APPLICATION.
Character Name: Nasim Belhadj, formerly Karim Matmour.
Character Age: 20.
Background: The Algerian Civil War left scars in both France and Algeria's conscious. For the French, it represented the last vestiges of their once glorious empire leaving them. For the Legion, it felt like a betrayal, leading all of them to eventually plan a revolt, choosing a sharp shooter from their ranks in order to assassinate Charles de Gaulle. For Algerians, independence was at last achieved -- but in this brave and untried world, a strange one indeed.
For the Matmours, Algeria's independence was something that they embraced. Both Nasira and Rashid Matmour had served with the FLN, Nasira as a nurse and propagandist, Rashid as a maquisard. The war was not something that either of them remembered fondly, and though many of the older population can easily remember the Algerian War, Nasira and Rashid remembered it vividly due to their high involvement with the resistance movement. They remember the tortures, the harrowing times when all they could do was sit and wait. Nasira remembered waiting for Rashid to come back, Rashid remembered thinking he would never see Nasira. The two of them had gone through such pain, and such trouble -- they were determined to make the new Algeria all that they could not have for the future generations.
Rashid entered the government, joining up with the same party which he fought for during the war, and rose through the ranks at a moderate pace, while Nasira occupied herself with trying to rebuild society from the ground up. Both felt as if their efforts were futile and tried their hardest for a baby to occupy their time, to love and to coddle. Neither of their efforts succeeded entirely. Though Rashid was in the government, he soon realised the amount of infighting and backstabbing that the FLN engaged in now that they had no common enemy, and Nasira was overwhelmed by stress and melancholy. Both of their inner struggles contributed to the cooling of passion in their house, rendering their many tries for a baby unsuccessful.
Nasira sunk further and further into melancholy, while Rashid buried himself in his work. Their marriage became an unhappy one -- both of them fighting off demons of their own, the divide between them growing until their was simply no way to bridge it. Speaking was clinical between them, as if the other had ceased to become their once-lover and simply the other partner in a union. Things did not improve between them when Nasira was declared barren -- Rashid buried himself deeper and Nasira did not emerge from her room for three days.
It took twenty years of not speaking to each other, twenty years of ignorance before they were willing to even try and bridge the gap, and it wasn't so much a bridging as raw, animalistic need for human contact. At the late age of 41, Nasira was finally with child. When Karim Matmour entered the world, it was as if all their hopes and prayers had been answered. Karim mended their marriage, Karim drove away the demons still haunting Nasira and Rashid with his own need. By this time, the Matmours were a fairly big deal within society and were upper middle class, thus ensuring that Karim never wanted for anything.
Perhaps it was because Nasira and Rashid had already fought their own demons. Perhaps it was because they were far too knowledgable about the atrocities of war, but they spoiled and sheltered Karim like no other. He had nannies, he had everything he could have ever wanted. In a country not very well off, Karim stuck out like a sore thumb, with Nasira and Rashid throwing everything they could have into Karim.
Life did not stay blessed for long. When Karim was six, the Algerian Civil War broke out. Nasim doesn't remember much about the time, excepting that there was much swearing, much cursing before plans were laid down. Thirty years of service to the country had dulled his senses of Algeria the perfect and Rashid's priorities were to get Karim and Nasira out of the country, and fast. With the extreme calmness, Rashid managed to arrange transportation to Morocco, housing arrangements and enough money to cushion their arrival in Morocco.
Morocco did not improve the already entitled, already spoiled Karim. They landed in a well off section of Morocco, and Karim was enrolled in a prestigious lycée, indulging his bad habits further. This further bred his habits of entitlement and it wasn't long before Karim slacked off, mouthed back to his teachers all the time and caused his mother all the trouble he was supposed to be alleviating.
It wasn't long until he truly slipped into hedonism, ignoring his tests in favour of treats and grades in favour of girls. He could often be found with the other cream of society, throwing their influence around and ignoring the world in favour of having a good time. Karim followed the idea that he should be allowed to do whatever he wanted to do, when he wanted to do it. Though Nasira tried to reel him in at first, Karim soon spiraled out of control, taking advantage of his family's position and power to do as he wished.
Some of this came to a stop when he failed to get into the school of his parents' choice. Or his choice. Or his second choice. Or any choice at all. There were serious abuses of influence and money pulled off in order to allow Karim to get into the school, and even then, he didn't quite understand or reign in. He carried on -- slightly more cautiously, but not all that much so. Nasira began to turn to her old coping mechanisms, totally unsuited to reigning in a boy so out of control. What happened to her golden boy? Nasira was often desolate and upset when Karim came back, and with Rashid a country away and preoccupied with holding down the fort, the house became a cooking pot, prompting Karim to stay out more often.
The distance between Karim and his parents grew wider, with Rashid attempting to exert his influence from a country away and Nasira's many tactics simply not working on the recalcitrant Karim. Karim's fights became against everyone -- society, which was oppressing him, his parents, which ~just didn't understand him~, his 'friends', who never listened to him and the systems, for dismissing him. Karim sank into a pit of despair and anger, fueling himself from that and continuing to carry on partying and other uncouth, unsavoury things.
The penultimate straw came when Karim scored so horribly on his exams that no respectable would accept him. Rashid, having had enough of Karim running about and misbehaving deemed the situation in Algeria safe enough to move back in and ordered Nasira and Karim to return at once, where he would set about trying to get Karim a government position. Karim didn't want to go back to Algeria. He had been in Morocco since he was five, he didn't see any point in it.
In one final act in rebellion, Karim 'stole' the money from his mother's purse, haphazardly packed a few random items and headed towards the Legion recruitment center in Marseille. That was truly the straw that broke the camel's back. After all the time, and sweat that Nasira and Rashid had put into fighting for the FLN, the fact that their son was swanning off -- on a whim, as well! to join their native enemy in France was galling and made the gorge in their throat rise. 13 years of bullshit, and they had enough. They had enough of each other, they had enough of children. They disowned him, refusing to acknowledge him as one of their's.
This left Karim with no other chance but to succeed in being recruited for the Legionnaires. Surprisingly, for a lank child who only worked out to impress girls, he did surprisingly well. Karim signed up under a sous-anonymous, thinking it best to leave his past behind and has done so. Since his three year regime in the service, he has seen action and trained furiously. In short -- Karim is in love with the legion.
Personality: At first glance, Nasim's a kid. An extremely well trained kid, but a kid nonetheless - almost a puppy, with his boundless enthusiasm. He's the cheerleader of his section, the one with a smile on his face and the belief that he's a Legionnaire, Legionnaires can work it out because no other force in the world is as well trained as us, right? He has no end of catchy slogans that the Legion drills into the recruits, and even in a fighting force that prides itself on its excellent espirit de corps, it's extraneous. He's often been told by other Legionnaires to for god's sake, take it down a notch Belhadj.
It'd be easy to dismiss that as a kid so in love with the Foreign Legion. And he is exactly that, but there's a reason and a rationale behind it that he can't fully articulate. Before the Foreign Legion, he was Karim Matmour, wastrel and playboy extraordinaire. He had no purpose, no feeling, no passion. He didn't know who he was, and headed for the one place he could think of that would take him in. Perhaps because of the extremely short period of time between his disownment and his recruitment for the Foreign Legion, Nasim still doesn't know who he is as a person, and so chooses to define himself by the Legion. Without the Legion, he is lost -- he truly has no hobbies outside the Legion. He chooses to go by his Legion given name because he wants to forget his past and devote himself entirely. He knows that he won't leave the Legion when his five year term is up and will continue to serve until they make him retire or he dies in the service of Legion.
And because he loves the Legion, he doesn't question anything he does in the service of it. He doesn't think about the political repercussions both because he doesn't know anything about politics and because what the Legion wants, he will do. He can go days without sleep, climb mountains, endure abuse because even if his muscles scream and his vision blurs around the edges, he won't stop. He loves the Legion, and even if he didn't -- where else would he go? Disowned, disgraced -- the Legion has everything he had as Karim as collateral.
In a strange way, he has become the Legion -- to the point that separating himself from the Legion is impossible. He can't remember anything he really likes outside of it. He values loyalty, precision and purpose because that's what they do, right? The Legion is all that is good and holy to him. He takes betrayal extremely hard because of the esprit de corps of the Legion, and has problems remembering that not everybody values the same things he does. Because he has nothing else, he values loyalty, and because in his new life he has been drilled into being precise. He values purpose because before the Legion, his life had no purpose.
It does have its downsides. He genuinely couldn't tell you anything about himself outside of the Legion, and there in lies the problem -- his lack of identity. Karim Matmour is something he wants to disassociate himself with, and as Nasim, he has come so far that he couldn't go back to being Karim even if he wanted to. With no identity, he throws himself in harder -- but he can't deny that there is pain, and longing when he sees the men who aren't serving under sous-anonymous contacting their families.
His past life as Karim and his subsequent disownment have given him quite the wake up call. Nasim is almost a complete reverse of Karim -- where Karim had a humongous ego, Nasim has an incredibly low self esteem. Where Karim had narcissism, Nasim has self-loathing. Nasim doesn't know himself, and he doesn't know if he wants to know himself as he's afraid that he won't like what he finds. He loathes himself because of what he used to be, and it's that loathing that drives him harder and faster. His self esteem comes from all the beating up that he does on himself. He doesn't stop to consider the fact that mistakes are made, and though his was a life long one, he can forgive himself. In his eyes, he is completely unforgivable. He doesn't understand that in the grand scheme of things, his past life was uninformed, but not the blackest crime that exists. And in that way, he doesn't notice that he's being self centered, the last remnant of Karim.
He is driven, perhaps far too much to be a good person. Within battle, in situations, he's every bit the consummate soldier. Outside of it, all bets are off. He goes out of his way to help people, and is also his squadron's morality pet. Outside his normal hours, he's far too gullible, forgetting past experience in hopes of redeeming himself in the eyes of himself and God.
Perhaps what is odd about him is despite having seen atrocities and violence, he remains stubbornly upbeat. A life of this is better than a life of nothing, and in the Legion, everybody knows what they will serve as. He doesn't expect a long life expectancy, and subconciously, he might even welcome death to put an end to this endless soul searching that he feels obliged to do. Moreso than remaining upbeat, he's innocent in the way of a put upon child. He can maim, kill and stab without any remorse, but that's because they're enemies. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for his superiors), his world view is incredibly black and white. His moral compass happens to conveniently align with the Legionnaires, or perhaps more accurately -- the Legionnaires shaped his moral compass. He makes friends without problems, and he treats them all as brothers in arms -- but oh, be an enemy and he doesn't think twice about doing whatever he needs to take the enemy out.
Nasim doesn't truly understand who is his friend and who is his enemy without the Legionnaires. Within the Legionnaires, that's all his life consists of, combat assignments and his fellow Legionnaires, who he trusts without reserve. While he can detect outright lying and some subtleties (thanks, Karim!), he is at heart a foot soldier. He doesn't want to become involved in the politics and maneuvering, and while in combat situation he's as savvy as you could possible hope for, in the subtleties of everyday life...well, as long as you're not violating his unusually touchy ethics code, you pretty much get a free pass into friendship and camaraderie.
In combat terms, he doesn't hate the enemy. He sees them as the opponent, and he can't understand their point of view, but he doesn't hate them. It's just his job. When he captures them, he's polite and civil to them, which ties into his childish aspect. He can't -- he doesn't, because in the end while they're wrong, there's no need to be rude about it. Even outside of combat, it is incredibly hard to rile him up (hurt, yes, insult, kind of) until you hit various trigger subjects, chief amongst them being his privacy, his past, children, and hurting people without cause. Does Nasim sound a bit like superman? ...yes, for again, he tries too hard.
In terms of relationships, he's heterosexual by technicality and asexual in practice. Girls, though he enjoys them remind him far too much of his past life and more prosaically, if he has a relationship there's always a chance he won't be able to get back or that it'll take his focus off the Legion. Quite frankly, relationships scare the hell out of him. The idea that somebody would put that much trust into him -- after what he had already done (though again, he doesn't understand what he's done isn't the blackest sin) and the idea that he could mess that up is a frightening prospect.
Abilities: None supernatural. He's an extremely well trained human, but nothing past the boundaries of impossible. He can operate without sleep for up to 72 hours, he's trained with guns (especially the FAMAS), he's trained in the close combat training of the French Foreign Legion (including knives and garottes). He also has a high survival skill set and a long endurance.
Sample Entry 1: [The first thing he notes upon waking up is that the bed is too comfortable. His bed is soft enough to sleep on but not hard enough to enjoy. The sun pouring in his eyes isn't that of the Djibouti sun, which sears his eyes and spares none.
His second thought is of how his captors didn't think to bind him. There's a moment's pause in which he gathers his thoughts and sketches out a plan (find gun, find his ammo, uniform, water, interrogate and reunite) before he bursts out of bed in a flurry of action, eyes scanning the room for any possible thing he could use as a weapon before he rips the telephone wire out of the first telephone, that'll have to do for now. There's a quick rifle through the room for his FAMAS, fucking captors must have known that a FAMAS and a Legionnaire would have meant they wouldn't have seen the next day before he ducks and runs through this suspiciously normal house, looking for his gun. There's a child in the house that smiles as he whips by and calls him daddy, though he quickly shoves the child to the side and locks it up. There's still no trace of his gun.
There is, however, a woman in the dining room.
And he is still carrying the telephone wire. There's a moment, as he takes care to approach the woman as quietly as possible, then with a quick move of his arms has the wire around her throat, her legs knocked out from under her and the wire puled taut. He's speaking in French, but the town autotranslates for him.]
Tell me where my gun is. Tell me how many people are in this house. Tell me where the Capitaine is.
Sample Entry 2:
[Oh hi Mayfield. There's a distinct absence of one Legionnaire dashing through town today. Why's this, you ask? Nasim's received something in the mail.
And he's not a happy camper. He's trying his best not to be found. If you look for him at his job, it'll be said that he called in sick today. If you try the house or the park, he's no longer there. Nasim is on make out point -- his face painted with camoflage colours. In front of him are a few knick knacks -- a birth certificate with the name 'Karim Matmour' on it, a few baby pictures, and one glamour shot of a happy couple.
His face, for once, is expressionless. There's a studied numbness around him -- no tears pouring down his face, no anger visible - but perhaps it's the lack of expression that really expresses how shaken he is.
He was not Karim Matmour. That part of him was dead and buried the moment that he had signed away his life for five years on end, serving under sous-anonymous. Maybe that part of him had died before -- when his parents disowned him. It was for the best, anyways. He was much happier as Nasim than he ever was as Karim, he was much better as Nasim than he ever was as Karim. With Karim, all the parts of him that made his mother - no, Nasira - cry, that made his father -- no, Rashid -- turn away were buried. There was no Karim. Maybe there wasn't Nasim, for he was the Legionnaire, one in seven thousand and odd. He went where they sent him and he loved the work and he loved getting up at the middle of the night to do marches, he --
He'd seen atrocities, his friends died but that didn't mean anything because 'vous êtes legionnaires pour mouri', right? His friends knew what they were getting into, the atrocities were all just in the line of work. That's why they were there. No, he wasn't shaken by the violence. Just that, for once, he knew that all encompassing power that Mayfield was holding.
The Legionnaires took care of their own. The Legionnaires took his identification and made him disappear. He wasn't Karim Matmour. They had all the possessions he brought in a locker marked with that name. His identity was complete, his new passport read Nasim, his everything, the LAW called him Nasim Belhadj son of Najib Belhadj.
How could Mayfield have known? When there was no paperwork connecting him to what he was before. They were baiting him, they were baiting him, he was not a dog, he was --
There was a sharp splintering sound as he punches the tree. ]
Nik ommouk. (Algerian Darja for 'Fuck your mother)
Character Age: 20.
Background: The Algerian Civil War left scars in both France and Algeria's conscious. For the French, it represented the last vestiges of their once glorious empire leaving them. For the Legion, it felt like a betrayal, leading all of them to eventually plan a revolt, choosing a sharp shooter from their ranks in order to assassinate Charles de Gaulle. For Algerians, independence was at last achieved -- but in this brave and untried world, a strange one indeed.
For the Matmours, Algeria's independence was something that they embraced. Both Nasira and Rashid Matmour had served with the FLN, Nasira as a nurse and propagandist, Rashid as a maquisard. The war was not something that either of them remembered fondly, and though many of the older population can easily remember the Algerian War, Nasira and Rashid remembered it vividly due to their high involvement with the resistance movement. They remember the tortures, the harrowing times when all they could do was sit and wait. Nasira remembered waiting for Rashid to come back, Rashid remembered thinking he would never see Nasira. The two of them had gone through such pain, and such trouble -- they were determined to make the new Algeria all that they could not have for the future generations.
Rashid entered the government, joining up with the same party which he fought for during the war, and rose through the ranks at a moderate pace, while Nasira occupied herself with trying to rebuild society from the ground up. Both felt as if their efforts were futile and tried their hardest for a baby to occupy their time, to love and to coddle. Neither of their efforts succeeded entirely. Though Rashid was in the government, he soon realised the amount of infighting and backstabbing that the FLN engaged in now that they had no common enemy, and Nasira was overwhelmed by stress and melancholy. Both of their inner struggles contributed to the cooling of passion in their house, rendering their many tries for a baby unsuccessful.
Nasira sunk further and further into melancholy, while Rashid buried himself in his work. Their marriage became an unhappy one -- both of them fighting off demons of their own, the divide between them growing until their was simply no way to bridge it. Speaking was clinical between them, as if the other had ceased to become their once-lover and simply the other partner in a union. Things did not improve between them when Nasira was declared barren -- Rashid buried himself deeper and Nasira did not emerge from her room for three days.
It took twenty years of not speaking to each other, twenty years of ignorance before they were willing to even try and bridge the gap, and it wasn't so much a bridging as raw, animalistic need for human contact. At the late age of 41, Nasira was finally with child. When Karim Matmour entered the world, it was as if all their hopes and prayers had been answered. Karim mended their marriage, Karim drove away the demons still haunting Nasira and Rashid with his own need. By this time, the Matmours were a fairly big deal within society and were upper middle class, thus ensuring that Karim never wanted for anything.
Perhaps it was because Nasira and Rashid had already fought their own demons. Perhaps it was because they were far too knowledgable about the atrocities of war, but they spoiled and sheltered Karim like no other. He had nannies, he had everything he could have ever wanted. In a country not very well off, Karim stuck out like a sore thumb, with Nasira and Rashid throwing everything they could have into Karim.
Life did not stay blessed for long. When Karim was six, the Algerian Civil War broke out. Nasim doesn't remember much about the time, excepting that there was much swearing, much cursing before plans were laid down. Thirty years of service to the country had dulled his senses of Algeria the perfect and Rashid's priorities were to get Karim and Nasira out of the country, and fast. With the extreme calmness, Rashid managed to arrange transportation to Morocco, housing arrangements and enough money to cushion their arrival in Morocco.
Morocco did not improve the already entitled, already spoiled Karim. They landed in a well off section of Morocco, and Karim was enrolled in a prestigious lycée, indulging his bad habits further. This further bred his habits of entitlement and it wasn't long before Karim slacked off, mouthed back to his teachers all the time and caused his mother all the trouble he was supposed to be alleviating.
It wasn't long until he truly slipped into hedonism, ignoring his tests in favour of treats and grades in favour of girls. He could often be found with the other cream of society, throwing their influence around and ignoring the world in favour of having a good time. Karim followed the idea that he should be allowed to do whatever he wanted to do, when he wanted to do it. Though Nasira tried to reel him in at first, Karim soon spiraled out of control, taking advantage of his family's position and power to do as he wished.
Some of this came to a stop when he failed to get into the school of his parents' choice. Or his choice. Or his second choice. Or any choice at all. There were serious abuses of influence and money pulled off in order to allow Karim to get into the school, and even then, he didn't quite understand or reign in. He carried on -- slightly more cautiously, but not all that much so. Nasira began to turn to her old coping mechanisms, totally unsuited to reigning in a boy so out of control. What happened to her golden boy? Nasira was often desolate and upset when Karim came back, and with Rashid a country away and preoccupied with holding down the fort, the house became a cooking pot, prompting Karim to stay out more often.
The distance between Karim and his parents grew wider, with Rashid attempting to exert his influence from a country away and Nasira's many tactics simply not working on the recalcitrant Karim. Karim's fights became against everyone -- society, which was oppressing him, his parents, which ~just didn't understand him~, his 'friends', who never listened to him and the systems, for dismissing him. Karim sank into a pit of despair and anger, fueling himself from that and continuing to carry on partying and other uncouth, unsavoury things.
The penultimate straw came when Karim scored so horribly on his exams that no respectable would accept him. Rashid, having had enough of Karim running about and misbehaving deemed the situation in Algeria safe enough to move back in and ordered Nasira and Karim to return at once, where he would set about trying to get Karim a government position. Karim didn't want to go back to Algeria. He had been in Morocco since he was five, he didn't see any point in it.
In one final act in rebellion, Karim 'stole' the money from his mother's purse, haphazardly packed a few random items and headed towards the Legion recruitment center in Marseille. That was truly the straw that broke the camel's back. After all the time, and sweat that Nasira and Rashid had put into fighting for the FLN, the fact that their son was swanning off -- on a whim, as well! to join their native enemy in France was galling and made the gorge in their throat rise. 13 years of bullshit, and they had enough. They had enough of each other, they had enough of children. They disowned him, refusing to acknowledge him as one of their's.
This left Karim with no other chance but to succeed in being recruited for the Legionnaires. Surprisingly, for a lank child who only worked out to impress girls, he did surprisingly well. Karim signed up under a sous-anonymous, thinking it best to leave his past behind and has done so. Since his three year regime in the service, he has seen action and trained furiously. In short -- Karim is in love with the legion.
Personality: At first glance, Nasim's a kid. An extremely well trained kid, but a kid nonetheless - almost a puppy, with his boundless enthusiasm. He's the cheerleader of his section, the one with a smile on his face and the belief that he's a Legionnaire, Legionnaires can work it out because no other force in the world is as well trained as us, right? He has no end of catchy slogans that the Legion drills into the recruits, and even in a fighting force that prides itself on its excellent espirit de corps, it's extraneous. He's often been told by other Legionnaires to for god's sake, take it down a notch Belhadj.
It'd be easy to dismiss that as a kid so in love with the Foreign Legion. And he is exactly that, but there's a reason and a rationale behind it that he can't fully articulate. Before the Foreign Legion, he was Karim Matmour, wastrel and playboy extraordinaire. He had no purpose, no feeling, no passion. He didn't know who he was, and headed for the one place he could think of that would take him in. Perhaps because of the extremely short period of time between his disownment and his recruitment for the Foreign Legion, Nasim still doesn't know who he is as a person, and so chooses to define himself by the Legion. Without the Legion, he is lost -- he truly has no hobbies outside the Legion. He chooses to go by his Legion given name because he wants to forget his past and devote himself entirely. He knows that he won't leave the Legion when his five year term is up and will continue to serve until they make him retire or he dies in the service of Legion.
And because he loves the Legion, he doesn't question anything he does in the service of it. He doesn't think about the political repercussions both because he doesn't know anything about politics and because what the Legion wants, he will do. He can go days without sleep, climb mountains, endure abuse because even if his muscles scream and his vision blurs around the edges, he won't stop. He loves the Legion, and even if he didn't -- where else would he go? Disowned, disgraced -- the Legion has everything he had as Karim as collateral.
In a strange way, he has become the Legion -- to the point that separating himself from the Legion is impossible. He can't remember anything he really likes outside of it. He values loyalty, precision and purpose because that's what they do, right? The Legion is all that is good and holy to him. He takes betrayal extremely hard because of the esprit de corps of the Legion, and has problems remembering that not everybody values the same things he does. Because he has nothing else, he values loyalty, and because in his new life he has been drilled into being precise. He values purpose because before the Legion, his life had no purpose.
It does have its downsides. He genuinely couldn't tell you anything about himself outside of the Legion, and there in lies the problem -- his lack of identity. Karim Matmour is something he wants to disassociate himself with, and as Nasim, he has come so far that he couldn't go back to being Karim even if he wanted to. With no identity, he throws himself in harder -- but he can't deny that there is pain, and longing when he sees the men who aren't serving under sous-anonymous contacting their families.
His past life as Karim and his subsequent disownment have given him quite the wake up call. Nasim is almost a complete reverse of Karim -- where Karim had a humongous ego, Nasim has an incredibly low self esteem. Where Karim had narcissism, Nasim has self-loathing. Nasim doesn't know himself, and he doesn't know if he wants to know himself as he's afraid that he won't like what he finds. He loathes himself because of what he used to be, and it's that loathing that drives him harder and faster. His self esteem comes from all the beating up that he does on himself. He doesn't stop to consider the fact that mistakes are made, and though his was a life long one, he can forgive himself. In his eyes, he is completely unforgivable. He doesn't understand that in the grand scheme of things, his past life was uninformed, but not the blackest crime that exists. And in that way, he doesn't notice that he's being self centered, the last remnant of Karim.
He is driven, perhaps far too much to be a good person. Within battle, in situations, he's every bit the consummate soldier. Outside of it, all bets are off. He goes out of his way to help people, and is also his squadron's morality pet. Outside his normal hours, he's far too gullible, forgetting past experience in hopes of redeeming himself in the eyes of himself and God.
Perhaps what is odd about him is despite having seen atrocities and violence, he remains stubbornly upbeat. A life of this is better than a life of nothing, and in the Legion, everybody knows what they will serve as. He doesn't expect a long life expectancy, and subconciously, he might even welcome death to put an end to this endless soul searching that he feels obliged to do. Moreso than remaining upbeat, he's innocent in the way of a put upon child. He can maim, kill and stab without any remorse, but that's because they're enemies. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately for his superiors), his world view is incredibly black and white. His moral compass happens to conveniently align with the Legionnaires, or perhaps more accurately -- the Legionnaires shaped his moral compass. He makes friends without problems, and he treats them all as brothers in arms -- but oh, be an enemy and he doesn't think twice about doing whatever he needs to take the enemy out.
Nasim doesn't truly understand who is his friend and who is his enemy without the Legionnaires. Within the Legionnaires, that's all his life consists of, combat assignments and his fellow Legionnaires, who he trusts without reserve. While he can detect outright lying and some subtleties (thanks, Karim!), he is at heart a foot soldier. He doesn't want to become involved in the politics and maneuvering, and while in combat situation he's as savvy as you could possible hope for, in the subtleties of everyday life...well, as long as you're not violating his unusually touchy ethics code, you pretty much get a free pass into friendship and camaraderie.
In combat terms, he doesn't hate the enemy. He sees them as the opponent, and he can't understand their point of view, but he doesn't hate them. It's just his job. When he captures them, he's polite and civil to them, which ties into his childish aspect. He can't -- he doesn't, because in the end while they're wrong, there's no need to be rude about it. Even outside of combat, it is incredibly hard to rile him up (hurt, yes, insult, kind of) until you hit various trigger subjects, chief amongst them being his privacy, his past, children, and hurting people without cause. Does Nasim sound a bit like superman? ...yes, for again, he tries too hard.
In terms of relationships, he's heterosexual by technicality and asexual in practice. Girls, though he enjoys them remind him far too much of his past life and more prosaically, if he has a relationship there's always a chance he won't be able to get back or that it'll take his focus off the Legion. Quite frankly, relationships scare the hell out of him. The idea that somebody would put that much trust into him -- after what he had already done (though again, he doesn't understand what he's done isn't the blackest sin) and the idea that he could mess that up is a frightening prospect.
Abilities: None supernatural. He's an extremely well trained human, but nothing past the boundaries of impossible. He can operate without sleep for up to 72 hours, he's trained with guns (especially the FAMAS), he's trained in the close combat training of the French Foreign Legion (including knives and garottes). He also has a high survival skill set and a long endurance.
Sample Entry 1: [The first thing he notes upon waking up is that the bed is too comfortable. His bed is soft enough to sleep on but not hard enough to enjoy. The sun pouring in his eyes isn't that of the Djibouti sun, which sears his eyes and spares none.
His second thought is of how his captors didn't think to bind him. There's a moment's pause in which he gathers his thoughts and sketches out a plan (find gun, find his ammo, uniform, water, interrogate and reunite) before he bursts out of bed in a flurry of action, eyes scanning the room for any possible thing he could use as a weapon before he rips the telephone wire out of the first telephone, that'll have to do for now. There's a quick rifle through the room for his FAMAS, fucking captors must have known that a FAMAS and a Legionnaire would have meant they wouldn't have seen the next day before he ducks and runs through this suspiciously normal house, looking for his gun. There's a child in the house that smiles as he whips by and calls him daddy, though he quickly shoves the child to the side and locks it up. There's still no trace of his gun.
There is, however, a woman in the dining room.
And he is still carrying the telephone wire. There's a moment, as he takes care to approach the woman as quietly as possible, then with a quick move of his arms has the wire around her throat, her legs knocked out from under her and the wire puled taut. He's speaking in French, but the town autotranslates for him.]
Tell me where my gun is. Tell me how many people are in this house. Tell me where the Capitaine is.
Sample Entry 2:
[Oh hi Mayfield. There's a distinct absence of one Legionnaire dashing through town today. Why's this, you ask? Nasim's received something in the mail.
And he's not a happy camper. He's trying his best not to be found. If you look for him at his job, it'll be said that he called in sick today. If you try the house or the park, he's no longer there. Nasim is on make out point -- his face painted with camoflage colours. In front of him are a few knick knacks -- a birth certificate with the name 'Karim Matmour' on it, a few baby pictures, and one glamour shot of a happy couple.
His face, for once, is expressionless. There's a studied numbness around him -- no tears pouring down his face, no anger visible - but perhaps it's the lack of expression that really expresses how shaken he is.
He was not Karim Matmour. That part of him was dead and buried the moment that he had signed away his life for five years on end, serving under sous-anonymous. Maybe that part of him had died before -- when his parents disowned him. It was for the best, anyways. He was much happier as Nasim than he ever was as Karim, he was much better as Nasim than he ever was as Karim. With Karim, all the parts of him that made his mother - no, Nasira - cry, that made his father -- no, Rashid -- turn away were buried. There was no Karim. Maybe there wasn't Nasim, for he was the Legionnaire, one in seven thousand and odd. He went where they sent him and he loved the work and he loved getting up at the middle of the night to do marches, he --
He'd seen atrocities, his friends died but that didn't mean anything because 'vous êtes legionnaires pour mouri', right? His friends knew what they were getting into, the atrocities were all just in the line of work. That's why they were there. No, he wasn't shaken by the violence. Just that, for once, he knew that all encompassing power that Mayfield was holding.
The Legionnaires took care of their own. The Legionnaires took his identification and made him disappear. He wasn't Karim Matmour. They had all the possessions he brought in a locker marked with that name. His identity was complete, his new passport read Nasim, his everything, the LAW called him Nasim Belhadj son of Najib Belhadj.
How could Mayfield have known? When there was no paperwork connecting him to what he was before. They were baiting him, they were baiting him, he was not a dog, he was --
There was a sharp splintering sound as he punches the tree. ]
Nik ommouk. (Algerian Darja for 'Fuck your mother)