うちは サスケ | sasuke uchiha (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bondsoflove) wrote2012-09-06 10:51 pm
bondsoflove) wrote2012-09-06 10:51 pm
Entry tags:
Siren's Pull History
VITALS
name || Sasuke Uchiha
birthplace || Konohagakure, Land of Fire
birthday || July 23
age || 16
sex || male
species || human (shinobi)
ethnicity || Konohanese (Japanese)
blood type || AB
height || 5'6 / 168 cm
weight || 105 lbs / 47.62 kg
hair || black
eyes || dark gray
build || slender (currently emaciated)
piercings || none
voice || baritone with a bright timbre.
likes || Onigiri with dried and fermented skipjack tuna and tomatoes, the smell of blood, fights and pain, brooding
dislikes || EVERYTHING, natto, sweet things
ABILITIES
skills || Off the charts in just about every area.
powers || Elemental jutsu (fire and lightning-based), eternal mangekyou sharingan.
weapons || Chokuto, large shuriken, wires, kunai
weaknesses || Cooperation, mental stability, control
strengths || genjutsu, raw power, intelligence.
immunities || Illusions, in almost every circumstance.
IN-DEPTH
personality || Broken, unstable, and intense. Volcanic--silent rumbling until the devastating moment of eruption.
date of arrival || September 11, 2012
current last known residence || An apartment in Sector 8, shared with Warsman
life-changing incidents || All logs - all network posts - all network responses - tl;dr participating with the Teen Titans gave him a sense of teamwork and helped with his stability; falling in love with a cyborg eleven years his senior fucked with his head and losing said cyborg to the pull kicked him over the edge into a psychotic breakdown; murdering two politicians put the city in a state of martial law and got him kidnapped and tortured for information which has made him VERY FUCKING JUMPY.
occupation || Security at the Uzushio
NINJA SPECS
registration no. || 012606
rank || Genin
ninjutsu || 5
taijutsu || 3.5
genjutsu || 4
intelligence || 3.5
strength || 3.5
speed || 4.5
stamina || 3.5
SPIRITUALITY
arcana || The Tower
zodiac || Cancer/Leo cusp
religion || Shinto
sins || Wrath, pride
virtues || Diligence
personality || INFJ
alignment || Chaotic good
affiliation || N/A
IN CHARACTER
telepathy || allowed
illusion || Damn near impossible, but you're welcome to try.
possession || allowed
omniscience || allowed
hacking || allowed
sex || allowed
gore || allowed
death || allowed
notes || He's trigger-happy. He's likely to pick fights for no good reason and has trauma responses up the wazoo.
OUT OF CHARACTER
timezone || Eastern (EST/GMT -5)
contact || dragon.hearted @ AIM
threadjacking || allowed
fourth wall || allowed
canon puncture || allowed
backtagging || always
offensive || NC-17 allowed
credit || totally stole this from pana
Character Information
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: Here.
Point in Canon: Chapter 590
Character Personality: Sasuke was a typical child--sweet, affectionate, outgoing, and energetic. Growing up in his brother’s shadow, he longed for acknowledgement from their strict, withdrawn father, and the lack of such gave him a stubbornness and drive for perfection. He was a diligent worker, and would often come home after long hours of practicing blowing fire from his mouth (a technique beyond his expected skill, but one his brother had mastered at his age) exhausted, lips blistered and cracked. This set him up for a shaky sense of self and lack of confidence in his own abilities--no matter what he did, it was always held up to the standards of his older brother. “Keep practicing, and you might be as good as Itachi someday.”
Though a little jealous, Sasuke adored and idolized his older brother, begging him to play or train together at any opportunity. Itachi was always distant, but would make an effort to give Sasuke attention when he could, until shortly after Sasuke entered the academy. He closed off and began acting strangely, even hostile.
Even at a young age, Sasuke was observant, and noticed that something was off with his brother fairly quickly. His worry was temporarily assuaged when he finally completed the fireball jutsu and heard his father’s praise for the first time--”as I thought, you’re my son”. In light of Itachi’s behavior, Fugaku transferred his hopes onto Sasuke to eventually take his place as the head of the clan, and Sasuke was eager to show his worth.
He never got the chance.
Sasuke was seven years old when he returned late from training to find everyone in the family compound--his aunts, uncles, cousins; men, women and children--slaughtered. Tearfully, he ran through the streets and past corpse after corpse until he reached his own home. His mother and father were dead on the floor, and the brother he had idolized was standing over them, sword bloody.
Sasuke’s first instinct was to freeze, but he ran when Itachi threw a knife at him and scratched his face--cried, screamed, begging to be spared.
Itachi caught up to him, and when asked why, he coldly informed Sasuke that he had slaughtered the clan to measure his own abilities, and that the affection he had shown Sasuke was an act to keep from being found out. He instructed Sasuke to run like a coward, to live, to flee and to cultivate his hatred. To seek Itachi out and kill him, avenging the deaths of the Uchiha clan, if he could--that he kept Sasuke alive for no reason other than to grow as another vessel against which to measure his strength.
Massive childhood trauma is enough to warp anyone, but Sasuke was also left alone to deal with the repercussions. Idolized by his teachers and classmates for being a “genius”, pitied by the citizens of the village for being the “last Uchiha”, Sasuke lost most of his sense of self in these concepts. Becoming The Avenger meant he didn’t have to be Sasuke, a grieving child who still longed for approval and affection, overwhelmed with loneliness and the pain of shouldering responsibility for avenging so many deaths, still missing the brother he thought he knew.
Sasuke’s emotional development was stunted here, and he withdrew into himself and put up walls to keep anyone from seeing who he really was. The concepts, Avenger, Top Rookie, Heartthrob, were used as a safety net to keep him from having to examine his own suffering, his own self. Most assumed he was just a cool, emotionless genius with a superiority complex, and this was an image Sasuke worked hard to cultivate and present.
In reality, he is a bull-headed perfectionist with very little self-esteem and astronomically high standards for himself and others, and sees anything less than perfection from himself as failure, unacceptable. This is partly to do with his upbringing, where anything less than perfection was given no notice at all, and exceptional performance was only rewarded with the most cursory of acceptance; he also feels immense guilt over being the only Uchiha left alive, and feels that he is only worthy of existing if he fulfills the purpose Itachi gave him.
Sasuke doesn’t particularly respect himself, but he doesn’t respect anyone else either, and is one of few characters in the series who doesn’t use honorific speech. Though quiet and introverted, when he does have something to say, he doesn’t bother to temper it. His words are often rude and cutting; this has the reverse effect of making him extremely popular with girls, although he shows annoyance rather than returned interest. The one topic he's liable to be verbose about is his clan, the slaughter and revenge thereof, and his hatred of the perceived perpetrators. Before his facade began to crack, it was also the only time he showed the strength of the emotions running under his surface.
It wasn’t until he was assigned to Team 7 that his walls started to crumble. Being treated as a human and not a concept, having an authority figure who paid attention to him and gave him praise, and eventually being crushed on for more than just his good looks and "cool" attitude had a profound affect on him, and he began to let his teammates in, to the point where he was willing to risk his life for their sakes. When Orochimaru initially placed the cursed seal, he resisted it, and allowed Kakashi to place another seal on it that would use his own will to keep it locked away. He was determined to beat his brother on his own power.
But as time passed, he began to get anxious. Pitted against Itachi once and losing sorely, along with Naruto's rapid improvement against his own relative stagnation, he started to doubt his own ability to avenge his family. Underneath this was still the traumatized seven-year-old, fearing nothing more than a repeat of what happened in his childhood. Loving people was dangerous, because he could lose them, and the risk of that pain was becoming unacceptable.
Corroded by terror, the little self-esteem and emotional growth he'd begun cracked and crumbled away. He left the village, citing a need for strength, saying that he would remain weak as long as he lived in Konoha. The relationships he'd made and the fear of losing them made him soft, made him lose sight of his goal. He severed his bonds, pushed away everyone who loved him, and shut himself down to keep away the pain of potential failure and loss.
Sasuke’s willingness to give Orochimaru his body as a vessel speaks to his self-hatred and the disintegration of his identity. He placed no value on himself beyond the concept of Avenger, and doesn’t seem to care what happens to him as long as he fulfills his goal. He molded himself into a weapon, pushed himself beyond his own breaking point, and smothered his humanity for the sake of power. Pouring himself into training allowed him to keep his mind occupied enough to cope.
There are several instances after his defection where Sasuke is given the chance to kill his former teammates, and while he insists that he could and even wants to, he never does. There is a part of him that can’t let go of that love, though he keeps it secret and hidden. His assurances that he could kill them serve more to prove to himself that he's extinguished his bonds with them, and will not let them in again.
After two years underneath him, Sasukee fights, absorbs and leaves Orochimaru. He says that he has surpassed Orochimaru in skill, that Orochimaru disgusts him, and forms his own team to go hunting independently for his brother. His facade of cold calculation is good enough to fool his new teammates, who he is careful to keep at arms-length, and the old ones except for Naruto--who still believes he can be healed.
Sasuke is fairly solitary, with the exception of his team, and doesn’t pick fights unless someone gets in his way, or kill just for the sake of killing. This shows he still has his morality, and although severely damaged, he knows right from wrong. He lashes out not for the joy of making others suffer, but as release for his own suppressed anger and grief. He takes time to morally justify everything he does, internally or to whoever he's fighting, while keeping up the mask of a cold, calculating assassin.
His final battle with Itachi is intense, beautiful and elemental. They are solidly matched--both of them are pushed to their limits at the end. Itachi eventually succumbs to weakness caused by illness, but not before removing the curse mark from Sasuke’s body and sealing Orochimaru away.
Once he succeeds in his goal of killing his brother, Sasuke goes into a sort of catatonia. Exhausted from the fight, and mentally incapable of processing the fact that his reason for living for the past nine years is now gone, there is nothing left for him to do, and so he does nothing. Weak and vulnerable, he is kidnapped by Madara, the main villain and Itachi’s accomplice on the night of the Uchiha massacre.
Intimately aware of Sasuke's fragility, Madara tells Sasuke that everything he has lived was a lie--that Itachi was a double-agent, and only killed the Uchiha to keep them from overthrowing Konoha in a coup d’etat and triggering the fourth ninja world war; that Itachi left him alive not as a vessel to measure his own abilities against, but because he loved Sasuke so much he was physically unable to kill him. Madara knows how Sasuke will take this--that he is a raw, blank slate, open to anything that will give him a reason to stay alive.
Sasuke initially responds with fury and denial, but eventually comes to accept what Madara is saying as the truth. Learning that everything he fought for was a lie, a waste of his time and power against the wrong target, that the ones who destroyed his family are still alive and well, is another major trauma. His ability to cope is overwhelmed, and Madara conveniently offers the suggestion that Sasuke avenge his brother and family by killing the higher-ups in Konoha who ordered the massacre. Sasuke takes it and runs with it, clinging to the only hand-hold he can see after being pushed over the precipice of sanity. It's his old coping mechanisms, shutting himself down and projecting his own pain onto the greater concept of his family while he seeks vengeance for their sakes--something he knows how to do. He slides into it like a comfortable old robe, and is so clouded he doesn't realize that he's been manipulated into bloodying his hands for Madara's cause.
His critical thinking remains intact to the point where he is willing to speak to Danzo, a village elder, before engaging him in battle, but once Danzo’s words confirm Madara’s story and give validity to what's keeping him from breaking down completely, Sasuke is quick to fight--to keep moving, to keep living.
Sasuke has become increasingly unstable and psychotic as time has passed, acting recklessly and attacking at any perceived harm. He placed his older brother and clan on a pedestal, allowing him to justify his actions. He’s always had rage boiling under the surface, and he is letting it show more and more, but he still hasn’t accepted the trauma as his own pain--still sees himself unworthy of being in pain. He suffers for his clan's suffering, he hurts for his brother’s wounds, and doesn't have to face the prospect of simply suffering. He can’t cope in a constructive way--was never given the support to do so. He still shows shades of his cool, emotionless mask, but he's slipping; he is extremely volatile and as likely to stare blankly into the distance as he is to set his surroundings on fire.
Sasuke is close to a breaking point. His current level of instability is unsustainable, and while the comic hasn’t progressed far enough at the time of this application to know for sure, it’s possible that a conversation with his resurrected older brother in which Madara and Danzo’s stories were confirmed and Sasuke was finally told “I love you” could be a push either towards the healing process or further madness.
Character Plans: Basically, I want to terrorize him and push him into feeling things without having to qualify them as means to some greater end. I would love to see him go up against monsters, have his personal demons shoved in his face, and see if the shock and the lack of control proves therapeutic--force him to process his fear. He'll self-destruct, especially at first, and go picking fights and breaking shit and yelling at people. Over time, he will probably calm down, at least a little, and maybe even make a friend.
Appearance: Icons are here.
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
(video)
[At first glance, the boy is small, slender, and sickly pale. He stares at the ground in front of him, knees held to his chest, still as stone but for the trembling. He looks afraid, lost; a broken child.
Upon looking more closely, his irises are scarlet and black, mouth taut, fingers digging into his skin. They twitch. His eyes flick upwards to lock on the camera, and he smiles.
Something about the expression is off. Wild.]
The dogs of Konoha will not keep me shackled.
[Abruptly, his expression switches, twisting into something dark and furious.]
You will release me, or I'll find a way to escape and I will make sure that every last one of you will smell your own skin in smoke, feel every inch blister and roast, and you will beg me for death before I'm half done killing you.
Third Person Sample
No matter what you do, I will always love you.
His eyes had slipped closed after the words fell from Itachi's lips. They were now shut so firmly that light bloomed in ebbing stardusts behind his lids. He could still feel Itachi's forehead pressed against his own, Itachi's fingers at the back of his neck, cool and insubstantial. He was a fleeting specter, always just beyond Sasuke's reach, always leaving him grasping, arms outstretched. His beloved older brother too busy to play, his hated blood always one fist in the stomach too fast for Sasuke to beat, his family, dead and destroyed and gone, leaving behind more questions than answers. Why should now be any different?
I will always love you.
Itachi's words rang in his head, loud and painful. His own thoughts flew past too quickly for him to grab hold of, leaving trails of raw emotion in their wake. Fear. Doubt. Grief. An overwhelming, bitter emptiness.
Anger. Yanking at his chest, under his ribcage, pulling insistently at him.
The sensation grew stronger with every breath, realistic and physical and painful.
Something was actually tugging at him. His eyes flew open and he looked down at his chest, registering the fact that there was nothing there but failing to process the brief flash of landscape. The dust under his feet was pale brown, soft and almost like clay. He crouched and sifted his fingers through it. It felt like nothing he'd ever touched.
Slowly, he raised his head.
He was in an unfamiliar ruin, some kind of stadium crawling with plants, the walls cracked and weathered. The dirt-clay was confined to a distinct, clean shape, like a curved triangle. There was grass where the dirt ended, overgrown.
Where am I?
He called up his mangekyou. There was no sign that the place was an illusion--no one would be stupid enough to try to use an illusion against an Uchiha, anyway. It could have been a transportation, but he and Itachi had been alone; he would have heard someone approach, at very least noticed the chakra, unless the caster was of a higher ability than even him.
His fists clenched, fury burning through him like acid. He started towards the line of buildings, swift and tense, ready to spring like a wild beast in a cage.
Whatever this was, he'd beat it. His blood was the strongest there was.
They couldn't keep him trapped forever. Whoever it was who had done it would be sorry they had tried.
name || Sasuke Uchiha
birthplace || Konohagakure, Land of Fire
birthday || July 23
age || 16
sex || male
species || human (shinobi)
ethnicity || Konohanese (Japanese)
blood type || AB
height || 5'6 / 168 cm
weight || 105 lbs / 47.62 kg
hair || black
eyes || dark gray
build || slender (currently emaciated)
piercings || none
voice || baritone with a bright timbre.
likes || Onigiri with dried and fermented skipjack tuna and tomatoes, the smell of blood, fights and pain, brooding
dislikes || EVERYTHING, natto, sweet things
ABILITIES
skills || Off the charts in just about every area.
powers || Elemental jutsu (fire and lightning-based), eternal mangekyou sharingan.
weapons || Chokuto, large shuriken, wires, kunai
weaknesses || Cooperation, mental stability, control
strengths || genjutsu, raw power, intelligence.
immunities || Illusions, in almost every circumstance.
IN-DEPTH
personality || Broken, unstable, and intense. Volcanic--silent rumbling until the devastating moment of eruption.
date of arrival || September 11, 2012
life-changing incidents || All logs - all network posts - all network responses - tl;dr participating with the Teen Titans gave him a sense of teamwork and helped with his stability; falling in love with a cyborg eleven years his senior fucked with his head and losing said cyborg to the pull kicked him over the edge into a psychotic breakdown; murdering two politicians put the city in a state of martial law and got him kidnapped and tortured for information which has made him VERY FUCKING JUMPY.
occupation || Security at the Uzushio
NINJA SPECS
registration no. || 012606
rank || Genin
ninjutsu || 5
taijutsu || 3.5
genjutsu || 4
intelligence || 3.5
strength || 3.5
speed || 4.5
stamina || 3.5
SPIRITUALITY
arcana || The Tower
zodiac || Cancer/Leo cusp
religion || Shinto
sins || Wrath, pride
virtues || Diligence
personality || INFJ
alignment || Chaotic good
affiliation || N/A
IN CHARACTER
telepathy || allowed
illusion || Damn near impossible, but you're welcome to try.
possession || allowed
omniscience || allowed
hacking || allowed
sex || allowed
gore || allowed
death || allowed
notes || He's trigger-happy. He's likely to pick fights for no good reason and has trauma responses up the wazoo.
OUT OF CHARACTER
timezone || Eastern (EST/GMT -5)
contact || dragon.hearted @ AIM
threadjacking || allowed
fourth wall || allowed
canon puncture || allowed
backtagging || always
offensive || NC-17 allowed
credit || totally stole this from pana
Character Information
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: Here.
Point in Canon: Chapter 590
Character Personality: Sasuke was a typical child--sweet, affectionate, outgoing, and energetic. Growing up in his brother’s shadow, he longed for acknowledgement from their strict, withdrawn father, and the lack of such gave him a stubbornness and drive for perfection. He was a diligent worker, and would often come home after long hours of practicing blowing fire from his mouth (a technique beyond his expected skill, but one his brother had mastered at his age) exhausted, lips blistered and cracked. This set him up for a shaky sense of self and lack of confidence in his own abilities--no matter what he did, it was always held up to the standards of his older brother. “Keep practicing, and you might be as good as Itachi someday.”
Though a little jealous, Sasuke adored and idolized his older brother, begging him to play or train together at any opportunity. Itachi was always distant, but would make an effort to give Sasuke attention when he could, until shortly after Sasuke entered the academy. He closed off and began acting strangely, even hostile.
Even at a young age, Sasuke was observant, and noticed that something was off with his brother fairly quickly. His worry was temporarily assuaged when he finally completed the fireball jutsu and heard his father’s praise for the first time--”as I thought, you’re my son”. In light of Itachi’s behavior, Fugaku transferred his hopes onto Sasuke to eventually take his place as the head of the clan, and Sasuke was eager to show his worth.
He never got the chance.
Sasuke was seven years old when he returned late from training to find everyone in the family compound--his aunts, uncles, cousins; men, women and children--slaughtered. Tearfully, he ran through the streets and past corpse after corpse until he reached his own home. His mother and father were dead on the floor, and the brother he had idolized was standing over them, sword bloody.
Sasuke’s first instinct was to freeze, but he ran when Itachi threw a knife at him and scratched his face--cried, screamed, begging to be spared.
Itachi caught up to him, and when asked why, he coldly informed Sasuke that he had slaughtered the clan to measure his own abilities, and that the affection he had shown Sasuke was an act to keep from being found out. He instructed Sasuke to run like a coward, to live, to flee and to cultivate his hatred. To seek Itachi out and kill him, avenging the deaths of the Uchiha clan, if he could--that he kept Sasuke alive for no reason other than to grow as another vessel against which to measure his strength.
Massive childhood trauma is enough to warp anyone, but Sasuke was also left alone to deal with the repercussions. Idolized by his teachers and classmates for being a “genius”, pitied by the citizens of the village for being the “last Uchiha”, Sasuke lost most of his sense of self in these concepts. Becoming The Avenger meant he didn’t have to be Sasuke, a grieving child who still longed for approval and affection, overwhelmed with loneliness and the pain of shouldering responsibility for avenging so many deaths, still missing the brother he thought he knew.
Sasuke’s emotional development was stunted here, and he withdrew into himself and put up walls to keep anyone from seeing who he really was. The concepts, Avenger, Top Rookie, Heartthrob, were used as a safety net to keep him from having to examine his own suffering, his own self. Most assumed he was just a cool, emotionless genius with a superiority complex, and this was an image Sasuke worked hard to cultivate and present.
In reality, he is a bull-headed perfectionist with very little self-esteem and astronomically high standards for himself and others, and sees anything less than perfection from himself as failure, unacceptable. This is partly to do with his upbringing, where anything less than perfection was given no notice at all, and exceptional performance was only rewarded with the most cursory of acceptance; he also feels immense guilt over being the only Uchiha left alive, and feels that he is only worthy of existing if he fulfills the purpose Itachi gave him.
Sasuke doesn’t particularly respect himself, but he doesn’t respect anyone else either, and is one of few characters in the series who doesn’t use honorific speech. Though quiet and introverted, when he does have something to say, he doesn’t bother to temper it. His words are often rude and cutting; this has the reverse effect of making him extremely popular with girls, although he shows annoyance rather than returned interest. The one topic he's liable to be verbose about is his clan, the slaughter and revenge thereof, and his hatred of the perceived perpetrators. Before his facade began to crack, it was also the only time he showed the strength of the emotions running under his surface.
It wasn’t until he was assigned to Team 7 that his walls started to crumble. Being treated as a human and not a concept, having an authority figure who paid attention to him and gave him praise, and eventually being crushed on for more than just his good looks and "cool" attitude had a profound affect on him, and he began to let his teammates in, to the point where he was willing to risk his life for their sakes. When Orochimaru initially placed the cursed seal, he resisted it, and allowed Kakashi to place another seal on it that would use his own will to keep it locked away. He was determined to beat his brother on his own power.
But as time passed, he began to get anxious. Pitted against Itachi once and losing sorely, along with Naruto's rapid improvement against his own relative stagnation, he started to doubt his own ability to avenge his family. Underneath this was still the traumatized seven-year-old, fearing nothing more than a repeat of what happened in his childhood. Loving people was dangerous, because he could lose them, and the risk of that pain was becoming unacceptable.
Corroded by terror, the little self-esteem and emotional growth he'd begun cracked and crumbled away. He left the village, citing a need for strength, saying that he would remain weak as long as he lived in Konoha. The relationships he'd made and the fear of losing them made him soft, made him lose sight of his goal. He severed his bonds, pushed away everyone who loved him, and shut himself down to keep away the pain of potential failure and loss.
Sasuke’s willingness to give Orochimaru his body as a vessel speaks to his self-hatred and the disintegration of his identity. He placed no value on himself beyond the concept of Avenger, and doesn’t seem to care what happens to him as long as he fulfills his goal. He molded himself into a weapon, pushed himself beyond his own breaking point, and smothered his humanity for the sake of power. Pouring himself into training allowed him to keep his mind occupied enough to cope.
There are several instances after his defection where Sasuke is given the chance to kill his former teammates, and while he insists that he could and even wants to, he never does. There is a part of him that can’t let go of that love, though he keeps it secret and hidden. His assurances that he could kill them serve more to prove to himself that he's extinguished his bonds with them, and will not let them in again.
After two years underneath him, Sasukee fights, absorbs and leaves Orochimaru. He says that he has surpassed Orochimaru in skill, that Orochimaru disgusts him, and forms his own team to go hunting independently for his brother. His facade of cold calculation is good enough to fool his new teammates, who he is careful to keep at arms-length, and the old ones except for Naruto--who still believes he can be healed.
Sasuke is fairly solitary, with the exception of his team, and doesn’t pick fights unless someone gets in his way, or kill just for the sake of killing. This shows he still has his morality, and although severely damaged, he knows right from wrong. He lashes out not for the joy of making others suffer, but as release for his own suppressed anger and grief. He takes time to morally justify everything he does, internally or to whoever he's fighting, while keeping up the mask of a cold, calculating assassin.
His final battle with Itachi is intense, beautiful and elemental. They are solidly matched--both of them are pushed to their limits at the end. Itachi eventually succumbs to weakness caused by illness, but not before removing the curse mark from Sasuke’s body and sealing Orochimaru away.
Once he succeeds in his goal of killing his brother, Sasuke goes into a sort of catatonia. Exhausted from the fight, and mentally incapable of processing the fact that his reason for living for the past nine years is now gone, there is nothing left for him to do, and so he does nothing. Weak and vulnerable, he is kidnapped by Madara, the main villain and Itachi’s accomplice on the night of the Uchiha massacre.
Intimately aware of Sasuke's fragility, Madara tells Sasuke that everything he has lived was a lie--that Itachi was a double-agent, and only killed the Uchiha to keep them from overthrowing Konoha in a coup d’etat and triggering the fourth ninja world war; that Itachi left him alive not as a vessel to measure his own abilities against, but because he loved Sasuke so much he was physically unable to kill him. Madara knows how Sasuke will take this--that he is a raw, blank slate, open to anything that will give him a reason to stay alive.
Sasuke initially responds with fury and denial, but eventually comes to accept what Madara is saying as the truth. Learning that everything he fought for was a lie, a waste of his time and power against the wrong target, that the ones who destroyed his family are still alive and well, is another major trauma. His ability to cope is overwhelmed, and Madara conveniently offers the suggestion that Sasuke avenge his brother and family by killing the higher-ups in Konoha who ordered the massacre. Sasuke takes it and runs with it, clinging to the only hand-hold he can see after being pushed over the precipice of sanity. It's his old coping mechanisms, shutting himself down and projecting his own pain onto the greater concept of his family while he seeks vengeance for their sakes--something he knows how to do. He slides into it like a comfortable old robe, and is so clouded he doesn't realize that he's been manipulated into bloodying his hands for Madara's cause.
His critical thinking remains intact to the point where he is willing to speak to Danzo, a village elder, before engaging him in battle, but once Danzo’s words confirm Madara’s story and give validity to what's keeping him from breaking down completely, Sasuke is quick to fight--to keep moving, to keep living.
Sasuke has become increasingly unstable and psychotic as time has passed, acting recklessly and attacking at any perceived harm. He placed his older brother and clan on a pedestal, allowing him to justify his actions. He’s always had rage boiling under the surface, and he is letting it show more and more, but he still hasn’t accepted the trauma as his own pain--still sees himself unworthy of being in pain. He suffers for his clan's suffering, he hurts for his brother’s wounds, and doesn't have to face the prospect of simply suffering. He can’t cope in a constructive way--was never given the support to do so. He still shows shades of his cool, emotionless mask, but he's slipping; he is extremely volatile and as likely to stare blankly into the distance as he is to set his surroundings on fire.
Sasuke is close to a breaking point. His current level of instability is unsustainable, and while the comic hasn’t progressed far enough at the time of this application to know for sure, it’s possible that a conversation with his resurrected older brother in which Madara and Danzo’s stories were confirmed and Sasuke was finally told “I love you” could be a push either towards the healing process or further madness.
Character Plans: Basically, I want to terrorize him and push him into feeling things without having to qualify them as means to some greater end. I would love to see him go up against monsters, have his personal demons shoved in his face, and see if the shock and the lack of control proves therapeutic--force him to process his fear. He'll self-destruct, especially at first, and go picking fights and breaking shit and yelling at people. Over time, he will probably calm down, at least a little, and maybe even make a friend.
Appearance: Icons are here.
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
(video)
[At first glance, the boy is small, slender, and sickly pale. He stares at the ground in front of him, knees held to his chest, still as stone but for the trembling. He looks afraid, lost; a broken child.
Upon looking more closely, his irises are scarlet and black, mouth taut, fingers digging into his skin. They twitch. His eyes flick upwards to lock on the camera, and he smiles.
Something about the expression is off. Wild.]
The dogs of Konoha will not keep me shackled.
[Abruptly, his expression switches, twisting into something dark and furious.]
You will release me, or I'll find a way to escape and I will make sure that every last one of you will smell your own skin in smoke, feel every inch blister and roast, and you will beg me for death before I'm half done killing you.
Third Person Sample
No matter what you do, I will always love you.
His eyes had slipped closed after the words fell from Itachi's lips. They were now shut so firmly that light bloomed in ebbing stardusts behind his lids. He could still feel Itachi's forehead pressed against his own, Itachi's fingers at the back of his neck, cool and insubstantial. He was a fleeting specter, always just beyond Sasuke's reach, always leaving him grasping, arms outstretched. His beloved older brother too busy to play, his hated blood always one fist in the stomach too fast for Sasuke to beat, his family, dead and destroyed and gone, leaving behind more questions than answers. Why should now be any different?
I will always love you.
Itachi's words rang in his head, loud and painful. His own thoughts flew past too quickly for him to grab hold of, leaving trails of raw emotion in their wake. Fear. Doubt. Grief. An overwhelming, bitter emptiness.
Anger. Yanking at his chest, under his ribcage, pulling insistently at him.
The sensation grew stronger with every breath, realistic and physical and painful.
Something was actually tugging at him. His eyes flew open and he looked down at his chest, registering the fact that there was nothing there but failing to process the brief flash of landscape. The dust under his feet was pale brown, soft and almost like clay. He crouched and sifted his fingers through it. It felt like nothing he'd ever touched.
Slowly, he raised his head.
He was in an unfamiliar ruin, some kind of stadium crawling with plants, the walls cracked and weathered. The dirt-clay was confined to a distinct, clean shape, like a curved triangle. There was grass where the dirt ended, overgrown.
Where am I?
He called up his mangekyou. There was no sign that the place was an illusion--no one would be stupid enough to try to use an illusion against an Uchiha, anyway. It could have been a transportation, but he and Itachi had been alone; he would have heard someone approach, at very least noticed the chakra, unless the caster was of a higher ability than even him.
His fists clenched, fury burning through him like acid. He started towards the line of buildings, swift and tense, ready to spring like a wild beast in a cage.
Whatever this was, he'd beat it. His blood was the strongest there was.
They couldn't keep him trapped forever. Whoever it was who had done it would be sorry they had tried.