⛧ Aʟʟᴇɴ "ɴᴏᴛ ᴀ ᴘʀɪᴇsᴛ" Wᴀʟᴋᴇʀ ★ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
likethelight) wrote2018-10-16 06:04 pm
likethelight) wrote2018-10-16 06:04 pm
Info @ Duplicity
   IF WE'RE DESTROYERS AND NOT SAVIORS
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| » Horrible at drawing » Horrible at writing. Was being tutored in penmanship for his lack of an education to little success. » Counts his money first thing every morning » A maestro at the piano, but not for being taught. It's a supernatural ability he doesn't understand. » Can't read (normal) sheet music » Insomnia due to his left eye » Dislikes people who don't appreciate money/working for themselves » Can't drink alcohol, it gives him PTSD » Enjoys baths immensely but only if he has Timcanpy to polish.. » Ridiculous metabolism (and corresponding appetite) » Would eat his weight in meat for breakfast if he could. Or just in general. » Favorite food is mitarashi dango, favorite drink is mango juice » Favorite colors are black and white/monochrome and Timcanpy's yellow. » Modest chess player after starting out a very poor one » Vicious cardshark, cheats at anything you can do sleights of hand with. » Juggles and does acrobatics in his free time » If you cook for him » » DEBT. debt debt debt debt... » In ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small} duplicitylog he may have shoved his network device into the back of his sock drawer where it's remained, forgotten. Oops. | @ duplicitylog
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THIS IS THE ONLY PATH I CAN TAKE...
IN ORDER TO FEEL ALIVE
ABOUT
Allen is your weird shounen horror hobo-hero in that he's actually a very gentle and kind boy who wishes to save others, regardless of whether they're his enemy or not, or even if they're a total stranger. He can't help but be moved by the world immediately in front of him, and if he can help someone then he wants to—something he doesn't see as a noble calling or sense of duty, but merely his own compulsion. He literally can't help it. But as his left arm also makes him a living weapon—a "destroyer"—and he exists to destroy akuma in order to save the human souls otherwise left to rot within them. Thus he wants to be a destroyer who also saves.
He's also an incredibly tragic, lonely boy who carries a lot of sorrow.
A lot of his more gentle nature and polite manner is a front as much as it's genuine (and sometimes he's an outright faker), given that part of his nature he forcibly adopted from his father at a young age as a coping mechanism. He's made it his own, but still retreats behind his smiles and forcing a polite front, even when he doesn't feel that way. (While he believes he is a proper gentleman, he really isn't.) Which is also because—
Long before plot reasons broke him, he was originally a horribly foul-tempered and foul-mouthed hot-headed orphan brat who worked in a circus where he was mostly just beaten up and abused. Someone who was angry at the world and wanted to get stronger so he wouldn't have to depend on anyone; someone who didn't think he needed friends (and didn't think he'd ever have them). He's still that hot-blooded kid underneath his smiles and manners, and it comes out when he's nettled enough and is the driving force behind his stubborn Will To Live and Fight. He also tends to feel everything incredibly strongly and will never back down from how he feels. At his core, he is Allen "Walker" because of his father's mantra (shhh plot, shhh) to "don't stop, keep walking", later on deciding for himself that he'd make his path his own even if everything seems to conspire to force him a certain way.
Even if he doesn't know where that leads.
He's also cagey af about anything truly personal and to most people under normal circumstances will seem a very polite, sweet kid who's quite upbeat/cheerful as he crushes his real feelings behind a smile. And who when rubbed the wrong way can be quite prickly... and cheeky... and sometimes an outright brat... but at his core he has a heart of gold and just wants to save everyone.
He's also an incredibly tragic, lonely boy who carries a lot of sorrow.
A lot of his more gentle nature and polite manner is a front as much as it's genuine (and sometimes he's an outright faker), given that part of his nature he forcibly adopted from his father at a young age as a coping mechanism. He's made it his own, but still retreats behind his smiles and forcing a polite front, even when he doesn't feel that way. (While he believes he is a proper gentleman, he really isn't.) Which is also because—
Long before plot reasons broke him, he was originally a horribly foul-tempered and foul-mouthed hot-headed orphan brat who worked in a circus where he was mostly just beaten up and abused. Someone who was angry at the world and wanted to get stronger so he wouldn't have to depend on anyone; someone who didn't think he needed friends (and didn't think he'd ever have them). He's still that hot-blooded kid underneath his smiles and manners, and it comes out when he's nettled enough and is the driving force behind his stubborn Will To Live and Fight. He also tends to feel everything incredibly strongly and will never back down from how he feels. At his core, he is Allen "Walker" because of his father's mantra (shhh plot, shhh) to "don't stop, keep walking", later on deciding for himself that he'd make his path his own even if everything seems to conspire to force him a certain way.
Even if he doesn't know where that leads.
He's also cagey af about anything truly personal and to most people under normal circumstances will seem a very polite, sweet kid who's quite upbeat/cheerful as he crushes his real feelings behind a smile. And who when rubbed the wrong way can be quite prickly... and cheeky... and sometimes an outright brat... but at his core he has a heart of gold and just wants to save everyone.
ABILITIES
InnocenceAllen is an Exorcist, previously of the Vatican and Black Order but not so much anymore, which means he's the accomodator of a holy weapon known as Innocence. His is parasitic-type, meaning his body itself is the weapon and it's a part of him. Specifically his left arm is his Innocence and thus inhuman, becoming Crown Clown when invoked. He can transform it into an exorcising blade that only hurts "that which is evil", a destructive claw, and summon a ethereal cloak that functions as semi-sentient full body armor and occasionally resembles angel wings. He has a number of different abilities, destructive and shielding, with its various forms. The cloak can also puppet his body for him when it's too broken for him to otherwise continue moving (in order to keep fighting). He can also control ribbons from the cloak that can be used to bind people or rappel himself/be Spiderman.
The left arm in both its active and inactive forms is essentially indestructible to everything save other Innocence and Dark Matter, both incredibly canon specific as perfect opposites. Similar panfandom materials (holy and dark) would have a much lesser effect. Against metal, human materials, and other magics however it is completely impervious. In its active form its smooth like marble in black with gold trim and white, delicate but wicked claws. Inactive it's a deep blood red, leathery but smooth, and hardened like carapace where it's plated over his knuckles. There's a golden crystalline cross embedded on the back of his hand that has a very faint holy aura to it when inactive.
Cursed Eye
Allen's left eye is cursed to see the souls that dwell within akuma (very canon specific), can allow others to see what he sees with its evolved form, and reacts in a more limited fashion to Dark Matter. Nothing panfandom will register to his eye, but characters sensitive to magic and curses will notice a dark energy/curse seems to be residing within the mark, notably the pentagram. He can detect akuma up to 300m away. When in his world it tends to wake him up every night with "nightmares", where he has a connection with akuma around the world and hears their cries, and the eye roils and tries to seek them out. In games it tends to give him insomnia as well, just because the sudden silence becomes loud to him.In Duplicity because Robin is there and an akuma made in (at least a 90% similar) the same way as akuma from his world, his curse reacts to her and so when he is around her his left eye becomes visibly red. He doesn't have have control over it, but around a soul who hasn't killed humans, not even the human who made her an akuma, and doesn't grieve the same way, his eye is calmer. If her soul became distressed however, so would his eye.
Physical
» Circus acrobat agility/"nimble pest"
» Above normal human strength and stamina (he's doing this when the series starts and he was a scrawny bean compared to now)
» Seriously, he can catch (blood) bullets
» Amateur swordsmanship, most of it swinging a sword as big as he with only one arm like a plank (literally)
» Limited martial arts skills
» Ambidextrous
» Excellent night vision
EXORCISM
Allen's sword takes the true form of his heart which desires only to save people, thus it only harms "that which is evil". Unlike his eye, it does have a broader panfandom scope. It will pass harmlessly through humans, humanoids—everything that doesn't fall under the category of evil/dark/malevolent. Against simpler demons, or things that are purely demonic/dark with no human element, it will cut them as any very sharp sword would, and exorcise them accordingly if applicable. But against any enemy with a human element, it will cut only the part of them which is "evil". (Like himself as a Noah.) How that happens is flexible. This will also generally (heavily) scar them. If Allen is comparatively powerful enough, it could force them human. If he's not, then it can just damage the inhuman part of them—possibly enraging it worse. Or any combination of what makes sense for the kind of being struck. Against characters who are possessed it can force out the possession as well, but if the character is acting on their own volition, just with a warped/brainwashed mind, it'll do nothing. It's very character specific so please drop me a line if you're interested!! Comments are screened.
His claws also have a raw, destructive quality of exorcism/holiness to them as well. Against demons and dark creatures they would have an additional effect. Interestingly enough, in canon akuma who have been touched by his claw say it feels nice, almost healing. "With this I have been saved." But that's also given their very specific nature and bearing a soul that wants to be saved/exorcised, and so how it will feel depends on the character struck. Even if purely a negative response though, it would still be along the lines more of "gentle to the point of being searing".
In Duplicity he has full use of all of this.
EXTRA
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Memories
Crown Clown part I
But all of your attention is on a young man with blonde hair, wearing a white jacket with a silver rose cross on it.
There's no use in trying! I'll not back down!
You say it with clear, emphatic certainty. Rung out even if you haven't raised your voice to shout, and the man in front of you looks absolutely dumbfounded. Slowly, you might realize that you're on the ground. That you're being restrained by a young man behind you who's pulling you back by your arms, even if his grip on your left one—
It's looser. Not for his lack of a grip, but because that arm is bandaged and truncated at the bicep. More people in white lab coats are also around you, but you're only dimly aware of them.
When we first met, you asked me if I still intended to return to the battlefield. You snap it, with determination but the shortness of knowing you, Mr. Bak—you of all people should understand his feelings on this right now when you were the one who already asked. I replied with as "yes"!
The man, however, stammers but seems upset at the admonishment. With fear in his eyes though, and you know he's scared. It's palpable, there's a desperation on everyone's faces around you. The anger the older man might have—it's laced with that desperate fear.
Tha— that's because I wanted to confirm if you were still willing to fight as an Exorcist! He might seem angry but you know better. That fear... it's for you. Always for you, you've done nothing but worry them, over and over again when you're supposed to exist to protect them they just keep getting hurt trying to protect you because you're too weak, too—
With your Innocence not even restored yet, in your current state you're just a vulnerable human being!
YOU'RE WRONG! It's wrenched from you so hard you actually double over from the force of it, hanging limp from Rikei's arms. God, you feel like you might throw up to have that flung in your face anymore. Just a human being. Just a liability. Someone to be protected.
Not an Exorcist.
And you swallow as you realize the truth of it, shaking hard and there's a quaver in your voice. You're wrong, I...
Breath. Take a breath. Pulse quickening briefly, you raise your only remaining (human) hand up to stare at the bandaged palm, but it feels like you're looking straight through yourself. To someone else, something else.
When I met that akuma earlier... the blood I thought was frozen within me pulsed with excitement through my entire body. Images flicker through your mind of a grotesque, armored finger perching lightly and weightlessly above the ground, its skeletal face cocked in your direction. An ugly, twisted shape of a corpse who's floating above a demonic-appearing monster like a spectre, rotting away and saturating an otherwise black and white world in vivid purple corruption, a similarly purple butterfly alight on its hand.
And you feel so alive even at the thought of such a creature. Blood racing in your ears and feeling like a greyhound that's been chained to the starting line. Like your very blood is twisting and seeking with an inhuman sort of need. It...
It's really all so clear. And you speak so very softly, even if the realization is making you shiver. But your tone becomes steadier as you continue talking.
The heart that that I thought had stopped beating within me... I could feel it throbbing faster and faster then. And the feeling of my blood growing warming as it moved again through me... it felt pleasant.
It felt alive. Alive. I was alive!
Walker...? The blonde man in front of you—he no longer seems angry, only afraid still. Afraid for you as dawning realization spreads across his features. What are you saying...? And you know it's hard, but you give a small shake of your head and continue on.
That's when I realized it. A breath. You know this will be hard for Mr. Bak. Before, when you said that my entire body is figuratively like an anti-akuma weapon... you may have actually been right. Swallowing hard, you raise your chin then and don't care any longer about hiding your face from him. You know it's wet from tears, even if you can't see how the ones from your left eye are actually blood.
Or how even at the memory of the akuma your left eye has washed black and red, slit like a demon's, and rimmed with a lens of golden light. It throbs and it's the most exquisite kind of pain you've ever known—because you feel so alive that you know that you had been dead before until this moment. The thing that my heart was helplessly longing for all this time...
...was the akuma!
It hurts, but I'm alive. I'm alive and you could sob for that realization. For the bigger realization of why that is. "I belong there," and...
I'm no longer a human being... The tears and blood are streaming down your face, but you can't care. You're pleading with the horrified man standing over you, the gatekeeper to not just the battle but your path forward, your very existence. But you are so happy even if it feels like your heart is being crushed. Because you do truly feel so alive. I'm an Exorcist.
So please let me return to the battlefield.
To where I belong. And you can feel it swelling up within you again, that strong desire, the one where you can't help but be moved forward by the desire to protect them. Save them. Destroy them.
F i g h t.
To the akuma.
It strikes you like a bolt, and to be honest you're not entirely sure what's happened. You know that one moment you were being restrained by Rikei, and the next you've broken free and are standing behind Bak now. In front of the sealed door he was guarding and keeping you from. It's bright, so very bright now when before it had been so dim and dank in the underground tunnel. There's an electrical crackle and snap around you, a bright greenish-gold light, and even if you couldn't explain why it... feels familiar. Comforting. Because for a moment, it felt like being enveloped in a great glowing claw, and it felt like an old friend joining you once again by your side.
I'm home now.
I'm going. You say it softly, even if you don't turn around. With compassion, knowing how difficult it was going to be for that man.
It's okay now. Please don't worry for him.
Thank you, Mr. Bak. ]
Crown Clown part II
"Are you strong?"
There is a creature standing before you. Twisted and like an armored skeleton, disjointed and almost arachnid eyes on its head twisting with interest in your direction. It stands monstrously tall over the broken body of an unusual girl, literally broken and missing her limbs and part of her face like a doll that's been shattered and bloodlessly tossed aside. She's watching you calmly, but your eyes are forward and solidly on the creature. The akuma.
Or more precisely on the form that begins to take shape above it, as there's a small whirring whine you can feel inside your skull, and the world shifts as if a correct lens suddenly slides across your left eye. To dim and lose much of its color, a world of nearly black and white—save for that thing taking shape above the akuma in deep purple. Like a cloud of corruption—
See... love...
One in sad parody of human shape you would realize, as it grows an eyeball that fixes in too-wide desperation on you. It's like a rotted corpse.
Please love me!, it pleads, not having said a single world out loud but seeming to speak directly into your skull through your left eye. It hurts.
Stop him— stop this thing... I'm right here. Help me! You can see me, right? It seems to drift closer. Become louder. You can hear me, right? Even though I've turned into this form... Please love me! Please love me!!
You exist for our sakes, don't you?
And... you smile. Softly, calmly, and with a renewed sense of purpose. Because you finally feel like you've come home. Back to the starting line. It asked if you were strong, right? Its soul that you exist for their sakes, right?
"Yes."
And so the body attacks.
Viciously, coming straight at you across rubble dotting what seems to be a flooded underground cavern. You jump back to dodge easily enough, not moving to fight back yet and just evading its attacks as they come in a rapid-fire blur. "My dark matter is still breaking you down to bits. Don't make me laugh!
Disappear, little boy!"
But acrobatics is what you've always been good at—even if you would seem to only have one arm. Your left ends in a bandaged stump just below the bicep, and wearing only loose a light training outfit you would seem to have no protection or weapon. But still you're calm. Focused. At ease with your sense of purpose here, you just... need to find an opening. I will fight for the akuma—and live for the akuma. That alone will provide me nourishment for living.
It is... not hopeful. Not a happy feeling. But it is steadying, and that is enough. But you jerk back for a moment too as you hear a shout ("Fou!") and look back to see the older man with the white jacket from before, Mr. Bak. He's rushed to the broken girl lying in the water and has picked her up. He seems to be crying over her, and your stomach twists a little even if you still feel calm. Detached. That should have been the road I had decided to walk on... and yet...
(He's crying over her again, Mr. Bak. Fou, who sacrificed herself to try and buy him and the others time.)
And yet I...
Your foot lands against a wall behind you as you crouch to land against it, avoiding another attack. Except that as it does... your foot shatters. Not the bone—your foot. As if you were made of stone.
And as your entire body begins to crack apart like glass you go still with that sudden dread and knowing that you've just pushed yourself far too far.
Strangely, it doesn't hurt. It's sharp, but it doesn't hurt. Though perchance you couldn't feel it from your your stomach sinks, and you hear the akuma purr suddenly in your ear, far too close. What a fool... you thought you could fight me with that body?
You don't need to raise your head to see the blow that's coming. Ribbon-like glaives of purple light are in its hands, and it brings them lancing down through your body which does explode in pain from that. Driving you down into the water below, your body slamming against the rubble, even as the akuma follows you doggedly. To drive those dagger-like ribbons into you, and there's something utterly intangible about them as it doesn't seem like they pierce flesh, but go straight through to your soul. Winding deeper and deeper, scouring all the way through to unravel, corrupt—pluck at a thread of life and begin to unravel your essence.
You're screaming and screaming so much you don't even realize you have been until your throat hurts. That and your sole remaining arm reached towards the ceiling—that's the only thing you're aware of. Watching your arm as it shatters and begins to fall apart.
I'm breaking...
It's... hard to really remember anything after that. It all goes dark. You think you may have blacked out, except that you're still aware you're... present. The water is cool. It's dark. You may have slipped underwater? Maybe this is what drowning feels like... Except some part of you still realizes there's fighting going on around you. The akuma is still above you.
The akuma. Your friends. They're both still there. I'm still here.
I'm still in the world. And at realizing that... you close your eyes.
When you close your eyes and think of "the world"... what do you see? It's a girl's voice, sad and gentle. A brief flicker of a memory—it was late and dark and she was hiding her face against your shoulder, fingers curled into your coat. Long black hair tied back in pigtails. She'd been crying, and the tears were still in her voice. You were confused, unsure if you should really hug her back or not, but—also saddened. I couldn't understand or think of an answer at the time... but now...
Now the world is still dark, but it's comforting. It's like you're walking alone down a road while the crescent moon hangs above. Alone. Fighting creatures similar to the one that had just struck you down, if less advanced.
Walking past grave after grave under a dark, starry sky. Following the only path there is.
I will fight... for the akuma. And live for the akuma. That's what I decided. The only things I treasured... were them. And yet... And yet there's a light that catches your eye suddenly in that dark world. A brightness off to one side of the path you're following, like the dawning of a sun. It's hard to look at it, your eyes have become so accustomed to the dark.
And yet, I lost sight of that.
Because... it's beautiful.
Because everyone is there, smiling at you. Or some not smiling, but that's okay, it'd be unsettling if they did. But they're there, and they shimmer with flickers of memories. Of "welcome home, Allen". Of impassioned words and determination, "That's why I think people fight! Because they have something precious to them!" Of death, of tragedy, loss and newfound friends, of hope and fear, determination, love—
Of family.
And they are all so brilliant to behold that it makes your chest hurt, because they've changed the entire world and pushed out the dark completely.
They became so dear to me... that I lost track of them.
I forgot them. That—that is your sin and your selfish desire. Your truth you've been searching for this entire time. And that realization fluoresces you and you reach heavenward—with a light that engulfs your entire arm that had been shattering.
"Inno...cence..."
I remember who I am now. And you can feel a resounding thud in your chest, like there's another beat deep within it that gives its approving thump.
"My left... is for the akuma. My right... is for the humans." Light and dark, left and right. And as if to answer—the glow that's spread along your arm lifts up like a growing cowl and lights up the night. White-gold, with a faintly greenish tinge.
And it's... comforting. Like seeing an old friend. Or standing in front of a mirror and despite seeing a face you've never seen before, smiling and saying to it "hello, me". Like shedding your skin—a mask—and seeing who you were beneath it.
Even if this makes me hated and means I can no longer be with them—that's okay. Because... "Both define me.
"Both are important to me.
"So, now I will answer you." Innocence. "These humans, and these akuma... The light grows, twisting, gaining an almost human appearance—a white-gloved left arm bearing a gold crown at the wrist, an eyeless but sighted masquerade mask, and billowing like a living cloak with a tousled, downy mane of a cowl.
A living entity of pure luminescence.
It feels like an extension of your very soul, and it—you—move to grasp the projectile from the akuma that had just been fired at Mr. Bak and Fou even though you didn't consciously realize they were there and in danger. You—your Innocence—just instinctively move to shield them. As if in some joyous rush that makes your blood sing to be able to do so and exist like this.
"Bring them salvation!" ]