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Applications Two
APPLICATIONS ARE CLOSED!
The next application opening date is Friday 16th January, 7pm EST.
The next application processing date is Friday 23rd January, 7pm EST.
IMPORTANT: PLEASE POST YOUR APPLICATIONS HERE ON THE NEW APPLICATION PAGE
We're so glad you're thinking of joining us in Haven, where we are all safe.
In order to apply for a canon character, please fill out the information below and post it in a comment in this entry. For an OC, please apply using the OC information. Please do not link to applications, all applications must be posted here. Please do not delete your applications; if you do not want it to be seen, you can request for it to be screened after a decision is made.
You may apply for two characters every application round, to a total of six characters. Only two of these may be from the same canon, and they cannot be too familiar with one another. Please make sure to mark the header of your comment(s) with RESERVED or NOT RESERVED, as well as the character name and canon. App challenges are not allowed currently.
Try to remember spelling and grammar are important, and in app length quality and not quantity is what matters. All parts of the application must be your own work, plagiarism will not be tolerated, though you are welcome to reuse your own old applications.
If you are asked for revisions, please don't panic! It doesn't mean the mods don't like you, only that we probably need more information before making a decision. If you are asked for revisions, you will have one week to supply them.
Applications are open on a monthly cycle, where they will be opened on the second Friday of every month for a week, and then processed on the third Friday of the month, before being closed again.
We now have a test drive community athaventest which is continuously open. Posts there may be used in lieu of a sample in the application. You may also link posts, logs, or threads from other games and memes in lieu of samples, though we ask that they be no more than one year old. As of November 22nd 2014, samples cannot be "where am I" intro posts. The reason for this is that we often find it hard to gauge characterization from those, as most people when immediately in a new surrounding are confused or frightened.
While we encourage players who have dropped to re-join us, we do not encourage the continual rapid dropping and re-apping of the same character in a short time period. You are welcome to request specific housing, and all attempts will be made to accommodate that request, but it may not always be possible.
To see what we are looking for:
Canon Characters:
Sample Application (Faith Lehane)
Sample Application (Iroh)
Original Characters:
Sample Application (Mors)
Sample Application (Vera de Barr)
Sample Application (Malkus Iverwelling)
Previous Game History:
Sample Application (Abel Nightroad/Mayfield RPG)
Sample Application (Bolin/Discedo)
The old application post can be found here if you would like to look through past accepted applications.
Applications will be open on the following dates (from 7pm EST):
12th-19th December
16th-23rd January
Applications will be processed on the following dates (at 7pm EST):
19th December
23rd January
To apply for a canon character, please fill out this form:
To apply for an original character, please fill out this form:
Emil | Nier | not reserved
Contact Info:
Other Characters Played: N/A
Character Name: Emil ("No. 7")
Canon: Nier
Canon Point: After the five year timeskip, but before the confrontation with No. 6 takes place.
Background/History: Game history, and Emil's history.
Emil | Nier | not reserved
Friendliness, however, doesn't mean he has very many friends. Indeed, Emil is far from loved by the community at large, and this is what's led to his isolation, which has been near absolute for as long as he can remember. He lives away from any villages; he almost never receives visitors; he speaks and is spoken to by no one but his faithful butler. Emil dwells in a house full of ghosts, and that alone is testament to his role as a sacrifical lamb: though this boy clearly does wish to be social, to love and be loved and have a place in the world, he shuts himself away purely for the safety and comfort of everyone who's... not him. His eyes, of course, are the root of all this, and a courtyard filled with the terrified statues of guests or denizens from long ago make that evident long before it's stated outright. Emil is scared of scaring others. It hurts him to think of hurting anyone else. Accidentally obliterating a village (oops!!), in fact, might actually do a worse number on him emotionally than having his body transformed into something hideous does. He'd much rather take a blow before anyone else.
This willingness to sacrifice his own wants and needs gets him into trouble, of course. His eyes, once again, are the driving force behind his martyr complex; he resents himself heavily, carrying too much self-loathing for such a gentle boy, because he knows he's stolen lives away with his eyes. This guilt, combined with his self-imposed seclusion, makes him very lonely, as he's left with only ghosts, a piano, and a very loyal android to keep him company. So when he does make friends with Nier, Weiss, and Kainé, he has a tendency to be overly earnest with them— for those people, who have disregarded the dangers he poses and become like family to him, he'll yelp how high if anyone even suggests that jumping be required. Emil takes to these people (and book) with all his heart almost immediately, and does everything he can to aid Nier's quest to save his only remaining family.
Unfortunately, this is where the danger arises. Shutting yourself away from the world isn't exactly healthy, but when you start risking your life right and left for the sake of your true companions— well, you're gonna get yourself hurt. Emil finds this out the hard way when he tries his hand — and nearly succeeds — at martyring himself in order to save the party from an opponent who would otherwise kill them (though unbeknownst to his friends, he does survive!), but far too many incidents led up to that scenario in the first place. When Nier, Weiss, and Kainé first visit his manor, they do battle with the fierce and magical Grimoire Rubrum, an ancient tome hidden away in Emil's library. They're attacking valiantly when Emil cries out to them, insisting that they shouldn't be fighting, that it isn't right for them to risk their lives for him. He means to try and face the Grimoire on his own, despite his small, blindfolded self, and despite the fact, as Weiss is quick to point out, that his knees "quake like warm butter." But come on! Are inadequacy and terror going to keep him from doing what he thinks will help people?
Of course not, which is why Emil, upon realizing that an army of Shades (and then some) were headed in the direction of Nier's village, raced and stumbled across a lengthy, dangerous stretch of terrain in order to reach Nier first and warn him of the approaching swarm— all while refusing to let a little conditional blindness get in his way.
But perhaps a kinder word than martyrdom would be 'giving,' just - to an extreme degree. He seems to love put forth effort for other people, to the point where it creates a double standard for his own self. During his introduction arc, when faced with his own suffering, he admonishes his butler for asking for help from his 'guests,' claiming that searching for a cure for his petrification curse is "an impossible task"— yet after being forced to petrify Kainé, Emil was shown to work diligently for years to find some way to negate the effects of his curse. Indeed, to save Kainé, Emil dredged up some terrible memories, faced some pretty dark demons, and underwent some astounding body horror. If it's for his friends, he'll gladly wreck himself, and insist that it's fine. The relationships he forms are immensely important to him.
Still - despite these pains - amidst all the characters with darkened hearts, Emil is much lighter and softer. Instead of brooding, he'll say curious things, or make jokes — which are terrible, but they come whether he's feeling sunny or like a hurricane's blown through him. This is most apparent just after he's made the transformation from a young, human Emil to a very skeletal No. 7, gruesome in appearance: after weeping, finally, for himself and his sorrows, he picks himself back up, looks at Nier, and easily cracks a joke about both his previous petrificating curse and his new form. Is it a coping mechanism? Maybe; despite a certain melancholy atmosphere, Emil is one to for high spirits, even when he's trod upon. Bad puns and groan-inducing humor still creep out when he's at ease, though, and so it's easy to believe that he really does have a hot springs in his chest, instead of the ice cubes his heart easily could have become. He's a staunch optimist, somehow, and his in-game banter with other party members is almost always bright and sweet. He laughs at things, asks questions, listens to stories, and gives whatever earnest encouragement he can to the ragtag band of 'heroes,' and he's so glad to be able to do these things for and with them.
They love him, too, it's clear. That's something amazing for this group, full of undeniably dysfunctional people, all gruff in their own ways. Side by side with three adults who are constantly bickering, insulting each other, and generally acting tough about stuff, Emil helps keep them together, endearing himself to all of them and providing some moments of sweet camaraderie they might not have otherwise. Sure, as a concept he might be terrifying - but the fact that these three hardasses are nothing but kind to him is like a giant flashing neon sign pointing to how gentle his nature is. "If more people were like you, Emil," says a very embittered Nier, "this world might not be half bad." And Emil laughs.
If his silliness is a coping mechanism, his somewhat oblivious (and occasionally abstract) air may be as well; he often doesn't seem to realize a distressing situation unless he's right in the thick of battle, or is confronted with someone else's pain. Instead he makes sunny banter or listens to the others tell stories— you'd never know he's well over a thousand years old, for how young his mind and mannerisms seem to be. Emil looks to have almost completely repressed the memories he must have amassed over centuries and centuries: that he spends the first half of the game unaware of the experiments his body underwent is very likely due to trauma, but he also seems to have completely forgotten about how humans lived before civilization fell. This isn't surprising, given how much time has passed between 'then' and 'now' for him, but it does mean that he hasn't retained very much adult wisdom; isolation plus an inability to age have left him unable to understand or experience adulthood. He still refers to adults as grown-ups, in fact, even after he does remember that he's very old indeed. Rediscovering his past did little to change his nature.
With that young heart and those wide eyes (so to speak) comes a deep sense of romanticism. He easily takes romantic ideas away from stories he's told, and he also entertains a love story of his own: Emil has feelings for the player character, Nier, but unsurprisingly, given his personality, he makes no move to act on these feelings— Emil treats every party member with equal amounts of love and respect. Nier may be the object of his affections, but Kainé is his surrogate older sister, and Weiss is the grumpy old man with a soft side that's about eighty percent reserved for Emil. He would never want to ruin that.
All in all, Emil is a boy who has too much earnest love and not enough experience being loved. He is sunshine despite a hundred percent chance of rain; he knows little about the world but cares deeply for it anyway. But make no mistake— Emil's heart may be soft, but his determination is fierce, and he refuses to let fear or magic stand in the way of what he wants so badly to achieve: the safety and happiness of those he holds dear.
Emil | Nier | not reserved (finish)
He also displays what may perhaps be a bit of a 'sixth sense,' in the face of his faulty eyesight: he seems to have a thing for sensing magic, or at least beings with magical qualities. He can tell easily, for instance, that Kainé has a Shade within her; when he's approaching the magical weapon No. 6's confinement area, he suffers awful headaches, apparently physically affected by her power; and, despite his blindfold, he turns his face towards the location of a tome which is just then beginning to release a great deal of magical power. Perhaps the experiments he underwent left him sensitive to the supernatural.
By the by, speaking of the experiments that cursed his eyes in the first place: they happened around thirteen hundred years ago. This means - despite being 4'7" and fresh as a sprout - that Emil's spent well over a millenium in a physical stasis, so it's pretty safe to assume that age will never be the death of him. This human body of his can be injured, and likely take ill, so it's very doubtful that he's a full-fledged immortal being, but he's meant to never grow, or change.
Items/Weapons: Only his ever-important blindfold.
Sample Entry: Entry from a previous game.
Sample Entry Two: And a log thread from a previous game!
Re: Emil | Nier | not reserved (finish)
Your application is in the queue and will be processed on 14th February.
-> REVISE
The reason for this is that the link provided leads to a thread in first person/action spam format. You are welcome to link another post or thread, or write out a new sample.
We apologize for the inconvenience. You have one week to reply to these revisions, thank you.
REVISION
Sample Entry Two: Emil wakes more disoriented than he's been in a very long time. "Sebastian," he says hesitantly, fingers splaying out on gritty ground beneath himself, and then, "Nier?" But nobody answers, and he hears no footsteps. In case of any floating allies nearby, he also asks, "Um, Weiss?" but of course that falls through too. His stomach is making this really strange sinking sensation and he doesn't like it. It's one he knows well: it's fear.
Maybe there's no point in asking anyone for help, in saying, hello, so he decides to pull himself to his feet instead. Then he brushes off his hands and his thighs and his bum, trying to get flecks of dirt in the way so that if he does find anybody, hopefully somebody nice, at least he'll be presentable. Finally, and most importantly, he gingerly touches his blindfold, making sure it's securely in place so that the first person he meets doesn't accidentally come into his line of sight. That would be the worst. Unless there are Shades. He'll keep his hand near his face, he decides, to bring the blindfold down if he needs to. But only if he really needs to. With that resolve in mind, he thinks he can start walking.
It's cold, he notices; his fingertips feel it most, unused to any temperature below the eternal summer he lives in. This makes him even more fearful, because he doesn't understand it. But it also makes him more determined: if Nier and Weiss are still here, which they should be because it doesn't make sense otherwise, maybe they're in trouble, and Emil will definitely need to help them if so. He starts to walk, but kicks something out of the way. It clatters, and Emil jumps a little.
"Oh," he says out loud, and kneels to it. Then he's fumbling with it, running his thumb over what he assumes is its surface; it has grooves, a pad that feels like buttons. "Oh, boy," he murmurs, thumbing over the buttons and chewing on his bottom lip. "What is this—"
He will, perhaps, manage to get it working.
-> ACCEPTED