Application for thefarshore

[rockthemonkey]

Player Information

Name: Oozaru
Contact: oozaru
Age: 26
Other Characters: Formerly Sharak Sanzo and Charlotte, both dropped now.

Character Information

Name: Son Goku
Canon: Saiyuki Reload Blast
Canon Point: Shot. 4 “Kouten” Chapter 11. Most recent chapter released currently.
Age: 19 years old, actually much much older.
History: Wiki page
The wiki page doesn't have the best overview of "the story so far" so I'll also give my own brief summary here. The last paragraph has spoilers for the most recent chapter of Saiyuki Reload Blast.

Hundreds of years ago, there was a stone egg atop Mount Kaka. For thousands of years the aura of the Earth had flown into that egg until one night it hatched! From the egg a child was born, with long brown hair and golden eyes. Though the child appeared to be a youkai, he was actually a unique being and was labelled a heretic for his golden eyes.

Some unknown number of years went by, with the child living happily on Earth. Eventually he was somehow bound by a gold diadem, a power limiter that sealed away much of his strength. He was then brought to Heaven by the god Egan and was given to Kanzeon Bosatsu so she could decide how he would be dealt with. She gave the boy to her nephew, Konzen, who ended up more or less adopting the kid. He named the boy Goku and both their lives were irrevocably altered. While in Heaven, Goku also befriended the heavenly soldiers Kenren and Tenpou and the War God Nataku. Some real shit went down, resulting in Nataku's attempted suicide and coma, Goku killing a lot of gods, and Konzen, Kenren and Tenpou rebelling against Heaven by trying to escape with the kid to Earth. In the end, Goku was the only survivor and he was imprisoned in a cave for five hundred years, with no memory of what happened beside his new name.

After five hundred years, Goku was finally found by the priest Genjo Sanzo. It becomes clear that for all his cheerfulness, he can't be left alone again after the trauma of losing his previous family and being locked away. Once again, Goku is reluctantly adopted by a surly blond. A few years later, Goku and Sanzo meet Gojyo and Hakkai and they quickly form a tight knit group despite all protests from Sanzo. Surrounded by friends again, Goku gradually learns to overcome his fear of being alone or at least how to function with it.

Currently, Goku, Sanzo, Hakkai and Gojyo are all on a journey to travel from China to India in order to stop the resurrection of Gyuumaoh and the spread of the Minus Wave, something that has been driving the youkai of the country bloodthirsty and often insane. The Minus Wave is a product of the experiments of Nii Jyeni, the lead scientist behind the Gyuumaoh resurrection. It's a constant, looming threat in the minds of the group as they know that at any moment their resistance to the wave might wear out and they too could go berserk. Still, Goku, Hakkai and Gojyo all fit under the banner of "unusual youkai" for one reason or another, and they're extremely powerful, so they haven't had any problems so far.

They’ve been traveling for nearly two years now, fighting all the way against youkai and occasionally each other and now they’ve finally reached India itself. All four of the boys have been changed significantly by the course of the journey, but arguably Goku has grown the most. He’s more independent and mature than he was, something the other characters notice. However, now Goku’s past is coming back to haunt him. Nataku has woken up and is causing trouble on Earth, though his reasons and goals aren’t known to Goku yet. In their most recent battle there was a moment of recognition between the two, and it seems as though Goku's memories may be gradually returning. Goku still doesn’t remember everything that happened five hundred years ago, but there are those who believe that the events of that time will repeat again, this time with Sanzo, Hakkai and Gojyo.


Personality:
The ever-cheerful, ever-hungry Monkey King Son Goku! Goku is a bright, energetic and joyful young man, usually thinking more optimistically and simply than his companions and always ready to make a new friend. Though he’s technically centuries old (and now an adult even putting that aside), Goku is very childlike and used to being the kid of the group. He wears his heart on his sleeve and doesn’t hesitate to voice his opinions and feelings. But just because he's kind doesn't mean he's a pushover or overly nice. He's not at all shy about arguing with his friends and is often bickering with Gojyo. He'll yell insults, tease and generally be a little shit.

Over the past year he has matured a lot though and is now frequently the more reasonable of the group, at least when the argument is more serious. When the team is beaten to near death by Kami-sama, he's the one who raises their spirits and motivates them to strike back. When Sanzo, Hakkai and Gojyo are arguing about the Minus Wave, he's the one calling for everyone to calm down. He also more often tries to reach out to people to help them, where the others are a little more jaded or wary. He’s generally optimistic and thinks people can get along if they really try.

In general Goku is pretty simple-minded. He’s always looking forward to his next meal and when a problem arises, he just goes towards the most straight-forward solution. Even his more philosophical moments have a certain monkey logic to them. He goes with his gut and what feels right. He can also be pretty gullible and just straight up dumb on occasion. That said, he does have his moments of wisdom! His optimistic, direct way of looking at things is good for pulling the rest of the team out of their respective funks at times, and he can be very thoughtful when he puts his mind to it. In battle he's downright clever, in a very reckless, "that shouldn't have worked but no one told him that" kind of way.

Like every other iteration of Sun Wukong, Goku loves fighting and proving his strength. While he doesn't take pleasure in hurting people, he obviously enjoys fighting itself and he gets excited over powerful enemies. For example, when they first meet the youkai prince Kougaiji, he completely shows them up and Goku gets excited as if he just made a new friend. He's learned to be more reasonable over the journey west, but he still enjoys a good fight. Luckily for him, he never had to look very hard to find one. Early in the series he makes a point of saying that he's fighting for himself, tying into the whole group's philosophy of doing things because they want to. They're not on anyone's side and they're not doing anything because they have the moral high ground or anything ridiculous like that- it's just what they want to do.

There’s an incident fairly early in the journey where Sanzo becomes seriously injured when protecting Goku. Since then he’s been resolved to become stronger so that won’t happen again and Sanzo will be able to rely on him to protect himself. It’s still a bit of a sore spot and when Goku gets hurt he tends to blame himself for not being stronger, even for things he had no control over. A major point in the philosophy of the Sanzo party seems to be in having things you don't need to protect. All of them have lost loved ones but now they can take comfort in having each other and in having people that are strong enough that they don't need protecting. Sanzo doesn't have to worry about Goku because he's strong, and vice versa. Because of that, they can stay together.

Which brings us to his relationship with the rest of the party. After being rescued from his prison by Sanzo, Goku is understandably devoted to the man. He compares him to the sun and admits privately that he's the closest thing Goku has to a guardian. After five hundred years alone, it's not surprising that Goku has abandonment issues and during his first few years in the outside world, he was terrified of being left alone. Any time Sanzo left him alone without proper warning, Goku would become extremely upset and start to cry and panic. The first time this happened, his limiter broke. Once Goku met Hakkai and Gojyo, this extended to them as well, but Sanzo was still the center of his universe. After a few episodes like that, Goku gradually learned that his new friends weren't going to leave him even if they were out of sight for a time. Now he can be separated from Sanzo for hours at a time without crying once! But he's still very emotionally invested in team unity and his friends.

Abilities:
Goku is a very strong man. He can lift heavy weights like nobody’s business, punch a hole in a wall, you name it. From the way he bounces around and performs acrobatics in battle, it's obvious he's inhumanly strong and agile. He has a ton of energy and bounces back from hits easily; he's also usually the first in the group to recover from whatever beat down they've just had. He’s a capable hand-to-hand fighter and very talented at fighting with his staff. He can summon his staff out of thin air and it magically extends and contracts on his command. It can also be turned into a three sectioned staff for more effective strikes. He also has a very good sense of smell and he can sense youkai energy.

When Goku removes the golden coronet on his head, which acts as a power limiter, he changes form into the Seiten Taisei. Goku becomes insanely fast and strong, grows claws and fangs, and the Earth itself reacts to his presence. He can heal himself using the Earth’s energy, catch bullets with his teeth and send energy attacks fired at him back at his opponents. Goku’s demonic aura is also much stronger in this form and he can use that to shrug off attacks too. The downside of this form is that Goku goes into a violent spree, unable to tell friend from foe, and so is understandably hesitant to use it. It’s possible that Seiten Taisei has further powers we haven’t seen yet, since he seems to get stronger every time Goku takes his limiter off.

Strengths: Friendly, charming, strong, resilient, enthusiastic.
Weaknesses: Dumb, naive, reckless, uneducated, and he's so so hungry.

God/Shinki: God
Why?: Goku is typically more of a follower than a leader in canon, and I'd like to try him out in a different role to see what happens. We've also already had two shinki versions of Goku in game previously, so I figured I may as well do something different. He's also described as “some kind of god” as Seiten Taisei, and gives that impression even more than the actual gods do. He's kind of awe-inspiring.
Top 3 Choices: Huitzilopochtli, Hayagriva, Edesia.
God Type: Goku isn't likely to be too fond of the idea of being a "god". That just sounds dumb. Taking on a new identity (especially one he can't even pronounce) is also likely to bug him- he's Goku! Son Goku! However, fighting ayakashi sounds like fun and he'll probably do his best for his followers. Investigating conspiracies and leading rebellions isn't really his style, but he'll quietly continue to be himself and do whatever he wants to do. Whatever that happens to be. Huitzilopochtli is the sun and a war god, charged with protecting humanity from the moon and the stars that will bring about the end of the world if he stops chasing them off. Goku's not quite sure how to manage that personally, but he can definitely hit some people real hard!
Power: Self duplication. Similar to his counterpart in the original Journey to the West, Goku will be able to make duplicates of himself! It will take time for him to learn how to control them or keep them around for very long, but he'll be able to make copies of himself to help in battle or with whatever else. They won't be perfect copies that could fool anyone else though. They'll appear as though they're made of a golden light and be translucent. However, they'll be able to deal a pretty solid punch!

Writing Sample
Sample:
Test Drive Meme

Additional Sample:

[How did this happen to him again? Goku glared upwards at the top of the cliff, hanging from the cliff face by a particularly stubborn tree root that had escaped the stone. He had to be at least ten meters from the edge of the cliff, but at least five times that from the ground below him. Goku was pretty good at landing on his feet, but even he had limits.]

Sanzo! Hakkai! Gojyo! [He grunted and adjusted his grip as he felt his fingers start to strain. For the moment he was fine, but even he couldn't just dangle here forever.] ... Jeep! Guys! Come on!

[He'd been shouting on and off for what felt like ages already. No response. Either Sanzo and the others sucked at looking for him or they were preoccupied with something else. Well. Fine. That was just fine, Goku thought as he glared stubbornly at the stone above him. He'd climbed cliffs before. He was better at climbing than any of the others. He didn't need their help.]

'm fine... I don't... need help! [Goku grunted before pulling himself upwards to grab onto a foothold above him with his free hand. It held. He hesitated and then let go of the tree root to pull himself up even higher. Yeah. He could do this. This cliff was his bitch-

A pebble fell from above and smacked Goku right between the eyes, making him flinch.] ... Aaaah! I'm hungry!



Other

Anything Else?: N/A.