Yanagi Atsutane

General Personality:

• My god, he’s so angy.
• No talk. He angy.
• He tends to stay by himself quite often and seems most comfortable when left by himself.
• He takes insults and comments very personally, and will start fights if he feels like someone’s slighted him in any way.
• He doesn’t win these fights of course, because while he’s athletic, he’s also easy to overpower.
• This just makes him angrier, so he takes out his aggression in more passive ways following a lost fight.
• When someone compliments him, however, he seems to glow. He enters a state of bliss, puffs out his chest, and loudly declares: “Yeah I’m pretty great, right?”
• It’s not meant to be egotistical, it’s meant to be a reassurance that he’s worth something. Though, often, it’ll come across as narcissistic.
• Yanagi had a very rocky childhood. He doesn’t like going into much detail about it when asked and tends to actively avoid talking about what happens in his household when possible.
• His reflexes are impeccable. He can dodge just about anything! And his aim is just as impeccable too (HAHA), with him being able to hit any target from any distance, so long as he can see it.
• Speaking of seeing, his eyesight is also just as incredible. He’s got a good eye for movement and will take that into account.
• He’s got a praise kink but don’t be fooled this guy is tiny but mighty and he TOPS.

Backstory:

• Before he was even born, his parents already had problems. They had an extremely unhealthy relationship where his father lowered his mother’s self-esteem near constantly.
• When his father proposed to her mother after learning that she was pregnant with Yanagi, he told her that he was her “last chance”, despite her only being 22 at the time.
• Yanagi did not have a very nurturing childhood.
• Growing up, his mother would grow sick at the sight of him, because he looked so much like his father. And while she was never physically abusive towards him, it’s clear she didn’t really want to be around him at all and actively ignored his presence to the best of her abilities. When she wasn’t ignoring him, though, she was highly critical of him and his behavior, constantly having something scathing to say.
• His father, on the other hand, was controlling and abusive. He kept the fridge and the pantries locked at all times, so Yanagi and his mother could only eat when he allowed them to.
• When he was 5, his mother dug earrings out of the family car. She assumed that they were hers and started wearing them, but Yanagi knew they weren’t hers. He chose not to tell her because the earrings seemed to make her happy. His father would regularly cheat on his mother, and there’s no telling the number of half-siblings he might have but never got to meet.
• His father, when he was home, was also physically abusive towards both him and his mother. While his mother took the brunt of this abuse, when it came to abusing Yanagi it was always premeditated, always thought out beforehand. He’d take Yanagi out to the backyard and throw empty bottles at him that he had to dodge. And if he didn’t dodge, and got hit with one, his father wouldn’t stop throwing them at him until he had no bottles left.
• This is part of the reason why Yanagi is so short. His growth was stunted by the lack of nutrition he’d get as a child and the stress his abusive father brought on.
• And because his father was so well off, his school granted no graces for him, and left him to fend for himself food-wise.
• Every day of his life, he was on the cusp of starvation.
• And because he was so short and so scrawny, he was easy prey for other children. People would make fun of him for being short, for being so thin, for looking like a girl.
• Over the years he grew more aggressive and defensive over the things people would tease him for, making him easy to anger and even more unpopular among his peers.
• He was fine with being lonely and angry and by himself if it meant people would stop bullying him.
• The only thing he seemed naturally good at was dodgeball in gym class. That was the only time he felt truly appreciated, the only time people would compliment him and his abilities instead of belittling him for being small and gangly. Suddenly, during games, the skill he’d learned for the sake of survival became something he could use to thrive, to feel good, to chase that high of an ego boost.
• So he started taking dodgeball seriously and began playing competitively.
• He grew highly skilled at the sport, despite how people would snicker at it. It became a part of his identity and he would defend it with as much vitriol as he would normally defend himself from other kids.
• He HATES losing. It’s not just a game lost, it’s a blow to his ego, it’s a reinforcement that he’s just small and short and stupid and can’t do anything right just as his mother told him.
• Losing anything feels like a personal affront to his being. He’s only ever lost one game and made sure to win every game since. Not once ever giving the enemy the opportunity to overcome his flurry of dodgeball assault!
• He takes himself very seriously.
• Oop and now he’s in a killing game.