forestcovered app

( PLAYER INFORMATION )

Name: Tezzino
Contact: fylgja 
Are you over 17?: Yes.
Characters in Forest Covered: n/a, but possibly apping another character this round.

( CHARACTER INFORMATION )

Name/Work Name: Ki (Soothead) / Kokoro
Canon: Soothead
Canon Point: Post manga
AU/CRAU: No.
Age: unknown, most likely in his twenties.
History: 

Ki grew up as a child to unknown parents. It's unclear if they died or abandoned him, and he doesn't seem sure of it himself. He grew up on the streets of Sanzenkyo, a small kingdom known as a Shangri-la. He was small, dirty and invisible in the middle of the beauty of the kingdom. Until the king picked him up, finding Ki covered in soot and in nothing but an equally soot covered blanket. He found him on the street one night, in a part of the kingdom yet to have been turned into something beautiful, took him in as a secret child bound to support the kingdom with him.

In the middle of everything beautiful that the king had built, Ki became the one to symbolize the dirt of the kingdom. People fear unknown evil, and by directing that to someone known, that fear shrinks. They have someone to blame, and doesn’t need to fear who might be evil, because there is only one blemish on the kingdom’s otherwise pure record.

Ki spends his life as Soothead, taking the blame for those selling drugs and weapons, fraud, arson, for all murder and crime that occurrs in the kingdom. But in reality, Ki isn’t the one responsible. He's a murderer, there is no doubt in that. But his job is to kill those who are evil and a threat to the kingdom. He is a necessary evil.

At the beginning of our story, Ki lives in a run-down shack in the outskirts of the kingdom. It’s well known, and with everyone hating him it’s not rare for him to get visitors that try to kill him. One day a female hitman, Li Li, kicks open his door while he’s watching politicians complain about the latest of “his” murders. Shooting at him, she chases him around the house and ordering him to stay still. Eventually he disarms her with his broom and makes her fall into a pitfall full with swamp mud.

Right then he gets other visitors, that unlike her, doesn’t manage to sneak past the alarms that he’s set up around the shack. With smoke and small dynamites, he scares them off, but when he’s about to throw his broom at them, blade uncovered, the hitman stops him and they wrestle on the ground until the invaders are far away.

Trying to shoot him again, she reveals that she’s there for revenge because a child was left without her parents because of the drugs “he” spread. He doesn’t care about that though, and asks her if she likes the kingdom they live in. He finds that she’s a hitman with heart, and tells her that Sanzenkyo needs people like her. But the kingdom doesn’t need him, hitman tells him as she shoots at him again, and he agrees. He’s not kind. The look on Ki’s face scares the hitman and while she freezes he hops off.

He talks to the king on a cell phone borrowed from a spy sent by the king, and they decide that he’s going to carry out a plan that he’s been working on. He tells the king that he’s thankful for being taken in and that the king was the one who gave him a life and an ability to do anything.

In the middle of the night, Li Li is called out by the one who employed her to kill Soothead, a politician named Long. Long cares more about his approval ratings than he cares for Soothead, so he tells the hitman that killing Soothead no longer matters. He has gained popularity since the latest assassination of politicians that’s been going on lately, and so, he doesn’t mind it. In a way he needs his dirt as well.

Here, Long orders Li Li not to pay any more attention to Soothead, and that she’s going to kill the king instead. He finds the kingdom lukewarm and the current king isn’t greedy enough. They shouldn’t take care of the people, they should exploit them! He plas to become the king himself. When she refuses she’s beat down and told that this is an order, not a request. She can’t decline. Behind Long she can see Soothead.

Long tells her to take advantage of an explosion that’s going to happen in the royal hall very soon to murder the king. When she calls him scum and not to get a big head just because he’s in league with Soothead she receives a slap to the face. With a word to Soothead, he’s threatening to murder a little girl if she doesn’t do it. He presses the button that sets off the explosion, and a bomb goes off in the royal hall. When Li Li still hasn’t moved to kill the king, he shoots the little girl inthe leg as a threat. But just as he tells her that all revolutions demand sacrifice, someone appears on top of a building in front of them.

It’s the real Soothead, proving that the one with Long is a fake. When Long’s men shoot at him, he is quick to defeat them. Li Li, who had been wondering why he was there and what a scrawny man like him could do, is told by him that he’s definitely a villain. In his own words, he’s the kind of evil that eats filth like Long for breakfast.

Ki had been watching what Long had been up to, and when the bomb went off, the palace had been empty. Long asks him why he would only show up now, with Long having smeared selling drugs and killing politicians all over his (already bad) nickname. But when you reach regicide? Ki isn’t going to just stand by and watch that happen.

Long, knowing that Soothead is just a scapegoat, calls him out on only acting now, when he’s already has plenty of other peoples’ crimes on his head. Li Li overhears this, and is shocked to find out that he isn’t the one behind all the crimes. Soothead just flushes out the dangerous types.

With the look of a cold-hearted killer, Soothead murders Long, his men already dead by his hand.

With a smile on his face, he tells Li Li that he might very well be the one to bite the dust soon, killed by one of those that hate him. And with everyone in an entire kingdom hating him, there’s a lot of times his life might be in danger. But if it kept the kingdom safe he wouldn’t mind dying. But since killing people who dirty the kingdom is all he has, he knows that he’s a bad guy. He’s a merciless killer.

When it turns out that there’s one man left alive, Li Li shoots him, shocking Ki, who was prepared to kill him himself. She tells him that she’ll wear his soot as well, and when Ki tells her that she’s going to get dirty she informs him that she’s alread plenty dirty.

Afterward, Long’s death was explained as a disappearance, and rumours that he had left for another country started. The explosion was blamed on Soothead.

In the palace, Ki is having a meeting with the king. The king has no choice but to give Ki a life sentence, with the shack as his prison. It’s just to keep up appearances, but he should consider himself under house arrest. The king looks sad about the things he has to put Ki through, but with a smile, Ki reminds him of their promise to support the kingdom together. Ki is doing so from the dark, while the king is supporting the land from the light. Ki tells the king to keep on being the sun for the kingdom, and that he has no idea how happy it made him to hear the king as him to help him support Sanzenkyo. Ki tells the king that he can’t be naïve, and that he has to kill people, that’s just how it is. Then, bringing the leftover mochi, Ki leaves the king with his chancellor, who wonders if the king is going too easy on him. The king tells him that Ki is sort of like a son to him, and that he worries that caring for the king and kingdom is all he had in the world. He wonders if Ki will ever make a friend, but the chancellor wonders to himself who would do that.

When Ki comes home, he finds Li Li eating his food. They fight over the cup ramen, but Ki is forced to surrender the cup when Li Li has his broom.

Personality: 

Ki is a very my pace kind of person. He only has one thing that he does in life, and that is protecting his king and land. The rest of the time he does whatever he wants, be it eating or pranking those that come to murder him. He likes enjoying himself, and since he’s mostly cooped up in his shed, he takes whatever chance he gets to have some fun, even if that happens to be the people who are trying to kill him. He wants to have fun, and when he’s on his own as much as he is, he has to take what he gets. He spends a lot of time lazing around watching whatever’s available on his old television, thinking about people and the effort they put into hating him, and the things people will say to get others to hate him even more. There is no limit to the things he will do when it comes to putting others in harm’s way, if it’s for a little bit of enjoyment. He's somewhat of a prankster, though his chances to pull pranks are few. That, and he wants to make sure to be thorough so that they learn not to mess with him again.

With his only priority being the protection of Sanzenkyo, Ki has an odd take on morals. He doesn’t mind drug deals, crime and murder being pinned on him, because that is what he’s there for. He doesn’t get bothered by the thought of kids being parentless, mainly because he never had any real ones himself, and the only one that is hated is himself, so there is no need to worry about the kids being on their own. He doesn’t mind murdering and hurting people if it means his country is protected.

What he does mind is when people use his life as a scapegoat to their advantage, and if someone is out to harm the kingdom or the king, he will hunt you down and finish you off without remorse. He is a merciless killer and can do anything, no matter how dirty or horrible it is, thanks to his conviction. He has a conviction stronger than anyone, and he doesn’t care that his actions, and the responsibility he shoulders will paint him in darkness for as long as he lives, making him the bad guy. But even though he knows that he works for the happiness of his king and country, he knows that he’s one of the bad guys, and that one day he will face his punishment, be it execution or getting murdered. And if that helps the kingdom in any way, he doesn’t have any trouble with that, even going as far as talking about it with a smile on his face. He's a man who's very open about being a villain and killing people, not the type to hide that he's used to dirt and blood. It's necessary evil after all.

Being someone who has grown up without much affection, aside from the king, Ki is somewhat socially awkward. He doesn’t know the appropriate ways to react or what is accepted to say in certain situations. Nor does he care about masking how little he cares, making others angry at him. If someone that isn’t the king would ever show him kindness, he would be awkward and surprised, as seen in his shock at receiving help from Li Li when she had hated him so much just a few minutes earlier. He isn’t used to people not hating him, and he expects them to dislike him.
Debt: Working off his sins.
Suitability: If Ki knows he's going to work off his sins, he will work willingly. He knows he's a sinner and a murderer, and has counted on being punished, even though he thought it would be by death. He won't be bothered at all.

Inventory:

• Broom-disguised weapon that splits into several shorter parts, kept together by a chain. There's a blade hidden in one end, usually covered by wood. It can also be used as a regular broom.
• Gas mask
• Rollerskates
• A heavy jumpsuit with a hood
• Some clothes, but not much
• Necklace
• Glove/arm/leg covers for small, hidden weapons.
• An elbow pad

Abilities, Strengths, and Weaknesses: His broom doubles as a weapon, it splits into several pieces, connected by chains, but normally looking just like a regular broom, and can be used as such. He's skilled at using it, and is a good fighter, using the broom and his rollerskates to his advantage. He doesn't have any special powers beyond that.

His weakness is the same as his strength; he kills people for his kingdom without hesitation, and has a screwed up sense of morals. This leads him to having no friends, and no one wants to be his friend because they all hate him. The problem is also that the love for the king and his kingdom is the only thing he has, and that makes his world rather small.

( SAMPLE )

Characterization Sample: 

Being able to walk around freely wasn’t something Ki was used to. Once in a while he would walk around the capital, but odd looks would be thrown his way even though people were unaware that he was Soothead. Here, as Kokoro, he hadn’t gotten many dirty looks based on his looks, and not a single time had he gotten hate thrown at him because of him being Soothead. Here, nobody knew. It was kind of nice, but he was here for retribution. He hadn’t expected that it would be so easy to make up for the sins of his past, but he didn’t mind.

Strolling through the bathhouse when he was done working for the day, Ki made his way to the boiler room. Making friends wasn’t easy, but as soon as he met the sootballs he had felt connected to them. Maybe it was because they had their existence in common.

The workers in the room were already getting used to him, and he simply grinned at them when he passed them to look for the little friends he had made. He jumped down on the stone floor, making sure not to step on any of them. “Hey, what’re you up to tonight?”

Sitting down on the ground, he crossed his legs and pulled out a fistfull of konpeito from one pocket and one of those funny things called hamburgers out of the other. Unwrapping the burger he threw out the candy, the sootballs happily gathering around them as he ate his food. This was as close to going out for food with friends as Ki had gotten, but he liked it. He had rarely had any company while he ate, and the only one who had bothered spending time with him was the king. It was a really nice change of pace.

He glanced over his shoulder as he chewed, watching the people working in the boiler room. He kind of missed the tricks he would pull on those that came to kill him. Maybe he should set something up on a few of the other workers or in the rest of Koriko. Looking back at the sootballs he handed a lost konpeito stuck in the folds of his clothing to a little sootball. With a grin and a finger in front of his mouth as if he had let it in on a secret, he started plotting in his head. If he did things right, this could actually be a lot of fun.

note: Does konpeito exist in Koriko? I used them in the sample, but I thought I'd make sure.