OOC - Scorched app

[records_of_pain]

Out of Character Information

player name: Orlando
player livejournal: elspeth_vimes
playing here: n/a
where did you find us? oh I just followed you home
are you 16 years of age or older?: Y

In Character Information

character name: Karibusa Tanyuu
Fandom: Mushishi
Timeline: Sometime fairly shortly after "The Ragged Road," aka the second of her two canon appearances (Mushishi is not big on recurring characters, she is one of three)
character's age: early 30s, probably

powers, skills, pets and equipment:
Tanyuu's canon skills, or I should say the ones that would carry over, are all mental. She has an incredibly well-trained memory. If she wants to remember everything you said in the last three hours almost verbatim? She will. She has the entire, extensive records the Karibusa family has made memorized, and can remember almost anything she reads after the first time. Her vocabulary is enormous, though she doesn't show it off. She also has an extremely high pain tolerance, from years of sealing the forbidden mushi. And she's good with a pair of crutches or a cane, as she needs to be.

If accepted, there are a few non-canon powers I'd like to give her:

Manipulation of text- Being able to change words written on pretty much anything, adding, removing, or rearranging them. This is inspired by the fact that she can and does literally handle the text written with the forbidden mushi in canon.

Influencing things with words- Being able to change or influence inanimate objects and people by words, spoken or written. For example, telling a plant to grow and having it do so, or telling someone to stop and having them, much to their surprise, stop in their tracks. I know this is potentially really powerful, so it would require either a lot of repetition (telling the plant every day to grow) or a lot of emotion (being afraid for someone's life unless someone else stops their actions) on Tanyuu's part to actually have an effect. In addition, it wouldn't work through a mediating device, in order for the words to have effect they would have to be either spoken in person or handwritten.


canon history:
Long ago, there was a mushi unlike any other, a forbidden mushi that destroyed all things indiscriminately. A mushishi of the Tamai family sealed this forbidden mushi into the body of a member of the Karibusa family, turning her skin the color of ink and eventually killing her. But not before she had a child.

Since then, one in every other generation of the Kaibusa family has carried the forbidden mushi inside them, rendering part of their bodies ink black and useless. But they have learned how to bind it. By listening to stories of the death of other mushi, they can subdue the forbidden mushi and use its mark like ink to write these stories down and seal the forbidden mushi away on paper. Those who do this are the Recorders. They live in an isolated house with their records, attended by a member of the Tamai family, and visited only by the family and mushishi.

Karibusa Tanyuu is the fourth Recorder. The curse is located on her right leg, and makes it impossible for her to walk without aid. As a small child, Tanyu was extensively tutored. Originally she was not told the reason for this, or the truth behind the birthmark on her leg, but As soon as she knew enough writing (we're talking traditional Chinese characters here, it takes a little while to build up your vocabulary) and enough about mushi, she was sent from her family to the Recorder's house, with only her relative Minai Tama, a former mushishi, for constant company.

As a child and young adult, one of the few people Tanyuu saw regularly was the heir of the Tamai family, Kumado, a boy about her age. While strange and not altogether polite, Kumado became her only friend. That is, until she grew older, and a mushishi named Ginko came to visit.

While as a child Tanyuu hated her duties, she grew to understand the importance of her responsibility, and she now devotes herself to it and even takes pride in what she can do.

personality:
Tanyuu is both strong-willed and practical. She refuses to let herself be limited by, say, her physical capability, and constantly pushes herself to do more, whether that is getting herself to a hill she's never seen the view from or sealing more of the forbidden mushi. She's proud, and determined to think things through her own way. She can take the statement "you can't do this" as a challenge, and one she will rise to if at all possible. She reflects on what she sees and hears, thinking things through carefully and forming her own conclusions, quite possibly in opposition to what she's been told. She is extremely good at what she does, and she knows it. Her pride in everything she works at shows, though she's also capable of poking a bit of fun at herself for it.

But Tanyuu is a realist. If doing something genuinely is beyond her, she can and will ask for help, and if it conflicts with her duties, she won't do it. She prioritizes what she must do above what else she might be able to do, and what she might be able to do usually above what she wants. She is extremely duty-focused, and will crush some of her dreams herself for the sake of her work and those who help her in it. She won't pick fights with people she recognizes as necessary in some way, even if they challenge or dismiss beliefs she holds dear (for example, while she does not agree with the way many mushishi treat mushi, she recognizes that she needs these allies and so does not tell them off). Her confidence in her ability to do her job is based on the fact that she really is that good (though her confidence in her tea-making abilities may have...less real grounding).

At the same time, she does in some ways isolate herself even more than her circumstances already isolate her. She's aware not only of the importance of her position, but of the sacrifices that other people (such as Tama and Kumado) have made for the cause she is supposed to carry on. She doesn't want to be a burden, or for people to suffer or struggle for her unnecessarily. To that end she can close herself off and lie about how well she's really doing. Help for the sake of her work, she'll ask for. Help for her own sake is more difficult (Ginko provides an exception, he's a friend, not family, which allows her to be freer with him).

Tanyuu is a very curious person. She enjoys learning and experiencing new things. Of course, she has little opportunity to do so. She still feels closely trapped by her duties, even while she recognizes their importance. Her greatest desire, though one which she greatly suppresses at this point, is to be free of the curse so that she can travel and see the things she hears and reads about. It's the main reason she sometimes overworks herself.

Over the years, she has developed a great respect for life of all forms, and a great distaste for those who callously dismiss some of it, for no better reason than that it's not human. Death and suffering are terrible things to wish on anyone or anything, and she believes that if more people could see that the world would be better off.

She tries to be forward-thinking and to focus on the positive possibilities that are ahead if she can only get things done now. Still, she is in many ways disillusioned. She knows how many bad mushishi are out there, taking advantage of both humans and mushi. She knows that it's likely she won't be able to live out any of her dreams for herself in this lifetime, no matter how badly she wants to, and that she'll have to be content with making progress for the sake of others. She still harbors some of her childhood jealousy of people who are free to move about freely.

She also has a bit of a rebellious and mischievous side. If she can get away with bending or breaking some of the rules she doesn't think are really necessary, she'll do it (the first time she let Ginko in to see the records, she wasn't exactly following the rules). She displays a sense of fun and some wit with people she's comfortable with.

why do you feel this character would be appropriate to the setting?
Tanyuu's a survivor. She has lead a very sheltered life in many ways, but she's very aware of a lot of the bad things people can do, and even more aware of what sacrifices people sometimes have to make.

Writing Samples

Network Post Sample:
[voice]

[There's a moment of hesitation before a woman speaks.] Ah, hello? I think I'm doing this right.

Is it true that all the..."Scorched" are able to talk to each other with this? I thought I should introduce myself. I'm Karibusa Tanyuu, it's nice to meet you all.

[She pauses for a moment, then with a touch of hesitance and definite curiosity, asks-] If you don't mind- could you tell me about where you come from?

Third Person Sample:
She didn't understand this.

Nothing made sense. This room, with its elevated furniture and unsensible door. How she had gotten here (she had wondered, briefly, if was related to Uro-san, but if this was the effect of a mushi it was a new one- Uro-san would have left her stranded in that strange place between cocoons that mushishi had described to her). The glimpse she had outside was even more confusing. The clothes were Western, she knew that much from travel logs and stories from those who had met traders from the West. But they didn't quite match up with the descriptions she heard, or the clothing Ginko had picked up- it all seemed foolishly complex. And the buildings...

The only things that made sense were the those she had apparently brought with her- her clothing and, mercifully, her canes. At least she'd be able to walk the streets (paved streets, in fact!), if she had to.

But how had she gotten here? She dropped her head into a hand, her fingers pressed her forehead as if memory or understanding could simply be pulled out.

Travel had always been a dream. But this- this was wrong. She hadn't wanted this, to be forced away from her work with no notice, to be without Tama or anyone else she trusted. Her free hand curled into fists as she looked down at her cursed right leg. Part of her wanted to scream, or cry- but that would be useless.

She had to figure out how she had gotten here. If she could do that, she could figure out how to get back. There was work to do at home.

She picked her canes back up and stood. There must be someone who knew something. She'd find something. She'd been able to read the signs on the streets, so she should be able to communicate (both a relief and a surprise).

Tanyuu smiled a bit, a melancholy thing. At least she'd be able to see a little while she investigated. A story to tell Ginko, for once, during his next visit.

Anything else?
Not at the moment.