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erku application

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Player Info:
Name: tinchel
Over 18?: yes
Contact: tinchel
Characters Currently In Game: None

Character Info
Name: Mugen / 無幻
Canon: Samurai Champloo
Canon Point: Episode 14 (after his swim with the Paantu)
Age: Unknown, estimated 19/20.

Background:
Mugen was born in the Ryūkyū islands, specifically somewhere in the Miyako islands (possibly Tarama). In canon, it's mentioned that he grew up on an island where criminals were exiled. This means Mugen was either the child of native parents who happened to be unlucky enough to live there in this time period, the child of violent criminals that were banished there, or a combination of both. Mugen doesn't know which one though, since he stated that as far back as he can remember, he never had any parents (in the Japanese sub* episode 20). Mukuro and Koza were the closest things he had to childhood 'friends' but Mugen had a complicated, toxic relationship with both of them.

Before the series, he committed a number of crimes and killed a lot of people. Mukuro mentions that Mugen has done some horrible things in the past. What those things are isn't mentioned in detail beyond killing -- though the way it angers Mugen says it was probably worse than the killing seen in the series.

The last big job Mukuro proposed was their ticket off the island and Mugen took it, helping them steal sugar cargo from a Satsuma ship. Mukuro ultimately betrayed him and Mugen took the fall, literally. He was arrested and set to be executed by firing squad. At his execution, he jumped backwards off of the cliff rather than allow himself to be killed by Satsuma officials. This all happens before the beginning of the series but is shown in flashbacks in episodes 13/14.

After surviving that execution, at some point later he ended up near modern day Yokohama where he entered the city looking for food. This is where the show actually starts, so here are the chapter summaries. If you're curious, here is a list of where they go in the show on a real map.

I'm taking him from partway through episode 14, which is after the trio runs into Mukuro and Koza. Mukuro knows just how to push Mugen's darkest buttons and Mugen ends up joining them for one last job. Mugen only agrees on the condition that he never has to see Mukuro's face again. But it's a trap again and Mugen is purposefully left to die on a ship rigged with explosives. He thinks he drowned for real before arriving in game.

* the dub is worded differently with different implications, so I choose to go with the Japanese version.

note:
- Samurai Champloo is technically set in Edo era Japan (estimated mid 1600s) but has a number of anachronisms (ie: jin's glasses, hip hop/rap, graffiti, and historical impossibilities like baseball with Americans) and enough alterations from reality (ie: zombies and magic ki powers) to consider it an alternate universe that closely follows a lot of actual Japanese history. I try to stick to incorporating things in the spirit of what was already historically inaccurate in the show while keeping most other things as accurate as possible to the time period. [for a pretty comprehensive list of anachronisms and estimates for the actual years, here you go.]

Personality:
On the surface, Mugen is a violent, self-serving vagabond who isn't afraid of anything and doesn't hesitate to kill, maim, or mouth off to anyone that pisses him off or gets in his way. With a disdain for authority, he's reckless, selfish, and lives his life on his own terms. As he sees it, the only things that have kept him alive this long are his own abilities so he doesn't believe in anyone but himself and what he can do. Mugen can also be energetic, restless, single-minded, and doesn't do well being cooped up or bored. Fighting, food, and sex are his main motivators in life, in that order. Usually, he's acting on one of the three to access another.

The core of Mugen's personality was forged in the brutal surroundings of his youth. Being born on an island filled with exiled criminals and never remembering a time with parents means Mugen learned from a young age to fight for his own survival. He developed his own sense of morality and worldview through trial and error in an environment where error usually meant death, pain, or hunger. Growing up, he avoided death and abuse by putting himself first, which resulted in his individualistic outlook on life. Taking other's feelings into account isn't something he's good at because he's never had to learn to be good at it. Even on the off chance he tries to do the right thing, he fails more often than not by being easily distracted by his own wants.

Mugen absolutely lives for the thrill of a good fight for its own sake and he knows he's good at it. Fighting is something that Mugen has been instinctively skilled at as long as he can remember, picking up an amalgam of different fighting styles over years spent scrapping. He became adept at incorporating different fighting techniques he fought against firsthand or just witnessed. Without any actual formal training, he developed his own unique and highly unpredictable style of fighting that often uses his surroundings to his advantage and has become an integral part of who he is and how he defines himself. It's also a way for him to keep reaffirming his belief in himself, to feel alive, and to find opponents worth his time. That and sometimes, he just wants some free food and entertainment so he'll also pick fights for petty reasons.

While Mugen might have confidence that can reach levels of cockiness and the skills to mostly back it up, he also has no interest in using either to gain the power to control people outside of getting himself a good fight, free food, or sex. He's not above robbing people or taking advantage of situations, but he doesn't play well enough with others or have the patience to actually lead. After being raised in a situation that he had no control over and then dealing with imprisonment, he chafes against authority and restrictions. This extends to a strong disdain for being told what to do and makes it difficult to be a team player in most situations. His biggest blind spot when it comes to this would be attractive women, which is even worse when he is drunk. He will fall for their tricks (and drugs/poisons) every time and will jump through hoops if they promise to do anything especially dirty with him. But even in this, he only ever follows their requests for self serving reasons and only if he feels it's worth it.

Without any real education, Mugen is ignorant on most subjects. He never learned basic math, history, or how to read. He'll avoid admitting it when he can, mainly because it pisses him off when people look down on him for it. Although he learns hiragana in episode 18, meaning he is capable of learning it pretty quickly in one day with the right teacher, he is arriving from episode 14. This means he still only knows the one character. It also means he still believes that he can get by just fine without being able to read because you don't have to read to kill people, thank you very much.

With that said, it's also important to note here that Mugen isn't the greatest with abstract concepts that he can't relate to things that he can see, touch, or feel and is therefore a pretty tactile learner. This is part of the reason he comes across as an idiot in most situations. It's not always readily apparent but he has been shown to have a high level of situational awareness when he wants to, honed from years of putting himself into dangerous situations. It's not surprising most think he's an idiot though since he doesn't generally use information in the way those around him expect him to, and sometimes he ignores it completely. This results in him often finding unique solutions to obstacles. Said solutions are highly unpredictable, varying from idiotic to surprisingly effective. Although his recklessness means that regardless of effectiveness, he usually overdoes things; causing more casualties and damage than necessary.

Despite everything, buried deep beneath all that violence and bluster, is a man harboring a lot of unacknowledged rage, sadness, and loneliness. Mugen has never known what it's like to be loved by anyone. Love is such a foreign concept for him that he genuinely has trouble connecting with people emotionally on most levels; always waiting for that other shoe to drop when they eventually leave or betray him. He also has trouble evaluating his own feelings, which only serves to add fuel to the fire since his default coping mechanism is usually anger. Keeping people at arm's length emotionally with snark and aggressiveness has always been a means to avoid uncomfortable feelings and attachment. On some level he views his attachments as weaknesses; always assuming it'd get them or himself hurt in one way or another eventually. Without the ability to readily trust people or get along with others, he works alone. If you were to ask him, he would tell you that he has no friends like he is proud of it.

There is a part of him that believes he isn't worth friendship or caring anyway. He accepted that he's a lowlife as a fact a long time ago and doesn't disagree when Mukuro says they were both cursed to be loved by the hell of an island they grew up on. Mugen even tells the officials charged with his execution that he felt like he was living in hell already anyway and wasn't afraid to die. Yet, where Mukuro is arguably a psychopath, Mugen isn't an inherently bad person, even with all the awful things he has done. He was just born into a world that never allowed him to be anything but what he is. It's this deep seated, depressing contradiction within himself that makes him value his freedom and self-reliance even more.


Powers:
- Given that the show takes a lot of liberty with what is actually physically possible*, It's safe to say that Mugen is slightly stronger/faster/more resilient when compared to humans in reality but still 100% human-- albeit one that can naturally push himself to extreme limits and has trouble holding back.
- Mugen is an adaptive fighter. He's a quick learner when it comes to fighting styles and techniques. He's able to reproduce even difficult techniques that took his opponent years to master after only seeing it performed one or two times.
- Mugen also has some control over his ki, which he was able to do after seeing Shoryu use it against him. [spoilers for episode 10, but example of him using ki here]

* in the series he has fallen from distances that would break legs/kill, taken hits/stabs/shots that should kill, and pitched a baseball fast enough to break ribs, kill people, and knock fully grown trees down. I tone it down since a lot of that was for style/exaggeration but he can still endure through a pretty good beating.

Inventory:
- His only set of clothes (shirt, hapi, cut off hakama, and his geta)
- His sword. It has an Okinawan sai crossguard, foreign looking pommel, and a unique blade. The blade is based on an old tachi design called kogarasu maru where about the last 2/3 of the blade is double edged [reference].
- Scabbard for his main sword that also holds a hidden tanto in the bottom.
[reference for sword/tanto/scabbard]
If possible, I'd prefer him to show up barefoot without his sword/scabbard. It's more fun that way.

Samples:
TDM Top Level: Thread 1 + Thread 2

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