Midorima Shintarou (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
accurately) wrote2018-04-30 08:34 pm
accurately) wrote2018-04-30 08:34 pm
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empatheias application
Player: Tay
Contact: skycastles@plurk, taylotjelly#4556@discord
Age: 27
Current Characters: Emerald Sustrai (RWBY)
Character: Shintarou Midorima
Age: 16
Canon: Kuroko’s Basketball
Canon Point: After The Best Present
Background: Wiki!
Personality: Like the other former members of Teiko Middle School's basketball club, Midorima is extremely confident and perhaps even more than that, he's competitive and hates losing. This kind of attitude isn't arrogance either, as he's extremely skilled at basketball, especially when it comes to his field of expertise: ridiculous 3-pointers that go higher than any person should be able to control well-enough to make the shots. Midorima practices extremely hard to keep up with this including being the last member of the Generation of Miracles to continue to show up to practice at Teiko. He practices very hard, but that isn't all he credits to his excellent record.
Midorima is a very superstitious man. He listens to the Oha Asa horoscopes (he is a Cancer) every single day and constantly carries around whatever his lucky item of the day is-- whether it looks ridiculous, feels ridiculous, or is actually legitimately ridiculous. He can sometimes be a dork with them too, including things like playing around with a frog puppet by making it talk over his shoulder to his Teiko teammate at the time, Kise. His luck and horoscopes are something he credits heavily regarding his play style. Between doing everything he can in practice and everything he can to improve his fortune, he claims this is why he "Never misses a shot."
As his friend and teammate Kazunari Takao says, Midorima is a "tsundere" of sorts. He'll pretend not to recognize someone that he's been watching carefully because he thinks they're good at basketball or tell someone who he respects that there's no way he could get along with him. In the same right, he usually will try to help out other people while being a bit rude to try to hide that he's helping. (Again back to slightly tsundere behavior, since it'll usually be along the lines of 'I'm only telling you so that I don't have to see such a pathetic display.' or because say that they’re not allowed to lose again until he beats them first.) When Kise texts "Good luck" to him, he texts "Die" right back. He'll also try to disguise himself when going to see other players' games (sometimes after specifically texting a teammate "I don't want to."), though his disguises aren't really that great. If caught, he'll insist it's a coincidence. (You know, just happened to be in the neighborhood a.k.a. two towns, a bus ride, and Takao carrying him in a rear car on his bike away.)
Midorima does tend to do what he wants on occasion regardless of what the rest of the team wants. This is why Shutoku's captain gave him what amounts to three "get out of jail free cards" per day, provided that he always makes his shots. Midorima seems to have an actual fear of breaking that rule with the captain for some reason, which is why he won't play (on normal occasions) if his horoscope of the day says that his luck isn't good. His horoscope doesn't actually affect his play despite his belief that it does, as evidenced in the game against Kinka High, which he played in just to make a point to Seirin High, who was watching at the time. Despite the selfishness, he’s been shown on multiple occasions to have a strong and good heart- including in Teiko when all other members of the Generation of Miracles had essentially stopped showing up to practice. He was also the only other member of the Teiko starters besides Kuroko who refused to participate in disrespectful games against their opponents, though he didn’t interfere with them doing so. He and Kuroko were also the only two to stand up to Akashi (current Rakuzen captain/former Teiko Captain/teammate/Generation of Miracles/the final boss/friend/rival/enemy for a hot minute/It’s Complicated- more details later in app) even after he let the Other Akashi take control.
Midorima is an extremely precise individual. The entire reason his focus is on three pointers is because he firmly believes that they're better than every other shot because they're worth more points and because they can ensure victory in close matches as buzzer beaters. Accuracy is his focus and he is, without a doubt, the most accurate shooter in the history of his world's middle and high school basketball league. So much so that he can walk away after shooting like a cool guy not looking back at an explosion. Another reason for this accuracy, he claims, is his nail care techniques which include rigorous nail-filing and bandaging his fingers while not in a game to prevent anything from interfering with them.
That said, Midorima is a quiet kind of guy, but it'd be wrong to necessarily call him reserved all the time. He gets annoyed and seems to have a somewhat short fuse, especially when it comes to either end of the spectrum with other people. People he gets along with too well like Takao can be individuals he's quick to anger with, but people that he gets along with a lot less like Kagami (rival team Seirin’s ace who he occasionally gives reluctant advice to) and former Teiko teammate Murasakibara he also snaps at quite a bit. If a person is in between, he'll be a lot more reserved with them, though not necessarily nice so to speak. There's still a distinctive difference in tone when dealing with someone he gets along with or someone that he wants to smack upside the head.
He's very good at assessing situations and has very good insight, which shows in his capability to discern others' strengths, weaknesses, and ways to improve (such as how he helped Kagami and Kuroko to find ways to improve their basketball) or simply being able to see when others are holding back, both with him and others. It's entirely possible that this feeds into his philosophy of being incapable of getting along with "those who are constantly performing less than satisfactory," particularly specifying Aomine (Generation of Miracle’s ace, former Teiko and current Touou) and Murasakibara because they've been skipping practices just because they don't care to improve.
Beyond his insights in regards to others' abilities, Midorima notices changes in attitudes, changes in the way that people are acting very easily to the point that being generally observant about both the actions and feelings of others (whether he cares enough to react to them or not) and it is one of his strong points. This is made clear in a number of moments, including both his recognition that something has "changed" in Kise upon speaking to him for only a few seconds after Shutoku lost to Seirin in the Interhigh preliminaries or even when he was at Teiko and he noticed immediately that Kuroko's attitude had changed during the game against Kamata West Junior High after he spoke to his friend on the phone. He was also the first person to notice Akashi's alternate personality, having noted seeing it more than once before the other Generation of Miracles members. Despite all of this, he was (funnily enough) one of the only people not to pick up on former Teiko/current Touou team manager Momoi's feelings for Kuroko.
Midorima also has an innate ability to figure out how moves work (such as Kuroko's Vanishing Drive and Misdirection Overflow). He has a lot of personal pride though, and it takes losing a game against Seirin to get him to admit that he needs to improve his teamwork. Later, he spends more time with his team and learns about the importance of teamwork, even telling Mibuchi (a member of Rakuzan's team) that not a single member of his team is a "hindrance." This game is extremely important to showing Midorima's development in terms of his relationships with others, especially when Midorima seems to nearly lose hope after Akashi brings him to his knees during the game. Midorima is actually revived by his teammate's support and his determination to win renewed-- something that at the time of Teiko or through the time they lost to Seirin would have been impossible. Given that Akashi states that the only ones allowed to look him in the eyes or oppose him are "his subordinates," this was really the first time that Midorima truly broke away from Akashi and the Teiko mindset and truly accept Shutoku's basketball team as the ones that he wants to play with on screen. The level of trust he shows with this is extreme, as Midorima will refuse to make a shot he doesn't have absolute confidence in the accuracy of- illustrated by a new shot called “Sky Direct” which requires him to begin shooting before actually receiving the ball, making the shot’s accuracy entirely dependent on a teammate rather than his own capabilities. Without being able to trust Takao, it would be impossible because Midorima can't control the fate of the ball completely.
Midorima does not hand respect out freely, which can make him difficult to get along with even if someone is able to accept his eccentricities but there are a few key traits he values more than others: determination and the will to fight, putting 100% into everything you do even when it seems unnecessary, and always getting up when you fall down (both literally and metaphorically). There are a number of people who he’s gained respect for because of those traits, though the only person Midorima seems to show respect to no matter what is Akashi. Despite his competitive spirit toward him and that Akashi had never lost (until Seirin), their established friendship in middle school and the efforts Akashi made to spend time with them after he “returned” to being the normal Akashi (whatever they were, yay off screen interactions). Midorima used to be the Vice Captain of Teiko while Akashi was the Captain and they had a close relationship besides that and frequently played shogi together (though Midorima never won once). He is later shown to also accept Akashi as one of only two people he can perform his Sky Direct 3-pointer with in the Last Game movie, illustrating that he both had complete trust of his former Captain and still did, even after his other self told Midorima that he wanted to be enemies. That said, as with everyone else and despite Akashi’s “always right” attitude, Midorima does not hesitate to speak his mind with him. While this may be because of their history together, Midorima has shown that his way of respecting someone typically involves calling people out when he believes them to be wrong or in need of direction.
All in all, Midorima is just a 16-year-old boy who’s really passionate about hard work, basketball, horoscopes, teamwork, giving advice, and not wanting anyone to know he’s actually a good person. He’d be fine with people just thinking he was an amazing basketball player slash horoscope enthusiast slash selfish jerk… even if he’s not.
Abilities: His specialty is ridiculous 3 pointers and generally being amazing at basketball as a shooting guard, though he’s also been shown to be great at defense (even especially pointed out at the training camp with Shutoku and Seirin after they both lost the Interhigh championship when he defended against Kagami’s dunks ad nauseum to make a point). He also plays the piano and is good at chemistry and biology, according to the Kuroko’s Basketball Characters Bible. Additionally, he spends more effort on nail care than any other character in the series (in most series really), and is shown to be good at crane games. Otherwise, he’s a perfectly normal carrot.
Alignment: Sosyne. Midorima is a Cancer and often exhibits a number of characteristics associated with the sign- feeling emotions far more deeply than he’s letting on being the key one of them. Midorima often seems to cover up these emotions with harsh words and despite that he spends a lot of his time helping others, he refuses to admit it. He does express a lot of frustration, especially when others around him may be keen on pointing out what he’s actually doing (takao u lil shit). He also has been shown to find understanding for others more quickly than a number of characters in Kuroko’s Basketball and often keeps a level-head the higher the pressure is.
Other: He hates cats and natto and he can’t cook. Also, his favorite food is red bean soup in a can (hot or cold) and he also likes red bean bread. (He might just like red beans in general, really.) He can’t see much of anything without his glasses. He was in the bath with Takao and spent a serious conversation staring at the lion water spout on the wall instead of Takao. He likes older girls.
General Sample: Test drive meme!
Emotion Sample: Embarrassing.
Questions:
I have none!!