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Player Name: Rae
Player LJ: suburbangoth
Player Instant Messenger Type and Handle: AIM - ryuzaki plzkthx
Player Email: marbleandstone [at] gmail.com
Player is over 16 years of age, Y/N?: Y, by quite a bit.
Character: Beyond Birthday [aliases: B, Backup, Rue Ryuzaki]
Fandom: Death Note - Another Note
Previous RP: disturbia_rp [logs; journal posts]
Canon Personality: The primary thing to know about B is that he is a bona fide genius, albeit a peculiar one - at first glance, there’s just something a little bit off about him. His eccentric manner is heavily influenced by the fact that he has possessed the eyes of a shinigami since birth. The eyes of a shinigami, or death god, allow anyone who possesses them to view any live human’s name and natural life span. The ability to view life spans is the ability to view death, and B has been surrounded with reminders of death from the day he was born. As a result of both this and the fact he was orphaned at an early age, B’s world view is a little more emotionally distant and off-kilter than the average, well-adjusted person. B has experienced a great deal of loss in his life, so his personality - his true personality, which is almost always hidden under the facade of his “Rue Ryuzaki” persona - is a bit subdued and melancholy, with a tendency toward intense anger. He will often appear emotionally detached in some aspects, but he is not entirely unfeeling - on the contrary, he feels quite a lot, but has been trained over the years to present a mask of impassivity to the world. Although he is not prone to outbursts or displays of action not thoroughly calculated, B is still quite a bit emotionally unstable, especially considering that the end result of the series of murders he committed was intended to be a rather gruesome suicide.
B does not, for the most part, maintain close relationships. Since he has been surrounded with reminders of death his entire life, and since he lost both of his parents at an early age, B learned early on in life not to allow himself to form attachments with many other people. He craves affection, attention, and meaningful relationships, however, precisely because he has not had them, and once he was brought to the Wammy’s House orphanage and enrolled in the training program there, B fixated on his absentee role model - the great detective L. L became the object of B’s attention in an obsessive, idol-worship kind of way; L was the only thing that mattered to B.
This sense of disconnect from other people and sense of loss in general is, among other things, a large part in why B’s personality is so obsessive in nature. He clings to things he holds dear because he knows he will, eventually, lose them.
B is also driven, rational and calculating - once he has a goal in mind, B does not give up. His determination is perhaps his greatest character strength. He has been trained to meet his goal by whatever means necessary, even if they are sometimes questionable [such as committing a series of grisly murders], but he is not amoral; B is neither a sociopath nor a psychopath.
Through the Wammy’s House program, B received extensive training in the investigative arts. He is adept at problem-solving, creative thinking, and logical reasoning, as evident in his prowess for both creating and solving puzzles, particularly crossword puzzles. B is an expert speed-reader, speaks both English and Japanese fluently, and demonstrates high proficiency in mathematics. Although it is not stated in the text of Another Note, it is likely B is also proficient in a number of additional languages and highly skilled in various types of computer work, including programming and hacking.
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Canon History: There are not many specific facts known about Beyond Birthday from the text of Another Note before the events of the story in question. What is known, however, is that both of his parents were killed when he was quite young - his father was murdered by a thug, his mother died in a train crash - and he was eventually brought to the Wammy’s House orphanage in Winchester, England, to participate in a rigorous detective training program as B - Backup for the genius detective L.
B was the second candidate enrolled in the program, a child with a brilliant mind and an eccentric demeanor; the first candidate, A, was unable to cope with the various pressures of the intense training program and committed suicide. B excelled in the program for many years, yet ultimately was not chosen as L’s successor, for reasons not specified. It is speculated, however, that the first generation of trainees was perhaps meant to act as prototypes for the program, never intended to actually succeed as a successor to L. B disappeared from the House around May of 2002 - again, for reasons not specified - shortly before orchestrating what would come to be known as the Los Angeles BB Murder Cases in July and August of that same year.
The series of elaborate, grisly killings involved three victims, each seemingly unrelated to the next, save for the fact that each was found in a room locked from the inside, a decreasing number of Wara Ningyo dolls was nailed to the walls of the rooms where the victims were found, and each victim’s first and last name began with the same letter. Believe Bridesmaid, a 44-year-old freelance writer, was drugged and asphyxiated to death with a rope, with post-mortem cuts made on his chest, a code designed to indicate the second victim. Quarter Queen, a 13-year-old girl, was drugged and killed via blunt force trauma to her head; her eyes were crushed in post-mortem. Backyard Bottomslash, a 28-year-old bank worker, died from severe blood loss when her left arm and right leg were hacked off; the arm was never recovered.
The serial murders attracted L’s attention, just as B intended, and L enlisted the assistance of a suspended FBI agent named Naomi Misora in investigating the murders. B approached Naomi at the scene of the first murder, introducing himself as an “unprivate detective” named Rue Ryuzaki who had been hired by the murder victims’ families to investigate the murder, independent of the police. Under the guise of cooperative investigation, B skillfully led Naomi through the obscure clues he’d left behind at the scene of each murder, pointing to the location of the fourth and final murder. B’s intent at the final scene was to commit suicide by setting himself on fire after setting it up to look like another murder, and thus leave L with a puzzle he could never solve. This, in B’s mind, would prove that he was better than L. Naomi, however, was able to piece together the final clues and determine Ryuzaki’s identity as the killer, B, and place him under arrest before he was able to succeed in his suicide plot, though not before B was able to badly burn himself.
B spent the next year and a half recovering from his extensive burn injuries while serving a life sentence in prison for his crimes and died of a mysterious heart attack on January 21, 2004, one of the many, many victims of Kira and the Death Note.
Additional links:
• Wikipedia
• Death Note Wiki
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RP History: B spent nearly seven months in Disturbia - a strange, sprawling metropolis with an eerie subterranean counterpart, the Undercity. He woke in a mostly unremarkable apartment after a brief blackout period; the last thing B remembered before regaining consciousness in this new locale was walking into an apartment in Los Angeles where under the false persona of an “unprivate detective” by the name of Rue Ryuzaki, he’d set up a final stakeout to apprehend the criminal behind a series of bizarre, gruesome murders - an elaborate charade, given that B himself was the perpetrator of the series of murders.
When B awoke in Disturbia, he found that his personal effects (namely, his business cards) had been taken from him, and he’d been left instead with a wallet containing Disturbian currency and a handheld communication device. He was given no concrete explanation as to why or how he’d been brought to this city, or even where exactly Disturbia was located. B sent an encoded text post to the network via his communication device - a test of sorts, to see who might be watching, who might respond. A boy named Belphegor who claimed to be a prince was the only person to break B’s code and respond in a code of his own. From this, B concluded Belphegor was very smart, and from some of Belphegor’s comments, that he was not quite stable and, in all likelihood, quite dangerous. He introduced himself as the Ryuzaki persona, and decided to keep a close eye on him.
The next significant person B encountered on the Disturbia network was someone B knew from before - a fellow resident of the Wammy’s House orphanage by the codename of Mello. They’d only known each other in passing, previously; B was several years older than Mello, and served as something of an upperclassman and role model for the other boy. Thanks to the intricacies of multiverse logistics, the Mello B met in Disturbia was quite a bit older, from a point well past B’s own timeline. And - well, actually, there were two of them [“Original” and “Disturbed”; B took to calling them Mischa and M, respectively, so as not to give away their identities], each with slightly different personalities. B learned a great deal about the future from the Mellos - his own, theirs, and that of L, their common role model and aspiration.
L too had been brought to Disturbia, though B was not to learn this until much later on, and although they communicated over the network, it was, for the most part, inadvertent on B’s part - L did not reveal his identity to B until after they’d been in casual contact for a while. They only had one real conversation, and it went rather poorly - L refused to give B a straight answer about anything, and the entire exchange left B feeling trivialized, invalidated, and more or less enraged.
Partly as a result of this, and partly as a result of the growing camaraderie between himself and M, B’s obsessive nature shifted somewhat, from L to M instead. Their relationship resembled a tumultuous sort of friendship - B was more honest and used the “Ryuzaki persona” less around M, almost treating M as a confidante at times, yet he harbored a certain sense of resentment and jealousy at M’s relationship with L, something he desperately craved and had been denied. Both B and M acknowledged that they were alike in many ways; each pushed the other’s buttons with some regularity. Eventually, though, B came to realize how important M’s role was to be in avenging L’s death [and his own, too - B learned he would be killed by Kira, Light Yagami, who would also go on to kill L]. B saw that M had succeeded in some ways where he had failed; M had been chosen as a successor to L, while B had been a mere experimental prototype in the successor training program.
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It wasn’t much of a fight, really. B had very little combat training, and up against a skilled assassin like Belphegor, he didn’t stand much of a chance. But B hadn’t intended to walk away from this fight anyway. Belphegor slit B’s throat on the Disturbia City beachfront, laughing as he watched B die.
That should have been the end of the story, but somehow, two weeks later, B was resurrected, presumably by whatever people and/or powers that had brought him and the others to Disturbia in the first place. The shock of his death and subsequent resurrection, coupled with the fact that he had apparently once again failed in his purpose left B in an even less stable frame of mind than before. He spent the next several months struggling to reconcile his identity and sense of purpose with what had transpired.
The person most responsible for keeping B together as well as he was able to manage during this time was a young girl named Eve who had befriended B prior to his death. Eve had been created as a genetic experiment, trained as an assassin; she harbored residual feelings of guilt over the deaths she’d caused and doubt as to her own identity and worth. Naturally, B was sympathetic, and later on, opened up to her about his own true identity and sordid past. After B was killed and brought back to life, Eve insisted he move in and share an apartment with her; she vowed to protect him from future attacks by Belphegor.
B’s relationship with M became even more volatile after his resurrection. B was less than pleased that M, instead of heeding his warning and avoiding Belphegor, chose to avenge B’s murder by battling [and ultimately killing] Belphegor. B and M continued to antagonize each other; B finally picked a fight with M, intending to provoke M into killing him. B, in his obsession, had conflated M with L, who he already saw as a sort of godlike figure - he thought if M killed him, it might be a more final death than the one he’d already experienced. However, B’s plan once again backfired. M did not kill B; instead, at the conclusion of the altercation, he told B: “I didn't shoot you, but you're dead to me.” This triggered B into experiencing a sort of mental breakdown - his identity crisis intensified, to the point where he took to identifying as a ghost, at times. B struggled through this for about a month before he and M eventually reconciled and B agreed he would attempt to learn how to survive and continue living instead of simply self-destructing. Shortly thereafter, B disappeared without a trace from Disturbia.
Appearance: The text of Another Note gives only a rough description of B, and there is a wide variety of fanartist representations of the character - this is one of my favorites. Since B in canon imitates L, he is frequently represented with images of L, sometimes altered, such as with red eyes, to denote his shinigami eyes. Another example.
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B’s wardrobe is simple, with an emphasis on comfort and function over fashion; he tends to wear clothing that is loose-fitting and plain, usually just an oversized dark-colored long-sleeved T-shirt, faded jeans, and comfortably worn tennis shoes. Previously, B wore makeup as part of his disguise - paler foundation and dark shadow smudged underneath both eyes to give the appearance of sleep deprivation - but he abandoned this habit several months into his captivity in Disturbia.
Overall, B presents a somewhat disheveled image; otherwise, his appearance doesn’t stand out terribly much.
Sample log entry from previous RP: Link here.
Sample journal entry from previous RP: Link here; decoded text below.
001.
Well, this is definitely not according to plan.
It appears I blacked out and have been brought to an unfamiliar location. I do not remember a struggle. I do not remember much of anything after I left Misora - I remember opening the door to room 404, and then, nothing. The missing block of time is most troublesome.
I wonder - was it L? Was he somehow able to find me, predict my next move? Did I misjudge Misora? No, she is merely L’s pawn. She is obviously worthy to act as his replacement, but certainly she would not be able to anticipate my actions.
And - worse than not knowing where I am or how I got here - my business cards are gone. I will have to investigate whether there is a shop nearby with the ability to reprint them. That should be one of the first orders of business - find out where I am, what I’m doing here, how I got here, and then, business cards. Maybe not necessarily in that precise order.
Final notes: The format at disturbia_rp was perhaps slightly different than most other games, so if anything here is unclear or insufficient, please let me know and I’ll be happy to explain or rewrite the section/s in question.
Thank you for your time!
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