[Application] Kobayashi, Hitobu

A young girl in appearance only. The third seat of the Gotei’s disreputable combat division is a small lady, but not one to be looked down on, carrying herself with both the peppy energy of a new girl at work looking to impress and the foul temper of a no-nonsense parent - depending, of course, on who’s asking.

General vibe of the character is someone who, on the surface, seems at odds with her squad, but only because she puts on airs to try and make a good look for herself. She’s the kind to be cordial and almost business-like to her peers one second, and then turn around and yell at her hooligan squadmates at the top of her lungs the next. By her own admission, she’s taken it upon herself to “clean up the mess that is the Eleventh Division.”

As far as her duties as a Shinigami go, she’s something of a go-getter. Aggressively enterprising, and always willing to take on whatever workload is thrown at her. Too willing, perhaps. She could be aptly described as a “super assistant” that is always swimming in a sea of pawned-off paperwork and admin tasks.

Backstory premise is still being hashed out in more detail, but the core idea is that she wound up in one of the (relatively) nicer parts of the Rukongai. She died pretty young as a child, high infant mortality rates and all during these years, but was lucky enough to be picked up by a Shinigami before Hollowfication. In spite of that, because of her youth, when she ultimately crossed over, she couldn't really understand the situation, and thought she'd been separated from her parents in some strange place. So, she set out to find them - and, after ten years passed, to instead find missing "somebodies" that she couldn't even remember any more.

The details of her time in the outer districts of the Rukongai are not as important for the character pitch, but if asked, I'll go into a bit more depth with them, just want to avoid writing too much for this opening post. The main way this relates to her overall character below the surface-level personality traits is in the development of Hitobu's naive worldview, which has ended up developing into something of a foil to a lot of the details of the particular setting and many of the characters we've had so far - though a foil that is definitely intended to ultimately be challenged by the world and the rest of the cast. In spite of her bad-ish attitude, Koba is fundamentally a selfless and optimistic person that believes in the good in people, or rather, that sympathises with people that are suffering. She never grew up into a jaded cynic because she didn't actually start out in the worst places and got to see some of the better sides of the Rukongai community and life in the Soul Society. When she ended up travelling over to those grimier areas, she didn't see "bad people", but instead, victims of circumstance.

She believes the world is a harsh place, but one that is "fixable". Or, rather, that everyone has their own issues, and everyone can be saved or helped. The present situation in the human world, one raptured by sickness and strife, reinforced her view. But, because of this, she isn't really capable of accepting the notion of a person doing something wrong. She's too willing to give people the benefit of the doubt, and when push comes to shove, she wouldn't be able to condemn someone that had gone down the path of becoming a bad person. Whatever that really means. Corruption and evil are concepts she hasn't yet come to terms with.
 
Twentieth Seat,
Sixth Division
Reiatsu
50
Strength
10
Defense
10
Speed
20
Spirit
10
Backstory premise is still being hashed out in more detail, but the core idea is that she wound up in one of the (relatively) nicer parts of the Rukongai. She died pretty young as a child, high infant mortality rates and all during these years, but was lucky enough to be picked up by a Shinigami before Hollowfication. In spite of that, because of her youth, when she ultimately crossed over, she couldn't really understand the situation, and thought she'd been separated from her parents in some strange place. So, she set out to find them - and, after ten years passed, to instead find missing "somebodies" that she couldn't even remember any more.

This is legitimately fucking sad. Well done.

You have a very solid vision of this character and her personality and behavior.

What is she doing right now? What does she want in life? These are things that give us an idea of how your character can hook into other events outside of them -- which is critical to know.
 
Let's see... Koba doesn't really have too much in the way of long term goals. It's fundamentally childish so she doesn't outright say it, but if you were to twist her arm and ask her what she really wanted to do, it would be to "save the world". Obviously, she'd say that without having any idea what it means. But what it means for the character is that she's more the kind of person that focuses on any issues that are directly in front of her.

Currently, being at the very cusp of what could be considered a high-ranking position within the gotei, she's definitely busying herself with her duties as a Shinigami - especially in this time of crisis. As far as plot hooks go, at the risk of sounding like I'm cribbing from Yuu (and making a bad pun without even meaning to), she's absolutely the sort of person that would go out of her way to look out for newer Shinigami, particularly those that join her own Division, as a result of the position she's made for herself within it. The 11th Division would in theory be a pretty intimidating one to join, so she's definitely the sorta person that would try to ease people in. I know we have at least one other character joining the 11th, perhaps more but my memory is escaping me, and from what little I've already been exposed to, Hildr and Koba have a bit of an ironic dynamic, with the younger and newer Shinigami being wisened up to her role as death fodder and being something of a cynic, while her high-ranking officer is full of optimism and, in many cases, ignorance of the nature of the world. She'd definitely try to make her see things a little better, or to give her some hope for the future. Though, Bri can come in here and yell at me if I'm getting ahead of myself.

Speaking of getting ahead of myself, Koba also absolutely has a vested interest in, alongside the human world, the Rukongai, and in particular the outer districts that she saw in her years before becoming a Shinigami. This is sort of a lore point that I'm not too clear on, but if Shinigami ever do go out there to do, well, anything I guess, she'd be invested in that kind of thing. Though, as a Third Seat, she might not have all the time in the world to get sent out to the Rukongai, so it's possible that her inability to help there weighs on her a lot. What she can help with, though, would be the numerous characters that have some backstory connection to those further districts of the Rukongai.

Generally, her personality makes her the type that would probably quickly get involved in other people's business, especially if she thinks she can help them out. She could be described as someone that thinks she's capable of bearing everyone's burdens. It works out pretty well, since the 11th Division, from what I've been reading, is the one where a lot of people started out at before moving to other places, so she'd probably know a lot of the characters already (she's been here for a bit, in spite of her appearance. She's actually decently old, as you'd expect from a higher-ranking Shinigami)

I do hope that was something along the lines of what you were looking for. Hopefully I didn't misunderstand the question.
 
Eighth Seat,
Eighth Division
Reiatsu
90
Strength
40
Defense
10
Speed
30
Spirit
10
how do you see those desires causing tension? being a high seat in the 11th definitely does give you some chances to interact with other people in the division, sure (question: does your character want to get super close to people they're sending into danger constantly? why?). being nosy, also annoying in a good way for threading. is there anything in the way your character looks at the world, their philosophy, that would just smash against certain other characters, for better or for worse?
 
She's sort of in over her head when it comes to thinking about what she can and can't actually do. There's definitely an element of her personality that could, and almost definitely will be called into question at some point. She tries to view herself as someone capable of protecting even a small amount of the Shinigami she takes under her wing, and definitely wants to help them feel better about the whole situation, but she's also not exactly powerful enough within the Gotei to do anything substantial. There's a sort of tension between her lofty desire to help as many people as possible and the attitude she gives off as someone that can make things better, and the fact that, when it comes down to it, she's sort of all talk. She definitely can't stop Shinigami dying to Hollows in the thousands. She can hardly protect anybody. I can imagine quite a few characters would take issue with her general approach to life, and her optimistic world view. When people are actively dying around you, that stuff is much harder to bear, especially when you understand that you're also one of those people that will inevitably meet a grim fate. It's not like she's ignorant to the way the world is, but she perhaps believes far too much in her ability to make things better for people.
 
Student,
Shin'o Academy
Reiatsu
50
Strength
20
Defense
5
Speed
20
Spirit
5
With that sort of view point, I wonder how she might think of the black death and how that's changing things in the Seireitei. For example, how does she feel about the Academy lowering standards for recruits and pushing them into Divisions as quickly as possible? Does she have any feelings about the creation of the Asauchi? These sort of moral standpoints could help you think about how she fits in with the greater picture.
 
She definitely understands the necessity of what's being done - leaning in to her whole view that a lot of times bad things "just happen" and nobody is particularly at fault. The gotei does what it needs to. Kobayashi just does her best to help people caught up in it, especially those that wind up in her division, as so many do - she believes a bit optimistically that even in this terrible scenario it's possible to "make things work", so to speak. The world is never beyond fixing, even if that fixing requires her to save just one person. I imagine her refusal to point fingers at anybody would probably rub people the wrong way. She can come off as accepting of the way things are sometimes, helping individuals but ultimately being incapable of or perhaps unwilling to make big changes.
 
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