Ginko

Player Name: Maggie
Are you 16 or older: yes
Contact: omixgirl10
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Tag: ginko

IN CHARACTER
Name: Ginko
Canon: Mushi-Shi
Canon Point: Just after Cushion of Grass (chapter 45)
Age: about 12

History: A brief history can be found here, but it is very brief, so more details below.

Ginko comes from a world which is populated, in addition to the life forms we’re used to, by ethereal organisms called mushi. Mushi are made up mostly of life force and can appear in an enormous range of forms, at least to those who can see them at all – which many people can’t. Though mushi are for the most part not malicious, and are simply trying to live like any other creature, their presence and actions can have severe consequences on the world around them (especially if there are too many concentrated in one location), thanks to the strange ways they function.

Ginko’s memories were eaten by a mushi known as Tokoyami when he was about ten (in the same incident which left him with white hair and lost him his eye, as well as leaving one Tokoyami trapped in his eye socket), leaving him unable to remember anything from before then. His first memory is of walking alone in the woods at night, unsure of how long he had been out there, and without any memories of his own identity or past. He eventually came across a village and was given the opportunity to stay there; however, by then he had noticed that mushi seemed to follow him. He didn’t yet know what they actually were, but he noted that he had a bad feeling about them, and so kept traveling to keep them from congregating in the village.

From there, Ginko was taken in by a group of wanderers known as the Watari. He stayed with them for maybe a few weeks, learning bits and pieces of information about mushi; howevever, he couldn’t afford to stay with them forever. The Watari followed the light vein, an underground river that provided life force to the land above it; as a result, mushi tended to be more abundant around these areas to begin with, which, combined with those that flocked toward Ginko, could have ended in disaster if he stayed with them for too long. In the end, the Watari sent Ginko to act as an apprentice under a mushi master who was passing through.

Unfortunately, it didn’t take too long for things to go downhill from there. Ginko was passed from one mushi master to another, or, in some cases, left to wander on his own between the times when one left him and another found him. Despite his theoretical apprentice status, the mushi masters who took Ginko in didn’t actually teach him much in the way of the skills needed for his job. For that matter, they apparently didn’t even explain to him that his amnesia was likely caused by Tokoyami, despite that particular mushi’s existence being known decently well by those working in the profession, according to the one mentor Ginko eventually had who actually told him about them.

On top of that, Ginko was fairly routinely used by those who took him in in order to make more money. They would stay in one place for months at a time, the numbers of mushi in the area gradually growing, and business coming with it; Ginko came to be sure, as he said when asked about it, that they were just doing what they needed to in order to afford to eat. In the end, though, the numbers of mushi and their effects always overwhelmed the mushi masters’ abilities. Whether he was chased off or simply left behind, Ginko was abandoned, time and time again. Over time, with his presence consistently bringing disaster and nobody apparently seeming to care about him one way or another, he came to resent mushi in general for the effect they had had on his life. At the same time, though, he ended up wondering whether his own existence was some sort of mistake.

It was around this time that, having collapsed in the woods from hunger a while after his last mentor abandoned him, and with mushi swarming around him, he was found by a mushi master named Suguro. Suguro took Ginko in, despite having heard rumors of a strange white-haired boy that brought disaster wherever he went, and quickly discovered how he had been treated previously. He decided to keep Ginko around for a while, teaching him more of the skills that he would need in order to survive and making sure he was healthy before he left. Suguro also pointed out to Ginko that, though they may have ended up causing trouble for Ginko, mushi were not actually malicious; their tendency to flock around him was more an unfortunate coincidence than anything.

While Ginko was staying with Suguro, he found out that the god of the mountain – an animal chosen by the embodiment of the ‘natural order’ to keep the mountain and the light vein that ran under it in balance – was very old and likely to be dying soon, and, with no new god having been seen yet, Suguro was concerned about the future of the mountain. A few days later, Suguro reported that recent changes in the mountain suggested the god was dying. Despite Ginko’s fear that his presence had somehow brought on the god’s death, Suguro assured him that that wasn’t the case and asked him to stay put while he went to look for the god or its successor.

However, being too curious and easily sidetracked to keep following instructions after the person who gave them had left, Ginko instead wandered off and climbed a tree. From there, he caught sight of a strange light in the distance, and decided to go investigate. Upon getting closer, he found that the light was coming from inside a bird’s nest, sitting on a branch high on the side of a cliff. One of the eggs inside the nest was visibly larger than the others, and was clearly the source of the glow. Ginko immediately realized that this was most likely the egg which would hatch into the next mountain god, and, more out of fascination than anything, picked it up. For a moment, experiencing a pang of envy toward the egg and its importance to the mountain, he wondered if it might be possible for him to take its place somehow. A moment later, though, he dismissed the idea as foolish, and was just about to put it back in the nest when the bird tending the eggs returned. Startled and off-balance, Ginko dropped the egg.

He got to the bottom of the cliff as quickly as he could, but the egg had cracked on impact; it wasn’t completely shattered, but it was badly damaged and the light coming from it was dimming. Panicking, Ginko began searching for Suguro, but he was nowhere nearby. Instead, though, he did catch sight of the current god. It was still alive, if barely, wandering through the woods, and Ginko immediately chased after it, trying to ask for any way he could possibly fix his mistake and insisting that he didn’t care about his own fate as long as he could save the mountain somehow.

It was at that moment that the mountain god moved itself, and Ginko with it, from the surface to the ‘inside’ of the mountain – not literally underground, but more a separate space where the light vein flowed. The god walked into the river of light, returning its life and power to the mountain itself. As Ginko watched, it occurred to him that, if he could get the egg into the river before it died, its life would return to the mountain, as well, and a new god could be born. He realized at the time that if he set foot in the river, he would likely die as well. At that point, though, he couldn’t bring himself to care; as far as he was concerned, his life didn’t matter anyway, and he would have nowhere to go back to even if he did survive.

However, before he could step into the light vein, the Tokoyami in his eye started struggling, causing him too much pain for him to continue forward; while Ginko was initially frustrated at the mushi for ‘getting in his way’, he remembered after a moment what Suguro had told him, and realized that the Tokoyami’s interference wasn’t out of any sort of malice, but simply because it sensed the danger the vein posed and wanted to survive.

At that moment, the ‘natural order’ stopped him as well, taking the egg and gesturing for Ginko to leave. The next thing he knew, he was back on the surface, and Suguro found him a few moments later.

Ginko explained what had happened to Suguro, who told him that the mountain would likely be alright in the end, since, between the previous god and the egg, it had taken the full power back that was needed to give a new god the ability to manage the light vein. However, as Ginko’s actions had endangered the entire balance of nature on the mountain, Suguro told him that he couldn’t forgive him, and that he was to leave and never return.

Before Ginko left, though, Suguro gave him some supplies for the trip. He also told him that, even though he had made a mistake, the natural order’s decision to send him back to the surface was a clear indication that he was meant to exist, even if he couldn’t stay in any one place.

Personality:

Ginko was raised in an environment that taught him that trickery and manipulation were the only way to survive, and is still working on shaking that off. At his core, though, he’s much more inclined toward compassion and self-sacrifice than selfishness; even before he lost his memories, he already displayed a tendency to put himself in danger trying to help others (which was, in fact, part of how he lost his memories to begin with), a tendency that showed up again when he tried to take the god’s egg into the light vein himself.

This tendency toward self-sacrifice is largely the result of a combination of genuine selflessness and compassion and incredibly low self-esteem; thanks to the combination of the way he was treated by most of his mentors and the fact that his extended presence in any one place always seemed to end in disaster, by the time Ginko met Suguro, he was convinced that his life meant pretty much nothing, and that his presence was nothing more than a burden to those around him. While Suguro’s assurances before sending him off did convince him that he at least had a right to exist, his former line of thought was far too ingrained for some effects not to linger (for a good twenty years, as it happened). Ginko is willing to accept his life for what it is, but he still doesn’t see “what it is” as being anything particularly significant.

Ginko typically comes across as quiet and shy, reluctant to speak unless he has something specific to say or is directly addressed. He avoids conflict where he can, especially with authority figures; he’s mostly unlikely to argue for fear of being reprimanded, though he is prone to occasional instances of accidental or passive disobedience, such as by wandering off or simply forgetting to do something. However, a significant portion of this behavior is more the result of fear than respect, at least when he first meets someone. Accustomed to being either used or simply driven off by most adults he encounters, Ginko tends to be fairly untrusting, reacting to most new people with apathy at best and vague suspicion at worst; when Suguro moves to examine the hole left by his missing eye, Ginko freezes up, visibly uncomfortable but unwilling to pull away. When he puts his mind to it, though, he’s very intelligent and can pick up and retain information quickly. Within just a few weeks of meeting Suguro, he had learned enough about mushi counteraction techniques to be able to survive on his own.

Abilities/Skills: Thanks to the effects of the mushi encounter, Ginko can see in the dark much better than most people can. He also has some basic knowledge of a few herbal remedies and the like, as well as how to (sort of) survive in the wild.
Strengths/Weaknesses:
Strengths:
- Intelligent; capable of picking up and applying new information fairly quickly
- Compassionate; despite his upbringing, Ginko is, at his core, uncomfortable with letting others suffer, and inclined to do what he can to help them
Weaknesses:
- Sickly; physically weak and not especially hardy thanks to malnourishment and illness
- Untrusting; used to assuming that most people, especially adults, are apathetic toward him at best
- Easily distracted; if there’s nobody around to keep Ginko on task, he’s very likely to get sidetracked and just start doing something else

Items:
A set of clothing consisting of a somewhat worn kimono, pants, socks, sandals, and a hat.
A box of matches and pack of mushi-repellent cigarettes
A wooden box outfitted with straps to act as a backpack
Assorted herbs

SAMPLES
Network Sample: [The camera shows a boy of about twelve, with one bright green eye peeking out from under his shaggy white bangs. He fidgets with his sleeve for a couple seconds before noticing the camera is on.]

Hello. My name is Ginko, and I was... sort of wondering about something.

I guess most of you probably already know that there's a tree that grows cats in the garden? I'm guessing it's supposed to be there, but I was wondering where it came from. Things like that mostly don't exist where I'm from. And usually if they show up, it's...

[He trails off, looking just the tiniest bit worried. After a couple seconds, he tries again.]

Strange things like that tend to end badly a lot. I guess this might not, but... I was wondering if anyone knows where it came from. Just in case.

[He hesitates again, looking more uncomfortable by the second, like he isn't used to talking this much.] So that's all I wanted to say. Um... bye.

Prose/Action Sample:here