Entry tags:
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
exsilium app
» PLAYER INFORMATION
Player NAME: skarme
Current AGE: 19
Personal JOURNAL:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
blitzente
IM & SERVICE: tsukaiblitzente (AIM)
Player PLURK:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
blitzente
Current CHARACTERS: N/A
» CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character NAME: Edward Elric
Canon & MEDIUM: Fullmetal Alchemist (2003 anime)
Canon PULL-POINT: Post Conqueror of Shamballa, after he's returned to Earth.
Character AGE: 18
Character ABILITIES:
Ed's most prominent special ability is right there in the series title: he's an alchemist. That is, he can reshape or alter the composition of pretty much any matter he can touch. Unlike most alchemists, he doesn't need to prepare an appropriate transmutation circle before carrying this out; all he has to do is mentally picture the circle and clap his hands. He specialises in earth elements, but isn't at all restricted to them. The main limiting factor on his alchemy is the principle of equivalent exchange - he can't create matter out of nowhere, nor create anything new without sacrificing something of equal "value" (usually some similar material). On top of that, certain kinds of transmutations - specifically, any that involve transmuting the human body or soul - are a really, really bad idea. Conservation of energy, on the other hand, isn't a barrier; the energy required is pulled from the souls of dead people on (to him) contemporary Earth, with the excess given off as light and sound.
Almost as prominently, and also referenced in the series title: his right arm and most of his left leg are anachronistically advanced steel prosthetics called automail, plugged directly into his nervous system. They're just as mobile as his original limbs, much tougher, and he can transmute their covers into different shapes without affecting their internal workings. They do have downsides, though - they're heavy, he has no tactile sensation in them (although this can be an advantage depending on the situation), they need maintenance every so often and they make him more vulnerable than the average person to extreme temperatures.
Both of those things have obvious uses in combat, and he's adept at applying them to the materials in his environment. He won't hesitate to transmute a weapon if he thinks one will give him an edge; he's at least competent with a wide variety of them, ranging from polearms, hammers and knives to firearms on some occasions, although his "trademark" and most common fallback is a long blade that he transmutes out of the cover of his automail. Said applications aren't purely offensive, either - manipulating terrain to block attacks and create diversions is a mainstay of his fighting style. Still, it's worth noting that he's no slouch in this department even without his alchemy - he's athletic, resilient, extremely agile, an experienced fist fighter thanks to his martial arts training, surprisingly good at thinking up plans on the fly despite his general impulsiveness, and not at all averse to taking cheap shots.
On the more mundane side of things, he's... an alchemist, and a prodigy at that. His knowledge of chemistry, physics, geology and other natural sciences is extensive, if decidedly classical, and he's always looking to add to it - Earth's technology in 1921 was years ahead of what he was familiar with when he arrived there, but within months he was studying rocketry at university level and by all accounts doing just fine. He isn't restricted to book smarts, either - he's keenly observant even when under pressure, and remarkably quick on the uptake in general.
Finally, he can twist anything into a short joke.
Character HISTORY: Here's a wiki page. The only really important thing to note is that some of the manga-only information further up the page doesn't apply.
Character PERSONALITY:
There are a lot of things you could say about Edward. Many of them aren't particularly flattering. He's brash, stubborn, arrogant, bad-tempered and frequently violent, with an impulsive streak only matched by the depth of his cynicism. Even ignoring his tendency to fly into berserk rages on little to no provocation, his poor social skills make him hard to hold a conversation with; he's unfailingly rude to more or less everyone, and that goes doubly for any kind of authority. He notably breaks the shounen protagonist mould by being genuinely intelligent, but his hot-bloodedness tends to undermine that - although when it doesn't, expect him to be insufferable about it. None of these traits are what defines him, though - in fact, after two years of being stuck in another world and steadily losing hope of seeing anyone he knows again, he's toned a lot of them down.
What hasn't changed is his sense of responsibility. His worldview can be summarised by the Principle of Equivalent Exchange, the basis of all alchemy and a rule Ed takes very seriously even though it isn't always strictly true: nothing can be gained without losing something of equal value, but conversely, anyone who sacrifices something will obtain something of equal value in return. Translated into a way of life, this means carrying out your obligations and earning your own happiness. Moreover, since Equivalent Exchange is meant to be a universal principle, those obligations aren't solely to yourself or the people in your immediate experience - you're never completely extricable from the rest of the world you live in, so you'll always bear some responsibility for it. It took him a while to refine his philosophy to this point, but it's working out for him so far.
His outlook has two notable consequences. The first is his determination. Ed has bottomless reserves of the stuff. If he decides he's going to do something, then come hell or high water he will; if anything goes wrong, it's his mess to clean up, and nobody else's. This approach tends to get him into more trouble than it gets him out of, but that hasn't ever stopped him. The second is his kindness - the guy's a lot nicer than he first seems, and certainly more than he'd like to let on. He'll gripe about it and maybe try to pass it off as something else, but if it's within his ability to help someone out (and often even when it isn't), he'll almost always try. He sympathises especially strongly with outcasts, having lived as one in a couple of different ways. As you might expect, conflict arises when his altruism interferes with his other goals; generally, though, it's the other goals that will slide.
This says more than you might think, because in general, Ed is intensely goal-driven. He'll completely restructure his life around them if necessary (an extreme example would be his joining the state military at the age of twelve just so he could use their resources), and take personal offence when anybody suggests he can't achieve them, even himself.
His top priority has always been Alphonse, his younger brother and sole surviving blood relation. What began as an ordinary older sibling instinct was cemented after the two of them were effectively orphaned by their mother's death, then further ingrained when their failed attempt to bring her back (which was initially Ed's idea) cost Al his body. Compared to that, Ed's own well-being takes a definite back seat, and even his empathy for other people will struggle a little - he proved himself perfectly willing to sacrifice his life for Al's, and almost failed to balk earlier when the price was instead the lives of a crowd of death row inmates. Al was even Ed's main reason for wanting to leave Earth after being trapped there; once he finally ascertained that Al was still alive, he lost most of his interest in returning home.
However, he does have other motivations, and over the years he's become more comfortable with admitting them. His moral sense, deriving from his abovementioned empathy, is a big one. Back when he was a State Alchemist, he quickly gained a reputation as a champion of the people due to his compulsion to right wrongs wherever he saw them. These days, though he no longer has any stature or much in the way of resources, he's resolved to continue doing much the same thing on Earth; at the point he's taken from, he's chasing the inventor of the atomic bomb to make sure nobody uses it for war. He used to think high-faluting goals like these weren't nearly as important as his more personal dreams, despite not always acting that way, but since then he's come to accept that he values them too.
Of course, this kind of lifestyle takes its toll, and Ed does harbour a tendency to brood about it. To be fair, he's lived through a lot, and he's not the most balanced person when it comes to dealing with it. Though he's mellowed out about some things such as his parental issues, he has plenty of others that he's still working through - among them are his difficulty being candid about his emotions, a habit of viewing other people as lesser despite intellectually knowing they aren't, and a heavy inclination towards guilt. It's these issues, probably more than his lack of social grace, which will complicate any close relationships with him for the foreseeable future.
Still, rough patches aside, he's a pretty heroic character. He just needs to be given a while in order to show it.
» EXSILIUM INFORMATION
Chosen WEAPON: A revolver from the Initiative armoury, chosen for its resemblance to the gun he borrowed from Fritz Lang in canon. To begin with, it'll be rather unwieldy, but his aim will get better over time. He'll also familiarise himself with its chemical composition (which may alter), eventually allowing him to integrate it into his existing fighting style instead of keeping it as a last resort - for example, he might use alchemy on the fly to change its shape, attach it to his automail or transmute unusual ammunition.
Chosen SKILLSET: He's definitely a fighter, but he'd be up for less hands-on work too.
» SAMPLES
First PERSON:
[voice]
[This recording is somewhat quiet, but it's the forced and noticeably uneven quiet of a guy who's used to being louder. Maybe the location he's recording from has something to do with it.]
Question for the tech freaks out there. There's gotta be some of you around. [A momentary pause.] Let's say I'm looking at all of the names listed on this thing, and... I want it to let me know whenever one of them is new. How would I set that up? Or if I can't, why not? Doesn't sound like a stretch to me.
Oh, and if you can't give me a straight answer one way or another, forget it.
Third PERSON:
1.
Unfamiliar as this dilapidated street is, it's difficult for Edward to stave off a sense of deja vu as he wanders down it, picking his way across the cracks in the ground. In itself, that isn't a surprise - and don't get him wrong, he does find it kind of funny that by now he's practically a damn expert at exploring shop-lined streets on nearly-alien worlds. There's more to it than the obvious reason, though. Not the atmosphere, he thinks, tugging his already-drenched coat a little further around him, but... the people, maybe. Watching them swarm past, hearing their voices in the background, occasionally feeling them elbow him in his left arm as they hurry through the rain and carry on with their own lives - yeah, if any more evidence were needed that people are pretty much the same wherever you go, this is it.
A while ago, he wouldn't have seen anything wrong with thinking about the situation like that. But these days he knows better; there's no point in pretending to be detached, not now that he's one of them. And he's chosen to be one of them, because what else could he have done? Said no, and then marched straight out, expecting everything else to fall into place for him? Nah, he's learned his lesson there. He'll never be separate from the rest of the world, and that isn't about to change just because the setting has.
Besides, he owes Earth a little something for putting up with him for this long. Time to pay it back.
2.
While he's waiting for the bus to shift, Ed takes another moment to flick through the notes he's made so far. He's still not sure what to make of them, if he's totally honest. There's no denying that science in this world looks interesting, however haphazardly it's presented and however painfully some of the ideas clash with his well-trained sense of scepticism. (You'd think they were in love with the word quantisation. Give him a break.) Still, he can't help wondering if there'll be ramifications when he brings some of it back home, and it's just that nobody's mentioned them up until now. It wouldn't be the first time. For that matter, this isn't the first time he's thought about taking knowledge of some technology back to a world that hadn't yet discovered it... and the disparity between here and the Earth he knows is even starker than what he was considering before, which doesn't help his nagging feeling that lately he's been living out a bad pulp fiction novel.
Not going home at some stage isn't even a remote possibility in his mind, of course. Gotta look forward. That much, unlike the rest, is crystal clear.
Presently, he feels the floor rumble under his feet and reaches over with his free hand to grab the nearby handrail just as the bus begins to lurch forward. Yeah, better put these away for the time being. It'd be stupid to lose them before getting the opportunity to pore over them somewhere less crowded, after all. He moves to slip the small notebook back into his coat pocket -
- and finds that it isn't there. Neither is the rest of his coat.
His nonplussed surprise soon turns into profound irritation once he's forced to mentally retrace his steps. It's still in the library, he's positive. He remembers taking it off to stop it dripping onto the pages he was looking at. Ugh, this would be because he got too absorbed in this futuristic crap, wouldn't it? If he'd just paid a little more attention to where he'd been putting stuff down... or, hell, paid more attention to his surroundings in general... Oh, this is such a pain. Of all the damn times it would've been useful to notice more of the cold...
He distractedly does his best to shake those thoughts off. Too late to complain. On the other hand, it's not quite too late to do something about the problem. But the bus is already rolling - if he does want to go play fetch, it's now or never.
Well, at least that's one question he always knows how to answer.
With no more warning than a hasty "Sorry!" over his shoulder as he pushes past the other passengers - he figures he can repeat it properly later, if he ever happens to run into any of these people again - he clears a makeshift path to the still-open door, flings himself out of it and hits the ground running.
» ADDITIONAL NOTES
Nothing that I can think of!
Player NAME: skarme
Current AGE: 19
Personal JOURNAL:
blitzenteIM & SERVICE: tsukaiblitzente (AIM)
Player PLURK:
Current CHARACTERS: N/A
» CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character NAME: Edward Elric
Canon & MEDIUM: Fullmetal Alchemist (2003 anime)
Canon PULL-POINT: Post Conqueror of Shamballa, after he's returned to Earth.
Character AGE: 18
Character ABILITIES:
Ed's most prominent special ability is right there in the series title: he's an alchemist. That is, he can reshape or alter the composition of pretty much any matter he can touch. Unlike most alchemists, he doesn't need to prepare an appropriate transmutation circle before carrying this out; all he has to do is mentally picture the circle and clap his hands. He specialises in earth elements, but isn't at all restricted to them. The main limiting factor on his alchemy is the principle of equivalent exchange - he can't create matter out of nowhere, nor create anything new without sacrificing something of equal "value" (usually some similar material). On top of that, certain kinds of transmutations - specifically, any that involve transmuting the human body or soul - are a really, really bad idea. Conservation of energy, on the other hand, isn't a barrier; the energy required is pulled from the souls of dead people on (to him) contemporary Earth, with the excess given off as light and sound.
Almost as prominently, and also referenced in the series title: his right arm and most of his left leg are anachronistically advanced steel prosthetics called automail, plugged directly into his nervous system. They're just as mobile as his original limbs, much tougher, and he can transmute their covers into different shapes without affecting their internal workings. They do have downsides, though - they're heavy, he has no tactile sensation in them (although this can be an advantage depending on the situation), they need maintenance every so often and they make him more vulnerable than the average person to extreme temperatures.
Both of those things have obvious uses in combat, and he's adept at applying them to the materials in his environment. He won't hesitate to transmute a weapon if he thinks one will give him an edge; he's at least competent with a wide variety of them, ranging from polearms, hammers and knives to firearms on some occasions, although his "trademark" and most common fallback is a long blade that he transmutes out of the cover of his automail. Said applications aren't purely offensive, either - manipulating terrain to block attacks and create diversions is a mainstay of his fighting style. Still, it's worth noting that he's no slouch in this department even without his alchemy - he's athletic, resilient, extremely agile, an experienced fist fighter thanks to his martial arts training, surprisingly good at thinking up plans on the fly despite his general impulsiveness, and not at all averse to taking cheap shots.
On the more mundane side of things, he's... an alchemist, and a prodigy at that. His knowledge of chemistry, physics, geology and other natural sciences is extensive, if decidedly classical, and he's always looking to add to it - Earth's technology in 1921 was years ahead of what he was familiar with when he arrived there, but within months he was studying rocketry at university level and by all accounts doing just fine. He isn't restricted to book smarts, either - he's keenly observant even when under pressure, and remarkably quick on the uptake in general.
Finally, he can twist anything into a short joke.
Character HISTORY: Here's a wiki page. The only really important thing to note is that some of the manga-only information further up the page doesn't apply.
Character PERSONALITY:
There are a lot of things you could say about Edward. Many of them aren't particularly flattering. He's brash, stubborn, arrogant, bad-tempered and frequently violent, with an impulsive streak only matched by the depth of his cynicism. Even ignoring his tendency to fly into berserk rages on little to no provocation, his poor social skills make him hard to hold a conversation with; he's unfailingly rude to more or less everyone, and that goes doubly for any kind of authority. He notably breaks the shounen protagonist mould by being genuinely intelligent, but his hot-bloodedness tends to undermine that - although when it doesn't, expect him to be insufferable about it. None of these traits are what defines him, though - in fact, after two years of being stuck in another world and steadily losing hope of seeing anyone he knows again, he's toned a lot of them down.
What hasn't changed is his sense of responsibility. His worldview can be summarised by the Principle of Equivalent Exchange, the basis of all alchemy and a rule Ed takes very seriously even though it isn't always strictly true: nothing can be gained without losing something of equal value, but conversely, anyone who sacrifices something will obtain something of equal value in return. Translated into a way of life, this means carrying out your obligations and earning your own happiness. Moreover, since Equivalent Exchange is meant to be a universal principle, those obligations aren't solely to yourself or the people in your immediate experience - you're never completely extricable from the rest of the world you live in, so you'll always bear some responsibility for it. It took him a while to refine his philosophy to this point, but it's working out for him so far.
His outlook has two notable consequences. The first is his determination. Ed has bottomless reserves of the stuff. If he decides he's going to do something, then come hell or high water he will; if anything goes wrong, it's his mess to clean up, and nobody else's. This approach tends to get him into more trouble than it gets him out of, but that hasn't ever stopped him. The second is his kindness - the guy's a lot nicer than he first seems, and certainly more than he'd like to let on. He'll gripe about it and maybe try to pass it off as something else, but if it's within his ability to help someone out (and often even when it isn't), he'll almost always try. He sympathises especially strongly with outcasts, having lived as one in a couple of different ways. As you might expect, conflict arises when his altruism interferes with his other goals; generally, though, it's the other goals that will slide.
This says more than you might think, because in general, Ed is intensely goal-driven. He'll completely restructure his life around them if necessary (an extreme example would be his joining the state military at the age of twelve just so he could use their resources), and take personal offence when anybody suggests he can't achieve them, even himself.
His top priority has always been Alphonse, his younger brother and sole surviving blood relation. What began as an ordinary older sibling instinct was cemented after the two of them were effectively orphaned by their mother's death, then further ingrained when their failed attempt to bring her back (which was initially Ed's idea) cost Al his body. Compared to that, Ed's own well-being takes a definite back seat, and even his empathy for other people will struggle a little - he proved himself perfectly willing to sacrifice his life for Al's, and almost failed to balk earlier when the price was instead the lives of a crowd of death row inmates. Al was even Ed's main reason for wanting to leave Earth after being trapped there; once he finally ascertained that Al was still alive, he lost most of his interest in returning home.
However, he does have other motivations, and over the years he's become more comfortable with admitting them. His moral sense, deriving from his abovementioned empathy, is a big one. Back when he was a State Alchemist, he quickly gained a reputation as a champion of the people due to his compulsion to right wrongs wherever he saw them. These days, though he no longer has any stature or much in the way of resources, he's resolved to continue doing much the same thing on Earth; at the point he's taken from, he's chasing the inventor of the atomic bomb to make sure nobody uses it for war. He used to think high-faluting goals like these weren't nearly as important as his more personal dreams, despite not always acting that way, but since then he's come to accept that he values them too.
Of course, this kind of lifestyle takes its toll, and Ed does harbour a tendency to brood about it. To be fair, he's lived through a lot, and he's not the most balanced person when it comes to dealing with it. Though he's mellowed out about some things such as his parental issues, he has plenty of others that he's still working through - among them are his difficulty being candid about his emotions, a habit of viewing other people as lesser despite intellectually knowing they aren't, and a heavy inclination towards guilt. It's these issues, probably more than his lack of social grace, which will complicate any close relationships with him for the foreseeable future.
Still, rough patches aside, he's a pretty heroic character. He just needs to be given a while in order to show it.
» EXSILIUM INFORMATION
Chosen WEAPON: A revolver from the Initiative armoury, chosen for its resemblance to the gun he borrowed from Fritz Lang in canon. To begin with, it'll be rather unwieldy, but his aim will get better over time. He'll also familiarise himself with its chemical composition (which may alter), eventually allowing him to integrate it into his existing fighting style instead of keeping it as a last resort - for example, he might use alchemy on the fly to change its shape, attach it to his automail or transmute unusual ammunition.
Chosen SKILLSET: He's definitely a fighter, but he'd be up for less hands-on work too.
» SAMPLES
First PERSON:
[voice]
[This recording is somewhat quiet, but it's the forced and noticeably uneven quiet of a guy who's used to being louder. Maybe the location he's recording from has something to do with it.]
Question for the tech freaks out there. There's gotta be some of you around. [A momentary pause.] Let's say I'm looking at all of the names listed on this thing, and... I want it to let me know whenever one of them is new. How would I set that up? Or if I can't, why not? Doesn't sound like a stretch to me.
Oh, and if you can't give me a straight answer one way or another, forget it.
Third PERSON:
1.
Unfamiliar as this dilapidated street is, it's difficult for Edward to stave off a sense of deja vu as he wanders down it, picking his way across the cracks in the ground. In itself, that isn't a surprise - and don't get him wrong, he does find it kind of funny that by now he's practically a damn expert at exploring shop-lined streets on nearly-alien worlds. There's more to it than the obvious reason, though. Not the atmosphere, he thinks, tugging his already-drenched coat a little further around him, but... the people, maybe. Watching them swarm past, hearing their voices in the background, occasionally feeling them elbow him in his left arm as they hurry through the rain and carry on with their own lives - yeah, if any more evidence were needed that people are pretty much the same wherever you go, this is it.
A while ago, he wouldn't have seen anything wrong with thinking about the situation like that. But these days he knows better; there's no point in pretending to be detached, not now that he's one of them. And he's chosen to be one of them, because what else could he have done? Said no, and then marched straight out, expecting everything else to fall into place for him? Nah, he's learned his lesson there. He'll never be separate from the rest of the world, and that isn't about to change just because the setting has.
Besides, he owes Earth a little something for putting up with him for this long. Time to pay it back.
2.
While he's waiting for the bus to shift, Ed takes another moment to flick through the notes he's made so far. He's still not sure what to make of them, if he's totally honest. There's no denying that science in this world looks interesting, however haphazardly it's presented and however painfully some of the ideas clash with his well-trained sense of scepticism. (You'd think they were in love with the word quantisation. Give him a break.) Still, he can't help wondering if there'll be ramifications when he brings some of it back home, and it's just that nobody's mentioned them up until now. It wouldn't be the first time. For that matter, this isn't the first time he's thought about taking knowledge of some technology back to a world that hadn't yet discovered it... and the disparity between here and the Earth he knows is even starker than what he was considering before, which doesn't help his nagging feeling that lately he's been living out a bad pulp fiction novel.
Not going home at some stage isn't even a remote possibility in his mind, of course. Gotta look forward. That much, unlike the rest, is crystal clear.
Presently, he feels the floor rumble under his feet and reaches over with his free hand to grab the nearby handrail just as the bus begins to lurch forward. Yeah, better put these away for the time being. It'd be stupid to lose them before getting the opportunity to pore over them somewhere less crowded, after all. He moves to slip the small notebook back into his coat pocket -
- and finds that it isn't there. Neither is the rest of his coat.
His nonplussed surprise soon turns into profound irritation once he's forced to mentally retrace his steps. It's still in the library, he's positive. He remembers taking it off to stop it dripping onto the pages he was looking at. Ugh, this would be because he got too absorbed in this futuristic crap, wouldn't it? If he'd just paid a little more attention to where he'd been putting stuff down... or, hell, paid more attention to his surroundings in general... Oh, this is such a pain. Of all the damn times it would've been useful to notice more of the cold...
He distractedly does his best to shake those thoughts off. Too late to complain. On the other hand, it's not quite too late to do something about the problem. But the bus is already rolling - if he does want to go play fetch, it's now or never.
Well, at least that's one question he always knows how to answer.
With no more warning than a hasty "Sorry!" over his shoulder as he pushes past the other passengers - he figures he can repeat it properly later, if he ever happens to run into any of these people again - he clears a makeshift path to the still-open door, flings himself out of it and hits the ground running.
» ADDITIONAL NOTES
Nothing that I can think of!