APPLICATION // singularity_rpg
Player Information ;
Your Nickname: Lavvy
OOC Journal: socntonrers
Under 18? Nope
Email/IM: is.depress@gmail.com, AIM: blueflewqueen
Characters Played at Singularity: Jack Noir (AU)
Character Information ;
Name: Haseo (Real name: Ryou Misaki)
Name of Canon: .hack//G.U.
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: Canon
Reference: .hack//Wiki
Canon Point: End of Vol.1
Setting: 'The World' is a popular online fantasy game. It was first created by genius programmer Harald Hoerwick, originally under the title Fragment. It was released in 2007, and on the first day alone more than four million copies were sold. It was a pretty sweet game I guess.
However, the purpose of 'The World' wasn't actually a fun game. Before he began work on Fragment, Harald fell in love with a young poet named Emma Wielant. In 2004 she died in a car accident, which drove Harald to create an AI that would be their "daughter". In order to get funding for his project, he disguised the program to birth his AI daughter (Aura) as an MMORPG, based on Emma's most well known and mysterious poems, The Epitaph of Twilight. Players in the game would unknowingly contribute to his daughter's advanced programming, allowing her to have human-like intelligence. He also decided to try to connect the physical and virtual worlds through his game, because he's already making himself a fake daughter so why the fuck not.
Of course, things never go as planned. He had to create an AI to assist in Aura's creation, and this AI was Morganna. Unfortunately for Harald, as Morganna collected data to contribute to Aura's growth, she realized if Aura was born she would no longer have a purpose. Morganna began interfering with Harald's work instead, trying to prevent Aura from being born. When Harald tried to stop her, she trapped his mind within the game and attempted to delete his consciousness. While Harald survived due to having a million backups of himself on the server, his mind was badly damaged and he was basically just a broken AI of himself.
Around 2009, a young girl playing a character named Tsukasa in the game ended up comatose. Morganna trapped her in the game like she did Harald, trying to manipulate her into corrupting Aura's birth and preventing it. Tsukasa eventually realized this was complete bullshit and teamed up with a bunch of other people to fight Morganna and save Aura, who was successfully awakened. There happened to be a dude named Sora in that group! Kind of. Actually, he sort of tried to do the double-backstab play-on-both-sides-then-fuck-both-over thing, which ended with him getting used by Morganna to created her first Phase, Skeith. Sora's player ended up in a coma, his mind trapped in the game like Tsukasa's had. After Aura was awakened and had escaped from Morganna, Skeith continued to control Sora's character and mind and had some cool adventures as a confused, amnesiac player possessed by 1/8th of an insane AI. There was a book about it that never went anywhere. Good times.
In 2010 a player by the name of Orca was also sent into a coma (by Skeith, of course) after Aura, still on the run from Morganna, tried to give him a program that could stop the rampaging AI bitchmom. Luckily, his friend Kite happened to be there at the time and got the program instead--the Twilight Bracelet. Four games later, Kite defeated Morganna, saved all the coma victims (there were a bunch more) and helped Aura complete her programming. The remnants of Morganna's Phases faded into the depths of the Internet. Aura became the benevolent AI goddess of the Internet.
And then she got bored! Or something. For whatever reason, she decided to disappear for awhile and the Internet kind of flipped the fuck out. AI viruses named AIDA were formed from her absence, infecting the network as well as people themselves. A person infected with AIDA becomes violent and crazy in 'The World', trying to infect others through combat--in the real world it became known as Doll Syndrome, because children who became infected became unresponsive and stiff, like a doll.
Because 1) this is kind of bad holy shit, and 2) having your players start going into comas again is bad business, CC Corp (the company that owned 'The World') started up a plan to bring back Aura by retrieving the eight fragments of Morganna that were supposedly destroyed. This failed epically, because Morganna doesn't like people trying to control her, and the entire building went up in flames after all the people involved were killed. The server was destroyed, though the game was recreated as 'The World R:2' around 2016. Morganna's phases were lost except for two, which were bound to game characters and given to a pair of employees who were actually capable of controlling them. Don't ask how they figured this out, who even knows. The other six phases escaped into the game and attached themselves to other players who fit their needs. And thus Epitaph Users were created!!
One of these Epitaph Users was Ovan. Ovan was also the first player in 'The World' to become infected by AIDA. He managed to keep the infection somewhat under control with his Epitaph and a giant metal case on his arm, though he infected his sister's character and put her in a coma before figuring that out. He then began his elaborate plot to destroy AIDA which took three games this time and also fucked everyone over in the process. Haseo was one of those people, and was in fact Ovan's main investment! Haseo was connected to the First Phase, Skeith, having previously played the character Sora seven years ago. Not that he remembers any of this, since his time attached to Skeith apparently fucked up his memory so hard he didn't remember anything about playing 'The World'. Apparently, his parents hid this form him and he probably never knew why he was comatose for six months and had chunks of his memory missing.
ANYWAY, yeah, Skeith was Ovan's big investment, since he believed Skeith could become powerful enough to collect all eight phases together (by kicking their asses and Data Draining them in the form of bossfights, of course), which would allow Ovan to activate his phase's ability, which conveniently reset the entire Internet. You know, because I guess Harald thought that might come in handy someday.
Haseo ended up joining Ovan's guild, the Twilight Brigade, which allowed him to meet his Internet-not-girlfriend Shino. It also lead to Shino getting comamurdered by a mysterious entity known only as Tri-Edge, who was definitely not Ovan, and the guy Haseo thought was Tri-Edge was definitely not a secret good guy who was in fact framed. MOVING ALONG, Shino falling into a coma drives Haseo to seek revenge and find a way to save her. This leads to him discovering the existence of AIDA, Avatars, and other such things, unlocking his own personal power, and understanding the true meaning of friendship. He also becomes a very famous player within the game, both as a powerful PKK and a crowned emperor of the in-game PVP arena. He also gets covered in all the bitches and has a lot of fanart and creepy fangirls fawning over him on forums. Overall, Haseo is a strong influence on the world's progression as he fights dangerous AIs and makes a name for himself within the playerbase.
AND THAT IS A BRIEF HISTORY OF .HACK.
Personality: Haseo is an unbelievably massive S-class douchewaffle. He's brash, rude, and selfish, always working to become stronger and taking down anyone who gets in his way. In The World, he prefers to play the game solo rather than in a group-- hell, it's not until months after first playing the game that he even figures out how the party combo attacks work. He's still a largely antisocial player and shows great dislike for most of his party members, but Haseo is in the process of opening up to his online friends. And despite his abrasive attitude, Haseo is extremely protective of his friends, and once he really gets to know a person (like Shino, or Ovan) he becomes very open and honest with them. To a lesser degree, his protectiveness can also be extended to everyone ever; while he may not act nice to every person out there, he despises people who look down on others, and if he sees someone being picked on he'll want to jump in and kick the bullying jerk in the face. While he may have started his career as a PKK to obtain information on Tri-Edge, protecting the weaker players of The World was also part of his motivation. Children are another soft spot for him, and he tends to act like slightly less of a jerk when talking to kids.
He is extremely determined and competitive. When Haseo sets a goal for himself he doesn't stop until he succeeds, often reaching a point of unhealthy obsession. Whether it's gaining more power, rescuing his comatose friend, or grinding for days to reach the top PvP rankings just so he can beat up some dickbag who told him off, if he says he'll do it he will fucking do it. He's also very diligent and loyal despite acting like a huge jerk 90% of the time. He always meets up with his internet bros when he gets invited to random stupid quests and shit, even when he obviously doesn't care. He's the kind of guy that complains about having to help other people but helps them anyway and goes out of his way to do it right.
He also tends to... repeat things. A lot. He likes to remind himself of things out loud so he doesn't forget. He usually does this in his head but sometimes it creeps into his speech. It's kind of annoying.
Ovan is kind of a big deal to Haseo. He was the first person who helped him out in the game. He was also very mysterious, but seemed to know a lot about the beyond the normal scope of things, and this is what drew Haseo to join the Twilight Brigade. He still only saw Ovan rarely, but Haseo looked up to him as a sort of mentor, and the Twilight Brigade game him a purpose within the game. When Ovan vanished after the battle in Coite-Bodher, Haseo felt lost and unsure of what to do. He put his mind to holding the Brigade together, even suggesting they search for Ovan instead of the Key of Twilight. When they were finally reunited shortly before Haseo's fight with Tri-Edge, he accused Ovan of causing the Brigade's collapse as well as the events which lead to Shino going into a coma-- but it's still pretty obvious that he trusted Ovan. After all, he followed every bit of advice the older man gave him, even after most of it blew up violently in his face. When Ovan gave him a new goal, he followed it, even if he didn't know why he was doing it.
In a lot of ways, Haseo is very dependant on Ovan for guidance and purpose. Even if he doesn't understand half the shit that comes out of his mouth, he puts complete trust in Ovan's word. This makes everything pretty easy for Ovan, since he was kind of manipulating the fuck out of Haseo for his own needs the whole time. What an ass.
Shino is a similar case to Ovan. She was also kind and welcoming to Haseo when he first started the game, as well as a voice of reason. From the start, he was much more interested in Shino than he ever was Sakisaka or Tabby, and both she and Ovan were the only reasons he really joined the Twilight Brigade. After Ovan's disappearance she turned to Haseo for support, and if he hadn't fallen for her before he sure as hell did then. They became very close, to the point where she gave him her phone number, and after she became comatose he visited her in the hospital on a daily basis. He blamed himself for not arriving soon enough to save her, and made it his goal to bring her back no matter what. All his hate and obsession towards Tri-Edge is a result of his love towards Shino.
"Tri-Edge" is a character Haseo has never really met, only encountered, and very rarely at that. To him, Tri-Edge is more of an exaggerated villain-- some being of pure evil that exists only to kill people and ruin things. This connects to his work as a PKK in that he applies this exaggerated concept to every other PKer he meets, albeit to a slightly lesser degree since they don't knock people into comas. But still, he is extremely biased against PKers of any kind, which is why he's more than happy to go out of his way to kill them even when it doesn't advance his own goals. Becoming a PKK was never something Haseo intended to do, it was just something that happened and he decided to go with it.
As for Tri-Edge, Haseo uses him as a scapegoat for all the terrible events that have happened in 'The World', even believing that defeating Tri-Edge would bring everyone back and undo the damage. THIS ACTUALLY ALL TURNS OUT TO BE TRUE if a little more complicated than anyone but Ovan anticipated, but believing right off the bat that killing one guy who was involved would fix everything that went wrong is just a little bit ridiculous.
Offline, Haseo is obviously not some psycho who screams a lot and goes around killing people with swords, because this is not the Internet where such things are totally normal. Ryou was raised an only child with considerably wealthy parents and went to a famous private school when not playing vidyas. He's a very intelligent kid, if his casual interest in dead Japanese poets and the fancy private school mean anything. While he might have been more social when he was younger, Ryou is much more introverted as a teen, probably to do with the whole going into a mysterious coma for six months thing. He's not too different from how he acts online, really. Just without all those psychotic tendencies and maybe a bit more respect for authority figures.
There is also the matter of Skeith! (and while Skeith is technically genderless/female at best due to being part of Morganna, it presents itself as a reflection of Haseo and has a male voice so I'm just going to call it a he from now on) Skeith is his own entity, a fragment of Morganna fused to Haseo's character to give him cool powers. Skeith is capable of making his own decisions (ex. rampaging like a douche when Haseo loses control of him, as well as "finding" and connecting himself to Haseo that first time) and communicating with others, or at least Haseo (they have a brief conversation in the third game). Haseo keeps a pretty tight leash on Skeith, so he doesn't get to talk to people much. Plus Skeith would probably just... kill everyone...
In the Epitaph Morganna's Phases are based on, Skeith was the harbinger of death that rode at the front of the Cursed Wave. In 'The World', it was created from 1) Morganna's need to hunt and destroy Aura, and 2) the player Sora, a chaotic-neutral PKer who I would also call a violent, dangerous sociopath if it weren't for the fact that this is an online game and not real life (seriously CC2 video games aren't that serious). Sora is still a douchebag, though. A ten-year-old douchebag. This obviously makes Skeith the biggest violent psycho docuhe to ever exist on the Internet.
Skeith does not feel compassion, fear, or pity. He is only driven by his lust for destruction and death to everything he sees. Without Haseo controlling him, Skeith would just rampage for the hell of it. He also inherited all of Sora/Haseo's most douchetastic qualities-- in his one conversation with Haseo, he pretty much just mocks the fuck out of him and laughs in his face. Skeith has some amount of loyalty to Haseo, since he kind of needs his host to exist in the gameworld, but he would also jump on any opportunity to hijack the body and do his own thing. Which would very likely be murder. Internet coma-inducing murder.
Abilities, Weaknesses, and Power Limitation Suggestions: Haseo has the speed and dexterity of a Twin Blade combined with the strength of an Edge Punisher. Depending on which weapon he has equipped, he can take the role of the quick but balanced rogue or the powerhouse tank; he is both skilled with using both his hands in battle as well as strong enough to heft around a giant chainsaw-sword and swing it like it's nothing. He's adept with a scythe as well, though his current character can't equip one anymore. Haseo also has the basic elemental spells of the first volume, which are fairly weak and don't get much use, but he does have them. Also that one shitty starter healing spell every main character has.
OTHER VIDEO GAME POWERS SUMMARIZED: hammerspace inventory, magical steambike that he can summon when outdoors (WHICH CAN ALSO EXPLODE TO ATTACK ENEMIES and then magically repair itself in his inventory i guess), urge to shout attack names at all times, ability to use a broadsword/twin blades even though he the player has no training of any kind in that sort of thing, "Awakenings"/party combo attacks that involve a lot of flashing lights and laserbeams but dont actually do much besides boost attack/shoot fireballs, magical girl transformation sequence, and an SP bar.
Video game skills aside, Haseo also has a power unique to him: his Avatar. He can summon the First Phase of Morganna, Skeith, and control it across another plane known as Avatar Space. Since Skeith exists on a different plane of the game (and thus in the station, another plane of reality), it can only be seen by others who have access to that plane. Skeith is the smallest of the phases, but its also quick and powerful, and if a regular person was attacked by it they could be taken out in a single blow. Skeith wields a large scythe and can also shoot energy bullets, but its real power is in its Data Drain, which allows it to remove and rewrite data in other entities. Skeith also gives Haseo a natural immunity and defence against other Avatars attacking him, as well as powerful entities and viruses like AIDA.
Of course, the Avatar's power doesn't come without consequence. Skeith isn't 100% under Haseo's control, and abusing its power recklessly can lead to him losing control of it, which leads to rampaging AI deathbeasts. This is kind of bad! Also, having too many Avatars summoned at once tends to make them even harder to control, so if any multi-Avatar battles break out everyone has a higher risk of going apeshit.
On the limitations side of things, it's pretty fortunate that Skeith is the smallest. He's about, oh, between 10' and 15' tall I'd guess. A swing of his scythe could probably take a chunk out of a building. However, since he is supposed to be on another plane of reality and all, he can't actually damage physical objects in any way, whatsoever. It's not like those huge Avatar fights ever damaged the game world, anyway. People can be pulled into Avatar Space and attacked, but targeting more than one person at a time for periods longer than a few seconds is dangerous and causes Avatar Space to become unstable, the same as when more than two Avatars are present at once. It's a one-on-one sort of thing.
As for who and what can see Avatar Space, in canon that's limited to other Avatar users and those infected by AIDA. Here shit is going to be a lot simpler. You can see weird things for whatever reason/have weird AI powers/hacker powers? Cool, you can probably see Avatars. You want to see Avatars just for the hell of it? Go for it, I don't really mind anyway!
Data Drain is a little trickier, but it's pretty much just that one bullshit finisher attack/plot device, so it's probably not going to get much use. Skeith is just fine with slicing shit to pieces and Data Drain takes some time to charge, time which could be spent on slicing shit to pieces. Still, Data Drain can easily be dodged (takes a few obvious seconds to charge + fairly slow-moving projectile) and is only fatal on opponents that are already weakened. Normally, regular opponents that don't have Avatar/AIDA-powers would be completely helpless against it, but I'm just going to add in "anyone with super AI/hacker defences" and "anyone with spooky magical defences" to that list. A totally normal person would probably still be fucked, but that kind of comes with the territory, and they can still dodge shit like normal.
IN CONCLUSION:
- Avatar isn't so good at breaking not-Avatar things and is also visible to whoever the hell feels like it
- Data Drain is a shitty, overrated attack
- Haseo probably isn't going to use any of this much anyway
MORE ON SKEITH/AVATAR BULLSHIT:
Avatar Space exists on a plane closer to the network than the physical world, and thus Skeith does not have a real physical body aside from Haseo's. However, 'The World' and its components have always been about connecting the digital and physical worlds. Skeith cannot physically attack a person, but he can pull others into Avatar Space, making them vulnerable to his attacks. This more or less translates to a type of psychic attack directly on the target's consciousness rather than their body. Victims injured by Skeith will not retain scars on their physical body, but may lose some feeling in damaged areas. Unless he lops off a chunk of the person or does some legit serious damage to them (and, OOCly, permissions and whatnot is given), any damage done in Avatar Space will heal at the pace of a normal wound (BUT INVISIBLE). Anyone killed by him will simply drop dead with no apparent cause (and these bodies may be kept alive through artificial means, but the person will be totally brain-dead anyway).
The nature of the attack itself makes it kind of hard for most ordinary people to avoid it, but when connected to Avatar Space everyone is still capable of moving freely on both planes. They can't exactly fight back, but anyone can fly in Avatar Space and dodge attacks. Skeith is one of the faster phases, and it certainly wouldn't be easy, but it is entirely possible to evade his attacks. Viewing from the outside (for those who can see Avatar Space) the two planes overlap eachother, though it's not exact in distance. Everything in Avatar Space is really far away because BOSS FIGHTS. This is also kind of why everyone gets a free speedboost in Avatar Space. Anyway, moving far enough away from Haseo in the physical world will also break the connection to Avatar Space.
Anyone with psychic abilities will be able to use them within Avatar Space to an amplified degree, since he is essentially targeting their mind. AIs and those with digital-based powers will also be able to use their abilities in Avatar Space. These types of people will also have a much higher defence against Skeith's attacks: while an ordinary person with no supernatural abilities might go down in one hit, a psychic or AI might be able to take several hits before suffering any real damage. The degree to which psychics/AIs/whatever are able to fight and resist attacks within Avatar Space is entirely up to the muns. It's basically the same as a mental attack, or a hacking attempt. KIND OF LITERALLY IN THE LATTER CASE. They can also resist being pulled into Avatar Space from the start if they have high enough defences that Skeith wouldn't even be able to reach them to draw them in.
Since Avatar Space is indeed closer to the network than any other reality, Skeith can draw in AIs attached to the network the same way he can draw in physical people. On the plus side, he can do this from almost anywhere, but on the negative side it also means the AI target is in a comfortable environment and can probably escape him unless some sort of digital blockade was in place. FIGHTING ON THE INTERNET, I DON'T EVEN. He could probably summon Skeith to any of Sacrosanct's MMOs too in the same sense that 'The World' works but wow I cannot imagine that ever being a real thing he'll need to do. If that somehow does become a thing it better be part of some ridiculous game-wide bullshit plot so let's just call MMO Avatar fights a mod-permission-only thing for now.
It should also be noted that using Skeith's power is both risky and draining for Haseo. It exhausts him both mentally and physically, and any damage done to Skeith can affect him the same way Skeith's attacks affect others. Relying on Skeith too much also has an impact on Haseo's mind, giving Skeith more influence and control over him.
WHICH BRINGS US TO OUR NEXT POINT: Skeith's independence and control over Haseo. Skeith is his own entity, present within Haseo's mind. He has the capacity to control Haseo's body totally on his own. However, despite all his spooky AI powers, Haseo's will is much stronger than Skeith. Unless an outside force is allowing Skeith an opening or Haseo is summoning Skeith and (consciously or unconsciously) giving him too much influence, Haseo will always remain in control. Telepaths and similar psychics would also be able to pick up on and possibly communicate with Skeith. But the bottom line is Haseo is actually pretty good at keeping the psychotic AI under control, so Skeith would only be able to take over under certain circumstances which may or may not actually ever happen.
Inventory:
- RANDOM VIDYA INVENTORY CRAP ie. healing potions, sp healing things, a few junk equips he can't use, a bunch of useless key/quest items, LOADS AND LOADS OF VIRTUAL GOLD, etc., etc.
- His main weapons: a giant fucking chainsaw broadsword and a pair of twin blades which also have spinny-blade attachments on them because why the hell not.
- Magic steambike that fits in his inventory and reforms itself post-explosioncrash
- Tight black leather outfit with pointless random shit stuck on for no apparent reason
Appearance: Haseo in his current outfit, and Skeith's Avatar form
Age: 17, both IRL and as his PC
Samples ;
Log Sample:
The first time Ryou met her offline, Shino was in a coma. It wasn't exactly the sort of meeting he'd been expecting, but there were a lot of things that he hadn't expected-- Ovan's disappearance, Tri-Edge, his PC getting reset, all that crazy stuff about Epitaphs and AIDA... It was too crazy to even talk about. Like anyone would believe him if he said a game was putting people into comas. Who would believe a story like that?
Shino of the Twilight Brigade was actually Nanao Shino, a twenty year old college student from Saitama. The hospital she was staying in wasn't far from his apartment, so Ryou visited her whenever he could. It was a little weird, seeing her like that, but if there was ever a chance she would wake up he wanted to know. So he started visiting every day, if only for a few minutes, just to see how she was doing.
If he had arrived a moment sooner... if he had been powerful enough to stop Tri-Edge the first time, would she still be here? It was pointless thinking about it, but it still bothered him. She wouldn't have wanted him to blame this on himself, but... if he had been there just a moment sooner...
When he logged into the world later that day, he would be fighting the Demon Palace Emperor: Endrance, an Epitaph PC infected by AIDA. Maybe after he won this fight, he could find out more about Tri-Edge.
Ryou stood up, looking down at Shino's unconscious body one more time before turning to leave the hospital room. He would keep searching for a way to save her, no matter what the cost. Haseo was the only one who could save her. Ovan had known this from the start-- that the Terror of Death would be able to defeat AIDA and Tri-Edge. And now that he had the power of his Avatar backing him up, he was sure of it, too. If Ovan believed in him, it had to be true.
He would defeat Tri-Edge, and then he'd make that damn PKer bring back all the Lost Ones!
Network Sample:
What the hell is going on here?! Atoli, Pi, Kuhn-- they're all gone! No one's responding to my flash mail! I've never seen any server like this before, and on top of all that I can't log out.
So someone around here better give me some answers-- and not any of that bullshit about space stations and alternate universes! Is this still part of The World, or is there something else going on here?
If this is AIDA's doing... damnit, I don't have time for this!
Your Nickname: Lavvy
OOC Journal: socntonrers
Under 18? Nope
Email/IM: is.depress@gmail.com, AIM: blueflewqueen
Characters Played at Singularity: Jack Noir (AU)
Character Information ;
Name: Haseo (Real name: Ryou Misaki)
Name of Canon: .hack//G.U.
Canon/AU/Other Game CR: Canon
Reference: .hack//Wiki
Canon Point: End of Vol.1
Setting: 'The World' is a popular online fantasy game. It was first created by genius programmer Harald Hoerwick, originally under the title Fragment. It was released in 2007, and on the first day alone more than four million copies were sold. It was a pretty sweet game I guess.
However, the purpose of 'The World' wasn't actually a fun game. Before he began work on Fragment, Harald fell in love with a young poet named Emma Wielant. In 2004 she died in a car accident, which drove Harald to create an AI that would be their "daughter". In order to get funding for his project, he disguised the program to birth his AI daughter (Aura) as an MMORPG, based on Emma's most well known and mysterious poems, The Epitaph of Twilight. Players in the game would unknowingly contribute to his daughter's advanced programming, allowing her to have human-like intelligence. He also decided to try to connect the physical and virtual worlds through his game, because he's already making himself a fake daughter so why the fuck not.
Of course, things never go as planned. He had to create an AI to assist in Aura's creation, and this AI was Morganna. Unfortunately for Harald, as Morganna collected data to contribute to Aura's growth, she realized if Aura was born she would no longer have a purpose. Morganna began interfering with Harald's work instead, trying to prevent Aura from being born. When Harald tried to stop her, she trapped his mind within the game and attempted to delete his consciousness. While Harald survived due to having a million backups of himself on the server, his mind was badly damaged and he was basically just a broken AI of himself.
Around 2009, a young girl playing a character named Tsukasa in the game ended up comatose. Morganna trapped her in the game like she did Harald, trying to manipulate her into corrupting Aura's birth and preventing it. Tsukasa eventually realized this was complete bullshit and teamed up with a bunch of other people to fight Morganna and save Aura, who was successfully awakened. There happened to be a dude named Sora in that group! Kind of. Actually, he sort of tried to do the double-backstab play-on-both-sides-then-fuck-both-over thing, which ended with him getting used by Morganna to created her first Phase, Skeith. Sora's player ended up in a coma, his mind trapped in the game like Tsukasa's had. After Aura was awakened and had escaped from Morganna, Skeith continued to control Sora's character and mind and had some cool adventures as a confused, amnesiac player possessed by 1/8th of an insane AI. There was a book about it that never went anywhere. Good times.
In 2010 a player by the name of Orca was also sent into a coma (by Skeith, of course) after Aura, still on the run from Morganna, tried to give him a program that could stop the rampaging AI bitchmom. Luckily, his friend Kite happened to be there at the time and got the program instead--the Twilight Bracelet. Four games later, Kite defeated Morganna, saved all the coma victims (there were a bunch more) and helped Aura complete her programming. The remnants of Morganna's Phases faded into the depths of the Internet. Aura became the benevolent AI goddess of the Internet.
And then she got bored! Or something. For whatever reason, she decided to disappear for awhile and the Internet kind of flipped the fuck out. AI viruses named AIDA were formed from her absence, infecting the network as well as people themselves. A person infected with AIDA becomes violent and crazy in 'The World', trying to infect others through combat--in the real world it became known as Doll Syndrome, because children who became infected became unresponsive and stiff, like a doll.
Because 1) this is kind of bad holy shit, and 2) having your players start going into comas again is bad business, CC Corp (the company that owned 'The World') started up a plan to bring back Aura by retrieving the eight fragments of Morganna that were supposedly destroyed. This failed epically, because Morganna doesn't like people trying to control her, and the entire building went up in flames after all the people involved were killed. The server was destroyed, though the game was recreated as 'The World R:2' around 2016. Morganna's phases were lost except for two, which were bound to game characters and given to a pair of employees who were actually capable of controlling them. Don't ask how they figured this out, who even knows. The other six phases escaped into the game and attached themselves to other players who fit their needs. And thus Epitaph Users were created!!
One of these Epitaph Users was Ovan. Ovan was also the first player in 'The World' to become infected by AIDA. He managed to keep the infection somewhat under control with his Epitaph and a giant metal case on his arm, though he infected his sister's character and put her in a coma before figuring that out. He then began his elaborate plot to destroy AIDA which took three games this time and also fucked everyone over in the process. Haseo was one of those people, and was in fact Ovan's main investment! Haseo was connected to the First Phase, Skeith, having previously played the character Sora seven years ago. Not that he remembers any of this, since his time attached to Skeith apparently fucked up his memory so hard he didn't remember anything about playing 'The World'. Apparently, his parents hid this form him and he probably never knew why he was comatose for six months and had chunks of his memory missing.
ANYWAY, yeah, Skeith was Ovan's big investment, since he believed Skeith could become powerful enough to collect all eight phases together (by kicking their asses and Data Draining them in the form of bossfights, of course), which would allow Ovan to activate his phase's ability, which conveniently reset the entire Internet. You know, because I guess Harald thought that might come in handy someday.
Haseo ended up joining Ovan's guild, the Twilight Brigade, which allowed him to meet his Internet-not-girlfriend Shino. It also lead to Shino getting comamurdered by a mysterious entity known only as Tri-Edge, who was definitely not Ovan, and the guy Haseo thought was Tri-Edge was definitely not a secret good guy who was in fact framed. MOVING ALONG, Shino falling into a coma drives Haseo to seek revenge and find a way to save her. This leads to him discovering the existence of AIDA, Avatars, and other such things, unlocking his own personal power, and understanding the true meaning of friendship. He also becomes a very famous player within the game, both as a powerful PKK and a crowned emperor of the in-game PVP arena. He also gets covered in all the bitches and has a lot of fanart and creepy fangirls fawning over him on forums. Overall, Haseo is a strong influence on the world's progression as he fights dangerous AIs and makes a name for himself within the playerbase.
AND THAT IS A BRIEF HISTORY OF .HACK.
Personality: Haseo is an unbelievably massive S-class douchewaffle. He's brash, rude, and selfish, always working to become stronger and taking down anyone who gets in his way. In The World, he prefers to play the game solo rather than in a group-- hell, it's not until months after first playing the game that he even figures out how the party combo attacks work. He's still a largely antisocial player and shows great dislike for most of his party members, but Haseo is in the process of opening up to his online friends. And despite his abrasive attitude, Haseo is extremely protective of his friends, and once he really gets to know a person (like Shino, or Ovan) he becomes very open and honest with them. To a lesser degree, his protectiveness can also be extended to everyone ever; while he may not act nice to every person out there, he despises people who look down on others, and if he sees someone being picked on he'll want to jump in and kick the bullying jerk in the face. While he may have started his career as a PKK to obtain information on Tri-Edge, protecting the weaker players of The World was also part of his motivation. Children are another soft spot for him, and he tends to act like slightly less of a jerk when talking to kids.
He is extremely determined and competitive. When Haseo sets a goal for himself he doesn't stop until he succeeds, often reaching a point of unhealthy obsession. Whether it's gaining more power, rescuing his comatose friend, or grinding for days to reach the top PvP rankings just so he can beat up some dickbag who told him off, if he says he'll do it he will fucking do it. He's also very diligent and loyal despite acting like a huge jerk 90% of the time. He always meets up with his internet bros when he gets invited to random stupid quests and shit, even when he obviously doesn't care. He's the kind of guy that complains about having to help other people but helps them anyway and goes out of his way to do it right.
He also tends to... repeat things. A lot. He likes to remind himself of things out loud so he doesn't forget. He usually does this in his head but sometimes it creeps into his speech. It's kind of annoying.
Ovan is kind of a big deal to Haseo. He was the first person who helped him out in the game. He was also very mysterious, but seemed to know a lot about the beyond the normal scope of things, and this is what drew Haseo to join the Twilight Brigade. He still only saw Ovan rarely, but Haseo looked up to him as a sort of mentor, and the Twilight Brigade game him a purpose within the game. When Ovan vanished after the battle in Coite-Bodher, Haseo felt lost and unsure of what to do. He put his mind to holding the Brigade together, even suggesting they search for Ovan instead of the Key of Twilight. When they were finally reunited shortly before Haseo's fight with Tri-Edge, he accused Ovan of causing the Brigade's collapse as well as the events which lead to Shino going into a coma-- but it's still pretty obvious that he trusted Ovan. After all, he followed every bit of advice the older man gave him, even after most of it blew up violently in his face. When Ovan gave him a new goal, he followed it, even if he didn't know why he was doing it.
In a lot of ways, Haseo is very dependant on Ovan for guidance and purpose. Even if he doesn't understand half the shit that comes out of his mouth, he puts complete trust in Ovan's word. This makes everything pretty easy for Ovan, since he was kind of manipulating the fuck out of Haseo for his own needs the whole time. What an ass.
Shino is a similar case to Ovan. She was also kind and welcoming to Haseo when he first started the game, as well as a voice of reason. From the start, he was much more interested in Shino than he ever was Sakisaka or Tabby, and both she and Ovan were the only reasons he really joined the Twilight Brigade. After Ovan's disappearance she turned to Haseo for support, and if he hadn't fallen for her before he sure as hell did then. They became very close, to the point where she gave him her phone number, and after she became comatose he visited her in the hospital on a daily basis. He blamed himself for not arriving soon enough to save her, and made it his goal to bring her back no matter what. All his hate and obsession towards Tri-Edge is a result of his love towards Shino.
"Tri-Edge" is a character Haseo has never really met, only encountered, and very rarely at that. To him, Tri-Edge is more of an exaggerated villain-- some being of pure evil that exists only to kill people and ruin things. This connects to his work as a PKK in that he applies this exaggerated concept to every other PKer he meets, albeit to a slightly lesser degree since they don't knock people into comas. But still, he is extremely biased against PKers of any kind, which is why he's more than happy to go out of his way to kill them even when it doesn't advance his own goals. Becoming a PKK was never something Haseo intended to do, it was just something that happened and he decided to go with it.
As for Tri-Edge, Haseo uses him as a scapegoat for all the terrible events that have happened in 'The World', even believing that defeating Tri-Edge would bring everyone back and undo the damage. THIS ACTUALLY ALL TURNS OUT TO BE TRUE if a little more complicated than anyone but Ovan anticipated, but believing right off the bat that killing one guy who was involved would fix everything that went wrong is just a little bit ridiculous.
Offline, Haseo is obviously not some psycho who screams a lot and goes around killing people with swords, because this is not the Internet where such things are totally normal. Ryou was raised an only child with considerably wealthy parents and went to a famous private school when not playing vidyas. He's a very intelligent kid, if his casual interest in dead Japanese poets and the fancy private school mean anything. While he might have been more social when he was younger, Ryou is much more introverted as a teen, probably to do with the whole going into a mysterious coma for six months thing. He's not too different from how he acts online, really. Just without all those psychotic tendencies and maybe a bit more respect for authority figures.
There is also the matter of Skeith! (and while Skeith is technically genderless/female at best due to being part of Morganna, it presents itself as a reflection of Haseo and has a male voice so I'm just going to call it a he from now on) Skeith is his own entity, a fragment of Morganna fused to Haseo's character to give him cool powers. Skeith is capable of making his own decisions (ex. rampaging like a douche when Haseo loses control of him, as well as "finding" and connecting himself to Haseo that first time) and communicating with others, or at least Haseo (they have a brief conversation in the third game). Haseo keeps a pretty tight leash on Skeith, so he doesn't get to talk to people much. Plus Skeith would probably just... kill everyone...
In the Epitaph Morganna's Phases are based on, Skeith was the harbinger of death that rode at the front of the Cursed Wave. In 'The World', it was created from 1) Morganna's need to hunt and destroy Aura, and 2) the player Sora, a chaotic-neutral PKer who I would also call a violent, dangerous sociopath if it weren't for the fact that this is an online game and not real life (seriously CC2 video games aren't that serious). Sora is still a douchebag, though. A ten-year-old douchebag. This obviously makes Skeith the biggest violent psycho docuhe to ever exist on the Internet.
Skeith does not feel compassion, fear, or pity. He is only driven by his lust for destruction and death to everything he sees. Without Haseo controlling him, Skeith would just rampage for the hell of it. He also inherited all of Sora/Haseo's most douchetastic qualities-- in his one conversation with Haseo, he pretty much just mocks the fuck out of him and laughs in his face. Skeith has some amount of loyalty to Haseo, since he kind of needs his host to exist in the gameworld, but he would also jump on any opportunity to hijack the body and do his own thing. Which would very likely be murder. Internet coma-inducing murder.
Abilities, Weaknesses, and Power Limitation Suggestions: Haseo has the speed and dexterity of a Twin Blade combined with the strength of an Edge Punisher. Depending on which weapon he has equipped, he can take the role of the quick but balanced rogue or the powerhouse tank; he is both skilled with using both his hands in battle as well as strong enough to heft around a giant chainsaw-sword and swing it like it's nothing. He's adept with a scythe as well, though his current character can't equip one anymore. Haseo also has the basic elemental spells of the first volume, which are fairly weak and don't get much use, but he does have them. Also that one shitty starter healing spell every main character has.
OTHER VIDEO GAME POWERS SUMMARIZED: hammerspace inventory, magical steambike that he can summon when outdoors (WHICH CAN ALSO EXPLODE TO ATTACK ENEMIES and then magically repair itself in his inventory i guess), urge to shout attack names at all times, ability to use a broadsword/twin blades even though he the player has no training of any kind in that sort of thing, "Awakenings"/party combo attacks that involve a lot of flashing lights and laserbeams but dont actually do much besides boost attack/shoot fireballs, magical girl transformation sequence, and an SP bar.
Video game skills aside, Haseo also has a power unique to him: his Avatar. He can summon the First Phase of Morganna, Skeith, and control it across another plane known as Avatar Space. Since Skeith exists on a different plane of the game (and thus in the station, another plane of reality), it can only be seen by others who have access to that plane. Skeith is the smallest of the phases, but its also quick and powerful, and if a regular person was attacked by it they could be taken out in a single blow. Skeith wields a large scythe and can also shoot energy bullets, but its real power is in its Data Drain, which allows it to remove and rewrite data in other entities. Skeith also gives Haseo a natural immunity and defence against other Avatars attacking him, as well as powerful entities and viruses like AIDA.
Of course, the Avatar's power doesn't come without consequence. Skeith isn't 100% under Haseo's control, and abusing its power recklessly can lead to him losing control of it, which leads to rampaging AI deathbeasts. This is kind of bad! Also, having too many Avatars summoned at once tends to make them even harder to control, so if any multi-Avatar battles break out everyone has a higher risk of going apeshit.
On the limitations side of things, it's pretty fortunate that Skeith is the smallest. He's about, oh, between 10' and 15' tall I'd guess. A swing of his scythe could probably take a chunk out of a building. However, since he is supposed to be on another plane of reality and all, he can't actually damage physical objects in any way, whatsoever. It's not like those huge Avatar fights ever damaged the game world, anyway. People can be pulled into Avatar Space and attacked, but targeting more than one person at a time for periods longer than a few seconds is dangerous and causes Avatar Space to become unstable, the same as when more than two Avatars are present at once. It's a one-on-one sort of thing.
As for who and what can see Avatar Space, in canon that's limited to other Avatar users and those infected by AIDA. Here shit is going to be a lot simpler. You can see weird things for whatever reason/have weird AI powers/hacker powers? Cool, you can probably see Avatars. You want to see Avatars just for the hell of it? Go for it, I don't really mind anyway!
Data Drain is a little trickier, but it's pretty much just that one bullshit finisher attack/plot device, so it's probably not going to get much use. Skeith is just fine with slicing shit to pieces and Data Drain takes some time to charge, time which could be spent on slicing shit to pieces. Still, Data Drain can easily be dodged (takes a few obvious seconds to charge + fairly slow-moving projectile) and is only fatal on opponents that are already weakened. Normally, regular opponents that don't have Avatar/AIDA-powers would be completely helpless against it, but I'm just going to add in "anyone with super AI/hacker defences" and "anyone with spooky magical defences" to that list. A totally normal person would probably still be fucked, but that kind of comes with the territory, and they can still dodge shit like normal.
IN CONCLUSION:
- Avatar isn't so good at breaking not-Avatar things and is also visible to whoever the hell feels like it
- Data Drain is a shitty, overrated attack
- Haseo probably isn't going to use any of this much anyway
MORE ON SKEITH/AVATAR BULLSHIT:
Avatar Space exists on a plane closer to the network than the physical world, and thus Skeith does not have a real physical body aside from Haseo's. However, 'The World' and its components have always been about connecting the digital and physical worlds. Skeith cannot physically attack a person, but he can pull others into Avatar Space, making them vulnerable to his attacks. This more or less translates to a type of psychic attack directly on the target's consciousness rather than their body. Victims injured by Skeith will not retain scars on their physical body, but may lose some feeling in damaged areas. Unless he lops off a chunk of the person or does some legit serious damage to them (and, OOCly, permissions and whatnot is given), any damage done in Avatar Space will heal at the pace of a normal wound (BUT INVISIBLE). Anyone killed by him will simply drop dead with no apparent cause (and these bodies may be kept alive through artificial means, but the person will be totally brain-dead anyway).
The nature of the attack itself makes it kind of hard for most ordinary people to avoid it, but when connected to Avatar Space everyone is still capable of moving freely on both planes. They can't exactly fight back, but anyone can fly in Avatar Space and dodge attacks. Skeith is one of the faster phases, and it certainly wouldn't be easy, but it is entirely possible to evade his attacks. Viewing from the outside (for those who can see Avatar Space) the two planes overlap eachother, though it's not exact in distance. Everything in Avatar Space is really far away because BOSS FIGHTS. This is also kind of why everyone gets a free speedboost in Avatar Space. Anyway, moving far enough away from Haseo in the physical world will also break the connection to Avatar Space.
Anyone with psychic abilities will be able to use them within Avatar Space to an amplified degree, since he is essentially targeting their mind. AIs and those with digital-based powers will also be able to use their abilities in Avatar Space. These types of people will also have a much higher defence against Skeith's attacks: while an ordinary person with no supernatural abilities might go down in one hit, a psychic or AI might be able to take several hits before suffering any real damage. The degree to which psychics/AIs/whatever are able to fight and resist attacks within Avatar Space is entirely up to the muns. It's basically the same as a mental attack, or a hacking attempt. KIND OF LITERALLY IN THE LATTER CASE. They can also resist being pulled into Avatar Space from the start if they have high enough defences that Skeith wouldn't even be able to reach them to draw them in.
Since Avatar Space is indeed closer to the network than any other reality, Skeith can draw in AIs attached to the network the same way he can draw in physical people. On the plus side, he can do this from almost anywhere, but on the negative side it also means the AI target is in a comfortable environment and can probably escape him unless some sort of digital blockade was in place. FIGHTING ON THE INTERNET, I DON'T EVEN. He could probably summon Skeith to any of Sacrosanct's MMOs too in the same sense that 'The World' works but wow I cannot imagine that ever being a real thing he'll need to do. If that somehow does become a thing it better be part of some ridiculous game-wide bullshit plot so let's just call MMO Avatar fights a mod-permission-only thing for now.
It should also be noted that using Skeith's power is both risky and draining for Haseo. It exhausts him both mentally and physically, and any damage done to Skeith can affect him the same way Skeith's attacks affect others. Relying on Skeith too much also has an impact on Haseo's mind, giving Skeith more influence and control over him.
WHICH BRINGS US TO OUR NEXT POINT: Skeith's independence and control over Haseo. Skeith is his own entity, present within Haseo's mind. He has the capacity to control Haseo's body totally on his own. However, despite all his spooky AI powers, Haseo's will is much stronger than Skeith. Unless an outside force is allowing Skeith an opening or Haseo is summoning Skeith and (consciously or unconsciously) giving him too much influence, Haseo will always remain in control. Telepaths and similar psychics would also be able to pick up on and possibly communicate with Skeith. But the bottom line is Haseo is actually pretty good at keeping the psychotic AI under control, so Skeith would only be able to take over under certain circumstances which may or may not actually ever happen.
Inventory:
- RANDOM VIDYA INVENTORY CRAP ie. healing potions, sp healing things, a few junk equips he can't use, a bunch of useless key/quest items, LOADS AND LOADS OF VIRTUAL GOLD, etc., etc.
- His main weapons: a giant fucking chainsaw broadsword and a pair of twin blades which also have spinny-blade attachments on them because why the hell not.
- Magic steambike that fits in his inventory and reforms itself post-explosioncrash
- Tight black leather outfit with pointless random shit stuck on for no apparent reason
Appearance: Haseo in his current outfit, and Skeith's Avatar form
Age: 17, both IRL and as his PC
Samples ;
Log Sample:
The first time Ryou met her offline, Shino was in a coma. It wasn't exactly the sort of meeting he'd been expecting, but there were a lot of things that he hadn't expected-- Ovan's disappearance, Tri-Edge, his PC getting reset, all that crazy stuff about Epitaphs and AIDA... It was too crazy to even talk about. Like anyone would believe him if he said a game was putting people into comas. Who would believe a story like that?
Shino of the Twilight Brigade was actually Nanao Shino, a twenty year old college student from Saitama. The hospital she was staying in wasn't far from his apartment, so Ryou visited her whenever he could. It was a little weird, seeing her like that, but if there was ever a chance she would wake up he wanted to know. So he started visiting every day, if only for a few minutes, just to see how she was doing.
If he had arrived a moment sooner... if he had been powerful enough to stop Tri-Edge the first time, would she still be here? It was pointless thinking about it, but it still bothered him. She wouldn't have wanted him to blame this on himself, but... if he had been there just a moment sooner...
When he logged into the world later that day, he would be fighting the Demon Palace Emperor: Endrance, an Epitaph PC infected by AIDA. Maybe after he won this fight, he could find out more about Tri-Edge.
Ryou stood up, looking down at Shino's unconscious body one more time before turning to leave the hospital room. He would keep searching for a way to save her, no matter what the cost. Haseo was the only one who could save her. Ovan had known this from the start-- that the Terror of Death would be able to defeat AIDA and Tri-Edge. And now that he had the power of his Avatar backing him up, he was sure of it, too. If Ovan believed in him, it had to be true.
He would defeat Tri-Edge, and then he'd make that damn PKer bring back all the Lost Ones!
Network Sample:
What the hell is going on here?! Atoli, Pi, Kuhn-- they're all gone! No one's responding to my flash mail! I've never seen any server like this before, and on top of all that I can't log out.
So someone around here better give me some answers-- and not any of that bullshit about space stations and alternate universes! Is this still part of The World, or is there something else going on here?
If this is AIDA's doing... damnit, I don't have time for this!