Sunshine Applications (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sunshineapps) wrote2015-04-04 10:05 pm
sunshineapps) wrote2015-04-04 10:05 pm
Entry tags:
Gale
Name: Gale
Canon: Digital Devil Saga
Character Journal:vitalfunction
Gender: Male
Age: 24 (but appears in his early thirties due to side-effects of the Atma)
Birthday:April 24th
Village Affiliation: Summoning Island (Loyal to the Embryon Tribe)
Rank: Soldier; effectively Jounin in skill and authority in the Tribe
Canon History: Wiki is a lifesaver
Canon Abilities/Powers:
General skills: (human)
Mind:
Gale is the tactician and strategist. He's exceptionally intelligent and perceptive, and one of the main reasons a tiny Tribe was able to hold their own with so many larger, more powerful Tribes were around. He has great knowledge of tactics, and is able to adapt and respond to things quickly and without losing sight of the bigger picture.
Body:
He is obviously fit, but not bulked up with muscle. He's also quite quick and graceful, and precise in his movements. He's able to kick out the knife in his boot and hold it to someone's (who's notably taller than him) neck, and then proceed to have a short conversation without any difficulty with balance, or injury to the other person.
Weapons:
Primary: Assault rifle. In terms of ability, it's capable of both selective and automatic (but not for sustained periods) fire, and fits Gale nicely in between Argilla, the sniper, and Cielo, who wields a machine gun.
Secondary: Gale carries concealed blades, most obviously in his right boot with a spring trigger mechanism.
Detailed skills: (Demon)
Atma: the wiki description is here and covers it better than I could. But basically, Atma is a magical virus that turns the user into a demon and brands them with a mark that allows them to transform into that demonic avatar form.
Gale's Avatar is Vayu (for some mythological background) and transforms him into a form with flightless wings that aid in agility, that primarily fights with his feet, and bone-blades that extend out between the toes. With Vayu, Gale becomes resistant to Force (wind) and weak to Electric.
The Atma gives him many benefits, including greater strength and resilience and the ability to use magic, but comes at the price of being forced to devour other demons/humans in order to survive and not go utterly insane and attack anything in sight.
Stats:
Gale is incredibly well balanced in terms of general skill and ability. His magic is slightly higher, but only luck lags behind the rest. While he doesn't truly excel at anything, he can do a little bit of everything. And this fact makes him an incredibly versatile backup in most situations.
For example, Gale's stats at different points are:
Joining party:
Strength: 18
Vitality: 16
Magic: 20
Agility: 15
Luck: 9
Mid-game:
Strength: 37
Vitality: 31
Magic: 44
Agility: 33
Luck: 19
End-game:
Strength: 72
Vitality: 63
Magic: 75
Agility: 62
Luck: 46
While he lags behind Argilla in the magic department, Gale overall tends to have the second highest magic of those characters where the player can't allocate skill points to customize stat growth. Because his skills tend to be so close together, he also has decent strength, though he's less likely to use it as a first form of offense. He also has decent agility, tending to be only slightly behind Argilla in that stat as well. In fact, in Vayu's form, he is able to effectively dodge automatic gunfire using his agility and speed.
Magic/Skills
So, as a note to start? All the available abilities in the game are listed on this image. And depending on a player's choices, and funds, Gale (and any other playable character) can learn every single one. Oh, and they can switch out between skills, so a skill is never lost, even though only eight can be "active" at any time. It is a great advantage to the player to have the main cast master as many mantras as possible, which makes describing what exactly his magic abilities are difficult to describe.
However, before he joins the party, he has mastered the following:
Force: This class is elemental, roughly equivalent to wind, and not only includes damaging spells, but spells to protect from the element or to boost the damage it does. His highest mantra includes the second level of damage against single enemies, and a spell that repels the damage if used against his party while it's active.
Healing: Gale has mastered the first Healing mantra, which include actual healing, and also spells to remove/heal different status effects and ailments. It also has Analyze, which tells enemy HP MP level and Weaknesses
Ailments: Speaking of, Gale went on to master the first Ailment mantra, which allows him to cast spells to not only cause them, but block the same spells in return.
Death: Gale also has mastered the first of Death, which casts a spell with a (low) chance of instant kill, and also includes a protective spell that blocks death, and a spell for quicker escapes.
In addition to those paths, even if the "make everyone learn everything" route isn't taken, it's extremely useful to leveling and mastering mantras to have all characters learn the "hunt" abilities, which are physical skills that specifically relate to devouring enemies. And it's also beneficial to have characters learn the elemental route of their weakness (which for Gale in the game would be Electricity), as that route ends with a passive skill that gets rid of that weakness.
Appearance: Just going to put an image here
That said! Gale isn't particularly physically intimidating. He's about 5'8'' and has a wiry "dancer's" build. His hair and eyes match and are a vivid sea green color. His other very noticeable feature is his Atma, on his left calf and covering much of it. It resembles a snarling tornado with teeth, and is called "Twister." When he's upset or about to transform it glows green, and green lines extend out from it over the rest of his body.
Like the rest of the tribe, he wears gray and black body armor. The black under-armor is short sleeved but with a high neck, and extends to the knees. Over that he wears a protectivecorset armor sleeve over his body, covering from chest down to groin, and armored pants that end slightly below the knee. This leaves most of his arms and his lower legs bare. He wears short rise boots and fingerless gloves, and his most distinctive piece of clothing in the tribe is his protective hood. Like the rest it's armored/reinforced, and he's painted the Embryon orange on the sides to declare his loyalty.
Then when he transforms into Vayu, he changes drastically. First, he gets larger and bulkier, soaring up in height to about 6'4'' and he also gains four green "wings" that do not help him fly, but are useful for adjusting movement and increasing dodging ability. These wings usually shield his arms, and his primary physical fighting style in Vayu's form is with his legs. He has long legs, and each one has a sharp "bone" blade that can be sheathed and appear as a bone jutting out of the heel, or extended, and protrude from between the toes. He kicks and cuts down opponents with those blades and rarely if ever has both feet on the ground. Also, his head has no apparent eyes, though there are a series of round depressions all over his body which may or may not act as some kind of sensors. His mouth is a vertical slit that literally splits the head in two, down to about where the nose would be, and the jaws are full of jagged teeth.
Personality:
Gale is the analyst and tactician of the Tribe. He's a chessmaster, and he's always trying to think a dozen moves ahead. He's also incredibly intelligent, which goes without saying, making him exceptionally good at his role.
Before emotions awaken to the Tribe, he is able to work cohesively with them effortlessly, and after emotions awaken he's one of the first to notice changes, and to actively resist them himself. He initially sees these emotional changes as unpredictable and a detriment, so when emotions and memories push, he pushes back hard to avoid feeling them.
While he's flexible in battle, for the most part he doesn't like change. Control is important for him, and changes out of his control (like betrayal or awakened emotions) bother him. He does learn to be more accepting of the change around him, but it's slow.
Gale can also be a bit of an ass. He's so focused on the logical, intellectual side, that he misses completely the idea of someone mourning, and is one of the last to realize that others can become comrades to them. Even once he awakens emotions, he isn't always the best in tune with them, and is often the one most easily confused by what he's feeling.
That said, once his emotions develop, the fledgling sense of honor he'd been subconsciously displaying awakens in force. Because to look at things completely logically, the Embryon had almost no chance of fighting and winning against so many larger Tribes, so why didn't Gale defect and work for someone else? Simply, honor and loyalty he didn't know he had yet.
Still, that honor isn't goodness all on its own. Gale is heavily an "ends justifies the means" guy before his emotions awaken and it doesn't go away entirely afterward. While he would no longer consider betrayal an option, if he doesn't care about individuals in question, he is potentially willing to sacrifice others to see that his Tribe is secure and relatively happy.
And when he develops a connection to someone, he defends them fiercely, and is willing to go up against the 'natural order' he's known all his life for their sake, and dishonorable actions will send him into an indignant anger, though Gale's anger tends to burn cold and calculating instead of a wildfire. So Gale does feel, and in cases just as strongly, if not more so, than other members of the Tribe. Usually, though, he has a good handle on his emotions because he's got an iron will and mostly good self-control.
He also develops a very dry and subtle sense of humor and teasing once his emotions awaken, and when he feels it's safe he's willing to relax a little bit and joke or tease.
Strengths and Weaknesses:
+ Intelligent and analytical
+ excellent strategist and tactician
+ very honorable and loyal
+/- mostly calm and detached
+/- very well-balanced, skill-wise (but does not excel at anything)
- difficulty with emotions leads to hurdles in dealing with others
- does not react well to changes that he cannot predict as possible (emotions, etc)
- hunger; and Gale is one of the few members of the group that succumbs to it, though he is saved in time. As a note, the hunger slowly increases until the person goes berserk and loses all sense of self. They then succumb to the Avatar and mindlessly attack and try to eat anything in their path. However, Sera, a member of the group has a method to calm them if they haven't advanced too far into the berserk state.
Sunshine Abilities/Powers:
Taijutsu:
Gale is much more about grace and preciseness than power. He's competent with taijutsu but doesn't excel at it, and rarely uses it as a first line of offense/defense. His hits won't hurt as much as someone who excels, but on the other hand, his preciseness and knowledge mean he knows where to hit to get the most effect. As a note, he primarily fights with his legs, using his agility and the greater muscle power to make up for his lack of upper body power. His agility makes him very good at dodging, and he's also very fast, but he's not sturdy enough to go up against a heavy hitter and last long if they're landing blows on him.
Weapons:
Gale's go to choice in a fight, especially before the introduction of ninjutsu and the Atma Seals. Gale primarily uses projectiles and can either throw one at a time, or many at once for effect. His aim isn't the best of the Tribe, but it's good, and Gale is also a quick thinker and able to adjust his aim to different conditions. He also keeps concealed blades in his boots, spring loaded to unsheath when he wants them to.
Ninjutsu:
Elemental: Gale's primary affinity is wind, and he knows several devastating jutsu to wield against single or multiple opponents. He can also use the wind to block or deflect incoming projectiles. To cover for his weakness to Fire, Lupa taught him some Fire Release, and while he's still learning to master them, he's quickly becoming competent.
Once he gets out into the larger world and has access to learning the expanded jutsu pool, he'll be able to learn almost any Wind Release, and many Fire Release.
Genjutsu: Gale's specialty. He's learned how to cause fear and to paralyze, confuse or otherwise incapacitate opponents with them. One of his favorites is a small genjutsu that reduces an opponent's accuracy and ability to dodge blows. He can also combine genjutsu with Yin seals for more devastating and long lasting effects. One example is 'charming' an enemy into turning on their allies and ignoring the Embryon, often without realising that they've done so.
Yin Release: As an extension of his genjutsu abilities, Gale can use other forms of Yin Release. One of his favorite uses is to use Yin Release that saps a person's physical energy, and/or chakra away, making it more difficult for them to land hard blows and achieve jutsu.
Medical ninjutsu/ Yang Release: Gale is the backup medic of the Tribe. He's not as skilled as their primary (Argilla), but he's competent in both more mundane medical techniques, and basic Medical Ninjutsu. He tends to specialize, however, in other applications, veering into more straight Yang Release that will increase his comrade's stamina, strength and chakra effectiveness for more powerful jutsu over limited times. He has another jutsu which will give the user short boosts of speed and agility that will increase their ability to dodge attacks.
Seals: Gale is also one of the leaders in seal workings. He's the manufacturer of the Tribe's Explosive tags, for example, and is the one who seals their belongings into scrolls when they're on the move so they aren't weighed down by so much stuff. He's also learned some Juinjutsu that will temporarily seal off an opponent's chakra to make it nearly impossible for them to use it.
--Death Seal: The Death Seal in particular combines powerful Yin chakra into a specialized Seal. When activated the Death Seal can literally drain a person's physical energy away, sometimes to the point of literally killing them in an instant. The basic Death Seals are best as traps, pre-laid out on the ground to be activated on contact. However, Gale has developed a method to make the seals somewhat more portable, if less effective. He also has a counter-seal that he can use to reduce effectiveness greatly if others try to use it against him.
Atma Seal:
The Atma Seals are one of the primary experimental jusu that the researchers holding Gale and the other test subjects captive were testing. The idea behind them was to make Jinchuuriki without access to the Bijuu themselves, and the researchers did locate a class of spiritual demons/monsters that could be sealed into people to grant them more powerful abilities. Thus, the Atma Seals were born.
The basic effects of the Atma Seals are:
--increased strength and stamina and durability
--enhanced ability to use chakra and ninjutsu
--the ability to transform at will into a demon avatar
--resistance or immunity to certain diseases (one being a result of a localized calamity that turned any person near it into stone)
--the weakening of the memory wiping and emotion blocking jutsu used on them, allowing the person to re-emerge with at least emotions and their personality, if not memories of what happened before.
The side effects of the Atma Seals are:
--potential to be taken over by the spirit, the human personality lost forever
--effects of the spirit on the personality of the host, resulting in smaller permanent changes
--the spirits, having no physical energy or chakra, are incredibly taxing on the host, rapidly breaking down the mind and body. They require the host to take in vast amounts of physical energy and chakra to sustain themselves, and failing to do so causes the mind to go first, transforming them into a berserk state with only one goal and no recognition of friend or foe.
--as a result of this need, those inflicted with Atma Seals must consume chakra and physical energy heavy flesh regularly, and have an inescapable and powerful hunger for it. As it's primarily humans and summon animals that contain it, they've mostly become obligate cannibals.
--the taxing process of sustaining a seal and transforming causes rapid physical aging, resulting in most of the Tribe looking older than they are
There are two kinds of Atma Seals, depending on the type of spirit sealed. Lesser ones seal weaker spirits that are more numerous, creating identical Seal brands, and having all the affected persons transform into the same Avatar form. Greater ones seal stronger spirits, called Asura, and each greater seal is unique to the person bearing it, as well as their form being unique.
Gale's Atma Seal is called "Twister" and the Asura avatar called Vayu. This represents his powerful Wind Release that he's capable of, as well as his quick thinking and agility in mind and body.
Other:
To account for the Analyze skill, and his general purpose within the group, I'm going to say that Gale has a minor sensor ability. It's woefully underdeveloped, but if he focuses, he can determine things like where concealed enemies are (in most cases), and what an enemy's chakra affinity and general chakra reserve is.
Sunshine History:
As some broad strokes basics, there was a calamity somewhere in the world that ended up unleashing an "illness" that caused people to turn to stone. It was localized, but wasn't going away and there were worries about it spreading. So a research group was organized, primarily in secret, to look into it and combat it. Then experiments and research started going wrong, and they got off course of their original goal, and also were taken over by/absorbed into a more military minded group that wished to create the perfect soldiers.
Fast forward, and this research group has found and taken over Summoning Island, and uses the Ruins there as an arena to test out their most recent experiment. These are shinobi, having had their memories and personalities wiped out, being trained by constant combat to be the best of the best. Unhindered by emotions, and with unquestioning obedience to orders and "laws," these are meant to be the perfect mercenaries. The test subjects have been kidnapped from the other nations, usually at a young age, and subjected to ruthless training before being wiped and shoved into the Ruins at physical maturity. The subjects are organized into color-coded "Tribes" and each assigned a territory in the Ruins, and ruled over by the researchers, inhabiting a tower in the center and a base outside of the Ruins.
The goal told to the subjects is to wipe out all the other Tribes and ascend to Nirvana (with any survivors joining the victorious Tribe), and initially, the test subjects were only given knowledge of taijutsu and weapons. However when it was time to reintroduce ninjutsu, the mysterious Angel, decided to stage a coup and also gave everyone still alive in the Ruins an Atma Seal and a new order. Not just wiping out their enemies, but devouring them, and also to return to her the "black-haired girl" who'd escaped.
Gale himself doesn't know any of this at the beginning, and only learns bits and pieces. He finally remembers only one solid memory of before the Ruins, and that is of a woman with a strong resemblance to Angel crying against a bright light in the background. Gale and the Embryon end up taking care of the "black-haired girl", Sera, though Gale doesn't trust her, and especially her ability to temporarily soothe the Atma induced hunger and berserk state.
However, in the chaos after the Atma Seals, the Embryon are able to wipe out the Vanguards, and gain extra territory and members, but it's not enough to challenge the largest and most powerful tribes. Gale suggests a false alliance, to use the power of one of the other small Tribes, and work with them to take out a larger Tribe, and then take advantage of the situation to afterwards wipe out that Tribe as well. He's strongly overruled on the false part, and the suggested betrayal, but the consensus is that an alliance will benefit them.
The other Tribe, the Maribel, insist that the Embryon prove themselves, and they do, defeating the Tribe's second, Bat, in combat. Argilla forms a fast but strong bond with the Maribel leader, Jinana, which helps the alliance. The alliance is made, and they launch a daring plan to assassinate the leader of one of the largest Tribes, the Solids.
And… they're betrayed by Bat! The Maribel leader, Jinana, ends up losing control and going berserk, then dying in the resulting confrontation, and the Solids, while many of their number died, are not taken out. The Embryon go after Bat, only to get lured into a trap, and the Embryon base is attacked, and Sera kidnapped.
She's taken to a currently unoccupied location in the Ruins, and the Embryon rush to her rescue. They fight their way through, and during a confrontation the Embryon leader, Serph, and another member, Heat, are forced into a fight, but Sera shows off that she's not as powerless as she appears, and during her escape, Bat is injured by one of the last members of the Embryon core. The leader of the Solids is then taken out of the picture, and Gale, knowing that Bat is going to ally with the Brutes, suggests a trap.
At another location, the remains of a massive shipwreck, the trap is set with massive explosive seals, courtesy of Gale, and sprung, finally killing Bat and a number of the Brutes. Needing time to recover and regroup, the Embryon head to a new base location, where they find out that the last remaining leader, that of the Wolves, Lupa, wishes to talk with them, after the Brutes have nearly decimated the Wolves Tribe.
During the meeting Gale is suspicious of Lupa's intentions and challenges him, kicking out a knife to his throat. Lupa does not resist, but is firm that Gale will not hurt him because Gale has 'honor.' This confuses Gale enough to back down, and the two embark on a fledgling relationship, talking and discussing things and exchanging jutsu, with Lupa revealing information that makes them all sure that there's something very wrong. How can they know about children, if there are none? Gale then declares that Lupa will come with them to Nirvana, and if the Tower decides to stop them, Gale will tear down the Tower himself.
Together, the remaining Wolves and the Embryon form a plan to get to the leader of the Brutes, but they are intercepted, and the leader of the Brutes forces Lupa into a berserk state, nearly destroying the core group of the Embryon with Lupa used as a weapon against him. After the fatal blow, Lupa asks Gale to devour him and with his last words, tells Gale about the child he remembers and Gale promises to find that child and convey the message, before complying with Lupa's other request and screaming in rage that the Tower will regret doing this to them.
But the plan is put into motion and they cannot stop, and the leader of the Brutes reveals that he's fully remembered his former life and taunts them with that information before getting killed. The Embryon head up the tower for answers, after Sera flees there to try to stop the destruction. They meet and fight Angel there, and Gale realizes that somehow, she's the woman he remembers crying, but in the end the self-destruct mechanism for the entire Ruins ends up activated. They all are forced to flee, Gale helping Angel up personally, and end up outside the Ruins for the first time any of them actually remember. Angel disappears, and they overrun the other research base, discovering Missive Scrolls, and other limited information on the outside world.
Prose sample: here!
Missive Sample:
[The symbol that appears on the Seal Scrolls is from a shinobi missing and presumed dead for years. The handwriting on it, however, is so painstakingly neat that it almost looks mechanically reproduced, but that’s not possible, right?]
I understand that this scroll allows for swift communication over distances. We require information.
Is this Nirvana?
I calculate the chance of a negative answer to that question as high, therefore, we need to know whose territory we are currently in. The terrain is composed of steep inclines and
[Here there is a blotch of something scribbled out and a vastly different hand intrudes, loopy and a little careless.] trees! They are trees and bushes and
[The original handwriting is back] there is alsoa large amount of water a bay the sea ocean is the most correct, I believe, nearby. Life that is present is primarily demons large ani summons.
[Another hand intrudes, this one an angular scrawl, almost illegible even without the attempt to cross it out.]who the hell cares who’s territory this was we’ll kick your asses it’s ours n
[The original handwriting again.] Please disregard that. We have no intention of initiating hostilities at this time. Other important information will include dates, which othertri clans the consensus is that country is the correct word, exist and are in power, and which ones are warring with the others. An explanation of what exactly a country entails would also be useful appreciated.
the Embryon
Canon: Digital Devil Saga
Character Journal:
vitalfunctionGender: Male
Age: 24 (but appears in his early thirties due to side-effects of the Atma)
Birthday:April 24th
Village Affiliation: Summoning Island (Loyal to the Embryon Tribe)
Rank: Soldier; effectively Jounin in skill and authority in the Tribe
Canon History: Wiki is a lifesaver
Canon Abilities/Powers:
General skills: (human)
Mind:
Gale is the tactician and strategist. He's exceptionally intelligent and perceptive, and one of the main reasons a tiny Tribe was able to hold their own with so many larger, more powerful Tribes were around. He has great knowledge of tactics, and is able to adapt and respond to things quickly and without losing sight of the bigger picture.
Body:
He is obviously fit, but not bulked up with muscle. He's also quite quick and graceful, and precise in his movements. He's able to kick out the knife in his boot and hold it to someone's (who's notably taller than him) neck, and then proceed to have a short conversation without any difficulty with balance, or injury to the other person.
Weapons:
Primary: Assault rifle. In terms of ability, it's capable of both selective and automatic (but not for sustained periods) fire, and fits Gale nicely in between Argilla, the sniper, and Cielo, who wields a machine gun.
Secondary: Gale carries concealed blades, most obviously in his right boot with a spring trigger mechanism.
Detailed skills: (Demon)
Atma: the wiki description is here and covers it better than I could. But basically, Atma is a magical virus that turns the user into a demon and brands them with a mark that allows them to transform into that demonic avatar form.
Gale's Avatar is Vayu (for some mythological background) and transforms him into a form with flightless wings that aid in agility, that primarily fights with his feet, and bone-blades that extend out between the toes. With Vayu, Gale becomes resistant to Force (wind) and weak to Electric.
The Atma gives him many benefits, including greater strength and resilience and the ability to use magic, but comes at the price of being forced to devour other demons/humans in order to survive and not go utterly insane and attack anything in sight.
Stats:
Gale is incredibly well balanced in terms of general skill and ability. His magic is slightly higher, but only luck lags behind the rest. While he doesn't truly excel at anything, he can do a little bit of everything. And this fact makes him an incredibly versatile backup in most situations.
For example, Gale's stats at different points are:
Joining party:
Strength: 18
Vitality: 16
Magic: 20
Agility: 15
Luck: 9
Mid-game:
Strength: 37
Vitality: 31
Magic: 44
Agility: 33
Luck: 19
End-game:
Strength: 72
Vitality: 63
Magic: 75
Agility: 62
Luck: 46
While he lags behind Argilla in the magic department, Gale overall tends to have the second highest magic of those characters where the player can't allocate skill points to customize stat growth. Because his skills tend to be so close together, he also has decent strength, though he's less likely to use it as a first form of offense. He also has decent agility, tending to be only slightly behind Argilla in that stat as well. In fact, in Vayu's form, he is able to effectively dodge automatic gunfire using his agility and speed.
Magic/Skills
So, as a note to start? All the available abilities in the game are listed on this image. And depending on a player's choices, and funds, Gale (and any other playable character) can learn every single one. Oh, and they can switch out between skills, so a skill is never lost, even though only eight can be "active" at any time. It is a great advantage to the player to have the main cast master as many mantras as possible, which makes describing what exactly his magic abilities are difficult to describe.
However, before he joins the party, he has mastered the following:
Force: This class is elemental, roughly equivalent to wind, and not only includes damaging spells, but spells to protect from the element or to boost the damage it does. His highest mantra includes the second level of damage against single enemies, and a spell that repels the damage if used against his party while it's active.
Healing: Gale has mastered the first Healing mantra, which include actual healing, and also spells to remove/heal different status effects and ailments. It also has Analyze, which tells enemy HP MP level and Weaknesses
Ailments: Speaking of, Gale went on to master the first Ailment mantra, which allows him to cast spells to not only cause them, but block the same spells in return.
Death: Gale also has mastered the first of Death, which casts a spell with a (low) chance of instant kill, and also includes a protective spell that blocks death, and a spell for quicker escapes.
In addition to those paths, even if the "make everyone learn everything" route isn't taken, it's extremely useful to leveling and mastering mantras to have all characters learn the "hunt" abilities, which are physical skills that specifically relate to devouring enemies. And it's also beneficial to have characters learn the elemental route of their weakness (which for Gale in the game would be Electricity), as that route ends with a passive skill that gets rid of that weakness.
Appearance: Just going to put an image here
That said! Gale isn't particularly physically intimidating. He's about 5'8'' and has a wiry "dancer's" build. His hair and eyes match and are a vivid sea green color. His other very noticeable feature is his Atma, on his left calf and covering much of it. It resembles a snarling tornado with teeth, and is called "Twister." When he's upset or about to transform it glows green, and green lines extend out from it over the rest of his body.
Like the rest of the tribe, he wears gray and black body armor. The black under-armor is short sleeved but with a high neck, and extends to the knees. Over that he wears a protective
Then when he transforms into Vayu, he changes drastically. First, he gets larger and bulkier, soaring up in height to about 6'4'' and he also gains four green "wings" that do not help him fly, but are useful for adjusting movement and increasing dodging ability. These wings usually shield his arms, and his primary physical fighting style in Vayu's form is with his legs. He has long legs, and each one has a sharp "bone" blade that can be sheathed and appear as a bone jutting out of the heel, or extended, and protrude from between the toes. He kicks and cuts down opponents with those blades and rarely if ever has both feet on the ground. Also, his head has no apparent eyes, though there are a series of round depressions all over his body which may or may not act as some kind of sensors. His mouth is a vertical slit that literally splits the head in two, down to about where the nose would be, and the jaws are full of jagged teeth.
Personality:
Gale is the analyst and tactician of the Tribe. He's a chessmaster, and he's always trying to think a dozen moves ahead. He's also incredibly intelligent, which goes without saying, making him exceptionally good at his role.
Before emotions awaken to the Tribe, he is able to work cohesively with them effortlessly, and after emotions awaken he's one of the first to notice changes, and to actively resist them himself. He initially sees these emotional changes as unpredictable and a detriment, so when emotions and memories push, he pushes back hard to avoid feeling them.
While he's flexible in battle, for the most part he doesn't like change. Control is important for him, and changes out of his control (like betrayal or awakened emotions) bother him. He does learn to be more accepting of the change around him, but it's slow.
Gale can also be a bit of an ass. He's so focused on the logical, intellectual side, that he misses completely the idea of someone mourning, and is one of the last to realize that others can become comrades to them. Even once he awakens emotions, he isn't always the best in tune with them, and is often the one most easily confused by what he's feeling.
That said, once his emotions develop, the fledgling sense of honor he'd been subconsciously displaying awakens in force. Because to look at things completely logically, the Embryon had almost no chance of fighting and winning against so many larger Tribes, so why didn't Gale defect and work for someone else? Simply, honor and loyalty he didn't know he had yet.
Still, that honor isn't goodness all on its own. Gale is heavily an "ends justifies the means" guy before his emotions awaken and it doesn't go away entirely afterward. While he would no longer consider betrayal an option, if he doesn't care about individuals in question, he is potentially willing to sacrifice others to see that his Tribe is secure and relatively happy.
And when he develops a connection to someone, he defends them fiercely, and is willing to go up against the 'natural order' he's known all his life for their sake, and dishonorable actions will send him into an indignant anger, though Gale's anger tends to burn cold and calculating instead of a wildfire. So Gale does feel, and in cases just as strongly, if not more so, than other members of the Tribe. Usually, though, he has a good handle on his emotions because he's got an iron will and mostly good self-control.
He also develops a very dry and subtle sense of humor and teasing once his emotions awaken, and when he feels it's safe he's willing to relax a little bit and joke or tease.
Strengths and Weaknesses:
+ Intelligent and analytical
+ excellent strategist and tactician
+ very honorable and loyal
+/- mostly calm and detached
+/- very well-balanced, skill-wise (but does not excel at anything)
- difficulty with emotions leads to hurdles in dealing with others
- does not react well to changes that he cannot predict as possible (emotions, etc)
- hunger; and Gale is one of the few members of the group that succumbs to it, though he is saved in time. As a note, the hunger slowly increases until the person goes berserk and loses all sense of self. They then succumb to the Avatar and mindlessly attack and try to eat anything in their path. However, Sera, a member of the group has a method to calm them if they haven't advanced too far into the berserk state.
Sunshine Abilities/Powers:
Taijutsu:
Gale is much more about grace and preciseness than power. He's competent with taijutsu but doesn't excel at it, and rarely uses it as a first line of offense/defense. His hits won't hurt as much as someone who excels, but on the other hand, his preciseness and knowledge mean he knows where to hit to get the most effect. As a note, he primarily fights with his legs, using his agility and the greater muscle power to make up for his lack of upper body power. His agility makes him very good at dodging, and he's also very fast, but he's not sturdy enough to go up against a heavy hitter and last long if they're landing blows on him.
Weapons:
Gale's go to choice in a fight, especially before the introduction of ninjutsu and the Atma Seals. Gale primarily uses projectiles and can either throw one at a time, or many at once for effect. His aim isn't the best of the Tribe, but it's good, and Gale is also a quick thinker and able to adjust his aim to different conditions. He also keeps concealed blades in his boots, spring loaded to unsheath when he wants them to.
Ninjutsu:
Elemental: Gale's primary affinity is wind, and he knows several devastating jutsu to wield against single or multiple opponents. He can also use the wind to block or deflect incoming projectiles. To cover for his weakness to Fire, Lupa taught him some Fire Release, and while he's still learning to master them, he's quickly becoming competent.
Once he gets out into the larger world and has access to learning the expanded jutsu pool, he'll be able to learn almost any Wind Release, and many Fire Release.
Genjutsu: Gale's specialty. He's learned how to cause fear and to paralyze, confuse or otherwise incapacitate opponents with them. One of his favorites is a small genjutsu that reduces an opponent's accuracy and ability to dodge blows. He can also combine genjutsu with Yin seals for more devastating and long lasting effects. One example is 'charming' an enemy into turning on their allies and ignoring the Embryon, often without realising that they've done so.
Yin Release: As an extension of his genjutsu abilities, Gale can use other forms of Yin Release. One of his favorite uses is to use Yin Release that saps a person's physical energy, and/or chakra away, making it more difficult for them to land hard blows and achieve jutsu.
Medical ninjutsu/ Yang Release: Gale is the backup medic of the Tribe. He's not as skilled as their primary (Argilla), but he's competent in both more mundane medical techniques, and basic Medical Ninjutsu. He tends to specialize, however, in other applications, veering into more straight Yang Release that will increase his comrade's stamina, strength and chakra effectiveness for more powerful jutsu over limited times. He has another jutsu which will give the user short boosts of speed and agility that will increase their ability to dodge attacks.
Seals: Gale is also one of the leaders in seal workings. He's the manufacturer of the Tribe's Explosive tags, for example, and is the one who seals their belongings into scrolls when they're on the move so they aren't weighed down by so much stuff. He's also learned some Juinjutsu that will temporarily seal off an opponent's chakra to make it nearly impossible for them to use it.
--Death Seal: The Death Seal in particular combines powerful Yin chakra into a specialized Seal. When activated the Death Seal can literally drain a person's physical energy away, sometimes to the point of literally killing them in an instant. The basic Death Seals are best as traps, pre-laid out on the ground to be activated on contact. However, Gale has developed a method to make the seals somewhat more portable, if less effective. He also has a counter-seal that he can use to reduce effectiveness greatly if others try to use it against him.
Atma Seal:
The Atma Seals are one of the primary experimental jusu that the researchers holding Gale and the other test subjects captive were testing. The idea behind them was to make Jinchuuriki without access to the Bijuu themselves, and the researchers did locate a class of spiritual demons/monsters that could be sealed into people to grant them more powerful abilities. Thus, the Atma Seals were born.
The basic effects of the Atma Seals are:
--increased strength and stamina and durability
--enhanced ability to use chakra and ninjutsu
--the ability to transform at will into a demon avatar
--resistance or immunity to certain diseases (one being a result of a localized calamity that turned any person near it into stone)
--the weakening of the memory wiping and emotion blocking jutsu used on them, allowing the person to re-emerge with at least emotions and their personality, if not memories of what happened before.
The side effects of the Atma Seals are:
--potential to be taken over by the spirit, the human personality lost forever
--effects of the spirit on the personality of the host, resulting in smaller permanent changes
--the spirits, having no physical energy or chakra, are incredibly taxing on the host, rapidly breaking down the mind and body. They require the host to take in vast amounts of physical energy and chakra to sustain themselves, and failing to do so causes the mind to go first, transforming them into a berserk state with only one goal and no recognition of friend or foe.
--as a result of this need, those inflicted with Atma Seals must consume chakra and physical energy heavy flesh regularly, and have an inescapable and powerful hunger for it. As it's primarily humans and summon animals that contain it, they've mostly become obligate cannibals.
--the taxing process of sustaining a seal and transforming causes rapid physical aging, resulting in most of the Tribe looking older than they are
There are two kinds of Atma Seals, depending on the type of spirit sealed. Lesser ones seal weaker spirits that are more numerous, creating identical Seal brands, and having all the affected persons transform into the same Avatar form. Greater ones seal stronger spirits, called Asura, and each greater seal is unique to the person bearing it, as well as their form being unique.
Gale's Atma Seal is called "Twister" and the Asura avatar called Vayu. This represents his powerful Wind Release that he's capable of, as well as his quick thinking and agility in mind and body.
Other:
To account for the Analyze skill, and his general purpose within the group, I'm going to say that Gale has a minor sensor ability. It's woefully underdeveloped, but if he focuses, he can determine things like where concealed enemies are (in most cases), and what an enemy's chakra affinity and general chakra reserve is.
Sunshine History:
As some broad strokes basics, there was a calamity somewhere in the world that ended up unleashing an "illness" that caused people to turn to stone. It was localized, but wasn't going away and there were worries about it spreading. So a research group was organized, primarily in secret, to look into it and combat it. Then experiments and research started going wrong, and they got off course of their original goal, and also were taken over by/absorbed into a more military minded group that wished to create the perfect soldiers.
Fast forward, and this research group has found and taken over Summoning Island, and uses the Ruins there as an arena to test out their most recent experiment. These are shinobi, having had their memories and personalities wiped out, being trained by constant combat to be the best of the best. Unhindered by emotions, and with unquestioning obedience to orders and "laws," these are meant to be the perfect mercenaries. The test subjects have been kidnapped from the other nations, usually at a young age, and subjected to ruthless training before being wiped and shoved into the Ruins at physical maturity. The subjects are organized into color-coded "Tribes" and each assigned a territory in the Ruins, and ruled over by the researchers, inhabiting a tower in the center and a base outside of the Ruins.
The goal told to the subjects is to wipe out all the other Tribes and ascend to Nirvana (with any survivors joining the victorious Tribe), and initially, the test subjects were only given knowledge of taijutsu and weapons. However when it was time to reintroduce ninjutsu, the mysterious Angel, decided to stage a coup and also gave everyone still alive in the Ruins an Atma Seal and a new order. Not just wiping out their enemies, but devouring them, and also to return to her the "black-haired girl" who'd escaped.
Gale himself doesn't know any of this at the beginning, and only learns bits and pieces. He finally remembers only one solid memory of before the Ruins, and that is of a woman with a strong resemblance to Angel crying against a bright light in the background. Gale and the Embryon end up taking care of the "black-haired girl", Sera, though Gale doesn't trust her, and especially her ability to temporarily soothe the Atma induced hunger and berserk state.
However, in the chaos after the Atma Seals, the Embryon are able to wipe out the Vanguards, and gain extra territory and members, but it's not enough to challenge the largest and most powerful tribes. Gale suggests a false alliance, to use the power of one of the other small Tribes, and work with them to take out a larger Tribe, and then take advantage of the situation to afterwards wipe out that Tribe as well. He's strongly overruled on the false part, and the suggested betrayal, but the consensus is that an alliance will benefit them.
The other Tribe, the Maribel, insist that the Embryon prove themselves, and they do, defeating the Tribe's second, Bat, in combat. Argilla forms a fast but strong bond with the Maribel leader, Jinana, which helps the alliance. The alliance is made, and they launch a daring plan to assassinate the leader of one of the largest Tribes, the Solids.
And… they're betrayed by Bat! The Maribel leader, Jinana, ends up losing control and going berserk, then dying in the resulting confrontation, and the Solids, while many of their number died, are not taken out. The Embryon go after Bat, only to get lured into a trap, and the Embryon base is attacked, and Sera kidnapped.
She's taken to a currently unoccupied location in the Ruins, and the Embryon rush to her rescue. They fight their way through, and during a confrontation the Embryon leader, Serph, and another member, Heat, are forced into a fight, but Sera shows off that she's not as powerless as she appears, and during her escape, Bat is injured by one of the last members of the Embryon core. The leader of the Solids is then taken out of the picture, and Gale, knowing that Bat is going to ally with the Brutes, suggests a trap.
At another location, the remains of a massive shipwreck, the trap is set with massive explosive seals, courtesy of Gale, and sprung, finally killing Bat and a number of the Brutes. Needing time to recover and regroup, the Embryon head to a new base location, where they find out that the last remaining leader, that of the Wolves, Lupa, wishes to talk with them, after the Brutes have nearly decimated the Wolves Tribe.
During the meeting Gale is suspicious of Lupa's intentions and challenges him, kicking out a knife to his throat. Lupa does not resist, but is firm that Gale will not hurt him because Gale has 'honor.' This confuses Gale enough to back down, and the two embark on a fledgling relationship, talking and discussing things and exchanging jutsu, with Lupa revealing information that makes them all sure that there's something very wrong. How can they know about children, if there are none? Gale then declares that Lupa will come with them to Nirvana, and if the Tower decides to stop them, Gale will tear down the Tower himself.
Together, the remaining Wolves and the Embryon form a plan to get to the leader of the Brutes, but they are intercepted, and the leader of the Brutes forces Lupa into a berserk state, nearly destroying the core group of the Embryon with Lupa used as a weapon against him. After the fatal blow, Lupa asks Gale to devour him and with his last words, tells Gale about the child he remembers and Gale promises to find that child and convey the message, before complying with Lupa's other request and screaming in rage that the Tower will regret doing this to them.
But the plan is put into motion and they cannot stop, and the leader of the Brutes reveals that he's fully remembered his former life and taunts them with that information before getting killed. The Embryon head up the tower for answers, after Sera flees there to try to stop the destruction. They meet and fight Angel there, and Gale realizes that somehow, she's the woman he remembers crying, but in the end the self-destruct mechanism for the entire Ruins ends up activated. They all are forced to flee, Gale helping Angel up personally, and end up outside the Ruins for the first time any of them actually remember. Angel disappears, and they overrun the other research base, discovering Missive Scrolls, and other limited information on the outside world.
Prose sample: here!
Missive Sample:
[The symbol that appears on the Seal Scrolls is from a shinobi missing and presumed dead for years. The handwriting on it, however, is so painstakingly neat that it almost looks mechanically reproduced, but that’s not possible, right?]
I understand that this scroll allows for swift communication over distances. We require information.
Is this Nirvana?
I calculate the chance of a negative answer to that question as high, therefore, we need to know whose territory we are currently in. The terrain is composed of steep inclines and
[Here there is a blotch of something scribbled out and a vastly different hand intrudes, loopy and a little careless.] trees! They are trees and bushes and
[The original handwriting is back] there is also
[Another hand intrudes, this one an angular scrawl, almost illegible even without the attempt to cross it out.]
[The original handwriting again.] Please disregard that. We have no intention of initiating hostilities at this time. Other important information will include dates, which other
the Embryon