OOC: Application
Name: Hiro "Hero" Aoshi
(Note: Devil Survivor's main character is nameless, and unlike Persona's nameless MCs, he doesn't have a "canon" name. So I'm just making one up for him.)
Fandom: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Time Period: The end of day six, before making the decision.
Wing Color: White
History:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megami_Ibunroku_Devil_Survivor#Playable_characters
http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Protagonist_(Devil_Survivor)
The wikis are kind of sparse, so if you’re in the mood for spoilers with a side of tl;dr, here’s a summary:
That about says it all, really. Hiro grew up thinking he was just a normal guy. He had his cousin, Naoya, who was raised by Hiro's parents after he lost his own at a young age. He had his childhood friend, Yuzu. He had Atsuro, a nerdlinger fan of Naoya's and a loyal buddy. Then the Tokyo lockdown happens. People are stranded with no electricity, no running water, no internet. Emergency rations are dropped in by helicopter, and people fight like animals just to get at them. Demons run wild, leaving the civilians within the lockdown in constant danger. More and more COMPs appear, which means more and more people summoning demons of their own. As time goes by, Hiro and his friends learned more and more about the nature of the lockdown:
The COMPs were created by Naoya. He was commissioned by the Shomonkai, a religion that likens the internet to the Tower of Babel and claims God is sending them another ordeal. Normally, demons can only be summoned using a powerful emotion and a difficult ritual -- the COMPs negate this in two ways. They use the internet as the source of the emotion, rather than the summoner, and they use music as a common language to call forth the demons. The server that keeps the demon-summoning program working is no longer in this world. The demons are fighting a war -- the War of the Bels. It's a clash between demons with "bel" in their name, and the victor emerges as the King of Bel -- that is, the ruler of all demons. Hiro found himself drawn into it when he killed the demon Beldr using a charm made out of mistletoe. He gained Beldr's power and so became the only human capable of becoming King of Bel. As it turns out, he’s been a “bel” all along. Abel. Of the biblical duo, Cain and Abel. While Naoya, the reincarnation of Cain, retained his memories through the many lives he's lived, Hiro still has absolutely no idea that he's the Bible's first murder victim. As far as he knows, Naoya's just spontanously forgotten that they're cousins, not brothers.
And now... the end of day six has come. Hiro has a very big choice to make. He could run and break through the lockdown -- why should this all be on his shoulders, anyway? He could try to reach the server, and then use it to take control of the demons without becoming their king. He could become King of Bel and order the demons to return to hell. He could use them to wage a war against God. He could use his position to become Messiah, use the demons to follow God's word and usher in an era of order. Whatever he picks, everyone’s lives are in his hands. But hey, no pressure.
Personality: (Note: Again, the MC is kind of a blank canvas. His personality, plans, and motives depend on the responses the player chooses. He can vary pretty drastically depending on the ending you’re aiming for. He's coming from day six, so an ending hasn't been picked yet, but I'm leaning towards either the Atsuro ending or the Gin/Haru ending with my interpretation.)
Hiro's greatest strength is his spirit. Even if a dire situation is pressed onto him, he won't bow down beneath it. Throughout the duration of the lockdown, he's only kept his mind on what he can do -- no matter how impossible the odds or hopeless the situation, he refuses to give in to helplessness or despair. He's not the kind of guy to get tripped up in self-doubt or hesitation, nor is he content to hide behind others. Once he has a goal in mind, he's positively driven; all the demons in Hell can't come between him and his intent. Hiro's will to survive is strong, without a doubt. It has to be, for him to have lasted so long with death constantly looming over his shoulder. Even so... his will to save others may well be stronger than his self-preservation instincts. Even when his death clock was at zero -- meaning he was destined to die that day -- he didn't think twice about placing himself in danger in order to protect others. Midori, Keisuke, Haru, Gin, Miss Mari, countless office workers... he practically ran himself ragged ensuring people stayed alive.
The fact that he chose to use the power of the COMPs to help others, rather than to take whatever he pleased or seek revenge on others, speaks volumes about his nature. Despite the danger, he never once killed any of the humans he went up against. He merely destroyed their COMPs. A gesture that often proved futile as new COMPs grew easier to find, but still one that avoided meaningless bloodshed. Life is precious - it’s not something he has the right to take, even if he stands to benefit from it. Hiro isn't concerned with personal gain, be it power, glory, or wealth. The concept of fate is meaningless to him, too. Which makes sense, considering how many times he's defied it. He decides for himself what it is he has to do, and does it unflinchingly. It's this inner strength which leads Hiro to be marked as the leader of his ragtag band of friends. Though he's perceptive enough to understand the situation he's in, he's not as smart as Atsuro. He doesn't have Midori's gift for showy, heroic speeches -- in fact, he's not exactly wildly talkative. His spirit burns steadily, though not as wildly as Keisuke's. Even so, he remains an unshakable pillar of strength for the people he cares about, and that's what makes him a good leader.
In a way, that resolve can be a fault, too. Hiro can be very stubborn. If you've got something to say, then he'll certainly hear you out, but don't expect to sway his own beliefs that easily. He holds the opinions of his loved ones -- Yuzu, Atsuro, and Naoya -- very dear. If they can answer questions he can't, then he's grateful for it. But if he's already got answers in his head, whether they're wrong or not, then you may as well be speaking to a brick wall. Even if everyone he cares about deserts him, there's almost no dragging him away from the path he's chosen. He can get a little bit too wrapped up in his ambitions, to the point that he forgets other important things. He didn't flinch when fighting Keisuke or Honda, even if they were friends and they were only doing what they felt was right. His attitude is simply "I'll do what I have to," which can be a dangerous outlook if his judgment carries him down a darker road.
It’s safe to assume that Hiro more or less means well, though, wherever his choices take him. While he’s not looking to win any medals and he’s not quite as out there as Midori... he does kind of have a thing for the “hero” image. The handle he chose to use for the COMP’s email system is actually HERO - a title he honestly wouldn’t mind going by on a regular basis. Cheesy as it sounds, he’s probably going to want people in Luceti to call him Hero.
Strengths: (One more note: the MC's stat distribution is left entirely up to the player in Devil Survivor, so as far as that goes I'm just going to assume the player went for a balanced character.)
Physical - As far as brute strength goes, he's about as brawny as you'd expect the average seventeen-year-old to be. He's very versatile, at least; he's just as adept with magic as he is with brute force, though he needs a COMP for that. Hiro still has the power he's absorbed thanks to the Bel War, but that doesn't mean much of anything in Luceti.
Mental - Hiro is perceptive. He catches onto the things that go unseen and unsaid pretty quickly, and he can connect the dots if you aren't willing to spell things out bluntly for him. Even if he doesn't agree with others, he can at least understand their motivation.
Emotional - Hiro has balls of steel, basically. No matter how unpleasant the task, he'll do it without a word of protest. You can try your hardest, but you will not break his spirit. Ever. So too bad for you. He's as stable as a boulder -- if he can deal with mass hysteria, magical talking snowman guys appearing out of his Nintendo, angels running the government, and more or less being pressured into throwing his humanity out the window and becoming the king of demons, then he isn't going to panic about a little more weirdness.
Weaknesses:
Physical - While Hiro doesn't have any outstanding weaknesses, he has no outstanding strengths, either. He's simply average in all regards. Without a COMP, he's no gladiator -- he could probably hold his own in a schoolyard rumble, but he's never had any training in proper weapon use or kung-fu or anything.
Mental - When it comes to the heavy brainwork, Hiro relies on Atsuro more than he realizes. Even if he can catch onto something intuitively, he can't always develop that idea and progress to its conclusion without someone else to talk it out and clarify his gut feelings into plain and simple logic. That's part of the reason he isn't prone to long speeches -- he simply doesn't have the brains to put his thoughts into terms other people can get.
Emotional - It can be hard to tell what's going on in Hiro's head sometimes. As determined as he is, that doesn't mean he never feels uncertain or scared. He simply doesn't feel he can express those kinds of things when so many people around him need someone to lean on. The end result is a bit of a barrier between himself and others; he'll be ready in a heartbeat if a friend wants to confide their deepest, darkest insecurities, but don't hold your breath for a heart-to-heart about whatever's rattling in between those kitty headphones.
Samples
Q&A:
1. What is your greatest ambition?
To save everyone. I want a world where nobody has to live in fear anymore.
2. If there is one thing about yourself that you could change, what would it be?
I don't want anything to change.
... Maybe that's what needs to be changed.
3. How do you think you perform in a crisis?
Very well. ...I suppose I won't really be able to answer that until the seventh day, though.
4. Which is more important; integrity or success?
If it's not a life or death matter, then don't cheapen yourself.
If it is... morals don't mean anything if you're dead. Even if you have to dirty yourself to survive, success is the only option.
5. What is the difference between bravery and duty?
Bravery is by choice. Duty isn't.
Third Person:
Day seven. Today was the day that the final option would be used. Every living thing inside the Yamamote Line would literally be microwaved to death. He’d escaped. He was free. He didn’t have to sacrifice his humanity just to stay alive. He didn’t need to scrape by on adrenaline and stale emergency rations, constantly fighting to keep his friends - and himself - from being torn to shreds. The lives of countless people were no longer pressing down on his back. It was over. They had survived. It wasn’t his burden anymore.
...That was a lie. He should have been there. Without him, nothing would change. Shoji, Amane, Haru, Keisuke... everyone. They would all die today. There was no use fooling himself: no matter how strong their resolve was, they were only human. They’d been counting on him and the power he’d gained. How could he possibly be content with being safe if it meant throwing so many others into the flames? How had it even come to this? Maybe if he’d made his decision sooner, this wouldn’t have happened. Maybe... if there wasn’t a part of him that resented the task that had been dropped into his hands. That wanted to forget everything about Messiahs and Kings of Bel and just run away.
And yet here he was, safely away from the trials he’d been facing, and the fact was eating him up inside. It might not have been a duty that he’d wanted, but it wasn’t one that he could walk away from. Now what was he supposed to do? There weren’t any blinking zeroes over anyone’s heads, beckoning like sirens for him to come save everybody. There wasn’t any Laplace Mail to direct him. Nobody here cried for a king or a saviour. Was he just supposed to become one of those teenagers, laughing and doing nothing in the park? He couldn’t do that. He had to do something. There had to be some course of action left, even if it was the seventh day. And he didn’t have a COMP. And he didn’t have the Throne of Bel. And he didn’t have a way home.
All he had was time to think.
(Note: Devil Survivor's main character is nameless, and unlike Persona's nameless MCs, he doesn't have a "canon" name. So I'm just making one up for him.)
Fandom: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor
Gender: Male
Age: 17
Time Period: The end of day six, before making the decision.
Wing Color: White
History:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megami_Ibunroku_Devil_Survivor#Playable_characters
http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Protagonist_(Devil_Survivor)
The wikis are kind of sparse, so if you’re in the mood for spoilers with a side of tl;dr, here’s a summary:
That about says it all, really. Hiro grew up thinking he was just a normal guy. He had his cousin, Naoya, who was raised by Hiro's parents after he lost his own at a young age. He had his childhood friend, Yuzu. He had Atsuro, a nerdlinger fan of Naoya's and a loyal buddy. Then the Tokyo lockdown happens. People are stranded with no electricity, no running water, no internet. Emergency rations are dropped in by helicopter, and people fight like animals just to get at them. Demons run wild, leaving the civilians within the lockdown in constant danger. More and more COMPs appear, which means more and more people summoning demons of their own. As time goes by, Hiro and his friends learned more and more about the nature of the lockdown:
The COMPs were created by Naoya. He was commissioned by the Shomonkai, a religion that likens the internet to the Tower of Babel and claims God is sending them another ordeal. Normally, demons can only be summoned using a powerful emotion and a difficult ritual -- the COMPs negate this in two ways. They use the internet as the source of the emotion, rather than the summoner, and they use music as a common language to call forth the demons. The server that keeps the demon-summoning program working is no longer in this world. The demons are fighting a war -- the War of the Bels. It's a clash between demons with "bel" in their name, and the victor emerges as the King of Bel -- that is, the ruler of all demons. Hiro found himself drawn into it when he killed the demon Beldr using a charm made out of mistletoe. He gained Beldr's power and so became the only human capable of becoming King of Bel. As it turns out, he’s been a “bel” all along. Abel. Of the biblical duo, Cain and Abel. While Naoya, the reincarnation of Cain, retained his memories through the many lives he's lived, Hiro still has absolutely no idea that he's the Bible's first murder victim. As far as he knows, Naoya's just spontanously forgotten that they're cousins, not brothers.
And now... the end of day six has come. Hiro has a very big choice to make. He could run and break through the lockdown -- why should this all be on his shoulders, anyway? He could try to reach the server, and then use it to take control of the demons without becoming their king. He could become King of Bel and order the demons to return to hell. He could use them to wage a war against God. He could use his position to become Messiah, use the demons to follow God's word and usher in an era of order. Whatever he picks, everyone’s lives are in his hands. But hey, no pressure.
Personality: (Note: Again, the MC is kind of a blank canvas. His personality, plans, and motives depend on the responses the player chooses. He can vary pretty drastically depending on the ending you’re aiming for. He's coming from day six, so an ending hasn't been picked yet, but I'm leaning towards either the Atsuro ending or the Gin/Haru ending with my interpretation.)
Hiro's greatest strength is his spirit. Even if a dire situation is pressed onto him, he won't bow down beneath it. Throughout the duration of the lockdown, he's only kept his mind on what he can do -- no matter how impossible the odds or hopeless the situation, he refuses to give in to helplessness or despair. He's not the kind of guy to get tripped up in self-doubt or hesitation, nor is he content to hide behind others. Once he has a goal in mind, he's positively driven; all the demons in Hell can't come between him and his intent. Hiro's will to survive is strong, without a doubt. It has to be, for him to have lasted so long with death constantly looming over his shoulder. Even so... his will to save others may well be stronger than his self-preservation instincts. Even when his death clock was at zero -- meaning he was destined to die that day -- he didn't think twice about placing himself in danger in order to protect others. Midori, Keisuke, Haru, Gin, Miss Mari, countless office workers... he practically ran himself ragged ensuring people stayed alive.
The fact that he chose to use the power of the COMPs to help others, rather than to take whatever he pleased or seek revenge on others, speaks volumes about his nature. Despite the danger, he never once killed any of the humans he went up against. He merely destroyed their COMPs. A gesture that often proved futile as new COMPs grew easier to find, but still one that avoided meaningless bloodshed. Life is precious - it’s not something he has the right to take, even if he stands to benefit from it. Hiro isn't concerned with personal gain, be it power, glory, or wealth. The concept of fate is meaningless to him, too. Which makes sense, considering how many times he's defied it. He decides for himself what it is he has to do, and does it unflinchingly. It's this inner strength which leads Hiro to be marked as the leader of his ragtag band of friends. Though he's perceptive enough to understand the situation he's in, he's not as smart as Atsuro. He doesn't have Midori's gift for showy, heroic speeches -- in fact, he's not exactly wildly talkative. His spirit burns steadily, though not as wildly as Keisuke's. Even so, he remains an unshakable pillar of strength for the people he cares about, and that's what makes him a good leader.
In a way, that resolve can be a fault, too. Hiro can be very stubborn. If you've got something to say, then he'll certainly hear you out, but don't expect to sway his own beliefs that easily. He holds the opinions of his loved ones -- Yuzu, Atsuro, and Naoya -- very dear. If they can answer questions he can't, then he's grateful for it. But if he's already got answers in his head, whether they're wrong or not, then you may as well be speaking to a brick wall. Even if everyone he cares about deserts him, there's almost no dragging him away from the path he's chosen. He can get a little bit too wrapped up in his ambitions, to the point that he forgets other important things. He didn't flinch when fighting Keisuke or Honda, even if they were friends and they were only doing what they felt was right. His attitude is simply "I'll do what I have to," which can be a dangerous outlook if his judgment carries him down a darker road.
It’s safe to assume that Hiro more or less means well, though, wherever his choices take him. While he’s not looking to win any medals and he’s not quite as out there as Midori... he does kind of have a thing for the “hero” image. The handle he chose to use for the COMP’s email system is actually HERO - a title he honestly wouldn’t mind going by on a regular basis. Cheesy as it sounds, he’s probably going to want people in Luceti to call him Hero.
Strengths: (One more note: the MC's stat distribution is left entirely up to the player in Devil Survivor, so as far as that goes I'm just going to assume the player went for a balanced character.)
Physical - As far as brute strength goes, he's about as brawny as you'd expect the average seventeen-year-old to be. He's very versatile, at least; he's just as adept with magic as he is with brute force, though he needs a COMP for that. Hiro still has the power he's absorbed thanks to the Bel War, but that doesn't mean much of anything in Luceti.
Mental - Hiro is perceptive. He catches onto the things that go unseen and unsaid pretty quickly, and he can connect the dots if you aren't willing to spell things out bluntly for him. Even if he doesn't agree with others, he can at least understand their motivation.
Emotional - Hiro has balls of steel, basically. No matter how unpleasant the task, he'll do it without a word of protest. You can try your hardest, but you will not break his spirit. Ever. So too bad for you. He's as stable as a boulder -- if he can deal with mass hysteria, magical talking snowman guys appearing out of his Nintendo, angels running the government, and more or less being pressured into throwing his humanity out the window and becoming the king of demons, then he isn't going to panic about a little more weirdness.
Weaknesses:
Physical - While Hiro doesn't have any outstanding weaknesses, he has no outstanding strengths, either. He's simply average in all regards. Without a COMP, he's no gladiator -- he could probably hold his own in a schoolyard rumble, but he's never had any training in proper weapon use or kung-fu or anything.
Mental - When it comes to the heavy brainwork, Hiro relies on Atsuro more than he realizes. Even if he can catch onto something intuitively, he can't always develop that idea and progress to its conclusion without someone else to talk it out and clarify his gut feelings into plain and simple logic. That's part of the reason he isn't prone to long speeches -- he simply doesn't have the brains to put his thoughts into terms other people can get.
Emotional - It can be hard to tell what's going on in Hiro's head sometimes. As determined as he is, that doesn't mean he never feels uncertain or scared. He simply doesn't feel he can express those kinds of things when so many people around him need someone to lean on. The end result is a bit of a barrier between himself and others; he'll be ready in a heartbeat if a friend wants to confide their deepest, darkest insecurities, but don't hold your breath for a heart-to-heart about whatever's rattling in between those kitty headphones.
Samples
Q&A:
1. What is your greatest ambition?
To save everyone. I want a world where nobody has to live in fear anymore.
2. If there is one thing about yourself that you could change, what would it be?
I don't want anything to change.
... Maybe that's what needs to be changed.
3. How do you think you perform in a crisis?
Very well. ...I suppose I won't really be able to answer that until the seventh day, though.
4. Which is more important; integrity or success?
If it's not a life or death matter, then don't cheapen yourself.
If it is... morals don't mean anything if you're dead. Even if you have to dirty yourself to survive, success is the only option.
5. What is the difference between bravery and duty?
Bravery is by choice. Duty isn't.
Third Person:
Day seven. Today was the day that the final option would be used. Every living thing inside the Yamamote Line would literally be microwaved to death. He’d escaped. He was free. He didn’t have to sacrifice his humanity just to stay alive. He didn’t need to scrape by on adrenaline and stale emergency rations, constantly fighting to keep his friends - and himself - from being torn to shreds. The lives of countless people were no longer pressing down on his back. It was over. They had survived. It wasn’t his burden anymore.
...That was a lie. He should have been there. Without him, nothing would change. Shoji, Amane, Haru, Keisuke... everyone. They would all die today. There was no use fooling himself: no matter how strong their resolve was, they were only human. They’d been counting on him and the power he’d gained. How could he possibly be content with being safe if it meant throwing so many others into the flames? How had it even come to this? Maybe if he’d made his decision sooner, this wouldn’t have happened. Maybe... if there wasn’t a part of him that resented the task that had been dropped into his hands. That wanted to forget everything about Messiahs and Kings of Bel and just run away.
And yet here he was, safely away from the trials he’d been facing, and the fact was eating him up inside. It might not have been a duty that he’d wanted, but it wasn’t one that he could walk away from. Now what was he supposed to do? There weren’t any blinking zeroes over anyone’s heads, beckoning like sirens for him to come save everybody. There wasn’t any Laplace Mail to direct him. Nobody here cried for a king or a saviour. Was he just supposed to become one of those teenagers, laughing and doing nothing in the park? He couldn’t do that. He had to do something. There had to be some course of action left, even if it was the seventh day. And he didn’t have a COMP. And he didn’t have the Throne of Bel. And he didn’t have a way home.
All he had was time to think.