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[merdle]

Name: Sobyono
Age: 18
Sex: M
Height: 5'10"

Character Type: Ronin Samurai

Country/Village: Rice Country/Atama City
Rank: Chuunin-Like
Division: Ronin

Physical Description:

Sobyono has dying eyes that look like they just got enough juice out of whatever happened so far that night. His body is thin, but has the muscles to fight in a way only a samurai can. He is toned, with a core that would make a lesser man jealous. His hair is a wild mess, usually with something to tie it out of his face, or enough grease from whatever his hand was in to keep it locked in place.

Two important features to note are that Sobyono is missing an arm, cut off above the left elbow. The remaining arm and shoulder are usually kept bandaged up. The other is that his left eye is covered with an eyepatch. A large scar exits below on his left cheek.

Sobyono is far from a clean man, colored a little by the sun, and a little by whatever is building up on him between trips to the bath house.

Clothing:

When you fight like Sobyono, it is important to keep it loose. It isn't uncommon to see him wearing a kimono, hakama, or other clothing he can manage to pick up in his travels. If it looks like quality material, he might have 'acquired' it recently. Usually, it will be an old pattern, clouds on the night sky, or sakura on a purple field. No matter what the quality of the clothing, there are always loose ends. Kimono sashes, loose bandages, a failing sandal, something Sobyono hasn't quite bothered to double check or put back together.

His sword looks better than anything else he carries. A beautiful katana with red streaming from the end. The sword isn't well ornamented, it just sticks out among his possessions as something that might be worth picking up from the corpse.

Personality:

While some people would consider Sobyono unstable, he is actually dedicated to a particularly loud way of living. Sobyono takes, and takes, and takes, and doesn't stop to think about what might happen to his hand when he reaches out to take his next handful.

He is loud, destructive, sinister, dishonorable, perverted, and probably not someone you want to take home. Still, like many samurai, he has a tenet of Bushido he holds to above all else. For Sobyono, that is honesty. Maybe it won't be phrased in the best way, maybe it will curl your ear hairs to hear it, but Sobyono won't hesitate to spit out what he thinks.

This honesty warps everything else about him. When he fights, he fights with the raw urge to get what he wants. When he loves, he goes straight for the root of his desire. His eyes only come alive when he can stab at the root of a situation, and get what he honestly wants.

Bushido; "Way of the Warrior": "We'll see who's left laughing"

Clan/Bloodline: N/A

Primary Archetype: Bushi
Secondary Archetype: Maverick

-----------------------------------

Statistics

Physical Primary

Strength: 1 +1B +10 (+4 Thread) = 16 (+12 CnK)
Speed: 1 +11 = 12 (+15 Onken)
Stamina: 1 +1B +9 = 11 (+9 Onken)

Mental Secondary

Intelligence: 1 +-1B +1M +9 = 10
Tactics: 1 +1M +9 = 11
Willpower: 1 +1M +9 = 11

Chakra Tertiary

Power: 1 +-1B +-1M +9 = 8
Control: 1 +1B +-1M +7 = 8
Reserves: 1 +-1B +-1M +8 = 7

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Jutsu and Techniques:

Chigatana no Kenbu (Dance of the Bloody Sword) (4 creation techniques)
Stage Three
Strength 12, Stamina 8, Willpower 8
Sakki no Kanji (Feeling of Bloodlust) Level 1

Yatama no Shikaku (Assassin's Projectile) (2 creation techniques)
Stage Two
10 Speed 4 Stamina 6 Control

Onken (Hidden Fist) (3 creation techniques)
Stage Three
Speed 12, Stamina 8, Tactics 8

Mercenary's Universal Technique List (3 creation techniques)
Stage One
Magician’s escape
Tactics 3, Speed 2
Stage Two
Steady Mind I
Tactics 6, Intelligence 6, Strength 4
Stage Three
Catch
Strength 9, Stamina 9, Intelligence 7


Inventory:
Warrior's Kit - 0
Katana - 3
Hallucinogenic Poison - 2
Coated Hidden Knife (1+1+1) - 3

Item Points Remaining: 0/8

-----------------------------------------

Biography:

"So what's up with the arm?"

The whole room groaned, men and women rubbing at their faces, while others buried themselves in their drinks. Except for Sobyono, he was smiling.

"You want to know what happened to my arm?" Sobyono said, "I can tell you, for a drink."

There were subtle hints to decline, heads shaking no in the dark, coughs from clear throats.

"Sure."

Sobyono nodded, and a bottle was drained into a cup.

"This is an old injury. I know for someone like you, you expect an injury like this to come with a splash and some flair. Someone comes in and cuts you up for some crime against their kin and kind, a poetic battle erupts, and the guy who comes out half a man is forgotten for the rest of time. Not this story.

To get the full idea you gotta know my family had it hard. I don't mean that shinobi 'hard', I've heard you babies piss and moan about hard childhoods learning magic and your utter shock when a trained assassin dies before reaching 40. I mean my family worked for a living, farming the land and making just enough money to see local brigands steal it away as payment not to give me a new brother and sister when they dragged my mom around back again. That, good buddy, is having it hard.

So when a man wearing nicer clothing than I'd seen on anyone who wasn't being put into the ground came out and sliced a thief in half right in front me, I made the worst decision in my life. I was amazed. I looked on with childlike wonder until the man approached me, still wiping the blood from his blade. He asked me some inane question like 'what do you see?' and because I was too stupid to shout, 'A Massacre', I told him the truth.

I told him I saw a self-important asshole pretending to be more than a shell of a man. Maybe not in that many words, or with that much eloquence. He told me I had a gift, that I could see the truth. I would have told him that was a lie, but little boys don't stop trying to be action heroes until they turn into dead men. So I went along with it, even when he asked my parents if he could take me away from them, and train me in Iron Country. I could see how sad they were, and that they loved me, and that the worst struggle of their lives would be giving their son what they thought would be a better life."

"So when do you lose the arm?"

Sobyono rolled his eyes, and took the last sip of the drink, "Come on, have some patience. That's going to cost you another drink."

"I mean, I was just asking. If you don't want to say..."

He tapped the counter, and another cup started to fill.

"It happens after they trained me a bit. I was a samurai, reading fancy books of poetry from men who had disemboweled themselves over trivialities like coughing in the wrong company. I had my beautiful robes, I had my swords, I had secret liaisons with geisha girls, and I watched the sunset with a brush in my hand and a song in my heart.

Except I had that gift, as sensei Hei put it. I wanted to help, and if I'm honest with myself, I wanted to be the one who saved everyone. Hei was sick. Not with the sniffles or something, his soul was sick. The man was crumbling from the day I met him, and I watched as the years went by, watched as he fell apart trying to teach a bunch of walking hard-ons to be the saviors of society. he was going to fall apart, and be one more ronin that had to be hunted down and killed by the legion.

I'm a strong guy. Ask anyone here, since I ended up in this opiate blasted hell hole I've shown I can do any job for the right amount of coin. Even better, I'll do the job of the man you send me after if he is willing to pay up front. What I'm saying is, poor men die, and that is just the way the world works. Innocent men die, and that is just the way the likes it. Good men die, and that is just the way the world wants it. I'm no babysitter, because tying a diaper off is tough as shit with one hand. But I'll make a man bleed out because he thinks he is too tough to die, and I'm not afraid to take a few nicks here and there in the process. So when I tell you that I'm not a pushover, you should believe me.

So when I told Hei what I saw inside him, I thought I was strong enough to make him face his own problems. The old man took it like a drunk, he denied it, raged at it, then did the only thing that would make it go away, he raged at me.

He turned my 'gift' back around on me, told me I was selfish, childish, and that I was only helping him for the glory of saving him. I knew he was right, because I could see how much I troubled him. He saw a version of himself, a sack of shit wearing the blades of a samurai, pretending to save the day so he could go to bed at peace for one more night.

I summoned every ounce of strength I had, and I lied to the old dick. Told him I was nothing like him.

He attacked me. I didn't stand a chance, like a kid with a wood stick against a trained soldier. He cut it clean, and I screamed like a bitch. I held it with both hands, crying until he knocked me out with the next blow."

"Wait, both hands?"

Sobyono looked slack jawed for a moment, then let out a sharp laugh.

"Oh shit, oh no," He said, "That's the story about how I lost my eye."

He got a blank stare in return, but Sobyono stood up from the bar stool, "Yeah, I didn't see anything special after that, barely see anything at all. Just enough to get the job done."

Sobyono drained the last of his cup, clapped it back down on the bar, and let out a sigh of relief.

"So, what the fuck happened to your arm?"

Sobyono adjusted his robes, "I'll tell you what, I'mma take a piss, you refill that cup, and I'll tell you the real deal."

The ronin walked down a dark hall, and the bar patron looked over the amused faces of the men and women at the bar.

"Just be happy he didn't tell you the story about saving the Hokage," The bartender said, "and leave before he doubles your tab."

Writing Example: N/A

Other Info:
Has only one arm, the functionality of his eye is up in the air.
Works as a mercenary, usually out of Rice Country.
Wanted by the Last Legion of Samurai for murder.

Thread Ratings:
09/24/15 Prince and the Pauper +2 Strength
05/01/18 The Killing Ground +2 Strength

[darkbeauty]

Hahaha, we need to have a thread Merd. Plz.

Half approval for one-armed samurai man.

[Bukowski]

If you hire a one armed and one eyed mercenary to get something done, you gotta really question how much you want the task done in the first place...

Half'd

[Junge]

You spend 30/27/25 stat points rather than 30/27/24. This shouldn't affect the jutsu you took at all, but you'll need to take a point away from one of the stats to correct this.

[merdle]

Fixed. My brain must have been going for symmetry.

[Junge]

Is Sobyono Korean? It's such a strange name you don't even get two pages of google results. Eh.

Why does a guy who values honesty so much keep bullshitting the guy buying him free drinks in the bar? 'No, I swear, the next story I tell will answer your question. Haha, just kidding!' Or is that some deliberate cognitive dissonance. 2deep4me. Half-Approved.

[Kaen]

Approved for one-armed . . . justice is the wrong word.

[kyzuko]

Seems neat. Half-Approved. That's three? Do you need more?