Yasaburo Shimogamo

[inbox]

2015-05-24T06:44:56Z

[A cute little mailbox on Yasaburo's door, black steel with filigree around the edges of the lid and a wooden heart]

comments

midsyn app

2015-03-19T13:10:46Z

PLAYER INFORMATION
NAME: Hedge
ARE YOU 18 OR OLDER?: Y
CONTACT: taoofcrime on AIM or plurk
CURRENT CHARACTERS: -

CHARACTER INFORMATION
NAME: Yasaburo Shimogamo
CANON: Uchouten Kazoku
CANON POINT: Episode 9
CHARACTER AGE: 18 or its equivalent in tanuki years
HISTORY: In modern day Kyoto, there exist three dominant species: humans, tanuki and tengu. The former is, of course, generally not aware that their world is shared as the other two can easily disguise themselves. Though there are sometimes conflicts, the three species generally find a harmonious balance and do their best to stay out of each others ways.

The Shimogamo family is one of the oldest tanuki families, with a proud lineage stretching back to the Heian era. As one of the old families, they are often looked to for leadership by their community. Yasaburo is the second youngest of four brothers of this family. His father Soichirou Shimogamo, held the prestigious post of nise-emon, the closest the tanuki community has to a mayor.

However last year, tragedy struck. The Friday Fellows, a secretive, ancient and amoral group of humans, each taking the name of one of the seven lucky gods, captured Soichirou and ate him in a hot pot, this being apparently the tradition of their new years bash. Their newest member was Benten (formerly Suzuki Satomi), former pupil (and kidnapping victim) of Yasaburo's tengu teacher, Professor Akadama. It should be noted here that while it was regarded as a tragedy, there was very little in the way of resentment from even Soichirou's family. Risking ending up in a hot pot is considered simply one of the hazards of not being the dominant species. So while this certainly strained relations between Benten and the Shimogamos, it was not considered anything that unusual.

The result of this was the severing of relations between the Shimogamos and their cousins, the Ebisugawas, another old family, and the breaking off of Yasaburo's engagement to Kaisei Ebisugawa.

Fast forward to the present. As a result of their father's death Yaichiro Shimogamo is running for the office of nise-emon and Yajiro has adopted the form of a frog from grief and guilt and now sits at the bottom of a well, dispensing advice to those who use the well as a confessional. Yasaburo is living an irresponsible but happy life. Professor Akadama, injured in a Noodle Incident and unable to fly, asks Yasaburo to deliver a letter to Benten. This results in the destruction of one of the mystical artifacts in Benten's possession, causing Yasaburo to flee to Osaka. Benten manages to track him down though, and forgives the debt in exchange for his entertaining the Friday Fellows (who are not aware that he's a tanuki).

Meanwhile relations between the Shimogamos and Ebisugawas have gone from cold to hot, resulting in a midair battle between flying houseboats fueled by booze. In the next two episodes we learn that Yajiro was indirectly responsible for their father's death and that it was the head of the Ebisugawa clan who sold him to the Friday Fellows. This is the canon point I'll be bringing him from.
PERSONALITY: Yasaburo's fundamental philosophy is thus: "The only thing you really need is to live an interesting life." He is a novelty seeker at core, lover of the strange and irregular, both in environment and character. Not just seeking novelty out of escape from boredom though, he genuinely believes it's by exposure to new things that people grow most. This extends to his sexual conduct too: he's always willing to try new things with new people, and even if he finds the experience awful, he's glad to have done it anyway just to know that he hates it.

This frequently leads him into trouble, as he seeks out potentially dangerous people just because he finds them interesting. Foremost among these is Benten (ne Suzuki Satomi) who has managed to keep him on his toes since they first met. It also leads to him being accused (somewhat truthfully) of being lazy. He's the type of open, relaxed person you can find taking a nap in a park while everyone else is in the middle of their workday.

Yet despite this image he's built up of being an irresponsible flaneur, Yasaburo actually pays keen attention to his duties. This is shown in his taking care of Akadama-sensei, looking after his little brother and helping his mother with her pranks. He smoothes over the cognitive dissonance between his stated philosophy and his actions by reminding himself that these are duties he chose to take on himself, not ones that were chosen for him. In other words, he pays attention to what he thinks is right to do rather than what others tell him he should do. If you think this makes him sound stubborn at times, you're right.

Speaking of, Yasaburo thinks tradition, whether tanuki or human, can go hang. An inheritor of the ancient leadership role of the Shimogamo clan, Yasaburo highly resents being forced into any role he didn't willingly take on (that, he thinks, is for his older brother), including gender roles, which he bends with his frequent public crossdressing/illusions.

There's one way in which he does fit perfectly with tanuki tradition though: pranks. Never mean spirited, Yasaburo happily uses his abilities to shake people's lives up a bit or to get ahead in life himself. He keeps strictly to pranks that do not harm the subject and give them something to look back on with a chuckle.

Of course all this curiosity and iconoclasm can land him in hot water sometimes. Luckily he's a fast talker, good at finding excuses for himself. If he weren't a tanuki already he'd probably be a flash mob organizer or three card monte man.

Lucky for him also he has a large, warm family to fall back on if he gets burned. He extends that same warmth back to his family and friends, and probably will to the friends he makes here too.

None of this should imply that he doesn't have a breaking point or never gets mad. He's absolutely willing to fight in defense of his family and would never abandon a person in need, especially not a senior citizen, who he seems to ironically have a flair for working with. If he needs to, he will use his ability with deception to terrify instead of amuse or inconveinence.

In summary, Yasaburo's iconoclast and caring brother and son, defier of tradition but eager to help his sensei, loafer, doer of the right thing, prankster and philosopher and he handles the tension between these aspects of himself with a dismissive wave of the hand and an ardent belief that things will turn out OK.

ABILITIES: Yasaburo is a tanuki, in the classical sense of Japanese folklore (save for the prehensile testicles part). That is, he's capable of shapeshifting and illusions to a remarkable degree, disguising himself as objects and people from a foot tall to several dozen feet tall and wide. The exact limitations of this ability are not known, but his father once expended enormous effort to disguise himself as the side of a mountain.

He is also capable of disguising small objects, for instance by making leaves appear as money. This illusion fades when he leaves its vicinity though.

His natural form is that of a small, woodland animal that is identical to the real world Nyctereutes procyonoides viverrinus. In moments of fear or surprise, his disguise may slip, meaning a tail will pop out of his lower back or tanuki ears may appear on his head. In situations of extreme fear he may suddenly revert completely to his natural form.

Naturally for the purposes of this game he will spend most of his time in his human guise.

SINS & VIRTUES: Yasaburo's primary sin is SLOTH. He's lazy, there's no two ways about it. His secondary sin is GLUTTONY, not so much for food (though he's been known to ask for seconds and thirds) but for new experiences.

His virtues are PATIENCE, in that his temper very rarely gets riled up (there are no examples of him doing so in the series) and he tries his best to promote a positive vibe throughout the tanuki community and KINDNESS, as shown by his conduct towards the people he's close to (such as giving Akadama-sensei a ride on his back and helping him deliver hopeless love notes to Benten).

SAMPLES
Sample 1:
Yasaburo hated the cold, as he hated anything that restricted his movement. So when a blizzard came to Eros, bringing unneccessary traffic to a grinding halt, he was a restless thing, lingering at the windows, going out and then back in, returning in his natural form to the complete confusion of everyone. Often he was bent lewdly forward in front of one of the mansion's new radiators. He was merely warming his cold butt up (something which he claimed was a terrible ailment for a tanuki), but he'd wink lavisciously at passersby as if he were doing something much naughtier.

He satisfied his wanderlust by sneaking into unused parts of the mansion. No floorboard was safe from prying and all the books had been pulled at, for hope that the sisters were cliche enough to hide a hidden door that way.

Ironically it was in his own room, under the bed, that he found the most interesting passage of all. It had taken a particularly boring day and some muscular effort to get him to move it so he could check it over, but it had been well worth it. The trapdoor led through a set of rickety stairs, past a sign that said BEWARE OF THE TIGER and into a true basement. Coughing at the dust, he forged ahead despite the lack of light. Maybe, he thought while his eyes adjusted to the dark, revealing a great Saint Andrew's Cross in the center of the room, being cooped up wasn't so bad.

Sample 2:
http://the-love-hotel.dreamwidth.org/1008373.html#comments

Sample 3:
http://piratejournal.dreamwidth.org/341586.html?thread=27186514#cmt27186514

comments

Institute app, in progress

2015-02-14T00:25:38Z

PLAYER INFORMATION

PLAYER: Hedge
ARE YOU AT LEAST 16 YEARS OLD?: no i am a tiny baby

CONTACT: taoofcrime on plurk and AIM.
CHARACTERS PLAYED: Reki//totallystoned, Liir//friendofdorothy, Naija//fathoming

CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Yasaburo Shimogamo
CANON: Uchouten Kazoku
CANON REFERENCE: Any info links will be accepted here. If apping an OC, this doesn't really apply to you.
AGE: 18
GENDER: M
YEAR IN SCHOOL/FACULTY POSITION: senior
APPEARANCE: A somewhat gangly young man, with messy brown hair. He has brown, fuzzy ears resembling those of a tanuki and a tail attached at his lower back that is likewise. His best feature is his winning smile, endearing and mischevious.

PERSONALITY: Yasaburo's fundamental philosophy is thus: "The only thing you really need is to live an interesting life." He is a novelty seeker at core, lover of the strange and irregular, both in environment and character. Not just seeking novelty out of escape from boredom though, he genuinely believes it's by exposure to new things that people grow most. This frequently leads him into trouble, as he seeks out potentially dangerous people just because he finds them interesting. Foremost among these is Benten (ne Suzuki Satomi) who has managed to keep him on his toes since they first met.

It also leads to him being accused (somewhat truthfully) of being lazy. He's the type of open, relaxed person you can find taking a nap in a park while everyone else is in the middle of their workday.

Yet despite this image he's built up of being an irresponsible flaneur, Yasaburo actually pays keen attention to his duties. This is shown in his taking care of Akadama-sensei, looking after his little brother and helping his mother with her pranks. He smoothes over the cognitive dissonance between his stated philosophy and his actions by reminding himself that these are duties he chose to take on himself, not ones that were chosen for him. In other words, he pays attention to what he thinks is right to do rather than what others tell him he should do. If you think this makes him sound stubborn at times, you're right.

Speaking of, Yasaburo thinks tradition, whether mutant or human, can go hang. An inheritor of the ancient leadership role of the Shimogamo clan, Yasaburo highly resents being forced into any role he didn't willingly take on (that, he thinks, is for his older brother), including gender roles, which he bends with his frequent public crossdressing/illusions.

There's one way in which he does fit perfectly with tanuki tradition though: pranks. Never mean spirited, Yasaburo happily uses his abilities to shake people's lives up a bit or to get ahead in life himself. He keeps strictly to pranks that do not harm the subject and give them something to look back on with a chuckle.

Of course all this curiosity and iconoclasm can land him in hot water sometimes. Luckily he's a fast talker, good at finding excuses for himself. If he weren't a tanuki already he'd probably be a flash mob organizer or three card monte man.

Lucky for him also he has a large, warm family to fall back on if he gets burned. He extends that same warmth back to his family and friends, and probably will to the friends he makes here too.

None of this should imply that he doesn't have a breaking point or never gets mad. He's absolutely willing to fight in defense of his family and would never abandon a person in need, especially not a senior citizen, who he seems to ironically have a flair for working with. If he needs to, he will use his ability with deception to terrify instead of amuse or inconveinence.

In summary, Yasaburo's iconoclast and caring brother and son, defier of tradition but eager to help his sensei, loafer, doer of the right thing, prankster and philosopher and he handles the tension between these aspects of himself with a dismissive wave of the hand and an ardent belief that things will turn out OK.

POWERS/ABILITIES: Physical mutation: Like most of his kind, Yasaburo has a tail and ears that resemble those of the tanuki, a real life animal that has a folkloric reputation for shapeshifting and mischeviousness. He uses his power to disguise this, in most normal situations.

His mutant power is illusions. Yasaburo is capable of fooling all the senses, provided he has a 'base' stimulation to that sense to work with. For instance he can change the scent of garbage to that of delicious cooking, but can't create a strong scent out of nowhere, or make leaves appear to look and feel like money, but can't conjure illusory money out of nowhere. He can alter his own appearance as well, to nearly anything within a reasonable distance of his own size.

He can't alter something to be like something he has never experienced. For instance he could not make a hamburger taste like thousand-year eggs, as he has never eaten those (though he would dearly like to). He could, however, make it taste like chicken or tofu. He is extraordinarily talented at this but also extraordinarily lazy, leading to frustration for people who believe in him reaching his full potential. If he is startled and frightened, there is a chance that his control over the illusions may fail, leading to them being exposed for what they are and his ears and tail to suddenly appear. They will also fade a short time after he stops trying to actively maintain them or leaves the area.

AU HISTORY: This is the meat of the AU. We want a detailed history of their character. Their early life, how they came to discover they were a mutant, and what lead them to the institute. If they've been here awhile, we'd like to know what they've done since coming to Xavier. If they're a returning character, we want to fill in the gap between when they were here last and now. Once again, spare no detail. There is no hard limit on how long this needs to be, but if we feel it is too barebones, there will be a revision, so please do what you can.

SAMPLES

NETWORK SAMPLE: You may link from an outside source, either our Test Drive or other places, but they MUST be set in the game. An acceptable linked sample for this prompt must be have at least seven comments from YOUR character in the linked thread.
This is basically to show off character voice in the form of a network post. It can be text, vocal, or video. We want at least some dialog, though in cases of less talkative characters, we are willing to accept character 'voice' in more subtle ways. Make it work!

LOG SAMPLE: You may link from an outside source, either our Test Drive or other places, but they MUST be set in the game. An acceptable linked sample for this prompt must be have at least seven comments from YOUR character in the linked thread.
This is an example of your ability to write the character's introspection. Their thoughts, feelings, and reactions to a given situation. Get inside their head. Remember to show, not tell. These are off network, what would normally go in the log community. You do not necessarily need to write this prose style, and can do a bracket style if you choose. But we still need to see a healthy amount of introspection.

comments

buttwarmed @ 2014-08-10T04:48:00

2014-08-10T09:51:54Z

HOW'S MY DRIVING?

Crit and screened contacting goes here. IP logging is off, anonymous commenting is on.

comments

buttwarmed @ 2014-08-07T09:21:00

2014-08-07T14:23:51Z

[Name]: hedge
[Age]: owes Jesus a dollar
[Contacts]:
? DW:
? AIM: taoofcrime
? Plurk: taoofcrime
[Timezone]: cst
[Other Characters]: -

[Name]: Yasaburo Shimogamo
[Canon]: Uchouten Kazoku
[Age]: about 19, or its tanuki equivalent
[Gender]: m
[Canon Point]: episode 9

[History]: In modern day Kyoto, there exist three dominant species: humans, tanuki and tengu. The former is, of course, generally not aware that their world is shared as the other two can easily disguise themselves. Though there are sometimes conflicts, the three species generally find a harmonious balance and do their best to stay out of each others ways.

The Shimogamo family is one of the oldest tanuki families, with a proud lineage stretching back to the Heian era. As one of the old families, they are often looked to for leadership by their community. Yasaburo is the second youngest of four brothers of this family. His father Soichirou Shimogamo, held the prestigious post of nise-emon, the closest the tanuki community has to a mayor.

However last year, tragedy struck. The Friday Fellows, a secretive, ancient and amoral group of humans, each taking the name of one of the seven lucky gods, captured Soichirou and ate him in a hot pot, this being apparently the tradition of their new years bash. Their newest member was Benten (formerly Suzuki Satomi), former pupil (and kidnapping victim) of Yasaburo's tengu teacher, Professor Akadama. It should be noted here that while it was regarded as a tragedy, there was very little in the way of resentment from even Soichirou's family. Risking ending up in a hot pot is considered simply one of the hazards of not being the dominant species. So while this certainly strained relations between Benten and the Shimogamos, it was not considered anything that unusual.

The result of this was the severing of relations between the Shimogamos and their cousins, the Ebisugawas, another old family, and the breaking off of Yasaburo's engagement to Kaisei Ebisugawa.

Fast forward to the present. As a result of their father's death Yaichiro Shimogamo is running for the office of nise-emon and Yajiro has adopted the form of a frog from grief and guilt and now sits at the bottom of a well, dispensing advice to those who use the well as a confessional. Yasaburo is living an irresponsible but happy life. Professor Akadama, injured in a Noodle Incident and unable to fly, asks Yasaburo to deliver a letter to Benten. This results in the destruction of one of the mystical artifacts in Benten's possession, causing Yasaburo to flee to Osaka. Benten manages to track him down though, and forgives the debt in exchange for his entertaining the Friday Fellows (who are not aware that he's a tanuki).

Meanwhile relations between the Shimogamos and Ebisugawas have gone from cold to hot, resulting in a midair battle between flying houseboats fueled by booze. In the next two episodes we learn that Yajiro was indirectly responsible for their father's death and that it was the head of the Ebisugawa clan who sold him to the Friday Fellows. This is the canon point I'll be bringing him from.

[Personality]: Yasaburo's fundamental philosophy is thus: "The only thing you really need is to live an interesting life." He is a novelty seeker at core, lover of the strange and irregular, both in environment and character. Not just seeking novelty out of escape from boredom though, he genuinely believes it's by exposure to new things that people grow most. This frequently leads him into trouble, as he seeks out potentially dangerous people just because he finds them interesting. Foremost among these is Benten (ne Suzuki Satomi) who has managed to keep him on his toes since they first met.

It also leads to him being accused (somewhat truthfully) of being lazy. He's the type of open, relaxed person you can find taking a nap in a park while everyone else is in the middle of their workday.

Yet despite this image he's built up of being an irresponsible flaneur, Yasaburo actually pays keen attention to his duties. This is shown in his taking care of Akadama-sensei, looking after his little brother and helping his mother with her pranks. He smoothes over the cognitive dissonance between his stated philosophy and his actions by reminding himself that these are duties he chose to take on himself, not ones that were chosen for him. In other words, he pays attention to what he thinks is right to do rather than what others tell him he should do. If you think this makes him sound stubborn at times, you're right.

Speaking of, Yasaburo thinks tradition, whether tanuki or human, can go hang. An inheritor of the ancient leadership role of the Shimogamo clan, Yasaburo highly resents being forced into any role he didn't willingly take on (that, he thinks, is for his older brother), including gender roles, which he bends with his frequent public crossdressing/forming.

There's one way in which he does fit perfectly with tanuki tradition though: pranks. Never mean spirited, Yasaburo happily uses his abilities to shake people's lives up a bit or to get ahead in life himself. He keeps strictly to pranks that do not harm the subject and give them something to look back on with a chuckle.

Of course all this curiosity and iconoclasm can land him in hot water sometimes. Luckily he's a fast talker, good at finding excuses for himself. If he weren't a tanuki already he'd probably be a flash mob organizer or three card monte man.

Lucky for him also he has a large, warm family to fall back on if he gets burned. He extends that same warmth back to his family and friends, and probably will to the friends he makes here too.

None of this should imply that he doesn't have a breaking point or never gets mad. He's absolutely willing to fight in defense of his family and would never abandon a person in need, especially not a senior citizen, who he seems to ironically have a flair for working with. If he needs to, he will use his ability with deception to terrify instead of amuse or inconveinence.

In summary, Yasaburo's iconoclast and caring brother and son, defier of tradition but eager to help his sensei, loafer, doer of the right thing, prankster and philosopher and he handles the tension between these aspects of himself with a dismissive wave of the paw and an ardent belief that things will turn out OK.

[Abilities / Strengths & Weaknesses]: Being a tanuki, as is traditional in Japanese folklore, Yasaburo is endowed with the power of shapeshifting. In his natural form, he looks like this. However he is able to shapeshift into a variety of forms, thus appearing to be anything from an old man, to a schoolgirl, even a large animal or inanimate object. The larger and more complex the object he shifts into the more physically taxing it is and the more likely he is to pop back into his natural form by accident. These transformations appear to be physically complete and are not simply projections/hallucinations. The physical limit for the size of these transformations is about three meters for him. In human form, he tends to default to the form of a lanky, shaggy haired young man appearing to be about the human age of 19.

He can also create small, short lived illusions centered around small objects, for instance by disguising leaves as money. These illusions will fade rapidly once he has left the immediate area.

He does not have the traditional tanuki prehensile/growable testicles, thank god.

[Limited Powers]: Yasaburo's transformations will be limited to no larger than about human sized.

[Other Important Facts]:

A cold butt is the cause of innumerable ills for a tanuki.

[Samples]:
? Thread: http://reallybadeggs.dreamwidth.org/11443.html?thread=4094387#cmt4094387
http://reallybadeggs.dreamwidth.org/4314.html?thread=2688218#cmt2688218

? Post: [AUDIO | OPEN]

Alright, I'm just going to put this out there. Call it a public service announcement.

The Atlantean palace guards have no sense of humor at all. If anyone tells you that they're not allowed to move from their posts no matter what you do, don't listen to them. I almost got gutted!

comments