From Sailor Moon Flash!
| Nephrite | |
|---|---|
 Nephrite, by Z | |
| Profile | |
| Name: | Susuki Binshou |
| Birthday: | September 23 |
| Age: | 16 |
| Affiliation: | Terrans, Chuo |
| Powers: | Autumn, Stars |
| Player: | Z |
Contents |
The Basics
Name: Susuki Binshou. Susuki (薄) is a surname that means "pampas grass", one of seven plants traditionally used for decoration in autumn harvest festivals. Binshou (敏昭) is a given name that means "clever", though it can also be written with the kanji for "autumn sky" (旻 bin) and "star" (星 shou). How awesome is that? Very, even if the name IS a homonym for "bean show".
Position: Nephrite, Shitennou of Autumn, Stars, and the West. Also a human search engine. In the mean time, he's a second year student at Chuo Gakuen.
Appearance: Binshou has an oval-shaped face with soft, rounded features, and his skin falls on the paler end of the spectrum. His eyes are copper-colored, wide and slightly rounded, and are framed in dark lashes. Of course, they’re almost always obscured by a pair of black wire-rimmed (emo) glasses, with sort of trapezoid-shaped lenses. His hair is a dark, mousy brown color with little in the way of highlights. It does have some body to it that comes from Binshou running his hands through his hair when he gets nervous. His bangs fall past his eyes, and generally sit in the middle of his forehead. The rest of his hair is layered, with the longest strands at the top and the shortest ones at the bottom, near the nape of his neck. Binshou speaks in a high tenor that can go even higher when he's surprised or nervous, and he has a tendency to speak in what has come to be known as the Binshou Wee Voice.
He’s a little on the short side, just shy of 5'5”. He has a medium-sized frame, and juudou has given him some less-than-noticeable muscle. His legs are relatively long, built for running and balance. He doesn’t hunch over unless he’s leaning in over a book, and his movement is slow and fluid when he’s off in his own world, or quick and abbreviated when he’s in a social situation. At school he wears the basic uniform, or his juudougi (a basic, white martial arts uniform) during club meets. At home he has a basic black kimono for chaji ceremonies, with a black overcoat and gray hakama. For special occasions, he has a black kimono with a gold leaf pattern stitched onto it. When he's on his own time, his usual ensemble includes a t-shirt, sometimes with a longer-sleeved shirt underneath, a hooded sweatshirt, running pants with a racing stripe up the side of each leg, and some variety of sneakers.
Age/Birthday/Astrological Whatnot: Binshou is currently 16 years old, and was born on – wait for it – September 23rd, 1985. Soaking in the Virgo-Libra cusp as he is, he takes some characteristics from both these signs. On the Virgo side, he is responsible, sensible, logical, precise, punctual, dedicated, and somewhat introverted. On the Libra side, he is a peacemaker, diplomatic, gracious, kind, courteous, fair-minded, cooperative, and somewhat indecisive.
Mundane Life
Friends and Family: His mother and father are obviously central figures in his life. His friends include Teaki, and... well, mostly Teaki (until he gets to know the other senshi). There's also Kuruoshii Yakko-san, but he's not a close friend so much as an insane acquaintance.
Usual Daily Routine: Binshou wakes up in time for school by alarm, because his body would rather sleep in if given the choice. He goes to school at Chuo Gakuen, where he is in class 2-A, and usually eats lunch outside with Teaki (because Binshou is always the wing man, whether he realizes it or not). After school is dreaded juudou, where Binshou tries very hard to grapple politely and usually ends up on the mat. When he's not in school, he's often at home helping his parents run their tea house and perfecting the art of chaji. His duties are varied and range from cooking meals for the guests, cleaning the tea room out after a ceremony, serving as assistant to the host during the actual ceremony, and ringing the gong or bell to call the guests in to tea. He ALWAYS rings the gong. That's his thing, man. Seriously, don't touch it.
Any free time is spent either hanging out with (or tutoring) Teaki, or hanging out on his own. If he's off on his own, he can usually be found at the library, the park, or the cemetery (which sounds darque and gothique, but really it's just a nice place to read). Speaking of reading, Binshou always has a book on his person. Always. He prefers non-fiction, but ultimately he'll read anything. He spends a large percentage of his life reading. He spends an even larger percentage of his life (if that's possible) listening to his mp3 player, which he named "Betty" because he is a doof. His preferred music is rock – Japanese and Western, new and old – though he has an appreciation for all music.
Background: Blood may be thicker than water, but tea runs hot in the blood of the Susuki family. They've been running a tea house on their property in Chuo-ku for generations, and the most recent proprietor of this tea house is Susuki Kotatsu, Binshou's father and tea fanatic. In his early twenties, he married a lovely young girl whose family had recently moved to Tokyo from Kyoto, where she'd studied at the Urasenke School of Chadou. Her name is Misa, mother to Binshou, and also a tea fanatic. She moved in with Kotatsu, and they drank, lived, and breathed tea. Well, okay, they didn't BREATHE tea, that would be stupid. They apparently had time for SOME activities not directly related to tea, because five years into their marriage, Binshou was born. Misa wasn't very happy at going into labor in a cemetery, but Binshou seems to have turned out normal enough for it. In raising Binshou, Kotatsu and Misa have always tried to strike a balance between instilling Binshou with the traditional cultural values so close to their hearts, and allowing him the freedom to find his own path in the modern urban landscape. The last thing they wanted was for Binshou to grow up resenting everything they loved because they'd constantly shoved it down his throat.
Binshou was actually a rather timid child. Fortunately, the near-constant guests at the teahouse kept him from becoming a complete social dunce. He'd perform a variety of different tasks during the ceremony, depending on what aspect of the tradition his parents were teaching him at the time, but he always, ALWAYS got to hit the gong to call the guests in. Understandably, despite occasional efforts to recruit him, he always stayed far, far away from the tea ceremony club at school. He gets enough of that at home, thank you very much. Instead, he joined the shougi club in elementary school. Chess, you see, is always the refuge of the intelligent-yet-physically-disinclined nerd, no matter what country he may live in. He was perfectly content with this school-chess-library-home lifestyle, but his parents were afraid that Binshou, an introverted child to begin with, would become antisocial and soft. So it happened that when he began middle school, Kotatsu and Misa gave him a choice: he could either come straight home after school and perform the tea ceremony until bed, or he could join the juudou club. They suspected he'd choose the second, and they were correct.
As it happens, Binshou spent a good deal of his middle school years in headlocks, or leg pins, or being thrown to the mat thirty times in a row. He just wasn't aggressive enough to really grapple with someone else. On a positive note, it put a little muscle on him and improved his posture and falling techniques. No matter how many times someone knocks him off his feet, he can keep getting back up. This came in handy when dealing with that universal middle school phenomenon: bullies. Binshou, being Binshou, was a natural target for them, and it was thanks to their harassment that he learned some important evasion techniques they never taught in juudou. Primarily, he learned to run, and by "run" I don't mean Celeste-type sprinting. I mean run RUN GETAWAY over fences, up walls, through any obstacle that might slow the pursuer down. Luckily, this hasn't carried over into high school, and his afternoons have become far more relaxed... once juudou club is over, anyway. Today, Binshou can still be found sitting on the sidelines of life, book and walkman in hand, rather content, but at the same time feeling as if he should get in on the game.
A Little More Specific
Quirks: He's a quiet lad, because talking isn't exactly a strength of his and he knows it. His speech is littered with "um's" and "uh's" (and "ano's" and "ee to's"), and his mouth occasionally runs off ahead of his brain. Because of this he lacks confidence in his social skills, though this could be both a cause and an effect in a "vicious cycle" sort of way. Despite this constant fear of tripping up he does like people and enjoys spending time with them, especially if he can stay on the periphery. Teaki is an exception to this because they've known each other for so long, and he'll become more at ease with his allies as things progress.
Binshou craves harmony, and as such he is all about polite language. He addresses everyone but Teaki as "surname-san", and will keep it up for years or until someone tells him to cut it the hell out. -masu verb endings are his friends. In a similar vein, he's good at catering to the needs of others, even if those needs have not been explicitly stated. He is the Terran faction mommy, and is usually carrying something for his friends in the messenger bag that is always on his person (deck of cards for Teaki, crossword puzzles for Kenrou...).
He rarely has trouble figuring out what to do with himself, but he lacks confidence in himself and is terrified of making decisions for others. As such, he shrinks away from any sort of leadership. This is sort of a problem for Kunzite. Being afraid of leadership himself means that he tends to idolize natural-born leaders and other such confident folk.
One place where Binshou is utterly confident and at home is in the tea ceremony, simply by virtue of his growing up in a tea house. Chaji is where Binshou is a viking.
Being a little bookworm and generally curious besides, Binshou is a fountain of trivia, both useful and useless. He has an odd habit of spouting off random factoids when he's nervous or drifting off. "I'll be leaving now. Rather tired, really. Hey, sharks are-" "Immune to all known diseases? Yes, we know." "They are? That's so interesting." One of his favorite things to read are kaidan, and to a lesser extent Western ghost stories and horror. He's also picked up an interest in astrology in recent years, but this is something he will not willingly admit to, because astrology is such a middle school girl sort of thing.
Unlike most of his peers, he is fairly competent in English. His favorite English phrase is "For those about to rock, we salute you!" though sadly he rarely finds occasion to use this phrase.
Darkest Secret: On some days he feels like being Nephrite is really all he has going for him, and on those days he really HATES being Nephrite. His blips in self-confidence are not such a great secret, but there's no reason they should lead to such resentment or selfishness or pettiness or ingratitude, and no one must ever know that they do!
Reactions to Sudden Hugs: Shock! Stammering. Blushing if the hug comes from a girl or Toshiro in makeup. Finally, an effort to reciprocate the hug JUST SO so that it comes off as friendly but not too forward. Coming from a mostly-traditional background and being best friends with Teaki McHetero means that hugs are not his forte, but seeing as how his Prince seems to like them he'll slowly learn to adjust.
Virtues and Vices: One of the reasons he's so quiet is because he's constantly afraid somewhere in the back of his mind that he'll say the wrong thing and upset someone. Harmony is very important to him and conflict sets him on edge, in part because he is a very empathetic individual. He doesn't have an instinct for reading people, but he is attentive and persistent, and in time he'll find his way past the surface.
He believes in kindness for kindness' sake, and despite being socially awkward he has a need to make others happy, or at least content. He's no stranger to self-sacrifice, and he's unflinchingly loyal to his friends, his family, his country, and whatever other group he may find himself a part of.
Binshou is an optimist, and if there's one thing he has faith in, it's the potential of mankind. He wants to think the best of everybody, and is good at finding excuses for bad behavior (and if no excuse can be found, he's good at ignoring it). Consequently, he is tremendously forgiving. Only if someone's behavior is harming another will he stop making excuses, but his first instinct is to deal what's left in the wake of the storm rather than confronting the storm itself.
He's not prideful, though he could probably do with a little. He understands that he's smart in the sense that he can retain and synthesize information, but in some ways he feels he's not fully utilizing this talent and is therefore a bit modest about it. In other situations he lacks confidence altogether.
Ultimately, Binshou's quite unlikely to harm or offend anyone else, but he causes plenty of unnecessary trouble for himself.
Badassery
Power Sphere: He is associated with Virupaksha, Koumokuten the Wide-Eyed, and Byakko, the white tiger of the West. This means that he governs autumn, a season commonly associated with the dead; it is a time to harvest from the earth before the crops die off, and a time for a variety of cultures to hold festivals in honor of, or in fear of, the dead. Dead-y dead dead dead. I'm sure you get the idea. This "dead" part is notable because it relates to his sigil, which is a modified version of a very old kanji that represents Jigoku, the underworld. Nephrite employs this sigil when he uses powers drawn from his autumn sphere.
His accompanying sphere is the stars – the heavens, the converse of the underworld – especially as they relate to astrology. His specialty is Hindu astrology, otherwise known as Jyotish. Basically it's like Western astrology, but it gives me an excuse to use Sanskrit.
Asswhoopery: Nephrite (and Binshou) has an instinctive knowledge of what’s going on in the heavens. If you want to know where Saturn is, he can point your telescope for you. He could draw up an astrological chart and even interpret it accurately, if rather vaguely. He can also run, dash, dodge, and jump like the dickens because his juudou skills have never been good for very much.
Part of being a Terran is canon twinkery: teleportation, levitation, and the ability to use Shitennou powers at all times, without requiring a henshin.
Greatest Weakness: It's only natural that the power of the stars should be contingent on the whims of fickle fate. See Attacks for further details, but there is always a 75% chance that any one of his powers will not be working at full strength (if at all). The constellations ruling his powers change houses every couple of hours, so if he wants to use Budha, it might be a fine plan at lunch but no-go at dinner.
On a different note, his true weakness might be his total lack of aggression and overabundance of trust. He has trouble believing that someone might want to do him harm until they actually do him harm, and even then, perhaps they didn't mean it! His faith in the basic goodness of people is probably only surpassed by Serenity, and since he's not the Princess of Hope he just can't pull it off as well. When he finally does buckle down to fight, he pulls his punches.
Or, as Toshiro so aptly put it, "Binshou-kun could kick plenty of ass, but he was so damn NICE he tended to get his ass kicked instead."
Attacks: Nephrite channels the powers of the "wandering stars", the naked-eye planets. The effectiveness of whatever he's channeling depends on which zodiac constellation is passing through the Ascendant (first house). Each constellation has an element attributed to it, and Nephrite's little planet-power dealy works best when the planet he's channeling has the same element as the constellation in the Ascendant. If it doesn't, its power is halved.
Nephrite summons the power of one of the "stars" below by shouting its name (in Sanskrit, because this is a Jyotish smackdown), and throwing his right hand to the sky or pointing it at the target for extra dramatic flair. He'll then glow briefly for a second or two. He can generally summon about two a day, depending how much power he actually channels each time.
Sun (Surya) - The sun is the brightest of the stars, the center of the solar system. It is a dominating influence. When Nephrite channels this star, HE becomes a dominating influence. Actually, he becomes very shiny. VERY shiny. Do not look at him when he's channeling Surya if you value your retinas. This power has the effect of disrupting any other powers being used at the moment, both friends' and foes', in an area of about twenty meters. Elemental powers go FFFFTT, mind-based powers start breaking up, and summoned fiends run screaming into the night. Well, they do if he channels this power while Aries, Leo, or Sagittarius is in the first house. Otherwise, they weaken the magical force of a surrounding area, but the stronger powers may still hold out. Furthermore, this isn't a power he can really maintain. Nephrite will go shiny for about ten seconds, and that's it.
Moon (Chandra) - The moon can play on emotions the way it turns the tides, and that's what this power does. Whomever Nephrite points at when he calls Chandra will be the unlucky one to experience this power, and she will glow for a second or two as it begins to take effect. The target experiences an emotional roller coaster, moving rapidly from happy to depressed to enraged to frightened to... whatever. It lasts for about ten seconds when Cancer, Scorpio, or Pisces is in the first house, and five seconds otherwise. There is a slight risk in that if the subject is particularly strong-willed, they can cling to one emotion, like anger, and ride out the rest of the spell with that emotion.
Mercury (Budha) - Mercury has influence over intelligence, communication, and travel. When Nephrite channels this power, all this adds up to faster reflexes. He summons Budha, glows blue for a brief second, and his eyes retain this blue light for the thirty seconds that this power is in effect. During this time, his reflexes are about five times faster. He can dodge faster, whap an enemy before they see his hand coming, and catch a fly in midair. Unfortunately, because Mercury is so easily mutable, this power can only be used when Gemini, Libra, or Aquarius is in the Ascendant. If he summons it any other time, the effect won't be diminished, it just outright won't work at all.
Venus (Sukra) - Venus rules the sensual, the material, and the physical. It is not a friend to the ethereal, the unseen... basically magic, and as such, when Nephrite casts this on an enemy, they will be unable to perform magic for ten seconds. It differs from Surya in that it can be cast on only one individual, will not adversely affect his teammates, and must be cast BEFORE magic is used, not WHILE it's being used. If Taurus, Virgo, or Capricorn is not in in the first house, the effect will only last for about five seconds.
Mars (Angaraka) - This one is FUN. When Mars is in place, Nephrite channels it and glows red all over for about two seconds, though his eyes continue glowing for the remainder of the time this power is in effect. His aggression is heightened dramatically, and he basically goes berserk. He charges the first enemy he sees (note "enemy", this doesn't work on allies or neutral parties, so it isn't completely like "berserk"), and attacks with all the ferocity he can muster, which, as it turns out, is quite a lot. Suddenly all those moves they taught him in juudou are being put to actual use, and then some. Of course, if one is especially skilled in martial arts, they'll be able to fend him off and get some hits in. One aspect of this power is that it lasts until Nephrite either draws blood or loses consciousness. It's possible he can land a lucky hit to the nose right off, at which point the power diffuses immediately. On the other hand, he could also just keep going until he drops. Because of the particulars of this power, it can't be summoned unless a fire sign is in the Ascendant. It's either all or nothing with this one.
Jupiter (Brihaspati) - One concept Jupiter is associated with is abundance, because MAN that planet is HUGE. When Nephrite summons Brihaspati, he shimmers green for about two seconds (though his eyes remain green while this power is in use) and then gains an abundance of mass. He doesn't actually get bigger, but he's at least five times as dense as he was before. So, if Nephrite were to throw a punch, it is going to hurt. A lot. If one were to punch Nephrite, it would also hurt. A lot. If one were to try and move Nephrite out of the way, they would fail miserably. It's also much harder for Nephrite to get hurt when channeling Jupiter. This lasts for about thirty seconds when a fire sign is in the first house, and fifteen seconds otherwise.
Saturn (Shani) - Among other things, Saturn rules restrictions and binding forces, an image that Saturn's rings easily bring to mind. When Nephrite channels Shani, the target's movement is restricted down to almost nil; they have a very small circle of space around them in which they can move, but otherwise it's like being stuck in a giant test tube. They can still cast spells, but they ain't going nowhere. Like Sukra, this power will last for ten seconds if an earth sign is in the first house, and five seconds otherwise.
And that brings us to the end of our Classical solar system.
harvest - This power allows Nephrite to enchant a person and harvest their energy at an opportune moment. First, he chooses a subject, usually an ally, and only one at a time. Holding his hand up to the subject, he closes his eyes, concentrates, and his sigil appears on the subject's head. This person will be slightly weaker in power until Nephrite tags them and shouts "harvest", at which point the sigil will reappear on their forehead, and their energy will triple beyond its usual limits. The subject remains in this heightened state for about fifteen seconds, after which they will be quite exhausted. Obviously, it can't be placed on the same person more than once every few days. This spell must be in place at least thirty seconds before the harvest, though keeping it in place longer won't heighten the effects.
Fuku: Remember the Shitennou uniforms from the anime and manga? I will assume a "yes" here, because that's the most convenient place to start. Nephrite's uniform is very much like his anime counterpart's, with shiny add-ons. It has the coat and loose trousers tucked into black knee-high boots, but this time the coat and trousers have a dark red snakeskin pattern on them, with orange trim on the coat. Yeah, you heard me. There is a belt at the waist, sans buckle, and two golden clasps on the lapel in the shape of... uh, golden wave-looking things. There is a sash of the same material as his coat running from the middle of his belt up over his left shoulder. On the front of this sash is an interesting cut of material that looks rather like a golden branch with bright red leaves growing up the sash and over the shoulder. The right arm of the coat is accented with rows of golden beads, running down his bicep like the path of a river and creating a triangle pattern on his forearm. He has a shoulder pad on his right that looks like a rounded leaf with orange trim and rows of gold woven over the top, and red inlay. Hanging from his shoulders is a dark red cape that doesn't quite fall to his mid-thighs, because it just can't be longer than Kunzite's. No way. It's more like a junior cape. On his hands he wears a pair of short white gloves that end at his wrists. He is blessedly lacking in PGSM Nephrite's unusual head piece, but in place of his usual emo glasses, he has a pair of orange-rimmed, orange-tinted glasses of a similar shape, so that his regular pair doesn't get scratched up in battle.
Connections
See Nephrite Connections, because Z is just too damn spammy.
