in that moment, a new hope was born in my empty heart.

Player Information

Name/Alias: dai
Player Journal: daichiis
Contact: disarmingly
Timezone: cst
HMD: Here.
Already In-game: n/a

Character Information

Name: Sousuke Yamazaki
Fandom: Free! Eternal Summer
Canonpoint: post episode 14 (OVA): "Forbidden All Hard!"
Gender: male
Age: 18
Physical Description:

Sousuke Yamazaki stands at a tall 6'1", well built with an athletic frame of 168 lbs, shaped by his years of athletic swimming. His shoulders are broad and well built, through his tendency for butterfly and the strenuous activity on his upper body. He has short dark brown, nearly black, hair and blue-green eyes that droop a bit at the sides. His neutral expression is slightly downcast, and comes off as a kind of mean, almost intimidating look.

History: wiki page and plot wiki.

Personality:

There are a lot of ways to describe Sousuke Yamazaki - and many of them, most of them, would probably fall a little short of the mark. Not necessarily because Sousuke goes out of his way to make himself seem complicated, layers on layers of teenaged boyhood intertwined with lost goals and endless potential, but more so because Sousuke just doesn’t see much of a reason to correct those who only dig far enough under the surface to see what’s first.

Because on the surface, there are a few keys ways that Sousuke tends to come across. The first, intimidating. Sousuke has a - sometimes unfortunate - case of the resting displeased face. It doesn’t help that he is, naturally, a very internal person. He doesn’t speak much, and when he does his sentences tend to be short, almost clipped. He says what is necessary and then moves on, so much that if he is in a conversation that he sees no real use for, he could very well just walk away. He’s not rude, per say - if anything, he will do his best to be polite to those he first meets. He is kind, he is nice, he’s just not necessarily the most friendly when you first meet him. And even if you do know him for a bit longer, what you will find won’t necessarily disprove your initial impression. Sousuke is stubborn, determined, easy-going and strong-willed - he will work, and work, and work, until his personal goals have been met. He is not one to get irritated, or even annoyed, at too much - not really seeing the point in getting upset if he hasn’t sold his heart to something. But when he has, it’s an entirely different story.

Let’s take swimming, for example. Sousuke Yamazaki, at a young age, made the decision to set his sights on swimming. Be it for various reasons, all adding on top of each other to produce a single out come, Sousuke liked to swim. Loved to swim. And it was through this activity that Sousuke found a passion, and worked for it. Because when Sousuke has decided, he has decided, and there is very little that will stand in the way of him and his goal - even if that comes at the detriment of himself. He is very hard on himself, is is much more the kind of person who won’t ask anything of anyone unless he can prove that he can do it as well. He is even known to push himself further than he really, physically, should have gone. For example, his shoulder. Sousuke overworked himself in terms of training for swimming, because he was absolutely determined to reach the international stage, and did not care what he had to do to get there. He knew his shoulder was breaking down, but he kept pushing, and pushing, and pushing, for the sake of his dream. Sousuke doesn’t really see the point in doing something half-assed, or making anything more complicated than it has to be - he isn’t one to sugar-coat or beat around the bush. He will be honest, and he will be direct, unless certain circumstances occur. Those certain circumstances, in Sousuke’s case, tend to do with Rin - but that’s for a bit later.

Given time, and usually a bit of determination of your own, it won’t take too long to really get to know Sousuke. Many people on his teams (Momo and Nitori, for example), both have claimed canonically that once you get to know Sousuke, he is actually quite kind. And this is true. Once Sousuke opens up to someone (which usually takes times and consistency), he will prove himself to have another layer entirely. One that is extremely loyal, kind, thoughtful, and a lot of the times a little over-protective. While he is a bit on the antisocial side, preferring to stand a bit in the background as an observer than a necessary part of the conversation, he doesn’t mind letting people in. He has proven that he does care quite a bit about his friends, coaching Nitori on how to decrease his time to make sure that he doesn’t hurt himself (Sousuke has experience in that department, after all). He is also known to open up to those he spends a lot of time with, joking around with his friends despite how many wouldn’t have, necessarily, pegged him as the joking around type. He teases Rin mercilessly, Momotarou as well, and when the group of them joined in a water-gun fight, he went all in - to an actual, ridiculous, degree. Because while Sousuke isn’t exactly the type to go out of his way to make friends, he’s still an eighteen year old boy, and still enjoys joking around with his friends when he gets the chance.

And then, above everything else, there is Sousuke’s relationship with the Matsuokas. I say above, only because his relationship with Rin and Gou (though more specifically, canonly, state - Rin) is something close to family, but even more so. It had started off when Sousuke was young, when he and Rin were closer than best friends. They swam together, played together, went to and from school together…Sousuke spent a good amount of time at the Matsuoka household, from Christmas to taking care of Rin while he was sick and beyond. This friendship really defined how Sousuke went on to interact with others, most likely not only helping him learn to be independent, but how to interact with others on a much more social scale. Again, Sousuke is much less social than say, Rin, who is known for his love of reaching out and inspiring others, but Sousuke is far from incapable of handling social situations, and that most likely has a lot to do with his relationship with Rin at a young age. And then, of course, there is Sousuke’s slight deviation from what one would consider a normal friendship, which had a lot to do with his best, and closest, friend leaving him at a young age to join another school, another swim team, and then leave for another country. Because the way that Sousuke viewed his friendship with Rin was somewhat skewed - he considered Rin his best friend, but did not, for whatever reason, think that Rin thought of him as such. It was his promise with Rin to meet at the international stage that kept him swimming, kept him training, and kept him going, even after Rin’s letters and correspondence dropped off, but a lot of that had more to do with an idealized, almost hero-worship sort of relationship their their friendship turned into, for Sousuke.

Because Rin would reach his dreams, no matter what, and Sousuke had to just keep up. The only problem with that was his own failing body, something he considered a personal failing, and was close to giving up his only dream, his only passion in life, because he wouldn’t be able to keep his promise with Rin. Being able to swim next to his best friend, being able to compete with his best friend, meant so much to him that when he realized he couldn’t do it, he was ready to drop everything and leave. The only change was that when he went to that race, and watched Rin struggle for himself, Sousuke’s entire world began to shatter - because for him, he was all but watching the only thing he really had faith in - Rin’s unending determination to get better - disappear. It wasn’t until he watched the relay that Rin swam with the other Iwatobis, that he watched Rin return to the grinning, happy kid he used to know, that he realized that Rin had friends who could bring him out of that slump. He had friends who could be that for him, and Sousuke - while he could no longer be the rival to swim next to Rin in the Olympics, decided on a new, selfish dream for himself. He wanted, just once, to be seen as the kind of friend Rin had with Haru, Makoto and Nagisa. He wanted to be Rin’s friend, and swim with him in the relay.

This led to a whole slew of other issues, most of them having to do with Sousuke lying to protect Rin and feeling a bit irrational in his over-protective streak, but through it all he was able to reignite his friendship with him old best friend, he was able to see the good in the other swimmers around him, and he was able to complete his last dream - to swim in a relay (that he nearly won, busted shoulder or no). He completed his dream, and was content to move on beyond that, wherever it may lead him (and here’s hoping he doesn’t get lost).

On the surface, Sousuke has a tendency to come off as a large, intimidating teenaged boy. But once you get down underneath that hardened exterior, you soon find out he's really just as much of a total dork with no sense of direction and a deep-seeded insecurity in relation to his friends.

Abilities: Sousuke is human, which means that all of his talents and abilities are restricted by being an 18 year old boy, without any extra powers or super human strengths. He is (was), however, a nationally ranked swimmer, with an incredibly strong body and intense stamina that had been etched into him since a young age. He is quick on his feet and quick to take up new tasks if necessary, but he has no prior knowledge of any real fighting or styles, but he can be incredibly motivated to take up anything he needs to, within reason.

Due to his busted shoulder (torn rotator cuff, or a similar injury), his strength and ability to work with said injury has become harder. He can usually push through the pain for a period of time, but it does give out, making any use of his right arm is incredibly difficult.

Character Information
First Person Sample: [ x ] and [ x ]
Third Person Sample: [ x ] - can also provide a more recent one if this post isn't sufficient.