Entry tags:
APPLICATIONS II - CLOSED
POST THEM HERE INSTEAD.
POST THEM HERE INSTEAD.
OOC INFORMATION
Player: Pikari
Age: 19
Personal Journal:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
moes
Contact Info:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
endlesseight; endless eights @ aim
Other Characters: --
IC INFORMATION
Characters Name: Maya Fey
Age: 19
Canon: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Canon Point: After the third game, “Trials and Tribulations”, specifically after “Bridge to the Turnabout”.
Species: Human
Gender: Female
Orientation: Heterosexual. The game implies it a lot, especially when Pearl, Maya’s younger cousin pairs her and Phoenix together.
History: Wiki!
Appearance:
Maya Fey is a pretty well built (for someone who goes on burger binges) teenage girl who is only 5’1” in height. She almost always wears her hair in a bun as seen on the picture. She also generally wears her acolyte training outfit, which includes a robe and her magatama necklace.
Personality:
Maya can be described as a very optimistic girl who goes by the title of 'Mystic Maya'. In other words, she's quite optimystic. But even though she may seem like a very simple nineteen year old, there's more to her than meets the eye.
When you first meet Maya in 'Turnabout Sisters', she actually tells Phoenix that she's an acolyte (or to be more specific, a spirit medium) and even blatantly says that she's not weird, even though everyone else would think that it's quite strange for an ordinary girl to actually channel spirits. Or even think that her regular outfit is actually... normal. In fact, Maya Fey is anything but normal.
Even though she may seem a bit weird (due to the fact that yes, she can channel spirits), the mere fact that she's a spirit medium isn't the end of her very strange personality. Not at all.
In both 'Turnabout Samurai' and 'Farewell, my Turnabout', it is shown that Maya enjoys a lot of samurai-based shows that are aimed towards ten year olds. In fact, she's so enthusiastic about these shows that she'll get mad. Or even fangirl over the famous actors (at least, if they're good) who play the protagonists. And even correct people when they've got their facts about the show wrong. After all, it's only right for everyone to know the facts.
Though Maya is naturally, a spirit medium, she's also Nick's (Phoenix Wright) assistant. However, she isn't the brightest assistant, especially since she doesn't know too much about being a lawyer (In fact, the only thing that she's learned from her sister, Mia, who was a lawyer is to press a lot). But even though she may not know much about being a lawyer, she knows what is the right thing to do in a case. In fact, she helps Nick figure out the truth for justice.
In 'Farewell, My Turnabout', Maya's keen sense of justice shines through, even though not only is she kidnapped by Shelly de Killer, she's also going to die if Nick's client is pronounced guilty. She bluntly tells Nick through a written message that if Nick doesn't give Matt Engarde a guilty verdict, she'll never forgive him. Which means that yes, she prioritizes justice being served before her own life.
Speaking about Maya's own life, she does care about the many people who have helped her throughout the years, and she even admits to it in 'Bridge to the Turnabout', where she says that without these people (Nick, Godot, Pearl, Mia, and her mother), she wouldn't be alive today. She honestly loves all these people and would do anything to protect them. When she found out Godot's identity from Mia - she found out the truth: the truth that Godot was actually protecting her from getting killed by Dahila (whom Maya's mother, Mystic Misty was channeling), she decided to hide the truth in court and defend him. Basically, she cares a lot about her friends and family since they've helped her live her life to the fullest. She'll never give up on any of them and will even fight to the bitter end.
Even though she does have friends and family now, for a long time (especially after both her mother disappeared and her sister left Kurain Village) she's lived on her own. But after Mia is gone and Pearl's mother goes to jail, Maya realizes that she has to play the role of the 'older sister' to Pearl, especially since Maya is her only relative. Especially since the blood of the Feys has a really sad backstory. She just doesn't want Pearl to go through all of the pain that many of their ancestors went through.
And there's one last thing! Maya absolutely loves burgers. And miso ramen, as well. In fact, she even jokes with Nick that she has four stomaches to compensate her huge appetite.
All in all, Maya's a pretty strange girl who honestly is a good friend. She sees through people's hearts and will defend people to the bitter end, even if they did commit a crime. She may seem like an innocent, young girl on the outside, but her experiences throughout the series have shown that she has indeed matured into a proper woman, one who is truly worthy of the title of 'Master of the Kurain Channeling Technique'.
Abilities: Maya, being a woman of the Fey family, is able to channel spirits of the dead into her body. Of course, this ability may be nerfed or removed completely, considering the fact that channeling makes Maya be possessed by a spirit both physically and mentally until the spirit is removed from Maya’s body.
Other: --
SAMPLES
First Person: Link!
Third Person:
"I'm so hungry. Nick, you better come back with some food soon..."
The first thing that she could think of whenever she was deathly bored was food. Especially burgers. In fact, she could go for a burger right now! Too bad she didn't know any expert burger chefs that were dead. But even though she moaned out the name of her lawyer and best friend, Phoenix Wright (who was, in her mind, practically a Fey himself), he wasn't currently in the vicinity.
And that 'vicinity' was the Wright & Co. Law Offices. Being sick meant that you couldn't move around or even go to the usual burger joint. Which is why she practically yelled for Nick to get her some food. Possibly burgers. But Nick didn't exactly... accept the idea of eating burgers when Maya was sick at first. In fact, he yelled "Objection!", making Maya's ears ring even more than before.
But after Pearl threw a fit over the fact that "Mystic Maya is your one and only true love, and you just have to help her", the two of them left, thankfully. But there was one problem.
Maya was sick, and she was bored. It was... too quiet. She hated silence, and even more so when she was alone. Guess it's time to watch some Steel Samurai! Or... whatever samurai-esque show they had on these days. That is, if she can reach the remote all across the way. The condition for buying burgers was simply this: stay on the couch.
Slipping off the blanket that was on top of her robes, she crouched on the couch, her knees bent, almost as if she were going to jump off the couch. Something that she didn't want. "Okay, I can do this. If I do fall off of the couch, it's not like Nick'll see! After all, I'm Ace Spirit Medium Maya Fey!"
She decided that she'll jump for it on three. One, two-
And on three, she managed to crash into the desk where the television remote, her head throbbing even more than before. Can this day get any worse?
The answer to that question?
Yes.
Because just when Maya managed to grab the remote on the floor was the same moment that the door opened, revealing one Phoenix Wright who had his face in palm.
"Eheh."
OTHER
Housing Request?: Surprise me!
Did you read the rules and FAQ?: Yes!
Would you like your application to be unscreened?: Sure.
Player: Pikari
Age: 19
Personal Journal:
moesContact Info:
Other Characters: --
IC INFORMATION
Characters Name: Maya Fey
Age: 19
Canon: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
Canon Point: After the third game, “Trials and Tribulations”, specifically after “Bridge to the Turnabout”.
Species: Human
Gender: Female
Orientation: Heterosexual. The game implies it a lot, especially when Pearl, Maya’s younger cousin pairs her and Phoenix together.
History: Wiki!
Appearance:
Maya Fey is a pretty well built (for someone who goes on burger binges) teenage girl who is only 5’1” in height. She almost always wears her hair in a bun as seen on the picture. She also generally wears her acolyte training outfit, which includes a robe and her magatama necklace.
Personality:
Maya can be described as a very optimistic girl who goes by the title of 'Mystic Maya'. In other words, she's quite optimystic. But even though she may seem like a very simple nineteen year old, there's more to her than meets the eye.
When you first meet Maya in 'Turnabout Sisters', she actually tells Phoenix that she's an acolyte (or to be more specific, a spirit medium) and even blatantly says that she's not weird, even though everyone else would think that it's quite strange for an ordinary girl to actually channel spirits. Or even think that her regular outfit is actually... normal. In fact, Maya Fey is anything but normal.
Even though she may seem a bit weird (due to the fact that yes, she can channel spirits), the mere fact that she's a spirit medium isn't the end of her very strange personality. Not at all.
In both 'Turnabout Samurai' and 'Farewell, my Turnabout', it is shown that Maya enjoys a lot of samurai-based shows that are aimed towards ten year olds. In fact, she's so enthusiastic about these shows that she'll get mad. Or even fangirl over the famous actors (at least, if they're good) who play the protagonists. And even correct people when they've got their facts about the show wrong. After all, it's only right for everyone to know the facts.
Though Maya is naturally, a spirit medium, she's also Nick's (Phoenix Wright) assistant. However, she isn't the brightest assistant, especially since she doesn't know too much about being a lawyer (In fact, the only thing that she's learned from her sister, Mia, who was a lawyer is to press a lot). But even though she may not know much about being a lawyer, she knows what is the right thing to do in a case. In fact, she helps Nick figure out the truth for justice.
In 'Farewell, My Turnabout', Maya's keen sense of justice shines through, even though not only is she kidnapped by Shelly de Killer, she's also going to die if Nick's client is pronounced guilty. She bluntly tells Nick through a written message that if Nick doesn't give Matt Engarde a guilty verdict, she'll never forgive him. Which means that yes, she prioritizes justice being served before her own life.
Speaking about Maya's own life, she does care about the many people who have helped her throughout the years, and she even admits to it in 'Bridge to the Turnabout', where she says that without these people (Nick, Godot, Pearl, Mia, and her mother), she wouldn't be alive today. She honestly loves all these people and would do anything to protect them. When she found out Godot's identity from Mia - she found out the truth: the truth that Godot was actually protecting her from getting killed by Dahila (whom Maya's mother, Mystic Misty was channeling), she decided to hide the truth in court and defend him. Basically, she cares a lot about her friends and family since they've helped her live her life to the fullest. She'll never give up on any of them and will even fight to the bitter end.
Even though she does have friends and family now, for a long time (especially after both her mother disappeared and her sister left Kurain Village) she's lived on her own. But after Mia is gone and Pearl's mother goes to jail, Maya realizes that she has to play the role of the 'older sister' to Pearl, especially since Maya is her only relative. Especially since the blood of the Feys has a really sad backstory. She just doesn't want Pearl to go through all of the pain that many of their ancestors went through.
And there's one last thing! Maya absolutely loves burgers. And miso ramen, as well. In fact, she even jokes with Nick that she has four stomaches to compensate her huge appetite.
All in all, Maya's a pretty strange girl who honestly is a good friend. She sees through people's hearts and will defend people to the bitter end, even if they did commit a crime. She may seem like an innocent, young girl on the outside, but her experiences throughout the series have shown that she has indeed matured into a proper woman, one who is truly worthy of the title of 'Master of the Kurain Channeling Technique'.
Abilities: Maya, being a woman of the Fey family, is able to channel spirits of the dead into her body. Of course, this ability may be nerfed or removed completely, considering the fact that channeling makes Maya be possessed by a spirit both physically and mentally until the spirit is removed from Maya’s body.
Other: --
SAMPLES
First Person: Link!
Third Person:
"I'm so hungry. Nick, you better come back with some food soon..."
The first thing that she could think of whenever she was deathly bored was food. Especially burgers. In fact, she could go for a burger right now! Too bad she didn't know any expert burger chefs that were dead. But even though she moaned out the name of her lawyer and best friend, Phoenix Wright (who was, in her mind, practically a Fey himself), he wasn't currently in the vicinity.
And that 'vicinity' was the Wright & Co. Law Offices. Being sick meant that you couldn't move around or even go to the usual burger joint. Which is why she practically yelled for Nick to get her some food. Possibly burgers. But Nick didn't exactly... accept the idea of eating burgers when Maya was sick at first. In fact, he yelled "Objection!", making Maya's ears ring even more than before.
But after Pearl threw a fit over the fact that "Mystic Maya is your one and only true love, and you just have to help her", the two of them left, thankfully. But there was one problem.
Maya was sick, and she was bored. It was... too quiet. She hated silence, and even more so when she was alone. Guess it's time to watch some Steel Samurai! Or... whatever samurai-esque show they had on these days. That is, if she can reach the remote all across the way. The condition for buying burgers was simply this: stay on the couch.
Slipping off the blanket that was on top of her robes, she crouched on the couch, her knees bent, almost as if she were going to jump off the couch. Something that she didn't want. "Okay, I can do this. If I do fall off of the couch, it's not like Nick'll see! After all, I'm Ace Spirit Medium Maya Fey!"
She decided that she'll jump for it on three. One, two-
And on three, she managed to crash into the desk where the television remote, her head throbbing even more than before. Can this day get any worse?
The answer to that question?
Yes.
Because just when Maya managed to grab the remote on the floor was the same moment that the door opened, revealing one Phoenix Wright who had his face in palm.
"Eheh."
OTHER
Housing Request?: Surprise me!
Did you read the rules and FAQ?: Yes!
Would you like your application to be unscreened?: Sure.
ACCEPTED
Congrats, your application has been accepted! Your character is now living at 1477 in Holly Heights, with a spouse slot. In order to get the ball rolling, here's what you need to do:
I hope you enjoy your stay here!
Congrats, your application has been accepted! Your character is now living at 1477 in Holly Heights, with a spouse slot. In order to get the ball rolling, here's what you need to do:
Comment back with the journal you'll be using for your character so that they can be accepted into the communities. Create an IC Mailbox post on your characters journal that is not friends only. You are also free to treat this as an information holding post with your character's family and address listed if you wish. Join hollyheights,
Please fill out the Taken Character form. Make sure you fill in all sections! Reply to the Housing post with the form given and to see who your new family is! Go say hello at Optionally, you can go to the Locations post and create a location for your character to own and/or work at. NEW: Please make sure you familiarize yourself with the new AC schedule and also know that Holly Heights is no longer an island anymore. NEW: Please look forward to a block party geared towards new characters, found in this tag, on the 8th of every month!
I hope you enjoy your stay here!
IC INFORMATION
Characters Name: Haine Otomiya
Age: 15
Canon Point: Right before Chapter 22, before her date with "Shizumasa-sama"
Species: Human
Gender: Female, both mentally and physically
Orientation: Haine has dated a girl before, but not for romantic reasons. She understands that girls liking girls is natural but in the end, she's straight. Though this is not applicable considering she's a minor, if she ages to 18, she'd have a husband.
Characters Name: Haine Otomiya
Age: 15
Canon Point: Right before Chapter 22, before her date with "Shizumasa-sama"
Species: Human
Gender: Female, both mentally and physically
Orientation: Haine has dated a girl before, but not for romantic reasons. She understands that girls liking girls is natural but in the end, she's straight. Though this is not applicable considering she's a minor, if she ages to 18, she'd have a husband.
History: Wikipeida Page | Haine | Canon
Appearance:
Appearance:
There's no real biodata in the canon, but it's safe to assume that she's around average height; somewhere between 5' 4" and 5' 5". It's stated that she's skinny, though she does have an enormous amount of body fat (30%), which weighs less than muscle. I'd peg her at less than 115 pounds at any rate. Her measurements are pretty plain; her breasts are about average and her hips aren't all that profound, though her waist is obviously thin.
Appearance wise, her eye colour is reminiscent of #fef202 or "getting too cold" according to colourlovers. Tanemura will occasionally change their colour due to art style purposes, but in all actuality they're a shade of yellow-amber. Her hair is a shade of brown like Peach, or #eda615. She's dyed her hair blond multiple times and then stripped, so it appears washed out and faded and probably isn't the healthiest, but she does her best to take care of it, as apparent by her constantly changing styles and does. It's long, about down to her mid-thighs and her waist when braided.
Even though Haine has problems with people throwing around money, she dresses very well. Her style is cute and colourful and she wears dresses and skirts more often than anything. Haine also has a variety of uniforms, both for her school and her jobs. She dresses chic, but her clothes do allow movement, since she's so active.
Personality:
Other: Nope!
Haine is a very simple girl with a very complex past. Throughout her life she's gone through many trials and tribulations, and thought they all set her back, she finds her way out of any situation and/or has the ability to smile throughout almost anything. She's simple-minded, cheerful, and chipper. She can be extremely dense and isn't the brightest light on the tree, but what she lacks in intelligence she totally makes up for it in being a good person and her steadfastness. Haine is the kind of person who will give up absolutely anything for the people she loves and always puts others first. Haine also puts a very high value on love and considers it to be something precious and special. While she thinks this, love, sex, and things related to them make her extremely embarrassed. Even telling Shizumasa things related to liking him is hard for her and she gets extremely flustered afterwards
Haine is extremely good at working and has a wonderful work ethic. Once she's been given a job, she'll give it her all. She works hard for her friends and is constantly active and doing something for someone, sometimes forgetting about herself in the process. With people, Haine is good at conversing and is street smart; she's a social creature and well-liked except by those jealous of her status or irked by her cheerful disposition. She's incredibly versed in how to make people smile, though her own smiles can sometimes not be as genuine. Haine often hides and shoves aside her sadness and pain to reflect an outward appearance that's happy and cheerful. She doesn't really think that grief and sadness are things that need to be dwelled on, as the future and other matters are vastly more important.
Fighting is something she's incredibly good at, honed by her vigorous dancing classes at an early age, though the technique and force comes from a history of yanki gang activity. When she's fighting, she's incredibly in the zone and focused. She enjoys it when it's for a just cause and is extremely good at it. Once, during a fight, her front two teeth were knocked out; they are now replaced by fake ones that are easily retractable. When these fall out, she is enraged and more willing to be violent and has no real cognition as to what she's doing (unless Shizumasa is involved, then she recognizes him and would never hurt him).
Haine is extremely emotive. She sometimes takes things a little extremely and doesn't rationalize how to keep face and composure in situations. She's really bad at filtering herself and doesn't realize that sometimes she says some really dumb things. She's prone to be pretty cheesy, as per the shoujo manga heroine trope dictates, and she will often try to pump up someone and pep talk them until they feel better again. If someone has a problem, she'll be the first person there to try and help them fix it. Though she loves to help others and listen to them, she doesn't really enjoy discussing anything about herself because of the numerous things that have happened in her past and her ability to push away past instances and bad feelings and internalize them
Because of instances in her past, Haine hates money. She hates that money solves problems, along with status and the amount of money and people willing to back you. This stems from being bought and sold as a child, though it also has to do with her hard-working personality, though all these attributes help to add and enhance the others. She isn't exactly adverse to rich people, though, being wealthy herself. She doesn't like the fact that a lot of poorer people have the mentality that they need to bow before rich people and that rich people think they can do whatever they want. This being said, Haine has a very keen sense of justice and enjoys and pushes people to do the right thing. Being a yanki was a way to blow off steam and an exhibit of her falling from grace, and she only ever did any real damage to other gang members, and she also realizes it was wrong to do. She makes up for her wrong-doings, something she strongly believes in people doing, by being extremely pacifistic now, unless she's fighting for a greater good. It's also important to note that even though Haine comes from money herself, she doesn't like to be categorized based on her wealth, though she does appear to own a lot of expensive things and goes to a very expensive school.
Instinctual and rash, Haine is very quick on her feet and hasty, not very good at thinking things through. She's one of those people who does something dumb and realizes it a split second afterwards. When engaged in combat, though, she's very good at thinking on her feet and making the best of her situation just by a natural talent for violence. While imaginative and creative, she's not extremely good with words (her Japanese grades were always Ds) and can sometimes trip up on what she says.
Because she was used as a transaction piece and given up on by her family and the man that had adopted her finally had a real son, Haine became a yanki gang memeber, fearing she had no place left for her. She now realizes, of course, that while she wouldn't take the experiences back, they were not the smartest decisions and made her even more unworthy of being loved, especially by the man she loved herself. While Haine exudes a certain kind of elegance, her self esteem is awful. She thinks she can never be completely redeemed and is doomed to stay in the darkness forever, never being good enough to be loved by anyone. In later chapters, she is finally broken of this belief, but it's still something that she's held onto for quite some time. She forgave her parents for lying to her and selling her, but she never really recognized that it was their fault and not hers. For quite some time, she had no contact with her real mother and the person she assumed to be her real father just because they ostracized her, not because she didn't want to be with them. She expresses that a dream of hers is to "become someone that her father is proud of". Haine loves her family, but still holds a lot of internal issues with self-loathing relating to instances they put her through. She's a lot more positive now, but her feelings are still there through most of the manga.
Haine was well known in her area as the Hama Cinderella, a viscious gang member. She fought constantly and while she's not in a gang anymore, she's still extremely capable when it comes to a fight. Post-gang, she fought off a hoard of snakes, was the bodyguard of her school's student council, fought numerous returning gang members, and reinlisted for a short period of time. She's extremely capable with her hands and feet in battle, normally using kicks and other gymnastic like moves. It's also shown she's good at sword play, as she beat another member of the student council in a duel once.
Less important abilities include a slew of classes her family made her take when she was younger, though she dropped them all pretty quickly. Her abilites in them will be extremely rusty and at an elementary level. They include ballet, tea ceremony, flower arangement, the piano, along with possibly others related to traditional Japanese culture and talents.
There's no real biodata in the canon, but it's safe to assume that she's around average height; somewhere between 5' 4" and 5' 5". It's stated that she's skinny, though she does have an enormous amount of body fat (30%), which weighs less than muscle. I'd peg her at less than 115 pounds at any rate. Her measurements are pretty plain; her breasts are about average and her hips aren't all that profound, though her waist is obviously thin.
She's been in Holly Heights twice now, and bonded with her parents in the house she was in very strongly. Japan is still here, whom she cares for very dearly as he was her father for a while, though this specific player's Japan wasn't. But because this is an IC thing, they're the same person to her with no differentiation. She will also be looking for a new pet, since her ostrich has been donated to the zoo, so maybe she'll get him back? Or get a new pet! Either way. Most of the characters she interacted strongly with are no longer here, but she will be importing her previous game memories.Strengths/Weaknesses:
✔ Extremely cheerful and optimistic most of the time.
✔ Good at reading people
✔ Strong sense of justice
✔ Incredibly strong and an excellent fighter
✔ Loving and caring for pretty much everyone
✔ Great work ethic
✔✘ Very rash and acts before she thinks
✔✘ Easy to forgive and forget
✘ Not very intelligent
✘ Low self-esteem
✘ Computer and technologically illiterate
✘ Extremely guarded
✘ Has problems with money
✘ Daddy issues
✘ Not very healthy (weight/food wise)
✘ Hates the water
Other: Nope!
SAMPLES
First Person:
Third Person:
OTHER
Housing Request?: Randomize me, baby!
Did you read the rules and FAQ?: I wrote them so.
Would you like your application to be unscreened?: Yes'm!
First Person:
Third Person:
Whoever said driving a car was easy was really wrong. If anyone said that in the first place.
She kept placing her left foot on the brake at the same time her other foot was on the gas. Haine was pretty sure that the noise that the undercarriage was making wasn't supposed to happen and that she shouldn't be going 30 miles an hour when her right foot was pushing the gas all the way to the floor. Frustrated, she removed both feet, gripping the wheel hard.
"This is the worst!" Haine slammed a fist on the horn, loud enough to make one of the nearby people that randomly walked around in a trance jump and stumble over to fall on their driveway. That couldn't be good. She rolled down her window, yelling as loud as she could.
"Are you alright?!" Body half out of the car, trying to check on the person but keep a foot on the brake at the same time, Haine couldn't help but feel extremely sorry for the person. They were people too, right? The woman in the plain clothes and pale skin just simply got up without a word and went right back to opening her empty mailbox, closing it, and walking slowly back to her door. A little down-trodden and surprised, she slunk back into the passenger seat, completely forgetting about her foot on the break.
Slowly, the car began to slip and roll down the street again. It wasn't exactly noticeable to her, Haine being more concerned with the mirrors and little air freshener hanging from the rear view, but once a corner came into view, it suddenly occurred to her that she might need to put her foot back on the peddles. Thankfully she remembered the right one, or else she'd be in a yard.
"This is just so complicated...Maybe I should ask for help." Reaching into her jeans pocket, Haine removed her cell, quickly typing out a message to broadcast. She was going to wreck if she kept this up.
OTHER
Housing Request?: Randomize me, baby!
Did you read the rules and FAQ?: I wrote them so.
Would you like your application to be unscreened?: Yes'm!
ACCEPTED
Congrats, your application has been accepted! Your character is now living at 1494 in Holly Heights, with a child slot. In order to get the ball rolling, here's what you need to do:
I hope you enjoy your stay here!
Congrats, your application has been accepted! Your character is now living at 1494 in Holly Heights, with a child slot. In order to get the ball rolling, here's what you need to do:
Comment back with the journal you'll be using for your character so that they can be accepted into the communities. Create an IC Mailbox post on your characters journal that is not friends only. You are also free to treat this as an information holding post with your character's family and address listed if you wish. Join Please fill out the Taken Character form. Make sure you fill in all sections! Reply to the Housing post with the form given and to see who your new family is! Go say hello at Optionally, you can go to the Locations post and create a location for your character to own and/or work at. NEW: Please make sure you familiarize yourself with the new AC schedule and also know that Holly Heights is no longer an island anymore. NEW: Please look forward to a block party geared towards new characters, found in this tag, on the 8th of every month!
I hope you enjoy your stay here!
OOC INFORMATION
Player: Lucid
Age: 22
Personal Journal:lucidly
Contact Info:Lucid_chan
Other Characters: N/A
IC INFORMATION
Characters Name: Ari Batchelder
Age: 7
Canon: Maximum Ride
Canon Point: After his final death
Species: a really mutated human
Gender: Male
Orientation: Everyone has cooties.
History: this is fairly comprehensive but I can always add more!
Appearance: Once he was mistaken for wolverine by a little kid at disney world but in general Ari isn't exactly easy on the eyes due to his mutations. He's built awkwardly huge compared to "normal" humans (he's really tall and a lot of muscle). Because he was constantly morphing back and forth between being wolfy and being human he has rough skin and a gravelly voice. He was in a perpetual state of half-morph so he never looked quite human, fangs poking out, long sharp claws, and features that weren't quite as noticable but just off enough that it tipped someone off that there was something wrong. Of course, losing his ability to morph at all will take care of the fangs and claws and vaguely-not-human features.
Player: Lucid
Age: 22
Personal Journal:
lucidly Contact Info:
Other Characters: N/A
IC INFORMATION
Characters Name: Ari Batchelder
Age: 7
Canon: Maximum Ride
Canon Point: After his final death
Species: a really mutated human
Gender: Male
Orientation: Everyone has cooties.
History: this is fairly comprehensive but I can always add more!
Appearance: Once he was mistaken for wolverine by a little kid at disney world but in general Ari isn't exactly easy on the eyes due to his mutations. He's built awkwardly huge compared to "normal" humans (he's really tall and a lot of muscle). Because he was constantly morphing back and forth between being wolfy and being human he has rough skin and a gravelly voice. He was in a perpetual state of half-morph so he never looked quite human, fangs poking out, long sharp claws, and features that weren't quite as noticable but just off enough that it tipped someone off that there was something wrong. Of course, losing his ability to morph at all will take care of the fangs and claws and vaguely-not-human features.
Personality:
In order to understand Ari as a character, it is very important to understand the life he has had. Having forcibly gone under genetic experimentation after being abandoned by his father. Being trained to hunt, to become a living weapon to be used until his now severely limited lifespan had expired. When his time finally ran out and his body finally decided to quit on him, he was only 7 years old.
To say that he has become mentally and emotionally twisted because of this is an understatement. He legitimately doesn't understand why being violent, even towards the people you love, is wrong. He expresses his desire constantly throughout the first 2 books that he would like nothing more then to kill the flock- even Max. So that with them out of the way his father would show him the love and respect that he had given them instead. It's something he strives for, that he attempts to plan for, in the best ways his seven year old mind can manage. Even when he had switched his plans to kidnap Max instead of kill her, he had very twisted ideas about making friends. Thinking that she would get used to him and be his friend if he took her away and cut off her wings, and then kept her alive with food and water. Even his own father isn't immune to violent fantasies, and Ari has to make a physical effort to not try and literally strangle the love into him when Jeb doesn't treat him with love and respect.
Ari was also a danger to himself on top of being a danger to those around him. He never learned how to cope with his emotional pain, so instead he bites himself to create physical pain. Which, sadly is something that he is accustomed to and would much rather deal with. Though he is only shown to do this twice throughout the 3 books when he was alive, and only under particularly emotional breakdowns.
Ultimately the driving force behind all of his anger and internal pain, and the volatile personality he had for the majority of his life, is loneliness. Despite at times acting more mature then is appropriate for his age, he is ultimately still mentally and emotionally a 7 year old child. A boy who had been been abandoned and emotionally neglected by his father, abused by the scientists at The School, and for the vast majority of his life had never had his needs as a child met. While the driving force behind his emotional distortions are based in his life experiences, his primary motivation throughout the course of the books is to be loved, but more than that, he wants to be loved as if he was the only thing that mattered in the entire world. Which isn't an achievable or healthy goal, but is still understandable given that he is still more or less developmentally the same as a small child.
And being a little kid, Ari's decisions are based on his emotions and impulses rather than thinking thing through and making long term goals. He wanted to kill the flock to gain his father's love and attention, so he tried doing that. Even wen he knew that they were designed to save the world, that's not something he cared about. He wanted to take away Max and have the others captured, he didn't think about being found. He just thought he knew a place that was secret enough and went for it. He felt like he deserved a present, so he stole a gameboy and scared away the security guards with his eraser form, not caring about blending in. In fact, he is well aware that he sticks out in appearance, and feels that blending in is a pointless effort for him anyways. Ari is frequently reprimanded for not blending in and for letting his emotions control his decisions.
It had also been hinted at, though never explicitly confirmed, that Ari's brain is physically damaged. Genetically and chemically modified, and that is also is cause for some of his problems when it comes to controlling his impulses and his lack of a moral compass. Indeed there have been smaller hints that at the very least he thinks this is true regardless of whether it actually is or if he just thinks that he is because he's not fully capable of understanding the concept of trauma that isn't physical. (one of his favorite songs is "Brain Damage" after all). When Max was teaching him how to write his name, he wrote the R backwards, and she wondered if that was because of his age or because of his brain. He is at the very least capable of making and at least attempting to execute plans beyond that should be possible for his age, even if it was still rather simple (initially being kill the entire flock -> blame it on another eraser -> have them killed -> have his dad finally love him. However it then changed into: capture the flock -> take Max away and hide her in a place he thought was secret -> have Max all to himself forever). Oddly enough his father was proud of him for thinking like an adult when he found out about his plan to capture Max, and it was one of the happiest moments in his life. He also loves Max in a way that's muddled and confusing, somehow blurring between innocent and intense with his feelings of attachment usually reserves for children and admiration (even jealousy) expected of someone older than 7.
Under all of the twisted, emotional, psychological mess that is Ari, there is still very much a normal child. A little boy who enjoys playing, whether it's video games, card games, or games outside. He thinks cars, electronics, and rap music are really cool. He wants stories read to him since he can't read them himself. Like any kid his age he wants to be loved and taken care of instead of being treated like an unwanted burden. To be honest at times he can act downright silly too, from rubbing his hands gleefully to practicing his scary faces in the mirror. It's a softer side of him that had been forcibly buried for a large part of his life, and was only allowed to resurface the days before his death.
Because as he swiftly began to approach his own death, it understandably changed his personality. This was something that he wasn't going to get out of. He knew he would have died earlier had he not been Jeb's son. It had completely shattered his anger, after all, there was no point to holding onto grudges or dreams with the knowledge that you were going to die in a matter of days. Instead he became more solemn, accepting, and quiet. He was described as still not being normal, however he was significantly more subdued. It is noted that he rarely speaks "as if he didn't think he had a right to an opinion" but when he did speak, there was a noticeable difference. Without his anger consuming him he was just a kid, and kind of a sweet kid too. A stark contrast towards his earlier self who was always on the offensive. He swore to protect Max, and made good on that promise as he fought by her side even as his health was deteriorating.
And almost as importantly as letting go of his anger, Ari became more aware of his life and his relationship with his father. Perhaps because he was no longer being constantly polluted by anger, he began to see what it really was. He always knew that he had hated Max because his father loved them more then he loved him, however he also realized that his father was using this anger for his own agenda of emotionally manipulating Max. He knew that Max was just a kid like was, and that neither of them were to blame for what had happened in their lives. It was after the fact that he learned that Max was actually his half sister, due to Jeb being her father as well. They had different mothers though, and Ari's died shortly after he was born. This wasn't information that he was upset or even pleased by, he was initially shocked and it needed time to absorb.
Even though he knew he was going to die, he was still confused by what was happening to him as he was dieing. It all happened incredibly quickly, as his body simply shut down on him before he could fully understand what was happening. This is the mindset that he died with- not as a vitriolic hate machine, but as a somewhat sad, confused 7 year old.
Abilities:
Ari had wolf DNA grafted into him at a young age. Since this series runs off of x-men style laws of genetics where mutations = superpowers, this allows him the ability to change his body into a more wolf like form, complete with fur, claws, and fangs. Unlike the other wolf/human hybrids who were modified in the womb, Ari's transformations aren't "seamless". He's basically in a perpetual state where he is somewhat between a normal human being and a werewolf no matter how much he morphs one way or the other. Aside from being generally scary and gross looking as a result, morphing into a more wolf like form isn't comfortable either and it has a tendency to burn and feel like his body is being pulled on. A side effect of all this was his rapid maturation- basically going through all of the childhood and teenage growth spurts and into a fully drown adult from the time he was 3-7.
He also had a pair of wings "retrofitted" on him after his first death. Even though he could fly with them, the fact that he was never really made to fly, along with how massive they were (roughly 18 feet or 5 and a half meters) meant that not only was it awkward to fly but also difficult to actually stay in the air. They also couldn't fold up nicely and were at least initially really, really painful.
Aside from his freaky mutant animal abilities, Ari also has a few other freaky mutant traits. Genetic recombinants were built to survive, and erasers specifically were built to fight and kill. He has enhanced strength, speed, endurance, and heals more quickly after injuries.
Other: N/A
SAMPLES
First Person:
[There was an awkward pause in the video feed before Ari began talking. Despite his voice sounding as rough as someone shaking pebbles around in a coffee can, his tone was almost childish. Sort of scared, confused, and quiet, all wrapped into one.]
Who knew heaven would be so... suburban-y
[Making a sort of vague hand gesture to refer to well... everything in the background. It looks like someone didn't read the lease. Or in his case, didn't know how. Ari assumed he was in heaven. Ok so there wasn't any fluffy clouds and his neck still hurt and the cellphone thing was weird. But it's not like he was on fire so it wasn't hell. And he knew the whitecoats wouldn't bring him back to life. Again.]
Third Person:
There was no way Ari was going to school.
What was he even going to say? "Hi, my name is Ari. Now, I know I might look like a mutant freak of nature who is like... 5 times your size, but I used be an even bigger freak of nature! Let's be friends!" Maybe all those little kids could teach him how to read the alphabet or something. Or color between the lines. Or whatever normal 7 year olds are supposed to be doing. He was bored just thinking about it.
But Ari had a plan, he was going to leave for school, and then instead of walking there he would walk somewhere else. Maybe he would make a secret fort in the woods or something where nobody would find him. That would be fun.
It's not like any of it was going to matter anyways. Ari knew what was going to happen already. He was going to stay here for awhile, make friends, have a family, all of that warm fuzzy stuff that the landlord wanted. Then he was going to go "home" and go back to being worm food. Dead as a door nail. For a moment the thought made him feel weird- sort of heavy and tired. He frowned and tried not to think about it, instead casually grabbing his school bag and heading out the door.
"I'm going to school!"
He had a hideout to build.
OTHER
Housing Request?: preferably with his sister but if that isn't possible than a house close by would be nice
Did you read the rules and FAQ?: Yes and yes
Would you like your application to be unscreened?: sure why not
ACCEPTED
Congrats, your application has been accepted! Your character is now living at 1485 in Holly Heights, with a child slot. In order to get the ball rolling, here's what you need to do:
I hope you enjoy your stay here!
Congrats, your application has been accepted! Your character is now living at 1485 in Holly Heights, with a child slot. In order to get the ball rolling, here's what you need to do:
Comment back with the journal you'll be using for your character so that they can be accepted into the communities. Create an IC Mailbox post on your characters journal that is not friends only. You are also free to treat this as an information holding post with your character's family and address listed if you wish. Join Please fill out the Taken Character form. Make sure you fill in all sections! Reply to the Housing post with the form given and to see who your new family is! Go say hello at Optionally, you can go to the Locations post and create a location for your character to own and/or work at. NEW: Please make sure you familiarize yourself with the new AC schedule and also know that Holly Heights is no longer an island anymore. NEW: Please look forward to a block party geared towards new characters, found in this tag, on the 8th of every month!
I hope you enjoy your stay here!
OOC INFORMATION
Player: Rabid
Age: 14+
Personal Journal:
mangemouthContact Info: plurk / mangemad
Other Characters: Badou "tiny shitlord version" Nails
badbreakIC INFORMATION
Characters Name: Rin Matsuoka
Age: 17
Canon: Free! Iwatobi Swim Club
Canon Point: Post-canon
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Orientation: The Olympics (N/A DON'T CARE EITHER WAY)
History: Wiki.
Appearance: He's the doucher with the red hair trying to look cool. He's got really stupid teeth. When he's actually wearing clothes, he tends to sport a lot of athletic wear like tank tops and loose pants, although in most of the promotional art he's trying to pass as a european model. Rin is 5'10 and 150 lbs, but looks slightly older than his 17 years thanks tobullshit anime magic I don't know bullshit anime puberty.
Personality: We have to go back a bit to talk about Rin's personality. Rin, age 12, starts out as something of a manic pixie dream boy. A transfer student, he blows into the protagonists' lives as a ball of energy and charisma, with a big smile and a big, obvious heart on his sleeve. Despite not knowing anyone in the school, he's cheerful and gregarious, and reveals himself to be a hopeless romantic, wanting to swim in the cherry blossoms despite the cold weather. His relationship with Haru is especially significant; after seeing Haru swim, he's hugely impressed and becomes obsessed with swimming with him, showing great persistence in trying to get Haru to swim with him in a relay medley. Although he comes off rather single-minded and maybe even selfish, he repeatedly emphasizes how much fun it will be, and how important the team is to him -- when their class creates "memory blocks," Rin dedicates his "For The Team," and cares an enormous amount about his new friends. It's almost a foregone conclusion, considering the boy's exuberant personality; the other boys get swept up in his relay-fervor, and he ends up acting as the catalyst that brings Nagisa, Makoto, and Haru together to swim in the relay, which creates a long-lasting memory for all involved, especially Haru. Before the relay, however, Rin drops a bomb on Makoto and Haru; the reason he had so badly wanted to swim medley with his friends was because he is leaving to go to a prestigious swimming school in Australia. There, he wants to become a great swimmer and pursue his late father's dream of becoming an Olympian.
Rin leaves for Australia and comes back, oddly somber, and requests another race with Haru -- this time against one another. When he loses, he bursts into tears, says he's going to quit swimming, and books it.
Rin returns to Australia, and when he comes back to Japan for good at age 17, he's a total brooding asshole.
This is where Free! starts, and is one of the main conflicts that the show must resolve. Without recapping the entire season, we slowly find out that although Rin had entered the Australian school with enormously high hopes for himself and his talents as a swimmer, he was given a harsh reality check in being surrounded by other talented swimmers. To his frustration, he hit a wall in his swimming, and watched his times plateau into mediocrity -- far from his big dreams of the Olympic gold. That quickly, the happy, smiling Rin who had befriended the Iwatobi boys isn't seen again, replaced by a quiet and guarded boy who keeps to himself. Although this extreme reaction seems petulant and childish at first, one might recall two important things; first, the reason for Rin's investment in swimming was that he wants to fulfill his late father's dream, and to be seemingly unable to improve and achieve this dream -- and not even being able to beat Haru, with all his training and hard work -- hit him hard. His self-worth, with the lack of friends and family to support and love him, becomes entirely wrapped up in swimming and success; winning becomes more important than anything else, and he loses his love of swimming, and of life.
Secondly, the isolation of being far away from the friends he valued so dearly is something he doesn't seem to be able to adjust to. Lonely, isolated, disappointed in himself, and frustrated with swimming, Rin comes to the sorry conclusion that it was swimming the medley that "ruined" him. He finds every accomplishment he manages on his own pales in comparison to those he managed with his team, and it embitters him, making him isolate himself further from other people and cultivate a harsh, intimidating persona. His friends find it hard to believe how much Rin has changed; although he's still charismatic, it's in a very negative way, and he doesn't seem to want to be with the people his intense personality draw in, instantly pushing them away. However, the mask of arrogance and condescension he adopts hides deep and painful insecurities, all horribly mixed up with the death of his father, the isolation from his friends, and the eventual self-loathing he feels at being unable to get past the relay. He's outright hostile to Haru and ignores the rest of the team, unable to connect with even his sister, Gou, who only wants to see her brother smiling again. When he finally beats Haru in a race, he's at first elated, thinking he'll be able to leave all that pain and frustration behind -- but it doesn't make him happy, because that pain had never really been about winning, despite what he'd convinced himself.
However assholish he acts towards his friends face to face, there are many points in the show where Rin slips up and shows he still cares for them, somewhere under all those dumb, turbulent emotions. He remembers Makoto's fear of the ocean, asking "Is Makoto really okay with that?" when he hears the Iwatobi boys plan on training at the sea. When pressed, of course, he quickly retracts his concern, but at the beach, he stays up worrying about his friend. He is constantly shown thinking (brooding over) his friends, growing fiercely jealous and bitter over Rei's supposed "substitution" of himself, despite all of his outward protests at their offers of friendship. He shows a lot of soft spots, as well, in his interactions with Nitori and Gou; although he acts as if he'd like to be totally alone, he seems to care a good deal about their respective well beings, getting worked up at his Captain's attentions to his sister and half-mentoring, half-befriending the overenthusiastic Nitori. He's still, after all, a romantic at heart, overemotional and given to sentiment even at his worst, the type of person to feed stray cats and keep a diary. His emotions are still terribly obvious, always embodied in his behaviour; when he feels awful, he acts awful, yelling at Nitori and kicking trash cans and crying on Haruka's face. When he feels good, he shows it likewise, splashing in vicious delight when he beats Haru for the first time, hugging Haru and bursting into tears of joy and relief when they swim together again in a relay. Rin is not a bad person, although he acts like an asshole; he is actually a very good and deeply feeling person, who has been his own company for too long, and done a terrible job at it.
At the end of the anime, once Haru has been through his own character arc, he becomes able to reach out to Rin. He tells Rin that it's Rin he swims for, because he hasn't forgotten that "sight" Rin showed him as a child -- how his passion for swimming was possible through his fierce love and support of his friends, which had shaken Haru out of his own childhood isolation. Rei sacrifices his spot at the relay so that Rin can finally rejoin the Iwatobi boys, and Haru shows Rin that same sight again, restoring Rin's trust and passion for his friends, and his love of swimming. In the final moments of the season, Rin tells Haru that it's not just his dad's dream that he's chasing, anymore -- it's his own. He's freed from the past, and the isolation that had held his heart down and made him lose himself so badly.
Due to how much happens in the last episode of the season, Rin's personality is changing one more time; although we don't have any post-canon updates, the last couple minutes of episode 12 suggest that it's a certainty that he's changed for the better. At this canon point, he's neither the shitty, aggressive Rin of the initial episodes of Free!, or the manic grinning boy of High Speed!; he's somewhere in the middle, given to being irritable and withdrawn or outgoing and cocky given the situation and the people he's interacting with. He's no longer totally insufferable to be around, as he's becoming willing to reach out to others and let others reach out to him again, although likely not as readily as he did as a child. He's still highly competitive and hard working ("I'll show you how strong Samezuka is," he tells Rei, when challenged to a race. "We have our sights set on the world."), but his achievements are not the only measure of his happiness and self-worth -- his friends are now a part of what his happiness is, supporting him and reminding him of the idealism, self-confidence, and compassion he's capable of.
[ EDIT STARTS HERE ]
The Drama CD provides more context for Rin's personality post-season. He's still as competitive as ever with Haruka; they spend all day at a festival, to the bemusement of their friends, competing at everything from who can take their clothes off the fastest to who can collect the most crabs. When it comes to things that aren't swimming, he's a classic example of a tsundere more often then not, wary of showing positive emotions for fear of being embarrassed or made fun of. Unlike characters like Nagisa and Haru, he seems to care a lot about how others see him, likely because he's always cared so much about other people, and because he's had to impose such high standards on himself in pursuing his dream.
He takes great pride in his body, diet, and training routines, which can make him a bit overbearing when it comes to his expectations for others; he wants nothing less but the best from those he wants to admire. Like when he was younger, he's capable of invigorating the group and getting everyone pumped up, causing competitive and passionate responses from the taciturn Haruka especially. Although his tunnel-vision on his dreams isn't as bad as it was at the beginning of the series, Rin still sometimes finds it difficult to balance his exceedingly ambitious dreams with things like manners, fun, and relaxation. Because of his impatience to pursue every last moment to its fullest, he can come off as quite blunt and brash, especially to people who are more laid back or carefree; if he's treated politely, however, he makes obvious efforts to return the respect, even if he slips up now and again. He's a high energy character who needs to have a goal at all times, and if there isn't one, he'll make one, even if its something trivial; Rin Matsuoka is ambition personified.
That hard edge of competition and drive in him is juxtaposed neatly against his incredibly wide soft streak; as previously mentioned, he trends towards being an overprotective big brother to Gou, and lets characters like Nitori and Makoto fuss over him. The fact that he can be so rough and assholish to his closest friends is directly linked to the insecurity he often feels around them; more often than not, he doesn't feel like he's "doing it right," and many of his conversations with anyone, especially Haruka, are just a mess of miscommunication. Nevertheless, he's unbelievably happy to be included and remembered, hugely sentimental underneath all the snapping and pointy teeth. He adopts a cocky, boisterous, fake-it-til-you-make-it attitude, which he's always had, but has become overly aggressive since going to Australia. This can get confusing, because he acts cocky when he's pleased and playful as well; the only difference is that in one case, he actually feels it. His temper is short and easily sparked, and he's kind of a big, cranky baby about it -- he doesn't take especially well to teasing or being made to look foolish, wanting to look cool and tough at all times. He very rarely says what he means or feels, although he finds it easier to do with characters like Makoto, who are patient and used to reading emotion, rather than being told about it. His relationship with Haruka is also a big part of his personality; Haru brings out the best and the worst of Rin, but they always understand each other on some level most people can't tune into.
In a few key words, Rin is proud, ambitious, caring, hard working, emotional, blunt, romantic, and insecure. He falls on his face a lot, and has a difficult time managing the intensity of his emotions, being his own worst enemy, and getting his real feelings out. But he'll never give up, now that he's surrounded by supportive friends and found a dream of his own; he can only grow more as a character from here.
Abilities: Rin Works Out. He's one of the buffer Free! boys, owing to his more intense attitude towards training; you don't get to the Olympics without keeping yourself in immensely good shape. He attended an international swimming school, and he's a total powerhouse in the water. Rin also lifts, he runs, he eats well and probably has regular bowel movements, the whole shebang. He's also got an amazing sense of self-discipline, resolve, and will power, both in and out of the pool -- he pursues his goals like a shark after blood (HOO HOO), and he's no dumb jock. In fact, he's ranked among the top 10 in every subject at his school.
Other: nah man
Appearance: He's the doucher with the red hair trying to look cool. He's got really stupid teeth. When he's actually wearing clothes, he tends to sport a lot of athletic wear like tank tops and loose pants, although in most of the promotional art he's trying to pass as a european model. Rin is 5'10 and 150 lbs, but looks slightly older than his 17 years thanks to
Personality: We have to go back a bit to talk about Rin's personality. Rin, age 12, starts out as something of a manic pixie dream boy. A transfer student, he blows into the protagonists' lives as a ball of energy and charisma, with a big smile and a big, obvious heart on his sleeve. Despite not knowing anyone in the school, he's cheerful and gregarious, and reveals himself to be a hopeless romantic, wanting to swim in the cherry blossoms despite the cold weather. His relationship with Haru is especially significant; after seeing Haru swim, he's hugely impressed and becomes obsessed with swimming with him, showing great persistence in trying to get Haru to swim with him in a relay medley. Although he comes off rather single-minded and maybe even selfish, he repeatedly emphasizes how much fun it will be, and how important the team is to him -- when their class creates "memory blocks," Rin dedicates his "For The Team," and cares an enormous amount about his new friends. It's almost a foregone conclusion, considering the boy's exuberant personality; the other boys get swept up in his relay-fervor, and he ends up acting as the catalyst that brings Nagisa, Makoto, and Haru together to swim in the relay, which creates a long-lasting memory for all involved, especially Haru. Before the relay, however, Rin drops a bomb on Makoto and Haru; the reason he had so badly wanted to swim medley with his friends was because he is leaving to go to a prestigious swimming school in Australia. There, he wants to become a great swimmer and pursue his late father's dream of becoming an Olympian.
Rin leaves for Australia and comes back, oddly somber, and requests another race with Haru -- this time against one another. When he loses, he bursts into tears, says he's going to quit swimming, and books it.
Rin returns to Australia, and when he comes back to Japan for good at age 17, he's a total brooding asshole.
This is where Free! starts, and is one of the main conflicts that the show must resolve. Without recapping the entire season, we slowly find out that although Rin had entered the Australian school with enormously high hopes for himself and his talents as a swimmer, he was given a harsh reality check in being surrounded by other talented swimmers. To his frustration, he hit a wall in his swimming, and watched his times plateau into mediocrity -- far from his big dreams of the Olympic gold. That quickly, the happy, smiling Rin who had befriended the Iwatobi boys isn't seen again, replaced by a quiet and guarded boy who keeps to himself. Although this extreme reaction seems petulant and childish at first, one might recall two important things; first, the reason for Rin's investment in swimming was that he wants to fulfill his late father's dream, and to be seemingly unable to improve and achieve this dream -- and not even being able to beat Haru, with all his training and hard work -- hit him hard. His self-worth, with the lack of friends and family to support and love him, becomes entirely wrapped up in swimming and success; winning becomes more important than anything else, and he loses his love of swimming, and of life.
Secondly, the isolation of being far away from the friends he valued so dearly is something he doesn't seem to be able to adjust to. Lonely, isolated, disappointed in himself, and frustrated with swimming, Rin comes to the sorry conclusion that it was swimming the medley that "ruined" him. He finds every accomplishment he manages on his own pales in comparison to those he managed with his team, and it embitters him, making him isolate himself further from other people and cultivate a harsh, intimidating persona. His friends find it hard to believe how much Rin has changed; although he's still charismatic, it's in a very negative way, and he doesn't seem to want to be with the people his intense personality draw in, instantly pushing them away. However, the mask of arrogance and condescension he adopts hides deep and painful insecurities, all horribly mixed up with the death of his father, the isolation from his friends, and the eventual self-loathing he feels at being unable to get past the relay. He's outright hostile to Haru and ignores the rest of the team, unable to connect with even his sister, Gou, who only wants to see her brother smiling again. When he finally beats Haru in a race, he's at first elated, thinking he'll be able to leave all that pain and frustration behind -- but it doesn't make him happy, because that pain had never really been about winning, despite what he'd convinced himself.
However assholish he acts towards his friends face to face, there are many points in the show where Rin slips up and shows he still cares for them, somewhere under all those dumb, turbulent emotions. He remembers Makoto's fear of the ocean, asking "Is Makoto really okay with that?" when he hears the Iwatobi boys plan on training at the sea. When pressed, of course, he quickly retracts his concern, but at the beach, he stays up worrying about his friend. He is constantly shown thinking (brooding over) his friends, growing fiercely jealous and bitter over Rei's supposed "substitution" of himself, despite all of his outward protests at their offers of friendship. He shows a lot of soft spots, as well, in his interactions with Nitori and Gou; although he acts as if he'd like to be totally alone, he seems to care a good deal about their respective well beings, getting worked up at his Captain's attentions to his sister and half-mentoring, half-befriending the overenthusiastic Nitori. He's still, after all, a romantic at heart, overemotional and given to sentiment even at his worst, the type of person to feed stray cats and keep a diary. His emotions are still terribly obvious, always embodied in his behaviour; when he feels awful, he acts awful, yelling at Nitori and kicking trash cans and crying on Haruka's face. When he feels good, he shows it likewise, splashing in vicious delight when he beats Haru for the first time, hugging Haru and bursting into tears of joy and relief when they swim together again in a relay. Rin is not a bad person, although he acts like an asshole; he is actually a very good and deeply feeling person, who has been his own company for too long, and done a terrible job at it.
At the end of the anime, once Haru has been through his own character arc, he becomes able to reach out to Rin. He tells Rin that it's Rin he swims for, because he hasn't forgotten that "sight" Rin showed him as a child -- how his passion for swimming was possible through his fierce love and support of his friends, which had shaken Haru out of his own childhood isolation. Rei sacrifices his spot at the relay so that Rin can finally rejoin the Iwatobi boys, and Haru shows Rin that same sight again, restoring Rin's trust and passion for his friends, and his love of swimming. In the final moments of the season, Rin tells Haru that it's not just his dad's dream that he's chasing, anymore -- it's his own. He's freed from the past, and the isolation that had held his heart down and made him lose himself so badly.
Due to how much happens in the last episode of the season, Rin's personality is changing one more time; although we don't have any post-canon updates, the last couple minutes of episode 12 suggest that it's a certainty that he's changed for the better. At this canon point, he's neither the shitty, aggressive Rin of the initial episodes of Free!, or the manic grinning boy of High Speed!; he's somewhere in the middle, given to being irritable and withdrawn or outgoing and cocky given the situation and the people he's interacting with. He's no longer totally insufferable to be around, as he's becoming willing to reach out to others and let others reach out to him again, although likely not as readily as he did as a child. He's still highly competitive and hard working ("I'll show you how strong Samezuka is," he tells Rei, when challenged to a race. "We have our sights set on the world."), but his achievements are not the only measure of his happiness and self-worth -- his friends are now a part of what his happiness is, supporting him and reminding him of the idealism, self-confidence, and compassion he's capable of.
[ EDIT STARTS HERE ]
The Drama CD provides more context for Rin's personality post-season. He's still as competitive as ever with Haruka; they spend all day at a festival, to the bemusement of their friends, competing at everything from who can take their clothes off the fastest to who can collect the most crabs. When it comes to things that aren't swimming, he's a classic example of a tsundere more often then not, wary of showing positive emotions for fear of being embarrassed or made fun of. Unlike characters like Nagisa and Haru, he seems to care a lot about how others see him, likely because he's always cared so much about other people, and because he's had to impose such high standards on himself in pursuing his dream.
He takes great pride in his body, diet, and training routines, which can make him a bit overbearing when it comes to his expectations for others; he wants nothing less but the best from those he wants to admire. Like when he was younger, he's capable of invigorating the group and getting everyone pumped up, causing competitive and passionate responses from the taciturn Haruka especially. Although his tunnel-vision on his dreams isn't as bad as it was at the beginning of the series, Rin still sometimes finds it difficult to balance his exceedingly ambitious dreams with things like manners, fun, and relaxation. Because of his impatience to pursue every last moment to its fullest, he can come off as quite blunt and brash, especially to people who are more laid back or carefree; if he's treated politely, however, he makes obvious efforts to return the respect, even if he slips up now and again. He's a high energy character who needs to have a goal at all times, and if there isn't one, he'll make one, even if its something trivial; Rin Matsuoka is ambition personified.
That hard edge of competition and drive in him is juxtaposed neatly against his incredibly wide soft streak; as previously mentioned, he trends towards being an overprotective big brother to Gou, and lets characters like Nitori and Makoto fuss over him. The fact that he can be so rough and assholish to his closest friends is directly linked to the insecurity he often feels around them; more often than not, he doesn't feel like he's "doing it right," and many of his conversations with anyone, especially Haruka, are just a mess of miscommunication. Nevertheless, he's unbelievably happy to be included and remembered, hugely sentimental underneath all the snapping and pointy teeth. He adopts a cocky, boisterous, fake-it-til-you-make-it attitude, which he's always had, but has become overly aggressive since going to Australia. This can get confusing, because he acts cocky when he's pleased and playful as well; the only difference is that in one case, he actually feels it. His temper is short and easily sparked, and he's kind of a big, cranky baby about it -- he doesn't take especially well to teasing or being made to look foolish, wanting to look cool and tough at all times. He very rarely says what he means or feels, although he finds it easier to do with characters like Makoto, who are patient and used to reading emotion, rather than being told about it. His relationship with Haruka is also a big part of his personality; Haru brings out the best and the worst of Rin, but they always understand each other on some level most people can't tune into.
In a few key words, Rin is proud, ambitious, caring, hard working, emotional, blunt, romantic, and insecure. He falls on his face a lot, and has a difficult time managing the intensity of his emotions, being his own worst enemy, and getting his real feelings out. But he'll never give up, now that he's surrounded by supportive friends and found a dream of his own; he can only grow more as a character from here.
Abilities: Rin Works Out. He's one of the buffer Free! boys, owing to his more intense attitude towards training; you don't get to the Olympics without keeping yourself in immensely good shape. He attended an international swimming school, and he's a total powerhouse in the water. Rin also lifts, he runs, he eats well and probably has regular bowel movements, the whole shebang. He's also got an amazing sense of self-discipline, resolve, and will power, both in and out of the pool -- he pursues his goals like a shark after blood (HOO HOO), and he's no dumb jock. In fact, he's ranked among the top 10 in every subject at his school.
Other: nah man
Edited 2013-11-08 12:29 (UTC)
SAMPLES
First Person:
[ A: VIDEO ]
[have a scowling teen on your network today, Holly Heights]
[there are a few striking things about this particular scowling teen; the first you might notice is that he has creepy red eyes and a set of teeth like a fucking discovery channel shark week special]
[those ridiculous teeth are clenched in something that's part irritation and part chill, because the second thing you might notice about this teen is that he appears to be naked, or at least naked from the waist up, and soaked to the bone]
[his voice is a gruff, intimidating snap, despite it's slightly lame chattering]
What the h-hell is this, some k-kind of lame hazing? Nagisa, you little shit, I'll get you back for this.
[a vaguely embarrassed pause, because he's suddenly not sure he's talking to himself or not; this place is really unfamiliar. he turns a slightly more anxious scowl back to the feed]
...Oi, is a-anyone there? -- Gou?
[another pause, and then an impatient thumb clearly moving to smash the recording off]
Tch.
[ B: ACTION ]
[have a loud and rude banging at your door; if you choose to open it, you'll come face to face with Jaws himself, dripping idiotically all over your stoop in leg skins, shivering stupidly at the November wind]
[too bad he missed Halloween, because this would be the shittiest trick or treat ever]
Third Person:
None of the numbers in his phone are ones he recognises (and there's about fifty more of them than usual). Any attempt to call Gou or Makoto has failed. Where the hell is he? And why is it so damn cold? He'd been walking around restlessly, trying to get his blood moving to warm himself back up as he screwed around with the phone. At at a loss, he makes his way back to the lawn chair he'd woken up face down on (like he'd dived into the stupid thing).
There, the light catches off something red on the ground, and he notices his goggles lying in the weirdly, perfectly manicured grass (tch, it'd be the fault of those Iwatobi clowns if he lost them -- right?), and he stoops to pick them up. As he does so, he notices something else underneath the chair; a ring of keys, and an envelope which, after one dumb hesitation, he tears open, finding the Lease, a driver's license, and a few other things besides.
Hello Rin! Welcome to your new home.
What the fuck? He dispels the notion that this is some weird Iwatobi prank -- even Nagisa couldn't pull off something this elaborate. His stomach sinks a bit; was he alone again? Where was everyone? He'd just wanted to swim, damnit, not get caught up in whatever bullshit this was.
Lease clenched hard in one hand and his goggles in the other, Rin storms up to the nearest door to demand some answers.
OTHER
Housing Request?: Brother to Gou Matsuoka, please!
Did you read the rules and FAQ?: Yep.
Would you like your application to be unscreened?: why not
First Person:
[ A: VIDEO ]
[have a scowling teen on your network today, Holly Heights]
[there are a few striking things about this particular scowling teen; the first you might notice is that he has creepy red eyes and a set of teeth like a fucking discovery channel shark week special]
[those ridiculous teeth are clenched in something that's part irritation and part chill, because the second thing you might notice about this teen is that he appears to be naked, or at least naked from the waist up, and soaked to the bone]
[his voice is a gruff, intimidating snap, despite it's slightly lame chattering]
What the h-hell is this, some k-kind of lame hazing? Nagisa, you little shit, I'll get you back for this.
[a vaguely embarrassed pause, because he's suddenly not sure he's talking to himself or not; this place is really unfamiliar. he turns a slightly more anxious scowl back to the feed]
...Oi, is a-anyone there? -- Gou?
[another pause, and then an impatient thumb clearly moving to smash the recording off]
Tch.
[ B: ACTION ]
[have a loud and rude banging at your door; if you choose to open it, you'll come face to face with Jaws himself, dripping idiotically all over your stoop in leg skins, shivering stupidly at the November wind]
[too bad he missed Halloween, because this would be the shittiest trick or treat ever]
Third Person:
None of the numbers in his phone are ones he recognises (and there's about fifty more of them than usual). Any attempt to call Gou or Makoto has failed. Where the hell is he? And why is it so damn cold? He'd been walking around restlessly, trying to get his blood moving to warm himself back up as he screwed around with the phone. At at a loss, he makes his way back to the lawn chair he'd woken up face down on (like he'd dived into the stupid thing).
There, the light catches off something red on the ground, and he notices his goggles lying in the weirdly, perfectly manicured grass (tch, it'd be the fault of those Iwatobi clowns if he lost them -- right?), and he stoops to pick them up. As he does so, he notices something else underneath the chair; a ring of keys, and an envelope which, after one dumb hesitation, he tears open, finding the Lease, a driver's license, and a few other things besides.
Hello Rin! Welcome to your new home.
What the fuck? He dispels the notion that this is some weird Iwatobi prank -- even Nagisa couldn't pull off something this elaborate. His stomach sinks a bit; was he alone again? Where was everyone? He'd just wanted to swim, damnit, not get caught up in whatever bullshit this was.
Lease clenched hard in one hand and his goggles in the other, Rin storms up to the nearest door to demand some answers.
OTHER
Housing Request?: Brother to Gou Matsuoka, please!
Did you read the rules and FAQ?: Yep.
Would you like your application to be unscreened?: why not
REVISION REQUEST
Your app is looking great so far! However, there are some changes to be made before full acceptance can be given:
Please reply with your changes within three days time. Thank you!
Your app is looking great so far! However, there are some changes to be made before full acceptance can be given:
As it stands, I believe your personality section contains a lot more history and an explanation of it than Rin's personality. While it is fine to keep in some historical context for certain traits, please do not include more history in this section than not. Please rewrite/edit it following these guidelines.
Please reply with your changes within three days time. Thank you!
OOC INFORMATION
Player: Rabid
Age: 14+
Personal Journal:
mangemouthContact Info: plurk / mangemad
Other Characters: Badou "tiny shitlord version" Nails
badbreakIC INFORMATION
Characters Name: Rin Matsuoka
Age: 17
Canon: Free! Iwatobi Swim Club
Canon Point: Post-canon
Species: Human
Gender: Male
Orientation: The Olympics (N/A DON'T CARE EITHER WAY)
History: Wiki.
Appearance: He's the doucher with the red hair trying to look cool. He's got really stupid teeth. When he's actually wearing clothes, he tends to sport a lot of athletic wear like tank tops and loose pants, although in most of the promotional art he's trying to pass as a european model. Rin is 5'10 and 150 lbs, but looks slightly older than his 17 years thanks tobullshit anime magic I don't know bullshit anime puberty.
Personality: We have to go back a bit to talk about Rin's personality. Rin, age 12, starts out as something of a manic pixie dream boy. A transfer student, he blows into the protagonists' lives as a ball of energy and charisma, with a big smile and a big, obvious heart on his sleeve. Despite not knowing anyone in the school, he's cheerful and gregarious, and reveals himself to be a hopeless romantic, wanting to swim in the cherry blossoms despite the cold weather. His relationship with Haru is especially significant; after seeing Haru swim, he's hugely impressed and becomes obsessed with swimming with him, showing great persistence in trying to get Haru to swim with him in a relay medley. Although he comes off rather single-minded and maybe even selfish, he repeatedly emphasizes how much fun it will be, and how important the team is to him -- when their class creates "memory blocks," Rin dedicates his "For The Team," and cares an enormous amount about his new friends. It's almost a foregone conclusion, considering the boy's exuberant personality; the other boys get swept up in his relay-fervor, and he ends up acting as the catalyst that brings Nagisa, Makoto, and Haru together to swim in the relay, which creates a long-lasting memory for all involved, especially Haru. Before the relay, however, Rin drops a bomb on Makoto and Haru; the reason he had so badly wanted to swim medley with his friends was because he is leaving to go to a prestigious swimming school in Australia. There, he wants to become a great swimmer and pursue his late father's dream of becoming an Olympian.
Rin leaves for Australia and comes back, oddly somber, and requests another race with Haru -- this time against one another. When he loses, he bursts into tears, says he's going to quit swimming, and books it.
Rin returns to Australia, and when he comes back to Japan for good at age 17, he's a total brooding asshole.
This is where Free! starts, and is one of the main conflicts that the show must resolve. Without recapping the entire season, we slowly find out that although Rin had entered the Australian school with enormously high hopes for himself and his talents as a swimmer, he was given a harsh reality check in being surrounded by other talented swimmers. To his frustration, he hit a wall in his swimming, and watched his times plateau into mediocrity -- far from his big dreams of the Olympic gold. That quickly, the happy, smiling Rin who had befriended the Iwatobi boys isn't seen again, replaced by a quiet and guarded boy who keeps to himself. Although this extreme reaction seems petulant and childish at first, one might recall two important things; first, the reason for Rin's investment in swimming was that he wants to fulfill his late father's dream, and to be seemingly unable to improve and achieve this dream -- and not even being able to beat Haru, with all his training and hard work -- hit him hard. His self-worth, with the lack of friends and family to support and love him, becomes entirely wrapped up in swimming and success; winning becomes more important than anything else, and he loses his love of swimming, and of life.
Secondly, the isolation of being far away from the friends he valued so dearly is something he doesn't seem to be able to adjust to. Lonely, isolated, disappointed in himself, and frustrated with swimming, Rin comes to the sorry conclusion that it was swimming the medley that "ruined" him. He finds every accomplishment he manages on his own pales in comparison to those he managed with his team, and it embitters him, making him isolate himself further from other people and cultivate a harsh, intimidating persona. His friends find it hard to believe how much Rin has changed; although he's still charismatic, it's in a very negative way, and he doesn't seem to want to be with the people his intense personality draw in, instantly pushing them away. However, the mask of arrogance and condescension he adopts hides deep and painful insecurities, all horribly mixed up with the death of his father, the isolation from his friends, and the eventual self-loathing he feels at being unable to get past the relay. He's outright hostile to Haru and ignores the rest of the team, unable to connect with even his sister, Gou, who only wants to see her brother smiling again. When he finally beats Haru in a race, he's at first elated, thinking he'll be able to leave all that pain and frustration behind -- but it doesn't make him happy, because that pain had never really been about winning, despite what he'd convinced himself.
However assholish he acts towards his friends face to face, there are many points in the show where Rin slips up and shows he still cares for them, somewhere under all those dumb, turbulent emotions. He remembers Makoto's fear of the ocean, asking "Is Makoto really okay with that?" when he hears the Iwatobi boys plan on training at the sea. When pressed, of course, he quickly retracts his concern, but at the beach, he stays up worrying about his friend. He is constantly shown thinking (brooding over) his friends, growing fiercely jealous and bitter over Rei's supposed "substitution" of himself, despite all of his outward protests at their offers of friendship. He shows a lot of soft spots, as well, in his interactions with Nitori and Gou; although he acts as if he'd like to be totally alone, he seems to care a good deal about their respective well beings, getting worked up at his Captain's attentions to his sister and half-mentoring, half-befriending the overenthusiastic Nitori. He's still, after all, a romantic at heart, overemotional and given to sentiment even at his worst, the type of person to feed stray cats and keep a diary. His emotions are still terribly obvious, always embodied in his behaviour; when he feels awful, he acts awful, yelling at Nitori and kicking trash cans and crying on Haruka's face. When he feels good, he shows it likewise, splashing in vicious delight when he beats Haru for the first time, hugging Haru and bursting into tears of joy and relief when they swim together again in a relay. Rin is not a bad person, although he acts like an asshole; he is actually a very good and deeply feeling person, who has been his own company for too long, and done a terrible job at it.
At the end of the anime, once Haru has been through his own character arc, he becomes able to reach out to Rin. He tells Rin that it's Rin he swims for, because he hasn't forgotten that "sight" Rin showed him as a child -- how his passion for swimming was possible through his fierce love and support of his friends, which had shaken Haru out of his own childhood isolation. Rei sacrifices his spot at the relay so that Rin can finally rejoin the Iwatobi boys, and Haru shows Rin that same sight again, restoring Rin's trust and passion for his friends, and his love of swimming. In the final moments of the season, Rin tells Haru that it's not just his dad's dream that he's chasing, anymore -- it's his own. He's freed from the past, and the isolation that had held his heart down and made him lose himself so badly.
Due to how much happens in the last episode of the season, Rin's personality is changing one more time; although we don't have any post-canon updates, the last couple minutes of episode 12 suggest that it's a certainty that he's changed for the better. At this canon point, he's neither the shitty, aggressive Rin of the initial episodes of Free!, or the manic grinning boy of High Speed!; he's somewhere in the middle, given to being irritable and withdrawn or outgoing and cocky given the situation and the people he's interacting with. He's no longer totally insufferable to be around, as he's becoming willing to reach out to others and let others reach out to him again, although likely not as readily as he did as a child. He's still highly competitive and hard working ("I'll show you how strong Samezuka is," he tells Rei, when challenged to a race. "We have our sights set on the world."), but his achievements are not the only measure of his happiness and self-worth -- his friends are now a part of what his happiness is, supporting him and reminding him of the idealism, self-confidence, and compassion he's capable of.
[ EDIT STARTS HERE ]
The Drama CD provides more context for Rin's personality post-season. He's still as competitive as ever with Haruka; they spend all day at a festival, to the bemusement of their friends, competing at everything from who can take their clothes off the fastest to who can collect the most crabs. When it comes to things that aren't swimming, he's a classic example of a tsundere more often then not, wary of showing positive emotions for fear of being embarrassed or made fun of. Unlike characters like Nagisa and Haru, he seems to care a lot about how others see him, likely because he's always cared so much about other people, and because he's had to impose such high standards on himself in pursuing his dream.
He takes great pride in his body, diet, and training routines, which can make him a bit overbearing when it comes to his expectations for others; he wants nothing less but the best from those he wants to admire. Like when he was younger, he's capable of invigorating the group and getting everyone pumped up, causing competitive and passionate responses from the taciturn Haruka especially. Although his tunnel-vision on his dreams isn't as bad as it was at the beginning of the series, Rin still sometimes finds it difficult to balance his exceedingly ambitious dreams with things like manners, fun, and relaxation. Because of his impatience to pursue every last moment to its fullest, he can come off as quite blunt and brash, especially to people who are more laid back or carefree; if he's treated politely, however, he makes obvious efforts to return the respect, even if he slips up now and again. He's a high energy character who needs to have a goal at all times, and if there isn't one, he'll make one, even if its something trivial; Rin Matsuoka is ambition personified.
That hard edge of competition and drive in him is juxtaposed neatly against his incredibly wide soft streak; as previously mentioned, he trends towards being an overprotective big brother to Gou, and lets characters like Nitori and Makoto fuss over him. The fact that he can be so rough and assholish to his closest friends is directly linked to the insecurity he often feels around them; more often than not, he doesn't feel like he's "doing it right," and many of his conversations with anyone, especially Haruka, are just a mess of miscommunication. Nevertheless, he's unbelievably happy to be included and remembered, hugely sentimental underneath all the snapping and pointy teeth. He adopts a cocky, boisterous, fake-it-til-you-make-it attitude, which he's always had, but has become overly aggressive since going to Australia. This can get confusing, because he acts cocky when he's pleased and playful as well; the only difference is that in one case, he actually feels it. His temper is short and easily sparked, and he's kind of a big, cranky baby about it -- he doesn't take especially well to teasing or being made to look foolish, wanting to look cool and tough at all times. He very rarely says what he means or feels, although he finds it easier to do with characters like Makoto, who are patient and used to reading emotion, rather than being told about it. His relationship with Haruka is also a big part of his personality; Haru brings out the best and the worst of Rin, but they always understand each other on some level most people can't tune into.
In a few key words, Rin is proud, ambitious, caring, hard working, emotional, blunt, romantic, and insecure. He falls on his face a lot, and has a difficult time managing the intensity of his emotions, being his own worst enemy, and getting his real feelings out. But he'll never give up, now that he's surrounded by supportive friends and found a dream of his own; he can only grow more as a character from here.
Abilities: Rin Works Out. He's one of the buffer Free! boys, owing to his more intense attitude towards training; you don't get to the Olympics without keeping yourself in immensely good shape. He attended an international swimming school, and he's a total powerhouse in the water. Rin also lifts, he runs, he eats well and probably has regular bowel movements, the whole shebang. He's also got an amazing sense of self-discipline, resolve, and will power, both in and out of the pool -- he pursues his goals like a shark after blood (HOO HOO), and he's no dumb jock. In fact, he's ranked among the top 10 in every subject at his school.
Other: nah man
Appearance: He's the doucher with the red hair trying to look cool. He's got really stupid teeth. When he's actually wearing clothes, he tends to sport a lot of athletic wear like tank tops and loose pants, although in most of the promotional art he's trying to pass as a european model. Rin is 5'10 and 150 lbs, but looks slightly older than his 17 years thanks to
Personality: We have to go back a bit to talk about Rin's personality. Rin, age 12, starts out as something of a manic pixie dream boy. A transfer student, he blows into the protagonists' lives as a ball of energy and charisma, with a big smile and a big, obvious heart on his sleeve. Despite not knowing anyone in the school, he's cheerful and gregarious, and reveals himself to be a hopeless romantic, wanting to swim in the cherry blossoms despite the cold weather. His relationship with Haru is especially significant; after seeing Haru swim, he's hugely impressed and becomes obsessed with swimming with him, showing great persistence in trying to get Haru to swim with him in a relay medley. Although he comes off rather single-minded and maybe even selfish, he repeatedly emphasizes how much fun it will be, and how important the team is to him -- when their class creates "memory blocks," Rin dedicates his "For The Team," and cares an enormous amount about his new friends. It's almost a foregone conclusion, considering the boy's exuberant personality; the other boys get swept up in his relay-fervor, and he ends up acting as the catalyst that brings Nagisa, Makoto, and Haru together to swim in the relay, which creates a long-lasting memory for all involved, especially Haru. Before the relay, however, Rin drops a bomb on Makoto and Haru; the reason he had so badly wanted to swim medley with his friends was because he is leaving to go to a prestigious swimming school in Australia. There, he wants to become a great swimmer and pursue his late father's dream of becoming an Olympian.
Rin leaves for Australia and comes back, oddly somber, and requests another race with Haru -- this time against one another. When he loses, he bursts into tears, says he's going to quit swimming, and books it.
Rin returns to Australia, and when he comes back to Japan for good at age 17, he's a total brooding asshole.
This is where Free! starts, and is one of the main conflicts that the show must resolve. Without recapping the entire season, we slowly find out that although Rin had entered the Australian school with enormously high hopes for himself and his talents as a swimmer, he was given a harsh reality check in being surrounded by other talented swimmers. To his frustration, he hit a wall in his swimming, and watched his times plateau into mediocrity -- far from his big dreams of the Olympic gold. That quickly, the happy, smiling Rin who had befriended the Iwatobi boys isn't seen again, replaced by a quiet and guarded boy who keeps to himself. Although this extreme reaction seems petulant and childish at first, one might recall two important things; first, the reason for Rin's investment in swimming was that he wants to fulfill his late father's dream, and to be seemingly unable to improve and achieve this dream -- and not even being able to beat Haru, with all his training and hard work -- hit him hard. His self-worth, with the lack of friends and family to support and love him, becomes entirely wrapped up in swimming and success; winning becomes more important than anything else, and he loses his love of swimming, and of life.
Secondly, the isolation of being far away from the friends he valued so dearly is something he doesn't seem to be able to adjust to. Lonely, isolated, disappointed in himself, and frustrated with swimming, Rin comes to the sorry conclusion that it was swimming the medley that "ruined" him. He finds every accomplishment he manages on his own pales in comparison to those he managed with his team, and it embitters him, making him isolate himself further from other people and cultivate a harsh, intimidating persona. His friends find it hard to believe how much Rin has changed; although he's still charismatic, it's in a very negative way, and he doesn't seem to want to be with the people his intense personality draw in, instantly pushing them away. However, the mask of arrogance and condescension he adopts hides deep and painful insecurities, all horribly mixed up with the death of his father, the isolation from his friends, and the eventual self-loathing he feels at being unable to get past the relay. He's outright hostile to Haru and ignores the rest of the team, unable to connect with even his sister, Gou, who only wants to see her brother smiling again. When he finally beats Haru in a race, he's at first elated, thinking he'll be able to leave all that pain and frustration behind -- but it doesn't make him happy, because that pain had never really been about winning, despite what he'd convinced himself.
However assholish he acts towards his friends face to face, there are many points in the show where Rin slips up and shows he still cares for them, somewhere under all those dumb, turbulent emotions. He remembers Makoto's fear of the ocean, asking "Is Makoto really okay with that?" when he hears the Iwatobi boys plan on training at the sea. When pressed, of course, he quickly retracts his concern, but at the beach, he stays up worrying about his friend. He is constantly shown thinking (brooding over) his friends, growing fiercely jealous and bitter over Rei's supposed "substitution" of himself, despite all of his outward protests at their offers of friendship. He shows a lot of soft spots, as well, in his interactions with Nitori and Gou; although he acts as if he'd like to be totally alone, he seems to care a good deal about their respective well beings, getting worked up at his Captain's attentions to his sister and half-mentoring, half-befriending the overenthusiastic Nitori. He's still, after all, a romantic at heart, overemotional and given to sentiment even at his worst, the type of person to feed stray cats and keep a diary. His emotions are still terribly obvious, always embodied in his behaviour; when he feels awful, he acts awful, yelling at Nitori and kicking trash cans and crying on Haruka's face. When he feels good, he shows it likewise, splashing in vicious delight when he beats Haru for the first time, hugging Haru and bursting into tears of joy and relief when they swim together again in a relay. Rin is not a bad person, although he acts like an asshole; he is actually a very good and deeply feeling person, who has been his own company for too long, and done a terrible job at it.
At the end of the anime, once Haru has been through his own character arc, he becomes able to reach out to Rin. He tells Rin that it's Rin he swims for, because he hasn't forgotten that "sight" Rin showed him as a child -- how his passion for swimming was possible through his fierce love and support of his friends, which had shaken Haru out of his own childhood isolation. Rei sacrifices his spot at the relay so that Rin can finally rejoin the Iwatobi boys, and Haru shows Rin that same sight again, restoring Rin's trust and passion for his friends, and his love of swimming. In the final moments of the season, Rin tells Haru that it's not just his dad's dream that he's chasing, anymore -- it's his own. He's freed from the past, and the isolation that had held his heart down and made him lose himself so badly.
Due to how much happens in the last episode of the season, Rin's personality is changing one more time; although we don't have any post-canon updates, the last couple minutes of episode 12 suggest that it's a certainty that he's changed for the better. At this canon point, he's neither the shitty, aggressive Rin of the initial episodes of Free!, or the manic grinning boy of High Speed!; he's somewhere in the middle, given to being irritable and withdrawn or outgoing and cocky given the situation and the people he's interacting with. He's no longer totally insufferable to be around, as he's becoming willing to reach out to others and let others reach out to him again, although likely not as readily as he did as a child. He's still highly competitive and hard working ("I'll show you how strong Samezuka is," he tells Rei, when challenged to a race. "We have our sights set on the world."), but his achievements are not the only measure of his happiness and self-worth -- his friends are now a part of what his happiness is, supporting him and reminding him of the idealism, self-confidence, and compassion he's capable of.
[ EDIT STARTS HERE ]
The Drama CD provides more context for Rin's personality post-season. He's still as competitive as ever with Haruka; they spend all day at a festival, to the bemusement of their friends, competing at everything from who can take their clothes off the fastest to who can collect the most crabs. When it comes to things that aren't swimming, he's a classic example of a tsundere more often then not, wary of showing positive emotions for fear of being embarrassed or made fun of. Unlike characters like Nagisa and Haru, he seems to care a lot about how others see him, likely because he's always cared so much about other people, and because he's had to impose such high standards on himself in pursuing his dream.
He takes great pride in his body, diet, and training routines, which can make him a bit overbearing when it comes to his expectations for others; he wants nothing less but the best from those he wants to admire. Like when he was younger, he's capable of invigorating the group and getting everyone pumped up, causing competitive and passionate responses from the taciturn Haruka especially. Although his tunnel-vision on his dreams isn't as bad as it was at the beginning of the series, Rin still sometimes finds it difficult to balance his exceedingly ambitious dreams with things like manners, fun, and relaxation. Because of his impatience to pursue every last moment to its fullest, he can come off as quite blunt and brash, especially to people who are more laid back or carefree; if he's treated politely, however, he makes obvious efforts to return the respect, even if he slips up now and again. He's a high energy character who needs to have a goal at all times, and if there isn't one, he'll make one, even if its something trivial; Rin Matsuoka is ambition personified.
That hard edge of competition and drive in him is juxtaposed neatly against his incredibly wide soft streak; as previously mentioned, he trends towards being an overprotective big brother to Gou, and lets characters like Nitori and Makoto fuss over him. The fact that he can be so rough and assholish to his closest friends is directly linked to the insecurity he often feels around them; more often than not, he doesn't feel like he's "doing it right," and many of his conversations with anyone, especially Haruka, are just a mess of miscommunication. Nevertheless, he's unbelievably happy to be included and remembered, hugely sentimental underneath all the snapping and pointy teeth. He adopts a cocky, boisterous, fake-it-til-you-make-it attitude, which he's always had, but has become overly aggressive since going to Australia. This can get confusing, because he acts cocky when he's pleased and playful as well; the only difference is that in one case, he actually feels it. His temper is short and easily sparked, and he's kind of a big, cranky baby about it -- he doesn't take especially well to teasing or being made to look foolish, wanting to look cool and tough at all times. He very rarely says what he means or feels, although he finds it easier to do with characters like Makoto, who are patient and used to reading emotion, rather than being told about it. His relationship with Haruka is also a big part of his personality; Haru brings out the best and the worst of Rin, but they always understand each other on some level most people can't tune into.
In a few key words, Rin is proud, ambitious, caring, hard working, emotional, blunt, romantic, and insecure. He falls on his face a lot, and has a difficult time managing the intensity of his emotions, being his own worst enemy, and getting his real feelings out. But he'll never give up, now that he's surrounded by supportive friends and found a dream of his own; he can only grow more as a character from here.
Abilities: Rin Works Out. He's one of the buffer Free! boys, owing to his more intense attitude towards training; you don't get to the Olympics without keeping yourself in immensely good shape. He attended an international swimming school, and he's a total powerhouse in the water. Rin also lifts, he runs, he eats well and probably has regular bowel movements, the whole shebang. He's also got an amazing sense of self-discipline, resolve, and will power, both in and out of the pool -- he pursues his goals like a shark after blood (HOO HOO), and he's no dumb jock. In fact, he's ranked among the top 10 in every subject at his school.
Other: nah man
SAMPLES
First Person:
[ A: VIDEO ]
[have a scowling teen on your network today, Holly Heights]
[there are a few striking things about this particular scowling teen; the first you might notice is that he has creepy red eyes and a set of teeth like a fucking discovery channel shark week special]
[those ridiculous teeth are clenched in something that's part irritation and part chill, because the second thing you might notice about this teen is that he appears to be naked, or at least naked from the waist up, and soaked to the bone]
[his voice is a gruff, intimidating snap, despite it's slightly lame chattering]
What the h-hell is this, some k-kind of stupid hazing? Nagisa, you little shit, I'll get you back for this.
[a vaguely embarrassed pause, because he's suddenly not sure he's talking to himself or not; this place is really unfamiliar. he turns a slightly more anxious scowl back to the feed]
...Oi, is a-anyone there? -- Gou?
[another pause, and then an impatient thumb clearly moving to smash the recording off]
Tch.
[ B: ACTION ]
[have a loud and rude banging at your door; if you choose to open it, you'll come face to face with Jaws himself, dripping idiotically all over your stoop in leg skins, shivering stupidly at the November wind]
[too bad he missed Halloween, because this would be the shittiest trick or treat ever]
Third Person:
None of the numbers in his phone are ones he recognises (and there's about fifty more of them than usual). Any attempt to call Gou or Makoto has failed. Where the hell is he? And why is it so damn cold? He'd been walking around restlessly, trying to get his blood moving to warm himself back up as he screwed around with the phone. At at a loss, he makes his way back to the lawn chair he'd woken up face down on (like he'd dived into the stupid thing).
There, the light catches off something red on the ground, and he notices his goggles lying in the weirdly, perfectly manicured grass (tch, it'd be the fault of those Iwatobi clowns if he lost them -- right?), and he stoops to pick them up. As he does so, he notices something else underneath the chair; a ring of keys, and an envelope which, after one dumb hesitation, he tears open, finding the Lease, a driver's license, and a few other things besides.
Hello Rin! Welcome to your new home.
What the fuck? He dispels the notion that this is some weird Iwatobi prank -- even Nagisa couldn't pull off something this elaborate. His stomach sinks a bit; was he alone again? Where was everyone? He'd just wanted to swim, damnit, not get caught up in whatever bullshit this was.
Lease clenched hard in one hand and his goggles in the other, Rin storms up to the nearest door to demand some answers.
OTHER
Housing Request?: Brother to Matsuoka Gou, please!
Did you read the rules and FAQ?: Yep.
Would you like your application to be unscreened?: N
First Person:
[ A: VIDEO ]
[have a scowling teen on your network today, Holly Heights]
[there are a few striking things about this particular scowling teen; the first you might notice is that he has creepy red eyes and a set of teeth like a fucking discovery channel shark week special]
[those ridiculous teeth are clenched in something that's part irritation and part chill, because the second thing you might notice about this teen is that he appears to be naked, or at least naked from the waist up, and soaked to the bone]
[his voice is a gruff, intimidating snap, despite it's slightly lame chattering]
What the h-hell is this, some k-kind of stupid hazing? Nagisa, you little shit, I'll get you back for this.
[a vaguely embarrassed pause, because he's suddenly not sure he's talking to himself or not; this place is really unfamiliar. he turns a slightly more anxious scowl back to the feed]
...Oi, is a-anyone there? -- Gou?
[another pause, and then an impatient thumb clearly moving to smash the recording off]
Tch.
[ B: ACTION ]
[have a loud and rude banging at your door; if you choose to open it, you'll come face to face with Jaws himself, dripping idiotically all over your stoop in leg skins, shivering stupidly at the November wind]
[too bad he missed Halloween, because this would be the shittiest trick or treat ever]
Third Person:
None of the numbers in his phone are ones he recognises (and there's about fifty more of them than usual). Any attempt to call Gou or Makoto has failed. Where the hell is he? And why is it so damn cold? He'd been walking around restlessly, trying to get his blood moving to warm himself back up as he screwed around with the phone. At at a loss, he makes his way back to the lawn chair he'd woken up face down on (like he'd dived into the stupid thing).
There, the light catches off something red on the ground, and he notices his goggles lying in the weirdly, perfectly manicured grass (tch, it'd be the fault of those Iwatobi clowns if he lost them -- right?), and he stoops to pick them up. As he does so, he notices something else underneath the chair; a ring of keys, and an envelope which, after one dumb hesitation, he tears open, finding the Lease, a driver's license, and a few other things besides.
Hello Rin! Welcome to your new home.
What the fuck? He dispels the notion that this is some weird Iwatobi prank -- even Nagisa couldn't pull off something this elaborate. His stomach sinks a bit; was he alone again? Where was everyone? He'd just wanted to swim, damnit, not get caught up in whatever bullshit this was.
Lease clenched hard in one hand and his goggles in the other, Rin storms up to the nearest door to demand some answers.
OTHER
Housing Request?: Brother to Matsuoka Gou, please!
Did you read the rules and FAQ?: Yep.
Would you like your application to be unscreened?: N
Edited 2013-11-08 16:37 (UTC)
ACCEPTED
Congrats, your application has been accepted! Your character is now living at 1435 in Holly Heights, with a child slot. In order to get the ball rolling, here's what you need to do:
I hope you enjoy your stay here!
NOTE
Disregard the other note since dreamwidth is being ratchet and not showing me comments ugh
Congrats, your application has been accepted! Your character is now living at 1435 in Holly Heights, with a child slot. In order to get the ball rolling, here's what you need to do:
Comment back with the journal you'll be using for your character so that they can be accepted into the communities. Create an IC Mailbox post on your characters journal that is not friends only. You are also free to treat this as an information holding post with your character's family and address listed if you wish. Join Please fill out the Taken Character form. Make sure you fill in all sections! Reply to the Housing post with the form given and to see who your new family is! Go say hello at Optionally, you can go to the Locations post and create a location for your character to own and/or work at. NEW: Please make sure you familiarize yourself with the new AC schedule and also know that Holly Heights is no longer an island anymore. NEW: Please look forward to a block party geared towards new characters, found in this tag, on the 8th of every month!
I hope you enjoy your stay here!
NOTE
Disregard the other note since dreamwidth is being ratchet and not showing me comments ugh
Page 11 of 11