APP for goldenlogs

[worldbent]

APPLICATION

OOC

NAME: Kit.
AGE: 30's.
CONTACT: kitsoru or journal PM.
CHARACTER(S): n/a.

IC

NAME: Matoba Seiji.
AGE: 22.
CANON: Natsume Yuujinchou.
CANON POINT: post-Chapter 126.

ABILITIES:

Spiritual Perception/"Sight": First and foremost, Matoba's abilities are based in the power to see the supernatural, and to harness his spiritual power in order to use spells to exorcise or create contracts with ayakashi (a more flowery term for spirits/youkai). Generally in his series, this is referred to as the ability to 'See'. Being born with this power is considered a separate and higher level of ability than solely the ability to harness spiritual power or low-level perception (such as the spiritual power a monk might achieve through prayer and practice). Sight is not necessarily limited to exorcist families like Matoba's, and other powerful individuals (such as the main character) can be born with varying powerlevels of sight as well. Even before inheriting his position as clanhead, Matoba had been considered since his youth to be a particularly strong member of his family with very sharp spiritual perception, and is probably the 3rd strongest human we've met in the series after the protagonist and Matoba's exorcist senpai.

The Right Eye of the Matoba: Matoba Seiji is the head of the most influential exorcist clan in the series, the Matoba. The Matoba began as a samurai archer clan that happened to have strong spiritual powers and made a living protecting villages from ayakashi attacks; they then grew in influence to amass the power of "the 11 noble exorcist clans" under their leadership, and have since absorbed many dozens more exorcist bloodlines over the generations- all with the promise of protecting the remaining bloodlines from extinction.

As the head, he has inherited a curse passed down through every leader of the Matoba clan. Not much is known about it out-of-universe yet except that at one point in the clan's history, a head of the Matoba clan made a contract with an ayakashi for help on a job, in exchange for his right eye. He broke that promise, and ever since, the right eye of the head of Matoba has been hunted by that powerful ayakashi. For this reason, Matoba wears an eyepatch in the form of a paper spelltag with a warding spell written over it; normal humans can't see the spelltag, and seemingly only see a normal eyepatch underneath it. Once every month, the ayakashi- a great black, formless monster that is missing its right eye- will attack Matoba, either directly or transformed into someone he knows. The Matoba distract the monster using eye-patterned parasols, other ayakashi, and weak spells in order to ward it off. Each time its attack is avoided, its hatred grows, and so too does the spiritual power of the Matoba clan who are targeted by it. It is implied that this is the source for much of their spiritual power, hence why they have not simply exorcised it.

Skills and Knowledge of ayakashi, spells, and exorcist history: Being the head of the Matoba family, he has had access to a wide variety of recorded spells and histories of exorcist techniques and information about the supernatural. This gives Matoba an edge in the exorcism business, as he has a lot more knowledge about what he's dealing with than most others, in a world that is generally quite opaque. Exorcist spells vary wildly (based on what the author needs them to do, tbh) but include the ability to purify physical spaces and protect others from malignant aura or intent, to kill or contain ayakashi within seals, tell fortunes, find people or objects from afar, place or break curses, etc. Some of the more ridiculous spells even include the ability to change his voice to sound like a woman to spirits. He can produce spell circles, incantations, and written spells on the fly and is shown to be powerful enough to exorcise a huge ogre on his own with only a couple arrows.

Archery: As the Matoba began as an archer clan, this skill continues through their teachings to the present, using purified arrows or arrows carrying spelltags to exorcise targets. Matoba is an extremely skilled archer who can strike erratically moving targets with ease; he's been shown to be capable of this both before gaining the eyepatch as a teenager, and even after as an adult, with his depth perception compromised. It can be assumed that he has trained a lot to readjust his skills with only one uncovered eye.

Summoned Shiki Servants: Matoba's main personal servants are mindless, shadow-like humanoids seemingly formed from his own spiritual power who can only understand simple tasks such as 'attack' or 'capture'. Despite this, they are powerful enough to ensnare and trap spiritually weaker humans and ayakashi as well as use weapons; he frequently uses them to attack target ayakashi or capture prisoners. They have also been seen acting as household servants, serving tea or other menial tasks in the Matoba home.
He also commands a number of "natural" ayakashi who take all sorts of forms ranging from bottled ogres and beasts to tengu-masked old men and kimono-clad young women. Exorcist gossip says that these naturally born ayakashi are ones who have been in the service of the Matoba and their umbrella-clans for generations, and that the Matoba have trouble finding ayakashi to make contracts with in more recent generations due to their poor reputation as liars and promise-breakers. Nonetheless, Matoba is always in the pursuit of new ayakashi to make his family's servants- through force or otherwise.

VICES:
"Toolbrained"/Use-oriented: Matoba carefully separates his personal feelings towards others from their usefulness to his aims in order to make decisions based on logic before sentiment; he regards both himself and others as means to his ends before anything else. He is willing to use violent or underhanded methods to get beneficial results, regardless of who is the target of those actions. While he doesn't behave as if he is emotionless, he does hide most of his genuine emotional reactions and feelings for others, even those he might harbor romantic feelings towards.
Inflexible: When it comes to the worldview of others, Matoba is rarely willing to take others' opinions into account. Part of this is due to experiences with "normal" humans who cannot see the same world as those with Sight; it made it easy for him to disregard their opinions, which also sculpted his general view of others who disagree with his clan's way of life. He is so sure of his and his clan's views of the world that he will even become violent if he believes someone else's worldview is dangerous to themselves or others.
Death-obsessed/Reckless: Matoba is very much aware that due to his curse, he is unlikely to live very long, and the lack of 'freedom' he was born with due to his bloodline. There's a vibe of obsession Matoba has with his inescapable fate- in how he speaks around the topic, in how willing he is to throw himself to his death to obtain power for the clan, etc. Because he knows his time is short, when it's sure not to interfere with his role, he also has a tendency to indulge with shallow fancies like sweets, his love for cats, or yes- in the ways he can justify it- sex.

VIRTUES:
Protective: Matoba's upbringing instilled in him that his number one priority be the continuation and protection of those under the care of his clan, and despite his willingness to sacrifice others for 'the cause', he does properly value others below him, well aware that the power of a clan is in the contributions of the many. He is fully aware of and believes in his existence as someone whose purpose is to protect others below him, and even if that means one must be a sacrifice for the many, if the 'one' ends up being himself, he will make that sacrifice without hesitation (YMMV on if that part is a virtue, though). Although he is likely to cloak his helping hand towards others in convenient justifications like quid-pro-quo, Matoba has shown himself to be willing to do so even when his supposed reasoning is flimsy.
Confidence in self, and projected towards others: Some may call it arrogance, some would call it self-assured. Matoba is not easy to shake mentally, and is very sure of his place in the world and the righteousness of his beliefs, even if he laments his fate in it. By the same token, Matoba is able to easily project that confidence towards those who are not so sure of themselves, which is one of the qualities that makes him an excellent leader. Despite being generally very intentionally opaque in his words and intentions, he can be very direct when he believes in someone else's ability despite them not believing in themselves. He has no problem telling them that he believes in them, or in exactly what they are capable of.
Clever/Quick-thinking: Although he doesn't always exactly use it for virtuous purposes, Matoba has a talent for both long-term planning and off the cuff improvisation, whether it be in war or words. His wide range of knowledge in his field allows him to draw up many types of spells on the fly if he is threatened, as well as more powerful ones that take a fair amount of preparation. Similarly, he has a silver tongue that allows him to toe the line between friend and foe with others, threading the needle between playful or menacing and keeping an upper hand while never quite pushing someone too far unless he intends it. He knows how to quickly suss out who will be amenable to alliance and how to keep in good graces while playing his cards, whether it be by twisting others by the arm or sweetening them into a good deal, and handles confrontation calmly.

SURVEY

▶ I REGULARLY MAKE NEW FRIENDS.
▷ 2. (If you want to call it friends... Matoba knows the value of networking and the power of numbers. Whether someone comes away with a good opinion of him or not is irrelevant so long as they know what they can get out of each other. That's business, baby.™)

▶ SEEING OTHER PEOPLE CRY MAKES ME WANT TO CRY TOO.
▷ 5. (An exorcist doesn't allow for openings. Even if he is capable of recognizing empathy in himself in a detached manner, it is buried so far down that nothing looking into his heart would be able to find it. Matoba probably couldn't recall the last time he cried.)

▶ I OFTEN MAKE A BACKUP PLAN FOR A BACKUP PLAN.
▷ 1. (Always have an escape route in mind. Always find a weakness. Matoba doesn't try to go looking for trouble unless he already knows exactly what it is he wants to accomplish and how he can do so; sacrifices may be necessary at times, but there's no point in needless casualties.)

▶ I USUALLY STAY CALM, EVEN WHEN UNDER A LOT OF PRESSURE.
▷ 1. (He wouldn't be much of a leader if he couldn't. The aforementioned emotional repression and quick-thinking mean that he is usually quite prepared when shit goes sideways, and even if he isn't, he can whip something up in the moment.)

▶ I AM VERY SENTIMENTAL.
▷ 4. (Conceal don't feel. Again with the repression- but that doesn't mean that he doesn't recognize the value of empathy, or looks down on it. In fact, it's those who lack it in any quantity that he despises the most. But reckless sentiment is almost as bad.)

▶ EVEN A SMALL MISTAKE CAN CAUSE ME TO DOUBT MY OVERALL ABILITIES AND KNOWLEDGE.
▷ 5. (It takes a lot to get the sliver of reticence out of him that we see even in Miharu arc. Matoba might not be happy with the fate he was born to, but he has taken it on in full, and he intends to see it out with his head held high. He knows the value of his abilities. And it's a noble cause, in his eyes, to live and die to protect the exorcist bloodlines.)

▶ I AM MORE INCLINED TO FOLLOW MY HEAD THAN MY HEART.
▷ 1. (Empathy always takes a back-seat. Weakness gets people killed.)

▶ I AM PRONE TO WORRYING THAT THINGS WILL TAKE A TURN FOR THE WORSE.
▷ 4. (He doesn't think "expecting" is "worrying". Always healthy to plan for the worst and expect the best.)

▶ I ENJOY WATCHING PEOPLE ARGUE.
▷ 2. (Twisting people up in their own doubts is so fun, isn't it? It's easy to swoop in and take control of a situation in which people are divided. But conflict can also be a useful tool to get others to recognize their own strengths and weaknesses. Some people need that reminder, for better or worse.)

▶ I TEND TO AVOID DRAWING ATTENTION TO MYSELF.
▷ 3. (It's no good if you're under suspicion all the time, but it's also highly valuable to make a show of power or influence when it's needed. Good for business, and good for holding power. It's a balance.)

▶ I OFTEN DO THINGS AT THE LAST POSSIBLE MOMENT.
▷ 4. (This goes along with the overplanning. But that doesn't mean he won't take a shot where he sees one. You don't get anywhere without taking some risks.)

▶ I FIND IT EASY TO EMPATHIZE WITH A PERSON WHOSE EXPERIENCES ARE VERY DIFFERENT FROM MINE.
▷ 4. (It's only a 4 and not a 5 because Natori exists, lbr. The words of the Sightless have little weight.)

▶ I BECOME BORED OR LOSE INTEREST WHEN THE DISCUSSION GETS HIGHLY THEORETICAL.
▷ 4. (Absolutely not. Bring on all the philosopho-speak. But Matoba isn't the most patient person in the world... At the end of the day, results are what actually matter.)

▶ I RARELY FEEL INSECURE.
▷ 1. (Hahaha. See question 5.)

▶ I AM STILL BOTHERED BY MISTAKES I MADE A LONG TIME AGO.
▷ 5. (It's best to live without regrets, isn't it? After all, if you had walked a different path, you would not be the person you are.)

SUIT REQUESTS: Clubs (1st choice) or Spades (2nd)
RANK REQUESTS: Random is fine!
SAMPLES:
Network Sample
Log Sample 1
Log Sample 2 (goes nsfw)