[Character Application] Asch the Bloody, Damned

[dissonates]

Series: Tales of the Abyss
Series' Medium: First and foremost a game; it branched out into an official manga, an anime, and a variety of other spin-offs, but I play from the game. I do take some information from the Asch manga though, since it details his actions while the game follows the main party.

Character: Asch / Asch the Bloody
Age: 18 (in a year with 700+ days, fff)
Sex/Gender: Male
Canon Role: One-third antagonist, one-third protagonist, one-third plot device, 100% CONTRADICTION
"Real" Name: Luke Morgan (brb blaming Luke-mun)

How long have you roleplayed your character, if at all?:

I've played Asch since April of 2008, so just over two years.

Where have you roleplayed in general and/or with this specific character?:

I've been all over the place- the original Toujours Hotel, Spiral, a few others less notable; my main stomping ground is Luceti, which is where I've played Asch since I started with him.

Are you personally familiar with your character's canon?:

Very much so. Three playthroughs of the game, extensive character studies, read the manga, watched the anime, collected as much of the extra guidebooks and the like as I possibly could... I think I have the basic gist of it. >_>

Please give us a personal history of your character's life and explain to us in detail how they grow and develop over the course of their canon:

Okay bear with me here.

Tales of the Abyss takes place on the world of Auldrant, where there are four main areas- the countries of Malkuth and Kimlasca, the religious island of Daath, and the neutral land of Chesedonia. Malkuth and Kimlasca are all "rawr, hate" and have been at war on and off for years upon years, so war is sort of a semi-constant state for the majority of Auldrant. Beneath the surface of the mainlands (called the Outer Lands) is the Qliphoth, a bubbling muck of an underworld with Yulia City in the middle, the home of the Watchers, who coordinate with Daath to look after things, with Yulia City as a world-wide secret and Daath as its figurehead town. Daath is sort of the central focus of all of Auldrant in that they run the world through religion, via an ancient prophecy known as the Score. The priests read the prophecy, they keep the prophecy, they give out whatever tidbits of the prophecy to whomever they deem worthy. The Score predicts everything from life and death to the evening meal, and the Closed Score is an exclusive bit of prophecy that only a select few get to hear about, and that's usually not the citizens who are affected by it, either. This looks unfair. And it -is- unfair. For the most part they seem to mean well, but where there is politics, there will always be corruption.

Seventeen years prior to the game's canon, one of the numerous Kimlasca-Malkuth wars was brewing. In Baticul, Kimlasca's capital city, Luke fon Fabre was born to Duke Fabre and his wife. His birth was predicted by the Score; unfortunately his death was, as well. Upon finding out that his kid was going to croak at the age of seventeen, Duke Fabre wasted no time in deciding that he would have absolutely jack-all to do with his son's upbringing, promptly marching off to war and laying waste to the land of Hod (part of Malkuth's territory). He wasn't there long before the entire island was mysteriously destroyed, something he was lucky enough to escape. There were a handful of survivors, the one of significance at the moment being Vandesdelca Musto Fende, the son of a guard in the house of Count Gardios. Though he escaped to Yulia City, he lost everything except his little sister when Hod sank, so naturally he grew up to be rather angry about the state of the world. Add the fact that in Yulia City, he found out that Hod's destruction was -predicted- in the Score and no one did anything about it? Not cool. So Van started cooking a plan to deal with this problem. He joined the Oracle Knights, Daath's military, and quickly rose to the rank of commandant as Van Grants.

Meanwhile, little Luke is learning to be a fine upstanding citizen of Kimlasca. Engaged to his cousin, Princess Natalia, and being taught all the dos and don'ts of being a king, Luke shows the promise of becoming strong, noble, and kind, the sort of ruler any country would love to have. He learned Kimlasca's history and poured his heart into studying everything he could, all for the sake of pleasing his family and trying to earn the love and respect of a father who only seemed inclined to look the other way. Over time he developed his own sense of what it means to be a truly great ruler of the people; even at such a young age, he was wise enough to know that those in power depend on the happiness and welfare of the people who live below them, and taught Natalia to see the situations of her citizens more clearly. At some point during all of this, two important things happened: Guy Cecil joined the household as a servant and Luke's caretaker, and Van became his swordsmanship instructor. Luke, having been denied a father's love, latches onto these two immediately, something Van takes full advantage of. He encourages Luke, guides him, and before too long Luke trusts him completely. And then, at the tender age of ten, the poor little bastard gets kidnapped right under everyone's noses by none other than his beloved Master Van.

The idea is that Van wants to fix the world by freeing everyone from the Score. And what better way to abolish the Score than to prove it totally wrong? ...And for some reason he thinks the best way to do that is to a) kidnap the kid meant to die in the future, 2) clone him, 3) let the clone take Luke's place, and 4) KILL EVERYONE. Awesome plan, everyone wins. So Luke is cloned through an illegal and rather uncomfortable process known as fomicry; the replica with no memories is sent back to Kimlasca to be raised as Luke while the "real" Luke is taken to Daath in secrecy and imprisoned there. Before too long, a heartbroken and homesick Luke is allowed to escape, where he proceeds to cross the island, an ocean, and a -monster infested swamp- just to return home to Fabre Manor. ...Where he discovers that everyone is living with the replica as his replacement, blissfully unaware of his utter misery. Van swoops in to rescue the traumatized kid, renames him "Asch", and brings him back to Daath to raise him as an Oracle Knight.

Not much is known about Asch's life between his return to Daath and the start of the game. Spending seven years in the world's center of religion and militia, the independent continent, left Asch in a much darker, colder, and more strict mentality than he might have been in Kimlasca. Forced into Daath's Order of Lorelei almost right from the start, he became an accomplished swordsman and decent fonic artist (magic user, basically), and gained control of his almost-unique power of hyperresonance. It didn't take him long to rise through the ranks to become the sixth God-General, part of a group of military leaders, his own squad being the Special Ops faction. This is most likely due to a combination of Asch's own gifts and Van's manipulation; in order to conceal Asch's true identity and continue manipulating him, he had to keep Asch close, as well. It's unclear as to what exactly the Special Ops existed for, but it's easy to assume that they took care of any espionage missions, heretic uprisings, anything the Order wanted to keep quiet. Even at the age of seventeen, he's probably experienced more than most adults. Most of this would just be headcanon, though, so going back to true canon-

Around the start of Tales of the Abyss, Asch and the other God-Generals have been ordered to track down Fon Master Ion, figurehead of the Order, and have him break the seals on the Sephiroth, the trees holding the Outer Lands above the Qliphoth. When they finally catch up with him, Asch gets to see his replica for the first time in seven years, and is immediately disgusted to find that his replacement grew up to be a spoiled, obnoxious coward. Unfortunately he's prevented from killing his annoying copy by both Van and the other God-Generals on two separate occasions, and before too long Asch decides that instead of offing Luke entirely, he'll use the dreck to spy on Van. Asch is basically made of contradiction upon contradiction; he wants Van to abolish the Score, but without the full story, he has doubts on whether or not Van is going to do it the right way. He trusts his precious master, but he's also very suspicious. Working behind the scenes, he manages to get the other God-Generals to capture Luke and open his fon slots- essentially, open Luke's mind so that Asch can create a mental link between them, something he controls at will. Using this link, and a combination of his replica's idiocy, pride, and naivete, he's able to manipulate Luke to cooperate in rescuing Ion from the God-Generals. Unfortunately Van is even more of a master at manipulating Luke, so he's not able to stop Luke from doing exactly what Van wanted: namely, destroy Akzeriuth, the mining city that the Score predicted -Asch- would die while destroying. Long story short: Luke causes the deaths of thousands of people, and the main party + Asch and Ion all end up in Yulia City. Asch takes out his frustration on Luke and finally shares his true identity (something evidently everyone had figured out except for Luke). He and Luke fight, Luke passes out, and the mantle of party leader moves to Asch for a while.

This is where Asch gets the most development, really. The various sides of Asch are revealed in this area of the game- he's shown to be more than just a bitchy antagonist with a short fuse. He coldly and calculatingly guides the party from the Qliphoth to the surface, showing his effectiveness as a leader as well as his no-nonsense, rushed attitude about what he has to accomplish. It's literally his show; the rest of them are just along for the ride. From the laboratories in Belkend to the caverns devoted to fomicry research, Asch has one focus and one focus alone- figuring out exactly what Van is up to, and what sort of damage he's caused. Even though he's still the cold, angry, and violent Asch he's always been, he has slivers of compassion that doesn't go unnoticed; he helps Guy find a place to meet up with Luke again, he saves and watches over Natalia, and perhaps most surprisingly of all, he allows Luke to remain in his mind for days at a time (even risking Luke's invasion of some private moments, as the anime shows at one point), despite the fact that he -hates- Luke, just to show him the damage he's caused and to teach him, in his own way, how to make amends. It's a huge deal for Asch to have done that, and it was seriously crucial in Luke's development, so that particular journey was really important for them both.

Unfortunately Asch's generosity doesn't last long; after Ortion Cavern he tosses aside Luke and the rest of his merry band in favour of pursuing Van by himself once more. He works individually for some time and isn't seen or heard from again until meeting with the group in the desert in order to confuse the hell out of them (what else is new, when Asch is concerned) and tell them how to go about saving the world. Turns out that with the combination of Luke destroying the Sephiroth tree in Akzeriuth and Ion's Daathic Seal-breaking, Van has managed to destablize the world, and SURPRISE! It's falling into the Qliphoth. The plan is to lower the land slowly instead and seal the deadly miasma, but that takes more plot devices than I have time to mention. In short: Natalia and Luke are declared to be criminals sentenced to death, Asch whiteknights his way in and rescues everyone, then plays the angriest game of world-wide tag ever. (Stupid replicas.) In-game, around here is the first time the Dark Wings (a bandit gang) reveals that they've been hired by Asch to do his odd jobs, showing that hey, turns out he -does- accept help. Just not from stupid replicas.

Asch's next appearance is when Natalia is showing some serious indecision about her life; they need to get the countries of the world to agree to lower the land, but the whole execution issue is sort of in the way. And then he does the unthinkable: he -encourages- her. He's -nice- about it. Childhood friends have a mysteriously soothing effect on him. So everyone agrees to lower the land, and Asch disappears for a while again, only to reappear for the sake of taking Tear on a field trip to see Master Van himself and either convince him to stop or, failing that, kill him before the situation gets any worse. Sadly Asch lets his anger get the better of him (as he often does) and is wounded, and since he refuses to let himself be healed, he's unfit to join the others for the final mission of dealing with Van, instead allowing Luke to have the honour. But not before giving him one hell of a lecture about it, insisting that Luke -kill- the commandant, rather than stop him. Despite their mutual admiration for the man, it's obvious that his crazy plan can't be allowed to continue. While Luke and co. deal with the Absorption Gate, Asch borrows an airship and its pilot from Sheridan and takes on the Radiation Gate by himself, still injured. His intelligence is stunning sometimes. Still, by their powers combined they Captain Planet the world into cooperating and lower the land safely. And that is the end of the-

Psyche, no it's not. Immediately after that, a voice is heard by Asch and Luke- Lorelei, the sort-of legendary sentience of one of the basic elements of the world, the seventh fonon. Lorelei sends Asch the Key of Lorelei, an ancient sword, and pleads with he and Luke to free him from "one who would seize glory". Namely, Van, who isn't actually dead. Asch then spends about a month (almost 60 days in the Auldrant calendar) traveling the world in search of a way to safely reach the core and free Lorelei. He also travels from Sephiroth to Sephiroth, trying to find the Jewel of Lorelei, a stone to bind with the Key and make it more powerful.

There's a sidequest in the middle here that involves Asch, namely the Mushroom Road quest. It's purpose is basically to show how much of a momma's boy Asch still is; he drops everything and travels through the most dangerous forest in the world to get a specific mushroom for his ailing mother. He even cooperates with Luke's gang. What a little trooper.

Back to the plot: Eventually, with no luck in his Jewel search, Asch is dragged to Fabre manor to meet with his parents for the first time in seven years. During their brief meeting, he finally gains some semblance of the affection he's been denied all that time, so even if, in the end, he rejects the idea of going home and living there, it was still important for him to see them. He'd been lonely for a very long time.

Unfortunately there's too much to do- the state of the world is degrading: the miasma has broken through the surface and poisoned the air, replicas and replica -land- have been mass-produced by Van and the God-Generals, killing people and destroying the real land, AND a giant replica of Hod has risen from the ocean and is floating around- the glorious land of Eldrant. Luke gives Asch the genius idea of gathering all the replicas together and using their fonons - and the Key - to create a hyperresonance big enough to neutralize the miasma. Traveling to the Tower of Rem, Asch meets with the replicas and proposes the plan to destroy the miasma entirely with a mass suicide, using himself and the Key of Lorelei as the catalyst. He asks that they decide by the time he returns and leaves for Daath. Asch meets the party in Daath and fights with Luke over who will die with the replicas. He goes to the tower and is kicked out of sacrificing himself by Luke, much to his aggravation, but Luke lacks the power to do it alone. In the end, Asch adds his hyperresonance to Luke's and the miasma is neutralized at last. Plus Luke finally figures out that -he- had the Jewel all along, so all Asch has to do is get himself to Eldrant, kill Van, and free Lorelei.

The problem is, his body is degrading due to the contamination of being replicated, so he's pretty sure he's a ticking time bomb of future death. That's pretty much why he's been rushing around like mad over the course of his canon. And why he does nearly the unthinkable: right before everyone heads to Eldrant, Asch meets with Luke for the purpose of joining him and working -together- to kill Van. And Luke unknowingly pisses him off by saying they'll get -Asch- to Van so -he- can finish things. Oops. And then comes the most senseless and contradictory argument ever: Asch rages at Luke for a while, challenges him to a fight, and storms off to launch an attack on Eldrant. Suffice to say, instead of wanting to work -with- his replica, he's now determined to defeat Luke and prove that he's the real student, the only one worthy of killing Van.

Sadly his rage and deteriorating body, and Luke's determination and growth all conspire to cause Asch to lose the duel in Eldrant. After his defeat, Asch allows Luke to go on ahead (taking the Key of Lorelei with him) and stays behind to prevent Luke from being followed by the enemy. He defeats all the Oracle Knight replicas, but due to a sudden contamination seizure and his distraction via the fonic link with Luke, he is impaled by several of their swords, and dies there, sending his hyperresonance and dying wish to Luke. And that's where his story ends.

....BOOYA, JUST UNDER 2900 WORDS.




What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's and why?:

Asch will be taken from just after his death in Eldrant; it's the best choice due to a) his lack of appearances in canon, b) the amount of development he's gone through over the course of the game, and c) his final words and acknowledgment of Luke in the end. This is particularly important because without that level of acceptance, it's nearly impossible to get Asch to speak to Luke for more than a few sentences at a time, and while they have yet to have a decent conversation, the potential is better at this point in time than any other. Mind you he'll probably be obscenely pissed to be taken from post-death since he seemed awfully peaceful as he died, but sucks to be him. That's the story of his life anyhow.


Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:

...I apologize ahead of time, this is going to be really tl;dr too. (I've analyzed this guy way too much.)

Asch is one of those funny characters you can't sum up easily because he has -so many- sides to him, and most of them are buried so far under this nigh-impenetrable shell of ASSHOLE that it's all anyone sees half the time. It's easier just to split it into sections, since a variety of people have different effects on him, so here goes:

His replica: From the start of canon, Asch showed resentment, disdain, dismissal, and downright hatred for Luke. He was disgusted by the replica's very existence, but more than that, he hated Luke's failure to live up to his own high standards. Luke was whiny, naive, spoiled, annoying, and reckless in Asch's eyes, foolishly and blindly following everything that Van told him to do. Aside from mocking and misleading him (and on two occasions trying to kill him), Asch took it upon himself to use Luke's trust in Van against the commandant, manipulating his replica in order to spy on Van's movements. He forcibly had Luke's fon slots opened in order to communicate him, completely disregarding the fact that it caused Luke pain and deceived him, thus putting Luke and his companions in danger repeatedly. A lot of Asch's behaviour is outright cruel, and Luke is his favoured target. He even used his control over Luke to attack one of his friends, just to play with him.

As time passes, Asch reveals some of his motivations, and the conflict between himself and Luke develops, though to what, it's difficult to say. Rivals, allies, companions, almost. They work together on numerous occasions (lowering the Outer Lands, hyperresonating the miasma, exploring Mushroom Road) but they still act independent of one another, though Luke wishes he would change his mind. Throughout the game, Luke develops a lot while Asch's changes are more subtle, almost too subtle to really notice, and overall he doesn't grow that much at all. At the end of the game he still resents Luke and treats him like dirt. But at the same time, his final words were to support Luke and place his trust in the replica he'd hated all this time; whether or not he likes it, he's accepted Luke for who - and what - he is.

Van: Van is one of the the worst sources of bi-polar decision-making for Asch. On one side, he has a wonderful, strong, caring teacher, the man he looks to for support when he receives none from anywhere else. Van wanted Asch to stand by his side in Eldrant, at the end of everything; he chose Asch, continued to plead for Asch's support even after giving up on Tear, his own sister, and vowing to show no mercy. After years of getting no love from his own father, Van was the male figure of strength that Asch needed while growing up, and the respect Asch has for him is constantly battling against his resentment for what Van is trying to do throughout the game. Yet even at the end, Asch still has that strong desire to be the student Van wants him to be, and if it weren't for the inclusion of replicas in his plan, Asch would have supported him all along. It makes for a very conflicting person - to let his hatred for replicas outweigh his desire to see the world safe and protected, and his love for the people who rejected him (in his mind) outweigh the love he has for the man who replicated him, but took him in, sheltered him, -needed- him and not just a copy... yeah, Asch is messed up.

Everyone else: Asch is -weird- with people. Generally they get shafted into three categories - 1) people he cares about, consisting of Natalia, his mother, and (to a much smaller extent) Guy, 2) people he can use, such as the Dark Wings, Luke and company, Ginji, anyone he works with, really, and 3) people he has no interest in, which is almost everyone else. He's extremely dismissive with most people, and they should consider themselves fortunate (or unfortunate, depending) if they get more than a look or a grunt out of him. He only bitches at people who challenge him or give him a reason to do so (eg. by teasing), or if he's already pissy about something. For the most part he just plain doesn't care about your average Joe because he's too busy rushing around dealing with the Big Picture. Besides the small handful of exceptions to the rule, everyone Asch meets is secondary to whatever he's working on at the time of their meeting. If he has nothing else to do, they're more likely to get something out of him, but the times that Asch isn't busy are few and far between.

As for his actual personality, there's a number of things to be said about that...

He is a very driven person. Asch will push, and push, and push, and never stop. He forces himself to work towards whatever his goals are, no matter what the cost is. He's traveled across the world and pushed himself to the very limits of what his body can handle; sometimes even going beyond that through pure thick-headed willpower alone. On the very brink of death he charges into an enemy stronghold, alone, and wants a one-on-one battle with his best ally just to prove a point even though he knows the final battle is up ahead. If all that doesn't show his determination, I don't know what will. Unfortunately it ties into the next point...

He's stupid. Okay let's face it, Asch is not actually a stupid person. But at the same time so much of what he is... is just dumb. He's illogical, irrational, rude, violent, naive, and has zero sense of self-preservation. He refused to let himself be healed when wounded. He traveled through a dangerous Sephiroth passage with said wounds. He criticized Luke for offering to die to save the world and then ran off to sacrifice himself in Luke's place. He faced off against a group of Oracle replicas after giving away his only weapon. Numerous times he shows that he's pretty smart and knows what he's doing, and then he'll destroy that image without even realizing it by making completely obtuse comments (Such as being mistaken for Luke and giving the excuse of "my hair grows fast", or telling the group how the difference between the medicinal Rugnican death cap and the poisonous Great Rugnican death cap is, in fact, the poison. What the hell, Asch.), which only results in the party wondering if just maybe Asch isn't as smart as he seems. He doesn't rest, doesn't relax, doesn't explain himself- he's brilliant and proud and noble but he really is -such an idiot-.

He's passionate. It's very difficult to see at first glance, or even if you look deeper, but once you get past all the rage and bitterness and sullen disposition, you find a young man who really, honestly does have the heart of a king. He defends, protects, advises, and watches over the woman who means the most to him in all the world. He guides the replica he hates to become a better person by watching his own actions. When inspired he makes a speech to encourage Natalia to be the princess he knows she can be. He knows how to live and die like a hero. If he had any confidence in himself at all he could probably be really sweet and romantic, but he's always so damn busy. ...And angry.

He's emotional. Whatever Asch feels, he feels it pretty strongly, almost to an admirable degree. When he loves people, he loves them passionately and devoutly, though quietly, and that love can lead him to do crazy things (such as traveling through the most dangerous area in Auldrant to get his mom some medicine, or taking on Kimlasca's military to save Natalia from an execution). He can also mask his emotions unless you set him off, and thus can hide what he's really feeling from people. Kind of a strength with an ingrained weakness, because it's not that difficult to set him off, unfortunately. Small fuse on that one.

He's stubborn, bossy, and manipulative. Asch is an accomplished leader who knows how to guide and organize other people into helping him reach his goals. Hell, he spent half the game pretty much manipulating Luke and his team to do exactly what Asch wanted, mostly by giving off the impression that he knew what he was doing, regardless of whether or not it was true. He can recognize when someone is useful or useless, and can even turn that around if necessary, such as how he helped Luke to see the epic fail of his actions after Akzeriuth by letting him piggyback in Asch's mind for a while. He also has the most amazing willpower, practically forcing his body to go above and beyond that should logically be the limit, just to continue fighting and reach the end of his journey, eg. being badly wounded by Van and then traveling with that injury to the bottom of the Radiation Gate, alone, in order to help Luke lower the Outer Lands. And then climb back out. And then spend the next month traveling around the world instead of resting. Good grief.

He's an unstable asshole. Asch tends to work in extremes, no matter what he thinks, believes, or does. He's overly focused and he doesn't really play around or joke, so his sense of humour is pretty screwed up. He's easily made uncomfortable, and when that happens he becomes aloof, distant, and arrogant (all of which he is normally, but his nastier ways of showing it reveal themselves the more annoyed or uncomfortable he is). He really isn't well suited to deal with people on anything deeper than a professional level, so when that happens and he's out of his comfort zone, watch out for that temper. He tends to be very contrary and grows more illogical and thoughtless with his words the angrier he is. He's terrible in arguments, and his first instinct is to tell someone to shut up or insult them. Either he falls into the extremes or he's about as emotional as a rock. He's subject to mood swings at the drop of a hat, he's pretty brooding and cryptic ALL THE TIME, he's suspicious of practically everyone and trusts no one but himself, he can be ridiculously crude and obnoxious if you piss him off... overall he's about as unstable as you can get. When he's in a deadpan mood it takes a fair bit to get him to show anything but his neutral grouch face ( >:| ), and he clams up on how he's feeling in almost every circumstance, which can frustrate the hell out of most people.

Basically Asch is a complicated mental case of growing up too fast and not growing up at all; mentally, physically, and going by his experiences, he's been through much more than a teenager his age ought to have gone through. But emotionally, he's inexperienced and still a lot like a child. It takes a lot to win him over and he's liable to throw a tantrum (or at the very least, storm off) if things aren't going his way.


Please give us a physical description of your character:

I'll be keeping Asch the way he is in canon. He's 5'7", 150 lbs, most of that being muscle since he's actually quite lean. Between the scowly expression, dark green eyes, and the red hair, he practically screams temperamental. He's a little pale, but he covers most of his skin with the Oracle Knight uniform, a somewhat tight-fitting black tunic and tallboots ensemble with a tabard to finish it off. He's almost always armed with a sword. To visualize his hairstyle, just think of a cockatiel. ...Okay, seriously: it's long (almost to his waist), growing darker the closer it gets to the tips, with his bangs spiked backwards.


What kinds of otherwordly abilities does your character have, if any?:

Asch is a pretty powerful individual. As a fonic artist, he has access to a number of medium to high level spells that can affect a wide area or a small, controlled location. These spells are elemental-based and rely on fonons to materialize. He can also link these elemental abilities of his with certain swordsmanship attacks, transforming a single slash into, for example, a giant inferno to consume his foes. When he's pushed to the limits of his endurance, Asch has the ability to summon a massive fonic glyph around himself and his opponent(s), barraging them with a stream of white energy blasts. This attack can often be a fatal blow to all but the strongest enemies. He also has full control over the seventh fonon in the form of his hyperresonance ability; this power allows him to form or deconstruct matter at will, which can cause disintegrations, teleportations, or even more complex tasks (such as removing a certain poisonous particle from every bit of air in an entire world). He can't use this ability in combat because of its power, which is difficult to control under pressure even for someone who's mastered it.


If present, how do you plan to tweak these powers to make your character appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?:

Since Asch's powers are pretty restrictive out of his canon world - fonic artes and the added elements of certain attacks kind of require, uh, -fonons- to use - I'm fine with removing his spells and making all his attacks magic-free. In combat he'll just be another guy with a sword.

His hyperresonance is a much more touchy subject, but since it's also linked to the fonons in the air that don't actually exist in the real world, he can lose that too. And cry about it.

One power that I'd like him to keep (and I contacted the current Luke player for her consent, since it would affect him as well) is his ability to connect with his replica via their fonslots. It's half telepathy, half science, but it's based on their bodies rather than their surroundings, and the only real purpose is having a communication pathway between the two. It's been pretty important in regards to how he interacts with Luke, and at his timeline he's never used it to do anything besides conversations. He once used it to physically control Luke in the past, but I'm perfectly fine with limiting it to just communication. Since... that's pretty much all he ever does with it.


Does your character have any non-otherworldly abilities/training that surpass the norm?:

Most of Asch's strength comes from his physical prowess; he's been practicing the art of the Albert style of swordsmanship since childhood (prior to age 10), and spent seven years in Daath both training and working as a soldier of the Oracle Knights. He is a true professional in skill and talent, so formidable that he's earned the nickname "Asch the Bloody". While he can be reckless at times, his skills as a swordsman are admirable and definitely worth noting. As mentioned above, his leadership skills are also very strong, and while he's not very good at casual socializing, he can guide a number of people to work towards a common goal. He also has an incredible pain tolerance- the guy won't so much as grimace unless he's in extreme pain or on the brink of falling over.

His specific techniques are here: http://aselia.wikia.com/wiki/TotA_-_Asch:_Artes . Even without the fonic artes or any magical aspects of the techniques, they're still very formidable attacks.


What do you see your character doing in the scope of the game and how do you plan to use the setting of Landel's Institute to develop them and affect their psychology in a unique, interesting way?:

Asch doesn't actually -have- a usual social support, so a lack of his normal company isn't a major issue. He really is a loner, and his social skills are mostly limited to ordering people around and delivering information on a purely professional basis. The only people he really gets emotional over (good or bad) is Natalia and Luke, and since they're -in- the roleplay, he should be fine. He can manage life without them just fine, as well- he's used to handling everything on his own.

It would be lovely if, while in the game and lacking any goal he can accomplish by himself, Asch can get used to working with people more, rather than just getting people to work for him, and work on a few more of his issues with Luke. Considering how many issues he has with all of the above? Yeah, he'll be busy even when he isn't in mortal danger.


Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?:

Considering what Asch has gone through in his lifetime, I'm not expecting him to blink twice at much of the horror coming his way. He's violent, he's crude, and in many ways he can be a horrible person himself. As the leader of special operations, he's bound to have seen a number of unpleasant situations, and he's definitely killed people. Probably a lot of people. A name like "Asch the Bloody" isn't exactly flattering. (I even consider the Japanese version "Fresh Blood Asch" to be even worse.) I think he'll manage just fine.

The loss of his abilities (particularly hyperresonance), on the other hand, will piss him off to no end, but after a good while of bitching, complaining, and sulking, he'll get over it. If anything, he's extremely tenacious.


Third-Person Sample:

[This kind of turned into a fanfic, erk. Sorry it's so tl;dr.]


Sometimes, against his will, Asch wondered if death would be an escape.

It wasn't that he was depressed, and far from suicidal; he had no time for that level of self-loathing, what with everything he had left to accomplish in his life. Despite his miserable attitude, he had a thirst for life that most everyday citizens of the world seemed to lack. He -wanted- to live. He just... couldn't.

Or wouldn't.

The thoughts were flitting though, vague and uncontrollable, as most of his thoughts tended to be. Was it peaceful to die, to stop suffering forever? Would he be with Lorelei, considering his nature, if the fonic sentience was freed in the end? Would he be happy? He hated those thoughts, but more than that he hated that he couldn't stop himself from thinking them. He had no desire to waste too much of the time he had left on annoying topics like his own inevitable death.

Perhaps it was being in Eldrant that made his thoughts fall back to that old, ugly topic once more. Watching the replica's back as he disappeared through the doorway of Sync's trap, leaving Asch to face the Oracle Knight replicas alone, one thought stood apart from all the others fighting for his attention: I'm going to die here. His body was already reaching its limit, and even he wasn't sure if he had one more battle left in him before the final step of his fonic separation began. Still, he wasn't going down without a fight.

He would go down with a name, though. -His- name. Luke fon Fabre, the man he was always meant to be.

The first replica fell from a crushing elbow's blow to the windpipe, and with a second swing, the man was down and Asch was armed with a sword once more. He turned swiftly, blade outstretched, getting a feel for how many of them were there and where they were moving. One, two, five, three more, fifteen now- there were more coming, too. He couldn't stop. He began a chant, a glyph forming around him, before the soldiers could gain the upper hand and overwhelm him; four went down with a bolt of lightning, two more mortally wounded while they were distracted by the deaths. They were replicas, mindless, obedient copies, not real Oracle Knights at all. There was no art to them, no skill or training, just strength of numbers and a lack of fear that only ignorance could breed. Killing them meant nothing.

Swords clashed, and another fell to his blade, then another; they were getting faster, watching his moves, seeking to overwhelm him before he lowered their numbers too much. Stronger, too- it was a strain to fight them off. One more, and his sword was already slick and dripping, his hand hurting from the force of the blows. Stupid replica. If he hadn't wasted all that time and energy fighting that dreck, he'd have handled these soldiers with no trouble at all. With a twist of the sword, he kicked the man away and backpedaled, breathing hard. If his arm went numb, it would be over at once.

He couldn't stop for long, though, and his determination won out; the last soldiers fell, and it at last felt like he would be able to breathe. The replica, had he made it? Was he on his way to Van? Someone had to finish the mission. I'm going to die here. But he couldn't die yet.

Just a few seconds, that was all he needed. All of his opponents were down and bleeding. It was alright. It was-

-Not alright, because quite suddenly a sword tore through his body. Then another. Then another.

I'm going to die-

He was dying; it was a certainty this time. He had no strength to run, no healing artes to fix the holes in his body. It didn't take long, though, and for some reason it didn't seem so bad. After a few moments, it stopped hurting, and in the quiet beauty of Hod's pure white halls, he felt at peace, something he hadn't experienced in a very, very long time. Maybe it really was an escape, a sort of freedom from everything he couldn't just let go of. And... the replica was there. Asch had always thought he would hate the dreck until the day he died, and that day had finally come. Maybe it was a good time to stop, even for just a moment. At the end of his life, at least he wasn't alone.

Stupid replica.

The rest is up to you...


First-Person Sample:

[Asch is actually a very, very private person, so it's bloody unlikely that he'd be sharing his thoughts over a public network; I can't find a reason for him to be posting a message there unless it's meant to call for someone's attention, and something like that wouldn't be very long. In canon, whenever he needs to pass along information to Luke and company, he meets with them directly, says his piece, and leaves again. Short and to the point, the only sort of indirect communication he's known to use is the fonic link between himself and Luke, and he typically only uses that if he needs to tell Luke where to meet him.

If this is a problem I can try again, I just find it extremely difficult to do so without being overly short or out of character.]