outofsticks | A NEW YEAR, A FORGOTTEN YOU

Once upon a time, in the continent of Ostorn, there was a town called Haven. After a deadly plague had ravaged the lands, a man decided to strike out and pave a new trade route to cities barred by a lack of roads and an abundance of natural blockades...

Welcome to the first past life plotting post of 2025! Sticks and Bones is a setting where player characters are the reincarnations of previous residents of the town that Aldric founded within the woods as a midway stop between cities on his new trade route. The continent of Ostorn and the world of Sticks and Bones is a magical land inspired by the Tales of series, among other games. Below in the comments are some explanations, locations and pre-existing NPCs who can be referenced!

Players with dropped characters are encouraged to include their dropped characters if only for potential backstory purposes for others, but it is not a requirement.

While we don't want to restrict things a lot, we must ask you keep the following in mind!

Although this is a magical setting where plant-animals and beasts like the Guardians exist, characters must be human in their past life, with few exceptions. Please speak to the mods if you feel something else is better for your character.
The level of technology was a bit skewed, but largely it was very basic electricity that just... happened to be magic. Light bulbs, the magic of indoor plumbing.
Speaking of magic, while there are forms of magic such as enchantment and standard RPG mechanics, the Celestial magic that's been included in the game plot is not open to characters in their past lives.
You are more than welcome to include new locations or expand on current ones, though if it is noted to reach out to a specific player about it, please do that. Ostorn is a large continent, and there is an even bigger world out there.
The Goddesses are known, but very distantly as ancient history. Religion depends on the region, but Guardians, being demigod animals, are frequent objects of worship.
Your past life should not be a 1:1 parallel to your current life! Things change, situations change, and the new reincarnations got off very badly actually.

When you're ready, please use this form and then tag out!

Name: it u
Place of Birth: where u from
Reasons for Joining the Grove: why u here
History: whahappun (also how did u die)
Role: what u doin
Looking for: what are you most interested in having for your past life cr?
Wants and Wishes: anything else!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Name: Kyojuro Rengoku

Place of Birth:Middle o' fuckin' nowhere, probs

Reasons for Joining the Grove: Duty/Love LMAO

History: Historically, the Rengoku family has been a group of traveling swordsmen, well known in the Crescent Islands. However, at a young age, Shinjuro Rengoku left the islands, preferring to not lord over others with his skills, but actually put it to use. It wasn't long until he met Ruka Rengoku, a skilled medic who took one look at this scraggly, bleeding man and had to put him back together. Between Shinjuro's strict honor code and Ruka's high levels of empathy, their two sons, Kyojuro and Senjuro, would grow up to be well-rounded and talented young men in their own right. While Kyojuro would naturally follow in his footsteps and learn the techniques of their family, Senjuro thrived under Ruka's tutelage. Together, their family served as a roaming band of bodyguards for those that might need it. Unsurprisingly, the expedition to Aldric's Grove caught their attention, and they would gladly accompany the first foray into the unknown. At the time, Kyojuro was around 25 years old.

Along the way, Kyojuro would quickly fall in with Hakuji, not only another skilled medic providing aid to the expedition, but also a talented martial artist. The two got on amazingly, and by the time the Grove was on its way to no longer needing a group of glorified mercenaries to watch over them, they were fast friends. Kyojuro, admittedly, had his own interest in Hakuji, but given his engagement to Koyuki Soyama, he assumed nothing would come of it. Despite being encouraged by Hakuji to stay (or perhaps outright begged, he would reluctantly return to Haven on what he assumed would be his last assignment for the Grove — informing Hakuji's father of the safety of the town, and arranging the man's travel back.

Well, that was what was supposed to happen, at least. However, after some gentle encouragement from both Hakuji's father, as well as his own family, Kyojuro would personally escort Hakuji's father back to the Grove and, in the end, settle down with the soon-to-be Soyama family.

Eventually, the combined family would settle into a relatively small, multi-building dojo. Yes, Hakuji, Koyuki, and Kyojuro were all three married. Fight me on this.

With the guard well-established, Kyojuro ultimately wound up putting down his sword and settling into work as a teacher. Though he largely preferred history, given the initial lack of educators, he fell into a general studies role pretty quickly. In his free time, he helped out at the Soyama Dojo, performing various tasks around the facility and offering lessons of his own from time to time.

Being that they were part of the initial wave to arrive, Kyojuro and the Soyama's were significantly older by the time everything went down. The combined Rengoku-Soyama family went down swinging in an attempt to spare the Grove. Senjuro was the first to die of the bunch, proving to be a devastating blow to Kyojuro. Stunned as he was, he failed to notice he was being corrupted until it was too late. The now corrupted Kyojuro then turned on his family.

In the ensuing duel between Hakuji and Kyojuro, the former tried desperately to both bring his husband back to his senses, and also avoid injuring him in any permanent way. In the end, Hakuji would be killed by a blade through the solar plexus, left to bleed out and watch as Kyojuro went on to attack the rest of the village.

Koyuki, notably, was the last to die of the family, but I'll make Weasel talk more about that one. 8)

Role: Swordsman/Teacher/General Handyman

Looking for: Mostly friends and students at the moment! Did he help teach yours how to use a sword? Did he teach you the initial history of the expedition? Did he fail your kiddo? Did he murder you in his corrupted state? Or were you the one to bring him down?

Wants and Wishes: Help make him blissfully happy so we can laugh at how badly things went to shit for him when he was resurrected. Or give him things to regret and lament when he gains PL memories.

Edited 2025-10-21 01:41 (UTC)

Teehee. Heehee!

🖕

hiiii hihihihi

So I know things are kind of *hand wobble* timeline wise. I know Aira was an adult, probably around 20-22 at oldest when things went to shit. about how old was Kyojuro when shit hit the fan?

So Weasel and I figure a decade of happiness is like three times whatever they ever got in canon, so probably around 35!

So math says Aira was roughly a preteen when Kyojuro first visited, so he would have probably gotten to see most of his coming and going from the woods and him growing up in that time.

Past life Aira didn't have his stamina issues though so he might have looked at Kyojuro with his big green eyes and asked to be taught how to fight. He's probably not stellar at it just by virtue of not really wanting to hurt people but. his parents were killed so self defense you know

oh absolutely, Kyojuro would have trained him. canonically he's kind of a brutal teacher and was never able to keep any tsugoku on but maybe that just lends itself to Aira learning Soryuu instead? Which would make Hakuji more his teacher so I won't speak too much on that but suffice to say they absolutely both would have wanted to help kiddo out.

He's nothing if not incredibly stubborn. poor kyojuro watching this kid attempt to do things he's just not strong enough for. What's Soryuu :O

we love this for him.

soryuu is hakuji/akaza's martial arts style!

I do not know how it is different but he can certainly try to teach the lil guy

soryu is more hand to hand, where flame breathing is focused on swordplay. canonically speaking, soryu is actually taught to someone (hakuji), whereas Kyojuro apparently makes flame breathing training so difficult that he never is able to take on any students (save one).

tl;dr soryu would be easier to pick up for a beginner/someone of aira's physique compared to flame breathing or its equivalent!

A NEW YEAR, A FORGOTTEN YOU

Appen's Assholes

Kyojuro Rengoku (WIP)

Kyojuro Plotting :)

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