Application
Mar. 18th, 2020 02:07 amMun
Name: Cocoa
Livejournal/Dreamwidth Username:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
momijizukamori
E-mail: momijizukamori[at]gmail.com
AIM/MSN: momijizukamori on AIM
Current Characters at Luceti: N/A
Character
Name: Toshizou Hijikata
Fandom: Peacemaker Kurogane
Gender: male
Age: 31
Time Period: Shortly before Itou’s defection
Wing Color: Black
History: http://murasaki-kaze.livejournal.com/275759.html#cutid1 (linking Kaze’s Souji history, with permission, as it covers early events well)
To expand past Souji’s canonpoint, up to Hijikata’s:
In the wake of Ikedaya, we see Hijikata forced to play PR representative for the Shinsengumi - while he manages it quite well with outsiders around, he’s quick to flip back to his usual grumpy, pipe-smoking self when it’s not necessary. Later on, Yamanami comes in to find him practicing alone, and comments on their shared past - and the fact that they’ve butted heads ever since arriving in Kyoto. Hijikata brushes him off, telling him he’ll get to deal with Itou Kashitarou, one of the new officers joining the group. Yamanami then asks to be demoted from a fighting position, which Hijikata refuses, and then tries to goad Yamanami into drawing his blade on him. Yamanami refuses to do so, but loses his temper, and stalks out to go see his mistress in Shimabara instead.
Itou’s arrival throws another wrench into the cogs of Hijikata’s life - he takes an immediate dislike to the man, in no small part because Itou starts subtly flirting with Hijikata almost immediately. He handles this by hiding in his room and smoking, and Souji handles this by stealing his collection of (awful) haiku, ostensibly to distract him by drawing his ire elsewhere.
In the wake of the western bombardment of Shimonoseki, and the disastrous Choshu attack on the Forbidden Gate, the Tokugawa government gives the Shinsengumi a stronger push to deal with the Choshu rebels by any means possible. In light of that, Hijikata drafts a new set of rules for the Shinsengumi, even harsher than his previous ones, and announces that headquarters will move to West Hongan Temple - both moves that are met with surprise and ire from the officers, and Yamanami in particular. Nonetheless, Hijikata stands firm, enforcing his reputation as the ‘demon vice-commander’. Behind the scenes, Hijikata asks Saitou to get close to Itou, afraid that Itou is sowing the seeds of a split in the Shinsengumi.
In late winter, Yamanami deserts the Shinsengumi, feeling as though he’s ill-suited to his position there. Souji volunteers to retrieve him, as desertation is forbidden under Shinsengumi code, and succeeds. He’s brought back to a secret meeting with Souji, Kondou, and Hijikata, who try to convince him to recant, and rejoin. He and Hijikata argue again, once more over principles and Hijikata’s increasingly ruthless tactics. Hijikata throws Yamanami his sword, and says that the least he can do is commit seppuku like a true samurai. Yamanami draws, and moves to strike at Hijikata - at which point Souji reacts and cuts him down. Yamanmi comments that it’s a ‘tribute to his training’ - implying that Souji’s ruthlessness in battle is Hijikata’s fault. They realize Yamanami’s sword was bamboo, not steel, but it’s too late. Yamanami begs Hijikata to regret this moment, to remember it and keep him from doing anything else he’ll regret. He recalls a promise they made, before coming to Kyoto, where Hijikata asked Yamanami to be his conscience, to keep him in check.
A depressed lull falls over the Shinsengumi for a time, interrupted only by the arrival of Matsumoto, a doctor trained in western medicine who serves the Shinsengumi, and comes to check over the members and their living conditions. Matsumoto sees Souji, and immediately realizes his illness, though refrains from commenting on it to Souji. Souji then goes to find Hijikata, who is asleep and having a nightmare about one of his family members, who died of tuberculosis when he was young. Souji jokingly comments that he’s going to sneak off so he can peek in on Hijikata’s physical exam, and brushes off Hijkata’s concerns that it was Souji coughing, not just something he’d heard in his dream.
Afterwards, Matsumoto shares what he’s learned of Souji’s health with Yamazaki - with the stated implication of keeping the information quiet, so as not to cause a panic, but to also keep Souji safe and from making others sick. From the way Hijikata treats him after this, there’s a certain implication that he knows - he fusses over Souji being out in the cold, for instance.
Personality: The side of Toshizou most people see is that of the ‘oni vice-commander’. Where Kondou and Yamanami are the kind ones among Shinsengumi command, the task falls to Hijikata to be the harsh one, enforcing discipline with an iron fist. He is responsible for drafting the Shinsengumi code to which all members are sworn, where the only punishment is sepukku.
It’s not a particularly forced role for him - Toshi is, by nature, a somewhat gruff individual. He’s blunt about expressing displeasure, and as he holds individuals around him (as well as himself) to very high standards, he’s displeased often. He’s the type that seems to love to have something to complain about. He can also be ruthless in his pursuit of greater goals - as evidenced by the code. He feels such measures are necessary to make the units cohesive, and protect Kyoto and Japan. He often butts heads with Yamanami, who takes a more moderate stance on the matter. Some of this is out of a striving for legitimacy as a samurai as well - unlike many of his companions in the Shinsengumi, Hijikata was born to a farming family, and not a bushi family. Becoming samurai was something he longed for from a young age, and having acquired that rank through his position with the Shinsengumi, he does as much as he can to not tarnish that reputation or that of those around him.
Despite all this, he’s a good person at heart, if rarely a nice person. He truly believes in his path and his goals, that they are the proper, honorable thing to do, and he’s willing to sacrifice himself for his country and ideals. He also does care about others around him, even if he’s not particularly good at showing it. Tetsu takes his assignment as a page as an insult, but Hijikata’s reasoning in the choice was to protect the boy from the full harshness of life as Shinsengumi; a page would not be required to adhere to the Shinsengumi code for instance and would thus not be forced to face the punishments it decrees.
He also shows a gruff sort of protectiveness towards Souji Okita, fussing over him at the first signs of illness and the like. He is also far more likely to give in to Souji’s whims, and while he’ll complain and glare the whole way, he will allow himself to be dragged out for candy-shopping or the like. Some of this is rooted in his tendency to blame himself for things he sees as being his fault, even if the connection is, in reality, only tangential, and he holds onto that self-blame for a long, long time. With Souji, he blames himself for Souji taking up the blade at a young age, and for the trauma Souji has suffered as a result. His resulting overprotectiveness of the Shinsengumi’s most skilled fighter is an attempt to make up for those past wrongs.
Strengths: Hijikata was born a farmer, but trained as a bushi. He’s an excellent swordsman, though not prodigy level, and he has likely had at least basic hand-to-hand and bow-training, as well as basic formal written education. His chief skill among the Shinsengumi is his abilities as a leader - he is perfectly fine being in charge of a battle, and was the one to design the small-unit, close-quarters sword-style the Shinsengumi use. None of his abilities exceed human norms, however.
Weaknesses: Overall, Hijikata is fairly physically fit - part of the nature of his lifestyle. His only major physical flaw (save being an ordinary human in a game with super-powered humans) is a massive nicotine habit. He smokes pipe-tobacco on a daily basis, and while he’s too young to be feeling any long-term effects of that habit, he is an addict. Too long without a smoke, and first he gets grumpy, and then he starts to get withdrawal symptoms.
He’s also not particularly good at dealing with people - his abrasive nature and rather ruthless approach to his goals tends to alienate people, and he’s not very good at dealing with social conflicts. Souji is another one of his weak points - though he’d never outright admit it, he’s very protective of him, and going after Souji is a far, far faster way to push him over the edge than attacking Hijikata himself.
Samples
First Person: Requesting Q&A, please!
Third Person: The wings. The wings were the tipping point between mere annoyance and the urge to actually throttle someone, Hijikata found. They were last on a long line of indignities that had been inflicted on him today. One, he’d woken up in clothing that was not his own, and most definitely did not cover enough to account for the light layer of snow on the ground around him. One of his kimono was folded up next to him, but second on the list, his pipe, which would have done a fair bit to improve his mood, was nowhere in evidence.
And three, he had wings. He’d discovered it when he went to try to put the kimono on, and it had caught on something, something that had moved, and sent shivers down his spine, through the deep muscle soreness between his shoulder blades he was only now noticing. Reaching over a shoulder - and hells, that hurt, and he couldn’t remember doing anything that merited that level of soreness. He felt something stiff and sleek - like a crow’s feather - under his touch, and that unexpected tingling feeling before the wing twitched out of his touch. He reached a little farther, ignoring the protest of his muscles, and felt where they were seemingly embedded, just above his shoulderblades. Well. That explained why he hurt, maybe, if not for the fact that they were wings. That bit made absolutely no sense at all.
He gritted his teeth, and did his best to drape the kimono over his shoulders without disturbing the wings too much. He didn’t particularly feel like wandering around completely bare-chested while he tried to figure out where he was. And why he had wings. As he glanced around, he noticed something that had been hidden underneath his kimono and obi - a book of some kind. He picked it up, curious, and flipped it open. And then flipped it closed again almost immediately, because something in it had moved. He was starting to suspect he was very drunk, or having a particularly lucid dream. There was simply no other explanation. Still, whatever that book was, it seemed unwise to leave it sitting there - it had been left with his things for some sort of reason. He tucked it into his obi, and set off into the trees in hopes of finding people somewhere.
Name: Cocoa
Livejournal/Dreamwidth Username:
momijizukamoriE-mail: momijizukamori[at]gmail.com
AIM/MSN: momijizukamori on AIM
Current Characters at Luceti: N/A
Character
Name: Toshizou Hijikata
Fandom: Peacemaker Kurogane
Gender: male
Age: 31
Time Period: Shortly before Itou’s defection
Wing Color: Black
History: http://murasaki-kaze.livejournal.com/275759.html#cutid1 (linking Kaze’s Souji history, with permission, as it covers early events well)
To expand past Souji’s canonpoint, up to Hijikata’s:
In the wake of Ikedaya, we see Hijikata forced to play PR representative for the Shinsengumi - while he manages it quite well with outsiders around, he’s quick to flip back to his usual grumpy, pipe-smoking self when it’s not necessary. Later on, Yamanami comes in to find him practicing alone, and comments on their shared past - and the fact that they’ve butted heads ever since arriving in Kyoto. Hijikata brushes him off, telling him he’ll get to deal with Itou Kashitarou, one of the new officers joining the group. Yamanami then asks to be demoted from a fighting position, which Hijikata refuses, and then tries to goad Yamanami into drawing his blade on him. Yamanami refuses to do so, but loses his temper, and stalks out to go see his mistress in Shimabara instead.
Itou’s arrival throws another wrench into the cogs of Hijikata’s life - he takes an immediate dislike to the man, in no small part because Itou starts subtly flirting with Hijikata almost immediately. He handles this by hiding in his room and smoking, and Souji handles this by stealing his collection of (awful) haiku, ostensibly to distract him by drawing his ire elsewhere.
In the wake of the western bombardment of Shimonoseki, and the disastrous Choshu attack on the Forbidden Gate, the Tokugawa government gives the Shinsengumi a stronger push to deal with the Choshu rebels by any means possible. In light of that, Hijikata drafts a new set of rules for the Shinsengumi, even harsher than his previous ones, and announces that headquarters will move to West Hongan Temple - both moves that are met with surprise and ire from the officers, and Yamanami in particular. Nonetheless, Hijikata stands firm, enforcing his reputation as the ‘demon vice-commander’. Behind the scenes, Hijikata asks Saitou to get close to Itou, afraid that Itou is sowing the seeds of a split in the Shinsengumi.
In late winter, Yamanami deserts the Shinsengumi, feeling as though he’s ill-suited to his position there. Souji volunteers to retrieve him, as desertation is forbidden under Shinsengumi code, and succeeds. He’s brought back to a secret meeting with Souji, Kondou, and Hijikata, who try to convince him to recant, and rejoin. He and Hijikata argue again, once more over principles and Hijikata’s increasingly ruthless tactics. Hijikata throws Yamanami his sword, and says that the least he can do is commit seppuku like a true samurai. Yamanami draws, and moves to strike at Hijikata - at which point Souji reacts and cuts him down. Yamanmi comments that it’s a ‘tribute to his training’ - implying that Souji’s ruthlessness in battle is Hijikata’s fault. They realize Yamanami’s sword was bamboo, not steel, but it’s too late. Yamanami begs Hijikata to regret this moment, to remember it and keep him from doing anything else he’ll regret. He recalls a promise they made, before coming to Kyoto, where Hijikata asked Yamanami to be his conscience, to keep him in check.
A depressed lull falls over the Shinsengumi for a time, interrupted only by the arrival of Matsumoto, a doctor trained in western medicine who serves the Shinsengumi, and comes to check over the members and their living conditions. Matsumoto sees Souji, and immediately realizes his illness, though refrains from commenting on it to Souji. Souji then goes to find Hijikata, who is asleep and having a nightmare about one of his family members, who died of tuberculosis when he was young. Souji jokingly comments that he’s going to sneak off so he can peek in on Hijikata’s physical exam, and brushes off Hijkata’s concerns that it was Souji coughing, not just something he’d heard in his dream.
Afterwards, Matsumoto shares what he’s learned of Souji’s health with Yamazaki - with the stated implication of keeping the information quiet, so as not to cause a panic, but to also keep Souji safe and from making others sick. From the way Hijikata treats him after this, there’s a certain implication that he knows - he fusses over Souji being out in the cold, for instance.
Personality: The side of Toshizou most people see is that of the ‘oni vice-commander’. Where Kondou and Yamanami are the kind ones among Shinsengumi command, the task falls to Hijikata to be the harsh one, enforcing discipline with an iron fist. He is responsible for drafting the Shinsengumi code to which all members are sworn, where the only punishment is sepukku.
It’s not a particularly forced role for him - Toshi is, by nature, a somewhat gruff individual. He’s blunt about expressing displeasure, and as he holds individuals around him (as well as himself) to very high standards, he’s displeased often. He’s the type that seems to love to have something to complain about. He can also be ruthless in his pursuit of greater goals - as evidenced by the code. He feels such measures are necessary to make the units cohesive, and protect Kyoto and Japan. He often butts heads with Yamanami, who takes a more moderate stance on the matter. Some of this is out of a striving for legitimacy as a samurai as well - unlike many of his companions in the Shinsengumi, Hijikata was born to a farming family, and not a bushi family. Becoming samurai was something he longed for from a young age, and having acquired that rank through his position with the Shinsengumi, he does as much as he can to not tarnish that reputation or that of those around him.
Despite all this, he’s a good person at heart, if rarely a nice person. He truly believes in his path and his goals, that they are the proper, honorable thing to do, and he’s willing to sacrifice himself for his country and ideals. He also does care about others around him, even if he’s not particularly good at showing it. Tetsu takes his assignment as a page as an insult, but Hijikata’s reasoning in the choice was to protect the boy from the full harshness of life as Shinsengumi; a page would not be required to adhere to the Shinsengumi code for instance and would thus not be forced to face the punishments it decrees.
He also shows a gruff sort of protectiveness towards Souji Okita, fussing over him at the first signs of illness and the like. He is also far more likely to give in to Souji’s whims, and while he’ll complain and glare the whole way, he will allow himself to be dragged out for candy-shopping or the like. Some of this is rooted in his tendency to blame himself for things he sees as being his fault, even if the connection is, in reality, only tangential, and he holds onto that self-blame for a long, long time. With Souji, he blames himself for Souji taking up the blade at a young age, and for the trauma Souji has suffered as a result. His resulting overprotectiveness of the Shinsengumi’s most skilled fighter is an attempt to make up for those past wrongs.
Strengths: Hijikata was born a farmer, but trained as a bushi. He’s an excellent swordsman, though not prodigy level, and he has likely had at least basic hand-to-hand and bow-training, as well as basic formal written education. His chief skill among the Shinsengumi is his abilities as a leader - he is perfectly fine being in charge of a battle, and was the one to design the small-unit, close-quarters sword-style the Shinsengumi use. None of his abilities exceed human norms, however.
Weaknesses: Overall, Hijikata is fairly physically fit - part of the nature of his lifestyle. His only major physical flaw (save being an ordinary human in a game with super-powered humans) is a massive nicotine habit. He smokes pipe-tobacco on a daily basis, and while he’s too young to be feeling any long-term effects of that habit, he is an addict. Too long without a smoke, and first he gets grumpy, and then he starts to get withdrawal symptoms.
He’s also not particularly good at dealing with people - his abrasive nature and rather ruthless approach to his goals tends to alienate people, and he’s not very good at dealing with social conflicts. Souji is another one of his weak points - though he’d never outright admit it, he’s very protective of him, and going after Souji is a far, far faster way to push him over the edge than attacking Hijikata himself.
Samples
First Person: Requesting Q&A, please!
Third Person: The wings. The wings were the tipping point between mere annoyance and the urge to actually throttle someone, Hijikata found. They were last on a long line of indignities that had been inflicted on him today. One, he’d woken up in clothing that was not his own, and most definitely did not cover enough to account for the light layer of snow on the ground around him. One of his kimono was folded up next to him, but second on the list, his pipe, which would have done a fair bit to improve his mood, was nowhere in evidence.
And three, he had wings. He’d discovered it when he went to try to put the kimono on, and it had caught on something, something that had moved, and sent shivers down his spine, through the deep muscle soreness between his shoulder blades he was only now noticing. Reaching over a shoulder - and hells, that hurt, and he couldn’t remember doing anything that merited that level of soreness. He felt something stiff and sleek - like a crow’s feather - under his touch, and that unexpected tingling feeling before the wing twitched out of his touch. He reached a little farther, ignoring the protest of his muscles, and felt where they were seemingly embedded, just above his shoulderblades. Well. That explained why he hurt, maybe, if not for the fact that they were wings. That bit made absolutely no sense at all.
He gritted his teeth, and did his best to drape the kimono over his shoulders without disturbing the wings too much. He didn’t particularly feel like wandering around completely bare-chested while he tried to figure out where he was. And why he had wings. As he glanced around, he noticed something that had been hidden underneath his kimono and obi - a book of some kind. He picked it up, curious, and flipped it open. And then flipped it closed again almost immediately, because something in it had moved. He was starting to suspect he was very drunk, or having a particularly lucid dream. There was simply no other explanation. Still, whatever that book was, it seemed unwise to leave it sitting there - it had been left with his things for some sort of reason. He tucked it into his obi, and set off into the trees in hopes of finding people somewhere.
