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Digithe Joined: 24 Aug 2003 Posts: 884 | Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 1:58 am Name: Karasawa Akiko
Apparent Age: 19 Occupation: Gotei 13 (7th squad) Alliance: Soul Society Physical Description: Akiko is barely five feet tall, and is pretty. Though not everyone would necessarily describe her as “beautiful,” it would be hard to avoid “cute” at the very least. She wears her black hair shoulder length, and has dark brown eyes. She wears the standard Shinigami uniform, though is rarely without a long, red scarf about her neck – she claims that it is because she gets cold easily, but a privileged few know that she thinks wearing all black is just too depressing. Personality: Some might say that Akiko is a troubled individual. Generally, she is a kind, bright person, though not particularly assertive. However, that certainly does not mean that she is shy. She has a quick wit, if a bit warped on occasion, and generally does alright in public situations. Though bright, she has a tendency to think too fast at times, not thinking things through thoroughly and ending up coming across as somewhat flakey. Overall, Akiko is the type of person who it is difficult to dislike. Though not as passionate about it as members of the 11th squad, Akiko enjoys fighting. This comes from her younger years training in karate, of course, and has allowed her to develop friendships with many members of 11th squad – this, and her reputation as being a bit crazy, of course. Akiko also loves secrets of all kinds. Some suggest that she should have been in the Secret Mobile Corps, but she is happy where she is. Akiko is well known for never telling a secret she is asked to keep, and so is a confidante for nearly everyone in Seireitei that has a secret they wish to share with someone. She has also created a secret club, called the Secret Society for Secretive Souls, or S4. (It was originally Secret Society for Secretive People, because she thought that even though it could be S4, “Secret Society for Secretive Shinigami” was too non-inclusive-sounding, and she didn’t want to be biased against those in Rukongai; one of the first members pointed out the possibility for “Souls” as the fourth word in the title, and it has remained so ever since.) Though S4 doesn’t actually do much, it at least holds up to its name. Nobody knows what S4 stands for, or who any of the members are. It does hold regular meetings and sometimes does various acts of good will, leaving only a large card with “S4” drawn ornately on it. Such acts are usually leaving cupcakes for guards on extra duty, finding lost things, or similar. However, this is only her normal personality. Akiko developed a severe case of Dissociative Identity Disorder as a young child, and while she has since managed to integrate most of them, there are still two which come out in situations of extreme stress. The first, the psychiatrists noted, tends to emerge when Akiko is experiencing more emotion than she can handle, be it fear, nervousness or otherwise. It may also manifest when Akiko feels like she is losing or has no control over her situation. While this personality is in control, Akiko is sociable only with those she knows well, and is cold and aloof from all others. Her manner is respectful and her speech polite. She is calm and reflective, and is able to take control of almost any situation she might find herself in. The other tends to manifest when Akiko feels especially frustrated or stressed. There is some overlap with the other, however; both personalities have helped her give presentations or report bad news. This personality is outgoing and willing to say whatever’s on her mind to whomever she pleases. Her speech is distinguishable by being very informal, though not necessarily rude, and with a strong accent. This leads it to be more uncomfortable in formal situations, where the other alter strives. She is unabashedly emotional and often impulsive. Since she had several years of treatment, these two personalities only manifest in dire situations, and do so without as much of the temporary memory loss generally associated with an alternate identity taking over. Furthermore, these personalities still identify themselves as Akiko, and remember her goals and feelings from the time they manifest. History: Karasawa Akiko was born Fujimoto Akiko in Chiba, to an upper middle-class family in a suburb of Tokyo, Japan. Both parents adored her, and showered her with all the love and attention a young child could want. Though her father was often absent, staying late at work and returning after her bedtime, Akiko’s mother happily spent every waking moment with her. Akiko was bright and a quick learner and her mother fed the young child’s appetite for knowledge by enrolling her in piano lessons as soon as she was able, letting her help with cooking, reading to her every night, and even enrolling her in karate classes. It wasn’t long before Akiko’s mother decided to introduce her to the local theatre. As with everything she’d seen so far, Akiko took quickly to theatre, and begged her mother to take her to new shows as often as possible. Not everything was happy for little Akiko, however. Though her father cared for her very much, he was a heavy drinker and occasionally took out the stress from his long days on Akiko’s mother. It was a rare occurrence so nobody mentioned it, but Akiko did have several questions about mysterious bruises go unanswered. It was around Akiko’s eighth birthday when things took a turn for the worse. Her father came home later, and was more disgruntled than ever. Akiko would wake up to find her mother with more mysterious bruises more often, and was beginning to understand the cause. A year passed, and it was Akiko’s ninth birthday. She and her mother were celebrating alone, and were about to cut the cake when her father came home early. He had just been laid off, and was incomprehensibly drunk. To this day, Akiko cannot remember exactly how the events of that day transpired. What she knows is only what she was told – that there was arguing, Akiko’s mother was stabbed accidentally, and her father turned the knife on himself in horror at what he’d done. Though she has some vague, fleeting visions of the incident that would contradict this story, this is the version that was in the newspapers, and Akiko had no reason to suspect otherwise. After several months in a foster home, a wealthy old lady named Karasawa Reiko adopted her. The foster home was amazed but pleased to find someone who would take the young Akiko in – she had been diagnosed with a severe case of Dissociative identity disorder, and they expected few would want to deal with it. For the next several years, Akiko was homeschooled by her new mother while receiving treatment for her condition. It was a slow process, but by the end of what would have been her eighth grade year, she felt confident enough to return to regular schooling. She passed the placement test with flying colors, and entered her ninth grade year like almost anyone else – well, almost. Mrs. Karasawa spoke with the school principal and her homeroom teacher and explained Akiko’s condition. While she had successfully integrated most of the many personalities which had emerged, she was still not quite “whole.” Though generally able to control herself, she might still fall into one of two alternate personalities in moments of strong distress. But, as it turned out, there was nothing to worry about. Nobody in her class knew about her condition, and Akiko liked it that way. She was very active and very busy with club activities and cram school, but she was happy to be with her peers again. While many clubs tried to recruit her, the only one she officially joined was the drama club – her biggest childhood love. Of course, with her kind nature she couldn’t refuse to help out the other clubs – she picked up karate again, and helped the team win regional’s, for example. There was only one time in her high school career when an alternate manifested. It was opening night for the first play she was ever in, Pride and Prejudice. Though immensely excited to be participating in it – it was her favorite as a child – she had gotten Elizabeth, the lead role, and was, understandably just as nervous as she was excited. Things went fine for the first while, until the lead male, Darcy, made his entrance. Now, if you know the story, you’ll know that all of the early encounters between these two characters are fraught with tension and conflict. Well, it happened that during one of these encounters, Akiko blanked on one of her lines. Her nerves snapped, and she fell into an alternate – this alternate just happened to be very similar to the character Darcy. Darcy-Akiko coolly improvised the lines that Akiko had forgotten, startling the real Darcy. What might have been a disaster turned out fantastically. The audience saw it as nothing more than Akiko’s character mocking Darcy’s, and Akiko-Darcy was able to push the scene back on track until Akiko returned to her normal self. Though she was scolded for improvising so drastically after the show, it was all in fun – it worked so well, that she was asked to do it the same way for the next show. Akiko graduated high school and was accepted into her first choice college with all of her friends. That, however, was where her good fortune ran out. The friends went out one night to celebrate, eating a great dinner and heading to do karaoke afterwards. They were nearly there, when Akiko noticed a boy all by himself on the side of the street. The little boy then walked calmly out into the street. It was at that moment when someone in a drunken stupor drove through the red light. Seeing this, Akiko broke into a sprint and tried to push the boy out of the way. She woke up later in a hospital bed, with severe injuries that nobody seemed to want to mention. The only person who could manage to look her in the eye was Mrs. Karasawa. With what little strength she could muster, she enquired after the little boy. Mrs. Karasawa’s eyes teared up. There was no little boy. Akiko briefly remembered feeling a strange sensation when she should have felt her hands pushing the boy’s body, and then things went dark. Akiko woke up at last to find herself in first district of Rukongai. She made friends, of course, but seeing Seireitei from a distance held her curiosity until the point where she couldn’t stand it. She applied to the Shinigami Academy, and to everyone’s surprise – especially her own – she was accepted on the first try. At the Academy, Akiko was the top of her class in hand-to-hand combat, and became an assistant teacher for the subject while only a second-round student. Though she wasn’t quite as gifted in it, she also excelled in Kidou. Her worst subject, by far, was swordsmanship. She was easily the worst in her class at handling a sword, and was only passed through to subsequent stages because she did so well in hand-to-hand. Even when she graduated, she was only at the level of a third-round student with swords. Though not satisfied with her options of being a title-less grunt or an instructor at the academy, Akiko reluctantly took the first option as it, at least, held the possibility for advancement. She joined the Hand-to-hand-specialty Seventh squad and trained at every opportunity until she finally was able to cast off the nameless zanpakutou given to her and manifest her own. Because it was a shorter, more nimble wakizashi instead of the “unwieldy” katana she was used to, Akiko was able to incorporate it into her strong hand-to-hand skills and gain a position as a low-ranked officer. It was not until she learned her zanpakutou’s name that she finally gained recognition, however. With Fushichoukai’s shikai that complimented her own skills so perfectly, Akiko quickly climbed through the ranks to reach third seat. Zanpakutou: Fushichoukai, “Phoenix Ashes” In its unreleased state, Fushichoukai appears to be a wakizashi with a phoenix carved into the hilt and also inscribed down almost the entire length of the blade. Shikai: Yakitsukuse, Fushichoukai!, “Burn it to nothing, Phoenix Ashes!” Upon saying the release command, all of Fushichoukai, including the sheath, bursts into flame and turns into ashes. These ashes are constantly smoldering and are always just as hot as if only just created by the fire. Of course, as with most elemental-type zanpakutou, these do not harm Akiko. They float about Akiko and can respond in various ways. First, they can compress into the area in front of Akiko’s fists, adding an extra bite to her punches. This serves the dual purpose of making her physical attacks deal more damage, while also protecting her hands. Similarly, they can protect the palms of her hands, allowing her to seemingly block an opponent’s zanpakutou with her hands. Second, each speck of smoldering ash can ignite into a white-hot flame on command. An individual speck of ash can sustain a flame for up to ten seconds, and Akiko can combine ash for a longer burn. Once the flame is extinguished, there is a recharge time of approximately five seconds before it can ignite again. While a single speck of ash can produce only a very small flame, the more ash Akiko concentrates into an area, the larger and hotter the flame. Also, the flames get weaker with distance from her, until they extinguish completely at a distance of about ten meters. This flame is useful for short-ranged fireballs, causing the enemy to misjudge range, and, of course, extra damage. OOC: At long last, she's done! Or, I'm pretty sure she's done. The physical description is really lame, but I'll pretend that the personality is more important on this one >.>
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Snickers Latte? PS: Word 2007 sucks monkeys >_< |
Melia Stahlflugel Joined: 4 Aug 2005 Posts: 613 | Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 6:05 pm Snickers Latte? o_O; That sounds amazingly awesome! xD
Anyways, I like her! C: My one question is: how do the ashes replenish themselves, and how does her sword get back to normal? Another (possibly nitpicky) thing: that kind of personality seems more like Manic-Depressive than DID--DID is defined by separate personalities that identify themselves as such, while M-D is the person going into radically different "states"... Well whatever the classification, I think it's a neat use of personality~ |
| Digithe Joined: 24 Aug 2003 Posts: 884 | Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 6:46 pm Oh yes, it is :3
In Fushichoukai's released state, it stays as ashes. The ashes come from the incinerated sword, so there is a limited number. But, they don't get "used up," so there's no need to worry about replenishing them. To return the sword to normal, she gathers all the ashes into one area and... does whatever Shinigami do to seal their zanpakutou back to their unreleased state ^^; You are correct about DID. Originally, Akiko did have completely separate identities -- in fact, she had a rather alarming amount. However, it was through extensive therapy that she was able to reincorporate all but the two remaining personalities. The two that remain were the strongest alters, and I guess were only partially reincorporated. So, they're still around, but they're weak enough that they still think of themself as Karasawa Akiko. When she goes back to normal, she usually remembers most of what the alter did, but not always. Maybe her current diagnosis would be something different, but the original diagnosis was DID. I did it like this because, while I thought it would be a fun aspect to roleplay, I didn't want it to get in the way. I felt that having these two personalities be completely separate ones, or her having many alters, would just be annoying ^^; Thanks for the questions! :) I hope my explanations made sense/were valid |
| Melia Stahlflugel Joined: 4 Aug 2005 Posts: 613 | Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 7:08 pm About the sword: Ohhhh I see :>
About Akiko: That's why I came to like Aurelia less and less, lol Dx It's a cool concept, but it gets complicated. Akiko's personality disorder is a good solution/compromise, I think~ OOC:OOC: We gotta get the others on somehow, too @_@;; It's quiet in here, too quiet... *tumbleweed blows past* |
Asai Joined: 24 Aug 2003 Posts: 638 | Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 10:04 am Uh, not like I wasn't the one who just restarted Bleach...? |
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