Application for Route 666

[iron_stomach]

Player: Rune
Contact: PM, discord!
Age: Definitely over 18
Other Characters: Sephiroth

Name: Heat
Canon: Digital Devil Saga
Canon Point: Very end of the first game.
Age: This is fuzzy, since he's AI. He's a fully adult looking man?

Backstory: A linky! He is from the end of the original game.

Personality: The very core of Heat's personality is unfocused aggression, occasionally directed at the deserving, occasionally directed at whatever happens to be on hand. Prone to mood swings and aggressive behavior without warning, his unusually short temper can and frequently does cause incredibly unpleasant conflicts with anything he comes in contact with. Even his attempts at being kind or gentle tend to have an edge of razors to it, sharp and cutting when he doesn't mean it to be. And when rebuffed, the unfocused anger at the heart of his being finds targets the world over, lashing out even at those that don't deserve it.

This doesn't mean he doesn't feel other emotions. He can and does and intensely, but he knows no other way to express them: like all of the Embryon, his personality is pre-programmed, and he lacks the experience to handle emotions in forms other than strongly volatile and usually violent but that doesn't mean he doesn't feel other things. Even affection, friendship and love is expressed aggressively; he just doesn't know how to do otherwise, isn't able to handle an emotion or an urge past the explosiveness often witnessed. Even in the depths of grief, he can't show it, can't seem to bleed off the emotion without resorting to violence. He comes off as brazen, arrogant and temperamental, willing to shoot first and ask questions later, if he bothers with questions at all. He doesn't bother to mince words or try to play nice, he's ruthlessly straight to the point and often comes off as an asshole because of it.

Heat's relentlessly persistent and almost unstoppably stubborn, refusing to bend to any will besides his own (and one other exception..), especially if that outside will comes with anything like restraints. The only exception he allows is Serph, and while he might chafe and snarl and snap about it, if given an order he doesn't like, he'll almost always eventually relent and obey. For all that of late he's terribly jealous and bitter about Serph, he still trusts his Leader, still values him more than nearly anyone else. 'It's complicated' is a serious understatement, and thanks to his dim grasp on what other people feel, just assuming they operate more or less as he does, he frequently misinterprets what's going on around him .. often to his own detriment.

For the most part he's tenaciously loyal, albeit his version of loyal, a version that doesn't believe in unquestioning obedience or that the things that hold his loyalty are beyond question or even attack under the right circumstances. Even if others don't, he understands his place in the world, and that there is much strength to be found in adversity, and for the weak, strength in numbers. He'll follow his tribe's tenants, follow his Leader's orders, and has enough of a sense of responsibility to if nobody else is around to do it for him, harass rookies into doing what they're SUPPOSED to be. Though he doesn't know how to express it, his tribe is everything to him, his comrades, his 'friends'. There is nothing .. nothing at all he won't sacrifice for them, or for Sera.

Sera comes out a little ahead of the rest, when push comes to shove. She's literally the reason he exists, after all, and he'd do anything to protect her. Anything at all. If he understood emotions better, if he had a way to translate feelings beyond devouring and hostility, he'd understand what he feels for her is best summed up as brotherly affection, albeit intensely overprotectively so, and not the wires-crossed romance he thinks it is. He loves Sera deeply, he doesn't have a choice, but he is not in love with Sera. He doesn't understand the difference.

Turning into a monster, by way of Route 666's changes, won't bother him at all. He's already done this, it's nothing new, and if it brings new strength, then bring it on. He has zero morals about killing strangers, doesn't hesitate to eat what he kills, and is callous enough to encourage others to do the same even when it's their friends on the ground. He's not stable enough to be a good example to anyone, but his easy acceptance of new changes means his focus will be primarily on other things, like rebuilding his tribe, keeping his Leader safe, and working on finding his missing comrades. He'll push people about joining the Embryon, wearing their colors and following Serph, but it's rather less about people in the Convoy and the tribe itself and more about the powerless lack of control he has about where he is now and how he got there; he asserts control where he can, and this is at least familiar. He understands tribe dynamics. He doesn't understand how humans actually operate.

He won't give up on hope that he can find his missing comrades. It's the only thing that can really break Heat, the idea of losing his comrades, especially Sera and Serph, the people who stir emotions he can't put names to or deal with well. If they were gone, gone for good, where did that leave him? Each loss, each absence is felt keenly, and chip away at his confidence relentlessly. For all that he'll fight Serph with little hesitation, actually having him die would be his destruction too. While Serph might be able to continue without Heat, Heat's built too much around Serph to function well without him; he might claim that he'd simply take over if Serph died, the truth is he probably wouldn't long outlast him, once vengeance for his Leader's death was had. Sera's just a notch higher on that sliding scale, Serph can at least defend himself, she couldn't. And though he doesn't know it, she's his creator, if something were to happen to her .. who knows what he'd do. And who knows how his reactions to their loss will differ, in a place where death doesn't last.

..I can go on for much longer but I'm unsure where my word count is.

Powers/Abilities: As a literal combat AI that's spent his entire existence fighting to the death, Heat is an excellent marksman, incredibly skilled at close quarters combat, and knows which way to throw a grenade. If it has to do with guerilla combat, he knows about it and is probably at least passably able to pull it off. He's a decent field captain when needed, able to weigh his team's strengths and weaknesses to try to strategize proper plans .. though often doesn't actually bother. That's Serph's job.

Agni: Heat's retained his ability to transform at will (or under emotional duress) into the form of Agni. This comes with certain benefits, like razor sharp teeth and claws, a knack for being able to eat (but not necessarily digest) nearly anything, and a durable pebbly hide. Agni is designed for fighting in ways humanity simply isn't. Ordinarily, Agni has access to considerable fire magic and strong resistance to his own element but these are Inactive. He maintains his weakness to ice in Agni's form. He can under certain circumstances like Moon Warp, get trapped between human form and demon form, a malformed berserk state with hysterical strength and no real resilience he has little to no control over.

Strength and Vitality: Thanks to his Atma, Heat is much stronger and far more durable than he has any right to be. In humanoid form he can lift an adult man by one hand and throw them a considerable distance with no effort and simply not die from things that would kill a weaker being. The full extent of his physical might are only seen in Agni's form (and by extension, his pending monster form, when he can no longer default to human anymore), allowing him to do things like punch holes in concrete or bite through metal, or things like gunfire from anything short of high powered hunting rifles (or elementally charged bullets) simply being shrugged off.

Inventory: Just the body armor he left the Junkyard in!

Game Plans: I'm intending to see if I can shove Heat out of his comfort zones, and also learn eventually how to deal with the nuances of emotion he's still very much not used to. Having the time, and connections to actual normal humans (however changed by monsters..) may help him unravel a lot of the emotional troubles he has, discerning one thing from another.

Monster Choice: The first is selected because it's the MOST different from what he knows; he's simply NOT a healer, and making him become one would be a very interesting change of pace. It's my favorite, it'll force him to do things he otherwise scorns and plays up the whole 'savage beast tamed by beautiful maiden' angle. Taurus are much along the lines of what he already does, I just like them. Fire nymphs are the OTHER side of what he's used to; fire is Heat's element and his namesake.

Celestial-Unicorn
Taurus-Centaur
Elemental-Nymph (fire)

Vehicle Choice: DEPENDING ON MONSTER: If Celestial/Taurus: A fairly sizeable driving-type horse trailer RV with the Spacious trait. If Elemental: a cherry red Jeep Cherokee with the Tough trait.

Don't need all that room if he isn't the size of a horse sometimes, after all.

Sample: A toplevel!