Application to [community profile] country_within_the_palace

Jul. 14th, 2012 04:41 am
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CHARACTER INFO
Name: Takeshi Yamamoto
Series: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Canon Point: Chapter 379, at the end of the fight against the Vindice.
Reference: To the wiki!
Age: 16
Gender: Male and also male.

Suitability: First of all, I'm going to assume he starts out being 16, which, I know, isn't what the wiki says, but throughout Reborn the timeframe is generally only hinted at. Since the first arc alone is said to have taken a full year, with everything that's happened throughout canon including recovery times (with side bonus of the changing art style), I think this isn't unrealistic.

Now, taking a look at what canon throws at him. He's been in fights. He's been in fights would-be-to-the-death. He's been electrocuted to the point of nearly dying. He's been stabbed and would've been paralyzed if it hadn't been for unexpected magical shounen powered healing. Needless to say he's been through a fair amount of things that are a lot more scary than sex. And while two or three story arcs ago he still spluttered at the mention of boobs, I'm fairly certain that is allowed in a middle-schooler - he has grown since, to the point where he can accept that there can in fact be reasons for him to kill another person. Sex isn't that particular kind of profound, so perhaps there aren't any implications of him having romantic feelings one way or another, but KHR is not a romance- or relationship focused canon, and he deals with female admirers well enough. He's managed, canonically, to adapt to a whole different time in which just about everything he knew was challenged in some way and he was dragged into a war, I'd like to think that Yamamoto is easily capable of adapting to the environment of the Country.


Appearance: Since it's only by two years, he won't change much. He'll be a little taller, and he'll look slightly less teenage in his overall shape, losing some of that gangly look that he has with his arms and legs seeming a little too long for his body.

Background: To the wiki! Again!

Personality: Takeshi is, at first glance, a friendly, cheerful jock. He plays baseball, has since he was tiny, and he's very good at it, even aiming to become a professional player. He's passionate about it to the point he says that it's the only thing he knows how to do, trains very diligently, and sometimes, very rarely, over his own limits. Despite this drive, he doesn't become estranged from other people, and despite being proud of his own skill to an extent, he is not haughty or prideful. At the core, he's a really nice guy. People like him and he likes people, he grows on people easily because of his friendly attitude and his willingness to help. He is so genuinely nice it's sometimes hard to believe, to the point where it can come off as naivety or stupidity, as he doesn't take offense when someone insults him, and sarcasm seems to fly right over his head. Really though, that is simply his way, he doesn't feel insulted nor does he get angry easily, preferring to do his best to get along with everybody. That, and he doesn't mind playing along with the idiot label, even though he is quite smart.
Subverting the jock cliché, it's not that he has bad grades because he isn't intelligent enough, but rather because he prioritizes training over studying. Takeshi easily picks up new skills, especially manual ones, as canon shows him learning his father's style of swordsmanship as well as driving a motorcycle each in a very short span of time. Under pressure, he works even faster, thinking up an elaborate new technique in the middle of a fight while already injured and under threat of death. It's also stated by Reborn that out of all the Vongola, he has the best reflexes. In short: he thinks on his feet well.

Yamamoto isn't easy to anger. It shows in his reactions (or lack thereof) to the insults Gokudera throws at him (more often than not he laughs them off) and in his generally warm and cheerful attitude towards people. He tends to be the one who keeps or restores the peace. As a rule, he's not suspicious of people he meets and makes friends easily, readily accepting people the way they are. Tsuna is as much example of this as Gokudera, Reborn, Hibari and Squalo. He generally goes with gut instinct on who he can trust and who he can't, a judgement which hasn't always been spot-on, but seems fairly reliable - I imagine he'll continue to forge bonds and make new friends once he arrives in the Country. His own world is already pretty strange, and Takeshi tends to deal with given situations as they occur, while processing things on his own time - for instance, he continues calling mafia issues a game for several story arcs, even if this does not stop him from taking it seriously - but much like the people he meets, he will accept the Country as it is, too, find his place in it, and eventually come to terms with it.

Despite his easygoing attitude, important decisions are not something he makes lightly. Even though he takes up the sword in order to defend his friends, he doesn't make the decision to dedicate himself to it completely, let alone find the resolve to kill anybody with it until much, much later. When pressured to make a choice, he will find a way to dodge or circumvent or stall until he is comfortable deciding, as seen when in the Future arc Squalo tries to get him to choose between baseball and the sword. Becoming a professional baseball player has been his dream for so long, he can not simply discard it in a day. So he stalls, saying he'll choose the sword... while he's in this future. Committment and dedication are important to him, and therefore not easily given or given up on. Even so, he always seems ready to go with the flow, to let things fall into place. Simply accepting things is his greatest asset in a world with talking hitman babies and people who light their hands on fire or summon animals that transform into weapons out of little boxes. There are limits to how much he'll change to fit the circumstances, though, lines he's not willing to cross. His refusal to strike a killing blow against an opponent who is trying his level best to kill him is one such example. A good portion of it can be called naivety, but really? Mostly Takeshi values life, and isn't about to simply end one because that's the easier way. It isn't until much later in the series that someone angers him enough to want to kill, by using his friends and manipulating them into hurting people they care about. Bottom line is, he really cares about people. Family, close friends, recent acquaintances, someone he's just met who seems like a nice person, complete strangers... he cares about them and he values them and doesn't want anybody to get hurt unnecessarily, or, really, at all.

Used to succeeding in everything he does, Yamamoto doesn't stomach defeat easily. He is very confident, takes pride in his skills without being prideful, so being on the losing end is not not a terribly blow to his ego. Rather, he feels regret and guilt, one over not having been good enough, and one over failing his friends who count and rely on him, as well as the ones who have taught him, especially his father. On the up side, he never lets these feelings paralyze him, but continues to use them as a motivator to improve. ...not that he really needs extra motivation. But he does enjoy a challenge, even a life-threatening one. He's got a strong will, though he's far from headstrong, but when he makes a decision he sticks to it, unwavering in faith, loyalty and determination. He rarely puts his foot down on anything, out of a firm belief that most things sort themself out anyway, preferring to be the one to pacify heated tempers.

In praxis all this means that Takeshi will readily get comfortable in the Country, once he's found out he's going to be staying a while. Naturally, this won't happen overnight, though he may pretend that it's not an issue, but especially the matter of sex will need either time, or at least someone he trusts enough to actually do it with. Once he's found his footing, I doubt he'll have much difficulty, is liable to joke around and make friends with all sorts of different people, and will continue on with his training as if he was at home. In all I think he'd make the best out of his stay, will likely learn to enjoy himself, but still want to leave as soon as he can to get back to his own world, because his friends are waiting for and counting on him.

Character Powers/Abilities/Skills: Short version or longer version of the list, as you like.


SAMPLES
First Person Sample: [video]
[Have a teenager peering at the screen. He looks a bit worse for wear, a bit worn around the edges, with scrapes and bandaids on his face, but he gives a friendly, if awkward smile.]
Ah, haha, I hope this is working. It's kinda hard to tell. Anyway, I just got here from the desert and, uh... Is that all true? What they told me about the war and about- the other stuff. Uhm.

Oh and there's also something I'm looking for! It's a bamboo sword, I know I had it when I got here, I just hope it didn't get lost in the fight earlier, it's... it's important to me, so if anyone knows where I can get it back, that'd be great.

Third Person Sample:
It's crowded. That's the first thing that comes to Takeshi's mind when he is brought to the city, everything seems packed, buildings, people, stalls selling various foods, everything looks narrow and a bit squished together, like someone just barely made it all fit, like a big, single living mixture that looks about ready to spill everywhere. Getting closer, standing as part-yet-not-part of it, he can pick out the individual lives and people, and just for a moment, he smiles, because as strange as it is, there's something familiar about the ordinary things he can see going on all around. Buying food. Walking down a street. It crosses his mind that Hibari would hate being here, and for a moment he smiles a bit more brightly, but after a moment the thought puts a strain on his smile, the sense of familiarity ebbing away again.

He's settled into his rooms soon enough, and despite having a place for himself, he really only feels more lost. Looks from wall to wall to wall, from room to room. Examines everything the kitchen has, and thinks, well, dad never believed in using fancy tools either. He tries to think of dishes he could make with these, something to do while he can barely tell up from down, and he wonders if this is what Tsuna and Gokudera felt like, when they'd just been sent to the future. Pokes around the gift basket and looks at the food he's been given.
And then, for a long time, Takeshi simply sits down, his back against the wall. Breathing in and out. He tries, more than once, to activate the Rain necklace, but to no avail. His will seems too weak, flame flickering, a strange and disconcerting feeling that helps the uncertainty knotting up his insides absolutely not at all. Takeshi continues to sit there, one hand wrapped around the pendant that suddenly feels too heavy, holding on so tightly his knuckles go white. He doesn't notice how the edges dig into his palm. Even, now that he's got time to notice, his body feels different, not quite comfortable. Like a pair of new shoes he's not worn in yet. The thought makes him frown - it doesn't feel like a lot of time passed between fighting the Vindice and arriving here, but...

Finally, he lets go of the pendant with a sigh. He doesn't know what he should do. Or he's been told what he's supposed to do, but it's hard to make sense of it all by himself. Without quite understanding why, he reaches for the mirror, shiny and clean and oddly out of place in the tidy but sparsely furnished surroundings. The hope for a familiar face or more he tries to not hold so close to his heart, but if nothing else, maybe there'll be answers. Other people who know their way around the place.
Really, just someone to talk to would be nice.

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山本 武 [ yamamoto takeshi ]

July 2012

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