application to ataraxion

P L A Y E R   I N F O R M A T I O N
Your Name: Hotaru
OOC Journal: hailingjavelin
Under 18? If yes, what is your age?: no
Email + IM: allthetags@gmail.com / hailingjavelin@plurk
Characters Played at Ataraxion: none, but also apping Yasaburou from Uchouten Kazoku.

C H A R A C T E R   I N F O R M A T I O N
Name: Kotarou Fuuma
Canon: Donten ni Warau
Original or Alternate Universe: OU
Canon Point: Donten Gaiden, chapter 4, after becoming clan head together with his brother
Number: let's rng it

Setting:

Long, long ago, a great serpent (who might have been a deity) died by a tree in Lake Biwa, and cursed the land to fall into darkness every 300 years, and to use a human as a vessel. Japan has recently opened up to other countries, and there are ninja and ex-samurai and onmyouji. People fight for this serpent, called Orochi, because "those who possess the power of the Orochi can rule the land". It's a battle for power, to kill the vessel, or to save the vessel, depending on where you stand.
 

History:

Born to a couple in the Fuuma Ninja village (located somewhere in the Kanagawa Prefecture) during the Bakumatsu, he's one of two children born the same day. Upon the day him and his older twin brother were born, the clan head of Fuuma, the current Fuuma Kotarou, ordered the twins' parnts to kill the younger brother. Because since ancient times, twins has been seen as taboo, and as something unnatural and vile. Humans are not animals, and should therefor not get more children at the same time, since it's an abomination.

However, the twins' parents only pretended to kill their younger son, and instead, they locked him deep inside a dark and lonely cave, where he was reared in secret. The boy grew up wanting nothing more than to be able to walk freely outside the cave, as well as become a proper, actual Fuuma shinobi.

Over the years, his older brother taught him how to fight, and sometimes, he snuck out of the cave to train by a pond together with his brother. This always ended up with them getting scolded by their parents, however, because if he left the cave, than meant that he risked being seen by someone from the village, and that would be really bad.

One day, his brother went through the coming of age ceremony, to become an actual Fuuma, The ceremony meant that you had to kill someone cose to you, like a family member. His brother killed their father, and since then, their mother stopped smiling at the older brother.

The years passed much the same, and his older brother became one of the village head's favorites, and a candidate for the next Fuuma Kotarou, despite his young age. During the time, people were displeased over the tradition of killing ones family, because not only was it a traumatic experience that turned their hair white and their eyes violet, but with the clan detoriating, they couldn't actually adfford all the deaths. At the same time, the younger members of the clan wanted to find the Orochi, a great serpent that revives every 300 years to spread chaos across the land. The Fuuma clan has served the Orochi for generations.

One day after their mother had found them practicing at the pond, she informed his older brother that the clan head had called the head candidates to a meeting. After that meeting, while his brother was meeting with friends, the clan found him, and dragged him out of the cave. The clan head was trying to force their mother to kill her younger son, but when she refused, he tortured her in front of her child's eyes.

When she still refused to kill her son, the clan elder set her on fire, and when she fell off the cliff edge, her youngest boy caught her, attempting to save her, and in the process, he started to burn as well. To save his younger brother, the older brother cut off their mother's arm, and doused the flames on his brother's body. When the elder ordered the older brother to kill the younger, and when the older brother's friends tried to stop it were killed by the elder, the older brother killed the clan head. The twins then declaired themselves to be the 10th head of the Fuuma clan, Fuuma Kotarou, and the younger members of the clan joined them in their rebellion.

The clan was, to the public, annihilated, and to gain hold of the Orochi, the members of Fuuma still alive hid their identity. The older twin infiltrated the Kumou Cloud Shrine, and the younger the strongest prison in Japan, to find the Vessel of the Orochi, and to secretly gather allies.
 

Personality:

Kotarou is not named Koutarou yet, that will come later, after the death of his mother. For simplicity’s sake, however, I will still go with Kotarou in this section. I will call his brother Shirasu, which is the name the older twin gets by the Kumou siblings later on.

Kotarou has very little experience in dealing with people. Because he has been hidden in the cave for pretty much his entire life, he has met very few people, and seen very little.

There are many things that he does not yet know of, since he has seen so little of the outside world. He knows trees, birds, water and caves, but he doesn’t know what a house looks like, or even what a stove looks like. Things that should be obvious, even during his own time period, can be a big mystery for the coung, sheltered boy. He likes to learn, but he is wary of knowing, because he doesn’t know what the knowledge will bring. Even more he is wary of sharing what he knows, even if he will silently listen in secret to any piece of information that he can get hold of.

He is wary about people knowing. Since twins are called “taboo” within the Fuuma, he doesn’t want anyone to know that he is a younger twin. It means that he should have been killed, after all, and he’s still alive. Not knowing much about how people act, what with only ever knowing his family until just recently (like, half an hour ago recently) he doesn’t know what to expect from them. He hides from the villagers because they will figure out his identity as a taboo child, and thus expects people to just know that he is one. As if it’s written on his face or somthing. And in a way, it sort of is, in the Fuuma village, since his face is identical to that of his brother’s.

He has very conflicting feelings about darkness. One the one hand, he grew up in it, so there is nothing that he is so familiar with as darkness and most often damp darkness, considering the air in the cave he grew up in. But at the same time, darkness is a prsin which he can never truly escape. Darkness gives him too much time to think, and he likes keeping himself busy in the form of training with his brother. Because when he trains, he thinks about dark things, such as the reason why he’s still alive. He just can’t understand it; if he had to live his entire life hidden in a cave, wouldn’t it have been better to just kill him from the start? He wishes that he had been killed as a baby, because thn he wouldn’t have had to stay like this; out of everyone’s sight, with no future and with the fear of dying without anyone ever knowing who he is. Because no one knowing is the same as not existing, right? That is what it seems like from observing his mother. She treats him gently, kindly, and he loves her dearly, but she’s making him live life he want to get out of. She keeps him hidden so no one will know, so no one will realize who he is and so no one will remember there ever being a second child. The darkness also makes him scared of being abandoned. He doesn’t think his brother will abandon him, he trusts Shirasu too much to think so, but he’s still scared of it. Scared that one day, his brother and his mother will tire of the boy living in a cave, so dependant on others. Being alone scares him, even if he dislikes letting his feelings and thoughts show on his face. He seems to be a very serious boy, and it's not that he isn't. He just doesn't bother with feelings on many occations; if they turn out to be inconvenient, he does his best to shut them off. He doesn't like showing his feelings to others than his brother, and will rather hide his feelings until he is completely alone, rather than showing them to someone he doesn't fully trust.

His eyes works well in darkness, and it’s easier for him to navigate in darkness by sound than it is in bright light. He might not have holed up completely, what with sneaking off to train by a pond. His senses has sharpened from his way of living, and he functions better in the darkness than he does in thel light.

Yet, he is fond of thel ight, because it forces the dark thoughts that occupies his mind out, the likes the light. It is warm, and it is welcoming, and the scent is much nicer, even if it rains. Anything is better than being holed up in the cave. Yet, he is a bit less sharp in the light, because he’s less used to it. But he doesn’t want that to stop him in any way, because being away from the darkness is always relaxing.

He works hard, but he has little opportunity to actually spar. His brother can’t be away from the village too much, and his mother doesn’t want him to be a shinobi. His only sparring partner is his brother, whom Kotarou states has talent. Shirasu doesn’t particularly agree, but Kotarou is still convinced that his brother is a true shinobi, strong and fast and aglie and immensley skilled despite his young age. At least Kotarou’s become good at swimming thanks to falling into the pond so often, courtesy of his older brother. On the other hand, Kotarou has developed his own way of fighting. As he considers himself inferior in skill, he waits for his opponent to let down their guard, and then strikes where it hurts the most.

“You are me.”
“You are also me.”

Kotarou and Shirasu are each other’s best friends. They’re a pair of twins who areincredibly close, and Kotarou relies wholeheartedly on his older brother. He doesn’t even trust their mother to that extent. With identical faces, they are like carbon copies, but Kotarou is just that. A copy. At ledast according to himself, to some degree. His brother is the free one, who can live the life of a true shinobi, which Kotarou is certain he himself will never experience. At the same time, Kotarou has the love of their mother, which Shirasu can only hope to feel once again. They share everything with each other; thoughts and dreams and anything else they can possibly share. They live their lives through each other, one pretending they can be a shinobi through the other, and one seeping up what love from their mother that is possible, through the other.

Despite wondering just what his mother's feelings stand towards him, he loves her a lot. She has cared for him all this while, after all, and he might not like being hidden, but he knows it's for her sake, too. When someone tries to hurt her, he desperately tries to protect her, even when he knows that he's weak and unable to do anything. He even ends up with severe burns over half his body and face when he tries to save her. But he also feels weak, thinking that he is unable to protect. He doesn't have the skill or the strength to protect, no matter how much he wants to.
 

Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations:

Sharp senses (sharper in that dark) and skills as a ninja. He's good at fighting. On the other hand, he's pretty much only tried his skills against his older twin, so he completely lacks any actual battle experience. And since he's been shut into a cave for most of his life, there is so much he has never seen or heard of, even in his own era. Plus, he lacks the ability to communicate with others well, unless they're his brother. A slight fear of the dark while also being more comfortable in it (it's complicated) and a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to eyesight in light.
 

Inventory: Ninja weapons, bandages.
Appearance: black hair that's turning white very quickly, dark eyes turning light purple. small build and half his body is covered with fresh burns.

Age: 12

AU Clarification: n/a

S A M P L E S
Log Sample:

To be fair, there were a lot of things that he didn't know. He didn't know how to interact with people, for example. Which was why he could rarely be found, unless he wished to be found. It was how he was raised to think, after all. If you're seen by someone besides us - his family - you will be in danger. I can't protect you if you seek danger, darling. His mothers words often echoed through his mind, more now than before. He had, not only a few times, ignored her warnings, and stepped out of his cave to a clearing with a small pond, close to it, to fight his brother. To learn everythign his brother knew, because he wanted to be like him. He wated to be a real Fuuma, he wanted to be acknowledged, and he didn't want to have to hide from his own clansmen. But he had to.

Not anymore, though. The Fuuma was going to reform with the change in generation. With two twelve year old boys having taken over the position as clan head, and having taken the title as Fuuma Kotarou the 10th, things were going to change. No more killing of each other, as a coming of age ceremony. No mre hiding for twins.

But old habits died hard, and he didn't know what to expect of a place that he knew little about, no matter how long he had been there. He might know a few people - might not dislike them, exept he was still wary - and that's why he was steadily learning how to be around others.

Yet, he crept through the darkness, careful not to be spotted, and he peers around corners before rounding them. When he can, he moves at the cieling, hides up in corners until people pass and it's only when he reaches his destination that he slips out of the shadows, dropping down on the floor and landing softly, out of habit. He's silent, though, because even if he knows a person a bit, he's not entirely sure how to greet them.
 

Comms Sample:

[ He might be unfamiliar with these things, but let's say someone showed him how to use the appropriate way of communicating with the peculiar tools. He's been informed that you can look for people through it, and he's going to do exactly that.

So for the time being, the young boy is going to try to look for his brother like this, at the same time as he's learning to use this properly, as well as finding out if there are any of those people that he aspires to be, here.

But he's not used to talking to someone that's not his mother or his brother, so really, it takes a while for him to figure out exactly what to say. ]

Are there anyone who is... are living as ninja? Usually, I mean. Who has ended up here.

[ The notyetFuuma wants to know who he needs to be extra wary of, because he needs to know who is Fuuma or not. If there are Fuuma here... He's probably doomed. No way that he's telling anyone that he's a twin, or the younger one at that. They'll want to kill him. Sure, he might be the new clan head, but that's together with his brother, not alone. ]