Player Information ;
Your Nickname: Vic
OOC Journal: mechaphilia
Under 18? nyett
Email/IM: same as always
Characters Played at Singularity:
→ Grid (dismembers)
→ Michael Altman (reunified)
→ Knock Out (scratchback)

Character Information ;
Name: Nue
Name of Canon: Karas
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: canon
Reference: Karas @ Wiki
Canon Point: Post-Kamaitachi, Pre-Tsuchigumo
Setting:

→ Japan. Modern era. Ghosts, goblins, spirits, demons, youkai, whatever you want to call them--they're all real (and are basically what you hear of in legends/folktales), although generally unseen by the human eye. Their existence is determined by the level of belief in them, said belief coming from the humans surrounding them. Things were all fine and dandy between the two sides until the human world started modernizing and began leaving these 'folktales' behind. The lack of belief is slowly killing off demons, making them sick and eventually disappear altogether.

Each land is granted a Karas--the physical embodiment of the will of the city, born of a pact between a Yurine (a cat spirit acting as liason between the spirits and Karas) and a human soul. The Karas is responsible for maintaining the balance between the human world and the demon world. One Karas in particular became a problem when he lost all faith in the human side of things and became obsessed with forcing them to remember the demons they'd chosen to forget. This might not have been so bad, had he not chosen to go about it in an extremely flashy, violent way.

Nue was one of the demons who sided with this Karas--known as Eko--during the early years of this conflict. His demon body was changed, mechanized, into a state that could directly interact with the human world. His twin brother (Nue are always born in pairs) went through a similar transformation. Things didn't work out, Nue booked it (brother sadly left behind), and three years later a new Karas was chosen and stepped up to bat, ready to set things right.

The type of mechanized demon Nue is is known as a mikura, a monster which feeds off the blood of humans and possesses far greater offensive and defensive strengths than that of a demon or human. They are Eko's war machines in the battle for control of the city, his pawns and his tools. Mikura have human forms, which they use to interact witht he human world, and huge, monstrous, mechanical 'true' selves. They usually hang around in human form, only taking their true form in battle or when put under severe stresses.

(Also I'll use youkai/demon/fiend interchangeably in this app since canon does the same, but in play I'll just stick with 'demons.')

Personality:

over time he will succumb to the temptation and lose himself
→ Run into Nue on the street, he's not particularly strange. He dresses a little odd, sure, but still within socially acceptable limits of weird. He's friendly enough, usually with a half-smile and a friendly nod to those he runs into, but the longer you interact the more... off the whole friendly thing seems. Yeah, sure, he's smiling and everything, talking all nice and polite, but at the end of the day he seems distracted, eager to move on, a little tired of conversation in general. His humour tends toward dry sarcasm, always poking just a little fun here and there, sometimes getting just a little too acerbic to be polite. He doesn't seem to have strong opinions on anything, all live-and-let-live, totally eager to go with the flow and just chill, but dig a little deeper and this isn't the case.

Nue's a kid with a troubled past--and considering his emotional maturity at the time, it's probably right to call him a kid. He and his twin brothers, full of piss and vinegar over the humans forgetting them, were all too easily swayed into siding with the Karas of their land to put the bump back in the night. After all, Karas was the good guy, right? He wasn't wrong, the land was, the people were. As a young, angry spirit, Nue was all to eager to join the cause. It wasn't until he underwent the rather horrific transformation from youkai to mikura that things started to seem wrong, and then... Well, let's just say witnessing the death of a Karas, followed by his brothers transformation into a huge hideous tentacle beast is a bit jarring, yeah? As it sunk in that he'd maybe just sort of fucked up big time, Nue manned up and faced his mistakes.

...Nah, who am I kidding, he ran like a little bitch and hid from his problems for three years.

He did a lot of growing up in that time. By the time he heads back to Shinjuku he's ready to deal with the issue he helped create, with the overall goal of rescuing his little brother. Most of this is motivated by guilt, since there's a chance that if he hadn't buggered off three years ago he mightn't been able to stop the mikura before they became such a huge threat to the city. He's also come to terms with the humans, acknowledging that it's not really their fault for forgetting the folktales and old stories and moving on. It's just human nature, silly and malleable as it is. It hurts to be forgotten, and he admits this outright to a young youkai, but it's not a problem to be solved with violence. Still, at his core he still doesn't want to be forgotten--none of them do--as for a being whose existence depends solely on the belief of the humans in their land, having someone forget you, your story, your myth, is a slow, linger death sentence.

Nue has mixed feelings about what he's become. On one hand, being a mikura is great. He and his siblings were able to partake in the human world in ways youkai could only dream of. The downside is they require human blood to live, and the rest of the youkai world (along with the newer Karas') see them as abominations to be cleansed from the earth. Eventually his mikura side will overpower his will, turning him into the blood-draining, human terrorizing monsters that plague Shinjuku. Nue is perfectly aware that he's become a monster--one which will eventually be put down by one side or another--but he's aiming to put things right before he loses himself. The Yurine of Shinjuku has Nue pegged as a definite future threat, and has gone so far as to order Karas to strike him down. Nue understands why she thinks this, and really has no argument against it, but he's thankful that Karas (Otoha) chose to spare him. Nue respects both of their positions, and the duties they must perform, but he can't help but hope they overlook him long enough for him to finish his mission.

His mission to kill Eko and save his brother comes first above everything else. It's the single driving force behind his actions, and the thing that causes him time and time again to put his life in danger. It would be easy to run away again--hell, the thought has probably occurred to him several times--but a sense of sheer stubbornness to put things right keeps him moving forward.

Despite his rather single-minded drive for revenge, he has a notable soft spot for younger kids, particularly sibling-types--a direct hold-over from his own relationship with his younger twin. He can be quite blunt in ignoring, or sending off, most folks, but when faced with the overwhelmingly bright, helpful demeanour of Amefuriko he's pretty damn indulgent. He can't help but bend over backwards for the young, lost types, too easily reminded of his own missing sibling and how he failed to look after him. Seriously, the whole Karas thing is one big ~brotherhood~ metaphor.

Abilities and Weaknesses:

→ See this? Yeah, that's what Nue really is. Originally a demon associated most closely with the element of lightning, Nue's transformation into his monstrous form tends to be something of a light show. A previously clear sky will suddenly be black with cloud cover, while his body (huge and metal as it is) acts like a glorified lightning rod. The electricity that skitters over his frame does not harm him--it was part of his nature before his transformation, and it remains part of it even now--and its frenetic sparking and arcing tends to reflect his inner agitation.

Despite his abilities, Nue doesn't use his electricity very often--instead he relies on the firepower contained his his robotic body to do the most damage. Still, when he needs and/or wants to, he does have the ability to produce and control large amounts of electrical energy. He's been shown to be competent with various small arms and sniper rifles, and uses these weapons extensively.

While 'human' it's worth nothing that he's your general mix of harder/better/faster/stronger than average, with a rather admirable tolerance for pain and general abuse. This is because his 'guts' aren't human--besides being more resilient, it can also be assumed he's got metal bits inside (as another mikura was seen to have metal innards after her human form was damaged in an attack) As a mikura, he also has the ability to draw all the bodily fluids out a human (although this is never used in the series as he presumably dislikes using it due to his issue with drinking human blood). Mikura/youkai/Karas appear to be able to move fast enough that everything else slows around them (entire battles take place in a handful of seconds, in extreme cases).

Inventory:

Guitar case containing;
→ sniper rifle & ammunition (12 7.62×67 mm cartridges)
→ two handguns & ammunition (both .45 caliber, one full magazine in each, spare ammo in case)
→ a picture of him and his bro

With mod permission, I'd like him to arrive with his motorcycle--which will be totally trashed upon landing in the junkyard.

Appearance:

→ To all outward appearances Nue is pretty normal. A tad eccentric in his style, perhaps, but human enough. His red dreds are pulled up and out of his face by a thick green headband, leaving a few loose bits at his 'sideburns' and at the nape of his neck. With a neatly groomed soul patch, orange-tinted sunglasses (which never come off thanks to the rather obvious red irises they hide, thanks), and a large decorative jacket, he seems to come from one of the many alternative sub-cultures that make up the younger population of Japan.

Just another wannabe punk out on the mean streets of Shinjuku, killing time and going nowhere. Right?

Not quite.

Human enough on the outside, Nue's true nature shines through once you break the skin. His body underneath is all shiny metal and fluorescent green (ever bust open a glowstick for kicks?), while a few more obvious hints toward his true nature can be seen in his bloodred eyes and the pointier than average teeth.

Nue is quite capable of ingesting human food and drink, although in the long-run he, like all mikura, require human blood to sustain his life and heal injuries. It's not quite clear if it has to be fresh blood or not; Amefuriko feeds him several bags worth of blood stolen from a local hospital, but it isn't until Otoha 'donates' a few mouthfuls that he starts to perk up.

For more on his mikura side, please see the powers section ♥

Age:

→ A canon age is not given, so we'll have to work with guesstimates here. Chronologically, Nue is several hundred years old, although his mikura form is only around 3 years old. He presents himself as an young adult (early twenties) both in level of mental/emotional maturity and in human form.

OC/AU Justification ;
If AU, How is Your Version Different From Canon, and How Will That Come Across? n/a
If OC, Did You Run Your Character Through a Mary-Sue Litmus Test?
And What Did You Score?

Samples ;
Log Sample:

With permission of Odd!mod (previously Brig!mod), I'll be linking to several dear_mun posts I've made with Nue. They're ordered from oldest to newest.
→ first
→ second
→ third
→ fourth

Network Sample:

[ The audio feed kicks off with a long sigh. It's the sort of bone-weary, annoyed-as hell noise you'd expect from someone who just spent half an hour trying to salvage the wreckage of their beloved motorcycle from the clusterfuck that is the junkyard. Despite this, the man speaking doesn't sound terribly upset. ]

Ahhh... The recording was really helpful and all, and Sacrosanct's a pretty name, but anybody else out there feel like filling me in on just what the heck's going on? It'd be nice to have a real idea where I crash landed. Directions back would be nice too, but that might be asking a bit much.

[ there's a pause, and the sound of someone lazily shifting through a pile of metal ]

...Anyone happen to know a good mechanic?