Tempest // Tsuyukusa ([personal profile] rootless) wrote2014-06-30 03:15 am
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( PLAYER INFORMATION )

Name: Tara
Contact: tsunyukusa @ gmail, treefucker @ plurk
Are you over 17?: Yep
Characters in Forest Covered: N/A

( CHARACTER INFORMATION )

Name/Work Name: Tsuyukusa (Dayflower)
Canon: Amatsuki
Canon Point: Just after Toki fuses him with the jellyfish spirit to save his life. Plus ~100 years and four dwrp games.
AU/CRAU: CRAU.
Age: Actual age unknown, over a hundred, appears to be in his mid-twenties.
History: Tsuyukusa came into existence when an ancient tree died. A cutting from that tree was planted, and from it sprouted a tiny bird deer critter. That tiny tree spirit was raised by an old serpent demon named Byakuroku, with a young tengu called Hiwa for an adoptive brother.

But the forest where Tsuyukusa and Hiwa were raised wasn't entirely populated by demons and spirits. In that forest was also a shrine that housed a line of exorcist priestesses, which became increasingly dangerous as tensions rose between humans and demons. For at least a few months, however, those tensions didn't really reach Tsuyukusa. When Hiwa started disappearing time and time again, Tsuyukusa found a friend in a little human girl named Shinshu who would venture into the forest to play with him.

The priestesses discovered Shinshu was missing on one such occasion, and everything went to shit. The search party made a point to exorcise (murder) as many demons as crossed their path, and Tsuyukusa ran into them while they did that. There was some hesitation, because he looked almost like a human child, but he lost his temper and threatened them and they riddled him with arrows until he couldn't hold his human form anymore. Byakuroku happened upon this scene, and the usually pragmatic serpent snapped. He devoured/mauled the priestesses for their transgression, became poisoned by the taste of human blood, and was killed by the head priestess, at least for all Tsuyukusa knows.

Tsuyu survived the experience, but was so emotionally scarred that he lost his memories of the entire incident, as well as all recollections of Shinshu. The child with a human friend grew into a teenager with a bitter hatred of humans and an awkward relationship with his brother (now called Bonten). He avoided his tree, the scene of the tragedy, a habit that could easily get him killed, to the point where the only thing keeping him alive was a blood seal made by Bonten. Inherently powerful, as tree spirits tend to be, but without any of the stereotypical calm inaction, Tsuyukusa was much sought after as a protector of other demons and spirits. It's one such situation that gets him involved with the human side of the cast.

A fox spirit named Imayou came to Heaven's Seat to beg for help avenging her master, a tree spirit that had been cut down. Bonten was sleeping, and sleeps forever, so when that struck a chord with Tsuyukusa he went off on his own to deal with the problem. He got lost, though, and (literally) ran into a human named Heihachi, who he immediately hit it off with despite his supposed hatred of humans. He enlisted Heihachi as a guide, and while they were finding Imayou, Heihachi made it clear that he had figured out Tsuyukusa was a demon and still liked him. So of course when they found Imayou she immediately mauled and nearly killed Heihachi. Imayou was bewildered when Tsuyu spent the energy to heal Heihachi, but at the same time he helped anchor her to existence for a while by sacrificing half his blood seal for her (making his own existence much shakier), so she didn't argue and just accepted his help.

While trying to help her, Tsuyukusa met the main character, one Rikugou Tokidoki, a boy from another world. He warned Toki away from the entire situation, since he was technically a neutral party, but when worse came to worst Toki definitely saved as many people as he could, human and demon, so he gained a begrudging ally in Tsuyukusa. As time and plot passed, Tsuyukusa's grudge against humanity grew smaller and smaller until he finally hit the point where he literally sacrificed himself to save a human rival, protecting her while his tree was snapped in half.

Personality: Tsuyukusa is very compassionate despite his rough exterior -- he will help fellow ayakashi (and even humans, in certain cases that become much less rare as canon continues) simply because he believes it's his duty, or he feels he owes them, or he's wrapped himself so thoroughly in their problem that it is now irrevocably his problem too. His compassion leads him to be more than a little self-sacrificing at times, such as when he tore up the charm keeping him in human form away from his tree just to help a suffering fox ayakashi who had already tried to kill his friend, or when he literally got himself killed for a woman who was his enemy just a short time before.

Still, he's sort of prickly, tending much more towards harsh words and physical distance than actually showing affection, but he very easily grows fond of others, and will do most anything to protect those he values. He doesn't like the ease with which he allows himself to grow close to people, and even tries to push away his feelings for Toki by yelling at the boy about how he's just using Tsuyu as a replacement friend for Kon, who lost his memories, when Toki was growing too overly familiar and clingy.

Tsuyukusa is a juyou, or tree ayakashi, which tend to be incredibly powerful but also much less prone to violence than animal ayakashi. Tsuyukusa himself, however, does seem to have a tendency to pick fights, though he professes not to enjoy them very much. He takes no issue with fleeing when it's prudent, as long as it risks nobody he considers to be in his care, and also won't usually jump into actual battle unless provoked or attacked physically. Content as he is to argue with anyone as loudly and obnoxiously as possible, he is very rarely the one to cause it to come to physical blows.

Byakuroku's death at the hands of Ginshu (the way he sees it, at least. let's not get too complicated here, shall we?) and the preceding murder of the demons in the forest (and near-murder of himself) by priestesses in their search for the missing Shinshu really skewed Tsuyukusa's view of humanity. He definitely doesn't like humans, but despite this hatred apparently can't help but view them with as much fairness as possible. He had no trouble with befriending Heihachi, and values him to the point where he won't pick fights that would upset the human. As Amatsuki progresses he takes a much more tolerant view of humans, even eventually siding with them against his own kind, further demonstrating his ability to take things on a case by case basis.

Tsuyukusa is intensely loyal, but lost the focus for that loyalty early in life. Instead of latching onto an obvious replacement (like his brother) he attached himself to the concept of protecting his own kind, which is a job so vast that he just about tears himself apart in attempting to swing it. On a regular basis. But because of his lack of an actual singular focus for his energies, most of them go into self-destruction, ripping himself from his true body, suppressing his childhood memories to a ridiculous point and throwing himself at any cause that will take him. He tends to blind himself to the other side of things, even though he isn't stupid. In the back of his mind he knows his opponents have a right to their beliefs, reasons for what they are doing, but he shoves that knowledge back, ignores it, and thus enables himself to do terrible things for what he believes is right.

^That's all just canon Tsuyukusa. The real adventure starts in the Previous Game Info

Debt: Tsuyukusa is trying to get his tree back! And transplanted into Thusia. But, I mean, it's a powerful spirit's tree, which he wants to move into another universe, so maaaybe a bit expensive~
Suitability: Tsuyukusa honestly won't... think of it as having been tricked. He's been forced and tricked into other worlds with ridiculous frequency before this, and with Forest Covered he'll have signed a contract. Not only that, but he doesn't particularly chafe at taking responsibility for his desires, and he'd have to pay for his tree SOMEHOW. This is a better option than the previous attempts.

Previous Game Info: Here's where it gets fun! Tsuyukusa has been in four games before Forest Covered!

The first game he went to was Aather. The idea of Aather is that people lose their memories and regain them one at a time by playing games in teams, so it's important to note that for much of his stay in Aather he didn't actually remember important things. Because one of the first things he did in Aather was befriend Ginshu, also known as the person who killed/fused with Byakuroku. So while his team, Turquoise, was instrumental in helping him decide not to become the human-hater in his memories, his decision to forgive Ginshu is what really separated him from his canon self, even more than his refusal to go by anything but the name his team gave him upon arrival. That name was Tempest. Tempest was pretty volatile in Aather, swinging between being manic and just kind of bratty. His team often solved his more self-destructive moods by hogtying him and leaving him somewhere sunny, since at that point they were convinced he photosynthesized. A lot of his stability was based on team, so when a death game he missed didn't take the trouble to revive his teammates after killing them, it wasn't long before he accidentally on purpose got himself killed by a darkness monster.

Relevant Aather CR:
Mikage Celestine: Baby dragon boyfriend! No-- well, pretty much that. They never actually dated because Mikage was taken, but Tempest was grossly in love with him and it was mutual. Mikage was a soothing influence even when Tempest was at his worst, and had the added bonus of being technically inhuman when he was struggling with his feelings on his past.
Clue (Katou): Teammate! Clue is the teammate Tempest was closest with initially, but things got a little awkward between them for various reasons and they drifted apart. Still, he had quite a bit of influence on Tempest's sense of humor and delinquent streak.
Breeze (Yayoi): Teammate! Leadergirl! Breeze was the leader of the feral band of teenagers called Turquoise, at the start, and was personally responsible for derailing a lot of Tempest's messes. Sometimes this came down to yelling at him while he was trussed up, or crying at him, or running off a cliff to keep him from running away, since he'd have to save her as the only present flying member of the team. They stressed each other out, but she was deeply important to him.
Saiguuji Sion: Turquoise's pet Heliodor! Tempest ended up sharing a lot of his thoughts and troubles with Sion over time, and was scruffed pretty much whenever he tried to avoid doing so. He wasn't very close to Sion in Aather, but they were definitely acquainted, and it becomes relevant later.

After he died in Aather, some of humanity's gods of Thusia picked him up out of, I don't know, the swirl of dead souls between universes, and realized they had made a huge mistake. See, Thusia's gods were recruiting dead people to help them drive back the nature of that world, which had basically wiped out civilization long before game start. Grabbing a tree spirit? Less than sensible. Luckily for them, Tempest sided with civilization immediately, since he had important people on the human side of things. Not long after his arrival he personally made an enemy out of a god/spirit/deity of a murderous forest, which pretty much cemented him as an ally of humanity. Tempest had a lot of time to grow up a bit and chill out on things like his name and identity, because he spent roughly a century in Thusia actually growing up before he got snatched up by another game.

Relevant Thusia CR:
Akimoto Natsume: A kitsune who immediately attached herself to him because she'd been fond of a canon version of him that had been there first. She strong-armed him into letting her become his guardian/servant because of typical tree spirit/animal spirit relations. They grew close pretty quickly, and though after a while they both moved in with their respective families, he still visited her and hers fairly often. He was considered an uncle by her children, and she cared for a tree that represented him, even though it wasn't really his.
Aerta Ferham: Cousin (in the "we're both plant people" sense) turned occasional plant-dragon turned sister-in-law-as-far-as-these-things-go. They met when Tsuyu was stuck in his true form. She mistook him for a benevolent member of thusia-nature, and tried to mercy kill him. He forgave her immediately, and they had an awkward sort of friendship until her brother arrived and they grew closer in several ways through him. Helped Tsuyu become the shamelessly affectionate and sexual creature he is today.
Aeron Ferham: Aerta's brother and Tsuyu's husband-as-far-as-polygamous-plant-people-go. They hit it off immediately, and a short friendship spiralled quickly into a ridiculous romance of ridiculous people. Was instrumental in Tsuyu becoming the shamelessly affectionate and sexual creature he is today, because Aeron was shamelessly affectionate and sexual and sometimes you spend a century around a guy and he rubs off on you a lot. Aeron was the reason Tsuyu calmed down by a lot, because Aeron was also basically a ball of PTSD and neuroses, so Tsuyu chilled out quite a bit just to help him cope with his issues, coping with many of his own in turn.

After a good long time in Thusia, he was tricked into going to Decollage on a whim. He wanted his tree back. Much like Aather, Decollage was team-based regain of memories and skills, but players lost one or the other, not both. Tsuyukusa lost his skills but retained his memories. The team he ended up on this time was Celeste, or as far as the rest of Decollage was concerned: the villain team. Celeste as a whole had abandonment issues like no other, on top of the hideously murdering or getting murdered in and out of games thing going, so Tsuyukusa threw in his lot with them and suffered for it. What sanity he gained in Thusia was pretty much either completely destroyed or twisted by his stay in Decollage. Between his absurd amount of skills and the slow-down of games over time, Tsuyukusa was one of the few to stay in Decollage for more than a few months. Copper Rose was one of the other teams with a fairly solid set of people who stuck around. Tsuyu tended to lean on Copper Rose as a whole, especially when turnover got intense and all of his teammates were what he considered baby teammates. He lasted four years before Decollage itself broke down, and he escaped to another universe to try again.

Relevant Decollage CR:
Ayakashi (Yakumo Yukari): A member of Copper Rose, a team Celeste was consistently allied with. Ayakashi had lost her memories, but was objectively batshit insane. Unfortunately, that tends to be the opposite of a thing that chases Tsuyukusa off,
so they were pretty close. She mercy-killed him when he needed it, terrorized him when he didn't, and he derailed her from some of her more "rocks fall everybody dies" ideas.
Ticky Mick: Another Copper Rose. He was also in the mercy-kill/terrorize Tsuyu camp, but it was a lot more occasional. Generally they were the calm ones of the group, except for when one or the other or both were actively losing their minds.
Akimoto Natsume: She followed him to Deco and he regretted it forever. She was on Cardinal, so that team allied with Celeste as well, and she did her level best to keep Tsuyukusa out of trouble and in one piece. Which rarely worked. All that effort with lack of real reward broke her down a lot, in addition to the hideous amounts of near-constant trauma, and they definitely went through periods of Tsuyukusa trying to chase her off so she'd stop destroying herself over him, and failing to get rid of her at all. They fluctuated in closeness, but they tried their best to take care of each other regardless.

AND FINALLY, in escaping the destruction of Decollage, Tsuyukusa found himself in Court. He started Court on a high note, basically holding onto the attitude of IT CAN'T BE AS BAD AS THE LAST PLACE, but it quickly proved itself full of murder and horrible things anyway. He spent about a year and a half rising in the ranks and feeling shittier and shittier, until he realized he simply couldn't swing that kind of competition, and moved on into Forest Covered.

Relevant Court CR:
Saiguuji Sion: The same one from Aather, but a few years older, and with a century of separation on Tsuyu's end. What was only an acquaintanceship before quickly became an intense friendship. Since Tsuyu had at least an illusion of more of a handle on his issues, they actually discussed Sion's this time around, which added to Tsuyukusa's emotional investment. Eventually they actually discussed things less and less, and Sion made Tsuyukusa swear to stay alive and with him as long as Sion lived. Tsuyukusa didn't know Sion intended to become a god. That's entrapment, you dick.
Mikogami Hayato: Tsuyukusa's master of a good long while. They became disgustingly attached to each other disgustingly quickly, and since Mikogami was a tiny tyrant of unparalleled emotional insecurity, Tsuyukusa got to demonstrate his capacity for dealing with nonsense fairly often. (He doesn't have a capacity for dealing with nonsense. He picked Mikogami up and shook him on multiple occasions.)
Ayakashi -> Yakumo Yukari: Ayakashi basically committed existential suicide all over Tsuyu, choosing to buy back all her memories and essentially erase the Aya he'd known for four years by becoming the impossibly ancient Yukari, for whom four measly years would mean basically nothing. His abandonment issues skyrocketed on that day.

Inventory: Just his clothes and wallet from Court. He probably won't want that back anyway.

Abilities, Strengths, and Weaknesses: Being significantly older than his canon counterpart, he's grown into his abilities and strength by quite a lot, since canon Tsuyu is essentially a baby in terms of power vs potential. Not only that, but Decollage passed out abilities for participation in events, so on top of his natural skills he has ice powers.

First, as a tree spirit he has quite a bit of control over plants. He can make a plant more vibrant, or make it grow something the size of a staff in just a few seconds. He's inherently more powerful than animal spirits as well, just by nature of being what he is. He can easily lift something roughly the size of an orca whale, move fast enough that it's essentially a consistent flash step, and exert enough spiritual pressure to stop most things with any sort of spirit sense in their tracks. On top of all this, he can fly.

Tsuyukusa is also a healer. He has actual supernatural abilities along the lines of "green glow regenerates" up to a certain point (that point being handwaving how much the person he's healing wants to be healed), but his real strength lies in his knowledge of plants and their medicinal uses, as well as first aid. Regenerating green glow can't set a bone in the right place, and healing something the wrong way can have horrible consequences.

As for his Decollage abilities, Celeste got ice powers. He can create objects (like knives) out of ice, freeze/chill things with skin contact, and cause small blizzards for a short period of time as a sort of smoke screen.

I wasn't joking about his absurd amount of skills. Tree spirits are gifted shapeshifters, and the form he uses normally isn't even his true form. In reality he's a massive bird-thing with a wooden face/beak/antlers/hooves, and yes I said hooves, because he also has fur and deer legs. His shapeshifting isn't limited to his usual form and his true form, but he's a horrible liar and actor, so he doesn't typically pull anything sneaky with it. In addition, he's a little bit reality-breaking. Just kind of. He's not only strong enough to be clearly visible to humans with absolutely no spiritual sense at all, but he can open a door into the spirit world from the human world with ease, hold it open and let normal people through to travel on it. On top of that, while he's not an illusionist himself, and his ability to see through them is kind of weak, he can break them like nobody's business, with enough direction.

He's inherently weak to fire and holy things, but strong enough to recover from both, for the most part. He's also impulsive and way too swayed by his emotions to make logical decisions most of the time, and thus easily manipulated.