Post by Nagamine Aki on May 15, 2009 5:54:27 GMT -5
Character's Full Name: Nagamine Aki.
Is the character a ninja? No.
Character's Appearance:
Aki is a strange mix between a discrete background person who would go unnoticed in a group of people and the nice girl everyone comes to for advice. Slender, of a delicate build and normal proportions, she is usually characterized by light, fluid movement and a quiet, almost inborn optimism. Her extremely polite behavior leaves the strongest mark, on her bearing, stance, looks and interactions with others. She will always be clean and neatly dressed, showing that she is a respectable, law-abiding member of society. She keeps a respectful distance from everyone and follows the strictest rules of conduit, bowing when necessary and always apologizing or thanking when common etiquette requires it. Despite that, she isn't the type of person who comes out as cold and unapproachable. She just seems a little private and focused on her work or on the task at hand, whatever that may be.
Fair-skinned and white-haired, she strongly prefers the natural look. She doesn't bother to use any make-up and her hip-length hair is usually up in two almost symmetrical pigtails. She has dark blue eyes, which detract from the brightness of her overall appearance and betray her real, more balanced demeanor. Depending on whether she is alone or in company, and on the type of activity she is conducting, Aki's array of facial expressions ranges from the occasional modest smile to unreadable absent-mindedness or patience, without ever so much as heading towards any of the extremes, like anger or overwhelming happiness.
Aki's clothing style is very feminine. She often places bows or ribbons in her hair and she likes dresses, the frillier and cuter the better. She has some sort of penchant for the color white when she chooses her clothes, and most of the articles were somehow modified manually by her. That usually consists only of adding small decorative elements or accessories, but sometimes she may perform edits on a larger scale. To remain rather modest-looking, just like with make-up, she never wears any kind of jewelry or any accessories aside from the few she might attach to the clothing itself. Aki doesn't even have earring holes. She takes very good care of her hair at least, but maybe that's just because her mother works as a hairdresser.
Brief Character History:
Aki’s family was one of the many that migrated towards the ninja villages as they became the pillars of modern society. Or so her parents have told her. They do not remember such a move either, as their family was already living in one of the villages when they were born. Yes, family. In case you were wondering, Aki’s parents are very distant cousins to each other, and the practice of arranging marriages between such relatives is very common in large families. Most of the Nagamine family members, scattered through the village, chose to be trained and hold various shinobi ranks, but some have maintained their status of simple civilians. Aki and her parents are in this latter category.
For as long as she can recall, Aki has lived in a small house on the village’s outskirts, surrounded by the medium-sized expanse of land her family owns. Her father grows rice, so most of their land is covered with rice fields, but the garden closest to home holds various other vegetables, and they even grow a few animals in the yard at the back. For this, which would be far too much for one man to handle, they have numerous hired hands, so Aki is used to having people around her, and dining at a large table, surrounded by a bunch of older men who discuss problems she can’t understand, and who sometimes drink too much sake, which brings about laughter and loud voices, and many moments she can amuse herself with if she watches carefully. She has always found this kind of life enjoyable.
Aki’s mother works as a hairdresser in the village. She doesn’t own the establishment herself, but she has been friends with the woman who does for so long she could almost be considered her co-owner. Ever since Aki was very little, her mother has had the habit of bringing her along for work sometimes and, by watching, Aki has come to know many tips and tricks of the trade, although she only uses them on herself if she needs to look good for some special occasion. Very rarely, in other words.
Aki grew up surrounded by books. Although her parents are extremely skilled and experienced when it comes to each of their trades, neither of them is particularly learned in general, which they both regretted in their youth, when hardship hit hard and it was difficult to find good jobs. Although Aki could likely do fine by simply inheriting them, they wanted things to be different for her, so they urged her to study and enrolled her into the best school they could find in the village, second only to the shinobi academy, which is combat-oriented and not something they would want for their daughter anyway. Aki proved to be an excellent student, so her parents bought her everything her teachers advised them to, and slowly she became a database of knowledge from various fields, at least as far as the theoretical field goes.
Child Aki used to leave home with a book and climb one of her favorite trees on the domain, or simply hide in one of the rice fields, and read. She would move around whenever the sun caught up to her and find a new spot, but she was glad to spend almost her entire day like that. If she wasn’t found doing that, however, she could have been at the river, trying (and failing, as any unknowing child would) to fish, or maybe on a rooftop in the village, watching as other kids played games on the streets. With this information, it is easy to tell Aki has never had much in the way of friends of her age at all. Needless to say, when she went to school, she was rather unaccustomed with being social with other kids, so there as well she was left behind and ignored most of the time. She never minded it very much. Aki was the type of person who could talk and laugh with someone, or argue and fight, and not take any of it to mean anything in the long run. But, if she didn’t have friends, Aki never had anything even close to an enemy, either.
One other thing of note in her life, which she is unlikely to ever forget, was her ill-fated engagement. She was only twelve when a relative from another family branch visited with his son, wanting to meet her and discuss with her parents. Unlike Aki and her parents, that man and his then fifteen-year-old son were shinobi, and although Aki didn’t understand much of what that implied, her parents were reluctant to receive them. In the middle of it all, Aki never actually got to have any coherent conversation with the man or his son. After a couple of other visits, however, they finally announced that she was to be married with the son when she reached the proper age. She was maybe a little excited about it, mostly due to how successful the marriage between her parents was, and to how she looked up to that, and because this was a similar situation. However, one couldn’t say she felt particularly connected to her fiancé, so three years later, when they were announced that he had died during a mission, she wasn’t heartbroken. If anything, she regretted that death the same way she would any other.
And so, Aki’s days continued, just as peaceful as before.
Character's Personality:
Aki is primarily what some would call naïve and others pure or innocent. Growing up, she was quite sheltered, so there are many things about the outside world that she still needs to learn, and some threaten to be quite shocking revelations for someone like her. But her parents think their daughter is reasonable and collected, and would likely be able to handle anything when the time comes. That is, for the most part, true. Aki has a positive outlook, and wouldn’t step away from any problem, thinking for sure that there would be a way to solve it. And she may not have had any real friends, but let’s not forget that she’s been surrounded by enough people at home as it is, and surely their discussions would have begun to make more and more sense for her as she got older. Aki is inexperienced, that much is true, but she’s not clueless. That can be said about pretty much any teenager, so she’s not all that different from anyone else.
As a matter of fact, if Aki had any actual idea about what she wanted, she would work perseveringly towards that goal, proving quite resourceful in reaching it. Her problem is not that she is weak or incapable of standing on her own, but she simply doesn’t quite know what she wants to do yet.
Her relative isolation and lack of friends didn’t make her into a shy and withdrawn girl at all. When she interacts with people, Aki is herself for the most part, only slightly more careful with what she says so as not to offend anyone. She prefers a straight-forward approach to any matter and she may be a little oblivious to certain subtle aspects of relationships with other people. But she knows how to be polite and to offer respect well enough, so she’s not the kind of person who will offend without meaning to on a regular basis or who wouldn’t realize it when she has offended someone.
Aki is quite smart and perceptive. She likes to know and to understand things, like her passion for reading may have demonstrated. For her, it was not an escape from reality. It was a channel through which she found out more and more about the world, asking questions of her parents and teachers whenever it was something she couldn’t explain to herself. With people, it’s the same way. She knows that they are complex beings with their own particularities, and she wouldn’t make the mistake of thinking she knows them entirely. So, when she does interact with someone, she observes them in detail, ready to listen and think before speaking.
Aki has lived her life among practical people, so she has become the same. For someone who has seen those around her constantly worry about money, or about something catching fire or being ruined by rain, it is difficult to be a dreamer. It is the effect that matters to her more than the cause, and she’ll always be the one to point that out when passing judgment on something.
Character's Starting Age: 16.
Character's Chakra Type: Not applicable (count her as a windtype if this is still needed).
Character's Starting Abilities: Not applicable.
Kekkei Genkai: No.
Role-Play Example:
Is the character a ninja? No.
Character's Appearance:
Aki is a strange mix between a discrete background person who would go unnoticed in a group of people and the nice girl everyone comes to for advice. Slender, of a delicate build and normal proportions, she is usually characterized by light, fluid movement and a quiet, almost inborn optimism. Her extremely polite behavior leaves the strongest mark, on her bearing, stance, looks and interactions with others. She will always be clean and neatly dressed, showing that she is a respectable, law-abiding member of society. She keeps a respectful distance from everyone and follows the strictest rules of conduit, bowing when necessary and always apologizing or thanking when common etiquette requires it. Despite that, she isn't the type of person who comes out as cold and unapproachable. She just seems a little private and focused on her work or on the task at hand, whatever that may be.
Fair-skinned and white-haired, she strongly prefers the natural look. She doesn't bother to use any make-up and her hip-length hair is usually up in two almost symmetrical pigtails. She has dark blue eyes, which detract from the brightness of her overall appearance and betray her real, more balanced demeanor. Depending on whether she is alone or in company, and on the type of activity she is conducting, Aki's array of facial expressions ranges from the occasional modest smile to unreadable absent-mindedness or patience, without ever so much as heading towards any of the extremes, like anger or overwhelming happiness.
Aki's clothing style is very feminine. She often places bows or ribbons in her hair and she likes dresses, the frillier and cuter the better. She has some sort of penchant for the color white when she chooses her clothes, and most of the articles were somehow modified manually by her. That usually consists only of adding small decorative elements or accessories, but sometimes she may perform edits on a larger scale. To remain rather modest-looking, just like with make-up, she never wears any kind of jewelry or any accessories aside from the few she might attach to the clothing itself. Aki doesn't even have earring holes. She takes very good care of her hair at least, but maybe that's just because her mother works as a hairdresser.
Brief Character History:
Aki’s family was one of the many that migrated towards the ninja villages as they became the pillars of modern society. Or so her parents have told her. They do not remember such a move either, as their family was already living in one of the villages when they were born. Yes, family. In case you were wondering, Aki’s parents are very distant cousins to each other, and the practice of arranging marriages between such relatives is very common in large families. Most of the Nagamine family members, scattered through the village, chose to be trained and hold various shinobi ranks, but some have maintained their status of simple civilians. Aki and her parents are in this latter category.
For as long as she can recall, Aki has lived in a small house on the village’s outskirts, surrounded by the medium-sized expanse of land her family owns. Her father grows rice, so most of their land is covered with rice fields, but the garden closest to home holds various other vegetables, and they even grow a few animals in the yard at the back. For this, which would be far too much for one man to handle, they have numerous hired hands, so Aki is used to having people around her, and dining at a large table, surrounded by a bunch of older men who discuss problems she can’t understand, and who sometimes drink too much sake, which brings about laughter and loud voices, and many moments she can amuse herself with if she watches carefully. She has always found this kind of life enjoyable.
Aki’s mother works as a hairdresser in the village. She doesn’t own the establishment herself, but she has been friends with the woman who does for so long she could almost be considered her co-owner. Ever since Aki was very little, her mother has had the habit of bringing her along for work sometimes and, by watching, Aki has come to know many tips and tricks of the trade, although she only uses them on herself if she needs to look good for some special occasion. Very rarely, in other words.
Aki grew up surrounded by books. Although her parents are extremely skilled and experienced when it comes to each of their trades, neither of them is particularly learned in general, which they both regretted in their youth, when hardship hit hard and it was difficult to find good jobs. Although Aki could likely do fine by simply inheriting them, they wanted things to be different for her, so they urged her to study and enrolled her into the best school they could find in the village, second only to the shinobi academy, which is combat-oriented and not something they would want for their daughter anyway. Aki proved to be an excellent student, so her parents bought her everything her teachers advised them to, and slowly she became a database of knowledge from various fields, at least as far as the theoretical field goes.
Child Aki used to leave home with a book and climb one of her favorite trees on the domain, or simply hide in one of the rice fields, and read. She would move around whenever the sun caught up to her and find a new spot, but she was glad to spend almost her entire day like that. If she wasn’t found doing that, however, she could have been at the river, trying (and failing, as any unknowing child would) to fish, or maybe on a rooftop in the village, watching as other kids played games on the streets. With this information, it is easy to tell Aki has never had much in the way of friends of her age at all. Needless to say, when she went to school, she was rather unaccustomed with being social with other kids, so there as well she was left behind and ignored most of the time. She never minded it very much. Aki was the type of person who could talk and laugh with someone, or argue and fight, and not take any of it to mean anything in the long run. But, if she didn’t have friends, Aki never had anything even close to an enemy, either.
One other thing of note in her life, which she is unlikely to ever forget, was her ill-fated engagement. She was only twelve when a relative from another family branch visited with his son, wanting to meet her and discuss with her parents. Unlike Aki and her parents, that man and his then fifteen-year-old son were shinobi, and although Aki didn’t understand much of what that implied, her parents were reluctant to receive them. In the middle of it all, Aki never actually got to have any coherent conversation with the man or his son. After a couple of other visits, however, they finally announced that she was to be married with the son when she reached the proper age. She was maybe a little excited about it, mostly due to how successful the marriage between her parents was, and to how she looked up to that, and because this was a similar situation. However, one couldn’t say she felt particularly connected to her fiancé, so three years later, when they were announced that he had died during a mission, she wasn’t heartbroken. If anything, she regretted that death the same way she would any other.
And so, Aki’s days continued, just as peaceful as before.
Character's Personality:
Aki is primarily what some would call naïve and others pure or innocent. Growing up, she was quite sheltered, so there are many things about the outside world that she still needs to learn, and some threaten to be quite shocking revelations for someone like her. But her parents think their daughter is reasonable and collected, and would likely be able to handle anything when the time comes. That is, for the most part, true. Aki has a positive outlook, and wouldn’t step away from any problem, thinking for sure that there would be a way to solve it. And she may not have had any real friends, but let’s not forget that she’s been surrounded by enough people at home as it is, and surely their discussions would have begun to make more and more sense for her as she got older. Aki is inexperienced, that much is true, but she’s not clueless. That can be said about pretty much any teenager, so she’s not all that different from anyone else.
As a matter of fact, if Aki had any actual idea about what she wanted, she would work perseveringly towards that goal, proving quite resourceful in reaching it. Her problem is not that she is weak or incapable of standing on her own, but she simply doesn’t quite know what she wants to do yet.
Her relative isolation and lack of friends didn’t make her into a shy and withdrawn girl at all. When she interacts with people, Aki is herself for the most part, only slightly more careful with what she says so as not to offend anyone. She prefers a straight-forward approach to any matter and she may be a little oblivious to certain subtle aspects of relationships with other people. But she knows how to be polite and to offer respect well enough, so she’s not the kind of person who will offend without meaning to on a regular basis or who wouldn’t realize it when she has offended someone.
Aki is quite smart and perceptive. She likes to know and to understand things, like her passion for reading may have demonstrated. For her, it was not an escape from reality. It was a channel through which she found out more and more about the world, asking questions of her parents and teachers whenever it was something she couldn’t explain to herself. With people, it’s the same way. She knows that they are complex beings with their own particularities, and she wouldn’t make the mistake of thinking she knows them entirely. So, when she does interact with someone, she observes them in detail, ready to listen and think before speaking.
Aki has lived her life among practical people, so she has become the same. For someone who has seen those around her constantly worry about money, or about something catching fire or being ruined by rain, it is difficult to be a dreamer. It is the effect that matters to her more than the cause, and she’ll always be the one to point that out when passing judgment on something.
Character's Starting Age: 16.
Character's Chakra Type: Not applicable (count her as a windtype if this is still needed).
Character's Starting Abilities: Not applicable.
Kekkei Genkai: No.
Role-Play Example:
At the sound of that familiar voice, the girl froze for a second, but then she forced herself to turn around and face Himiko. Her friend was still taller than her, nothing had changed over the years it seemed. She held her wounded arm, looking around for the source of the voice. It had seemed to come from above, so she looked up, as one drop of blood after another trailed down her palm and fell to the ground. She could feel them tickling her skin, warm and unnerving. It reminded her that she needed help, and she was in no condition to fight.
She saw her. Himiko was up there, standing on that branch, making it seem easy to maintain one’s balance like that, when Ayame knew just how many years of training it took to be able to pull it off. From her posture, one hand holding the bloodstained katana and the other placed ominously on her hip, like she meant business, Ayame could tell her old friend hadn’t come to chat. It was wrong to think of Himiko as her old friend now, anyway. She was an enemy. Thinking that, Ayame stepped back, tensing. She expected an attack without further warning. Himiko had never been a person of many words when it came to fighting, because she enjoyed the rush.
But nothing happened. Of course, their meeting had to be a coincidence. While Himiko was Toshio’s important subordinate, Ayame was only a soldier, so she wouldn’t be an important target. Himiko couldn’t have been sent to kill her, in particular. Maybe she hadn’t even known Ayame would be here, so she would be just as surprised to find her. That made sense. Himiko had always been good at hiding this kind of thing. This gave Ayame some hope.
“What do you want?” she asked, hoping to sound cold, although she knew someone who knew her as well as Himiko did would read her insecurity in an instant.
It didn’t matter. She just wanted to buy as much time as she could. The other team was still in the forest, and she knew they were heading this way because her own team had reported the trap and the actual situation as soon as they could. If she thought they were close enough, she would have started sprinting towards them right then. But this way, she couldn’t risk it until she had a clear sign. If she did manage to get to them, however… Himiko knew her, and that was a disadvantage now, but then it would turn into an advantage. Ayame could tell the team exactly how to defeat Himiko.
She saw her. Himiko was up there, standing on that branch, making it seem easy to maintain one’s balance like that, when Ayame knew just how many years of training it took to be able to pull it off. From her posture, one hand holding the bloodstained katana and the other placed ominously on her hip, like she meant business, Ayame could tell her old friend hadn’t come to chat. It was wrong to think of Himiko as her old friend now, anyway. She was an enemy. Thinking that, Ayame stepped back, tensing. She expected an attack without further warning. Himiko had never been a person of many words when it came to fighting, because she enjoyed the rush.
But nothing happened. Of course, their meeting had to be a coincidence. While Himiko was Toshio’s important subordinate, Ayame was only a soldier, so she wouldn’t be an important target. Himiko couldn’t have been sent to kill her, in particular. Maybe she hadn’t even known Ayame would be here, so she would be just as surprised to find her. That made sense. Himiko had always been good at hiding this kind of thing. This gave Ayame some hope.
“What do you want?” she asked, hoping to sound cold, although she knew someone who knew her as well as Himiko did would read her insecurity in an instant.
It didn’t matter. She just wanted to buy as much time as she could. The other team was still in the forest, and she knew they were heading this way because her own team had reported the trap and the actual situation as soon as they could. If she thought they were close enough, she would have started sprinting towards them right then. But this way, she couldn’t risk it until she had a clear sign. If she did manage to get to them, however… Himiko knew her, and that was a disadvantage now, but then it would turn into an advantage. Ayame could tell the team exactly how to defeat Himiko.
