Ginko (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
onegreeneye) wrote2017-08-24 12:56 am
onegreeneye) wrote2017-08-24 12:56 am
lifeafter app
Player Information
Name: Maggie
Age: 20
Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
omixgirl10 and Maggie#9624 on discord
Current characters: none
Character Information
Name: Ginko
Series: Mushi-Shi
Appearance: here
Age: 36
Canon Point: Post-canon
Transferring From: Ryslig, after putting Ed through Detox Hell
Canon History: Character Info: Okay I’ll try to make this brief since the wiki is not very useful. Ginko comes from a world containing ethereal life-forms called mushi, which are invisible to most humans and which exist in a state somewhat removed from most other life. In fact, among mushi masters - individuals who make their living studying mushi and helping others deal with their effects - there is some controversy over whether certain types of mushi can even be considered truly alive. They typically don’t have true physical bodies, almost never leave remains, and often seem to function in ways that many would consider wholly unbelievable.
For his entire life, Ginko has had a condition that draws mushi toward him, making it unsafe for him to stay in any one place for too long. On top of that, a childhood encounter with a particularly dangerous mushi left him with no memories of his own past; his earliest memory is of wandering around in a forest, late at night, with no idea of where he was or how he got there. From there, he ended up acting as apprentice to one mushi master after another - practically all of whom saw fit to use his mushi attracting condition as an opportunity to get more work for themselves by keeping him in one place for far longer than was actually safe. Of course, that plan kept going wrong one time after another, and each time Ginko ended up being abandoned or used as a scapegoat, left to try and survive on his own until the next mushi master found him.
For a time, Ginko was left thoroughly convinced that his existence was unneeded and probably unwanted in the world as a whole. Over time, though, he came to accept his place in the world as a wanderer, and surviving became less of a struggle as he learned the trade well enough to make a living. Since then, Ginko has spent his life wandering the countryside, helping those he comes across with whatever mushi-caused afflictions they may be dealing with.
Canon Personality: Ginko is a soft-spoken, often somewhat emotionally distant man, always ready to provide assistance with problems that seems to be within his field - and some that don’t. In fact, his eagerness to help often has little or nothing to do with whether said help was asked for or wanted; there’s a chance he may back off if specifically told to, but even then he may insist on sticking around. Fortunately, he’s intelligent and competent, and can usually (not always, but usually) handle the stuff he gets involved in. Unfortunately, he’s also extremely stubborn; once he’s made his mind up about something, it tends to be difficult to dissuade him. He has good enough judgement that he doesn’t usually make too bad of decisions, but when he does, he sticks to them.
Despite his detached demeanor, Ginko actually has a tendency to form emotional connections rather quickly. He’s reluctant to admit to this, and will in most cases try to ignore that it’s even happening as much as he can, but it’s kind of undeniable. He has a soft spot for children, and will be particularly protective and caring toward even those who he finds difficult or frustrating to deal with. Honestly, he tends to care about people way too much for his own good, even if he doesn’t think he’s supposed to be this personally invested, which he absolutely doesn’t most of the time. Much of Ginko’s refusal to admit to emotional attachment is rooted in his belief that he’s not meant to have strong interpersonal connections; he doesn’t belong anywhere, so he can’t belong with anyone. He has admitted in the past to being somewhat envious of those who do have a solid place among other people, but he mostly channels that into trying to protect that place for those who have it, whatever that may mean for his own well-being.
Really, years of emotional abuse followed by a lifetime spent mostly by himself have left Ginko sort of a mess as far as his self-image. He sees himself as pretty unimportant overall, and it shows; if it’s a question between putting himself in danger (or even sacrificing his own life entirely) or letting someone else be hurt or killed, he’ll risk himself without hesitation. He’d rather not die or get hurt if it can be avoided, but Ginko’s definition of what’s an avoidable risk excludes just about anything where it’s a choice between his own well-being and someone else’s. As far as he’s concerned, he is ultimately disposable, like it or not - and he knows most people, especially those who he’s at all close to, won’t like it. So he just doesn’t talk about it, or himself, if he can avoid the subject at all. As far as he’s concerned, it’s not relevant to much of anything, and it’s just going to upset people if it gets brought up.
Of course, that’s not to say Ginko’s reluctance to talk about his own self-esteem problems or past is going to stop him from making ill-timed ‘jokes’ about the likelihood of his own death, which could have something to do with the fact that his sense of humor is just generally terrible. While Ginko isn’t exceptionally prone to joking around, he does occasionally make an effort at humor - which, in his case, usually means sarcasm and morbidity. Honestly, though there are some topics Ginko knows to avoid if he doesn’t want to upset people, he’s not really the best at predicting it with others. Much of the time, he’s not actually very good at putting himself into other people’s shoes and determining what things that he’s accustomed or even numb to might be strange or upsetting to others.
Though Ginko may pretend to be more detached than he really is, he is genuinely a pretty mellow guy. He rarely displays any particularly strong emotion, and is practically never truly angry - frustrated or disapproving, yes, but true rage is effectively unheard of from him. While he’s not totally immune to things being strange or disturbing, his experiences have left him somewhat harder to shake up than most, which can be enormously beneficial in situations where he needs to focus and can’t afford to be disturbed by what’s happening around him (even if, as mentioned before, it also leaves him with a somewhat skewed idea of what may and may not be disturbing to those around him). It also helped his ability to stay unperturbed by his work back home that he honestly just has a lot of feelings about mushi and the way they interact with the world - and, for that matter, about the relationships between different types of organisms in general. Though he is somewhat disillusioned with the Balance of Nature as an entity (which it is, it’s literally a force with a will of its own in his world), that hasn’t done much to dampen his investment in the natural order in the more figurative sense, and he still finds comfort in the connections between living things; even if he doesn’t and can’t quite fit into human society, he still has a place in the ‘web’ of nature.
Personality Shifts: Though Ginko was initially fascinated (if unnerved) by the first physical changes he underwent in Ryslig, the more extensively he changed, the more it shook him up. In addition to the disconnect between his body and how he thought of himself (i.e, as a human, if a strange one), the mental changes that began to take effect were even harder to adapt to.
As a troll, he found himself becoming more aggressive, more willing to resort to violence, in a way he never had been before - and, on top of that, the need to eat human flesh to keep himself from losing his mind and attacking everything in sight required him to take measures he never would have considered before, digging up fresh graves in order to get meat. Over time, Ginko stopped seeing himself as a human so much as someone who used to be human, which caused another dive in his self-esteem.
The one bright side of his time on the peninsula was that, as connecting with others quickly became necessary for survival, he gradually became more willing to open up to those close to him, and trying to protect them gave him something to focus on. In addition, ending up with Henry Townshend as an adopted brother gave him the first experience with having a family he’d ever had, though he couldn’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t a very good brother.
Largely by coincidence, Ginko ended up particularly close to several more plant-like monsters called nymphs, most notably Henry, Steven Universe, and the former robot Epsilon. Unfortunately, nymphs ended up being, by and large, a fairly insular group, and Ginko found himself jealous of and uncomfortable with the seemingly unbridgeable gap that their community and ability to communicate with plants left between him and his closest friends. At the same time that he was getting better at opening up to others, he was left feeling separated from them at the same time, which reinforced his sense that, no matter what he did, he’d always be an outsider to some degree or another.
In the end, Ginko maintained his efforts at nonviolence the best he could through graverobbing to fulfill his ‘specialized diet’ and learning to remove himself from situations that risked turning violent thanks to his newly-developed aggression. He became even more determined to focus his energy on helping others, and the necessity of community made him more willing to open up to those around him. However, the inherent violence of the peninsula and the damage to all that he had considered good about himself left him with a worse view of himself, and even more willingness to sacrifice himself, than ever.
Abilities:
Monster Abilities
Night vision/infrared vision - Ginko can see in the dark far better than the average human, and his left eye can be used to see heat signatures from living things.
Enhanced strength - Basically all monsters are physically stronger than humans; as a troll, Ginko is a few times stronger than he used to be - which is considerable, given that he already climbed mountains with a box of supplies on his back for a living. He also has better endurance.
Stoneshaping - Trolls are theoretically capable of controlling stone to the point of being able to move massive boulders with little effort. Ginko is actually very bad at this, but he can kind of shove rocks around.
Size-changing - Ginko can grow up to twenty feet tall at will, though it’s an uncomfortable process that becomes outright painful if he’s injured. He can only do this once a day and maintain it for up to an hour.
Mimicry - Ginko can disguise himself as anyone he’s seen, once a day, for up to an hour. The disguise is illusory in nature, so he won’t gain or lose any abilities depending on who he’s disguised as.
Berserker state - As a troll, Ginko can willingly enter a berserker state, in which he will attack basically anything he sees, but will be much stronger than usual and unable to tire or feel pain. He doesn’t generally do this, for obvious reasons, but it’s an option he has.
Fog Form - As the Fog God was the one who cursed him to begin with, particularly thick fog changes Ginko even further, turning him into something more bestial and monstrous than before. He’s stronger in this form, but his monstrous instincts also become stronger, making him more volatile and prone to aggression.
Monster Weaknesses
Sun sickness - Ginko is very sensitive to sunlight; in addition to hurting his eyes, direct exposure severely weakens him, inflicting symptoms similar to heat exhaustion, or, in extreme cases, heat stroke.
Monster diet - As a Ryslig monster, Ginko has to eat roughly one adult human’s worth of human flesh each month. Otherwise, his prey drive will become gradually stronger until he snaps and just tries to eat whoever is nearby.
Aggression - Though a naturally easygoing and non-violent person, Ginko’s change into a troll has left him suddenly more inclined toward physical aggression than he has ever had to deal with. Given his basic personality, it comes out to him being not much more aggressive than the average human, but since he’s not used to aggressive impulses, he’s not very good at controlling them when they happen.
Other Abilities/Skills
Medical/Botanical Knowledge - Ginko’s work in his own world, as well as in Ryslig, required him to have a degree of medical skill, as well as a knowledge of plants and their effects. As such, he’s also in the habit of learning about local wildlife, plant or otherwise, as quickly as he can when he finds himself in a new place.
Wilderness survival - Ginko has spent most of his life living alone in the mountains. So, surviving this long has required him to learn a good bit about constructing shelters, finding food, and so on.
Inventory: Literally just his pants. That’s it.
Sample
Q&A:
What’s more important: the way others see you, or the way you see yourself?
Well, it’s… hard to say. I suppose… when it comes down to it, how others see you is more likely to have an impact on your life, and may show how you’ve affected theirs… so that’s more important, in that way. Not to discount the possibility that people could be wrong about you, of course.
Do you consider yourself to be special in any way? If so, how?
Ah-- no, not really. Strange or unlucky, maybe, but I’m not sure if those are quite the same thing.
Is it difficult for you to get along with people? Why or why not?
I’d like to think it isn’t, usually… I try to listen to people, as much as I can, and I think I can usually get my thoughts through to them in turn. But I’m not always the best at predicting… how they’ll feel about things, what will be the right thing to say. I guess it all depends.
Do you have any spiritual or religious beliefs? If so, what are they?
I don’t know if it counts, but I feel that… there are certain, inevitable ways in which parts of the world connect. Those ways are best found in nature, but when it comes down to it, they’re everywhere - connecting people, places, everything. It’s all part of a whole. I guess that might count as a spiritual belief, right?
Would you rather hurt someone physically to spare them emotional pain, or hurt them emotionally to spare them physical pain?
I… probably the former, I’d say. Don’t know how well I’ve done at sticking to that.
Do you see yourself as more logical or emotional?
Ha. I’d like to say I’m more logical, but I guess that probably isn’t accurate. I try to be, at least, so that’s got to count for something, right?
Do you consider yourself easily swayed by others?
No. That’s probably a better thing some times than others.
Name: Maggie
Age: 20
Contact:
Current characters: none
Character Information
Name: Ginko
Series: Mushi-Shi
Appearance: here
Age: 36
Canon Point: Post-canon
Transferring From: Ryslig, after putting Ed through Detox Hell
Canon History: Character Info: Okay I’ll try to make this brief since the wiki is not very useful. Ginko comes from a world containing ethereal life-forms called mushi, which are invisible to most humans and which exist in a state somewhat removed from most other life. In fact, among mushi masters - individuals who make their living studying mushi and helping others deal with their effects - there is some controversy over whether certain types of mushi can even be considered truly alive. They typically don’t have true physical bodies, almost never leave remains, and often seem to function in ways that many would consider wholly unbelievable.
For his entire life, Ginko has had a condition that draws mushi toward him, making it unsafe for him to stay in any one place for too long. On top of that, a childhood encounter with a particularly dangerous mushi left him with no memories of his own past; his earliest memory is of wandering around in a forest, late at night, with no idea of where he was or how he got there. From there, he ended up acting as apprentice to one mushi master after another - practically all of whom saw fit to use his mushi attracting condition as an opportunity to get more work for themselves by keeping him in one place for far longer than was actually safe. Of course, that plan kept going wrong one time after another, and each time Ginko ended up being abandoned or used as a scapegoat, left to try and survive on his own until the next mushi master found him.
For a time, Ginko was left thoroughly convinced that his existence was unneeded and probably unwanted in the world as a whole. Over time, though, he came to accept his place in the world as a wanderer, and surviving became less of a struggle as he learned the trade well enough to make a living. Since then, Ginko has spent his life wandering the countryside, helping those he comes across with whatever mushi-caused afflictions they may be dealing with.
Canon Personality: Ginko is a soft-spoken, often somewhat emotionally distant man, always ready to provide assistance with problems that seems to be within his field - and some that don’t. In fact, his eagerness to help often has little or nothing to do with whether said help was asked for or wanted; there’s a chance he may back off if specifically told to, but even then he may insist on sticking around. Fortunately, he’s intelligent and competent, and can usually (not always, but usually) handle the stuff he gets involved in. Unfortunately, he’s also extremely stubborn; once he’s made his mind up about something, it tends to be difficult to dissuade him. He has good enough judgement that he doesn’t usually make too bad of decisions, but when he does, he sticks to them.
Despite his detached demeanor, Ginko actually has a tendency to form emotional connections rather quickly. He’s reluctant to admit to this, and will in most cases try to ignore that it’s even happening as much as he can, but it’s kind of undeniable. He has a soft spot for children, and will be particularly protective and caring toward even those who he finds difficult or frustrating to deal with. Honestly, he tends to care about people way too much for his own good, even if he doesn’t think he’s supposed to be this personally invested, which he absolutely doesn’t most of the time. Much of Ginko’s refusal to admit to emotional attachment is rooted in his belief that he’s not meant to have strong interpersonal connections; he doesn’t belong anywhere, so he can’t belong with anyone. He has admitted in the past to being somewhat envious of those who do have a solid place among other people, but he mostly channels that into trying to protect that place for those who have it, whatever that may mean for his own well-being.
Really, years of emotional abuse followed by a lifetime spent mostly by himself have left Ginko sort of a mess as far as his self-image. He sees himself as pretty unimportant overall, and it shows; if it’s a question between putting himself in danger (or even sacrificing his own life entirely) or letting someone else be hurt or killed, he’ll risk himself without hesitation. He’d rather not die or get hurt if it can be avoided, but Ginko’s definition of what’s an avoidable risk excludes just about anything where it’s a choice between his own well-being and someone else’s. As far as he’s concerned, he is ultimately disposable, like it or not - and he knows most people, especially those who he’s at all close to, won’t like it. So he just doesn’t talk about it, or himself, if he can avoid the subject at all. As far as he’s concerned, it’s not relevant to much of anything, and it’s just going to upset people if it gets brought up.
Of course, that’s not to say Ginko’s reluctance to talk about his own self-esteem problems or past is going to stop him from making ill-timed ‘jokes’ about the likelihood of his own death, which could have something to do with the fact that his sense of humor is just generally terrible. While Ginko isn’t exceptionally prone to joking around, he does occasionally make an effort at humor - which, in his case, usually means sarcasm and morbidity. Honestly, though there are some topics Ginko knows to avoid if he doesn’t want to upset people, he’s not really the best at predicting it with others. Much of the time, he’s not actually very good at putting himself into other people’s shoes and determining what things that he’s accustomed or even numb to might be strange or upsetting to others.
Though Ginko may pretend to be more detached than he really is, he is genuinely a pretty mellow guy. He rarely displays any particularly strong emotion, and is practically never truly angry - frustrated or disapproving, yes, but true rage is effectively unheard of from him. While he’s not totally immune to things being strange or disturbing, his experiences have left him somewhat harder to shake up than most, which can be enormously beneficial in situations where he needs to focus and can’t afford to be disturbed by what’s happening around him (even if, as mentioned before, it also leaves him with a somewhat skewed idea of what may and may not be disturbing to those around him). It also helped his ability to stay unperturbed by his work back home that he honestly just has a lot of feelings about mushi and the way they interact with the world - and, for that matter, about the relationships between different types of organisms in general. Though he is somewhat disillusioned with the Balance of Nature as an entity (which it is, it’s literally a force with a will of its own in his world), that hasn’t done much to dampen his investment in the natural order in the more figurative sense, and he still finds comfort in the connections between living things; even if he doesn’t and can’t quite fit into human society, he still has a place in the ‘web’ of nature.
Personality Shifts: Though Ginko was initially fascinated (if unnerved) by the first physical changes he underwent in Ryslig, the more extensively he changed, the more it shook him up. In addition to the disconnect between his body and how he thought of himself (i.e, as a human, if a strange one), the mental changes that began to take effect were even harder to adapt to.
As a troll, he found himself becoming more aggressive, more willing to resort to violence, in a way he never had been before - and, on top of that, the need to eat human flesh to keep himself from losing his mind and attacking everything in sight required him to take measures he never would have considered before, digging up fresh graves in order to get meat. Over time, Ginko stopped seeing himself as a human so much as someone who used to be human, which caused another dive in his self-esteem.
The one bright side of his time on the peninsula was that, as connecting with others quickly became necessary for survival, he gradually became more willing to open up to those close to him, and trying to protect them gave him something to focus on. In addition, ending up with Henry Townshend as an adopted brother gave him the first experience with having a family he’d ever had, though he couldn’t shake the feeling that he wasn’t a very good brother.
Largely by coincidence, Ginko ended up particularly close to several more plant-like monsters called nymphs, most notably Henry, Steven Universe, and the former robot Epsilon. Unfortunately, nymphs ended up being, by and large, a fairly insular group, and Ginko found himself jealous of and uncomfortable with the seemingly unbridgeable gap that their community and ability to communicate with plants left between him and his closest friends. At the same time that he was getting better at opening up to others, he was left feeling separated from them at the same time, which reinforced his sense that, no matter what he did, he’d always be an outsider to some degree or another.
In the end, Ginko maintained his efforts at nonviolence the best he could through graverobbing to fulfill his ‘specialized diet’ and learning to remove himself from situations that risked turning violent thanks to his newly-developed aggression. He became even more determined to focus his energy on helping others, and the necessity of community made him more willing to open up to those around him. However, the inherent violence of the peninsula and the damage to all that he had considered good about himself left him with a worse view of himself, and even more willingness to sacrifice himself, than ever.
Abilities:
Monster Abilities
Night vision/infrared vision - Ginko can see in the dark far better than the average human, and his left eye can be used to see heat signatures from living things.
Enhanced strength - Basically all monsters are physically stronger than humans; as a troll, Ginko is a few times stronger than he used to be - which is considerable, given that he already climbed mountains with a box of supplies on his back for a living. He also has better endurance.
Stoneshaping - Trolls are theoretically capable of controlling stone to the point of being able to move massive boulders with little effort. Ginko is actually very bad at this, but he can kind of shove rocks around.
Size-changing - Ginko can grow up to twenty feet tall at will, though it’s an uncomfortable process that becomes outright painful if he’s injured. He can only do this once a day and maintain it for up to an hour.
Mimicry - Ginko can disguise himself as anyone he’s seen, once a day, for up to an hour. The disguise is illusory in nature, so he won’t gain or lose any abilities depending on who he’s disguised as.
Berserker state - As a troll, Ginko can willingly enter a berserker state, in which he will attack basically anything he sees, but will be much stronger than usual and unable to tire or feel pain. He doesn’t generally do this, for obvious reasons, but it’s an option he has.
Fog Form - As the Fog God was the one who cursed him to begin with, particularly thick fog changes Ginko even further, turning him into something more bestial and monstrous than before. He’s stronger in this form, but his monstrous instincts also become stronger, making him more volatile and prone to aggression.
Monster Weaknesses
Sun sickness - Ginko is very sensitive to sunlight; in addition to hurting his eyes, direct exposure severely weakens him, inflicting symptoms similar to heat exhaustion, or, in extreme cases, heat stroke.
Monster diet - As a Ryslig monster, Ginko has to eat roughly one adult human’s worth of human flesh each month. Otherwise, his prey drive will become gradually stronger until he snaps and just tries to eat whoever is nearby.
Aggression - Though a naturally easygoing and non-violent person, Ginko’s change into a troll has left him suddenly more inclined toward physical aggression than he has ever had to deal with. Given his basic personality, it comes out to him being not much more aggressive than the average human, but since he’s not used to aggressive impulses, he’s not very good at controlling them when they happen.
Other Abilities/Skills
Medical/Botanical Knowledge - Ginko’s work in his own world, as well as in Ryslig, required him to have a degree of medical skill, as well as a knowledge of plants and their effects. As such, he’s also in the habit of learning about local wildlife, plant or otherwise, as quickly as he can when he finds himself in a new place.
Wilderness survival - Ginko has spent most of his life living alone in the mountains. So, surviving this long has required him to learn a good bit about constructing shelters, finding food, and so on.
Inventory: Literally just his pants. That’s it.
Sample
Q&A:
What’s more important: the way others see you, or the way you see yourself?
Well, it’s… hard to say. I suppose… when it comes down to it, how others see you is more likely to have an impact on your life, and may show how you’ve affected theirs… so that’s more important, in that way. Not to discount the possibility that people could be wrong about you, of course.
Do you consider yourself to be special in any way? If so, how?
Ah-- no, not really. Strange or unlucky, maybe, but I’m not sure if those are quite the same thing.
Is it difficult for you to get along with people? Why or why not?
I’d like to think it isn’t, usually… I try to listen to people, as much as I can, and I think I can usually get my thoughts through to them in turn. But I’m not always the best at predicting… how they’ll feel about things, what will be the right thing to say. I guess it all depends.
Do you have any spiritual or religious beliefs? If so, what are they?
I don’t know if it counts, but I feel that… there are certain, inevitable ways in which parts of the world connect. Those ways are best found in nature, but when it comes down to it, they’re everywhere - connecting people, places, everything. It’s all part of a whole. I guess that might count as a spiritual belief, right?
Would you rather hurt someone physically to spare them emotional pain, or hurt them emotionally to spare them physical pain?
I… probably the former, I’d say. Don’t know how well I’ve done at sticking to that.
Do you see yourself as more logical or emotional?
Ha. I’d like to say I’m more logical, but I guess that probably isn’t accurate. I try to be, at least, so that’s got to count for something, right?
Do you consider yourself easily swayed by others?
No. That’s probably a better thing some times than others.