Info post
Player Info
Player Name: Liam
Player LJ: alienchrist
Player Instant Messenger Type and Handle: AIM (serial nostalgia)
Player Email: theboyharuka@yahoo.com
Are you 18 years of age or older? Yes.
Character Info
Character Name: Mahdi Clare
Character’s Age: 22
Appearance:
Mahdi is 5'6'', slender, with youthful face - the combination makes him seem pretty young for his age, and he's cute in a puppy-ish sort of way. His skin is dusky, suggesting Indian or Arabic descent, but his eyes, lavender in color and surrounded by long lashes, seem a bit unearthly. He wears his long black hair mostly gathered back in a messy ponytail, with long bangs that frequently get in his face. His voice is is a light tenor, spiking upwards when he's excited and and lowering to mumbling when he's sulking and upset. He does not have a noticeable accent of any kind, though he can occasionally sound a bit daft, even Valley-girl like. He's very expressive, both in his face and body language, and talks with his hands. He smiles a lot and laughs frequently, and is a klutz.
Mahdi read somewhere that vintage clothing is really stylish in the Middle Realm, and, taking it a bit too literally, wears absolutely nothing that was in style after WWII. His favorite outfit includes a pair of brown overalls, boots with a collared neutral shirt beneath. Naturally, this increases his childish appearance to an alarming degree, but he's too attached to the overalls to care. Or maybe he genuinely doesn't understand the connection.
http://www.livejournal.com/allpics.bml?user=moralperil
History:
The World of Redeemers
In prehistory, there was only one realm. It was settled by Mahdi's ancestors, the race known today as greater mortals, who constructed a beautiful and peaceful utopia. For reasons not on record - boredom, curiousity, loneliness, perhaps, the greater mortals constructed another realm beneath theirs, not unlike digging up a basement. This realm seems to have been conceived as a grand experiment: the world was chaotic, thrown easily out of balance, and it was endlessly large and expansive. Within that realm is the planet known as Earth, and the people the greater mortals eventually created to populated it - the Lesser Mortals, or, human beings. Lesser mortals do not live as long as greater mortals and are far more susceptible to illness, but they were built with something very unique: a soul. This soul was like a part of each living person, containing the information and impression of all of that person's thoughts and actions during life. When cared for properly, after the death of its body, a soul examined, recorded, and placed in an infant body to continue life and continue recording. In this way, while a human may not remember the actions of its soul in previous lives, there is always some part of a human that is everlasting and eternal, unlike the greater mortals, who assume there is no life after death for them. Aside from that, the purpose of a soul is no longer well-understood.
A human soul can become darkened and damaged by the ill deeds and thoughts of its owner, so aside from those who harvest and place new souls, a system is in place to do damage control on humans who are in jeopardy of doing permanent harm to their souls to the point of them being unusable again. It's regarded as a general fact that the 'lighter' and less damaged a soul is, the better life a human leads, so it is not only out of necessity, but out of mercy, that the Greater Mortals known as redeemers work. The purpose of a redeemer is rather simple: they attempt to 'save' the souls of troubled humans. The methods, however, are somewhat more complex.
Eventually, the ancestors of the greater mortals left to discover new realms, or perhaps build entirely new things. They left behind the Charter, which not only defined the laws of the greater mortals, but also their system of government, and imparted the great responsibility of up-keeping the realm of lesser mortals. Only high-ranking government officials are allowed to see the Charter, yet to question it is to upset the harmony of utopia - dissent is not allowed.
This was proved when a small movement that questioned not only the power of the Charter but the interference of greater mortals in the lives of lesser mortals. A third and final realm was created, beneath the realm containing Earth. This realm was little more than a prison to throw those who questioned the Charter and forget them. Together, the three realms are now known as the Above Realm (Mahdi's world), Middle Realm (Earth) and the Below Realm.
It seems that humans and souls were not totally unaffected by the movements of greater mortals, though the Charter forbids them to directly interact with them. Perhaps souls contain memories of all their experiences and not ones just in their bodies, or perhaps the human subconscious can be easily influenced, but for some reason, after the war and casting out of the dissidents, legends and folklore soon began to emerge that informed the burgeoning mythos of Heavens and Hells, adding concepts like demons and angels to the mix.
As human civilizations grew to become more violent and unpredictable, more people resisted the Charter's absolute power, or its obligation to humanity, and were sent Below. Eventually, the greater mortals banished to the Below Realm made a life there. Escapees and offspring of prisoners eventually created a civilization that was a dark mirror to the Utopian Above Realm. In other words, it became the Hell to the Above Realm's Heaven, and the residents of Hell, uncaring for the laws of the Charter, came and went to Earth as well as they pleased. Some even lived among humans on Earth and inter-mated with them. Residents of the Below Realm happily called themselves demons.
Demons soon discovered that the souls of lesser mortals could be consumed, either by circumventing a soul escaping a dying person or by convincing a person to willingly part with it. Consuming a soul can create an intense, euphoric high, or make very powerful - but it also make them very ill or even kill them. A consumed soul disappears forever and cannot reincarnate. In spite of this, or perhaps just to spite the Above Realm, an illegal soul trade cropped up in the Below Realm, and as its inhabitants tempted humans or outright battled their Above Realm protectors, legends of demons and angels, Heaven and Hell, grew to be an undeniable part of human culture. Considering their close work with human souls, residents of the Above and Below Realms began picking up human terms, calling their homes Heaven and Hell, and themselves angels and demons. However, in spite of being blessed with reality-altering abilities, greater beauty and longevity, greater mortals, even those who call themselves demons, rarely believe themselves to be special or supernatural in any way.
These days, it seems like the demons are winning the battle for total control over the use of human souls. Angels grow more and more detached, Middle Realm jobs (or even worse, warden and guard jobs for the Below Realm) are not hiring the volume they truly need, and public interest and funding for these services are minimal. Meanwhile, the demons thrive, criminal syndicates fund a dazzling, debauched Hell, and Earth is ravaged by the consequences of the shell-like remains of humans who have sold their souls: warlords, genocidal leaders, serial killers. It seems the soul is also the nexus of conscience and heart.
However, there are a few who devote themselves to the Above Realm's Human Concerns Bureau, and even some who work in the field as redeemers, soul case-workers that personally attempt to change the direction of a human life, before it's too late to save their soul.
Mahdi Clare is a redeemer.
Mahdi's Early Life
Mahdi was born in the Above Realm to the Clares, an upper-middle-class family with no particular renown. Though Mahdi's conception was accidental, his mother and father, Melika and Orion, never treated him as unwanted, though they didn't keep it a secret from him that he was a surprise. Mahdi's sisters, Eleanora and Fayra, were 23 and 21 when Mahdi was born, and already out of the house and busy with their careers and social lives. Thus, they treated him a lot more like a nephew than a pesky little brother, more than happy to babysit him, spoil him and lavish him with attention. Mahdi grew up loved and adored by his family, who never gave him a hard time about being clumsy and a little bit on the stupid side. They saw that Mahdi had a good heart, and assured him that was his strong point, the thing that would see him through everything.
Mahdi was a B-and-C average student in school, spending more time on playing than studying. His best friend was a boy named Kirayoshi. As they grew older, Kirayoshi developed a huge crush on his innocent friend and constantly tried to drop hints about his feelings or ask his friend out on dates, even to prom. Time and again, Mahdi unwittingly rejected his friend, not understanding the seriousness of his feelings and treating it all like a game. Kirayoshi grew to resent Mahdi's carefree ways, particularly since he never seemed to reflect on the feelings of others, in spite of wanting to go into service for lesser mortals as a career. He grew bitter over how Mahdi breezed through life completely free of any heartbreak or failure, doted on by his family in spite of his idiocy and frivolity.
A Traumatic First Job
When Mahdi turned 18 and graduated from high school, he immediately put in his application to become a redeemer, becoming the first in several generations of the Clare family to take a job serving the Middle Realm. His first assignment was a sixteen-year-old lesser mortal named Michael, whose mother recently died of a sudden illness. As a redeemer, Mahdi's job was to help lighten the boy's soul at a critical time of darkness. Michael couldn't see or hear him but might occasionally feel his presence, or even Mahdi's love and protection, which he expressed at critical moments by speaking to him, singing to him, or even hugging him - or by performing small blessings and changing his luck temporarily.
But Michael was more troubled than initial reports led to realize. Kirayoshi had taken a job as an Investigator and was the one to observe and write the reports on Michael's state of soul and mind. Knowing that Michael was going to be assigned to Mahdi if it wasn't too serious, he deliberately toned down the seriousness of the boy's condition, setting up his friend to fail so he could learn a lesson in hurt feelings.
The truth was that Michael was intensely disturbed due to emotional abuse from his mother. Mahdi, not quite understanding the situation, but very empathetic to Michael's pain, filled out the paperwork for a small miracle, allowing Michael to cross paths with a stray but very friendly and trusting kitten. To Mahdi's logic, Michael would nurture and care for the animal and gain a new insight on life, maybe even a career path toward animal care - and this would have worked if Michael was only experiencing the trauma of grief, rather than being driven by something darker. Though at first Michael seemed to enjoy caring for the kitten, he was annoyed by all of its needs and demands and angry at it for being so helpless (like he had been with his mother). When his foster family moved away, he left the kitten behind at the old house, where it eventually starved to death. Mahdi was not permitted to help it, or keep Michael from making such a choice.
Mahdi was understandably troubled by Michael's carelessness for another living being, but chalked it up to him not being right in the head due to grief. Later, he observed Michael crying and feeling remorse over being cruel to his makeshift pet. He would often revisit his memories of the kitten and feel tremendous guilt. Mahdi hoped this indicated his soul would soon lighten, and that he would never make that sort of mistake again.
Sadly, the opposite happened. Michael's anger toward his mother led him to treat women like toys, descending into an alcohol-numbed spiral of meaningless sex. One day, he raped one of the girls he was dating, furious with his refusal of his advances. Many redeemers wold have seen Michael as untenable at that point and resigned their posting, but Mahdi stayed at Michael's side, watching him as his world fell apart from the guilt and remorse of what he'd done. He prayed and swore it would never happen again. Though he never admitted his guilt to anyone, he mostly gave up drinking, and it seemed to Mahdi his soul would soon be lightened.
Mahdi was wrong. In spite of his redeemer's attempts to help lighten his soul, Michael's behavior spun out of control. He couldn't control his anger and possessive desire for women and raped two more over the course of a year. Each time the remorse was so bad he nearly killed himself, and he prayed for guidance and help, which Mahdi tried to provide any way he could in spite of being warned by his superiors to abandon such a worthless cause. By his third victim, Michael was reaching a breaking point, unable to deal with the guilt and self-loathing of his own actions. Mahdi did his best to emotionally project and push Michael to turn himself in so he could get the help he needed, and he was very, very close to doing so when a demon named Nolan approached him with another way to cope: sell his soul and he could have any wish in the world he wanted granted, and on top of it, he'd never feel that useless guilt and remorse anymore. Though Mahdi begged Nolan not to interfere, Nolan completed the transaction and extracted Michael's soul. After Michael's soul became property of Nolan, and therefore of the Below Realm, Mahdi had no choice but to return home.
Becoming an Undercover Angel
Though Kirayoshi came clean about sabotaging Mahdi's first mission, Mahdi was reprimanded for ignoring the advice of his superiors. He was given a month's paid leave, during which he suffered an uncharacteristic depression. He was plagued by nightmares about what he witnessed, and guilt over what he saw as a failure to save Michael. He began to question the system like he never had before, and wondered if it might just be better to let humans make their own decisions, if their choice was going to be to sell their souls anyway. Perhaps there were people who simply couldn't be saved. Besides, what right did they have to control others' lives when something like (what he saw as) a misunderstanding between he and Kirayoshi could produce such effects? On the other hand, Mahdi wanted very badly to do good work in the world, and wanted to believe that people in the Above Realm were rightly guided. He wanted the approval of the people he'd always lived and worked with, and to see the system he put his faith in his whole life was correct. Conflicted and weak due to little sleep, Mahdi became ill and feverish, and deeply considered leaving to live in the Below Realm.
After seeing what a dangerous state Mahdi was in, his bosses interceded. They saw he needed a way to contribute uniquely, and answer some of his questions about the value of lesser mortal souls. He would function as a mole, joining one of the gangs in the Below Realm that dealt in soul trade and trafficking. By learning the technique of these 'demons,' workers in the Above Realm would have better tools to understand why so many souls in the Middle were being snatched. Telling the mostly-truthful story of his loss of a human soul and consequent loss of faith in the system, Mahdi's unusual work ethic got him scouted by a Below Realm syndicate that dealt chiefly in illegal soul trade.
Mahdi met his partner Naumu quite on accident his first day at Ammut Syndicate. He mistook Naumu for his brother Nolan, only to find out Nolan fell out of favor with Ammut and 'disappeared.' Curious about what kind of person Nolan's brother was, Mahdi asked for Naumu to be the person who showed him the ropes. He even crashed on Naumu's couch while he looked for his own place. He liked Naumu a lot and admired the man's skill in reaping, even if it was a sort of frightening power.
After getting along with Naumu for about a week or so, Mahdi made a shocking discovery. While researching what happened to Michael's soul after Nolan extracted it, he found out that Naumu was the one who consumed it. After that, Naumu became the unwitting recipient of Mahdi's 'revenge.' On mornings he's had a nightmare about Michael, Mahdi put salt in Naumu's morning cereal, or threw a red sock in a laundry load of whites. It grew to be some kind of weird waltz between them, since Naumu had no idea what he did to raise Mahdi's ire and Mahdi never acted angry about anything. When asked why he pranked Naumu, he'd say it's just friendly hazing.
In spite of this weird dynamic, Mahdi grew quite fond of Naumu. Walking amidst the humans with no fear of reprisal from the Charter, Mahdi also grew to share Naumu's love and fascination with the world of humans.
Awakening in Nautilus
Not too long after Mahdi first began living with Naumu, he awakened to a new reality, the strange world of Nautilus, a city shaped like a seashell. With the help of a young man named Lelouch, Mahdi found and decorated his own house, and eventually discovered Naumu had also awakened and lived in Nautilus, too. During his time in Nautilus Mahdi had many strange and interesting experiences due to the ever-changing climate of reality there. Forced to live through strange reality storms that altered people's behavior or swept friends away, Mahdi began to grow up a little more. He formed many close friendships, namely with young men named Suzaku and Lelouch. After Naumu grew distant and eventually disappeared from Nautilus entirely, Mahdi moved in with Suzaku, Lelouch, and Lelouch's little sister Nunnally.
During a reality storm that impaired many peoples' judgment, Mahdi witnessed the abduction of a boy, Cain, by Lara Croft and Graham Spector. When he attempted to intercede, was kidnapped himself. Cain and Mahdi were tied to a chair for several days, which was merely uncomfortable (though also terrifying) in Nautilus, where beings were not required to eat or drink. They were held as hostages in a private affair. While Graham was distracted by retaliation from the woman he was attempting to blackmail with the hostage, Lara proved to be a turncoat and aided Cain and Mahdi in their escape.
Mahdi began to reevaluate his own thoughts and feelings about the nature of humanity when he saw that Graham was unrepentant for his crimes - and he was hardly the only one, as there were murderers loose in Nautilus as well. It was at this point that he experienced a major turning point in his world-view - while he still hopelessly believed in the good in people's hearts, he also understood that people make their own decisions and mistakes. In other words, he began to see that all of the wishing and goodness in the world couldn't stop some people from committing crimes. His shame and self-blame for what Michael had done diffused, replaced with regret that, within the boundaries of the job he'd been sent to do, there really was no way he could have stopped what happened. To this day he still pities Michael, but his perspective changed - just like Graham could have chosen not to kidnap and terrorize Mahdi, so could Michael have chosen not to do such unforgivable things.
A change in outlook wasn't the only way Mahdi matured. He became more responsible, and realized he could never had it in him to be anything but a redeemer, deciding to find some kind of venues to improve the lives of humans (and everyone else) around him. He indulged his fascination with junk food and sweets and putting together plans for a restaurant that would specialize in unusual, unimaginably original food (since, in Nautilus, one could merely think of something and make it material). He also became part of the judiciary system. In his personal life, he began to wonder if he wanted to 'grow up' and demonstrated repeated curiosity in sexuality, dating and romance. In order to discover whether or not he was gay, he asked Naumu to kiss him 'to prove it', fueling an ongoing argument between them. In the end, Naumu never did kiss Mahdi, but Mahdi did come to the answer that he would rather date a guy than a girl in this point in life. He experienced romantic notions and attraction toward his roommates, Suzaku and Lelouch, but kept those feelings a secret since he was older than both of them - and because they were slowly inching toward one another.
Several times during his stay in Nautilus, Mahdi briefly returned home. While he was home, his true nature was revealed to Naumu, and Mahdi was outed as a mole. They were forced to flee and living in hiding on Earth, where Mahdi took a job as a line cook at a greasy spoon. The second time Mahdi went back to Earth, he was roughed up by two demon hit-men. Shortly after he reappeared in Nautilus from that incident, he disappeared from that world entirely. Now, his memories of Nautilus are hazy, as if they happened long ago, but he remembers some details of it well, and is certain that it really did happen.
Personality: People's first impression of Mahdi is usually that he is naive and childish, and that's pretty much true. He blurts out the first thing on his mind, lacks tact and often can't see past the surface of things. While he is almost never, ever mean, he still behaves in a childish fashion with little to no filter between his heart and his mouth. He has zero impulse control and a poor sense of time-and-place appropriateness and physical space. On top of all that, he's not the brightest crayon in the box, and dislikes reading and academic pursuits. His attention span and concentration level are deplorably small. It's no wonder he has a reputation as an airhead. Sometimes his obliviousness ends up really hurting others, though as he's grown older he's tried to work on becoming less careless. His time in Nautilus taught him to not see lesser mortals as, well, lesser, and to not unfavorably compare them or stereotype them as noble savages.
Mahdi is hardworking and loyal in a way that isn't often seen in men his age. He's very energetic and sincere and throws himself into whatever he's doing 100%. Because of this, in spite of his distinct lack of brains, he is a good worker and a good friend. He's boundlessly sympathetic, compassionate and affectionate, and loves everyone he meets, even if they treat him poorly. Though these are good qualities for someone in his line of work, Mahdi is prohibitively unable to detach from people, not take things personally, or tell people no.
Mahdi has a heart of fool's gold. He always immediately thinks the best of people, even when proven otherwise. As he's grown up, he's learned that there are some people out there who will hurt others without remorse, but his tolerance, forgiveness and patience still go on a great deal longer than most would consider sane, and it takes a great crime for him to lose faith in people.
Mahdi finds beauty, wonder and joy in the simplest things, and that cheer and energy are irrepressible, even when met with deep cynicism. He is someone who truly loves the world and everything in it, and he's dedicated to helping people around him. He is also very, very against harsh words and languages and prefers not to say swear words, or be negative in any way. He is honest to a fault and would probably have trouble telling a convincing lie even to save his own life.
Since discovering that his calling in life is to help others, and probably also in part due to the scars he bares from his past, Mahdi loathes to be alone. He has a deep, almost spiritual need to be around others and becomes very shaken by loneliness when isolated for long periods of time. If forced to be alone, Mahdi will become increasingly anxious and depressed, and eventually, his mental state would destabilize. Mahdi is the kind of person who only wants to be alone if he is very tired and wants to sleep, or if something is very wrong to a disturbing degree. In other words, he's more than a little on the needy side.
Due to the tragedy of the kitten he tried to place in Michael's care, Mahdi is particularly attached to kittens and cats and wants to befriend every single one of them. He talks to cats, and he is not ashamed.
Powers/Abilities:
-As a greater mortal, Mahdi can expect to live for about 200 years - most in his race age quickly like humans until they're about 20, and then enjoy a long and beautiful adulthood - however, poor Mahdi is a late bloomer who hasn't finished growing, and looks to be a teenager though he's in his early twenties. Mahdi is unaffected by the illnesses of humans, but there are strains of illness in the Above Realm that are similar, though strong enough to kill a healthy human. Greater mortals can be born with any number of 'reality shaping' talents, but not every greater mortal has every one - such as some people being born with a knack for math or an extraordinary athletic ability. The ones listed are the only ones Mahdi has.
-Opening portals between realms/dimensions to travel and teleport short distances
-Soul-sensing: Mahdi can sense the 'weight' of a person's soul, ie, the summation of their sins vs. their good deeds. Corrupt people have black souls, pure and good people have white souls, but most people are shades of gray. With other non-humans like himself, he only gets a vague sense of their intentions.
-Can turn himself invisible to humans
-Emotional projection: Through singing, speaking words of contact or making physical contact, Mahdi can flood people with a brief and sudden sense of warmth, love, peace, comfort or even protection. His favorite use of this technique is what he calls 'angel kisses,' where he imparts a 30-second moment of utter contentment through a kiss, blown kiss, or making a heart motion with his hands. He is only able to project good emotions into others to improve their spirits.
-Excellent cook. Family and Consumer Sciences was the only class he ever got an A in. He's a cooking idiot savant.
-Good singer - a tenor who can learn music by ear pretty easily. However, he's hopeless with sheet music.
-Blessings: He can turn someone's luck around for the better for a brief period of time (usually a day, but he can make it less).
-Miracles: He can make a change to reality so that something small but extraordinary happens (such as changing someone's lottery ticket to a winning number, allowing them to cross paths with someone they wouldn't normally, etc.), however, this is a gradual 'adjustment' of reality and cannot be used to change thing suddenly (such as saving someone from a car crash), however, if he knew a day ahead of time someone was about to murder someone else with an ax, he could use a miracle to make sure the ax broke before it could be used.
Player Name: Liam
Player LJ: alienchrist
Player Instant Messenger Type and Handle: AIM (serial nostalgia)
Player Email: theboyharuka@yahoo.com
Are you 18 years of age or older? Yes.
Character Info
Character Name: Mahdi Clare
Character’s Age: 22
Appearance:
Mahdi is 5'6'', slender, with youthful face - the combination makes him seem pretty young for his age, and he's cute in a puppy-ish sort of way. His skin is dusky, suggesting Indian or Arabic descent, but his eyes, lavender in color and surrounded by long lashes, seem a bit unearthly. He wears his long black hair mostly gathered back in a messy ponytail, with long bangs that frequently get in his face. His voice is is a light tenor, spiking upwards when he's excited and and lowering to mumbling when he's sulking and upset. He does not have a noticeable accent of any kind, though he can occasionally sound a bit daft, even Valley-girl like. He's very expressive, both in his face and body language, and talks with his hands. He smiles a lot and laughs frequently, and is a klutz.
Mahdi read somewhere that vintage clothing is really stylish in the Middle Realm, and, taking it a bit too literally, wears absolutely nothing that was in style after WWII. His favorite outfit includes a pair of brown overalls, boots with a collared neutral shirt beneath. Naturally, this increases his childish appearance to an alarming degree, but he's too attached to the overalls to care. Or maybe he genuinely doesn't understand the connection.
http://www.livejournal.com/allpics.bml?user=moralperil
History:
The World of Redeemers
In prehistory, there was only one realm. It was settled by Mahdi's ancestors, the race known today as greater mortals, who constructed a beautiful and peaceful utopia. For reasons not on record - boredom, curiousity, loneliness, perhaps, the greater mortals constructed another realm beneath theirs, not unlike digging up a basement. This realm seems to have been conceived as a grand experiment: the world was chaotic, thrown easily out of balance, and it was endlessly large and expansive. Within that realm is the planet known as Earth, and the people the greater mortals eventually created to populated it - the Lesser Mortals, or, human beings. Lesser mortals do not live as long as greater mortals and are far more susceptible to illness, but they were built with something very unique: a soul. This soul was like a part of each living person, containing the information and impression of all of that person's thoughts and actions during life. When cared for properly, after the death of its body, a soul examined, recorded, and placed in an infant body to continue life and continue recording. In this way, while a human may not remember the actions of its soul in previous lives, there is always some part of a human that is everlasting and eternal, unlike the greater mortals, who assume there is no life after death for them. Aside from that, the purpose of a soul is no longer well-understood.
A human soul can become darkened and damaged by the ill deeds and thoughts of its owner, so aside from those who harvest and place new souls, a system is in place to do damage control on humans who are in jeopardy of doing permanent harm to their souls to the point of them being unusable again. It's regarded as a general fact that the 'lighter' and less damaged a soul is, the better life a human leads, so it is not only out of necessity, but out of mercy, that the Greater Mortals known as redeemers work. The purpose of a redeemer is rather simple: they attempt to 'save' the souls of troubled humans. The methods, however, are somewhat more complex.
Eventually, the ancestors of the greater mortals left to discover new realms, or perhaps build entirely new things. They left behind the Charter, which not only defined the laws of the greater mortals, but also their system of government, and imparted the great responsibility of up-keeping the realm of lesser mortals. Only high-ranking government officials are allowed to see the Charter, yet to question it is to upset the harmony of utopia - dissent is not allowed.
This was proved when a small movement that questioned not only the power of the Charter but the interference of greater mortals in the lives of lesser mortals. A third and final realm was created, beneath the realm containing Earth. This realm was little more than a prison to throw those who questioned the Charter and forget them. Together, the three realms are now known as the Above Realm (Mahdi's world), Middle Realm (Earth) and the Below Realm.
It seems that humans and souls were not totally unaffected by the movements of greater mortals, though the Charter forbids them to directly interact with them. Perhaps souls contain memories of all their experiences and not ones just in their bodies, or perhaps the human subconscious can be easily influenced, but for some reason, after the war and casting out of the dissidents, legends and folklore soon began to emerge that informed the burgeoning mythos of Heavens and Hells, adding concepts like demons and angels to the mix.
As human civilizations grew to become more violent and unpredictable, more people resisted the Charter's absolute power, or its obligation to humanity, and were sent Below. Eventually, the greater mortals banished to the Below Realm made a life there. Escapees and offspring of prisoners eventually created a civilization that was a dark mirror to the Utopian Above Realm. In other words, it became the Hell to the Above Realm's Heaven, and the residents of Hell, uncaring for the laws of the Charter, came and went to Earth as well as they pleased. Some even lived among humans on Earth and inter-mated with them. Residents of the Below Realm happily called themselves demons.
Demons soon discovered that the souls of lesser mortals could be consumed, either by circumventing a soul escaping a dying person or by convincing a person to willingly part with it. Consuming a soul can create an intense, euphoric high, or make very powerful - but it also make them very ill or even kill them. A consumed soul disappears forever and cannot reincarnate. In spite of this, or perhaps just to spite the Above Realm, an illegal soul trade cropped up in the Below Realm, and as its inhabitants tempted humans or outright battled their Above Realm protectors, legends of demons and angels, Heaven and Hell, grew to be an undeniable part of human culture. Considering their close work with human souls, residents of the Above and Below Realms began picking up human terms, calling their homes Heaven and Hell, and themselves angels and demons. However, in spite of being blessed with reality-altering abilities, greater beauty and longevity, greater mortals, even those who call themselves demons, rarely believe themselves to be special or supernatural in any way.
These days, it seems like the demons are winning the battle for total control over the use of human souls. Angels grow more and more detached, Middle Realm jobs (or even worse, warden and guard jobs for the Below Realm) are not hiring the volume they truly need, and public interest and funding for these services are minimal. Meanwhile, the demons thrive, criminal syndicates fund a dazzling, debauched Hell, and Earth is ravaged by the consequences of the shell-like remains of humans who have sold their souls: warlords, genocidal leaders, serial killers. It seems the soul is also the nexus of conscience and heart.
However, there are a few who devote themselves to the Above Realm's Human Concerns Bureau, and even some who work in the field as redeemers, soul case-workers that personally attempt to change the direction of a human life, before it's too late to save their soul.
Mahdi Clare is a redeemer.
Mahdi's Early Life
Mahdi was born in the Above Realm to the Clares, an upper-middle-class family with no particular renown. Though Mahdi's conception was accidental, his mother and father, Melika and Orion, never treated him as unwanted, though they didn't keep it a secret from him that he was a surprise. Mahdi's sisters, Eleanora and Fayra, were 23 and 21 when Mahdi was born, and already out of the house and busy with their careers and social lives. Thus, they treated him a lot more like a nephew than a pesky little brother, more than happy to babysit him, spoil him and lavish him with attention. Mahdi grew up loved and adored by his family, who never gave him a hard time about being clumsy and a little bit on the stupid side. They saw that Mahdi had a good heart, and assured him that was his strong point, the thing that would see him through everything.
Mahdi was a B-and-C average student in school, spending more time on playing than studying. His best friend was a boy named Kirayoshi. As they grew older, Kirayoshi developed a huge crush on his innocent friend and constantly tried to drop hints about his feelings or ask his friend out on dates, even to prom. Time and again, Mahdi unwittingly rejected his friend, not understanding the seriousness of his feelings and treating it all like a game. Kirayoshi grew to resent Mahdi's carefree ways, particularly since he never seemed to reflect on the feelings of others, in spite of wanting to go into service for lesser mortals as a career. He grew bitter over how Mahdi breezed through life completely free of any heartbreak or failure, doted on by his family in spite of his idiocy and frivolity.
A Traumatic First Job
When Mahdi turned 18 and graduated from high school, he immediately put in his application to become a redeemer, becoming the first in several generations of the Clare family to take a job serving the Middle Realm. His first assignment was a sixteen-year-old lesser mortal named Michael, whose mother recently died of a sudden illness. As a redeemer, Mahdi's job was to help lighten the boy's soul at a critical time of darkness. Michael couldn't see or hear him but might occasionally feel his presence, or even Mahdi's love and protection, which he expressed at critical moments by speaking to him, singing to him, or even hugging him - or by performing small blessings and changing his luck temporarily.
But Michael was more troubled than initial reports led to realize. Kirayoshi had taken a job as an Investigator and was the one to observe and write the reports on Michael's state of soul and mind. Knowing that Michael was going to be assigned to Mahdi if it wasn't too serious, he deliberately toned down the seriousness of the boy's condition, setting up his friend to fail so he could learn a lesson in hurt feelings.
The truth was that Michael was intensely disturbed due to emotional abuse from his mother. Mahdi, not quite understanding the situation, but very empathetic to Michael's pain, filled out the paperwork for a small miracle, allowing Michael to cross paths with a stray but very friendly and trusting kitten. To Mahdi's logic, Michael would nurture and care for the animal and gain a new insight on life, maybe even a career path toward animal care - and this would have worked if Michael was only experiencing the trauma of grief, rather than being driven by something darker. Though at first Michael seemed to enjoy caring for the kitten, he was annoyed by all of its needs and demands and angry at it for being so helpless (like he had been with his mother). When his foster family moved away, he left the kitten behind at the old house, where it eventually starved to death. Mahdi was not permitted to help it, or keep Michael from making such a choice.
Mahdi was understandably troubled by Michael's carelessness for another living being, but chalked it up to him not being right in the head due to grief. Later, he observed Michael crying and feeling remorse over being cruel to his makeshift pet. He would often revisit his memories of the kitten and feel tremendous guilt. Mahdi hoped this indicated his soul would soon lighten, and that he would never make that sort of mistake again.
Sadly, the opposite happened. Michael's anger toward his mother led him to treat women like toys, descending into an alcohol-numbed spiral of meaningless sex. One day, he raped one of the girls he was dating, furious with his refusal of his advances. Many redeemers wold have seen Michael as untenable at that point and resigned their posting, but Mahdi stayed at Michael's side, watching him as his world fell apart from the guilt and remorse of what he'd done. He prayed and swore it would never happen again. Though he never admitted his guilt to anyone, he mostly gave up drinking, and it seemed to Mahdi his soul would soon be lightened.
Mahdi was wrong. In spite of his redeemer's attempts to help lighten his soul, Michael's behavior spun out of control. He couldn't control his anger and possessive desire for women and raped two more over the course of a year. Each time the remorse was so bad he nearly killed himself, and he prayed for guidance and help, which Mahdi tried to provide any way he could in spite of being warned by his superiors to abandon such a worthless cause. By his third victim, Michael was reaching a breaking point, unable to deal with the guilt and self-loathing of his own actions. Mahdi did his best to emotionally project and push Michael to turn himself in so he could get the help he needed, and he was very, very close to doing so when a demon named Nolan approached him with another way to cope: sell his soul and he could have any wish in the world he wanted granted, and on top of it, he'd never feel that useless guilt and remorse anymore. Though Mahdi begged Nolan not to interfere, Nolan completed the transaction and extracted Michael's soul. After Michael's soul became property of Nolan, and therefore of the Below Realm, Mahdi had no choice but to return home.
Becoming an Undercover Angel
Though Kirayoshi came clean about sabotaging Mahdi's first mission, Mahdi was reprimanded for ignoring the advice of his superiors. He was given a month's paid leave, during which he suffered an uncharacteristic depression. He was plagued by nightmares about what he witnessed, and guilt over what he saw as a failure to save Michael. He began to question the system like he never had before, and wondered if it might just be better to let humans make their own decisions, if their choice was going to be to sell their souls anyway. Perhaps there were people who simply couldn't be saved. Besides, what right did they have to control others' lives when something like (what he saw as) a misunderstanding between he and Kirayoshi could produce such effects? On the other hand, Mahdi wanted very badly to do good work in the world, and wanted to believe that people in the Above Realm were rightly guided. He wanted the approval of the people he'd always lived and worked with, and to see the system he put his faith in his whole life was correct. Conflicted and weak due to little sleep, Mahdi became ill and feverish, and deeply considered leaving to live in the Below Realm.
After seeing what a dangerous state Mahdi was in, his bosses interceded. They saw he needed a way to contribute uniquely, and answer some of his questions about the value of lesser mortal souls. He would function as a mole, joining one of the gangs in the Below Realm that dealt in soul trade and trafficking. By learning the technique of these 'demons,' workers in the Above Realm would have better tools to understand why so many souls in the Middle were being snatched. Telling the mostly-truthful story of his loss of a human soul and consequent loss of faith in the system, Mahdi's unusual work ethic got him scouted by a Below Realm syndicate that dealt chiefly in illegal soul trade.
Mahdi met his partner Naumu quite on accident his first day at Ammut Syndicate. He mistook Naumu for his brother Nolan, only to find out Nolan fell out of favor with Ammut and 'disappeared.' Curious about what kind of person Nolan's brother was, Mahdi asked for Naumu to be the person who showed him the ropes. He even crashed on Naumu's couch while he looked for his own place. He liked Naumu a lot and admired the man's skill in reaping, even if it was a sort of frightening power.
After getting along with Naumu for about a week or so, Mahdi made a shocking discovery. While researching what happened to Michael's soul after Nolan extracted it, he found out that Naumu was the one who consumed it. After that, Naumu became the unwitting recipient of Mahdi's 'revenge.' On mornings he's had a nightmare about Michael, Mahdi put salt in Naumu's morning cereal, or threw a red sock in a laundry load of whites. It grew to be some kind of weird waltz between them, since Naumu had no idea what he did to raise Mahdi's ire and Mahdi never acted angry about anything. When asked why he pranked Naumu, he'd say it's just friendly hazing.
In spite of this weird dynamic, Mahdi grew quite fond of Naumu. Walking amidst the humans with no fear of reprisal from the Charter, Mahdi also grew to share Naumu's love and fascination with the world of humans.
Awakening in Nautilus
Not too long after Mahdi first began living with Naumu, he awakened to a new reality, the strange world of Nautilus, a city shaped like a seashell. With the help of a young man named Lelouch, Mahdi found and decorated his own house, and eventually discovered Naumu had also awakened and lived in Nautilus, too. During his time in Nautilus Mahdi had many strange and interesting experiences due to the ever-changing climate of reality there. Forced to live through strange reality storms that altered people's behavior or swept friends away, Mahdi began to grow up a little more. He formed many close friendships, namely with young men named Suzaku and Lelouch. After Naumu grew distant and eventually disappeared from Nautilus entirely, Mahdi moved in with Suzaku, Lelouch, and Lelouch's little sister Nunnally.
During a reality storm that impaired many peoples' judgment, Mahdi witnessed the abduction of a boy, Cain, by Lara Croft and Graham Spector. When he attempted to intercede, was kidnapped himself. Cain and Mahdi were tied to a chair for several days, which was merely uncomfortable (though also terrifying) in Nautilus, where beings were not required to eat or drink. They were held as hostages in a private affair. While Graham was distracted by retaliation from the woman he was attempting to blackmail with the hostage, Lara proved to be a turncoat and aided Cain and Mahdi in their escape.
Mahdi began to reevaluate his own thoughts and feelings about the nature of humanity when he saw that Graham was unrepentant for his crimes - and he was hardly the only one, as there were murderers loose in Nautilus as well. It was at this point that he experienced a major turning point in his world-view - while he still hopelessly believed in the good in people's hearts, he also understood that people make their own decisions and mistakes. In other words, he began to see that all of the wishing and goodness in the world couldn't stop some people from committing crimes. His shame and self-blame for what Michael had done diffused, replaced with regret that, within the boundaries of the job he'd been sent to do, there really was no way he could have stopped what happened. To this day he still pities Michael, but his perspective changed - just like Graham could have chosen not to kidnap and terrorize Mahdi, so could Michael have chosen not to do such unforgivable things.
A change in outlook wasn't the only way Mahdi matured. He became more responsible, and realized he could never had it in him to be anything but a redeemer, deciding to find some kind of venues to improve the lives of humans (and everyone else) around him. He indulged his fascination with junk food and sweets and putting together plans for a restaurant that would specialize in unusual, unimaginably original food (since, in Nautilus, one could merely think of something and make it material). He also became part of the judiciary system. In his personal life, he began to wonder if he wanted to 'grow up' and demonstrated repeated curiosity in sexuality, dating and romance. In order to discover whether or not he was gay, he asked Naumu to kiss him 'to prove it', fueling an ongoing argument between them. In the end, Naumu never did kiss Mahdi, but Mahdi did come to the answer that he would rather date a guy than a girl in this point in life. He experienced romantic notions and attraction toward his roommates, Suzaku and Lelouch, but kept those feelings a secret since he was older than both of them - and because they were slowly inching toward one another.
Several times during his stay in Nautilus, Mahdi briefly returned home. While he was home, his true nature was revealed to Naumu, and Mahdi was outed as a mole. They were forced to flee and living in hiding on Earth, where Mahdi took a job as a line cook at a greasy spoon. The second time Mahdi went back to Earth, he was roughed up by two demon hit-men. Shortly after he reappeared in Nautilus from that incident, he disappeared from that world entirely. Now, his memories of Nautilus are hazy, as if they happened long ago, but he remembers some details of it well, and is certain that it really did happen.
Personality: People's first impression of Mahdi is usually that he is naive and childish, and that's pretty much true. He blurts out the first thing on his mind, lacks tact and often can't see past the surface of things. While he is almost never, ever mean, he still behaves in a childish fashion with little to no filter between his heart and his mouth. He has zero impulse control and a poor sense of time-and-place appropriateness and physical space. On top of all that, he's not the brightest crayon in the box, and dislikes reading and academic pursuits. His attention span and concentration level are deplorably small. It's no wonder he has a reputation as an airhead. Sometimes his obliviousness ends up really hurting others, though as he's grown older he's tried to work on becoming less careless. His time in Nautilus taught him to not see lesser mortals as, well, lesser, and to not unfavorably compare them or stereotype them as noble savages.
Mahdi is hardworking and loyal in a way that isn't often seen in men his age. He's very energetic and sincere and throws himself into whatever he's doing 100%. Because of this, in spite of his distinct lack of brains, he is a good worker and a good friend. He's boundlessly sympathetic, compassionate and affectionate, and loves everyone he meets, even if they treat him poorly. Though these are good qualities for someone in his line of work, Mahdi is prohibitively unable to detach from people, not take things personally, or tell people no.
Mahdi has a heart of fool's gold. He always immediately thinks the best of people, even when proven otherwise. As he's grown up, he's learned that there are some people out there who will hurt others without remorse, but his tolerance, forgiveness and patience still go on a great deal longer than most would consider sane, and it takes a great crime for him to lose faith in people.
Mahdi finds beauty, wonder and joy in the simplest things, and that cheer and energy are irrepressible, even when met with deep cynicism. He is someone who truly loves the world and everything in it, and he's dedicated to helping people around him. He is also very, very against harsh words and languages and prefers not to say swear words, or be negative in any way. He is honest to a fault and would probably have trouble telling a convincing lie even to save his own life.
Since discovering that his calling in life is to help others, and probably also in part due to the scars he bares from his past, Mahdi loathes to be alone. He has a deep, almost spiritual need to be around others and becomes very shaken by loneliness when isolated for long periods of time. If forced to be alone, Mahdi will become increasingly anxious and depressed, and eventually, his mental state would destabilize. Mahdi is the kind of person who only wants to be alone if he is very tired and wants to sleep, or if something is very wrong to a disturbing degree. In other words, he's more than a little on the needy side.
Due to the tragedy of the kitten he tried to place in Michael's care, Mahdi is particularly attached to kittens and cats and wants to befriend every single one of them. He talks to cats, and he is not ashamed.
Powers/Abilities:
-As a greater mortal, Mahdi can expect to live for about 200 years - most in his race age quickly like humans until they're about 20, and then enjoy a long and beautiful adulthood - however, poor Mahdi is a late bloomer who hasn't finished growing, and looks to be a teenager though he's in his early twenties. Mahdi is unaffected by the illnesses of humans, but there are strains of illness in the Above Realm that are similar, though strong enough to kill a healthy human. Greater mortals can be born with any number of 'reality shaping' talents, but not every greater mortal has every one - such as some people being born with a knack for math or an extraordinary athletic ability. The ones listed are the only ones Mahdi has.
-Opening portals between realms/dimensions to travel and teleport short distances
-Soul-sensing: Mahdi can sense the 'weight' of a person's soul, ie, the summation of their sins vs. their good deeds. Corrupt people have black souls, pure and good people have white souls, but most people are shades of gray. With other non-humans like himself, he only gets a vague sense of their intentions.
-Can turn himself invisible to humans
-Emotional projection: Through singing, speaking words of contact or making physical contact, Mahdi can flood people with a brief and sudden sense of warmth, love, peace, comfort or even protection. His favorite use of this technique is what he calls 'angel kisses,' where he imparts a 30-second moment of utter contentment through a kiss, blown kiss, or making a heart motion with his hands. He is only able to project good emotions into others to improve their spirits.
-Excellent cook. Family and Consumer Sciences was the only class he ever got an A in. He's a cooking idiot savant.
-Good singer - a tenor who can learn music by ear pretty easily. However, he's hopeless with sheet music.
-Blessings: He can turn someone's luck around for the better for a brief period of time (usually a day, but he can make it less).
-Miracles: He can make a change to reality so that something small but extraordinary happens (such as changing someone's lottery ticket to a winning number, allowing them to cross paths with someone they wouldn't normally, etc.), however, this is a gradual 'adjustment' of reality and cannot be used to change thing suddenly (such as saving someone from a car crash), however, if he knew a day ahead of time someone was about to murder someone else with an ax, he could use a miracle to make sure the ax broke before it could be used.