kaien shinjiro.

the rotting komusō

"he walks with the wind, silent as dusk—his shakuhachi weeping for the dead he’s yet to devour. Even the mountain kami tremble when the flute moans low; they know the monk walks, and he is hungry."

rules & ooc.

  1. genres and mature content.         Open to all sorts of genres between comedy and slice of life to psychological horror, mystery, and violent adult themes as long as all parties/companies involved are       consenting and above the age of 19. NO EXCEPTIONS.       I do accept erotic roleplay with my characters, but please keep OOC separate from IC. I am not my characters, and I do not consider my characters a part of me. Just because my character is a villain does not mean that I, as an individual, approve of their behaviour. I'm also ace—I don't want to fuck you just because my character fucks your character, and I don't want to be in any sort of online relationship. I promise.

  2. drama and metagaming.         Zero patience for metagamers, OOC drama, and godmodders. If you have an issue with me or are concerned with any of the content that may occur within our roleplay, please speak to me about it as soon as you can. Please do not bubble in your own anger or discomfort; it only makes it worse. I am more than happy to talk it out without judgment and make arrangements to make you more comfortable, or have a mature, adult discussion about what I can do to ease your worries. Additionally, if you have any triggers you would like me to be aware of, please tell me when you can! I want to make sure both of us are having fun in a safe, happy environment.

  3. schedule.               My schedule is often chaotic and hard to predict due to being a full-time master's student      , on top of the fact that I can often disappear for days to weeks at a time due to my hyper fixation. As a result, I try to avoid promising a specific amount of roleplay or dedicating myself to a long-term roleplay partner (in short, if you need constant validation, conversation, and/or attention from a roleplay partner, I'm not the person for you). However, if we're extremely compatible and you fully understand the above, then long-term roleplays and more firm ships are welcome and adored!

  4. combat.               I am completely open to being attacked, kidnapped, robbed from, and everything in-between as long as the circumstances are reasonable and realistic.      With this in mind, I also expect the same courtesy from you. If there is a moment where you feel yourself getting frustrated in an IC fight for whatever reason, feel free to step away or let me know. This is to prevent IC feelings from seeping into OOC, or OOC anger slipping into IC, which I find is often one of the biggest causes of godmodding and other such acts. I do not use /random or /dice for individuals I trust unless it's for fun (i.e., I prefer story-driven combat instead of something RNG focused), but for strangers or public fights, I prefer using the fairness of dice.

GHOSTIEGOOBIE. 24. he/she/they. AST

biography.

  name.    kaien shinjiro.
  age.    unknown.
  gender.     male.
  pronouns.     he/him/his
  sexuality.     aromantic bisexual
  height.     7'4"
  hair color.     a decaying grey. the strands are coarse and wiry as if aged with the strands darker as it grew out.
  eye color.     unknown. those who have taken a glimpse say they are the eyes of a corpse; rotted and glossy.
  skin tone.     a pale inhuman grey and green.
  notable features.   half of his body is a dark, decomposed colour that has completely taken over his left arm, leg, and chest; its webbed in texture, and feels leathery to the touch. veins bulge from his body, his nails are hooked, and his limbs seem unproportionally long, as if forced to grow excessively beyond their natural state.  job occupation.    komuso, in theory. it is a type of monk that wanders with a basket covering their faces and plays a shakuhachi flute as a form of meditation. now, however, his flute is more akin to a warning bell—or perhaps a dinner bell. in practice, he is more comparable to an onmyoji.
  place of origin.     a small monastery in the Yanxian mountains. it is said it was a sub-order of monastic komuso monks who were ex-samurai, atypical from the typical non-monastic komuso beggar monks that existed in cities.
  home.    unknown.
  affiliation.     unknown.
  family.     he cannot remember his biological family. the monks who raised him were wiped out.
  marital status.     single.

  alignment.     chaotic evil.
  likes.     playing the shakuhachi, eating, eating, and eating; the quiet, prayer and taking long mountain walks; reading is also enjoyable, though he typically is confined to scripture. he enjoys the act of drinking as well, but he cannot get drunk.
  dislikes.     yokai, kami, and most supernatural "things", though perhaps dislike is the wrong word for it. he enjoys them because he wants to eat them, but he also hates them as a concept. he despises anything that dares call itself a god or carries the power of a god.
  virtues.     patient and extremely tolerant; disciplined, and twistedly empathetic. He is sensitive but in a quiet, mournful way; in fact, he always seems to be mourning those around him.
  flaws.     merciless, aggressively paranoid, distrustful, and irrationally fearful of death. In many regards, he's rather unpredictable.

backstory. while not much is actively known about kaien, he has revealed slivers of his history to those who dare to ask. he admits to being born to a farming family in the mountains who raised sheep, claiming he can still smell and feel their wool under his fingers. but beyond that, he cannot remember the faces of his parents or siblings beyond knowing they bared an apathetic expression when he was put in the back of a wagon and sold off to the monastery. he claims he was always sick; always bed bound and staring up at the ceiling, wasting resources. he also lacks many memories of what occurred in the monastery, considering it a big blur through a feverish mind. he remembers the smells mostly; the intense incense that filled the rooms and the bitter mountain air. he remembers the music the most—between the shakuhachi and the throaty chants—and the rhythmic sounds the wooden swords made when they clashed during practice. he was educated, trained when he was well, and he often looks back on those bits of memory fondly as he was offered hope he would survive his illness. however, he does not divulge any further than that beyond saying a "change in the wind occurred" once the garlean occupation spread their roots beyond the capital. those knowledgeable in doman history would know that around the same time of kaien's presumed training in the monastery, there was a dramatic shift in legislation regarding religious sects where many, if not all groups were outlawed. one of the first to go were the komuso and all of their affiliated denominations due to the prevalence of assassins and spies either hiding within the sect or using their attire as a disguise. the non-monastic komuso were arrested in the streets while the more monastic komuso sects had their monasteries invaded, and a great purging was supposedly enacted where monks were killed by the hundreds if they refused to obey. there were attempts to erase the slaughter from records, but pieces of rare documentation by villagers and soldiers remain in archives.

  skills.  

  high curse, disease, and poison resistance.  by consuming yokai and kami, he's also consumed their spiritual power at the cost of being cursed, poisoned, or inflicted with many diseases due to his arrogance. he is a walking, talking pandemic but also highly protected against them. it's a very careful balancing act.
  physical fortitude.  in turn, consuming yokai and kami has mutated his body in awful ways, but in doing so, it has also given him immense strength and speed. his training doesn't make him any easier of an opponent.
  high defence.  he's comparable to a tank. his stamina is high, his pain tolerance is high, and his practice as a monk has made him rather...difficult to deal with due to his ability to separate himself from emotional decisions.
  medical and spiritual knowledge.  all monks in his monastery were not only trained in martial prowess, but served the community by making balms, ointments, and acting as spiritual guides and nurses.
  supernatural knowledge.  kaien is highly familiar with curses, diseases, and different creatures that walk the star at night. he knows how to kill them, and more importantly (to him), how they taste, what power they offer, and what curses they give him in turn.
  iron stomach.  he can eat anything—literally anything.

hooks & plots.

  walking curse.  
To those spiritually inclined, it would be immediately obvious that he walks with the stain of numerous curses and supernatural diseases in his body, harbouring such negative karma one could practically taste it on their tongue. The smell would be intense, like a mix between the aroma the sick give off in a hospital and incense burned during funerals. Many also describe a sooty, sulfuric smell lingering underneath, and for those exceptionally sensitive, that of rotten human flesh. The pressure around him can also be harsh, like stepping through the barrier between a street and a home filled with the dead; an atmosphere that
  hatred from a god.  
Amongst all the curses that run through his body, one stands out amongst them all as the supporting base. A curse that makes him walk despite sickened lungs and rotted blood; a curse that lets him survive despite the pain of every supernatural infection aching his bones. Those with spiritual knowledge and sight would be able to see it was a curse from a powerful Kami, one only ever offered to followers to offer the ultimate betrayal. However, the curse is never the same every time, only ever reflecting the extents of the betrayal that follower offered to it in turn. Many wonder how Kaien is still alive, only to realize that the Kami had made a terrible mistake and accidentally offered Kaien exactly what he sought.
  attire.  
Kaien often dresses in highly traditional styles of clothing, equipped with thick wooden mala beads stained with a reddish purple hue and rather dirty fabrics. He makes use of thick pads and bandages for additional protection on his arms and stomach while still keeping him light. Those knowledgeable in traditional clothing would be able to note the blend of samurai and monastic influences in the way he both protects himself and adorns himself in religious instruments. Those who simply have a good eye would be able to note that most of his clothing carries rust coloured stains and are often stitched to fit, as if the pieces were stolen. He is almost always seen with prayer beads as well, which he uses to count his sutras on a day to day basis. It is rarely a good sign if he stops using it.
  bottomless hunger.  
An onmyoji has compared Kaien's stomach to an endless void; he is capable of eating anything and everything he comes into contact with, whether it is a cursed object or cursed soul. It takes regular food three times in quantity to briefly offer satisfaction before he finds himself hungry again, and that feeling of starvation always seems to swirl around him like a curse in itself. He drools at the slightest smell of a yokai, and the more power something has, the more maddening hunger he feels.
  the monk with ten thousand mouths.  
There is a local legend of the "Monk with Ten Thousand Mouths" that follows many of the rural areas. It tells of a kamuso monk who travels from village to village, playing a harrowing sound on his shakuhachi. He only ever does so at night, and whenever he appears, the villages problems seem to disappear—bad crops, tainted water, objects that are stolen suddenly and sickened children return to normal—but so too are their blessings. Their Kami no longer heed their calls for protection, their spiritual leaders disappear, and the yokai no longer feed on their healthy. Some villages welcome him silently, like stepping aside for a cat as it hunts rats, while others—primarily those with more blessings than curses—fight back, only to be met with a slaughter. Once he completes his task, he leaves, continuing with his tune. Those looking to save themselves from a yokai or curse follow the sound willingly, offering themselves to the "Monk with a Thousand Mouths", though it is never assured if they survive the encounter. Those who often work in rural villages, especially onmyoji and even other yokai, will be aware of who he is, whether it is simply because of the legend or because of a personal encounter. What they always recount in bitterness is that the man with a myth following him on the scale of an oni is not a yokai but in fact, a mere sick, mutated human being.