Hello! This is Levant! Please feel free to leave a message for me here, and I'll get back to it as soon as possible! That's about how it should sound, right?

( PLAYER INFORMATION )

Name: Badge
Contact: PM or dragomorph
Are you over 17?: Well over.
Characters in Forest Covered: None

( CHARACTER INFORMATION )

Name/Work Name: Choromatsu Matsuno/Levant
Canon: Osomatsu-San
Canon Point: Post episode 25
AU/CRAU: N
Age: 23
History: Attempting to find continuity within Osomatsu-san, or even its original comic Osomatsu-kun, is basically an episode in futility. The cartoonist, Fujio Akatsuka, tended to use his characters as a sort of rotating actor list, which meant that characters could have very different relationships, and occasionally even personalities, from story to story. -San adds to that further by making it so that even the sextuplets themselves aren't always related in the sketches, or may have drastically different roles or personalities. So, generally speaking, a backstory is a non-issue. All we need to know from Choromatsu's childhood, therefore, is this: he is one of six sextuplets. He was commonly referred to as the "clever" one and had a tendency to put himself on a pedestal while simultaneously being somewhat cowardly, and he was the closest of the sextuplets to the titular (and officially oldest) brother, Osomatsu.

Osomatsu-san, while generally lacking continuity, does however have within its weirdly chaotic structure a basic story arc for Choromatsu. As an adult, he first tries to push his brothers towards being more serious about finding work; failing that, he begins to look for work by himself. About episode 13, however, we find out that his attempts to find work may be an act when Osomatsu comes home and catches Choromatsu, uh, rosy-palmed. Choromatsu, bristling under the bevy of insulting nicknames that results from this, insists that he's still the only one looking for work as opposed to the others. By episode 19, he tries to declare himself a changed man. He'll give up idol fandom! He'll get a job! And a wife, and a stable living situation, and and and -- except once again, he's all talk and no action. The symbolic representations of self-consciousness in the episode, however, begin to reveal something about Choromatsu: mainly, that he may be talking himself up to try to look better and put on airs, and maybe even to try to convince HIMSELF he's going to do all this stuff. But all he's really doing is exacerbating his own anxieties about how the world perceives him, to the point where he, er, snaps for a bit and pretends to be a salaryman with a bunch of cardboard office supplies. Yikes.

Episode 21 shows him trying to put his efforts into a different direction: giving up and becoming more like his brothers. He declares himself a failure and no longer interested in getting a job or doing anything other than chasing idols for the rest of his life -- although he cannot quite get himself to admit that he's not interested in becoming independent. However, this too seems to be a way of talking himself up, trying to convince himself he's as happy with the current situation as the others are. But he isn't, and in episode 23 he reveals, when he is just about to marry a girl from the Dayon tribe, that he's doing it to escape the pressures of trying to be a good person. He never REALLY gave up the desire to find a job and be independent. However, the anxieties of trying to actually do so proved to be so much that he'd begun to retreat from them, possibly even earlier than seen in episode 13, because he couldn't keep up the effort. Living in a place where all needs are provided for and no work is required, therefore, is the only way he can see for him to exist because meeting the expectations of society is, to him, impossible. The Dayon girl, realizing what he's doing, breaks off the marriage, instead encouraging him to go back to "the real world" and pursuit his potential instead.

And in episode 24, it seems as though he finally does. When his favorite idol, Nyaa-chan, decides to retire into marriage, it provides the impetus he needs to finally move forward. He makes use of his connections to get a job with his father's friend's business and prepares to move out of the house. But Osomatsu reacts poorly to this, and it is under less than happy circumstances that Choromatsu finally moves out. He settles into the independent life; however, he is unaware that his attempts to finally move forward, combined with Osomatsu's unwillingness to do so, has disintegrated the group, with each brother gradually moving out and leaving Osomatsu alone at home. Nobody seems really happy with this. Still, Choromatsu prepares to send a letter home to Osomatsu...

...

...which ignites into flame. As does the backup letter. Then episode 25 happens, he immediately resigns in order to take the easy way out of NEETdom, participates in the [censored] Invitational, and dies in the cold vacuum of space. THAT'S OSOMATSU-SAN.

Personality: Choromatsu would LIKE people to think he is the only normal one of the Matsuno sextuplets. Certainly, he can easily fool you into thinking he's the straight man of the group, with his clear embarrassment at his brothers' antics and the existence of any sort of common sense to begin with. The thing is, though, he's not so much better than them as he likes to think he is. Much like his brothers, he is prone to violence, self-centered acts, and loafing around if he's in the mood for it. Particularly, any method of insulting his pride tends to result in a disproportionate response, as seen when he splashes Osomatsu with hot pot broth simply for having committed the sin of walking in on him during an embarrassing moment. In fact, you can't even call him the straight man all the time, considering how frequently his brother Todomatsu (and, on very rare occasions, Osomatsu) takes up the mantle instead.

Choromatsu is, despite what he believes, not the conscience of the group -- but he is definitely the most conscientious. Of the six, Choromatsu ties with Todomatsu in actually caring what the outside world makes of their NEET lifestyles and their more outrageous actions. Whereas Todomatsu's response to this is to create a separate social persona outside of the family, however, Choromatsu instead turns towards what he sees as being a respectable adult -- getting a job and becoming independent. Which would be fine, except that he's usually too scared to actually ACT on these desires. Of the six brothers, Choromatsu's self-consciousness, when physically represented, is the most out of control -- a horrific, super bright mutant of an orb capable of floating high in the air, dominating the sky. As opposed to his brothers, who are capable of keeping their self-consciousness relatively under control, Choromatsu tends to puff himself up far beyond what he is actually capable of handling. Much like he was described as a child, he is a man who has a very high opinion of himself, yet cowardly to the point where he comes off as a blowhard.

Except, well, he actually doesn't think that highly of himself. As revealed in episode 23, in which he nearly marries a girl living in the stomach of the character Dayon -- don't ask -- Choromatsu is a mess of self-loathing. He's actually very aware of his own tendency to sell himself big, but his anxieties prevent him from taking action, which in turn feed into his unhappiness, which then contribute to him trying to puff himself up again to feel better about himself and get himself to act, all in a terrible cycle. As far as he's concerned, he is a worthless NEET, a "scumbag," and he has hit a point where he is not sure how to escape from his situation. As a result, for all his talk of looking for a job, he is too paralyzed with doubt and insecurity to actually DO it.

This is not to say that, when push comes to shove, he is incapable of maturity. Of the six brothers, he is the second one to find a REAL job (only Todomatsu beat him, and Totty had to quit his job for, uh, reasons), and the first one to move out of the house. And if he were in a different series, this may have been a turning point in his life -- but, of course, Osomatsu-san revels in trolling and denying catharsis to its viewers, and one Invitational with promises of instant escape from NEET-dom is enough to get him to tender a resignation and return to the NEET life. (And they don’t even win!) So it goes in Akatsuka ward.

Choromatsu, unusually for his character type, is a huge idol fanboy. He is particularly charmed by the singer Nyaa-chan, and collects all the merchandise he can of her. However, his skill with women in real life is, frankly, pathetic. His profile describes him as "being useless around women," and that's a pretty good description; he is easily willed into doing things for ladies in exchange for extremely minor displays of affection, and whenever he has to choose between his image as a responsible and respectable human being and being kind of a horndog, he freezes up and whimpers. Ask him what his fantasy is, and he might describe it as a happy and healthy domestic life -- and he'd probably be serious. The purest of virgins, lusting for the image of virginity: that's Choromatsu.

Or Cherrymatsu, or Fappymatsu, or Chorofappynski, or Risingfappynski, or any other given combination of insulting nicknames given to him by Osomatsu. What a swell brother.

Debt: To Choromatsu, the option to get a job no questions asked is its own reward, especially considering the hit he took to his work history by up and quitting so quickly from his last job. And BECAUSE it’s supposed to be its own reward, his wish instead is for a wand to keep girls from aging.
…It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Previous Game Info: N/A

Inventory: A bag of Nyaa-chan merchandise, a backpack, and a work guide. He was wearing a green plaid shirt and khakis.

Abilities: Very high durability as is befitting of a character from a gag anime, but that's about it. Unless you count his apparent ability to cause letters to spontaneously combust in his hands.

Strengths and Weaknesses:
Strengths: + Of the six brothers, he is the one who most consistently shows any awareness that maaaaaaybe their actions are not socially acceptable. Note that this is not 100%, but if you want somebody who actually knows how to communicate with people politely, he's probably your best bet.
+ He has an earnest personality. In other words, of the six brothers, he's the only one who has an actual work ethic. Put him to work and, barring some extreme temptation, he will do that work to the best of his abilities.
+ He's also the most responsible of the brothers, as seen by his offer to take care of his brother Karamatsu when he was rejected in the "screening" process his mother performed to decide which one of them would move in with her during a potential divorce between his parents.
+ Arguably, he has a stronger "good" streak than a lot of his brothers. See, for example, his willingness to walk his younger brother Todomatsu to the bathroom in the middle of the night due to his brother's fear of the dark, or his distaste at the idea of hitting on random women in the streets, or the fact that Godmatsu (a being who is the incarnation of all of their discarded goodness) doesn't manifest until Choromatsu attempts to embrace being a failure.
+ None of the brothers are particularly "smart" per se, but Choromatsu is a little quicker on the ball than most of the others. He has a healthy sense of skepticism and is often the first to question how weird something is.

Weaknesses: - He has no defenses against women. None. He's basically a huge doormat for anything a woman wants him to do, especially if she’s cute and/or sexy. Pretty much any of that common sense he has goes flying out the window the moment a woman is involved.
- He's very prideful, and doesn't respond well to teasing or to insults to that pride. There's a reason he doesn't like being CALLED an otaku despite, you know, blatantly being one.
- Anxiety. Ho boy, does he ever have anxiety. He is very aware of the fact he is at the bottom of the heap societally, and the pressures of trying to overcome that situation means that he's often afraid of ACTUALLY enacting what he says he's going to do for fear of the worst possible outcome.
- He can be a bit of a control freak. Allow us to tell you about the time he was put in charge of the brothers as a kid while Osomatsu was away, and ruled over them with an iron fist (figuratively) and a whip (LITERALLY).
- For all his strengths, he's still a Matsuno: self-serving, violent, and on occasion greedy. And he may protest some of the things his brothers do, but he still, you know, PARTICIPATES, which makes him a hypocrite.

( SAMPLE )

Characterization Sample: Testrun thread here.