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Luxord

kittyn — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 10:40:35 CST

Real Name: Daniel Rould
Room: M16
Age: Despite the appearance of someone in their late twenties to early thirties, he's only around four years of age.
Hair Color: Blond
Eye Color: Blue
Height: 5'11"

Backstory

In the universe of Kingdom Hearts, there are three things that create a person: Heart, Body, and Soul, your heart being the most important because of its capability of comprehending the light and the dark. It’s kind of a simple concept. Basically, when you die, your soul leaves your body to go… wherever they go. But if the darkness, the manifestation of all negative emotions, overwhelms the light in your heart and consumes it, your darkened heart creates a Heartless. That Heartless, being the nasty little creatures they are, then goes on to take the hearts of others in an endless cycle of creating more and more Heartless until a Keyblade Bearer comes along to defeat it and release all those stolen hearts.

But, lo, where does that leave your Body and Soul? Well, if your heart was strong enough when it was taken, the remaining shell of body and soul can occasionally reform into a Nobody, a inhuman, emotionless creature incapable of joining either the light or the dark. Those with the strongest hearts have formed Organization XIII.

There isn’t anything known about Luxord’s past, at least not aside from the fact that, like the rest of Organization XIII, he used to be a human with an incredibly strong heart before it was taken by the Heartless. Since joining the Organization and their plan to create Kingdom Hearts from released hearts and regain what was lost, most of his tasks boiled down to recon on new worlds and spreading Heartless for a Keybearer to eventually kill and release the hearts taken. It isn’t until Roxas comes along that a member of the Organization could collect hearts for their goal (since only a keyblade is capable of releasing hearts. If another member destroys a Heartless, the Heartless eventually reforms).

You first meet Luxord in the Grey Area, essentially the lobby of the Castle that Never Was, where he’ll offer Roxas practical advice, riddles, and the occasional “game”, the reward of which always strangely being an extra mission with Xigbar (though he says it’s to cheer Roxas up, this still makes me suspicious). He doesn’t play much of a prevalent part until well into the game, where you have your first mission to Wonderland with him after he causally taunts Roxas about one of his friends, Xion (Number XIV), falling into a coma.

Despite this… less than pleasant introduction to him, he actually proves to be one of the more polite members of the Organization. He listens to what Roxas has to say about what he‘s seen so far and even lets him do most of the talking while they run into the Cheshire Cat (even if he obviously catches on to the riddles faster than Roxas does and doesn’t bother to clarify for him. He seems more interested in letting Roxas figure out things for himself), and even gives more advice to the young keybearer about luck, regardless of Roxas’ uninterested mien.

The missions with Luxord continue in this fashion over the months: they hunt heartless together, Luxord will expound some “useful” advice to Roxas about luck, fate, time, bending the rules, and following ones’ curiosity (they even go chasing the White Rabbit for this very reason), the Cheshire Cat will give them riddles to solve, and the two Nobodies seem to genuinely get along despite a few of Luxord’s backhanded compliments and Roxas not caring about Luxord’s monologues (they seem pretty good-natured about the whole thing, though, or at least Luxord does). Life in the Organization continues to move on without much incident.

For a while, anyway. Things become increasingly strained in the castle once Xion defects, soon followed by Roxas and effectively tossing a huge wrench into the Organization‘s plans. Once Xion is erased from existence and Roxas is kidnapped and merged once again with his original form, Sora, the Organization has no other choice than to force Sora into doing what Roxas had done for the past year: destroy Heartless to build up Kingdom Hearts.

Thus leads into KHII. While Luxord appears in Hollow Bastion with the rest of the Organization to taunt Sora and appears speaking with other members in scenes from Final Mix (mostly revolving on what to do with Sora and what to do in the meanwhile. He suggests passing out cards. Xaldin tells him to shut up.), Luxord, again, doesn’t make much of an impact until a third into the game.

You don’t see him again until the second trip to Port Royal. On the previous visit to that world, Sora took care of both the Heartless threat and the threat of the cursed, Aztec gold medallions (it caused anyone to take the gold to effectively turn into living zombies, only showing this true form when under the light of the moon) with the help of Donald, Goofy, and the natives of the world, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, and Captain Jack Sparrow. When Sora returns, however, he’s soon to find the zombied pirates have returned and the cursed gold has been stolen again. Worse than that, Will’s crew had been murdered after an attempt to reclaim the gold and stop the curse again.

Sora, of course, figures this to be the Organization’s doing the second the words “black coat” come out of Will’s mouth, and he isn’t wrong. Luxord had been sent to create Heartless via manipulating the greed of the people of the world and using the curse of the medallions to create a formidable Heartless called the Grim Reaper that can only be defeated once all the gold is gathered into its chest. Being who he is, Luxord of course has to turn this into a game, tossing coins to his Gamblers for Sora and his friends to find scattered about, having the Grim Reaper knock Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jack onto Will’s ship, and blowing the ship up.

You know. For fun.

Of course, Sora wins Luxord’s little game and Luxord takes the heart, congratulating Sora for beating the Heartless before disappearing for another long portion of the game.

He doesn’t show up again until the end of the game, though he does have a few more scenes in Final Mix. During a meeting, Luxord and Xigbar chat amongst themselves about Axel and, more specifically, his death and sacrifice to Sora. Luxord mentions he couldn’t imagine why Axel would ever do that, but figures it must have been because he had found it worth something to put his life on the line. Xigbar chastises Luxord jokingly, telling him Nobodies don’t have lives and it’s against the rules of gambling to bet with something you don’t have. Luxord agrees with a little smile, noting that Axel must have bet with something he didn’t have and won regardless, making him a cheater. Saïx tells the both of them to shut up.

With Axel using his dying strength to create a dark corridor to allow Sora into The World That Never Was, Sora eventually makes his way to the Castle and fights his way to Xemnas, the leader of the Organization, in order to restore balance to the worlds. In his way, however, is Xigbar, Luxord, and Saïx.

After taking care of Xigbar and reuniting with his friends (Kairi, who had been kidnapped by Axel and then Saïx, and Riku, who had been hiding from Sora the entire game), Sora stumbles across Luxord again for one last game. Luxord kidnaps Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy and effectively forces Sora into playing for his own friends with the rules that whoever runs out of time first is the loser. What follows is basically a puzzle boss that is very frustrating.

Despite trying otherwise, Luxord loses, though he takes this with grace until Sora makes one last move to attack him. X raises his cards to shield himself, but Sora cuts through both the cards and Luxord, killing him. Like everyone else, Luxord calls Sora Roxas, but you can’t help but hear that “how could you?” as sounding incredibly hurt and personal.

Personality

Luxord looks to be the perfect gentleman. He’s charming, verbose (maybe overly so. Dear god, he loves his alliteration and five dollar words), and generally fun to be around. If you can explain something in two sentences, Luxord will go out of his way to make it a stunning, dramatic, flowery, three paragraph monologue that can entertain anyone who appreciates that sort of thing. He’s the type of person who you could imagine at those high-class dinner parties, chatting up the ladies, who makes his story of shopping for groceries an epic that would make Homer himself blush. He’s the gentleman with the eerie calm around him and never gets fazed or stops smiling about anything. He’s just a polite, considerate, and wordy man at first glance.

There is, however, a few flaws in this.

He is obsessed with luck, be it his own or anyone else’s, and everything is therefore a game to him. Every single thing and every single person in life is just a puzzle for him to play with or a twist in fate’s road, and it’s whether you follow your curiosity or not that you’ll find yourself on certain paths. You know those long-winded speeches? 9 out of 10 times there will be gambling analogies in each one of them. Fun and games are serious business to him, as is the constant need to keep himself entertained. If he can’t figure out a way to have fun with something, there’s a good chance he won’t want to deal with it; though, since he always seems to manage to flip everything into some weird game of his, this is rarely a problem. Still, this objectifying mindset of his tends to cause some dilemmas, as he has no problem getting himself side-tracked for the sake of seeing where it takes him (even though he cautions that being too curious can lead to an early grave. He says this like he knows from experience, but it‘s never expanded on) and dragging the people around him into incredibly cruel and mean-spirited games if he wanted to.

Even worse, he’s also completely uncaring about what’s around him aside from maybe getting his heart back. Comrades can die, games can be lost (if he ever lost them. Even if he loses, he somehow manages to win), plans can go bad, but it never bothers him unless he‘s tired, completely had the wool pulled over his eyes or was betrayed by someone he trusted (and even then, he gets over it quickly enough). Occasionally, he’ll flip a sarcasm switch, but it’s rarely anything completely overt (it‘s more in the “you‘re so silly :]” vein than a “shoot yourself in the head with a large caliber bullet“ type of snark), at least not from what’s seen around Roxas. Still, that doesn’t mean he won’t be honest with you. If he thinks you’re doing something wrong, he will outright tell you. Since he doesn’t care, he won’t stop himself from saying his piece when he either knows that he’s right or feels like he needs to explain a “game” to you. He’ll just… be very polite while he’s shooting you down.

As a little added note from his in-game journal entries, it looks like he has a soft-spot for children, almost wistfully so, for their naivety and having more in life to gamble with. Though this soft-spot tends to come off as him being more lenient and kind than anything else; if he has a point or decides to be horrendously blunt, he still will be. That’s just how he is.

At Landel's
See this entry (friend's locked).

Venom

kittyn — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 10:39:12 CST

Real Name: Vincent Lant
Room: M49
Age: Unknown (looks to be around 20-25)
Hair Color: White (Blue eye dyed onto front)
Eye Color: Blue
Height: 5'10"

Backstory
As a boy, Venom was found in England by the Assassin's Guild, a group of assassins that was originally created in order to punish those "outside the law," yet had recently turned to more political matters and therefore had a lot more influence. The Assassin's Guild regularly took in orphans and trained them to be as their own but, unfortunately, Venom turned out to be too kind and reluctant to take any lives. Since they were dealing with orphans, there was never any qualms about simply executing the useless children. As Venom was one of those useless children, his story really should have ended right there.

Fate stepped in, however, in the form of the Guild's newest leader, Zato-1. Zato rose to the top of the ranks after receiving a creature known as a Forbidden Beast (a bio-weapon being parasitic in nature, created to fight off another type of bio-weapon called Gears) to inhabit his shadow, allowing him to use it as a weapon at the cost of his sight. Zato personally ceased the execution, seeing potential in Venom where the rest of the Guild did not. Zato took it upon himself to train the new assassin over the years and eventually made him his right-hand man. Venom quickly became a powerful, trusted, and capable member of the guild, imbued with deep respect and devotion to Zato for everything he'd done.

Sadly, this loyalty of his went into some extreme, almost disturbingly so, measures. Every single part of his life became dedicated to Zato and the Guild, hero-worshiping and (although unrequited) loving him with all his heart. If anyone dared insult Zato, threatened him or the guild in any way, Venom would be there in an instant like a guard dog. While he still felt uncomfortable taking lives, he would do absolutely anything Zato ordered of him without question.

When Zato began showing signs of getting into a more than work-related relationship with Millia Rage(another assassin Zato taught essentially everything to, even having her receive a Forbidden Beast in order to wield her hair as a weapon), Venom immediately took to hating her, constantly getting after her for everything he could, reminding her that it's against the rules for affairs like that, and repetitively reminding even Zato that she couldn't be trusted and he should stop what he was doing. Millia and Zato continued their affair regardless and these events went on for quite a while--Venom would be a bother and the other two would brush him off. They both knew how he felt about Zato, despite him never fully admitting it (really, Venom's as see-through as sheet of cellophane when it comes to his emotions), but neither one of them really cared all that much.

Whether Venom's warnings were only a ploy to break them up or not, he was right and Millia eventually left the Guild. She just couldn't handle it any more, seeing just what sort of people the Guild was taking money from. As much as she had loved Zato and as much as he loved her, her love dissolved and began to turn to disgust and hatred as she blamed him for turning her into the murderer she had become. When Zato sent assassins to bring her back, she collaborated with the police, leading Zato into a trap where he was promptly arrested. For his capture, all charges against her were dropped. The Guild slowly began to collapse without their leader, sparking major in-fights over who, exactly, would take over in Zato's absence.

A few years down the road, Zato escaped prison with the help of a Gear named Testament, and was evidently determined to win a tournament that promised to grant any one wish to the winner (his wish was going to be revenge on Millia). Millia caught wind of this and joined in as well to defeat him, not wanting for him to go free after all his crimes. This tournament was, unfortunately, a giant ploy by Testament, who was attempting to revive the first original Gear, Justice, in order to destroy all of humankind. While Testament was stopped and Justice defeated, all the fighting had taken its toll on Zato--he had become weak enough for his shadow, who had begun calling himself Eddie, to possess him, controlling the host who once controlled the parasite with ease.

Once it became clear that Zato (who at this point had been completely driven insane) was too weak to serve all of Eddie's needs, he began to search out the rumor of a living Gear named Dizzy in order to take her as a his new host.

Word of Eddie's actions got back around to not only Millia, but the Assassin's Guild. Venom didn't want to believe that Zato had begun falling to his shadow and, in a fit of desperation to restore both Zato and the crumbling Guild, he went out to pursue his beloved Master and save him from his fate.

Millia got there first. Zato didn't survive.

Eddie, on the other hand, did. He continued to use Zato's corpse as a puppet, ensuring that not only did he constantly haunt Millia and taunt her for her failure to do away with Zato completely, but also Venom for his inability to save the one person he cared for most in the world. Unfortunately, as much as he enjoyed tormenting the two, a Forbidden Beast only has a certain life-span after its host is destroyed, meaning Eddie was on the fast track to dying along with Zato. While he searched out a new host (along with having a constant existential crisis as he came closer and closer to death) and Millia tracked him down in order to destroy what was left of the man she despised, Venom decided that the only thing he had left of Zato and therefore the only thing worth living for was the Assassin's Guild. He vowed to build it back up to its former glory and even sent members of the Guild to pursue and kill Millia for what she had done.

The original founder of the Assassin's Guild, Slayer, did not concur with Venom's wishes. He had been keeping tabs on the Guild since Zato's rise in power and, while upset by how his Guild was being run, did not step in until after Zato's death was confirmed. Even then, he only stepped in to formally announce to everyone left within that the Guild was hereby disbanded.

Venom did not take this very well. At all.

After beating his way through various test-subject to see if he was, in fact, powerful enough to defeat Slayer, Venom confronted the man and told him that he would be the new leader of the Guild, being Zato's second in command, and expand its business in Zato's memory. He then proceeded to attack Slayer, who refused to allow such a thing, but couldn't win. Even still, Slayer could see how dedicated and desperate Venom was to keep it up and running, so he finally changed his tune and allowed ownership of the Guild to fall in Venom's hands. Slayer did, however, tell him that it was silly of him to live his life for the dead, since Zato couldn't be happy regardless of what happened to the Guild, but otherwise left the assassin to himself.

>Since there are actually two endings for him in Accent Core Plus, I may as well explain them both, even if I'm only going with the First Ending.

Since having the Guild passed to him, a non-disclosed amount of time had passed. Sadly, while the Guild was eventually strengthened back to its original state, Venom never grew any happier with running it like he thought he would, constantly plagued with nightmares of Zato attempting to murder him. Being the sane and totally non-grudge holding type of man he was, he immediately blamed this on Millia still being alive and sought out to kill her in order to find some sort of peace within himself.

Once they finally met, (and I'm combining both the conversation from Millia's Story Mode and Venom's) she told him that she was tired of being followed by the Guild and she'd kill him if it means destroying it. He explained that the Guild would never die at this point, even if he was killed, and that he actually counted on that since it would forever be the only proof of Zato's life. He then went on to tell her that the only way to end his nightmares was to destroy her for what she had done.

There are two ways the story can go now. If you beat Millia normally, Venom admits that he doesn't know whether or not Zato would have really wanted her dead and therefore doesn't have it in himself to murder her. He figures that, really, all he really wanted was an enemy and something to fight against to make him feel as if he had a purpose, so he decides to take it out on the Post-World Administration Bureau (a shady group that was supposed to have disbanded after the Holy War and have lately been making a note to piss off every single character in the game by attacking them, collecting data on them, and generally just being annoying). After finding that they are creating clones of Justice, Venom declares war against them, ordering the Guild to take them down. (First Ending)

[As an interesting note, in Millia's Story mode, after beating Venom, she'll tell him to leave. When he wonders why she won't kill him, Millia asks if that's what he actually wanted her to do all along, to which he has no answer. She then says she'll let him live if he and the Guild leaves her alone. He calls her naive for even suggesting he'd leave her in peace, but they end it at that. Later, she finds Eddie and kills him, but not before he tells her that he finally realized what he was living for, that only thing important in life is that you actually live while you can, and he asks her to remember him. Millia promises to remember the both of them--Eddie and Zato--and pledges that she'll keep on living, if only for a little while, to remember everyone she has killed. This also coincides with one of Eddie's endings, meaning this is probably the "correct" ending and that Venom's second ending is bunk.]

If you use an instant-kill on Millia, however, Venom really does murder her. It doesn't bring him any more joy or a feeling of completeness, though, and he slowly realizes that the only reason he isn't happy, the only reason he can never be happy, is because his inability to let go of Zato. During another nightmare (in which there was one of the most bad-ass fight scenes I have ever had the pleasure to play out in a video game, fyi), he finally takes it upon himself to do away with that constant loyalty, effectively understanding the meaning of Slayer's words from before and chastising himself for it taking the deaths of two people for it to sink in, and wakes up feeling better. He then disbands the Guild, saying there can never be progress in life with an organization like that holding people back, and becomes a wandering pool hustler, moving on with his life. After another undisclosed amount of time, he comes across a little orphaned boy named Eddie (if that wasn't ironic enough, he also looks exactly like Zato) and offers to take him in and teach him how to play pool. (Second Ending)

Personality
Despite the regular assassin upbringing and having enough of an icy outward persona that it could sink passing cruise-liners, Venom is... surprisingly more complex than that.

The most noticeable thing is how he can be totally blinded by love (and yes, this has been confirmed as canon and isn't just a "reading too much into it" thing), willing to do anything and everything for Zato--in one of his non-canon GGX+ endings, he even tricks Eddie into going into his body in order to save Zato, hinting that he was willing to commit suicide and take Eddie with him, so long as it meant protecting Zato from further harm. He always follows Zato's and the Guild's wishes, uncaring of the lives he takes or the consequences of his actions so long as it was ordered of him. Millia (who tended to receive the brunt of this loyalty even before she killed Zato), Eddie (who has Zato's memories and made a note to rub in his face how Zato thought of him as an attention hungry dog. Whether he was lying or not is up to debate), and occasionally even Slayer (who hardly even knows Venom. He's just very perceptive) let him know that this is a constant problem of his and, really, it is. He can be easily manipulated using this information, either through using Zato as some sort of bait or angering him to the point where he doesn't think of anything but revenge (this sadly occurs more than you'd think it would).

Aside from that important tidbit, some of that kindness from when he was a child still remains. He despises murdering people when it isn't a job and refuses to turn to darker sources to make himself stronger (unlike the rest of the group having turned to Forbidden Beasts to gain their strength). He's an honest person and is very straightforward, but considering what he does that is maybe not for the best (there are many instances of him waltzing up to an interesting person and asking if they'd join the Guild, or even just moments were he calmly states that he's going to test his skills on them. It never seems to go over well). He has sympathy for other people regardless of his profession, even if he tries not to let it show all that often. Speaking of, he's absolutely terrible at hiding his emotions (another thing Millia used to tell him, much to his annoyance) despite all attempts to bottle them up. But he's also intelligent, having a fondness for reading and playing chess (which he used to play with Zato quite a bit. Who's surprised?) and is always willing to discuss things civilly over a game of it. While he acts cold and calculating, his mind tends to wander to the emotional side of things, always questioning what he's doing in life and if it's really what he wants. He's currently unhappy, extremely hateful, and jaded after everything that's happened to him, but carries on regardless because of that undying loyalty and fierce protectiveness of the Guild.

Even still, he is an assassin and as such does not take bunk from anyone whose name is not Zato-1. His anger is something you really don't want directed at you, because, while he isn't the strongest man in the world, he is both an extremely deadly and extremely influential person, being the current leader of the Assassin's Guild. Even if he decides not to kill you, he would still give you a severe beatdown to make you think twice about crossing him in the future.

In general, he just comes off as a polite, honest, yet incredibly aloof person who can kill you with a stick.

At Landel's
TBA when I'm not lazy.

Ashton Anchors

misu — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 23:16:52 CST

Real Name: Paul Pritchett
Room: M??, with Axel
Age: 20
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Green
Height: 5'11"

Backstory

This poses a bit of a problem, as Ashton is the only character in the entirety of Star Ocean 2 without a trace of a back story besides ‘wandering swordsman.’ He doesn’t even have a hometown as every single other character in the game does, and when **** Goes Down later in the game, he's the only Expellian character in the party not to expressly worry about specific loved ones back on Expel. Therefore, I'm forced to fall back on educated (and well-considered) guesses, up until the party meets him in game.

Ashton was born twenty years ago (but far in the future nonetheless, when Earth begins to colonize other planets; the date is SD 366) somewhere on planet Expel, a planet with a 'fantasy setting' in the Theta Sector, which makes it relatively close to Earth. He likely had caring, proper, normal parents who brought him up to be reasonably polite, as Ashton has pretty decent manners.

A possibility is that Ashton’s parents were fine jewelers. During his journey with Claude and Rena’s party, he demonstrates a great knowledge and affinity for jewels and jewelry, which opens the speculation that either his parents taught him about jewels or he self-taught. He had a silver necklace engraved with his name on it at some point, possibly as a gift from his family.

While growing up, Ashton also became intensely interested in barrels and other means of storage. During times when the party splits in game, he can be seen around barrels and urns in every town, contemplating their origin and craftsmanship.

As a teenager, he trained his body as well as his mind, becoming ambidextrous and eventually adopting as his signature weapon a set of twin swords. (The game hints at his family also teaching him his moves: one of Precis' moves, created from observing Ashton, mentions 'the special arts mastered by generations of Anchorses.' Though this could just be a little joke? I don't know.) Something unknown drove him to set out as an adventurer/mercenary/treasure-

hunter. Ashton never mentions his motive in striking out on his own.

The most important theme in Ashton’s life has been unluckiness, up to and including his first run-in with the party. During his life, things around him have broken inadvertently. He generally gets attacked more often, he breaks more bones, and he causes more accidents than he probably should, through very little or no fault of his own. (In game, his “Luck” statistic is permanently at 18 without modification, whereas other characters have luck stats 100 points higher.)

Ashton, while traveling and looking for work, eventually made his way to the rural mining town of Salva. Rumored to hold a legendary treasure, the two-headed dragon was said to live deep in the Salva mine, maiming or killing any witnesses to its awesome power.

Here, he saw his chance. If he stood up and fought, and if he were to slay the dastardly dragon of Salva, he would likely find two of his favorite things – barrels and jewelry. Possibly barrels of jewelry, which would be pretty awesome.

(Here’s where he’s first seen in game, by the way. All story after this is actual canon instead of partial speculation.)

Unaware that three people were following him into the mine, he started in. Winding his way through the labyrinthine mining shafts, he spotted his target in a narrow passage and leapt in headlong, starting the fight. Again and again he was pushed back, but he kept attacking until he heard voices behind him, cheering him on.

Ashton wished these distracting intruders would be quiet. If they weren’t going to help, and obviously they couldn’t – the shaft was too narrow to fit more than one fighter and a dragon with two long necks – then they could at least be quiet about it, right?!

Ashton turned around and politely asked the onlookers if they would keep the noise down. He was obviously trying to fight here.

Then there was a flash of light. Always good when that happens, right?

Where were the dragons? They'd disappeared. He turned around again.. and again. He could only figure out what had happened by the horrified faces of his ‘cheerleaders.’

The dragons had relocated to his back. He was a man possessed.

Ashton briskly invited himself into the ragtag team of three, blaming them for his possession. Kindly, and kind of exasperatedly, they took him along, and they all decided to figure out how to rid him of his dragon friends.

As they left Salva, one of the cheerleaders, Rena, declared that the dragons were cute and that they ought to have names. Naming the red one with the bugged eyes “Creepy” and the blue one with the sad eyes “Weepy,” Rena gave a little bit of humanity to the beasts. Ashton, Rena, Claude, and Celine then set out on their grand journey for information.

These were his first friends. He was not used to being possessed, but he also wasn't used to traveling with people who seemed to accept him for who he was.

An ancient tome within the shelves of a small library instructed the team on how to exorcise, and effectively kill the dragons without harming Ashton himself. The party was to go on a long, drawn-out quest – the problem was that the dragons would vanish from the world with screams of agony. They set out anyway.

During the quest, which I'm going to say took about a month, Ashton became very used to having the dragons on his back and slowly grew to think of them as friends. With every step, Ashton had someone new to talk to – new thoughts to listen to, new stances on previously held beliefs. He slowly came to terms with his new self, and accepted his fate as a trinity. Creepy was always hotheaded and wanted to charge. Weepy, cold and calculating, was less likely to fly headfirst into battle but still loved a fight. And both of them influenced Ashton.

When the party reached the top of a quest-specific mountain, a giant bird alighted on a ruined pillar and began to speak to the dragons in an ethereal voice.

That’s when Ashton lost consciousness. Creepy and Weepy temporarily took full control of his body, using him as a speaking vessel. The dragons and the giant bird, Zinae, had a nice conversation. Zinae criticized Creepy and Weepy for stooping low enough to possess a human upon defeat instead of choosing death. The dragons replied that Zinae was far too inflexible, and he should get with the times if he wanted to survive.

And then they fought. Defeated, Zinae soared into the air, shedding jewel-like tears, which just happened to be what they needed for the exorcism. And then Ashton came to. He had no recollection of what had happened, but now the quest was almost completed! Pretty cool!

After traveling back to the point of possession, Ashton lifted the cup to his mouth, then lowered it without taking a drink, and admitted that he couldn't get rid of them after all. The other party members gawked at him, but he explained that Creepy and Weepy were part of him now, and he had come to terms with it – through no little guilting and browbeating on the rest of the party's part. But he certainly didn’t want to kill them! By now, they had so psychologically changed him – or possibly manipulated him into wanting them on his back.

And, possibly more importantly, he was afraid that now that his quest was over, his new friends would leave him alone. Part of the reason he had gone along with them was because he'd never had friends and partners before, and he'd grown accustomed to this happiness.

So then he begged them to let him join the party for good, having feared that they'd only taken him along to fulfill their responsibility for his possession. He learned that his new friends were on an expedition to this thing called the Sorcery Globe, so he decided to come along. Hey, if everything went right, he might find a way to exorcise the dragons without killing them.

(The rest of the game is not Ashton-specific at all. However, I’m going to give a basic rundown of the plot from here out; it's kind of bare-bones to keep the load off of you guys, but I don't believe I've left out any detail that's too terribly important to Ashton.)

The party moves to the next continent, views the annual Armory Contest (in which Ashton does not participate, but instead watches Claude get his ass whooooped) and makes its way forward. Later, a horde of winged demons is pushed back by a giant Heraldic weapon, and the ship meant to take the party to the northern continent is wrecked by a demon.

They finally make it to the Sorcery Globe – that big evil meteor that fell. Then a group of weirdos with pointy ears laugh at them and kick them around, and then, basically, the world is destroyed.

So it turns out that instead of being destroyed along with the world, Ashton and company are whisked away to another, more futuristic civilization, a giant body of energy called Energy Nede – although they later learn of Expel's fate. (Ashton does not get as up in arms about this as everyone else does, but he obviously still wants to help out.) The real enemy finally reveals itself to be a group of ancient criminals named the Ten Wise Men.

The party fights quite a bit more. Typical RPG fare, for the most part. Claude's daddy kicks the bucket. Rena turns out to be a bazillion years old. Eventually they make it to the final dungeon, and each of the Wise Men is killed in succession, leaving Gabriel, the mastermind, to answer for his crimes.

Just before Gabriel is defeated, however, he invokes a Symbological Crest called the Crest of Annihilation, designed to destroy the universe. The party ‘rewrites’ the Crest with a patch of sorts provided by some important NPCs. So instead of the universe being destroyed, the spell's damage gets focused inward on Energy Nede itself, which is annihilated. Claude's party is transported back to a now-restored Expel. Everything has reverted back to normal. HURRAY. Everyone is happy... and then they all split up and drift apart.

By the end of the journey, Ashton is a much more well-adjusted character, though he still has his nervous, flaily moments. He seems to be a much happier guy overall, and I think he's a lot less insecure. Unfortunately, we don't see a lot of him in the plot post-sidequest, so these are just extrapolations from the Private Actions we get to see of him in Nede as opposed to on Expel.

(During the game, there are choices of whether or not to recruit certain characters. I have chosen in this instance of the game to recruit Claude, Rena, Celine, Ashton, Welch, Precis, Leon, and Chisato. The game also allows for individual character endings with each other character. I'm taking Ashton from an ending with Celine, which means the two of them hang out a lot together and shop a lot. I heavily doubt the two of them are romantically involved, considering her canon tastes in men stray far from Ashton's sort, but she seems to trust his fashion judgment quite a bit in the ending, so I assume they're bffs.)

Personality
Ashton is, in a word, odd. He’s always been, and it’s more than likely he always will be. His tastes and idiosyncrasies tend towards the effeminate, and he’s always on hand to help with any fashion or jewelry choice, though on occasions he has been known to err on the side of flashiness. (In game, he has a piece of failed armor unique to him called Flashy Armor.)

He's a pessimist through and through. Things never seem to go right for him, and he can really wallow in his situation if it gets too bad. Being around sunny-dispositioned people can really help the mild depression he can sink into, though.

He tends to get nervous very easily when faced with embarrassing situations, or when people call him out on something he's said. He can stammer, but he's a strong fighter at heart. He's a man, with manly thoughts! He kills people with his swords! It's just that... he also cares a great deal.

Speaking of caring a great deal, there’s a side event in game that involves Ashton and an ill little girl named Eleanor, and he’s fast to become her ‘big brother' and even goes as far as picking special herbs from the tops of dangerous mountains to try to cure her. He really does enjoy the company of children, though he can get quite nervous when they crowd him. (Though I've decided not to go through with the Eleanor sidequest in this particular Ashton's story – it's only available in a game with Rena as the main character, and this Ashton is from a Claude game.)

He’s quick to accept a friend, probably because he hasn't had many friends in the past. He's also prone to crushes (his Romance Points for Claude fluctuate as much as any of the girls', which is somewhat unique among the men in SO2) and, oddly enough, he's not averse to asking someone on a date.

Instead of throwing his possessions away, Ashton prefers to leave them in places where they might be discovered, such as in the jewelry box of another party member. He’s very interested in keeping things useful, and he sees merit where others might not. Case in point: barrels. Ashton has a near-obsessive romance with barrels and urns, and can constantly be found ogling such innocuous objects. Perhaps, before his possession, he felt similar to a barrel: the oft-overlooked, plain object in the corner, slightly too shy to enjoy being the center of attention, yet occasionally colorful and exciting.

Ashton is always in favor of bettering himself – trying harder and learning to understand, and doin' his best. When prompted to publish a book in the game, he most commonly writes a self-help book called “Men Who Can Say No” which encourages the reader to be able to state clearly one’s likes and dislikes, and likely also to be able to disagree – but politely. Ashton’s always been one for politesse... Until he forces his way into your party, but that's all about taking responsibility, which is the polite thing to do, right? His ideals can be your ideals, too!

He likes to shift the blame off of his friends. If one of them fails at something themselves, he tends to call them 'unlucky' – proof of his obsession with luck, good and bad – but he'll congratulate them based on their own merit if they succeed. His terrible luck has brought him more pain than he occasionally feels he deserves, and so conversely I doubt he feels like his friends deserve the bad things that happen to them.

He’s readily adaptable to new situations. Being possessed threw him off track temporarily, but he grew to love and trust his companions, including them in his sense of identity.

And, of course, he’s somewhat reticent about his past, though occasionally he might brood over what’s happened to him. If he wasn’t so closed-mouthed sometimes, we’d know more about him from his interactions in game. Maybe he just concentrates the hardest on the present.

Finally, I'd like to mention that he's got a kind of marked duality to him – besides wielding two swords and having two dragons, he's pessimistic about himself and optimistic about his friends, he's strong in battle but kinda fail socially, he's excellent at focusing yet has nervous breakdowns occasionally, he's nervous when it comes to dates but goes on them anyway, he's really into kicking ass but also more feminine stuff like pretty necklaces... THE LIST GOES ON AND ON, WHEEEE. And I think that the game likes to kind of bring that out.
At Landel's

will be updated

Dick Gumshoe

OnSoullessFeet — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:54:14 CDT

"Real" Name: Roderick Coleman
Room Number: M89
Age: 31
Hair Colour: Dark brown
Eye Colour: Dark brown
Height: 6'0"
Other: Homicide Detective. "Scruffy". Scatterbrained nature. Stuck on the slow side. Heart of gold.
Timeline: end of AA: Justice For All.

Backstory
Being redone.

Personality
Same as above.

At Landel's
You guessed it. If you have any questions about this field or the fields above, please feel free to ask!

Relationships: here.

Other
Pyramid Head (actual/mental crimes): here.
Aquilas (virgin y/n): here.
Psycho Mantis (guilts/shames/hobbies/sexuality/childfree?): here.
Telepaths (open book y/n): here.

Manuel "Manny" Calavera

OnSoullessFeet — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 09:48:37 CDT

"Real" Name: Antonio Plana
Room Number: M92
Roommate: Phoenix Wright
Age: Unknown (Real Age: 45)
Hair Color: Dark brown, some greying
Eye Color: Brown
Height: 5' 4"
Other: Ex-Salesman, Ex-Manager, Ex-Captain, Ex-Hero. She is the cause. Dark circles under eyes. Scarring on left side of chest consisting of thin lines extending out from mark over heart.
Timeline: End of game.

Backstory
In Grim Fandango, we only know what happens during one day (the Day of the Dead) of each year and are expected to guess the events leading to each transition. I’m going to be briefly describing some of the speculations Charles Frederick’s novelisation made about what occurred in each year gap to create a flowing history. (The novelisation, while merely a fan creation, fills several of the canon’s plot holes with educated guesses). It might be wise to refer to the world information, because without an understanding of that, it might be difficult to understand the character's history.

Manuel Calavera was a pretty average guy who led a pretty average life. He wasn’t aware he had failed to live a decent life until he died. He was informed of his ‘debt’ and the means by which he had to pay it off: by becoming a reaper. As the years passed, Manny steadily climbed his way up the ladder, earning himself a lovely office at the top of the building. He also befriended Eva, the division’s newest secretary. Manny’s boss was later promoted out and replaced by Don Copal. By that time, Manny was the top agent at the DOD. He wanted out and nobody stood in his way as he sold numerous premium packages.

A new agent by the name of Domino Hurley walked in among the senior agents soon after Don’s arrival. Manny hated Domino for a number of reasons. Never mind that Don treated him like his “golden boy”; just as Domino’s success in selling was starting to become a constant, Manny suffered a slump. Weeks flew by without a single premium sale. Weeks turned to months, months turned to (estimated) nearly two years. Once the hottest salesman at the DOD, Manny was reduced to a nobody agent who was failing to work off his debt. Slowly but surely, he started slipping back into the self-seeking personality he thought he had abandoned.

Domino was moved into Manny’s office. Manny was forced to convert the supply closet next door into an office. At his last DOD Christmas Party (from the hints dropped in the game) it would seem Manny got hopelessly drunk and engaged Domino in a fist-fight before passing out. Manny had turned into a pitiful mess.

The game begins almost a year later, on the Day of the Dead (2nd November). Manny returns to his office after selling his latest client a walking stick, grumbling until he hits upon an idea; to look for a lead on a good client. A message from his boss informs all agents of a mass poisoning in the Land of the Living. “All clients are first come, first serve!” The reaper searches for his driver. Instead, he meets a giant demon mechanic named Glottis. According to him, Domino sent Manny’s driver home. Manny has Glottis illegally modify a car as the demon goes about being his (unregistered) replacement driver. Manny retrieves a client, who isn’t eligible for a package upgrade. Don advises Manny to sell a premium package soon or he’ll fire him.

Manny learns Domino has just sold a Double-N ticket to a nun, which explains why he dismissed Manny’s driver—to ensure Manny didn’t reach her first. The reaper decides to settle the score by stealing a client from his rival. Intercepting a work order, Manny reads the file of a woman named Mercedes Colomar. Convinced she is a “saint”, he rushes to the garage with his cloak on and scythe ready. There he finds Glottis in the driver’s seat of the car; a car that is now officially a hotrod. They easily win the race to Ms. Colomar.

Back in Manny’s office, he pulls up her file and is shocked to discover her eternal reward is missing. He grills her for information about her past that might be acting against her. The woman (“Meche”) is a saint in every sense of the word. He asks her to wait while he goes to investigate, completely ignoring his client’s discontent.

Don orders him into his office. When Don tells Eva to send in Ms. Colomar so Manny can apologise and probably introduce her to Domino (her assigned agent), Eva informs them the woman has already left to begin her journey on foot. Don flies off the handle at this news, claiming Ms. Colomar did have a ticket on the Number Nine and that Manny was just hopeless for not being able to find it.

Manny is locked in the garage, left alone with the thought he’s going to pay hell for this. A stranger outside the door enlightens him by saying “the boys downtown” are going to “sprout” him. When he is sure Manny is an enemy of the DOD, he unlocks the cell and escorts him to the underground Headquarters of the Lost Souls’ Alliance (LSA). His name is Salvador Limones. An ex-reaper like Manny, he suspected the presence of a dark conspiracy and has since gone into hiding. He wants to build a revolutionary army to fight against the DOD’s corruption. So far, Eva (recruited as a spy a year ago) and Manny are his only recruits. He thinks the Bureau of Acquisitions is somehow robbing the newly dead of their tickets on the Number Nine and selling them to less deserving souls for profit. Manny is promised a safe way out of the city on the condition he helps them in their intelligence and communications unit. With no other option, Manny does as he’s told. Now a friend of the revolution, Manny is taken to the edge of the Petrified Forest. His plan is to find Meche and use her to uncover the DOD scam, which will get him his job back. Salvador asks if Manny is in love with her–to which Manny replies “I’m only after her for one reason: she’s my ticket out of here.”

He discovers Glottis and the “Bone Wagon” (their hotrod). It turns out the company fired him too. Manny literally saves the demon’s heart from flying spiders. They then tear through the Petrified Forest, acquiring high-lift shocks for the Bone Wagon and the key to an outer gate, all the while evading monsters. They arrive in the port town of Rubacava early the next morning. Dockmaster Velasco offers the newcomers a place to store the Bone Wagon. Manny gets a job at the automat. His plan is to wait in Rubacava for Meche’s arrival, for all souls must stop in the town to gain passage on a ship.

The following two paragraphs contain educated guesses Frederick made about the transition from Year One to Year Two:

Manny arranged for Glottis to occasionally take the route between Rubacava and the Forest to look for signs of Meche, asking the people and demons at stops along the way. Lola, a waitress they met the first time they passed through, came to Rubacava to work with Manny. They both worked in the automat until the owner, impressed by Manny’s efforts with the customers, left the business in his capable hands before leaving town. Judging by the way they flirt with each other in canon, Manny may have dated Security Officer Carla. It is possible he dated other women as well (he forgot about his date with Inez, the telephone operator). Manny also became familiar with Maximino (the “big boy in town”) and Olivia Ofrenda, girlfriend to Max and owner of the Blue Casket. After clearing it with them, Manny set to work converting the automat into a nightclub.

Nearly a year later, the Calavera Café opened for business. Manny put his name on the outside to ensure that Meche knew where to find him. Lola quit her position as his employee to start her own job as a souvenir photographer. Meanwhile, Salvador promoted Manny to ‘Special Agent’ status within the LSA while sending news of the revolution’s developments. He learns that a man named Hector LeMans is at the centre of the DOD’s corruption.

Manny pursues the customer who apparently asked for him. On the sightseeing platform, he mistakes a demon raven perched on binoculars for Meche. Manny uses the binoculars to watch it swoop over a dock and sees Domino forcing Meche on to the S.S. Lambada. He races for the remaining gangway as the ship departs, managing to jump and hang on to it. Meche then throws a champagne bottle at him, knocking him off the ship.

Manny learns that the Lambada is headed for Puerto Zapato—the other side of the Sea of Lament—and the S.S. Limbo, a cargo ship, is the only ship in port that’s headed there too. There’s an opening in the engine room that Glottis can fill if he brings his own tools: Authentic Sea Bee equipment only. Manny won’t be allowed aboard unless a sailor named Naranja doesn’t show up. He’ll also need a maritime union card.

He spikes Seaman Naranja’s drink to knock him out and steal his dog tags, planting them on an unidentified sprouted corpse in the Morgue. The coroner uncovers the I.D. and notifies Velasco.

One of Manny’s shady customers proposes a deal—if Manny can retrieve a suitcase of ‘money’ from Maximino, he’ll print him a fake union card. The customer keeps his promise when Manny returns with the suitcase. He receives a union card.

A Sea Bee incites a riot. Manny comes across Lola’s photograph of Nick Virago (Max’s private lawyer) and Olivia kissing, and then blackmails Nick into freeing the Bee from incarceration so he can lead the other Bees in a strike, enabling Glottis to claim the abandoned Sea Bee equipment for himself. Manny’s farewell to Nick is a punch in the face, prompted by the fact Nick shot Lola when she wouldn’t give him the photograph (because if Max has proof that an associate is messing around with his girlfriend, he will probably have them sprouted). Manny is only able to find the photograph by following a set of clues Lola leaves for him. Lola’s sprouting scene is perhaps the most important turning point for Manny as a character—it heightens his awareness of the people around him and alerts him to the injustices he can prevent. Her last words to Manny entail a confession—she used to be in love with him, but because he was "so hung up on that Meche woman", she figured she wouldn't have had a chance.

Manny’s ready to sail—except Glottis’s gambling problem has him chained to Maximino’s High Rollers’ Lounge. As half-owner of the Calavera Café, Glottis has credit. Manny ends Police Chief Bogen’s “lucky streak”, knowing he will raid his nightclub and have it shut down, which in turn ends Glottis’s term as a VIP.

Manny and Glottis depart from Rubacava aboard the Limbo before dawn.

Frederick forwards the following speculations: The Captain posted Manny to a variety of duties, eventually promoting him to first mate. Nearing Puerto Zapato, the Captain apparently went overboard during a major storm. After the inquiry, the ship dry-docked to undergo repairs. Glottis had replaced the diesel engines, but the ship itself didn’t get the extreme makeover until this stage. The line permitted Manny to take command of the ship. As the newly appointed Captain, he could rechristen the Limbo. It relaunched as the S.S. Lola, and thanks to the massive repairs and Glottis’s modifications, their ship started gaining on the Lambada.

The Lola lands in Puerto Zapato. Captain Calavera is told there are custom officials on board. An LSA carrier pigeon arrives to inform Manny of recent developments—a spy in Zapato has said Meche supposedly threw herself overboard at the Pearl. The message also warns him not to land in Puerto Zapato because assassins will board his ship. Manny goes down below to make a horrific discovery—his entire crew has been sprouted. He and Glottis escape Hector’s assassins, but the engines eventually fail and they sink to the bottom of the Sea of Lament.

When they reach the Pearl, Manny and Glottis stowaway on a sub while its demon octopus driver is distracted. It propels them southward to a deserted factory island on the edge of the world. Manny is reunited with Meche, though he ruins the moment by suggesting she and Domino are lovers. The latter stresses that Manny is working for him now, that he’s going to train him to take his place as the boss of the enslaved coral miners.

The ex-Captain searches for Meche after being knocked out cold. He tries to coax her into eloping with him. She requests his gun in return for her trust. Manny trades for one and gives it to her, realising his mistake when she then takes him hostage. Using him to further her agenda—much like he used her—she threatens to shoot Manny if Domino doesn’t set them free. Domino locks her in a safe when she turns the barrel on him.

Manny learns that the slaves are Domino’s old clients; the scheme involved transferring the Double-N tickets to a secret holding fund while Domino covered their tracks and arranged for the saints to “jump overboard” at the Pearl, where the octopus would then transport them to the island. Manny is the only soul other than Hector and Domino who knows of the hideout, which is why Domino lured him there with Meche as bait; to be certain word didn’t get out of the fact a group of saints remained in the Land of the Dead because their tickets had been stolen.

Manny breaks the safe open to free Meche. A pile of suitcases in the corner are filled with Double-N tickets, and it is then he realises the tickets are counterfeit; he remembers from his days as the top DOD agent that unlike these ones, the real article twitches around human souls. Hector has been selling fake tickets to the unsuspecting rich.

Everyone (except Domino) escapes on the S.S. Lamancha. Meche asks her travel agent what he intends to do with her. He states that the only job he has now is to bring them safely to the End of the World. “But if you aren’t going to use me to get your job back, why did you spend all this time trying to find me?” After a long pause, Manny answers: “I needed to find you.” They’re interrupted by the unceremonious arrival of Domino and his demon-steered sub. Manny confronts him, loses the scythe duel by a long shot, and so puts a separate plan into action, resulting in Domino’s ‘death’ by coral crusher.

We know that when they arrived in Puerto Zapato, they traded the Lamancha for a team of sled dogs. Between there and the End of the World, the group travelled across frozen tundra for a year. By the next Day of the Dead, Manny and Meche are romantically involved.

Upon arriving to the End of the World, the saints are accused of selling their tickets and are sentenced to detainment. Manny tries to explain their situation, to which the Gatekeeper replies, “You need to get your friends... their tickets”. Worthy of note is Manny’s decision to even stay with them—he could’ve walked through the portal to the Land of Eternal Rest, but he claims he “can’t do it” because he promised his friends he would save them. In the meantime, Glottis has fallen gravely ill due to the fact he hasn’t fulfilled his created purpose—“to drive”—for the past year. Once Manny has discovered the fuel for a rocket sled, the sled is set upon the train tracks with Glottis strapped on top and a gondola on the bottom for Manny and Meche (who is allowed to accompany them to El Marrow).

The sled crashes in Rubacava when Glottis’s spirit is revived. With Glottis’s ‘help’, Manny disarms the bomb Domino set on the Bone Wagon. With Olivia in tow, they drive to the outskirts of El Marrow—officially Nuevo Marrow now that Hector rules it—only to be held at gunpoint by LSA agents. They reunite with Salvador, who tells them an LSA assassin has infiltrated Hector’s weapons lab. Victory unfortunately eludes them, for they soon discover it was a trap. Salvador and Olivia leave the HQ together while Manny explains his own plan to Meche—he’s going to assassinate Hector; he needs a disguise and a gun. Meche provides him with a suit. Manny disguises his face with make-up and has Hector’s weapons manufacturer arrange a gun for him.

Manny blows his cover after Hector shows him the real Double-N tickets. Hector has hoarded them for himself, because he believes his life record is that bad that he’s going to need them to help him leave the Land of the Dead. Hector flees without the tickets. Manny meets Meche and Glottis at the train station, giving Meche the tickets and bidding her farewell, since he can’t ride on the train. She is attacked by a demon raven and chucks the suitcase back to Manny, who then escapes with Olivia by car. He learns a little too late that Olivia has betrayed them.

Manny and Salvador are driven to the Meadow; a field Hector uses as a dumping ground for his sprouted victims. Olivia reveals that she is now Hector’s girlfriend before forcing Manny to confront him in the greenhouse. Hector shoots him with slow-acting sproutella. Manny luckily recovers by pouring liquid nitrogen on the one flower that has bloomed from his chest, which halts the sprouting process. It isn’t long after returning to the car that Salvador bites down on his explosive tooth, sprouting himself along with Olivia. Manny heads to the greenhouse for a shootout with Hector, but in the end fires a few rounds into the greenhouse’s water tank. The sproutella filters through the sprinkler system and effectively finishes Hector.

We don’t know the exact events between Manny departing the Meadow and hopping on the Number Nine with Meche and Glottis. What we do know is that the DOD gives him a Double-N ticket, because by ending the company’s corruption, he has paid off his debt. They show the tickets to the Gatekeeper, who then frees the saints from detainment. Manny says goodbye to Glottis and gets on the train with the others. Meche asks if she will be with him in the next world. Manny figures they might as well enjoy the trip. They kiss, and the Number Nine disappears through the portal to the Land of Eternal Rest.

Personality
There is no solid evidence as to what Manny was like when he was alive, but we can make a stab at it by putting the known pieces together. We know he doesn’t care for anyone in the Land of the Living, apparently having never visited living relatives from how his lack of interest borders on total aversion. He makes offhanded reference to them in the game: “No one back there I wanna see”, “there’s nothing for me there.” Given the evidence, it isn’t difficult to imagine Manny must have lived life for himself rather than for others. It seems obvious he didn’t strive for virtue. Manny reveals that he doesn’t quite know how he screwed up at life. Perhaps it was due to his ignorance of the world around him, busy living his own life and never changing it to help anyone else.

The above conjecture isn’t of consequence to his canon characterisation, but it is something I had to think about, as it is what the man’s personality may have developed from.

Manny is fairly composed unless presented with a situation that immediately endangers his friends. When he talks he usually sounds tired. Serving as a reaper taught him he was at the bottom of the ladder. He admits he must’ve got what he deserved, as he worked the system long enough to learn not to question it, but the fact he drew the short straw without actually understanding what he did wrong in life has created an apparent grudge, and this carries into his tendency to sound bitter sometimes. He has also grown to be a cynical man. As previously mentioned, this is presumably due to the reluctant acceptance of his destiny; his self-ignorance is ironically where his fault lies.

This part of his personality isn’t to be mistaken for an impediment, however. If anything, it compels him to fight off signs of insecurity. As well as being calm and collected in his conduct, Manny displays a great deal of self-confidence around others. He has a distinctive charm about him when speaking to anyone. He retains his qualities as an ex-salesman by how he can sway people into a deal, intuitively aware of what may please a person while occasionally taking advantage of knowing what may annoy them.

That said: he’s a natural-born troublemaker. According to the man himself, he was in detention all the way through high school. He has a habit of cracking jokes when you would least expect it. His sense of humour ranges from plain silliness to harshly applied sarcasm, though he normally reserves the latter for people who have incited some type of anger in him. His affinity for light-hearted jokes seems to grow after travelling with Meche and the others for a year (“say hello, Mr. Rag! ‘Hello Mr. Rag’”; “no, it might come in handy”; raising an amputated hand to his forehead in a salute and saying, “thank you, SIR!” etc). When he flirts, he goes for the teasing approach rather than laying it on thick.

When he assumes a hard-boiled guise in parts of the game, we can tell he is fond of it. However, no matter what he does, he can’t seem to shake off the ‘regular guy’ air about him. He was even accused of using comic book one-liners when duelling with Domino. When Manny has to be violent, it’s as though he’s just stepping in to test waters. He isn’t hardened enough, for example, to punch someone without good reason. The shootout with Hector was the most daring event he ever engaged in, but it was initiated on reasonable grounds. If there hadn’t been a suitcase of Double-N tickets and his friends’ wellbeing on the line, in addition to the fact so many people had suffered by Hector’s hand, Manny would not have gone through with it.

But if it’s up to him to achieve something he wants, he is always ready to take it upon himself as a duty he must fulfil. Once Manny sets his mind to completing a task, his highly competitive nature fuels him to carry it out. This drive helps to expand his imagination when he has to consider his options, making him an admirably resourceful person, as well as a fast learner.

At first, Manny’s motivations for being heroic were not clear. He didn’t seem to understand the reward in saving people, misinterpreting it for personal desire, until over time his experiences began to influence his self-indulgent nature. Lola’s sprouting acted as the first trigger. The incident opened his eyes to his lowered awareness of the people around him. He realised that seeing those he cared about in pain was something he hated more than anything. He wanted to prevent people of greater value than himself from suffering a fate he knew they didn’t deserve; perhaps it was his way of hitting back at the system. Manny’s journey across the Land of the Dead brought out the better in him, the good that was buried beneath his own ego. It transformed his goals into dignified ambitions befitting of a hero. During the shootout, he let off a shot for Salvador, his crew on the S.S. Lola, and “Lola herself”. This proves without a doubt that his experiences throughout the game were what caused this gradual change of heart. Manny’s friends helped to expose his valiant qualities to the point their own suffering deeply affected his thought process.

It is important to note that his enthusiasm for helping his friends is because his own interests still count for something - when it is in his interests to save people, to set things right, to overcome hardships on behalf of his allies... then of course he will stick to his word.

At Landel's
He’ll want to explore the area and collect items for his new inventory, taking a practical stand on the situation by interacting with his environment and the people in it. He’ll want to stay by Meche’s side, but he will regularly leave it to form alliances with those in the population who can provide him with the goods he needs, whether it’s materials he’s after or information. He’ll want to please the ‘leaders’ among the patients. He will try to accomplish the trickiest tasks to gain recognition; he’ll arrange everything as best he can in order to boost his chances each time he embarks on a specific nightshift mission. Acting as a surrogate parent to Pugsy and Bibi for a year has made him a little more inclined to interact with children as well, so his interest won’t be limited to adults. He won’t be above the idea of meeting people for curiosity’s sake, either.

Current Relationships: here.

Pyramid Head (actual/mental crimes): uno
Aquilas (virgin y/n): dos
Telepaths (open book y/n): tres

Brook

Kiarae29 — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 07:32:53 CDT

Name: Brook
Other Names: "The Gentleman Skeleton", "Just Dead Bones" Brook, Hanauta (Humming) Brook
"Real" Name: Florian Rousseau
Room: Unknown
Roommate: Unknown
Age: 41, though he has lived for 88 years (there is a discrepancy in timeline and what the author has said, Brook could have been either 38 or 41 when he died).
Birthday: April 3rd
Hair Color: Black, it's a giant AFRO
Eye Color: Hazel (this is a guess; his eyes have never been seen in canon)
Height: 8'8" without his hat. With his hat, he passes 9 feet!
Weight: 220 lbs
Birthday: Unknown
Other notable characteristics: He has two scars on his face - The first is an upside down Omega sign slanting downwards across his forehead from the top right of his hairline. The second, and much more recent, runs vertically down the right side of his face, striking through his eye but not causing any hindrance to his sight.

Background History:
About fifty years ago, Brook was a member of the Rumbar Pirate Crew under the command of Captain Yorki. These pirates were a rowdy bunch very fond of music and merrymaking – they were even required to love music before being allowed to join Yorki’s crew – and were famed for being able to “bring a smile to any crying child’s face”. Brook was especially fond of music and proficient with about every instrument imaginable with the violin being his favorite.

This crew, like many others, was sailing for the Grand Line: the most dangerous Ocean in the world, searching for fame and glory. Along the way, they picked up a small whale that had gotten lost from its flock. The crew only made one early attempt to turn it away towards its family, but thought it too adorable to try again. They named him Laboon and treated him like a part of their own crew. Laboon acted as much like a crew member as any true pirate, saving men who had fallen overboard during battles and singing along with the crew.

When the crew came close to entering the Grand Line, they made the difficult decision to leave Laboon behind. The whale was only a child and would never have been able to survive in the Grand Line along with them. Being the closest with Laboon, Brook tried to explain that they couldn’t take him, but Laboon wouldn’t listen. As a final measure, the crew gave Laboon the cold shoulder to shut him out and force him away. After a week of not seeing the whale tailing them, they finally reached and crossed over into the Grand Line, but when they got there, they found that Laboon had followed them in. The crew wasn’t able to be mad at him, so they celebrated for a bit while their ship got repaired (entering the Grand Line was no easy task). Three months later, the crew was ready to set sail. Laboon no longer felt bad about their decision to leave him and stayed behind with a lighthouse keeper. Once the crew had sailed the Grand Line around the world, they would be right back to where they started and right back to where they had left Laboon. Captain Yorki told Laboon that it should take two or three years for them to complete this task. The crew waved farewell to Laboon, promising to return.

So far, the crew has not been able to manage this promise.

Upon entering the Florian Triangle (basically the Bermuda Triangle) three years after leaving Laboon, the crew fell under attack from another pirate crew. Yorki himself wasn’t actually there with his crew during the attack; he had taken ill beforehand and left his crew so as not to get them sick, passing command to Brook. Yorki had left telling them to live so that they would all be able to see each other again, but it was not to be. During that attack in the Florian Triangle, the entire crew was wiped out, Brook included. The only reason Brook did not remain dead was because of the Devil Fruit he’d eaten.

The Devil Fruits give remarkable powers to whoever consumes them at the price of no longer being able to swim. Brook ate the Yomi Yomi no Mi (Death Death Fruit) while alive but was only unable to swim as a result. Only when he died did the fruit’s abilities begin to work. The powers basically sent Brook’s soul back to the living plane after death. Unfortunately, his soul was not sent back straight to where he had been killed and due to the thick fog that circulates through the Florian Triangle, he was unable to locate his body for a while. It took Brook an entire year to locate his body, but by the time he did, it had decomposed to the point of being a skeleton. Amazingly, Brook’s overgrown afro was still clinging to the skeletal remains (Brook claims that his strong roots saved it), but aside from that everything else had deteriorated away.

Brook still revived through the Devil Fruit’s abilities and is now one impossiblyalive skeleton. He can function as a regular human despite the lack of necessary organs. He walks, talks, eats, sees, everything - even uses the bathroom (yes, he said so himself) and gets nosebleeds (where does the blood come from?). The Devil Fruit is the only explanation for how such an impossibility as Brook can exist.

Before Brook died, the remaining members of the crew all decided to play a song as their final act. Most were dead, the crew doctor included, but those still breathing had been poisoned and knew they would not last much longer. Brook took out a tone dial (a sea shell capable of recording sounds) and began to play a song along with his crew. They continued playing and singing until only Brook was the left alive, then he died as well. Brook still carries the tone dial with his Crew’s dying song and intends to play it for Laboon once he returns for the whale. Many years he has spent on his crew’s ship, unable to navigate due to a broken rudder. He might have managed to drift out of the Florian Triangle’s thick fog eventually, but 40 or so years into his drifting, he hit another snag in his effort to return.

Brook fell victim to the abilities of another Devil Fruit user - Gecko Moria. The Shichibukai (one of seven pirate lords who cooperate with the Government) possessed the Kage Kage no Mi’s (Shadow Shadow Fruit) abilities and stripped Brook of his shadow by them. Moria takes the shadows of his victims and places them into reanimated corpses to do his bidding. Once infused with another’s shadow, a corpse will come to life possessing the personality and abilities of whomever their shadow originally belonged toalong with whatever abilities the formerly living body may have had. One’s shadow is basically a copy of his or her soul. As a pirate, Brook had been an accomplished swordsman/samurai, and the zombie his shadow was forced into exhibits those abilities. The zombie body was also once a samurai rumored to have slain a dragon, so the zombie with Brook’s shadow turned out to be stronger than Brook.

Not shortly after his shadow was taken did Brook attempt to reclaim it. He had no choice. Being without a shadow, it was impossible for him to step into sunlight. This was a side-effect of Moria’s ability; anyone who had lost their shadow ran the risk of burning up in the sun’s light. If Brook could not retrieve his shadow, then sailing out of the Florian Triangle into sunlight was impossible. The fog in the sea was the only thing protecting him from the sunlight. Retracing his steps, he reentered Moria’s stronghold of Thriller Bark – the largest ship in existence which contains an island on “deck”. Before he actually entered the stronghold part of Thriller Bark, Brook learned the weakness of the zombies while spying on some. If salt is put into a zombie’s mouth, the shadow attached will be forced out and the zombie will “die”. He dispatched many zombies with this knowledge and earned the title of the Humming Swordsman from the fearful zombies because he would always be humming a song before striking without warning.

He ended up challenging Ryuuma, the zombie his shadow had been put into, but suffered a crushing defeat. Brook was only allowed to live because if the owner of the shadow dies, then the zombie containing the shadow would also “die”. Brook had no choice but to leave the island, defeated for the time being.

Known Rumbar Pirates:
Captain - Yorki
Mizuta Madaisky (older)
Mizuta Mawaritosky (younger)

Storyline History:
At the time of Brook’s introduction to the main storyline, five years have passed since Brook’s last time at Thriller Bark. The Straw Hat Pirate Crew comes across his ship floating aimlessly about the Florian Triangle, thinking it a ghost ship. Because of his strange appearance, they also think Brook a ghost as well which scares pretty much the entire crew. Only Luffy, the captain, seems more excited than scared and immediately asks Brook to join their pirate crew. Surprisingly, Brook agrees just as quickly.

Brook is somewhat invited onto the Straw Hat’s ship by Luffy to come meet everyone. A mess of confusion ends with the entire crew, Brook included, eating together and talking mostly about Brook’s story. As amazed at they are over the story behind a living skeleton, they find it even harder to believe that Brook also has no shadow and cannot be seen in mirrors. Brook explains that this shadow was taken, but refuses to give the name of the one responsible for it absence, even when pressed by the crew. He also turns down his original agreement of joining the crew because of the problem with his shadow. Brook is thankful for the offer, but is happy enough to have simply met people after such a long time of being alone. As a means of thanks he offers to play some music for them on his violin, but before he begins they are interrupted by a ghost floating into the room. Brook rushes from the ship, literally running off over the water, while the rest of the crew is left to deal with the island that has appeared before them.

The Straw Hats’ ship had been captured by Thriller Bark, which proved a great stroke of luck for Brook. He’d been trying to get back to the island for the past five year’s time. While the crew ventures into the stronghold, Brook prowls about the island, looking for Ryuuma for another fight to reclaim his shadow. Brook appears back in the story later, falling from the sky (why, I’veno idea) right into a battle with Franky and Robin, two members of the Straw Hat Crew. He then proceeds to destroy their zombie attacker and purify it of its shadow with some salt. After leaving the zombies’ weakness with the two he saved as well as explaining some about his past, Brook runs off in search of Ryuuma.

Franky and Robin return to their ship, find that three of their crew have lost their shadows to Moria, then tell of what Brook had explained to them. The crew decides once again that Brook is going to be a member of their crew and heads back into Thriller Bark, looking to reclaim everyone’s shadows, including Brook’s.

While the Straw Hats’ make their move, Brook once again confronts Ryuuma, and he once again ends up defeated. Ryuuma is about to shave Brook of his afro when Zoro and Franky show up. Zoro shows a great deal of interest in Ryuuma and takes over the fight from here. Franky and Brook watch as it takes Zoro all of five minutes to finish off Ryuuma. He then claims the felled Zombie’s sword as a replacement for one of his own, and just in time. Oz, a very large zombie infused with Luffy’s shadow begins rampaging with orders to destroy the Straw Hat crew. Brook is unable to assist during the battle due to the damage he took in facing Ryuuma. Just when everyone thinks he’s down for the count, he reappears, healed and carrying a giant bag of salt. He had crawled to the kitchen to get the salt and had discovered some milk there which rejuvenated him because milk heals bone fractures (or so he says).

Brook tries to assist in the fighting, but he’s still too badly injured even with the help of the milk. He comes up with a plan anyway and gets launched as an electrified javelin right through the raging zombie’s shoulder. This is the only direct participation he is ever able to have in the battle. The Straw Hat Pirates, Luffy mainly, eventually defeat Oz and Moria in turn and reclaim everyone’s shadows.

When another Shichibukai, Bartholomew Kuma, shows up, Zoro is the only one still able to stand. Everyone else appears to be unconscious during Zoro’s face off with Kuma, but Brook proves later that he heard the whole thing. Brook is impressed by how Zoro overcame Kuma’s ability without faltering – Kuma took all of Luffy’s injuries and pain and told Zoro that, if he would take it in his captain’s stead, he would not kill Luffy as ordered. Zoro swore that Luffy would be King of the Pirates and then took every last ounce of the pain his captain had endured. Kuma left, also impressed by the members of Luffy’s crew, and when everyone else came to, the very injured Zoro said that nothing had happened. Two other members of the crew found out what happened through some other pirates who had been half-conscious during Zoro’s battle, but they kept quiet on the matter. Just so long as everyone is safe, telling what happened does not matter. So, not knowing what happened between Zoro and Kuma, the freed pirates threw a party in celebration of their victory.

During the party, Brook begins playing the piano. Luffy talks to him from on top of the piano, asking if he’s still going to join their crew. Brook nearly turns him down due to his promise to Laboon and his crew, but when Luffy says he already knows and says that he’s met Laboon, Brook breaks down in tears of joy. He remembers the events of his past, then stops playing the piano and pulls the dial tone containing his Nakama’s last song out of his skull (yeah, he can do that) to play for everyone.

Through the tears, he remembers his friends, his promise, and his duty to fulfill that promise while he plays along with the celebration. He resolves here once again to get back to Laboon no matter what, but to do it properly by circumnavigating the Grand Line and coming over that wall. He tells Luffy and everyone that the tone dial was the only thing making him feel like he was alive, but that now he has no need of it until he returns to Laboon. He “seals” the shell away in his skull, deciding not to take it out again until he’s back to his friend. He then tells Luffy that he’s happy to be alive because of this day, because he is finally able to start pursuing his goal once again after all of the hardships he’s faced.

After his speech, Brook asks if it’s still all right to be a member of the crew, and Luffy naturally says that it is. He’s welcomed instantly and introduces himself properly by presenting his wanted poster from fifty years ago. Back then, Humming Brook was worth 33 million Beri (Luffy currently has a 300 million Beri bounty, for a comparison). Since the bounty has been long-standing for fifty years’ time, it should increase later on. The crew delays departure for a bit after Brook joins, resting up and assisting in making a proper grave for the remains on Brook’s ship. Before the grave, Brook sits and plays his violin for them one last time. He is joined by Zoro, who sets his dead sword before the grave and sends it off as well. Zoro tells Brook that he has bad luck for getting involved with such a group as theirs, but Brook only laughs and says he’ll give it his best.

((Brook comes from right after this part in the series. As the series progresses and Arcs complete, more information may or may not be added beyond this point))

Special Notes for History:
--Any history prior to Brook’s joining of the Rumbar pirates is still a mystery. When he introduced himself to Luffy, he mentioned that he was many years ago the leader of a Battle Convoy/Surprise Attack Corps for a Kingdom he has yet to name. Knowing how the One Piece story likes to progress, this will probably come up later whenever Brook’s younger days are explained (a hundred or so chapters later, give or take). He is currently the only character with the crew that has not been shown in flashbacks under the age of twelve.

--Because of Brook’s fifty years stuck in the Florian Triangle, he appropriately has no knowledge of anything that has happened to the world for that period of time. This is particularly relevant because the dream of his new Captain is to become the Pirate King and obtain One Piece, the treasure left by Gol D. Roger (the former Pirate King) at the start of the Golden Age of Pirates. Gol D. Roger’s era ended twenty years ago, so Brook is likely not to know either of Gol D. Roger or of the treasure One Piece that Luffy and Crew seek. Unless something happened to Brook during his years of floating about that has yet to surface, he will be played based upon this assumption.

Personality:
Back when he was a pirate, Brook fit the pirate mold fairly well. He was loud, rowdy, and loved music more than anything. Energy just burst from him, seemingly at all hours. He was always the first up, ready and raring to face the day with a good musical tune. This became a nice alarm clock for his crewmates, but they only complained so far a being woken up. Aside from that, Brook didn’t seem to have any problems with any other crewmates and had an especially close relationship with his Captain. When Yorki fell ill, it was Brook that he addressed at his bedside and who took the position of acting captain in Yorki’s absence – he was likely first mate, though this is never stated specifically. Brook was given a lot of trust and respect from everyone, even Laboon.

They were all Nakama (eternal friends and comrades) in the strongest sense of the word. That fact made it all the more difficult for Brook to return after death. For close to fifty years, Brook has been by himself on the ship that his Nakama all sailed together on. He had to gather up his friends’ bones and put them to rest as best he could, setting the bones in a limited supply of coffins in a room on the ship. Even after dealing with his crewmates’ bones, there was no way to put the ship to rest or even sail it for the broken rudder. Everywhere Brook looked there was a constant reminder of days long past. Even his dreams were of his crew, and he would awake only to find that nothing had changed. He has had a truly lonely existence full of pain and suffering – “Lonelier than Death itself” in Brook’s own words.

The only reason why he did not attempt to end his suffering was because of the promise his crew had made. If Laboon was still back at the Grand Line’s entrance waiting for their crew to return, then their promise could still be fulfilled. Brook wasn’t about to abandon what was likely his last remaining Nakama because his life, and death had been a living hell. Dying was no excuse. While Brook knew it was possible that Laboon could have left or might even be dead as well, if there was the chance that he was still waiting for them to return, then Brook was going to hold to his crew’s promise. Brook understands the bonds of a Nakama’s promise more than anyone. His crew promised Laboon they’d return, and Brook promised his crew with his dying words that, if the Devil’s Fruit allowed him to come back, he would deliver their last song to their friend.

He feels extremely guilty for having left Laboon for so many years; every time he thinks about it, it pains his heart (if he had one, of course) and makes him all the more determined to get back to those twin peaks. Brook has a strength in his determination to follow through no matter what. When he lost his shadow to Moria, he took every measure possible to get it back so he could go out into the sun and back to his friend. Each defeat at Ryuuma’s hands only had him trying harder to win. He was even determined to keep his looks intact so that Laboon would be able to recognize him. Everything he’s done since being revived has been for the sake of returning.

For such a tragic history of loneliness, the skeleton Brook manages very strong emotions of the opposite kind. When he first comes across the Straw Hat Pirates, he’s very excited and loud, laughing in his unique way of “Yohohoho!”. He introduces himself as the “Gentleman Skeleton” but is in actuality very rude. He shouts for meals, asks to switch portions with others because their portion is bigger, is amazingly flatulent after meals, and worst of all he asks women to see their panties. At least he looks gentlemanly and does have his moments of being relatively decent. Still, his manners are in need of some tuning.

He is also very bad with corny jokes, all mostly related to bones. He is always saying things like not believing his eyes, then correcting himself on actually having any. When he makes one of these jokes, he will also shout “skull joke” afterwards, just in case no one understood it. If it’s not a joke, then he’ll be making puns instead, again relating to his condition as a skeleton. This has gotten him clocked by Franky who tried to restrain himself, but eventually got fed up after a string of these jokes and puns. (Since he won’t be skeletal at Damned, he’s going to have to find some new material!)

He overreacts a lot as well, even to things said about himself. The reverse is also true in that he’ll be calm about things that others would overreact at. Brook is afraid of ghosts and zombies and jumps at his reflection in mirrors (before his shadow was taken, and he could still be seen in mirrors). To keep from being afraid, he’s learned to hum as a means of calming his nerves.

His boisterous attitude at the Straw Hat Crew turns out to be from happiness. The Crew members are the first humans Brook’s seen in his fifty years of being a Skeleton. Actually meeting people makes him so happy that he doesn’t even care about how terrible his life’s been. He can laugh and be happy just the same.

When Franky confronts Brook about being so happy when his life has been a nightmare, the explanation Brook presents has Franky respecting Brook more than ever. Franky sees Brook as a true man. The rest of the crew agrees as well once they hear of Brook’s story and promise to Laboon. Having met Laboon earlier in their travels, they understand just how important this promise is and respect Brook for it. He practically becomes a member of the Straw Hat Crew at this point, having earned everyone’s respect in one fell swoop.

Later, when Brook finally learns that Laboon is waiting for his crew, he breaks down in tears over the piano he’s playing. He’s so happy that his friend still believes in him and his crew long since gone. He becomes more determined than ever to return once he knows, but he cannot ignore his calling as a pirate either. So, he decides to wait one or two years longer and hold to the promise completely. He will be returning to Laboon properly, sailing right over the Grand Line’s wall once he’s circled the entire line with Luffy’s crew. The promise will still remain with him, tucked away with the dial tone in his skull.

Magical/Special Abilities:

Yomi Yomi no Mi (Death Death Fruit) - In life, this Devil's fruit gave Brook no particular abilities, though it did take away his ability to swim. When he died, the ability of the fruit brought him back to life. Now, as a living skeleton, he is capable of functioning as a normal human, but with a bit of a twist. His light weight gives him the ability to jump to tremendous heights and distance, as well as let him run on water when he moves his legs fast enough. His speed is nearly unmatchable (little wind resistence, you know?) At Landel's, the abilities granted him by the Fruit, save for the fact that he's living, are non existent.

Physical Abilities:
Brook is an excellent swordsman, even if he is a complete scaredy cat. His fighting style is very refined and resembles a mesh of fencing and iadou (drawing your sword from its sheath as an attack is made). His attack names end upmeshed as well combining names of French dances, fencing calls, and Japanese all together. Though his skill is impressive, he is shown to be weaker in ability than crewmate Roronoa Zoro. Brook is not dedicated fully to his swordsmanship skills and does not keep the full pride of a swordsman either – he has begged for his life and even pleaded that Zoro reclaim his shadow when he wasn’t able to defeat Ryuuma himself. Still, he probably had a lot of discipline early on to actually train to the level he has. If he beats Zoro in anything sword-related, it is in speed. His attacks are view through both what he has done and by what his Zombie performed in battle against Zoro.

Hanauta Sanchou: Yahazu Giri (Three Verse Humming: Notch Slice)
The strongest of his attacks, originally titled Requiem Banderole (Requiem Banner) from his time spent in a Kingdom's Surprise Attack Corps. It was renamed by his Nakama who praised his use of it. Both Brook and Ryuuma showed a mastry of this ability even though the attack is so quick that it isn't ever seen drawn out in the manga panels. There is usually a quick motion followed by the attacker making a few steps afterwards, possibly talking with another, before calling the attack as it finally slashes the victim.

Aubade Coup Droit (Serenade Right-Handed Strike)
A thrust with the right hand. Performed by Ryuuma, this attack was able to put a hole in a wall like a canon, but Brook claims that his attack is not nearly as strong.

Prelude Au Fer (Prelude to Iron)
A quick, but heavy strike executed with the intent to break the opponent's countering weapon.

Gavotte: Bond En Avant (Dance: Forward Thrust)
A speedy attack where you rush the opponent and land a single blow before there is any time for a reaction.

Raikotsuken Gavotte: Bond En Avant (Thunder Bone Blade Dance: Forward Thrust)
An makeshift attack used in fighting OZ. Brook was launched at the zombie as an electrified javelin and pierced through OZ's right shoulder. This attack combined Brook's Gavotte: Bond En Avant with Nami's Dark Cloud Tempo and had assists from Robin and Usopp for the sling-shotlaunch. Pretty much a triple combo attack.

Polka Remise (Polka Repeat)
A repetition of one strike consecutively, but with a different aim each time. It is meant as a counter for a missed attack on either participant's part, but Ryuuma used this attack to help assist in destroying the collapsing building around his and Zoro's fight.

Nemuriuta Flunge* (Lullaby Arrow)
An attack in which he first puts his opponents to sleep by playing the violin before striking at them, powering through with an attack that turns into a running attack after. This attack truly proves that music is power!

*Rough in Translation. Could be Flan, Furan, or something else entirely. It's assumed to be Flunge as that is a call in Fencing and would fit the pattern for Brook's other attack calls.

Basilisk

OverlordMandee — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 12:59:03 CDT

TBA

Schuldig

callie_chan — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:29:44 CDT

'Real' Name: Keane Fuchs
Room: M43, with Obi-Wan Kenobi
Age: 22
Hair Color: Reddish orange
Eye Color: Blue
Height: Juuust about six feet tall

Backstory

Schuldig's - or, rather, Keane's; the name the institute picked for Schuldig was in fact his real name from his childhood - early life was not particularly traumatic. He was born to loving, if rather poor, parents, and although his parents had to work almost constantly to make ends meet and he didn't see much of them, he had a relatively decent childhood. If he was more perceptive than other children, and occasionally anticipated things before anyone could actually tell him about them, it wasn't so obvious that anyone thought overmuch of it. He was an unusually quiet and observant child, but as intelligence tests revealed him to be incredibly bright his parents chalked it up to a personal quirk.

The trouble began when Keane was introduced into public schooling. On his very first day, he collapsed, screaming and clutching at his head, in what mystified doctors eventually hypothesized as some sort of nervous fit; there was nothing medically wrong with him that anyone could find. After that, Keane exhibited an almost feverish resistance to return to school, but his baffled parents insisted - with both of them working two jobs apiece just to keep their family afloat, home or private schooling was simply out of the question. Keane experienced numerous fits throughout his first few school years, and was moved from class to class and, on at least two occasions, from school to school; his fits alienated him almost completely from the other children, and several times he was put into special education classes before his obvious intellect invariably got him switched back to normal classes again. Finally, by the time he was ten, the frequency and severity of the attacks seemed to have died off, but by that time Keane had been indelibly marked by his strange episodes - not just in his own psyche, but to the people around him. His classmates viewed him with a confusion that almost bordered on fear, his teachers saw him as something like a child-shaped bomb that could explode into screaming spasms at any moment, and his parents were hopelessly distanced - not just by their utter inability to understand what exactly was happening to their son, but by the strange and sometimes horrifyingly dark things Keane alluded to having seen during his spells. Keane didn't seem to mind this distance, and in fact withdrew so entirely into himself that he associated with almost no one if he could help it.

One of the most disturbing demonstrations of Keane's visions came when the boy, at four, described in detail how he had watched his teacher have sex(without even knowing what he was describing); when his furious parents, convinced his teacher had somehow had relations somewhere in the school where Keane could observe it, demanded an explanation the teacher was not only able to provide a rock-solid alibi, but her husband and several others confirmed it, leaving everyone involved distinctly weirded out and Keane with a very early course in sexual education.

When Keane hit puberty, however, his life completely went to hell. The screaming fits returned with a vengeance, no longer just at school but at home as well, more frequent and intense than they'd ever been. Even when not in the grip of one of his episodes, Keane spoke darkly of things he had heard and seen that could not be possible, sometimes repeating his parents' own thoughts back to them exactly as they thought them; he barely seemed conscious of what was actually going on around him, so distracted was he by the visions in his head. Convinced that the agony of these episodes was driving their son mad, his frantic parents contacted every expert they could afford, trying to find a definitive diagnosis that came with some sort of treatment, something that could fix him, and in their search they alerted some agents of an organization for 'gifted' people called Rosenkreuz. Rosenkreuz alone offered to examine Keane entirely for free, and his parents were only too willing to allow it - and for the first time in his life, Keane was introduced to people who knew what was happening to him, even as they warned him not to try to explain it to his parents.

The Rosenkreuz agents explained to him, quite succinctly, that he was a telepath and an exceptionally powerful one; his episodes weren't fits at all, but moments when the thoughts of the people around him overwhelmed his mind's meager natural defenses; most telepaths had or developed mental shields to restrict the thoughts crowding into their own but Keane, for some reason or another, had next to nothing in that respect. What he saw during his fits were actually the thoughts of those around him - and although Keane was as skeptical as any thirteen-year-old would be when informed he's a psychic prodigy, he'd had enough first-hand evidence to believe what Rosekreuz told him. He was inclined to believe them from the beginning, actually, because they described his abilities as a gift - not a sickness or nervous condition, but a gift that, if properly honed, could be used to his advantage. His emotional ties to his parents long ago having been severed, Schuldig was only too willing to listen to the Rosenkreuz agents lie to his parents about putting him in an institution and allow them to take them away from everything he had ever known - there was nothing pleasant enough about what he'd known to warrant resisting.

For the next three years, Schuldig was trained extensively as a telepath, taught how to focus his powers and to work through the distracting thoughts of others in his head if he couldn't block them out entirely. This period of his life was spent largely in enforced isolation, giving him - for perhaps the first time in his life - some peace and quiet in his own head, allowing him to hear his own thoughts and desires. Unsurprisingly, in the absence of the voices and thoughts shoving their way into his head, a hatred so intense that it resembled obsession sprung up in him for pretty much all of humanity; for so many years he'd been lost and in pain and it had been the unthinking (or, rather, just the opposite) people around him who had been the cause of all of it. What began as a twisted desire for revenge quickly turned into genuine pleasure as he realized that minds in torment were vastly more interesting than content ones, and that he could use the abilities he'd used to revile to bring such things about. Thanks also to Rosenkreuz's grooming, and to how powerful a telepath he proved himself to be, he developed a healthy dose of pride and self-confidence. Those three years were enough for him to finally develop his own personality, uninfluenced by the thoughts of others, and what emerged was a singularly wicked and arrogant boy who enjoyed tormenting others as they had tormented him above all else. As morals would only have inhibited Keane in any work Rosenkreuz might have planned for him, no one really discouraged him from developing such a personality provided he didn't exercise his talents on anyone 'important'.

At the end of his three years, Keane was slowly reintroduced to normal life, or as normal as it got in the Rosenkreuz facility, and after one or two last episodes of being overwhelmed, Keane finally seemed to have mastered the ability to deal with the massive amount of input he was receiving, whether he wanted to or not. And, for the first time, he found that what he saw had a practical application, with the thoughts and secrets that were revealed to him assisting him in mentally torturing those around him. The deprivation of those three years may perhaps have also influenced him in other ways, encouraging his hedonistic mindset as he had little in the way of pleasure of any sort during his training. Whatever the case, Keane proved himself to be quite capable and immensely powerful as a telepath - actually able to control the minds of others for brief periods, even, rather than merely reading them.

It was in Rosenkreuz that Keane met up with an older boy, a precognitive named Brad Crawford who, like Keane, was far more powerful than most of the other inhabitants of the facility. The two formed an alliance, and they soon left the wreckage of Rosenkreuz behind them, moving on to bigger and better things. The only truly noteworthy thing to happen specifically with Keane between his leaving Rosenkreuz and the forming of Schwarz was that he tracked down every last member of his family and, using his powers, erased all their memories of him, allowing him to reinvent himself as Schuldig.

After acquiring a young sadomasochist whose body was immune to pain, named Farfarello, and an angry telekinetic outcast named Nagi, Schuldig dubbed their little group Schwarz and the four of them began to truly cause havoc. Eventually they attracted the attention of a massive underground organization named Esset, which chose to acquire them and employ their talents. Schwarz was sent to be the bodyguards of a man aspiring to become the Prime Minister of Japan, a ruthless man by the name of Reiji Takatori. In their own wicked way, Schwarz helped him achieve his goals, but as soon as Takatori had the power of the office behind him he turned on Schwarz, having men hold them at gunpoint. Unfortunately for Takatori, men with guns were no match for four sociopaths with supernatural abilities, and - after taunting Takatori about how he'd merely been a pawn of Esset all along - Schwarz left the man to his fate at the hands of their arch enemies, a group of assassin vigilantes called Weiss.

But Esset was far from done with Schwarz; they encouraged the four men to spread chaos and fear throughout Japan, setting the scene for a demonic ritual Esset wished to perform - on the comatose sister of one of the Weiss assassins, no less, who had been kidnapped on Esset's orders. Schwarz, a naturally sociopathic group, happily followed these orders despite their reserves about the ritual.

At the penultimate moment of the ritual, however, things went awry, and Weiss showed up to spoil Esset's fun. The last surviving member of the Esset triumvirate fled, only to run into Schwarz, who had their own plans that didn't involve being Esset's lapdogs forever. They killed him just in time for Weiss to reach the scene; the noncombatants fled the building, leaving Weiss and Schwarz to finally settle their differences once and for all...a final battle that was unfortunately interrupted by the compound collapsing around them. This is the last thing Schuldig remembers.

Personality

Schuldig is a bastard. There's really no way of getting around it. He has a strong dislike of people, largely because of their tendency to invade his head(whether they're aware of it or not), and as such he has no compunctions about using them for his own entertainment in an attempt to get something back. For no other reason than because it amuses him, he will manipulate, torment, and ruin the lives of others using a combination of carefully worded truths and flat-out lies, and will happily ferret out a person's innermost secrets to use against them. He seems to take genuine satisfaction out of this pastime, but he's also oddly particular about who he chooses as his targets and when he strikes them; he has been known to leave some of his worst enemies entirely alone in favor of going after the daughter of his own boss, and to sit on information until the time is ripe for a revelation to do the maximum amount of damage. He can be quite persuasive, almost charming, to the point of getting people to take his word...even against their better judgment. The only people who seem to be (more or less) safe from Schuldig's cruel pastime are those who are useful to him - allies, usually - and whom it would be counterproductive of him to alienate.

When he's not amusing himself in this manner, Schuldig tends to be kind of lethargic; he remains a smirky bastard but seems rather bored with the world in general(and frequently lounges on things; Schu is a natural sprawler). This isn't to say he neglects important things - he's actually an excellent worker when in fact he's supposed to BE working - but even then he seems to be working more to amuse himself than because he's following anyone's directives. And anyone who's seen Schuldig at his manipulatively wicked best, toying with people's lives, is able to tell that's where he truly shines. It should be noted that Schuldig rarely actually follows orders as they are given to him, choosing to interpret them (or outright ignore them) in whatever way grants him the maximum amount of amusement; the only person he's the least bit inclined to follow orders from is Brad Crawford, whose pulling Schuldig out of - or preventing him ever getting into, thanks to his precognition - hot water numerous times over the years has earned him as much loyalty as Schuldig is capable of.

A lot of Schuldig's apparent laziness is due to the amount of energy the activity in his head requires, leaving not very much left over for his body's use. He all but requires frequent doses of sugar and caffeine to stay on top of the constant influx of thoughts into his head; the signs that Schuldig is running low on fuel are relatively obvious, as he loses the energy to move or even speak more than absolutely necessary, channeling his dwindling strength exclusively into his telepathy. Although Schuldig has never been left in such extremes long enough for the full extent of the consequences to become apparent, he personally believes that he would eventually become too weak to maintain the autonomy of his own thoughts and thus would irrevocably lose his mind.

Because it bears mentioning - Schuldig is a hedonist, which frequently translates into his being promiscuous in the pursuit of sex. Anyone attractive and whom he judges as not likely to want to stab him with the nearest sharp object (which is a fairly small pool of people, given his habits...) is a target. Men and women who don't appreciate his attentions and make it obvious will in fact receive MORE attention from him just because he finds it funny. He tends to prefer people his own age or older, however; anyone who is younger than him he generally views as a 'kid' and isn't interested by unless they drastically catch his attention in some way.

At Landel's

Schuldig's had a rather rough run at Landel's so far. He got dragged off for M-U experimentation on his second night, which ended in brain surgery - he came out of it surprisingly well but he has a creeping suspicion that he didn't escape completely unscathed, even if he can't quite tell what's wrong with him yet. He hasn't exactly made a lot of allies(although he's made more of them than expected), although he's made plenty of people extremely wary.

Among his current allies are Brad Crawford(recently returned from having vanished from the institute once before), Farfarello, Yohji Kudoh, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Artemis Fowl. These are people he likes and would actually go out of his way for. He has ambiguously friendly relationships with Badou, Gin, Reno, Wesker, and Grell, and an uneasy truce with Ken Hidaka. He's recently offered himself for hire as a telepath, in exchange for payment from other patients.

[Relationship Chart]

Dias Flac

callie_chan — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:27:42 CDT

'Real' Name: David Shaw
Room: M18, with Kakashi
Age: 25
Hair Color: Blue
Eye Color: Red
Height: 6'4"

Backstory

Dias grew up in a small rural village called Arlia on the underdeveloped world of Expel. He had an extremely happy childhood, even if his two closest companions were two girls eight years younger than him - his friend Rena and his own little sister, Cecille. (He had a guy friend his own age, Alen, but didn't see much of him as Alen lived in a neighboring town and only visited Arlia occasionally.) He was a peaceful, artistic child and the responsible big brother to both of of his 'little sisters', making them crowns of flowers and giving them piggyback rides and generally living a life so quiet and happy (and slightly gay) that he sees it now as being little more than a dream.

The little village of Arlia was bordered on the south by the Shingo Forest, a similarly quiet and beautiful place to the village. So it was all the more unexpected when tragedy struck one day, not long after Dias' seventeenth birthday, while Dias and his family were in the forest - a group of bandits attacked without warning. They struck down his father and mother while they pleaded for their children's lives, then stabbed Dias in the gut. He could only watch, while he lay bleeding, as they slaughtered Cecille, actually beheading her and then stabbing her again and again before finally leaving Dias lying amongst the bloody corpses of what had been his family.

Dias was discovered by the village inhabitants before he could bleed to death and returned to the village, where his other 'little sister', Rena, healed him with her mysterious curative powers. But Dias was crazed with grief and survivor's guilt, and that very night tried to kill himself anyway with his father's (blunted, as it had never been used) sword; fortunately the village elders found him, again, before he could bleed out, but this time he refused to hear of Rena's healing him - he didn't ever want her to know what he'd tried to do. So the slashes on his arms were stitched up by normal means, and within a few days he'd left the village. He blamed himself for the tragedy, convinced that if he had been stronger he could have protected his family from the bandits, and so he set out into the world beyond his secluded village to become strong enough to track down the bandits who had slaughtered his family and destroy them himself.

His first year was exceedingly hard - he had been a remarkably sheltered and gentle youth, after all - but his grim determination refused to allow him to fail or die before he could carry out his vengeance. He began doing mercenary work, fighting with his father's old sword (hardly fit for chopping wood) until he could afford the best weapon he could find, the Crimson Diablos. He didn't hold onto his father's sword out of any illusion of sentimental value - he wanted nothing more to do with sentiment, with any emotion whatsoever if he could help it. He shunned almost all contact beyond the most trivial during the years he wandered, only venturing into towns for supplies and to find work for his new mercenary lifestyle.

Within two years, he tracked down the bandits that had slain his family and ripped through them like a tornado. However, without any reason to give up his new lifestyle - he knew full well he could never bring himself to return to Arlia - Dias simply continued as he had been, determined to continue growing stronger. To say that he achieved his goal of growing powerful would be an understatement, as Dias became one of the most accomplished mercenaries on the entire planet of Expel and something of a legend among swordsmen as a master of the craft.

At twenty-five, just after being hired to rescue a group of kidnapped children from a bunch of bandits in a town called Mars, Dias found himself - rather to his surprise - reunited with his childhood friend Rena, who intended with her companions (one of which, Celine, a native of Mars, had a personal interest in the matter) to get rid of the same bandits. After an argument between Rena and one of her new friends, Claude, over Dias(during which Dias observed, with some wry amusement, that Claude was jealous of him), Rena split up with them to help Dias rescue the children, while Claude and Celine wound up taking on the bandit leader. After this brief interlude, Dias parted ways with Rena again - after all the blood he'd spilled, he somehow didn't feel as though he deserved to be around the innocent girl.

However, fate refused to give up that easily, and once again Dias encountered Rena and her growing group of friends in a city called Lacour, where the Lacour Tournament of Arms was being held - a tournament in which both Dias and Claude would compete. Rena once again came to Dias' aid, helping him recover the sword that had been made for him to use in the tournament after a group of thugs stole it - a weapon which Dias used to soundly defeat Claude as his final opponent in the tournament, an occurrence that Rena had mixed feelings about. Dias offered Claude one of his rare compliments before leaving, which didn't do much to assuage the other man's feelings of inadequacy.

Their final encounter was brought on by a much more serious occurrence - monsters, driven mad by the Sorcery Globe(the name Expellians had given to a sort of meteor that had fallen from the sky that was causing monster unrest and natural disasters all through the planet), attacking the Lacour continent en masse. The creatures were advancing towards Lacour in a massive wave, and Dias, Rena, and her companions met up for the final time at the front lines. There, much to Dias' displeasure, he walked in on Rena telling Claude about his tragic past. Later on, he encountered Claude alone and offered yet another of his rare compliments - Claude was protecting Rena, something Dias couldn't help but admire(despite his annoyance over his past being pried into), and he asked Claude to continue to do so as Dias didn't consider himself fit for the task of protecting anyone. That was really all there was time for, however; the wave of monsters approached, and the fight commenced.

Rena and her friends continued on (after the monsters had seemingly been repelled by the last-minute arrival of a super weapon from the capital) to Eluria, the place where the Sorcery Globe had landed, determined to investigate it once and for all. Dias once again declined to accompany them, staying behind at the front lines to rest up after their battles and to continue to bolster Lacour's defense. They'd only been gone twelve hours or so, however, before something inexplicable happened - another planet suddenly appeared in Expel's sky, accelerating towards their world at alarming speed. Considering that Expellians hadn't even been aware there WERE other worlds, this was something of a shock in itself - but nothing like the shock when the planets collided.

Dias' last memory of his homeworld is of standing on top of the wall of the Lacour front line, looking up into the face of another world that blotted out the sky...

Personality

Thanks to the brutal massacre of his family before his very eyes that he was helpless to prevent, Dias' personality is almost entirely cold and distant. He's neither evil nor cruel - he will help others if he sees they need assistance, and while he will accept monetary expressions of gratitude he won't demand any except by prearrangement - but he isn't interested in most people and prefers for the most part to be left alone to do his own thing. (Actually, he doesn't really trust himself to get close to anyone, as the thought of something horrible happening to anyone else he cares about is one that plagues him constantly. As such, it's easier for him to form bonds with those he views as being able to take care of themselves, when he does at all.) He's also quite blunt and critical to others, not mincing words if he views someone as being weak or foolish - two sins he has no patience for at all - and is actually somewhat arrogant, his self-taught skills having advanced to the point where he's very confident in his own abilities...not that this is entirely unjustified on his part. He has no ambitions except to become as strong a fighter as possible, seeking out strong opponents wherever he can find them, and he admires those who are able to protect the things they love. He will unhesitatingly step forward to protect those who cannot protect themselves, although he thinks people ought to learn how to protect themselves and will often tell them so...

He almost never smiles.

The only person he truly cared for from his homeworld, and who could still make him smile on a regular basis, was his childhood friend Rena, whom he views almost as a little sister and would defend with his life - but as far as he knows, she's still on Expel somewhere, assuming Expel still exists.

At Landel's

Dias is probably far less upset to be at Landel's than many of the other patients; he certainly doesn't like the place, but he privately suspects that if Landel's hadn't dragged him away from Expel when it did that he would have been wiped out along with his planet - that, and he didn't have anything in particular on Expel that he's desperately anxious to go back to. His efforts at escape are made more because he wants to get those he cares for out of Landel's than because he's really invested in getting out himself.

On the subject of those he cares for, he's actually made several allies in Landel's. He briefly formed a sort of pseudo-family with Scar(FMA), River Tam, and Lust, but both River and Scar have vanished since then. He briefly met up with Ashton, a fellow Expellian, and actually developed a semi-romantic relationship with him before Ashton disappeared, too. There are still two other people he knows from Expel - Leon and Claude. He's been working closely with Claude and his friend Guy in exploring the institute's basement. He's also become friendly with Celes, Miles Edgeworth, and his new roommate Kakashi.

[Relationship Chart]

Celes Chere

Rinibean — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:14:17 CDT

Real Name: Nancy Kensington
Room: F12
Age: 18
Hair Color: Blonde
Eye Color: Blue
Height: 5'9"

Backstory
Celes was a baby infused with magicite and is the only other known caster of natural magic (the first being Terra Branford). She is likely an orphan, and was taken in by Doctor Cid and raised like his granddaughter after the experimentation was completed. While one can say her childhood was idyllic - caring for Cid's roses and reading old picture books - it was not normal. She was trained to be a soldier, an achievement of Emperor Gestahl's hunger for returning magic to the world. Her adolescence culminated in many promotions from private to General, a title she took at the tender age of 18, after a previous General died.

Soon after, the Emperor began his assult of Narshe, Doma, and Maranda - intent up collecting more and more espers, and on squashing the rebellion group that went by the name of "The Returners." Celes and the other generals were charged to find those that supported the rebellion and take them into custody. It wasn't long after this that Celes was ordered to set fire to Maranda. That was the moment she began questioning orders.

Branded a traitor by her Emperor, Celes was arrested in South Figaro, and beaten and tortured. She was sentenced to death, and took the news with a stoic calm. Though prepared for death, Celes was inexplicably saved by one of the Returners, Locke Cole. He took her from South Figaro to meet the other Returners (including the half-Esper Terra Branford). The Empire discovered the hide-out and attacked, forcing them to flee from Figaro Cave to Narshe, where the Emperor was preparing to extract the Esper forcibly from the caves there.

It was there that they defeated Kefka, and the Empire retreated from Narshe. For the moment.

The rebels went to see just what they were protecting from the Emperor's grasp when something strange happened. Terra transformed into a pink-purple Esper, going ballistic and flying off, as the ground around the others cracked and shook. After her sudden departure, the Returners decided to go searching for her.

From Narshe, they traveled south to Figaro, and then to Kohlingen. Kohlingen was originally the home of Locke, and his girlfriend Rachel. Celes felt sympathy for him, as Rachel's family blamed him for her 'death' (in reality, she was in a coma), and Locke took it. They left Kohlingen and traveled to Jidoor. After Jidoor, they followed a rumor that said a strange pink streak had gone over to Zozo, a known home of murders and thieves. There they found the transformed Terra, still dazed from her transformation, and met Ramuth. He revealed he was an esper as well, and gave them the first of their magicite - rescued from an Imperial laboratory before turning into a piece of magicite himself. Magicite is the final, death-form of an esper, and transfers magic to its user far more quickly than the infusion method used on Celes.

From Zozo they went back to Jidoor, in need of a certain mode of transportation to continue on to Vector -- they found it in the form of one Setzer Gabianni, a known gambler and the owner of the world's only airship. Apparently, Setzer had proclaimed the opera singer Maria was to become his wife, and she had vanished. When the party made it to the Opera house, the owner took Celes for the role of Maria.

The opera was wrecked, however, by Ultros, a talking, giant octopus they'd met on the way to Narshe after they had escaped the Returners' cave. He had intent to drop a 4-ton weight on Celes, and was thwarted by the rest of the party --- who landed on the stage with him after the battle on the rafters. The battle continued on the stage, and finally Celes was kidnapped by Setzer and taken to his airship.

Personality

Celes is a bit of a double image. One part of her is well trained, devoted, good-hearted, kind and thoughtful to those she has special ties to (like Cid and later Locke). But to those she doesn't know or has no ties to, Celes is perceived as an aloof and austere woman. In the beginning of the game she was downright sarcastic, and a bit self-pitying, having lost her post as General. She's very proud and doesn't bend before those she perceives as lesser beings (the first person she honestly speaks to is Terra, with the line "Isn't magic wonderful?").

Her softer side likes to do girly things, like taking care of roses. There is a certain amount of well bred lady to her personality, quite possibly thanks to her raising by Cid and within the court of Vector. Because of certain canon-cues, her color is percieved as one that is generally of a noble family, much like the ruling family of Figaro.

Sexually, Celes is a bit cold and virginal, but has a certain tilt towards men that are a little dangerous, and usually older.

At Landel's
Relationship Chart

Yakushiji Tenzen

Gemelli — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:07:09 CDT

Name: Yakushiji Tenzen (last name, first name)
Series: Basilisk / Basilisk: Kouga Ninpou Chou. Anime!verse.
"Real" Name: Hayami Sho
Age: 214 years old, but looks no older than 30.
Main language: Japanese
Second Language(s): N/A
Timeline: Anime-verse, half-way episode 17. After getting killed by Hyoma, and left somewhere in the field by Saemon after impersonating him, but before he revives and heads for the inn where the remaining Iga are staying.

Roomnumber: M98
Roommate: Alfred Pennyworth

Physical description

Tenzen’s well-built and in shape, considering he’s a ninja. He’s tall and muscled. His hair is black and reaches somewhere on his back, though two strands on each side stand out a little more than the rest. His eyebrows stand out, considering they grow a little upwards at the middle of his face. Finally, he has a growth on each ear. That’s basically his parasitic symbiote when it isn’t active. They are actually two eyes, but they are closed, which makes them appear as growths.

History

During the late 1500s the two rivalling ninja clans - Tsubagakure of Iga and Manjadani of Kouga - are engaged in a blood feud that spans 400 years. The fighting finally ends when the 1st Hattori Hanzo enforced a peace treaty. Regardless, both clans remained hostile to one another.

Fast forward to 1614; the start of Basilisk. High Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu has retired from power and in order to determine which of his grandsons will be the next Shogun, 10 elite ninja of each clan must fight to the death. Each clan will represent one of the two factions representing Ieyasu’s grandsons. The clan that slays the ten of the other clan will be given favour for thousand years while the grandson they represent will be the heir. Ten ninja’s from each clan are chosen to fight one another. Their names are listed upon two identical scrolls, and their names should be marked out in blood.

Tenzen is one of the ten representing the Iga. He was born about 200 years before the start of the story. His mother was an Iga woman while his father was of the Kouga. However, his father had turned on and murdered his pregnant mother and carved the baby – Tenzen – from her womb. Tenzen was to be raised as a Kouga ninja, but later switched to the Iga in order to take revenge for his mother’s murder. He is born with a parasite living in his body, which is in fact the ghost of his mother and is responsible for his regenerative power. In any case, for the sake of revenge he has played and manipulated both clans against one another in order to get his revenge. Before the start of the story, at the end of the Tensho era, the Iga had been attacked by the Kouga working together with another party called Oda. If this hadn’t happened, Ogen and Danjou’s love would have been accepted. By doing this, the hatred between both clans remained, which was exactly Tenzen’s goal. He was responsible for this to happen.

At some point later on ninja Chikuma Koshirou was made his apprentice. Also, chief of the Iga – Ogen – had considered to engage her granddaughter Oboro to Tenzen, but in the end decided against it because Tenzen had grown so arrogant thanks to his ability. Ogen even went as far to warn Oboro for Tenzen.

When Tenzen is made aware of the peace treaty being finally broken and Ogen of Iga already dead, he leaps at the chance of eliminating the Kouga. Even without the consent of Oboro, their new chief. He even decides not to inform her of the situation right away, simply because Oboro’s pacifism and the fact she’s betrothed to Gennosuke; a Kouga ninja and grandson of Danjou, thus making him the new heir of Kouga after his death.

Basically, Oboro and Gennosuke are completely unaware what has occurred. The Iga make use of this and invite Gennosuke over at the Iga village to stay. Two ninja stay with their ‘hostages’ and Oboro, while the others head off to kill some Kouga.

They start with Kazamachi Shougen, considering he should have the identical scroll given to the Kouga thanks to being present at the demonstration in Sunpu. Along the way the group runs into Jimushi Jubei. Tenzen underestimates this particular ninja simply because he has no limbs, and tells the others to find Shougen, claiming that he himself alone would be enough to kill Jubei. However, as the others have left Jubei stabs Tenzen with a dagger hidden in his throat, claiming that if enemies knew this move he would be a dead man. Tenzen seems clearly dead and certainly wouldn’t be able to tell anyone about it.

However, it’d be pretty anti-climax if it was left at this. Thanks to his ability Tenzen revives and he kills Jubei, saying the same trick won’t work on him twice. With both him and Shougen disposed of, the Iga acquire the identical scroll which Tenzen decides to burn. After all; what’s the use of two identical scrolls? This also grants them a tactical advantage, simply because the Kouga are not yet aware of the peace treaty being broken.

Tenzen decides to use this advantage to attack the Kouga village and kill the remaining ones on the scroll (sans the ones staying at the Iga village, of course). They fully intend a surprise attack, but thanks to Kouga ninja Kyouma’s good hearing they are noticed before even arriving. After realizing the surprise attack fails, Tenzen attempts to claim they are messengers of Gennosuke and that their slaughtering of a couple of random Kouga ninja’s was mere self defence. The Kouga don’t fall for it, so they return home. But not before running into Kouga ninja Okoi (younger sister of ninja Kisaragi Saemon) and taking her hostage.

After all that they finally decide it might be a good idea to tell Oboro. As a second-in-command, Tenzen ends up the one telling her. Of course, Oboro doesn’t really agree and as soon as she hears that a Kouga woman (Okoi) has been taken hostage, she storms off to the shack in which the other ninja is kept. However, in the shack it hasn’t exactly been peaceful either; Kisaragi Saemon – impersonating the Iga ninja Yashamaru – has just found his younger sister dead, but had managed to acquire the scroll. However, as soon as Oboro enters the shack his cover is blown, simply because Oboro’s only ability is ‘Mystic Eyes’ which neutralizes any ninja technique. The whole situation escalates, which eventually results in Gennosuke getting the scroll and thus he is finally aware of the peace treaty being broken. He decides to head back to the Kouga village. Both Oboro and Tenzen attempt to stop him (both for different reasons), which results in the Iga ninja Koushiro getting blinded and the Kouga getting away.

Tenzen wasn’t amused and scolds Oboro for her almost traitorous behaviour. She’s obviously hesitant to fight the Kouga and her lover, so Tenzen tries to force her to make a choice. Instead, she seals her Mystic Eyes with a potion called the Seven Days of Darkness. If that wasn’t enough, Gennosuke also sends them their scroll back, explaining that he’ll visit Sunpu with the remaining ones listed upon to scroll. He wishes to ask why they are supposed to kill one another. Note that all this murdering had been done without anyone knowing why. Anyway, Gennosuke invites the Iga to follow him, though Tenzen takes this as an insult. Of course, ‘following’ is exactly what they end up doing.

On the way, Tenzen sends Hotarubi and Nenki to spy on the Kouga. However, instead of lying low like they were ordered they attack the rivalling ninja, and the both of them end up death. Their death wasn’t a lost cause though; they have managed to use the same potion on Gennosuke as Oboro had used to seal her eyes with, resulting in Gennosuke unable to use his ability; by some sort of hypnosis they end up killing themselves instead of their enemy. This ability required his eyes.

In order to catch up with the Kouga, Tenzen decides to travel by boat as opposed to the Kouga travelling by land. While they are on water, Tenzen decides to confront Oboro about her feelings for Gennosuke. He wants her to not only place her feelings aside, but also to kill Gennosuke. Tenzen even attempts to rape her, though he wasn’t able to get very far thanks to Gyobu’s interference. For the record; Gyobu is a Kouga ninja that can melt with any surface, which easily allowed him to sneak on board. The Kouga ninja strangles Tenzen to death, but before Gyobu can even get to Oboro a fight insues with the remaining Iga ninja. After a small while Tenzen is simply back to his feat, and with Akeginu’s help, eventually kills the Kouga ninja while being stuck in a wall. Not without dragging a few innocent bystanders in and trying to make Gyobu feel guilty about it. After they reach land, he puts his corpse – or rather, the wall he was stuck in, which just shows a bloody shape of a human - out on display. This display manages to lure the Kouga out, which makes it easy for the Iga to follow them.

At this point, only four ninja remain on each side; Oboro, Tenzen, Akeginu and Koshirou of the Iga and Gennosuke, Kagerou, Saemon and Hyoma of the Kouga. Tenzen plots to kill Hyoma during the night, simply because Hyoma’s blind even though he doesn’t know of the man’s skills, while not informing Oboro of his plans. Akeginu is to stay behind while the still-blind Koshirou is to come along for the ride. Due to Akeginu’s reaction, he easily notices her love for Koshirou and promises a wedding ceremony. He’s certainly not referring to just them, however. Tenzen is confident Oboro will be his sooner or later.

East of Chriyuu, near Komaba on a very grassy looking area, Tenzen decides to strike. He uses Ogen’s bird (controlled by Koshirou) to lure Kagerou and “Gennosuke” (which is really Saemon impersonating Gennosuke in order to hide his blindness) away, leaving just two ninja’s. Tenzen first thinks these two are Hyoma and Seamon, but the latter is of course Gennosuke. Blinded, as Tenzen soon discovers. Faced with two blind men, he once again underestimates his enemies and wishes to kill them both. He says he had wanted to save Gennosuke for last, just so he could see the Kouga fall and Tenzen getting married to Oboro. But now that there’s an opportunity to kill him, he decides to do so.

Little did Tenzen know that Hyoma has the exact same ability as Gennosuke does, so Tenzen ends up killing himself instead. Saemon decides to use his ability to impersonate Tenzen to infiltrate the Iga. Meanwhile, Koshirou and Hyoma had been killed and the remaining two Iga had formed a temporary alliance with a noble woman named Ofuku – Grandson Takechiyo’s nursing mother (read: a very biased person). They allowed them to stay at an inn along the way, which Saemon approaches and lures Akeginu in a trap involving Kagerou. Eventually, Akeginu dies. Saemon and Kagerou plot to deceive Ofuku’s men by saying “Tenzen” had taken Kagerou captive and by having sex with her, has switched sides. This would, in theory, allow Kagerou entrance to the inn. Killing Oboro would be an easy task from there. ¬

Of course, Saemon had been unaware of Tenzen’s ability. Not long after Saemon has approached the inn and lured Akeginu in a trap, the real Tenzen also shows up at the inn. Of course, this doesn’t escape the notice of Ofuku’s men. Tenzen disguises himself as one of them and arrives just in time to see Akeginu die. Approaching Saemon, he begins a conversation. During this conversation, the disguised Tenzen manages to make Saemon tell his lie. After this, Tenzen begins to talk of his very own ability, allowing Saemon to realize that the real Tenzen isn’t dead. Along with that, the disguised Tenzen claims he wishes to see that ability. Ofuku’s men proceed to injure Saemon. Unfortunately, Saemon can only impersonate one’s appearances and not one’s techniques, which results in the ninja’s death. But not before Tenzen reveals himself to be perfectly alive and well.

Fully aware now of Kagerou’s lie, being the pervert that he is he decides to make this lie a reality. Ironically enough, he impersonates Saemon impersonating him and tries to have some fun with Kagerou. Unfortunately, whenever Kagerou’s sexually aroused her breath becomes poison. Most Kouga should know this, which makes Kagerou realize this isn’t Saemon. Instead of struggling, she decides to play along which results in Tenzen getting poisoned by her breath. He dies. Again.

But not for long. He interrupts Kagerou’s attempt to kill Oboro. Considering it had already been decided that Kagerou would be used to bait Gennosuke, he does just that. But he takes it a little further; he tortures her by shooting poisoned needles in her abdomen in the shape of the kanji of Iga. Her screams were meant to lure Gennosuke out, though I’d be lying if I’d say Tenzen didn’t have any fun with it. He even tells her he’d rape her if it weren’t for Oboro, and he admits he doesn’t share her ideas. At some point Oboro can’t really stand Kagerou’s screaming anymore and pleas for him to have mercy and to stop. Tenzen answers that words such as ‘mercy’ aren’t words he knows the meaning of, and compliments her for using Kagerou as bait. He gets a twisted idea; he wants to use Oboro’s eyes to stop Kagerou’s poison breath so that he can have her. When Oboro refuses, he ends up trying to rape her again. But this time, Gennosuke is the one who interrupts them.

The two fight one another, and Gennosuke manages to fight him fairly well even though he’s still blind. In the end, after Tenzen has revealed he had manipulated both clans into hating one another, Gennosuke manages to cut off Tenzen’s head, which results in the Iga ninja dying yet again (not without managing to catch his own head. (Minor detail.) Oboro and Gennosuke are to fight one another, but neither of them can kill each other. Kagerou – pissed – tries to take Gennosuke down with her, but thanks to Oboro’s eyes going back open just that moment, fails and dies from her early poisoning.

Ofuku’s men arrive soon after and attempt to place Tenzen’s head back. But while he heals, he has eye contact with none other than Oboro. Her mystic eyes don’t just cause the healing to fail, they also end up mutilating him and killing the creature within. Tenzen dies yet again, but this time permanently.

Personality

At first glance, Tenzen seems a pragmatic warrior who’s concerned with the honor and future of his clan. Unlike the hesitant Oboro, he is the one leading the attacks directed to the Kouga Clan and thus leading the Iga to victory. He seems to have the authority that Oboro is obviously lacking. Except things are rarely as they seem, and Tenzen is unfortunately no exception.

He’s quite arrogant and conceited. I suppose this partly comes with his ability to regenerate. He went ahead and considered himself the future lord of the Iga clan, for example. He tends to underestimate his enemies as well. I suppose this is only natural given his ability.

He’ll do anything necessary to accomplish his goals. Ambition and determination isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but in Tenzen’s case…this along with his other personality traits make for a rather dangerous combination. For the people around him, including enemies, innocent bystanders and even allies. Mercy isn’t a word appearing in his vocabulary. Neither is compassion. Or honor. He’s egoistical and hardly takes anyone else’s feelings in consideration. He’s also manipulative and opportunistic. He had no qualms about fighting Gennosuke when the Kouga ninja had been blinded. Tenzen will gladly take advantage of any the situation, or even shift it in his favour when needed. He considers the fellow Iga as his chess pieces.

He lusts after power. During Ogen’s reign, it’s implied Tenzen had attempted to usurp her authority even though he’s already second in-command. He wasn’t even half as successful as he later was with Oboro. Using her hesitance to fight, he completely takes the leadership of the Iga clan and attacks the Kouga without her consent. He also desires to take Oboro as his wife in order to become the true lord of Tsubakagure, obviously lusting after her, and even going as far as attempting to rape her. Twice. Though he wouldn’t mind acting on his lust when it comes to other women, either.

Obviously, Gennosuke is an obstacle in more sense than just being a very strong opponent. He and Oboro are lovers, and that love pisses Tenzen off because it prevents the Iga and Kouga of properly hating one another. And it also prevents Oboro from becoming his wife. He doesn’t seem able to make up his mind whether to make Oboro kill Gennosuke or do the job himself, since in the anime he mentions both. In the end, he decides to do it himself. However, he’s not the one to slaughter Gennosuke without thinking; even he hesitated to face Gennosuke directly. Even despite his ability, Tenzen isn’t reckless.

Tenzen’s quite sadistic, and I have several scenes to proof it. The prime example is near the end of the series; where the Kouga ninja Kagerou is held as an hostage; he tied her up and shot poisoned needles in her abdomen in such a shape that her blood read ‘Iga’. He figured her screams would lure his prey - Gennosuke Kouga – to the right location soon enough, though I’d be lying if I’d say he didn’t enjoy torturing his enemy. Speaking of Kagerou; he didn’t quite pass up the opportunity to have some fun with Kagerou either. This and the two rape attempts make him a horny bastard, not really caring for the wishes of the female he’s taking advantage of.

In short, he revels in conflict and chaos and certainly doesn’t mind using it to further his own goals. He leaped at the chance of fighting the Kouga without Oboro’s consent, even though he knew this issue might come back to haunt him. Ogen even states that Tenzen can’t control himself, and someone else can’t really do it either. But, Ogen hadn’t allowed him to completely usurp her authority. Other than that; because of the peace treaty Tenzen hadn’t been able to do much either, even though he had probably wanted it.

All this was in the name of getting revenge. His hatred for the Kouga runs deep, it became an obsession. But he had waited for so long to get what he wanted, endlessly experiencing the cycle of death and rebirth which as he says caused him to suffer. At some point he “stopped feeling pain” and had began to lose himself. As I’ve said, it greatly contributed to who he is now.

The chaos he revels in also runs through his way of battle. He fights brutally and ruthlessly, not caring what he has to do in order to guarantee his own victory. He shows no mercy and no compassion, as he claims he doesn’t know the meaning of those words.

Powers and abilities

Tenzen is a ninja, and, to put it lightly, he knows quite well how to handle a sword. I think it’s safe to assume he knows how to throw kunai, being stealthy and all that stuff that comes with being a ninja even if we canonly don’t really see him doing too much of that (aside from throwing a single kunai). Considering he’s alive for such a long time, he has martial and tactical abilities that surpass any of his fellow clansmen. Simply because he has more experience. And he can shoot needles by putting them between his lips and ‘spitting’ them out. Kagerou’s screams confirm that it’s a painful experience.

Most ninja have an ability or technique (usually) unique to them, and Tenzen is no exception (even if it doesn’t technically fall under a ninjutsu technique as Ogen says, despite the fact that Oboro had managed to neutralize it). His power is that or regeneration and immortality. This is all because he was born sharing his body with a demonic/parasitic symbiote that usually conceals itself as two growths/warts on each of Tenzen’s ears. The creature reveals itself when Tenzen gets wounded or killed and moves through his body to regenerate him by ‘eating’ the inflicted wounds and then reactivates his heart. But for Tenzen, reviving from death is an even more painful experience than dying itself.

Because of the symbiote, Tenzen can recover from almost every injury. Neither will he age. However, this does not render him completely invincible; he can be killed in a select few ways. One is cutting off his head and making sure it won’t be placed back (if it is placed back, he’ll heal anyway), the other is getting his body burned. The third way is - how Ogen has so nicely put it; “in order to kill Tenzen, you must also kill the creature within him”. Ironically, Oboro’s eyes can prevent Tenzen from healing and even destroy the symbiote. The canon never included any information on other ways to kill it, aside from the aforementioned ‘burning Tenzen’s body’.

Along with that he has quite the experience in both ninja skills as in the tactical sense thanks to being so old.

@ Landels:
First of all, I’ll have his ninja strength and agility toned down a bit; he’ll be only a little stronger/faster/whatever than an average human. As for the regenerative abilities, I still wish to have some of it in tact.

I’m thinking to still make him able to come back from the dead, but there will be a catch. After receiving some sort of lethal blow, he’ll only be able to heal just enough for him to move around. This will still leave him injured. For example, he breaks his rib and the rib stabs through his heart which would result in death. The pierced heart will heal and he’ll come back to life, but the rib will simply remain broken and possible blood loss would only be replenished to the minimum need (which means he’ll be dizzy/weak for a while). The experience will also be much more painful for him than it already was, and the regenerating will take much longer. In canon he’s able to do so fairly quickly, but in Landels it will take him a massive chunk of the night for him to start regenerating. The regenerating itself would take much longer than what he’s used to. Non-lethal wounds (cuts, gashes…) would not heal any faster than any normal person. Basically, the symbiote would only be active whenever he dies.

I don’t plan to make him die every night, but there could be future situation where he’ll, say, have breakfast with the one who killed him the other night. Of course, I won’t have him die for the kicks and giggles. Only when it’s appropriate or has a purpose or whatever.

@ Landels:

TBA

Nakajima Youko

lohengrin — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:46:43 CDT

"Real" Name: Yuuki Miaka
Room: F11 (roommate: Arisugawa Juri)
Age: 17
Hair Color: Red
Eye Color: Green
Height: 5"8"
Main Language: Japanese/ALL (universal translation ability)
Second Language(s): n/a

History
The first 16 years of Nakajima Youko's life were very much mundane and "normal." She had very strict and traditional parents, to the point that her father would not allow her to wear pants instead of skirts, but aside from that there was nothing out of the ordinary about her day-to-day existence. What did stand out, despite Youko's intense efforts to fit in and please everyone, was her hair--naturally red, despite her having two perfectly normal dark-haired Japanese parents, Youko's hair resulted in a lot of suspicion and rumours surrounding her. Youko tried to make up for this by being a "good girl" in every way possible--she never spoke up for herself or anyone else, and did everything asked of her by teachers, classmates or her parents, whether she really wanted to or not.

Everything changed for Youko during the second semester of her first year in high school; after many nights of nightmares about monsters, fighting, and a strange monkey-like man taunting her, Youko's peaceful existence was interrupted by the sudden appearance of a bizarre white-haired man in the middle of her classroom. He called her his master and bowed to her, insisting that she accept his protection--which she did, reluctantly and without understanding what it meant. All the windows in the classroom shattered moments later, badly injuring everyone in the room--except for Youko and the stranger. Terrified and confused, Youko fled with the man in hot pursuit.

They ended up on the roof of the school, where Youko and two of her classmates--her childhood friend and crush, Asano, and class outcast Sugimoto--finally got a sight of what was causing the windows to shatter: a massive bird, called by the strange man a "Kochou," was attacking the building, wanting to get to Youko. After throwing away the sword that the strange man--now introduced as Keiki--handed her and told her to use to kill the monster, Youko found herself picked up and carried off by one of Keiki's monstrous (and flying) servants. Not wanting to leave Asano and Sugimoto in danger, Youko insisted they be carried to safety as well and the group made their way to the docks.

The Kochou followed them even there, however, and this time it had to be defeated. Keikei had a "hinman," a strange misty being, possess Youko and once again handed her the sword--this time the hinman took over her body and she was able to kill the Kochou with a single sword stroke. Before more enemies could arrive, Keiki summoned a strange storm--called a Shoku--and the entire group (Sugimoto having steamrolled Youko into taking her and Asano with her) fled into the heart of the Shoku. On the other side was an entirely new world.

Further attacks by youkai on the other side resulted in Youko falling from the back of her flying mount and landing in the forest alone. After waking up and exploring a little, Youko settled in to wait for Keiki to find her, but he never did. In the morning she decided he wasn't coming and set out to find some help on her own.

The reception Youko got in the first village she came to, however, was not at all what she'd been hoping for--she was attacked and knocked unconscious. Bound and taken to the nearby town, Youko was thrown into a cell. There she discovered that Sugimoto had also been captured, and learned that her own appearance had somehow drastically changed--her hair had become even redder, her eyes greener, and her skin had changed to an exotic golden colour.

The town elder explained a few things to Youko and Sugimoto--though strangely, only Youko could understand the language being spoken in this place--starting with the fact that they were not in Japan, China, or anywhere else they knew. They were in the kingdom of Kou and they were what were known as "kaikyaku"--people who washed up on the shore from the other world. No way of returning to the other world had ever been found and the kingdom of Kou considered kaikyaku to be bad omens, so Youko and Sugimoto were sent on to the prefectural office to be sentenced and probably either imprisoned or killed.

Along the way they were reunited with Asano, and then the wagon transporting them was attacked by more youkai. One of the guards freed the three teenagers from their bonds before running off, leaving them behind as bait. Desperate to escape, Sugimoto tried to draw Youko's sword but found herself unable to free it from the sheath. Youko pulled it out easily, but the sheath itself was stuck under a wagon and could not be retrieved so she cut off the magic jewel attached to it and left the sheath behind.

Hungry and scared, Sugimoto and Asano decided to try to steal food and clothes from a lonely farmhouse, against Youko's protests. The owner came home in the middle of the attempted robbery, and despite Sugimoto grabbing her around the neck she spoke kindly to Youko and offered to provide them food and clothes willingly. The woman, Takki, even offered to help them get jobs in a large town where no one would notice them, and despite Sugimoto's suspicion and reluctance the three joined Takki on the journey to town.

Sugimoto's suspicions turned out to be correct, unfortunately, as Takki attempted to sell her and Youko to a brothel when they finally arrived in town. They escaped with the help of Asano and a friendly kaikyaku, but even the other kaikyaku turned on them when he discovered that Youko could somehow understand and speak the local language--in his jealousy and anger, he tried to turn them over to the authorities for a reward.

On the run again, the group continued to bicker and disagree over what they should do, until Sugimoto ultimately left Youko and Asano to go her own way.

Youko's state of mind was continuing to degrade all the while, as the strange monkey-like man she'd seen in dreams back home was now appearing to her in waking visions, taunting her. The monkey-man--named in the credits as Aozaru--told Youko constantly that she had no home to return to, that she could trust no one, that she was a fake who only acted like a good girl because it was easier that way, and on and on, until Youko began to develop a deep paranoia.

Asano later counseled they try to mug a family for food, but once again Youko found she couldn't raise her sword against people, though she couldn't trust their offer of food, either. Things continued like this until a rainy night attack by youkai sent Asano tumbling off a cliff into a fast-running river. Youko was then confronted by a sword-wielding Sugimoto, who had been gulled by the King of Kou into believing that she was a hero who was destined to save the world from the evil kaikyaku--meaning Youko.

Youko lost the fight, unwilling to hurt her friend, but the strange golden-haired woman known as Kourin, who served Kou-Ou and accompanied Sugimoto, stopped Sugimoto from killing Youko. Sugimoto instead left Youko with a grievous wound to her right hand, so that she would not be able to use a sword anymore (though Youko in fact healed from this wound like she did from her fall from the sky when she arrived in Kou).

Alone and wounded, Youko fell unconscious. She woke some days later in the home of a strange anthropomorphic rat named Rakushun, who managed to gain some small measure of Youko's trust by pointing out that he could have turned her over to the authorities easily while she was out cold, but he didn't.

When Rakushun's completly human mother returned, Youko learned that in this world children grew in large fruits known as "ranka," on trees known as "riboku," and that would-be parents prayed to the god Tentei for children. So Rakushun's mother had ended up picking a "hanjyuu" (half-beast) ranka, and that was that.

Rakushun explained more about the world to Youko, including the existence of the twelve kingdoms and their names, and told her that in the nearby kingdom of En both kaikyaku and hanjyuu were more accepted. Accepting Rakushun's own desire to go to En, since she couldn't believe that he just wanted to help her, Youko accompanied Rakushun on the long journey towards the port town where they could catch a boat to En.

Before they could make it to the port city another attack by youkai separated Youko and Rakushun. This was a major turning point for Youko--she rejected Aozaru's taunts for the first time and delcared that she would choose to trust people because wanted to, and if they betrayed that trust it was on their souls, not hers. She "killed" the vision of Aozaru, and the sheath for her sword suddenly reappeared--the visions had been from the sword, Suiguu, which reflected its owner's mind and desires as well as their fears.

Meeting up with a troup of Shusei--travelling performers belonging to no kingdom--that she had briefly encountered before, Youko made her way to the port town. She became friends with the troupe but chose to leave them in the port so that they wouldn't be dragged into her problems. It turned out to be the right choice, because the ship to En was attacked by youkai as well.

Once in En Youko was reunited with Rakushun, who had been looking for her in the port every day. He took her to the office where kaikyaku could get a government pass and money to live for a short while until they found work, then took her to meet a learned kaikyaku in a nearby rike--an orphanage and town gathering place of sorts. The kaikyaku there--named Heki-Rakujin--told Youko that only immortals and youkai had no language barrier in this world, and also that there were people known as "taika" whose ranka were caught in shoku and ended up in the other world, but who actually belonged in this one.

Youkai once again attacked Youko when she returned to town, but this time she was saved by a strange man who turned out to be En-Ou. He took her to safety and explained that she was, in fact, the new Queen of Kei--that Keiki was the kirin of Kei and could only bow to the rightful ruler. His own kirin, Enki, confirmed this and the two explained the consequences of refusing her throne--the kingdom of Kei would continue to be overrun with youkai and people would die en masse, ultimately leading to Keiki's death by "shitsudou," a disease inflicted by the gods when a ruler turns bad. Eventually Youko's own death would follow. An advisor to En-Ou also told her about En-Ou's and Enki's own histories, as both of them were also taika from Japan--though many hundreds of years before Youko's time.

Still unsure what to do, Youko was eventually convinced by Rakushun that, given two unpleasant choices, she should choose the one that followed her destiny.

Before making her decision, Youko was confronted at the rike by Sugimoto and Kou-Ou. They fought, but Sugimoto finally came to her senses when it became clear that Suiguu--the royal sword of Kei--could not harm Youko, and that Kou-Ou had known all along that it would be so. Suiguu showed a vision that revealed that Kou-Ou had been targetting Youko out of jealousy--En-Ou was a taika and his kingdom was prosperous, so Kou-Ou feared that a taika ruler in Kei would make his own kingdom look bad. Kou-Ou then tried to kill Youko himself, but Kourin--the kirin of Kou, who was very sick with shitsudou at this point--took the blow for her, and her death marked the end of Kou-Ou's plans because a ruler could not outlive their kirin by more than a few months.

With help from En's armies, Youko led a foray into Kei to rescue Keiki, who had been taken captive by a false Queen trying to use his presence to bolster her legitimacy. Once again Keiki bowed to Youko and swore his loyalty, asking her to accept his protection and the throne of Kei--this time Youko accepted with a smile.

Sugimoto, meanwhile, happily accepted Youko's offer of being sent home to Japan.

Youko was given the royal name of "Sekishi," meaning "red child" and officially took the throne of Kei after mopping up the various rebels tied to the false Queen, Jyoei. Not all was well within her court, however--the ministers had been effectively ruling the country since the reign of the previous (true) Queen and were reluctant to let go of power.

A conflict surrounding the topic of the Lord of Baku Province--Koukan--who resisted the usurper Jyoei right to the end, left Youko struggling to know who to trust. She had a lot to learn about her new world and country, and trying to please everyone was getting her nowhere. She summoned Koukan to the capital to explain his actions and determine if he really was planning his own coup, as many of her ministers suggested, but his carriage was attacked along the way and he disappeared.

A supposed plot on her life on the part of one of the few ministers she did like and trust left Youko reeling, and she ultimately decided to leave Kinpa Palace for a time and live among the ordinary people of Kei, so that she could learn about her country firsthand and stand a chance of knowing what decisions were the right ones to make.

Going by the name Chuu Youshi, Youko took up residence at a rike run by a wise old man named Enho. Only Enho knew her true identity, and only he and Keiki knew where Youko really was--the ministers were told that Youko had gone to En to study with En-Ou. Youko studied with Enho to learn about the world of the Twelve Kingdoms, and also learned that youkai were still plaguing the country, though in considerably fewer numbers than before Youko took the throne.

Youko began investigating certain strange events, trying to discover the truth about the assassination plot and Koukan. In the midst of all this she stumbled accross the murder of a young boy in the city of Takuhou, at the hands of the city's lord, and met the boy's friend--a kaikyaku by the name of Ooki Suzu. She learned that corruption was rife in Takuhou and in Wa Province in general, and that the people were extremely unhappy.

She also witnessed firsthand the cruelty of Wa Province's lord--Gahou--when she happened to be in the capital city, Meikaku, during an execution. A young woman threw a rock at one of the guards during the execution, and Youko rescued her. This young woman--a former princess of the fallen kingdom of Hou--was named Shoukei and would prove to be an important ally of Youko's later on.

On returning to the rike Youko discovered one of the residents dead, another injured, and Enho missing. In her search for Enho, Youko uncovered a group of rebels who wanted to overthrow not the Queen, but only the lord of Takuhou--Shoukou--because of his cruelty and corruption.

After speaking with Keiki and discovering that, given her shaky position in the Palace at the moment, little could be done about Shoukou or the greater problems in Wa Province, Youko joined the rebellion herself. Joining the rebellion served two purposes for Youko: she could get to Shoukou and capture him for questioning, and she could potentially rescue Enho, who had been kidnapped by Shoukou at the behest of Gahou. She was then reunited with Ooki Suzu, the kaikyaku whose friend was murdered by Shoukou, as Suzu was also one of the rebels.

While raiding one of Shoukou's many safehouses as a distraction for the main force, Youko ran into Asano--he was alive after all, and had been having an extremely difficult time since his parting with Youko. Unable to speak the language, he'd become mentally unstable and ended up working for the corrupt Shoukou in an attempt to destroy the world that made no sense to him. Disgusted with him, Youko verbally bitchslapped him and returned to her business.
Once they finally captured Shoukou's main castle the rebels were able to take Shoukou into custody, but because of Gahou's support of Shoukou they soon found themselves surrounded by the Provincial Army. Keiki, despite being Lord of Ei Province in name, was unable to mobilise the soldiers of his Province to help Youko because he had no "proof" of what was going on, leaving the rebels on their own.

Asano, finally coming to his senses somewhat, volunteered to go to Meikaku and contact another group of rebels there--a more organised group who had been aiming for Gahou himself in an attempt to get the Queen's attention. They believed she was not a bad ruler but only unaware of what was going on, so they hoped that a large-scale rebellion would open her eyes. Asano never made it to Meikaku, being stopped and killed on the way by Gahou's men, but it turned out that the other rebel group had already mobilised to help the group in Takuhou.

When the Provincial soldiers began attacking the townspeople in an attempt to lure out the rebels there was much debate over whether or not to help them, since they had refused to help the rebels, but Youko immediately went to their aid, even if it would only be her and the few servant monsters Keiki had sent with her for protection. Others joined in, however, and they were able to evacuate the townspeople within the castle walls.

Among the larger group of rebels was Shoukei, the former princess Youko had helped in Meikaku, and she, Suzu and Youko became friends immediately because of their shared hardships. Youko confessed her true identity to Suzu and Shoukei, as well as some of her concerns. After hearing about the situation, Shoukei suggested that someone within Kinpa Palace must be backing Gahou and Shoukou for them to be so bold. Further discussion quickly led to Youko's suspecting the former Chousai (the highest-ranking court minister) as the one behind Gahou and Shoukou.

Shoukei's suspicion turned out to be correct, as the Royal Army--which only Youko should have been able to mobilise--arrived outside Takuhou, sending the rebels and the townspeople into a panic. While Youko contacted Keiki and waited for him to arrive, Suzu and Shoukei revealed their own identities to the townspeople and rebels and managed to calm them down, claiming to be agents of the Queen and telling everyone that the Royal Army would come no closer, and certainly not attack, because the Queen had not in fact approved their being sent at all.

After Keiki's arrival--in kirin form he could travel incredibly quickly--Youko went to confront the Royal Army, taking them to task for mobilising without her permission and revealing that she knew that the former Chousai was controlling things behind the scene. Very much cowed, the generals of the Royal Army stood down immediately and tendered their resignations. Youko returned to the rebels to thank them for their good work and assure them that they would not be punished, as she had been with them all along.

Returning to Kinpa Palace, Youko did a very thorough house-cleaning. She arrested the former Chousai and appointed Koukan--the Lord of Baku Province and one of the supporters of the rebellion in Meikaku--in his place. She also put one of the rebel leaders, who turned out to be a general in the Baku Province army, in charge of the Royal Army and appointed Enho to an important advisory position in the court. Shoukei and Suzu were also granted advisory positions, and all of the ministers who had been loyal to he former Chousai but committed no actual crimes were put on notice. New Lords of Baku and Wa Provinces were put into power, and Shoukou, Gahou and the former Chousai were put on trial for their crimes.

Asano was buried, and his gun emptied and left to rust on his grave.

No longer trying to please everyone but instead willing to do the unpopular thing for the sake of the greater good, Youko also finally made her First Ordinance--the important first law put into practice by a new ruler, said to be a sign of what kind of ruler they would be. She eliminated prostration as a required sign of respect in front of people of higher rank--she stated that instead people could bow from the waist if they chose, and that respect would have to be earned through one's actions instead of one's rank.

Personality
Youko is one of the most dynamic characters in anime, and her personality goes through a massive shift between the beginning of her story and the end. I will be basing her personality on the *end* of her story arc, and therefore will not be talking about her earlier nature except in passing reference.

Self-doubt is one of the character traits that continues to plague Youko right through the end of her arc--she feels out of her depth in trying to rule Kei, and sometimes hesitates in making decisions because she doesn't trust herself to make the right one. At first this is a flaw as she responds to this doubt by trying to please everyone else, since she assumes they know better than she does, but by the time I'm taking her from she has managed to get this under control and simply turned it into a desire to hear the advice of others when she's not sure she fully grasps a situation. Youko doesn't necessarily follow all the advice she receives but she does desire input from others with more experience whenever she can get it. This is why she brings Enho, Koukan, Shoukei and Suzu into her court--they have proved that they have good heads on their shoulders and she knows she can rely on them to tell her the truth rather than what they think she wants to hear.

This discomfort with uncertainty also results in Youko's strong distaste for the custom of prostration--when people are bowed down with their foreheads touching the floor she can't see their faces, and so has no idea if what they're saying is what they really feel or if they're laughing at her where she can't see. Youko also has trouble dealing with people who can't or won't express their true opinions--Keiki's tendency to just sigh or be hesitant in speaking leaves her very frustrated and inclined to talk over him once he finally does decide to say something. This lack of patience with shy or reticent people does mean that, despite her genuine desire to hear the advice of others, she doesn't always give everyone the chance to actually say what they want to say if it seems to her like they don't really want to be talking to her. Despite growing away from her need to please everyone Youko does remain quite sensitive to what others think of her--she wants to know, but she gets frustrated and upset when it seems like people are lying to her or hiding their true feelings to spare her.

Youko wants to know everything about her country and the people around her--this intense thirst for knowledge will carry over into Landel's, because it's one of the ways Youko strives to make herself more comfortable with her surroundings. Just as she wants people to tell her what they really think, she wants to know where they're coming from so that she can judge the context of their advice or opinions for herself. She has come to hate taking anyone else's word for things--she wants to see things with her own eyes and judge the situation for herself, or she doesn't feel like she can really know what's going on.

In action as well as in seeking knowledge Youko has become a fiercely independent person. She isn't at all afraid to get her hands dirty--if something needs to be done and it's within her power to do it, she tends to want to do it herself. Delegating too much got her in all sorts of trouble, and she avoids it like the plague now. Unfortunately this independent streak sometimes leads to outright recklessness--Youko doesn't like to stay on the sidelines if a situation is happening right in front of her eyes, even if it means putting herself at risk. That staying alive and simply *existing* is the best thing she can do for her country is a concept she has a lot of trouble with, and it still hasn't sunk in. The way she came to her throne--having to fight for it every step of the way--has left her very much inclined to being a hands-on person in all ways.

Her recklessness is also compounded by her very compassionate nature. Youko has been through hell and so she has a lot of sympathy for others who are having a hard time but trying their best anyway. She even feels sympathy for those who take the easy road--allowing themselves to be victims because it's easier than standing up and fighting--because she knows that she was like that herself for a long time. The down side of this is that it means that Youko will put her safety on the line to protect just about anyone--she doesn't care if they "deserve" it or if her time would be better put to use elsewhere, if she sees someone in trouble beyond their ability to deal with, she will try to help them. The one type of person Youko has no sympathy for whatsoever is the type who hurts people out of malice or greed--this sort of injustice will get her riled up every time, and she'll do everything she can to stamp it out.

Youko takes things very personally--she has a lot of responsibility on her shoulders and she takes it very seriously, so when people around her are suffering she feels like it's her fault for not being able to prevent it. Generally she responds to these feelings by trying to do something to improve the situation, so it can be a productive thing, but when there's nothing she can possibly do--like when she was unable to heal the boy Shoukou ran over--there's no real outlet for her feelings of anger and responsibility and it can eat at her until she does find a way to deal with it.

Appearance
Though for most of her life she struggled to meet her father's standards for femininity, Youko is in fact a fairly androgynous person in terms of apprearance; she's just tall enough to be able to pass for a man (if one on the short side), and her body is very lean. In the layered and fairly shapeless clothing of the world of the Twelve Kingdoms Youko has no noticeable bust to speak of, and in fact simply wearing men's clothing in that setting is enough for people to assume she's a man by default. In the thinner t-shirts at Landel's Youko may be noticeably more female, but still very much on the boyish side--it's unlikely she even needs a bra, at her size.

Youko's most noticeable and remarkable feature is her hair--long and brilliantly red, her hair is the source of her royal name as Queen Kei: Sekishi, or "Red Child." Her bright green eyes and golden skin tone combine with her crimson hair to give her an extremely exotic look--no one would ever guess her nationality to be Japanese. (Youko's looks are non-Japanese in a way even beyond the usual anime standards--within her series she's very different in appearance from other Japanese characters, all of whom have dark hair and eyes and a rather different skin tone). What nationality she *is* isn't obvious, but she clearly isn't Asian, to look at.

Abilities/Powers
Youko is a Sen-nin, a type of immortal particular to the world of the Twelve Kingdoms. She can die if her head is cut off, her body is cut in half, or she's gravely wounded in a vital spot by a "touki" weapon--a special type of weapon created specifically for killing Sen-nin. She will also die if her kirin (Keiki) dies, whether through the illness of shitsudou or through violence, though she could conceivably outlive Keiki by a matter of weeks or months. As a Sen-nin, Youko can understand and communicate in any language--she has no language barrier at all, as it's put in the series.

The other major component of Youko's powers, aside from her natural Sen-nin abilities, is that she is possessed by a type of youkai called a "hinman," which takes over her body when fighting is required. Through the hinman's actions Youko is endowed with incredible strength, speed, agility and skill--with her own sword, Suiguu, in her hands she is capable of killing massive youkai with one stroke. When her eyes are closed, however, the hinman cannot act. The hinman, named Jyouyuu, is also a separate entity and can speak to Youko to advise her or otherwise help her, when needed. At Landel's Youko will still have the hinman (because without it she's a completely untrained high school girl and pretty much doomed), but it will be sealed in its "dormant" state, meaning it cannot speak to her or offer advice, and her physical attributes will be toned down to be more like those of a well-trained, but fully human, martial artist. She will still be stronger than she looks, but more like an athletic human male than like anything superhuman.

Leon Magnus

lohengrin — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:45:49 CDT

"Real" Name: Miguel Esposito
Room: M86 (roommate: Belphegor)
Age: 16
Hair Color: Blue-black
Eye Color: Blue
Height: 5"3"
Main Language: Tales of Destiny-verse common
Second Language(s): None

History
(N.B.: This is based entirely on the English version of the original game, and thus differs in places from the remake, the Director's Cut, the manga, etc.)

Born Emilio Gilchrist, to Hugo Gilchrist and Chris Katrea, Leon had an older sister by the name of Rutee from whom he was separated at a young age. Hugo, under the influence of the Swordian Berselius (which was in fact possessed by the spirit of the Aeth'erian Kronos), was a deeply cruel man; he was both emotionally and physically abusive, and was willing to do anything in order to see to the success of his plots. Chris managed to send Rutee to safety but was unable to save herself or Emilio--she died, under unknown circumstances, and Emilio was left alone with Hugo. From that point on Emilio was renamed Leon Magnus and raised to be a heartless warrior obedient only to his father.

After Chris' death, Leon became infatuated with a maidservant of the household, named Marian, who greatly resembled his late mother. Hugo used Marian, or rather threats against her, as an additional means of controlling his son.

Years later, when Leon had become the youngest Knight Captain in the history of Seinegald, he was dispatched to deal with a party of thieves, one of which happened to be his long-lost sister Rutee. Though he recognised Rutee immediately Leon didn't reveal their connection to her, since she seemed to have no memory of him. When the King of Seinegald was about to punish Rutee, Stahn and Mary for their theft, Hugo intervened, suggesting that the prisoners be fitted with electric tiaras and sent to investigate some problems occurring at the Straylize Temple; Leon was to be sent with them as a safeguard.

The situation only became more complicated after Straylize, where the party discovered that the powerful Eye of Atamoni had been stolen. Leon ended up traveling with the party for quite some time as they searched for and eventually reclaimed the Eye. Throughout these adventures Leon underwent a transformation: he started off very abusive towards the party members, but slowly mellowed and even began to show signs of warming to them.

As they returned home on the Draconis Leon spoke with Stahn one more time; airsick, Leon was at his most volatile, stating that he "has no friends" and warning Stahn that "people will deceive you no matter how much you trust them," both displaying his own innate distrust in mankind, and perhaps trying to warn Stahn about what was to come.

Following the return of the Eye of Atamoni, however, things took a turn for the worse; once everyone was lulled into a false sense of security, Hugo enacted a plan to steal the Eye of Atamoni for HIMSELF, and he once again threatened Marian's life in order to force Leon to cooperate with him. When the party caught up with Hugo in a cave beneath Hugo's secret factory, Leon was ordered to hold them off.

Before the battle with his former companions, Leon revealed his relation to Rutee. Even though no one wanted the battle, no one held back, either, and Leon was eventually defeated, and badly injured. He might have survived his wounds, but Hugo still had Marian in his clutches, and so Leon flooded the caves, washing Stahn and the party away so that they could not follow Hugo. Leon remained behind, too badly wounded to escape, even if he had any reason to live. He drowned alone, save for the company of Chaltier. His final words, preceded by bitter laughter, were "Farewell... Marian."

Tragically, even this was not the end of Leon's suffering; Kronos later revived Leon in the form of a zombie, and forced him to fight Stahn and the party a second time; this time, Stahn delivered a merciful killing blow.

Personality
On the surface Leon appears to be cold and extremely uncaring, but this is partly a front he puts on to protect himself. Having been raised by his father to be a heartless and obedient warrior, Leon has little experience with normal or positive emotions; if not for his contact with the maidservant Marian, Leon might well have turned out truly as cold as he appears, but since Marian did teach him something of love, Leon never fully became the pawn his father wanted.

When alone with Marian Leon insists on being called by his childhood name, Emilio, and lets out all the anger and hatred he feels for his father; this disturbs Marian somewhat, and so even with her Leon must often rein himself in and put on his protective facade of cool rationality. So it is only with the Swordian Chaltier that Leon can really, truly be himself; Chaltier, who has been with Leon throughout the trials and miseries of his childhood, could very well be the only friend Leon had until he met Stahn.

Made a Knight Captain of Seinegald at an unprecedented age, Leon is thrust into a position of authority much too soon, and it warps him even further. Unable and unwilling to show any sign of weakness for fear of validating the criticism of those who feel he is too young for his position and earning the wrath of his father, Leon takes on an arrogant, unfriendly persona. Those who know him, especially the servants of his father's household, are not fooled in the least--one of the first things Stahn and the party are told about Leon is that he acts the way he does to push people away deliberately.

Another reason Leon is abrasive towards Stahn, according to Ilene, is that he views him as a rival, a potential equal, and so he cannot allow himself to appear soft in front of him.

Leon is also completely ruthless in the pursuit of his goals, even at his age. He is willing to torture prisoners to extract information, and when he faces Stahn and the party as an enemy he states that he will "kill [his] parents, brothers, or sisters, to protect what's important to [him]."

Once reunited with his sister and ordered to accompany her and her friends on a quest, Leon begins to have more and more trouble keeping his emotions under control. His temper, always bad, worsens, showing something of his real age underneath the authoritative exterior. He displays little or no patience for the faults of others, frequently insulting and abusing Stahn and especially his sister Rutee. He also becomes surly and abusive when Stahn offers him help when he's airsick, once again displaying his fear of showing weakness.

The truth is, knowing of his father's madness and evil plans, Leon has been keeping himself isolated so that he won't be acting against anyone he cares about. Unfortunately for him he fails at this, quickly developing a fondness for Stahn, his sister and other members of the party. Hugo is forced to play his trump card--threatening the life of Marian--in order to make Leon obey, at the end; he does this in a particularly cruel manner, suggesting that Leon is welcome to stay behind and die, except of course that Marian will die with him.

Before the battle, the party tries to dissuade Leon from following his disastrous path, telling him that he is being used by Hugo. Leon responds that he knows full well that he is being used, that he is "merely a disposable tool to Hugo," his own father--the horror and sadness that he has lived through, knowing this all his life, can hardly be imagined.

When Leon dies, he dies alone except for Chaltier, and knowing that his father never intended to let him live at all, even if he could somehow defeat the party. That even after his death he isn't allowed to rest is a very traumatic thing for Leon--being raised from the dead to fight against his friends a second time could easily have broken his spirit if he were any less strong.

Physical Appearance
Leon is quite short and slender, measuring only 5'3" tall and weighing just over 100lbs, and his face is delicate, very nearly feminine. Blue-black hair, cut raggedly and asymmetrically, obscures one of Leon's icy blue eyes, and he often ducks his head to hide even more of his face behind his hair. Exuding a cool, confident authority, Leon's attitude transforms his fragile appearance into harsh brittleness; if a smile has ever crossed Leon's face, it left no sign of its passing.

When he moves, Leon displays the smooth grace of a well-trained fighter, with just a hint of the swagger of a sixteen year old boy trying to look just a bit bigger than he is. It's only when he thinks no one is looking that Leon ever lets his shoulders slump, allows his show of confidence to falter, his deep vulnerability peeking out through his tough shell.

Powers and Abilities
Once a night, given a little time to concentrate, Leon can use a small energy attack. It's a wave that moves along the ground,about knee-high on an average-height man. It's concussive, rather than heat-based, and can knock back a well-balanced person, and knock over a poorly-balanced person, in addition to causing bruising. On something other than a human, like a giant Landel's rat, which has its head closer to the ground, it might do some actual damage--broken muzzle, damage to the eyes maybe. It's possible to dodge it if one is very fast, but it does move quite quickly across the ground.

He's also a master swordsman, very quick, an experienced military leader, and quite intelligent.

The Twelve Kingdoms

lohengrin — Wed, 13 May 2009 07:45:19 CDT

There is no abstract available for this page revision.

Soul Eater

shira_syndrome — Sun, 10 May 2009 17:02:31 CDT

World

Soul Eater is a story that takes place in a slightly altered version of contemporary Earth, where its protagonists may find themselves travelling to Italy, Egypt, or remote villages in Asia. Humans, however, share space with every imaginable creature, ranging from zombies, witches, shinigami, talking animals, faeries, werewolves, mummies, etc. Witches have been shown to live in a parallel dimension of their own, and when it comes to Earth, many popular pop culture references tend to crop up. Starbucks is instead Deathbucks, Jack the Ripper and Alcapone eat human souls, and Rasputin is killed by a schoolgirl in pigtails. The legendary sword Excalibur is depicted as a penguin-type thing with a cane. Franken Stein happens to be quite the school teacher, too, as a matter of fact.

There are also beings with human appearances who can take on the form of weaponry. Eight hundred years prior to the opening of Soul Eater, a witch called Arachne murdered one of her fellows and used her soul to bind together a human and a weapon, giving birth to a race of people called "demon weapons." These people have an alternate weapon form, anything from a scythe to a chainsaw, and are able to transform parts of their body at will.

Demon weapons are often paired up with "weapon technicians" or "meisters"--as technicians can use their partners to fight and can amplify the power of their souls through their weapons--in order to purge corrupt souls from the world on behalf of Shinigami, the God of Death. Unfortunately, this kind of partnership eventually gave birth to the kishin, demon gods born of fear and the desire for power. One particular technician was so afraid of death, he began devouring human souls that were not corrupt, and in his madness he went so far as to devour his own weapon partner.

The result was the creation of the first kishin and the near destruction of the world. Although Shinigami-sama was able to defeat the threat, the current generation’s purpose is to protect humanity by killing souls that have become kishin "eggs."

Culture

The kishin aren’t the only problem: witches are often antagonistic towards Shinigami and his ideals, one of many political maelstroms to be found in Soul Eater.

Death City, located in Nevada, United States, is the focal point for much of the action. With the idea of creating an organization bent on peace, Shinigami created a school for weapons and techs: the Shinigami Weapon Meister Vocational School, otherwise known as Shibusen. Technicians have at least one demon weapon for a partner, and every student is regularly given homework and assignments to complete. Usually, these assignments involve tracking down someone whose soul has begun to stray and killing them.

The ultimate goal of each team is to have their weapon devour ninety-nine corrupt souls and one witch’s soul, and in doing so, allow the weapon to become a "Death Scythe." Death Scythe is a broad term for any demon weapon who has reached the pinnacle of their power and earned the right to personally be used by Shinigami. Often, Death Scythes are stationed in different countries and reinforce the peace there.

Abilities

In Soul Eater, a lot of special abilities are grounded in the soul or the "soul wavelength" of the creature in question. The more large or powerful the soul, the stronger the person.

Regular, powerless humans are pretty much the minority, considering the wide arrange of supernatural abilities found in Soul Eater. In terms of power, witches and shinigami seem to currently be the two most powerful races, as the witches possess superior magic, and Shinigami and his son, Death the Kid, are shown to be extremely powerful in their own right, as they’re both gods. Humans with stronger souls than the average person have the potential to become technicians or develop talents of their own, such as "soul perception," which is the ability to sense and/or see the wavelength of someone’s soul, sometimes to the point of being able to tell certain things about that person. Although only human, these people can become very powerful, especially by finding a demon weapon partner and "matching" soul wavelengths.

In short terms, demon weapons act as amplifiers for the technician’s soul power, like an amp for a guitar.

For example, Franken Stein, a human and a tech, is a genius of perception and of manipulating his own soul, having learned how to match his soul’s wavelength to an enemy’s just by looking at them, effectively rendering that person’s spiritual attacks void. He can also fight without the use of a demon weapon because of his immense natural strength and the ability to project his soul outwards into attacks. The same can be said for certain demon weapons, who possess such powerful souls they can fight without the use of a tech partner. Once a suitable pairing is made between a tech and weapon, however, the duo's combined power level skyrockets like nobody's business.

Dahlia Hawthorne

kittyn — Sun, 10 May 2009 13:46:12 CDT

Real Name: Linda May
Room:
Age: 25
Hair Color: Red
Eye Color: Brown
Height: 5'

Backstory

Dahlia Hawthorne and her twin sister Iris were born to a spirit medium named Morgan Fey in Kurain Village. Morgan was obsessed with her daughters becoming powerful mediums since she herself had little power to call her own, hopeful that with them, they could take over as the main family of the Kurain Channeling Technique. Morgan had long been in the shadow of her younger sister, the Master of the technique, Misty, and she would take any measure she could to get out of it, even using her own children or murdering the current main family.

As luck would have it, neither Iris or Dahlia were powerful mediums. And as the technique is only passed to the woman of the clan, Morgan’s husband became upset at how unimportant his standing was married to a member of a particularly weak branch family and decided to leave, taking his daughters with him.

For whatever reason, Dahlia was a hateful child. She hated her mother for abandoning her and she hated her father for remarrying and giving her a new sister to go with the wife. Iris was left at a channeling temple (Hazakura Temple, to be precise) with a woman named Bikini after Dahlia convinced her father it was the right thing to do (the less children in the family, the more money to go around. Her father also was not so fond of children, as it was), inadvertently sparing Iris the same, hateful existence that plagued her twin. While she did visit Iris every once and a while, Dahlia grew up with her step-sister Valerie, her step-mother, and her father. And, as the years went by, she only got worse.

By the time she was fourteen, Dahlia already hatched a scheme to get back at her father, who just so happened to be a particularly wealthy jeweler. She convinced Valerie (who was a member of the police), her tutor, Terry Fawles (who was 20 at the time and may or may not have been mentally handicapped), and Iris to join her plot to steal a diamond by having Terry falsely kidnap her and extorting a two-million dollar diamond in exchange for her “safety.” Since Valerie was a policewoman, she was to play the part of negotiator and hand over the diamond. As Iris knew the area, the exchange would take place near the Hazakura Temple, on the Dusky Bridge above Eagle River.

It was supposed to go off without a hitch: Valerie would get Dahlia, Terry would get the diamond, and they would all split it amongst the four of them to start new lives somewhere else. Iris backed out of the plan, however, leaving Dahlia to plot with Valerie about cutting Terry from the deal as well and simply split the diamond between themselves. At the last minute, however, Dahlia had a change of heart--taking the diamond, she placed it in her backpack and jumped from Dusky Bridge and into the river far down bellow, making sure only she would reap the reward from her plan. Valerie, too flustered to do anything else, blamed Terry when the police arrived and claimed he killed Dahlia by pushing her off the bridge, that the kidnapping and extorting was legitimate.

Surprisingly, Dahlia survived the fall and the river’s swift current. She was later found by Iris and nursed back to health while Terry was put on trial for her “death.” Unable to admit to their crime, Valerie testified with exactly the same story she gave on the bridge: “That man... Terry Fawles... He killed her! He threw her off the bridge! He threw my beloved sister into the roaring river 40 feet below!” Terry was found guilty and sentenced to death, while Dahlia was declared legally dead and, with Valerie’s help, created a new identity for herself under the name Melissa Foster.

Five years went by since then with little incident. Dahlia remained “dead” as “Melissa” became a Freshman in college, Valerie remained a police officer, Iris remained at Hazakura Temple as a nun, and Terry was on his way to be executed for a crime he never committed. On the way there, however, the police vehicle was involved in an accident, tipped over, and allowed Terry to escape with one thought on his mind: find Valerie Hawthorne and ask why she did what she did.

Terry ended up calling Valerie at the police station and arranged a meeting with her on Dusky Bridge. Valerie evidently couldn’t ignore her guilt any more and got into contact with Dahlia, telling her about the meeting with Terry and how she planned to confess everything to the police.

Dahlia couldn’t have this. For years, she had been playing the unfortunate victim in a sad story and was in no way a criminal. For years, Terry was a hopeless, sickening murderer and Valerie was a hero for apprehending him. But, most of all, Dahlia got away with a two-million dollar diamond and a clean slate. Valerie was threatening to ruin it because she just couldn’t keep her mouth shut--so Dahlia would shut it for her. Permanently.

Needless to say, it wasn’t Valerie to meet up with Terry Fawles on Dusky Bridge. After mortally wounding her own step-sister by stabbing her in the back, Dahlia disguised herself as Valerie, stuffing the real Valerie into the trunk of a car Terry had stolen in order to reach Dusky Bridge (Terry had went to retrieve a necklace at the temple Dahlia had left for him those 5 years ago and therefore wasn‘t aware of any of this). Dahlia then set up a camera on the other side of a cliff, aimed at the bridge, and set the timer for proof of Terry’s meeting with “Valerie.” Once Terry returned, their conversation ended, and Terry drove off with the stolen car, Dahlia called the police about witnessing a murder, laying blame on Terry once again. This, too, was supposed to go as planned.

Unfortunately, she didn’t count on being brought into court as a witness. She pleaded and begged the prosecuting side (namely one young Miles Edgeworth) to not participate, to only give a written testimony, but the defense (a young Mia Fey -yes, Misty Fey’s daughter and therefore Dahlia’s cousin- and her partner Diego Armando) managed to pick apart all of its flaws. If the witness really saw the murder, why would the evidence point out so many contradictions to prove their testimony wrong? Why didn’t they want to testify in court? Did the witness even exist? Since Miles wasn’t above dragging someone out to win, Dahlia was forced into a situation she hadn’t planned on and didn‘t have much time to prepare for such on-the-spot lying. So of course, Mia and Diego, with Terry’s help, puzzled out what had really happened on Dusky Bridge, both with Valerie’s murder and five years prior. They even managed to out Melissa as the “dead” Dahlia and pinned her as a viable suspect. At least until Mia called Terry to take the stand and testify for himself.

Dahlia decided to pull out her ace. She knew Terry went to get the necklace she left at the temple for him when she was fourteen; a small, bottle necklace, just enough to fit a deadly poison. She had told him five years ago that she loved him, and that if they ever stopped trusting one another, they should drink the contents of it right then and there. She reminded Terry of this promise, prompting him to ask for water (he got coffee from Diego instead), secretly poured the poison into his cup, and drank it all. He didn’t even make it to the second cross-examination before apologizing to Mia and dying in front of the entire court. Without his testimony, Dahlia was free to go.

That trial personally scarred Mia Fey. As her partner (and maybe a little more), Diego took it upon himself to track down Dahlia and arrange a meeting with her at the courthouse cafeteria (although there seems to be a little discrepancy in the script, as Dahlia says Diego set up the meeting, while Godot says Dahlia did… idk, one of them did. He was obviously bugging her, in either case.). Annoyed with his constant need to harass her, Dahlia broke into the Pharmaceutical Department at her college (evidently using keys she had taken from a certain Doug Swallow, whom of which she begun dating for that express purpose), stole more poison, and poured it into Diego’s coffee during their little talk using the same necklace to hide the deadly liquid she had used with Terry. It killed him, yes, though he was revived fairly quickly. Unsurprisingly, it still wrecked a lot of his organs, mostly his vision, and put him into a coma for 5 years. Regardless of whether he lived or died, Dahlia needed to dispose of the necklace, considering her current location.

As luck would have it, one Phoenix Wright happened to be in the court’s Reading Room. Under the pretense of falling in love at the sight of him, Dahlia foisted the necklace off on “Feenie,” saying it was a token of their obvious meant-to-be love. Phoenix sadly fell for it hook, line, and sinker, meaning she got to squirrel out of the courthouse without the police finding the necklace on her.

Since she was still a major suspect for Diego’s poisoning, regardless of her lacking the necklace, Dahlia couldn’t get the necklace back herself. It was important, it pointed her to not one, but two crimes, and she couldn’t so much as step out of her house without being watched. Enter Iris: still lovingly devoted to her sister and not wanting any more blood on her hands, Iris agreed to disguise herself as Dahlia and try, day by day, to get the necklace out of Phoenix (who had begun taking it upon himself to show it to every single person he could). Thus began a cycle for the three of them--Dahlia would give Iris the plans for the day, Iris would date Phoenix and try to get the necklace back, and Phoenix would blissfully go on, ignoring Iris’ pleas, and assume she was just being shy. This went on for six months before Dahlia got sick and tired of waiting. It became increasingly obvious that Iris wasn’t just dating Phoenix for the necklace anymore, and Dahlia could see it written all over her. Iris just wasn’t cut out to do much of anything by now, so Dahlia took matters into her own hands.

Without consulting her sister as she always had, Dahlia again stole poison from the Pharmaceutical Department. During her lunch with Phoenix, she stole his bottle of Coldkiller X (poor Phoenix had come down with a pretty nasty cold, thus was constantly taking said medication to feel better), planted the poison inside, and planned to meet up with him later in the day to give it back to him. Phoenix, however, had an unexpected meeting with Doug Swallow, Dahlia’s ex-boyfriend and the man she had been taking those deadly poisons from.

Doug explained to Phoenix what had happened six months prior, about the stolen poison and Diego’s coma, and how more of the same poison had gone missing again. He told Phoenix that Dahlia wasn’t as innocent and pure as he assumed she was and that, if he knew what was best for him, he would get away from her as quickly as possible. Phoenix couldn’t believe his precious “Dollie” would so much as sneeze without excusing herself, thus the concept of her being completely demonic inside was nothing but a total insult in his eyes. In a fit of rage, he shoved Doug for talking about Dahlia like that. Doug crashed into a particularly weak electrical pole, causing a wire above to snap. Doug was fine when Phoenix ran away, however, which is where Dahlia came in, having apparently watched the entire thing.

Not only did she have to deal with Phoenix, but now Mr. Swallow decided to sniff around in places she didn’t want him. Since the wire was already down, all Dahlia had to do was push him again, this time onto the downed electrical wire and watch as he fried. Since the wires were connected to the Pharmaceutical Department, Dahlia knew she didn’t have much time before either the police or other students arrived to see what had happened. And because she was carrying around a bottle of poisoned medication, she panicked: if they searched her as they had six months ago, she’d be done for. So she deployed the same tactic there as she had then, by giving the evidence to someone else, this time placing the bottle in Doug’s hand. It would be perfect too--it pointed the murder to Phoenix, who also left a nice handprint in Doug’s jacket from when he shoved him, and took care of two pesky birds with one stone. Doug was dead and Phoenix would go to jail for it, problem solved!

…Let’s just say it didn’t work that way. Mia Fey took Phoenix’s case (who had been arrested for the murder, just as Dahlia planned) after realizing who was behind all of it and, this time, finally pinned the redhead for devious little witch she was. Despite a few setbacks (such as Phoenix eating the necklace when it was established that examining it for poison could send Dahlia to jail), Mia got a Not Guilty verdict for Phoenix and sent Dahlia on a one-way ticket to Death Row. Even after having a short and incredibly horrifying showing of her true colors, Dahlia only smiled to the court, told them she’d see them again soon, and walked off with the men in blue, supposedly never to be seen again.

While it’s never said just how much time passed, Dahlia was eventually visited by her mother, Morgan Fey. Some time after Mia Fey‘s death, Morgan was arrested for the murder of Turner Grey after a plot to get Maya Fey, Mia’s sister and therefore the last of the main family’s line (as Misty had gone missing some time before), sentenced to death backfired. Morgan was then transferred to the same prison Dahlia was held in and, since they were mother and daughter and Dahlia was on Death Row, it was easy for the two to communicate. Morgan, being completely obsessed with her family becoming the main branch, had another daughter in the time Dahlia and Iris were taken away by their father that, this time, was abundant in spiritual power. After her first plot to get her youngest daughter, Pearl, failed spectacularly, Morgan came up with another, more diabolical one, this time including Dahlia.

Since Dahlia was on Death Row to begin with and Pearl was an exceptionally powerful medium, the plan was thus: Pearl, who had become very close to Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey, would show them an article about Hazakura Village that Morgan gave to her. They would vacation there together under the guise of training their spiritual powers. In the dead of night, Pearl would channel Dahlia’s spirit, where Dahlia would then murder Maya and pin the blame on Iris.

While Dahlia was never one to do something if it wasn’t for her own gain, Dahlia agreed for one reason and for one reason only: revenge on Mia Fey. Mia was the reason she was going to die, Mia handed her her first embarrassment on a silver platter, and goddamn did Dahlia want to pay her back. But because Mia had been murdered by some no-account Redd White, she couldn’t. The next best thing was to kill Maya, the sister Mia adored so.

A while later, Dahlia was hanged for her crimes and this new plan was set into motion.

Personality

There’s a major distinction to make between how Dahlia acts and how she really is. For the most part, people see the sweet, almost fantasy-like dream girl who enjoys taking pictures of flowers, cooking, romance, and poetry. The girl that’s soft-spoken and timid, almost childish with naïveté, yet still manages to act refined and polite. She’s prone to crying when pushed or yelled at, acting overly delicate and sensitive. She’ll beat herself up over the slightest thing, calling herself “bad” and “horrible” for simply making silly mistakes. Overall, it’s the picture of a sickeningly sweet and endearing woman who sadly couldn’t make her way out of a wet paper bag without assistance and reassurance every step of the way.

This is only skin deep, however. Inside, Dahlia’s a murderous sociopath who can care less about anyone but herself. She’s cruel, hateful, manipulative, uses everyone and everything to get her way, and isn‘t above taunting someone if they annoy her enough. She’s far more intelligent than she lets on, playing the innocent beauty stereotype to her advantage, making sure to wrap everyone she can around her finger and killing those who try to out her for the monster she really is. She can be childishly stubborn, refusing to go down without a fight until it’s too late to lie anymore. And while her acting and lies are awfully convincing, she tends to put too much effort in executing them rather than thought into the facts, meaning they’re easily broken under scrutiny. Even still, she smiles when things are the darkest for her, refusing to show she‘s beaten. When she doesn’t… let’s just say it’s not pleasant.

At Landel's

TBA

Haseo

Kiarae29 — Sat, 09 May 2009 00:48:33 CDT

Elfangor

theangstmonkey — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:17:59 CDT

Name: Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul/Alan Fangor
"Real" Name: Alexander Reed
Room Number:
Age: Appears to be in his mid 30s
Hair Color: Dirty Blond/ Fur Color: Blue with bits of tan
Eye Color: Light-colored, blue/gray, sharp blue/green in Andalite form
Height: 5'8" in human form, a little 'shorter' in Andalite form.
Human Body: (pictured to side) Al Fangor is of medium build. He was the type to spend his time with his nose in a book rather than working out but is still healthy as Elfangor would never allow his body to get out of shape. He's Caucasian with dirty blond or light brown hair that can be described as 'unruly'. He has light colored eyes that can either be described as bluish-gray or grayish-blue. He's attractive as his human body is a mix of the DNA of both men and women (including his wife, Loren). PB Gabriel Aubry
Andalite Body: (pictured below) Andalites are a bizarre mix of different creatures. Their bottom halves are like a deer, while their top halves are like a human. Their arms are weaker than a human's though with hands that have seven fingers each instead of five. Their faces are a roundish shape with slits where a nose would be and no mouths. They have two sets of eyes, two on their face that are big and almond shaped and two that are at the end of stalks on the top of their heads. Elfangor's fur is a mix of blue and tan (signaling that he is middle-aged as a male's Andalite's blue fur tans as they age). Andalite's look almost harmless, if not for their tails, which are almost like a scorpion's including a blade at the end that can be used as a weapon.

Backstory
Elfangor was born in his family’s scoop on the Andalite home world. His father had been in the military before the war and his family designed heat transfer components for fighters. His Garibah, his guide tree, Hala Fala, was a therant tree in the woods on his family’s land. This tree gave him advice and a place to center himself.

Outside of their homeworld, the war with the Yeerks raged. As a young Andalite, Elfangor heard the stories of the horrors of the war and in his hearts he began to believe that if he could just join the effort he could be able to become a great hero and defeat the Yeerks. He was eager to prove himself.

He found himself a young aristh, a cadet, on the StarSword, a Dome ship under the command of Captain Feyorn. He and his fellow aristh, Arbron, were called to the battle bridge one day after Elfangor was done with his tailblade training. They were both shocked, as lowly aristh were rarely allowed on the bridge. Once there, the Captain gave the two young Andalites a mission. They were to board a Skirt Na ship (aliens that are very much the stereotypical aliens from every crop circle/abduction story on Earth) and recover anything that they stole from the third planet of the current solar system they were in. That third planet was Earth and the Skirt Na had taken two humans from the place, both young, a male and a female. The male was named Chapman, the female was named Loren. The Andalites took the humans and a copy of the data from the Skirt Na ship and returned to the StarSword. Elfangor was automatically impressed and strangely attracted to Loren. She was very different than anything he had seen before. She only had two legs and no tail, and her hair was the color of golden sunlight. She also had a very strange sense of humor and was kind and strong.

After they were brought back to the Dome ship the Captain put Arbron and Elfangor under the command of the disgraced war-prince Alloran. They were to bring the humans back to their home planet, a trip that would take three days in Zero Space. Elfangor spent the time talking with Loren, unafraid of breaking the law of Seerow’s Kindness by sharing too much because they were planning on changing her memory anyway. Arbron spent the time looking through the files of the Skirt Na ship. Before they were able to reach Earth Arborn found something shocking inside of the files. The Skirt Na had discovered the Time Matrix, a device that had the power to alter and control time. It was possible that they would give it to the Yeerks. Retrieving it took priority over taking the humans back to their home, so the Andalites turned their ship around and went after them, to the Taxxon homeworld.

The Taxxons are willing allies of the Yeerks. They are a race of centipede-like creatures that have an insatiable hunger for warm, live meat, making them all cannibalistic. The Andalites knew that if the Time Matrix fell into the Taxxon’s hands they would also be falling into the ‘hands’ of the Yeerks. They started their attack by taking over a small Taxxon transport ship on its way to the home planet. When they boarded the ship they were greeted by Hork-Bajir, aliens with blades that they used to carve bark off the trees of their homeworld but the Yeerks use to fight. Elfangor rushed into the fight and killed them very quickly. The discovery that he was naturally very good at tail-blade fighting should have made him feel proud, but looking at the corpses of the bodies that he had murdered disturbed Elfangor greatly. He ran back to Loren, who embraced him and calmed him down enough that he could think back to the mission.

Once he and the other Andalites searched the ship they found a pool filled with Yeerks in their natural state. Alloran wanted to flush the Yeerks out into space, but Elfangor refused to let him. In the end Arbron was able to talk them out of a major fight but Elfangor knew then that he had made an enemy out of Alloran and that his career in the military would likely be very damaged due to him refusing to follow direct orders. Feeling desperate to prove himself Elfangor acquired a Taxxon without flinching and then prepared to enter the Taxxon homeworld.

Once there the Andalites were confronted with the instincts of the Taxxon body, including the intense hunger. Elfangor was able to resist consuming the flesh of a wounded Taxxon but the fact that he didn’t eat separated him from Alloran and Arbron and attracted the attention of Sub-Visser Seven, a Yeerk who had infested a Hork-Bajir body and was currently in charge of the Taxxon home world, he was also a bit obsessed with Andalites and guessed automatically what Elfangor was. As punishment for Elfangor not demorphing on command, Sub-Visser Seven had the aristh thrown into a pit of Taxxons. He was able to escape by morphing a bird native to his homeworld that he had acquired for fun when he was a cadet. As he flew over the Taxxon’s homeworld he saw that Chapman had taken control of Alloran’s ship and was offering Loren to the Yeerks. Elfangor then had to figure out just what he was going to do. He had to get the Time Matrix, find the other Andalites, and save the humans. He landed by the Skirt Na ship, ready to steal it, when he found Arbron. Together they took the Skirt Na ship, but Elfangor soon learned that Arborn had stayed in Taxxon morph for too long and was now a Taxxon forever.

The Yeerks sent ships after the Skirt Na ship once it took off and were successful in making it crash even though they lost their fighters. The accident threw Elfangor from the ship and knocked him out. When he came too he was surrounded by Earth things and Arbron was nowhere to be seen. After he explored the Skirt Na ship and found pictures of Earth he boarded a strange yellow vehicle that he found (a Ford Mustang) and drove back towards the Yeerks. On the way he was intercepted by a living mountain. This mountain, using Arbron as its voice, explained that it was the origin of the Taxxons. They had turned against it and sided with the Yeerks. This made it angry. With Arbron it would finally have the mind it needed to defeat them. They made a plan to have Elfangor storm the ship and leave the planet while the Yeerks and the free Taxxons fought each other.

The battle was serious, but Elfangor was able to escape with Loren, Chapman and Alloran. They left Arbron behind to fight for the Taxxons (his new people). They also captured Sub-Visser Seven in his Hork-Bajir body. Alloran tossed the Hork-Bajir out of the ship and went to destroy all the innocent Yeerks again, but Elfangor knocked him unconscious to stop him. These were all fatal mistakes. For Sub-Visser Seven was actually inside of Chapman and the unconscious Andalite gave him the chance to do something he had wanted to do since he first learned about the Andalites. He infested Alloran and created the first Andalite-Controller.

The Abomination.

It was Elfangor’s fault.

He left Sub-Visser Seven/Alloran on the Taxxon homeworld, made a deal with the Yeerk in Loren’s head so that it would leave her, and set out far away from that world. They couldn’t trust Chapman anymore. Elfangor also knew that any time they left Zero Space the Yeerks would be on them, as they had put a tracking device on the ship. He couldn’t let them do that because he had the Time Matrix and no matter what that could not fall into the Yeerk’s hands.

After going in circles for a while he made the choice to go to the StarSword. The Yeerks could descend on them, but they would also be fighting an Andalite Dome Ship. It sounded like a good plan, but once they got there they realized that the StarSword was being attacked by living asteroids. Then the Yeerks appeared and there was chaos once more. Chaos that ended with Sub-Visser Seven, now Visser Thirty-Two (infesting the first Andalite was a major promotion for him), on the ship with him and them all falling into a black hole. Elfangor was able to drag the Time Matrix into the ship. Visser Thirty-Two, Loren and Elfangor all pressed their hands to the Time Matrix and pictured their home. The Time Matrix used the commands to create a new universe that was a mix of the incomplete images of the Andalite homeworld, the Yeerk homeworld, and Earth.

Loren and Elfangor traveled through this place to the ‘center’ where the Time Matrix was. They defeated Visser Thirty-Two and Elfangor told Loren to picture her home. He went with her. He knew he had no future as an Andalite, but he did have one as a human, with her.

He acquired a human morph by using collective DNA from several humans (including Loren). He took the name Alan Fangor (Loren picked it out because then people would call him ‘Al Fangor’). He went to college and taught his friend Bill how to create software for computers. The most important thing that he did, in his opinion, was to marry Loren. He had, after everything, fallen in love with her and she with him.

He lived happily as a human for three years. He missed his tail at times, and running freely through Andalite grass, but many things made up for it, most of all being with Loren.

Then one day he came home from work. Loren was gone because she had been feeling unwell and had gone to the doctors. He went into his house to find a man standing there. This man turned out to be not a man at all (Elfangor sensed this though, asking him ‘What are you?’ not ‘Who are you?’). He was the Ellimist. He told Elfangor that he was not where and when he needed to be. The timeline had been broken. Battles were lost that should have been won. The brother that his parents had been trying to have had not been born when he should. Things needed to be fixed.

Elfangor didn’t want to go. He didn’t want to leave his beloved wife, but then the Ellimist pointed out that if he remembered her Visser Three (as Visser Thirty-Two was now called) would destroy her. In order to protect his wife, Elfangor he consented to go with the Ellimist.

Three years before, when he and Loren had been talking, they had compared different dimensions to living on a piece of paper versus living in a cube. If one of the Cubies ever picked up one of the Flatties the Flattie would experience life as he never had before. He would be unable to explain what he saw the other Flatties and he would be forever changed. That was what happened to Elfangor. He saw Time. He saw through things and around things. It was amazing. It was also then that he realized the Ellimist had hidden something from him. He had a son.

A son.

He wanted to go back. He had a son. But the Ellimist said it was too late, things had been changed. He wanted to know the boy, wanted to love him, but it was too late. Though Ellimist took him away he did allow Elfangor to leave a will for the boy that would be read to him when he was old enough to understand, as much as he could anyway.

Elfangor found himself in a ship as the Blade Ship (Visser Three’s ship) and a Dome Ship faced off. He rammed the Blade Ship, winning the battle for the Andalites. He became a hero.

After, when he was back on the Andalite ship, he told the Prince all what he had done. The Prince said that no one must know this story, because the Andalites needed heroes and knowing all of this would make him not a hero. He would be forced to live a life without anyone else, not even Loren now, knowing all that had happened.

As a warrior prince, Elfangor made even more of a name for himself, all the while working to get the Andalites to head towards Earth to save the humans. He met his brother, Aximili–Esgarrouth–Isthill, for the first time when he returned home on leave. He treated his brother as an equal and taught him all about being a good warrior. During all of this time, though, he never stopped thinking about Loren and about their son. He performed all the Andalite rituals to give him strength and health and constantly thought about what his life must be like.

Finally, he was part of the plan to go to Earth. They took one Dome ship, and Elfangor insisted on taking artish Aximili with him. There was a surprise though. The Yeerks were waiting for them. The battle that followed forced the Andalites to separate the Dome part of the ship and the main part (the Dome part was where Aximili had been). Elfangor was injured past the point of surviving much longer. His hope was dashed. He had only once chance. The Time Matrix. Loren and he had hidden it in a patch of woods, but this patch was now a construction site. He landed anyway, there were five human youths outside.

“We won’t hurt you,” one of them said.

<I know>, he answered.

He told these humans everything he could. He gave them the ability to morph. He trusted them with the task of finally defeating the Yeerks.

Perhaps most important to him though, was that the boy was there. Loren’s son. His son. Tobias. The boy told Elfangor that he believed his mother was dead, that he had been told she never recovered when his dad took off. This broke all of Elfangor’s hearts. He gave this boy as much information as he could about the Yeerks, planting it right into his mind.

Visser Three landed, Elfangor told the children to hide, even as Tobias remained until the last possible second. Elfangor continued to tell the children everything that he could, even as he was doomed. He struck out against Visser Three with his tail as the Abomination gloated over his final victory. Finally the Visser morphed into a horrendous monster and ate Elfangor alive.

He died with a scream that will forever be remembered by each of those children.

Personality
Elfangor is an Andalite and he is also a human. As such, his personality can be a bit of mixture of different traits. When he was young he was very serious and yet he was an idealist. He really believed if he was a good enough warrior he could end the war. His experiences after that had taught him to have a bit of a sense of humor and have also given him a lot to be ashamed of. The burden of the knowledge of what he has done and how he had been the cause of the Abomination plagues him constantly. Despite this, he must play his part as an Andalite warrior prince. After all, his people need a hero.

He is almost regal in the way that he carries himself (even though the title ‘prince’ is more of a rank than any sort of nobility) as a good prince is a warrior, an artist, and a scientist. He is kind, but not soft. He’s careful and serious but also has his own sense of humor, something he developed because of Loren. He does have that bit of Andalite arrogance, but he’s also been seriously humbled by his experiences, because of this he can treat others as equals even when other Andalites might not consider them as such. He’s extremely intelligent, having been studious while in school and very serious in when he was studying to be a warrior. He is calm during emergencies and can handle stress very well. As a war-prince Elfangor developed a revered reputation has being noble and experienced without being jaded. Later in the books the Animorphs meet several different Andalites one of them says that he would never believe that anything Elfangor did, even if illegal, was wrong, the other tells Ax that Elfangor had “been out there” instead of just pretending like a lot of war princes.

He cares very deeply for the people he was attached to, especially his brother, wife and son (though he doesn’t really know Tobias very well). He also has a strong moral code that will make him do what he believes is right, with no cares for what will make him win and what the laws say. He refused to allow Alloran to kill those Yeerks, despite the fact that that would have been a huge blow to the Yeerk Empire and ended up creating the Abomination, and he gave the morphing power to human children despite the fact that that is against Andalite law to share technology. He does what he feels he must do, what he feels is right, despite what others tell him.

Like all Andalites (which are a free-roaming species) Elfangor is extremely claustrophobic. Even Anadalite airships are designed to have grass on the ‘floor’ and sky holograms on the ‘roof’ to give them the appearance of being home and under the Andalite sky. Dome-ships have an entire section just for running around and grazing. While Elfangor did have a human home for three years, he still doesn’t like being locked up in one place and needs to be outside often enough for him not to feel completely trapped. Which will, of course, make him just love to be a patient at Landel's.

At Landel's
Elfangor is stuck in human form during the Day. Despite being stuck in human form all day Elfangor is not a nothlit, at Night he can morph, but the process is much slower than normal and hurts (normal morphing looks like it should hurt, but it does not). Once in Andalite form Elfangor experiences a lot of pain, the pain at having been eaten alive by the Visser. The pain is so overwhelming he cannot stay in his Andalite form for very long. He can only complete two morphing cycles every Night (human->Andalite->morph->Andalite->human). If he stays too long in Andalite form he will pass out from the pain and automatically morph back into his human form.

Solid Snake

Firefly99 — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 05:57:52 CDT

'Real' Name: Justin Halley
Room: M78
Age: Twenty-seven
Hair: Dark blond/light brown
Eye colour: Green-blue-grey
Height: 6"

Snake was a member of Damned previously as an older man taken after the events of MGS2, where he lasted a week. He started to develop strong feelings for Fox again, but suffered mental trauma which pushed him almost to breaking point after losing an eye in an MU session. The presence of Raiden made him get his head together, however, and he, Raiden and Fox made an escape bid to the dark outer grounds. Fox and Raiden survived, but Snake was lethally injured, and begged Fox to euthanise him. His death left Fox on the edge of cracking, and it was only with the support of Lyta that he was able to handle the guilt.

With Lyta gone, Snake returned to Landel's - after the events of Zanzibar Land, the mission during which he had murdered Fox. With no memory of previous events, his old self's history is nothing more than awkwardness hanging in the air between him and Fox.

Miku Hinasaki

Rinibean — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 19:58:00 CDT

Name : Miku Hinasaki
Age : 19
Height : 5'4"
Weight : 105lbs
Hair : Dark Brown
Eyes : Medium Brown
Room Number : F1
Roommate : Lust

History

Miku is the second child of parents Miyuki and Masato Hinasaki. She is extremely close to her elder brother Mafuyu. The Hinasaki family faced much tragedy in the past; first, with the disappearance of Masato while he was on assignment, then the suicide of her mother - who hung herself in the backyard of their home, her body was discovered by Miku. These events left the Hinasaki children orphaned and alone.

Mafuyu inherited his mother's camera, unknowingly holding the cause of her death (it had amplified her spiritual power until she could see ghosts without it, driving her mad) in his very hands. He raised his sister, having no other family members to turn to.

Since she was a small child, Miku and her brother could see things other people couldn't, a talent also shared by their late mother. Because of this, Miku was often declared a 'weird girl' by her classmates, who went out of their way to avoid her. Though she was not vocal about her ability, it made her shy, and she had no close friends. Miku had a strong attachment to her brother (perhaps a bit too close), a budding journalist mentored by Junsei Takamine. Mister Takamine and his research team went to do some work for a novel he was working on at the Himuro Mansion. It was a place well known for its dark history of ritual and sacrifice. The legend was so well known in the surrounding area, that the villagers that lived below the mansion would close up their homes on certain nights of the year to avoid being 'spirited away'.

Approximately a week to ten days later, when nothing had been heard from Mister Takamine or either member of his research team, Mafuyu went to find them.

Nine days after that, Miku entered the Himuro Mansion to find Mafuyu. Instead, she found her mother's abandoned camera before a mirror in a hallway filled with ropes, Mafuyu nowhere in sight. Over a course of five nights, Miku began to fall victim to the curse that had been cast upon everyone else that had entered the mansion before her, with the exception of Mafuyu. Rope marks began to appear on her wrists, and her legs. She was constantly hunted by a ghost of a failed shrine maiden, Kirie, whose grudge had trapped the house in an eternal nightmare. Kirie also had Mafuyu trapped in her clutches (though he was not dead), and the two Hinasaki siblings traveled the mansion at the same time, but on different levels, sensing each other, but never seeing the other person in the flesh. Miku had help from the ghost of a little girl - Kirie's self as a child - who sincerely wished to carry out the ritual that would ultimately kill her.

Through notes and files in the mansion, Miku found that her ultimate goal to get both her brother and herself from the mansion safely would be to find the pieces of a Holy Mirror, shattered during the Rope Shrine Maiden's ritual. As she got closer to her goal, the Himuro Mansion unlocked more ghosts from deeper in the past of the family. Ultimately culminating in having to face Kirie herself, deep underground at Hell's Gate (also known as the Gate of the Underworld).

The battle was a difficult one, as she tried to find the last piece and keep Kirie from attacking. Unfortunately, she dropped her camera, and from it, came the final piece of the Holy Mirror. Miku snatched it up, pieced it together and used it against Kirie, defeating her and freeing Mafuyu. The spirit of young Kirie came to remind the older one (who had snatched Mafuyu because he looked like her old lover) of her duty to keep the Hell Gate closed with her spiritual powers. Kirie's ropes reattached to the front of the Hell's Gate, and it was clearly evident that she was in terrible pain. A cave-in began, and Kirie urged them both to go on and save themselves.

Instead, Mafuyu sent Miku on, telling her that he was going to stay with Kirie, so she would not lose hope and fall to the malice that had tainted her soul. The trapped souls in the mansion were freed, and Miku left the house alone. After that, for a short time, she lost all her special powers for seeing and sensing ghosts.

Miku, as well as her cat Ruri, were then taken in by her brother's friend Yuu Aso and his fiancee Rei Kurosawa. Eager to please them, she worked as an assistant to Rei. They were a small, but happy, 'family' until Yuu's death in a car accident two years later. A month after his death, Rei locked herself in the house, never leaving save to take photography assignments, usually ones having to do with the paranormal.

It was shortly after Yuu recieved a camera from a fellow researcher that Miku's powers began to revive themselves, a fact she kept from both Rei and Yuu. The two women continued work together, eventually following a story at the Kuze Shrine and its "Manor of Sleep" legend. Seeing Yuu in a hall, Rei started to fall under the curse.

Once they returned home, Rei had Miku look up information on a woman named Yoshino Toshigawa, a woman she met in the Manor of Sleep and had begged Rei to help her. Eventually, helping Rei led Miku into the Manor of Sleep as well, following Mafuyu. She eventually succumbed to the Tattooed Curse, sleeping more and more, as a painful, bruise-like tattoo spread over her body. The tattoo that adorned her was red, though not the Snake and Holly design that Rei had. When she fell into the deepest part of the curse, Miku mentions that she knew that everyone would die eventually, but, she just wanted to see Mafuyu one last time, unaware of Rei's pleas to not follow her brother (it is the belief that if you follow the dead, you too will die).

All was not lost, as Rei fought through the mansion to save Miku and herself as well. Miku had followed after who she thought was Mafuyu, and had gained her abilities back in the mansion. Eventually, she was saved, and life returned to normal(?) for the two women, carrying the memories of the loved ones they had lost.

Personality

Miku is a soft-spoken and genuinely kind girl, but rather shy. She seems to have a bit of a brother complex, and represses her problems (part of the reason that she was able to enter the Manor of Sleep is because she regretted living on after her brother had died).

She is the kind of girl that flinches if someone raises their voice to her. Miku is also rather domestic, more than willing to do simple things that make living easier on the whole. She doesn't, however, appear to scare easily (running around in two different houses full of ghosts would tend to hammer that kind of thing out of a girl), having a strong will for survival and very determined to help those close to her. She is calmly analytical when she must be, collecting her answers in a measured pace. If there is an answer to it, she will find it, though it usually leads to more questions.

What the Psychics and Telepaths Should Not See

For her part, Miku is unaccustomed to having to guard her thoughts, so surface thoughts and things are no-brainers. However, memories like Himuro Mansion and her past history (including the memories of her mother's hanging and her brother's sacrifice) are closely protected - and under many layers. She does not think about her abilities, simply uses them, though there is great relief in that she feels she is 'weaker' which should trigger a few raised eyebrows.