Itsuki Maki

NAME: Itsuki Maki
AGE: Fifteen Years Old
CLASS: Freshman
APPEARANCE:Itsuki is somewhat tall for his age, 5’8, and still has some growing to do. He weighs 132 pounds and has a somewhat athletic build. Specifically he has the build of an archer, with a strong back and shoulder, and a long arm. He has average looks. Itsuki has black hair and used to wear it long, but since the accident has opted for a crew cut. He has dark brown eyes and a small nose. He has small but noticeable scar on his left cheek. He keeps his teeth in very good condition, and as such they are very white.
Ituski has had a forequarter amputation and as such has no left arm or shoulder to speak of. The area around where his shoulder once was has burn scars and he has minor scars on his lower torso.
When not wearing his uniform Ituski prefers light clothing. He typically wears jeans and either just a polo shirt or a t-shirt with an unbuttoned long sleeve shirt over it. In terms of footwear, Itsuki wears sneakers whenever he can. In slightly colder weather he'll opt for only the long sleeve shirt and fingerless gloves. In even colder weather Itsuki likes to wear a hoodie. In athletic activities he wears simple t-shirts and shorts.

BACKSTORY: Itsuki was born on January 4th, 2005 to Kenta and Airi Make. His mother had a normal job as a travel agent. His father, however, was an enforcer for the Yakuza. Despite this, he was a nice man when it came to his family and did his best to help provide and raise his son the “right” way.  His parents were often busy with their jobs, but they tried their best to spend time with their son. Itsuki was always interested in physical activities and from the day he could walk he was constantly moving around. Any physical activity was fine with him, but as he got older he began to focus on specific activities. He tried baseball, mostly for the sake of his father who was a huge baseball fan. He was a decent shortstop, but had poor power at the bat. However, he was a good baserunner and stole many bases. The sport he really gravitated to, however, was archery. His mother had learned archery from her father, and she in turn taught it to Itsuki. Archery was the one activity where Itsuki seemed to be able to take his time. It relaxed him, and he practiced almost everyday. He eventually became an excellent archer.
Itsuki was not a particularly standout student when it came to grades. He was somewhat lazy when he was younger, frustrating teachers to no end, and contributing to his mediocre grades. He gained a reputation for being a troublemaker and delinquent like his father before him. At home however, his mother tolerated no such behavior. She tried to teach him how to be respectful and formal. Despite he always felt closer to his father who shared Itsuki’s temperament. At school Itsuki’s troublesome habits continued. He particularly liked to pick fistfights and more than once came home bloodied, but grinning and laughing, even if he lost. His parents scolded him for it, but this didn’t stop Itsuki (especially since his father secretly praised him if he won). Itsuki was very friendly and knew a lot of people but only had a small group of people he considered actual friends. These friends often egged him on, and got him into some trouble.
As he entered middle school Itsuki began to mature and mellow out a bit. His mother had begun to work more, leaving him more time for private reflection during archery. As he examined his life during this quiet moments, he realized that the way he was living life was too fast and loose. He picked less fights and began to actually study. Due to this his grades improved greatly. He stopped playing baseball when his father finally he saw he didn’t really enjoy it and joined the track team. He was a distance runner, and while no star, did a decent job. He continued with archery outside of school, and was getting better than ever. Itsuki began to make friends on the track team and really began to enjoy the sport, though he never viewed as anything more than a hobby, unlike archery. On the track team he even met the girl who would become his first girlfriend. This girl was a sprinter named Aiko Unfortunately outside of the track team he still hung out with a bad crowd, and was still prone to less than moral activities. One was smoking unnderage. He only tried twice, and the second time was the last. The day Aiko broke up with him in 9th grade, Itsuki was frustrated and depressed. She had told him that “it just wasn’t working”, and that “it was time for them to move on.” After school that day Itsuki sneaked off to an abandoned warehouse to try a cigarette a friend got him. He hoped it would calm his nerves and takes his mind off Aiko. Unbeknownst to him, there we still some explosive chemicals still stored there. He accidently threw a lit match into an open barrel. Fortunately for Itsuki, he was somewhat shielded from the explosion by empty barrels and the explosion was relatively small. Unfortunately his left arm was unprotected and the explosion ripped much of it off, and set what was left of it on fire. A bystander outside the warehouse ran in and managed to put the fire on Itsuki out and drag him to safety. He was rushed to the hospital, but his arm and shoulder were a loss.
A rare forequarter amputation was performed, removing what was left of his left arm and shoulder. Itsuki underwent several months of physical therapy to recover from his injury, but his parents were worried about him returning to school. They especially worried since Itsuki suffered from frequent phantom limb. Further, he had refused to receive a prosthetic, not wanting to burden his parent monetarily, and he felt it would make him look weak. They heard about Yamaku Academy, but were unsure they could get Itsuki in, or even afford it if they did. Itsuki’s father had saved the life on one of the major member of the Yakuza Syndicate when he was younger. In exchange the member had promised him a favor. So Itsuki’s father cashed in the favor to get Itsuki into Yamaku Academy and get his tuition paid. However, since this was such a big favor, the member of the Yakuza made Itsuki’s father promise that on the off chance the Yakuza ever operated in the area, that Itsuki would help. Itsuki’s father agreed and the member pulled some strings and got Itsuki in. Itsuki was disappointed at first to learn he was going to Yamaku Academy, but quickly decided he was happy not to go to school with his old friends. He had never been very close to them anyway he realized, and basically stopped talking to them after the accident. Besides he mostly focused on the fact he could still practice archery, although it would be a challenge to learn to shoot with his teeth. Fortunately Itsuki was ambidextrous, and so it wasn’t quite as bad as it could have been. His mother used her old archery connections to get him a bow modified to be shoot one handed. So Itsuki set out ready to face whatever his new life brought him.

PERSONALITY: Itsuki is very outgoing and talkative. He has a good sense of humor and likes to joke around, although his humor can be very sarcastic and sometimes even hurtful. He often doesn’t apologize even if he realizes he is being hurtful. He forgives very easily, but finds it hard to apologize sincerely, even if he wants to. Itsuki tries to be nice and is actually very calm temperamentally despite what his history may suggest. However, if he is actually made angry, he goes all out and, if truly provoked, may turn violent. Itsuki bursts with energy and often can’t sit still. He expresses himself through frantic and exaggerated hand gestures, such as running his hand through his hair when he’s embarrassed. All these intense motions make him seem impatient. His whole demeanor changes however, when he is practicing archery. He calms down tremendously and now longer has his various energetic gestures cease.  He focuses only on the archery itself. Much of Itsuki’s cavalier attitude comes from covering up his insecurities. He doesn’t like people seeing any weakness but the most temporary. For instance, Itsuki has minor Iatrophobia, or fear of doctors. He covers this up by being aggressive around doctors and acting annoyed that he has to “waste time” rather than admit his fear. Further, while they don’t scare him, he is very uncomfortable in places that remind him of death, such as graveyards, morgues, and even hospitals. He becomes even more agitated in normal when in these places, and tries to never stay long. His stay in the hospital after his accident was uncomfortable, to say the least. His days of reckless abandon are over, and now Itsuki seeks a life where he can be safe and secure. He doesn’t talk about this fact much though, and prefers to keep it a secret. Itsuki is one of those people blessed with the ability to need less sleep than the average person. Due to this it is common to find him out late at night or early in the morning, usually practicing archery. Even with this reduced need, he still doesn't get enough sleep most of the time, as he feels being asleep is a waste of time. Itsuki didn't suffer much mentally from the loss of his arm itself. Itsuki is brazen when it comes to his lack of a left arm and often flaunts it rather than hide it. While it sometimes frustrates him, he sees it more as a setback more than anything. He assumes others have this view about their disabilities, and can be somewhat unintentionally insensitive when talking about them. Itsuki also doesn’t judge people based on appearance. The only thing Itsuki isn’t so gung-ho about when it comes to his disability is how he lost his arm. He is ashamed of the fact that it was his own fault. This causes him to dodge the question of how he lost his arm, often responding with a joke instead (“I was going on a diet and wanted to lose weight faster, so it seemed like a good idea at the time,” for example). He has also never liked people getting close to him. He has “friends” but only few people are actually close to him. This is helped by his ability to talk a lot, without really saying anything.

The only thing I see missing is a mention of how losing a limb affected him mentally (outside of archery), does he mind that he's lost his arm or has it depressed him? Just seems a little strange to me that all that changed in his head was the archery.

I think this is an approval from me once you clarify that.

Whoops! Though I had that. It put it in personality. Fixed.

Itsuki Maki wrote:NAME: Itsuki Maki
APPEARANCE: ...He has average looks, being neither handsome nor ugly...

I usually don't remark much on this portion, but this can be considered redundant and there are times such as when you remarked about his grades where you delve into redundancy. Now I am sure someone would call my very self out on this since I slipped up on this once and perhaps this is why I am telling you more than anything. Roleplayers here catch that.

There are times in which you cut out a few details and I'll exempt most but not all of them. The most glaring is the change of outlook on behavior entering middle school, as whilst his further mellowing has a cause I can go back to, I cannot gather the cause for his initial tempering. I need just a little more clarity on that before I can approve this.

Fixed.

Approved.

No complaints here, you're good to go.