(no subject)
character.
CHARACTER NAME: Michael
SERIES: Angel Sanctuary wiki page and detailed character page
CANON POINT: Post volume 20.
AGE: Ancient, probably at least a few millennia. Looks 15-16.
APPEARANCE: Shota hooker and winged.
PREVIOUS GAME HISTORY: N/A.
PERSONALITY:
Michael is the archangel guardian of fire and he matches the description with all the symbolic subtlety of a ton of bricks: red hair, explosive temper, and a childishly simple personality. He’s aware of his strength to the point of arrogance and does what he wants with cheerful disregard of the laws. In spite of complaints and implied threats from Sevothtarte he generally ignores his more bureaucratic duties and avoids meetings and councils. Due to his small size, his outbursts and complaints can make Michael come across as a petty, petulant teenager.
Despite his immature nature and young appearance, Michael is still the Chief of Powers and the general of Heaven’s army, veteran of two major heavenwide wars. More than just his job, Michael genuinely enjoys battle and takes almost any opportunity to cause trouble. He claims that angels were originally created to be weapons of war and seems to embrace the idea, picking fights wherever he can with friends and enemies indiscriminately. He prefers punching things in the face to talking them over and doesn’t balk at killing, stabbing Setsuna in their first fight before telling him that “pointless murder is what war is all about.” His morbid sense of battlefield humor can border on the macabre, making him seem ruthless and sometimes outright cruel. Michael also has that previously mentioned hair-trigger temper and does not stop to think about the consequences when it’s set off, even ordering executions at the drop of a hat like a kid throwing a temper tantrum.
Even though he’s something of a loose cannon, Michael has a deeply buried sentimental streak and strong bonds of camaraderie with his men. His subordinates seem to genuinely like and trust him; second-in-command Camael is fearless enough around him to knock Michael out and carry him off when he starts flying off the handle about something. While being immensely self-centered and careless with other people’s things he still cares very much about the people he’s loyal to and makes an effort to keep them happy, though he only admits it in pretty dire circumstances. He’s even willing to put himself in a dangerous position to rescue Gabriel, who Michael openly says he never got along with, because they’re both elemental guardians and therefore she’s “like a sister to him”. He’s very much like a child with his friends, open and honest and without any sense of remorse for saying thoughtless things. With Michael every disagreement is like fighting with a little kid, and it’s not even strange for him to end an argument by saying things like “You’re not my friend anymore!! I never want to see you again!!” and storming off. He’ll inevitably be back in a week or two, all sulking forgotten, without any apology being needed.
Michael values his friends that much more because of deep emotional insecurities. When he and his twin were born, it was prophesied that one of them would become the “child of light” while the other would herald destruction. Lucifel’s grace and calm temperament made him seem like the obvious candidate for “child of light,” so Michael felt himself perpetually in his older twin’s shadow and believed the only person who saw him for himself was the angel who raised them both, Bal. However during the battle of Lucifel’s fall Bal threw herself between Michael and Lucifel and was stabbed by Michael, causing Michael to finally believe that even she loved Lucifel best. Perpetually jealous of his twin, Michael feels a great need to be respected and acknowledged; as a result, both his brother and his height are sore topics with him and are sure ways to trigger his temper. Even so, Setsuna eventually realizes that in truth what Michael wanted wasn’t just to beat Lucifel, but to be loved by his brother in return. Michael seldom shows this kind of deep emotion around others and he denies Setsuna when confronted about it, but he’s eventually grudgingly honest with himself about his own emotions... when there are no witnesses. Even when Michael realizes he’s done wrong, he’s not the type to apologize or admit to weakness.
Rude, stubborn, and unyielding, Michael can seem more or less like a musclehead and a straightforward idiot. It’s not entirely a wrong impression, either. Michael doesn’t stop to think before he acts, and his periods of introspection are few and far between except when he’s specifically brooding. However he also has an angel’s supernatural perception and is aware of things like the dissonance between mind and body when Setsuna is temporarily animating Alexiel’s body. Though he has supernatural senses he also doesn’t stop to reflect on the implications or meaning of what he picks up on beyond potential advantage in battle. Michael’s single-mindedness makes him act fairly stupid, and when he’s arguing or fighting it can take him a while to acknowledge important things told to him point-blank; he continues railing at Sara for a good few minutes before he backtracks to her having revealed that she’s the Messiah’s sister. However, this single-mindedness can also make him the voice of reason in dire enough circumstances. Unlike the other elemental guardians he seldom gets sidetracked from his goals by overthinking and he has no compunctions about yelling at the others to focus on the goddamn war instead of their romantic dramas, existential crises, or other bullshit. He phrases it about as delicately as that, too.
tl;dr: Michael is blunt, honest (except where his own feelings are concerned), rude, hot-tempered, arrogant, violent, childish, needy, and somehow still a collected fighter and a good general of heaven.
ABILITIES: He’s an angel and a really really old general. Skilled with a sword, able to create bursts of flame, and capable of flight when he manifests his wings. He’s also psychically sensitive in a rough sense, able to pick up things like when someone’s body doesn’t match their consciousness for whatever reason.
For powercap purposes I’m assuming the effectiveness of his flames, his speed, his strength, and his physical resilience are all lowered to more reasonable and less scourge-of-heaven levels.
POSSESSIONS: The clothes on his back and his giant sword. Due to his burning need to overcompensate for his height, it’s something he carries at all times.
samples.
JOURNAL ENTRY SAMPLE:
[video]
[It could be you’re hearing this on the phone. Or it could be you’re hearing this in glorious stereo sound, because as small as he is Michael has a killer set of lungs on him and is not shy about using them.
The video shows a pair of platform boots, several inches high. The toe of one is tapping impatiently.]
Hey! Hey, you! Listen the fuck up!! “Have fun,” huh? Is that how you say you want a fight around here? Fine with me, but don’t go crying about it later! ...Not like there’ll be enough left of you to cry. You know who you’re starting this with, right? Sit the fuck down, I’ll tell you.
Invincible archangel of fire, burning the heavens and shaking the earth!! One of the four great guardians!! Amazing and infamous Chief of Powers!! --Get it yet, you bastard?!
[and with that the video cuts out abruptly.]
THIRD-PERSON SAMPLE:
Michael wasn’t the philosophical type. It was a pretty sad day when there was nothing better to do than sit around thinking about things instead of doing them. But it’d been one of those days, and that was entirely the thing, the problem that was nagging vaguely at the back of his mind. There was war, and that was pretty great, that was kind of his thing. Killing and fighting and burning and all that good shit. He was good at that.
But that was the thing. That was really the fucking thing. Was that when you were good at wars, you won the wars. And then you had peace. And who the hell wanted that? No one besides pansies like Raphael, that’s who.
“This is bullshit,” he announced in Camael’s vague direction, slouching moodily in his chair and grabbing for his sword. There had to be something. He didn’t believe in total peace, it just didn’t happen. If nothing else he could count on human and demon nature for that. Or angel nature. He wasn’t exactly pointing fingers. He could go demon hunting again, fuck the new pacifistic ‘you were all meant to be one’ noise. Bring back a couple horns for Raphael to make into one of those stupid tea concoctions or whatever--
He cut the thought off dead. Raphael didn’t need that. For a while from now Raphael didn’t need anything at all except a medical bed and a woman to fluff his pillow. Only that bastard could take a nap for a decade, probably with the express purpose of ticking Michael off. Raphael was never around when he needed him, it was like his stupid calling card. Though that also meant, Michael acknowledged grudgingly, that Raphael wasn’t around to pretend to babysit either. Which meant anything he ever wanted to do without having to put up one of those brainnumbing naggy lectures, now was the moment. He should make a list, or something. Travel. See new sights. Stab new monsters.
That settled it. Hitching his sword over his shoulder he slid to his feet and ignored Camael’s bland stare shaded just barely towards alarm. He needed to get out or else burn down half of Heaven. Not that he minded the idea of that, really. But the lecture that earned him would last another full decade, and he wasn’t signing himself up for that. Not yet anyway.
“Going out.”
Camael was a good second. He didn’t need any more explanation than that, Michael figured, which was good because he didn’t feel like offering any. Maybe raising a little hell on Assiah was what he was in the mood for now, but he’d settle for picking a fight with Camael if that’s all he could get. Camael, wisely, said nothing.