application ( ruby city )

[lovedisinterest]

PLAYER
Name: Anne
Age: 25
Personal Journal: trustme_imthe
E-mail: tavrosno(at)gmail(dot)com
AIM/etc: passiones

CHARACTER
Name: Hak Son
Canon: Yona of the Dawn ( Akatsuki no Yona )
Age: 18
Timeline: Season 1, Episode 24 of the anime
Items with character at canon point: His hsu quandao and the clothes on his back
If playing another character from the same canon, how will you deal with this?: N/A

Personality:

Hak is a soldier through and through. He wouldn't say that if you asked him, of course, because he's not a particularly truthful soldier, especially not when it comes to his own habits, preferences, and tendencies. If you asked him, he'd say he's simply someone doing what needs to be done. Doing the right thing.

But then again, in the kingdom of Kouka, "doing the right thing" appears to be all a matter of perspective. Hak's perspective is quite simple, compared to those of the people closest to him--especially to Soo-won, whose moral compass tends towards the end justifying the means, or even to Yona, who has a steadfast opinion of what right and wrong are and refuses to be dissuaded from that opinion. Hak isn't so simple in his outlook that he considers himself to simply be following orders; it isn't authority he bows to. Rather, he bows to one person alone, not because he believes that she's some kind of mythical god reincarnated, but because he knows her. In the face of his entire world being torn apart, his life as he knew it falling down around his ears, he puts his trust in Yona because he agreed to, but also because he knows that even though Soo-won has betrayed them both--betrayed the entire kingdom--Yona never will.

In a way, it's shocking that Hak is able to trust that much and that thoroughly, even after everything that's happened. While Hak doesn't allow himself to visibly express his shock in the face of Soo-won's betrayal nearly as much as Yona does, that doesn't mean it isn't there; it's just that he's a soldier, so he can't. Furthermore, he doesn't want to. He knows that Yona needs someone to be strong, to hold her up, and as her bodyguard, that's a role that he can fill. Besides, he's not someone to show strong emotion other than anger the vast majority of the time. Even his concern for Yona tends to be muted.

This is deliberate. He isn't good at managing his emotions at the best of times, a tendency that appears to have been with him since childhood; he's always been serious, prickly, and emotional, but has been taught to channel it into building skills useful to the kingdom of Kouka and especially its royal family. That, more than any innate skill, is why Hak is considered the best warrior in Kouka and why Soo-won considers him such a threat--his determination not only to be the most competent warrior he can be, but to protect Yona, too. He was charged to do this by King Il, a man who he respected deeply despite questioning some of his attitudes and methods. But more than that, he does it for Yona. He believes Yona to be a good person, perhaps too good of a person and in danger of having her naivete taken advantage of. And he loves her, too, as unwilling as he is to admit it, has always considered it part of his duty to protect her. The danger here, as Hak sees it, is that he isn't able to control his feelings for her. He can't stop himself from being overwhelmed by her presence, and so he feels that he walks a tightrope as her bodyguard: how can he take care of her and love her at the same time?

Incredibly efficiently, as it turns out. More than that, Hak's occasional slip into wry black humor functions as the glue that holds their little group together. It gives Yona a sense of continuity and normalcy in her life, despite the terrifying disruption of her father's murder; it gives Yoon something to fuss about; it gives Kija someone to fight . . . and it's Hak's way, too, to provoke playful scuffles whenever and wherever he can. His theory seems to be that if he does these things, if he's sufficiently deadpan and cool all the time, nobody will see him having a feeling.

This is not at all true. But bless him, he does try.

Background: Here!

Abilities: The tl;dr version of this section is that, while Hak is solidly human, he's such an accomplished fighter that sometimes it seems like he's a whole lot more than that. He is widely known as the greatest fighter in Kouka--the Wind Tribe's "Thunder Beast", a title that is slightly less egregiously embarrassing because he didn't give it to himself. More specifically, his strength and endurance are such that they stretch the boundaries of credibility just a smidge; he's able to tough out a venomous snakebite due to Determination and similar shonen feats. His specialty is armed combat. While he's accomplished with a bow and arrow as well as a sword, his weapon of choice is a hsu quandao (referred to in some parts of the wiki as a glaive, but it's a hsu quandao).

Network/Actionspam Sample: one.

Prose Log Sample: one. two.