User Profile

This is a rp journal for a_trialbyfire

Name: Ken


Personality: A fairly traditional samurai-type, Ken is a man who spares words for when he has something truly important to say. 97% of the time, he is content to keep his thoughts to himself in quiet contemplation and appraisal of his surroundings. He has an eye for beauty, especially that found in nature, and keeps a secret haiku diary in which he makes humble attempts to preserve the beauty which catches his interest each day. This gentler side, however, is known to few as he is nothing but professional and stoic at work. One of the senior Turks, he can give orders as well as take them, but he prefers to and works best operating alone. Because of his violent history, his fellow Turks have never discovered if his stony facial expression hides a homicidal maniac or a bovine nature.

History: Ken is half Wutainese and has the hometown of Gongaga in common with Zack Fair. They are separated by nearly a generation in age, however, so it is doubtful—in spite of the town’s size—that they ever knew one another. Ken is likely to know Zack’s family and Zack would certainly have heard of Ken’s violent history, which is somewhat of an urban legend in the town, but that’s it.

Ken’s grandfather and mother immigrated to Gongaga from Wutai after a bloody feud wiped out the lord to whom he owed fealty and most of those in his service. He fled the continent Lone Wolf and Cub-style to protect his infant daughter after his wife was killed in the clan war slaughter. Once he reached the sleepy oasis town, he took up the innocuous occupation of firing and painting porcelain while maintaining a secret weapons shop on the side. By the time his daughter was grown, Wutainese were less welcome on the continent. Unwilling to make an honest woman of her, many of the village men were still interested in his daughter, who had grown up to be quite beautiful. She had a long, quiet affair with one of the married men of the village but was raped more than once by men she would not accept. When she became pregnant, no one claimed responsibility.

Excited to have a grandson, Ken’s grandfather taught him Wutainese kendo and iaido, passing on his warrior and martial arts legacy to his grandson. Apart from his family, Ken grew up virtually alone as he was shunned by the other village children due to his illegitimate parentage and being half-Wutainese. Shortly before puberty he befriended a quiet, shy, effeminate boy by rescuing him from the town bullies. They were fast friends from that point on.

Years later, when Ken’s grandfather passed away and he was poised to take over the family business, Ken's friend was hired as the local liaison to ShinRa Electric Power Company who had decided to build a Mako Reactor near the town. Early stages of construction were sabotaged by AVALANCHE using guerilla war tactics. When their efforts did not stop ShinRa, they kidnapped Ken’s friend in a last-ditch effort to have their demands met. When Ken heard of his friend’s kidnapping, he picked up his grandfather's katana and stormed the terrorists’ hide-out, slaughtering everyone who stood in his way, in spite of the fact many of them were his fellow townsfolk-turned-environmental activists. Ken himself did not come through the battle unscathed. The large scar which runs down the left side of his face is a memento from one of the fallen who tried to stab out his eye with a bayonet before dying by his katana.

Though he freed his friend and the construction proceeded unhindered, Ken was put in prison to serve 34 consecutive life sentences. Because his brave act by coincidence benefited ShinRa, they saw his usefulness and made him the offer to take care of his sentence so long as he came to work for them. He was a Turk from that point on. Because of his discretion and formidability in combat, Ken often served guard duty to ShinRa VIPs, eventually becoming one of the regular bodyguards of the ShinRa family. Unfortunately, his connoisseur’s eye fell on the president’s wife, and the feeling was mutual. When his fellow Turks discovered Ken was having an affair with her, he was retired from service the hard way. Because of the delicate nature of his ‘disappearance,’ even Rufus does not know what became of him. Only his father and a few trusted Turks from that time frame who made the discovery and 'took out the trash' have any knowledge of the events. Everyone else was told he’d been put on special assignment.

Friends (158):

Mutual Friends (50):

Also Friend of (74):