CLAIMS: Toshiya, Wang Leehom, SUGIZO, Nakama Yukie, HYDE, Tanaka Koki, Akanishi Jin, Hiroki Narimiya
Name: Dee

How did you find out about this comm? The walls have ears. *nods*

Your timezone: US, EST

Character and their IJ: name - Toshimasa (Toshiya/Totchi) Hara fatl_bleever; name - Wang Leehom noyuravgthug; name - SUGIZO pinkunotsuki; name - Nakama Yukie yankumi_desu; name - Takarai (HYDE) Hideto colored_emotion; name - Tanaka Koki karakoki; name - Akanishi Jin _bakanishi_; name - Hiroki Narimiya anata_no_hiro

What nationality are they? Toshiya - Japanese; Leehom - Taiwanese; SUGIZO - Japanese; Yukie - Japanese; HYDE - Japanese; Koki - Japanese; Jin - Japanese; Hiroki - Japanese

Are they an actor, model, musician or athlete? Toshiya - musician (Dir en grey); Leehom - musician/singer/producer/actor; SUGIZO - musician (ex-Luna Sea/solo/S.K.I.N.); Yukie - actress; HYDE - musician/singer (L'Arc~en~Ciel/solo); Koki - singer (KAT-TUN); Jin - singer (KAT-TUN); Hiroki - actor

What is your character doing in LA? What's a bit of their history? What do they want to do?

23-year-old Hara Toshimasa, known affectionately to friends and family as Toshiya or simply Totchi, was born and raised in Nagano, Japan. The youngest of three children of a wealthy businessman and a stay-at-home mother, both of whom came from wealthy, well-connected families themselves, Totchi never wanted for anything as a child, though he never became a spoiled brat, rather quite the opposite, having a warm, generous, loving nature with his friends and family. In addition to his parents, Totchi’s family includes an older brother, Masahiko, who works at their father’s company, and older sister, Maiko, her husband, Raiden, and their two daughters, Kimiko (Kimi – 9) and Hanako (Hana - 7).

Totchi decided early on, after realizing in himself a very real love of drawing and art, that, given the chance, he wanted nothing more than to move to New York to study art further. When said chance presented itself a few years later, he jumped at the chance, though his parents were reluctant about the idea at first. When Totchi started going into a somewhat depressive state after a nasty breakup with his boyfriend of several months over his dreams of moving to New York, during which he found out that his lover had only truly been with him for his money, Totchi’s parents finally relented, believing that distance and a change would help to pull him out of it.

Enrolling at NYU’s Tisch School of Arts in the Fall of 2006, Totchi immersed himself in the program, getting acquainted with his neighbors, and making friends, often hanging out at local parks and pubs, observing the patrons with sketchpad in hand to try to capture their “spark”. It was on one of these excursions to a local pub, towards the end of November, that he met, quite by chance, a young man by the name of Takamiya Daiki, better known to friends as Die. The two hit it off, becoming virtually inseparable, and eventually moving in together, planning to spend the rest of their lives together.

It wasn’t meant to be, however. Fate had other, more sinister plans in store for them. As if it weren’t bad enough that several of Totchi’s friends had either moved away or completely withdrawn from him and one had recently died, one of Die’s ex-girlfriends, Tsukiko, showed up, completely unannounced, obviously in hopes of winning him back. When she’d left that evening, they’d thought they’d seen the last of her, but that wasn’t the case. Less than a week later, one of Totchi’s closest friends, one he’d “adopted” as his “little sister”, committed suicide. Only days later, Die got a call from home. There had been a death in his family, and he had to return home immediately. Unfortunately, due to school and upcoming finals, Totchi couldn’t go with him, since it wasn’t his family. That was when the problems began anew. In the intervening time, Tsukiko had managed to convince one of Die’s old friends to help her, so that when he arrived back home, his friend managed to swap phones with Die, thus enabling himself to intercept all of Totchi’s calls to Die, telling him that Die didn’t want to talk to him. She had managed to get to one of Die’s brothers as well, so that Totchi got the same story if he tried to call Die’s parents’ house. Thinking that Totchi isn’t calling him, Die refused to be the first to call, either, and ended up staying in Japan rather than return to New York.

When Die wouldn’t take his calls (or so he thought), Totchi was confused, at first, because although they’d both been under a lot of stress, they hadn’t really been having any major problems. But when Die didn’t return from Japan when he was expecting him, Totchi started to believe the things that he had been told. Having nothing left to hold him in New York, and not wanting to stay in the apartment he’d shared with Die, Totchi packed up and moved to LA as soon as Spring finals were over, deciding to take a year off from college.

Being a naturally friendly and out-going person, it didn’t take Totchi long, despite his trust issues, to make friends in LA. Within a matter of weeks, he found himself surrounded by friends who couldn’t care less whether he had money or not, in fact taking a job on an online pornography site to help out one of said friends.

Perhaps the biggest shock to him came a few weeks after he’d joined the online community when he realized that one of the newest members was an old friend from NY, and the very person that he had harbored a secret crush on for months. Over the next few weeks, he and Kai grew closer, helping one another through their pain and trust issues, slowly rebuilding their friendship and eventually falling in love. Once they realized this, and admitted their feelings for one another, and made things “official”, Totchi spoke with his boss, and they managed to come to an agreement so that instead of actually appearing on the porn site, he would now be a script-writer, instead.

Totchi later learned that the entire mess with his ex back in NY had all been staged. When he received an invitation to his ex’s wedding back in NY, he and Kai, along with their friends flew to NY to attend, not out of obligation, but to show that, far from being destroyed, he had overcome and was exceedingly happy with his new life. On the spur of the moment, while they were getting ready to attend, Totchi proposed to Kai, and they made a side trip and were married themselves.

They were, however, in for another shock a few months later when a letter arrived at their door informing Totchi that he had a daughter, the result of one drunken night just before he moved to LA. The shock was compounded a couple of weeks later when said daughter was dropped off on his doorstep.

Currently, Totchi lives in a small, but very nice, apartment with his husband, their daughter (because Totchi insisted that Kai adopt her as well, even though Kai had accepted her without question or reserve because she was Totchi’s), and their five cats. He still writes scripts for the porn site, though he mostly works from home now, only going in to the office two evenings a week. He hasn’t given up on his art, and has enrolled in a night class through UCLA, preferring to wait until Amaya is older to actually go back to school for his degree. No longer having to hide the fact that his family is wealthy, he is exceptionally generous with his friends and family, often lavishing them with gifts, especially the children.



------------------------------------------------------------------




Hailing from Rochester, NY, 29-year-old Alexander Leehom Wang, known to family, friends, and fans as Leehom, is the middle son of Taiwanese immigrants, his father a pediatric neurosurgeon and his mother the librarian at a local library. His older brother, Lee-De, is a doctor, as well, as are many other relatives. When the time came for Leehom to start college, it was assumed that he’d follow in their footsteps and choose a career in the medical field, but instead he decided at the last minute to go into music. In addition to his father, mother and older brother, his family also includes a younger brother, Lee-Kai, who is currently a student at MIT.

After finishing college, he moved to Taiwan for several years, achieving moderate success as an actor as well as a quite a bit of success as a solo singer, becoming known for his unique style and his work with charity groups.

Eventually, the busy lifestyle, the constant travel and uprooting, combined with being so far from his family, started to wear on him, and he decided to move back to New York, settling in New York City, starting a sister studio to his recording studio back in Taiwan, shifting his focus from performing to producing. He was hoping to, and actually did, find and be able to create a market for Asian music within the mainstream American music industry.

Currently, he lives in a small, three-bedroom house with his dog Usagi, after a short-lived marriage to the girl that had captured his heart back in NYC. Since moving to LA, he has set up a small-ish office where he handles the paperwork generated by both of his studios, and, because he can never completely break himself of the habit, is constantly on the lookout for new talents, renting out some of LA’s many studios for recordings if he happens across any individuals that he feels might be worth looking into. After his marriage dissolved, he has thrown himself back into his first love, his music, even performing again, as well as working on a few new songs here and there, and considering recording again.



------------------------------------------------------------------




35-year-old Sugizo was born in the city of Hadano, in the Kanagawa Prefecture of Japan, son of Japanese-Chinese and Japanese-German parents. As a child, his parents insisted that he become comfortable with all parts of his heritage, regularly sending him to visit family in Beijing and Frankfurt over summer vacations. As a result, Sugizo is now fluent in four languages: Mandarin, German, Japanese, and, also at his parents’ insistence, English.

Lucky for him that they did, though. Having taken an early interest in the violin, by the time he exited college, Sugizo was being courted by orchestras not just across the nation, but throughout the world. LA drew his interest with its Philharmonic. Over the past 12 years since joining, he has worked his way up to First Violin, Concertmaster, within the orchestra, often, though not always, earning solos, his performances, whether solo or in the pit, both powerful and intense.

Unfortunately, as rewarding as that is, it doesn't provide a very steady income, especially in the beginning. A fact quickly realized after arriving in LA. At the time, he took to working as a hired escort to supplement his income, though after finding love and marrying the man that had haunted his memories for years, though they had only ever met in passing, he was content to give it up.

Currently, he resides with his husband in LA, though they also own a beachfront home nearby, as well as a vacation home in Austria.



------------------------------------------------------------------




Born and raised in LA, 24-year-old Nakama Yukie was discovered quite by accident at the age of fifteen by a modeling scout that happened across her hanging out with some friends at the beach. Because of the tendency for Asian names to become Americanized, and really, her given name would have given the wrong mental image had it been, she has worked the past nine years under the pseudonym Yankumi. It is by this name that she is perhaps best known for her modeling and occasional commercials. She has, in fact, lived under this name for so long now, that it's really the only thing that she answers to, anymore, often wondering who people are talking about/to if they call her Yukie.

Convincing herself that she's earned it, she lives alone in a swank penthouse in the finer section of LA. She's often seen attending parties and dinners of this star or that, and seems to have quite the happy and social life. In truth, she counts very few of them as true friends, and is, in fact, actually quite lonely.

Or was, at least, until a chance meeting when her car broke down on the way to a photo shoot. Having been tutored throughout high school, Yukie missed out on the crushes and dating that all young girls fantasize about. Instead, she had her own fantasies about just having a normal life and doing normal things. To her colleagues, her boyfriend may be “just a mechanic”, but after living the celebrity life for so long, Yukie couldn’t be happier with him, knowing that, even if it’s just a stuffed animal that he won her at a carnival, his gifts come from the heart and with much love and thought put into them for no more reason than to make her happy.



------------------------------------------------------------------




24-year-old Hyde was well on his way to earning a degree in music when his parents were killed in a drunk-driving incident on the way home from celebrating their son’s twenty-first birthday. Hyde was in the car with them at the time, but escaped relatively unharmed with only a few minor injuries (in his opinion, anyway - though he very nearly died himself and was, in fact, in a coma for several weeks). Some call him lucky, but he doesn’t see it that way. Losing one’s parents on your birthday just isn’t his idea of being lucky by any stretch of the imagination. The loss of their financial support caused him to have to drop his courses at UCLA just a few months shy of graduating.

To support himself, he now works in a small music shop. He still lives in the small house he lived in with his parents, partly because the house is paid for, and therefore saves him money, and partly because he can’t bear to part with anything related to his parents, even almost four years later.

Always a bit on the shy side, Hyde withdrew even more into himself over the past four years, a bit wary of getting too close to anyone for fear of losing them, too, like he lost his parents. It had, in fact, gotten to the point that he almost never goes anywhere other than home or work, and barely interacts with the customers in the shop, merely performing his job, and leaving it at that.

All of that changed drastically after his boss convinced him to join an online community, where he met the man that, though neither of them knew it at the time, he would fall head-over-heels in love with. Starting off as friends, he was slowly drawn out of his shell, though he still remains rather on the shy and reserved side. The two became lovers several months later, eventually moving in together.

He currently resides in the house his parents had bought, with his now-fiancé and their daughter, as well as their white ferret, Draco, and the newest addition to their family, a Siamese kitten. They are currently looking into the possibility of adopting another child through a planned adoption through one of LA’s homes for unwed teen mothers.



------------------------------------------------------------------




24-year-old Koki is a native son of Los Angeles, born and raised there by immigrant parents who later became naturalized citizens.

Always drawn to music, Koki began sneaking into Synchronicity, a local karaoke bar, when he was 14. Soon befriending the owner, he began working there as soon as he turned 16, perhaps a bit of a cliché given his heritage, but a job he enjoyed nonetheless. Over the next 7 years, he worked his way up to manager. When the owner, a kindly gentleman with no family of his own, decided to retire, the business was signed over to the young man who had worked as hard as he had to make the bar thrive and grow over the past several years.

Naturally drawn to people, Koki is a bit of an enigma. He often tries to act tough or stand-offish, though he's still, after years of trying, not very good at pulling it off, and is often called on it. He won't back down from a physical confrontation, quite often stepping in and acting as bouncer in his own bar if the need arises even though there are hired bouncers to do the job, though he'd prefer to use words to fight his battles, if possible.

Currently, he lives alone, save for his dogs, a Yorkshire terrier named Miko (yeah, real tough guy dog there) and a Chow mix named Sasha.



------------------------------------------------------------------




20 year old Jin is one of those spoiled rich brats you always hear about. He was raised in Atlanta, Georgia, and as a result, speaks both English and Japanese fluently, at his mother's insistence. He's come to LA to study because... well, just because he can, mainly. Good-looking, but unfortunately, aware of the fact, he can come across as rather arrogant, at times.

Typical of most upper-class brats, he's rather... selective in the company he keeps. He does have a sense of humor, though, and that can be a helpful tool in breaking the ice with him, so to speak.

Before moving to LA, he chanced to meet someone while browsing a gay porn community online. Turned out they shared more interests that just that, and when they discovered that both were planning a move to LA, they scheduled their arrivals so that they could meet up at the airport. The two became roommates, sharing a large and lavish upscale apartment, as well as hanging out on-campus together, sort of forming their own "elite" crowd around them.

Jin is currently a dance major in his second year at UCLA.



------------------------------------------------------------------




22-year-old Narimiya Hiroki, or Hiroki Narimiya, ever which you prefer, grew up in LA, the son of one of LA’s most prominent and highly successful lawyers. Growing up in a world where it was considered the “norm” for siblings to have rarely had the same surnames, he never questioned the fact the he and his sister had different surnames, despite sharing the same parents, and having grown up in the same household, until someone questioned him about it specifically. When he asked his parents about it, the reasoning was quite simple. Although they did indeed share the same parents, and their father had never treated them any differently, Hiroki had been born out of wedlock, and therefore bore his mother’s surname rather than his father’s.

IQ of 152 led to outstanding grades, earning Hiroki an academic scholarship at UCLA School of Law, where he is currently finishing up his fourth year, intent on following in his father’s footsteps on day. Don’t let the ambition and bookishness fool you, though. He’s really a sweet guy… if you can drag him away from the library or computer long enough.


Preferred RP style: paragraph over IJ

Extra info in case you forgot anything: These are all imports from back on GJ, so... they've been around quite a while and some of them are quite long. LOL