- OOC: Application/Information
Original Application Post can be found here.
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[ Character's Name ] : Naoya
[ Character's Age ] : 24
[ Series ] : Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor
[ Canon Point ] : Taken from Day 7 of the Lockdown (the last day--this will make sense in a moment!), where the MC/his cousin has decided to help Naoya, and during the morning before the battle against Amane and Jezebel.
Obvious warning for spoilers for the game he's from, one more time.
[ History ] : ((HIGHLIGHT for spoilers.))
? ? ?
In the beginning, so says the Old Testament, Adam was created. And after his first wife split, Eve was made from his rib. ... Or so they say. So that Man would not be lonely, he had Woman beside him. Not long after, they found themselves out of Eden and on Earth with all the other life, so says Christianity. Whatever really happened and when, in these early days nearly 6,000 years ago, this was a long time before Naoya was born.
... Or was it? As the legend goes, Adam's wife had Cain, then Abel... and dispute what you will, but of everything to be taken with a grain of salt, this part of the testament is not to be taken lightly. Naoya knows this because he is the first Son of Man. He is Cain. Not was, not once had been at some point... is, and always has been. One day He wanted a showing from Adam's sons to determine who's offer was more worthy. Cain was a farmer; Abel was a Shepherd. Abel offered God his finest lamb, and Cain his best food. In the end, it's said that He chose the younger Abel's food over Cain's. The eldest sibling was not happy about this; he endlessly worked on tilling the earth and bringing it's riches as his reward. All his younger brother did was watch over a flock.
He began to think the unspeakable due to rage. And so the first murderer and the first martyr were born. Cain killed Abel--why? No one knows. Jealousy, rage, anger... it is hard to say. Once the deed was done, God came to Cain and questioned him: 'Where is your brother, Abel?' And Cain replied, 'Am I my brother's keeper? I do not know.'
But God knew. He knew what he had done. And thus, as a penance for his sin, he punished Cain, thrusting a Mark of his deed upon him: he would remember every lifetime he had, each reincarnation, and would forever walk the earth. Adam wept and Cain left, becoming a migratory nomad...
Present: Twenty-Four years ago
Naoya is born to his parents, in Japan. At an early age, the young child loses them and goes to live with related family around the age of five or so. His cousin isn't born yet, but soon after, and they grow up together--if a few years late. Naoya shares a lot of similarities with his young cousin, mostly looks, but there's one big difference--he was born with red eyes and very pale skin... also pale, white hair. An albino, if you would call him such. He also has bad eyesight, so he has been wearing glasses when he needed to read or focus closer on visual details from an early age.
Eventually the two grow up in the same household together and become fairly close. Naoya is like an older brother to his cousin (the MC), and vice versa. He becomes a programmer and moves to Aoyama after the age of twenty or so, and has lived there to the present day.
Present: August 2009
He has little time left to finish what he must do to prepare for what's coming. Though Naoya knows that. And so, his agenda is easy to tell--he hasn't been home in a long time. He's been working on something top-secret for nearly more than a month, possibly longer.
First he goes to the Shomonkai, a group of cultists that can be considered similar to Messians, if not for the fact they preach about the wonders of the Internet, and the Tower of Babel's incident, and how God is going to judge humanity again. That, and they worship someone else over God (an ancient demon named Belberith), but still, Naoya decides to help them: he is hired to make them COMPs, or Communication Players, with demon summoning programs inside of them. That's right--demons. Naoya works furiously coding these things, and when he is done, he takes three special and specific COMPs and sends a message out to his cousin and his friends. The program itself is protected--so he knows they'll open them. He knows this because one of his cousin's friends, Atsuro, is his student and a programmer with significant (but no where near matching his) talent of his own. Talent that also gives him a penchant for wanting to hack things... and it was, to Atsuro, or any other programmer and hacker, like a greeting between friends. Once he started, the young man wouldn't stop. He'd figure it out, just... not too quickly.
It's the year of his cousin's second year in high school. Naoya knew beforehand by a large margin that something was going to happen... and so, he set his preparations in order. The Tokyo Lockdown and God's Judgment of Man for summoning demons using the common tongue. This day had been anticipated. An e-mail was sent to Kihara Atsuro, and messages to Tanikawa Yuzu and his cousin, to gather the three in one place: Shibuya. He later calls and tells them he cannot come, but fate's wheels spin regardless.
Not long after he leaves them and they end up accidentally summoning three demons (thanks to Atsuro's hacking skills), fighting them, and earning their contracts and rights to do so with them as they please--be it battling alongside their masters or what-have-you. They, from here on out, will begin fighting for their lives. But Naoya has more important things to do. The COMPs have the Laplace Mail system--a prediction of the events that will happen each Day of the Lockdown and also predict how long a person has left to live, showing a Death Clock (or a number from one to nine days--past ten and it doesn't show up), that will show how long they've left to live based on the program's predictions. What is the Lockdown, you ask? This happened when demons flood the entire Yamanote Circle inside Tokyo, and angels take over the Government and Special Defense Force, ordering them to lock Tokyo down completely. No humans or demons can leave, and in 7 Days, if they are not gone, the Government will BOMB the entire area. God's Judgment has begun.
((Highlight for spoilers:))
... And so has Cain's master plan. Inextricably linked to all of this as the one behind it, he alone is not only the one behind most of this Lockdown and distributing COMPs to people and preparing, but he has been waiting for his chance. The fact is? He is Cain. And he still remembers. Naoya has been preparing for this for many lifetimes. That's right--this is where it all comes together for him, you see. He schemes to install his cousin as Overlord of all demons (the king of Bel), so that he can destroy God himself with Naoya at his side and free humanity from His and the angel's shackles. If his cousin wins the war between the Bels he had been thrust into (the strongest demons warring for the right over all other demons), then not only will he have whatever he wishes, but he will be able to end the Lockdown and save everyone. The Government will have no choice... and if Naoya can convince him to follow his path, then he will also help him end God in a war between angels and demons so massive, it is only the beginning...
Let's Survive.
[ Personality ] :
There are many words to describe Naoya, but stupid is NOT one you would use. He's cunning, ruthless, angry at God--and he WILL do whatever he wants to get something, and use whomever he must to get it. Being the genius that he is, he usually grasps a situation's possible solutions immediately, and goes about systematically using the easiest and the neatest method to get out of them. If backed into a corner and forced to fight, Naoya would rather win down his opponent and enrage them; make them slip up, so he can find their weakness before striking back.
By no means is he 'kind'. But then, this depends on if you are related to him... then? It might be debatable. You see, he did kill his brother, but it isn't his fault. After 6,000 years, somewhere between now and then, he lost all meaning in life... and he took what was left of his sanity and his emotions and cut them off, slowly melding them and creating a dagger of pure rage and a burning hatred of God so intense that afterwards, he could only see his own goals, no matter how hypocritical, crazy, ridiculous, and near-impossible those dreams of revenge and ousting God like he'd been thrown out were. To him, life is meaningless. Love, caring, emotions besides hate, murder... it doesn't matter. Think too much and care too much, and you are weak.
One must remember that if you are numb and remember all of life's considered joys over and over and over, have lived in every body imaginable through reincarnation and you remember... every single time? Every waking moment? One would not be sane, nor would they be prone to crying, or even feeling at all, in a sense. Therefore he thinks kindness is weakness, and has... quite literally, lost his marbles. He blames God for all of his problems, and believes God set him up so that humanity would learn to murder from him. He can't admit to himself--and will not forgive himself, even if he won't admit it--that he killed Abel out of jealousy or anger. Then his lives, as it were, would have no meaning. This is quite literally all he can be. As such, his ego is as large as he is tall, and his sanity is... lacking.
If you get on his bad side, he will not hesitate to stop dawdling around and kill you himself, if he can... but only if he's truly angry. He prefers not to leave a mess, and killing does get messy, unfortunately. He has no issue killing angels or demons, however. While it may be true that Naoya has a bad temper if you hit the good (or bad, depending on if you want him mad) spots that cause him to lose it completely, he more often than not isn't always easy to provoke. He's a control freak, and as such has a cap over his own actions and emotions most times.
In fact, he prefers to be the one provoking you. If he finds you to be easy to manipulate, he will try it. If you have a weakness, he will find it, exploit it, and use it for his own means. And those means must be met--he does not give up. Not. Ever. He is not afraid of death, even--he's died enough by now to know how not to care, and if one did kill him, they would be cursed tenfold to himself, as said by God originally when Cain was worried about how he would be hated and killed if found. So you tell me: why should a tiny thing like DEATH stop him...? Simple: it won't.
[ Strengths/Weaknesses ] : Naoya is mainly a magic-user, an analyst. He is by no means a physical fighter. Hell, what he wears is pretty much justified in that he isn't going to be fighting you physically, unless he's throwing that large geta to your face. He prefers to leave the fighting to his summoned demons, or just kill you with words. And if that doesn't work, then he'll kill you with magic--elemental or almighty-based damage, which to a default has no category and therefore cannot be blocked, and so cannot be guarded against (in relation to usual elemental defenses).
Being Cain, and having lived as long as he has, he also has somewhat of another sense--but not quite. He's still human, but he knows when Abel in any form or something of that nature is around. This goes for powerful demons and such, but not much further, as he is still technically mortal by all measures. Though it's likely if you kill him (even without the Vatheon bringing him back) that due to his curse he would... just reincarnate again. Though without God, the killer's punishment is debatable. He also seems to know the trickster demon, Loki. How exactly that happened is unknown, but Naoya is nothing if not exasperated when around him. He also has a weakness for, of all things, the food dango. Call it a sweet tooth, or whatever you want, but still--he's only human, after all.
As for a generalized rule, his strengths lie in the COMP he has, and his mastery over it and working alongside, summoning, and using demons. He also has a general mastery of all forms of magic and skill that come with the aforementioned. As a rule, a demon attacking him and him trying to damage a demon mean the Harmonizer program he wrote to his COMP is going to severely lesson the damage you do to him... he can even block a physical punch using his own skills, as well as most magic.
In summation: He's strong against most magic, can guard against it, use almost any kind of skill be it even healing, and usually, summon demons. He is also very fast--which is honestly an understatement. His agility is nearly unmatched. ... But he isn't your pansy healer, either. His health is fairly decent too, sans his needing glasses to read (and maybe if you wave a box of dango near him...), and the fact he sticks out pretty easily in a crowd. But due to his long time on earth itself, he's also become very good at disappearing almost completely into a noisy crowd of people and manipulating others.
He's weak to most physical things, though. And as I stated previously: Naoya is only human, not a superman or anything like that--his skills come from his COMP. He also has one sore spot when it comes to That Guy Upstairs (YHVH, Yahoweh, whatever you call God), his brother (Abel), disbelief in what he says, and of course... well, logic that outmatches his own. His logic is the only one that will make sense to him in most cases, even if you point out that it's ridiculous in spots. And of course, he might slip up if you can piss him off well enough... but Naoya is a guarded man in both what he says, how he says it, and also in what he does and just how he does it. He does not mess up often. Perhaps I'd change that more to just: he does not mess up.
[ Appearance and Other Facts ]:
Naoya stands nearly six feet at the height of five feet nine inches (5'9''), his already tall frame added onto with even taller wooden geta. For Japan, one realizes that is very tall. Basically you're likely to be an armrest to him. And if you think huge wooden shoes would be useless in combat, wait until you hear what else he wears: a long matrix-patterned Haori, with his glasses clipped to his left on the aside with a red cord (probably symbolic). It's so long that he tends to fold it and keep his arms together underneath it; the sleeves go past his hands. He has a habit of using it as a coat more than usual over-wear for style (which he doesn't care for), but Japan IS a pretty warm place during August. His under-clothing isn't all that interesting; just a blue shirt, and long black pants. I have an image for reference should it be needed.
Anything else... well. I can think to say is that, again, Naoya is a genius when it comes to thinking what to do and what people will do next (as stated by his coding student and the MC's friend, Atsuro). Therefore I'll have to ask, but... his personality clashes. A lot. He will likely be the first looking for a way out of Vatheon's little bubble, and is the type to stand in front of something that should be eating you and simply call it a nuisance.
And lastly, as an aside: The reason I did not touch on the events during the Lockdown completely in Devil Survivor canon past the first few days because Naoya's history is so... extensive, and I don't have the Main Character decided on/being applied with me. If you like I can, of course! For pure reference only, I also have a wiki link, if that's acceptable, relating to that here. It's for if you care to peruse and don't know the series/story of the game or simple terms--most is there and is extensive enough to help anyone confused, just be wary of spoilers, eh? Hopefully I didn't make you confused!
[ Sample ]:
“The preparations for the “Summoning Vessel” are complete.”
Naoya took his place, with his back turned to the other in his company as he watched all that was before him... and what would soon befall the Yamanote circle. He was near the Shomonkai’s favored priestess and the founder’s daughter, Kuzuryu Amane. She was quiet, for the moment, leaving the pale young adult to his thoughts. He breathed, and he remembered. Bits and pieces of a past long gone; of a Shepherd and a Farmer, of a Princess in India, of a Servant in England... he had watched humanity become what it was now. ... But he was by no means here for them, as their ‘Messiah’... oh, no. By no means.
And indeed, this work he had finally finished with the Shomonkai; those demon-worshiping fools, who he cared not for either way (just a means; a tool in his game, his plan, what he wanted to do-), he realized now that in his hands and his mind was held the End of The Beginning. It was so many things, indeed... the culmination of a long time of work... but, no. This was more than that. It was almost as if it were a recreation of sorts, as well as an end. What he had set into motion now had been hard work; that was true. Learning coding, the demon summoning program... all of it. Difficult but fruitful, he surmised. The young woman in orange approached him, and she spoke finally; quietly, the angel in her body and the demon, sleeping for now... neither was who spoke through her. It was herself this time.
“Man is now a race of some power,” she said slowly. “This Ordeal is nearly upon us.” Her dark eyes and calm expression did not portray the worry that Amane had shared with the angel inside her. She wished only the best for humanity... but did the other?
Naoya didn't turn back to look at her, or say anything. Amane spoke again. “Tell me... will you continue in lending us your strength?” She said, watching his answer with a careful, but guarded neutrality.
“... I have done nothing,” Naoya said back to her, his pale face and red eyes in a knowing smile. “It was, after all, the ancient common tongue that brought them here originally, Lady Amane.”
The priestess gave him no expression that showed her own thoughts. Naoya gave her no need to do so; he was always careful and guarded in what was truly going on behind that waiting and knowing smile.
“God is no friend of mine.” And with those words he turned, his geta clacking against the metal on the floor as he left. His thoughts were filled with the past... and the future. What would they choose when it was thrust upon them...? ‘They will learn to Survive’, he thought to himself, smile widening to a smirk as he left. Because he would end it all...