Snopy S [Approved, 3-5]

Basics

Name: Snopy Saika
ALIAS: N/A
Gender: Male
Age: 22
Height: 6'0
Weight: Whatever skinny at 6 foot is

Personality:  The first thing that must be understood is that Snopy is incredibly intelligent.  He has an intellect far above average.  As such, he is able to analyze just about any situation logically, and using his own knowledge and what his senses pick up, and come up with a conclusion that tends to be fairly close to correct.  This by all means does not mean he is all knowing, but any situation where something can be learned, odds are Snopy will learn at least some of it.  On top of that, this gives him a very intelligent manner of speaking.  When he describes or explains something, the words he uses can be fairly complex, but he also won't make it so complex the average person can't comprehend it.  However, if he is talking to someone he knows would understand the complex explanation, and they want an explanation, he will give them the complex one.

His intelligence by no means means that he looks down on people.  Part of that is there really isn't that much room to look down on people.  The other part, is that he sees no reason do so even if he could.  He is not cocky, he is not arrogant, and he is not full of himself.  However, he is lonely.  Having lost everything, and having all attempts are improving his life fail on him, he is not the most joyous of people.  His family disappeared in an accident while on their way to visit a neighboring kingdom, and he never saw them again.  He was fairly young at the time, and he couldn't exactly keep up his family's standard of living, thus he was forced into a much smaller home.  His psyche changed then, as not only did he lose his family, but some of his old "friends" were stuck up, and upon seeing him fall merely found it amusing.  He was alone, and he felt alone.  With his financial status dropping repeatedly, he began to feel like he was in a hopeless spiral.  With how much he tried to improve his situation, and make friends with people, something always ruined it.

Snopy used to be an extremely kind person, and he isn't exactly unkind now.  The difference is, he has given up on having a cheery friendly air.  He is now fairly quiet without outside stimulation.  If you pass him on the street, it is guaranteed he won't say a word unless you say it first.  He often goes about his daily business without inducing unneeded interaction with people, because with all his failed attempts at having people close to him, it hurts him inside.  It is a strange paradox, however, that at the same time he loves social interaction.  If someone stops on the street and says hi, he will likely return the hi in a friendly way. If someone starts a conversation, he won't merely shrug them off, and will likely engage in conversation.  Still, even though he will return attempts at interaction, getting close to him is hard.  He tends to be distant, as deep down he is worried of it being a lie, or failing in some way, or of the other person getting hurt, as he also believes that if he did get close to someone, fate might just try to take them out.  This is even worse with those of high social or economic status, whom Snopy feels have even less reason to be nice to him.  While he won't treat them differently, he will definitely be wary that they are paying him any attention, at least until they gain his trust.

If someone did start to get close to him, he'd probably be a bit worried.  Since he feels like deep down that people don't really care, he would feel that accepting it would open him up for betrayal.  On the other hand, he wouldn't just keep shoving them away, as if they were being honest he wouldn't want to destroy a possible friendship.  His inner fears wouldn't show on the surface too much.  Other than a definite hesitation in certain scenarios, he would still act like normal.  If someone did get through and finally got him to open up, they would find him a very kind, caring, and loyal friend.  Despite how much has happened to him, he even still has a sense of humor, and he can still surprisingly make jokes like normal.  If someone did gain his trust and friendship, they'd have a friend who'd always have their back.  His lack of real friends for a long time has left him a bit behind in some of his social interactions, but his intelligence does allow him to adapt quickly.  By the time you see this version of Snopy, the person has broken through many levels of a social "shell".  Still, his insecurities would still remain, just he'd fully trust the individual whom has worked to gain it.  Despite his trust and loyalty, he is not stupid, and won't be taken advantage of or do a morally unjust action because of his friend.  Simply put, he would drop the friend if they only befriended him to take advantage of him (a betrayal that would likely make his insecurities worse), and if they tried to do something morally wrong he would try to stop them before he dropped them as a friend.

Still, Snopy is not pessimistic, he is just not optimistic.  He is leaning towards pessimism, because frankly that is what life has lead him to believe.  He does have the great quality of refusing to give up.  Despite all attempts at improving his situation ending in failure, usually because of something he couldn't control, he continues to try and pick himself up.  He doesn't want to just sit back and take what fate throws at him.  A huge part of who Snopy is is the concept of fate and the tides of history.  He doesn't wish to be a mere victim of fate, and he is hellbent on standing against the tide in order to achieve a better life.  He doesn't care if it means somehow becoming important, making some kind of impact, or merely living a more comfortable life.  He just doesn't want fate to smack him down.  Of course, "what he must" doesn't include hurting or killing anyone.  He'd just be inflicting his own pain onto others, and that isn't what he wants.

Snopy is a good person, there is no denying that.  If he sees someone in distress, and can handle it personally, he will come to their aid.  If he himself can't help, he'll see if he can contact someone who can.  Part of this is remnants of his extremely kind nature from before his life began to spiral downward, but part of it is his desire to stand against the tide of history.  If he sees someone innocent in trouble, he'll attempt to defy fate and help them out.  This is an act of kindness, this is an act of defying fate.  However, secretly he sees himself in people who are getting an unfair treatment in life.  Someone works hard their entire life, and helps people out, can be simply murdered by a maniac one day.  So why should someone who probably is just like any other person be screwed over?  He doesn't want to see more people like him, and he doesn't want to see a corpse that is for sure.  He might ignore small issues, unless someone comes up to him and asks for help directly.  However, when something big happens, he will try to do the right thing.

Snopy does know how to fight.  He has his father's old katana that had been passed down through the generations.  He has practiced a bit of swordplay, both as a self defense in his "defying of fate" and as a stress relief.  He had learned a little about the style his father had used, Iaido, and practices it regularly.  This practice is one of the only forms of stress relief he has, as a lot of ways to relieve stress tend to require friends.  On top of that, he doesn't have the money for books, so he can't read as often as he would like.  The fact that he can fight doesn't necessarily mean he enjoys it.  Actual fighting, like where the actual goal is to overpower someone because of some actual disagreement turned violent, is something he dislikes.  Rather, he'd prefer he didn't do it.  He isn't exactly miserable when he is in an actual fight, and he can find some pleasure in it, but the fact that he has to do it bothers him.  If he ever got into a spar, he might actually be able to enjoy it.  Thankfully for him Aria has a low crime rate and he doesn't have to take up to fighting much, sadly he wouldn't have someone to spar with if he even wanted to.

If someone were to come onto Snopy romantically, he wouldn't exactly know how to react.  He tries to distance himself from people on a mental and emotional level, so he doesn't really feel those kinds of feelings.  Of course he CAN feel them, but the opportunity hasn't really arisen.  With how detached he has been from people, he wouldn't really understand the feelings at first.  Once he realizes how attached he is becoming to someone, he'd probably be more scared than anything.  He spent so much of his life detached and avoiding people, he wouldn't know if opening himself up would be a risk worth taking, especially opening himself up at that magnitude.  If the woman treated him well enough though, he would slowly open up.  He;d be extremely hesitant to let himself fall for someone, and even if he found himself allowing that to happen, his fear of it backfiring would cause him to take everything very slow.  The first time he hugged someone romantically, the first time he kissed someone, they would all take a bit of time if the woman didn't initiate first, however, when they did happen it would really MEAN something.  Once he has finally fully accepted his feelings, and had them returned by someone, he would be extremely caring and attached, though not to the point of being creepy.  He would still allow them their space, but after spending so much time alone, he would savor every moment with the person he cared about that he could.  Though, there would still be those times when he'd want to have his own space too.  Same with friends, he would be extremely loyal to whomever won him over.  Still, winning him over in this aspect will take a bit more time than just befriending him, since he will be highly hesitant to allow himself to feel that way.

Shadow:  Snopy's shadow, the repressed part of Snopy's personality and feelings that he is ashamed of and refuses to acknowledge, is tired of all the effort he must put into everything.  It feels that everything is hopeless, that no matter how much one tries to fight destiny that it will inevitably win anyway.  Rather than fight it, it'd prefer to just flow with fate.  It thinks that embracing what fate dictates is the only way to avoid the suffering that fighting against it brings.  If fate wants to put a label on him, embrace the label.  On top of it all, he always feels alone and that no one really cares.  It thinks that anyone who pays any attention to him is just looking at him as a joke.  It doesn't want to deal with them, if someone seems to care they are probably lying to him and laughing behind his back.  In the end, it hates just being around people and wishes that everyone would just disappear.

Appearance

Appearance:

Spoiler:

Magic

Type: Scholar (untapped)
Description: While Snopy has the ability to become a Scholar Arcanist, he has not yet learned that he can even do it.

Combat

Equipment:

Yasumasa (健賢; Strength or Persistence, and Wisdom):  The blade that has been passed down through the Saika family for generations.  The blade was obtained by Snopy's great grandfather, Hisashi Saika, who hailed from Zhilihan.  The blade was made by a legendary blacksmith, who forged the blade using methods long forgotten.  The quality of this blade is matched only by those made by the best smiths in the world, and in history, and there isn't an unenchanted blade that is greater, though there are equals.  The blade is built perfectly for maximum speed, aerodynamics, and cutting power.  The strength of this blade is such that it could rend a person in 2, even without enchantment, assuming the user had the required skill and strength.  It can withstand tremendous force without breaking, it will break most other blades of similar form before it itself breaks.  It is said that the very soul of Hisashi himself resonates through the blade, guiding the hands and path of its wielder.

Skills:

Iaido - An art of the sword involving the rapid drawing, slashing, cleaning, and sheathing of the blade.  Those skilled in Iaido can make the very motion of drawing their blade transform into a deadly cut, and then sheathe the blade just as quickly.  Snopy's father had only taught him the basics before he disappeared, so that is the most Snopy knows.  Snopy can draw his blade and quickly take a stance.  He can launch swift blows and quickly sheathe his blade.  He also knows how to clean the blood off of his blade, though he has never actually had to clean actual blood off of it.  As he only learned the basics, there are holes in his form and his choice of where to cut, and the angle at which he cuts, are not optimal.  Still, as he has still had formal, albeit extremely basic training, he does have the capability to take out a portion of the thugs that live in every city somewhere, so long as they are one at a time.  Still, with his training so basic and his actual strength and speed not being amazing, tougher brutes, especially ones who actually transform street fighting into a coherent fighting style, will be able to easily defeat and overpower him.

Unarmed - He doesn't have a clue how to fight unarmed, so knocking his blade from his hand would basically be a death sentence.

History and Roleplay Sample

History:  Snopy Saika was born in Aria, of the Kingdom of Arcadia.  Snopy is only half Arcadian, as while his mother hails from Arcadia, his father hails from Zhilihan.  His family was of fairly high social and economic standing, his mother being well known for both her kindness and her ability to fight, and his father's skills allowing him to bring back a fair amount of money.  Due to this, Snopy's life wasn't too difficult.  He had to help his family with chores around the house and get an education and everything, but he didn't have to stress over when his next meal might be.  On top of that, Aria is a beautiful city, so the view and the kindness of the people was incredibly appealing.  Snopy quickly turned out to be rather intelligent, he never had to study in order to do well in school, and he learned to read and write with relative ease.  On top of that, he was friendly and helpful to a lot of people he met.  Snopy himself wasn't an unpopular guy, at least with people who knew him.  All of this made his parents very happy.  This is accentuated by the fact that he turned out far kinder than his brother.  Snopy's older brother was self-centered, selfish, and didn't really care much about the people around him.  He often got into trouble and fights.  He often mocked Snopy for how nice he was, but Snopy would just smile and brush it off.  Brother or not, his opinion didn't matter to him.  Snopy also had a little sister whom he adored.  She was a few years younger than him, and she was little and adorable.

As Snopy became a teenager, Snopy's father pulled him to the side after dinner one night.  Snopy's older brother had shown unworthy, so their father decided it would be Snopy whom he taught their family's age old sword style, Iaido.  He took Snopy into an open room in the house, and hanging above a small fireplace, was an old blade.  Snopy's father went over and took it off the wall, and gave Snopy a closer look.  It was definitely an old blade, the design and markings being that of an era past.  The tempering and design of the blade were definitely Zhilihan in origin, the weapon was a katana.  The blade, it was explained, was Yasumasa, an ancient blade created by a legendary smith and wielded by his great grandfather.  He also explained the legend behind it, and how the soul of Hisashi, Snopy's great grandfather, is said to resonate within the blade.  Snopy honestly found the story a little silly, he was being raised in Aria, so unfortunately the meaning was lost.  Snopy's father wasn't disappointed nor was he surprised.  He told Snopy that every person needs to find meaning in their lives.  The meaning that lay within the blade was something Snopy would have to learn for himself.  While Snopy had yet to fully understand it, he did allow his father to begin teaching him how to wield a sword.

While he was taking his first lessons, his mother taught him a lot of practical things both around the house and out in the city.  She was actually trying to spend time with her son whom she didn't get much time around, which was obvious when so called practical lessons ended up being excuses to have fun with Snopy and his sister.  Still, amidst it all he DID learn practical skills when it actually was a lesson.  Still, it wasn't bound to last.  Snopy had learned the basics of his swordplay and how to take care of himself, so Snopy's father decided to go back to Zhilihan on personal business.  Snopy wasn't feeling well, and he could take care of himself, so Snopy's mother, father, and sister said their goodbyes, and the three of them, along with Snopy's older brother, went off on a journey.  They never came back.  Snopy didn't know what happened to him, but after a few weeks of worrying there was no way he could deny it.  Something had happened, and his entire family was gone.  He honestly didn't feel much about his brother, but his mother, sister, and father being gone for good devastated him.  He just lost the 3 most important people to him in one fell swoop.  On top of that, he was quickly forced to sell their home and buy a smaller one, because without his father's income, he couldn't pay for it.  Snopy had a few friends, but unfortunately for him, they didn't follow the general Aria "friendliness" rule.  They were a bit snobbish the moment they saw they were of higher economic status.  This sparked the beginning of an unfortunate economic, social, and mental downward spiral for Snopy.  

He was officially alone.  He knew how to be on his own for a few days or weeks, but he literally had no one.  No one was going to be there to greet him, to spend time with him, or simply to care.  Snopy became to become wary of trusting people as well.  He still loved people, but after what happened he felt a betrayed.  Technically he knew how to take care of himself and support himself.  Unfortunately though, fate seemed to have it in for him.  He managed to get a job helping out around a shop for a little old lady.  She was extremely nice, and he was treated very well.  However, the job only lasted a month before the nice old lady died of old age.  Her son was not nearly as kind.  While his mother had hired Snopy at a loss of profit just so she could help out someone who needed the job, he wanted to maximize profits, and since Snopy wasn't necessary, he was promptly fired.  Once more he had lost someone who was kind to him, and he didn't have a job again.  His funds dwindled more, and he had to move into an even smaller house, selling some belongings to feed himself.  Then he got his next job.  It was similar to the first, but this shop actually needed the manpower.  Thus, his job was secure, as he worked hard to keep the shop organized and he was good at making sales to customers.  Yet, fate decided to once again make Snopy see that small percent of Aria that is less than desirable.  One day as he went into work, he found it had been trashed by some thugs, and much of the merchandise was destroyed or stolen.  Snopy did his best to help the owner rebuild, but it just wasn't possible and the shop was shut down.  Once more Snopy was out of money, but his house couldn't get any smaller, so he sold even more of his family's things.

This cycle just continued, until finally Snopy had only the most sentimental and symbolic belongings of his family left.  His view on life had been damaged.  Fate just seemed to want him to be miserable, to make his life difficult.  People around him didn't seem to care, not one person even tried to help him after the kind old woman's death.  He enjoyed being around people, but he know hurt when he was around them.  His ability to trust, especially those of high social or economic status, hindered.  Finally Snopy managed to find work at one last shop.  This job lasted him 2 months, and he hasn't lost it yet.  He has been going through Aria, waking up, going to work, going home, sleeping, and repeating the cycle.  He never stopped trying to improve his situation, and he refuses to give up.  He tried to understand his father's words, and the meaning behind his blade, but still he can't seem to figure it out.  Now Snopy lives in a tiny house, just making enough to feed himself and keep himself in clean clothing.  He does resort to doing odd jobs for extra money, and maybe, just maybe, he will find a way out of this rut.

RP Sample:  "Everyone in the city was strange.  Minami had lived her whole life around normal human beings.  Now she was thrown into this land of super powered freaks.  Races she couldn't even SEE before were visible as her badge allowed her to, well, see them.  There were some people who scared her, some who confused her, some who made her just want to flail her arms like crazy because, she was so confused.  So far, there was ONE person in this city (other than SOME of the teachers) whom she even felt relatively at ease around.  However, Kirino was not anywhere nearby, so powerless little Minami was on her own as she exited one of the stores, carrying a little bit of candy as a snack.  That wasn't to say she was miserable here or anything, just that she was not fully adjusted.  The small 16-year old walked down the street rather casually, if only not to drop any of what she was eating.  Her purple hair was tied up in a ponytail with a yellow ribbon.  She was wearing a little sailor type uniform with an orange bow at her chest, and a rather short skirt, though it was long enough to hide what needed to be hidden when she was standing.  She was nothing short of adorable, but it was the kind of adorable that was also attractive.  She really was a pretty girl, not just adorable, there is a difference.  On top of everything, Minami did have these long athletic legs. I wonder if I should go back to my room...I could go get myself something else, or take a walk in the park.  She thought to herself as she walked in the direction of her room.  Considering it wouldn't be long before she had an empty bag of candy in her hand, she could technically stay out without being inconvenienced.  Of course she was deep in her thoughts, so it wouldn't be hard to startle her, accidentally or otherwise. Considering she was short overall (her legs add to her height, but they aren't super long) and small she would easily be knocked onto the ground. This didn't exactly seem likely, because the street, while it always had people going up and down the sidewalk and road, was not overflowing with people."