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rubycitymods) wrote2012-01-13 01:45 pm
rubycitymods) wrote2012-01-13 01:45 pm
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A note for CR AU applications
Ruby City does allow previous game history/CR to be brought over on a case by case basis. If you want to include this in your application please add additional sections for PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT and PREVIOUS GAME HISTORY beneath the Personality and Background/History sections.
In these additional sections we would like to see a brief outline of your character's previous game history and how it potentially impacted on and altered their canon personality.
[Canon] Masamori Sumimura | Kekkaishi | not reserved
Name: Orlando
Age: 24
Personal Journal:
E-mail: agreylady@gmail.com
AIM/MSN/etc: Elspeth Vimes
CHARACTER
Name: Masamori Sumimura
Canon: Kekkaishi
Age: 21 (possibly 22 by this point in canon, it's unclear)
Timeline: Mid-chapter 318 (after leaving Yomi)
If playing another character from the same canon, how will you deal with this?: n/a
Personality:
On the surface, Masamori is everything you could want in an older brother figure. He's friendly and easygoing, frequently seen with a smile on his face. He takes an interest in people, in their interests, and in how they're doing both individually and in relation to others. He's observant, and tries to give people appropriate attention. He can be teasing, but it's good-natured teasing, and only to people he knows can handle it. He's encouraging, recognizing potential strengths and trying to foster them. He frequently give people second and third chances, believing that they will pay off (and often, it does), and even if it doesn't quite work as planned valuable lessons will be gained. He is apparently very forgiving. He frequently doesn't punish people for mistakes and moves past some betrayals.
He's been accused of being "soft," on account of his willingness to let mistakes go and even to accept known traitors back into the fold for a second chance. Masamori is not soft. People fall into three categories with him. There the people who are "his," his family or the family he has made with the Yagyou. He cares about these people and will protect them in any way he can. There are the people he can use, the ones he doesn't trust but knows he can manipulate or benefit from. And then there are his enemies, the ones who threaten or harm "his" people without having something to offer him. Masamori doesn't really make enemies lightly. But when he does, he is out to destroy them completely.
Masamori is highly intelligent and methodical. He's curious, he likes to understand everything that's going on. He's creative in his use of his powers- he's the first one we see to use the technique of layer kekkai for greater effect. As previously stated, he's observant, and has a good memory for what he observes. He tends towards long-term thinking. If something or someone may be useful to him in the future, he'll hold onto it or them for years. Anger can be a powerful motivating force for him (arguably his most powerful motivating force), but he controls it. He waits for his time, for the best opportunity to act. Even in his fight with Ogi, after Ogi causes the death of several members of the Yagyou, Masamori first seeks a truce, realizing that at that moment he is at a disadvantage and would be better served by gaining more time to discover a method to destroy Ogi. He is also unflinchingly pragmatic. If the only way to gain an important ally for the Yagou is to give away some information about his family, he'll do it. It's a question of who is more likely to be truly hurt- that is his first priority.
Beneath the big brother act, and driving the intelligence, is a proud, angry individual. Masamori wants to be the best. He wants to have control. He doesn't take slights to himself well, and takes threats to "his" people even more badly. He may not act impulsively on his anger, but man, can he ever hold a grudge. He doesn't trust easily, preferring to handle everything he can by himself.
But he is, in his way, a good guy. He genuinely cares about "his" people and wants them to lead relatively safe, happy lives. He'll fight for that. He'll fight dirty if he thinks that's the best way to make sure they're protected. He expresses horror at leaders who use their underlings as canon fodder- that's not how the relationship should work. He'll even avoid hurting his opponents' underlings whenever possible. If he hurts someone innocent, or comes to believe someone deserves a chance to be saved, he'll expend all his available resources in that effort, even at the cost of some of his ambitions.
For all his seeming control, he can act rather illogically at times. He has a strong sense of both responsibility and guilt. He is the one who has to protect the Yagyou, he is the one who has to stop an old friend who has become an ayakashi. He perceives it as his duty. He blames himself if something wrong, even if there was no reason for him to predict it, and he'll take it upon himself to fix things. This leads to him occasionally doing things like taking on possibly suicidal missions by himself.
Masamori has a serious inferiority complex, courtesy of Yoshimori and other powerful figures (including his mother). He is not good enough, or strong enough. He hates being ineffective or powerless, but also feels that he's fated to be that way. It's why he fights hard for and clings to the power he has, why he keeps such a proud attitude, and why he works himself to the absolute limit of his abilities. He's not "special," even though he's been surrounded by people who are. He wants that kind of recognition desperately, and harbors rather bitter feelings towards those who make it through life because they're "chosen" or just possess more natural talent (and even when someone's not really doing that, Masamori can be inclined to see them that way).
Compared to the "chosen" Yoshimori, Masamori is the angry one, the ambitious one, the overly proud one, the bitter one. And Masamori knows it. "My pride, my immaturity...it's all detestable," he thinks at one point. But for all that he realizes this and wishes he could be as good as Yoshimori, Masamori doesn't really see how he can change. He feels that he has been exiled to the shadows (even if, in truth, he's the one who put and keeps himself there) and that all he can do is use that fact to protect the people who are closer to the light.
Background: (I'm sorry about this but the Kekkaishi wiki isn't very good and has anime information that I disavow)
Prior to his first appearance in canon:
Masamori was born into the Sumimura family, one of the two families of Kekkaishi ("barrier masters") which have for generations protected the sacred and magically dangerous ground of Karasumori (on top of which a combined middle and high school now sits). Unlike his grandfather, Masamori was not born with the "houin" mark on his right hand that would mark him as a legitimate successor, the most honored and useful of Kekkaishi. But that was of little consequence. After all, Masamori's mother wasn't a legitimate successor either (though incredibly powerful and skilled). The mark has been known to skip a number of generations, especially when one legitimate successor is still alive. Masamori was smart and gifted, and started receiving training for his abilities at a young age. You don't have to be a legitimate successor to protect Karasumori.
Then, when Masamori was seven, his younger brother Yoshimori was born. Yoshimori had the houin mark.
Since then Masamori's has revolved around two things- excelling at what he does and wondering why he wasn't chosen to be a legitimate successor. This isn't to say he was a bad brother. He tried to be helpful and understanding. But he was left constantly questioning himself, and more than a little angry, with the result that at the very least he came across as aloof (to Yoshimori, that is. to others he was a more positive figure).
When he was around 15 or 16, Masamori left home (his grandfather sent a shikigami to finish high school for him) and joined the Urakai ("Shadow Organization"), an organization of people with unusual abilities who, for one reason or another, either couldn't inherent the family business or had none to inherit. The Urakai investigate and resolve paranormal matters which cannot be solved by other means, and attempt to generally regulate the unseen world of Japan. Upon joining the organization Masamori was largely tutored by "the immortal" Mudou, a man with a somewhat Machiavellian world view but who taught and was well-respected by the younger members of the Urakai. Masamori found himself discontent with the existing structure of the Urakai and, encouraged by Mudou, founded his own task force. The Yagyou ("Night Troop"), as they came to be called, became a group which specialized in eliminating urgent threats, and was largely composed of younger members, doubling as both a form of on-the-job training and, for many, serving as a family. As the chief of the Yagyou, Masamori obtained a great deal of status and power within the Urakai at a remarkably young age (at the most, he would have been seventeen). Mudou, in the meantime, became an ayakashi and a mass murderer.
canon appearances by arc:
Masamori's introduction (chapters 30-35): Masamori is introduced as a somewhat sinister figure, a rising power in the Urakai and the person who led the demon-user Kasuga Yomi to try to take advantage of Karasumori's power. Following this, Masamori makes his first trip back home in years, and is shown to be a friendly, well-liked member of the family and community (with the exception of Yoshimori, who has something of an inferiority complex centered around Masamori and who gets defensive as a result). Masamori brings a new ayakashi to the Karsumori grounds to see how Yoshimori (and Tokine) deal with it, but it seems that this is a form of tough love just as much as it is a method of gathering information, and when Masamori leaves again it's after encouraging Yoshimori to pursue his goals.
Kokoburou arc (chapters 42-141, though Masamori isn't involved in many of those): A group of ayakashi known as the Kokoburou begin to threaten Karasumori, at first with fairly low-level creatures. As part of the Urakai's growing interest in Karasumori and for some personal reasons, Masamori sends Shishio Gen, a 14-year-old member of the Yagyou, to Karasumori to help the kekkaishi there. Masamori is promoted to the Urakai's executive committee, the Council of Twelve, which has a seat open in the wake of Mudou's desertion. The Kokuburou increases its attacks against Karasumori, and Masamori continues to aid the defense by such methods as temporarily sending one of the Yagyou teachers to help train Gen and the kekkaishi to work together and helping a particular ayakashi expert stage his own death. Masamori intends to go with the bulk of the Yagyou to Karasumori in expectation of a major offense by the Kokuburou, but first is sent on another mission that requires a great deal of manpower. Because of this, a major attack by the Kokuburou results in Gen's death, which Masamori arrives to late to see. Masamori and the Yagyou then set up around Karasumori and prepare for the next major invasion by the Kokuburou, which they repel. Unfortunately Yoshimori and one of the Yagyou, Sen, are taken to Kokuburou headquarters, in an alternate dimension. The other kekkaishi and the Yagyou manage to get through to the Kokuburou castle, but by then Yoshimori and others have taken care of pretty much everything and all that's left to do is get them out. Everyone returns home.
Black box arc (chapters 134-147): While the bulk of this arc doesn't involve Masamori, it's a demonstrative arc. Ogi Ichirou, a member of the Council of Twelve who Masamori does not get along with, pushes for another member of the council to investigate Karsumori. Okuni, the member of the council in charge of the investigative branch, volunteers, and is supposed to have Masamori as a guide. However, mysterious black boxes appear at Yagyou headquarters (and in Karasumori) with the result that two of the children in the organization go missing. Masamori stays at headquarters to try to take care of the boxes, which also eventually have ayakashi sent out of them, while sending his second-in-command to Karusumori. Eventually, through their own efforts the children escape and are found, and the black boxes are neutralized. Okuni tells the Council that Karasumori should remain in the care of the kekkaishi for now, but that only leaves Masamori suspicious of her. Not to mention angry with Ogi, who pretty clearly planned this.
Mudou arc (chapters 154-165): Having been hunting for Mudou since the man became an ayakashi and killed a lot of people, including some of Masamori's subordinates, Masamori finally locates him in a shinyuuchi (sacred land, another somewhat alternate but connected universe) near Karasumori. Currently low on manpower, Masamori asks Yoshimori to come along as back up. Masamori hunts Mudou down, Yoshimori gets involved by accident along with the Lord of the shinyuuchi, there is an epic showdown in which some of the brothers' issues are aired and Mudou tries to Masamori to joing the dark side. Masamori, however, resists, and the Lord of the shinyuuchi ultimately defeats Mudou by destroying his own world, to recreate it later. Masamori is seriously injured but manages to get out and is taken back to the Yagyou healers, so he recovers quickly.
Things that I can't quite classify into the next segment (chapters 166-169): Masamori begins a restructuring of the Yagyou, calling back the telepath Sazanami who had been in charge of the Yagyou's intelligence. While Sazanami had betrayed the Yagyou, giving information to Ogi, Masamori makes sure that Sazanami wants to cooperate again. Or else. Masamori also sends two young members of the Yagyou, Sen and Shuu, to Karasumori, primarily for intelligence purposes.
[Canon] Masamori Sumimura | Kekkaishi | not reserved 2/2
Shinyuuchi hunting and the collapse of the Urakai (chapters 180-beyond): This is all part of the overall plot that leads to the end of the manga, though it's only one of the two major threads of plot that leads to that, so it's pretty big and a little complicated, harder to break into arcs than some of the other parts of the manga. Which is why it's a wall of text.
It becomes clear that someone is "hunting" shinyuuchi, stealing their power and causing the environment around those areas a great deal of harm. Sumimura Sumiko, Masamori's mother, comes under suspicion, while Masamori is tasked with repairing the space in the areas. The Ogi family is once again involved in placing suspicion on the Sumimuras, and Masamori decides to step up investigation into the Ogis, in hopes of destroying them. The Ogis then set up a situation to frame members of the Yagyou for killing a Lord of a shinyuuchi, a process that does not go entirely according to plan but does result in the deaths of three members of the Yagyou. In order to gain ammunition against Ogi, Masamori agrees to a deal with Okuni, trading information about his family and his mother in particular for information about Ogi. Masamori first tries to use the information to make a deal with Ogi Ichirou that would have resulted in a ceasefire. Ogi, however, does not accept, and the two get into an epic fight. The fight ends in something between a draw and Masamori winning, and Ogi Ichirou is revealed to have actually been six brothers from the Ogi family magically combined. Five of them escape, pushing the damage onto and abandoning Rokurou, the youngest. Masamori calls the Yagyou's healers to save Rokurou. But in order to save Rokurou it turns out Masamori needs more information, so he makes another deal with Okuni and the two become allies. The shinyuuchi hunting begins to target more key areas, making the problem much more serious. Troubles continue to plague Karasumori, and Masamori sends Yagyou members there to help as needed. Okuni devises a way to frame Ogi Ichirou for some of the shinyuuchi huntings and Masamori is sent to take care of Ichirou, but when Masamori and his forces arrive Ichirou is already dead, killed by his brother Shichirou, who was hired as an assassin. On the same night, Okuni is killed and her records of the Urakai burned. When the council of twelve next meets, another member voices a suspicion that Masamori planned both deaths. Shortly afterwards, that member is also assassinated (by Shichirou). Masamori becomes convinced that the people ordering these serial murders of executive members are also responsible for the shinyuuchi hunting and the forced dismantling of an organization of seers, the Serpent's Eye. Urakai's management office is also destroyed, killing those in it. Yumeji, second in command only to the ever-absent Founder, assumes control of the Urakai during this time of crisis. In order to protect some of the weaker or less devoted members, Masamori temporarily downsizes the Yagyou. He also raises a dog ayakashi, Kouya, from the dead and makes a deal with him. Kouya will help Masamori with backup and scouting as long as Masamori eventually returns Kouya to his old home. If Masamori fail to do this, Kouya will kill him, and in acknowledgement of that Masamori carves a ring of "x"s onto his own neck (it's a good thing he's always worn scarves, the fact that he's suddenly tying them tighter doesn't look too suspicious). Masamori begins to suspect that Urakai's Founder himself could be behind the incidents, but when he first tries to get information out of Yumeji regarding this he fails. With the help of the ghost of Okuni, Masamori uncovers some damning evidence linking both the Founder and Yumeji to the shinyuuchi hunting and other dangerous events, and they even discover that the Founder and Yumeji are actually Omi Nichinaga and Omi Tsukihisa, the brothers who founded the Urakai (I'll keep referring to them as Yumeji and the Founder, though, names in this series are already hard enough to keep track of). When Yumeji summons Masamori in hopes of recruiting Masamori in his retooling of the Urakai (and in hopes of preventing Masamori from finding out about an attack being staged on Karasumori at the same time), Masamori confronts Yumeji with this information, and manages to learn even more. However, their conversation is interrupted by one of the Founder's fighters, there to deliver a message to Yumeji. Yumeji flees and Masamori pursues him. Masamori attempts to convince Yumeji to let Masamori help resolve the issues between Yumeji and the Founder peacefully, but before their negotiation is complete the Founder's subordinate kills Yumeji. The conversation does, however, reveal that both the Founder and Yumeji have mind-control powers. Before she passes on into the next world, the ghost of Okuni tells Masamori why Karasumori is different from other Shinyuuchi (the power sealed there comes from a person). Masamori makes a brief visit to Karasumori to help out and check on things there, but returns to Urakai for the next meeting of the council of twelve, where he shares the information regarding the Founder and Yumeji's death. One member walks out, and another member, Meian, assumes control, appointing Masamori as his aid. Masamori continues to investigate the Founder, even going so far as to raise the ghost of Mudou in his quest for information. While a meeting of the council of twelve, with two more members absent, is being held, Urakai headquarters comes under attack. While it starts as a physical attack, the Founder comes and uses his powers to assume control of everyone at headquarters. Masamori, using his powers, is the only one able to escape. He returns to Yagyou headquarters, having basically just been confronted with everything he's worked for collapsing and all his inferiority issues being confirmed. In spite of this, Masamori doggedly pursues the few options available to try to end the founder's influence and re-establish the Urakai. He seeks to get the members of the Council of Twelve who weren't present for the attack to commit to reclaiming the headquarters, but that isn't going so well and he's really running on empty at the time I'll be taking him from. Because I'm mean like that.
Abilities:
Kekkai-jutsu: Masamori is well-trained in the ability to create shields. These are usually cube shaped, but can be in pretty much any rectangular form. The shield can not only be used to protect, but can also be collapsed in a way that destroys whatever is inside it. Since they can be placed anywhere, they can be used for such things as leaping from shield to shield across the sky. They can be layered for greater effect, made so that some things pass through them while others remain trapped, or made so thin that if lengthened they can act as projectile weapons. The power can also be concentrated to form strings, called nenshi, that can attach to a target and be used to bind or pull them.
Zekkai: Technically a form of kekkai-jutsu, zekkai is different enough that it deserves to be explained on its own. It's the ability of the user to form an area around themselves that completely destroys any physical or magical constructs that enter it (though it's still vulnerable to, say, wind attacks). A zekkai can be just next to the skin, or a sphere with a diameter larger than the user is tall. Masamori tends to favor the kind with a diameter a foot or two greater than his height.
Landlord summoning/spreading shadow: Again technically a form of kekkai-jutsu. Some kekkaishi, Masamori included, can summon "landlords," which are basically familiars. Masamori's is a huge black koi called Kurohime. In addition to this, Masamori is able to create a sort of field for Kurohime to move through, which enables her to find things he's looking for in that area with great speed. Masamori is able to spread the "shadow," as he calls it, over an area as large as a middle-sized town. The shadow is, however, implied to be able to be sensed by anyone who is magically sensitive as a sinister distortion or a slightly oppressive force (other kekkaishi can even be woken up by it).
Shikigami: Everyone in the Sumimura family can use shikigami, which are kind of like spiritually powered paper dolls. Once they've been activated and imbued with the appropriate amount of power, shikigami can be anything from a play-doh like manikin that can be used for drudge work to full-fledged clones of the person who made them (it's great for skipping class).
It can probably also be assumed that Masamori can create paper wards and other similar charms, though he is never seen to because...he has bigger powers. (His father, however, is observed doing this.)
First Person:
[Masamori peers at the camera for a moment before giving a friendly smile.] Ah, hello. It's still a little strange to be talking to a watch. [He laughs.]
I have a question, though. [[The smile becomes just a hint of an upward quirk of the lips, and his tone is serious.] I've heard that there are monsters of various kinds living in the park and areas outside the city. Is there any organization set up to deal with these creatures? My impression is that they don't discriminate in who or when they attack.
I...have some experience in a similar area. I would like to offer my help.
Third Person: (set pre-canon)
Masamori sifted through the new reports. There were more of them now than there had been just a few months ago. A good deal of it was small things- the sighting of a minor ayakashi in one village, rumors that the ones on a certain mountain were growing more hostile. Those were things that a lot of the members of the recently-formed Yagyou would probably have been sent out to deal with as training even if they had been channeled into other divisions. But it showed that the Urakai were becoming used to the Yagyou- they were learning to trust it, to rely on it. Masamori smiled.
A few of the reports were more troubling. He'd have to send a team to scout out the situation to the south that looked like a gathering of ayakashi. No new recruits for that one, it would need to be some of those who had experience under Mudou. The smile Masamori had worn drained completely. That wasn't in these reports. The Urakai had lost- he had lost- Mudou's trail, and would only pick it back up again when there was fresh blood on it.
He forced his focus back to the page in front of him. Maybe one or two newer recruits wouldn't hurt the team. Fresh blood could always be useful.
He pulled the next paper from the pile. A powerful ayakashi had been spotted moving into urban areas. Areas close to Karasumori. Masamori gently moved the other papers to the side and reached for his cell phone.
"Hatori? Yeah, it's me. I'm calling a meeting, there are a few jobs we need to discuss." He picked up the last report and moved it onto the stack with the others. "I'll probably take care of a few of them myself."
Accepted
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