[Character Application] Rui Yamase
Mun
Name: Akai
Livejournal Username: fontech
E-mail: akaikitsunedono [at] gmail [dot] com
AIM/MSN: guynophobic on AIM
Current Characters at Luceti:
truthget
mirrorbirth
notakor
sokkafangirl
wingenvy
Character
Name: Rui Yamase
Fandom: Lux-Pain
Gender: Female
Age: 17
Time Period: Chapter 21 - Impression: Sunrise (end game)
Wing Color: Orange
History: http://lux-pain.wikia.com/wiki/Rui_Yamase
Personality:
Rui Yamase is, for the most part, just your average high school girl. She has normal worries about the future, loves hanging out with her friends, has difficulty balancing herself on the teenage emotional roller coaster. She has important things on her mind such as fashion, dieting, and boys.
Oh, and she's also a psychic. SURPRISE.
Rui is a playful girl, prone to gently tease and play around with her friends. She laughs easily, and even if she might complain about a situation at first, she's quick to turn around and change her mind if she's able to see the good side of it. Even in her first appearance, her initial reluctance about being asked to show Atsuki around the school is quickly shifted to enthusiasm and affection for the school, doing her best to welcome Atsuki and introduce him to as many students as she can so he'll fit in better. She's very good at meeting new people and making the best of her surroundings.
Rui is very open about physical contact; it's said that it isn't unusual for her to walk off arm in arm with someone, even a boy, which tends to cause some embarrassment around the school. This can also cause problems, because using her power takes just the simple act of touching someone, and while she needs to activate it for it to work, she's very open about showing it off when the mood strikes her, and sometimes it throws her into awkward situations, viewing something that (afterwards) she realizes she really ought not to have seen. Like most teenage girls, she's quick to get embarrassed if people tease her- she gets flustered at different points of the game if people imply that there's a romance going on between her and Atsuki, blushing, brushing it off, or telling the offender to shut up.
She's quite the entrepreneur, making use of her powers to start up a fortune-telling business, Company F, in an office that she saved up the money for and purchased by herself. Her business advertises a promise of 100% accuracy, which is, as stated several times, no empty boast. She's cautious about it, since she understands that a teenager running her own business can be dangerous; because of this, she'll only arrange appointments to people she has spoken to beforehand, rather than accept walk-in appointments. Her only exception is visits from friends. Akira specifically states that she's the "most careful in the world"- and in that sense, she's protective of herself, her friends, and her family.
Rui has a lot of love to spread around, and she doesn't hold back much. She can be a bit merciless and unforgiving if you weird her out or anger her- if that person is a stranger, that is. (Case in point: Hidaka, the photographer, sort of harassed her at work one day to tell a fortune; she banned him from coming back, and then he winds up as a substitute teacher at school the next day. When he tries to start over, she refuses to give him a chance.) She's still pretty brutal with her friends, but she does it out of love, not genuine spite. She likes to tease and play with people, and above all else she really loves to have fun.
Rui is what's known as a mild type of Ganguro, which is a hideous term for the style of fashion where Japanese women dye their hair light colours and tan their skin. Appearance is quite important to her; she puts a lot of effort into hair care and keeping her skin the right shade. She likes to keep up with strange and colourful fashion, adding her own little touches and giving a unique appearance even to her school uniform, such as the heart she wears on her tie, or wearing the sweater vest rather than a jacket, unlike nearly the entire school, apparently.
She makes good use of her cell phone, often sending e-mails/texts that are completely pointless or frivilous, such as keeping Atsuki up to date about the status of her cucumber-sandwich episode, or gossiping about the teachers and students at Kisaragi High. It wouldn't be seen as unusual for her to just want to share her little experiences, simple as they may be, with people she knows, even if she barely knows them (eg. the aforementioned cucumber drama was delivered within three days of meeting Atsuki).
Finally, Rui is kind of a realist, and a skeptic of all things paranormal, which even she admits is strange, considering she has firsthand experience with it, what with her telepathy and all. Even so, she finds it somewhat laughable and hard to belief in the supernatural. She says, "I can do it because I don't believe in it."
With a game like Lux-Pain, the characters all come with a handful of Shinen- essentially, innermost thoughts that can be read by the main character, Atsuki. Rui's Shinen are pretty simple and innocent for the most part, but I'll describe them in brief:
1) I Like School - lingering thoughts about her love for her school, and a comparison between Atsuki and her (dead) father
2) Divination Customer - doubt she carries about a customer who is cheating on a loved one; she ponders the importance of love versus money
3) About Atsuki - her interest in the main character; her observations about him being quiet and focused, as well as wondering if he thinks fortunetelling is weird or if he likes it
4) Did He Hear? - she wonders if Atsuki came for a reading, and if the customer left hastily because she has a thing for younger guys and Atsuki was her type[Combined 2 & 3]
Strengths:
Physical: Rui does tai chi, so she has some formal martial arts training, and she also does yoga for exercise to stay fit. She doesn't exactly have an imposing stature, but that doesn't stop her from being able to intimidate and lord over all the guys in her class, even going back to their shared childhood. She's described by the other characters as being violent and strong, with painful punches/kicks- even Akira, a practitioner of bushido, has to take her seriously. She's not an actual combatant by any means, but she's no pushover, either.
Mental: Rui's biggest strength is her telepathy; by touching someone, she's able to push her way into their mind and view strong memories or a prophecy, good or bad, as if experiencing a dream about someone's past or future. She can experience the emotions of whatever the person was going through during their experience, as well as some physical sensations (eg. sense of hearing, some physical pain), and it can transfer over to her for a time if it's particularly strong. How it works, as described in the game, is when she comes into contact with someone and activates the ability, her eyes dilate and emit an energy, and while in contact (if the other person can't block her), she views a section of that person's past or future. Her ability can be pretty powerful; Atsuki's narration reveals that she's the first to reach as deeply into his mind as she did. The anti-Silent group, FORT, also emphasizes how powerful she is. Additionally, the final chapter of the game reveals that she has the ability to draw out sealed memories, both from her own mind and the minds of others, though when it comes to her own mind, she seems to require a trigger (eg. after being forced to forget Atsuki, her power is able to help her remember him after she looks at the keychain he gave her).
Powers aside, Rui is a pretty tough cookie. She's very free-spirited and somewhat tempermental, but she can be pretty perceptive at times, even if she doesn't come across as an intellectual like Ryo. She's average overall, but she does well enough for herself that she can tease Akira and Mika for their less-than-stellar grades. The school nurse/counsellor describes her as "the student who needs me the least", but explains that she worries because Rui works too hard and does everything herself.
Emotional: Rui is a very sympathetic character; she plays off as being tough and independent, but she's usually the first to smile and encourage someone when they're really feeling down. If she happens to use her telepathy invasively, and in the process witnesses something hurtful, she'll immediately apologize and back off. She can keep secrets about what she sees, however, and she's incredibly honest in almost all other aspects of life. Probably too honest (which will be mentioned in the Weaknesses section), but more often than not she gets away with it.
Weaknesses:
Physical: Rui has a tendency to push herself too hard, and if she doesn't check herself, she'll collapse from exhaustion- in canon she spent several days in the hospital because of this. She herself says that she never gets much sleep, which is probably part of the cause. Her abilities are somewhat draining, and particularly shocking visions can cause physical changes to her body; for example, viewing the horrific deaths of Atsuki's family caused her eyes to change to a pale colour. Otherwise, she's... fairly normal, physically, and that is a pretty big weakness in a place with heavy hitters like Luceti.
Mental: Her telepathy isn't all-powerful; if someone has any kind of mental-blocking ability, they can push her out. Her ability is kind of unrefined because she doesn't use it professionally to the extent that Atsuki does, and she's still young; she's also not using any kind of enhancement like the Lux-Pain. She can't exactly control what she sees when she uses her telepathy, either- when asked to predict someone's future more specifically, she states that she can only describe what she sees, not what the person wants her to see. That said, as mentioned above, she's just of average intelligence, no once of special mention when it comes to brainpower.
Emotional: Rui can be quite short-tempered, with a tendency to overreact about silly things and threaten people on a whim (such as threatening a poor lunchroom clerk with violence for daring to sell her a sandwich with cucumber in it, or stating that she'll kick Ryo for insulting her intelligence). She's not necessarily too hurtful about her violent tendencies - it's doubtful that she'd ever cause serious injury to someone, especially since depression, anger, and the very thought of hurting people frightens her. (I quote: "Everyone's having fun, I just feel pissed for no reason. Why do I feel like I have to be depressed? ...It's scaring me. I feel like I'm gonna hurt everyone...") She's also so blunt about everything that she sometimes criticizes people without even thinking about it, such as telling Akira he's too shy to make friends without help, or offhandedly mentioning that Mika can be kind of dumb. She loves her friends, but she's not exactly subtle in conversation, and pretty much anyone is fair game for her slights. Akira expresses surprise when she compliments him at the start of the game, and even then, the compliment is after she describes how he's "aloof... crude and crass".
Samples
First Person:
Um... hi. I'm supposed to use this like a phone, right? Though it's pretty weird...
Unami would probably love this.
Anyway, I... I'm new here. My name's Rui Yamase, and I'm trying to find my friends. If you know anyone named Mika Nozaki, Yayoi Kamishiro, Akira Mido, or Ryo Unami, let me know, okay? Or... if you guys are here, you'd better come out and say so! I don't want to be the only one. Sis, you'd come and find me if you were around, right? S-so...
...
And... Saijo? If you're here...
Please, let someone be here...
Third Person:
Yoga is supposed to be calming, and it's true that in any other situation, Rui would take great comfort from the familiar stretches and exercises of her morning routine. Here, though... she can't say that there's anything familiar or comforting about this place. An unknown village, filled with strangers and creatures she'd only ever have seen in fairy tales, a world apparently far from her own... wings. Just how is she supposed to feel about this? It's like she's been dragged out of high school and right into some supernatural reality show. And now she can't even text one of her friends to tell them what a ridiculous situation she's found herself in. She doesn't even have a phone.
There's plenty about this place that she finds fascinating, of course; the wings alone are pretty, after all, and now that they've stopped hurting, she can't deny that they're kind of cute. If they were simply tacked on or attached to her clothes, she might even be enjoying it. Like it's some kind of local fashion trend that everyone loves... that wouldn't be so bad. But she's seen them move, felt them. And she can't just pretend that isn't terrifying.
And everyone seems to think there's no way to escape this place, either... she's trapped, until whoever brought her here sees fit to send her back home. It feels like a horrible dream she can't wake herself up from.
Just what is she supposed to do here...?
"Aahh, this is so stupid! I can't just sit around and take it!" She'd been trying to make herself feel better, but her shout does little more than startle a couple of birds, who chirp out a few cranky demands for her silence as they fly away. And that doesn't do a thing for her state of mind, either. Birds. Talking. She's read that it's possible in this place, and she knows Nami can talk to them all the time, so it's not exactly a new concept. But her? That definitely isn't her power.
It'll be a miracle if she doesn't go nuts by the end of the week.