ooc : character profile
No one takes my life away from me. I give it up of my own free will.
Series: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Series' Medium: Anime television series
Character you're applying for: Kaworu Nagisa, aka Tabris the 17th Angel
Character's role in their canon: Antagonist turned martyr. He's sent to infiltrate the "good" organization in order to get at their secrets, and befriends the protagonist in the process. Right before he can commit any evil, however, he has a change of heart and sacrifices himself by making the already traumatized protagonist kill him.
Character's age: Reportedly 15, but he may be a little younger.
Character's gender: Male
Character’s “Real Name”: Addison Michaels
How long have you roleplayed your character, if at all?: This will be my first time. ;3;
Have you played the game/watched the movie or anime/read the book or comic, etc. that your character hails from?: I've watched the whole anime and tried to search for all the other little scraps of information about Kaworu scattered all over canon. I've also seen End of Evangelion and read a lot of the manga, though the manga version of Kaworu is very different from the anime.
Please give us a detailed personal history of your character: (( Okay, so, as anyone who's seen Eva knows, Kaworu's background is convoluted even by the shows standards. I had to fill in a lot of gaps for his motivations and history, and some of the actions of Seele just don't make any sense no matter how hard I look and how many essays I read about it. But... this is how it went down. ;_; I'm using the Director's Cut scenes as canon. ))
In the year 2000 on September 13th, two things happened: the Second Impact hit, and Kaworu Nagisa was supposedly born. A catastrophic event reported as a meteor strike in Antarctica, the Second Impact wiped out half of earth's population, rose sea levels and destroyed the environment through global warming. In reality, the Second Impact was not a meteor, but an unknown lifeform that was discovered hidden under Antarctica. When a research team attempted to make experimental contact with the creature, it triggered a devastating explosion - the Second Impact. Above and beyond this, the secret organization Seele had all along intended to trigger the Second Impact. It was the beginning of the human race's interaction with the creatures they codenamed the Angels.
The Angels, despite their divine titles, were actually determined to be 99.89% similar to humans. Their true nature remained a mystery, and their forms varied wildly, from hulking beasts as tall as skyscrapers to abstract shapes made of light. They were alternate forms of evolution that humans could have taken, but they had shed their original human forms. As far as the public knew, Angels were not encountered until fifteen years after the Second Impact. However, the organization Seele had quietly accumulated three captive Angels. They were Adam, the original creature from Antarctica; Lilith; and a third they found as an embryo, which would become Tabris. What was certain about all Angels was that they desired the initiation of the Third Impact. By merging their progenitor, Adam, with his equal, Lilith, that specific Angel would then become a superbeing and the dominant life form on earth. All others, including humans and the other Angels, would perish. Every Angel was born with the innate, overwhelming desire to unite with Adam, the Angel from which they were descended, in order to complete the Third Impact.
Seele's primary goal was to bring about the Human Instrumentality Project, which would allow humans to be the ones to trigger the Third Impact. Humanity itself was found to be yet another Angel, one in many pieces, and therefore able to create the Third Impact as well. The trick to it was that all of the other Angels would have to be destroyed first, so Seele created Nerv to combat the Angel threat. The Angel embryo they had found was intended to be used as a secret weapon by Seele against whatever was to come. They carefully placed the soul of Adam into the embryo, so that Seele could use this Angel to unite directly with Lilith, rather than having to go through Adam first. Additionally, a further aspect of the Tabris experiment was to introduce human DNA to the embryo to see what resulted. Acting like a sponge for the new genetic information, the Angel quickly went from an abstract alien creature to something that was more or less a human infant.
Uncomfortable using codenames for what appeared to be a human child, the Angel Tabris was named Kaworu by a lab attendant. Aside from this, the researchers did little to act as parents towards Kaworu. Between periods of intense experimentation, the decidedly docile Angel was left to his own devices. Kaworu was cloned as part of the dummy plug system, where a plug with a cloned being could be inserted into an Eva and imitate the thought processes of a real pilot. A great deal of information on Angels came from Kaworu's presence in the Seele labs, though as far as his behavior went, the researchers were unimpressed. Kaworu learned to imitate humans too well, and though he was always a bit unsettling, he was not all that alien and therefore no good for behavioral studies. He spent his free time reading about human culture, and developed a fascination with music and art. Throughout this, he was promised that Seele would help him find Adam, and so he cooperated.
Outside of the laboratory, the other Angels began to attack one by one. Young people were called upon to fight with the use Eva units. Kaworu knew that the Evas were nothing more than genetically engineered and enslaved Angels, ironically being used to fight off their 'siblings'. All the while, Kaworu quietly waited for his turn. He was groomed carefully to be able to infiltrate Nerv and their group of pilots, waiting until there was a viable opening where Seele could present him. The time to move finally came when the pilot Asuka Langley Soryu was determined unfit to pilot Eva Unit 02. Seele explained to Kaworu that Adam was embedded in the hand of Gendo Ikari, the man controlling Nerv, and that now was time to put their plans into motion. If Kaworu had his doubts about Seele's intentions, he didn't voice them. After all, they were providing him with a path leading straight to Lilith and the Third Impact.
Upon arriving at Nerv, the first teenage human that Kaworu met was the traitor Gendo's son, Shinji Ikari. Kaworu was immediately drawn to Shinji, maybe because of the similarities in apparent age. Shinji was nice and polite, extremely vulnerable, and he certainly didn't treat Kaworu as an experiment. It was Kaworu's first real connection with another person, and so he didn't think twice about pulling in as close to the other boy as he could. Kaworu quickly decided that he really liked Shinji a great deal. He didn't spend any time analyzing why he liked the other pilot so much, but he left every encounter with Shinji only wanting more. He announced to Shinji within days of knowing him that he loved him, and didn't quite realize the profound effect this had on the human.
Everyone else wasn't quite so ready to embrace the odd new pilot. He was also curious about Rei Ayanami, a young girl whom he sensed as being "like him", though she was not pleased by his comparison. The officer Misato Katsuragi of Nerv, along with her bridge attendants, were particularly suspicious of Kaworu. His sync rating with an Eva was absolutely impossibly perfect, and his strange behavior did nothing to assuage their concerns. Kaworu noticed the woman following him, but ignored it in favor of confidence in his plan and desire to spend more time with Shinji.
Yet Kaworu couldn't resist his instincts forever, and before long he had to make his move. He abducted Eva Unit 02, and using it as his source of brute strength, he began to force his way down into Terminal Dogma where Lilith was being held. He knew Shinji would be sent after him, and partially looked forward to being able to speak to him one last time before the Third Impact. However, Shinji was too overwhelmed by emotions of betrayal and hurt to listen to most of what Kaworu said when he was trying to explain his actions and the nature of Angels to Shinji. As they descended and Shinji fought off the possessed Unit 02, Kaworu began to quietly question the nature of his path. That indecision didn't leave him even when he finally broke through the final defenses of Nerv into Terminal Dogma. His overwhelming AT Field easily cut himself and Shinji off from the rest of the building, giving them what Kaworu felt was a degree of privacy. Meanwhile, Seele could only sit and hope that the last Angel, Tabris, would be successfully killed in their gambit to speed up the path to Human Instrumentality.
Kaworu came to his final decision only when he stood in front of Lilith, which was a fortunate one for Seele but not at all what they'd expected. Kaworu contained enough of Adam within him to create the Third Impact that very second, but found that he didn't want to. To do so would kill all of humanity, which until recently hadn't been much of an issue. Mankind, the Lilim, were simply little pieces of just another Angel. He had never mourned any of them, but nor had he hated or wanted to hurt them. This was just how things had to be, he had thought. His belief all along had been that it was his destiny to return to Adam, but Kaworu realized at that moment that he could choose, though the choices were limited. His moment of indecision and introspection gave Shinji the opening he needed, and Unit 02 was defeated. Rather than outright attack Kaworu, Shinji grabbed the humanoid Angel in his Eva's hand and desperately asked him why he was doing this.
Kaworu thanked Shinji, and once again did his best to explain himself and what was going on. What it came down to was that Kaworu had decided that he didn't want humanity to die, because to him, humanity had become Shinji. Kaworu knew that if he survived, he would be forced to continuously try to destroy humanity, for it was his 'destiny' to achieve the Third Impact. For the first time, this prospect left him feeling genuinely unhappy, because it would result in losing Shinji. It would be living without the one thing he had truly grown to care about. Life and death were not that different to him, but only in dying would Kaworu achieve real freedom. More importantly, for Shinji to survive, Kaworu would eventually have to die one way or another. It was inevitable.
In a brief moment, he noticed that the girl Rei had somehow been watching them, but all he did was smile at her before turning his attention back to Shinji. Though Shinji begged for more explanation, Kaworu said that was all he could say. He instead just asked Shinji to please kill him, because Shinji was the one who needed to live. His last words were informing Shinji that he was happy to have met him. Kaworu was unsure of how else to express the scope of how deeply Shinji had changed his perception.
After a long moment of hesitation from Shinji, Kaworu felt real pain for the first time as he was crushed in the Eva's hand. Kaworu hadn't know exactly what to expect from dying, but it certainly wasn't clean sheets and a hospital room.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality: Most people would describe Kaworu as a very ethereal, but also very strange young man who smiles all the time. He does little to hide the parts of him that are less-than-normal, and there are a slew of them hidden under his soft smile. His speech pattern is strange, in as much as he ends up coming off as very verbose, formal and sometimes even cryptic. Kaworu is very resigned to the differences between himself and what he calls the Lilim, and so he doesn't often put out much effort to make himself easier to understand. One example being that 'Lilim' is the primary name he uses for almost any and all humans. Despite all of this, Kaworu falls within normal parameters for humanity. He expresses his emotions well enough, though they sometimes seem oddly subdued, and his ability to remain gracefully calm at all times is admittedly unusual. He understands social rules, even though he doesn't always follow them if he thinks they're impractical. Kaworu just seems... eccentric.
A lot of his eccentricities could possibly be blamed on being a highly intelligent teenager with social development issues, which is likely what the staff of Landel's Institute says about him. But the real culprit is the fact that no matter how he tries to be human, he's simply not. He doesn't think the same way, and his mind is both broader as well as comparatively inflexible.
Generally speaking, Kaworu is extremely kind-hearted and almost completely unflappable. He has a soft, sweet smile and a nurturing demeanor, and even when under verbal or physical attack he remains steady. But unfortunately because he sees himself as separate from humans as well as stronger than they are, this patience can come off as patronizing. He likes humans a great deal, but often looks at them either as children or as broken things in need of fixing and protection. He's gentle and caring in the face of human pain, but at the same time sees it as something so impossibly outside of himself that he simply cannot relate. He's sharp as a tack when it comes to recognizing what someone is upset over and why, but he would never be able to imagine himself in that individual's place. His inflexible mind leads him to respond to a suggestion to "put himself in their shoes" with a simple assertion that he is not that person. Kaworu is completely unable to imagine himself as anyone or anything but Kaworu. He is very sympathetic, but not at all empathetic, even if he doesn't realize the distinction.
Part of the problem is how Kaworu views humans. It's important to realize that Kaworu doesn't see the human race as a group of individuals, but as pieces of a single whole. For the most part, to Kaworu all humans are the same being: the Lilim. Because of this, Kaworu doesn't usually feel the gravity of the death of an individual human, or even a whole group of them. So far, only one human ever differentiated themselves from the mass of humanity, and that was Shinji Ikari. What it led to was Kaworu simply imagining that Shinji himself was humanity. This misconception will likely twist and then fade in the future if Kaworu makes more than one human friend. (Though the chances of him taking Shinji off his pedestal are slim to none.) He just has yet to learn to treat them as individuals rather than facets of a single being that he pictures as Shinji.
Learning to put a face to things, even if it's not always accurate, does a lot for Kaworu. If he can't associate a very specific name and individual with something, then he doesn't really feel it. It works similarly for objects. For instance, he cannot imagine the concept of a radio, but he can remember specific radios he has come into contact with in the past, and then uses them as a reference. The idea of a human dying doesn't do anything for him unless he knows that human specifically. Up until meeting Shinji, Kaworu was completely disconnected from the idea of instantly destroying humanity. He didn't have a desire to hurt or kill anyone, but nor did it seem like a bad thing either. As soon as he associated killing mankind with killing Shinji, he was able to care deeply enough that he readily sacrificed himself so Shinji could live. As soon as Kaworu is able to make the switch from impersonal to personal, he is genuinely altruistic and loving. It's just that right up until that moment, he's very, very cold under all that niceness.
Kaworu doesn't focus much on himself or his motivations, which is in contrast to how much he loves analyzing the behavior of others. He lacks an interest in looking closely at himself at all, which results in good and bad things about his personality. On one hand, he's rarely selfishly motivated and registers the situations of other people long before his own. He's almost completely without self-consciousness or embarrassment, and he only scrutinizes his actions under extreme circumstances. He's socially brave and bold, albeit in a subdued way. On the other hand, he's very ignorant and often insensitive when it comes to his role in relationships. Kaworu is so good at seeing the big picture that he often forgets about the immediate effects an action might have. When Kaworu decided to die, all he had in mind was the knowledge that he was saving Shinji in the long run. He barely registered the emotional pain he was putting Shinji in, because Kaworu felt the action was what was best for them both. Kaworu indeed experienced very strong feelings for Shinji, but was only ever able to see them from his own perspective. He saw only how much he loved Shinji, without really being able to picture his own importance to the object of his attentions. He was unable to look at himself from another persons perspective. As difficult as this can make his interactions, it does mean that Kaworu genuinely loves selflessly and unconditionally because he can't really conceptualize reciprocation. He just knows how he feels and expresses that to the other person without expecting anything in return.
Kaworu was completely sincere when he said he loved Shinji. Over the course of meeting him and then dying for him, Shinji had become the most influential force in Kaworu's life. A great deal of this is because Kaworu's life experiences were very few and far between before Shinji came along. It wouldn't be inaccurate at all to say Kaworu has elevated these memories and put them on a pedestal. Since he was the first person Kaworu bonded with, huge portions of his references for humans and emotions are based on Shinji. As intense and unparalleled as Kaworu's adoration for Shinji is, he doesn't speak about it often. Additionally, it would be going too far to say Kaworu's feelings are romantic in nature, even if they aren't actually platonic, considering that Kaworu only has the barest idea of romance. He is intensely emotionally preoccupied with the idea of Shinji, but his thoughts aren't sexual. In spite of his mental maturity, Kaworu is very innocent and even somewhat naive.
Please give us a detailed physical description of your character: Kaworu is a very eerie looking teenager, and there's something about the boy that makes him feel distinctly unnatural. Part of this is because Kaworu has coloration reminiscent of albinism. He has porcelain pale skin, bright red eyes and ash gray hair that's left shaggy and falling into his face more often than not. He isn't a terribly tall boy, but for his stature he has very long, skinny limbs with extremely pronounced joints. His hips are very narrow, and his shoulders, elbows and hands are particularly bony which gives the impression that he might not be getting enough to eat. When you get past how unhealthy and slightly creepy he looks, Kaworu has crisp, attractive facial features and can generally be found smiling. He has a steady but feathery voice and a nonthreatening way of holding himself.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's?: I'm going to be taking Kaworu from the moment where he was killed. (End of episode 24.)
What kinds of magical/special/crazy powers does your character have, if any?: While Kaworu wasn't actually an angel in the 'divine messenger of god' sense, he was still extremely powerful. The Angels of his world were giant superpowered creatures given this religious codename by the organizations that dealt with them. Though Kaworu lacked the sheer mass of many of his 'brothers' and 'sisters', he had enough power to rival most of them.
Kaworu exhibited both telepathy and telekinesis. Even when Shinji was inside the cockpit of Unit 01 and on the other side of Kaworu's extremely formidable everything-blocking force field, he was able to hear and communicate with Kaworu freely. Anything beyond simple communication, however, was beyond his reach, unless the creature was born from Adam like he was (which did not include humans). Since the majority of the Evangelion units were created from Adam, Kaworu was able to effortlessly control Unit 02 from well outside the cockpit. This same ability allowed him to perfectly synchronize with it as his pilot. True possession of a creature, however, would not be a possibility. Kaworu explained that he was only able to control an Eva unit while its soul was dormant, which made the unit more of a shell than a real being. He was also able to sense Rei's similarities to him, but this was only because she was technically another Angel/human crossbreed of sorts. Additonally, he noticed when individuals such as Misato and Rei were watching him even from a great distance.
As far as his presumed telekinesis, Kaworu was first off able to float himself alongside his hijacked Eva. Secondly, he unlocked the secure bulkhead doors to Terminal Dogma deep within the bowels of Nerv headquarters just by glancing at them.
The most impressive of Kaworu's powers was his AT Field. Called an Absolute Terror Field by the human researchers, Kaworu described it as the divine space of one's soul that no one can enter. It is a physical manifestation of the energy protecting one's soul that is projected outwards into a physical force. It appears as octagonal ripples of reddish orange light. Kaworu states that even humans can project an AT Field, though doesn't elaborate that this is because they are the 18th Angel. Their field is what keeps them as individuals, rather than dissolving into an orange liquid and becoming one complete Angel. (Presumably this is only true about the humans in Kaworu's world.) Kaworu's personal AT Field was reportedly the strongest that Nerv had ever recorded. He could project a force field large enough and strong enough to completely cut off a huge section of Nerv. His field could block out literally everything, including light, magnetism, sub-atomic particles and radio waves. When he activated it on the way down to Terminal Dogma, contact with the Eva units and all control over freestanding systems was lost entirely. Kaworu's AT Field was so powerful because his soul was actually that of Adam, the progenitor of the Angels, and therefore he was able to summon up a huge amount of energy. High powered AT Fields are shown as able to destroy surrounding objects with their intensity. When Kaworu began using any of his more overt abilities, he glowed softly.
If present, how do you plan to tweak those powers to make him/her appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?: Kaworu has lost a great deal of his abilities entirely, and now only shreds of them remain. Regarding his telepathy, Kaworu's powers were mostly passively communication-based, and remain so. His voice resonates both as sound waves and as telepathic waves, making it easier to hear him even over noise. A real telepath might be able to tell his voice has two levels to it. However, Kaworu cannot read other people or communicate without speaking (and cannot possess giant robots cloned from Adam, even if one was hanging around Landel's). Still, he does get accurate "someone's watching me" feelings when he's being stared at by someone nearby, which may extend to having his mind read by someone. His telekinesis has been weakened to the point where it's barely noticeable, but if he focuses he can slow himself down a bit should he fall or jump off something. Lastly, Kaworu still glows softly when he attempts to use his powers at night. He emits a faint white light, though it couldn't serve as a very useful light source.
The one thing Kaworu really held onto was his AT Field. He is still able to project it out enough to cover himself and potentially one other small-to-medium person who's willing to get very cozy with him. The AT field absorbs all physical and energy damage, and sometimes interferes with any nearby electronics (such as radios). However, it couldn't possibly do any damage to the surrounding area. When struck, the field appears as orange, octagonal ripples moving out from a center point over Kaworu's chest. The weak spot is directly in the center of these ripples, where a determined attacker can literally tear it open. However, as a metaphor for the emotional space that people try to keep others out of, it isn't broken through brute strength. The ease of penetrating Kaworu's AT Field is based on two factors: a) how willing Kaworu is to let people get close to him (which is usually pretty close; he's a very open person), and b) how good that person is at getting close to others. They would therefore be countering his AT Field with their own anti-AT Field. Someone who was secretive and closed off without good social skills would have a nearly impossible time breaking through it.
Activating his AT Field used to be second nature for Kaworu, but now it's an extremely draining exercise. He can only keep it up for thirty to forty five seconds at the very most, and afterwards pays the price. After a brief use he'll feel winded, but if he were to hold it up for as long as he could stretch it, he'd feel completely exhausted or even physically ill from overexertion. Additionally, the more damage the field takes, the worse he feels afterwards. If someone where to take advantage of the weak center point and actually ripped through Kaworu's AT Field, it's likely that the mental strain would cause him to pass out.
Does your character have any other non-magical skills or abilities that we should know about?: Kaworu is extremely intelligent and perceptive for his age (though not particularly creative, disciplined or ambitious). He has a knack for understanding how people think and he picks up on subtleties very easily.
As far as actual skills, Kaworu is well-educated in only a few areas. Despite being very intelligent, his education has been so neglected that it's unlikely he'd be able to pass any standardized high school tests. Since nobody was enforcing any kind of a curriculum on him, he was allowed to neglect his calculus in favor of art history, psychology and literature. He has always had a much stronger interest in the liberal arts than math and science. In particular, he loves music and proclaims it as man's greatest accomplishment. Kaworu plays the piano and violin expertly. He can speak Japanese and German, though sounds just as weird and cryptic in both languages. (I picked out the instruments from supplemental material and some official bonus artwork. German was chosen because Seele is a largely German organization.)
How about improbable appendages?: Kaworu is probably the only Angel without weird limbs. D:
Please give us an idea of where you'd like to take your character within the scope of the Landel's Damned RP: Kaworu is social and easygoing enough that I see it likely that he'll start making friends, even if he doesn't do it because he's particularly lonely or sees a practical reason behind alliances. Hopefully meeting new and interesting people will help him to stop looking at all humans as the pieces of Lilim, and more as individuals he can care about (... or dislike). Kaworu is very drawn to vulnerability and weakness, so he's likely to gravitate towards those who he feels need nurturing and protection.
What kind of psychological effect do you see Landel's Institute having on your character?: If there's anything Kaworu is good at, it's taking things in stride. But even if he accepts his new situation calmly, I think there will be a number of complications he'll be unhappy about. First and foremost, I think Kaworu will be disturbed to realize he's not dead. He'd be completely confused, because his being alive instantly implies that something went wrong and Shinji didn't follow through with killing him, which is disappointing. On the other hand, he's surrounded by humans, so at least he wouldn't fear that the Third Impact had occurred.
As soon as he realizes that Seele didn't stick him in Landel's after he failed, and that he's not in Tokyo-3 or even his own universe anymore, I think Kaworu will be confused but powerfully curious. I think he'll remain mostly unfazed until he realizes that his new mostly human body can't really keep up with him anymore. Before, Kaworu was mostly Angel (and considered himself fully Angel), and at Landel's he will be mostly human. Kaworu was previously much more in control of his physical self. Being only partially human, he used to be able to suppress any reflections of his emotions. Kaworu would be hard-pressed to remember if he had ever been in pain, excepting the moment of his death. Now in a very-close-to-human body, he has to deal with involuntary human reactions to emotions, such as crying, panic and laughing, as well as exhaustion and illness if he presses himself too hard. Kaworu has a very bizarre relationship with humans, and no matter how curious he is about them, he's never wanted or been able to imagine being one of them. There will certainly be a learning curve for him when it comes to remembering that he's not really an Angel anymore.
Kaworu hasn't yet learned to put more value in life and death, and won't have much of a self-preservation instinct. Similarly, he's unlikely to get excessively upset about anyone's death/injury/pain unless they've really stood out to him as an individual somehow. He's more than capable of sympathy, but it's not a natural reaction for him. I think that with more exposure to new people and potential friends, he'll get a clearer idea of relationships. He's likely to hand out his affection and friendship very easily and boldly once he gets the hang of it. Either way, even if Kaworu were to realize that escaping the institute meant he'd be dead again, he'd still want to aid everyone in getting out.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?: Kaworu definitely comes from a setting with a great deal of violence. The earth he remembers is a post-apocalyptic mess where giant creatures have been regularly attacking mankind and wiping out huge chunks of the population. Granted, this has all been on a much larger and more impersonal scale for Kaworu, and he was never personally involved in a massively violent struggle like most of the NGE cast has been. His exposure to violence and gore is still pretty high for someone who's technically only fifteen. He's very mentally strong and mature for his age, and with a very calm demeanor, but his world perception is a little too broad and impersonal. Kaworu is notably distant and ambivalent about death, especially in people he doesn't know very well. Lastly, bizarre and unusual-looking monsters probably won't make him bat an eyelash. If anything, it'll be a relief that they're actually smaller than a high-rise apartment building.
Physically, Kaworu is at more of a disadvantage, but he's not unhealthy (despite looking like he never eats). In the past he had an impressive arsenal of powers to rely upon, and suddenly not having them will be a shock. Despite this, Kaworu is surprisingly durable for his size, and moves quickly and agilely when he wants to. Just don't ask him to do any heavy lifting.
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Series: Neon Genesis Evangelion
Series' Medium: Anime television series
Character you're applying for: Kaworu Nagisa, aka Tabris the 17th Angel
Character's role in their canon: Antagonist turned martyr. He's sent to infiltrate the "good" organization in order to get at their secrets, and befriends the protagonist in the process. Right before he can commit any evil, however, he has a change of heart and sacrifices himself by making the already traumatized protagonist kill him.
Character's age: Reportedly 15, but he may be a little younger.
Character's gender: Male
Character’s “Real Name”: Addison Michaels
How long have you roleplayed your character, if at all?: This will be my first time. ;3;
Have you played the game/watched the movie or anime/read the book or comic, etc. that your character hails from?: I've watched the whole anime and tried to search for all the other little scraps of information about Kaworu scattered all over canon. I've also seen End of Evangelion and read a lot of the manga, though the manga version of Kaworu is very different from the anime.
Please give us a detailed personal history of your character: (( Okay, so, as anyone who's seen Eva knows, Kaworu's background is convoluted even by the shows standards. I had to fill in a lot of gaps for his motivations and history, and some of the actions of Seele just don't make any sense no matter how hard I look and how many essays I read about it. But... this is how it went down. ;_; I'm using the Director's Cut scenes as canon. ))
In the year 2000 on September 13th, two things happened: the Second Impact hit, and Kaworu Nagisa was supposedly born. A catastrophic event reported as a meteor strike in Antarctica, the Second Impact wiped out half of earth's population, rose sea levels and destroyed the environment through global warming. In reality, the Second Impact was not a meteor, but an unknown lifeform that was discovered hidden under Antarctica. When a research team attempted to make experimental contact with the creature, it triggered a devastating explosion - the Second Impact. Above and beyond this, the secret organization Seele had all along intended to trigger the Second Impact. It was the beginning of the human race's interaction with the creatures they codenamed the Angels.
The Angels, despite their divine titles, were actually determined to be 99.89% similar to humans. Their true nature remained a mystery, and their forms varied wildly, from hulking beasts as tall as skyscrapers to abstract shapes made of light. They were alternate forms of evolution that humans could have taken, but they had shed their original human forms. As far as the public knew, Angels were not encountered until fifteen years after the Second Impact. However, the organization Seele had quietly accumulated three captive Angels. They were Adam, the original creature from Antarctica; Lilith; and a third they found as an embryo, which would become Tabris. What was certain about all Angels was that they desired the initiation of the Third Impact. By merging their progenitor, Adam, with his equal, Lilith, that specific Angel would then become a superbeing and the dominant life form on earth. All others, including humans and the other Angels, would perish. Every Angel was born with the innate, overwhelming desire to unite with Adam, the Angel from which they were descended, in order to complete the Third Impact.
Seele's primary goal was to bring about the Human Instrumentality Project, which would allow humans to be the ones to trigger the Third Impact. Humanity itself was found to be yet another Angel, one in many pieces, and therefore able to create the Third Impact as well. The trick to it was that all of the other Angels would have to be destroyed first, so Seele created Nerv to combat the Angel threat. The Angel embryo they had found was intended to be used as a secret weapon by Seele against whatever was to come. They carefully placed the soul of Adam into the embryo, so that Seele could use this Angel to unite directly with Lilith, rather than having to go through Adam first. Additionally, a further aspect of the Tabris experiment was to introduce human DNA to the embryo to see what resulted. Acting like a sponge for the new genetic information, the Angel quickly went from an abstract alien creature to something that was more or less a human infant.
Uncomfortable using codenames for what appeared to be a human child, the Angel Tabris was named Kaworu by a lab attendant. Aside from this, the researchers did little to act as parents towards Kaworu. Between periods of intense experimentation, the decidedly docile Angel was left to his own devices. Kaworu was cloned as part of the dummy plug system, where a plug with a cloned being could be inserted into an Eva and imitate the thought processes of a real pilot. A great deal of information on Angels came from Kaworu's presence in the Seele labs, though as far as his behavior went, the researchers were unimpressed. Kaworu learned to imitate humans too well, and though he was always a bit unsettling, he was not all that alien and therefore no good for behavioral studies. He spent his free time reading about human culture, and developed a fascination with music and art. Throughout this, he was promised that Seele would help him find Adam, and so he cooperated.
Outside of the laboratory, the other Angels began to attack one by one. Young people were called upon to fight with the use Eva units. Kaworu knew that the Evas were nothing more than genetically engineered and enslaved Angels, ironically being used to fight off their 'siblings'. All the while, Kaworu quietly waited for his turn. He was groomed carefully to be able to infiltrate Nerv and their group of pilots, waiting until there was a viable opening where Seele could present him. The time to move finally came when the pilot Asuka Langley Soryu was determined unfit to pilot Eva Unit 02. Seele explained to Kaworu that Adam was embedded in the hand of Gendo Ikari, the man controlling Nerv, and that now was time to put their plans into motion. If Kaworu had his doubts about Seele's intentions, he didn't voice them. After all, they were providing him with a path leading straight to Lilith and the Third Impact.
Upon arriving at Nerv, the first teenage human that Kaworu met was the traitor Gendo's son, Shinji Ikari. Kaworu was immediately drawn to Shinji, maybe because of the similarities in apparent age. Shinji was nice and polite, extremely vulnerable, and he certainly didn't treat Kaworu as an experiment. It was Kaworu's first real connection with another person, and so he didn't think twice about pulling in as close to the other boy as he could. Kaworu quickly decided that he really liked Shinji a great deal. He didn't spend any time analyzing why he liked the other pilot so much, but he left every encounter with Shinji only wanting more. He announced to Shinji within days of knowing him that he loved him, and didn't quite realize the profound effect this had on the human.
Everyone else wasn't quite so ready to embrace the odd new pilot. He was also curious about Rei Ayanami, a young girl whom he sensed as being "like him", though she was not pleased by his comparison. The officer Misato Katsuragi of Nerv, along with her bridge attendants, were particularly suspicious of Kaworu. His sync rating with an Eva was absolutely impossibly perfect, and his strange behavior did nothing to assuage their concerns. Kaworu noticed the woman following him, but ignored it in favor of confidence in his plan and desire to spend more time with Shinji.
Yet Kaworu couldn't resist his instincts forever, and before long he had to make his move. He abducted Eva Unit 02, and using it as his source of brute strength, he began to force his way down into Terminal Dogma where Lilith was being held. He knew Shinji would be sent after him, and partially looked forward to being able to speak to him one last time before the Third Impact. However, Shinji was too overwhelmed by emotions of betrayal and hurt to listen to most of what Kaworu said when he was trying to explain his actions and the nature of Angels to Shinji. As they descended and Shinji fought off the possessed Unit 02, Kaworu began to quietly question the nature of his path. That indecision didn't leave him even when he finally broke through the final defenses of Nerv into Terminal Dogma. His overwhelming AT Field easily cut himself and Shinji off from the rest of the building, giving them what Kaworu felt was a degree of privacy. Meanwhile, Seele could only sit and hope that the last Angel, Tabris, would be successfully killed in their gambit to speed up the path to Human Instrumentality.
Kaworu came to his final decision only when he stood in front of Lilith, which was a fortunate one for Seele but not at all what they'd expected. Kaworu contained enough of Adam within him to create the Third Impact that very second, but found that he didn't want to. To do so would kill all of humanity, which until recently hadn't been much of an issue. Mankind, the Lilim, were simply little pieces of just another Angel. He had never mourned any of them, but nor had he hated or wanted to hurt them. This was just how things had to be, he had thought. His belief all along had been that it was his destiny to return to Adam, but Kaworu realized at that moment that he could choose, though the choices were limited. His moment of indecision and introspection gave Shinji the opening he needed, and Unit 02 was defeated. Rather than outright attack Kaworu, Shinji grabbed the humanoid Angel in his Eva's hand and desperately asked him why he was doing this.
Kaworu thanked Shinji, and once again did his best to explain himself and what was going on. What it came down to was that Kaworu had decided that he didn't want humanity to die, because to him, humanity had become Shinji. Kaworu knew that if he survived, he would be forced to continuously try to destroy humanity, for it was his 'destiny' to achieve the Third Impact. For the first time, this prospect left him feeling genuinely unhappy, because it would result in losing Shinji. It would be living without the one thing he had truly grown to care about. Life and death were not that different to him, but only in dying would Kaworu achieve real freedom. More importantly, for Shinji to survive, Kaworu would eventually have to die one way or another. It was inevitable.
In a brief moment, he noticed that the girl Rei had somehow been watching them, but all he did was smile at her before turning his attention back to Shinji. Though Shinji begged for more explanation, Kaworu said that was all he could say. He instead just asked Shinji to please kill him, because Shinji was the one who needed to live. His last words were informing Shinji that he was happy to have met him. Kaworu was unsure of how else to express the scope of how deeply Shinji had changed his perception.
After a long moment of hesitation from Shinji, Kaworu felt real pain for the first time as he was crushed in the Eva's hand. Kaworu hadn't know exactly what to expect from dying, but it certainly wasn't clean sheets and a hospital room.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality: Most people would describe Kaworu as a very ethereal, but also very strange young man who smiles all the time. He does little to hide the parts of him that are less-than-normal, and there are a slew of them hidden under his soft smile. His speech pattern is strange, in as much as he ends up coming off as very verbose, formal and sometimes even cryptic. Kaworu is very resigned to the differences between himself and what he calls the Lilim, and so he doesn't often put out much effort to make himself easier to understand. One example being that 'Lilim' is the primary name he uses for almost any and all humans. Despite all of this, Kaworu falls within normal parameters for humanity. He expresses his emotions well enough, though they sometimes seem oddly subdued, and his ability to remain gracefully calm at all times is admittedly unusual. He understands social rules, even though he doesn't always follow them if he thinks they're impractical. Kaworu just seems... eccentric.
A lot of his eccentricities could possibly be blamed on being a highly intelligent teenager with social development issues, which is likely what the staff of Landel's Institute says about him. But the real culprit is the fact that no matter how he tries to be human, he's simply not. He doesn't think the same way, and his mind is both broader as well as comparatively inflexible.
Generally speaking, Kaworu is extremely kind-hearted and almost completely unflappable. He has a soft, sweet smile and a nurturing demeanor, and even when under verbal or physical attack he remains steady. But unfortunately because he sees himself as separate from humans as well as stronger than they are, this patience can come off as patronizing. He likes humans a great deal, but often looks at them either as children or as broken things in need of fixing and protection. He's gentle and caring in the face of human pain, but at the same time sees it as something so impossibly outside of himself that he simply cannot relate. He's sharp as a tack when it comes to recognizing what someone is upset over and why, but he would never be able to imagine himself in that individual's place. His inflexible mind leads him to respond to a suggestion to "put himself in their shoes" with a simple assertion that he is not that person. Kaworu is completely unable to imagine himself as anyone or anything but Kaworu. He is very sympathetic, but not at all empathetic, even if he doesn't realize the distinction.
Part of the problem is how Kaworu views humans. It's important to realize that Kaworu doesn't see the human race as a group of individuals, but as pieces of a single whole. For the most part, to Kaworu all humans are the same being: the Lilim. Because of this, Kaworu doesn't usually feel the gravity of the death of an individual human, or even a whole group of them. So far, only one human ever differentiated themselves from the mass of humanity, and that was Shinji Ikari. What it led to was Kaworu simply imagining that Shinji himself was humanity. This misconception will likely twist and then fade in the future if Kaworu makes more than one human friend. (Though the chances of him taking Shinji off his pedestal are slim to none.) He just has yet to learn to treat them as individuals rather than facets of a single being that he pictures as Shinji.
Learning to put a face to things, even if it's not always accurate, does a lot for Kaworu. If he can't associate a very specific name and individual with something, then he doesn't really feel it. It works similarly for objects. For instance, he cannot imagine the concept of a radio, but he can remember specific radios he has come into contact with in the past, and then uses them as a reference. The idea of a human dying doesn't do anything for him unless he knows that human specifically. Up until meeting Shinji, Kaworu was completely disconnected from the idea of instantly destroying humanity. He didn't have a desire to hurt or kill anyone, but nor did it seem like a bad thing either. As soon as he associated killing mankind with killing Shinji, he was able to care deeply enough that he readily sacrificed himself so Shinji could live. As soon as Kaworu is able to make the switch from impersonal to personal, he is genuinely altruistic and loving. It's just that right up until that moment, he's very, very cold under all that niceness.
Kaworu doesn't focus much on himself or his motivations, which is in contrast to how much he loves analyzing the behavior of others. He lacks an interest in looking closely at himself at all, which results in good and bad things about his personality. On one hand, he's rarely selfishly motivated and registers the situations of other people long before his own. He's almost completely without self-consciousness or embarrassment, and he only scrutinizes his actions under extreme circumstances. He's socially brave and bold, albeit in a subdued way. On the other hand, he's very ignorant and often insensitive when it comes to his role in relationships. Kaworu is so good at seeing the big picture that he often forgets about the immediate effects an action might have. When Kaworu decided to die, all he had in mind was the knowledge that he was saving Shinji in the long run. He barely registered the emotional pain he was putting Shinji in, because Kaworu felt the action was what was best for them both. Kaworu indeed experienced very strong feelings for Shinji, but was only ever able to see them from his own perspective. He saw only how much he loved Shinji, without really being able to picture his own importance to the object of his attentions. He was unable to look at himself from another persons perspective. As difficult as this can make his interactions, it does mean that Kaworu genuinely loves selflessly and unconditionally because he can't really conceptualize reciprocation. He just knows how he feels and expresses that to the other person without expecting anything in return.
Kaworu was completely sincere when he said he loved Shinji. Over the course of meeting him and then dying for him, Shinji had become the most influential force in Kaworu's life. A great deal of this is because Kaworu's life experiences were very few and far between before Shinji came along. It wouldn't be inaccurate at all to say Kaworu has elevated these memories and put them on a pedestal. Since he was the first person Kaworu bonded with, huge portions of his references for humans and emotions are based on Shinji. As intense and unparalleled as Kaworu's adoration for Shinji is, he doesn't speak about it often. Additionally, it would be going too far to say Kaworu's feelings are romantic in nature, even if they aren't actually platonic, considering that Kaworu only has the barest idea of romance. He is intensely emotionally preoccupied with the idea of Shinji, but his thoughts aren't sexual. In spite of his mental maturity, Kaworu is very innocent and even somewhat naive.
Please give us a detailed physical description of your character: Kaworu is a very eerie looking teenager, and there's something about the boy that makes him feel distinctly unnatural. Part of this is because Kaworu has coloration reminiscent of albinism. He has porcelain pale skin, bright red eyes and ash gray hair that's left shaggy and falling into his face more often than not. He isn't a terribly tall boy, but for his stature he has very long, skinny limbs with extremely pronounced joints. His hips are very narrow, and his shoulders, elbows and hands are particularly bony which gives the impression that he might not be getting enough to eat. When you get past how unhealthy and slightly creepy he looks, Kaworu has crisp, attractive facial features and can generally be found smiling. He has a steady but feathery voice and a nonthreatening way of holding himself.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's?: I'm going to be taking Kaworu from the moment where he was killed. (End of episode 24.)
What kinds of magical/special/crazy powers does your character have, if any?: While Kaworu wasn't actually an angel in the 'divine messenger of god' sense, he was still extremely powerful. The Angels of his world were giant superpowered creatures given this religious codename by the organizations that dealt with them. Though Kaworu lacked the sheer mass of many of his 'brothers' and 'sisters', he had enough power to rival most of them.
Kaworu exhibited both telepathy and telekinesis. Even when Shinji was inside the cockpit of Unit 01 and on the other side of Kaworu's extremely formidable everything-blocking force field, he was able to hear and communicate with Kaworu freely. Anything beyond simple communication, however, was beyond his reach, unless the creature was born from Adam like he was (which did not include humans). Since the majority of the Evangelion units were created from Adam, Kaworu was able to effortlessly control Unit 02 from well outside the cockpit. This same ability allowed him to perfectly synchronize with it as his pilot. True possession of a creature, however, would not be a possibility. Kaworu explained that he was only able to control an Eva unit while its soul was dormant, which made the unit more of a shell than a real being. He was also able to sense Rei's similarities to him, but this was only because she was technically another Angel/human crossbreed of sorts. Additonally, he noticed when individuals such as Misato and Rei were watching him even from a great distance.
As far as his presumed telekinesis, Kaworu was first off able to float himself alongside his hijacked Eva. Secondly, he unlocked the secure bulkhead doors to Terminal Dogma deep within the bowels of Nerv headquarters just by glancing at them.
The most impressive of Kaworu's powers was his AT Field. Called an Absolute Terror Field by the human researchers, Kaworu described it as the divine space of one's soul that no one can enter. It is a physical manifestation of the energy protecting one's soul that is projected outwards into a physical force. It appears as octagonal ripples of reddish orange light. Kaworu states that even humans can project an AT Field, though doesn't elaborate that this is because they are the 18th Angel. Their field is what keeps them as individuals, rather than dissolving into an orange liquid and becoming one complete Angel. (Presumably this is only true about the humans in Kaworu's world.) Kaworu's personal AT Field was reportedly the strongest that Nerv had ever recorded. He could project a force field large enough and strong enough to completely cut off a huge section of Nerv. His field could block out literally everything, including light, magnetism, sub-atomic particles and radio waves. When he activated it on the way down to Terminal Dogma, contact with the Eva units and all control over freestanding systems was lost entirely. Kaworu's AT Field was so powerful because his soul was actually that of Adam, the progenitor of the Angels, and therefore he was able to summon up a huge amount of energy. High powered AT Fields are shown as able to destroy surrounding objects with their intensity. When Kaworu began using any of his more overt abilities, he glowed softly.
If present, how do you plan to tweak those powers to make him/her appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?: Kaworu has lost a great deal of his abilities entirely, and now only shreds of them remain. Regarding his telepathy, Kaworu's powers were mostly passively communication-based, and remain so. His voice resonates both as sound waves and as telepathic waves, making it easier to hear him even over noise. A real telepath might be able to tell his voice has two levels to it. However, Kaworu cannot read other people or communicate without speaking (and cannot possess giant robots cloned from Adam, even if one was hanging around Landel's). Still, he does get accurate "someone's watching me" feelings when he's being stared at by someone nearby, which may extend to having his mind read by someone. His telekinesis has been weakened to the point where it's barely noticeable, but if he focuses he can slow himself down a bit should he fall or jump off something. Lastly, Kaworu still glows softly when he attempts to use his powers at night. He emits a faint white light, though it couldn't serve as a very useful light source.
The one thing Kaworu really held onto was his AT Field. He is still able to project it out enough to cover himself and potentially one other small-to-medium person who's willing to get very cozy with him. The AT field absorbs all physical and energy damage, and sometimes interferes with any nearby electronics (such as radios). However, it couldn't possibly do any damage to the surrounding area. When struck, the field appears as orange, octagonal ripples moving out from a center point over Kaworu's chest. The weak spot is directly in the center of these ripples, where a determined attacker can literally tear it open. However, as a metaphor for the emotional space that people try to keep others out of, it isn't broken through brute strength. The ease of penetrating Kaworu's AT Field is based on two factors: a) how willing Kaworu is to let people get close to him (which is usually pretty close; he's a very open person), and b) how good that person is at getting close to others. They would therefore be countering his AT Field with their own anti-AT Field. Someone who was secretive and closed off without good social skills would have a nearly impossible time breaking through it.
Activating his AT Field used to be second nature for Kaworu, but now it's an extremely draining exercise. He can only keep it up for thirty to forty five seconds at the very most, and afterwards pays the price. After a brief use he'll feel winded, but if he were to hold it up for as long as he could stretch it, he'd feel completely exhausted or even physically ill from overexertion. Additionally, the more damage the field takes, the worse he feels afterwards. If someone where to take advantage of the weak center point and actually ripped through Kaworu's AT Field, it's likely that the mental strain would cause him to pass out.
Does your character have any other non-magical skills or abilities that we should know about?: Kaworu is extremely intelligent and perceptive for his age (though not particularly creative, disciplined or ambitious). He has a knack for understanding how people think and he picks up on subtleties very easily.
As far as actual skills, Kaworu is well-educated in only a few areas. Despite being very intelligent, his education has been so neglected that it's unlikely he'd be able to pass any standardized high school tests. Since nobody was enforcing any kind of a curriculum on him, he was allowed to neglect his calculus in favor of art history, psychology and literature. He has always had a much stronger interest in the liberal arts than math and science. In particular, he loves music and proclaims it as man's greatest accomplishment. Kaworu plays the piano and violin expertly. He can speak Japanese and German, though sounds just as weird and cryptic in both languages. (I picked out the instruments from supplemental material and some official bonus artwork. German was chosen because Seele is a largely German organization.)
How about improbable appendages?: Kaworu is probably the only Angel without weird limbs. D:
Please give us an idea of where you'd like to take your character within the scope of the Landel's Damned RP: Kaworu is social and easygoing enough that I see it likely that he'll start making friends, even if he doesn't do it because he's particularly lonely or sees a practical reason behind alliances. Hopefully meeting new and interesting people will help him to stop looking at all humans as the pieces of Lilim, and more as individuals he can care about (... or dislike). Kaworu is very drawn to vulnerability and weakness, so he's likely to gravitate towards those who he feels need nurturing and protection.
What kind of psychological effect do you see Landel's Institute having on your character?: If there's anything Kaworu is good at, it's taking things in stride. But even if he accepts his new situation calmly, I think there will be a number of complications he'll be unhappy about. First and foremost, I think Kaworu will be disturbed to realize he's not dead. He'd be completely confused, because his being alive instantly implies that something went wrong and Shinji didn't follow through with killing him, which is disappointing. On the other hand, he's surrounded by humans, so at least he wouldn't fear that the Third Impact had occurred.
As soon as he realizes that Seele didn't stick him in Landel's after he failed, and that he's not in Tokyo-3 or even his own universe anymore, I think Kaworu will be confused but powerfully curious. I think he'll remain mostly unfazed until he realizes that his new mostly human body can't really keep up with him anymore. Before, Kaworu was mostly Angel (and considered himself fully Angel), and at Landel's he will be mostly human. Kaworu was previously much more in control of his physical self. Being only partially human, he used to be able to suppress any reflections of his emotions. Kaworu would be hard-pressed to remember if he had ever been in pain, excepting the moment of his death. Now in a very-close-to-human body, he has to deal with involuntary human reactions to emotions, such as crying, panic and laughing, as well as exhaustion and illness if he presses himself too hard. Kaworu has a very bizarre relationship with humans, and no matter how curious he is about them, he's never wanted or been able to imagine being one of them. There will certainly be a learning curve for him when it comes to remembering that he's not really an Angel anymore.
Kaworu hasn't yet learned to put more value in life and death, and won't have much of a self-preservation instinct. Similarly, he's unlikely to get excessively upset about anyone's death/injury/pain unless they've really stood out to him as an individual somehow. He's more than capable of sympathy, but it's not a natural reaction for him. I think that with more exposure to new people and potential friends, he'll get a clearer idea of relationships. He's likely to hand out his affection and friendship very easily and boldly once he gets the hang of it. Either way, even if Kaworu were to realize that escaping the institute meant he'd be dead again, he'd still want to aid everyone in getting out.
Given that this RP takes place in an unsettling and outright horrific environment, how do you justify your character as being appropriate in both body and mind for this kind of setting?: Kaworu definitely comes from a setting with a great deal of violence. The earth he remembers is a post-apocalyptic mess where giant creatures have been regularly attacking mankind and wiping out huge chunks of the population. Granted, this has all been on a much larger and more impersonal scale for Kaworu, and he was never personally involved in a massively violent struggle like most of the NGE cast has been. His exposure to violence and gore is still pretty high for someone who's technically only fifteen. He's very mentally strong and mature for his age, and with a very calm demeanor, but his world perception is a little too broad and impersonal. Kaworu is notably distant and ambivalent about death, especially in people he doesn't know very well. Lastly, bizarre and unusual-looking monsters probably won't make him bat an eyelash. If anything, it'll be a relief that they're actually smaller than a high-rise apartment building.
Physically, Kaworu is at more of a disadvantage, but he's not unhealthy (despite looking like he never eats). In the past he had an impressive arsenal of powers to rely upon, and suddenly not having them will be a shock. Despite this, Kaworu is surprisingly durable for his size, and moves quickly and agilely when he wants to. Just don't ask him to do any heavy lifting.
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