empatheias app

[unerasable]

⌈ PLAYER SECTION ⌉
Player: skarme
Contact: blitzente
Age: 23
Current Characters: a whale


⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Alphonse Elric
Age: 17 chronologically and sort-of mentally, 13 physically
Canon: Fullmetal Alchemist
Canon Point: 2003 anime, mid Conqueror of Shamballa (after speaking to Ed and waking back up in Amestris)

Background: Fan wiki links: here and here.

Personality:
In a cast brimming with traumatic pasts and badly-concealed issues, Alphonse manages to stand out by being, all things considered, pretty well-adjusted. More than that, he's genuinely sweet. He's thoughtful, amiable, highly empathetic and almost unfailingly polite. All of these traits, in conjunction with a natural aversion to conflict, make him a born mediator - not to mention an experienced one, given how used he is to intervening on his more hotheaded older brother Edward's behalf. That isn't to say he's a pushover; he does have a temper, even if it's slow-burning, and although he views fighting on his own behalf as a last resort, he'll readily rise to the defense of what's important to him, whether that be people he knows or a cause he's grown to believe in.

His niceness isn't always necessarily a positive trait, either. In fact, the same characteristics that let him get along with others so well can and do work against him. His sense of empathy means he can be trusting to a fault, and his dislike of conflict means he'll let the people he cares about get away with a lot, whether or not he'd otherwise have good reason to object. These tendencies don't make him gullible or naive, exactly - he's intelligent and perceptive, he's been through more than a boy of his age should, and he can be just as headstrong as his brother or worse if he really wants - but they're a opening for more subtle kinds of manipulation once you learn how his mind works.

Manipulation of his actions or emotions, that is - his core beliefs are much less shakable. Al has a strongly codified moral sense, occasionally to the point of being judgmental. Given a choice, he'll always opt for what he thinks is right over what would benefit him personally. This makes him a foil to his brother in another sense; he doesn't just keep both of them together emotionally, he's also the one who makes sure neither of them loses sight of the bigger picture. Again, though, he can sometimes let his idealism get the better of him and neglect practical considerations altogether, which can disadvantage him at best and set back everything he believes in if he's unlucky. He once very nearly committed suicide sacrificing his life to save his brother's, ignoring all the consequences it had for both him and the already borderline codependent Ed; that was a couple years ago now, but the more impulsive streak he's developed since the brothers were separated hasn't done much to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Moreover, he certainly isn't immune to his own moralising, which gives him a significant guilt complex. He can be jarringly quick to beat himself up over his failings, perceived or actual. He isn't vocal about it, and it's not entirely negative in that it does ensure he takes responsibilities big and small equally seriously, but it easily leads to him legitimately breaking down if he's left to his own devices for too long. For someone so reliable when it comes to keeping other people figuratively anchored, he isn't great at doing it for himself at times.

On the whole, he's a friendly, mature kid, and remarkably grounded considering what he's lived through and the kinds of people he's had to deal with - but he still is very much a kid, age shenanigans aside, and that can be taken advantage of.

Abilities:
Alphonse's most obvious special skill is that he's an alchemist. In his canon, this refers to someone capable of reshaping matter on the atomic level more or less at will, requiring only the application of funky-looking circular patterns called transmutation circles or arrays. Circles generally have to be prepared in advance, often drawn on the spot expressly for the desired reaction (for instance in chalk or scratched into the dirt); more experienced alchemists may embroider commonly-used circles on their clothing for ease of access and mentally modify them on the fly, a method Al has picked up in the months of training since his last canon point. Although this kind of alchemy is treated as a rigorous and difficult science by most people, Al has enough experience with it that his transmutations are really only limited by his creativity, the materials he has on hand (which could be animals or plants, though Al and his brother largely stick to metals and stone), and the principle of equivalent exchange: basically, he can't create matter out of nowhere and can only transmute materials into things that are structurally similar, but most other things are fair game. The energy required for these transmutations is drawn via transmutation circle from the souls of the dead, with excess energy dissipating in the form of light and sound; the first half of that isn't common knowledge, though.

A minor side-effect of studying alchemy is that he's used to memorising complex geometrical shapes and patterns. Not only that, he can draw them extremely quickly without sacrificing accuracy.

Complimenting his alchemy, he has an extensive amount of martial arts training - can't train the mind without training the body, as his old alchemy teacher drilled into him. His fighting style, like many of the things he does, is careful and methodical, often focused on using the opponent's strength against them.

So far, so unremarkable for the setting. Where the deuteragonist magic (and coincidentally actual soul magic) comes in is the fact that Al is alive at all. Some years ago, Al was separated from his body and became a free-floating soul, which his brother bound to a suit of armour out of desperation to keep him in the physical world. Long story short, he got better - but as a result, not only does he look younger than he really is, his soul will always be only loosely tethered to his body compared to the average human. In a setting where possession and other non-alchemical means of soul manipulation, this could feasibly be a liability under certain circumstances. Still, most of the time, he shows no outward ill effects, so this would only be discernible through magic.

Sometimes, it can even be a gift. The one unique form of alchemy that Al currently has to his name is a procedure that can alchemically bind his own soul to inanimate objects without harm, something that is normally a Very Bad Idea to play around with. Pretty much anything solid that he can touch or draw a transmutation circle around will work, but it's only useful if it has moving parts: legs, wheels, whatever. He most frequently uses this to create independently-acting golems, and can control a large number of such golems simultaneously while he goes off to do other things. The ability also allows him to possess a single object that he's controlling and turn it into a temporary body, allowing him to move it, see out of it and speak remotely; this type of connection doesn't last for long, though, and takes such a great deal of focus that he generally won't attempt it while his real body is awake.

Finally, he still has an uncanny knack for locating cats and other cute animals. Beware.

Alignment: Piphron. While he is a naturally calm person and similar in outlook if not temperament to his Sosyne-aligned brother, his in-game development brought more of his naivety, trust issues and self-doubt to light over time.

Other: Despite canon amnesia, he'll retain all of his ingame memories and therefore his memories before those memories. I think this was cleared before, but let me know if there are issues!


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉
Remember that we ask for samples that show 1) core character portrayal and 2) some use of emotions, such as environmental effect. You can also use the same sample source for both, just make sure to directly link or quote the emotion portion. We highly encourage using the Test Drive, and you can use prompts from the Test Drives, Intro Logs, and the Task board if you need them. Refer to the main application page for links and more suggestions.

General Sample: old pain thread

Emotion Sample: part of same old pain thread, please let me know if not sufficient!


Questions: None for now because I asked them back when I applied for a canon update, I think!