[ APPLICATION ]
Player Name: Daluci
Player LJ: daluci
Email and/or AIM: curry [DOT] dulcie [AT] gmail.com / almost a Q
Timezone: EST
Other Characters: n/a
Character: Nikaidou Yuu
Series/Fandom: Shugo Chara!
Deviance: 1
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Species: Creeper Human
Canon Used: Mostly anime, with some manga overtones (he smokes, and Real Life Consequences are a bigger factor - in the anime, he can't join in on the final battle because a gate falls down as he's about to enter, and in the manga it's because he can't find parking.)
Appearance: Nikaidou is six feet even, with red hair and amber eyes, and is usually wearing a light yellow shirt with a tan suit and a tie.
His appearance changes slightly, depending on what personality he's showing. If he's being evil, his hair behaves itself (as much as his hair ever behaves itself), and falls to his shoulders. His voice is also much deeper. When he's being "nice", his hair is very messy, and he wears it in a loose pony tail. He also wears a pair of glasses.
Psychology: Nikaidou is a very cynical person. Because he accidentally broke his own guardian egg when he was younger, he looks down on children who have a positive view of their futures. He considers dreaming naïve and foolish, and prefers to live life by trying to come out on top. He isn't working at Easter for the money, but in order to feel like he's won against the rest of society, and he is pursuing the Embryo more in an attempt to win a competition against Yukari than because it's what the Director told him to do.
Nikaidou is very jealous of children, especially those with strong chara, because he was not able to have one of his own. He takes great pleasure in corrupting their eggs and forcing them to see the world as he sees it: a negative place with no place for hopes or dreams.
While working at the school, Nikaidou pretends to be a very different person - someone nicer, dorkier, and rather clumsy. He calls Amu by the wrong name ("Himamori" instead of "Hinamori"), seems air-headed, and trips at the least provocation. Most of the time he pretends to care about the students, but when he finds someone who is close to giving up on their dream, he finds a chance to see them alone and convince them that there is no point in being hopeful.
Interestingly, the act he puts on at the school is very close to how he would act if his heart's egg weren't broken, so it's hard to say which is the "true" Nikaidou.
Even though his heart's egg was broken, Nikaidou still has a strong affinity for robots, and the one time he shows true compassion toward a child it is because the boy is interested in making robots, too.
Nikaidou also still cares for Yukari, even if he doesn't always pick the best way of showing it. They compete in Easter, using their shared mission as a way of trying to one-up each other. Despite this, he's still very willing to help her, whether she asks him to or not. He'll spend most of the time he's helping either bickering with her or complaining, but he'll still come and help.
Other Skills/Abilities: He can sense the health of guardian eggs and push them toward turning into x-eggs. (In normal-speak, he can tell if someone is doubting their dreams or feeling unsure and push them toward giving up entirely.) It's easier for him to manipulate a person's egg if they're speaking honestly and from the heart. He can also manipulate the negative energy of x-eggs: as long as he has one with him, he can throw blasts of bad purple juju that paralyzes you if you're hit by it.
He's very intelligent and has a lot of experience with robots and programming. He also has a good handle on chemistry and data analysis/collection. He's also a good cook - but expect a trashed kitchen afterward. In the wonderful way anime has, the nicer he's being (or pretending to be) the less likely his hair is to obey gravity.
Cute has no power over him (an important skill for an elementary school teacher). No, seriously, he can say no to a crying Su without hesitation.
Other Weaknesses: He's surprisingly normal for a villain in a magical girl anime. Unless he has an x-egg in hand, he's got the same chance in a fight as a normal human adult - maybe a little less, since he's clumsy enough to trip over his own feet. He's also on his way to developing lung cancer, considering pretty much any time he shows up and isn't teaching, he's smoking.
History: When Nikaidou was very young, he was a member of the Construction Club at his school. His dream was to become a robotics professor and make "the ultimate robot: one that can carry juice with both hands." His guardian chara egg appeared at this time, representing the fact that he believed strongly in his dream and his ability to achieve it.
Before his egg could hatch, though, his teacher suddenly retired because his wife had fallen ill. This meant the Construction Club disbanded, and his parents started pressuring him to give up on "playing" with robots and focus more on his grades. One day, after another failure, he angrily threw one of the robots to the ground... breaking his egg before it had the chance to hatch.
Sometime before the series starts, Nikaidou and Yukari dated... and broke up. At the start of the series, Nikaidou is working for Easter Company, trying to find the mysterious Embryo. For a little while, he spends his time making x-eggs from random children, but he soon gets himself hired as a teacher at Seiyo Academy. As a teacher, he starts corrupting the heart's eggs of students at the school.
Winter break is looming on the horizon, and Easter is pushing ever harder for him to find the Embryo as soon as possible. Nikaidou has turned the eggs of six school children since hiring on as a teacher, and he's still looking for more candidates.
Canon Point: episode 8 (I don't think this really has a corresponding manga point, it's in the midst of filler-land).
Reality Description: All kids hold an egg in their soul, the egg of their hearts, their would-be selves, yet unseen...
It's everyday Japan, with a twist. Every child has an "egg of their heart" (or, occasionally, more than one) that represents their would-be self, or what they hope and dream they will become. The eggs contain little chibi people - guardian chara - who hang around to help you become who you want to be. Having a chara has perks beyond having a floating, tiny friend, but we'll get to that in a moment.
Chara and eggs are only visible to other people who have chara, and are only around when you're very young. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule.
People who have chara can use them to be "powered up," magical-girl style, with either a character change or a character transformation. Character changing is the easier of the two, and it's usually very minor (and involves some kind of appearing headgear). Character transformation, on the other hand, happens when you use "110%" of a chara's powers, and is much more powerful.
Character changing can be voluntary or involuntary. An involuntary character change is caused either by the chara deciding you should act differently or some kind of outside stimulus, and means a sudden change in your personality. Voluntary character changing, on the other hand, only gives you the spike in your abilities. (That's what makes the most sense, anyway, they don't exactly sit down and lay it out.)
Guardian eggs can also be corrupted if a child loses faith in themselves or their dreams. When this happens, it turns black and gets a white X, and is called (with much originality) an x-egg. X-eggs can hatch to form x-characters, which are little black evil things with red X's on their heads. X-chara usually have a limited vocabulary and repeat what few words they know over and over again. All x-chara can say "useless," and a few things related to the child's dream (the x-chara from a boy who wanted to become a professional soccer player could say "pass" and "goal," for example). Both x-chara and x-eggs try to destroy anything around them.
The Embryo is a mysterious egg that is rumored to grant wishes. Pretty much everyone in the series is looking for it, and no one has been able to see it so far, let alone capture it.
--
Locations
Easter Company ≈ a huge business involved in music, food, entertainment, banking... you name it, they've probably at least dabbled in it. Their major goal is to locate the Embryo, and they're willing to go to almost any length to do so. Most of their plans involve the creation and/or collection of x-eggs/chara, which puts them squarely in the bad guy category.
Seiyo Academy ≈ the elementary school where most of the show takes place. It seems to attract Important People and Things and is way too overblown to be a normal school (hidden passageways, random dinosaur skeletons, huge flower gardens, a planetarium, a greenhouse specifically for Guardian meetings...).
Easter Employees
(✗) Hoshina Kazuomi ≈ Easter's director, aka the jerk who's behind all the bad things in the series. He answers to the mysterious Gozen and is the only one who ever speaks with him. He's the one who issues any and all orders to the Easter employees.
( ? ) Sanjo Yukari ≈ Nikaidou's ex-girlfriend, Kairi's older sister, and Utau's manager. She's very stubborn and pushy, and Nikaidou is stubborn and pushy in return, so they often argue and compete against each other. Nikaidou would like to get back together (although he doesn't always show it), but she doesn't think they can be in a relationship right now because it will distract from her managing.
(✓) Tsukiyomi Ikuto ≈ a high schooler who is next in line to lead Easter, as much as he doesn't want to. Ikuto works with Nikaidou sometimes - "cleaning up" Nikaidou's mess by destroying the x-eggs Nikaidou has created. Ikuto dislikes Nikaidou because Nikaidou is a part of Easter and because Nikaidou orders him around.
(✓) Hoshina Utau ≈ a popular singer. She works with Yukari and despises Nikaidou because he isn't true to himself.
Seiyo Academy students
(✓) Himamori Hinamori Amu ≈ the main character of the show, and the Joker of the Guardians. Amu has three guardian chara, is able to character transform, and can heal x-eggs. She's usually the one who fixes whatever child egg Nikaidou has messed up lately.
(✓) Guardians
Hotori Tadase (K), Fujisaki Nadeshiko (Q), Soma Kukai (J), Yuiki Yaya (A) ≈ the Guardians are the Student Council of the elementary school. There are four traditional positions, each named after a card (King's Chair, Queen's Chair, Jack's Chair, and Ace's Chair), with a fifth added after Amu comes to the school. They organize events, help with the upkeep of the school, and watch over the other students. Their main responsibility is to protect the guardian eggs of the students, which is why every member of the Guardians has their own guardian chara.
Other Children
Yuki, Suzuki Seiichiro ≈ other children who are students at Seiyo Academy or the same age as the students; Nikaidou corrupts the chara eggs of all of them. Amu fixes their eggs shortly after he corrupts them, though, and they don't have any memory of it happening.
Notable Chara
♥ Ran ≈ one of Amu's guardian chara. She's good at sports and very cheerful.
♠ Miki ≈ one of Amu's guardian chara. She's good at artsy things and the more serious of the three.
♣ Su ≈ one of Amu's guardian chara. She's good at cooking and cleaning and can speak to animals.
☁ Yoru ≈ Ikuto's guardian chara. He has cat ears, ends most sentences with "-nyaa" and very much doesn't like Nikaidou because Nikaidou forces Ikuto to destroy x-eggs.
☓ Musashi ≈ Kairi's guardian chara. He's a samurai and usually cautions Kairi to be calm and do things the honorable way.
Misc.
( • ) Amakawa Tsukasa ≈ the superintendant at the school, which makes him Nikaidou's "boss," as long as Nikaidou's undercover as a teacher. He's something of an odd duck. He wrote a picture book explaining chara (one of the best reference points of the series) and seems to be the most knowledgable person in the show, which would help more if he would actually explain himself once in a while.
(✓) Sanjo Kairi ≈ Yukari's younger brother. He's a year younger than Amu and goes to school in another town.
Everyone listed knows about chara.
(✓): Has and can see chara.
( • ): can see chara
( ? ): may or may not be able to see chara
(✗): can't see chara
Player LJ: daluci
Email and/or AIM: curry [DOT] dulcie [AT] gmail.com / almost a Q
Timezone: EST
Other Characters: n/a
Character: Nikaidou Yuu
Series/Fandom: Shugo Chara!
Deviance: 1
Age: 24
Gender: Male
Species: Creeper Human
Canon Used: Mostly anime, with some manga overtones (he smokes, and Real Life Consequences are a bigger factor - in the anime, he can't join in on the final battle because a gate falls down as he's about to enter, and in the manga it's because he can't find parking.)
Appearance: Nikaidou is six feet even, with red hair and amber eyes, and is usually wearing a light yellow shirt with a tan suit and a tie.
His appearance changes slightly, depending on what personality he's showing. If he's being evil, his hair behaves itself (as much as his hair ever behaves itself), and falls to his shoulders. His voice is also much deeper. When he's being "nice", his hair is very messy, and he wears it in a loose pony tail. He also wears a pair of glasses.
Psychology: Nikaidou is a very cynical person. Because he accidentally broke his own guardian egg when he was younger, he looks down on children who have a positive view of their futures. He considers dreaming naïve and foolish, and prefers to live life by trying to come out on top. He isn't working at Easter for the money, but in order to feel like he's won against the rest of society, and he is pursuing the Embryo more in an attempt to win a competition against Yukari than because it's what the Director told him to do.
Nikaidou is very jealous of children, especially those with strong chara, because he was not able to have one of his own. He takes great pleasure in corrupting their eggs and forcing them to see the world as he sees it: a negative place with no place for hopes or dreams.
While working at the school, Nikaidou pretends to be a very different person - someone nicer, dorkier, and rather clumsy. He calls Amu by the wrong name ("Himamori" instead of "Hinamori"), seems air-headed, and trips at the least provocation. Most of the time he pretends to care about the students, but when he finds someone who is close to giving up on their dream, he finds a chance to see them alone and convince them that there is no point in being hopeful.
Interestingly, the act he puts on at the school is very close to how he would act if his heart's egg weren't broken, so it's hard to say which is the "true" Nikaidou.
Even though his heart's egg was broken, Nikaidou still has a strong affinity for robots, and the one time he shows true compassion toward a child it is because the boy is interested in making robots, too.
Nikaidou also still cares for Yukari, even if he doesn't always pick the best way of showing it. They compete in Easter, using their shared mission as a way of trying to one-up each other. Despite this, he's still very willing to help her, whether she asks him to or not. He'll spend most of the time he's helping either bickering with her or complaining, but he'll still come and help.
Other Skills/Abilities: He can sense the health of guardian eggs and push them toward turning into x-eggs. (In normal-speak, he can tell if someone is doubting their dreams or feeling unsure and push them toward giving up entirely.) It's easier for him to manipulate a person's egg if they're speaking honestly and from the heart. He can also manipulate the negative energy of x-eggs: as long as he has one with him, he can throw blasts of bad purple juju that paralyzes you if you're hit by it.
He's very intelligent and has a lot of experience with robots and programming. He also has a good handle on chemistry and data analysis/collection. He's also a good cook - but expect a trashed kitchen afterward. In the wonderful way anime has, the nicer he's being (or pretending to be) the less likely his hair is to obey gravity.
Cute has no power over him (an important skill for an elementary school teacher). No, seriously, he can say no to a crying Su without hesitation.
Other Weaknesses: He's surprisingly normal for a villain in a magical girl anime. Unless he has an x-egg in hand, he's got the same chance in a fight as a normal human adult - maybe a little less, since he's clumsy enough to trip over his own feet. He's also on his way to developing lung cancer, considering pretty much any time he shows up and isn't teaching, he's smoking.
History: When Nikaidou was very young, he was a member of the Construction Club at his school. His dream was to become a robotics professor and make "the ultimate robot: one that can carry juice with both hands." His guardian chara egg appeared at this time, representing the fact that he believed strongly in his dream and his ability to achieve it.
Before his egg could hatch, though, his teacher suddenly retired because his wife had fallen ill. This meant the Construction Club disbanded, and his parents started pressuring him to give up on "playing" with robots and focus more on his grades. One day, after another failure, he angrily threw one of the robots to the ground... breaking his egg before it had the chance to hatch.
Sometime before the series starts, Nikaidou and Yukari dated... and broke up. At the start of the series, Nikaidou is working for Easter Company, trying to find the mysterious Embryo. For a little while, he spends his time making x-eggs from random children, but he soon gets himself hired as a teacher at Seiyo Academy. As a teacher, he starts corrupting the heart's eggs of students at the school.
Winter break is looming on the horizon, and Easter is pushing ever harder for him to find the Embryo as soon as possible. Nikaidou has turned the eggs of six school children since hiring on as a teacher, and he's still looking for more candidates.
Canon Point: episode 8 (I don't think this really has a corresponding manga point, it's in the midst of filler-land).
Reality Description: All kids hold an egg in their soul, the egg of their hearts, their would-be selves, yet unseen...
It's everyday Japan, with a twist. Every child has an "egg of their heart" (or, occasionally, more than one) that represents their would-be self, or what they hope and dream they will become. The eggs contain little chibi people - guardian chara - who hang around to help you become who you want to be. Having a chara has perks beyond having a floating, tiny friend, but we'll get to that in a moment.
Chara and eggs are only visible to other people who have chara, and are only around when you're very young. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule.
People who have chara can use them to be "powered up," magical-girl style, with either a character change or a character transformation. Character changing is the easier of the two, and it's usually very minor (and involves some kind of appearing headgear). Character transformation, on the other hand, happens when you use "110%" of a chara's powers, and is much more powerful.
Character changing can be voluntary or involuntary. An involuntary character change is caused either by the chara deciding you should act differently or some kind of outside stimulus, and means a sudden change in your personality. Voluntary character changing, on the other hand, only gives you the spike in your abilities. (That's what makes the most sense, anyway, they don't exactly sit down and lay it out.)
Guardian eggs can also be corrupted if a child loses faith in themselves or their dreams. When this happens, it turns black and gets a white X, and is called (with much originality) an x-egg. X-eggs can hatch to form x-characters, which are little black evil things with red X's on their heads. X-chara usually have a limited vocabulary and repeat what few words they know over and over again. All x-chara can say "useless," and a few things related to the child's dream (the x-chara from a boy who wanted to become a professional soccer player could say "pass" and "goal," for example). Both x-chara and x-eggs try to destroy anything around them.
The Embryo is a mysterious egg that is rumored to grant wishes. Pretty much everyone in the series is looking for it, and no one has been able to see it so far, let alone capture it.
--
Locations
Easter Company ≈ a huge business involved in music, food, entertainment, banking... you name it, they've probably at least dabbled in it. Their major goal is to locate the Embryo, and they're willing to go to almost any length to do so. Most of their plans involve the creation and/or collection of x-eggs/chara, which puts them squarely in the bad guy category.
Seiyo Academy ≈ the elementary school where most of the show takes place. It seems to attract Important People and Things and is way too overblown to be a normal school (hidden passageways, random dinosaur skeletons, huge flower gardens, a planetarium, a greenhouse specifically for Guardian meetings...).
Easter Employees
(✗) Hoshina Kazuomi ≈ Easter's director, aka the jerk who's behind all the bad things in the series. He answers to the mysterious Gozen and is the only one who ever speaks with him. He's the one who issues any and all orders to the Easter employees.
( ? ) Sanjo Yukari ≈ Nikaidou's ex-girlfriend, Kairi's older sister, and Utau's manager. She's very stubborn and pushy, and Nikaidou is stubborn and pushy in return, so they often argue and compete against each other. Nikaidou would like to get back together (although he doesn't always show it), but she doesn't think they can be in a relationship right now because it will distract from her managing.
(✓) Tsukiyomi Ikuto ≈ a high schooler who is next in line to lead Easter, as much as he doesn't want to. Ikuto works with Nikaidou sometimes - "cleaning up" Nikaidou's mess by destroying the x-eggs Nikaidou has created. Ikuto dislikes Nikaidou because Nikaidou is a part of Easter and because Nikaidou orders him around.
(✓) Hoshina Utau ≈ a popular singer. She works with Yukari and despises Nikaidou because he isn't true to himself.
Seiyo Academy students
(✓) Himamori Hinamori Amu ≈ the main character of the show, and the Joker of the Guardians. Amu has three guardian chara, is able to character transform, and can heal x-eggs. She's usually the one who fixes whatever child egg Nikaidou has messed up lately.
(✓) Guardians
Hotori Tadase (K), Fujisaki Nadeshiko (Q), Soma Kukai (J), Yuiki Yaya (A) ≈ the Guardians are the Student Council of the elementary school. There are four traditional positions, each named after a card (King's Chair, Queen's Chair, Jack's Chair, and Ace's Chair), with a fifth added after Amu comes to the school. They organize events, help with the upkeep of the school, and watch over the other students. Their main responsibility is to protect the guardian eggs of the students, which is why every member of the Guardians has their own guardian chara.
Other Children
Yuki, Suzuki Seiichiro ≈ other children who are students at Seiyo Academy or the same age as the students; Nikaidou corrupts the chara eggs of all of them. Amu fixes their eggs shortly after he corrupts them, though, and they don't have any memory of it happening.
Notable Chara
♥ Ran ≈ one of Amu's guardian chara. She's good at sports and very cheerful.
♠ Miki ≈ one of Amu's guardian chara. She's good at artsy things and the more serious of the three.
♣ Su ≈ one of Amu's guardian chara. She's good at cooking and cleaning and can speak to animals.
☁ Yoru ≈ Ikuto's guardian chara. He has cat ears, ends most sentences with "-nyaa" and very much doesn't like Nikaidou because Nikaidou forces Ikuto to destroy x-eggs.
☓ Musashi ≈ Kairi's guardian chara. He's a samurai and usually cautions Kairi to be calm and do things the honorable way.
Misc.
( • ) Amakawa Tsukasa ≈ the superintendant at the school, which makes him Nikaidou's "boss," as long as Nikaidou's undercover as a teacher. He's something of an odd duck. He wrote a picture book explaining chara (one of the best reference points of the series) and seems to be the most knowledgable person in the show, which would help more if he would actually explain himself once in a while.
(✓) Sanjo Kairi ≈ Yukari's younger brother. He's a year younger than Amu and goes to school in another town.
Everyone listed knows about chara.
(✓): Has and can see chara.
( • ): can see chara
( ? ): may or may not be able to see chara
(✗): can't see chara