NameBokkon Ibiki, The Striking Squid
Bokkon - Handwriting, letters written in ink.Age22
AppearanceIbiki would love to say that he's wildly handsome or rugged. He would like to stand as a pillar of stoic masculinity, ugly muscle ruined by a lifetime of hard work with the humility and wisdom to wear it proudly. This is not, however, at all the case.
Ibiki is...pretty. He certainly doesn't play up the fact, and certainly doesn't take much pride in it, but his attention to hygiene and basic grooming doesn't help what was already a pretty lucky roll at the genetic lottery. His features are slim and angular, with defined if not sharp cheekbones and a tight, strong chin. His lips are soft and small, mortifying though the idea of anyone commenting on them might be, and his eyes large, dark and open. Falling to just below his ears, his inky hair curls just slightly towards his face. Though well toned and surprisingly strong, Ibiki lacks the bulk and muscle of most samurai.
That Ibiki favors softer tones and more subtle patterns similarly doesn't help his cause. It isn't that he's girly, he does after all wear his daisho, but he'd...you know. Make a good girl. If you're into that.
He, of course, is not.
PersonalityBokkon Ibiki is used to responsibility. The second of twins, as far as he's concerned he was born into his brother's mess with the understanding that somehow it was then his sworn duty to clean it up. Ibiki's top ten words are various forms of apologies--when you have a brother like Iwato, that sort of thing just kind of happens. Serious if not somber, straightforward if not idiotic, Ibiki tries very hard to act as he feels a samurai and a man should in all things. He believes sincerely that a man should do what he does with no desire for reward or recognition--that anything worth doing is worth doing for itself. A devoted student and focused learner, he approaches problems and bears down on his swordsmanship with a dedication that borders on sociopathy, partly because it's tremendously easier than admitting he's awkward as hell.
Ibiki has no idea how to deal with people. Always the serious one, always the butt of the jokes, Ibiki is painfully shy and can't quite bring himself to admit it. Iwato might be fun, gregarious, interesting, but Ibiki just...isn't, in the same way, and the fact that he doesn't understand the difference hurts him more than he'll admit.
Likeable, yes, in the way that you can
like a servant or a butler, but he's far too reserved to make fast friends the way his brother does and he has
absolutely no idea how to deal with women. Slow to anger and all too willing to take things literally and stumble his way into a joke, he's just such an easy target that things just
happen to him that way.
That isn't, however, to say he's without backbone. Its easy to mistake a sense of duty for a lack of spine, but those that do quickly learn that there are lines you shouldn't push.
HistoryThe second of a pair of identical twins, Bokkon Ibiki got the short end of the stick from day one. It wasn't that his parents didn't love him or loved his brother more, it's just that tradition dictated that the first child inherit title and the second upkeep the family holdings. In Ibiki's case, this meant that his brother Iwato (born two minutes earlier) was slated to uphold the Bokkon family's samurai tradition while Ibiki was expected to...well, learn accounting.
This, of course, would not do.
Ibiki has never wanted anything more than to be a samurai. He dreamed of standing alone against many on some sunlit battlefield, silent in duty and fearsome in purpose. To see his older brother, then, squander the chance he would never have was understandably frustrating for him. To watch him fumble his way through his lessons and half-ass his swordsmanship, then, was understandably insulting. It wasn't until the pair were twelve and Iwato was slated to join the prestigious Kagesame Ryuu kenjutsu dojo in town that Ibiki finally put his foot down. He took up a bokken, challenged his brother to a duel, and wiped the floor with the little brat. At least
one of them had been paying attention for his lessons.
And yet, his father refused to change his mind. "Part of being a samurai is upholding tradition", his son infamously remembers him saying, as he sent his good-for-nothing oldest son to one of the finest swordsmanship schools in the Empire and made his second son learn the finer details of Imperial tax law. Life might have been very boring for him had his mother not taken mercy on the poor boy and hired him a proper tutor.
No one had heard of Ika Muchiuchi Ryuu swordsmanship, or the 'Gesokunji' who taught it; what they
had heard was that he worked for room and board, which was a low enough entry price for what his mother hoped would be a good thing for her desperately frustrated son. Had she any idea the monster she was creating, she might well have opted out of it.
Ika Muchiuchi Ryuu, or the Lashing Squid style, was a joke for ninety-nine out of a hundred practitioners. It required the kind of focus, accuracy, and flexibility out of the gate that just wasn't feasible. It required boneless fluidity, total-body awareness, and an ability to commit to strikes at frankly preposterous angles. It required accepting that one's respected animal was a damn
squid. But once in a blue moon opportunity knocks, and when it did Ibiki opened the doors wide. Even Gesokungi, the last remaining 'master' of the style, couldn't help but stare at the prodigy standing before him. Ibiki took to it like a fish--sorry,
squid--to water, and though he didn't shirk his lessons he also went and wore the old man out after each and every one of them. He had a goal, of course, and he intended to see it through.
He was going to kick the
shit out of his brother and the whole damn Kagesame school.
At 22, a decade after his training began, Gesokungi declared that he was ready for his final test...and disappeared, leaving behind only a fried squid of the sort one found in the Southern Markets by way of goodbye. Believing this to be a test, that he must go and find his master and prove himself worthy of the final secrets of his esoteric style, Ibiki said his goodbye and apologies and prepared to leave...
After kicking the shit out of the Kagesame school.
What happened after that was sheer bad luck. It turns out that not only was the Kagesame school excellent for breeding swordsmen, it was also excellent at breeding revolutionaries. Ibiki arrived to challenge the senior classmate of the Kagesame school, readied himself for the duel...and was promptly arrested by the five Imperial Officers who arrived on the scene for "the revolutionary swordsman Bokkon Iwato".
"It wasn't me, officer, it was my twin brother" was about as good an excuse as you'd imagine it to be.
StrengthsThe Stirking SquidThere are swordsmen, and then there are
swordsmen. The kind of prodigies who become wandering legends, war heroes, or feared opponents, and Bokkon Ibiki has all the potential to be one of the latter. Ika Muchiuchi Ryuu kenjutsu focuses on lightning fast slashes and distance games, a monstrously technical style nowhere near as whimsical as its moniker might make it out to be--it is so named because all that a foe of a true master will see is the endless lashing vectors fanning out from their foe like the prey's-eye-view of a striking squid. Having all but mastered the style, Ibiki has numerous ink-and-cephalopod themed strikes and attacks to rely on should specific techniques be required, and alarming prowess outside of that.
For Great Justice!Ibiki knows what's right and what's wrong. He knows what is honorable and what is not. He knows the code of Bushido, and follows it as best he can. Though he would be the last person to call himself a saint, there is something to be said for that unassailable moral armor and its ability to inspire guilt, irritation, and various other responses in those around him. When it comes to standing up for what's right, however, Ibiki's usually got the Greater Good on his side.
...and taxes.Having mastered one of the two universal certainties, Ibiki would be remiss if he let the other slide. His education in the Imperial financial system
did rub off, and he's actually an embarrassingly competent accountant, seneschal, and head of house. That he'd rather 'run off and play samurai' is a significant irritation of his parents', who were actually quite counting on him taking over from their currently lackluster financier.
Weaknesses...dames, amirite?Ibiki is just...clueless when it comes to women. Like most men of 'chivalry' he doesn't have the first idea what most women want and tends to hold them on something of a pedestal, which can be both obnoxious and dangerous depending on the company one keeps. He is the last to suspect duplicity from a woman, the first to find flimsy excuses for poor behavior, and the last to treat them with casual familiarity.
Honor--I Haz ItThere are some things a man can walk away from and some things he can't; the downside of living by a code is following it. Though he does his best to be a reasonable and intelligent individual, when it comes down to the wire Ibiki would rather go out fighting than surrender and let a true insult stand. He doesn't cut down every passerby who says something shitty to him, but a direct challenge to his swordsmanship, his master, or those he has sworn to protect just doesn't go unanswered. The irony that he follows a school with such a silly mascot is not lost on him.
Dude Looks Like a Lady!Straight from the trope, Ibiki's just...pretty. It's awkward. Aside from the swords he wears and the cut of his yukata, a quick look at him probably won't land you the right pronoun. That he's as often as not oblivious to the issue until it comes up directly is...similarly regrettable.
LikesStreet food
Smoking
Snakes
Architecture
DislikesLemon custard
Wooden sandals
Dogs
Heavy clothing
ThemeCaliber
