Jirou

**Jirou** is a character in the roleplay. He is a Gargoyle who, until recently, resided in the mountains in a temple as its ascetic monk.

## Personality

Jirou, despite outward appearances, is an old gargoyle that is set in his ways. He's as stubborn and hardheaded as the stone he's made from, and should one try to convince him to do something he's already refused to do, it's akin to trying to push a mountain using only your breath. All that you will succeed in doing is making your own self frustrated and causing a gargoyle to bear a grudge and a low opinion of you. He refuses to act on typical gargoyle instinct, resulting in him being in a passive aggressive state at almost all times of day when dealing with other people. In addition to the natural urge to mess up the lives of others for no apparent reason other than his own enjoyment, he also really hates interacting with others because most of his interactions with others immediately have him default to "they're all rotten." As such, he will avoid actively communicating with others, and what little communication he does undertake with others is relegated to written haiku due to his vow of silence.

When left to his own devices or in the presence of someone he doesn't outright despise, he is polite and less prone to passive aggressive haiku. When given the opportunity, he takes to domestic chores, likely to keep his hands busy and his mind off of tormenting others. Doing such things puts his mind in a zen state and keeps his moodiness to a low. If pushed to true realms of annoyance and anger, it becomes very, very difficult for him to contain his true gargoyle-self, and he may take it upon himself to make the subject more amusing - thusly degenerating back to old habits. On the rare occasions this does happen, he can't even claim to feel guilty about it as the person, in his mind, had it coming, but relegates himself to extreme meditation for weeks on end to make up for the misstep.

## Background

The Tengu themed gargoyle that would come to be known as Jirou didn't start off as an ascetic yamabushi. No, once upon a time, he was a gargoyle that was hated as much as the rest of them. In fact, before he took on the role of a tengu hermit and dropped his old self, he had made quite the name for himself as an especially cruel and even sadistic gargoyle, well aware of the fact that his "pranks" ruined lives. He always pushed his boundaries, until one day, they pushed back. It seemed he had made enemies within his own circle, as even they weren't exempt from his cruelties. The result was that they ganged up on him and left him for dead on a mountain. Unfortunately for them, he survived and vowed vengeance upon.Fortunately for them, they had left him for dead near a temple on the mountain. He had shambled his way there, finding himself under the care of the old nun that ran the temple. Of course, no "funny" business was tolerated, so he had to do his best to restrain himself while there or else the nun ended up adding to his injury count.

Eventually the day came where the gargoyle found himself well enough to leave, to which the old nun asked what he would do. He matter-of-factly told her the truth: he was going to murder those that had betrayed him. He found himself suffering from a new batch of injuries that jkpt him from leaving. Eventually, it came to the point where the angry gargoyle went to kill the old woman for keeping him contained and not allowing him to pursue his vengeance. It was then the nun struck a deal with him. If he managed to actually kill her, he could go on and do what he liked. But, on the off chance that she won, she really needed a successor to keep the temple in order. He laughed it off - in peak condition, he could obviously take down a little old woman about to keel over and die. He never stood a chance.

With his loss came the training of becoming a mountain ascetic. He had to learn to repress his baser instincts as a gargoyle, let go of the rage that caused him to chase vengeance, and, of course, care for the temple. What had started out as something he grudgingly hated grew into something he'd found he had never experienced before: tranquility. He found it was something he actually liked better than his old life, and he came to embrace the way of life that had once been forced upon him. The time eventually came when the old nun died, and when the day came, the gargoyle adopted the name Jirou for himself, took various vows (Silence only one of them), and maintained a tengu-like appearance, to match with the temple he had inherited. Years would pass by, and eventually it came to the point where his mountain temple received some neighbors in the form of a developing town. He was receiving actual visitors to the temple now, which was both a good and a bad thing. It was a good thing, as the temple was receiving offerings and patronage. However, where there were those with good intentions, vandalism and disrespect were another. Jirou had found himself in the interesting position of having to mete out regulations for visitors and be on guard for those that would disrespect his home - making the tranquility he so loved increasingly harder to find.

Recently, the greatest misfortune fell upon his temple: it burned down. Being a yamabushi hermit, even with help from the neighboring town, Jirou finds himself in a position where he cannot rebuild his temple without some significant outside help. Despite his relative disinterest in the tourney since becoming a "tengu" monk, he hopes that even winning some matches will provide him with the funding necessary to rebuild his temple... and perhaps get a security system to keep those teenagers out of it.

## Trivia

* Jirou has taken a vow of Silence. He communicates solely through his actions and written haiku.
* Tends to generally believe that all people are assholes, but specifically harbors particular hatred for teenagers.
* Oddly enough, fawns over children.