The Wake Profile
I'm posting this for reference on Naumu's home-world, as well as reference for Naumu as a character. :D
Personal Information
Name: Jaz
Age: 20
Personal LJ: sapling
AIM: poison parfait
Character Information
Name: Naumu
Age: 24
Appearance: Naumu stands at 5'11", wispy and thin. He has layered, jaw-length hair that's sort of a dim, almost brown pastel pink and he's fairly complected. He also has unnaturally bright teal eyes. Other than that, there's not much remarkable about Naumu at a glance.
Generally, he wears dark or neutral colors (black, charcoal, brown, etc) in a formar style - dress shirts, dress shoes, slacks, etc. Despite the quality of his clothing, Naumu's never really very loud in his appearance. In fact, he's rather subdued in overalll- he tends to carry looks of disinterest through conversations, even in his body language. His voice is soft, deep and monotonous. He has bad posture and tends to slouch forward at the hips, and if his hands aren't stuffed into his pockets or a bag of snacks, they're crossed over his chest.
Personality: His cold, sharp attitude is often misconstrued in other ways: he's prone to intimidating other people, and because of his status and the way he carries himself, people would probably be surprised to know he's actually pretty dim despite his expansive street smarts. Naumu doesn't really make it obvious that he's actually an idiot (serendipitously), but he lacks even basic knowledge about most things. And he's not just ignorant, he's slow witted. He often has trouble digesting complex explanations, insults or questions. It's just by dumb luck he manages to brush these off without giving off the impression that it's completely gone over his head. He even has trouble with reading comprehension, including simple things instructions on microwave packages and things like that. In fact, he's a pretty horrible cook- both by terrible luck with it and not being able to comprehend instructions. He'd probably set fire to a kitchen while making toast or cup ramen.
This is actually probably one of Naumu's greatest grievances and what he considers his greatest curse: he can't cook. Naumu's an incredible glutton, and he's almost always snacking on something. Part of why he enjoys the Middle Realm so much is because of its diverse culinary culture, whereas the Below Realm tends to have pretty bland, unappetizing eats. Since he was young, he was spoiled by his brother who brought home food from the Middle Realm. Now he can't stomach food from the Below Realm. This has kind of turned him into a snob when it comes to food, and it's his biggest weakness.
That being said, Naumu is pathetically easy to manipulate when it comes to food. If someone bribed him with the reward of one of his favorite dishes (taking him out to dinner or cooking it), they could probably get him to do just about anything, as long as it didn't compromise his dignity too much- but he'd probably peg down his dignity enough to run a few errands or do a few chores in exchange. However, since Naumu's so private, it's not evident food is his weakspot unless someone's been seeing a lot of him, and, being the loner type, not a lot of people know how to take advantage of him.
Part of Naumu's distance from people (peers from the Below Realm, Middle Realm, etc) is because as a default, he doesn't really trust people. He has extraordinary apathy towards other people, and it's not that he hates them- rather, he just believes that at their core, people are pretty rotten, and there's no use letting yourself get deceived.
In addition to having no faith in people, Naumu has no faith in the systems created by them, whether they're of the Middle Realm, Below, or Above. He believes that maybe a lot of these things were conceptualized by good intentions, but became corrupt. He believes that eventual corruption is the fate of everything, including the souls of people. So he sort of drifts around, feeling unattached to whatever world he's in, whatever people he's around, and whatever beliefs are shown to him.
This is all a subconscious affect of trauma from his brother's death, which Naumu isn't aware of. He's internalized so much of the grief, guilt, anger and other disgusting emotions for so long that he's just sort of numbed himself. Though, secretly, he's looking for something to make him feel alive again- something to believe in.
...Secretly, though. Because it's more stoic and manly that way.
Character history: Naumu was born in the Below Realm. He and his brother, Nolan, were orphans for their entire lives with no other family. Nolan was older than him by six years and he did his best to take care of Naumu in the harrowing conditions of the Below Realm. For the first five years of Naumu's life, the two lived in an orphanage. They eventually had no choice but to go to the streets when the orphanage was destroyed in a turf war. After that, Nolan took up odd jobs to take care of Naumu.
Eventually, when Naumu was about eight years old, Nolan had a run in with some criminals- as it turned out, Nolan didn't only work to break bread for himself and his brother. He stole a lot as well, and this eventually landed him in some trouble. Not only that, but it earned him some attention from one of the Below Realm's most notorious gangs- the Ammut Syndicate. Though he was young, they decided he'd have his uses, being so small, sneaky and unsuspicious. Though it concerned Naumu, Nolan joined the Ammut Syndicate.
Naumu from then on became accustomed to the sight of his brother coming home with scrapes, bruises and disheveled clothing, mounting his concern. Nolan always dismissed Naumu's concern. Financially speaking, they lived well enough to get by, which was much better than what could have been said of their collective state previously. the Ammut Syndicate never interfered with Naumu's life, so his life was peaceful, if not a little lonely.
Being so used to relying on his brother so completely, he found it hard adjusting to Nolan being gone the entire day (if not a couple of days) on business. What Nolan earned wasn't always enough for them to be comfortable, so Naumu still snuck around the streets and stole, which also helped him to survive the separation anxiety. Since he was accustomed to this most of his life, he had no problem meeting confrontation for his thievery with fights. He liked to tell himself he wasn't relying on Nolan completely- still, when Nolan got home, if they were both worse for the wear, they'd tend to each other's injuries.
When Naumu was eleven, he learned his brother had been involved in the shady business of Illegal Reaping. This involves someone from the Below Realm going to the Middle Realm to extract souls from humans by making trades: souls for wishes. Reaping in this manner is extremely illegal, and most of all, dangerous. Naumu was never pleased with Nolan's work, but Nolan assured Naumu that it was for the best of them both. Still, he added that he never wanted Naumu to have to face the same sort of work because it was so harrowing. Nolan felt terrible guilt for his work.
However, Nolan continued the shady trading, bringing the stolen souls to his superiors and receiving a percentage of its later profit. Nolan was happy that he could provide for his brother, but Naumu constantly worried for his brother's well-being. Eventually, on a day where Nolan had been out on business in the Middle Realm, Nolan and Naumu's home was invaded by the Ammut Syndicate, seizing the home under fire. It turned out they had come for Nolan.
The gang was raved madly about how Nolan was some sneaky little shit, keeping some of what he'd reaped. Naumu had no idea about this, but he was treated with the same hostility. Apparently, they'd sent someone to follow Nolan after he completed that day's transaction. They discovered Nolan reaped one soul above his given quota that day- and despite that, he offered up only one soul to the syndicate, which meant he'd kept one for himself, intending to sell it for a whole profit. And having been suspicious of Nolan in the first place, it was clear that this hadn't been this first time Nolan did this.
They demanded that Nolan give up the second soul, or else they'd kill him and his brother, so Nolan told them of the soul's location. The gang regrouped, still holding Naumu and Nolan hostage, and explained that Nolan had done a good thing. Because of his honesty, they wouldn't kill him and Naumu- rather, they'd let Naumu live, and kill Nolan.
Sent into a panicked frenzy, Naumu struggled against his captors, escaped them, and fought them as best he could. Unfortunately, it was no good- he was definitely outnumbered. So, Naumu snatched the soul the gang had collected from Nolan. In a desperate attempt to save Nolan, Naumu ate the soul. Of the many side-affects consuming a soul carries, one of them can be a prolonged surge of blind power, which was what Naumu was hoping for.
Unfortunately, it instead made Naumu quite sick. The world spun in a saturated, unstable blur, and he basically fell onto his knees, doubling forward to vomit. The last thing Naumu heard before passing out was Nolan, saying again and again, "It's okay."
When Naumu came to, he was bandaged up and cared for. The Ammut Syndicate had roughed him up pretty badly during the fight. But he was nowhere he recognized- it seemed to be some sort of holding cell. Confused, he sat up, trying to discern his location, and he was struck back down onto the mattress by a punch to the chest. Recovering from the surprise of the attack, Naumu was given an offer: he could die for consuming a soul that should have belonged to the syndicate, or he could take his brother's place and pay off his betrayal.
Naumu realized with the criminal's offer that his brother had been killed while he was out, though he didn't at the time fully absorb that impact- shocked, but rational, Naumu hesitantly agreed to work in Nolan's place. The grief didn't hit him until he was alone. Naumu tore the cot he'd awoken on from the ground, screamed, cried, threw the chair his captor had been sitting in, and generally just had a gigantic fit. He finally calmed down despite choking on his own breath, and settled to stay in the gang for two reasons:
1) To restore honor to his brother's name, and 2) take revenge, of course! First, against the men specifically who'd killed Nolan, once he found out- then, second, he decided he'd kill the head of Ammut Syndicate, who was ultimately responsible (so Naumu figured. Someone had to give the order, right?).
Nolan's death happened when Naumu was 22, so they'd grown well into adulthood together. Though Naumu busied himself with other jobs while Nolan did his reaping in the Middle Realm, he never quite weaned himself from his brother. Outside his own brother, he never bothered to form connections with anyone aside rom business purposes. He never trusted other people, expressed himself, or opened up to them. Just like that, with Nolan's death, Naumu lost his outlet. Naumu had been extremely codependent on his brother.
Since then, Naumu's obeyed the Ammut Syndicate, doing his business reaping the souls of humans on Earth. Because of his cause, the guilt he felt in ruining the lives of humans was somewhat stifled. Comparing his grief in ruining the lives of humans to the grief of losing his brother helped him turn a little colder. As time went on, Naumu decided he might take Nolan's route of things. He wanted to eventually take another soul for himself and consume it for the chance of becoming more powerful. All the better for the cause of his big brother! When faced with the moral ambiguity of reaping in general, Naumu thought of his brother and told himself, "It's just what some people have to do to feed themselves."
Unfortunately, Naumu began to lose sight of himself more and more as business went on as usual. Internalizing all his grief and anger, Naumu was killing his own sense of morality and sympathy. Gradually, he began to earn the respect of the other Ammut Syndicate members, when before he'd been treated quite badly. Initially, when Naumu joined the gang, he was beaten rather routinely. While there were plenty of times he could have easily fended himself, he took the beatings obediently in an attempt to express cemented loyalty. Over the course of a year and a half, the beatings and ridicule let up until Naumu received none at all. In fact, a lot of the Ammut Syndicate came to acknowledge him as a talented reaper, and he crawled up moderately in rank. Some feared him, and most finally respected him.
As things seemed to be going rather well, Naumu was surprised to find he'd been assigned a reaping partner: an understudy, actually, by the name of Mahdi. His superiors went on to explain that Mahdi insisted Naumu teach him the ropes, as he admired Naumu the most in his skills. This perplexed and (quietly) enraged Naumu, sizing Mahdi up. His partner-to-be was sunny, small and disgustingly adorable. Definitely not the type Naumu envisioned to be in the Ammut Syndicate, and this was even more clear when it was apparent that Mahdi had no experience with reaping- or even having the mindset necessary, actually. The guy had an unclear background, and he'd been assigned into something as dangerous as reaping just like that?
Naumu realized quite quickly that his superiors were mocking him, assigning him a partner in the first place, much more someone of Mahdi's "caliber". As a result, Naumu was quick to be bitter toward Mahdi, and it only irritated him more that Mahdi would only respond with radiant smiles and laugh off Naumu's coldness. It was bizarre, and it made Naumu uncomfortable. Despite the way he treated Mahdi, he was still so nice. It was inhuman to Naumu. Secretly, he's a little afraid of Mahdi, guessing that his unusually cheery attitude is something of a sociopathic farce. It's not that Naumu thinks Mahdi could really hurt him physically or otherwise cause him harm- he basically just painted this evil little picture of Mahdi in his mind and the innerworkings of his own creation just kind of uneases him. A lot.
Naumu decided soon after that Mahdi was just evil. Mahdi sabotaged Naumu's food (unforgivable sin), ruining it intentionally. Messed up his clothes, his shampoo. So, Naumu's decided that Mahdi's definitely a sociopath, especially because Naumu's unsure as to why Mahdi does all that crap to begin with. When Mahdi says it's because they're friends, Naumu gets goosebumps and quickly dismisses the title.
However, over time, Naumu has become a little used to Mahdi's behavior and has even since moved with him to the Middle Realm for work, temporarily holing up in a crappy apartment (and Naumu dabbles in odd jobs to pay rent). He takes him a little less seriously and decides that while he's scary, he's indeed pretty harmless. Naumu's taken to pranking Mahdi back, and it's sort of an endless, idiotic battle of (no) wits. Naumu occasionally feels bitter when he sees Mahdi and accounts the fact that Mahdi was only assigned to him as a partner as the Ammut Syndicate's way of laughing in his face despite all of his work. Despite killing his brother. He also sort of resents Mahdi for always pressing him on uncomfortable subjects.
Basically, Naumu's not used to interacting with someone who doesn't take him even a little bit seriously and has no problem pushing his buttons endlessly. It riles Naumu up, and he's unused to the embarrassment, anger and general shock Mahdi induces within him. But moreover, when Mahdi calls him his friend, Naumu feels a little mocked every time. Because he feels like friendship is a baited hook, being someone who doesn't trust easily (or at all).
And, uh, he's not used to people caring about him. So it's easier to just tell himself that Mahdi really doesn't care for him. Creature of habit.
Still, Naumu's rather conflicted: despite all this, a part of him likes having Mahdi around. It's constant, and it's comforting. He secretly likes where things are, right now.
Powers and Abilities:
Portaling: All mortals from the Above and Below Realm have this ability. It allows them to phase from either of their three dimensions, or within them (such as phasing through walls).
Extraction: Though not possible without a complying signature, mortals from the Above and Below Realms have the ability to remove souls from human beings. Additionally, they can eat the souls they've extracted, though this doesn't come without extreme consequence.
Soul sensing: All mortals from the Above and Below Realm have the ability to sense the purity or darkness of a soul, particularly among humans. With people of his their own race, mortals from the Above and Below Realms can only get a vague sense of character from the souls of their kin.
Fire: Since Naumu's blood has been in the Below Realm for several generations, he, like other civilians of the Below Realm, has abilities that differ from their counterparts in the Above Realm. For instance, Naumu lacks the ability to project his emotions (a quality necessary to become a Redeemer), along with other abilities such as true wish granting, but he has the ability to do things like conjure flames from his palms and fingertips. The radius of the flame isn't very big, but it's a bright blue, Hell-hot flame. However, this ability is useless in places too humid or cold.
Blessings: The ability to manipulate a human's fate into turning things in their favor, however briefly. Both people from Above and Below posses this ability. Since people from the Below Realm don't rely on things like permission, they tend to abuse this ability in favor of getting souls.
Sewing: ... What, he's too cheap for new clothing! He grew up dirt broke, man! Naumu always repaired Nolan's clothing when he got roughed up, as well as his own clothing. Also, he simply finds it therapeutic and is quite good at it.
Fighting: Naumu's great in a fight, even just with dirty street melee. He doesn't rely on his fire manipulation ability.
Invisibility: To humans! Another ability common amongst his kind (Above and Below Realm civilians).
Soul-eating: This is a strange phenomenon specifically better executed by people from the Below Realm, likely because their people have evolved into becoming more accustomed to this taboo, unsavory act. Souls, despite the size of their vessels, are actually of a somewhat unimpressive size- about the size of a human's head, if not a little smaller. They're sort of like willow-wisps, but more gaseous, more like a vapor than like flames. They tend to shape like tear-drops, and it's easiest to grab them by the tail. Usually, when consuming a soul, the user tilts their head back, opens their mouth, and dangles the soul by its tail above it. It seems that people from the Below Realm (and possibly the Above Realm) unconsciously subdue a soul before consuming it. The soul doesn't struggle at all, though it tends to emit a smoky mist on its way down.
World Summary: This universe is split into three different dimensions, referred to by its inhabitants as "realms". To start, there was one "realm", which later went on the create the other two beneath it. The second realm birthed beneath the first was created for reasons lost to history in the thousands of years its been since their creation, but it's popular theory that the second realm is some sort of experiment concealed by the first realm's government.
The second realm was filled with lesser life forms, including what the Above Realm referred to loosely as "lesser mortals", which grew to call themselves humans as they evolved, taking nearly an identical shape to their creators, and naming their realm "Earth". Their souls, quite unlike the souls of their creators, are incomplete and can go through infinite cycles of life, should they be recycled properly after a human's death.
The first natives of the Above Realm were also creators of the Charter: a guideline for how natives of the Above Realm ought to live through law, morale and duty, eventually serving as the Above Realm's founder of government. According to the Charter, the second realm is precious, as are the souls within it, and so the Above Realm's citizens are conditioned and groomed to care for it. Despite this, only a slim percentage join the Charter's government to take care of the realm beneath them, but it's more than enough with the Above Realm's enormous population.
The Above Realm's government operates with some secrecy regarding allegedly forgotten historic facts, such as why the second and third realms were created, or how the first realm was created. Despite its mystery, the Above Realm is actually governed quite peacefully. There's seldom anything wrong with the Above Realm, and it's basically a utopian society.
However, not everyone agreed with the Charter, its secrets, or the existence of the Middle Realm. After all, why should they care so much for a world they know nothing about, beyond it exists for "some reason"? Demanding answers, these natives eventually formed a rebellion- starting first as civil protests, then to riots, and eventually a war that divided the Above Realm. Rather than relenting to their demands, the Charter of the Above Realm created its third dimension beneath the second.
The Below Realm is where terrorists and other dangerous criminals were sent during the Above Realm's civil war. Eventually, refugees came to the Below Realm of their own volition, even though it's an infinity vast, sweltering ghetto aside from its colony sized prison facilities. Free from the Charter, and free from everything, the Below Realm became an unstable dimension of anarchy and jaded civilians.
For centuries, distance remained between the Below and Above Realm- generations grew in their respective locations. In the Above Realm, there were your typical, well groomed and generally moral, well-adjusted people, while in the Below Realm, people were birthed into impoverished, unstable environments. In the Below Realm, you had to get rich to live easy, just like societies in the Middle Realm. But in the Below Realm, the measures for that sort of life meant cutting down the people below you. Ruin lives to better your own. It was impossible for the Below Realm's society to be without crime- and if you didn't turn to crime, you simply wouldn't make it.
The Middle Realm has no connection with either the Above Realm or Below Realm. At least, not exactly. The Above Realm always sends its people to help guide souls on the verge of darkness to the Middle Realm. For instance, people who had just faced great tragedy are subject to having their souls darken. It's the duty of "Redeemers" from the Above Realm to invisibly guide their assignments towards the light, so to speak. The humans granted these miracles are unaware of their Redeemer's existence, but they can occasionally feel their Redeemer's presence, depending on the person sent to supervise them (if they don't really care too much for their assigned human, their human may not feel their love, concern and good wishes). Humans who feel the presence of their Redeemers often refer to them as "Guardian Angels"- something you can't see, but something you can feel, and something you can't rationalize beyond faith and love.
A unique attribute of the "greater" mortals (though they don't refer to themselves as such- after all, lesser mortals are lesser mortals. By their own standards, they're simply "mortals") is the ability to consume human souls. Considered criminal, taboo and just irrationally cruel, it's something very uncommon- additionally, it's not something easy to do. This ability was discovered as the Above and Below Realm's populations grew respectively, both realms keeping their tabs on the Middle Realm. The Above Realm saw the Middle Realm as something to protect. The bitter Below Realm saw the Middle Realm as something to exploit, having been given no reason to care for it beyond petty faith.
The result of consuming a human soul has one of the following four effects:
1) The user gets a euphoric high so intense that they lose control of themselves- their strengths and abilities become freakishly out of control, and they surge with this power uncontrollably for several hours. Once the high wears off, the user retains a fraction of the strength experienced through that high.
2) The user becomes extremely ill. This involves vomiting the contents of their stomachs (including its acid), hallucinating, losing sensation in their bodies, and sometimes going into comas for long periods of time (months to years). If there's no coma, the user tends to pass out for at least a few days from exhaustion. Additionally, when the user comes to, they never shake the illness, though it becomes dormant- occasionally, it will resurface with random side affects such as nosebleeds, vomiting or hallucinations. Since Naumu consumed the soul that had been in his brother's possession and fell ill, he occasionally is stricken by these symptoms.
3) The user loses their goddamn mind. They have horrifying hallucinations for the rest of their life. Additionally, they lose most sensation in their bodies, almost completely unable to feel pain, hunger or thirst. Likewise, they're just as unlikely to feel pleasure, and they're in a constant state of jittery unease.
4) The user, uh, dies. BAD END.
When a soul is consumed, it is lost forever, thus ending the endless cycle of its life.
Despite the dangerous side-affects, the first listed side-affect was something effective enough for the souls of humans to become coveted. However, human souls are under strict protection of their Redeemers: if a human soul is pure, there's no chance it can be extracted from its body, unless the human is weakened nearly to the point of death. All soul extraction requires consenting sign of a contract, otherwise the extraction will fail. When a soul is dark, however, a person may be subject to extreme weakness that can be taken advantage of.
Sometimes, before a human can even be assigned a Redeemer, someone from the Below Realm will surface before them. As dark souls are often to result of something related to trauma, the Below Realm mortal will make them some sort of uplifting offer. Unlimited riches, bringing a loved one from the dead (this involves implanting an artificial soul, so it's not as win-win as it sounds), erasing their emotions- all it takes is a simple signing of a contract, thereby selling the humans soul to the Below Realm mortal.
This is a practice referred to as Illegal Reaping, common amongst top-ranked gangs in the Below Realm as a source of income. After all, human souls, for their affects, are quite valuable- in fact, Below Realm civilians rarely consume souls, despite their demand. That's because they're status and luxury symbols, and for lords of soul trading, they practically serve as currency. However, not everyone holds onto souls. Some people do indeed sell them for a large profit. More, it's the types who are already sitting on the easy life that hoard and trade them.
Generally, when a human reaches its expiration date, the confidential information on which being typically stored away by the Above Realm's Charter, the Above Realm sends a Reaper to collect that soul. If the soul was troubled and dark, it's hopefully been purified by an appointed Redeemer, and thus it can be reincarnated by officials in the Above Realm. Otherwise, taking a soul from a human strictly requires the human's consent. Without a host, the soul can be harvested freely. Humans dying without a Reaper to take their souls back to the Above Realm is what results in things like ghosts..
However, not having the information on the human race's individual lifespans nor the mind to care for these mindless subjects created by the Above Realm, the Below Realm Reaps illegally as it pleases. The Above Realm is always tailing these criminals, but the situation is pretty out of control. Obtaining the human's consent through manipulating them, the Below Realm gangster successfully obtains the human's soul.
Through Redeeming, people in the Above Realm have the ability to grant "blessings"- it's basically an ability to manipulate the fate of (much) lesser lifeforms, specifically in the Middle Realm. This usually requires heavy paperwork and permission from Above Realm officials, as using the ability carelessly can through the Middle Realm into chaos. However, having no care for rule and regulation, the Below Realm Reapers grant blessings carelessly to meet the ends of their offer, thus honoring the contract made with the Reaper and its "client".
When a human's soul is taken without its vessel expiring, the human continues living as a shell of the person it once was: basically, it becomes a human without a "heart". People wishing themselves into diplomacy, politics or other influential positions and losing their souls in order to fulfill their wishes has, for ages, been influencing the slow stewing of the Middle Realm's corruption. The amount of soulless people in the Middle Realm are causing its balance to become severely uneven and distorted, poisoning it.
From the Above and Below Realm's constant hand in the Middle Realm's affairs, whether its the invisible presence of Redeemers, the tangible appearances of Reapers or the various other respective influences, humanity has taken some conscious registration of their affects. However, since the Above and Below Realms are mostly under the radar in their workings, their existence according to humans is basically a bunch of conjecture, thus giving birth to things like religion. Humans came to call the Above and Below Realms "Heaven" and "Hell", and their respective civilians "angels" and "demons", inaccurately deeming them of different race. Even civilians of the Above and Below Realms refer to themselves as Heaven, Hell, angels or demons casually- it's been adopted almost as slang. And, as the Middle Realm has fallen so rapidly and so helplessly to corruption, its starting to take on the petname "Little Hell" from civilians of the Above and Below Realm.
Naumu, having grown up in Hell, doesn't really have a lot of formal understanding of Heaven or Earth. But being an Illegal Reaper himself, he understands a lot about humans and their psychology, despite their dimness- after all, being a Reaper from Hell, he's got to know how to properly exploit and manipulate human beings, perhaps even luring them into the tragedies that eventually lead them to part with their souls willingly.
Samples
First person: It's not very surprising that this place has gotten to be kind of boring. I guess I could will something interesting to happen, but I don't really have anything specific in mind. I'm used to keeping myself busy with work- stuff out of my control, you know? That there's even the possibility I can just manipulate things the way I want them... Maybe what I want isn't what I want at all. Huh.
Maybe it doesn't make sense to complain about things being easier.
Anyway, that stuff doesn't matter. Back home, people were either from Heaven, Hell or Little Hell. Earth, I mean. This place is different- there's all kinds of people from all kinds of different places, right? So I've got a question for those people.
And this is actually really important, so listen up.
What kind of food do you guys have where you're from? What's the best? What's interesting? Has anyone foreign opened up any restaurants since coming to this place?
Third person: Naumu had torn the leg to his pants on the way out from the apartment. He paused, hearing the familiar sound of his designer clothing ripping apart, froze, and looked down to see the rusty offender in the shape of a nail, protruding rudely from the doorframe of his room. Naumu stared, stared, and stared some more, eventually settling to huff, step back and slam the door back shut.
He bounced backwards against the flat foam mattress, dirty and worn. Naumu looked rather clean and well-off compared to his surroundings, painting him as rather out-of-place. Crossing his ankle to rest on his knee, Naumu twisted, reaching to his night-stand. Clumsily, he pulled open a drawer, fumbling around impatiently and blindly within it until he came upon a spool of black thread. Sighing once he found its accompanying needle by the prick of his index finger, he straightened, momentarily nursing his fingertip with the wet, soothing warmth of his mouth. Then he treated the end of the spool's string in the same way so as to successfully worm it through the sewing needle's hole.
The Reaper's eyes lid part way after he tied the knot necessary to secure the string, thereafter locating the rip in the leg of his garment. He handled it carefully with experienced fingertips, sliding the needle in a smooth glide through the airy, expensive fabric.
It couldn't have taken more than five minutes, but Naumu felt like it was forever, slouching over this tiny little tear in his pants, eyes straining and back cramping as his fingers diligently worked to fix things. Pants were easy to fix. This was no problem.
But time almost seemed suspended between stitches. It took no thinking to do something like this, and so his mind would wander- his eyes would thoughtfully dim, recalling how many times he's had to do this in his life. Recalling how few articles of clothing he had for the fact that he never had to replace them. Recalling when it wasn't just his own clothing he fixed up.
Like the times where the pressure against his knee was a stack of ruined suit from his brother. And Naumu, from eight to twenty years old, diligently did his best to restore the garments.
"I can always just get a new suit," Nolan would laugh, and Naumu used to only respond by brattishly knotting his brows, keeping silent otherwise as he focused. Stiched, stitched, stitched. With Nolan's comments in the future, as adults, Naumu would instead smile. Things like "you don't have to" made Naumu feel at peace, and made him realize that it was because he loved his brother that he bothered at all. It was because of his love he endured all of those bleeding pricks to his fingertips, gradually gaining a tailor's callous.
In this empty, grungy apartment, Naumu was reminded of the ghetto he grew up in. Terrible, violent times, but in many ways, the best times of Naumu's life. Pausing in his activity, Naumu raised his head, expression dull. He could almost remember the way his brother's voice sounded. He could almost see Nolan standing in front of him, ridiculing him fondly, laughing. Yeah, almost...
Naumu knew he could always just get a new pair of pants. That would be the logical thing to do. Teal eyes found the shimmery sliver of the needle, rotating it thoughtfully at his fingertips, observing it thoughtlessly. Doing something like that felt too much like moving on. He still wasn't ready for that.
"Naumu," came a familiar voice, and Naumu's eyes instantly hardened on the needle, body tensing. He immediately resumed sewing, busy, head full of nothing-at-all once again. "Naumu!"
"What?" Naumu asked flatly, stitching busily. He was going over the tear a second time, now. He didn't really need to, though.
"I made too much mashed potatoes. I was wondering if you wanted any of the rest." Naumu slowly rose his head, glare unnecessarily scathing. And there was Mahdi, blinking like the most innocent thing in the world, scratching the back of his neck. He looked confused, and Naumu weighted his risk in taking up this offer. While a slim percentage of the time, Naumu's food was sometimes sabotaged with something unsavory. He was suspicious.
"You never make more than you can eat."
Mahdi bristled. "Do you want any or what?"
Naumu paused, then sighed, snapping the thread after tying off his work, jabbing the needle into his moldy mattress. Eyes closed, he pushed himself up, hands sliding cooly into his pockets. "Thanks."
Mahdi didn't have to make him any food, but he did. Naumu knew Mahdi didn't have to do things like that, but Mahdi did. As Mahdi turned to walk out, he cried out, tensing and quickly looking down to his ankle. There had been that familiar tearing sound.
"Ah..." Naumu smiled, but the expression was subtle and distant. Mahdi's overalls. What a disaster. "...watch out for the rusty nail in the doorway."
RANDOM TRIVIA BULLET-POINTS:
★ No shame. He'll undress anywhere in front of anyone, but only if he has to!
★ He has a great deal of pride, honor and dignity, surprisingly, and he does his best to uphold all of that.
★ Blames himself for his brother's death.
★ Is prone to random illnesses such as: random comas (or sleeping for a few days), nosebleeds, vomiting, fainting, severe muscle pains throughout his body, hallucinations... but each illness is very rare, and paired symptoms never occur!
★ Loves snow- it makes him really, really happy, comfortable and relaxed! He wishes Hell had snow.
★ Wants to live on Earth! Can't, though.
★ Can be a little awkward- he's not aware that he comes across as either scary and or cold when he does, and the reason he comes across this way is because he's actually kind of afraid of people (not that he feels they can hurt him, he just doesn't know how to act in social situations). Also, he doesn't receive physical affection well- he often stiffens up in quiet panic!
★ Great in a fight.
★ He's had sex more than just a handful of times despite his social clumsiness, but mostly, it was on Earth. Also, he actually doesn't enjoy sex that much- he's just really easy. AND YES, despite that, he's only slept with women. He's not attracted to men, but he has nothing against homosexuals or anything. He says women in Hell aren't as easy as Earth women, despite that Hell women are so trashy. Also, he's slept with women in Hell mostly as a result of his ranking in his gang. Basically, his rank is what got them wet, which is kind of a turn off for Naumu. From the women he's slept with on Earth, he likes the lack of that kinda pretense.
★ He loves food. Like, a ton. Like, he probably has an eating disorder or something. He's a total glutton and a gourmet, and when he's upset, he goes for a walk and snacks. If you ruin his food, you're his enemy. If you cook him food, you're his best friend. If you do both, Naumu gets confused and frustrated. <3
★ Naumu's an idiot. A complete idiot. Things often go over his head, he's uneducated, and he's pretty slow-witted. But somehow, he's generally pretty good in covering this up, and he doesn't even mean to- it gradually becomes more apparent as people get to know him, though.
★ Naumu doesn't connect with people or accumulate sentimental value for much of anything at all. He sort of feels like one person in a sea of static that can't connect to the noise around him even if he wanted to, like mixing oil and water. Part of his social ineptitude comes from the fact that he doesn't know how to talk to people, for the fact he just can't connect with anyone. Not since his brother's death!
★ Naumu has no faith. In anything. ;;; But he's secretly looking for something to believe in...
★ Naumu believes in nothing, pretty much- including true love, good people, and happiness. ;;; What an angst bucket. He doesn't dwell and mope on this, though- rather, he accepts it calmly as a fact, and holds no bitterness.
★ EXTRAORDINARILY APATHETIC, IF YOU COULDN'T TELL.
★ He can't cook. He considers this his greatest curse. He'd probably light fire to his apartment complex if he tried to make cup ramen.
★ Naumu's eaten a soul, which he stole from his brother on order to (attempt to) save him. It failed miserably, and Naumu is still dealing with the side affects of having consumed a rotten soul: the aforementioned illnesses!
★ Naumu is like a weird, delicate blend of Gourry and Zelgadiss, from The Slayers. o_o I just noticed this. ANYWAY, THAT'S KIND OF IRRELEVANT.
★ Mahdi is growing on Naumu for a few reasons: a) Naumu is (secretly) lonely, b) Mahdi is a pretty good cook when he's not ruining Naumu's life by ruining his meals, and c) Mahdi's really fucking cute. Not like, gay-for-you cute, but sunshines-and-kittens cute, which is endearing. Naumu finds he doesn't want to trust Mahdi, and it makes him uneasy that he also wants to trust him, cuz he really seems like a sweet guy. But, all-in-all, Naumu doesn't trust Mahdi. Other than that, Naumu thinks Mahdi is irritating. And evil. Like an evil, talented and adorable kitten. Terrifying. YOU CAN'T RESIST SOMETHING SO CUTE BUT IT'S SO EVIL
★ Naumu is really unused to being close to people and only really knows how to be the loner (which he generally prefers), so he is EXTREMELY TSUNDERE.
★ Naumu rarely gets excited, whether that means being enraged, horny, ecstatic, etc. Kind of stoic. WHAT A BORING GUY.
★ Naumu is intensely private. He doesn't open up to people. He just doesn't. When he does, it takes eons of work, one hell of an impression or both. He'll almost never reveal anything personal! Especially awkward, emotional things.
★ Since he doesn't express himself, Naumu has a lot of internalized suffering he's not really that aware of. He has a lot he doesn't even know he has to let out, and it's been snowballing for a year or two. It's probably the cause of his apathy.
★ Naumu has nightmares about his brother, sometimes. The stress makes him hungry l-lol. I guess he burns calories through stressing or something. Some people blame Naumu's obscene appetite on the illness he acquired through eating a soul.
★ Naumu's favorite food is Greek food.
★ Naumu generally isn't easy to offend, since he doesn't take much of anything seriously. Certain subjects might rile him, such as annoying stuff like family and love. It makes the bitterness rise up! He also gets irritated if people try to get him to open up, or ask him too many questions.
★ As a note, Naumu doesn't actually have an eating disorder. XD He snacks when he's upset, sure, but he also snacks when he's doing anything besides sleeping or showering. He's pretty much just constantly snacking. Freakish metabolism? Side-effect from consuming a soul? Who knows! But it's not an eating disorder. :>
★ When he's tired, Naumu has the magical ability to fall asleep pretty much anywhere- he's fallen asleep standing up, before, which resulted in a rather rough falling-over wake-up. This comes from Naumu pushing himself- he works so hard he doesn't get much rest, and even when he has free time, chances are that he's doing something to keep himself busy. Only when he's super-exhausted does he fall asleep anywhere without caring about where that somewhere is, though. He's not narcoleptic, as another note. |>
★ Naumu is pathetically easy to manipulate, when it comes to food. If you bribed him with the reward of one of his favorite dishes (taking him out to dinner or cooking it), you could probably get him to do just about anything, as long as it didn't compromise his dignity too much- but he'd probably peg down his dignity enough to put out or something ahaha. However, since Naumu's so private, it's not evident food is his weakness unless you've been seeing a lot of him, and, being the loner type, not a lot of people know how to take advantage of him.
★ Naumu's prone to being pantsless when he's at home, much to Mahdi's horror. His pants are fashionable, but when he's off the clock and relaxing, he looks a little, uh, circulation. AND AGAIN, no shame- he doesn't seem to see the problem with being pantsless all over the place.
This is stuff I filled out mostly for my own reference, but if you're for some reason curious, here you go!
Physical Characteristics:
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 150lb
Race: "Greater" mortal.
Eye Color: Bright teal.
Hair Color: Pale, browny, pastel pink
Skin color: ...Pale?
Shape of Face: Subtle bone structure, with a pointed chin. He looks mature, but he also sort of has a round-ish face.
Distinguishing features: Unnatural animu colors.
How does he dress?: With subtle sophistication, usually in dark or neutral colors. Though his style is simple, his brands are expensive.
Mannerisms: Impersonable, sometimes a little cold- always snacking.
Habits: Eating. All the fucking time. He also has a tendency to walk around home without pants. PRIVACY AND LIBERTY, WHY NOT
Health: Somehow, it's okay. He's active because of work, and even though he eats a ton, it tends to be decently healthy foods.
Hobbies: ...sewing eating brooding I don't think he has any.
Favorite Sayings: I don't think he personally has any LOL...
Speech patterns: Naumu tends to use common vernacular, and while he doesn't sound very intelligent, he doesn't sound very dumb, either. AMBIGUOUS.
Disabilities: He as a random illness that kicks in at random, as mentioned in the application and trivia. This can be symptoms of anything from vomitting, to fainting, to nosebleeds, to chronic fatigue... As for personality handicaps, he has a vicious brother complex and a disgusting thirst for revenge that's kind of made him lose sight of any sort of quality in life; it's totally consumed him, and it dictates him as a reason to breath.
Style (Elegant, shabby etc.): Elegant, but discreet! He tends to wear expensive designer clothing, but they look rather ordinary. People who know fabric of fashion would probably recognize his threads as being made of remarkably high quality material.
Greatest flaw: Still very dependent on his (dead) brother. Also, he's kind of killed his spirit as a way to cope with Nolan's death.
Best quality: ...Um. GOD DOES HE HAVE GOOD QUALITIES WORTH MENTIONING!? ...How about, "he finishes everything on his plate"... orz
Intellectual/Mental/Personality Attributes and Attitudes
Educational Background: ...none lol. Naumu learned everything he knows from Nolan, which still isn't much. He's pretty well versed in street smarts, at least, and he knows a surprising lot about Earth (he actually studied before he went up there)
Intelligence Level: -10
Any Mental Illnesses?: Probably his obsessive, demented brother complex, but I don't really know what you'd call that specifically.
Learning Experiences: A LOT. Mostly stuff from going up in Hell with Nolan. /lazy
Character's short-term goals in life: Get back at Mahdi for putting a fuckton sugar in his noodle soup...
Character's long-term goals in life: Kill his boss, who killed Nolan.
How does Character see himself/herself?: An empty vessel! A machine! Operating towards his personal goal! Until he met Mahdi- now he sees himself as pathetic for the buddings of becoming attached to someone irrelevant.
How does Character believe he/she is perceived by others?: Cold, effective. Hungry. Stupid, if they know him really well.
How self-confident is Character?: Very, but also not at all. He's really confident with his own abilities and strengths, but he's not very confident about himself as a person. He still feels like he's worthless without Nolan around to give his existence definition. That's probably why he's private, and prefers to keep conversations off the topic of himself, unless it involves work. HE IS SCARED OF A LOT OF THINGS
Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination thereof?: He's probably ruled by a lack of emotion that he forces upon himself. RULED BY HIS GRIEF AND LONELINESS. He's kind of immature, that way.
What would most embarrass this character?: Admitting he cared a lot for someone, or ...lol crying about Nolan. He doesn't really cry about it, but I think if he actually talked to someone about it, he might flip out.
Strengths/Weaknesses:
Introvert or Extrovert?: Introvert. A lot. :B
How does the character deal with anger?: SUPPRESSION. He probably has a tumor. Also, he takes it out on Mahdi, kind of. But then he feels really bad because he hurts Mahdi's feelings, sometimes, so...fail.
With sadness?: Suppression. EATING?
With conflict?: Calm, intimidating anger.
With change?: Change doesn't bother him. If it's him personally (like coming to care for Mahdi), he...tries to suppress it lmao
With loss?: Suppression, and apparently, BUILDING HIS LIFE AROUND THAT PERSON IN GRIEF
What does the character want out of life?: Something to believe in, and VENGEANCE. Mostly vengeance.
What would the character like to change in his/her life?: He's not sure. He wants something to believe in, something to change him, something to make him feel like he exists as something besides his purpose, but...at the same time, that scares him.
What motivates this character?: His grief, which is the catalyst of his thirst for revenge, which I guess is his drive.
What frightens this character?: Love. x:
What makes this character happy?: Food.
Is the character judgmental of others?: ...He can be, I suppose!
Is the character generous or stingy?: Stingy.
Is the character generally polite or rude?: I think it depends on who he's talking to. He's generally nicer to women. When he gets uncomfortable with a subject, he might get a little snappy or needlessly offensive.
Personal Information
Name: Jaz
Age: 20
Personal LJ: sapling
AIM: poison parfait
Character Information
Name: Naumu
Age: 24
Appearance: Naumu stands at 5'11", wispy and thin. He has layered, jaw-length hair that's sort of a dim, almost brown pastel pink and he's fairly complected. He also has unnaturally bright teal eyes. Other than that, there's not much remarkable about Naumu at a glance.
Generally, he wears dark or neutral colors (black, charcoal, brown, etc) in a formar style - dress shirts, dress shoes, slacks, etc. Despite the quality of his clothing, Naumu's never really very loud in his appearance. In fact, he's rather subdued in overalll- he tends to carry looks of disinterest through conversations, even in his body language. His voice is soft, deep and monotonous. He has bad posture and tends to slouch forward at the hips, and if his hands aren't stuffed into his pockets or a bag of snacks, they're crossed over his chest.
Personality: His cold, sharp attitude is often misconstrued in other ways: he's prone to intimidating other people, and because of his status and the way he carries himself, people would probably be surprised to know he's actually pretty dim despite his expansive street smarts. Naumu doesn't really make it obvious that he's actually an idiot (serendipitously), but he lacks even basic knowledge about most things. And he's not just ignorant, he's slow witted. He often has trouble digesting complex explanations, insults or questions. It's just by dumb luck he manages to brush these off without giving off the impression that it's completely gone over his head. He even has trouble with reading comprehension, including simple things instructions on microwave packages and things like that. In fact, he's a pretty horrible cook- both by terrible luck with it and not being able to comprehend instructions. He'd probably set fire to a kitchen while making toast or cup ramen.
This is actually probably one of Naumu's greatest grievances and what he considers his greatest curse: he can't cook. Naumu's an incredible glutton, and he's almost always snacking on something. Part of why he enjoys the Middle Realm so much is because of its diverse culinary culture, whereas the Below Realm tends to have pretty bland, unappetizing eats. Since he was young, he was spoiled by his brother who brought home food from the Middle Realm. Now he can't stomach food from the Below Realm. This has kind of turned him into a snob when it comes to food, and it's his biggest weakness.
That being said, Naumu is pathetically easy to manipulate when it comes to food. If someone bribed him with the reward of one of his favorite dishes (taking him out to dinner or cooking it), they could probably get him to do just about anything, as long as it didn't compromise his dignity too much- but he'd probably peg down his dignity enough to run a few errands or do a few chores in exchange. However, since Naumu's so private, it's not evident food is his weakspot unless someone's been seeing a lot of him, and, being the loner type, not a lot of people know how to take advantage of him.
Part of Naumu's distance from people (peers from the Below Realm, Middle Realm, etc) is because as a default, he doesn't really trust people. He has extraordinary apathy towards other people, and it's not that he hates them- rather, he just believes that at their core, people are pretty rotten, and there's no use letting yourself get deceived.
In addition to having no faith in people, Naumu has no faith in the systems created by them, whether they're of the Middle Realm, Below, or Above. He believes that maybe a lot of these things were conceptualized by good intentions, but became corrupt. He believes that eventual corruption is the fate of everything, including the souls of people. So he sort of drifts around, feeling unattached to whatever world he's in, whatever people he's around, and whatever beliefs are shown to him.
This is all a subconscious affect of trauma from his brother's death, which Naumu isn't aware of. He's internalized so much of the grief, guilt, anger and other disgusting emotions for so long that he's just sort of numbed himself. Though, secretly, he's looking for something to make him feel alive again- something to believe in.
...Secretly, though. Because it's more stoic and manly that way.
Character history: Naumu was born in the Below Realm. He and his brother, Nolan, were orphans for their entire lives with no other family. Nolan was older than him by six years and he did his best to take care of Naumu in the harrowing conditions of the Below Realm. For the first five years of Naumu's life, the two lived in an orphanage. They eventually had no choice but to go to the streets when the orphanage was destroyed in a turf war. After that, Nolan took up odd jobs to take care of Naumu.
Eventually, when Naumu was about eight years old, Nolan had a run in with some criminals- as it turned out, Nolan didn't only work to break bread for himself and his brother. He stole a lot as well, and this eventually landed him in some trouble. Not only that, but it earned him some attention from one of the Below Realm's most notorious gangs- the Ammut Syndicate. Though he was young, they decided he'd have his uses, being so small, sneaky and unsuspicious. Though it concerned Naumu, Nolan joined the Ammut Syndicate.
Naumu from then on became accustomed to the sight of his brother coming home with scrapes, bruises and disheveled clothing, mounting his concern. Nolan always dismissed Naumu's concern. Financially speaking, they lived well enough to get by, which was much better than what could have been said of their collective state previously. the Ammut Syndicate never interfered with Naumu's life, so his life was peaceful, if not a little lonely.
Being so used to relying on his brother so completely, he found it hard adjusting to Nolan being gone the entire day (if not a couple of days) on business. What Nolan earned wasn't always enough for them to be comfortable, so Naumu still snuck around the streets and stole, which also helped him to survive the separation anxiety. Since he was accustomed to this most of his life, he had no problem meeting confrontation for his thievery with fights. He liked to tell himself he wasn't relying on Nolan completely- still, when Nolan got home, if they were both worse for the wear, they'd tend to each other's injuries.
When Naumu was eleven, he learned his brother had been involved in the shady business of Illegal Reaping. This involves someone from the Below Realm going to the Middle Realm to extract souls from humans by making trades: souls for wishes. Reaping in this manner is extremely illegal, and most of all, dangerous. Naumu was never pleased with Nolan's work, but Nolan assured Naumu that it was for the best of them both. Still, he added that he never wanted Naumu to have to face the same sort of work because it was so harrowing. Nolan felt terrible guilt for his work.
However, Nolan continued the shady trading, bringing the stolen souls to his superiors and receiving a percentage of its later profit. Nolan was happy that he could provide for his brother, but Naumu constantly worried for his brother's well-being. Eventually, on a day where Nolan had been out on business in the Middle Realm, Nolan and Naumu's home was invaded by the Ammut Syndicate, seizing the home under fire. It turned out they had come for Nolan.
The gang was raved madly about how Nolan was some sneaky little shit, keeping some of what he'd reaped. Naumu had no idea about this, but he was treated with the same hostility. Apparently, they'd sent someone to follow Nolan after he completed that day's transaction. They discovered Nolan reaped one soul above his given quota that day- and despite that, he offered up only one soul to the syndicate, which meant he'd kept one for himself, intending to sell it for a whole profit. And having been suspicious of Nolan in the first place, it was clear that this hadn't been this first time Nolan did this.
They demanded that Nolan give up the second soul, or else they'd kill him and his brother, so Nolan told them of the soul's location. The gang regrouped, still holding Naumu and Nolan hostage, and explained that Nolan had done a good thing. Because of his honesty, they wouldn't kill him and Naumu- rather, they'd let Naumu live, and kill Nolan.
Sent into a panicked frenzy, Naumu struggled against his captors, escaped them, and fought them as best he could. Unfortunately, it was no good- he was definitely outnumbered. So, Naumu snatched the soul the gang had collected from Nolan. In a desperate attempt to save Nolan, Naumu ate the soul. Of the many side-affects consuming a soul carries, one of them can be a prolonged surge of blind power, which was what Naumu was hoping for.
Unfortunately, it instead made Naumu quite sick. The world spun in a saturated, unstable blur, and he basically fell onto his knees, doubling forward to vomit. The last thing Naumu heard before passing out was Nolan, saying again and again, "It's okay."
When Naumu came to, he was bandaged up and cared for. The Ammut Syndicate had roughed him up pretty badly during the fight. But he was nowhere he recognized- it seemed to be some sort of holding cell. Confused, he sat up, trying to discern his location, and he was struck back down onto the mattress by a punch to the chest. Recovering from the surprise of the attack, Naumu was given an offer: he could die for consuming a soul that should have belonged to the syndicate, or he could take his brother's place and pay off his betrayal.
Naumu realized with the criminal's offer that his brother had been killed while he was out, though he didn't at the time fully absorb that impact- shocked, but rational, Naumu hesitantly agreed to work in Nolan's place. The grief didn't hit him until he was alone. Naumu tore the cot he'd awoken on from the ground, screamed, cried, threw the chair his captor had been sitting in, and generally just had a gigantic fit. He finally calmed down despite choking on his own breath, and settled to stay in the gang for two reasons:
1) To restore honor to his brother's name, and 2) take revenge, of course! First, against the men specifically who'd killed Nolan, once he found out- then, second, he decided he'd kill the head of Ammut Syndicate, who was ultimately responsible (so Naumu figured. Someone had to give the order, right?).
Nolan's death happened when Naumu was 22, so they'd grown well into adulthood together. Though Naumu busied himself with other jobs while Nolan did his reaping in the Middle Realm, he never quite weaned himself from his brother. Outside his own brother, he never bothered to form connections with anyone aside rom business purposes. He never trusted other people, expressed himself, or opened up to them. Just like that, with Nolan's death, Naumu lost his outlet. Naumu had been extremely codependent on his brother.
Since then, Naumu's obeyed the Ammut Syndicate, doing his business reaping the souls of humans on Earth. Because of his cause, the guilt he felt in ruining the lives of humans was somewhat stifled. Comparing his grief in ruining the lives of humans to the grief of losing his brother helped him turn a little colder. As time went on, Naumu decided he might take Nolan's route of things. He wanted to eventually take another soul for himself and consume it for the chance of becoming more powerful. All the better for the cause of his big brother! When faced with the moral ambiguity of reaping in general, Naumu thought of his brother and told himself, "It's just what some people have to do to feed themselves."
Unfortunately, Naumu began to lose sight of himself more and more as business went on as usual. Internalizing all his grief and anger, Naumu was killing his own sense of morality and sympathy. Gradually, he began to earn the respect of the other Ammut Syndicate members, when before he'd been treated quite badly. Initially, when Naumu joined the gang, he was beaten rather routinely. While there were plenty of times he could have easily fended himself, he took the beatings obediently in an attempt to express cemented loyalty. Over the course of a year and a half, the beatings and ridicule let up until Naumu received none at all. In fact, a lot of the Ammut Syndicate came to acknowledge him as a talented reaper, and he crawled up moderately in rank. Some feared him, and most finally respected him.
As things seemed to be going rather well, Naumu was surprised to find he'd been assigned a reaping partner: an understudy, actually, by the name of Mahdi. His superiors went on to explain that Mahdi insisted Naumu teach him the ropes, as he admired Naumu the most in his skills. This perplexed and (quietly) enraged Naumu, sizing Mahdi up. His partner-to-be was sunny, small and disgustingly adorable. Definitely not the type Naumu envisioned to be in the Ammut Syndicate, and this was even more clear when it was apparent that Mahdi had no experience with reaping- or even having the mindset necessary, actually. The guy had an unclear background, and he'd been assigned into something as dangerous as reaping just like that?
Naumu realized quite quickly that his superiors were mocking him, assigning him a partner in the first place, much more someone of Mahdi's "caliber". As a result, Naumu was quick to be bitter toward Mahdi, and it only irritated him more that Mahdi would only respond with radiant smiles and laugh off Naumu's coldness. It was bizarre, and it made Naumu uncomfortable. Despite the way he treated Mahdi, he was still so nice. It was inhuman to Naumu. Secretly, he's a little afraid of Mahdi, guessing that his unusually cheery attitude is something of a sociopathic farce. It's not that Naumu thinks Mahdi could really hurt him physically or otherwise cause him harm- he basically just painted this evil little picture of Mahdi in his mind and the innerworkings of his own creation just kind of uneases him. A lot.
Naumu decided soon after that Mahdi was just evil. Mahdi sabotaged Naumu's food (unforgivable sin), ruining it intentionally. Messed up his clothes, his shampoo. So, Naumu's decided that Mahdi's definitely a sociopath, especially because Naumu's unsure as to why Mahdi does all that crap to begin with. When Mahdi says it's because they're friends, Naumu gets goosebumps and quickly dismisses the title.
However, over time, Naumu has become a little used to Mahdi's behavior and has even since moved with him to the Middle Realm for work, temporarily holing up in a crappy apartment (and Naumu dabbles in odd jobs to pay rent). He takes him a little less seriously and decides that while he's scary, he's indeed pretty harmless. Naumu's taken to pranking Mahdi back, and it's sort of an endless, idiotic battle of (no) wits. Naumu occasionally feels bitter when he sees Mahdi and accounts the fact that Mahdi was only assigned to him as a partner as the Ammut Syndicate's way of laughing in his face despite all of his work. Despite killing his brother. He also sort of resents Mahdi for always pressing him on uncomfortable subjects.
Basically, Naumu's not used to interacting with someone who doesn't take him even a little bit seriously and has no problem pushing his buttons endlessly. It riles Naumu up, and he's unused to the embarrassment, anger and general shock Mahdi induces within him. But moreover, when Mahdi calls him his friend, Naumu feels a little mocked every time. Because he feels like friendship is a baited hook, being someone who doesn't trust easily (or at all).
And, uh, he's not used to people caring about him. So it's easier to just tell himself that Mahdi really doesn't care for him. Creature of habit.
Still, Naumu's rather conflicted: despite all this, a part of him likes having Mahdi around. It's constant, and it's comforting. He secretly likes where things are, right now.
Powers and Abilities:
Portaling: All mortals from the Above and Below Realm have this ability. It allows them to phase from either of their three dimensions, or within them (such as phasing through walls).
Extraction: Though not possible without a complying signature, mortals from the Above and Below Realms have the ability to remove souls from human beings. Additionally, they can eat the souls they've extracted, though this doesn't come without extreme consequence.
Soul sensing: All mortals from the Above and Below Realm have the ability to sense the purity or darkness of a soul, particularly among humans. With people of his their own race, mortals from the Above and Below Realms can only get a vague sense of character from the souls of their kin.
Fire: Since Naumu's blood has been in the Below Realm for several generations, he, like other civilians of the Below Realm, has abilities that differ from their counterparts in the Above Realm. For instance, Naumu lacks the ability to project his emotions (a quality necessary to become a Redeemer), along with other abilities such as true wish granting, but he has the ability to do things like conjure flames from his palms and fingertips. The radius of the flame isn't very big, but it's a bright blue, Hell-hot flame. However, this ability is useless in places too humid or cold.
Blessings: The ability to manipulate a human's fate into turning things in their favor, however briefly. Both people from Above and Below posses this ability. Since people from the Below Realm don't rely on things like permission, they tend to abuse this ability in favor of getting souls.
Sewing: ... What, he's too cheap for new clothing! He grew up dirt broke, man! Naumu always repaired Nolan's clothing when he got roughed up, as well as his own clothing. Also, he simply finds it therapeutic and is quite good at it.
Fighting: Naumu's great in a fight, even just with dirty street melee. He doesn't rely on his fire manipulation ability.
Invisibility: To humans! Another ability common amongst his kind (Above and Below Realm civilians).
Soul-eating: This is a strange phenomenon specifically better executed by people from the Below Realm, likely because their people have evolved into becoming more accustomed to this taboo, unsavory act. Souls, despite the size of their vessels, are actually of a somewhat unimpressive size- about the size of a human's head, if not a little smaller. They're sort of like willow-wisps, but more gaseous, more like a vapor than like flames. They tend to shape like tear-drops, and it's easiest to grab them by the tail. Usually, when consuming a soul, the user tilts their head back, opens their mouth, and dangles the soul by its tail above it. It seems that people from the Below Realm (and possibly the Above Realm) unconsciously subdue a soul before consuming it. The soul doesn't struggle at all, though it tends to emit a smoky mist on its way down.
World Summary: This universe is split into three different dimensions, referred to by its inhabitants as "realms". To start, there was one "realm", which later went on the create the other two beneath it. The second realm birthed beneath the first was created for reasons lost to history in the thousands of years its been since their creation, but it's popular theory that the second realm is some sort of experiment concealed by the first realm's government.
The second realm was filled with lesser life forms, including what the Above Realm referred to loosely as "lesser mortals", which grew to call themselves humans as they evolved, taking nearly an identical shape to their creators, and naming their realm "Earth". Their souls, quite unlike the souls of their creators, are incomplete and can go through infinite cycles of life, should they be recycled properly after a human's death.
The first natives of the Above Realm were also creators of the Charter: a guideline for how natives of the Above Realm ought to live through law, morale and duty, eventually serving as the Above Realm's founder of government. According to the Charter, the second realm is precious, as are the souls within it, and so the Above Realm's citizens are conditioned and groomed to care for it. Despite this, only a slim percentage join the Charter's government to take care of the realm beneath them, but it's more than enough with the Above Realm's enormous population.
The Above Realm's government operates with some secrecy regarding allegedly forgotten historic facts, such as why the second and third realms were created, or how the first realm was created. Despite its mystery, the Above Realm is actually governed quite peacefully. There's seldom anything wrong with the Above Realm, and it's basically a utopian society.
However, not everyone agreed with the Charter, its secrets, or the existence of the Middle Realm. After all, why should they care so much for a world they know nothing about, beyond it exists for "some reason"? Demanding answers, these natives eventually formed a rebellion- starting first as civil protests, then to riots, and eventually a war that divided the Above Realm. Rather than relenting to their demands, the Charter of the Above Realm created its third dimension beneath the second.
The Below Realm is where terrorists and other dangerous criminals were sent during the Above Realm's civil war. Eventually, refugees came to the Below Realm of their own volition, even though it's an infinity vast, sweltering ghetto aside from its colony sized prison facilities. Free from the Charter, and free from everything, the Below Realm became an unstable dimension of anarchy and jaded civilians.
For centuries, distance remained between the Below and Above Realm- generations grew in their respective locations. In the Above Realm, there were your typical, well groomed and generally moral, well-adjusted people, while in the Below Realm, people were birthed into impoverished, unstable environments. In the Below Realm, you had to get rich to live easy, just like societies in the Middle Realm. But in the Below Realm, the measures for that sort of life meant cutting down the people below you. Ruin lives to better your own. It was impossible for the Below Realm's society to be without crime- and if you didn't turn to crime, you simply wouldn't make it.
The Middle Realm has no connection with either the Above Realm or Below Realm. At least, not exactly. The Above Realm always sends its people to help guide souls on the verge of darkness to the Middle Realm. For instance, people who had just faced great tragedy are subject to having their souls darken. It's the duty of "Redeemers" from the Above Realm to invisibly guide their assignments towards the light, so to speak. The humans granted these miracles are unaware of their Redeemer's existence, but they can occasionally feel their Redeemer's presence, depending on the person sent to supervise them (if they don't really care too much for their assigned human, their human may not feel their love, concern and good wishes). Humans who feel the presence of their Redeemers often refer to them as "Guardian Angels"- something you can't see, but something you can feel, and something you can't rationalize beyond faith and love.
A unique attribute of the "greater" mortals (though they don't refer to themselves as such- after all, lesser mortals are lesser mortals. By their own standards, they're simply "mortals") is the ability to consume human souls. Considered criminal, taboo and just irrationally cruel, it's something very uncommon- additionally, it's not something easy to do. This ability was discovered as the Above and Below Realm's populations grew respectively, both realms keeping their tabs on the Middle Realm. The Above Realm saw the Middle Realm as something to protect. The bitter Below Realm saw the Middle Realm as something to exploit, having been given no reason to care for it beyond petty faith.
The result of consuming a human soul has one of the following four effects:
1) The user gets a euphoric high so intense that they lose control of themselves- their strengths and abilities become freakishly out of control, and they surge with this power uncontrollably for several hours. Once the high wears off, the user retains a fraction of the strength experienced through that high.
2) The user becomes extremely ill. This involves vomiting the contents of their stomachs (including its acid), hallucinating, losing sensation in their bodies, and sometimes going into comas for long periods of time (months to years). If there's no coma, the user tends to pass out for at least a few days from exhaustion. Additionally, when the user comes to, they never shake the illness, though it becomes dormant- occasionally, it will resurface with random side affects such as nosebleeds, vomiting or hallucinations. Since Naumu consumed the soul that had been in his brother's possession and fell ill, he occasionally is stricken by these symptoms.
3) The user loses their goddamn mind. They have horrifying hallucinations for the rest of their life. Additionally, they lose most sensation in their bodies, almost completely unable to feel pain, hunger or thirst. Likewise, they're just as unlikely to feel pleasure, and they're in a constant state of jittery unease.
4) The user, uh, dies. BAD END.
When a soul is consumed, it is lost forever, thus ending the endless cycle of its life.
Despite the dangerous side-affects, the first listed side-affect was something effective enough for the souls of humans to become coveted. However, human souls are under strict protection of their Redeemers: if a human soul is pure, there's no chance it can be extracted from its body, unless the human is weakened nearly to the point of death. All soul extraction requires consenting sign of a contract, otherwise the extraction will fail. When a soul is dark, however, a person may be subject to extreme weakness that can be taken advantage of.
Sometimes, before a human can even be assigned a Redeemer, someone from the Below Realm will surface before them. As dark souls are often to result of something related to trauma, the Below Realm mortal will make them some sort of uplifting offer. Unlimited riches, bringing a loved one from the dead (this involves implanting an artificial soul, so it's not as win-win as it sounds), erasing their emotions- all it takes is a simple signing of a contract, thereby selling the humans soul to the Below Realm mortal.
This is a practice referred to as Illegal Reaping, common amongst top-ranked gangs in the Below Realm as a source of income. After all, human souls, for their affects, are quite valuable- in fact, Below Realm civilians rarely consume souls, despite their demand. That's because they're status and luxury symbols, and for lords of soul trading, they practically serve as currency. However, not everyone holds onto souls. Some people do indeed sell them for a large profit. More, it's the types who are already sitting on the easy life that hoard and trade them.
Generally, when a human reaches its expiration date, the confidential information on which being typically stored away by the Above Realm's Charter, the Above Realm sends a Reaper to collect that soul. If the soul was troubled and dark, it's hopefully been purified by an appointed Redeemer, and thus it can be reincarnated by officials in the Above Realm. Otherwise, taking a soul from a human strictly requires the human's consent. Without a host, the soul can be harvested freely. Humans dying without a Reaper to take their souls back to the Above Realm is what results in things like ghosts..
However, not having the information on the human race's individual lifespans nor the mind to care for these mindless subjects created by the Above Realm, the Below Realm Reaps illegally as it pleases. The Above Realm is always tailing these criminals, but the situation is pretty out of control. Obtaining the human's consent through manipulating them, the Below Realm gangster successfully obtains the human's soul.
Through Redeeming, people in the Above Realm have the ability to grant "blessings"- it's basically an ability to manipulate the fate of (much) lesser lifeforms, specifically in the Middle Realm. This usually requires heavy paperwork and permission from Above Realm officials, as using the ability carelessly can through the Middle Realm into chaos. However, having no care for rule and regulation, the Below Realm Reapers grant blessings carelessly to meet the ends of their offer, thus honoring the contract made with the Reaper and its "client".
When a human's soul is taken without its vessel expiring, the human continues living as a shell of the person it once was: basically, it becomes a human without a "heart". People wishing themselves into diplomacy, politics or other influential positions and losing their souls in order to fulfill their wishes has, for ages, been influencing the slow stewing of the Middle Realm's corruption. The amount of soulless people in the Middle Realm are causing its balance to become severely uneven and distorted, poisoning it.
From the Above and Below Realm's constant hand in the Middle Realm's affairs, whether its the invisible presence of Redeemers, the tangible appearances of Reapers or the various other respective influences, humanity has taken some conscious registration of their affects. However, since the Above and Below Realms are mostly under the radar in their workings, their existence according to humans is basically a bunch of conjecture, thus giving birth to things like religion. Humans came to call the Above and Below Realms "Heaven" and "Hell", and their respective civilians "angels" and "demons", inaccurately deeming them of different race. Even civilians of the Above and Below Realms refer to themselves as Heaven, Hell, angels or demons casually- it's been adopted almost as slang. And, as the Middle Realm has fallen so rapidly and so helplessly to corruption, its starting to take on the petname "Little Hell" from civilians of the Above and Below Realm.
Naumu, having grown up in Hell, doesn't really have a lot of formal understanding of Heaven or Earth. But being an Illegal Reaper himself, he understands a lot about humans and their psychology, despite their dimness- after all, being a Reaper from Hell, he's got to know how to properly exploit and manipulate human beings, perhaps even luring them into the tragedies that eventually lead them to part with their souls willingly.
Samples
First person: It's not very surprising that this place has gotten to be kind of boring. I guess I could will something interesting to happen, but I don't really have anything specific in mind. I'm used to keeping myself busy with work- stuff out of my control, you know? That there's even the possibility I can just manipulate things the way I want them... Maybe what I want isn't what I want at all. Huh.
Maybe it doesn't make sense to complain about things being easier.
Anyway, that stuff doesn't matter. Back home, people were either from Heaven, Hell or Little Hell. Earth, I mean. This place is different- there's all kinds of people from all kinds of different places, right? So I've got a question for those people.
And this is actually really important, so listen up.
What kind of food do you guys have where you're from? What's the best? What's interesting? Has anyone foreign opened up any restaurants since coming to this place?
Third person: Naumu had torn the leg to his pants on the way out from the apartment. He paused, hearing the familiar sound of his designer clothing ripping apart, froze, and looked down to see the rusty offender in the shape of a nail, protruding rudely from the doorframe of his room. Naumu stared, stared, and stared some more, eventually settling to huff, step back and slam the door back shut.
He bounced backwards against the flat foam mattress, dirty and worn. Naumu looked rather clean and well-off compared to his surroundings, painting him as rather out-of-place. Crossing his ankle to rest on his knee, Naumu twisted, reaching to his night-stand. Clumsily, he pulled open a drawer, fumbling around impatiently and blindly within it until he came upon a spool of black thread. Sighing once he found its accompanying needle by the prick of his index finger, he straightened, momentarily nursing his fingertip with the wet, soothing warmth of his mouth. Then he treated the end of the spool's string in the same way so as to successfully worm it through the sewing needle's hole.
The Reaper's eyes lid part way after he tied the knot necessary to secure the string, thereafter locating the rip in the leg of his garment. He handled it carefully with experienced fingertips, sliding the needle in a smooth glide through the airy, expensive fabric.
It couldn't have taken more than five minutes, but Naumu felt like it was forever, slouching over this tiny little tear in his pants, eyes straining and back cramping as his fingers diligently worked to fix things. Pants were easy to fix. This was no problem.
But time almost seemed suspended between stitches. It took no thinking to do something like this, and so his mind would wander- his eyes would thoughtfully dim, recalling how many times he's had to do this in his life. Recalling how few articles of clothing he had for the fact that he never had to replace them. Recalling when it wasn't just his own clothing he fixed up.
Like the times where the pressure against his knee was a stack of ruined suit from his brother. And Naumu, from eight to twenty years old, diligently did his best to restore the garments.
"I can always just get a new suit," Nolan would laugh, and Naumu used to only respond by brattishly knotting his brows, keeping silent otherwise as he focused. Stiched, stitched, stitched. With Nolan's comments in the future, as adults, Naumu would instead smile. Things like "you don't have to" made Naumu feel at peace, and made him realize that it was because he loved his brother that he bothered at all. It was because of his love he endured all of those bleeding pricks to his fingertips, gradually gaining a tailor's callous.
In this empty, grungy apartment, Naumu was reminded of the ghetto he grew up in. Terrible, violent times, but in many ways, the best times of Naumu's life. Pausing in his activity, Naumu raised his head, expression dull. He could almost remember the way his brother's voice sounded. He could almost see Nolan standing in front of him, ridiculing him fondly, laughing. Yeah, almost...
Naumu knew he could always just get a new pair of pants. That would be the logical thing to do. Teal eyes found the shimmery sliver of the needle, rotating it thoughtfully at his fingertips, observing it thoughtlessly. Doing something like that felt too much like moving on. He still wasn't ready for that.
"Naumu," came a familiar voice, and Naumu's eyes instantly hardened on the needle, body tensing. He immediately resumed sewing, busy, head full of nothing-at-all once again. "Naumu!"
"What?" Naumu asked flatly, stitching busily. He was going over the tear a second time, now. He didn't really need to, though.
"I made too much mashed potatoes. I was wondering if you wanted any of the rest." Naumu slowly rose his head, glare unnecessarily scathing. And there was Mahdi, blinking like the most innocent thing in the world, scratching the back of his neck. He looked confused, and Naumu weighted his risk in taking up this offer. While a slim percentage of the time, Naumu's food was sometimes sabotaged with something unsavory. He was suspicious.
"You never make more than you can eat."
Mahdi bristled. "Do you want any or what?"
Naumu paused, then sighed, snapping the thread after tying off his work, jabbing the needle into his moldy mattress. Eyes closed, he pushed himself up, hands sliding cooly into his pockets. "Thanks."
Mahdi didn't have to make him any food, but he did. Naumu knew Mahdi didn't have to do things like that, but Mahdi did. As Mahdi turned to walk out, he cried out, tensing and quickly looking down to his ankle. There had been that familiar tearing sound.
"Ah..." Naumu smiled, but the expression was subtle and distant. Mahdi's overalls. What a disaster. "...watch out for the rusty nail in the doorway."
RANDOM TRIVIA BULLET-POINTS:
★ No shame. He'll undress anywhere in front of anyone, but only if he has to!
★ He has a great deal of pride, honor and dignity, surprisingly, and he does his best to uphold all of that.
★ Blames himself for his brother's death.
★ Is prone to random illnesses such as: random comas (or sleeping for a few days), nosebleeds, vomiting, fainting, severe muscle pains throughout his body, hallucinations... but each illness is very rare, and paired symptoms never occur!
★ Loves snow- it makes him really, really happy, comfortable and relaxed! He wishes Hell had snow.
★ Wants to live on Earth! Can't, though.
★ Can be a little awkward- he's not aware that he comes across as either scary and or cold when he does, and the reason he comes across this way is because he's actually kind of afraid of people (not that he feels they can hurt him, he just doesn't know how to act in social situations). Also, he doesn't receive physical affection well- he often stiffens up in quiet panic!
★ Great in a fight.
★ He's had sex more than just a handful of times despite his social clumsiness, but mostly, it was on Earth. Also, he actually doesn't enjoy sex that much- he's just really easy. AND YES, despite that, he's only slept with women. He's not attracted to men, but he has nothing against homosexuals or anything. He says women in Hell aren't as easy as Earth women, despite that Hell women are so trashy. Also, he's slept with women in Hell mostly as a result of his ranking in his gang. Basically, his rank is what got them wet, which is kind of a turn off for Naumu. From the women he's slept with on Earth, he likes the lack of that kinda pretense.
★ He loves food. Like, a ton. Like, he probably has an eating disorder or something. He's a total glutton and a gourmet, and when he's upset, he goes for a walk and snacks. If you ruin his food, you're his enemy. If you cook him food, you're his best friend. If you do both, Naumu gets confused and frustrated. <3
★ Naumu's an idiot. A complete idiot. Things often go over his head, he's uneducated, and he's pretty slow-witted. But somehow, he's generally pretty good in covering this up, and he doesn't even mean to- it gradually becomes more apparent as people get to know him, though.
★ Naumu doesn't connect with people or accumulate sentimental value for much of anything at all. He sort of feels like one person in a sea of static that can't connect to the noise around him even if he wanted to, like mixing oil and water. Part of his social ineptitude comes from the fact that he doesn't know how to talk to people, for the fact he just can't connect with anyone. Not since his brother's death!
★ Naumu has no faith. In anything. ;;; But he's secretly looking for something to believe in...
★ Naumu believes in nothing, pretty much- including true love, good people, and happiness. ;;; What an angst bucket. He doesn't dwell and mope on this, though- rather, he accepts it calmly as a fact, and holds no bitterness.
★ EXTRAORDINARILY APATHETIC, IF YOU COULDN'T TELL.
★ He can't cook. He considers this his greatest curse. He'd probably light fire to his apartment complex if he tried to make cup ramen.
★ Naumu's eaten a soul, which he stole from his brother on order to (attempt to) save him. It failed miserably, and Naumu is still dealing with the side affects of having consumed a rotten soul: the aforementioned illnesses!
★ Naumu is like a weird, delicate blend of Gourry and Zelgadiss, from The Slayers. o_o I just noticed this. ANYWAY, THAT'S KIND OF IRRELEVANT.
★ Mahdi is growing on Naumu for a few reasons: a) Naumu is (secretly) lonely, b) Mahdi is a pretty good cook when he's not ruining Naumu's life by ruining his meals, and c) Mahdi's really fucking cute. Not like, gay-for-you cute, but sunshines-and-kittens cute, which is endearing. Naumu finds he doesn't want to trust Mahdi, and it makes him uneasy that he also wants to trust him, cuz he really seems like a sweet guy. But, all-in-all, Naumu doesn't trust Mahdi. Other than that, Naumu thinks Mahdi is irritating. And evil. Like an evil, talented and adorable kitten. Terrifying. YOU CAN'T RESIST SOMETHING SO CUTE BUT IT'S SO EVIL
★ Naumu is really unused to being close to people and only really knows how to be the loner (which he generally prefers), so he is EXTREMELY TSUNDERE.
★ Naumu rarely gets excited, whether that means being enraged, horny, ecstatic, etc. Kind of stoic. WHAT A BORING GUY.
★ Naumu is intensely private. He doesn't open up to people. He just doesn't. When he does, it takes eons of work, one hell of an impression or both. He'll almost never reveal anything personal! Especially awkward, emotional things.
★ Since he doesn't express himself, Naumu has a lot of internalized suffering he's not really that aware of. He has a lot he doesn't even know he has to let out, and it's been snowballing for a year or two. It's probably the cause of his apathy.
★ Naumu has nightmares about his brother, sometimes. The stress makes him hungry l-lol. I guess he burns calories through stressing or something. Some people blame Naumu's obscene appetite on the illness he acquired through eating a soul.
★ Naumu's favorite food is Greek food.
★ Naumu generally isn't easy to offend, since he doesn't take much of anything seriously. Certain subjects might rile him, such as annoying stuff like family and love. It makes the bitterness rise up! He also gets irritated if people try to get him to open up, or ask him too many questions.
★ As a note, Naumu doesn't actually have an eating disorder. XD He snacks when he's upset, sure, but he also snacks when he's doing anything besides sleeping or showering. He's pretty much just constantly snacking. Freakish metabolism? Side-effect from consuming a soul? Who knows! But it's not an eating disorder. :>
★ When he's tired, Naumu has the magical ability to fall asleep pretty much anywhere- he's fallen asleep standing up, before, which resulted in a rather rough falling-over wake-up. This comes from Naumu pushing himself- he works so hard he doesn't get much rest, and even when he has free time, chances are that he's doing something to keep himself busy. Only when he's super-exhausted does he fall asleep anywhere without caring about where that somewhere is, though. He's not narcoleptic, as another note. |>
★ Naumu is pathetically easy to manipulate, when it comes to food. If you bribed him with the reward of one of his favorite dishes (taking him out to dinner or cooking it), you could probably get him to do just about anything, as long as it didn't compromise his dignity too much- but he'd probably peg down his dignity enough to put out or something ahaha. However, since Naumu's so private, it's not evident food is his weakness unless you've been seeing a lot of him, and, being the loner type, not a lot of people know how to take advantage of him.
★ Naumu's prone to being pantsless when he's at home, much to Mahdi's horror. His pants are fashionable, but when he's off the clock and relaxing, he looks a little, uh, circulation. AND AGAIN, no shame- he doesn't seem to see the problem with being pantsless all over the place.
This is stuff I filled out mostly for my own reference, but if you're for some reason curious, here you go!
Physical Characteristics:
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 150lb
Race: "Greater" mortal.
Eye Color: Bright teal.
Hair Color: Pale, browny, pastel pink
Skin color: ...Pale?
Shape of Face: Subtle bone structure, with a pointed chin. He looks mature, but he also sort of has a round-ish face.
Distinguishing features: Unnatural animu colors.
How does he dress?: With subtle sophistication, usually in dark or neutral colors. Though his style is simple, his brands are expensive.
Mannerisms: Impersonable, sometimes a little cold- always snacking.
Habits: Eating. All the fucking time. He also has a tendency to walk around home without pants. PRIVACY AND LIBERTY, WHY NOT
Health: Somehow, it's okay. He's active because of work, and even though he eats a ton, it tends to be decently healthy foods.
Hobbies: ...sewing eating brooding I don't think he has any.
Favorite Sayings: I don't think he personally has any LOL...
Speech patterns: Naumu tends to use common vernacular, and while he doesn't sound very intelligent, he doesn't sound very dumb, either. AMBIGUOUS.
Disabilities: He as a random illness that kicks in at random, as mentioned in the application and trivia. This can be symptoms of anything from vomitting, to fainting, to nosebleeds, to chronic fatigue... As for personality handicaps, he has a vicious brother complex and a disgusting thirst for revenge that's kind of made him lose sight of any sort of quality in life; it's totally consumed him, and it dictates him as a reason to breath.
Style (Elegant, shabby etc.): Elegant, but discreet! He tends to wear expensive designer clothing, but they look rather ordinary. People who know fabric of fashion would probably recognize his threads as being made of remarkably high quality material.
Greatest flaw: Still very dependent on his (dead) brother. Also, he's kind of killed his spirit as a way to cope with Nolan's death.
Best quality: ...Um. GOD DOES HE HAVE GOOD QUALITIES WORTH MENTIONING!? ...How about, "he finishes everything on his plate"... orz
Intellectual/Mental/Personality Attributes and Attitudes
Educational Background: ...none lol. Naumu learned everything he knows from Nolan, which still isn't much. He's pretty well versed in street smarts, at least, and he knows a surprising lot about Earth (he actually studied before he went up there)
Intelligence Level: -10
Any Mental Illnesses?: Probably his obsessive, demented brother complex, but I don't really know what you'd call that specifically.
Learning Experiences: A LOT. Mostly stuff from going up in Hell with Nolan. /lazy
Character's short-term goals in life: Get back at Mahdi for putting a fuckton sugar in his noodle soup...
Character's long-term goals in life: Kill his boss, who killed Nolan.
How does Character see himself/herself?: An empty vessel! A machine! Operating towards his personal goal! Until he met Mahdi- now he sees himself as pathetic for the buddings of becoming attached to someone irrelevant.
How does Character believe he/she is perceived by others?: Cold, effective. Hungry. Stupid, if they know him really well.
How self-confident is Character?: Very, but also not at all. He's really confident with his own abilities and strengths, but he's not very confident about himself as a person. He still feels like he's worthless without Nolan around to give his existence definition. That's probably why he's private, and prefers to keep conversations off the topic of himself, unless it involves work. HE IS SCARED OF A LOT OF THINGS
Does the character seem ruled by emotion or logic or some combination thereof?: He's probably ruled by a lack of emotion that he forces upon himself. RULED BY HIS GRIEF AND LONELINESS. He's kind of immature, that way.
What would most embarrass this character?: Admitting he cared a lot for someone, or ...lol crying about Nolan. He doesn't really cry about it, but I think if he actually talked to someone about it, he might flip out.
Strengths/Weaknesses:
Introvert or Extrovert?: Introvert. A lot. :B
How does the character deal with anger?: SUPPRESSION. He probably has a tumor. Also, he takes it out on Mahdi, kind of. But then he feels really bad because he hurts Mahdi's feelings, sometimes, so...fail.
With sadness?: Suppression. EATING?
With conflict?: Calm, intimidating anger.
With change?: Change doesn't bother him. If it's him personally (like coming to care for Mahdi), he...tries to suppress it lmao
With loss?: Suppression, and apparently, BUILDING HIS LIFE AROUND THAT PERSON IN GRIEF
What does the character want out of life?: Something to believe in, and VENGEANCE. Mostly vengeance.
What would the character like to change in his/her life?: He's not sure. He wants something to believe in, something to change him, something to make him feel like he exists as something besides his purpose, but...at the same time, that scares him.
What motivates this character?: His grief, which is the catalyst of his thirst for revenge, which I guess is his drive.
What frightens this character?: Love. x:
What makes this character happy?: Food.
Is the character judgmental of others?: ...He can be, I suppose!
Is the character generous or stingy?: Stingy.
Is the character generally polite or rude?: I think it depends on who he's talking to. He's generally nicer to women. When he gets uncomfortable with a subject, he might get a little snappy or needlessly offensive.