application
Self;
Name/Alias: Ian
Personal LJ: pridefall
E-mail Address: tiamat_56@msn.com
AIM: nvncilaniix
Other Messengers: arcantic_artistry @ yim
Character;
Character: Heat O’Brian
Fandom: Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
Character age: 21
Residence: Spanish Harlem
Occupation: Student; Majoring in Humanities
If [student], then specify school: Columbia University
Reserved Character? Yes
History;
Canon or AU? Canon
Supernatural powers? History | Power Background: Here. That site explains it more concisely than I ever could,
Anything else we should know? Not really? Heat likes to eat people, and will probably be doing so here, so. I don’t know.
In-Game Backstory: Okay, so to understand Heat’s world one must first understand that the first half of it doesn’t even exist. Heat (the AI) begins “life” within a computerized military program called: “The Junkyard” - here he is trained and tempered to fight in tribal warfare scenarios with other members of his “Tribe,” the Embryon. We’re not told much about the years (or, possibly, centuries) of warfare Heat has to struggle through, as the Digital Devil Saga actually starts when the complete and utter breakdown of this training system is initiated: a bright, blinding light falls from the sky, interrupting a battle the Embyron Tribe is having with another opposing tribe. What happens next can only be described as a paradigm shift, as a series of…light tendrils erupt out from the impact zone, firing off towards everyone present as the scene understandably devolves into chaos.
Heat and the rest of his Tribe awaken hours after the event to find that their enemies (and some of their allies) have been completely torn apart and fed upon by unknown creatures. Stranger still, after locating a mysterious black-haired girl lying naked at the site of the light anomaly, each of the survivors finds that they have been “Marked” by a single unique “tattoo” somewhere on their body. This tattoo - called “Atma” - is later found to impart the power of transformation, allowing each tribe member marked with it to shapeshift into a fiercer, more Demonic form - this form, they find, is what allowed them to win their battle, as it was not an outside force, but the Embryon themselves who ate their enemies.
It is here that the Atma Temple, the men and women who essentially “run” the Junkyard, issues a new law regarding this new arrival: “Devour the other Tribes, and bring the black-haired girl to Nirvana.”
Heat and the rest of the Embryon, decidedly angry at this turn events, choose to begrudgingly follow only the former portion of their new way of life, which leads to even more fighting between the Tribes, and brings on the eventual deletion of the entire “Junkyard” program once the Embyron basically slaughter their way to the top. Along the warpath that is the first Digital Devil Saga, each tribe member undergoes a series of changes that seems to “Awaken” them to who they really are, transforming them from blank slates of emotion to human beings with wants, needs, and ideologies that they themselves frequently do not understand.
Case in point, once Heat finally seems to realize that he is human, and that he cares for Sera (the black-haired girl) as more than a comrade, he completely transforms from a mindless, almost stoic killer into someone completely fueled, and often confused by his own emotions. As clichéd as it sounds, Heat actually embodies everything you would expect his name to define, at this point: he is extraordinarily hot headed, severely mal-tempered, quicker to judge than he is to forgive, and unrepentant to such a degree that he may as well be emotionless. All throughout the course of both Digital Devil Saga games, Heat seems to only be able to express how he feels through violence or anger, caring little for what anyone else thinks of his actions unless they try to physically make their point. In particular, within the Embryon Heat especially has conflicting emotions towards both Sera and Serph: he is, in a sense, infatuated with Sera, and jealous of Serph for being so close to her, though he never understands why this is until the second game.
Here enters Heat O’brian, a genetic therapist who, we find out, was the person Sera based the Artificial Heat AI off of once she created the Junkyard program inside of herself. Instead of finding Nirvana after devouring all of their enemies, the second Digital Devil Saga game throws a curveball at everyone by revealing that the Embryon awaken from their supposed “deletions” to a word gone horribly, horribly wrong.
This is where I’m taking Heat from. He’s a little bit of his AI self still, and he’s a little bit of his human self; violent, confused, analytical, and, ultimately, ready to do anything to survive. He’s also been in the City for a few months, and has started taking classes at the graduate level to try and get a job to support himself, but Agni is always hungry.
Presentation;
Third Person Sample: First, there was darkness.
(He blinks it away, tasting copper in his mouth for the first time in ages.)
Then, there is light: bright, piercing, and darker than the space between the stars.
(Heat has never seen the sun, but he instinctively knows that something is wrong with it once he lays his eyes upon the bright orb for the first time.)
Last come words: angry, frightened, and shouted at him from all sides.
(Heat stands up, calls out to Agni, and consumes the men around him before they can reach their weapons. Though this was a new place, and though he is separated from the rest of his tribe, the Atma User knows what is truly important in life)
Sated, the AI looked down at the remains of the men at his feet, his mouth feeling oddly…there was no immediate word for it -- just off, which in and of itself was strange.
He shook his head.
No matter.
(The first time he had devoured another living creature, Heat had felt nothing short of orgasmic pleasure. The process of masticating on bones, his teeth sawing through muscle and sinew, was an automatic and almost ancillary process his body went through once the scent of blood was in the air. It didn't matter if the corpse he ate was friend or foe, or even if, as fleeting as it was, he remembered the men and women whom he killed, so long as his enemies died, Agni ate, and he was able to keep on living because of it.)
Taking a step forward, Heat looked around, and frowned to himself. For a place called Nirvana, this new world, with its empty buildings, ruined streets, and dead, almost burning landscape, was strangely similar to the one he had just left. Even the way the “people” interacted with each other, always violent, never stopping to question who or what they were fighting, seemed oddly…familiar.
Heat turned on his heel and stared, hard, at the remains of what was once a man’s arm.
His eyes went wide.
(The curse, the virus that the Junkyard had given them, was a blessing. “Devour the other tribes,” the Temple had said; adapt or Die; rend, tear, and devour, doing everything in your power to survive. That was the new law. That was the new way of being. Heat couldn't understand how Agrilla and Serph, with their too-bright eyes, and their too-soft words, could ever see it as otherwise - they all had power, now. No longer were they slaves to the weapons they held, or the skin that they wore; the Embryon had real strength, and with it came the power to change the world around them as they saw fit.
How could they not see it? How could they not embrace it? The Junkyard was a horrid, decrepit place, and now they could escape it -- all it would take were the deaths of every single man and woman outside of their Tribe.
Simple, right?)
It came flooding back to him in a torrent of sounds and memories. He had not reached Nirvana; this was Earth. He had not “found” the truth about “himself” or anyone else, for that matter, because they were all dead, meaning that Serph had been wrong, and that the deletion of the Junkyard had not fulfilled Sera’s dreams.
Heat had failed her.
Serph had failed him.
Heat clenched his fists, closed his eyes, and took a breath.
Adapt or die. Rend. Tear. Devour. This is the new law
Part him knew that the Embyron had made it through with him. Part of him knew that, eventually, they would come to realize everything he had realized, if not sooner. Another part of him, however, this one far more quiet than the last, told him that how much they found out didn’t matter anyway.
Each and every one of them would have to die, so that he could keep Sera safe.
It was all that mattered.
Questions;
Set I.
Who or what, if anything, would you die for?
o The Embryon are my Tribe, and I would go down in a hail of gunfire to keep them alive. Her, if the mood’s right and Serph isn’t around to cockblock me. Them, if they couldn’t support themselves otherwise; though just barely, and never twice. Weak shits. Who plans on dying for something, anyway?
Who or what, if anything, would you kill for?
o Are you seriously asking me this question? Shut the fuck up. Just - shut the fuck up. At this point I don’t even need a reason to answer that question - we were given our lives back, and it’s all gone to hell and shit. I’d kill anyone and everyone to undo that, just so that she could have a better place to live.
Would you rather learn everything there is to know, or experience everything there is to experience?
o As long as I can keep going forward, nothing else matters. I’ll learn what I need to learn through doing, not making stupid wishes for it. I’m not a child.
Your hearing, or your eyesight?
o Idiot. I could survive without either of them. You sense of smell and taste are about eight-thousand times more useful than something a well-placed Bufula or Ziodyne could end up shattering.
Do you believe in love at first sight?
o…Next question.
Do you believe in God?
o Gods? I’ve devoured a few. They taste just the same as any other person with Atma would, if that tells you anything.
If you could commit any felony with impunity, which would it be?
o The only laws that matter are the laws of the Embryon, and I wouldn’t break those for anyone. These people are my - not my family, because I left all of that behind, but they are important. No one and nothing is going to fuck that up for me. Especially something as petty as a “law”.
If you were on the Titanic and there was only room for one person on your lifeboat, would you save your mother or your best friend?
o Serph can swim. And I don’t even remember my mother’s face. Let them take care of themselves if they want to live so badly.
Set II.
Describe how you met your best friend.
o Despite all evidence in favor of the idiot not holding this title, I met Serph for the first time when Sera’s “world” was first booted up, and ever since then, we’ve been - I refuse to call him a “friend,” because that’s an idiotic term of endearment. We’re comrades, and he’s pulled my ass out of the fire more times than once, and I’ve done the same for him. Once that symbioses ends, so does whatever we have with one another.
Describe the worst thing you’ve ever done.
o There’s no such thing as “the worst” of anything - you either do in a situation, or you don’t, and life goes on. If you die trying, then the weak bottom-feeders tear you to shreds, and, again, life. Goes. On..
This is such a stupid fucking question.
Name/Alias: Ian
Personal LJ: pridefall
E-mail Address: tiamat_56@msn.com
AIM: nvncilaniix
Other Messengers: arcantic_artistry @ yim
Character;
Character: Heat O’Brian
Fandom: Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
Character age: 21
Residence: Spanish Harlem
Occupation: Student; Majoring in Humanities
If [student], then specify school: Columbia University
Reserved Character? Yes
History;
Canon or AU? Canon
Supernatural powers? History | Power Background: Here. That site explains it more concisely than I ever could,
Anything else we should know? Not really? Heat likes to eat people, and will probably be doing so here, so. I don’t know.
In-Game Backstory: Okay, so to understand Heat’s world one must first understand that the first half of it doesn’t even exist. Heat (the AI) begins “life” within a computerized military program called: “The Junkyard” - here he is trained and tempered to fight in tribal warfare scenarios with other members of his “Tribe,” the Embryon. We’re not told much about the years (or, possibly, centuries) of warfare Heat has to struggle through, as the Digital Devil Saga actually starts when the complete and utter breakdown of this training system is initiated: a bright, blinding light falls from the sky, interrupting a battle the Embyron Tribe is having with another opposing tribe. What happens next can only be described as a paradigm shift, as a series of…light tendrils erupt out from the impact zone, firing off towards everyone present as the scene understandably devolves into chaos.
Heat and the rest of his Tribe awaken hours after the event to find that their enemies (and some of their allies) have been completely torn apart and fed upon by unknown creatures. Stranger still, after locating a mysterious black-haired girl lying naked at the site of the light anomaly, each of the survivors finds that they have been “Marked” by a single unique “tattoo” somewhere on their body. This tattoo - called “Atma” - is later found to impart the power of transformation, allowing each tribe member marked with it to shapeshift into a fiercer, more Demonic form - this form, they find, is what allowed them to win their battle, as it was not an outside force, but the Embryon themselves who ate their enemies.
It is here that the Atma Temple, the men and women who essentially “run” the Junkyard, issues a new law regarding this new arrival: “Devour the other Tribes, and bring the black-haired girl to Nirvana.”
Heat and the rest of the Embryon, decidedly angry at this turn events, choose to begrudgingly follow only the former portion of their new way of life, which leads to even more fighting between the Tribes, and brings on the eventual deletion of the entire “Junkyard” program once the Embyron basically slaughter their way to the top. Along the warpath that is the first Digital Devil Saga, each tribe member undergoes a series of changes that seems to “Awaken” them to who they really are, transforming them from blank slates of emotion to human beings with wants, needs, and ideologies that they themselves frequently do not understand.
Case in point, once Heat finally seems to realize that he is human, and that he cares for Sera (the black-haired girl) as more than a comrade, he completely transforms from a mindless, almost stoic killer into someone completely fueled, and often confused by his own emotions. As clichéd as it sounds, Heat actually embodies everything you would expect his name to define, at this point: he is extraordinarily hot headed, severely mal-tempered, quicker to judge than he is to forgive, and unrepentant to such a degree that he may as well be emotionless. All throughout the course of both Digital Devil Saga games, Heat seems to only be able to express how he feels through violence or anger, caring little for what anyone else thinks of his actions unless they try to physically make their point. In particular, within the Embryon Heat especially has conflicting emotions towards both Sera and Serph: he is, in a sense, infatuated with Sera, and jealous of Serph for being so close to her, though he never understands why this is until the second game.
Here enters Heat O’brian, a genetic therapist who, we find out, was the person Sera based the Artificial Heat AI off of once she created the Junkyard program inside of herself. Instead of finding Nirvana after devouring all of their enemies, the second Digital Devil Saga game throws a curveball at everyone by revealing that the Embryon awaken from their supposed “deletions” to a word gone horribly, horribly wrong.
This is where I’m taking Heat from. He’s a little bit of his AI self still, and he’s a little bit of his human self; violent, confused, analytical, and, ultimately, ready to do anything to survive. He’s also been in the City for a few months, and has started taking classes at the graduate level to try and get a job to support himself, but Agni is always hungry.
Presentation;
Third Person Sample: First, there was darkness.
(He blinks it away, tasting copper in his mouth for the first time in ages.)
Then, there is light: bright, piercing, and darker than the space between the stars.
(Heat has never seen the sun, but he instinctively knows that something is wrong with it once he lays his eyes upon the bright orb for the first time.)
Last come words: angry, frightened, and shouted at him from all sides.
(Heat stands up, calls out to Agni, and consumes the men around him before they can reach their weapons. Though this was a new place, and though he is separated from the rest of his tribe, the Atma User knows what is truly important in life)
Sated, the AI looked down at the remains of the men at his feet, his mouth feeling oddly…there was no immediate word for it -- just off, which in and of itself was strange.
He shook his head.
No matter.
(The first time he had devoured another living creature, Heat had felt nothing short of orgasmic pleasure. The process of masticating on bones, his teeth sawing through muscle and sinew, was an automatic and almost ancillary process his body went through once the scent of blood was in the air. It didn't matter if the corpse he ate was friend or foe, or even if, as fleeting as it was, he remembered the men and women whom he killed, so long as his enemies died, Agni ate, and he was able to keep on living because of it.)
Taking a step forward, Heat looked around, and frowned to himself. For a place called Nirvana, this new world, with its empty buildings, ruined streets, and dead, almost burning landscape, was strangely similar to the one he had just left. Even the way the “people” interacted with each other, always violent, never stopping to question who or what they were fighting, seemed oddly…familiar.
Heat turned on his heel and stared, hard, at the remains of what was once a man’s arm.
His eyes went wide.
(The curse, the virus that the Junkyard had given them, was a blessing. “Devour the other tribes,” the Temple had said; adapt or Die; rend, tear, and devour, doing everything in your power to survive. That was the new law. That was the new way of being. Heat couldn't understand how Agrilla and Serph, with their too-bright eyes, and their too-soft words, could ever see it as otherwise - they all had power, now. No longer were they slaves to the weapons they held, or the skin that they wore; the Embryon had real strength, and with it came the power to change the world around them as they saw fit.
How could they not see it? How could they not embrace it? The Junkyard was a horrid, decrepit place, and now they could escape it -- all it would take were the deaths of every single man and woman outside of their Tribe.
Simple, right?)
It came flooding back to him in a torrent of sounds and memories. He had not reached Nirvana; this was Earth. He had not “found” the truth about “himself” or anyone else, for that matter, because they were all dead, meaning that Serph had been wrong, and that the deletion of the Junkyard had not fulfilled Sera’s dreams.
Heat had failed her.
Serph had failed him.
Heat clenched his fists, closed his eyes, and took a breath.
Adapt or die. Rend. Tear. Devour. This is the new law
Part him knew that the Embyron had made it through with him. Part of him knew that, eventually, they would come to realize everything he had realized, if not sooner. Another part of him, however, this one far more quiet than the last, told him that how much they found out didn’t matter anyway.
Each and every one of them would have to die, so that he could keep Sera safe.
It was all that mattered.
Questions;
Set I.
Who or what, if anything, would you die for?
o The Embryon are my Tribe, and I would go down in a hail of gunfire to keep them alive. Her, if the mood’s right and Serph isn’t around to cockblock me. Them, if they couldn’t support themselves otherwise; though just barely, and never twice. Weak shits. Who plans on dying for something, anyway?
Who or what, if anything, would you kill for?
o Are you seriously asking me this question? Shut the fuck up. Just - shut the fuck up. At this point I don’t even need a reason to answer that question - we were given our lives back, and it’s all gone to hell and shit. I’d kill anyone and everyone to undo that, just so that she could have a better place to live.
Would you rather learn everything there is to know, or experience everything there is to experience?
o As long as I can keep going forward, nothing else matters. I’ll learn what I need to learn through doing, not making stupid wishes for it. I’m not a child.
Your hearing, or your eyesight?
o Idiot. I could survive without either of them. You sense of smell and taste are about eight-thousand times more useful than something a well-placed Bufula or Ziodyne could end up shattering.
Do you believe in love at first sight?
o…Next question.
Do you believe in God?
o Gods? I’ve devoured a few. They taste just the same as any other person with Atma would, if that tells you anything.
If you could commit any felony with impunity, which would it be?
o The only laws that matter are the laws of the Embryon, and I wouldn’t break those for anyone. These people are my - not my family, because I left all of that behind, but they are important. No one and nothing is going to fuck that up for me. Especially something as petty as a “law”.
If you were on the Titanic and there was only room for one person on your lifeboat, would you save your mother or your best friend?
o Serph can swim. And I don’t even remember my mother’s face. Let them take care of themselves if they want to live so badly.
Set II.
Describe how you met your best friend.
o Despite all evidence in favor of the idiot not holding this title, I met Serph for the first time when Sera’s “world” was first booted up, and ever since then, we’ve been - I refuse to call him a “friend,” because that’s an idiotic term of endearment. We’re comrades, and he’s pulled my ass out of the fire more times than once, and I’ve done the same for him. Once that symbioses ends, so does whatever we have with one another.
Describe the worst thing you’ve ever done.
o There’s no such thing as “the worst” of anything - you either do in a situation, or you don’t, and life goes on. If you die trying, then the weak bottom-feeders tear you to shreds, and, again, life. Goes. On..
This is such a stupid fucking question.