Route 29: ｍｏｄｓ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
these_balls) wrote2010-04-27 11:40 pm
these_balls) wrote2010-04-27 11:40 pm
Entry tags:
Understand the secrets and have some fun
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Botan | Yu Yu Hakusho | Reserved
Name: Mozart
Personal Journal:
E-mail: inzivil AT gmail DOT com
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Current Characters in Route: Maka Albarn |
Character
Name: Botan
Series: Yu Yu Hakusho (manga)
Timeline: Post-canon
Canon Resource Links: Here is actually quite an effective synopsis of the series and takes care to point out the differences between the anime and the manga, as Botan's role was rather expanded (if only slightly) in the anime.
Personality: Botan is a happy person. She is a very happy person. Okay, technically a spirit, not a person. You wouldn't think she'd be so happy considering the job she has (it's never said if she willingly took on the job or if it was given to her although I lean more towards her willingly going to it), but she damn well puts on a smiling, caring face when guiding those souls to the afterlife. Part of it might be to make the idea of death less traumatizing to the recently departed.
Although she's not above teasing them or taking on a "Botan knows best" attitude as exampled with one Yusuke Urameshi. When she meets him, Botan is amused by his irritation and disbelief that she is "the grim reaper" but she soldiers on anyway through informing him of what exactly happened to him and what was going to happen in a calm and clear manner. And she rarely stops smiling. Her demeanor would remind one of a particularly cheery flight attendant. Even when she starts appearing in the human world in her human form, she has a friendly attitude towards Yusuke's friends and family (and by that I mean his mother, Keiko and Kuwabara) and even expresses enthusiasm that she gets to meet them. She's quite a silly girl, prone towards moments of comedic misunderstandings, teasing her friends or...well, expressing that she has a desire to not be killed like any reasonable person would.
She proves to be very invested in others' relationships, as well. Even if it's something like a fellow ferrywoman expressing a certain "interest" in Koenma. If it makes them happy, of course she's going to do all she can to support and push it along.
While there aren't exactly grimmer aspects to Botan, there are more serious aspects to her personality. Some part of her is duty-driven (even if harm might come to her doing said duties) while another part is ruled exclusively by her feelings, which she often has to bury when it comes to her work as a guide of spirits. She respects authority to the nth degree, even expresses annoyance when others show disdain or mockery towards said authority and is always done what she is told to do, regardless of how she feels. Or even regardless of the strength that she lacks, given how she fended off the possessed humans that were pursuing Keiko and was focused more on saving Keiko than protecting herself at all.
Her feelings hurt her, though. Her feelings hurt her quite a bit. This is not something she would ever reveal to her friends, however, as she doesn't want them to be burdened by any worries for her. She goes so far as isolating herself completely to keep anyone from seeing her crying.
I suppose a good trope that would sum her up is "cool big sis." Even if we don't know how old Botan is, she's always there with a smile and an open ear and mind for listening to problems and giving out advice.
Strengths/Weaknesses:
+ Wisdom! You wouldn't think so just by looking at her, but Botan is actually quite wise to the ways of feelings and romance (although it's weighed down a lot with her other strength
/weakness)+ Optimism! She gets knocked down, but she gets up again. It's pretty impossible to break her hope and cheeriness.
+ She can talk to animals. Yes really. To be fair to that, in the universe of YYH animals have a more sensitive sixth sense than humans do. But yeah ONE OF THE FEW PEOPLE THAT CAN TALK TO POKEMON CANONLY.
+ Loyal! Even if she's not strong and even if she's being threatened with death, Botan's loyalties are very hard to shake (as in they don't shake ever).
- Not physically strong. She handles hitting the psychotic possessed humans with a bat and all, but that's largely because she had the jump on them and...well they were zombies, you're supposed to mow down zombies.
- Very, very sensitive. As explained in her personality.
- Cagey. Yes, she can inform you about X Y and Z but she is never going to tell you about this top secret spirit world business or anything personal about herself.
To be fair to that, it feeds in from her being extremely duty-bound and loyal to the doings of the Spirit World. A rule that was established several times in the early chapters was that spirits of the non-human kind weren't allowed to interfere with the doings of living humans.
And Koenma's about 700 years old and she's been working with him the longest, so it's entirely possible she doesn't even remember any personal facts about herself.
- Blabbermouth. Yes, this is considered a weakness as Botan LOVES to talk, she loves it. What she doesn't love is realizing she's about to say something she shouldn't and getting nervous.
- Her physical defenses are like a wet paper bag. Yep. You hit her, she goes down. She's not much for confrontation unless it's highly necessary, but hey, she's tough, she'll get back up again.
Pokémon Information
Affiliation: Breeder
Starter: Misdreavus
Password: Strawberry Marmalade
Samples
First Person Sample: [This is certainly nothing new to the people of Johto, it's yet another mildly confused teenage girl on the network (though she's apparently taken the time to bundle up her hair in a breeder's bandana) she seems to be checking the status of the Gear.]
All right, then.
[Her eyes flick up to the screen and she smiles; bright, perky, obviously friendly. She doesn't look like she minds being here at all!]
Gooood afternoon, everybody! How are we all doing today? [Nobody's going to answer, so she just continues on:] I must ask before heading out on this little journey, are there any tips for new breeders to be had? I'm afraid I'm quite new to this, and--
[Her bandana is abruptly tugged out of her hair, which then unceremoniously falls into her face in a messy heap.]
Hey! [Botan pushes back the camera to retrieve her bandana, which is apparently floating in the air for a moment before it's revealed to be in the mouth of a Misdreavus.] I shudder to think what would happen if I bred you, Sumire. A bunch of little troublemakers like you? No thanks, I've had my fill of that for today!
[The ghost merely giggles in that bizarre echoing way before she poofs away again, leaving Botan with her bandana.]
...Anyway, back to the breeding thing. Is it true that Pokemon just lay eggs? All of them? That sounds a bit farfetched.
[There's an echoing giggle from Sumire off-camera, which Botan doesn't react to at first, but--give her a moment...
Ah, there it is, she cracks a smile.]
I don't mean Farfetch'd, you silly thing! Oh dear, I'm not getting anything done at all with you around.
Third Person Sample: Surveying the route ahead of her to hunt down any animals that she could…well, trap into a little ball is something that Botan cannot say she's ever been asked to do before. Particularly not with a mischievous spirit by her side that apparently really, really liked tugging on her hair.
"All right, that's enough," she says, waving a hand at the Pokemon. It—actually, the Pokemon is female—merely giggles and disappears to reappear at her other side. "We're going to be catching Pokemon today, can you handle that? I'm new to this, so—" The Misdreavus nods before Botan can even finish her statement. "Okay then, what shall we catch--?"
Aha! There, up ahead, a blue sort of cat-looking creature sniffing around warily at the ground. Botan crouches to the ground, pulling out her PokeGear to check what exactly it is with the Dex. Then she looks up at her Pokemon, nodding. "Sumire, this is a rare one, let's make sure it doesn't go anywhere, right?"
Sumire sounds like a good name for her, yes. The ferry women back at home were named after flowers, but she's never met a Sumire, so this one will be Sumire.
--Oh, where was she again? Right—catching the Shinx. "Sumire—"
But it seems that Sumire already went ahead of her to take care of the Shinx, disappearing and reappearing behind the hapless Pokemon. She grins and lets out a loud, heart-stopping wail that causes Botan to cover her ears and the Shinx to…jump and fall over in a dead faint.
"…Ah, I guess that works," Botan mutters to herself, standing and tossing the Pokeball at the unconscious thing. "Great work, Sumire!"
The Misdreavus smiles back, looking endearingly proud of herself while Botan opens up the Pokeball and sets to work dabbing at the Shinx's forehead with a damp rag to revive it. "There, there, it's all right, she won't hurt you. We're a team now; you don't have to be scared of anything." Botan feels another tug on her hair and hears a now-very familiar giggle and sighs. "Yep. You don't have to be scared of anything at all."
PENDING
Revisions
A point has been made repeatedly that nobody knows much about Botan. Really. At all. Her coworkers seem to know about aspects of her personality, but basic little details like her blood type or her birth date seem to have been lost in the sands of time. She's secretive about herself and a lot of things concerning the Spirit World is what anybody would be able to pick up from her as a default impression. If they're really thinking about it. They're probably not, Botan's usually kicked that impression out of the way by being herself.
That doesn't mean she's unfriendly, one wouldn't really expect it from someone that's so secretive that even her author apparently doesn't know basic details about her, but she's quite open and friendly to most everyone (more than likely all, unless they are demons in the early part of the series). She likes to help them out as best she can, once they become her friends this increases twofold and her loyalty to them runs very deep (although anything she might be able to tell them is, as always, in conflict with her loyalties to the Spirit World, mostly Koenma. She'll often dodge the subject or have to have it be forced out of her if it's official Spirit World business or something Koenma is planning.)
Botan will often offer advice to them as well for the better (or at least what's better in her view, which is mostly "this will make you happy, you should go for it, screw any boundaries!" it's unknown if this is because she's been alive for so long and has seen the consequences of certain actions or lack of actions, but the way she speaks almost suggests such a thing) her penchant for helping others even extended to the spirits she would visit, even with Yusuke in tow in the early stages of the series (y'know, while he was dead).
Though sometimes she couldn't do much since it was against protocol and got flabbergasted with Yusuke for outright ignoring that and—for example—dragging off an attached spirit to "go have some fun" she eventually learns that Yusuke is An Exception to the Rule and is actually a much healthier influence for the souls of the deceased as well as living humans (much to his own surprise as well as the entirety of Spirit World's). But that doesn't mean she just sat back with an "oh Yusuke" her exasperation with him never ends, even as time passes, their relationship can be compared to an older sister being annoyed with having to look after her little brother.
(Uh…never mind that he apparently really wants to know what her bust size is and tried to trick her into telling him. She wasn't amused.)
Things were often out of her hands in the beginning of the manga, and though she disliked it it was just how things were and she had to quietly accept it since non-human spirits such as herself weren't allowed to interfere with the affairs of humans. Indeed, they weren't even allowed to really interact with humans until they were dead, though Botan herself seemed to show an interest in doing so due to her own outgoing nature and endless fascination with the subtle ties between different human beings (read: being overly invested in their relationships like it's a daytime soap) and she integrates with humans easily, though she has a bit of trouble with not blabbing about Yusuke's exploits as the Spirit Detective in the beginning or things that she shouldn't have been witness to as a human but was as a spirit.
As time goes on, when people become more familiar with her and Yusuke's work as the Spirit Detective, there are less "hilarious misunderstandings" born from her slip of the tongue (though in the early stages she makes up stories in response to Yusuke saying that he doesn't want his close friends and mother to know about the Spirit Detective thing yet).
Botan has been shown several times to be self-sacrificing, though she doesn't put herself on a pedestal or remind people of the fact that she risked her neck for them, it's often her acting on instinct for the safety of her loved ones. Yeah, she gets scared, she has a sense of self-preservation if someone is directly threatening her, she doesn't want to piss off Hiei in particular (who does?) but she'll still get snippy and irritable with him if he's implying that he doesn't want to help one of their friends, especially not when they're in danger right at that very moment. She becomes more aware of the fact that there's no real thought behind this (literally) throwing herself in the way of something dangerous for others, sometimes for people she doesn't even know that well, but realizes are good people and need to be protected.
Her other friends make the comment that she's "tough" and she'll recover from whatever trauma was sustained from the act; not just physically, Botan has often had to bounce back mentally from things that take a toll on her emotions (which as I've mentioned before are actually very very delicate, either evidence of her being a fairly young spirit in comparison to the others or just legitimately that soft-hearted). Though in the beginning she hides herself away when she's upset so her friends don't have to see something as simple as her crying, they catch onto it anyway and reassure her that it's okay, she can be upset all she wants and lean on them for support (this was a conversation between herself and Shizuru after she took Genkai's soul to the afterlife). Needless to say, she was touched by the sentiment and though a situation like that didn't happen again, presumably she took the advice to heart.
Botan doesn't often distrust anyone outright (the opposite, in fact, she usually greets them with a howdy doo or the Japanese equivalent and treats them like an old friend), though in the beginning she defaulted to thinking demons were harmful to humans and the Spirit World as a whole, due to the deception and manipulation of King Enma (as in, yes, demons were actually controlled into doing bad things to people so King Enma could keep them under his thumb and/or destroy them.) Having everything turned upside down like that when they found out the whole scandalous secret was shocking, but she ultimately stuck with Koenma and Yusuke, supporting them throughout the various trials without a single second guessing of herself even if the head of all of this chaos is the king of the underworld. She believes in Yusuke and she believes in Koenma, as they are her friends and very important companions to her, that's all she needs to go out on a limb and do something ridiculously risky for all reasons.
As things ended up way more peaceful in the end, she seemed a lot more relaxed (a feat for someone that already acted carefree, but like I said Botan kept a very tight lid on her persona and her duties in the beginning), actually appearing in the living realm in her human form more often to spend time with Yusuke and their friends. The jury's out on if she became more open about the doings of the Spirit World, about 100+ years of habit might be a little hard to break even for someone as adaptable as Botan. This isn't to say that she's as cagey as before, no, Botan's as upbeat and optimistic as ever--being an observer of her friends' happiness as always and enjoying it whilst pushing it along as much as she's able to.
Maybe nobody actually needs to know anything overtly personal about Botan; she speaks for herself enough as she is and she just wants to have some fun with life, regardless of what changes come at her, just as long as everyone's happy.
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