MISCELLANIA
NAME; Sync the Tempest
RANK; God-General
HISTORY; Sync was never born. Instead, he was created.
It began with Fon Master Ion - the first one, the real one, the one who came up with a plan to see the Score destroyed. He died at thirteen years old. In order to fulfill his plans, however, no one could know. For that reason, his data was taken to create a clone who would replace him in every way. But the process was flawed. They made seven duplicates before a successful replacement was discovered. Sync was the fifth. As such, he was quite useless for their purposes.
Thus Sync, along with the other five worthless replicas, was taken to a volcano to be tossed in and disposed of. Luckily, he managed to escape detection by hiding behind a large rock. After the lab assistants left, he began to explore the mountain... and met Van Grants, Ion's co-conspirator. With a newborn's mental faculties, he could only parrot one line over and over - the line the lab assistants had spoken at his creation: "It is regrettable. The synchronization level was a problem." For that reason, Van - who'd always had an unfortunate sense of irony - named him Sync and took him in. But Van never worked without a purpose. Sync couldn't be allowed to be useless.
And so Sync's training began.
First, Van branded him with a glyph that would draw out his seventh fonon potential and allow him to cast artes. Then he trained him in fighting. But his influence in Sync's life ran deeper than that. Sync grew rapidly with the deep-seated belief that he'd been created for one purpose and, having fallen short, could only ever serve as a tool to see the score destroyed. His life was empty of meaning. This didn't stop him from becoming an overachieving little jerk - he took to tactics extremely well. Only a few years after his save from the volcano, Van promoted him to God-General. The title was far from being a courtesy. As one of the executive officers of the Oracle Knights, Sync served directly under Van and commanded his own platoon. From time to time, he also worked with the other five God Generals: Arietta the Wild, Legretta the Quick, Largo the Black Lion, Dist the Reaper and Asch the Bloody. Asch was particularly important to Van's plans; and because Sync was the easiest to dispatch, it often fell to Sync to keep an eye on him. For the most part, however, he maintained working relationships with all of them, serving to organize them in the event that Van or Legretta were occupied.
Things ran smoothly until the Fon Master - the seventh Ion replica - went missing. Sync, along with the other five God Generals and their respective troops, was dispatched to recover him. Asch's fascination with the boy who had stolen his life, however, forced them into a detour to Choral Castle. There, they kidnapped Luke and opened his synchronized fon slots in order to allow Asch to better control him and to give Dist some more data on replicas to study. Although their overall plan was a success, there were two hitches:
1. While recovering Luke, the main party managed to steal the fon discs that held the replica data.
2. Guy engaged Sync in battle and managed to unmask him, uncovering his secret.
The first forced Sync into a mission to get them back. The second made it personal. For years, Sync had carefully obscured the fact that he was Ion's failed replica. That Guy had discovered the truth infuriated him. For that reason, when he finally caught up with the main party in Chesedonia, he went above and beyond the mission of making sure that they didn't find out what was on the fon discs. He branded Guy with a curse slot. Although they managed to get away, Sync caught up again later and finally managed to capture Ion in Baticul.
With Ion in tow, Sync accompanied the other God Generals to open the first Sephiroth and lower the lands. Thus began a minor tug-of-Ion-war that would continue for the rest of the game as each of the Daathic seals over the Sephiroths were opened. Some more hijinks occurred here, involving curse slots, battles, and entire towns being destroyed. Regardless, the God Generals' machinations forced the main party to use an airship to descend into the core of the planet. Sync stole onboard, intending to stop them before they could get anywhere. Unfortunately, the main party revealed itself to be stronger than anticipated: Sync was defeated and tossed into the core, just as was intended at his birth.
That was death #1.
Because, luckily for Sync, Van Grants wasn't idle in his absence. Using Lorelei's power, Van resurrected him and sent him undercover as a reader of the Score, undermining the main party's efforts to get the world to stop depending on it. As the plan neared its end, however, Sync abandoned cover and reunited with the God Generals on Eldrant. This eventually brought him around for a final battle with the main party. Despite his own refurbished powers (really, a little resurrection works wonders for the fonic artes), he lost again to Luke and his group. This time, Sync died and stayed dead.
At least until now.
ABILITIES & LIMITATIONS; Despite his build, Sync is fast, strong and extremely skillful when it comes to hand-to-hand fighting. He's also capable of fonic artes, which are basically Tales' version of battle magic and do everything from small, localised earthquakes to throwing fire. In a state known as Over Limit, Sync can manage a stronger set of Artes as well as Akashic Torments (essentially just a giant blast). This does, however, place his body under an extreme amount of stress and obviously weakens him if he's knocked out of it. In battle, Sync deals mainly physical damage. He lacks healing or defensive magic and his magical defenses are nil, making him extremely subsceptible to supernatural attacks. Even so, he can take on an armed party of six - spellcasters, healers and all - and still manage to deal a fair bit of damage before he goes down.
Like the original Ion, Sync can cast curse slots, though it's considerably less easy for him, since he manages to cast artes only through a brand that allows him to draw out his fonon potential. A curse slot essentially reduces a character's self-control while allowing the caster a certain amount of ability to puppet them. It also amplifies their negative emotions, lowers their defenses and blocks their ability to do magic. Although curse slots are difficult to remove, Sync can only manage one active curse slot at a time.
PERSONALITY; When he was first created, they looked at him and judged him unworthy. They threw him away. That single incident has been the driving force behind his entire life. He even says it himself: a replica that can't serve as a replacement is nothing more than trash.
Sync is, was, and always will be trash. And he knows it.
In a way, everything he's done has been trying to make up for that first failure. Of course, nothing he does now will ever compensate for the fact that he wasn't good enough to be Ion. He's aware of that. It's not something that troubles him much - not in the least because worrying doesn't get you anywhere, and Sync has always been a big fan of efficiency. Instead, he holds it somewhere at the back of his mind with a quiet kind of bitterness and he moves on. Other people are real. They can live real lives and have real relationships and carry on. It doesn't make them better or worse than him; it just separates them with a chasm that he can never cross. This fact, however, does mean that he never really takes pride in what he does. Having failed that first test, the only thing he's good for now is to be an instrument in devising the end of the Score. If he can't even manage what little tasks he's been set to after that, what use is his existence? For this reason, Sync has a horrible thing against failing anything else. Once he's undertaken a command, he will lie, bargain and cheat to see it through. He's even willing to die for it.
This is not to say that he takes just anybody's orders! Sync is far from a doormat. That kind of blindly driven loyalty is reserved for a single purpose: to destroy the Score. Sync's not really the ingratiating type - he prefers to get straight to the point when possible. However, in order to take advantage of their usefulness, Sync obviously has to be able to see how people work. And he is an extremely quick study when it comes to people. Since he keeps himself completely detached from the world - they're people, he's a replica, what kind of relationship can form there? - he's very good at evaluating strengths and weaknesses. Nor is he afraid of calling people out on the latter. Sync can be brutally honest when he wants to be, although he'll lie, too, depending on which gives him the better advantage.
Morality? That's for other people. What Sync likes is having the upper hand.
Despite all the makings of excellent people skills, however, Sync has none to speak of. He cannot build a personal relationship to save his life. Not that he'd really want to. Tools have no need of personal relationships. All his life, he's used only to see the Score eradicated. Everything else is extraneous. Oh, he can work with people just fine, and he's certainly not afraid to ask for help. He can even act the part of a warm, polite personality - complete with Ion voice! - as necessary. But none of that is real. Deep down, he knows that his existence means nothing. And Sync's never really been the type to lie to himself by pretending otherwise.
You might call him the perfect soldier. After all, Sync has an excellent sense of military discipline and diplomacy. He gets the job done no matter what the obstacle. He's good at explaining, negotiating, and commanding troops. About the only things you can really fault him for are his extreme detachment, his replica complex, and his tendency to taunt useless people. Well, that and his interest in destroying the world. But his old planet wanted to throw him away because his synchronization levels were too low. Surely you can't blame him for holding a grudge.
*
Threadhopping with this character - yes/no/maybe so?: Jump me wherever, whenever! Er - as long as the thread isn't unhackably locked and doesn't look like it's going in a set direction already. Then you might want to ask.
Backtagging with this character - yes/no/maybe so?: Absolutely!
Hugging this character?: Uhhh, he's fast. So you can try, but more likely than not he will make a break for it and wtf at your character from afar. Non-violent physical contact is not Sync's thing!
... no, not like that.
Giving this character a kiss?: See the bit about the hug.
Punching this character: Again, Sync is fast. Unless they're fighting in a melee or your character is also a ridiculously overleveled video game character, he can and will dodge. If a punch lands, chances are good that Sync will reciprocate in kind. Miniboss battle, get?
Is there anything ought not be mentioned near this character?: Nothing comes to mind, although be warned that he gets a little unpredictable if you mention Ion. It's not personal! They're just not meant to exist in the same time.
Is there anything you need us to know about interacting with this character? Special physical features, fighting abilities, STUFF: Ridiculously fast! Always wearing a mask! Will not let you touch him, ever. Seriously, if you're talking to him face-to-face, chances are good that he will have at least two feet between you and himself, and keep it that way without backing off.
RANK; God-General
HISTORY; Sync was never born. Instead, he was created.
It began with Fon Master Ion - the first one, the real one, the one who came up with a plan to see the Score destroyed. He died at thirteen years old. In order to fulfill his plans, however, no one could know. For that reason, his data was taken to create a clone who would replace him in every way. But the process was flawed. They made seven duplicates before a successful replacement was discovered. Sync was the fifth. As such, he was quite useless for their purposes.
Thus Sync, along with the other five worthless replicas, was taken to a volcano to be tossed in and disposed of. Luckily, he managed to escape detection by hiding behind a large rock. After the lab assistants left, he began to explore the mountain... and met Van Grants, Ion's co-conspirator. With a newborn's mental faculties, he could only parrot one line over and over - the line the lab assistants had spoken at his creation: "It is regrettable. The synchronization level was a problem." For that reason, Van - who'd always had an unfortunate sense of irony - named him Sync and took him in. But Van never worked without a purpose. Sync couldn't be allowed to be useless.
And so Sync's training began.
First, Van branded him with a glyph that would draw out his seventh fonon potential and allow him to cast artes. Then he trained him in fighting. But his influence in Sync's life ran deeper than that. Sync grew rapidly with the deep-seated belief that he'd been created for one purpose and, having fallen short, could only ever serve as a tool to see the score destroyed. His life was empty of meaning. This didn't stop him from becoming an overachieving little jerk - he took to tactics extremely well. Only a few years after his save from the volcano, Van promoted him to God-General. The title was far from being a courtesy. As one of the executive officers of the Oracle Knights, Sync served directly under Van and commanded his own platoon. From time to time, he also worked with the other five God Generals: Arietta the Wild, Legretta the Quick, Largo the Black Lion, Dist the Reaper and Asch the Bloody. Asch was particularly important to Van's plans; and because Sync was the easiest to dispatch, it often fell to Sync to keep an eye on him. For the most part, however, he maintained working relationships with all of them, serving to organize them in the event that Van or Legretta were occupied.
Things ran smoothly until the Fon Master - the seventh Ion replica - went missing. Sync, along with the other five God Generals and their respective troops, was dispatched to recover him. Asch's fascination with the boy who had stolen his life, however, forced them into a detour to Choral Castle. There, they kidnapped Luke and opened his synchronized fon slots in order to allow Asch to better control him and to give Dist some more data on replicas to study. Although their overall plan was a success, there were two hitches:
1. While recovering Luke, the main party managed to steal the fon discs that held the replica data.
2. Guy engaged Sync in battle and managed to unmask him, uncovering his secret.
The first forced Sync into a mission to get them back. The second made it personal. For years, Sync had carefully obscured the fact that he was Ion's failed replica. That Guy had discovered the truth infuriated him. For that reason, when he finally caught up with the main party in Chesedonia, he went above and beyond the mission of making sure that they didn't find out what was on the fon discs. He branded Guy with a curse slot. Although they managed to get away, Sync caught up again later and finally managed to capture Ion in Baticul.
With Ion in tow, Sync accompanied the other God Generals to open the first Sephiroth and lower the lands. Thus began a minor tug-of-Ion-war that would continue for the rest of the game as each of the Daathic seals over the Sephiroths were opened. Some more hijinks occurred here, involving curse slots, battles, and entire towns being destroyed. Regardless, the God Generals' machinations forced the main party to use an airship to descend into the core of the planet. Sync stole onboard, intending to stop them before they could get anywhere. Unfortunately, the main party revealed itself to be stronger than anticipated: Sync was defeated and tossed into the core, just as was intended at his birth.
That was death #1.
Because, luckily for Sync, Van Grants wasn't idle in his absence. Using Lorelei's power, Van resurrected him and sent him undercover as a reader of the Score, undermining the main party's efforts to get the world to stop depending on it. As the plan neared its end, however, Sync abandoned cover and reunited with the God Generals on Eldrant. This eventually brought him around for a final battle with the main party. Despite his own refurbished powers (really, a little resurrection works wonders for the fonic artes), he lost again to Luke and his group. This time, Sync died and stayed dead.
At least until now.
ABILITIES & LIMITATIONS; Despite his build, Sync is fast, strong and extremely skillful when it comes to hand-to-hand fighting. He's also capable of fonic artes, which are basically Tales' version of battle magic and do everything from small, localised earthquakes to throwing fire. In a state known as Over Limit, Sync can manage a stronger set of Artes as well as Akashic Torments (essentially just a giant blast). This does, however, place his body under an extreme amount of stress and obviously weakens him if he's knocked out of it. In battle, Sync deals mainly physical damage. He lacks healing or defensive magic and his magical defenses are nil, making him extremely subsceptible to supernatural attacks. Even so, he can take on an armed party of six - spellcasters, healers and all - and still manage to deal a fair bit of damage before he goes down.
Like the original Ion, Sync can cast curse slots, though it's considerably less easy for him, since he manages to cast artes only through a brand that allows him to draw out his fonon potential. A curse slot essentially reduces a character's self-control while allowing the caster a certain amount of ability to puppet them. It also amplifies their negative emotions, lowers their defenses and blocks their ability to do magic. Although curse slots are difficult to remove, Sync can only manage one active curse slot at a time.
PERSONALITY; When he was first created, they looked at him and judged him unworthy. They threw him away. That single incident has been the driving force behind his entire life. He even says it himself: a replica that can't serve as a replacement is nothing more than trash.
Sync is, was, and always will be trash. And he knows it.
In a way, everything he's done has been trying to make up for that first failure. Of course, nothing he does now will ever compensate for the fact that he wasn't good enough to be Ion. He's aware of that. It's not something that troubles him much - not in the least because worrying doesn't get you anywhere, and Sync has always been a big fan of efficiency. Instead, he holds it somewhere at the back of his mind with a quiet kind of bitterness and he moves on. Other people are real. They can live real lives and have real relationships and carry on. It doesn't make them better or worse than him; it just separates them with a chasm that he can never cross. This fact, however, does mean that he never really takes pride in what he does. Having failed that first test, the only thing he's good for now is to be an instrument in devising the end of the Score. If he can't even manage what little tasks he's been set to after that, what use is his existence? For this reason, Sync has a horrible thing against failing anything else. Once he's undertaken a command, he will lie, bargain and cheat to see it through. He's even willing to die for it.
This is not to say that he takes just anybody's orders! Sync is far from a doormat. That kind of blindly driven loyalty is reserved for a single purpose: to destroy the Score. Sync's not really the ingratiating type - he prefers to get straight to the point when possible. However, in order to take advantage of their usefulness, Sync obviously has to be able to see how people work. And he is an extremely quick study when it comes to people. Since he keeps himself completely detached from the world - they're people, he's a replica, what kind of relationship can form there? - he's very good at evaluating strengths and weaknesses. Nor is he afraid of calling people out on the latter. Sync can be brutally honest when he wants to be, although he'll lie, too, depending on which gives him the better advantage.
Morality? That's for other people. What Sync likes is having the upper hand.
Despite all the makings of excellent people skills, however, Sync has none to speak of. He cannot build a personal relationship to save his life. Not that he'd really want to. Tools have no need of personal relationships. All his life, he's used only to see the Score eradicated. Everything else is extraneous. Oh, he can work with people just fine, and he's certainly not afraid to ask for help. He can even act the part of a warm, polite personality - complete with Ion voice! - as necessary. But none of that is real. Deep down, he knows that his existence means nothing. And Sync's never really been the type to lie to himself by pretending otherwise.
You might call him the perfect soldier. After all, Sync has an excellent sense of military discipline and diplomacy. He gets the job done no matter what the obstacle. He's good at explaining, negotiating, and commanding troops. About the only things you can really fault him for are his extreme detachment, his replica complex, and his tendency to taunt useless people. Well, that and his interest in destroying the world. But his old planet wanted to throw him away because his synchronization levels were too low. Surely you can't blame him for holding a grudge.
*
Threadhopping with this character - yes/no/maybe so?: Jump me wherever, whenever! Er - as long as the thread isn't unhackably locked and doesn't look like it's going in a set direction already. Then you might want to ask.
Backtagging with this character - yes/no/maybe so?: Absolutely!
Hugging this character?: Uhhh, he's fast. So you can try, but more likely than not he will make a break for it and wtf at your character from afar. Non-violent physical contact is not Sync's thing!
... no, not like that.
Giving this character a kiss?: See the bit about the hug.
Punching this character: Again, Sync is fast. Unless they're fighting in a melee or your character is also a ridiculously overleveled video game character, he can and will dodge. If a punch lands, chances are good that Sync will reciprocate in kind. Miniboss battle, get?
Is there anything ought not be mentioned near this character?: Nothing comes to mind, although be warned that he gets a little unpredictable if you mention Ion. It's not personal! They're just not meant to exist in the same time.
Is there anything you need us to know about interacting with this character? Special physical features, fighting abilities, STUFF: Ridiculously fast! Always wearing a mask! Will not let you touch him, ever. Seriously, if you're talking to him face-to-face, chances are good that he will have at least two feet between you and himself, and keep it that way without backing off.