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Jyuushiko Ukitake | Bleach (AU)

[wavesandthunder]

P L A Y E R;
NAME: Cocoa
AGE: over 21
PLAYER JOURNAL: momijizukamori
TIMEZONE: EST
CONTACT: momijizukamori at gmail dot com, momijizukamori on AIM, pocketing
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: Toshizou Hijikata | Peacemaker Kurogane

C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Jyuushiko Ukitake (Jyuushirou Ukitake)
CANON: Bleach
POINT IN CANON: Immediately prior to the Fake Karakura Town arc
AGE: ~2000, appears late 40s, acts similarly
APPEARANCE: Jyuushiko is built along the same lines as her male counterparts - tall, thin, and mostly muscle. She's a few inches shorter, hovering closer to five foot ten (and if you point out that she's really tall, she will agree and tell you her whole family skews that way), and a little narrower through the shoulders. In contrast to most of her male counterparts, she has close-cropped hair, with longer bangs in front.

[wavesandthunder]

CANON HISTORY: here
CANON PERSONALITY: Jyuushiko comes off immediately as a very friendly person - not invasively so, as she's unfailingly polite and socially aware enough to realize when she's starting to be pushy, but she does tend to treat everyone around her as an equal or as if they're part of her family. She's a very good listener, and as such is very easy to put trust in - trust which she will not betray, if she can help it. And while she doesn't trust in people blindly, she does not hold back her faith in others, and is very protective of those she cares about.

When it comes to dealing with her superiors, she's usually quite formal, although not to the point of being cold about it - it's simply that she's deferential to authority. At the same time, though, she has a very strong moral code, and /will/ question orders that violate her personal honor. She also takes a certain amount of pride in her independence, and is a very hardworking person, often taking on more than is expected of her, a trait she acquired as a way of proving herself to people who thought her illness made her weak or incapable.

When the situation demands it, she's very quick to drop the cheerful, friendly attitude and get serious. She fights honorably, but she doesn't play around. Fighting is a means to an end for Jyuushiko, not an end in of itself. She likes being strong, likes being able to protect the people she cares about, but she doesn't enjoy hurting people - it is simply a necessary evil.

Mentally, she's quite intelligent, though she lacks the education necessary to be really 'book smart' - she is, however, a good tactician. She's also quite good at understanding people, which leads to a strong knowledge of her subordinates' strengths and weaknesses, allowing her to place people in positions that they are well-suited for. This has earned her a reputation as a skilled leader with her peers, and a reputation as a thoughtful superior to her subordinates.

Emotionally, her weakness lies, somewhat ironically, with her strong sense of honor and pride. Because she was very sheltered as a child due to her frequent illnesses, she puts a great deal of faith in being able to do things for herself, and will sometimes push herself past her limits out of stubbornness. She is also sometimes guilty of putting a sense of pride and honor before actually getting the job done, or allowing others under her command to do so, which can have serious consequences - for instance, Kaien's death.


POINT OF DEPARTURE: Jyuushiko is a genderbend of a canonically male character. This largely doesn't affect actual canon events (as Jyuushirou is a relatively minor character in Bleach), though her backstory contains the following headcanons/minor canon divergences:

While very little is known about Ukitake's canon past, Jyuushiko is the oldest of eight children - three daughters and five sons. She was born into the world of Soul Society itself, rather than being born into the living world and then dying. When she was in the equivalent of her mid-teens, her parents were killed when Hollows - huge, barely sentient monsters that do nothing but hunger - attacked their family home. Jyuushiko herself was injured standing between the last wounded one and her younger siblings. The event marked a turning point in her life - while not the family heir, she was the oldest by a decent margin, and felt it was her responsibility to care for the rest of the family. The fight with the Hollow had also brought her rather strong spiritual power.

With the goal in mind of attaining a position that would allow her to support her family, she enrolled in the newly created Shino Academy - using a male name. A woman of her rank would have the ability to birth new souls, and would be expected to do as such, and her illness would be another mark against her. Record-keeping was poor, and she was from a large enough family that another son on the lists would be overlooked - and it would be easier for a boy to get in than a girl, or so her mental logic went.

She actually managed to succeed in keeping her true identity secret while at the academy, with a few notable exceptions. Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto, the founder of the academy, and current captain-commander of the Gotei 13, was smart enough to see right through her disguise, but, being Yamamoto, chose not to say anything about it, and allow her to reveal herself. The other two people who managed to figure out the mystery were Shunsui Kyouraku, Ukitake's roommate, and Retsu Unohana, one of the healers working in the infirmary.

Once she attained captain status, after graduating, she slowly allowed her actual gender to become known - having rank protected her from most of the fallout of this, though there were still some who felt a woman was not fit to lead one of the fighting divisions. Much of her history remains the same as her canon counterparts, however, what shifts is her relationships with many of the characters. Jyuushiko has closer ties to many of the female characters than her male counterpart, particularly the female members of her division. She also considers Retsu to be a very close friend, on par with Shunsui who is (canonically) Ukitake's best friend.

One notable timeline difference occurs after the end of the Soul Society arc. With the threat of Aizen looming, Jyuushiko decided that it was time for 13th Division to have a lieutenant again. She chose Rukia Kuchiki as her vice-captain, which resulted in a bit of a shouting match with Byakuya, her older brother. Byakuya eventually caved, particularly when Jyuushiko had a coughing fit in the middle of the argument and Retsu got involved. All other events after this follow canon up to Jyuu's canonpoint.

ABILITIES:Jyuushiko is a highly skilled swordswoman, being proficient both with single blades, and somewhat more unusually, more complicated dual-wielding techniques. To non-mages, the sword she uses simply seems to be a particularly high quality antique blade, with a red hilt-wrapping. It appears to be both well-used and well-cared for. Anyone with mage or spirit sight, however, will be able to tell fairly quickly that the sword - named 'Sougyo no Kotowari' or 'Truth of Pisces' - is a fairly powerful magical weapon, one that is tied intrinsically to Jyuushiko's own soul, and other shinigami will know it for what it truly is - a 'zanpakuto' or 'soul cutter'. Due to Sougyo no Kotowari being, literally, an extension of her consciousness and soul, Jyuushiko is able to utilize the sword's special powers. The sword has two levels of power release - shikai and bankai. She's capable of both, but does not use the bankai level because it's too draining.

The shikai release command is 'All waves, rise and become my shield, lightning strike and become my blade'. At this, the sword splits into two katana, connected by a heavy red cord threaded with charms. The swords are unusual in that they have an angular, bladed hook jutting out of the blade, allowing them to be used as a defensive weapon as well as an offensive one. The strikes these deal are a little stronger than normal, as they're backed up with raw magical power. The blades also have a special power in this form - the left one can absorb magical attacks, which are then directed through the right blade, back at the opponent. Maintaining shikai form, however, is a bit of an energy drain, and Jyuushiko generally prefers to fight with the sealed form of the sword unless she needs the extra power. The spirits of the sword also occasionally manifest themselves to her, either in dreams or meditative trances, taking the form of a pair of androgynous, white haired children, dressed in old-fashioned blue ceremonial robes, or a pair of sleek, blue-silver fish. These two are very playful, and definitely a bit mysterious. They do not currently have the strength to manifest themselves to others, however.

Jyuushiko is also a fairly powerful mage. She is capable of using a large number of combat spells (which generally exist as as various manipulations of pure energy) and binding spells (which generally keep their target from moving, although some exist as shield spells as well), and can cast them at a very high power without using the long incantations usually required to empower the spells. She also has some knowledge of healing kido and general medical techniques. She can also use a number of movement techniques generally known as flash step - it allows the user to cross short to medium distances instantaneously, and do things they normally couldn't, like standing on air, or jumping up to tall tree branches. As a shinigami, Jyuushiko can also see and talk with ghosts and spirits, and can perform a rite known as 'soul burial', which sends ghosts on to the next world.

INVENTORY; Standard Shinigami uniform + captain's haori, cough drops and some hard candies, more handkerchiefs than anyone should actually need, and Sogyo no Kotowari
ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW? I've always handled Sogyo no Kotowari's personality and interactions - since they're usually in the sword unless something unusual happens. Also, there are some bits and pieces in the sample threads that are no longer part of the AU (they were written before the Fake Karakura Town arc was finished and I had made up an ending, but her canonpoint is before that arc).
S A M P L E S;
ACTIONSPAM SAMPLE: thread
PROSE SAMPLE: thread, along with available backstory bits on her journal!

ACCEPTED!

[powersthatbe]

ACCEPTED!

If you'd like, you can intro your character in the newest mingle, but we recommend you wait until tomorrow, when a new mingle made specifically for new character introductions will be going up!