Information for dirtyvegasrp!
Types of sex I am OK with: Pretty much anything is fine, really.
Kinks or practices I enjoy: Whatever! I mean, I could go for the usual "lol toys" here but uh. And perhaps it would be useful to note that Near will be extremely reluctant in everything, so while that isn't necessarily a "kink", it sure is something to consider. :/ Apologies in advance.
Types of sex I'm not OK with: TBA, I guess? Right now, I'll say "nothing", and fill in later if I think of anything particularly squicky that I dislike.
Kinks or practices I don't enjoy: Bathroom stuff, watersports, guro and vore type stuff--the usual.
Willing to write rape or dubcon?: Maybe a little reluctant on the rape, but if it was appropriate for the scene, it could be considered. Dubcon is fine, though.
Is fade to black OK?: Sure! Honestly, whatever works!
IC
Name: Near (River, Nate)
Fandom: Death Note
History link:
Death Note on Wikipedia.
Near's page on the Death Note Wiki.
Canon point: Chapter 77, just after Mello pulls the gun on him in the SPK headquarters.
Personality:
Near has the poorest social skills of all the Wammy’s House kids, ranking even with L. How to Read states that his calmness in high-stress situations ranks even above L’s. Where Mello is explosive, Near is placid, almost emotionless. Generally, Near is very laconic in his dealings with others, and shows little to no emotion. Even when his life is threatened, after a brief reaction of shock, Near appears dispassionate and uninterested. He has a really good personal control over his emotions, and can suppress them to the point of complete and total blankness. It would take a great deal to truly shock Near. Canonically, there are only a few points where he seems surprised. The announcement of L’s death is one significant example, though there are others.
Near is not as cooperative as his predecessor was, but he is like L in that he is willing to lie or suspend the truth in order to get results in his endeavors. He is candid in admitting that he would sacrifice human life in order to bring justice to Kira. He’s occasionally more blunt than L was, and openly disapproves of the Japanese task forces’ actions previous to his involvement in the investigation. Many of his quirks are reminiscent of L’s--he has a penchant for stacking things in towers, he fiddles with things while thinking, he is always poised in a crouch, and he is always clad in white pajamas, lending him a similar shabby, unkempt air that also effused L. His reclusive nature is also an echo of L’s. Even as a child at Wammy’s House, he is pictured as avoiding the company of other children, engrossed in his own activities. How to Read cites this evasion as a flaw--though he is a genius, he is unable to interact with others, and needs to rely on his team to get his work done.
Near’s main obsession is toys. He is always depicted as being surrounded by various toys or games. Puzzles, darts, dice, cards, robots, models, puppets, matchsticks--you name it, Near’s got it. And, like any kid, he seems to have favorites (in chapter 60, when the SPK is forced to flee their hide out, he is shown gathering several toys to take with him). This quirk is only really odd when you remember that Near is seventeen or eighteen through the latter Death Note chapters. The toys are a catharsis, a means to help him work out the details of his theories. He occasionally will use figurines or dolls to act as L or Kira, and at one point, he crafts puppets of all the major players in the Kira case, reenacting several scenes with them in a Lego city.
In keeping with this love of games, in his treatment of most people, Near is cool and caustic. He sees the world as a whole as a game, and people as players or pawns in the game. He doesn't idolize people or even enjoy their company--they're just people. His conversations with them are generally question-based, and come from a need or a want to understand a situation or problem.
This childishness is a part of his personality in more ways than just his fixation on toys. Despite his characteristic dispassion, he does have an irritating, cheeky side to him that occasionally makes itself known. When dealing with Light, the “false L”, Near greets him nonchalantly with a little smirk: “L the second, pleased to meet’cha!” He taunts Light from time to time, or simply makes snide little comments. His bratiness even extends to his relations even with the SPK-he’s very demanding in his laconic way. When Light contacts the SPK for the first time, Near simply holds out his hand and says, “Phone.” Furthermore, Near is just as fixated on winning as the other main players of Death Note. To him, life is a game, and the Kira case is the best game of all. Each person is a player or a pawn, and must be catalogued and utilized, or simply opposed. It’s also important to note that Near wants to see Kira arrested-not killed. That’s a better end to the game, and one that would confirm his victory beyond a doubt.
I made brief mention to his lack of morality before, but this is yet another factor of Near’s personality that is in keeping with L’s, though perhaps for different reasons. Near isn’t solving the Kira case for the sake of justice, necessarily. He’s solving the case to win, and he’ll do what it takes to secure that win. That’s not to say that he’ll act himself-he delegates the tasks to others, and controls things from behind the scenes, much like a player in a chess game or a puppeteer. And as L, he has to work beyond the restrictions of Right and Wrong, in a way. In order to catch Kira, certain measures must be taken.
But at the same time, Near isn’t judgmental in a general sense. He only seeks to define or judge criminals or cases that interest him. If he isn’t interested, he won’t bother even thinking about them. In Another Note, Near is depicted in his twenties, still building card castles and working on cases. Here again, like L, he doesn’t take on cases unless they interest him. If they’re boring or too easy, he won’t take them on. Even in the one-shot, where another Death Note is being used to kill people, Near largely ignores the case on the grounds that it’s not as interesting as Kira was. His own personal entertainment is worth more than the pursuit of something so mundane as justice. Small cases are for the regular police to worry about.
In dealing with others, Near is distant and sometimes a little disdainful, though perhaps not always on purpose. He is not social in the slightest bit, and doesn’t pay people very much attention on a personal level. He prefers to relate to them from the standpoint of work. As I mentioned earlier, people are pawns, and conversation with them must be directed and focused. There isn’t much time for small talk. That’s not to say that Near couldn’t develop a personal relationship with someone-but it would be extremely difficult. The closest thing that Near has to a personal relationship at all is his intense and consuming rivalry with Mello. Near does not seem to have any hatred for Mello-on the contrary, he holds Mello in some esteem. At the end of the series, he admits that he would not have been able to solve the case without Mello’s help. How to Read says that Near actually likes Mello in some small capacity. The author of the series cites Near’s accurate and careful puppet design as a sign that Near was at least interested enough in Mello to carefully craft the toy in his likeness. And while Near is not exactly a passive player in the race against Mello, he does not have the same hateful drive that Mello does. He acts more out of a need to win this game.
Part of the responsibility for his eschewing of friendship or immediate personal contact is the constant paranoia that rules the lives of anyone intending to be L. The identity of the successors is a huge secret-so much so that their names were changed (Nate River to Near, Mihael Keehl to Mello, Mail Jeevas to Matt, etcetera). The knowledge of their names and faces can’t be compromised, due to the nature of Kira’s method of killing. As a result, Near never shows his face to anyone that he doesn’t trust. He either communicates via voice only, or-when he is forced to meet with Light in person-he wears a paper mask designed to look like L. There is very little that would get Near to be open, or to show his face to anyone that he doesn’t trust. Cameras can take pictures, after all, and a photograph and a name could be the death of him. And he does not intend to die before he wins the game.
Powers/Abilities:
Near is, in two words, a child prodigy. As one of L’s successors, he terribly intelligent, terribly analytical, and terribly intuitive. By suspending his own personal feelings, he’s able to think clearly about situations-more clearly than many people are able to. He is extremely collected and calm in almost every instance and rarely displays signs of outward emotion, either facially or through other modes of body language. This impressive self-control allows him an element of surprise, in a way, since he generally won’t react the way that others expect him to, which is slightly disconcerting. He is also very skilled at building models, dice towers, and card castles, which displays a certain amount of technical skill and control-and he is excellent at games and puzzles.
Basically, his greatest weapon is his brain.