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Occupation / ProfessionI suppose he would be a ronin or a close approximation. A wandering samurai. Or trying to be a wandering samurai. Appearance / MannerismsLet's see. I believe he's about... 5'9"? Something like that. I'm not sure. He's taller than me. Slender like a reed. He wears those "Look at me! I'm a wandering samurai from the Meiji Era" style clothes (if you've seen Kenshin, you know what I'm talking about.) Soft fluffy hair in a rather strange hair style (see picture.) He looks kind of Asian but his hair is a grey/silver with lavender highlights. Very shiny. And soft. Soft shiny things are nice to pet. His eyes are uhh... burgundy. They might look red or brown depending on the light. But they're really the color of wine (or blood... mmm... blood...) Favors blues and whites in his clothing. Nothing very dark. Carries two samurai swords and a bag on his back (I think it's a light tan colored leather.) In it he keeps incense, tea, teapot, cup for tea, bowl, chopsticks, maybe a bit of food (rice?), and umm... a discman. He has one CD. Or maybe two. No. He has two. He has those kind of earphones that are really tiny and you stick in your ear. Yeah. He's lean I guess, not overly muscled. Just your average bishounen type, although now that I look at him he seems more of a biseinen. Whatever. |
A very quiet introspective sort of person. He prefers to keep his feelings to himself. He loves nature and enjoys being out in the natural world. He's always calm, never rushes into things and seems to be perfectly in harmony with his surroundings. Yay.
He wants to die. No, he isn't depressed. He's quite happy with his life, in fact. Actually, I think he wants to see the world a little bit before he dies. He's certainly in no hurry to die. But it is on his agenda. Preferably in an honorable way that is in service to other people, but he'll take it how he can get it. Also, I think there has to be some kind of struggle involved. Walking into a freeway and getting hit by a car wouldn't be the kind of death he's going for. More along the lines of being killed by an adversary or a long, terminal illness which he would have to battle heroically and inspire the people around him with his courage and determination or something ridiculous. Whatever the case, it has to be poetic, and he has to be young. Preferably before he's 18. Currently I believe he is 15. Hiretsukan thinks he's too old to be alive and that's why he sent him off, so he could find his death. Yuuwaku is perfectly okay with this.
Yuuwaku was brought up in a rather remote location by his sensei, Hiretsukan. He has no family to speak of and no acquaintances outside of his teacher and the kami (read: fairies) which lived in the forest and streams near their humble little home. I think they ran some kind of shady business out of there. Moonshining or something. Hiretsukan made sake... the drunkard. They also sold "ancient scrolls" which were "hand-painted" and supposed to cause some kind of good or bad luck. Translation: Scrolls which they painted themselves on coffee stained paper with subliminal messages like "You're fat. Don't eat. You're fat. Don't eat." (No, I lied.) They're written in Japanese, lovely kanji. Hiretsukan taught Yuuwaku all sorts of fun Japanese cultural things (god knows how he learned them) like chado, bushido, flower arranging, calligraphy, Zen-like meditation.
Okay... uhhmm.. I'm gonna kinda overkill on this whole history thing. You'll have to excuse me but I feel a need to start at the very beginning (a very good place to start.)
I don't know anything about Yuuwaku's early history. Presumably, he would have actually had parents and been brought up by them or at least brought up by someone. Goddess knows who. Whatever the case, Hiretsukan found him lingering outside his little hovel and having no better idea as to what to do with him, decided to take the kid in as his student.
Hiretsukan's got some problems though. See, the reason he's living out in the woods all alone and far from civilization is cause he's got this little pedophilia issue. Poor man. He likes boys or at least bishounen looking men, but seeing as boys are easier to come by, well, let's just say he had some issues. His name isn't really Hiretsukan either. It's the name he told Yuuwaku to call him. And in case you cared to know, Hiretsukan means "mean bastard." I'm not entirely certain what the particulars of his situation are but I do know that he had a best friend (maybe a lover?) who he had confided with his dirty little secret but this friend betrayed him and started spreading vicious nasty rumors about him. He was eventually chased out of the village and he decided to go and live as a hermit in the woods until he could purify his mind. Let's just say it hasn't happened yet. (He keeps shota mags in the cellar.) I think he must have been kicked out when he was around 25 or so and about 8 years passed before Yuuwaku showed up on his proverbial doorstep. As a child I believe he'd been taught by his grandmother a lot about Japanese history and tradition so he decided to put this to good use. He managed by some means to set up a sake business (probably with inherited money/materials) and also his scroll making business and started selling off his wares to one of his few remaining friends who happened to be a merchant. During his free time, he would practice his sword techniques and write poetry. Bad poetry. He was never a really good poet.
About 8 years after his move into isolation, Hiretsukan noticed a young boy loitering around "his" property and so he tried to scare him off by acting all "Grr, I am an evil bear man! Fear me!" He was more than a little surprised when the boy showed no fear at his shouting and sword swinging but stared up at him with perfect equanimity and then asked if he could use the bathroom. To make a long story short, Hiretsukan ended up being impressed (entranced?) by the strange looking little boy and decided to take him under his wing. How sweet. (He probably just wanted to molest him. Damn horny bastard.) He named the boy Yuuwaku, which means "temptation," and started teaching him the many arts which he would need to become a bishounen and die a young but powerful death. The kind you'd write a ballad about. Or a haiku.
Yuuwaku was a much better poet than Hiretsukan.
Let's see... what did Hiretsukan teach him? Lots of things that end with -do. Kendo, bushido, chado... Probably some form of hand to hand combat He also taught him erekutronikudo, the way of using the computer (sorry, bad pun.) He taught him how to write beautiful calligraphy and make sake and how to read in whatever universal language is used at this time (since I'm sure that during Sephina's time at least they came up with a universal language that everyone was forced to speak) and also in Japanese.
Now even though Yuuwaku and Hiretsukan were living off in the woods somewhere in this isolated little cottage, they actually had more technologically advanced stuff than we have now, which is kinda funny. Of course for that time period, the stuff they had was really outdated and despite all of this they really were living off the land. They had a little garden, they hunted, some things they got by trading (I'll get to that later) and most of the rest of their time was spent in Hiretsukan teaching Yuuwaku various arts which he was fairly adept at picking up. They owned several computers and some other technological equipment which I could go into detail about if you care to know, but it's not really essential information. They slept on mats on the floor, you know like Japanese people do, had one of those nifty ofuro bathtubs and didn't wear shoes in the house.
As I was saying about the trading though. Hiretsukan did still have one contact from his home village. A young female entrepreneur who was making a fortune off of the "ancient scrolls" and sake he was making in his little forest retreat. She'd bring him basic staples like rice and other stuff he asked for in return for his handmade goods and she was the only other person that Yuuwaku had contact with.
Of course, people weren't the only ones Yuuwaku had contact with. Yuuwaku had made friends with a whole mess of fairies who lived in the forest around his house and he'd go out and play with them in those infrequent moments when he had free time. It was through them that he heard accounts of the history of Lunar and the Blue Star and learned of the world outside of his house. They also told him many stories which he loved. He was very idealistic and loved the idea of going off on great adventures. Romance, friendship, heroism, self-sacrifice; all of these appealed to him aesthetically and were encouraged by Hiretsukan.
As Yuuwaku grew older however, it became harder for Hiretsukan to control his uhh... impulses. Perhaps more importantly however, he had started to rely a lot on Yuuwaku for things and he was kind of paranoid about becoming too dependent on him. So after about 7 years he decided it was time for Yuuwaku to go off and make his way in the world... and get himself killed. He gave the boy what supplies he'd need and a little mini-discman with some mini CDs as a gift, told him to say goodbye to his friends and instructed him to never come back alive.
So Yuuwaku set out to find his death. Of course he wanted to explore the world a bit first. After all, he didn't need to die right away. Before his 18th birthday would be best but really no later than 25. And what better way to find death than by going on an adventure? What death could be more honorable than one found while trying to save the world?
Played by: Nadia Hemady
Questions? Mail Dragonmaster Lou