Siren's Pull App
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Tales of the Abyss
Canon Format: PS2 game, possibly with some anime tossed in
Character's Name: Luke fon Fabre
Character's Age: 19ish physically and mentally, 9ish technically.
What form will your character's NV take? A diary/journal. Luke carries one with him everywhere in game and writes in it regularly.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: Luke uses the Albert style artes. This is basically a broadsword style of attack that relies on a mixture of swinging the sword one and two handedly, periodically also using fists, feet, flips and so on. But generally speaking it's a hardhitting, slightly slower but direct and damaged based style.
Luke can also use strike artes, which in Tales of the Abyss is essentially the act of pulling elementally charged atoms (called fonons) into the body and releasing them in a particular matter. Particularly strong fonists can use Fonic Artes do things like call down lightning bolts or make tornadoes of fire. Luke is technically capable of learning these skills but never does in canon. Instead he uses strike artes, like most physical fighters, to supplement his physical attacks. He can release a blast of energy, charge up his sword and break up the earth, or turn the area around him into an overheated firezone, and so on. His attacks tend to be based on Earth and Fire elements.
Finally, Luke is capable of what is known as Hyperresonance. Hyperresonance is what occurs when the Seventh Fonon resonates, generates a lot of energy, and releases it. Hyperresonance tends to erase, or rather, break down and neutralize all other fonons, EFFECTIVELY erasing it from reality. Luke can't do this particularly often or easily, but it's useful in a pinch. When he's particularly distraught or in trouble he tends to start to resonate automatically.
Weapons: Broadsword.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: If you would like a fully detailed history, please see the history section of this app.
However, in 'short':
Luke fon Fabre was a very redheaded boy born to the Duke of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear. He was betrothed to the Princess Natalia from his birth, and also, as it turned out, destined to be used as a WMD by his nation to destroy a city and thus incite a war. This would ultimately result in Kimlasca flattening the enemy nation of Malkuth and the resulting bodies and pestilence would bring humanity to it's knees!
Fortunately for the human race, Luke fon Fabre's mentory, Master Van, was crazily bent on 'saving' humanity by way of completely destroying it, then resurrecting it by creating replicas of the human race. This is because humanity had, for thousands of years, been tied to the 'Score' which is sort of like if you could go to church and have the priest tell you everything you would do that day, and the next day, and how you would live your life and die and so on. Basically, fate being predetermined was an accepted fact on this planet. And, because the Score promised 'prosperity' if it was adhered to, corrupt government and religious orders would follow the Score even if it meant doing things like murdering their own citizens, experimenting on people, blowing up cities and so on.
So really Van had a good case in that the Score sucked.
In an effort to save humanity (through destruction and rebirth) he created a replica of the boy Luke fon Fabre. The original Luke fon Fabre he kidnapped and trained to be loyal to him. The replica was raised in place of the original, his family never noticed, believing that he was reduced to an infantile state at the age of 10 because of the trauma of being kidnapped. Van also raised the replica!Luke, being a mentor, teacher, and surrogate father to him, more or less brainwashing him to follow orders and be dependent on his good opinion.
Things happen, Van uses Replica!Luke to destroy a city as foretold in the Score. And Luke, who had up until that point been naive and bratty but not bad, is forced to deal with the reality that by blindly following his Master's orders despite everyone around him telling him it was a bad idea, he had murdered thousands of innocent people. He also has to cope with the fact that he is a replica, has no presence in the Score and thus no 'purpose' in his life, that he was created pretty much to be used and thrown away, and that his beloved Master Van never saw him as anything but a disposable tool. Also, the original Luke, now known as Asch, hates his guts.
As the plot progresses, Luke goes through several phases of self loathing, guilt, rejection, apology and so on, gradually regaining the trust and friendship of his party, and eventually their love and loyalty.
Very Dramatic Things happen which involve actually physically restructuring the world, and both original and replica Lukes sacrificing themselves to destroy a poisonous miasma that threatens to kill some 80% of the world's population. In the end, Asch and Luke confront one more time and Asch loses, and dies guarding Luke's back. Luke and party fight Master Van, stop him, and prove that humanity can determine its own fate apart from the Score. Luke's body, which had been metaphysically falling apart for a while, gives out and he dies.
Point in Canon: Originally taken from immediately after his death, for this RP is taken after his two years of play in Camp Fuck You Die.
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: Luke arrived in CFUD in January of 2007. While he was there he made a number of close friends whose similar/different experiences opened his eyes to a lot of different ways of thinking and possibilities. Because he did not have many of his castmates there to start, and because even once he did he had to function much more independently than he has to in his game, Luke gradually developed more intelligence for interacting with people and helping them with their problems.
Because in camp no one stays dead, Luke quickly put aside any policy of fighting to solve problems. This, combined with a general policy of wanting to help his friends with their problems, resulted in Luke talking to a number of shady characters in an effort to help. In particular he became pretty tight with the Vongola mafia, particularly Gokudera Hayato. And, when Roukudo Mukuro arrived, began talking with him in an effort to head off Gokudera's concerns about an enemy being in camp. Recognizing similarities between his Master Van and Mukuro, Luke doggedly argued with Mukuro's skewed logic for the next year and a half and they ended up as close friends, though Luke's efforts to reform Mukuro were slow going and temporary at best.
Other things of note are that Luke was on good terms with much of the Air Gear cast, very close to Luc from Suikoden, was killed by Ticky Mikk of D.Gray-man for lulz, was pretty close to Riku from Kingdom Hearts, and Reborn of Reborn kept trying to recruit him to join the mafia. He met three different versions of his best friend Guy, and most of the rest of his cast appeared at some point or another. He both ‘deaged’ a few times, met Asch deaged, and Mukuro deaged which is how he realized that Mukuro is actually getting less dangerous and crazy as he got older.
He also went through quite a bit of character development with Asch in particular, eventually finding the courage to decide Asch's self sacrificing bullshit is bullshit and that he will drag Asch home to be king and live happily ever after if he has to.
Character Personality: Luke is kind, selfless, naive, straightforward, and still just a bit bratty.
At the start of his game, Luke is every ignorant, spoiled nobility trope you can name. He has no concept of money, assumes nothing is above him (except Master Van), whines about his shoes getting dirty and expects everyone else to do all the work. He's blissfully ignorant of his own weaknesses and thinks he's hot shit because he can swing a wooden sword around.
By the end of the game, Luke has been humbled seven ways from Sunday, and his more honest personality, which was previously hidden by overcompensating for insecurities, is apparent.
Luke is very kind. He hates to kill, he is genuinely empathic to pretty much any plight, and because he has no value of money, he doesn't hesitate to give anyway thing he has to help others. At one point he spends some 15 million gald (monies) to personally fund a bridge between two cities so they can resolve their differences and work more closely together.
But despite Luke's kindness and generosity, and truly being a 'jesus character', he is realistic in his goals and accomplishing them. Early on Luke accepts that he would rather kill than die, and throughout the game virtually never kills because he believes that person must die, but because in a fight to the death he will defend himself and his friends. He recognizes that he has probably killed more people by himself than most other people on his planet, and for that maybe he doesn't deserve to live. But, thanks to the encouragement (or realistic bitching) of his friends, still opts to protect his own life.
And of course, ultimately he kills Master Van, because there was no other way to stop him. But Luke's ability to be forgiving is pretty much endless. Master Van does an incredible amount of horrible things to Luke, ranging from brainwashing him, to using him to massacre thousands, to treating him as worthless and so on, and despite this Luke always loves him. Similarly, Luke loves Asch, who hates his guts for things that aren't actually Luke's fault. In both cases, Luke stands by his position and fights for them to the end, but he doesn't do it with any hatred, just necessity, and it pretty much breaks his heart.
Luke is perpetually hopeful. When you have come from the ultimate bottom of being a murderer, a tool, an ignorant child with no reason to exist and your friends have abandoned you, and yet you manage to regain all of those friendships and then some, save the world, and sacrifice your life to the cause of protecting humanity... well, let's say Luke is incredibly grateful for what he sees as a second chance on life to redeem himself in some capacity. While he didn't want to die, he doesn't regret the life he had up until then. And because even he could find so many things he didn't deserve, he honestly doesn't think anyone is past redemption, nor does he think there is anyone who deserves to be abandoned.
Luke is... sad. Akzeriuth, the city that he destroyed, haunts him always. He is really, really good at coping, and has learned not to sulk because it makes his friends worried about/annoyed with him. But he honestly doesn't think he deserves to live, as much as he is grateful for the opportunity. Based on something his best friend, Guy, told him, Luke focuses his life around making up for the horrible things he's done, something he knows he can never truly accomplish, and thus can never stop doing. The reason Luke is able to make friends with truly horrible people is because chances are good that Luke's actually got a higher death count. To him the reason for killing someone is not the most important part. It is never good or okay or justified, so he is really no better than Master Van, or even villains who kill for fun. Because in the end that person is still dead, and nothing makes that more okay.
Which isn't to say that Luke doesn't have a sense of righteousness. He WILL get angry at senseless killing, he will fight on the side of good, he just honestly regrets having to kill bad guys. But Luke grows into a person who is actually very strong at considering the angles, the feelings, the possibilities and choosing his side and sticking to it no matter what.
Actually, for all that Luke is pretty dumb (in book smarts AND street smarts, since he is... actually about 9 years old), he accepts the fact that he is dumb and doesn't use it as an excuse to not understand things. After destroying a city due to his own ignorance, Luke now always thinks things through on his own. Sometimes the answer is obvious, but in the cases it is not he will come to his own decision. Of course he invites everyone's opinion, and will in particular value the thoughts of his friends, who he often relies on for information and explanation. He doesn't hesitate to ask dumb questions, or persist on a subject until he understands. If at all possible to talk his way out of a fight he will do it. But in the end he absolutely will do what he determines is right, even if it means having to kill someone he loves.
And the thing about Luke is that by the end of his canon, and his death, he was not nearly fully developed. In the course of one year (two years by earth calendar), he made an incredible shift from an ignorant and bratty noble to a dedicated, humble, and honest young man who the entire planet could rely on. Though he was still young, slow, kinda stupid in some ways, he’d found a level of compassion, patience and courage most people never will. Still, he could have evolved more, been wiser and better and smarter, but he died first.
That covers his overall personality. In more precise notes, Luke is very honest and straightforward, his manner of speaking is simple and easy to follow. He won't make a speech unless he really wants to convey what he thinking, and most of the time he isn't having incredibly deep thoughts. His way of speaking is slightly casual, but fairly ordinary. He is the type of person who can go up to absolutely any stranger and talk with them about anything from the weather to their horrible childhood, but this doesn't actually mean he's a fantastic conversationalist, and any ability to draw people's stories out of them has more to do with his earnest sincerity and caring and lack of ability to judge people, than on his witty conversation or clever means of gaining information.
Actually clever and Luke aren't really words you will find together. It can be argued that he is actually quite smart, considering that nine years ago he was effectively an infant, but now for all the world acts like the 19 year old he appears to be, and is emotionally quite a bit older. But Luke isn't particularly imaginative, or particularly good at the numbers and the books and the memorization. Any ability to think outside the box is the result of being ignorant about where the box was to begin with, because his approach to everything tends to be very simple.
Also, he's still a teenager/nine year old, and despite being jesusy and grown up enough to save the world and fight in battle and possibly run a kingdom, he's still more than capable of being childish. If annoyed, Luke becomes a bit bratty. He will make faces, whine, and dismiss people being obnoxious or just tell them what jerks they are. He also enjoys silly, stupid pranks, fun and simple games, ridiculous challenges, and is never above poking fun at his friends. In general, however, this is as dark as his nature gets. Despite being a killer and very very sad on very many levels, Luke doesn't have a cruel bone in his body, and any meanness with him stops at about the level of gradeschoolers pulling on each other's hair.
Finally, it's important to realize that despite being positive, honest, friendly, naive, and generally a bit dumb, Luke is incredibly resilient. The reason he can make friends with terrible people is because chances are he's already been through worse. Luke wasn't just brainwashed into murdering thousands of people by his most important person who then discarded him as worthless, he continued to love and respect that person throughout all of canon. He killed that person without resorting to hate, and he did it aware that, in the end, what separated them and forced them to kill each other was effectively different beliefs. On top of those dramatic events, involving the death of himself, his original, and a lot of other people, Luke also traveled with a party where pretty much everyone rejected him at one point or another. And one of the members, even when he was being NICE, was still kind of a jerk at all times. Basically, Luke is very used to abuse, whether it be physical, emotional, or psychological. By now most of it rolls off him, what it doesn't he has thick enough skin to take. It's not that hard to upset him or hurt him but it's virtually impossible to keep him down, break him, or even upset his path.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game: If you would like more detail, this and this are two essays I did on the subject of Luke's character development as a result of relationships with Asch and Mukuro, which covers most of how he evolved and why.
But to be shorter, basically while Luke was in camp he had to function independent of a team that told him when he was being dumb, and when other people were, so he had to learn to figure it out for himself. This took a while, as Luke is not inherently inclined to think he is smarter than anyone, much less worthy of deciding things for others or making judgment calls on them. And for the most part he still doesn't DO this, he has to know someone really well before he is willing to put his foot down and just tell them they are being stupid.
In the case of Asch, Asch arrived at camp, and despite clearly wanting to go home and clearly being in love with Natalia, insisted on believing he had no place in Auldrant and would never return. Natalia and Luke were both REALLY UPSET by this, and tried for months to argue and talk him into returning, and making him feel welcome. FINALLY, Luke was able to realize that Asch really did want to return home but, for whatever reason, was too stubborn to do so. After feeling really messed up and upset by this, and talking to Mukuro, Luke realized he... didn't have to respect Asch's wishes. That he felt to the very bottom of his heart that Asch was wrong, that Asch would never be happy if he didn't return to Auldrant, and that he would regret it forever if he passively let Asch ruin his life further. So he decided to ignore Asch's will and drag him back to Auldrant. This is a level up in confidence and selfishness for Luke, but also in intelligence, because he is generally so busy focusing on how he is undeserving that it never occurs to him to use his will power to just MAKE the right choice for another person, even if it means they’ll hate him for it.
The other thing that changed was that Luke learned to deal with people who are lying, manipulative bastards like Mukuro. This took a while. For literally months Luke took everything Mukuro said at face value. And in most cases he will continue to do so with all people unless he has some kind of proof that they are the 'Mukuro type'. He's still not good enough at reading people to just come up with that information arbitrarily. However, once Luke realized that virtually everything Mukuro said might be a lie, he started dealing with him in very, very persistent baby steps, questioning everything he said, lining statements up against each other, and finding the logical flaws in Mukuro's arguments. These sorts of conversations most people would abandon or find incredibly annoying, but Luke's stubbornness is like mountains, and he was personally invested in making sure Mukuro did NOT try and kill his friends (the Vongola). After months of talking to Mukuro in these bizarrely time-consuming and circular conversations, Luke learned a lot about reading Mukuro's personality.
While those instincts would not automatically transfer over to other manipulative-type characters, the way Luke learned to DEAL with them does, and basically when confronted with liars or people he doesn’t understand, Luke will patiently work through their logic facet by facet in the same way he does with Mukuro, provided said people don’t get tired of explaining things to him.
In GENERAL, Luke's time in camp made him much more independent and confident in himself. He is not arrogant but he is comfortable choosing what he will or will not do and generally does not move from his decisions. Since he has experience being between conflicts with his friends, and experience in making a positive effect on a very negative person, he's far less likely to care what alignment someone is, but absolutely will try to 'help' villainous characters before fighting them.
Character Plans: Play, have fun. Luke is unlikely to sign up with any faction and will probably end up a greeter, or working somewhere cheap. He’s never actually had a job before that wasn’t ‘saving the world’, should be interesting.
Appearance/PB: Link!
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[Text, note that since Luke is coming from CFUD he is familiar with technology like laptops.]
Hello? Uh… I wonder if this is really working. Using a journal like a laptop is just really weird, couldn’t they have given me something more normal? It looks like you can do video too. I guess that’s pretty neat. Guy would really go out of his mind looking at this place…
Anyway, I’m Luke. I’m not really sure what I’m doing here now, but I guess no one is. Haha, at least this place looks a lot more comfortable than the last place I got stuck! I’m not going to miss the zombies or the lousy food, or the blood in the showers… Yeah, it’s really nice to be back in civilization again.
…I will miss the people, though.
Sorry, I guess I don’t really have much to say. But this is my second time starting over like this, so I want to get settled in.
I’ll be up a while, if anyone wants to talk.
Third Person Sample
“Aah, it’s hot out.”
Luke resisted the urge to flop onto his back and lie in the warm sand of the abandoned field. Despite his job being that of a ‘Greeter’, he’d learned the hard way that sometimes new arrivals weren’t in a friendly mood. It was best to stay on guard in case the ‘attack first, talk later’ type showed up again.
But the summer in Siren’s Port was hot and taking a doze in the sun sounded refreshing. The idea of it took his mind to his home, and the thousands of naps he’d taken on the lawn within the mansion’s courtyard, where there was so little else to do.
Compared to those years, a twelve hour shift waiting for someone to mysteriously appear out of thin air wasn’t… well, okay, it was pretty boring sometimes. But Luke could handle boring. And when someone did show up, it usually made his day. Even that guy that had tried to stick a sword through him when he caught him dozing had turned out to be okay once Luke had trashed him a bit and talked him down. And getting to make someone’s first few hours in Siren’s Port tolerable was about the only worthwhile feeling he got lately.
This city, Luke had been coming to realize, was sick on the inside. It went beyond the monsters in the Darkness, which Luke mostly found pitiful and depressing. No, the people here were fighting somewhere beneath the surface. He’d begun to notice it a while ago, but was only just now starting to put his finger on how bad it was. Or… he thinks, maybe, he’s figuring it out. If he had Natalia here, or Guy… well, really anyone would be better at this sort of thing than him. Luke wasn’t great at politics, and that class had been boring. But basically, there was some sort of hidden war going on, fighting without much fighting, and trying to figure out what to make of it, or do about it, or which side was in the right had left him with more than a few headaches.
At least at his job he could make someone’s day a little better. Before sending them off into this crazy city he didn’t get.
“…what a pain.” Luke grumbled at his own melancholy thoughts, and rubbed his hands through his hair as if to shake them out. "Cheer up,” he told himself. “Beats being dead.”
And it was true, even if he only reminded himself verbally of that where no one could hear. Siren’s Port was a pain and a half, he didn’t even know where to start. But, still, he was very glad to be here.
General
Canon Source: Tales of the Abyss
Canon Format: PS2 game, possibly with some anime tossed in
Character's Name: Luke fon Fabre
Character's Age: 19ish physically and mentally, 9ish technically.
What form will your character's NV take? A diary/journal. Luke carries one with him everywhere in game and writes in it regularly.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: Luke uses the Albert style artes. This is basically a broadsword style of attack that relies on a mixture of swinging the sword one and two handedly, periodically also using fists, feet, flips and so on. But generally speaking it's a hardhitting, slightly slower but direct and damaged based style.
Luke can also use strike artes, which in Tales of the Abyss is essentially the act of pulling elementally charged atoms (called fonons) into the body and releasing them in a particular matter. Particularly strong fonists can use Fonic Artes do things like call down lightning bolts or make tornadoes of fire. Luke is technically capable of learning these skills but never does in canon. Instead he uses strike artes, like most physical fighters, to supplement his physical attacks. He can release a blast of energy, charge up his sword and break up the earth, or turn the area around him into an overheated firezone, and so on. His attacks tend to be based on Earth and Fire elements.
Finally, Luke is capable of what is known as Hyperresonance. Hyperresonance is what occurs when the Seventh Fonon resonates, generates a lot of energy, and releases it. Hyperresonance tends to erase, or rather, break down and neutralize all other fonons, EFFECTIVELY erasing it from reality. Luke can't do this particularly often or easily, but it's useful in a pinch. When he's particularly distraught or in trouble he tends to start to resonate automatically.
Weapons: Broadsword.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character History: If you would like a fully detailed history, please see the history section of this app.
However, in 'short':
Luke fon Fabre was a very redheaded boy born to the Duke of Kimlasca-Lanvaldear. He was betrothed to the Princess Natalia from his birth, and also, as it turned out, destined to be used as a WMD by his nation to destroy a city and thus incite a war. This would ultimately result in Kimlasca flattening the enemy nation of Malkuth and the resulting bodies and pestilence would bring humanity to it's knees!
Fortunately for the human race, Luke fon Fabre's mentory, Master Van, was crazily bent on 'saving' humanity by way of completely destroying it, then resurrecting it by creating replicas of the human race. This is because humanity had, for thousands of years, been tied to the 'Score' which is sort of like if you could go to church and have the priest tell you everything you would do that day, and the next day, and how you would live your life and die and so on. Basically, fate being predetermined was an accepted fact on this planet. And, because the Score promised 'prosperity' if it was adhered to, corrupt government and religious orders would follow the Score even if it meant doing things like murdering their own citizens, experimenting on people, blowing up cities and so on.
So really Van had a good case in that the Score sucked.
In an effort to save humanity (through destruction and rebirth) he created a replica of the boy Luke fon Fabre. The original Luke fon Fabre he kidnapped and trained to be loyal to him. The replica was raised in place of the original, his family never noticed, believing that he was reduced to an infantile state at the age of 10 because of the trauma of being kidnapped. Van also raised the replica!Luke, being a mentor, teacher, and surrogate father to him, more or less brainwashing him to follow orders and be dependent on his good opinion.
Things happen, Van uses Replica!Luke to destroy a city as foretold in the Score. And Luke, who had up until that point been naive and bratty but not bad, is forced to deal with the reality that by blindly following his Master's orders despite everyone around him telling him it was a bad idea, he had murdered thousands of innocent people. He also has to cope with the fact that he is a replica, has no presence in the Score and thus no 'purpose' in his life, that he was created pretty much to be used and thrown away, and that his beloved Master Van never saw him as anything but a disposable tool. Also, the original Luke, now known as Asch, hates his guts.
As the plot progresses, Luke goes through several phases of self loathing, guilt, rejection, apology and so on, gradually regaining the trust and friendship of his party, and eventually their love and loyalty.
Very Dramatic Things happen which involve actually physically restructuring the world, and both original and replica Lukes sacrificing themselves to destroy a poisonous miasma that threatens to kill some 80% of the world's population. In the end, Asch and Luke confront one more time and Asch loses, and dies guarding Luke's back. Luke and party fight Master Van, stop him, and prove that humanity can determine its own fate apart from the Score. Luke's body, which had been metaphysically falling apart for a while, gives out and he dies.
Point in Canon: Originally taken from immediately after his death, for this RP is taken after his two years of play in Camp Fuck You Die.
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: Luke arrived in CFUD in January of 2007. While he was there he made a number of close friends whose similar/different experiences opened his eyes to a lot of different ways of thinking and possibilities. Because he did not have many of his castmates there to start, and because even once he did he had to function much more independently than he has to in his game, Luke gradually developed more intelligence for interacting with people and helping them with their problems.
Because in camp no one stays dead, Luke quickly put aside any policy of fighting to solve problems. This, combined with a general policy of wanting to help his friends with their problems, resulted in Luke talking to a number of shady characters in an effort to help. In particular he became pretty tight with the Vongola mafia, particularly Gokudera Hayato. And, when Roukudo Mukuro arrived, began talking with him in an effort to head off Gokudera's concerns about an enemy being in camp. Recognizing similarities between his Master Van and Mukuro, Luke doggedly argued with Mukuro's skewed logic for the next year and a half and they ended up as close friends, though Luke's efforts to reform Mukuro were slow going and temporary at best.
Other things of note are that Luke was on good terms with much of the Air Gear cast, very close to Luc from Suikoden, was killed by Ticky Mikk of D.Gray-man for lulz, was pretty close to Riku from Kingdom Hearts, and Reborn of Reborn kept trying to recruit him to join the mafia. He met three different versions of his best friend Guy, and most of the rest of his cast appeared at some point or another. He both ‘deaged’ a few times, met Asch deaged, and Mukuro deaged which is how he realized that Mukuro is actually getting less dangerous and crazy as he got older.
He also went through quite a bit of character development with Asch in particular, eventually finding the courage to decide Asch's self sacrificing bullshit is bullshit and that he will drag Asch home to be king and live happily ever after if he has to.
Character Personality: Luke is kind, selfless, naive, straightforward, and still just a bit bratty.
At the start of his game, Luke is every ignorant, spoiled nobility trope you can name. He has no concept of money, assumes nothing is above him (except Master Van), whines about his shoes getting dirty and expects everyone else to do all the work. He's blissfully ignorant of his own weaknesses and thinks he's hot shit because he can swing a wooden sword around.
By the end of the game, Luke has been humbled seven ways from Sunday, and his more honest personality, which was previously hidden by overcompensating for insecurities, is apparent.
Luke is very kind. He hates to kill, he is genuinely empathic to pretty much any plight, and because he has no value of money, he doesn't hesitate to give anyway thing he has to help others. At one point he spends some 15 million gald (monies) to personally fund a bridge between two cities so they can resolve their differences and work more closely together.
But despite Luke's kindness and generosity, and truly being a 'jesus character', he is realistic in his goals and accomplishing them. Early on Luke accepts that he would rather kill than die, and throughout the game virtually never kills because he believes that person must die, but because in a fight to the death he will defend himself and his friends. He recognizes that he has probably killed more people by himself than most other people on his planet, and for that maybe he doesn't deserve to live. But, thanks to the encouragement (or realistic bitching) of his friends, still opts to protect his own life.
And of course, ultimately he kills Master Van, because there was no other way to stop him. But Luke's ability to be forgiving is pretty much endless. Master Van does an incredible amount of horrible things to Luke, ranging from brainwashing him, to using him to massacre thousands, to treating him as worthless and so on, and despite this Luke always loves him. Similarly, Luke loves Asch, who hates his guts for things that aren't actually Luke's fault. In both cases, Luke stands by his position and fights for them to the end, but he doesn't do it with any hatred, just necessity, and it pretty much breaks his heart.
Luke is perpetually hopeful. When you have come from the ultimate bottom of being a murderer, a tool, an ignorant child with no reason to exist and your friends have abandoned you, and yet you manage to regain all of those friendships and then some, save the world, and sacrifice your life to the cause of protecting humanity... well, let's say Luke is incredibly grateful for what he sees as a second chance on life to redeem himself in some capacity. While he didn't want to die, he doesn't regret the life he had up until then. And because even he could find so many things he didn't deserve, he honestly doesn't think anyone is past redemption, nor does he think there is anyone who deserves to be abandoned.
Luke is... sad. Akzeriuth, the city that he destroyed, haunts him always. He is really, really good at coping, and has learned not to sulk because it makes his friends worried about/annoyed with him. But he honestly doesn't think he deserves to live, as much as he is grateful for the opportunity. Based on something his best friend, Guy, told him, Luke focuses his life around making up for the horrible things he's done, something he knows he can never truly accomplish, and thus can never stop doing. The reason Luke is able to make friends with truly horrible people is because chances are good that Luke's actually got a higher death count. To him the reason for killing someone is not the most important part. It is never good or okay or justified, so he is really no better than Master Van, or even villains who kill for fun. Because in the end that person is still dead, and nothing makes that more okay.
Which isn't to say that Luke doesn't have a sense of righteousness. He WILL get angry at senseless killing, he will fight on the side of good, he just honestly regrets having to kill bad guys. But Luke grows into a person who is actually very strong at considering the angles, the feelings, the possibilities and choosing his side and sticking to it no matter what.
Actually, for all that Luke is pretty dumb (in book smarts AND street smarts, since he is... actually about 9 years old), he accepts the fact that he is dumb and doesn't use it as an excuse to not understand things. After destroying a city due to his own ignorance, Luke now always thinks things through on his own. Sometimes the answer is obvious, but in the cases it is not he will come to his own decision. Of course he invites everyone's opinion, and will in particular value the thoughts of his friends, who he often relies on for information and explanation. He doesn't hesitate to ask dumb questions, or persist on a subject until he understands. If at all possible to talk his way out of a fight he will do it. But in the end he absolutely will do what he determines is right, even if it means having to kill someone he loves.
And the thing about Luke is that by the end of his canon, and his death, he was not nearly fully developed. In the course of one year (two years by earth calendar), he made an incredible shift from an ignorant and bratty noble to a dedicated, humble, and honest young man who the entire planet could rely on. Though he was still young, slow, kinda stupid in some ways, he’d found a level of compassion, patience and courage most people never will. Still, he could have evolved more, been wiser and better and smarter, but he died first.
That covers his overall personality. In more precise notes, Luke is very honest and straightforward, his manner of speaking is simple and easy to follow. He won't make a speech unless he really wants to convey what he thinking, and most of the time he isn't having incredibly deep thoughts. His way of speaking is slightly casual, but fairly ordinary. He is the type of person who can go up to absolutely any stranger and talk with them about anything from the weather to their horrible childhood, but this doesn't actually mean he's a fantastic conversationalist, and any ability to draw people's stories out of them has more to do with his earnest sincerity and caring and lack of ability to judge people, than on his witty conversation or clever means of gaining information.
Actually clever and Luke aren't really words you will find together. It can be argued that he is actually quite smart, considering that nine years ago he was effectively an infant, but now for all the world acts like the 19 year old he appears to be, and is emotionally quite a bit older. But Luke isn't particularly imaginative, or particularly good at the numbers and the books and the memorization. Any ability to think outside the box is the result of being ignorant about where the box was to begin with, because his approach to everything tends to be very simple.
Also, he's still a teenager/nine year old, and despite being jesusy and grown up enough to save the world and fight in battle and possibly run a kingdom, he's still more than capable of being childish. If annoyed, Luke becomes a bit bratty. He will make faces, whine, and dismiss people being obnoxious or just tell them what jerks they are. He also enjoys silly, stupid pranks, fun and simple games, ridiculous challenges, and is never above poking fun at his friends. In general, however, this is as dark as his nature gets. Despite being a killer and very very sad on very many levels, Luke doesn't have a cruel bone in his body, and any meanness with him stops at about the level of gradeschoolers pulling on each other's hair.
Finally, it's important to realize that despite being positive, honest, friendly, naive, and generally a bit dumb, Luke is incredibly resilient. The reason he can make friends with terrible people is because chances are he's already been through worse. Luke wasn't just brainwashed into murdering thousands of people by his most important person who then discarded him as worthless, he continued to love and respect that person throughout all of canon. He killed that person without resorting to hate, and he did it aware that, in the end, what separated them and forced them to kill each other was effectively different beliefs. On top of those dramatic events, involving the death of himself, his original, and a lot of other people, Luke also traveled with a party where pretty much everyone rejected him at one point or another. And one of the members, even when he was being NICE, was still kind of a jerk at all times. Basically, Luke is very used to abuse, whether it be physical, emotional, or psychological. By now most of it rolls off him, what it doesn't he has thick enough skin to take. It's not that hard to upset him or hurt him but it's virtually impossible to keep him down, break him, or even upset his path.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game: If you would like more detail, this and this are two essays I did on the subject of Luke's character development as a result of relationships with Asch and Mukuro, which covers most of how he evolved and why.
But to be shorter, basically while Luke was in camp he had to function independent of a team that told him when he was being dumb, and when other people were, so he had to learn to figure it out for himself. This took a while, as Luke is not inherently inclined to think he is smarter than anyone, much less worthy of deciding things for others or making judgment calls on them. And for the most part he still doesn't DO this, he has to know someone really well before he is willing to put his foot down and just tell them they are being stupid.
In the case of Asch, Asch arrived at camp, and despite clearly wanting to go home and clearly being in love with Natalia, insisted on believing he had no place in Auldrant and would never return. Natalia and Luke were both REALLY UPSET by this, and tried for months to argue and talk him into returning, and making him feel welcome. FINALLY, Luke was able to realize that Asch really did want to return home but, for whatever reason, was too stubborn to do so. After feeling really messed up and upset by this, and talking to Mukuro, Luke realized he... didn't have to respect Asch's wishes. That he felt to the very bottom of his heart that Asch was wrong, that Asch would never be happy if he didn't return to Auldrant, and that he would regret it forever if he passively let Asch ruin his life further. So he decided to ignore Asch's will and drag him back to Auldrant. This is a level up in confidence and selfishness for Luke, but also in intelligence, because he is generally so busy focusing on how he is undeserving that it never occurs to him to use his will power to just MAKE the right choice for another person, even if it means they’ll hate him for it.
The other thing that changed was that Luke learned to deal with people who are lying, manipulative bastards like Mukuro. This took a while. For literally months Luke took everything Mukuro said at face value. And in most cases he will continue to do so with all people unless he has some kind of proof that they are the 'Mukuro type'. He's still not good enough at reading people to just come up with that information arbitrarily. However, once Luke realized that virtually everything Mukuro said might be a lie, he started dealing with him in very, very persistent baby steps, questioning everything he said, lining statements up against each other, and finding the logical flaws in Mukuro's arguments. These sorts of conversations most people would abandon or find incredibly annoying, but Luke's stubbornness is like mountains, and he was personally invested in making sure Mukuro did NOT try and kill his friends (the Vongola). After months of talking to Mukuro in these bizarrely time-consuming and circular conversations, Luke learned a lot about reading Mukuro's personality.
While those instincts would not automatically transfer over to other manipulative-type characters, the way Luke learned to DEAL with them does, and basically when confronted with liars or people he doesn’t understand, Luke will patiently work through their logic facet by facet in the same way he does with Mukuro, provided said people don’t get tired of explaining things to him.
In GENERAL, Luke's time in camp made him much more independent and confident in himself. He is not arrogant but he is comfortable choosing what he will or will not do and generally does not move from his decisions. Since he has experience being between conflicts with his friends, and experience in making a positive effect on a very negative person, he's far less likely to care what alignment someone is, but absolutely will try to 'help' villainous characters before fighting them.
Character Plans: Play, have fun. Luke is unlikely to sign up with any faction and will probably end up a greeter, or working somewhere cheap. He’s never actually had a job before that wasn’t ‘saving the world’, should be interesting.
Appearance/PB: Link!
Writing Samples
First Person Sample
[Text, note that since Luke is coming from CFUD he is familiar with technology like laptops.]
Hello? Uh… I wonder if this is really working. Using a journal like a laptop is just really weird, couldn’t they have given me something more normal? It looks like you can do video too. I guess that’s pretty neat. Guy would really go out of his mind looking at this place…
Anyway, I’m Luke. I’m not really sure what I’m doing here now, but I guess no one is. Haha, at least this place looks a lot more comfortable than the last place I got stuck! I’m not going to miss the zombies or the lousy food, or the blood in the showers… Yeah, it’s really nice to be back in civilization again.
…I will miss the people, though.
Sorry, I guess I don’t really have much to say. But this is my second time starting over like this, so I want to get settled in.
I’ll be up a while, if anyone wants to talk.
Third Person Sample
“Aah, it’s hot out.”
Luke resisted the urge to flop onto his back and lie in the warm sand of the abandoned field. Despite his job being that of a ‘Greeter’, he’d learned the hard way that sometimes new arrivals weren’t in a friendly mood. It was best to stay on guard in case the ‘attack first, talk later’ type showed up again.
But the summer in Siren’s Port was hot and taking a doze in the sun sounded refreshing. The idea of it took his mind to his home, and the thousands of naps he’d taken on the lawn within the mansion’s courtyard, where there was so little else to do.
Compared to those years, a twelve hour shift waiting for someone to mysteriously appear out of thin air wasn’t… well, okay, it was pretty boring sometimes. But Luke could handle boring. And when someone did show up, it usually made his day. Even that guy that had tried to stick a sword through him when he caught him dozing had turned out to be okay once Luke had trashed him a bit and talked him down. And getting to make someone’s first few hours in Siren’s Port tolerable was about the only worthwhile feeling he got lately.
This city, Luke had been coming to realize, was sick on the inside. It went beyond the monsters in the Darkness, which Luke mostly found pitiful and depressing. No, the people here were fighting somewhere beneath the surface. He’d begun to notice it a while ago, but was only just now starting to put his finger on how bad it was. Or… he thinks, maybe, he’s figuring it out. If he had Natalia here, or Guy… well, really anyone would be better at this sort of thing than him. Luke wasn’t great at politics, and that class had been boring. But basically, there was some sort of hidden war going on, fighting without much fighting, and trying to figure out what to make of it, or do about it, or which side was in the right had left him with more than a few headaches.
At least at his job he could make someone’s day a little better. Before sending them off into this crazy city he didn’t get.
“…what a pain.” Luke grumbled at his own melancholy thoughts, and rubbed his hands through his hair as if to shake them out. "Cheer up,” he told himself. “Beats being dead.”
And it was true, even if he only reminded himself verbally of that where no one could hear. Siren’s Port was a pain and a half, he didn’t even know where to start. But, still, he was very glad to be here.