smokesmushi: (Records)
Ginko ([personal profile] smokesmushi) wrote2014-05-01 06:11 pm
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PLAYER

Name: Kippie
AIM/PLURK: fancyfennekin / [plurk.com profile] fancyfennekin

CHARACTER

Name: Ginko
Canon: Mushishi
Gender: Male
Age: Late twenties (he couldn't tell you, either)
Wing Color: The right wing is a rich green, with vibrant and reflective feathers that resemble healthy flora; the left is a pitch black, matte color that barely reflects light at all.

Canon Point: Episode five of Mushishi Zoku Shou (season two)
Canon Point Explanation: It's the most recent available canon for Ginko. Once Mushishi Zoku Shou ends, he'll receive a full canon update.
History: Here is a page that has a brief description of Ginko's past, and a basic guide to the mushi he's dealt with in season one.

Personality:
Ginko is a more calm, collected fellow who holds himself surprisingly professionally. As a Mushi Master (an expert on the supernatural through a fairly scientific/biological lens, essentially), Ginko needs to be able to work closely with humans to get them to understand things that they can't usually see or aren't inclined to understand. Altogether, Ginko has a very suitable personality for his profession. His personal resolve, self-identity and stubbornness are all as strong as his composure, allowing him to stare into the face of the unknown without doubting who he is and what he believes. And after staring into the unknown, he can turn to the person struggling next to him and give them the answers they need: be it the treatment they need to undergo or the facts of life they must learn to accept in order to move forward in their lives.

What makes his general demeanor and self very strange is his own history. Though the traumas of childhood are long since forgotten, the memories eaten away by a mushi before he escaped, Ginko's earliest memory is wandering out of the forest with only the word "Ginko" in mind. Since he forgot his real name, he took the word as his new name. Rather than being concerned for all of the memories lost, or doubting his humanity, or pondering the nature of who he was or even what he was (remember, he is Japanese - he originally looked like most Japanese kids before he was disfigured), Ginko was engulfed in pure curiosity. The things that he could see that most other people couldn't were fascinating to him. And instead of being fearful of them, as he learned of what they could do, he became fixated on why they behaved certain ways. He saw similarities between them and humans, and between those and all life. He adopted a philosophy fairly early on in life, and as a result he has a sense of understanding that allows him to move through life with trouble rolling off of his back like water would roll over a duck's. The strong sense of self and the strong desire to live allow him to avoid getting in trouble with most of the Mushi, as Mushi often only find footholds in preying on those who lose themselves to doubt, despair and fear.

Ginko knows better that life is about movement, and it's about moving forward. A strong motif in nearly every episode, Ginko gently encourages those facing troubles with the Mushi to not cower or step back in fear, but to step forward with confidence and drive. Ginko explains to a few people that Mushi are "life itself", or "life in its simplest form". There are many times that he gives his patients or those he encounters little pushes to move forward in life in a more metaphorical sense, ideally looking to the past to interpret the present, so that the present can be addressed and not become an obstacle for the future. Ginko himself lives by this belief system to the nth degree, moving with the flow of life itself. He must wander, because his presence attracts mushi, but if it did not then Ginko likely would continue moving anyway. There is more to see, more to do, and he won't let an obstacle contain him for long if he can so help it. He is a moving constant, like a river. The water is always flowing, always in motion, and may change pace... but it is never anything different but a river until it finally ends.

Interestingly enough, despite how sympathetic Ginko can be to the plight of others, he makes sure to keep distance. He is an outsider, a third party - he avoids bias whenever and wherever he can manage. He's mysterious and won't be tied down by daily responsibilities, or let himself develop bonds like most humans do; coupled with his appearance, this makes him somewhat alien to other humans. And he is a human, with thoughts and emotions and a complicated system of the two structuring who he is... but he still is able to rationalize carefully and knows the mushi well enough to sympathize with them, as well. If Ginko can manage to find the solution to a problem that will benefit both "sides", then he will go for that solution, no matter how much more difficult it will be. But in the end, when he has no option but to only pick one to save, he will choose the human. Perhaps it is that he is closer to them than he is to Mushi, perhaps it's that he agrees or disagrees with one more than the other, but he will always try for the best possible outcome no matter what. If he can make both sides happier in the long run, then Ginko has had a pretty darn good day. Because, no matter what the situation, everyone and everything just wants to live; there's nothing that Ginko respects and understands better than something like that. And so, he does his best to avoid extermination at all costs... and he always does his best to learn something from every experience. Through caution and understanding, anyone can be understood, instead of through terror or blind devotion.

Though his philosophy is rarely shaken, he is not always right. And though there are times when he offers advice to others and it does not take well, or it turns out to be the wrong advice, he accepts that he was wrong... but does not necessarily change his tune. Ginko understands that not every problem can be met with a universal solution, or that a question will only have one answer. People are very unique, and while they have traits that he can understand as a whole, he often has to adapt to the individual that he's dealing with as he learns more about them. He has a lot of respect for the individual, as well, disregarding anything about their status, age, et cetera... even if they're standoffish to him, he will do his best to help and he will always treat them all with absolute respect. He deals with children many times, and he will speak to them the way he speaks to adults, which garners their trust and helps Ginko help them all the better. It's never a matter of anything but demeanor and personality, to Ginko; he'll tease someone being petty whether they're young or old, and he'll met maturity with maturity no matter who it's coming from. Ginko is able to be friendly and playful with just about anyone, in this regard, as one of his favorite things to do is to tease others for having really selfish or rude actions (he loves to intervene in someone conning somebody else out of money, or to smirk at someone trying really hard to be a tough guy). He has a pretty decent sense of humor about said things, taking deceit as a joke rather than as offense. He, himself, will often take off with a valuable mushi item from a job if he thinks that the former owner does not need it... typically because the former owner doesn't have a better means to pay him, but also sometimes just because they are being irresponsible with said item. Ultimately, Ginko will be doing what he thinks is best for those around him no matter what the situation is. Still, at the end of the day, he will leave behind anyone he helps to continue on with their lives. He is friendly to everyone, even though nearly everyone remains a stranger. And as for the mushi... he always advises people to regard them as "strange neighbors". Not there to help, not there to maliciously harm... simply beings living in the same world, trying to live, just like anyone else.

Strengths
Physical:
❧ Physically fit/good endurance (from traveling constantly with a box on his back)
❧ Tough (able to sleep on the ground or tough through an injury in an emergency)
❧ Extremely dexterous hands (works with scalpels, microscopes, and measuring medicines regularly and is very skilled at precision work)

Mental:
❧ Good survival skills
❧ The ability to see mushi and an extensive amount of knowledge on them
❧ Above average knowledge of the human body (specifically how the mushi affect them; but the fundamentals for human biology found such knowledge)
❧ Strong memory (demonstrated in how accessible his memory is for what he's researched on mushi or the natural world)

Emotional:
❧ Good composure
❧ Able to move on and accept failures
❧ Able to adapt and bend his morals to best address a situation
❧ Fairly good judge of character (he is usually fairly keen on the subtext that most people speak with; someone speaking calmly and casually can still indicate that they have a degree of arrogance that could be dangerous for their situation, for example, and Ginko is quick to hone in on that)



Weaknesses
Physical:
❧ He's missing an eye. So much for depth perception.
❧ His appearance is technically the only other physical disadvantage he has, and it applies almost solely to his world. He's strange, and eerie, to many people. He's definitely Japanese, but his eye is bright green and hair ghostly white - he looks very alien. This will probably be no major issue in Luceti.
❧ He has no remarkable physical or supernatural powers (beyond seeing mushi). This doesn't mean much in his canon world, but it does put him at a severe disadvantage in Luceti, when he is expected to march off into battle.

Mental:
❧ He is an absolute goddamn hypocrite. He tells people not to be rash, to let things go, etc - a good third of the time, mere moments after telling someone something like that, he's leaping in to get himself in trouble.
❧ He doesn't really "settle". He has to stay in motion, or so he's been conditioned, since nothing good came from him being in one place. Luceti's enclosed space will be a difficulty for him.
❧ He's not all-knowing; his advice isn't always the best thing to say, or isn't always applicable. His solutions may come too late or fail altogether.

Emotional:
❧ Stubborn, to a degree. He will get involved even when he shouldn't (and has gotten stabbed for it once already), or when there is nothing he can do (and he has watched himself fail, such as with the man who was the mountain god).
❧ Sticks to his guns. Even when he has failed, for better or for worse, he will stand by what he said before if he doesn't feel like he's learned something that completely changes the situation.
❧ He's distant. He's always had to be. He has a few friends he regularly visits in Tanyuu and Adashino, but Ginko spends a vast majority of his life wandering by himself.

Supernatural:
❧ He attracts the presence of mushi. In Luceti, he may have a supernatural draw for other spirit-like creatures, as well, even if it's pale in comparison.


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