
By the time he resurfaces in the current timeline of Gintama, he is a completely different man, practically devoid of human emotion. The Amanto-puppet police force, the Shinsengumi, revere Takasugi as one of Japan's most wanted criminals. At this point, he's resurrected the Kiheitai from the Anti-Foreigner wars, but with a completely different purpose: to destroy the world in a radical extremism, instead of protect Japan from foreigners. To see this goal, his resurgence in Edo is during a festival in which he manipulates a grief-stricken father that lost his son in the war into attacking the Shogun, the leader of the government. He's unsuccessful, but doesn't seem too upset, knowing there will be other opportunities in the future.
Later, he resurfaces with the rest of the Kiheitai, working together with a swordsmith who manufactured bio-mechanical weapons called "Benizakura". He manipulated one of the members to become equipped with the sword, both of them knowing it would destroy his life, all to aid his plans of destruction. Here he came face to face with both Zura, thought to be killed by the Benizakura, and Gintoki with their factions: The Joui and The Yorozuya respectively.
Takasugi shows a deeply treacherous side when he offers to pay his way into the Amanto-driven Space Pirate faction called the Harusame with his old friends' deaths. Here, the two redact any affiliation with Takasugi, swearing to him that the next time they cross paths, it would be as enemies and without mercy. He doesn't seem hurt by the loss as he watches his former war-mates escape over his space ship via parachute.
Later, he causes a huge dispute in the Shinsengumi by using a man named Itou to turn traitor, hoping to make the police force destroy itself from the inside, only saved by aid from the Yorozuya. His latest appearances are back with the Harusame, where he stages a coup with a clan of Amanto called the the Yato, making one of the leaders, Kamui, his ally.
Personality: Takasugi wasn't always the crazypuff you see kekekeing in the shadows and making scary faces. He was once a noteworthy student, a friend, a comrade, and an excellent soldier. There was a time when he could form normal human attachments and feel the warmth of others. As mentioned in the history, when Edo changed, he changed with it.
As the main antagonist of Gintama, Takasugi certainly wastes no time with his introductions. He presents himself as a cool, calm, and inherently ominous person. It's not so much the clothes he wears, but the way he walks. He downright smells dangerous, and if you stick around long enough to talk to him, you'll find out why.
Takasugi hates. That's all there is to it. He hates the whole world so much that he wishes it would burn. He sees people as nothing but useless trash to either be used and discarded or just plain discarded. He doesn't hold lives to any sort of regard and, despite being a samurai, he is faithful to no code or friendship, to the point he's downright sociopathic. He will use people until they are useless again, and he certainly does not stand betrayal and insubordination from his underlings. He always makes known that he is in control and he is the one pulling the strings.
And while he has very solidified plots: destroy the corrupt governernment and the world, he seems to wander through life almost aimlessly. One of his comrades he came across while simply wandering the streets and asked if he was "satisfied" with petty killing. The people he accrues into his life, with exceptions, seem mostly fiercely loyal, dedicated to his insane ideas, who all refer to him by first name with high honorifics. He is incredibly charismatic, preying on the desperation and sadness of the weak or the greed and desires of the strong.
He is completely cold inside, feeling so little it's practically inhuman, ruthless and treacherous to a fault. He claims he has a "black beast of revenge" inside of him, and it single-mindedly drives him to push on to his goals. Thusly, he's completely aware of his own insanity and defects, but even so, genius and insanity are a fine line. He's very intelligent, not only in his extremist motivations, but he's also able to speak in thick metaphors and use words to sway others.
Although he cares little for life, he doesn't often dirty his own hands. He's much more comfortable and certainly intelligent enough to be the shadowy figure behind everything, pulling the strings. Whenever he's attacked or threatened, he rarely even reacts strongly, instead letting one of his underlings take care of the offense. He moves people around the board as he sees fit, also making him terribly egotistical, full of himself, and difficult to please.
As far as relating to other people? Every shred of camaraderie he felt for Gintoki has vanished and been replaced with cold, dark hate that he he goes so far as to almost kill his Kiheitai member that calls them "comrades", only sparing him because he thinks he's still useful. While Zura is more tolerable, that's all it is: tolerance. He acknowledges they'll never be friends or comrades again and isn't upset by it in the least. Sakamoto he doesn't even believe fought the same war as the rest of them, always stuck in his land of daydreams. Most human emotion has simply been scorched out of him by the loss of his Sensei, the neverending growth of hate, and that black-beast-desire for revenge inside of him.
The only left over affection and nostalgia he has is in Sensei, as he still keeps his little green book from childhood inside his robes.
Why should that character be in this game: For OCs only.
Why do you want to continue their history here: For characters from other games only.
For applicants considering an alternate version of a character already in game, please use this as your chance to explain the key differences between your character and the one already in play:
Have you read up on how the game works?: >World Dead
>Thor
>Refugee
>Paperwork
>Babelfish
>Guide
-FlamingFerret
>Make Money
-Missions
-Mooch
-Steal
>Be Coo'
1st person sample: Note: since Takasugi is one of those puppetmaster-in-the-shadows type of characters, he wouldn't use the Guide for the same standard of posts -- he would use it as a tool, thus never using the video function or making accidental posts and what-have-you. That being said, samples are meant to display the "voice" of a character for judging! Just know that this sample itself is somewhat "out of context", maybe even to the point where he's been on Thor for several weeks and has already confronted Katsura, Gintoki, and Sakamoto.
[the voice feed clicks on and there's nothing at first, only smoky breath and the shifting of fabric]
[then, one rough slam onto three strings, a banjo-like plucking]
There is a story behind every song. The desires of men, the weights of their guilt, the love for a tender woman, all objects that capture the hearts of others in a jovial or desperate grip.
[there are three hearts he's trying to vice grip on the ship of Thor with the jumbling, stringy beat that goes steady into the feeds]
[he already knows they're here.]
Naa, this one... this one is about tragedy. This one is about brothers on a battlefield who should have died there.
[the tune rises, hungry for more speed and power, crescendoing slightly with more powerful bangings of a plectrum]
It's about the hardships they faced at each other's shoulders, the enemies they slaughtered with their blades, and the blood that stained their armor. It's a somber tale about how honor would have been achieved if they had all simply fought well and died hard in the heat of their country's war.
[another rise, and the speaker's hands must be moving quickly along the neck now]
The sad part is they lived on, to become mangled beasts that are simply shadows of their former selves.
And the worst part of it all?
[and all at once all the music comes to an abrupt end, the silence deafening]
[he chips into it with every fang, his voice low and angry:]
They're happy that way.
3rd person sample:The filthy Amanto in front of him is smacking his jaws and dribbling onto his chin. The disgusting creature in front of him is aggrevatingly serious and immobile. The grotesque bag of flesh in front of him is saying almost uncomprehensible things like your world is gone and please sign here.
He wonders for a moment if it's a cruel prank by the Yato clan. His darkest, most heartfelt desire brought to fruition... while he was away on a goddamn space ship with those aforementioned vile beings, trying to push his plans along inch by cultivated inch, and someone else went on ahead and did it on their own. Without him.
He feels the flames of his glory shrivel into ash behind is back, no longer warming his spine.
Bureaucracy. More of it. He signs and signs and signs, the sharpquick calligraphy of his name demoralized with some pen that isn't the same traditional, beautiful brushes of the ukioe paintings.
They'll rub their filth off on him with their modernized ways and their get-it-done-quick attitudes. He can't even stand the way the air tastes in their presence.
The beast inside of him is raising hackles, black mangy fur tickling his throat to dryness.
Ohh, but he should be satisfied. Shouyou-Sensei's death is avenged. The government he'd waited to see burn to the ground is justly so. The cruel, cold, greedy world that had taken everything from him and spurned nothing but death and destruction is in ruins, floating in its on stratosphere spacejunk. He should be relieved.
He isn't relieved.
His hand won't stop lingering on the hilt of his sword, calloused thumb rubbing the bloodguard. He can't stop gritting his teeth as he tries to take in the foreign Amanto space station.
When he leaves the offices and sees the aliens hustling and bustling in the corridors, he almost vomits with rage. There's one feverish thought snarling up inside both his and that inner beast's head:
are there any more survivors?
Questions?:
Did you put your characters name and fandom in the subject: Yyyyes.