Takame Ou

Quote: "Hey, you know that thing you were trying to protect? You should get better locks next time..."

Personality: A suave and shameless con artist, pickpocket, and all around liar, cheater, and thief, Takame is a womanizer with a love for good liquor. He's fairly well known for being a bottomless well when it comes to drinking. Drinking people under the table is the one trick he pulls that isn't a lie. He's the sort of man who smiles in your face while you insult him.

Quote :

Tip: He's smiling cuz he just took every last cent you had... and you didn't even notice...

Not usually one to jump to killing to solve his problems, Takame tends to smooth-talk his way out of things. He's damn near legendary at it. But just because it isn't his first choice doesn't mean he's a pushover. He's cut down more than his fair share of men in his day and he doesn't plan to stop any time soon. More than anything, though, he loves the challenge of a good con. And if someone can pull one on him, well... he just has have a taste. He also enjoys a good magic trick, mostly cuz he does more than a few himself.

Abilities:
Pickpocket and Cat Burglar: Master
A life-long survival skill he picked up not long after he and his brother left Jang Hui, Takame is ten kinds of smooth when it comes to thievery. On top of that, there's pretty much no amount of protection money can buy to keep him from being able to steal something from a building. Your best bet? Bury it in the desert where no one will ever find it...

Lockpicker: Master
Takame's been in the lockpicking game just about as long as he's been in the pickpocket business. He taught himself to do it using a few slips of metal he found on the street one day. For awhile, that was how he and his brother fed themselves. Rich people kept a lot of extra food around, that was for sure.

Card Trickster: Master
An easy jump from the sort of slight of hand he uses every day for his other... hobbies, card tricks are an interest of Takame's that have served him well in the past. It's one of the reasons he's known as the Jack of Cons... he leaves a Jack of Flames behind when he pulls a big con. Call it a, well... Calling Card.

Swordsman: Expert
Like his brother, Takame is a skilled and talented swordsman, though he likes to keep it far more simple than his brother does. He primarily uses Battōjutsu techniques and has very little interest in the honor of a fight. Winning is winning. Losing is losing. He has no qualms about cutting a man down who hasn't even drawn their weapon yet. He is known for his lightning quick blade. He carries a pair of blades most places and he knows exactly how to use them...

Weaponry & Other Gear:
Takame has two weapons he carries with him regularly, a matching set of katana and wakizashi. He also carries a deck of cards and a lockpicking set just about everywhere. Unlike his brother, he never named the two weapons, forged by his father. He believes that with names come legends and with legends come those wanting a piece of them.

History:
Takame was born a con man. As soon as he learned how to talk, he had a gift with talking people into doing whatever he wanted. He knew just how to manipulate people and he put his talents to devious use. He was so good at it that most people he conned never figured out that he had conned them. No easy feat. In any case, he grew up mostly doing his older brother's bidding. Zakuza was always a little brawler. Even in school, he would fight things out regularly. And Takame was always his eyes, keeping a lookout for. They became quite the duo of trouble over the years.

But they couldn't get into much of it when all was said and done. Their mother and father kept them busy. Shinoda, their father, had them help around his forge. They learned the trade of bladesmithing from him. Despite how remote Jang Hui was in the view of the rich and powerful in the Capitol, Shinoda was well known for his work.

Even though they weren't the most ideal sons and the family wasn't the richest, they had a fairly happy life together. All that changed when Braga, a local loan shark, cut down Shinoda over a supposed debt he owed. Takame's mother, Umeko, sister, Nariko, and Zakuza and Takame themselves were sold off to satisfy Shinoda's debt after his death. Umeko and Nariko were sold into sex slavery. Takame and Zakuza, meanwhile, were sold to Madame 'Ren', the lady of the Fire Fountain City black market. She took them in as her servants but quickly took a liking to them for their talent and cheek. They picked up all sorts of skills on the streets working for Madame Ren and eventually, her liking for them saw them released. They served her a bit longer as freed men, or rather boys. But Madame Ren took advantage of them one last time to get rid of particularly bothersome annoyance -- Braga.

With money from their patron, the two brothers headed back to their home. They found their father's safe and were able to recover a number their father's masterpieces. Armed with these now priceless weapons, they honed their skills in combat for years, becoming master swordsmen. Day and night, they trained without pause, all the while bankrolled by Madame Ren. Though she could easily have hired mercenaries to do it, she wanted it to be the two of them who finally took his life...

At eighteen, Takame followed his brother into battle in Braga's hideout. They slaughtered everyone there to the last man, but Braga was missing. He hadn't been there at all. Furious at their failure, they decided that they weren't about to give up. They took Braga's boat, the Goddess, and hit the seas. Under the guise of pirates, they still to this day search for the man who destroyed their lives...