Synodiporia Application

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C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: Ky Kiske
CANON: Guilty Gear
POINT IN CANON: Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus, end of Path 2
AGE: 23
APPEARANCE: Blond hair, blue-green eyes, 5’10” and 128 lbs.
CANON HISTORY:
In 2010, magic was discovered. Along with this discovery came the melding of magic and technology. As with many new inventions, thoughts turned very quickly to military applications. Genetic engineering and magical technology were blended in 2074 to create a type of bio-weapon, creatures called Gears. Meanwhile, a man known only as That Man had already created a command-type Gear, Justice. Her superior intelligence and programming enabled her to take control of all the other Gears. She was also the only one who had free will. She was given the option of following orders and killing humans in the service of A Country or being dismantled. With those as her options, she chose to declare war on all of humanity, starting the Crusades. Out of this war arose the human organization of The Sacred Order of Holy Knights to fight the Gears. By 2140 The Sacred Order was headed by Commander Kliff Undersn.

Ky Kiske was born in France in the middle of the Crusades in 2158. His parents were killed in a Gear attack when Ky was eight. Ky survived on his own for two years before he made his way to the Sacred Order and asked Commander Undersn for permission to enlist. Kliff Undersn told Ky to train for five years and see about enlisting then, which was precisely what Ky did.

When he joined the Sacred Order, therefore, Ky was fifteen. His training continued within the organization, as Kliff Undersn took a particular interest in his potential. In addition to proving himself an adept fighter and capable of yielding lightning magic, Ky showed himself to be a natural leader and devoted to his work. Kliff Undersn retired in 2174, naming sixteen-year-old Ky as his successor as Commander of the Sacred Order and gifting him with the magical artifact -- his sword, Thunderseal.

In the Battle of Rome, in 2175, Kliff Undersn battled Justice, but he was weaker than he had been when he fought her in the past. Instead of being able to fight to mutual defeat, Justice beat Kliff. Ky stepped in to take over the battle, preventing Justice from killing Kliff. Ky was not able to defeat her either, but a former member of the Sacred Order of Holy Knights and current bounty hunter, Sol Badguy, was able to step in to weaken Justice. With that done, Ky and some of the Holy Knights were able to trap Justice in an inter-dimensional seal. Without her control, the other Gears went dormant and ceased to be an active threat to humanity. The war, which had lasted a little over a hundred years and taken many human lives (including the entire nation of Japan) was finally over.

After the conclusion of the war, Ky disbanded The Sacred Order of Holy Knights and he joined the International Police Force, working for the United Nations. His service record and focus led him to quickly rise the ranks to Captain. As a result of rumors of the possible freeing of Justice in 2180, a number of people entered The Second Sacred Order Tournament, ostensibly hosted by the UN to defeat the threat of Justice. Once the tournament was underway, it was revealed that it had been orchestrated by one still-functioning Gear, Testament, as a way to bring Justice back and have her destroy mankind. At the end of the tournament, however, Sol Badguy was able to defeat Testament and then kill Justice. The other Gears (excluding Testament) once again lost their ability to act.

Kliff Undersn died, and Testament, who had been his adoptive son prior to being turned into a Gear in 2140, and was now finally free of Justice's influence, swore on his father's grave that he would fight for those who needed protecting in Kliff's vision. He then met a three-year-old (although she has the physical and mental maturity of a twenty-year-old) half-Gear who has similar Command abilities to Justice: Dizzy. Dizzy was Justice's daughter, although she lacked her mother's hatred of humanity.

Still, the idea of a new Gear capable of controlling the army of dormant Gears scared people, and a new tournament in 2181 was hosted with a reward for whoever killed Dizzy. Both Sol and Ky fought and defeated Dizzy, but both spared her life when they found her not to be a threat to humanity. Dizzy was then placed with Johnny and the Jellyfish Pirates, a group who acted outside of the law but from a strong sense of morality. She was reported to the organizers of the tournament as dead, and another bounty hunter took the reward.

CANON PERSONALITY:
The first thing people tend to notice when they look at Ky -- assuming they don't already know him as a hero or a pest (or both) -- is the white uniform of the Sacred Order of Holy Knights, an organization that Ky himself, as the former commander, disbanded. The war against the Gears is over, his uniform says, but the oath he took to fight for the sake of humanity is not. That or it says that he has a stick up his ass. Either way, it says that at 23 he fights with the fervor of any religious soldier, although his pursuit is rooted in a strong concept of justice.

To understand Ky, it's most important to look at his origins. He grew up in a world torn by war, a war that had lasted nearly a hundred years by then, and a war where the enemy of humanity sought to wipe out them all. Where the nation of Japan had been entirely destroyed, and much more local attacks ravaged the rest of the world. It was to this world (and this war) that Ky lost his parents, and in this world there was one particular force that stood against the darkness, the aforementioned Sacred Order of Holy Knights. At the age of 10, orphaned and unwilling to be helpless, Ky went to the Commander of the Sacred Order, Kliff Undersn, and asked to be allowed to join. Kliff told Ky to practice and train, and if he was serious, to come back in five years. Ky was serious -- and diligent, devoted, stubborn, and always willing to push himself for the sake of other people -- and when he came back at the age of fifteen, still young, even in this war-torn and desperate world, Kliff allowed him to join, and much more besides.

There are three factors about Ky that allowed him to rapidly gain in rank within the Order, until Commander Kliff decided that Ky should be his replacement when he stepped down, only a year later. These factors also helped him after the war, helping him to ascend to Captain of the International Police Force in a short timeframe.

The first is his fighting ability and the effort he pushes into improving it, his refusal to believe that there are things he can't do, if he just works hard enough. He becomes capable of pursuing tasks that he was initially unable to do, with the most obvious example being his mastery over his lightning magic. Lightning is generally considered the most difficult element to master, and Ky has been able to concentrate on his skills and focus them to the level where he can control his sword, Thunderseal, a magical artifact that enhances the lightning powers he has. Ky is merely human, less powerful in magic and physical ability than many of his opponents and many Gears, but he does his best to make up with that with his technique, adapting and experimenting and never giving up.

The second thing that makes Ky suitable as a leader is his strong sense of responsibility and duty. Ky puts his personal life secondary to the oaths he has sworn and those that he simply accepted onto himself. It hurts him every time he lost a soldier under his command, and yet he understands that they've all promised to protect civilians, with their own lives where necessary. Ky has accepted his own potential death, his greatest concern should that happen is that there be someone else willing and able to take over for him, to pursue what he'd die in the line of duty pursuing.

The third aspect about Ky that makes him a leader is his sort of natural charisma. Before getting into that, though, it's important to note that Ky is terrible at talking to people and relating to them on an individual level. He's awkward and poorly socialized, doesn't even get talking on a purely social level. He gave up his childhood in pursuit of justice and duty, and it shows really well in his interactions with people. He is easily scandalized (as seen by his stuttering request to Jam that she not kick so high if she's going to wear a skirt that short) and he doesn't know how to request things from people beyond putting forth the fact that it's duty. (Which is something most people don’t feel as strongly about as he does.)

It's in groups that Ky shines, particularly in terms of groups he's commanding or protecting. Ky has the ability to speak about hope and justice and he believes in both of them so fervently that he can push that belief on to other people. He can promise that he'll do everything he can to protect people, and they believe it because that's who he is, that's what he does. (In truth by the end of the war he'd taken on a particular role as the savior of humanity, and while it was something he was starkly uncomfortable with, he put up with it, because he knew that people needed hope, and that he was that hope for them.)

At the conclusion of the war, Ky still saw that there was plenty to do in the world, and it's that which he works on now. Ky's the kind of person who sees that there is evil in the world and therefore can't imagine doing anything other than fighting it. He still hasn't relaxed, hasn't learned to relax, and feels a certain singlemindedness in the pursuit of duty. Ky has learned that not everything in the world is black-and-white, that obeying his superiors isn't always a good idea and that not all Gears want to destroy humanity.

The last lesson came from an innocent girl named Dizzy, who Ky, when faced with, saw nothing evil in her eyes, and chose to spare her life, believing she would be no threat. Dizzy, is, in fact, naive in a way entirely separate from how Ky is, and he greatly respects the pureness with which she sees the world, the fact that she expects the best of people, even as he wants to protect her from those who would harm her, those who don't fit into her view.

Ky's interactions with Dizzy reflect something else about him: his sense of chivalry. Although Ky doesn't fight without reason, he holds back when fighting women because he doesn't wish to hurt them. He goes out of his way to do things such as escorting May back to the gate, where she will be safe. Another aspect which informs Ky's communications with women is his lack of sexual experience, which in general comes from his single-minded dedication to his work and his experiences with the church, which argues for saving it for marriage. There is one woman whom Ky treats separately from his rules: I-no. As he says when he fights her, "I see nothing but evil in your eyes. You may be a woman, but I'll never let my guard down." In his eyes, she doesn't deserve his protection or kindness, although when they first met he had given her the benefit of the doubt.

To speak more about Ky's faith, he's Catholic, and he grew up within essentially the Sacred Order of Holy Knights, an organization that was not religiously prescriptive (Sol, quick to declare his atheism, was a member, and he didn't clash on that respect) but which did preach putting faith in God and serving His will. For Ky, that was a relief, his ability to serve God and his belief that God is looking out for humanity is strong and has not been swayed by what he's been through in his life. There's a part of Ky, though, that's sheltered, even for all he's seen, because what he's seen has been a very narrow segment of what life has to offer, as focused on duty as he always is.

A personality section for Ky wouldn't be complete without talking about his ally and rival, Sol Badguy. Ky first met him during the war, when he was one of Commander Undersn's soldiers. Sol's never gotten on well with commanders and rituals and military leaders, having entered the Order mostly because it was how he could get his hands on Fireseal, a magical sword (and one of eight such weapons, Ky's Thunderseal is another).

Sol and Ky clash, with Sol refusing to call Ky anything but 'boy', even long after Ky considers himself grown up, and with Ky grating at Sol's refusal to put forth full effort, and to share what he knows with Ky. As is fairly obvious, Sol and Ky's clashing is, for the most part, Sol simply doing his own thing and that not going over very well with Ky. Sol knows that putting forth his full effort in a fight could very well kill the boy, since Sol's not human, he's a Gear (although not controlled as the others are) and that most of the time he doesn't want to fight, so he ends up losing. Ky sees this as a personal affront, thinks that Sol doesn't think he's worthy of being fought as a true foe. It's a bit of a complicated relationship.

Ky tends to irritate others, people who think he's too bound to the rules of what he's doing without considering the context, or those who simply think him too earnest and well-meaning, but his interests don't coincide with theirs.

Ky's primary weakness is his temper. It isn't difficult to provoke, and once it has been it controls him, rather than him controlling it. He's uptight and easily offended, and he doesn't do much to relax because he doesn't think relaxing is an important thing to do. Although he now recognizes that the path to achieve justice is not always clear, he still believes that there is a correct path that can be found, and that he should spend all his effort following it. As one of the game's info puts it: "He possesses a fragile mind that quickly erupts when he encounters anyone who breaks his rules or disrupts his order. In other words, he has a hard time dealing with freedom, a fact he has yet to realize." Ky's lack of realization at this point verges on being a stubborn refusal, a belief that he is willing to die for a cause, and therefore he should live solely for it.

Ky also greatly dislikes science and engineering, seeing them as responsible for the Gears. The Catholic church branded many kinds of technology "black-tech" and Ky has thoroughly swallowed the party line in regards to that.

POINT OF DEPARTURE: OU
ABILITIES: Ky fights with lightning magic -- a relatively rare type of magic for the Guilty Gear universe -- and he does so quite well. His magic is amplified through his sword, Thunderseal, which he can channel his magic through, or use as a simple sword. With his magic he can send projectiles, aim precise lightning bolts, and surround other people with electricity, on occasion. He's very practiced both in control of his magic and of swordplay, having been training diligently with the sword since he was 10, and with his magic since it developed.
INVENTORY; the uniform of the Sacred Order of Holy Knights, a belt with the word "Hope" engraved on it, La Bible de Jérusalem, rosary, a prayer book, cross necklace, a book of poetry, a day's worth of rations. Thunderseal/Fuuraiken — his sword (a magical artifact).
ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW? Nope

S A M P L E S;
ACTIONSPAM SAMPLE:
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Thread 2

PROSE SAMPLE:
Ky has been looking for answers for a long time, and most of the time he only finds more questions. What was the post-war administration bureau, what did they want to do to the world, what was their involvement with the international police force, could his supervisors be trusted, how had the situation with the Gears gotten so bad, could they in fact have souls, what was the PWAB’s plans for him and how did he foil them, what would it take to get Sol to fight him like an equal, and so on. Questions, Ky was used to.

And so as he looks around this Liminal Space that they’re in, this sudden surround of sound and sensation, where the whisper of voices challenges Ky to listen when what he wants to do is look.

“Welcome, Fellow Traveler”, one of them says, and Ky turns, tries to find it, and in the absence of finding the owner decides that it won’t hurt to be polite here, that politeness is just as useful of a skill here as it is anywhere else.

“Thank you,” he says, feeling a little silly when he’s not sure who he’s talking to, but determined nonetheless. “If you could explain how I’ve gotten here, I’d appreciate it.”

There’s no answer. “Perhaps you know where we’re travelling to, then?” he asks, not holding out much hope for an answer this second time.

Well, if that’s the case, if he’s on his own, then he’ll just have to find out his answers on his own. That’s what he’s had to do every other time, and even if every answer opens up a hundred more questions, ignorance is still not an option. He has things to do, and anything that makes him feel as uneasy as this place does is clearly a danger to others.