engage_the_enemy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
engage_the_enemy) wrote2015-03-01 10:53 pm
engage_the_enemy) wrote2015-03-01 10:53 pm
Entry tags:
Ryslig App
OOC INFORMATION
Name: Moemoe
Contact: my shack
Other Characters: N/A
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Shulk
Age: 18
Canon: Xenoblade Chronicles
Canon Point: Immediately after Zanza's revival.
Character Information: Shulk's Wiki Entry and Wikipedia Article for a Concise Summary of the Plot of Xenoblade
Personality:
From a young age Shulk has been a researcher and engineer, scavenging scrap metal in grassy fields and watching his guardian and mentor, Dickson, construct weapons. Growing up in world at war made this somewhat inevitable, as Shulk is said to be frail and not cut out for the battlefield, the Weapons Development Lab eventually becoming his dwelling of choice. There he builds weapons for the soldiers of Colony 9, including his friend Reyn, and during the year after the Battle of Sword Valley turns all of his attention to the ultimate weapon available to them: the Monado.
His interest in figuring out how things work is not limited to the enigmatic Monado, however. Shulk loves getting into the nuts and bolts behind any technology he isn't familiar with, and is happy to learn from and compare notes with people more knowledgeable than him in any given field. He's frequently praised for his own know-how as well, and his ability to fix just about anything handed to him, from watches to rifles. He's happy to do so of course!
It should be noted that while Shulk does gain quite a bit of combat experience from fighting hordes of Mechon and monsters, his main weakness remains in his inability to take too many hits, the majority he avoids thanks to his visions and decent agility. But with a much smaller frame than the other Homs men in the party, Shulk is far from intimidating.
He's quick to give encouragement and aid, is very protective over his friends, and is especially attentive if they're hurt. Rarely he needs to be told to give them some space, although once asked he'll do so, with meaningful apologies if necessary. The same is true for any time he makes a gaffe.
It's most apparent regarding Fiora, with Shulk running about to retrieve water for her and later parts for her Mechon body, though his efforts might be doubled because essentially, he'd already lost her once. In fact he might've lost his own life too, leaping off the collapsing hangar of Galahad Fortress, trying to reach her unconscious body as she fell.
He does similar for Melia, going solo through a dangerous jungle to retrieve an ether crystal to treat her illness, at a time when she was a complete stranger to him. This exposes a disregard of danger to himself when the needs of another are deemed more important, in his mind. Luckily, his friend Reyn is there to cover his back, as he's usually the first one to go looking if Shulk's excursions take too long for his liking.
In a similar thread, while Shulk's tenacity is most visible in his pursuit of Mechonis's destruction initially, it's these instances with his friends and more that shows that this quality, warped into blind obsession, can transform into heartfelt dedication as well. In a Heart-to-Heart with Fiora, Shulk admits he hasn't been sleeping much after Fiora has to prod him for a response when her question goes unanswered. He explains his nights are spent thrown into research on how to restore her to her Homs body, conversing with their own medic Sharla and the Machina medic Linada to reach a solution, and that he'll do everything in his power to make it a reality.
This is expanded in extra canon material, with Melia following Shulk on one of his constant trips to his lab, both intrigued and angry that he appears indifferent to Fiora's suffering at night as her body slowly fails her. She bursts in on him reading, surrounded by monolithic stacks of paper (he has to save her from the stacks collapsing). Fortuitously, Melia interrupting actually leads Shulk to the solution he'd been looking for, and for Melia it illustrates that the opposite of her assumptions is true, and saving Fiora is clearly at the forefront of his mind.
He feels a great sense of responsibility when it comes to helping others, friends or no, and holds failures in difficult situations close to his chest. It's very easy for Shulk to weigh himself down with guilt, as he retreats inside his head, replaying events on a restless feedback loop, agonizing over what he could have done differently to prevent that outcome, that sentiment being amplified by the visions granted to him by the Monado. It leaves him constantly feeling like he could have or should have done more.
Commonly, it's Fiora's supposed death and the demise of Melia's father, the High Entian emperor that particularly haunt him. "I couldn't save everyone," he tells Alvis, deflecting Alvis's assertion that several times, Shulk had changed someone's fate for the better.
Considering this tendency of his, of getting stuck in his own head and fretting over things and doubting himself, Shulk finds himself frozen into inaction multiple times. In one instance he's so rattled over a gruesome vision of Reyn's death, he doesn't notice they've been surrounded by the very creatures he saw in that vision until Reyn shouts him out of his trance.
More than once his friends have to confront him and drag out the root of his worry or guilt to assure him he has people to rely and fall back on, instead of keeping everything to himself.
While Shulk sometimes needs to be reminded of that, he's always ready to stand up for other people. He believes in others and the sincerity of their emotions, their characters and their goals, and that just because people appear to put up fronts, they're all a facet of that person. When the party watches Melia's coronation, they compare her powerful princess figure to the vulnerable girl they met in Makna Forest, wondering which one is the "real Melia". Shulk cuts in, shaking his head. "It's not like that," he tells them. "They're one and the same girl."
Just the same, Shulk doesn't concern himself with physical appearances or status, but the core of that person. As he tells Melia herself in a Heart-to-Heart, "I like you just the way you are. You could be a princess, a pauper, or even from a crazy alien world! I'd still be your friend. I always will be."
Since losing his childhood friend to a surprise Mechon attack on Colony 9, Shulk relates deeply with others who have experienced personal loss, and the pain that comes with it. When Melia's entourage is wiped out by the Telethia they were hunting, Melia vows to finish it, and Shulk is right there alongside her. He tells her he refuses to see anyone suffer the way he did, without receiving some sort of justice and closure. Not like he does with the Face Mechon who continues to elude him and taunt him by hurting more people over the course of his journey.
"I'll kill you!" Shulk screams at Metal Face as the Face Mechon and his forces withdraw from Colony 9. When they meet again at Prison Island, Shulk is stronger, but his anger burns just as fiercely. "You will know the pain and suffering you caused the Emperor and Fiora!"
For awhile, nothing diverts nor can divert his course as he cuts down Mechon, tirelessly pursuing his pledge to destroy Metal Face. He attacks the docile Face Nemesis too, heedless of her pleas that she doesn't wish him any harm. There's no pause to his rage until it's revealed by his own hand during the Prison Island encounter that the Face Mechon hold people. When he moves to finish off Metal Face, Face Nemesis throws herself in the way, her armor wrenched apart by the blow, an amnesic Fiora revealed inside.
Shulk had no reservations about running his blade through an entire army of soulless machines, but it's demonstrated from this point onward that he refuses to kill another person.
When Dunban moves to kill the pilot of Metal Face at Galahad Fortress, Shulk intervenes, stopping Dunban's sword short of the man's throat. When asked why, Shulk admits that he does hate him, that what he's done is unforgivable, but that at the same time the Faces are people. He asks Dunban if he's really willing to kill another Homs, willing to kill his own little sister if he has to, and Dunban draws back. He holds the rest of the group to this as well, instructing them not to harm the people inside the Faces, only to disable their machines.
The revelation of Homs in the Face Mechon is followed shortly by the introduction of the actual people of Mechonis, the Machina, who are incredibly kind and prove invaluable to Shulk and his party. If Fiora's return hadn't dampened his crusade against Mechonis, the Machina surely would have shaken his resolve.
As an aside they don't "accidentally kill" Mumkhar, Metal Face's pilot. Shulk sees a vision as Mumkhar retaliates, refusing to be beaten, his ensuing attack loosening a large structure above that impales him. Shulk shouts to warn him about this, but it falls on deaf ears.
Similarly, Shulk extends the same mercy, and additional sympathy towards their greatest enemy. When he hears of the hardship the creator of the Mechon has been through, he expresses sorrow, to the bewilderment of his friends. His feelings are genuine, however, and he decides that despite being asked by Egil's own people, and a voice in the back of his mind urging him on, he does not kill Egil. Shocked, Egil says he will simply continue his attack on Bionis, which Shulk acknowledges, but also promises to stop Egil every single time until they reach an understanding. A truce. Seated beside the cockpit of Yaldabaoth, he tells Egil they are the same, recognizing that driving fear and unceasing hunger for vengeance.
In the end, Shulk's strongest desire is for peace.
On a much, much, much lighter tangent, Shulk is not a very opinionated fellow, and is likely to answer questions like, "Is your favorite color blue or green?" with "Yes". This frustrates his friend Fiora most of all, who has to poke him for an actual opinion, and she also accuses him of having no taste, considering he compliments everything she cooks for him the same way. She even experiments with what she makes him to see if he notices. Unbeknownst to her, Shulk does have his preferences, such as his dislike of vegetables - he's simply too embarrassed to tell her.
In that sense, he's somewhat of a pushover in normal situations. Not to mention awkward (he never left his lab much). In one sidequest the party is tasked with getting a young Nopon to take her medicine, and while the rest of the party tries valiantly to convince her and in one case threaten her, Shulk merely asks once, politely, and at her refusal backs off without another word. The humor to this increases with Shulk's in-game model silently and quickly fading from the scene in response.
Also he's definitely a bookworm, and while it's not seen much in the game there's plenty official art of him reading or holding fairly thick books.
He completely misses Melia nursing a crush on him throughout the game, too.And he's afraid of caterpillars.
5-10 Key Character Traits: empathetic, brave, single-minded, reclusive, protective, curious, pessimistic
Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, or EITHER? Either!
Opt-Outs: Nymph, Naga, Faerie, Merperson, Goblin
Roleplay Sample: March TDM + Guest Starring A Trainwreck
Name: Moemoe
Contact: my shack
Other Characters: N/A
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Shulk
Age: 18
Canon: Xenoblade Chronicles
Canon Point: Immediately after Zanza's revival.
Character Information: Shulk's Wiki Entry and Wikipedia Article for a Concise Summary of the Plot of Xenoblade
Personality:
From a young age Shulk has been a researcher and engineer, scavenging scrap metal in grassy fields and watching his guardian and mentor, Dickson, construct weapons. Growing up in world at war made this somewhat inevitable, as Shulk is said to be frail and not cut out for the battlefield, the Weapons Development Lab eventually becoming his dwelling of choice. There he builds weapons for the soldiers of Colony 9, including his friend Reyn, and during the year after the Battle of Sword Valley turns all of his attention to the ultimate weapon available to them: the Monado.
His interest in figuring out how things work is not limited to the enigmatic Monado, however. Shulk loves getting into the nuts and bolts behind any technology he isn't familiar with, and is happy to learn from and compare notes with people more knowledgeable than him in any given field. He's frequently praised for his own know-how as well, and his ability to fix just about anything handed to him, from watches to rifles. He's happy to do so of course!
It should be noted that while Shulk does gain quite a bit of combat experience from fighting hordes of Mechon and monsters, his main weakness remains in his inability to take too many hits, the majority he avoids thanks to his visions and decent agility. But with a much smaller frame than the other Homs men in the party, Shulk is far from intimidating.
He's quick to give encouragement and aid, is very protective over his friends, and is especially attentive if they're hurt. Rarely he needs to be told to give them some space, although once asked he'll do so, with meaningful apologies if necessary. The same is true for any time he makes a gaffe.
It's most apparent regarding Fiora, with Shulk running about to retrieve water for her and later parts for her Mechon body, though his efforts might be doubled because essentially, he'd already lost her once. In fact he might've lost his own life too, leaping off the collapsing hangar of Galahad Fortress, trying to reach her unconscious body as she fell.
He does similar for Melia, going solo through a dangerous jungle to retrieve an ether crystal to treat her illness, at a time when she was a complete stranger to him. This exposes a disregard of danger to himself when the needs of another are deemed more important, in his mind. Luckily, his friend Reyn is there to cover his back, as he's usually the first one to go looking if Shulk's excursions take too long for his liking.
In a similar thread, while Shulk's tenacity is most visible in his pursuit of Mechonis's destruction initially, it's these instances with his friends and more that shows that this quality, warped into blind obsession, can transform into heartfelt dedication as well. In a Heart-to-Heart with Fiora, Shulk admits he hasn't been sleeping much after Fiora has to prod him for a response when her question goes unanswered. He explains his nights are spent thrown into research on how to restore her to her Homs body, conversing with their own medic Sharla and the Machina medic Linada to reach a solution, and that he'll do everything in his power to make it a reality.
This is expanded in extra canon material, with Melia following Shulk on one of his constant trips to his lab, both intrigued and angry that he appears indifferent to Fiora's suffering at night as her body slowly fails her. She bursts in on him reading, surrounded by monolithic stacks of paper (he has to save her from the stacks collapsing). Fortuitously, Melia interrupting actually leads Shulk to the solution he'd been looking for, and for Melia it illustrates that the opposite of her assumptions is true, and saving Fiora is clearly at the forefront of his mind.
He feels a great sense of responsibility when it comes to helping others, friends or no, and holds failures in difficult situations close to his chest. It's very easy for Shulk to weigh himself down with guilt, as he retreats inside his head, replaying events on a restless feedback loop, agonizing over what he could have done differently to prevent that outcome, that sentiment being amplified by the visions granted to him by the Monado. It leaves him constantly feeling like he could have or should have done more.
Commonly, it's Fiora's supposed death and the demise of Melia's father, the High Entian emperor that particularly haunt him. "I couldn't save everyone," he tells Alvis, deflecting Alvis's assertion that several times, Shulk had changed someone's fate for the better.
Considering this tendency of his, of getting stuck in his own head and fretting over things and doubting himself, Shulk finds himself frozen into inaction multiple times. In one instance he's so rattled over a gruesome vision of Reyn's death, he doesn't notice they've been surrounded by the very creatures he saw in that vision until Reyn shouts him out of his trance.
More than once his friends have to confront him and drag out the root of his worry or guilt to assure him he has people to rely and fall back on, instead of keeping everything to himself.
While Shulk sometimes needs to be reminded of that, he's always ready to stand up for other people. He believes in others and the sincerity of their emotions, their characters and their goals, and that just because people appear to put up fronts, they're all a facet of that person. When the party watches Melia's coronation, they compare her powerful princess figure to the vulnerable girl they met in Makna Forest, wondering which one is the "real Melia". Shulk cuts in, shaking his head. "It's not like that," he tells them. "They're one and the same girl."
Just the same, Shulk doesn't concern himself with physical appearances or status, but the core of that person. As he tells Melia herself in a Heart-to-Heart, "I like you just the way you are. You could be a princess, a pauper, or even from a crazy alien world! I'd still be your friend. I always will be."
Since losing his childhood friend to a surprise Mechon attack on Colony 9, Shulk relates deeply with others who have experienced personal loss, and the pain that comes with it. When Melia's entourage is wiped out by the Telethia they were hunting, Melia vows to finish it, and Shulk is right there alongside her. He tells her he refuses to see anyone suffer the way he did, without receiving some sort of justice and closure. Not like he does with the Face Mechon who continues to elude him and taunt him by hurting more people over the course of his journey.
"I'll kill you!" Shulk screams at Metal Face as the Face Mechon and his forces withdraw from Colony 9. When they meet again at Prison Island, Shulk is stronger, but his anger burns just as fiercely. "You will know the pain and suffering you caused the Emperor and Fiora!"
For awhile, nothing diverts nor can divert his course as he cuts down Mechon, tirelessly pursuing his pledge to destroy Metal Face. He attacks the docile Face Nemesis too, heedless of her pleas that she doesn't wish him any harm. There's no pause to his rage until it's revealed by his own hand during the Prison Island encounter that the Face Mechon hold people. When he moves to finish off Metal Face, Face Nemesis throws herself in the way, her armor wrenched apart by the blow, an amnesic Fiora revealed inside.
Shulk had no reservations about running his blade through an entire army of soulless machines, but it's demonstrated from this point onward that he refuses to kill another person.
When Dunban moves to kill the pilot of Metal Face at Galahad Fortress, Shulk intervenes, stopping Dunban's sword short of the man's throat. When asked why, Shulk admits that he does hate him, that what he's done is unforgivable, but that at the same time the Faces are people. He asks Dunban if he's really willing to kill another Homs, willing to kill his own little sister if he has to, and Dunban draws back. He holds the rest of the group to this as well, instructing them not to harm the people inside the Faces, only to disable their machines.
The revelation of Homs in the Face Mechon is followed shortly by the introduction of the actual people of Mechonis, the Machina, who are incredibly kind and prove invaluable to Shulk and his party. If Fiora's return hadn't dampened his crusade against Mechonis, the Machina surely would have shaken his resolve.
As an aside they don't "accidentally kill" Mumkhar, Metal Face's pilot. Shulk sees a vision as Mumkhar retaliates, refusing to be beaten, his ensuing attack loosening a large structure above that impales him. Shulk shouts to warn him about this, but it falls on deaf ears.
Similarly, Shulk extends the same mercy, and additional sympathy towards their greatest enemy. When he hears of the hardship the creator of the Mechon has been through, he expresses sorrow, to the bewilderment of his friends. His feelings are genuine, however, and he decides that despite being asked by Egil's own people, and a voice in the back of his mind urging him on, he does not kill Egil. Shocked, Egil says he will simply continue his attack on Bionis, which Shulk acknowledges, but also promises to stop Egil every single time until they reach an understanding. A truce. Seated beside the cockpit of Yaldabaoth, he tells Egil they are the same, recognizing that driving fear and unceasing hunger for vengeance.
In the end, Shulk's strongest desire is for peace.
On a much, much, much lighter tangent, Shulk is not a very opinionated fellow, and is likely to answer questions like, "Is your favorite color blue or green?" with "Yes". This frustrates his friend Fiora most of all, who has to poke him for an actual opinion, and she also accuses him of having no taste, considering he compliments everything she cooks for him the same way. She even experiments with what she makes him to see if he notices. Unbeknownst to her, Shulk does have his preferences, such as his dislike of vegetables - he's simply too embarrassed to tell her.
In that sense, he's somewhat of a pushover in normal situations. Not to mention awkward (he never left his lab much). In one sidequest the party is tasked with getting a young Nopon to take her medicine, and while the rest of the party tries valiantly to convince her and in one case threaten her, Shulk merely asks once, politely, and at her refusal backs off without another word. The humor to this increases with Shulk's in-game model silently and quickly fading from the scene in response.
Also he's definitely a bookworm, and while it's not seen much in the game there's plenty official art of him reading or holding fairly thick books.
He completely misses Melia nursing a crush on him throughout the game, too.
5-10 Key Character Traits: empathetic, brave, single-minded, reclusive, protective, curious, pessimistic
Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, or EITHER? Either!
Opt-Outs: Nymph, Naga, Faerie, Merperson, Goblin
Roleplay Sample: March TDM + Guest Starring A Trainwreck