Spoiler : App :
Name: Kyouji Kamishiro
SHSL Talent: Treasure Hunter
Age: 17 (To keep up my streak of only 17 year old characters in DR RPs for some reason)
Sex: Male
Birthday: April 15
Blood Type: B-
Weight: This is classified information. Heroes should never reveal how much they weigh. Though it's pretty obvious that Kyouji is pretty slim. Because anime.
Nationality: Japanese
Appearance: With a seemingly infinite amount of youthful optimism, Kyouji's default expression is a bright smile. All of his movements are filled with energy, and the amount of sheer optimism he projects ensures that you'll either be annoyed with him, think he's really weird, or his happiness will cause you to smile as well. He's basically very much a bishonen in terms of appearance, and could easily be called a 'pretty boy' (and cute as well), though he doesn't pay much attention to it.
Kyouji is about average in height for someone of his age and nationality. He has dark red hair in the style of this character's hair, only with added ahoge, and has light brown eyes. Or at least one brown eye, since the other one is covered (More on that in "Clothing"). While he usually has a lot of energy around him (as mentioned earlier), during the uncommon moments where he's serious, he loses all of that energy and suddenly seems more melancholy. But again, usually he's very happy and seems like kind of a ditz.
Clothing: Combining his appearance and clothing together, it really looks like Kyouji walked out of an anime convention, or that he's an anime character who magically became real. He wears an eyepatch with a cute skull design over his right eye (he is blind in that eye, but his left eye works fine) though he occasionally switches to a normal white eyepatch instead. For the purposes of this RP though, we'll say that he's sticking with the eyepatch with the skull design.
Kyouji's outfit basically looks like what a typical outfit for an explorer/adventurer would look like in fiction, regardless of how practical it would actually be. So basically, imagine a sort of Indiana Jones-like outfit (including the brown jacket and white shirt), except without the bullwhip and fedora. He used to have a fedora, but he kept losing them when going treasure hunting, so he stopped wearing them (also because even I have limits to how much I'm willing to totally steal outfits). He wears this because it's similar to the outfits of various fictional heroes that he aspires to be like. Kyouji also carries a scabbard with him, but not a sword.
Basically the dark red hair, eyepatch, adventurer's outfit, and his general energy makes Kyouji seem really 'anime', for lack of a better term.
Personality: Kyouji is the archetypical "Idiot Hero" cranked up several notches. He is overly trusting, seems like kind of a fool most of the time, and seems like a ditz with a lot of energy. Kyouji has a bad tendency to forget things that are important as well, and that's not even getting into the fact that he has a very active imagination and comes up with ridiculous theories about everything. (To list one memorable example, while lost in a cave once, he seriously thought that a bat he encountered was Count Dracula)
Another major flaw that he has is that he can be a bit TOO excitable, and treats almost everything even slightly surprising as some kind of shocking reveal. He also visibly reacts in over-the-top ways, to the point where one wonders if it's actually intentional. To cap off his flaws, he can be rather self-sacrificial, and has a bad tendency to try and befriend people even if they want nothing to do with him.
On the positive side, Kyouji has plenty of good points too. To the right people, his attitude can be endearing, he's usually optimistic and always tries to see the good in things, and while he's not very bright his strange ideas can occasionally lead to moments of brilliance. In addition, he's a hard worker, genuinely tries to be kind to people, and while he can say some insensitive things as a result of his naivety, he's always willing to apologize and make amends.
This is not to say that Kyouji is completely immature, even if he mostly is. One of the few times he's ever serious is when discussing his dreams. He's a treasure hunter because he wants to donate a lot of money to various charities across the world, and he's surprisingly serious when talking about his goal to end poverty. In contrast to his usually idealistic self, he's well-aware that he probably can't truly end poverty forever, but he's willing to give it his best shot.
Also, in case it isn't obvious yet, Kyouji really wants to be considered a hero one day. But for now, he only considers himself a "hero-in-training".
Why This Character Wants to Join the Future Foundation: A hero has to help other people. Kyouji may be kind of a ditz and not very bright, but his desire to help other people is genuine. Not to mention that he thinks the stories about heroes who save the world are pretty cool.
Backstory: Basically, Kyouji was born to a family of treasure hunters, explorers, archaeologists, and more. From the very start, he wanted to surpass all of his family members and help make the world a happier place. As you can imagine, Kyouji began treasure hunting at a young age, often being accompanied by his father (he never knew his mother).
One thing that's a bit odd to note is that technically the person who started the whole "treasure hunting" thing in Kyouji's family was one of his ancestors... Who was a pirate. As in, someone who could be classified as a villain. Despite this, Kyouji believes that his ancestor was a hero, and he proudly carries his scabbard to this day, which is a family heirloom, though the original sword his ancestor used has long been destroyed. (Don't ask why Kyouji was trusted with such a prized heirloom. Just know that he's surprisingly good at making sure it's safe, unlike everything else.)
Kyouji became rather famous as a treasure hunter pretty quickly, having an unbelievable amount of luck in his searches. Unfortunately, he lost both one of his eyes and his father during a treasure hunt through a mountain cave. He has since repressed the memory, and honestly can't remember a thing that happened, but it was confirmed that a rival treasure hunter tried to kill them both after they have discovered an important treasure (which Kyouji also forgot about, due to losing his memories associated with the event).
Despite this, Kyouji continued his life as a treasure hunter, now living with his extended family (who would often serve as his team during treasure hunts). He never lost his optimism, though he's visibly melancholy whenever he thinks about what his life would have been like if things had gone differently.
Eventually, Kyouji was invited to attend Hope's Peak Academy as an SHSL Treasure Hunter. Naturally he accepted for the chance of more adventure. ... In a way, he got his wish, though not in the way he was hoping for.
Any other miscellaneous information: Kyouji's character is basically me deciding to celebrate an archetype I often make fun of through a giant back-handed compliment. He is, essentially, a parody of the Idiot Hero, but at the same time, it's a sort of affectionate parody. Kyouji is basically me making fun of all Idiot Heroes ever while at the same time praising their contributions to fiction, because the land of fiction really wouldn't be the same without them. Also, you can now add Kyouji to my list of 'cute male characters', though in this case, it's partially to support what he's a parody of. (Oh yeah also, if you're worried, I CAN think of a justification for Kyouji to kill, even if he's a parody of an Idiot Hero. Though I think it's more likely that he'll be a victim instead.)
SHSL Talent: Treasure Hunter
Age: 17 (To keep up my streak of only 17 year old characters in DR RPs for some reason)
Sex: Male
Birthday: April 15
Blood Type: B-
Weight: This is classified information. Heroes should never reveal how much they weigh. Though it's pretty obvious that Kyouji is pretty slim. Because anime.
Nationality: Japanese
Appearance: With a seemingly infinite amount of youthful optimism, Kyouji's default expression is a bright smile. All of his movements are filled with energy, and the amount of sheer optimism he projects ensures that you'll either be annoyed with him, think he's really weird, or his happiness will cause you to smile as well. He's basically very much a bishonen in terms of appearance, and could easily be called a 'pretty boy' (and cute as well), though he doesn't pay much attention to it.
Kyouji is about average in height for someone of his age and nationality. He has dark red hair in the style of this character's hair, only with added ahoge, and has light brown eyes. Or at least one brown eye, since the other one is covered (More on that in "Clothing"). While he usually has a lot of energy around him (as mentioned earlier), during the uncommon moments where he's serious, he loses all of that energy and suddenly seems more melancholy. But again, usually he's very happy and seems like kind of a ditz.
Clothing: Combining his appearance and clothing together, it really looks like Kyouji walked out of an anime convention, or that he's an anime character who magically became real. He wears an eyepatch with a cute skull design over his right eye (he is blind in that eye, but his left eye works fine) though he occasionally switches to a normal white eyepatch instead. For the purposes of this RP though, we'll say that he's sticking with the eyepatch with the skull design.
Kyouji's outfit basically looks like what a typical outfit for an explorer/adventurer would look like in fiction, regardless of how practical it would actually be. So basically, imagine a sort of Indiana Jones-like outfit (including the brown jacket and white shirt), except without the bullwhip and fedora. He used to have a fedora, but he kept losing them when going treasure hunting, so he stopped wearing them (also because even I have limits to how much I'm willing to totally steal outfits). He wears this because it's similar to the outfits of various fictional heroes that he aspires to be like. Kyouji also carries a scabbard with him, but not a sword.
Basically the dark red hair, eyepatch, adventurer's outfit, and his general energy makes Kyouji seem really 'anime', for lack of a better term.
Personality: Kyouji is the archetypical "Idiot Hero" cranked up several notches. He is overly trusting, seems like kind of a fool most of the time, and seems like a ditz with a lot of energy. Kyouji has a bad tendency to forget things that are important as well, and that's not even getting into the fact that he has a very active imagination and comes up with ridiculous theories about everything. (To list one memorable example, while lost in a cave once, he seriously thought that a bat he encountered was Count Dracula)
Another major flaw that he has is that he can be a bit TOO excitable, and treats almost everything even slightly surprising as some kind of shocking reveal. He also visibly reacts in over-the-top ways, to the point where one wonders if it's actually intentional. To cap off his flaws, he can be rather self-sacrificial, and has a bad tendency to try and befriend people even if they want nothing to do with him.
On the positive side, Kyouji has plenty of good points too. To the right people, his attitude can be endearing, he's usually optimistic and always tries to see the good in things, and while he's not very bright his strange ideas can occasionally lead to moments of brilliance. In addition, he's a hard worker, genuinely tries to be kind to people, and while he can say some insensitive things as a result of his naivety, he's always willing to apologize and make amends.
This is not to say that Kyouji is completely immature, even if he mostly is. One of the few times he's ever serious is when discussing his dreams. He's a treasure hunter because he wants to donate a lot of money to various charities across the world, and he's surprisingly serious when talking about his goal to end poverty. In contrast to his usually idealistic self, he's well-aware that he probably can't truly end poverty forever, but he's willing to give it his best shot.
Also, in case it isn't obvious yet, Kyouji really wants to be considered a hero one day. But for now, he only considers himself a "hero-in-training".
Why This Character Wants to Join the Future Foundation: A hero has to help other people. Kyouji may be kind of a ditz and not very bright, but his desire to help other people is genuine. Not to mention that he thinks the stories about heroes who save the world are pretty cool.
Backstory: Basically, Kyouji was born to a family of treasure hunters, explorers, archaeologists, and more. From the very start, he wanted to surpass all of his family members and help make the world a happier place. As you can imagine, Kyouji began treasure hunting at a young age, often being accompanied by his father (he never knew his mother).
One thing that's a bit odd to note is that technically the person who started the whole "treasure hunting" thing in Kyouji's family was one of his ancestors... Who was a pirate. As in, someone who could be classified as a villain. Despite this, Kyouji believes that his ancestor was a hero, and he proudly carries his scabbard to this day, which is a family heirloom, though the original sword his ancestor used has long been destroyed. (Don't ask why Kyouji was trusted with such a prized heirloom. Just know that he's surprisingly good at making sure it's safe, unlike everything else.)
Kyouji became rather famous as a treasure hunter pretty quickly, having an unbelievable amount of luck in his searches. Unfortunately, he lost both one of his eyes and his father during a treasure hunt through a mountain cave. He has since repressed the memory, and honestly can't remember a thing that happened, but it was confirmed that a rival treasure hunter tried to kill them both after they have discovered an important treasure (which Kyouji also forgot about, due to losing his memories associated with the event).
Despite this, Kyouji continued his life as a treasure hunter, now living with his extended family (who would often serve as his team during treasure hunts). He never lost his optimism, though he's visibly melancholy whenever he thinks about what his life would have been like if things had gone differently.
Eventually, Kyouji was invited to attend Hope's Peak Academy as an SHSL Treasure Hunter. Naturally he accepted for the chance of more adventure. ... In a way, he got his wish, though not in the way he was hoping for.
Any other miscellaneous information: Kyouji's character is basically me deciding to celebrate an archetype I often make fun of through a giant back-handed compliment. He is, essentially, a parody of the Idiot Hero, but at the same time, it's a sort of affectionate parody. Kyouji is basically me making fun of all Idiot Heroes ever while at the same time praising their contributions to fiction, because the land of fiction really wouldn't be the same without them. Also, you can now add Kyouji to my list of 'cute male characters', though in this case, it's partially to support what he's a parody of. (Oh yeah also, if you're worried, I CAN think of a justification for Kyouji to kill, even if he's a parody of an Idiot Hero. Though I think it's more likely that he'll be a victim instead.)
Spoiler : Notes (Read after app) :
- While completely unintentional, I think technically Kyouji would be 18 in the RP since there was apparently a missing year for everyone in the RP. This makes him older than Michio and Hazuki. It's funny.
- Kyouji didn't get to take the whip that I consider his primary tool/weapon because I considered it too OP for the RP itself. Kind of regret it, since it was a big part of how I originally envisioned him. If you're wondering, my primary reason for wanting him to have a whip isn't because of Indiana Jones. No, it's because I had recently played Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, and I thought whips were cool.
- Kyouji was intended to be the very first case's victim, and I put him in the Murder Me First list. He has gained a considerable amount of depth ever since it became apparent that he wouldn't just die first. He sort of started off as a semi-joke character and then evolved into something else.
- His design was inspired by like a billion characters, as I've mentioned before. I was originally writing a list of all the characters that inspired him, but stopped once I realized that I was including characters that inspired the most minor of details, and I thought it gave off the wrong message. I will take the time to note that NONE OF THOSE CHARACTERS ARE PIRATES.
- Should be obvious, but Kyouji is meant to be this weird mix of cuteness and coolness. I like these kinds of characters, you see.
- In an RPG, Kyouji's Luck stat would be unbelievably high.
- While it's glossed over in the app itself, Kyouji's mother, Yumina, died from tuberculosis shortly after he was born. The two share a ton of personality traits anyway. (This is an actual thing that happens with kids who lose a parent sometimes)
- Kyouji holds onto hope that it isn't true, but I've pretty much decided that his entire family is dead as a result of the Despair movement.
- Kyouji's mother has white hair and blue eyes, and I mixed and matched the potential hair and eye color combinations (So red hair and light brown eyes, white hair and light brown eyes, red hair and blue eyes, and white hair and blue eyes) for a while before deciding that he would take his looks mostly from his father, but his personality would mostly be from his mother. The fact that his potential hair colors are red and white is a reference to something.
- Oh yeah, I figure I should mention this now. I believe I said a few times that there would always be THIS ONE MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER in fiction who is an Idiot Hero (not a parody of one), and I would never have Kyouji act sillier than he does. I believe it's time to reveal his identity... Nowe from Drakengard 2. I won't get into details here, but uh... Nowe is not a smart man.
- Kyouji didn't get to take the whip that I consider his primary tool/weapon because I considered it too OP for the RP itself. Kind of regret it, since it was a big part of how I originally envisioned him. If you're wondering, my primary reason for wanting him to have a whip isn't because of Indiana Jones. No, it's because I had recently played Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, and I thought whips were cool.
- Kyouji was intended to be the very first case's victim, and I put him in the Murder Me First list. He has gained a considerable amount of depth ever since it became apparent that he wouldn't just die first. He sort of started off as a semi-joke character and then evolved into something else.
- His design was inspired by like a billion characters, as I've mentioned before. I was originally writing a list of all the characters that inspired him, but stopped once I realized that I was including characters that inspired the most minor of details, and I thought it gave off the wrong message. I will take the time to note that NONE OF THOSE CHARACTERS ARE PIRATES.
- Should be obvious, but Kyouji is meant to be this weird mix of cuteness and coolness. I like these kinds of characters, you see.
- In an RPG, Kyouji's Luck stat would be unbelievably high.
- While it's glossed over in the app itself, Kyouji's mother, Yumina, died from tuberculosis shortly after he was born. The two share a ton of personality traits anyway. (This is an actual thing that happens with kids who lose a parent sometimes)
- Kyouji holds onto hope that it isn't true, but I've pretty much decided that his entire family is dead as a result of the Despair movement.
- Kyouji's mother has white hair and blue eyes, and I mixed and matched the potential hair and eye color combinations (So red hair and light brown eyes, white hair and light brown eyes, red hair and blue eyes, and white hair and blue eyes) for a while before deciding that he would take his looks mostly from his father, but his personality would mostly be from his mother. The fact that his potential hair colors are red and white is a reference to something.
- Oh yeah, I figure I should mention this now. I believe I said a few times that there would always be THIS ONE MYSTERIOUS CHARACTER in fiction who is an Idiot Hero (not a parody of one), and I would never have Kyouji act sillier than he does. I believe it's time to reveal his identity... Nowe from Drakengard 2. I won't get into details here, but uh... Nowe is not a smart man.
Spoiler : Why did you even apply as Kyouji, GD? :
So! I actually came VERY CLOSE to not applying as Kyouji at all. He almost wasn't a thing. And I mean that in a couple of different ways, which I'll explain now. For starters, I actually wasn't going to apply to UDR at all at first, but then it came to my mind that maybe it would be a good idea to apply because I thought that no one would want to be the first murderer (I was hilariously wrong). So I initially created this character named Touya. I... Actually don't remember much about him, other than the fact that he was an Ultimate Sprinter/Runner, with running shoes, running shorts, and everything. He was meant to be sort of a jerk character, kind of a coward who was haunted by the fact that he kept running away from his problems, but I recall that he had one or two redeeming traits that made it so he wasn't a complete and total jerk. I want to say it was that he had a lot of sympathy for the homeless and the needy and that he donated a lot of money to them, but I don't remember exactly.
Anyway, I sent this app to the GMs, and I think I was actually accepted, but then Ami made that post about how there were way too many people who wanted to be early killers. I then PMed Ami to rescind my app, since the point of my character was now null and void. Then... My memory gets blurry, but I think it was a day or two after that when I suddenly got the idea for Kyouji and wrote his entire app while I was half-asleep, because I really wanted to write a character who was so similar and yet so unlike Hazuki. Actually, believe it or not, it took me a few weeks to fully realize that I had given him a pretty dark backstory (at least for his character type) since I was so tired when writing it. I still find it hilarious how Kyouji's backstory is the most detailed out of my DR RP characters, since his backstory was the only one that I didn't plan out at all.
So yeah. I was VERY CLOSE to not joining the RP. I can't remember exactly when, but I really think that I applied very shortly before applications really were closed. You can confirm this yourself by noticing that Kyouji is at the very bottom of the character list, and I'm pretty sure those go in order by who apped/was accepted first, meaning I was the last person accepted into the RP. Again, keep in mind that I fully intended to have Kyouji die first. I was... Surprised, to say the least. (And had a good laugh when people thought Kyouji had died for a while)
Anyway, I sent this app to the GMs, and I think I was actually accepted, but then Ami made that post about how there were way too many people who wanted to be early killers. I then PMed Ami to rescind my app, since the point of my character was now null and void. Then... My memory gets blurry, but I think it was a day or two after that when I suddenly got the idea for Kyouji and wrote his entire app while I was half-asleep, because I really wanted to write a character who was so similar and yet so unlike Hazuki. Actually, believe it or not, it took me a few weeks to fully realize that I had given him a pretty dark backstory (at least for his character type) since I was so tired when writing it. I still find it hilarious how Kyouji's backstory is the most detailed out of my DR RP characters, since his backstory was the only one that I didn't plan out at all.
So yeah. I was VERY CLOSE to not joining the RP. I can't remember exactly when, but I really think that I applied very shortly before applications really were closed. You can confirm this yourself by noticing that Kyouji is at the very bottom of the character list, and I'm pretty sure those go in order by who apped/was accepted first, meaning I was the last person accepted into the RP. Again, keep in mind that I fully intended to have Kyouji die first. I was... Surprised, to say the least. (And had a good laugh when people thought Kyouji had died for a while)
Spoiler : Appearance Meaning :
Kyouji owes his fine red hair to all of the Red-Headed Heroes out there. Seriously. That is a real trope and the reason why I ultimately decided to give him red hair. He had white hair as a potential hair color as a reference to a few specific characters who inspired him (one especially), and also the fact that white can be seen as purity/clearness, if that makes sense. And I wanted him to be the character who was completely honest and straightforward about absolutely everything. I am not kidding when I say that literally anyone in the RP could have walked up and asked him to tell them his entire life story, and he would have revealed absolutely everything (from his own perspective) without lying at all. I found it funny that no one ever really did that (Jackie sort of did that, but only for a few parts of his backstory). I'm going to guess that people (in-character or out) just thought he wouldn't actually do that.
As you can likely tell, Kyouji was meant to be extremely distinct in appearance. I believe it was Got who said that I usually go for more simple designs, which isn't necessarily a bad thing depending on the character (Example: I consider Hazuki to have a fairly simple design, especially after the removal of the hair dye, but I think her design fits her really well). With Kyouji... I really couldn't go for a "simple" design. This was the kind of person who stood out a lot due to his personality and actions, and I wanted his appearance to match. Everything from his red hair, to the star in his eye, to his clothes, to that scabbard without a sword... All meant to draw the eye and make it clear that Kyouji is a very outgoing and energetic sort of person.
Let's talk about his eyepatch, actually. Because it's symbolic and stuff. The in-character reason why he wears an eyepatch is obviously because that eye doesn't work anymore. His eye actually isn't missing, but he can't use it. As I said before, he had two possible eyepatches: The black eyepatch with the cute skull on it (which I went with for the RP), and the white medical eyepatch. The white eyepatch that I didn't go with was really meant to symbolize that Kyouji was still recovering from his past ordeals, even if he didn't fully realize it. The more medical-looking eyepatch sends the message of a "healing process", I guess, whereas the other eyepatch (which I went with) doesn't show as well. Though that's just me, I guess.
As for the eyepatch Kyouji DID go with... That skull is meant to remind Kyouji about his failure and his father's sacrifice to save him. It's kind of dark when I think about it that way. Basically, Kyouji wants to always remember how close he was to death so he can grow stronger, so the skull reminds him of it. I would actually not say that it's a particularly cynical symbol... Kyouji actually has a positive interpretation of it. It reminds him of how close he was to death, but it also reminds him that he has his father's strength by his side, I guess.
Actually, now that I think about it, Kyouji's eyes mean a lot, huh. His undamaged eye has a star in it, which he inherited from his mother, Yumina, defying all logic behind genetics. Put another way, that star is meant to represent that Yumina is there to support Kyouji as well. So yeah. One eye represents his father, Ryouji, and the other one is symbolic of his mother, Yumina. And they'll always be with him even in death. So yeah, I guess his eyes are the most important part of his appearance.
As you can likely tell, Kyouji was meant to be extremely distinct in appearance. I believe it was Got who said that I usually go for more simple designs, which isn't necessarily a bad thing depending on the character (Example: I consider Hazuki to have a fairly simple design, especially after the removal of the hair dye, but I think her design fits her really well). With Kyouji... I really couldn't go for a "simple" design. This was the kind of person who stood out a lot due to his personality and actions, and I wanted his appearance to match. Everything from his red hair, to the star in his eye, to his clothes, to that scabbard without a sword... All meant to draw the eye and make it clear that Kyouji is a very outgoing and energetic sort of person.
Let's talk about his eyepatch, actually. Because it's symbolic and stuff. The in-character reason why he wears an eyepatch is obviously because that eye doesn't work anymore. His eye actually isn't missing, but he can't use it. As I said before, he had two possible eyepatches: The black eyepatch with the cute skull on it (which I went with for the RP), and the white medical eyepatch. The white eyepatch that I didn't go with was really meant to symbolize that Kyouji was still recovering from his past ordeals, even if he didn't fully realize it. The more medical-looking eyepatch sends the message of a "healing process", I guess, whereas the other eyepatch (which I went with) doesn't show as well. Though that's just me, I guess.
As for the eyepatch Kyouji DID go with... That skull is meant to remind Kyouji about his failure and his father's sacrifice to save him. It's kind of dark when I think about it that way. Basically, Kyouji wants to always remember how close he was to death so he can grow stronger, so the skull reminds him of it. I would actually not say that it's a particularly cynical symbol... Kyouji actually has a positive interpretation of it. It reminds him of how close he was to death, but it also reminds him that he has his father's strength by his side, I guess.
Actually, now that I think about it, Kyouji's eyes mean a lot, huh. His undamaged eye has a star in it, which he inherited from his mother, Yumina, defying all logic behind genetics. Put another way, that star is meant to represent that Yumina is there to support Kyouji as well. So yeah. One eye represents his father, Ryouji, and the other one is symbolic of his mother, Yumina. And they'll always be with him even in death. So yeah, I guess his eyes are the most important part of his appearance.
Spoiler : How Kyouji changed over time :
Better title for this section: How DIDN'T Kyouji change over time?
The character of Kyouji Kamishiro started off as sort of a semi-joke character before quickly becoming a lot more than that to me. I was initially going to write him as just an Idiot Hero parody who did a lot of silly things in an effort to provide comic relief in a pretty dark RP full of betrayal and death. Instead, I decided that I seriously wanted to explore what kind of person would seriously act this way, while keeping it positive. Despite his backstory, Kyouji was always meant to be a character who's genuinely happy and idealistic. He was meant to be a very optimistic character who endured a lot of pain and still came out genuinely smiling at the end.
I think that he started changing really early on. I want to say that this started happening as soon as Kyouji's first "serious" scene occurred, where he basically talked back to Monobear and suddenly became a lot more intense. This wasn't even a scene that was originally going to happen. I just sort of decided that I wanted to try writing a semi-serious Kyouji post for once. And then it led to a lot more. Funny how that works, huh?
One thing that really forced me to change my plans for him is the fact that people had a much higher opinion of him in-character than I expected. I apped as him seriously expecting the majority of the cast to be annoyed with him/hate him. As it turns out, a lot of the cast members actually didn't mind him or even liked him, barring a few exceptions. I guess it's because he's so bright and cheery, which is nice when surrounded with such a hopeless situation? Anyway, the point is that the fact that a lot of people actually liked him meant that I felt like I had more room to have serious character interactions than I expected, and help other characters grow. (Kyouji was always meant to be the type of character who would help other characters with their development, since I can justify doing a lot of things with him.)
Finally, perhaps the biggest thing that made me take the shift to a more "serious" (but still silly overall) character is actually due to SPD. Or maybe I should thank Enigma for this one. You see, early on, I actually mentioned on xat that I planned on having Kyouji die early, and I had a conversation with SPD about stuff. Long story short, I basically believed that Kyouji would be Heath's victim... Except apparently that group hug from early in the RP paid off, because Higami didn't want to kill Kyouji, which led to Heath's murder plan becoming a lot more complex. I actually HAD thought far enough ahead to give myself a bit of wiggle room in my app in case Kyouji didn't die first, and I am seriously glad I did, because it paid off. Big time. I felt like Kyouji couldn't keep being COMPLETELY silly due to being so involved in the events of the murder, marking a shift away from silliness. Though, as I keep repeating, Kyouji would always retain some silliness. It's just the kind of person he is.
The character of Kyouji Kamishiro started off as sort of a semi-joke character before quickly becoming a lot more than that to me. I was initially going to write him as just an Idiot Hero parody who did a lot of silly things in an effort to provide comic relief in a pretty dark RP full of betrayal and death. Instead, I decided that I seriously wanted to explore what kind of person would seriously act this way, while keeping it positive. Despite his backstory, Kyouji was always meant to be a character who's genuinely happy and idealistic. He was meant to be a very optimistic character who endured a lot of pain and still came out genuinely smiling at the end.
I think that he started changing really early on. I want to say that this started happening as soon as Kyouji's first "serious" scene occurred, where he basically talked back to Monobear and suddenly became a lot more intense. This wasn't even a scene that was originally going to happen. I just sort of decided that I wanted to try writing a semi-serious Kyouji post for once. And then it led to a lot more. Funny how that works, huh?
One thing that really forced me to change my plans for him is the fact that people had a much higher opinion of him in-character than I expected. I apped as him seriously expecting the majority of the cast to be annoyed with him/hate him. As it turns out, a lot of the cast members actually didn't mind him or even liked him, barring a few exceptions. I guess it's because he's so bright and cheery, which is nice when surrounded with such a hopeless situation? Anyway, the point is that the fact that a lot of people actually liked him meant that I felt like I had more room to have serious character interactions than I expected, and help other characters grow. (Kyouji was always meant to be the type of character who would help other characters with their development, since I can justify doing a lot of things with him.)
Finally, perhaps the biggest thing that made me take the shift to a more "serious" (but still silly overall) character is actually due to SPD. Or maybe I should thank Enigma for this one. You see, early on, I actually mentioned on xat that I planned on having Kyouji die early, and I had a conversation with SPD about stuff. Long story short, I basically believed that Kyouji would be Heath's victim... Except apparently that group hug from early in the RP paid off, because Higami didn't want to kill Kyouji, which led to Heath's murder plan becoming a lot more complex. I actually HAD thought far enough ahead to give myself a bit of wiggle room in my app in case Kyouji didn't die first, and I am seriously glad I did, because it paid off. Big time. I felt like Kyouji couldn't keep being COMPLETELY silly due to being so involved in the events of the murder, marking a shift away from silliness. Though, as I keep repeating, Kyouji would always retain some silliness. It's just the kind of person he is.
Spoiler : Relationships/Thoughts/Hugs :
Kyouji is the type of person who wants to be a 'hero', but isn't sure if he can actually achieve that goal. Eventually the point of his character was meant to explore the concept of a 'hero', because I seriously love that character type to death.
One thing to note about Kyouji is that he's very self-sacrificial, but he actually values his life very highly. He believes that his life is precious since his father gave up his life to protect him. However, because his life is 'precious' that way, he believes that he has to be the one who makes sacrifices instead of other people. Recall how Kyouji immediately volunteered to die in Heath's place when his execution came up. Kyouji's logic is strange in that he did that because he values his life so much, not because he doesn't value it at all. In that way, you could say that Kyouji thinks differently from other people.
Overall, I guess I wanted to portray Kyouji's desire to help other people as very idealistic, and that he'd face a lot of adversity, but his goal is NOT stupid. If anything, it's very brave of him, and a commendable goal indeed. Kyouji just needed to learn how to follow that goal while realizing that putting himself in danger makes other people unhappy. Basically... Kyouji likes having friends, and he does worry about them, but using his own (rather eccentric) logic, he finds it hard to understand why other people would get worried about him. Again, it's that weird sort of situation where he seems to be operating under some reverse-world logic, since he does value his life.
Believe it or not, all that hugging actually meant something! It meant a lot of things, honestly. First of all, I should make something clear: As much as I loved to provide ship tease with EVERYONE, I can't imagine Kyouji in a relationship. Not because he's aromantic (you can classify him as bisexual, but it's actually more complicated than that. It involves not having a concept of sexual orientation for himself, won't get into that) but because I thought that it would be extremely difficult to write him in any kind of romance unless I was controlling all involved characters. He's the kind of character who I actually totally would have as a character in a Dating Sim or something, but in RP format it really wouldn't work unless there was a lot of effort.
Kyouji DOES love the rest of the cast. A lot. But rather than romantic love, he sort of sees them all as a family. I actually thought of going as far as to consider having him call the others his brothers and sisters, but I thought it would get kind of weird since I still wanted to do all the ship tease stuff (which I did partially for fun, and partially because of what he's a parody of). I DID want him to sort of declare someone as his blood brother or blood sister later on in the RP if he survived long enough though. Probably Higami or Jackie, though I'd obviously have to get the okay from their players. So yeah. He sees everyone as a family and dislikes the fact that there's a lot of tension between them, especially involving Higami.
Continuing from that, the reason why Kyouji treats them like that is basically because he spent most of his early life just around his family and family friends (who he still considered family). Friendship and family are one and the same to him. I actually wanted to have this one moment where Monobear would reveal to Kyouji that his entire family is dead, but then Kyouji would point out that he still had family members (meaning his classmates). I think that would have given a lot of insight into his character. Kind of regret not being able to do it. (Consider this: Kyouji's offer to sacrifice himself wasn't an offer to give up his own life to save the life of a friend he met just a short while ago in the grand scheme of things. To him, it was an offer to help save a trusted member of his family who he still believed in.)
Going back to the hugging thing (I'm sort of writing this stream-of-conscious like) I wanted Kyouji to eventually realize that not all people like to be hugged by people they just met. Kyouji hugs people because he considers that the ultimate sign of trust. It's him letting down his guard and letting the other person know that he loves them and will protect them, and hopes they feel the same way. Not most people realized this, but I think Itashi got the chance to view it: Kyouji genuinely gets confused when someone is upset or sad about being hugged. Eventually, I wanted him to still be the person who hugs people all the time affectionately, but he would ask permission first, or at least listen when people told him to cut it out.
Finally... About how Kyouji responds to the forces of despair. He obviously has his reasons to not like them. At the same time, Kyouji is the type of person who desperately wants to try to 'understand' other people no matter what. He wants everyone to be happy. He believes that happiness is like a domino effect, in that making a few people happy will eventually help make a greater amount of people happy. He most certainly does NOT believe in the whole 'sacrificing a few people's happiness so a few others can be happy' idea. He never really liked Monobear, as you could tell, but there was this one (mostly played-for-laughs) scene where he tried to understand Monobear more to see if there was any way to resolve it peacefully. Kyouji is pretty idealistic like that.
Basically, I want to drive home the point that Kyouji has a lot more going on in his mind than you would initially think. He's still pretty silly, but I guess he sort of showed that sometimes you NEED silliness to remind you about the happiness that you're struggling for, if that makes sense.
My favorite scene as Kyouji is still the Pong scene. I think it showed a lot of sides to his character in subtle ways while mostly reading like a comedy scene at first (which, to be fair, it basically was).
One thing to note about Kyouji is that he's very self-sacrificial, but he actually values his life very highly. He believes that his life is precious since his father gave up his life to protect him. However, because his life is 'precious' that way, he believes that he has to be the one who makes sacrifices instead of other people. Recall how Kyouji immediately volunteered to die in Heath's place when his execution came up. Kyouji's logic is strange in that he did that because he values his life so much, not because he doesn't value it at all. In that way, you could say that Kyouji thinks differently from other people.
Overall, I guess I wanted to portray Kyouji's desire to help other people as very idealistic, and that he'd face a lot of adversity, but his goal is NOT stupid. If anything, it's very brave of him, and a commendable goal indeed. Kyouji just needed to learn how to follow that goal while realizing that putting himself in danger makes other people unhappy. Basically... Kyouji likes having friends, and he does worry about them, but using his own (rather eccentric) logic, he finds it hard to understand why other people would get worried about him. Again, it's that weird sort of situation where he seems to be operating under some reverse-world logic, since he does value his life.
Believe it or not, all that hugging actually meant something! It meant a lot of things, honestly. First of all, I should make something clear: As much as I loved to provide ship tease with EVERYONE, I can't imagine Kyouji in a relationship. Not because he's aromantic (you can classify him as bisexual, but it's actually more complicated than that. It involves not having a concept of sexual orientation for himself, won't get into that) but because I thought that it would be extremely difficult to write him in any kind of romance unless I was controlling all involved characters. He's the kind of character who I actually totally would have as a character in a Dating Sim or something, but in RP format it really wouldn't work unless there was a lot of effort.
Kyouji DOES love the rest of the cast. A lot. But rather than romantic love, he sort of sees them all as a family. I actually thought of going as far as to consider having him call the others his brothers and sisters, but I thought it would get kind of weird since I still wanted to do all the ship tease stuff (which I did partially for fun, and partially because of what he's a parody of). I DID want him to sort of declare someone as his blood brother or blood sister later on in the RP if he survived long enough though. Probably Higami or Jackie, though I'd obviously have to get the okay from their players. So yeah. He sees everyone as a family and dislikes the fact that there's a lot of tension between them, especially involving Higami.
Continuing from that, the reason why Kyouji treats them like that is basically because he spent most of his early life just around his family and family friends (who he still considered family). Friendship and family are one and the same to him. I actually wanted to have this one moment where Monobear would reveal to Kyouji that his entire family is dead, but then Kyouji would point out that he still had family members (meaning his classmates). I think that would have given a lot of insight into his character. Kind of regret not being able to do it. (Consider this: Kyouji's offer to sacrifice himself wasn't an offer to give up his own life to save the life of a friend he met just a short while ago in the grand scheme of things. To him, it was an offer to help save a trusted member of his family who he still believed in.)
Going back to the hugging thing (I'm sort of writing this stream-of-conscious like) I wanted Kyouji to eventually realize that not all people like to be hugged by people they just met. Kyouji hugs people because he considers that the ultimate sign of trust. It's him letting down his guard and letting the other person know that he loves them and will protect them, and hopes they feel the same way. Not most people realized this, but I think Itashi got the chance to view it: Kyouji genuinely gets confused when someone is upset or sad about being hugged. Eventually, I wanted him to still be the person who hugs people all the time affectionately, but he would ask permission first, or at least listen when people told him to cut it out.
Finally... About how Kyouji responds to the forces of despair. He obviously has his reasons to not like them. At the same time, Kyouji is the type of person who desperately wants to try to 'understand' other people no matter what. He wants everyone to be happy. He believes that happiness is like a domino effect, in that making a few people happy will eventually help make a greater amount of people happy. He most certainly does NOT believe in the whole 'sacrificing a few people's happiness so a few others can be happy' idea. He never really liked Monobear, as you could tell, but there was this one (mostly played-for-laughs) scene where he tried to understand Monobear more to see if there was any way to resolve it peacefully. Kyouji is pretty idealistic like that.
Basically, I want to drive home the point that Kyouji has a lot more going on in his mind than you would initially think. He's still pretty silly, but I guess he sort of showed that sometimes you NEED silliness to remind you about the happiness that you're struggling for, if that makes sense.
My favorite scene as Kyouji is still the Pong scene. I think it showed a lot of sides to his character in subtle ways while mostly reading like a comedy scene at first (which, to be fair, it basically was).
Spoiler : Stuff I'd do Differently :
There's quite a bit I would do differently if I was given another chance to write as Kyouji, but at the same time, I don't really have any major regrets. I had a lot of fun writing him, I consider him one of my best AAO characters, and all things considered, I think all of this came out better than I thought it would. But I would say that I would have liked to have Kyouji talk to certain people more, and just have his mindset explored more as well. In other words, I would have liked to have the RP continued. I actually talked to Mono and we agreed to have Kyouji and Calliope talk, but... The RP died. Honestly, I really should have had Kyouji talk to Calliope earlier. It was sort of OOC to put it off for so long.
I also regret not writing Kyouji in first-person, because I think it would have been extremely interesting. On the other hand, writing in first person would have revealed that Kyouji wasn't really hiding much, unless people suspected that I was REALLY going on the Unreliable Narrator path. I suppose I should have had Kyouji think more in italics...? I do it a lot with Hazuki in 0.2, and it really works well for her, but I did it so rarely for Kyouji, and when I did it was mostly for jokes rather than stuff that could have shown more sides to him. This is actually something I realized near the end of the RP, and I wanted to correct it, at least within the GM tags. Oh well.
Another thing I definitely regret not doing is having more of Kyouji's "serious" moments be available to all players. There's a LOT going on in his mind, and I really think that only a few characters really got to see that. I think it would have made a lot of things clearer, like why he was willing to forgive Heath so easily, why he kept switching between considering Monobear an enemy and awkwardly trying to 'understand' the Forces of Despair, and why he said some of the things he did.
... Aaaaaaand, of course, I regret not having him talk to Harmon. He talked to Heath enough (and together they will one day scale the large Mountain Dew), but I really felt like I missed out on an opportunity by not interacting with Harmon at all. I think it'd have been interesting.
I also regret not writing Kyouji in first-person, because I think it would have been extremely interesting. On the other hand, writing in first person would have revealed that Kyouji wasn't really hiding much, unless people suspected that I was REALLY going on the Unreliable Narrator path. I suppose I should have had Kyouji think more in italics...? I do it a lot with Hazuki in 0.2, and it really works well for her, but I did it so rarely for Kyouji, and when I did it was mostly for jokes rather than stuff that could have shown more sides to him. This is actually something I realized near the end of the RP, and I wanted to correct it, at least within the GM tags. Oh well.
Another thing I definitely regret not doing is having more of Kyouji's "serious" moments be available to all players. There's a LOT going on in his mind, and I really think that only a few characters really got to see that. I think it would have made a lot of things clearer, like why he was willing to forgive Heath so easily, why he kept switching between considering Monobear an enemy and awkwardly trying to 'understand' the Forces of Despair, and why he said some of the things he did.
... Aaaaaaand, of course, I regret not having him talk to Harmon. He talked to Heath enough (and together they will one day scale the large Mountain Dew), but I really felt like I missed out on an opportunity by not interacting with Harmon at all. I think it'd have been interesting.