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x_scarred1. Player Information
Name: Meg
Username: [aim] kakumeimeggi [email] zerosystem81@gmail.com [plurk] endoftime
Current characters in ToS: The Doctor (metacrisis)
Reserve: Reserve!
2. Canon Character Information
If your character is an original character, skip this and move onto the third section.
Name: Kenshin Himura
PB: Takeru Satoh
Journal:x_scarred
Age: His actual age is 28, however it is often commented on how much younger he actually looks. Many people believe him to be nearly ten years younger.
Appearance: Kenshin is quite unusual looking, his features rather feminine and young looking for his age, which often causes his opponents to under estimate him. As for his hair, it's a shade of red which is not at all common for his heritage. This version of Kenshin doesn't sport the violet eyes his anime/manga counterpart share and are instead a natural shade of dark brown. The most recognizable and striking feature he has is the X shaped scar he has on his left cheek. Being an assassin, he also sports other scars on his body, though they aren't shown in the movie.
This version of Kenshin isn't as expressive as the others, often looking in thought or sporting a neutral expression. However, when he becomes angry or enraged
, his look darkens and it's clear he's angry. It's not often that this version smiles, and usually when he does it's small. However he does smile widely at Kaoru at their first meeting and at the end of the movie.
He wears period Japanese clothing typical for 1878; a red kimono and a set of white hakama. His hair is tied back with a piece of dark blue material in a low ponytail. On his feet he wears an pair of white tabi and a set of zori. These pieces of clothing were given to him by Kaoru, and were once her late father's, which means they are actually a bit big for his frame.
History: General History
There are a few differences in the history of Kenshin in the movie compared to the other versions. In this version Tomoe, his late wife in other versions, was only his fiance and was not present when he slain the men in the alley way, one of which was her late fiance, so this is not the way she meets Kenshin. He stays off in the side lines with other observers in the morning after, watching her cry over the body of her fiance. However this is still how he receives the vertical scar on his cheek.
Another difference is that he fights Jin-ei directly after the confrontation with Takeda Kanryuu, hearing from the freshly rescued Megumi that Kaoru had been kidnnapped. Everything else about the fight remains the same, including his reversion back to Hitokiri Battousai and snapping out of it only by Karou's voice.
Kenshin does not fight Shinomouri Aoshi during the incident with Kanryuu, as he is not featured in the movie (but will be in the next). The Obiwanban group (who are not mentioned by name) are also vastly different, as the two remaining fighters are vastly different from their counterparts. Kenshin leaves one man to Sanosuke to fist fight on the first floor, and he takes on a skilled gun fighter on the second floor. After those fights he, Sano, and Saitou take on Kanryuu and his gattling gun.
There is still the rivalry and distrust of Hajime Saitou, though in this version it is more about Kenshin's reluctance to kill to save those around him than it is over the unfinished fight back during the revolution. Saitou also believes Kenshin to be weak because of his resolves, and Kenshin just brushes them off after little explanation. The two work together in Kanryuu's mansion to get around the gattling gun and only fight each other at one point in the movie. Their rivalry is incredibly toned down.
Kenshin's relationship with Karou is strictly platonic in the movie, at this point showing no advancement toward romance on his end. He sees Karou as someone who needs to carry on her father's Kamiya Kasshin style, and someone who was kind enough to take him in after saving her from a gang.
Powers/Talents: Kenshin is a master of the fictional sword style Hiten Misturugi Ryu. It's a style that requires great flexibility and control over one's body and has incredible accuracy landing hits on targets. Training in this style also gives him the ability to jump incredibly high for aerial attacks. His balance, strength, speed, and stamina are all highly honed and almost supernatural because of the style. Kenshin is also skilled enough with a sword to deflect bullets with the blade to protect himself from being shot, though he cannot stand up to anything more powerful than the period weaponry (sans Gatling guns).
Otherwise Kenshin is human and can be affected by all things that humans can be affected by. He can get sick and he can be killed.
He is also knowledgeable in natural medicine, having spent some time as a medicine merchant during the revolution. Pretty basic things though, such as curing upset stomachs and tending to open wounds.
Personality: Kenshin is a very soft spoken and reserved man who does not think highly of himself. His dialect of Japanese is very polite, with majority of his sentences ending with “de gozaru”, which could roughly translate to “that it is”. As usual, he uses the term “oro” quite frequently whenever he is surprised by something or intrigued by something, making him seem a little foolish and childish. Whomever he speaks to is on a very high level, often using terms and honorifics to place them way above himself, including people who are much younger than himself. This version of Kenshin is much quiter than the anime versions, seeming to speak only when it's necessary or when he's trying to convince someone to stop their fighting. He also doesn't seem to meet everyone's eyes with his own for more than a brief moment, choosing to look down or elsewhere. With those he is his friendly and familiar with, he meets their eye contact more often and for much longer, choosing to be more expressive. This is because he is more comfortable with them and because they are his friends.
However, when he reverts to Battousai, his speech becomes louder and gruffer, the dialect becoming almost condescending toward the person he's fighting. He has no problem making eye contact and his expressions become more severe. He's becomes enraged and forgets his resolution to not kill, having no problem in maiming and killing. This is triggered in the movie when Kaoru is suffocating to death under Jin-ei's technique and only lasted for a minute. He is snapped out of it by Kaoru's plea for him to spare Jin-ei and to not become a killer again. Kenshin then was ashamed for nearly killing Jin-ei and upsetting Kaoru for reverting. Battousai could almost be considered another personality in the way it's triggered, though it's more likely an expression of his held back darker urges.
After choosing to cast his past aside, Kenshin spent the next ten years as a wanderer. In his travels he saves and helps the people he comes across, believing he needs to atone for all his sins. The only reason he fought during the Revolution was to usher in a new age of peace. However he is not proud of his past, choosing not to mention it aloud unless prompted or mentioned by another party, and believes he is something less because of it. Kenshin fights with a sakabatou, or reversed blade sword, in order to prevent himself from killing his opponents and to honor his decision to never kill again. When he becomes Battousai, he flips the blade around with the intention of killing, though this is the only time he does so. Otherwise he chooses only to render his opponents unconscious or unable to use swords again.
During his travels, Kenshin was known to help those in need. This is part of his repentance for his actions during the revolution. At the Kamiya Dojo, he helps with the laundry and cooking, also acting as some sort of confidant for it's residents. He also acts as the dojo's protector, stopping a gang from destroying the dojo and hurting both Kaoru and Yahiko. He also saves Megumi from her life with Kanryuu and aids her when treating the town's residents after being poisoned. Al Despite these things being done for his atonement, he also does them because he is genuinely a good person. In fact even during his time as Hitokiri Battousai, he was still a nice person, although everyone feared him for his skill and stoic demeanor at the time. The only reason he fought to begin with was because of being disillusioned with the Shogunate and wanting to bring about a world where the innocent weren't slaughtered for gain. Nothing he does is for his own gain, as his own needs and wants are the last things he thinks about. He was given multiple chances for advancement in the armyand as Kanryuu's personal bodyguard, and he turns both down without a blink of an eye.
Occasionally his lighthearted and goofball side shows. When sitting in prision he played a short game trying to stop drips of water from bothering him. With Yahiko he crouches to his level and accepts Yahiko as his senpai, of course not actually believing it. At the end of the movie he holds up a basket to a distraught Kaoru and shows her he was getting ingredients for dinner, all with a wide smile. This side doesn't appear often, though it will the more he settles down and is in the company of people he enjoys.
Although he feels Karou's believe that swords revitalize and are not instruments of death as “play talk”, he deeply wishes this was the way things should be. This is one of the reasons he continues to aid Karou around her dojo and saves her life. He sees her as a beacon of hope in a new age brought about by bloodshed, and wishes that everyone would believe her words of peace. He defends this notion to Saitou and Jin-ei.
Why would your character be chosen? He is the legendary Hitokiri Battousai and his sword skills are nearly unmatched.
How much does your character know about nonhumans? Kenshin would know absolutely nothing about non-humans. Despite quite a few people have near superhuman abilities, they are still human in his world. Anything he would know about the supernatural would be based on Japanese folklore and nothing actually "truthful".
Why this character: I'd been playing the manga version of Kenshin many years ago in journal and chat rpgs and had loved the anime series. When I saw the movie, I was pleasantly surprised how much they matured and calmed down the characters, particularly Kenshin. There were a lot of subtleties in the way Kenshin was portrayed, especially with his manners, and I knew I wanted to play the quieter version.
4. Samples
Please either include a first-person entry that could be your character's first post on The Network, or a third-person prose or action spam sample that could be your character's reaction to arriving in Dagaz. For the other two samples, links to previous character examples are fine.
First-Person: (5+ sentences)
[After quite a bit of fumbling, the video clicks on to show a very confused yet curious red haired young man. He tilts the device every which way, poking at it and quickly withdrawing his hand.]
Oro?
[The seemily young man pokes the screen again and tilts it every which way again. He doesn't know he's broadcasting to everyone or that the device is even on. All he knows is it's small and something that he's never seen before.]
This is a strange object, that it is.
[The 'young' man taps it a few times with his hand, trying to figure out what it did.]
Third-Person: Kenshin stood near the edge of the meadow, looking up at the lavender, cloudless sky with a slight head tilt. Then his eyes lowered, watching the residents of the Wyld go about their business. In all his travels he'd never come across a village that looked quite like this, with people dressed quite like...that. He briefly wondered if he'd come across a village with new arrivals from the West. It certainly looked like it, with some of the western style of dress and their different appearances. Actually, quite a few seemed to be dressed rather skimpily. Was there a lack of cloth in this village? Or was it some new fashion from overseas that didn't make much sense? Kenshin looked up at the sky and frowned slightly. Just where was he?
Carefully he stepped forward, walking in small steps and deftly maneuvering around people, trying to keep as unnoticeable as possible. There wasn't any need to ask for information just yet. Everyone seemed to be busy building or working or socializing, and he didn't want to interrupt them. Besides, he could come across what he needed by people watching. The things he did end up seeing only confused him more. Perhaps it was time to find someone not busy and ask them where he was. Surely that wouldn't end in complete disaster.
Third Sample: When Karou left him to dress in her father's old red haroi and white hakama, Kenshin took a moment to collect himself. The events from this afternoon had been confusing, to say the least. She had hated the very image of hitokiri battousai so much, that it was hard to wrap his head around her kindness now; at least toward him. He'd saved her dojo from the thugs and her life from the man posing as the him, who had tarnished her father's style, but he was who he was. He was still the legendary Hitokiri Battousai. She'd accepted that, said it didn't matter anymore, and invited him to stay with her. But between her silly beliefs about swords revitalizing and her acceptance of his past, he couldn't help but welcome it.
Finally dressed, he looked down at himself and saw that the clothes were still a bit too big for him. He couldn't help but smile to himself, holding his arms out from his sides and turning in a small circle. A child wearing his father's clothes. If this were the size her father wore in his younger days, how big a man had he been? Or maybe he really was that small. Either way, he would wear them as they were dry and not soiled. But more importantly, it would make Miss Kaoru very happy. Besides, if he admitted to himself, he was happy to have something new after traveling for some long. He stepped out of the room after securing his sword at his side, and out onto the porch, stepping down into his new zori and out into the cleaned yard. A cool breeze blew and he raised his head to it, closing his eyes and smiling wider. For now this would be home.
And for the first time in a long time, very happy.
Name: Meg
Username: [aim] kakumeimeggi [email] zerosystem81@gmail.com [plurk] endoftime
Current characters in ToS: The Doctor (metacrisis)
Reserve: Reserve!
2. Canon Character Information
If your character is an original character, skip this and move onto the third section.
Name: Kenshin Himura
PB: Takeru Satoh
Journal:
x_scarredAge: His actual age is 28, however it is often commented on how much younger he actually looks. Many people believe him to be nearly ten years younger.
Appearance: Kenshin is quite unusual looking, his features rather feminine and young looking for his age, which often causes his opponents to under estimate him. As for his hair, it's a shade of red which is not at all common for his heritage. This version of Kenshin doesn't sport the violet eyes his anime/manga counterpart share and are instead a natural shade of dark brown. The most recognizable and striking feature he has is the X shaped scar he has on his left cheek. Being an assassin, he also sports other scars on his body, though they aren't shown in the movie.
This version of Kenshin isn't as expressive as the others, often looking in thought or sporting a neutral expression. However, when he becomes angry or enraged
, his look darkens and it's clear he's angry. It's not often that this version smiles, and usually when he does it's small. However he does smile widely at Kaoru at their first meeting and at the end of the movie.
He wears period Japanese clothing typical for 1878; a red kimono and a set of white hakama. His hair is tied back with a piece of dark blue material in a low ponytail. On his feet he wears an pair of white tabi and a set of zori. These pieces of clothing were given to him by Kaoru, and were once her late father's, which means they are actually a bit big for his frame.
History: General History
There are a few differences in the history of Kenshin in the movie compared to the other versions. In this version Tomoe, his late wife in other versions, was only his fiance and was not present when he slain the men in the alley way, one of which was her late fiance, so this is not the way she meets Kenshin. He stays off in the side lines with other observers in the morning after, watching her cry over the body of her fiance. However this is still how he receives the vertical scar on his cheek.
Another difference is that he fights Jin-ei directly after the confrontation with Takeda Kanryuu, hearing from the freshly rescued Megumi that Kaoru had been kidnnapped. Everything else about the fight remains the same, including his reversion back to Hitokiri Battousai and snapping out of it only by Karou's voice.
Kenshin does not fight Shinomouri Aoshi during the incident with Kanryuu, as he is not featured in the movie (but will be in the next). The Obiwanban group (who are not mentioned by name) are also vastly different, as the two remaining fighters are vastly different from their counterparts. Kenshin leaves one man to Sanosuke to fist fight on the first floor, and he takes on a skilled gun fighter on the second floor. After those fights he, Sano, and Saitou take on Kanryuu and his gattling gun.
There is still the rivalry and distrust of Hajime Saitou, though in this version it is more about Kenshin's reluctance to kill to save those around him than it is over the unfinished fight back during the revolution. Saitou also believes Kenshin to be weak because of his resolves, and Kenshin just brushes them off after little explanation. The two work together in Kanryuu's mansion to get around the gattling gun and only fight each other at one point in the movie. Their rivalry is incredibly toned down.
Kenshin's relationship with Karou is strictly platonic in the movie, at this point showing no advancement toward romance on his end. He sees Karou as someone who needs to carry on her father's Kamiya Kasshin style, and someone who was kind enough to take him in after saving her from a gang.
Powers/Talents: Kenshin is a master of the fictional sword style Hiten Misturugi Ryu. It's a style that requires great flexibility and control over one's body and has incredible accuracy landing hits on targets. Training in this style also gives him the ability to jump incredibly high for aerial attacks. His balance, strength, speed, and stamina are all highly honed and almost supernatural because of the style. Kenshin is also skilled enough with a sword to deflect bullets with the blade to protect himself from being shot, though he cannot stand up to anything more powerful than the period weaponry (sans Gatling guns).
Otherwise Kenshin is human and can be affected by all things that humans can be affected by. He can get sick and he can be killed.
He is also knowledgeable in natural medicine, having spent some time as a medicine merchant during the revolution. Pretty basic things though, such as curing upset stomachs and tending to open wounds.
Personality: Kenshin is a very soft spoken and reserved man who does not think highly of himself. His dialect of Japanese is very polite, with majority of his sentences ending with “de gozaru”, which could roughly translate to “that it is”. As usual, he uses the term “oro” quite frequently whenever he is surprised by something or intrigued by something, making him seem a little foolish and childish. Whomever he speaks to is on a very high level, often using terms and honorifics to place them way above himself, including people who are much younger than himself. This version of Kenshin is much quiter than the anime versions, seeming to speak only when it's necessary or when he's trying to convince someone to stop their fighting. He also doesn't seem to meet everyone's eyes with his own for more than a brief moment, choosing to look down or elsewhere. With those he is his friendly and familiar with, he meets their eye contact more often and for much longer, choosing to be more expressive. This is because he is more comfortable with them and because they are his friends.
However, when he reverts to Battousai, his speech becomes louder and gruffer, the dialect becoming almost condescending toward the person he's fighting. He has no problem making eye contact and his expressions become more severe. He's becomes enraged and forgets his resolution to not kill, having no problem in maiming and killing. This is triggered in the movie when Kaoru is suffocating to death under Jin-ei's technique and only lasted for a minute. He is snapped out of it by Kaoru's plea for him to spare Jin-ei and to not become a killer again. Kenshin then was ashamed for nearly killing Jin-ei and upsetting Kaoru for reverting. Battousai could almost be considered another personality in the way it's triggered, though it's more likely an expression of his held back darker urges.
After choosing to cast his past aside, Kenshin spent the next ten years as a wanderer. In his travels he saves and helps the people he comes across, believing he needs to atone for all his sins. The only reason he fought during the Revolution was to usher in a new age of peace. However he is not proud of his past, choosing not to mention it aloud unless prompted or mentioned by another party, and believes he is something less because of it. Kenshin fights with a sakabatou, or reversed blade sword, in order to prevent himself from killing his opponents and to honor his decision to never kill again. When he becomes Battousai, he flips the blade around with the intention of killing, though this is the only time he does so. Otherwise he chooses only to render his opponents unconscious or unable to use swords again.
During his travels, Kenshin was known to help those in need. This is part of his repentance for his actions during the revolution. At the Kamiya Dojo, he helps with the laundry and cooking, also acting as some sort of confidant for it's residents. He also acts as the dojo's protector, stopping a gang from destroying the dojo and hurting both Kaoru and Yahiko. He also saves Megumi from her life with Kanryuu and aids her when treating the town's residents after being poisoned. Al Despite these things being done for his atonement, he also does them because he is genuinely a good person. In fact even during his time as Hitokiri Battousai, he was still a nice person, although everyone feared him for his skill and stoic demeanor at the time. The only reason he fought to begin with was because of being disillusioned with the Shogunate and wanting to bring about a world where the innocent weren't slaughtered for gain. Nothing he does is for his own gain, as his own needs and wants are the last things he thinks about. He was given multiple chances for advancement in the armyand as Kanryuu's personal bodyguard, and he turns both down without a blink of an eye.
Occasionally his lighthearted and goofball side shows. When sitting in prision he played a short game trying to stop drips of water from bothering him. With Yahiko he crouches to his level and accepts Yahiko as his senpai, of course not actually believing it. At the end of the movie he holds up a basket to a distraught Kaoru and shows her he was getting ingredients for dinner, all with a wide smile. This side doesn't appear often, though it will the more he settles down and is in the company of people he enjoys.
Although he feels Karou's believe that swords revitalize and are not instruments of death as “play talk”, he deeply wishes this was the way things should be. This is one of the reasons he continues to aid Karou around her dojo and saves her life. He sees her as a beacon of hope in a new age brought about by bloodshed, and wishes that everyone would believe her words of peace. He defends this notion to Saitou and Jin-ei.
Why would your character be chosen? He is the legendary Hitokiri Battousai and his sword skills are nearly unmatched.
How much does your character know about nonhumans? Kenshin would know absolutely nothing about non-humans. Despite quite a few people have near superhuman abilities, they are still human in his world. Anything he would know about the supernatural would be based on Japanese folklore and nothing actually "truthful".
Why this character: I'd been playing the manga version of Kenshin many years ago in journal and chat rpgs and had loved the anime series. When I saw the movie, I was pleasantly surprised how much they matured and calmed down the characters, particularly Kenshin. There were a lot of subtleties in the way Kenshin was portrayed, especially with his manners, and I knew I wanted to play the quieter version.
4. Samples
Please either include a first-person entry that could be your character's first post on The Network, or a third-person prose or action spam sample that could be your character's reaction to arriving in Dagaz. For the other two samples, links to previous character examples are fine.
First-Person: (5+ sentences)
[After quite a bit of fumbling, the video clicks on to show a very confused yet curious red haired young man. He tilts the device every which way, poking at it and quickly withdrawing his hand.]
Oro?
[The seemily young man pokes the screen again and tilts it every which way again. He doesn't know he's broadcasting to everyone or that the device is even on. All he knows is it's small and something that he's never seen before.]
This is a strange object, that it is.
[The 'young' man taps it a few times with his hand, trying to figure out what it did.]
Third-Person: Kenshin stood near the edge of the meadow, looking up at the lavender, cloudless sky with a slight head tilt. Then his eyes lowered, watching the residents of the Wyld go about their business. In all his travels he'd never come across a village that looked quite like this, with people dressed quite like...that. He briefly wondered if he'd come across a village with new arrivals from the West. It certainly looked like it, with some of the western style of dress and their different appearances. Actually, quite a few seemed to be dressed rather skimpily. Was there a lack of cloth in this village? Or was it some new fashion from overseas that didn't make much sense? Kenshin looked up at the sky and frowned slightly. Just where was he?
Carefully he stepped forward, walking in small steps and deftly maneuvering around people, trying to keep as unnoticeable as possible. There wasn't any need to ask for information just yet. Everyone seemed to be busy building or working or socializing, and he didn't want to interrupt them. Besides, he could come across what he needed by people watching. The things he did end up seeing only confused him more. Perhaps it was time to find someone not busy and ask them where he was. Surely that wouldn't end in complete disaster.
Third Sample: When Karou left him to dress in her father's old red haroi and white hakama, Kenshin took a moment to collect himself. The events from this afternoon had been confusing, to say the least. She had hated the very image of hitokiri battousai so much, that it was hard to wrap his head around her kindness now; at least toward him. He'd saved her dojo from the thugs and her life from the man posing as the him, who had tarnished her father's style, but he was who he was. He was still the legendary Hitokiri Battousai. She'd accepted that, said it didn't matter anymore, and invited him to stay with her. But between her silly beliefs about swords revitalizing and her acceptance of his past, he couldn't help but welcome it.
Finally dressed, he looked down at himself and saw that the clothes were still a bit too big for him. He couldn't help but smile to himself, holding his arms out from his sides and turning in a small circle. A child wearing his father's clothes. If this were the size her father wore in his younger days, how big a man had he been? Or maybe he really was that small. Either way, he would wear them as they were dry and not soiled. But more importantly, it would make Miss Kaoru very happy. Besides, if he admitted to himself, he was happy to have something new after traveling for some long. He stepped out of the room after securing his sword at his side, and out onto the porch, stepping down into his new zori and out into the cleaned yard. A cool breeze blew and he raised his head to it, closing his eyes and smiling wider. For now this would be home.
And for the first time in a long time, very happy.
