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[mywayofhelping]

» PLAYER INFORMATION
Player NAME: Kaito
Current AGE: 26
Player TIME ZONE: U.S. Central
Personal JOURNAL: kaito
IM & SERVICE: AIM: Pippin Took424
Player PLURK: kaitodoushi
Current CHARACTERS: Lloyd Irving, Elliot Nightray

» CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character NAME: Alex (Arcanus)
Canon & MEDIUM: Golden Sun, video game series
Canon PULL-POINT: After the ending of Dark Dawn.
Character AGE: Early 50s, he looks like he's in his mid-20s
Character ABILITIES: Alex is a master planner and manipulator. He also has the ability to use Psynergy, and thanks to his contact with the Golden Sun, he is incredibly powerful. Alex is border-line immortal and it would be very difficult to completely drain his power. We actually don't know his full capacity for Psynergy because he doesn't show off his powers that often. The skills he uses the most are his ability to warp short distances (and he can take people with him when he does this by touching them) and his ability to levitate/move around while floating. We have also seen him cause geysers to shoot up from the ground, fully (or partially) heal people, and use a Psynergy hand to push people over.

Alex is originally a Mercury Adept, and since all the children seem to be carbon copies of their parents in this area, I assume he retains the same basic Psynergy abilities that Amiti does. Technically this would put Alex in the Aqua Squire series back in the days when he was at his most basic. He has been seen using the Ply series or something similar to it. It can also be assumed he is capable of Cure Poison, Avoid, Restore, Break, the Douse series, the Cool series, and Diamond Dust/Diamond Berg. He rarely uses them (see: never doing it in canon), but it's good to note that they're possible.
Character HISTORY: Self-written full canon history
Character PERSONALITY: The one word you could use to sum up Alex's personality in a nutshell is...well, Alex. Seriously. This guy is in a class all his own and he wouldn't have it any other way. The individual aspects have real words that go with them thankfully, but they all combine into the eternal enigma that is Alex.

Pretty much everyone that's met Alex would admit to some level that they actually can't figure him out. It's quite obvious that he's not telling everyone everything; in fact so obvious that he even admits to it a few times, such as when he blocks his mind being read by saying that his "thoughts will become all too clear in due time." Another thing that's easy to see is that he's incredibly self-centered. When Sheba tries to call him on it, he just ignores the comment so as to not verify or deny the claim, but his egocentrisim is really quite obvious in many ways. If the topic of fighting him ever arises, he tells everyone that they would not be able to defeat him. He also has no problem with insulting people to their faces, even the ones he's currently calling companions. For example: after he's traveling with Karst and Agatio, he insults Saturos and Menardi's puzzle solving abilities when the former duo was openly trying to avenge them and proceeds to admit that he was implying the same thing about them.

These things might be a huge turn off if he didn't manage to be perfectly calm and almost amiable at the same time. Normally Alex speaks quite normally and pleasantly to everyone in almost every situation. More often than not, when an emote appears above his head, it's of a smile. He'll smile in regular situations, while he's admitting something that someone won't like, or even after doing something that's potentially dangerous. He may get a bit threatening if a battle is possible, but even then he doesn't press it much. This attitude contributes a lot to what makes him such a mystery, really. Even if someone can't stand him, it's very hard to not give his ideas the benefit of the doubt when he's so polite and honest, albeit brutally at times. This is also a good example of why the best word to describe him is "Alex".

So what is really driving him? This actually can be summed up in a word: power. Alex wants all the power ever that's available in Weyard. Or, as he puts it, "limitless power and endless life." The blatantly obvious example was his attempt to capture the Golden Sun, but there's more to support this in his typical inscrutable behavior. He has a lot of interest in Alchemy and powers. He even comments on how strong the power of Mercury Lighthouse is once it's lit and is very pleased about it. He'll take the time to admire anything with unique powers. He also managed to acquire some rare and rather helpful Psynergy and no one we've met save for him knows how he did this.

Alex combines this thirst for power and his previously mentioned behavior to make himself one of the most magnificent manipulative bastards ever. If there's a way he can use you, he will find the way to do it. He even handles it well enough that Kraden, who knows about the Golden Sun incident, doesn't stop Matthew's group from following his lead. The people he uses could be in groups that are openly opposed to each other, but as long as they could help him achieve his goals, he really doesn't care. From what we've seen to date, he's never had any trouble with that strategy.

Even more facts about him contribute to his ability to do this. For one, he's very intelligent. Anyone that could pull this off would have to be. He also has a suspicious knowledge of Alchemy, its workings, and other details about the ancient world. A lot of the time he'll be the one revealing the plot points along these lines. But perhaps his most brilliant move in this game of World Chess is that he manages to stay as uninvolved as possible the entire time. Sometimes the things he wants done are going to be bad to some level, and repercussions from being solely responsible could hurt his chances a lot. So, whenever it's possible, he finds someone else to do it for him. He's very careful about this as well, seeking out people who would want the same task accomplished for their own reason and offering them his assistance. Said assistance mostly consists of him just saying things because he's really only in it to help himself. Plus it's the easiest way to control the situation without having himself be fully stuck with the blame. He's skilled enough by the time Dark Dawn rolls around that he's even managed to manipulate Blados and Chalis into manipulating Matthew's group and Ryu Kou.

Making sure everyone will continue to trust him enough until he's done with them takes some other skills on his part. For one, Alex will rarely say something that turns out to be untrue, if ever. The closest he's come to breaking his word was when he helped light Mercury Lighthouse after his clan had been instructed to never let that happen, yet it was also a promise he was born into and never necessarily agreed to. He's very careful about how he responds to people, and if it's something he doesn't want to reveal, he'll be incredibly vague or change the topic. Lying is something else that the others could use in an argument against doing what he wants them to, and he really can't have that. When Tyrell accuses him of tricking them, he flat out says that he was "nothing but forthright and honest throughout our brief relationship."

The final ingredient in Alex being able to use everyone ever? Keeping himself completely unattached to other people. As he tells Felix, he sees himself as the sort of person who can toss people aside when they're no longer of use to him. In the long run this helps him achieve his goals, since putting faith in the wrong person could be his undoing. Remaining distant is an easy way to be a puppetmaster and stay focused on the most important thing: himself.

Although here we run into the closest thing he has to a flaw in the personality he wants, and it's something that very few people would see as a bad thing. As much as he doesn't want to, Alex actually does have the capacity to give a crap about other people. He thinks of himself as weak for this. The prime example is when Mia is in danger at Jupiter Lighthouse, and if you read his mind, he's fighting his desire to help her. In fact, he pointedly stays clear of her and only shows himself at Mercury Lighthouse when he has to save Saturos. His "solution" for any relationship that could get in his way is to avoid the person like the plague. Another example of this pattern, as long as we can believe a third-hand account of something he said, is the entire Thing with Veriti. Paithos said that she said that an unnamed Alex said that he loved her and this was not during middle school. He did hightail it out of there after a short while never to be seen or heard from again, so it's definitely consistent.

And, to add one more point to prove that there is no single word that exists yet to describe him: although he's a villain (who's never antagonized the heroes) and someone that sees personal attachment as a weakness, he doesn't think that the desire to help others is something that everyone would be better off avoiding. Alex actually encourages Felix to aid people, quoting Mia's belief that it was noble to work hard for the benefit of others. He never says anything to argue against another person doing this. It's just...not for him. Alex doesn't appear to bear any ill-will toward other humans or the things they may hold dear. He doesn't care if they live or die, but he hasn't shown any sign of wanting to wipe out or punish humanity for some reason. He merely has more important things to worry about. Such as Alex. Because really, when you're in a personality class completely by yourself, who else is there to focus on?

» EXSILIUM INFORMATION
Chosen WEAPON: Alex will be adjusting his half-mask into his weapon here. For one, it will give him a good reason to refuse to remove it, plus he has never been seen using an actual weapon so he obviously doesn't find them necessary.

The most basic way to describe its power is that it has the ability to create illusions. At first, it can only affect one person at a time, they have to make eye contact with him (or at least the opening in that part of the mask, I could rant about how I'm not certain he has an eye under there but you're busy enough as it is I'm sure), and the illusions are simple, such as causing people to think his hair is a different color or that there's an object nearby that isn't really there. As he grows stronger, the mask will grow in its abilities to not only create stronger illusions, but it can affect up to four people at its maximum and only takes a quick glimpse at any part of the mask for it to go into effect. The more powerful illusions can change the entire landscape when they are strongest and will also have the ability to actually harm people. For example, if someone gets a cut on their arm in the illusion, it will still be there when Alex breaks it. I obviously will ask players before I possibly harm their characters in this way should it ever come to that.

Character INVENTORY: Alex will be coming with the clothes on his back, including the aforementioned mask. To our knowledge, that's all he has in the first place, so that's all he'll be bringing.

» PREVIOUS GAME INFORMATION ( IF APPLICABLE )
Previous GAME(s): n/a
Previous GAME SETTING(s): n/a
Previous GAME CR: n/a
Your character's DEVELOPMENT: n/a

» SAMPLES
First PERSON: Alex trolls his younger cousin on Dear Mun.
Third PERSON: Despite the rather interesting ensemble he was garbed in, it seemed as though Alex was doing his best to blend in with the shadows as he observed the transports going through their daily business in the Hold. He was in quite a fix, suddenly being sent to an entirely different world and now being surrounded by a group that was almost entirely compromised of strangers. There were several approaches he could try to take here, but first he needed to...see the potential his "comrades" had.

Fortunately, it was quiet easy for Alex to judge the nature of the people here. After all, any of them that were willing to go along with this "Initiative" while only knowing them as their kidnappers were obviously the sort that were willing to work hard for the sake of others. People like that truly fascinated him. He wasn't one of course, but they could certainly be useful.

Still, he was unfortunately in quite a conundrum for the time being. It seemed these people expected him to work for them without actually getting his full consent. It was rather troublesome, especially considering that if he hoped to get anywhere or accomplish anything, he would have to play along. Then again, when this was one of the major factions in this world, perhaps it wasn't so bad to already have a place in it.

That brought up another point he was curious about, this "United Earth" group. In theory, it should have more powerful resources than even these people. Alex really wanted to learn more about this other group, perhaps...discuss things with them. Just to see where everything stood. He never took sides and he would maintain that standard the here. His primary concern would be to return home, nothing more, nothing less. And if he happened to gain some powers from this world in the process, so be it.

» ADDITIONAL NOTES
Just clarifying some odd points and how I intend to handle them:

I have a good idea of what his current goals are, but I can't say them for certain. If they ever get around to making a fourth game, I could be proven wrong. The good news is no matter what it is, it would be very difficult to go through with a plan from his world here and he would never tell it to anyone anywhere anyway! ...Any. So I do have my ideas based on canon, but if I'm wrong I won't have to retcon from here til next Thursday or something.

I also don't know why he's wearing the half-mask I mentioned. The fact that it hasn't been explained leads me to believe it's important. I doubt he went with the Worst Disguise Ever, but outside of that I can only guess at what he's most likely hiding. He could have a horrible scar, he could be undergoing a weird transformation, he could have gotten drunk one night and got his girlfriend's name tattooed to his face, I really don't know. For safety's sake he'll just refuse to take it off if asked.

Actually, I do have a question based on that now that I think about it. If I am going to make his mask the weapon, will he have to remove it in order for it to gain powers? If that's the case, then I'll just say he found one that just happens to look exactly like it, since I don't want to risk him taking off his mask in front of people when I have no idea what canon says is under there.

Alex is going to be sticking with the Arcanus name until he runs into Mia. Even then, he'll keep it up unless he's fairly convinced she's told everyone his true identity.