Character Survey
Body and Appearance
1. Describe the character's height and build. Is he heavyset, thin, short, rangy?
Kimblee is about average height - he isn't overly tall, but he isn't short by any means, either; his build has always been very narrow, lacking broadness across the shoulders, though when he was younger he was rather well-built in terms of physical strength. That isn't the case nowadays, however, due to the effects of spending seven years in solitary confinement; though it's not to extremely unhealthy extents, he's incredibly thin, though since his release he's built up a sort of wiry strength to him - he's more sinew than anything at this point.
2. How old is he?
He's thirty-seven, born on April 08, 1879. So around the time of the...incident with Pride, he was closer to thirty-eight.
3. Describe his posture. Does he carry himself well or does he slouch?
That depends on whether anyone is around to see him, and how comfortable he is around them - when he's in front of others that he either doesn't trust or wants to assert social dominance over, he tends to stand straight-backed, squaring off with whomever he's speaking to; when seated he keeps his back straight and his legs crossed at the knee, and he'll often fold his arms across his chest as well, giving off a general air of arrogance and a sense of being closed-off to others.
When he's in the company of those he trusts or doesn't perceive as a threat, he's decidedly more relaxed, often leaning against walls or over tables or railings in front of him, usually crossing his legs at the ankle; if there's nothing to lean against he's usually standing vaguely hipshot, with his hands in his pockets. When seated he behaves in much the same way, often leaning against anything that happens to be in front of him; generally, if he's relaxed, his posture isn't so much horrible as it is lazy.
When he's alone, however? He is suddenly a total stereotypical guy - he's slouching forward idly, he's sprawling all the hell over, he's taking up as much space as humanly possible.
4. How is his health? Is he fit or out of shape? Any illnesses or conditions? Any physical disabilities?
Kimblee reached his peak physical condition seven years ago, when he was in Ishval; he was a soldier at that point, with all the benefits that come with the years of intense physical training that the military can provide. However, seven years in solitary confinement definitely took their toll on him; he also didn't have a full range of motion for those seven years - his wrists were constantly kept in restraints designed to keep his hands bound but separated, preventing him from using his alchemy. Though he's been working on regaining some of that strength back and he's definitely no longer out of shape by the end of his run in the manga, he's never quite managed to build himself back up physically - he's still a bit too thin, and his speed and reflexes have suffered enough to put him at a serious disadvantage in fights.
He doesn't have any disabilities or illnesses, however; if anything, he's stupidly resilient. He manages to survive Things People Should Not Live Through - have a couple of ridiculous descriptions to illustrate my point!
- While facing down one of his targets, the man he was chasing decided that Kimblee did not have nearly enough steel pipe in his vital organs. He decided to help him out with this predicament by impaling him through the left side with...well, a steel pipe. The stab was hard enough to sling Kimblee back against the wall behind him; the pipe entered through the front of his chest just beneath the ribs, running him through completely and exiting through his back. This was after a parkour-heavy battle on a platform of a moving train, traveling through freezing temperatures in the snow. He not only survived this and had the presence of mind to force an escape by destroying the connecting bolts between himself and his target, but was conscious enough to bitch at the train conductors a short while later for stopping to see what the hell was wrong with him. He was in critical condition afterwards and required the usage of medicinal alchemy to heal his injuries, but he then proceeded to say "Screw the recovery period" and was up and walking around less than twenty-four hours later.
- While fighting alongside Pride in an attempt to take out Alphonse Elric, Kimblee managed to get critically wounded in what managed to be the most anticlimactic way possible: one of his former chimera lackeys got the drop on him from behind, grabbed him when he turned around and bit him in the throat. Said chimera was pretty much in lion mode at the moment, and proceeded to jump around a bit to evade Pride whilst carrying Kimblee around in his mouth like a jackass; he then proceeded to drop Kimblee onto his face on the ground, then use him as a human shield twice - once in the conventional manner, and once by...throwing him at Pride as a deterrent, slamming him into the ground with the back of his neck and his shoulder taking most of the impact. Despite that and the fact that the wounds on his throat had punctured his windpipe and an artery, Kimblee somehow managed to stay alive long enough for Pride to finish off this humiliation conga line by giving him a Hannibal Lecture and then using his shadows to devour him. Alive.
...obviously, sometimes the physical fortitude works in his favor, sometimes it clearly does not. Either way, Kimblee is at least strong enough to ensure that he is not going to die until he is good and ready to die, damn it.
5. How does he move? Is he clumsy, graceful, tense, fluid?
Kimblee's movements tend to be fluid, if not always graceful - it's not completely unheard of for him to make a clumsy move or fall, but he's rather like a cat in that he'll simply act like he totally meant to do that just now.
Totally.
...the ground moved.
...hush.
But! Those moments are reasonably rare; Kimblee normally moves rather easily, and his gait is very self-assured, often closer to swaggering than anything else, and even when he's simply standing and having a conversation, it's very rare that he's actually still. He's always been prone to talking with his hands - even when he was in prison, he found ways to gesture despite the restraints; now that he doesn't have his wrists locked into position a fixed distance away from each other, requiring less spatial awareness to manipulate objects and use his hands in general, his gestures have become decidedly more flourished and exaggerated, ranging anywhere from "kind of flamboyant" to "oh my god, you're just kind of flailing over there, aren't you."
6. How attractive is this character physically? How does he perceive himself in the mirror?
Kimblee tends to push opinions toward one end of the spectrum or the other, with relatively few in between - he's generally found to be either pretty good-looking or pretty goddamn busted, depending on whom you ask. He's refined-looking and reasonably handsome, but he has very heavy, strongly-defined features that prevent him from being conventionally attractive; he smiles often and he smirks quite a bit, but most of those sorts of expressions seem strangely like a default - not forced, exactly, but more as though they exist because he has no idea what else to do with his face - so even if he's found attractive by someone, they may still find him strangely plastic at times.
That said, Kimblee is ridiculously vain. He strives for the highest aesthetic in all things, and that extends to his personal appearance. He very obviously takes care of his hair regardless of what his circumstances are, and he wears some makeup in the form of dark eyeliner around his eyes; he's also very fussy about his clothes, and he hates being dirty. His insistence that his appearance be kept pristine at all times often reaches levels of irrationality that would be impressive were they not so completely terrible; at one point when he was younger, he complained about the death of a soldier in his unit (someone that he was currently using as a meatshield, no less) because it got blood on his jacket, resulting in him removing the offending garment and simply wandering around in the middle of a war zone without half of his uniform on. He hasn't gotten any better on this front, given that in the present timeline he was muttering about how he was getting his suit dirty while picking his way through a building littered with the bodies of several people he had just killed. So yeah.
7. Describe his complexion. Dark, light, clear, scarred?
Kimblee has always been rather pale; the prison term didn't help any, but his skin is still very light even months after his release. His complexion is clear, and he keeps himself clean-shaven; he does have a few scars here and there, though there are three in particular that he's less than pleased about.
The first is the only one visible without the removal of clothing; it's long and thin, across the palm of his right hand. It's very light and isn't enough to disrupt his transmutation circles now that it's healed over, but it's still visible; he received it from Edward Elric, in the middle of a fight - rather than trying to kill Kimblee, Ed slashed his hand open in an attempt to prevent him from using alchemy. It...didn't work, due to the fact that Kimblee had a Philosopher's Stone on his person, but it wasn't exactly pleasant, either.
The second is concealed nicely by the suit - it's the scarring from the incident mentioned above, in which Kimblee came down with a bad case of Impaled On A Pipe Syndrome. The medicinal alchemy healed his internal injuries and saved his life, but this was after he had already spent some time...well, impaled on a pipe in the snow, and he wasn't exactly near a hospital when this went down, either. So he spent some more time impaled with a pipe during transport; between the length of time spent like that and the cold damage to his body, it left a bit of a nasty mark. It's not nearly as bad as it could have been, given that "as bad as it could have been" involves dying horribly, but still.
Speaking of dying horribly! The other bit of scarring he's concealing are slash marks across his throat; they seem to have started as deep puncture wounds that were dragged heavily across a brief ways, and they're pretty much the reason he's going to be wearing a scarf or high-collared shirts even when it's far from practical to still be doing such. This would be the result of that other abovementioned incident; clearly, Kimblee must be more careful with how he treats his lackeys - especially if they're a human/lion hybrid capable of mauling his neck.
8. Describe his hair: color, texture, style.
Kimblee's hair is black and very long - he keeps it in a neat ponytail tied back with white ribbon, just high enough to keep it off of his shoulders and prevent it from being stuffed into the collar of his coat (or if it does end up stuffed into his collar somehow, it'll at least work its way out of there eventually). It's long enough to reach mid-back when it's up, and he never takes it down in the presence of others - this is less for practical reasons and entirely because Kimblee has been blessed with the flattest hair on the planet. It's both very fine and very lank, and he can't get volume into it to save his life. As such, he leaves it up when he's around others, and he'll never cut it too short to tie back, simply because it looks decidedly less stupid tied back.
The only exception to the tied-back-always rule would be the thin locks of hair he leaves down in the front; they started as pretty much two obnoxious strands that he can't do anything with, so he simply trained them off to frame his face to the sides - and then by the time they were long enough to pull back, he felt he looked weird without them there, so he just leaves them as they are. He does cut them from time to time, as they started as boyishly short antennae toward the beginning of the manga, though by the end they'd grown down to almost shoulder-length.
9. What color are his eyes?
His eyes are amber, though they look a bit different depending on what lighting he's in; they alternate from looking very yellow in harsh lighting to almost a light brown indoors.
10. Does the character have any other noteworthy features?
He has transmutation arrays situated in the palms of his hands; they appear to be tattooed on, though the fact that they never fade and the ink hasn't simply fallen out despite seven years in prison implies that they may be alchemically burned into his skin. They aren't two separate arrays, but rather halves of a whole - his left hand is inscribed with a circle containing a triangle, with a symbol for the moon at its center, while the right has a circle with an inverted triangle, containing the symbol for the sun, and both arrays have writing that appears to be in some combination of Cyrillic and Greek lettering wrapped around their outer edges; he activates these arrays by clapping his hands together straight-on, forming a hexagram with the triangles and forming a 'path', as he calls it, to manipulate energy.
11. What are his chief tension centers?
His upper back, primarily, though the muscles in his legs also tend to make knotted messes of themselves when he's overly stressed; this tends to lead to a need to keep moving so he doesn't just lock up and not want to go anywhere, and a lot of rigid posturing in general.
12. What is the character's wardrobe like? Casual, dressy, utilitarian? Bright colors, pastels, neutrals? Is it varied, or does he have six of the same suit?
Kimblee's love for aesthetics definitely shows through his clothing, and there's a definite classy element to what he chooses to wear; he favors white three-piece suits with a matching fedora, and if it's cold enough, he'll add a thick, knee-length overcoat as another layer, and a scarf on top of that if the weather requires. The scarf and any other accessories he wears (such as ties or cufflinks) are usually some shade of purple or lavender; his clothes are usually crisp-looking and well-pressed regardless of where he is, and as was mentioned earlier, he's very, very fussy about keeping them clean.
13. Do his clothes fit well? Does he seem comfortable in them?
Well, given that he's wearing that three-piece suit regardless of what he's doing - hunting down people, getting into fights, doing insane parkour bullshit - it's obvious that he's very comfortable in it, and it's not hindering his movements any; as for whether they actually fit well, though...that's arguable. His clothes seem specifically designed to make him seem more physically imposing than he actually is; the way the suit jacket behaves when he moves implies there are some Awesomely Eighties Shoulderpads of Power in there, his pants are fitted at the waist but otherwise drop straight down without adding any sort of definition, and there are no darts sewn into his suit to give it any sort of shape - by broadening his shoulderspan and not giving any hints as to what his build actually looks like, this does a pretty effective job of making him look more physically intimidating than he normally would be.
14. Does he dress the same on the job as he does in his free time? If not, what are the differences?
The only times he's really seen not wearing that suit are when he literally is not allowed to wear that suit - either because he's in prison, or he's in the hospital on life support. So it's pretty safe to say he wears that thing as much as possible.
15. You knew it was coming: Boxers, briefs or commando?
Oh, like it'll ever be relevant to anyone else...
Speech
1. What does this character's voice sound like? High-pitched, deep, hoarse?
Kimblee's voice is fairly high-pitched, a fact that's usually emphasized by the lightness in his tone; he's very decidedly a first-tenor most of the time, though sometimes his voice will rise a bit in pitch - usually when he's feeling playful, or otherwise intentionally trying to sound cute.
2. How does he normally speak? Loud, soft, fast, evenly? Does he talk easily, or does he hesitate?
As was mentioned above, his tone tends to be very light; though he enunciates clearly, his voice is usually rather soft and he doesn't come down hard on his words, lending a sort of gentle quality to his speech even when his words are decidedly...not gentle at all. This tends to change only when he becomes angry, and even then he doesn't shout - if anything, he becomes quieter, but all pretense of gentleness is gone, replaced instead by cold, tranquil fury and a good amount of venom in his words.
He speaks very easily - if anything, he speaks a bit too easily, as he tends to ramble on about nothing in particular, and he'll just...keep going until someone stops him somehow. He has a lot of thoughts about things that no one necessarily cares about, basically, and he will very gladly tell you all of them if you lead him toward those topics. Just...be prepared to be there for a while.
3. Does the character have a distinct accent or dialect? Any individual quirks of pronunciation? Any, like, you know, verbal tics?
He doesn't have a very distinct accent or dialect, nor does he have particular pronunciation quirks; however, Kimblee has a fair amount of verbal tics - primarily, he's very prone to using pet phrases such as "my, my" before he speaks, and tacking "you know/you realize" at the end of statements. He also has a tendency to talk just to fill silence, sometimes making some rather pointless statement or other just because it's too quiet for his liking; if he's not talking he'll often sing or hum to himself. This gets more pronounced when he's alone, but he'll often do it in the presence of others as well.
4. What language/s does he speak, and with how much fluency?
He speaks whatever language is most predominant in Amestris - the closest real-world equivalent to it is likely English or German, depending on your interpretation of things - and he's completely fluent in it; he speaks Drachman (which is probably closest to Russian) with enough fluency to persuade heads of state of his position and, given the runes on his hands, he can probably also write in it to some extent. He also understands the particular Amestrian dialect used by Ishvalans, though he doesn't speak it himself.
5. Does he switch languages or dialects in certain situations?
Involuntarily? No.
6. Is he a good impromptu speaker, or does he have to think about his words?
Kimblee tends to be able to speak his mind without having to think about it for too long; sometimes he'll talk in circles or repeat phrases to himself while he's trying to find his point, but in general he speaks easily and can communicate his ideas well.
7. Is he eloquent or inarticulate? Under what circumstances might this change?
He's rather eloquent, to the point of being incredibly verbose; he has a lot of thoughts and he wants to tell you all the thoughts! This even extends to topics that most would consider...horribly awkward, and he's generally very hard to trip up when he's arguing, so it's rare to have him just dissolve into a mess of wharrgarbl. What does manage to do it is usually either stupidity to tremendous extents (basically, not run-of-the-mill dumb, but "oh god that's so stupid I think my brain just flipped over while I was trying to fathom it"), moments of extreme anger, and actually managing to corner him on a point that he hadn't considered. At which point the mental flailing starts.
Mental and Emotional
1. How intelligent is this character? Is he book-smart or street-smart?
Kimblee is actually rather intelligent; he's got a fair amount of book-smarts, given that he's able to understand the complexities of alchemy and has created his own unique style of using it, but most of his intellect is geared toward real-world situations - to simplify, he's better with debates than he is essays, and he's better with practical exams than he is with written tests.
2. Does he think on his feet, or does he need time to deliberate?
If he takes the time to deliberate, he usually overthinks and gets in his own way far better than anyone else could; he prefers to improvise off of what he's given to work with, and usually doesn't have any set plans - he always needs a goal in mind, but he starts to trip himself up if he goes in with too much of a plan, so he's gotten fairly good at creating complex plans on the spot.
3. Describe the character's thought process. Is he more logical, or more intuitive? Idealistic or practical?
Given that most of his arguments require the exclusion of personal feelings and morals as contaminating factors, Kimblee is definitely far more of a logical person in theory; in practice, however, he relies almost entirely on intuition. His alchemy requires heightened sensitivity to the energy and the potential within the materials he's working with, which isn't something that can be taught; he also has a heightened awareness of the thoughts and feelings of others - not empathy, exactly, as that's something he lacks almost entirely and this awareness doesn't affect his own thoughts and feelings at all, but he's overly alert to things like unspoken shifts in mood, and he's usually good at guessing the reasons and motivations behind people's actions based solely on what he's observed. Some of this is logic and rationality, but a good amount of it is sensitivity to shifts in both his surroundings and others; a sort of logical intuition, if you will.
He's neither truly idealistic, nor is he truly practical - he's generally neutral when it comes to things like that, not giving into flights of fancy in the name of pure idealism but not allowing himself to refuse to believe in chance and coincidence, either. He rather enjoys remaining in the middle, but then he's prone to doing things like starting large conflicts just to see who wins, so...
4. What kind of education has the character had?
Kimblee was homeschooled by a private tutor for his school years; he chose not to pursue a higher education after the fact, devoting his time instead to extensive study of alchemy. He also took a good amount of interest in philosophy and psychology, though his understanding in those respects is entirely self-taught and his grasp on certain philosophical concepts is...uh, tenuous at best.
5. What are his areas of expertise? What, if anything, is he interested in learning more about?
Kimblee's areas of expertise are pretty much defined as "ways to raise as much hell as possible within a short period of time." His alchemy is one - it's combat-oriented and centered around creating massive, fiery explosions that can affect huge areas around or in front of him; he strives to create explosions of the highest caliber and aesthetic in terms of scope, destructive capability, and most importantly sound - the louder, the better. He's also good at generally getting into people's heads in conversation and messing around with whatever information he happens to force out of them - as far as he's concerned, no matter how many mental or emotional walls people have up, they all break in similar ways. He's also very physical; while he's reasonably skilled at hand-to-hand combat, his primary physical skills are geared more toward the insane parkour bullshit that seems prevalent in fights within his canon - he's capable of jumping his height, he's able to vault up onto things that are well over his height without requiring much of a running start, and he can also take some rather nasty drops without injuring himself.
He'd definitely like to learn more along the psychology/philosophy route, and he's admittedly sort of fascinated by the chimeras, having worked with them so extensively himself - basically, his areas of expertise are mostly geared around taking things apart; he'd like to know more about putting them back together (in ways that may or may not be fucked up and/or more awesome than they were when he took them apart). Other than that, he loves to fight, and he'd actually really like more physical training and sparring with people that use styles or techniques he's not used to fighting.
6. Is he an introvert or an extrovert?
Kimblee is surprisingly extroverted; he enjoys talking to people and finding out more about them, and he enjoys involvement in social activities - though in large groups he may stay by the wall alone until he can suss out the general feel of the environment before joining in, or perhaps find someone he knows and stick close to them until he can figure out what he should do. He prefers to keep his private affairs...well, private, and he never talks about his own emotions, whatever they may actually be; his brain-to-mouth filter is a little broken, however, and conversationally he alternates between being a very closed-off person to spouting off information, to extents that are sometimes either unwelcome or inappropriate to the situation.
7. Describe the character's temperament. Is he even-tempered or does he have mood swings? Cheerful or melancholy? Laid-back or driven?
Kimblee will be the first to acknowledge that he's emotionally dead inside, and always has been - he's long been aware that he seems incapable of feeling the sorts of things that most others around him feel. He doesn't experience sadness at all, nor does he experience remorse, regret or sympathy for others' pain; conversely, he doesn't experience any sort of true happiness, either. He experiences fear, but it's more of a general wariness in dangerous situations as opposed to flat-out panic; any anger that he experiences is very short-lived. He's usually rather numb, all things considered, though he tends to display this as placid even-temperedness.
However, this doesn't mean that Kimblee feels nothing; though he rarely displays much genuine emotion, when he does they're incredibly forceful, seeming to overwhelm him entirely. When he experiences pleasure it quickly turns him manic, and he's prone to laughing uncontrollably, shrieking incoherently, screaming out broken phrases, and eventually becoming overstimulated to the point of violence if he's not calmed down; anger, though brief, comes in sudden flashes - again, he's prone to tranquil fury, suddenly falling very quiet and yet becoming volatile and physically aggressive, often attacking blindly without regard for himself or others in the immediate area. This happens rarely, but the shifts are so sudden that they're difficult to predict or contain, especially in the case of anger; after episodes of high agitation like this, Kimblee often needs to 'recharge' - a period of time where he can go somewhere safe to simply shut out everyone around him, shut down his thoughts and calm himself down, both physically and mentally. It tends to render him nearly catatonic, and takes anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days.
He's a very driven person overall, however, in terms of his goals and carrying out orders; if he's sent somewhere to perform a task, he fully intends to see that task through to the end, and he intends to do it himself - he was insisting on being left to work alone while he was in critical condition and couldn't move without ripping his life support out, so it's pretty safe to say that Kimblee's rather tenacious when he decides to be. At the same time, he doesn't like doing more work than necessary, either, and he's very contrary about whom he takes orders from; he's been known to make excuses to get out of doing things for people he doesn't like, and if he can't tell someone "no" for whatever reason, he'll do what he's assigned...but not without complaining the entire way.
8. How does he respond to new people or situations? Is he suspicious, relaxed, timid, enthusiastic?
He's actually very suspicious around new people, at least until he can figure out what their intentions are and how useful they'll be to him; he'll also generally do whatever he can to attain some sort of leverage over others if he's not sure they'll cooperate with him or thinks they may try to harm him. He doesn't act openly nervous or timid around new people, however; if anything he may seem overly friendly toward them in an attempt to both get to know them and subtly assert social dominance.
9. Is he more likely to act, or to react?
He's actually more prone to react - most of his plans are directly centered around counteracting the plans of others, and even when he acts, it's usually due to orders from someone else; since his release from prison, he undertakes very few actions through his own will, instead preferring to act on the orders of others.
Of course, in combat situations he'll often react as well, though his idea of "reacting" isn't exactly welcomed by anyone else in the immediate area - he's very prone to grabbing others and using them as meatshields.
10. Which is his default: fight or flight?
...ahahahahaha. Hahaha. Ha.
Kimblee pretty much lives to fight; he loves war, he loves battle, he loves conflict, and he will cause any/all of the above pretty much just for the hell of it. His job requires a hell of a lot of fighting and killing a hell of a lot of people, and he definitely loves his job; there's also the part where his pride generally won't let him escape a battle unless absolutely necessary - he finds being unable to defeat his enemies and needing to run from them to be humiliating. He also has a good amount of military training, and he's seen war himself - this really didn't dampen the urge to fight any, if anything it just made him more aggressive.
11. Describe the character's sense of humor. Does he appreciate jokes? Puns? Gallows humor? Bathroom humor? Pranks?
Kimblee's sense of humor tends to run very dark and more than a bit mean - he's been known to play cruel or frightening tricks on people just for the sake of scaring them (for example, offering a handshake to a prison warden he generally seemed to like, only to transmute the poor guy's wristwatch into what looked like a time bomb and only acknowledging it as a fake after it failed to detonate - given his reputation and dubious title of "Mad Bomber," this was kind of not okay on several levels), and he plays his share of mind games with people for his own amusement. At the same time, he won't actually hurt people solely for fun; as he goes, there's a definite difference between play and intentionally being physically harmful, and he's very playful when he's comfortable around others - depending on his relationship with them, this playfulness manifests anywhere on the spectrum from "gentle teasing" to "intentionally trying to scare the crap out of them on a regular basis," but he does make it plain that he's just playing. Eventually. Maybe.
...he's a bit sadistic.
12. Does the character have any diagnosable mental disorders? If yes, how does he deal with them?
...oh...boy.
Kimblee's problems are a bit difficult to pin down, though he obviously has Issues, and he makes no secret of the fact that he knows there's something wrong with him, or at least that there's something about him that makes him different from everyone else. He has several traits that are obviously linked to psychopathy, the most distinct being a complete lack of empathy (for example, he became frustrated with other soldiers during the Annihilation Campaign in Ishval for not seeing genocide as simply part of their job, rationalizing that they were under orders to carry out said genocide and so it was just another aspect of their duties as soldiers), though he does show other signs as well, such as the constant analyzing of his surroundings and the way that "normal" people behave so that he can blend in with society.
He also spent seven years in solitary confinement, locked in a small cell with his hands restrained; he was kept mostly in the dark, with very little contact with other people outside of the warden assigned to look after him. Needless to say, this altered his behavior and general mindset quite a bit; he became much less aggressive than he was in Ishval, but having all control over his life taken away from him for so long has led to the sharp deterioration of his ability to make decisions for himself - while he can react to situations, he has difficulty acting on his own, and he tends to need either direct orders or not-so-subtle pushes from others in order to actually do things. Having a direct goal in mind helps, but even so, sometimes he needs assistance in figuring out exactly what he should do to carry it out if he doesn't have a direction in mind. Another effect of those seven years is a dislike of silence, mentioned in one of the sections above; he often tends to talk to himself or sing when it gets too quiet, especially when he's alone - it's never really stressed-seeming, he's very casual about it and he'll stop if he's asked to do so, but he generally needs some sort of noise as a reality check.
13. What moments in this character's life have defined him as a person?
Discovering his talents with alchemy. Being deployed to Ishval as a human weapon. Using the Philosopher's Stone for the first time, and killing his superior officers in order to keep it for himself. The seven years he spent in prison.
14. What does he fear?
Kimblee isn't really afraid of most of the basic human fears - the idea of dying is something he dislikes, but he sees no need to fear it; the fear of falling is something he's overcome; the fear of loud noises is...okay, let me stop laughing for a moment, Kimblee likes him some terrible noises. He doesn't like silence, but he doesn't fear it, either. He's generally suspicious and wary, but not usually fearful.
If he's afraid of anything, it's probably something reasonably simple and petty but nothing he faced in canon. Like bees. Anyone with any common sense at all is afraid of bees.
15. What are his hopes or aspirations?
He wants to see change in the world, or a verification that change in the world isn't required. That's...about it, on its most basic level.
16. What is something he doesn't want anyone to find out about him?
He actually has no real secrets like this; people will find out what they will, he doesn't really care.
Relationships
1. Describe this character's relationship with his parents.
Kimblee was always well provided for without being spoiled; he was always closer to his father than his mother, especially after his younger sister was born, but they raised him well. They taught him several life lessons that form the basis of his current actions - his mother taught him how use alchemy, how to be a gentleman and how treat others with respect and dignity, even when he thinks they don't deserve it; his father, who was a soldier much like his son would become later, taught him how to fight and how to articulate his points, how to read people when he doesn't understand them, and how to pick out the differences between those who would harm you and those who would help you.
They both loved him, and ensured that he knew it; he accidentally killed both of them with a nasty rebound during a practice session with his alchemy. He can't say that he misses them much.
2. Does the character have any siblings? What is/was their relationship like?
He has a younger sister named Ilsa; she's five years younger than he is. They've never really gotten along, often squabbling between themselves as siblings do, though it didn't help that Kimblee was prone to behavior that pretty much made him the older brother from hell: he was mutilating her dolls and laying them out in morbid displays for her to find, he was telling her horrible stories in the evening for the sake of giving her nightmares at night, he was constantly playing cruel tricks on her like locking her in the space beneath the window-seat in the parlor just to make her cry...he didn't knock it off until she was nine years old and decided to take matters into her own hands by lopping his hair off. Not by waiting until he was asleep, mind you, but by managing to get the drop on him in broad daylight with a kitchen knife and simply whacking his ponytail off.
He had a good amount more respect for her after that.
They had a large falling-out after the deaths of their parents; she was away at boarding school at the time, and he didn't see fit to call her home or even notify her until she came back for the holidays. Their relationship hasn't exactly been the same since, and he left for Ishval shortly after; they've pretty much settled into a pattern of Ilsa civilly hating Kimblee from a distance and Kimblee not really giving a damn one way or the other.
3. Are there other blood relatives to whom he is close? Are there ones he can't stand?
He's not terribly aware of any extended family he may have, outside of maybe meeting a couple of his cousins a long time ago. He imagines he has extended family somewhere, he just never bothered to track any of them down.
4. Are there other, unrelated people whom he considers part of his family? What are his relationships with them?
None whatsoever.
5. Who is/was the character's best friend? How did they meet?
Kimblee has never been the sort for friends - even if he had friends at any given point, he never considered them to be such. His interest in people is pretty much directly tied to their usefulness to him; once they stop being useful, he'll cut ties. Closeness to others just isn't something he experiences; he has no desire for it, and so he doesn't seek it out.
6. Does he have other close friends?
No, he doesn't. Again, Kimblee doesn't do "friends" so much as he does allies - he has the Homunculi, but they're hardly his friends; he seemed pretty close with some of his commanding officers in Ishval, but uh...that didn't end well, obviously.
7. Does he make friends easily, or does he have trouble getting along with people?
Even if he doesn't make friends, he actually doesn't have too much trouble getting along with people when he puts his mind to it; he's gotten good at presenting pleasant affect displays and a sort of gentlemanly politeness toward others, and he can be downright charming when he wants to be. So he can get along with people perfectly well when he chooses to; he just doesn't do friendship.
8. Which does he consider more important: family or friends?
Neither; he pretty much lives for his own self-interest.
9. Is the character single, married, divorced, widowed? Has he been married more than once?
SINGLE. SINGLE FOREVER.
10. Is he currently in a romantic relationship with someone other than a spouse?
See above answer, my god. Trust me, it's better that way.
11. Who was his first crush? Who is his latest?
Kimblee is kind of the most aromantic thing; he's been attracted to others on a shallow level, but he's never really been interested in anyone that way.
12. What does he look for in a romantic partner?
Again, most of his interest is very shallow, but outside of physical attractiveness he tends to like powerful women - if they're capable of holding their own in a fight against him, that's when he'll take a second look.
...defeat equals dating, ladies.
13. Does the character have children? Grandchildren? If yes, how does he relate to them? If no, does he want any?
...no on all counts. Thank god.
14. Does he have any rivals or enemies?
Arguably, Kimblee has a rivalry with the entire human race; he doesn't discriminate when it comes to his marks or his orders - he'll fight whomever he's ordered to fight, and he'll fight whomever he damn well pleases along the way - and he just kind of does whatever serves him best. He's pretty much purely chaotic neutral when it comes to how he interacts with people; this doesn't tend to make him very...popular with people, so um. Yeah. Everyone, pretty much.
15. What is the character's sexual orientation? Where does he fall on the Kinsey scale?
Well, in terms of interest he's a zero on the Kinsey scale; he has no interest in men whatsoever, although he's willing to flirt with them just as much as he flirts with women - flirting is a harmless pastime, as far as he's concerned, and he finds it flattering. Likewise, if men are actually interested in him, he does find that flattering in its own way, but he doesn't return the interest and will very firmly tell them so as soon as he realizes that the flirting or affection he's receiving is genuine.
He's more willing to give women a second look, and as was stated above he's not above shallow attraction to them; in terms of actual sexual activity, however, Kimblee is rocking a very definite X on the Kinsey scale. More on that directly below.
16. How does he feel about sex? How important is it to him?
His sex drive is completely nonexistent, and he has no desire to change that; it's not anything he wants or requires, and any relationship he may be in isn't going to be a sexual one. He's not a virgin; he's been with women before, and while he doesn't find sex to be unpleasant, he didn't really enjoy it, either. It was just kind of...there for him, and he's pretty much decided that he's perfectly fine without.
17. What are his turn-ons? Turn-offs? Weird bedroom habits?
None of this is really anything he...thinks about. Although...well. It isn't exactly a weird bedroom habit, but when he does decide to humor people and actually have sex with them, he's kind of the most awkward lay in the world. Not inherently terrible, per se, but prone to a lot of issues like "Ah! My hair, you've rolled over onto my hair" (and getting his hair rolled on in turn), "Hang on, can you move, you're kind of crushing me," all sorts of odd positioning issues during penetration and the like. The actual sex would be fine, but it would pretty much be the worst foreplay session in the world.
Beliefs
1. Do you know your character's astrological (zodiac of choice) sign? How well does he fit type?
He's an Aries; he fits type reasonably well, even if he's a bit of a demented one.
2. Is this character religious, spiritual, both, or neither? How important are these elements in his life?
Kimblee is an atheist, neither religious nor spiritual; he definitely tends to look down on those who practice religious beliefs, in an "It's cute how stupid you are" sort of way, but he won't try to convince them that they're wrong, as changing what the beliefs of others isn't anything he really cares about - he'll challenge them if they're trying to convert him, but he doesn't really care about changing their minds.
As it stands, however, Kimblee doesn't believe that life has any sort of higher purpose; no deities, no predestination, no fate, there's just existence and that's all there is.
3. Does this character have a personal code of morals or ethics? If so, how did that begin? What would it take to compromise it?
As was mentioned above, Kimblee is a nihilist, and this extends to his sense of morality as well; morally, he believes that "good" and "evil" don't exist as concepts, and as such no action that can be taken is inherently better or worse than any other action. He considers morals to be contaminants of thought, keeping people from seeing the world in a true, objective manner; while he won't go out of his way to be immoral and the actions others take based on wherever they happen to fall on the morality scale tend to amuse him, he's almost entirely amoral himself.
That said, he does have a personal code of behavior that he adheres to; while the basis of it is formed through the concepts of "survival of the fittest" and "to the victors go the spoils," it's probably best summarized in its entirety as "own your actions." He doesn't believe in hypocrisy or self-victimization, and he believes that others get exactly what they deserve, whether good or bad; this often reaches extents that are unrealistic or illogical for the situation he's considering - for example, he believes that the Ishvalans deserved to be destroyed during the Annihilation Campaign simply because they weren't able to defeat the Amestrians - but at the very least he's...uh, consistent?
He also adheres very strongly to the principle of Equivalent Exchange, believing it to govern most things and citing it frequently; it's just The Way Of The World for him, so to speak, and as such he'll often cite it frequently or apply it to situations where it...doesn't necessarily make sense for him to do so, but he sees a connection somehow and so he'll attempt it anyway.
He doesn't really violate these codes of conduct any, because they're so central to whom he is; because his primary self-philosophy is based around owning one's actions, to fail at doing so would pretty much result in an existential crisis, and he'd really rather not have an existential crisis today.
4. How does he regard beliefs that differ from his? Is he tolerant, intolerant, curious, indifferent?
Kimblee is usually very curious about beliefs that differ from his - he's very inquisitive by nature, and people who act or think in ways that he doesn't understand tend to fascinate him. However, the answers usually don't affect him very much; he's interested for the sake of study of sorts, not to actually try to reform his own world views. So he's curious without being personally interested, if that makes any sense.
5. What prejudices does he hold? Are they irrational or does he have a good reason for them?
Kimblee, to be perfectly blunt, is a huge fuckin' racist. He has a strong disdain for Ishvalans, thinking of them as inherently inferior beings; he talks down to them condescendingly, taunts them and makes generally Not Okay comments about the Annihilation Campaign, flaunts the fact that he killed more Ishvalans than any other State Alchemist in the war (and given that Ishval was pretty much a bloodbath, that's saying something), tries to goad them into picking fights with him, and is generally a tremendous asshole to them as a whole. Even when he's in a situation where he has to work with an Ishvalan and be civil, he generally treats them more like one would treat a pet as opposed to a coworker, intentionally dumbing down his sentences and asking them condescending questions repeatedly as though they won't understand him otherwise.
This behavior is the result of his experiences in the Ishval War, where he pretty much served as a human weapon utilized to commit genocide against an entire race of people and so he had this sort of mentality repeatedly drilled into his head; at the same time, that obviously doesn't make it acceptable or justifiable.
Daily Life
1. What is the character's financial situation? Is he rich, poor, comfortable, in debt?
Well, at the time of the...hot mess of unfortunate with Pride before his current canon point, he was under the employ of the military and as such he was basically having all of his expenses paid for him, and he's compensated well for his services. So while he isn't rich (anymore), he's definitely comfortable, and the government is ensuring that he's at least provided for.
2. What is his social status? Has this changed over time, and if so, how has the change affected him?
Well, he was born into a very rich family; again, he wasn't spoiled, but he was definitely taken care of and never had to worry about money. This changed after Ishval, given that he was thrown into solitary confinement for seven years after killing five of his superior officers; obviously, all claim to any of his family's assets were stripped after that, though he didn't exactly suffer for it on the outside - his release was orchestrated by the government, and the situation described in the question above kicked in immediately. He was last working as a glorified hitman - though he can't say he disliked the shift from rich bitch to Psycho For Hire, let's put it that way.
3. Where does he live? House, apartment, trailer? Is his home his castle or just a place to crash? What condition is it in? Does he share it with others?
Well, after his release from prison, Kimblee was pretty much living wherever it was convenient; he finally found a place to stay after the deal at Briggs, just an apartment in Central, but he really wasn't there too much - he isn't too fond of staying indoors in one spot for very long, and it was really just a place for him to sleep and little else. He lives alone; this is probably for the best.
When it comes to places he's lived in general, most of the places he's lived have been almost overly clean on first inspection - he liked to entertain back in the day, and he'd keep anywhere that might be immediately seen completely immaculate. His personal space, however, his bedroom and the like...that's where the utter wreck came in. Stuff everywhere, and not organized in any way that makes sense to most people, though apparently Kimblee can make sense of the chaos because he knows exactly where everything happens to be among the mess and can find things easily if he needs them. He's a stupidly clean individual, though, and this extends to the wreck of a bedroom; he just doesn't...organize it any.
4. Besides the basic necessities, what does he spend his money on?
Well, a fair amount of his money goes toward financing his work - travel expenses and other things that he generally has to pay for when he's abroad and hunting down his marks; his personal spending money, however, goes toward his appearance - clothing and guyliner and the like. Especially clothing - he loves clothes, and those suits aren't cheap.
...also coffee. So much coffee.
5. What does he do for a living? Is he good at it? Does he enjoy it, or would he rather be doing something else?
As was mentioned above, Kimblee is pretty much a glorified hitman. He works on commission from the Fuhrer directly, though he also answers to the other Homunculi and receives some of his orders from Father himself - though those latter orders are less to do with carrying out hits, and more to do with assisting the remaining Homunculi if necessary. As much as he loves conflict, he definitely enjoys his work, though he doesn't let himself get too overzealous - it is a job for him, first and foremost, and not a wanton killing spree.
As for how good he actually is at it, that's arguable - his time spent in prison pretty much destroyed his reflexes and his speed is pretty terrible, and he never actually manages to kill any of his marks after his release. However, he's not completely useless, given that he manages to force Briggs into a curbstomp war with Drachma, so...
6. What are his interests or hobbies? How does he spend his free time?
Well, his interests are primarily combat-based; most of his free time is spent around regaining what strength and coordination he lost in prison, as well as researching his marks and generally keeping an eye on the current situation.
...yeah, he's kind of married to his job.
7. What are his eating habits? Does he skip meals, eat out, drink alcohol, avoid certain foods?
Kimblee tends to not eat very much, though this isn't intentional; he just tends to get focused on his work to the extent of forgetting to eat. Given how demanding his work is, however, he burns off everything he consumes and then some; prison also more or less killed any inclinations toward being picky, since in solitary the guards generally decided when and how much he got to eat - his warden was good about that and didn't deprive him, but still, it's the principle of the thing. As such, put food in front of him and he will eat - he generally doesn't care what it is, as long as it gives him energy.
He doesn't drink alcohol, since he doesn't like having his judgment impaired; as was mentioned a few questions back, however, he drinks loads of coffee. He's not a morning person and completely horrid at waking up without it, and he tends to require caffeine at some point during the day to keep himself functioning; this just gets worse during the winter months, because coffee is warm on top of keeping the blood-to-caffeine ratio in his veins nice and low.
Associations
Which of the following do you associate with the character, or which is his favorite:
1. Color? White.
2. Smell? Napalm in the morning Burning things.
3. Time of day? Early evening.
4. Season? Winter.
5. Book? Alchemy textbooks; he's surprisingly disinterested in literature.
6. Music? His own, usually - he tends to just kind of...make things up, given that after seven years of singing to himself over nothing, his repertoire started to bore him.
7. Place? Outdoors, in the snow - he's originally from the north, though not as far up as Briggs, and as such he genuinely likes snow.
8. Substance? ...as Not Okay as this answer is, whatever the hell you end up with while you're making a Philosopher's Stone is pretty awesome. Condensed souls?
9. Plant? Vines.
10. Animal? He's joining the rest of the FMA world in liking cats, as far as domesticated animals go; non-domesticated...deer, of all things.
END