| Gin Ichimaru | |
|---|---|
 Oh, does that hurt? How absolutely dreadful... | |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | 23 (Birthday: September 10) |
| Race | Human |
| Ship | The Silvana |
| Position | Radio Ops |
| Birthplace | Unknown, but raised in Shashta |
| Nationality | Vohemaro, technically. |
| Faction | Sousuke Aizen |
Gin Ichimaru is a former member of the Ivonian Military with a questionable reputation of both immeasurable talent and utter eccentricity. Most people find his insincere personality and cruel sense of humor impossible to deal with, but there's no question that he's very good at what he does...whatever that is.
Personality[]
Outwardly Gin is very calm and polite, relentlessly cheery to the point that it's been known to grate on people's nerves. The problem with Gin's attitude is that his mood rarely appears to be sincere and most people unconsciously recognize that it's a façade for something else. Unfortunately that 'something else' is very well hidden, and Gin reveals it rarely even to those closest to him.
He has a sarcastic sense of humor that occasionally borders on cruel, and he likes to hide threats behind pleasant conversation. He's rarely consistent, doing things seemingly on a whim, and though it's difficult to find fault in his behavior, most people find themselves instantly distrusting Gin. He gives the impression that he's constantly up to something, and is usually deliberately evasive about simple things to encourage this image. His relations with other people is that of a cat playing with its food, and there's the underlying suggestion that he's much more dangerous that his frivolous persona would suggest. Though he pretends otherwise, he has very little regard for the lives of others, including his own allies.
History[]
Gin was born in Vohemar, and abandoned as a young child by his mother. The woman had some small magical talent, a trait which Gin inherited, but she saw something in him that filled her with horror. She left him on the border of the Badlands, hoping that he would meet a swift death to one of the monsters there, but he miraculously survived and eventually wound up Shashta. He lived on the streets, stealing to survive, but though he was seemingly friendly and always smiling he was rarely approached by the other orphans of the town. In the years he lived there, the only friend he made was Rangiku Matsumoto, a girl he’d saved from starvation by sharing his food with her.
Around the age of 12, a detachment from the Ivonian military came through the town. Gin made the unfortunate mistake of trying to pickpocket their Captain, but the man was more amused than truly angry, and quite impressed that the boy had dared. He also had enough talent to sense the potential that Gin had, and offered him an immediate choice – to leave with them and see whether the Ivonian Military might accept him or to stay in Shashta and rot as a penniless beggar. The question itself was a test, but Gin impressed him by agreeing on the spot without even requesting more time to think about it.
He left Shashta without ever saying goodbye to Rangiku, formally serving as a page and a messenger for the Unit until he was old enough to join the military fully, but even before then he had been unofficially permitted to train with a weapon and had even joined them in battle, though rarely. This proved gratifying for the Captain who’d recruited him because Gin proved to be extremely competent and capable, but at the same time an unexpected streak of cruelty seemed to appear. Instead of clean, killing blows, Gin would often maim his opponents in such a way that they would die slowly and painfully, but when questioned about it he would merely smile and claim that his inexperience was the cause. There was nothing anyone could say, but over time the rest of the unit became uneasy around him, and they found it a relief when he finally left.
Sponsored by the Captain who had discovered him, Gin was permitted to enter the Ivonian Military Academy which was usually reserved for nobles. He was never shy about his heritage, often flaunting his Vohemar birthright in the faces of his peers, making him widely disliked by the student body but to their irritation he was also too talented to dismiss. He graduated with unprecedented speed, and as his antics had attracted a fair amount of attention he was immediately assigned to active service, although only as a low-ranking officer. His superiors hoped to train him up to be a more usable tool, but unfortunately for them Gin’s progress had been monitored by a man named Sousuke Aizen who had very different plans for him.
Officially, the two have no strong connection to each other. They were only briefly assigned to the same unit, and have occasionally exchanged a congenial greeting, but no one has any idea that the two of them have an unshakable bond and that Gin’s loyalty belongs to Aizen alone. Aizen himself is a modestly ranked member of the military, but stays that way only because it suits him to do so. He has connections and schemes that reach further than even Gin knows about, and Gin follows him because the two of them are the only ones who really understand each other.
With Aizen’s unseen help, Gin rose much more quickly in the ranks than anyone really wanted him to, but his responsibilities became too bothersome and it no longer suited Aizen’s plans for him to stay there, they exploited a loophole to extract him from military service without consequences. Shortly beforehand, the same Captain who had originally taken Gin from Shashta unexpectedly named Gin as his heir, and then died soon after. No one can prove that it was anything other than a completely natural death, though many people found it suspicious that Gin had never expressed any sense of grief over it. The lands and wealth he gained in this venture are his only in name – he has no interest in them whatsoever, and secretly Aizen has taken charge of them to add to his growing, hidden empire.
At present, Gin works as a free agent, joining up with ships without any apparent motive and leaving them again when it pleases him, but though absolutely nothing can be traced back to him, misfortune seems to follow in his wake. Those who Aizen dismisses as useless or dangerous tend to meet unfortunate accidents. Their ships malfunction and crash, their crews mutiny and riot, or they wind up in a battle that should never have happened and lose, though for the most part Gin’s job is simply to gather information, and to find his way into an ideal position should Aizen ever choose to act through him.
Relationships[]
Sousuke Aizen
The man who essentially molded Gin into the person he is today. Aizen has been a dominating influence on Gin's life ever since he first discovered his powers and the irrefutable cruelty of his own nature, and where most people would have rejected him for being too uncontrolled and too twisted, Aizen embraced those traits and turned them into a well honed weapon for his own needs. Their relationship is a complicated one. Gin's loyalty to him is absolute, but at the same time Gin is driven by his own compulsive need to test the length of the leash he's been put on. He knows that he's the man's favorite blade, and therefore will push his luck at every opportunity to see what he can get away with and Aizen indulges him, but only up to a point. They're both well aware of who's really in charge, and Gin will obediently fall into line when ordered...although never for very long.
Rangiku Matsumoto
Rangiku is Gin's childhood friend, and is perhaps the only person he genuinely wishes to protect, both from others and from himself. To that end he has tried to distance himself from her over the years, often leaving her behind without warning or care, but despite his unreasonable behavior she's never turned him away and to his annoyance he's never been able to stop himself from coming back. As far as he's concerned, she's a lot safer when she's nowhere near him, because he will inevitably use her to get what he wants just as he does with anyone else. Currently he's trying to drive her away from the Silvana, because unfortunately this time he's not allowed to be the one to leave.
Toshirou Hitsugaya
The two of them first met whilst Hitsugaya was Rangiku's pupil, and it's fair to say that they get on like oil and fire. Gin seeks him out especially to antagonize him at any given opportunity, and gets great enjoyment out of watching him squirm. Being so close to Rangiku brings out dual feelings in Gin of wanting to crush the boy and wanting to shield him for her sake, and he tends to fluctuate between these two extremes without warning. Unfortunately, Hitsugaya is too useful a resource not to use, and when the opportunity came up to blackmail him Gin did it without a second thought.
Tear Grants:
Jushirou Ukitake:
Logs[]
First Pawn: Toshirou Hitsugaya
Pawn-becoming-Minion: Shinjiro Aragaki...Poor guy.
Unwilling Co-Conspiritor: Toshirou Hitsugaya
Quotes/Trivia[]
Gin was trained in the Ivonian Military and for a short time was the Captain of a small unit. He was considered to be something of a prodigy, graduating very quickly from the academy and rising through the ranks thanks to his own talents and some very suspicious circumstances. Despite that, he is considered to be quite skilled in battle. His sword, Shinsō, has a mana stone imbedded in the hilt that allows it to extend swiftly in length, turning it into a long-range weapon that he can wield against multiple opponents.
These days, though, Gin tries not to engage others in battle because he prefers not to reveal exactly what he's capable of. In addition, he's been taught an array of topics from magic to hacking, politics to machines, but none of them in any particular depth. This is all intended to make him a very unique and useful individual to help bring him into people's confidences.
Rumor Mill[]
PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE: Gin is a former Commander in the Ivonian military with a very conflicted reputation. He is, reportedly, a fighting genius and very skilled in a number of different areas including leadership, strategy and communications, but while his rank reflects his achievements few people are inclined to speak well of him. It's also muttered among the discontents that he's a dirty Vohemaro even though he was technically picked up in the Badlands, but Gin doesn't discourage the idea.
In recent times, Gin left the military and is apparently a free agent, signing on to whatever ship or cause takes his fancy.
SPECIAL KNOWLEDGE: Anyone digging into his military service will find that, while his record is perfectly clean, there's plenty of unofficial reports that have less than pleasant things to say about him. His relationship with the military has always been a love/hate one, whereby he was far too talented to ignore, but his methods and his personality drove most of his fellow officers to despair. He's also been loosely connected to some suspected crimes, including the demotions of fellow officers, thefts, and in one or two cases, murder, but nothing's ever been proven against him.
It's suspected that he's either a pawn or a player in some kind of conspiracy, which is true enough, although only other people connected to Aizen really know who he's working for. Gin doesn't advertise his importance, but he is Aizen's right hand man and is generally pivotal to some scheme or another, or is put in places where Aizen needs someone whose trustworthiness is guaranteed.
POP CULTURE PHENOMENON?: No...? Although considering his achievements and his reputation, the fact that he isn't more famous than he is could be considered suspicious. For some reason, the rumour mill just doesn't seem to like to speak about him~