If only I could drown in that blue water...
PLAYER INFORMATION-
Name/Nickname: Ally
AIM/E-mail/Contact: namedalex/namedalex@aol.com
LJ: ”Mikata_lian”
CHARACTER INFORMATION-
Canon Character and Series: Riku, from the Kingdom Hearts Series
In-Game Name: Riku Nailwings
Age: 16
Gender: Male
Position & Ship: Winding way, helmsman
Appearance: Riku is tall and wiry, having reached puberty early. His muscles are hard and his skin tan from working on the decks of ships for the last year, and from living on a fishing island before that. His hair, a light blonde when in the rare instance he is indoors for a great stretch of time, has been bleached silver by his life under the constant beating sun, strikingly stark against his medium complexion. He rarely takes the appearance of his hair into consideration, especially when working, letting his bangs messily grow into his face and his hair hang across his shoulder blades thickly and freely.
Perhaps most striking about him, aside from his starkly colored hair, are his eyes, green and piercing, appearing akin to emeralds in hue and sharpness. The color and shape of his eyes lend him a fierce look, exaggerated by the slight downturn of his lips, making him seem moodier or angrier than he normally is.
When able to choose his own clothing, he prefers to wear pants of a durable material and weave, seeming to wear them out otherwise. For freedom of movement, his shirts tend to be sleeveless in design, letting his body move freely as he would. If able, he chooses clothing with at least yellow accents, as this is his favorite color.
Personality: Riku has always had trouble relating to others, and spent much of his time alone, feeling himself to be better than his peers. His time on the seas has mellowed his opinion greatly, as even now, he is still a green child, unwise to some of the ways of the great world. Despite this humbling knowledge, he can still come off as confident, even cocky to people he perceives as not as "good" as him in some way, or to people he wishes to impress.
Even with his attitude he still wishes, like most, to be accepted. Once he determines that there is something admirable about a person, He does his best to show off his talents and skills, wanting the person to find him just as admirable in some way. Because of his lack of confidence in his interpersonal skills, his attempts at friendship usually amount to sporting contests of a sort, trying to find a level on which he can relate to the other person.
Once he befriends someone, he grows protective of that person, wanting to cover their weaknesses with his strengths. He also possesses a strong sense of both justice and loyalty, seeking to do what he thinks is right, regardless of the laws or consequences of his actions.
He is also a free spirit, and when he wishes to be, is able to take the reigns of leadership, forcing himself to become authoritative over others in order to achieve a common goal.
Abilities/Weapons: Riku has a strong back, is fleet of foot, and is very limber, lending him skills as an acrobat.
He also has acquired talent with a sword (his dragon-wing inspired sword, the SoulEater, be that allowed, and a flyssa if not. (http://www.digital-eel.com/scans/swords.htm)
link preceding.)
Weaknesses: Riku is very prideful when it comes to his abilities and can be easily manipulated into feeling betrayed by others. An unscrupulous person can lead Riku astray by befriending the boy, playing to his need to feel accepted and wanted while slowly warping his perception of the people around him, letting him believe that they are "against" him in some way.
Going hand-in-hand with his pride is his inability to admit weakness. If he is injured, he will not seek the attention of others, and when he does, it is only because he has either been caught by the other person and forced into it, when his common sense finally asserts itself over his pride and forces him to admit it, or he is rendered unconscious or is incapacitated in some way or another and cannot stop another from tending to him. While this may make him seem unmindful to pain, it ultimately weakens him, as he will not allow his old wounds proper time to heal, making them easy targets.
History: Riku was born on a small island nearest to Kagatau on the map, and growing up in a very small settlement of several small hard-scrabble farming families, he dreamed of exploring the different lands that existed, starting with Kagatau and moving to the mainland from the abandoned isle. Ultimately, his dream was to break the cloud-barrier and head to the lands below. It might not even matter if he never got to come up again. The idea of water-covered worlds fascinated him and kept him awake long into many nights, hiding under his covers reading.
To this end, in what moments he could spare from watching over the other kids, he worked to build a skycraft capable of surviving flight to the worlds below. He worked upon it in secret for the better part of ten years, carefully constructing and re-constructing components using what he could find around the island that would not be missed terribly by the adults. He made certain to tell no one of this plan, for fear that he would be stopped and his wings clipped forever. Each day he grew more restless still, until he could stand it no longer. Taking what he believed to be his finished craft out, he flew, headed first for Kagatau to test the capabilities of the craft.
Despite all of his hard work and planning, his craft was not good enough to make it. He foundered a great while, losing his way in the winds, until nearly out of fuel, he managed to catch a ride on a merchant craft bound from one end of Vohemar to the other. Now without money or way home, he had no choice but to join crew after crew, looking to build money to buy a ship for himself one day. In the year since he left his island, he worked his way from regular seaman upon merchant ships to apprenticing for helmsman and lending some skill to minor ship repairs. Finally tired of the boredom regular skyships offered, he instead sought a way onto The Winding Way.
Roleplay sample
Holding back the heaviness in his eyes, Riku once more looked over his book, one of his few indulgences since having left home. He had picked it up in Byden, which seemed to benefit from their lumber empire in more than just firewood. It was a lovely book indeed, thick and smelling of must and age and glue and ink, all wrapped and pressed together in one. Much like the books he had worn the spines out at his old home, this one was about fanciful tales of the world below, of a world full of water. If he closed his eyes (but not yet, he just wanted to get through this tale before that), he could see the water, a deeper blue than the sky, and deeper too, in distance, the weight and heft of the water creating shadows and darkness that the sun could never touch.
His eyes flicked across each page raptly, intent upon memorizing not only the words, but the feel of the words themselves, they way they sat raised up on the page once the ink had dried and the book pressed. He didn't even notice sleep claiming his thoughts, pulling him from wakefulness to slumber like the way water crept up and down the sand and the coast (tides, they were called), until his body relaxed utterly, fingers still clasped loosely against the spine, open and across his breast.
Journal Sample
This entire journey has been... dull. Somehow, when I left home, I didn't see that this was how my life would end up. I'm... not sure if I would have left or not, knowing what I do now. All the family, the friends I've traded... who's to say that they're more valuable than who I know now?
I still miss them, though. I hope they can get by without me... somehow.
Even so, I'll get my chance. My chance for a real adventure. To see the ocean with my own eyes, and to come back up to tell the world about it all.
I think I need to get on a new ship. A change of pace might be what I need.
(once again, boston in the fall.)