application > eudio

[icarusalsoflew]

PLAYER INFORMATION

NAME: Pam/Kae
AGE: 29
CONTACT: NiaSatou @ plurk / derridamustdie@gmail.com (Hangouts) / PM this guy's account
CHARACTERS PLAYED: None in this game yet!

CHARACTER INFORMATION

NAME: Hikaru Shinta
CANON: Original Character (Waking the Dead campaign, for the World of Darkness)
AGE: 22 in this current cycle (29 out of 1,936); is actually 1,058 years old
CANON POINT: During a diplomatic lull as his contingent waits for word from a rival party within Arcadia (it's a long story.)

BACKGROUND:

HISTORY
TL;DR version is over here, although details from the last life cycle listed in this link is a bit different from the point I'm taking him from! Used a link for another version of the campaign he's a part of.

Some information on the world of Waking the Dead and how it differs from White Wolf's World of Darkness campaign can be found over here.

Originally born in the 9th Century, Hikaru was the second child and only son of a blacksmith and a courtesan. His experiences in this first cycle set the tone for the remainder of his existence: his older sister was viewed as a witch by the people of the queendom that they belonged to, and Hikaru, in turn, did everything in his power in order to redeem her. The biggest step he took was joining the Vigil at a very young age, and becoming the first and last test subject of Project Deus Ex Machina - the Vigil's attempt at killing a god, and having a mortal absorb its powers. What his superiors did not discover until much later was the never actually killed a god: they ended up summoning Death Himself. Death subsequently "cursed" Hikaru, fating him to die and reincarnate 1,936 lives, all the while losing himself a bit more to the force that was bound to him.

From that point on, Hikaru threw himself into the Vigil as best as he could. He, like other Hunters, influenced the turn of human history through the shadows by their safeguarding of the Veil - that is, by keeping the rest of humanity ignorant of the things that went bump in the night while mediating between the different (quarrelsome) supernatural entities. He grew in power with each cycle, which also put him at risk, each and every time, of losing himself completely to the insanity that came with being a body that just wasn't equipped to handle the power, instincts, and urges of a force of nature made sentient. Things came to ahead in 2012, during his 27th life cycle: the strain upon him was immense, and Death was on the brink of taking control of him completely. It did not help, of course, that 2012 was also the year where the Fifth World - his version of Earth, so to speak - was at a breaking point. The precarious balance between the World of Light and the World of Darkness was tipping, and the will of the world was directed rather decisively towards a Final End. The Vigil gathered together what people they could, and managed to beat back Nyx, an entity that embodies this Final End. She's basically the one who comes around to destroy everything, all on the pretense of making it all anew. It was a hard won victory, and it did not last for very long: the cost for setting the clock back was the wholesale destruction of the Veil, which dragged mankind into the uncomfortable awareness that human beings were, indeed, not alone, and had never really been alone in the first place.

Certain events in 2012 had led towards a near permanent stabilization between Hikaru and Death. This was something that Hikaru took full advantage of during the Darkest Vigil, which was the global war that supernaturals and human beings engaged in shortly after the Veil's destruction. It lasted for over fifty years, seeing Hikaru through two and a half life cycles - one cycle, in fact, was septn with him completely relinquishing control of his own body in order to better understand what it meant to be Death's Vessel. This fight, however, was also one that the Vigil ended up winning. By 2063, Hikaru and other Keepers were three years into peace time, and dealing, as best as they could, with the ghosts of the Darkest Vigil.

Prior to Eudio's representative approaching him, Hikaru was rather occupied with a Vigil operation within Arcadia, the strange and scary-beautiful realm of the Faerie.


PERSONALITY

Initially, it's the contradictions that might catch one's attention. On the one hand, Hikaru appears to be brilliant, effortlessly witty, disarmingly charming, and warm to everyone and everything he meets. On the other hand, this same "young man" is a sharp-minded, cunning and shrewd leader, ruthless towards allies and enemies alike, pragmatic to a fault, and seemingly inclined towards evaluating others according to their economic worth to him. There is also a third aspect in the mix: the vindictive, self-destructive child who is convinced that he is nothing but an autonomous weapon or karmic freak, and occupies himself with spending the rest of his spare time chasing after the next best high in vice, fighting, pitting people against each other "for sport", or crushing others in a social space, or in the bedroom. Furthermore, there is an even darker side to the Blade King: the vicious predator who seems perfectly capable of turning any field into a battlefield (literally or metaphorically), breathlessly brutal in all of his actions, and seemingly obsessed with the thrill of the kill, so much so that anything or anyone who gets in his way is viewed as a ridiculous obstacle that he must dismantle without a second thought - and it almost certainly looks like they were killed almost absentmindedly, each and every time.

The textbook on sociopaths could have been written by merely observing Hikaru throughout his many life cycles. The constant experience of wasting away or dying a painful death while wrestling constantly with insanity, only to be born again with all of one's memories intact after a violent reawakening each and every single time has left its mark on the Blade King. He's an impossible existence because he's perpetually too strong for his own good. He values control and restraint in all of his actions, because the slightest slip on his end means facing the immensity of his own difficult, oftentimes rebelling instincts as a result of the constant sensory overload, the magnitude in which any sort of emotion affects him by merit of his "condition", and the deep well of his own memories. This is the main reason why any sort of grounding is increasingly important to Hikaru, and he places exceptional stock on words, family, and codes of behavior. The code of behavior that he personally ascribes to is close to the principles of bushido and Zen Buddhism, tempered with the firm belief that because he only ever has so much time in a life cycle, he needs to burn through every second of it properly, giving his all for the Vigil and his loved ones - and, in spite of his best efforts, he has many loved ones whom he is dangerously attached to.

A testament to Hikaru's conviction is the fact that at the end of it all, even when he was at his lowest points and in danger of losing himself completely, he has managed to remain, at the core, a boy who is fundamentally good and compassionate, who chose to bleed for all eternity on the Path of Blades for his sister and the men he viewed as family without having to understand the kind of sacrifice he'd end up making as a result. It's entirely possible that he kept this sense of self out of sheer bullheadedness rather that principle, but that in itself hints at an admirable amount of tenacity. Nevertheless, there remains a deep seated insecurity within him with regard to the matter of his existence. Becoming Death's Vessel caused him to fall out of the karmic cycle, and the pain and suffering he has undergone and caused other people has vested in him the firm belief that he should not exist, that none of his actions have any inherent value, and that the world, in general, would be better off without him. Recent events (such as a ritual that has effectively returned him to the karmic cycle) have started to change him, thus giving him a chance to start believing that he might just be worth something after all, and that he is worthy of having friends, family, lovers. Nevertheless, the struggle remains real, especially since he's constantly struggling with the power at his disposal and the excess that comes with it: he's still in danger of slipping back into old habits, and that includes being a bit too reckless with his own life, and defaulting to attempting to put distance between him and other people by driving them away from him, thus making sure that they won't want to come back and try to get close to him again.

Who can blame him for that, really? That's a millennia and then some's worth of bad habits to break, and a LOT of opposition to deal with.


INCENTIVE/FIT:

INCENTIVE

Hikaru would have asked that Eudio makes sure that he lives long in this current life cycle. He normally dies between 20-30, and he's got a lot of personal motivation to stay around a bit longer this time around.

FIT

Hikaru's more than willing to live in Eudio for a while because, for all his talk and his own, ah, tendencies, he's in the business of helping people, and... well, saving worlds, even if they're not necessarily his own to begin with. Being a Hunter for over a millennia has provided him with all sorts of crazy skills, and the abilities he possesses both as a Bladian and as Vessel to Death of the Fifth World make him more than capable of doing pretty much anything of his choosing. Far and enough that he's "lucky" enough to possess eidetic memory, and thus retains all of the memories he's accumulated since his first life cycle.

On a more personal note, Hikaru is, quite frankly, too old to have any real hangups about race, gender, and matters of the bedroom. Furthermore, sex is, by default, a natural bodily function, and said "natural functions" are the piecemeal of Bladians, especially exceptionally powerful ones like himself. Therefore, I'd say that sex is INCREDIBLY important to this one, and he loves to fuck (or be fucked by) the people he loves as often as possible.

At the end of it all, Eudio needs assistance. He's ready and able to provide, in all manners of the word. He's also more or less confident that his people back at home can handle anything that comes their way without him for a while. Eudio, for all intents and purposes, looks like a comfortable place to kick back a bit, enjoy life without any Vigil-related crises on his plate, and help some folks out while he's at it.

SAMPLES:
Dear Mun/Dear Player: x | x
In-Game Stuff: x | x | x


ANYTHING ELSE?

I provided a link to the basics of Bladians up there, under the Incentive/Fit section. The two other significant things of note here would be the eidetic memory, and the fact that Hikaru's technically Death in his world, which means he's the one who decides, at the end of it all, who dies and when/how they go. He's also aware of the "clock" on each and every individual he meets, thus knowing their total lifespan. Vessel powers, however, don't apply in Eudio, since he's got no providence on the way death happens in this setting.

Things Hikaru's going to bring for himself beyond clothes: two swords (both katanas of exceptional make) and a LOT of leatherbound notebooks. He's more than willing to have those weapons registered, and if the administration doesn't want him to keep them, that's fine too. He'll work at being permitted to carry them (and wield other weapons besides) as necessary.

Peg is Takeshi Kaneshiro! So Hikaru more or less looks like this.