Ran Yakumo (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
faithful_kitsune) wrote2014-02-02 11:31 pm
faithful_kitsune) wrote2014-02-02 11:31 pm
Brave New World Application
PLAYER INFO
Name: Badge
Contact Information: Plurk is![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
dragomorph, AIM is dragomorph
Time Zone: Central
Characters Played: Hiroshi
CHARACTER INFO
Character Name: Ran Yakumo
Character Canon: Touhou Project
History: Here. Also, her Perfect Memento in Strict Sense entry.
AU History: The village of Mist. A town occupied by Shifters in the wake of the war and the time of the Savior. During this time, a Vulpix was born who eventually developed the capacity to shift herself. Taken in by Yukari Yakumo, she became her disciple, developing her knowledge and training herself to become stronger. Then Yukari went to sleep in order to conserve her power and Ran, lacking the need to do the same, found herself having to act independently for the first time in a long while. However, not one to rest on her laurels, she quickly integrated herself into the affairs of the village. Since the oldest and wisest of the village had both put themselves to rest, the mantle of Elder fell on her shoulders, and she took on the responsibility with aplomb. Though often fumbling at first, she eventually developed great respect amongst the villages, especially in regards to her dedication to serve as midwife to the women of the town and to educate the children.
Years passed. She watched others grow and die. Every so often, her tail would split again, showing her age. Still, she continued to act dutifully, waiting for the day her master woke up. Hundreds of years later, Tiki finally reawoke and Ran, not desiring political power, promptly passed the reins of leadership back to the true elder, as should be expected. She continued her work as midwife and educator, however, waiting for the day her own master would wake up. Unfortunately, what triggered her revival was not what Ran had wanted at all.
It started several years prior. Pokemon and Shifters alike began disappearing in the night, targeted by some unseen force. This forced Mist into something of a nomadic state, moving frequently to try and evade the force targetting them. However, as a reaction to this, Yukari finally woke up, albeit considerably weakened due to her long sleep. Ran's duties were thus split between her work for the village and her work for Yukari, which in turn degraded her own abilities as she tired herself out.
Then the worst happened: An attack on the village, in which many Shifters were taken. Frightened for the elders, Ran helped hide Yukari away, as well as however many children she could manage to find in the chaos. Her gambit worked, but the village was now destroyed, leaving an uncertain future. Worse yet, Tiki had been separated from them sometime in the chaos, thus depriving the survivors of their elder. And on top of it, a child under her care, Rydia, disappeared in the night, leaving Ran to worry about her despite her seemingly fully human nature. The way forward, it seemed, lay in only one direction: A human city, the last bastion of civilization. Union.
Canon Personality: In a land of lazy bums, bored powerhouses and fiendishly clever manipulators, Ran is something of an anomaly. Very few members of Gensokyo could be described as "mild-mannered," and yet Ran fits that to a T. Unlike most members of Gensokyo, she never fights for the sake of amusing herself, or establishing her own power. If she fights, it is only because she perceives combat as a necessity, either to right a wrong or to defend those to whom she's loyal. This is not only weird for kitsune, who are notorious in mythology for being both devilishly nasty tricksters and highly dangerous to humans, but it's weird for GENSOKYO, which can't seem to go a year or two without somebody stirring things up for the hell of it, and where blasting each other with hundreds of little magic bullets is just the residents' way of saying "hi."
Part of this is due to her connections to Yukari. She is a shikigami, a magically bound servant similar in fashion to a familiar. Furthermore, a kitsune, once she has formed a bond of loyalty, remains loyal for life. Ran, having been Yukari's shikigami since a very young age, has grown up with this sense of loyalty, which seems to have significantly tempered her more "kitsune" attributes. Mythologically, she is a kitsune more in the framework of a zenko fox, the more benevolent form of the species. Either way, she does not act like one would expect of a creature of her type, let alone one who has grown old enough, intelligent enough, and wise enough not only to have grown all nine tails, but to take on a shikigami of her own despite being enslaved to someone else. Make no mistake; she may be motherly and gentle, but she's still one of the most powerful people in Gensokyo, and even more so the closer in proximity to Yukari she is.
Moreover, do not mistake "gentle" for "dull-witted." Ran is a shikigami, but she's YUKARI'S shikigami, and while she is still light years behind her master in terms of cunning, she is still more than capable of manipulating events in a very calculating way if the opportunity provides. She will generally be more straight-forward and open than her master, but provide her ample reason to and she can be a cunning trickster with the best of them. Her only downside is that she is surprisingly poor at thinking outside the box. She is very good at utilizing tools already established and expanding on them, but not so good at coming up with her own ideas. This may change as she grows smarter, but for now she prefers to rely on classic and/or technical knowledge. This canonically drives Yukari nuts in the meantime, as she tends to default towards complex algorithms, statistical information and boring old LOGIC to try and answer philosophical questions rather than actually, you know, talk philosophy.
This also ties into her sense of honor and loyalty. She grows annoyed at people who talk out of line, and who attempt to usurp the natural order of things. Ran respects her elders and respects those who demonstrate greater power than she, and does not tolerate backtalk from those who are still growing up. Ranks and power should be earned, not assumed. She will patiently tutor and train those who aspire to greater things, but while she may be patient like a mother, she also can carry the anger of one, and will punish accordingly -- and likewise accept punishment where it is due. After all, actions carry consequences. Yukari has trained her in this well enough.
AU Deviation: - Ran, since she is not tied to Yukari in the same way she is in canon, does not have the ludicrously superhuman computational ability of her canon self. She's still very intelligent, though.
- Not being her shikigami, she's also a little more independent in thought, especially as a result of having to operate on her own for hundreds of years. She's still very loyal, though.
- Ran has basically played the role of "town mother" for years, seeing any number of residents be born, grow up, and die. As a result, she has a slightly melancholy philosophy about life. After all, she has several hundred years worth of ghosts. On the other hand, it means she's quite famous among anybody who might have also grown up in Mist.
Canon Abilities: - Shikigami: In addition to maintaining a permanent, servant-style shikigami like Chen, Ran can also create temporary ones by using paper dolls in the more traditional sense. Since they are paper dolls, the power is weakened somewhat by water.
- Danmaku: Like all Touhou characters, Ran can pew pew pew with the best of them. With Yukari's enhancement, she's exceedingly powerful; without, she's still strong, but nowhere near to the same extent.
- Shapeshift: Since Ran isn't much of a trickster, she only really shifts between fox and humanoid form.
- Flight: This would be more exciting if it wasn't for the fact nearly everybody in Gensokyo flies.
Enlightened Abilities: Ran is a Shifter, and more specifically a Vulpix who has shifted into a humanoid form. However, having to occupy her time with taking care of most of the midwife and educational duties of the town have somewhat left her with little time to train, thus explaining her low level start and knowledge only of Ember, Tail Whip and Roar. Her tells are a little obvious, between the ears and a set of Vulpix tails even in humanoid form.
Should she manage to evolve later, her tails will be replaced by the much more resplendent Ninetails versions, and it'll basically act like a rejuvenation pill of sorts as her tails rechannel new energy into her. Ran will be around for a while yet.
Starter Pokémon: Espurr. Hey, she likes cats.
Notes/Special Considerations: The nature of Ran's backstory being what it is, she may have knowledge of things that have happened in the past 400 years that nobody else would have, as well as any stories she might have been told by Yukari prior to Yukari's slumber. How this plays out will remain to be seen.
SAMPLES
First-Person: Have a blast from the past.
Third-Person: "Twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four..."
Ran continued to count the children in the bunker, trying to hide her own racing heart as she did so. An attack! On their village! Such a thing hadn't happened since the war, or so Lady Yukari had told her, and yet! Could they have been sent by the invisible force that had been abducting so many of their own of late? Was this a stepping up of its attempts? Or was humanity attempting to repeat the same mistakes?
She continued counting, the last conversation she had with some of the other villagers still fresh in her head.
"No! I wish to fight alongside all of you!"
"Don't be ridiculous, Elder Ran! Your power isn't what it used to be! We need you to take care and make sure the children are safe!"
"But --!"
"We understand how you feel, but you are the one the children trust more than anybody! We need you to be there for them! Nobody else can do this!"
"I... I realize that I am trusted by them, but --"
"And then... there's the matter of your own Master?"
"!"
"You have only so recently been reunited! Do not allow yourself to be separated now, either in death or worse! You are her best disciple! You must watch out for her!"
"...Understood. Please... be careful."
She looked over at her Mistress now. Lady Yukari, currently sleeping. She envied her the ability to sleep at a time like this. Or perhaps the strain of the situation was simply wearing her out. She couldn't tell.
"Thirty... thirty-one... thirty-one...!"
There were a few missing. She cursed mentally, wishing to go out and find them, but that would risk exposing the rest. She had no choice but to abandon them to their fates. She knew, of course, that all beings must live and die at some point. She had seen so many of them perish in her time, after all. All the ones who would perish out there now she had watched grow up. These were the facts of life.
Knowing this did not make things any easier.
Name: Badge
Contact Information: Plurk is
Time Zone: Central
Characters Played: Hiroshi
CHARACTER INFO
Character Name: Ran Yakumo
Character Canon: Touhou Project
History: Here. Also, her Perfect Memento in Strict Sense entry.
AU History: The village of Mist. A town occupied by Shifters in the wake of the war and the time of the Savior. During this time, a Vulpix was born who eventually developed the capacity to shift herself. Taken in by Yukari Yakumo, she became her disciple, developing her knowledge and training herself to become stronger. Then Yukari went to sleep in order to conserve her power and Ran, lacking the need to do the same, found herself having to act independently for the first time in a long while. However, not one to rest on her laurels, she quickly integrated herself into the affairs of the village. Since the oldest and wisest of the village had both put themselves to rest, the mantle of Elder fell on her shoulders, and she took on the responsibility with aplomb. Though often fumbling at first, she eventually developed great respect amongst the villages, especially in regards to her dedication to serve as midwife to the women of the town and to educate the children.
Years passed. She watched others grow and die. Every so often, her tail would split again, showing her age. Still, she continued to act dutifully, waiting for the day her master woke up. Hundreds of years later, Tiki finally reawoke and Ran, not desiring political power, promptly passed the reins of leadership back to the true elder, as should be expected. She continued her work as midwife and educator, however, waiting for the day her own master would wake up. Unfortunately, what triggered her revival was not what Ran had wanted at all.
It started several years prior. Pokemon and Shifters alike began disappearing in the night, targeted by some unseen force. This forced Mist into something of a nomadic state, moving frequently to try and evade the force targetting them. However, as a reaction to this, Yukari finally woke up, albeit considerably weakened due to her long sleep. Ran's duties were thus split between her work for the village and her work for Yukari, which in turn degraded her own abilities as she tired herself out.
Then the worst happened: An attack on the village, in which many Shifters were taken. Frightened for the elders, Ran helped hide Yukari away, as well as however many children she could manage to find in the chaos. Her gambit worked, but the village was now destroyed, leaving an uncertain future. Worse yet, Tiki had been separated from them sometime in the chaos, thus depriving the survivors of their elder. And on top of it, a child under her care, Rydia, disappeared in the night, leaving Ran to worry about her despite her seemingly fully human nature. The way forward, it seemed, lay in only one direction: A human city, the last bastion of civilization. Union.
Canon Personality: In a land of lazy bums, bored powerhouses and fiendishly clever manipulators, Ran is something of an anomaly. Very few members of Gensokyo could be described as "mild-mannered," and yet Ran fits that to a T. Unlike most members of Gensokyo, she never fights for the sake of amusing herself, or establishing her own power. If she fights, it is only because she perceives combat as a necessity, either to right a wrong or to defend those to whom she's loyal. This is not only weird for kitsune, who are notorious in mythology for being both devilishly nasty tricksters and highly dangerous to humans, but it's weird for GENSOKYO, which can't seem to go a year or two without somebody stirring things up for the hell of it, and where blasting each other with hundreds of little magic bullets is just the residents' way of saying "hi."
Part of this is due to her connections to Yukari. She is a shikigami, a magically bound servant similar in fashion to a familiar. Furthermore, a kitsune, once she has formed a bond of loyalty, remains loyal for life. Ran, having been Yukari's shikigami since a very young age, has grown up with this sense of loyalty, which seems to have significantly tempered her more "kitsune" attributes. Mythologically, she is a kitsune more in the framework of a zenko fox, the more benevolent form of the species. Either way, she does not act like one would expect of a creature of her type, let alone one who has grown old enough, intelligent enough, and wise enough not only to have grown all nine tails, but to take on a shikigami of her own despite being enslaved to someone else. Make no mistake; she may be motherly and gentle, but she's still one of the most powerful people in Gensokyo, and even more so the closer in proximity to Yukari she is.
Moreover, do not mistake "gentle" for "dull-witted." Ran is a shikigami, but she's YUKARI'S shikigami, and while she is still light years behind her master in terms of cunning, she is still more than capable of manipulating events in a very calculating way if the opportunity provides. She will generally be more straight-forward and open than her master, but provide her ample reason to and she can be a cunning trickster with the best of them. Her only downside is that she is surprisingly poor at thinking outside the box. She is very good at utilizing tools already established and expanding on them, but not so good at coming up with her own ideas. This may change as she grows smarter, but for now she prefers to rely on classic and/or technical knowledge. This canonically drives Yukari nuts in the meantime, as she tends to default towards complex algorithms, statistical information and boring old LOGIC to try and answer philosophical questions rather than actually, you know, talk philosophy.
This also ties into her sense of honor and loyalty. She grows annoyed at people who talk out of line, and who attempt to usurp the natural order of things. Ran respects her elders and respects those who demonstrate greater power than she, and does not tolerate backtalk from those who are still growing up. Ranks and power should be earned, not assumed. She will patiently tutor and train those who aspire to greater things, but while she may be patient like a mother, she also can carry the anger of one, and will punish accordingly -- and likewise accept punishment where it is due. After all, actions carry consequences. Yukari has trained her in this well enough.
AU Deviation: - Ran, since she is not tied to Yukari in the same way she is in canon, does not have the ludicrously superhuman computational ability of her canon self. She's still very intelligent, though.
- Not being her shikigami, she's also a little more independent in thought, especially as a result of having to operate on her own for hundreds of years. She's still very loyal, though.
- Ran has basically played the role of "town mother" for years, seeing any number of residents be born, grow up, and die. As a result, she has a slightly melancholy philosophy about life. After all, she has several hundred years worth of ghosts. On the other hand, it means she's quite famous among anybody who might have also grown up in Mist.
Canon Abilities: - Shikigami: In addition to maintaining a permanent, servant-style shikigami like Chen, Ran can also create temporary ones by using paper dolls in the more traditional sense. Since they are paper dolls, the power is weakened somewhat by water.
- Danmaku: Like all Touhou characters, Ran can pew pew pew with the best of them. With Yukari's enhancement, she's exceedingly powerful; without, she's still strong, but nowhere near to the same extent.
- Shapeshift: Since Ran isn't much of a trickster, she only really shifts between fox and humanoid form.
- Flight: This would be more exciting if it wasn't for the fact nearly everybody in Gensokyo flies.
Enlightened Abilities: Ran is a Shifter, and more specifically a Vulpix who has shifted into a humanoid form. However, having to occupy her time with taking care of most of the midwife and educational duties of the town have somewhat left her with little time to train, thus explaining her low level start and knowledge only of Ember, Tail Whip and Roar. Her tells are a little obvious, between the ears and a set of Vulpix tails even in humanoid form.
Should she manage to evolve later, her tails will be replaced by the much more resplendent Ninetails versions, and it'll basically act like a rejuvenation pill of sorts as her tails rechannel new energy into her. Ran will be around for a while yet.
Starter Pokémon: Espurr. Hey, she likes cats.
Notes/Special Considerations: The nature of Ran's backstory being what it is, she may have knowledge of things that have happened in the past 400 years that nobody else would have, as well as any stories she might have been told by Yukari prior to Yukari's slumber. How this plays out will remain to be seen.
SAMPLES
First-Person: Have a blast from the past.
Third-Person: "Twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four..."
Ran continued to count the children in the bunker, trying to hide her own racing heart as she did so. An attack! On their village! Such a thing hadn't happened since the war, or so Lady Yukari had told her, and yet! Could they have been sent by the invisible force that had been abducting so many of their own of late? Was this a stepping up of its attempts? Or was humanity attempting to repeat the same mistakes?
She continued counting, the last conversation she had with some of the other villagers still fresh in her head.
"No! I wish to fight alongside all of you!"
"Don't be ridiculous, Elder Ran! Your power isn't what it used to be! We need you to take care and make sure the children are safe!"
"But --!"
"We understand how you feel, but you are the one the children trust more than anybody! We need you to be there for them! Nobody else can do this!"
"I... I realize that I am trusted by them, but --"
"And then... there's the matter of your own Master?"
"!"
"You have only so recently been reunited! Do not allow yourself to be separated now, either in death or worse! You are her best disciple! You must watch out for her!"
"...Understood. Please... be careful."
She looked over at her Mistress now. Lady Yukari, currently sleeping. She envied her the ability to sleep at a time like this. Or perhaps the strain of the situation was simply wearing her out. She couldn't tell.
"Thirty... thirty-one... thirty-one...!"
There were a few missing. She cursed mentally, wishing to go out and find them, but that would risk exposing the rest. She had no choice but to abandon them to their fates. She knew, of course, that all beings must live and die at some point. She had seen so many of them perish in her time, after all. All the ones who would perish out there now she had watched grow up. These were the facts of life.
Knowing this did not make things any easier.