APP | el nysa

[sparsity]

SUBJECT SHOULD BE IN "APPLICATION: Character Name (Series) - Reserved/Not Reserved" FORMAT

OOC

Handle: kou
Contact: rivalry | axia#4656
Over 18? yes, 25+.
Characters Played: none.

THE CHARACTER

Character Name: Mikazuki Augus
Series: Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
Canon Point: S2 | EP50, from the moment of his death.
Character Age: 17
Background: IBO WIKI | MIKAZUKI PAGE | EPISODE SUMMARIES | POST DISASTER ERA CALENDAR

Personality:

Mars is a dog eat dog world. Since birth, Mikazuki Augus has dedicated himself to being the stronger dog. Dedication wouldn't be a word that comes to mind when first faced with him, but it defines everything that Mikazuki is and believes in, and what he strives for in a world that stacks the odds against him. Raised by the cruel Martian streets of Chryse, Mikazuki learned that force is a powerful tool for those with strength and willingness to wield it. So his initial demeanor, that of an easygoing, outwardly calm person, can seem at odds with his propensity for fighting. It's the first in a long string of contradictions: he's aloof, blunt, and impersonal without being dispassionate, heartless, or inflexible. This is largely thanks to his dependence on instinct rather than rationality. When he chooses to be opinionated over the things that affect him and matter to him, his instinct imposes less of a filter on him. Unapologetic for the circumstances that have made him what he is, this gives his thoughts and feelings a sharp and honest edge. In that vein, and to survive, Mikazuki has had to draw a harsh line in the sand between those who are friends, allies, and enemies.

For a boy who had already chosen to shoot and kill a man at the age of eight, it was the ultimate necessity.

To an enemy, Mikazuki is a devastating force. Being a trained child soldier, he fights with the balance and single-minded ferocity of someone who knows nothing else. But his prowess in battles precedes him, making his opponents (mainly adults) doubt his age and experience. Losing simply isn't an option for Mikazuki, but he maintains his practicality and cool behavior in most instances, letting his confidence in his abilities guide him. As a child, he understands the natural balance of power doesn't favor him. All around him for as long as he can remember, he and his own have been used without a second thought paid to the injustice of their struggles. However, Mikazuki is aware of the fact that this makes others liable to underestimate him. Taking advantage of this precedent makes his enemies unprepared to face him in all his savage determination to crush what stands in his way. Mikazuki's cold-blooded outlook and willingness to kill has been bred in him by a system that has rejected him since birth. Knowing the reality of this bias, Mikazuki only follows his own sense of honor, making the rejection mutual. In a fight, he has very little patience for a moral high ground, using the treatment of his comrades to throw "justice" back in the faces of those responsible for it. Discrimination is a fact of life for him, but it's one that has made Mikazuki favor intensity and violence above all else.

Provoking real fear isn't impossible, but it usually takes more than what his enemies can achieve. Which is getting past him to threaten those he cares about. Why such a strong response, especially for a boy who has embraced the mentality of crush or be crushed?

Mikazuki is a protector. To his allies, he is steadfast and loyal comrade who thinks highly of those around him. Whatever extremes Mikazuki goes to in order to win a fight, it's for the sake of the people who stand with him. Mikazuki displays a fleeting sense of worldliness in this regard, able to identify the struggles of his fellow orphans. Being uneducated and unskilled at navigating many emotional and social complexities due to his upbringing, Mikazuki still displays a surprising amount of knowledge about the situations other orphans face, and by extension, his own. He's able to properly articulate that people like them put their bodies on the line for money — for their families, for food, shelter, or to pay a debt. All things that seem simple, or are taken for granted by those fortunate enough to have never been burdened by their absence.

It's for this reason that Mikazuki actually maintains many honorable core values that seem mismatched to his aggression towards threats. Mikazuki believes strongly in the idea of honest work and the responsibility necessary to carry it out. It's most notable in his fondness for Sakura Farm, a plot of land just outside the CGS compound perimeter. All the farm is capable of producing is corn, but Mikazuki takes rapt interest in the welfare of the crops. In it lies a glimmer of the future he so vehemently fights for: a time when they can make a respectable living just off of more than just fighting. Mikazuki is not a close-minded individual, and takes the chances that he's given to learn new things with incredible focus.

However, while Mikazuki advocates that sort of future in which learning and growing are essential, he conversely has trouble seeing himself all the way through to it. In accepting what he is and what he has to do to achieve the world he wants to see, Mikazuki so often toes the line between fighting to live and living to fight. He's well aware that choosing to kill changed the landscape of his life forever. All he's ever known is the battlefield, by choice and by birth. But he knows his acceptance of it is also exactly that — a choice. Mikazuki stands by it with such willfulness and devotion to his methods that he refuses to think of himself as a victim. Rather, he sees himself as a weapon, a means to an end that will be worth his sacrifices if he can win what he fights for. This is also what makes him actively value the living to the exclusion of all else, even over taking the time to grieve for his comrades who've died.

So to those he stands with, Mikazuki can be kind. Straightforward to a fault, Mikazuki's bluntness stems from the fact that he has no penchant for deception or bravado. Arrogance has no place in him and doesn't cloud his confidence or thoughtfulness. He's not above displays of affection or generosity, and reaching out isn't a problem. However, being virtually feral as a child and having limited healthy relationships, he carries the emotional repression indicative of that. He has difficulty parsing the intricate emotions that run rampant around him. Outside of warfare, he isn't very socially sound, giving him an intimidating and emotionally unpredictable air to his subsequent actions and reactions. However, his lack of understanding doesn't come entirely from a place of ignorance. Mikazuki is watchful and absorbs information from the people and world around him, but spends his energy parsing only what he needs. Without forgetting what he experiences, Mikazuki simply knows where his energy is the most useful. At one point, Kudelia wonders if this habit of Mikazuki's is a method to subconsciously hide his strong emotions — a suppression tactic necessary to weather through the atrocities he's faced and committed in his life. It's not foolproof, and Mikazuki isn't as unaffected as he seems. When accused of enjoying killing, he's visibly dismayed by it long after the fight, enough to show noticeable physical signs of it. Because of his tendency to compartmentalize how he handles and implements violence, he doesn't always understand his own reactions when his emotions do surface.

And still, Mikazuki doesn't allow himself to stray from the path he's chosen. For him, it's an all or nothing bet, and he always has and always will be all in. It's all thanks to a promise. Everything that Mikazuki hinges his body and soul on in such extremes is because of Orga Itsuka. Everything that drives Mikazuki — his determination, his appetite for violence in the face of violence, his willingness to take the most direct route through opposition — it's all for Orga. Killing a man at eight was for him. His belief in honest, responsible work for his and Tekkadan's future? His calculated and aggressive methodology to get there? All Orga's doing. The promise Orga made to him, to carve out a place where they belong, fuels Mikazuki in every way. He states time and time again that as long as Orga commands him, he'll do anything. Destroy anything, kill anyone, listen to any orders he has, take whatever weapon he hands him. In Mikazuki's eyes, his life was given to him by Orga, and he'll stake it on his belief in him with no questions asked. No one evokes the depth of responses from him that Orga does, in any matter of his many dichotomies: sharp or soft, blunt or thoughtful, physical or worldly. Orga draws the genuine smiles from him, the genuine fear, the genuine bloodlust. If Mikazuki doesn't give Orga all that he has, he doesn't consider himself truly living.

In a world where Mikazuki has fought for survival, to live, since birth, that force is one he embraced and devoted himself to, allowing it to shape him into who and what he is. Without hesitation, and without regret, and without looking back.

Powers/Abilities:

• ALAYA-VIJNANA IMPLANTS: INFO ON THE SYSTEM ITSELF HERE. Dubbed "whiskers" in canon. Implants that were directly administered to Mikazuki's spine when he was young to ensure they'd fuse with him as he grew. He has undergone and survived the surgery THREE TIMES. The Alaya-Vijnana system is a man-to-machine interface that makes use of nanomachines to create an artificial brain lobe in the user. This extra organ establishes a direct neural link between a pilot and a mobile suit, facilitating the flow of data and commands. Spatial awareness increases, expanding on the reaction time, mobility, and speed of the pilot and suit. Machines gain the instinct and balance of living things alongside the physical prowess of the pilot, allowing them an edge over unequipped suits.

• PHYSICAL STRENGTH/HAND-TO-HAND/WEAPONS: Mikazuki is deadly, being 5'2" of teeth and muscle. He's always seen training tirelessly, doing things like running laps, lifting weights, or engaging in other endurance exercises. His physical strength and stamina have superhuman qualities to them; he's chided for nearly breaking someone's arm just by gripping it, or hauling a grown man over a foot taller than he is into the air single-handedly. At the beginning of S2, he suffers the paralysis of his right arm. To train, he instead lifts weights WITH HIS TEETH, because he has no chill. His favored weapon is a simple handgun that he usually keeps on his person, though it's implied he's proficient in hand-to-hand combat, considering the way he fights while piloting.

• ASW-G-08 GUNDAM BARBATOS LUPUS REX: THIS GUY. Capable of operating on the surface or in space. Mikazuki's compatibility with the suit is high thanks to his three implants being able to withstand the amount of data it produces. Having a link that appears symbiotic with it, Mikazuki is able to push the suit to its furthest values and evoke a "deal with the devil" situation by allowing the suit to slowly paralyze him in exchange for the power that comes with bypassing its safety limiters.

• THE IRON STOMACH: He's a bottomless pit, drawing inspiration from gravitational singularities, probably. (I'm only halfway kidding.)

Power Nerfs:

None! Mikazuki is a baseline human, if not exceptionally strong. Barbatos is also simple in terms of mobile suits — its specialty is good ol' fashioned crunchy melee combat, and all of its weaponry and abilities are geared in that direction.

Inventory:

• His clothes. (Boots and cargo pants, from his canon point.)
• A blue rope bracelet capped with a gold moon charm, covered in blood.
• One handgun + a spare clip.

Incentives:

• Orga Itsuka being alive and safe.
• Barbatos Lupus Rex, repaired.
• Being able to see/visit Barbatos, even if he's unable to pilot it.
• Safety for Tekkadan's remaining members in the wake of his failure to protect them.

SAMPLES

TDM TOP LEVEL