Name: Roka ToshiroNickname: Roka-kun, Toshiro-san, Roka-chan, Roka-hime
Age: 18
Birthday: December 26th
Sign: Capricorn
Gemstone: Turquoise (or Tsavorite/Green Garnet?)
Blood Type: A
Fav. Food: Ice Cream Float
Hated Food: Escargo
School: Horizon Institute for Technology and Science (Grades 7-12, some college) Azure Valley Academy (Males only, rich boys or scholarships)
Hobbies:♫ Writing music ~ Roka learned his love of music from his mute sister, Asumi, who showed him at a young age how one could express themselves through songs and melodies. Although he never learned how to properly play an instrument, Roka knows how to read and write music and to sing written notes. Occasionally he will try to play what he can from his self-taught, novice skills with the piano, but his true joy is in manifesting his thoughts and emotions into melodies and tunes. He has tried to play instruments before, but his parents consider him playing music a waste of time. Although Roka's dream career is to become a professional music composer, his parents expect him to run the family business as a future career; not be a musician or music composer, and thus they never allowed him lessons for musical instrument-playing. He has never taken singing lessons for the same reason. Besides writing actual music notes, he also enjoys coming up with lyrics, but only does so on occasion and for pieces that he intends to be sung rather than played on an instrument. It should be noted that he's sadly not very good at it and usually must refer to Nijiko, his younger sister who writes, for help.
♪ Singing ~ Singing is Roka's only method of producing audible music other than his novice piano skills and bland music synthesizing computer programs. However, it's rare for him to sing in front of others on his own. It isn't that he has a fear of others hearing him or that he's self-conscious. His public singing is not frequent because he deems it unnecessary (an opinion instilled in him at a young age by his parents) to sing or express his emotions spontaneously without reason. Because he keeps his emotional displays to a minimum in order to remain poised and calm, he thus also keeps his singing to a minimum. He also doesn't want to seem vain about his voice. However, he enjoys singing alone to himself to practice or to his sisters on occasion. As far as communicating things to others, his favorite method would be to have them listen to songs by other musicians that he deems appropriate or fitting for the situation. Sometimes he'll sing them himself.
♫ Spending time with his sisters ~ Roka really loves spending time with his three sisters when he has the chance: Asumi, his older, mute sibling, as well as his two younger ones - Nijiko the tomboy who likes to write and Seshiru the girly-girl who enjoys drawing. With Asumi, Roka will often sit and listen to music with her or sing for her since she was the one who taught him how to use music as a means of communication and self-expression. When Nijiko writes stories, he'll read them aloud, comment on them, help her through writing blocks, and proof-read her drafts. And though Roka actually considers traditional art a waste of time - another opinion instilled in him by his parents - he will still watch Seshiru draw and give her compliments or advice on occasion. The girls' favorite activity to partake in with their brother, however, is to create plays combining all of their talents. Since Nijiko writes the script and Seshiru designs the backdrops, props, and costumes, the younger girls usually enjoy making Roka the main heroine or damsel in distress of their plays to tease him. Though he expresses reluctance to play these roles, he acts them out to the best of his abilities for his sisters' amusement and for his love of them. He also often wonders how it's like to be female in a society such as theirs where males are considered more important as family heirs, so he believes these female roles give him insight into that and what his sisters have to go through. As a result of playing so many of these female roles, though, Roka has quite a wardrobe of princess gowns and damsel dresses he saved as mementos from each past play he performed with and for his precious sisters.
Virtues:
♫ Respectful ~ Since Roka was raised in a traditional Japanese household with traditional Japanese parents of high society and wealthy background, he was taught to respect all others - even and particularly the people he doesn't like. While he doesn't always agree with his family's traditions or what his society dictates, he does his best to keep his opinions to himself and follow them out of respect. He goes by school rules and social standings in school, but when he feels the need to question authority, once in a while he will; particularly with non-adults. He will remain as polite as possible in his questioning, however, and will always give his elders what he's been taught is their due respect. Roka almost always speaks in formal and polite terms, occasionally addressing fellow students with Japanese honorifics such as '-san'. The young heir takes his reputation and the honor of his family name quite seriously, doing whatever he can to uphold it even at the cost of his own pride or happiness.
♫ Responsible ~ Duties and obligations to others (school, family, work) are always held above Roka's personal plans, preferences, and gain. He knows what is important and how to keep his priorities straight. He will do what is best for others even if he doesn't agree with it or must sacrifice his own opinion, opportunity, or dream for the sake of another. Though quite intelligent, he doesn't have too much of a personal ambition to take over his father's company and is motivated strictly by the desire to please his family and go along with their wishes. As the only son of the Toshiros, he is constantly weighed down by the pressure of his relations and feels a heavy burden of expectation to fulfill which his strong sense of responsibility drives him to do regardless of his personal wants. If he hadn't had so much pressure weighing down on his shoulders, Roka would be the type of boy who would probably enjoy running his father's business and perhaps even be successful with it. The more his parents try to push him to show what he can do, however, the more he seems to want to rebel. His grades are just barely A's and B's, but they know he can do better. While these grades are not openly reflective of an outright desire to rebel, he still keeps them relatively high if not straight A's in order to satisfy his strong sense of moral responsibility. He also respects his parents too much to let them know the full extent of his pain, which is why he isn't so rebellious as to get C's, D's, or F's.
♪ Caring ~ While Roka usually gives off a very frigid air towards guys, he seems visibly more comfortable around girls; perhaps due to the fact that he was raised with three sisters. Even though he's more openly sympathetic towards females, he also has a certain connection to other guys and can often relate or empathize with their problems. By helping others, that's the only way he feels he can vicariously exceed those limits placed upon him through those he helps. He shows his caring nature to those whom he believes need it and it shows through his attempts to comfort them through certain actions or words of his. Sometimes it might be outright encouragement, while other times it might be more subtle, like writing a song for them. Though he isn't generally honest with just anyone he meets - hence the cold mask he puts up and the occasional tight, fake smiles - once he opens up to someone, he will be completely and utterly honest with them, for better or for worse, and sometimes tactlessly or awkwardly. Such honesty, however, is just another form of his affection for those he cares about.
♪ Protective ~ This young man has a very strong brotherly sense even if, to his siblings, he seems more like just another sister. Though he does not outwardly share it, he worries for their futures. He knows their parents are likely to arrange marriages for them with the sons of other prestigious, affiliated families to secure business alliances and partnerships, regardless of his sisters' wishes. Realizing such a life is likely to be harder on them than him, the male heir to their family, he does his best to fulfill his duties for their sake as that is the best he can do. He is also extremely protective of them and is picky about their friends - almost to the point of being over-protective. This protectiveness of his extends not only to his sisters, but to most girls in general. He considers it the natural instinct of a loving brother. As it is said that males have only one thing on their mind, Roka is thus skeptical of all the males students in school and seems to trust none of them, acting as if every single one could be a threat to his sisters despite the fact that he is also male.
Flaws:
♪ Cold ~ Toshiro often appears distant and introverted. It can be said that he prefers listening to his music than to the chatter of his fellow classmates. In order to escape the pressure of his responsibility to his family, he does what any ordinary teenager would do and takes out his headphones to start listening to his music. He does not listen to his music over his parents or teachers, but only does so when he is alone in order to be respectful to them. While remaining responsible, the cost in order to cope with his stressful circumstances is the distance he puts between himself and the rest of the world with his music. He puts on this cold mask to meet the masculine expectations of his parents, forcing down his emotions. It is especially difficult for Roka to keep up his cold front due to having been torn apart from his sisters, whom he misses very dearly. As a result of trying to be more masculine, he has a chilly and serious demeanor upon meeting a new person. He views most of them as acquaintances and will rarely consider anyone a true friend. He seems to have become cold because he misses his sisters as well as being bitter towards his parents.
♫ Awkward ~ Roka often has trouble relating to others and comes off as really awkward to many of his peers. By keeping his emotions guarded and other people at a social distance, he manages to maintain his calm and collected mental state. Though he attempts to be social from time to time, it's usually towards females because of his instinctive feelings of sympathy for or protectiveness of them. Roka will often end up sending the wrong message, making other people feel awkward, disgusted, and sometimes just angry. For example, he once tried to give a girl 'friendly advice' by warning her to stay away from guys that would take advantage of her, but he worded it in such a way that she got the wrong idea. She took it as a threat from him instead, due to his robotic manner of dispensing such advice. Another time, he once tried to empathize with a girl (a different one) by explaining to her that he understood how she felt (due to his having three sisters) and that he knew things were often tougher for females, especially when it came to things like having crushes on guys and not being able to tell them. However, he must have ended up sounding condescending, because the girl took it as a sexist comment. Because he was a guy (despite having been raised amongst a bunch of girls), he couldn't effectively convince her that he was on her side. He usually means well, but despite his good intentions, he frequently finds a way to insult girls unintentionally and thus finds it difficult to identify with most of his peers and people in general. The more he tries to help girls or show his caring side, the worse he usually ends up making things. He doesn't seem to realize that even being raised among girls doesn't mean a guy will understand them and often it turns out that his assumption that he understands girls better than most guys only creates more misunderstanding and hostility towards him. With guys, he pretty much just tries to avoid talking to them altogether knowing that he would have nothing comforting or nice to say to them. While he can speak more easily to others who have common interests or heritage, that does not necessarily mean he will like them any better than anyone else and may, in fact, look at said person as a rival.
♪ Guarded ~ He seems to be too feminine in behavior and appearance for most guys to get along with, but too unfeeling and masculine for girls to be able to relate to him and, as a result, becomes overly defensive. By keeping his emotions guarded and keeping other students at a social distance, he manages to maintain his calm and collected mental state. Roka keeps himself guarded by keeping others' knowledge of him to a strict minimum. Unless someone works really hard to pry at his mental wall, it's difficult to get him out of his virtual fortress or to even peek into it. He has his own reasons for putting up his wall besides keeping his emotions contained but will not express them openly. For himself, at least, he views being open with thoughts and feelings as a form of weakness along with wearing one's heart on one's sleeve. He will not tolerate being either on his part in his efforts to meet his parents' expectations of his masculinity.
♪ Judgmental ~ After years of being judged by his parents and being raised to hold reputation in high regard, Roka has unfortunately grown to be somewhat more judgmental of others than the average person. He will often avoid people he does not believe he could get along with. However, he does not base his judgement solely on appearance, but also by their actions and words to others. He likes to think of himself as a fairly good judge of peoples' character, but he's been wrong before. Others may see him as a snob and they wouldn't be too far off considering how Roka was raised. Yet it must be noted that Roka is very much unaware of when he is being snobbish or arrogant towards others and has yet to be told so or corrected. He is not outright rude to those who do not meet his standards but may end up being indirectly or unintentionally rude to them. Once in a while he'll find that someone he disliked turned out to not be as bad as he thought (and even then, he may just continue to dislike them out of stubbornness and pride).
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Eyes: Large, angular, oriental, feminine, vivid, emerald green eyes. Please see this picture for shape reference. This one is better for color reference.
Hair: Long; two or three inches below his shoulder. Layered, but still relatively long bangs frame his face down to his chin, thick enough to cover his right eye. Faintly dark silver in color.
Style references: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)
Face: Complexion is pale, oriental apricot.
♫ Long, narrow, pointed nose.
♪ Large, feminine eyes.
♫ Slightly angular jawline with high cheek bones, but with a rounder facial structure than most males' while being longer than most females'.
♪ Thin lips.
♫ Pierced ears
♪ Slender, feminine build (enough to be taken for a flat-chested female)
♫ Of medium stature (perhaps a little short for a male, but not for an Asian male. For exact height & further, more detailed information, please refer to his profile here).
♪ Almost no visible muscles
Clothes: Horizon Institute for Technology and Science Uniform
