Empatheias Application

[akashictorment]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: Akima
Contact: AIM-Frenzied Nerves
Age: over 18 still
Current Characters: Campanella

⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Sync the Tempest
Age: Biologically 14/Chronologically 2
Canon: Tales of the Abyss
Canon Point: When he took a swan dive into the core only to come back even more pissy than usual

Background: Sync in Aselia wiki form and Another wiki for good measure


***Here Thar Be Spoilers***

Personality:
From the first battle encounter with Sync after appearing where they were forcing Ion to open one of the sealed doors, it was clear that Sync was their tactician as he is very intelligent. He can often be seen in scenes ordering one of the others to stand down and stating what they should be doing such as fighting them or retreating for the time being. Nobody seems to be particularly offended by this, instead responding in the affirmative and doing as he says. He states orders with ease and the others, in this case being the God-Generals, do not seek to question him on his orders. He is normally seen with Largo in the beginning and they seem to get along well enough.

Sync mentions to Largo at some point as they are retreating from their battle with the main group that there is no need for them to know about each other's pasts as it seemed to be nearly happening in regards to Largo mentioning the name Natalia. Given what is revealed about Sync's appearance, something Guy found out when they confronted each other when Luke had been briefly kidnapped for his data, it makes a lot of sense why he would not wish to speak of it personally. With the exception of Largo and Arietta in terms of being closer than simple acquaintances, none of the God-Generals appear to know enough about the others nor do they convey grief really when one of them happens to die. They all have their own agendas and it shows in how they all have their own motivations and they sometimes seem to deviate from each other when the subjects of their revenge or from their pasts happen their way such as the case with Dist choosing to come and go as he pleases depending on Jade's involvement.

Out of all of the God-Generals, it could be argued that Sync and Legretta were definitely mostly sided with Van. They all had their own reasons for what they were doing and they all were willing to side with whoever it was that aligned with their ideals the most, be it Asch, Van, or even Mohs. In the end, Sync fought to the death for Van's ideals because he still intended on destroying the Score and that was what Sync wanted more than anything. Even up until his death, he was resolute in what he intended to do and how he was relieved that he could finally be rid of the worthless world he had been forcibly born into. Why would he want to hang around in a place like this?

Speaking of this worthless world, Sync hates the Score. He hates it more than anything because the Score stated that Fon Master Ion would die. Maybe I should clarify even further: He does not hate the Score so much as what the Score predicted. He along with the other replicas of the original Fon Master Ion were created in order to find out which one would have the closest abilities to the original. As he did not quite have the abilities closest to the original, he was cast down into Mt. Zaleho where he was rescued by Van. The point is that in the two years he has been alive, he has always thought of himself as a piece of trash or a piece of meat(both choice words of his that he officially states). He basically thinks of himself as a thing that is only being worthy of being used and then being discarded when he is of no use. In this case, he is referring to Van whom he says uses him as a puppet.

Once it was revealed to the group just what was under that mask, Sync began to show his true colors in terms of his feelings on replicas though it might be more accurate to say how he feels about himself as a replica. As mentioned before, he believes himself to be nothing but trash. This extends out to how he feels about any replica. He says as much to Luke and even displays a fair bit of annoyance at being 'pitied' by a replica that has people around him that cares for him. There could very well be a part of him that heavily resents not experiencing such a connection with anybody. He mentions, at least in the expansion of the final battle against him and Legretta in the anime, that he is empty inside and never had anything or basically found something worth sticking around for.

The fight on board the Tartarus on its way to the core was a trip he was not planning on walking away from. He even retorts that a group suicide sounds like a good idea after he was asked if he planned on dying along with them. He would have gladly taken them all with him in order to fulfill Van's plan. The aspects of this do not change in the anime, but the fight with his death does. He went into a little more depth with his feelings about who, or rather what he is, and just how much he believed that he had nothing as he disappeared as all replicas do when they die. Perhaps knowing this aided in his assumption that all replicas are worthless. No amount of questioning his motives makes him hesitate.

Sync, like Luke, believes themselves to be an entirely different person than their originals though they reach that conclusion in different ways. They both find themselves lacking though Luke would eventually realize how foolish it is to think of himself that way. The difference there perhaps is that Sync does not have friends or those he can entirely trust. The idea of trusting anybody is highly stupid to Sync, probably because oh hey yeah...thrown into a volcano because he was not good enough. Even Van is simply his puppeteer as he mentioned before he fell backwards into the core. Once again, we return to the moment that Sync told Luke he did not wish to hear anything from a replica that has people that need him. The emptiness that Luke felt took the entire span of the game to achieve, but he was still able to reach that conclusion that Sync never could. Ion too never really got to the point that Luke did. When Ion died, he said as much and that his purpose would come down to making sure that Tear survived. This is something that Sync has never bothered to understand as he will not accept pity or sympathy.

As for the replica Ion, he considers him a naive child for believing that the Score lead to just one possible future when he ended up dying in the end because he could not escape it. Because Ion died 'like a dog', it proves that the Score must be destroyed by destroying Lorelei and thus the Seventh Fonon.

He simply does not believe that he deserves anything relating to just...living. He believed so much in fulfilling that purpose of destroying the Score and in Van's plan for it that he cursed himself and laughed bitterly as he disappeared. Anise was unable to convince him otherwise with her own desire to destroy the Score in order for replicas to have their place in the world.

Aside from those feelings that he showed more and more throughout the party's encounters with him, he can be rather cruel and a bit(okay...a lot) sadistic. When the replica Fon Master Ion died and the party confronted him in Chesadonia when he was doing his false score readings, he spoke to Anise in Ion's voice to deliberately upset her. He taunted her further in the anime during his final battle in which he pointed out to her that she killed Ion until he finally breaks her down a little but given that Ion's death happened so recently this is rather simple to do. It seems to be something he falls back on often, more so when Ion is dead than anything else. He will do this until the very end as he disintegrates as well as giving his last and final word that he hopes Van will be able to achieve the goal in destroying the Score. This was followed by an unnatural laugh as he fades away into nothing.

Placing him in an environment without a purpose, at least at first and in his eyes, will be a challenge for him. He pretty much will have no idea what to do with himself. There is no Score and there is no Van. Even if Van was there, there would be no mutual motive. There is nothing that has predicted his birth here or his death or anything. Where he develops from here will be interesting to say the least. He is not what we like to call a people person and will likely be stand offish and, well...childish and a bit of a dick. He WILL step on somebody's toes no matter what.

***I note here that I described his death to illustrate just how driven he is in completing his revenge against the Score that lead to his creation and how deeply rooted his feelings are about himself and replicas in general.

Abilities:
First off, like many of the other characters in Tales of the Abyss, Sync is a fonic artes user and he is a very adept one. Unlike other characters though, he does not fight with a weapon unless his bare hands actually count as a weapon(which of course they do). As a replica of the late Fon Master Ion, he is capable of using Daathic fonic artes albeit they are not as powerful as the original or the replica Ion. He makes mention of this. This does not make him any less formidable. It just makes him different from the late Ion even if those differences never really mean much to him(but I digress).

Another difference from the other characters...he does not require the need for going into overlimit in order to utilize his Mystic Artes, so he could easily pop out of nowhere and drop Akashic Torment or Harrowing Gale on a person's head on a whim. The latter Mystic Artes was only used in his final battle when he unleashed the full abilities of a Fon Master on the party and thus would be a heavy drain on him. It is obvious during the final battle with him that he was giving it his absolute all and he never intended on walking away which he does not. Whether he would have walked away had he won is unknown. Given how his thoughts on himself were expanded in the anime, it is doubtful that he would have. It was mentioned enough times that the replica that replaced Fon Master Ion was often ill and required rest after utilizing Daathic fonic artes.

He has an ability called a Curse Slot which is a Daathic fonic artes that he places on an individual. This was seen used on Guy Cecil and the ability itself uses a person's memories against them. In Guy's case, it made him feel compelled to murder Luke whom he had felt a grudge against at one time or another that brought out the worst in him. The slot itself could not be removed by just anybody as the replica Ion mentioned that that he was indeed the only one capable of removing it.

Given that fonic artes are the most effective in his own world, the Curse Slot ability that normally was only able to be removed by Fon Master Ion would be weakened enough that an adept magic user from another world would be able to remove it no matter how difficult it might be.

Also, like it will matter in this setting, he is one of the few people able to read the Score being that he is a replica of Fon Master Ion. As there are no Scores to be read, he will not be doing so. Nonetheless, it is an ability and so it is being included.

Other things that he IS capable of doing is being ridiculously fast to the point of almost 'teleporting' across a room. Being that he does not utilize a weapon other than his fists, he is adept at a series of martial arts that he mixes with his artes which often center around the wind element and electricity. That speed is shown readily in the encounters he has with the party. He has a certain whimsy he puts into his moves such as when he acrobatically flips aside when Guy rushed at him in the anime only for him to plant his feet into a vertical column to propel himself forward in order to counter Guy. Agility is the name of the game for him since he is not exactly built.

He can be quite cruel when he needs or wants to be. When Ion died and he became a fake Scorer for a little bit, he taunted Anise by changing the tone of his voice to sound more like Ion. Before he tended to change his voice to not be so close to his original. In regards to later in the game at that point with Anise, the taunting increased. In the anime, he actually gets a speaking part for the final battle with him, he takes enough time in between fighting to remain Anise of just what she did when Ion died. He taunts her to the very end and he taunted anybody within the group.

List of Moves

Dragon Shot: Sync comes at the target. A light forms in his hands and he spins up into the air, a tornado of wind encircling him and striking out in multiple hits on said target.
Turbulence: A casting circle forms beneath him and, in a flash of light from his hands, the target is hit from wherever they might be on the battlefield. A sharp burst of wind strikes them from the ground up.
Ground Dasher: A magic circle forms beneath his feet and he flares his arms out. The ground in front of the target cracks open and a wide stretch of jagged earth juts out of the ground to strike at the target multiple times.
Stone Dragon Ascent: This is an arcane arte. A bunch of intense energy lights up in his hands as he draws it in quickly then he explodes upwards as the very ground beneath his feet rapidly cracks open. Large chunks of rock rises into the air. The opening in the ground itself ignites and the target is beaten mercilessly by wind and earth. Tremors shot out in a circle around the area with a wide impact range.
Reaper's Toll: Sync rushes at the enemy. He begins with a swift roundhouse kick followed by a solid punch. Where the punch hits, a solid white ball of light grows rapidly and explodes. He can follow this with a launch into the air with a round of punches and kicks, but it is not necessary.
Cyclone Blast: Another arcane arte. Sync charges up with orangish glow before spiraling out forward and upwards in a sharp angle. It has a surprising range and is also a multiple hit attack. Getting caught in this would be a big mistake.
Flare Tornado: He stands in one place while a circle forms beneath him and he summons up a tornado made of fire to attack the opponent with.
Thunder Blade: Another circle and he sends out a massive bolt of tangible lightning to strike into the foe and the ground beneath where it explodes. It sends out a tremor of energy in a circle around it for extra damage.
Gravity Well: Sync casts a spell that forms a sizable purple-black dome over an area that causes...gravity damage I suppose :V It is a pretty decently sized area.
Akashic Torment: His first mystic artes that, like his other mystic arte, does not require an overlimit to achieve. He begins this attack by slamming his fist into the ground where a massive fonic arte circle forms. The ground shakes before a medium sized area around him is engulfed in a pillar of light.
Harrowing Gale: His second mystic arte and perhaps his most devastating one at that. A great light, like every mystic arte, overwhelms him and he begins this move in a rapid flurry of kicks and punches in deadly martial arts fashion. He is surrounded by a powerful aura of wind as he devastates his opponent before ending in a brutal fist to the body.




Alignment: Elios. This was the only one that made the most sense for Sync as he has such an intense repulsion over what he is with being a replica. This hatred would be his main focus. Whether this changes or not will be yet to be seen. From the beginning though, he will have a difficult time getting past that.

Other: Not that I know of for anything :V I suppose I can mention here that he has a large glyph on his chest and back that is only seen during the final battle when he casts the mystic arte Harrowing Gale.


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉
Sample:

First Person

[The face on the screen is obscured by a mask that resembles the top of a bird's beak. The face below the nose of the individual in the mask is all that is visible. The lips are turned into a somewhat bored expression. His words are dripping with that boredom.]

So what else is there to do around here besides wandering aimlessly? I feel like I've been doing that forever now and getting nowhere.

[In a way, he is lying. He never enters a place and does not learn anything about where he is. That would be stupid. He is not above playing a little naivety either though. Playing the age angle and that of a clueless traveler...well...he has to play one of those. Just another part.]

I feel like sitting around is a real waste.

[And most of the tasks seem dull and useless. What is the point of any of it? Is any of it actually going to get him out of here? He is certain he knows the answer to that.]

If anybody out there is planning on doing something worth doing then let me know. I'll lend a hand if it's worth my time. Anything other than that, I'll pass on. I'm not here to sit around or to wait around to get sent back where I come from.

Third Person

What an unfortunate situation to be in. After he had all but committed himself to the death he so longed for at the core was taken from him and he ended up here, he was left with nothing aside from the knowledge that he was once again stuck with this pathetic existence. It was not supposed to happen this way and how could it? Taking a dive backwards into what he knew was a death sentence only to survive it...what was he supposed to do now? Oh...if he had been where he was supposed to be then maybe he would know. Without Van here then he had only his own ideals and really...there was not much to trust with the other God-Generals.

Like himself, they all had their own agendas and they kept that all to themselves. That was always the way it had been.

It made him more aware than ever now that he was on his own. Just what was this place and what was this damn crystal he had in his hand? He did not want to understand where he was. If he was anywhere else then his goals meant nothing. Absolutely nothing. He was indeed a puppet without a puppeteer and he knew it. Without that then...his teeth clenched for a second before he closed his eyes for a moment. That was one thing he prided himself in. It had nothing to do with being the trash that he was. It was all about centering...remaining calm until he could figure out what he needed to do. That was why he was always looked to for answers.

Somebody that dedicated so much of their existence, no matter how wasted it was, to an ideal such as Van's had to be worth following. It made him not unlike a machine. A machine that had already run its course for usefulness and managed to drag itself along...obsolete and all...to a place he could not even picture for himself. What was a thing supposed to do when there was no purpose to begin with aside from what he dedicated himself to doing before? What did ending up in a place like this accomplish? As if an answer would fall into his lap. He was never so lucky. He was never privileged enough to have that happen. That might occur if he runs into somebody as foolish as that replica and those...friends of his that somehow needed him around.

He had to investigate this place a little. He needed to study it because what else was there to do? What if somebody else was here and he had yet to find them? Was that supposed to mean anything to him? His lips were pursed into a frown as he looked down at his hands as they clenched. A mask. He needed to make another one of those. If there was even a need for that anymore...he would not take that chance. It was an odd feeling to know that he might be unrecognizable here though. In a way, that was how he wanted to be.

His eyes narrowed as he turned to begin walking in the opposite direction. There was even less use standing around.

"This place...just what is this place and why am I here?"

Asking himself that out loud was nothing new. What was new was not having a place to go back to. Did he ever really before though? Now that...was the question. A question he was not comfortable with. That unease was something he could not shake with each step that he took. There had to be something worthwhile here. After all, it did pick him...whoever or whatever it was. Why it chose him was a mystery. A terrible mystery.



Questions: Why so serious, Sync?