Toshizou Hijikata ♦ 土方 歳三 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
koukai_kirai) wrote2016-02-28 11:12 am
koukai_kirai) wrote2016-02-28 11:12 am
Relationships [Ryslig] - WIP
▍OKITA SOUJI Captain of the Shinsengumi's first unit, and Hijikata's immediate subordinate. The only person Hijikata knows from his home world, Souji has been in Ryslig since before Hijikata got there -- which means that, at time of writing, they've been stuck here together for nearly a year and a half. Met when Souji was nine and Hijikata was in his teens, and have been inseparable since. Their relationship is a complex one, combining elements of quasi-feudal loyalty, brotherhood, a mentor-protege bond, and romantic attraction; they tend to refer to themselves to others more in terms of their professional relationship, but the most central truth of the matter is simply that they love each other, in a variety of ways. Souji views Hijikata more or less as the center of his world, someone he would obey in anything and happily kill or die for, and understands him better than anyone else ever has (or maybe ever could.) Hijikata, for his part, cares deeply for Souji in return, and is very conscious of trying to be good for him both as a leader and in more personal ways. While in Ryslig, their relationship has remained fairly stable, ever-increasing body count and level of guilt and post-traumatic stress aside. They run the Hyakki Yagyo general store in Bavan together, work on protecting new arrivals and trying to foil the gods' plans, and take long romantic moonlit walks that only sometimes end in hunting down and eating criminals, they swear. They had one informally adopted kid at home, and are rapidly losing count of the ones in Ryslig. |
▍JOLYNE KUJO Works for Hijikata at Hyakki Yagyo, and lives with him and Souji in their apartment. A headstrong young woman with quite a mouth on her, Jolyne has had a lifetime of trouble with her bad reputation, which is something Hijikata can sort of relate to. She isn't the most responsible, but the truth is, Hijikata likes her. Kind of reminds him of Ichimura's bratty moments, at times. He hasn't met her dad, but already doesn't like him, from what he's heard. |
▍YUE Yue is a freeloader. He doesn't work, he just lives in their apartment. And steals people's poetry books, like some kind of monster. Who does that Yue? Why? Likes to ask Hijikata weird questions; frequently receives answers, though Hijikata does sort of give up eventually. A peculiar young man, who seems to come from Japan, but obviously hasn't experienced much of the world and acts much younger than he appears. Innocent sunflower child, must be protected. |
▍KAEDE Working at Hyakki Yagyo and living at the apartment with them. Hijikata understands Kaede more than he expected to. They both have a similarly dark and pessimistic view of the world, though he's more accustomed to turning his into something he can use for positive ends. She's obviously seen a lot of pain and done a lot of fighting and killing, even before Ryslig, which is something he can empathize with, and while it makes her useful in crises, it also makes him want to protect her from spending any more time being something she doesn't want to be. He knows what that's like, after all. Has promised to kill her if she's ever completely out of control. That's how you bond with adoptive kids, right? |
▍MATSUOKA RIN Working for Hijikata at Hyakki Yagyo. Hijikata really likes Rin a lot. He sees a lot of the good in himself -- the hard work and dedication, the wholehearted devotion to his friends, the proud spirit, the defiance against abusive forms of authority, the unexpectedly romantic side, even a bit of the peacockishness he showed more of when he was younger -- reflected in the younger man, without the worst of his own flaws. He isn't living with them, but Hijikata trusts him as much as any of his employees, including with the location of an entrance into his castle. They speak often about various things, practical and plot-related as well as personal. Rin is a nonviolent person from a world where war isn't an immediate concern, but is also intelligent and driven enough to involve himself in working against the gods and trying to protect people here. Hijikata wants, very badly, to help him be able to fight the worst that Ryslig throws against them -- without sacrificing his innocence the way that he, Souji, and so many of their friends did. Hijikata is still thinking hard about what Rin told him at the end of their conversation on New Year's: "You're not just meant for [killing]." He probably will be for some time. |
▍NANASE HARUKA Working at Hyakki Yagyo, and possibly taking some lessons in self defense from Hijikata. An old friend of Rin's from his childhood, Haruka ended up sort of coming as an unexpected package deal with him when he turned up a little while after him. Quiet, but eccentric about the intensity of his love for water and swimming. Decent at cooking. Easy enough to get along with for Hijikata. They spoke for a while while selling mochi after the New Year, and Hijikata learned a bit about Rin and Australia, as well as the way Japan is in their time. Hijikata has agreed to train him to fight, if he's willing to work hard at it. |
▍HORIKAWA KUNIHIRO The spirit of Hijikata's own wakizashi. Currently aligned with the Fourth God, and relaying information about his faction back to Hijikata on the sly. Horikawa looks young, but is much more mature than his appearance would make someone suspect. He's picked up some traits that Hijikata can very clearly see as direct reflections of himself -- he's incredibly hardworking and loyal, works himself hard to take care of the people he cares about, and doesn't shy away from dirty or difficult tasks. A sword used in assassinations, he's good for stealth and subterfuge. Hijikata, who isn't a samurai by birth, worked hard to earn the right to carry swords; he never takes them for granted, and is deeply grateful for all that they've done in his service. It does his heart good to see how much Horikawa respects him and cares about him so long after his own death. Initially tried to avoid Hijikata for the sake of preserving the historical timeline, but that fell through. They had a slight rocky patch when Hijikata found out that he and Yamato had joined the Fourth God, but did resolve it by deciding to use that connection for information-gathering. Doesn't live with them, but Hijikata does his best to see him when he can and take good care of him. |
▍IZUMINOKAMI KANESADA The spirit of Hijikata's uchigatana. A relatively recent arrival to Ryslig, Izuminokami was pretty immediately recognizable to Hijikata thanks to a combination of his Shinsengumi haori, his own crest, and the process of elimination. A very young sword, in spite of his height and masculine good looks, and rather sensitive and emotional -- not quite the side of himself Hijikata expected to see reflected so obviously anywhere, much less in a literal weapon of war. His own emotions run deep, but aren't generally on such clear display. A bit of a pretty-boy; reminds Hijikata of how vain he was in his youth. Very loyal and dedicated, to the point of being a little bit of a fanboy. Similarly to Horikawa, Hijikata feels a deep sense of gratefulness towards him for his faithful service, and an awareness that he was something important and hard-won for him. He's determined to take good care of him in return, and not only because of that childlike side of his. |
▍YAMATONOKAMI YASUSADA One of Souji's swords. That pretty much makes him Hijikata's stepson of sorts, right? Yamatonokami is a little bit... difficult. He's very dedicated to Souji, worships the ground he walks on, but he's not quite all there; he's actively bloodthirsty in battle, and not really much of an independent thinker, and sometimes does awful, reckless things like join the goddamn Fourth God without asking anyone if maybe that's a terrible idea. Even after agreeing to serve the Shinsengumi as a spy in the Fourth God's camp, the enthusiasm he has for the Fourth God combined with his lack of concern for... a lot of things, honestly, often has Hijikata pretty concerned about him and his loyalties. He's one of theirs, though, and he cares about Souji (even enough to admonish Hijikata for how badly leaving him for the war in the end hurt him), and for now... for now, that's enough. Hijikata tries to think there won't be a time when it isn't, and occasionally even succeeds. |
Other Friends and Allies
▍KIEREN WALKER It's complicated. Hijikata met Kieren during the February event of '15, and honestly, any circumstances involving virgin sacrifice are not ideal circumstances. Hijikata was in Do What Must Be Done to Protect the Most People-mode, and Kieren, when he couldn't stop the sacrifice from going forward, killed himself as well to prevent it from being in vain because of his non-participation. Honestly, Hijikata respects the strength of Kieren's attachment to what he believes is right. He's a man who's made a lot of sacrifices, himself, and as necessary as he believes them to be, he often hates himself for it. It was rather confusing, then, to realize later that someone as firmly moral as Kieren didn't blame him the way he blamed himself. During the harvest festival event, it was his regard for Kieren's respect for life that made him try to talk him down -- but he fell victim to the same mind control, a failure he's going to be beating himself up for for a long time. They cross paths now and again at Pandemonium bookstore, which has been left to Kieren in Enjolras' absence, and might perhaps be on the path to a friendship that isn't just a shared collection of miserable experiences to feel guilty about. |
▍ATARU (KINNUKUMAN SOLDIER) Another long-term Ryslig guest, Ataru is a man after Hijikata's own heart. They're very often on the same page, especially as far as what needs to be done to fight back after major attacks and the need for better training and organization. It's good to have someone around who's similar to him in terms of gruff protectiveness and keeping his thoughts close to the chest -- and, knowing those aren't the only thing they had in common, Hijikata is very sympathetic about the Ninja's disappearance. They aren't always working together directly, but share information and coordinate with a fair degree of regularity, and have cooperated on things like the attack on Rota and Ataru's capture the flag/training sessions often in the past. |
▍NATASHA ROMANOFF An intelligent and capable woman, and shaping up to be a very valuable ally. Reminds him of Ayumu, in the best of ways. Hijikata met her at Enjolras' Christmas party, where both of them were scouting out people to network with. They spent a while fake-flirting and talking circles around their loyalties and interests before judging each other worthy of exchanging contact information with, and have been in contact over Hijikata's private channel on and off since then. They coordinated on intelligence during the Bloody Bones' attacks on Bavan and Vandare, and Hijikata sent Horikawa and Yamato to help her when things really hit the fan. In return, she's consulted with him re: infiltrating the Fog God's followers. (Handwaved, or going to be super backdated.) |
▍VIETNAM Hijikata met Vietnam early in his stay in Ryslig, just before both of them began to transform. He was immediately impressed with her level-headedness and clarity of thought. He's known her for quite some time, and respects her highly even if they're not in extremely regular contact. Besides, she's in business here as a tailor -- and he has to get his classy suits with a space for his wings somewhere, doesn't he? |
▍APOLLO JUSTICE A young lawyer who really doesn't seem cut out for all this violence, honestly -- though that's not to say that he's weak-willed in the slightest. Hijikata first met him during the meeting about decoding Liewen's messages, and has encountered him again by chance a couple of times -- once during the attacks on monsters that preceded the Rota incident, and again in Bavan after the Bloody Bones attacked the Pryda district, when they teamed up to fight a monster and yell at the local cops for being incompetent. Really, how do you not like a guy who's willing to yell at the cops about doing things wrong with you? |
▍JOSEPH JOESTAR Doesn't know him very well yet, but his impression so far is of someone charismatic and courageous (if, at times, a little unrealistic with his expectations.) Worked together during the attempt to rescue people from Pryda when the Bloody Bones attacked there, and ended up fighting one of the group's members together (after Joseph's attempt to talk her down.) That sort of thing brings people together, right? |
   ▍NAME |
Unknown or Mixed Impressions
Negative CR
Dropped Characters
Chart code found here!