Star Kingdom app
Player info
Your Name: Sono
Your E-Mail/AIM/Whatever: molly.mcv@gmail.com, sonopants on AIM
Livejournal: sonopants
Your age: 25
Character info
Series/Fandom: Final Fantasy VI
Character's Name: Gau
Character's Sex: Male
Character's Age: 13
Canon point: Post-game
Abilities: Gau has a special ability called Rage which lets him go into a trance and start mimicking the attacks, status attributes and abilities of monsters that he's encountered on the Veldt. Once a battle starts, he has a 50/50 chance of either physically attacking the enemy, or using a magical attack from the monster he's imitating. For example, if Gau is mimicking a Ghost, then he'll start floating in midair and will be able to cast spells like Thundara, but will be seriously injured by holy magic or healing potions. If he's imitating a Bomb, then he can cast Blaze, but will be weak to ice-based attacks... and he might also cast Self-Destruct and KO himself by accident. In Final Fantasy terms, he's sort of like across between a Blue Mage and a Berserker. More on the Berserker part in a bit!
Strengths:
Physical strength: Gau is pretty strong for his size, and is quick enough to keep up with Sabin when he tussles with him. He might look as skinny as a toothpick, but that's all wiry muscle. Judging from the concept art, Gau's fingernails have also been sharpened into claws, which means that if he scratches at you, it's going to hurt like hell.
Surviving: Gau has lived on the Veldt for the last thirteen years, and he knows how to fend for himself. He can hunt, scavenge food, make clothes out of animal hides, and find shelter when he needs to. He'd probably do well in the
Deep Jungle or the Pridelands if he ended up traveling between worlds.
Weaknesses:
Rage attacks go on autopilot are uncontrollable: This is where the 'berserker' half of the Blue Mage / Berserker thing comes in. Gau has almost no control over his Rage attacks. Once he starts fighting, he becomes so deeply entranced that he literally can't stop attacking his opponent, and is unable to pause to heal or defend himself. He'll keep fighting, fighting, and fighting, no matter how much damage he takes, and will only snap out of it once the battle's over, or he's knocked unconscious.
Squishy human: He's might be pretty strong, but Gau is still human, and is just as susceptible to physical injury as anyone else.
Language: Gau has difficulty speaking English, and he can't read or write. He was never taught how, and doesn't really see the point in learning after all these years. (I plan on having Gau pester random Moogles into reading text posts for him, if that's ok. He'll mostly stick to video and audio posts himself, and maybe slowly learn how to read in-game.)
Background: Link!
Appearance: Link! Note the awesomely terrible mullet.
Personality:
The first thing to know about Gau is that he's literally a wild child - he grew up on the grasslands of the Veldt, and has spent most of his life running around with animals. His job class in FF6 is even listed as 'Feral Youth', and Gau definitely lives up to that title. He runs on all fours (at least according to the concept art), wears monster hides for clothing, and even speaks in broken caveman English, sometimes referring to himself in third person and substituting growls and sounds like "Yaoh!" and "Uwaaoo!" for words. In terms of behaviour, Gau tends to act more like a wild animal than a kid. He bounces around like an energetic puppy when he's in a good mood, gets aggressive and territorial if he feels threatened (when he runs into Cyan and Sabin on the Veldt for the first time, he yells at them for scaring the animals, tells them to "go away from Veldt" even though he's the one who pulled them out of the Lethe river in the first place, and later tries to intimidate the men into giving him free food), and he has little interest in 'civilized' things like shoes or hairbrushes.
It's been almost a year since he left the Veldt, but civilization hasn't changed Gau's personality one bit. He's still learning things that kids half his age have figured out by now; strange new concepts like personal space, table manners (seriously, why do people bother using cutlery when they have hands?), listening when people talk to you, and wearing proper clothes tend to go over his head. He's not stupid by any means, he just doesn't get why stuff like this is necessary, especially since he's never had to deal with it before. It doesn't help that Gau's attention span is sort of flimsy, and he tends to get bored and start fidgeting halfway through whenever people try to correct his behaviour. Gau's intelligence shows through in other ways, though. He was clever enough to survive on his own for thirteen years in a very harsh environment after all, and despite his mangled vocabulary, he manages to communicate with other people pretty well. Even if the syntax is messed up, he can usually make himself understood. Sometimes Gau will try to act more polite and civilized, at one point even taking lessons in table manners from Sabin and dressing up in a suit to meet his long-lost father, but really, Gau is happiest when he's just running around being his wild self.
Gau's mindset is usually pretty basic. He's easily amused, and he likes simple things like meat, shiny objects (which he hoards like a magpie) and repeating words that he likes the sound of - fair warning, if you say the word 'thou' around him, be prepared for an onslaught. His train of thought tends to run in straight lines: if someone is kind to you, you find a way to pay them back, and likewise, if there's an enemy/obstacle in your way, you attack it head-on until it's not there anymore. If that doesn't work, you regroup, get stronger, and try again. After Kefka destroys the world and takes over what's left of it in the second act of the game, Gau doesn't spend any time angsting - he just makes his way back to the Veldt so he can (in his own words) "Get strong, smash Kefka!". He's not one to give up easily, and he uses this approach in conversations, too. If he asks a question and doesn't get an answer, he'll keep asking and asking until he gets some kind of response.
Apart from... er, everything in those last three paragraphs, Gau is still basically just a 13-year-old kid. He's fun-loving, goofy, and playful in a very physical way that involves lots of bouncing around and friendly roughhousing, and he has tons of energy. He also has a wide bratty mischievous streak, especially when it comes to teasing his friends - just after meeting him, Gau goads Sabin into a wrestling match, gives him a dopey nickname ("Mr. Thou!") and later manages to sneak up on the poor guy and startle him into dropping his wallet off a cliff. If he goes too far in his teasing though, or accidentally says something upsetting, he's always quick to apologize and back off. Gau values his friends more than anything, probably since they're the first humans that he's ever really gotten close to, and he's fiercely loyal to them. The best example of this is Gau's role in the game itself - most of the cast has some kind of personal reason to fight against the Empire, but when Gau joins the party, the Empire hasn't touched the Veldt or the nearby village of Mobliz. He mostly joins the group because Sabin and Cyan gave him free food he's gotten close to Sabin and Cyan, and the Empire has hurt them, as well as their friends.
Lastly, there's a surprisingly quiet and mature side to Gau that doesn't surface very often. He can sometimes be seen lingering in the background, quietly observing and taking things in, and when Gau meets his father for the first time, only to find out that the old man is insane and doesn't remember having a son, he doesn't get upset... he just lets it go, and is happy to know that he has a father at all.
Strengths:
He's might be a bit rough around the edges, but Gau is a good kid. He's enthusiastic, headstrong, and doesn't give up easily, even when things get tough, and despite his background (seriously, Gau has one of the saddest theme songs in the entire game), Gau has almost no angst. He has a very simple, straightfoward, and ultimately positive approach towards life. He's pretty friendly once he opens up to people, and fiercely loyal to his companions after they win him over. Give him some free food or Paopu ice cream, and you'll have a friend for life.
Weaknesses:
Not to put this too delicately, but Gau kind of weirds people out. He doesn't really pick up on social cues, he stares at people just long enough to seem creepy, and his feral mannerisms come off as bizzare. His problems with English can make it difficult to communicate, and sometimes he just flat-out doesn't understand what people are saying to him. Between the language issues and , Gau would be pretty easy to dupe if you earned his confidence.
Samples
Action/Journal Sample: Here and here.
RP Sample:
Gau had woken up in the middle of Traverse Town sometime after midnight. He'd gotten the welcoming speech from the local moogles, and after the initial dismay had worn off (they couldn't have lost their world to darkness, it wasn't fair, they'd just won it back from Kefka!), he'd started exploring the area on his own. That had been several hours ago, and horror of horrors, now Gau was starting to get bored. There didn't seem to be any other humans around at this hour, either. The moogles were friendly enough, but they just reminded him of his old world, which gave him unfamiliar pangs of homesickness...
Because of all this, Gau had started moogle-hunting, just to burn off some steam. Well... 'hunting' wasn't the right word for it, that implied that he was going to eat what he caught, and Gau never ate anything that could talk back to him. It was more like 'moogle-stalking', or to be even more accurate, 'sneaking up on moogles and then pouncing at them when they least expected it'. Gau just liked the way the moogles squeaked in alarm and tried to flutter away whenever he leaped out of nowhere and startled them.
Speaking of moogles, there was one now! Gau grinned wolfishly and crept out from behind the garbage can he'd been using for cover, and hunkered down into a crouch, preparing for the pounce. Ready... set... and... jump!
"Uwaaaaoohhh~!"
Gau leaped from the mouth of the alleyway, still howling, and felt his knuckles brush something soft and fuzzy just before landed on the cobblestones a few inches away from the moogle. There was a shocked yelp from the moogle, and Gau turned to face the creature, instantly alert. He hadn't meant to land so close to the little guy, maybe he'd scratched him with his claws by mistake?
"Sorry! Sorry! Gau hurt? Not mean to!" Gau dropped into a low crouch so he could be at eye level with the moogle, trying to get a closer look and check for any injuries. "Kupo ok?"
"You touched my pompom!" the moogle cried indignantly, his fur bristling. Gau sat back on his haunches, completely thrown off. Somehow, he hadn't been expecting a response like this. "How rude is that, kupo?! Honestly, some people have no manners!"
"...Not hurt, though?"
"Haven't you ever heard of personal space? Geez! I oughta..." Gau cocked his head to one side as the moogle continued ranting. He'd heard of personal space before, but it was one of those weird things like 'table manners' and 'wearing shoes' that hadn't really sunk in yet. He settled down and tried to at least look like he was paying attention as the moogle's ranting turned into a stern lecture about respecting personal boundries. Might as well let the little guy get it out of his system...
"Said sorry..." he mumbled.
Have you read the rules & F.A.Q.s? Yep! (Sorry about the wonky formatting on this, LJ's rich text editor has been giving me hell!)