Hiroshi (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
all_onis_are_true) wrote2014-01-26 05:58 pm
all_onis_are_true) wrote2014-01-26 05:58 pm
Brave New World App
PLAYER INFO
Name: Badge
Contact Information: Plurk is![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
dragomorph; AIM is dragomorph
Time Zone: Central
Characters Played: N/A
CHARACTER INFO
Character Name: Hiroshi
Character Canon: Ao Oni
History: (Something important to note before I start: Ao Oni, with perhaps the exception of 1.0 and the light novels, has little to no background information about anything. The kids have personalities which are hinted at, and they give a few details about what brought them to the mansion on occasion, but beyond that any details are a blank slate. Hiroshi then ends up being about 90% the creation of whoever plays him, so bear in mind that most of this is not official canon by any means. While there IS official canon in the light novel series, said novels have yet to be translated, and thus can only be speculated on. They also have slightly different events -- AGAIN -- and so is irrelevant since I'm taking his objective canon to be 6.23.)
Hiroshi (head canon last name: Yamane) is the son of a man with a strong disdain for the supernatural, the result both of his strong belief in science and a revolt against a superstitious village he thought of as perpetuating ignorance. Though young Hiroshi feared the monsters under his bed, he soon found himself taking on his father's ideas, dismissing anything that fell outside the realm of science as nonsense -- which included things that go bump in the dark.
His father made sure Hiroshi focused as hard as he could on his studies, often to the detriment of other things. This suited Hiroshi just fine; he was going to be a scientist like his father some day, and aside from watching movies and shows on occasion that featured prominent scientist characters, he generally didn't socialize much.
When his family moved to a new town, Hiroshi got the attention of Takuro, a brash young youth with a fearless, occasionally mean-spirited streak. Deciding to drag this kid out of his shell -- perhaps he saw something nobody else did -- he made it a point to become Hiroshi's friend, even going so far as to fend off anybody who dared to mock his scientific friend. For that reason, Takuro held a special place in Hiroshi's heart as a friend, even if he tried not to let it on too much. Over time, he began to warm to Takuro's friends as well, Takeshi and Mika. Things were actually pretty good.
One night changed all that forever.
It was Takeshi's idea. There was a mansion at the edge of town, supposedly infested by monsters, but nobody had actually dared to check it out. Takuro thought it was a neat idea as well. Mika just went because Takuro was going. And Hiroshi? Well, his friends were going, and it's not like he actually believed in monsters anyway. It would just be a fun, maybe slightly scary night with friends.
Of course Takeshi began to wuss out as soon as they arrived. But still they entered. It turned out to be the biggest mistake of their lives. By the time the dawn rose, only one friend emerged to tell the tale: Hiroshi, who had spent the night chased by blue monsters, some of whom he'd once called friends. Nothing's been quite the same since.
AU History: Hiroshi's father was a researcher, and the general assumption had been that Hiroshi would grow up into the same profession or one very similar to it. He certainly had the intelligence and the proficiences for it. With that level of intelligence, however, came a certain degree of arrogance as to how well he could handle himself. This is probably why, when he was 13, he let himself get talked into joining some friends in investigating a supposedly "easy" mansion in the Old City. Takuro, the cocky one of the bunch, had figured with his new Pokemon, they could handle any problems easily. They'd make a name for themselves, break out of the rigid societal expectations. Hiroshi was mostly interested in the intellectual possibilities, of what he might be able to find and observe to advance his own interests. So he followed, along with his friends Mika and Takeshi, sneaking out in the night.
Morning came, and only one living thing came back from the Old City: Hiroshi, half-panicked, out of breath, and utterly exhausted. The story he told to the Rangers who found him was rambling and incoherent, something about a "terrifying monster Pokemon" and getting chased around the mansion, about the others dying horrible deaths. He couldn't seem to remember specifics of what the Pokemon looked like. All he knew is that he was somehow the only one who came out -- and sure enough, the other kids were never seen again.
Such a story seems like it should have been quite sensational. And perhaps it would have been, had not a woman named Zarvora Cybeline quickly descended upon the incident. She paid off the families of the deceased surprisingly easily. In Hiroshi's case, however, the situation was more complicated. Working mostly through her father, she agreed to pay his family off as well, but also noted dire consequences should he not make it absolutely clear to his son that what happened to him should not be talked about in public, ever. She even offered to pay for the costs of therapy, something which his father only reluctantly agreed to upon some wheedling from his mother. Hiroshi, unable to really control his own circumstances, simply did as he was told, though being flat out ordered to never talk about what happened again simply added another layer of guilt and misery to the whole situation. Needless to say, while Hiroshi still somehow managed to remain a good student, he was never quite the same afterwards.
Two years have passed since then. Hiroshi decided his path lay in the realm of Pokemon research, not just the techological work of his father. A valuable line of work, to be sure, but there were complications: One, Hiroshi had an exceptionally hard time bonding with Pokemon at all after the incident, and two, he had a similarly hard time facing the idea of even leaving the confines of the town. He has slowly but steadily worked his way through part of the problem -- his Axew, who he named Takuro, somehow managed to push through his defenses enough to bond -- but as his story begins, he still has a long way to go before he'll ever be fully comfortable doing field work...
Canon Personality: Hiroshi's public face, the one he cultivates the most, is that of a calm, collected, and largely polite scientist. He maintains that all things can be proven through science, and things that break those natural laws cannot logically exist. He pursues knowledge, and eschews those who give in to the temptation to subscribe to superstition. This can make him seem somewhat cold and haughty as he writes off the supernatural as "stupid." He also has a sardonic streak, which just adds to his unapproachability. This is the sort of person he wants to be, although he's not as unflappable as he'd like to pretend he is. And even if he doesn't say it aloud, he DID like being with his friends.
However, this personality has become even more fragile in the face of what happened in the mansion. The truth is that he relies just as much on a gut instinct as he does on cold, logical fact, which is in reality what saved his life in the mansion. He tries to hide it, of course, since that's just not what scientists ARE in his mind. But place him into a high-stress situation, and he becomes just as emotional and irrational as any normal person, although he seems to possess a surprising amount of capacity for improvisation for someone of his character type. Furthermore, he suffers from survivor's guilt, the knowledge that only he alone survived, that there were situations where he could have done, SHOULD have done more for his friends, but didn't. This guilt manifests now in a strong, occasionally self-destructive desire to protect anybody he becomes close to. He won't fail anybody again.
He tries to maintain his faith in science, even though it's much more tenuous than it used to be. The collision of his logical, scientific paradigm with the supernatural has, interestingly enough, resulted in an increasing interest in xenobiology, which he tends to keep hidden from other people. (This, of course, is mostly a background detail, since the matter of obfuscation becomes slightly irrelevant in crazy RP land with its xenobiological diversity.) At the same time, he can't fight the occasional nasty doubt that the Oni was just some sort of mental rationalization, and that he's the one responsible for his friends' disappearances/deaths himself. He certainly can't find specific reference to the creature or its variants, and to be perfectly frank he's just not sure how sane he actually was back in that mansion. To him, it'd actually almost be more RATIONAL to believe in a bout of temporary insanity than a blue monster that doesn't follow the laws of biology or physics in the slightest.
His worst doubts, however, are with himself. There were points in the mansion where he acted in ways that, on retrospect, seemed callous or self-serving. Given more time to think about it, he has developed a strong sense of self-loathing which he mostly keeps to himself. His entire memory of the incident is filled with "could haves" and "should haves," which to him indicate serious character flaws. Hiroshi doesn't trust himself much with having friends, because he is now convinced friends cannot trust him to do anything. If he doesn't get their hopes up, then he doesn't have to worry about getting them killed through his own apathy -- or so he's reasoned, anyway. The logic's all there, right?
AU Deviation: 1.) Obviously in a setting where monsters are the norm, Hiroshi's concept of how monsters fit into science is dramatically different. Subsequently, he doesn't actually worry about his sanity in this situation, aside from the wisdom of even going along with the others to begin with. Of COURSE a monster attacked them. There's monsters EVERYWHERE.
2.) Furthermore, the fact that he is surrounded by monsters has actually made his life more difficult. In a setting where the monsters seem isolated to one location, it's easy to not have to deal with them. In a setting where they're a part of everyday life, the issue becomes more complicated. (Notably, in terms of background it actually took him several attempts to actually bond with a Pokemon because the trauma he suffered from the event was so immense that his mind simply refused to cooperate.)
Canon Abilities: Hiroshi is a problem solver with a strong head for puzzles. His lateral thinking skills are shockingly good for someone more attuned to math and sciences, and all these skills together ensure he's better than most at solving complicated problems. He was, and remains, a very dedicated student, the type who would get straight A's. His research abilities are quite keen as a manifestation of this. He's also surprisingly good at improvising when he needs to.
Enlightened Abilities: Far From Ordinary and Analyst.
Starter Pokemon: Axew. Despite being "Far From Ordinary," he only has the one Pokemon for now due to the extreme mental blocks he's had to overcome simply bonding with one of them.
Notes/Special Considerations: Whatever attacked Hiroshi and his friends in the mansion would have been exceedingly powerful and possibly rather malicious. He doesn't actively remember what it was, though.
SAMPLES
First-Person: From Ruby City. A good example of his more intellectual side.
Third-Person: The bonding attempt was failing again. Something like this had happened so many times at this point that Hiroshi could recognize the feeling of it immediately. Like so many times before, it wasn't the Pokemon that was withdrawing, but him. He was looking at an Axew, he knew he was looking at an Axew. He'd grown up with Axew running all around. But he looked at the Axew, and all he could see in his minds eye is a blur, running at him, chasing him, forcing him to hide. Killing his friends. Just like with every other Pokemon he'd tried to bond with.
He'd been so certain he could do it this time, too. He had all the research down. He'd undergone immersion therapy with the therapist. Everything should logically have pointed towards a successful bond this time. Yet here he was, again, and all he could see was monsters.
The pessimism was beginning to sink in already. Maybe I really am not cut out to be a Pokemon researcher. Perhaps I should just give up and go into regular research. Maybe I'm just a failure who should isolate myself from society. It's not like anybody would ever want to be friends with me anyway. I'd be a terrible friend, and I'd just abandon them when they need me, and this is completely hopele--
His thoughts were disrupted by the feel of a clawed paw on his leg. He blinked, looking down at the source of the sensation -- and saw the Axew, looking stern, touching him reassuringly, as if to tell him, "Nope. Not gonna let you do that." As if it wasn't going to take no for an answer -- even though Hiroshi had been the one to open the communications first.
"You... would let me be your trainer? I don't know if..." he began. But the Axew just headbutted his leg, shaking its head. Apparently it had read his emotions, read his surrender... and decided it wasn't having any of that. It held onto his leg with a death grip. The Pokemon was gonna make this human do this.
"I... don't understand your persistence," he muttered. But at the same time, something about the Axew reminded him of someone, a friend who had died a while ago. Someone who was similarly hard-headed about going out and doing what he wanted, about getting others to join in. About opening people to new experiences.
And just like that, Hiroshi finally bonded. He named the Axew Takuro. He hoped that wouldn't be considered tasteless.
Name: Badge
Contact Information: Plurk is
Time Zone: Central
Characters Played: N/A
CHARACTER INFO
Character Name: Hiroshi
Character Canon: Ao Oni
History: (Something important to note before I start: Ao Oni, with perhaps the exception of 1.0 and the light novels, has little to no background information about anything. The kids have personalities which are hinted at, and they give a few details about what brought them to the mansion on occasion, but beyond that any details are a blank slate. Hiroshi then ends up being about 90% the creation of whoever plays him, so bear in mind that most of this is not official canon by any means. While there IS official canon in the light novel series, said novels have yet to be translated, and thus can only be speculated on. They also have slightly different events -- AGAIN -- and so is irrelevant since I'm taking his objective canon to be 6.23.)
Hiroshi (head canon last name: Yamane) is the son of a man with a strong disdain for the supernatural, the result both of his strong belief in science and a revolt against a superstitious village he thought of as perpetuating ignorance. Though young Hiroshi feared the monsters under his bed, he soon found himself taking on his father's ideas, dismissing anything that fell outside the realm of science as nonsense -- which included things that go bump in the dark.
His father made sure Hiroshi focused as hard as he could on his studies, often to the detriment of other things. This suited Hiroshi just fine; he was going to be a scientist like his father some day, and aside from watching movies and shows on occasion that featured prominent scientist characters, he generally didn't socialize much.
When his family moved to a new town, Hiroshi got the attention of Takuro, a brash young youth with a fearless, occasionally mean-spirited streak. Deciding to drag this kid out of his shell -- perhaps he saw something nobody else did -- he made it a point to become Hiroshi's friend, even going so far as to fend off anybody who dared to mock his scientific friend. For that reason, Takuro held a special place in Hiroshi's heart as a friend, even if he tried not to let it on too much. Over time, he began to warm to Takuro's friends as well, Takeshi and Mika. Things were actually pretty good.
One night changed all that forever.
It was Takeshi's idea. There was a mansion at the edge of town, supposedly infested by monsters, but nobody had actually dared to check it out. Takuro thought it was a neat idea as well. Mika just went because Takuro was going. And Hiroshi? Well, his friends were going, and it's not like he actually believed in monsters anyway. It would just be a fun, maybe slightly scary night with friends.
Of course Takeshi began to wuss out as soon as they arrived. But still they entered. It turned out to be the biggest mistake of their lives. By the time the dawn rose, only one friend emerged to tell the tale: Hiroshi, who had spent the night chased by blue monsters, some of whom he'd once called friends. Nothing's been quite the same since.
AU History: Hiroshi's father was a researcher, and the general assumption had been that Hiroshi would grow up into the same profession or one very similar to it. He certainly had the intelligence and the proficiences for it. With that level of intelligence, however, came a certain degree of arrogance as to how well he could handle himself. This is probably why, when he was 13, he let himself get talked into joining some friends in investigating a supposedly "easy" mansion in the Old City. Takuro, the cocky one of the bunch, had figured with his new Pokemon, they could handle any problems easily. They'd make a name for themselves, break out of the rigid societal expectations. Hiroshi was mostly interested in the intellectual possibilities, of what he might be able to find and observe to advance his own interests. So he followed, along with his friends Mika and Takeshi, sneaking out in the night.
Morning came, and only one living thing came back from the Old City: Hiroshi, half-panicked, out of breath, and utterly exhausted. The story he told to the Rangers who found him was rambling and incoherent, something about a "terrifying monster Pokemon" and getting chased around the mansion, about the others dying horrible deaths. He couldn't seem to remember specifics of what the Pokemon looked like. All he knew is that he was somehow the only one who came out -- and sure enough, the other kids were never seen again.
Such a story seems like it should have been quite sensational. And perhaps it would have been, had not a woman named Zarvora Cybeline quickly descended upon the incident. She paid off the families of the deceased surprisingly easily. In Hiroshi's case, however, the situation was more complicated. Working mostly through her father, she agreed to pay his family off as well, but also noted dire consequences should he not make it absolutely clear to his son that what happened to him should not be talked about in public, ever. She even offered to pay for the costs of therapy, something which his father only reluctantly agreed to upon some wheedling from his mother. Hiroshi, unable to really control his own circumstances, simply did as he was told, though being flat out ordered to never talk about what happened again simply added another layer of guilt and misery to the whole situation. Needless to say, while Hiroshi still somehow managed to remain a good student, he was never quite the same afterwards.
Two years have passed since then. Hiroshi decided his path lay in the realm of Pokemon research, not just the techological work of his father. A valuable line of work, to be sure, but there were complications: One, Hiroshi had an exceptionally hard time bonding with Pokemon at all after the incident, and two, he had a similarly hard time facing the idea of even leaving the confines of the town. He has slowly but steadily worked his way through part of the problem -- his Axew, who he named Takuro, somehow managed to push through his defenses enough to bond -- but as his story begins, he still has a long way to go before he'll ever be fully comfortable doing field work...
Canon Personality: Hiroshi's public face, the one he cultivates the most, is that of a calm, collected, and largely polite scientist. He maintains that all things can be proven through science, and things that break those natural laws cannot logically exist. He pursues knowledge, and eschews those who give in to the temptation to subscribe to superstition. This can make him seem somewhat cold and haughty as he writes off the supernatural as "stupid." He also has a sardonic streak, which just adds to his unapproachability. This is the sort of person he wants to be, although he's not as unflappable as he'd like to pretend he is. And even if he doesn't say it aloud, he DID like being with his friends.
However, this personality has become even more fragile in the face of what happened in the mansion. The truth is that he relies just as much on a gut instinct as he does on cold, logical fact, which is in reality what saved his life in the mansion. He tries to hide it, of course, since that's just not what scientists ARE in his mind. But place him into a high-stress situation, and he becomes just as emotional and irrational as any normal person, although he seems to possess a surprising amount of capacity for improvisation for someone of his character type. Furthermore, he suffers from survivor's guilt, the knowledge that only he alone survived, that there were situations where he could have done, SHOULD have done more for his friends, but didn't. This guilt manifests now in a strong, occasionally self-destructive desire to protect anybody he becomes close to. He won't fail anybody again.
He tries to maintain his faith in science, even though it's much more tenuous than it used to be. The collision of his logical, scientific paradigm with the supernatural has, interestingly enough, resulted in an increasing interest in xenobiology, which he tends to keep hidden from other people. (This, of course, is mostly a background detail, since the matter of obfuscation becomes slightly irrelevant in crazy RP land with its xenobiological diversity.) At the same time, he can't fight the occasional nasty doubt that the Oni was just some sort of mental rationalization, and that he's the one responsible for his friends' disappearances/deaths himself. He certainly can't find specific reference to the creature or its variants, and to be perfectly frank he's just not sure how sane he actually was back in that mansion. To him, it'd actually almost be more RATIONAL to believe in a bout of temporary insanity than a blue monster that doesn't follow the laws of biology or physics in the slightest.
His worst doubts, however, are with himself. There were points in the mansion where he acted in ways that, on retrospect, seemed callous or self-serving. Given more time to think about it, he has developed a strong sense of self-loathing which he mostly keeps to himself. His entire memory of the incident is filled with "could haves" and "should haves," which to him indicate serious character flaws. Hiroshi doesn't trust himself much with having friends, because he is now convinced friends cannot trust him to do anything. If he doesn't get their hopes up, then he doesn't have to worry about getting them killed through his own apathy -- or so he's reasoned, anyway. The logic's all there, right?
AU Deviation: 1.) Obviously in a setting where monsters are the norm, Hiroshi's concept of how monsters fit into science is dramatically different. Subsequently, he doesn't actually worry about his sanity in this situation, aside from the wisdom of even going along with the others to begin with. Of COURSE a monster attacked them. There's monsters EVERYWHERE.
2.) Furthermore, the fact that he is surrounded by monsters has actually made his life more difficult. In a setting where the monsters seem isolated to one location, it's easy to not have to deal with them. In a setting where they're a part of everyday life, the issue becomes more complicated. (Notably, in terms of background it actually took him several attempts to actually bond with a Pokemon because the trauma he suffered from the event was so immense that his mind simply refused to cooperate.)
Canon Abilities: Hiroshi is a problem solver with a strong head for puzzles. His lateral thinking skills are shockingly good for someone more attuned to math and sciences, and all these skills together ensure he's better than most at solving complicated problems. He was, and remains, a very dedicated student, the type who would get straight A's. His research abilities are quite keen as a manifestation of this. He's also surprisingly good at improvising when he needs to.
Enlightened Abilities: Far From Ordinary and Analyst.
Starter Pokemon: Axew. Despite being "Far From Ordinary," he only has the one Pokemon for now due to the extreme mental blocks he's had to overcome simply bonding with one of them.
Notes/Special Considerations: Whatever attacked Hiroshi and his friends in the mansion would have been exceedingly powerful and possibly rather malicious. He doesn't actively remember what it was, though.
SAMPLES
First-Person: From Ruby City. A good example of his more intellectual side.
Third-Person: The bonding attempt was failing again. Something like this had happened so many times at this point that Hiroshi could recognize the feeling of it immediately. Like so many times before, it wasn't the Pokemon that was withdrawing, but him. He was looking at an Axew, he knew he was looking at an Axew. He'd grown up with Axew running all around. But he looked at the Axew, and all he could see in his minds eye is a blur, running at him, chasing him, forcing him to hide. Killing his friends. Just like with every other Pokemon he'd tried to bond with.
He'd been so certain he could do it this time, too. He had all the research down. He'd undergone immersion therapy with the therapist. Everything should logically have pointed towards a successful bond this time. Yet here he was, again, and all he could see was monsters.
The pessimism was beginning to sink in already. Maybe I really am not cut out to be a Pokemon researcher. Perhaps I should just give up and go into regular research. Maybe I'm just a failure who should isolate myself from society. It's not like anybody would ever want to be friends with me anyway. I'd be a terrible friend, and I'd just abandon them when they need me, and this is completely hopele--
His thoughts were disrupted by the feel of a clawed paw on his leg. He blinked, looking down at the source of the sensation -- and saw the Axew, looking stern, touching him reassuringly, as if to tell him, "Nope. Not gonna let you do that." As if it wasn't going to take no for an answer -- even though Hiroshi had been the one to open the communications first.
"You... would let me be your trainer? I don't know if..." he began. But the Axew just headbutted his leg, shaking its head. Apparently it had read his emotions, read his surrender... and decided it wasn't having any of that. It held onto his leg with a death grip. The Pokemon was gonna make this human do this.
"I... don't understand your persistence," he muttered. But at the same time, something about the Axew reminded him of someone, a friend who had died a while ago. Someone who was similarly hard-headed about going out and doing what he wanted, about getting others to join in. About opening people to new experiences.
And just like that, Hiroshi finally bonded. He named the Axew Takuro. He hoped that wouldn't be considered tasteless.