application for zodion
✖ PLAYER:
Name & LJ: Lena @ nichocolatine
Birthdate & Age: 01/18/88 ; 23
Characters played in Zodion: N/A
✖ CHARACTER:
Name: Badou Nails
Canon: DOGS: Bullets & Carnage
PB/Image: here
Info links: DOGS wiki
Canon Point: ch.63, as he and Mihai are about to head to the lower strata
Gender: Male
Age: undefined in canon, but appears to be either in his late teens or early- to mid-twenties.
Birthdate/Sign: May 4 ; Gemini // Several key attributes of the Gemini match Badou’s personality perfectly. Much like its symbol of the Twins, Badou himself ping-pongs between two startling separate personalities, sometimes even within the blink of an eye. There is his more youthful, carefree side that more than often give others the impression of a fool. However when push comes to shove, he has shown to be very rational and intuitive, able to withdraw himself from a situation long and far enough to look at it critically, and adapt to it as necessary. He displays these traits not only in the middle of battle (particularly against Herbst, when he and Mihai were greatly outnumbered), but also in fairly practical matters such as his decision to learn various household skills when his older brother clearly had no time or talent for it.
Tattoo: directly over the scar on his right eye, just a little bigger than a quarter; still able to be covered by his eyepatch.
Suitability: N/A
Power: Air - Channelling.
Personality: When we first meet Badou in the original DOGS manga, we are already introduced to the dual nature of his personality. We hear him first, rather than see him. Rich, introspective words that allude to something as ambiguous and ominous as the phrases he employs... quickly shoved aside in favor of panicked screaming, a tear-strewn face, and the mad dash of a man running for his life. That first scene actually sums up Badou’s character perfectly. On the one hand we have the quirky, brazen Badou that everyone is familiar with, and on the other we have quieter, more introspective Badou that only a few have been privy to.
In a typical seinen manga castlist like DOGS, Badou would be what many might refer to as the “comedic relief.” Indeed, amongst his castmates, his usual laid-back yet quirky personality often makes his scenes considerably lighter than the others’. With Badou, it’s all too easy to forget the serious (and often dangerous) tone of a situation simply because he seems to make a habit of forgetting it as well. When beat up and faced with the threat of a bullet to the head, he chooses to make his final words be a mere request for one last drag of a cigarette. He can be loud and obnoxious, particularly in situations where he feels frustrated and at his wit’s end. Several of his near-death scenes actually portray him either yelling, crying, running for his life... or a combination of all three.
This is all usually attributed to whether or not he’s got a cigarette on hand. Badou is a notorious chain-smoker and is almost always found with a cigarette (nicotine if he’s lucky, chocolate if he’s poor) dangling between his lips. It is an old habit he picked up from his older brother, back when he was much younger and his older brother was still around. Several of his friends have commented on the extreme shift Badou undergoes when he has not had some nicotine for quite some time. In these moments he becomes hysterical, almost manic. His patience is thin, his tolerance is nonexistent, and his recklessness spikes. He’s moody and harsh, and would sooner jump into a dangerous situations, balls out, rather than sit back, cower, or consider a less risky possibility.
Though many easily blame his mood swings to the lack of nicotine in his diet, the fact that he sometimes substitutes real cigarettes for chocolate cigarettes suggest that it isn’t so much the nicotine that calms him, but the habit and the memories it is tied to.
Above all else, it is Badou’s brother’s death (seven years prior) that has affected him more so than any other experience he has had thus far in his life. From the handful of flashbacks we are given in the manga, it is clear that Badou has always looked up to Dave in that way that younger brothers tend to, though his admiration was more of a quiet one. Almost all of these flashbacks include a younger, silent Badou, carefully watching and listening to his older brother’s advice, which he gave in abundance. They ranged from simple things like never take up smoking because it is an expensive habit and times are tough (and if he has to smoke, smoke chocolate cigarettes) to “keep living stingy,” which all have followed Badou long after his brother’s death.
Despite being the younger of the two, Badou was shown to be the one that took care of his brother, rather than the other way around. He has attributed his knowledge of basic yet trivial household skills such as sewing (and likely cooking and cleaning) to the fact that his older brother couldn’t do it, taking the responsibility onto himself rather than nag or lump it onto Dave. While his brother was off trying to make a living for the both of them, Badou took it upon himself to take care of what he can. This practicality and sensibility in Badou’s younger self was a stark difference from his brother’s reckless and impulsive behavior. Older, Badou seems to have taken up several of his brother’s bad habits - from the smoking, to the jaded outlook in life, to the so-called career in investigative work, to that very same rash behavior that had lead to his unfortunate death.
Though it would be inaccurate to say that Badou has turned up exactly like Dave. These habits he’s taken up seem more of a conscious effort, a sort of ode or tribute to the memory of his brother. Beneath all this is still the young, rational Badou, as evidenced in his confrontation with Herbst, his brother’s killer. Where his brother is accused of never having a plan, Badou had gone into the situation - one he’d known very little about - as prepared as he could be. Even if, in the end, it still hadn’t worked out to his favor.
That seems to be a recurring theme for Badou - luck. Bad luck, to be specific. He and a few other characters have noted, several times, that he has the worst of it. Somehow, he always manages to wind up in unfavorable situations, despite his efforts to remain on the better side of the tracks. Though, ironically enough, for a man with luck as bad as his, he always seems to somehow get out of even the hairiest scrapes.
This is yet another motif for Badou - contradiction. Badou constantly makes it a point in the manga to express his desire to stay out of things. He doesn’t want any trouble, he just wants to make a living, get away from the underground, and keep his hands clean. He constantly advises Naoto against sticking her nose in shady businesses, citing his own brother’s downfall in warning. However, his actions almost always contradict his words. Despite having a decent job at a store, he still does private, investigative work on the side, even if the job or client themselves are risky. He takes on dangerous side-jobs for Granny Liza which often get him involved with dirty gang business and unwittingly walked into Herbst’s trap on the off-chance he could find some answers to the questions he has about the very investigation his brother had died for.
These contradictions seem mostly unconscious. He can’t seem to help himself. Very rarely does Badou hold back from the truth, so it wouldn’t be accurate to say he lies to save face. His honesty seems limitless, quick to tell anyone and everyone exactly what he’s thinking, without much shame. He readily told Heine about his past when they first met four or five years ago and openly called Naoto a muscle-bound tranny in an outburst. He is blunt and sometimes tactless, but he also seems to have enough insight to know exactly what to say... provided he know the person well enough. (As is often the case with Heine.)
He’s a compassionate man, in his own subtle way. While many might find his laid back attitude leaning towards the side of apathetic, it’s more of a jaded resignation that makes him seem dispassionate. But on the contrary, he cares quite a lot, which is clear in the ways he tries to urge most everyone out of dangerous situations (Heine being the exception here, like he usually is; Badou has experienced Heine’s capabilities more than enough times to easily trust he can handle just about anything). Once they have made their decisions, though, and the hands of Fate have been dealt, he doesn’t fight it and simply adjusts accordingly. Morality itself isn’t quite so easily defined for Badou. For him, death is something that happens to everyone, but something he’d still like to avoid for as long as he can. So if it ever came down between himself and others (despite their innocence), his inclination is to save himself.
✖ SAMPLES:
"Zodion" First-Person Network Entry:
[ In the beginning, there is nothing.
And then Badou says, ] Let there be light!
[ And then there is light, and a cigarette too, and several relieved puffs around soft whimpers of, ] Thank you, Jesus.
[ This accidental network post finds Badou currently draped over a couch that is unfortunately not as long as he is, but the redhead doesn’t seem to mind all that much, what with him too busy sucking the metaphorical life out of that cigarette.
You can all rest easy now, denizens of Zodion. Badou has finally procured himself a cigarette. Just one! But it’s better than all the nothing he’s had so far. ]
Haaaaah, tastes like home..!
[ He rolls around happily for a moment, long legs curling up against his chest for optimum wriggling. His happiness, he can barely contain it.
Eventually, he notices the communication device recording, and he’s so pleased he doesn’t even care. He rolls himself off the couch and flounces towards the device, all long limbs and red hair flailing in the air before plunking himself down right in front of it. His smile is wide, lips pursing firmly over that fag. ]
Yoohooo~ [ Look, he’ll even give a little wave too. ] Everyone - hey! Don’t worry! Everything is beautiful now and it’ll all work out, you’ll see! [ There is smoke in his lungs and hope in his heart, Zodion. CAN YOU FEEL IT? ]
Even the day is beautiful! Look at it, look out these windows! [ Up on his feet again, kicking through the mess that is his apartment, pushing open those windows to breathe in that nice, new scent. ] Look at that sun! Look at those trees! Look, there’s some kind of weird squirrel thing there too, isn’t that cute, it--
[ Protip, Badou: never babble with your head sticking out of a window on the fourth story of an apartment building.
With your cigarette barely dangling between your lips.
Because it won’t be, soon enough, evidenced by the sight of that little stick, fluttering away in the wind. Gone. Forever.
. . . ]
I fucking hate this place!!
"Zodionlogs" Third-Person Prose Entry:
So this was it, he thought. This was Heaven.
Not that he ever really believed in Heaven (no offense to the Bishop), but then again, he never really didn’t believe in Heaven either, and that had to count for something, didn’t it? Living the life he lived, seeing what he’d seen, he couldn’t really afford to be religious anyway... or maybe that was just another excuse. Hard to tell, sometimes, what was truth, or what was simply a means to avoid the truth. Maybe they’re the same thing. But that wouldn’t make much sense either, would it?
Thoughts. Way too many thoughts to be having when you’re supposed to be dead, so maybe he isn’t as dead as he thought he was. Couldn’t really be kind of dead either, unless you’re Heine (but maybe that wasn’t really being fair to the guy; had he ever been alive at all?), and Badou was most certainly not Heine, thank whatever God in Heaven (here?) could hear him. Not that he really had anything against the guy, but Badou was barely keeping afloat with his own issues, he didn’t even want to consider how deep in he’d be with issues like Heine’s. (Oh oh, he knew the answer to this one - six feet deep. Ha.)
Anyway. This place wasn’t like any Heaven he ever heard about, so maybe this was Hell. He wondered if he should have thought about that first, actually, because he sure did kill an awful lot of people to really earn himself a spot up there in the clouds, but things got pretty tricky when you factor in intent and “the greater good” and all that shit.
But instead he got water, all around him, flaring up like the fires of Hell would were he really in Hell, and - shit fuck dying hurt like a bitch - a pain, his right eye, the last place on Earth, Hell, or Heaven he’d ever wish to feel pain again. At least it didn’t hurt as much as it did the last time, but his hand was still there, the heel of his palm digging into the scarred skin and he half-expected to find it stained red when he finally drew it away.
Didn’t even notice till a few seconds later that he wasn’t supposed to be paying attention to his hand, but his eye. ‘Course, the bright green glow kind of helped get his focus in order, and soon enough he was leaning in, peering at his reflection in that water-turned-mirror and thinking-- Huh. So Hell was into tattoos. Weird. He definitely would have been willing to be money on it being more a piercings kind of place.
Well, guess he was a marked man now. More so than ever, at least. His third mark, right over the first. Third time’s the charm, three strikes and you’re out. He wasn’t going to lie - he didn’t have much hope for this one.
Looked fancy enough, though. Yeah. It was already starting to grow on him by the time he leaned in for a closer look, a long, thin finger reaching up to trace it over the raised skin of his scar. Not bad. Not good, either, but definitely not bad. He could roll with it. Yeah. Totally. It wasn’t like this was weird or anything, like this was unlike anything he’d ever experienced before, or ever heard about. It’s not like he was shot and bleeding one second, and suddenly very not in the next. It’s not like it was literally a case of blink and you’ll miss it, coming from that old theater to Wherever the Hell This Place Is. Oh, and it’s not like he’s totally naked or anything, either.
Yep.
This was all totally, completely, perfectly normal.
. . .
”WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HEEEEEEEEERE?!”