Canon information
Out of Character Information
player name: Batty
player livejournal:
batty_chan
playing here: n/a
are you 16 years of age or older?: yep!
In Character Information
character name: Scar (real name not given, sorry)
canon source and the point from which they're taken: Fullmetal Alchemist (first) anime (approximately episode 23, i.e. directly post Lab-5)
character's age: About 24
canon powers, skills, pets and equipment:
Scar's right arm has an alchemic transmutation circle tattooed on it that gives him the power to destroy things. This is no ordinary destruction, however, as this ability has its basis in alchemy--the science of understanding the composition of matter. When he places his palm on an object, his arm can, in a matter of seconds, judge its chemical composition and, should he choose to, shatter it to pieces. This ability is not, however, completely automatic. As much as Scar needs to voluntarily choose to destroy something, he often has an idea for what it is he is destroying; in other words, the alchemy required to destroy any one thing is different than for another. For instance, Scar knows exactly how to destroy human flesh, and in one episode, he used it to attack Edward Elric, but his attack was intercepted by Alphonse Elric, who is a metal suit of armor. Instead of being destroyed, the attack barely made a dent, as he had attacked with the intention of destroying flesh and not steel. This fact allows for a fairly effective defense; if someone (like an alchemist) has the ability to alter an object's composition, doing so repeatedly will throw Scar off-guard, as he will have to repeatedly re-analyze the composition, which, in a fight, can be distracting.
The transmutation circle on his arm has also been shown to react with alchemic "red stones", which are absorbed upon contact. Even when in relative proximity, as shown in the early scene with Marcoh, the tattoo will glow bright red and cease to function until the stone is either absorbed or leaves the vicinity. The absorption process is implied to be excruciatingly painful for Scar, as it is the only thing that has caused the Ishbalan to scream in pain from the beginning of the current storyline (the only time before that was when his right arm was physically blown off by a state alchemist in his backstory--his current right arm was his brother's originally, see history). To put this in perspective, the injuries Scar suffers throughout the series range from broken ribs to being shot three times in the chest and remaining conscious--didn't make a sound. (The second one is after the point in the story at which he's being taken, but the point still holds)
non-canon powers: Scar has no added abilities as a Scorched aside from the ability to survive contact with the mist (i.e. how the mist usually is, no added protection against thicker mist) and slightly greater physical endurance--he will gradually find that he tires slower and his body can take more abuse before he reaches his limit. (i.e. the point of collapse)
canon history: Scar grew up in Ishbal, a country in the Eastern desert. Little is known about Scar's childhood or adolescence prior to the war, other than having an elder brother who was engaged to be married. Their parents are never shown in (anime) canon, but it is implied that they were killed at some point during the war.
Said fiancée of his brother's fell ill and died at some point before the wedding. In his grief, and not paying heed to the protests of his younger brother, he delved into the forbidden realm of alchemy and prepared to perform the greatest taboo of the science: human transmutation, the attempt to create human life.
As with anyone foolish enough to attempt this, his brother failed (and paid for it with his own flesh), and Scar could only watch in dismay as his brother was branded a heretic and exiled from the rest of his people for engaging in the practice of alchemy.
It is unknown exactly when the war in Ishbal began, but tensions had been brewing between the Ishbalans and the Amestrians for years, and it is around this time that the accidental shooting of an Ishbalan child by a soldier on patrol was the spark that ignited the situation into a full-scale rebellion (at least, that is the 'official' reason--it is heavily implied, and later revealed, that there is far more to the story than that, including stealth missions by off-the-books soldiers to murder Ishbalans and provoke them into retaliation) that lasted for seven years. Because of the fact that the Ishbalans' religious beliefs disallowed them from having sophisticated and modern weaponry, the tide of the battle was set against the Ishbalans from the beginning, and the casualties mounted on their side at an alarming rate. There were of course casualties on the Amestrian side as well, but not in nearly comparable numbers.
It is about at the end of these seven years that Scar's brother returned to the Ishbalans offering hope for the salvation of their people in a legendary item known as a Philosopher's Stone. Fighting a losing battle and without many other options at that point, the Ishbalans agreed and his brother threw himself back into his research, eventually turning his entire body into a transmutation circle. However, partway through his research, he was apparently driven insane by it, mind either shattered by whatever revelation he obtained, or by the very nature of the research itself. It was at this time, at the end of seven years, that the state alchemists were called in to bring an end to the ongoing conflict.
Without alchemy or superior weapons, (or the massive boost in power the mysterious "red stones" developed by the Crystal Alchemist Tim Marcoh) the Ishbalan resistance finally reached its end. It was said that the entire civilization was wiped out in a single night, leaving only a sparse few hundred alive. Scar and his brother were two such survivors, and they sought to flee farther east, but they were intercepted by the Crimson Alchemist, Zolf J. Kimbley, who delighted in the license to kill and cause destruction to his heart's content.
He began to attack the defenseless and fleeing Ishbalans, saying it was his job to kill every last one of them--seeing him kill a harmless old man flared Scar's temper (see personality section below), and he--rather foolishly--charged at the state alchemist. Instead of killing him outright, the alchemist decided to have some "fun" with him by "taking him apart in pieces" and began by creating the eponymous disfigurement on his forehead, then blowing off his right arm. The pain and blood loss from these two attacks caused Scar to lose consciousness. When he awoke, he found his brother's right arm attached from the point that his own had been lost, his brother explaining just before he died that he had transmuted his arm and the transmutation circle on it, transferring it to him, and that it should keep him alive, for now.
The loss of his brother fostered the beginnings of a deep loathing of all state alchemists, along with a great deal of confusion as to what the purpose of the arm was. The sentiment against alchemy ran so deep among Ishbalans that it probably did not occur to him that its only purpose was simply protecting him from death. Some years later, around the time when Edward Elric first becomes a state alchemist, he is shown trying to enter the Central Library to find out what it is that the symbols on his arm mean, hoping that through that knowledge he could understand what it is he was supposed to do. He tries to shove his way past the guard there, but his sleeve is caught and accidentally torn by Ed, causing him to suddenly flee into one of the many alleyways of Central.
Soon afterwards, a half-human chimera stumbles into the alley he had fled to, and through his arm learned that the miserable creature was half human and half dog. His beliefs against alchemy still holding, and sensing that the poor creature was in pain, he made the decision to destroy it out of mercy. It was this action that, somehow, led to his decision that what he had to do was destroy the state alchemists using their own alchemy. His intentions are briefly alluded to once again in a brief encounter with Edward Elric, when the latter had (temporarily) given up being a state alchemist--Scar tells him that he is better off without that title, otherwise, he said, his arm would destroy him.
It is unclear how, exactly, he obtained his information on all the current state alchemists, as the next time he is seen after this is in East City three years later, when his tirade against the state alchemists has begun. Though it is stated that he has killed about five state alchemists prior to his return on screen, he is first shown killing the Iron Blood Alchemist, Basque Gran, in less than five seconds--an especially impressive feat considering that Gran was said to be an expert at hand-to-hand combat.
The Elric brothers are also in the city at this time, and they are drawn into conflict with Scar, who at first expresses his disappointment that Edward returned to being a state alchemist so he had to kill him now, which suggests that by this point he had fully bought into his self-delusion that killing the state alchemists was a duty to not only his brother and people, but his god as well.
The skirmish from its outset was an emotionally charged one, with Scar noting that Ed had "a kind look in his eyes" that reminded him of his own elder brother. He is also surprised when Alphonse steps in to protect Ed from his attack and warns him not to interfere, but Al tells him that he is a younger brother as well, and as such he cannot simply stand by and watch his brother be murdered. This seems to only anger Scar further, but it is at this point that the battle is interrupted by another state alchemist, Major Alex Louis Armstrong, who had been tailing the Elrics for protection without their knowledge.
His identity as an Ishbalan is revealed for the first time when his sunglasses are broken in this fight, and the soldier goes on to challenge him about how he can claim to be carrying out god's will when he is committing his religion's greatest sin by using his arm. Scar's response amounts to, essentially, that he doesn't know, but that he "is only doing what his arm commands him."
The outcome of the battle is not actually shown, though Armstrong is later dug out of a pile of debris, injured but conscious, showing that he survived, and Scar once again confronts the Elrics. This time he is prepared for Alphonse's armor body and shatters the middle region into pieces, causing Al to collapse to the ground. The fight with Edward resumes, though this time Scar uses his superior speed to his advantage, catching Ed by his automail arm and completely destroying it so that he could no longer transmute without a circle (as Ed needed to clap to be able to do so). With both brothers at his mercy now, he tells Edward he will give him a moment to pray before killing him, an offer the boy refuses, but instead takes the moment to ask Scar if he is planning to kill Alphonse as well. The question clearly takes him aback, but he responds simply that his only enemies are state alchemists. Ed, a staunch believer in the idea of Equivalent Exchange, then says that as he is an older brother as well, his life would be an equivalent loss for Scar's own brother's and asked him to promise he would only kill him and leave his brother alone, to which Scar remarks that nothing can "make up" for the lives of his brother and people lost, but nonetheless he swears that he will not hurt Alphonse.
Before he can finish off Ed, however, Marcoh, who had been with the Elrics earlier, returns, bearing one of the red stones, which he then throws at Scar's palm. Scar flees the scene after it is absorbed, eventually escaping into the sewers.
He is not seen again until he arrives at the Central Library, where he had planned to confront Edward again to prevent the boy from trying to create the Philosopher's Stone (as before, it is not entirely clear how Scar knew that Edward was going to be there), but he is instead confronted by a pair of creatures known as homunculi, one of which...had a very familiar face. The face of his brother's deceased fiancee. He doesn't get a chance to find out why she resembles her, though, as they tell him that they have a vested interest in Edward finding and creating the Philosopher's Stone and engage him in a conflict that ends up in the entire first branch of the library going up in flames. Scar appears to have made some attempt to escape into the sewers again, as the investigations officer, Hughes, mentions that his team found some of Scar's clothes washed up by the sewer system, but his injuries from the battle must have caused him to pass out before he could get anywhere substantial, as when he first awakens in a small, nondescript Ishbalan refugee camp, he does seem a bit surprised.
Seeing a such a (relatively) large group of Ishbalans still surviving after the war, coupled with the fact that they had taken care of his wounds simply because he is Ishbalan despite the danger associated with helping a wanted criminal--one of the elders in the camp promises him that "there is none here that would sell out one of their own"--causes some of his anger towards the state alchemists to abate (his attempt on Edward's life is his last attack against state alchemists in canon up to the point from which he is taken; even afterwards in the original canon, the only one he attacks after that is Kimbley himself). His brief time in the camp also marks something of a turning point for Scar. One of the young boys who had been taking care of him asks him later that day if he intends to stay with them, noting that no one will mind if he does, to which Scar responds that he cannot stay with them, as "despite [his] intentions, [he] has done too many things out of God's path." This comment is the first sign of Scar's understanding that his actions up to this point have not been as right as he had once been entirely convinced they were.
He does continue to pursue Edward, breaking into the military headquarters at which the Elrics were staying, and following a circled map in their room to Lab 5, though it is clear that his reasons have begun to change from wanting to destroy all state alchemists to wanting to prevent the creation of the Philosopher's Stone, the research into which had shattered his elder brother's mind.
At Lab 5, it is Alphonse he meets up with directly outside, currently engaging in a battle with someone who only identified himself as Number 66, and happens to be, like Al, another suit of armor animated by the attachment of a soul through alchemy. Scar manages to injure Number 66, but he desists from finishing him off when the other appears to know something about what the markings on the arm his brother gave him mean. He demands Number 66 to tell him what he knows, but the latter merely responds by setting off one of the various explosives planted along one of the outer walls of Lab 5. Scar is protected from the explosion by Alphonse, and the two of them follow Number 66 into the building. Once inside, Al and Scar get a few moments to talk, in which Al attempts to reassure Scar that he and his brother have no intentions of using the stone as a weapon should they procure it, to which Scar only responds that they do not know what the pursuit of the stone does to people. Their conversation is interrupted, however, by the same two homunculi from the library.
Another battle gets underway, during the course of which Scar gets smashed through a wall (the homunculi, along with their superhuman abilities and regeneration, are generally shown to have incredible strength as well) and as he passes out, his body falls limply through a hole in the floor next to where he landed, which Gluttony (one of the two homunculi) fearfully refers to as the "bad place." It turns out, later, that the "bad place" is where chimeras that have been experimented on, along with another of the homunculi known as Greed--who, along with Scar is awakened by another explosion, this time caused by the Crimson Alchemist himself, now a condemned convict for having killed his own men in the war along with the Ishbalans.
Scar is seen wandering around Lab 5 briefly after that, pausing when he comes upon Edward being coerced into agreeing to sacrifice a number of human lives (all the convicts in the room, which he can now plainly see due to Kimbley's explosion destroying the screen that hid them from view) to create the Philosopher's Stone, with the threat of his brother's blood-seal which keeps him bound to this world being broken if he refuses. While the motivations behind Scar's decision to intervene are not crystal clear, it is a fairly plausible assumption that when he blew apart the wall behind which he was watching all this, causing the debris to shatter the containers of red water needed to create the stone, he was drawing on his earlier interactions with the Elric brothers along with his personal experience of having lost his own brother. Still, while the motivation behind his action may not be certain, its effect is, and Scar told Edward to take his brother and get out of the laboratory. Whether Ed succeeded or not, Scar was not able to find out, as he was only just about to see the beginnings of an odd reaction between Edward's body and the unfinished stone material that had spilled on the ground before the Door whisked him out of his dimension and he was rendered unconscious by the Mist in Anatole.
personality:
Perhaps the best adjective to describe Scar is 'gruff'. He's generally a man of few words, and when he does speak, he is usually terse and to-the-point. A far cry from actually 'friendly', he is very awkward and uncomfortable in social situations, and prefers to remain silent wherever possible. When he does address others, it is primarily in a rather formal manner, calling people by both their first and last names, if he knows what they are. Otherwise, he uses the standard 'sir' and 'ma'am' or (more commonly) avoids any form of direct address altogether. (He has also, back in his own world, used nouns descriptive of one's occupation--i.e. 'alchemist' or 'soldier'. However, both of these had a degree of contempt to them, as he has reasons to hate both, particularly those that are soldiers as well as alchemists, the state alchemists) He has neither receives nor expects any such respect when spoken to, as "Scar" was a name invented by his enemies, and anything else he has been called in his own world has usually been a racial slur (typically 'rat' due to his red-colored eyes).
However, despite the fact that he prefers to keep to himself does not mean that he completely seals himself off from everything around him--no, he is more of a silent observer, blending in, always striving to remain unnoticed. He always hides the color of his eyes behind a pair of sunglasses, and the tattoo on his right arm is hidden by a long-sleeved yellowish coat. Even so, Scar has a very strong sense of justice in him (albeit many powerful people disagree with his ideas and methods), and tends to have a near-visceral reaction to anything he sees as an exploitation of the defenseless and weak by the strong, catapulting the usually otherwise cautious man into action (that is to say, violence).
Being a fugitive means for him that he cannot forge any emotional attachments--either to places, or to people, so he feels uncomfortable with remaining in any one particular location for more than a day, or maybe two at the most--the drifter in him is usually itching to move on when he's gotten adequate rest and (if he's lucky) some food in his stomach.
While a distant sort of man to most, Scar is not without kindness. He's been shown to have a soft spot for animals and a penchant for attracting small children to his side--not that he tries to, but something about a young child allows for a purer judgment of character than one who has grown to learn the biases of society. They, better than most, are able to see the goodness in his heart, sometimes clouded by the errors in judgment he has made and the fear of those who look different.
The hardest thing to gain from Scar, however, is his trust. Perhaps it is paranoia stemmed from war, coupled with the fact that he has been a fugitive for some months, but Scar does not have full faith in anyone. He does not feel in the least comfortable in leaving anything relating to him in anyone else's hands, and is likely to reject even the most casual and well-meaning offer of help for anything. For that matter, Scar is extremely unlikely to ask for help until he reaches the point of complete desperation (which is rare), and even still he'd probably hesitate to do so, being of an independent and somewhat stubborn nature. Being forced to ask for help would be a bit of a blow to his pride, even aside from his discomfort in trusting someone to help. He is rather uncomfortable with proximity with another person and will appear more and more anxious and distressed the smaller his personal space bubble shrinks, and he is tremendously aversive to physical contact. His first reaction if touched without permission will likely be to jerk away violently and back away, if possible, or at the least attempt to. He is very loath to use his arm's power on ordinary civilians, but if a person follows him once he has initially backed off, he will attack a person when/if it gets to the point that he feels trapped. Even when permission is given, Scar will tense visibly when the contact is initiated and will not relax until the person has pulled away, as if the entire experience is almost torturous for him. It might very well be; the trauma of war on a young mind is not to be underestimated.
Alphonse Elric is thus far the only one who's even gotten close to lowering the shields of the Ishbalan's incredibly guarded heart. The pure fact that the boy does not hate him when he has tried to murder his brother is completely and utterly baffling to Scar, and perhaps it is the desire to understand why the boy has shown him such compassion and understanding despite barely knowing him (and having every reason, in his opinion, to hate him for what he could have done) on every occasion might be what drives him to lower his guard somewhat in interacting with the younger Elric brother.
Despite being an Ishbalan, Scar is not nearly as religious a man as he used to be. The destruction of all that was familiar and dear to him in the "war" with Amestris is enough to make any man doubt in a god that is supposedly all-powerful and all-merciful, but his faith was even more greatly shaken when his life was saved by acquisition of his brother's alchemic right arm, which his brother died transferring to him. There is no greater sin to an Ishbalan than the practice of alchemy, and the fact that his life was saved by it challenged everything Scar had ever come to believe and understand about the world. For a time he didn't understand why his brother had done it, what the arm was for. In his desperation to find an answer, he had thought for a while that what he was meant to do was to destroy the state alchemists that had torn his land asunder, that it was god's will that he do so, but eventually, he began to come to the realization that murder, especially by alchemy, is in no way what his brother, nor his god, could could have possibly intended. Knowing that, he's found himself clueless, once again, as to what it was his arm is for, though he's also come to the belief that at this point it really doesn't matter--his soul is too far beyond redemption in his view, anyway.
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Writing Samples
First Person Sample:
[There is some random toggling of buttons until he manages to hit the 'on' switch. He blinks at the cursor now flashing on the screen and scowls, perplexed. He's never seen anything like a cell phone or computer in his life, after all, and doesn't quite understand what the Forge is supposed to be used for.]
a;lsd kfj;ae
[growl. A curse. His frustration with the strange device is clearly building. More random buttons get pressed until he somehow turns on the voice function. The sudden crackle of static startles him.]
What...was that...? [He blinks at it again.] Is this...some sort of...radio...or...[He doubts it--he doesn't see any dials to turn to choose a radio station. He turns the Forge in his hand, just to be sure and his finger brushes across the microphone. He pulls the device closer and stares at it, instantly suspicious. Taps at the microphone once, the sound of which is captured by the Forge.] What the hell is going on? [He sounds angry now.] Why am I being recorded? [looks up from the Forge and around him] Who's there?
Third Person Sample:
The first thing he was aware of was darkness. The darkness wrapped around his mind and body like a fine mist, obstructing his vision and clouding his thoughts. The man's eyes were still closed; he was conscious enough to be aware of it, but not enough yet to open them.
The second thing he was aware of was that he was lying on something soft...His mind was still in somewhat of a haze but nevertheless, his awareness was steadily increasing. He soon also realized that when he had lost consciousness, he hadn't landed on something soft.
Someone had taken him here, but for now, the important question was where was here? A soft groan escaped as he tried to shake off the haziness that was fogging up his mind and making his body feel as heavy as lead.
A few rays of light fell on his face through the gaps in the drawn curtains, illuminating the x-shaped scar on the man's tan face. The man groaned again and tried to move away from the bright sunlight, but it succeeded in awakening him nonetheless. His eyelids fluttered open and crimson eyes scanned the area around him.
Judging from the lack of bindings on his arms or legs or guards in the room and noting out of the corner of his eye that the window was cracked slightly open, he doubted the military had anything to do with this. Which left the question of--well, no, not just one question, ruling out the military's involvement created several questions, the answers to none of which immediately presented themselves. Deciding that continuing to lay there wouldn't do much for the purpose of gathering the details about his current surroundings, Scar moved to sit up, a small, barely noticeable grimace forming at the corner of his mouth from the pain of sudden motion. That was right...Lab 5...the homunculi...the Elrics...
The events that had unfolded just before he passed out replayed in his mind over and over as he tried to find some clue that might explain his current situation, and, finding no satisfactory answer, the Ishbalan decided he might as well start exploring. This...room was about as good as any to start, he supposed. Nothing inside seemed particularly dangerous, while he had no idea just what might be waiting for him beyond that open window. He would try to leave as soon as possible, of course, but it was best to find out exactly what the current situation was dealing with. Another cursory glance around the room, and Scar decided on beginning his investigation of sorts with the odd object that had been placed by his bed for whatever reason. Cautiously reaching for the device, Scar picked up the Forge, and began the process...of figuring out what in the hell he was supposed to do with it. If the existence of this device was any indication, he was most definitely not in Amestris, not anymore. Scar sighed faintly...he could already tell he was in for a long, long day.